Chapter 18: Destiny
Cinder sat at her desk with a face mixed with dread, anxiety, and liquid fortification from the whiskey she just downed. This was the crossroads of everything she had worked for, and it all might just go up in smoke like a bad dream. She turned to one of her men, who stood at attention diligently, following their controlled breaths. At least she was finally able to train them right.
"Get everything ready and on the move within two hours. We storm Salem's Lair at 1900 sharp." She said as she got up.
"Yes mamn!" They yelled and rushed off.
This caused a complete cacophony as she could hear quite vividly all kinds of new activity. Vehicles being prepped. Guns and ammo being moved and loaded. Body armor being put on. Everything that she worked for was in motion. It didn't give her too much comfort.though as one of her lieutenants walked to her side.
"Mamn, if you permit me to ask…" Her lieutenant nervously asked.
"Permission granted." Cinder answered simply.
"If Salem is immortal, then what are all these weapons and dust rounds going to do to her?" The lieutenant asked.
"Who said anything about them being for her? Cause I didn't." Cinder answered, touching the door of the vehicle in front of her, and slowly opening the door.
"Then what are they for?" They asked.
"You could call them an insurance policy. And if need be, I'm coming to collect." Cinder answered, sitting down and closing the heavy armored door in front of her officer.
Meanwhile on Patch- Xiao Long Residence
Anything and everything that could be moved was against doors, windows, any point of theoretical entry. The events of the previous days, even if fresh in their minds, did not matter. Adrenaline was kicking in, and it was life or death. Once that was done, an eerie silence came over, to the point of deafening. Soon a low growl reverberated through the floorboards. Right when it stopped, every bit of furniture that held the door in was flung away like so much luggage, and the door following behind as so much a cloud of splinters. Soon a black mass stood in the doorway, obstructing any kind of light reaching inside.
As the massive canine beast came into view, everyone drew their weapons. The Grimm roared and rushed into the room at the speed of a hurricane, going right for Ruby and Neo. Pushing them out of the way, Yang got her gauntlets up to block a claw swipe that sent her crashing into the wall, making her cry out in pain.
"Yang!" Tai called out before glaring at the beast, rushing in with his hands clenched into tightly balled fists packed with pure parental rage.
Punching the Hound hard in the stomach, Taiyang then kicked it in the knee, hit it with a haymaker to the chest, an elbow to the chin, and then uppercutted it with all of his might. The force of the last blow threw the beast's head up as it staggered for a moment. Quickly recovering, it slashed at Taiyang with its claws, forcing the blonde Huntsman to dodge.
However, this was a distraction as it tried to snap at Tai with its powerful jaws. Grabbing the jaws and holding them apart, the blonde man smirked as he saw his one-eyed brother-in-law come up from behind to slash at the beast with Harbinger. Lifting Taiyang up by lifting its head, the Grimm whipped behind it and slammed the two men into each other, sending them flying. As the two professional Huntsmen landed in a heap on the ground, it turned its attention to Team RWBY and Neo.
Neo, holding up a new weaponized parasol, prepared for battle as best she could while Yang recovered and the rest of Team RWBY readied their own weapons. Howling, the canine monstrosity rushed in at them as Ruby launched herself at it with a shot from Crescent Rose, slicing with the blade of her scythe. Despite the slash hitting, it did little to damage the creature as it simply swiped with its claws and knocked Ruby back. Weiss caught her partner as Yang used a shot from Ember Celica to propel herself at the beast, punching the canine beast across the jaw.
The beast staggered back a bit, but snarled viciously and slashed at Yang with all its might in an attempt to cut her into pieces. However, Yang ducked under the slash and unleashed a barrage of punches into the Hound's gut as she fired round after round of Fire Dust into it with each blow. The explosive force of the rounds rocked the beast as it staggered back a bit. Not hurt, but definitely annoyed and enraged.
Pouncing at Yang, the monstrous canine attempted to take her down so that it could try to bite off her head. Pinning the blonde brawler down, it began snapping its jaws at her in an attempt to crush her skull, Yang barely able to move her head aside to avoid the vicious chompers attached to this beast. However, a barrage of Ice Dust peppered the creature's back, getting its attention off of Yang and making it snarl at the source. Weiss, her rapier tip stuck in the ground with a glowing Glyph beneath her feet, smirked as she shot a round right in the Hound's eye.
Reeling back a bit, the beast howled in pain from the hit to its eye. Rubbing at its eye with the back of its clawed hand, it glared at Weiss as what came out of its maw next surprised them. "Ow…" It snarled in mild annoyance.
This threw off everyone in the room as they couldn't believe what they had just heard. This Grimm… could talk? That was impossible! Grimm didn't have enough intelligence to speak!
Pouncing at Weiss, the canine monstrosity grabbed Weiss in its clawed hand before throwing her into the nearest wall like the diminutive heiress was nothing more than a softball. Hitting the wall with a sickening crack, Weiss cried out in pain as her impact cratered and damaged the wall behind her. Glaring at the creature before them, Team RWBY and Neo went on the offensive.
Blake hit the beast with a barrage of slashes from her blades before using a Shadow to dodge out of the way of a claw swipe, her duplicate getting cut through and disappearing upon impact. This distraction left it open to a slash to the back of the neck from Ruby, a stab to the knee from Neo, and a Fire Dust charged uppercut to the jaw from Yang. Tai then kicked its knee out from under it, grabbed it under the chin from behind, and piledrived it into the floor as Qrow stabbed at it with Harbinger in sword form.
As Ruby rushed in at the creature with her Semblance, she prepared to slash at this thing with Crescent Rose's blade in an attempt to finish this. However, the monstrosity in the guise of a canine quickly recovered and, with a dark glare in its eyes, it slashed at the shaft of Ruby's beloved scythe, cutting it into several pieces like a hot knife through butter as everyone looked on in shock. This left Ruby open to a claw swipe that smashed her into a wall, disorientating her.
"Ruby!" Blake called out in concern for her team leader and friend before glaring at the beast along with the others, including the recovering Weiss.
Using a Time Dilation Glyph on Blake, Weiss nodded for her faunus teammate to go. Rushing in under cover fire from Weiss and Yang, which peppered the Grimm with shots that only served to politely tell it to go fuck off, Blake made it in front of the Hound and began zipping around it, unleashing slash after slash in an attempt to quickly bring this thing down. However, the beast eventually just stuck out its arm as the cat-eared ninja girl ran past, clotheslining the dual wielding faunus and knocking her off her feet. Rolling out of the way of a stomp, everyone eyed the beast carefully as they heard something.
"Heh… heh heh… Ha ha ha ha…!" The beast chuckled in a sinisterly mocking tone.
Rushing in, Qrow slashed at the beast with Harbinger in War Scythe form, trying to bring it down. However, the Beast simply caught the shaft of the scythe before slashing at the surprised, one-eyed Huntsman to knock him back. Taiyang rushed in to support his brother-in-law only for a backhanded swipe from the creature to knock him back into a wall. Yang tried to launch herself at the beast only for it to grab her by the head and smash her down into the floor, smashing her repeatedly into the floor again and again as the back of her head hit the flooring beneath her.
Taiyang, quickly recovering, leapt at the Hound in an attempt to save his daughter. However, like it did with Yang, the monstrous canine grabbed Tai by the face. It then released Yang and ran towards Weiss, dragging the blonde Huntsman against the floor and through the floorboards as they went, breaking them up as they went. Using Taiyaing as a battering ram, the creature smashed into Weiss and crushed them both against the wall with enough force to send them through it and the next two walls behind it. Dropping them both to the ground as both of them had their Aura broken, the beast snarled in vicious delight at the sight of its next two victims: Blake and Qrow.
The two took off at the creature, Gambol Shroud and Harbinger at the ready. Slicing and hacking at it, they tried to weaken it as best they could. However, the beast rose up on its back legs and kicked Blake away, sending her tumbling across the floor and cracking the floorboards before she hit a wall with a sickening impact. As Qrow tried to slash at it while it was distracted, it simply caught him by the face and lifted him up, slowly tightening its grip and beginning to crush his head. It then reeled back a clawed fist and punched the one-eyed Huntsman so hard in the stomach that you could swear you saw its fist through his gut, making him cough up blood.
As Qrow barely stayed conscious from the force of the impact, the Hound threw him like a rag doll, sending him smashing through a wall as his Aura broke.
Walking over, the Grimm stomped its foot down on Yang's stomach, making her cry out in pain. Grinding its clawed foot down on the blonde brawler, it began to stomp on her repeatedly, each blow cracking the floorboards beneath Yang until her Aura broke and the pain made her pass out. Finally, the beast raised its foot for one last stomp aimed at Yang's chest, intending to finish her off. However, before it could, a battle yell was heard as Taiyang jumped onto its back, grabbing onto its neck and reeling it back.
"Don't you DARE lay another claw on my family, you son of a bitch!" The blonde Huntsman roared with fury as he used his grip on the beast to attempt to control it, making it smash its head repeatedly into the walls around it as it tried to shake him off.
However, with his Aura broken and exhaustion setting in, Tai knew he couldn't hold on forever. His prediction came true when the monstrous canine finally threw him off. Glaring down at him, the beast stomped its foot down on Tai's stomach, making him cough up blood. Thinking him beaten, the beast tried to walk away to finish off Yang only to hear something behind it. Turning to look behind it, it saw Taiyang back on his feet, glaring at it with hatred in his eyes.
"I'm not done with you yet, you bastard…!" He snarled out, spitting a glob of blood out of his mouth and onto the floor at its feet.
Walking back to him, the beast swiped at him as Taiyang ducked under it and unleashed a barrage of punches into its side. Though, unfortunately, the blows did little more than annoy it as it hit Tai with a backhand swipe that sent him skidding to the floor. Getting back up, the blonde Huntsman glared at it as he put his dukes back up.
"Is that all you got?! I could do this all day…!" He called out with a slightly cocky grin.
Annoyed, the beast walked up and kicked Taiyang back, sending him tumbling to the ground. However, the blonde man still refused to stay down as he just forced himself back to his feet.
"Like… I said… I.. can do this… all day…!" Taiyang panted out, that slightly cocky grin never leaving his face even as blood dripped down from a cut on his head and his bleeding lips.
Genuinely angered at this point, the Hound roared as it rushed at the blonde brawler, intending to finish this. Roaring back, Taiyang rushed in while putting the last of his strength behind one hit. Punching the beast in the jaw, he managed to knock one of its fangs out. Enraged as it slightly stumbled back, the beast roared and slashed at Tai's torso diagonally, cutting the man in half across his stomach as his body finally hit the ground for the last time.
Horrified, Ruby looked on in shock. "DAD, NO!" She cried out in horror.
The massive canine monstrosity then turned to look at the only two combatants left standing besides itself. The ones that it had been ordered to capture. Stalking towards the two girls, it had what seemed to be a victorious smirk on its face even as Neo rushed at it with her weapon in hand. However, the Hound simply swatted the ice cream colored girl away like a fly, sending her smashing into the wall, breaking her Aura, and knocking her out. Ruby rushed in with her Semblance to defend her friend, trying to do a high speed kick on it. However, it simply grabbed her by the leg, lifted her up, and slammed her repeatedly into the ground until her Aura broke, knocking her unconscious.
Later in an undisclosed location
Slowly but surely Neo felt some form of semblance of consciousness return. Soon however the slow feeling of life was devoured by a sudden wave of pain. Where was it? Everywhere and at once? Why? She didn't know. Letting out a groan, she finally opened her eyes after what felt like an eternity trying to open them. However what was before her only added to her questions. What lay before her was a single light, a somewhat bloody table… and Ruby chained up across from her, unconscious. With a gulp, Neo trembled, for now this place did not make her feel safe.