Their boots thumped along the beaten path. Weiss wanted to stick to the road, and Ruby had had no reason to dispute the idea. Weiss found herself growing more and more frustrated at the woman's demeanor. As hours passed the woman had proven to be a terrible traveling companion. To make matters worse, her hip still bothered her, and she had to make an effort not to limp.

Endless fields of unbothered snow stretched out around them to their right, and a canopy of trees dressed in white to their left, until the forest broke further along in the distance than either of them could see. Every once and awhile there was a bush on their left that struggled in the snow that broke the monotonous view, but that too became part of the routine soon enough.

She was glad for the cloak after all, though, and her guilt about the thing had given way to gratitude as she eyed the empty plains. The wind that swirled across them was something bitter, and she couldn't imagine the journey without something to protect her from it. Ruby walked beside her now, hood down, feet shuffling awkwardly every time they hit a dip in the road or there was a rock in the way. Her face was set with a hard determination, her eyes alert and lips pursed. Her nose, Weiss thought idly, was kind of cute.

Ruby gasped and snapped her head to look at Weiss, who tensed at the action. "What?" Weiss snapped, feeling her face flush.

The woman seemed just as startled as she did, and began frantically looking at anything but Weiss, as if looking for something. "I thought I saw something." She said hastily, and Weiss narrowed her eyes.

"Where? What is Something?" She looked too, but there was nothing but plains and forest. The sky was dark and wore slate grey, and she frowned at the shadows it cast. "I suppose it can't be your fault."

Ruby immediately stopped her searching with a sigh, shivering to herself. "Maybe we should camp?"

Weiss shook her head. "No camping. We can camp tomorrow night; the sooner we reach Beacon, the sooner you'll be able to get help. If there's any to be found." Ruby's expression fell into another expression of somber silence, and Weiss suppressed herself from saying something to the woman. It was reality, whether Ruby liked it or not, and there was little use in stewing in her own sour thoughts like that. Then her eyes dropped to the woman's feet and she felt a jab of guilt. Scowling at herself, at her inability to do any of her duty right, Weiss knelt down carefully before the woman and pushed the cloak aside.

Before Ruby could say much, she'd undid the knot and let the rope fall limp on Ruby's boots. "There. Perhaps that will give you something to smile about." Weiss felt antsier as she stood, and realized she was waiting for Ruby to do something. The woman appraised Weiss with an open look of surprise and appraisal, before she managed a very small, hardly genuine smile.

"Thank you. That… Feels a lot better."

Weiss glared straight ahead, fists clenched, as they continued down the road. She was furious with herself, disgusted in her lack of discipline.

Yet, that smile, small as it was, was something Weiss would see again, if she could. She knew it the moment she saw it and it frustrated her to the very core of her being. Here was the enemy, the monster, and she would unchain it for a smile.

Fool's game. Fool's entourage. Weiss ground her teeth. No, she was the entire circus.

Time passed, and despite Weiss' own personal grievances, Ruby did seem to brighten as the last visage of the sun was swept below the horizon and she no longer tripped over herself. "I don't think I've actually thanked you yet, Weiss. I know what you're doing is crazy. I… I think it is."

Weiss watched her from the corner of her eye as they crested the top of a small rise in the road. "You'd be better off convincing me it isn't." She said dryly. She cringed, hand clutching a leather pouch that hung from her belt, holding her Scroll, a small piece of metal inscribed with the glyphs that served as legal documentation signaling her as a Huntress. For what she'd done, she wondered if it would be taken from her. If she wasn't thrown in a dungeon for it. Ruby turned her face towards Weiss and flashed her a sheepish smile.

No matter, Weiss thought. She was doing the right thing. She was sure of it.

"When we get to Beacon you should probably meet my family, Weiss."

The huntress furrowed her brow, letting her hand drop from the pouch. "I'm not sure that'll be possible, Ruby, there's still-"

"Of course it will be possible! I bet Yang kisses you for it." She hummed to herself fondly. Weiss opened her mouth to remind Ruby to not assume anything, but she snapped her jaw shut to keep herself from speaking. Ruby smiled. There was genuine hope in the way she stared ahead, and everytime she took a step, the next one seemed to fall with more energy than the one before it. Her hands swung at her sides, and as the rest of the waning light began to dissipate and a wary moon began to illuminate her face, Weiss smiled instead. She was glad to see life slowly returning to the woman.

She squinted then, looking closer. The woman did actually seem… fuller. Her skin was less pale, and her eyes seemed brighter than before. She scowled, putting the thoughts out of her head. It was further foolishness. She looked out at the surrounding wilderness, and saw nothing but featureless white and shadowy forest depths. "Gods, what I'd give for…" Ruby began, voice suddenly halting.

Weiss glanced back over. Ruby's silence made her nerves jump, and Weiss spun on her heels to check behind them, picturing already something black as midnight with bones whiter than snow that pierced through black fur and eyes that glowed an infernal red. Long, jagged claws at the end of long, thick limbs.

There was nothing, save the dark shadow of a songbird against the sky. She shuddered, letting go of Myrtenaster after noticing she'd already started to draw the rapier. She glared at Ruby, who shrugged and hunched into her cloak. "Sorry, uhm, didn't mean to scare you?"

Weiss frowned deeply at the implication, blowing hot air through her nose in a huff before taking up the steady march again. "You didn't scare me. That's preposterous. If you had scared me, I wouldn't have turned my back on you."

Ruby wrinkled her nose and her brows drew close together in consideration. She let whatever thought was in her head go and loosened back up, her footsteps matching Weiss'. "Sorry. I was just going to say, what I wouldn't give for something sweet to eat right now. I can bake you cookies, if you like those."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "So you're a baker?"

"Well, I guess not really? Kind of? Mostly I just help out in the tavern. You know, serving tables, dishes, helping the kitchen when someone doesn't come in on time. Nothing like what you do, I suppose. My father doesn't want me and my sister having anything to do with hunting. I think he tried to be one, once. He talks to Qrow about the hunts, the Grimm, and I always get the feeling he wished he was a part of it."

Weiss grunted when there was a pause in Ruby's words. Gods, the woman was very eager to talk now. "I hope to try your cookies, then." She simply said. What was she doing, marching across the countryside on a quest that she didn't believe in? Fool's game.

Ruby nodded, letting silence take them again.

Hours passed and the sky lightened, and Weiss found she was exhausted. She tried to reach for more aura, to pull from the river that was always full, and found there was hardly a trickle. The weather must be harsher than she imagined it had been. Her hip throbbed constantly and the cold had eventually managed to seep in through the thick of her cloak, wrapping itself around her bones and setting in with a vice grip. Ruby had already put her hood back on, though Weiss still wondered at the woman's ability to handle the sun. Now that the light was better, she was sure the woman seemed fuller than before. She walked with such ease that Weiss found herself musing the idea of having Ruby carry her on her back.

She scoffed at the idea with incredulity the moment she'd given birth to it, yet now she couldn't stop focusing on the way her joints all pained her, how heavy her feet were.

"Do you want to stop and take a rest? We've been walking for hours and…" Ruby had already stopped, and she kicked at the snow. "This is awful to walk in."

Weiss chewed her lip, biting back her immediate response to keep pushing. Her Aura was utterly depleted, meaning she was running on the fuel of her own body, and she was hungry. A chance to recuperate for half an hour might do wonders to get them the rest of the way.

With a reluctant sigh, she nodded, and led them off the road and into the edge of the forest so the trees could act as a small barrier from the small wind that blew, and slumped with her back against a tree trunk. Gods, she was tired. Ruby sat next to her, and Weiss felt sudden frustration at seeing how well she looked. Her cheeks and nose were burned pink by the air, but nothing else about her even showed that she was remotely winded. She smiled at Weiss when she noticed her looking, and the huntress huffed and looked away.

"How close are we?" Ruby asked while Weiss pulled open a pouch from her belt. It contained dry chunks of meat. Another pouch had chunks of cheese, and she was weary to think that she only had another meal like this left. Then she rectified that thought. Obviously Ruby wouldn't be needing any real food, therefore… Weiss licked her lips and stuffed the particularly unenjoyable cube of meat into her mouth.

"We're two days off, if we don't stay here long. Give or take. There's another village we can stop at before we reach Beacon, so we'll have a night of resting in beds before we get there." Ruby nodded at her words, though a look of concern crossed her face. "What?"

The woman sat on her haunches, twisting the hem of her cloak between her fingers. "Well, as much as I like the sun, it's kind of hard to walk in." She sounded pained when she said it, and she wouldn't look in Weiss' direction.

"Well, you seem to handle it just fine. If you think I'm comfortable, you're sorely mistaken." She caught herself from mentioning her Aura deficit; she trusted Ruby, but not enough to let her in on that. Despite how sincerity practically bled from every action Ruby took, she was still dangerous, and possibly still the enemy. She'd rather not make a bigger fool out of herself. "We'll travel during the day because it's warmer and I can see better." And because it'll hinder you, even if just a little. She almost felt guilty about thinking this way, but she remembered the boy.

Ruby said nothing to protest, and Weiss ate more of her traveling food. As her hunger sated, her own worries about Ruby's grew. "I can tell you don't like talking about it, but we must. Are you hungry?"

Ruby tensed, and just like that whatever Ruby had managed to put out of her mind came back. Her face wore the clouds of her mind openly. "I haven't been for awhile." She sounded meek, as if afraid to talk about it too loud despite the fact that they were alone.

Weiss nodded impatiently. Gods, be practical, woman. "It's what you said last time. Theories say you don't need to feed for a few nights at a time. It's been at least that long since your last. I need to know, Ruby." She emphasized the word need, but Ruby still looked at her with genuine hurt in her eyes, as if to say 'Why are you doing this?'. Weiss held her gaze defiantly, though guilt did prick her.

"I don't feel anything like that, Weiss." She finally said, relenting and turning her eyes to the forest floor. "Normally, before, yes, I'd feel something. Like a, a burning, I guess. A sore throat, but a lot worse. Now, nothing."

Weiss nodded slowly, if doubtfully. Ruby's condition already struck her as strange, so she didn't see why this was unbelievable. In fact…

She reached intently for her Aura, to feel it there. Nothing but a trickle. Her eyes widened, and she stared at Ruby with a feeling of both fear and fascination. There had been talk about these kinds. Vampires who didn't work the same way. Some kind of dark feeding on others' Aura. That was the theory, and on the field it had been reported that some hunters found their Aura had run out faster than they'd expected, and it had led to wounds where there shouldn't be any. And sometimes, on those fields, there was a vampire or two that just didn't feed on any of the dying men. There was no frenzy in their eyes.

If she'd brought with her just another vampire, well, she could see herself being hung for it. But an Aura Feeder? A battlefield rumor and speculation that could be confirmed? Someone who seemed willing to go along with scientists and answer their questions. Weiss let out a shaky breath and stilled her hand, which had started to shake.

Ruby stared at her in alert. Weiss froze. The woman looked ready to bolt. What had she done? "Ruby, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Weiss. I just… You seemed… different for a moment." Ruby still looked at her wearily, and Weiss tilted her head. Anything the woman said might be an important clue to the reality of her condition. Still, she tried to calm herself, to bury her excitement. She didn't want Ruby thinking she was in danger.

Dim was the morning light that broke through the light foliage, though Ruby put up her hood regardless, and slumped against another tree next to Weiss', saying nothing more.

All the well, Weiss thought. She wondered if she should say something to Ruby, but her own uncertainty stalled her tongue. She could be wrong. She also had no idea what she might be dealing with. Anxiety bloomed in her stomach as she wondered about the state of her Aura, if Ruby could stop doing whatever she was doing to it, if it would come back.

Would it kill her?

She banished the worries out of her mind by replaying images of fencing with her older sister in their Atlas manor courtyard...

... "You're slow, Weiss." Winter admonished, even as she jabbed the point of her blade into Weiss' shoulder. Weiss yelped painfully as the hard leather cap bruised her skin.

"And you're cruel." Weiss pouted, using her free hand to rub the sore spot. Winter turned her back to her, heels clicking on flagstones as she approached a small table. A silver pitcher of fruit infused water and two master worked glasses sat on its surface, and Winter filled both.

"You know tradition. You know what is expected of you. You should be doing better, sister." She came back and held the glass out to Weiss, who accepted it still scowling. "You're old enough now that you'll be expected to come into your duties soon enough. Unless you really just want to be your father's pet."

Weiss drank deeply from the glass. Her muscles burned with the effort of their sparring match and she burned with the frustration of it. Winter stood a whole head taller than her younger sister. She wore a white leather vest over a sleeveless tunic made of dark wool and darker breeches. Weiss glared, feeling the petulant desire to throw her glass at the older woman. She was, by far, the prettier of the two. And the fastest, and the strongest, and the one with the most talent.

Of the two of them, if either was going to awaken the Schnee Semblance, it would be Winter. Weiss knew it, her father knew it, all the royalty knew it. Only Winter still clung to the charade that either of them might still manage it, and Weiss, in her stubbornness, in her unwillingness to let Winter just have it, went along with her sister. She dared not call it hope; she dared not.

"I won't be his pet, Winter." Weiss said after a length. Winter took her glass from her and set it back on the table, having finished her own. Then they stood facing one another. "Even if it isn't me, I'm trained. I know how to fight just as well as any hunter or knight. I'll be a huntress, if I must."

Winter twisted her mouth at the word. "You'd do better to serve in our army as a general, Weiss. Hunters are lawless brigands who don't answer to enough people. You'd really leave for another Kingdom just so you can dissent against him?"

"They help people, Winter." Weiss glared fiercely at Winter. "We let the army have too much and the people not enough. Just look at Mantle."

Winter held her glare with calm composure. "You are angry. The army does not concern you, nor does Mantle, Weiss. What concerns you is your ability. It won't matter what you want to spend your life on if you don't start pressuring yourself more." Insufferable. Weiss wanted to slap her.

"I didn't ask you to offer an opinion on the matter, Winter. You did it of your own volition." Weiss snapped, and Winter raised an eyebrow as Weiss raised her rapier. Up came Winter's blade, and soon the courtyard was filled again with their grunts of exertion and the ring of metal on metal.

Weiss woke with a start, then. A branch snapped off in the distance of the forest. The hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention. "Ruby?" She whispered harshly, seeing the other woman still slumped in her cloak. Ruby stirred.

"What?" Her voice was thick with tiredness. She'd been sleeping, too. Weiss started when Ruby suddenly jumped to her feet. It was so fast, Weiss had blinked and missed when she moved. Ruby wasn't staring at her, though; she was looking out into the woods. "Weiss, there's someone there."

Weiss scrambled to her feet, clumsily drawing Myrtenaster and trying to banish the image of Winter's judging face from her mind. "Someone or something?" She asked, dearly hoping it was a someone.

"Someone." Ruby confirmed. "Weiss, there's… More than one. I think."

"How can you tell?" Weiss asked, eyes scanning the wilderness before them. To her, there was no sign that anything was or ever had been there, aside from the snapping branch.

"I can… I can smell them." Ruby winced at her own words. Right, Weiss thought. She was a dunce for having forgotten.

"Thank the Gods for it, then." Weiss said lowly, swallowing. There was nothing there, she thought. Nothing at all. Still she held Myrtenaster at the ready.

They both stood tense, their eyes straining to see what they knew was there. Weiss could feel a bead of sweat trickle down her chest, and it wasn't from any warmth. "Show yourselves!" She finally shouted, when seconds had started to turn into a minute. Her voice sounded too strong and proud to her own ears, but she was glad it didn't betray her worries.

She thought of rogues that traveled the roads, haunting merchants and travelers alike. Of whatever had brought Ruby to that lonesome farmstead. Of Grimm.

Ruby let out a startled gasp when a figure stepped out from behind a tree not ten paces from them, and Weiss nearly bit her tongue bloody. He held a crossbow trained on Weiss, the one of the two with a weapon in hand, and his face was shadowed in a low hanging hood the color of earth. A short sword hung at his waist, and Weiss was shocked to find she recognized it.

"You were in the inn. The White Hare." Weiss said quickly, eyes glued to the crossbow. "You followed us, then."

"You'll want to be dropping that weapon of your's." The man's voice grated on Weiss' nerves, the way he sneered at her. Still, she hesitantly lowered the rapier and fell out of her stance, feeling the familiar soreness of her hip and knowing that her Aura was low. She swallowed nervously. "Don't make me go repeating myself, girly."

Weiss glared, indignant, yet she dropped the weapon. Immediately panic flooded through her limbs, her sword hand clammy and joints locked. She'd never felt so weak before in her life. Never so helpless, not even under the cold roof of her home.

Then again, perhaps she hadn't considered that.

"My name is Weiss Schnee," She said suddenly, and Ruby jumped beside her. Weiss paid her no attention. Indeed, the man's crossbow did lower just an inch. "If you're hoping to rob me and my friend, you'll find that there is more money to be found in-"

"Weiss!" Ruby's cry made Weiss stumble over her words, and before she could see what had startled her, Weiss found herself suddenly with the side of her face in the snow. The space between her shoulders throbbed, though if it was pain, she couldn't tell. Strange colors marred her vision, and when she tried to move, only a groan escaped her parted lips.

She dully heard Ruby screaming about something, but in a moment her voice cut off. Something thudded into the ground beside her, but she couldn't manage to swing her head around to see what it was. Probably Ruby, she thought, with a mind that moved like thick, cold syrup.

Then, just as sense was starting to wash over her body, she felt a sharp jolt in the back of her head and her consciousness fled from her.

When Ruby finally came to, awareness still evaded her. She knew she was constricted, knew that her wrists were held by rope again, but what that meant she couldn't work out. All around her was darkness, the darkest pitch, and only her other senses gave her clues.

First, it was the sound of cloth being battered by wind. Next it was the smell of damp dirt and the lack of snow under her palms. Then it was the voices she heard, and the rancid smell of spoiled meat and stale ale that made her blink, forcefully trying to dredge her intelligence out of the fog. Gods, she couldn't even form her own name in her head.

"Luck favors you today, Cliff!" A woman's voice said, somewhere outside the darkness. "Gods know why, but you really did see a Schnee. Imagine that. Even luckier, you actually brought her along. Alive."

"She's alive, Vernal, I swears it. Her and the other girly, the one she came here asken' for, them few nights ago, I reckon." Ruby vaguely recognized the other voice, but she couldn't place the slur of his accent, or where she might have heard it before. Where was she, and what was she doing here? Schnee? That name tickled something in the back of her memories, and she could feel something urging that feeling forward. She tried to reach for it, tried to grasp it.

You are weak. Far too weak. Let me help you.

Ruby's eyes shot open wide, and she hadn't realized they had been closed. She recoiled, and turned her full attention to the voices outside the darkness. Whatever had spoken to her from inside her own head had the sound of something that filled her with dread. She couldn't say what that quality was, what about it attributed to the sensation. It was something more primal than that, some instinctive knowing of wrongness.

"I reckon you should keep your reckoning to yourself, you lout. Go, fetch me Grit." There was an angry curse from the voice named as Cliff, but Ruby recognized the sound of footsteps growing softer. A few minutes of silence passed by, and Ruby was aware of that presence of wrongness somewhere deep again. Small things started to come back to her. Weiss. An inn. Walking a road. Why was she walking the road? Why was she with Weiss, and not with- not with Yang?

Her sister's name jarred her, and she opened her mouth in a wide 'O' shape as memories of the last few weeks tore through the slow serenity of her mind, turning it into rapids where the memories were jagged rocks, she was naked and helpless in the cold stream and the stream was her budding lucidness returning in full, sudden force. She crashed into one memory and was immediately torn away and thrown with abandon into another.

She thought she might die from it. Each remembrance tore her skin open and revealed raw pink that blossomed into scarlet red beneath. Tears fell from her eyes when she remembered the small village boy, the boy she'd been forced to seek out on her own when she'd been left behind to starve. She dry heaved and found then that her mouth was gagged. He was watching her from the darkness, she knew, and she squinted her eyes to get away from his eyes and found that sickly taint waiting for her in her own head. The judgement of the boy was better, she decided.

She didn't notice the sound of returning footsteps until they seemed just a few steps from her. The woman, Vernal, barked an order she missed, and then Ruby found herself blinking at sunlight, her skin immediately feeling too warm, as if she was leaning closer to a fire than she ought to. The light dazed her and she squinted against it.

"So, this is what you brought me, Cliff." A pair of heavy leather boots stepped in front of her nose, though there were strange, thick stripes that ran vertically up them. They didn't seem to catch the light right, didn't seem to conform to the shape of the boots.

Then she blinked, realizing that the stripes weren't a part of the boots. They were planks of wood. Ruby's stomach twisted and curled and she was afraid. She knew without needing to see more that she was in a cage.

"Look at me, girl." The woman Vernal snapped, and Ruby did. She peered up past the boots best she could as Vernal knelt down. She was smaller than the words she used to demand people around, or the tone she used to do it. She had a shrew like face, and her lips were thin and drawn in a hard smile that was more like a sneer. She stared into Ruby's eyes intently until it made Ruby look away. "Gods turn me to ash." She exclaimed, whistling through her teeth.

"Vernal? Is it the girl? The one The Raven was askin' for?" Cliff asked curiously. It was a dispassionate curiosity, however, and Ruby felt sudden worry that she might not be 'the girl'.

"Shut up and keep words out of your mouth, Cliff, or I'll string you up next to her." She chuckled. "It'd be fun to see how long you last."

"Lay off, Vernal." He growled, but there was little strength to his voice. Ruby whimpered, and Vernal laughed out loud.

"You're a pretty little thing. Silver eyes, huh. Wonder what kind of game she's playing at." Ruby blinked and suddenly the point of a dagger was between her eyes, and she gave a choked yelp between the gag. "You'd better keep nice and still in there. If I get any hint that you're dangerous, I don't care what you're wanted for and who wants you, I'll put this between your eyes a lot faster than you'll be out of those ties." She didn't wait for Ruby to do anything, whisking the dagger away as she stood. "Grit, you're going to stand guard. Beat her over the head with that club of yours if she turns out to be trouble of any kind. Try not to kill her."

Ruby shook. A great bear of a man grunted, just out of eyesight, and suddenly the darkness was in place again. She heard two pairs of feet wander off, and she knew she was alone with whoever this Grit was. Panic coursed through her, though no matter the effort she put into it, she was bound tight by wrist and ankle. She stopped struggling and gulped at the air to keep her panic from bubbling forward.

She was alone, all alone, caged and alone. Kept in the dark.

The silence of her heartbeat echoed deafeningly in her ears.

Weiss wanted to hurt someone.

She glared daggers at the girl in front of her, who sat cross legged while she leered at her. "Pretty penny you'll fetch. Could probably buy myself a whole castle with what you're worth. Pretty Schnee girl."

Her skin rose in waves of goosebumps. Something about the way the girl flashed her teeth and the dangerous glint in her eyes made the huntress feel frightened. Weiss bullied that emotion down, clung to her anger. "Free me, and I can see to it that you're well rewarded for it. In fact, I could use an escort. To avoid bandits and thieves on the road, you see."

The girl snickered, and flipped a dagger into her hand. She began poking at her teeth with it while her eyes wandered Weiss with hunger. It was a look that made her shiver. It wasn't the kind that would make her flush. It was the cold, calculating look of that of a butcher wondering where best to make her cuts to save the most meat.

They were in some large tent, and a fire burned in the middle of it. Weiss was strapped to a pole, forced to stand, and the girl sat on a box. The side was stamped with a familiar emblem, though she paid it no attention. Everyone knew the White Fang were targets for just about every single group of bandits throughout the four kingdoms.

Two guards stood at the entrance of the tent, appearing to be minding their own business, but Weiss saw the way they looked at her. It was no different than Vernal; these were opportunists, folks out to make their fortune. She was glad for that, at least. Two thick, heavy clubs rested against the tent wall with their ends in the dirt, long enough that they came up to each guard's waist. She realized it must be night already, for no light made it in through the gap between the entrance flap and the floor.

She could hear the noises of a large group enjoying an evening of revelry; there was the sound of singing, an old folks tale. A few harsh arguments here and there, the smell of meat sizzling over a campfire. She started when someone crashed through the entrance, spilling a mug of some dark brown liquid all over one of the guard's boots. Before Weiss knew it, the man had been picked up by the knot of hair on his head and thrown back outside by the furious man, and she winced when he followed after him, club in hand.

The girl had no interest in any of it. She just kept staring at Weiss.

"We're wasting time, as far as I can tell." Weiss tried again, putting on a voice that was both relaxed and sharp. "It's been a whole day. We could have been halfway to Beacon by now, and you could have been halfway to having enough coin to satisfy yourself for a year renting the oases of Vacuo entirely for yourself."

Weiss noticed Myrtenaster, then, next to the girl's side. She felt disgusted to see it with someone else. To see her sister's gift under ownership of some lowlife rodent like this made her blood run cold with her scorn. She hid it well, though. Now was not the time for such foolish antics. Now, she had to convince this girl to work for her, not against her.

"I'm not interested in Vacuo, or oases or any of that, girl." Weiss set her jaw at being called a girl with such an insolent tone, and the bandit grinned widely at her reaction. "I'm interested in seeing just how much I can get out of such a lovely catch. You deserve to be here, you know. I can't imagine that you thought it was smart to be all alone with that hair of yours. Somehow you were, and never mind that, you were captured by Remnant's biggest idiot. Fool girl."

Weiss' face was red, she knew it from the way it grew hot, but she held her tongue. After all, part of her was ashamed to admit the girl wasn't wrong. It was stupid. If it hadn't been for her father's arrival in Beacon, she imagined she wouldn't have gone at all. It had landed her in this situation. She'd ended up escorting a vampire of all thing- Gods, Ruby!

Her fingers went numb. "What about my friend. The woman with the silver eyes. You'll not see a single copper if she's been harmed in any fashion, girl." She spit the last word vehemently, and the bandit girl rose from her box with a fearsome glare. She still held her dagger in her hand, and Weiss' eyes darted to it unwittingly.

"I'd watch that royal tongue, personally. I'd hate to deliver damaged goods, but it happens sometimes, on the road. Damages happen." Her voice was low, and dangerous, and Weiss saw that as she got close enough that she could smell the sweat on the girl's body, she might have meant it. There was a hunger in her eyes that made Weiss believe the girl really wanted to hurt her.

Weiss deferred with some difficulty, ducking her head. Her knuckles were bonewhite with anxiety as she clenched her hands into fists. The guard came back, then, and she paled at the dark stains on his club. She tried not to picture what the man who'd fallen into the tent looked like now, as the guard wore a satisfied smile. He snorted in her direction.

"Your friend is fine. Better than you, even." Weiss felt her head throbbing, but gracefully both her hip and whatever had hit her in the back didn't hurt much anymore. She imagined it was one of those huge clubs that had taken her down.

She sought out the sensation of her Aura, to feel that trickle again. Instead there was a steady flow; not as much as she'd preferred, but much more than the small amount she'd had when with Ruby. She had a notion of what that meant, and a new concern grew in her head.

The girl looked longingly at Weiss' mouth, and the huntress shuddered, seeing the dagger. "Whatever. She'll probably prefer it if you can speak. Someone will come with food, soon, and you'll eat. Stay quiet and you get to keep your tongue."

"Girl, that friend of mine-" Weiss snapped her jaw shut, swallowing. The bandit, who had turned away, had put the dagger up to her bottom lip. Steel grey eyes glared at her. Daring her. Weiss kept her mouth shut, with effort. The bandit nodded, and blew air through her nose in scorn at Weiss, before turning around to go sit on her box and pick at her teeth again.

Weiss turned her head to look at the entrance where the guards stood watch. She ignored their gazes. Ruby, Gods, I hope you're okay.

She thought days must have passed by now. Lying in the dirt, breath heaving in a frantic haze of terror. The skin around her wrists and ankles burned, rubbed raw and bloody by her struggles, but not even slickened by her blood did it purchase more freedom of movement.

As time stretched out endlessly in the dark, so too did her fear. She worried for Weiss, who she'd watched get pummeled with clubs and she wasn't sure if the huntress still lived. Most of all, she worried about herself and the growing heat in her throat, or the way her stomach tightened. She could hear things; things she tried to drown out but could not.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

She scrunched her face tight, trying to force the sound out of her head, but it seemed with each passing moment of eternity the sound only grew louder and louder.

She didn't know why it was suddenly happening again, why the infernal thirst was starting to come back. With Weiss she'd nearly felt human again. Now it was returning, and her entire body was covered in a cold sweat.

Someone passed by, laughing, and she could hear two heartbeats thumping instead of one. "No…" She whimpered, pleading. She was too afraid to open her eyes, though.

Feed.

Her eyes shot open, and of course, she saw it waiting there for her. Or, she saw herself. Or something pretending to be her.

Despite the dark, she could see it as if it was plain day. It's hair hung like straw from its head, black and tinted red, just like her own. It's skin was sickly, and looked drawn over its body. Long, spindly fingers hung motionless from its hands, and it knelt on its feet, arms crossed over its knees. She tried not to look at its face, but it seemed to sense this, and forced her to.

Sunken sockets, devoid of eyes, seemed to burrow into her head and drive her mad. Its mouth hung open, jaw too low, lips stretched too thin. Sharp needle-like fangs poked out from beneath the upper lip.

Feed.

It's voice boomed in her head, and she felt a compulsion to try. She jerked in her bounds, trying to pull free, but could not. For a moment Ruby snarled in anger at being held, the next she was sobbing, afraid. She felt nauseous and shut her eyes tight again. But no matter how hard she forced her eyelids together, she could just make out the form of herself watching from the dark.

Feed.

She fought like hell against the compulsion this time. It took everything she had to force it down, as the beat of the heart outside her tent seemed to play like a rhythm; she wanted to lose herself in it, found it impossible to ignore, and so instead she dredged up an old nursery rhyme her mother once sang to her.

Cold, the wolf

Deep, the night

Come home, little wolf

Back to firelight

Tired, the wolf

Harsh, the night

Don't roam, little wolf

Back to firelight

She breathed in and out, and her body went rigid. The wind carried on it a scent of iron. Grit's heartbeat thundered in her ears and the nursery rhyme was lost in the storm. Ruby groaned. Feed.

"No!" She growled, unable to stop herself from gasping in air though every breath drew in more and more of that vile, sweet smell. She felt something stir, something black. She could see the deformed image of herself smile victoriously.

Feed. Feed. Feedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeed-

"No! I won't!" Ruby shouted. The dirt began to turn to mud beneath her cheek, and she realized she was crying. Something hit the cage with a loud bang.

"Shut up in there, girly." Grit threatened quietly.

Feedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeedfeed!

She couldn't stop herself from thrashing. The cage shook with her, as she tried to throw herself from her bindings. Her wrists and ankles screamed in pain as she twisted them this way and that, her cheek bleeding from scratches as it slammed into the dirt over and over again. She wasn't even aware of her own yelling. In the dark, that monster wearing her skin laughed, and she was horrified.

Suddenly light flooded the cage, and though it was only moonlight and firelight, it nearly blinded her, so used to the dark she had become. Her thrashing did not stop. Grit shouted something at her, angry, but she could not stop. Could not. She had to feed. Had to feed. Had to feed.

She caught glimpses of him fumbling with a keyring, and then he was opening the cage's door. Her mind seemed to be splitting apart, tearing away from itself as she tried to hold back the thing that boiled beneath her psyche. "Please, go away." She croaked in between convulsing in the dirt.

She was aware of ten other heartbeats drawing close. The noise drowned out all other thoughts, all other feelings, until it all conjoined into one harmonious cacophony. It was horrible. It was delightful. Grit raised a club.

For an instant, after it had cracked her on the head, for just a split second her senses came back to her. She didn't hear any heartbeats, didn't feel any thirst. Only the dizzying pain and nausea that accompanied the spreading wetness on her scalp.

In the next instant the clarity was gone. Red hot need took over. Ruby felt it wrap itself around her, soothing her, telling her it would all be okay. That it would protect her.

She fell into its cold arms, sobbing.