RWBY Through Worlds

163: Streets Filled With Blood

[So this will be the first of 3-5 planned finale arcs, I'm splitting it into slices. It's also clear that I will have to start another book file because I can't ever write a full fic in 200 chapters. I plan to use the same cover and title though, it'll just be the last arcs that will be in the overlap, so look for that on my homepage.]

Victoria took a lot longer than anyone wanted her to to gather a lot of odds and ends in her shop--didn't help that they found more Apathy outside it, but she made short work of them with some help from Ruby.

Ruby and Oscar had been real quiet about Victoria, even when they had caught up with the others outside the tunnels, they just seemed to accept that everyone was stuck together for this.

But Victoria had simmered down slightly, the dust potion had worn off now, and she seemed to return to whatever sliver of sanity you could claim she possessed.

She was more bearable that way though, because she spoke more normally about the problem.

"So your friends are waiting at the Oasis," she said. "And this is the 10th plague according to them?"

"That's right," Oscar confirmed. "After this, there's no more, but Salem won't stop. She must either think this would finish us off, or, she'll start something else."

"Hmm," Victoria went to a safe and opened it. "I meant to come back for this stuff after I moved, but you didn't give me the time...just as well now, it would have been destroyed. It's not enough to really rebuild with, but..."

She pulled out some ancient looking books in carefully sealed plastic packaging.

"Those have to be centuries old!" Ozpin exclaimed inside Oscar's head.

"Are those hundreds of years old?" Oscar asked aloud.

"Hmm, I didn't expect you to know--" Victoria paused. "Right, you're Ozpin's current meat suit, aren't you?"

"Don't call him that!"  Ruby said.

"Especially since it's gross," Jaune looked nauseated.

"Fine, human mech," Victoria was apparently determined to be a jerk to Ozpin. "Honestly, you're pretty cute for the b-----d that left this whole mess, it's a shame."

"Mother!" Kip cried.

"Well, maybe old Ozpin recognizes this," Victoria held up one of the books, the script the title was written in was very old looking, but Ozpin could decipher it.

"Ah, I know that, it's a collection of legends about rare grimm," he said. "A friend of mine actually compiled it, a long time ago. They were a bit like Mrs. Kanap here--less on the crazy side though."

"Good to know," Oscar muttered. "He says a friend of his wrote it, about grimm."

"Oh, he does get around," Victoria sat on one of her benches and lit a candle, putting her scroll away. "There's a chapter on Apathy here, but there's a whole section--badly organized, no standard formation was used at the time-- but on what they called grimm of the mind. Ones that aren't strong, but they lure you in. Oh, of course, most of them were just considered myths or legends, but I never discounted it."

"You never let me read that," Kip said.

"Because little boys don't handle priceless manuscripts about demons," Victoria said firmly. "And why is that?"

"They're delicate..." Kip grumbled like a five year old.

"Is there something that could help us?" Jaune just wanted to get back to the others, honestly.