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 10

Back to Ruby, a little while earlier

Ruby breathed heavily as she leaned back against the side of the tower. She had kept fighting the whole time, but eventually the black roots had covered all the areas that had allowed her to take shots at Taodse, and whenever she fired at or cut the roots, they simply grew back then rushed in the direction the stimulus had come from. Right now, she was on the opposite side of the tower from where Taodse was, and the roots were slowly creeping towards her from all sides. She had thought to try and use Crescent Rose's scythe form to climb the tower, but she lacked the physical strength to pierce the durable black stone. Looking at the roots slowly approaching her and realizing that there was nothing left that she could do, the strength left her legs and she fell to the ground. Hugging crescent rose as hard as she could, tears began to fall from her face.

"Why aren't you back yet?" thought Ruby, as she continued to cry. "You said you'd beat it and save my big sister. Where are you Lan?"

She stared up at the tower above, whose summit was obscured by a cloud of deep darkness.

"Someone, please help." She whimpered "I-I can't do this alone. Dad, Uncle Qrow, Yang, please help me…"

Her last sentence trailed off into a whine, and she buried her head into the arms, quietly crying in despair.

"Ruby!"

A warm light suddenly illuminated the area around her, it was a gentle reassuring warmth, one that had been by her side almost from the day she was born. Ruby looked up, with snot and tears dribbling down her face.

A small yellow sphere was racing out of the dark clouds above and it was soon followed by a menagerie of other spheres. Ruby knew at once who the yellow sphere was.

"Yang!" Ruby cried in joy. She leapt upwards in joy and was about to run forwards to meet her, but stopped as she remembered the ever-encroaching boundary of roots approaching her.

"Hands off my little sis!" shouted Yang, who flew down smacked it root. It responded by swatting her away. Yang flew through the air, but quickly caught herself and shook herself off.

"Ouch, ugh, why do you have a body and I don't?" said Yang, who floated down to Ruby.

"Well, I didn't in the beginning. Then I met my new friend Lan, and he did some magic and made me mine." Said Ruby, who wiped her face.

"Oh okay, where is this guy?" asked Yang

"I believe he was the one who told us all to run" said a white soul.

"I just wish there was something we could do. We can't just leave him there!" said a black soul.

"Wait, Lan is in danger?!" said Ruby, who straightened up. "Oh, we have to go save him!...but, I don't think I can get out of here right now."

"Yeah, and we're not much help as these floating Christmas lights" said the black soul.

"Don't you guys worry!" said Yang, "We know what we have to do now! Kick the evil monster's butt! And when we and my little sis are together, there's nothing we can't do, right Ruby?"

"Right!" said Ruby, a huge smile on her face, she then reached out and placed her hands on Yang's soul sphere. "I'm so glad you're here now, I feel like I can do anything now."

Ruby pulled Yang into an embrace, but to her amazement, the moment Yang's soul made contact with her chest, the soul merged into Ruby's frame. With a flash of golden light, Ruby felt all of her exhaustion leave her.

"Whoa, what the heck is this?" came Yang's voice from inside Ruby's head.

"Yang, I can hear you but I can't see you!" said Ruby.

"I think I'm inside you right now" said Yang, "and I'm feeling a lot stronger. Hey look I can move your arm!"

Ruby's right arm shot out and began flailing around randomly.

"Ah stop, that feels weird!" said Ruby, with a panicked voice.

"All right, I'll stop…right after I tickle you!"

Ruby's arm shot down and began tickling her sides.

"Ahahahahah, no stop, Ahahahahah!" yelled Ruby, who tried to stop her right arm as her face contorted in a mixture of laughter and pain.

"This is painful to watch" said the White soul.

"Can we focus" said the Black soul "I think you've only got like 3 feet of space left."

"Oh my gosh, you're right!" said Ruby as she stared at the encroaching vines "What am I gonna do?...I know, the rest of you get in here to!" she said pointing to her chest.

""What?"" said many souls in unison.

"I felt a lot stronger when Yang got in here, so if you all come too, I think I may get strong enough to beat this thing!"

"And entrust our wellbeing to you? That sounds extremely dangerous" said the White soul.

"Not like we got any other ideas" said the Black soul. "We're trapped in some kind of nightmare realm with nowhere to go and the one person who could tell us what's going on is back up there fighting some kind of monster. I'm in."

The black soul floated down and merged into Ruby's chest. One by one, more and more souls floated down and merged themselves with Ruby, who was glowing brighter and brighter with a red-black light.

"Oh…all right" said the white soul who was one of the last few that floated in the sky "I guess I can help."

After that, the last few souls merged with Ruby. Ruby floated into the air, and with a flash of black-red light, she disappeared. A small dark singularity floated where she used to be, and slowly, a feminine form that resembled a dark silhouette silently unfolded itself from the point in space. It landed on the ground with a soft thud with one knee and one foot on the ground, and a moment later rose petals floated out from the singularity. The rose petals coalesced into a red flowing hooded cape that wrapped around the dark silhouette. The singularity disappeared as the last rose petal came through, and a moment later the silhouette stood up. It was around 6 meters high and was wrapped in an air of mystery. It reached into its cape, its hand entering the garment like a hand plunging into water, and pulled out a giant version of Crescent rose from the flowing red fabric. Finally, with a flash of grey light, a pair of grey eyes appeared on its face.

"Ugh woah" said Ruby, as she stumbled around as she regained control of her form. "What the—wow! What is this?"

She twirled left and right as she took in her new form.

"This is so cool! I'm a giant. Hey Yang are you seeing thi—"

'Snag'

Ruby looked down and saw that one of the dark roots had snagged her ankle. With a yelp, she swung her scythe down and severed it. In response to this dozens of roots erupted from the growth that surrounded her.

"What the—" said Ruby, as she lifted her scythe to intercept them "Why…why are they all so slow?"

But it wasn't the roots that were slow, despite her giant form, Ruby had become much faster. Even with her amateurish technique, she was able to cut down all the roots before they were able to reach her. She also had greater powers now, powers that she strangely knew what to do with. After she cut down the last root, Ruby wrapped her cloak around herself rocketed into the air like a scarlet torpedo. She soared around the tower, arriving on the other side right above Taodse. Configuring her scythe into sniper form, Ruby fired off several powerful shots. Reacting to the sound, Taodse turned and attempted to raise a wall of roots, but 1 shot slipped through and obliterated her right hand.

Screaming in pain, Taodse caused an eruption of roots that shot upwards towards her new foe. Using the tower as a foothold, Ruby used her new speed to avoid, cut, or shoot down every root that got near her. She then darted off the tower and shot through the air to the outer wall that surrounded them. Landing with a hard thump on the side of the wall, she unfurled her scythe and drove it into a patch of roots that covered the wall below, after which she began running around the outer rim of the wall, pulling the scythe along and cutting loose all the roots the blade came in contact with. Taodse attempted to launch more roots at her, but Ruby was simply too fast and easily avoided every attack that came her way. The circle Ruby was running in then began to gradually shrink in size as she began to run in an inwards spiral, cutting up more roots and rapidly reducing the area that they covered, eventually returning to the ground to continue the inward spiral. Finally, as the tip of the spiral neared Taodse, Ruby pulled her scythe out of the ground and leapt into the air. Taodse whipped around and saw Ruby's form upon her, the sharp arc of her scythe ready to reap her.

Taode stared at her, her eyes wide with fright.

"Please" whispered Taodse, whose eyes changed to their original peach color "Don't kill me."

Seeing the genuine fear in her eyes, Ruby and many of the souls within her halted her scythe. She landed on the ground in front of Taodse, Crescent Rose inches from the wooden girl's neck.

"What did you say?" said Ruby.

"Please don't kill me" whispered Taodse again.

Ruby stared into Taodse's eyes for a moment, genuinely unsure of what to do, then pulled her scythe away.

"Ok, but you have to calm down" said Ruby.

"Ok," said Taodse.

"Why aren't you finishing her?" said the White soul "Don't give her a chance to strike back."

"Hey, she's admitted defeat now, besides, if she turns on us, we can easily take her down." Said the black soul

"Well, what do we do with her now?" said Yang inside Ruby's head.

"I don't know" said Ruby, "I mean, she hasn't really hurt anyone now that I think of it, in fact I think she might be controlled by the monster."

She then turned her attention back to Taodse who was giving her a blank stare.

"Ok now, just take it easy and come with us for now." Said Ruby

"Come?" said Taodse.

"Yes" said Ruby, "We're going to leave now and—"

"Leave?!" said Taodse with a jolt "No, I no leave!"

"Wha, wait, now just calm down—" started Ruby.

"I WON'T GOOOOOO!" screamed Taodse.

Ruby pulled out crescent rose, and prepared to dart out of range of any attack, but found herself rooted to the spot. She looked down, and discovered that while they were talking, roots had wound around her ankles. She swung down her scythe to sever them, but before it could, roots shot out of the ground and wound around her wrists. She soon found herself suspended in the air with all 4 of her wrists bound.

"I won't let you take me!" shouted Taodse, who made a ripping motion with her hands "I'll kill you before you can!"

Ruby soon found herself being pulled apart. The pain was excruciating, but even worse were the screams of pain from all the souls that had merged with her. She could sense little ones crying out for their parents, the defiant grunts of the older kids, and anger towards her for dragging them into this mess.

"No!" shouted Ruby, "You're hurting us! You're hurting them!"

Taodse simply ignored her and kept on screaming while continuing to pull them apart.

"Stop it!" yelled Ruby as the cries of pain in her mind grew louder. She felt a burning sensation in her eyes as she grew more and more desperate.

"Ruby, you have to get out of here!" shouted Yang in Ruby's mind. "I'll try to hold this form while you escape!"

"No Yang, I'm not leaving you!" thought Ruby.

"You have to! I can't lose you too Ruby, I can't lose you like I lost mom!" shouted Yang, who paused then quietly said "I love you little sister."

Ruby felt Yang trying to push her out, but since the construct was formed with Ruby as the core, she was able to repel her sister's attempts.

"I love you too!" shouted Ruby, "That's why we're all getting out of this together!"

With a blinding flash, a burst of grey light erupted from Ruby's eyes, burning off the roots that held them. Taodse recoiled in pain and shielded her eyes, her skin sizzling as if about to catch on fire. Seeing they were now free, Ruby lifted Crescent Rose above her head, and with a single decisive slash, split Taodse in two. Taodse's upper torso landed on the ground, a silent scream engraved on her face. A few moments later her body began to disintegrate into black ash. It spread to all of her roots that were still spread around the garden, and a minute later, they were gone. In her place was a girl wearing peach colored rose, passed out on the ground.

Ruby stood there panting for a moment, then straightened up and placed her hand on her eyes.

"What was that?" she said.

"I dunno" said the black soul "But there's a lot of stuff I don't understand about this weird place."

"Just be glad that we got lucky" said the White soul "And we didn't even kill her with that attack. I hope you realize that she was never in any danger and was just trying to by time with that escapade."

"Oh man, so I really should have just gone through with the slash in the first place" said Ruby as she looked down at the girl's passed out form.

"Eh, Whatever, what's done is done" said Yang. "Now what?"

Before they could discuss things any further, an enormous Golden knight burst out of the entrance to the garden, it's sword and shield drawn. Seeing each other, the two colossi turned their weapons on each other and stared each other down with great intensity.

"Calm down you two" said Veritas, who was serving as Jaune's shield. "You should be able to recognize each other."

Ruby was taken aback by the familiar voice while Jaune scrutinized the figure in front of him.

"Oh my gosh, Ruby is that you?" said Jaune

"Jaune?" said Ruby, "Oh my gosh, you look so cool! How'd you turn into a giant golden knight."

"I dunno, how'd you turn into a giant shadow lady?"

"Iunno." Said Ruby.

"My guess is that the residual aura and spiritual energy that Lan left with you two, allowed you to harmonize with the spirits of others and as a result use their power in augmenting your own dreamscape constructs." Said Veritas.

""What?"" said both of them.

Veritas sighed and then said "It's thanks to Lan's magic."

""Oh."" They both said.

"Oh my gosh, Lan!" said Ruby "I think he needs our held up there!"

"You're right!" said Jaune "and with all of us together, I know we can win."

The two of them then darted into the doorway in the tower, which was just barely big enough for them to enter.

Earlier at the top of the tower

"Ugh!" grunted Lan as he slammed into a piece of floating rubble. He shook his head to quickly clear his head, then looked up. "Oh shit!"

He leapt off the stone and threw a grappler to a nearby stone right as a large shadowy fist smashed through the stone, he had been laying on earlier.

Swinging through the air, he stared at the Dream Eater, who was turning to focus its gaze on him again. The battle had been going on for a while now, but Lan had made almost no headway. Any weapons he constructed from dreamscape manipulation passed harmlessly through its body, and he'd only been able to land 2 essence blows, neither of which caused any damage he could detect, not to mention the fact that getting close to it allowed it to launch out rapid tendrils of dark energy that he had barely been able to avoid. It didn't help that it had quickly destroyed any rubble that got near it so Lan couldn't get a foothold. The tiger's eye at this chest helped him recover his aura and spiritual energy, but it didn't do much to ease mental fatigue, which he was rapidly accumulating. Not to mention that fact that it was beginning to burn him at the point where it made contact with his skin.

As he landed on another piece of floating rubble, he stared at the Dream eater at the center of the warped space they were in. The only thing he hadn't tried yet was to try and harmonize with its energy and use it against it again, but not only did he not have confidence he could control it, he would also have to undo the film of energy he had raised around himself to protect from the oppressive energy in this space.

"Oh, screw it" said Lan. Dropping his barrier, he began to harmonize himself with the energy around himself. His body and mind shuddered as the energy began to pervade him. He harmonized with as much energy as he could and then began to warp the space in front of him, even as the energy he had harmonized with began tearing him apart.

The Dream Eater let out something that sounded like a laugh, and reached out its hand for Lan.

With a scream of effort, Lan formed a crackling sphere of azure energy as large as his own body, imbued it with his will, and fired it at the approaching arm. It exploded on impact, sending cracks of azure energy tearing through the shadowy form. Lan looked on with his sagging, exhausted body, a smile on his face, but it stopped as he saw the cracks stop at the Dream Eater's shoulder. With a nonchalant swipe, the Dream Eater cut off its debilitated arm and almost instantly grew a new one with a puff of black smoke.

Lan prepared to move to begin formulating a new strategy, but cried out in pain as a burning sensation tore through his chest. He ripped open his shirt and saw the Tiger's eye was glowing white hot and searing his skin. Without thinking, he grabbed the twine around his neck, and ripped the charm off.

'Ting'

Already heavily burned, the twine snapped and sent the Tiger's eye sailing off into the void. Realizing what he had done, Lan attempted to leap after it. However, still exhausted from his last attack, he stumbled over his feet and fell forwards onto his face. He clambered back up and prepared to jump again, but noticed a dark shadow fall over him. Before he could react, he was caught in the Dream Eater's grasp. The creature lifted the struggling boy up to its face, then let out a sigh.

"Well, that was certainly entertaining, but I suppose all good things must come to an end…Well, except for me of course" it chuckled, but paused as it noticed Lan attempting to bite himself free. "Boy, have some class, it's one of the few things you sentient creatures sometimes have that's actually worth anything."

It flicked Lan in the head to get the boy to stop.

"Well, it's going to take some time to gather up all of those souls again. I guess I'll have to send out more nightmares. Oh well, it's just a minor inconvenience in the long run." It turned it's gaze down at Lan and smiled "For now I guess we can kill some time together, Hmmm? Now, what to do first…I know!"

The dream eater held up the pointer claw of its free hand and formed a sphere of otherworldly energy at the tip of it.

"Let's start by turning all the hopes and dreams inside of you, into nightmares."

The Dream Eater inserted the sphere into Lan's head, then leaned back to observe. Lan struggled as he felt a kind of strange energy permeate him, he tensed himself to prepare to fight whatever it was, but was surprised to find the feeling quickly subside. He looked up at the Dream Eater who was equally confused. The Dream Eater then lifted him up, and stared deeply into Lan's eyes. Lan felt something pierce into him and search around for a minute before being withdrawn.

"Well that's boring" said the Dream Eater "You don't have any hopes or dreams to subvert."

Lan stared up at the demon, his eyes wide with surprise. But now that he thought of it, there really wasn't anything that he well and truly wanted. He knew he wanted to do something great and be some kind of hero, but honestly, he didn't know what exactly that was or how he would go about achieving it. He had mostly spent his whole life going along with whatever his grandfather Byakko had set him too, in fact one of the reasons he wished to be a hero was due to the fact that the knowledge and skills that he had developed made him highly compatible for the position. True, he could throw himself completely into whatever task was laid out in front of him, but at then end of the day there wasn't any of kind of dream he truly wanted to achieve, nothing he truly longed for. He simply lived day to day.

"Well, that's depressing" thought Lan. "I need to spend some serious time thinking about that if I get out of this alive."

Before he could begin contemplating how to escape, however, he felt a jolt run through his body. Dark tendrils of energy had pierced into him and a shadowy sphere had formed around him.

"Well, I need to go and collect my souls for now. You go to sleep, we can discuss meeting with your masters after I've regained my full strength."

The Dream Eater then dropped Lan down towards the abyss below.

"I'm sure my subordinates will make your stay in my dungeon most comfortable."

"No!" thought Lan as he struggled to stay awake, but all of his energies were completely tapped. His mind began to fall down, down, into endless black.

'Crack'

From the corner of eye, a stream of light peaked through, rousing him. He opened his eyes and saw a crack in the warped space below him, and two giant shapes flying through.

""LAN!"" both shouted. Catching his sphere, they swung down their fists and cracked it open. He found himself in the hands of a giant golden knight and a giant dark lady with a red cloak. With those gimmicks, he knew who they were, but couldn't believe it.

"Ruby, Jaune?" he asked weakly "Is that you two?"

"And me" said Veritas, who was still Jaune's shield. "Don't forget me."

"Yeah Lan, it's us" said Jaune, who was sniffling. "You were taking a while, so we thought we'd come and help you out."

"You kept your promise" said Ruby "You saved my big sister, and everyone else. You can't hear it, but everyone in here is thanking you." She pointed to her chest with her free hand.

"That's…great" said Lan, who let out an exhausted breath. "Ugh, I really don't have any strength left. I hate to ask, but you two think you can handle that guy?"

He motioned to the Dream Eater, who was patiently waiting above with what looked like a happy smile on its face.

"Take your time with your conversation" it said "It's the least I could do for the trouble you two saved me in bringing back all those souls."

"I think we should be able to handle it" said Ruby, who gave Lan a curt nod. "Oh, and we found this when we were flying up here."

Jaune and Ruby held out their free hands, and floating on top of them was the Tiger's eye.

"Yang told me it's yours, so I thought I'd give it back" said Ruby.

"Thanks" said Lan, who reached out for it "This'll help me recover faster, plus grandpa would probably have probably punished me with more pain resistance training this time...most likely to my an—"

The moment he touched it however, something unexpected happened. Lan, Ruby, and Jaune began glowing with their respective aura colors while the Tiger's eye grew bright like a star. A kind of synergy formed between the souls in Jaune and Ruby's bodies, manifesting as a kind of stream like energy that crackled with electricity. This energy poured into the Tiger's eye, which amplified it then shot it into Lan's chest. Lan felt something swell and explode inside him as hundreds of souls flew out of Jaune and Ruby's bodies and into him.

When the light faded, he was floating in the sky just like the two of them. His form hadn't changed, but there was a halo of azure light surrounding him and what appeared to be random grains of Dust crystals were randomly popping in and out of existence around him.

"Well," said Lan, who looked over his new form, "This is…anime-esque"

"Uh Lan, are you okay?" asked Jaune.

"Fine" said Lan who clasped his fists and slammed his knuckles together. "Better than ever actually."

He then turned his gaze upwards towards the Dream Eater, who was making a kind of clapping motion.

"I don't know what this is, but if its putting me back in the fight I'll accept it" said Lan. He turned to Jaune and Ruby "You people ready?"

""Always!"" shouted Ruby and Jaune. The three of them then flew upwards to meet their foe for the final time.

Okay, end of this chapter. The dreamscape portion should conclude next chapter. I know it was a little short this time, but I make it a rule to not watch the newest RWBY episode until I post a chapter. And I was buried in paperwork this last week, so I wasn't able to write as much as I normally do. So yeah, I really want to watch that episode now.

So to close out, I'd appreciate any constructive criticism, and as always I hope members of CRWBY read this.