Chapter Text
Grace had very quickly turned around at the sound of the voice, the rest of the world around her feeling like it went silent. And she found herself standing face to face with a figure clad in white and cyan, a crooked smile simply radiating from them.
Their ominously cheerful voice shouts out, with southern twang, “Well you ain’t on the cargo list!”
Grace's jaw dropped, being frozen in place, as before her was someone she was quite familiar with, so many hours spent staring at them on her screen "Scythe.." The outlaw happened to be one of her favorite characters to play whenever she did open the game, for both the western aesthetics and playstyle, they were almost perfect.. though certainly that joy of seeing them was dulled now that they were real alongside their long list of crimes.
Scythe seemed to take pride in seeing the recognition tracing Grace's face, making quick assumptions on where they knew her from, "Aw you a fan or somethin'? Well, I wouldn't bet the dust on your shoes for me to be going easy on you for trying to make off with the cargo now"
The girl raised her hands in a panic trying to explain the situation, "Wait what..? I'm not stealing the stuff in here-"
Grace was cut off as suddenly with a small glow emanated from the space in front of her, the namesake scythe appearing close to her throat, luckily the blade hadn't yet dug into her skin. "You lie like a rug, why else would someone be in here apart from to steal from the Father," said the outlaw with venom in her voice.
"Oookay.. so no talking this out I'm going to assume-" the feeling of the blade starting to dig into her neck was the confirmation she needed, as she felt herself sweating bullets. Her mind started to run in many directions for what to do, though eventually landed on the simplest option, as she channeled all her focus..
"Think fast!" the words fell out of her mouth so quick one could barely tell what she said, as she swiftly reached into the crate behind her and chunked one of the metal scraps into Scythe's face. And luckily, or maybe simply due to the fact one of Scythe's arms was occupied holding the weapon, the metal hit them square in the face.
Scythe had pulled their weapon away out of instinct to grab her face, giving Grace enough space to bolt out of the train car. Her smile quickly turned to a scowl, as she ran out after them, "Why you little!"
Grace was panicked, looking for any escape with what little time they bought themselves, eventually landing on maybe not the brightest idea of hopping on top of the train. As she grabbed onto the ladder on the side of the train car and quickly made her way up, dashing to the other side with Scythe following close behind.
The two faced each other from the opposite sides of the train car's roof, Grace was sweating bullets because she didn't think that far ahead, and Scythe was.. annoyed to say the least- changing over to the rifle to try to end this battle before it started.
Though both startled as the train began to move again, Scythe missing the shot they did having it only graze Grace's shoulder, with her letting out a yelp in response.
The outlaw seemed even more displeased than she was before, "I thought I told 'em to stop the damn thang!" Despite the temporary mishap, Scythe quickly focused back in, dashing at Grace while swapping back to their blade.
'Oh shit oh shit oh shit-' were the main words running through Grace's head, as she tried her best to avoid slash after slash, with little luck. The fact that they were on a moving platform combined with simply how fast Scythe was, it was hard not to get hit, with her arms and torso quickly gathering cuts of different depths.
"I figured you'd put up more of a scrap, considering how bold you've been," said the outlaw with some twisted amusement, their grin returning along with a mocking tone, "You ain't even use your gear! Is it really that bad? I was hoping for some fun"
As Scythe said this, they dove forward for what they both assumed to be the last time, the scythe blade going for her throat with seemingly no stop in sight.
Grace knew she had to do something, Scythe's words echoing in her mind- anything to fight back, and she knew that she could and would. With this mentality came a spark inside her mind, a buzzing feeling through her body like energy itching to get out, as she reached out and-
CLANK!
A flash of light revealed a katana like blade was now in her hands, blocking the scythe's swing to her throat. The cross guard seemed to be two crescent moons, currently matching the gem floating in between her horns in both color and glow. As she pushed the blade forward to move the outlaw's weapon away, a wave of soft light flung from it, pushing Scythe away to the edge of the train car roof.
Scythe stumbled forward as to not fall off of the train car, though seemed.. happy, "Finally! I love when they put up a fight.' With these words she launched forward once more at Grace.
For Grace, as she swung at and blocked Scythe, she did make mistakes when it came to doing things at the right time. Despite this it felt like to Grace that she had trained with this katana hundreds of times out of battle, it was as natural as lifting her arm, though the lack of actual battle experience was starting to show. 'Damn, is this what they meant by a gear is part of them?' she thought as she lifted her blade to block another oncoming attack.
It felt like hours, the motion of block, attack, move, becoming repetitive and tiring. Grace felt exhausted, the sword was heavy. Her limbs ached and the wounds pain didn't seem to fade, and Scythe didn't seem to even be breaking a sweat! Grace was sure despite everything she went through that they'd end up killing her anyways- though she did see something that very quickly reignited hope. In the distance the train was approaching a bustling city.
It was grand, although the first few buildings Grace could see were somewhat small, they very quickly got larger the further into the city you got, colorful fabrics spilling out from the rooftops to cover the sunlight in the daytime. And even with the fact it was night, it seemed business never stopped with the amount of Inphernals wandering around the many stalls.
Seeing this opportunity Grace bolted up the different train cars to buy time (narrowly avoiding a shot when Scythe swapped to their rifle), and just like how she got on the train she quickly jumped off when she saw the chance, landing into a pile of carpets a nearby Inphernal was trying to sell. Promptly getting up from said carpets and bolting, with Scythe following soon after, neither being able to hear the shouts of the salesperson behind them.
Grace darted through city like a madman, weaving through crowds and alleys (de-summoning her gear as to not accidentally stab anyone), she heard the taunts of Scythe behind her eventually fade into the distance- despite this she kept running until she felt her legs almost give out on her. Eventually she wound up in what seemed to be the end of a night market, finding a shadowed alley with a sigh she let herself collapse in it.
From where she laid, she watched the crowds pass by as she ripped cloth from her poncho to wrap her wounds the best she could. She noted most people seemed to wear rather lavish clothes, at least in this part of the city. Though her focus on the crowd faded, each person becoming a blur, as she went over what happened in her mind.
"I actually fucking survived that.. holy shit," she let out a muffled laugh as the idea of surviving an encounter with someone like Scythe was just absurd to her, "She's going to come back to get me ain't she.. welp.. might as well plan while I can."
She made a small checklist in her mind, 'Get out of Lost Temple until you are better equipped to deal with everything, deal with the Church of the True Eye (when possible), don't die- and give yourself a new name'
Grace whispered out, "Oh yeah I can do that last one now- uh.." She re-summoned her katana, looking down at the handle, and staring at herself in the reflection of the metal, and although she didn't remember the name of the gear, she could guess part of it- "Moon.. simple enough.."
Grace Moon let her head lean back, looking to the skies as dawn finally came.