:

/ | \

\ | /

Act II

Scene 30

Blood Red

A/n:

And I'm back

With the thrilling continuation of last Scene's confusing cliffhanger.

(hopefully)

Thanks in part to TheAngelWolf101(Red) and TehUnoMan for their help with this

Side note, passed 300 follows, 250 favs, and 50,000 total views

fuck yeah

If you have a problem with me posting these benchmark numbers all the time

too bad

I'm a numbers guy

seeing these round numbers gets me hyped

Speaking of round numbers, reviews.

I'm about to hit 200

And I'm thinking about doing the same thing I did last time

I actually have that Dreamstate chapter done, I just have to find time to post it.

If you don't know, I randomly pick a reviewer from whichever chap gets me over the hump of 100(or in this case 200) reviews.

So basically, say this chap gets me to 204 reviews. Everybody that left a review from this chapter(and I'll know if it was from a different one) has a chance of being selected to give me a prompt to write for dreamstate.

That's the synopsis.

I should be able to post that one dreamstate chap in the week before I post the next chapter, though I might hold off so I can post it when I'm done the Act.

hmm.

Anyways, this chap was an absolute thrill to write.

I hope you enjoy it.

I recommend...well, I recommend a lot, but here are the highlights of songs to listen to while reading this.

After Midnight By Dorothy(For this whole damn night)

Blood on My Name By The Brother's Bright(For fire and death)

God's Gonna Cut You Down By Johnny Cash(For death.)

Heathens By Twenty One Pilots(For Ruby and Purgatory)

Killing Strangers By Marilyn Manson(For Ruby and the obvious)

No Place Like Home By Todrick Hall(For Purgatory, and probably Lucifer)

Paint it Black By Ciara(For Ruby)

Twisted Transistor By Korn(For Ruby)

First of the Year (Equinox) By Skrillex (For Ruby in general. It makes way more sense if you watch the Musice Video.)

Some of these will definitely be reoccurring, and I encourage you to give them all a try.

These are all what I listened to and thought of when I wrote and planned this whole thing. It's not the whole list, but it is the highlights.

By no means do you have to listen to all of them, or any of them, though if you want, you can just give that whole list the finger(or whatever the hell your equivalent is) and get on the meat and potatoes of the story.

So, without further dicking around, here you go.


Sunday, October 30

10:00 pm

Jack pov

"Robin, just listen to me."

"I am listening to you, Jack."

"You're not taking me seriously."

"I'll start taking you seriously when you start making sense."

"Dammit Robin!" I yelled, slamming my hand on his desk.

He gave me a disapproving look and said, "Jack, listen to yourself."

"I'm telling you, the White Wolf is still alive," I exclaimed.

"We demolished a building on top of it." He pointed out flatly.

"It survived everything else we threw at it." I countered, "And it's not like we found it's body."

"Grimm don't leave bodies. They evaporate or some such shit when they die." He retorted.

"So your proof that it's dead is that you can't find it?" I exclaimed.

"And yours is a bad dream?" He shot back

We glared at each other for a moment before dropping it. After a minute or two in tense silence, I decided to break it.

"Robin, I'm serious." I began.

"I know you're serious," Robin responded.

"That thing was in my home," I said.

"How the hell did it get in your home, jack? It's way too fucking big to fit through the door." He questioned

"I don't know!" I shouted

"But...I'm scared, man., I admitted.

"That thing was this close to Carol. To my child. I-I can't risk that I'm just imagining things, you know?' I explained.

Robin let out a deep sigh, his desk chair creaking as he reclined in it, throwing his hands behind his head as he looked up to the ceiling in thought.

"I get what you're saying." He began

"I just find it hard to believe that the White Wolf survived. Plus, we already announced that it was dead. If we take our word back, the city won't trust us, we'll look like idiots, and the city will be in a panic again." He continued.

"Robin-" I started, opening my mouth.

"-But-" He interjected, looking back down at me.

"I've known you for 18 years." He said earnestly, "I trust you."

I nearly recoiled in surprise.

"If you say that the White Wolf is still alive, I'll believe there's a chance you might be right." He said.

"Thank you, Robin." I blinked.

"I still think this is just trauma from how the White Wolf almost killed you, and these are just nightmares, but there's a chance you're right." He elaborated.

"So, you go do your nightly guarding thing, and I'll do some scouting. If I don't see something in a couple weeks, then we drop it." He explained.

I was about to protest, when he cut me off again.

"But...if we find something…" He began, looking me straight in the eye with his own dark forest green pair, "We'll take it to the captain, and you'll have my full support."

I sat there, staring at him, stunned at how things had turned out.

This is...this is better than I hoped.

"Robin...I...I don't know what to say." Stunned by his support.

"Don't mention it." He grinned.

"Seriously, though, don't mention it. They'll have my hide if they thought I was wasting my time hunting after something we were supposed to have killed." He grimaced.

"But that's enough of this. I'm heading down to the Basement to get all suited up. You better get all dressed up for you night shift too." He pointed out as he got out of his chair.

"How late am I for that?" I asked, following him out

"About an hour." He responded nonchalantly

"Oh. Mila's not going to be happy." I cringed.

"Well, better her than me" I muttered as we got to the massive steel doors of the central elevator.

After the doors closed around us, I turned back to Robin and said, "Seriously, though, thanks. I don't know how to thank you."

".Just name your first born son after me and we're cool." He quipped with a straight face.

"What if Carol's having a girl?" I asked since we didn't actually know yet

"Then I guess you better keep trying." He smirked

"I think I can do that." I grinned.


Sunday, October 30

11:30pm

I rode the elevator back up by myself, Robin leaving out the entrance from down there. I was dressed back up in my Watchmen armor, Sleas and Losgi holstered by my sides and Mawr in my hands.

This stuff is normally locked in the Basement, the vault under the station where the primary armory is located, as well as the motor pool. It was actually a massive sprawling expanse that extended underneath all e of the station, and actually a little past it thanks to the utilities and backup generator. There was even a cargo elevator to the airpad from the internal hanger.

I stepped out of the elevator, humming a jaunty little tune to myself, in good spirits now that Robin believed me, and was actually going to look for evidence for me. I mean, hell, the only way tonight could get better is if I finally get to shoot Torchwick.

Things are finally looking up I smiled.

Then, I noticed something.

I stopped and just listened for a moment. There was an unnatural silence around me, especially considering I was supposed to be in the heart of one of the busiest of Vale's Police Stations.

Maybe...maybe it's just a slow shift? I considered.

But I couldn't shake the feeling I was getting.

Then, the loud clapping sound of a boot hitting the hardwood floors of the station echoed around me. A not unusual sound, normally, but it there was something about it. It was...solitary, and unnatural, for some reason. The sound of it seemed to come from all around me, sending a chill down my spine and goosebumps up my neck.

I looked around the intersection of hallways.

Front, empty

Left, empty

Right, empty.

Behind?

Empty I frowned. There was nobody here.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to calm myself.

There's nothing wrong Jack. I told myself you're in the heart of the station, you're more than safe here.

And with that, I let out a cool breath of air, and turned around.

And saw before me, a little girl.

A little girl draped in a Blood Red cloak, with dark, shadowed clothes underneath. Her head was tilted down, her hood casting it in shadows.

I recoiled in surprise, unprepared for the sight of this girl before me.

"What the fuck!?" I exclaimed, my breath coming out as vapor clouds that hung in the air.

Suddenly, I felt cold, the air around me turning crisp and wet, filling with the scent of ozone and rotting flesh.

Unsettled by the turn of events, I raised my gun at the girl before me, getting a feeling of incredible unease from her, of wrongness, as if she was an unnatural abomination that was an affront to even the most basic of the world's laws.

Then, she raised her head, and revealed her face to me.

And I froze.

Those solid silver eyes enraptured me.

The pale, lifeless skin disturbed me.

But her face...her face horrified me.

"No…" I said, breathlessly, unable to comprehend it.

She looked up at me with a flat glare, as if I was no better than an annoying mosquito that had bought her ire.

"You can't be…" I continued, barely able to believe what I was seeing, what I was thinking.

I saw a flash of movement come from within her cloak, and I reacted, drawing my weapon, pointing it at her head, and began to squeeze the trigger.

Then, suddenly, the world become enveloped in shadows. I heard the sound of rushing winds all around me. Then, when everything was covered in an eternal darkness, a beacon of light exploded out from behind her in a deafening blast of thunder. I could feel the forces before me trying to tear me apart, piece by piece, as they buffeted me. I clenched my eyes shut tightly, bracing myself from the storm of light and sound that assaulted me. It took everything I had to keep from being swept away by its fury.

Until suddenly, it was gone.

I paused for a moment, before I finally opened my eyes.

I was not-could not, be prepared for what I saw.

I was…

I was in space.

I was in an eternal darkness as black as night.

And in front of me what I can only assume to be the sun. Tendrils of white hot energy arced off its form, spiraling out into the inky darkness around me. It was so…massive…as well. It dwarfed me, easily, taking up my entire field of view to look at it, like a wall of light. I could see it slowly curve at the ends, turning back away from me. It simply exuded power, and in doing so, made me feel so…small.

And I…I was just…floating…in here.

No, I was standing, but on what.

I looked down and saw nothing beneath my feet. Instinctively taking a step back, I felt my foot fall, before hitting something solid.

Something solid.

But there was nothing there.

"What the hell is going on?" I whispered to myself, freaking out inside.

I held my gun in a white-knuckled death grip. I had seen some shit, but this?

I had no idea how to even process this.

Then I heard a sound, a sound like buzzing of live current of electricity. It zipped around me, circling me. I spun around, trying to track it down, but it, whatever it was, was too fast for me to see. Finally, it zipped past-no, through me, and stopped behind me. I spun on my heel, and brought my weapon face to face with…

Some...thing.

"What the fuck?" I said in horror, having no other words for what I saw.

It was like a living shadow.

Yes, a puppet made of light and shadows.

It was like a silhouette of the girl that I had seen before me earlier. Same height, same basic profile. Even something looked like a cloak. But every inch of it was covered, no, made of this…darkness. All of it, black as night, completely one color.

But her-its eyes and mouth were filled light.

Light like the light from the star, but….jagged, and vibrating. Like its eyes and mouth were made of white lightning. The ends of its eternally empty midnight hair were tinged with this bone white livewire light, as was the outline of its entire frame, making it stand out from the inky blackness around us.

And its mere presence was filling my head with warning signs. Everything inside me told me that this thing was wrong, unnatural, an abomination.

"What are you?!" I shouted, pointing Mawr at it.

"Where the hell are we?! What is this place?!" I demanded.

Instead, it just continued to stare at me, cocking its head to the side as it gazed at me with those brilliant silver-white eyes.

"Answer me!" I yelled, my finger hovering over the trigger.

It continued to stare, and for a moment, I thought I would have to yell again, that it didn't understand or something.

"…this…." It began slowly.

"…This is purgatory" It spoke, the jagged line of light where its mouth should be vibrating in time with its words. Its voice wasn't just one voice. There was the voice of women and children, combined with the buzzing of electricity.

Just like everything else about it, it was inhuman and unnerving.

"This is my home." It answered.

"I know what you are." I snarled.

It cocked its head to the side again as I got the feeling of amusement from it.

"You're the White Wolf, aren't you?" I growled, resisting the urge to just put a bullet through it's head.

Her face…

Back in the real world, when I saw her face, I was horrified because it was the same face I saw on that thing that came out of the white wolf. It was the same face as that pale, eyeless, monster inside it.

"But not only that…" I began, "Oh no."

"At first, I thought the White Wolf was just a weird Grimm." I continued, giving it a grin, twisted in angry pride.

"But now, I've realized the truth"

Now that I had seen her-it, now that I was here, it all started to make sense. All the pieces started to come together. The picture…it was impossible, illogical, a fairy tale, but it was the only answer that made sense.

And I had something I wanted to get off my chest

"Oh?" It challenged

"You're a demon," I smirked.

Then, all amusement drained from its unearthly form.

"I thought that that was just the thing of storybooks, you know? Just fairy tales." I elaborated.

"But it all makes sense now, those black and silver eyes. It's just like the stories. 'The eyeless demon corrupts all it touches'." I laughed, at the edge of my own sanity as I recited poetry.

Here I was facing a storybook character in another dimension. All logic had been thrown out the window long ago. In the face of that, what else could I do but laugh?

But this thing, this demon, wasn't laughing. It seemed to frown at me, displeased by my words. Undoubtedly insulted and hurt by the truth.

"But don't worry, demon." I said with a snarl, "I'll put you out your misery."

"Now just do me a favor, and die." I said, as I pulled the trigger of Mawr, and sent a 6.5mm incendiary round straight into its head.


Monday, October 31

00:01 am

Torchwick pov

Time seemed to slow to a crawl as she squeezed the trigger. The trigger clicked into place, and the hammer flew forward and struck the firing pin. A flash of light and smoke erupted from the barrel with a bang, as the bullet spun from it. It flew the air, straight and true as the booming blast of the gun reverberated through the air. Finally, it hit its mark.

Jack's head.

The bullet smashed into his aura, preventing it from ripping through his head. Still, the sheer force of it smacked his head to the side. On impact, the bullet seemed to explode into a cloud of vapor and amber liquid on his face. As he regained his balance, he inhaled the remnants of the vapor cloud, leaving almost no sign anything had happened.

I blinked, not expecting something so…anti-climactic.

Sure, I knew she was going to shoot Jack in the head, and then probably me, but I had thought that she would have stripped him of his aura first or something.

Before I had too much time to think about it, however, it happened.

It started with a cough from Jack. Then, he clutched his chest, he coughing rising in intensity. Soon, his coughing turned into pained, desperate wheezing. Blood continued to pour from his eyes, nose, and ears as he fell to his knees.

Then, with one, final, rasping breath, he collapsed onto the floor.

"What the hell was that!?" I spoke breathlessly with wide eyes as I stared at his body, stunned by what I had seen.

Before I could think further on it, she turned her attention to me, her gun pointed straight at my face through the holes in the door.

"Wait, Red! We can talk about this!" I pleaded.

As I spoke, she stepped toward the "window" of my cell.

"I-I can give you anything you want, name it and-" I began

Then, as I rambled, she lowered her gun and brought up her hand to the electronic lock on the door. She put her hand against it for a moment, before the lock blared with the confirmation alarm. The door to the cell opened to her whim and, for the first time in far too long, gave me freedom, limited though it was.

"…Uh…" I paused, dumbfounded, "You're not going to kill me?"

"…Why would I kill you?" She questioned with a look that made it seem like I had just said one of the stupidest things she had ever heard.

"Well, I mean, you said you were tying up loose ends, so…" I trailed off, expecting her to see the logic.

She just stared at me with that tilted head and a bewildered face for a moment, before she shook her head, and stepped away from the cell, giving me the room to step out.

"Ok…so you're here to…rescue me?" I said carefully, not wanting to piss off the creepy girl that could still kill me at any moment.

"...I prefer the term, 'retrieve'...but yes." She answered calmly.

"Cool," I said slowly, still coming to terms with what was happening.

"So..." I began, turning to the body of the man I knew as Jack, "What did you do to him?"

"The same thing I did to your men." She said, turning to look at her handiwork. "I consumed everything he was."

And just like that, her words threw me back to the first time I meet this strange little girl.


Several months ago

"Alright you idiots, you did a not completely shit job at collecting that Dust, but Bob and Steve are being a little quiet. Why don't you morons find out why, while I take the Dust back to the Bullhead?" I "Suggested" to them.

They looked at each other nervously again, but were smart enough to know the difference between a suggestion, and a "suggestion". So, following my orders, they dispersed and searched the shop for idiot 1 and 2.

Meanwhile, I took the Dust they had collected in the briefcases and left the shop. I decided to wait outside for a couple seconds outside the shop to see if anything would happen. Instead, nothing happened.

There was total, absolute, silence.

I couldn't see any of the men moving around the shop, the shop keep, couldn't hear any screams of pain or surprise.

Nothing.

Then, I recognized there was a slight, quiet, whisper like, buzzing. It was like the buzzing you hear from a TV that's on, but isn't playing anything, it's just on. It unnerved me, and I don't know when it started, I just realized it had been there the whole time. I don't know how, but I just knew it was connected to…whatever…was going on in that shop. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, the lights in the shop went out.

Okay…that's creepy. I thought to myself. I should probably leave now

So, with that thought, I turned around to make my way to the Bullhead Cinder was waiting for me in.

And was instead met with someone standing behind me.

"AH!" I yelped, jumping away from the person who managed to sneak up on me.

This person, whoever they were, they were incredibly stealthy. After all, they managed to sneak up on me, a master thief. They wearing a tattered, shredded really, red hooded cloak. The hood covered their head, so I couldn't see their face, so I couldn't tell too much about them, but considering their short height, they barely came up to my stomach, and their androgynous body shape, I was willing to bet they were a child.

More importantly, this was the source of my bad vibes. My instincts were telling me to leave now.

"Hey…kid…" I began to say as I tried to move past them towards the Bullhead. I circled around the kid, not daring to look away until I was completely past them.

At that the kid looked up, looking me in the eyes with their own hollow silver ones.

Now that I could see their face I could tell that this kid was probably a girl, likely no older than 12. She was…unsettling to look at. Her face was mostly expressionless, but her eyes held a degree of curiosity. That being said, she just sort of…radiated…a sort of unease, of creepiness.

That, of course, was before I noticed the splotch of blood on her cheek, blood she didn't seem to care about.

"Uh…right, so…bye kid." I said, now having circled around her, the entire time I didn't dare take my eyes of the creepy girl.

Now that she wasn't in my way anymore, I turned back around, faced forward, and ran toward the building the Bullhead was behind.

At least…

….That's what I wanted to do.

Instead, when I turned around, the girl was once again in front of me, staring straight into my eyes again.

I jumped in shock, surprised by her second appearance.

How did she? I thought, turning back to see if she was still behind me and if this was just her creepy twin or something.

Instead, I only saw empty air. Turning back, I noticed she hadn't moved from the spot, and was still staring at me with mild curiosity, like a child looking at a bug crawling on the ground, deciding what to do with it. She just looked at me, unblinking, with those soul-piercing silver eyes.

"Uh…could you…move, kid?" I asked, unnerved by her presence.

In response she just tilted her head to the side, still not taking her eyes off me.

"…Roman…Torchwick?" She asked slowly, as if not sure if she was right.

"Uh…yes?" I responded hesitantly, not necessarily liking the way she said that. There was no fear or recognition in the way she said it. She was checking to be sure she was right for some... unknown purpose.

At that, she smiled, a small smile, but sweet. It was the innocent smile of a child, filled with no true malice. She looked pleased, happy that she was right, that she had found who she was looking for, but as for why, I don't know. Frankly, the sweetness and innocence of the smile, combined with the blood on her face, disturbed me. Not quite as badly as Neo's could, but it still reminded me of the little psycho.

"Good." She said simply, yet it held a small degree of emotion in it, perhaps…hope?

Anticipation?

No sooner had she said this before the world changed around me. I felt a sense of vertigo, a powerful tingling sensation on my skin, and a tickling feeling my mind. The buzzing grew louder, before being drowned out by the sound of rushing winds and water, like some kind of hole sucking me through to somewhere. The world around me became enveloped in a black and white.

Suddenly I was somewhere…else.

I was surrounded by this inky blackness of infinite depth, like the night sky. It was deep, dark, and had a cold and unforgiving hunger that made the oldest Grimm look like a petulant child. Just looking at it sent a shiver down my spine, as if it called out to me, telling me that I would see it again when I died.

But in all this empty and eternal darkness, only one thing stood opposed to it, and it was right behind me.

I turned to see a massive wall of blinding light. It was only after a moment that I realized that it wasn't a wall, it was an orb. It was a massive…star. That was the only way to describe it. Before me stood something that rivaled the sun itself. Hundreds of millions of ribbons of light spun off from the corona

Eventually, I saw something that stood out.

It was in the same basic shape as the girl I saw, but it had no depth, no definition, just like the world around me. Her basic silhouette was that of the void, it filled her, giving her the appearance of a walking, 3 dimensional, shadow. However, she was highlighted by the light, allowing her to stand out against the background of the void. She raised her head, revealing that both her mouth and eyes were filled with the light.

She took several steps toward me, with what I can only assume to be a look of curiosity on her blank face. I instinctively wanted to take several steps back, but I couldn't really feel any malicious intent coming from her. So, I stood my ground as she slowly walked closer. Once she was few feet from me she spoke up.

"…hello." She said in a quiet yet inhuman voice that was a mix of several voices in one, all with the sound of crackling lightning in the background. It was unsettling, unnatural, and sent my nerves on edge.

"…H-hello." I said nervously, quite creeped out by…whatever the hell this was. I had dealt with my share of illusions and weird semblances, but this? This something else.

Despite that, I tried not to show my unease.

Even if I did feel way the hell in over my head.

"What…is…this place?" I asked, not really sure where to begin, as I gestured at the world around me.

She looked around, at the emptiness, at the star, then turned back to me.

"This…is Purgatory. And it's my home." She explained, calmly and quietly. "I pulled your mind here so we could…talk."

"Talk, talk about what? And what do you mean you pulled my mind here?" I asked, once again getting my spirit back.

"When I harvested the minds of your men, I learned things. I learned why they were here, who you were…and I learned you could be useful." She explain, seemingly ignoring my questions.

But something stuck out to me.

"Wait, harvested their minds?" I asked, unnerved by the implications of that.

Instead of answering my question, she once again ignored me and asked me something else.

"Roman Torchwick…" She began

"The things you've done in the criminal world…interest me. It's been…difficult…to get things that I want. Things that I need. People have…kept…so much from me…and I feel like it isn't going to stop as time passes." She continued, looking off toward the void of darkness.

"So, I would like to make an…arrangement with you. After all, being a good little girl hasn't ever gotten me anything." She finished.

The entire time she spoke, it was slowly and carefully, as if she wasn't entirely sure what words to use, how to properly explain these things to me.

"I…see…" I began, not really sure where to go from here.

This prepubescent, creepy little girl was unnerving, but I didn't know how useful she could be. After all, she looked like she was just 12, likely didn't really have it in her to do anything too serious, and was just having some problems at home.

I doubted that she had any real idea what she was doing, and that her semblance was just an enhanced form of illusions or something. While it did feel…different…than most illusions I had dealt with, that didn't mean it was anything too special.

That being said…

She had still gotten the drop on me, which was a rather impressive feat for anyone, let alone a 12-year-old girl. Then there was the blood on her. I didn't have any evidence of it, but somewhere deep inside me my instincts were telling me that it was from my men. My gut was telling there was more to this girl than met the eye…and that was even if she was just a girl.

My gut said no to that particular question.

The fact was, regardless of all these thoughts, I knew too little, and what I did know intrigued me. So, I attempted to learn more.

"So…why should I let you work for me? After all, you're just a kid, I doubt you could even hurt a fly, let alone a man." I said, trying to push her to explain herself.

"What could you offer me?" I continued, giving her the opportunity to pitch herself to me.

After all, she had done enough to warrant me giving her a chance.

She tilted her head, as if curious as to my reasoning, as if wondering what I wanted. Her light-filled eyes gazed into mine, boring through to my soul and reading me from the inside out. It was unsettling, really, to look into them, they were like two little suns, blindingly bright, but filled with dangerous power.

After a moment she stopped, and answered my question. But not the one I was expecting.

"…Earlier…you asked what I meant by harvesting their minds?" She asked, making sure she was right.

I nodded in assent, confirming her suspicions.

"…when I harvested their minds, I ripped their minds from their bodies, consuming all they knew, all they were, and all they experienced." She explained calmly, as if explaining that the ocean is made of water.

She paused.

"Some of it I didn't really understand, other parts of it were weird, but I learned things from them. It's what kept me from harvesting your mind." She continued, her tone twisting in mild confusion before returning to its calm sound.

Well…that sounds creepy…I wonder what that did to-wait… I began to think before I frowned at a realization.

"Are you…are you saying that you…took…information from their minds?" I asked hesitantly, not daring to hope it was true.

She nodded, confirming my suspicions, before explaining.

"I could have been more gentle if I wanted to…but…they hurt me…so I hurt them back." She answered.

"What do you mean?" I asked cautiously. I had my suspicions, but I didn't like where this was going.

"I ripped their minds from their bodies and consumed them. When I harvested them…they died…their bodies just hadn't…caught up…to them yet. But...I fixed that." She said simply, but slowly, like she had killed a couple bugs in an experiment and was trying to find the best way to explain how to an idiot like me.

This news was…well it was a lot to process.

She seemed to be saying that her semblance gave her what I can only assume to be psychic powers of some sort.

She said she could rip someone's mind from their body, leaving them a brain-dead husk, and taking everything they knew. Well, that's what it sounded like she was saying anyway.

This…this was incredible. Information was power, and her ability to rip information from someone's mind could be invaluable. It could make information gathering incredibly easy, torture irrelevant. This could change everything.

It also seemed like this killed the target, but it sounded like this wasn't a necessary aspect of it.

She said she could have been gentler…maybe that meant she could be more subtle. Maybe she could take information from a target without them knowing.

I wonder what her semblance has to do with this freaky fucking world she brought me too? I wondered.

She said she took my mind and brought it here, but what did that…mean…

oh…shit….

"Uh, hey, kid…are you…reading my mind right now?" I asked worriedly. If she was…that…could be bad.

She just tilted her head to the side again and innocently asked. "Can I meet Cinder? She sounds…interesting."

Well….shit.

Cinder's going to either kill me for letting this info leak…or reward me for bringing this little gem to her. I thought to myself, considering how to approach this.

Now, up until this point, I was still a little skeptical of her….psychic abilities or whatever the hell she felt like calling them. This world could just be some kind fancy illusion, but that could be the extent to her abilities.

Cool, but not as useful as mind-reading.

While she did talk about learning things from the minds of the henchmen, the fact was, most of what she "learned" she could have figured out if she was smart enough. After all, I'm kind of a world famous master thief, it's not too hard to put the pieces together when I'm raiding a Dust shop for Dust with a bunch of henchmen.

Cinder however…Cinder wasn't common knowledge. This girl should not know about Cinder. None of the henchmen knew about her, which meant the only way she knew about Cinder is if she took it from MY mind.

Fuck

Now that I thought about it, she could probably do whatever she wants to my mind right now. Whatever she did to my mind, I'm in her ring right now. She could have left me a brain-dead husk like the rest of my men. She hasn't, but she could still do that if I don't play ball.

Shit, either the kid will kill me or Cinder will if I mess up. But…if I play my cards right, I'll be able to win big.

what to do, what to do.

"Alright, kid, you've interested me enough for me to at least introduce you to Cinder. She'll probably find you interesting, especially with that freaky semblance of yours. What's your-" I began to say, asking for the kid's name, before the girl's head snapped around, as if something else suddenly grabbed her attention.

"What is it?" I asked cautiously, noting her reaction to this…unknown element.

"…Someone's coming…" she answered quietly in a concerned tone.

"Is it Cinder? She's probably just checking up-" I began to say before she interrupted me again.

"No." She said quietly, yet firmly, brokering no room for argument.

"Okay…then who?" I asked worriedly. I didn't doubt she would know who it was, not with her abilities.

"It's…a woman…named…Glynda Goodwitch." She said slowly, as if she was still figuring it out as she gazed at this invisible figure in the distance.

She then turned back to me and asked, "Do you know who she is?"

Well…double fuck. This has been quite the eventful night. I thought.

Glynda Goodwitch was a huntress, a strong one at that. She could definitely make things…difficult if she got here.

What to do, what to do.

"She's trouble." I groaned.

"Oh." The girl said simply, as if that made a decision for her.

Suddenly the odd world…Purgatory, I believe she called it, dissolved as I felt that tingling feeling flow throughout me once again. I closed my eyes as everything went black and I held that feeling of vertigo once more. Then, when I opened my eyes, everything was back to normal. I was back in the real world, and the girl was standing in front of me, though she was once again facing the direction of the invisible target, far off in the distance.

Now, however, I knew the invisible target to be none other than Glynda, aka, a pain in my ass. But that didn't explain what the hell this kid was doing now.

"Uh…hey, Red, what are you doing?" I asked, concerned. She had a look of concentration on her face. I can only assume she was doing something with her weird semblance again, but what, I didn't know.

"I'm keeping the huntress…occupied." She said slowly

"Occupied?" I asked, not completely understanding what she was doing.

"It's…not easy to do it…she doesn't know what's happening, she doesn't realize anything special is happening to her. Doing that without her realizing is…harder…than what I did to you." She tried to explain.

I'm pretty sure got the gist of what she was saying. Keeping the huntress…distracted…or whatever, was harder than what she did to me because she was being subtle. What she did to me was probably harder than what she did to my henchmen because she was being gentle with me. So, even as weird and powerful as it was, it had limits based on how complicated the task she was doing was.

Interesting.

Though, the fact that she could keep a powerful huntress such as Goodwitch "occupied" without her knowledge is actually quite impressive.

"Should I kill her?" She asked innocently, as if she wasn't a 12-year-old girl asking a wanted criminal mastermind if she could kill a powerful and well-trained huntress with her mind.

Man, this kid was weird.

I was about to say yes, that it would eliminate the problem, and then we would have all the time in the world to do what we needed.

But…

…Then I had an idea.

Not a plan, just an idea. An idea that required that the huntress live, even if she would be a pain in the ass. But before I put this plan into action, I would need to clean up a mess.

"…No…we can use her, especially if you're sure she has no idea any of this is happening." I said.

"She just knows that there's a Dust robbery in process, and was in the area. That's it." The girl explained.

"Good, then we can definitely use her. Quick question, though, is the shopkeeper alive?" I asked, wondering if he would be a witness to this.

"Yes, but none of the camera systems are operational. He also didn't see me kill your men, I put him to sleep after I killed the first two of your men." She explained, apparently reading the underlying intentions for why I asked the question.

"Okay, that's actually better than I expected." I said, surprised about how thorough she was.

Still…no witnesses…

"I'm going to go kill the shopkeeper, you don't have problem with that, do you?" I asked, not really caring if she did or not, but more interested in the morals of this girl. So far, it didn't seem like she had too many scruples, but I could be reading her wrong.

"I was actually planning on…cleaning…the scene myself." She commented, turning back to me.

"Don't you have to distract the huntress?' I inquired.

"This shouldn't be too hard." She remarked.

"Alright, whatever, Red." I shrugged.

And with that, we walked into the Dust store. The bell rung as I pushed the door open, and there was a tiny splash as my shoe landed in a puddle.

I looked down, and saw one of my henchmen face down on the ground, a puddle of blood pooling from his neck.

I blinked.

"Red…this your doing?" I asked.

"I told you." She began, stepping past me without a second glance at the body.

"They were already dead, I just…severed the last cord." She answered emotionlessly.

Curious, I flipped the man's body over with my foot. To my surprise, there were streaks of blood pouring from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. His eyes were bloodshot and wide in horror, and there was a deep and bloody laceration at his neck. Hell, it was so deep I could see his spinal cord peeking out. Any deeper and he'd be headless.

A feat that prompted a whistle from me.

"Wow Red, you got a mean arm." I complimented, picking up the suitcase of dust he had in his cold dead hand.

"It was efficient." She answered distractedly from the other end of the other end of the store.

"Yeah, but you almost cut his damn head off," I muttered, walking through the rest of the store.

Most of the lights were out in the store. The few that weren't were flickering, painting the store in an ominous dark and shuttering twilight. I stopped when my foot knocked into something in the darkness.

Pausing, I knelt to get a better view of what it was I hit.

"Nevermind," I commented, looking at the decapitated head, blood pouring from the orifices of the man's horrified face, forever frozen in pain.

"You're one sick cookie, Red." I raised my voice, standing up.

I didn't actually mind it too much. I worked with Neo, after all. After all these years, I had sort of grown numb to the more…macabre…ways to kill. Personally I was a fan of the classics.

Bullet to the head.

Knife to the gut.

Simple shit.

Decapitation, though…I could deal with decapitation.

"So Red, what are you-" I began, looking for her.

"Done." She said, from behind.

I jumped, "Fuck!"

"Red, stop it!" I yelled at her.

"Stop what?" She asked innocently with a tilt of her head.

The worst part was, I got the impression she was serious.

"Just…being creepy as shit!" I gesticulated, reaching for the words.

She just continued to stare at me with a perplexed expression. It'd be cute if it wasn't for the blood on her face.

Ok, maybe it was still a little cute despite the blood on her face and the setting.

"Nevermind." I groaned

"You said you were done?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Cool." I flatly responded. "I'm going to clear out the register. Maybe put a bullet in the shopkeep's head. That sort of stuff." I said, turning around.

The part about the shop keep was more of a test than anything. I wanted to see if she would give two shits about an innocent bystander. Also, I wanted to get rid of all witnesses. Can't take the chance of letting this little gem getting caught.

Not with the things she could do.

"I already killed him." She commented.

Ok, nevermind. Problem solved I thought, impressed.

"Still want to clean out the register," I said, moving past her towards the front of the store.

A few minutes later, I was 547 Lien richer and we were standing outside the store looking back at it.

"So, you sure there's nothing else you want from there?" I asked, covering my bases.

"Yes." She responded simply

"Well, in that case, follow me," I said, making my way to the alley, swinging my cane theatrically to gesture her to me.

She followed quietly, not saying a word or making a word as she did. Every now and then I had to look behind me just to make sure she was actually still back there.

Finally, we arrived at the Bullhead hidden by buildings, right where we left it.

I walked up to the door on the side, knocked three times, and waited. I didn't have to wait long before it opened.

It opened up to reveal a beautiful young woman with long, wavy black hair, and smoldering amber eyes. She was in a form-fitting red dress with a distinct flame motif and a nice view of her shapely legs. I, however, was a professional, and more importantly, she scared the shit out of me.

She looked at me, the briefcases of Dust I was holding, looked over my shoulder, noticed the lack of henchmen, and then looked back at me with a raised brow.

"What happened to your men?" She asked in a sultry, yet somehow threatening, voice.

"Rightwell…you see…there was a complication." I began slowly, nervous about how to explain this to Cinder without getting burned. Or slapped.

"A complication?" She asked, her voice gaining a lethal edge.

"Yeah…" I began, then sighed. I realized I might as well get it out now, Cinder didn't really like excuses.

I moved my body out of the way, and gestured to the little girl standing behind me, silently standing there patiently. She stood there, her head tilting in curiosity as she looked at Cinder.

"Meet the complication," I said, introducing the kid with another theatrical wave of my cane.

Cinder, not amused, just looked at the kid, wondering what the hell that was supposed to mean.

After a second of glaring, she looked back at me and icily said, "What?"

"This kid killed all my henchmen, by herself, and without my notice, and then snuck up on me. Instead of killing me, she asked if she could…work for us." I explained

The kid looked to me and raised an eyebrow, noting the way I changed what she said.

Cinder gave me a flat, yet caustic, look. "Really?" she said skeptically.

I put my hand over my chest, in a mock effort to pledge, "Honest. Went back to see her handiwork myself. Each one had a nice new bloody necktie." I explained.

She then turned to give the girl another look, appraising her.

"So you're saying we have a little assassin here?" She asked

"Better." I corrected with a knowing smirk

Cinder raised her brow in skeptical surprise, "Better?"

"You see, before she killed them, she apparently ripped their minds from their bodies, learning what they knew. After she "harvested" their minds, they were rendered little more than brain dead invalids." I explained

"Really?" She drawled, still skeptical

"She also said there's a huntress, Glynda Goodwitch, on the way. Apparently, the kid's detaining her or some such shit, I don't know, but I doubt she can keep it up forever, so we should probably hurry this up." I added.

Cinder blinked at that, then grew a cruel, teasing, smirk that she directed at me.

"I'm surprised, Roman. I thought you were above getting tricked by little girls." She scolded after a second, obviously still in doubt.

I sighed, realizing that this would be much more difficult than I thought.

"She didn't "trick" me. She used her "psychic powers" on me to show me the proof. She read my mind and found out about you. I don't really see how she could have found out about you otherwise." I explained, trying to bring her around.

I guess I shouldn't really be surprised by her response. I was pretty skeptical too, even after she pulled my mind into "Purgatory", or whatever the hell that was.

Cinder took a moment to think about this, her face contorting into a frown. Finally, she looked back at the kid.

"Fine then, if you can prove that you have these "psychic powers", then we'll talk." Cinder said.

The kid looked slightly taken aback at that.

"B-but, I can't. I'm distracting the huntress." The kid tried to explain, growing worried

"You mean, you claim you are." Cinder added, her face growing a cruel smirk as she felt herself gain power of the kid.

"No, I am. There's only so much I can do at one time." The kid defended.

"So you say." Cinder retorted dismissively

"I can't do anything else with my semblance without releasing the huntress." The kid explained, getting annoyed.

"Of course you can't, you're nothing more than a lying little girl after all." Cinder haughtily accused her.

"I'm not a liar." The girl said firmly and venomously, her frown deepening at being called a liar.

"Then prove it." Cinder goaded simply with a smirk.

The girl's frown deepened even further, before she seemed to resign herself to the consequences.

"Fine." She said simply and coldly.

She wasn't happy about this, but she would do it.

She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. When she let it out, she opened her eyes to reveal two solid silver eyes. She looked us both in the eye with those pupil-less orbs, and suddenly I felt that same vertigo as the world was once again enveloped in darkness. Before I knew, I was back in Purgatory, but I wasn't alone.

I heard a gasp from beside me, and turned to find that Cinder was here with me this time. She was doing what I was the first time I was here, looking around in wonder and fear. I can't say I was comfortable here, 'cause it still freaked me the hell out, but at least it wasn't as bad as my first time here.

"Roman, what's going on?" Cinder asked, angry at being surprised like this.

"Well…you did ask for a demonstration." I shot back, feeling a bit confident after being proven right.

This only served to irritate her further.

"Are you satisfied?" The girl said, appearing the out of nowhere, still in her shadowy form. She did not sound happy.

Instead, Cinder decided to redirect her irritation at the kid.

"How do I know that this isn't just some illusion? This doesn't prove anything." Cinder accused.

"Dammit, Cinder." I bit out under my breath. I had a feeling she'd be regretting that.

"So this isn't enough for you?" The kid questioned, possibly equally annoyed as Cinder.

The difference was…we were in the kid's world, not Cinder's.

But one look at Cinder told me that she hadn't figured that out yet. She was still convinced that this was all just some cheap trick.

"Am I supposed to be impressed by this parlor trick? So far I'm not seeing anything that should convince me to let you live." Cinder replied, her confidence growing again.

What the hell is she doing? I thought. I don't think I've ever seen her act like this.

The kid, upon hearing Cinder's response, looked annoyed. Her eyes narrowed into silver white slits, her mouth setting into a firm line of crackling light.

"What?" The kid questioned, annoyed by Cinder's comment.

Cinder, on the other hand, looked incredibly pleased, having gotten the upper hand in the conversation. She gave her another cruel smirk as threw another shot at the girl.

"You heard me. You see, you know about me. I don't know how, maybe Roman made a mistake and slipped up, all I know is, I can't afford to let you live. You're just some little girl with a fancy little semblance and some talent in acting. You're nothing, and now you know too much." Cinder explained, her smug expression staring the girl down.

The kid looked down at the ground and clenched her fists, looking like she had been pushed to the brink.

Somewhere in my heart, I should probably be shocked that Cinder was about to kill a kid and the cruel way she was treating the girl. But I didn't get where I was today by being a bleeding heart.

However, Cinder was acting…weird.

While she could be intimidating, and murderous, she wasn't usually this dismissive and aggressive. Usually, she used an odd combination of sweet and threatening, but here she was just being threatening. She seemed to be making this…personal, despite what she was saying, since she appeared to be thoroughly enjoying this whole thing.

But, I knew better than to try and get in her way once she put her mind to something. Knowing her, she'd probably burn me alive if I said something right now, especially with that look on her face.

"So, just do me a favor, and die." Cinder said finally with a predatory smile that was bordering on deranged.

She thrust her arm forward and the fiery patterns on her dress lit up. A Sigil lit up beneath the girl, and a fraction of a second later, it erupted into a massive column of flame. It exploded beneath her, and consumed her within a tower of smoke and flames.

"Well, that's that." Cinder said looking incredibly pleased.

"Did you really need to do that?" I questioned, "Even if you did need to kill the kid, that was kind of overkill."

"Oh, I didn't need to kill her." Cinder began to explain.

"What?" I questioned.

"No, I wanted to kill that stupid little shit. She thought she could impress me with this illusion, and I killed her for it." Cinder explained, smirking.

I frowned at her.

Something is seriously off here.

Then I realized something.

"Uh…Cinder, if this is just some cheap parlor trick….why isn't it going away?" I asked, noting how we were still in Purgatory.

At this Cinder took the opportunity to look away from her towering blaze, and look around at the spiraling void. Her smirk drained off her face as realized that this wasn't nearly as simple as she thought it was.

"I-I don't know."she said, uncertain and slightly shaken.

Then, the void that surrounded us churned. Something inside it moved, it writhed and rolled. The "floor" beneath suddenly wasn't so solid anymore. My feet began to sink into the inky darkness beneath me, the void swallowing it up. I couldn't even tell if I was sinking, or it was rising.

"Cinder…" I said, fear crawling up into my voice as I looked to her, only to see her in a similar predicament.

"Get us out of this!" I yelled

"I'm trying!" She growled, thrusting her hand forward as her dress lit up again.

She sent a burst of fire at the darkness beneath us, and it just…it went through it. Like there was nothing there.

It was as if we were being consumed by…nothingness. Like the walls of reality itself was enveloping us.

As it inched across my body, I could feel a deathly cold creeping in. Bursts of light and fire stole my attention as Cinder burst into a frenzy to try and blast it off her. But despite her struggling, the void continued to consume us, and there was nothing we could do about it.

I felt that fear, that dread, well up from inside and pervade my being as the void crawled up my chest, took hold of my arms, my legs, my everything, before finally taking my head.

For a moment, I couldn't breathe. It was like I was immersed in ice cold water that froze me to the bone. I couldn't see anything, hear anything, or even feel anything, other than the cold empty dark surrounding me.

Then, it was gone.

Like I had been spat out by the void, I fell and hit the ground. I still felt drenched, and frozen to the bone, but I felt other things. The scent of ozone and charred wood flooded my nose, with wisps of various forest scents. I could hear distant and vague voices in the background. Opening my eyes, I got up and looked around.

I was still in Red's creepy shadow realm, that was for sure. But now, it looked like I was in some kind of….shadow forest.

It looked like a forest, with all the tall tree-like poles standing up around me. There also looked like there was leaves, grass, and all that forest crap on the ground. It's just that everything was in a dark monotone. Not quite the empty black of the void, however, just dark.

The sky, however, was something else.

It was as if the place I had just come from was the sky now. I could see the deep dark empty nothingness as the void of space, while the giant bright ball of blinding light sat high in the sky. It was distant, far more distant than it was before, but it was still massive. It easily took up a chunk of the whole sky.

But despite its shining presence, the world around me was still covered in dark shadows.

Weird I thought with narrowed eyes, suspicious of my surroundings.

Then I saw her.

Cinder

She looked like she was just getting up from her less than pleasant landing herself.

"Cinder!" I shouted, walking over to her.

She turned to me, and could see, for the first time since I met her, a measure of fear in her.

"Roman." She said, trying to put up a tough front. It almost worked.

"Where are we?" She questioned

"How should I know?" I remarked

"You brought her to me." She growled, looking very uncomfortable in her drench outfit.

"I didn't know she could do this! I don't even know what the hell this is!" I exclaimed.

"This is your fault, you fix it!" I argued, angrily pointing my finger at her.

"Remember who you're talking to." She all but snarled at me raising a flame coated hand.

"I'm talking to the crazy bitch who tried to roast a kid, only to panic when the kid turned out to be some kind of supernatural abomination in a little girl's body." I shot back.

"Maybe I should remind you who exactly holds all the power here." Cinder growled, her burning hands clenching into fists as her eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I do." A third voice said, breaking us from our little spat.

We spun to the source of the voice, and found none other than the girl that was the source of all this.

"You!" Cinder roared, the flames leaping in response to her rage.

"Me." The girl frowned in her ethereal form.

"Take us back!" Cinder demanded.

Instead, the little shade decided to circle around us, like a predator stalking its prey.

"You know…" She began, slipping past the topic. "I tried."

"I came to you, offered my services, talked with civility, and even respected your wishes." She continued.

"I don't have time for this drivel." Cinder snarled, dismissing her flames, and drawing a bow from shards of glass that appeared from her dress.

That's a new trick I thought, my eyes widening slightly

"Cinder that might not be the best idea," I said carefully instead.

Cinder ignored me, and instead shot a black arrow at the girl.

The arrow flew straight and true to the girl, heading right at her head. That is, until Red glanced at it.

The instant her eyes landed on the arrow, it dissolved into a cloud of dust.

Then her eyes turned to Cinder's bow, and just like the arrow, it disappeared in a cloud of dust.

"This is my home. You are here because I allowed it. You exist in this realm because I permit it." The girl glared, her voice growing darker, losing the tone of the child, and the tone of the women growing stronger.

As she spoke, her form changed. It grew larger, taller, and more mature. It went from being the outline of a child, to that of a woman.

"I invite you to my home, and instead of receiving the courtesy and respect I gave you, you give me hatred, distrust, scheming, and an outright attempt on my life." The…woman? Girl? Thing? Growled at us.

"But what else should have I expected from humans?"

"You think these tricks will impress me?" Cinder shot back, wreathing her hands in flames.

"Silence!" The…thing...before us roared in a twisted and distorted mess of voices, throwing her hand at Cinder.

When it did, a rush of wind surged forward, blowing out Cinder's flames. Then, her clothes were torn from her body, much like the bow and arrow, turning into a cloud of black dust that was instantly blown away by the wind.

And Cinder was left, cold, damp, and naked in the forest of shadows the surrounded us.

"Once again your own ego and hubris hinders you. It could have been so simple, and yet you make it so difficult." It continued.

Cinder looked absolutely furious, her hand clenched by her side, the other doing its best to preserve some semblance of her modesty.

"I'm going to kill you." She said through clenched teeth, her voice trembling with rage.

Cinder raised an arm up, her left eye glowing gold with some kind of power.

"I'm going to make you scream for me." She said as her arm lit up.

"You said you wanted to see a magic trick?" The monster said, ignoring cinder as it raised an arm of its own, this one holding a long, simple farming scythe made of the same void as her body, summoned from the shadows around her.

I heard the screaming sound that sounded every time Cinder summoned one of her exploding sigils, and right then and there, I knew it was all going to go to shit again.

But I didn't know how right I was.

Just as the sigil appeared in Cinder's hand, the last moment before it was summoned on whatever she wanted it on, chains black as night flew out from the darkest corners of the forest, and bound around her arm. When they did, the Sigil stopped, and the screaming sound became stuck, unending, as if their process had been interrupted, or paused.

Before Cinder could even react, more followed, wrapping around her arms and legs, before being pulled back to whence they came. Cinder flew back into the forest, before coming to a stop when her back slammed into one of the many trees in the Shadow Forest.

The black chains continued to wrap around her, binding her to the tree. Cinder struggled, kicking and screaming as angry tears ran down her cheeks, while I stood there watching.

I was speechless.

I didn't know what to do.

I was god knows where, probably this thing's own personal shadow realm. Cinder had managed to piss off what was a very nice and mild mannered, if creepy, girl into becoming this…thing. And Cinder herself was practically frothing at the mouth to kill her. I had never seen her like this. Sure, she would frown or get a tiny flare of anger whenever Ozpin was mentioned, when there some kind of delay in her plans, or when something unexpected happened, but this?

This was totally unlike her. Never before had I seen her display such undisguised hate. That's not to say I had known her long or known her well. But this was just unprecedented.

And what was happening now?

I didn't even know how to begin to process it. To a certain extent, I felt like I was just along for the ride.

A captive and unwilling audience.

Frankly, I felt like I was losing my mind. Like this was all a sick nightmare, and any second I was going to wake up.

I barely even noticed how I had shifted positions in the forest. How we were now in a large, circular clearing, with Cinder tied to the tree in the middle of it all.

I did, however, notice that this tree wasn't so much a tree, so much as it was a poll. A poll that had a pile of what looked like sticks underneath it.

Then I felt the presence of that…thing…again. She walked up from behind me, her shadowy cloaked form feeling like it towered over mine.

"YOU BITCH!" Cinder roared, her voice growing hoarse. "WHAT IS THIS?!"

"This?" The woman beside me said, raising her free hand, the other carrying her scythe, none of the anger from before in her echoing voice.

As she spoke, I realized I could finally hear what the voices around me were saying. And what they said chilled me to the bone.

"Burn the witch!"

"Purge the heathen!"

"Kill it!"

"Burn it!"

"Kill Satan's child!"

"Purify it with the Lord's fire!"

All around me, I could see the shadows of what looked like a crowd surrounding us. All these voices seemed to be screaming at once, both there, and hollow, but still containing hatred and malice, as if they were real.

"Demon!"

It was then, of course, that I realized I could smell oil.

"Witch!"

Then, a small fire was lit in the mess of sticks beneath her, lighting the whole clearing up.

"Burn!"

I have a bad feeling about this I gulped as I looked up at her.

"This is a demonstration." She finished as she snapped her fingers with a loud snap.

And with that, Cinder's Sigil seemed to resume.

Much to everyone's horror.

Instead of being cast on the thing beside me, or anywhere else, Cinder's Sigil was cast on herself. In a flash, he body became covered in hundreds of Sigils, each burning themselves onto her pale skin.

Cinder stopped, fear entering her wide open eyes for the first time.

"Wait, no-" she began to beg

But she didn't get the chance

BOOM!

Suddenly, all at once, every single Sigil on her detonated in a massive fireball. A massive, blazing tower of fire burned in the forest of shadows, casting everything in a murderous light. The cacophony of hundreds screams from all the Sigil's going off at once rung in the air for what felt like hours.

Then I realized that the screams of the Sigil's had ended long ago, and these screams belonged to Cinder herself.

I could see her in there. I could see her blackened silhouette in the fire. I could see her writhing in screaming in the flames. Soon, I could see her flesh melting through the flames, the way it began to drip from her muscle and bone. The scent of burning flesh and charred wood flooded my nose. The sounds of Cinder screaming out in agony, crying out for mercy, filled my ears. The sight of Cinder's face twisted in agony as she was being burned alive by her own power captivated my eyes.

In one way, it was horrible, twisted, disturbing, and terrifying.

And yet…

In another, it was beautiful. It was sick and depraved, but there was a certain undeniable beauty in the woman on fire.

Then, I felt that familiar tingling sensation throughout my body. I could hear the sound of rushing winds as the world swirled around me. I felt a wave of vertigo, and I closed my eyes.

And when I opened them again, I was back.

I was in the real world again.

I stumbled, regaining my balance and looked around to regain my bearings. I turned to my side and saw her.

Cinder was alive, conscious, and intact. But she was crouched down on all fours, panting wildly, sweat pouring from her face, an expression of terror and pain on her face as she tried to regain her composure. This was halted when a blood stained, curved blade hooked under her jaw, forcing her to look up.

Holding a bloodstained scythe with a joint where the blade met the shaft, was the girl. She was forcing Cinder to look at her with it, and the way she was holding it made it clear she had no issue with ending Cinder's life at any moment.

I took another glance at Cinder and noticed that her muscles were still having spasms periodically in pain. She was in no condition to resist.

"Was that good enough for you?" The girl questioned icily.

Cinder just looked at her before asking the question on all our minds at that moment.

"Who-what are you?"

The girl paused, tilting her head in thought as she pondered the answer to that question.

"I…used to be human." She started before another pause.

"But…then I disappeared. I'm not really sure what I became when I came back." She answered calmly

"What's your name?" I asked, trying to defuse the situation.

"Ruby Rose." The girl answered without taking her eyes off her captive.

Cinder laughed, a humorless laugh.

"Well then, Ruby, that was good enough. More than good enough. I can definitely use someone like you." She answered with a twisted smile that was tinged with dangerous amounts of madness.

"Good," Ruby responded

And with that, she swiftly removed her scythe from Cinder's chin. With a flick of her wrist the blade of scythe folded up, becoming parallel with the shaft, which had collapsed in in itself. In its more compact form, Ruby then sheathed it back behind her.

"How old are you?" Cinder asked as she got up.

"15." The girl answered.

"Really?" We both asked incredulously at the idea that this kid was actually 15.

"Legally." She responded, probably understanding our disbelief.

"Well, in that case I have a plan. You said Goodwitch was on her way here, right?" She asked

Ruby nodded her head in affirmation.

"Good, then we can talk more about this, make official arrangements and such later. For now, let's focus on getting you into Beacon." Cinder said, regaining her composure as she relayed her plan to us.

Somehow I knew I was going to hate it.


Present

And surprise

I was right.

I hated it.

Still, I thought, walking over to Jack's corpse.

At least she delivered.

"So." I began, bending down over his body.

"Is he dead?" I asked as I picked up his rifle. Mawr, I believed he called it.

It's a nice assault rifle I thought, looking it over in my hands.

Incendiary rounds are a nice touch, too I thought, taking the clip out, inspecting the rounds, before putting the mag back in and cycling the bolt with a nice, meaty, click.

"He should be dead, but I'm not sure the effect aura would have on ner-"

Bang!

Smoke wafted from the barrel of Mawr and the fresh, bloody, hole in Jack's head. Already I could see the tiny fire burning inside his skull growing.

"I think he's dead," I remarked, lowering Mawr from its position, pointed straight at his head.

"Quite," Ruby commented with a quirked brow.

"Was that a poison bullet?" I asked, wondering how she killed him.

"Essentially." She responded distractedly as she observed Jack's skull slowly burn from the inside out.

"I've never seen a poison round act that fast before," I commented as I let Mawr hang loosely in my right hand by my side.

"Nerve Gas is effective like that." She answered slowly

"Nerve Gas?" I questioned.

"Think of it as a paralytic poison that freezes up your very lungs." She answered.

"Why couldn't you just go with normal things, like fire or ice?" I asked rhetorically with a sigh.

"This was actually a test to see if a poisonous agent would be able to bypass someone's aura." She said, "And I'm happy to see it was a success."

"Cool," I said slowly with a raised brow, somewhat unsettled by the detached scientific way this girl thought about how to kill somebody, not to mention the unconventional way she was going about it.

And that was probably the strangest part about this whole thing. I'm no stranger to death, it comes with the territory. I've seen all sorts of reactions to killing, from detached compartmentalization and rationalization, to psychotic and sadistic thrill and joy. But this hollow scientific interest mixed with the jarring apathy in this man's life was…new to me.

Still, it's easier to deal with than Neo's sadistic fascination with killing. I thought as she holstered her gun and straddled his cooling corpse.

Plus, this "nerve gas" sounds useful, if it can kill a man through their aura as well as it did Jack. I added silently.

She placed a hand against the breastplate of his armor. A Beeb sounded, and at once, all the latches locking his armor in place on his body detached with a Click. She dug her hands into the left side of the breastplate, and flipped it over his chest, where it landed on the floor with a dull and heavy Thud. Underneath the chest plate was the skintight grey undersuit of hexagonal "scales".

She moved her hands to his belt, and…

"Huh, didn't take you for being into necrophilia," I commented.

She stopped, before slowly turning to me with a quizzical expression and tilted head that silently asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, what am I supposed to think with you molesting his corpse?" I added.

"I'm not 'molesting' him, I'm checking him for anything useful." She explained with mild exasperation.

"So you're looting him?" I suggested.

"…yes." She agreed after a moment of consideration

"But, then, you knew that, didn't you?" She asked pointedly.

"Maybe." I shrugged, not that she could see it.

"So it seems I have quite the little thief on my hands," I said, making small talk while she rifled through his many, many, pockets.

"It's not stealing if they're dead." She answered, picking up his double-barreled sawed-off drum fed shotgun and looking it over.

"Then what is it?" I asked rhetorically.

"The spoils of war." She responded distractedly as she picked up and looked over his axe.

"…I like the way you think." I commented with a nod.

After a second, she pulled all his equipment, secondary weapons, and spare ammunition, and put it in a pile next to his body.

"Are you done?" I asked

"Almost."

"Almost?"

"Yes."

And with that, her hands felt for the zipper that blended into the suit itself. Finally finding it, she grabbed hold, and unzipped his suit, leaving his pale, well-toned, and still chest open to the world.

I was about to say, "Are you sure you aren't into necrophilia?", when she drew a rather large knife from her cloak.

Before I could do much more than blink in surprise, she took the knife to his skin, and ran it down his chest, splitting it open from collarbone to navel. Crimson blood oozed from the wound, the lack of a beating heart keeping it from gushing out. She plunged her open right hand into the wound she opened in his abdomen. She almost her entire arm inside his chest, the squishing wet sounds of her moving around inside his corpse leaving even me a feeling a bit ill, and I hardly considered myself squeamish.

Then, she made a hum of approval, before yanking her arm out of his body, pulling with it a fist-sized chunk of bloody meat.

"Is that his heart?" I questioned

"...Yes." She said after a moment of looking it over.

Then, without another word, she pulled out a red, insulated, bag, and put it inside, before stuffing the bag into the void of her cloak.

Why can't I work with normal people? I thought rhetorically, still getting over the fact that the little girl that just killed a man and broke me out of jail, just ripped out a fresh dead man's fucking heart.

Even Neo didn't do that.

Once they were dead, they were usually useless to her.

…usually.

"Any reason why?" I asked, still a little grossed out by this.

"Oh, Roman." She began, turning to look at me with a smirk, "Everyone knows the heart is the most delicious part."

"…yes…delicious…how could I forget…" I said, disturbed by the claim she made.

The way a glimmer of mirth danced in her eyes at my response told me it was a joke. But the downright sinister way her lips curled told me it wasn't as much of a joke as I would have liked.

"Why don't you put those things in the bag?" She suggested, returning to her bland expression as she gestured to the pile of stuff she had looted from his corpse.

"Bag?"

At my confusion, she gestured to a pair of empty duffel bags sitting against the wall.

"You planning on going shopping?" I commented as I walked over to the bag and put the weapons inside.

"Believe it or not, we didn't just come here for you." She retorted.

I was about to respond, when I noticed something

"…Wait a second, we?" I questioned.

"Yes. I'm here with Neo." She answered.

"You met Neo?"

"When Cinder declined to help me retrieve you, she pointed me toward your associate." Ruby explained.

"Ah." I said, "That makes sense."

"But…where is she?" I wondered out loud, looking around for her. I knew Neo well enough to know that she was damn near impossible to find if she didn't want to be found. And it would be just like her to pop up behind me just to try and make me shit my pants.

"She's setting the charges." Ruby answered.

I blinked.

"Charges?!" I exclaimed.

"Yes."

"You're blowing this place up?"

"Yes."

"How? Why?"

"I have my reasons."

"I didn't even know Neo was that good with explosives." I commented, still stunned by the revelation.

"She's not."

Something that prompted the skeptical look I gave her.

"What?" she asked innocently

"You told her where to set the charges?"

"Yes, and?"

"And I have my doubts you know what you're talking about."

"I blew up the Dust store well enough, didn't I?"

"That was a Dust Store. It was literally a powder keg. You could have blown it sky high with a cherry bomb." I said flatly.

"…True…" she relented.

"Just trust that I know what I'm doing."

"I don't trust my own mother, why the hell should I trust you?" I questioned.

"Because." She said, getting up from Jack's corpse.

"I came back for you, instead of leaving you to rot." She finished, looking directly at me with those twin silver orbs.

I paused for a moment as I realized she had a point. She could have left me here. Let me stay Cinder's problem. Instead, she just busted me out herself, along with Neo.

"Alright." I conceded, "Fair enough, Red"

"Fair enough."


A/n:

Surprise.

Damn

That is a lot of shit for me to unpack

So bear with me

I feel the need for a rant.

But first off, I'm going to get to the topic I know someone's going to comment on

Yes

Cinder was acting OOC

I know

and just like Tai, there's a reason for it.

I didn't just turn her into a crazy bitch for the hell of it.

That being said, I'm not going to really get into it this chapter

that, along with several other things, will be addressed in the next two chapters.

This whole arc is the last arc in Act II

and I have been planning this whole thing out for a long time.

It's also a revelation arc, where I reveal a whole bunch of shit, like the fact that Ruby is working with Cinder

And that she can eat people's minds

So just calm your tits about that shit, ok?

I'll get to it

I only wanted to put so much stuff into one chapter, especially when I have four whole episodes to go over everything.

That said, it's not everything, just what I feel like I should go over now.

Can't tell you all my secrets just yet, can I?

Still, despite all my warnings, I get the feelings there's just going to be that one guy

that one motherfucker that takes issue with it.

Sigh

Anyway, I finally delivered on an unspoken promise.

I have seen, far too often, that a character will be portrayed as a hardcore murderous character that will kill without a second thought or something, and yet

despite that

they never do it

Or something else along those lines.

Like how in RWBY, Pyrrha was implied to being a badass fighter, and yet we didn't really see that, not until Cinder, and even then, she got killed, so...

kinda puts a damper on the badassery

And even that was arguable.

So yeah

I've been portraying Ruby as a stone cold sociopath with freaky powers who'd kill you without a second thought

Well here she is

using freaky powers to kill people without a second thought to accomplish her goals.

Tada

Did it please you?

I hope so

Because I have been waiting for a long as fuck time to get to this.

If you couldn't tell, the bit took place after the very first scene of the story was actually supposed to be the very first scene

yeah

that's right

that part was the plan all along.

I changed it on a whim when I decided to try and play coy and hide some of my cards.

Which turned into hiding damn near all my cards.

And I was just going to hold off on that reveal until scene 4

which became scenes 17-20

which became scenes 21-24

which became this

the end of the arc

but the wait is over.

Also, speaking of plans and waiting, Jack

Now, I don't care if you shed a tear over Jack's death, whoop in joy, or scratch your head wondering which one Jack was.

Ok, maybe that's a lie

maybe

in any case, Jack was made to die

literally

that first part of the torchwick tales?

Where we saw Roman in Jail for the first time?

That's about the time when I came up with the plan for Ruby to break Roman out of jail

Which is why the Watchmen are Roman's fault, because I needed to give him guards

Guards that Ruby would kill

Competent guards

At first, it was going to be SWAT

then I realized that didn't make sense because this wasn't America

So thought up a Remnant Equivalent

which is when I realized, what good would simple SWAT be in a world where kids go to school to get superpowers and fight hordes of monsters?

So to counter them, I created the Watchmen, and it sort of exploded from there.

So yes, in summary, I made the Watchmen so Ruby had some competent guards to kill when she "retrieved" Roman.

They were built to get fucked up.

That said, they've grown into a life of their own.

As it stands, Ymir at least has shit to do outside of this, so he's fine. So's Robin, but he's kind of less important in the short term.

Though I might kill him for the hell of it.

hmm...'

In any case, that's the Watchmen and Cinder down.

Now Roman and Ruby

I saw at least one person mention that Rosewick seemed like an interesting pairing, or at least an interesting character interaction, romantic or otherwise, but they weren't sure how to get them together.

Well

Tada.

That isn't me say that Rosewick is confirmed.

But this is far from the last time we see Ruby and Roman work together or otherwise interact and be in the same setting.

Though next time we get to see the trio of Roman, Neo, and Ruby work together

AKA fun

I'm also showing you hints of Mad Scientist Ruby.

Yeah...

That's not going away anytime soon

Not sure where it came from, but I like the idea of it.

(That's a total lie, I know exactly where it came from, and it's filled with Madness)

If you have a problem with it...

Eh

Too bad.

Anyways, I think that's about it.

I feel like I missed something, though

Oh well

I'm sure I'll get a bunch of questions because I forgot about a shitton of things, but whatever.

I'll answer them if you got them and they aren't spoilerific.

If they are spoilerific, I'll tell you they're spoilerific and see if that changes your mind.

So, with all that said, I bid you adieu.

I hope you enjoyed this, and I shall be posting the next chapter in a week, with scene 32 to round it out coming in at the end of the month.

See you later