Truthfully, it had never expected to be able to suppress the kin for long; they were strong, far stronger than it had expected the young mistress to find here. It should have been impossible for one such as this to exist within the city walls, and yet, here she stood, surgically retracting her arm from the now melting corpse of a youngling. Though it hadn't been blessed with a long life before the young mistress, it could not recall many other kin holding even a shred of the raw strength of the ginger girl before it.
That wasn't the only thing that was off-putting about the girl, who now slowly tore her way through the small pack of wolf younglings who barred her path. She was different. Similar, but different. It could sense the colourful spark at the girl's core, pulsing with life, energy and emotion, that all humans possessed, but it was different, muted, dulled, perhaps even restrained in some way. Not all humans had equal sparks; some were brighter, possessing more colours and energy than others, but none had been this distinctly… weak. Truly, it was a monster that stood before it, one it could not hope to combat.
However, it could not afford to falter here either; the young mistress still had much growing to do before she could utilise her power, and should the process be interrupted a far worse fate would befall the academy than a simple gaggle of younglings. This would be the first of many times the mistress would grow, her strength truly setting in at the end of the human adolescent years. It was unfortunate that the first would come at such an inopportune time as this and with such a formidable foe to intervene under an illusory pretence of helping the young mistress.
A pretender had caused the mistress' instincts to go out of control, her power reacting in far greater droves than she had yet learned to cope with; they had used its fowl, stolen imitation of power to set unease in her mind. It may not have affected her much, but it had riled up her Grimm parts, only to be further driven when the vile creature had wormed its way into those around the young mistress.
Perhaps this would prove beneficial in the long run, it had caught the imposter and was now aware of what type of enemy it would have to defend the mistress from. The young mistress herself would also likely take another step in controlling her strength from this outburst. Though, knowing this particular type of foe did not make them much easier to combat; their true strength lying in those around them and their ambiguity. After all, it was far easier to follow a blood trail than a series of tainted minds and misguided actions.
It shook itself; such thoughts were not the priority now, no, that honour belonged to the kin who had just now finished with the second scorpion which had attempted to beset her. The younglings were not particularly impressive, simply being the excess power that the mistress was failing to contain at the moment whilst her reserves learned to cope with its new depth, but for a single opponent to brush them aside so easily and not even showing any hint of effort, was intimidating.
It could feel the mistress' blood slowly return to its normal pressure through its symbiotic vines, good. With the younglings becoming less frequent, the danger of the wrong people noticing the mistress drastically plummeted, but it would not taper off entirely for a long while yet. It would, however, make holding off the kin far harder; the younglings may have been weak, but every swing intended for one of them was one less it would have to block or dodge itself. The kin should placate once the mistress had calmed herself, no doubt the kin's own temperament was being affected by the mistress' outburst.
A small flicker of colour did not escape its notice, as a human spark flittered between trees around the outskirts of the clearing. The mistress' adopted sibling was attempting to sneak up on them, likely to try and subdue them, afraid of the destruction the mistress could cause. If only she knew that she was hindering their chances. The girl was formidable for a human, and certainly even more so against humans themselves. Her ability allowing her to hide herself from sight, but it could not hide her emotion, and so she never disappeared truly from the detection of a Grimm. Though she herself could not likely harm it or the mistress, any distraction, from the already seemingly insurmountable kin before it, was of great danger.
Carefully, it pulled the mistress' body into a ready stance, all the while the thicket of vine and thorn grew around them. It could sense the Faunas girl back off slightly as it sent a few tendrils to watch its back and protect its blind spots. The mistress' body was in the peak physical condition of a human, trained endlessly over the course of her life, but it was no fool. It had watched the kin break bear younglings with her bare hands, any direct hit would likely spell the end for it. Without the mistress lending it her strength, even its vines would struggle to regenerate quickly enough after taking a hit.
The kin seemed to finally grow tired with the younglings that piled up before her; an unamused frown flashing across her face before being replaced by a dull blank stare. Eventually, even her disappointment faded, the kin's spark dimming as she approached. This is where the struggle really began.
The young Grimm were dwindling… distractions minimizing.
Her temporary teammate was in position… flanking angle achieved.
Her limbs seemed to be coping with additional strain… strength output at 45% and holding.
She watched as her opponent covered herself and her immediate surroundings in Grimm, white, bone-like thorns sprouting from the black tendrils.
Current force output compared to estimated tensile strength of substance… 97% success rate. Room for potential error, adjusting… strength output at 47% percent.
The sound of whining metal interrupted the dull cacophony of the remaining Grimm. She curled her fists to test the limits of her current output. The sound stopped after a moment.
Pressure stabilised… combat ready.
A faint, guttural growl emanated from the back of her mind, a complaint and a warning. The image of white-hot chains pinning her to the floor flashed before her, a moment of burning agony inside an inescapable cage and the sound of whimpering pups as they were dragged away just out of sight. The vision ended and for a moment Penny lost her bearings. Quickly the computer took over again.
Mental stability insufficient; affected from outside source. Source: Unknown.
Manual control released…survival package engaged. Current objective: subdue Ruby Rose.
Penny fell into the void again, an invisible wall barring her from affecting her body.
Begin.
Truly, he was beginning to think something in the greater cosmos was trying to make his life as hard as possible. Every time he believed he was going to have a moment to breathe, something forced its way to him. Every problem he solved seemed to create two more, or worse just come back even more impossible than the first-time round, it was like feeding a street cat only to have every other cat in the neighbourhood swarm to him expecting the same treatment.
It was just four days ago he had found himself looking forward to his near future; his nieces were going to Beacon, the club's business was booming, and the prince had finally decided to humour him. Things were finally looking up. Then his hopes had crashed and burned. His adoptive brother was hospitalised with a terminal injury, Ruby's outbursts were becoming more frequent and harder to hide and, to top it all off, he was now running into the woods surrounding Beacon; in an attempt to avoid what could become potential large-scale destruction.
Whilst he wasn't required to attend the introductory speech the headmaster delivered every year, he often found himself free at the time and figured he would scout out who he would be teaching. Technically, he would only officially teach half of the students that stood in the hall; the other half being assigned to the headmaster himself, but he knew well enough that his boss would be conveniently 'busy' regularly across the course of the year. Obviously, this particular year had his rapt attention, containing his nieces and a few notable others amongst its cohort.
He had been pleasantly surprised to see that none of his girls were put on a team with any boys. It wasn't that he didn't trust the girls, no; he knew they could be sensible when they needed to be, and from the test scores they could all put most the other students on their back with little difficulty. No, what had worried him was that team dorms were not gender discriminant. Each team was given a small apartment within the academy campus with two to four apartments on each floor of the residential area. The girls may have been sensible, but all it took was one spiked drink and things could go south very quickly. Not just for the girls either. Any bastard who dared make that mistake would be found cold and dead in the local park lake, and that was if the club found out first. If one of the other three girls found out… well… death was the least of their worries.
Admittedly, he was slightly worried for Ruby; all three of her sisters had been placed on the same team whilst she was alone with three strangers, and all three of said strangers were abnormal in their own right. Ruby was not the best at talking to people at the best of times and these three were far from easy to approach, at least for anything more meaningful than small talk.
Ruby's partner, Weiss Schnee, was perhaps the most challenging of the team. The Atlesian princess, from what Winter had told him in their short meeting, was very studious, had great manners and respect for elders and would likely not cause many problems at Beacon. At least, that's how Winter had begun to describe her sister, a small proud smile on her face all the while. However, after a moment, the older Schnee seemed to sadden as she continued her summation. Weiss was very competitive and didn't like to come second place to anyone. Winter never expanded further, but he suspected it likely stemmed from something between the siblings, a rivalry perhaps. She had also warned him that Weiss' views on the faunas, or any minority fir that matter, may be… less than desirable; an unpleasant side effect from their father's tutelage.
Next was Penny Polendina. She was certainly a unique case amongst students. After his initial shock of hearing about the synthetic girl, he had yet to see anything that should make her too much of an issue to handle. Of course, that wasn't considering her Grimm and if his hunch was anything to go off of, it wouldn't be long before he found out just how much of a challenge she may be. Supposedly, she was paired with the strongest Grimm on the northern continent, but his relation to Ruby had taught him to temper his expectations until he saw for himself.
Finally, there was Neopolitan. To say that the application process for this girl had been difficult would be a gross understatement. The girl had no family, no recorded permanent residence and seemingly no money. According to national citizenship records, she didn't even exist. Not to mention the aforementioned issues were only the legal ones, which, admittedly, Beacon was no stranger from strong-arming through. The girl was also functionally mute, her tongue having been removed in infancy, leaving her only able to make vague noises, though she preferred not to do so and relied on sign language where possible or if need be writing her words with her semblance. However, there in lay the most confusing thing about the girl; she was educated and shockingly well too. It seemed there was something in her past she was not happy to share even under promises of sworn secrecy.
Ruby's team certainly stood out from the rest and it seemed that before the semester had even officially started, said team was set on supplying him with a headache. As he had watched the teaming ceremony unfold, it had quickly become apparent that something was wrong with Ruby. He had seen the signs perhaps a dozen times across his life, absently massaging her temples, staring at the floor whilst her foot gently tapped against it, all the while trying her best to be invisible.
Of course, moments later, whether or not he had noticed the signs hadn't mattered; a familiar dread washing over him, and the others gathered in the hall. He had anxiously made his way towards her, thankful the ceremony was almost over, only to stop as the sense of trepidation slowly slipped away. At first, he had been proud, she had contained her urge despite being as pent up as she was, but things had quickly changed. It had been gradual, like siphoning water from a lake with a hosepipe, before eventually bursting forth once more, barely contained and all-consuming. He watched as Ruby fled from the hall, hanging on to what was left of her control as she sought to hide herself from everyone.
Ilia and Penny had followed after her shortly before his own pursuit began. He was not as fast as the girls; Ruby was the quickest person he had ever known, and Ilia was no slouch herself with Penny managing to keep pace with her. Eventually, he had caught up, but he soon found himself almost wishing he hadn't.
There, amidst the darkened clearing stood Ruby, almost motionless as a writhing mass of vines curled defensively around her before surging towards Penny. The ginger girl slowed as the attack rapidly approached setting one foot behind her and leaning on her front knee as she prepared to receive the strike. Bart moved to protest, to warn her, before he was silenced as she was struck by the Grimm lashers. She stood unaffected by the force of the vines, giving no reaction to even show she registered getting hit, not an inch of ground given. The vines jumped on her hesitation; quickly entangling the girl who stood motionless as she was being entombed by the ever-growing mass.
Moments passed as Penny disappeared beneath the Grimm, hidden from view, as it tightened its grip around her, restricting as much movement as possible. Eventually the plant Grimm could constrict no further and the clearing moved into an uneasy silence, the only sounds breaking through being that of the odd Grimm breaking out from the surface of Ruby's shadow, though they too seemed to quietly anticipate the next move. Bart would have assumed Penny dead or at least incapacitated, if not for the rapt attention being given by the Grimm that surrounded her prison, waiting. They knew she was still alive, capable and if their trepidation to get closer was anything to go by, she wasn't fazed.
A sickly tearing and snapping sound gradually filled the glade as the vines came to life once more, seemingly struggling with what lay beneath them. The sound exploded in its volume as two pale arms burst from the sides of the black and white trap, both gripping the surrounding vines with enough force for the bone thorns beneath her palms to crunch and break. The squelching and shearing sounds of flesh being torn reverberated off the wall of tress that surrounded them as Penny tore herself free and emerged from the now limp and dissipating vine cage.
The ginger girl quickly snapped her gaze towards Ruby, emotionless and focused. Bart's stomach dropped as the monster of a girl slowly marched towards his niece, hellbent on her objective. Ruby's summoned Grimm swarmed to fill the gap between the pair as the vines regrew and gathered once more, but even as the small army amassed, Bart could make out something that truly shocked him. He watched as a possessed Ruby took a step back. Her features were blank; not really belonging to the creature wielding them, but the message was clear. It didn't think it could win. It was scared.
The moment of weakness cost it. As if she could smell the hesitation, Penny briefly crouched before rocketing forward. The wall of grimm lurched to intercept, a black wave of tooth and claw announced only by the noise of their own snarling maws. One by one the beasts fell, their fangs broke on her skin, their sinew was sundered beneath her fists and their roars died in their crushed throats. Penny was unstoppable, only given brief pause whenever the vines regenerated enough to aid the grimm tide, though they too only added minor strain to the ginger girl's efforts.
Bart did not know for how long he watched, simply stunned by the ferocity and efficiency with which Penny tore through her opposition. She wasn't as flashy as Ruby, Yang or even Nora, but as he observed her carve a path through the monstrous legion before her, she seemed unstoppable. It was unnatural to see her thin, almost fragile, frame achieve such feats of strength and durability. Eventually he shook himself free of his stupor, aided by the sudden snapping of a branch beside him.
The professor whipped his head around, already on high alert, he reached to his for a gun that wasn't there, silently cursing his forgetfulness. His sudden action caused the source of the sound to startle and flinch away suddenly before both locked gazes and the tension lowered slightly. From out of the forest crept Neopolitan, an expression of shocked horror on her face as she beheld the sight of the battle in the clearing before them. For a moment Bart made to obstruct her vision, but soon realised the futility of hiding the scene, the sound alone was more than enough to convey the unnatural nature of this bout. For many moments she simply stared with her mouth and eyes wide.
Eventually, Bart followed her gaze back towards the clearing, noting that her stare never left Penny. Odd, whilst she was certainly a sigh to behold, the far more eye drawing one of the pair was definitely Ruby, stood amongst the monsters and enshrouded in vine. He ignored her pointed interest, perhaps it was due to the fact that Ruby wasn't moving whilst Penny was certainly putting on a ferocious display as she parted the black sea. He tried to snap her from her, seemingly terror induced, inner spiral. He cleared his throat in an attempt to garner her attention.
"Miss Neopolitan." For a moment he went ignored, simply another sound in the din created by the fight. Only after he gently tapped her shoulder did her focus return to him, though her gaze continuously flickered back to the other two present, seeing this, Bart continued. "I would advise you run back to the academy, I will be sure to answer any questions you may have, but I am afraid now is not the time." It took a second for his words sink in before she responded. She rapidly shook her head before a slew of words appeared in the space between them.
I can help.
So far, everything was going well. The kin had surprised it; her pervious trepidation and hesitation had vanished, her spark muted further, only to replaced with efficient determination and objective movements. It had been off-putting, to see a foe change so drastically and rapidly, but eventually, as the fight raged on it managed to assess the situation.
The kin wasn't beatable, far from it; without the young mistress, it stood no chance, but luckily, aside from the terrifying strength and impenetrable body, the kin had not shown any problematic abilities. If things continued at their current rate the mistress would finish her growth before their assailant was able to defeat it. It would only have to hold for a few more minutes, the edges of the mistress' shadow were already coming back into view. Whilst it could not seem to harm the kin, it had managed to stall her effectively multiple times, whether it managed to snag her foot or misdirect a strike, every second the girl spent not attacking and moving closer was a glorious success.
It could feel the mistress begin to stir, the agony induced coma slowly losing its grip over her mind, it would still be a small time before she regained consciousness completely, but it served as a suitable warning for how much longer it would have to defend her.
Inwardly it sighed. The mistress was kin too, one it had been forcefully attached to for eight years, guided by nothing more than the few remaining whispers of something much older than either of them.
'Protect her' they had ordered. At first it had been irritated; forced to babysit a half breed youngling for the foreseeable future, but then it had felt it, her strength. As all grimm, the mistress would grow stronger with age, but, from birth, she had been a monster amongst monsters. Suddenly, it had known the importance of its role in her life, in the life of all grimm. Even as it prepared to face the kin before it now, it would protect her until it could no more. It was under no illusion that it would die, the mistress fed it well and it had grown far stronger than its lifespan would otherwise allow, becoming a grimm of strength comparable to that of others many times its years. That did not, however, mean it enjoyed the feeling of knowing there was something it could not defend the mistress from within the bounds of the kingdoms.
Its thoughts were suddenly torn back to the current moment; a sudden eruption of snarling punctuated by squelching and whimpering. Its gaze flicked suddenly to the younglings who aided it in the defence of the mistress. It lacked the fine control over the mistress' body required to widen her eyes or raise her eyebrows, but it knew it would if such a feat were possible. The front of beasts were occupied as before, falling valiantly in the line of protection against the far stronger kin, but now, amidst the several dozen remaining beasts, a new bout of chaos had arisen.
It watched as the wolf younglings turned on the bears, the scorpions assailed the boars, before eventually turning on their own kind as well. Soon a bloodbath ensued, the once united grimm tearing through each other, thinning their own ranks from within. It watched as the ginger girl slowly met less and less resistance, what it had hoped would take her a few minutes was now accomplished in seconds, gaining ground as her opponents now fought amongst themselves.
It searched hurriedly for the source of the infighting, trying to find what could have set the younglings off and against each other, but it could only see the carnage, nothing besides the savage display stood within the bounds of the clearing. Until it spotted it. It was faint, little more than a hum in the greater cacophony that consumed the glen, but, as it reached out with its senses, it found it. A faded trace of a human spark in the shape of a youngling.
He retracted his sense, closing in on the singular phenomenon before looking once more through the mistress' eyes. If it had possessed a maw of its own to snarl with it would have done so. He watched as younglings fought illusory imitations of themselves, too young to use their senses such as it had, they had grown confused and lashed out at those around them. A few planted fakes fooling the greater force to fight amongst themselves, unsure of who to trust.
Frantically it tried to call the younglings back to their senses, to strip away the foul-playing deception plaguing their minds and to reassert control, but it could not. The mistress' powers were not its own and it had no real authority over the other grimm aside from its superior strength and age, its commands and orders fell on deaf ears as the younglings eviscerated each other or were pummelled by the ginger girl. Said kin was now just a few meters from the mistress, separated only by itself and a few remaining younglings too focused on the girl to bother with the infighting around them.
Now up close, the cold, emotionless stare that the kin affixed to it unnerved it. The edges of the mistress' shadow hung only a dozen or so meters behind the kin, so close to finishing yet so far from safety. The younglings that now fell could no longer effortlessly slip back into the cold embrace of the umbral cradle from whence they came, instead becoming shadows of their own before slowly traveling the distance required to be reclaimed by its fold. It could not waste time on such thoughts.
Quickly, it formed a wall of vines, lined with dagger-like thorns, obscuring itself from the kin's vision, and prepared several tendrils waiting to use them like serrated garrotte wire. Barely a moment passed after the wall was erected before a dainty fist tore a hole through it, another sliding in beside it to open the breach further so that the kin could slip through. It commanded the wall to contract, squeezing the protruding digits in an attempt to pry them free and shore-up the barrier.
No such luck. The hands simply continued to tear open the space, as if unaffected by the additional force placed on its strength. Soon a head of ginger hair framing hollow, electric green eyes was visible through the sundered shield. It seized the moment, the kin's guard to open to defend herself, the jagged black ropes it prepared sprung forth ensnaring the arms and neck of its target. The efforts were met with the sound of a metallic screech before fading into the familiar splintering of bone as the thorns tore across her exposed neck only to break before drawing blood.
The kin took a step forward a now unlaboured hand reaching for her neck and with little effort snapping the entangling grimm off, as if pulling string from a fraying scarf. It attempted to retreat the mistress' body, only to be interrupted as the hand shot out and grabbed the mistress' jacket by the collar. The remaining vines swarmed to the defence, holding the extended limb against the mistress' body; if the limb could not retract it could not strike with force. Luckily the other hand was still occupied by the remaining strangles and the remnants of the wall. It attempted to stall the kin.
"You don't understand! You must let the mistress finish her growth!" It grew aware of the lack of strength in the mistress' slightly distorted voice; her breathing was growing rapid as the growth came to an end, the crescendo before the silence. It had to stall for just a minute longer. "If you don't let her grow, she'll eventually lose control! She'll kill you all!" The kin didn't respond, giving it only the stare of an empty husk as it fought for control of its other limb in order to deliver the finishing blow.
It was vaguely aware as three human sparks ran towards it, unable to use the mistress' eyes as its remaining strength was used entirely to restrain the girls one crucial limb. Two came from the direction of the academy and one from behind it, no longer barred by the now occupied vines. The shadow beneath the mistress' feet was but a few inches from the correct size, the process almost finished...
Then its strength faltered.
The restraint on the kin's arm slipped, its senses dimmed, and its vines tore, though it had only a muted sense of pain as its body was shredded beneath the huge power, too weak to fully acknowledge its control over the mistress' body fade.
Its flowers wilted as Ruby's tattoo returned to only cover her back, and the conjured vines faded.
It had failed the mistress.
Resistance nullified… incapacitating target. Altering strength output to avoid permanent injury…
The computer forced Penny's body back preparing to lean into the final strike, ignoring the shouts of protest from the rapidly approaching people. It suddenly lurched forward intent on ensure Ruby was subdued, only to be stopped less than an inch from the girls exposed gut.
"Wait!"
AN: As always thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I know I said that I would release another chapter before Christmas, but my internet actually cut out about a week ago and as of this chapter going live it has been fixed for about half a day. However, silver lining, I was bored over the last week so I have mostly written the next chapter, so it should be out in about a week if everything goes well. Thank you to those who have offered feedback and support, both here and on AO3, and, as always, said feedback or criticism is appreciated.
P.S. I apologise if this is a bit hard to read at times, I found it difficult to write with 'it' as the main focus point whilst distinguishing 'it' from other various it or its. Eventually 'it' will have a name, but not yet, so it is a necessary evil.
- Tabaxi