The Bloody Rose

II: Freedom

Over the next few days, Ruby and her fellow slaves planned their rebellion against their World Eater masters, they made makeshift shivs, they observed the patterns of the World Eater's, they convinced the other slaves to join them, and they plotted, plotted their freedom.

The call from Crescent Rose was becoming louder and louder, soon. It thundered in her mind, and Ruby had to fight her body every time she heard the call of her weapon. 'Claim me, rescue me, kill these World Eaters and lead the slaves to slaughter in Khorne's name, take the power that is yours by right! CLAIM ME!' The call of Crescent Rose screamed in her mind, it's voice deep and demonic. As Ruby shook off Crescent Rose's latest attempt to summon her, Ruby realised something, the whisper's were always loudest near the armoury of the gladiator pit! They were keeping her scythe for the gladiator pits, for those other than HER to wield her weapon!

But today. Oh today...today they were going to fight for their freedom, their masters would bleed, they would become FREE! 'One last rival, and then our slaughter will begin.' The thought crossed through Ruby's mind as she walked into the pits. Her chain-sword rumbled idly in her hand, her plan was simple. She had another rival, who believed himself to be her better, she would prove him wrong and kill him. His death would be the signal to her followers to rise up, her followers who numbered just over two thousand, and the World Eaters would die to their blades.

As the blinding light of the pit temporarily blinded her, she entered the pit to whoops, cheers and the occasional boo's of her World Eater 'masters'. Oh how she wanted to gut them...but even as the thought crossed her mind, did she shake the idea from her mind, but she kept the anger, she would use the anger against her rival. As her sight quickly returned to her, she spotted her rival. A former guardsman called Rackam, he stood there, arms crossed across his worn and tattered flack jacket, still wearing the colours of his old regiment with a cocksure smile on his face, he mocked her! Anger burned red hot throughout her body as she watched his cocky form, one of his scarred arms reaching out behind him and pulling out a rectangular box of red and black. CRESCENT ROSE!

"That...is my WEAPON!" Ruby roared in anger, unknowingly quoting the clone of Horus Lupercal, and with such anger and emotion that the World Eaters cheered. Rackam simply smiled cockily, his voice hoarse with age and experience. "So I have heard, but now it is mine, and with your death, it will be loyal to me and no one else!" His smile was a mixture of cockiness and bloodthirstiness  as he unfurled Crescent Rose into its scythe mode, it's blade had been replaced by a chain blade that rumbled almost reluctantly, the box magazine was missing, replaced by a chain of dangling bullets, far larger than the fifty cal. bullets that it was originally chambered in, and Khornate runes glowed a bloody red across the weapons surface with a seemingly sinister sentience.

With a roar that promised untold pain and a slow death, Ruby charged Rackam, bringing her chain-sword down in a diagonal slash. Rackam simply side stepped away and swung Crescent Rose at Ruby's midriff. As the scythe carved through the air, the motorised teeth suddenly ground to a halt as Ruby barely dodged the strike with a roll, she quickly got to her feet and dived for Rackam, her chain-sword howling for blood like a wolf on the hunt. Rackam was dumbstruck by Crescent Rose's malfunction and had barely blocked Ruby's next attack. "No wonder the World Eaters took your weapon, it's broken even worse than their own minds!" He grunted as he pushed against Ruby, trying to gain some distance.

For a few brief moments, Ruby stood still as she processed her rival's words before leaping at him with wild abandon, a snarl on her lips. Her next slash was wild and Rackam barely dodged in time, and the second strike, all the way to the fifth strike where Ruby left a cut on his arm before she was kicked away. As Rackam panted heavily, trying to grab fresh air, he looked up at his opponent, and his eyes widened as a meteor of rose petals slammed into him, causing his grip on Crescent Rose to fail. The demonic scythe hit the ground with a metallic clang! And Rackam was slammed against the wall of the pit, spit and blood dripping from his mouth.

Ruby watched the twitching, but still breathing body of Rackam for a few moments before turning towards Crescent Rose and picking up her weapon. The moment her hands wrapped around the hilt of her scythe, a echoing laughter filled her mind. 'YES! FINALLY! We are whole once more! Now, use me to kill Rackam and earn our freedom!' As Crescent Rose's words echoed through Ruby's mind, a chuckle slipped through her lips, that chuckle quickly devolved into maniacal laughter. As laughter continued escaping her lips, Ruby made her way towards Rackam, Crescent Rose's chain blade purring like a kitten as she toggled the motor on and off with twitching fingers. Rackam was desperately clawing away from her, only for a CRACK! To sound across the pit and his hand to explode from the mass reactive bolt rounds that Crescent Rose was now chambered in.

Rackam howled in pain as he grabbed the bloody stump where his hand used to be, only for Ruby to roll him onto his back, looking up into her maddened, silver eyes. "Mercy, please" He croaked out as he fought against the pain. "Sanguis Extremis, to the death." Ruby replied coldly, her voice clearly fighting off madness as she raised Crescent Rose and decapitated Rackam. Watching his blood stain the floor, Ruby knelt down and picked his severed head up, holding it up high for all to see. "BLOOD! FOR THE BLOOD GOD!" She roared out through panting breaths before dropping the head of Rackam and shooting a cheering World Eater in his unarmored head, killing him instantly. In that moment, pandemonium erupted. Slaves broke into the arena, wielding stolen auto-guns, bolt-pistols and chain-weapons, and fired into the World Eaters with concentrated fire on their heads. Many shots went wide, but the ones that did soon felled the World Eaters.

Time seemed to speed up for Ruby, one minute they were killing the World Eaters for their freedom, the next, about twenty World Eaters were charging them, planning to kill them to silence the Butcher's Nails lodged inside their heads. Ruby watched coldly as her fellow slaves died in droves, but a part that would've  unnerved the old Ruby Rose, was that they died with a bloodthirsty smile on their face, they died free. Ruby dodged, slashed and shot any World Eater who got close to her, the fight seemed to last for hours, when in actuality it only lasted twelve minutes. Out of the original thousand slaves who fought against the World Eater's for freedom and revenge, only a hundred remained, blood soaked and bruised, but alive and free.

Of their 'masters', only ten remained, the nails had turned them into feral beasts, the thought of putting them out of their misery had crossed Ruby's mind, but she had a better idea, her men would use them as heavy hitters, one to a squad. For the World Eaters, this was a insult far worse than anything they could imagine, they were stripped of their armour. They became the dishonoured, forced to serve the mortals they once commanded, and for a killer of the twelfth legion, it was a mark, they could never escape.

As they gathered everything, all the weapons, all the supplies, Ruby went through the pit, looking for something, before kneeling down and picking up Rackam's severed head, a cruel smile graced her face as she ripped out his eyeballs and made a hole between the eye sockets. With great care, a thread of brass went through the hole, and Ruby tied the head to her belt, he had angered her, and now, he would be by her side as she made her mark.

As she made her way back to her men, she saw them using the blood of the dead to mark themselves with the sigil of Khorne, on their arms, on their heads, they marked where they could, Khorne had blessed them, given them strength to defeat the World Eaters, they were his warriors now. A voice, deep and ethereal suddenly echoed across the room. "Ruby Rose of Patch, daughter of Remnant, we have a proposition for you." A being of pure golden light spoke, standing next to a man of pure darkness, looking bored and annoyed that they were her.