Warning: Some of the content in this chapter is unspeakably disturbing. I tried to use euphemisms to avoid an M Rating, but this is even worse than Chapter 19's standards. Reader discretion is advised.
Pietro's pharmacy was the one place that could stay warm, even in this weather. With its own generator installed in corner of its otherwise fractured walls, the severed power lines made little difference. The lights were blinking and the pharmacy itself was disheveled, but there was heat. With that said, the building wasn't big enough to fit everyone in the crater at once. Otherwise, it would've been obvious to just have everyone here without the need of makeshift fires and the like.
With Oscar now resting from that airship crash last night, the subject of Grimm Ruby's origins remained on its mind. Its thoughts went to that fateful moment when one became two: when a noble Huntress' sorrow and pain was made manifest into something no living person could have imagined. Meanwhile, Ruby, Jaune, Ren, and Yang gave the sleeping Oscar a solemn look. Weiss, Blake, Nora, and Maria spent the moment preparing places to sit; chairs, the disheveled couch, and even a large bean bag in the closet. As for what a wheelchair-bound scientist would be doing with a bean bag, that was anyone's guess.
"Well, here we are," Grimm Ruby said with its eyes closed and a solemn expression. It glanced at the rest of the group as they found their spots. "I guess now's a good time as any…the beginning. It was when Salem built me…the night Ruby was tortured."
The flashback of that moment formed in its mind through the original Ruby's memories. She was being dragged against her will as her limbs were wrapped by…something. She never actually realized what that something was, as her face was covered at the time. What it was certain of is that she was being dragged.
"I remember the things that Ruby went through that night," Grimm Ruby said. "I…er, she was helpless. She couldn't move her arms and legs, and she didn't have her weapon."
"Lay her here," a commanding voice said. This was followed by a sadistic giggle in the air. "And Tyrian? Not a single scratch on her. I have her alive for a reason."
The giggling stopped, replaced by a disappointed groan.
"As you wish."
"Is that…Ruby?" another familiar voice asked.
"Tyrian and Cinder were there, too," Grimm Ruby explained. "She didn't see them yet, but she could make out their voices."
"Back," the commanding voice said. "Have I made myself clear?"
"Your Grace," another voice said. "This girl. She's the one that—"
"If you're going to tell me that your desire to take revenge should eclipse my goals, then be silent."
And silence, there was. As cruel as her past adversaries were, Ruby had found that even they would abide by their master's command, even when she couldn't see them.
"She thought she was doomed. Whatever horrible fate Salem had planned for her, she thought she was never gonna see everyone again. Instead—"
With a quick swipe from a hand that was both gentle and malicious, whatever it was that covered Ruby's face was removed, and she took a deep breath in relief. She opened her eyes…and saw herself in a room unlike anything she'd ever seen before. The whole chamber felt like something from a dimly lit castle, with candles that lit flames similar to the dark flames from Grimm Ruby's claw, and ornate windows that stretched all across the room. It has a dark aesthetic with various shades of violets, purples, and reds; a bit like the inside of that Grimm whale, but much more majestic.
"—she saw…her."
The most striking thing in the room was, of course, the one standing face-to-face with her captor: a figure as imposing as any Grimm, with jet black sclera in her red eyes and skin colored a deathly pallor. As she assumed, Tyrian and Cinder stood in the background, though she discovered Emerald behind the latter. Judging from their distance, it was clear Salem didn't want them to interfere in any way.
Salem's demeanor was one of dissonant serenity; a far cry from the smug satisfaction that Cinder or Tyrian would display when they had the upper hand. Her face wasn't trying to brag. It was simply emphasizing the truth. That was it. The very first time Ruby came face-to-face with Salem, with no Seers or distances to shield her fears…and she was completely at her mercy.
"After what Oscar went through," Grimm Ruby said somberly, "Ruby already had an idea of what she might have had to endure. Maybe Salem wanted something from her. Maybe she wouldn't kill her until she got what she wanted. Either way, she kept her mouth shut. She didn't want to say anything, to show any weakness. She wanted to stand firm and hopeful."
"Defiant, aren't we?" Salem said with a bemused look. She carefully traced her cold finger over Ruby's face, stopping so close to her eye. "Your mother had that look in her eyes."
Her silver gaze remained locked on her captor's red. She thought of her family, her friends, and everything she loved. Every instinct in her mind told her to bathe her in light; to petrify her like any other Grimm. Salem gave her a raised eyebrow in turn. It was the kind of false pity that says "I've been three steps ahead of you this whole game." Without so much as an involuntary jolt, Salem calmly traced her thumbs just below Ruby's eyes…and dug her nails deep across her cheeks.
A sharp pain snapped through Ruby's face; enough to make her lose focus. The small scars left behind were reminiscent of the dark purple veins across her face. Salem kept one hand over Ruby's cheek; her thumb gently caressing her lower eyelid. Beneath her gentle motherly facade, the gesture was a clear warning. If Ruby so much as tried to use her silver eyes, Salem would just gouge them out. The situation was starting to sink in. She truly was helpless.
"And now…here you are, following in her footsteps. Poor misguided child. This won't be gentle for you."
Was Salem actually pitying her now? No. Of course not. It was the same demeanor she gave Ironwood; the gentle facade that masked a truly malevolent intent. Ruby resolved not to show anything; to grit her teeth and endure whatever hell Salem had in store for her.
"I'm really quite grateful to you," Salem said, folding one hand under her elbow and her index finger over her cheek. "When you first claimed the Relic of Knowledge from Haven Academy, I had no way of actually knowing if my dear Ozma told you how to use it. I had no way of knowing whether or not this would just be…one more secret to hoard. But then…you came to me. You looked at me, said the same words your mother said to me…oh, what were they again?"
Ruby's eyes squinted. She didn't understand where Salem was going with this.
"Ah. 'We've seen what you're capable of. The lamp…showed us.' Do you recall those words?"
With another pause between her words, Ruby's doubts were starting to grow. Where was she going with this?
"If you had known your place that night," Salem explained. "If you had simply let the general do all the talking, I would not be privy to such information. I would not have known that the one that could show me how to use the Relic was already in Atlas."
Ruby gasped out loud. She knew about the horror Oscar endured at Salem's hands, but the idea that his torture could have been connected to her defiance took the horror to a whole new level.
"Ozma's latest vessel…Oscar, was it?" Salem asked rhetorically. "He was not present during our little exchange. Not like the rest of the brave Huntsmen and Huntresses. Coupled with Ozma's growing influence, and it's little wonder how transparent his lies really were."
Salem's menacing smile came closer to Ruby's guilt-filled face.
"Always the smaller, more honest souls, isn't it? And Ozma wonders why I have little faith in them, for I did eventually get the answer I wanted…thanks to you."
Just like that, Ruby's silent courage fell to pieces. Just like in Ironwood's office last time, she couldn't keep the tears from running down her eyes. No matter how strong she tried to look, she had too many weaknesses; too many vulnerabilities. Salem knew just the right words to prick each of them with a venomous needle and watch them fester whenever she wished.
"In the end, it didn't really matter," Grimm Ruby said somberly. "All the brave speeches in the world wouldn't have made a difference. Salem saw right through her. She'd only had Ruby for thirty seconds at the most, and she already knew what buttons to press. She knew how to hurt her."
"I…I won't tell you…anything," Ruby said weakly.
"It's not your words I want from you," Salem said. "It's something far more precious."
"What are you…" Ruby began to ask, feeling tentacle-like Grimm slide slowly up her arms and legs.
"Wait," Ruby, in the present time, interjected. "I'm starting to remember. That was when she…"
Grimm Ruby stopped telling its tale, glancing over at its original self. Her arms quivered as she instinctively wrapped them around her chest. A single tear left her eye when little details of the nightmare she went through resurfaced in her mind. Weiss, who was sitting next to Ruby, was the first to offer comfort by leaning her head on the other's shoulder.
"Ruby?" Yang asked with concern.
"What's wrong?" Blake asked.
"I…" Ruby said. Flashbacks of that night slowly formed in her mind, like they were travesties long forgotten.
"Do you want me to stop?" Grimm Ruby asked. It caressed its closed claw over her still-quivering arm.
"I…"
"Ruby, I know everything she did to you," Grimm Ruby said, then glanced at its flaming claw. "Every. Horrible. Detail. Trust me. I can skip that part if you want."
"N-no," Ruby said, inhaling a sniffle through her nose. "It's fine. I-I know it's good to talk about these things."
"You sure? Nobody will think less of you," Grimm Ruby said nervously, partially hoping that Ruby would change her mind. "You don't have to put on a brave face just for us. I think it might be better if this is left unsaid."
Ruby looked around at all the worried faces of her friends, her teammates. A part of her wanted to stop; to pretend that everything was fine, but something felt wrong deep down. There was this underlying darkness that permeated her heart ever since the day her Grimm self saved her life. Speaking of which, when Grimm Ruby first met its original self, it asked her the last thing she remembered before she woke up. As it turned out, many of the details were either missing or just plain wrong.
When it realized that some of Ruby's memories were a bit distorted, possibly by trauma, it wondered why it could have remembered the events as they happened when she didn't. For one, the room she was dragged in certainly wasn't a black room. For another, her limbs were wrapped by Grimm tentacles, not wires. Also, she couldn't have had her face covered for hours. She would have suffocated. Lastly, the room she was dragged in possessed much more than Grimm.
"I'm sure," Ruby finally said with a sad smile. "Something…has been stuck with me for a while. It's been on the back of my mind for a while. Whatever it is, I don't think I can move forward until I get past this."
Her Grimm self solemnly nodded in understanding. In its haste to reveal the truth and avoid making Ozpin's mistake, it ended up making a different one by bringing up something that would be better left forgotten. Did she truly forget, or was it just too horrible for her to bring up herself? Did she just need someone else to say what she couldn't? Only one thing was certain. Ruby just wanted to face it now and get it over with; to get past it like all the other traumas in her life, so she could go back to smiling again. In other words, she was putting on a brave face.
"Okay," Grimm Ruby reluctantly agreed. "Salem had her bound. Not by ropes or wires, but by these tentacle Grimm. They're called 'Tartarus' because they don't actually kill their victims, unlike other Grimm. They torture them!"
Continuing Grimm Ruby's retelling of the events that made one into two, Salem's Tartarus slid not only across Ruby's head to torment her mind with painful memories, but across her arms and legs to burrow…beneath her clothes. What little courage she had left gave in to fear.
"W-wh…what are you doing to me?" Ruby asked in terror. Salem quietly closed the distance between her mouth and her captive's ear.
"Have you ever imagined a moment where every inch of your heart, your body, and your mind could be stripped from you so spectacularly?" she whispered as her Tartarus Grimm continued to slide across Ruby's bare chest. "Few could. Not even your mother could bear it, and by the time I'm through with you, neither will you."
With that, the Tartarus that slid across her legs dug itself deeper beneath her skirt, into the young Huntress' most guarded place on her body…and penetrated it. Ruby unleashed a scream so horrific and ear-piercing that all of the Grimm in Evernight could have been drawn to her at that one moment. Tears fell from her eyes as she struggled to free herself from the Tartarus that bound her limbs. The tentacles above her head sank needle-like teeth into Ruby's forehead, like probes that were meant to be wired into someone's mind.
"And that's exactly what Salem did," Grimm Ruby said, looking at Ruby with sad eyes. "She violated her body, her mind, her heart. In that one disgusting moment, she did make her wish she'd died. Every inch of her was invaded by Salem's will."
Once properly strapped on Ruby's head, the tips of both tentacles displayed vein-like patterns that correlated with her skull. All of the painful memories that she had experienced in her life, both real and perceived, forced themselves in her mind. Some horrible memories included watching Penny get ripped to pieces, being seconds too late to save Pyrrha, watching Yang's agony over her lost arm, and everything Tyrian did to her uncle, Qrow.
Another Tartarus positioned itself over Ruby's screaming face. With her jaw wide open, it snapped deep in her throat and wriggled around her insides. No matter how much she gagged, how much she cried, and how much she struggled, she couldn't free herself. She felt even more Tartarus dig in her ear canals, plus another through her rear. In short, every orifice of Ruby's body, save her eyes, which were necessary for Salem's ritual, and her nostrils, which would cease her breathing and kill her, thereby halting the ritual, were invaded by these disgusting tendrils.
"Yes…YES!" Tyrian exclaimed with such joyous excitement. "Show me, my goddess! Show me the way!"
Cinder, on the other hand, as cruel and callous as she was, glanced at her psychotically unhinged associate with thinly veiled disgust. Emerald was equally disturbed at this torture, covering her mouth with both hands to keep from vomiting.
"Your Grace," Cinder asked Salem. Her normally sadistic visage was unusually disgusted and appalled. "What kind of sick ritual is this?"
"In my many years walking Remnant," Salem explained, "I've found that mankind's greatest attribute is the ability to derive strength from hope. Hope…is an intangible force, one that cannot be snuffed out by means as mundane as bloodshed and oppression. History has proven, time and time again, that there are always those few misguided souls out to fight for a greater cause. And they are prepared to give their very lives to see it into fruition."
Ruby's whole body felt weak from her attempts to free herself. Her legs, in particular, were very numb, and her face was stained with both tears and mucus. Her body squirmed beyond her own control, and even her bodily functions were taken from her as the scent of her own urine filled her nose. The nearby pool where the Grimm are formed from started to bubble. Something horrific and great was coming.
"My dear Ozma has a way of turning such futility into a source of inspiration," Salem explained to Cinder while watching the vile ritual with a serene smile and a relaxed posture."Those born in the next generation recount these exploits of heroes and villains as legends. And as they mature, they, too, are inspired to repeat the same futility all over again. The death of Ruby Rose would accomplish nothing. She would be seen not as a victim of an inglorious fate, but as a martyr for those left behind to rally around."
Throughout the explanation, the young Fall Maiden recalled the fateful night when destiny took its form. It was when the young prodigy looked at her defiantly, even before the final moment that arrow pierced her heart…and when the young girl now tortured in front of her took her eye. Even now, these two are looked at as saviors: one memorialized in Argus, the other being Ozma's smaller soul.
"Yes, my queen," Cinder admitted begrudgingly, touching the mask with her Grimm hand. "I understand."
The pool bubbled more erratically, and Salem's entire castle shook. All save Salem herself wobbled with it, trying to keep their balance. Something was coming. Ruby's entire body now felt numb, and her muffled screams became more desperate. The same nightmares in her mind repeated themselves over and over again, yet the sensations felt so real.
"To truly destroy one's hope, you do not watch them die," Salem said, holding her hand out in front of her. "You must watch them…" She curled her hand into a fist, obscuring Ruby from her point of view as she closed it. "…submit."
With one final scream, Ruby's spine curled upward as her limbs and head were restrained downward. The glass windows in the room all shattered at once, and the bubbling pool erupted into a spiral of black ooze and dark flames.
"Eh! Ah! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Ruby clutched her head with both hands in the present time, screaming just as horrifically as she now recalled the nightmare she went through in its entirety.
"Ruby!" Yang reacted first, rushing to her sister's side.
"Are you alright?" Jaune asked, joining Yang.
"I…I…" Ruby muttered, curling down on the floor in a fetal position. The rest of her friends came to her side at that moment, cradling her.
"She remembers it now!" Grimm Ruby exclaimed, remaining still as the rest went to Ruby's side. "I knew it. I knew it was a bad idea! Ruby, I'm so sorry!"
"That's what Salem did?" Blake asked, glaring at Grimm Ruby. "She put her through all that to create you?"
"Yes!" Grimm Ruby exclaimed. Dark flames coursed through its entire body for a brief moment as the rest of the group looked on. "I know! It's sick! Defiling a young girl like that, all just to create…me!"
"I-I…I…" Ruby said, sobbing profusely, "I-I couldn't…stop her. She made me feel…so filthy! I couldn't stop! My body, my thoughts…every part of me gave in. And she took what she wanted!"
"And that's when my memories became separate from Ruby's!" Grimm Ruby seethed, both figuratively and literally. "I was born from an act so evil, so despicable, so degrading, that it makes me hate just thinking about it!"
Though all of her friends offered their comfort with their presence, it was Yang's lap that Ruby laid her head on, as she would often do when she was young. When Ruby was little, her sister would typically caress the locks around her ear to calm her and put her to sleep. Somehow, seeing Ruby suffer such a traumatic shock brought out that nurturing side of her.
"I rose from that pool," Grimm Ruby sat alone while the rest comforted Ruby, "and I opened my eyes for the first time."
As the chaos from the pool subsided, a single humanoid Grimm rose from the murky liquid. Its body was obsidian and dark, like all members of its ilk, yet the dark flames that engulfed its body indicated that this creature was so much more than any that had ever come before.
"It's…" Tyrian said softly, wiping a tear. "It's beautiful!"
Neither Cinder nor Emerald were as awestruck in comparison. The latter couldn't hold her vomit back any longer, to say the least. As for the former, the very Fall Maiden that delighted in tormenting and gloating over her inferior victims, she had to turn away. Even the prospect of watching the very girl she had a grudge against suffer such depravity wasn't enough to stop her from looking away with a shiver in her throat.
"Behold," Salem said with a gentle smile. "The fruit of my labor."
"This…is what you needed the girl for?" Cinder finally asked, questioning her master's intent. "Another experiment?"
"One I've spent centuries trying to perfect. If I know my Ozma, he always believed in the smaller, more honest souls. He believed in simplicity. For all the things I once found…admirable in him, he always lacked ambition. That…will prove to be his greatest downfall."
"That's when I looked at my reflection in the pool for the first time…and saw those red eyes," Grimm Ruby explained. "At first, I thought she turned me into a Grimm. Even though I felt something angry, something evil inside me, I thought…maybe I could be turned back."
"What could some cheap knockoff do to aid you?" Cinder asked, clearly losing faith in Salem's judgment.
"Are you questioning our divine savior?!" Tyrian snapped. Salem held her hand over him. Meanwhile, the newly made Grimm looked down at its reflection and its claws in confusion.
"Even a soul a pure as Ruby Rose can have hidden…impurities: the inner suffering that is kept carefully hidden underneath that endless optimism. These are all things that can be useful. I wanted her to live primarily so that I could draw her negativity out."
"Her negativity?" Cinder asked, growing increasingly disgusted. "You made that thing in her image! And now you want to use it? Am I going to have to see the face of the girl that did this," she pointed at her missing eye, "from now on?"
"You need not associate yourself with my newest experiment," Salem pointed out. "My plans for you require you two to work separately. However, I do see your point, Cinder. I used the girl's body and soul as a template. Grimm complexion aside, the resemblance is rather uncanny."
"I was more than 'uncanny,'" Grimm Ruby muttered. "I am her…in a way."
"And the moment Ozma learns that his smaller, more honest soul has been defiled, his hope will be snuffed out next. With but a single glare of my creation's eyes, I…will finally watch him burn."
The sentient Grimm's eyes widened as the truth was revealed to it. It wasn't really Ruby. It was a copy; a fake made for one specific purpose.
"But that's not what happened," Grimm Ruby explained. "No matter what Salem did to her body, her soul was the only part of her…no, of us, that couldn't be twisted."
"Now, my newest experiment," Salem greeted it for the first time, "you may be my greatest work, but yours has only just begun. Before I send you to find Ozma, you have one final test."
Grimm Ruby stood motionlessly. Its face was contorted with all manner of anger and hate.
"Burn this girl's soul," she commanded. "Let me see with my own eyes if your power can snuff out even the silver light your kind so reviles."
"The more I listened to their conversation, the more I had to accept what really happened to me. I was never really Ruby, and the life I remembered wasn't really mine. When I learned that, I gave Salem one word: the only one that felt right."
"No."
That one word was enough to alter everyone's spirits. For those that served Salem, it was a confused reaction on what was supposed to be Salem's final play. For Salem herself, it was the momentary inability to understand that her own creation could actually disobey her. She approached her new experiment with an inquisitive face, like a creator seeking to iron out any kinks before revealing their invention to the world.
"What did you say to me?"
It gave her no further words or movements, even as she came mere inches toward it. Only its hateful gaze toward her remained constant.
"Did you just defy me?"
"I didn't say anything else to her. Before I even knew why I was made, before I learned the little details behind Salem and the God of Darkness, and before I knew the full extent of this Grimm body, I had only two things on my mind."
Without warning, Salem's newest 'masterpiece' grabbed her by the throat, sinking its claws into her pale flesh. Her red eyes widened in surprise while the Grimm's red eyes remained still. Acting quickly, Salem channeled some of her magic through her hands, ready to discipline her newest creation. At such close quarters, the magic spread all over its body, causing it to growl in pain. Its grip over its creator's throat and its angry gaze remained unyielding, however, as it was such depravity against the source of its shared soul that endowed this masterpiece's body with such strength.
It lifted her off the floor with just one arm, slowly crushing her windpipe. The dark flames burned her skin for that moment, like how one would be burned at the stake for witchcraft. With a final bestial growl, a sickening snap came from its creator's throat, though her body didn't go limp. As always, Salem was cursed never to die, and she continued her struggle, even as her creation twisted her body back and sank its claws in her mouth. Its other claw seized the other end of her mouth, and it slowly pried her upper and lower jaw apart.
In that one instant, the magic coursing through her fingertips fizzled out, and her creation flung her rejuvenating body across the room, past the queen's subjects that watched the scene with terror and through the stone wall that led into the hallway behind it. A huge geyser of dark flames erupted from the pool as it slowly walked onto the hard floor for the first time; its hate for its creator was so strong that the flames singed the ceiling and caused the floor beneath it to crack with each step.
"And one of those things…was making that vile witch pay for what she did. I wanted her to die over and over again!"