She was running. Each breath she took caused her lungs to scream out in agony. The darkness surrounding her was never ending, and the monsters chasing after her were bound to catch her sooner or later…
A loud, blood thirsty howl echoed through the abyss.
…And by the sounds of it, it was going to be sooner rather than later.
Yang frantically searched the darkness. Something was different. Normally she would have heard the first shrill shriek by now, but the only thing she heard were the Grimm chasing after her.
Something hot ghosted across the back of her neck and she screamed. It was right behind her. The Grimm was right behind her.
The shadows suddenly gave out under her feet and she fell. She yelped in surprise. Was that it? Was this hellish dream finally over?
A sharp pain exploded in her ankles as she collided with the hard, black ground.
Apparently not.
Yang struggled to get up, but the pain in her legs was too excruciating to even think of moving. She felt something wet seeping through her clothes and realized that she was lying in a puddle of black water. It blended so well with the rest of the darkness that she hadn't even noticed it.
She could hear the ominous growls above her start closing in. The Grimm were making their way down to her. She had to move.
Despite the searing pain in her ankles, Yang threw herself forward and ran as fast as she could. Silent tears were flowing freely down her face as she sprinted for her life. It was silly; she knew that. This was a dream, she couldn't actually die here, but the overwhelming fear was still there.
"We're not going to make it!" the familiar voice of an unknown woman yelled.
"Yes, we are!" Yang yelled desperately. She knew how this was going to end. Her future self was going to pull some self-less act of sacrifice and this nightmare would end.
A flash of gold, a splash of crimson, and the world would turn black. She would wake up in her bed: safe and sound. Blake would ask her if she was alright, and she would laugh and say she was fine. Ruby would be hurriedly getting ready to go get breakfast, and Weiss would be reprimanding her for putting her shirt on backwards like an idiot.
Only something was different this time. This time she could actually hear the heavy pounding of footprints beating against the stone she knew she had to be running on. She squinted into the darkness and noticed something else.
Instead of running by herself like she had originally thought, she was running alongside two women. One she recognized as the older version of herself, but the other was new. It was difficult to pick out any specific characteristics, but there were two things in particular that stood out: long, black hair…and crimson.
"We're not," older Yang whispered. She quickly grabbed the scruff of the other woman's shirt collar with one hand while the other grasped her belt firmly. "But you are!"
The unknown woman was launched like a missile towards the only exit in the cavern they were in. A loud, high-pitched shriek echoed in her wake. Shortly after, a loud rumble shook the shadows beneath Yang's feet and large black blobs obscured the opening the woman had disappeared through.
The two Yangs trotted up to the wall, panting heavily.
"NO!" The woman shrieked. "We need to get her out of there!" The sound of nails scraping on rocks shrieked on the opposite side of the wall.
"Don't!" Older Yang shouted back angrily. "This is the only exit they have! If you open it up to get me out, they'll destroy everything! You guys need to get out of here!"
"I'm not leaving you behind!" the woman objected stubbornly. A small hole broke through the wall. "I'll kill myself before I let that happen!"
"You have to!" Older Yang persisted. She slammed her fist against the stone barricade and gritted her teeth. "There's no other way! Get the others, get out of here, and tell them to blow this damn mountain sky high!"
"NO!" The other woman screamed. "I can't just sentence you to death like that! I can't!" Tears started streaming down her face as sobs escaped her throat.
Yang watched as her older self relaxed and pressed her forehead against the small opening. "There are worse ways to die….. I could die of boredom in Port's class," she laughed half-heartedly at the last part.
"What about your lover?" the other woman demanded. "What about Blake? You promised-"
Yang's eyes widened as an intense heat flooded across her face. Lover? Blake? What?
She dragged her fingers through her hair as the words sunk in. It wasn't like she thought Blake wasn't attractive or anything. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She thought that the Faunus girl was rather beautiful…and smart…and talented…and strong…
Okay, so she had a bit of a crush on her partner, but to have her as a lover? She had never thought that it could actually be a thing! That was only something she had ever dreamed of!
"Well, I am in a dream right now," Yang attempted at humor but found her own joke to be in poor taste. "Dammit, I'm losing my edge."
"I KNOW WHAT I PROMISED!" Older Yang roared, snapping the younger blonde out of her reverie. She slammed her fist against the wall; knocking a few smaller bits of rubble loose. "But…I can't keep that promise…if they're all dead… The way I see it, this is the only way I can keep it…."
Silence hung heavily between the two Huntresses.
"What about your little girl?" the other woman asked. Tears coated her voice as she spoke. "What about…" Silent sobs caused the sentence to be cut short.
Blood dripped from Older Yang's clenched fists. "Well….it looks like you just got promoted from auntie to mommy…. She's your little girl now…" A small sob hiccupped in the blonde's throat.
Yang felt tears prickling at her eyes as a hot lump rose in her throat. "Ruby?..."
"D-Do me a favor?" Older Yang choked.
"Anything," the woman on the other side of the wall hiccupped.
"Don't tell anyone I cried at the end…It makes me seem less cool."
A small chuckle sounded from the wall. "Only if you don't tell anyone I'm bawling my eyes out right now."
"Deal," Older Yang chuckled. "Now get out of here. Get to the airship and radio those assholes to blow this rock sky high."
"You got it."
The sound of footsteps slowly faded away; leaving the two blondes alone. "Fuck…" the older of the two cursed quietly. "Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!"
Yang watched as her future self turned around and leaned against the stone wall. Tears were streaming down her face in rivers. She quickly wiped them away with the back of her gloved hand and peered into the darkness with dark, tired eyes.
The monstrous growls and howls of the oncoming Grimm were practically at their door. Their hot, rancid breath reeked of death and rotted flesh. It took everything Yang had to keep from vomiting.
The older blonde took a shaky breath and leaned down to her boots. "This is going to hurt like a bitch," she stated calmly. She unclipped the leather straps on the outsides of her ankles and pulled two, silver blank knife blades from their holsters.
"Good thing I started carrying these around back at Beacon. They've sure saved my ass on a few occasions." She stared at her reflection in the razor sharp blade and smiled humorously. "Not sure what good they're going to do now, though. Oh, well," she clipped the blank handles into the palms of her gloves, "might as well have some fun."
Yang felt the darkness beneath her feet shake violently as a monstrous Grimm manifested in front of the older blonde. Dark purple, almost black, eyes locked with burning red confidently as the beast roared. A haughty smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth.
"Aw, aren't you cute? You think you're scary."
The shadowy Grimm lunged forward. With a wave of her arm and a flick of the wrist, Older Yang snapped the monster's neck with her bare hands. No sooner had the first Grimm dropped to the ground that another took its place…and another…and another.
Soon everything was a blur. Dark smudges smeared Yang's vision like a kindergartener's finger-painting. Eventually, the colorful paints were found, and the portrait was adorned with a flash of gold, a splash of crimson, and the rest turned black.
Yang closed her tear filled eyes and felt the air whip around her as she fell. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine." The familiar, warm voice began. "You make me happy when skies are gray. You'll never know, dear, how much I love you. So please don't take my sunshine away."
A loud THUD pierced the early morning air as Yang collided with the hardwood floor; pain immediately exploding through her neck. "Son-of-a-Borbatusk!" She slowly pushed herself into a sitting position and rubbed the back of her neck. "Well…that's one way to wake up in the morning. It's not my cup of Folgers, but it does the trick."
"I'll say! You woke up the whole dorm!" A shrill voice reprimanded.
"Huh?" Yang whirled around and winced at the excruciating pain in her neck. "Dammit!"
Weiss, Ruby, and Blake crowded around their teammate.
"Yang, are you alright?" Ruby asked worriedly.
"Yeah, just a crick in the neck," Yang replied painfully. She grasped her jaw and the top of her head firmly and jerked to the side. A loud CRACK echoed through the room.
CRACK!
CRACk!
CRAck!
CRack!
Crrrrrrraaaaaaaacccccccckkkkk!
Ruby shuttered and hugged herself tight. "Can someone please explain why that last one sounded like it was in slow motion?"
"Focus," Weiss stated firmly and folded her arms; trying desperately to ignore the chill crawling along her spine. "Alright, Yang, this is getting out of hand. These nightmares of yours are becoming a problem."
"How did you know I was having nightmares?" Yang exclaimed. She turned towards Blake; the most pitiful of distressed puppy expressions was plastered on her face. "You didn't tell them, did you?"
A faint blush colored the Faunus' cheeks. "Of course I didn't," she denied shakily. "You were literally screaming in your sleep, Yang. Everyone heard you."
All the color drained from Yang's face. "Everyone?"
"Everyone," Blake, Ruby, and Weiss emphasized.
Yang flinched at the venomous undertone in her teammate's voices. "Oops…my bad…"
Blake sighed heavily and knelt down next to her partner. "Yang, we need to do something about this. I know we've talked about it already, but maybe you should tell Weiss and Ruby what's going on too."
"Um, why?" Yang asked nervously.
"Because Weiss looks like she's not against killing you if you wake her up again," Blake explained, counting off on her fingers. "Ruby looks like she's about to burst into tears, team JNPR is concerned for your well-being, they're also becoming less and less concerned for your well-being because you keep waking them up with your screams, and I'm worried about you."
Yang glanced down at the hand on her shoulder, and blushed as the memories from her dream flooded her mind:
"What about your lover? What about Blake?"
What about Blake?
She looked up at her partner and felt a guilt induced wave of nausea plow through her stomach. The Faunus member of the team looked as horrible as Yang felt. Dark circles were beginning to form around dull, amber eyes. Even her usually perky cat ears were limp on top of her head.
Yang quickly glanced at her sister and Weiss. They weren't fairing much better. Ruby looked like she was about ready to fall asleep where she stood. Her eyes, red and puffy from crying, had the same dark circles as Blake's
Even Weiss was showing signs of strain. Her normally pale skin was now bleached an unhealthy color, and her pristine, white hair had lost its luster. The circles around her eyes announced that she had also joined the Raccoon Club.
"Did you guys get any sleep at all last night?" Yang asked. Her voice was more of a plea.
"Not with you moaning and groaning like an Ursa with a gut ache," Weiss huffed. A yawn escaped her mouth. "Don't get me started about the hour long scream fest you decided to partake in."
"Weiss, that's enough," Blake scolded. "It's not her fault. These dreams are….difficult."
"Oh, and how would you know?" the heiress demanded. "Has your little obsession led to you creating a machine that allows you to share the same dreams as Yang?"
"That's not it at all!" Blake hissed threateningly. "Like I said before, Yang and I have talked about this."
"Guys, can we just chill out for a minute?" Ruby intervened. "None of us have gotten much sleep tonight, so we're a little cranky. But I want to hear what Yang has to say! It's not fair that only Blake knows, and we shouldn't make any judgements until we hear her side of the story!"
Weiss and Blake glanced at each other briefly before huffing in agreement.
Nodding confidently at her teammate's reactions, Ruby turned to her sister. "Alright, Yang, spill it. I think I've bought you enough time to tell us what these dreams of yours are about and why they're freaking you out so much."
Yang sighed heavily. "Better sit down, sis. This is a long story."
Ruby and Weiss stared at Yang incredulously. The sun was just starting to peek over the tops of the buildings in the distance, illuminating the room with brilliant shades of gold, pinks, and purples, and the sweet singing of morning songbirds filled the air outside. There was maybe two hours before the first bell rang.
Yang fidgeted slightly in her seat. It had taken her an hour to explain everything. Granted, she hadn't mentioned everything. She had left the part about Blake becoming her future lover and how Ruby became the adoptive mother of her child out on purpose. Everything else, though, was fair game: the dark haired woman with the Grimm mask, the nightmares and how they've been getting clearer with each passing night, everything.
"Let me get this straight," Weiss clarified. "These dreams just happened to start a little over a week ago?"
"Yup!" Yang confirmed.
"After we had our little mix up on the train?"
"Mmm-hmm."
"And you think the Grimm woman has some sort of significance?"
"That I'm not quite sure about," Yang admitted sheepishly. "All I know is that she saved me on the train when that Neapolitan ice cream looking bitch was about to turn me into a shish-kabob."
Blake tensed at the thought of someone running a skewer through Yang's chest.
"But you're sure that the blonde woman you keep seeing is you in the future?" Weiss more stated than asked.
"I can't think of anything else it could be," Yang explained.
"…Alright," Weiss dismissed and began collecting the toiletries needed for her morning shower.
"Look, Weiss, I know this sounds crazy-…Wait…What?"
"I said 'alright'," Weiss repeated as she made her way to the bathroom. "Look, Yang. As crazy as this does sound, I have done things this year that I never would have thought possible. I mean. Come on. I'm the heiress of the Schnee Corporation, and yet one of my closest friends is an ex-White Fang member.
"This may be a bit different than a Schnee befriending a Faunus, but in my mind the level of crazy is about the same. We're all teammates. We need to be able to trust one another. If we don't, who knows? We may, or may not, live to regret it later on."
With that, Weiss entered the bathroom; leaving the remaining members of team RWBY to stare wide eyed in disbelief at the door.
"…..What just happened?" Ruby asked in confusion.
"I think Weiss is taking that letter team TRBL left behind to heart," Blake guessed.
"Either that, or she ate a special brownie for breakfast," Yang suggested.
The girls' stomachs growled ferociously at the mention of food. Unfortunately, the cafeteria didn't open for another forty-five minutes. Oh, the humanity of waking up early and having to be conscious for the initial hunger pains.
"Speaking of team TRBL," Ruby pulled the box of VHS's out from underneath her pillow. "Does anyone have an idea of where we can find the thing that'll play these tapes?"
"Beats me," Yang shrugged. "You don't think we could find a cheap player at an antique store, do you?"
"We could probably find one in a store," Blake explained, "but I doubt it would be cheap. There probably aren't many places that even make VHS players anymore. And any manufacturer that does is more than likely going to be selling them for a high price."
"Damn," Yang sighed and flopped back onto her bed. "Here I thought we were getting somewhere. Anyone got any other ideas?"
"Well, I have a couple," Blake admitted. "But I don't think you're going to like at least one of them."
Yang and Ruby zipped over to the dark haired girl like puppies waiting for a treat. "What is it? What is it?"