Here we are at Chapter 92. Let's see how the gang handles babysitting a little girl while trying to figure out what the Hell is going on at the farm. I do not own RWBY or Tales of Berseria. They belong to their respective owners. Here's chapter 92. Enjoy.
Chapter 92: The Forest is Alive
The gang is all in the living room, with the little girl sitting on the couch between Ruby and Oscar, while everyone else sits or stands around them, the fireplace still going. The little girl appears to be around six years-old.
"So, your name is Lily, right?" Ruby asks, and Lily nods. "Okay, can you tell me where your parents are?" Ruby asks.
Lily looks at the fire, staring at it for what felt like hours, concerning the others until finally...
"The woods took them," Lily says.
"The woods?" Blake asks, confused.
"What about everyone else?" Velvet asks.
"The woods took them too," Lily replies, still staring at the fireplace.
Qrow walks over to the window next to the front door, seeing the sun going down, and looks out into the forest beyond. The blizzard is still raging, but he can faintly see the trees beyond the settlement. However, he can't see anything else out there. No signs of life at all. Qrow then walks back in.
"I don't see anything, but the fact remains that we're still stuck here until the storm calms down. I reckon it'll get better by tomorrow," Qrow says.
"What about her?" Yang asks, gesturing to Lily.
"She stays with us. It's not the best option, but if everyone else here is... gone, then she'll be safer with us than by herself. When we get to Argus, we'll figure out what to do with her from there," Qrow says.
"Argus?" Lily asks.
"We're going to Argus," Weiss says.
The little girl perks up, if only slightly, "Daddy is in Argus," she says.
"Really, but what is he doing in Argus?" Velvet asks.
"I don't know. Daddy stuff," Lily replies.
They have to remember that she's only a little girl. She won't be able to give them a detailed description of things, including what happened to the rest of the settlers. Ruby walks out to the hallway, looking at the pictures hanging on the wall. She finds one that shows a man wearing a fedora, with short brown hair underneath, a woman with shoulder-length dirty blonde hair, and a little girl that looks a lot like Lily. Ruby takes the picture back to the living room and shows the girl.
"Is this your dad?" Ruby asks.
"Yes, that's Daddy," Lily replies, taking the picture into her hands.
"Alright, well at least we have a plan for our new little friend here when we get to Argus. Reunite her with her dad," Ruby says.
"Don't we have enough to worry about?" Yang asks.
"You want to leave her here by herself?" Velvet retorts.
Yang sighs, "Good point. Alright, we'll take her with us to see her father," she says.
"One thing, Lily... what happened to your mom?" Velvet asks.
The little girl stares back at the fireplace, looking sad this time, "The woods took her," she says and starts crying. "Waah! I want my mommy! I want my daddy!" she cries.
The others are stumped on what to do, leaving only Velvet to take care of the water works.
"There, there, it's okay," Velvet says as she cradles the girl in her arms, gently patting her back and letting Lily cry her heart out. "We'll get you to your daddy. Don't worry Sshh," she tries to soothe the little girl. "This is why little kids are so much to handle."
Eventually, Lily calms down and falls asleep in Velvet's arms.
"Okay, she's calmed down now," Velvet whispers so as not to wake her.
"You're surprisingly good at that, Velvet," Yang notes, earning a glare from Velvet, making her shirk away a bit.
"I think the little girl has the right idea about it. It's getting a little late. We have an early day tomorrow. Let's all get some sleep," Qrow says.
Everyone nods in agreement and move around to get settled in. They find some pillows and blankets and take positions in the living room. They let Lily sleep on the couch, while Yang and Weiss sleep together on the floor near the fireplace. Oscar sits in the love seat, while Velvet and Ruby sleep on another spot on the floor, and Blake sleeps on the rug in the center of the room. Qrow grabs a seat and takes his place by the front door so he can keep an eye out, and to have a bottle of wine to drink. Maria is the only one who is still awake aside from him.
"Hmph. I'll go to sleep when I feel like it," Maria mutters, sitting back in her chair and reading another book, a diary of the landowner this time.
"Do you think everything will be okay tomorrow?" Ruby asks Velvet as she snuggles closer to her.
"I don't know. I'll I do know is that the sooner we get out of here, the better," Velvet replies, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend.
Just then, Ruby notices the book that Maria is reading and sits up, getting curious.
"What are you reading?" Ruby asks, while Velvet sits up with her.
"A diary of the head of this household, apparently. Bartleby, Lily's father. He and some other folks came her and made this settlement in order to start fresh and make something up themselves. From what I read, they haven't been here too long, and it seemed to work, for a short time at least," Marai says, flipping over another page.
"Was it the Grimm?" Velvet asks.
"It sounds like it. They were doing okay for a while, but then people started to go missing. They sent out search parties, even hired the occasional huntsmen who would help for a price, but they could never find the missing people. It says here that Bartleby thought about moving them all to Argus in order to keep those that were still around safe. Don't know what happened to him though. He sounded like quite the ambitious fellow, always thinking of new schemes to overcome the odds... You kids should get some sleep. I'll turn in shortly. I just want to read a little bit more," Maria says.
With that, Ruby and Velvet lie down and fall asleep, while Maria continues reading by the fireplace. Early in the morning, when everyone is still asleep, Velvet suddenly hears some noises outside that manage to get one eye open from her. She glances up at a nearby window, only to see what looks like a human head obscured by shadows outside as it walks on by. This gets her wide awake and she shakes Ruby awake.
"Ruby, wake up," Velvet says.
Ruby groans and rubs her eyes as she wakes up, "Velvet, what's going on?" she asks, still half asleep.
"There's someone outside," Velvet tells her, keeping her eyes on the nearby window.
This gets Ruby fully awake now, "Are you sure? Could it be another one of the settlers?" Ruby asks as they get up.
"I don't know, but I don't like it. We need to get everyone up and get that flat-bed hooked onto Yang's bike. It looks like the storm is gone now, so this is our best chance. Let's move it," Velvet says.
They proceed to wake everyone up, much to the others' irritation, and get outside to find no one else around. Of course, Qrow is last to come out after having some more to drink the night before (and Velvet pushing him off of his seat to get him to wake up).
"Geez, what's the rush?" Qrow asks, rubbing his head.
"There was someone out here, but it gave me a bad vibe," Velvet says.
"Are you sure you're not just seeing things? Maybe you need a little more rest. I know I could use some," Yang says.
"I know what I saw, Yang. Listen, the storm is gone now, so let's get to work on getting out of here. I'll take a look around," Velvet says, only for Lily to latch onto her leg.
"Wanna go too," Lily says, not wanting to be separated from Velvet.
"Listen, Lily, you'll be safer if you stay here. I won't be back long," Velvet gently tells her.
"No, I want to find Mommy," Lily replies.
Velvet groans and holds her head, "Kids can be the worst sometimes," she mentally notes.
Ruby walks up to them, picking Lily up and cradling her in her arms, "Come on, with the two of us together, she should be safe. And I'm not letting you go out alone either," Ruby says.
Velvet sighs, "Fine. Let's just make this quick. The rest of you just get the bike and flat-bed ready to leave," Velvet says before the three of them leave to take another look around the settlement.
Weiss hunches over, looking exhausted already, "Oh, joy," she mutters sarcastically.
Qrow begins to head back inside.
"Where are you going?" Maria asks him.
"Where do you think? Let me know when everything is ready?" Qrow retorts, holding up his flask before heading back into the house.
Maria shakes her head, "Stupid," she mutters and goes back to reading the diary on the steps of the front porch.
Meanwhile, Velvet, Ruby, and Lily look around the other houses, going inside one at a time to see if they missed anyone that was hiding out like Lily was back in their house. However, they didn't find anyone else in the other houses, or any secret hiding places, and Velvet made sure that she looked for those. After leaving yet another empty house, the girls take a look at the perimeter of the settlement.
"Hey Ruby, Lily said that 'the woods' took the other settlers, right?" Velvet asks.
"Um yeah, I think that's what she said," Ruby replies, while Lily is focused on looking around.
"What if some of them went off into the woods? Or, what if something took them into the woods?" Velvet asks cryptically.
Ruby starts to get worried as she glances between Lily and the forest, "You think... that maybe the Grimm took them into the forest?" she asks.
"The Grimm?" Lily asks.
"I don't know. But it seems likely, however I've heard of a Grimm that would take humans away from a settlement rather than just attack the settlement and kill them off right away," Velvet says.
"Killed? Is Mommy dead?" Lily asks and starts to cry.
"Velvet!" Ruby glares at her.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to just blurt it out like-," Velvet begins, only to stop when she notices movement in between the trees. "What was that?" Velvet says and quickly moves to where she saw the movement.
She stops behind a tree and quickly swings around, only to find nothing on the other side. She looks around and once again, finds nothing out of the ordinary.
"Velvet, you see anything!" Ruby calls out.
"No, I don't see-Ruby, look out!" Velvet yells when she suddenly sees what looks like a Grimm slowly appear behind Ruby, and fires off a shot from her gauntlet.
Ruby hold Lily and ducks as the shot strikes the monster in the head, killing it. Ruby and Lily look to see that it is indeed some type of Grimm, but with a skinny humanoid appearance, and very long claws, before it dissipates into smoke.
Velvet runs up to their side, "Are you two alright?" she asks.
"Yes, we're fine Velvet, but what was that?" Ruby asks.
"I don't know. It's definitely a Grimm, but even with all of the knowledge your mother gave to me about this world, she never gave me anything on this. Even she must not have known about it," Velvet says.
"...We have to get back to the others, and get out of here, now!" Ruby says, and Velvet nods.
"What about Mommy?" Lily asks.
"We'll get you to your daddy, Lily, but... I'm sorry," Ruby apologizes, unsure of what to tell the innocent little girl.
The pair race back to the others, finding that Weiss has welded a metal ball onto the back of Bumblebee to connect the flat-bed to it.
"Guys, what's going on?" Blake asks.
"No time. We found some kind of humanoid Grimm and killed it, but there could be others out here. We need to leave NOW!" Ruby says.
"Where's Qrow?" Velvet asks.
"Take a guess," Yang says, pointing with her thumb at the house.
Velvet groans, "That idiot. Come on, let's grab him and get out of here," Velvet says and runs into the house with the others in tow. They find Qrow downstairs at the bar, just as they suspected, passed out on the bar countertop. "Wake up, you drunk idiot! It's time to go!" Velvet almost yells as she roughly shakes Qrow awake.
And of course, Qrow is drunk as he wakes up, "H-Hey, get off of me! What are you all doing down here?" he asks as he stands up.
"We're leaving, you idiot!" Maria says and is the first to head back outside.
However, as soon as they all pile up on the front porch, they are all stopped in their tracks when they see a large number of these humanoid Grimm approaching the front of the house from all angles. Though they are slow in their movements, their very presence scares the group, Lily most of all as she holds on tight to Ruby.
"What the Hell?" Yang mutters in shock.
"The flat-bed! We have to get out of here, now!" Velvet says as she activates her maiden powers.
She unleashes a torrent of flame at the closest of the Grimm, burning them all to ashes. However, more of those humanoid Grimm start appearing from the sides of the house as they inch closer to the group. The Grimm suddenly let out a ghoul-like shriek, and everyone falls onto their knees.
"What... what is this? My arms are... so heavy?" Yang complains as she struggles to get back on her feet.
"Back inside, now!" Ruby yells, and the group manage to get back into the house, barricading the front door.
"What were those things? I've never seen Grimm like that before!" Blake notes.
"There will be time to talk about them after we get out of here. What are we supposed to do?" Maria asks.
"Wait, the wine cellar in the basement. We might be able to find another way out of the house and get to the flat-bed if we use that. They won't notice," Weiss says.
They see the Grimm slowly clawing their way at the door and windows, almost like zombies searching for human flesh to feast on.
"Let's go already," Yang says.
The group head downstairs into the basement and then to the doors of the wine cellar. They find the cellar doors chained up, but a quick swing of Blake's katana changes solves that. They open the doors, only to find that it's not a wine cellar, but a tunnel system beneath the settlement. The group quickly moves through the tunnels.
"I remember that old water well in the center of the of the farm. The bike is right next to it. If we can find that, then we can sneak behind the Grimm as they focus on the house and get everyone on board and speed away hopefully before they notice," Ruby says.
"At this point, I'll take any plan that'll get us out of this mess," Yang says.
They race through the tunnels, and eventually find a light up ahead one path, stopping when they find themselves right beneath the water well. Blake changes her katana into a chain-scythe and throws it up, hooking the blade at the top of the water well. Blake heads up first and peeks over the edge of the water well, finding the humanoid Grimm still focused on the house. Blake looks back down to the group and nods. Qrow changes into a crow and flies up to the surface, while Velvet activates her maiden powers to conjure up an air current to float herself and the others slowly to the surface. They all reach the top and so far, the coast is still clear. They get moving, doing their best to keep quiet as they hook the flat-bed onto the bike. However, Yang looks up, only to see more of those humanoid Grimm appear behind the water well, blocking off their escape route. The new Grimm screech, gaining the larger group's attention, and now all red eyes are on the group. Yang starts firing off her gauntlets, while Velvet uses her powers to burn more of the Grimm to cinders.
However, the Grimm's numbers are too many and when their shriek again, the group find their strength leaving them again. Blake falls onto her side, dropping her weapon, and Ruby looks back as the Grimm get closer to her from behind.
"Blake... get up," Ruby says, trying to stay alert.
"...It's fine..." Blake mutters, as if she's drained of all her strength.
The Grimm's elongated claws are about to touch her head, and Ruby loses it. Suddenly, her Silver eyes shine and release a bright light, forcing the Grimm back around them. Maria notices this and moves to Ruby, grasping her head. Meanwhile, Velvet uses her powers again, this time sending out ice shards with lightning sparking around them, killing a few more Grimm.
"Ruby, what color are your eyes?" Maria asks.
"They're... silver," Ruby replies on the ground.
Maria gasps, "Do you have family? People you care about?" she asks.
"What does that have to-," Ruby begins before Maria stops her.
"Hush. Listen closely, I need you to close your eyes and focus on my voice. Do it now," Maria calmly says. Ruby does as she asks, and Maria covers her ears, her voice becoming more like a faint echo from beyond. "Listen, Ruby. Life is beautiful... it is precious... And it must. Be. Protected," Maria tells her.
Ruby's eyes open up, glowing, and she sits up as her eyes shine again, only this time with greater strength, and vaporize most of the Apathy around them, reducing them to nothing. With that, their strength returns and Yang gets her bike started up while the rest of the group hop onto the flat-bed. The rest of the humanoid Grimm start to close in on them, and Velvet uses her maiden powers again to create a powerful gust of wind to blow away the Grimm blocking their path. With the path clear, Yang revs up her engine and high-tails it out of the settlement. Velvet makes on last effort to make sure the Grimm don't try to follow them, and sends out a wave of fire across the entire settlement, engulfing all of the Grimm and the buildings in flames. After that, Velvet falls onto her hands and knees, breathing a little raggedly after using her powers to such an extent in such a harrowing situation. Once the group are in the clear, Maria takes this time to talk.
"Those were called the Apathy. They're not particularly strong or ferocious. They drain your will to go on, and there have been cases where they would sneak into human villages and take people away to drain away their wills and then kill them. If I were to suspect, I'd say the missing settlers must've met a similar fate," Maria says before closing the diary and tossing it into the forest behind them.
The group look at each other solemnly, and then to Lily, who remains wrapped around Ruby, crying out of fear and sadness.
"The diary said that her father went to Argus to find help. You think he might still be there?" Blake asks.
"If he is, then we need to find him. She's lost enough already, wouldn't you say?" Velvet says as she sits next to Ruby.
Weiss watches the little girl calm down in Ruby's arms, "I'm sorry about what I said earlier... about giving up," she apologizes.
Yang hears her and stops the bike, "Yeah, me too. We can't quit. Not until Lily is safe, and not until we get the Relic safely to Atlas. Or else... more people may end up like her," Yang mutters, staring at Lily.
"Miss Maria... How did you know what to say to me earlier? About my eyes? How did you know how to do that?" Ruby asks.
Maria smiles, "Well, isn't it obvious, child... I had Silver eyes," she confesses, much to the shock of the group.
And that's the chapter. The group barely managed to survive the attack of the Apathy, and now have one more guest added to their group for the time being. What's more, Ruby now learns that she's not the only person who has Silver eyes and is still alive, or had eyes in this case. Will the group finally be able to make it to Argus? What about Maria once having Silver eyes? Until then, please Read and Review.
