We Are Eternal

Chapter 5: Familientreffen

Yang was about to land on a Grimm fist first, when a large purple inky wave burst past her and she watched as the Grimm instantly dissolved into nothingness. She quickly turned into a roll instead to save momentum. She rolled across the ground before turning back towards the Grimm, her feet skidding across the ground. It was long gone by then but she had to be sure.

She stood up properly to notice the woods had changed. Gone were the green leaves and light brown bark. Now, the trees were bare, the bark darkened to a dark brown. The trees had seemed to grow taller, far taller than they should have been. The sky, once a nice sunny blue, was now an stormy gray, threatening to drop rain upon her yellow mane, currently tied into her pigtails on either side of her head. She looked behind her. There, in the red wagon, slept Ruby. Good she's still...

"Wait but, she's-" Yang was interrupted with the sound of a growl interrupted her. She turned around to see a large Alpha Beowulf. It was quite larger than her, standing several feet above her. She looked to her small hands, far too weak to defeat the...

Her vision for just a moment changed as her hands shifted from the weak soft hands to slightly larger hands, callused and stronger, with yellow bracers with shotgun shells. They then shifted back before she looked back up at the Grimm.

Her legs were on fire. She could barely stand. How long had she walked? An hour? Two? It felt like so long ago. The Beowulf's claw stretched back, readying for a strike. She shrunk way, bracing for the hit.

It never came. She opened her eyes to see a man, about a foot shorter than the Beowulf. In his hands, blocking the swipe, was a large blade, seemingly more a slab of metal with an edge than a blade. He pushed the Beowulf off before a single swing cut it in half. The man turned to Yang, his face now revealed. His red eyes looked with concern to Ruby, his salt and pepper hair slightly disheveled from searching. His gaze hardened as it turned to Yang herself.

"Do you know what the hell you almost did?" The man's grizzly voice interrogated. "If I weren't here, you'd both be dead." He said. Yang looked to the ground.

"We all know you only wanted to save Ruby." A voice said from behind Yang. She turned to see a woman that looked similar to Yang, but with red eyes and black hair. "If Yang had left her, she'd have been left to die."

"Of course," The man said. "I couldn't just leave her. Yang's weak. Too weak to survive. She might as well die now." The man said to the woman. Yang balled up into the fetal position and put her fists on her ears as she started crying. "Oh god, now it's crying."

"Now, you see why I left?"

"I have half a mind to leave the useless bitch here myself.." The man said. Yang tried desperately to block out the sound as she started sobbing out words.

"Stop stop stop stop stop.... Stop..."

The forest stilled and she noticed they had gone quiet. She opened her eyes to see the bleak forest once more. She looked behind her as she walked forward, dragging the red wagon in which Ruby slept.

She had to keep walking.
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"What the fuck?" Marchand said to Castigar, shock apparent in his voice. Castigar gave a crisp and undeniably false smile.

"Indeed. You never were as elegant as the others. I guess that's why they sent you here. To lord over this broken land." He said, mocking him, his own brother.

"Stop it." Marchand spat out quickly. How dare he disrespect him so. They were all like this to the younger ones. No respect, despite their duties and titles.

Gods in name and power only. Not respect.

"What? Are you gonna have another tantrum?" Castigar mocked as Marchand gripped his weapon tight. "Come on, you coward! Speak your mind, as silly as it is!"

"Stop it!" Marchand spat out once more as he scowled at the man in front of him. "I'm being punished enough for my actions!"

"And so you'll be punished more! Like the maggot you are!"

"STOP!" Marchand yelled, thrusting his cane forward. Except his cane was not there. In its place was a sword. A sword he cast out long ago. Crocea Mors. It tore through Castigar's flesh, through his stomach and out the back, sheathing it in glowing crimson. As he realized what he'd done, Marchand tried to release his grasp from the blade. He quickly found himself unable to release it from his hand, try as he might. He pulled the blade out from Castigar. "I'm sorry." Marchand said as he looked his brother in the eyes. "I'm so sorry." He said right before he thrusted the blade into his brother's torso once more. He pulled the blade once more as he went to the Woman behind and to the left of Castigar.

He immediately recognized her as the Goddess of Shadows, Schatten. He remembered her teaching him how to move through shadows, how to be unseen in darkness, he remembered her smiling at him as he hid past multiple gods who were unaware of his presence. He brought his blade back as his other hand gripped her black hair and raised her head up softly, as gently as he possibly could, as she smiled at him, telling him to do what he believed needed to be done.

"I'm so sorry." He said as he brought blade down through her neck, decapitating her cleanly with a rush of glowing crimson. The kind of crimson that stained the soul. He looked at her decapitated head as it was eternally kindly smiling at him. The man next to him scowled at Marchand.

"Heh, sorry..." The man scoffed. "A murderer like you? To think I called you a brother." The man said. Marchand was about to object when a bolt of pain flashed through him, quickly replaced by a surge of strength. Looking back, he saw Castigar's pale corpse, too pale for a corpse at this time. Looking to Schatten, he saw her paling as her essence, her soul, leaked out of her body and rose to a amorphous ball, constantly shifting and swirling in on itself. It was black and inky. Suddenly, it surged forward, slamming into him.
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Ruby was running through the forest when the wave of celestial energy hit her. She fell back to the ground with her eyes closed as she groaned. Opening her eyes, she came face to face with Silver eyes.

"Agh!" She yelped as she used her semblance to scurry off to a nearby tree. She looked back to see a woman, clad in what appeared to be a dark green dress made of vine and leaves that went to slightly above her ankles. Necklaces made of herbs and plant were around her neck and around her wrists were bracelets with what appeared to be berries naturally growing from them. Protruding from the forehead was a pair of Antlers. She had long black hair flowing down her shoulders. She was about a foot taller than Ruby, about Yang's height. She seemed taken aback in shock at Ruby's action.

"Oh," The woman said, as she began to ramble. "Did I frighten you? Sorry, i'm not really good at speaking to mo- people and you are a person. It'd be a bit weird if you weren't a person wouldn't it? Just me rambling to an animal? It'd be easier though..." She said all in one breath, looking towards the ground, as Ruby just stared.

"You have silver eyes..." Ruby said, cutting off the rambles. The woman looked up and saw Ruby's eyes.

"So do you..." She said before smiling. "Hold on..." She said before speaking in a language Ruby had never heard before. She was about say something about how she can't understand it when she started being able to tell what she was saying.

"And those who are with the blood of the gods will know their tongue and shall gain strength and features of the gods." The woman spoke in strange yet, familiar tongue.

"Wait, gods?" Ruby asked, confused.

"Yes, you are a child of gods." The woman said with a smile.

"No, my parents are human. My mom is dead! They aren't gods..." Ruby said.

"What are they're names?"

"Wh-what?"

"Your parents. What're they're names?"

Hesitating, Ruby spoke, "My dad's name is Taiyang Xiao Long," She said, the words of her dad's name feeling strange on her tongue. When the woman told her to continue, she hesitantly did. "My mother's name was... is... Summer Rose..." Instantly, saddened recognition came across her face.

"Little Sunshine... That's what i used to call her, your mother." She said as she looked to the floor.

"You knew my mother?" Ruby said, confused. The woman laughed and smiled, looking back to Ruby.

"Yes... She is my daughter after all."
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