I do not own RWBY or Code Vein

Trees.

When the girl regained awareness, trees were all that she could see.

However, she was only allowed a moment to process that information before collapsing to her knees in pain. It felt as though her eyes were being torn out of her skull, and no matter how strongly she tried pressing her hands against them to keep her eyes where they were, the pain just wouldn't stop.

Even worse, it was as if they had suddenly been replaced with pockets of molten lava. A whimper of distress escaped her mouth as there was no relief for the agony.

The pain was so great… that she didn't notice when her body hit the slightly chilly, leaf-covered ground.

Darkness overtook her not long after, pulling her into the sweet embrace of sleep.

#

"Take your time," the other figure in the clearing said. "Your body needs to adapt to this new world. I just wish it wasn't so painful for you." She glanced at the surrounding trees before continuing, "regardless, I will protect you until you are ready."

Although the girl said that, she did not turn away from her companion. She did not take up the defensive position that would be expected in this case. Instead, the girl maneuvered herself so that she was standing at the head of the other figure and knelt down. Gently, the girl then lifted the other girl's head and placed it into her lap.

"I hope this will at least provide you some comfort," she said as she moved to brush her hand through the unconscious girl's black hair that faded to red at the tips. It was a small comfort, but it was also the only thing the girl could spare.

Even then, her actions still had the desired effect. In response to the soft ministrations, the unconscious girl's pained expression relaxed slightly.

A small victory.

The rustling of the bushes surrounding the clearing ruined the moment however. The fragile peace surrounding the two was shattered.

A tactless creature of roiling darkness crashed its way through the underbrush and into view. Although it looked lupine in appearance, it couldn't be called a wolf by any stretch. The exoskeleton-like bone plates covering parts of its body would have made that clear if the darkness comprising its body hadn't.

The creature had been drawn to the troubled emotions of the still unconscious girl. Even if the lap pillow had set her somewhat at ease, the damage had been done. Grim creatures such as itself would not ignore such negative emotions. They could not. They'd be drawn like moths to a flame.

Still, the girl did not stop running her hand through the other girl's hair. Not once did she cast a glance in the creature's direction, preferring instead to look over her companion.

Such blatant dismissal should have caused the beast to adopt a more cautious attitude towards the girls, but it was still relatively young. It was arrogant in its youth, and the idea that the two humans in front of it could be dangerous never crossed its mind.

Perhaps if it had, the end result would have been different. After all, for someone to not even spare a glance towards one of the foes of humanity… well, they either had to have complete confidence in their abilities or were insane.

Unfortunately for the beast, the hospital gown wearing girl sitting peacefully before it was a case of the former… and the latter. She was a monster created by the brightest minds in order to protect humanity from other monsters, driven insane by her own immense strength.

For such an existence, of course she wouldn't have looked at the twisted mockery of a wolf. It was like a singular ant facing down an elephant. The elephant would never even realize the ant was there.

Regardless, the creature was just too young to understand this and decided to not give it any further thought. It would just charge in like all the other times. It had worked before, so why wouldn't it work now?

It wasn't to be though. In the time it took for the creature's brain to create the signals that it would send to its muscles, the beast had disappeared. It completely vanished from sight. It just ceased to be. In its place, a massive white thorn was embedded into the ground.

After all, while an elephant might not give thought to an ant's existence, it will still protect its children against any threat.

Of course, in this case, the creature was not an ant. Although it couldn't be called a wolf either, it had still possessed some of the same traits. It was lupine in appearance, and it had run into the clearing on all fours. More notable than that though, and the real reason for its similarity… were the angry roars just beyond the boundary of the clearing. It was far too reminiscent of wolves' tendency to form packs.

Letting a soft sigh slip from her mouth, the girl finally tore her gaze away from the one she cared for. It was simple. Punishment was necessary. A single beast wasn't noisy enough to irritate her. This pack on the other hand, they would die with impunity for interrupting her precious moment.

The girl's narrowed eyes, with the black sclera surrounding the piercing blue irises, would have made for an intimidating sight, if the beasts rushing into the clearing were capable of such an emotion. They did still veer well clear of the mysterious white thorn that had so suddenly killed one of their own though.

For the pack, it was not the first time they had gone up against someone as strong as the mysterious girl seemed to be. Some of the members were older and had developed enough intelligence to formulate strategies against such enemies. None of them were old enough to come up with anything more than relatively simple strategies, but their plans had worked for the pack in the past.

Quickly deciding to use one of the more common strategies that had worked before, the pack split up and ran about in various patterns in an attempt to confuse the girl. In addition, they spread out so that there was enough distance between each member in order to reduce the effectiveness of the girl's weapon. If one was struck, the rest would still be closing in. Humans were weak, and if they could get close enough, they could overwhelm the girl. It was a gamble though. They did not know how often she could fire off those unnerving thorns, but the alpha was confident enough that the pack would win. They had done it before after all.

That said, the smarter members of the pack still stayed behind with the alpha and used the shadows between the trees to get into a flanking position on the girl. They would let the younger ones take to the field and draw their prey's focus.

It wasn't enough.

Death was certain the moment they disturbed the girls.

There was nothing they could have done.

No plan would have saved them.

They were just simply outmatched in every regard.

Although the beasts tore up chunks of grass and dirt with every step they took, the white haired girl was not afraid. If anything, she was slightly amused the beasts had thought they could defeat her and harm her charge. She leisurely raised the hand not still playing with the other girl's hair, and the world shuddered.

An array of thorns, each one larger in size than the creatures themselves, hung above the girl. There was one for every attacker. None of the beasts could escape the Queen's gaze. No flanking maneuver would work against her. Every thorn was pointed towards a member of the pack, even those still in the shadows.

Everything stilled. The power radiating from those thorns caused the beasts to halt mid-charge, falling over themselves in the process. There was no wind. No birds chirped, and not even the insects dared make a noise. It was as if the world itself could feel the sheer power contained within those thorns... and feared it.

Faced with inescapable death pointing straight towards them, the beasts finally felt the emotion they enjoyed preying on most. They didn't know how to react. It felt as if they tried to run, an action that went against their very existence, they still wouldn't survive. Even when they had fought against other powerful humans, they had never encountered a situation like this. It was a situation where they were just completely outclassed. Nothing in their base instructions told them how to deal with it.

They would never get the chance to learn either.

"Pathetic," the girl muttered before snapping her fingers.

The stillness was broken, the signal was given, and death moved at her command.

The only effect of the battle, if it could even be called one, was that the Queen's long white hair had been blown into disarray by the resulting wind. It didn't interfere with her vision though, so the girl paid it no mind and returned her gaze to the other girl, a peaceful smile on her face.

Fortunately for the other grim creatures inhabiting the forest, that pack had been the only ones close enough to sense the pain from the unconscious girl. Since there wouldn't be any further distractions, all that was left was to wait for the sleeping girl to wake up.

Smiling softly, the Queen began to sing a melody.

#

The red and black haired girl woke to the sound of soft singing. It was a familiar song, one that evoked past adventures and resonated with something that lurked in long forgotten memories. She could not stop the tears that rose in response. It was a soothing song, and the girl wished she could lie there forever and listen to it. Still, it wouldn't do to remain lying in the dirt, so she sat up and wiped away her tears.

Once she had composed herself enough, the girl looked back towards the pillow she had rested on, and the person attached to those legs. There, slowly fading away into motes of light, was someone she never thought she'd see again. It was the girl named Cruz Silva, and at least this time, she was completely sane.

"C-Cruz!" the girl shouted out with widened eyes. She scrambled forward on all fours to close the little bit of distance between the two, hugging what remained of the other girl when she was close enough.

"Hello again," Cruz smiled as she reached out and gently thumbed away the tears that had refreshed themselves on her friend's face.

"How are you here, and why are you disappearing!?" the girl cried out while looking frantically at the disappearing girl. If she could have stopped it, she would have given anything to do so.

"I'm sorry. I truly wish I could remain here with you, but as you can see my presence is temporary," Cruz apologized. "Perhaps we will meet again, but I confess that I do not know how."

"I'll find a way!" the girl forcefully declared. "I don't know how long it'll take, but I swear to you that I will find a way! You deserve it, Cruz!" She then paused for a moment before continuing in a much softer voice, "well, as long as you don't come back frenzied…"

"And I'm sure that if I do, you will be able to stop me again," Cruz responded with a laugh. She then settled on a reassuring smile and said, "however, I will try my best not to be. I promise."

The black and red haired girl smiled weakly before saying, "I suppose I'll have to hold you to it. I'm really going to miss you though."

Although her entire body had nearly been converted into motes of light, Cruz still sadly smiled at the other girl and managed to say, "And I will miss you just as much."

And with that, she was gone.

Now alone, the red and black haired girl let a sigh slip past her lips as she wiped the remaining tears from her face and stood up. There'd be time to cry later.

"Now then," the girl started as she looked around the clearing she had appeared in. "Where am I? There's nothing here but a bunch of… trees."

She smiled and looked around in wonder. "Trees! There are so many trees here! I've never seen so many in one place before! This is amazing! Is this an actual forest?" She laughed and hopped around. While she had seen trees before, being in the middle of a living forest was something she had never experienced before.

Suddenly stopping, she raised her hand to her chin in thought and spoke aloud, "Wait a minute. That's right, I haven't seen this many trees before. Where am I? I don't recognize this place, and the Red Mist is nowhere in sight! What happened!?"

The girl turned her thoughts inward and then smacked her face with her palm and shouted, "Oh right! Io! What happened to Io after that?" The girl stomped her foot in self-targeted frustration before continuing, "agh! I have no idea what happened to her! Is she alright? Is she dead? How could I have forgotten about her even only temporarily!?"

"No no, calm down me," the girl tried to soothe herself. "I can't think like that. I'm obviously not anywhere near Io and the rest, and I still have no idea where I am or how I got here, so I need to focus on the here and now."

The girl looked around at the forest and then up to the clear patch of sky above her. Reaching a decision she said, "first things first, I need to find a place to stay before night arrives. This forest might make fighting difficult, and I have no idea what kind of monsters live outside Vein. This isn't a situation I can take lightly."

With a plan set, the girl nodded to herself and moved to collect the few scattered belongings she had seen earlier. Luckily, the girl still remembered what the three items were and how to use them. She was certainly glad to have them all with her now.

The first item, and one she hastily ran to put on, was her purifier mask. Like the name implies, it was a protective piece of equipment that covered her mouth and nose that filtered miasma from the air. However, the fact that it had been on the ground and not on her face gave her pause. Even though she was still wearing the frame required to secure it to her face, how come her mask had been off?

"Wait a minute," she started, mask only partially clipped in, "the air here is… clean? I don't need my mask?"

She shook her head and tried not to think of the implications of that before hesitantly unclipping the mask and attaching it to her belt. Even if the air was clean, the girl wasn't about to leave her mask behind.

With her mask situated, the second item she collected was something called a Fang Gear. 'Though,' she thought to herself with a smile, 'I know some people liked to call it a Blood Veil instead.'

Regardless, the gear was an armored piece of clothing meant to be worn like a mantle. Pure white in color, the gear was accented with silver and had a high collar. It included a gauntlet that protected the right arm, and a pair of pauldrons which connected to a strangely cut cape designed to look like a pair of bat wings. The right side of the cape did not extend much further than the girl's shoulder blades, a design choice meant not to interfere with the swinging of a weapon in the right hand. The left side of the cape though extended and tapered to a point that rested mere inches above the ground. A silver clasp connected to material that wrapped around the girl's elbow. The attachment to the elbow meant that the partial cape could be drawn up as a slight shield against enemy attacks if necessary. It wasn't perfect by any means, but it would do the job.

The Fang Gear was designed to provide protection against a variety of attacks its user would theoretically have to face. Because of that, it was created with materials strong enough to provide a decent amount of protection, but still light enough not to interfere with the range of movement of the user. In addition, since this was the girl's personal Fang Gear, it had been reinforced with materials that increased the protection of the gear considerably.

In no uncertain terms, it was a required piece of equipment for the girl, and she wasted no time in slipping on all of the pieces. Once everything was properly in place and fastened correctly, she let slip a content hum.

That left only one other item in the clearing, and it stood out far more than the other two. After all, it was difficult to miss a towering monument of gold. It stood proudly in the clearing, challenging all those who would stand before it. Still, it was just as familiar to the girl as the other items were.

"The Argent Wolf King's Blade," the girl said fondly as she approached.

While a massive blade that was easily longer than she was tall, it was not just a lump of metal either. The blade was finely crafted. Empty, vein-like channels ran to the edges of the blade, originating from a device in the middle of the sword that started in the guard and ran the entire length. The device, connected to four sets of three canisters, each double the size of the girl's fist, would pump the contents throughout the veins in the blade. However, at the moment there was nothing to pump out.

Although the girl had received the sword after being forced to put down a good man corrupted by something he couldn't control, she still greeted the blade like an old friend, and stepped up to the monstrous work. It took a bit of strength to free from the earth, but the sword wasn't heavy enough to be a burden, not with her abilities. She felt it natural to hold, and now that the girl had all her equipment again, she felt energized.

A satisfied smile appeared on her face.

Regardless, the girl told herself that it wasn't a good idea to stand there smiling dumbly at her sword, so she brought it to rest upon her right shoulder with ease. It might have required a shake or two to dislodge any extra dirt first, but otherwise the blade was spotless.

"Now then," the girl said as she took one last look around the clearing, "I've got my gear back, so let's get out of this forest."

Her confidence was good, but it wasn't like she knew which way to go either. She could have climbed a tree to see if she spotted anything, but she had just picked up her blade and didn't want to have to set the blade down again just to climb a tree. Thus, there was only one option left to her.

"My gut says that way," the girl pointed in a random direction with her free hand.

#

By the time the girl had found a sign of civilization, the sun had long since disappeared beyond the horizon. It was getting to the point where she was considering spending the night in a tree. She did not want to have to travel through an unknown forest at night, so she was relieved she had finally found something.

Partially visible between the few trees still in front of her, stood a log cabin. It might not have been the city the girl was hoping for, but it was, at least, a sign that she was one step closer to putting the forest behind her. That, and it meant humanity had survived beyond the Red Mist.

"Finally!" the girl cried out. "I knew my gut was right!"

Seeing the light shining through the windows, she added, "even better, the lights are on! There's got to be someone there who can point me in the right direction!"

The girl quickly cleared the last few trees separating her from the cabin and stopped to observe the building that could now be seen in its entirety.

It was a fairly large two-story log cabin, with what appeared to be a chimney stack rising from the roof. In addition, the girl could just make out a separate building fairly close to the cabin, but there was not enough light to be able to guess as to what its purpose was.

'A shack of some kind?' the girl thought to herself before starting to move again.

Although it did not take the girl long to cross the distance to the mysterious building, the new perspective did not shine any light on its purpose. However, the girl mainly wanted a distraction from all the trees she had to look at during her trip here. While it was a refreshing experience earlier, it got old very quickly. Just the simple fact that it wasn't a tree was enough for her. More than anything else, it was something new. In truth, she did not care about it that much.

She was just excited that she had found others and let her mind wander. She had been thinking about what she was going to do if there wasn't anyone else. Maybe she'd have to find her way back to Vein and her friends on her own. Although she seemed to be in the world outside the Red Mists, she did want to try to meet up with them as soon as possible, not to mention fulfill her promise to Cruz.

She shook her head to clear those thoughts, and continued her journey towards the cabin's door. For the moment, it didn't matter what her friends were up to. She knew that she'd see them again eventually. Right now, the important thing was seeing if the resident of the cabin in front of her could help her out.

It did not take the girl much longer to reach the door as there were no further distractions along the way. She had thought she heard howling off in the distance, but it was too far away to be a real concern… even if the howls didn't sound like any wolves she knew.

"Alright, me, I'm outside Vein, but obviously there are still people out here," she started, "it's simple. Just knock on the door and ask for directions to the nearest town." She thought for a second before continuing, "if the town is too far away, then see if I can crash on a couch for the night or something." She tilted her head and continued, "it's not like Revenants are blood crazy and attack humans on sight, so they should be fine with me crashing here, right?"

Taking a breath to calm her nerves, the girl knocked on the door.

"Huh?" the girl heard someone say from inside. Louder this time, and directed towards the door, the voice said, "Qrow, that better not be you."

Seeing no reason not to answer, the girl replied, "Uh, no. I'm lost and could use some directions."

She received no verbal response, but the door opened and a man appeared. The human had short blond hair with a small patch of similarly colored fuzz on his chin. He stood about half a head taller than she was, and wore a simple button up t-shirt and cargo shorts. He seemed like a pleasant enough person, and didn't immediately panic when he saw her, so that was a good sign.

"Uh, hello," the girl started sheepishly, "I'm sorry to disturb you this late at night, but I got lost in the woods and only just managed to find this place. I was hoping you could point me to the nearest town."

'Impossible,' he thought to himself, 'she looks just like she did ten years ago.'

Considering the girl's words, it seemed as if she wasn't familiar with him though. While the person he was thinking of might have tried it as a joke, she wouldn't have done it in a situation like this… where she had been presumed dead for a decade. That being the case, the man took another moment to observe the person in front of him. He was trying to understand what his eyes were telling him. She was just way too similar to someone he used to know.

'No, as much as I want it to be, this can't be her,' the man thought to himself sadly. The person he was hoping for had been gone for far too long, and besides, even if she was still alive she would have been older than the person in front of him was. 'Although, maybe I can try to convince her to take a blood test… She could be a relative we never knew about.'

He shook his head to clear his straying thoughts and noticed the girl's nervousness. To put her at ease, he put on his best reassuring smile and replied, "Ah, sorry. You just caught me off-guard for a second there. You reminded me of someone I hadn't seen in a very long time." The man then paused and scratched his chin in thought before he continued, "Still, what were you doing out in the forest?" He glanced at her sword, wondering how he had only just noticed it, and said, "it… well, it looks like you can defend yourself easily enough, but I don't know why anyone would want to be out there this late."

"Ah," the girl laughed awkwardly, "would you believe me if I said I woke up and found myself in some clearing? I'm not really sure how I got there…"

"Hm," the man considered it before shrugging. It could have just been a prank her friends pulled on her, especially since she seemed to have been left with something to defend herself with. Regardless, the girl looked to be alright, so he continued, "well, unfortunately the boat into Vale doesn't run this late at night. Next one won't be leaving until first light tomorrow."

"Oh no," the girl whispered, biting the knuckle of her left index finger as she wondered what she would do now. 'At the very least,' she thought, 'I'm not that far from a town. They might have information on where home is.' Still, that meant that she was too far to push on through the night, and she would need to try to find a place to stay until morning. She did still want to try and sleep on a couch if possible, but from the way he froze when he saw her, maybe he wouldn't be okay with letting a Revenant like herself into his home.

Luckily, the man was sharp enough to tell she wanted to ask, but didn't think she should. He offered, "Listen, I can't in good conscience send you off when you don't seem to have anywhere else to go. If it wasn't so late at night, I'd direct you to the inn in town, but I've got a couch you can use for the night. In the morning, we can see about getting you back onto that boat and back to Vale."

The girl was stunned by the offer and owlishly blinked her silver eyes. She quickly recovered though and replied, "eh? Ah, thank you. Are you sure it'd be okay though?" The girl shifted the blade on her shoulder and continued, "I can just find a good tree to sleep in if I need to."

The man, not put off by her hesitance, laughed and said, "Yeah, it's fine. This place has plenty of room, especially now that my daughters are off to school." He looked back inside for a moment before returning to face her, "anyway, the name's Taiyang Xiao-Long. Feel free to call me Tai though."

'Yes!' the girl cheered internally. 'Don't have to sleep outside tonight!'

She responded, "Well… if you're sure then, Tai. I think I'll take you up on that then. Thank you again."

"My name's Ruby."