[Nora]

"That Ren! He left me all alone down here, who else is gonna protect little old Nor... ooh, pancakes!"

It was just business as usual for me; I cut class awhile ago, and I was deep in the city of Beacon, where I happened to pass up a bakery. Looking over the various goods they had on display, I realized this bakery was different; it had pancakes on display. "Finally," I began, "the quest is over!" I could hide from pesky teachers, and eat delicious pancakes! But before I could even open the door, a woman blindsided me from a darkened alley.

Picking myself up, I turned my head and saw Blake with... Yang? It was Yang in her arms, with Yang missing an arm.

"Nora! Take Yang, and get her to a hospital. Then, call your team. Head to the school."

Just like that, Blake handed me a dying person and within seconds, left. I was gonna ask what happened, but I couldn't chase after her with Yang bleeding to death! I began to run to the closest hospital in this city, which wasn't that far, thankfully.

"It'd be nice if you didn't bounce so much," Yang uttered weakly as I made it to the parking lot.

"Shh, look, I got you, Yang!"

I kicked the door open, set Yang down, and brandished Magnhild about, yelling until the nurses took her into intensive care.

And then? I grabbed my scroll and called my team.

"Beep boop boop, please pick up..." I said nervously.

Jaune picked up. "Hey Nora, if you're looking for Ren, he's with me in the dorms."

"In the dorm room? Jaune! Something's happening at the school! Yang's arm was cut off and Blake looked like she was busted up pretty bad. I'm worried that whoever did this, they're not gonna stop!"

"Yeah, we know! We were actually going to call you, but all the screaming caught us off guard pretty fast, and -" something that sounded like an explosion rumbled in the distance. "Oh man! Okay, where are you?"

"I'm out in the city, look, get Ren and meet me outside!"

I looked up. The clouds are getting pretty dark...

"Alright, we'll meet you there." And with that, Jaune hung up on me, mid-sentence. Normally, I'd say he was rude, but now wasn't the time for that.

Anyways, I turned and started sprinting to the school.

As I got closer, I could hear screams in the distance. They were frightening - they echoed off the mountains and buildings nearby, and the loudest ones sounded like...

Blake! I grabbed Magnhild and readied myself for battle as I ran. Pretty soon, I got close enough to see Ruby cutting Blake - wait, what?

Ruby cutting Blake? Ruby's alive? But Professor Ozpin told us that she was killed... How is this possible? Why is she hurting Blake?

And - ech, pancakes. That broke my thought process.

If I was gonna save Blake, then I needed to focus and strike hard. I lunged and raised Magnhild. With one swipe, I sent Ruby flying.

"Blake!" I crouched and put my hand over her forehead. "Don't worry, I'll-"

"Don't kill her Nora, please. It's my fault she's..." Blake's voice gave out completely. I looked at Ruby, who was bleeding from her head. "Ruby! What is this? What's going on? She's your friend!" I felt my stomach turn as past memories flooded my mind. Memories I had with Ruby, that raised the hairs on my arms, knowing that this was going on. I felt sick. I felt angry. I felt...

...scared.

Ruby looked wild, glaring at me from her greasy, almost matted hair. "That - that faunus - hurt Weiss, and did nothing to keep her alive! Nothing!"

Wait, Weiss is alive, too? Was Professor Ozpin lying to us the entire time?

"And now," Ruby continued, "I'm getting my revenge."

"Oh boy. Ohhh boy, Ruby, look, let's just-"

Out of nowhere, Ruby let out an ear-splitting wail that rang in my ears. As my ears recovered, she smacked me with the blunt end of her scythe.

Huh, I thought, she's not this clumsy in a one-on-one match.

Ignoring the pain, I got my bearings and backed up, transforming Magnhild and letting loose a barrage of carefully-aimed grenades - I didn't want to kill anyone here.

Of course, Ruby dodged them with ease, except for the last round, which hit her directly in the ankle and sent her flying. Thank goodness for auras, or else she would've been a paste. I noticed that Ruby, who was now getting up and staggering in the distance, didn't even try to make a combat-ready stance, but instead continued to stare at me with a hateful glare.

"Ruby," I began. "I don't want to hurt-"

"Lies! You're all such fucking liars!" Ruby transformed Crescent Rose and let loose a volley of buckshot. I extended Magnhild, ran and slammed the hammer head into the ground, propelling me forward to her. I was prepared to knock the ever-loving crap out of her again if needed.

Ruby moved at the last second, rose the scythe upward and countered with a hard swing, grazing my side, messing up my trajectory, and sent me flying for about thirty feet, knocking me into a stone column.

"Nora..." Ruby walked toward me, Crescent Rose in hand. Reeling from the pain, I managed to pull Magnhild close and transformed it into its compact form, with the barrel aimed squarely at her chest.

"Ruby, I fire this, and you're gonna become rose pudding! Okay? Rose pudding with tapioca chunks!"

She kept walking. I noticed she had an off-balance, feral-looking gait as she stared with those sullen eyes. Needless to say, it freaked me out.

"I'm- I'm warning you!" I really didn't want to blow her sky high. Especially since I could get caught as well.

Ruby closed the distance with her semblance, and pressed her foot on my leg, slowly crushing it.

She dropped her voice to an unnerving, scratchy, and quiet tone. "No. You don't have the guts for it." I couldn't help but scream when I felt the grooves of her boot being impressed on my shin. "Nora, I've seen the end. What it can do to a person who has nothing to lose."

My eyes watered, and I let go of my weapon, trying to pry her leg off of me.

"What it can do to someone who has nowhere to go." She stopped, and crouched down to my level. I could finally get a good look at her - a gloomy, serious face, but one that belonged to an old, battle-scarred Huntress, not a teenager. I felt like I wasn't even looking at Ruby, that this might be a fake, an imposter. But I could hear that little squeak behind her hoarse, blown out voice.

The fact that it's really her... I couldn't even muster the energy to fight.

"I came here for one reason, Nora." She paused. "I'm..."

Tears ran down her face. At this point her voice was a mere whisper, almost talking to herself than to me. "I'm sorry for doing this." She got up and started walking away, slowly.

After a few seconds to recover, I stood up, despite the excruciating pain shooting up my bruised left leg

"Ruby, wait!" I couldn't believe this was happening. "Nobody - and I mean nobody - knew you were alive! Nobody told us! We all thought you both were dead! I didn't want to hurt you! Blake didn't want to hurt you! I just want to know why you started this to begin with! Why you left!"

Ruby stopped walking.

"You grew cold and distant! You were just leaving them - leaving us - behind! And then, then you disappear!" I tried to hold back tears, but they came down like waterfalls. I saw a glint in Ruby's eyes, like a fuse just went out. She stared at Blake with heavy regret in her face.

"Ruby," I began, calming myself down. "Come with me, we'll fix you up, we'll fix Weiss up and, and take you both somewhere safe!" She looked back at me with tears rolling down her face.

"No, Nora."

The air felt calm and still. I wasn't sure how to react.

"No! I... I hurt you all too much, damn it, just let me leave!" Ruby ran at me with blinding speed and, well, I could've been bisected then and there. Boom. Finished without so much as a word in edgewise.

But I didn't. Ruby just... Vanished. Gone in a cloud of red petals. How did she do that?

"Nora! Blake!"

Ren? "Ren!" I was relieved when I saw him.

"Nora! What happened here?"

I ran to him, gripping his arms, sobbing profusely. "Ren, it's Ruby. She's... Ruby's alive."