Chapter 8: ...So Below
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The tunnels beneath Brunswick Farms, meant to carry sewage and bulk water under and away from the farms for many obvious reasons, were surprisingly well built. High arches of finely made, reinforced wooden beams, spanning two parallel tunnels wide enough for the six of them to walk nearly abreast. Admittedly, his bulk complicated the matter, but the size was still grand for a rural farmstead. Strangely so, in fact, and he put the thought to words.
"It is." Ruby nodded, giving Weiss a look on her other side. "Weiss, isn't it weird? These tunnels, I mean."
"I guess so." The girl shrugged, looking for all the world like a woman entirely exhausted, bored and wanting to be elsewhere. Tired she may have been but she was still smart, and some spark crawled its way back to life in her eyes for being able to show it off. A small one, her eyes still worryingly dull and shoulders slumped in defeat, but a spark nonetheless. "It's possible that the ground was unstable and uneven. Sinkholes, maybe. So they… Carved these out, reinforced them, and used them to level the ground."
"Clever."
"I guess." She shrugged, turning back to stare forward and mumbling, "It doesn't really matter."
It took a lot of his willpower to take note of the words, and recognize just how many things didn't seem to matter. Laying a hand across Ruby's small back he pushed her on faster, the girl squeaking tired protests as he did. Her team, though, barely murmured anything more than a 'hey, careful'. Out of ear-shot he leaned down, head over her shoulder from behind, and murmured, "You have noticed the strangeness, I trust?"
"Well, I mean, y-yeah." She nodded, leaning back into his and as he nudged her along, one hand raised to light the way with her Scroll's built in light. "Everyone's tired and-and I'm tired, but… But it doesn't matter." She stiffened and gave him a look, fighting through the strange fatigue to look afraid, "But it does matter."
"Indeed it does." And between them, Ruby and the elderly woman seemed the least beaten down by whatever was happening, somehow.
"Whatever you two are whispering about, can we just find this thing and go?" The brawler complained from behind them, gesturing at a skeleton that had somehow found its way down into the tunnels. "It stinks down here, and my feet are getting wet."
"And we're wasting time." Weiss added in a droning, aggrieved sort of way. The kind that told him even speaking took a lot of effort and energy. "If it gets any later we'll have to spend the night here again…"
"I know, I know, guys. And I know that we do not want that, with everything… Going on." Ruby called back, finally stepping to the side and away from the Elite to turn and look over her team anxiously as they walked. Whatever she was looking for she gave up on finding, or found and didn't like, turning back around and resting a weary hand on Crescent Rose's long handle. "We just have to find the lamp… Can't be too hard, and whatever I saw can't be too dangerous or it wouldn't be stuck down here."
"I feel like Jaune would disagree…" Weiss chuckled, a low and weary sound that spoke less of being amused and more of feeling obligated to laugh. Less amused and more aggravated, she sighed and asked, "Ruby, how much longer are we going to look for the Relic? I mean, no one is going to find it down here."
"We are taking it with us." Ruby almost snapped for the fifth time, sighing when her team grumbled behind her. "We can't leave it here, that's just handing it to Salem. Now if I could just find it…"
"We could always just turn off our lights." Blake suggested boredly from the back of their group, walking with Maria behind her coaxing her. "Follow the glow, if we can find it. It's dark enough that we should see it fairly easily."
"Not a bad idea…" She turned a look on the Arbiter, though, and the glowing sword he held aloft to help light their way. Without it, he was sure she knew, he would be unable to fight. Which he knew she would suspect to be uncomfortable for him.
"First comes the mission, second survival and lastly comfort." He rumbled before she could even ask, flicking his sword and stifling its ruddy red and orange glow.
In its dying wake the tunnels were left in gloomier dark, which only deepened as their Scroll-lights were silenced. Some rare wall-mounted lights sparked intermittently to give off their own weak light, and more reflected from the entrances around the farm's fields. The result was that, though barely, they could see enough to stumble forward in the dark. Around one bend and then two, and a third. Until, finally, he heard Ruby squeak excitedly.
"There it is, finally!" She shouted as she jogged forward, boots splashing up mud and water as she went towards the blue glow of the Relic down the hall.
Igniting his sword to light the way now that they didn't need the dark, he led the others after their faster comrade. As they reached her he caught movement in the corner of his eye and looked up along with the rest of his comrades. On instinct, one hand snapped out to grip her by the cloak and yank her back while the other snapped out to the side, the Bane crackling in his fist as the girl stumbled back and her team gasped their surprise. And their fear.
Dozens and dozens of Grimm like he'd never seen before had packed themselves into the base of the well like rinkahs when the small fish were salted and packed into their boxes. Like emaciated Humans with overly long arms and legs and sporadic, bony plates, the creatures turned to look at them as one. Long fingers and arms stretched out towards them and he stepped in, cutting through the air between them and severing fingers and hands that had ventured too close.
"Flee!" He barked, turning and shoving Ruby forward and away as the creatures hissed.
Leading the way they ran, more of the creatures emerging from broken holes as they fled back the way they'd come. They rounded one corner and came into the main path, the exit visible a dozen yards and more away. Though only just, through the spindly bodies of more of the emaciated Grimm. The path around to the well was full of them as well, and that left only one way that wasn't straight into the horde of strange, slow moving creatures. Turning, they fled up the other side of the two main tunnels, following along the right to avoid the lethargic creatures coming over from the other tunnel.
"I see a room over there! Like a basement, I- Ah!" He spun on a heel, sliding in the mud, and lunged. His fist closed around the creature clutching her hood's arm and the other, armed with the Bane's power, removed the limb.
As it staggered back and hissed in pain they continued on, rounding a corner into a little storage room a few more yards up. As above, where he suspected the bar was, the moderately large basement was full of crates, canned food and stored furniture. A single staircase led up to safety, and he let the children move towards it first, turning to watch the two exposed entrances with the blonde brawler beside him.
"It's locked!" The Schnee called out in a panic, all exhausted gone now that adrenaline and terror had flooded her systems. "Yang!"
"On it!" The blonde called as the creatures started to round the far corners, red eyes locking on them.
She made it to the stairs and he heard her go up four of them before the creature's eyes glowed, like coals stirred by a breath of air across them. With it came a staggering pressure that pushed him back a pace and to his knees, groaning. Beside him, the Faunus collapsed in a heap, robbed of all will while those behind her staggered and collapsed themselves. He heard Ruby moan out Blake's name as the creatures closed on her and rose, staggering forward and managing a weak, graceless flail to force them back before he sank to his knees beside her head. Through sheer force of will, he got a hand around her arm and snarled, turning and practically hurling the disabled Faunus a few inches back and away, leaving himself the closest target for the creatures.
"My will… Is my own, creatures!" He snarled, surging to his feet and slamming a fist into the nearest grimm's face, caving it in.
The next he carved in two with the Bane, stumbling forward and bowling down a third. It hissed and his hand closed around its neck, crushing it under his weight as he forced himself up and lashed out, cutting another down at the knees before falling onto his back. Forcing himself up he was met with glowing red eyes and green, warped faces that set a chill into his spine. Hissing, the red-eyed Floodlings reached for him, claw-tipped tendrils crawling towards him, and he panicked shamefully. Abandoning his sword he crawled back, eyes wide and feral.
A brief burst of light blinded him for a moment and, when he opened his eyes, the creature's were gone. Ash and smoke, and nothing more. Though he heard more sloshing around behind the walls and rose for it, retrieving his silenced relic-weapon and staggering towards the others. Blake, stunned but recovering, stumbled as she rose and he caught her by the arm, shoving her forward and turning his back to the door once more.
"What was that flash I saw? What happened? Where'd the Grimm go?" Maria called as the group recovered and Yang's feet continued another few steps up towards the door.
No one answered, though, as more of the dark creatures rounded the corner. Their eyes glowed once more, and this time even hotter, and the pressure returned. This time, he couldn't stay standing and buckled back and down, collapsing at Ruby's feet, the Bane flickering and dying as his grip slackened. Where terrifying and shocking him had failed, draining him utterly seemed to succeed better for their ends, and his consciousness failed him. Or rather, his sensation did, words faded to distant warbles and world draining of color as the creatures closed with him.
Another, this time far brighter, flash filled the room a heartbeat later. Like a sun blooming into being and burning away the dark of the Grimm, and the fog that they had forced onto them. Rising and once more taking up his weapon he looked around, seeing and hearing nothing but the distant sloshing of yet more Grimm further away. The heavy bang of wood cracking and exploding stole his attention, though, and he turned.
"Come on!" Yang called, stood at the top of the stairs and waving them up. Once her partner passed her by she was gone and he followed.
Up the stairs they found themselves in a small storage room he swiftly identified as the one from the main house. He could even see the bar through a door, the girls rushing through it and towards the front of the house. At least now they knew why it had been locked, he supposed as he followed them.
"Wait we can't leave yet!" Weiss suddenly snapped as Ruby led her to the exit, the Elite pausing as she grabbed full bottles of rich alcohol and hurled it away.
It smashed open on the ground and the drunken Huntsman surged to his feet drunkenly, swaying and barking an indignant, "Hey! What're you doing?!"
The Schnee didn't answer, though, instead grabbing more bottles to add to the pile of alcohol and then raising her weapon. Slashing her hand through the air she sent fire crackling out and into it. It caught and spread swiftly through dust, dried wood and even more of the alcohol stored in the room. As the Grimm came up the stairs they found only fire, which caught on them and spread down, into the storage room below.
"Now we can leave." The girl grunted simply, striding away while Ruby dragged her struggling, grunting and protesting uncle away.
A Grimm howled in pain and rage and his eyes widened in realization. Silent as the grave, he allowed himself to be dragged out now. And just as silent, he followed behind them. Outside, they found Oscar finishing bolting on the tire and began loading up onto the old cart he'd hooked up to Yang's motorcycle. It roared to life and they cruised away, leaving in their wake a cursed farmstead and a burning home to ghosts.
On the road he listened intently as Maria read from a journal she had taken from the home. At the last, she sighed and closed the book, "Foolishness… Using the Grimm to try and get an edge, utter foolishness."
"I have seen such before." More than once a fool had sought to use the Flood as weapons, he knew. And just as many times and more, he was sure, that had resulted in such wasteful destruction. Sighing, he shook his head, "Were I able, I would cleanse the entire farmstead with orbital plasma."
"That would destroy everything…"
"A lesson to ourselves and to all, to never make such a suicidal decision as that." He nodded to the young Faunus' quiet words, "And assurances that all the beasts were destroyed. I weep that we can not be certain of their annihilation."
"They're called the Apathy." Maria murmured as they rode, speaking only loud enough that they could hear her over the wind and engine. "Where other Grimm rip and tear at whoever they see, the Apathy terrify and drain their targets. Once their targets are too scared to fight back they drain them of their energy and move in. Or they do what they did to the Brunswicks, and simply… Drain away their will to go on, until nothing is left."
"Talk like you know 'em." Qrow grunted, the first words he'd said since they left the farms.
"I fought them once or twice, before I lost my eyes." She smiled, turning to watch the path behind them like she was contemplating something. For a quiet moment, she sat there, running a hand along her cane affectionately. "I used to be a pretty famous Huntress myself, back in the day. Before I lost my eyes to those bandits, people called me the 'Grimm Reaper' everywhere I went."
"Wait, you're… You're the Grimm Reaper?" Qrow laughed when she nodded, all fear and loathing gone as a childish smile crawled across his face. "I can't believe it! I-I modeled my fighting style after you- My weapon is based on yours! Ruby's, too, by extension."
"I noticed." The old woman chuckled, turning an eye on the young Huntress beside her and smiling lopsidedly. "Not the only thing you have that's similar to what I did." When Ruby's brows only furrowed, the girl shaking her head in slight confusion, the woman sighed, "Your eyes, girl. They're silver, and you have the Gift."
"The Gift…?"
"What you did on the farmstead, to eradicate those… Apathy." Thel offered, the old woman nodding at the question in his words.
"Exactly right, mister weird alien man." He blinked at the words but she only smiled and laughed, looking down at the book in her hand. Tapping the cover she smiled sadly, "I won't agree with you if you say the Brunswicks were bad folk, though. Desperate, to be sure, and pretty dumb to boot. But they weren't bad people…"
Suddenly, she straightened and pitched the book high over her shoulder and off the road, into the snow. The Arbiter watched it land before he asked, quietly, "Why would you do that? Now none will learn from his follies, and the family shall fade into nothingness."
"I don't think a man and his family should be remembered for something like that." She shrugged simply, "And besides, people are idiots."
"'I won't make the same mistakes they did' they'd say." Blake nodded, ears curled down against the wind. Feline ears, he supposed, would ache in this kind of wind. His own head was covered by his helmet and hood, though, so he faced no such problem. "'This time it'll work', and then another farmstead dies. Or worse. A village, or even a small frontier town, could die."
"I suppose…" His thoughts turned to the Storm Covenant and so many other factions, seeking to return to the ways of the Covenant. To many, a lesson in what not to do was more a lesson in what to do better. A shame, but, "A tragedy that their names shall be forgotten, but if you say it is for the best, I will trust your word."
"Now that that is settled…" Ruby scooted closer to Maria, smiling mischievously, "You said you had eyes like mine, so can you teach me how to control alt delete Grimm with my mind? Ow!"
"Not if you keep thinking about it like that I can't." Maria answered, cane coming back down from having bapped the girl on the head. "And not until we get to Argus, either. It's not safe out here, and I am tired."
"Well," Yang called over a shoulder, "Were here, so not a huge wait to be had."
The Arbiter could only sigh and let his head hang back, glad to be back out of the wild. If these kinds of creatures were the kind the Humans of this world faced every day, he knew he had to bring them help. The Apathy and their kind were dangerous, to be sure, but orbital bombardment solved all of life's problems.
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