RWBY: The Hidden Grimm Book 2

Chapter #7 Payback

I wake on the couch with Elaina curled up on my chest. I hear a camera to my left and see Ruby with her scroll poking out from behind the couch. "Haha, Ruby I can see you. You don't need to hide so that you can take pictures of me and Elaina." I say as Elaina wakes up with a yawn. "It's just sooooo cute." Ruby quietly squeals. I chuckle as I get off of the couch and stretch. "You were never one for waking up early, let me guess reading comics all night." I say with a raised eyebrow as Elaina climbs up to my neck. "No.....yes." She says as she pouts. "Haha, well since we're up you want some coffee?" I ask as I walk into the kitchen. "Bleh." She says as she recoils. "I'll put lots of sugar in." I say as I reach for a mug. Ruby speeds over in a ball of rose pedals and bounces up and down with a mug in her hands. I laugh and make our coffees making sure to make a small one for Elaina as well. "Can she even drink coffee?" Ruby asks as we sit down. "Yeah she can have a little bit, her previous owner ran a coffee shop so she would get a small cup of it every day." I explain as I take a sip. "That reminds me how did you get her in the first place." Ruby asks as she takes a sip of her coffee. "I knew her owner personally so she was used to me. she was killed before the attack on Beacon and I took her in." I explain as I pet Elaina. "That's awful." Ruby says as she puts her coffee on the table. "Maybe but if it wasn't for her I wouldn't be here after everything that happened." I say as Elaina gets back up on my neck. "You don't mean-" "Yes I do, I can't tell you the number of times I looked the barrel of this thing." I say as I pull out Deaths Finger. "Big B you know if you need to talk about it we're here for you." Ruby says. "I appreciate it Ruby but those thoughts have been gone for a while now." I say as I finish my coffee. "Well, that's good I've lost enough people in my life. Hey Big B is it okay if I ask you something?" Ruby asks. "Sure shoot." I say as I bring my mug to the kitchen. "Why did you let them die." She says in a dead voice. "Care to run that by m-" I turn and see Ruby with my dead teammates behind her with black life-less eyes. " Why did you let us die." They all say in unison. They repeat this multiple times as they slowly walk towards me. Grimm-like hands rise from the ground and grab my legs as they drag me down into the ground. Once my head goes under I wake in a cold sweat and scare the life out of Elaina as she gets launched across the room. 

"Oh, for fuck sake will you make up your mind already." I say as I get off the couch and grip my head. "Bad dream?" Qrow asks from the seat next to me. "Something like that." I say as I walk to the kitchen. "Ruby told me about your teammates, your dream had something to do with them didn't it." Qrow says as he follows me. "Yeah, one minute it's a pretty normal dream and then the next minute everything goes ape shit and I'm being dragged to hell." I explain. "Yeah, that sounds about right. Let me guess you see them even when you're awake too, either off in the corner of your eye or right in front of you?" Qrow says as he makes a cup of coffee. As he takes a sip I see Angel standing behind him but quickly disappear as he finishes his sip. "Yep. Right on the money." I say as move my gaze back to him. "It means you blame yourself. It happens to a lot of huntsmen and just fighters in general. Especially since you were the leader, trust me I've had some of my own ghosts over the years." Qrow explains. "Have any advice then?" I ask. "Nope. Every time is different so it's more or less up to you to figure it out." Qrow explains. "Great." I say as I roll my eyes and check my scroll. I check the time and my eyes nearly pop out of my head. "5 P.M. what the hell! I knew I was tired but damn." I yell as Qrow sits back down. "Yeah, you were out. Heck Nora tried waking you up but you just slept through it. When was the last time you fell asleep?" Qrow asked. "3 days ago if I remember correctly." I say as I scratch my head. "Yep, that sounds about right. So if you don't mind my asking what's your plan from here?" Qrow asks. "Well I do plan on heading to Atlas to meet up with a contact I have up there but first I need to take care of something here, as well as get me a ride over to Atlas in the first place." I explain as I grab all of my gear. "That something you need to do requires your weapons?" Qrow asks with a raised eyebrow. "Yep, tell the others I said goodbye and that I hope to see them again." I say as I open the front door. "Happy trails kid and do me a favor and don't get yourself killed out there." Qrow says from his seat.

I track down the Woodsman and find his camp set up not too far out from Mistrial. But what I wasn't prepared for was that he had set up camp on the ruins of my old home. "Well doesn't this place bring back memories." Aaron says.  "Yeah...I got an idea." I say as I run into the forest. I run all the way back to where it all began. "Try not to fall this time." Aaron says as I stand over the ravine. I bring out my claws and boot blades and climb down to the bottom where I find a small puddle of Grimm still here. "Let's hope this works." I say as I lower my hand into the puddle. The puddle lights up red and pulses as my hand gets closer. The puddle latches onto my hand and crawls up my arm and into the back of my head giving me the adrenaline rush of a lifetime. "OH, THAT'S, THAT GOOD SHIT!" I yell as all my senses get cranked up to eleven. "Hot damn even I felt that. I feel better but not quite a hundred percent." Aaron says as he pops out. "Hey, your out and about again." I say as Aaron looks at his body. "Oh thank the gods it was so boring in there." Aaron says as he flys around. "Gee thanks." I say sarcastically. "I think it came from over here!" A voice yells from the top of the ravine. "Time to get to work boss." Aaron says with a massive grin on his face. I climb back up the ravine and find two armed goons with backs turned. I sneak behind the two guards and knock them out by smashing their heads together. "Okay now for what we came here for." I say as I walk back into the ruins of Artemis. "COME ON YOU MAGGOTS WORK FASTER!" The Woodsman below as he patrols town square. An explosion goes off in the distance and one of his men lands at his feet as a burnt corpse.  "What in the-" More explosions happen around the camp until The woodsman lays his eyes on me as I walk through a wall of fire. "Hello, asshole like your new digs or should I say my old digs." I say as I draw death's finger. "You again? What you really want to die that bad huh, well come on then let's skip to the good part." He says as he draws his weapon and charges me. I slide under him as he swings and climbs up his back. "Let's not repeat last time, shall we." I say as I launch off of him and fire all six shots into his back which sends him to the ground." I reload Death's Finger and holster it. The Woodsman gets off the ground and grabs his great axe. "Why you little-" I punch him in the face which sends him back to the ground. he tries to get up again nut I smash his head back into the ground repeatedly with my foot. I morph into my beast form, pick him up and throw him into a building. "Ugh, I don't remember you being that strong the last time we-" He stop talking as the dust settles and he sees me in my best form walking towards him with red glowing eyes. "Aw, what's wrong Grimm got your tongue HAHAHA. Oh, that's just precious. What happened to the Titan of a man that was so confident a second ago." I laugh as I stomp towards him. "On your right!" Aaron yells as a bullet hits my shoulder. Right before it makes impact bone-like armor emerges out of my skin and block the bullet. "That's new" I say as I look at my shoulder before getting punched in the face by the woodsman. I get sent back ten feet and land on my back. "Oh, that one hurt." I mumble as I snap my jaw back into place after returning to my human form. "Wait why am I human again? I ask as I pull out my axe. "Sorry boss that was all I had for now." Aaron says as his voice gradually sounds more tired. Before I can say anything else a bullet wises past my head. "Right fight now talk later." say as I run for cover. "Aaron where is that sniper." I ask as I find a vantage point thanks to all the smoke. "Just to your left in the trees." He says as I look down my scope. "Got him." I say as I pull the trigger and see a body fall out of the tree. "Correction I got YOU!" The woodsman yells as he grabs me through the wall. Now constricted in his grasp I struggle as he tightens his grip on me. "Now I-" I activate my claws and cut through his hand and slip out. "ARRRRG Your gonna pay for that you damn hellspawn." he says as he looks at his hand. "We'll see about that." I say as I put plant dust crystals in my claws and plunge them into the ground. I pull them out and now have whip-like vines on each claw. The huntsman grabs his weapon and charges me again but I whip him back every time. In a rage-filled attempt, he throws his axe at me but I wrap the vines around the handle and swing it back to him, and cut him open from the bottom of his gut to the tip of his chin. 

As the huntsman corpse falls to the ground the vines die and fall off of my claws. "Now for the fire." I say as I grab ice dust crystals and throw them into the air. I draw eath's finger and shot all of them in the air to create an explosion of ice that would put out the fire. "Damn what a day." I say as I holster my gun and wipe my forehead. "So what now boss man." Aaron says. "Now we find ourselves a ride to the freezing frontier." I say as I put my hat back on. "Atlas huh well what's the plan from there?" Aaron asks. "We take a boat to hell's doorstep and get you back up and running. Past that it's either be a huntsman or hunt the fang again." I say as a grin appears on my face. "We're becoming a huntsman anyway arent we." Aaron says. "Yep." I say as I see Mistral ships fly over head.