Eclipse - Act 4 - Cycle's End

Chapter 20 - Fugitives

Jaune

Thankfully, the food that Dutch had left here for them wasn't expired, but that hardly meant it was the tastiest food in the world. Lots and lots of canned goods, heated in a microwave. Oriana was staring at what could only be described as a paste on her plate, like someone had been sick on the dish. "Y'know, I'm definitely gonna have a word with Dutch and how to stock a kitchen with something more edible than this." Yang commented, staring at the plate.

"Tell me about it." Nora groaned.

"Canned goods last longer, and besides, they'll give us the energy we need. But yes, it's hardly the most appetising food in the world." Ren said.

"This is classed as food?" Oriana asked, making everyone chuckle. Ruby smirked, glancing over at Ruby, then she slouched across the chair like an old lady.

"Well, back in my day, young'n, we had to hunt our food and cook it with friction rubbed logs!" Ruby teased, speaking in an over the top old lady voice, making Oriana and Misty giggle.

"Oh, here we go, old lady Ruby's here." Oriana sighed between giggles.

Ruby gasped. "I'll have you know. I'm in my prime, darling." She replied, winking at Ori, making her niece smile. Pyrrha rolled her eyes, tucking away at the can she was finishing off.

"This is reminding me of old times." Pyrrha sighed, looking at Ruby.

"Oh, you mean stealing apples with Penny and making Cinder die inside?" Ruby asked her, and Pyrrha started laughed.

"If you told me that the woman who nearly killed me would be that embarrassed by me being unable to steal an apple from someone, I never would've believed you." Pyrrha chuckled, shaking her head.

"Wait, you stole an apple?" Oriana asked in disbelief.

"Well, I tried until Penny found an apple tree instead." Pyrrha confessed. "I still feel bad for even trying."

"Gotta remember kiddo, back in those days we were considered fugitives for simply being Huntresses. And when your mother is who she is, y'know a celebrity? That made her very easy to spot, and few people were brave enough to protect us from Salem, and others would have turned us in because they wanted to support the Dark Queen. We had to do things we didn't want to do." Ruby explained, resting Crescent Rose on her lap as she spoke.

"I still find it hard to imagine what it was like... having those monsters everywhere like that. Walking in the streets." Oriana said.

"That was only after the Inhumane Necessity. Salem was using the Grimm to police everything. All those crystallised pits were open once, and Grimm were always being birthed from them... thankfully no longer." Blake reminded.

"Believe me, Ori... we all find it hard to believe that those days actually happened. It all seems like a nightmare some days." Nora admitted, tweaking Stormur Skeggox with her tools.

"What was the coolest thing you ever killed? Y'know, apart from Salem?" Misty inquired curiously, but Ruby paused and looked at her.

"I didn't kill her. That was Salem. And besides... we took no pride in killing her... when she died, I actually felt sad about it." Ruby confessed.

"Y-You did? But she was evil?" Misty assumed.

"She was our enemy. She did terrible things and wanted to destroy the world. But all Salem wanted was to die. She had lost more than any of us combined and just wanted the pain to end. She was a product of mistakes, and the foolishness of two gods. I sometimes wished there was another way, a better way. But..." Ruby sighed, closing her eyes, remembering those emotions that flooded her heart when she was crouched down beside Salem when she died. "... nothing is ever so simple."