Chapter 1: Red Like Roses

Ruby Rose awoke late that night in her room to the sound of someone's voice. The voice wasn't very scary in and of itself. In fact, she'd go as far as to say that the voice was kind of cute in a way. The scary part was that she could hear the voice coming from everywhere at once - not too loud nor too quiet. It was as if the voice was coming directly from inside her head.

"Who are you?" Ruby whispered, immediately hiding under her blanket.

"My name is Kyubey," the voice said. "Do not be alarmed, Ruby Rose. I am not a threat. Come out from under that bedsheet and see for yourself."

Ruby bit her lip, unsure of how to proceed. "That's what a monster would want you to think," part of her said. And almost immediately another part of her retorted, "If that voice is already in your head, then you were doomed from the very start." Faced with such a terrifying realization, Ruby could only bite her lip harder.

"I'm coming out... Don't hurt me..."

Peeking from under her blanket, she found a white creature at the foot of her bed. It was small - about the size and shape of a house cat - with a large fluffy tail, long flaps that came out of its ears, and glowing red eyes. It smiled quietly at her as its tail swooshed behind it.

"I urge you to calm yourself, Ruby Rose," the creature known as Kyubey said. "I am not here to hurt you."

Ruby watched Kyubey with equal parts worry and curiosity as it began licking its paws the way a cat would. "Why are you here?" she asked as she tentatively moved a little closer.

Kyubey looked her in the eyes and tilted its head. "Tell me, Ruby Rose. Do you believe in the existence of magic and miracles?"

Ruby immediately felt a chill run up her spine. "No," she said automatically as she scooted away from the creature.

"What a curious reaction." Kyubey regarded her for a moment before turning away. "It is unfortunate that you do not believe. You had potential. Perhaps at a later date." It then jumped off of Ruby's bed, taking one last second to look back at Ruby before disappearing into the shadows.

"Until we meet again, Ruby Rose..."

It had been two weeks since the last time Ruby spoke with the creature known as Kyubey. She would have written off the entire encounter as a nightmare had she not seen Kyubey several more times since that first encounter.

Whenever she was walking home from school, she would sometimes look behind her and see Kyubey standing with the crowd at the intersection she had just crossed. Whenever she was studying in the school library, she would sometimes see Kyubey lying on top of the librarian's desk, as if asleep. Even within the safety of her own house, she'd sometimes find Kyubey's tail flit out of view as he rounded a corner.

And what was most confusing about it was that no one seemed to notice he was there. They'd always just look past him, as if the weird white cat didn't even exist. It was so strange. Ruby wondered if she was just hallucinating. If she was the only one who could see Kyubey then it was the obvious conclusion to draw. Except she wasn't the only one who was be able to see it. Ruby knew her sister, Yang, could see Kyubey too.

For a few days now, she had seen Yang with the creature perched atop her shoulder, sitting on her lap, or walking alongside her. Whenever she saw them together, Yang always seemed to be muttering to herself and trying very hard look in any direction other than wherever Kyubey happened to be. It was subtle. Yang was hiding the fact very well. But Ruby could see straight through it.

Why was Yang involved with Kyubey? How did that happen? What were they talking about? What on earth was even going on?

Those were the questions that swam through Ruby's mind. They made sleep hard to come by...

Yang had started coming home late. It wasn't all that unusual. She was in high school, after all. High schoolers had a lot more freedom to just be out and about than middle schoolers. Still though, arriving at ten at night? It was driving their dad sick with worry. He'd always chew her out about how a girl like her shouldn't be out and about after dark. Who knew what creeps were out there and what they'd do to her if they ever got their hands on her. Yang always nodded in silence until their dad finished his lecture. She'd then apologize and head straight to her room.

Ruby could feel for Yang. Their dad could be overbearing at times. Still, she was pretty worried about Yang as well... but for different reasons.

She had enough of simply watching from a distance. Kyubey was up to something and Yang was involved. She wasn't gonna keep letting it happen without at least finding out what it was.

Ruby sat on her bed, knees up to her chest, her eyelids sagging from sleepiness. It was past midnight. Normally she'd be asleep at this time and frankly she kinda wished she was. But she had other plans that night - plans that were worth the hit to her sleep schedule.

"Kyubey, are you there?" she asked quietly.

Ruby waited a moment for a response. She almost believed she wouldn't get one. But then she blinked and suddenly there was a cat-like creature sitting outside her window. It looked at Ruby with its glowing red eyes, the streetlamps outside casting dark shadows against its white fur.

"What is it, Ruby Rose?" Kyubey asked as it hopped onto her bed and sat comfortably in front of her.

Ruby pursed her lips. She felt a churning in her stomach. She was grateful she hadn't eaten much during dinner.

"What did you do to Yang. What did you involve her in?" Ruby asked. Kyubey stared unblinking for a moment. It was unnerving.

"To answer your question, I must ask what I asked you twenty-five days ago. Do you believe in the existence of magic and miracles?"

Ruby frowned. Why did that even matter?

"It matters because you have potential," Kyubey said, as if Ruby had said her thoughts aloud. "Your sister had potential as well."

"Potential for what?" Ruby growled, her frustration steadily building at the creature's cryptic way of speaking.

"Magic," Kyubey said simply. "I contracted Yang Xiao Long to defeat physical manifestations of darkness and despair using the magic she had potential for."

Ruby stared at Kyubey, wide-eyed as she parsed exactly what Kyubey had just told her. "You... you..." she said shakily, the sides of her mouth slowly curling up ever so slightly. "You turned her into a superhero...? Am I hearing this right...?"

Kyubey's tail swished behind him.. "You can call it that."

Ruby slowly shook her head, a wry smile on her face. Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's big sister, fighting evil creatures with magic? That sounded like something from the the cartoons she watched when she was a kid. It couldn't be real, could it? It couldn't be. Because if it was, then... then... it would be so dumb... so weird... so... so cool...

A person with magic powers. A superhero fighting monsters. Someone who saved people. How many years had Ruby fantasized about being one? And here Yang was, doing exactly that - and keeping it a secret! Why didn't Yang tell her? Didn't she realize that Ruby would have been ecstatic to hear about what she'd become? About what she could do? If Ruby had magic, Yang would be the first person to know! She-

Ruby suddenly recalled what Kyubey said earlier. She had potential for magic... She could be like Yang... She could also be a hero...

Ruby swallowed down the excitement welling up inside her and looked to Kyubey. Slowly she leaned forward. "I... I don't know how much to believe you but... I wanna hear more... How do get magic?"

Ruby had always wanted to be a hero. She never expected it to be a walk in the part. She knew she had to make sacrifices to walk that path. The constant threat of death and injury; the need to balance a secret life with her normal life - all of it seemed like things she'd eventually get used to if she just lived that way long enough. But the sacrifices required for Kyubey's deal made her a lot less sure of herself.

Even after two days thinking on the matter, she wasn't sure.

Ruby sat slumped over her desk, several sheets worth of unfinished homework stacked next to her. In light of recent developments, she had started falling behind on her studies. She tried to catch up but she could never focus long enough to make any real progress. Her mind was too occupied by other things.

"Kyubey, I wanna ask you some more questions," she said quietly.

White paws landed atop her stack of papers. "Ask away, Ruby Rose," Kyubey said.

Ruby slowly sat up, eyes still unfocused. "Do all the girls you contract honestly agree to your deal after you told them you would tear out their souls and turn it into a glowing rock?"

"Very few girls are aware of the nature of soul gems. In truth, most of them made contracts immediately after being given the offer and most of them fall in battle before ever finding out."

Ruby frowned. "You never thought it would be, I don't know, important that they'd know?"

"Based on our statistics, the likelihood of girls contracting is severely diminished when they have that knowledge. Their potential also tends to drop. We have chosen to withhold the information in order to better guarantee that girls would contract."

Ruby's frown deepened. That was a sleazy business practice. Really sleazy...

"As for the girls who are already contracted, we would tell them if they asked. It is just that the topic rarely comes up."

"So the reason you told me about soul gems at all was...?"

"Because you asked, yes."

Ruby grit her teeth. "So if I never asked, you would never have told me," she growled. "Because telling me would lower my potential."

"On the contrary, your potential is surprisingly stable. In fact, your potential has actually increased since you found out. It's quite unusual but not unprecedented."

Ruby nodded slowly.

She felt numb. She had felt numb since she first found out. And yet, under those dull sensations, she still felt the excitement at the thought of getting magic powers to fight evil. It didn't really make sense. Everything about the situation told at her to remove herself from it. It screamed that she wanted nothing to do with it. Even still, she felt drawn to the thought.

Maybe that's what Kyubey meant when it said her potential was stable. Even after hearing everything she heard - all the horrible things Kyubey seemed to be doing to girls without their knowledge - for whatever reason, she was still willing to contract. The want was still there...

Ruby rubbed her eyes, feeling a headache growing from her lack of sleep over the last few days.

"Did you tell Yang...? About soul gems, I mean...?"

"She is aware of it, yes." Ruby hummed questioningly at the wording. Sensing curiosity, Kyubey continued.

"Yang Xiao Long met another contractee last night. Together, they took down a witch residing in downtown Vale. After which, they fought over the grief seed it dropped. Due to her powers, Yang Xiao Long dispatched her opponent easily. Her finishing blow was to the soul gem, shattering it and immediately killing the other girl. Upon realizing this, she panicked and called out to us. After we explained to her the true nature of soul gems, she told us to shut up and leave her alone."

Ruby released a shallow breath. Yang had been gone for the entire night. Yang's friends said she still went to school the next day but seemed distant. Hollow. Which was exactly what she was like when she got home later that night. Their dad was too worried to be angry at her. He just wanted to know what happened so he could help. Of course Yang never told him. She didn't tell Ruby either. She wasn't even aware that Ruby knew she was a magical girl.

"Is Yang... is she okay...?"

"Yang Xiao Long is not in a good state, currently," Kyubey said. "However, we believe that she will recover."

Ruby smiled in bittersweet relief. Yang getting better was certainly a welcome thought. And yet, she couldn't help but feel disturbed.

This was what she wanted? This was the path she was headed towards? A self-imposed isolation from her friends and family? Fighting over grief seeds like starving wolves over scraps of meat? Being forced to kill anything that wasn't even a witch because it was a threat to your survival as a magical girl? What could possibly be worth this much suffering?

"That is the correct question to ask, Ruby Rose. What is worth a life so filled with hardships and sorrow? What do you desire so much that you'd give up everything to have it? What is the wish that will make your soul gem shine?"

Ruby blinked. A certain energy seemed to well up inside of her - like liquid fire coursing through her veins. She didn't know what her wish would be. A simple question from Kyubey wouldn't be enough for her to figure it out. But it was enough to tell her something very important.

Even after everything, she still had potential. She still had a wish that could be granted. She still had something she believed was worth her soul and a lifetime of battling witches. And even though she had no idea what it was, it was comforting to know that she had one. And that eventually she'd figure out what it was.

Once she did that, she'd have it. Forever.

Kyubey jumped off the table and onto the windowsill. "There is no rush, Ruby Rose. As we stated earlier, your potential is remarkably stable. Take as long as you need."

With that, Kyubey disappeared into the night, leaving Ruby with the echoes of those words in her mind.

What was the wish that would make her soul gem shine? "What?" indeed...

The question Kyubey asked her had plagued her for many nights. And the more nights she spent awake just thinking about it, the more and more she wanted her wish to mean something. She wanted to be a hero. And for a while, she wanted to be one just for the sake of it. But she knew she couldn't wish for it. Not when any other wish would grant her the same opportunity. It had to be something important. Something she could take with her for the rest of her life as a magical girl. What would it be...? If only she could just instantly know so she could finally make her wish!

Yang had been gone for a few days now. Their dad had fallen into a panic. The police have started investigating. Everything was a mess.

And yet, Ruby wasn't as worried as she would have been normally.

Kyubey tells her that Yang's wish was to find her mother. It said that for the past month, Yang had been hunting late and gathering as many grief seeds as she could in preparation for the journey it would take to get to her.

"She's fine, right?" Ruby asked as she stood outside her house, a police car parked outside, the owner of which no doubt speaking with her dad again.

"She is currently three hundred miles from Vale," Kyubey replied, sitting on the sidewalk next to her. "Her soul gem is healthy, as is her supply grief seeds. And due to her powers, survival shouldn't be too difficult for her."

Ruby nodded. "No... It shouldn't be..."

"If you wish to find her, you'd be more than capable of it."

"I'm not too worried. She can take care of herself," Ruby replied. "Walk with me, Kyubey. We need to talk."

She stalked away from the house. She needed to be somewhere private and her house was not that. Besides, the last thing she wanted to do was talk to more police officers. Kyubey padded alongside her.

After two or so hours of walking, they stood before a small stone slab in the grass, surrounded by other similar slabs. The slab directly in front of them had one name. Summer Rose.

"Thus kindly, I scatter," Ruby whispered, reading the epitaph aloud. "Tell me Kyubey, is it possible to wish someone back to life?"

"It depends on the potential of the girl making the wish. Unfortunately, you do not have enough to make such a wish."

Ruby smiled sadly as she knelt down, touching the tombstone.

Yang's mother was not Ruby's mother, at least not biologically. Yang's mother left them years ago and never came back. Ruby's mother stayed with their dad to take care of them both but... she eventually passed away, dying an early death. Both of Yang's mothers ended up leaving her, one way or another. Ruby could understand why she'd make the wish that she did.

As for Ruby... well, Summer Rose left her when she was too young to really understand. Other than vague memories that gave her warm feelings, she didn't really know what it was like to have a mother or what her mother was even like. Everything she knew about Summer was from what her dad and Yang told her. If she were alive then maybe Ruby would at least be able to talk to her. Get to know her. And maybe finally get some closure. She never even got to say goodbye...

"Hmm... This is an interesting conundrum. Permanent resurrection is not within your power. However, you may be able to temporarily bring back an incorporeal form of her. I believe you humans call them spirits?"

Ruby smiled sadly. "Talking to ghosts? Really Kyubey?"

"It is entirely possible," Kyubey insisted. "Do keep in mind that these incorporeal beings will be somewhat different to what they were in life. However, they will still be the person you bring back."

"So... what, it's bringing back the idea of them rather than who they really are? That's a little... I don't know if I want that..."

"Death is a barrier that only an incredible amount of power can overcome, Ruby Rose. At your level of potential, this is the closest miracle you can achieve."

Ruby turned away from Kyubey, touching the rose carving on the stone in front of her. She sighed in disappointment. The closest miracle wasn't close enough. Not nearly close enough...

Right...?

An idea formed in Ruby's mind. Not so much an idea as so much a hope. A tiny desperate hope. A hope that may very well tip the scales if it proved true.

"If I'm bringing back the idea of Summer Rose... I'm bringing back a memory of her, right?"

'That is correct"

"So... will it just be my memories... or the memories of everything who knew her...?"

Kyubey stared at her for a moment as he usually did with these sorts of important questions. Ruby had learned to be patient and wait it out. The anticipation while waiting for the answer never went away though.

"If this is your wish, then it can be the memories of whoever you want. The ghosts of anyone everyone's pasts is yours to see."

Was that close enough? Was the closest miracle to complete resurrection close enough for Ruby to wish it? Was it worth her soul, seeing her mother again from the memories of the people who knew her? Was it worth a lifetime of suffering? Was it enough...?

"If I wish this, I'll have it with me for the rest of my life," Ruby whispered to herself. "Kyubey... I want to... I really want to... But..."

"If you're asking for time to think, I'm afraid that you don't have much of it. It is rather unfortunate that you brought us to a cemetery of all places. We would have dissuaded you had we not predicted your coming here would guarantee your contract."

Ruby slowly began to stand. "What are you talking about...?"

"In your sister's absence, a witch has taken up residence in this cemetery. Should you contract, it will attack. Should you attempt to leave without contracting, it will attack. If you stay here too long, it will attack. Your only hope for survival is contracting."

Ruby's face contorted into a snarl. "You little rat!"

"Do not lie to yourself, Ruby Rose. With every question answered, you became closer and closer to contracting. Even if we allowed you more time to think, it would still result in the same. We thought it more efficient to give you the push you needed."

Ruby glared at Kyubey, the white creature maintaining eye contact, obviously unperturbed.

"Time is of the essence, Ruby Rose."

Ruby shook her head and stomped her foot. "Darn it, you're a scumbag, Kyubey! Fine! I'll do it! Make me a magical girl! Give me my powers so I can kill this witch and see my mom again!"

There was silence. A silence so complete that her ears rang. It rang louder and louder and until a searing pain erupted from her chest. Her mind screamed in agony even as her body grew numb and weightless. This was it. The feeling of her soul being ripped out of her. The feeling of her soul gem being created.

Then there was darkness. An empty void that swallowed the world with only a bright red speck illuminating it. It drew closer, growing brighter. It was within arms reach and almost blindingly bright. She reached out. She could almost touch it.

"Your wish has overcome entropy," Kyubey told her, the creature's voice sounding small distant over the ringing in her ears and the screaming of her mind. "This is your soul, Ruby Rose. Take it and unleash your new power."

Her hands grasped the light. A warmed radiated from her, quelling the numbness of her limbs.

Ruby blinked. Suddenly the pain and darkness was gone. She still stood before her mother's grave but instead of the grassy cemetery a two hour walk from her house, she instead found herself before a snowy cliffside, facing an ephemeral figure in a while cloak. It smiled at her for a moment before she turned into white rose petals that scattered in the wind.

"Congratulations, Ruby Rose. You are now a magical girl."

Ruby nodded quietly. "Was... that my mother...?"

"We would assume so."

Ruby looked at the object in her hand, a gem that glowed the same bright red she saw when she contracted. Her soul gem. She was a magical girl now. She almost couldn't believe it.

"Are you aware of your powers?"

"Invisibility, incorporeality, illusions, short range teleportation," Ruby said automatically.

"What manner of illusion?"

"Recreation of people, places, and events based on people's memories."

"Specifications of your teleport? Any limitations?"

"Instant teleportation, maximum range of ten feet, half a second rest between teleports. I can only teleport other objects, but only if I'm touching them and I have to teleport with them."

"Most interesting."

Ruby blinked in confusion. "H-how do I know all that?"

"All magical girls are aware of the mechanics of how their powers work. Think of it as a magical girl's instincts. If they do not have this knowledge, they would not be effective at hunting witches. By this same logic, magical girls are also adept at the use of their weapons."

Ruby nodded, already accepting those words. Something inside her told her Kyubey was speaking the truth.

"We recommend you transform now. The witch that created this labyrinth is currently waiting for you to come but it will not wait forever."

Ruby nodded, her hands clasping her soul gem. She flashed red and instantly transformed. Her magical girl attire was a black gothic dress with a red cloak and combat boots. Her soul gem set into the metal disk engraved with a rose which served as the pin that held her cloak over her shoulders. Not quite her usual style but at least it was comfortable.

In her left hand, she held a scythe which she gave a tentative twirl. The shaft was a black pole with glowing red engravings. The blade at the end was a ghostly white sickle with a serrated edge and similar red engravings. It looked absolutely terrifying. This was her weapon?

"The witch should be deeper in the labyrinth. You should be able to sense when you get close. Good luck."

Ruby swallowed a breath. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one walking into danger."

"You are in a witch's labyrinth. You are already in danger."

"Yeah, yeah."

Ruby took a deep breath to steel herself and began walking to where her soul gem led her.

The witch's labyrinth was bleak and empty. A snowy white expanse filled with lots and lots of gnarled dead trees. The sky above was a black void with only a blood-red shattered moon illuminating her path. It wasn't quite as trippy as what Kyubey had described witch labyrinths to be but that did nothing to ease Ruby's nerves. Behind every tree could be a familiar or even the witch itself. She was understandably jumpy.

"I don't like how there's nothing here," Ruby muttered, holding tightly to her scythe. "I feel like I'm walking into a trap..."

"It certainly seems that way," Kyubey stated. "This goes without saying but we recommend you be cautious."

Ruby continued walking, being mindful of the tangle of roots hidden under the snow. Every step presented the danger of losing her footing.

"Do you know anything about this witch?"

"We know when it first appeared, when it arrived in this cemetery, and how long it has been here."

"Some help you were."

The trees were getting denser, their bare branches growing sharper and more angular the closer she got to her destination. After a certain point, every branch looked like a mass of swords just waiting to fall and impale her every which way. Ruby shuddered at the thought.

"Such injury shouldn't be too much of a bother as long as your soul gem remains intact," Kyubey reminded.

"It is a waste of magic though," Ruby replied. "Though, I guess you're right that I shouldn't worry so much. I'm kinda psyching myself out of this whole witch killing thing."

The trees had gotten so dense that she was basically walking through a tunnel that was steadily growing narrower. Her instincts told her to stop going forward and go the other way but her soul gem said otherwise. The witch was close. She could feel it.

"Walking this labyrinth without actually fighting anything is messing me up," Ruby grumbled. "I'd actually feel a lot better if I was just attacked... Like... right now..."

Upon saying that, a rush of wind blew all the trees away and she found herself in an open clearing filled with familiars. Her cloak fluttered in the wind as she smiled wryly. The witch had a sense of humor?

The familiars were a grotesque amalgamation of black fur, rotted flesh, and bone shaped vaguely like a dog, with glowing red outlines around its eyes, fangs, and claws. The snarls and howls they sent her way suggested that they were supposed to be wolves.

"G-good doggies," Ruby said shakily as she slowly took a step back.

The moment her foot touched the ground, the wolves pounced, forcing Ruby to blink away. She landed a short distance from the wolves, feeling snow and tree roots give way under her boots.

Her mind went immediately into autopilot as the wolves pounced again. She stepped to the side, allowing one of the wolves to jump straight into the waiting blade of her scythe before delivering a sharp kick to its back, cleaving it in two. The wolf began dissolving into black smoke, leaving only a pile of bones in its wake.

"Whoa," Ruby breathed in shock. Kyubey was right about having magical girl instincts. Somehow, she, a girl who had never held a death scythe in her life, knew how to fight with one. She wasn't sure whether to be amazed or to be terrified.

The battle continued in much the same way it began, Ruby running completely on autopilot, blinking everywhere and slaying every familiar that came within range of her scythe blade. Wolves started coming out of the woodwork, droves upon droves of them jumping headlong into circle of death that surrounded her. For minutes on end, she fought. It was starting to seem like there was no end to them.

But then, for whatever reason, it all stopped. After Ruby decapitated the last wolf, she found that there were no more left.

"Boss fight time?" Ruby asked.

"If you mean to say that you are about to fight the witch then we agree with your assumption. It is likely that the witch will attack soon."

The terrain of the labyrinth shifted, the trees growing larger and denser until they were veritable mountains in the distance. And atop one of those trees as a black wolf, much like the familiars Ruby just fought. Except it was bigger. Much bigger. She'd compare its size to an eighteen wheeler truck. Closer inspection showed a vaguely human face from within the its mouth, with several human limbs inside its body, visible through the holes in its rotted flesh. The face from within the mouth looked at her and smiled widely, stretching literally from ear to ear.

This was it. This was the witch.

The thirty foot tall wolf dropped from the tree into the clearing with Ruby, sending tremors through the ground upon impact. It slowly advanced towards her, every step punctuated by the terrible crunch of snow and roots getting crushed under its paws. When it was only a hundred feet away from Ruby, it threw its head back and made an ear-piercing howl. After which, half a dozen more familiars leapt from out of the trees and into the clearing. Like the witch, they were also much larger than the other familiars, though not as large as the witch itself. They too had the human faces and limbs within them.

"Unfortunately, much of your magic has been expended simply fighting familiars. Had you been more experienced, you could have handled them more efficiently and would have entered this fight with more magic to spare. However, we are still confident that you will be able to defeat this witch. Good luck."

"I don't know how to take that comment," Ruby muttered and she brandished her weapon and got ready to defend against the incoming attack.

Much to Ruby's surprise, fighting the giant wolves was actually much easier than fighting the smaller ones. Her size and mobility made it child's play to slink between their legs and attack their weak underbelly. The only problem was how disgusting it was to do so. Every time her scythe cleaved at a wolf from below, its innards and dismembered human limbs would rain down on her. She was very glad that those too dissolved into black smoke.

While fighting the witch, the concept of time seemed to blur for Ruby. She knew she had been fighting it for only a few minutes and they every swing and every dodge seemed to take an eternity. By the time she had slain all of the familiars, leaving the witch wounded and limping, she felt like multiple life times had passed her by. She just barely had enough strength to swing her scythe and perform the final blow before fatigue brought her crumpling to the floor.

"I... I won," she breathed as she rolled over and watched the black sky ripple and fade away, the cloudy grey clouds of reality returning once more. "That was a lot easier than I expected it to be..."

"We did say we were confident that you would defeat it. It was wise that you did not underestimate it, though. We recommend you make use of the grief seed you have acquired now. You are dangerously close to dying."

Ruby brought up her soul gem to her face, the glowing red jewel now tainted with darkness. "I guess I used too much magic trying to fight those things," she said airily, touching grief seed against it.

"The wolf blood you were covering yourself in was sapping you of magic. We did not predict that you would not notice this."

"I don't notice a lot of things," Ruby replied, closing her eyes.

Even without looking, she could feel the grief seed purging her gem of impurities. Within seconds, the fatigue was gone and her dulled sense of time was cured.

"I guess this is it... This is my life now... I'm a magical girl." She opened her eyes and stared at her soul gem, once again shining brightly, not a single speck of darkness visible within it. "And from now on, I'll be facing all the suffering that comes with it... that's... great..."

After a spending moment more to continue staring at her gem, Ruby hopped back to her feet and tossed the use grief seed to Kyubey who swallowed it into some interdimensional pocket in its back. It was weird to look at but Ruby didn't comment.

She turned to her mother's grave. The faint outline of the white figure she saw in the witch labyrinth waved at her before fading away. Ruby smiled and waved back.

"Would you say that you are satisfied with your wish, Ruby Rose?"

Ruby sighed. "Too soon to say. It's not exactly what I wanted but..."

"It was the closest thing you were capable of achieving," Kyubey reminded.

Ruby chuckled. "Yeah, it was... and maybe the closest thing is close enough..."

"What is your plan now, Ruby Rose? Will you be looking for your sister?"

Ruby shook her head. "Nah. She can take care of herself. I just wanna make sure that when she come home, she still has a home to come back to." With that, she started walking for the exit, dusting herself off as she did so.

"If that is so then our work here is done. Until we meet again, Ruby Rose."

Kyubey had remained where it stood when Ruby began walking. She didn't need to look back to know it had already disappeared. That was fine. It was done with her. And all things considered, she was done with it. She had gotten what she wanted. A chance to be a hero and a chance to see her mother again. What more could she have asked for?

Well, now that she thought about it, there was a lot more she could have asked for. But that wasn't really how things worked. If she wanted more, she'd need to work for it on her own. Besides, she had magic now. It gave her a lot of options.

"I have magic now," she breathed again, still not quite believing it. "Sure, I don't have a soul anymore and I'm pretty much doomed to die in battle but... I'm a magical girl now... I beat a witch... I can be a hero... I can see my mom again..."

Ruby's heart soared with a happiness she couldn't quite fathom. She repeated those words to herself, whispering them all the way home...

I did not intend for this chapter to be as long as it is but dammit nothing ever goes as planned.

I was speaking with people on the /r/MadokaMagica discord about my other crossover story involving these two fandoms and the topic of a crossover wherein RWBY characters become magical girls came up. A few hours of theory crafting later, I was struck with inspiration to write this story.

First things first, let me talk about the setting. This is not set in a world where there are Grimm, semblances, and aura. RWBY's magic system does not work with the magic system that the magical girls of Madoka Magica employ. Ruby and the rest of her team are not huntresses in training, they are just regular girls. They do not live on Remnant. They live on Earth. The city of Vale is just a fictional city set in an unspecified western country (I say western because I'm Asian and live in Asia).

Regarding how I translated Ruby's powers from RWBY into this crossover, simply put, I didn't. The same goes with Yang. All of team RWBY have a new power sets for this story. From what we know of their character, they would wish for things that wouldn't necessarily give them the same powers as they did in RWBY. I still made an effort to make their powers similar to their originals but many tweaks had to be made. And even now, I'm still not entirely sure how I'm gonna go about Weiss and Blake's side of the story.

Speaking of which...

My original plan was to have this story be four chapters long and detail team RWBY's rise and fall as magical girls. This chapter would tell Ruby's story, the next one Yang's, and so on. Unfortunately, midway through writing this chapter, I came across the issue of there being way too much story for one character to comfortably cram into one chapter.

I was then faced with a dilemma. Continue writing the same story I had originally planned and risk this story turning into another long-fic (which I don't want) or cut out a whole bunch of stuff and just write the parts about this crossover that I'm actually interested in. I haven't really decided yet.

But hey, it's not so much that there are only two choices but a spectrum of choices. We'll see what I end up doing in future chapters.

One last word before I wrap up.
Thank you to The 13th Heretic and Cloaked_One from the /r/MadokaMagica discord for helping theory craft the crossover concept and doing some beta-reading on this chapter. This story wouldn't have happened without you.

To all my readers, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. May we meet again in the next one.