Ruby awoke to feel grass.
Where was she?
Ruby opened her eyes to see Sunset Hill at night, the full moon shimmering from above. How had she gotten here?
"Hey there…" a familiar, distorted voice sounded out from behind her. Ruby sat up and span around to see Jet, sitting in front of her, dressed in a short, black t-shirt stained with blood, an eyepatch covering his left eye, which was leaking blood.
His right eye fixed upon her, seemingly heathy for being an Angel of Darkness, but Ruby looked at his lower body. A great, bloody hole in his stomach could be seen, oozing brackish blood upon the grasses they sat upon, tinging his trousers and his left glove red.
"You're hurt!" Ruby said, reaching over, but Jet grasped her hand and held it away with his gloved hand, a sad smile on his face.
"So are you, my love." Jet replied. He leaned closer, still keeping her hand away from his wound. "We're dead."
A stone dropped in Ruby's stomach. No. That couldn't be true!
"You were locked down by Flux." Jet said, with a sinister grin. "I fought her alone, and then this happened." He pointed down to his stomach, where the bloody hole was.
"Then we were all unlocked." Yang's equally distorted voice sounded out behind her. Ruby turned, still clutching Jet's hand and heart pounding to see her sister, her blonde locks stained with blood, crimson drips running down her face. "I died first. The bitch cracked my skull, then Weiss was next."
"Burnt to a crisp." Weiss said, as she appeared behind Ruby, an uncharacteristically wide grin on her face. Ash covered her, and her right side was charcoal black, her normally perfect skin cracked and blackened. "Blake tried to put me out, but she's failed. She's still fighting Flux now."
"We didn't see what happened to you." Jet said in a deathly whisper, bringing her attention back to him. "We think you were strangled."
Was that how she'd died? Had she really fallen like that? Why couldn't she remember anything?
"Well, whatever." Yang said with a smile, her voice slow and unnatural. "Come and play with us, Ruby."
"We'll show you how to live the fun life." Weiss added behind her. "Or die the fun death. Hee hee!"
Now Ruby was beginning to get scared. That wasn't like Weiss. None of them were acting the way they should. As she came to realise this, Jet and Yang pulled out identical knives and raised them aloft.
"In this world, pain is the only thing we can feel. Rejoice in it!" Jet cried, before plunging the dagger into Ruby's exposed leg. Ruby screamed out in pain, but this only seemed to excite her ghastly companions.
"What are you doing?!" Ruby screamed. "Stop it!"
"I wanna feel it too." the ghostly Yang murmured, before she stabbed Ruby's other leg. Weiss plunged her dagger into Yang's back, and she moaned with pleasure. It seemed that Ruby was the only one not enjoying this orgy of violence.
"Wouldn't want to let you miss it either." Jet said, before he drew another knife and drove it into Weiss' breast. Blood was beginning to cover Ruby, and she was sent into spasm as Jet jiggled the knife in her leg. Weiss let out a cry of joy before, with an 'ahh', she withdrew the knife out of Yang and moved towards Ruby.
"STOP!" Ruby screamed, slapping at Jet's gloved hand. To her amazement, it fell off, but Ruby's eyes were immediately drawn to the human hand greeting her eyes. The unreal, yet tangible, human arm.
And then it clicked.
Jet's non-bloodshot eyes.
His behaviour.
The normal arm.
This wasn't real! It was an illusion!
With a blue flash, the nightmare world and the demonic apparitions of her friends vanished.
Ruby's wounds reknitted, and she fell against the snowy ground of the field. The clacking of metal on metal made her look up.
Jet and Flux were locked in combat, the two deadly lances of the two angels swirling around the pair, the shields both blocking and acting as weapons themselves. They were both wrapped in god-like aura-flames, though Ruby could see Jet was outclassed by their enemy.
"I'm much more than you, half breed." Flux growled as she swept away Jet's lunge with her lance, and bashed him with her shield. "I've felled you in the past. You've been entirely subjugated to me. It was because of me that you survived your whole, miserable existence. Even now, when I was with you since the sewers, you still move around like a headless wolf in a calm and collected sheep's clothing! Face it! You're WEAK!"
She swung in a wide loop and caught Jet by surprise, smashing her lance, hard, into the left side of his face, knocking him backwards. Ruby felt her heart skip a beat as Jet fell, his lance and shield flying away and dissolving into purple aura. Flux was on top of him as soon as Jet's back connected with the ground, and she raised her lance, which was white hot with heat.
"Let's see who is the true immortal here!" Flux screeched, before she plunged the white-hot, steaming lance straight into Jet's face.
"NO!" Ruby screamed as instinct took over. "Transcend!" she yelled, before triggering her semblance and speeding over to Flux, shoulder barging her and causing her to fall backwards. She turned back to Jet's body to see it well and truly enveloped in the black aura of his corruption.
No. This couldn't be happening!
This was… this is…
Ruby looked up as Flux rose to her feet and jumped back, laughing insanely.
That bitch was really going to pay now.
Ruby felt anger fuel her heart as she unsheathed Crescent Rose. Her enemy ceased her cackles under her hateful gaze. Never before had Ruby truly hated someone, but now, the world would witness what happened when she did.
"Aw, looks like I plucked a little heart string." Flux giggled. She spread her wings and raised her lance. "But without your big, bad angel, what chance do you really have against me? If you surrender to me, I will show you mercy, as I will your friends."
"Go to hell!" Ruby yelled angrily, before she charged, her purple flames swirling around her as she activated her semblance. Flux raised her shield to block the first swing but Ruby changed direction entirely, and slashed her across the chest. It did no damage.
She tried again and again, fury building as Flux guarded some attacks, and the ones that hit her did next to nothing, any hole in her aura quickly being covered from her strikes. That infuriating grin on her face. If it was the last thing she did, Ruby would wipe that smile off her face.
She crouched as Flux sook several steps back, eyes gleaming with tears of laughter.
"Really, Ruby?" Flux asked her with a titter. "We both know it's useless."
Ruby felt her weapon drop, despite herself. Despite all her hate, Ruby knew Flux was right. Crescent Rose wasn't doing anything to her. And it'd only be a matter of time before one of Flux's attacks would connect, once she started attacking.
Flux pointed her lance at Ruby, and started charging her laser attack. Ruby knew she must have one, as she'd seen Jet do it many times before. Before Flux could complete this process, a massive, black shape flew beside her, a black fist smashing into her face and knocking her over, sending her rolling to the side, Ruby's eyes following the whole time, before she gazed back upon her saviour.
A massive Grimm, at least twice Ruby's height, stood before her. Muscled arms and legs, claws on each. Red lines crisscrossing where fur wasn't present, and even then, its legs, arms, and massive muscled chest were covered in this black fur. The red eyes and white plating on the skull of the human-like face typical of all Grimm, and a maw of needle sharp fangs.
The Grimm roared, the power of its voice causing the very ground to shake. It then turned its eyes upon Ruby, and she supressed a shiver. Was she only a meal that this thing was fighting for? It drew closer, but Ruby didn't move. It reached out a clawed hand and Ruby shut her eyes, ready for the end.
And yet it didn't come. A massive finger went under her chin and forced her head up, causing Ruby to open her eyes. The Grimm was looking at her, but it didn't seem to want to attack her. Ruby kept her eye contact with this thing, sure that if she broke it, it might attack. Its other hand came towards her, but it only stroked her hair, very gently for a creature of this size. What was going on?
It let go and turned to Flux. Immediately upon seeing her, it roared again, before charging her, its footsteps causing the earth underneath them to tremble. Flux hissed and took flight, no longer amused.
"CREATURE OF GRIMM!" she called. "YOU WILL OBEY ME NOW. KILL THAT GIRL!"
Somehow Ruby knew, as she felt the places that the Grimm had touched her, that it wasn't going to kill her. She turned to go back to the body of Jet, while Flux was distracted by her unlikely ally, to find that the body had gone, replaced by a bloody splat, and nothing else.
She heard the Grimm start to breathe erratically and rapidly. Ruby realised after a couple of seconds of hearing it that it was laughing. She turned just in time for it to gesture at the place where the body had been, and blue flames started to cover its body.
"Jet?" Flux asked. "Is that you?"
The Grimm roared once again before, with an amazing display of strength, leaped up into the air and grabbed her by the legs. A blue shockwave was blasted out by Flux in an attempt to get it off her, but the Grimm was too strong, keeping her pinned and positioning her underneath it. Flux barely had the chance to scream out in dismay before she was crushed underneath the mass of the flaming beast.
It immediately got up to see Flux on her back, her lower body crushed, blood oozing everywhere. Its red eyes hardened, and it began to punch her face, further pulverising it with each and every blow. After ten punches, during which Flux's body had been enveloped in red flames, it brought both of its hands together and interlocked the massive fingers before bringing it down upon her, completely decapitating her and crushing her head.
The Grimm roared out to the world in victory, and Ruby felt it was safe to approach it. It quivered as Flux's body disappeared, the flames coalescing into a red orb, the last vestiges of Flux. She tapped its leg, and it looked down upon her. Its eyes widened, and it leaped away from her before crouching. The light left its eyes and a massive spurt of blood suddenly sprayed from its back. It fell, and Jet leapt from the corpse of the massive Grimm.
Ruby looked upon her lover. This was it. They could end this struggle right here. Her love was red-faced, sweat pooling everywhere, blood everywhere. His hair was matted with crimson, a gash down his cheek. His eyes were fully bloodshot, red lines criss-crossing around the rouge irises. His wings were outstretched.
He was moving towards the orb that was all that remained of Flux, hatred plain in his eyes and scowl. His lance rose, ready to come crashing down with all the force of him, a living god incarnate.
"Do it, Jet!" Ruby encouraged.