RWBY: Dark/The Reaper

Cinder’s eyes widened in a look of absolute terror. She froze, completely forgetting about the falling temperatures and beginning to sweat profusely. Mercury and Emerald also froze, with Emerald letting out a short yelp that mostly died in her throat. Mercury began to tremble. Another giggle was heard, very close now. All eyes turned to face the direction it came from.

Before them was an ally, painted completely black by the night sky and buildings’ shadows. A flapping sound was now audible, cloth swaying in the nighttime breeze. Then all three heard another sound, but this one was loud, obvious, and long: metal scraping along brick and stone. It was growing louder by the second. It was coming closer.

Cinder managed to free herself from he paralysis just long enough to force a loud, painful gulp down her throat. There was no mistaking it now.

The Reaper had found them.

A third giggle rang out, louder and closer than any of the sounds they heard before. It might has well have been a wicked guffaw. The scraping stopped abruptly, and that’s when she stepped into the moonlight.

Rugged, black boots. Torn grey leggings. A small outfit with a skirt, the color of a moonless midnight. A single, silver decoration on her belt: an inverted cross. On her head and around her neck was the most intimidating: a hood and cape; dirty, shredded, blowing in the wind, and covered in blood only a slightly darker shade of red than the rest of it. And under the hood… under the hood…

No one would think that it could strike so much fear. In the night air and covered with the hood, her face could have been interpreted as an empty hole, shadowed to the point of nothingness. That is, of course, except for her mouth. A large grin, filled with blinding white, well-kept teeth. They were the stars in her midnight face, stars of ill-will and horror. The only thing that made those wicked stars more horrible was when they parted to speak.

“Red like roses fills my dreams and leads me to the place you’ll die,” she squeaked in a singsong voice, punctuating it with another high-pitched, sadistic giggle. Her hands were hidden behind her back, holding her tool, which peeked out from behind her red-cloaked back. The scythe, the massive scythe, its metal a reflective black and red and its blade the same silver as her cross. The blade could almost be mistaken for red at first, as most of it was covered in red splashes and streaks. That was why she was called the Reaper.

The Reaper stepped closer, taking her time, not rushing. She had them right where she wanted them. She kept her head low, shielding out any moonlight from reaching her face. That is, until she was about three yards away from them. Then she raised her head and allowed the hood to crumple behind her neck, brushing her dark hair back as it fell.

Mercury managed a single, shocked word. “R-R-R-Reap-per…”

“Wowie zowie, you’re right!” the Reaper suddenly cried happily, her voice sharp, loud, and enthusiastic, yet still carrying the darkness she had a few moments earlier. She swung her hands around to her sides, her right one brandishing her gargantuan weapon. She put one of her left fingers to the side of her mouth. “You’re familiar with me, handsome? I mean, most people know about me, but the way you all froze means you must be ‘’really’’ familiar with me. Did I kill your family or something?”

“Y-you don’t remember us?” Emerald stuttered.

The Reaper shrugged. “Eh, they all get to be the same after a while,” she said with a sadistic grin. “I come, they scream, they bleed. I come, they scream, they bleed. Even the few that get away don’t faze me much anymore; I’ll just get them again eventually.” She cocked her head with her grin. “Are you some of the bad little kids who ran away?” She then paused as her grin quickly faded. She stared at Cinder. “Oh dear,” she said, “what happened to your eye?”

Cinder trembled, too afraid to say anything else. Whether or not the Reaper knew who they were, she was going to kill them anyway.

The Reaper’s grin suddenly returned, wider than ever. “Wait a minute. Did I do that?”

Cinder attempted to respond, but just mumbled slightly.

The Reaper suddenly beamed with smiling energy. “Yeah… I remember you! You were part of that Resistance group trying to escape the bombings!” She looked ready to explode from sadistic glee. “That was a good day. They all came pouring out of the city, and I was waiting. It was like waiting upstream for spawning salmon. Just one prey jumping at me after another.”

“I killed a lot of people that day,” the Reaper continued enthusiastically, “and hurt a few pretty badly too. I actually remember you, though: I put the other end of Crescent Rose here right into your head.” She held her scythe further from her body in a subtle display.

Cinder was beginning to panic. Her breathing was quickening to near hyperventilation, and her socket was beginning to sting even under the patch.

“Speared you like the salmon you were. And then, once I was in, I stirred… and twisted… and pushed… and pulled… then your pink-haired bitch hit me in the face and you got away.” The Reaper’s expression turned sour extremely quickly. “You wouldn’t know where she is, would you?”

Cinder gulped again, this one louder and more painful than the last. “Please,” she begged, “Reaper…”

The Reaper’s grin grew back faster than it had left. “Oh, please,” she interrupted loudly, “we’ve met before, so we’re acquainted. No need for the whole ‘Reaper’ formality anymore. Call me Ruby.” She bowed slightly. “Ruby Rose.”

Cinder stuttered a bit, but resumed her thought. “R-Ruby, please, we’re not worth your time.”

“Oh, it’s no bother!” the Reaper gleamed. “Every kill counts, even if I don’t remember them all!” She winked. “I get off to the thought and feeling of them every night.” She put her finger to her lips. “But shhh, don’t tell anyone!”

Emerald began to open her mouth to speak, but Ruby cut her off. “I know what you’re going to say. ‘Please don’t kill us’, or ‘We just want to stay out of your way’, or my favorite, ‘Please have mercy! We’ll do anything!’. I’ve heard them all before, sister. And they don’t work on me. The only reason I haven’t cut all of your faces off yet is because I think you might be able to tell me something before you die.” She breathed in sharply, her grin shrinking slightly into a more serious expression, but with that continued evil delight still present. “Where is that ice-cream colored motherf*cker?”

Suddenly, before Cinder even had the chance to pause, there was a flash. Not a flash, actually, but a blur. A powerful blur of pink, white and brown. It slammed into Ruby with tremendous force, sending her flying over a dozen feet and making her slam down onto the ground so hard she dropped Crescent Rose. She skidded a few feet on the dirty road before coming to a stop, lying face down on the cracked asphalt.

Neoploitan stood where Ruby the Reaper had been a moment earlier, her parasol open and pointed in the killer’s direction. Her eyes were wide with both panic and rage, her footing was wide, and her back was straight and ready for attack.

Ruby threw her hands onto the road on her sides and lifted her head and body up. Despite the fact that her leggings were further shredded and her face had a single bleeding gash, her grin was as demented and large as ever.

“There you are,” she grunted. She quickly rose to her feet, reaching out and picking her scythe up off of the ground as she rose. She swung it around and grasped its handle tightly in both hands.

Neo looked over towards Cinder, Mercury, and Emerald, with an expression of concern and panic evident on her face. She motioned her head in the the hideout’s direction. It was her only way of telling them to run.

All three of them understood her message, but only Emerald and Mercury ran. Cinder remained frozen in place, staring at Neo.

“Neo, don’t!” she managed to say.

Neo gestured again, and this time, Emerald ran back to Cinder. Without saying a word, Emerald grabbed her hand and yanked her away. Cinder’s legs involuntarily began sprinting to keep pace with the fleeing Emerald, but her eyes remained locked on Neo, who gave her a single look of remorse before turning to face her opponent, her hair swinging over her shoulder. When they were a sufficient distance away, Cinder wrestled out of Emerald’s grip and kneeled down behind a garbage can, watching the battle. Emerald paused and looked at Cinder as if she were about to say something, but remained silent, turned, and rushed back to the hideout.

“Lots of people have stopped me from finishing a kill,” Ruby mused, tightening her grip on her weapon. “And a lot of people have hurt me. But you… that really stung. Remember what you did? Smacked me right in the face with that damned umbrella of yours. I think you broke my nose.” She stepped forward. “For that, I’m going to have to tear you in half.”

Ruby then sprinted at Neo, swinging her scythe. Neo dodged, and the blade skimmed past her face. She attacked with her parasol, swinging it to block Ruby’s incoming barrages and attempting to ram and club her opponent. Ruby hopped away, then brought the scythe down above Neo. Neo’s reflexes kicked in, and she opened her parasol above her head at just the right moment, causing the scythe blade to grind against the durable material. Ruby pulled back, then grasped the weapon with both hands behind her back, holding it horizontal. She then began spinning rapidly, causing a vortex of the scythe’s massive blade and knifed end. She approached Neo, who stepped back to avoid the oncoming threat, then put her open parasol in between her and the threat as a shield. The parasol only took two or three hits before Ruby changed her approach again, this time swinging Crescent Rose at Neo’s unguarded feet. The blade tore through the asphalt and knocked Neo off-balance, allowing Ruby to stab her weapon into the ground and pole vault herself over Neo’s defenses. She landed right as Neo regained her balance, swinging again. Neo backflipped away, with the blade just barely missing her, cutting off her pearl necklace that was slightly raised from her body. She escaped the attack, then stood opposite to Ruby as she landed. Ruby smirked, then slammed her blade into the ground. She pulled a trigger on her weapon’s handle, and began firing bullets out of the top of the scythe. Neo ran down the street, dodging them. When she curved and reached a building, she pulled out the parasol and blocked the next few shots. Ruby rushed her, rapidly striking the parasol. Neo cringed under the repeated pressure of blocking her attacks, then rammed forward, bashing Ruby with the parasol and forcing her back. Ruby’s boots skidded on the asphalt, and she let out an audible grunt of pressure and pain. Neo took the advantage to close the parasol and club Ruby in the gut. Ruby grunted again, keeling over from the blow. Then she removed one of her hands from her weapon and threw a mighty punch. The blow struck Neo square between the eyes, knocking her so hard that she became dizzy and spun around. She held her head in her hand, her legs off balance, and unaware that her back was to the Reaper.

Cinder yelped aloud at what happened next. The massive blade of the scythe suddenly burst through Neo’s gut. Her pink and brown eyes widened and her mouth flew open in a silent scream of agony. Red blood burst from Neo’s stomach, completely coating the scythe blade and splattering like rain onto the dark street. It reflected the pale moonlight, turning the blade and the ground into gruesome crimson mirrors. Ruby chuckled, then lifted the scythe blade up. Neo grasped the blade that had impaled her as her feet were removed from the ground and as the pain grew. Ruby held Neo, impaled through the gut, aloft on her scythe blade.

“Just another worm on my hook,” Ruby growled happily.

Blood began to spill from Neo’s mouth as she began to gag and choke, obviously having trouble breathing. Her eyes stared up at the night sky, both wide and pale.

Cinder was tearing up. Her heart was racing a million miles a second. The knees she had been kneeling on felt no longer capable of supporting her weight. Her entire body trembled and her throat choked up, but she could not even cry in grief. She was frozen in pain and disbelief.

Ruby smirked again, then suddenly twisted and shifted her scythe. The incision that she had made through Neo’s body suddenly expanded, and Ruby swung vertically in a rapid fashion. There were more bursts of blood, this time down Neo’s entire body. Her eyes glazed over, her mouth filled with blood, and she fell. But she fell in two pieces: her left side and her right side, split almost perfectly down the middle, collapsing and crumpling to the ground. As soon as they struck, they splattered more blood to the already gargantuan puddles on the ground and spewed the bones and organs inside of them into the needlessly spilled liquid.

Cinder then found the energy to move again, and she used it to duck behind the trash can completely, hiding herself. She could barely see, her eyes were so full of salty tears that stung and obscured her vision. She gagged, with each second she sat there creating images of Neo’s mutilated corpse on the ground. She held her hand to her mouth, then jumped up and ran. She did not even look behind to see if the Reaper was chasing her. She ran down the dark streets, blinded by tears, until she somehow found her way back to the metal door of the hideout. She exhausted the last of her energy to bang on the door, then collapsed to her knees and vomited all over the ground. She was so distressed that she did not even hear the loud door open, only Roman and Emerald’s shouting as they grabbed her arms and pulled her inside. Cinder had just made it past the door when Mercury slammed it shut.

“Cinder!” Roman’s voice called. Cinder could barely hear it, even though he stood directly above her. The sting in her eyes, the taste in her mouth, the chill in her skin, the pain in her heart… they were too overpowering.

“Cinder!” Roman called again. “Where’s Neo? Where is Neo?”

Not that question. Anything but that question.

“Neo…” Cinder replied shakily, “Neo is dead.”