RWBY Hellspawn AU Pt. 2: Talk
Ruby was sitting under the shade of a tree. While the sunlight helped contain the suit when not wearing it, it also hurt when she was. And no matter what she did, the suit refused to retreat while close to Jeanne.
Speaking of, she also was sitting under the same tree, only on the opposite end, wearing the golden helm that appeared out of thin air on her head. Ruby noticed the helm's eyeholes were glowing, but she could still make Jeanne's blue eyes from under the glimmer.
"So, a Hellspawn?" Jeanne finally broke the silence.
"Yes," Ruby said, putting on the cloak of her cape to hide herself better from the light. "How did you know?"
"I didn't." Jeanne tapped the helm with a fingernail, making a metallic clink. "But the helmet knew."
"What even is that helmet?" Ruby asked, looking back at Jeanne. She could feel the suit tensing up around her.
"I... made a deal with someone." Jeanne looked back. "In return, I have to wear this thing." As their gazes met, there was another pause, until Ruby started snickering.
"You too?" She couldn't believe it. "Did you also die?"
"What? No!" Jeanne got up from the tree, looking down at Ruby. "Wait, did you die?"
"I..." Ruby realized what she had just revealed. Not even Yang or her dad, or her uncle knew. But there was something about Jeanne that made her feel at ease, even if she wore a demonic creature as a second skin.
"Yeah, I did." She sighed, closing her eyes and lowering her shoulders.
Ruby felt two arms closing around her. She opened her eyes again, realizing Jeanne was on her knees and hugging her.
"Thanks," Ruby said, returning the hug. "It's weird, but this is the first time I tell anyone."
"It's okay," Jeanne reassured her. "We all have our secrets."
Ruby was floating in a black void. The last thing she remembered was fighting a pack of beowolves next to her mother's memorial. As she remembered, she felt a sharp pain in her back. She looked over her shoulder, realizing she wasn't wearing her riding hood.
As she reached back, her fingers felt some torn threads of cloth. It was somewhat wet. Ruby kept feeling around, until she felt a wound on her back.
"What?" she looked at her hand, red with blood.
Ruby twisted herself to look at her own back, not without difficulty. But there were three claw marks on her lower back, still bleeding out and tinting her black clothes reddish.
But she didn't feel any pain.
In fact, as she realized, she was covered in small and big cuts all over her body, all of them bleeding. But none of them hurt at all.
Ruby wanted to gasp, but she realized she wasn't breathing either. She tried to scream, but there was no air in her lungs until she forced it in.
"What happened?!" She screamed at the void around her.
"You died," a voice replied.
"Who--" She turned around, but there was nothing but blackness around her.
"It doesn't matter who I am, but what you are," the voice said again. "And what you are is dead." Despite the cold tone, there was a slight tone of glee.
"No..." Ruby whispered, once again running out of air to speak.
But she didn't care. Her mind immediately went to Yang, and to her dad and uncle. As far as they knew, she left for the afternoon to visit her mom's memorial. That was hours ago, but they were used to her taking her time and appearing back at the house just before midnight.
This time they would worry, they may look for her for a while, and with some 'luck', maybe find her body. Ruby looked at herself again, realizing all the cuts and wounds on her body looked like the beowolves got her. What a horrible way to find her, after disappearing one night.
Ruby fell to her knees. She wanted to cry, but for some reason, she couldn't even tear up.
"Oh, not ready to accept your end?" The voice asked, once again in that cold mocking tone.
"I-- I can't..." Ruby gasped. "I can't leave my family alone!"
"You already did, though," the voice replied. "You left into the night, and the night claimed you."
"But they need me..." Ruby pleaded. "I need them."
"How much do you need them?" It clarified.
"More than anything." Ruby looked up, hands clasped together as if trying to plead to whomever or whatever was talking to her.
"I woke up in the middle of the city of Vale, surrounded by a bunch of gangsters or something." Ruby finished her tale. "I was already wearing the suit." She extended her arm, showing it covered by the jet-black cloth, red belts with spikes, and her finger having grown claws. "Then they tried to rob me, or something like that, and I..." she trailed off.
"Ruby," Jeanne leaned over, offering her hand. Ruby took it as she continued.
"It was as if there was someone with me, telling me what to do, who to attack, how to--" She swallowed. "How to do the most damage."
There was a pause. Jeanne rubbed her thumb on Ruby's hand to comfort her.
"In the end, I sensed my sister, my dad and my uncle. It was as if I felt their presence close." Ruby relaxed. "When I found them, it was dawn already, and the suit just left." She looked at Jeanne. "Turns out it had been two months since I left, and they were turning half of Vale upside down searching for me."
"And you never told them?" Jeanne asked.
"That I died, came back with a weird suit that appears at night, and that I may have made a pact with some evil god of darkness?"
"No, I didn't." Ruby sat back on her knees, taking some distance from Jeanne, now calmer. "But I still needed to fight. It's like a hunger. And Grimm don't cut it." She sighed, relieved she could finally share this, but exhausted from it all. "So, every couple of nights I sneak into the city and look for trouble until daylight forces the suit down."
"I see." Jeanne scratched the back of her head under the helmet. "So, why can't you take the suit off? It's the middle of the day now."
"It's afraid, or angry," Ruby said, looking away before meeting Jeanne's gaze. "At you."
"Must be the Helmet." Jeanne tilted her head up, as if tired. "When I got it, I was told to 'serve the light against the darkness'."
"Oh?" Ruby moved away from Jeanne, both to hide from the light as the sun moved across the sky, and to keep the distance.
"You think it helps if I take it off?" She offered.
"Aren't you afraid of me?" Ruby asked, looking away as she hugged her legs.
"The Helmet keeps whispering I should," Jeanne admitted, shrugging as she got up. "But if it helps." She got up, taking the helmet with both hands and starting to pull up.
Ruby saw Jeanne's face again, smiling awkwardly as she waited for a reaction.
"Well," Jeanne asked, holding the golden helmet to the side with one hand. "Did it help?"
RWBY Hellspawn AU Pt. 1: Meetings
RWBY Hellspawn AU Pt. 3: Light
