Chapter 19: Enemy Of My Enemy
Ruby let out a low groan. As feeling returned to her body, everything began to throb with pain. That gave a clear indication that her aura was likely broken. Slowly opening her silver eyes, she saw Neo, crying and frightened out of her mind, directly in her face.
"AAAAAHHHH!" Ruby screamed in shock, causing Neo to jump, startled, hitting her head in the process.
"Neo, what are you doing here!?" Ruby yelled at her friend.
Annoyed, Neo points to her mouth, somehow managing to even make that simple gesture sassy.
"Oh right. You're mute. I keep forgetting that sometimes." Ruby muttered as she looked around them for the first time.
The cell, if one could even call it that, was small. Only six by six feet at most Ruby estimated, and a dirt floor. There was no window, no light except for candle light outside, their restraints, and the bars holding them in. It was eerily quiet. Not even a mouse or cockroach seemed to stir in this horrid place. The silence was then punctuated by the sound of heavy footfalls against stone flooring.
"Oh no…" Ruby muttered in horror as the Hound's black mass snuffed out the light in front of them, "Neo, stay behind me!"
"The mistress awaits." Was all it answered with, entirely uninterested with their feeble and hopeless resistance.
Reaching in with its arms, it effortlessly grabbed hold of them, and ripped their restraints off the wall as it walked away with them. It didn't even attempt to throw them over its shoulders, as easy as it would be considering their petite frames, it contemptuously dragged them along the ground. At first they could potentially bear it, but as it seemed to drag them on for ages, it tore and wore against both their clothes and flesh. Finally, but not mercifully, they reached their destinations.
"Excellent, my child. Secure little Neo first. I want to make sure she gets a good look at the action from here on out." A cold, sinister voice said from just out of view.
Neo shudders at the thought, thinking, 'I've got a bad feeling about this…' Neo, in an attempt to lighten the mood, signs, "Sooo, we got a safe word, or what?"
"Oh Neo, you should know by now, I grew up long before those." Salem answered the strung up ice cream headed girl as she strutted out of the shadows.
Neo makes scared mute noises.
"I can understand why Roman kept you around for so long. You're quite vexing to get a hold of." Salem continued as she hoisted Ruby up, looking at her the same way a fisherman looks at a prized bass.
Neo pouts, signing, "I'll have you know, I saved HIM, not the other way around!"
"That's not what Roman told me." She answered, walking closer to her in a way that covered the girl's view of Ruby.
Neo growled like an angry pupper, glaring at Salem, looking about as intimidating as a newborn puppy.
"Despite my absolute destain for your kind anymore, I do find it quite interesting what he did. Taking in a little lost stray out of the goodness of his heart. If the product of that wasn't staring back at me, I'd call it a fanciful tale told to little girls before bedtime." Salem waxed on, keeping her volcanic orange orbs for eyes directly at Salem.
Neo narrows her eyes at Salem, spitting on her dress in disgust.
"Indignant swine. Perhaps seeing the fate of your friend will change your tune." Salem snarled lightly, stepping aside from Neo's forward vision.
In the place of Salem was the sight of Ruby, dangling from chains like hers, but in a very different place. Across the room from her was a chaotic, roiling and writhing pit of black liquid with the same consistency of tar. Looking at the hound, then back at Ruby, and then at Salem, Neo's eyes widened in horror.
"Roman was actually right on something. You pick things up quickly." She said with a small smirk.
Meanwhile, with Cinders attack squad
"When's our ETA!?" Cinder roared up to the pilot as the Bullhead she was in hit some turbulence.
"Inside ten minutes! The others kept formation through these wind squalls! No delays to report!" The pilot yelled back.
"Keep this course and pace at all costs! We are on a tight schedule!" Cinder yelled back over a sudden flare up of engine noise.
"Copy that, ma'am!" The pilot yelled back, and relayed that order to the rest.
"For fuck's sake, I hope thats the case. I timed everything exactly. One wrong move, and everything crumbles to dust." Cinder muttered to herself as the view of her former masters castle came into view far in the distance.
Back in Salem's Lair
"Regardless of whatever usefulness you have towards me little one, your persistent insolence cannot go unpunished. Say your last goodbye to your friend. She's never coming back." Salem said as she slowly let her grip on the chain slip, beginning to lower Ruby towards the writhing black goo.
Pissed, Neo tackles Salem to the ground, throwing her best punches, as they struggle. As soon as Neo "pinned" her to the ground, the full grown woman flipped her over and slammed her into the ground back first. Before Salem's hand in the form of a karate chop could be brought down onto the girl's neck, Neo in a burst of quick motion wrapped her legs around the witch's ribs like a python, and with every ounce of strength in her lower core slammed the mature woman onto her back. The ensuing back and forth however was sending them towards a concerning direction.
As soon as the chain left Salem's hand, Ruby dropped like a rock. Mercifully, the angle of Neo's spider monkey assault forced the chain to drop at an angle. The downside is the red caped reaper fell flat on her chest, knocking the wind out of her and forcing her to gasp like a fish. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the hound simply standing there, observing everything, yet strangely not acting. However as the two wrangled with each other ever more fiercely, Ruby got a good look at where they were going. Over the cliff to the pit!
"Neo, get out of there! You're heading towards the pit!" Ruby yelled with the last bit of breath in her lungs.
As Neo once more pins Salem down, before she has a chance to celebrate, she glances down, and immediately, thinks to herself, 'fuck…'
Ruby watched helplessly as both Neo and Salem fell off the edge. Scrambling on weakened limbs, Ruby rushed over to try and save her friend. For a brief moment, she looked down into the abyssal pit before her, heart sinking at the thought of losing her friend. However this changed when she heard a scratching noise underneath her. Looking down, Ruby saw Neo scrambling to get a proper hold on the edge. Diving down, Ruby grabbed hold of Neo's arm just as the poor girl's strength and grip gave way. Neo looked up into the silver eyes of her friend, stunned.
"Hold on, Neo. I'll get you up. By the Brothers, did you gain weight?" Ruby said with a grunt, slowly pulling her up onto the ledge.
Neo pouts at the accusation of gaining weight. However she then was stunned as Ruby hugged her firmly.
"I'm sorry, Neo. For everything…" Ruby whimpered.
"Not yet you're not." A sinister voice growled from behind them.
"Neo. Run." Ruby said scaredly.
The two girls scrambled to their feet and quickly took off, the Hound in pursuit. They ran through the halls as fast as their legs, not boosted by their Aura, could carry them. However, no matter how quickly they ran, the canine Grimm stayed close behind them. They ducked and dodged around claw swipes as best they could, trying to stay ahead of the beast until their Aura recovered. However, it didn't do them much good. The beast was too fast.
Soon, the Hound caught up and slashed at Ruby. However, Neo dove and tackled Ruby to the ground, saving her from the slash as the claws grazed her back and made her cry out silently in pain. As the Hound came closer, Ruby picked up a sharp piece of rubble nearby and threw it with all her might. To her and Neo's amazement, through sheer dumb luck or an act of divine intervention neither of them could tell, the sharp piece of rock hit the Hound in the eye, stabbing into its eyeball. The canine beast roared in pain as it stumbled back, giving the girls an opening.
"Neo, come on! We need to get out of here!" Ruby called out, getting up and reaching her hand out for Neo to take it.
Nodding, the tiny ice cream girl took her hand as the red reaper helped her up. The two then took off while the Hound tried to get the piece of sharpened stone out of its eye. Managing to grab onto the piece of rocky shrapnel, the Grimm ripped the projectile from its eyeball. Dropping it to the ground, the beast growled in rage as its eye slowly healed. Throwing its head back, it roared in absolute fury, a vicious howl that echoed through the castle and across the landscape.
The two girls paled at that as they kept running. "I think I made it angry…!" Ruby screamed in a panic.
Neo simply gave her red hooded friend an annoyed glare that said 'Gee, ya think so!?'
Continuing to run, the girls toppled various decorations around the castle in an attempt to slow the Hound down. However, no matter what they put in its way, it barreled through them and kept coming, barely even slowing down. A few times, it managed to get close to them and almost took one of their heads off with a claw swipe that cracked walls. At this rate, they couldn't run forever and they both knew it. Sooner or later, Aura or not, they'd have to stand and fight if they wanted to survive.
Unfortunately for them, that time was now. As they turned a corner, they finally hit a dead end. Gulping, they both turned to go back only to find the Hound blocking their way out. As the Hound slowly stalked closer, they both backed up until they hit the wall. Seeing as they were trapped, like two mice chased down by a cat, they saw that they had no choice but to fight their way out.
Looking at Neo, Ruby took the little ice cream girl's hand. "For what it's worth, Neo… there are few other people I'd rather go out fighting beside than you." Ruby told her, a nervous smile on her face."
Neo shakes her head, signing, 'I'm not dying here! I'm dying at 107 years old in Patch, surrounded by my friends!'
Faking some sense of confidence, Ruby gave her smaller friend a smile. "Then let's get out of here and make that happen." She replied before glaring at the monstrosity before them, grabbing a short sword off of a nearby suit of armor.
With that, the Hound roared and charged in. Ruby let out a challenging roar in response as Neo let out a silent roar of her own while they charged in back. The two sides rushed in at each other as quickly as they could, ready to fight for their lives. When the two sides reached each other, the Hound tried to slash at the girls only for them to duck under the claws, missing them by mere millimeters. The two girls rammed into the Hound's gut, Ruby ramming her short blade into its stomach in an attempt to harm it.
The beast growled in annoyance and rage as it tried to smash its clawed fist down on top of them. Leaping aside on opposite sides of the clawed hand, the girls dodged the attempt to squish them as Ruby slashed at the canine Grimm's wrist. The blade bit into the Hound just below its forearm, making it snarl in pain and anger as a small amount of black sludge dripped from the insignificant cut made by the blade. Swinging its arm out at Ruby, the beast pushed her back as the black goo went flying against the wall.
The Grimm growled in rage as it tried to swing as Ruby only for Neo to kick it in its knee with all her might. While the blow didn't hurt, it did unbalance the Hound just enough for its claw swipe to barely graze Ruby. Hissing in pain, the red reaper quickly recovered and slashed at their foe's hand in an attempt to cut off its clawed fingers. The blade stopped dead against the claws, barely biting into the canine beast's hide enough to draw a drop of the black goop that it called blood.
Dodging another claw swipe, Ruby swung down hard at the Grimm's arm in an attempt to cut it off. The blade hit home and finally cut into the Hound's arm enough to create a deep wound as the beast roared in agony. However, when Ruby tried to pull it out to finish the cut and hack off the limb, she found that she couldn't. The blade was stuck.
Growling in fury, the canine Grimm wrenched its arm away from Ruby as she tried to hold onto the weakened sword blade's hilt. With a metallic snap, the blade of the sword broke off with the remainder still lodged in the Hound's arm. Grabbing the blade, the beast ripped it out and crushed it in its hand before punching Ruby hard in the stomach, making her gasp in pain as she hit the nearby wall. As Neo tried to back Ruby up, a backhand swipe from the Hound knocked her down and forced the breath from her little lungs, making her gasp in pain. The Grimm then pinned her down and loomed over her, licking the side of her head threateningly before rearing its head back to chomp down on her skull and finish her.
"No. Neo… not like this…" Ruby whimpered, her right arm knocked out of the socket and her left one wrapped around her stomach.
Neo looked up, eyes glazed in fear and paralyzed to her core. A chasm of darkness ringed in hideous, jagged ivory was all the end of the tunnel she was going to get. A sinking feeling of horror and helplessness gripped Ruby. Everything she tried to do for her friend, everything she ever wanted to do for her was for nought. She consistently wasn't there for her in her hours of need, and the one right before her. It couldn't be like this? Could it?
"No…" Ruby weakly said, as something began to well up inside her.
The Hound's horrible jaws lurched down towards Neo's head, only to be stopped as a horrible aura washed over it. It was a gnawing pain at first, but slowly grew to an aching one. It growled in pain and stopped its attack, shaking its head violently to try and get rid of the pain. Neo, shocked she wasn't dead, tilted her head up. Shock overflowed from both girl and beast. Ruby's eyes, in a manner similar as if aura was radiating from them, were growing silver.
"No…" The hound growled, as it felt the aura get stronger.
"Let. Her. Go!" Ruby roared, defiantly rising to her feet, her emotions only making the silvery aura grow in intensity and ferocity.
The Hound recoiled at the sudden surge, its pitch black hide beginning to singe and bubble. Bone beginning to crack under some seeming great heat. Its monstrous head averted Ruby's gaze, as if it could not bear it. Seeing this effect, Ruby dug deep, trying her best to find what was causing this inside her. What came to her was the feeling of loss that hung in her heart, and what that feeling truly meant.
'No more. No more loss this day.' Ruby thought, her resolve growing and amplifying this silvery aura's power.
Neo layed there stunned as the warmth of its silvery glow radiated over her. She had read many books of fables, legends and tales in her life. Nothing, in any of the wildest and most fanciful fever dreams of mankind could compare to this. The Grimm recoiled as its thick black hide peeled and curled away like moldy orange peels. Bone blackening under intense ethereal heat and spikes shattering to dust. Slowly it took a step back away from Neo. Then another, and another. However it refused to let this power win. To make it fail its mistress.
Standing in direct defiance to this girl's power, it looked back with its red volcanic orbs of hatred. With every fiber of unnatural strength it had left, the Hound roared at Ruby in defiance. Neo was forced to cover her ears as her poor eardrums rattled with the sudden force of a rock concert. Wincing in pain, Ruby bit down onto her lip with enough force and pressure to make it gush crimson.
Digging her heels into the ancient stone, the silver aura began to froth and roil like a surging storm. This furthered the burning effect on the body of the Hound, but as it stared into Ruby's silvery moon like eyes, for the first time in its existence it felt fear. Ruby, as if to prove the superiority of her might, let out a thunderous roar. Amplified by this strange silver energy, the shockwave rushed through the stone hall with the force of a thunderclap. Neo was forced to roll onto her stomach and clamp down on her ears hard due to not only the volume, but the sheer force assaulting her. Its intended target however fared far worse.
Its toe claws gripped deep into the stone, but it availed it none. The sheer blunt force of the energy sent it barreling back hard across the hall. Those same toe claws, in their failed attempt to stop the momentum ground down to dust against the friction of the stone. Its unholy and horrid toughness availed it even less than the stone did. Great chunks of its arms, armor and chest were scorched away in holy iridescent fire. Its face armor, so feared by all, was contemptuously torn away with force and fire.
After the exertion, the power died down from Ruby's eyes and the silver energy melted away into the ether. Panting in utter exhaustion, shock and blood loss, Ruby dropped to her knees in a cold sweat. Her head hung low, not being able to even see Neo from this angle. Her vision slowly began to go to black, before she heard something only ever before in her dreams.
"R-Ruby…" Was all an eerily, sickeningly familiar voice could weakly muster.
With the last ounces of energy and strength Ruby had left, she looked to meet this voice with her vision. Silver eyes met another pair of silver eyes. Flowing black hair tipped in scarlet. Silk like pale skin wreathing a face who has seen more joy and sorrow than any person in this world ever should. All poking out of the horrid scorched and scarred form of the Hound's neck.
"M-Mom…" Was all Ruby could muster weakly, her breath being sucked out of her lungs.