09: An Echo, A Stain
Enkida
Full Cyborg
- Location
- Germany
Ruby took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "I think I'm ready to go now." She glanced at Torchwick, who was unresponsive. "Torchwick?"
He was… sleeping.
Her brow ticked. What's with this guy? He all but had a nervous breakdown right in front of her, and now he was comfortable enough to nap? "You need some serious therapy," she muttered. She felt a little guilty as she reached out for him; it was the first time she'd seen him sleeping well. Of course, no matter how peaceful he looked, falling asleep in the middle of Exsul was probably not the brightest of ideas. This is for the best. She shook his shoulder firmly.
His visible eye flew open and she scrambled backwards in surprise. "Whoa! Not sleeping, okay!"
"Therapy?" His visible eye narrowed.
Her nervous laugh was thin and high even to her own ears. "Ah, well, I mean, I'm ready now, so let's go?"
He sat up reluctantly, making a show of stretching and yawning.
Weird… he was in such a hurry before, but now it was almost as if he didn't want to leave. "How's your headache?" she asked.
"Better for now." Reaching into the bag, he pulled out the flashlight and handed it to her. "You're going to need this. It's dark out."
She accepted it, trying not to stare, and attached it to her belt. "Umm… are you sure you're okay?"
He didn't answer her right away. "I don't know." Then he groaned and rolled to his feet. "Not that it makes a difference. It's time to wake up and get moving. If we stop..."
"... we die," she agreed. No matter how strange he was acting, at least they were on the same page there.
The forest was black as ink. Even with the light attached to her belt, Ruby felt apprehensive. Every sound seemed amplified by the impenetrable darkness around them. "I'm not sure I can fight like this," she said, trying to keep her grip on her rifle loose and ready.
Torchwick passed her, his eyes a pair of glowing, disembodied lanterns in the dark. "I'll take the lead this time. You've done enough."
He's going all funny again, she thought, but kept her doubts to herself. If whatever crisis Torchwick was having resulted in less sniping or, heaven forbid, him being nice to her, she'd wasn't going to confront him about it.
Swallowing, she stepped in line behind him, adjusting the light to focus on the white of his scuffed jacket. He seemed absolutely sure of where he was going, and she wondered how he knew. It was another one of those secrets he refused to tell her. Maybe it had something to do with piloting? Navigating by the stars? She looked up - and saw only pitch black. Between the dense trees and the thick cloud cover, there wasn't even a hint of the broken moon's light.
Looking up also had the unfortunate side-effect of growing unaware of her immediate surroundings. The root that caught on her boot send her flying straight into Torchwick's back, and he grunted in pain.
"Tch! Watch where you're going!" A flash of irate green was visible over his shoulder.
"Sorry," she mumbled, rubbing her stinging nose and feeling like a fool.
"You can handle this," he said after a long moment and a heavy sigh. "You fought Neo with your eyes closed and beat her. Don't tell me you can't walk through a forest at night."
"This is a forest in Exsul!"
"Oh, because a ruined tower surrounded by Grimm was so much safer? C'mon, you're not even trying." He stomped onwards.
That sounded… almost like a compliment, underneath all his irritation. Swallowing her surprise, she hurried after him. I can do this, she repeated to herself several times. Taking a deep breath, she let her eyes lose their focus. Torchwick's back because a fuzzy white blur as she concentrated on following him with her ears.
Leaves were rustling; there was a brisk breeze blowing overhead. And beyond that, a faint hum… "Lancers," she murmured after a moment. "There are Lancers above us." She tilted her head to the side, her brow knitting. "Following us?" The distant sound of shuffling caught her attention, and she turned her head in the other direction. Twigs were broken, the scuttling occurring in a rhythmic pattern only possible if whatever it was had had four… no, eight legs. "Anansel, too." The more she listened, the more she could hear - and the more her blood chilled. Her steps slowed, then came to a stop.
"What now?" she heard Torchwick ask. That low note of tension had returned to his voice, despite the odd respite he'd taken under the giant pine tree.
"We're surrounded by Grimm." When her eyes opened, she could still hear the creatures; a few of them had even stopped moving when they did. "They're everywhere." She paused. "Can't you see them?"
Torchwick's lack of answer made her look at him; his head was lowered and his knuckles were white from clenching his gun.
"I don't need to see them. They're noisy."
Wow. Maybe his Semblance makes his ears really good too? "Why aren't they attacking us though?"
"Because they want us to come to them. I told you… something's waiting for us in that mountain." He turned around and rolled his shoulders, then laughed. It wasn't comforting; truth be told, he sounded a little unhinged. "Let's not disappoint our hosts, shall we?"
Ruby shivered. Torchwick acting nice to her was weird enough, but now… this strange mix of absolute confidence and despair radiating from him had her worried. This was going far beyond trying to rescue his girlfriend and straight into crazytown. "Maybe I should lead again, just in case they attack."
"They won't," Torchwick replied almost absently. His eyes still two spooky green lights, unsettlingly similar to the red-eyed gazes of the Grimm in the darkness. "They're waiting to see what we do."
I thought he was all about planning everything meticulously. "This is such a bad idea," she breathed. But despite her misgivings, she followed after him. I said I'd protect him… and I won't go back on that. "Wait for me!"
.x.x.x.
The trees were growing sparse, and the ground had thankfully evened out - it was a lot easier for Ruby to navigate along the dark path of chipped stones than the twisting roots of the forest. Though still trapped in the dead of night, her surroundings felt much less oppressive without the trees pressing in on every side.
Torchwick was leading them into a shallow canyon that sloped upwards towards the base of the looming mountain. She could still hear the rustle of various Grimm following after them, but so far nothing had made a move. The lack of aggression was making her jumpy, although by all appearances Torchwick wasn't fazed. In fact, he'd grown unusually silent, no longer even bothering to look over his shoulder to check if she was following.
It really shouldn't have been as surprising as it was when the first red eyes appeared above them on the slopes of the canyon walls. Ruby sucked in a sharp breath. Here they come, she thought with a feeling of rising dread.
"Torchwick!"
He stopped to look at the Grimm, but didn't seem tense at all. His rifle was slung loosely over one shoulder, and all he did was stare at the first Beringel that appeared. It was soon joined by an eclectic mix of many different species of Grimm. Some were familiar, like the Creeps and the Beowolves, while others were strangely exotic, like the beetle-like monstrosity with glowing red eyes scattered across its armor-plated carapace.
"There's so many..." The canyon light up as if it were a runway, lined on both sides by the red glow of Grimm gazes tracking their passage. "They're not even fighting each other!" she noted, seeing a diminutive Blackhart doe standing calmly next to an enormous King Taijitu. "What's going on?"
"It's a welcoming convoy," Torchwick said dully - the first words he'd spoken in a while. "They're here to guide us."
A cold shiver worked its way down Ruby's spine. "Torchwick? What are you talking about?"
He turned towards her, his eyes soulless and face slack. "I think we're in the rats' alley, where dead men lose their bones."
Oh no. "Snap out of it," she said, feeling her first twinge of real fear flicker to life. An Ursa turned its head towards her, and she took a deep breath and pushed back the nauseating, watery feeling brewing in the pit of her stomach. "Torchwick… you're not acting like yourself. It's me, Ruby, remember?" She stepped closer to him, wary, and waved her hand under his dull gaze.
He canted his head at her, a disturbingly blank slab overtaking his usually expressive features. "I was neither living, nor dead. I knew nothing."
"What happened to you?"
He blinked, and his mouth hung open as he struggled to form words. She felt a stirring of hope; despite whatever it was that had sent him into this trance, he was still trying to communicate with her… somehow. She tried not to flinch when his hand rose, then descended onto the top of her head.
"I looked into the heart of light," he said, his voice wavering.
He wanted her to help him; she was sure of it. But how? Doing her best to ignore the Grimm who were still doing nothing more than watching with interest, she thought back on what he'd done and said since arriving in Exsul.
There was his increasingly haggard appearance, so at odds with his meticulous effort to keep himself groomed and stylish. His strange fear of darkness, despite having a Semblance that could easily overcome night blindness. And his restless, almost obsessive drive to reach the mountain. The Grimm had been silent throughout the night, but he'd called them… noisy? "... Is all this connected to your headache?"
"The crying and the shouting," he replied in a leaden voice. "Prison and place and reverberation." The weight of his resting hand changed into a tight grip, and Ruby winced as his gloved fingers dug into her scalp. She brought a hand up to catch his wrist, trying to wrest her hair away.
"How long have you been hearing the Grimm?" she managed to grit out, struggling against him. "Since we got here? But then why haven't I heard-" Watching his face, a thought struck her. "No… you've been hearing them since Beacon! I'm right, aren't I? You've been living with that for three years."
She stopped fighting when she realized most of the pain and pulled hair was coming from her own squirming. Torchwick's grip on her head, though uncomfortable, remained constant.
"We who were living are now dying."
That stopped her cold. Her hand loosened around his wrist as she processed his words.
Three years. Three years ago, I thought only Penny and Pyrrha died. She stared at Torchwick, trying to make out his face from the long shadows cast by the odd angle of her flashlight. Was I wrong? His eyes were still glowing green in the darkness, but it almost looked as though his sclera had turned completely black. She'd thought it a trick of the light, but now she wasn't so sure.
Something welled up inside of her, displacing her anxiety and barely contained fear. "You're… dying?"
"With a little patience."
His cavalier words, despite the deadened monotone, made her absolutely sure the Torchwick she'd come to know was still in there somewhere, still listening to her. Yes, he was cruel, and arrogant, and prejudiced, and they got along like cats and dogs, but that didn't mean he deserved to die. "You aren't gone yet," she said fiercely, her fear and panic crystalizing into a purposeful feeling of determination. She dropped her rifle and clapped her hands around his ears. "You're not allowed to give up and leave!"
He managed to look surprised despite his trance, as if having her grab onto his ears was the last thing he'd expected her to do. She pressed her hands as tightly as she could against his head, as if the motion would block out whatever he was hearing in his mind, and stared into his blackened eyes. "Did you hear me?" she yelled shrilly. "I said you're not allowed to go, so stop listening to them!" She tried to shake him and he swayed easily under hold, his hand slipping off of her head as his face grew more animated, first with surprise, then disbelief.
It took her a moment to realize that she could see Torchwick's changing expressions clearly because he was being bathed with bright silver light that pushed back the darkness of the night. Alongside his emotions, his eyes had also returned to their normal, human-colored green.
The shock on his face changed into a weary smile - not the harsh one she was used to seeing, but a rarer, more genuine thing. It was barely more than a twitch to his lips and not a single tooth was in sight. His hand returned to her head, but this time it wasn't heavy or painful. It was a feather light touch, a few slow, gentle pats.
"That's enough, kid," he said. "Didn't I say you were trying too hard? I'll stay for a little while longer, so save all that energy for someone who matters."
The relief that coursed through her made her knees buckle; Torchwick caught her and set her back on her feet. "You're not dead," she repeated, gripping his arms to be sure.
"How can I die? You keep granting me a stay of execution," he complained, pushing her off and leaning over to retrieve Crescent Rose. He placed it carefully back in her hands. "... Thanks," he muttered, looking uncomfortable. "And if you ever tell anyone I said that, I'll shoot the trigger finger off your hand."
She nodded, clutching her gun tightly to her chest, unable to form words. The light around them was disappearing… probably from her eyes, she knew full well, though she couldn't say how she'd managed to summon it. Truth be told, she wasn't even interested in figuring out what had happened at that point. She hiccupped and tried to surreptitiously swipe her nose dry, looking anywhere but at Torchwick
"Hey, Ruby," he said, and his voice had lost that cynical hard edge to it, just as he'd sounded under the pine tree. "I'm fine now, so you can stop crying."
"I'm not crying! There's just something stuck in my eye."
He laughed into the darkness. "If you say so. It's not like I can see anything from here."
She snuck a glance at him and realized he was right; darkness had returned, broken only by the light on her belt. Torchwick's eyes were no longer glowing green - and neither were there any pinpricks of red remaining to watch them. "Where'd all the Grimm go?"
"You probably scared them off," he said. "Or disintegrated them. Take your pick."
Ruby sniffed again, scrubbing her face dry. "So what do we do now?"
She heard Torchwick shifting beside her. "Keep moving forward. What else?"
Her hand flashed out and grabbed his before he could continue up the rocky path, halting his progress. "What if you get worse again? You said it yourself, something's waiting for us in that mountain. You might…" She licked her lips, trying to wet her throat. "...really die next time."
There was a long, heavy pause. "I think I know what happened to Neo now. Three years ago, that should have been me too. She shouldn't have had to go through this by herself." He laughed. "And what kind of a shitty leader would I be if I let the last member of my team die?"
"What… what if I can't save her?" she asked in a low voice. "What if she doesn't want to be saved?"
His other hand came up and gently peeled her fingers off. "Then I can't let her die alone, either." There was a smile to his voice. "You're not crying again, are you?"
"Stupid," she choked.
"Probably, yeah," he agreed. "You make me stupid. I think you're infectious."
"I brought you with me specifically so you wouldn't die."
"We came here together. And just like you, I make my own choices."
Desperate, she made a last feint. "I'll die here too if you can't fly me off this continent!"
"Nah," he said confidently. "Sweetheart, people like you never die. Other Huntsmen will look for you. You'll grow wings and fly away. You'll tame a pet Grimm or five. You'll purify the entire continent just by staring at it hard enough. Trust me, you'll do lots of things if I'm gone, but dying isn't one of them. You've got too much of that hope in you."
A cold wind blew around them. She tried to imagine it blowing away the swirl of conflicting emotions boiling within her. She wondered what Torchwick was thinking. She wondered why she cared. And some part of her knew, they had to move on. He was on a personal journey that was bigger than her wants and needs, a journey she'd inadvertently set him on. He wouldn't stop until he reached the end of the road he was traveling or died trying. "Then…"
His eyes lit up again, and there was nothing left to say.
.x.x.x.
The entrance to the cave was unremarkable, nothing more than a collection of rough rocks spilling down into a dark hole and surrounded on all sides by jagged mountain walls. Ruby could almost feel the cloying, black ooze of ill intent radiating out of the crevice.
One very rough climb down later, she was sure they were in the right place. The bottom of the chasm leveled out abruptly into a relatively flat floor. The further along they traveled, the more obviously sculpted the cave became. Torches began to appear, as well as humanoid and animal skeletons. Some were artfully placed as gruesome frames to doorways and wall decor. Others were scattered across the floor or trapped in cages, as though they'd been tortured.
She lost track of time the deeper they went, her legs aching from the descent. One thing noticeably absent from their surroundings was Grimm; even though the evil was so thick in the air that she could taste it, none of it manifested in a physical form.
Torchwick was still leading the way, though his footsteps were more cautious and self-aware now. He was sweating profusely, but his gaze was clear and unclouded.
"Isn't this a little weird?" she whispered to him, drawing close.
"As compared to what? Turning Beacon Tower into a frozen dragon popsicle? Exploding a Goliath's head with your bare hands? Seems pretty tame by comparison."
He slowed as the passageway they were traveling along opened up into a larger chamber which split off in several different directions. Ruby swallowed; she had no idea which way to go, and she was pretty sure that without Torchwick's help, she wouldn't even know which tunnel led back to the surface. "Do you know where we need to be?"
He turned his head slightly, as if listening, then grimaced. "Think so," he muttered.
"Don't try too hard if it hurts," she warned. "I don't know what my eyes did to you, but I'm not sure it really cured you."
He rubbed a hand over his face, pushing his bangs away. "I don't think anyone can cure this. I'm not sick, Ruby, I'm different. That Griffon changed something inside of my head. You can't amputate your brain." He frowned. "You know, a lobotomy might even make it worse."
She hit his arm with the palm of her hand. "Stop talking like that! You're scaring me!"
He shrugged. "It is what it is. You helped push them back, though. I can still sense them, it just doesn't hurt anymore. The headache is gone, so I can think for myself again without wanting to put an icepick through my eye. Besides… being able to hear them now is an advantage, right?" He winked at her. "Think of it as our golden opportunity." He scanned the multiple passages, then pointed his gun at one. "Thataway. Stay close."
The floor along the passage soon turned into roughly hewn steps that led to a narrow doorway through which sickly orange light spilled through, radiating heat. Torchwick stopped a few paces before the entrance, and Ruby joined him by his side.
"Are you ready?" she asked, drawing Crescent Rose.
His fingers twitched on Ruby Tuesday. "I need to know why I was called here. I need to find Neo." He squared his shoulders. "This is my last chance to make things right." He stepped forward.
The cavern they entered was enormous, with high walls that curved upwards. Petrified bones protruded from every angle, their dulled spike plates larger than Ruby herself. They rose in regular intervals along the floor from the wasted remains of an enormous jointed spine. In the center of the room, a pool of sluggish lava coalesced, turning black and tar-like in its center. And embedded in the wall across from them, like some ancient fossil, was a winged skeleton.
Both she and Torchwick were struck momentarily speechless by what they saw. The skeleton's size was comparable to the Grimm dragon that had attacked Beacon, but its wings were razor-feathered like a Nevermore's. Its protruding ribcage and lower body was unsettlingly humanoid, though its skull and lack of arms marked it as clearly anything but. Most disturbingly, however, were the veins of black ooze that had snaked up from the pool of lava to wind around the skeleton's legs and torso, forming an odd amalgam of Grimm and human flesh around the desiccated bones. The transformation was incomplete, limited to the creature's rippling lower body, which heaved with every pump of the viscous liquid through its sickly veins.
In the center of the skeleton's distended lower belly a transparent, fleshy sack pulsed like a beating heart. She could make out the cloudy image of what seemed to be a grown woman with alabaster skin and stark white hair within. The woman's head and torso were fully formed, but in direct opposition to the skeleton cradling her within its womb, she seemed to be missing anything below her abdomen, as if she was only half-grown. The parts of her which were whole were lined with twining black veins that spread out like a network of spider webs across her body. Mercifully, the woman - if she could be called that - seemed to be unconscious.
And in front of that monstrosity, a diminutive figure stood with her back to them, twirling a lacy parasol.
"Neo!" Torchwick took a halting step forward, his hand outstretched.
The girl turned, her eyes their usual shade of mismatched pink and brown. She blinked and smiled at them, delicate brows arcing downwards. Then she folded her parasol with a snap, and swept it over the corrupted lava.
A bone-plated head rose out of the now-bubbling pool, followed by four pairs of glowing eyes. Its snout alone was larger than Ruby's scythe.
"A Sobek," she heard Torchwick groan. "Why'd it have to be a Sobek?" He raised his voice, yelling at Neo. "Are you trying to compensate for your height here?"
"Move!" Ruby yelled, turning and kicking Torchwick away from the stairwell, turning his angry yell into an undignified squawk. She leapt straight up, rose petals trailing after her, as the Sobek surged forward and snapped its massive jaws at them. When it landed, the entire cavern shook.
Ruby touched down on the back of its head and ran, keeping her footsteps light. It was massive enough that she could weave between the spikes on its back without hurting herself. Her goal wasn't to kill the Sobek immediately, but to prevent more from being summoned - and its enormous body just happened to make a convenient bridge to her real target. Barreling down the creature's spine, she flipped open her scythe, holding it ready.
Neo was still standing at the opposite end of the pool, her eyes flashing and a mocking grin on her face. As Ruby leapt forward, swinging Crescent Rose, Neo drew in her parasol and cartwheeled backwards, easily avoiding the strike.
Ruby landed with a thud on the rocky ledge before the gigantic winged fossil, glaring at Neo. "This won't be like the last time," she promised. Neo only smirked and blew her a kiss.
Charging forward, Ruby whirled the scythe around her torso rapidly, spinning into a deadly bladed dance that drove Neo back towards the wall of the cavern. Neo could still slide, dodge and duck below the strikes as easily as a dolphin swam through water, but Ruby knew the tables would turn if she could only manage to corner the other girl and trap her against the wall.
"You're good, but I've had three years to train for this!" She sped up her swings, grunting with the effort of moving the heavy scythe quickly, even firing a few rounds off to add power to her strikes. Neo's eyes widened as Ruby's speed eclipsed hers and one of her bullets struck home, shattering an illusion.
When it fell, so did Neo's familiar-looking silhouette. In its place, there stood a girl with swirling black veins tangling their way across the visible pale skin peeking out from under the collar of her suit. They rose high on her neck, where they stopped under the protrusions of white bone scattered over her forehead and cheeks. When she looked up at Ruby, furious, her eyes were a disturbing mix of black and red.
She couldn't help it; Ruby stopped and stared, shocked. Is this what's happening to Torchwick?
It was only for a moment, but then she blinked the illusion was restored; once again, the human Neopolitan stood before her, groomed and confident. And maybe more than just a little angry.
She charged, parasol out, and suddenly Ruby was the one being pushed back from the rapid strikes and thrusts. She tried to avoid as many as she could, but Neo was driving her towards the edge of the lava in an attempt to knock her in. Sweating, she glanced over her shoulder to check on the Sobek's position.
Torchwick hadn't been idle; he was scrambling around the room, trying to avoid the powerful but sluggish Grimm's swipes and blows while firing almost continuously at it. But he seemed distracted, and with a jolt, Ruby realized that he'd been watching them.
He'd seen.
She turned her attention back to Neo, barely managing to avoid a thrust that would have poked a hole through her throat. I'm not fighting for my survival here, she reminded herself. I'm trying to save this woman! Using her scythe to parry the parasol, she stopped concentrating on crafting her offense and instead attempted to call forth the power in her eyes. C'mon… I could do it for Torchwick, there must be some way-
Neo slid forward smoothly, her arm extended in a fencer's strike, and Ruby's thoughts scattered. She windmilled backwards, unbalanced and at a disadvantage against Neo's exquisite battle finesse when she wasn't pressing against it with a full-on attack.
There's got to be a way draw my power out! She thought desperately of Torchwick, of how his eyes had gone strange. Neo stabbed at her, and she didn't manage to fully block, hissing in pain as the razor-sharp tip of the parasol skimmed over the back of her hand. She forced herself to visualize the moment that the arrow pierced through Pyrrha's chest, and although it made tears leak from her eyes, no silver light shone through them.
"What are you doing?" she heard Torchwick yelling, sounding incredulous - and maybe a little worried.
"I'm trying to help her!" Ruby yelled back, jumping out of the way of a particularly vicious kick. But she'd committed a Huntsman's cardinal sin - she'd lost track of the Grimm in her surroundings. The Sobek, which had been advancing on Torchwick, jackknifed abruptly, its spiked tail hurtling towards her. It slapped her into the wall with a thud, knocking the breath out of her. The Crescent Rose fell out of her limp hands.
The long, prehensile tail looped around her like a snake before she could drop to the ground after it, squeezing her in a painful grip. She struggled, wheezing in pain as Neo sauntered up underneath her and delicately toed her scythe, collapsing it back into its rifle form. Then she glanced over Ruby's shoulder, her eyes lighting with joy, and waved her arm in a few quick motions.
"Not exactly the most comfortable way to travel," she heard Torchwick say as he gingerly picked his way through the Sobek's back, leaping off to land at Neo's side. He'd barely touched the ground when Neo threw herself at him, her arms encircling his neck, spinning him into a hug.
Ruby watched, open-mouthed, as he returned it, burying his face in the smaller woman's neck. "Missed me that much, did you?" he murmured, and he sounded so sincere that a wriggle of doubt rose in Ruby's mind.
Neo released him and hopped to the ground, her eyes still shining with joy. She didn't say a single word, but it was clear from her expressive face and excited movements that she was having some sort of a conversation with Torchwick - one he was apparently able to read and understand.
"I know, right?" he said, turning to look at her with a frown. "I don't know what happened to her face either."
"You're talking about me, aren't you," she grunted, still struggling.
"Give the kid a prize," Torchwick said with dripping sarcasm. He leaned over and picked up Crescent Rose, turning it over in his hands.
Is he mad at me because I couldn't save her? Because I couldn't make my silver light appear? She wanted to believe that Torchwick wouldn't shift his loyalties so easily, but even though she'd saved him outside, he'd still openly admitted to being devoted to his first and original partner. Do I really know him at all? Is this all an act for my benefit, or for Neo's? He must have seen something on her face, but the look he gave her was brief and inscrutable.
Neo's eyebrow rose, and he shrugged. "Battle trophy. I've been waiting three years to collect this thing." Grinning, he slung it over his shoulder. "So… not that this isn't a joyous reunion, but you do remember that you left me to die back on the tower, right?" His smile turned cold. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't free that kid and let her cut you to pieces."
The Sobek shifted when Neo pointed at it, and Torchwick rolled his eyes with a dramatic sigh. "Fine, that's a pretty good reason."
Ruby hung her head and imagined every one of her teammates, both past and present, yelling "I told you so!" at her. Three years of practicing how to relate to other people and I still fail, she thought miserably.
"So what now?" she heard Torchwick ask Neo.
The diminutive girl smiled and then tilted her head to one side coyly, leading Torchwick away.
Notes
Anansel are enormous spider-like Grimm that I sort of made up. Thanks, Skyrim!
Sobek are another fan-made Grimm race designed by Blue-Hearts. You can find an illustration of them on her Deviant Art account, as well as this description:
Sobek
While commonly confused with the Lagarto, an alligator-like Grimm commonly found in the swamps and marshes of Vale, the Sobek seems to resemble a crocodile and are found in saltwater habitats around Mistral. Sobeks are typically ambush predators, using their tails to push themselves out of the water and catch unsuspecting victims within their powerful jaws. A Sobek's bite is so powerful, it can leave tooth marks in even high-quality armor. However, this crocodilian Grimm has another unique defense mechanism. While Creatures of Grimm don't bleed, the Sobek is capable of expelling a black fluid from its body when cut. Should this fluid be ingested or enter the bloodstream via open wounds, it can cause a severe adverse reaction which typically resembles anaphylactic shock.
Torchwick's lines come from different parts of T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land" (although I switched them up a little). The original lines are as follows:
"I think we are in the rats' alley
Where the dead men lost their bones."
"... I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence."
"After the agony in stony places
The crying and the shouting
Prison and place and reverberation"
"He was living is now dead
We who were living are now dying
With a little patience"
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