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by the great pepsi man

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12. Grimm rwby si (10-13 18:38:45)

The Tribesmen were nervous as I neared them, their fear rolling off their frames like thick, fragrant meat sauce. I drew near, and as I did I could feel the worry, and the cowardice sprout through half of them by the simple act of witnessing my form near them.

"Beo," I said as a way to greet the Beowolf masked man who was my point of contact with his tribe. I hadn't asked his name, nor did I wish for it. He had accepted the nickname graciously enough. "You are afraid."

The man behind the mask took a single sharp breath. "Clan Branwen's been making things difficult. They've been raiding villages, it was hard to get the supplies. We managed this time, but the next..." there was fear that I would believe him a liar, but I knew differently. Since he wasn't trying to up the price out of his own volition, or out of greed, there was nothing in his mind but sheer fear that I'd believe the exact opposite of what he was saying. There was nothing to fear about it, Beo. Even if you been motivated by greed, these crystals grow by themselves, and they're basically pretty decorations to Salem anyway.

"I see," I acquiesced. "It works just as well," I continued. "Are any of you against working with Faunus?" I asked next, quite calmly feeling tiny bits of disgust from Ursa-Mask, who however kept them quiet. Since silence was the answer, I continued. "Then I want you to buy a boat."

"A...boat?" Beo blinked behind his mask. I was sure of it. Why was it that he could blink and I couldn't? "It's suicide to bring a boat near the Southern coast. There are too many Grimm."

"I don't need you to bring it to the Southern coast," I replied nonchalantly. "I will meet with you at whatever dock you deem safe in the wilderness," I added. "And then you will buy in bulk from Menagerie to the South. Take the long road, I don't care."

"That's..." Beo swallowed. Fear, doubt, everything that could have gone wrong passed through his mind. "I'll need more men." The implicit message was that he needed more Dust. I had come prepared, of course. A large crystal of Dust, Gravity Dust, landed on the ground by his side. He looked at it, and then back at me. I had discovered what type of Dust it was, and it was indeed among the rarest. It made sense to send looters to grab crystals of it. A single fist-sized chunk was worth in the thousands of Lien at the market, and the black market of Mistral was one of the most profitable.

"Ensure their lips are tight," I growled. "Also," I turned my head to the crates. "I'll give you two weeks to get the boat and the supplies for the trip. Do not say a word to the Branwen clan," my eyes blazed slightly. "Understood?"

"Sure thing boss," Beo nodded quickly. "Bastards think they rule the land just cause they're the biggest clan. No love lost with us of the Efnysien clan."

"Good," I gave a curt nod as I gathered the crates, hoisting them on my shoulder. "See you in a week with what you can bring, and in two by the boat."

"Sure," Beo said with a quick nod, hastily gesturing at his comrades to near and grab the large crystal of Dust. Thoughts of what they'd spend the money for it rolled through their heads, and as I rushed away the last thought I managed to catch was of Deathstalker-mask thinking he'd spend it on booze and opium until he could no longer think straight. Perhaps they were family men, but I didn't know it.

All that I knew from them were their darkest thoughts. It suited me just fine when it came to discovering some form of the truth, but it didn't help me at all in discovering their real characters. Even Ruby, for all of her adorable cuteness, was to my senses a greedy kid who always wanted something. She wasn't really like that, but greed was the one thing her mind thought of. Things like getting a cookie, or getting a blanket, or getting me to play with her, all self-serving interests that weren't really evil per se, but yet showed a selfish side that the kid herself didn't possess. Though she might have thought of getting the last cookie, she'd then usually split it in half with Cinder.

That kind of thing was what made me wary of trusting my abilities to read the deepest, darkest thoughts of mankind. It didn't help that Cinder was always in pain after the lessons with Salem, and so I was getting training in that whether I liked it or not. More than once, Salem's amused smirk at dinner told me that my thoughts on what she was doing to Cinder were actually on the spot. I'd have called her out on it too, but she wouldn't have stopped, and I would have been powerless to stop her anyway.

I could only change the people who wished to change, and try to make Cinder a better person by using her skewed viewpoint of mankind and shifting it slightly.

"Do you want anything from Menagerie?" I asked Cinder, her expression normal, and yet the pain behind it was discernible for me. We were in the glass dome that had become Ruby's playroom and Cinder's study room. The teenager was working on what appeared to be tattoo designs, scribbling them with ink and trying to recreate them from an old, tattered book. Ruby was drawing with pastels, eyeing every now and then Miss Sheeples.

"No," Cinder replied. Brief flashes of worry about how she'd pay for it, of how I'd be offering just to get something out of her, and of how she did not want to feel indebted reached my mind, all courtesy of Salem's teachings on the cruel, vindictive and evil ways of man.

"I offer freely, and ask naught in return," I quipped back with a dry chuckle. "Ask, Cinder. I like making people happy, that's all the selfish interest I have in my question. Make me a list and give it to me in less than two weeks' time."

Cinder bit her lower lip, and then nodded. "Thank you."

"For so little," I shrugged, setting myself down next to Ruby. "And what about you, Ruby? Do you want anything?"

"Toys!" Ruby's eyes glinted. "And cookies!" she nodded eagerly.

"Maybe clothes too," Cinder said, joining the conversation and eyeing Ruby critically. "She's growing up."

Ruby pouted, "Only if they don't itch," Ruby mumbled, huffing as her hair went to cover her eyes.

"Bathing supplies," Cinder said, pulling out a parchment and starting to scribble down on it. "There is only so much clean water can do."

"Rubber duckies!" Ruby exclaimed with a bright smile, stopping her drawing to near Cinder's side, both of her hands on the edge of the table. "Fluffy towels too!" she nodded to herself. Cinder glanced down at Ruby, and quickly scribbled it off. "Skirts. Hairpins." As Ruby babbled on, Cinder hummed and thoughtfully began to put her own things in the list. I watched the list grow from a simple parchment to a five pages long essay.

I stared at it, and then inwardly reeled at the dawning realization that they weren't done yet.

Oi. Is this what being a single parent feels like? If so, I have a newly found respect for single parents.

Salem didn't seem to care that I had planned to send for package relief across the sea, and if anything, seemed quite nonchalant about it all.

Yet I couldn't help but feel that there was something off about her apparent calm.

I had challenged her, and she showed no signs of having risen to the challenge. She was too calm, too tranquil. This was the quiet before the storm, the silence before the thunder. Something was just about to happen, and whatever it was, I could not feel relieved about it.

"In my wisdom," Salem said. "I have decided that little Ruby needs to be looked after by a feminine touch."

I stared at her, and she stared back at me. I began to growl as the tufts of black fur that remained on my upper forearms disappeared, replaced by the white and bone-like substance that was practically covering all of my body by then.

"Which is why I have found the perfect compromise," Salem acquiesced. "They do say that mothers are the heart of a house, do they not?"

My eyes blazed as I stood up abruptly, staring into Salem's uncaring ones. "What did you do?" I hissed. "What did you do!?"

"I did nothing," Salem said nonchalantly, "You, on the other hand, have a choice." She folded her fingers together. "If kidnapping a child is so unpalatable to your tastes, then perhaps her mother will suit you just fine. Either you do that," Salem smiled, "Or I will take a personal hand in educating Ruby, and dear Cinder can attest to my methods and means." Cinder flinched at being mentioned, and disgust laced with fear poured through her, the thoughts of her training on a child way younger than she was disquieting. Cinder still had a soul of sorts at least, but it didn't warm my heart. Not when the reason I discovered it came from Salem's ultimatum.

"That wasn't in the deal," I hissed.

"That was never a part of the deal," Salem replied. "She will live, of course. I am sure I would not be a cruel mother. I wouldn't die like hers did." The jibe cut deep. It didn't cut me, but it did cut Ruby. A hiccup and a sniffle soon were followed by fat tears which rolled down the little girl's face, and as I hastily went to grab hold of the little girl to console her, my eyes were blazing with fury, the last vestiges of black leaving my frame, replaced by white. The spikes had hardened in their twisting forms, forming a tightly knit chainmail-like substance. Tiny bits and pieces of extra bone were instead starting to form over my shoulders, crimson veins pulsing all over my body.

"You are a monster."

"I am merely realistic," Salem said with a dreary and theatrical sigh. "Humans are such social creatures. They need pillars of support to survive, to flourish and if you take one of them away, then they begin to crumble. You theorized that bonds were a twin-edged sword, did you not? When they are tight, they can be a soothing balm...but shatter them, and the sharp edges will cut deeper than the mightiest of swords. Hit the hearth of the family, and its heart will die soon after." Salem folded her fingers together. "It would be unfair to not give little Ruby the support she needs, a loving mother is fundamental to that."

"And you'd take it from another family," I growled as I kept a gentle hug over Ruby's form. "You know nothing of how humans work, Salem."

"Perhaps I don't," Salem acquiesced. "But if you will not go, then I shall send for someone else. Someone...far less moralistic and judgmental. A certain Tyrian, perhaps?" she looked at me, knowing fully well I knew who she was referring to. "I might order him to kill her child too, further enhancing the grief, rendering her more pliable, and more willing to adopt another child as replacement for her own loss."

Tiny cracks spread across my shoulders as the bones thickened into what could only be described as a bone-like armor, or a principle of it at least. "I'll go," I hissed out. "I'll go and do what you want, but in exchange, you will stop hurting Ruby...you will stop hurting Cinder and you will not hurt the woman either."

"Oh? Very well," Salem acknowledged. "See, Shade? We can find solutions and compromises that benefit us all. Do you not feel good for having tried, and failed?" Salem stared at me, no smile on her face, but I knew she was smugly proud of herself. "Think of how happy you'll make little Ruby. You will gift her a mother. How many other orphans are there who can claim to be so lucky?"

"Stop talking," I ground my teeth furiously as I lowered my head, turning my back on her to walk out. "One day...you will pay for all of this, Salem."

"You are not the first who said that," Salem remarked dryly. "And yet...here I still stand."

"So does Ozpin," I shot back, eyes ablaze. "He must have fooled you something big if your anger for him is palpable after all this time."

Salem's eyes burned with fire at my words, and I glared at her in return. "You cannot hurt me," I hissed. "So you contend yourself with hurting those close to me," I whispered. "You fail to realize that they are the only thing that keeps me from destroying everything around you, because if they die, if they leave...then I will kill everyone you hold as a spy, and I will destroy every tool you have," as realization dawned on me, I looked at Salem, whose anger now burned fiercely, and hotter than before. "You are made of nightmares," I murmured, "But I have birthed them by the score."

"You will still obey me," Salem said sharply. "Or there will be consequences for the people of Menagerie."

"I will," I acquiesced. "But not because you order me, or because I fear you, or because my body wags its tail whenever you are near. I will obey you to save those that I can save, and I will barter and compromise with you to save as many as I can, until one day, what you call Ozpin's arrogance will become your undoing. It is coming, Salem. You know that this world is no reality, and thus—"

"Don't you dare," Salem growled, standing up as her shadow, her dress' train, seemed to elongated across the floor and the walls. Her eyes burned. "Don't you dare say it."

"You are destined to lose," I growled out. "Because in fairy tales...evil always loses."

Salem said nothing else. Her body was tense, ready to lash out, ready to hit me, ready in what I could easily define as the second before the kill, before the blow, before the attack...and yet the attack never came.

She did not strike me.

She could not strike me.

"Very well," Salem whispered, settling her dress as the shadows receded back into her dress' train. "Believe in your fancy and silly ideal of a happily ever after. When your ember of hope will be crushed together with Ozpin's, you will understand I was merely extending to you a kindness by allowing you to play your make-belief game." Her eyes coldly moved down to Ruby. "Get the woman, Shade. Or perhaps I might have my Grimm hunt down another target. They are all weak children now, are they not? Yet to grow, yet to be problematic. Do as I say, or this world will soon find itself devoid of some childish innocence."

I did not nod. I simply opened the door and left.

The nagging feeling that something wasn't right still burned deeply within me.

Then again, realization did sink in as I thought about it. To Salem, killing eight random children didn't matter one iota. She needed Blake's mother as a hostage for her husband, so that she could get the White Fang on her side of the future war to come.

Until the children grew up, until they became strong enough to enter Beacon Academy, to become Hunters, she could easily hunt them down. Nora and Ren, for example, were the easiest ones since they actually were in the continent of Mistral, and they had already suffered at the hands of the Grimm, or were in the process of. Even if that wasn't the case, she didn't earn anything by killing them but making me suffer.

The kids were my leash to obey her, but in the end...they didn't really have world-impacting abilities, and perhaps other hunters could replace them.

It was the old adage of picking whom to save, between the many or the few.

Vice versa, I could threaten her by swearing to murder her protegee, her associates and her people. If she took everything away from me, then I could do the same to her. Thus, she had eight bargaining tools of sort, and I had her too. We had to compromise.

If I could ensure everyone's safety, then Salem would be powerless. I knew she was thinking the same thing. Hell, she was thinking exactly what I was thinking.

It all came up to who would be the fastest.

The fastest to catch them all.

The sea was a beautiful place to be. The tribesmen were kind of nervous, but it was mostly due to the fact that the piece of fake taxidermy they were carrying wasn't really a fake piece, but a real Grimm who was doing his hardest to stay as still as a rock. It was even easy, I admitted. I didn't need to breathe, I didn't need to do anything but stare right in front of me, and I had even been slightly covered in wax to keep up the impression that I was just a shiny bauble to be gifted to the chieftain of Menagerie.

It was nice. It was easy. It was going to be a cinch.

Beo's tribesmen were a varied mix. There were those who were worried they had condemned their souls by making deals with the devil, and those who were already thinking on what they'd spend their hard-earned Lien on. They merely had to buy what was written on the long list, keep the change, and bring it back to the makeshift docks in the wilderness. They were to leave me behind on Menagerie, where I'd first kidnap the woman and then disappear by requisitioning a Nevermore.

It was a super simple plan that had little chances of failing, just as long as Ghira Belladonna was inclined in acquiring taxidermy. If he wasn't, then I'd have to find another way. Perhaps silently tiptoe my way inside.

Honestly, the hardest part was once we landed, because I had to be carried by hand. Ten guys hastily and painfully lifted me up, pushing me across the streets right in front of the shocked and surprised Faunus. My tail was hitting the ground, and yet I couldn't move it. Come on guys, lift harder! Think of the mad gains you'll get! Don't think about how I'm the one who's got to kidnap a young mother!

"The hell is this?" one of the gate guards asked Beo, who was lacking his Grimm mask to pass off as more amiable. He was a middle-aged man with his own set of scars, a grumpy look and what amounted to oily, dirty hair that had been hastily washed off to make the very best impression he could make.

"A gift from our employer to the honorable chieftain of Menagerie," the man replied. "We wished to ask for the licenses to sell dust crystals, and our employer hoped this tiny gift would be enough to excuse his lack of presence." Great job, Beo. You said word-by-word what I wanted you to say. You've got a future as an actor.

"Uh, that's quite an awful piece. Never seen a white Beowolf. Exaggerated on the plastic?" the gate guard grumbled, and inwardly I felt Beo's fear as if I'd be offended at it. His fellow instead neared and knocked with the back of his hand against my stomach.

"Not plastic, it's bone," the faunus had his skin in spots, like those of a leopard, and slit-like eyes. "This thing's made of bones."

"Then it must have cost a fortune," the other guard whistled. "All of this for just a license?"

Beo shrugged. "Our employer doesn't really have a handle on the true value of money. He just..." he made a hand gesture near his head, to signal I was mad. "You know the type."

"Yeah, those born rich are the absolute worst," one of the two guards nodded. "Kind of creepy. It looks like it's following us with its eyes."

"Next thing you know it's going to eat you alive," the other guard chuckled. "Come on, let's get the chief to print you a nifty license and then you can go your way. I'm sure he'll be impressed by it. Get some of the boys to carry him inside."

And thus I was most valiantly manhandled by a dozen or so Faunus, who proceeded to drag me through the main doors only to then have to bring me out, since I was too big to fit in their doorways, and forced inside the main dining room by virtue of opening the large windows, dropping me in a spot of honor between an Ursa half my size and a fake Nevermore head. I remained rooted in my spot as I watched a tall and burly man with dark hair and golden eyes step inside.

He emitted an awed whistling sound, staring up at me with a nearly slack-jawed look. "Thank the gods there aren't any like you around," the man muttered. He raised a hand to see how much the height difference was, and then whistled when he realized that even with his arm outstretched, I still stood over him. "At least they put you in a crouch. I knew I should have had the ceilings lifted." He laughed. "Oh, I can't wait for Blake to come home. I'll tell her I fought you barehanded! Yes," he grinned, nodding to himself.

He then walked out of my field of view. He returned abruptly, mimicking throwing a punch at my face by jumping. Thankfully, I had no eyelids so I couldn't blink, and I kept myself still as Ghira seemed to enjoy playing mock-fighting-but-not-really. That was how his wife found him, having returned with their daughter in turn. Little Chibi Blake was a cute young girl wearing a fancy one piece dress that was black and white, just like her color motif. Her golden eyes widened at my sight.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed loudly, rushing into her father's arms. "Did you fight another Grimm?"

"Yes!" Ghira said loudly, hoisting her on his shoulders. "Look how big it is!"

"Oh! Oh dear, I hope you were careful," Kali fussed. I couldn't even roll my eyes, since I had no orbs within my eye-sockets. Perhaps it was for the best, or my masterful disguise would have been revealed in a matter of seconds. It wasn't though, not even when Blake decided she'd stick her hands firmly into my snout. I remained stoic in front of her action. I remained imperturbable as they had dinner in front of me, as the lights died outside to be replaced by the stars and the moon.

I remained frozen in my spot as the two days I had given Beo's crew to buy everything and steer clear of the place came through, and then on the night of the third day, I watched silently as Ghira headed for his office, Blake headed for her room, and Kali Belladonna who had no fault but that of being a loving mother, headed for the kitchen to wash the dishes.

I broke free of the wax and glided on the soft wooden pavement, leaving behind deep marks as I knelt to pass through the doorway that from the dining hall brought into the kitchen. Kali's ears were laced with small golden rings, and she was humming softly while brushing with a sponge the side of a plate. The kitchen was big, but to me it was a cramped space. Slowly, very slowly, I neared my white claw to my neck and sliced it, letting the blood flow out without pain as tentacles emerged from within the wound. This was how I was supposed to do it.

This was how I would do it.

I grabbed hold of her midriff before she could as much as gasp, thrusting her head first through the portal-like creature that inhabited my throat, who was all too eager to get the woman through. She trashed about, but her screams were already on the other side of Remnant. Slowly, yet with firmness I shoved her entirely through, the wound on my neck closing the next second.

I had done my job.

It had been quick, it had been flawless, it had attracted no eye-witnesses.

I glanced back at the dining hall, and at the broken bits of wax that marked my massage. Very carefully, I used a broom to gather them all. The most important thing when dealing with being in a forbidden zone isn't just to know what you're doing, but also to do it quickly and efficiently. I left the broom against the kitchen wall, slid open the large windows that the guards had used to bring me inside, and then prowled on all fours until I was at the far end of Ghira's property.

I glanced past the wall, and since the coast was clear, I hopped on the other side. I simply needed to reach the sea, and so I did, rushing in a straight line for it as fast as my powerful hind legs could carry me. It was the first time I was running at full throttle, and as I abruptly realized, I not only left marks on the ground, but my jump made me easily reach the pinnacle of what inhuman strength could reach. Like, seriously, the Nevermore that was supposed to pick me up actually squawked indignantly when I roughly landed on his back, rather than him having to fish me out of the sea.

Flapping its wings as fast as it could to regain height, the Nevermore rushed away, the perfect accomplice to my perfect plan.

Thus, on dark wings I sailed.

Flakes of white were left in my wake, the wax falling off as a second skin of mine as I moved my limbs, who didn't ache from the prolonged inactivity. Beneath me, I could feel the vastness of the ocean, and the monsters that lurked in its depths. I wanted nothing more than to return home quickly, but I couldn't. First I had to get the supplies from the docks, and then I had to drag them home.

I landed with the Nevermore a fair distance away from the makeshift docks in the wilderness, shooing the Grimm away from it rather than let him go towards it. The bird obliged, perhaps because it expected to find easier humans to hunt elsewhere. Whatever the reason, I neared the encampment by foot and felt not a single negative emotion in the air. It would have meant they were all happy about the success of their mission. Though I doubted it, since the silence in the air was deafening.

A sudden twinge of panic caught my senses, coming from up above, a couple of tree branches away. A scout, a man in a Grimm-Mask that belonged to another clan, who was supposed to alert the others nearby. Fear clouded his senses hardened by continuous battle against the Grimm at my sight, because I was different, because I was bigger, because I looked stronger and thus, I was far more dangerous than anything he had ever faced before.

I sensed him, and I knew that the Branwen clan had understood something had happened, and had come to deal with Beo and his men. The silence was due to the corpses that remained as food for the insects on the open ground, their bodies cut apart by swords or broken by blunt instruments, pools of blood gathering as not a single Grimm had come to bother the neat piles.

Grimm weren't carrion feeders. They simply enjoyed killing.

Just like clan Branwen had done with people guilty only of having helped me in the ancient art of commerce and woman kidnapping.

They weren't people I'd call friends, but I had invested time and Dust in them, and now they had been torn to shreds. I could be angry, couldn't I? Not enough to be murderous, but the supplies had to be recovered. If I didn't grab them, Cinder and Ruby would be sad. A small wooden cart that I had intended to use for transporting the various crates was still there, and looked fully functional. I had to bring the battle away from the docks though.

Also, I had to deal with the scout.

I jumped from my spot on the ground and shattered the tree branches along my air path, the masked man barely managing to open his mouth to try to scream that my claw thrust itself against his face, my claws grabbed hold of his head, and my entire body pulled him down from his branch to land roughly on the ground.

There was a sudden snap, and then all was silence.

The strength of the act itself had brutally broken the neck of the scout I had intended to simply knock unconscious. He was supposed to have Aura, but my claws had clenched him, and had apparently broken through.

I stared at the dead, cooling corpse beneath my claw and shuddered as I hastily stepped away from it, wildly looking right and left for any eyewitnesses. "Shit," I mouthed out, "shit. Shit. I didn't want this," I whispered, shaking my head as I clutched my chest, my non-existing heart drumming fiercely as thick hot coffee poured down my throat. At least, the sensation was that. I felt as if the most flawless of hot chocolates mixed with the fragrance of coffee, hints of sweet strawberries burning a hole through my stomach from sheer pleasure. I gagged and gasped, my claws dragging my frame on the ground as my eyes blazed with fire.

If this was what getting a shot of heroin was like, then I wanted no second dose. No, I was lying. I wanted another shot, but I had to stop. No, no, no! I don't want a second dose, for fuck's sake! I killed a man! A man who killed my men, but still a man! Cracks spread across my arms as the chained-like pattern began to burst with stronger, and far more block-like, pieces of bone. They encased themselves like some form of plate armor, and as my claws reached for my head, I realized it had been encased too in a helmet-like skull.

My tongue was lolling out, the taste of fear in the air no longer palpable, but that of everyday nervousness was now a sweeter, more pronounceable scent. Guilt for having killed a man sang to me from the undergrowth, just a short distance from where I was. A hop, a jump, a tiny jog, and I would burst into an encampment of men and women waiting for a scout that would never return home.

I shook my head, took steps away from the gathered group, and hastily walked onto the docks with no other desire but to go home, to load the cart and pull it away by myself. No, what a stupid thing. I wouldn't be pulling it. I'd be carrying it in my arms if I had to. I broke the corpses with my sheer weight as I trampled on them, uncaring of who they had been, of who they were, of what they could have become.

It was the haze of a feverish nightmare. I could chalk it up to that.

I killed a man.

And I liked it.

I walked inside Salem's palace without saying a word, carrying as many crates as possible with both of my arms, and dropping them only once I reached the glass dome. It was the middle of the night, so Cinder and Ruby were probably both asleep. I could sense them, just like I could sense Kali's sadness coming in waves from her rooms. Knowing Salem, she hadn't even cleaned them to begin with.

It wasn't that I wanted to do much more than drop the crates and then head silently into Ruby's room to wait for the little girl to wake up, but Salem intercepted me on the way back. She was a Grimm, so she didn't need to sleep.

She also didn't need me to tell her how things had gone down, because she knew. She knew everything I was thinking, after all.

"Don't fight it," Salem whispered, her voice a soft whisper that in the middle of the night echoed with tender, motherly care. "It's your nature."

"No," I bared my teeth, but did not growl or I'd wake up everyone else fast asleep. "Nature belongs to animals. I have intelligence, thus I deny my nature. Do you understand me?"

Salem's eyes glowed in the night, but they weren't set ablaze by anger, or rage. "Intelligence is all well and good," Salem said, "But it is nothing without power. There is a reason it is called willpower after all." She stressed the last part of the word, an amused smirk on her face. "You have done well, and I am pleased of your discoveries," she nodded. "I have already contacted Mister Belladonna, and he was quite willing to cooperate in exchange for the well-being of his wife. There is another task I will set you upon."

I glared at Salem, but she simply looked back at me dutifully. "There is time for it, however. I have warned you in advance, so that you may think of the most suitable compromise in exchange for your aid," she turned her back on me, "should you wish it, and should you ever find yourself bored and unsure on how to spend your nights, I am always in my office. Sometimes, your thoughts shift into unprecedented directions abruptly and without warning, and I would appreciate your further clarification of what exactly certain terms mean."

"Things like?" I asked. Salem turned to face me once more, her hands clasped together.

"Crucifixion," Salem said. "It is...ah, it is a means of prolonged pain and death, which holds a symbolic value due to a particular faith...interesting," Salem acquiesced. "Remnant never had it. It was...oh? A long line of people, all crucified along the main road to Rome...I see, quite the cruel display, but too slow in bringing about the death of an individual." She stared at me with a look of pure curiosity, and that was the telltale sign that I should have left in a hurry. It was unfortunate that I didn't.

"I admit I have finished seeing what your vision of the future of this world held," Salem remarked. "I would not be remiss in allowing certain liberties...if you were to entertain me."

"Your definition of entertainment involves creative ways of murder," I drawled back.

"It does," Salem acquiesced. "At the same time, I have become peculiarly fond of seeking out from your mind any one thing connected to the genocide or the extermination of species, even things that you might have forgotten, your once human brain remembers. Do all humans have such flawless memory, or is it merely your nature as a Grimm that allows me to read things you have forgotten yourself?" her eyes were positively glowing like twin headlights. "Nevertheless, I wish to find out more."

"I'm not sure it's a good idea," I said flatly. "And why are you even asking?"

"Because your mind is a horrible tease," Salem replied flatly. "One second your thoughts verge on the most horrible of potentialities that the future offers, the next you are beset with talking ponies." Her eyes closed briefly. "Talking ponies who do not even know what cold blooded murder is," she remarked. "Though they live without humans, so perhaps that is reason enough. I seek order in your thoughts, and I may have it only if you are concentrating."

"And why should I help you?" I retorted.

"Your continued goodwill on such a trifling thing will mean my continued goodwill on other, trifling things," Salem answered. "Also, would you not jump at the chance to try to make me change my mind on the extermination of mankind? I would assume it would be your first and most important desire. No matter how impossible, would you truly not even try?" she asked that without inflection in her tone, but I knew she wasn't just teasing me. She was mocking me. She was mocking me and my words.

"Why can't you just say you're lonely?" I shot out offhandedly, "You're mister lonely, you have nobody, to call your own..." I hummed as Salem remained unaltered in her expressions. My lips twitched in a smirk.

"Trying to humanize me will only fuel your fantasies, and once they break, you will suffer for it," Salem spoke, "If you wish to view it in that way, you are welcomed to. It will most certainly make things easier."

"You used to paint," I pointed out. "And this place...someone had to have built it," I continued. "There's a story behind it, isn't there?"

"There is no story," Salem shook her head. "Only history that was forgotten." She gave her back to me, and this time began to briskly walk away. "My office's doors are always open, Shade. Perhaps, just as I learn something from you, you might be able to gleam something from me."

"I will think about it," I acquiesced as I watched her leave.

I would not make the mistake of humanizing her. She was no human, and never had been one. Perhaps she was a parasite, who had claimed a human form, and perhaps the Grimm had killed the inhabitants of this place a long, long time before and now she was milking it for what it was worth. Unless I found a diary written by young Salem-chan detailing her magical adventures with fun-happy Grimm tentacles and how badly it had all ended, I would never give her the benefit of doubt.

I settled in Ruby's room, falling into my usual shape whenever I wished to feign sleep. Ruby's breathing was uneven, and nightmares plagued her mind. I smelled them. I felt my claws tighten. The feeling of having killed that single man returned to me, the elation, the beauty of the act itself secondary to the feelings that had rushed across my veins. I had tasted the paradise of a beautiful cake filled with delicious cream and coffee, and—and my body had already stood up, a single step taken in Ruby's direction.

No. No, this wasn't good.

Stupid. If you're trying to diet you don't spend a night inside a patisserie, do you? I couldn't stay in Ruby's rooms, and I couldn't near Kali's own without the feeling of eating a succulent steak to rise. Cinder's room was out too, because I'd have less moral compunctions, and while I was ashamed of it, my body would treacherously betray me at a moment's notice if I wasn't careful.

Nobody deserves to be killed, or eaten. Nobody deserves to become the next dose of a Grimm.

I stepped inside the glass dome and plopped my ass down in front of Miss Sheeples.

The sheep was asleep, and I stared at the fluffy wool that would need to be cut with a mixture of apprehension and worry. The sheep didn't think anything, and so I didn't feel anything. I carefully extended my head against the side of the sheep, and then watched the glass ceiling as the stars and the shattered moon twinkled out, to be replaced by a rising sun.

"I could use something to read," I grumbled as Miss Sheeples bleated loudly, hopping away from being my pillow and angrily stomping against the sides of my head to no effect. My head didn't even ring. I calmly walked down into Ruby's rooms, and as I did I came face to face with the woman I had kidnapped, just about ready to do the same thing I had plans for, and wake the little girl up.

Her eyes widened as she saw me, and I stared back at her quite calmly, though no emotions could be betrayed by my mask.

"I am sorry," I growled out, catching her by surprise. She didn't know of any Grimm that could talk, and I was the first she had ever seen. I looked like a Beowolf, like—like the Beowolf her husband had been gifted, and if so then...to her mind, it didn't make sense. "Yes," I acquiesced with a slow nod. "I remained still for two days, in wait."

Flashes of fright and terror rushed across the woman's face and mind, images of just how close Blake had come to my teeth, to my face, and of how I could have eaten her before anyone, even her husband, would have intervened.

"She was the first target," I nodded slowly, my face having inched closer to that of Kali, my teeth bared, my eyes blazing. She would taste so sweet, like cinnamon milk sweets. "But I convinced Salem not to kidnap another child." I growled as I pushed my head back. "I am sorry," I shook my head. "But between your daughter or yourself, I knew whom you would pick. Am I wrong?"

Kali swallowed, and then narrowed her eyes. "You kidnapped me," she hissed out. "Wrong or right has nothing to do with what you did."

"I know," I nodded slowly. "But then," I turned to look at Ruby's door, "I have people I must protect. To protect them," I hissed, "No price is too heavy to pay."

"My husband will come for me," Kali whispered.

"I hope he does," I answered. "I hope he does, and I hope he succeeds in freeing you. In that case, please, take Ruby with you." I gazed at her, "And bring her to Ozpin, in Vale. She will be safe there."

"What? That's..."

"There is more than one way to claim a hostage," I chuckled darkly as I patted my own chest, while Kali's eyes widened. "Sometimes...the difference between tormentor and tormented is...surprisingly thin."

I opened the door with my claws, and was surprised to see Ruby already on the other side, grinning as she proceeded to hug one of my legs with glee. "You're back!" she exclaimed loudly. "Did you buy me cookies?" she asked as she raised her head to gaze at me with her unfairly cute, twinkling silver eyes.

"With chocolate chips," I nodded, "And sprinkled sugar, and whipped cream."

Ruby excitedly screamed as she jumped right into the open palm of my claw, much to Kali's sheer fright and unspoken fear. The fear abated when my claws didn't tighten around her neck, nor did I near my jaws to her neck. Ruby stopped her fussing when she saw Kali, her eyes going wide. She pressed her face against my forearm, sadness springing from her as somehow, she blamed herself for what had happened.

I huffed as the back of my other hand went to rub Ruby's back. "Greet people properly, Ruby."

"Hi," Ruby managed to squeak out. She said nothing else.

"Hello," Kali said gently, "so your name is Ruby?"

"Uh-huh," Ruby whispered. Pressing her face harder against my forearm.

Kali chuckled, a hand to cover her mouth even though the painful reminder that Ruby was acting similarly to Blake stretched through her worried mind. It mixed with fear at what it would mean for her daughter, at angst for not being there to console her, at outright terror of not seeing her until she was a grown-up woman, and all of it scared her beyond belief. That fear oozed from her, just like anguish oozed from Ruby who thought herself guilty for this having happened.

"My name is Kali," the cat faunus spoke with a soft, warm tone. "You look like a proper little miss," she continued. "Can I have a smile? I'm sure it would be really beautiful coming from you."

Ruby slowly moved her face away from my forearm, and looked at Kali with a tiny sniffle that was absolutely adorable. I wanted to protect that cute little face. If I had to murder and walk knee deep in mud and blood, then I would.

Two days later, I literally trekked through the broken corpses of half-devoured men and women.

I had two little children to find and save, after all.

If one wished to hide, then Mistral was the continent of choice. Tall cliffs, thick forests that went beyond what an animation budget could actually composed, pathways made of dirt that the greenery greedily reclaimed whenever it could, and Grimm. Countless Grimms lurked in the shadows of the trees, moving, lurching, and twisting as they followed me. They did not growl, nor did they emit any animal-like sound. They followed, their eyes burning like red embers as their blackness hid them well in the undergrowth.

Ursa trampled the ground, Beowolves clawed a path for their bodies. Slithering King Taijitu hissed, and floating Gheists lurched by, yet to possess a body made of stones, or wood. They had grown over time, little by little, like a drop of water inside a cup. It didn't matter if I ran, because they'd just rush alongside me. Perhaps they were slower, and perhaps I'd be able to outrun them, but eventually they'd return by my side. It didn't matter how much I tried to tell them to leave, or how much I ordered them to go elsewhere.

Eventually, they'd return like moths attracted to a flame that burned brighter than all of the others.

They'd return, and they'd stay quietly, silently, and without fault by my side.

Well, on the positive side, if they were busy following me then they didn't have the time to raze villages or hunt down people. At the same time, I couldn't hunt two little terrified kids with a pack of Grimm following me. It just wasn't done.

I could sense them though. They were intermittent, sometimes there, sometimes not. Yet I could calculate where they were heading to by simply doing a bit of math and reckoning that if they kept going in one direction in-between bouts of sudden disappearance, then they had to be heading for another village. The grief and the sadness were dull and muted, deep within them, and yet held back by sheer willpower. It was kind of endearing, really.

The Grimm by my side didn't rush for them, and that perhaps worried me more than anything else. Why weren't they? Was I subconsciously holding them back? If so, then why were they so keen on following me? Were they waiting for something, or someone?

An answer didn't come to me. Perhaps this was Salem's ploy, or action. Whatever the reason, the two kids abruptly came to a halt, and my eyes narrowed as I felt tiny flickers of something else near them. A bit of sadness? A bit of worry? Some muttered thoughts of orphans? A bit of rage too? My tongue clicked against my teeth as abruptly, the horde that had been gathering around me began to rush forward beyond my ability to control.

The Grimm hadn't been following me. They had been following the kids, because crying, alone kids would attract people, and those people would be Hunters nine times out of ten, and by keeping their distances...they would have a bait set.

The Grimm were using bait to attack the Hunters, and unless my mind was playing me tricks, they were also doing their best to encircle them. It was obvious in hindsight. They were taking bits and pieces from my mind, using them to their own benefit without even bothering to ask if they could.

All that I could do was hope the Hunters knew their job. They did, and as I didn't draw closer, the Grimm lost their cohesion. It wasn't that I could see it, or feel it, but the Hunters retreated with the two children at a quicker pace, and as they did my breath rattled with relief. Well, everything went better than I expected. I couldn't have stopped the attack on Ren's village, but at least the kids were safe for the time being. I did wonder how they'd survive in the time that went between now and their enrollment at Beacon, but it was out of my claws.

Salem hadn't bothered with them. Perhaps she reckoned she could get them later? Whatever the reason, I decided to trek through Kuroyuri and try to recover what I could from the place. Unashamedly, I didn't have other tribesmen to get things from yet, and while I was sure I could get other people to work for me in exchange of Gravity Dust, it would take time.

The ruins of the village were splattered with blood, but the corpses had disappeared. Either the Grimm had eaten them down to the bones, or the Nuckelavee had done something to them. I recovered things, crates from shops that no longer had owner demanding to be paid, Liens from cash registers, a couple of bottles of alcohol, medicines...everything that I could drag out in the village's clearing, I did.

A small carriage that would have normally been pulled by horses stood unused, the horses cut free and perhaps mounted by people wishing to escape faster than everyone else. I used it, and with my claws to pull it, I began my slow walk back.

No Grimm followed me on the way back. Perhaps Salem had wanted to drive home a point, perhaps she had simply wished to test how many Grimms would learn at the same time from my presence, or perhaps she had simply wanted me checked while I headed for Ren and Nora. Whatever the reason, my return was quiet, and silent.

The Grimmlands' border welcomed me, and as it did, I stopped and looked up at the newly minted border wall of sorts.

Lines of crucified corpses stood upon crude wooden crosses, tied to them and left to rot, crows and vultures feasting on their remains as flies and insects buzzed freely. The rage I felt within shimmered as I abruptly cut down one of the crosses, breaking free the corpse from its bindings. There would be no Caesar Legion bullshit in this world. Salem, I will not allow you to do this, do you hear me?

There are limits, Salem. Limits that you just keep on pushing. I don't know what your purpose is, I don't know why you seem to enjoy doing things that tick me off, but I swear it, Salem.

I swear that I will become your worst nightmare.

"Bears do not bounce happily," Salem said flatly as she gazed at me with half-narrowed eyes. I looked back at her, unashamed. I was in her office, and calmly, very, very calmly, I was thinking about happy things, funny things, gentle things, cute things and, most importantly, childish lovable stuff. "Blue skinned smurfs cannot exist," she added. I remained there, silent. My eyes blazed. "Will you stop it with the talking ponies?" Salem asked, "Or the silent treatment?"

"I see trees of green..." I growled out, "Red roses too...I see them bloom..."

Salem calmly grabbed her quill from her desk, inked the tip, and then grabbed a fresh parchment. "One more word, one more sappy thought, and you will regret it dearly."

"Getting on your nerves, uh?" I hummed, "How does it feel to be on the other side of the barricade for once? I'm not even halfway done. Have some moe, some kawaii-desu, some Chibi-cuteness."

Salem took a sharp intake of breath, her knuckles tightening. "Tell me of the first world war your world had."

"Pon, Pon, Pon," I drawled out as images of Japanese idols flashed by.

"So much useless knowledge," Salem actually grumbled. "Tell me more of the gas known as Sarin."

"Salem, I have seen things you wouldn't believe, cute harem girls dressed in frilly garbs. I watched the most heartrendingly beautiful films tug at my heartstrings near my most cynical heart. All of these moments will never be lost like tears in the rain, because I make them a gift for you with all of my love and hugs. Now, Salem, witness me." I patted my heart, smiling brightly in her direction.

"Tell me of the fall of Troy, and Carthage," Salem spoke firmly, her eyes narrowing.

"There's this story known as Infinite Stratos, where—"

"Speak to me of the sacking of Rome," Salem said once more, eyes blazing.

"Did you know about this beautiful story known as Kobayashi's Dragon Maid? There are such cute little characters in it and such charming smiles—"

"Tell me of the night of the long knives!" Salem stood up from her desk, her fists clenched as her knuckles tapped against the surface of her desk.

"Shokugemi no Soma is a wonderful culinary manga and anime, filled with quite the orgasmic sights," I said with a slow nod. "But hey, if you want something more to your taste, have I ever told you of Magical Girl Nanoha?"

Salem's entire frame shuddered slightly, and then she took a deep lungful of air. "You cannot keep your thoughts on such things forever."

"You're right, I can't," I nodded. "But as you said, I can try, and that will have to be enough."

"I won't debase human corpses any longer," Salem acquiesced, and there was even a tiny bit of a pleading in her voice. It was such a tiny thing I was kind of wondering if I had actually heard it, or if she had planned it, or if perhaps I had imagined it. "If you'll stop having such thoughts. They disgust me. They disgust me so profoundly that I feel the need to lash out at humans that do not even exist in this world."

"Very well, we have a deal," I said with a small nod. "See, Salem? We are making progress!"

"If that is what you believe," Salem sat back down, a breath of relief leaving her mouth as she began to scribble on the parchment. I waited, patiently humming a small catchy tune.

Mamma mia, here I go again.

Salem's hand shattered her quill, snapping it cleanly in a few pieces.

"Songs are another deal," I said smoothly.

Deal with it Salem. You were the one who said I could try.

Am I trying hard enough? Are you pleased!?

This isn't even my final form!

Cinder was wary of Kali. She didn't have the best impression of step-anything, and even though Kali was more of a glorified babysitter and caretaker for Ruby, she was still someone Cinder couldn't trust. Cinder had gone willingly to Salem, rather than get kidnapped, and as her training with Salem took a turn for the better, I realized that the young teenager was...for lack of a better term...a teenager.

"I do not need any help," Cinder grumbled. I looked at her, Kali looked at her, Ruby pouted at her. "I know how to cook." She faltered. I stared at her. Kali sighed. Ruby made a bigger pout. "Stop thinking I can't do it!"

"I was actually thinking you could do it," I pointed out helpfully, "but rather than waste three hours trying to make it right on your own, wouldn't you want our help and be done quicker?"

"No," Cinder said through gritted teeth. The kitchen was big enough for a whole cooking staff meant to serve the whole palace, and yet it felt kind of cramped to me. Then again, I touched the ceiling with my head. "I will make it on my own or not at all."

"Is this one of Salem's lessons like learn to do everything on your own, so you will not be caught unaware by a failing ally?" I asked, but Cinder shook her head. I huffed, and then kept myself in my corner. "Do as you please. I'll just observe. I don't trust the gas pipes not to explode." I linked my arms around my knees, and waited patiently.

Ruby grumpily looked at Cinder, crossed her arms in front of her chest, and humphed with all of the strength that a little kid could possess. "I wanna cook like a grownup too!"

Kali looked down at Ruby, and then a small smile settled on her lips. "Would you like to make cookies?"

"Cookies can be made?" Ruby's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I chuckled at that. Little Ruby, discovering that her favorite drug wasn't a God-sent gift, but could be manufactured. Oh, the things that these ovens would see. Somehow, I had an inkling that we would be swimming in cookies if Ruby had her way with the food deliveries.

"Oh yes they can," Kali smiled, "I'll show you how, but first, let's find you an apron you can wear."

Cinder actually felt a bit of shame at not having thought about wearing an apron. She feigned it was part of her plan though, and quietly walked towards a corner of the room to grab an old and dusty apron that had seen better days, and would have needed washing quite badly. I coughed loudly, catching her attention and shaking my head.

"It's an apron. It's supposed to be dirty," Cinder said, firm in her beliefs just as long as it avoided her an embarrassing five minutes of shame.

"No, it's supposed to get dirty," I replied quite calmly, "that thing risks making you sick if you as much as breathe the same air it's in."

"There are no clean aprons," Kali said as she finished her quick cursory glancing of the kitchens. "Well, we'll just have to be extra careful with the flour then!"

Cinder grumbled, but dropped the dirty apron in a corner to gather even more dirt. "I will be making meat stew."

"Wouldn't you rather start with something simpler—" Kali hazarded, but Cinder glared at the faunus woman and huffed, firmly ignoring her next words. The woman looked at me as if I had any power over the teenager. Oi, who do you take me for, the man of miracles?

"I am sure you can make it," I said in the end. "Do we have meat apt for stew in the pantry?" I remarked as I looked at Cinder resolutely march into said pantry, and emerge a second later with canned stew in her hand. Kali watched the canned product and brought a hand to her mouth, her eyes twinkling with held back laughter. I looked at the can, and then at Cinder's resolve in her eyes, and dared not ruin her prideful gait as she quickly used a can opener to open the container, before putting the water to boil and throwing the meat inside together with the powdered vegetables.

Such Masterchef. Much cooking. Woah.

I slowly used two of my clawed fingers to grab the can, and read the instructions on the side of it. "You shouldn't put salt in it, there's already plenty," I said quickly, since Cinder's hand had already gone for the condiments to throw in the pot. "Though you may add a tiny bit of pepper if you wish." Cinder moved to grab the pepper-pot, and then began to grind some of the pepper inside the pot. "Not too much, and don't concentrate it. Swirl from the center to the far end without putting too much strength. Then turn the stew with a big wooden spoon."

"I know what I'm doing," Cinder said airily, huffing as she proceeded to look for a big wooden spoon.

"Then you know you should wash the spoon before using it, since most of these haven't been used since the birth of mankind," I said quite calmly from my corner.

"Of course I know that," Cinder said, marching to wash said spoon as my eyes turned to where Ruby was busy squeezing dough with her bare hands. Her hair had some sticky bits of dough on it, probably the result of her rubbing her head while her hands were covered in it. Kali was keeping up a small tight smile, sad memories of her own daughter helping her in the kitchen coming to the surface. I watched them sadly, and as a new batch of dark thoughts reached me, I turned to look straight at Cinder. She was bitter at the thought of Kali helping Ruby like a daughter, thinking about how her own mother had ignored her in exchange of her new life.

"Never forget," I whispered, catching Cinder's attention. Her eyes widened slightly as she recalled that I could feel her emotions. "Never forgive," I continued. "Some things can be forgiven, but others cannot, and it's fine," I gave a slow nod. "The betrayal of those closest to us hurts us so much, because we loved them more than anything else. So never forget, and never forgive them. However...other people don't deserve our scorn, or our hatred."

"You speak from experience?" she asked, expecting to shut me up with a rhetorical question.

Unfortunately for her, I did have experience.

"Yes, I do," I said with a dry rasp. "I was...perhaps four, or five years old." I hummed. "Maybe seven or eight? I was young anyway. Oh, and I was human, but then again," I gestured at my form, "You'll have to believe me on this. So...where was I? Oh yes, I was young kid. Mountain trip during the holidays, skiing was a nice sport at the time. My father brought me with him up all the way to the top of a black diamond ski-course. Black Diamond being the hardest skiing lane there was. Mostly because it was the top of the mountain, not because of anything particularly hard. No, fact was that during the descent I went slowly, but he kept up with me. Then, halfway through, he sped up and disappeared by taking a leap through the undergrowth." I chuckled. "He had places to be, people to talk to, and you know, I guess that since I had managed to get down until then, I could cover the rest of the trip by myself."

I huffed, "I can tell you it was the scariest fright of my life, the moment in which I cried the most. What kind of father leaves a child up in the middle of a mountain? What kind of reason could such a person have? I was lucky that during those days, police patrolled the mountains on skis to ensure everyone got down safely." I chuckled. "Got helped down by a pair of patrolling cops who saw a crying child slowly make his way down the slope on his tiny skis, because I would be damned if I waited out there in the cold. If help doesn't come, then help yourself I say, but when it does come, then it's stupid to refuse it." I tightened my hold on the empty can, which crumbled easy under the strength of my claw.

"What reason did he have?" Cinder asked, "For leaving you up there? A Grimm attack further down?"

I shook my head. "He had to play cards with his friends," I said with a small, bitter smile. "That was all the reason he needed to leave me up there. Also, Cinder..." I glanced past her, "The stew is burning."

"Uh? Ah!" Cinder gasped, quickly closing the fire and before she could as much as grab the pot, I lunged forward with my right claw, lifting the pot away from her. "Hey!"

"It's hot to the touch," I hissed out, my claws feeling nothing. "Remember to use mitts when dealing with pots. Unless you grow claws, in which case, use those."

I dropped the pot on a nearby stove, which was unlit. As it hissed and fumed, Cinder neared with the spoon and began to scrape off the bottom of the pot with a half-worried expression. It had definitely burned, and while some of it was clearly edible, not all of it was fit for human consumption. Cinder felt bitter at having failed. "Did you forgive him for that?" Cinder asked.

"I did," I said. "And so, eventually, he did something similar again. I forgave him that time too, and so, in the end, he did it again, and again, and again," I stared with my crimson eyes at Cinder's own, who were looking up at my Grimm mask as if expecting to find any emotion, but there was none. Even if sorrow laced my tone, it meant nothing because my face wasn't showing it, or perhaps she was picking it up, whatever it was. "Until one day, he did one thing that he shouldn't have done." I clenched both of my claws, sharp cracks echoing as more plates began to form across my body, spike-like ridges sprouting from my back with sharp, gleaming precision alongside my spine. "And I learned my lesson," I acquiesced. "And I made him cry like he had made me cry, and I made him suffer, like he made me suffer, and I erased his name from my memories, his actions from my mind, and damned his memory like the Romans of old...and in the end, even now, I take him as an example of what I never want to become."

I inclined my head to the side, to where Ruby was mimicking Kali in putting the dough into shapes. "Children learn by imitating those around them, but if they are wise...they don't learn only what to do...but also what not to do," I exhaled, loudly. "Which is why, Cinder...I am here. If you need someone to talk to, someone to just be there, or just, you know, someone to teach you how to cook without burning pre-made beef stew...I am here, and I promise you...I will always be here."

Cinder remained quiet for a bit, and then calmly rubbed the side of her left arm with her right one. "Do you think..." she began, "Do you think you can teach me how to make camp food?"

I nodded once, deeply, and then smiled.

"Of course! Marshmallows, meat on a stick or grilled fish? I even know how to make delicious toasts!"

"Marshmallows," Cinder said, without hesitation.

...

Was that a glint of childish happiness in the corner of your eyes, Cinder?

We'll make a kid out of you yet!

There are those who find peace in silence. There are those who find peace in watching the stars at night. There are those who find peace in eating cookies, playing the violin, singing, or doing a lot of other, different things. I found my peace in writing, and yet I couldn't write. My claws were too thick and bulky, my hold too feeble. Either I got a large paintbrush and wrote on walls, or I'd have no choice but to dictate, if such was the case, to anyone willing to write for me.

I stared at the vastness of the crimson sands of the desert, and at the hulking Grimm that lurched across the vastness of it all without care or purpose. I looked at the wind dragging sand, and at the tiny scorpions and small snakes going about their day, the nighttime their perfect moment for hunting, for moving under the cool shadows cast by a shattered moon.

"I have the heart of a poet trapped inside the body of a hulking bone behemoth," I quipped to myself, tightening my claws as sharp spikes broke free from my knuckles at my unspoken command. I watched the bones detach and fall on the ground, turning into ashes within seconds. Quietly, I extended my claws as drill-like protrusions left the palm of my hands. I clutched them, thrusting forward just to test how it would be like. My tail swished behind me, and snapped like a whip in front of me, elongating beyond its normal size before retracting back.

I had some form of control now, but even that didn't mean much. I bent my right arm backwards, before throwing forward one of the drill-like bones. It departed with the sound of a window shattering, a sonic boom exploding the sand beneath my feet as it impacted against a dune, tearing it apart as the sand flew everywhere. I sheepishly stared behind me, at the palace in the far distance. Hopefully, they hadn't heard, and I hadn't woken up Ruby or Cinder.

"I have a task for you," Salem spoke, appearing out of nowhere from behind me, her presence suddenly there as if it had always been there. Had she teleported? Was she an hallucination? Could she alter my perception? "I am of the opinion that you would like to test your strength against opponents you would have no fear of hurting," she smiled. "Freeing the desperate and the oppressed would also be in your interests, would it not?"

"And since when is it in yours?" I retorted, but Salem simply smiled.

"I care only for the destruction of what humans call the Dust Market, the linchpin to the wealth of the few," Salem said nonchalantly. "That you will target the main sites of Atlas' production is merely so that your heart might feel at ease facing off robots rather than human beings."

"The Grimm will not barge in and kill the miners, then?" I asked dryly, sarcasm lacing my words.

"They will not," Salem said. "The mere destruction of the machines will force the owners of the mines to buy new ones, which you will destroy, again. They will hire Hunters, and you will wait until they are gone and robots return, and then you will destroy the robots once more. This will drive up the Dust prices."

"But not for your allies," I said. "They will keep selling Dust for cheap."

"Of course," Salem nodded. "At its heart, and thanks to you, I know now that true business follows rules only if you are obliged by some form of constraint. We do not need rules, and what kind of lawyer would ever send us a cease and desist letter?" Salem's lips twitched.

"I would be making you, and your allies, favors," I said. "What are you willing to offer in exchange?"

Salem thoughtfully said nothing, gazing at me. "I suppose I could ensure a weekly caravan of supplies. Three humans eat a lot more than just one child," she smiled nonchalantly. "After all, the Atlas businessmen we would aid would be more than happy to provide for us, if we provide for them. Amusing how their shortsightedness will lead to their early grave," Salem continued. "Oh, and of course...if you were to blow up the mines, forcing more money to be spent in reopening them, I would be so pleased I might allow something else to be brought here."

I looked at her, and waited.

"A television screen," Salem said. "I think it would be a good addition to the household's furniture, wouldn't you think?"

"Ruining the lives of countless people by crashing the Dust Market in exchange of food and a television screen. Salem, you drive a hard bargain," I said with a huff, eyes burning softly as I crossed my arms in front of my chest. "I want a couple of computers with access to the Cross Continental Communication System, Scrolls for Ruby, Cinder and Kali, and I want you to allow them to call their families if they so wish."

"In exchange for the happiness of three people you would condemn countless families to suffer hunger from unemployment?" Salem shot back, a small smile on her face. "Are you sure you know how deals work, Shade?"

"You'll have to ensure your men hire the workers back. After all, they'll need new workers for their new mines once they buy them from their bankrupted rivals, no?" I spoke calmly, and Salem conceded by nodding very slowly once. She then extended a hand, and my entire body lunged downwards.

"You're a good boy, aren't you?" Salem whispered rubbing my head, much to my growing anger. "Such a good boy," she chuckled. "If only your mind wasn't filled with such worthless nonsense like morals and ethics." She sighed, removing her hand and allowing me thus to get back up, my teeth bared even as my tail was lifting a sandstorm behind me. "Humans are seldom perfect, even when they become Grimm I suppose."

"Are you enjoying this?" I snarled.

"I am," Salem replied, her eyes glinting with a dangerous flame. "Not as much as I will enjoy what happens now." She turned, and disappeared as if she had never been there to begin with. I shuddered deeply, and the next second the whistling sound of a high impact round was all that my ears heard as my back was rocked by what I could only describe as a cannonball, sending my body to tumble and crash through a few crystals, past a crimson sand dune, and face down on the ground.

I gasped for air as the pain that shot through my body made my limbs ache. My claws clutched on the ground as I awkwardly stood back up, another whistling sound coming for me. This time I dodged by rushing to the right, throwing my entire body weight in a single direction and avoiding a blast that lifted the sand, crafting a crater where I had been but a second before.

Activating Mole-Man protocols!

My claws dug down, my whole body disappearing below the sand as I couldn't help but wonder why someone would attack now of all times. Were they members of the White Fang come to rescue Kali? Were they Hunters on Ozpin's side come for Ruby? Were they looters who had decided that rather than to make silence and quiet a virtue, they preferred to kill everything and everyone in range? Were they members of the Branwen clan, come to hunt me down?

Whoever they were, they were targeting me, and they were doing it quite fiercely.

I heard their footsteps light and precise on the sand. I could wait for them to pass. I could let them go straight for Salem, perhaps save Ruby or Kali, perhaps—

It was an image of a sleeping Ruby that broke through my mind as I waited. A pale hand, with crimson veins, gingerly caressed the little girl's hair. Just as easily as it was doing that, it could have crushed the skull too. There was no love in the act. There was no hatred in it either. There was merely a statement. A statement of intent, a statement of purpose, a truth within that simple act.

Either I stopped the Hunters, or they would enter Salem's palace to find nothing but corpses.

I howled as my body emerged from the sands, my claws grabbing hold of a man's leg and throwing him away from the palace, his back impacting against the sand as his entire being washed in the colors of fright and pain, agony and terror. Masked Hunters nearby rose as one, but I lunged for the second before he could as much as shift his weapon from a hammer into a minigun, and my claws ripped into the metal and twisting, shattered it. My tail swished, deadly on its own, and stabbed through the hasty parry of a trident-using man. The Aura of the Hunter dulled the blow, but it sent him to crash back, hit the sand, and then twitch as it hastily rushed back up.

The fourth and fifth Hunters managed to open fire in my direction, one with revolver-like weapons and the second with what appeared to be a simple-looking assault rifle. The dust-infused bullets bounced off my hardening armor plates, pieces of bones chipping away as new ones reformed. My left claw thrust itself towards the assault rifle, but the Hunter aptly dodged it with nimble grace. My tail snaked between my legs, grabbed hold of the masked Hunter's ankle, and pulled him down.

My right hand slammed against the rifle, shattering it together with the man's Aura, which broke in a myriad of colors.

Blood spewed out from the man's mouth, and I screamed even louder, my scream merely a howl as the feelings that shot through my limbs and chest rippled like the warmth of the most tender of chocolate cakes, of delicious sweets, of intoxicating smells and even hints of a feminine pair of arms holding my head and whispering sweet nothings to my ears. I gurgled and whimpered as I stumbled back, backhanding the other Hunter as bone-like spikes erupted from the back of my hand, spearing right through him and leaving his corpse on the ground, blood thickly pooling down and turning the white bone-spear crimson red, just like the sands we stood upon.

The whistling sound of yet one more blow slammed against my rib-cage, shook my entire being to the core, made me clench my talons against the coarse sand, and yet...yet this time I didn't move.

There was so much delicious food here. I couldn't let it run away from me.

I was so hungry.

How long had it been since I had last eaten?

So hungry.

Don't give her the satisfaction. Don't do it.

But I was so hungry. How can someone act like a moralistic piece of shit when he hasn't been starving for years? How can someone dare tell you not to drink water, when he's had his fill!? How dare someone say things that have no value to those who suffer!?

Don't.

I shuddered and began to walk forward. Another cannon-blast struck my chest, but I kept moving. I had seen the sniper, off in the distance. I formed with my left hand a spear made of bone. I clenched it tightly, and then lunged forward to throw it. The screams of the dying man echoed in the air as I breathed them in together with the agony of his death.

I breathed, I licked my teeth and swallowed my saliva as I opened my arms wide, as if rejoicing for no apparent reason.

The screams of dying men haunted me throughout the night, and way into the morning.

"They are not the first fools to come hunting for me," Salem said gently as she stood behind me, atop a crimson dune that was both sand and blood. "And they are not the first whose blood turns the sand red," she continued.

"Shut up," I hissed.

"I find it amusing how you would be able to stop me from ever harming the rest of the world, if you merely allowed yourself to fail at keeping alive a few little children," Salem said nonchalantly. "I would hold far less power over you if you were willing to sacrifice a few persons in order to save so many more. Yet you do not, and by doing that...you are different from Ozpin and his grand plans and designs. You think that by taking all of the pain and the suffering on yourself, you can shoulder it better than those around you, which is foolish beyond belief."

"Shut up."

"I will endeavor to leave a Nevermore for you to travel upon, so as to make the trip to Atlas swifter."

"Shut up," I hissed, my claws digging against the sand. "Just...leave me alone."

"As you wish," Salem replied, turning to leave. "The mantle suits you."

I sharply turned my head towards Salem, but she was already gone.

On my back, however, a black mantle had now formed as if born from the back of my shoulders. Two crimson eyes with three small half-circular lashes were drawn upon the black fabric, which seemed to flutter at my command rather than at that of the wind. Through those eyes, I could see. I didn't know how it worked, or why it worked, but it did work.

I could see what was going on behind me.

It was...

Disquieting? Unnerving? Horrible?

Yet the mantle wasn't yet complete, I could tell.

Still, I couldn't dwell on it.

For those we cherish...

...we must crash the market

The sad thing was that I didn't feel cold. I stood there, knee deep in snow, and the night left no stars nor moon up in the sky for me to behold and wonder with childish innocence just where I had gone wrong with my life. I stood there, and watched the camp where Atlesian robots held clunky guns and walked stiffly in square-like patrols that any person with half a brain could easily avoid.

That was the point, perhaps.

I had to trash them, and it was easier to do so when they were giving me their backs. The moment I had the all-clear, I rushed through the snow, the treacherous cold substance creaking under my weight as I slipped against it, rolling like a giant snowball down towards the side of the mining camp. It was an open mine of sorts, veins of colored ores and crystal chunks propped everywhere.

"Perimeter alert," one of the robots squeaked out as it moved with a clunky footwork in the direction of my snowball-self. I narrowed my eyes, and then rushed forward. My claws extended slightly, and as I sliced through the robot's chest, sparks erupted from the wounds. "Unit compromised. Shutting down." It squeaked before breaking into tiny and neat pieces, each sliding off the other until they all hit the ground.

Its robotic comrade received a bone-drill to the face, courtesy of my perfect pitch, which vaporized his upper part on the spot leaving only his legs to stand up awkwardly.

There were no humans guarding the gates. It was the middle of the night, it was cold and it was snowing. The miners' barracks were a short way North from the mines themselves, so even if I blew it all up, not a single living soul would get hurt by it. I needed explosive, but there was quite the amount of red Dust that could be primed, and the robots' guns weren't a part of the robots themselves, so I could fire those. Though they looked kind of tiny, I could still fit a single one of my clawed fingers to push the trigger and open fire.

There were barrels of unprocessed Dust in cargo bays, waiting to be put on trucks and carried away. Yet no living creature slept there. I didn't sense anyone but robots. Well, whoever had the switch-off button must have been comfortably sleeping in his large bed at this time of the night. Sometimes, not having to sleep was a blessing in and by itself. The robots on patrol were honestly easy to dispatch. Perhaps a Beowolf or two would have had problems, but I knew the ancient art of not rushing ahead. And even if I hadn't known such a powerful tactic, my thickened hide was stronger than the piercing power of their bullets.

They'd need something stronger to pierce it.

Smashing robots was the easy part. Dragging down barrels of Dust and plopping them together with the dynamite sticks was perhaps slightly more difficult, but even that had been a job done in the end. The final nail in the coffin of the mine arrived in the form of myself, standing atop a hill a slight distance away, with an old looking detonator that was tied to dynamite sticks all across the ridges of the open wound on mother Earth.

I pushed down the detonator's handle.

And nothing, of course, happened.

I stared at the detonator, then at the mine in the far off distance, and then waited a bit more.

The soft pop noise was the principle by which I saw the Light transcend the Heavens as the multicolored explosion and impulse thrust all of the snow away in the air, myself included, and then made it all crumble as a massive fire spread the barrels, explosions blazing high in the sky like fireworks even as it all came down to clog the richest veins deep below the ground.

It was going to cost millions to get those ores back to the surface. Boy did I not want to be whoever it was that had just lost a mine.

I wasn't done though.

I had more mines to clog, more Dust to destroy, and more chaos to reap.

The second mine that I destroyed two days later was basically identical to the first one. While a human, by foot, would have taken a good week or so, beset by Grimm during the trip, I wasn't. Nevermores flocked to guide me, and I could easily deploy from orbit by merely crashing down right in the middle of the mine, tearing apart the robots from the inside out. The long list of destruction continued, and sometimes it was mines and sometimes it was peculiarly pricey robots and mining equipment.

I had no idea of what the news said, because I didn't have a scroll, and I didn't have a way to enter a bar without someone screaming and calling for aid. It was just plain rude. It was even a bit racist. Sure, I was a Grimm, but I wasn't a man-eating monster like my brothers! I was a good guy!

I was also a murderer, so perhaps I really had no excuses, and humans had the right of it in trying to kill me.

Shaking my head, I proceeded with the long list.

When I returned to Salem's palace, she had kept her word, just as I had kept mine. The Glass Dome saw my entry through quite the tight confines. Had someone shrunk the doors and the hallways since the last time I had been there? That mattered less than Salem's nod at my sight, and her gesturing to a set of crates near her.

Ruby had grown taller, and was happy to see me as always. Cinder looked a bit nonplussed, but not otherwise hurt in any way beyond some sore muscles from training with Salem. Kali had a mixture of emotions in her, mostly sadness and grief at not being with her daughter, but also bitter resignation that it was the most I could give her. On her face there was the happiness that only comes sincerely from the heart though, just like the tears that fell from her cheeks when she finally heard her daughter's voice on the other side of the Scroll.

"Blake? Blake it's me...it's mom," Kali whispered, hiccuping as she heard her daughter's voice for the first time in months on the other side. "Yes Blake, it's mommy! It's me...I'm so happy to hear you...oh...I miss you too."

Ruby had no idea on how to use her Scroll, but she resolutely looked up at me, holding it in her hands. "Can I call big sis Cinder with it?"

I stared at Ruby. She looked back up at me with a furrowing of her eyebrows. "Yes," I said in the end. "Yes you can."

Cinder smiled as she happily went along with it, showing off to Ruby how it worked.

Salem stood back, and watched with a pensive and calm expression the proceedings. "You do know that any help that will come this way will meet your claws first, do you not?" Salem remarked, eyeing me. "Be they the woman's husband, his men, Ozpin's own...your claws will dirty with their blood, again and again," she thoughtfully glanced at me. "Is this how you justify your murders, I wonder? Your needs as a Grimm?"

"No," I replied curtly, glaring at her. "There is no justification for what you made me do, but the guilt is on you," I exhaled, loudly. "One day, Salem, you will have what you deserve."

Salem calmly pulled out a television remote from her sleeve, and pointed it at the far end of the Glass Dome, where the Jellyfish Grimms had finished mounting the television monitor to sockets that they had dug in the walls. How it even worked was beyond my imagination, but just as long as it worked, then it was fine.

The television flickered to life, and as a newscaster began to speak of the crash of the Dust Market, a familiar name passed through my ears.

"This marks the end of the long bankruptcy process of the Schnee Dust Company, once one of the largest exporters and producers of Dust in the world. The Merlot industries from Vale have outbid all local competitors, and has now become the primary Dust producer in all of Atlas. What will this mean for our people now? Foreign interests will be held to a higher degree of importance over the national sovereignty of the mines? Tonight, answers will be forthcoming from General James Ironwood, leader of the Atlas Huntsman Academy."

My head slowly turned towards Salem, who remained unperturbed. "Doctor Merlot was such a misguided man," she sighed. "Thankfully he was open to...suggestions."

"You bankrupted the Schnee company," I said flatly.

"Now that is silly," Salem replied, "You were the one who sabotaged most of their mines and did damage for unforeseen millions. Is it my fault that Director Schnee asked for loans from improper sources who then choked the life out of his wealth? He could have sold his remaining properties and lived a decent, middle-class life until his death. He chose to try to remain rich, and paid the price for it by gurgling his last breath in a cold lake. His wife died at childbirth, and the child did not survive," Salem did not smile, but merely looked straight at me. "The youngest daughter, a certain Weiss, still lives. She is currently attending Atlas academy. They have a curriculum that goes from kindergarten all the way up to Huntsman school."

My eyes burned, but they could do nothing.

"However, Merlot Industries will rehire all of the unemployed workers of the Schnee Company given time," Salem nodded. "They will be happy to have new jobs. Are you not satisfied, Shade?" Salem drawled out. "I have witnessed you," she added. "And I have found you...mediocre."

With those words, Salem left the room.

With those words, I realized that Salem had allowed the Scrolls because there was no way in hell that having them or not would change anything.

"Is everything all right?" Cinder asked, looking up at me. She held on to her scroll as she lifted it up to my face, Ruby's own face appearing through the other side of it.

"Shade!" Ruby yelled from the other side of the room, "I can see you!" she giggled. "Can you hear me!?"

"Yes, Ruby," I said with a gruff growl. "I can."

"Thank you!" Ruby smiled, "I like this! It's pretty!"

"I am glad you liked it, Ruby," I replied with a slow nod.

It just costed me the last bits of moral integrity I might have had, but I am glad you like your new Scroll Ruby.

Just how stupid was I?

My only hope...would be to keep Ruby alive until she died of old age, forever a prisoner.

I couldn't do more.

I too left the Glass Dome silently, and as I did, the mantle gingerly reached the point where it began to touch my tail, stopping an inch away from it. The look on Cinder's face as she believed I couldn't see her told me she suspected something was wrong, and her emotions told me she wanted to pry but didn't dare.

It was better this way.

Ruby rushed across the sand Dunes with barely a loss of breath. I watched her go, wondering when she'd tire. The little kid had grown into a little girl, but she was still little. Thankfully, no White Fang members had tried to barge in to free Kali. No Hunters had come for Ruby. No Tribesmen had come to hunt Salem. I was there, though, because I couldn't risk Ruby getting kidnapped just like that. I couldn't risk it, because the price to pay for it would be grievous indeed.

So I kept a watchful eye on her as she ran on the crimson sands, hopping past crystal outcroppings and gingerly waving in my direction every now and then. I was sitting on the sands, my chin propped on the open palm of my claw as I remained silent, thoughtfully hoping Ruby was happy with what she had.

I stared down at my shadow, and my ears twitched as a sudden blast of sand covered my face. Ruby had hopped herself to a halt right in front of me. "Done!" she said sweetly, swishing back and forth in her adorably cute white and black gym outfit. Well, for a certain definition of adorably cute, since somehow Salem had gifted her what could only be described as the Panda-chan of all Panda-chans.

I had honestly been befuddled at first, since I couldn't gleam whatever plan there could be behind such an act. Yet at the same time I reckoned it could be a blow to my non-existing heartstrings, since Ruby's wide silver eyes coupled with her wearing a Panda-like costume made her kind of an adorable blurb of Moe which reached critical levels of unfairness. How can such cute things exist in the world!?

It made me feel bad about having to get her to train hard, but I didn't know how Signal trained its children. For all I knew, they had them crawl beneath barbed wire while live fire ammunition was fired over their heads, with heavy packs on their backs. Since I didn't know, I had to err on the side of caution, and exaggerate over not doing so. Ruby was a good sport. She could be a bit fussy, and playful, but otherwise actually did as asked.

"Another three laps, Ruby," I said gingerly. "You're barely winded as you are, aren't you?"

Ruby pouted, abruptly starting to pant harshly. "I—I can't—breathe," she gasped, clutching her chest. "Please, pwetty please can I take a break?" she asked, her eyes wide and doe-like. I stared at her, my own crimson eyes fixed on her spot. I would have blinked, but had no eyelids.

I inclined my head to the side. "This is Cinder telling you to do so because I'm a big softy inside," I growled out with an affronted expression.

"Yes!" Ruby nodded eagerly, a big smile on her face. There was no malice in her action, so I had taken a wild guess and gotten it right. She didn't want to rest to skip on training, and didn't want the break to selfishly do things for herself. So whatever it was, it had to be an altruistic thought of sorts.

"Fine," I conceded. "Five minutes."

In answer, Ruby excitedly hopped on my forearm and then climbed her way to the top of my shoulders, coming to a halt as she sat down on my neck. "I have conquered Mount Shade in the name of the Ruby Kingdom!" she cackled. "Now go, my mountain!" she giggled as her arms surrounded the top of my head.

I growled lightly, and slowly stood up. "You don't just want to play, do you?" I quipped, much to Ruby's gasp.

"I can't say a thing!" Ruby said, tightly zipping her mouth shut. "Big sis Cinder will get mad if I do."

I calmly grabbed hold of Ruby's form with one of my claws, and plucked her off my neck, the sheepish child brought in front of me as my arm held her aloft to my eye-level. She held her limbs limp, doing her best kicked-puppy expression. "Ruby," I said quite calmly. "Cinder won't get mad at you. Spit it out."

"No!" Ruby said with a huff, her arms crossed and her expression defiant, even before she moved her head sharply to the side, avoiding my eyes and closing hers shut.

"Ruby," I groaned. If Ruby protected a secret as a favor to her friend, then it was impossible for my malice-sensing ability to divine through it. Whatever it was, Cinder had been smart enough to probably chalk it up to something good and kind, and so I wouldn't be able to as much as gleam a stray thought from Ruby's mind. "Pretty please? I'll give you cookies."

One of Ruby's eyes opened and glanced at me, but she quickly closed it again.

"I'll download that new movie you like from the CCTS," I continued. "The one about the fluffy, loving, care bears and their multicolored friends. I'll even watch it together with you."

Both of Ruby's eyes turned to look at me, still unsure but definitely tempted.

"I'll ask Kali to make you a cookie dough cake," I said in the end, driving the final nail in the coffin that was Ruby's sealed lips.

"Big Sis Cinder went to buy you a gift for your birthday!" Ruby blurted out, her eyes wide and her body flailing to try to get free from her mid-air condition, and failing miserably at that. "She said not to tell you because it had to be a surprise!"

I stared at Ruby, even as the kid swung herself to the side to grab my wrist and hold herself like a Koala on my arm.

"My birthday?" I grumbled.

"Uh-huh!" Ruby nodded emphatically, playfully biting down on the hardened bone-like armor of my arm, as if it would work in getting her free. "She shaid she whanthed it to be a shurprishe," her teeth nibbling on my bone-armor, I relented in the end and let her go once I was sure her grip on my forearm was tight enough. "Free at last!" Ruby playfully exclaimed, rushing like a monkey back to the top of my neck. "Ah-ha!" she proclaimed victoriously. "Mount Shade has been conquered again!"

"Who told her when my birthday was?" for what it mattered, did we even have a calendar in this place? Did we have months?

"Mom-in-law Salem," Ruby said, shuddering slightly.

I belatedly froze in my motions. "What did you call her?" I asked next, unsure if I had heard correctly.

"Mom-in-law!" Ruby said. "They're the nasty old ladies of the world, right? Inside the TV, they do all bad things and make people feel bad, and then they laugh just like her! But Salem has white hair so she's old, so I guess she's a Grandma-in-law!"

"Surprisingly perceptive of you," I said with a slow nod. Salem, are you hearing this? Because if you are, know that I am absolutely approving of what Ruby is spouting. "And why would she tell Cinder?"

"Dunno," Ruby said with a huff. "Big sis didn't tell me. She just said I had to be good and keep it a surprise...she made me promise it too!" Ruby whined as her eyes turned all teary. "I broke my promise! It even was with the pinky finger and all!" she suddenly seem to come to an abrupt and grief-filled realization that she was a bad girl, a really bad girl, and she began to tremble and hiccup. "I'm sowwy!" she cried out, clutching my head tightly. "Sowwy! Sorry!" she sniffled.

Admittedly, had any hunters come across the vision of a giant Grimm with a tiny girl on its head clutching said head and sobbing, they would have probably wondered if they had drunk too much absinthe.

"It's all right," I gurgled. "We'll say you tried your best, but I was just too good and found out the truth. You did try your best to keep it a secret, didn't you?"

"Uh-huh," Ruby sniffled, "But...cookie dough cake..." she swallowed.

"You can still have it," I said. "As apology for making you break your promise."

Ruby said nothing else, and I merely sat back down to watch the Grimm walk by lazily across the sands, a Deathstalker clacking its pincers in my direction mostly because I had thought about it doing so, rather than it actually having a reason for it.

Then, abruptly, the Deathstalker turned its attention sharply elsewhere.

I felt it too.

I felt it too, and I understood.

Pain, suffering and anguish.

Cinder, in the end you went to have your revenge didn't you?

Sometimes...losing was inevitable.

The Grimm were relentlessly pounding upon the doors beyond which humans had barricaded themselves. The unfortunate truth was that children died first, because they were the first to cry and scream, to grief and feel sadness. Adults died next, because their anger and despair enriched the air. Newborns that slept could perhaps survive a few hours, until they awoke and began to cry.

Grimm did not differentiate. That was why Grimm were feared. They had no compulsion to obey the laws of Disney, the rules of Geneva, or any other form. Cribs would be emptied. The infirm would be trampled down. The weak would die and the strong would either flee, or die with them.

The Grimm did not know mercy, did not know compassion, did not care one bit about the age of their enemies and unfortunately, were eager to aggregate and pounce whenever a weakness was perceived. What had been a few Grimm became a pack, and then a couple of dozens, and as they swarmed so too did they kill, and by killing more came from the skies, and from the far off distances.

Deathstalkers with golden stingers broke through houses that could have been made of flimsy cardboard for all that it mattered to their bulky frames, Ursa smashing through doors and walls with powerful tackles of their massive bodies.

In the middle of the carnage, swords dripping with blood, stood a lonely figure clad in her leather jacket, her long grey trousers, and her gloves. The figure was drenched in blood, the blood of the people in front of her that she had hacked into pieces, and which now rested on the ground forming a tightly knit puddle embraced with one another.

One was a portly man, the other a dark-haired woman from what little I could see. Two young men were in bits and pieces, their arms scattered, their bodies showing all the signs of having been alive as they were dismembered. One had tried to claw away, his back pierced repeatedly.

Cinder stood there, taking it all in, watching it all go down, and she did not cry. She simply looked at the carnage wrought, and as my steps came to a halt behind her, she did not even turn.

"I made sure..." she whispered, "I made sure they would never harm me again."

"Must have been quite the dangerous foes," I growled, my shadows lurching against the ground as spikes shattered free from the plated armor to form shoulder-pads that only a cheap B-ranked evil guy from the Dark Kingdom could ever have. "The rest of the village deserved it too?"

"They tried to interfere," Cinder replied. "Had they kept to the sides, the Grimm wouldn't have harmed them. Had they simply watched as I got my justice, my right, my dues...then they would have lived." Her eyes turned to look at me. "They chose poorly, so they died."

"The child crying in his crib cannot choose," I hissed back, one of my claws drawing a sharp denial in mid-air, the crimson of my veins bubbling angrily as the seething cold hatred within my heart began to burst. "The father who will return home to the eaten corpses of his family could not choose," I extended a claw, pointing it straight at Cinder. "You chose for them, Cinder. You chose for all of them. When they come face you, when they come to ask you why you chose for them, what will you answer? That their families deserved it?"

"They all do," Cinder whispered back, extending her arms and gesturing at the carnage around her. "This tiny, pitiful pathetic village did nothing to stop the hurt I suffered. They did nothing to help the only person that cared about me. They simply watched, they simply ignored it and let it be. Well, it's time they pay for their sins. And if there are innocents among them? Then their death rests on the shoulders of the sinners, not on mine," Cinder's eyes burned, not red with flames, but with anger. Her fists clenched.

"You..." I took a deep breath as my eyes blazed. "You are my greatest disappointment." I lifted my right arm, a Grimm nearby halting in its process of trying to break down a door as its head sharply turned, eyes red with blazing anger, and rushed towards Cinder's widening eyes of surprise. The Beowolf lunged, claws extended, but Cinder cut it down before it could connect with her.

An Ursa came next, my outstretched hand pointing at it. Cold fury settled in my veins as I watched Cinder fight the very Grimm that were supposed to help her butcher a whole village. A Deathstalker's pincer slammed home through her guard, and she lost a blade to it. She remained with only one, her breathing hard and pained.

"Shade!" she yelled, "Shade, please!"

"Please?" I hissed out. "Please!?" I growled. "Monsters don't get to say please! They only get to die, and suffer as they die!" I howled as the flock of Nevermores sharply unleashed a volley of dark feathers down on her, while Beowolves ran around her, weaving in and out of their circle like feral dogs, aiming at her neck, forcing her to sidestep them and hit them, but at the same time keep an eye on her back for others to pounce at her exposed parts.

Her aura shattered as an Ursa's massive bulk sacrificed itself to pin her down, her sword cleanly wrenched from her hands. The brilliant orange of her aura's destruction reflected in my eyes as I watched her body bleed for the first time, thrown on the ground as bruises and small cuts began to form on her flesh.

I neared her, the rest of the Grimm quiet and silent.

"You're...you're just like everyone else..." Cinder gurgled out, a painful look of betrayal on her face. How dared she think I was the one who had betrayed her?

"I am not like everyone else, Cinder," I hissed as I knelt in front of her, my claw grabbing hold easily of her entire midriff, lifting her up to be at my eye-level. "I am more human than you will ever be," I whispered. "Look around at the pain you have wrought to the innocents, the innocents, Cinder! Those who were just like you! Those who now suffer just like you did! Will you welcome their revenge, Cinder!? Will you welcome their anger, and their hatred!? Will you accept your punishment, now that your revenge is sated!? You have achieved nothing! You have earned nothing! Power for power's sake is meaningless!" I squeezed, and Cinder screamed.

"But I am not a monster like you," I hoarsely hissed as I stopped. Cinder stared at me, and I stared back at her. "Don't come back. I will kill you if you do."

I calmly opened my palm letting her fall like a mess of tangled limbs and shaken skin on the ground. The Grimm nearby wished to continue their feeding, their hungry, incessant desire for the emotions of sinners and saints, of hate and fear, of terror and greed, but as I snarled and howled they turned away from them, my own richer than anything they would ever achieve, and they followed me as I left the village, they followed me back home, without one breaking off, without one daring to go anywhere else.

Betrayal stung. Disappointment burned. Hatred suffused my limbs as the veins across my forearms thickened, and then like angry sores broke apart to reveal the darkness beneath it. The darkness of cloth, not of bone or flesh or muscle.

The bone-like armor chipped away piece by piece as I walked steadily through the main hallway of Salem's palace, through the halls and the rooms until I reached for the place where I could feel Salem was.

Salem welcomed me with a small smile, her expression a mixture of joy and excitement.

My fist stopped an inch away from her face, I gritted my teeth and pushed my shoulder as hard as I could forward, and yet it stopped there, the claws receded into fingers as I screamed in anger obscenities that would have made grown-up sailors weep. I roared my anger straight to Salem's face as I tried to kick her with legs that broke like fragile ceramics, to reveal black trousers and shoes beneath them. White skin veined with red emerged, no longer bony, no longer plated as my chest shattered in tandem with my fingers ripping it apart like a bulky weight I no longer needed.

"Hello, my brother," Salem whispered with the smile on her face, her hands slowly rising to touch the sides of my face, her fingers gliding across the smoothness of newly born human cheeks, white as hers, with surprising tenderness. "Have you finally come to terms with your powerlessness to stop me? Does the folly of hope still burn in your heart?" Salem's smile grew, "Tell me if it does...I will ensure to snuff it out."

"I'll make you pay," I hissed.

Salem nodded, extending her arms to engulf me in a hug I could not refuse. It was the tender embrace of a mother welcoming her lost son back home, the hearty tightening of brothers who met after a long time, the soothing touch of someone truly worried for your well-being. "All that I do, I do for the good of our people, brother. Perhaps, one day, you will understand. It pains me to see you like this. If you understood, then perhaps you would not suffer so."

"Stop lying to me!" I snarled, slamming my right foot on the ground as the tiles broke. "You corrupted Cinder—"

"Just because someone agrees with some of your views, it does not mean they have forgotten their reason to live," Salem retorted, gently ruffling the back of my hair and rubbing her cheek against mine, exhaling lightly. "My brother," she whispered, "So ignorant of the ways of the heart of man, for all of his so called pride in being cunning and smart, and yet so blind to what people truly want. Their greed is their deepest, truest desire. They want, and want, and want more. They desire, they corrupt, they cohort with one another for self-gain and self-interest. Kindness does not exist, only self-serving interest of a promised reward for good actions. Cinder came to me for power, and I gave it to her. She came to me for revenge, and I gave it to her. She will return to me, because she fears me more than she does you." Salem smiled. "And you will not kill her, because you are weak, because you believe that in giving kindness, perhaps it will be returned one day. So you will keep hurting yourself."

Salem gave me a tiny peck on the cheek, before letting go of the hug I could not refuse. "Now go, my brother. Do as you wish, and know that man will be exterminated no matter what you try to achieve."

Jellyfishes came floating in, their tentacles equipped with brooms and dustpans to gather the broken pieces of my old flesh, of my old body.

"If you wish it," Salem continued in a soft whisper, "You now have the fingers to write all that you desire."

"I want to use my fingers to wring your neck and watch you die," I snapped back, angry and spiteful.

Salem simply smiled, and then ruffled my hair, white as the most candid of snows.

I was still taller than her.

And unfortunately, as always, Salem turned out to be right.