I'm feeling generous today, here is Chapter 3.

Ruby flew through the air, the warm, fleshy tendril was wrapped about her waist and Ruby had little doubt what awaited on the other end. Crescent Rose was left behind, having slipped from her grasp in the unexpected flight. Yet she was not unprepared, having a short dagger she carried in a small sheath on her boot. Acting quickly, she reached down and pulled the blade up, slicing the slimy organic rope in twain with one smooth motion.

She crashed to the ground, rolling into a tumble to lighten the blow. She was on her feet in an instant and not a moment too soon as the creature stormed from the shadows, its yellow eyes now filled with anger.

Turning to run, she threw her dagger at the creature as a distraction where it bounced ineffectively off of the thick plates. Eyes wide, she drew upon her Aura, sprinting back to the clearing where her weapon lay. Rose petals left a trail behind her as she lifted the scythe from its resting place. She spun the weapon overhead, slamming the blade into the ground facing the creature and sighted down the scope at the rapidly closing beast.

20 meters.

Ruby aimed for the beast's head….

15 meters.

She held her breath…..

10 meters, the creature leapt once more.

And squeezed the trigger.

Fire blossomed from the muzzle of her weapon, filling the clearing with light and shadow. With an audible crunch, the round entered the creature's eye socket, obliterating the soft organ and cracking the surrounding plates and tissue. The beast jerked, its previously determined trajectory thrown askew as it reflexively raised its limbs to protect what remained of its ruined face, now purely on the defensive.

Ruby twisted her blade around, and fired, launching herself towards it to meet in a deadly pirouette. The wind whipped around her, whistling in her ears as she flew towards the creature with scythe raised. Too late the creature realized that its target was no meek prey, and was now the hunter turned hunted. Blinded by its own fluids leaking from its ruined eye socket, it lashed out with its hands and menacing claw-spears, hissing in denial.

Ruby brought the massive blade around, aiming for the creature's chest. The blade sparked and grinded as it skipped along the ridged chitin. Massive gouges were placed in the armor, yet failed to penetrate. She flew past the creature, scythe still trailing along the monster behind her. The blade skipped once more, sending more sparks to illuminate the night, before bouncing into the shoulder of the creature. With a wet tearing noise, she felt her scythe catch, jerking her arm back slightly before coming free. A ear shattering shriek pierced the air, but ended so suddenly it was as if it was at the flip of a switch.

She landed, immediately ready to turn and fight once more, but all she saw behind her was trees and shadows. She scanned, yet found no sight of the creature once again, as if it disappeared into nothingness. But it left a mark, a dark, lanky clawed arm lay lonely in the moonlight. Yellow sticky ichor covered the ground, trailing off into the forest before disappearing.

Inhaling deeply, she stood tall, planting her scythe in the ground so the blade stood high in the air. The wind picked up again, as if it was aware too, that a danger had passed. "Well, that was a thing." She said to the night air. She was excited at the challenge the creature presented and proud that her skills hadn't diminished. But she had to be honest, she didn't want to face the creature again, it was altogether far too unnatural of a monster. The way it looked at her as food was…. unsettling. She shuddered at the memory of its unnatural eyes watching her.

She wouldn't go after the creature tonight. The darkness would be her enemy against a monster that could seemingly vanish into thin air.

If only she could know how much that decision would haunt her.

Two days later

Clara Huntson and Ruby Rose sat in Clara's small home, a massive black arm lay on the wooden table in front of the two, the clawed hand still stretched as if reaching towards its prey.

"So… What did it come from? There aren't any animals that I'm aware of with such… well formed hands" was Clara's first question as she moved and examined the hand which, from claw tip to 'palm' would easily fit around her entire torso.

"I found it near the Brodsons' home, maybe 2 kilometers? It was like it just popped up out of nowhere!"

"What did the rest of it look like?" was the almost immediate question as her head snapped up to watch Ruby's response.

Ruby blinked, startled at the sudden attention before looking away, unsure if she would be able to keep a straight face while she mimicked the creature. "Oh, uh well, it was really big, obviously since the arm is so huge. It was mostly black, but it had these white armor plates covering large portions of its body. It had two legs, a tail, another one of those arms," she gestured at the arm on the table, "and a set of these weird spear-like claws that it held like this." She pantomimed the way the creature stood, her arms stretched overhead, with her forearms drooping forwards.

Ruby dropped her arms and continued, "It had a weird face too, it had these terrible glowing yellow eyes and instead of a mouth, it had these tentacle things." She held the back of her hands up to her mouth and wiggled her fingers as if they were tentacles.

She happened to look at Clara while she was doing it, fully prepared for the look of annoyance that was so common to see, but was unpleasantly surprised to find another expression entirely.

Terror.

"You mean to tell me you found a Throne-damned lictor and you waited this long to tell me!" She all but screamed at Ruby, causing her to jump in surprise. Clara's eyes were wide as she kept glancing at the window as if waiting for something to jump through.

Ruby was so startled by this sudden change from the tough Clara she knew to a nearly panicked woman, that she couldn't think of what to say, "Wha?..."

"What's worse, it could have followed you here!" She yelled as she stood and started running from window to window, shutting each in turn before running to a back room, all the while cursing, "Shit, shit, shit….." A few moments later she burst back into the room carrying several rifles and several grenades before tossing several of the compact explosives over to Ruby.

Ruby juggled the grenades in the air as she struggled to catch them, desperately trying to not drop them. She managed to recover and set the grenades on the table before turning back to watch Clara as she peeked out the window. Ruby was never good with people even on the best of days. She had no idea how to handle the train wreck that Clara was becoming. She decided to just ask. "Clara…. What's going on? You've seen one of these before?" She received nothing in response.

"Um…" She stood and walked over to Clara, placing a hand on her shoulder she tried to turn her around but was startled to find Clara was trembling visibly. "Clara, are you okay?" She asked softly.

"I've… I've seen one of those before. When I was still in the Guard. I have prayed every day since then that I would never have to see one again. The creature you described, haunts my dreams every night," She slowly turned her head from the window to look at Ruby, tears were streaking down her face. "and you brought a piece of one into my home."

"But why are you so afraid of it?" Ruby prodded, Clara's response was to squeeze her eyes shut, still shivering. "You can talk to me, I'm your friend, remember?" Clara nodded, still sitting and trembling. Ruby slid next to her and gently wrapped her arm around her shoulders, something she would have never even considering doing at any other time, Clara would be likely to respond violently. This time, Clara leaned into Ruby, apparently appreciating the comfort. They sat there for several minutes in silence until Clara stopped shaking and pulled away from Ruby, wiping her damp face on her sleeve to dry it of the tears.

"It was a long time ago," she began, her words halting and obviously painful to speak, "back when I was a Guardswoman. I had just left my home, one of the few from my home-town that volunteered to serve. The men were all too big of wussies to volunteer," she joked, but the humor was forced and awkward. "My first deployment was a planet called Kratick, a jungle world where we were sent to combat the remains of a Tyranid hive fleet that had been blown to bits by the Navy not long before."

She continued, "It was easy at first, I never even had to fire my lasgun. We just burned the jungle with flamers and promethium filled artillery shells, shooting the beasts that ran out as the forests burned. Then, something changed, they stopped coming out at us. We thought we got them all until people started disappearing. Sometimes one person, sometimes whole squads at a time." She stopped and clenched her hands in her lap. "It got worse. We started finding Commissars strung up in trees, missing arms or legs. We found officers, their skulls cracked open and their brains… Something ate their brains." She shut her eyes again, a grimace on her face. "Nobody ever really saw what did it all, except for me."

"They came at us one day, a massive swarm of the xenos, they poured over everything we had. My partner.. My partner, Indrick, and I ran for the Valkyries so we could get out. We were so close… when Indrick suddenly fell behind. He shouted for me, screaming for help. I looked back and saw him.." She swallowed heavily, voice shaking as she continued, "I looked back in time to watch him get torn in half, and I'll never forget what did it. It looked just like you described. I still see Indrick's face, pleading for me to help him…"

Ruby took the moment to put a hand on her shoulder again, "You did what you had…"

"Don't you get it!" Clara said, her voice sharp as she jerked away, "I ran! I left my partner behind and ran, never looking back. I left him to die! Out of 5,000 of us that were there in my regiment, twenty of us made it out…." She stopped, silent for a moment before she said in a whisper, "I should have died there with him."

Ruby gasped at her friend's words, "Don't you say that! You don't mean it!" Clara didn't respond. "I'm glad you survived, I would have never met you, isn't that worth something?" She received a shrug in response. Ruby sighed, "Listen Clara, if this is what you think it is, people are going to get hurt unless you can help me. You've fought them before, you can help me do something about it. Please."

Clara, for the first time since she started speaking, met Ruby's silver eyes with her own deep brown ones. She shut her eyes once more before nodding. When she opened her eyes again the familiar look of irritation was back on her face, but Ruby could see the fear still in her coffee colored irises. "Right, we'll need to warn Hearth so they can warn the rest of the cities. I'll go there first. You will need to get the Brodsons and anyone else in the countryside and send them to the city. Our only chance is with the walls and with numbers."

Ruby mock saluted before standing and starting towards the door, "You got it boss!"

She opened the front door to leave when she was stopped. "Ruby," Ruby paused at the door and looked back at Clara, "Thanks for listening."

"Of course, you're my friend."

Clara smiled at her before yelling, "Now get out of here! Time's wasting!"

Ruby nodded and sped out the door, leaving her friend behind and hoping she would be okay.

Clara Huntson barreled down the familiar road to Hearth, dirt and dust kicking up behind her vehicle. She would occasionally check on the arm of the lictor that held the passenger seat as if expecting it to reanimate and attack her. Although it was in a large sack, it was still unnerving for her. The road was clear, unusually empty of traffic for which she was grateful. She took the time to think and remember the experience she had shared with Ruby, frustrated with herself for showing weakness and even more so for her admittance that she wished she had died. Yet, it was the truth.

As she approached Hearth in the heat of the afternoon sun, she realized something was terribly wrong with the city.

It was burning.

"No." She whispered as she pressed the accelerator to the floor. As she neared she could see winged creatures flying above the city before smoke obscured them. She drove faster and faster, her vehicle's engine screaming under the pressure. As she neared the gate from which she usually entered, she could see a small group of vehicles fleeing towards the gate, a large horde of Tyranids leaping and scuttling after them. There was no doubt that they would catch these vehicles, it was only a matter of time. A plan formed in Clara's mind as a morbid smile grew on her face. She may not be able to save her former comrades, but she could save these souls.

The distance to the gate was closing rapidly as the last of the escaping vehicles poured out of the gate. The rear-most vehicle swerving until it rolled off the road, clawed Tyranids thrown from the out of control vehicle which tumbled end over end before slamming into the interior wall of the city.

The rest of the horde of Tyranids ran towards to the open gate to give chase to the vehicles that had made it out. They were halted by a rapidly moving vehicle which careened through the entry in the opposite direction, crushing Tyranids beneath it and slamming others to the side. Inside the vehicle was Clara, screaming obscenities as the vehicle fish-tailed on the blood and bone before it crashed onto its side, still sliding until it crunched into a wall.

Clara coughed inside the broken vehicle. She tried to move but something restrained her. She felt around until she felt a warm liquid pooling the ground. She followed it until she found a thick piece of metal embedded in her abdomen. She coughed again, now tasting blood, as she looked out the shattered window which faced the gate from which she entered. In the distance she could see the small convoy of vehicles driving in the distance, nothing now following them. She smiled.

It was cut short as a pair of gleaming eyes attached to a menacing visage of teeth and chitin peered into the vehicle. Clara pulled out her side arm and fired it into the creature, it shrieked as the beams scorched its chitin and burst the exposed flesh. She kept firing until the cell ran dry and the creature was long dead.

Then another head appeared….. and another…. and another, until they filled the front windshield with their gaping maws and hungry stares.

Clara reached down to her hip and grabbed a brace of grenades that she had brought, pulling the pins of both with her teeth. "I'm coming home Indrick." She grinned, teeth stained red with her own blood.

The world flashed white, and Clara Huntson was gone.

Ruby bounded from her parked vehicle, running up to the front door of the Brodsons' home before bursting through, "Merith! Brody!" She yelled, running towards the kitchen. Inside she found Celia and Merith, calmly sitting together as Merith taught her young daughter to read. "Merith! Where's Brody?" She said, as Merith looked up in surprise at the urgency in Ruby's tone, "We need to go! Now!"

"Brody is out working in the forest, he took Junior with him. What's going on?" She said, her eye brows knit together in concern.

"RuRu, you look crazy!" Said Celia, using her nickname for Ruby, giggling all the while.

"I need to go find them, there are," She paused and looked at Celia, not wanting to scare the girl, but it couldn't be helped. "There are aliens coming, we need to get to the city as fast as we can."

Merith's face drained of color, "How do you kno.."

"I fought one in the forest, one that Clara Huntson has seen before, but I don't have time to explain everything. Gather what we will need while I go get Brody." Merith nodded as Ruby spoke, already moving. One didn't joke about xenos, Ruby knew that was a definite in this new world. "Which way did they go?"

"I don't know, they just took the truck and I'm guessing followed the trail." Ruby nodded at Merith's words and with a burst of petals, vanished from sight. Already at her vehicle, she forgot in her haste that Merith had never seen her use her Semblance. She would probably have some explaining to do later. She shrugged it off and climbed in her vehicle already driving into the forest where she hoped to find the two Brody's.

Trees whipped past her on either side as she bounced up and down in her seat from the divots and holes in the poorly maintained path. She had been driving for only five minutes before she turned a sharp corner and found what she was looking for.

She really wished she hadn't.

Surrounding what was undoubtedly Brody's truck, were puddles of blood and flesh. Ruby gasped and stumbled from her vehicle, her silver eyes shimmering from the tears that threatened to fall. "Brody!" She screamed, hoping against hope that someone would answer. No one did. She rounded towards the front of the truck and fell to her knees in the dirt. There she found an arm, wrapped around the ring finger was a silver wedding band. Merith's name was inscribed upon its surface.

Ruby wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed. "Brody, no," she whispered. "I'm sorry." This time, something did answer her. A predatory hiss sounded behind her and she looked back to find what was undoubtedly the source of her grief. The one eyed lictor stared at her, and Ruby could see in its glowing yellow eye, satisfaction.

Screaming in unbridled rage she was already flying towards the lictor before Crescent Rose was fully extended. The lictor began to reach its claws forward before it met the maelstrom that was Ruby. With unrestrained fury, Ruby spun and rotated with and around her weapon, the blade ramming into the murderer of her new family again and again. Yellow ichor flew from the creature, chitin was pierced and splintered while limbs were removed piece by piece.

Ruby paused momentarily, eyes still burning and the creature fell to the ground unimpeded, no longer having the necessary limbs to remain standing. It lay there in the mud created by its own blood saturating the soil and hissed weakly at Ruby. She stood over the creature as it squirmed and placed the blade of her scythe under its head. She fired once and the blade cut through the creature's neck, the head bouncing away until its eye grew dark.

But Ruby felt no satisfaction. Killing the monster didn't bring back Brody or his son. They were gone and there was nothing she could do. If she had only followed into the forest before... She screamed and swung her scythe at a nearby tree, cutting through it entirely. As the tree began its slow and inexorable descent to the earth, she thought of Celia and Merith as she walked back to what remained of Brody. She could still protect them. "I'll protect them Brody, I promise!" She swore, as she stooped and gently removed the ring from Brody's hand, tears falling from her eyes and washing away the grime and blood that covered the ring.

By the time the tree hit the ground, Ruby was already gone.

I know, this story is getting dark quickly... it's intentional.

Fact for those of you less... nerdy than I: Tyranid Lictors are far more intelligent then their brethren... Insectren? Tyranidren? have been known to eliminate Space Marines in combat. Basically, they are no pushovers. They can also camouflage nearly perfectly, hence the disappearing act. They also have one other trait...