REAPER IN RED

INTERLUDE 2: The Skin-Crawler

He coughed. It was a forceful one. One which felt like he was hacking up a lung, burning his throat on the way up and leaving him breathless and exceedingly tired. He had told his teammates that it was probably just some stomach bug that was making it's way around campus. As stomach bugs did. It was nothing worth worrying about, not when he had projects left to finish, reports left to write and a final mission left to plan for before graduation.

And yet, even with classes continuing as usual, he coughed. His head pounded and he could feel his heart beating erratically. Sometimes his arm or leg twitched without him meaning it to. Apparently the school was performing Crawler Checks. He didn't pay it too much attention, aside from noting the school alert on his phone. He took Laws Regarding Salemites 306 in third year; commonly and lovingly referred to as 'Hunter Law 101'. He knew all about the protocols for kingdoms that have a skin crawler infestation. He enjoyed learning about it because it involved a hell of a lot of fire. It matched well with his semblance.

He could use his nails as small matchstick-sized fires. Not the most flamboyant of semblances, but he liked it. Huh, it didn't seem to be working properly. Snapping his fingers and cracking his wrist. Then he tried again, a relieved smile on his face when he saw it finally working. The flames were smaller than usual, and colder. He could feel how much weaker the flames were.

But he thought nothing more of it. He had a stomach bug, that was all.

His hand flexed itself, rolling his wrist to give it an unpleasant crack, awkward tingling filled his arm. With his other hand, he massaged himself from elbow down to fingertip. He should probably go back to his team's room. Get some rest before this bug got any worse.

Before he could raise his hand to ask to leave class, he received a ping on his scroll. Ozpin was looking for him. Well, not really. It was finally his turn for the Crawler Check.

He raised his hand, pointing to his scroll once Professor Peach noticed him. With a nod, he excused himself from class and went to the headmaster's office.

The headmaster was there, obviously. But so was an external team. One of those teams which had long since graduated from Beacon or another hunstmen academy and chose to work for the Kingdom of Vale as an anti-crawler detail. Every kingdom had a few. His own team had been thinking of spending a few years in an anti-crawler detail post graduation. It was steady employment and looked great on future resumés.

"Please, have a seat." Ozpin smiled at him and gestured towards the single chair in the center of the room. He proceeded to, and relaxed into it.

"Now, do you understand why you are here?"

He nodded and rolled his eyes. Of course he knew what he was doing there. He wasn't the first person to go through a Crawler Check. His leg spasmed, locking up from toe all the way to his waist. He shut his eyes as pain rocketed up his leg. His chest was really hurting. As was his head. And neck really. He began to lightly rub it, hoping to alleviate some tension from it.

"Do you know what this machine is?"

He nodded once more, explaining what it was, when Ozpin told him to. It was an E.E.T. an Eye Examination Tool. While he didn't understand all the science behind it, he knew that it used focused lasers to get a clear picture inside a person's eye. Then, with some fancy math, it determined if the examined person was a skin crawler or not. It was accurate with 98.3% certainty. Usually three tests were given to eliminate that uncertainty as much as possible. Doing a little bit of research into the machine, he knew that a more advanced version was developed in Atlas with a 99.7% certainty. His eyes widened when Ozpin informed him that the machine in front of him was indeed that new version of the testing system.

It surprised him how similar it looked to the older model.

Then, a member of the anti-crawler detail informed him to get ready to take the eye test. he was probably the leader. And bored to have to run these tests to the entirety of Beacon's student and staff populations. Shrugging, he agreed to start the test, giving his arm one last rub in vane to remove the numbing pain in it.

He looked into the E.E.T., angering the anti-crawler detail leader by his fit of coughs. Apologizing, he steadied himself and looked back into the device. There was a bright flash, too quick for him to react in time and blink.

Ozpin and the detail leader looked at each other, faces grim.

"Try again," Ozpin ordered. Ozpin turned to him with a shrug, "these things are often 'finicky'. Please, try to remain absolutely still while the test is being performed."

He nodded and did just that.

Again, a flashing light and again, a missed blink.

And again, Ozpin and the detail leader looked at each other.

"This is 99.7% accurate."

"I know."

"And you know what must be done."

"I know."

"Would you like me to tell him?"

He looked between the both of them, when Ozpin shook his head. "No, there is no need to tell him anything. He's already dead."

His eyes widened. He knew what was going on. They thought he was a skin crawler. How could that be? He knew who he was. He was still himself, god dammit! He told them just as much. He shouted at them about it. He was still himself. It was just a stomach bug. He was perfectly fine. There wasn't anything wrong with-

He fumbled for his words as his throat constricted itself, his entire body held in painful spasms. Pain which could not be decreased by screaming. No, he had lost the ability to speak for himself. Like his own diaphragm and throat muscles were rejecting his brain's commands to yell. To move. To fight back against the huntsmen and headmaster in the room. What was going on with his own body?

"I am sorry. You were so close to graduation. And to die by a skin crawler? It is truly a great loss for Beacon and the world. At least he will know his death was avenged."

And then he was finally able to scream.

Because his body was engulfed in flame.

Gasp! A chapter under 2k words! Well, this chapter was filled with new things for this story. This will be the closest to an OC character this fic will have. This interlude was an addition to the story that I wrote after some incredible reviews from the last chapter. Why did I write it? because you were all curious about the skin crawler, and knowing where the rest of the arc is going, this question was only answered briefly. The skin crawler in the school issue was never one which had any real further importance to Ruby. So here we are, an interlude chapter told from the perspective of an unidentified student. Hope you enjoyed it.

That being said, as this was both an extra chapter and under 2k words, the actual chapter that I had written for this week will be uploaded on Thursday. So, another 2 chapter week! Hooray!