Blake followed Cardin down the hallway. He had just stood up and walked away, so she assumed she was meant to follow. She was still getting used to some of the halls, but she was pretty sure they were headed toward the infirmary. She had to make sure, though.

"Infirmary? Why are we going there?"

Cardin shrugged. "On the off chance that, if there really is something wrong with you, we can find out what."

Blake went silent for a minute as they walked, but then she saw someone else down one of the halls they passed. She lowered her voice. "Cardin, there's Miltia."

He didn't look interested. "Why should I care?"

"Cause she's talking to herself."

Cardin stopped and took a few steps backward, peering with Blake down the hall. Miltia was standing with her back to them, talking as if someone was there. There was nowhere for someone else to be hiding. The two snoopers exchanged a worried glance, then hid back behind the corner.

Cardin folded his arms over his chest. "So she's nuts. We already knew that. This is not new information."

Blake stepped out into the other hall. "I'm going to see if I can find out who she's talking to."

But Miltia wasn't talking anymore. She was standing right in front of Blake, staring at her. "It's not polite to listen in on other people's conversations." She turned and walked away, having nothing more to say to Blake.

Cardin looked around the corner to see the girl leaving. "Huh. Weirdo."


That night, the twelve students tried to sleep with varying degrees of success. Dove was kept awake all night, troubled by what he had found out regarding their auras, as well as Blake's claim that she felt like something was causing her to act strangely. Weiss and Jaune stayed awake as well, gathered in Velvet's room as the Faunus girl slept. They went over everything they knew about the school, trying to find out what was going on and if there was any way out.

Cardin slept like a rock, the troubles around him blissfully forgotten once his eyes closed. Melanie slept lightly, a pleasant dream causing her to smile in her sleep. Pyrrha went to sleep late, her throat dry and the smell of blood creeping around her. Ren woke up several times through the night, sure that he heard something just outside his door.

Miltia slept happily, after several minutes of hard work, her arms wrapped around Sky's torso. Ruby jumped out of bed every few minutes, going back to her desk and reading a bit more from the books she had gotten from the library, writing down notes. Blake slept, but tossed and turned from the dreams plaguing her.

The next morning at breakfast was a disturbing turn of events for those that showed up. Ren and Melanie made the breakfast without a problem, but they weren't sure what to think of the small crowd that arrived to eat.

Velvet yawned, tiredly munching on toast and a salad. Cardin ate quietly, clearly perturbed regarding the number of people that had shown up. Pyrrha stared at her pancakes for a while before finally drifting off to sleep, her face landing on the plate.

Melanie looked to Ren, who just shrugged. She sighed and sat down with a pudding cup. She pointed her spoon at Velvet. "Were you up late or something?"

The Faunus girl took a moment to answer, still a little out of it. She shook her head, her ears flopping around her lazily. "No, I just... woke up only a minute or two ago." She yawned again. "I'll be good soon, I promise."

"Uh huh..." Melanie ate a spoonful before addressing Velvet again. "You wouldn't happen to know where anyone else is, would you?"

Velvet looked up, surprised. The expression quickly vanished as she figured out what she had been asked. "Oh, Weiss and Jaune are sleeping in my room. They were up all night planning and scheming ways to escape. They were sleeping when I woke up."

Ren sat down beside Pyrrha, responding to Velvet. "So there's... still five people unaccounted for." He prodded the redhead awake. "Pyrrha, did you see anyone on your way here?"

Pyrrha reached up and pretended to rub sleep out of her eyes, but Ren could tell she hadn't had enough sleep for that. She shook her head. "In the halls? No... oh, well, does Ruby count? She was... decorating or something."

Ren wasn't sure what to make of anything Pyrrha had said. "Yes, Ruby counts. Decorating?"

Pyrrha groaned. "I don't know... I barely got myself here. Just... just let me sleep."

Ren stood up and moved toward the exit. "I think we should go see what's really keeping everyone. Melanie, come with me. Cardin, keep an eye on these two." Cardin gave him a mock salute as he walked out of the room, and Melanie ran to catch up.

Slowing to walk beside him, Melanie looked over to Ren. "Something's wrong."

He nodded. "I know. Seven people didn't show up for breakfast. Something has to be wrong. Also, Pyrrha's in pain from something. I don't know what, but..."

After a few seconds, she caught on to where his mind was going. "Jaune."

He looked back at her, surprised. "Jaune? What about him?"

Melanie explained. "She embarrassed herself in front of Jaune, and she's having trouble coping with it."

He shook his head. "It's more than that."

Melanie pointed ahead. "Well, let's hurry to Velvet's room and find out if she's telling the truth about Jaune and Weiss."

Two minutes later, they were standing outside Velvet's room. Ren only had to knock once on the door before it opened to a very tired-looking Weiss. She blinked slowly at the two of them before saying anything.

"I wasn't doin' anything."

Melanie grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room. "Go to the dining hall. Even if you just fall asleep on a table, just be there." As Weiss wandered off, Melanie looked into the room and saw Jaune sleeping on the desk. She turned to Ren. "Make sure Weiss gets where she's going. I'll take Jaune to wake the others."

Ren left without a word, so Melanie stepped into the room to wake Jaune. She looked around for a minute, trying to decide on the best way. It occurred to her that this was Velvet's room, and Weiss had just been in here, so any sort of mess she made could easily be blamed on the heiress. Then it occurred to her that Ren hadn't looked into the room long enough to even see if Jaune was alive. She had the perfect opportunity to kill Jaune and pin it on Weiss.

She shook the idea off immediately. Jaune was the last person who deserved to die, and she would be taking an awful risk. Even if she won the trial, she'd be condemning her own sister to an execution along with everyone else. Still, it was tempting, and that's why she needed to hurry and wake Jaune before she gave it a second thought.

Jaune woke up to the sound of fists pounding on the desk right beside his face. He jumped up and stared at Melanie. "What... holy crap! Don't scare me like that!"

Melanie was fine with him thinking she was just being a bother. She didn't want him to know what she had been thinking as she panicked into waking him in such a sudden and obnoxious way. She flicked her hair and walked out into the hall. "You didn't show up for breakfast. A lot of people didn't, actually. I need you to come with me and find the rest."

Jaune got up, realized he wasn't in his own room, and stepped out into the hall. He closed the door behind him. "Where are... Weiss and Velvet?"

Melanie started walking down the hall towards the next room belonging to one of the absentees, answering without looking back at Jaune. "They're both back at the dining hall." She didn't want to look at him right now. She couldn't.

The silence between them was tense, and Jaune didn't know why. At the next stop, Melanie knocked on the door and continued to knock for a full minute and a half before it finally opened. Dove, barely awake, stared down at her. He was barely able to identify exactly who he was looking at before Melanie trapped him in a hug.

The two boys exchanged confused looks as Melanie buried her face in Dove's chest. Jaune scratched the back of his head. "So, uh... how come you didn't do that with me?"

Melanie looked up at Dove, who was still royally confused. "Why weren't you at breakfast?"

Dove shrugged. "I couldn't sleep. I had a lot on my mind and it was keeping me awake. Why? What was for breakfast?"

She finally let go and stepped back, looking over him. He was wearing his school uniform, and his hair looked like a bird's nest. Otherwise, he just looked tired. She blinked a few times. "Uh... um... so we should go get the others who didn't show up."

Dove followed Melanie as she started down the hall. "How many people didn't show up for breakfast?"

She called back, refusing to stop or even slow down for the two boys. "Seven, including you, Jaune, and Weiss. She's already back at the dining hall, so there's only four left."


"I'm not asking you to stop. Just please, get some rest."

The dreams had been getting worse.

"Why do you wear that bow, Blake? Why hide who you are?"

She was now having them several times a night, every time she went to sleep.

"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together."

Every time, she saw the smiling ginger girl with a pink bow in her hair.

"...but you and me, I'm thinking, not as lame, huh?"

She felt that that girl was important, but she didn't know why.

"Her name was Summer Rose."

All of it was important, like she was desperately trying to remember something.

"If Roman Torchwick walked through that door, what would you do?"

"I'd fight him!"

"You'd lose!"

"I can stop him!"

"You can't even stop me!"

Blake bolted awake, the image of a strange chalk drawing burned into her mind. She spent the next hour sitting in her bed, piecing together everything that had appeared in her dreams. She didn't know where these memories were coming from, but she knew they were important. She had managed to piece together nearly complete memories of a battle at the dockyards. Herself, Ruby, Penny, Sun, and Torchwick. She just couldn't remember how it started, or why they were fighting.

She remembered Yang, eyes red, shouting at her. She remembered dancing with Sun, but she couldn't remember where Sun had come from or why he was significant to her. She remembered Yang telling her a story about her mother and Ruby's mother. She remembered a kiss, so vivid in her memory now that she could feel it. And she remembered screaming in agony and grief and despair... but she couldn't remember why.

Her mind wandered across people she remembered, but she didn't remember meeting. Ozpin, Torchwick, Yang, Sun, Penny, Doctor Oobleck... Summer? Her memory of Summer Rose was strong and vivid, but she wasn't sure if she had ever met the woman. Ruby's mother... she would have to ask the girl about it. Summer was the only one whose memory was not accompanied by a face.

Her thought were interrupted by a knock on her door.


Deadb3ar had several screens set up on the desk in front of Yang. The girl couldn't move, but at least she could see what was happening. She took every opportunity to give pointed remarks to her captor, mentioning every way the villains plan was falling apart. Yang smiled. Her friends were too smart to let that monster beat them.

Deadb3ar came storming into Ozpin's office, two other figures stalking in behind her. One stopped at the door, staring stupidly at Yang through dead bear eyes. The other, the shadow, crept around the edge of the room, keeping to the dark. Deadb3ar Prime, as Yang had taken to calling her, walked right up to the desk and put her foot up on it. She glared down at Yang, but every expression looked the same behind the mask.

"Blake is starting to remember things. Rather, she started a while ago, but it's accelerating. So we're taking bets on what happens when she passes the threshold."

Yang blink several times at the bear mask. "Threshold? By that, I assume you mean when she remembers enough to figure out how to end you. Put me down for 'she ends you'."


Author's Note: After considerable hiatus, this story comes back with a... strange chapter. Things are happening, and the state of things is not getting any better. Anyway, I'm curious to know what people think is coming.