It was a wet day. Wetter than usual for the Summer season, but the young girl jumping gleefully into the newly formed puddles couldn't care less.
"Ruby!" A voice called from the house behind the young girl. Ruby turned around to see her mother in the doorway. "Coming, mom!" Ruby replied.
She skipped along as she went towards the house, humming a little tune the whole time. Her mother got her inside and closed the door. She then took off her soaking wet coat and hung it up on a rack near the door.
A little chuckle came from her mother. "Ruby, what did I say about staying outside when it's raining?" Her mother asked. "I know, mom. But it was so fun. Can I go outside after it's stopped raining?"
"Fine. But first, your going to need a different pair of clothes. I can see the water dripping off you from over here."
"Thanks mom!" Ruby ran off upstairs, clothes still drenched from the outside rain. She got to the top and ran straight to her room. It was slightly messy, something her mother complained about a lot, but it barely affected Ruby. She took off her wet clothes, put on some dryer clothes and went back downstairs.
As she walked towards the living room, a small dog suddenly leapt from around the corner.
"Zwei!" Ruby said, as the dog came right up to her. "Awwww, your so cute!" Zwei turned to reveal his belly and Ruby immediately rubbed it. "Who's a good little boy?" Zwei barked with joy. "Yes you are!"
"Awww, it's so sweet to see you playing with Zwei." Summer said. "Hey mom, after the rain dies down can I bring Zwei outside as well." Ruby responded, clearly excited from all the playtime she had with Zwei.
"Im not so sure sweetie. You wouldn't want him shaking water around the house."
"Ok, mom." Zwei looked a little dreary. "Don't worry, I'm sure we can go outside and play another time." Zwei immediately cheered up. Soon, he ran off, probably in search of Yang or their father.
Ruby was somewhat bored for the rest of the day. Sometimes she'd sit on the couch watching TV. Sometimes she'd look outside to check if the rain had stopped. Sometimes she'd mess with Yang or her father.
That was, of course, until the bell rang.
Another boring day. Another routine job.
The man stood outside the door of a house that looked quite different from the last few houses he'd been to. It was a rather nice looking house and looked kind of like a modernised log cabin. Not that he cared much, though. It was nothing compared to the great buildings that his own people made.
It was pissing down with rain, and he wanted to belt out his routine list of questions to this family and then return to the relative comfort of his car as quickly as possible.
*Ding* He rang the doorbell and waited. Shortly after a woman came out to greet him.
"Oh, hello there" The woman at the door spoke in a rather timid voice. Was it the uniform that scared her? Sure, it was certainly out of place compared to the rather ridiculous uniforms that the forces of this world wore, but it didn't make him look like the grim reaper.
"Good day, Mrs… Ah, I don't have your name on this list here." The man responded.
"I'm Summer Rose, It's nice to meet you."
"You may call me Erwin. I can't give my full name, of course. Confidentiality, and all that." He gave a light chuckle, mostly to reassure the women that he was not here to hurt anyone.
Not yet, anyway.
"Do you want to come inside, Mr Erwin? I'm sure it's better than standing in the rain."
"Ah, thank you." Erwin walked inside. He took off his coat and hung it up on the rack. His coat wasn't as drenched as the one right next to it.
"On to business then. I'm here to ask a couple of questions. It's some rather rudimentary stuff. Relatives, places of work, known acquaintances… You get the idea."
"Oh, I see. Well, ask away." And Erwin did just that.
After a long list of boring, basic questions. Erwin asked a rather simple question.
"Have you seen anything... out of the ordinary?"
"What do you mean?" Summer was quite confused at the question.
"It's simple, really. Have you seen anything out of place. Anything that doesn't look like it belongs in this world."
"Other than you?" Summer came up with a neat little joke, perhaps to ease the growing uneasiness she felt with the question.
"Yeah, other than me." Erwin wasn't quite as amused at the joke as Summer was.
"Well, no. Not really." Summer went over the events of the past few days in her mind. "Actually, there was something."
"Do tell."
"You see, I was outside in the garden with my husband when we saw… something in the woods. At first, we thought it was a lone Grimm. Now that I think about it, I don't believe it was Grimm."
"Inter-" Before Erwin could finish his sentence, a loud screech was heard outside.
"…What?" Summer was frightened by the sound, but Erwin didn't seem too phased by it.
Ruby rushed into the room as soon as she heard the noise. Zwei, Yang and their father, Taiyang, quickly followed.
"Mom, what was that?"
"I don't know sweetie… You, Yang and your father go upstairs. I'll see what it is."
"And I will, too." Erwin butted in. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a radio. "Colonel?" He said into the radio. "Yes. Yes, I'm sure it's the same problem that you have on your end." A voice came from the radio and Erwin responded once more. "Okay. Are you sure? Fine then, send the squad here. Alright then. I'll return to base soon."
Summer paid little attention to the man as she put on her coat and went outside the house. Erwin followed her.
Shit. Shit, shit and more shit. He thought it was all going smoothly until he heard that screech.
Now he had to get his hands dirty. And he wouldn't be taking the blood of just whatever creature was outside.
She didn't pay much mind to the man that followed behind her.
She didn't pay much mind to the rain, either.
What she did pay mind to was the creature that stood in front of her.
It was a hideous creature unlike anything she had seen before. The bottom half of the creature looked almost like a slug, with large scales going from the tip all the way up through the belly and then to the neck. It's head was long and thick and it's face had a jaw that separated into three parts.
Long spikes grew out of it's back and along it's tail. It had two arms that extended out to make a v shape, with long, sharp spikes at the end.
The creature let out a war cry as a it saw the two figures approach it.
Summer ducked down as the creature spat an acidic projectile at her. Erwin opted to flank the creature as Summer ran towards it. The creature spat more projectiles at her, moving back slightly with each shot. Summer dodged every round that came at her, closing the distance with every shot.
The creature let out another war cry as Summer aimed the rifle end of her weapon, the Sundered Rose, towards the creature. She fired off a shot, knocking her back slightly. The creature tried to dodge the shot, but took a hit to it's left arm.
It screamed in pain as blood rushed out of the bullet hole. Summer took the opportunity to close the distance with Erwin following close behind.
Summer aimed the rifle at the ground, and fired. She was launched into the air. She gripped her axe hard, raised it above her head and readied it to come crashing down into the creature.
It put both it's arms into a crossed shape as it readied itself for the attack. Summer's axe smashed into the creatures arm's, knocking it back a good few metres.
Erwin took his chance and unloaded 8 rounds into the creature's belly as it was exposed. With each shot the creature let out a scream of pain. Erwin kept his distance as Summer went in for another run. She kept a firm grip on her weapon as she charged towards the creature. With one fell swoop, she cut the creature in half.
It let out one final scream as it fell to the floor. Both Summer and Erwin sighed in relief. They looked around to see if the coast was clear.
The horde of creatures coming from the nearby forest was a clear sign that it wasn't.
A large group of creatures, which were far smaller than the creature they had fought before, came out of the forest. They all let out screeches as they charged both Summer and Erwin.
Both of them took up arms as the horde approached. Erwin reloaded his pistol and fired his entire magazine into the approaching monsters. Two of the creatures were taken down, but it clearly wasn't enough.
"Goddammit! Head for the house, now!" Erwin shouted to Summer. She followed his orders and ran back to the house. He quickly followed suite.
Taiyang was at the doorway and ushered them in. He closed the door behind them as the horde of creatures got closer to the house. "What happened out there?" Taiyang asked, clearly worried about the massive horde of dangerous monsters outside the house.
"I don't know. Head back upstairs and keep the kids safe. If things turn south, take the kids and run. Okay?"
"Okay, I will." He rushed back upstairs, hoping that Summer and the other man would be safe.
As the creatures began swarming the house, a loud rumbling noise came from the road.
"Oh, thank God!" Erwin seemed relieved. What looked to be a convey of Atlesian vehicles came down the road. The soldiers inside the vehicles jumped out and prepped their weapons. Some of the horde spotted the soldiers and began charging towards them.
They were meet with a volley of bullets as the soldiers opened fire. Creature after creature fell during the charge as the soldiers stood their ground.
"Looks like we're safe after all." Summer said, with a sigh of relief.
"Good… *Sigh* We can rest eas-" Erwin couldn't finish his sentence, as one of the creatures broke through the window of the living room. Another one followed suite. One by one the creatures began flooding in.
"Damnit!" Erwin was taken off guard by the swarm. Summer took her weapon and began hacking and slashing as the creatures swarmed them. The creatures we're small and easy to kill but they quickly swarmed both of them.
"Take this you vermin!" Erwin shouted as he unloaded bullets into the swarm. The creatures kept charging in but we're taken out by a mix of gunfire and well placed axe slashes.
"Summer, watch out!" A voice came from upstairs. Summer noticed one of the creatures leaping towards her, but a shot came from upstairs that knocked it down. One by one, the horde was taken down.
One final creature came sprinting towards summer. It leaped up into the air and went for her neck but it was shot down. Taiyang came rushing down the stairs with a gun in hand.
"Is… that it?" Summer spoke, clearly out of breath.
"Yes… it should be." Erwin spoke, afflicted by the same problem.
A group of soldiers rushed into the building. Some of them were clearly Atlesian, but the others had a different uniform. A more greyer and gloomier one.
"Sir, we've routed out the rest of the creatures. Luckily, no one else happened to notice them. We wont have to deal with any panic from the civilian populace."
"Damn it, that's the seventh attack this week!" Erwin was furious. But what he said shocked Summer and Taiyang.
"Your telling me there's more of these creatures? Why doesn't anybody know of this?" Taiyang said, pissed at the situation.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that." Erwin responded. Summer stared in shock at him. Taiyang stared at him with hatred.
"Your all under arrest until I can be absolutely sure you won't tell anyone about this. Please, don't resist." Erwin motioned two of the grey uniformed soldiers to arrest Summer and Taiyang.
She wasn't quite sure what was going on downstairs. One moment there was fighting. The next there was shouting.
And then there was the sound of single shot. Ruby sat next to her, clearly distraught by all that had happened.
She had to do something, and fast.
"Search all the rooms. Find the children and then arrest them. We can't have this little incident getting out." A voice called from downstairs. The sound of boots climbing up the stairs sent panic through little Ruby's mind.
She had to get her sister out of this mess. She couldn't bear to see Ruby in such a state. At the end of the bathroom that there were hiding in was a small window. But it was big enough for both of them to fit through.
She opened it up and looked outside. She saw the bodies of what looked like dozens of small creatures. A few soldiers we're walking around, but they were all heading back towards their trucks.
"Ruby, listen to me." Yang spoke to Ruby. The little girl was still frightened from everything that had transpired. "Ruby, listen. I know your scared, but I need you to follow me. We're going to get out of this."
"You promise?" Ruby spoke
"I promise."
Yang opened up the window, making it a little bit wider. First, she helped Ruby out. It was still raining, but that didn't matter. What did matter was making sure Ruby was safe. After her little sister was safely outside, she climbed out of the window. Luckily, the window was by the roof of the porch, so it was only a short drop from it to the ground.
Yang jumped down first, and Ruby followed her. As Ruby dropped from the porch roof, she was caught by Yang. They kept their heads down as they made their way towards the forest.
"Hey, over there! Stop!" A voice called from the house, a group of soldiers spotted Yang and Ruby.
Without a second thought, they began running deeper into the forest. Voices called from behind them as they ran deeper into the forest.
"They can't escape. Shoot if you have to!" A voice shouted from behind. Yang looked back and saw it was the officer that came by earlier.
After what felt like 10 minutes of running, both Yang and Ruby, to their horror, came to a dead end.
A long, deep valley was in front of them. Behind them, the officer and two other soldiers came up behind them.
"Stop right there! Give yourself up, and you won't be harmed." The officer spoke. Yang looked at him with contempt.
"Never! You leave my sister and I alone, or I swear to G-"
"Oh, shut up!" The officer shouted. He pulled out his pistol and aimed it at the children. "I'm afraid you leave me with no choice."
Ruby looked at him with horror. She began to cry as the officer prepared to fire. Yang hugged her little sister.
"Don't cry Ruby. Please, God. Don't cry."
"Any last wor-" His words were cut off by an attack from behind. His neck was pierced from behind and blood began to spill out.
"Gu... Uhh... Ec-" The officer fell to the ground, blood spilling all over the flood. The two soldiers next to him raised their rifles, but they were met with a sword slicing both of them in half.
Ruby was sobbing as Yang looked at the sight. She was in shock from the bloodied bodies that lay right next to her. But what shocked her more was the women standing before the corpses.
"Are you okay." The woman that stood in front of them said, in a rather cold way. Ruby continued to cry into Yang's arms as the woman stood over them. Realising this, she sheathed her sword and knelt down until she was around the height of the two children
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."
"That's what the last person said. Why would I believe you?" Yang responded
"Because I just saved your life, you arrogant-" The woman was irritated by Yang's attitude, but as Ruby sobbed some more, the woman quickly calmed down.
"Look… Yang... I'm your mother." The woman said, with only a hint of emotion in her voice.
"...M...Mom?" Yang said. Tears formed In her eyes at this revelation. Ruby looked up to her with sadness in her face, and Yang could only respond in kind.
"Come on, let's go before anyone else finds you." The young woman got Yang up and Ruby began to collect herself again.
Suddenly, a loud bark came from the treeline, and Ruby's eyes lit up with joy as she saw a small dog come from the treeline.
"Zwei!" The dog leaped at her and landed on her lap. Ruby wiped the tears from her eyes as Zwei began to cuddle up to her. "Not now, Zwei!" Both the woman and Yang looked at Zwei as he cuddled up with Ruby.
For the first time since their escape from the house, she felt a sense of relief. It was all going to be okay in the end.
Right?
