Ruby walked into the forest that was a second home to her and knew she had just forgotten something really important. The kind of important that her Dad would get really mad about like forgetting homework or leaving the stove on or something like that. Her head pulsed and she winced. That had also been when her head started to ache and it wasn't helping her remember what she was supposed to remember! Maybe she was coming down with something? She tried not to think about it too much, because that was how people got sick. At least that's what Mom used to say.

Ruby would admit, reluctantly, that she was kind of an airhead. So much so that she turned into a walking hazard whenever she dived too deep into her head. Take one instance when in her gym class the other day, while the instructor was droning on and on about something while they were running, Ruby swore she heard a mirror break and someone cry out. She flailed and caused a minor pileup on the track, causing a few minor injuries and a thoroughly unamused instructor.

So, it wasn't a surprise to her when, in the process of delving into her head to tune out the world and just think, she tripped over a root and faceplanted into the dirt. She sighed a deep sigh, wincing as the minor ache from earlier returned with a vengeance and even worse than before. Perhaps she had jogged something loose when she fell?

A startled laugh echoed in the trees around her, and Ruby stood in an instant, warily looking back and forth for whoever saw her. She really hoped it wasn't Vivian. There was enough fuel for that particular fire already. She peered into the shrubs around her, confused. She didn't see anyone, and Vivian wouldn't let such an embarrassing moment slide, so who laughed?

"Up here." A quiet voice sounded out and Ruby immediately snapped her gaze up and...

There was a fairy in the tree.

Or at least, that's what Ruby was reminded of. The way the sunlight parted around their chocolate brown hair reminded her of the old stories Mom used to tell her, about wizards and dragons and heroes and fairies. They had always fascinated her, and even as she got older, she wondered if they existed out there, waiting for the heroes to arrive to aid on their quest to save the world.

They were an angel and fairy mixed in one and Ruby couldn't say a word in response.

"Um, hello?" The fairy said and Ruby burst out of her stupor with a blush on her face.

"S-sorry! I, um, didn't see you up there!" No duh, Ruby. "Umm, what's up?" Ruby asked, her brain stalling and unsure of how to talk to such a beautiful stranger. Her cheeks turned on fire when that thought passed her brain and she wanted to burst into flames.

She could see the fairy raise their eyebrows and Ruby turned red. She was the best at the whole putting her foot in her mouth thing that she had inherited from Mom, or so Dad had said. He didn't talk about her too much anymore though.

"Umm, Hi?" Ruby asked, unsure of how to continue the infant conversation. The fairy snorted before rolling their eyes and dropping down out of the large oak. Ruby squawked and scrambled to get out of the way of the falling child. They landed in a crouch, completely unharmed while Ruby laid groaning to the side, dirt and twigs covering her from when she dove.

They had the audacity to smirk. They weren't a fairy or an angel; although they had the looks of either, the mischief they caused could make them only one thing- a pixie. A trickster. A prankster.

Another Yang.

She groaned again, this time in agony for the future; she had a feeling this one liked puns too.

"Graceful as ever I see." They said and it immediately confused her. Had they met before? She looked up and saw the smirk slant into a frown when they saw the confusion on her face.

"Never mind; you wouldn't get it. Anyway, what's a little girl like you doing all the way out here?" They asked, hands on their hips.

The look on her face must have been as exasperated as she felt when the other child flushed. "I'll have you know I can take care of myself; plus, I'm older than you." She said it like a certainty.

"Umm, how do you know how old I am?" She asked, looking up and down at the person she called an angel in her head. They could never know. She would insist until the day she died that it was only the light that caused her to think that. They looked more a devil than anything.

That wasn't right either, though. Their hair, matted and greasy, sprayed around their face, acting as a curtain for their eyes. They were skinny, nearly bony and wearing a tattered, green and yellow striped shirt that had nearly faded. She couldn't tell if they were a boy or girl either; their voice didn't give anything away and neither did their figure. They looked more like a starving child than anything else.

The other child snorted, their bangs flying to and fro when they shook their head. "Never mind that; it was just a guess. I was right wasn't I?" They asked, arrogance dripping from their voice. Definitely not an angel, but being a pixie was still on the table.

Ruby sighed and nodded, brushing the twigs out of her hair and the dirt off her school clothes. She pouted as the thought of her having to do the laundry, again, crossed her mind. She had just cleaned these too!

The other child snickered. "Thinking too hard over there? Relax, I'm not gonna bite." They said, moving to lean against the tree they had just casually jumped down from. "So, Red, what's up? You were sulking when you decided to trip over my tree. Something on your mind?" They asked, folding their arms over each other.

Ruby flushed and looked up, away from the other child. She wasn't sulking! She had merely been lost in thought! She said as much and the other child snorted and shook their head, causing their bangs to fly again. This time though, she saw sharp red eyes nearly the same color as her namesake normally hidden from the world.

"Alright, keep your secrets." They said. "What-" They were cut off by a loud gurgling noise, one that came from the other child. They flushed, turning a brilliant shade of red nearly as bright as their eyes.

"Are you hungry?" Ruby asked, reaching for her backpack. She knew she had at least some leftovers from lunch in there.

"N-no!" They stammered, still flushed with embarrassment. Another loud gurgle echoed out and the child clutched their stomach. The only thing keeping Ruby from grinning was the reminder of how they looked. It looked like they hadn't eaten in a week.

Ruby fished around in her bag until she grabbed something vaguely food shaped. She pulled it out and sighed- it was a chocolate bar. Not exactly something good for a starving person. Before she could say anything, however, the other child snatched it out her hands. Ruby blinked as they devoured the chocolate bar in seconds, pocketing the wrapper in their faded jeans and licking their fingers clean.

The other child flushed and looked away from her, muttering something under their breath. Ruby blushed as she realized she had been staring. Yang had taught her better than that. Before either of them could say anything, the other child's stomach rumbled again.

"So…" Ruby started, ignoring the look on their face, "Wanna come by my house for dinner? My Dad makes a mean burger? Plus, we could make cookies?"

That seemed to be the deciding factor for them, as they nodded their head rapidly before catching themselves and going still. They coughed and looked away, muttering to themselves. A bad habit, if Dad had anything to say about whenever she or Yang did it.

"That…would be acceptable." They pointedly didn't comment about the chocolate and Ruby decided that was for the best. She did giggle a bit at ow they were acting but didn't say anything else.

"C'mon, then! It's only a few minutes walk from here to my house. I can tell Dad we're both needing an early dinner."

There was a pause before they started following her, strangely silent. Ruby repressed a sigh. She had a feeling it was going to be an awkward walk back.

Painfully awkward couldn't begin to describe it. Ruby had tried to start several conversations with the other child and they all had been shot down by grunts or nods or sometimes nothing at all. Ruby knew she was bad at small talk, but there was a certain point where it became ridiculous. Maybe there was something else on their mind?

Ruby shook the thought from her mind as they approached her home.

"Dad! Yang! I'm home!" Ruby called out as she raced through the threshold. "I, uh, brought a friend with me!"

"Welcome home, Ruby!" She heard her Dad call from the kitchen, "I'll be out in just a second." Ruby's excitement mixed with fear as she gazed from the stranger who she called a friend. They were looking around the room, but they didn't seem to be paying attention to anything. They looked lost in a memory.

The door creaked and her Dad walked in. Ruby met his gaze and relief flooded through her. Today was a good day.

"It's just me today, Ruby. Yang's at one of her friend's for the week; something about getting ready for the festival on Saturday? Anywho; who's your friend?" He asked, smiling at the other child.

Her gut churned and she clenched her hands so hard they felt like breaking at the mention of Yang, but she shook it off after and gave Dad a smile she didn't feel at all.

"Hey Dad! This is my friend...um." Ruby realized something very important as embarrassment creeped into her face. Judging by the eyebrow slowly climbing up Dad's face, he realized it too.

"Uh, this is kind of embarrassing, but I was kind of wondering what your name was?"

They hesitated for a second before sighing.

"Chara." They said. "My name is Chara."

Ruby winced. When Chara mentioned their name, her headache that had been a steady presence the entire day spiked. She hid her discomfort quickly, trying not to draw too much attention when her Dad was on a roll.

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Chara. Ruby mentioned you were friends, is that true? She didn't kidnap you from the woods, did she?" Dad said, grinning like the cat caught the canary.

Her headache vanished in an instant and she stammered out a denial, but her dad's laughter drowned it out. "I'm just messing with you, kiddo. Now, Chara, there's a spare bathroom down the hall. Why don't you get cleaned up, hmm? As much as I love the outdoors, it's generally a good idea to keep what comes from outside separate, yeah?"

Chara looked embarrassed but it didn't last long before they snorted and tried to bluster their way through their embarrassment. Ruby bit her cheek as she followed Chara back to the front porch so they could take off their shoes.

Chara was acting strange; nothing like the devil pixie she first thought of them as. Something was going on with her new friend, and they hadn't denied it when she said it. That made her feel a certain warmth inside that was quickly snuffed out by the thought of something being wrong. A different feeling wormed into her chest; something that made a fire light in her gut.

She'd figure out what was going on. And help her new friend.

"So…here's the kitchen! I figured we could get the cookies going now while Dad's outside working on the burgers! I'll even let us steal a little of the chocolate chips so we can snack while working!" Ruby said, going into the pantry to find the ingredients. It seemed Chara had started to go back to their 'normal' self while she had been talking with Dad; she let out a snort at the mention of them eating extra chocolate. Progress!

Ruby smiled, energy filling her as she finally had a task in front of her. She began to get all the ingredients they would need; flour, eggs, milk, chocolate chips, and last but not least, sugar. She had Chara grab bowls, spoons and measuring cups and they began in earnest. They worked in a peaceful sort of silence, occasionally asking for one thing or another as they painstakingly followed the recipe as shown on a worn out piece of paper that had long turned yellow. It had been her Mom's from when she was a kid.

Ruby finally put the cookies into the oven and turned around when she noticed Chara staring at a photo on the fridge.

It had four people in it. They were staring at the one in the white cloak.

Ruby spoke up. "Ah, that's…well that's my mom. You're probably wondering where she is right?" She asked, twirling her finger in her hair. "Well, she, uh- died. She died when I was really little. She was a Huntress, one of the best! Or at least that's what my uncle Qrow and Dad say. I, uh, don't really remember much of her, since I was so young when she died." She shrugged. "It's not a huge deal. I mean, I wish I got to know her more and stuff, but I can't really do anything about it. Yang and Dad usually will tell me stories about her if I ask, but there's only so many stories since…well, yeah." Ruby finished lamely.

Heat coursed through her. She really had to go on a rant about Mom, to a relative stranger. She was going to die from embarrassment. They probably didn't want to hear about it and she effectively killed the mood. Gods, she wanted to just sink into the ground and run away.

"I'm sorry." Chara said, startling Ruby out of her thoughts. They were back to that uncharacteristic quietness from earlier, which made Ruby frown. "I understand. It's been a long time since I've seen my own." They laughed and it sounded empty. "Not that I deserved to be with them anyways." Ruby had a feeling she wasn't supposed to hear that last part.

"I'm, uh, sorry, Chara." They flinched minutely at their name, but Ruby didn't call them out on it. "I…well, I can't imagine it. Not having anyone at all. I…I don't know what I'd do." Ruby finished, staring at the floor. She started, realizing something rather important. "Hey, uh, so this is kind of awkward, but do you need a place to stay, at least for a little while? I know we kind of, well, just met, but I don't want to leave you alone." Heat crept up her neck for the second time in one conversation and she wanted to disappear.

There was an awkward pause as Chara considered. Ruby wanted to smack herself at her impatience. She had just blabbered the first thing that came to her mind without actually thinking about the situation and how Chara would feel. For all that Ruby declared them friends, they had literally just met maybe not even two hours before.

"Sure." The affirmation was quiet, so much so that Ruby barely caught it. She started, and stared at Chara. They had a hint of red on their cheeks as they looked away. "I don't really want to sleep in the woods." Again went unsaid and Ruby nearly jumped for joy.

"It's a sleepover! I'll tell Dad! Oh, he's going to be so excited since it's kind of my first sleep over, well, like ever! I'll need snacks and drinks and pillows, oh we can totally do a pillow fort or something and we can talk about whatever, and-" A finger hovered near her lips, silencing Ruby in an instant. Chara had approached her as she was lost in her thoughts and Ruby realized she had been rambling again.

"One step at a time, okay?" Chara said removing their finger and walking back towards the counter.

Ruby spluttered and tried to calm herself down. "I'm so sorry-"

She was cut off again by Chara. "Don't be, I think it's cute." They said turning away. Ruby's blush returned again, this time in full force and oh my lord someone her age called her cute she was going to die.

Before she could even think about how to respond to that, she smelled smoke coming from the oven and gasped.

"No! Not the cookies!"

Ruby woke up in a field of beautiful yellow flowers. She recognized them, but couldn't remember the name, but they seemed to glow in the evening sun. She was in a cave, tall stalactites and stalagmites dotted the cavern, breaking up the evening sun that somehow permeated the cave. Off in the distance, she could see some sort of door, with a strange symbol etched onto it, yet nothing she recognized.

She felt weirdly…aware. Of both herself and her surroundings. Normally when she dreamed, it was a hazy recollection of thoughts and events that seemed out of place when looked at with zero context in the waking world.

This felt real.

A noise broke her concentration and she looked to the side, noticing for the first time a flower that was different than the others. While the other flowers in the field faced upwards, gathering the evening sun's rays hungrily, this one faced downwards, staring at the dirt and grass below them.

She started walking towards it and without realizing when she arrived, stood before it. She reached down, caressing the petals as gently as she could. It was a sad little thing, dying in the sun while all the others thrived, unaware of their sibling's fate.

"Poor flower." She said to no one in particular.

"Shut up." Said the flower.

Ruby reeled back in shock, landing on her rear and crushing several flowers beneath her. The flower had talked. And it had a face. Not a pleasant one either. It reminded her of a cartoon face, something for young children. If they were made with horror in mind.

It snarled at her, daring her to approach it again. She remained on the ground, ignoring the flowers she had killed. Buttercups. That's what they were. Only in death were they remembered. Ruby tried to follow that thought, but it fizzled out and died before she could think about it more.

"Finally. I never thought you would show up. Stupid little girl. I've been calling out to you for ages." The flower said, ignoring her shock and looking straight at her. She couldn't look away.

"Well, anything to say?" It asked, crossing it's…petals? Like how a person would with arms.

"I-I'm…sorry?" She said/asked, unsure of what was happening. Even for her dreams this was weird.

"Good. You should be. I've been waiting here for ages and it's not like it's easy to get here either. Had to call in a few favors to cross to this side. Everything's gotten messy since, well, ya know…" The flower trailed off.

No, she didn't know. She had no idea what the flower was talking about but it was confusing. What did it mean by crossing to this side?

"Umm…" She started but floundered, unsure of how to even voice her confusion. The flower moved it's petals in an impatient way. Which she somehow knew what that meant.

"So, um, who are you exactly?" She asked with a wince. Way to go Ruby. How confident.

The flower stared at her, mouth open and eyes flat as the horizon. "What?"

She winced at the tone but plowed forwards before she could lose her momentum. "I, uh, don't know who you are, or what's going on, but you seem to know me, so um, maybe I just forgot? I also don't know what you're talking about by crossing over, but I'm sorry you if I caused you trouble-"

"Shut. Up." The flower said and Ruby stopped talking.

"What do you mean you forgot?! How could you forget what we're trying to do here? What we're up against!" The flower raged. It morphed, turning larger and more fierce looking. It's teeth turned sharp, canine looking things and it's eyes nearly bugged out of it's 'head.'

Ruby cowered and started scooting backwards as the flower continued raging. The scenery seemed to distort, for a second and the flower went still. It growled and managed to contort itself back into it's 'normal' state.

"You don't remember anything. Great. Wonderful. Fucking fantastic," She winced at the curse but didn't say anything else. "How? How could this have happened? We were so close last time too! Now, all that progress is gone." It said, glaring at her.

She shrunk into herself. "I'm sorry."

"Don't. I don't need your stupid tears or crappy apologies. We don't have much time left. My stay here can only last so long-" The distortion tore through the field again and an ear piercing roar sounded out from the door. The flower whirled around and Ruby saw the fear on it's face. Whatever it was wasn't good.

"Fuck. Okay, we're out of time. I'm only gonna say this once girl. Try and remember what we talked about and what the plan is. We don't have much time left. Soon, we're going to be stuck in this and I won't have any favors to cash in to get us out of this mess. Got it?" The flower said frantically, glancing back at the door as it buckled under a crash. It nearly bent backwards from the force.

"Answer me!" The flower screamed at her and she nodded frantically. "Remember; Chara is the key. They're the only way we can stop this. We have to get them to see reason. They can't fix everything!"

Ruby nodded and before she could ask anything the door ripped open with a scream and was launched a good fifty feet. It landed with a crash, decimating the flowers around them and throwing up dirt and debris, causing Ruby to fall backwards.

The flower flinched but continued to stare at Ruby. "Do you understand? They're the key! Do whatever it takes to stop this bullshit!" It screamed.

The thing that crashed through the doors roared again. It was close. Nearly to where they sat. Before she could say anything, the flower went still. Small, white pellets began to form around it and a snarl made its way onto it's face and it whirled around, firing the pellets into the smoke. After a second of silence, the roar rang out again, this time in a painful way.

"Go! Get out of here. Only you can stop them. And don't forget this time! If you can't do this, we're all fucked! Now, get out of here!"

Ruby didn't need to be told twice. She turned and sprinted as another roar sounded in the cavern, bouncing off the walls, creating a terrible echoing effect. She couldn't see anything in front of her; the sun was gone. She hadn't noticed it before due to her general panic, but the sun was missing and no moon took it's place. The cavern laid in the darkness, except for the faint source of light coming from behind her, where the talking flower was. She didn't look back.

She kept running ignoring the screams and chaos behind her, trying to find an exit; a door, a hole in the wall, something to get her out!

A scream of rage sounded behind her and she flinched back in shock. The flower had mutated. It was huge now; almost the size of one of those oak trees she had near her house. It's vines we're as thick as a human and they were currently pounding down at some figure she couldn't see clearly; but she could feel.

There was something fundamentally wrong about it. Ruby nearly threw up when she looked at it. It…well she had no idea what it was supposed to be. There were two faces, both on the sides of it's body, while the middle was taken up by something that looked like it came from a children's drawing of a human, except with no face and a hole in the middle of it's head. It's hands were normal but it's feet had bird-like claws extending from it.

There were other objects circling it, changing shapes so rapidly and without rhyme or reason she felt dizzy just looking at it. It's coloring was also off. As in, it had no color. It was some sort of grey that seemed to warp the space around it, causing her eyes to hurt just looking at it. It must of felt or saw, her staring and turned it's body away from the flower and howled.

She threw up. The flower noticed and snapped it's attention back to her.

"What are you still doing here?" He screamed, thrashing his vines around the thing in an attempt to stop it. "It's here for you. Get out!"

Ruby felt her patience snap. "I can't!" She screamed back, "There's no exit!"

"That's because it's a dream, you idiot! Your dream! Make an exit!" It snarled before firing more pellets at the monster who merely swallowed them up. It burped and that would have been funny if she wasn't busy panicking on how to get out.

"How?!" She snapped at the flower. "I don't know how, remember?"

The flower snarled and wrapped his vines against the creature, as it tried to escape towards her. "Imagine yourself where you feel most comfortable. Don't try and force it. Let your mind guide you." It said with more patience that it was surely feeling, for the glare it gave her caused her to shiver.

"If you don't succeed. You'll die."

Great. No pressure. As she tried to think of something, the monster burst from the vines with another ear piercing screech and charged towards her. Ruby screamed and tried to run, but her legs refused to move. She couldn't think of anything! As the creature came closer and closer, Ruby panicked and thought of the first thing that came to her mind that could protect her.

Her eyes burned bright, the creature shrieked and Ruby screamed.

Something was different. She was still there in that cursed cavern, but she felt warm and protected. Something she hadn't felt since…

"My sweet little rose. You should have called for me sooner."

Mom.

She embraced her Mom, who appeared in front of her, just as she remembered her. She wore her favorite black corset and skirt combo with her hair all done up in that familiar way she had giggled at. She wore her signature white cloak which Ruby had used as a blanket more than once to protect from the nightmares that plagued her.

She felt the tears welling up and cried into her chest. "There, there. You've done so well, Ruby. I'm proud of you." The words she had yearned to hear for so many years. "Now, I'm sorry, but you'll have to think of something else to get home, little rose. You know better. I'm not there anymore."

She cried harder but reluctantly let go when she heard that thing against the Gods scream again. She turned to get a look at it and saw it frantically clawing at a silver dome that had appeared around both her and Mom. It couldn't break through and that made her more relived than she thought possible.

"Stay with me?" She asked her, feeling more than a little vulnerable.

Her mother chuckled and it was exactly how she remembered it. "Of course. Anything for you. Now, think of your Father. You know how devastated he would be if you couldn't make it home either."

She was right. Mom was always right. Slowly, she let go of her mother and thought of her father; his warm hugs, the way he always listened; his patience, his strength and his bravery.

She thought of his smile and the way he looked at her; no ghosts of mom in his eyes. Not anymore.

She felt a tugging sensation in her chest. She looked up at Mom and cried. Summer laughed and embraced her, knowing intimately what Ruby wanted most.

"You're such a good girl, my little rose. Go now, take care of your new friend. They'll need all the help they can get. And give Tai and Yang my love. And remember this, Ruby." She pressed a kiss to her forehead and Ruby cried harder.

"I love you. Forever and always."

The tugging in her chest swelled into an inferno and she was ripped from her mother's arms, and hurled through the side of the cavern. Before she landed on the rock, she closed her eyes and screamed.

She screamed as she sat up in her bed, in her room that she was sharing with Chara. They were up already, looking both lost and ready to fight anything that came through their door.

Ruby curled up in her bed and sobbed into her chest, with Chara looking at her, lost and confused.