Hello everyone! How are you doing? I hope as well as possible, all things considered.
Chapter 58 is here- I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks a lot for following/favoring/reading the story, it really means a lot. Also, an additional thank you to the guest who commented on Weiss; I am really happy you liked her!
I will see you all next week! Until then, be well!
Weiss couldn't believe her eye. That laughter… the smell of freshly-baked cookie dough… the red cape… Crescent Rose on her hands and Thorn on her belt… the petals… if she hadn't gone mad, then only one thing could be happening in front of her.
Ruby was alive! And she was here, right in front of her, ready to take on the Grimm, like a knight from a fairy tale! "Stay back" she said, without taking her eyes off the Grimm "the only safe place is behind me!"
Before she could even finish her words, the monstrous Grimm swiped at her partner. The huntress swirled her scythe and deflected the attack, immediately bursting away from the second strike.
In a moment's notice, Ruby appeared on top of the monster. Crescent Rose went for its neck, to severe the ugly skull- a large vine burst from the floor, absorbing the impact.
Ruby didn't care. She used the vine as a stepping stone and spun vertically mid-air, throwing Crescent Rose towards the Grimm's leg as more branches broke out from the wall and lashed at her.
The attack failed and her beloved scythe pierced the ground- as she expected it to. The branches missed as Ruby burst again and reappeared on top of her weapon, just in front of the enemy's belly.
Gripping hard, she swung to slice its legs. But the Grimm wasn't there anymore. She bit back a few curses as it reappeared on the other side of the hall- thankfully far away from Weiss and Kendrick.
What amazing instincts! She slowly walked to stand between it and the others. All those seconds she walked, its dark, unmoving eyes glaring at her in a sinister and curious manner.
"So…" Kendrick's voice snapped her out of her shock "that's… Ruby Rose, huh? Not bad…" Weiss pressed the wound harder. "Please don't talk; you will-"
"I am a goner, in case you haven't noticed…" he pointed at the severe amount of blood covering their jointed fingers. "No…Ruby's here!" Weiss protested. "We will save you!"
"Heh… in a way you already have, Weiss…" he started gasping, as his body was becoming more and more rigid. "No…Kendrick!" she felt wet trails running down her eyes- both of them.
Her friend's whimper stung Ruby's heart, but her tight grip and posture didn't waver even for a second. That thing was dangerous- and she was not stupid enough to give it any openings.
"You are crying tears of blood… not a good… thing…" he coughed again. "ahh… ahhh…." She pressed even harder, but the blood flow couldn't stop.
"Ah, that reminds me; sorry but I will be keeping your eye patch." She curled her fingers "show it to Carlo up there…tell him what a great friend I made in this accursed place…" Weiss nodded.
Ruby's entire body was on edge as the Morkvind stood up again. Would it go for Weiss? Would it go for her? Would it-
Her quick reflexes allowed her to escape the vines and spikes that shot out of the floor. Whirling Crescent Rose, she danced around the assaulting vegetation, cutting down all branches and thorns.
The monster appeared in front of her. "RUBY!" Weiss' scream echoed in the corridor, as the pale girl saw the stag-shaped maw open to devour the red-caped girl.
But she was ready. She had been expecting this quite for a while- which was the reason Ruby had opted to fill her weapon with explosive fire dust.
Shooting inside its open mouth and then bursting away with immense speed, the small reaper landed in front of Weiss and Kendrick the exact moment the Grimm burst in flames with a loud explosion.
"You are in good hands… grea…t…" his voice became more silent and his breathing harsher. "Noo…NO! PLEASE! NO! Kendrick, can you hear me? Ruby! Can you do something? Please?!"
Seeing so much pain in her beloved partner's- her second sister's- eyes tore her heart apart, but Ruby truly had no way to help the poor faunus.
She shook her head softly, as she knelt next to Weiss. Her first aid kits were outside and even those wouldn't be able to treat a bullet would that deep.
"Please… no…" the faunus' hand stretched out at her, holding a small, bloodied white piece of fabric at her. "Remember me… now and then… and have a drink… with Yang for me…"
She nodded again and took the fabric. Kendrick's eyes closed and he smiled as his body grew still-
Ruby reacted faster than she could blink. Out of the smoke and dust, the Morkvind rushed at them. Curse my carelessness! She groaned, as she ferociously spun her weapon in a high arc.
It all happened in a blur. Ruby swung hard, trying to slice its arms off. Behind her, a teary Weiss screamed in rage as she pushed over her limits to conjure her trusted knight, sweat and blood dripping all over her face and body.
Surprising the huntresses, the creature stopped. It stood tall, ignoring both of them. Its stag-shaped head thrust around as if trying to detect something.
"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" both girls flinched from the unearthly scream. The skull-shaped maw screeched with inhuman sounds; a mixture of hatred, anger and hunger filling them.
Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone. A small breeze caressed their faces as the Grimm simply faded into thin air, leaving nothing but a vine-filled corridor in its wake.
"It…left?" Ruby narrowed her eyes, still not lowering her weapon. "It seems like it did" Weiss replied. "And it was not the only one who left us" she gulped.
Kendrick, still smiling, was peacefully cradled in her arms. Tears from her right eye and blood from her left fell on the faunus' body. "Thank you… I will never… NEVER forget this" she whimpered, fiercely grasping the scarf in her hands.
Ruby, having made sure no more unpleasant surprises were looming around here, knelt next to her partner and hugged her. "I am sorry, Weiss…"
"I should be sorry, Ruby. I should have trusted you to come. But…" she sniffed. "Kendrick is… I couldn't help him… he protected me… Yang is gone… Blake too…" she sniffed again, trying her best to not break.
"What are you talking about?" silver eyes stared at cyan in confusion. "Carmel told me when we came here… she executed Yang and Blake, Ruby… she killed them. And now she took poor Kendrick as well…"
She was ready to start whimper again, but something stopped her. Ruby was not overreacting or even showing any sign of sadness, anger or guilt. The only thing the brunette did was raise her eye in confusion.
"Weiss, I think we really need to talk" she stood up. "It seems to me you have misunderstood." It was Weiss' turn to stare in confusion, before Ruby told her something that hit her like a 100-ton hammer.
"I have reasons to believe Yang and Blake escaped Carmel's men alive."
-o—
Yang opened her eyes to a pulsing green light. Her entire body hurt like hell; her arms, legs and shoulders were stiff and sore, to the point of not being able to move it.
She blinked a few times to get used to the light. Wait, what? She forced her eyelids open when her mind registered that fact. There was truly light surrounding her; a horrifyingly familiar ghostly green miasma.
Holy Dust! This isn't good! The sky was still dark and cloudy. From what she could realize, they were still in the opening. Most of the stones were tumbled and cracked; either from the Hive or the explosion.
Green beacons of energy formed a circle outside the collapsed structures, pulsing with the same wicked light she had come to hate since their skirmish in Grimmwater.
Gotta find the others! Hope they are- She tried to get up but realized a couple issues she had failed to register. First one, her right arm was missing. Second, she was, for some reason, tied up on a large stone table!
What the- "Don't sweat it Yang" Blake's voice sounded from behind her. "Blakey? Is that you? Is Cham with you?" she asked, feeling a little better.
"Ilia is here; fine but unconscious. She pushed herself too hard" her partner's voice replied. "I see… judging from the fact you haven't released me yet, I would say you are tied up as well, right?" she asked.
"Spending time with Weiss has made you quite intuitive" Blake acknowledged. "Any clues on why are we like this?" Yang spared no time asking again.
"Nothing at all. I just woke up a few minutes ago as well" the cat faunus replied. "Waking up to some weird situation is becoming a habit as of late" Yang mustered as much clarity and humor as possible.
"Heh" her friend chuckled. "Judging from what I see around us, I wouldn't put it past Fenris to be responsible for this- if we take his recent turn to occultism into account, that is."
"Recent? You are giving me way too little credit, dear Blake" a deep, feral voice replied to the statement. "I can ensure you; my faith and religious drive are even older than you two are."
Yang narrowed her eyes and Blake held her breath as a tall, hooded figure walked to them past the flames. His posture was proud, yet he didn't even attempt to conceal the malice permeating his body.
"Gray…Fenris" the blonde woman heard her partner hiss. Three hyena faunus dressed in winter clothes and sporting some really stupid faces followed him.
She gritted her teeth when she saw one of them was holding her metal arm in his hands. He grinned at her and she gleefully imagined breaking his teeth with her knee.
"Sen, Ed and Baz Spot… you really found yourself the lowest of the low, Gray" Blake's voice disrupted her imagination. "And what do you mean 'older than both of us'?" Yang decided to break her silence as well.
"Hehehe…" the first of the hyenas, the only female out of the three, moved in front of her. "Curious, you filthy human?" Her breath smelled really bad.
"Ahm, not anymore" mimicking her girlfriend's reaction anytime Ruby tried to hug her after a workout, she made a very distinct motion of sniffing her nose.
The woman grabbed her neck and pushed her face next to hers. "Act smart once more and I will gut you alive, you-" "Sen!" Gray's voice cut the female faunus off and she moved away from her.
"To answer your question Blake" he addressed the captive faunus "I have been far more into the worship of the Elders than you could process; even when I was part of the White Fang."
"Why would a doctor, one who is sworn to save people's lives, turn this way?" she blurted. Yang sensed the anger inside her partner's voice. "What made you fall this far, Gray?"
The hood didn't move for a few seconds, before he answered. "Ah, yes. I had forgotten I had told you and Adam that story back then. I am rather impressed you still remember."
"I survived the ashes of the hospital fire! I want to fully support you! I want revenge for the SDC who let us burn like animals!" he shouted in a rather humorous manner. "What a convenient lie you all gobbled up!"
"So, it was a lie…" Blake replied, anger still lacing her voice. "But why would you ever feed us something like that? And why did you know so many things about it if you weren't there?"
"You shut your trap you filthy traitor! You are lucky I didn't bite your ears off in your sleep!" the statement, coming from Ed, made Yang's hair in the back of her neck stand on edge.
"Now, now…let's keep our guests entertained until the host appears, Ed…" Gray shot him a glare under his cowl. The man growled and stepped back as his sister before him.
"To answer your inquiries, Ms. Belladonna" he turned back at her. "Idealists like the White Fang are so easy to be exploited in so many useful ways; the reason I left after Adam took control was because I had nothing more to gain from him."
"You…" Yang was almost certain Blake would have jumped at him with everything she had weren't she restrained.
"As for why I know so many things about the hospital, it is because I was there. I simply wasn't a doctor, but a patient. A criminal kept under strict police custody, being treated in secret by a doctor."
Yang chuckled. All three hyenas turned at her, but Gray raised his arm and stopped them. "So you were a mere criminal all along- Sienna was a fool for accepting you" Blake replied.
"On that we agree" Gray cackled. "I, too, was a mere fool; an insignificant young man who sacrificed homeless humans to the Old Gods of Remnant, before I escaped that hospital and learnt of the White Fang."
Yang felt her eyes open wide. Did this guy just admit performing human sacrifices? She thought for a moment she felt Blake's teeth grit.
"I lacked vision. I suppose I have to thank Sienna and Adam for providing me with a way to find my own path in the world" he cackled again.
"You didn't find anything!" Blake shouted at him in fury. "You opened that path by deceiving, killing and taking advantage of others!" Blakey…
"You are nothing more than a ghoul who survived by eating the corpse of everyone you met! I am ashamed to admit we belong to the same species!"
The girl's outburst was not received well by the three siblings, but their leader once more motioned them to stay put. He walked next to Blake and lowered his hood, earning a pair of gasps from the huntresses.
Gray had a thin face with highlighted cheekbones and a narrow jaw. He seemed old, at least older than their parents, with short gray hair and feral-looking green eyes. A gray goatee and sideburns adorned his face.
This was not what caused the girls' reaction, however. All over his face and large forehead, there were thin black lines forming a weird-looking pattern. Around them, the skin was red like it had been charred.
This is like Vomit Boy's… Yang thought. "What is this?" Blake whispered. But she got no reply. Instead, Gray narrowed his eyes at her "do not insult me by thinking such stupid things, heiress to the Belladonnas."
Now, that was a weird way to address Blake. "You and every other faunus who walked away from the Old Ways trying to become more civilized, are not the same species as us" he exclaimed in disgust.
"Same goes for filthy humans who act as if they are the owners of this world" he turned to Yang and knelt over her, like a doctor examining a patient "while they are simply an elaborate offering to the Gods."
Unlike with Sen before, the blonde brawler didn't feel disgust. The only thing this man inspired to her was dread. Like something totally not human stared at her very soul.
It felt like back then with Cherry. But if Yang could compare them, the fox-girl was like a raging storm; straightforward, honest and filled with incredible power, eager to test it with every chance.
This man, on the other hand, was like the deepest pits of the ocean; unknown, and deadly. His smirk irritated her as much as it filled her with horrified anticipation of what would happen afterwards.
"You are afraid of me" he finally said. This statement made his subordinates burst into wild laughter. "That is very wise, Yang Xiao Long" he added, making her raise an eyebrow.
Before Yang had the chance to reply, however, a sudden gust of wind stroke the altar, making all green flames flicker wildly. The Spot siblings' laughter stopped and Fenris stood up, raising his hood.
"It is coming; we are leaving at once" the man started walking away from them in a fast pace. "Wait; what is coming?" Yang shouted at him.
"The reason we kept you alive instead of chopping you to pieces is coming" Sen growled at her. "I wish I could stay around to see you getting eaten alive, you filthy-"
"Sen move. NOW!" the wolf man raised his voice for the first time. Somehow this thing scared her more than anything else that had happened so far.
"Mmm…" Ilia's voice was heard from behind Yang the moment the bandits left the circle. "Ilia, are you okay?" Blake asked, fear evident in her own voice, as the wind grew stronger.
"I think so… what happened? Why are we tied up?!" the wind descended upon them, chilling them to the bone. Yang's hair swirled and her nostrils got filled with the stench of moldy leaves.
The flames were now roaring around, dancing like mad in the swirling breeze. Hideous figures were cast by the flickering lights and the brawler wasn't sure they were all due to the fires' movement.
"Well; I would say we are the main course for someone's dinner" Yang forced herself to say. "Now's not the time for jokes!" "I know! Just trying to-" "Someone's coming!"
The sound of heavy, rasped panting and breathing followed Blake's statement as two figures stepped inside the circle, rolling to avoid catching up fire.
They got up and continued their path towards the girls. Yang gaped as they reached to them. "Albus?! Alex?! What are you guys doing here?" she cried in a mixture of joy and confusion.
"Do you want to discuss this now?" the man knelt next to her and begun unlocking her chains, while the bat faunus did the same for Blake and Ilia. "Well, I am curious; you can't-"
Her voice died in her throat as soon as Albus removed the chains and released her. Quite a few meters behind them, the green flames parted and quelled, as a tall figure appeared seemingly from nowhere.
Its stag-shaped skull reflected the miasmatic light as the wind roared and raged. Its body was visible only by the hue of the green flames reflected on it.
Morkvind stared at the prey standing inside its old altar. Its pitch black eyes narrowed in a hideously intelligent manner as it realized its offerings were about to escape from the unholy ground.
"Run!" Albus' shout made them all start climbing the slope, before the monstrous Grimm howled and its eerie voice sent shivers down their spine.