I didn't sleep for shit.

I would have thought that it would be easier considering that in a single afternoon I had tried to murder five people, traveled between universes, and regenerated two limbs, but then again when were things ever easy for me? No, I was too perplexed by the fact that I had changed genders just like that… among other things. I stood before the mirror in the bathroom, just staring at the foreign mask that was now my face. It felt foreign, unfamiliar, and yet it copied every single movement I made. No matter how much I tried to dispel the illusion, nothing worked. This face was mine, whether I thought I was insane or not.

Not that it was a bad face, though. Stormy gray eyes donning long lashes bore right into mine, sitting inside a small face with features that reminded me of my mother; middle-sat cheekbones, narrow jaw, and warm lips. Thick, unkempt eyebrows sat below a mane of iron-grey hair, equally messy and much longer than I had ever kept it like a man, nearly down to my shoulders. There did not seem to be much weight to me, but then again I was still the same height of 6' tall, so the weight had seemed to… redistribute with my new body type. My upper frame had narrowed, my chest expanded to fit my new full breasts, and my hips now flared out and accented the small dip in my waist, before flowing down into my legs.

Learning how to pee again was interesting, let's just say that.

I was no model, that was certain, but I wondered what I would look like once I got my hands on some trimmers and a shower. My body hair would need to go, but I was unsure what to do about my head… or any of it, really. I shook my head, feeling the single most radical change of all moving with it. Just above the mound of hair I now had sat two small wolf ears. I still had normal ears, but they were there nonetheless, and they worked just as well. With every new sound, they rotated and twitched on their own towards the source. I was cute, I couldn't lie… but it was all foreign to me, almost like a pipe dream.

What was I now? Was I a man, a woman, somewhere in between? What was my genome like? Was my mind changed at all as a result of this? There was much to consider about it all before I even started to think about having an Aura, or even what had been unleashed in the forest.

I couldn't get what Ozpin said out of my head, either. His warning wasn't exactly the best of things to be left hanging with, least of all for someone in the state I was. It was well past midnight but I was in no mood to sleep, my mind was too full of thoughts and my heart was too heavy with grief and guilt. Wondering about all of this was going to give me a fucking stomach ulcer, but there was little else to do.

I sighed as I braced myself on the sink, feeling the cords of the IV drip and heart monitor swing as I moved. Looking into my eyes once again, I smiled weakly.

"Well… at least I won't need to worry about acne anymore…" I rationalized, feeling the smooth skin on my face where acne scars and boils once laid, remnants of my teenage hormones. Knowing there was nothing to do but mope and pace, I left the bathroom and wandered over towards the window with my machines in tow. It was true that I had forgotten about the windows, but then again I had bigger worries than daydreaming out into the night sky.

The view from the window sill, though... that wasn't something that I would be forgetting.

Out in front of me laid the city of Vale. I was fairly high up in the building, and I could see that the courtyard of the medical building stretched for a few hundred feet until a steep cliff gave way to the skyline of the city below. The lights shimmered faintly against the cold mist overhead, but the shattered moon's light still shone through nonetheless. The smaller pieces of the moon that still shared its gravity glowed with defiant light, determined to illuminate the night even in their broken state. Despite the foreign nature of it all, the scene before me felt somewhat comforting. I had lived near a city all my life, and it felt nice to be near something at least remotely familiar.

"So… I really did make it, didn't I? I'm here, in Remnant…"

"Yep! You sure are!" a small voice from behind me cut in.

I jumped in shock, nearly knocking over the heart monitor I had been pulling alongside me when I turned to face my intruder. At the door stood Ruby Rose, still dressed for combat and looking concerned as I fumbled with my wires. When I managed to get upright again, I looked at her with suspicion for a moment, feeling my ears pull back as if to display it for her. The last thing I needed was visitors right now…

"Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't think you would be awake, I didn't mean to interrupt anything, I just wanted to… well, make sure you weren't dead, I guess, ehehehe…." she giggled uncomfortably, scratching the back of her head and smiling. I eased a bit, unsure what to make of it.

"It's okay, I guess. Wasn't sleeping anyways, not with all that's happened to me today."

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that. Yang is always so protective, even though I get into things like that all the time. If I'd had Crescent Rose then maybe-"

"No, I'm pretty sure I deserved that, Ruby, it's okay."

"Uh, how did you…"

"Know your name? Well, I know a lot. Probably more than I should, to be honest, but for now, let's say that Professor Ozpin and I have talked a lot about you."

"Oh, that's cool, I guess that's why he needed Crescent Rose?"

"Yeah, in a way."

I could feel the conversation growing stale, looking into the ground to try and avoid the embarrassment.

"Sooo..." I heard Ruby say, moving over to the bed and jumping up onto it.

"I... I'm sorry Ruby, I'm not exactly the most talkative person right now, a lot has happened today and I'm not really sure how to process a lot of it."

"It's okay, I get the same thing from your Dad a lot of the time."

I could feel my ears perk up at the mention of my Dad, looking over to Ruby she was boring right into me, swinging her legs back and forth idly on the bed.

"How did you-"

"Yeah, I know Mr. Cortes, he's really nice once you get him talking. You're his daughter, right?"

"Well… to be honest, I'm not sure if that's the best way to put it."

"I... don't understand."

"Yeah, me either Ruby."

I sat on the window sill, looking into the distance as I contemplated, not speaking but growing more annoyed that I couldn't answer the most basic of fucking questions. She looked at me in turn, uncomfortable in the silence and running out of options.

"So, uh… what's your name"

"Huh?"

"Your name. Cortes is the last name, so what do I call you?"

"Ruby, I'm sorry, but I don't have an answer for that right now."

"What do you mean? You're not making any sen-"

"NOTHING makes any sense right now, for fuck's sake" I screamed into the window, feeling my annoyance and confusion well up inside me like it was about to boil over. So much for staying calm.

"I was dragged here by Ozpin, told just enough information to get by, left in this bed with even more questions and NO answers, and now I don't even know how the fuck to answer basic ass questions!"

"Hey, I know today was rough, but-"

"But NOTHING, Ruby!"

I turned to face her, feeling true anger begin to sprout within me. Standing up I moved towards her, pulling the cables behind me by my veins alone.

"I don't know anything! I don't know what to do now that I'm here, I don't know why I'm a girl, I don't know where my Dad is, I don't know how to do anything besides cry and feel sorry for myself, just a few hours ago I lost my legs and now all of a sudden they're just fucking FINE, and to top it off I can't fucking sleep, so forgive me if I'm a bit fucking OVERWHELMED!"

I screamed all of this into her face, watching as she backed up more and more under my much taller form. It wasn't until I was right on top of her that I noticed the black shimmer coming from my skin. My arms, my legs, my entire body was covered in a field of wispy black matter, moving like tendrils across my form. I ran into the bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror. Across my face, the same was holding true, all except for my eyes… Where I once had stormy grey, now they had turned a shade darker, closer towards straight black. Terrified, I watched myself for a time, completely forgetting my anger. After a few minutes, the tendrils dissipated, and I watched in real-time as the color returned to my eyes. I blinked plentifully to make sure I wasn't just going insane, but the frightened look on Ruby's face in the doorway of the bathroom as she watched me proved I wasn't seeing things.

"*sigh*... I'm so sorry, Ruby. You were just trying to help, you didn't deserve that... but now you see what I mean. This is another one of those things that I don't have any answers for, not right now. That wasn't really me, you didn't deserve to be treated like that. I just felt so angry and lost that I just… lost control of myself."

"Is that what happened in the forest?"

"Yes, but much worse. It was like a switch flipped, I was thinking like a madman, all I wanted to do was hurt people… kill people. When I woke up, it was gone, but it still scares me… If I can't control myself, and let that loose on someone by accident… someone could die. I don't know what to do about any of this, Ruby, and I'm just scared."

I felt tears well up in my eyes again as I braced myself on the sink, seeing my legs shake and my chest rumble with fresh bouts of tears and sobs. As adrenaline coursed out of my body, I could feel blood and pain leak out of where my IVs had once sat, only making it worse. I had not cried like this in Remnant, not yet, but it was all just too much. I stood there like a child in front of her, but I didn't care. She was right to judge me, I had attacked her after all. She didn't even know my name and I was breaking down in front of her…

"Hey."

I looked up at her, vision clouded by the tears, but she did not give me the luxury of being able to see anything anyways. She tackled me in a tight hug, catching me off guard and almost bowling me over. Her arms clung to me firmly, and I was not sure if I should hug her back, I was surprised.

"I don't know anything about you, and I could say the same about Professor Ozpin, but I do know everything that Mr. Cortes told me about his family. He does nothing but talk about his family, how they mean the world to him, how they're all such wonderful people, and if I believed even a fraction of what he told me, I'd know that you'll figure things out!"

"Ruby…" I trailed off, before slowly meeting her embrace with one of my own.

"Hey, I feel it too, sometimes. My life is pretty chaotic, and sometimes I make mistakes, but in the end I'm doing my best, and even though it sometimes doesn't go well I can still be proud of that. If you do your best too, then I'm sure that whatever is going on will turn out for the better. Things may seem rough, but if you keep moving forward, then it'll turn out as best it can. Once the Professor helps you figure it out, things will come together, I know they will!"

Keep Moving Forward…

"Ruby, I…. thank you." I settled, squeezing her for a moment and trying to calm down. Having someone to talk to meant the world, but hugs were always nice too. I forgot so often how calming they were. Mom always gave the best hugs, but I supposed it would be a while until I got them.

"This is messy, Ruby. A lot happened to me today, so I'm sorry if I seem, well.. demented. I'm sure that you have questions too, and if I had answers for you, I'd give them, but I just don't. I promise, when I find things out I'll tell you, but for right now…"

"It's okay, I get it, I'm kinda confused too, to be honest. But, in the end, I came to make sure you were okay, and I'm glad you are. If you ever want to talk again, I can be here for you, just… try not to throw your aura at me again, please?"

I chuckled softly, smiling at her. "Sure thing, Ruby, I think I can do that. Also, I'm sorry for bleeding all over you."

She backed up from me and looked down at the bloodstains all over her, before shrugging it off.

"I've had worse after training sometimes, it's okay."

Giggling, she turned and moved to the door slowly, opening it and walking halfway out.

"Good Night. I hope you can rest. Welcome to Beacon."

"...Rika."

"Eh?"

I looked to the window and smiled, repeating myself.

"Rika. My name… my name is Rika."

"Well then… Good Night, Rika. Welcome to Beacon."

With a soft smile and even softer steps, Ruby left me to the lonely dark once again, except it didn't feel so lonely this time. In one way or another, I had made a friend, or at least an acquaintance. I closed my tired eyes and tried to sleep yet again.

For the first time since coming here, I felt at peace… at least a little bit