RWBY Through Worlds

199: Lost All Feeling

Emerald and Mercury lost Vara along the way when she suddenly stopped following them and took off on her own.

She ignored their cries for her to come back.

They tried to run after her, but they not only did not catch her, they also lost track of where they'd left Jaune.

"Oh no," Emerald said.

The plant things snapped at them, but Mercury was able to fry several.

"You're getting good at that," Emerald noted. "I thought it would take longer."

"Used to focusing on one thing," Mercury muttered, sounding stressed. "Guess it was just finding the right thing."

[It actually makes sense that, with the hell his dad put him through, he'd have to be mentally tough enough to keep fighting back no matter what distraction was around, so switching gears to the Silver Eyes mindset was the hard part for him, not maintaining it. Ruby was a much less focused character initially, so it took her longer. It would be reasonable that not all Silver-Eyed Warriors are the same.]

"We're lost," Emerald said after a pause.

"Yeah... I'm going to get a higher vantage point," Mercury said. "Grimm be d----d, I'm sick of wandering around."

"Just watch your back then. They're still up there." Emerald held up her Thieves' Respite.

"Like I need to worry about Grimm." Mercury tried to play it off cool. He climbed onto one of the rocks.

Emerald tried to watch the sky line behind him.

She forgot to watch her back.

Suddenly something or someone grabbed her around her mouth so that she couldn't scream and yanked her behind the reflective rocks.

Emerald thought it was one of the team who'd lost their minds under the Grimm, but instead it was so much worse.

Tyrian shoved her into the rock and put the end of his tail on her windpipe so that she could hardly breathe.

"Shh." He held up his finger to his lips. "Not the time for screaming just yet."

What was he doing here? Emerald thought frantically. Why wasn't he with Salem?

Unless she sent him... She must have... to kill someone.

Why hadn't he just poisoned her then?

Then she knew.

"Em?" Mercury's voice called. "Where did you go?"

She heard him jump down. The rock edge must have hidden them from view while he was up there.

"Oh, lookee there. Your guardian is never far away, is he?" Tyrian sounded much too happy.

Emerald attempted an illusion of a Grimm jumping at him.

Tyrian didn't release her when he took a swing at it, and then he knew it was a trick.

He pushed Emerald harder.

"Very clever, girl, but sadly that's not going to save you," he leered. "I've waited a long time to punish you naughty children for disobeying our goddess... She did say only one, but I really doubt she'd care if I did a little pro bono work." [Never use that phrase that way, Callows.]

"Hey!" Mercury came around the corner and saw them.

He held up his foot. "Let her go, freak!"

"Oh my, if it isn't the other traitor." Tyrian did not let Emerald go. "Fancy meeting both of you here. I'd almost be disappointed you're walking right towards us. But I'm too delighted to care."