II

In some warehouse, which was abandoned and in ruins, you could see a spider's web that went from one side to the other. Such a thing could only have been done by a giant spider, but that theory could be quickly discarded.

After all, the 'things' wrapped in the web were not flies or insects, but human beings.

Many of them were dead, or at least not moving. A few struggled with all they had to free themselves. But just as few prey could escape the web of a spider in time, the efforts of those doomed souls did not bear fruit.

The moonlight illuminated their battle like a spotlight. It seemed to know that the banquet was about to begin. That soon the curtain would open on a night game of madness.

Let us return to the nameless creature that wove this web.

In the center of the web was something very large. Even shrunk as it was, it was obvious that it could tear down the warehouse it had turned into its lair with a few blows, if it so wished. Its four legs, which had sharp, pointed ends, caressed the velvety darkness.

It appeared to be asleep, and perhaps that was true, in a sense. The spider was concentrated in the web. It could only see that work of art of its own creation. Only the sounds that came from it reached its ears. No one could understand what passed through the mind of that creature, that was neither a man nor an animal, perhaps not even a Grimm. But if someone had been there to watch it closely, perhaps they would have concluded that the spider knew something they did not. That it was not at the mercy of the future, but that it was in charge of weaving it.

They would also have seen that in the center of that mass of darkness and hair, there was a human face.

The face of Jaune Arc, a knight. A child with no home and no family.

His blue eyes, practically the only thing visible after his transformation, burned like candlesticks in that filthy darkness that reeked of death.

The sword of lightning pierced the darkness. Out of it came a small island and a lopsided, blackened tower, covered by hundreds of windows. The windows were points of light. The flames danced, twisted inside the glass. That almost made it look like a giant creature, awake and alert, that had crawled out of some hell in which human reason died.

Where am I? This isn't real, is it?

Ruby immediately regained consciousness of herself, her name and her own body. That was the most natural thing in the world, because without curiosity human beings were no better or any different from the various animals that walked on the earth. Yes, to wonder was human. And if, in spite of asking so many questions to yourself, of putting so much effort into it, there was an answer that you couldn't reach, what was that? What did that make you?

She was standing in the middle of darkness that reached as far as she could see. She looked at her hands, moved her fingers, cracked her knuckles.

I... I am...

She started walking. With every step she took, wild red roses blossomed under her boots. They cut her ankles as she passed by, drank her blood to become stronger, to reach their full splendor.

She was alone. And it was cold. She tied the cloak she always carried on her shoulders tighter and hugged herself. It didn't help much, but it relieved her a little. In any case, she had far greater problems. The darkness never seemed to end, there was not even a speck of light within sight.

She did not want to die alone, in a place like this. If she would be allowed to die in the first place. If she wouldn't wander in this darkness for all eternity.

Later, she saw something, someone, with complete clarity, as if the place was full of light. The person was lying on the ground. The curves of the body covered by the cape suggested that it was a woman.

Of course it was. And she knew her very well.

That cape... She crouched down in front of the woman, extended his hands, which suddenly were trembling, towards the snow-white cape.

For no apparent reason blood stains blossomed over it, spreading along the fabric and dyeing it a dark, dirty red. Despite that, she did not back down. She turned it around with a push.

Mom. Oh, mom!

She had no eyes, the sockets were nests of worms. Half of her face had been violently torn off. She had a deep cut in the lower belly, the organs, moist and glistening, were almost slipping out the wound. She was dead, dead, and so she would always be. For ever and ever.

Ruby touched her face with her fingertips, closed her eyes, rested her head on her chest as she had no doubt done countless times in the past, on radiant days that were now only memories. Grains of sand on the edge of a beach. Sand slipping between her fingers.

He opened his eyes suddenly when she stopped feeling her mother's body, just in time to see how it turned to dust and flew out into the darkness.

You made a mistake. That was Summer's voice, even though she was gone. You confused the sky with the stars reflected at night on the surface of a pond.

A tremor ran through her from head to toe.

Grains in her hands.

Ruby stood up with her hands on her knees, staggering in a random direction.

The sky... the stars...

She felt a new presence, strong, oppressive and very close. Her heart accelerated, each beat hurting as if her chest were about to explode. A single red rose placed next to a tombstone, an offering that withers on the snow.

"Who are you?" The voice came out weak, stifled, as if her head was under water.

Ruby resurfaced.

Ruby woke up jumping in the same ridiculous way that always happened in the movies, with a fire in her stomach and her heart winding down slowly and painfully. From the corner of her eye, the shadows of the room took strange shapes. Arms, hands. Mouths.

In her ears, the wind caressing the window turned into mocking laughter.

She rose with effort. She opened the bathroom door. Without turning on the light, she stepped in front of the sink and vomited with force. It was disgusting. It was as if she was vomiting her soul.

Ruby looked in the mirror. Sweaty, shaggy, hair stuck to her forehead. A stranger. A person she didn't want to meet.

Her belly hurt so much.

She put a hand on her, tried to catch her breath. In the glass there was now a girl who looked more like her, who could become her again, or even be someone better. With a little bit of luck.

"I... I am..."

Ruby didn't manage to find the answer to that.

He heard a heartbeat that wasn't his own. That made him regain consciousness.

Ruby, Ruby!

The spider's stomach opened and Jaune slipped out of there, naked as the day he was born, bathed in a foul, sticky substance that he did not know and did not want to give a name to either. In any case, the name didn't matter. He knew what this was all about.

Sometimes, in order to learn to live, you need death or a brush with death. He had heard those words before. But he didn't remember where or when.

Jaune laughed slightly.

He heard a faint, rhythmic noise. After a while he realized what it was. Jaune lifted his head towards the moon, which had witnessed its first rebirth, towards the rain that ran down his hair, wetting his cheeks like tears. His heart trembled.

"Tonight..." He looked down and squeezed his hands into fists. "Tonight...!"

He stood up. His gaze was lost in flesh, blood and memories. He knew where Torchwick was. He knew what he had to do.

He had to keep on advancing. Until all his enemies were destroyed.

The night was dark and deep as the sea in a storm. The broken moon and its stars had hid. In that almost absolute darkness, Jaune was just another creature in that nest of monsters.

He could already smell the target.

He entered the building through a window, without having to break it or open it from the outside in one way or another, he crawled across the ceiling like a spider. He was practically naked, covered in armor of darkness and bone.

There.

"Come out and have a seat," Roman said, sitting at his office table, one hand resting on the handle of a cane. "Don't be rude."

He knew it was not a bluff, he had lost the element of surprise. He descended to the floor, circled the table carefully.

"Why the visit?"

Jaune stepped out of the shadows.

"I see," he continued after a pause. "You must be one of Salem's little experiments. I don't know what you're doing here. Neither she nor her pet has any reason to complain. My plans are going smoothly and that benefits all of us."

Salem... He hadn't heard that name in his life, but for some strange reason it sounded familiar.

"What's going on?" Roman smiled. "She gave you a mouth but not the ability to use it? Not even I have such an unpleasant sense of humour."

Jaune turned the table over, smashing it against the floor with great ease. Everything that was on top of it ended up scattered around, for a few moments they flew among the pieces of broken wood.

"Oh, I see. So you're here to kill me. I should have seen that coming."

Roman lifted his cane with a simple, fluid and deadly fast movement. He pointed one end at him.

The impact of the bullet and the subsequent explosion hurled him against a wall, cracking it. The pain left him stunned, helpless for a few seconds that the thief used to take action.

Roman was fast. Too fast and too accurate, no doubt he was not one of those bosses who stayed in their elegant offices to make plans and enjoy the cash. Still, he was no big deal. Ruby had prevented him from robbing a store, and here and now he would finish the job, make sure he would never hurt anyone again.

Fighting with bare hands against a guy with a cane that was also a firearm put him at a disadvantage, obviously. But he couldn't afford more than that. If he made a few claws... or worse, he would end up like the other night, the one he had spent investigating and devouring. He almost hadn't came back to himself. The danger was real.

He remembered Summer turning into dust, slipping between his fingers. Flying like the petals of a rose. It had been a terrible nightmare but also, in a way, beautiful.

Another shot. This time he didn't manage to get away in time either.

He went through a wall, the same one he had cracked before. He ended up buried in the rubble. For a short time. He hurried to his feet, the lower part of his back brushed against something that could only be a railing.

It was hard for him to breathe. His body cried out for the transformation, his instincts whispered that he had to do it if he wanted to survive this battle.

But he refused to.

Jaune howled and jumped from the railing to the floor. A wider battlefield suited him.

He glanced. Roman was still there, but by his side, out of somewhere, somehow, a tiny girl had appeared. She was shorter that Ruby, even though she wore high heels. She smiled from ear to ear, an open parasol spinning over her head. No doubt a weapon, even though it didn't look like one.

He instinctively understood that the girl was a monster, not a thief and a thug like her boss.

"I'll kill you," Jaune said with a cold rage.

"Yes, yes," he replied as they descended to the ground in a more indirect manner. Now that I know you know how to use that mouth, let us speak as members of a species supposedly blessed with reason. Why do you want to kill me? Maybe we can come to an agreement."

"There will be no agreement. You deserve to die and you will."

"You look at me like I'm a monster," he said slowly, "and you don't seem to see that in yourself. That's funny."

Jaune got up on all fours, tightened his whole body like a tiger, and threw himself at him. But he wasn't going to ignore the girl. She was a greater threat than Roman.

She stopped his blow with the parasol. Though obviously reinforced by herAura, that was somewhat humiliating. As if she were mocking him.

As if?

She was obviously enjoying it. She did not take him seriously.

You damn bitch.

The rage accelerated his transformation, but he didn't lose control, he didn't give up the reins but guided it to create what was easier for him: four spider legs. And he advanced. Soon he was overwhelming them. It was obvious, not a trick to give him a false sense of security. They reeked of fear. Above all, to his surprise, that girl did.

Roman took a few steps back. He moved his hand across his mouth. Looking at the blood that now stained it, he frowned, spat.

"Neo, leave."

The girl, Neo, looked into his eyes.

"I'm not joking. Leave! I'll take care of him."

That was incredible stupid. If that girl had no chance against him, then he even less so. He had to know that as well as he did. But Roman wasn't going to back down. In a sense, it was admirable.

Jaune did not give them time to finish their conversation.

Or so he thought. But Neo did not protest, she said nothing, she simply disappeared in the blink of an eye, shattering like glass. What a strange semblance.

He couldn't let his guard down, despite everything. Perhaps she had hidden herself in the darkness, waiting for the perfect opportunity to surprise him again and even the odds. Surely that's what it was all about. After all, why would Roman sacrifice himself to allow that girl to escape? And that was the only other possibility.

"I'll kill you both," Jaune said. "And I'll enjoy every moment."

"I have no intention of dying," replied Roman in an unexpectedly calm voice. "I will destroy you and return to her. You are but an obstacle in my path."

Jaune ducked, dodging the shot that would have erased a good part of his head. When he transformed, his aura lost its strength until it disappeared completely. Obviously. Because a soul was something that only human beings possessed.

He charged him, trying to skewer him with his legs.

Roman dodged them at the last moment, rolling on the floor. He stood up fluidly, shot twice and didn't miss. A big piece of his torso mostly disappeared, as if a great beast had bitten it off. It would make his movement more difficult, but otherwise it was nothing to worry about. Although he was almost completely devoid of Aura, he regenerated very quickly.

Roman ran, disappeared behind a nearby door.

"Wherever you go, wherever you hide, I'll find you in the end. I'll tear you apart with my own hands!"

He didn't hesitate to go after him.

Tables. Containers. Shelves.

Darkness.

He stood on all fours, brought his nose near the ground, sniffed. Roman could not deceive his senses. He was close.

Jaune let out some sort of choked scream.

He ended up vomiting blood. Roman had not shot him from his hiding place. No one had harmed him. It happened because his body resented the changes, even if his mind was prepared.

He threw himself against the shelf that he was hiding behind, knocking it down with the force of the impact. He went through it, moving forward as if there was nothing in his path.

He extended his arms and legs to grab Roman.

He managed to escape. He was like a worm, that scum. Dirty and slippery. But his luck had run out. Jaune ripped the cane from his hands. He twisted it, threw it to the side, already useless. And he stabbed him with one leg just below the heart.

"You should..." Roman muttered with his mouth full of blood. "Look behind you."

He didn't know what, maybe his tone of voice, but something made him turn his to look. There was a supply of Dust... and a plastic explosive glued to the container.

Shit.

That was his last thought before he lost the ability to think.

Jaune woke up in the dark, with something heavy crushing his ribs. The pain was unbearable. He could barely breathe. He had to get out of here. Get out into the light. Breathe fresh air.

(so dark)

He didn't want to die. Not like this and not at all. It was too soon. He at least wanted to be able to see Ruby's face in his final moments.

He moved the rubble with his legs, crawled forward like a worm. Each of these movements contained the possibility of more debris falling on him. He had to fight the fear that it would happen to keep moving forward.

Give me strength, Ruby. Give me strength. I don't want to lose you!

He pulled the torso and an arm out of the dust, blood and debris. His lungs filled with air again.

The sky was still dark. It shouldn't have been long since the explosion.

The multiple explosions and the collapse of the building would have been heard all over Vale. He had to leave before anyone arrived. The police, those who wanted him dead... But not yet. He couldn't.

He looked for Roman Torchwick in the rubble. And he soon found him.

Dead.

But that didn't have the slightest importance to him. Jaune devoured him, slowly at first, as if with caution, then voraciously. As if he hadn't eaten in years. His body was filled with his blood and organs. His mind, his memories.

Now he had what he was looking for. And more than he had thought he would need.

Roman had devised a plan for Salem that would endanger not only Vale, the city, but the entire realm as well. He was supposed to carry it out personally, but he was a pawn like any other. Surely his masters would have no trouble finding someone to take his place.

He heard the police sirens.

Close. Too close.

Jaune ran and skittered into the darkness.

Ruby didn't attend classes. The teacher didn't even ask her any questions, she surely thought it was because of Jaune, that whole mess. She was not wrong. Ruby felt bad and was thinking of Jaune, but for once she wasn't worried about where he was and what he was doing. She went to... check something important.

Shortly afterwards, locked in the bathroom of her team's bedroom, she looked at what was in her hands.

She couldn't no longer doubt it. Or pretend it wasn't possible.

"I'm pregnant," she murmured as if to convince herself that it was true.

The door opened. At first she thought Blake and Pyrrha had returned from class, but it couldn't be true. It was too soon. She wanted to know who it was, but she didn't have the energy to turn around and look. Terror did not drive her to do so, even though it might be someone who wanted to hurt her, as she had forgotten to lock the door.

That someone sat next to her. For one moment of madness, she vividly imagined that it was Jaune, who had come to take her away with him.

"Ruby..." Yang's voice cut off her hopes. "Are you all right?"

"What a question." She lowered her voice even more. "No, I'm not all right. He's not here anymore, Yang. He's nowhere. He's not dead yet, but it's as if he had died. And the worst thing is that he eventually he will do it alone, hated by all, rejected by the world. Even though I love him... Even though he and me..."

No. Better not tell her the truth.

"What, Ruby?" she gently insisted.

"Nothing."

Her older sister wasn't born yesterday, no doubt she knew she was lying, but she pretended not to. Or maybe she was just thinking about what to say and how to say it. In any case, the affection Ruby had for her became stronger. She could still rely on her. Not in everything, but in many things.

"You're not thinking... of doing anything stupid, are you?"

It took her several seconds to realize what she meant.

"No. Not that, never."

"Okay. I'm glad to hear that." She swallowed. "Don't lose hope. I'll do everything I can to find him, to keep him safe."

"But you hate him."

"You're wrong. I hate that he's making you suffer. I hate that he is a murderer and has condemned you both to pain, bitterness and a sense of distance that has nothing to do with the physical. And above all I hate this world and the gods, if they are anything more than myths and legends, because you have already suffered enough. Because someone as strong, kind and compassionate as you does not deserve to go through even a little of what you have gone through. But not Jaune. Not anymore.

Ruby kept silent.

"Yang..." she said at last, her voice changed.

"Yes, sis?"

"I... Nothing. Forget it."

Yang nodded. She stood up and left, carefully closing the door behind her.

The next morning, alone and in the dark, using her scroll only to kill time, she came across a piece of news that woke her from her lethargy, that made her stand up.

Explosions and a fire in the middle of Vale... possible connection with Roman Torchwick...

Ruby did not know Jaune as well as he knew her, but she knew enough to predict his actions. Or so she hoped. Since he couldn't be with her, she imagined he would dedicate himself to hunting criminals, to eliminating any possible threat before they would harm her.

She bit her lips. She had to find him, talk to him, and the sooner the better.

That night, as soon as Blake and Weiss went to sleep, Ruby got dressed and went out into the darkness. She hadn't said anything to anyone, she didn't even think about leaving a note. While she was going down to Vale, she touched her belly with one hand, she thought of the child that was being gestated there. If it would be a boy or a girl. If it could grow up surrounded by a happy and complete family, unlike her and Yang.

Tears ran down her cheeks. She hated crying, but couldn't stop it. Deep down, she had feared that for a long time, most of her life. Jaune was not the best option if she wanted a stable life. Anyone would have realized that.

She had no choice, however. She truly loved him, with all her heart. No matter what anyone said.

And now, a child. That would have to change his mind, right? He'd go back to her if she told him the truth. She clenched her fists. No. That didn't matter. Even if he did, even if she somehow managed to stop him from being executed like some common animal, he would end up in jail. What was the sentence for murder?

Too long, in any case.

She saw a shadow wandering the docks, a thin, blood-smelling ghost. The night was very dark, with no stars, so she couldn't be sure it was him. But somehow she was.

"Jaune!" she shouted running after him. "Jaune, wait!"

"Don't look at me," he replied, confirming her thoughts.

Ruby stopped a few yards away. So close and yet so far.

"I saw you once," she said slowly and after a while, "all of you, and in any case I don't care what you look like. I know very well who you truly are. And I'll never forget it. Jaune, I love you. So much..."

"Don't look at me!"

Ruby turned around. She took a deep breath. The cold night air seeped into her bones, provoking strong tremors.

"You're crying," Jaune slowly said. "Why are you crying?"

"I... take me with you, please. I need... We have to be together.

"I can't allow that. I thought you understood that it's too dangerous for you, that that's not the way to fix this damn situation. That's why you left, isn't it? Tell me this is nothing more than an outburst, a short-lived impulse."

"I'm pregnant."

Jaune turned around. She heard that clearly. Ruby turned her head just in time to see her fall to her knees. He had no expression, he was acting as if the world had collapsed on top of him. She knew that these circumstances weren't the best for having a child, but... But what? What did she expect of him?

He no longer had spider legs, but he had not regained his human form. In fact, the transformation had progressed in other directions. Directions that made the comparison with a Grimm, even if she hated to admit it, much more accurate.

"This can't be happening," Jaune said.

A ghost appeared behind him, put her hands on his shoulders. Ruby forgot how to breathe.

"It can't be," Jaune muttered, apparently unaware of Summer's appearance. Or whatever it really was. "I didn't think, it didn't even cross my mind, that I have... what's necessary for that. I'm not human. I am a monster. "

Ruby freed herself from her stupor and approached him. The ghost disappeared, melting into the darkness as if fleeing from her. A wound in his heart reopened, bled abundantly. But she didn't pay attention to it. Couldn't.

"Look at me. Look at me!"

Jaune obeyed.

"I know it's not ideal," she finally said, her voice changed, "but we'll get through this together. We can do it."

"I don't know what to do. I don't know how to do it."

"Take me with you," she asked again, touching his face with her fingertips. "Wherever. To do anything. I won't lie to you: it won't be the life I've dreamed of, I'm sure. But I don't care as long as we're together."

"We can't. I can't, especially not now. My child. You can't ask me that. I love you too much, I owe you too much to do something like that." He gently removed her hands from his shoulders. With great delicacy and attention he broke her heart. "Go away. Don't look back for a second, forget about me. All this was just my selfish dream. Okay?"

Ruby slapped him.

"Absolutely not," her voice trembled. "It might be selfish, but I'm dreaming it too. And I don't want to wake up. I love you too much. I owe you too much."

Jaune looked at her silently. He seemed afraid of her, of the future. That almost got her to back off, but she couldn't. No..., she didn't want to. None of this was a matter of destiny, but of her own decisions. And she would face the consequences when they arrived without handing over the responsibility to a concept as vague and strange as destiny.

"Take me with you," she repeated for the third time. "Now I'm not asking you: I demand it. No matter what happens, if you don't accept, I won't move from this spot."

Jaune looked down.

"All right," he muttered. "Let's go."