The aimless journey of the two "roses" stretched on for hours until the sun set over the horizon. Night would come soon and there was still no sign of a village. Though the weather was very cold throughout the long march, Ruby carried a makeshift torch made from a long tree branch and the Reaper's dark flames. The Reaper wasn't bothered by the cold, and only carried its scythe. The two stopped in a small, yet hollow cave that was nearby a plateau that overlooked many trees.
"Here," Ruby said. "If we stop here, one of us can keep watch for somebody while the other sleeps. Wish I still had my sleeping bag; the ground here looks kinda…gravelly."
The Reaper silently nodded and walked toward a nearby tree. It did the same thing it did with the last one; pry off little twigs and branches, build a pile, and make a campfire with its dark flames.
"Uh, that fire sure comes in handy, you know?" Ruby attempted to sound encouraging, but her thoughts turned toward her burnt arm when she saw the flames.
The Reaper sat nearby the campfire and stared down at its scythe. Its bulging eye was a reminder that the scythe was, in fact, a living Grimm. Looking back at that moment with the Revenants, the Reaper was unsure of how it made the weapon in the first place. While it did possess incredibly detailed memories of the inner workings of a "Crescent Rose" scythe, including its construction process, they were completely irrelevant to the making of this weapon aside from its faintly similar shape.
"I mean, we're still lost, and cold, and we could be miles away from somebody. But we can figure this out," Ruby said.
The Reaper still didn't respond. Its attention remained fixated on its scythe. As far as the Reaper knew, it just stuck Grimm parts together and made a scythe somehow. There was no logic to it; none of the knowledge and science that made the scythe in its memories special.
"Hello? Grimm person?" Ruby stared at the Reaper.
"Oh! Sorry," the Reaper responded. "I was just, uh—"
"—distracted?" Ruby asked. "Yeah, I, uh…like to look at Crescent Rose, too. Well, I did…once."
Ruby instantly gave herself sad thoughts of her missing scythe; a sensation that the Reaper noticed.
"Are you okay?" the Reaper asked.
"Oh! Yeah. This just feels—"
"—awkward?"
"Really awkward," Ruby finished.
Both "roses" sighed at the same time. The tension didn't just evaporate over one day of walking. After a minute of awkward silence, Ruby clutched her arm and grunted in pain.
"It still hurts," the Reaper said with concern.
"Yeah. My Aura should have regenerated by now," Ruby answered. "It's been hours."
She pulled the Scroll from her pocket to see how much Aura she had left on her personal gauge; it read 82%. Her eyes widened in confusion.
"Wait, what's going on?" Ruby quivered. "W-why does my Scroll say I have Aura? My wound should have healed by now! Is this thing broken?"
After a few seconds, something clicked in the Reaper's mind. It was just like the moment when its claws dug into that weird sadistic man's skull. The Reaper wished it brought the subject up sooner, but the pieces just now came together.
"Maybe I'm just tired from all the walking," Ruby assured herself.
"Well, actually, uh, now that you mention it," the Reaper said hesitantly. "Therrrrre…might be another reason why your arm didn't get better."
"What other reason?" Ruby asked with dread in her voice.
"Funny that it didn't come up until now, but, uh," the Reaper paused mid-sentence.
"But…uh," Ruby signaled the Reaper to finish.
"Turns out…Aura doesn't work against me," the Reaper squinted and rolled its eyes in embarrassment.
A long pause of silence came between the two that lasted seconds, but felt like an eternity.
"Huh?" Ruby muttered in disbelief.
"Aura doesn't stop my attacks…at all," the Reaper hunched slightly out of guilt. "So if I'm in a fight with somebody that relies on Aura to protect themselves, I can hurt them anyway. And apparently…that applies to the scythe I made, too."
Ruby blinked twice, in disbelief of what she just heard.
"But…every living thing depends on Aura," Ruby reiterated with astonishment. "Everything with a soul has Aura. Every Huntsman from every Academy was trained to harness Aura! It's like the magical power that makes our shields and our Semblances work!"
"Yeah," the Reaper muttered and turned its gaze. "I know."
"So you could kill anybody," Ruby said with a chilling tone. "No matter how strong someone is, all it would take is one mistake and you could cut them in half, or rip their arms off, or crush their skull with your foot! And then you could just move on to the next person!"
"I could never do something like that," the Reaper muttered weakly.
"But you could," Ruby stated matter-of-factly. "I saw how you fought those Grimm. You might look like me, but you fight like a m…like a scary, uh…"
"Monster," the Reaper said in a sad tone. "That's what the Creatures of Grimm are. We're the monsters that the Huntsmen dedicate their lives to protecting the world against. I can feel it in your heart; you're still scared of me."
Ruby paused, unsure of how to answer. The Reaper looked down at its scythe and gripped it tightly.
"I don't care," the Reaper said defiantly. "Monster or not…I don't care what anyone calls me. I know what I want to be; what I've always wanted to be."
"I am scared, but not just because of you," Ruby clarified. "Salem doesn't care if you're standing against her or not. She'll kill anybody, and that scares me most of all. If she can make a Grimm like you, then you might not be the only one. There might be mo—"
"No," the Reaper interrupted suddenly. "I mean, I don't think there are. I can't prove anything, but if those other Grimm we fought today were like me, I wouldn't have torn through them so easily," the Reaper looked at Ruby. "And they would've just turned to stone and broke free of your Silver Eyes like I did, instead of just dissolving away into nothing."
"So you're tougher than other Grimm, but I did face another one just like that," Ruby pointed out. "It was a Leviathan."
"Yeah, I know. It was nothing like me. Just 'angry monster grrr.'"
"It was 'angry monster grrr'," Ruby admitted. "And much bigger than you, too."
Both "roses" let out a single laugh at the same time. For that brief second, there was an awkward tranquility between the two. After that, it was just awkward again. They went from comfortable to self-conscious just like that.
"Uh, Grimm person…that looks like me?" Ruby asked. "If we're gonna stick together, we're gonna have to have more than just awkward small talk, you know? Break out of our shell?"
"You mean—" the Reaper started.
"The really—" Ruby continued.
"Uncomfortable—" the Reaper continued.
"Terrible—" Ruby continued.
"'Getting-to-know-you' stuff," both "roses" dreadfully said in unison.
They both moaned in disgust; both had less than comfortable memories of introducing themselves to strangers, and both were reluctant to even begin a subject. Their gazes shifted around randomly in a pitiful attempt to avoid conversation. After about ten seconds of silence, Ruby noticed something in the Reaper's claw that would be much easier to talk about and pointed at it.
"That scythe," Ruby said with more enthusiasm. "I'm more interested in that. Let's start with that."
The Reaper looked down at the sentient weapon with both a great unease and more genuine interest than anything else that was brought up tonight.
"Yeah," the Reaper responded with the same enthusiasm. "It's a flesh-burning Aura-circumventing scythe…with an eyeball attached to it!"
"Huh?" Ruby looked confused.
"It's also a Grimm," the Reaper said, smiling, only to frown immediately afterwards. "That sounded better in my head."
"Yeah, you'll wanna work on that description a bit," Ruby agreed. "But it's shaped almost like Crescent Rose! Hey, what other tricks can it do? How much does it weigh? Is it also a gun? Are the bullets it fires also Grimm?"
"I…don't know," the Reaper answered. "I haven't really had a chance to find out."
Ruby pouted at the anticlimactic response, and the Reaper took a moment to observe this new weapon closely. It didn't appear to have any trigger or muzzle attached to it.
"Well, I don't think it's a gun," the Reaper guessed. "It doesn't feel very heavy for me, but I need a scale to tell how much it weighs. The only thing that's really different about it are the Aura-circumventing ability and the eyeball."
"Okay, so what does the eyeball do?" Ruby asked, and then squinted. "Aside from burning my arm with its tears."
"I don't know," the Reaper answered and held its scythe in the air. "I mean, I just slapped Grimm parts together, thought about a scythe, and somehow that's what I ended up with. It's nothing like the way Huntresses make their weapons. They put time and effort in their weapons. I didn't; it just came out like this."
"And it has your power in it, too," Ruby added. "I saw how it turned red when you assembled it. But maybe it only seemed easy because the arms you made that scythe with were also like scythes?"
"You mean, different Grimm are like different parts?" the Reaper said with great interest.
"Maybe it's customizable like my Crescent Rose?" Ruby said with excitement. "Oohhh! Maybe you could make it spit venom like from a Dromedon, or put tentacles to drag opponents toward you like a Seer, or put wings on it like a Nevermore!"
"Why would I want a scythe to have wings?" the Reaper asked.
"I, uh, I don't know," Ruby said. "I guess I got carried away. I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. Hey, if you can make weapons out of Grimm by thinking of them, maybe you can change their shape, too?"
"Huh. Maybe," the Reaper said, intrigued.
It grabbed the long hilt with both claws and bent it into a U-shape, then grabbed the top of the blade and curled it into the hilt like a coil. It held out the result and showed Ruby, who appeared…less than impressed.
"It looks like…like, uh," Ruby said.
"A paper clip," the Reaper said, completely deadpan. "It's mostly for putting it away."
Out of muscle memory of Crescent Rose, the Reaper attempted to attach the folded weapon on the back of its waist, only for it to fall to the ground the instant it let go. Ruby covered her mouth and withheld a chuckle. The Reaper picked up its weapon and noticed the bulging eyeball on it, which blinked and looked back.
"The eye," the Reaper glared at it with anger. "It's sentient. I know that much. Probably what was left over from the Grimm I tore apart."
"Even though that eyeball is clearly as big as your entire face?" Ruby pointed out.
"Oh yeah," the Reaper agreed. "That doesn't make sense. Huh. But I know it fears me. I can feel it. It won't hurt anyone I don't want it to, as long as I'm holding it."
Ruby grabbed her burnt arm instinctively when she heard that, which the Reaper noticed.
"That was a mistake," the Reaper assured. "I didn't know how dangerous it is to anyone else. It won't happen again."
"I guess your scythe is still really cool," Ruby said, half-heartedly. "And dangerous; really dangerous."
"Maybe I should just destroy it," the Reaper said. "It would be safer for everybody."
It positioned its thumb claws over the scythe's eyeball to do just that, but hesitated at the last moment. Its eye silently gazed upon its wielder, which stared back for a few seconds.
"This feels wrong," the Reaper explained. "I don't know how to explain it, but this feels like I'm gonna tear my own arm off. I don't think I can destroy it."
"You mean…your weapon is a part of you?" Ruby asked.
"I…" the Reaper hesitated to answer. "I guess it is."
"I get it," Ruby responded. "Crescent Rose and I are one and the same. I miss it so much."
Ruby suddenly yawned and stretch her arms up, only to recoil her burnt arm in pain. She walked slowly toward the cave in a slump.
"I guess all this talk about weapons made me tired," Ruby said with half-opened eyes. "We better get some sleep in our nice cozy cave."
"I…" the Reaper hesitated again. "I'll stay out here and keep watch. I'm not tired and the cold doesn't bother me."
"You sure?" Ruby asked with concern.
"If any more Grimm are drawn to me, I don't want them to kill you in your sleep," the Reaper explained.
"Oh," Ruby sounded disappointed. "Right. That makes sense. But if you do get tired, we can trade places. You don't have to do all the work, okay?
The two "roses" looked at each other one last time and nodded before the Reaper walked on the plateau that oversaw so many trees. When Ruby left its field of view, it looked upon its scythe one more time.
"Am I one and the same with this scythe?" the Reaper shook her head in disgust. "I shouldn't be. It's Grimm. It's dangerous. I shouldn't just embrace it like this, even if it is part of me."