I don't own anything from RWBY, that honor belongs to the fine people at Rooster Teeth.

Chapter 2: Visions and Nightmares

Notes: Penny learns there isn't much difference between nightmares and visions. Fortunately, Ruby and Weiss are always there to remind her what's and what's not.
Trigger Warnings for Angst, Semi Graphic Violence and Lots of Hurt/Comfort

Everything seemed normal.

The scene Penny saw was normal, her father, her friends, Ruby and Weiss, all of them were there. Ruby and Weiss were hugging her close. Ruby to her front and Weiss to her back.

She didn't know why she was there, strapped to a chair with a… aura resetter? She didn't know why it felt like some of her memories were missing, but all she knew was that something happened to her and whatever it was, must have sent her here. So why was Ruby hugging her so hard? And more importantly why did it feel like she had been punctured in the back? When all it looked like was that Weiss was hugging her from the back.

Soon, she noticed the unmistakable sensation of water flowing down her shoulders. Blinking her eyes, Penny tried to make sense of the situation. But again, nothing came. At least until, her vision cleared and then she noticed the real picture.

There was no machine, no chair she was strapped to, and she was all alone except for Ruby and Weiss, running a soft scan of the room, she found her internal diagnostics to be horribly damaged, almost as if her core had been ruptured by a targeted strike. Nothing was the same as her previous vision, in fact it seemed like the only things constant, was that same feeling of being punctured, the same people around her and… the tears?

Looking up, she found an image so potent, so unthinkable, that… she must've imagined it… Right?

In front of her, lay the body of Ruby Rose, impaled on her own sword, by her own head. Falling to her knees, her eyes went wide. Blinking again, she tried desperately, hoping to remove the image from her memory. She tried desperately, hoping the vision would fade away and would return her to a better time.

But it didn't work.

Ruby was still there, impaled on her sword, her tears mixing with the blood on her once green sword; the same puncture went deeper, and eventually she fell to the floor and got a look at her killer. Weiss had been too late, she laid her rapier directly into her core, but not before watching in agony as she killed Ruby. The full weight of the situation finally hitting her, Penny could only mutter out "I'm… sorry Weiss, I'm… so… sorry." Before the light faded from her eyes as well.

Suddenly her eyes flew open again and she sat up straight. Holding back the urge to scream or cry out in despair, she scanned the room desperately, hoping to find either Ruby or Weiss. When her scans came back negative however, she could no longer control herself.

"RUBY! WEISS?! WHERE ARE YOU?!" she cried out, her voice broken, hope fading away as the seconds passed.

The silence was unnerving, the darkness all around her nothing short of a nightmare. Holding her head in her hands, Penny could only sit and wallow in despair, wondering if her deepest, most painful nightmare really did come true.

Right as she was about to scream again however, she felt a warm hand on her shoulder from her back, followed by another from her right, eventually catching her in an embrace. Turning around, she found both Ruby and Weiss were there, hugging her desperately, both of them fine and without their weapons.

Turning around she buried her face in their arms, reciprocating their hug tightly, unwilling to let go, lest the vision came back.

"What's wrong Penny?" Ruby asked, running her hand through her hair, while Weiss softly rubbed her back.

She tried to open her mouth to speak, but no sound came. The vision was simply too much for her to ever fully describe. Right now, all she wanted was for Ruby and Weiss to be there. To just be close, where she knew they wouldn't go away.

"C-Can you stay with me… tonight? Please? I-I"

"You don't need to ask Penny, if you need us, we'll be there for you." Weiss said, patting her on the back and giving her a tight squeeze while Ruby merely kissed her on the forehead.

"Yeah, if you don't wanna sleep alone, it's okay. We'll be there with you, now come on. It's been a long day and I'm pretty sure you want to be fully recharged for tomorrow." Ruby said, yawning and then falling back into Penny's bed with Weiss doing much the same.

Falling into the bed with the two of them, Penny held them close as she once again went into her recharge mode.

As Penny drifted back into sleep, she felt a similar vision appear as she woke up in the same chair. In fact, the scene remained much the same, the only difference being that only Ruby and Weiss were with her and Ruby seemed to be much closer to her and the entire room seemed to be tinged in red and white. Feeling somewhat constricted by Ruby's embrace, she tried looking around, looking for any oddities, anything strange or odd about the scene.

After running a quick scan and checking where her swords where, not much changed. In fact, it seemed like nothing was changing. Trying to shuffle her way out, she said "Ruby, please… can you let go? I'm… feeling a little constricted."

However, no response came, and for some reason… Ruby's eyes were, blackened? Trying to turn around, she noticed Weiss, but her eyes were also… blackened? What happened to them?

Suddenly she felt a sharp sensation of pain near her chest. Looking down, she noticed… Myrtenaster? Going for her core? But how and why?

"Ruby?! Weiss?! What's going on?" She asked, franctically turning around, before watching in horror as Ruby's face faded to reveal that she had turned Grimm and her 'embrace' was actually her trying to keep Penny in place with her two hands, with her locking her down with two scythe blades.

"Weiss?! Something's wro-?" She tried to say as she turned around and received another shock. Much like Ruby, Weiss had also been turned and in her arms wasn't Myrtenaster but a Grimm blade that had punctured into her chest and was now reaching all the way to her core.

Her protective instincts taking over, Penny let loose floating array and swung in a circle all around her, striking Weiss and Ruby, something that broke her heart as she heard them wince in pain from the impact. As soon as she was left free, she let her rocket boosters fly and moved to a location away from both of them.

Facing down both of her closest friends, she watched as they rushed her with their weapons, in a style she recognized so painfully as the same attack formation they used whenever they faced Grimm. Flying close to Weiss, she ran three of her blades against Ruby's hands blocking them before using the rest of her swords to parry and block Weiss's blade arm.

After landing two strikes at her legs and a slash that sent Weiss to the ground, Penny turned around to face Ruby, who had already petal bursted behind her and was now pummeling her back and chest with brutal slashes, cutting through her aura like it was made of paper. After being sent to the floor with a kick, she looked up at her once human friend and asked "W-Why?"

"Isn't it obvious Penny? We won't ever lose each other like this again. If anything, ever happens, we'll just come back. It's perfect." 'Ruby' said, licking her scythe blades with her mouth in a sickly motion, unlike anything her Ruby ever said.

"I refuse. I know who my Ruby was. AND YOU AREN'T HER!" Penny exclaimed, anger filling her veins as her aura recharged and she let out her maiden magic with one goal. To end this… abomination, that dared to take the face of the person closes to her.

Creating a whirlwind, Penny, rushed 'Ruby' striking her with increasing speed with her swords landing three strikes before, being caught in the chest by her scythe blades and being thrown to the ground. The Whirlwind had already begun to dissipate, but it had caught Ruby in place by encasing her legs in ice.

Watching as she struggled to break it, Penny simply rushed forward… and ran her sword right through Ruby. She watched in despair as the beast that took Ruby's form fell apart to reveal… Ruby?

"No… No." She said, falling to her knees as she realized just what had happened. She had been duped. Hearing Weiss get back to her feet, Penny turned around too late, and with her swords already active, cut through Weiss's neck as her rapier pierced her core.

Watching as Weiss's body fell to the ground, she saw the Grimm for her body dissipate much like she watched it fade from Ruby's. She saw as Weiss struggled to reach for Ruby's hand, her hand just barely about to reach before she went slack, falling to the floor while reaching out for her partner.

"NO!" She screamed out, as she fell to the ground, her limbs failing to work.

"Ruby?! Weiss?! P-Please... don't go. Please!" She said, her hand trying to reach out for both of them, only to find it going slack. "Please... come back to me."

As her vision faded, she could only whimper in despair as she felt her vision fade away into an endless void.

Hearing a scream to her left, Ruby awoke with a jolt as she woke up to find, Penny holding her hands in her head and repeating with a broken voice "I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, I-I didn't mean to-"

Seeing Penny in anguish, Ruby rushed forward and gave her a hug, with Weiss having joined the hug also. Softly resting one hand on Penny's cheek and running the other through her hair, she looked to her friend and asked "Penny? What happened?"

"I'm so sorry Ruby and Weiss. I-I-" Penny tried to say before she inevitably ended up burying her face in Ruby's shoulder and started to sob. Looking to her partner for support, she let Penny wait until she stopped sobbing while softly running her hair with her hands, while Weiss rubbed Penny's back.

Seeing Penny this distraught, this badly hurt, Ruby could only imagine what horror's she faced in her dreams.

"Take as long as you need Penny. We'll be here with you." Weiss said, holding Penny's hands to reassure her of her presence. Seeing her example, Ruby squeezed her just a little bit more and said "Yeah Penny. We're not going anywhere. We're here for you if you need us."

"I'm so sorry."

"Hey. It's okay. No matter what happened, we're going to help you through it, aren't we Weiss?" Ruby said, cupping her face and giving her a kiss on the forehead, while Weiss gave her a tight hug.

"Absolutely Ruby. If you're ready to tell us Penny, go ahead. We're listening."

After a few moments of silence, interspersed with Penny's sobs, she finally let out what had been bothering her. Hearing Penny's dream, Ruby could only give her as tight of a hug as possible while Weiss merely rubbed Penny's back reassuring her constantly.

"Hey, hey it's okay Penny. It was just a bad dream. It won't come true." Ruby said, her own voice becoming heavy with tears.

"And what… i-if it does?"

"It won't. We won't let it happen. Also, I'm pretty sure me and Weiss agree that we aren't going to leave you alone ever again." Ruby said, with a half-smile. "Right Weiss?"

"Do you even have to ask, you dolt?" Weiss said, scooting over to Ruby's side.

"Soooo, you're just gonna be stuck with us for the rest of your life." Ruby replied, adding some of her cheer back into her voice, hoping to make Penny laugh or at least, stop sobbing.

Instead, Penny only rushed forward and held them both tightly. "Th-Thank you… s-so much… thank you for being my friends. T-Thank you for being there for me."

"No, thank you Penny. Thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being there in our lives." Weiss said, giving her a kiss on the forehead as Ruby ruffled her hair.

"Yeah, and always remember, you'll always have me and Weiss to help you out. No matter how long it takes for you to feel better, just know that we'll be there for you, every step of the way." Ruby concluded, cradling Penny's head in her arms as her and Weiss helped her ease back into the bed.

Unfortunately, we still need to rest but just know, that you're never going lose us, okay Penny?" Ruby said, cupping Penny's face with her hands while Weiss simply lay her arm around Penny.

"Okay." Penny said, before letting out a soft sigh and then easing herself into bed. Doing the same, Ruby wrapped her arm around Penny, reaching Weiss and puling her closer as to both her and Penny.

Because if there was one thing that was for certain, it was that she was never going to leave either of them alone to fight.

No matter what happened she would always be by their side, till they day she died.