The Knights of Grimm - Act 2 - Captured

Chapter 28 - Closure

Ruby

"Ruuuubyyyy?" Roman's voice coos as her eyes begin to open again, stunned with a black eye from her injury. As her eyes begin to focus, she sees him crouching down beside her, waving his gloved hand across her face with a grin on his face, the orange hair covering one eye. "Ruuuuuuuuubyyyyyyy?" He repeats, still in a calm voice. He looks her right in the eyes. "Can you hear me – Red?" He asks her with a smile. He then stands up sharply, shrugging his shoulders forcefully as he rises upwards. "Oh, come on, Red! You know it's me!" Roman scoffs like an impatient child and Ruby looks at him with pure disbelief, backing up against the wall. She looks around, and her heart sinks when she realises.

She is back in the cell.

She was so close.

"Torchwick? But you're – you're dead..." She stammers.

"Indeed I am." Roman says as he walks around the cell with her, swinging his cane through his finger as he walks around. "At least physically I am dead, no thanks to you. Really surprised me – that damn Griffin eating me like that. But you must have known that this day would come – me stuck in your head!" He giggles as he sits down beside her, taking his hat off and flicking his dust off.

Fear...he has planted the soul of Roman Torchwick in her mind. "Pretty ironic, you know. How it started with you and me, and now it's definitely gonna end this way." He says as he rises up again, looking at the cells. Ruby looks at him as he approaches the bars that block her freedom. "So how are we getting out of this place then, huh?" He asks her, putting his hands on his hips as he looks out.

"What?" Ruby stammers as she sits up, looking at him.

"Well, with you being my body, I think we have to work together now. We can give the world a better Ruby, a harder Ruby, a darker, more –" He stops and looks at her, covering his mouth before he goes any further, probably some scheme plotted in his spectral head. Ruby can hear the faint sounds of his mad laughter during his presence. "Well, we can get back to that later. So first let's agree on some ground rules – you need to stay alive so then I stay alive as well. We need out of this place Red, and with beloved Oscar freed, how are we getting out? I highly doubt poor Tyrian is gonna be an option after what you did, perhaps Hazel?" He suggests as he paces back and forth, thinking of ideas, just like what she is doing right now. "If being a thief has taught me anything, it's that there are two important factors of life. Finding an escape route, and keeping yourself alive." He explains. "You really need to start looking out for yourself, Red." He says as he grabs the metal bars, looking out the cells.

Roman then turns and looks at the bruised girl. "Besides – you're brooding for two now." He says, entering a hysterical fit of giggling where he stands. Ruby looks around, feeling the throbbing pain on her eye where she has been punched, probably by Fear, using Roman as a smokescreen to knock her out. She has a few cuts on her face as well, but she has no other options at the moment.

When she looks back at Torchwick.

He's gone.

She sighs, pressing her back to the wall and sliding down to the floor, closing her eye.

Like Oscar, their souls have become combined.

Of all the people...it was him.

She hears the faint sound of someone approaching, alongside the pained clicking rasps of some kind of creature. Ruby sees her shadow, her spider-like hair spread out around her head. And then she emerges, for the first time she is actually speaking with her personally. Salem has her hands behind her back and her glowing red eyes look at the single silver eye. Ruby looks away, down at the floor and Salem sighs, standing her ground and she crosses her arms. "You are the most difficult prisoner I have ever met." Salem says, almost like she admires the girl. Ruby scoffs, staring at her.