The sun was setting again.

Ruby had counted four sunsets since she'd been left utterly alone in the cockpit of the Atlesian airship, bound securely to a chair and left without food, water, or anything to shelter her body from the chill in the air. At first, she'd felt her aura functioning strongly, protecting her from feeling the cold or the hunger pangs, but with each day it weakened more and more.

She'd struggled against her rope bonds, but their feeble appearance was deceiving. They held her body in place almost as tightly as the steel chains. She'd even tried tipping the chair over in hopes that that might break the ropes, but it was built into the floor, unable to be moved.

I wish my semblance was telekinesis, not speed, Ruby thought. Not that it would've mattered. The chains around her wrists and ankles rendered her semblance useless, regardless of what it was.

The fifth sunset was falling quickly outside the large window to Ruby's right. She could see the edge of the clearing where it joined with the forest, dense and black in the growing shadows. She swallowed and tried to force her thoughts away from negativity. The last thing she needed to do was bring Grimm down on her when she was completely helpless.

Complete darkness settled over the room, and Ruby was once again left with only the faint glimmer of lights on the screens around her for company. She'd tried to reach them in hopes of maybe finding a communication button to call for help, but it was pointless. She slumped against the steel back of the chair, shivering faintly and letting her head droop with weariness.

The cockpit of the airship was soundproofed, but Ruby's mind wasn't. She cringed and shuddered when Torchwick's words echoed in the empty space, making her heart ache with fear for her friends. What if what he'd said about Beacon was true? What if everyone was dead?

Grimm didn't take prisoners. They slaughtered at will, whether their victims were huntsmen or newborn babes.

"I have to get back there," Ruby declared, this time out loud. "I have to." She winced at the sound of her own voice. It was raspy and hoarse from a lack of water and her tongue felt swollen in her mouth, making it difficult to form any words. It probably didn't help that she'd spent hours of her first day alone in the airship screaming at the top of her lungs, in a vain attempt to attract someone's attention.

Apparently, there was no one nearby. And what would it have mattered if there was? The cockpit was soundproof.

Ruby's chin came to rest on her chest. She'd gone almost five days without sleeping longer than a few minutes at a time, and her aura was struggling to bear up under her exhaustion, hunger, and thirst. Her head was throbbing and her bones ached.

"We didn't leave you behind.. you chose it."

"S-Stop," Ruby mumbled, squeezing her eyes shut and clenching her fists in her bonds. Her mind was starting to play absurd tricks on her. If she'd let Torchwick and Neo just lead her away in chains, gods only knew what they might've done to her. At least if she was alone, no one could torture or kill her, or force themselves on her.

The chill in the air was growing and Ruby was now outright shivering. General Ironwood can build synthetic armies, but he can't equip his airships with voice-activated heating and cooling systems?!

Every minute of every hour slowly became a day. Ruby started from a shallow, foggy slumber some time later, expecting to see the sun rising, but everything outside was still as black as the void. A few hot tears welled in her eyes and one slipped down her cheek; another splashed onto her slender thigh, reminding her of her nakedness.

Finally, the sun rose again and Ruby almost wept with joy. Six days had passed— surely Yang, Blake, and Weiss were close to finding her, and maybe Jaune and the others were coming too. They were; she was sure of it. Beacon was still standing. Everyone was perfectly alright. They'd come soon…

Ruby's aura flickered.


"Are you afraid we'll just leave you out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Y-you're a killer."

Ruby stirred fitfully in her sleep, trying to shift positions in the chair so that the chains and ropes would stop digging so painfully into her skin. They only bit in deeper, eliciting a raspy groan from the small huntress.

"Well.. I suppose if you really want to be left behind, I can arrange that."

"Someone will find me!"

Ruby started from the nightmare with a faint gasp. The back of her head struck the metal on the chair and it throbbed, far worse than it should've. When her eyes snapped open, her vision was blurred and out of focus. She licked her tongue over her lips to try to soothe the burning sensation on them, only to find them cracked and bloodied.

The blood. The pain. Her aura.

"N-No.. not now. Please," Ruby croaked out, feeling the panic spike her heartbeat. Her aura couldn't be broken; not when she had no food or water and barely any sleep to help it recharge. Without those essentials, she knew it could take hours or maybe even days for her to regain enough aura to protect herself from danger.

It was still dark outside, or perhaps it was simply dark again. Ruby didn't know how long she'd been asleep. She didn't know how long her aura had been depleted. She also didn't know how long it would be before the Grimm started arriving, having followed the invisible trail of her hunger and fear.

Where were Torchwick and Neo? Why had they even bothered to abduct her, if their plan had been to leave her in the airship to starve to death or to be ruthlessly torn apart by Grimm claws? It didn't make any sense.

Ruby couldn't suppress her tears when her teammates' faces flashed across her mind. Seven days. Seven days since she'd last seen them. Seven days since the fall of Beacon. Seven days of hunger, cold, and now pain.

"No one is coming for you, Little Red."

The throbbing headache between Ruby's eyes was steadily worsening, and she felt blood leaking from the raw wounds on her wrists and ankles where the chains had dug into her flesh. Waves of grief for her sister and her friends were crashing over her. If they were alive, surely they would've found her by now. Yang would've torn through heaven and hell for her little sister. Ruby didn't know if Weiss and Blake could manage that, but she knew they'd fight through rivers of Grimm to try.

It was true. Beacon had fallen.

Ruby closed her eyes and sobbed. She didn't see the pair of glowering scarlet eyes that watched her from outside the window, or the hideous, hulking shadow to which they belonged.