Last time, on...

REAPER IN RED

Chapter 39

It was passed midnight before Blake slinked back into our room and scurried into her bed. It was impressive how silent she was. I only noticed her because of the scuffles of her covers as she lay down to finally sleep, taking one last look at my bed before shutting her eyes.

I hope she was doing alright. It wasn't normal for her to be so alone. Well, maybe not her new normal. Since Beacon. Since we became friends.

It was ten minutes to two before I let myself out of bed, safe in the knowledge that all my friends were asleep. I wrote a quick note, saying that I was going for a midnight snack -a just in case precaution- and carefully opened the door.

I flinched at the squeak which shot through the room.

Yang rolled over in her bunk, a foot left dangling over the side. I breath out a silent sigh of relief. A quick look at Blake's head, to see her less than perked ears, letting me know she was still asleep. Weiss slept like the dead, so there was no worry there. Thank Salem.

I had no idea how Blake had managed to creep inside so quietly. It was definitely something I would have to learn eventually.

Scurrying out and into the brightly lit hallways, I walked slowly towards the stairwell, down the stairs, out the front door and into the dark, temperature-less, open air. I had waited long enough. It was time to start claiming my territory. Beacon was going to be mine.

The centermost point of Beacon Academy, as described in the book 'Beacon: A History' was the statue of the 'The True Huntsmen'. It was strange. I had passed by this statue hundreds of times, this monument to huntsmen and huntresses everywhere. Yet, I don't think I had ever stopped and actually spent time looking at it before then.

It was large. A stone slab carved to look like the edge of a cliff. Underneath it was a beowolf. Life-sized, though small. Likely young or middling aged. Nothing that a regular huntsman would have any trouble dealing with. Above it stood two people. In the front, standing higher along the cliff's edge was a man in armour, holding a two-handed great sword aloft in a single hand. The carving was expertly done. His smirk of triumph was quite visible on his face, though his eyes and where he had been staring at, had faded with time.

Behind him was a woman. Young, younger than the man for sure. She was covered in a long cloak, its hood drawn over her head, to block out most of her features. In the history book, it was said that she had once been carrying a double edged battle axe in her hands, but that it had chipped and crumbled a long time ago.

I squinted at the monument. Her hands were too far apart to have been holding a battle axe. It had to be something else. Something longer. A polearm maybe. I stepped closer to it, trying to get a better look. Maybe figure out the truth. I stepped over the low stone barrier that separated the monument from the central plaza. If it had been daytime, I would surely have gotten in trouble for trying to get so close to the very old statue.

"What were you holding?" I gasped, falling to my knees.

Oh sweet and heavenly Salem. Great and wondrous Salem, in all her wisdom and majesty. I couldn't tear my eyes from the statue. From the woman. The monument of the woman in her cloak.

A cloak that was so similar to my own.

Her hands spread apart as if to carry a polearm. A polearm such as a Reaper's scythe.

Hidden under her hood, a pale face, etched with lines reminiscent of bone. To anyone else, it would look like waterlines, where years or decades of rainwater carved out lines into the stone in their ceaseless path to the ground. But to one of us; to me, who has seen my own reflection in pools of water, there was no mistaking it.

Standing behind a triumphant huntsman, wasn't a huntress, but a Grim Reaper.

"This… it…" It didn't make any sense. I was speechless, a complete loss for words.

What was a Reaper doing here? Why was a Reaper in a statue? I had no doubt that that was what it was. There was no way it could be anything but. The woman was a Reaper. This school had a monument to a Salem-freaking Reaper.

"Salem save me," I muttered under my breath. My thoughts were all over the place. What did it mean? How did it relate to the Farmer's Daughter? The Hero's Daughter? Did it even relate? Was there something I was missing? Of course I was missing something, but what?! I almost screamed in frustration.

I wished Cinder was there. Maybe she knew the answer. Maybe she knew the truth behind it and could tell me. Maybe…

I shook my head. This was too confusing. It was playing with my mind, and I needed my full faculty with me if I was to do what I came here to do.

"The center of Beacon Academy." My voice was a dull whisper.

I almost switched into my Reaper guise without thinking, before stopping myself. No, this was to be done as is. As a human.

I closed my eyes, feeling the breeze around me. There was no heat in it, nor was there cool. Just a restless and aching calm passing through my hair. My ears. My fingertips.

I inhaled. My chest expanded to its fullest, then fell as I let go all of my air. All of the tension in my body. All the questions that I had moments ago. This wasn't a time for questions. Just answers. Just truth.

I pictured my friends. Blake came to me first. Her story was so much like mine. She was treated as a chimera for most of her life. A monster. And so she became one within her White Fang group. But she had opened up to me. She opened up to me first. And maybe I didn't realize at the time, but right now it meant so much to me. Maybe one day I could do the same.

My eyes jolted open and I swallowed my gasp.

Maybe one day I could do the same.

I'd never thought that before. I'd never allowed myself to think that before. It made me feel… Floaty.

It felt nice.

Then came Weiss. Then Jaune. Yang. Pyrrha, Nora, Ren.

All their faces floated into my mind as I tried my best to hold onto what humanity meant to me. It meant fun times. Laughter. New food. It meant learning new phrases and sarcasm. It meant my hair comb. It meant taking notes in class. Learning new things that I had never thought possible to learn. Finding out humanity's version of history. Of their truths and untruths. Reshaping the context of what I had learned in my younger youth. It was the good connections: my friends, as well as the bad. My mother, for inhuman as she was, was exactly the type of mother that I read about in human storybooks.

There was a tingling sensation running through my head all the way down to my fingertips. With a last semi-confident breath in, I expelled the air from my lungs and shot out waves of magic all around me.

Magic of the Grim Reaper only ever truly took one form. Shadow drifted and whirled from my fingertips, from the soles of my feet. From the edges of my red hooded cloak.

Out.

Out across the central plaza, through, in and around the buildings that made up Beacon's dormitories. Its classrooms. Its amphitheater. Gymnasium and training arena. The courtyard, the cafeteria, the library, the headmaster's office and CCT building. Out and out and out as far as I could possibly make it go.

Until I collapsed onto my butt, and then my back, lying down and breathing heavily. Sweat doted my brow and my hands felt clammy. Like wet chalk, but also simultaneously dry in the worst way possible. I felt… spent. Completely out of magic, though the buzzing and tingling in my head told me that it was still working. I was tired, but confident.

This was good. It was done. I could feel the extent of my magic, and it was quite far. I closed my eyes, trying to sense anything in the area that would soon become my territory. But, nothing. I could only feel movement, life, at the very edges of my magic. There were woodland creatures in one direction. I had reached as far as the forest surrounding the academy. I felt a chimera. A rather large one, with only a handful of years left in its natural lifespan. It slowly meandered through the brush, leaving large footprints in its wake. Utterly calm and at peace with its surroundings, even as a faery slept on its back.

This was good. I felt good.

No, not good. I yawned a deep and lengthy yawn. I was tired. Exhausted even. Huh, it's been a while since I felt this tired. Before the break at least. Forcing out all my magic was making me sleepy. The tingle in my head told me everything was still going well. Getting myself up and off the likely cold and definitely hard ground, I took a tentative step forward, seeing if my boundaries shifted with me.

They didn't budge.

I took another step, hoping, praying to Salem that the first step hadn't been a fluke.

It wasn't.

I took another, and another, then another. Each step took me further and further away from my starting point. The monument was claimed the center of Beacon Academy. Yet, my range did not change. My boundary did not change position to follow me. As long as I kept my magic at its furthest extent, it would not hold me as the epicenter. I was free to walk, to move around without fear of losing the extent of my hopeful territory.

This was good. Great even. All I could really feel at that instance was a huge desire to lay down on my pillow and sleep for as long as my teammates -Weiss- allowed me.

It was very dark outside. Had it been this dark before? Or were my eyelids just super droopy right now that it only felt like it was darker. I stretched out and let out a deep yawn.

I scratched at my back, trying to reach the itchy upper middle portion that I could never quite reach.

"Is someone playing loud music?" I thought out loud, checking to try and see where said music was coming from. I didn't remember hearing it before. I shrugged. Maybe I was just too preoccupied to notice.

Either way, it sounded really good. Sweet and melodic. I picked up the tune, humming along as I returned to the dorm building, a happy but tired skip in my step. It was a quick path back to my building. Completely empty of anyone and everything. It almost reminded me of an earlier late night walk of mine.

"I wonder what ever happened to that vampire? What was his name again, Metal? Mango? Mer-something? Eh, whatever. I just hope he's doing okay." My musings almost led me face first into the dormitory front door.

Slipping back inside and scurrying up the stairs, I was back in front of my room, once more wishing that I had the sneaking abilities of Blake. "She really needs to teach me her sneaky ways," I whispered before slowly opening the door, wincing at every squeak and groan from the aging bolts.

Phasing is so much easier. No noise, no problems. Well, the darkening everything around you and possibly some wispy shadows, but no loud annoying, obnoxious noises! Ugh, it was time for bed, and I was sleepy.

I climbed up into bed, enjoying the rocking sensation as a swung into it. I opened up my notebook and flipped to my steps for how to claim a territory. Beside step one, I put a nice and giant checkmark, smiling all the while. Accomplishing things felt really, really good.

Now for the hard part. The waiting.

Dragonqueen1993 - The carrot shall be eaten soon. Maybe. Or maybe I will save that for book two. Who knows? :)

lasereye27 - *shrugs* or maybe she is dealing with something else. Here's to hoping I write an interlude about it sometime soon instead of dragging it out for 20 chapters.

JackTheSpades - So, to answer your questions. About Blake: Maybe. Things are definitely different than canon. About Cinder: I sorta explained what will happen with Cinder earlier on, back in the Cinder chapter, so that should give you an idea of what will happen. More so, the reason I chose to use Cinder of someone like Maria was twofold. One, Cinder works for Salem in canon and in this story, Cinder technically shares the same species as Salem, so that fits. And two, if I used Maria, then I am stuck using a master/mentor/(grand)mother figure. Let me ask you a question, is Cinder Ruby's mentor? Or is she an antagonist in this story? There is 100% no chances of retcon happening here.

Cun - Hopefully I can soon change that to "god dammit Ruby, you are so brave and smart and cute and you pay such good attention!" ... probably not. :P

firewyrm2 - There is a reason for that.

Alucard45 - It's really not a prank, but it is based on something that happened at my university a few years back with a rat. Some people have strange senses of humour.

Dragon Lord Draco - Thank you very much! *takes a bow*

ThisisTori - Ya, Maria will likely not even be showing up in this story (based on what I have planned out right now). if she does, she'll probably be a Reaper's Reaper (someone who is famed for hunting Reapers, rather than being a Grim Reaper herself)

Face Yourself - Thank you! I do tend to focus a little less on Grimm than the other creatures I'm throwing in, but hopefully I am touching enough on them to keep them relevant to the story.

FN75 - Spoilers. ;)

Kayden - Spoilers!~