Chapter 77

She wiped her nose on her sleeve. The fall weather was doing a number on her allergies, especially with the chill running through the air. She groaned, reaching for the seven-eighths socket and clicking it into her ratchet. It had taken a good part of three hours to find all the sockets and wrenches from when she'd spilled her kit the other day. That had been a royal pain. She picked up the heavy starter motor from the bench and lazily sauntered over to the side of the hoist with the switch panel. She stuffed the ratchet into the pocket of her overalls, freshly cleaned and with new grease and oil on them. She yawned into the back of her hand, and pressed the up button on the hoist.

The old blue truck juddered and started to lift up off the ground, teetering as the old two-post lift swayed back and forth. She paid this no mind and continued to watch the cables of the hoist vibrate under the mass of the truck, kicking her feet in the dust of the garage.

"Rubles?"

She looked up, hearing her name being called.

"I'm over here!"

"Where's here?" asked the voice again.

"Behind the slowly levitating vehicle."

"Arright."

From behind the front of the truck came her sister, in loose black cargo pants and a very low-necked tank top. Her hair was tied up into a high ponytail, and she had a red popsicle in her hand. Because to them, popsicles and slushies didn't have flavours, they had colours only. Red, and blue. And on special days in the heat of the summer, purple. They only came in the specialty packs.

"Hey, Yang. Bring me one of those?"

"Sure did."

She was tossed a skinny orange package covered in bright green lettering. She panicked and nearly dropped the starter, barely catching it as it flew through the air.

"Jeez, I didn't think you had, it was just a joke."

"I'll eat it if you don't want it. Nice catch, bee-tee-dubs."

"Ugh, hold this."

She tossed the starter to her sister the same way she'd just gotten the popsicle. Yang caught the heavy solid chunk of metal with one hand, not even close to dropping it or stumbling. Sometimes Ruby forgot that Yang had mechanically assisted catching abilites and a gyroscopically stabilized elbow, so it was still impressive to see her catch stuff without looking. She broke into the packaging and stuffed it into her pocket, quickly biting off the end of the popsicle and chewing the frozen treat.

"Man, it's a good thing you're not into guys, Rubes."

"Oh, gwow up." she retorted, her mouth slowly freezing.

"Because that's not how you treat one of those things."

She swallowed, annoyed at her sister.

"Obviously, you moron, I'm not an idiot. Pretty sure I could perform one of those if I tried."

"Aw, my baby sister's all grown up."

"Kiss my ass. And I've been grown up for more than twenty-four hours."

"Yes you have, cutie pie." she reached over and poked her in the face with her popsicle. Ruby frowned. "Don't make that face, Rubes, your face will get stuck like that."

"Yeah, I'm gonna make sure it does."

Yang went ahead and deep-throated her popsicle, making Ruby shiver uncomfortably. She hit the switch on the hoist again and continued the truck's ascension to the sky, chewing another large chunk out of her popsicle to spite her sister.

"Sho howsh the engine shwap coming?"

"It's almost done, just gotta button up a few things." the truck stopped at the top of the hoist. "I'll be done a lot quicker if you help me."

"Hey, no problem, love."

Ruby snickered and stuck her popsicle between her teeth, pulling the ratchet out of her pocket. She gestured for her sister to hand the starter motor over to her. She took the heavy steel canister in one hand and set the ratchet to tighten with the other. Standing awkwardly under the truck's long transmission, it was a fight to get the starter through the hole on the back of the bellhousing with her hands cramped by the truck's front driveshaft. She got it seated in position, only scuffing the back of her hand a little bit.

"Here, can you hold my popsicle?"

"Ew, no, it's got your mouth germs on it."

"Yang, for fuck's sake."

"Honey, I'm joking, give it to me."

"I'm gonna shove it down your cleavage in a second, meanie." she chuckled, handing off the dripping treat.

"You wouldn't!"

"It would be hard not to with how much is showing."

"What, it's a hot day outside!"

"It's fourteen degrees. Put a coat on."

"I don't need a coat, I'm already really hot."

Now, Ruby couldn't see it, but she was sure that her sister was winking at some unseen camera and hearing a live studio audience laugh in her head. These were the perils of living with a Yang.

"Whatever. Grab me the flexible thingy."

"Ooh, Ruby, you have one of those in your toolbox? Naughty girl, you are."

"Swiss fuckin' cheese, Yang, the flexible. Socket. Extension."

"I know, I know, I'm just jonesing you."

It took a lot of effort to not tackle her sister to the ground, chain her up, and lock her in a cupboard until dinnertime, but she'd offered to help and Ruby didn't really want to give that up. Yes, her sister was irritating. But at least she was irritating in a humorous way.

"Must you make my life so impossible?"

"Only when you're precariously positioned under two tonnes of steel."

"Son of a- whatever, you can stay if you shut up."

"I will stay but I will not shut up."

"Fine."

"See, you love me."

Ruby chuckled.

"I regret it every day."

Yang continued her oral assault on her popsicle as she carefully wiggled the socket up and over the top of the starter relay, notching it onto the inconveniently located upper bolt, spinning it slowly tight and pulling the two mating surfaces closer together. This was a lot easier of a process on her Blaze-Charger since the starter was mounted on the engine instead of the transmission, and the bolts were considerably easier to access. And thanks to the raised ride height of her truck, she could do it in her driveway on a creeper and didn't need a hoist and an irritating assistant. She snugged up the bottom bolt as well, and put her ratchet back into her overalls.

"How much more we gotta do, Rubes?"

"Driveshaft, exhaust, some radiator plumbing, linkages… not a huge amount."

"How much longer before she's running?"

"Uh… ten minutes?"

Yang shrugged and bit the last of her popsicle off, tossing the stick into the nearby garbage bin. Ruby took her own popsicle back, reaching up and grabbing the starter power wire and forcing it onto the shiny brass electrical connector at the base of the can.

"Anything I can do for you?"

Ruby looked over to her work bench, still littered with nickel and dime parts that needed to be put on.

"See that little hose there? On top of that book, shaped like a banana?"

Her sister sauntered over to the bench and picked up the wrong hose.

"This one?"

"No, the one next to it. One inch diameter."

"Oh, this. This is banana-shaped to you?"

"Yeah, that one. And yes."

"What kind of bananas are you eating?"

"Look, it was the best description I could come up with while pressed for time."

Yang chuckled, but brought the hose back over. "Sure, what do you want me to do with this?"

"One end goes to the bottom spout on the radiator, the other end goes on the water pump. I don't exactly remember which end is which, but I'm sure you'll figure it out. Hose clamps are in the screwdriver drawer."

"Kay, I'm on it."

Ruby smiled at her sister for a moment, before returning to her work. She turned, and picked up the substantial steel driveshaft from its place on the ground, and made short work of hoisting it up to her shoulder. This normally should have been a two-person job, seeing as the shaft weighed close to a hundred a fifteen pounds, but for her it was nearly weightless. She got the front joint lined up with ease, sliding the bolts into the flange holes and giving them a few turns with her fingers to seat them, then turning around doing the same on the differential side.

"There, that's mounted."

"Same here, the hose is on."

"Can you toss me uh… five-eighths socket?"

"On it."

She turned as Yang let the little chrome tool fly, only moving her hand to catch it at the last second, snatching it easily from the air. She clicked it on to her ratchet and made short work of snugging up the eight flange bolts and securing the truck's rear driveshaft in place.

"Can you do the front driveshaft? Bolts are in the flange. Should be a half-inch socket."

"Yup."

Ruby pulled out her flashlight and shone it up on the left side of the transmission, eyeing the long fork-shaped linkage lever she'd taped up to the transmission tunnel to keep out of the way. She stuck her arm up the skinny gap and pulled it free, peeling the tape off and letting it fall to the ground. She'd sweep it up later, she figured. The forked end slotted neatly back onto the protruding clutch lever on the side of the bellhousing, the holes still lining up perfectly. Lucky for her this truck had a mechanical clutch, meaning it was one less thing to bleed once she was done. She pulled the bolt out of her pocket and slid it into place, tightening it down with an adjustable wrench. Not the nicest of tools, but the bolt was tight, so she wasn't complaining.

"Right, just the exhaust left to put on, and we can lower it down."

"What, you mean you don't want to drive it with no exhaust?"

"Yang, you heard me and dad tooling around with the cop car with no exhaust on it, remember how loud that was?"

"Yeah."

"It's irritating."

"I remember your truck being incredibly loud."

"Only when you stand on it. The Blaze-Charger is pretty docile when you're just puttering around. This would be deafening all the time. No."

"Tsk, you're no fun."

Ruby rolled her eyes with a dry laugh, and picked up the tail end of the long exhaust pipe.

"Just grab your end, dummy."

"Yes, dad."

"I'm gonna kick you."

Yang grabbed her end, where it was split into two pipes at the pair of catalytic converters. They lifted together, having a heck of a time feeding the pipe's awkward bends over the rear axle and into its little rubber hangers. But it did get over, and together they got the other end lifted back into place and seated against the exhaust manifolds. Ruby was glad she bought all new hardware for this rebuild, as the nuts and bolts that were on the truck originally had been all corroded and rusted solid. Barely any were salvageable.

"There we are. See, now we can lower it back down."

"Is it ready to fire?"

"Almost. Gotta put coolant in it, gotta screw the shifters back on, and we're good to go. Oh, and, put the bumper and hood back on. But yeah, then it's beer time."

"Sweet."

Ruby slid out from under the hoist and pressed her finger into the down button. With a loud clack the safety latch unlocked and the truck started to slowly lower down to the ground. The old hoist whirred loudly, probably in need of some greasing and love, but it worked hard for them even in not very good condition. The tires squeaked as the old truck once more lay down on the ground, sinking onto its springs with what would have been a sigh had it been alive.

"Right, the coolant is over on the bench over there, along with two jugs of water."

"All of it?"

"Yeah, it's mixed half coolant and half water, just pour it all in the radiator."

"Got it."

Yang strode off to grab her assigned task, while Ruby pulled the driver's side door open and fell sideways into the seat. Strewn about the cabin was the two gear levers and the rubber boots to go with them. She grabbed the longer, primary one and slotted it over the small protruding stalk that rose up out of the hole in the floor and bolted it in place. The second, little one simply screwed onto the exposed stick just to the left of the main lever. She figured she'd put the boots on later, for now was the time to get the truck running. She stepped out, picking the large battery up off the floor and swinging up and over the fender and into the battery tray with a thud. She grabbed the negative cable and slipped it on and tightened it down. She looked to her sister, just having finished off the last bottle.

"Hands clear?"

"Yup."

She put the positive cable over the terminal and pushed it down, spinning the wingnut tight and pulling on it to make sure it had good contact. Satisfied, she got back into the cab of the truck and pulled the key out of the cupholder.

"Alright, we ready?"

"Let's see how good you really are with car repair."

"Oh, shove it." She put the key in the ignition and turned it to the on position, hearing the fuel pump turn on and waited a moment. "Kay, cranking."

She put the clutch in and turned the key all the way. The motor turned over a few times lifelessly, then lit off without a single struggle, settling quickly into a low idle.

"Well, how about that." Yang said, hand on her hips and an impressed smile on her face.

"Are you implying that you doubted me?"

"Not even for a moment."

Ruby chuffed and got out again, kicking the hoist arms out of the way and stepping back, impressed. There it was, idling softly an all eight cylinders again, thanks to the donation of a new motor from an old police car. The P-150 seemed almost pleased to be running smoothly again. Yang came up beside her and slapped her on the back.

"So, joyride?"

"Psh, no. Still gotta put the bumper and the hood back on."

"Then joyride?"

Ruby shrugged. "Maybe. Might be dinner time by then."

She went back around to the driver's door and reached in the window, turning the truck off again.

"Do you like doing this kinda work, Ru?"

She pondered a moment. "I mean, I guess so. It's no different than building weapons and fixing them, it's just on a much bigger scale. And with a lot more grease and oil on your shirt. I definitely wouldn't want to do this for a career, but I don't mind fixing dad's old junk once in a while. Here, grab that end of the bumper."

They lifted the truck's heavy steel bumper from where it was sitting off to the side, and carefully carried it back over, lining it up with the bolt holes on the front of the frame.

"Didja run into any significant problems on this?"

"Not really. It was a Sanus engine going into a Sanus vehicle. The wiring harnesses were the same, the motor mounting points were the same, all the plumbing was the same thread sizes."

"So easy-peasy then."

"Well, save for the fact that the truck's flywheel didn't mount back onto the cop car's engine."

Yang frowned. "Why not? You just said-"

"The truck uses a large, heavy-mass flywheel designed for high clutch temperatures, and the cop car, being an automatic, has a low-mass flex plate with a different bolt pattern on the back of the crankshaft."

"Well, how'd you solve that?"

Ruby screwed in the two bumper bolts on her side, handing her sister two more for the other side.

"Overnighted a flywheel from a Stallion. Same size as the truck's, but with the same bolt pattern as the cop car's crank. Went right together like butter."

"Smart."

"I like to think so. Hey, do you know what that means?" she gestured to the white block lettering on the bumper, spelling out VAFNG-NTV.

"Uh…" Yang squinted at it, and then tried to pronounce it. "Vafing untvee?"

Ruby laughed. "No, not… not quite."

"Then tell me."

Ruby stood up, satisfied with the mounting job on the bumper.

"V stands for Vacuo, AFNG for Air Force, national guard, and NTV for non-tactical vehicle. This was an air base utility truck out in the Shade district, used to shuttle ordinance trailers to bombers and tow anti-air guns around. This old beast never saw service on the front lines."

"I'm impressed you know that."

"We use the same marking system in Atlas, and it wasn't hard to look up the auction house records that dad bought it from. Here, help me with the hood."

They carefully pulled the hood off the wall where she'd left it on a towel and carried it over to the truck, positioning it over the raised hinge plates. Ruby pulled out two more short bolts and screwed them in, handing two more over to her sister. With the hood fully secured, she pulled it down and latched it shut with hearty whump of the heavy steel.

"So will this truck ever be roadworthy again?"

Ruby shrugged. "It's roadworthy now. Just need a new seatbelt for the passenger side, and it can even be safetied."

"Wait, what about all the rust holes?"

"Yeah, I filled them. Have you seen the rocker panels? I spent all of last night welding a new floor and rockers in. Cab corners, too."

Yang took a step back and checked

"Oh, yeah, now I see. Why'd you paint them black on a blue truck?"

"It's all I had on the shelf. I just needed to cover them with something so they wouldn't rust again. Besides, the frame on this thing is really straight, it's safe to drive as it is now. I was expecting to hoist this thing up and have it fold in half under its own weight. But, no, it's solid."

"And dad paid, what, eight hundred lien for this thing?"

"Yeah, something like that. Now, I think I promised you a joyride. Hop in."

"Ha, nice."

Ruby pushed her toolbox out of the way and lifted the garage door all the way up, pushing the chain into the little notch on the side of the guide rail and locking it in place. She did another quick check underneath the truck to make sure it wasn't leaking any fluids, and satisfied with what she found, and went around to the driver's side and got in. She settled into the seat, wiggling until she was comfortable, and put the clutch in and cranked the motor over again. Once more, it fired up without effort, a testament to how good she was. With a wiggle of the long transmission lever into first gear, she tentatively lifted her foot off the clutch, feeling the truck start to crawl forward.

"Oh, you beautiful machine."

She let off and pulled forward, the truck bucking a little as the clutch spring bounced against the flywheel. Not one to do things half-assed, as soon as the truck was fully out of the garage and onto the dusty gravel driveway she pushed her right foot into the floorboards. All two hundred and fifty Valean police car horsepower unloaded through the truck's rear tires and spun a cloud of dust into the air. She grabbed the gear lever and grunted it into second and booted the accelerator down again. The light, empty back end attempted to overtake the front of the truck on the loose surface, but she didn't let it, sawing at the wheel and keeping her foot firmly planted against the yes pedal. She noticed how intensely the transmission levers seemed to be twisting and bouncing in place, something that wasn't quite right.

"Oh, we forgot something!" she shouted over the sound of the engine bouncing off the limiter.

"What's that?"

"Transmission bushing!"

"Oh damn!"

She put the clutch in and coasted, letting the vehicle quiet down as the coasted down the driveway and around the corner.

"It's fine, the engine and front diff are holding it in, it'll just wiggle around for a bit, I'll fix it tomorrow."

As they rounded the back of the house and onto the front driveway, they noticed that down at the street a small, unremarkable grey hatchback had pulled in, a large circular sign on its roof. Ruby rolled the truck to a stop and they watched a young man in a red polo shirt step out.

"Oh, dinner's here."

She shut the truck off and got out, gesturing to Yang.

"C'mon, hope you're hungry."

"Honey, I'm always hungry."

She shut her door and started over, strolling passed the huge Crusader wagon and Yang's little Syncro Coupe to the delivery person. She recognized the young man, a faunus by the name of Caliban, as a student who'd attended Signal Academy with her and Yang. He'd been a year younger than her and spent most of his time hanging out with his 'herd' of other herbivore faunuses, usually talking about video games and Grifball in their little corner of the soccer field. She smiled as they approached, trying her best friendly face, not even because he had brought her food.

"Heya, Cal!" Yang opened, bouncing up next to him. She put her elbows on the hood of his car and leaned forward, exposing more of herself than necessary. He seemed intimidated by the beaudacious introduction. "What'd you bring me this time? Money? Power? Intimacy?"

"What… you ordered." he said, timid of the much taller woman. Seemed that the only thing about Caliban that had grown from Signal was the length of his hair. "Was I supposed to bring anything else?"

"Cal, please ignore my sister, she's an idiot." Ruby apologized, reaching into her back pocket for her wallet. She pulled out two twenties, crisp and green and fresh from a bank machine. "There you go, for your troubles."

"Oh, come on, Ru-ster. Let me have some fun with him. He's a youthful adolescent pizza delivery boy who's brought two hungry girls some hot meat-"

Ruby turned and punched her sister in the stomach. Not hard enough to knock the wind out of her, but sudden enough to take her by surprise and get her to shut up.

"Play nice, or I'm eating your half of the pizza."

"You see the kind of girl I have to deal with, Cal? She's such a bully! After all I've done for her!"

"Can it, Yang. Sorry Cal. You got my pizzas?"

"Uh…" he nervously moved around to the back of his car, hesitant that he might be either seduced or punched, and lifted the tailgate. The smell of baked dough and spicy sausage wafted around to them in the breeze. "Yeah, here you go."

"Thank you, kindly." she took the boxes from them, careful to not burn her arms on the bottom of the hot cardboard. "Keep the change, Cal. For you."

"Thank you, ma'am. Be seein' ya."

Ruby stepped back with a courteous smile as the boy got back in his car, the engine rattling loudly back to life. He backed down the driveway and out onto the road, moving off slowly in a cloud of gravel dust and engine smoke. As soon as his car was gone from view, she turned to her sister.

"Must you hit on everything that moves?"

"What? C'mon, that's just a little bit of fun. 'Sides, we haven't seen him in long stints since Signal, I have to at least be a little playful."

"I think you scare him."

"Honey, that's what I do. Intimidate men."

"Yeah."

She pivoted on the spot and strolled back over to the old P-150, circling back around to the bed. Holding the pizzas in one hand, she reached out and dropped the tailgate with the other, stepping clear as it fell flat with a crunch of steel. She set the pizza down in the bed and hopped up onto the tailgate, letting her legs swing freely underneath her. Yang did the same.

"Oh, hey, you fixed the latch."

"Yup. Gate closes again."

"How much of this truck did you manage to fix in only two days?"

Ruby shrugged.

"Vast majority of the important stuff. I was up for, like what, eighteen, nineteen hours yesterday?"

"On your own birthday, no less."

"Fixing old cars makes me feel better. It's cathartic. I mean, I hung out with you and dad for my actual birthday bit of yesterday, with the cake 'n all that. Is there any left, by the way?"

"Uh, there's still like half of it in the fridge if you want it."

"I'll have some later. Pizza?"

"Oh, yes please."

Ruby picked up the top box and handed it to her sister, grabbing the second one and setting it on her lap. She opened the lid, and was greeted by the beautiful sight of a mountain of meat and cheese staring back up at her. There was bacon, ground beef, spicy sausage, and pepperoni topping it all off, smothered in a fine three-cheese blend of mozzarella, cheddar, and jalapeno havarti.

"Be still, my heart valves. You will get through this with me. Dad! Pizza's here!"

She reached in and picked up a piece, watching the extra-gooey cheese string off as she pulled it up and out of the box. She set the cardboard aside and had to use both hands to direct the sloppy, greasy mess into her face. She got a bite down, feeling the heat of the searing oil burn the roof of her mouth. This was not a problem for someone with the strength of a mountain, however, as she simply squinted through the pain and focused on the flavour of the sausage start to burn a hole in her tongue. This was the last time she was willingly ordering Regret-level spicy from Capilano's.

"Ow… hoff"

She looked to Yang, currently struggling with her own vegetarian pizza, as it was oozing out the sides of her mouth, and there was an entire piece of mushroom on her chin. Not that Ruby was gonna make mention of it. Their dad came around the corner with Zwei at his side, the little corgi's tiny legs doing double overtime to keep up with the tall gentleman. He had a noticeable skip in his step, probably due to the promise of pizza.

"Hey, it's my two favourite girls!"

"Mmmh hmmm whmmm yhmm nlmmm fmmm, dmm" Ruby tried, her mouth full of burning but delicious pizza.

"Honey, don't talk with your mouth full." he scolded, picking up the old dog and depositing him in the back of the truck. "It's rude."

She swallowed. "Sorry. What I said was that I hope we're your only favourite girls, dad."

He chuckled and sat down on the tailgate, slinging his arm over her shoulder and pulling her in close. "Of course, don't be ridiculous. You two are the only girls in the world for me, you know that. Slide your old man a slice of that, Yang."

"Shure."

She spoke through a mouth full of pizza, garnering a knowing glare from their father. He grabbed a slice out of the box of vegetarian, then reached into Ruby's box and grabbed a slice of the meaty goodness and tossed it to Zwei. He woofed breathlessly and padded up to it, tongue hanging out and eyes lidded closed. Ruby watched him for a moment start to consume the point of the pizza with vigor, settling down onto his paws and smacking his teeth lazily.

"I see you got my truck runnin' again."

She grinned into her pizza. "That I did."

"I'm proud of you, kiddo. I was thinking of buying a new truck to replace it, but now I guess I won't need to."

"Eh, it still need a few things. I'm by no means done with it."

"Did you get it out of four-wheel-drive? It's been stuck in four-by for like two years now."

"Yeah, I pulled the transfer box apart and cleaned the rust out and replaced all the oils. Took me an hour, tops. I fixed the rear end too, now it actually has limited slip ability thanks to our friend the police car."

"That thing just keeps on giving."

"I could salvage the radio out of it, fix the truck's. Then you can finally listen to your slow jams while you lord over your property."

He chuckled. "Well, if you can do the air conditioner, too…"

"I can certainly try. Don't know where I'm gonna get the freon for it, though. The stuff is illegal to import because of packaging reasons. Something to do with compressed gas, I dunno."

"Honey, you impress me just by being here, you don't need to go out of your way. The fact you fixed this crusty old hunk is more than impressive, you really didn't need to."

"Well, I have to have something to come back to fix. If everything works here, why would I even come and visit?"

"Oh, Ruby. You can always come and visit, even if to just fix our broken hearts."

Her hair recieved a dad-sized fluffing. She giggled.

"Alright, alright, I'll come visit more often."

"That's my g-"

They were interrupted by a loud, obnoxious siren coming from inside the house. Judging by how he'd stopped mid-sentence at this, Ruby figured it might be kind of important. He put his pizza down in the open box and stepped off the tailgate, frowning at the house.

"What is it, dad?"

"Proximity alarm. Something triggered the fence."

Ruby looked to her sister, who just shrugged and demolished the last two bites of her pizza, closing the lid on the box and grabbing both pizzas in her arms. Ruby finished her slice and grabbed Zwei by the collar, lifting the fat old pup into her arms and following her father and sister into the house. She was led cautiously into a side room she'd never been in before, one with only a wall covered in red light bulbs and a map of the farmland. Three of the lights were blinking, in three different corners of their land.

"The heck is this?"

"A proximity detection system your sister and I installed at the beginning of the season. There are sensors every hundred feet along the fence line and the fence itself is electrified. If anything gets through, we know about it in here."

"Well, what's gotten through?"

"Probably a deer, or a small Grimm or something."

Ruby froze up a little.

"Grimm this close to the city?"

"We're far enough out that it's a possibility, you know that. Besides, nothing worse than little Creeps out here."

"But why three alarms at once?"

"Happens from time to time. Not hugely uncommon." He tapped one of the bulbs on the map. "Here, Ruby, you take this one. Go out and see what's tripped the alarm, see if the fence needs fixing. The sensor's right at the post, just next to the big weeping willow north of field eleven. Remember where that is?"

She nodded. "Yeah, I remember."

"Good. Take the truck out for a spin, see if it can handle the trip out there. There's a twelve gauge under the back seat if you need it and my toolbox. Yang, you take northwest corner, I'll take Zwei to the southeast. If you encounter problems, radio me, I'll come running."

"Sure thing."

He took Zwei from her and put him down, patting his legs and power-walking out the door and whistling for the dog. To his credit, Zwei bounced along behind with enough of a skip in his paw to show he had at least some interest in the task at hand. He woofed breathlessly as he padded out the door. Ruby stood for a moment more in front of the map, tracing her finger along the roads that led to the furthest field where the alarm was going off. It required a bit of road driving, but only about three or four hundred feet. And considering the public highway ran through their property, the local authorities would likely not mind if she drove a truck with no plates for such a short distance. She heard the familiar grumble of their dad's side-by-side utility vehicle come to life, and the sound of it disappearing across the property to the dirt access road that ran south.

"Right," Yang clapped, setting the pizza down on the table. "Guess I'll dig out my gauntlets and take the tarp off my dirt bike. Sucks you have to go so far for yours, Ru-ster. Sure you'll be alright?"

"Should be fine. Besides, he said it was probably just a deer, I can deal with that without any weapons."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that, hun. I just wouldn't want you to be… y'know, alone for so long."

"Yang, I'll be fine, don't worry about me."

Her sister sighed deeply, and leaned against the wall, her arms crossed.

"That's literally all I do, baby. Go on, now. You heard dad."

"I know, I'm on it."

With a skip and a wink back to her sister, she left the strange little room and bounded back outside to the driveway, shooing away a flock of pigeons that had gathered in the back of the old truck and were feasting on the remains of the pizza slice that Zwei hadn't finished. She slammed the tailgate back up and jumped into the cab, pulling her seatbelt on with a click. Safety first, after all. She yanked her door shut again and fired the old truck into life. It was still surprising just how willing it was to run with the new engine, but she should have expected that. After doing a quick check to make sure her handheld radio was turned on and on the correct channel, she put the truck in gear and let out on the clutch.

Of course, she had to immediately panic-stop as Yang blasted past in front of her on her motorcycle, the front wheel raised off the ground and sunglasses on her face.

"Jeez! Put a helmet on, you fuckin' maniac." she said to herself as she watched her sister disappear around the corner. "I swear, sometimes…"

She pulled out of the driveway and onto the road with a chuckle and a dumb smile.

/.../

The old truck seemed so much younger now, cruising along the dirt path at around seventy kilometres an hour. She had her arm out the window and her shades on, the cool evening air whooshing past on her skin. She'd found a pack of bubblegum in the glove compartment, still within its expiry date, and was currently enjoying the sharp minty flavour in her mouth. Seriously, if she had a working radio, it would almost have been a perfect day for her. Even if she couldn't pick up her own radio station from this continent, working radio or not.

All five forward gears of the truck's old, original gearbox worked quite spectacularly without any grinding or crunching, something she couldn't say about the milk truck she used to drive and even her own RRS sedan she had back at Beacon. The smoothness of the formerly battered army truck was sublime, even unloaded and on the rough, dusty roads. The weather seemed favourable for such a day as this, the sun was still up even after dinner time, the air was nice and cool without being biting, and the smell of the land, despite being full of allergens, was quite pleasant. She felt… relaxed. At ease, even. The small river that flowed just next to the road glinted in the sunlight, reflecting the blue sky and minimal clouds.

She slowed the truck down, seeing her turn off just up on the right where the road crossed the little babbling brook on a wooden bridge. She even bothered to use her turn signal as she pulled around the tight corner, because that's what safe drivers did, even on their own private property. Just ahead was the bridge.

"Oh, fuck."

She slammed on the brake, skidding the truck to a stop in the dirt.

"Oh, you've gotta be kidding me."

She stepped out of the vehicle and onto the dirt road, not entirely believing what she was looking at. Literally seven days before she had driven down this way in the semi truck, trailers plural full of grain to unload her sister's combine over this very bridge at least five times. It had been plenty sturdy then, what had happened? She reached into the cab and grabbed the walkie talkie out of the glove box. She hit the speaker button with a sigh.

"Dad, come in."

After a moment, the radio beeped back at her.

"Go ahead, kiddo."

"The bridge at the north end is out. There's barely anything left of it."

"Oh. Well, damn. The rainstorm on wednesday must have raised the water enough to sweep out the foundations."

"Well, I can't get across here, what do you want me to do?"

"The alarm's gotta be reset, hun. The river gets shallow about two hundred yards upstream, and it's all rock at the bottom. Should be able to ford it."

" Dad, I just fixed this truck like, twenty minutes ago, I don't wanna break it."

"You'll be fine, the river's not that deep."

"How deep is deep?"

"Waist-deep."

"Your waist or mine?"

"Shouldn't matter."

"Dad, you're like, eight inches taller than me."

"You'll be fine, kiddo. Have fun."

Ruby rolled her eyes and tossed the radio back into the truck, letting it land in the passenger seat with a clatter of plastic. She had a glance up the river. The bank on her side was at least as wide or wider than the old truck the whole way up, but it seemed to made entirely of rocks slick with moss and mud. A tough course even for a properly built off-road vehicle like a Bantam Renegade or a VHI Super-Wagon, nearly impassable for anything else. She gave a weary look to the P-150. Sure, it may have been a military vehicle, but it was no HummVee. The tires were knobby-ish and yes it had low-range gearing, but it would probably be a struggle. She sighed and got back into the cab, slamming the door.

"I swear, if this breaks the truck again," she reached down and grabbed the transfer case lever and yanked it all the way back to the 4L position. "You're waking up with bees in your pillowcase, dad."

She figured a slow approach to this problem would be best instead of charging in foot to the floor. She eased up on the clutch, first gear only, and let the torque of the motor at idle pull her forward. She cranked the wheel to the left and dropped the nose down the embankment, feeling the tires slip a little as the fronts hit the riverbank.

A threat of bees seems a little much

"Oh, hey. Where've you been?"

Around. Hanging out. Watch that rock.

She steered slightly to the right, avoiding a particularly large boulder that may have punched a hole in her freshly repaired rocker panel.

"Thought we agreed you weren't necessary."

I'm just checking in, you seem pretty content without me.

"I am."

How'd you sleep after telling Yang about Jaune?

She pondered a moment, letting the truck crawl over a muddy patch.

"Without incident. I mean, I guess when I have normal dreams I don't really think about them. I can tell ya I woke up feeling rested, though."

First time in… how long?

"A while." she chuckled, using about an inch of the throttle to ease the truck up a short embankment.

Do you think he'll affect you anymore?

"Hard to say. I mean, he hasn't in the last two days. I haven't really felt trapped by thoughts of him since telling Yang."

Sounds like you made progress. Cross that tree at an angle

She turned the steering wheel left, and angled the truck more aggressively against the small log. Each front tire mounted it in turn, slipping a little on the mossy surface. The truck bounced heavily as it landed on the other side, throwing her around in her seat.

"Well, I can say with fair certainty that I feel a lot better now."

Then you should go running back to Weiss in Atlas

"Definitely a great idea, but I do have a few things left to do."

What about Kayaba Forest?

"That is one of the few things. Still haven't figured out how to get back there, it's an exclusion zone now."

Break in

"Probably. I want my knife back."

And you want closure.

She winced.

"I don't want to continue this conversation right now."

That's fair. Tomorrow, perhaps

"Yeah… bug me about it later."

She waited for a response. None came. Only the sound was of the truck's creaks and moans as she crawled it over the rocky riverbank. She smirked.

"Alright, guess we're done with that. Didn't want to talk to you anyway."

She rolled the truck to a stop. This was about the spot her dad had said, about two hundred yards upstream. She set the parking brake and got out, squinting in the light. The river was shallow here, that wasn't an issue. The problem she now had was the speed. The water was moving. And it was moving quite strongly.

"Oh, see, this is why the bridge went out."

The current moving downstream was only at a measly walking pace, but even with her limited knowledge of fluid dynamics she knew that the weight of the moving water would be easily enough to overcome the mass of the truck. She couldn't see the bottom from where she was standing, so she couldn't accurately see if the riverbed was sandy and would wash away under the tires if she tried to cross. She kicked off her boots and socks and rolled up the legs of her overalls to her knees.

"Okay, here goes nothing." she stepped gingerly into the water. "Fuck, that's cold! Shit!"

The icy river shot through her legs like an explosion, nearly making her cramp up and fall. She bit through it and moved forward, the current having its way with her legs, moving them further and further downstream as she walked. Only a quarter of the way through the river and the water was already starting to soak into the cuffs of her overalls. It was definitely gonna be a struggle. She turned and waded out, finding herself a few yards downstream of her boots. She did her best to avoid the sharp rocks that littered the edge of the water, using the hood of the truck as a hand-hold to keep herself upright. Her feet still wet, she pocketed her socks and slipped her feet into her boots without them, shivering a little as she got back into the cab of the truck.

"Fuck, that's gonna carry me back down to the bridge at that rate."

She sat for a second, idly staring at the water and tapping her fingers against the steering wheel.

"Nothing I can do about it. Just gotta commit. What is it that Yang says? Yeet?"

She put the truck into second and revved up the motor.

"Well, 'yeet', I guess."

She dropped the clutch. The old truck surged forward and into the stream, sending a huge wave crashing forward and over the hood. She cranked the steering wheel left and got the nose pointed at a steep upstream angle, keeping as small a side profile as she could to the current. The tires spun underwater, churning up the loose rocky bottom as the fresh, healthy engine fired all of its power at her with an almost enthusiastic note.

"Come on, you old dog. Swim."

The water was a lot deeper than she was expecting right around the middle, and the truck sank down to its fenders. She nervously kept her boot in it, hoping it would continue to drag itself forward and float if it had to. Any deeper and the motor would start to suck water in through its airbox and that would instantly bring her journey to a halt. The worst possible thing that could happen would be the truck turning sideways and rolling over, as she'd seen happen in enough internet videos of people making bad water crossings.

"Please keep going. Please."

Her silent praying paid off, in the form of the front wheels finding traction on the opposite bank and dragging the heavy vehicle closer to the far side. She held her foot down a moment longer as the truck mounted the far bank and bounced its way out of the river, soaking wet and billowing steam out from underneath the hot exhaust. She shunted to a stop and cheered, patting the dashboard with a big smile on her face.

"Yes! I am invincible!"

She got out of the truck and did a little victory dance, bouncing around and hugging the hood of the truck. She paused a moment, realizing how strange that was. She stepped back and coughed.

"Well, at least you're clean, now."

/.../

She pulled up along the dirt road, overhanged by the branches of the weeping willow. She coughed and shut the engine off, reaching behind her seat and grabbing the red metal toolbox that had been rattling around during the ride. She sniffled and stepped out, bumping the door open with her shoulder. Her gum had lost its flavour at this point, so she spit it out down onto the ground just in front of the rear tire.

"Ugh, where are you, fence?"

She closed the door behind her and trudged over to the weeping willow, toolbox in hand. Her nose itched quite badly from all the dust in the air. She sneezed into her sleeve, leaving a patch of dust-coloured dampness on the short sleeve cuff. She sighed and brushed it off with her free hand, wiping her palm on her hip. She winced, feeling her ankle hurt a little. She'd rolled it falling up the basement stairs that morning while collecting wood for the garage fireplace. She paused at the tree and put her toolbox down and kicked her boot off. She held herself upright on the tree and reached down, massaging the bone just above the joint, pressing her thumb into the tendon.

"Fuck… How even? How did I manage this?"

She sighed and slipped her foot back into her boot and picked up her toolbox. The pain in her ankle would pass soon enough. It was her right foot anyway, her bad side. If it was her left foot, she'd have some strong words for it. And a bat for the disobedient staircase. How dare it exist.

"Right. Let's have a look at y- oh!"

She rounded the tree to the far side, where the fence ran along the edge of their property. Past this point was another series of fields that belonged to the neighboring farm, who Ruby didn't know. But the field wasn't wasn't what caught her eye. She briefly panicked as she caught sight of the black skinned animal, and the white armour adorning its face and chest.

"Ohhhh, 'kay. Alright, don't panic, Ruby."

She took her hand off the grip of her Seven-Five and steadied herself. She moved slowly forward, careful not to spook the animal. It was a Grimm, specifically a Cervidae, standing about six foot tall to the top of the shoulder, not including the fantastically huge set of ivory horns that protruded out of its head. It seemed to be stuck in the fence, the steel register wire wrapped around its neck and up into its antlers.

"Okay, this is why the alarm tripped. Right."

She huffed softly, keeping her eyes on the beast. It hadn't noticed it her yet, its glowing red eyes pointed down at its own hoof, padding at the fence. She put the toolbox down, careful to not make any noise as she popped the rusty latch and lifted the lid. She fumble blindly inside, catching her fingers on the sharp end of a pruning saw. Her fingers finally found the handle of a pair of metal shears and pulled them out. She pocketed them, keeping them out of sight to the Grimm. She kept her breath steady, knowing that the sight of sharpened blades tended to aggravate the animals to the point of aggression. She reached up under her arm and unbuckled the snap on her holster and pulled the pistol out, laying it down in the toolbox, safety on.

"Calm… calm…"

She crept forward to where the Grimm was standing. It seemed irritated, nervous, and actually kind of scared. It was bleeding, where the register cable was wrapped around its face, the trail of black, acrid blood was leaking from the wounds. She winced, checking from afar. She still hadn't decided if she wanted to kill it or let it free, but without her gun there would be little to do if it tried to gore her with its antlers. Even from where she was standing she could see how sharp the ends of the antlers were. They'd cut through her like tissue paper. She shivered.

"H-hello."

She spoke quietly, crossing the halfway point between the Grimm and her gun, now closer to the danger than her weapon. The beast huffed, blowing two little clouds of dust below its muzzle. Its eyes flicked over for a moment, narrowing in on her, before flicking away again back to the ground. It pawed at the fence with its hoof with what looked like exhausted muscles. It seemed almost out of energy.

"Hey, are you okay? Are you hurt?"

She didn't quite know why she was trying to converse with the beast, but it seemed right. She liked to talk to Zwei whenever he was within a ten-foot radius, even though she knew full well the corgi couldn't speak and was usually nearly comatose-asleep or with his entire head and neck in his food bowl. The old dog was no longer as spry as he was when he was a pup, but that didn't stop Ruby from treating like one and talking to him and squeezing his little face and ears.

Something she could not do with the large Grimm.

"It's okay… it's okay… I'm gonna get you out of there…"

The last time she had an interaction with a Cervidae was four years prior, driving home from the barracks in her old RRS sedan. It was dark, and the car's faded headlights weren't exactly doing a good job illuminating the snowed-over highway outside Anfang. The first and so far only car accident she ever had had involved a Cervidae when a fifteen hundred pound male bull jumped over the snowbank at the side of the road and directly into the path of her car. Needless to say, she'd hit the Grimm, taking out its legs and causing its massive bulk to impact her windshield, crushing all the bodywork and roof structure almost into her head. All she remembered of the incident was slamming on the brakes, followed by waking up sitting in the back of an ambulance with an ice pack on her head and a fire paramedic tending to some skin scuffs on her arms. She knew full well these Grimm were substantial creatures, and she was putting herself in incredible risk the closer she got.

"Hey, hey… shhhh…"

She reached one hand out, palm down to the beast's snout. She had her glove off, both of her hands in full view of the animal's line of sight to prove that she was unarmed. The only thing she had on her was a set of dirty overalls and the tin snips, which wouldn't be even a little bit effective against the thick skin and armoured breastplate.

"I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm here to h-help."

Her hand touched the beast's elegantly long snout very briefly. It's head shook briefly as it recoiled from her touch, before settling down again. She had a moment of nearly bowl-emptying fear as the beast grumbled deep in its throat, puffing a cloud of hot air at her and trying to twist its head and horns at her. She settled, reaching out again for the snout and settling her hand against it. She chuckled nervously.

"See? I'm nice, I promise."

She gently stroked the black fur. It was substantially softer than she was expecting. From all her experience with other forms of Grimm like Beowulves and Ursai, she was expecting a leathery skin with weathering and countless battle scars tightening it solid. Not so with this particular Cervidae, its skin was like fine suede, supple and almost juvenile.

"You're very pretty."

She carefully stroked down its snout from just below its faceplate down to the top of its nose. It calmed with every caress, its ragged, angry breathing softening to a soft almost purr. It's body flexed as the animal breathed deeply, sighing into itself. She pulled out a rag from her pocket and dabbed away some of the blood on the beast's forehead, ignoring the pungent smell of the black, steaming goo.

"I'm going to cut you free, I promise it won't hurt too much."

She put the rag over the animal's eyes, keeping her left hand on the beast's snout. She pulled out the tin snips with her other hand and unlocked them with a flick of her wrist. She very carefully reached over and placed the blades over the steel cable that bound the beast's head down. She kept the blades way clear of the skin and positioned her hand around the handles.

"I'm going to cut now. Stay still, please…"

She squeezed the snips shut and cut through the cable. It broke with a twang, loosening around the animal's head and horns. She made sure to keep an even pressure on the long, elegant nose of the creature to remind it that she was there for it. It huffed again, making her shiver. She didn't want it knowing it was free on one side just yet, as it would have likely panicked and tried to rip its head away, surely severing its own neck in the cable.

"Okay, just one more…"

She carefully changed hands on the animal's snout, grabbing the snips in her left hand now and reaching out for the cable.

"Still… calm... Easy…"

She cut the cable, completely freeing the Cervidae. It huffed, almost knocking the cloth off its eyes. Ruby caught her breath in her throat, freezing solid. It knew now that it was free. Yes, if she needed to she could fight it and win with her bare hands, but this massive animal was significantly heavier than the Grimm she normally faced and had two massive pointy antlers that could flay her like fresh fish, and she was unarmed. She gave herself a sixty percent chance of success on this one.

"Okay, I'm going to untangle your antlers now, be calm… be calm…"

She pushed the blades of the tin snips into the dirt to keep them out of the way and brought both hands up to the animal's face. She grabbed the now loose cable in her shaking, nervous hand and started to feed it back to itself, making the tangled loops of cable larger and looser around the thick muscled neck and antlers. Two of the loops came off easy, flicking past the beast's tufted ears and down away from its face. The last remaining two loops were stuck fast in the antlers, and weren't going to come free with just some tugging.

"One more, one more, I promise. I've got you, sweetheart."

She grabbed the tin snips again and clipped through the cabled tangled in the antlers, pulling the segments free from its head. She quickly tossed the cable down into the dirt and pocketed the snips.

"I'm going to take the cloth off now. I promise to not hurt you."

She lifted the cloth off the beast's eyes very slowly. It blinked a few times as the light hit it in the eyes again, huffing through its nostrils into her face. It's hot breath blew her hair around and made her fluster. She shivered as she looked into the glowing red eyes, partially obscured by the white armoured face plate. It shook its head, shaking out its neck fur and blinking slowly.

"Ohhh-hohhh my gosh…"

It took a step forward and into her. It pushed its face into hers, bumping its nose against her cheek. Her voice came out breathlessly.

"Ho-oh-ly shit… Very nice… very good…"

Its tongue was rough and leathery on her shoulder as it licked its lips. She carefully stroked up under the beast's chin, scratching its soft fur, feeling its soft breathing and gentle heartbeat.

"That's good… nice Grimm…"

She cupped its face in her hands and gently pressed her forehead to the Grimm's, feeling the soft skin against hers. Her breathing was nowhere near as calm as collected as the Cervidae's. She was almost in full panic-mode as it took another step forward, almost knocking her backwards.

"Okay, okay, okay, shhh, no need to do anything rash, I'm only here to help…"

It huffed in her face again, warm and quick. She kept her composure to the best of her ability with the massive animal nearly pinning her to the tree. It turned its head to one side and huffed, pressing the side of its head against her cheek. It took her a moment to realize that it was trying to get her to notice the wound on the side of its neck.

"Oh, oh, okay okay, I've got you, sweetie. Don't worry, I'll clean it."

She took the cloth again and carefully dabbed away the blood that was pulsing slowly out of the wound. She pressed the cloth into the gash and let it soak for a moment, dabbing it away. She inhaled and pressed her hand to the cut on its neck.

"Alright, let's see if this works on you…"

She closed her eyes and focused, feeling the calming flow of aura down her arm and into her fingers. She let out a breath and let her aura flow out her fingers and into the large Grimm's neck. She breathed quietly and felt the wound closing up under her palm. She shivered as she felt the Cervidae's fur stand on end as it healed.

"Oh my goodness…"

She'd tried using aura to heal her squadmates while out on field duty to minimal success, but certainly effective enough for emergency use. She'd once accidentally used it on Zwei back at Beacon when he had stepped on a thumbtack in the study room, and realized that she could channel small amounts of aura into other people to increase the speed at which healing occurred. Everyone could do it, just to different effectiveness. Even Pyrrha could use her aura for minor scuffs and scrapes, having shown her how to do this exact trick after one particularly bad fighting class lesson where the woman had punched her through a retaining wall. All had been quickly forgiven.

But to use this power on a Grimm?

"Ohhh…"

She took her hand away, finding nothing but a thin grey scar on the sheer ebony black skin.

"Ohhhhkay, that's…. Significant….shit..."

The Grimm huffed, breathing into her face again. She reached out carefully and kissed the Cervidae on the little scar on its neck. She stepped back and took her hands off the beast, keeping eye contact.

"You're free now… You're good, you're safe…"

It lifted its head to full height. She was quick to realize just how much danger she was really in, as the creature was a full ten feet tall at the top of its antlers and more like eighteen hundred to two thousand pounds of bulk. Definitely a bull. She kept her hands out, palms down, her heart racing like a hummingbird.

"There… there… we go… c-careful…Are you okay?"

The beast, of course, didn't respond. But it did take a step back and bow its head at her, bending its front legs down and respectively closing its eyes for a moment. She was astonished.

"You're...welcome…"

She watched as the beast stood again and turned, stepping away and leaping gracefully out of her property and into the neighbour's field. It landed a full sixty feet away in a single bound, its hooves hitting the ground perfectly silently. It turned its head back and looked at her a moment. She waved sheepishly at it as it turned and bounded off into the grainfield. She shivered as it disappeared. She collapsed to her knees as soon as the creature was out of sight, grasping at her chest.

"Oh, my fuck. Oh."

She chuckled a moment, wiping the sweat off her forehead. Her whole body shook as she shook her way over to her toolbox and picked it up. She carried it back to the truck, her nerves shot and her body in that weird place between shaking fear and ecstatic wonderment. She pulled the passenger door open and popped the rear-swinging half door to toss the toolbox inside.

"W-well, that's an experience. Not sure I want to do that again."

She kept herself upright as her legs nearly buckled from the stress. She pulled the handheld radio from the passenger floor and clicked in the button, trying to calm her nerves.

"Dad, come in."

"MMMMMMgo ahead?"

"Found the broken fence. Big Cervidae got tangled in it."

"You deal with it?"

She chuckled.

"Yeah, I let it go. Seemed pretty thankful. I had to cut the cable, though."

"Coolio, hon. I guess you don't have any new cable."

"I've got crush clamps?"

"They won't hold the tension, don't bother. I'll swing buy and fix it later."

"Cool. I'll be home in about twenty, then."

"Thanks, kiddo. Love you."

Ruby smiled down at the radio and placed it back on the passenger seat and closing the rear door with a thud. She reached for the outside edge of the front door, not really paying attention to her surroundings. She then heard another huff of breath, and a grunt. She blinked. Was the Cervidae back? She checked over her shoulder, spotting a short, fat Boarbatusk about sixty feet in front of the truck's bumper. She turned back to her toolbox for a moment, forgetting about it. This lasted about two seconds.

"Wait, fuck, what?!"

She did a double take. Sure enough, there was the Boarbatusk, still glaring at her up ahead, its front legs wide apart and its eyes glowing a bright red. It snorted in her direction.

"Oh, fuck you, you waited 'till I was done, you son of a bitch."

It started to charge up its roll, pawing at the ground with its misshapen hooves and spinning in place. This was not okay. She wasn't about to be ambushed by such an ugly creature on her own property. She reached back behind the front seats of the truck to the ready rack and lifted the hefty shotgun from its perch, the clasps clicking open loudly.

"You think you can ambush me?!"

She brought the weapon out and got her grip comfortable around the pump and trigger. The safety was flicked off.

"You putrid sack of shit, you made a mistake today."

It started to charge her. She shouldered the gun and fired. The big twelve gauge round slammed the black polymer stock into her shoulder with an aggressive shunt, sending all nine of the lead balls downrange and into the beast. It stumbled, but continued forward. Ruby spit angrily into the dirt.

"I'm not having you ruin a perfect moment, asswipe."

She pumped the action, spitting the spent case out and directly into her bicep, making her cringe as hot brass touched exposed skin. The only disadvantage to a shotgun, she thought. It wasn't left-handed. She fired again, slowing the charging animal even further. She fired a third time.

"When I tell you to stop, you stop!"

She fired directly at the beast's face, ripping through the skin and cracking the faceplate with one solid hit. It stumbled, still charging at her. She let go of the pump handle with her right hand and dashed forward at the charging boarbatusk. Just as it was about to hit her, she reached out.

"Fuck!"

She grabbed onto one of its tusks, stopping the beast's forward progress. Unfortunately for it, it's body kept on rotating around and upward. There was a loud snap as its hindquarters tried to rotate past its shoulders. It cried out, screaming as it crumpled to the ground, paralyzed and unable to move its extremities.

"You think you can come into my farm, lie in wait in my bushes, and try to attack me? You've got another thing coming if you think a Grimm like you can frighten me. I'm not scared of you or any of your kind."

She lifted the beasts head up by the tusk, seeing the fear and anguish in its eyes as it clearly was experiencing excruciating pain in its neck. Lucky for it, it couldn't feel anything below that.

"You want proof? I'll give you proof. You and all that fucking forest!"

She tilted the beast's head back to force it to open its mouth, letting out a scream of pain. She silenced it with the barrel of the shotgun, ramming the front sight deep into one of its lungs. It choked, trying to breath through the long, polished black steel straw.

"I'm going back to that forest and getting my goddamn knife back, and I'll saw through every one of you assholes who thinks you can attack me for sport."

She pulled the trigger. Thanks to the immense backpressure of the beast's respiratory system, the gun misfired, splattering only half of its energy into the squishy insides of the defiant hog. It coughed and vomited up blood as she pulled the gun back out, dragging the front notched sight up its trachea and splitting it open. She grimaced at the blood-soaked firearm and tossed it aside, reaching down with her other hand and grabbing the animal's other tusk. She lifted its face to meet her.

"I'm done with you, and the rest of you antagonistic assholes. You hear me? Done."

With only about a quarter of her strength, she pulled her hands apart, splitting the beast's compromised skull in half down to its spinal column. It tried to scream but found itself unable as its throat was ripped open a second later. She dropped the bisected animal face and let it crumple to the ground, very very dead. It started to dissolve with a loud and pungent hissing.

"Fuckin' Grimm piece of shit."

She kicked it and turned around, picking up the shotgun and marching back to the truck. She tossed the gun into the passenger footwell and picked up the radio again, angry.

"There better be ice-cold freaking beer waiting for me when I get back."

Once again, her dad's chipper voice came through the other end.

"... what the heck happened now?"

"Fuckin' Boarbatusk thought it could sneak up on me. Blew its ugly fuckin' body to pieces."

"Language."

"It was waiting for me to be done untangling that Cervidae, the cocksucker."

"Ruby."

"I hate the Grimm, dad. It needed to suffer."

"Honey, we can talk about this when you get back, okay? Just get home safe."

She tossed the radio into the footwell with the shotgun, and slammed the passenger door. She stomped her way back around to the driver's side and jumped in, slamming that door too. She pouted.

"Fuckin' Grimm. Fuckin Kayaba. I'm getting my goddamn knife back."

She angrily started the truck.

She needed those sickles first, though.