Blake sat with her head planted on the table, slowly letting out his breath. One, she was tired enough to consider falling asleep in the dining hall. Two, she was not in the mood for anyone, to which she was thankful that Neptune and Scarlet had steered their energetic and loud team leader to the other side of Beacon; Sage, on the other hand, had gone off, brought her back some food and left.

It was not a good start to the day.

Laying on the table her scroll beeped. Blake scowled as she lifted her head If it was another message from the police she was going to leave Yang in jail.

Taking up the screen of the device was a message, but luckily for her partner, it was not from the police. It was from miss Goodwitch asking if she could come to her office later to report on her teammates. With a sigh, Blake banged her head back down on the table. Definitely not a good day.

"You know, if you keep repeating the same action every morning you're going to end up putting a hole in the table."

Black stifled a scream and shot upright, a look of alarm on her face and hand going for Gambol Shroud currently sitting in her locker.

None of the people sitting at the table, having not been there a second ago, flinched or so much as moved. The person sitting next to Blake, the kangaroo Faunus Ace Williams, leader of Team Alternate, held up his hands.

"Sorry, I thought you noticed we were here when you looked up at your scroll. Didn't mean to scare ya."

"We just wanted to see how you were Blake," Ace's twin, Pastel Williams, said with a gentle smile. 6'1 with a lean build Pastel had soft fair skin, shoulder length blue-grey hair and soft pastel gray eyes. One side of her face and neck was marred with small crisscrossing scars. Growing from the top of her head were a pair of fuzzy blue-grey kangaroo ears, every now and then turning to face different directions. Her feet were longer than humans by half a foot and was slightly thinner.

The Faunus girl wore a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a red woolen vest, a blue plaid skirt, plain blue stockings and a pair of white sneakers designed to suit her kangaroo feet. On her back was a pastel gray seven pointed star with a love heart cut out of the center and crystal cutouts in each of the points. On her hands, she wore a pair of gray elbow length gloves with three golden spiked bands with a bar connecting them running down the side.

"You look tired."

"I am. Ruby had another nightmare around 3 or 4 in the morning. Took me about an hour to calm her down and get her back to bed. I was just dozing off when Yang stormed in without a word and went straight to bed. I haven't been able to get back to sleep since."

The twin looked to each other with worried glances. This wasn't the first time that the blonde brawler had spent one or more nights away from Beacon only to return in the morning, despite the numerous detentions and even the threat of expulsion. Not that she seemed to care or even notice. Nothing could stop her.

The three Faunus sighed as Blake rested her head back on the table. "Do you have anything planned for today Blake?"

"Ruby has a meeting with Ozpin at 12, then an appointment with Ironwood at 2 for her arm. After that Goodwitch wants to put her through an exercise to see if she can still handle being a Huntress."

The twins shared another glance.

"Why don't you go get some sleep? Ace and I can take care of Ruby."

Blake shook her head.

"I'll be fine."

"Blake, you're exhausted. If I had a Dust to knock you out I would put you to sleep right now."

"I could hit her really hard."

"Not helping Ace."

"Just a suggestion."

With another sigh, Blake sat upright and rubbed her eyes.

"Ruby needs me to go with her. Gods know Yang won't be awake to take her. And Ruby won't be comfortable with anyone else."

"Blake, Pastel helped heal her and acted as her personal nurse slash medicine dispenser."

"Medicine dispenser? Thanks," Pastel said with a pointed look to her brother. Ace ignored her as he continued.

"I'm sure Ruby would be fine with her."

Blake tried to continue the argument, tried to tell them that Ruby still wasn't comfortable around her and Yang, let alone anyone else. But her brain hurt too much to form words. She was too tired. Closing her eyes was like heaven, and opening them was like hell. She needed sleep.

And the twins were right, Ruby would be fine with them. Well, with Pastel. The last time Ruby had seen the third-year student she had run away screaming. It took the entire school three hours to find the teen asleep in a broom cupboard in the kitchens.

"Maybe, not with Ace around."

The male Faunus smiled sheepishly.

"I thought, that maybe she got over that."
Blake shot him a deadpan glare, her bow twitching.

"We still receive some ridicule from that. I really don't want it to happen again."

"Fair enough," Ace conceded holding up his hands. "I'll be patient. She'll calm down around me one day."

"You sound like a creep saying that," Pastel scoffed. Turning to Blake her face softened. "Where is Ruby right now?"

"In the dorm room," Blake mumbled as she rose to her feet. "I'll go tell Ruby, and I'll see you guys later."

Waving goodbye Blake left the cafeteria. This early on a Saturday there weren't many students up and about. But it was too many for her while trying to keep her eyes open. Some of the students she almost bumped into said sorry or a greeting, some just silently walked off or told her to watch where she was going. Other students watched from the sides of the halls, some friendly offering her good mornings while others snickered and called out mocks and jokes about her team or the search for Ruby. One person, even cat called her. But the worse was the quiet ones, who shot her filthy looks and glares and talked in whispers as she passed.

Rolling her tired eyes she sighed which turned into a yawn. Gods she was tired. Tired enough to agree with the two people talking to her.

Blake paused in her step. Wait, what?

"See, I told you she was out of it."

"Still Ace, asking her if she wanted to raid a servo for smokes? You don't even smoke."

"Wait, what?"

"And she's back."

"Ace, shut up."

Blake looked between the twins flanking her.

"Why are you following me? Ruby doesn't need to be picked up until 11."

"Well," Ace started, flashing her a smile. "We wanted to make sure you actually got back to your room. And you know, not fall asleep in a broom cupboard."

Pastel reached around Blake and slapped her brother up the head. He just laughed it off.

"We also wanted to ask how you are, how have things been?"

"It's." Blake paused. It most certainly was not fine. "It's fine."

"Yeah, we don't need Serena to know that's a lie," Ace commented dryly. "Anyone who has looked at you lot can tell it ain't fine."

"No, really. It's -"

"You're more and more sleep deprived. Yang is either sleeping, picking fights, getting yelled at, or out. How many times have you pulled her out of police stations?" Pastel asked with a pointed look.

Blake didn't bother to reply. Everyone knew Yang had been arrested four times now and Blake had picked her up three; the one receptionist joked that the next time Yang might get a free coffee.

Only that guy found the joke funny.

"It's not fine," Blake admitted bowing her head. "Me and Yang are arguing, a lot. That's the only words I can get out of her these days. Either I'm not doing enough to help her, or I'm making decisions about Ruby and the team she doesn't like. Not that she's around to help me make the decisions! I'm trying to keep her from being expelled, on top of taking care of Ruby! Making sure everything is fine with the dorm and the laundry and the teachers and making sure we all eat and bathe!"

Letting out a breath Blake scrunched up her eyes and rubbed them with her palms. She hadn't meant to raise her voice, but she had. Heat flooded her face and body as the embers of anger stung her chest throat and eyes.

A gloved hand started to rub her back, a cool wave radiating through her being.

"She knows that the teachers, police, and Hunters are doing their best?" Pastel asked.

"Apparently they're not, otherwise they would have found her!" Blake imitated of Yang. Ace laughed humorously. The cat Faunus shut her eyes to the memory. Two months ago they got Ruby back, they got their friend back. The next morning they wake to find Weiss gone. Out to get breakfast Yang and Blake assumed. Yang had gone to find her but came back saying she wasn't in the cafeteria, the library, or the CCT room. So they called her scroll, only to have it go off in the dorm. That's when Blaske felt something wasn't right. A call to Ozpin, a school wide search before the full realization.

Weiss was missing.

A hand on her shoulder pulled Blake from the memory.

"How have you been with the disappearance?" Pastel asked. Blake sighed forlornly and looked to the ground.

"I've been too busy taking care of Ruby and Yang and everything to really think about it."

Pastel put a hand on Blake's shoulder and pulled her to a stop. The ravenette blinked and looked questionably to the older student.

"I know your team needs you need you right now. But you need to spend some time for yourself."

"But Ruby"

"Will be fine. You, right now are not."

"It's fine! I'm fine! I'm just tired!" Blake snapped, with a pointed look at the older student she knocked aside her hand and continued walking leaving the twins behind. Rounding a corner Blake stormed down the hallway until she realized how stupid that was. They were only trying to help, she had snapped for no reason. Closing her eyes she focused on her anger tensing her shoulders and exhaled it, her body slumping slightly. However with the anger gone she felt the exhaustion return. Now if only she could breathe that away.

'No,' she thought, shaking her head as she arrived at her door. 'That is what got me to this point.'

Pushing the door open Blake tended up, expecting Yang to be up. Luck, the blonde was still asleep on her bunk. Blake sighed in relief and closed the door behind her. Being in her room, so close to her bed siren singing to her Blake's exhaustion increased the gravity pulling on her body. Her feet dragged, her body slouching more and more as she neared the heavenly object.

"Hey Blake," a voice called softly, agonizingly shattering the siren song. Painfully Blake looked over to the bottom of the second bunk beds. Ruby looked back at Blake with one silver eye, the other an unfocused dead milk white. Her hair was now back to her shoulder length but was pulled to the left to show her burn scars.

The entire left side of her face to the nose, from her hair to shoulder was covered in angry red withered skin, with a small patch under her right eye and along her jawline. Two months on and Blake still shuddered from the sight and the knowledge that the scarring continued down to the teens hip front and back. Except for her left arm. From just below the join Ruby's left arm was shiny silver steel and black silicone, a fairly standard cybernetic prosthesis.

Tears came to Blake's eyes. While an unsettling reminder of two months ago the scarring was still Ruby. The arm, the machine to replace her arm. That wasn't Ruby, it was a replacement. Blake wrapped her arms around her waist and shuddered again. She couldn't imagine having a machine as part of her, something so cold and hard and unnatural.

Blake forced her eyes back to Ruby eyes and realized the teen had pushed herself into the corner of her bed, eyes downcast trying to hide her metal arm.

"Ruby, I-" Blake started but turned her eyes to the floor chastising herself. What she thought, what she felt, right now, was not important. Blake didn't have to live with a cybernetic arm or the horrid scarring. Ruby did, for the rest of her life, she would have a reminder of that day in the Forever Falls, of the cave and that woman.

Letting out her breath Blake sat on the bed.

"I'm sorry Ruby. I shouldn't have starred, again."

"It's, fine," Ruby mumbled not lifting her eyes. "You look tired."

Black closed her eyes and mentally sighed; she was supposed to be the mysterious hard to read member of the team. Was it really that obvious how tired she was?

"I am. Yang kept me awake."

"I'm sorry."

Blake gave a soft smile. "It's not your fault your sister has the sneaking skills of a circus."
"I'm sorry for waking you up."

Blakes smile dropped. "Oh. It's fine. You had a nightmare. That's not your fault."

"But you're tired. And we have appointments later."

Blake tensed up, knowing how well this was going to go. Just like ripping off a bandage.

"Pastel offered to take you. She, insisted I get some sleep."

Ruby's head shot up her gaze locking onto Blake. Her eyes were frantic wide, her breath starting to hitch as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

Blake held up a hand, putting on a calm tired smile. "Ruby, it's ok. Pastel is nice, she helped you with your pain. Remember?"

"I, remember," Ruby murmured quietly. "It's just, I'm scared."

"I know," Blake said. Closing her eyes she tried to open them but found the lids glued shut. With a painful effort, she forced them open again and stood up.

"But I can't take you. I'm falling asleep. And I doubt Yang will wake up in time."

"I can wake her up."

Blake looked to the bunk above hers with an open disdainful glare. "I know she's your sister, but I don't trust her to wake up."

Or do anything else to help Ruby.

"It'll be fine Ruby," the Faunus sighed as she climbed into her own bed. "Ok?"

"Ok."

Blake smiled and collapsed, not bothering to take off her shoes or climb under the blanket. Paradise called her, weighing on her eyelids and beckoning her into darkness and bliss. Just as she slipped into sleep she heard Ruby whisper to herself.

"You think I'll be ok with Pastel Pyrrha?"

I did it again. Don't mind me, just face-desking. Will try to keep a reminder to stop from doing it again.

Wonder if anyone can figure out what I did again.

Besides that, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Hopefully that's a better start to a story than the other Stained Festival.

Thank you very much for reading.

Lord Tomyh