Princess

Prologue


She was falling.

The pain hardly registered now, only the wind screaming past bloodstained hair.

Her eyes closed. She embraced death.

The impact blew whatever breath she held out of her lungs. Her back twisted, the shock making her flinch forwards. Then she sank.

The murky depths clawed at her face and she found herself with a second wind, a sudden burst of energy where moments before there was none. She fought, tried to swim, tried to move the one arm that felt sluggish, her legs which were weak.

“Help!” she called out. Her voice sounded wrong, too desperate, too young, too broken.

It didn’t matter. The liquid slipped over her prone form and stuck to her. She was the fly caught in the spider’s web.

Her last gasp ended with black sludge crawling into her mouth and down her throat.

Then the darkness rose around her and the last thing that Taylor Hebert, Skitter, Weaver, Khepri saw, was a sea of untainted stars, a jagged, broken moon, and two figures, one light and one dark, looking down at her.

***

Salem lifted her head from the tome sitting before her and looked off to the west. Through the stained glass of her library’s windows, she could make out the moon hanging above, slowly tumbling towards the distant horizon as the night started to wane.

She stood, slowly and carefully, as she did all things, and looked across the room. Only a few seers were there to keep her company and most of those were sorting through the towering rows of books, keeping them dust free and clean in the dry air of the Spire.

“Come,” she said, her voice so low as to be a whisper. From the darkness came two creatures, both as dark as the shadows in which they lived. When she started to walk they followed, slithering from one shadow to another in her wake.

She climbed down one of the spiral staircases of her home, each step slow and measured, her dress pooling by her ankles. When she reached the very bottom she paused. There was something in her domain, something in the air that felt... wrong.

“Find it,” she ordered and two shadows slid past her and into the room. She followed after them, still taking her time, still moving at the same slow and measured pace of someone that had all the time in the world to do as she wanted.

The chamber was colossal, a cavern lit by a thousand grimmlamps that floated by the ceiling and mingled with the stalactites that hung like the teeth of a dead beast. The purple light they cast did little to push away the shadows.

A pool, unmoving and of a substance that allowed no light to escape, took up the bottom of the room’s interior. A few Grimm moved out of the pool with the languorous motions of something coming awake for the first time. These she ignored.

Her shades were milling, spinning through the air above something that should not be.

Salem quickened her pace.

“Remove it,” she said, dark eyes fixed upon the formless thing heaped on the edge of the shoreline.

Her grimm moved to obey, pulling the thing back and out of the pool of darkness. They left it a few feet from the edge, then moved back to where the dark could swallow them once more.

Salem came to a stop above the thing. She knelt, robes bunching around her as she folded herself over and looked with something approaching open curiosity at the thing which had invaded her domain. A hand, white as snow and lined with blackened veins, grabbed the edge of the thing and turned it over.

“How very interesting.”

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the folks on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (except for eschwartz), but I like you anyway.

 

Chapter One


She woke up, naked, in a bed.

Something told her that this was wrong, that she should get up and out of the bed, start searching for a weapon and call upon her swarm to defend herself. But when she started to move it was as though weights had been tied to her body, every motion making her heart thud faster in her chest and a wave of exhaustion washing over her.

So she called her swarm, the millions of creatures that should have been around her, waiting, willing to obey her because she was... because she was her.

A few hundred heeded her call. That was all, not the millions she expected. They were hers to control, yes, but they were also wrong, something tugging at them to continue what they were doing, even if that was just flying aimlessly in circles, constantly on the hunt for prey that wasn’t there.

Her vision through their eyes was warped and confusing, a sea of jagged, stony outcrops bathed in purple light, patches of black oozing liquid that made her heart beat erratically when she focused on them and places where the ground itself was on fire.

Then she brought them around, her tiny swarm buzzing as they approached the only building in sight. It was a tower, a monolith of black stone that rose out of the ground like an accusing finger, daring the skies to protest its intrusion. Crimson light spilled out from open windows. It took only a moment for the smallest of her swarm to slip into the building and race down its many corridors.

She was lying with her eyes closed when the swarm found her room. They fluttered open and for the first time she saw the creatures she was controlling with her own eyes.

They were wasp-like, with a bulbous tail hiding an inch-long stinger and six knife-tipped feet that pressed into the blanket of her bed. Red and black wings beat at the air hard enough to make the whole room vibrate as they hovered above her.

She called one to her, the rest moving towards the walls and ceiling and floor, covering embroidered carpets and hardwood furniture that she had paid little mind to. It, the smallest of her swarm, landed gently by her side, the white bone over its face shifting as it tilted its head.

Slowly, with more effort that it was worth, she dragged her arm out from the cocoon of velvety blankets and laid a hand on the wasp’s head. “What are you?” she asked.

“It is a lancer,” a voice said from the entrance.

A woman stood there, tall and regal, clothed in black robes with fine red trim. She stepped into the room with little care for the creatures, the lancers, scuttling by her feet. She didn’t need to, they moved out of her path of their own volition. “Lancer,” she repeated while her thumb stroked the wasp’s head.

The woman paused by the side of the bed and followed the path of the girl’s arm to the lancer she was caressing. “Are you not afraid of it?”

“No,” she said.

“And you can control it?” the woman asked. Red eyes locked onto hers, and although she felt no hostility from the woman, the gaze still made her want to shrink back into the bed.

“Yes,” she replied truthfully. “It’s a bug,” she added.

One delicate eyebrow perked on the woman’s head. “And not the others?”

“Others?” she asked.

The woman gestured towards the door. They only had to wait a few heartbeats before another creature stepped in. This one was tall, long arms ending in sharpened bone-white claws, a dog’s head with teeth as long as the girl’s fingers and a body covered in coarse black fur. “This is a beowolf,” she said.

“Okay,” she replied easily.

“Can you control it as you do these lancers?” the woman asked.

“It’s not an insect,” she explained.

Another eyebrow joined the first. “How very specific,” she said. “And you’re not afraid of it?” she asked, still gesturing towards the beowolf.

She took a moment to inspect the black creature again. It was large and intimidating, teeth bared as though ready to take a bite out of her at any moment. “No.”

The woman made a noise in the back of her throat that might have been a laugh. “Most in your position would be terrified.”

“Is there anyone else like me?” she asked. Her hand dropped away from the lancer’s head, every finger burning with the fatigue of overuse.

“I don’t know,” the woman said.

She yawned, jaw cracking and eyes watering with the action. “What’s your name?”

The woman tilted her head to one side, still inspecting her carefully. “I am Salem, queen of the Grimm.”

“Okay,” were her last words before the darkness of sleep overtook her.

***

Salem watched the girl-child as she rested. Her injuries were severe, or they had been before she deigned to heal her of the worst of them. Still, the blankets of her bed were wrapped around a too-thin body and bunched up on the side with the missing arm. By height, she seemed about Cinder’s age, though she seemed far too thin for that.

She looked away from the girl-child and to the infestation of lancers occupying the room. They were docile, more so than they would normally be, even when in her presence. The one the child had been fondling wrapped itself into a tight ball by the child’s side, claws held in so as to avoid hurting her.

It was disquieting, unnerving. So many years had passed since anything of interest had happened, since she had seen anything truly new, that she wasn’t sure how to react to this sudden intrusion.

She could have just killed the girl, get it over with and protect her domain. But was that truly what she wanted? She was Salem, queen of the Grimm. She did not need protecting from a mere girl, not even one that shared her features.

“Watch over her,” she ordered the beowolf in the room’s centre as she spun around and walked out of the room. “She is interesting.”

***

When she awoke a second time the lighting in her room was different. The sun outside was at its zenith and the purplish haze that robbed the landscape of its colour was at its weakest. She looked around the room, senses extending to her little swarm of lancers.

It only took her a moment to discover that she was not alone.

The woman, Salem, was back. She was sitting on a chair that had not been there before, a book on her lap and her head turned down to focus on the pages. She studied Salem for some time, gaze following the curve of her jaw and the black veins around her eyes. Her hair, too, was bizarre, six strands like ponytails sticking out in two pairs of three from either side of her head, the rest of her hair cascading down to the small of her back in a white fountain.

“Your hair looks like a spider,” she said.

Salem looked up from her book, folded the corner of one page without looking, and shut the tome with a gentle thud. “Does it?”

She nodded. She could feel a warmth climbing onto her cheeks and she wondered why she had let herself speak aloud.

“Should I perhaps change hairstyles then?” Salem asked.

She shook her head. It wouldn’t do to insult the woman caring for her. “I like it.”

Salem made another noise at the back of her throat, one she was quickly associating with faint amusement. “Then I’ll keep it this way,” she said easily. “How are you feeling?”

She paused, moving still-naked limbs under the satin sheets of her bed, letting the soft material murmur as it slid across bare skin. Her arm and legs were still heavy, still tired, but now it was the tired of a muscle recovering after hard exercise, a familiar burning and ache. “Better. A lot better,” she said.

“You have been asleep for three days,” Salem said.

“Oh... I’m sorry,” she said as she stretched her legs under the blankets until they quivered. The wasp nestled by her side moved out of the way with all of the grumpy disposition of a wet cat.

“It is of little consequence,” Salem said. “I had questions for you.”

Something, a little voice at the back of her mind, told her to be careful, to be wary of this Salem woman, but it was easily drowned out by her apathy. She just wanted to sleep again, or maybe to walk around and move? Her body didn’t seem to agree on what she wanted to do. “Okay,” she said, finally.

“What is your name, child?” Salem asked.

“My name,” she repeated. She had a name. She had many names, but at the moment none of them were coming to the surface. “I don’t remember,” she said.

One of Salem’s eyebrows perked. “That is unfortunate,” she said. “I cannot continue calling you child.”

She shook her head. “I’m not a child.”

“Of course not,” Salem lied. She caught it, but didn’t comment. “Then perhaps a nickname for now. Maybe Wasp?” Salem gestured at all the lancers still hanging onto the ceiling.

She gave Salem a flat, unamused look. “That is not my name,” she said.

“I know it isn’t, child,” Salem said.

Her unamused look turned into a glare, but all that did was add a twinkle of joy in Salem’s eye. “I don’t like Wasp,” she said. It wasn’t a nice name. It wasn’t even a real name. And it sounded too villainous besides.

“Very well, we can table that for later. There are more important questions.” Salem shifted in her seat, one leg crossing over the other. “How did you come to be here?”

“I don’t remember,” she replied instantly.

Salem looked at her for a long time. “Nothing at all?” she prodded.

She wanted to keep what little she knew to herself, but then, maybe that wasn’t wise. She had to extend some trust eventually, and Salem had been nothing but kind to her. “I remember a fight. There were lots of us. I had a big swarm.”

“And who were you fighting?” Salem asked.

She frowned, trying to parse the memories, even though most of them were patchy at best. “It looked like a man. He was golden, and powerful, and it took a lot of us to fight him.”

Salem’s interest, which had just been idle curiosity before, sharpened to a razor’s edge. Red eyes locked on her and refused to blink. “Tell me more,” she demanded.

“He... he destroyed a lot, killed so many of us. But we fought him and... and I think we won? Maybe.”

“And then you awoke here?” she asked.

She frowned a little, gaze drifting over to the window. The moon hung close to the horizon. “The moon here is broken. It wasn't before.”

Salem’s breath caught, and for a few long seconds she wondered if something she said had hurt the woman. “I think I see. What else can you recall?”

She frowned, trying to make sense of the fragmented images she still had. “Lots of portals, and a city by the bay. It was... my city. My friends... I.” She stopped and with an effort of will moved her hand up to her face to wipe away some of the tears gathered there. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s fine,” Salem said.

“Where am I?” she asked Salem.

Salem took a while to respond. “You are on what remains of the world. What was left.” With a single graceful motion Salem uncrossed her legs and stood. “I have affairs to take care of. Rest for now. We can talk more later.”

“Okay,” she said. “Thank you.”

Salem paused, eyes glancing down for a moment before meeting hers again. “Akelarre,” she said before moving towards the door.

“What?” she asked.

“Your name, it shall be Akelarre.”

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (except for eschwartz), but I like you anyway.

 

Chapter Two


Akelarre moved through the edge of the spire with the slow, gentle pace of someone afraid of sudden movements. The ache in all her limbs had receded over the last few days, but not so much so that she was able to walk without taking her time.

The view from the many arrow slits and stained glass windows was always the same. A world of dark rocks under a grey sky, purple haze floating bare meters off the ground in swirling patches that rotted away any weeds that dared poke out from the ground. Sometimes the black pools hidden in crevices would warp and bubble and a creature of black skin and white bone would crawl out of the muck.

She supposed that it was almost pretty, in a way. Just like her new name.

She wasn’t sure what to think of it. There was no meaning to the word; none that she knew, anyway. Maybe it was just a cute nickname, but then Salem didn’t seem the sort to do that. She was supposed to be a queen, after all.

Akelarre looked outside again at the desolate wastes and wondered what kind of queen would want to rule over a kingdom of monsters.

She didn’t know whether to trust Salem or not. The woman felt... nice, kind even, but also careful and smart. She was a cynic. And maybe, most of all, she was lonely.

She didn’t dare spy on her with her lancers -- the wasps were far too big and noisy to go unnoticed -- but she had sent them to scout the Spire and so far she hadn’t found any signs of life other than the black creatures with the bone masks.

“Are you enjoying yourself?” came Salem’s voice from deeper in the corridor.

Akelarre nodded, her gaze still fixed on the world outside, but her lancers paid attention as Salem glided closer. “I’m feeling better,” she admitted. “Less sore.”

“Your health is improving at a decent pace,” Salem said. “We will have to see about fixing that arm of yours.”

Akelarre looked down at the stump. She couldn’t actually see it as it was hidden under the fabric of the white robe she was wearing, but the motion under the material made it obvious that something was wrong. “Can you do that?”

“Certainly,” Salem said. “You might find my replacement to be better than the original, in time.”

Akelarre nodded and turned a little to look at Salem’s reflection in the glass. “Are there others?” she asked. It was strange to find herself standing next to someone taller than her, though she couldn’t say why.

“Others?” Salem repeated.

She gestured at the world past the window. “People, like us.”

Salem thought on it for a moment, then shook her head. “I’m afraid not. There are humans out there, and faunus, but as for those like us, I’m afraid it is just you and me, Akelarre.” One of Salem’s hands, a slim, white thing, rose to her shoulder and held onto it with gentle pressure.

“If I’m like you, and you’re the queen, does that make me the princess?” she asked with just a hint of amusement, her gaze moving away from Salem’s reflection to her own. Red eyes stared back, sunken into a face that was too pale. The black veins around her eyes and neck stood out against her skin. Her hair was black as pitch and flowed with almost liquid grace to pool around her shoulders and along her back.

Salem blinked, then made her laughing noise, a sort of chuffing at the back of her throat. “I suppose. Though don’t you think it’s a little early to claim royalty?”

Akelarre looked over the barren wastes again, then she gestured at it dismissively. “Not much to rule over,” she said.

Salem tilted her head a little, as though considering. “I suppose not,” she said. Her hand slipped off Akelarre’s shoulder. “Follow me,” she ordered as she turned in a swish of robes.

Akelarre followed.

The steps Salem led her towards climbed down in a slow spiral and they went on for a very long time. She sent some of her lancers ahead to scout. Salem took the steps one at a time, her pace even and regal but not so fast that Akelarre grew tired.

By the time they reached the bottom, Akelarre’s heart was beating faster and her legs ached more than they had earlier, but she was still well enough. Her lancers moved ahead and through the cavernous room. It only took a stray thought for them to form up into triangular wing formations to better scout the cave.

Salem looked up as one group of the large wasps flew by, then turned in a tight formation to give the room another pass. “Your fine control is rather impressive,” she said. “Better than mine, even. I suspect you can control a smaller variety of Grimm but have more control over your little niche. Interesting.”

She nodded. It wasn’t as if she could confirm what Salem had said, but it felt right. “I like... arthropods.”

Salem nodded and walked deeper into the room. “Light,” she called out and from the ceiling came more of the black creatures, these ones like jellyfish in appearance, though their cores glowed with a reddish inner fire that cast the shadows away. They kept circling above while Salem knelt next to the large brackish pool in the room’s centre. “The Grimm are mine, and I am of the Grimm. Some say that the Grimm lack souls but that is not entirely true.”

She stood, her hand moving out of the pool while a ripple flowed across. Then the surface bubbled and a form moved out of the water. At first it looked like a man, but then the head of a horse rose before it and soon a long-limbed creature was walking out of the pool with careful steps.

“This is a nuckelavee,” she said. “Can you control it?” Akelarre shook her head and the nuckelavee walked off towards a distant corner of the cavern. “When they say that the Grimm are soulless they are wrong. The Grimm have a soul. One. And it is mine.”

“Are they like your children?” Akelarre asked. Guilt was building up inside her. If that was the case, then by taking the lancers for her own she had stolen Salem’s children.

“No, they are servants and warriors and tools,” she said. Her red eyes dared Akelarre to deny it, to question the morality of it.

“They are expendable,” Akelarre said. “Like... like my swarm.” She look up where her lancers were flying in increasingly intricate patterns near the ceiling, some passing within millimeters of each other without so much as brushing.

Salem’s smile was all teeth for a moment before it became demure again. “Exactly.” She knelt again and this time the creature that followed was no taller than Akelarre’s shin, but the moment it detatched itself from the pool something snapped into place and it froze.

She leaned forward to inspect it. At first glance it was merely a very large scorpion, one the size of a housecat. But unlike any she’d ever seen--not that she could truly remember seeing one--this one was covered in white bones with a fine red filigree on them. Its stinger looked poised and ready to punch a hole through armour if it so chose. “This one is mine,” Akelarre said.

“Is it?” Salem asked, one eyebrow raising slowly. Salem reached towards the scorpion grimm, then pointed it to someplace further down the cave. It obeyed. No thoughts, no denial of the order. Salem asked and it moved.

Akelarre watched it scuttle by, felt the strain as her control over it was stretched and finally ignored. It was almost insulting, but at the same time it truly wasn’t. “What are they for?” she asked.

“The Grimm?” Salem asked. She was watching Akelarre for a reaction. She must have approved of what she saw. “The Grimm are my warriors, my army against the blight of mankind.”

“You fight mankind?” Akelarre asked.

Salem glanced over the pool for a long few moments. “May I tell you a story?” Akelarre’s nod was enough for Salem to start. “Long ago this world was ruled by two gods, Brothers, one of dark and one of light... a golden man-” she glanced pointedly at Akelarre. “They were powerful, but they did not understand the hearts of people. We rebelled, and eventually they left.”

Akelarre felt her brow shifting down. “You didn’t win,” she said.

Salem look genuinely surprised, if only for the barest hint of a moment before she schooled her features. “And what would victory have looked like?” she asked.

“They would have died,” she said simply.

Salem’s bark of laughter echoed out into the cavern. “Perhaps, yes. But I was never so fortunate. I will spare you the details, but they took someone very special away from me and then twisted him against me. Once we ruled a paradise together, had a family, but he threw it all away in service of beings who care nothing for any of us.”

“He’s still alive?”

Salem nodded. “He is. And he has been twisting humanity against me, against us, for thousands of years. He wants to call the Brothers back. Make no mistake, I do terrible things to weaken them, lay low their heroes and shatter their dreams, because that is the only way they will ever be free. They will never thank me, but in the end I will watch the sun rise on a free world.”

***

Salem watched the child, Akelarre, as her words sank in. She hoped that they would be enough to convince her to side with Salem. There were other means of obtaining loyalty, but she didn’t want to have to break the child, not when she was the first person she had met in millennia that might suffer under the same curse.

A friendship now could, if Akelarre was like Salem, last forever.

And what did that say about her own health, that she would stoop so low as to attempt to court a child just to stave off the long days of plotting and planning? But she was the Queen of the Grimm, she answered to no one, and so didn’t need to make excuses for herself or her actions.

If her suspicions were correct, then the golden man Akelarre had fought had to be the God of Light. And if she was cursed as Salem had been, then perhaps this child predated her. Perhaps she too had rebelled against the gods and had suffered ever since.

Was there a chance that Salem could have been the same? Stuck in a pit of absolute darkness for countless millennia? Perhaps.

Akelarre bent down next to her. Not with the same grace that Salem displayed, but with confidence in every motion. She reached a hand towards the pool and dipped it in with all the care of a child that had never touched an open flame.

A minute passed, then two. The pool bubbled and Salem watched with interest as a creature crawled out of the pit.

It was small, no bigger than a hand-span and black as a moonless night. Eight legs moving in perfect tandem helped the thing scuttle towards its new master where it nestled into Akelarre’s palm. The fact that its legs ended in spikes, or that its bone-white mask was split down the middle to reveal cruel fangs didn’t seem to bother the girl one whit.

Salem placed a hand on Akelarre’s head and the girl tilted her head back to stare at Salem. She smiled. “Well done,” she said. “It is a terrifying specimen.”

Akelarre’s cheeks puffed out. “It was supposed to be cute,” she said.

Salem held back a laugh. It wouldn’t do to lose her composure before her newest... recruit.

Yes, life was taking a strange turn for Salem.

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (except for eschwartz), but I like you anyway.

 

Chapter Three


Akelarre was wandering the Spire again. She hadn’t been keeping count of the days, especially not at the start when everything was still a haze of pain and confusion, but she assumed that it had been at least a month since she’d awakened.

In that time the Spire was home to exactly two people that weren’t her or Salem, a lot of Grimm, and now an entire swarm of insects of every size and shape. Salem seemed impressed by her collection of tiny Grimm, though she did seem to want to push her towards making bigger, more dangerous specimens.

For now she was satisfied with her swarm; the Grimm bugs stuffed into the hems of her robe and entwined in her hair felt natural, reassuring even. She was... content spending her days exploring the tower with her own eyes and occasionally talking to Salem when they met in the corridors or in Salem’s library.

Every afternoon, when the sun started to dip, Akelarre would walk down the spiral stairs in the middle of the tower and to the pool room below. There she would dip her feet in the black and summon more Grimm.

Her memories were still fuzzy, but she seemed to have no issue calling forth a seemingly unending variety of insects. She wondered, idly, how many there were.

But those idle concerns didn’t matter any more. There were guests in the castle. Three of them. They had arrived via a strange flying machine that had docked atop one of the crystal spires nearby, before all three walked over to the castle proper. She knew, because from the moment the machine was a speck in the distant sky she had watched them approaching.

One had moved straight to the throne room where Salem was waiting, the other two had found one of the waiting rooms nearby and were just... waiting.

She had to assume that the one in the throne room was there on some sort of business, and maybe the other two were guards or companions. They all seemed very young. Whatever the case was, Akelarre was curious, and while she didn’t feel as though she had ever been the social sort, she had been mostly alone for a few weeks.

Yes, she was going to go meet those strangers and she was going to make some friends.

***

The Lands of Darkness were, as far as one Emerald Sustrai was concerned, a bit much.

Oh, she didn’t mind being there, especially not if it was because she was escorting her Cinder and keeping her safe. She just wished that maybe Cinder wanted escorting elsewhere. Like a beach resort, or a shopping centre in Atlas, and not in the literal hell on Remnant that the Grimmlands represented.

“Damn this is lame.”

Then again, the situation could also have improved if it was just her and Cinder, not her, Cinder and one arrogant, rude, idiotic half-human cyborg asshole. “Shut up Mercury,” she said as she crossed the waiting room and slumped into one of the crystal seats lining the walls.

Queen of the Grimm Salem might have been, but interior decorator she was not. All of her castles and spires and evil dungeons shared the same theme. Crystals, red lighting, evil chandeliers.

Not that she was going to tell the pants-wettingly terrifying woman. Even Cinder seemed to, if not fear, then at least respect the Queen of all Grimm.

“You’d think she could afford a television,” Mercury sneered as he leaned against a nearby wall.

“A television would be nice, but I don’t think we’d get any signal.”

Emerald’s heart decided, after a bit of jumping around, to stay in her chest, but it was a near
thing. She scrambled to her feet and looked around the room, almost immediately spotting the person that had spoken.

Her heart decided to make another go at escaping.

The first thought to cross her mind was ‘holy shit Salem’s in the room’ but that faded as soon as she had the chance to really look at the girl. She was maybe a year older than Emerald. Maybe. It was hard to tell what with the red eyes and dark, protruding veins and hair that was so black it seemed to absorb all the light around it. She wore a simple robe, almost a bathrobe that covered her from neck to ankles and left everything to the imagination. That, and one arm of the robe was flopping uselessly at her side.

“H-hi!” Emerald said, her voice only half an octave away from a squeak.

She expected Mercury to snicker at her about it but his sense of self-preservation was too well honed for that.

Too bad.

The younger, thinner version of Salem met Emerald’s eyes and blinked slowly. “Hello.”

“Hey there, sweetheart, you, uh, kinda surprised us,” Mercury said.

Emerald crossed her fingers and hoped that she tore his head off for the comment. And that she spared her afterwards. But, her luck being what it was, the girl just turned her stare towards Mercury, eyed him up and down like a prime piece of roadkill and scoffed. “Then you should have been paying more attention.”

She... had been paying attention. That’s why the girl talking had surprised her and probably Mercury too. “Must have been distracted,” Mercury said with an easy-going smile.

The girl seemed to accept that with a shrug. “What are your names? And what are you doing here?”

“I’m Emerald, Emerald Sustrai. The doofus is Mercury Black. Please pretend he’s mute. It makes life easier for all of us,” she said while focusing all of her attention on the girl’s features. Seeing how someone took a joke told you a lot about them.

Things like whether or not they would disembowel you on a whim.

“Hello, Emerald and Mercury. You can call me Akelarre,” the girl--Akelarre, apparently--said.

“Ah, pleased to meet you,” she replied.

“Yeah, real pleasure,” Mercury said.

Akelarre stared at Emerald. Emerald stared back. The unblinking, unflinching red eyes were locked onto hers and even when Emerald felt the first beads of sweat trickling down her back and the first quiet minute ticked by the stare never ceased. She wanted to say something, anything, to break the silence, but nothing was coming and Akelarre just wouldn’t. Stop. Staring.

Then, from the girl’s hair, came an almost mechanical movement, eight legs moving with stop-motion actions, unfolding to reveal a spider with Grimm markings the size of Emerald’s spread hand that slowly, carefully, crawled across Arelarre’s face and tucked itself away in the collar of her robe where it started to nuzzle her.

Ozpin’s saggy nutsack the girl was insane. “A-are you okay?” Emerald asked. She sounded faint. She felt faint. She wondered if she was going to faint.

“I was waiting for you to tell me why you were here.”

She could do that. Emerald had all the equipment and information necessary to tell the creepy Grimm girl everything she needed to know. “We’re with Cinder,” she said, and instantly a weight lifted itself off her shoulders. Cinder was important, and if they were with Cinder no one would eat them.

“Who is Cinder?”

Emerald was on the fence. On the one hand, this girl didn’t know who Cinder was and that was awful. On the other, she didn’t know who Cinder was and might be tempted to take a nibble out of Emerald.

“Cinder’s our boss. She’s off meeting with Salem,” Mercury said.

“Oh,” Akelarre said. “That makes sense.”

“So, who’re you?” Mercury asked.

Akelarre turned towards him and seemed to consider the question for a moment. “I am Akelarre,” she finally said. “I’m like Salem. But I like bugs more. Do you like bugs?”

Emerald and Mercury’s eyes met. They had never agreed on anything, ever. Sure, half the time that was them being assholes at each other but the point stood. “We love bugs,” Emerald said with a smile that hurt her cheeks.

“Totally,” Mercury added.

“Oh, that’s good,” Akelarre said. “Look.” She pointed to the ceiling.

Emerald didn’t want to look. She’d once seen a Bullhead crash. Well, she’d caused it because Cinder had asked, but the point stood, she had seen a crash, and the memory was still fresh and vivid in her mind years later. She had a premonition that if she looked up the same kind of memory-scarring event would happen again.

Swallowing, she slowly tilted her head back and locked her chest in place to avoid screaming.

Bugs. A swarm of thousands of chitinous insectile Grimm moving in perfect geometric patterns that overlapped like a tightly woven rug. And in the centre of it an opening in which a few spiders, lancers, and what looked like butterflies made of childhood nightmares were forming the word ‘hello’ next to a smiling face whose mouth was made from the carapace of a five-foot-long centipede-like Grimm, whos overlapping legs formed jaws full of needle-like fangs.

Emerald was very proud when Mercury was the first to start screaming.

***

Akelarre cuddled her current favourite spider closer to her chest while the two people she’d just met continued screaming. Not even dispersing her swarm and tucking all of it away and out of sight really helped. In fact, having twice their combined body mass of insectile Grimm suddenly fade away into the darkness seemed to make the two of them more nervous, not less.

It was really quite traumatic all around. People were not like her insects. It took a lot more work to make them not be afraid and be nice to her. She vaguely recalled not being very good socially, and even remembered a few other occasions where people had similar reactions to her friends. She had hoped it would be different, but she was wrong.

She watched as they scrambled towards the door, kicking and punching to be the first one out of the room while she was left behind.

“It was... enjoyable meeting you. Goodbye,” she said to their retreating backs.

She tracked them for a while thanks to the Grimm ticks she’d placed all over their bodies, but they didn’t seem to be heading anywhere interesting, just out the side of the spire and back towards their ship.

Shrugging to herself and her swarm, Akelarre moved out of the room and made her way towards the throne room. It was relatively close, and Salem, at least, had never denied her a conversation before.

The doors to the throne room, two massive pillars of stone, moved as Akelarre shouldered them aside. As her bugs had told her, the room was empty except for a young woman, presumably Cinder, and Salem, who was seated on her throne and looking right at her.

“Is something wrong, Akelarre?” Salem asked.

Akelarre paused and gave the question some thought. Yes, things were wrong. She was disappointed and a little saddened. It was why she had come to Salem. “Yes,” she said as she started to cross the room.

The Cinder girl looked to be about her age, with beautiful hair that tumbled down to the small of her back and a lithe but full body that barely fit into the dress she was wearing. Akelarre couldn’t remember seeing many women, but she knew at a glance that Cinder was spectacularly beautiful. “Hello, Cinder,” she said as she walked past the woman.

“Hello?” Cinder said automatically from where she was on the ground on one knee.

Akelarre continued walking until she reached Salem’s throne. She paused, looking for somewhere else to sit, but finding none with either her eyes or that of the swarm, she moved closer and climbed onto the arm of the throne next to Salem. “What happened?” Salem asked.

She felt Salem’s unusually warm hand land on her back and start to brush long fingers through her hair. “I met two new people. They said they were with Cinder. They said they liked insects but they were lying.” She frowned a little at the still-fresh memory. “They ran away.”

“I see,” Salem said. Her gaze shifted onto Cinder. “Do you have anything to say in defence of your minions?”

“I, my queen, please, forgive me,” Cinder bowed at the waist. “I will see them punished for their actions against... Akelarre.”

Akelarre looked up to the ceiling where her swarm was gathering, then shook her head. “No, it’s okay,” she said. “It was my fault. I showed them too many bugs.”

Salem’s lips twisted at the corner for just a moment before her flat expression returned. “Well well, Cinder, it seems that Akelarre’s mercy will spare you the trouble of punishing your subordinates.”

“I... see, thank you Miss Akelarre,” Cinder said. Akelarre detected a faint hint of confusion in the pretty woman’s voice but let it go.

“It’s okay. It was my fault,” she repeated before examining Cinder closer. “Salem?”

“Yes?” Salem asked.

“Who is she?”

Salem made that laughing noise at the back of her throat again. “She is a subordinate of mine. Her name is Cinder Fall. She is quite... useful.”

“Is she like your Grimm or my Swarm?” she asked.

“Not quite. She can go places and do things that my Grimm cannot.”

Akelarre nodded. That made sense. “So she’s not as expendable. That’s nice.” Cinder seemed to tense up at that but didn’t comment. “Are you using her right now?”

“I am,” Salem said. “I’m giving her a very important mission.”

“What is it?”

Salem looked away for a moment, eyes clouding over in the way that they did when she was thinking. Akelarre gave her all the time she needed, though after a moment Cinder looked ready to start fidgeting. She couldn’t see it, but the Grimm mites on Cinder’s body could feel the gathering tension in her muscles. “There are four relics hidden across the world of Remnant,” Salem said with the tone Akelarre had come to associate with storytelling. “To obtain them, you need the power of a maiden, one for each relic. Cinder is going to find one of these wayward maidens and hunt her down.”

“Oh. Can I help?” Akelarre asked.

“No, this mission is Cinder’s. It is her opportunity to prove herself.”

Akelarre nodded and jumped off the arm of Salem’s throne with a dainty hop. “Okay. I’m tired now. Goodbye, Salem. Goodbye, Cinder. And good luck.”

“Thank you,” Cinder said immediately.

As she crossed the girl on her path to the doors of the throne room, Akelarre felt the slightest shiver run across her body.

Perhaps Cinder was tired too?

She was already out of the throne room when she realized that she missed her opportunity to show Cinder her bugs.

But there would always be another time.

***

New canon: The only insects Taylor can’t control are social butterflies.

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (except for eschwartz), but I like you anyway.

 

Chapter Four


There was another new person in the spire.

It had been some time since she’d had anything to do but wander the halls and sometimes visit the library. For all that Salem’s collection of books was vast the subject matter was often dull. Genealogies and histories of a past she had no connection to were not much to her liking.

So she stood up from her place next to the pool of darkness in the basement and started making her way up the stairs. At least the constant walking was getting her in shape. Whatever lingering pain she had felt before was gone now. She was like a taut spring, ready to jump into action at a moment’s notice.

If only there was something to jump into.

She was going to have to talk to Salem about it.

The man was kneeling in the throne room, near the place where Cinder had rested just a few days ago. He was bowing forwards, head almost on the ground while Salem took her place on her throne.

Akelarre slid into the room with only the gentle murmur of her robes shifting to signal her presence, but that was enough for the man.

He jumped to his feet and moved backwards, placing himself between Salem and Akelarre, both hands raised in what she recognized as a fighting stance. He was huge. A slab of meat with shoulders twice as broad as Akelarre’s, and he towered above her even from across the room. “My queen, is this young woman an intruder?”

“If I were an intruder I would not last very long, I think,” she said.

“Perhaps you are right. I’m afraid that that is not enough for me to dismiss you as a threat.”

“Hazel,” Salem said. Her voice was even and measured. If it were not for all the time she spent speaking to the queen of the Grimm then perhaps Akelarre wouldn’t have noticed the edge of amusement in her tone. “She is a guest. Please treat her with respect.”

The man, Hazel, stood a little taller and ran a hand through his coarse beard. “Of course, my queen. Forgive me,” he said. His eyes narrowed as she moved out of the shadow of the doorway and into the red lantern light of the throne room. Then they widened.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hazel,” she said.

“My lady Salem,” he said. “Do you perhaps have a daughter?”

“She is not my child,” Salem said, though there wasn’t any accusation in the words, just a statement of fact. “Akelarre is a... surprise. An enemy of an old foe who resurfaced, quite literally, just recently. She had been in my care ever since.” Salem leaned back into her throne before gesturing Akelarre closer. “Come. I have been meaning to give you something, Akelarre, and with Hazel here there is no better time.”

Curiosity pushing her forwards. She walked over to where Salem was waiting, then sat on the arm of the throne when Salem patted it. She looked down when the woman started to peel the robe from off her back.

The warm air of the room brushed over her naked chest but she felt no discomfort. Hazel averted his gaze politely. “What did you want to give me?” she asked Salem. Perhaps it was a new robe?

A pair of Grimm Seers flew into the room, their tentacles wrapped around an oblong black object. “I have been considering giving you something like this for some time,” Salem said. “Do not think that I did not notice your wandering. I suspect that you will soon extend your explorations to beyond the Spire. It would not do for you to do so with only one arm.”

The Seers stopped next to Salem and Akelarre was able to make out the object in their grip. It was, as Salem had said, an arm. Pitch black with a bony elbow, forearm shaped like bones with a gap between them, and fingers that ended in claws of the same bone-like material that she recognized from so many Grimm.

“It’s very pretty,” Akelarre said.

Salem made a noise at the back of her throat, her happy sound. “Thank you,” she said as she took hold of the arm with the ease of someone lifting a stick. She pressed it against Akelarre’s stump, the shadowy flesh flowing over the girl's severed elbow, halfway up to her shoulder. “This will hurt,” she warned.

Akelarre just nodded.

Salem was right; it hurt quite a bit, like someone had dunked her arm in acid. Her spine stiffened and she gasped before feeling a most particular sensation along her side, as though she had a limb that had fallen asleep and was regaining its circulation with agonizing slowness.

Then she felt it bite into her. Pure hate for every living soul. Without thought or reason. It hated her, and it wanted to consume her, to burn her soul out and make her body its puppet. The arm on the end of her stump writhed, becoming more monstrous, the palm snapping around to face her as a single eye opened on its palm, a white mask surfacing around it.

It wasn't part of her swarm, she couldn't control it that way. But it was a part of her now, she could feel it and the danger it posed. So Akelarre did what came naturally. She leaned on it. Her memories were murky, but the weight of them was undiminished. Pain, sacrifice and control. Millions at her command. Her will rolled over the Grimm attached to her body like a boulder rolling over a bug.

An instant later the arm snapped into a human shape. A perfect mirror of her real one. One white, one black. She moved her new arm, inspecting the bone-tipped fingers then moving the hand to grip the empty air. She turned it over and with a push of intent, white bone plates surfaced out of the black, forming an insectile carapace, while the nails lengthened and thickened into rending claws.

Releasing the change and letting it go back to normal, she looked over to Salem. “Thank you.”

Salem nodded. “You are welcome, of course. Did you wish to try your luck against Hazel? He is a very capable fighter. He won’t injure you, right, Hazel?”

“No ma’am.” His gaze locked onto Akelarre’s. “I would be honoured to teach you how to better defend yourself.” His smile grew a little more eager when Akelarre jumped off the throne’s arm and moved towards him.

“You are very tall,” she said matter-of-factly. “And you seem strong. Fighting you would be difficult.”

He nodded once. “You have already learned one of the most important lessons of combat, it seems; knowing when to cut your losses. If my queen wishes for me to teach you, then I suspect it will be a very interesting endeavor.”

“Indeed,” Salem said. “Akelarre here seems to have grown weary of my company. Some training would serve as both entertainment and to help her improve her fighting abilities, if she ever needs them. But that will be for another time. Hazel, please take the night to prepare for Akelarre’s training regimen.”

He bowed at the waist to Salem, then did the same to Akelarre, though not nearly as deeply. “Of course, ma’am. Miss Akelarre, it was a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to working together.” With a snap of heel on heel he turned around and walked towards the exit.

Akelarre eyed him as he moved away, then turned back towards Salem when he was gone. “You said I could go out exploring?” she said.

“You are not beholden to me,” Salem replied. “Come. Dinner will be served soon.” She began to walk towards the back of the room where a smaller doorway led into one of the many maze-like corridors of the Spire.

Akelarre followed behind her and soon caught up enough to walk by Salem’s side. “Thanks for the arm,” she said as she looked down at the new limb. Her fingers felt a little stiff, but also much stronger than her natural arm. It was going to take some getting used to.

“You thanked me already.”

Akelarre looked up to her, then back down. “Thanks anyway.”

Salem didn’t say anything, but there was an air of self-satisfaction to her as she walked into the dining room and marched to the far end of the massive table that took up a disproportionate amount of space in the room. She sat at the head of the table, then gestured at the far end where another place setting waited.

Akelarre looked at the empty plate and utensils that were obviously meant for her, then all the way across to where Salem was sitting. She let a few of her bugs slip out from her robes and hair and from the ceiling where they always waited.

One of Salem’s eyebrows perked as the creatures pulled the plates and forks and knives along, scraping them on the marble slab until they were placed just to her right. Akelarre pulled the seat next to Salem back and sat down.

Salem’s eyebrow remained where it was, almost hidden in her hairline as Akelarre shuffled in her seat and wondered if she did something wrong. Then Salem relaxed and clapped her hands lightly.

“I hope you don’t mind, but the meal tonight is nothing too terribly complicated,” she said as a group of Seers slipped into the room carrying trays covered with silver domes.
One of the Seers places a tray before Akalarre’s setting and pulled the bell away to reveal a sort of meaty pasta dish covered in a layer of golden-brown cheese.

There was no waiting or signal. Salem dug into her meal with careful motions and Akelarre did the same. “So,” Salem said as she swirled a crystal cup full of crimson-red wine. “What are your intentions for the near future?”

Akelarre didn’t have to think on it for very long. “I would like to explore around the Spire a little. Maybe see places where there are humans?” She knew that there were still pockets of civilization around. Salem goal wasn’t the destruction of all life, so she allowed small settlements to grow and flourish for a time before letting her Grimm remove them. Like a gardener pruning a lawn.

“Hm.” Salem said as she took another bite. “There are nomadic tribes that travel close to the Land of Darkness. They are a cunning bunch, tough and generally generous with those they encounter in need of aid. I have used them before. When resources grow scarce they can become desperate. They make for good followers. A few settlements still exist near the shores. Though those are mostly made up of... well I suppose you would call them cultists.”

“Are there any cities around?” Akelarre asked.

“None very close. Crucible, the content on which we are, is isolated from most of the inhabited world. The nearest large settlement would be... Patch, to the south-east. You would need to travel across a great distance by sea to reach it,” she said before turning to one of her Seers. “Fetch me a map.”

The Grimm bobbed once before turning and moving out of the room. “I don’t think I can travel far over water,” Akelarre said. “I’ll need to make bigger fliers.”

“I’ll let you ride atop a Leviathan if you wish. My Grimm will do you no harm. The only danger you may face will be natural and on account of humanity.”

Akelarre nodded. She could feel a smile tugging at her lips at the idea of moving around and exploring the world at large. “And if I return, will there still be a place for me here?” Akelarre bit her lip, but stopped as soon as she saw Salem’s eyes straying to them.

Salem paused with her fork raised, then lowered it to her plate. She looked up, red eyes meeting red for a long moment. The queen of the Grimm was the first to break the eye contact. “These past few months with you have been quite enjoyable; though you have been a quiet presence you were not an unwelcome one. It feels, perhaps unfairly, as though I have a daughter again.”

A weight settled into Akelarre’s stomach and she floundered, uncertain of what to do at that. Slowly, carefully, she reached out and touched the hand Salem wasn’t using, cool fingers wrapping around cool skin. “I don’t think I’ve had a mother in a long time,” Akelarre said. “But, but if I did, I hope she would have been like you. I’m pretty sure you’re not my mother, but if you want to be... a friend, then I would really like that.” She grinned at Salem.

The woman returned the grin with a demure smile. “I suspect that I would enjoy that.”

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (except for eschwartz), but I like you anyway.

 

Chapter Five


This chapter to dedicated to Askasknot as a thank you for his marvelous artwork! Seriously, go check it out!

***

She was ready. Or as ready as she thought she could be.

Akelarre had taken a few days to prepare her first excursion out of the Grimmlands and towards civilisation. She had underestimated how much work it would be, but not too badly.

The time was spent talking to Salem, who seemed more open about the dangers of the world beyond her immediate domain, or training with Hazel, who mostly allowed her to use him as a very large punching bag to practice on while giving her some pointers.

He was a surprisingly gentle coach for someone so intimidatingly large.

Then Salem had taken her aside to find her something appropriate to wear when near civilisation. She did not enjoy being used as a living doll for Salem, who forced her to try on hundreds of dresses and uniforms and gowns, some of which looked to be hundreds of years old.

She endured it though, because for a moment Salem’s face relaxed and there was even a small smile at the corners of the queen’s lips as she pushed Akelarre into another outfit.

She did come across the idea of making her own costume out of Grimm spider silk, but the project was moving too slowly for her tastes. She left some Grimm spiders spooling silk and picked a more practical outfit, much to Salem’s disapproval.

Simple black pants, a crisp blouse that flared out at the cuffs and hem, and a cloak with a hood deep enough to cover her features. It would do.

Salem insisted that she also bring a long black scarf and some leather gloves to further conceal her identity and to keep warm if the temperature dropped.

Other than that, her time had been spent a little more productively than before as she created more Grimm arthropods, focusing on those that could keep up with her Alpha Lancer mount.

All that preparation was for the moment when she stepped out of the front gate of the Spire and found herself pulling down her scarf to breath in the morning air of the outside world for the first time in her living memory.

“Akelarre,” a familiar voice said from behind her.

She paused and turned around. The queen stood tall and proud by the gates of her castle, though for all that her features were stern and regal, there was an edge of worry in her gaze.

“Did you come to say goodbye?” she asked.

“I came to make sure you would return,” Salem said.

Akelarre nodded. It was an easy promise to make. “I will.”

Salem approached her, and for a moment she thought the woman might hug her, but Salem just brought a hand up and placed it upon Akelarre’s head. “You recall what I told you about the Auras hunters use to combat my Grimm?” she asked.

“I do.”

Salem’s hands moved, one going to her shoulders to hold her in place, the other flat on her chest right above her beating heart. Every Grimm across the broken plains stilled and grew quiet. The wind stopped. The world hushed.

Salem nodded, then, with a deep breath, she intoned, “Through defeat, immortality; through persistence, victory. And through victory the chains of gods shall break. We are the will of the world. Infinite in potential and unbound by fleeting humanity, I liberate your soul, and by my hand free thee.”

Warmth, not painful or fleeting, but a constant heartbeat-thrum of gentle warmth, coursed through her body and filled her mind with a gentle caress. She felt lighter, stronger. She felt as though anything were possible even as the words Salem had spoken resonated within her.

She looked down at her one true hand, felt the aura of strength still and passive but present just under the surface, and looked up once more. “Thank you,” she said.

Salem looked away. “I merely wish for you to be safe. It would be unfair of me to request a promise of you and not make it so that you can accomplish it. I wish you well on your travels, Akalerre.”

Akelarre took a step forward, cutting the distance between them to nothing until she was pressed up against Salem, then she wrapped her arms around the queen of the Grimm and held her tight. “Thank you.” Salem was a little wide-eyed when she let go and pulled back. “Taylor,” she said.

“Pardon?”

“My name. I remember it, I think. It’s Taylor.”

Salem’s gaze softened from obsidian to marble. “No. You will always be Akelarre here.”

She smiled at the queen, took a few steps back, then called upon one of her bigger Grimm insects to land near her. It was only the work of a moment to hop onto her Alpha Lancer’s back and hang onto its simplistic saddle. “I’ll see you soon,” she said as the massive insect kicked off.

She almost didn’t hear Salem’s goodbye.

***

She watched Akelarre, Taylor, fly away until all that was left was a few specks of the girl-child’s massive swarm buzzing towards the horizon.

And even when she finally lost sight of her, the warmth of the younger girl’s body pressed against hers was still like a searing needle pressed against her soul.

“Come back,” she ordered the morning sky. “Come back alive.”

***

Seeing the Grimmlands from high above had been interesting for a few moments. The ground around Salem’s Spire was mostly flat but farther out the ground turned craggy and massive pillars of stone that stretched across the landscape like the ribs of a gigantic beast.

If she thought the travelling would be amusing then she was quickly robbed of the idea. Yes, seeing new sights was entertaining, but no more so than looking at the images in one of Salem’s books.

Her imagination, the frigid air and the constant thumm of her Lancer’s wings were the only things keeping her company.

It took less than an hour for her to begin reconsidering the voyage.

She could have turned around, returned to Salem’s side and continued with her days filled with quiet meditation, long hours of experimentation with her Grimm and deep conversations with Salem, but that felt like giving up.

Her memories were still fuzzy, still a garbled mess, but for all that she knew that she was not the sort of woman to give up so easily.

The divide between the Land of Darkness and the ocean was as sudden as a drop off the edge of a cliff.

The rocky soil below was traded for churning waters, then, when she flew deeper away towards the horizon even that was replaced by soothing blue as far as her eyes could see.

Sometimes the form of a Leviathan or other aquatic Grimm would move under the waves, or she would see some of the more natural creatures native to Remnant moving in great schools near the surface.

She leaned into her Alpha Lancer’s back and closed her eyes. It was warm.

She still had a ways to go.

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that Eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Chapter Six


“Coco, we’re going to be late,” Velvet said. It wasn’t a whine, because whining was bad and Coco got really annoying when she thought Velvet was whining about something. Not that it would stop Coco from whining about literally anything at all.

The rules that applied to everyone did not apply to Coco Adel. That was the very first thing that Velvet learned when she met her partner’s eyes in that forest all of a month ago.

Coco sighed, adjusted Velvet’s beret (which was still sitting atop her head and which she refused to give back) and pushed her glasses back up her nose with a forefinger. “Bun Bun, it is vitally important that we present ourselves the right way,” she said while gesturing at her reflection in the window of a bakery. “Our client expects the best, so we need to look the part.” She glanced over at the two boys in the group. Fox’s hair was a dishevelled mess, red curls poking out in every direction, and Yatsuhashi’s combat suit was splattered in mud up to his shins. “Okay, so maybe I’m the one that has to look presentable. To make up for the rest of my lovely team.”

“Coco,” Velvet said for the millionth time. She could feel her long ears drooping, more so when she noticed all the people staring at their team. This wasn’t Vale, so the streets weren’t exactly packed, but they still stood out a lot.

Her team’s first mission, an event that was supposed to be super important in building bonds and teaching them how to work together--at least according to Miss Goodwitch--wasn’t going so well.

It wasn’t that they didn’t work well together. Coco was a great fighter and a really cool leader, the kind of person Velvet wished she could be. The boys were also pretty great, if a little too macho for her tastes. Fox was like a cool older brother, and he was a spectacular fighter even with his disability, while Yatsuhashi was a little strange, but not in a bad way.

No, that wasn’t it. The problem was probably Velvet herself. She... she wasn’t sure she was cut out for the life of a Huntress. Most of their sparring ended with her on the mat, even when the others went easy on her, and while her team was made up of the most awesome people, some of the other students weren’t so nice.

But then, they were far, far away from Beacon right now, out on their first ever real mission. A mission that was supposed to be led by Professor Peach. A mission that was supposed to be fairly easy and straightforward. A mission that they were going to fail before it even really began if Coco didn’t stop preening before the bakery window.

“What’s she doing?” Fox asked, one eyebrow perked as he faced more or less the direction where Coco was trying to arrange her combat dress so that it was perfectly stylish. She was wearing a beige and brown ensemble today, to better stick out from the trees or something.

“She is attempting to make herself more presentable,” Yatsu said. “Not that there is any need for such.”

“Not just presentable,” Coco said, and Velvet could hear the amusement in her voice. “I’m trying to look fashionable."

“Aren’t we in Patch?” Fox said. He turned his head left and right as if that would help him narrow down where he was.

Velvet had to agree with the sentiment. She was all for looking cute--though not to the extent that Coco was--but their mission was going to take place in the forests around a tiny settlement. It was hardly worth being all prettied up for it. Also, the people of Patch were mostly down to earth and they probably didn’t know how to appreciate Coco’s fashion sense.

Fox sighed. “C’mon Coco, you already look beautiful, let’s just go?”

“How would you know that I’m hot?” Coco asked. Her glasses slid down her nose so that she could pierce their teammate with a look. Velvet swore she was going to learn how Coco did that one day.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” Yatsu said, sounding very wise until he noticed his mistake. “Or, er-, I mean beauty cannot be judged objectively, for what one person finds beautiful or admirable may not appeal to another.”

“Nice save,” Fox said, his blank eyes rolling. “And I never said you were hot,” he pointed out.

“Yeah, but I still am,” Coco said as she finally abandoned her spot by the window and sashayed past Velvet and Fox. “C’mon, we’re going to be late.”

“I’ve been saying that the whole time,” Velvet said as she jogged to catch up to Coco. The sparse crowds on the sidewalk moved aside as Coco approached and she saw more than one young man give Coco a double or triple take.

She felt her cheeks warming as a few glanced her way, that was, until Yatsu moved up between the leers like a tall imposing wall of beefcake that happened to carry a sword. The staring stopped.

“So with whom shall we meet?” Yatsu asked.

Coco gestured a ways down the street to a tall brick building with a big clock tower on its side. It looked imposing, all grey and dark and old. It was pretty obvious that the building predated the Colour Revolution by quite some time. “The mayor.”

“The mayor?” Velvet squeaked.

Just by the way Coco moved her head, Velvet knew that she’d rolled her eyes. “Yeah. We’re not meeting the council, Bun, just the mayor of this backwater, no need to get your lacy underwear in a knot.”

“I don’t think we had to know that,” Fox said.

“Know that we were meeting the mayor?” Yatsu asked.

“That Velvet’s underthings are lacy,” he clarified.

“I was trying to give you a way out,” Yatsu said.

Coco snorted. “Poor Fox, the only way he’d ever learn about the laciness of Velvet’s underwear is if he felt them up.”

“Coco!” Velvet screamed. She felt lightheaded and just knew that she was burning up.

Coco’s laughter echoed down the street, boisterous and loud. She slowed down just enough to wrap an arm around Velvet’s shoulders. “Poor Velvet, I’m sorry. And I’m sorry for you too, Fox, you don't know what you’re missing. Bun Bun’s got buns.”

“Coco,” Velvet repeated, though this time it was more of a whimper. It only got worse when Yatsu made a noise that could only be an agreement. She turned blazing eyes on him, containing all of the fiery anger of a candle in a rainstorm. “Not you too!”

Yatsu at least had the good grace to look sheepish.

Her further mortification was saved when they reached the big building that turned out to be the town hall and were ushered to the mayor’s office.

There were two people in the room. One was a shorter woman that looked a bit like Glynda Goodwitch, though much softer and not nearly as stern. The plaque on her desk read ‘Mayor Grey’ in bold letters. The other was a middle aged man with a beige shirt and cargo shorts. He smiled at them, revealing perfect teeth and a pair of startling blue eyes that were both amused and encouraging.

“Ah, you must be the team from Beacon,” the mayor said. “I’m Danielle Grey, mayor of Patch, and this gentleman is Taiyang Xiao Long from Signal.”

“Hello, kids,” Taiyang said.

Velvet felt her blush returning as he gave them all a warm, welcoming look. She tried to slide behind Coco to hide a little.

Then Coco ruined her plans. “Damn. I wouldn’t mind you teaching me a thing or two,” she said as she ogled the man up and down.

Both Yatsu and Fox pressed their hands against their faces, but Mister Xiao Long just burst out laughing. “Oh, you remind me of my daughter!” he said.

Coco’s next words, whatever they might have been, came out as a sputtering cough and she gave the man the kind of look Velvet had seen wet cats give to the hose that had splashed them.

The mayor gave them a smug if rather flat look. “Yes, we’re all very fortunate to have Mr. Xiao Long here. Now, I for one have things to take care of. Shall we get to business?”

“Yes please,” Velvet said for the group since Coco was still sputtering.

The Mayor reached across her desk and tapped a pile of papers with one manicured finger. “We have been receiving reports of... strange Grimm sightings deeper in the forests across town. As you may be aware, Patch is a relatively small community, and as such we don’t have the same infrastructure as, say, Vale. Our walls are small and half of our citizens live outside of the city proper. Most can hold off against a single Beowolf and the island is well patrolled. We don’t usually have too much trouble. A few deaths every year, but that’s life on the frontier.”

“But these new Grimm are changing that,” Yatsu said.

The mayor nodded. “Exactly.”

“Grimm,” Mr. Xiao Long started. “All Grimm have unique ways of fighting. Usually we see Beowolves and the occasional Ursa. Folks around here can handle themselves well enough. A decent rifle with some dust rounds will do the trick, and Signal, that’s the school I work at, often has groups of older students go out on patrols around Patch. If a bigger group is spotted an actual Huntsman will get rid of it. That has worked for such a long time because we all know how to deal with the Grimm that are there. These new sightings, on the other hand...”

“So you need us to capture them?” Coco asked. “You want to study these new Grimm, or just confirm what sort of Grimm they are?”

“Clever girl. But no. Capturing a Grimm, even a smaller one, isn’t something I would want to leave to a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training.” He smiled as though to soften the blow to their pride. “If they are a known type of Grimm then we might be dealing with a migration. But if they really are new, then we’ll need some images and a good idea of how to handle them in the field. That’s where you come in.”

“I’m assuming,” Yatsu said, “that these Grimm aren’t widespread?”

The mayor nodded. “Most sightings have been to the northwest, in the more forested areas.”

“I was told that one of you has experience with photography?” Mr. Xiao Long said.

Velvet realised that he meant her and she raised her hand like a student in a classroom before blushing faintly and lowering the hand. “Um, yes, I do.” She lifted the camera pressed against her chest as though to prove her words.

“Brilliant,” Mr. Xiao Long said while shooting her a wide grin. “Could you take a few pictures for us?”

“C-certainly,” she replied.

“So that’s it?” Coco asked. “Walk around, find some Grimm, take some pictures and maybe kill a few, then come back?”

“That’s the whole of it,” Tai-Yang said.

Coco shifted her hip to one side and grinned. “Sounds easy,” she said.

***

All aboard the HMS Bugs Bunny! All aboard! Destination: Handholdlandia!

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no waycrazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

A/N:
So, these are the first two page's of Akelarre's Bugstiary. This is, in fact, canon.

Huge thank you to the folks on the Raven's Nest Discord for the helping hand in making these.
Sketches by the insanely talented Askasknot. The typesetting and other things by me.

You can (and should) check out on Ask's Deviant Art HERE.

 

Chapter Seven


Akelarre saw the first signs of land just as the sun started to crawl towards the horizon.

The island below was huge, big enough that even from her vantage she couldn’t see the half of it. Forests with trees covered in a sparse layer of springtime snow were competing for her attention against cliffs that overlooked the ocean’s churning waters and little paths left in the ground by packs of travelling Grimm--and the more common though also more skittish wildlife.

She was perking up, ready to start looking for the first signs of human life, when something caught her eye.

It was a flash of red on green. A tiny figure moving at absurd speeds while a flanking force of black creatures rushed after it.

With a mental command, the swarm around her buzzed to a stop, a hundred Lancers and a few million smaller Grimm bugs tensing up. There was something in the air, something interesting that made her swarm want to dive down and... and kill that red figure.

She held them back, attention dipping to the human girl below as she jumped back, swung around and slashed out with a long polearm, its wicked tip cutting the arm off of a lunging Beowolf a half second before she ducked, fired an explosion that tore apart the chest of another and used the recoil to tear the head off a third.

Akelarre’s eyebrows climbed as she watched the girl pirouette out of the path of more Grimm, dancing out of their way only to cut at them with wide, sweeping motions that tore the Grimm apart like chaff.

She was keeping them away, always moving out of the path of the Grimm and sending probing shots into the pack that would tear the heads and bodies of the Grimm apart, forcing them to rush over the fallen to get to her.

It was the work of only a few moments to have some of her smaller Grimm tumble down to the ground and land on her cloak. They scuttled across her body even as she ducked under a wild swipe, grit her teeth and shifted out of the path of another claw that was racing towards her head.

The Grimm were circling, and while Akelarre doubted the girl would be unable to escape, it was clear that that wasn’t her goal. At the speed she moved it would have been simplicity itself for her to rush into the forest and lose her opponents. Instead she stood her ground, almost taunting the Grimm as she took potshots into the pack.

She should have moved on, or at best spied on the girl for some time. Salem had warned her about Huntsmen and how dangerous they could be; seeing the girl in action, she could understand why. “Mover, Blaster, Brute,” she said to no one, the words having been on the edge of her lips the entire time she watched the fight.

She wanted to help.

***

That, Ruby decided, was a lot of Beowolves.

She narrowed her eyes, pulled the bolt back on Crescent Rose and prepared herself for another charge at the pack. She didn’t have forever to practice. If she didn’t end this battle in the next half hour she wouldn’t have time to visit Summer's grave and make it back home before dad and Yang started to worry.

Her heart was beating hummingbird fast and despite the chill in the air she was warm and sweaty under her combat uniform.

One of the Beowolves growled, glowing red eyes locking on hers.

She smiled, her legs tensed, her breath filling her lungs with quick, excited gasps, her eyes searching for the optimal target. She was ready.

With a blast from her baby to propel her forwards, Ruby cut the distance between herself and the nearest Beowolf, then spun in mid-air to bring Crescent Rose’s blade around in a lethal arc. The Beowolf didn’t stand a chance.

“Need help?”

“Eeep!”

Ruby didn’t squeak. Squeaking would have been embarassing and just plain mortifying. She knew, because the last time she didn’t squeak Yang had pinched her cheeks and cooed for, like, an hour.

Spinning around and bringing Crescent Rose to a stop next to her, she faced off against the mysterious lady with the mysterious and totally creepy ability to--mysteriously--sneak up on her.

She didn’t see any weapons on the woman, but her cloak could be hiding all sorts of goodies. Ruby was starting to get a little excited at the idea of fighting next to an actual, bonafide Huntress. She was about to ask and introduce herself when the hot breath of one beast along the back of her neck reminded her that she had some Grimm to take care of.
The Huntress grabbed Ruby’s wrist and flung her behind her. Ruby caught a flash of something white and a Beowolf fell to the ground missing its head. “I’m sorry.” she said while facing the dead Grimm.

Ruby rubbed at her sore wrist. “R-right!” she called back as she spun around and tried to regain some of her previous momentum. Uncle Qrow always told her that stopping in the middle of a fight was a good way to lose more than her head.

“Duck,” the woman called.

Ruby took a half-second to figure out what the woman meant, but she obeyed in time to avoid a black thing that whipped above her fast enough that it hissed through the air. Grimm blood splashed onto her, almost instantly turning into little black plumes and fading away.

That took care of the Beowolves nearest to them (and Ruby was so totally going to gush over whatever that weapon was later) but it still left a few dozen to go. “I’ve got them!” she said.

She was still getting the hang of her semblance, but for something like moving in a straight line towards a large pack of Grimm there was nothing better. Crescent Rose sang as she spun through the pack, arms and legs and heads flying all over while the occasional echoing retort shot her forwards even faster.

Her feet slid across the ground and she brought Crescent Rose to a rest along her back while, on the path she’d travelled, a dozen Grimm faded into motes of black dust.

“You fight well,” the Huntress said as she started walking towards Ruby.

She was tall, a whole lot taller than Ruby and a bit taller than Yang, with a rather flat chest (score!) hidden under a cloak that was almost as cool as Ruby’s. What little Ruby could see of her skin from under her hood was super pale, like someone who spent too much time indoors or maybe the few people from Atlas she’d seen, but most people from Atlas wouldn’t tattoo their faces like this lady did. She had red eyes that glowed faintly within her hood. Kinda like Yang’s when she was using her semblance, actually.

The woman moved her arm up, revealing that it was covered in a sort of white armour that turned into a wicked-sharp blade aligned with her wrist. Then the armour shifted and with an almost liquid-like motion the entire thing transformed into a perfectly ordinary black hand. “So cool,” Ruby whispered.

That had to be some sort of mechashift, and the really good kind if the motions were so smooth. Maybe the attack earlier had come from the hand too. Maybe it had a concealed gun, or could turn into a flail? Ruby wondered if her dad would be angry if she replaced all her limbs with mechashift weapons.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your fight,” the Huntress said.

Ruby waved both arms dismissively, “N-no no, it’s okay. No one was hurt and the Grimm are all dead. So it turned out for the best.” She grinned at the woman. “So, why are you here?”

***

Akelarre tried to decide how to answer the question. She couldn’t say that she was here because she wanted to meet a human, that would probably have alarm bells ringing in the girl’s mind.

The girl’s casual dismissal of the Grimm she’d just killed rubbed her the wrong way.

Salem would probably not have approved of her talking to the girl, but for all of her prowess with her frankly oversized weapon, Akelarre couldn’t give herself the push to hurt her. Not unless she proved to be a threat.

“Saw you fighting,” she finally said. “I was a little worried. Perhaps for nothing. You’re very... good at killing.”

“What? Pfft,” the girl dismissed even as a dusting of redness climbed onto her cheeks. “Those were just Beowolves. And I got lucky.” Her eyes dipped down to the ground and it didn’t take a genius to see that she wasn’t taking the compliment all that well. She fiddled with her strange weapon, then folded it into a neat box that she tucked under her cloak.

“What are you doing out here?” Akelarre asked. “Is there a settlement nearby?”

“Huh? No, not really. We live nearby.” The girl’s eyes suddenly widened and Akelarre prepared to fight. “I didn’t introduce myself!” she said. “Yang would be so disappointed. I’m Ruby, Ruby Rose.”

Akelarre stared at the hand Ruby extended, then shook it. “Akelarre,” she said. “What were you doing here?”

“Ah,” Ruby said before she looked away. “I’m kinda, sorta not supposed to be here on my own,” she admitted. “But I had a long day at school and I wanted to visit mom.”

“Your mother?” she asked. She couldn’t sense anyone around, and the Lancers she had high above couldn’t see any signs of civilisation.

“Oh, she’s over here,” Ruby said as she slid past her.

Wary for any traps, Akelarre followed a few feet behind the red-cloaked girl as she marched through the mud and snow and early spring grass towards the top of a cliff. There, a plaque waited embedded into the stone.

Summer Rose
Thus Kindly I Scatter

Akelarre instantly felt out of place. She stood stock still as the girl bent forwards and cleared a bit of snow from the gravestone then gently let her thumb glide over the name. “I come here sometimes, when I’m not feeling so good. It feels nice to talk to her.”

“I... understand,” Akelarre said.

Ruby glanced up and gave her a sad smile. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“Me too,” she replied. “How did... no, I’m sorry.”

“She died a hero,” Ruby said, and if her voice sounded a little less exuberant and bubbly than it did before, Akelarre didn’t comment. “She died fighting the Grimm. That’s why I’m going to become a Huntress. To protect people like her from those monsters.”

Akelarre nodded, not that she really agreed with the sentiment, but she could understand it. “I’ll give you a moment.”

“Are you leaving already?” Ruby asked. “Did you have somewhere to go? I can probably guide you. I know all of Patch like the back of my hand!”

She considered it for a moment. “I was just visiting. I wouldn't mind company, but I can wait while you visit your mother.”

Ruby’s smile only grew at her words. “Thanks, Akelarre.”

She moved a good distance away from Ruby, far enough that she couldn’t hear, and pulled away any Grimm bugs that were near Ruby and her mother.

The girl was strange. Strange but nice. And strong too. If every person on Remnant was as strong as Ruby then Salem was going to have a difficult time with her plans for the future. Something told her that wasn’t the case, though.

“All done!” Ruby said as she popped back towards Akelarre, a scattering of rose petals falling in her wake. Strange. Probably a side effect of her Mover ability. “So, were you going somewhere special?”

“Not really. I’m travelling from elsewhere. I just... wanted to see the sights.”

“Oh, like a vacation?” Ruby asked.

“Yes.”

“Cool!” Ruby said. “So what do you usually do?”

“I work with the Grimm,” Akelarre said truthfully.

There was a gleam in the girl’s eyes as she said, “So you are a Huntress. I knew it! Uncle Qrow said that when you become a strong Huntress you can sense when someone is dangerous just by looking at them. It’s like a sixth sense, but I think it’s mostly because you can recognize their weapons and stances and things. Uncle Qrow also said that all teenage boys are super dangerous but most of those I stared at don’t look like they can fight. Anyway, I saw you and it was like ‘whoa, she’s dangerous’, not, not that it’s a bad thing, or anything.”

“Thank you?” Akelarre said while she tried to parse Ruby’s verbal onslaught.

“Where are you going now? Are you heading towards Patch? My dad works there, at Signal. You know, the combat school.”

“I don’t know. Patch is nearby?” she asked.

“Yup,” Ruby said as she made a huge encompassing gesture with both arms. “It’s a big city right in the middle of the island. It’s kind of a long walk to get there though. How did you arrive here, anyway?”

“I flew.”

Ruby’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. “You can fly? That’s awesome! Is it because of your mechashift arm? Is it a semblance? Do you have a Bullhead?”

Akelarre didn’t know how to reply, or which question she should answer first. “Yes?” she tried.

“You must be, like, super tired.” Ruby tilted her head to one side, looking like a dog trying to figure out a puzzle. “Hey, did you want to come to my place? You could meet Yang and my dad. Yang would be so proud of me if I made a friend all on my own.” Her cheeks gained a faint reddish glow. “N-not that I have trouble making friends or anything.”

“I don’t know,” Akelarre said.

“We have cookies.” Ruby stared at her with bright silver eyes that made Akelarre’s heart tighten.

She sighed, placed a hand on Ruby’s head as though petting a dog, and nodded. “Okay.”

***

Ah ha! You thought it was going to be the bunny, but it was me, Ruby!

All aboard the HMS Escalation Acceleration. Destination; Cookie-and-Nookie-Ville.

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Huge thank you to the folks on the Raven's Nest Discord for the helping hand in making these.
Sketches by the insanely talented Askasknot. The typesetting and other things by me.

You can (and should) check out on Ask's Deviant Art HERE.

 

Chapter Eight


Ruby didn’t skip, because she wasn’t twelve, but it was a near thing. The trip from the clearing to her home wasn’t too long, but it was still a good half hour by foot, especially since she couldn’t just use her semblance to zip ahead of Akelarre.

So it was half an hour of chatting with her mysterious new friend. And she was totally a friend, even if she was older (apparently she was nineteen or twenty, Akelarre wasn’t sure). And Akelarre was totally awesome. She didn’t even complain when Ruby went on a rant about how mechashift weapons were the greatest and how the greatest mechashift weapon was her very own Crescent Rose.

“Ah, here we are,” she said as she shoved open the gate. The Xiao-Long-Rose household was just ahead, visible through the sparse trees and trimmed lawn. All around the house there were little plots of tilled earth with colourful spring flowers that were just starting to bloom. “I live here with my sister and my dad. Dad usually comes home later but Yang might be here now.”

“No one’s home,” Akelarre said. “Just a dog.”

“How did you know?” she asked. “Was it a Semblance? Can you see through walls-” Ruby paused, mid sentence, and with an 'eep' threw her arms across her chest and lap. “Can you see through my clothes?!”

“No.”

Ruby slumped. “Pfew, okay, cool.” She moved to the front door and opened it. “You can come in, if you want.” She took off her hood and placed it on the coat rack next to the door, then rubbed her boots against the mat just inside a few times to get the mud off. Ruby had gotten one splinter too many from the hardwood floor to go around barefoot. “Keep your boots on, it’s okay, I can bro--” Her voice caught in her throat.

Akelarre had lowered her hood, letting the soft white material pool around her neck and freeing a head of hair that was so curly and shiny that it might have made Yang jealous. Those were all the details that she took in at a glance and dismissed almost in the same moment, because the person staring back at her didn’t look all that human.

“Uh,” Ruby said as she took in the black veins around black eyes with red pupils that were locked onto her. “What nice eyes you have,” she said faintly.

“Thank you,” Akelarre said.

Ruby looked over her shoulder towards the kitchen. Her plan had been to raid her cookie stash (because dad’s rules about only having so many cookies a day didn’t count if their guest was having some too, right?) but now she wasn’t so sure. “So, uh, make yourself at home?”

“Thank you,” Akelarre said as she glided over to the couch and sat down. Ruby saw her looking all over, as if every little detail of their living room was new and interesting. “You have a very nice home,” she said.

“Thanks,” Ruby said as she moved towards the seat dad usually used by her dad. She flopped down and stared at Akelarre.

Akelarre stared back, red pinpricks boring into Ruby’s soul until she squirmed on the spot.

Yang was always going on about making more friends, but her advice was usually about introducing herself, then making small talk. Ruby had already talked about weapons. There wasn’t anything left to talk about. She was starting to wish that Yang was there.

“So, your eyes,” Ruby said. “Uh, is that because of a faunus thing?”

“No.” Akelarre blinked. “It’s because I’m a Grimm. Sorta.”

Ruby was out of her seat in a flash, Crescent Rose extending into its long rifle form and sights pinned over Akelarre’s head in the time it would take a normal person to blink. “Y-you’re a Grimm?” Ruby asked. Her finger hovered over the trigger.

“Yes.” Akelarre looked at Crescent Rose, then back up to Ruby. “You shouldn’t fire a gun inside a house, not unless it’s an emergency. You might break something.”

“I’m pretty sure this counts as an emergency!” Ruby said.

Akelarre sighed, shoulders slumping. “You are not taking this as well as I would have hoped.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re pointing a gun at me,” Akelarre said rather calmly. And compared to every other Grimm Ruby had ever seen that was saying something. “It’s very rude.”

Ruby huffed. “Yeah, well the Grimm aren’t exactly polite, so there.”

Akelarre’s brows drew together. “You killed a lot of Grimm today. That wasn’t very polite either.”

“B-but they were Grimm,” Ruby said. Grimm were for hunting, that’s just how things worked. Everyone at school said they were mindless monsters. “It’s what we’re supposed to do.”

“And the Grimm are supposed to hunt and kill humans. And yet here I am. How would you feel if someone hurt your dog just because they were supposed to?”

“You can’t tell me that Beowolves are like Zwei!” Ruby shouted.

“How is it any different?” Akelarre asked.

“B-because Zwei never killed anyone’s mom!”

Akelarre went very stiff and Ruby almost pulled the trigger and let fly a heavy armour-piercing round at the Grimm-girl, but then Akelarre looked down and the tension in her shoulders loosened. “I’m sorry,” Akelarre said.

“Are, are you really a Grimm?” Ruby asked again because this flew in the face of everything she’d been taught.

“Sorta,” Akelarre said.

“Sorta?”

“Yes.” Akelarre confirmed. She reached under her cloak and Ruby tensed up, then the Grimm-girl pulled out a tiny white thing that fit in the palm of her hand and showed it to Ruby. She looked almost proud.

“Uh,” Ruby said. “Is that a spider?” she asked.

The thing sitting on Akelarre’s palm raised one tiny white limb and waved. “Yes,” Akelarre said. “He is Mister Spider and he is my favourite.” It was a tone she recognized, that of a proud mommy showing off her baby, and the sparkle of mirth in Akelarre’s eyes seemed genuine. Ruby probably looked the same when she was talking about Crescent Rose. “Mister Spider is my Grimm. I made him. I control him.” The spider started to dance a little jig on her palm.

Ruby lowered Crescent Rose a little. “Why are you here? In Patch, I mean. With... with Mister Spider.”

“I was bored.”

“Bored of killing people wherever you were before?” she asked, eyes narrowing.

“No. Just normal bored. I never found killing people fun.” Akelarre shrugged on shoulder. “The Grimmlands are kinda quiet. Nothing to do but plot the downfall of humanity or read. I wanted to explore a little.” She brought her hand back and started to run a finger along the back of the spider Grimm’s torso. “You can sit down if you want, I won’t hurt you.”

“And how would I know that?” Ruby asked.

“Because if I wanted to hurt you, I would have already,” Akelarre said. Mister Spider stopped dancing and scuttled up Akelarre’s arm to come to a rest on her head. It looked too silly to be threatening.

Ruby slowly, slowly moved back to her seat and sat down. She kept Crescent Rose deployed across her knees, but didn’t point it at the Grimm girl. “So, are you like, a really old Grimm that grew smart and then turned into a girl after eating a ton of Huntsmen?”

“No. I never ate anyone before.”

Darn, Ruby thought, her Mystrillian cartoons weren’t proving very helpful. “Well what are you, then?”

Akelarre stared off into the distance. “I suppose I’m a sort of Grimm Princess.”

“A princess.” And Yang said she was bad at being deadpan.

Akelarre shrugged. “In the sense that I rule over part of the Grimm, yes.”

“Which part?”

“Arthropods.”

“You mean Grimm bugs?” Ruby asked. “Grimmsects.” The little Yang on her shoulder, the one that was always telling her to play pranks and say silly things, gave her a thumbs up.

Akelarre made a noise that might have been a very weak laugh. Ruby didn’t know if she should count that as a win. On the one hand, her kinda-sorta new friend laughed at a joke. On the other, her kinda sorta new friend was a princess of the Grimm and might be plotting to end all life on Remnant.

“How did you become a Grimm princess anyway?” Ruby asked.

“Did you want to become a Grimm princess too?” Akelarre asked.

“What? No!” Well, actually, Beowolves were sorta cute, if you squinted. Maybe she could become the Grimm princess of murder puppies. Or cookies. Wait, no, she was thinking bad thoughts!

“I don’t blame you. You seem to have a loving family here already. I don’t think you would need the Grimm.”

Ruby ran a hand across Crescent Rose. “Why do the Grimm hurt people?” she asked. It felt really silly, a question she’d asked before only to be told that she was being childish, but then, she’d never gotten to ask the question to a Grimm that could answer back.

“Why do humans hurt the Grimm?”

“It, it’s not the same!” Ruby said.

Akelarre nodded. “That’s true. The Grimm, most of them, are expendable. They have minds but they can hardly think for themselves. They are closer to automatons than living things.”

“That doesn’t explain why,” Ruby said.

Akelarre brought both hands up, fingertips pressing together to form an arch right over her mouth. “It’s complicated.”

“I have all day,” Ruby said. Her grip on Crescent Rose tightened.

“Some things I just can’t tell you,” Akelarre started. When Ruby felt her face reddening the Grimm girl waved a hand dismissively and shook her head. “Secrets are secrets, Ruby. You can’t expect me to just tell you things, especially when you’re clearly on the other side. How would you feel if I asked you to betray your family?”

“Fine, I get it,” she said.

“Thanks. Just... sometimes you need to do horrible things now to make things better later. That’s why the Grimm are the way they are.”

“That makes no sense,” Ruby complained.

Akelarre shrugged. “It does make sense. It’s just not very fair.”

“Well that sucks,” Ruby declared, her arms starting to cross before she remembered and grabbed onto Crescent Rose again.

“Yes.” Akelarre sighed. “Can we talk about more pleasant things? If I wanted to talk about how doomed humanity was in the face of the never ending Grimm tide I would have stayed at home.”

Ruby snorted, then slapped a hand over her mouth, but Akelarre’s eyes had softened and she didn’t seem to take offence. Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to distract the Grimm in the house until dad got home. He would know what to do. “O-okay then... so what do you usually do for fun?

“I make new Grimm! Not more of them, but new kinds. It’s really fun.”

“Ah,” Ruby said. She had no point of reference for that. “That sounds nice?”

“It is,” Akelarre agreed. “I guess it’s something like making a new weapon like your Crescent Rose. You need to put all the little parts together and make sure it works just right. It’s satisfying.”

“Huh, that does sound cool,” Ruby admitted. She imagined assembling Grimm the way she put together her baby. Then she could command her army of MechaGrimm to... “Urg, that’s not a better thing to talk about.”

“I’m not really sure what two girls are supposed to talk about,” Akelarre admitted. “One of the only people I talk to is... older.”

“Older?” Ruby asked. “Like, she’s my dad’s age?”

“Was your dad born before the Grimm existed and when the moon was whole?” she asked.

Ruby knew her dad and uncle Qrow were pretty old. They were both in their thirties. But they weren’t that old. “Yeah, okay. I think we’re supposed to talk about boys and stuff.”

“Salem said that if a boy ever hurt my feelings, when she was done with them the bards would write sagas of their suffering.”

Ruby nodded. “Yeah, Uncle Qrow and dad said the same thing.” She rolled her eyes. “Parents overreact so much.”

“They do. They always get unreasonably annoyed when you go out on your own to risk your life in an attempt to make the world a better place.”

Ruby flushed, but she couldn’t help but agree. “I know, right? Yang is like that too. She’s always going on about how I should be careful, but when she was my age she was doing all sorts of things. It’s just not fair.”

“Yang is your sister?” Akelarre asked. Ruby nodded and she continued. “Tall, blond, big chest.”

“Ah.... you know Yang?” Ruby asked. Was Yang’s punning prowess so grand and terrifying that even the Grimm feared her?

Akelarre pointed to a wall next to Ruby where a picture of the Xiao-Long-Rose family rested. “Oh, yeah, that makes more sense.”

“What were you thinking?”

“N-nevermind that,” Ruby said. “So, do you have any sist--” she paused when a ringing sound filled the living room. A ringing sound that came from her skirts. Reaching around, Ruby pulled out her beaten up old scroll, swiped carefully to avoid the cracks on the screen and placed it on her lap. “Hi?”

“Ruby!” Her dad’s face appeared on the screen, white teeth flashing as he grinned up at her. “How are you, my little flower?”

Ruby’s face went from too-long-indoors pale to mortification-red in a heartbeat. “Daaad, don’t call me that!”

Taiyang’s eyebrows shot up. “But I thought you loved it when I called you that? Is my little thorn growing up? Do you not want cuddles anymore?”

“N-no, that’s not it. I still want cuddles,” she said. Her face went thermonuclear when she heard Akelarre make a noise of amusement at the back of her throat. When she looked up it was to find that the Grimm had a hand over her mouth and was looking off to one side.

“Is there someone with you, Ruby?” Taiyang asked. His smile took on a slightly predatory cast. “Is it a boy?”

“No. I mean yes.” Taiyang started moving on the screen as if he was running. “No, dad wait, I mean, there’s someone but she’s not a boy.” He came to a stop.

“Oh, okay. Ah, did you make a friend?”

“Y-yes. That’s exactly it. We met, uh, while I was walking home. We fought some Beowolves together. You can meet her later. Why did you call?” She gave herself a pat on the back for her expert lying skills.

“I look forward to it. And don’t use this as an excuse to raid the cookie jar.”

“I’d never,” Ruby lied.

“Hrm,” her dad said, but he looked more amused then anything. “I wanted to know if you would come to Patch in a bit. There’s a group of Huntsmen and Huntresses in training from Beacon here on a mission. I thought you might like to meet them. They’re off chasing some strange Grimm right now, but should be back in a few hours.”

“Strange Grimm?” Akelarre asked.

“Is that your new friend?” Taiyang asked. “Ah, yeah, could be that they’re a new kind of Grimm, or just some Grimm that have migrated over to Patch. Whatever the case, the students will figure it out, I’m sure. Maybe you could come over too, I’d love to meet Ruby’s new friend!”

“Maybe,” Akelarre said.

“T-thanks for the invite dad, I’ll, uh, see if I can come over in a bit,” Ruby said. She waved at the screen, dismissed her dad’s followup questions and hung up. “I’m in so much trouble.”

Akelarre got to her feet and out of reflex Ruby did the same. “I think I should go,” Akelarre said. “But it was fun talking to you.”

“Ah, yeah, surprisingly I can say the same,” Ruby said. “Do, do you have a scroll?”

“I... don’t. But if you give me your number I can get one later.”

Ruby nodded and rattled off her scroll’s number, all the while wondering if the Grimm spent a lot of time online. Was that what Uncle Qrow meant when he talked about online predators? Were trolls a mysterious sort of Grimm? “So, uh, you’re leaving now?” Ruby asked while she watched Akelarre shift her hood back up to cover her face and eyes.

Then the Grimm women stepped forwards, both arms wrapping around Ruby’s much smaller frame and tucking her against her chest. She gasped, but the panic subsided when she realized that it was just a hug. A nice, warm, comforting hug from an older girl. She could hear the thump-thump of Akelarre’s heart and felt her own start to beat faster in response.

“Thank you, Ruby. You’re a nice girl,” Akelarre said.

“A-ah, y-yeah, sure, you’re welcome,” Ruby said while her cheeks burned. “It was... nice to meet you?”

“I’ll keep in touch,” Akelarre said as she headed for the door. “Goodbye.”

Just like that, the girl was out of their house and walking towards the front gate where an Alpha Lancer landed with grace that Ruby wouldn’t have expected from such a huge Grimm. And then they were gone.

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Chapter Nine


Velvet reflected on her team as she ran through the underbrush of a forest, powerful legs kicking out beneath her to propel her around trees and bushes and the occasional swarm of black and white Grimm bugs that twisted around like tiny bunny-girl-eating tornadoes.

One of the first and most important lessons they learned at Beacon was that teamwork made everything better. Velvet was all for that. Teamwork was awesome.

So why, she wondered to herself as the chainsaw buzz of far, far too many Grimm sounded out behind her, was she out here alone?

It had started simply enough. Mr. Xiao Long had found a civilian who was willing to drive them to the edge of the forest in the back of his utility vehicle. The ride was a bit bumpy but it was better than walking. After an hour of scouting into the woods and killing off a few Beowolves and working together to take down an Ursa, they ran into the first of the strange Grimm.

It looked like a bee. But the bees Velvet was used to were tiny cute things that buzzed harmlessly around and minded their own business. This one was the size of a watermelon and tried to eat Fox.

Coco then had the wonderful idea of splitting apart to look for more.

It wasn’t a wonderful idea. It was a stupid idea.

She didn’t dare look over her shoulder, not for so much as a second, because she knew the moment she wasn’t paying attention they would catch her and do horrible, horrible things to her body.

Yatsu and Fox might have liked to think that she was an innocent little girl, but she’d read some very interesting Mystrillian comics and wasn’t about to let some Grimm bugs have their way with her.

Panting, Velvet suddenly found herself breaking through the canopy of the forest and coming to a sudden halt, feet scampering for purchase as she found herself in a little clearing with a rocky outcrop at the end that gave way to a sudden fall. Far below, the churning water of a river meeting the ocean filled with air with a deep rumble that almost masked the noise of the oncoming Grimm.

She swallowed, spun around, then stopped again as the Grimm in the woods slowly moved to surround her.

It wasn’t just Grimm bees, she realized. Some of the Grimm were hideously long creatures with far, far too many feet and flat bodies that wrapped themselves around the nearest trees then locked eyes with her. Others were spider-like, creatures as tall as she was with eight scuttling, bone-tipped legs that moved into the shadows of the woods and hissed with what sounded far too much like eagerness .

She had never wished for plain, boring human eyesight as much as she did right then. If she had human eyes, maybe she could have avoided seeing the myriad of Grimm insects scuttling around to pen her in.

She was out of hard light dust, her Aura was probably running on fumes, and she felt the creeping ache of tired muscles across her entire body.

She was going to die.

The thought made her laugh, just a single bark of a giggle that escaped her chest even as tears started to fill her eyes.

If she was going to go down, then she’d do it with a fight. And she’d accomplish her mission too. Slowly, she pulled up her camera and started taking pictures as quickly as she could reel it back. Maybe the others in team CFVY would find her gear. At least with the pictures they’d have a good idea what had gotten her in the end.

Soon, the Grimm started to lose patience and started to move closer.

She tossed her precious camera aside, letting it tumble onto the grass where she hoped the muddier ground would keep it from breaking. She ran a hand over Anesidora’s box. It wouldn’t be as useful without the camera in it, but she still had some tricks up her sleeves.

Then the Grimm started backing off.

Velvet looked around her, only noticing the figure in white when she was already a few meters closer. The girl walked towards Velvet, then paused and bent down to pick something out of the grass. She recognized her camera.

“You dropped this,” the girl said as she inspected the camera. Her voice was almost monotone, but soft and youthful. “It looks expensive, and well maintained. You probably don’t want to lose it.”

Velvet stared at the camera, then at the girl--not that she could see much more than her nose and mouth with the hood she was wearing--then to the forest.

“T-the Grimm,” she said, gesturing at the woods.

“I took care of them.”

Velvet blinked, then took in the slim woman next to her. She had never heard of anyone being able to scare the Grimm away with their mere presence, but the evidence was not currently eating her alive so she wasn’t going to argue. Reaching out, she took back Anesidora and brought it to her chest. “Thanks,” she said before her eyes dipped down and she found herself fiddling with the camera.

“No problem,” the woman said.

Velvet tugged a piece of grass loose from the casing, then, to her instant mortification, the camera clicked.

The flash went off.

The woman blinked.

Velvet stared back, her mind racing as she tried to find an excuse. It was an accident. Something must have broken in the camera, her fingers slipped... but as was so often the case, her mouth raced ahead of her common sense. “It’s because you’re pretty.”

The woman tilted her head to one side. “Thank you?” she said. Velvet felt her eyes scanning her up and down and hoped that the fact that she was covered in mud--and leaves, and branches--wasn’t making her look as insane as she sounded. “You’re very pretty too.”

“Uh,” Velvet said.

“I like your ears. They’re very cute,” the girl said. “One of them is crooked.”

Velvet looked up and saw that the girl was right; one ear was flopping forwards, bent almost in half. She hated when her ears did that, it made her look so messy. “It, it happens,” she said.

“If I straighten it, will the other bend?”

Velvet had never been a religious person, but she now considered prayer. Maybe if she prayed hard enough some wayward god of awkward situations would be kind and let the ground swallow her up.

Then the girl reached out with a pale hand and ran it along the length of her bent ear, the fingers smoothly sliding across the surface. She felt herself rooted to the spot, eyes wide like a real bunny in the light of a low-flying Bullhead. Her ear twitched as the girl straightened it out, then lowered her hand to pat Velvet on the head. “All better.”

It was only then that Velvet realized that she’d been making sounds, and not the kind one made in polite company.

As if on cue her other ear flopped down.

“Oh no,” the girl said. Her shoulders slumped and she made a noise that might have been a choked off giggle. “Well, that didn’t work out at all.”

“Haaaa,” Velvet said, the sound stretching out while her brain cooked.

Velvet, whose face had gone right past red and into the white of someone who was one innuendo-filled comment away from fainting, was saved when the sounds of branches breaking and leaves rustling came from the forest and three familiar Hunters stumbled out of the treeline.

“Velvet!” Coco screamed as soon as she locked eyes on her. “Oh, thank Gucci. I thought you might have been hurt.” She started walking over, then paused, sunglasses sliding down her nose as she took in the figure next to Velvet. “Ah, Bun Bun, did you make a friend?”

“Ah,” Velvet said. “H-hey everyone. I’m happy to see you’re all safe.” She took a step out of the girl in white’s reach. If Coco saw her fixing her ears again then... then she would need to transfer schools and go live in another country or else the teasing would never end.

“Are you well?” Yatsu asked. He scanned her up and down and his shoulders lost some tension when he didn’t find any obvious injuries.

“I’m okay! I thought I was done for, but then, uh.” She turned to the girl standing next to her. “I’m so, so sorry, but I didn’t catch your name.”

“I’m Akelarre,” the girl said. She bowed her shoulders a little. “A pleasure to meet you all. Are you the group sent to investigate the Grimm around here?”

“That’s us,” Coco said. She came a little closer, Fox and Yatsu following behind with the bigger boy helping his blind partner over some of the rough terrain. “You’re a Huntress, I take it?”

“No. But I heard about the strange Grimm and wanted to see for myself.” She turned her head towards the woods and Velvet had the impression she was looking for the monsters in the shadows.

Coco’s beret looked a little worse for wear, with a few sticks stuck to it, and she had mud up to her shins. If Velvet snapped a picture of her now, she might be able to use it as blackmail later. “So, you saved our favourite bunny girl?” Coco’s smile took on that edge that Velvet, even after knowing the girl for so short a time, knew meant she was going to say something embarrassing. “Did she give you your hero’s kiss?”

“She did not,” Akelarre said.

“Coco!”

Coco’s laughter was a mix of relieved and genuinely happy. “It’s good to see you’re safe, Bun. Those bug Grimm are downright terrifying, but they kinda left off a couple of minutes ago. Did you get any pictures?”

“I did,” Velvet said as she lifted her camera. “Plenty.”

“Do you need more?” Akelarre asked. “I could bring some Grimm over.”

Coco snorted. “Whoa there, whitey, there’s no need to show off.”

“It wouldn’t be difficult. The only Grimm around here are my Grimm,” Akelarre said.

Coco paused mid-step again and the boys stopped behind her. They were maybe half a dozen meters away now. Close enough that Velvet wondered if she should sneak back towards Coco to hide from the sudden tension in the air.

“And what, exactly, do you mean by your Grimm?” Coco asked. Her hands strayed to the purse dangling by her side and Yatsu had one hand reaching up to the sword he carried on a strap across his back. Even Fox tightened his fists.

“Coco,” Yatsu said. “Perhaps we merely misunderstood. Where there is understanding, sympathy grows, and where there is sympathy the tree of friendship may thrive.”

Akelarre nodded, her mouth twisting up at the corners even as she reached both hands into her hood. “If understanding is what you wish for,” she said as she pulled her hood off. “Then I’ll gladly tell you what I know.”

“Grimm!” Velvet gasped and took a step back.

“I am, sorta,” Akelarre said.

“Shit!” Coco yelled even as she opened her purse up and let her gatling gun unfold into its full form. “Velvet, get over here. Now,” she barked, any of her usual playfulness buried under a tone of voice that Velvet had never heard before. She scampered over to Coco’s side, then squeaked when her team leader shoved her back and towards the two boys. “Look girl, I don’t wanna hurt you, but you’re looking like a baby-eating Grimm right now and that’s got my hackles up.”

“Killing babies is...” Akelarre hesitated for a few long seconds. “Bad,” she finally said. “I just want to play with my bugs.” Reaching into her cloak and ignoring the way she made everyone tense, Akelarre pulled out something black and covered in white plates.

The tiny Grimm spider waved at team CFVY.

The creature only had time to blink once before Coco opened fire.

A torrent of hot dust rounds zipped across the clearing and battered into the creature’s body, splashing off her Aura for a half second before tearing through and ripping gouges out of her flesh.

Velvet squeaked as the girl, as Akelarre’s body flopped backwards onto the ground with a wet splat. “Coco, what the hell?”

“She was a Grimm!” Coco shot back.

“Perhaps that was a little hasty,” Yatsu said. “She had not taken any actions against us. And she had Aura!”

“She sounded a little weird but pretty damned human to me,” Fox said. “Are you sure she was a Grimm? I would have expected a Grimm to sound, you know, evil-er.”

“Her eyes were all red and she had veins all over,” Coco said. She gestured off towards where Akelarre’s corpse was starting to fume and dissipate with the same sort of black dust as all other Grimm when they died. “Plus she had a pet Grimm. I’m not apologizing.”

Velvet was more than ready to chastise Coco some more when she heard a faint rustle in the forest, only it didn’t come from one place but all across the woods surrounding them. “Guys,” she said. “I think we might be in trouble.”

Black forms started to move out of the woods with the slow, lethargic motions of predators that had found injured prey. They had every right to. The Grimm kept pouring out of the forest in numbers that had Velvet shaking in her boots.

“I think, perhaps, they are not amused with the way we killed their leader,” Yatsu said. He spun his sword around once and brought it up in a guarding stance.

Coco moved to his side, gatling gun held low as she took in the growing hoard of Grimm while Fox and Velvet spread out just a little to take on any that tried to flank them. It was a formation that had served them well in the Emerald Forest near Beacon, though it had never been tested against so many Grimm.

“We could jump,” Coco said, gesturing with a nod to the cliff side. As though in answer, a swarm of Lancers buzzed as they rose from around the cliff, narrow red eyes locking onto the team. “...or not.”

Velvet had a hand hovering over her weapon. Summoning a copy of Coco’s gun was probably going to be her best bet to mow down as many of the Grimm as she could before they reached their team. Then she remembered that she was out of Dust and brought her hands up in a boxer’s stance.

The Grimm all shifted their attention in the same direction, a thousand insectile eyes focusing on the spot where Akelarre had died and where the black dust that had been rising away a few moments ago was now condensing back down into a lump of Grimm-stuff so black that it made Velvet’s eyes itch to look at it.

“That doesn’t look good,” Coco said.

The black ball exploded.

The air around team CFVY hissed as it blew past, then reversed and pulled in towards the centre of what was becoming a spinning tornado of black, expanding darkness.

With a suddenness that left Velvet reeling the explosion stopped with a cracking noise that she felt in the pit of her stomach, as though the world was a pane of glass and someone had just smashed it to bits with a sledgehammer.

Velvet blinked at the spot where Akelarre had stood, the spot where Akelarre was standing again, her hood pooled around her shoulders and her vein-lined eyes wide with surprise.

Then her red irises narrowed into slits and she let out a breath of air that Velvet could hear quite clearly over the unnatural stillness of the clearing. “That,” the Grimm woman said, her attention focusing on Coco who was looking less-than-confident, “was rude.”

Bugs exploded out of Akelarre’s cloak. Thousands, millions of tiny black and white specks that filled the air with a cloud of squirming, buzzing, clicking insects so thick that she couldn’t see the tiniest hint of movement behind it.

Coco spun around, screaming as she fired into the swarm.

Velvet joined her in screaming only to regret it as a swarm shot towards her and plastered her body in tiny, scratchy bugs.

She cringed back, expecting to be bitten and stung while the bigger Grimm jumped on them to finish them off.

With the same suddenness as it all began, the swarm stopped.

Velvet cracked one eye open, then the other.

Team CFVY were covered in tiny Grimm insects, Lancers no bigger than a coin and black and white moths with skull-patterned wings. Even plain ordinary bugs were crawling along their bodies, mingling with their Grimm counterparts. The bigger Grimm were looking at them with the hungry eyes of predators, while above, Lancers flew in tight formations.

In the middle of it all stood Akelarre, one hand pushing Coco’s gun to the side. Coco stared at the Grimm woman and Akelarre stared right back. With strength that belied her size she tore Coco’s gatling gun out of her hands and flung it to one side, then shoved Coco back.

Her team leader stumbled then fell onto her rear, wide eyes peeking past the rim of her shades to look up at Akelarre as she stood above her. “You attacked me,” she said.

“We-”

“Shut. Up.”

Akelarre’s lips hadn’t moved. It wasn’t her that had spoken but the buzz and thrill of a million bugs, a noise like nails on a chalkboard that sent cold shivers down Velvet’s back and yet still completely understandable all the same.

“You hurt me. You killed me,” Akelarre said, her voice mimicked by every Grimm in the clearing in an echo that called out to the primal parts of Velvet’s mind and told her to run. “I didn’t want to hurt you. And I won’t. I’m better than that. Better than you. You killed Mister Spider.”

Velvet had no idea who Mister Spider was but she was ready to apologize all the same.

Then a wall of bugs slid in between Akelarre and Yatsu and her sparkling red eyes turned to him and locked him in place. She reached a hand towards Yatsu and a centipede stood out from the pile of bugs between them, head bobbing in the air like a cobra ready to strike. “Centipedes like to eat their prey alive. They can enter the oral cavity of a victim and eat them from the inside.”

Akelarre made a small gesture and a group of black and white ants as long as Velvet’s hand crawled up the centipede’s head. “The bullet ant has the most excruciatingly painful bite in the world. A single bite can drive an adult man to suicide to avoid the pain. But the bites are not lethal, so they swarm their victims and bite again and again until they are left alone.”

Another gesture and a wall of hideously bulbous flies hovered between them. “The botfly lays eggs in their still living victims that grow inside them, feeding on the necrotic flesh around the point of entry. A few days after being injected the eggs hatch and burst out of the victim’s skin.” Akelarre stopped and eyed Yatsu up and down. “Wanting to protect your friend is admirable. But perhaps it would be best if you just stood there for a moment. I won’t hurt her. I will hurt you if you interfere.”

The growing clump of Grimm insects climbing atop each other to form a writhing wall between Akelarre and Yatsu and the rest of them suddenly seemed a lot more horrible.

Slowly, as if not to spook Coco, she reached down and took Velvet’s beret from off of Coco’s head.

“Next time, I would appreciate it if you were a little more mature,” Akelarre said. “I have learned what I wanted to. I am leaving. I expect you to leave too. Am I understood?”

Coco nodded.

“Good.” Akelarre patted her team leader on the head, then placed the beret on her own head. “Goodbye Velvet. It was a pleasure meeting you,” Akelarre said. She gave Velvet a wave, spun on one heel, and walked away.

The Grimm bugs swarmed again. Velvet squeezed her eyes shut.

And when she opened her eyes again, the Grimm, and their leader, were all gone.

***

RIP Mister Spider.

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Huge thank you to the folks on the Raven's Nest Discord for the helping hand in making these.

Sketches by the insanely talented Askasknot. The typesetting and other things by me.



You can (and should) check out on Ask's Deviant Art HERE.

 

Chapter Ten


“I am... disappointed.”

The single word speared into Cinder’s chest like an arrow through the heart. She found herself looking down, eyes drawn to the floor where all she could see was the polished marble she kneeled on and the feet of her mistress. “I am sorry,” she said. “We did not expe--”

“Obviously not,” Salem said, cutting her off mid-word. Cinder almost wished the queen would raise her voice or growl or something, but her tone was as flat and even as someone reporting on the weather. “Had you expected you would have planned. At least, I hope my lessons to you were poignant enough that you would have.”

“They were,” Cinder said. The less time spent recalling her tutelage under Salem the better.

“What did I teach you about expectations when planning an operation, especially one against someone as knowledgeable as Ozpin?”

“That I should assume he is two steps ahead,” Cinder said.

“Ozpin is old, Cinder, he is, despite my loathing of the fact, quite wise and intelligent. He is no fool. And because you thought otherwise an opportunity has slipped through our fingers.”

Cinder swallowed and looked up, just enough to see Salem’s crossed knees. “I still obtained part of the maiden’s power. We just need to wait for her to pass on,” she said.

“It has been too long already. In all likelihood Ozpin has already moved to prevent the power from moving on to you.” Salem shifted her legs, switching her position on her throne with the kind of grace Cinder could only hope to one day achieve. “No, the opportunity is gone.”

“I can fix this,” Cinder said. “I can infiltrate Beacon. He wouldn’t let Amber out of his sight and she didn’t report on my appearance, Emerald made that impossible. Give me the chance and I’ll find her and end the jo--”

“Stop.”

Cinder let her eyes dip again. Her knee ached where it was pressed into the cold stone of the floor and her back was straining, unused to being bowed for so long. She knew better than to squirm and interrupt Salem’s thoughts.

Salem gasped.

Cinder’s head whipped up only to see her Queen’s eyes go wide before narrowing down. That, alone, was suspect. The howl of Ursas and Beowolves from beyond the Spire and the sudden twitch of the Seers in the room only added to her sudden surge of adrenaline.

Salem stood up from her throne and began to walk with more urgency than Cinder had ever seen towards the back of the room. “Come,” she snapped.

She did not need to be told twice.

They walked through the corridors of the castle, passing Grimm that looked around in confusion and something approaching anxiety. Beowolves were sniffing the air and the Seers were moving about with a speed that was utterly unlike their usual grace.

Salem led her to a spiral stairwell that went down deeper than she had ever travelled in the Spire. Their voyage ended in a cavern lit by purple Grimmlights that shone down on a black pool that made Cinder’s stomach tighten uncomfortably at the mere sight of it.

Akelarre was by the pool, knees drawn up to her chest, head bowed forwards and back hunched in a way that showed off just how gangly and tall she was. The girl was surrounded by hundreds of spider Grimm. Some as big as dogs, others as small as bottlecaps.

“You’ve returned?” Salem asked.

She saw Akelarre swallow and look up. Her eyes, as dark as they were, did nothing to hide how the girl had been crying. Tears, black as pitch, were still running down white cheeks. “I’m back,” Akelarre’s breathy voice said.

“Welcome back,” Salem replied.

Cinder dared to look up at the two of them. Her queen’s entire attention was on the shorter woman before her. It was like looking in a strange mirror. Akelarre’s hair was darker than the abyss between the stars and her face would never be as regal as Salem’s, with eyes that were too big and a mouth that was too wide, but the similarities between the two were disconcerting.

She had spent some time wondering about the girl that shared so much in common with her mistress. She would have hoped that after years spent in the Grimmlands that sort of secret would have been open to her, but Salem was old, ancient even, and it was no surprise that she held a few things in reserve.

Akelarre licked her lips, crossed one arm under her small chest and looked down. “I died.”

Cinder’s breathing hitched but she locked her body in place before anyone could notice.

Salem scanned Akelarre up and down. “Did you now? How did it happen?”

“A girl shot me. She had a purse that turned into a gatling gun. It hurt.”

“And now? How do you feel?” Salem asked. The hint of concern in a voice that had never had the same for Cinder was like an icepick to the kidney.

“I got better,” Akelarre said. “Mister Spider died.”

“Mister... Spider?” Salem asked.

Akelarre nodded. “He was my pet. My friend.”

Salem looked as confused as Cinder felt for a moment. “Was he not just a Grimm that you created?”

Cinder’s attention slid back to Akelarre. That confirmed a few things. No matter how strange the girl seemed, that one ability alone turned her into a threat of the highest order. Anyone who could create Grimm was a threat to humanity as a whole. One who could create Grimm and come back from the dead more so. Urgh, she was going to have to befriend the girl.

“He was special,” Akelarre said. “He’s the one we made together. The first time you brought me here. You remember?” Her voice was flat, even in tempo and cadence. A pale imitation of Salem’s own regal voice but an imitation nonetheless.

“I do,” Salem said. “Is that why you’re making so many more like him?”

“They’re not like him!” Akelarre yelled. Tears welled up in her eyes again and she smashed a fist into the ground with a dull thud. It left an indentation in the soil in the shape of her knuckles. “They’re not the same,” she repeated.

Cinder looked at the Spider Grimm, really looked, with more attention than she usually spared to common Grimm. They were different. The little red marks on their bone plates were each unique and none had quite the same proportions.

Salem took a few steps that brought her closer, the Spider Grimm shifting out of her path with what appeared like deference. She reached towards Akelarre, paused, then touched the girl on the shoulder. “Can I help?”

Akelarre rubbed at her face with a sleeve and stood up.

The two stood before each other for some time and Cinder had to resist her body’s urge to move. “I could use a hug.”

Salem didn’t seem to know what to do for a moment, and Cinder had to congratulate, if only silently, Akelarre’s ability to set the queen of the Grimm on the back foot. Then Salem raised her arms and carefully wrapped them around Akelarre’s shoulders. The girl fell forwards, head burying itself into the crook of Salem’s neck. “There, there?” Salem said.

Cinder had never seen her queen looking awkward before, but she certainly didn’t look as confident as usual as she patted Akelarre on the back with one hand. Then the tension in Salem’s shoulders relaxed and she almost melted into the hug.

Cinder was not jealous, not even when the hug went on for what had to be a full minute before Akelarre pulled back and grinned at Salem. If the grin was watery, then no one chose to mention it. “Thanks,” she said.

“It was no problem,” Salem replied. “I trust that the woman that hurt you is dead?”

“No. But I did steal her hat.” Akelarre gestured to her head where a black beret sat at a bit of an angle. “And I told her off.”

“If that is all the revenge you demand for your murder, you will find yourself collecting many adversaries who won’t be afraid of retaliating against you in time,” Salem warned.

She shouldn’t have had to, it was obvious. Whoever, whatever this Akelarre girl was, she was playing the game at a level below most people. That was both disturbing and an opportunity. She could work with someone so straightforward.

“If she tries again she won’t succeed,” Akelarre said. “And then I’ll have my bugs eat her alive from the inside.”

Or perhaps, Cinder thought, she could take her time and befriend the girl while making sure she was useful to her.

“Next time you head out it will be with an escort,” Salem decided. She stepped back from Akelarre and slid back into her throne.

“I have my Grimmsects.”

Salem shook her head. “They were obviously insufficient. Also, that name is undignified.”

“I think it’s cute,” Akelarre argued back.

Cinder was starting to have a good idea of which box to place Akelarre in. She had seen that kind of bickering before, though fortunately she had never participated in it herself. It was obvious that Salem cared for the girl, and the opposite was also true. It took only a moment to recall the last place she’d seen that kind of attitude; Emerald and Mercury. They spoke to each other with the same sort of irreverence for title or rank, though Salem and Akelarre were not at each other's throats in the same way as her subordinates.

No, what they shared was a mutual respect. They both felt as if they were... equals. Or if not equals then near enough.

“Cinder,” Salem said, her attention shifting to her. “I will approve of your plans to retrieve the maiden’s power. But I want you to work with Akelarre. Knowing her, she will want to wander again and I will not allow her to do so on her own. You will be sufficient to guard her.”

She knew better than to argue. “Yes, ma’am.”

“And Akelarre,” Salem said as she looked the woman up and down. “I will be giving you a task as well, if you wish it.”

“I’d love to help,” Akelarre said, with such an innocently earnest tone it made Cinder sick.

“I suspect that Cinder’s task will be bringing her to Beacon, or at least near Vale. You mentioned some familiarity with the criminal underworld, and Cinder has been working to use Vale’s to her own end. I want you to put pressure on them to... better our own goals.”

Akelarre made a humming sound and tapped her chin. “That sounds like it might be fun.”

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Huge thank you to the folks on the Raven's Nest Discord for the helping hand in making these.

Sketches by the insanely talented Askasknot. The typesetting and other things by me.



You can (and should) check out on Ask's Deviant Art HERE.

 

Chapter Eleven

Warning: This chapter contains traces of FLUFF. Read at your own risk.

***

“Check.”

“Hm.”

“Check.”

“Hrm.”

“And checkmate.”

Akelarre looked up from her book on the history of Vale and its surrounding cities to stare across the library table. Salem was sitting across from her, leaning back in an upholstered armchair, a huge tome on her lap which she was reading with rapt attention.

Next to them was a chessboard, a Seer floating at one end and Mister Spider, Second of the Name, standing behind an emancipated row of white pieces.

“Were you even paying attention?” she asked as Mister Spider (Second of the Name) and the Seer started resetting the board.

“Enough to win, obviously,” Salem said. She turned a page.

Akelarre huffed, cheeks puffing out. She glanced over to the chess set, which had been reset in the meantime, and with a twitch of her mind Mister Spider (Second of the Name) pushed a pawn forwards with a knife-tipped limb.

“You’ll note that I have been playing games like these for quite some time,” Salem said as she continued reading. A black pawn moved towards the middle of the board.

“You make yourself sound old,” Akelarre said as she went back to her book. The click-click of pieces moving across the board was the only noise for a while.

“Akelarre, my dear, I am old,” Salem said. Her tome closed with a dull thump and she looked at Akelarre across the table. “And I hope to see you grow old too.”

“Can we even wrinkle?” she asked.

“That is not what I meant,” Salem--the woman that looked like she was no more than forty for the past millennia--said. “You died on your last excursion. And I would like to think that I am familiar enough with you to know that you’ll be heading out again.”

“I got better,” Akelarre said. She wasn’t reading any more, just staring at the words on the page. “But.. thanks for worrying.”

Salem made a dismissive noise. “Don’t be a fool. You’re a... friend. It’s normal that I be concerned. We have enemies, or at least I do, and you inherited them with nothing more than your appearance and abilities. There are fates worse than death. I wouldn’t wish them upon you.”

“But you’d save me, right?”

Salem paused in the act of placing her tome on the table. “I would.”

Akelarre grinned at her.

“Checkmate, by the way,” Salem said.

Akelarre’s head whipped to the board where she had, in fact, lost. “But I didn’t make any moves.”

“I acted for you. Don’t worry, I made to take only the most optimal moves from your position.”

“But I still lost?”

“You lost on the third move.” Salem made that little noise that meant she was laughing on the inside. “Perhaps a game of chance would suit you better?”

***

Akelarre ducked, her entire back bending until she was folded almost in half. It was an uncomfortable position to be in, Cinder knew, but it was enough to avoid Hazel’s fist.

The woman slapped a hand to the ground and kicked out at Hazel, both feet slamming into his chest. But Hazel was a big man and he had to outweigh Akelarre by an order of magnitude. She flipped backwards with the momentum of the blow, landed on the balls of her feet and shot towards Hazel again.

They exchanged blows for a while, Hazel’s speed unaffected by his size as he redirected Akelarre’s tiny fists and wove out of the path of her kicks.

It looked like a forgone conclusion. For all that Akelarre was impressively fast she was not as quick as Hazel, nor as strong.

Cinder had sparred with the man before, she knew how dangerous he was. She could only ever win if she went all out, and Akelarre didn’t seem to be doing the same.

So perhaps it was inevitable that Hazel found an opening in Akelarre’s assault and landed an open-palmed blow to her stomach that made the young woman fold in half and flop backwards to land gracelessly on the ground.

“Are you well?” Hazel asked.

Akelarre wheezed, her expression vacant as she stared up at the ceiling. But she lifted one hand and made a dismissive gesture before rolling onto her front and climbing back to her feet. “I can keep going,” she said.

“Your Aura is low,” Hazel admonished. “In situations like those it might be best to think of retreating rather than continue fighting.”

Akellare bit her lip and stared off to a point over Hazel’s shoulder, then she nodded. “Okay. In that case I’m going to shower. Thanks, Mister Hazel.”

Hazel, who was usually such a serious man, grinned as he placed both hands on his hips. “Think nothing of it, Miss Akelarre.”

Cinder watched the Grimm woman cross the training gym and slip into the locker room at the far back. Only when she was completely out of sight did she move into the gym.

Hazel was folding the mats they had trained on, but he paused when he saw her approaching. “Cinder,” he greeted.

“Hazel,” she returned. “How are you doing?”

His eyes narrowed a little but he nodded all the same. There was always something of a truce between the servants of Salem, an unspoken agreement not to step on each others toes. It did not mean that they enjoyed each other’s company.

“I’m well enough,” he said as he lifted a mat that weighed twice as much as she did one-handed. “How can I help you?”

“Can’t I just have a chat with a friend?” she asked. Crossing her arms, she leaned against the nearest wall and watched as Hazel moved another mat.

He snorted. “We are many things, Miss Cinder, but friends we are not. If you’re here to interrogate me, you might as well just leave.”

She rolled her eyes and shifted a strand of hair back, hooking it over her ear in a way that drew attention to her long neck and the exposed skin of her collar. Hazel followed the gesture, but didn’t react otherwise. “I thought you would be more subtle, Hazel,” she said.

“I can be perfectly subtle in the service of my queen. Unless you’re here on her behalf?” He eyed her up and down for a moment. “I thought not.”

“I’m just curious. Salem asked me to guard Akelarre during her next trip beyond the Grimmlands. It would make my life far easier if I knew some things about her.”

“You can ask,” he said as he placed the last mat on a pile, straightened his back, and wiped his brow.

Cinder’s smile could have flayed the flesh off a man. “How long have you known her?” she asked.

Sighing, Hazel started moving towards the far end of the gymnasium where some equipment had been shifted around. Obviously someone had been using it and had failed to put everything back in its proper place. “Not terribly long.”

“I see,” she said. And she did see. She saw that getting a straight answer was going to be like pulling teeth. “Do you happen to know where she came from? I never heard of her before.”

“Perhaps our queen did not see fit to tell you about her,” he said.

She grit her teeth and pushed herself off the wall to follow him. “Do you know if she’s... Salem’s?”

“We are all Salem’s, in the end.”

“You know what I meant.”

Hazel turned to face her, and were she any other woman she might have been cowed by the way he stood so tall above her. “I have a few things to take care of,” he said.

She had to move out of his path as he lumbered by. The glare she fixed on his back did not, unfortunately, light him on fire.

Cinder was going to have to find another source of answers. Akelarre was an unknown and unknowns were threats. Unknowns who acted so... close to Salem, Queen of the Grimm were even bigger threats.

“You have a lot of questions about me.”

Her breath hitched, but that was the only outward sign that Cinder allowed as she turned to face Akelarre.

The girl, the woman, was dressed in a loose shirt and sweatpants, her bare feet leaving wet traces on the floor behind her leading all the way over to the locker room and her hair plastered to the back of her head like the fur of a wet cat.

“I’ve known Hazel for a few months. More or less,” she said, her gaze drifting over to the door where Hazel had left. “I’m not sure where I came from, but Salem thinks that I was born a long, long time ago. And I’m pretty sure I’m not actually Salem’s daughter or anything, but that’s okay, because sometimes the family you choose is the best one.”

Cinder nodded slowly, her palms sweaty by her side. Akelarre had heard everything she’d asked Hazel. The how didn’t matter so much now, not compared to what Akelarre’s reaction to her information gathering would be.

“So,” Akelarre began, red eyes spearing into Cinder’s. “Why did you want to know all of that?”

“I was merely curious,” Cinder replied. “If I am to guard you, then wouldn’t it be best if I had an idea of what your history is like? At the very least, knowing about your personality would only help in the long run.”

Akelarre’s gaze never shifted and Cinder began to wonder if the girl had to blink. “Are you... jealous?” she asked.

“Jealous?”

“Ah, because you’ve been working so hard to get Salem’s attention and then I came along?” Akelarre didn’t wait for a reply; she just nodded as if it was all self-evident. “I see. I didn’t mean to steal Salem from you.”

“That’s not what’s happening,” Cinder said, a small smile touching her lips.

“Hrmm,” Akelarre said. “Do you need a hug?”

“Do I... no, I don’t need a hug,” Cinder scoffed.

“Are you sure? I could explain things to Salem for you. She could give you a hug instead.”

“I don’t need a hug,” Cinder repeated. Her foot tapped the ground and it was only then that she realised how petulant she sounded.

“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Akelarre said. The worst thing was how genuine it sounded.

Then she moved up to Cinder and two arms wrapped themselves around Cinder’s shoulders. She froze like a child in front of a charging Ursa, her entire body tensing up as Akelarre, who was just a little taller than her, leaned into Cinder and pulled her close.

She heard a gasp, and turning her head a little revealed that Emerald was standing by the door, eyes wide and hands over her mouth.

“Did she want to join in the hug too?” Akelarre asked.

Emerald’s eyes just widened further and a deep red blush crept up her neck and all the way to her ears. She spun on one heel and ran.

Cinder sighed. Whatever happened, she had the impression that life with Akelarre was going to be complicated.

***

Just fluff this chapter to show that time is moving. The story picks up again in chapter twelve!

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Chapter Twelve


***

Emerald’s decision to hate Akelarre didn’t appear instantly.

Or maybe it did, but that was no one’s business but her own.

No, she had plenty of reasons to dislike the overbearing, clueless, idiotic, dumb, stupid, potential-girlfriend-stealing, stupid, Cinder-hugging, Grimm monster.

“Hey Em.”

And not only that! But Cinder was reciprocating! Oh, sure, she said that it was because Akelarre was all important and stuff, but Emerald could read between the lines.

Her Cinder was falling for that stupid Grimm whore.

“Emerald!” Mercury barked into her ear.

She jumped, breath coming in with a hitch as she refocused on the world around her. They were standing by the gates of Salem’s Spire, the huge black tower rising above them and obscuring the morning sun. “What?” she finally asked.

“You done fantasizing?” he asked, and for a split second she was afraid that he had figured her out. Then he ran his hands over his body in a way that might have been sexy if she was a sex-starved cougar with a thing for disabled boys. “I know you want it, Ems, but this bod is too good for you.”

“I will literally gut you,” she warned.

“I’m not into S&M, but for you, I might make an exception.”

She growled under her breath and stomped past him, his laughter following after her as she stepped into the entrance hall of the tower. The room was lit with flaming braziers and a few floating Grimm that glowed purple with an inner fire. Benches lined the sides, though who would actually sit on them was anyone’s guess. As far as Emerald knew there was a grand total of maybe a dozen people on this side of the continent.

In the middle of the room, standing with her arms crossed, was Akelarre. She eyed first Emerald, then Mercury, before her lips twisted into a smile. “Hello,” she said.

“Hey,” Mercury said. He looked up and Emerald found herself doing the same.

There were a few lancers on the ceiling but nothing like the swarm they saw last time. “Uh, hi,” Emerald said, remembering herself after a moment. Akelarre might have been a Cinder-stealing bitch but she was still some sort of Grimm royalty.

“Hello,” Akelarre said again. “So...”

Then she stared.

Emerald shared a look with Mercury and only got a shrug in reply. “So... what?” Emerald asked.

“I don’t know,” Akelarre said while shifting her attention down to her feet. “I was hoping you guys had something to say.”

How, Emerald wondered. How could someone as wonderful as Cinder accept the affections of such an idiot. “Right, we’re just here to pick up Cinder,” Emerald said.

“Oh, that’s nice,” Akelarre said. “Cinder must be quite happy to have such loyal subordinates.”

“I am,” a very familiar and very welcome voice said from the end of the hall. Cinder was walking, no, strutting towards them with the grace of a dancer on stage. “Emerald and Mercury have both been exemplary lately.”

Emerald felt her chest swelling up with pride, enough that she deigned to ignore the way Mercury snorted next to her. “Thank you, ma’am,” Emerald said.

Cinder smiled at them, then came to a stop. “The Seers are moving our things to the Bullhead,” she said. “Is there anything special you need?”

“No, my Grimmsects can carry anything I want,” Akelarre said.

“You’re... coming with us?” Emerald’s smile started to feel a little forced.

“I am!” Akelarre said. “I’m sure we’re going to have a great time.”

Cinder sighed. “Akelarre is coming with us because she wants to... see the sights, as it were. She also has an important mission, courtesy of Salem, to accomplish while I take care of my own business. We are going to act as bodyguards while also pursuing another goal near Vale. I’ll be giving you the details you need to know later.”

“Near Vale?” Akelarre asked. “So we’re not actually going to the city?”

Cinder started walking and Emerald was instantly by her side. She placed herself between Akelarre and her boss, if only to cut the Grimm’s line of sight on Cinder’s perfect body.

“Not immediately. We’ll be meeting a contact. Two of them, in fact. One is already in my pocket but the other might require some... persuasion. But don’t worry, I’ll be taking care of that. In the meantime you’ll be free to do whatever you want. Our meeting area is in a small town a day’s walk from Vale.”

Cinder led the group towards the platform on which their Bullhead sat, the aircraft’s white and grey paint standing out against the dark stones of the Grimmlands. Emerald was reluctant to leave Cider’s side, but she had a job to do, so she picked up the pace and opened the cargo bay doors of the ship before hopping in.

As she moved to the front to start preparing the Bullhead for take off, she let her imagination wander. If Akelarre was going to be with them, then that meant the Grimm girl was going to be close to Cinder. It wasn’t ideal, but it also meant that, if she was lucky, an accident might happen.

Maybe, she thought as the others boarded the ship, the entire venture was for the best.

***

She liked the Bullhead.

Oh, sure, it wasn’t as cool as riding a giant murderous hornet around, but it still had some advantages over her Lancers. For one, the Bullhead had a cabin and was climate controlled, which meant that even an hour into the flight she could feel her extremities. It also had seats. Seats were a feature she really approved of.

And, best of all, there were others in the Bullhead, which meant that she didn’t have to spend the entire flight daydreaming or wishing that her Lancers could fly faster or at least hold a conversation that wasn’t just lots of buzzing.

There was also that familiar tingle in the back of her mind, like when she was trying to remember a word that was on the tip of her tongue. She had ridden in something similar before.

“So, how long have you been working with Cinder?” she asked the boy sitting across from her.

Mercury looked up from his phone and eyed her for a moment. “A little while,” he said.

“That’s... nice,” she replied. “Why did you start working with her?”

He sighed and lowered his phone to his lap. “Because she paid well and didn’t ask questions.”

She had the distinct impression that the last part of that answer was aimed at her, especially when Mercury pulled out his phone and started tapping away at it again.

Leaning back, she tried to find something to do, but other than spying on Cinder and Emerald at the front, or inspecting the swarm following after the Bullhead, there wasn’t much to do. Emerald seemed more focused on Cinder than actually flying, which would have bothered her if it wasn’t clear that Cinder was a very single-minded woman who was plenty competent. Salem wouldn’t have kept her around otherwise.

Emerald... bothered her, a little. All the glares shot her way whenever she looked elsewhere were kind of telling. If it wasn’t for the hundreds of bugs hidden in her hair and clothes and in every shadow and those that she designed to look like pebbles and the other bugs that were almost entirely transparent and the dragonflies with overly large eyes she used for spying from the very edges of her range, then she might not have noticed.

So, Emerald was angry at her, and was also sneaking peeks at Cinder.

That could only mean one thing. Emerald was trying to hook her up with Cinder and it wasn’t working out.

It was kinda cute, in a way. Maybe Emerald saw Cinder as a sort of big sister? She smiled up at the Bullhead’s ceiling. And to think that Cinder was such a serious woman all the time. She would have to make sure the two had some time to spend together.

“We’re approaching our landing area,” Cinder called back. “We’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Akelarre blinked back to full focus and nodded to the front of the Bullhead. “Thank you,” she said.

Through the many eyes in her swarm she could make out the rough shape of a settlement on the horizon, just a small town with perhaps a hundred homes in all, with a crossroads meeting in its middle. Walls rose around the town, none more than two stories high, but covered in spikes and guard towers. Around the town proper were a few farmsteads and a row of mansions on a hill that seemed to be their destination.

“We’ll be meeting with one of my contacts almost as soon as we land,” Cinder said. “He might interest you, Akelarre.”

“Oh?” she said, loud enough to be heard over the rumble of the vessel’s engine.

“He’s a well known thief and rogue. His name is Roman Torchwick.”

***

He paused before the huge bay window at the front of the house and stared at his reflection, his cane planted into the ground by his side to liberate both hands so that he could tug and pull his outfit.

He tipped his hat so that it sat just right, then adjusted his scarf, tugged his jacket on tighter over his shoulders and made sure his shirt was properly buttoned up and free of wrinkles. Then, as he did every time before meeting someone important, or at least someone he had to impress, he ran through his mental checklist.

Make-up? On point.
Scarf? Snazzy.
Jacket? Sharp.
Pants? Women everywhere wanted to tear them off him.
His hat? Fashionable. As. Fuck.

Oh yeah, this Cinder woman wouldn’t know what hit her.

***

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Chapter Thirteen


“Nice place,” Roman said.

Neo looked at the house with narrowed eyes, then shrugged one shoulder.

Her reaction aside, Roman really did think the house was nice. It was a sprawling two storey building with two towers on either end and a massive stone archway above its front door. The entire thing was made of a dull grey stone stacked together with the kind of care and precision that modern buildings just didn’t have.

And it was big.

A building that big would be prohibitively expensive in Vale where everything was squished together like sardines in a can. A house like this one with such a large lawn and garden could only have been afforded by a Schnee that won the lottery.

But then, this wasn’t Vale. There was plenty of room on the outskirts of the city, and as long as you could defend it from the Grimm the price for a large lot was rather low. He could see a few other homes of equal size here and there through manicured forests, probably the summer estates of council members or businessmen.

He saw a Bullhead coming in for a landing in the backyard, manicured grass billowing out as the vessel’s thrusters shifted into position and its landing gear deployed with a pneumatic hiss.

“Well, well, looks like the lady of the hour is here at last. Come along, Neo,” he said as he tossed his cane in the air and caught it midshaft with a snap. “It’s time to meet our new boss.”

He walked to the edge of the Bullhead landing area and waited, Neo half a step behind with her parasol opened and leaning on one shoulder. It took him a whole ten seconds before the strength of the sun above started cooking his head and he started to regret his heavy jacket.

Reaching into his coat, he pulled out a cigar and a lighter, eyeing the opening hatch of the Bullhead while he lit up and took his first calming puff.

The first two out of the Bullhead looked like goons. Oh, they weren’t wearing sharp uniforms like his own boys, but they had that distinctive look about them, the sort that said that they had a job to do and would do the bare minimum to accomplish it.

He was going to keep an eye on them, but not too much of one. Kinda like paying attention to a wasp when it entered a room. It might be an annoyance but it wasn’t worth panicking over.

The next two to step out of the Bullhead were far more interesting. One was a tall woman, her face masked by the shadows of a white hood. Her cloak whipped around her body, only revealing little glimpses. He might have been impressed at the display if the glimpses were worth anything, but she looked about as flat as a pancake under there and with none of the curves.

The other was a bombshell. Legs that went on for days, a dress so tight in all the right places it was a miracle it didn’t tear itself apart, and long, flowing hair that whipped back in the wind like something out of a shampoo commercial. Sharp, perilously intelligent yellow eyes locked onto Roman and didn’t let go for a moment as she descended from the Bullhead with the careless grace of someone very, very dangerous.

“Mister Torchwick,” the woman said in a voice that could have sold albums while reading a phone book. “And your lovely assistant.” Her attention wandered to Neo then snapped back. “It’s a pleasure to meet you at last.”

“The pleasure’s all mine, I’m sure,” he said. “And Neo’s, of course.” Neo rolled her parasol in her hand, the tines spinning above her in a whirl of pink lace. She gave them a smug little grin.

When she extended a hand he tucked his cane under one arm and shook.

She was hot. Not the sort of hot that tightened his britches, but literally fever-warm and with a grip that had him holding back a wince as she met his gaze. She let go of his hand and started walking towards the building. “Come, let’s get out of the sun. We wouldn’t want you to get burned,” she purred.

He shared a glance with Neo and saw that same undertone of worry in her eyes that he was feeling. It was only ever the strong or insane or insanely strong ones that had time to play word games like that.

“So, hot stuff, from what I understood you need something... reacquired, lots of something.”

She stopped mid-step, turned around and placed a hand on his chest, the motion so fast and casual that he didn’t have time to step out of the way before she had him by the lapel of his jacket. “I would like to think that our arrangement will be one of mutual respect,” she said. “So please, call me Cinder.”

He swallowed and tried to hide the gesture by giving her his smarmiest grin. “Sure thing, Cinder.” He saw Neo tensing out of the corner of his eye, but she hadn’t moved to defend him yet.

Cinder let go of his jacket and when he inspected it he found a row of four brownish smudges where her fingers had burned into the fabric. He made a mental note to kill the woman from afar if they ever got into a fight. And to do it with ice dust.

They were led to a nice little gazebo set in the middle of a garden, a few stone-paved pathways leading up to the shady area where a pair of wicker couches waited with a table between them. The area was filled with bird song and he caught the movement of honey bees buzzing from one colorful flower to the next with their usual lack of grace.

Cinder’s companion, the girl in the white cloak, moved ahead of them a ways and bent over the flowers. She even touched one of them and allowed a bee to latch onto her pointer finger. Maybe she was a younger sibling to his maybe-future boss?

When they reached the gazebo, Cinder gestured to one seat then sat down across from it, one leg crossing over the other with the slow, languid motions of someone daring those around them to stare.

He sat and felt Neo moving to one of the pillars holding up the little glass-walled building. She folded her parasol and placed it between her feet. Cinder’s companion seemed perfectly willing to sit next to her friend and pet the bee she’d picked up.

“So,” he said once everyone was in their place. “What’s this job that you need doing, and why did you need the best thief in Remnant to do it?”

Cinder placed both hands on her knee and inspected him for a while. “I need Dust, Mister Torchwick. I need a lot of Dust.”

“I know a few stores. If you have a scroll I can give you their address. If you’re buying lots they might even give you a complimentary cup of coffee and foot massage,” he said before waving his hand flippantly. “The Schnee do know how to treat their clients right.”

“Oh, Mister Torchwick, I don’t think you understand just how much Dust I want.” Cinder gestured with one hand towards the house, and when he turned it was to find the little grass-haired goon walking over with a tray in both hands, a large jug of yellowish juice on top. The goon placed it in the middle of the gazebo on a table, then picked a scroll from next to a stack of crystalline cups and handed it to Cinder. She backed up with a bow and spun on one heel to walk back towards the house.

“Ohh,” Cinder’s companion said before reaching over and pouring herself a cup of lemonade. She then stuck her finger in her cup and shook it above the arm of her seat. A few drops splattered onto the wicker arm and she pushed the bee she’d been playing with towards the juice.

Cinder watched her for a moment, then focused on her scroll.

Roman’s own shook in his pocket. “I just sent you the transit information for every Dust shipment into Vale for the next half year. There is enough Dust there to feed the entire city’s infrastructure for months, not including what Dust will be purchased by Hunters or refined for household use. I want you to steal it.”

“All of it?”

“Every last granule, Mister Torchwick,” she said.

“That’s a tall order,” he said.

She shrugged one shoulder. “It is. But I am a generous woman and I have always rewarded hard work. And just think of the good it would do for your reputation as... how did you put it? Remnant's greatest thief?”

He was about to start digging into the offer to see what Cinder actually wanted when the girl in the cloak suddenly focused on him. “Mister Torchwick, you’re a criminal, right?” she asked. He had expected a childish voice from her actions alone but the girl’s tone was sharp and articulate.

“I’m not, as they say, on the right side of the law,” he said with a winning smile.

“Then maybe you could help me,” she said. Her hood moved back just enough for him to see the upwards curve of her lips.

“Are you certain that’s a good id--” Cinder began. She stopped mid-word when the hood turned her way.

“It’s okay Cinder. I’ve done this kind of thing before, I think. Roman here can just act as a foot in the door for me. Right, Mister Torchwick?” Hood turned his way again.

He resisted the urge to narrow his eyes. A moment ago he had the image of Cinder as the kind of woman most of the mob bosses in Vale wished they could be. Self assured, confident, hot enough to turn most men to putty and with the brains to back that up. And she had resources that he could only guess at. That she folded to Hood here had to mean something, but he wasn’t sure what. “I know my way around, if that’s what you mean.”

Hood reached up and tapped her lip. “Cinder’s mistress gave us each a task. She needs you for hers, so there’s no need to worry about me interfering too much,” she said. He had the impression that the last part was aimed at Cinder more than him.

“Yeah, and what task did she give a big girl like you?” he asked.

She tilted her head back, enough that he caught the faint glowing of two slanted eyes. A shiver ran down his back. “Oh, nothing I couldn’t do,” Hood said. “She just wants me to take over Vale’s underworld.”

***

Neo watched as Roman stared at the girl in the hood and the girl in the hood stared back. Then he laughed and she joined in a moment later with a giggle that set her teeth on edge.

Maybe Roman couldn’t see it, but she sure as hell could. The girl was a few lien short of a card.

Roman diverted the topic to payments and the Cinder woman was adding her own two lien to the conversation. The girl in the hood paid attention for a while, then slowly shifted her gaze up to Neo.

Neo found herself staring into eyes beneath the hood. Much of the girl's face was hidden in shadow, but those faintly glowing red-on-black eyes were easy to see. The way they studied her like bloody scalpels, peeling her back, like she wanted to take Neo apart and find out how she worked....

It sent a shiver down her spine and brought a little smile to her lips. Her own gaze was much the same, she knew from looking in the mirror and how people tended to go pale before she stabbed them. Seeing it returned was... exciting.

Feeling a little frisky, Neo blinked at Hood, switching her eye colours, then with the next blink turned them the same blood red as the girl’s own. It earned her a small amused noise in response that only made her grin all the wider.

Raising one hand palm up she gestured in the direction of Roman and Cinder, still deep in discussion, and rolled her eyes to convey her boredom. Hood seemed to get it, which was also really nice, and held her hands up, one holding the bee and the other empty.

Or it was, because some kind of praying mantis slightly bigger than Hood's whole hand crawled out from under her cloak and down to her arm to perch, carefully, on her smaller palm. Then with a quiet snap it was in her other hand, two halves of the bee tumbling away pathetically to the ground.

Neo's heart was thudding in her chest. That was a Grimm in her hand. Not to mention the sheer lack of reaction. Hood hadn't even blinked when the bee she'd been playing with had been brutally dismembered in her hand.

Be still my beating heart.

She watched with eager eyes as the Grimm mantis scuttled up Hood’s arm until it was hidden in the folds of her shirt. Neo had heard of people hiding an ace up their sleeve, but that was a whole new level of dangerous. And interesting.

Making a decision, the diminutive killer called up her semblance and threw an illusion between the two of them and Roman and Cinder.

Then she strutted up to Hood, crossing the short distance slowly... and slid into her lap. Her small size made it a perfect fit as she swung her legs to the side, putting Hood's now empty hand at her back. She leaned in close, close enough that her head was almost under the hood and she could see how the other girl's cheeks weren’t so pale anymore.

When Hood's gaze flickered down to her cleavage instead of murdering her, she knew she had made the right choice.

Pressing herself right up to the taller girl, she got close enough that Hood could feel Neo's breath on her lips... then she grinned widely and turned to look across the field, raising a hand to eye level and pointing in the direction she was looking, drawing Hood's bloody gaze along to the equally fancy house on the next lot over.

Neo's other hand reached out, curling in the air as if picking up a ball and holding it up to the light, before squeezing it into a fist, announcing exactly what she wanted to do, before hopping off Hood's lap and dragging her along, the illusion she created remaining behind.

***

I’d usually say ‘all aboard the HMS Rocky Road’ or something, but at this point Neo might shank you if you don’t approve of her ship.

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

 

Chapter Fourteen


Akelarre felt very warm.

It was probably the sun, she decided as she followed the white, brown and pink girl who was strutting ahead of her. She stared for a moment, then refocused on the back of the girl’s head.

What had Roman called her? Her mind was a little scattered, more so than usual. It took her a moment to recall... Neo, it was Neo.

And it was Neo that used some sort of Stranger ability to create an illusion behind her and to mask the way they were walking away from the meeting, an illusion that neither Cinder nor Roman could see through.

Neo trampled across manicured grass and when they reached a fence between their lot and the next the diminutive girl took a running leap and grabbed the top of the brick wall. She placed one leg over the top and sat astride the fence, then extended a hand to Akelarre while one eyebrow rose in challenge.

Akelarre wondered if this is what it felt like when teenagers were offered drugs.

She grabbed Neo’s hand and let the tiny, and surprisingly strong, girl pull her up. Her fall on the other side was not quite as dignified as Neo’s almost dainty skip but she managed to stay on her feet.

The lawn here extended a ways towards a home that could only be described as a mansion.

As her Grimmsects and a swarm of local bugs scouted the inside of the mansion she started to realise just how opulent it was. “Who does that house belong to?” she asked.

Neo shrugged.

“So, what are we doing here?” she asked. It was a little strange for her to follow a complete stranger, especially a complete stranger that was walking right up to an empty house. A house with bedrooms. Bedrooms that had beds.

She swallowed and shook her head. Neo wasn’t like that. Maybe. Probably. And if she was she could just say no with a dozen times Neo’s weight in insects as emphasis.

Then Neo pulled out a set of lockpicks, bent over double before the front door, and started fiddling with the lock.

“Wait, are we robbing the place?” she asked, trying not to stare.

Neo paused and gave her a sort of ‘what do you think’ look before rolling her eyes and returning to her picking.

“Isn’t that... wrong?” Akelarre asked.

Neo stopped again and gave her a flat stare.

“Not that I have the moral high ground here. I’m pretty sure you could steal every single item in Vale and you’d still be ahead of me,” Akelarre said.

Raising a hand up to her face, Neo placed her index finger across her lips in the universal gesture for silence.

Akelarre stared at the much shorter girl, then at the mansion they were breaking into. “There’s no one in there,” she said. “You can make as much noise as you want.”

Neo seemed to consider that for a moment. She pulled her picks from the door, slid them into her costume, then took a step back.

Her roundhouse kick tore the door out of its hinges and sent it clattering into the hallway beyond. She stepped next to the doorway, made a sweeping gesture with both arms, and invited Akelarre into the home.

“Thank you,” she said as she stepped over the door and into the main hall. The door had broken one of the marble tiles, leaving a nasty mark on the ground, but otherwise the room was nice and intact, with pillars holding beautiful vases off to one side and oil paintings of important looking men on the wall across from them. It was the kind of place she could imagine Salem staying in, if they just added a few purple crystals and some wandering Grimm.

This felt... nostalgic, somehow, as though this wasn’t the first robbery she’d participated in. If this was, in fact, a robbery. “So, we’re here to rob the place, vandalise it, and send a message?” she paused. “Or are we looking for blackmail material?”

Neo tapped a finger to her chin in thought, then nodded before pushing a vase off of its platform.

It made a very satisfying crunch as it crashed to the ground.

“Okay. Any reason in particular why we’re doing this?”

Neo shrugged. She was playing innocent, but there was a glint of mischief in her mismatched eyes.

“Is this how you make all your friends?”

Neo’s grin could have lit up the sky in a storm. She nodded.

“Okay. Well, if we’re going to be working together, then it’s best we be friends, right?” Akelarre gestured and had one of her Grimmsects push a vase from where it hid behind a pillar and out of Neo’s sight. The vase, this one made of brass, clunked to the ground.

She got a thumbs up for her effort.

***

Cinder smiled as she saw a single bead of sweat slowly trickle out from under Roman’s stupid hat and along the side of his head before he wiped it away with a swipe.

She had him on the back foot. Already he was willing to agree to anything she said just to keep his head attached to his shoulders. Of course, that only meant that he would try to betray her later, but there were ways around that. She merely had to teach him the futility of trying to fight her.

She glanced to her side to where Akelarre was sitting and being a quiet threat.

Akelarre wasn’t there.

Blinking, Cinder looked around and found a distinct lack of Grimm Princesses in her vicinity. Worse, Roman’s little pet was gone too.

Roman locked eyes with her. “Oh shit,” he said.

She agreed.

***

Neos arm twisted just-so to scoop up a perfect sphere of ice cream from the tub, which she slid into her mouth with all the slow, suggestive grace of a lady sipping wine.

“Hey,” Hood protested next to her. “I want some too,” she said.

Neo, being the generous soul that she was, looked at the seven tubs of ice-cream laid out all across the foot of the king-sized bed she was on and decided to be magnanimous. She flipped the scoop over and handed it to Hood who took it. She made a ‘one’ with her other hand, the message clear and obvious.

Hood could have one scoop.

Hood dipped the scoop into the tub, pulled out a chunk of ice cream with no grace at all, and stuffed it into her face. Half of it ended up smeared across her lips.

To say that Neo was unimpressed would have been an understatement.

The two of them were lounging on a king-sized bed, her boots leaving marks on the sheets and her tubs of ice cream staining it further. Next to her, Hood was leaned all the way back so that her back rested against the headboard. She had even removed her boots.

Every time Hood moved it made the loops of golden necklaces around her neck jingle with a pleasant little noise. It was a sound Neo was intimately familiar with, the rustle of expensive things acquired through skill and determination and a little bit of breaking and entering.

She’d had... fun. Hood was a strange girl, made all the stranger because she trampled through Neo’s hints like a clueless virgin on prom night.

That was probably not the best example to use. The only prom she’d ever been to was one she crashed to steal their punch.

“This is really good,” Hood said as she licked the scoop clean. A few droplets of cream ended up on the stacks of paper she had placed on her corner of the bed. “You know, there’s no ice cream where I’m from.”

Neo’s breath caught.

How? Was that why Hood was so off? Was that why Hood couldn’t catch a clue when Neo hit her with all the subtlety of a freight train? How did Hood survive? Anyone could go a few days, maybe a week without ice cream, but to never have any?

She reached across the bed and patted Hood on the hand.

Hood, being the bumbling, clueless idiot she was, handed her the scoop back.

Well, Neo wasn’t going to complain.

“This guy was sick,” Hood said as she shifted through another page. She had found a loose floorboard, somehow, and when Neo pried it out it revealed a neat little stack of blackmail material that Hood seemed more than happy to dig through.

Political intrigue was boring. If you wanted something, just do it, is what Neo always said. Sorta.

She pulled one of the folders closer to her (It had been on her three-quarters of the bed) and flipped it open. She was greeted with candid pictures of a man with a hairy backside doing some rather improper things to a young lady. She felt her eyebrows climbing up into her hairline.

Flipping the picture up, she showed it to Hood who took one look and scrunched her nose. “Don’t show me that, Neo, I’m still digesting.”

Neo shrugged one shoulder and tossed the picture aside.

Hood closed her own folder and leaned back a little. “So, we broke in,” Neo nodded. “We smashed some artwork,” Neo nodded. “Drew mustaches on every painting,” Neo nodded. “Emptied their freezer,” Neo nodded. “And we found this guy’s stash of dirty blackmail,” Neo nodded. “Now what?”

Neo allowed a cat-like grin to cross her features. She flipped over and placed a hand on Hood’s ankle.

Hood looked down, blinking at the contact just before Neo yanked her down so fast that Hood’s head bounced on the pillows and the papers she’d had in hand went flying.

Twisting over, Neo moved up so that she was sitting on Hood, hips across the taller girl’s stomach and arms on either side of Hood’s quickly reddening face.

She wiggled her eyebrows.

Let’s see you miss this clue.

“Ah, Neo, I, uh,” Hood said.

Neo perked up one eyebrow, her grin growing feral.

“It’s, well, we just met,” she said as if that mattered. “And... and right here?.”

Neo was pretty damned good at getting a message across with just her body, but even she was stumped on how to say ‘we’re literally on a bed,’ without making a full production.

“Look, I’m flattered, really. You’re a nice girl, and you’re pretty,” Hood said and Neo let her go on because flattery was always a good way to butter her up. “It’s just that....”

Neo placed a delicate finger over Hood’s mouth, then wiped the layer of melting ice cream that surrounded the girl’s mouth off with the tip. She brought her hand back up and licked it clean.

“Ahhh.” Hood’s eyes went very, very wide and they darted towards the door. “Oh oh.”

Neo turned, a hand on Hood’s chest to help her look over her shoulder. Were the owners back? Was she going to have to deal with them? Would she tie them up and make them watch?

Then the door slammed open.

Roman moved in first, followed shortly after by the Cinder woman who was earning her namesake if the fire in her eyes was any indication. Both of them froze and for a moment the tableau held, everyone staring at everyone else.

Neo shifted around until both legs were off to one side, then she crossed one foot over the other and placed both hands on her knees in what was a perfectly dainty pose, even if she was still sitting on Hood’s lap. She batted her eyelashes at the new guests.

Cinder’s mouth opened, closed with a click, then opened again. “Akelarre,” she said.

“Yes, Cinder?” Akelarre said.

“Did you just leave a meeting in order to...” Cinder paused as though searching for words, then looked around the room, paying particular attention to the piles of jewelry on the bed next to slowly melting tubs of ice cream.

“To go on a robbery date with your new friend?” Roman tried.

“Yes, quite.”

“Ah,” Hood, no, Akelarre--and wasn’t that a pretty name--said. “No?”

Neo nodded.

“Neo!” Akelarre said. She started to wave her arms as if to deny everything. “It wasn’t a date. We didn’t do anything.”

Cinder looked at her, then at the way Neo was still sitting on her lap. “I can see that. Did she trip and accidentally land in your lap?” There was a bit of a twitch in the corner of the woman’s eye.

Neo shook her head. She raised both hands, pointed with her index finger, then made a circle with the thumb and forefinger of her other hand. The index finger dipped into the circle and back out while Neo’s eyebrows wiggled.

Akelarre’s squeak was adorable, as was the stunningly red shade her cheeks developed.

Cinder was not impressed.

“I, I got blackmail!” Akelarre shouted as if that would make everything better. She grabbed a file and flung it towards Cinder.

The bed was soon covered in pictures of hairy men in the buff.

Cinder was not impressed.

***

As far as Neo is concerned ‘Consent’ is the thing you do when she’s in the mood. Also, that’s as racy as this story is likely to get.

Big thank you to ChaoticSky and the filthy degenerates on the Raven’s Nest Discord for the idea bouncing and encouragement, and CrazySith87 and eschwartz for doing word things! You’re all completely insane (see note below), but I like you anyway.

NOTE: I would like to point out for everyone’s edification that eschwartz is a completely rational and sane person and is in no way crazy, mad, insane, borked, or otherwise on the same level as the other members of the Raven’s Nest Discord. We all hope to be as enlightened and stable as him when we finally grow up.

ALSO: The sexier, very much NSFW version of this chapter is available in the NSFW Writing section of this very site right here: LINK