It was a nice afternoon, that day in Vale. Crisp air and clear skies, comfortable in every sense of the word. That didn't stop the atmosphere surrounding Cinder and Ruby, as they gradually made their way through the ruined sections of the city, from being more than a little tense. Or at least, that was how it felt to Cinder.
"Everything alright?"
The question Ruby asked was simple, her voice sounding as if she didn't have a care in the world. It honestly caught Cinder more than a little off guard, under the circumstances she would have expected Ruby to be the more nervous of the two of them. But then, Ruby often seemed to try to hide her worries away, to do her best to look strong in front of others. As Cinder peered a little closer, took in some of the smaller details like the way Ruby's posture was a touch stiffer than usual, the twitchy movements of those beautiful silver eyes, she guessed that this was one of those occasions.
"I'm pretty sure we're being watched."
Ruby flashed a small grin at Cinder's response. "Yeah, me too."
That was good, both the fact that they were both on the same wavelength, and the fact that they'd in all likelihood found their target. Many things could be watching them, of course, but there wasn't really anything living out in this part of the city anymore besides grimm, and grimm, normal grimm at least, wouldn't just be watching like this. A normal grimm wouldn't have been carefully stalking them for the last 20 minutes, possibly even longer if it'd been there before Cinder noticed. And that meant they must've found a very special grimm indeed.
Cinder was honestly still kinda annoyed that they'd been dragged into this, hunting down some unusual killer grimm wasn't exactly her idea of a good time, especially when she'd been looking forward to having a relaxing day wandering around Vale. Ultimately though, she did have to concede that her and Ruby would have a better shot at dealing with whatever this thing was, exactly, than any of the other huntresses in the kingdom. Apparently this thing was the reason both those expeditions to destroy the petrified wyvern that Cinder had read about failed, killing all but one person involved. Perhaps even worse, that lone survivor had been part of the first expedition, had managed to get away and warn everyone about the creature, meaning that the second team got taken down even when they were expecting it.
Of course, there was only so much preparation you could do with limited information, all that the survivor had been able to relay was that the creature looked something like a spider, had ambushed them, and could apparently grow new limbs. Not a lot to go on. Also, in Cinder's experience most licensed huntsmen tended to be very cocky, thinking that they were invincible just because they managed to graduate. It's possible that the first team just got caught by surprise, then the second were underprepared and overconfident, and that ultimately this grimm they were looking for wasn't really that dangerous.
Yeah, Cinder didn't believe that for a second. The description may have been limited, but it still didn't match up to any kind of regular grimm that lived in this region. That meant that it had to be one of Salem's experiments, something sent here to keep people away while she hunted for the vault, and anything she entrusted with a task like that had to be just as dangerous as it sounded. What the experiment could be, exactly, was a broad category of course, but…
She spared another look over at Ruby. There was definitely one experiment in particular that was on both of their minds, right now.
"Ready for a fight?" It didn't feel right to push Ruby too directly on her feelings right now, especially with the possibility of them being ambushed at any moment, so Cinder kept her question open ended.
Ruby gave another cheeky smile. "You bet, looking forward to trying out my new baby." She punctuated the statement by patting the rifle slung across her back, just barely visible behind her billowing cloak.
Cinder couldn't help but smile back. "Are you sure about using it? I thought it wasn't quite done." It seemed Ruby wasn't eager to talk about those fears right now. That was okay, or at least Cinder hoped it was, they'd just have to cross that bridge when and if they came to it.
"Ah, well, I could probably keep fine-tuning it forever. I never actually stopped tinkering with Crescent Rose. It's definitely ready to fight with, though," Ruby gave an energetic thumbs up, "Just wait, Autumn Rose is gonna blow you away."
"Is that what you're calling it?" Cinder quirked her lone eyebrow incredulously.
"Yep! Or, what I'm leaning towards, at least. Do you like it?"
"Uh, I guess. But… why?"
Ruby giggled airily, "Well, I figured since it's incorporating the style you taught me, and you even helped make it, it'd be good to have a little tribute to you in its name."
Hm. The idea did make Cinder's heart flutter a little, though as usual she couldn't pinpoint exactly why. "Alright, I get that. Why Rose, though, like why give it your own last name?"
Ruby's expression morphed into one of faux shock. "Cinder," she admonished, "That's because it's a part of the family!"
A small laugh bubbled up from Cinder's throat. "Alright, alright, if you say so."
It was nice, as always, to get to walk with Ruby, to talk about nonsense, to just laugh in a way Cinder hadn't for so, so much of her life. The current situation was, however, at least a little hampered by the fact that they both had to be ready for an ambush at any moment.
The plan they were operating under right now was, they didn't have any easy way to track their target, meaning that the easiest way to find it would be to have it come to them. So, they'd set off down the route that those failed expeditions had taken toward Beacon, with the intention of being attacked somewhere along the way. Perhaps not the best plan, but they wanted to wrap this up quickly, and it did seem to be working so far.
Cinder was quite certain that the creature was nearby, though she couldn't pinpoint exactly where. All she had to go off were a few brief glimpses of something moving in the distance, and the constant prickly sensation of being watched, never enough to actually flush it out and force a confrontation. That meant that it would be up to the grimm to decide when to attack them, rather than the other way round, and so far it hadn't deigned to take the bait.
Quite an advantage to give to your opponent. But, they could handle it, she knew they could. Whatever the specifics may be, it was still just a grimm. Nothing to worry about.
Time passed gradually as the pair continued their journey, deeper and deeper into the ruined portion of the city, and still no attack came. It made Cinder feel increasingly antsy, struggling to deal with all this tension that could break at any moment, and yet continued on and on with no end in sight. The location also wasn't exactly doing anything to help her current mood.
Beacon tower loomed high above them, still a good distance away, and yet closer and closer with every second. Her gaze kept drifting up there, drawn as if by some magnetic force, to settle at the very peak of the tower, on the ruins of what had once been Ozpin's office. She still wasn't really sure how she was supposed to feel about… well, about all of this. Bad, she supposed. Regretful. And she did feel those things, but… was that enough? Should she be feeling more, doing more? Dropping to her knees, begging for forgiveness and inviting punishment.
Maybe. But she didn't think so. Begging for forgiveness, whether she received it or not, wasn't going to change anything. Being punished, hurt, killed, none of that would change anything. Nothing could just undo what she'd done here, and honestly whatever she did in the future people would have a right to hold this all against her forever. She was fairly sure Glynda would be counted among that number, just judging by the way the woman had been glaring at her during their brief meeting. But that didn't mean she couldn't change her life all the same.
She was committed to this path, to walking beside Ruby, to helping, to healing, to changing herself. And that was that.
It kind of amazed her, how confidently she could declare that now. Of course, she did have her companion to thank for that. Her gaze drifted back down, away from the tower, and towards Ruby. She would be forever thankful for Ruby helping her to believe in herself, for showing her that this was a path she could walk, that it was even a possibility. For caring for her, giving her trust and affection that she may not have deserved, but desperately needed all the same.
She felt her cheeks heating up, and in lieu of any better solution forced herself to look away from Ruby, forced herself to think of anything else. Just… just focus on the mission for now, no point in thinking about any of that. Just-
At that point, Cinder tripped over, which rather rudely interrupted her train of thought. On the bright side she managed to avoid falling flat on her face, maintaining her footing, but… no, tripped wasn't quite right, she hadn't stumbled over anything, it was instead like her foot was stuck to the ground. She looked down and failed to see anything that might be the cause, just normal road, and yet when she tried to lift her foot it remained stubbornly glued to the ground. And now that she was paying attention, her other foot was stuck the same way, and-
"Cinder!"
Ruby's warning shout immediately got Cinder's attention, she snapped her head up just in time to see an inky black appendage rocketing towards her from out of a nearby ruined building. With no way of dodging, she instead manifested a sword in her hand, and prepared to meet the attack head on. Before she could, however, a thundercrack sounded through the streets, and a point around the middle of that appendage exploded in a burst of black goop.
Half of the… whatever it was, exactly, flopped onto the ground and immediately dissolved into black smoke, while the remainder retracted back into the building. Cinder spared a glance behind her, and saw Ruby a short distance back down the street, surrounded by petals and with her Autumn Rose unfurled into its sniper rifle form.
"There's a web on the ground!" Ruby called out, before pulling back the bolt of her rifle and beginning to fire rounds towards the source of the attack.
Cinder looked back to the ground, and noticed what Ruby had been talking about, a web almost invisible to the naked eye that they'd walked straight into. Ruby must have used her semblance to escape, and luckily Cinder was well equipped to do the same. She called upon the familiar heat of her Scorching Caress, and focused it downwards, a small grin growing on her face as the offending webbing burst into flame.
That was all well and good, because it seemed Ruby's gunfire had succeeded in angering their assailant. With an almighty roar, the building that it had been sheltering within exploded outwards, their target bursting out and charging towards them.
Cinder had to admit, the little bit of intel that they'd received hadn't exactly been wrong. The grimm looked like some kind of deathstalker-sized spider. Or at least, its torso and head did, the limb situation was where it differed. Rather than 8 legs, numerous… tentacles? She couldn't exactly examine them closely, but tentacles seemed right. Anyway, numerous tentacles protruded out of its body, all coming from seemingly random locations with some retracting back into the body and new ones extending out constantly. Some whirled away underneath it, acting like legs and propelling it forwards, others thrashed about aimlessly in the air, while others still lanced towards Cinder, aiming to skewer her as the Arachnid (that felt like a good name, right?) continued its charge.
Well, she wasn't about to let that happen, was she? No longer being stuck to the ground, Cinder had plenty of options at her disposal, and the one she chose was to meet her problem head on. Literally, in this case. Pouring more energy into her semblance, she formed up a myriad of glass shards, hanging in the air around her. With a flick of the wrist, those shards were sent rocketing towards the Arachnid, and Cinder charged forward in their wake, hoping to finish things quickly.
The Arachnid skidded to a stop and roared out in pain as it ran straight into that hail of glass, but unfortunately the damage appeared to be minimal. Most of the projectiles were intercepted by all those flailing tentacles, and the few that managed to hit the main body didn't seem to penetrate its hide.
That just meant Cinder would have to attack it directly. As she charged forward, she made use of her semblance once more, reshaping the sword into a spear. It wasn't exactly easy to fight with one of these things one handed, but if she only needed one good strike, she figured she could manage. The distance separating them shrunk rapidly, and as soon as Cinder was close enough she lunged forward, thrusting with all her might towards one of the beady little eyes she could make out amidst the sea of its oily black skin.
Her attack never connected. Lightning fast, one of those irritating tentacles flew in, intercepting the spear and deflecting it down towards the ground. On cue, two more tentacles shot out and wrapped around the spear's haft, yanking it forward in an attempt to pull Cinder closer. Her quick reactions saved her, releasing the spear the instant she realised what was happening, and then hopping back a few steps more on instinct than any real conscious thought. Good thing too, as yet another pair of tentacles whistled through the air where she'd been standing a split second later.
An annoyed growl rumbled from Cinder's throat as she took a second to consider. This thing was definitely smarter than the average grimm. That… well, it wasn't confirmation of anything, but it did remind her of some things that Ruby had mentioned about that Hound back in Atlas. With barely a thought, a new sword formed in her hand. If she couldn't get an attack past those tentacles, she'd just have to cut down their numbers till she could.
No sooner had those thoughts finished racing through her head, than the Arachnid began to advance on her, three of its tentacles whipping out to take her head off. Cinder wasn't one to be intimidated however, in one smooth motion evading and slicing the ends off two, then using the flat of her blade to just barely deflect the third. There was no breathing room afforded, however, as more and more attacks began to fly her way, and slowly but steadily she found herself being pushed back.
Her one companion in all of this was the steady crack, crack, crack of Ruby's rifle discharging, every shot sending a spray of ichor flying through the air and a severed tentacle flopping to the ground. It was appreciated, as Cinder was struggling more and more to keep up with the assault with every passing second; on more than one occasion an attack that she wouldn't have been able to block or evade was intercepted at the last moment by a well-timed bullet. Their combined efforts didn't seem to be amounting to much, however.
For every tentacle that Ruby shot off, or Cinder sliced apart, another grew back right in its place. There didn't seem to be any end to them. It was possible that the grimm had some sort of limited… mass, maybe, that if they kept going for long enough it would run out of goop to grow limbs from, but as far as Cinder could tell they were yet to make a dent. On top of this Cinder was, much as she hated to admit it, kinda reaching her limit here. The Arachnid could just attack from too many angles simultaneously, and keeping up with it all with only one sword to work with was-
She ducked her head down, just in time to avoid a wide sweeping blow, then scrambled back a few steps as a pair of tentacles slammed down into the ground right where she'd been standing. A third lanced towards her, aiming to catch her in the thigh while she was still off-balance, before one of Ruby's shots tore through it and gave her the time to recover. Damnit, she couldn't let these thoughts distract her from the present moment, even a second of lost focus could be fatal. They did need to come up with something, though, this current strategy was doomed to failure.
Attacking the tentacles was useless, they clearly needed to hit the main body. But how to sneak an attack past its defences? It was taking both of them as is to keep up with its attacks, and things weren't going to get any easier, not when it could just keep… growing… limbs.
Cinder dashed backwards, tossing out waves of glass shards in her wake to cover her retreat. Ruby was her goal, the huntress glancing at her with a hint of confusion as the distance between them closed, her rifle still rhythmically blasting away the whole while. Knowing they didn't exactly have much time to speak, Cinder didn't even wait till she'd finished skidding to a stop to breathlessly gasp, "I've got a plan!"
"Yeah?" Ruby didn't bother taking her eyes away from the Arachnid as she answered, buying them as much time as she could with her shots.
Cinder turned back, forming and then tossing another hail of glass shards at the creature. "I'll take it head on, get all its attention, you sneak around and flank it, kill it when it doesn't see you coming." It was a nice and simple plan, something they'd done dozens of times over the course of their journey.
"And how are you expecting to be able to take it on alone?"
"I've uh, got a new technique that should even the odds."
For the first time since they started talking, Ruby missed a beat, one of her eyebrows quirking in surprise. "New technique? You haven't even been practising since we got to Patch, when did you come up with that?"
The answer to that question made Cinder feel a little awkward. "Well. Right about now, actually, but it's a good one."
Ruby looked over at Cinder, their eyes meeting. That look contained multitudes, trust, belief, faith, and other, deeper feelings that neither could articulate just yet. "Alright. Let's do it."
With that confirmation, Ruby dissolved into petals, speeding away into the surrounding wreckage as she searched for a place to attack from. That just left Cinder to hold up her end of the bargain.
At this point the Arachnid was practically on top of her, having gradually forced its way through the hail of projectiles Ruby and Cinder had been throwing at it. This meant that Cinder only had about a second to put her new idea into action before she'd be smashed to pieces. Luckily, she worked fast.
She breathed in. Her aura pulsed around her. She could feel it, feel that warmth flowing over her skin, feel how it encompassed her. And now she focused, focused on the stump of her left arm, on the empty space beyond it. Deep in her memories, she could recall exactly what it had felt like before she'd lost that arm, could remember the way her aura used to map its contours, could remember its exact shape.
She exhaled, simultaneously raising her sword to block the first of many attacks the Arachnid sent flying her way. And in the empty space where her left arm used to be, glass began to form. It came easily, surprisingly so, and part of Cinder couldn't help but wish she'd had this moment of inspiration some time ago. She supposed she shouldn't complain, though, and when the next attack flew her way it was her new glass arm that deflected it. She grinned, nice and wide.
It wasn't a perfect substitute, couldn't feel, took constant maintenance from her aura to move it since the only real way to do so was to melt and then set the glass in the new position, and the weight was messing with her sense of balance a little. That being said, it was an arm, and it was hers, and that meant she could fight like she used to. With another pulse of energy, she formed herself a second sword in her glass hand. Let's see how it handles this.
Cinder was a blur of motion, her twin swords dancing through the air, the afternoon light reflecting off of them spectacularly. The movements of this style came back to her so easily, like it'd only been yesterday she'd last used them. She'd missed this so much. And, importantly, it served to more than even the playing field between her and the Arachnid.
Attacks were flying at her constantly, coming from every direction in every way imaginable. And yet, she met them all, slicing and dicing her way through the storm, sending countless chunks of oily flesh sailing through the air like some kind of demonic blender.
The Arachnid seemed to be growing more and more frustrated with every passing second, its beady eyes focusing on her with a burning intensity, its attacks growing faster and faster, yet still not enough to do anything more than keep Cinder at a stalemate. And there was something else that seemed to be growing too, some kind of strange humming sound emanating from its body, gradually growing louder.
Cinder couldn't be quite sure when it had actually started; part of her wondered if it'd been there ever since the fight began, but just quiet enough that she hadn't picked up on it until right now. Still, it didn't seem to be really doing anything, per se, so she decided to just take it as a sign that she was being successful in holding all of the monster's attention. Now, it would just be up to Ruby to find the right opportunity.
That moment came right around when Cinder was starting to worry about how much longer she could keep this up for. Maintaining her arm was taking more energy than she'd expected, and her aura wasn't going to hold out forever. And then, she noticed a rose petal fluttering in the wind, and all her worries fell away.
Ruby rocketed into the fray, a red blur moving so fast Cinder practically didn't see her until she was already sliding to a stop on the opposite side of the Arachnid to where she'd begun. Autumn Rose was unfurled into its scythe form, its wickedly sharp edge slicing clean through the grimm, dividing it into two more or less equal halves. And that was that.
The Arachnid collapsed almost immediately, its body falling apart. Some tentacles flailed about for another few seconds, some kind of death rattle Cinder supposed, before falling still, dropping to the ground as black smoke began to pour from its body.
Cinder breathed a long sigh of relief, letting her shoulders drop as all the tension she'd been carrying began to drain from her body. It was over. As exhilarating as the fight had been, getting to really go all out, to dual wield once more, it was safe to say she wasn't too eager to go through all of that again.
She looked over to where Ruby had stopped, and found that she hadn't moved, was just staring blankly at the Arachnid's dissolving body. Cinder could guess what she was looking for, what she feared might be inside. It seemed to be taking some time though, the back half of the grimm was decently decayed but the front seemed to still be mostly intact. Figuring that she could probably use some support, Cinder walked over, reaching out a hand and gently resting it on Ruby's shoulder.
Ruby startled at the contact, but recovered quickly, tearing her gaze away from the Arachnid to meet Cinder's eye, a small smile forming quickly. "Good job."
It was small praise, but made Cinder's heart flutter all the same. "You too, it never saw you coming. Shame you didn't get to try out the swords, though."
"Ah, yeah, well there's always next time. You were so cool though! With the arm and everything, I was really shocked when I saw it."
Cinder raised her glass arm, slowly flexing the fingers, admiring the soft molten glow of its core. "Oh yeah, well, I was watching the Arachnid growing back all its limbs and I just suddenly had the idea. Takes a bit of energy, but I figure this should be really useful going forward."
When Cinder looked back, Ruby was stifling giggles. "The Arachnid?"
"Oh, uh, yeah." Cinder could feel her cheeks heating up. "I guess I just started calling it that in my head. Fits though, doesn't it?"
"Hmmm." Ruby began comically stroking her chin, as if in deep thought. "I mean, it does look like a spider, but doesn't an Arachnid need to have eight legs? This thing had like… a hundred."
Cinder paused. "Oh. I guess I never really thought about that."
And now, Ruby was entirely failing to stifle those giggles. "Hey, don't worry about it," she gave Cinder a playful punch on the arm, "Arachnid is a fine name, even if it doesn't really matter anymore."
Cinder smiled, her cheeks heating up just a touch more. These moments, getting to just laugh and banter with Ruby, were so precious to her. And yet, she couldn't help but shake the feeling that she was missing something. And then it hit her. That humming that she'd heard during the fight, she could still hear it. The Arachnid was still making noise.
The next thing that hit her was a tentacle, whipping in from out of her field of vision, hitting her with enough force to send her flying. Her aura, drained from all the use of her semblance, only barely held together after that hit, and when she then crashed into one of the nearby abandoned buildings, it shattered completely.
Her head was spinning from the impact, pain lancing through her body, vision blurry, and yet she forced herself to look up and focus as much as she could. The rear portion of the Arachnid's body was still lying dead on the ground, almost entirely dissolved at this point, but its front, its head, had somehow lifted itself back up. It seemed unsteady, and smoke was still pouring out of it, but somehow, maybe through sheer force of will, it was holding itself together, was still fighting.
Cinder attempted to stand, but her head was still spinning too much for her to find her balance, and she just ended up slumped against the wall she'd crashed into. She didn't have any swords on her, couldn't make more with her aura broken, and speaking of, her new glass arm was now a deadweight. All she could do was watch as the Arachnid advanced toward her.
"HEY!" Ruby's voice was full of rage, a shout with so much force it pierced through the fog that was settling in Cinder's mind. She must've been hit too, was still in the midst of staggering to her feet, but it didn't seem like she was in as bad a shape as Cinder was; presumably having not exerted her semblance as much her aura had done a better job defending her. Her weapon had been knocked away, though, and her desperate shout didn't seem to do anything to capture the Arachnid's attention, as it continued to drag itself towards Cinder without pause.
The Arachnid was close now, and Cinder still couldn't stand, her leg buckling beneath her as she tried. She could hear Ruby shouting again, but once more the grimm ignored her. It seemed that nothing would stop it, and Cinder could feel her heart pounding harder and harder as she tried and failed to come up with a way out of this. She couldn't move, had no weapons, no way to defend herself, no way to use her semblance, no other options. As she watched helplessly, the Arachnid loomed before her, its remaining tentacles raising to strike.
And then, a familiar silver light engulfed everything. Cinder couldn't help but flinch when it happened, her last few experiences with this kind of light not exactly being pleasant. But of course, she had no grimm attached to her now, and so the light did little more than blind her for a second or so. While her vision was gone, though, her hearing became consumed by a single, ear-splitting sound. It was that humming from before, except now far clearer, clear enough that she could tell that it wasn't humming at all, but a long, neverending, scream. And then, when her vision returned, she saw exactly where it was coming from.
The energy of Ruby's silver eyes had burnt away large chunks of what remained of the Arachnid's body, and exposed what lurked beneath. A person, a man Cinder thought, though it was hard to tell, with close cropped green hair and bright silver eyes. His face was twisted into an expression of unbearable pain, that unbroken scream practically tearing its way from his throat. And then, tendrils sprouted from the grimm flesh around him, wrapped round what was exposed, and dragged him back down into that oily sea. The scream didn't stop, just grew more muffled, until it just sounded like a low hum.
As Cinder watched, still unable to move, the misshapen lump of flesh that was all that remained of their foe slowly lifted itself back up, tentacles sprouting once more. And then, it turned away from her, turned to face Ruby.
Ruby was still standing where she had been before, now seemingly frozen in place. It must be shock, or… or something, Cinder didn't know, but Ruby just stood there, slowly opening and closing her mouth, staring blankly as that monster began to move towards her.
"RUBY!" Cinder screamed, loud as she could. But Ruby just kept staring. She didn't know what else she could do, her heart was hammering even faster, more painfully than it had been when she was the one in danger. She reached for a loose stone on the ground beside her, tossed it at the Arachnid with all the strength she had left, but one of those tentacles just slapped it aside without even slowing down. All the while, it just kept moving towards Ruby.
This couldn't be happening, it couldn't, not like this. Blood was pounding in her ears, gradually drowning out every other sound, leaving her alone with her thoughts. No, no, no, no. She… she was not going to let this happen. Not to Ruby. It just wasn't fair, not after everything Ruby had done for her, not after all that kindness and care. Life wasn't fair, and sometimes tragedies happened, sometimes terrible things happened to people who didn't deserve it, but… but Cinder wasn't going to just let that happen this time.
She breathed deep, and screamed once more. It wasn't even really a word this time, just a raw, visceral shout, infused with all the emotions that were consuming her in that moment. All the fear, the doubt, the pain, the hatred, and of course, the love. Because of course it was love that she felt for Ruby, of course it was, and she felt like such an idiot for not realising it until this exact moment. She loved Ruby with all her heart, more than she'd ever loved anything, more than she'd even realised a person could love someone else. And she'd be damned if she was going to let the girl she loved get killed like this.
Somewhere way down inside Cinder's psyche, something clicked, and a power she'd convinced herself she wasn't worthy of, a power she'd subconsciously locked away, came rushing back to her. As Cinder screamed, a jet of flame shot out from her mouth, white hot in its intensity, raw magical power given physical form.
It impacted the Arachnid directly, washing over it, bathing the grimm in fire. Cinder watched as tentacles turned to ash, as blackened flesh vaporised, as a plume of smoke rose into the air. She couldn't scream forever, of course, but it was more than enough. Her voice gradually petered out, flames coming to a stop, and for a few moments the only sound was that of Cinder's desperate panting for air. It was over.
Or so she thought, and then that screaming started all over again. Out of the plume of smoke crawled the man that had been the arachnid. There was so little of him left, only his head, torso, and a single arm, sticking out of a small lump of grimm flesh. One lone tentacle was all that was left, slowly dragging his body across the ground, still refusing to die.
And then Ruby appeared beside him, holding one of her new swords with white knuckles. Cinder's eye widened, she hadn't even noticed Ruby start to move again, and now… now she was wordlessly raising that sword, and bringing it down on the man's neck. And then, truly, it was over.
Ruby collapsed down to her knees, shaking silently, and with a little help from her newly rediscovered magic, Cinder raised herself up and moved over to her. Then, for a time, they just held one another, just stayed as close together as they could manage.
"It wasn't her," Ruby whispered eventually, the words seeming to be a struggle to force out. "I… was so sure, so certain, and then… she's still…"
"It's okay," Cinder's voice was hoarse from the screaming, but she forced herself to speak all the same, "I… I'm here. It's okay." Because, ultimately, that was all she could do for the woman she loved. She hoped that it was enough.
