I carefully made my way through the woods, senses attuned to any potential threats. I hadn't seen it yet, but I knew it would be coming for me sooner or later. After Weiss and her Relic disappeared last month, I knew that somehow the Relic's locations had been discovered. That was fine with me. I was in my element in the forest; anything that was foolish enough to come here wouldn't live long enough to realize its mistake. Unlike Weiss, I was still perfectly capable of defending myself.
The thought made me feel a little guilty, but that didn't change the fact that it was true. I loved my former teammate, but she never should have been chosen to guard a Relic. Weiss had completely fallen apart after everything that happened. Because Weiss, like Yang, couldn't bring herself to accept the truth. The parasite had killed Ruby once it took control of her. There was nothing but a shell left by the time the Grimm murdered Ozpin. Neither one of them could look past that shell, but I didn't have the same problem. After Adam, I had practice losing friends to the monsters inside themselves.
Even after Weiss pulled herself together at Atlas, she never fully recovered. I told her, over and over again, to let someone else guard the Relic, but she always refused. Her Schnee pride got her killed, and there was nothing more I could do about it except mourn my lost friend and avenge her if the Grimm was foolish enough to come here.
I made my way through the forest and entered my cave. It wasn't much of a home, but it was hidden away and filled with nasty surprises for any unwanted visitors. Not the most comfortable place I've lived, but all I needed were a soft bed, a fireplace, and my pile of books anyway. I grabbed one of the books, laid down in bed, and read until I fell asleep.
I woke up to the sound of something crashing through the forest as it came straight towards me. I knew it was here for me, and it had clearly decided being subtle was pointless. I grabbed the Relic, slipped it into the small bag on my back, and walked out of the cave to meet the Grimm. As soon as I left I could see it skipping towards me. It stopped once it reached the beginning of the small clearing in front of my cave.
"You shouldn't have come here, Grimm." I called out.
"Ow, that hurts! I thought we were the bestest of friends." It said, its voice mocking.
"I was friends with Ruby."
"I am Ruby! New and improved, but still the same me."
"No, you aren't. You're the monster that's killed two of my friends. I'm going to kill you for that."
It started insanely giggling. "I'll prove you wrong soon enough Kitten, but if you want to play with me first feel free to come get me." I desperately wanted to advance and finally kill this thing, but it wouldn't be smart. I needed to draw it in to take advantage of my defenses. As I stayed immobile longer and longer, the giggle turned into a full throated laugh.
"What's the matter? Too scared to come face me?"
"I'm not afraid." I was wary of this monster, but only because I knew it was dangerous. I would never be afraid of it.
"Of course you are, you're just hiding it. But I'll taste its deliciousness before this is over, I promise." It gave an exaggerated sigh. "Fine. If you really won't come out to play, I'll end this now." It pulled her scythe out and fired a shot. I rolled out of the way, but it wasn't aiming at me. The round hit the top of the cave entrance and exploded with incredible force. The entire front collapsed, burying my home and all my defenses under a ton of rocks.
That wasn't ideal, but I could still beat it. I simply needed to be a little more careful. And stay far, far out of the path of those rounds. "Wow, these are so cool!" It yelled. The awe in its voice over a cool weapon made it sound like her, just for a second, and it hurt a little to hear that reminder of my dead friend. "Let's see what else they can do, shall we Kitten?" I crouched down, ready to dodge to either direction, but it turned her scythe away from me and started putting shots into the forest around us. The rounds exploded into the ground and set everything near them ablaze.
Suddenly fire was all around us, and instinctual panic made me react without any thought by sprinting towards the closest escape. I heard insane laughter pass by my ear and suddenly the Grimm was standing in front of me. Gambol Shroud slashed down at it but only sailed through an empty black cloud of petals as it disappeared. I kept running to safety, but after only a few more steps some danger instinct activated, and I leapt forward instead of stepping. As I jumped over the area, the pile of leaves underneath me collapsed and showed a pit filled with black spikes below.
When I saw that a little trickle of fear coursed its way through me. I never went out of my earshot of my home. Nothing should have been able to place a trap this close without me noticing. If the Grimm was that stealthy, it could have snuck up on me without announcing its presence. It purposely drew me out of my home, which meant it wanted me in this forest. Dodging around it while running from a fire into a forest potentially filled with traps.
Well, it was too late to worry about it now. It outmaneuvered me once, but I wouldn't let that stop me. As I kept running I watched for more traps and managed to get around two more of them before it struck again. I rolled under its slash, bringing Gambol Shroud up and scoring a hit on its arm on the way past. It disappeared into petals again, and I heard it shoot several shots into the ground behind us to spread the fire faster.
"I spent a lot of time on these traps, and it's no fun that you keep avoiding them." It said. Its tone was sickeningly amused, and it sent a shiver up my spine hearing that tone during a battle. I decided to deny it the satisfaction of a response and kept running. I saw a trip wire connecting two trees and leapt over it, but instead of clearing it I was slammed into the nearest tree as the Grimm came out of nowhere and hit me like a truck. It could easily have gotten a free hit me, but instead its hand came up and threw dust in my eyes. They started burning as the weight pushing me against the tree suddenly disappeared, and as I started running again I quickly rubbed my hands over my eyes to clear the dust. The burning stopped, but when I opened my eyes a hand of icy fear gripped my heart. For the first time in my entire life, the world was dark.
Not entirely dark. The pale moonlight shone through the leaves, and the fire behind me lit up portions of the forest, but that was all I could see. The shadows covering most of my vision were unknown pools of darkness. Whatever was in that dust, it took my night vision completely away.
"There's my Kitten's fear. I knew you couldn't hide it forever."
"What did you do to me?" I called out. I tried to keep the terror out of my voice, but I couldn't completely contain it. Because my enemy was out there, but for the first time this battle I didn't have a clue where it was hiding.
It giggled, insane and disturbing. "I simply made our game a little more fun. No more cheating, Blake. You should probably run now." It said as I sensed it appear behind me and swing her scythe down at my head. It sailed through a shadow clone as I sprinted away. As much as I didn't want to listen to that thing, running right now was my only safe bet. I wasn't that far from the edge of the forest, and if I could reach it then my vision would be vastly improved.
Without my sight, I could only rely on my danger sense to help me avoid attacks. I managed to dodge its first two attacks, but the first time I reached the next trap I couldn't react fast enough to avoid it. I'm not even sure what set it off; all I knew is that I was hit in the stomach by a branch with black spikes and went flying backwards. I felt my aura shatter as I smashed into the ground, but I leapt up fast enough to avoid the Grimm's attack. I twisted around it and managed to get three rapid hits on its back before it screamed in pain and burst into petals.
I sprinted away from the fire again, but I only got a few feet before the Grimm was on me again. Her scythe was collapsed into its sniper form, and the Grimm swung it at me like a bat. I tried to twist out of the way, but I wasn't fast enough to completely avoid it. It slammed into my right arm, and even though it hit at angle it was enough to break the bone. I ignored the pain shooting up my arm and slashed Gambol Shroud at it on the way past. I felt it sink into the Grimm's back and received another howl of its pain.
Instead of disappearing again, the Grimm blurred forward and was suddenly standing in my way. The scythe came swinging down at my leg, but instead of dodging I let it connect. As hideous pain radiated from my leg, Gambol Shroud came down and slashed straight through the Grimm's stomach. It collapsed, issuing a gurgling noise that it took me a few seconds to identify as an attempt at laughter before falling silent.
I felt such intense relief that I almost collapsed myself. After all these years, the monster that killed my friend was finally dead. Ruby could finally rest in peace. If it wasn't for the fire raging ever closer behind us, I might have stayed there longer, but right now I couldn't risk it. I debated dragging Ruby's body out of the forest but decided against it. I wasn't in great condition, and honestly letting fire purify whatever that thing had done to her body seemed like the best idea to me. I turned from her and kept running, trying to ignore the spike of pain that shot through my leg on each step. It didn't take me long to reach eyesight of the edge of the forest, and the sight of my goal so close made me increase my pace.
That was a mistake. I was so tired after the battle, so relieved after winning, that I forgot to watch for more traps. I only noticed it when I felt three spikes run through my foot as I stepped on something, and as a numbing sensation spread up my leg my run immediately slowed. My brain was yelling at me to sprint, but all I could manage was slowly inching forward. Every step felt like the most monumental effort of my entire life, and I realized something must have been that on those spikes before I fell to my knees.
I sat unmoving for a few minutes before I heard the sound of footsteps behind me, and utter panic overcame me. Despite the fact that I had left it dead on the ground, the Grimm was humming a gleeful tune under its breath as it slowly skipped towards me. I tried to crawl forward as fast as I could, but I only managed to get a few feet before dropping in utter exhaustion.
"My poor kitty cat." It said as it got closer. "Without her night vision, she couldn't tell a fatal wound from a silly little scratch." When the Grimm reached me, it rolled me over before kneeling and straddling me on the ground. I tried to push it off, but I wasn't strong enough to budge it an inch. Despair crept into me as I realized I was completely helpless to stop it. The Grimm started stroking my hair with its left hand as it smiled fondly down at me.
"That was so much fun, Kitten." I spat in its face, but its only reaction was to silently wipe it off as its hand moved up to scratching behind my ear.
"You know, there's something I've always wanted to do to you." The Grimm said before leaning down and giving a playful nibble on my right cat ear. Despite the situation, I couldn't stop myself from letting out quiet mewls of pleasure. Having anyone, even it, play with my ears simply felt too good.
My mewls quickly turned to screams of agony as the Grimm bit down hard and pulled upward. Pain like nothing I've ever felt burned down from my ear, and I watched in horror as it straightened up, a piece of my ear sitting between its teeth. The Grimm spat it out but licked the blood off its lips, black eyes awash in clear ecstasy the entire time.
"Mmmmhhh, you're delicious." The Grimm said. "We'll have to explore that more later. For now, it's nap time." Its hands wrapped around my throat and squeezed. As my vision started contracting, I heard the Grimm begin to whisper.
"Shhh. Rest now, Kitten. Let me save you." It repeated that, over and over, until my world went black.