Chapter Text
Taylor Hebert was bored. This was, some people would say, somewhat dangerous.
She tried shifting in her throne so that her legs were dangling off one side and kicking against the ornate arms made of black stone that protruded from the massive seat. That kept her entertained for all of a minute. When the echoes of her feet’s thump-thumping died down, she shifted back into a proper position and sighed.
“Levi, I’m bored,” she told the massive throne room.
In actuality, she missed her friends. But most of them were out and about, going to school or working or just having fun without her.
She could have gone out and walked the streets or snooped around for some criminals, but every time she did that the PRT got miffed at her, then they’d ask Dragon to tell her to stop stealing the wallets of every mugger in the city, then Dragon would come around and explain why that wasn’t a nice thing to do.
There were few things that made Taylor feel as bad as Dragon’s motherly voice telling her that she was disappointed in her lack of forethought and that she knew that Taylor could do better.
{Unit-02 can Suggests Activities to Eliminate Lack of Amusement. Current List of Available Tasks: 17,3654,753.}
Taylor sighed. “Thanks Levi, but nothing that has to do with killing things.”
{... Unit-02 Requires Time to Process Host-Queen_Administrator’s Request. No Boredom-Killing Tasks Fit Given Parameters.}
Taylor’s face scrunched up. “Well fine, I guess I can wait.”
[Excited. Unit-03 Completed Project. Project will Reduce Boredom.]
Taylor had been spending a fair bit of time around the Simurgh. She was starting to get a good idea of how the Endbringer’s thought process worked. “Does it involve some sort of mental probe?” she asked.
[Shocked! Negative. No Mental Probing.]
Taylor narrowed her eyes. “Does it involve anything else probing me?”
[... Negative. Nothing will Probe Host-Queen_Administrator in the Process of Utilizing new Project Creation.]
“Nothing will probe me, but that doesn’t mean that nothing else will be probed.”
[Host-Queen_Administrator will find New Project System in Sub-Basement 03. Under Room of Relationships.]
Taylor scrunched up her nose, but she started walking off towards the side-doors of her throne room anyway. “I noticed you changing the subject. You’re on thin ice already, young lady!”
{Unit-02 can Improve Thickness of Ice.}
Taylor found that the corridors and passages of her castle were something like a maze. It was very easy to get lost, especially if she focused on where she was going. She had the sneaking suspicion that the corridors shifted around when no one was paying attention. Still, as long as she didn’t pay attention to which turn she took and where she was heading, she always arrived where she wanted in more or less the same amount of time, regardless of how far her destination should have been from her starting point.
She was just thinking on ways of phrasing a sentence in such a way that the Simurgh couldn’t sneak out of it when she heard a voice from deeper in the castle. “Hello? Anyone around? This mousey-mouse needs some breadcrumbs to find her way back!”
Curious, Taylor veered off at the next corridor and soon found herself walking towards Mouse Protector. The heroine was in her full regalia, mouse ears erect, sword by her hip and armour shining in the ever-present light that filled the many halls of the Great Administratorius. “Oh, thank the great ball of cheese in the sky!” she said before rushing towards Taylor. “I was lost, like a pinkie in a maze, and no cheese in sight!”
“Hi Miss Mouse Protector!” Taylor said. “Were you lost for a long time?”
“Not really,” she said while rubbing at the back of her head. “Just a few minutes. I swear I knew how to get back to the throne room from the guest quarters yesterday, but then everything was off this morning.”
“Couldn’t you have teleported?”
“Well, yeah, but only to the Rig or back to my rooms or to your side. Do you know how embarrassing it would be to pop up next to you just because I couldn’t find my way around?” she asked.
‘Ah, I guess that makes sense. So, where were you trying to go?”
Mouse Protector shrugged. “Around, I guess. I was going to check up on you to see what you were up to.”
“In that case, follow me!” Taylor said. “I was just going to visit Simmy in the basement. She’s got this thing that’s supposed to be fun.”
“Why is it that when you say ‘fun’ I hear ‘pants-wettingly terrifying?’”
Taylor rolled her eyes. “C’mon, when’s the last time I purposely did something to scare people? It’s been... at least a few days.”
She could almost feel Mouse Protector’s incredulous look following her as she made her way deeper into the castle. They came to a spiralling staircase and started to make their way down to the basement.
A few short minutes later and Taylor found herself in one of the dungeons. The walls were made of the same crystalline material, but these were darker, the corridors lit by smoky torches hanging in brackets set just far enough apart that they left long stretches of shadow that bisected the corridor every few meters.
She felt Mouse Protector standing a little closer behind her as she reached a single large door marked with a circle of what might have been blood.
“I think this is the one,” Taylor said.
“Uh,” said Mouse Protector.
Turning the knob, Taylor pushed her way into the room, then paused.
There were quite a few things that immediately tried to grab her attention. It was hard to choose which one to focus on first. Should she stare at the two car seats in the middle of a circle inscribed in blood on the floor? Should she look at the lone goat standing in yet another circle a little ways off? Maybe the book floating an inch off a stone pedestal, its pages cracking and flipping back and forth with a sound not unlike the cackle of an old man?
She looked past all that and towards Unit-02 who was laying on the ground in his favourite sleeping pose, his tail thumping soundlessly on the ground. “Hey, Levi, where’s Simmy?”
The Endbringer opened one of his four eyes, then made an almost lazy motion towards the ceiling.
The Simurgh descended like an avenging angel cosplaying as Alexandria.
She had forgone her usual costume for a white and grey skintight suit with an armoured visor and bits of what might have been Tinkertech plating around her chest and hips. It looked like something out of a video game and Taylor didn’t quite know what to think about her friend’s new look.
“Hey Simmy. What’s going on?”
[Excited. Predicted boredom of Host-Queen_Administrator. Created Portal Mechanism to Deter Boredom.]
“Uh huh.”
[Encouraging. Sit in Chairs. Avoid Touching Organic Blood Samples.]
Taylor surveyed the room again, taking in the arcane symbols that glowed faintly with a malevolent light and the way the shadows stared back at her. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”
The Simurgh made a dismissive motion with one hand. [Scoffing. Abyss Stared back. Unit-03 Stared Harder. No need for Fear. Predicted High Likelihood of Survival. Bring Bags of Important Objects.] With another negligent wave of her hand, the Simurgh made a cargo bag float off the ground from where it was hidden behind the pedestal and towards Taylor who caught it one-handed.
Shrugging, Taylor reached back, grabbed Mouse Protector’s hand, and moved towards the two car seats. “C’mon. This might be fun.”
“Baa!” agreed one of the goats.
[Smug. Suggest Closing eyes and Tightening Loose Orifices.]
***
This. Was. Awesome!
Okay, sure, she wasn’t expecting the whole ‘exploding launch platform’ thing. And yeah, maybe that was a little dangerous and all. But still, this was what Ruby was made for!
She was a year or two younger than all the others taking the initiation test, but that was okay. She was a growing girl, she drank her milk, she would be fine! Now, all she needed to do was find Yang and rush to the end of the forest.
Easy-peasy.
Her boots dug into the bark of passing trees as she shot from one branch to the next, Crescent Rose held close to her side and spinning every few moments to avoid getting caught in the overhanging branches.
She spotted a blur of black out of the corner of her eye, a snout and long neck with a flash of white.
With a spin that would make most gymnasts green with envy, she changed directions.
Her baby scythed around, steel glinting in the morning sunlight as it curved up and around, taking the head off a Beowolf with a motion so clean that she hardly felt any resistance at all.
Ruby spun Crescent Rose around while her feet dug furrows into the loamy ground of the forest leaving a pair of trenches out behind her before she came to a full stop. She paused, ears perked and eyes scanning the woods for any sign of additional Grimm.
The beheaded Beowolf started to fade, bits of its tough flesh evaporating into the morning air as flecks of darkness.
She grinned. Her breathing was coming in sharp and fast, but not too hard. She hadn’t even broken a sweat yet but she still felt as though she’d just come off a runner’s high.
“Now, if I were a Yang, where would I be hiding?” she asked.
Turning back towards the deeper forest, Ruby took off at a jog. There was no point in rushing if it meant missing her chance at finding her sister and becoming her partner. No, she had to be very careful and pay plenty of attention.
Someone screamed.
It was a girl’s voice, somewhere between panic and fearful, the kind of scream that meant that someone was in trouble.
It was also, she was certain, not Yang’s voice. Ruby wrestled with the idea of not saving the girl for just the teeny-tiniest of seconds. In the end though, it was against her very nature not to help someone in need.
And if that meant having someone other than her sister as a partner... then so be it.
Resolve as firm as it would ever be, Ruby raced forwards.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” the voice said. It was closer now, she was almost at it.
“Don’t be sorry. It’s not your fault. And, um, it doesn't look that bad?” another voice said.
Ruby’s grin grew. There was someone else there! Maybe she would be partnered with Yang after all.
She burst into a clearing, scythe held loosely by her side as she took in the scene with a trained eye.
A young girl, maybe Yang’s age, was standing next to a slumped-over beowolf. The Grimm’s eyes were crossed and its tongue was sticking out of the side of its mouth. Clearly she had subdued the monster already.
Another woman was nearby, her face hidden under a strange mask with a pair of armoured ears sticking out of the top. A mouse faunus, maybe?
The kneeling girl stood up and the hundreds of tassels that made up her battle dress flowed around her. Keen eyes took in Ruby from behind a cloth mask.
“Are you okay?” Ruby asked as she slowed down. Crescent Rose came to a rest by her side, the end hovering an inch off the ground. The mouse faunus was tense, but she didn’t pull out the sword hanging by her hip. Ruby didn’t recognize either girl from the initiation launch, but other than a few noteworthy faces the rest of the participants might as well have been black cutouts for all the attention she had paid them.
“We’re okay, but, um, was that your dog?” the tasseled girl asked. She pointed at the downed Beowolf, then brought her hands up to her chest where her fingers intertwined under her bust.
“Uh,” Ruby said. “No?”
“Oh, shucks. Okay... do you know the number of a good vet?”
“A vet? Like, for pets?” Ruby asked.
The girl nodded. “I didn’t mean to hurt the puppy, I swear. I just landed on him by accident.”
Ruby had the impression that her initiation had just gotten a lot more complicated.