Chapter 2

East of Eden

Ruby was professional enough and a good enough friend not to ask any further questions. It was difficult for the motormouth to bite her tongue, but she'd worry about the scars later. Blake had asked her help, something she had rarely ever done and only in the most desperate times of her life, and there was a fifteen-year-old girl that needed help. That was enough for Ruby, for now.

"Thank you, Ruby," Blake said for the hundredth time while frantically stuffing a backpack with items taken from Ruby's fully stocked supply room. "You don't know what this means to me. I can never repay you enough."

"Now I know why you didn't ask Yang or Weiss for help," Ruby said, "or anybody else for that matter. I'm the only one who's willing to help."

"It's not Eve's fault her father became a monster. She-"

"We can talk about it later. We're not even in the city yet. I take it you didn't bring any supplies?"

Blake shook her head. "Didn't have time, and I had to pack light in order to sneak aboard an airship."

She nodded. "I should have just about everything you'll need here in the shop except clothes. We can make a pit stop in the morning for that and anything else you need."

"In the morning!?" Blake exclaimed. "Why not tonight?"

Ruby glanced over her shoulder, a scroll in hand and a pre-packed rucksack on the countertop beside her. "Because the military pilot I'm about to call in a favor from doesn't get on duty until 0900." she said simply. "We both need our sleep, you especially, and we can't just walk into a mission like this blind. We're not kids anymore, and I'm done holding my feet to the fire and dipping my toes into the unknown." She gestured toward her cybernetic bare feet for emphasis.

Blake sighed but finally relented. Although her huntress status had since been reinstated, being a combat instructor and occasionally chaperoning students was very different from the kinds of missions Ruby had been going on almost nonstop since she was fifteen-years-old. She had come to Ruby for a reason, and not just because of her connection to Adam. Semi-retired or not, missing legs or not, she was the very best huntress in the world, and was still her team leader.

"Alright," Blake said, "but I'm not gonna be able to sleep for at least a few more hours. I'm gonna go buy some new huntress gear and some other supplies. The City of Vale never sleeps, and the neighboring districts should have plenty of shops still open." Blake turned to leave but glanced back with a wry smile. "You didn't exactly set your shop up in prime real estate, you know."

Ruby shrugged. "I know, but the property was cheap and the neighborhood's nice and quiet. I'd move out into the country if I could, but Yang thought staying in the city might do me some good. More to keep me distracted, I guess."

"Ruby," she laughed, "you're rich, and Weiss would buy you half the city if you asked her. The whole city if you promised to behave the next time she took you out in public."

"I know, but I liked this shop." She glanced around the kitchen fondly. It was little more than a breakroom, but it reminded her of being back at Beacon and always fighting for elbow room. "Besides, like you say, I don't need the money. This is just something to keep me busy until I get the itch to hunt again, or the hunt gets the itch for me again."

Blake frowned suddenly, realizing she was dragging Ruby back into the world of nightmares she had tried so desperately to retire from but could never quite let go. Not only could she die on the mission, but perhaps even worse, she might return to being a huntress full-time, which would be a death sentence at this point in her career.

'If Yang or Weiss ever find out about this, about Eve, they're gonna kill me,' she realized.

Ruby laughed suddenly. "We're going to a Grimm infested city looking for terrorists and we're not even getting paid!"

"I'll make sure Oasis purchases some weapons from you," Blake said, knowing Ruby would never under any circumstance accept money from her. "The staff and students especially would also love to have you teach another week of combat and weapon maintenance classes, if you'd be willing."

'Maybe that'll help distract her for a little bit longer,' she thought privately.

Ruby chewed her lip thinking about it. "Okay, but just so you know, not only am I a top rated huntress, but I'm also a world famous GunTuber now. I charge double, and I want enough cookie dough and corgi kibbles to last a year."

Blake chuckled and headed for the door. "Anything you want, Ruby. I mean it. Thank you."

It had to be said that Ruby's taste in airships was almost as refined as her taste for weapons, which Blake supposed was because she essentially viewed them as flying guns. In this case, Ruby had contracted a military bullhead with an expert pilot who flew them from The City of Vale all the way to southwestern Anima in the span of just a few hours. The camouflage green airship flew just above the trees, was almost totally silent, and had enough firepower to hold its own against a small Atlesian squadron.

"It's been a while since we went on a mission together," Ruby said, grinning ear to ear while checking her weapons and gear one final time.

Blake was less enthusiastic about the memory, as the final mission of Team RWBY had ended with herself and Yang being hospitalized and only half of the villagers being safely evacuated. The mission had been an unmitigated success as far as their peers and governments were concerned, but it wasn't exactly one of Blake's fondest memories. It wasn't one of Ruby's either truth be told, but it had been the last time her team had gone on a mission together, and it was arguably some of their finest work.

"How close to the city do you want to get?" the pilot asked through their earpieces.

"Just behind that ridge," Ruby said, pointing over his shoulder. She didn't want to get too close to the city for fear of a keen eared faunus hearing the almost silent engines or catching a glimpse of the practically invisible airship, and it wasn't as though a two or three mile hike was going to bother a pair of huntresses. It certainly wasn't going to bother Ruby's feet anymore.

Although it pained her not to play a more active role in her own mission's planning, Blake trusted Ruby to take care of the particulars. She'd been an active huntress three times longer than her, and was the best pathfinder on Remnant. Not only that, but she had somehow successfully led the most dysfunctional huntress team ever to exist through countless missions and even a full-scale war before they'd even graduated.

"Ready?" Ruby asked.

Blake nodded and threw a large rucksack over her shoulders while also carrying a smaller pack similar in size to Ruby's. As a faunus, she was stronger than the average human, meaning she wouldn't have to rely as much on aura to carry the heavy pack compared to Ruby who was practically half her size. While Yang had been the undisputed pack mule of the team, Blake was their jack-of-all trades, being the second strongest, second fastest, second largest aura pool, and having the second most stamina, meaning it usually fell on her to fill gaps in the team.

She also figured it was her duty to carry their extra supplies considering it was her mission after all. Ruby's forte was Grimm slaying and pathfinding, and she'd need to be as unburdened as possible to do her job effectively. Once they secured a base of operations, Blake would unload the heavy pack and continue on with just the bare essentials, and then get to work doing what she did best.

The bullhead came to a halt and the pilot wished them luck on their mission, apparently having flown Ruby on multiple missions in the past. The huntresses stood at the open door and stared at the ground roughly fifty feet below. A decade ago Blake wouldn't have thought twice about making the jump, but now didn't argue when Ruby wrapped an arm around her.

In the blink of an eye it felt as though Blake shadow jumped across the lawless territory as Ruby used her semblance to force them both into an aura state where their bodies no longer existed, and reappeared as solids again on the ground.

Blake shuddered and checked to make sure her limbs were all still attached and where they belonged. "I forgot how much I hate doing that."

"Come on," Ruby said, slightly out of breath. "Eden's to the northwest. We need to find a building that's secure and also a good lookout before it gets dark. Then we can figure out a plan for tomorrow."

"Right, and when the plan inevitably goes to hell, buy you enough time to improvise."

Ruby smiled, her cloak billowing slightly. It was in her experience that plans rarely if ever went accordingly, so why pretend any differently? It wasn't the best strategists that succeeded on suicide missions and lived to tell about them. It was those who could improvise and make it up as they went along, and there wasn't a huntress living on Remnant that thought quicker on their feet than Ruby Rose. Cybernetic feet or otherwise. There was sometimes a fine line between brilliance and insanity, and everyone knew Ruby walked that line every day of her life.

She took the lead without argument from Blake, following behind just out of Crescent Rose's reach just in case they were attacked. Ruby's aura enhanced weapon would never so much as cut one of her teammates, but it'd certainly hurt like hell. Blake's reflexes weren't quite what they used to be, and she wasn't sure when the last time Ruby had gone on a mission with a partner had been, and didn't want to risk being caught in the crossfire.

Back when they were regularly going on missions as a team, Blake had always taken point on account of her superior senses and defensive fighting style, but either Ruby had forgotten, or more likely, she thought the extra pack would weigh Blake down too much to be a proper scout.

'Looks like I'm gonna have to prove to her that I've only lost a single step, not two,' Blake thought to herself.

Within minutes they reached the outskirts of the city without so much as snapping a twig. Tall walls and fences encompassed the entire city, but were decaying and collapsing without proper maintenance and after being breached half a century ago. Gaping holes had been punched through by larger Grimm, and standing atop a small hill with plenty of cover, the concrete jungle of Eden had mostly been returned back to mother nature, reminding the huntresses of an infected wound.

"A city with a population of half a million dropped to zero overnight," Blake said, shaking her head. Ruby grumbled something under her breath before pulling her hood up and moving on, and Blake hurried to keep up.

Ruby had poured over maps of the city throughout most of the night to figure out the best zone to drop from, and had decided to start their search in a small rural residential district surrounded by farmland. It wasn't the most ideal hideout, but faunus in Ruby's experience tended to prefer open spaces, and perhaps the latest iteration of the White Fang didn't think anybody would come looking for them here.

The pair slipped into a backyard which more resembled an overgrown garden after checking the largest farm buildings in the immediate area. With their backs against an old garage, Ruby attached her scroll to Crescent Rose and brought up a highly detailed map of the city with grid coordinates. "Where would the White Fang be hiding when you were a part of it?" she asked. "Underground?"

Blake shook her head. "That one time was only because of Torchwick and his plan to breach The City of Vale from below. These are nomads, going from place to place with little more than what they can carry. So long as faunus stay out of sight, Grimm usually won't sense them." She bit her lip in thought. "They'll be near the outskirts of the city in case they have to make a quick getaway into the forest, but it'll be somewhere with a lot of cover, like an industrial district."

Ruby moved the map around. "That'll be a good place for us to hide too. With any luck maybe we'll squat right next door to them."

The pair took off once more, using buildings and tall weeds as cover, and keeping an eye on every shadow in case it had teeth. Although it was still early with several more hours of daylight left, they had no desire to wander an abandoned city infested with Grimm at night, especially when there were terrorists lurking that could see better in the dark than Ruby could during the day.

Although they tried to keep to the city's perimeter, they often had to skirt around roving packs of Beowolves, driving them nearer to the heart of the city. They'd be almost effortless to take out, but it'd run the risk of alerting nearby packs, as well as other, less savory kinds of Grimm. Of course, leaving them alive also ran the risk of them discovering the huntresses or being a future threat. It was just one of the many risks of their profession, and when in doubt, Ruby usually preferred making life easier for her present self and letting future Ruby worry about dying. It had worked out well so far, minus the legs of course.

They checked several schools, shopping centers, and anywhere else that looked as though it could house and be easily defended by a few dozen militants. They didn't discover much however beyond signs of innocent lives having been stolen away by Grimm for no other reason than because good and evil existed. It wasn't enough for Grimm to just take the lives of their victims. Attacks were so brutal and violent that they almost appeared to be trying to take their victims' very souls as well.

A few smaller packs of juvenile Beowolves and the occasional Ursa found themselves paying dearly for the misdeeds of their older brethren, but it brought little comfort to the huntresses, and none to the countless victims or their families.

Any Grimm still living in the city from the time of its fall wasn't something either Ruby or Blake wanted to run into. The older the Grimm or more experienced they became in killing, the stronger, faster, and more durable they became, but it was their intelligence and cruelty that caused every huntsman to lie awake at night. If either of them happened to get any sleep that night, it was sure to be plagued by hungry nightmares lurking in the shadows. Waiting for the right time to feed...

"It's the rainy season here in Anima," Ruby said to herself, excusing a moment's rest by studying the map more closely. "There's a river to the northwest of here that's not much more than a stream the rest of the year, but would be a good source of freshwater right now. What do you think?"

Blake leaned over the map and pointed at some of the buildings. "Those look like warehouses or old factories. Perfect for hiding a small militia and their supplies. There's even a farmer's road to the north that leads to the north. Grimm usually prefer the most populated parts of a city, so maybe the industrial district will be a little safer, especially if the White Fang have been hiding there for a while."

"Only question is," Ruby drawled, "do we search for them now, or do we keep gathering intel and wait for tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow," Blake said immediately. As much as she wanted to talk to Eve and steal her away from this evil place, she and Ruby still had several more miles of Grimm infested city to cross, and they still needed to clear a building and set up a base of operations before nightfall. She wasn't going to admit it aloud, but she was also getting tired of carrying a heavy rucksack.

Ruby drew a circle around the target area. It encompassed several square miles and dozens of large buildings, meaning despite the relatively small search area, it would be slow going if they wished to remain unnoticed by both Grimm and faunus alike.

"Alright then," Ruby said. "Let's-"

"What was that?" Blake interrupted. She cupped her hands around her cat ears and looked toward the industrial district.

Ruby turned in the direction she was staring and raised her sniper rifle, dialing it in. "I don't see-"

She shared a gasp with Blake as a massive body moved out from behind one of the taller buildings in the distance. It looked like a forty foot tall elephant covered in ivory armor and jagged spikes, and had four razor sharp tusks that reached the ground.

"A Goliath?" Blake whispered. "Here in Eden?"

Ruby chuckled darkly, her finger on the trigger. "I believe that's what Yang would call 'foreshadowing'."

"What the hell is a Goliath doing in Anima, and why does it look like it ate another Goliath!?" She kept her voice low in case its massive ears were trained in their direction.

"That would be a Mumakil," Ruby said grimly. "A very, very old Goliath. Last I heard there's only four recorded still living. Three if you're willing to pay me double."

"Ruby, there's no way in hell we can kill that thing! Don't even think about it!"

She sighed, lowering her sniper rifle. "Back when the four of us were in our primes we could've taken it. That thing has probably killed thousands of people since before the kingdoms were even founded, and it'll kill thousands more long after we're dead."

"Well, there's only two of us, we're not in our prime anymore, and 'long after we're dead' is right around the corner if you decide to take a pop-shot at that thing." Blake sighed and massaged her temples, suddenly nostalgic for Team RWBY's endless arguments while on patrol. "Besides, if Yang or Weiss find out I took you to a city with an Alpha Goliath, I am so dead."

Ruby chuckled. "True. There's always another way to skin a cat, and to be honest, I'm more scared of them than I am a thousand year old Goliath." She stretched and turned her back to the Goliath. "Come on, we've got work to do, but maybe we should try going around the blood thirsty elephant?"

"That's the best idea you've ever had, Ruby. I just hope Eve has enough common sense to do the same..."

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. I've always had a fondness for RWBY's Goliaths ever since they were first introduced. I also like the idea that Ruby's still got the urge to kill Grimm that sometimes overrides her common sense, but admittedly, killing an Alpha Goliath is probably worth the risk in her mind. Of course Blake isn't going to let that happen, and Ruby's not entirely insane (she still has a job to do after all). As she said, Yang would call it "foreshadowing", and I like the idea that Ruby's been a huntress for so long that she kinda knows where this is heading lol.

Also, thank you for all the love and support you've shown this story, friends. I really do appreciate it, and it means the absolute world to me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and enjoy all the chapters (and stories) still to come. Thank you again.

All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and wonderful readers such as yourself. God bless)