Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

It wouldn't have been noticeable for most, but there were subtle cues that her words had gotten to Sienna. How much they had, and in what way, Tock couldn't say with certainty. She did have a gut feeling though, given that Sienna hadn't lashed out in response to her increasingly aggressive demands...as well as the fact that Khan had traded up using her real name in favor of her current alias. The tiger faunus had explained it away logically, declaring that she was more useful alive than otherwise...but Tock suspected that usefulness had little to do with it. That it wasn't cold pragmatism that stayed Sienna's hand, but heated emotions hidden away under that detached, aloof demeanor. The croc would have put money on that, were anyone betting.

"I suppose we will." Those were the only words Tock said in response as her eyes tracked Sienna until the high leader went through the door and out of sight. At that point she sighed and rose from the chair, instantly making a beeline for the bed in the room and dropping back first onto it with her arms folded behind her head. Way more comfortable than the cell and in addition...an escape would be easy. If they needed the help, Ray could just whip open her thing and pull her through in the blink of an eye. Boom, done.

Until then?

Tock had no problem with arguing with her ex and having a few entertaining daydreams of the same faunus. Like the one playing out right now.

Bear did a very good pillar impression from where he was, still by the door inside.

 

[Gus Gungus]

Raven's eyes shot fully open as she concentrated far more fiercely.

...CHOKING TO DEATH IN SOME FUCKING CLOAK!

A far more intense explosion of fire and wind radiated around her to burn it completely away, and facilitate her proper escape from that hell. Perhaps it was overkill but she frankly didn't give a damn. Once freed and after retrieving her weapon and taking the necessary heavy breaths...

And then for the moment abandoned any attempts at striking back entirely, for it was all she could do to avoid any of those out-of-control errant slices of those two weapons. "You...you're completely insane!" The woman hardly seemed to care that she was cutting herself too! Raven leaped back to put some more distance between them, sheathing Omen mid-jump and yanking it back out once she landed, this time with a light blue blade attached to the hilt. She lunged back into the fray then, equal parts blocking any strikes and trying to dish out some of her own in an attempt to use the ice dust in her blade to freeze Maria further.

The Branwen twins started walking/being dragged along to the still open portal and went through it, ending up back near the airship where Ruby was still waiting. The portal closed behind them. When she saw her uncle, the young huntress instantly leapt to her feet and took hold of him from the opposite side. "What's going on???" She asked in a panic.

"Don't think about that. Just shut up!" Raven ordered in a stern voice that betrayed some of her own panicked worry she couldn't deny no matter how hard she tried. The two carefully lowered Qrow to the ground. A gloved hand heated up by fiery magic pressed against the neck wound, just hot enough to cauterize it before pulling back.

"REAPER NOAAAAAAIIIIIIIII𝕊𝕂ℝ𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼𝔼-"

The piercing, hollow, awful wail that absolutely raked at the bandit's ears for the entire span from her burning through the cloak up to when the portal shut behind her was a sound that could've stopped the most driven and determined of huntsman/huntress careers dead in their tracks, convinced those involved to pack it in, go home, hang their weapon above the fireplace as a quaint little conversation piece and open up a bakery or something. It was horrible, unnatural, the kind of thing sailors heard on the edge of their senses when they passed through the most uncharted of seas in the dead of night, rattling distantly through the fog as they hoped and prayed that haunting cry never drew nearer, knowing full well their fate if it did.

It wasn't animal. No animal on Remnant or anywhere else had ever made a sound vaguely reminiscent of that. It served as good of a reminder as any that the lifeform known as Grimm was not a predatory species, not something that had originated on Remnant or fit into its ecosystem in any way. It was hostile, terrestrial, invasive darkness, something truly abstract and indefinable that humanity would perhaps never fully understand. Perhaps it didn't want to.

From what little the otherworldly spring maiden saw out of the corner of her eye before she stepped through the portal, the shadowy mass of inhuman twists and convulsions the creature known as the Grimm Reaper had turned into since Raven burned up its living cloak, it was definitely for the better that she didn't turn around. A heartbeat before the portal closed and cut off that terrible noise for the moment, something shot through and was severed at the stem as it fully shut; which did absolutely nothing to stop it from darting towards Raven like a leech through water and trying to latch onto her face, looking like a swollen black Grimm claw from Ruby's perspective.

From Raven's it was quite a bit different, as where the palm should've been a red glowing maw had slowly parted to illuminate rows and rows of teeth, and as they snarled and tried to leverage her further and further into biting range Raven felt a sensation reminiscent of when Cinder tried to drain her with her Grimm arm.

And then for the moment abandoned any attempts at striking back entirely, for it was all she could do to avoid any of those out-of-control errant slices of those two weapons. "You...you're completely insane!" The woman hardly seemed to care that she was cutting herself too! Raven leaped back to put some more distance between them, sheathing Omen mid-jump and yanking it back out once she landed, this time with a light blue blade attached to the hilt. She lunged back into the fray then, equal parts blocking any strikes and trying to dish out some of her own in an attempt to use the ice dust in her blade to freeze Maria further.

The unfortunate part to all this was that the Raven of more conventional huntress ability was left to face the threat on her own, and with the portal closed and her maiden counterpart's eternal light source elsewhere visibility inside the base settled back to a pitch-black zero. The last thing she recalled seeing before the portal's glow dimmed was truly indescribable, stretching and curling for the red doorway like a cancer in the air, so it was both blessing and curse that she closed the portal and spared herself a fuller glimpse of it.

The emphasis on the 'curse' part weighed heavier and heavier on her shoulders as she heard the sundering of flesh and a spray of ice chips from the spot where Maria had been frozen, and when she drew close enough for her blade's faint glow to illuminate the ice block she saw nothing.

Nothing until she looked inside the ice, that was, where the lower half of Maria's body was still frozen solid, though how long that stood for remained to be seen with the block shuddering so violently and tiny cracks starting to appear throughout the structure.

Everything above what should've been the woman's midriff was missing, but there wasn't a bone or organ in sight as shadows leaked from the point of separation in strangely dense curls of mist, and Raven's ears rumbled with the bass of a low, threatening growl from the shadow around her.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Bear did a very good pillar impression from where he was, still by the door inside.

Oh right, he was here. In the heat of the moment she had forgotten. "...Do ya do room service?" : |​

 

[Indolent]

His last words rung out harsher than he would have liked, though there were traces of sincerity within them. Hazel understood the diminutive girl's lashing out as an extension of the turmoil that had to be a roiling chaos inside with the loss of her singular vocal connection to the world. Which was why the following that transpired went without a retaliation of any kind, the big man electing to stop the infighting before it worsened. Matters weren't helped with her team leader playing whack a maiden with his bop-a-sthetic legs.

So Hush's arc didn't stop in the slightest, and it gouged into Hazel's aura with enough force that Neo could use it as leverage to vault herself upwards into a spinning kick to the side of her biggest friend's head, pushing off of it with seemingly no concern towards being disarmed to launch herself straight at Vernal-

Even with all that in mind, the kick was a very excellent reminder that despite her tinkerbell frame, there was power in these limbs. Pain an ever-present non-issue, the impact was still jarring, his eyes swaying within their sockets as Hazel jostled to the left with a quiet grunt. With the singular shake of the head, he would taken his one and only step in pursue--

...those attacks came in. In contrary to what might have been expected, Vernal didn't make any attempt to fight back. Not with her weapons, or her fists or even her magic. By the time the fifth or sixth kick hit with her aura being chipped away with each blow, she accepted that there was only one way this would end. Those blue eyes shifted over with an inscrutable look aimed at Cinder's golden one. Before any more kicks could lash out, phantom or real, the fall maiden witnessed those eyes briefly flicker into a dark black, sclera and iris and pupil all. Cinder didn't see the blue color return, as in an instant her own vision went completely dark. As did everybody else's currently in the camp. They were all rendered blind, as if someone had just flipped a figurative switch for their eyesight to off.

In the next moment, there was a sudden explosive gust of wind that pushed the actual Mercury back and rippled through the air for the rest, rustling their clothes. A second even stronger rush of wind followed, though the sound of it got more and more distant with each second and the rough feeling in the air itself did likewise, leveling out until it was little more than a gentle breeze coursing through the camp.

Only for the world to go dark, causing him to stumble as his brain attempted to and fumbled the interpretation of what he wasn't seeing anymore, his body reacting to the ground as if it been a step a bit too far and deep. The shock combined with the fading impact the kick comingled with the blast of wind to make the entire affair worse yet for Hazel as he crashlanded hard, his jaw slack as he tried to register even more of what just happened. He ascertained it must have been Vernal and the second set of sound came as a confirmation... those two minutes followed with him casting a hand around with a calmness unfitting of the situation. He could tell Mercury and Emerald were fine by their antics, moving away from their source as he tried to eke out his teammates.

He might as well have been miles off. When his eyesight returned, he dreaded the coming.

She had gotten back to her feet at this point, her walk carrying her back over to the group. She directed a sad glare over to Mercury and Neo before her head shook slightly and she did her best to put them out of her mind to focus on Arthur. One hand reached out to press against all the ice encasing him, the fiery touch soon enough melting it all away. "You okay?" She asked when he could respond, her eye mostly dull and muted and dreary as she looked at him. Nothing like the bright and vivid gold that it usually seemed to be. “And what do we do now?”

Watts gasped for hair as the ice came off his head, and he slowly sat up with a wince and a dark glare towards Neo as Cinder helped him. It... wasn't a glare he could hold as he saw the state she was in, and meeting Cinder's eyes wasn't any easier when she looked like that. Not with what he was about to say. He sighed and clasped his hands together loosely across his knees, instead choosing to stare off into space as he answered his partner's question, the events of today, of a week ago, and of Beacon still painfully fresh in his mind

"Now? Now that's it, Cinder. Now we're done. We go home."

it was a grim declaration, but a firm one.

"...Home? You mean...just go back to Beacon?" Cinder questioned, some life drifting back into her eye, if only out of confusion. She was not sure exactly what he was trying to say. Why would they go back there, now of all times?​

"He means it's over, Cinder."

Tyrian's tail drooped.

"WTCH is done."
​

In an instant, his heart broke. He knew it was coming, the conversation he had with Tyrian, the silent, smoldering ruminations of Watts's. Mere days weren't enough to come to terms with the reality of it, not that he ever had a choice. It was etched in stone, the decision made in final by their leader no more. In a year's time Team WTCH had become a part of him. A core element to his identity, it was difficult seeing the future without their being in it. Especially when he had no other avenue to traverse without them, the futility of staving off the thoughts of having to venture down a path without his friends setting in. It was something he railed against internally, something he dared not mention in the open around his friends given there were more dire matters at hand. But he couldn't hold that against them, the underlying rationale for Watt's decision and Tyrian's difficulty with the prior atop of his own convictions in ferreting out a murderer. The whole of it, a monumental ordeal more than the heroic journey it was, beyond the ken of students wet behind the ears. No onslaught of inundating optimism was enough to change that, and every little negative thought or emotion occurred to them all in some capacity, with their own takes on it all coalescing into this situation now. So his heart more than broke, it was sundered nearly in half. He understood that their bonds would never vanish completely, a memento to their time and experiences together, but it wasn't the same. It'd never be again without impossible effort.

So outwardly persisted the ever stoic facade that was mountain man Hazel Rainart but internally, the mental image subtly shifted from that to a frame of meager proportions, hunched over with his wrists rubbing against geysers where eyes should be amid pitched sniffling.

Well he wasn't going to do that because he wasn't a broken with grief teenager or general lunatic.

Also Neo stole his gun

But nor was we willing to just accept that answer with a nod and a wave goodbye in the slightest, and he marched right after her to continue using his other favored weapon instead. "Screw whatever duty you think you have Cinder and look at the facts!" he yelled after her as she tried to walk away. "We are in over our heads! ONE year at Beacon wasn't enough, and frankly its become painfully clear to me that a hundred years more wouldn't make that much of a difference! Vernal could have wiped us out of EXISTENCE WITH A WAVE OF HER HAND JUST NOW!"

He picked up the pace to put himself ahead of her and jammed a finger into her chest with a glare. "And maybe all that just made you think that is that we're dead weight. That you're leaving because we're not good enough for the high and mighty fall maiden to consort with anymore, that you just have a height to apsire to that we can't reach. But even if WTCH is done, I still have a responsibility to keep you safe. Do you know why?" He said, the volume getting dangerously low for just a brief moment.

"BECAUSE YOU ARE STILL A FUCKING CHILD!"

His breathe came out in heaves after he yelled, his glare firm and stance just as steadfast as a knight of old as he kept in front of her. "...And I will not stand by as you throw your life away. Not for some fanciful dreams of being a hero when its already gotten one of us killed with nothing to show for it. I would never forgive myself. So if you think so little of my opinion, then you're going to have to go through this dead weight."

"Yeah, maybe she could have, but she didn't. And facts? You're the one not looking at the facts, Arthur. I'm a maiden, just like she is. If I learn enough, practice enough, improve enough...it won't take one hundred years for me to be as good as her, if not better." She pointed out.



That bitter empty look in her eye broke at least a small amount when he poked her with his finger and threw those words at her. "That's...that's not true. Don't you see? We all failed...if any of us is dead weight...then we all are. I'm no better than you. We're all on the same level, none of us were ready. Not for any of it. But that's exactly why I have to do this! Don't YOU GET IT?! I can't be weak! I HAVE TO GET STRONGER. MORE THAN ANY OF YOU, I HAVE TO!" She yelled, some fire returning to her eye.

"I WANT TO, I NEED TO, AND THE WORLD NEEDS ME TO!"

"I WON'T BE A CHILD FOREVER, ARTHUR!"

A few tears edged out of the corner of her eye as she yelled that, but they didn't make it down her face before they were evaporated by the sheer overwhelming heat radiating off her in invisible waves.



"............" She looked pained at the very idea of her thinking little of his opinion, but she didn't relent. She couldn't. Her fists stayed at her sides, and no move was made to grab her weapon or lash out with a kick or any attack like that. That was also something she couldn't do. Not now, not ever. Cinder tore her gaze away from him, looking sadly over to the dirt covered ground off to the side. "No. I don't." She whispered in apology.

Bursts of fire shot out of her boots and rapidly lifted her into the air, revealing to all watching that at least she had learned to get a good handle on flight. From there she just shot off, soaring as fast as she could away from them, eyes firmly shut for a while as she did her best to stave off all the tears she could feel coming. This was already hard enough, letting him go off any further...it would hurt even more. She was already at incredible levels of hurt, more than she had ever imagined possible for pain to reach. If she didn't get away, she...it was a certainty that she would have broken down completely.

Only when she was a good distance away did she stop in the air, turning back to look. "I'm...sorry." Then she adjusted her course, going not for the open sky but into the forest surrounding them, disappearing into that mess of trees and leaves.​

He witnessed the whole of that exchange without a single word uttered, absorbing the feelings of the two former teammates. On one hand, Hazel appreciated Watts's sense of responsibility and duty that persisted even with the disbanding of Team WTCH, his insistence that their part in all this was done with Cinder more so on account of her age. On the other, it was incredibly patronizing and somewhat insulting. They weren't fully fledged adults themselves just yet, assuming that was applicable to insinuate they weren't adults given their line of work, and the two year difference between themselves and Cinder was a negligible one when one considered that she stood apart from her peers at a similar age in many respects. Especially when she took upon the mantle of the maiden without a second thought. In other words, there was absolutely no reason to even insist that she stand down and return home or whatever else presented itself. Her counterpoint made was more than valid, it was a truth and try as much as she might to avert the responsibilities foisted upon her, the world seemed to have a way of placing you where you needed to be. Which was why his features softened, his mouth parting open as his left subconsciously reached out. Not in a bid to dissuade the Fall Maiden from leaving, to coerce her into something else but a gesture that spoke volumes more than he could ever. He wanted to hug Cinder, proffer words laden with encouragement and hopeful material, to say farewell and that he'll see her once more. He knew the last was probable in any case but it hurt not being able to say it. The half-hearted wave of the hand did not suffice him whatsoever. It was a whisper of the words "take care of yourself" that fled his lips, easily lost on the breeze.

Furthermore, Watts had another thing coming if he thought he could insist Hazel to give up the mission. There was nothing else, no home to return to, no Beacon to come back to, the world might as well be on flames and the last thing he'd do was turn his back on it.

"You might be done, Arthur. Might not be, you might go after Cinder, I don't know. All I know is I'm not. I'm over in my head here but the mission is all I have. Without Team WTCH, I have nothing else but this. I can't stand by and let others fill in my stead. I refuse to let that happen, it simply isn't right. It's not a fair shake, all of this, but it never has been for the huntsmen of past working against Ozpin."

Turning away from Watts, his words flowed still, "My goal is to find Cinder safe and figure out a solution to all this. From there... I don't know. We need to link back with the others." He wouldn't have dared to mention Atlas and if they were parting ways here, he felt obliged to share his makeshift agenda with Watts. Even at the risk of his sharp words. He glanced to the scorpion faunus, his eyes tinged with regret as one corner of his mouth was quirked in apologetic uncertainty.

"Tyrian. I know I promised I'd help you. I'm sorry but this takes priority... if I can help, I will but until then." As contrite as the Mistralian seemed, the tone of his words cemented them as a finality. With all that said, he stepped away from what used to be his team, his trajectory bearing for the remnants of Team MTEN. In spite of everything he outlined, he wasn't set to move on the self-ordained mission just yet; he wouldn't leave without ensuring, at least for himself, that the others were well. Well enough in a sense, he knew Neo was anything but copacetic.

Despite the fact they all came together but you know what I meaaaaaaaan

Brosel, for his part, disappeared.

 

[Indolent]

As much as an outdoors-woman as she was, there as one thing she never could quite come to like. She could tolerate it but it was not the same as enjoying herself. That was, roosting in the branches of a tree with, the whole thing uncomfortable as can be. It didn't help that one of the obnoxious goldfinches discovered her by accident and took to perching a few feet off, bright yellow plumage visible through the green boughs above as it leered from above.

<< FANCY SEEING YOU HERE >>

God, she wished Brosel was here to terrify these things. Gretchen turned her gaze onto the bandit camp from her position overlooking the walls, Dearth chambered with pertinent dust rounds the huntress thought would make for excellent utility in disabling a maiden if need be.

It was a whirlwind of events she saw, the little Neo and her team mounting an attack on Vernal after the two teams went in to retrieve Cinder. She was beyond flabbergasted, under the mistaken impression that everything was square on all fronts and they were just extricating Cinder from a hairy situation. Gretchen managed to discover new depths of confusion she never thought was possible when Vernal blinded the lot of them, the maiden vamoosing at the end. Atop of everything else.

"??? What's happening-- what are you doing Hazel??? MTEN??? Oh my god, Watts. Holy frickin crap. What is even happening?"

<< YOUR FRIENDS LOST THEIR MARBLES >>

"Shut up, you gilded turd!" Gretchen cried out in annoyance as she deftly swung off her perch, alighting on the ground with a gentle drop in a kneeling position as she gazed for the way in. A frantic blur of brown overcame her and in an instant, Brosel emerged from the scarf with the faraway gaze of a battle-hardened veteran, a soft murmuring rising from his mouth. The whole thing smacked of urgency, Gretchen making a beeline for inside just in time to witness, well, the whole of that unpleasant exchange.

"Guys, what the hell happened?!" Her words came infused with frenetic energy, bordering on a shriek as she padded upwards towards Watts and Tyrian as her brother disembarked, her expression expectant of answers.

"Did you all actually lose your marbles, please don't tell me the bird's right."

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Eve Taurus. The prodigal daughter returns."

the even clangs of the gate being raised heralded her arrival before the words did. Sienna stood in front of Eve's cell with her arms clasped behind her back, and whatever iotas of warmth Tock had managed to drag up from her heart had been firmly stamped out by the time she'd made it down to this meeting; her gaze was hard as stone as she studied the bull faunus, lips curled into a tight frown.

"You've come a long way just to die. Your past service to the cause is the only reason you still breathe, but it is only a stay of execution, not a pardon. You have to know that after Beacon and Haven, I can't let you live."

Eve was sitting in the corner when Sienna entered, knees drawn to her chest and thumb picking at the fingernails on one hand as she spent her time waiting in a gloomy, sullen silence. She reacted little save to slowly lift her head, her own taut features doing a better job concealing how she felt to Sienna's eyes than either the mask she wore or the darkness in the corner of the cell as she stared at her inscrutably during her address, making no motion to rise or even move until she was done.

When she was, her movements were slow and deliberate as she stretched out all the way to her full height with a prolonged, self-indulgent yawn, keeping her eyes very calmly locked on Sienna as she allowed herself this minor petty vengeance for making her wait this long in the corner of some wretched cage, and when she was finally done she cracked out her neck with a sniff.

"Maybe I did come here to die. Your call. Either way, now that you're finally here I'm saying what I came to say."

Sienna may have felt a strange, instinctual affinity with Eve in that moment as she stalked forward from the back of the cell, looking far more caged tiger than bull in the poise and measure of her step as she moved right up to the cell's threshold to stand face to face with the Shadow Fang's revered leader. She held that stare for a few tense, uncertain moments, body language a closed book in regards to whether the bull faunus intended to make a grab for her, belittle her, or simply deliver some heartfelt missive about how wrong and hypocritical she was about everything as if she were misinformed or could still be enlightened. In light of who she was talking to, and her recent interactions with faunus who opposed her, any of them would've been more than fair of her to expect.

What ended up transpiring was none of them, and frankly way more surprising than all of them put together as Eve instead dropped to one knee, rested the weight of her arm across the other, and bowed her head with eyes on the floor at Sienna's feet.

"I come seeking penitence. To beg forgiveness for my past transgressions, and ask that I be allowed back to the fold to redeem myself in your eyes... High Leader Sienna."

One shuddered to contemplate the audacity, the sheer uninhibited nerve required of a single living organism to make a statement like that, coming here the way she did, after everything that had come before. But speak it she did, and any irony or absurdity to the situation seemed completely and utterly lost to her as she awaited Sienna's answer with an uncharacteristic quiet timidity.​

 

[Indolent]

As for Emerald, it seemed like the decisions unilaterally fell to her and it was within the hour she secured a car for herself through a leasing agency under a false name with unverifiable data. A feat made possible through the combination of her semblance to fool the minimum wage clerk working the desk with Neo's semblance transforming Emerald into the very paragon of maternal warmth and friendliness. Think your grandma who means nothing but well for whomever crossed her path and always seemed to have a horde of hard candies within her tiny purse, proffering these to whomever passed her by complete with a gratingly sweet compliment. Truly, the kind of person nobody would suspect of gleefully subjecting a person's mind to untold horrors while being robbed of their possessions at the same time.

It was incredibly exhausting for Emerald to display faux kindness, in every sense. But it was well worth it.

Oh, the lien she appropriated wasn't used for that after all. It was used for filling the trunk up with snacks of all kind, even a cooler that had a carton of neapolitan ice cream that Neo hadn't seen just yet. She did love her overplayed jokes.

"I'd make you drive after doing all this but I don't think your legs can reach the pedal. Let's blow this joint already. When we reach the outskirts... drop the lame grandma skit, I'm starting to feel old. Maybe that's just the stress. We're heading south for the Fall Maiden and her three stooges."

She then leveled a blood-curdling stare as she spoke in a low tone, which contrasted fiercely with her current disguise.

"And do not touch my funyuns."

Off they went, on their bogus adventure down south.

 

[MyrtenRose]

From what little the otherworldly spring maiden saw out of the corner of her eye before she stepped through the portal, the shadowy mass of inhuman twists and convulsions the creature known as the Grimm Reaper had turned into since Raven burned up its living cloak, it was definitely for the better that she didn't turn around. A heartbeat before the portal closed and cut off that terrible noise for the moment, something shot through and was severed at the stem as it fully shut; which did absolutely nothing to stop it from darting towards Raven like a leech through water and trying to latch onto her face, looking like a swollen black Grimm claw from Ruby's perspective.

From Raven's it was quite a bit different, as where the palm should've been a red glowing maw had slowly parted to illuminate rows and rows of teeth, and as they snarled and tried to leverage her further and further into biting range Raven felt a sensation reminiscent of when Cinder tried to drain her with her Grimm arm.

...Of all the times for this hellspawn to make a rush for her face, it was in the very brief period she didn't have her helmet on. That was just her luck...Raven squinted downwards even as both her hands held the small severed monstrosity back. Or perhaps not her luck. One thing was clear, though. Raven could not hold on to this thing for long, already she could feel the magic of the maiden getting sapped away from her, bit by bit. She gritted her teeth together and then let out a fierce howl as she pushed back with all her strength, getting ready to attempt to chuck it into the ocean nearby--

That was when her own blade came straight down in a thrust to spear right through the thing and ended with Omen embedded into the ground, courtesy of Ruby. And then...

The unfortunate part to all this was that the Raven of more conventional huntress ability was left to face the threat on her own, and with the portal closed and her maiden counterpart's eternal light source elsewhere visibility inside the base settled back to a pitch-black zero. The last thing she recalled seeing before the portal's glow dimmed was truly indescribable, stretching and curling for the red doorway like a cancer in the air, so it was both blessing and curse that she closed the portal and spared herself a fuller glimpse of it.

The emphasis on the 'curse' part weighed heavier and heavier on her shoulders as she heard the sundering of flesh and a spray of ice chips from the spot where Maria had been frozen, and when she drew close enough for her blade's faint glow to illuminate the ice block she saw nothing.

Nothing until she looked inside the ice, that was, where the lower half of Maria's body was still frozen solid, though how long that stood for remained to be seen with the block shuddering so violently and tiny cracks starting to appear throughout the structure.

Everything above what should've been the woman's midriff was missing, but there wasn't a bone or organ in sight as shadows leaked from the point of separation in strangely dense curls of mist, and Raven's ears rumbled with the bass of a low, threatening growl from the shadow around her.

Yeah. Right here, right in this moment...this Raven desperately wished she could go jump back in time and smack anybody who said or even so much as thought that the opening of communications with people in Mantle would be the easy part. Despite her more fearless nature in comparison to the courage of her counterpart, in this situation...alone, in a nearly complete darkness only lit up by the faint glow from Omen, with the nightmarish beast somewhere in all this...yeah, that was sufficient to put her on edge. And that was before she even stumbled upon the ice that indicated where the stranger had been frozen. Or rather, where a part of the stranger had been, considering on closer inspection a large portion of the stranger was still frozen. That sight, in addition to the growl that seemed to echo out from everywhere...

It was enough to make even her quiver in fear. Were Vernal here she probably would have died of fright upon realizing such monstrosities could and actually did exist, beyond mere illusions.

It was her turn to run, using both the faint light of her sword and her short term memory of where the door was, having scanned the room when she had entered the fray. If she managed to scurry out, she immediately took a left, rushing as fast as she could and swinging her blade forward to open a portal for a timely retreat. She less ran through and more DIVED through it, and she could hardly have closed it any faster once she was free. She beyond desperately hoped that the speed was enough to keep any of whatever that was from coming through with her.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

It was her turn to run, using both the faint light of her sword and her short term memory of where the door was, having scanned the room when she had entered the fray. If she managed to scurry out, she immediately took a left, rushing as fast as she could and swinging her blade forward to open a portal for a timely retreat. She less ran through and more DIVED through it, and she could hardly have closed it any faster once she was free. She beyond desperately hoped that the speed was enough to keep any of whatever that was from coming through with her.

She was hardly a foot through the door when her legs collided with a very small, very solid object, and if not for the affronted grunt it made she never would've been any the wiser that it was a person that tripped her as they both tumbled over in a heap. A scroll flashlight near blinded the huntress in the darkness as it flickered on, but it was nothing compared to the glare of pure officious might she could barely make out behind it as a bullish voice exploded from the darkness.

"That's right! I, CAROLINE CORDOVIN, have decided to remain true to my soldierly duty and help after all!!!!" She thundered, unaware the two had never actually met. Something at the back of Raven's mind screamed as the low, constant growl moved back into auditory range, though it was more a gurgle at this point.

​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Eve was sitting in the corner when Sienna entered, knees drawn to her chest and thumb picking at the fingernails on one hand as she spent her time waiting in a gloomy, sullen silence. She reacted little save to slowly lift her head, her own taut features doing a better job concealing how she felt to Sienna's eyes than either the mask she wore or the darkness in the corner of the cell as she stared at her inscrutably during her address, making no motion to rise or even move until she was done.

When she was, her movements were slow and deliberate as she stretched out all the way to her full height with a prolonged, self-indulgent yawn, keeping her eyes very calmly locked on Sienna as she allowed herself this minor petty vengeance for making her wait this long in the corner of some wretched cage, and when she was finally done she cracked out her neck with a sniff.

"Maybe I did come here to die. Your call. Either way, now that you're finally here I'm saying what I came to say."

Sienna may have felt a strange, instinctual affinity with Eve in that moment as she stalked forward from the back of the cell, looking far more caged tiger than bull in the poise and measure of her step as she moved right up to the cell's threshold to stand face to face with the Shadow Fang's revered leader. She held that stare for a few tense, uncertain moments, body language a closed book in regards to whether the bull faunus intended to make a grab for her, belittle her, or simply deliver some heartfelt missive about how wrong and hypocritical she was about everything as if she were misinformed or could still be enlightened. In light of who she was talking to, and her recent interactions with faunus who opposed her, any of them would've been more than fair of her to expect.

What ended up transpiring was none of them, and frankly way more surprising than all of them put together as Eve instead dropped to one knee, rested the weight of her arm across the other, and bowed her head with eyes on the floor at Sienna's feet.

"I come seeking penitence. To beg forgiveness for my past transgressions, and ask that I be allowed back to the fold to redeem myself in your eyes... High Leader Sienna."

One shuddered to contemplate the audacity, the sheer uninhibited nerve required of a single living organism to make a statement like that, coming here the way she did, after everything that had come before. But speak it she did, and any irony or absurdity to the situation seemed completely and utterly lost to her as she awaited Sienna's answer with an uncharacteristic quiet timidity.​

"...what?"

Sienna's eyes narrowed into slits, the audacity of the statement not so much making her regal aura crack as much as it sharpened its edges to a razor's edge. Despite that, her tone didn't yet change.

"...I could forgive you leaving, Eve. I could even forgive the split of the Fang; there wasn't even anything to forgive. The nature of The Fight is that you can only truly be in it if your resolve is fully hardened, and even then it is bloody work. but..."

Then did her words begin to sharpen

"...that was before you brought the White Fang down us, pitting sister against sister in defense of the humans. Death, on both sides, and you yourself drawing blood. This was a fight you were willing to kill for, and to die for, all to get in my way. So tell me Eve; what changed?" She asked, her tone levelling out.

"What has the White Fang's former champion on her knees before the woman she clearly wanted dead a month ago? Why should I believe for a second that Eve Taurus has changed her immutable convictions?"

 

[MyrtenRose]

She was hardly a foot through the door when her legs collided with a very small, very solid object, and if not for the affronted grunt it made she never would've been any the wiser that it was a person that tripped her as they both tumbled over in a heap. A scroll flashlight near blinded the huntress in the darkness as it flickered on, but it was nothing compared to the glare of pure officious might she could barely make out behind it as a bullish voice exploded from the darkness.

"That's right! I, CAROLINE CORDOVIN, have decided to remain true to my soldierly duty and help after all!!!!" She thundered, unaware the two had never actually met. Something at the back of Raven's mind screamed as the low, constant growl moved back into auditory range, though it was more a gurgle at this point.

​

"GOOD FOR YOU!"

Raven shouted, flinching at the brightness of the light and sure that she'd be seeing spots for a while. If the tiny person hadn't helpfully introduced herself in the middle of that declaration, she would have had no idea who this person was, beyond being a soldier in the Atlesian military. Not that she much cared about that in this situation. The huntress swiftly scrambled back to her feet and with the same zero regard for politeness as her counterpart, she grabbed hold of Cordovin by the hair(though it was not meant to be disrespectful by any means and more an attempt to save her life) and took off further down the hall to gain some distance and try again for a portal to throw the diminutive Cordovin into it and then dive through herself.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"...what?"

Sienna's eyes narrowed into slits, the audacity of the statement not so much making her regal aura crack as much as it sharpened its edges to a razor's edge. Despite that, her tone didn't yet change.

"...I could forgive you leaving, Eve. I could even forgive the split of the Fang; there wasn't even anything to forgive. The nature of The Fight is that you can only truly be in it if your resolve is fully hardened, and even then it is bloody work. but..."

Then did her words begin to sharpen

"...that was before you brought the White Fang down us, pitting sister against sister in defense of the humans. Death, on both sides, and you yourself drawing blood. This was a fight you were willing to kill for, and to die for, all to get in my way. So tell me Eve; what changed?" She asked, her tone levelling out.

"What has the White Fang's former champion on her knees before the woman she clearly wanted dead a month ago? Why should I believe for a second that Eve Taurus has changed her immutable convictions?"

"I did what I thought was right for the faunus. I stand by it."

She answered simply. If Sienna was expecting any defensive justifications or vociferous rebuttals, she got none. As far as Sienna could tell, not a single twinge of regret or humility carried on the words, yet neither did they spike with frustration or descend into any accusations or counterpoints as she kept her gaze rigidly locked on the floor tiles. Instead, she just sounded drained; Hollow, even. A glance at her in better lighting more than elaborated as to why. When they last spoke her former champion had been a proud, tall and imposing figure, one who carried weight and commanded respect wherever she went. A true threat to her authority.

If not for the foreknowledge of her skill and lethality, it would've been difficult to imagine the haggard figure prostrated before her as any kind of a threat at all. She was almost emaciated with paranoid stress, hollow-cheeked even behind her once-fearsome mask, and one of the horns she was always so proud about displaying had been ripped right off her skull, now dangling from a chain around her neck. The most appropriate metaphor would've been a beaten dog, but that kind of language had unfortunate connotations when used to describe a faunus. She mainly just looked miserable.

Somewhere between her next words' birth at the back of her throat and the moment she loosed them from her lips, they cracked under a strained note of true, genuine fear and vulnerability. Sienna was right. She had no reason to forgive her. Maybe she had come here to die.

"...I-I'm sick..."

She glanced off to the side with a bitter huff, trying to put any kind of a meaningful rationale to words. The act was far more difficult than she could've ever imagined. Her resumed speech lacked the practiced calm of her previous declarations, simply a struggling girl trying to make sense of her own actions.

"Not my body, my... my mind. I don't know how else to explain it. The humans have destroyed me, and now I can't trust my own thoughts. The things I do, they make sense in my head while I'm doing them. I get so angry. Then after I..."

She shook her head, anxiously smoothing some hair back behind one ear. Even though she meant every word, they didn't sound convincing even to her. Her frown grew deeper, more perplexed, and she tried again.

"...I, I missed B-Blake, okay, I thought for sure there was no way she could be involved with any of this willingly and I couldn't stop feeling afraid for her, but I... was wrong..."

That wasn't any better, and honestly made her feel pathetic when she thought back over those two conversations, so she once again fell silent as her lips curled into a bitter scowl. She was growing flustered by this point, far more frustration in the way she brushed more of her hair back with her thumb and hissed out an attempt from another angle, growing defensive from her own scrutinizations of her attempts to date.

"None of this matters, because I'm strong! You don't have enough warriors like me, you CAN'T say no! Y-you, I don't, I..."

Her shoulders fell, and she slowly looked up at Sienna with eyes that were truly helpless behind her mask.

"...I don't know. I just did what I thought was right."

The most paranoid person in the world wouldn't have doubted every single word she said to be anything other than the truth. That wasn't to say it made for an effective explanation. The simple reality was maybe there wasn't one, no good reason or rational justification for the things she did other than her status as an irrational existence. Maybe there never was. Oh, sure, she could always explain it in her own head, but time and time again now people who were smarter than her, who understood more about the world and could explain things so much better than she ever could had shot her down, brushed her off, torn her to pieces, and it was starting to take its toll. Before all this, leading the White Fang on her own, when tormented by her darkest moments of self-doubt she always just thought back to that day. The first time she wore the mask. Standing in the midst of all those cheering faunus, a child in her arms, hungry and ragged but not scarred and broken like she had been, freed from his shackles and free to seize the future she'd been denied. She felt so good in that moment. So strong. She always thought the Eve Taurus from that day could never be wrong, would always be righteous and just and have her heart in the right place, and as long as she just kept listening to her she could never be led astray.

So battered and broken down was the Eve Taurus of today that she was beginning to think her former self was just a glory hound, that warm feeling in her heart merely the glare of the spotlight. Following her convictions, her heart, that had been what started all this, and in the time since every single person who ever held a real personal significance to her had told her she was wrong, even if it was mostly a list of one. Her old allies had abandoned her; her new ones hated her, suffered countless setbacks and fought only to maintain the status quo and return a few displaced humans to their proper timeline—all of whom also hated her. She wasn't even helping anyone. She wasn't even staying true to those convictions anymore. What had she accomplished? What was she fighting for? Did anyone even still care about Eve Taurus?

They were voices that had been screaming at her ever since she started down this path, the manifestation of her self-doubt that grew louder and louder with every defeat, every failure to achieve anything.

Maybe it was too much. Maybe she was just finally listening. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense; in another world she was a spiteful, angry, hate-fueled man, long since broken beyond repair, who committed countless terrible acts and justified them to himself by indulging his ego and deep sadness. And maybe that was just who she was too. Maybe she just wasn't strong enough, or smart enough, or special enough to be the person she thought she was.

Maybe some people were never meant to play the hero.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"GOOD FOR YOU!"

Raven shouted, flinching at the brightness of the light and sure that she'd be seeing spots for a while. If the tiny person hadn't helpfully introduced herself in the middle of that declaration, she would have had no idea who this person was, beyond being a soldier in the Atlesian military. Not that she much cared about that in this situation. The huntress swiftly scrambled back to her feet and with the same zero regard for politeness as her counterpart, she grabbed hold of Cordovin by the hair(though it was not meant to be disrespectful by any means and more an attempt to save her life) and took off further down the hall to gain some distance and try again for a portal to throw the diminutive Cordovin into it and then dive through herself.

The way she pitched Cordovin would've guaranteed a strike in any bowling court, midget woman curling into a tiny ball to protect herself as she rolled through the portal at high speeds. The growling had stopped, and in the split second after her dive it genuinely seemed as though she was home and dry and all would be well.

"ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴋɪᴅᴅɪɴɢ!~"

Then a black, writhing mass coiled tight around her arms and torso, and the huntress found herself yanked deep, deep into the abyss mere fingertips away from reaching the portal herself as something dragged her around the corner and out of sight. So rapidly was she being hauled that her aura was all that stood between her and some intense friction burns and bruises as she dinged off solid objects; It did nothing to abate the grim, dizzying rush that descended as she was forced to endure the truly indescribable sensation of being dragged across the floor in pitch darkness, made all the more uncomfortable by the bizarrely sticky shadow-like substance that constricted ever-tighter around her chest and arms even as more tendrils distinguished themselves from the shadows to ensnare her further. Worse was the sensation; with each new tendril she could feel hundreds of tiny little files grating and sawing against her aura like teeth, and it was only when one snaked up around her neck that she realized their intent was to cocoon her.

Or digest her.

The other side of the portal, meanwhile, was conspicuous in its lack of emerging Raven, something which 100% would've had Qrow up and ignoring every survival instinct he had to throw himself right back in there and repay the favor of saving him if he weren't still extremely passed out and in pain from all that.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

The way she pitched Cordovin would've guaranteed a strike in any bowling court, midget woman curling into a tiny ball to protect herself as she rolled through the portal at high speeds. The growling had stopped, and in the split second after her dive it genuinely seemed as though she was home and dry and all would be well.

"ᴊᴜꜱᴛ ᴋɪᴅᴅɪɴɢ!~"

Then a black, writhing mass coiled tight around her arms and torso, and the huntress found herself yanked deep, deep into the abyss mere fingertips away from reaching the portal herself as something dragged her around the corner and out of sight. So rapidly was she being hauled that her aura was all that stood between her and some intense friction burns and bruises as she dinged off solid objects; It did nothing to abate the grim, dizzying rush that descended as she was forced to endure the truly indescribable sensation of dragged across the floor in pitch darkness, made all the more uncomfortable by the bizarrely sticky shadow-like substance that constricted ever-tighter around her chest and arms even as more tendrils distinguished themselves from the shadows to ensnare her further. Worse was the sensation; with each new tendril she could feel hundreds of tiny little files grating and sawing against her aura like teeth, and it was only when one snaked up around her neck that she realized their intent was to cocoon her.

Or digest her.

"...n-No..." That was all Raven was able to cry out in abject fear, her fingers just about scraping the surface of the portal for the briefest of seconds as the mass of darkness coiled around her. In the next second, her hope of a clean escape snatched away as surely as she herself was, the huntress dragged across the floor and back around a corner so fast that if anyone was watching, they easily could have blinked and missed the whole thing. They wouldn't have missed the screams though, howls of pure terror and pain interrupted only by the loud thuds as she collided with and bounced off several unseen objects, her aura dipping with each bump. Her only avenue of attack, her sword, having since slid out of her grasp into some shadowy corner. Worse still, a disgusting feeling black tar like thing was hardening around her upper torso and arms so badly that she could feel the life being choked out of her...which did nothing to spare her from the sensation of feeling something crawling across her skin with each new tendril...

It was then that her frightened mind managed to put together what this monster was intending to do, something that only intensified the fear inside. This? This was a creature Beacon had failed to train her for, something all her years since graduation equally couldn't prepare her for. In that moment, as she could do little more than watch as this beast went about its work, with memories of her life flashing before her eyes...large parts of her genuinely believed this was the end.

She saw team STRQ, the day they all graduated Beacon. The proud looks on every one of their faces, herself included. The way their team leader had pretty much tackled her to the ground in overexcited joy.

Spoiler

She saw several other key moments in her life flash by after, one after another. And she saw a flash of bright light that her terror-stricken mind perceived as the afterlife rising up to claim her...….​

The other side of the portal, meanwhile, was conspicuous in its lack of emerging Raven, something which 100% would've had Qrow up and ignoring every survival instinct he had to throw himself right back in there and repay the favor of saving him if he weren't still extremely passed out and in pain from all that.

Qrow was still out cold. The other Raven, once that severed monstrosity had been dealt with, was seemingly too occupied with wrestling with concern for her twin to focus on anything that might have laid beyond the portal. Something that left the person observing the two Branwens extremely surprised, having not expected something that plainly unselfish from their version of Raven. And the recently thrown Cordovin? The less said about her, the better. Even if she had come around in the end, back home.

But that didn't leave the other Raven without reinforcements.

Qrow may have not been able to step up, but she sure could. And she absolutely did, at maximum speed and utmost haste. Once through to the other side, she quickly followed the pained screams to find...to find...

Yeah, she couldn't deny feeling a palpable sense of dread at what she saw, even with just the little amount of it that she could. But the fear washed over her, Ruby managing to bury it as she focused, recognizing very well that a life was at great risk and she NEEDED to do something about it. A goal that gave her the will to push past the fear and do what needed to be done.



The sheer blinding light that filled the place was not the light that Raven thought it was.​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"I did what I thought was right for the faunus. I stand by it."

She answered simply. If Sienna was expecting any defensive justifications or vociferous rebuttals, she got none. As far as Sienna could tell, not a single twinge of regret or humility carried on the words, yet neither did they spike with frustration or descend into any accusations or counterpoints as she kept her gaze rigidly locked on the floor tiles. Instead, she just sounded drained; Hollow, even. A glance at her in better lighting more than elaborated as to why. When they last spoke her former champion had been a proud, tall and imposing figure, one who carried weight and commanded respect wherever she went. A true threat to her authority.

If not for the foreknowledge of her skill and lethality, it would've been difficult to imagine the haggard figure prostrated before her as any kind of a threat at all. She was almost emaciated with paranoid stress, hollow-cheeked even behind her once-fearsome mask, and one of the horns she was always so proud about displaying had been ripped right off her skull, now dangling from a chain around her neck. The most appropriate metaphor would've been a beaten dog, but that kind of language had unfortunate connotations when used to describe a faunus. She mainly just looked miserable.

Somewhere between her next words' birth at the back of her throat and the moment she loosed them from her lips, they cracked under a strained note of true, genuine fear and vulnerability. Sienna was right. She had no reason to forgive her. Maybe she had come here to die.

"...I-I'm sick..."

She glanced off to the side with a bitter huff, trying to put any kind of a meaningful rationale to words. The act was far more difficult than she could've ever imagined. Her resumed speech lacked the practiced calm of her previous declarations, simply a struggling girl trying to make sense of her own actions.

"Not my body, my... my mind. I don't know how else to explain it. The humans have destroyed me, and now I can't trust my own thoughts. The things I do, they make sense in my head while I'm doing them. I get so angry. Then after I..."

She shook her head, anxiously smoothing some hair back behind one ear. Even though she meant every word, they didn't sound convincing even to her. Her frown grew deeper, more perplexed, and she tried again.

"...I, I missed B-Blake, okay, I thought for sure there was no way she could be involved with any of this willingly and I couldn't stop feeling afraid for her, but I... was wrong..."

That wasn't any better, and honestly made her feel pathetic when she thought back over those two conversations, so she once again fell silent as her lips curled into a bitter scowl. She was growing flustered by this point, far more frustration in the way she brushed more of her hair back with her thumb and hissed out an attempt from another angle, growing defensive from her own scrutinizations of her attempts to date.

"None of this matters, because I'm strong! You don't have enough warriors like me, you CAN'T say no! Y-you, I don't, I..."

Her shoulders fell, and she slowly looked up at Sienna with eyes that were truly helpless behind her mask.

"...I don't know. I just did what I thought was right."

The most paranoid person in the world wouldn't have doubted every single word she said to be anything other than the truth. That wasn't to say it made for an effective explanation. The simple reality was maybe there wasn't one, no good reason or rational justification for the things she did other than her status as an irrational existence. Maybe there never was. Oh, sure, she could always explain it in her own head, but time and time again now people who were smarter than her, who understood more about the world and could explain things so much better than she ever could had shot her down, brushed her off, torn her to pieces, and it was starting to take its toll. Before all this, leading the White Fang on her own, when tormented by her darkest moments of self-doubt she always just thought back to that day. The first time she wore the mask. Standing in the midst of all those cheering faunus, a child in her arms, hungry and ragged but not scarred and broken like she had been, freed from his shackles and free to seize the future she'd been denied. She felt so good in that moment. So strong. She always thought the Eve Taurus from that day could never be wrong, would always be righteous and just and have her heart in the right place, and as long as she just kept listening to her she could never be led astray.

So battered and broken down was the Eve Taurus of today that she was beginning to think her former self was just a glory hound, that warm feeling in her heart merely the glare of the spotlight. Following her convictions, her heart, that had been what started all this, and in the time since every single person who ever held a real personal significance to her had told her she was wrong, even if it was mostly a list of one. Her old allies had abandoned her; her new ones hated her, suffered countless setbacks and fought only to maintain the status quo and return a few displaced humans to their proper timeline—all of whom also hated her. She wasn't even helping anyone. She wasn't even staying true to those convictions anymore. What had she accomplished? What was she fighting for? Did anyone even still care about Eve Taurus?

They were voices that had been screaming at her ever since she started down this path, the manifestation of her self-doubt that grew louder and louder with every defeat, every failure to achieve anything.

Maybe it was too much. Maybe she was just finally listening. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense; in another world she was a spiteful, angry, hate-fueled man, long since broken beyond repair, who committed countless terrible acts and justified them to himself by indulging his ego and deep sadness. And maybe that was just who she was too. Maybe she just wasn't strong enough, or smart enough, or special enough to be the person she thought she was.

Maybe some people were never meant to play the hero.​

Sienna was still through Eve's words, her posture unmoving, her glare unyielding as the faunus slowly broke down in front of her, till finally she shook her head.

"Look at what they've done to you."

The razors were no longer in her teeth as she spoke. It wasn't kind enough to be called pity, but nor was the disgust pointed at Eve herself.

"You aren't sick, Eve. You're infected. Poisoned by the kingdom's false truths and human weakness. I should have never let you leave. If I had been there for you, like I was for Blake, this wouldn't have happened. But it has."

She looked up for a moment, her gaze distant as she stared at the back of the cell.

"And I was certain that it meant you gone for good. That we would have no choice but to put you down. It wasn't I thought I relished, and not just for Blake's sake; You were always meant to be at my side, Eve Taurus. A leader cannot serve her people with only one hand. Yet...

She slowly knelt down to Eve's level with a piercing stare that raked across Eve's disheveled form. "...Even if you speak the truth, If you want to rejoin the cause, I can't be sure that infection's truly gone. That it won't take the whole body with it. You're right on one front; I don't have enough soldiers in this war. But if you want to fight at Blake's side, the just side again, as an equal..."

She reached through the bars to tap her finger against the center of Eve's mask.

"...You're going to have to prove to me that your sword isn't broken. Just dented."

 

[Gus Gungus]

Yeah, she couldn't deny feeling a palpable sense of dread at what she saw, even with just the little amount of it that she could. But the fear washed over her, Ruby managing to bury it as she focused, recognizing very well that a life was at great risk and she NEEDED to do something about it. A goal that gave her the will to push past the fear and do what needed to be done.


The sheer blinding light that filled the place was not the light that Raven thought it was.

Ruby wouldn't forget what she witnessed in that long, coffinesque hallway any time soon, even with visibility nil.

Raven was in the talons of something all the way over in the corner of the ceiling, being spooled around and around in what would've looked just like the darkness itself if it wasn't clinging to the huntress and encasing her almost entirely at this point. Only a few tufts of hair and clothing made Qrow's sister in any way distinguishable from a twitching mass of pure shadow, and the thing responsible was even more difficult to make out. Most clear was the way it reared back on its hind legs as Ruby rushed in streaming white light from her irises like some sort of holy warrior, and how something with rows and rows of mandibles dropped Raven and turned eyes just as silver as her own towards her with similarly wretched intent. Her vision had barely adjusted to be able to see it properly by the time she realized it was now scuttling across the ceiling for her position, jaws chattering and eyes flared wide as it skittered up the corridor towards her at blinding speed, screeching demonically all the while-

Then, not for the first time in Ruby's life, everything flared a searingly intense white, and by the time she could see again the room was changed. Nothing nightmarish or abominable was lurking in the darkness, and the shadows themselves weren't writhing or teeming all around any more. It was just a hallway.

She felt a tap on the shoulder, and if she turned around she found herself face to face with...

Someone who looked very, very familiar. In so many more ways than just one. The only indicator of Grimm cohabitation were a few small black streaks running throughout her sclera, which encircled eyes that were every bit as silver as Ruby's as they stared at her with a mix of shock, betrayal and confusion, all of which appeared wholly sincere.

"What are you doing, Masquey-poo? You wanted to play with these cute little guys as well? You could've just told me."​

 

[Gus Gungus]

She slowly knelt down to Eve's level with a piercing stare that raked across Eve's disheveled form. "...Even if you speak the truth, If you want to rejoin the cause, I can't be sure that infection's truly gone. That it won't take the whole body with it. You're right on one front; I don't have enough soldiers in this war. But if you want to fight at Blake's side, the just side again, as an equal..."

She reached through the bars to tap her finger against the center of Eve's mask.

"...You're going to have to prove to me that your sword isn't broken. Just dented."

Eve's kept her head tilted down even when Sienna knelt across from her, unsure what to even do or say after that, or what she might meet Sienna's eyes with if she did. She picked it up a bit when she tapped the mask, though, and failed to keep the hesitance from showing on her face as she bit her lip uncertainly.

"...I... I'm not sure that's what I came here to do. I was expecting a punishment. Maybe it is, I don't know. I just... need..."

She stalled like it was a genuine struggle to even get this much out, never the most eloquent wordsmith even if she did have any idea how to begin vocalizing whatever 'poison' was taking root deeper and deeper inside her thoughts every day.

"...guidance. Please. I can't be by myself anymore."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

Ruby wouldn't forget what she witnessed in that long, coffinesque hallway any time soon, even with visibility nil.

Raven was in the talons of something all the way over in the corner of the ceiling, being spooled around and around in what would've looked just like the darkness itself if it wasn't clinging to the huntress and encasing her almost entirely at this point. Only a few tufts of hair and clothing made Qrow's sister in any way distinguishable from a twitching mass of pure shadow, and the thing responsible was even more difficult to make out.

No no no...​

Most clear was the way it reared back on its hind legs as Ruby rushed in streaming white light from her irises like some sort of holy warrior, and how something with rows and rows of mandibles dropped Raven and turned eyes just as silver as her own towards her with similarly wretched intent. Her vision had barely adjusted to be able to see it properly by the time she realized it was now scuttling across the ceiling for her position, jaws chattering and eyes flared wide as it skittered up the corridor towards her at blinding speed, screeching demonically all the while

...no no nope...​

Then, not for the first time in Ruby's life, everything flared a searingly intense white, and by the time she could see again the room was changed. Nothing nightmarish or abominable was lurking in the darkness, and the shadows themselves weren't writhing or teeming all around any more. It was just a hallway.

She felt a tap on the shoulder, and if she turned around she found herself face to face with...

Someone who looked very, very familiar. In so many more ways than just one. The only indicator of Grimm cohabitation were a few small black streaks running throughout her sclera, which encircled eyes that were every bit as silver as Ruby's as they stared at her with a mix of shock, betrayal and confusion, all of which appeared wholly sincere.

"What are you doing, Masquey-poo? You wanted to play with these cute little guys as well? You could've just told me."

...….no. She finished, that last single 'no' far more full of dread and a desperate desire to not believe what she was seeing as truth. Anything to avoid accepting a possibility she had started to fear ever since she had seen Tock emerge from that bar as their huntress contact, listened to her tale of the past... and when she'd laid eyes on that giant frozen grimm outside, stuck trying to take a bite out of the base. But it was true. Just as it was with herself, and Weiss, and Blake, and Yang. Not quite as painful as those, but it still sucked. Yet she managed to keep those complicated feelings hidden just beneath the surface as she looked up at Maria and did her best to sound as EVIL™ as possible.

"The RED MASQUE DOES not TELL! She DOES as she WILLS! ONCE the LORD of all GRIMM and the RIGHTFUL RULER of every PATHETIC KINGDOM gives an ORDER, the MASQUE goes about IT in the MANNER she DESIRES! She DOES NOT BEND to the whims of ANOTHER in ANYTHING, unless IT comes DIRECTLY from my ONLY TRUE FRIEND'S mouth HIMSELF. So it is that THE RED MASQUE here and now BIDS you STAND ASIDE, and ALLOW THE MASQUE to TAKE OVER in DEALING with this SCUM of the HIGHEST ORDER!!!" No sooner did that last word escape her mouth did Ruby start forward to where Raven laid there, grabbed a hand to start dragging the older huntress across the floor behind her as she went back to the portal to toss Raven through it like she was a piece of disgusting trash Ruby couldn't get rid of fast enough, her hands shaking a whole bunch after as if to dispel some germs from her hands...and then mostly dropping the act and booking it through the portal herself as it closed.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"The RED MASQUE DOES not TELL! She DOES as she WILLS! ONCE the LORD of all GRIMM and the RIGHTFUL RULER of every PATHETIC KINGDOM gives an ORDER, the MASQUE goes about IT in the MANNER she DESIRES! She DOES NOT BEND to the whims of ANOTHER in ANYTHING, unless IT comes DIRECTLY from my ONLY TRUE FRIEND'S mouth HIMSELF. So it is that THE RED MASQUE here and now BIDS you, GRIMM REAPER-SAN STAND ASIDE, and ALLOW THE MASQUE to TAKE OVER in DEALING with this SCUM of the HIGHEST ORDER!!!" No sooner did that last word escape her mouth did Ruby start forward to where Raven laid there, grabbed a hand to start dragging the older huntress across the floor behind her as she went back to the portal to toss Raven through it like she was a piece of disgusting trash Ruby couldn't get rid of fast enough, her hands wringing after as if to dispel some germs from her hands...and then booking it through the portal herself as it closed.

"...WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT???" Maria exclaimed in a pitched, incredulous whine as the apple of her eye, her pride and joy, her most favoritest and special toy of them all acted super weird and blew her off! She just couldn't believe it! Even her most childish voice peeked its head out to see what was going on. "She's not allowed talk to us that way! Shouldn't we tell on her?!"

"Ahhhh, you just gotta let young people throw these little hissy fits every now and then. Shows she's maturing!"

"Wow, you think she grew up while we were in the dark place? But there's so much we forgot to tell her..." She mused as she watched Ruby go about her business with fascination, mind a thousand miles away while she struggled to fathom how she could've missed so much character development. "I'm glad you're finally nurturing your independence, Masqueykins. But don't go too crazy with the tough girl act, okayyyy? I just finally got you the way I wanted!"

Her fingers drummed ponderously against her thigh as she stood there, hands planted on her hips and cheeks puffed up in discontentment when Ruby opted to ignore her. There was a faintly dangerous squint to her eyes if the huntress bothered to look, too, like there was something just on the tip of her tongue telling her this wasn't right.

When Ruby went to step through the portal, a hand firmly grasped her hood. With only the flickering glow of Raven's portal to light the room her face was mostly obscured by shadows again, but there was a wolfish aspect to the eyes that glowed a muted white in the darkness as they took Ruby in hungrily in a way she wasn't used to being regarded, if she dared peek.

"...Hey, speaking of which... how come you didn't put your mask on for me? In fact, my lovely little pet... ᴡʜʏ ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇᴠᴇɴ ʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴀʟʟ?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

When Ruby went to step through the portal, a hand firmly grasped her hood. With only the flickering glow of Raven's portal to light the room her face was mostly obscured by shadows again, but there was a wolfish aspect to the eyes that glowed a muted white in the darkness as they took Ruby in hungrily in a way she wasn't used to being regarded, if she dared peek.

"...Hey, speaking of which... how come you didn't put on your mask for me? In fact, my lovely little pet... ᴡʜʏ ᴀʀᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴇᴠᴇɴ ʜᴇʀᴇ ᴀᴛ ᴀʟʟ?"

"..." She burst into petals before Maria even finished her questions and BOLTED through the portal before it vanished completely.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"..." She burst into petals before Maria even finished her questions and BOLTED through the portal before it vanished completely.

"So RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" She yowled until she was blue in the face, stomping her foot and flailing her arms as if she could tear open a portal in the universe herself. She sadly couldn't, and tapped her foot in fuming dismay as the base was again plunged into total darkness. That definitely wasn't her Masque! She was pretty sure her daddy might've said to watch out for weird stuff like this not too long ago, but she couldn't remember things that well anymore. There was one thing she remembered, though.

"Well, guess I'll just go eat that general guy before they remember they forgot about him down here!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Well, guess I'll just go eat that general guy before they remember they forgot about him down here!"

F's in the chat.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

About ten minutes later Ironwood walked out, looking no worse for wear. Except for the sweet, sweet psychological scars.

"Can we go?"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

About ten minutes later Ironwood walked out, looking no worse for wear.

"Can we go?"​

"Er..." Ruby looked at the two passed out Branwens, the other one who pointedly refused to look up at anybody and then back to the less than okay General. "...Sure!"​

 

[Gus Gungus]

"Er..." Ruby looked at the two passed out Branwens, the other one who pointedly refused to look up at anybody and then back to the less than okay General. "...Sure!"

And so they were off, bound for the next great adventure in Atlas!




















"Yay!" Maria clapped from the back of the cargo hold, smugly perched atop a crate with legs crossed campfire style even though no one could recall her entering, leaving, or even definitively being anything more than a horrific figment conjured by tricks of the mind down there in the dark.​