With most of the Apathy in and around the village killed, the Reaper expected the overall panic and negativity in the village to decrease. Instead, it was the opposite. The village was in more of a panic now than ever. It should have been obvious what was happening, but both it and Ruby were too occupied with the Apathy themselves to realize it.
The Apathy's presence masked most of the negativity with a perverse sense of calm that the Reaper could only sense upon close proximity to the village. With most of them dead, the calm faded and the terrible situation began to set in for those that were fortunate enough to survive. Ruined homes, broken families, and bloodshed; all were a result of the destruction that devastated Aisufurawa before the Rubies even arrived.
The Reaper explored the village slowly, taking care not to leave behind any flames from a quick movement, inadvertently or otherwise. Many of the survivors here rose from their Apathy-induced lethargy and were now forced to confront the tragedy that befell them. There was anger, fear, but most of all, sorrow; all of which came from such a senseless massacre. Just about any human or Faunus would either be afraid, sympathetic, or both for what happened here, but for the Reaper, this was brought to a greater level. It felt their negativity literally in its psyche.
The pain of losing a husband and child, of being homeless and destitute, of all hope lost; all of these were feelings that Ruby, and by extension, the Reaper should never be able to completely understand. And yet, these feelings were exposed to it freely. The Reaper need only have a glimpse to read their agony like a book. Amidst all of the suffering, there was one iota of positivity; a silver light that shined behind the dilapidated buildings nearby. When most of the villagers were on the verge of completely succumbing to despair, a meager few looked to the light.
Ruby's light, her silver eyes; they shined over and over, which meant that more and more Grimm fell by her gaze. Ironically, the Reaper's condition meant that it couldn't look toward the light for hope. When the average person could bask in it without harm, even looking at the light was like staring into the sun for the Reaper; its eyes squinted and it was forced to shield them with its claw.
Doing its best to ignore the discomfort, it approached the light. It couldn't rush to action without collateral damage, which made even walking around a building take up precious time. To make things worse, a lot of the sorrow around the Reaper turned to fear.
"Grimm!" a man yelled, though the Reaper was unsure exactly who or where it came from. Immediately, the villagers around the Reaper panicked while it looked around for any Grimm that Ruby may have missed. It found none; just a group of terrified survivors. It was about to walk over to somebody and ask where the Grimm were coming from…until it noticed the way that man stared at it. The Reaper itself was the Grimm the villagers were terrified of.
"Right," it said with its claw over its face. Given the reaction of the few survivors that witnessed it fight off the Apathy firsthand, it was little surprise that the rest would be equally as terrified. Doubly so in fact, since it was a human-shaped Grimm. Aside from its scythe and dress-like membrane over its body, it could easily be mistaken for some kind of "female Apathy" to the civilian eye.
"That thing's got a scythe!" he yelled and pointed at the Reaper. The other survivors reacted in a flood of panic; the screams made the rest of the spoken words inaudible.
"Okay, stay cool, Ruby…uh, Gruby," the Reaper muttered to itself. "Right, I'm Gruby now. I mean I was always Gruby. I just remember being Ruby and…wait, who am I talking to ag—"
The Reaper's "conversation" was interrupted by a Dust round to the head. A jolt of lightning permeated its skin. It didn't inflict any real damage, but the blow came suddenly and forced it to shield its face. Another lightning Dust round struck its arm; again, this did no damage. Its body was too resilient. The Reaper peeked from its claws to see a human pointing a rifle at it. A spark came from the muzzle followed by a third round; this time, to the forehead.
The impact forced the Reaper to take a step back, but it never took its eye off the shooter's weapon. It looked ordinary; no blade attachments or revolving chambers. The gun didn't have any features that were dramatic or exaggerated, which meant that it probably didn't belong to a Huntsman. It looked more like a civilian's weapon…no, a villager's weapon.
"Wait!" the Reaper yelled, its claws held out openly. "I'm not one of them! I'm—"
A fourth round struck it, this time in the back. The Reaper looked behind it to see another gun pointed at it. The cavalcade of fear and anger all around it made it hard to keep a clear head, but it noticed both shooters joining together with a third one.
"Please just hear me out!" it yelled, backing away from the attacking survivors. "I don't work for Sa—"
More shots were fired; one of them struck the Reaper's chest. As sturdy as its body was designed to be, the shock across its center mass made it flinch in pain briefly. Two more survivors, one male and one female, came from the direction it was backing into. When it turned to see them coming, one of them clubbed it across the jaw with a metal sledgehammer. The impact briefly knocked it off balance, but it steadied itself before it fell to the ground. Its ears ringed; the sound was more like a hammer striking a hot iron at a forge, rather than a shattered bone or a sickening thump.
"Kill it! Kill it!" one of the survivors nearby yelled. The Reaper glared at the sledgehammer-holding attacker with a silent anger. When he attempted to hit it again, it caught the wooden handle mid-swing and snapped it like a popsicle stick with a squeeze. The anger in his eyes briefly turned to fear, but the other attacker stabbed the Reaper with a knife…or at least tried to. The knife snapped when it collided on its chest and left only a single mark, and the collective negativity of every person in the remnants of this village constantly mended any injuries it sustained in seconds.
"Stop! I'm not here to—"
The Reaper's pleas were interrupted by the weight of the sledgehammer wielding man that climbed on top of it. It could still stand with such weight, but the attacking survivor clubbed the top of its skull with the blunt end of the snapped sledgehammer over and over again. The Reaper gritted its teeth; the sound and feeling of a hammer hitting its head like a nail caused it visible discomfort.
"Get out of my way!" one of the rifle wielding survivors yelled. They couldn't get a good shot at the Reaper with that man on top of it.
"Please," the Reaper said softly. "I'm not…like those monsters."
The Reaper closed its eyes and braced itself for more attacks. It kept its claws clenched inward, making sure not to cut someone by mistake.
"Don't give in. Don't give in. Don't give in," the Reaper muttered a mantra. "No sudden movements. No lashing out. No hate. Whatever you do, don't hate!"
An invisible struggle took place within the Reaper's heart like a sentient volcano that was trying to erupt. Every Grimm impulse and reflex wanted nothing more than to fight back and murder everyone around it, but its copied personality did everything it could to keep its destructive impulses in check. It couldn't hate these people. It couldn't let itself. Hate is what fuels the power of its destructive eyes. Someone could die if that happened. It couldn't let that happen. It had to pardon them, no matter what. It had to force itself to forgive.
"I said get out of my way!" they yelled, followed by a gunshot. The weight on the Reaper's shoulders slumped off…and fell to the ground. His body twitched with electricity and he coughed blood from his mouth. The Reaper turned around and looked at the wounded man in horror.
The other two survivors shot the Reaper at the same time; one at the face, the other at the chest.
"Stop! You hit him! He—" the Reaper yelled until the woman that stabbed it earlier resorted to grabbing it by the throat with both hands and strangling it. The Reaper looked in the face of its furious attacker; mucus and saliva oozed out of the orifices of her face. This woman was less like a person and more like a dog diagnosed with rabies. At such a close range, it could sense all of the hatred in her heart…but there was little other negativity outside of that hate. This was almost…inhuman. It hadn't noticed until now due to the constant attacks, but most of the other negative emotions it noticed earlier, like sadness and fear, had dissipated in favor of pure hatred.
"What's wrong with you?" the Reaper asked, unfazed by this woman's attempts to strangle it.
At first, it seemed like these people attacked out of fear for their own lives, but this sudden surge of hatred wasn't normal. It was irrational how much they wanted to kill it, even with the willingness to endanger their own. This woman was another example. She completely ignored the bleeding man lying next to her in an attempt to claw out the Reaper's eyes. It blinked and turned its face away out of reflex and finally grabbed her arms to restrain her. Unfortunately, its neglected to curl its claws as it did so, and they slit the flesh on her arm.
"Oh my god! I'm so sorry! I—" the Reaper had time to say before a gunshot struck the woman's back. Her electrocuted body fell into the Reaper's claws. It turned its anguished gaze toward those responsible for shooting this woman.
"Why did you do that? She was your—" the Reaper stopped when it noticed how another survivor entered the scene and violently assaulted one of the shooters with a chair. That man was then shot by one of the other two shooters, and then he was assaulted by a completely different person while he was down. Another man jumped into the fray armed with a sword and ran one of the shooters through, then another woman chopped that man's back with an axe. More and more people ran into the scene with bloodthirsty intent; they were killing each other.
"I…I don't get it!" the Reaper stared at the scene in horror. "What's happening to them?"
It was about to run deeper into town to look for some help for the woman in its arms. She was still breathing. It had to find someone that could help her…only to find the first step it took caused its leg to exude dark flames beneath its foot.
"Oh come on!" the Reaper complained about its predicament. It was still in a populated area and couldn't risk running, especially with someone in its arms, so it walked. It felt wrong just leaving all those people to fight among themselves, but anything it could try in that situation would, in all probability, have fatal consequences. When it reached a large water fountain in the center of the village, two more people ran toward the Reaper. It glanced down at the woman in its arms and tried to explain the situation.
"It wasn't me, I swear! I didn't—" was all the Reaper had time to say before the two attacked and it turned around to shield the woman with its own body. As usual, the axes weren't very effective weapons against its skin. Even after repeated strikes, they left only small marks that quickly healed from the inherent negativity in the area.
"Kill it!" one of them shouted. It couldn't see which of the two said that, but his voice sounded psychotic. Did he lose his mind too? It endured more blows to the back, clutching the woman in its arms…until it heard a familiar voice.
"Get back!" Ruby yelled. The Reaper turned around and saw a faint glint come from her eyes. In that split second, it knew what was coming and shielded its own body with the woman's before the silver light completely engulfed it. Its arms and claws were still exposed; it screamed from the excruciating pain and fell to the ground with the woman in its petrified arms. Oddly enough, the two men that were just attacking it also fell to the ground. Given the fact that the silver eyes didn't harm people, this made no sense.
"Oh my god!" Ruby gasped with her hands clasped over her mouth. "Gruby! I'm so sorry! I thought you were an Apathy! I didn't see your face!"
"Ruby," it said weakly. "The people…there's something wrong with them!"
"Your arms," Ruby said with remorse, gently holding the Reaper's petrified arms. "I..."
"They're killing...each other," the Reaper said, looking into Ruby's eyes with desperation. "So much...hate. Saw it...in their hearts. Like...they're possessed."
Ruby looked back at the two men on the ground, confused. The Reaper slouched on its back and used its petrified elbows to hoist itself up.
"Help them...please," it said. "I...I couldn't...do anything."