Last Huntress - Chapter 10

-Broken-

The lights that lined the walls of the spectator windows slowly dimmed until the only remaining illumination were the three bonfires that were placed in the Pits. Even in the heavy rain, their flames still burned bright, the product of a continuous current running through a Dust crystal. The storm and the contrast between light and shadow denied Ruby Rose the ability to see anything above the arena, and so her attention shifted to the muddy ground as something bounced against her boot.

There on the ground was the knife that one of the Gentlemen had used to cut small gashes into her shoulders, the shallow cuts bleeding enough that she had rivulets of red running down her arms. Bending to gather the weapon, she spun it once between her fingers to test its weight. Satisfied, she stalked the area between the bonfires, waiting for the attacks that would inevitably come.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Pits of Blood!" The din of the storm could not conceal the screams of the crowd, cheering as if this was the Vytal Tournament as the announcer rattled on about thanking those who had joined them through a streaming service. She paid little attention as she swept her gaze across the walls of the arena, mentally marking all the seams that revealed the entrances. There were ten in total, too many to cover and more than enough to leave her guessing where the next attack would come from.

Her attention was pulled back to the voice that came over the loudspeaker as the announcer mentioned that she was a Huntress. "-know her, you used to love her. Ruby Rose!" Two spotlights suddenly lit up, targeting her and temporarily blinding her as she stared directly into them. But she did not let the glare fade away, maintaining it as she heard a chorus of booing run through the spectators. "We've got a couple of special treats tonight for Ms. Rose, provided she can survive to see them.. So let's get to it!"

At that, she put the crowd far from her mind and returned her gaze to the arena, stepping in short turns in order to keep as good an eye on the entrances as she could. It was difficult, as the damage to her cybernetic implant left her blind on her right side. She could have compensated better if she had more than a few hours to prepare, but small stretches in a cell were all she had been allowed. "First up, captured from the untamed wilds beyond the Barricade: an animal so ferocious it's instincts are the strongest found in Faunus today.. Something close to home for Ms. Rose!"

The sound of the doors opening ended in a distinct click, a noise she heard three times as the first combatants rushed into the field. As she had thought, the first round would be starved animals, but their appearance caused her to pause. They were wolves, a trio of the biggest ones she had ever seen. Her immediate thought was that this was Torchwick's idea of a sick joke, even as she flicked one of her own lupine ears to clear the rain off it's fur. He had always loved to ridicule her for her heritage whenever they had clashed, and it seemed he could not let her go without one more joke at her expense.

She didn't want to kill them, she could have lived comfortably for the rest of years without ending another life. But now it was them or her, and it wasn't a hard choice.

It seemed as though there would be no choice in that, as they stared at her with wide amber eyes that glowed with madness, and she knew that she was little more than a piece of meat in their minds. Two of them immediately stopped after entering, taking to the outside of the arena to circle her, but it seemed the third had been driven beyond any semblance of sanity. Spittle dripped from its jaw as it were a slavering hyena, reduced to a frenzy by the scent of her blood.

It's rabid snarling as it charged drew her attention, and she turned to face it with the knife held in a reversed grip. The reckless run cost the wolf as it's paws connected with the muddied surface of the platform that had raised her into the arena, and it lost control of its direction. Lunging to the side to avoid a jagged row of teeth that snapped shut only a few inches from her arm, Ruby slashed out with her weapon as the animal rocketed past, feeling it connect and dig in.

The starved wolf whimpered as it tumbled over its own limbs and came crashing down in a pile between two of the fires, a bloody stripe running down its side from where she had injured it. There was no time to finish it off as the slippery surface worked against her, and she nearly tumbled to the side as her attacker had. Even as she found her balance and righted herself, the two that had been stalking her from the outside circle rushed in to capitalize on her distracted state.

Facing the only one she could locate, she let out a dangerous growl and brandished her blood soaked weapon at the wolf as it neared. Her intimidation worked, as it slowed to a stop and bared its teeth at her, but her other senses could not locate the third animal in time. She was pitched forward as a mass slammed into her from behind, and claws dug into the flesh. Before a defense could be mounted, teeth pierced through her shoulder and powerful jaws clamped down, generating a scream as she clambered to get the beast off of her.

Set off balance by the heavy weight of the wolf, Ruby tumbled to the side, falling towards one of the bonfires. The flames licked at the air, filling her vision as she was slammed down in the mud. A cry of panic escaped her lips as she felt the intense heat begin to peel away at the skin on her shoulder, burning through the flesh. She reacted the only way she could, throwing her weight into turning and forcing herself towards the fire. The pressure from the animal's jaws lessened immediately and the wolf began howling. She scrambled to get away from the sudden blaze, which caused the claws to rip down her back a few inches, cutting deeper as she fell away from her attacker.

There was no time to recover, as her own wolfish ears caught the sound of heavy paws approaching. The remaining wolf was rushing to take advantage of her weakened state, and she scarcely had time to look up before it reached her. Just as the other wolf had, this one misjudged the traction of the platform and lost control of its momentum. Unlike earlier, it did not work in her favor as the animal lunged directly for her, it's weight taking both of them into a rapid tumble as she struggled to gain supremacy over the beast.

Paws slammed her down onto the ground, ending their fight for control as the wolf bit at her. Ruby pushed back at the assault, keeping the row of sharp teeth from establishing a hold while she took in a deep breath. She focused within herself, willing up the latent power there to manifest as her defense. The animal's jaw engulfed her wrist, and it gnashed at a shield of red energy that covered her arm, keeping her relatively unharmed as she dropped the knife from her incapacitated hand into her free one.

Even with her Aura protecting her skin, the way the wolf was wrenching on her arm was liable to tear it from its socket soon, and so she went to work with the knife. Jabbing it up and into the side of the heavy body that pinned her, she felt warmth gush out over her hand as she withdrew and slammed it back home immediately. The bite on her forearm weakened with each stab, and she did not stop until the animal tried to retreat from her, relinquishing its grip in order to limp away.

It didn't get far. As she lay in the mud, her chest heaving from the exertion, she heard the body smash into the arena floor. All Ruby could hear after that was her heartbeat thundering in her ears, racing as it was driven through her veins by sheer panic. A deep sense of exhaustion followed the flood of adrenaline, and her mind began a mental inventory of the wounds she had suffered, starting with the stinging in her shoulder and back as she strained to climb back to her knees.

She had been far too sloppy with her Aura when the second wolf had caught her. It should have harmlessly grazed against her shielding, but instead had been allowed to dig in, and even now she could feel the torn flesh leaking blood down the back of her ruined tank top. The bite on her shoulder had created a jaw-shaped ring of punctures, from the nape of her neck to an inch or so above her breast. Luck alone had dictated that while the animal had tore at her back with its claws, it had been unable to rip into her with it's teeth like it had been trying to.

The heavy scent of rust that hung over the air mixed with the putrid stench of burnt hair and flesh, causing the bile in her stomach to churn. Her heart slowed to a less panicked rhythm and her ears twitched as she focused on the screaming cheers from a bloodthirsty crowd. Ruby gingerly pressed a hand against the tender and burnt flesh of her unbitten shoulder, hissing between clenched teeth as she swept her gaze across the arena, to locate the first wolf that had attacked her. She found it still laying where it had tumbled after she had wounded it, it's body quivering as its lifeblood seeped out from the jagged gash down its side. Even as she watched, it let loose a keening howl as if begging for help.

Pressing a palm against the bite on her shoulder, Ruby struggled to her feet and moved over to the animal. It's eyes were wide and wild as its paws weakly kicked at the mud, its snout shut as it let out several high pitched whines of pain. It seemed she had cut deeper than she had thought, as the two legs on the side she had struck were still, hanging limply. As she dropped to her knees, ignoring the flare of agony that tore through her back, she readied the knife to deliver a merciful killing blow, and lined the blade to the back of the poor beast's neck.

She hated the look in the animal's eyes as it tried to fight against her hold, filling. But what truly stoked the fires of her rage was the knowledge that if she had been given an actual weapon, she would have never have delivered such a devastating strike that left the wolf alive and in pain. She would have finished it quickly. As she shoved the blade in, she felt her own lupine ears droop.

These wolves had been like her, stolen away from their pack and forced to fight or die for the amusement of the human elite.

Ruby growled as she withdrew the knife, forcing the pain out of her mind with a new wave of anger. She wanted to shout up at Torchwick, scream that she would tear him apart for tormenting her like this. She remained silent, fixing a cold glare on the penthouse far above the arena. She wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that his little joke had gotten to her.

The reinforced knuckles of Blake's glove smashed into the face of the gangster that had made the mistake of blocking her way, shattering a bone beneath the skin as he went down in a heap. She had made it through the employee entrance only to find a long hallway with three well dressed humans in the middle of a smoke break. The first had stepped up with a hand raised, only to have it knocked away and a broken eye socket for his effort.

Gone was the jacket that concealed her heritage, as cat ears twitched towards the next Gentlemen who moved to challenge her. This one was smart, his hand going for the gun tucked in the back of his dress pants. But she was faster, spinning out of the way while drawing the katana from the harness on her back. Completing her rotation with a downward slash, the blade cut through bone and sinew just as the man was raising the firearm towards her, taking his hand with it. There was no room for fanciful swordplay, so she drove the tip of her weapon up through the soft flesh of a stomach, and into the more vital organs above that.

The sword came free with a sickening squelch as she advanced on the final gangster who stood in her path. This one had the good sense to run, but did not get very far as she got a handful of his suit jacket as he turned away, using it to throw him into the nearby wall. He bounced against it, turning briefly to throw a clumsy punch in her direction. She caught his fist and pulled him forward, cutting across his torso as she slid past him.

Blake didn't need to look back to know he was done for, as her keen hearing caught the sound of the body dropping as she continued down the hallway. She slid the katana into its harness, holding the grip tight as she checked the side rooms for her target. It wasn't much of a plan, but if she could gain access to the building's systems, she'd have a better chance than rushing in blind.

At the end of the corridor, she found her target nestled next to the stairs to ascend into the main club area. The security office for this level was only a small room, filled with a couple dozen monitors on the far wall and staffed by two of the gangsters, both of whom seemed enthralled by the main display in the middle of the room. Narrowing her eyes as she moved to the side of the window, Blake peered around the edge.

She already had an idea of what it was that they were watching, but the confirmation caused her blood to run cold. It was a feed from the Pits, displayed on the holoscreen in clear enough quality that she could see the rain that poured down on the combatants. Blake watched as a furred animal pounced on the woman, pitching them both forward as the cheering crowd went into a frenzy. She had been afraid of this, that she would be too late and the rescue went from breaking Ruby out of a cell to trying to get her out from under the eyes of hundreds of people and dozens of cameras.

There was also the matter that this increased the chance the other Faunus may die before she got to her.

Slipping past the large window to avoid detection, Blake laid a hand on the doorknob and turned it slowly until it was fully disengaged, carefully tensing her muscles as she exhaled. She shoved the door open, moving quickly enough into the room that she closed the gap between her and the nearest gangster just as they were beginning to turn.

Lashing out to jab her palm against the security guard's shoulder, she checked his rotation long enough to wrap her right arm around his neck and grip his chin. Placing her left against the base of his skull, she wrenched the bones in opposite directions, and dropped a lifeless corpse in her wake. The other man gave a shout of surprise at her sudden appearance and subsequent dispatching of his colleague, fumbling for his weapon as he reached for the alarm. Blake slid around her previous target and wrapped fingers around the outstretched wrist, pulling the limb back and twisting it into an awkward and painful position.

Using her new leverage to turn the gangster away from her, she reached up to firmly grip the back of his neck in her free hand, and pushed down in a swift motion. A resounding crack filled the small office as the man's face was bashed into the nearby desk, followed quickly by another such movement. Her target was dazed and barely standing when she released him, only to capture his head in both hands a moment later. Pulling him towards the floor, she brought her knee up to meet him, and felt the surface of her armored leggings smash through cartilage and parts of the bone beneath it.

When she let him go, this time he slumped over in a heap, his body still after the trauma she had put it through. Blake let out her breath slowly, feeling the sense of urgency build as the holoscreen transmitted the roaring approval of the crowd above her. On the display, Ruby had just finished off the last of the wolves, and was struggling to stand back up. The girl she had come to rescue was in bad shape, with an open wound seeping blood from her shoulder and an upper back that was little more than torn up flesh. She had to hurry if this was what was left of her old teammate after the first round.

As she stepped over the body of the first man she had killed, she located the console that served as the security hub and reached into her back pocket. Withdrawing a small circular object, she set it upon the terminal and pressed the button in the center of the device. It flared up with a bright blue light that flickered for a moment before a holographic display emerged, showing the progress of the hack as white bars popped up in a slowly loading circle around the outside edge. It would taken some time for the program to give her access to the system, but once it was finished she would have full control over internal security measures from her scroll.

Her gaze was inevitably drawn back to the feed from the arena, arresting her attention in such a way that she didn't register the door opening until the intruder had already begun to speak. "Hey boys, thought you might be thirsty so I brought-" Blake drew the pistol that was strapped to her thigh and turned, aiming it directly in the face of a young woman who stood only inches away from the firearm. The bottles in the newcomers hands were dropped immediately, spilling beer and shattered glass across the floor, and the furred fox ears atop the Faunus' head laid back as their owner's expression turned to one of fear.

Ruby took in a shuddering breath, feeling the chill of the rain cutting through to her bones as she paced the arena, waiting for the next challenge to appear. Her clothes were soaked through, either by water or blood, leaving her little protection from the elements except to stay active. Moving around did little to help the shredded mess that was her back. Already her Aura was being expended at a rapid rate in order to staunch the bleeding, but if she left herself vulnerable to the cold it would only serve to slow her reflexes. It was a choice between dying when those doors opened or dying of blood loss later.

It wasn't a hard choice, when her options as far as later went were growing incredibly thin.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we have a very special treat for you tonight. But first, we think Ms. Rose may require a gift." The way the announcer drew out the word 'treat' caused her blood to boil, as if they were allowing her to participate in these fights as a favor. Because it really was just a game to them, a fact made all the more apparent by the narrow tube that was raised into the arena from the center of the platform.

The side facing her fell away, revealing a longsword held within. It was clearly a custom piece designed just for her, the blade colored a deep black with a pattern of red rose petals that spiraled down its length. As if that weren't enough, a small ruby gemstone was set in the pommel. Ruby moved to collect it, pulling it from the place it was delivered to examine it more closely. It was a beautiful weapon by all rights, and a thumb flicked at its edge revealed it had been sharpened to a keen point. Though this gift was little more than a reminder of her pending execution in this ring, it was nice to know that they were making it a fair fight. The other gladiators would be heavily armed.

"After all, she's going to need it to face what comes next!" Utter sadistic glee encompassed the announcer's tone as she tested the weight of the sword by spinning it in her grip a few times. The balance was close to perfect, but it was little more than a simple blade. It made her yearn for the time she had Crescent Rose, and that this was a situation that would have been easily remedied by a plasma scythe. Not to mention firing a few rounds into the glass floor of the penthouse above her was an amusing thought. "From the reaches beyond the Kingdoms, Mr. Torchwick is proud to bring you a first ever for the Pits of Blood! Captured and smuggled in only hours ago, the dread beasts that ruled the world with fear for centuries.."

It was not the rain that caused Ruby's blood to chill as her mind made the connection, a lance of fear striking through her spine as the doors slid open. "The creatures of Grimm!" A half dozen black shapes surged into the arena from different sides, the entrances closing and locking behind them with an audible click. Even through the rain and with one eye, she could track them through the darkness outside the bonfires by the wispy trails of red left by the devilish orbs that leered out at her.

They were Beowolves, and she knew they were adults by the size of the bone plates on their heads and bodies. In her prime, six would have been a cinch. She would have barely broke a sweat, bantered some with her sister and Weiss, and walked away unscathed. Now she was injured, out of practice, and severely handicapped by the loss of half her vision. It was not Crescent Rose that she held in her hand but a sword, a weapon she had trained with but had never truly worked to master. The odds weren't in her favor to begin with, of course, but this had become overwhelmingly unfair.

More to her surprise, it was not just rain that ran down her cheeks as she watched the Grimm spread out evenly to attack her from all sides. She hadn't exactly come to peace with dying here, but she had at least thought she would be killed by a blade piercing through her chest, not torn to pieces and eaten by the same beasts that had robbed her of so much in her life. Even by Torchwick's standards, this was unimaginably cruel. The crowd thought different, having overcome their shock to cheer louder than ever before, utterly ignorant that the disgraced huntress standing in the ring was forcing herself to hold back sobs.

The echo of the bottles shattering lingered for a few moments as a pitched ringing in Blake's feline ears, but the girl who had been delivering drinks did not move a muscle, only staring down the barrel of a gun aimed right at her face. The other Faunus was dressed in a skin tight mesh leotard with the symbol of The Gentlemen set just below her breasts, a ridiculous getup that spoke of what exactly her job was here.

Blake found the collar the fox-girl wore much more interesting, reaching out to tug it towards her, pressing the muzzle of her pistol into the bottom of the newcomer's jaw. The Faunus in her grasp trembled as she increased the pressure of her gun, straining to pull away from her. There wasn't much effort in the resistance, because the other woman was too afraid to really fight back. Pathetic.

"Shouldn't you be upstairs entertaining the guests?" She kept her voice low and dangerous as she released the collar with a shove, letting the fox-girl hit the glass of the window. The Faunus cowered away as Blake slid the pistol back into its holster on her thigh, but confusion set in when the other woman realized that she wasn't going to kill her. "What are you doing here, 'Auburn'?"

"I-I.. I came to see how Ruby was doing, that's all." Auburn spoke quickly, her voice shaking as she stumbled against one of the desks. "I figured they'd let me watch some if I brought them drinks."

"Wanted to get off watching the Huntress get torn apart too, is that it?" Blake held back no harshness in the bite of her words, but the other Faunus was already disagreeing.

"No! That's not it at all.." Auburn fidgeted under her gaze, fox ears twitching as cheeks became colored a deep shade of red. "I just wanted to see her fight again, she used to be my favorite in the Vytal Tournaments."

"Hm." Blake paused to stare at the other woman for a long moment as she mulled the confession over. She had never personally tuned in to the Vytal broadcasts. Her time had been taken up completely with organizing protests and demonstrations in the interest of Faunus Rights. All of them, to the very last one, been futile. "She always was a marvel on the battlefield.. Though it seems she's lost her edge these days."

"She's so different now." Auburn's voice had become a mere whisper, a touch of forlorn wistfulness in the fox-girl's tone.

Ignoring the hook, Blake busied herself with stripping down the guard whose neck she had snapped, finding him closer to her size than the other. Unbuckling her weapon harness and setting it on the nearby console, she pulled a white dress shirt over her undershirt, buttoning it up three-quarters of the way. She followed it with a black vest, setting the open leather belt back across her torso to strap her sword to her back.

Turning to check on the progress of the hack device, she froze at the proximity of the fox-girl. Auburn placed one of the guard's fedoras on her head, covering her ears with a knowing smile. The other Faunus' hands roamed down the collar of her vest, straightening it and smoothing the ensemble out. "You're White Fang, aren't you?"

"I am." There was no reason to hide it from the fox-girl, she had thought it was obvious who she was and what she had come for. "Is that going to be a problem?"

"Oh, please. You think I'm here by choice?" Auburn's hand snaked around the back of her neck, fingers working to smooth the collar and place it beneath the edge of the vest. Their eyes met for a prolonged period of time, enough so that the other Faunus began smirking at her. After a moment where Blake was unable to do much more than awkwardly stand there, the fox-girl withdrew and gave a bright grin. "I wish you would kill every son-of-a-bitch out there."

Blinking a few times as she stepped away from the fox-girl, Blake turned away to watch the holoscreen feed from the arena. It took a few moments for the images to process through her mind, as her thoughts were dominated by a sudden search through her memories to locate the last time she had been in such proximity to another and not felt threatened. Before Beacon, by her reckoning. "These doors here, where the combatants enter the arena. Where do they go?"

Auburn stepped up beside, the fox-girl's eyes snapping between the faint outlines that Blake pointed at on the holoscreen. "Those lead down to the cells where he keeps the fighters, but there's an entrance to the sewers past the cages." It seemed the other Faunus picked up on what she was really asking, and gave a nod. "If you can find your way through the tunnels, it's a good way to get out."

Blake gave a slow nod as she stared at the holoscreen, lost so deep in her thoughts that she did not really see what was going on in the arena. What drew her back to the present was the sharp inhale that Auburn gave, a shocked gasp that was followed by a fearful squeak.

Black forms with white bone plates circled the arena floor, while the young woman in the middle whirled to watch them as best she could. Blake's breath caught in her throat, and her blood ran cold. "Grimm. How did he smuggle in Grimm?" Despite the efforts of her emotions, she refused to be frozen by terror, and reached over to wrap an arm about Auburn's waist. With her leverage, she guided the other Faunus from the room, letting the door fall closed behind them. "I'm out of time."

Instinct meant a different thing to a Faunus.

It wasn't that silent nudging in the back of their head, pulling them to react a certain way. It was a tidal wave of force that demanded to be acknowledged and acted upon, responsible for a temper famous to their species, and mating habits that many Humans considered odd. For a wolf like Ruby, it was a snarling beast that clawed at the borders of the cage she had placed around it, filling her nostrils with the scent of blood and howling with the desire to be free. To hunt.

Control had been easy for her to master in her youth, but it seemed ever fleeting the older than she got. It did not reduce her to a mindless beast to indulge her inner animal, but every pulse pounding moment of combat was another scratch in the iron of the cage. This time, the first Beowolf claw that swiped in her direction, that jail cell was torn open and the wolf was unleashed. The flat of her sword deflected the leading attack, and she followed it by punching the Grimm in the side of the face.

It roared in response, a sound she met in kind as she drove the blade through the beast's midsection and pushed it back. After a few feet, she planted a boot on its stomach and kicked off, drawing her weapon free from its body. Letting the handle rotate as she spun on a heel, she slashed through the shoulder of a charging Grimm with a reversed grip with enough force that it severed the arm completely.

Her stomach churned as another claw scraped down her back, throwing off red sparks as it slammed against the shield of her Aura. Stumbling forward under the force of the blow, she kicked against the mud and let herself fall to avoid a pouncing beast that would have had her in its grip a second later. Wet dirt stuck her dyed bangs to her forehead, obscuring her vision until as she came out of the roll. Even without full use of her sight, her wolfish ears were what caught the sound of the heavy Beowolf paws in front of her.

She tore her sword in a diagonal direction as she jumped upwards, and the sharpened steel was met by a satisfying resistance that quickly gave way beneath her onslaught. Oily liquid sprayed across the side of her face as she landed deftly on her feet, the black blood that oozed from the creatures of Grimm now lending her a fearsome aspect as she turned and bared her teeth in a feral growl. Two of the beasts were down, already disintegrating on the ground, while a third was clawing at the stump where it's arm used to be.

But three remained, each of them gouging holes in the mud as they tore towards her. Taking in a deep breath, Ruby let her instinct guide her, and felt a rush of power she hadn't felt in years. Roses erupted from where she stood, cascading in a fountain of crimson as she dashed forward and the black blade of Torchwick's 'gift' ripped a Beowolf clean in half as she traveled through it. She nearly fell forward as she came to a stop, wholly unprepared for the activation of her Semblance. Muscles in her legs and lower back screamed in protest, not having been used in such a manner for almost four years.

The doctors had chalked it up to emotional trauma, as it wasn't unheard of for Hunters who suffered extreme stress or loss to have their Semblances rendered inaccessible or wholly changed by what they endured. Her power had cowered within her, heeding none of her calls and letting her body fall into disuse in its absence. She had researched it, looked for a way to repair what had been lost. Every legend spoke of damage to a very soul, something that left a mark that tore away the very piece needed for Aura to manifest as an unique ability.

The crowd went insane over the display, but their cheers were ignored by Ruby as she tried to utilize her Semblance once more to obliterate the last two wolves. Digging deep within herself, she came up empty handed as the Grimm neared. It wasn't a lack of Aura, as she felt the last of her energy bleeding away into the gaping wounds on her back, and she had always been able to zip around until the final remaining drop. No, she had simply lost the connection once again.

She wasn't prepared for when the Beowolves descended on her, barely managing to deflect the first set of claws that came at her. The second slashed into her chest, causing a flash of red sparks to fill her vision as she stumbled backwards. The last of her Aura dissipated away into nothingness as she spun to engage the Grimm once again.

Jagged claws, made from pure bone that grew from a Beowolf's paws, tore into her as the first assailant dipped below her defense and ripped upward. Ruby's scream of pain lasted only a split second before the serrated edges cut up through her stomach and devastated her right lung, she even caught the sound of bones cracking as a rib or two was shattered. A spray of crimson shot into the air as she was spun by the attack, the change in direction saving her from the full brunt of the second Grimm, a precious few inches that stopped the gnashing maw from closing about her throat.

Instead, its claws connected with the side of her face, gouging deep canyons into her right cheek but failed to establish a hold. The back of the Beowolf's paw slammed into her face after that, the force behind the heavy handed blow tossing her a few feet into the air to come crashing down into a crumpled heap in the middle of the arena.

Even with the agony that now ripped through every nerve in her body as her lifeblood was pumped freely into the open air, the most damning evidence that she was doomed was the sudden quiet that Ruby heard. There was still the rain and the storm that raged above, and the rasping that came from her own pathetic attempts to breathe, but the crowd had ceased all cheering as her demise crept towards her on all fours.

"You know, you should wear stuff like this more often."

Blake tossed a bewildered look to the fox-girl whose waist her arm was around. She was using Auburn as a way to solidify that she belonged there, just another gangster escorting the animal back up to her master. So far, it has worked. They were invisible to the humans watching the fight, beneath the notice of spectators and guards. But there were Grimm attacking the woman she had come to save, it wasn't the moment for compliments.

"Sorry, I talk when I'm scared," the other Faunus explained in a rapid, hushed tone, "But seriously, if you had come to rescue me looking like that, I would drag you to the nearest private booth before we left.. Ruby's a lucky girl."

Blake paused as they reached the second level above the Pits, opening and closing her mouth a few times as her mind raced between the idea of fighting Grimm again and the idea that she had come for Ruby due to a romantic interest. There was also a quiet appraisal in the back of her thoughts suggesting she find a private booth, a notion that was squashed into nothingness a moment after its birth by the weight of her current situation. "That's not.. Ruby and I aren't-"

Auburn raised both of her hands up to stop her from continuing. "Okay, okay, got it. Don't give yourself an aneurysm over it or anything." The other Faunus tilted an ear to the side, looking at her with a strange expression. "So why are you doing this? The Fang doesn't care that much about any random Faunus."

"I.."

Blake's scroll chimed to announce that the hack she had placed completed its purpose. She had access to all the club's systems, and an interface appeared as she pulled the device from her back pocket. Sorting through the mess as quickly as she could, she looked out the window to see that she was out of time, Ruby was under attack from the last two Grimm. She pulled her pistol from its holster as she stepped away from the fox-girl. "Get out of here while you can, people are going to panic." Auburn paused for a moment, as if confused by what was being offered. She spared only a split second to turn back and face the woman. "You wanted freedom? Now's your chance. Go!"

The other Faunus slipped away as she queued up the commands on her scroll, walking towards the massive window that looked out over the arena. She slid between the humans that were cheering with every blow exchanged between the Grimm and Ruby, something Blake was trying hard not to pay attention to until she was able to help, but then everything went quiet inside the club.

Her heart dropped as she finally reached a point she could look out into the Pits, where she saw the younger woman she had come to save in the middle of the arena. Ruby was on her side, facing away from where Blake now stood, but the shuddering way the other Faunus' chest moved with each breath told her enough.

There was no more time, and she had delayed too long. She pressed the execute command on her scroll, and immediately the club's internal systems reacted. The lights and music turned off, throwing everything into darkness but the three bonfires down in the Pits, then the security alarm went off. Pointing the pistol in her hand at the glass, she emptied the clip in a spread pattern as the nearby humans fled from the sound of gunfire. With the barrier now weakened, she charged at it, holstering her gun as she drew the katana from her back.

Roman Torchwick gripped his cane with such force that it began to bend as the lights went out and gunshots rang throughout the lower levels of the club. Only up here, in his personal penthouse, did the power remain on. He had expected some half-assed rescue attempt by the girl's sister, but the situation already spoke of someone with more caution than the blonde. Someone who had known where to hit to give them the advantage.

"The White Fang.." His murmured words drew a few odd looks from the various politicians and high ranking cops gathered around the club's penthouse. Already his guests, some of the more powerful players in Vale, had been looking at him with suspicion. Bringing in the Grimm had upset them, and this interruption was bound to shake their confidence. A small woman stepped up beside him, parasol in hand. Turning to look Neo in the eye, he spoke without fear of consequence, even in such esteemed company. "She does not leave here alive, understand?"

A nod confirmed his orders, and she took off to the stairs.

Roman returned his gaze to the woman lying prone on the holoscreen in front of him, her chest heaving with the effort it took to draw in one simple breath while choking on her own blood. Even now, her hand clawed through the mud and wrapped around the hilt of the sword he had delivered to be her final weapon, showing her defiance of all that he had planned here.

"Just die," His words grew in volume as he spoke, driven to fury by her continued resilience. This girl was a thorn in his side he wanted gone, "Just give up and die, Red!"

Blake landed on her feet after jumping through the shattered window, her blade at the ready as the two remaining Beowolves turned to face her. The lead one charged, its claws swiping through nothing but mist as a shadowy image of her was left in her wake. Ducking beneath the lumbering attack, she slashed upwards with her katana, cutting through flesh and sinew as she stepped past the creature.

She spun on the ball of a foot to deliver a devastating cut to the back of the Grimm as it fell to the ground, finishing it off before turning back to face the remaining beast. During her entrance into the arena she had lost the hat that was covering her ears, leaving her exposed as a Faunus as she worked to wrap this up. She forced such thoughts to the back of her mind, as it was too late to change course now.

The last creature bounded after her, skidding in the mud around the fire as its claws tore at the arena floor in an attempt to find traction. Instead of waiting for it to engage her, she used another shadow clone to propel herself forward, slashing with her blade as she came in range. Oily liquid sprayed from a chest wound she opened on the Beowolf, staining the dress shirt and vest she had taken from the guards in the security office a dark black color. The rancid smell of the rotten blood caused what little lunch she had eaten that day to begin churning in her gut as she smashed into the wounded Grimm and both of them went down in a tumble.

Blake was the only one who got back up, moving to her knees to finish off the beast as its baying howls died down to a pitiful set of whimpers. It growled at her, blood red eyes like pits of malice as it tried to weakly claw at her. She drove the katana through its chest, wrenching it to the side before tearing it out with a snarl of her own.

She rose to her feet then, sheathing the sword across her back as she made a quick sweep of the arena to make sure it was clear of the Grimm. There was still one remaining, the oily black form writhing on the ground on the outside edge of the arena, clutching at the stump where its arm used to be. Above her, the chaos still reigned, as screams of panic from frightened spectators drifted through the shattered glass she had traveled through to reach here. Even with the patrons mobbing the exits, she knew she didn't have much time before The Gentlemen rallied and came to stop her.

Pulling her scroll from her pocket, she tapped on the interface a few times. The security team had been hard at work trying to counteract the bypass her device had established, but she still had enough access to do what she needed. A button press opened the doors that led to the cages where fighters in the Pits were held before they were released into the arena, an underground chamber that would connect to the sewer system beneath Vale. However, she had hoped that the woman she had come to save would be vertical. With that in mind, she looked to the center of the circular stadium.

Ruby was still laying there, in the same position Blake had seen her fall in from above. As she neared, her ears picked up the sound of the other Faunus' breathing. With an immense amount of effort behind them, each labored breath was cut off by a raspy gurgle before the younger woman's body shook with a fit of coughing. The wolf-girl was in rough shape, most of the wounds covered in a layer of mud that hid their true severity from her sight.

Even so, as Blake slid down to a knee next to the other Faunus, one silver eye locked on to her. Wide and carrying a distinctly wild look to the iris, fingers curled around the hilt of a nearby sword, as if the younger woman was going to try and attack her. She placed a hand on the bare and bloodied shoulder nearest to her, finding the skin much colder to the touch than it should have been. There was no time to try and convince Ruby that she was here to help, as it was clear that any interaction would be perceived through a haze of agony.

Slipping her hands beneath the smaller body, Blake gave a grunt at the effort it took to raise up to her full height while carrying the woman she had come to rescue. A sickening warmth blossomed over her stomach as she held the other Faunus close, the wolf-girl's lifeblood gushing out of several open wounds. There was no time to stabilize her here, but she would need to find time to infuse Ruby's Aura soon, and give it a boost to keep her alive until she could be properly cared for.

Stepping into the darkness of the entrance to the Pits that she had opened, Blake glanced down to find the wolf still clinging to consciousness, drawing in those pained and gurgling breaths that always ended with another cough that left a new trail of blood down the side of Ruby's mouth. Clutched to the younger Faunus' chest was the blade that she had been given in the arena, a sword made of black metal. Even injured so, it seemed her old friend wasn't willing to roll over and die.

Blake gripped the smaller woman a bit tighter, pulling her close as she stepped down into the dungeons beneath the 'Jack o' Hearts'. "Hold on, Ruby."

Even moving as quickly as she could while encumbered by the shuddering wolf-girl, all Blake could hear as she navigated the winding tunnels of the dungeons beneath The Gentlemen's club was the thundering of her heart as it threatened to beat out of her chest. Her breath came in quick, short intakes as each footfall echoed off the old stonework that surrounded her. Just as Auburn had said, the sewer entrance had lay past the gladiator cells.

The iron cages had been a gruesome sight, as it seemed that Torchwick had retrieved the Grimm on short notice, and had nowhere better to store them. The former occupants of those cells had been nothing but drippings of flesh on the walls and ceiling by the time she had run through there. Which had been fortunate. There would be no one to tell her pursuers which direction she had gone in.

A clatter of metal striking stone reached her ears, and she nearly tripped over the sword that had fallen from the hand of the girl she carried. Once she managed to correct her balance, she glanced down to find Ruby had gone limp, the wolf-girl's chest no longer straining to take in those pained breaths. Blake froze, her heart no longer thundering but suddenly still, and a chilled silence took hold of her world. A weak whine pushed through the wolf-girl's lips as her torso barely shuddered at the effort, the display so dim that it could barely be called a sign of life, but it was enough.

Knowing that she had to do something now, Blake slowly eased the wolf-girl down until she was laid against the sewer wall. Kneeling beside her old friend, she pressed a palm against Ruby's chest, ready to infuse her Aura. As she closed her eyes to focus, the low sound of a growl drifted down the passages.

Immediately her senses sharpened to locate the source of the threatening sound, her feline ears twitching in a few directions before they caught the sound of claws scraping against stone. It was originating from where they had come, and soon enough a black shape engulfed the entryway to the tunnel they were in.

Seething like pools of liquid hatred, the Beowolf's eyes trained to Ruby first, and a dark tongue darted out to wet the Grimm's lips. One of the creature's arms had been torn off in the middle of the bicep before Blake had seen it in the arena, but it seemed it had recovered enough to chase them down. The one-armed beast charged down the narrow hallway towards them, snarling as it went for the easy meal first.

Blake never let it get close to Ruby, drawing her katana and stabbing into the Beowolf's chest as it neared, using the blade as leverage to stop the charge and drive the creature back. Ripping it out splattered the wall with black blood, the oily substance creating a macabre image as she swung the weapon back through the Grimm's midsection. Her slash cut the upper half of the beast free from its haunches, the remaining parts of the body collapsing into a pile of putrid flesh.

Sliding her sword back into the harness strapped across her back, Blake paused for a moment to listen for any other pursuers. No sounds carried down the long sewer tunnels, the area silent except for the weak gasps that came from the wolf-girl clinging to life behind her. Ruby's eyes were closed, the red-tipped bangs of the brunette's hair stuck to the younger woman's forehead by a mixture of blood and dirt.

The urgency of their escape could be delayed for a moment, at least long enough to stabilize the other Faunus. Kneeling beside the wolf-girl, Blake placed a hand on Ruby's chest, and she set another on the side of her face. Infusing someone with Aura wasn't a gentle process, more akin to forcing one's own energy into another body than a gentle transference. It was one of the first things they were trained on at Beacon, a way to keep a partner alive in an emergency.

That didn't mean it was pleasant.

From the first spark of dark violet energy that flowed through her fingertips into the wounded girl, the reaction was a violent one. Ruby's chest heaved with the effort of taking in as full breath as it could, now bolstered with a new Aura. The wolf-girl's eyes shot open, a new awareness lighting up the depth of the one with the silver iris as it darted around and finally locked onto her. A hand latched onto her arm, fingernails digging in as the other Faunus gave a pained cry at being reawakened. "B-Blake?" There was no malice in the way her name was said, none of the anger that she had expected at such a reunion. It was said in the tone of shock, but with an inflection that implied relief at seeing her.

The wolf-girl was panting from the toll the infusion was taking on her body, but there was no time to reassure Ruby as her silver eye rolled back and she fell back into unconsciousness. Blake remained still until the other Faunus' hand slipped off of her arm, thrown off by the instant recognition. She shook her head, shaking loose the thoughts that began to dwell on what she would say when her old teammate woke up again. If she woke up.

She was fairly sure that the bleeding had slowed, the boost of her Aura working to keep Ruby alive. It had to be enough, as Blake wasn't comfortable lingering any longer. She took a brief moment to gather up the sword that had been dropped before pulling the wolf-girl up from where she had been set against the wall. Cradling the younger Faunus in her arms, she continued on down the winding sewer tunnel.

Author's Note: Sorry that it has been nearly a month since the last update. Life has gotten busy for my beta and I, so time to write has been limited. I just want to say something that's been on my mind for a while now: I know it's dark, I know it's depressing. I'm not going to pull any punches that I have planned and I'm not going to promise there's a happy ending at the end of this road. So I'll say again; If you need to stop reading, I understand. You're still awesome. Anyway, hope ya'll enjoy this one! Special thanks to all followers, favoriters(still not a word), and reviewers! You guys have been an understanding and awesome audience, and I love to write for you. Please drop a review with your thoughts on this chapter. Ruby's in a bad spot, Blake's a badass. But I wanna know what you think! Cheers 'til next time! -Fox

Update: Apparently it's spelled "Beowolf".. I have been spelling it wrong since I started writing with RWBY. Whoops!