Blake shook her head as the darkness of the route covered her. "I should have never applied for Beacon. I should have stayed with the White Fang and continued to rebel." Crystal tears rolled down her face and she ducked her head to hide the evidence from nobody.

Oddly, the pathway didn't lead to absolutely nowhere. At the end of the tight path was a huge clearing. The sunset light peeping from the horizon showed itself once again and Blake observed her new surroundings.

Familiar surroundings, rather.

There was a large belt of green grass and hedging. A gate to a park invited her in. She stood there, trying to contemplate the view. "This... it was because of this place everything started to make sense."

In fear of Weiss or any of her team mates following her, she decided run to the large gates that had been shut. No problem for her. With a quick eye, she leapt over them in seconds to the other side.

The more natural landscape of the park was a more welcome change to the cramped and busy city of Vale. Here she felt more free, like she should have been from her birth. It wasn't long before she reached a stone structure that served as the centrepiece of the area. It was a gazebo with a small pond in the middle of it and at the top of the fountain was a small stone.

"For so many years, I was a victim to slavery by mankind. Nothing more than a tool in the cogworks of greedy human corporations. What's worse, is that we were only children. Me, Adam and the others."

She shut her eyes an imagined a small boy with fluffy red hair and horns. Next to him was a girl with black hair and kitten ears. That girl was her. Both were in rags and dirty from mining in a quarry. At the time she didn't worry because she had always had Adam at her side.

The small boy clenched his fist. "Don't worry Blake! One day we'll grow up and lead a great organisation. And you'll be right behind me!"

At the time, Blake was timid and quiet. She never said a word but Adam would always speak to her.

As the near-adult Blake of the real world reopened her eyes and saw again fountain in front of her. She placed her fingers on one of the many wooden beams supporting the structure and ran her fingers down it. "The White Fang ended up being no better than people. No better than even Grimm. Perhaps we were subject to the rule of humans for a reason after all. And the stone here... they used to say it was linked to the moon."

She stepped under the Gazebo and looked into the pool of running water that reflected her passive face and golden eyes. On the top was the stone, but something was off about it.

Her eyes widened a little in suspicion. "Why is the stone red?"

She hadn't touched it, but like a light switch, sky instantly turned dark. The woman could still make out what was around her thanks to the lights of the lamps still being on, but the phenomena was too real. Or perhaps it was a dream?

Blake decided to keep calm and relax. While she didn't understand what was going on, she had got the message. All around her she could already hear the growls of monsters eager to take her away. She took a deep breath as a white headed snaked suddenly lunged from the black horizon. The creatures were testing her patience.

In an instant, she reached for her Gambol Shroud and shot at the snake as it crashed into her, jaws wide. Then there was another white snake head. There were two King Taijitsu's. The two heads of the black sides of the double headed snakes joined in trying to sink their teeth into the Beacon student.

Putting her grip on the ribbon rather than the gun handle, she threw the gun around by a thread as it continued to fire, blasting the creatures with bullets. But it was not enough to subdue such huge and deadly creatures, let alone two. The jaws of a giant white snake scraped past the sleeveless side of her arm. It's tooth barely scraped across her arm, scratching it and causing a small drop of blood to run.

"We are all bound by the same thread." Blake stated as she continued to swing the ribbon in a symbolic fashion.

"But who... who where you sent by?" She landed with her feet planted on the ground searching for the snake devils, who had seemed to have retreated. Her eyes squinted as she read the air. "... the Broodmother-"

Her voice was stopped as the ground beneath her feet gave way as a snake pulled directly below her, trapping her in its jaws. Her vision had been entirely encased in jaws.

Darkness.

Her mind was a blur and a mess. She awoke, but not where she had been before. She sat on the ground, leaned up against marble ruins. The floor was made of white and black marbled checkers. The room was some kind of large ruin. Most of it was intact, save for the left bottom corner of the room which had a large chuck of wall taken out of the top corner, revealing the moon, which was back in its full glory.

As she tried to maintain her balance, she stood up. She inspected herself for injuries. From what she could see, the wounds and bruises inflicted by the Snake-Grimm were still present. "Where am I now?" She asked herself.

She wasn't alone in the room. She was accompanied by a rather aggressive growl not too far away. The highlights of the moonlight revealed a very odd looking Grimm. It was tall and slender like a Beowolf, but large like an Ursa. The devil had large fox like ears, huge bladed claws, and a long tail.

"What is-" Blake was halted when the creature vanished into black smoke.

Her ear tilted backwards as she could hear heavy breathing down her neck. The skull-face of the Grimm looked back at her with wild red eyes. As she tried to move out of the way, her legs hurled back as if they were caught in something and her body slid across the floor. As she looked to figure out the hazard, she noted that the creature had very quickly disarmed her by using its tail as a whip.

"Alright then." Blake grunted as she drew out her pistol and prepared to fire a few shots. Luckily for her, the creature seemed to just stand there. As the first bullet impacted, it penetrated the image and before she had realised it, the creature had gone like a television switched off.

Knocked down from behind. Blake didn't have a moment to trigger her semblance. She tumbled to the ground to see the Grimm had struck her from behind. Her body rolled butb she maintained some focus. Suddenly there were two Blake's; one was a dummy left behind that soon vanished into smoke. The other had warped to safety on the other side of the room. She leapt up on top of a thick ruined pedestal and observed as the creature chased her.

As she tried to point and shoot; they too split into two copies. She had already fired at the first one, which vanished from sight. The second lunged while she blocked with her cleaver blade. It was a blow for a blow.

Soaring higher up the sides of the ruined hall, she tried to look for a route to escape. The massive crack in the corner that revealed the moon seemed like the easiest option for her. "Whatever this thing is... it matches my own strikes. There's no need for me to fight it right now-"

Blake was suddenly forced back to the ground. She had leapt up, but had collided with an invisible wall blocking where freedom lies. Her body hurtled to the ground. With quick thinking, she landed on both feet unharmed. "Something is preventing my escape, trapping me here!"

Blake had been imprisoned in this creul arena and was destined to fight the beast she shared the room with. The back long-eared cat Grimm prowled slowly, waiting for the next strike.

Suddenly, a black vine hurled itself from the shadows at Blake. She in turn threw forth her ribbon and both latched and wound around each other. Black smirked. "I understand now. You are my shadow."

That cat hissed.

"I should have known before. Right down to my own Semblance." Blake seemed to do something with her hand in the shadows, but not even the moon could make out what it was.

The black cleaver flew from her hand like a giant bladed Shuriken; but it missed its mark. Blake toppled and fell forwards as the tension of her ribbon suddenly lifted. She rolled over, but her chest was then stepped on by the animals foot. She couldn't move. She could barely breathe.

She stared into the red eyes of her reflection as her reflection stared back into herself.

"If you want to take me away then do it. I'm already done with this weird world." Blake relaxed her body. Her weapons were out of reach. There was little she could do to defend herself. "I was just about ready to give up actually..."

"Don't give up, I know you can win!"

The room echoed with a pleading cry. It resonated through the air, as if the voice belonged to the sky. But it was also familiar.

The Tigress stopped as its ears perked up to the phenomenon. Blake's mind snapped awake to the girl's voice in the sky. "Weiss? Weiss! Is that you?"

"Of course it's me you dork!"

Blake kicked the monster off of her body. She couldn't quit now. She couldn't give up yet just because she wanted to. She had to be there for her friends as well. Black ducked for cover. "Weiss, where are you!?"

"I could ask you the same! I only hear your voice around here. Just had to slaughter two King Taijtsu's."

It was more than just a dream. Weiss was at the park that Blake was once at. Somehow she was trapped in some kind of virtual arena. "I'm at some kind of... Black and white palace. I can't escape... there's something trying to kill me in here!"She gasped as the Grimm lunged. For the life of Weiss, she couldn't figure out where her team mate had gone. Among the corpses of the dual headed snakes, she saw something glint and shine. It zapped and sparked red as if it was angry and biting.

"That snake must've swallowed it." Weiss thought aloud as she kicked it with her boot.

Like an electric zap, her leg flew backwards nearly knocking her over. Before she could get a grasp of her surroundings, she could see Blake besides her. She wasn't at the park anymore, she was in the dark black palace.

Raawrgh!

A roar like a tiger shot towards Weiss as the black Grimm charged for her. Her body was forced to the side by someone else, followed by a groan.

Still on the floor, Weiss looked up with her eyes fixated on her friend. A bloody wound on her chest, a mark of claws from her reflection had ripped her flesh as if real. Weiss was distraught that her friend had saved her life. "Blake... you moron!"

Blake's eyes were hidden under the shadow of the room. Her sense of hearing from Weiss's plea was blocked out by her sense of pain. She stay stood for a while, but not for long as she continued to bleed out. A leg dropped as if in mercy to her enemy. "I... couldn't let anything happen to you Weiss..."

"Don't be..."

"You have a good family Weiss. Parents. A lot of money. You have a lot to live for. Me? I think I'm spent."

"...Shut up! Stop it!" Weiss stood up and marched towards Blake, regardless of the threat of the Grimm in the room. "Do you not even listen to yourself for a moment!? Do you!?"

The black Grimm leapt out the shadows again for Weiss. Quickly with the Martynatser in hand, it was frozen temporarily in a beam of light. "QUIET. I'm talking!" Weiss cursed the creature for interrupting her pep talk with Blake.

"Look, Blake. I already get it. It doesn't take a genius to work out that all the crap about my father's company in those mines bothered you. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't care who you are. You know, even if it turned out you'd be the world's enemy... chances are I'd still be by your side." Weiss looked down a bit before summoning up a fierce look in her eyes and pointed at the frozen icicle behind her. "But I shall NOT allow you to be beaten by your own shadow! So get up and fight it! I know you... no we... can do it. We do this as a team!"

Weiss offered up her hand to the wounded Blake. Black's body still hurt direly all over, and she could barely stand, but the words seemed to sink. From Weiss's perspective she couldn't tell. White caught sight of a golden eye beneath the black bangs. A hand wrapped in black ribbon rose and met with her own hand. "Let's do it then."

Blake pulled her hand from Weiss's grasp to allow her friend to move it. White swung her hand in the air as if she was casting an incantation and with sprinkles of blue dust pale cyan spheres formed around her hand like snowflakes. With her free hand, she too raised the Martynaster and twirled it in the air. It seemed to manipulate and loosen the spheres like a magnet.

Blake had to ignore her wounds aching and thriving. She grit her teeth and pulled at her blade from the ribbon attached to her hand. All students weapons acted as a conduit to their aura and semblance.

Crack.

Slowly but surely, Tigress was breaking free. Blake decided to ignore it, and concentrate on her own power. "I don't have much time... my doppelganger and I will end us both if I don't find a solution. I need a strategy to beat myself so I can get better." Something in Blake snapped as she looked into the pistol half of the Gambol Shroud.

Weiss's fire was distracted by a drastic pulse of air. Instead of retrapping the beast that was breaking free, she missed her mark entirely. But it wasn't the Tigress that had nearly swept her off her feet. An overwhelming sense of power dominated the room. It flooded in like a vortex, meeting at a single point.

Weiss was conflicted"Where is that Aura coming from!? I've never felt like this before!"

Dust had settled everywhere but near Blake. Weiss stood back as the once wounded figure stood stronger and more confident. Even Blake wasn't sure what was going on, but she went with it.

Through her own hands and her weapon, she could feel something anew. Something her reflection had always lacked. The cat beast surged to attack, but completely missed its mark.

Weiss saw Blake. Then Blake. Then Blake. Then Blake. Images of her friend could be seen everywhere around the room. Her shadow was tormented by it, frantically trying to find the real one.

"Mirror images?" Weiss questioned. It was then she recognised what they had spawned from. "Blake's semblance was in my combat notes. She can split into a single image to avoid attacks. That image can also attack in her place..." Weiss looked around. "But there are so many copies now, I can't tell which is real!"

There could have been about ten to fifteen images of the same girl she knew. Whatever immense power was behind it also allowed each one to act independently and attack the Tigress in unison. There was no escape. Rather than fight, Weiss became baffled as she watched each clone slaughter the beast one at a time.

Then the real one shouted.

"Your hopes have become my burden, I will find my own liberation!" The sword ran through the Grimm through the skull more cleanly than the carvings on its body. It's body shattered and disintegrated like black rose petals.

All the clones of Blake except the real one had vanished from sight. Her real body nearly collapsed into a heap on the floor. Weiss slid forward, sacrificing the neat folds in her clothes. The squeak of the marble as she slid against it suddenly felt more rugged and coarse. Weiss got up from the now grassy terrain, and rather than immediately question it, she vigorously shook the Faunus.

"What was that!? I've never seen you use your Semblance like that before?"

It was like shaking a ragdoll. Black seemed unable to respond, but opened one eye. "My Semblance went beyond it's usual parameters. I was unaware such a thing was even possible in someone like me."

Weiss was well versed in how Semblance worked. It was a projection of abilities with powers that differed depending on the users mindset. Weiss had control over her Glyphs, Blake usually had control of a single clone. "I'm pretty sure I couldn't have defeated that Grimm unless I used that power."

Blake leaned into Weiss fairly forcefully. White had only just realised that when the waves of Blake's black hair hit her coat, the girl had already slipped into temporary slumber. Rather than wake her, Weiss sat there for a moment. She took a look at the landscape around her recognising the green park that they had once been in. She noticed a shiny white stone on the floor.

"He that's..."

"...It took me a while to assess a few things, but this Moon Stone I hold in my hands could be the key to saving her life. But I would need your input Jaune." Professor Ozpin pushed up his glasses as he held forth a small shiny white stone. It was the same one he had pulled from his desk globe.

Jaune was nervous as he glanced around the student medical ward. "Uhhh, what kind of input?"

"I will explain everything as you go. We'll be starting now." Ozpin pressed a little harder on the shiny white stone, causing the light inside to bleed a little red.

Yellowhead raised his hand "But this isn't exactly the best place to be fighting."

The moon stone Ozpin now held was coloured ruby, and he flew it towards the knight in training. Like a pebble being thrown at a victim, Jaune shut his eyes and tried to block it with his arms, but when he reopened his eyes he awoke in a grand arena.

It was like he had been teleported to a different world. He could feel the heat of the air on his skin, the sand in his shoes. The arena itself was very old and standard with a bright sun shining down upon it. There were seats for onlookers, but nobody was there to cheer him on. Jaune could feel the impending danger from hairs standing on their end at the back of his neck. "Uh... where exactly am I?"

A voice boomed from overhead. "Can you hear me?"

"Professor Ozpin?" Jaune questioned looking around frantically for the master of Beacon Academy. "Where are you exactly?"

"At the moment I am just a projection. Is Pyrrah with you?"

Jaune checked behind himself. Buried partially in the sand was his friend, still unconscious, as he lifted her out. He clutched her hand tightly with regret. "Wake up damn you!"

The hand squeezed a little back. Jaune's eyes widened. It was weak, but Pyrrah was still somewhat conscious. "W-who... who are you...? I can barely see your face..." Her eyes were faded and unfocused but her body didn't have a scratch on it, just like before.

" I'm here Pyrrah!" Jaune looked up and shouted at the air to Ozpin"She's awake! What do I do now?"

"It's not as simple as that Jaune. She is still very much weak and cannot currently defend herself."

"Defend her from what?" Jaune wondered.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

"Oh there it is." Jaune shivered with regret as he could hear the sound of heavy steps behind him. He could hear the clang of heavy metal and the release of hot steam. Whatever it was didn't even seem alive.

Jaune had to stand up and face it. With Pyrrah still on the ground he stood up and drew his blade and sheild. "Now it's time to finally prove to you I can stand on my own feet! This is the day I'll save you Pyrrah!"