Hello everyone, how are you doing? I noticed that in many cases in my previous uploaded files, any mark I tried to use in order to separate different scenes in the same chapter failed to get uploaded properly, making the text even more confusing. I deeply apologize and hope that this will not be the issue from today's chapter and on.
With that out of my chest, here is chapter 9. A quick thanks to everyone who still keeps up with the story- I really appreciate and love you all.
"You stupid sis!" Yang fumed, causing her sister to lower her head in shame. "How could you think that you would hide something like that from me?" she ruffled Ruby's hair, allowing her to fall into Yang's embrace.
"I am so sorry… I am just so ashamed of myself… letting that thing control my love for Jaune... making me jealous of you." She spat the word as if her soul couldn't hold it anymore.
"Love is a powerful emotion, Ruby" the faunus rubbed their leader's back. "And is very easily exploited. Just because this thing made you feel like this, it doesn't make you a bad person. It just makes you human."
"Blake…" Ruby smiled at her friend. "Blakey is right" Yang turned around and looked at Weiss who had just finished changing for the dinner, being extra careful to not stress her battered arm too much.
"If Weiss was in that hospital room, I am sure I would be far worse than you, Rubes. You are doing an amazing job, considering what the world threw at you; don't sell yourself short, especially when it is us you are talking to."
"Thank you, all" she beamed at her friends, earning a grin from Yang, a soft smile from Blake and a gentle smirk from her partner. "Sometimes you can be so stupid, despite being so smart" Yang gently nudged her.
"It must run in the family" Weiss exclaimed. "I second that" Blake immediately added. Both girls looked at each other and nodded in appreciation, grinning widely.
"Very funny you two" the blonde narrowed her eyes "I dare you to say that next time you visit Patch; especially you, double-crossing Princess." Weiss smirk grew "Taiyang loves me. Besides, I promised to not get involved in family matters didn't I?"
A few giggles escaped Ruby and Blake's mouths, immediately however interrupted by a knock on the door. Weiss opened it, to find a tall, fair-skinned bald man with a butler's attire standing in front of her.
"If the ladies would wish, dinner will be served in twenty minutes. Ms. Pale insists to let her show you her gratitude for saving Mr. Pale by attending it."
Weiss nodded in all her elegance with a small court nod. "Thank you very much, Mr. Pullman. We will be there on time." The man bowed and left, as Weiss turned to her teammates. "Get dressed" she smiled sweetly "now!"
-o-
The dining room was very luxurious and well-furnished, with a large chandelier pleasantly illuminating it. An impressive display of appetizing food was spread all over the table, much to the huntresses' delight.
Ms. Pale was seated at the table's head, wearing an elegant yet casual looking white dress. On her left sat Ruby and Weiss, with Blake and Yang on her right.
"I trust you like the food?" the woman said, looking at the tall girl who had just stuffed her mouth with a huge piece of beef. Weiss glared daggers at her lover before replying "It is excellent; we are so thankful for the meal and for your hospitality, Ms. Pale."
The woman smiled, sipping some red wine "your teammates saved my husband's life, Ms. Schnee. What I am offering you is dreadfully simple in comparison, so don't worry about it."
"Speaking of Mr. Pale; how is he?" Blake asked. "He is shaken, but the therapist gave him a couple sedatives. Some rest will help him recover in a few days; I only hope my daughter will be around to see him by then" she added in a sad tone.
"She will" Ruby replied. "We will do anything we can to find Melia, Ms. Pale. Be sure about it." The woman smiled at Ruby- before the door opened and two boys stormed into the room, running towards her.
They both were very young, around 7-8 years old, with dark hair and black eyes. They ran past the table and jumped at the woman, tugging her dress. "Mommy!"
"Jet, Carbon" she addressed her twin sons "why aren't you asleep?" The boys pouted as one "we want to see Auntie Yang and her friends!" they whined.
Team RWBY exchanged stares to each other, before giggling at the boys' antics. "Where is sis? She should be around to-" Ms. Pale patted Jet's head and stood up "if you will excuse us ladies, I am going to put my sons to sleep."
"No fair! Sis always gets all the fun!" "Yeah, we want to stay up too." Weiss looked at Ruby and Blake, sadness having replaced their previous merry smiles. Yang, however, wiped her mouth with a napkin and got up.
"Hey boys" she walked next to them and knelt. "Hello Auntie Yang!" The first one replied. "Why are you giving your mum trouble?" she asked in a very caring and tender voice. "We want to see you- you promised to tell us how you got that cool arm!" the second one whined.
A pair of lilac eyes opened in surprise at the boy's request, only for Yang to grin widely. "Tell you what; if you follow your mom to bed now, I will come with you and tell you how I beat up this nasty Grimm and got that arm, ok?"
The boys hopped in happiness and left the room, a thankful Bonette Pale trying to stop them from running. "Be right back; leave my food alone" Yang winked and went after them.
After the door closed behind them, Blake sighed "Weiss, they are gone. You can stop gaping now." The white girl blinked towards the faunus "Wha-what are you talking about? Why would I be gaping at Yang now?"
Ruby got a huge bite of her 3rd serving of pudding "I have an answer, but you will kill me, so I will pass." Weiss glared at her partner "instead of acting smart how about we discuss the problem at hand?"
Ruby licked the spoon clean and nodded. "Ok, there are currently three things that must be dealt with. First, the Ghouls." Weiss narrowed her eyes "the what?"
"Ghouls. They are a type of undead in Vacuan literature." Blake interjected "I am impressed you know of them." Ruby smiled sheepishly "I decided to call the strange Grimm you and Yang fought this way."
"All right" Blake said. "Besides the new name, they displayed an impressive arsenal of abilities. Their physical strength and toughness were comparative to a creep's and only their speed was top-notch."
"There is a 'but' coming isn't it?" Ruby raised an eyebrow. "But" Blake emphasized on her word "they make up for their weaknesses with their immense regeneration skill. They are surrounded by a dark shroud that heals every wound we inflicted on them."
Weiss looked at Blake thoughtfully. "Did you try heavy rounds?" The cat girl tapped her chin "We used every sort of weapon we had and any-non dust rounds. They regenerated from it completely; even when I blew up one's head."
Ruby controlled a gasp. She didn't like this at all. "Anything else about them?" The faunus continued "they possessed remarkable intellect and were cunning enough to set an ambush to Yang. A less experienced huntsman would have great trouble dealing with them."
"That sounds dangerous indeed" Weiss said "so what are we going to do about it?" Ruby tapped her fingers on the table. "I propose to avoid them for now. As much as I want to take them on, Melia's life takes priority."
Both girls nodded in agreement as Ruby continued "I will ask the major to establish night patrols around the village and request to not allow anyone go in the woods unless escorted by us. We will deal with the Grimm as soon as we find Ms. Pale's daughter."
At this point Blake and Weiss were totally fixated on their team leader's words. "And that brings us on issues two and three; the fact that Melia was at some point in the hidden passage under the church and that something tried to control me down there."
Weiss frowned "Ruby, the Mayor's men checked the tunnel after they found us; it was a dead end, remember? Whatever was down there couldn't simply make Melia vanish. Not even Grimm can do that."
"You are right…" Ruby agreed "simple Grimm couldn't do that." Weiss and Blake's eyes opened wide; they knew exactly what Ruby meant with these words. "What about Eldergrimm then?"
"Ruby, we don't have enough evidence about that; it could simply be another Grimm or even someone's semblance." The reaper rolled her eyes "nobody has a semblance powerful enough to control other people's mind without making eye contact, Blake. Not even Emerald could do it."
"Still we have no evidence, Ruby. This could easily be wistful thinking on our part" Weiss added "we know nothing about this thing; we don't even know if it is a Grimm to begin with."
"I just… I can feel it Weiss; I can feel this wasn't something normal" she looked her partner in the eyes "do you remember what Salem said back then?"
Weiss and Blake exchanged looks of worry
They surpass everything you know about Grimm
Grimmlands, sometime during 84
Salem was sitting on her throne, blood oozing from her form, as her body slowly changed, her features returning back to the ones she had so long ago.
Before the Gods, before the curse of immortality. She let a small, bloodied smile form on her lips as she looked at Oscar's unconscious body on the floor.
She had stopped sensing Ozma from the boy quite some time ago, despite the vessel still being alive. That could only mean one thing- Ruby Rose had been right.
She let her blue eyes fall upon her adversary, who was lying down in her sister's arms, gasping for breath, red streaks of blood running down her eyes.
Between them, the Schnee and the faunus were standing, holding their weapons with as much power as their nearly-collapsing state could allow them to.
"You sacrificed so much…" she said. "So many lives, Ozma's reincarnation, your boy's mind, your power of light…all to take me down…" she saw the red girl smile, despite her pain "…it's time to rest, Salem. You have suffered enough; don't you think?"
She deepened her smile, allowing a tint of bitterness crawl up her voice. "Life…so precious after all… how foolish of me…" Salem took a gaze out of the window- the sky was dark red as always- it had been this way before her and would most likely continue after her.
"What are you going to do with the Relics? You have all of them, now. Will you succeed Ozma's legacy?" Blake answered this time "we won't."
Salem raised an eyebrow, before Blake continued "we will find some safe way to hide them, and that will be it. The Relics will never bother Remnant again; too much blood has been spilled because of them already."
She opened her eyes, despite the pain, in surprise before the Schnee continued. "The Gods, Ozma, you. Your era is over; you have done your fair share of good and evil in this world-"
"-some of you more evil than good" the blonde cut her off. "It's time for us now, Salem" Ruby's voice added "it's time for Remnant to be left at the hands of us humans- time for you to go home and meet Ozma after all that time."
Her heart floated at the mere thought of seeing him again. She exhaled deeply, feeling her power finally seeping away. "I am totally defeated…you won… but you will not rest…they will not let you." Three sets of eyes narrowed at her and even the lying girl tried to stand up.
"What do you mean? Who are they?" Salem spat bitterly "Eldergrimm. The first of the Grimm, created by the God of Darkness before every other Grimm came in existence."
"What sort of crap are you saying now?" the fiery blonde hissed "can't you simply admit your defeat without spewing lies on us?"
"I only speak the truth. The Darkness' ultimate life forms, given intelligence and power from Him in an ancient era where magic seeped into the world and humans didn't even exist as a concept."
She groaned "they far surpass everything you think you knew about Grimm. They are Pools of Death given life; or what in their case counts as life. Creatures that were praying on the light of this world long before I even came to be the Queen of the Grimm."
"You are lying…" the Schnee said, but Salem could feel the doubt in her voice "for your sake, I wish I were." The blonde got up; gently supporting her sister "She is obviously lying."
"If such powerful Grimm existed, why didn't you throw them on us? Why didn't you unleash them on the soldiers and huntsmen who accompanied us all the way here?" Ruby Rose asked her in an anxious voice.
Salem felt her life slowly leaving her body…it felt so sweet and merciful…like drifting to sleep… "I didn't because I couldn't. I sealed them in ancient magical tombs, long ago. I kept them sealed away, until they drifted out of history."
She looked at them, seeing the seeds of doubt filling their eyes; good. Stubbornness could lead one to ignorance and ignorance often lead to one's demise "after all these years passed, I became the only one who knew they existed."
"Why would you do that?" the faunus asked her, confusion in these yellow sharp eyes the last thing Salem saw before she closed hers.
"Because I couldn't control them."