I probably could have saved this upload for tomorrow, but I figured, what the hell. It's finished, might as well upload!

Night fell and Blake eventually found Ruby on one of the castle terraces, sitting on the stone railing with her legs dangling off the ledge. "There you are."

Ruby turned her head and watched Blake sit on the railing next to her. "Getting your head around things?"

"Slowly but surely," Blake nodded. "Did… you learn anything more about Crona?"

Ruby's face fell, making Blake flinch. It was clear the revelation that their big dark threat used to be a Keyblade wielder was incredibly distressing for Ruby. "Nothing more than what Lord Death was able to tell us," the young leader finally answered. "It's hard to get answers when you can't tell people why you're asking questions."

Blake understood. Thankfully, Lord Death was able to tell them quite a bit. Apparently, Crona's mother was a witch, which is apparently a thing in this world, and tried to turn Crona into a Kishin. The witch did this by melting down a person in weapon form, mixing the melt with a substance called 'black blood', and replacing all of Crona's blood with the weaponized plasma. The witch then set about ordering their own child, in partnership with the now quite insane 'Demon Sword', Ragnarok, to harvest human souls for power.

It took Blake quite some time to understand the melted weapon-person was still alive in Crona's bloodstream. Ragnarok could even manifest outside of Crona's body by manipulating the black blood to forcefully leave Crona's body and shape-shift into something vaguely humanoid. Though Ragnarok could never leave Crona entirely, the weapon was his partner's blood after all.

Later, Crona was able to change sides thanks mostly to their friendship with Maka Albarn. They were able to somehow purify the taint on Crona's soul, even though Ragnarok was still kind of a jerk by all accounts. It came to a head when Crona finally turned Ragnarok's black blade onto their witch mother. The battle didn't end well for them, however. They only barely survived, somehow both losing Ragnarok and gaining a Keyblade in the process, before becoming instrumental in stopping the true Kishin.

It had been a lot to take in, especially for someone like Blake who was still coming to terms with the fact that there were other worlds, each with its own unique rules and magics. She felt like her head was going to explode with all the new knowledge she had, knowledge she could never share with anyone.

"Are you okay, Blake?" Ruby's voice broke the faunus from her reverie.

Blake frowned for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts for a response. "Now that I know all this… I kind of wish I didn't."

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"I can never tell anyone, no matter how close I am to them," Blake explained. "And sure, it's not like anyone would ever ask me, but I'd still know. I could be chatting with people at Beacon, or even my parents if they'll one day forgive me, and I'll see something that will remind me of all this incredible stuff. And I can't do anything with it. I can't travel worlds, I can't pass on this information, and even if I could who would believe me? A secret I can't even exploit, that I have to take to my grave…"

"It is kind of depressing when you put it like that," Ruby acknowledged. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," Blake assured, "heck, you did everything you could to keep me from finding out, even after we landed here."

"You know, knowing this stuff isn't all fun and games for me either," Ruby pointed out. "Sure I do get to travel, but not really for traveling's sake. I have a job to do. A responsibility. To fight the Darkness and keep as much Light safe as possible. Plus I usually have to get help from locals who don't and can't know the big secret. Having Lord Death here was incredibly lucky."

"If anyone can handle a job like that, it's you," Blake smiled. "The worlds are lucky to have you, Ruby Rose."

"Hey, wasn't I just trying to cheer you up?" Ruby chuckled, "when did the script flip on that?"

The pair shared a short chuckle together before falling silent again. It stayed silent for a fair moment before Blake spoke up again, "your school is on a different world, isn't it?"

"The Land of Departure," Ruby nodded. "It's a small world, basically one large mountain range. With a castle of gold-gilded marble built on the highest peak."

"Sounds grandiose," Blake noted.

"When you live in a place like that, you get used to it," Ruby responded.

"Is it still… around?" Blake asked delicately.

Ruby was quiet for a long moment. "What do you mean?" she finally asked.

"I'm honestly not sure if you remember," Blake elaborated, "but I did watch you fall out of the sky."

"Oh. Right," Ruby recalled the day on Vale's beach. Her memory still couldn't place Blake specifically, but she did recall someone there with her. "There is an example for worlds that have fallen to the Heartless returning to the Light. But right now… no. The Land of Departure is gone."

"I'm sorry…" Blake offered.

Silence blanketed them once more, this time to be broken by Ruby. "We should probably get some sleep. Lord Death offered asylum, I'm sure he has beds for us."

"About that," Blake spoke up, "he actually told me where we're sleeping before I left the Death Room to find you."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Ruby stood and stretched. Blake shortly followed suit before leading the pair to their designated chambers.

Ruby and Blake were sitting in on one of Dr. Stein's rather disturbing dissections when they finally got the call. The digital jingle sounded during a quieter moment, nearly causing Stein to sever an important artery on an apparently endangered animal. "Sorry about that," Ruby quickly apologized and left the classroom with Blake close behind. Once they were sure no one was around, Ruby answered. A familiar set of ears appeared on screen. "Your Majesty? The screen's a little high again."

"Oh, right!" The camera panned down till Ruby could see Mickey's face. "Ruby! You're all right!"

"She is!?" Mickey suddenly disappeared, his Gummiphone apparently snatched away by Yang. The older sister's face appeared on screen, and Ruby could see Weiss just behind her. "Ruby!"

"Hey Yang, sorry to worry you all," Ruby offered.

"Sorry!?" Weiss crossed her arms. "You two up and vanished! No one could tell us where you went! We've been worried sick, and you've been fine this whole time!?"

"Weiss, it's not their fault," Yang defended, "they got sucked into that dark portal, remember?"

"According to a drunk," Weiss pointed out.

"Hey, that drunk is my uncle!" Yang shouted.

"Seriously, you two!?" Ruby interrupted. "No fighting!"

"Right, sorry," Weiss shook her head. "Still, if you've been alright, why haven't you contacted us? We had to wait for your Master to come check on you so he could call you."

"Blake and I landed a little outside of scroll range," Ruby half-answered.

"But this device you and Master Mickey have can video call where scrolls can't even send a text message?" Weiss asked incredulously.

"Speaking of Master Mickey, can I please talk to him for a moment?" Ruby segued 'smoothly'.

Weiss rolled her eyes. She was far too used to her leader dodging questions to press any further. "Very well…"

Mickey soon reappeared on screen, looking apologetic. "Sorry about that."

"Yang should be the sorry one, grabbing the Gummiphone like that," Ruby pointed out. "Anyway, we kinda need to be picked up."

"I'm guessing the two of you landed… quite a ways away, huh?" Mickey asked carefully.

"Yeah… we're, umm…" Ruby didn't know how to say with Weiss still listening close by.

"Don't worry," Mickey quickly assured, "I got a couple o' tech wizards who can trace your Gummiphone. I'll let you know when I'm close."

"Thank you, Master," Ruby smiled and hung up.

With the call finished, Blake spoke up, "so, your 'Gummiphone' can make calls literal worlds away?"

"Yup," Ruby confirmed.

"But you didn't have one that day on the beach?" Blake recalled.

"I think I left mine in my room at the castle," Ruby explained. "The one I'm using now is one that was given to my dad so he and Yang could stay in contact with me."

"That makes sense…" Blake nodded. "So… your dad knows too?"

"Yup," Ruby answered.

"But not your uncle?" Blake asked next.

"Uncle Qrow doesn't live with us, so we didn't have to explain to him why I was gone," Ruby explained. "I mean, we were still super close, and he asked all the time. But he didn't need that information like Dad and Yang did."

"So you have had to lie to family…" Blake noted solemnly. "I don't envy that."

"Yeah… it could have destroyed our relationship with Qrow. Heck, it probably should have," Ruby admitted, "but thankfully he's been really cool about it. Especially since I learned he was a part of Ozpin's group."

"They don't know either?" Blake realized. "Can't say I'm not relieved that Ironwood doesn't know. He struck me as the type you need to keep this kind of info from."

"Yeah, he doesn't inspire trust, does he?" Ruby agreed.

"Or rather, he didn't…" Blake suddenly recalled, using past tense. "Um… did he… actually die?"

"Huh? Ironwood?" Ruby crossed her arms in thought. "Not really? It's not as simple as 'alive' or 'dead'…"

"Not as simple?" Blake flinched. "Oh brothers, what have I stepped into next…"

"It's like this," Ruby explained in the style of a class lecture, "an Emblem Heartless, at its core, is a corrupted heart. The body has already been lost to the ether. But neither of these facts really match a medical definition of 'death'. There is a possibility that, since I defeated Ironwood's Heartless and freed his heart, that his heart could reunite with his body."

"How much of a possibility?" Blake asked.

"Well, there are other things that can happen, even more complicated things," Ruby revealed. "The idea is that as long as he's gone, he might as well be dead. But there's always the chance he'll come back."

"How do you retain all this information?" Blake wondered aloud. "I'm pretty sure I'll have already forgotten details in just a few minutes…"

"Well, I have been studying at The Land of Departure for three years," Ruby reminded her. "And really, once you accept that anything is kinda possible, it becomes a lot easier to accept. Magic doesn't always follow rules, even the rules magic itself is supposed to have."

"I guess that makes sense," Blake admitted. "It wouldn't really be magic if you can get it down to an exact science. Even I could wake up one day with the power to shoot dark energy blasts out of my butt."

"That's the spirit!" Ruby cheered. "But, uh… please don't."

The clockwork ticked away above Ozpin's head as he awaited word in his office. He was alerted of an elevator carrying a guest up and looked to the monitor to see who it was. He was quick to buzz Qrow through so the grizzled huntsman could give his report.

"Good news, Oz," Qrow announced.

"Has Ms. Rose or the General returned?" the headmaster asked.

"Yang told me that Ruby will be back soon," Qrow clarified. "Master Mickey showed up and was able to contact her, then he left to collect her."

"That is good," Ozpin nodded. "No news of the General?"

"Well, I did talk to Yang," Qrow told him. "She said Ruby would be able to explain it better, but basically he might come back, or he might not. We won't really know unless he shows up one day."

"That is not so good," Ozpin stood and turned to look out the window. "We have a problem."

"Yeah, I figured Atlas's General vanishing would cause issues sooner or later," Qrow admitted. "What's the deal?"

"Even if we could reveal Ruby's secrets, which we cannot, it still would not be a good idea to claim the General attacked us. The peace Remnant shares is far too fragile," Ozpin explained.

"The official statement was that we don't know where James is, right?" Qrow recalled.

"Correct," Ozpin nodded. "Since we claim not to know, Atlas has decided to send its own investigator. His second in command, Specialist Winter Schnee, is already on her way."

"Great," Qrow shook her head. "So now we're going to have to tiptoe around this investigation while keeping two sets of secrets and fighting a secret war."

"Not to mention to connection to Ruby's team," Ozpin pointed out.

"Schnee," Qrow realized. "Crap."

"Once Ruby returns, I would like to call everyone to meet, including her teammates," Ozpin announced. "There's no more use pretending they're not involved in the fight, and we all need to be on the same page."