Chapter 40
As we stare each other down from a short distance in the dead of night, we each prepare our first move. We charge at each other, and we get into it. I keep swinging at her with extended tentacles.
Ruby: “You’re in the way, Blake! Always in the way…” My voice sounding a bit more masculinely monstrous in that last bit. “I could have fixed everything!”
Blake: “How? By hurting everyone to the point of death?! That’s not what we do!”
Ruby: “Don’t try to mentor me! I’m not a child anymore! I haven’t been since I got these powers!”
Blake: “This has nothing to do with you being a child! All I want was to protect the ones I love! To protect YOU!”
Ruby: “You’re not better than me!”
Blake: “I’m not saying that! You’re stronger than some suit, Ruby! Don’t listen to it!”
Ruby: “And what? Listen to you?”
Blake: “Yes! Listen to me! What are you so afraid of?!” She gets in close to give me a good shove, pushing a short distance away before she tries to charge me again. I close the gap for her by stretching out a large arm made from tentacles to grab her, pull her in close before retracting the arm once I’ve got a hold of her with my own hand and then push her onto the ground below and try to hold her there.
Ruby: “I need this suit! It makes me a better hero!” Then a certain thought comes to me. “You just want it for yourself!” I lift her up before slamming her back down again. She has her left hand on my arm holding her down and tries to use her right to grab at my suit, but I use my other hand to grab at her and stop her before she an even try.
Blake: “All I WANT is to save you!”
Ruby: “I’m the hero! I don’t get saved!” She manages to push us up and tries to push me off of her. We both end up jumping in the air for a brief moment before pushing ourselves away from each other. “Just leave me alone! I don’t need you! I don’t need ANYONE!”
Blake: “I know you don’t mean that!” She tries to get in close before I push her back again by sprouting out several tentacles all around me, almost as if mimicking an explosion, before retracting them right after.
Ruby: “All I wanted was to save everyone! Weiss. Yang… Now everyone thinks that I’M the problem... You think I’m the problem!” Sounding monstrous again in that last bit before reverting back. “But I’m not anymore! I’m the solution!” Doing it again for the last bit. She and I go at it again for a minute, until she gets a chance to deliver a hard kick and knock me back a bit. I try to reach for her with a long reach again like before, but she managed to flip over it and launch herself at me, allowing her to hold me down instead as she pushed me back upon impact. “I can’t let this go. I’m finally everything everyone needs me to be!”
Blake: “No you're not! Even now, you're losing your usual compassionate self!” I try to hit her with another tentacle, but she dodged by moving her head to the side. She then worked to throw me up into the air before jumping up after me. She grabbed onto me and got above me before shooting her grapple line towards the ground and used to pull us down quickly, putting her back on top of me, holding me down with her left hand, with me using my right to try and get her hand off of me. “And what about back in the lab?! You could’ve killed us!” I try to punch at her with my left, but she caught it with her still empty right and pushed it back to the ground. “I know you’re hurting, Ruby, but you’re better than this!” I can feel her words getting through as my sense of self tries to fight against the Symbiotes will.
Ruby: “I know. I know, but…” But it’s never that easy. The Symbiotes will is still quite strong as it pushes itself back in. “No... NOOO!” More tentacles extended from my arms and pushed her back. And once she’s off, I back flip away from her before the tentacles retract.
Blake: “The people in my life, the people I love! They’re all counting on me! They need a hero and… if I thought some suit could save them, maybe I’d be in your shoes right now! But THIS kind of power is what makes them need us to begin with as well as what killed the ones we love, like your mom! Not you, not me!”
Ruby: “Shut up!” I grab a nearby rock and try to throw it at her at full force, but she dodged and caught it with her grapple, to which she flung up at the bell, causing a moment of loud noise. *groans*”Stop!”
Blake: “You’ve got to be stronger than that! This time, you have to save yourself!”
Ruby: “I… can’t...!”
Blake: “You will! I’m not losing you, Ruby! Fight it!” She’s right! I can’t let myself fall to this kind of temptation!
???: “No! Do not listen! They will only hold you back!”
Ruby: “Shut up! I am done listening to you! I don’t care about your power anymore! I won’t let you hurt my friends and family anymore! It’s time for you to go!” I swing up to bell tower, place my hands on the large glops pinning Weiss and Yang to walls to retract it all and thus free them before moving directly under the bell. But I can feel the Symbiote trying to fight me again. “Grrgh! Do it guys! I don’t know how much longer I can hold it!”
Yang: “Right!” They get into position at the crank again. “Okay. One. Two. Three!” They start turning the crank again and make to bell ring.
Ruby: “GRRAAAAAGH!!!” And with how close I am to the bell this time, the Symbiote is taking an even greater hit, and thus getting much weaker. I can feel myself regaining enough control to actual move again, to which I first grabbed at my face and pulled down the part covering my head before moving down to grab and pull at the suit itself with both my hands. With how much the bell is ringing, the Symbiote continues to retract as I pull on it, until I finally get it all off of me, and toss it aside before dropping to my hands and knees in exhaustion.
Yang: “There! It’s off! Now let’s get it!”
Weiss: “Right!” She grabs the folded cage from her back, but then noticed it dented and sparking when she looked at it. “Oh no!” She tried to activate it, but it wouldn’t come on. “Crap!” It starts to crawl away as Blake gets up here.
Blake: “Oh no you don’t!” She tries to grab at it, but its fluid form lets it literally slip through her fingers and get away as it crept its way outside and along the wall leading away from the tower. “Damn! I lost sight of it!”
Yang: “What the hell happened?”
Weiss: “When we were pushed against the walls earlier, the impact seems to have broken the cage as it was still strapped to my back. We can’t catch it like this.”
Ruby: “Sorry about that, Weiss...”
Yang: “Ruby! Are you okay?” As she came in close for a tight hug.
Ruby: “Don’t worry, I’m fine. Just... exhausted. And maybe a bit of a headache from fighting against the Symbiotes tempting will.”
Weiss: “We’re just glad that you’re okay.”
Blake: “Let’s just hope that it's been weakened enough that we can afford to ignore for a little bit. You definitely need your rest after all of that.” Meanwhile, Grimm can be seen walking along the street until he sees Weiss and Yang running away from the church entrance and Blake swinging away from the bell tower with me holding on to her.
Grimm: “What the hell?” He decides to head inside to investigate. While inside, the Symbiote slipped in through a crack in one of the windows. It sniffs again upon seeing Grimm and notices something.
???: “Hatred... Resentment... Rage... A kindred spirit.” It thought as it started crawling along the rafters, and Grimm could hear the squishy noises.
Grimm: “What was that?” The Symbiote started dripping from the rafter once it was above him. He was freaking as it was landing on him but couldn’t get it off and was really struggling as it completely covered him. Once it did, it started taking over as it formed into its giant dog like monstrous form and let out its roar as it formed completely. And for the first time ever, it actually spoke out loud rather than in Grimm’s mind.
???: “Scarlet Spider... You will pay dearly for rejecting my power!”