AN: Sorry! Sorry! I'm late! I meant to post this yesterday and I got side tracked.

Chapter 31

Emily stood in the middle of downtown Vale, staring down the street in confusion. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on what it was. Her mind was fuzzy and it was hard for her to put thoughts together.

The street was completely deserted. There wasn't a trace of any living thing for miles around her. Cars were parked carefully in designated spaces and every shop on the street was marked as open for business. She could hear the buzz of a nearby shop's neon sign and another shop had a simple hanging sign in the door with the words "Welcome! We're Open!" upon it. All of the buildings had their lights on, but there wasn't a single person in or around them.

"Nobody's home," the Faunus said to herself. Her tone was disinterested, casual. It seemed oddly appropriate that there wasn't anyone around. That wasn't what was wrong.

She idly noted that the street was completely clean. The cement of the sidewalk wasn't cracked and the tarmac of the streets was black and fresh. There wasn't any litter, either. She checked a nearby trash can.

The trash can was half filled and completely level and there wasn't a hint of a recyclable item from what she could see. She decided against searching the contents to be sure. But that wasn't what was wrong. The cleanliness felt completely natural. The feeling of wrongness increased the longer she stood there. She looked up.

The sky was a bright and beautiful blue. White and fluffy clouds were scattered in the sky. There was just enough to be appealing without blocking the sun's warming rays. The temperature was comfortable and Emily could feel a small breeze passing by her. The weather wasn't what was wrong. It was natural and it was just about perfect.

Everything was just about perfect, she realized. The city was quiet, clean, and peaceful. There wasn't anyone around, but the businesses were all open and there were cars parked. The only oddity was that there wasn't anyone around. It was as if everyone in the Kingdom had stepped away for a small break.

The blonde's uneasiness kept growing. Something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong. If she was certain of anything, she was certain of that. Something was wrong.

A thought struck her. Something was wrong? Yes. Something did not belong here. Something was not supposed to be here. Vale was peaceful and quiet without anyone in it. Except, there was someone in the city.

With that thought, Emily's stomach curled around itself. The answer was obvious. She was what was wrong. She wasn't supposed to be here. She was the problem. If she wasn't around, there wouldn't be a problem. Things would be normal. Things would be right. Everything would return to what it should be.

The cat suddenly realized that she was in her combat gear and Wind's Edge was wrapped around her waist as it should be. The thought entered her mind so easily. It was the first clear thought she'd had this entire time. She had the power to fix the problem. If she went away, then things would be normal.

Slowly, her hand moved toward the hilt of her weapon. But there was resistance. Some force was making her hand move with agonizing slowness. Every rational part of her mind was telling her that she had to solve the problem, but despite that clear and irrefutable fact, she couldn't follow through.

Emily put more will into the attempted action and the counteracting force grew in intensity. She began to grow angry. It was the right thing to do. It was the natural thing to do. Why was this mystery force fighting her? Everything else was perfectly normal and rational, except for her. It made sense for her to be missing. She just knew it was the right course. So what was wrong with her hand?

She tried to move her hand away from Wind's Edge's hilt and her movement was unimpeded. She was so surprised that she stumbled, almost falling in front of a shop window. The Faunus straightened and looked into the window. Some…thing stared back at her.

It was humanoid in shape and feminine in figure. Instead of feet, it had large talons, the white claws honed to a razor sharp point. The creature's knees were reverse jointed. Its arms were normal shaped, but the hands ended in talon-like claws, but with opposable thumbs and white sharp claws instead of finger tips and nails. It had great wings folded at its back.

The head was not humanoid. The monster had the head of a large bird wearing a white bone mask and burning red eyes. And it was black. Every part of its body that wasn't white bone or claws was a shade of black so dark that light seemed to fall into it. A Grimm stared back at her.

Emily recoiled in terror at the monster that stared at her and the creature mimicked her actions. It recoiled from her and the beaked face somehow managed to convey terror.

She tried to reach for her weapon to defend herself. The force met her arm and refused to budge. Not only that, but the Grimm mimicked her again, reaching for a copy of Wind's Edge wrapped around its waist and meeting similar resistance.

Similar? Or exact?

Emily moved her arm away from the hilt of her weapon and the humanoid/bird Grimm did likewise. The Faunus reached a hand toward the glass and the Grimm copied her. She stopped suddenly and so did the Grimm.

Emily began to breathe faster and faster in fear and the Grimm seemed to be having a similar reaction.

Some small part of her mind that wasn't terrified realized what had happened with the window. The light of the sun reflected off of the glass at such an angle that the window acted like a mirror.

She looked down at herself and saw her normal body. She reached up and felt her cat ears, noting that the Grimm in the window copied her movements. The ears were still there.

She had to be having a nightmare. That was the only explanation. She had to having an extremely vivid nightmare. For some reason, she didn't really buy that argument.

"Of course you don't," the reflection said in a distortion of her own voice. It was almost imperceptibly lower and it was more gravelly, but it was her own voice. "You know better than that." Emily's brain nearly shut down when she realized that when the Grimm's beak moved in speech, her mouth did as well. And the voice had come from her, rather than the mirror.

"You are learning," the Grimm said with her mouth. "Not that it matters. You are mine. Accept this and your fate. I will destroy you, little girl. You and all of humanity and all you have worked to create. Accept it, little girl."

The monster's words woke something up in Emily. Anger and indignation surged through her and the fear utterly left her, along with the fogginess that had plagued her mind this entire time.

"Excuse me?!" she exclaimed. She noted that her voice had returned to normal and that the reflection's beaklike mouth moved in time with her words. She also noted that the reflection looked as surprised as she had when it had used her mouth.

"If you are going to threaten me," she continued. "At least have the intelligence to know who and what I am. I am not a member of humanity. I am a Faunus. As much as I am willing to stand at the side of humanity, I will not accept being called a human being. I am a Faunus. And I'm proud of it."

"Are you, little girl?" the monster asked, her mouth moving against her will once again. "I can see the dark pieces of your heart. The secrets and shames that haunt your thoughts. Do not lie to me, little girl. You are not so proud of your Faunus heritage as you proclaim." Emily's anger vanished and she felt unsteady without the support of the emotion.

"That's… not true." she said weakly. The monster laughed.

"You cannot lie to me, little girl. I know you." Emily shook her head, but there wasn't any emphasis in the motion. "You wish that you were born a human," the creature said. "You think that if you had been born without those ears that you would've been treated better. That you could've taken up dancing, or art. You think that if you'd been born human you wouldn't have been targeted by that girl, Terra.

"You think that if you'd been born human, you wouldn't be so soft. Having to depend on others to get you where you are. You think that if you were human you might be better able to lead your comrades."

Tears slid down Emily's face. The Grimm's face was not marked by tracks of water, but rather with tracks of crimson blood. "And you know that it is true. You've seen the human students. Pyrrha Nikos, confident and invincible. Ruby Rose, young and ahead of her class. Weiss Schnee, educated and near the top of her class. You know you could never match them, yet you keep up the pretense that you can consider them companions in an undertaking that is ultimately futile."

Emily slumped to the ground, broken. It knew. It knew her fears all too well. The feeling of wrongness crept into her mind once again. She was the problem. She needed to go. She reached for the hilt of her weapon, and the force didn't stop her this time. What was she, really? A failure in everything she had attempted. Turned away time after time in her attempts to dance and make art. Lost in the shadow of future huntresses that were so out of her league that she couldn't even choke on their dust. The least she could do was remove the problem from this perfect Vale. That way she could at least do something right.

As her hand was about to touch the hilt of Wind's Edge she heard something. She stopped and strained her ears to listen.

"Why put off the inevitable?" the Grimm asked her. Emily ignored the voice and listened.

It sounded like claws scrambling on tiles. She looked around, but there was only cement and tarmac and buildings. There wasn't any tile for claws to scrape against. Was she imagining it? Then she heard grunts and shouts of surprise. A snatch of the words, "Stop that dog!" Except there wasn't a dog to be seen anywhere. And, was the ground shaking?

Emily pulled her hand away from her weapon's hilt and laid it on the sidewalk next to her. There was a slight tremor in the ground. And it was growing stronger, quickly.

Before she knew it, she heard something heavy slam into something solid and then she heard a clear, nearly deafening, and completely unexpected sound. A dog barking.

AN: So yeah, this was a thing. I'm not gonna lie, reading this always disturbs me a little bit. In any event, don't forget to favorite, follow, and drop a review! Until next time! Ciao!