RWBY 1: The Dead Mountain

Part 2 - A Long Way Up

Raven ran. Her legs and lungs were burning. Her vision blurred with tears. Her mind in pieces.

The grimm was getting closer. This was the end. Raven ducked into an office, searching for something - anything to help her escape - then suddenly spotted a ventilation shaft! That monster couldn't follow her there.

Raven summoned the last of her strength as she hopped over a desk, the orange tinge of the setting sun shone through the office blinds, lighting up her escape path. She slid, her feet kicking in the shaft's entrance. 

"Yes, this is going to work!" she thought.

A sudden loud bang left her ears ringing. Raven turned her head. Rubble littered the once clean office, desks were flipped and broken and a thin cloud of dust filled the air. The grimm lowered its head as it entered, narrowly avoiding the ceiling again as it eyed Raven and smiled.

Her heart wouldn't stop pounding. She rolled onto her stomach and crawled into the shaft as fast as she could. Her greatsword, slung over her back, scrapped along the top of the shaft as she hurried inside.

Another bang. More ringing. The wall above the shaft had been ripped open and pieces were falling onto the metal, deafening the red haired huntress with an echoed ringing. She kept crawling. She felt heat by her feet - the grimm's breath. It roared in anger as it tried to fit its arm into the shaft opening but failed.

"Just one more metre..." Raven could see a drop off in front of her. Every part of her ached - screaming for rest, but she had to keep going.

The grim gripped onto the ventilation shaft, ripping it from the remains of the wall, it tilted and the lone survivor slid down the shaft and fell into the drop off. A smile stretched across her face for a moment - she had escaped! But realization soon set it in - she was falling... fast.

When Raven awoke her head was bleeding and her movements were sluggish. She looked around, her eyes struggling to focus. She was in some sort of boiler room, filled with steam and heat. She stood up, finding the shaft entrance a few meters above her.

"How did I-" before she could finish the thought searing pain filled her right arm. She looked over at it, her eyes widening with horror. It was bending the wrong way and she could see bone sticking out.

She gulped. Her mind was suddenly filled with a memory - first aid training at the academy. She was sat next to her sister. A lump formed in her throat, but she shook her head. Now was not the time to grieve. Her memory continued, the teacher broke his own arm and the students squealed. Some laughed. The teacher then proceeded to explain the injury and how to re-locate the limb. But Raven's attention drifted, the boy in the row in front of her crudely doodled the teacher, giving him an elaborate moustache and stink lines. "How mature..." Raven muttered, although at the time she found it quite humorous.

She glanced up at the teacher - his arm was back to normal. She missed it.

"Always pay attention in class Rave, you never know when you'll learn something important..." her mother's words echoed in her head.

She cursed under her breath, grabbed her arm and took a deep breath.

"How hard can it be?"

12 attempts later she succeeded in 'fixing' her arm. It could move now at least, although the pain was almost unbearable. She had been biting down hard into her purse - the only thing she could think of at the time. She managed to avoid screaming and alerting nearby grimm, but her purse was destroyed and her mouth ached.

Raven paused and looked up. The ventilation shaft seemed to extend infinitely into the void.

"How far down am I?" she mused, as she spat out the purse. It had been a gift from her sister. She was filled with sadness once again.

Slapping some sense into herself, the red haired huntress carefully raised her right arm and grabbed the sword strapped to her back. It twinged in pain. She stopped for a moment then drew the sword awkwardly with her left arm.

Her mind was filled with determination. She would get out, she would escape. She would make sure the sacrifices of her team weren't for nothing.

Raven stepped out into the corridor, her ears and eyes peeled for signs of life - grimm or otherwise. The remains of a lift were in front of her, with the floor number above it.

"B40... " she sighed "this is going to take a while".