Chapter 7: When You Gaze Into the Abyss

Ruby are you alright? I know it's only been a few hours but we're all worried about you. I might be overreacting but I don't exactly trust Death a whole lot. We hardly know the guy. Please text back. Checking in really helps ease things over here.

Jaune looked down at his scroll with the message ready to send. He was trying to remember if there was anything else he wanted to mention but he thought that just about summed it up.

Stay safe.

He added. Before he could hit send, he was pounded by a suffocating force. His legs buckled and he fell to his side. It was quickly getting hard to breathe. He reached up to his throat hoping that would somehow help. It kept going for a few more seconds and Jaune felt conscience rapidly leaving him. And then, it left as quickly as it came. Jaune got back to his feet, and while his legs were weak, he managed to stay awake throughout the 'wave'. He picked his scroll back up from the ground and saw that he hadn't sent it yet.

P.S Not that I want to rush you, but try and get back soon. That force that hit us before just sent out another one. I think it was longer than the last one. If we don't get to the bottom of this soon there might be serious damage.

He hit the send button before rushing out of his room. He found Ren and Nora sitting outside of the training room overlooking the cliff. Nora was holding her head while leaning on Ren.

"Are you guys alright?" Jaune asked his friends.

"Yeah we're-"

"That Demon jerk is giving me a headache!" Nora said, causing Jaune to chuckle, albeit a small one.

"Never change Nora." Jaune said with relief in his voice.

"Rose what exactly is a 'huntress'?" The pale rider asked.

"Why you asking?"

"Back in Galath, the commissioner said you were one. And the academy we left was a training ground for them as well if I'm not mistaken. I know you're warriors, but there's more to it than that isn't there?"

"Well uh, we're trained to specifically fight Grimm. We start training at around thirteen and graduate at twenty if we choose it as our career. I didn't graduate, so I can't say for sure, but I imagine it's a lot of community work in areas that most people aren't equipped for when it comes to fighting. So things like escorts, town defense, law enforcement, and search and destroy missions." She explained.

"You didn't finish, why? You hardly seem incapable."

"Well. It's not that I didn't want to. But the school I went to, Beacon," Death remembered her mentioning that back with Shem "was attacked by… well there isn't really a name for them. A terrorist group called the 'White Fang' helped set a bunch of grim loose, but some other people organized everything by the looks of it. We're pretty sure the lady that lead them, Cinder, is working with Salem. That's what brought us to Haven, and you know the rest"

"I see. You started your training young,"

"Yup."

"And it was cut short by means beyond your control."

"You got it…" Ruby said gloomly. Hearing him say it didn't make her feel any better.

"Heh… If it's any consolation, I can promise what I teach you will be better than anything they can." He said in a proud manner.

"That sounds… splendid." Ruby said trying to channel Penny's vocabulary. It was the least she could do.

Dust cawed from in front the duo, getting their attention. Death squinted his eyes as he looked ahead, Ruby leaning to her right to peer around the reaper. The fog had gotten thicker, and while not dense, they could only see about a tenth of a mile ahead of them. They were quickly approaching a large cliff. Despair slowed to a trot as they got closer, stopping a few feet from the ledge, blowing air out of his nose as he did so.

Death looked to the left and found nothing but flat grasslands and fog, and it was the same story when he turned to his right. Looking forward he could see roughly five hundred feet ahead was another side. It wasn't just a cliff, it was a canyon.

"Dust! Take us the fastest way to the maiden." He commanded of the crow.

Dust flew in front of the two before descending down into the ravine. He flew in a circle as he signaled Death and Ruby to follow. Looking down the cliff, the bottom was shrouded in pitch black, making it look like a bottomless pit. But as Dust would have it, it was the 'fastest' path.

Death wrapped his arm around Ruby's waist. She was confused before Despair combusted into green flames. He set her down on her feet. If he hadn't she would've fallen on her butt.

"Thanks." She said. Death only replied with a grunt. He usually had a reply for whatever he'd hear from the people he faced, but politeness wasn't common where he rode. "So what are we doing exactly?" Ruby asked.

"We're going down and across."

"Down, as in, 'into the dark void', down?"

"Is there any other kind?"

"No, that just kinda seems… spooky. Y'know?"

"No. I don't."

Ruby walked over to the ledge and looked down. She felt a cool breeze that sent chills down her back.

"We can either jump down, or scale the wall. Your pick." Death offered her a choice. Ruby found looking back down didn't make her decision easier.

"Uh… climb. Yeah, climb. That sounds, less… hazardous." She said that last word with a tone of reluctance.

Ruby felt a vibration in her pocket. Knowing it was her scroll, she pulled it out and extended it to see what it was. Jaune had sent her a message.

"What is it?" Death asked looking back at Ruby.

"It's Jaune. He says he's worried about me, and that he doesn't trust you, but he's just being protective. He also says that another one of those strong things that you said might be demonic hit them again. He thinks it's getting worse."

"Then there's no time to waste."

"Right, Just give me a second to reply and let him know I'm alright." She requested.

I'm fine Jaune. We've made good progress and we'll try to get back asap. I'll try to keep in touch. See you soon.

"Are you ready?" the reaper asked red. She responded with a nod of her head.

In one swift motion, Death flung himself over the cliff and gripped onto the ledge. Ruby brought out Crescent Rose in 'her' scythe form and dug it into the side of the cliff before swinging herself over as well. And like that they began their descent into the abyss.

Taking fate into your own hands again, I see. Never taking a moment to stop and enjoy life. Truly a paragon for us all now aren't you.

What is it now?

Why ask at all? You already know the answer, don't you?

It's the horseman if I'm not mistaken.

Indeed. In this… alien, world… I find his unwavering tenacity… endearing. Although, that is to be expected.

A determined one he is. Surviving what he did should not be possible. And yet, here he is.

Intriguing, wouldn't you say?

I don't.

You can't.

Like you said. Why ask?

What? Do you not enjoy our little conversations? I can't imagine you have better things to do.

Mayhaps. But we've had this conversation countless times before.

Don't worry. You can find comfort in knowing that this time may very well be our last.

And why might that be?

Guess.

Death jumped from his position on the wall to the bottom of the ravine. With a splash he found that there was a small stream of water flowing from one end of the crevice to the other. He and Ruby had climbed down most of the way, but he jumped the last thirty feet. Ruby had opted to climb a little further, jumping at the last ten feet of the climb.

The huntress put her scythe back into resting position as she looked back up to the top of the cliff. It was much easier to see the top from the bottom than the inverse, but she wasn't looking forward to the climb back up. She had no idea how far down they were, but she knew it wasn't going to be an easy climb.

'If only Weiss was here' she thought to herself.

"See what you can find." as Death said that, Dust flashed green and flew in the direction of the other wall.

The two started following the crow in silence as it illuminated the immediate area. Ruby was somewhat unsettled by the dark atmosphere the cave offered. She knew the worst they could encounter are some grimm, but the fear of the dark is something that never really goes away regardless of rational. To an extent she enjoyed it. It's been a while since she could be scared for a silly reason. Nowadays she has to worry about holding the weight of the world on her shoulders.

Death was indifferent by the environment. Fear wasn't something he found himself at the feet of, and a cave wasn't going to be an exception anytime soon.

"Let's hurry up and get out of here. This place makes me uncomfortable." Ruby requested.

"This shouldn't take long."

Ruby began imagining scenarios that might have lead her to a place like this had Beacon repelled the attack. Maybe a search and rescue mission where a nice family lost their kid who was playing in the forest. She and her friends might come across this place and go looking for him there. She and Weiss would search downstream while Yang and Blake looked upstream.

Mabey she would try and spook the heiress after telling her a scary story she'd make up on the spot. She'd get Weiss to jump, laughing in response. Weiss would be on her case for the rest of the mission until at least that night where'd they all go to bed. She and her friend would then find a pack of creeps attacking the kid who was trying to climb back up the wall to the top. She and Weiss would save him after-

Ruby's thoughts were interrupted by a caw from Dust. The ground shaking beneath her. Looking ahead to Death she saw that he too was beginning to lose balance. The ground beneath them was beginning to sink downwards. Ruby quickly tried to run back to a more stable area, but in doing so she pushed her foot into the ground causing the rock floor beneath her to give away.

The huntress and the horseman began falling further into another part of the canyon. Death tried to death grip Ruby to him but the purple hand was knocked out of the way by a falling rock. Ruby got some footing on a piece of falling debris and pushed herself off of it. She used her semblance to get some distance back up to the rocky ceiling. She did the same when finding another rock to jump off of, but this time she lost her footing.

She began falling for a second time, this time have been hit in the head by a stone. Plummeting down she hit the ground at an angle, sending her flying off center. She tried desperately to stop herself, but with the world spinning and hardly being able to see anything already she just kept hitting the ground.

Eventually she was able to skid to a halt while laying on her side. It was a rough landing but she was able to stop. And it wasn't from a lack of trying. Coughing a few times and sitting up from her position on the ground, she looked around her new surroundings. It was pitch black, so her first instinct was to reach for her scroll. She pulled out the device and turned on its flashlight. It was a miracle it wasn't broken.

Looking around again she saw she was in a large cave. The hole she and Death fell in was nowhere to be seen. The ground was at a steep slant and it had a sandy texture. Looking up the hill of sorts, she could see imprints on the ground leading to the top. There was one that stopped where she was sitting. Checking the other direction she saw the decline continued down the cavern for quite some ways. That half had no imprints.

Guessing that the marks in the ground were from her falling, she looked back to the top and saw that she fell a long way.

"Well…" Ruby said as she began standing up "that could've gone smoother. Death!" she yelled cupping her hands around her mouth. The cave carried her voice upwards, hopefully loud enough for the horseman to hear her. She was willing to bet he landed better than she did.

"Behind you." Ruby jumped at the voice.

She immediately turned around, Crescent Rose at the ready and her scroll falling to the ground. She saw Death looking at her with the same expression he always had. Whatever that was.

"How did you get here so fast?" She asked, confused.

"Does it matter?"

"No, but you scared me." Ruby said, he sighed as a reply.

"It's easy to slide down this hill. You didn't notice when you were looking around."

"Oh, gotcha." She said, feeling stupid.

Ruby put Crescent Rose on her lower back again and bent down to pick her scroll up.

"Should we start heading back up?" She said looking back up with her flashlight.

"No. There's a faster route heading further down."

"R-really? How do you know?"

"Dust."

"Alright now don't get me wrong, I trust you, but I think that bird of yours doesn't seem to be all that smart if he keeps sending us on weird paths like this." She said turning her body to face back down the hill.

"You're not the only one." He said as the two began walking down.

"Where is he by the way?"

"He flew on ah- agh!" Death cut himself off as Ruby shone her light at his face. He brought his hand up to shield his eyes. "Point that somewhere else."

"Oh! Sorry…" She said, immediately pointing the light back down the path.

"It's fine, just don't do it again. As I was saying, he flew ahead and didn't come back. Seeing as how it's a straight shot as of now, I don't think it's necessary to call him back." he explained.

"Alright."

The walk down was awkward, or at least that's how Ruby felt. If the rest of the canyon didn't already give her the creeps, it sure was now. Looking behind her she saw that it was completely dark. They've only been walking for a few minutes and she felt as though she'd already walked a mile from where they started. The marks on the ground she made weren't much but she was quickly realizing just how much they felt like familiar ground by comparison to now.

Everything around them looked the same. It gave her this weird sense that they were both making no progress, but a lot at the same time. She was severed from all ties of familiarity aside from Death, but at the same time it looks as though they were in the same place they had been since they started. She didn't like it.

A few more minutes go by before anything else happens. Ruby felt like she was getting more comfortable, but seeing as how she wasn't in any sense of the word earlier, that wasn't saying much.

She heard something up ahead. Getting ready to grab her scythe, she waited to make sure she wasn't just hearing things. A few seconds go by and she hears it again. She pulled out her weapon, this time in its sniper form.

"Calm down. They're only bats." Death said, telling that Ruby was unnerved.

Quickly after he said that, a cloud of bats flew towards the two but kept to the ceiling of the cave. Ruby watching as they flew by. She thought they were creepy looking in large groups, but was eased knowing they weren't anything that was going to kill her.

"Let's not waste our time gawking." Death said.

"R-right."

They continued walking for another ten or so minutes. Ruby began to think they weren't going to encounter any grimm at all, which was certainly a relief. While she wasn't 'terrified' she was a lot more scared than she usually was, so she expected any grimm in the vicinity to jump her as soon as she fell through that hole. If there weren't any on her at this point, she didn't have to worry.

By now the steep incline they were going down had disappeared, the ground leveling out a ways back. The walls that were once a spacious road were beginning to shrink into a more narrow crevice.

Looking ahead on the ground Ruby saw something dark. As She and Death got closer they saw that it was dried blood. She immediately began to feel uneasy again. Looking back up ahead she saw a small pack of bats that were scattered along the path, all with blood splotches nearby.

"This doesn't look good…" Ruby said. "Should we turn around?"

"We're already this far aren't we?" the horseman insisted.

"Alright…"

The two pressed forward, the path getting small enough so they couldn't walk side by side anymore. Ruby took the front while Death stayed close behind. Ruby did her best to try and not to step on any dead bats.

She pushed forward just a little bit more to find that the cave opened back up to be large and spacious again. Small patches of blood filled the entire room. After walking forward a bit she saw that the flashlight on her phone was able to reach the end of the tunnel. It was a dead end.

She walked a little forward and saw a larger pool of blood at the end, and a larger cadaver. She dared to get closer, but she didn't have to go far. Looking at the body she realized it was a pair of human skeletons. Bones old and flesh long gone. There wasn't much left to rot.

Ruby was beginning to panic as she felt her stomach drop. They weren't the first ones here. Whatever happened to the people that were first, assuming they were first, ended with their lives cut short in a messy way.

"Death, I want to turn ar- ah!" Before Ruby could finish the horseman tackled her to the ground.

He placed his knees on her upper thighs and pinned her arms on the ground next to her head, her scroll falling far from her. Ruby struggled to push him off of her, but he wouldn't budge.

"Death! What are you-" She stopped herself.

Death was hyperventilating as he arched over Ruby his face getting close to hers, his hair touching her cheeks. She could see that his eyes were wide as he stared at her.

"Get off me!"

Death began making gagging sounds. They were getting faster and with them Ruby's heart rate. At this point she was seething terror. She tried headbutting Death but he didn't let up. His jaw unhinged from behind his mask and Ruby watched in horror as it extended beyond his collar bones.

The bottom of his mask now looked like a dull row of teeth, while his lower jaw was lined with short jagged teeth. His entire jaw was almost big enough to wrap around her entire abdomen, and it was inches away from face.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" She screamed, her pupils shrinking as it inched closer.

She watched as his jaw snapped down to clamp around her head, and in that moment she finally knew what everyone meant when they say their lives flashed before their eyes. It was a weight dropping in her stomach, that was so fast a blink felt long by comparison. In that moment she wasn't thinking 'my aura will protect me, I'll make it through this'. She was remembering every person she's ever met, every injury she's had, every joke she's ever told or heard and everything she had to look forward to and realize they'd be stripped gone in an instant.

It would have been an awful way to go out.

Death's neck was relieved from the weight of his head just a moment before his teeth connected. Blood spewed from his neck as his body fell limp onto Ruby. She immediately scampered away from the dead body and tired to look at what saved her. She tried looking up but her face was soaked in blood and she had to wipe it away.

She quickly wiped her palm from one side of her face to the other in an attempt to clear her vision. Looking over the body of the headless horseman, she saw none other than Death looking down at her with glowing orange eyes. He was panting and had a scythe in each hand, both stained with a fresh coat of red.

"Rose are y-"

Before he could say anymore Ruby used her semblance and zipped up to him instant, her arms wrapped around him.

"Thank you."

Normally she wouldn't even want to touch Death out of fear he'd be annoyed. But she wasn't thinking straight. She was just glad to be alive. It took a few seconds for her to realize what just happened.

She backed away from Death and looked back down at the one that was on top of her. His body completely different from what it was before. It was long and lanky. Fur lined the forearms and shins. White bones lead up the spine and to the neck. Looking beyond that she saw a head that looked like a deer's skull, with bony white antlers and face. The mouth still extended and looked like it had before. It was a grimm. A shape shifting grimm.

"Death that thing, it… it looked like you and it lured me back here- where were you this whole time!" She asked loudly, but her words held no anger.

"Same story as you. One of those things disguised itself as you and tried to pounce me. I dealt with it and went after you as fast as I could." He explained.

"Wait, how do I know it's you?" She asked, Death sighed as a response.

He threw his hand in the direction of Ruby's fallen scroll, a glowing purple hand shooting forward to grab it. It returned back to him with her scroll in his hands. He extended his arm to Ruby who looked at it, a weight lifting in her stomach. She took it from him with a smile on her face.

"Let's get out of here before anymore of those things get here." Ruby said.

Without needing to say anything, Dust appeared over Death's head with a flash of green and began flying opposite of the entrance. The green glow managed to fill the cave with enough light for them to see, but Ruby kept her scroll out just in case. Ruby followed the crow with eager eyes, not wanting to spend another moment in this cavern. Dust flew above the pair of human bones and to the ceiling of the cave, cawing as he reached it.

It took the huntress a couple of seconds to figure out what the bird was trying to say, but once she did she drew Crescent Rose in her sniper form. She shot at the ceiling Dust was circling, blasting through a small layer of rocks to reveal an exit.

She and Death approached it, Death stopping in front of the skeletons on the ground.

"Their souls have long since passed." He said before grabbing both of their skulls.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, confused.

"If they had family, they should know what happened to them. I hope this will help."

"They will. We can probably get their skulls to a hospital or something and they can check their dental records to find out who they ar... were." Ruby confirmed.

"Good, now then." He walked over to the young rose. "Climb on." He said kneeling with his back turned to her.

"Huh?"

"You said you wanted to get out of here fast. Letting me carry you would be best."

"A-alright." Ruby reluctantly got onto Death, her arms wrapping around his neck. "And you're okay with me-"

She was cut off as Death began scaling the wall up to the hole she made, not taking long to get up there. Although she couldn't see anything, she felt a cool breeze flowing down onto her face, albeit subtle. She rested easy knowing that it lead to an exit. She never should have doubted Dust.

You weren't wrong about the horseman. He really is a paragon of sorts.

If you think that's impressive… I can't wait until you see what comes next.

Oh I am well aware of what he is capable of. It's the child that impresses me. I would have never imagined she'd find him comforting. Granted, anyone would be if I was her.

Always trying to see the bigger picture you are. And why is it you find such things… worth while.

Oh, you'll just have to wait to see what comes next.

Heh…

Death threw his hands over the ledge and pulled himself and Ruby over and onto stable ground. The tunnel that Ruby made lead straight out of the cave and to the bottom of the canyon on the other side. The reaper carried the huntress back up to the top of the other cliff. Ruby rubbed her face and was pleased to find that the blood from that grimm had dissolved with the rest of its body. Having arrived there, Death didn't miss a beat on continuing their journey as he summoned Despair so they could depart yet again.

"Ready?" He asked her.

"You know it." She said confidently.

Death helped her onto Despair before he did so himself. He snapped the reigns and the phantom horse charged forward. Ruby's hands immediately wrapped around Death's lower back again. She had already forgotten how strong of an animal the mount was. With that the two left what was found in the abyss to stay there until the end of days.

A/N:

I started writing this chapter the day after I posted the last one and wrote most of it in three good sittings. Not to say that this should become expected of me, but I think this goes to show how Monty has got me juiced to come back to this.

If it's not obvious, I've never written something scary, so this might've come off as silly or dumb for some of you, but I though it was a cool idea that I didn't want to go to waste. I can't expect any of you to say you found this chapter 'chilling' in any way, but I thought I'd give it a shot.