Eclipse - Act 4 - Cycle's End

Chapter 20 - Fugitives

"It's true. When I killed Hazel, it haunted me for a long time." Nora admitted, staring at the blade of Stormur Skeggox, which she used to cleave his head from his shoulders.

"I think the only one of us who never had any regrets... would be us." Weiss said, looking at Blake and Yang.

"Who did you kill?" Oriana asked.

"Tyrian Callows. After what he did to us... and what we now know... did to the Deacon? He deserved everything he got, because unlike the others, everything he did was out of enjoyment. He relished in hurting people, killing... he was nothing more than a serial killer." Blake answered, her hand slowly clenching into a fist. "But it didn't change anything."

Jaune looked over at them all as they spoke, sitting upright and rolling his now healed shoulder and side.

"I know the stories make it sound black and white most of the time, heroes vs. villains. But it was never that simple. Killian was a man who was pushed to the edge and lost his mind. Watts was a vengeful and prideful man who wanted knowledge at any cost. Revenge blinded Hazel. Icarus lost his mind through his pursuit of revenge. And Salem was in love, lost the one she loved, and couldn't let go. Wound up cursed, and it transformed her into a monster." Ruby explained, looking at the blade of Crescent Rose.

She wanted to mention the Branwens and what happened, but despite moving on from all that... that was too dark a story to tell someone so young. At least with Salem, that was all documented history.

"I'm sorry for asking." Misty apologised.

"Hey it's okay, honey. It's just sometimes that's a hard question to answer. But the coolest Grimm I ever killed? Easily the Leviathan." Ruby shrugged with a smirk.

"Oh, here we go." Yang groaned, rolling her lilac eyes.

"Wait huh?" Misty asked.

"Well... I was a bit of a badass back in my day, y'know? So to buy everyone time, and really annoy Salem, I attacked a Leviathan on my own in the Argus Harbour. Took out the eyes, then its heels, then slashed its neck to pieces. Was so cool." Ruby recounted, resting her head on top of her precious Crescent Rose.

"Totally not flexing, are you, sis?" Yang sarcastically asked.

"I would never!" Ruby sarcastically replied.

Ori and Misty giggled. "Pfft, please. Nowhere near as awesome as this guy killing the Nuckelavee in the Summit's Claim." Nora recounted, but Ren just shook his head.

"Team effort." He reminded, since it was he, Nora and Li who took the beast down.

"Okay, what about creepiest Grimm?" Oriana asked.

"Apathy. Easily. Still get shivers whenever I think of those freaky things." Pyrrha answered swiftly.

"Oh, gods, I forgot about them." Jaune groaned.

"Widow's Tear was a weird one, little spider spinning webs that spread hallucinations." Ruby remembered, making Nora, Ren, and Yang shudder.

"Oh, and who can forget the Abductors? Gods... those things " Ruby groaned, making them all groan.

"I've read about them. They could wipe your memory, right?" Ori inquired.

"As soon as you looked away, so you had to make sure you could see them at all times. They were the ones responsible for making the Hounds, like the one that you've met. No doubt its host was a victim of an Abductor years ago." Ruby explained, making Oriana shudder.

"There were so many spooky things out there, I mean, how about the–"

Before Yang could finish, they all heard Dutch's terminal start blaring an alarm, getting all of their attention. The carefree tone of the room instantly shifted to a serious concern, and Ruby dashed across the room, leaving a trail of red petals behind her, and she opened the holographic screen. "Uh oh... that's not good..." Ruby said with wide silver eyes, seeing live footage of Legion Forces driving across the road towards their location, setting off the motion sensors.