Fipp: Anyone else see the new opening? I did. It was awesome.

Also, sorry for this one being so short. It's basically a light-filler.

Dreamscape of Roses

Chapter VI: Something in the Dark

"Hey, Nora," Ren greeted simply, raising his hand.

"REN!" Nora cried happily, running at the by and jumping into his arms. He easily caught her, not at all surprised by the stunt as he had grown use to it many years ago. "I had the coolest dream!" she said, then disengaging herself from him. "I dreamed I was a viking queen! But it wasn't like the other ones because there were no cyborg dinosaurs, and no one even had a spaghetti sword!"

"Considering that there are some very odd circumstances going on, I'm not surprised at all," Ren replied calmly. He looked over Nora's shoulder and to Ruby. "Thanks for getting her, Ruby."

"My pleasure," Ruby replied, walking to the pair. "That's two down, five to go."

"I'm confused," Nora said, tapping a finger to her chine while she looked up to the dark sky. "What happening exactly? Is this still a dream? If so, why is no one wearing a rainbow afro?"

"It's a bit complicated," Ruby tried to explain. "Well you see-"

"More of the same exposition then, eh?" Suddenly, Baku appeared in front of the three, arms folded across his chest.

Nora tugged at Ren's sleeve. "Who's that?"

Ren didn't take his eyes off Baku. "That's someone who we have to worry about."

"Is he a bad guy?"

"Yes."

"Sounds bad."

"It is."

Ruby stepped forward, placing herself between Ren and Nora, and Baku. "What do you want now?"

"Do I really need something?" Baku replied, everything about him smug. "Why can't I congratulate you? You've saved two friends so far! That's almost half, you're getting there."

"Is everyone else in trouble?" Nora asked, the usual optimistic tone to her voice gone, replaced with worry. "What about Jaune and Pyrrha?"

"That's all for Ruby Rose here to decide," Baku said, causally waving a hand in the air. "But anyway, I just came into to check on you, so until next time. I just hope you survive until then."

He then vanished, not leaving any room for rebuttals.

"Ren," Ruby spoke, not looking away from where Baku had been.

"Yes?" he answered.

She turned around to look at him. "I need you to explain everything to Nora, I'm going to the next dream."

"Right. Just be careful. I talked to him after you left, and he's hiding things."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "I kind of got that impression. There's no way he's not up to something, but I don't know what else to do. So until we have some sort of clue, we just have to play along.

Ren nodded, Ruby nodded before running to the next door, and Nora looked confused.

As soon as Ruby touched a door and vanished, Nora looked to Ren.

"I need an info dump please."

Looking to Nora, Ren was about to open his mouth when they heard something.

Both looked out to the black void, trying to see what it was, but saw nothingness and darkness.

Nonetheless, there was a distant rumbling somewhere out there.

000

Please review,

Mrfipp