Her world had turned black, the only colour in the abyss being that of the burning red eyes that stared at her hungrily. They were everywhere, she turned they were behind her, above her, flanking her, everywhere.
'Rip, tear, rend, flay, feast…' the chant continued repeating the same words again and again, each set of eyes joining the ever-growing chorus. Then it stopped and they appeared.
It was short with red and black hair and the same burning eyes as before. It had pale skin it… it was her. Only this version of her had a black rose with white thorns coiled around her arm, the thorns moving carefully as to not harm the girl before her. All she could do was gawk as she saw her mirror image stroll up to her, an angry fire burning in her eyes. She spoke.
"Rip, tear, rend, flay… FEAST!" The copy suddenly threw out her arm, serrated vines flying towards her and wrapping around her limbs, immobilising her and cutting into her flesh as she struggled against the restraints. The other her repeated the chant again and again drawing closer and closer. Every word was said with more vigour than the last before eventually becoming hungry snarls as she drew face to face with her.
"Plea…" her pleading was silenced by a vine coiling around her throat causing her to splutter and fight for breath. Her eyes were blurry from the coughing fit and she rapidly blinked to clear them, that's when she saw it… them.
There just a few dozen feet from her helpless form was a sea of moving shadows that snarled and roared as she was raised high by the vines. There were, what seemed like animals but each one twisted in some unholy manner. Bears with armoured bone plating, wolves that stood on their hind legs, snakes with two heads, and ravens with six eyes. The list went on, each animal just as deformed as the last. She was slowly lowered back down to her copy's level and the cacophony stopped, even the doppelganger silent as she closed the remaining distance.
Suddenly she leaned in and kissed her forcefully and slowly dissipated as she did so. A moment passed and she was gone, and Ruby was released from the vine's grip, gently being placed on her feet. One branch coiled in on itself and its thorns angled themselves skyward. Another branch grasped it and placed the circlet on Ruby's unsuspecting head. Behind her she heard a familiar voice. She turned to see the white cloaked figure from before, silver eyes burning gently as it beheld Ruby and the wave of beasts behind her.
"Long live the queen!" The figure shouted and promptly knelt before her. The cry was mimicked by the beasts behind her, each with varying tone an intensity. Each lowered their head or bowed in anyway their forms would allow.
"Long live the queen!"
Nora's breath was ragged, her skin had been sliced repeatedly from the talon like thorns on Ruby's vines. She had managed to avoid any lasting damage but dodging constantly was tiring her out. Not to mention she wasn't allowed to give the fight her all or risk killing the girl…
That had been her thought process a few minutes ago, now she was struggling to remain awake, something in Ruby had changed; she had started just sloppily swinging and flailing out at her, but now each strike goaded Nora into another. With the mental change had come a physical one. A black rose with white thorns had sprung from her shadow, coiling itself around her forearm. Each time Nora had failed to avoid getting hit by a vine a smoky black wisp had come from the wound and snagged on the thorns. The thorns would return to the rose and seemingly the rose would consume it. Nothing had come from the exchange but as the fight continued and she struggled to maintain a positive outlook she realised that the wisps had grown larger and more frequent.
She couldn't win this fight whilst holding back, but could she avoid killing Ruby? She didn't know, but she wasn't going to last much longer if she kept at her current pace. A vine snapped around her left foot and pulled hard enough to force her to fall onto her back. Like crazed animals the other vines piled on top of her, pinning her limbs and slashing at her skin as they constricted her form. She cried in pain, and she could feel her tattoo roar at her for holding back. She breathed deeply. Fine. Nora let go, her light blue eyes shifting red.
A bright blue flash flooded out from the mass of writhing vines that swarmed the older girl. Each vine was consumed and destroyed as the overwhelming energy rapidly expanded out from the prone form of Nora. Her tattoo had grown, now along her arms and legs were white and black stripes, electricity dancing between her fingers. She rose, slowly approaching Ruby, watching as the vines were swallowed by the blue electrical shield, disintegrating on contact. Nora lifted her hand, a bolt of lightning striking the floor beside Ruby causing the girl to fall over backwards. The vines surged forward with renewed vigour but were shredded just as the others had been. The possessed girl screamed on the floor, a mantra escaping her tongue even through the pained wailing.
"Rip, tear, rend, flay, FEAST!" Her shadow seemed to darken and expand, eventually engulfing the whole ring in which they stood. She raised a hand towards the rose and from it came a concentrated ball of the black wispy substance from before. Nora decided it best not find out what she was doing.
Lightning shot from the same outstretched hand, vines rose to meet it this time, forming a wall between the energy and the intended target. Nora pushed more energy into the attack, but even as she did so she could see the wall reforming its writhing mass quicker than she could vaporise it. Her inner Grimm screamed that they had to kill this girl now, that she was too dangerous to let live. She struggled against the beast, causing her to falter for just a moment.
It was all Ruby had needed. Suddenly the wall of vines surged forward and enveloped the older girl. She reached within, preparing to create another shield as she had before. The vines never gave her a chance instead throwing her against the wall before she could destroy them. The concrete spider-webbed from the force of the impact. She screamed in pain as once again the black wisps appeared and were swatted from the air before passing over to Ruby's outstretched hand.
She watched as Ruby looked down at the wispy substance before disappearing. Nora blinked. Where did she go? Suddenly the girl appeared next to her, the wispy substance coalescing in her hand before finalising itself in the shape that resembled a choker or collar with a black rose in the centre, white thorns lining the outside. Nora moved to protest, but a vine quickly took the item from the small girl's hands and forced it around her neck. She tried to force it off but every time one of the sides broke from her attempts it would simply reform not a second later.
Suddenly, she stopped. Her Grimm was unusually quiet. The whole time since walking into the room it had been running rampant attempting to make her attack the younger girl, but now as she looked into her mind to see what it was doing, she couldn't believe the sight she beheld. There, prostrated with a collar identical to her own, was the tiger she had wrestled with for years, and there stroking it as if it were no more than a house cat was Ruby. She shook herself out of her thoughts in disbelief looking up to see that Ruby had passed out, vines retracting back into her shadow, though the rose remained.
She could hear shouting in the background, likely the others hearing the fight was over, due to the quite that had replaced the rumbling from before. She reached for them, but her strength failed, sight fading as she watched five blurry figures run towards them. They were calling to her, but she couldn't make anything out, as if her ears were full of water, all she could hear was muffled sounds and a high-pitched ringing as the void enveloped her.
Bart was sat at his desk deep in the halls of Beacon Hunter's Academy. He was, he liked to think, a very organised professor. It helped that he enjoyed his work, he enjoyed learning about history, and he enjoyed teaching it. His semblance made the pursuit of knowledge even more interesting for the eccentric man, allowing him to touch an object and view history from its perspective. For a long time as a child he had considered becoming a private investigator. After all he could make even the most meticulous criminals easy pickings as he could watch them commit the crime after they had done it, there could be no more solid evidence.
However, his connections to some of said criminals made him hesitant to do so, accidentally uncovering one of his family's actions would cause some convoluted complications he had decided he didn't want to deal with. He was called on by Junior and co every so often to dig up some dirt on other criminals or rival establishments. This made running other people out of business or making sure the peace was maintained a lot easier.
His passion for history had been found when one day in his school years; he had managed to dig up something that had dated back to the first king of Vale. It hadn't been a significant object, a pair of men's leather gloves, but it had allowed him to see what life had been like eight hundred years ago. The sight of the countryside and the story of the people who had owned the gloves had intrigued him for hours, stuck re-watching the scenes over and over again in dumbstruck awe. He had thrown himself into his studies, acing all his subjects in order to earn the privilege of attending Beacon Academy on a full sponsorship. He had to train to be a huntsman at the academy, but he was keen to do so, the training allowed him to access ruins that normal civilians would be unable to go into due to the danger of what may lay inside.
Glynda Goodwitch, his boss and deputy-headmistress, seemed to disagree. The woman was crazy. Tidiness, discipline, grace, strictness… the list went on, all these things she expected from the staff and she was constantly on his back because he wasn't many of them. His office was a mess, an organised one he would argue, but a mess none the less. Of course, she didn't understand the work it took to clean it up that others had to go through, her semblance being telekinesis allowed her to simply wave her hand and the room would look exactly how she wanted it to. It didn't help that he was one of only two history professors when most other subjects had at least five and history was far from the least popular subject, thus he had to teach almost every class himself due to the other history professor being the headmaster, who was often 'too busy' and had to give Bart the class so he could 'attend a meeting'. Meeting indeed. Bart knew it was bullshit, for all her pomp and strictness, Glynda could not hide her flustered state when exiting the headmaster's office well, and it was common knowledge that the two were having some very 'interesting' meetings. One of these days a child would walk out of those 'meetings', then at least maybe they would stop that pointless charade and get some work done.
So, it was with barely restrained anger that he massaged his temples as the blonde woman paced in front of him, lecturing him on his slackness in recent weeks. In truth, over the last week, he had been tirelessly searching for any and all information around the Branwen family and people with Grimm marks in history and the extent of their abilities. The information had been hard to find and half of what he had found was subject to suspicion due to having unnamed sources. He had been nose deep in researching Qrow Branwen and Summer Rose, when Glynda had unceremoniously wandered in. He had quickly switched to a different, more legal, web-page, unfortunately the page he changed to, had been game page and here she was now lecturing him on his apparent lack of dedication to his job.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. He looked up to see Glynda turn away from him as she began pacing in the opposite direction and decided to check the notification. His eyebrows rose suspiciously, it was from Hei. That was odd, the club shouldn't be open this early in the day, what could they need him for? He sent a reply asking for the reason as to why they needed him. He took a sip of his coffee, the brew was possibly one of three friends he had at this establishment, making every gruelling day more bearable. He couldn't say that he could really taste anything when he drank it, but the energy it supplied was the important bit and he drank it by the gallon.
Another silent buzz emanated from his phone causing it to wander slightly across his desk. He looked up to see Glynda admiring something out the window and decided to take the opportunity to read the message. Glynda spun round at the sound of him spitting his coffee back up all over his computer screen and nearby paperwork. The blonde blinked at him as he paid her no mind, simply gawking in disbelief at his phone.
"Professor Oobleck, what on earth…" he suddenly shot out of his chair and practically ran over to the coat hanger in the corner of his office and pulled on a thick brown duffel coat. He then proceeded to walk out of the office, pushing Glynda, who protested the whole way, along with him. He turned to lock the door behind him and took off down the corridor shouting over his shoulder.
"I am terribly sorry for interrupting your Riveting speech" he let his sarcasm be heard, Beacon couldn't run without him, not to mention he could threaten to reveal the 'secret' relationship between his bosses, so he didn't bother acting proper at that moment. "But I am afraid my uh… daughter is going into labour, must dash off, I can't miss the big moment and all that." Glynda looked unconvinced and suspicious.
"You're only thirty! Any daughter you have could only be…" he cut her off shouting over a sea of students moving between lessons.
"I know, but you know how kids are these days, anyway bye." He saluted in the distance before taking off in a full sprint towards the car park at the front of the Academy. Glynda was left blinking, dumbfounded, as he disappeared. What just happened?
Junior had been absently drumming his fingers across the counter of the kitchen table when he heard the front door burst open. He sighed, Bart wasn't the most subtle man, but he could at least not cause property damage. He didn't bother to get up to meet him, hearing his hurried footsteps around the corner into the kitchen. He was out of breath and the brief case he had brought with him was only remaining closed by one latch.
"Hei, what happened?" The words escaped between ragged breaths and the fumbling of him shaking off his coat. Junior took the opportunity to stand and turn to face him. On the outside he appeared calm in the face of the storm that he faced, but Bart could tell by the dim fire in his grey eyes that he was barley restraining his panic. The message had been brief, not clearing up much as to what happened; simply saying that Ruby had destroyed half of the gym and now both her and the girl Roman brought were unconscious.
"I was hoping you would help us figure that out." The words were stern and held a small amount of authority. Junior didn't like ordering people outside of business hours and they all knew it, the fact that he wasn't restraining himself now proved just how badly he wanted to know. Bart nodded, undoing the second latch on his briefcase and flipping open a laptop that lay inside on top of a stack of paper and a few chocolate bars of varying brand. The laptop hummed to life, the screen turning a light blue and adopting a loading symbol in the centre. Bart turned back to Junior as his home screen displayed itself, a picture of a cat hanging from a rope with the caption 'Hang in there'. Junior raised his eyebrows at the image, but Bart ignored him.
"Where are they?" Junior nodded to the bedroom, the door to which lay ajar so he could see into the room. Inside Bart could make out the forms of Ruby and a ginger girl in her early twenties. Asleep beside Ruby in a chair with her head on the side of the bed beside Ruby's legs was Miltia. "So, what happened?" the question was vague, but Junior knew what he was referring to.
"Nora here turned up when the girls were in the middle of a training session with Jax. She took it upon herself to fight him, it was supposedly even until Roman interrupted. He brought up Nora's past and it bummed her out a bit, this caused Ruby and Ilia to run up to her and try and comfort her. One moment they're having a heart to heart, the next, Ruby is trying to kill her." They walked into the room and looked over to Nora for lasting injuries. Most had healed a few fading cuts all that remained after Joy had helped, but no matter what they tried they couldn't get the black choker off Nora. Bart wandered over and reached out to touch the rose on the front of the choker. It pulled away from his touch and white thorn speared his finger drawing blood. He gave a slight yelp but peered closer.
"What is this? I-it can't be, it's impossible." Bart was stammering as the Rose returned to its original position on the glorified collar. The colour, the way it moved and the feeling it emitted it was… a Grimm. "Hei, do you know what this is?" he restrained his revelation barely in respect for the sleeping. Junior simply met his gaze before slowly nodding. Bart's mouth remained open like a gaping fish, but he quickly turned back to the collar. "I have to be sure." He quickly snapped his hand towards the accessory activating his semblance as he did so.
Hatred, pain, concern, blood-lust and worry given form. Torn from the wearer, moulded by the queen. It had tamed the wilful, shown it who was stronger. Subjugate, bend, break… protect.
An image of Ruby kneading the collar out of a shadowy substance that whirled around her hands formed in his head. She had been scared, but angry, the collar could tell, though it could not tell why. The earliest memory he could pull from the collar was of a serrated vine slashing at Nora, leaving a deep cut in its wake.
Bart was pulled from his visions as the collar once again slashed at the fingers, he was holding it with. He pulled back wincing and hissing as he put his bleeding digits in his mouth. What had happened? The Collar had existed for barely a few seconds before it had been put on Nora and even from the very first moment it was made it knew its purpose as if directed by something else. He pondered deeply and his eyes wondered over to the smaller girl that lay beside her. One of her arms was above the duvet and wrapped by a black rose that curled carefully around her forearm, as if careful not to harm her. His hand hadn't even gotten within a metre of the Rose before it swiped at it in the air, he had managed to pull back, but he could get no closer. This was more complex then. Perhaps he would have to wait until Ruby was awake. Still this was unheard of.
"Hei, I have never heard of anything like this. Bonding with a Grimm by ingesting its blood is one thing, but creating another, it shouldn't be possible, isn't possible as far as scientists are concerned." Junior levelled a gaze at the eccentric man simply sighing and rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Would you believe me if I said, that by this point it hardly surprises me?" Bart ignored him and stroked the tufts of hair on his chin, deep in thought. His pondering was interrupted by the dull thud of shoes hitting the carpeted floor. Bart and Junior looked up to see Roman seemingly emerge from nowhere. Bart tensed a little, unsure as to how much he wanted the man to know about the situation. It was likely however, that he already knew what they did. Roman tipped his hat to the pair of them a lit cigar hanging loosely from the edge of his mouth.
"Good evening my friends." He gestured to the two girls on the bed. "I must apologise, I wasn't aware little red here would react like that." He let out a small chuckle and tapped his cigar, causing ash to pool on the carpet. "And what a reaction it was too, I mean really, the kid's a monster. Forget Apep do you know how much we could make selling something like that." He pointed to the sleeping girl. Junior's brow furrowed as he looked at the man. Roman got the message quickly and put his hands up in mock surrender. "Hey, don't bite my head off for stating the truth, countries would pay millions maybe even billions for something like that, and she's only a kid!"
"She stays." The words were little more than a low grumble, but the warning practically dripped off the comment. "The Girl's been through too much, I can't put her through more. We knew the risks and we decided to take 'em". Junior would sooner shoot his own foot than entrust something like Ruby's power fall into the hands of people like Roman. For all intents and purposes Roman was useful. He was smart, he had good leads on info and was the man to go to for organising turf war, but his faith was worth the amount you paid for it, not a penny more, not a penny less. Junior didn't like involving him with something as dangerous as this, especially when he had yet to ask for anything in return, but he needed Nora to help Ruby and currently Nora's payroll came out of Roman's pocket. Changing that fact would take time and a need to build trust, so, for now at least, Roman had to remain involved. Roman shrugged noncommittally.
"Whatever ya' say boss, just thought I'd put my opinion on the table. After all, it isn't every day that deal this good is literally unconscious in front of you." He put his hat back on his head and began walking towards the far side wall. He stopped just in front of it raising a silver lighter to a new cigar as he snuffed out his old one beneath his shoe. "Oh, one last thing. Tell Jax to keep his hands off my property." He flicked the lighter closed as he uttered the veiled threat. His smile quickly returned as if nothing had happened, seamlessly sliding across his face. "Anyway, without further ado, I bid you goodnight." He seemed to disappear before their eyes as he resumed walking into the wall. There was a pregnant pause before Bart broke the silence.
"Bastard, you sure we can trust him? I know he's never crossed us before, but there's a first for everything ya' know." Junior simply nodded, he had no choice but to trust him, for now.
"Unless you can pull someone like Nora out of your ass right now, we have no choice. Hopefully she still wants to help Ruby after the whole thing. I couldn't blame if she didn't, I mean why did Ruby put a collar on her anyway?" Bart seemed to be deep in thought for a moment before replying.
"It's just a theory, with no research backing it up of course, but from what I can gather with my semblance, the collar was made with the intention of subjugating Nora and the Grimm blood she possessed. The collar was even fully aware of its purpose from the very moment it was made." Junior's eyes widened slightly at the suggestion. "Perhaps Ruby's inner Grimm wanted to assert its dominance over Nora's and vice versa, of course Nora had a lot more control over hers. To think that Ruby's won said battle despite the huge age difference speaks volumes of her potential. We can only learn more when they wake, I am afraid." Junior nodded silently again, it was true, they could theorise all they want, but at the end of the day the only way to know for sure would be to ask them. He gestured towards the door to the apartment.
"If you wanna' crash her you can, we have a spare apartment three doors down, 16B I think. It's nothing special but it's a place for you to sleep until they wake up." Bart hummed in agreement, tomorrow was a Saturday and so he wouldn't have to teach any classes, it also saved him having to deal with Glynda for another day. The thought made him recoil at the tongue lashing she would undoubtedly give him for earlier that day; stay here it was then. He made for the exit and quickly slumped into the bed he had been offered upon entering his temporary apartment. His eyes fought to a close at the warm embrace of the feather pillows, but even as the darkness of unconscious pulled him deep within, he couldn't shake the feeling he had missed something. His fatigue won out, forcing the issue to the back of his mind, he'd find out in the morning.