"'Remember thy oath, Ozma.'"

I woke up to a start.

Sweating, shaking... having a hard time breathing.

It had been ages since I last dreamt of her—of the Immortal Queen.

And as far as I can remember, she had a wide variety of titles to go by while never having a name to truly claim as her own. Over the centuries, she was given the name Demon Queen, the Black Cold Death, the Bearer of Ill-Tidings, or sometimes even as the Mother of all Evil by those who feared and opposed her among many, many other names.

And just as there were those who feared her, there were also those who revered her as their deity—calling her the Lady of Soothing Sunlight, the Guardian Mother, the Divine Healer, or sometimes the Goddess of Bountiful Harvests.

I checked the clock, noting that it was only 4:27 in the morning. I eased my breathing as I stood from my bed, certain that I would not be able to go back to sleep any time soon.

Dreaming of the Queen always meant ill omens for me.

The death of my homeland 4,000 years ago...

The onslaught of Grimm that nearly drove Man to extinction 1,200 years ago...

The Great War between the Four Kingdoms 57 years ago.

Always before these events took place—I was reminded of her in a dream. And while never directly involved... it always somehow came back to her.

I'm certain that that will be the case in the near future as well.

"The oath of my people…" I laughed at myself miserably, unable to do anything but wallow in self-pity. "'Respect the Old Age and leave them be'."

I lived by this oath for the longest time—I fought with my brothers and sisters in arms to protect her secret and keep the world from learning about an age long gone...

—until Salem.

I shook my head to place my fears aside. Whatever it is that will happen, will happen soon. And I've no doubt that I won't be able to stop it, much like every time beforehand.

And much like before, I won't stop to try. I've changed the world by doing exactly the opposite of what I swore to do and not a day has gone by without me regretting doing it...

—but never will I regret why I did it.

For Salem and I…

I will do anything.

But first...

I believe it is the day of initiation for my new batch of aspiring students.


"GIVE RUBY BACK!"

I shoot another blast from Ember Celica as anger and hate consumed me. Uncaring of the consequences, I pummeled the black-clad bitch I was straddling.

"GIVE HER BACK!"

But no matter how much I threw at her, no matter how many of my shotgun shells spilled on the hospital floor, no matter how many punches I put my back into… no matter how mangled her body became—that pitying look in her eyes never disappeared.

Her bones broke and her deathly pale skin tore as I continued my assault. I didn't notice the mortified looks of Blake and Weiss who were just standing behind me as I go mad. I didn't even notice that the woman I've been punching never once shed a drop of blood.

Everytime I open a new wound, it's always ash that spilled.

Just ash.

Everything was ash.

But I didn't care—for all I knew, she's just a monster that was planning to take my baby sister away from me.

All I cared about was getting Ruby back.

I threw another fist to her face, but it looked like she'd had enough of me.

She caught my fist with her broken, twisted fingers, and easily pushed me away as if I was weightless no matter how hard I fought back. When she managed to stand to her full height, she towered over me—soft glowing violet eyes looked back at me in pity.

It was insulting.

"I TOLD YOU TO GIVE HER BACK!"

I pulled my hand away for another punch but before I could even throw it, she pushed me in the chest with her mangled hand with enough force to knock all the air out of my lungs. I crashed onto one of the empty hospital beds and I felt dizzy, incapable of standing back up immediately no matter how much I wanted to.

"I know what it's like." I heard her say, her voice echoing in my numb mind. "To feel so desperate after losing something important to thee—or must I say, someone."

I focused my eyes on her and watched in horror as she forcefully bent herself back to normal—as she quite literally pulled herself back together. Her twisted right arm, her broken and shattered left hand—all returned back to their original shapes.

She even snapped her own neck back to normal to give me and everyone in the room a more steady glance.

"I shall take her with me." she dismissed, holding up the pouch of ashes she stole from me. "I know thou shan't care yet... however, I have faith that thou knows that I am not the reason for her untimely demise."

"SHUT UP!"

"Not even her murderer is to blame for her death." She walked towards me just lean close and put a gentle hand over my head. I felt so disgusted and weak—just feeling an unbearable cold on my skin that sapped away at my body heat. She leaned her head closer to mine and whispered,

"Thou hast only Ozpin to blame."

She stood and summoned a long crooked knife to her hand out of nowhere while giving everyone in the room a glance. I prepared myself for her attack and noticed Weiss and Blake were poised to intercept—but what she did instead only confused and terrified us further.

She opened the front of her black dress—revealing a bare chest that had more scars than skin and stabbed herself right in her heart.

We were terrified that someone would so nonchalantly do something so morbid to themselves right in front of us and it left us confused that not a drop of blood spilled again.

There really was only ash.

"Perhaps with this, thou shall realize that thy wish for mine death is naught but a fruitless endeavor," she said in a somber tone.

She summoned a flame in her hand, alerting us for an incoming attack, but instead, she conjured a softly glowing, warm ball of light that floated in the air. Oddly enough, the light gave me comfort and seemed to heal my pain despite myself wanting nothing more than to kill her no matter what she said.

She walked towards the door and stopped with a hand on the frame to give us one last look. "Worry not, thou shall see her again. The maiden hath a duty to fulfill, after all." before disappearing into the hallway.

"Tell Ozpin, that should we meet again—I shall kill him where he stands."

Blake ran after her but after a short moment, she came shaking her head as she cried, unable to mutter a word.


Weeks after Ruby's… after her…

Weeks after the White Fang and Roman Torchwick attempted to steal from the port of Vale, the new semester began.

Yang still won't talk to anyone outside of us, her team, and her family… Weiss still blames herself for what happened, and I…

Well… I…

I don't know what I'm doing anymore.

Our grades have dropped, and except for Weiss, we're more often absent than present in class all the while our teachers and friends constantly worried over us.

I suppose… it's a small comfort that Ozpin gave us as much time as we needed to cope.

I blame myself for what happened that night.

If only I hadn't run away, if only I hadn't picked that fight with Weiss—if only I…

...

Yang told me that I could stay.

That it wasn't my fault.

I was happy when she told me she felt that way but… that's just not how I feel about it, I don't feel like I belong here. I know for certain that all of us blame ourselves for Ruby's…

—for Ruby's death.

I don't think any of us knew what to do or how to feel about it…

We all miss Ruby.


Later that night, my team and I were sleeping in our dorms.

At least, that's what it looked like.

I heard Yang crying again and I can't blame her for it.

I, too, spent most of my nights since then crying myself to sleep even if I won't admit it to anyone.

As I tried in vain to ignore everything around me while I force myself to sleep, I couldn't help but be incredibly irritated by the sound of stones being thrown at our window.

When I turned, I saw Blake already standing by, opening it to peek outside.

Not a second later she was pushed back into the center of the room by an all too familiar red blur that I… that we all thought would never see again.

With scattered rose petals surrounding her and her signature red cloak appearing both tattered and on fire, she stood from her crouch atop a stunned Blake on the floor—and with that goofy smile…

"Hi."


I stood in the middle of what used to be my old room with my bestest friends. I saw all of them looking at me all surprised, which is kinda funny, but I guess I can't blame them—they all believed I was long dead, after all.

Not like they're wrong.

I saw Yang staring at me from her bunk like she was looking at a ghost—which, again, is totally understandable—while her mouth quivered open and close with tears forming in the corner of her eyes. And in a small, shaky voice…

"Ruby…?"

I smiled wide, happy that I was finally able to speak with my beloved sister again. "I missed you."

"Ruby!" she yelled while jumping from her bunk to tackle me onto the floor where Blake was still at—it looked like she was also stunned, looking at me with wide unbelieving eyes.

With a loud thud on the floor and an 'oof' involuntarily escaping Blake's mouth, Yang held me tight as she cried into my shoulder.

"You're here, right? I'm not dreaming, right? Blake? Weiss? Is this real? I'm not going crazy?"

"Ruby…? Is that really you…?" I turned to Weiss, reaching an unsteady hand over to me, looking a lot like how Yang was just a moment ago.

"Hey, partner."

She took a sharp inhale, covering her mouth with both hands quivering like a leaf in the wind. Tears fell from her eyes, racing down her cheek as she quietly sobbed while she sat upright in her bed.

Blake wordlessly cupped my cheeks, eyes still wide and disbelieving, and gently rubbed her thumb against me as if to feel that I was actually there and real.

She began crying as well after a short while of feeling my skin. If it was any other moment, I would have worried at how weird they were acting but instead… I just felt genuinely happy to see them before I go.

Blake wrapped her arms around me and my still sobbing Yang. I looked at Weiss and saw that she was crying by herself.

"Weiss?" I called, catching the teary-eyed look she gave me with her hands still covering her mouth. "Can I get a hug from my best friend, too?" I said with a beaming smile.

She tightly closed her eyes and sobbed harder, nodding her head a few times as she couldn't answer me verbally. She got off her bed and slowly and gently wrapped her arms around my head, hugging me close to her chest.

"Hehe."

With how emotional everyone was, I eventually felt the same. Unable to keep the floodgates closed, I sobbed and sobbed within the comforting arms of my dearest team.

After a few minutes of just sitting in the middle of our dorm and just crying our hearts out—the questions finally came.

There were a lot, like I expected, and the three of them were all talking over one another—impatiently asking me questions before I could even think to answer them. I get it, I miss them, too, but it was a little too much for me to actually speak.

I used my Speed Semblance to get out of their hold, all of them stumbling on and atop each other, and appeared standing in front of them with both hands on my waist to give them a look.

It did the trick! So, I finally got a chance to talk.

"Let me just tell you what I remember, okay? I couldn't really get a word in with all of you talking at the same time."

Silently, they looked to each other before giving me their non-verbal approval.

I cleared my throat and sat in front of them.

"Basically… I met a god—and she revived me."


AN: Hello again!

I'm actually surprised by the reception of that short, barely 500-word story. It was just an idea, after all. I didn't think people would actually take notice of it with how short it was and my original intent was really just to upload it as a placeholder in the future.

As I've mentioned in my profile, updates will be sporadic and I will be experimenting on my own writing, so please do point out any mistakes you think I've made—I will welcome all criticism with open arms.