Please enjoy, and constructive criticism is appreciated. (I do not own RWBY, but I do own all the OCs except three, Nick and Isabel, which belong to my real life friend, although I did design them; and Shade, who belongs to my online friend The Burning Ruler)

Blood of Grimm: Chapter 12

Isabel collapses to the ground, causing Nick to turn away from his fight. "NO!" A small pool of blood soaks into the dirt underneath her.

"Don't get distracted." Nick feels a cold sword run into his abdomen from behind, missing any vital organs. Drender kicks him from behind, then pushes the sword into the ground. Pinned, Nick tries futilely to escape.

Drender gestures with his head to Donald, the man with the assault rifle. Donald walks over to where Isabel lays, flicking the safety of his gun off. He rolls her over and notes the rising and falling of her chest, just visible under the crushed armor. "Drender, she still alive."

Nick's heart nearly stops. "Alive? After that sniper bullet? It's a miracle. And one that I can't waste." His vision gets fuzzy from the blood loss, even when he tries to enhance it using his semblance.

"Then kill her. We don't need her alive, and it might make this brat's spirit break." Drender walks toward Donald as the latter raises his rifle, flicking it to semi-automatic mode. He takes careful aim.

"No! I won't let her die!" Struggling, Nick finds the strength to push himself off the ground, silently. Standing up, he pulls the sword out of his stomach, gritting his teeth in pain. He throws the sword past Drender, hitting the rifle in Donald's hand, causing it to jerk aside. Flinging a paralysis needle out, Nick stings Donald in the neck and drags him to the ground.

Nick stomps hard twice, cracking Donald's ribs, then kicks his head, breaking the muscular man's neck. The way Donald dies, it almost looks like he had attacked by a constrictor type snake.

"Now I just need to beat Drender… But how?"

Valke is in his room, completely recovered, in front of a microphone. The microphone and other recording equipment are attached to a laptop. He had tested all the equipment and calibrated it. The idea was to make covers of songs and give them to stores to sell, and they would do this every month, the first batch free, and if it was successful, to take about half the profit. This was because the CCTS was down, so people needed a more old fashioned way to listen to music.

Breathing deeply, he begins to record the first song.

(Play The Animal by Disturbed Warning: Symbols in official music video can be seen as Satanic, but the band and song are not. If offended by such images, please do not watch official music video. Also mentions "hell".)

Nick lowers his body, putting pressure on his right foot, which is farther back. Half-crouched, he raises his arms, at an equal distance from his body. His right hand holds his knife, and his left hand holds a poison needle in a reverse grip. His eyes glow orange.

Drender picks up his sword and looks and the sniper, telling him to back off. "Well, brat, looks like you can fight after all. But you still can't beat me. After all, I taught you." He smiles, slowly approaching. He feints with the sword to Nick's right, then immediately strikes with the dagger in a lunge.

Nick sidesteps fluidly, always keeping pressure on one leg. He wraps his right arm around Drender's left from above, ending with the knife at just below the elbow. He jerks his wrist, cutting deeply into the tanned arm. Releasing that arm, he elbows it away before stabbing downward with the needle, barely brushing against Drender's chest. Nick jumps back, returning to the coiled stance.

Drender moves around Nick. Nick doesn't follow him, so Drender circles to his back and lunges, the sword pointed forward and the dagger pointed upward, perpendicular to the sword. Nick steps to the side, letting Drender lunge past him.

He turns, imbedding the knife in Drender's stomach as he does so. Using his body weight to stop Drender's momentum, Nick pulls the knife out of Drender, then uses it to slash the man's arm. He follows up with a slash to the chest, then a quick uppercut to the base of the skull.

The long, curved knife imbeds in Drender's skull, piercing the throat and entering Drender's mouth. Drender looks surprised, then makes a gurgling sound that might be laughter and nods. Nick lets him fall to the ground.

Nick is panting hard, the energy drained. He's lost too much blood. His eyes return to his normal color and he collapses next to Drender's corpse. His eyes close and he blacks out.

"That damn boy actually managed to take down Drender! Well, I just need to capture the boy and bring him back, and it's an instant promotion for me! But first things first." Grinning, Cole swings his rifle, peering into the scope. He trains in on where Isabel is, then frowns "What? Where did she-" Suddenly, the tree he's perched in starts falling, and he stands up, managing to not fall out of the tree. When it stops moving, he draws his sidearm and looks around. A whisper, and Isabel moves up behind him, her rifle pressed into his back, right at the heart. A loud crack and he falls to the ground, his a hole in his chest, his heart burst open.

Isabel walks away, looking back. "That was for me, and for Nick." She breaks into a run and dashes toward Nick.

Nick is lying in a massive pool of blood, both his and Drender's, and it's at the point where the dirt is oversaturated and can't soak up anymore of the crimson liquid. Luckily, his bleeding has slowed down, but not stopped. Isabel runs into the bunker and grabs Nick's extensive first aid kit.

Returning to Nick's side, she immediately starts a fire and begins heating up a long metal rod. Unstopping a bottle of alcohol, she pour it on Nick's wound. This causes him to thrash in pain, but she manages to hold him down fairly well. The metal rod is heated and she presses it into the wound, sealing off the blood vessels, then takes a bandage and wraps it around the wound, in several layers. She then treats her own, fairly minor wound from the bullet. Most of the bleeding had come from cuts from her broken armor.

The next day, Nick wakes up inside the bunker. He looks around in the darkness, since the lights are off. His eyes glow a green color as he scans the room. The hatch is still busted, but a net is over the opening. "Well, it looks like she learned from the first night." The generator hums loudly in the far corner. Next to him in her sleeping bag is Isabel, a peaceful expression on her face. He tries to get up and winces in pain. Looking down, he sees that his shirt is off and that bandages are wrapped around his stomach. There's not much blood, but it hurts a ton. He looks back at Isabel. "So she's okay and probably helped me, since I don't see anyone else. How did she survive that bullet though?" She shifts around and he sees that she has no shirt and bandages around her chest. His face turns red and he turns around, his eyes fading back to their normal color. He closes his eyes and goes back to sleep.

A few hours later Isabel wakes up and gets up, wincing slightly in pain. She puts a new shirt on, since her old one is full of cuts and stained with blood. She then turns to see if Nick is awake. She says one word and his eyes dart open. He slowly sits up. "Hey there. You feeling alright Nick?"

A weak smile. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm hungry though. Can you bring my bag here?" She does so and he pulls out a white t-shirt and puts it on, and pulls out two packets. He hands one to Isabel. "Here, it's an emergency ration. I always carry a few on me." He tears open the packet and starts eating. It contains some dried meat, dried fruits, crackers, and a small pouch of juice. Isabel does the same.

A few minutes late, they're done eating. "So… We should go to the nearest city. It'll be safer and easier for us to get food and recover. I'm in no state to go out and hunt. And as we know, you're incompetent at it." She glares at him. "What? It's true."

A day later, Valke, Selyn, and Connor are in southern Atlas. The borders are tight and public transport is breaking down. Cinder's actions had sparked unease, and the four kingdoms seemed to be on the brink of war. Luckily, the White Fang had vehicles to get around in.

The trio is walking down a well worn street in a small city. The silence is thick, and it's unclear whether it's because of the impending war, or the massive criminal group whose main headquarters were in this town. Valke looks around as they walk, ever cautious. All three are wearing hooded cloaks, which cover their bodies and faces entirely. The intention is to just past through, so they move quickly. Suddenly, several screams breakout into the dawn. A male and a female voice, both terrified.

They pause for a second, and are about to keep walking ahead when there are more screams and a child starts crying. Selyn, Valke, and lastly Connor, stop one by one. Selyn and Valke dash to the roofs, and start running toward the source of the screams. Connor takes a ground path through the alleys. Valke pulls out a silenced M9 Beretta pistol from under his cloak, pulls down the hood, and takes aim from the roof. He sees three thugs, two male and one female, attacking a small family. He takes aim and shoots twice, taking out the two males, who were the closest to the victims. The 9mm hollow point bullets strike the criminals' knees, expanding under the kneecap and crippling the right legs of both thugs, their kneecaps shattered and separated from the bone.

Selyn jumps down after the bullets hit, drawing her weapons, which slide out from her sleeves. She grabs the handles of the strange daggers and swings them downward, flipping the weapons out. The cloak comes undone and she flips past the two males and brings the katars to the neck of the female. "What do we have here? Who are you, and what have these people done?"

The woman, dressed in a desert camo tank top, the same as the other two, and ripped jeans, looks at Selyn rebelliously. "None of your business. This is our territory. Get out of here-"

Selyn interrupts her. "You will tell us right now, or I'll kill you here and now. They don't look like they deserve this, but I'll hear your story first."

A venomous glare from the woman's amber eyes. "You wouldn't dare. I'm part of the Desert Foxes. This is our city, and we'll hunt you down."

Suddenly, a truck pulls up next to the alley, opposite of the direction of the main street. A man pops his head out the window. "You guys done yet?" His eyes widen as he takes in the situation. "What the-"

The woman kicks Selyn away, grabs the two men, and dashes as fast as possible to the truck bed. The man pulls out an assault rifle, what looks like an AK-47, and shoots at Selyn and the victims. Connor arrives just in time and blocks the bullets with his shield. The truck drives off and the bullets stop. Connor turns around as Valke jumps down, his hood back up. "Why do you two do stuff like this? We have a mission to do, and stuff like this isn't going to stop. Not until Salem changes the world, and the current order is destroyed."

Valke sighs and turns to the family. "Are you okay? Why are they after you?"

The female, who has bright red hair cut fairly short and deep, grey eyes, starts crying. The male, who has short brown hair and almost black eyes, hugs her close with one arm, the other holding a young child, maybe two or three years old. "Excuse my partner here. I would call her my wife, but legal marriage is hard to come by in this city. We met because I had some debt with the Foxes, and she was the daughter of one of the higher ranking members. They had abducted me one day and were going to kill me. I was thrown into a basement when she saved me. Then I saved her. We ran away, because she was used by her 'father' and his friends for their sexual needs. She had been since a young age. We've been living in fear, and just recently came back to this city, trying to get to Vale or Vacuo, but all the airships were blocked, so we were hoping to find a boat to take us there…"

"That's horrifying. Unfortunately, you won't find a boat to take you there, but we can help with the gang. Right Eclipse?" Valke looks at Selyn and nods. His face is calm but underneath the cloak his hands are clenched and an aura of death radiates from him.

"Where are their main headquarters?" The man gives them a map, with several location marked out, the biggest one being at the eastern edge of town.

"Wait, guys, we have melee weapons and sidearms, we can't deal with this. Especially since we can't use that form."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Valke walks to where the truck had been. In their haste, they had left behind several weapons. "Let's see… Mac 10s are useless. He tosses aside a few guns. M1928's not bad. What else… an M16, a G36… Wait, an M60? What do they need these weapons for? This is something straight out of Metal Gear or something." Eventually, Connor gets the M60 light machinegun, Selyn takes the G36 assault rifle, and Valke takes the M16, as well as an old Mosin Nagant sniper rifle that had been a few feet away. He gives the M1928 to the man, just in case, then strips the last of the guns, unloading the magazines and clearing the chambers before taking apart what was possible and breaking some bigger components.

"Well then, who's ready for some vigilantism?" Valke and Selyn move off towards the enemy base, Connor following reluctantly.

They arrive at the headquarters thirteen minutes later. Valke takes up a point on the roof near the main entrance while Selyn and Connor split up, each taking a point to the left and right of Valke. "Alright… Four outside, one with a Kevlar vest… They shouldn't be expecting anything, so their Auras shouldn't be at full. Let's see… Armored guy first, then see if I can take out the one with the shotgun." He moves the scope over the head of the armored one, who is holding an AK-47. A loud crack and his head is mush, his body falling to the ground. The others look in alarm. Selyn and Connor move in from opposing sides, quickly dispatching two of the remaining guards. Valke quickly takes another shot and misses, hitting the man's arm, causing him to drop the shotgun. He dashes inside before anyone can kill him. Valke quickly climbs down the building, leaving the Mosin Nagant on the roof.

Valke meets back up with the other two, rifle out. He picks up the shotgun, a Saiga, not his favorite type of gun, and clips it to his waist, just in case. They enter, prepared to meet heavy resistance. When they enter into the building, the first few rooms are oddly empty. The rooms are also brightly lit, and well furnished. This building was obviously meant for those of higher status in the gang. They move from room to room, clearing each one, in order to prevent having to fight a two front battle.

The entire first floor is clear, so they move to the second one. There are some people here, but the three use cover to hide and eliminate the enemies quickly. There were five of them in all. At the next floor, the amount of enemies was doubled. On the third floor, the final one, there are twenty enemies equipped with automatic weapons and shotguns, and about ten or more high ranking leaders, who were equipped with large caliber revolvers, or gold-plated pistols. You can tell which ones had recent experience in battle and which ones were just arrogant and boastful when the guards started dropping and their weapon were taken up by those with the brains. Eventually, Valke and Selyn run out of ammunition. Valke had already switched to the shotgun, and now tosses it aside.

Connor fires off a last few shots. Leaving the machinegun behind, he moves over to Valke. "Still feel like a good idea? We're either gonna die, or we're gonna go berserk."

Valke smirks. "Not today. I still have this." He holds a small vial of blood.

"What? When did you get that?"

"My first mission for Salem. Found a Deathstalker, and decided to get some blood. Never know when it could be useful. Like now." He unstops it and downs the vial. He takes out a straight, double edged knife, and jabs it into his left arm. The blood starts coming out red, and takes the mist form once again. Plates form on his back; his forearms grow sharpened spikes, like claws. A large, segmented tail picks up the knife and grows above his head. A large, spiked mask with several eyes materializes in front of his face. This is all in a transparent, hazy red.

He jumps out from cover, landing crouched in front of the two nearest gangsters. The tail swipes, and their necks are slit open, large, clean gashes from ear to ear. Bullets hit the plates on his back and he turns around. He weaves through the bullets and stabs one of the attackers in the chest, piercing the man's heart. The other, a woman, attempts to run, but he surges forward, decapitating her as he passes.

Valke jumps on the wall and runs, one spike scraping along the wall. He jumps from it, knocking one criminal down. He kills that one while the tail takes care of the other two. The final two fighters are taken out by Selyn. Valke stands up and walks to the back of the floor, and kicks open a door. He walks inside, the knife scraping along the floor.

An older man, with balding, red hair is inside the room, surrounded by young prostitutes. The room is full of them, most of them drugged, or drunk. "Who are you? What do you want?!"

Valke walks forward slowly. "I'm an avenger. I'm here to end your little organization here." He stops walking, right in front of the gang leader. "I'm afraid I absolutely despise men like you. Time to die."

The man pulls out a machine pistol and sprays the entire clip at Valke. The bullets are all stopped by the bloody mist that makes up the left claw. Valke picks him up by the neck and drags him to the nearby window. He thrusts the man's head out the window and laces the bladed claws like scissors at the man's neck. He slowly draws them inwards, cutting the man's neck slowly. As soon as they reach the major blood vessels, Valke quickly pulls, cutting off the head and letting it fall into the street below. The mist dissipates, and the knife falls into Valke's hand, and he sheaths it. "Let's go. We're done here." The three walk out and leave the city, leaving behind a building stained red.

Hey. Well, hope you guys are satisfied, because this is the true last chapter until Volume 4. In order to make up for it, here's an extra big facts section. Also, I know this is the second gang Valke took out. I don't feel sorry though. And I believe Salem would approve because she seems to hate crime and such as well.

Valke: His hair is based off Wylfred from Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume. His main color is purple because Ren from the main series had already taken green. My favorite colors, in order, are green, purple, black, and white. His weapon was designed first, then the armor and last, the face and hair. A little odd, but that's how my process generally works. The eyes are red because I didn't want to give him green eyes.

Selyn: Her name is based off Selene, which is the name for the Greek goddess of the moon. Look it up. Her hair is white because I really like characters, especially girls with white hair. I first learned of her weapons, katars, from flash game Feudalism 2.

Speaking of love interests… Sara: since Lucas looks like a twenty five year old man, Sara has/had a crush on him, never knowing his true age. That's why she said that Valke is handsome, because he looks somewhat like Lucas.

Isabel and Nick: These two were designed as twins during the design stage, but my friends didn't like that. Then she wanted it to happen after I wrote their story. When I gave her the option to amend it, she said to go with a romantic couple instead… which means more writing awkward social scenes for me. (Sarcastic yay! inserted here.)

Desert Foxes: a reference to Erwin Rommel, a military general. Which is why they were so heavily armed. I really just added that part in to add some more pages, and also because I wanted to write a somewhat tactical shootout scene, because I've been playing a lot of Rainbow Six: Siege.

I think that's it for facts. More of Jinzou Kokoro soon, and I might start an original story on FictionPress.

Shout out to:
The Burning Ruler, for his support for this and my other story. It makes me glad that my writing makes you happy.

SownSky on YouTube, for making awesome GMVs that inspired me to write this and the last chapter. He has one for every RWBY opening so far.

All the bands that I listen to. For inspiring my writing, especially the fight scenes.

Okay, so two more things, for fun.

First: a contest just for fun. Let's see if you can get my top 5 RWBY girls, not in any particular order. Shouldn't be too hard. They're all in this story, somewhere, by name. Also, feel free to add yours if you want.

Second: What are your 5 favorite RWBY songs? Mine are:

Divide

This Will be the Day

Die

From Shadows

Red Like Roses Part II

Although they're all good.