Author's Note: I'm so sorry this is late. Initially, I had assumed that I would be able to post this by yesterday or this morning, but apparently I was wrong. So very wrong.

Beyond the boundaries of the snowy land she had left, there was nothing. Just a blackness that threatened to devour me whole. But I was a huntress. And huntresses were trained not only to kill the dark, but to subjugate it. To dominate it.

I wasn't afraid of what the dark hid. After all, my past was a thing of the night. My identity stemmed from it. Born of the dark, raised under the light. Because of it, I swore to become a night hunter. That's why I came to Beacon when offered. And for me, the darkness wasn't just the Grimm. It was the pain those around me felt. And I vowed to eradicate it.

It was a while before I stopped hearing the crunch of snow underneath my boots, which was quickly replaced by the slow, quiet rustle of grass. The darkness around me shimmered, and it shifted into a cloudless night. The moon was full, and beaming down on a silent world. The stars were strangely absent. A very light breeze keened through the forest that sprung up underneath the shroud that had been there only moments ago. The wind carried with it currents of silvery petals, glowing with the light of the moon. As the wind swept around me, the world settled into a small clearing within a grove of trees.

As I stepped forward to investigate, my foot bumped against something. I picked it up.

An old rifle. It was a relic of long ago, when bolt-actions were common on standard-issue military rifles. A bayonet was still attached to it, albeit rusty and deteriorated. From the remains of the dirt on the end, and the helmet still attached to the end, what this was for.

I walked into a military graveyard.

As I focused, several more rifles, standing silent and taciturn in the moonlight, came into vision. I walked to the nearest one, noting that the dog tags usually hung with it were gone. Nothing in the helmet either to identify the fallen. I walked to the next, and to the one after that. Nothing. These soldiers had fallen, and their memories would never rise again. Not even after death. No dog tags, no personal mementoes.

What was left for me to do here? I would never be able to save them. Quite literally, there is nothing that I can do. So I walk away. Cold hearted, some would say. I would argue the opposite. I've changed since I came to whatever place this is. I can't save everything. I can't save them all. So I have to make do with what I CAN save. The rest? I'd rather not think about that.

Nothing left for me here. I turn to leave. The only other path is through the woods, but I don't hesitate. Like I said before, I'm not scared of the dark. Not anymore.

After walking through the trees for a while, the wind starts to whisper.

"Everyone's fine. You know that they're capable. Go back. Go back."

Back to where? There is no place that I remember that I can go back to. Then, like a cancer, the words the wind whispers grow insidiously.

"You don't need them anymore. You're a strong, smart girl. Independent, too. You can be great without them. Without the need to constantly run to their side, to offer them aid."

"In fact, THEY don't need YOU anymore. You know that. You know they're strong. They can take care of themselves. Who would want a little girl, anyways, clogging up the works? You're just dead weight to them. So leave. You don't need them, they don't need you."

It's true. I always felt it. Always felt the reluctance Yang showed, especially on my first day, to care for me. And Weiss… I know that she would rather not deal with me. Blake, I don't know. Nobody knows anything about her. And it's probably better that way. She lives in the night, never revealing anything to us. Does she need me? I don't know, but I don't think so.

I stop at a pool. As I stoop down to take a drink, I realize it's not my reflection is the pool.

It's them. Team RWBY.

"What made you EVER think you were good enough? Good enough to lead an heiress? Good enough to even ASSOCIATE with one? Impudent dolt."

"You were the sister I never WANTED. Coming in my house, taking MY attention and love. All cause you were WEAK. Too weak to stand up for your family. You watched them BURN. And you did NOTHING."

"What do you know about life? Nothing. NOTHING. You lived your life in a house, you lived your life having food on the table. You didn't have to KILL for a bite to eat. You weren't forced to KILL just to be safe. You don't know anything about life, little girl."

I stood back up. It had to be some sort of illusion or deception, I'm sure of it. They wouldn't be like that, would they?

Would they?

I don't know who they are. I know that inside of us, we all have a heart of darkness. To want, to take, to destroy… That is human nature.

I've seen it happen before.

I trusted him. And I loved him, too. But even though he assured me he loved me back, even though he supported me and taught me everything I know, he betrayed me. In the end all he ever did was destroy. First he took my home. He didn't tell us what we had to run from, only that it was dangerous. I didn't question him. He was, after all, the man who taught me everything about weapon crafting. I assumed that some mysterious force was after his skills, or that a deal had gone terribly wrong. I don't know why I assumed those things. Maybe I just wanted to trust him.

We left everything behind. We left with methodical, military precision, only bringing the essentials. Then, when we were isolated, he turned on us.

It started with my sister. She took a bullet straight to the head. It might be some sick joke or a stroke of luck, but she survived. The only damage she took, amazingly enough, was her memories and later on a lack of impulse control. She took a different name, after the ordeal. It was the first name she heard when they asked her about her name. I guess Yang Xiao Long is lucky to have someone as brilliant as my Yang to share his name. But she also lost everything else, even her memories. She calls me sister because I call her sister. And the family heirlooms? She doesn't even know what they are. She keeps them because they're pretty, she says. The albums, she thinks, were the albums left by the former landlord when he passed away.

Then my mother. I didn't even get to hear her last words. The last I saw of her was a bloody heap on the cold, hard ground. The white cloak she wore always mean safety and security to me; I used to sleep in it when she was gone. But now it just covered her lifeless body, the white already disappearing under the sinister creep of crimson.

But there wasn't any time to take her hand, listen to her dying gasps. He was turning towards me. And there was no mistake. He was there to clean this up. And there was nothing I could do about it. Nothing I could do. I closed my eyes, and tried to think happy thoughts. Happy thoughts… Please…

"Close your eyes.
Don't you cry.
Love's around you;
In time, you'll fly."

The bullet's still there. It never made it out of my chest; to this day it lies against my heart. A constant reminder that there is no such thing as trust. He assured me that he was just following orders. Orders from who? From where? Why? What was more important to him than us? Than three lives? I never found out. Probably never will. I think he's dead. Being the worst assassin ever tends to put your life on the line, especially when two out of the three victims somehow lived. I'm pretty sure it was ineptitude and not mercy that kept us alive.

Now, there's only three that I trust. My teammates. But… I trusted long ago. And all I got for it was a world of hurt.

Monsters live everywhere. I can kill all the monsters of the night that I wish, but there's always those that live inside us. Those are the dangerous ones. Those are the ones that I can't kill because I CAN'T TELL IF THEY'RE THERE. So I can't trust anyone anymore. Just those three. But then again… I don't know them. Their pasts are shrouded in mystery, save for Yang. But even she is an enigma to me now, someone who looks familiar but isn't. Not at all.

I keep walking. The wind kept blowing deeper into the forest. The moon no longer was able to pierce the veil of trees; they had steadily grown thicker the longer I walked. I forced myself to keep walking and to keep calm. The darkness was absolute; it seemed infinite and terrifying. It was like looking into the maw of the void. The wind was soothing, because even though it whispered those silky sweet lies, at least it was better than the absolute silence that used to be.

But I was listening to the wind a little too closely to hear the small rustle of leaves as it jumped.

I spun, too late, to try and meet the danger head-on. All I got for my trouble was my face ground in the dirt, trying to twist around and fight. I couldn't do anything. Couldn't lash out, couldn't kick at the thing holding me down. It was tearing at me with razor-sharp teeth. Couldn't think, couldn't breathe because it HURT and it didn't stop, and I was trying to wriggle out from underneath it…

The last thing I expected was the floor to start pooling, letting me sink through it.

It was pitch black. Pure darkness, but this one was different. Serene, and warm. A small meow near my feet drew my attention towards the floor.

A pure black kitty. Cute! I picked him (her?) up and looked him in the eye, then hugged it. When I held it back out in front of me, I watched it a little bit.

Golden eyes. Familiar.

Then it opened its mouth and started talking. Well, it was more like… telling a story.

"Once upon a time…" she (Blake?) purred.

"There was a little girl with a red hood, trying to understand why a wolf had eaten her grandmother. She walked down the lane, and vowed to be strong and big enough to kill the wolves the next time she met them. After years and years of training, she was finally able to kill her very first wolf. The next soon followed, until her strength grew to insurmountable heights."

"But the wolves were smart. They started to realize that if they didn't hide, they'd be killed. So they copied the first wolf. They started wearing all sorts of clothing. Sheep's' clothing, people's clothing… it didn't matter to them. Soon the girl couldn't even tell what was a wolf and what wasn't anymore. So she stopped trying. She ran and hid, trying to stay with people that weren't wolves but always were."

"One day, she was running along a path and bumped her head really hard. She was knocked unconscious when three young ladies found her. One thought she didn't have time to help. The other had somewhere to be. And the last wanted to stay hidden from the wolves."

"But they helped her anyways. When the girl woke up, however, all she saw were three wolves taking care of her. As she started questioning the wolves, they all said the same thing. They all said that they weren't wolves all the time. Just sometimes. But they were still people inside. People with hearts and brains. And finally, the girl realized that everyone's a wolf. But everyone's also a person too."

"I know it's a lame ending, Ruby, but I can't keep making stories up for you like this. Weiss is still worried sick. Yang won't stop going up to the doctors and demanding they fix you this instant. And me? I'm worried about you. I can't keep making up stories for you, Ruby. Eventually, you gotta get up so you can start living your own."

"But whatever happens, Ruby, I'm just glad that I was a character in your story."

They were still looking after me. Why didn't I consider that? Even after all of this, they were still there for me. Watching, protecting me. And I had doubted them. I had thought they were going to leave me to waste away alone. But Blake just read me a story. And from what she said, nobody had given up on me yet.

I wasn't going to give up on them, then.

I put the cat down.

"Kitty, can you take me back? I'm ready, this time."

One flick of its tail was all it took. The wind was back, whispering in my ear. But I would not let the wind distract me this time. I needed to hear the footsteps, the quiet rustle that meant danger was incoming.

There! There it was. But as I swung Crescent Rose, I felt the damage done. Even with the recoil, it wasn't enough to do fatal damage to the monster. It was wounded now; that only made it more dangerous.

"You cannot run from your past…"

The damn wind was at it again.

"Don't you see? They're at it again. This time… wouldn't Gambol Shroud look lovely sticking out your chest? Henceforward… I'm gonna enjoy that…"

The rustle. I heard it, but where did it come from? I couldn't hear where it came from because of the stupid wind. Ugh…

Trust your instincts, my father once told me. They will always guide you true, he said. I had an uneasy feeling in my gut when he told me that. I guess him shooting all three of us kind of justified, ironically, his advice.

I picked a direction. From my left shoulder to my right foot, because that's where the wind was blowing. And I slashed.

And I hit.

And it died.

I knew because things don't like to live with a scythe blade in their eye. Fewer enjoy it.

This monstrous black wolf didn't enjoy it.

Somewhere, in the distance, I heard a guttural roar.

Then the wind stopped murmuring dark, insidious thoughts. It started to sing. It sung of the trees in the hidden forests it had traveled through, of the oceans stretching out to infinity. It spoke of a brave new world.

I would have to go see it. This brave new world. It sounded beautiful.

Blake closed the book. Initially, she felt guilty about bringing Ninjas of Love to the hospital, but when she started running out of things left to read, she had no choice. She was positive that Ruby wouldn't enjoy the dictionary, after all. And who knows, maybe she likes Ninjas of Love. Blake wouldn't know.

Blake wanted to see those eyes open at least once more. It was in those eyes she found the courage and strength to begin life anew. At first, she was hesitant about Beacon. It seemed unorthodox, and its students were just too nosy to not notice what was under the bow eventually. But she stayed, even though her heritage had been revealed, because there were people that wanted her there. Ruby was among those she called friends, those she honored with that title. And it was reciprocal to Blake. There can be no one-sided friendship, she reasoned.

Which is why she had brought a book with her every day to the hospital to read to her comatose leader.

It started with the fairytale that she thought best fit her leader. Little Red Riding Hood. She thought the cloak was inferior, however, to the refined version Ruby wore.

Then it began branching out. Library books about adventure, about dragons, about heroic space marines. Anything and everything she thought Ruby would've liked. Eventually, the library ran out. So she brought in cookbooks. Then she brought in weapons magazines. Today, she had felt adventurous, so she made her own little version of Little Red Riding Hood. But that didn't last long at all, and she wasn't happy with the rather abrupt and nonsensical ending. Ultimately, it came to this. Ninjas of Love. She still blushed when she thought about it; half because of the content, half because she brought it to read to Ruby.

The nurse popped her head in and mentioned something about visiting hours being over. Blake kindly told her she was packing up, then snuck one last kiss on Ruby's forehead. Just for luck.

"Ruby, I'll let you pet my ears when you're better. They're soft, like velvet. I thought you'd like that. You haven't felt anything soft for months."

The door slid closed with a quiet click.

Blake left the lights on, to better scare away the darkness.

As always, feedback is greatly appreciated.