Ozpin sat in silence as he stared at the familiar shape of Crescent Rose, which sat atop his desk, the tail and of the large scythe still covered in blood from having been used to stab Ruby in the side back in Mistral. His hands came up and folded together as he let out a long breath, setting his elbows on the desk as he looked mournfully at the weapon, but then his eyes wandered up from the scythe to look at the man who had brought it. Ozpin looked up at Qrow, who looked like he hadn't slept in days, the Hunter standing there in silence as he waited for some sort of response from Ozpin. It wasn't until Qrow shoved his hands into his pockets that Ozpin actually sat anything, even if it was only a whisper.

"So she's... Ruby really is gone, then?"

Qrow let out a small sigh, followed by a shake of his head. "Yeah. The cliff was over a mile high. Even if she survived the fall, she would have bled out, let alone the fact that she would have broken so many bones it wouldn't matter if she survived or not," Qrow paused. "I... Raven murdered her. Ruby was listening to me, she was talking to us, and Raven killed her, Oz."

"Qrow, you and I both know that it's not that simple. She was working with-"

"I DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT SALEM! She was my niece! If I had had more time, I could have brought her back, but Raven KILLED her!" Qrow interrupted. "Maiden or not, she needs to pay for that; murder is still murder! She was only nineteen, she had her whole life ahead of her... and it was stolen from her because of my bitch of a sister!"

Ozpin removed his glasses, carefully setting them down on his desk as he pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing in frustration. "Qrow... you need to calm down. I understand your frustrations, truly I do, and I will handle the situation with Raven. Trust me, I am as angry about her actions as you. However, the other three members of her team are going to need you. I'm going to have it arranged for Miss Schnee and Miss Belladonna to be able to return with Miss Xiao-Long and you to Patch. Take some time... no doubt you all need it now."

"You'll take care of Raven?" Qrow asked, a bit calmer from what Ozpin had said.

"I will personally see too it that Raven atones for her actions," Ozpin said quietly. "Besides, you and I both know that we'll need to find out who the new Fall Maiden is, now that Ruby is gone and the power has been passed. I believe tasking her with such will be more than enough for Raven to do to help pay for what she has done."

"She's not going to just do what you say, not when she can teleport wherever she wants," Qrow growled.

"I already have a way around that. She's going to have her weapon taken away in order to mitigate that problem."

"Fine. As long as you have a plan..." Qrow muttered before taking a rather long drink from his silver flask, knocking back several swallows of alcohol before he shook his head with a frown. "I'll uh... probably leave for Patch tomorrow. I'm gonna get some sleep beforehand, let the girls pack a bag, I think." The Huntsman said, looking off to the side a moment before he looked back at Crescent Rose.

"I understand. I'll take the time to inform them of what will be happening, and make a few other arrangements. Get some rest Qrow, you need it."

"Thank you, Oz," Qrow said, pocketing his hands as he turned to leave the office.

Ozpin watched the other man walk away, waiting until Qrow reached the door before he said anything else, placing his glasses back on with a small sigh. "Qrow, for what it's worth... I'm truly sorry that it came to this. She didn't deserve this."

Qrow paused as the elevator door opened up in front of him, looking over his shoulder slightly. "Me too, Oz. Me too..."

-10 Days Later-

"You're pathetic... how could you let yourself get distracted by those fools?"

Ruby suddenly found herself back on top of the cliff, alone and without her scythe as dark red, stormy clouds gathered over her head. She blinked several times and spun in place as she looked for the source of the voice she had heard, but found no one.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Ruby demanded, her hands tightening into fists in frustration.

Thunder roared as a bolt of dark, purple colored lightning struck the ground in the distance, causing the ground to shake horribly as Ruby continued to look around herself.

"You let yourself get distracted by your'family'? Did you think they would just accept what you've done and forgive you?" The voice asked her in a scolding, thunderous voice, as if it were coming from the sky itself, each word echoing in Ruby's mind.

"You don't know what they were going to do, same as me!" Ruby shouted, taking a step away from the edge of the cliff.

Lightning struck again, the loud boom of thunder deafening Ruby as the voice started laughing at her. This time the lightning struck much closer, causing Ruby to jump in surprise as she was temporarily blinded by the flash of light. In that brief moment of being disoriented, Ruby didn't see the shadows form into a mirror image of herself behind her, only realizing she wasn't alone when she felt a hand on her shoulder gripping tightly.

"Why do you continue to lie to yourself, Ruby? Why can't you accept the fact that you are alone now? Isn't it obvious by now?"

Ruby spun around, taking a step back as she pulled her shoulder free and stared at the mirror of herself, glaring at it angrily, trying to summon some sort of flame to her hand to banish it away. "Shut up! That's not true, I'm not alone!"

"Oh, but you are. Why else would your own family try to KILL you, hmm? Do you think they did it out of the kindness of their hearts?" The mirror-Ruby paused and stepped closer, poking its fingers into Ruby's chest hard as it smirked. "They want you dead. They don't care if you are doing all of this for them... they've decided that you need to die, you're no better then the Grimm to them."

Ruby swiped the hand away from her chest, shaking her head slowly. "No... that's not true. Why would they... No! You're wrong, they still care about me!"

"Then why didn't they save you? Why would they let Raven hurt you and not do anything to stop her?" Mirror-Ruby asked leaning towards Ruby a bit more, the mirror's damaged eye looking black and dead as it watched Ruby closely.

Ruby was quiet for several moments, hanging her head and looking to the side as she frowned and tried to come up with some reason or justification for why Qrow and the others had let her fall. "I don't know... they were probably just shocked... or scared," Ruby suggested.

"Or they were waiting... Waiting to make sure that you didn't retaliate? To make sure that you fell to a gruesome death? Which one makes more sense, hmm?" The mirror asked as it stepped closer, grabbing Ruby by the hand and holding it tight. "They're afraid of you, Ruby. Afraid of how powerful you are; and they should be. You're stronger than them. BETTER than them, and they know it. Why else would they have tried to kill you? They want you gone so that they can have the power for themselves."

Ruby lifted her head quickly and stared at the mirror version of herself, gritting her teeth as she narrowed her eyes. "It's not theirs to take... it's mine! I took it, I was the one who beat Cinder and took the power from her. Salem chose me, she spared me so that I can finally put an end to it all, and I'll be damned if I'm going to just give it up!" Ruby growled quietly.

The mirror-Ruby smirked again as Ruby finished speaking, satisfied that it had been convincing enough. "Then you know what you have to do: finish what you started, put down Raven like the savage that she is, and get the relic."

Lightning struck again, this time barely even making Ruby flinch as thunder roared through the blood-red colored sky. And as Ruby opened her mouth to speak again, the mirror put a finger to Ruby's lips, silencing her as it pulled her close by her hand.

"Now wake up, Little Rose..."

Ruby blinked several times at the name that the mirror used, but was shoved off the cliff before she could say anything about it. She fell for several seconds, which felt like an eternity; and as she closed her eyes and waited for the feeling of impact, all she could think of was how she was going to get back at Raven for trying to kill her.

Ruby woke up with a a jolt, her eyes snapping open as her dream/nightmare ended abruptly, and within seconds of waking up, she became aware of the excruciating pain that was reverberating throughout her body. She let out an almond silent scream of pain and arched her legs as she rolled onto her side, curling into a ball as she tried to come to terms with still being alive, despite the fact that she had fallen off of a cliff.

Her hands slowly moved to the side that was exposed to the air, gently feeling around the area of her wound, and she hissed in pain as her fingertips grazed the edge of the hole in her stomach where Crescent Rose had gone through her. Tears formed in her eyes as she dropped her hands to the ground, her hands splashing a little in the water as she lay on the bank of the river she had washed up on. Everything hurt, not just her side, but her legs and arms were sore as well, while her head throbbed and her stomach aches. She had no clue how long it had been since she had fallen, but she knew what it felt like when she was hungry and thirsty. She was starving and severely dehydrated, as well as injured in a way that made moving almost impossible.

"I... n-need to..." She coughed as her voice struggled to make it past her lips, then whimpered softly as she turned her head to look up towards the sky, staring at the distant dark clouds that hung high above her.

It was dark out, meaning that it was either early in the morning, or late at night, but honestly, Ruby could care less. She needed to get up, find herself some food and water, and get herself patched up. She squeezed her eyes tight and hoarsely groaned as she tried to use her hands to push herself up, only for her side pain to flare up, causing her arms to collapse under her weight. She fell back down onto the ground, that little bit of water splashing underneath her as she cried out in pain again. She wasn't going anywhere with this injury the way it was.

Ruby flexed her fingers before she carefully pulled her shirt up, uncovering her wound enough that she could place her hand over the hole, then channeled some of the power of the Fall Maiden into both hands, warming them up to the point where they were just short of being enveloped in flames. She didn't give herself a moment to brace herself for what she did next, scared that she would change her mind if she did so, then quickly pressed both hands to the wound and seared her skin enough to where she wouldn't have a gaping hole in her side. One hand in the front, while the other did the back; Ruby screamed again, this time her dry voice erupting out of her throat as she basically cooked her own flesh to try and help herself survive. The process only took a few seconds, but it was enough to leave her sobbing in pain when she pulled her hands away again.

It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was a start. It'd be enough until she could get herself to a doctor and get properly looked at. Now she just had to take care of her food and water situation; so after giving herself a few minutes to calm down, she managed to push herself up to sit, then scooted towards the water to get herself hydrated again. She took plenty of time to drink, ignoring the pain in her side for now as she sat there, and when she finally finished, she looked back up at the sky and frowned as thunder quietly boomed high above, a few drops of rain hitting the ground around her.

"Get ready Raven... I'm coming for you..." Ruby muttered as she tentatively stood up, her legs shaking several times as she pull her hood up and started following the river upstream.

AN:

Hey guys! Here's chapter 9, finally... Sorry I took so long for this one, I got a bit busy with other things over the last couple of weeks, and kinda forgot to do any writing. But, in way of making up for that, I went and wrote this chapter in one day, just to get it out quickly for you guys. So... here ya' go!

I know chapter 8 kind of ended with a really cliche 'character death' with Ruby falling off the cliff like she did, and I fully acknowledge that it's a really old and somewhat overused trope, but honestly I don't care. I did it that way because I thought it would be better than anything else that I could come up with at the time, and I stand by my decision.

Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, as I enjoyed writing it, especially the whole dream sequence, cause it was another chance to delve deeper into the whole traitor-Ruby thing and give her another push in the 'evil' direction. Let me know if you liked it and I'll try and have chapter 10 out soon.

As Always

I'll See You Starside

Soul's Release