Chapter Text
Two criteria are used to identify the threat level of a grimm. There is its age, signified by bone plating: New, Mature, Old, and Ancient. Then there is its size: Small, Medium, Large, Giant, Colossal, and Titan. Be wary of size as it often correlates to resilience, but be further mindful of age, as the older a grimm is, the more cunning it is. You may think of grimm as beasts but new hunters freeze the most when they look into red eyes and see intelligence looking back at them.
New hunters are inadvised to pursue grimm higher in threat than a New-Large Class.
- Excerpt taken from 'Vale: The Official Reference Text on Hunter Training vol. 1, ed. 13' by Beacon Academy Deputy Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch, Professor of Combat Training, Board Member of the Bureau of Hunter Education, and test proctor for the Vale Hunter Organization's licensing exam
— ❃ —
The Realm of Darkness is one few ever lay eyes on, and even fewer could stay sane within. Jagged, mountains stretch as far as the eye could see, ending in a haze that has no end. To the superstitious, the wind that flows through these ranges seem almost like screams. And underfoot are pools of black magic, reflecting the red sky above until one can scarcely believe they are anything but seas of blood.
Grimm stalk this territory with sly confidence. They are the keepers of this realm, far older and deadlier than their lesser kin that are sent out on the Land of Man. It is in their cruel nature to see themselves as indomitable beings and anything else — especially those things touched by the Other god — are inferior and meant to be destroyed.
But amidst those sheer crimson cliffs and swarms of monsters is an… unexpected sight. One that has not been seen in the domain in thousands of years. There are many hundreds of ravines gouged so deep into the earth, they look like scars. And through one of these many ravines walks a woman.
To the inhabitants of this realm, her soul is like a beacon. Muted and harsh, but pure silver all the same.
A beowulf, newly born and untrained by the passage of years, leaps from the side and at her throat.
With a click and a shift, a scythe forms. A callous but nimble hand brings the blade down so fast, it cuts through the air with a quiet scream. Into the ground it strikes, a twitch of a finger and—
BANG!
Black ichor shoots from the back of the monster's head. It falls into a heap on the ground, its body hitting the stone with a resounding thump.
She had not even looked at the creature, nor had she flinched. There is a pause that hangs heavily in the air. Had it not been for the wind blowing away the ashes of the dead beowulf, it wouldn't be hard to assume time has simply just stopped.
Then the woman starts walking again, as if nothing happened.
Most grimm are undeterred, blinded by their youth and their primal rage. Soon, hordes are upon the woman. Each wave after wave she meets without fault. But behind it all, hidden in shadows, the ancient grimm watch. In their red eyes lay a wicked intelligence. Along with something else, a glint not quite their own.
Up in a castle, hundreds of miles away, the dark mistress of this realm saw all.
— ❃ —
Perhaps the sickest thing about all this is that Ruby Rose is not a stranger to these lands. She knows the red sky, she knows the pain the grey clouds of acid wrought, she knows how the howling wind drove some to madness. The mountains seem to be an enemy all on their own, they crumble and fall upon people more than could be natural. The pools of grimm are maybe the worst. They draw on the soul's darkest desires, beckoning them forwards until that person is ready to slaughter anyone who tries to stop them from entering those cursed depths. What comes out is better left unsaid.
The price of this knowledge is one that weighs heavily on her conscience. Seven years into the war she had led an army through these lands. At the cost of thousands of lives, they had made it to Salem's fortress. To Ruby's unending regret and guilt, they were not even able to wound her. They forced her and her allies out, but even that victory meant little as the war continued, and far more hellish battles were rained upon them.
Ruby is confident she will not make the same mistake. Ten months it took last time to find Salem's castle. Now she knows the route. Exactly which ravines to cross, which to follow, which hidden paths she can take across the vast lakes of darkness.
She has cut Salem's head off before, she can do it again.
The thought of that witch sends malice coursing through her, and it is with a bit more brutality that she snaps the neck of the next beast that gets too close to her. It is cathartic.
With another deliberately aimed shot, she fires a high caliber round at one of the many gravity dust crystals that keeps this damned realm from crashing into Remnant below. Not that it would hit much. The north eastern continent above Sanus is nothing more than a wasteland.
The bullet shakes the massive crystal on impact, white, spiderweb like lines cracking outwards before the entire thing shatters. Black dust implodes in on itself, taking an entire horde of grimm with it, crushes into singular point in an instant by all consuming gravity.
More grimm come flooding in after, an endless sea that would not let up. She jumps on one's head, shooting it and shattering its skull. The recoil sends her flying through the air, where grimm are already jumping up with claws ready.
She slices through a boarbatusk's body, kicking its remains into the open maws of another beowolf before sending a round into its head.
A growl behind her has her bursting into rose petals, appearing behind the beast faster than it could comprehend. It is dead before it knows what happens.
She twists around and hooks her scythe on a large sabyr grimm's tusks, leaping backwards onto its body and rushing towards its tail with a push of her semblance, forcing its neck backwards until a sickening crack sounds.
She cuts through the grimm like butter, moving between them with a blurring, agile speed that they cannot keep up with. Ten, twenty, then a hundred fall around her.
An earth shaking screech from above has Ruby glancing up. A massive, circling shadow is suddenly plummeting towards her. An Old-Giant Class wyvern grimm.
A silver eye narrows as the thing comes swooping down at her.
"I could use that."
It's almost on her, the razor sharp beak glinting dangerously. Ruby jumps atop the heads of grimm like stepping stones, shooting them as she goes, soaring higher and higher with each burst of recoil. In seconds, she makes her way up to a two story tall beringel, cleaving its head in two.
In the next instant, the wyvern's wickedly sharp beak inches from her face. She stares straight into its red eyes for only a second. Then she is gone, a torrent of rose petals left in her wake. They wrap around the neck of the wyvern, moving so fast that even the most delicate of petals felt like razors against the beast's skin.
It thrashes and screeches, flying high as the petals tear at its throat, forcing it up like a collar of thorns would. It isn't until Ruby sees the peaks of mountains that she lets up on her assault, reforming on the nape of the creature's neck. But she isn't done yet. Racing up its left wing, she swings Crescent Rose down with all of her strength. The leathery wings look delicate but she knows from experience that they are nearly impossible to destroy.
She swings again and again. And then she's falling as the wyvern rebels, but not for long. Bursting into petals again, she flies up hundreds of feet higher than the grimm before reforming. Letting gravity help her, she shoots high caliber rounds to push herself down even faster, pushing her semblance into it. The air roars around her as she turns into one streak of red.
Ruby raises her scythe and in the next instant, she forces it down. The blade tears clean through the wing. She hooks her scythe under the membrane, keeping it in place.
With an experimental twist and a mighty tug, she forces the wing up. The wyvern starts plummeting to the ground before its survival instincts kick in and it corrects itself. Now, it's flying to the right.
Putting her strength into pushing the wing down, and the same thing happens before the wyvern starts going left.
Despite the burning sensation in her muscles, Ruby is satisfied. She can see so much of the vast land from up here. Just on the horizon, hundreds of leagues away, is a mountain with three, long spires piercing the sky. Across from there would lie Salem's fortress.
Ruby's lips twist into a shark-like grin, "Let's see how far we can go with you, huh?"
— ❃ —
Unease permeates Salem's councilroom. Their mistress is wrathful tonight. They could see it in the way her jaw clenches, the tightness in her eyes, the focus she holds as she looks out the windows and into her domain.
Finally, she speaks, quiet and assured but her undertone dripping cold anger, "Who is she?"
No one dares to talk.
She turns to look at them, "I asked a question. I will have it answered." Her gaze narrows in on one council member in particular, "Watts, I tasked you with looking for the Silver Eyed."
The young scientist, only part of the inner circle for a scant two years, trembles ever so slightly as he responds. To his credit, his voice does not waver, "I have checked every kingdom's official database, stretching back for the last forty years."
He frowns, his reluctance clear, "There is no trace of her." He finally admits, upset at his own failure and scared of what it would mean for him.
Still, he continues with the hope that showing how comprehensive he is would spare him, "I checked far more extensively than that." He rushes to assure her.
"There is no evidence of her attending one of the huntsmen academies, neither preparatory nor major. She has no criminal history and does not show up in any public or private medical records. I have parsed through thousands of camera feeds and CCT images and videos. She does not show up in any of them, either."
"Heh, perhaps your prized algorithms aren't as revolutionary as you like to think, doctor." Tock jeers.
Watts sends a burning glare her way, "I have found more silver eyed threats in my two years of work than you have tracked down in a lifetime." He hisses.
"So you have found nothing." Salem cuts in, slow and venomous.
Watts swallows hard, "I have only found one person who matches the description you provided. However, she is just a ten year old girl. A Summer Rose of Vale. Shall we…" He trails off here, he has no love for what he is about to say, "Send someone there to investigate?"
Despite what the Atlesian government would call a complete lack of morals, Arthur Watts did not take joy in bringing unnecessary harm. If Salem wants to investigate their only lead, it would no doubt be the end of that girl's life once her usefulness has run out.
Salem is quiet for a short while before giving a small shake of her head, "We could bring her and her family here and interrogate them." She muses, "However, it would take too long. How this woman knows the location of our stronghold, I do not know. Although I surely will find the leak and deal with them appropriately. In any case, at the rate our… little visitor is coming, she will arrive here in only two weeks—"
Salem stops, a look of concentration passing over her face as her eyes faintly glow red. So much like the grimm that inhabit her domain. In the next second her face contorts into one of fury. Whipping around to face the window once more, she scowls, her eyes watching the skies with a sharp gaze.
"Three days… She will be here in three days time."
Behind her, the council shares a confused look. Salem did not elaborate.
"It is of no matter." She finally says, "She has simply made it easier to target her. Tock."
"Yes?" The woman sat up straighter, eager to hear her orders.
"I am sending out a griffon, one of my strongest and oldest. You are to ride with it and ensure the death of the silver eyed woman." Her voice left no room for argument.
— ❃ —
Ruby shoots another flying grimm out of the air, the winged beast already evaporating as it spirals to the ground.
"Fifty three."
She turns around, the blade of Crescent Rose twisting in the membrane as she moves, earning a pained screech from the beast she took control of. Set up like this, her rifle serves as a makeshift but no less deadly turret. Looking through her scope, she spots her next target.
"Seven hundred meters? Can I make the shot?" She says with a slight tilt of her head.
Chuckling, she leans forward, putting her finger on the trigger, "Of course I can."
A loud bang rings out across the skies and Ruby is pleased to note that not a second later, the creature is falling, its blackened ashes trailing behind it.
"Fifty four."
Ruby has to keep fighting even up here, as flying grimm try to tear her from the back of the wyvern. She'd made something of a game clearing the skies of grimm. She'd started counting the pot shots a while back. Partly out of cockiness and partly as something to keep her awake.
She wants to get as far as possible before ditching her ride and finding a place to barricade and set up camp. She's been awake and fighting on the ground for one day and in the air for another and a half. And although she'd been up for longer during the worst battles of the war, flying a Giant class grimm is taxing. From moving the several tonne wing to just standing against the torrents of air that felt like a physical wall.
Not even her aura could completely fortify her mind from exhaustion.
Just as she is readying another shot, she hears a caw that makes her pause. A griffon.
She shoots down a Mature-Medium Class nevermore she'd just spotted before looking up and scanning the area.
She stiffens at what she sees in the distance. Right in front of her, coming from the direction of Salem's castle, is the silhouette of a truly big beast. Small as it appears from here — yet growing bigger with each passing second — Ruby knows this isn't an ordinary grimm.
From the bone structure and size, she'd guess it is an Ancient-Colossal Class griffon. Twice as large as the one she faced during the Fall of Beacon and likely far more intelligent.
These grimm are some of the heaviest hitters of Salem's forces. They are the ones sent to bring down entire Atlesian battleships.
Ruby's hand tightens around Crescent Rose.
"I guess I finally got that witch to pay attention." Ruby spats.
It doesn't matter much. Whether she stays hidden on the ground or did something as obvious as riding a wyvern right to her, it doesn't change anything. Salem has eyes everywhere. It is just surprising how long it took for her to send a real threat her way.
Ruby braces herself low and steady against the wing. As the grimm draws nearer and nearer, she puts her mind into a kind of zen. Her breathing levels out, her scarred face relaxed, and she feels lighter. If she needs, Ruby knows she can call on the power of the silver eyes. Time and practice has made her as good as Maria Calavera in her golden years.
Minutes pass until the grimm is now so close, she can see the red of its eyes. Up close, it dwarfs the wyvern she is riding on.
Her muscles tense. If it lunges for her, she is ready to tear Crescent Rose out and dash away.
Talons reach out, each one the size of her body, sharper than her scythe, and lighting fast. A deafening caw makes her ears ring and shakes her bones.
Just as the grimm is inches from her face, she bursts into a thousand rose petals. Up its talons and legs she races as one blur.
For a moment, the world is upside down as she runs across its stomach, the stretches of the red wasteland below becoming the sky. She brings her arms down, swinging her scythe into its underbelly and dragging it with her. It leaves barely more than a scratch.
The griffon starts bucking immediately, its scream more in rage than in pain.
Ruby lets herself fall, rapid firing as she descends. Her rounds left tiny pockmarks but not nearly enough of the damage that she knows is needed to take one of these things down.
With a flash of her semblance, she has the heavy munitions loaded before one could blink. Dozens of fire dust filled bullets shoot from her gun. In the next instant, they are exploding across the belly of the beast. It screams as it falls aside and plummets down in a plume of flames and smoke.
Ruby knows better than to think she'd killed it. Twisting around while in free fall, the huntress spots her wyvern already a hundred feet away. Ruby sighs.
Another fraction of a second later and she has wind dust loaded into her gun. For long distance flying, she'd needs a little more lift than her semblance could give her.
Shooting behind her, Crescent Rose releases a massive jet of compressed air in an instant. It sounds like an explosion as it pushes her forward like a bullet.
She doesn't even need her speed as she is on the wyvern in seconds, switching back to normal rounds with a blur of movement. She shoots ahead of her this time, trying to slow herself down so her blade doesn't cut right through it.
Ruby hooks Crescent Rose around the base of its wing, catching herself and swinging around before launching herself onto its back.
Righting herself, she looks around for any sight of the griffon, ears searching for its presence among the howling wind.
When nothing happens and all remains quiet, her suspicion grows.
"Where'd it go—"
Suddenly, the griffon came roaring from below, brutally knocking the wyvern aside and taking her with it. She digs her blade into its back as it turns sideways, flailing as it falls.
Gritting her teeth, she runs up its body, twirling her petals painfully around its neck to get it under control. Only for another downwards swoop to send the monster careening off course again.
"Shit."
She looks up as the griffon flies away, eye widening at the sight on its back.
A sickly green figure is riding atop the grimm. Gold glints in the moonlight.
Salem has sent one of her agents here, and not just anyone.
It's Tock, the one who blinded the Grimm Reaper. Her old mentor never got the vengeance she deserved. Tock had escaped and, as far as anyone knows, lived until she was no longer of use to Salem.
Her eye narrows dangerously.
Loading a wind dust round into her scythe again, she shoots off towards the griffon. She'd kill Tock herself.
If the woman is surprised to see her land on the back of the griffon, she doesn't show it. She simply raises her two cutlasses and gets in a fighting stance.
Ruby doesn't bother waiting for her to act first. She bolts forward with her superspeed, getting several shots in before wrapping her scythe around the woman's neck.
Using her semblance like this, the world moves slowly to her. She does not miss how the bullets don't faze her opponent. When her scythe doesn't do any damage, it only confirms Ruby's suspicions.
Maria hadn't known exactly what Tock did that day. She was no semblance academic. But she had told Ruby that no matter how many times she struck Tock, it didn't seem to hurt her at all. Not until later in the fight — after she has been blinded — when she got a lucky shot in. She remembers the scream, then the metallic smell of blood, and finally, she heard Tock running from the fight.
Unlike her mistress, Tock's invulnerability wasn't perfect.
She only has to find one of her weaknesses. Readying her scythe, she parried a downwards strike from Tock.
Two yellow eyes meet one silver eye and her lips grin cruelly.
"Looks like someone already did half my job for me." She says as she thrust away, forcing herself back.
Ruby is about to go in for another barrage of attacks when Tock suddenly crouches, grabbing onto the grimm's feathery body with her claw-like nails.
Just then, the griffon turns upside down and Ruby has to grab onto it at the last second to keep from falling. Dangling down, she faces off against Tock as the faunus crawls on all fours towards her with inhuman agility.
One hand stays grasped tightly around the grimm's feathers while the other clips her weapon to her side, freeing her hand so it can reach towards her belt, pulling out the first dust crystal she finds. Ice.
She hurls it at Tock and quickly raises her rifle again, shooting the crystal mid air.
She is forced to turn away to shield her face from the sudden explosion of ice shards, her aura taking some damage.
Looking back up, she scans the icy fog. She isn't prepared for Tock to lunge from the mist, a cutlass coming down towards her.
Ruby turns to petals, getting behind her and reforming, one strong arm wraps viciously tight around the woman's throat. No external physical damage is possible right now. But internal?
The woman thrashes in Ruby's hold, one of her cutlasses falling from her grasp and plummeting to the ground below.
Her semblance doesn't keep her safe from oxygen deprivation, good to know.
Not a moment later, Tock is driving a sword towards Ruby's side. She barely dodges, turning into petals and running across the griffon to get some distance. Tock is not far behind, a vengeful look warping her features.
As the Colossal grimm turns around in a harsh corkscrew, Ruby runs along with it, trying to stay rightside up.
Tock follows, her remaining cutlass in hand as she stabs at her target. Ruby, in turn, slashes at her again and again with her scythe.
But Tock is surprisingly quick, her fighting style favoring fast jabs that would get her in and out of the way of Crescent Rose. A chill races up Ruby's spine as she wonders if Tock has used these same moves on Maria.
"What's your secret, Red?" Tock goaded, her bravado returns to her as they trade blows, "You come out of nowhere and just decide to fight the worst grimm on Remnant? Gotta be some hell of a story. Or you're some hell of a psychopath."
Ruby backs away, looking reproachfully at the head of the griffon. All grimm are Salem's eyes and ears. She is not naive.
Tock shrugs it off, "Not talking, huh? I didn't think that'd work anyways."
Suddenly, the griffon shoots up, turning their battlefield into a sheer wall.
Tock slides down a few feet before crouching down again and latching onto the grimm. Ruby shoots herself up with her semblance, putting more distance between the two before driving her scythe into the beast's hide. She runs around, twisting her scythe with her and, like she had on the wyvern, aims her gun like a turret.
Bang bang bang bang!
Each shot glances off Tock. Her semblance still hadn't run out, then. Ruby doesn't know how long it would take or how much damage is needed. But she did know one thing that'd work.
As Tock climbs up inch by inch, she laughed, "It doesn't matter how many times you shoot me, Silver Eyed. It won't work…"
Once more activating her semblance, time seems to slow down around Ruby. As the griffin's powerful wings slowed, as petals kindly scatter around her, as Tock laughs, she grabs one more ice round, loads it into her scythe, and fires.
Tock doesn't even have time to think as it flies into her open mouth, detonating inside. Ice fills her windpipe, choking her.
What Ruby thinks is a muffled scream escapes Tock as she drops her other sword to claw at her throat. It did nothing.
Ruby takes no joy as she sees the woman's eyes go impossibly wide, as she scratches at herself until her skin turns raw, as she screams curses or pleas; Ruby did not know which. Then, after a moment that stretches on forever, she saw the woman's eyes dim. Her grasp slackens and the Silver Eyed executioner falls to the ground, miles below.
The huntress turns away. She has a grimm to kill.
That would be easy enough. With memories of Maria Calavera haunting her mind, Ruby Rose's eye burns bright silver.
— ❃ —
Three days later, a crash echoes through the hall.
It all becomes a blur after that.
The inner circle are the first to fight her.
They don't stand a chance. Not against a mysterious woman they know nothing of and who knows everything of them. One who moves faster than they can see and whose eye glows bright silver.
Her scythe cleaves through the White Witch faster than she can resurrect herself. Her eye burns away impurities first into dust, and then into air.
Perhaps she is fighting for days or only for hours. But at the end, she stands. Wounded and bleeding but standing.
The huntress grabs one of those accursed bone chairs and snaps a piece off, tying it to her fractured leg before slowly making her way out of the castle. Her hand comes to rest against the walls, helping to keep her up, while her boots scrape against the stone floor. When she finds herself on the front steps, she slows to a stop and sits down.
Ruby Rose stares long and hard into the distance as the land of darkness sees its first sunrise in centuries. It is a brilliant, vibrant, red dawn.