Chapter 12 — Breach

"We who choose to surround ourselves
with lives even more temporary than our
own, live within a fragile circle;
easily and often breached.
Unable to accept its awful gaps,
we would still live no other way."

— Irving Townsend

"Hey, Loki! Give me back my clothes!"

The young blue-eyed woman was desperately chasing after a Beowolf, trying to get back her stolen clothing. It was "relax day" today, and Serena had decided to do some house chores like cleaning and dusting. Luckily, her phone was still working and it somehow didn't lose any of the power it had when she had died back on Earth. It was as if the battery had been frozen at its current level. She was very thankful for that since her phone was the only thing that still contained pictures and memories of her family. She had refreshed her bed, dusted the cave (while also getting rid of unwanted pests like insects and rodents), and washed her clothes while listening to her favorite music. She had hung the wet material up on some tree branches and her newest companion, a Beowolf she'd named Loki, had decided to steal her red jeans and hoodie and play catch.

She had met Loki a few days ago, together with the other Beowolves, and had quickly taken a liking to him as he did to her. She had given him the name Loki — after the Norse God of Mischief — because he liked to play pranks on her and just generally mess around. He was a young Grimm, not sporting any plates of bones or spikes on his body. She had learned after some more studying that the number of bones plates indicated the age of a Grimm. Now, she also knew that both Ajax and Napoleon had to be quite old, though Napoleon was still the older one, which was probably also the reason he was the leader of the pack.

"Come on, Loki. They can't dry if you get them all wet with your slobber. And you'll get them dirty too!"

In a final attempt at re-claiming her clothes, she jumped on the creature's back and held on to his neck, stretching a hand out to reach the jeans and hoodie that were being held captive by his teeth. With a huff and some more stretching, she finally reached them and pulled them back to her. She quickly got off his back and stuck her tongue out, receiving a snort and low growl that made her think he was laughing at her for her childish behavior.

"Yeah, well that's what you get for messing with my clothes," she retorted while walking inside her home and hung the clothes onto one of the lines that hung near the fire so that it could dry. She had bought more ropes in Vale and had fixed them all above or near the fire to grill or roast food, and to hang things onto. It came in handy quite a lot.

Suddenly, inexplicably so, she felt a heavy rush of anger and blood lust come crashing into her. She gasped from the sheer intensity of it. Bending over, she placed one hand on her knees while the other clutched at her shirt, just above her heart, eyes wide and breathing rapid. It was the first time she had ever felt so much anger and hatred in the air — it was as if she could slice through it with a butter knife. She felt like she was suffocating under the sheer pressure of it.

"W-What… What is this?" she choked out.

Loki suddenly elevated himself on his hind legs and began howling, calling other Grimm. She looked over to him and felt the same anger radiating off of him as well. Then she heard a shrill sound, chilling her to the bones, making goosebumps appear on her arms. She identified the noise as sirens and wondered where it came from. Concentrating, she traced the rush of anger back and realized that a massive amount of Grimm where in the middle of the city.

"What's going on? They aren't supposed to be there!" she exclaimed, worried beyond belief.

The sirens were drowned out by faint explosions coming from the city she frequently visited. Grabbing her spear and black cloak, she quickly stuck her weapon in-between her belt and pants, then put on her cloak and pulled on the hood so that it hid most of her face.

She rushed to the border of the forest, spotting a giant cloud of smoke rising from the center of town. She quickly descended the hill and ran towards the chaos, avoiding the hundreds of terrified citizens that were running about in a frenzy.

The frenzy of terrified screams and sounds made her mind flash back to the plane crash. Just like now, people had been screaming in panic, and she felt her stomach churn. Grasping her shirt above her heart, she took in big gulps of air, panting heavily. She knew she was experiencing a sort of PTSD-typical panic attack — the sounds were just too close to her own encounter with death — but she also knew that she had to push it back. If she did not, innocent people would die at the hands of the Grimm.

Clenching her teeth, she inhaled one last gulp of oxygen before forcing her mind to concentrate on the matter at hand. She could deal with her condition later — right now, she had lives to save.

Resuming her run, it was just when she reached the main street that she caught sight of an Ursa about to attack a mother with her two daughters. She quickly ran over to them, calling to the Grimm, stopping him mid-strike.

"Stop! Don't hurt these people!" she pleaded, stopping in front of the small family in order to shield them with her own body, should the creature not listen. The Ursa hesitated a few moments before listening and going off to find new prey, leaving Serena behind with the frightened citizens. Sighing in relief, she turned around and crouched down in front of them. She gently lay her hand on the mother's shoulder, making her look up at her with tear filled eyes.

"It's okay now, ma'am. You and your daughters are safe. But you have get away from here for now. Hide somewhere on the borders of the city. They won't attack you there," she spoke in a calm and soothing but authoritative voice.

"Th-Thank you, miss. Thank you so much," the woman stammered.

"It's no problem. You should go now, before they come back."

The mother nodded once, then quickly grabbed her two daughters by their hands and dragged them away, the children still so shocked that the woman was practically dragging them after her like ragdolls. Serena watched them for a few moments, making sure they would not be attacked again and, when they had turned the corner, she turned around and continued her way to the center of town where most Grimm were gathered.

Arriving, she could see that some kids were already fighting the creatures, killing them without hesitation. She cringed when she saw how a red-haired girl stabbed a Boarbatusk right through its mouth, killing it instantly. Amongst all the chaos, she spotted a familiar figure wielding a scythe and quickly recognized Ruby. Running over to her, she stopped a Beowolf from attacking the girl from behind, telling it to return to the forest.

"Ruby!" she called to her friend, making the latter whirl around.

"Serena! Oh, it's so good that you're here! We really need your help right now!" Ruby replied while slaying another Grimm to her left, making Serena cringe yet again.

"What happened?"

"I don't know! We found this White Fang base underground and Torchwick was there and then he caught me, and when my friends arrived he started a train and we tried to stop it, but then he set off bombs that created holes for the Grimm, and when we crashed the next thing I know is that we're in the middle of Vale and Grimm are creeping out!" She explained it all in one breath, and it was hard for Serena to follow her but she got the gist of it.

"So that monster set off bombs to lead the Grimm here?" she summarized in one sentence, growing angry that somebody would do such a thing.

"Yeah, exactly. And now we gotta fight them or they'll destroy the whole city and kill everyone!"

"Maybe not," the black-haired girl murmured to herself, but Ruby caught it nonetheless.

"What do you mean 'maybe not'? There's no other way!" she argued, firing off her gun at yet another Grimm.

"Have you seen a giant snake around here? You know, big, one half white, the other black?"

"Yeah, but why do you need to know?" the Huntress asked, puzzled why the girl would need to know that now.

"Tell me where you've seen it," Serena demanded while keeping a Beowolf from attacking, sending it back to the forest like the previous ones. She didn't want them to be killed — even if they themselves would not hesitate to kill had she not the powers she did.

"It's over there," Ruby said, pointing over to another road from where there came a cacophony of howls and cries.

"Thanks!"

Serena dashed over to the street Ruby had pointed out. What she came upon was a giant, black-and-white snake with red glowing eyes and large fangs. She walked over to it and gently laid her hand on its scales. The animal was about to kill her when she held up a hand and let it sniff her. It seemed to accept her like the others had and lowered its head so that it was level with Serena's.

So this is a King Taijitu. What a beautiful creature.

She was momentarily caught in thought before she reminded herself of the situation at hand.

Bending over, she spoke to it while looking it in the eye. "Please, you have to leave. You have to tell all of the others to stop attacking and go back to the forest. You will all die if you stay here," she pleaded with the animal. It seemed to take her advice as it roared once. All the Grimm in the city stopped fighting and abruptly started retreating, leaving the students and what she presumed to be the military that had arrived only moments ago in a state of confusion.

"Thank you. You should go back as well. This isn't your world." The Grimm nuzzled her head once and then disappeared through the hole that had been created by the explosion, its white half trailing behind it.
Serena went back over to Ruby who stood alone. "I hope there weren't too many casualties," she quietly asked, surprising the younger girl.

"Oh, don't worry about it. But thank God you were here. This could have turned into an all out war," Ruby thanked her.

"It was no problem, but I should leave now. I don't want the military to find out about me. Just act like I was never here, okay?" Serena asked, pulling her hood further over her face so that it was concealed in shadows. Ruby nodded, understanding her concern and then turned around when she heard Yang calling for her. Serena chose this moment to disappear and ran back to the forest, luckily remaining unnoticed by any of the soldiers.

"Hey, Ruby! Who was that?" Yang questioned as she walked up to her sister, Blake and Weiss in tow.

"Yeah. I've never seen that person around. And why was he wearing a cloak?" Weiss added, suspicious.

"You guys won't believe what I tell you…" Ruby started, plunging into the story. She knew Serena had told her to keep her a secret, but she could trust her team with this information.

The day ended well. The Grimm had disappeared without killing anyone (though quite a few had to be hospitalized) and Roman Torchwick was arrested shortly after. The four Beacon students were intently listening to their young team leader, and everyone else was just happy that they had somehow managed to survive such a large and apparently organized attack.

But a short distance away, on a cliff that overlooked Vale, two women and a young man were discussing their further advances.

"All in all, despite some… unexpected setbacks, I call today a success," Cinder Fall said, pleased with how the situation had turned out.

"Those stupid kids really made a mess out of things," the green-haired girl named Emerald voiced. "What I don't get is why all of the Grimm retreated so suddenly. I mean, that's totally unlike them to stop attacking."

"Simply another thing we'll have to investigate with the new resources we and our White Fang allies are about to gain," Cinder said, waving it off.

"Yeah, about that... A lot of Faunus didn't make it out of those tunnels. Like, hundreds of them were killed. You still think the White Fang's gonna listen to us?" Emerald's partner Mercury asked.

Instead of answering, Cinder simply glanced behind her loyal lapdogs to the man that neither had heard nor seen approaching and let him answer instead.

"No," a young man with reddish-brown hair and signature Grimm mask spoke, stepping up to the group. "But they'll listen to me."

Edited 29/12/2016

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any of its characters. All I do own are my OC and the idea and plot of the non-canon parts of the story