The grand reunion was…awkward. For the Rubies, it was the fact that their friends were meeting Grimm Ruby for the first time…with varied feelings. For everyone else, it was the fact that this humanlike and verbose Grimm with an uncanny physical and emotional resemblance to Ruby came out of nowhere. The two sat together on the disheveled couch; their unassuming and innocent postures sitting side-by-side like mirrored reflections.

"So…who wants to say it?" Jaune asked, out of the blue.

"Say what?" Ruby asked.

"How creepy this is," Jaune said, glancing at Ruby. "We thought we lost you, then you came back…twice. We have two of you."

"It's like that story of the guy that lost his cat, then found him, then the cat came back, and he has two identical cats," Nora said with narrowed eyes, completely with arm movements to emphasize both Rubies.

"Except they're not identical at all," Jaune said nervously, glancing at Grimm Ruby. "In fact, she…kind of looks like Salem."

"More like Salem and Ruby put in a blender," Yang said.

"What?" Ruby exclaimed. "Come on, they don't look that similar."

"No, I see what Yang's saying," Weiss added. "You saw what Jinn showed us. Compare that to what she looks like now. If we were to assume that you couldn't be killed and jumped in the Pool of Destruction…"

"Ruby would come out, looking like her," Blake finished, glancing at Grimm Ruby.

"I know!" Nora exclaimed, squinting as her face came within inches of Grimm Ruby. "You've got this…weird 'palette swap' thing going on. What exactly are you supposed to be? Her evil clone?"

"Oh yeah," Grimm Ruby said in a deadpan tone, rolling her eyes. "Real original, Nora. Look, I know I'm a fake! I can't hide that from you or anybody else. I just don't care."

"Salem made you in Ruby's image," Weiss skeptically pointed out. "Her memories, her personality…and you don't care?"

"Well…okay, maybe I do care…a little," Grimm Ruby admitted. It glanced up at Weiss, who immediately looked even less trusting than before. In an attempt to salvage what it just said, it held out its claws. "Oh, come on! How would you feel if you found out your whole life was really someone else's and your hands have this sharp things where your fingers used to be?"

"Sorry," Grimm Ruby said, looking down at its knees. "What I mean is…I remember what life was like before…this. At Beacon, I was just this girl that wanted to have normal knees. Then Beacon fell, and two of my friends died with it. I chose to keep moving forward for the sake of those that were still with us…only now, I know that I wasn't really the one that made that choice. And the friends and school I lost weren't really mine, either. They were Ruby's. I didn't even choose to be made the way I was, with Ruby's memories, but that's the way it is. I can't choose to be human. I can't even choose to have normal knees. I'm stuck with these…cold black knees. The only choice I do have is to try and do as much good as I can, because that's what the original Ruby would do. Her choices are all I have."

"Wow. I…I don't know what to say," Weiss said, her face showing immediate remorse. Jaune and Nora were also a bit less hostile, but remained silent.

"I get it. It's okay," Grimm Ruby said, letting out a resigned bestial growl. "You have every reason not to trust me. After everything Salem did, I wouldn't trust me either. I was built to be an unstoppable monster, and I'll probably be hunted by the brave Huntsmen of the world just because of that fact. I'm just not letting that define me."

"That's something our Ruby would say," Blake said, intrigued.

"I can't work for Salem," Grimm Ruby said in an icy tone, concealing its deep anger. "Not after what she did to Ruby and everyone else. She's the one at fault. She…cursed me to live like this. She made me this way. If I so much as see her again, I'll rip out her arms and bite her face and make her scream over and over and over."

"And…that's something our Ruby wouldn't say," Blake said, unnerved. Everyone else, including the original Ruby, shared Blake's feelings concerning Grimm Ruby's animosity toward its creator. The cold and cruel gaze on its face gave the impression that there was truly a monster beneath the sentient Grimm's copied personality.

"That's more like something a Grimm would say," Yang added. Grimm Ruby instantly reeled its anger back, knowing that it made even the most supportive of Ruby's teammates nervous.

"I know it's hard to trust her, but…she did save me. She's not evil," Ruby said, putting her hand over Grimm Ruby's shoulder. "Even if she does look like some evil reflection of me in a comic book."

"Hey, you still have your comics, right?" Grimm Ruby whispered to its original self.

"Uh, I don't know," Ruby said. "I left them in the Academy before…you know…everything. Why?"

"Just something to make me feel like I'm human again," Grimm Ruby whispered somberly. "I mean, not 'again again', just…you know what I mean. I can't eat. I can't sleep. I just thought…maybe I could just read for a while. Maybe I can do that much. On second thought, never mind."

Everyone else paused, their faces filled with confusion. Grimm Ruby still sensed everyone else's collective mistrust.

"Hmm," Jaune hummed, deep in a thinking pose. "Even if she is like our Ruby, there's still a chance that Salem could see through her like a Seer. We'd better be careful with what we say around her."

"Seconded," Ren added. "Nora?"

Nora didn't respond. Her gaze remained fixated on Grimm Ruby to the point that it was more uncomfortable than those around it. After about ten seconds of awkward silence, her expression changed into a teeth-baring grin.

"Oooh! I know!" Nora exclaimed. "I'm going to ask you one question: something only the reaaal Ruby could answer!"

"Nora, we know who the real one is," Ren said. His common sense did nothing to stop her.

"Wheeeeen," Nora said dramatically, then lowered her pitch to a normal tone. "is my birthday?"

"Uh," Grimm Ruby said with a pause, scratching the back of its head. Something was wrong. Even though it knew full well that it shared the original Ruby's memories, it couldn't answer the question. It's mind was blank. After another ten seconds of silence, Nora's face turned into a grimace.

"That's what I thought. Totally fake," she said with her eyes narrowed, then glanced at Ruby. "Ruby, tell everyone my birthday."

"Uh," Ruby said with a pause, scratching the back of her head. After another five seconds of silence, Nora's mouth went agape.

"Are you serious?" she asked. "You both don't know my birthday?"

"Uhhhh," both Rubies said, scratching the backs of their heads and looking at each other. At least that explained to Grimm Ruby why it didn't know. Apparently, neither did she. The two spoke in a way that it was impossible to tell which one said what. "I kinda." "Piggybacked." "Off Ren." "Lots of stress." "Birthdays." "Letting everyone down." "Mine's on Halloween." "Easy to remember." "Awkward."

Everybody gave the Rubies a blank stare. Grimm Ruby had been getting used to these reactions, but this was now embarrassing for them both.

"That's so freaky," Yang said in amazement. "She's even doing that mumbling thing Ruby does when she's embarrassed."

"They really are the same," Blake said in quiet awe. "I'm…not sure what to think. I know she's Grimm, but…can we really just kill her? It doesn't seem like the right thing."

"I suppose we do owe her our gratitude," Weiss admitted. "Ruby?"

"Yeah, Weiss?" both Rubies asked simultaneously, then glanced at each other.

"Human Ruby?" Weiss clarified in a deadpan tone. "You…left your scythe behind."

Ruby's face beamed. She'd went too long without her precious Crescent Rose.

"We brought it back with us," Yang said, her eyes drifting toward the floor in sadness. "We thought…we thought we'd lost you."

When Yang gestured toward the other room with her finger, Ruby burst in that direction with her Semblance. One of the rose petals left behind drifted toward Grimm Ruby's arm and decayed into a withered stem on contact.

"Rub…uh, Grimm…Ruby?" Jaune asked with a hint of nervousness. "The petal…it—"

The question was interrupted by Ruby's blissful squeal, followed by a dash back to the previous room. Her silver eyes sparkled with joy, for she was finally reunited with her precious scythe.

"Awww yeeeah!" she yelled. "Ruby's back!"

Grimm Ruby couldn't help but let out an inhuman, yet innocent squeal. Both Rubies extended their respective scythes simultaneously as a means of celebration.

"My precious sweetheart!" Ruby yelled, squeezing her scythe like a mother would cradle her lost baby. "I'll never ever leave you again!"

"You have a scythe, too?" Yang asked Grimm Ruby.

"Yeah, I made it," it said, observing its own scythe. "Actually, I based it off what I remembered from Crescent Rose. Now that I look at it, they're a little different."

"They're very different," Weiss said, observing the scythe. "Yours is black, with a red blade. What's that? An eyeball?"

Her hand slowly came closer. Before she could touch it, the Grimm scythe's eye blinked and stared at Weiss, pulsing like a human heart.

"What?" she flinched.

"Don't touch it!" Grimm Ruby yelled, clamping its claw over the eye and wrenching its scythe away. "It's dangerous!"

"What do you mean 'dangerous?'" Weiss asked, suspicious once more.

"I…I'm sorry," Grimm Ruby said, quickly coiling its scythe back over its arm. "I saw Crescent Rose and just got carried away. I shouldn't have even taken it out!"

"It…" Ruby explained, instinctively clutching her arm. "It could burn someone. She has to be careful."

Yang squinted at the sight of her sister squeezing her arm and took a closer look. She saw the wrappings underneath her long sleeved blouse.

"Is that a bandage?" she asked, gently moving her hand.

"Ah! Uh…" Ruby mumbled nervously. "It's a…a…"

"Ruby, did you get yourself hurt?" Yang asked curiously. Ruby noted her reaction; it wasn't as fearful as she had thought it would be. The reaction made sense, though. Even when she was missing, the world didn't suddenly stop. She was still a Huntress, and there were still Grimm.

"Uh, yeah. Heh. It came from, uh…from the Grimm. We were fighting Grimm," Ruby said, looking in the eyes of her Grimm self. "Weren't we?"

Grimm Ruby glanced away, unable to look anyone in the eye out of guilt. Ruby revealed the bandage underneath her blouse, then slowly unwrapped it to reveal the stitched wound.

"We were actually lost for a while until one of the Atlas pilots showed up," Ruby explained. "We made a stop to Argus on the way here. They were able to sew my arm up."

"This wound doesn't seem life-threatening," Ren noted. "Why didn't you use your Aura?"

"Uh…funny thing about that," Ruby tried to explain, only to stop when Jaune touched her wound. Her whole body twitched as she seethed in pain.

"Try to stay still," Jaune said with a smile. His hands glowed white from the use of his Semblance: Aura Amplification. Ruby knew from word of mouth that his Semblance saved Weiss from an otherwise fatal wound, so something so seemingly meager as an already stitched wound should have been trivial…except her wound wasn't healing.

"Jaune? Aren't you gonna heal her?" Nora asked.

"I am," Jaune said. "See my hands? They…wait, what's going on?"

Both Rubies looked away at the same time. They knew the truth.

"My Semblance," Jaune muttered much more apprehensively. "It's not working."

"Well, maybe it just needs a minute 'cuz you're sleepy," Yang suggested. Jaune nodded hopefully, which caused Grimm Ruby to clench its claws with a pained expression on its face. After a very slow and painful fifteen seconds of listening to Ruby's pained whimpers, it couldn't take any more.

"Jaune, it's not going to heal," Grimm Ruby said, finally looking at his face. He looked at Grimm Ruby in confusion as his hands lost their white glow.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Jaune asked with an accusatory tone.

"Exactly what it sounds like," Grimm Ruby admitted with quiet remorse. "That burn is never going to heal. Aura doesn't work on it."

"Hang on," Jaune said, blinking. "What?"

"Aura doesn't work against me in any way," Grimm Ruby explained, looking at its claws. "Not my eyes, not my scythe, not these things, nothing."

"You did that to her?" Yang snapped. Her joy and friendliness went away just like that. The anger of a protective older sister was powerful enough to stand out among the unease of everyone else.

"It was an accident," Grimm Ruby said. Its posture was one of slacked shoulders and a soft gaze, like a repentant criminal admitting their crime. "We were fighting Grimm for the first time and I handed her my scythe. I was able to tear off some body parts of Grimm and attune it to me. That's how I made it. Anyway, this…tear came out of its eye. Just one drop touched her arm and…I'm so sorry."

"Gruby—" Ruby tried to speak.

"Did she just say she tore off pieces of Grimm?" Nora whispered nervously.

"That's probably an exaggeration," Ren whispered back. "Grimm don't leave corpses behind."

"If your scythe's so dangerous, why don't you just get rid of it?" Yang asked, still visibly angry.

"Remember when I…er, Ruby told you that weapons are an extension of ourselves?" Grimm Ruby asked.

"That was years ago," Yang said, crossing her arms. Her Ember Celica gauntlet came into view.

"Well…" Grimm Ruby said, slowly uncoiling its scythe again. Anyone close to it backed away a step out of a quiet trepidation. Grimm Ruby lightly tossed its scythe across the room, making sure its trajectory was slow enough to avoid igniting the air and away from anyone else. Once it struck the floor seconds later, the scythe's trajectory quickly reversed and flew at Grimm Ruby; so quickly, in fact, that the air around the scythe did ignite, though only briefly. The scythe struck Grimm Ruby's arm, coating it in that dark flame, but it didn't bother it. It simply stood with a solemn expression until the flames went out. With a flick of the wrist, the scythe coiled around Grimm Ruby's arm once more.

"It really is a part of you," Yang said calmly, but with little remorse for her outburst.

"Yeah," Grimm Ruby said with quiet fear. "Literally. It's powered by that destructive hate deep inside me. And it's not just what's inside me that's scary. My hands can tear things apart. My teeth can bite into things. My head; it's like a cactus made of titanium. Every inch of me is so dangerous. I'm always one careless moment away from stabbing somebody if I try to shake their hand or breaking somebody's foot if I step on it."

"Just one question," Blake inquired. "In a hypothetical scenario where we faced you in a real fight, how would we shield ourselves from your attacks?"

"I don't think you could," Grimm Ruby shook its head. "I wouldn't try it. My hands once dug into the metal of an Atlesian ship, so I don't think armor or shields would work very much either. I…I'm actually really scared of what might have happened…if I didn't have Ruby's soul copied in me. If…if I ever lost control…if I was just another Grimm, I don't think anyone could stop me…except…"

Grimm Ruby paused and looked its human self with a sadness that invoked an animal that silently begged its owner to put it out if its misery. In turn, Ruby looked at her Grimm self with conflicted emotions. Part of her was sad to see the truth come out with no build-up whatsoever. Grimm Ruby's resigned admittance to it all didn't help. Just one observant moment from Yang and out it came…all of it. Another part was glad that it was brave enough to tell them the truth. It was just like how it told her Salem built it straight away. Nothing like the secrecy from Ozpin and Ironwood that ultimately tore their respective factions apart.

"So you inexplicably start fires, restore yourself when something's hurt, Grimm are drawn to you, and anything you do to hurt someone is completely exempt from the protection of Aura?" Weiss said in an exasperated tone; a far cry from that deadpan tone from a moment ago. "What else do we need to watch out for? Red beams of light from your eyes that kill people with a glance?"

"You know you're exaggerating," Blake countered with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, well," Weiss said, muffling a laugh. "If you haven't noticed, this Ruby's like a walking natural disaster as it is."

Grimm Ruby was left speechless by Weiss' sudden (and correct) accusation. With its mouth agape, it could only respond in a pitiful bestial whine.

"Don't tell me," Weiss whispered in horror. "You actually can do that?"

"Weiss—" Ruby tried to speak.

"She just said she was one careless moment away from hurting someone!" Weiss exclaimed. "Ruby, what happens if we fight together and she ends up using her eyes at the wrong time?"

"Well, she just won't use it," Ruby answered. "It doesn't work on the Grimm anyway."

"But she just said a little bit of her power leaked out of her scythe and did that to your arm," Weiss argued. "What if a lot of power suddenly leaked out of her eyes?"

"Uh…" Ruby mumbled.

"What if we're in front of her when it happens?" Blake added.

"Uh…"

"What if someone dies because of this thing?" Yang exclaimed.

Time seemed to stop for Grimm Ruby the moment it heard that. Thing…that was what Yang called it. The emotions deep in its subconscious were indescribable. The sheer heartbreak was knowable, but the very situation it was in was so alien that it couldn't fully comprehend it. All of Ruby's memories thought of Yang as a caring and supportive sister that loved her unconditionally. Even seeing her hide her fear behind her anger like that was something it never imagined. Just a moment ago, there was this hope over what the future held. This, too, must be part of the curse of being meant for destruction and bearing a different wish in its heart.

Meanwhile, Ruby wanted to argue; to assure everyone that things would be okay, but the aching burn on her arm was constant proof that accidents could happen. She didn't want to lie or give half-truths to her team. That's something Ozpin did. Ultimately, there was no right choice to make. In the end, she wasn't even the one who made the choice.

"I should go," Grimm Ruby muttered, slowly turning away. Its eyes caught Ruby's sad face. Her guilt was so obvious, even without the ability to sense negativity. At the very least, it could do one thing to put her at ease.

"It's been a long night for you, Ruby," it told her. "You probably need to sleep. I guess…everybody's still tired. You were sleeping before we came in, right? You…you can go back to sleep now. I can take it from here."

The collective mood of the people around Grimm Ruby shifted a bit. Most of the anger faded into guilt, but the fear was still palpable. Their faces, especially Yang's, matched that guilt, but nobody made an attempt to communicate.

"Maybe…I can do something to help…" Grimm Ruby said with sorrow as its foot went out the door. "Outside."