Pet Quartet (ch22)

2-DAY EARLY RELEASE FOR ALL MY PATRONS!

Let me just say it's a good thing I changed the rating from K+

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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												Chapter 22. A Losing Battle

Ruby was frozen as she faced the rats who had deceived her. She trembled beneath her cape, but she hoped they didn't notice.

"You look as soft and plump as ever," Mercury grinned. "Cinder will just love that."

"You-!" Ruby looked back and forth between them. "You tricked me! I thought we were friends!"

The two rats looked at each other and laughed cruelly.

"Friends?" Emerald spat. "That's rich, kid. I gotta say, of all the little mice we've ever conned, you were the most gullible of all! But you were the only one to ever get away and live to tell the tale…"

"Not for long though," Mercury snickers. "That changes tonight."

Ruby dug her claws into the soil and went stiff.

"Why… Why are you doing this? Why can't you just leave us alone?!"

The rats looked thoughtfully at one another.

"For one," Mercury said. "If we don't give you over to Cinder, she'll have our heads."

"And for two," Emerald snapped. "We hate little human-fed pets like you. Almost as much as we hate the humans themselves."

Ruby tried to keep them talking instead of fighting.

"But why? The humans are so nice to us! They'd be nice to you, too!"

"Ha!" Emerald laughed so loud it sounded like a bark. "You really have no idea, do you kid?"

"Yes I do!" she squeaked. "Our humans are the nicest ever! All of the humans who live here are! They take care of us and feed us and give us these cool capes and collars!"

"They own you!" Emerald corrected. "You're nothing but merchandise to them."

"That isn't true! They love us! And they would love you guys too if you just-"

"Love?" Emerald almost gags on the word. "Please. There's not one single human out there who would ever love a rat. Or a snake. Or any of these mangey stray cats and dogs."

"You don't know that! Blake was a stray before and our humans took her in and love her with all their hearts!"

"They don't love her!" Emerald snarled. "They don't love any of you! And they definitely don't love us!"

"How do you know?" Ruby challenged.

Emerald and Mercury shared a glance again. This time, he took over.

"You seriously haven't connected the dots yet, have you, morsel? Didn't you tell us you came from the sewers like us? Didn't you call out for your mom and think she was coming back to get you, but she never did? Didn't you say you remember some awful-smelling stuff in the air down there…?"

Ruby didn't say anything this time. She just blinked up at him. Mercury continued.

"You have no idea what that was, do you?" he scoffed. "That was poison. Humans came down into those sewers and sprayed that stuff specifically to exterminate rodents like us. They killed your mom, and half the other rats and mice down in that tunnel. Friends of ours, too."

Ruby felt her heart stop. It felt like she was going to be sick.

"Wh… You mean…?"

"Humans," Emerald clarified. "They see us as pests. They try to kill us at any chance they get. They poison rodents like us, they shoot birds like your little friend for sport, they beat and torture and abuse cats and dogs, and any other animal they can get their filthy hands on! They hurt us and they kill us because they think it's fun! Because they can! Because they think we're a nuisance! They're all horrible, but it's creatures like us they hate the most! If you made a human choose between a kitten or a rat, which one will they always choose? No one ever chooses us! No one ever loves us! They only want us dead!"

In her rage, Emerald threw herself forward at Ruby. The mouse was still so stunned and terrified at what she'd just found out that she couldn't move. Penny had to interject and push her aside, taking the impact herself as Emerald tackled her.

Mercury raced forward to help his partner, but Penny managed to fling them both off. She hurried back to Ruby's side and pressed up against her.

"Don't listen to them, Ruby! You and I both know there are good humans out there. There are some right beyond those doors, right?"

Ruby looked back at her house - the house where she'd lived so many days together with Weiss and Blake and Yang and their humans. Their humans who loved them so much. Their humans who would be so sad if anything happened to them tonight.

"You're right." Ruby pawed at her face and wiped her eyes. "Maybe… Maybe some humans are bad… but not all of them."

Ruby lashed her tail as the two rats approached, lumbering across the grass with their teeth and eyes gleaming. Ruby backed up against Penny, but no further. She raised her head and faced her tormentors.

"Penny, get out of here. Go get help."

But she felt Penny give herself a shake and stand up to her full height.

"No. I'm going to help you, Ruby. After all, I'm combat-ready!"

Just then, Mercury leapt at them. Penny whirled around quickly and smacked him aside with her tail. Emerald was on her in a second, trying to claw at her, but Penny's long fur got the rat's paws tangled. Ruby ran up and bit Emerald's tail as hard as she could. The rat screeched.

"Ow! Why you little-!"

But Penny yanked Emerald away and bashed her head against hers as hard as she could. Emerald fell to the ground, dazed.

But right on cue, Mercury was back up to cover her, hurling himself at Ruby and knocking her down. His weight and bigger paws pinned her easily, and his teeth came snapping at her throat. Ruby struggled with all her might and managed to twist and flip over, so all he bit onto was her cape. She pushed upward and threw him off as Penny fended off Emerald.

But Ruby could see the skunk wasn't doing well after her ordeal with the dog. She looked really unbalanced, and Emerald kept biting her anywhere she could. Ruby charged and threw herself onto the rat, nipping her ears. When Mercury came running over to help, Ruby jumped off at the last second, and he ended up biting his own ally.

"Ow! Hey, watch it, you idiot!"

"Sorry!"

"You're gonna be if we don't get Cinder that mouse."

Ruby squared herself up to face them. They seemed a little tired, but only half as much as she and Penny were. The rats were used to fighting. Ruby knew their stamina would win out eventually. She shrunk back and murmured to Penny.

"We need to get rid of one of them if we can…"

Penny nodded.

"Leave it to me. On my count, start running. Three… two… one… go!"

Ruby didn't ask questions. She turned around and started fleeing into the bushes. She heard the rats calling out after her.

"Hey!"

"Go get her!"

But Penny didn't run with them. Instead, she took up her position and raised her tail. And as the rats passed her by-

"Ugh-!"

"What the-?!"

A plume of foul-smelling fumes covered the rats as they ran past her, soaking them down to the bone at such close range. They both tumbled over each other and crashed to the ground.

"Gross!" Mercury whined. "I told you this would happen!"

"Oh, shut up! Who cares about a little stink? We have a job to do!"

But before they could get their bearings, Ruby heard a squeak. Penny had run in to bite Mercury's tail and drag him away. She sprayed him again, right in the face.

"Ugh! I can't, Em! I can't see! I-I gotta go-"

"Fine!" she snapped. "Get out of here! I can handle this myself."

So Mercury stumbled away whimpering as Emerald turned to face Penny. But Ruby promptly put herself between the rat and the skunk.

"Penny, you go get help. I can handle her on my own."

"Oh?" Emerald clicked her teeth. "You sure about that, mousey?"

Penny looked at Ruby again, and the mouse nodded. So Penny limped away as quickly as she could, and Ruby turned to face Emerald alone...

The muffled sounds of fighting were still echoing up from all around the yard. The only ones not doing any of the fighting were Adam, and a black-and-red snake that slithered up beside him.

Blake was nearing her limit now. She'd fought off so many cats, but they just kept coming. She could see that Yang was having trouble with so many dogs attacking her at once too. Her bandana had already been torn off, and there was blood streaked in her golden fur.

Blake could feel several bloody spots on her own body as well. When she looked up, she could see that Weiss was running out of places to hide from the hawk. Her wing must have been bothering her again, because this was the longest she'd had to fly since it healed. Now, the little songbird was getting slower and slower, and the hawk never rested.

At the far end of the yard, Ruby stood alone now with one of the rats who was twice her size, and Penny was nowhere to be seen.

Blake looked again to the house and tried to yowl to wake her humans, but halfway through her call she was knocked to the ground. More cats were on her now, clawing and biting and sending pain throbbing through her body. She fought her hardest, used every dirty trick Adam had ever taught her.

But he'd taught them, too.

Blake couldn't fight anymore. She felt blood dripping down over her eyes and rasped out a weak mew to her friends.

"I'm sorry…"

But then, the cats on top of her stopped and backed away. Panting, Blake looked up as Adam crouched down over her with a grin, his orange eyes looking closer to red now.

"See, Blake? I told you it would end this way." He flicked his tail, and she noticed the snake slither away. Adam stepped onto Blake's neck and she wheezed. "You disgust me, Blake. Letting these humans take you in and put their little collars on you. What happened to you? I thought you were a real cat."

Blake hissed feebly at him.

"You're wrong… about them…"

"Am I?" He shrugged. "Well, it doesn't matter. You won't live to see the sunrise anyway." He lunged down in one quick motion, and Blake closed her eyes.

But instead of tearing her throat clean out, his teeth grabbed her collar. Of course Adam would never give her a quick and painless death. She knew him. He liked to watch his prey suffer.

He hauled her up by the collar, and Blake tried to kick and struggle free, but it only tightened the grip on her throat. She gasped as he growled right up against her ear.

"This is what happens, Blake. This is what happens when you betray me."

And she looked and saw what he meant.

Yang collapsed under an army of spitting, barking animals, whimpering out one last little whine.

Weiss fell from the sky, landing with a harsh rustling sound in a bush. The hawk swooped down and began clawing branches away to get to her.

The rat pinned Ruby by her cape and choked her keep her from wiggling free.

"No-" Blake wheezed. "Adam- p-please-"

"Begging won't help you now," he sneered. "But keep going. I like it."

By now, his army of cats and dogs had dragged Yang to the center of the yard for all to see. The hawk snatched Weiss in its claws and dropped her beside the retriever. The rat bit Ruby's cape and tossed her there with the other two. All of them were bleeding and barely able to open their eyes. Blake mewled for them, but Adam choked her tighter.

"Now, you'll watch," he growled. "You'll watch them die. One by one."

She saw the flash of red as the snake slithered through the grass toward Ruby. She felt Adam exchange his grip on her with another cat, so he could slink up toward Weiss. She watched the lanky dogs and cats prowling up to Yang with their teeth bared.

Blake looked one last time to the house. But the lights didn't come on, and the humans didn't come out to help them.

She looked one last time to her friends and cried out.

I'm sorry…

Blake's vision blurred, and then went black.

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A/N: I hope you'll continue reading to the end...