Disclaimer: I hereby declare that Roosterteeth studios RWBY production crew may freely use any ideas, characters, or events written in this story free of charge and without any threat of lawsuit for any production, though it would be preferable to inform me of the use of the idea if used.

Temple of the Spirit Dragon ch 6

"How do things look in your sector?" Lan spoke into a walkie-talkie as he lay belly down and stared out of a pair of binoculars.

"Dark and scary" came Ruby's voice over the device.

"Seconded" came Jaune's trembling voice "Can we please go to where you are now? What if something finds us? We're too young to die!"

"Silence your cowardice Sir Arc!" shouted the spirit into the device. "That is not the tone of voice a knight should make!"

"Errk! 'Ahem' Yes your majesty!" said Jaune.

"Just keep watching a bit longer" said Lan, as he adjusted his lenses. "We need as much information as we can if we're going to succeed."

The three of them were currently at the very edge of the dead forest. After a few hours of following the nightmares in the sky that were carrying the children's' souls, they had eventually come to a dark wasteland. Far in the distance they saw a nightmarish castle's silhouette. All of the nightmares were carrying the souls to its very top, which glowed with an eerie light and illuminated the castle's twisted structure that was seemingly made from the broken parts, warped ideas, and corpses of dreams.

Lan had felt that crossing a dark barren wasteland where they wouldn't know if anything was hiding and waiting form them wouldn't be a very good idea, especially since said wasteland was surrounding a castle that was made from what was essentially the collective nightmares of all children on Remnant. So, he ordered Jaune and Ruby to split with him in order to gather intelligence and had provided them with binoculars and walkie talkies so they could scout and share each other's findings.

"Hmmm, as I thought" muttered Lan as he continued to survey. He could make out the silhouettes of large shapes moving in the darkness between the tree line and the castle. They had varying forms, some humanoid and some that looked like amorphous blobs, but the all looked big, very very big.

"We had best meet up and begin to formulate a plan now." Said the spirit as Lan made a mental note of another dark shape. "From what I remember of the Dream Eater's behavior, it shall devour the lives of all it has trapped after around 8 Remnant hours. We are currently in a dream so our time limit has been dilated and extended, but it wouldn't be wise to dally to long."

"…Yeah, alright" said Lan as he made note of one last dark shape, that he believed to be a giant baby doll. He then reached down to his walkie talkie, but before he could make the call, a voice came through.

"Uhhhh, guys?" came Ruby's voice.

"This is Lan, listening" said Lan "What's the problem? Are you in any danger?" 'static' 'whimper' 'static' "...Jaune, please turn the walkie talkie's speaker off when you're just listening. I can't make out Ruby over your nervous whimpering!"

"Sorry" said Jaune.

"Again with the cowardice" growled the spirit, who slipped back into his more archaic speech patterns "Thou shalt never claim a maiden of thine own, if thou continues to quiver in the face of adversity!"

"Oh, I'm not in danger" said Ruby, "it's just…you two may want to come and see this your—Hey give that back!"

Lan could hear a small kerfuffle going on, there was the sound of squeaking here and there, the sound of shuffling feet, and the sound of Ruby yelling "Give it back!". Lan holstered his walkie talkie and then turned to the spirit.

"You grab Jaune when I swing by" he said as he pulled out and began swinging a pair of grappling hooks.

He then threw the hook into the nearest tree, leapt off the rock, and proceeded to propel himself along the forest edge, alternating between using branches as foothold and using the hooks as he maneuvered through the trees. The spirit flew alongside him the whole way, partly due to his skill and partly due to the invisible force that connected him to Lan the whole time. Before long, they flew over the rock that Jaune was sitting one.

"Prepare thine abdominals!" shouted the spirit.

"What?" said Jaune looking up. Before he could react, the spirit in its small ball like form slammed into his stomach, causing him to go 'Oooof!", before lifting him up and carrying him into the air.

"Make sure he doesn't slam into anything!" yelled Lan as he dove feet first through an opening in a tangled mess of branches.

"Trying!" grunted the spirit as it hefted Jaune, who was still too winded from the initial impact to scream in terror as he watched the ground rush by below him. 10 seconds later, Lan broke through the treeline into the area where Ruby was stationed and materialized a pair of metal claws.

"Meep" came a small voice.

"Uh, hey Lan, glad you could make it." Said Ruby

Lan looked at the scene in front of him, an eyebrow raised as Jaune and the spirit came crashing through the trees behind him.

"Ugh, finally" said the spirit who tossed Jaune, who had just recently regained his breath, at Lan's feet "Now what is the prob— "

The spirit quickly took on Lan's facial expression, minus the mouth and nose of course, as he witnessed what had stunned his friend.

Ruby was awkwardly sitting at the base of the rock where Lan had left her. However, she was now surrounded by glowing toadstools and a large number of…creatures that Lan had never seen before. Some of them were holding plates of food up at Ruby, others appeared to be putting up lights and growing glowing plants to make the clearing they were in homier, and the rest were just staring at the new arrivals.

The creatures came in varying shapes and sizes, ranging from ankle-high to knee-high. Some of the creatures appeared to be creatures straight out of fairy tales, like brownies, fairies, and kodamas. Others, on the other hand, resembled toys, pastries, and even vehicles that had taken on a pseudo-human form.

"Meep" said the one that had acknowledged Lan's arrival. It was a small humanoid creature that seemed to resemble a stuffed animal. Its whole body was glowing with a warm green light, with the exception of its face which as covered with a wooden mask with two eye holes, and a small lily pad which grew from the top of its head. It was holding Ruby's walkie talkie.

"I tried to tell him to give it back, but it's kind of hard to move while these guys are braiding my hair." Ruby pointed behind her, and two creatures that looked like a cross between monkeys and mice appeared from behind her back.

"Well," said Lan, who looked back and forth across the creatures who were curiously looking at him, and catering to Ruby. "They look friendly."

"Yep!" said Ruby, who smiled as a small creature that looked like a dryad placed a floral wreath on her head.

"Ugghhhh!" moaned Jaune who finally got up after puking his guts out "Next time warm me about—What the heck are those?!"

"We're still figuring that out vomit boy" said Lan, who dematerialized his claws. He walked over to the small creature with the mask and held out his hand. "May we have that back now?"

It stared at him for a moment before going "Meep!" and placing the walkie talkie in his hands.

"Well, I'm pretty sure they're not nightmares" said Lan, who hucked the device over to Ruby.

"Pffff, obviously" said Ruby who caught it and then ate a strawberry from a plate being held by a dwarf.

"Why does Ruby always get all the good stuff?" mumbled Jaune, who was sitting on the ground and still looked rather queasy. "She gets waited on hand and foot and I'm tackled in the gut. It's not fair. It—"

'Pssshhhhh'

He looked to the side and saw that a creature that resembled a soda fountain had dispensed some ginger ale into another creature that resembled a cup. The cup creature then walked over, and jumped into Jaune's hands. Jaune looked at the cup for a moment and asked:

"Are you sanitary?" The cup gave him a thumbs up.

"…Now that's more like it!" said Jaune who took a long drink from the cup.

"You know what these little guys are?" said Lan to the spirit as the little things pulled him over to sit on a cushion by Ruby's side while others worked to make Jaune more comfortable.

"Hmmmm, I have a few theories but nothing conclusive at this time" said the spirit.

"Do you think they might be dreams?" asked Lan as a small teddy bear like creature came up and hugged him "I mean, we've fought the manifestations of nightmares here, it wouldn't be strange if there were manifestations of dreams running around too."

"Meep!" said the small creature with the wooden mask, it jumped up and down while nodding and pointing at Lan.

"I guess that's a yes then" said Lan, who patted the teddy bear on the head.

"I wonder where they get the food from?" said Jaune who was eating from a bowl of popcorn that some of the dream creatures had given him.

"Think later, candy now." Said Ruby who was stuffing her face with strawberry bonbons.

Lan leaned forwards and picked up the little meeping dream creature and held it up to his face.

"Where did you come from small creature?" asked Lan.

"That's not a small creature, that's Meep" said Ruby, who let out a satisfied belch.

"Okay, where did you come from Meep?" said Lan, who acknowledged Ruby's correction.

Meep raised one of its stubby arms, and pointed in the direction of the nightmare castle in the distance.

"…You came from the Dream Eater's castle" Lan raised an eyebrow and set Meep back on the ground. "Could you explain to me how you came to be there?"

Meep thought for a moment, then picked up a stick from the ground. It drew a rough sketch in the dirt. "…A little girl!" said Lan. The creature pointed at Lan and nodded while meeping again. It then drew a thought bubble out of the girl's head, and drew a rough sketch of itself in the bubble.

"So the little girl was your creator."

Meep acknowledged and then continued to draw. He drew the little girl on a bed with a large thought bubble coming out of her head. Inside the thought bubble, Meep drew a picture of himself playing with the little girl.

"The little girl was dreaming of you two playing together."

It drew dark shadowy hands coming towards them and grabbing them. Small specks of glowing light were falling down from its eyes as it moved on to the next picture. It drew the shadowy hands grabbing the little girl and pulling her away as the two of them reached out, trying to grab each other's hands.

"So, they took her away from you" said Lan.

Meep nodded, then drew a picture of the shadowy hands grabbing him and sticking him in a cell with other dreams.

"I see" said Lan, "But how did you get out?"

Meep dropped the stick and wiped its eyes before motioning for Lan to follow it. Lan told the spirit to keep an eye on things here before following.

Meep led him a dozen or so meters away to a nondescript tree, where it pulled up a tarp at the foot of the tree revealing a small hole in the ground.

"Huh" Lan squatted down and peered into the hole. "So this leads to the castle?"

Meep nodded in acknowledgement.

"Do you think Jaune, Ruby, and I could fit down there?

Meep looked at Lan, then down at the hole, then held up its hands as if sizing something up. Finally it looked up at Lan and shook its head.

"'sigh' that's disappointing…would probably take it too long to widen the tunnels too…Well, let's head back for now. I'm sure I'll think of something."

Meep meeped in response, and followed Lan as the boy began walking back to the clearing where Ruby and Jaune were.

"Gonna be hard making it through the wasteland" thought Lan as they walked, his knuckle on his chin. "It's possibly teaming with nightmare monsters that we've never seen before. I may be able to do something against the ones that have a more solid form, especially if they're similar to some Grimm I've fought back in the real world, but ones that have more malleable characteristics could prove a challenge. Can't change the environment to make it easier either. Likely due to the close proximity to the nightmare castle not only does it take a lot more of my energy to change the environment, things also change back after a while if I'm not constantly focusing on it…This isn't looking good."

He suddenly felt a weight on his free hand. He looked down and saw that Meep was hanging off his finger, his little feet dangling in the air, and staring up at him. Lan smiled and sighed. He then lifted Meep and placed him on his shoulder.

"Thanks for worrying about me." Said Lan, as he patted Meep on the head "You know you really are a cute little guy, aren't you?"

In response, Meep wrapped its stubby little arms around Lan's head in a hug. Lan chuckled "You know, I think you holding a lantern would just be the cutest— "

At that moment, the area where Meep and Lan were in contact with each other glowed with a warm blue light, it traveled from the point of contact and up Meep's arm and a moment later a small stick with a green oriental style lantern appeared in its hand with a pop of glowing puffballs.

Lan stared at it wide-eyed for a moment, and then an idea popped into his head.

"Steel Helmet" he said while focusing his attention on Meep and the image of the little creature wearing the previously stated equipment. A moment later the helmet he imagined appeared on the top of its head. "Warrior's Robes! Combat Knife" Those items appeared on Meep as well, who then fell off of Lan, due to the added weight throwing off its balance.

Lan looked down at Meep with excitement and amazement, as the little one struggled to get back on its feet.

"Oh, duh." Said Lan, who clapped himself on the head "They're dreams!"

With hope blooming in his breast, Lan seized little Meep by the head and dashed back into the clearing where the others were. He found Jaune and Ruby lounging as the dream creatures took care of them, the spirit looked over all of this with an indifferent look on its features.

"Hey Ruby" said Jaune, who was snacking on chips "Isn't it weird that we've eaten so much and we haven't needed to go the bathroom?"

Ruby shrugged while giving him the 'iunno' sound.

"It is likely that since we are simply spiritual dream forms, we do not need to undergo those biological functions" said the spirit.

"Hey look, Lan's back" said Ruby who was playing video games while sipping hot cocoa "What's the rush?"

"I just had an idea on how we're getting to the castle" said Lan.

"How?" asked Jaune, who was covered in a bunny blanket and had begun eating a bowl of Pumpkin Pete's marshmallow flakes.

Lan smiled "All dreams gather up!"

Lan then began experimenting on how his dream synchronization and materialization worked on the dream creatures. Strangely, any alterations or additions he made to them didn't seem to sap any of his strength in the least. He soon discovered that he could equip the dreams with almost any weapon, limited only by how much the creature was able to carry, and anything that went beyond their weight capacity simply fizzled out of existence. He also found that found he was able to change the dream creatures into other shapes with different abilities, although the overall size and mass would be about the same. The dream creatures seemed oddly fine with this, happy as long as they could help Lan, Jaune, and Ruby. This was especially true when Lan told them all that he would be rescuing all of the kids that had dreamed them into existence. If they could get their kids back, they would do anything, so they gladly submitted to Lan's experiments.

Ruby and Jaune were sad to see some of the dream creatures change, especially the sentient soda fountain, but they knew that sacrifices had to be made if they were to save the souls of all the children that had been taken. With their forms changed into more combat orient roles, the dreams could help them clear a path through the dark wasteland and make a charge on the castle. He changed many dreams into forms that would cover ground, air, and ranged combat, trying his best to think of every advantage they could get.

But the biggest advantage Lan discovered while experimenting was when he stacked several dreams on top of each other at once.

"Let's see if this works" he held out his hands and the stack of dreams began to glow with an azure blue light.

The shapes of the stacked dreams glowed weakly in the beginning, but eventually grew brighter, finally melting together into something of an amorphous blob.

"Gonna need something fierce" said Lan as he grunted with effort "like~~"

With flash, the shape of the blob warped and then solidified into that of a small quadrupedal dragon. It shook itself off, then looked around the clearing before fixing its eyes on Lan.

"Hey boy," said Lan, who reached out for it cautiously "How you feeling?"

The dragon stared at Lan's hand for a moment, then nuzzled against it affectionately.

"Alright then" said Lan, who clenched his other hand in success as a huge grin spread across his face "General Meep, how many more dreams have escaped the Dream Eater's castle besides you guys?"

Meep, who was decked out in a splendid set of ceremonial armor, pulled out a conch shell and gave a long blast on it. A moment later, the clearing shook as hundreds of little dream creatures poured into the clearing.

"Alright then" said Lan, who cracked his knuckles "Spirit, how much time do we have until the Dream Eater starts eating those souls."

"Well, considering how long we've been here and the usual time dilation for a dream…I'd say around 30-40 hours."

"Plenty of time" said Lan, who began stacking some of the new comers on top of each other. "Get some rest you guys, this is gonna take a bit…but when I'm done. IT WILL BE AWESOME!"

The clearing then began to glow with light, as Lan began building an army of his very own.

24 hours later

"Uh, Lan, are you sure this is safe?" said Jaune who looked down at the creature that he, Ruby, and Lan were currently riding on. Lan was in the front, Ruby in the middle, and Jaune in the back. The three of them were currently enclosed in a small pen, with the creature they were riding on shaking violently and playfully throwing itself against the gate. To either side of them, was an army of dreams. They had been transformed from the myriad tiny creatures they were into a variety of combat ready champions. There were giant robots wielding enormous swords and laser cannons, dragons straight out of storybooks, and giant elemental warriors dressed in garbs from every warrior culture in the world to only name a few.

"He, uh seems kinda small compared to the other guys" said Jaune, commenting on their steed and bobbing up and down while tightly clinging to Ruby who was in front of him. He was eyeing a large sentient Atlesian warship nearby that was flexing its mechanical muscles "Couldn't we just, uh, each get our own mounts?"

"It's important that we stay together for now" said Lan "If we get split up in the initial clash, then it'll take even longer to reach the castle. And if there's an emergency, there's always your emergency saddlebag" Lan tapped a small pouch that hung off each of their saddles.

"Well I like him!" said Ruby, who buried her face into its thick soft fur "He's so fluffy!" she then took a deep breath, stiffened, and recoiled, pulling herself out of the fur "Ugh, but he's kind of stinky."

"Indeed" said Lan. "That is one of his defining features." He looked at the sky above and said "There's no telling when the Dream eater will begin devouring their lives, it's time we take action."

He then pulled a war horn out of his saddle bag and blew a long hard note on it. The various dream creatures around him, all focused their attention on him.

"Artillery unit, forwards!" he yelled, several large dream creatures resembling tanks, howitzers, and other artillery weapons came forwards.

"Wait, aren't you going to give some kind of inspirational speech before we fight?" asked Jaune.

"These guys don't need any more of a morale boost" said Lan as he stared at the dreams around him. "They only want one thing: to get their kids back."

Lan then pointed his finger into the air and yelled:

"Fire flares at all designated zones!"

Many of them blew out of whistling plume of smoke in acknowledgement. They then pointed their muzzles into the air and began firing hundreds of glowing orbs into the air. The orbs fell and illuminated the darkness below, and revealing the multitude of nightmarish monstrosities that walked the dark. There were giant creatures straight out of the most bone chilling of horror stories, giant dolls with broken and burned faces, giant blobs which were oozing disease filled puss to name only a few. But the vast majority of creatures there, resembled many varieties of known and unknown Grimm, as it should be since these creatures would constantly haunt the nightmares of children who had everything taken from them by their dark claws. But the ones that Lan were the most weary of were those that he couldn't see, many more creatures could have hidden themselves and were prepared to strike the moment anything came close. All of the visible nightmares, however, cast their terrifying gazes at the origin point of the flares and with otherworldly screeches began to converge on Lan's army.

"L-Lan?!" blurted Jaune, who began trembling as he saw the mass of creatures approaching them "Why are we just sitting here?! Those things are coming, they're coming here to gut us!"

"Exactly" said Lan "And they're leaving the castle behind."

Ruby swallowed, her small hands gripping her mini Harbinger tightly.

"Like I told you earlier, we'll break through the enemy lines and storm the Castle while the dreams handle the giant nightmares out here." Said Lan "It'll be easier to get to the castle, the farther away the main mass of nightmares is." He then turned to the side: "General Meep, I'll be counting on you to lead the troops while we storm the castle. You got this?"

"Meep!" said Meep in acknowledgement in a voice was much deeper than before. Meep was now as tall and wide as an adult human was tall and was fully clade in a suit of armor while wielding a sword and shield in its hands.

"Ranged combatant ready!" shouted Lan, the many dreams with ranged attack capabilities began preparing their guns, bows, energy cannons, magic breath, magic spells, etc. And trained them on the nightmares nearest them. "Wait until they've bunched up more!"

Thousands of nightmares were now converging on their position, the ground trembling under the beating of their appendages. Lan let them come closer and closer, ignoring Jaune's nervous babble and the tightening of Ruby's free hand around his waist.

"Fire!" shouted Lan, who threw his arm forward. A barrage of multicolored attacks shot forwards, reducing the enemies on the front lines of both ground and air to pulp. In response to this, the nightmares behind them roared in fury and charged forwards with even greater fervor. Many nightmares who were capable of it, began shooting their own fireballs, energy beams, and bodily projectiles to intercept the dream creatures ranged attacks before they hit the front lines.

"Ranged specialists, switch aim to enemies in the back!" shouted Lan who materialized a large glaive "The rest of you, FORWAAAAAAARDS!"

The dreams around him let out battle cries and charged to meet their foes.

"Hey, time to get moving" said Lan who tapped their mount with a piece of bacon.

"Uh, Lan are you sure he can get us through that?" said Jaune who referred to their steed as he watched the battle unfold in front of them. "Wouldn't a dragon or something have been better?"

"Fear not" said Lan, who wiped the drool the mount had left on his palm on its fur "For we ride upon the mightiest beast of them all!"

Their mount then smashed through the gate of the pen, tearing it off its hinges. It then stood up on its hind legs, forcing Ruby and Jaune to hold on tightly to the person in front of them in order to avoid being thrown off, and let out an enormous overjoyed battle cry: "BAHAHAHAHA!"

"Onwards Grandpa!" shouted Lan, who waived his glaive in the air with one hand while holding onto the saddle with the other "Onwards to Victory!"

Lan had indeed created a dream creature replica of the strongest creature that he knew, his own grandfather. He was the only thing that Lan was confident could carry them through any disaster that they came across on the way to the castle.

"Wait, this is your grandpa!?" shouted Jaune as he clung desperately Ruby's back.

"Wheeeeee!" said Ruby in delight as she held on with her legs and let her arms dangle in the air.

Before Lan could answer, the Byakko simulacrum dropped back down onto all fours and, with an explosion of air and dirt, rocketed forwards into the fray before them.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh!" screamed Jaune as he lost his grip on Ruby and barely managed to grab his saddle to prevent himself from being thrown off. Ruby, made an almost inaudible squeak and hugged Lan super tight, closing her eyes tight to avoid the blast of wind that threatened to dry them out.

"Ow! Ruby, you are sticking me with Harbinger!" yelled Lan as his lips flapped in the wind.

"Sorry!" shouted Ruby, who changed it back into the belt and hairpin.

In less than 5 seconds, Byakko had made it to the front lines. A large creature that looked like a giant deformed mouth full of sharp stalactite-like teeth with thick arms and legs noticed them and swung both its fists at them. The Byakko leapt upwards through the gap between the creature's arms and dealt a punch that pulverized the creatures head, and allowed the old man and his riders to pierce through. Dozens of tentacles then erupted in front of them from an octopus-looking monster, piercing many nightmares in front of it as it tried to impale the Byakko.

The Byakko smiled and, with incredible finesse, dodged and weaved through the storm of tentacles, using them as footholds and slashing some of them to pieces with his sharp claws. After one barrage ended, he grabbed a bundle of intact tentacles and used it to swing the nightmare into the air before throwing it into a number of nightmares further down the line.

"Urrrp, so dizzy." Said Jaune, his eyes spinning from being jerked around by the Byakko's highspeed movements as the old man darted, zipped, and jerked through the thick of the enemy's force.

"It's better if you close your eyes" said Ruby, whose face still buried in Lan's back.

"Pay attention you two" said Lan as he knocked a piece of debris aside with his glaive. "We've got incoming!"

A swarm of large evil looking wasps was currently surrounding them, the Byakko was ignoring them as it continued to plow through enemy forces since they could do no harm to him. Jaune and Ruby quickly materialized their weapons and began slashing and shooting at anything that came near them as Lan continued to wield his glaive to remove any debris that would have collided with them. A few moments later, Byakko blasted through the body of a large evil looking spider, finally clearing the enemy front lines, and landed on the ground. He then shook himself off and continued his quadrupedal sprint towards the castle.

"Oh thank goodness" said Jaune who stored his sword and shield and wiped unmentionable dark goo and gore off his face "we made it."

"Don't drop your guard yet" said Lan, who was carefully scanning the illuminated darkness in front of them. "There's no telling—"

An enormous hand erupted out of the ground in front of them, grabbed the earth, and a moment later a giant stone gladiator covered in spikes with piercing red eyes pulled itself out of the ground. It was at least three times larger than the largest nightmare behind them, and was holding an enormous stone sword.

"Wow, I didn't even finish the thought" said Lan as the gladiator raised its sword into the air. It swung the enormous weapon towards the Byakko. The Byakko smiled, easily avoiding the blade by shifting to the sides, and then leapt up and began running up the side of the blade before the dust cloud from the impact had even started to expand. The Byakko soon reached the hilt and then began running up the gladiators arm, around the upper bicep and leapt into the air once more to avoid the gladiators other hand that attempted to grab them. The Byakko then performed a complicated twist in the air to deliver a devastating roundhouse kick that shattered half the gladiator's face. The Byakko then leapt from stone to falling stone as the gladiator collapsed, then hit the ground running towards the castle once more.

"Your grandpa is awesome!" said Ruby who shot a large floating eye out of the sky and then snuggled against the fur spilling out from the gaps in Byakko's clothes "And I think I'm finally getting used to the smell!"

"Aw this is nothing." Said Lan, as he slashed a bat out of the air "he is both stronger and smellier in real life. This is just the fastest he's ever carried me without me falling off."

"My stomach can't take much more of this" said Jaune, as he blocked a small fire ball shot at him by a flying skull before cutting it in half. "Are we there yet?"

"Aw Jaune," said Ruby, who turned back to look at him "Don't be such a party poo—look out! "

Ruby pushed Jaune's head down as a dark shadowy strand shot out of the darkness. A mass of dark wispy nightmares had come out of the large stone gladiator and had snuck up without them noticing. Thanks to Ruby, Jaune had avoided the creatures attack, unfortunately she was caught it his stead. The dark wisp wrapped itself around her weapon arm.

"Ah! Help!" cried Ruby as she grabbed onto the saddle bag as the wisp began to pull her up into the air.

"What is it?!" shouted Lan, as he whipped around. But before he could get cut her loose, the part of the saddle she was holding onto tore off and she was flung into the air.

"Ruby!" shouted Jaune, who got up.

"Around back!" said Lan who grabbed the Byakko's hair and used it as a pair of reigns to slow them down. At that moment, several more large stone hands erupted from the ground.

"Damnit" thought Lan "Saving her is going to be tough."

Lan looked up as Byakko began to turn around and saw the torn saddle piece Ruby was holding.

"The pouch!" shouted Lan as Byakko began building speed towards the wispy nightmares' origin point. "Open the pouch!"

"What pou—Oh this one! "said Ruby who noticed it. She tried to open it one handed for a second, but after finding the knot too difficult to open with one hand, attempted to bring the saddle over to her bound arm to open it.

"Hurry up!" shouted Lan as Ruby began a downwards pull towards the nightmare that had grabbed her, which was rising out of the stone pieces of the destroyed gladiator.

"I'm trying" said Ruby who was pulling at the string on the pouch "The knot is too ti—"

'Shoof'

Ruby was sucked inside the nightmare before she could finish her sentence.

"Ruby!" shouted Jaune, tears pouring out of his eyes. Lan stared at where she had disappeared, his mind blank for a moment, then before he knew it, he felt a cold rage begin to writhe inside him. "Full Speed!" he shouted while slapping Byakko on the back and changing his glaive into a pair of large flaming gauntlets.

Byakko blasted forwards with increased fervor towards the nightmares that was now standing up.

"I'll save you Ruby" thought Lan, who prepared to leap out of his saddle and dive at the nightmare. "But if it's already too late, I'll—! "

'Bwooomp!' Without warning the nightmares midsection suddenly swelled up like a balloon and an increasing number of streams of light began leaking out of it. Then with a loud pop, something burst out of it, destroying it in the process.

It was Ruby! And she was riding on the back of a giant black-headed tricolor corgi!

"Onwards noble Zwei!" she shouted a huge smile on her face while pointing her finger forwards and upwards as they flew through the air.

"Ruby!" said Lan and Jaune at the same time, relief covering their faces. But Lan's face changed to concern as he saw the giant corgi flailing its legs in panic as it began to fall.

"Puppy the catch!" shouted Lan, fumbling his words as he slapped Byakko on the back.

The old man responded by leaping into the air and catching the falling giant puppy in his arms before landing firmly back on the ground with a loud 'WHAM'.

Zwei barked twice and began licking the Byakko's face. The old man responded by smiling and cuddling the giant pup while scratching its ears.

"Awww, who is this big little guy?" said Lan who scratched Zwei's fluffy neck. Zwei recoiled and whimpered in pain.

"Agh, oops, sorry" said Lan who changed his flaming gauntlets back into a glaive.

"He's Zwei, and be careful not to hurt him any more" said Ruby who clambered up unto Zwei's head with a harrumph. "He's my family's dog!"

"So, he's your steed huh?" said Lan who gave Ruby a smile.

"Uhhh, guys?" said Jaune who was looking behind them.

"That's right" said Ruby, who didn't notice Jaune's words. "The bag worked just like you said it would!"

The contents of the saddlebag were amorphous glowing masses of dream creatures that Lan had broken down, but not yet constructed into defined forms. He theorized that Ruby and Jaune might be able to change them like they changed the things he had given them into weapons. So he had instructed them to do the same to the amorphous masses in their saddle bags, while imagining something they believed would make a good steed for them if they ever got accidently thrown off. He'd thought about testing it out, but was a bit too convinced that the Byakko he created could carry them through anything without any issue.

"I'm so glad you're safe Ruby" said Lan, "I almost lost it for a second."

"Guys?!" said Jaune, whose urgent voice was again ignored by his two friends.

"Awww, that's sweet" said Ruby. "But your grandpa really seems to like Zwei!"

"Yeah" said Lan, as the Byakko began scratching Zwei's belly. "He's always gotten along with animals that he doesn't try to ea—"

"GUYS!?" shouted Jaune who violently shook Lan.

""What!?"" said Lan and Ruby at the same time.

Jaune pointed behind them, and they turned to see that a crowd of giant stone warriors had gathered up right behind them, between them and the castle.

""Oh"" said Lan with a calm face and Ruby with an 'Oh my gosh how could we have been so stupid" face.

"Break us through!" shouted Lan, who slapped the Byakko on the back. It grunted, then grabbed Zwei by the back of the neck. Understanding what his grandfather's simulacrum was about to do, Lan quickly grabbed Ruby's arm and pulled her back onto Byakko.

"Ow!" said Ruby as she plopped down in front of Lan, "That's the arm that was grabbed! What was that—"

Before she could finish, Byakko threw the giant Zwei at the stone warriors behind them. Zwei curled up into a ball during this and somehow spontaneously combusted, allowing him to blast right through several stone warriors, and come out on the other side.

"Ohhhh" said Ruby, as Byakko carried them through the hole Zwei had made.

Despite being launched first, Zwei landed on the ground at the same time as Byakko, after which Lan place Ruby back on Zwei's back and the two steeds took off for the castle once again.

"I hope Zwei can keep up!" said Lan.

"Ha, you two better not slow us down!" said Ruby.

"Why don't I get a steed?" complained Jaune. In response to this the Byakko reached back with one hand while running tripedally, placed Jaune's satchel into Jaune's hand, then threw him screaming towards the castle.

"Whoa!" shouted Lan, as he watched Jaune fly through the air "What the heck? I didn't tell you to do that?"

The Byakko turned its head and gave Lan a mischievous smile. At that time, Lan saw a strange glint in the Byakko's eyes.

"Wait a second" said Lan, as a feeling of recognition came over him "You couldn't have—"

His mouth clamped shut as the Byakko leapt into the air to avoid a large spike that erupted from the ground. The Byakko simulacrum then smashed through the midsection of a kind of plant like nightmare that had emerged from the ground, used the debris from its corpse as foothold to propel himself upwards, and caught a giant rabbit that Jaune was now riding.

"Isn't that the mascot from Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Flakes?" asked Lan, who gave Jaune an incredulous look as the Byakko landed and set the giant shivering rabbit back on the ground.

"I like him and he makes me feel safe, isn't that enough?" cried Jaune, who rubbed his face in its fur "I call him Pete, and he loves me back!" The rabbit responded by turning and nuzzling its head against Jaune's.

"How is it in a fight?" yelled Ruby, who finally caught up to them as the Giant Zwei head-butted a giant Beowulf that popped out of the ground.

"Uh I dunno." Said Jaune who petted the rabbit's fluffy ears.

At the moment, an enormous snake erupted out of the ground in front of Jaune and Pete the Rabbit, causing Jaune to unleash a high-pitched scream. Alarmed the rabbit leapt backwards into the air, and when the snake darted forward to pursue, the rabbit's feet lashed out dozens of times, pounding the snake's face into mush, before landing and running back up to the simulacrum of Byakko and hiding behind his legs.

"Good enough for me." Said Lan, as he pulled a goblin's eyeballs out with a melon baller. "Come on, we're almost at the castle!"

The three of them then charged forwards through the sparse enemies that lay between them and the castles gates. Their pace was slower since Zwei and Pete were slower than Byakko, but with Byakko taking point, Zwei on the defensive, and Pete's alert and jumpy nature alerting them to new threats quickly, they soon passed by the last of the enemies and arrived at the front of the gate. The gate seemed to be made of a metallic crystalline structure and was emblazoned with effigies of human suffering. It seemed near indestructible.

"Break it down!" shouted Lan, who slapped Byakko on the back. The old man, leapt into the air, and performed a dropkick on the gate, shattering it and dropping into the courtyard. Jaune and Ruby followed soon after.

"All right guys" said Lan, as he leapt onto the ground "We need to move fast. We'll need to climb to the top of the central tower, where the spirit thinks the Dream eater is."

"Why do you keep calling him spirit?" said Jaune, who arrived on Pete "His name is Veritas Anima Illustratem."

"…Whut?" said Lan.

"That's his name" said Jaune as climbed on top of Pete's head.

"You told Jaune your name, but not me?" said Lan, to Veritas who was currently inside him.

"You never asked for it, and I didn't see any need to mention it." Said the spirit "I stated my name to Jaune because it was necessary for the knighting ceremony."

"Oh, that's bull— "started Lan.

"Not the time for this!" shouted Ruby, who charged in on her noble Zwei "We need to go save my big sister right now!"

"Right, right" said Lan, who shook his head to get his thoughts back on track. "First we should close the gate so no nightmares can get i—"

He paused as he realized something, and all three of them turned around and looked at the now pulverized pieces of the gate and the nightmares that were now approaching the opening.

"Ooops" said Lan, "…Guess I got a little too overexcited and, uh, forgot we needed that gate." Lan rubbed his hands together and started to meld with the energy of the dreamscape. "I'll try to make another gate, it'll sap a lot of my strength, but if you guys can hold them long enough—"

"No" came a gruff voice. A Large hand pushed Lan's down and pushed the boy back towards the castle. "We hold them back." Said Byakko's simulacrum who was walking to the opening.

"Hey, that's not what I commanded!" said Lan.

"But it for the best" said Byakko in broken words, the old man's face then spread into a familiar grin than Lan would recognize anywhere.

"…I knew it" said Lan, who narrowed his eyes and smiled "It is you isn't it."

"Mostly asleep, but yes" said Byakko, who continued towards the gate. "Now go, you three the heroes this time."

Lan nodded and turned to Ruby and Jaune. "Ready to go guys?"

"As ready as I'll ever be" said Jaune, with a nervous smile as he hefted his sword and shield.

"Let's go save Yang!" said Ruby, who jumped up and down. But she frowned as she heard whining next to her. She turned to look at giant Zwei, who was staring after Byakko, with a concerned look on his face. Ruby smiled, patted Zwei on the head, and said: "Go."

Zwei instantly perked up, licked Ruby's face, and then dashed off after Byakko after grabbing Pete the rabbit's ears in his mouth and dragging the shivering rabbit along with him.

"Hey wait, I still want Pete with me!" shouted Jaune who reached out with his hand as he watched his steed get dragged away.

"Come on" said Lan, who grabbed Jaune by his scruff. "Let's go fight what's inside the castle."

"No, but…Wait!" shouted Jaune, as he was dragged on his bum towards the castle doors.

"Jaune, remember that you're a knight!" said Ruby with a teasing grin.

Jaune grumbled in annoyance, then got back to his feet as they reached the door. Lan placed his hand on the door and looked back at the two of them, who each gave him an encouraging nod. He then applied some force, and the door swung open.

Hope this chapter is fun for you guys to read. I don't know if my storytelling is good anymore to be honest. I'm just putting down everything I've thought of when I first conceived this story back in 2013.

Well, anyway, next chapter Jaune and Ruby will really be showing their stuff and (I hope) Lan will have his character developed a bit more.

On a side note, does anybody know any good communities where I could possibly find an illustrator? I'm not really planning to turn this into a comic right now, but I think I'd like to know in case I ever think it's a good idea.

And as always, I hope that CRWBY, will one day read this. I know that the chances are near 0, and I'd be more likely to commit suicide by means of a random bolt of lightning hitting me, but I gotta hope for something right now. Especially with this FEMA 10-month volunteer program sucking out most of my energy.

Well, thanks for reading, and I hope you follow this story into the future.