Ruby always loved the feeling of being sent into virtual reality. At first your body feels numb as everything around you is nothing more than a white empty space. Gradually, the world materializes before Ruby while her body regained feeling. She loved it when she could feel the clothes and armor against her digital skin and the weight of her large sword on her back, and then there was the best of them all. She could actually feel her legs. Ok, so what if they weren't real, Ruby didn't care. They were still her legs and she could run around the world and fight magical creatures in the process.

The Grand Plaza filled the void around her and within seconds she could feel the cobblestone beneath her feet. This place was probably her favorite location in the whole city of Vytal. The angelic statue standing tall in the center of the fountain, surrounded by large marble roses stood proudly in the center. Ruby loved the statue, it was simply so majestic looking. Ruby lifted her hand and slid her finger across the air to summon her friends list to see who was online. She immediately became excited the moment she saw that both Ren and Boop were online at the same time, including Jaune, Ren, and Nora. She sent Boop a party invite, however a pop up appeared, telling her that Boop was already in a party.

Ruby giggled. "Of course, she's always in a party with Ren." she decided to simply message Boop.

[Crescent]: Hey, I got a couple of hours of free time today. Mind if I join you and Ren?

[Boop]: Sure, we're in Silver Shire grinding for loot and gold. We're just about to a quest and could actually use one more person. :D

Ruby wasted no time and head for the village of Silver Shire. It wasn't too far from the City of Vytal as it was only a twenty minute walk, ten minutes if you ran. Silver Shire was a small village and was usually a pretty popular place for both new and old players to hang out at. When Ruby arrived at the village, she looked high and low for her friends but it was

"Hey Crescent! You made it just in time!" Ruby spun around and was greeted by the sight of Jaune approaching her with Ren and Boop in tow. "We were just about to head out and do the Cursed Silver quest again. Want to join in?"

"Oh! I haven't done that one yet, I'd love you join you!" Ruby chirped with a huge smile as she darted towards them.

Boop raised one her brows, staring into Ruby's scarlet eyes. "Hey, didn't you say you weren't going to have time to be online during the weekdays anymore?"

Jaune crossed his arms as he tried to look stern, though he was failing horribly. "Oh yeah, that's right. What are you doing online?"

Ruby's eyes darted between Boop "I-I,umm...I got done with studying a little earlier than expected today. Some things kinda happened and so I got maybe an hour until dinner, plenty of time to do a quest."

Jaune's eyes widened when he heard how much work Ruby had. "Wow, that's...that's a lot of school work. Shouldn't you be doing that instead of playing here with us?"

"Nah, it's fine. Me and my tutor are gonna start on that tomorrow." Ruby said nonchalantly. She knew Jaune had a point, but she couldn't do anything about it at the moment. Ruby didn't even know what half of her assignments were to begin with.

Jaune shrugged, not wanting to push any further and make the same mistake he made at the end of last month. "Alright, if you say so Crescent."

The four of them headed over to one of the small houses where the quest giver was at. It was a small cottage on the edge of Silver Shire, the home was built of logs with hay being used as a makeshift roof. Inside was a male NPC who looked to be crying while drinking mead at a small table, a white panel used to accept quests floated beside him.

Jaune, the party leader, pushed the accept button and the NPC who started his dialogue for the quest.

"Y-You've got to help me! My wife, she's gone into the mine with my brother Kain in order to look for our missing daughter, b-b-but that was days ago! Please, no one will go into the mine since the other town folk believe it's cursed, p-please go find them!" The man finished his dialogue and resumed his motions of crying and drinking.

"So it's a simple search and rescue?" Ruby asked.

"Technically speaking, yes. It's probably considered one of the game's darker quests." Ren explained.

Ruby looked up at Ren. "really?"

"Eh, I've done worse." Boop scoffed. "Hell, the wife isn't even that-mmhff"

Jaune had placed his hand over Boop's mouth to shut her up. "Guys, come on. No spoilers for Ruby, this quest is awesome and I'm sure she'd like to experience it to its fullest, right Ruby?"

Ruby pouted playfully as she crossed her arms, feighning annoyance "Yeah, you know I don't like being spoiled."

Boop rolled her eyes as she removed Jaune's hand from her mouth. "Fine, I won't spoil anything…"

The group of four made their way through the forest outside of Silver Shire and began their short trek to the mine the quest directed them towards. The mine itself was an old silver mine in which the village of Silver Shire was named after. Once the group made it to the mine, they found it dark and abandoned with few torches lighting the caverns. It was a pretty straight forward mine, quite literally in fact. The miners who used to work it must of dug in just one direction with only small extensions diverging from the main mine shaft.

"God, it's so dark in here." Ruby mutter after she tripped over an abandoned pickaxe left on the ground. "Now my cloak is all dusty!"

"Come on, Little Red. it's just a cloak, it's not even a real one either." Boop chastised Ruby as she watched the younger girl swipe the dust off her blood red cloak.

"But I really, really like this cloak." Ruby whined, wiping the last of the dust off.

From further down the shaft, Jaune hollered to the two girls "Guys, hurry up. We're almost where the body is!"

"Body? What body?" Ruby asked, looking at Boop for answers.

"I can't say since that would be a spoiler." Boop explained as she and Ruby hurried down to where Jaune and Ren were. The two boys were waiting in front of a dead body that had black matted hair and pale white skin. A glowing letter was crumpled in his hand. Ren tapped on the letter, sending it to everyone's inventory.

Ruby summoned her inventory panel with the swipe of her finger and took out the letter, magically appearing in her hands.

For anyone who finds this letter, turn back now while you still can. I couldn't protect them, I failed them and now they are doomed for all eternity. I tried to save them, but that monster is immortal. no matter how many times I swung my sword at it, it just wouldn't die. However, there was something odd about the monster, there are certain rocks with gems in them that it refused to go near. The gems are red, like the blood red roses commonly found across Remnant. I think that the monster fears them, as if they can harm him somehow.

The letter ended as ink trailed off the page, signalling that the man died before he could finish.

"I thought this was a search and rescue mission? How are we supposed to rescue anybody if they're dead?" Ruby asked Ren, even more confused now.

"I said technically. We came, we searched, and now we try to rescue." Ren explained as he lead the group farther into the mine.

"So there's a way to save the wife and I assume the daughter too?" Ruby asked, finally getting an idea of what is going on.

"You'll have to wait and see!" Boop chirped as she skipped behind Ren.

It didn't take long for the group to reach the end of the main shaft. The narrow corridor ended in are large and spacious cave with mining equipment laying about as well as numerous Silver Ore and rocks with blood red gems imbedded inside. In the center of the room however, was a gruesome sight.

A woman hunched over and on her knees, impaled by numerous bone carved javelins and was clearly dead. There was blood all over the floor around her. However, in her arms was a little girl NPC, covered in her mother's blood and very clearly alive and crying.

"D-Don't come any closer! It'll kill you just like mama!" the little girl screamed, but it was too late as numerous skeletons and zombies sprung forth from the ground around her. However, they're interest was not on the little girl but rather the four players that had come to rescue her.

Jaune unsheathed his sword with his shield at the ready. "Alright, everyone ready?!"

"Magnhild is always ready to bash some monsters!" Boop roared with the force of a thunderbolt.

Ren of course remained silent as he drew his twin daggers from his hips, covering Nora's right flank as Jaune was on her right flank.

Jaune waited for the fourth member of their party to call out, but only got silence. "Crescent, you ready?!"

Silence again.

"Crescent, come on, we're in the middle of a...Crescent?" As soon as Jaune turned to his left to face his fourth party member, he was greeted by the sight of a shaking and terrified looking Crescent who had yet to unsheath her giant sword from her back.

Ruby couldn't look away from the gruesome sight before her. She couldn't move no matter how hard she tried. Her pulse echoing in her mind, telling her that her heart was pounding against her ribcage in the real world, her hands shook violently and her breathing was heavy and erratic. Horrible memories began flooding her mind, her voice barely audible as she muttered to herself incoherently.

"N-No...s-she can't die...I-I…n-no..." Ruby choked on her own words as blood red, digital warning messages popped up in front of her vision.

"C-Crescent, what's wrong!? Are you-" was all Ruby heard as she was forced out of the game and back into reality. She immediately threw off her helmet as streams of tears forced their way out of her eyes. Her pulse continued pounding in her ears as she struggled to control her breathing, forcing herself to take deep breaths. Her vision was blurred by her own tears as she clutched onto her stomach with her left hand, digging her fingers into the black Relaysuit. Ruby tried to find something, anything to think about other than her mother.

Suddenly, a knock sounded from her door. "Ruby, dinner is almost ready. Dad's finally home and we're having tuna casserole." it was Yang hollering to Ruby from the other side of her bedroom door. A much needed distraction from her terrifying memories.

"I-I-I'll be out i-in a m-minute!" Ruby's voice cracked as she struggled to get the words out.

"Are you ok in there?" Yang's words were laced with concern as she jiggled the doorknob, unable to open the locked door.

Ruby searched frantically for an excuse, anything was better than telling her sister the truth. To show her how weak she has become, how vulnerable she was at the moment. However, nothing was coming to mind so she decided to just wing it, not even bothering to pay attention to her choice of words.

"I-I'm ok...j-just...r-really busy with s-something!" Ruby's voice cracked again

"O-oh, umm, okay... just hurry up so we can all have dinner together with Blake." Ruby listened to her sister's footsteps as they got farther and farther away.

Her breathing was slowly becoming controllable again but tears still fell down her face. She slowly sat up, taking her time as she focused all her attention in calming herself down.

"I-It's ok...I-I-I'm fine...n-nothing's gonna h-happen to me…I'm perfectly s-safe..." Ruby chanted to herself, taking long deep breaths in between. She repeated the mantra several times before she finally calmed herself down. However, her hands were still shaking as adrenaline was still pumping through her veins.

Ruby took her time as she changed into her clothes again, fumbling with each article of clothing as her hands continued to shake and her vision still a bit blurry from her crying earlier. Ruby pulled herself to the edge of her bed and clumsily got into her wheelchair, nearly falling off the edge of her bed a few times before she finally succeeded. Ruby took one more deep breath before leaving her room.

Blake and Taiyang were setting up the table while Yang was in the kitchen. Taiyang was the first to spot Ruby rolling into the dining room. "Look who finally decided to come out of her room, did you get any homework done?"

Ruby simply hummed in response as she pulled up to the table. She didn't want to risk her voice cracking again.

It didn't take long for Yang to come out of the kitchen carrying a pan of tuna casserole and a massive smile. "Dinner is ready!"

As tuna casserole was shared among them, as they ate their dinner happily, Ruby remained silent. Of course, she couldn't remain silent for too long as her father began asking how her day was.

"So Ruby, how did your study session go? I hope your tutor wasn't too hard on you." Taiyang asked between bites.

"It was fine. She wasn't too bad." Ruby stated quietly as she took a bite of her casserole.

"Well that's good, Yang made her sound like she's a nightmare to deal with." Taiyang wasn't too trusting of Yang's explanation considering it seemed like she didn't get along with the tutor in question.

"She is! Weiss thinks about no one but herself. She thinks she is always right and gets so much praise from every teacher in the school." Yang whined as she stuffed her mouth full of casserole.

Taiyang raised an eyebrow as he pointed his fork towards Yang. "Wait a minute, isn't this the same girl you complained about last year? The one that you claimed stole your crush from you?"

Blake nearly choked on her food upon hearing that. She looked to Yang with a teasing smirk "You had a crush on Pyrrha? You know she's straight, right?"

Ruby perked up at the mention of Pyrrha. She remembered her sister always going on about some girl she had a crush on last year, but never really paid much attention to it. She was actually surprised to find out that the girl her sister had a crush on was Pyrrha. Then again, she did think that Pyrrha sent her a stupid love letter earlier today, so that didn't really make her any better than her older sister.

Yang rolled her eyes, when did it become teasing Yang day? "She didn't steal her from me, Pyrrha simply befriended her and I barely get to hang out with her anymore. And it was just a stupid crush, I'm way over it already."

Taiyang laughed at his oldest daughter before bringing his attention back to Ruby. "Right, anyways. Ruby, since you're being tutored by this Weiss girl, do you think she's as cold as your sister makes her out to be? I'd like to finally get an unbiased opinion for once."

Ruby let out an annoyed groan, she really wasn't in the mood to talk. However, she was getting a little annoyed listening to her sister and Blake constantly complain about Weiss. "Like I said, she isn't that bad. In fact, she actually seemed kinda nice."

"Oh please, how could the Ice Queen possibly be nice…" Yang grumbled under her breath.

Ruby stabbed her fork into her casserole, glaring at Yang. "You just hate her because Pyrrha doesn't hang out with you anymore. Seriously, it's getting old listening to you complain all the time."

Yang scoffed at Ruby. "Oh yeah? Why don't you give us an example of how nice Weiss really is, since you seem to be such an expert all of the sudden. You've only known her for what? A day?"

Ruby continued to glare at her sister, a fire burning inside her, urging her to accept Yang's challenge. She wasn't even sure why she was so angry about this, Yang wasn't wrong, she had only been around Weiss for less than 24 hours and yet she was defending her, someone she knew almost nothing about. Ruby couldn't help it though, she was the one that was mean to Weiss, not the other way around like Yang was claiming. Ruby was the one that yelled at Weiss when all she was trying to do was get to know her.

The two sisters continued to glare at each other. Taiyang was about to try and calm the situation but it was too late, Ruby's anger once again got the better of her. It probably didn't help that she just got done with having a panic attack just 20 minutes ago and she was already in a bad mood because of it.

As if a volcano had just erupted inside her head, Ruby couldn't stop herself from rambling in anger. "You want an example? Fine. Earlier today at lunch, she was asking me all about my interests or hobbies in which I refused to answer and I was actually being really mean about it and then I snapped at her and made a whole goddamn scene because of it with everyone staring at me, probably making up all sorts of rumors about me now and then I stormed off without even apologizing to her!"

Everyone at the table remained silent as they stared in awe at Ruby, none of them had actually seen Ruby explode like this before. Ruby simply sat there, trying to catch her breath. her eyes never stopped glaring at Yang, but Yang couldn't return a glare of her own as she was too shocked by her sister's outburst. Ruby felt a mixture of anger and relief, almost as if she had just been forced to confess that she knew her way of dealing with people was wrong. That putting up walls and staying away from them was only making her miserable. Only thing was, it was true. She did know that her behavior in the last couple of years was wrong, but she didn't care. She didn't want anyone's sympathy or pity.

Blake was the first to speak, hoping to de-escalate the situation. "Okay, I think we all just need to-"

"I'm going to bed." Ruby stated, her voice filled with irritation. She quickly pushed herself away from the table and quickly rolled out of the dining room.

Everyone at the table remained silent until they heard the sound of Ruby's bedroom door being slammed shut behind her.

Taiyang was the one to break the silence this time. "Well, that was unfortunate... I'm sorry you had to see that, Blake. Dinner here is usually much more...calmer."

"It's fine, Sir. I should probably be getting home soon anyways, it's getting pretty late and we do have school tomorrow." Blake wiped her mouth with a napkin and got up from her chair. "Thank you very much for having me over for dinner, I hope I can enjoy your cooking again someday."

Yang got out of chair and grabbed her keys from the counter. "I'll drive you home. Sorry dad, I'll help with the dishes when I get back."

"Don't worry about it, you two lovebirds take your time." Taiyang gave his daughter a knowing look, teasing her one more time in front of her girlfriend before they leave.

"Daaad! C'mon, I'm just taking her home." Yang whined before shutting the front door behind her.

"Yeah right, who does she think she's talking? Like I haven't been a teenager before." Taiyang chuckled as he collected the plates from the dining room table and dumped them into the sink of the kitchen. After rinsing off the dishes and putting them into the dishwasher, he walked up to Ruby's bedroom door. After a quick knock, he tried to open the door but found it to be locked.

Taiyang sighed, he really didn't like that Ruby locked her door so often. "Ruby, unlock the door. We need to have a talk."

Nothing but silence.

"Ruby, I'm being serious. If you don't open this door than I'll-"

"go away!" Ruby yelled, muffled by the door.

Taiyang rolled his eyes as he groaned, oh how he misses the days when his daughters weren't stubborn teenagers. He took his keychain off his belt loop and selected the key to Ruby's bedroom, he was extra careful in making sure his daughter didn't know it existed. He wasn't gonna put a lock on her door without having a way to get in, especially in cases of an emergency. As soon as he unlocked the door, he entered Ruby's room. Ruby shot up in a sitting position in her bed, shocked that her dad had entered her room.

"H-How did you, since when did...g-go away!" Ruby swung her blanket over her, hiding underneath it.

Taiyang sat at the edge of her bed. "Look, Ruby, I can't help you if you ju-"

"I don't want anyone's help!" Ruby's snapped, muffled by her blanket.

"Ok, then could you explain to me what is wrong? I'm not leaving until you do."

Ruby groaned as she shifted under the covers before reluctantly peeking her head out. "I-I really don't want to talk about it…"

Taiyang began to smile, hoping it would help Ruby open up. "That may be, but it seems like keeping it to yourself is only causing you problems."

Ruby sighed as she sat up, she knew that her dad won't give up just because she told him to go away. She stayed silent for a few moments, trying to figure out how to explain what happened without revealing her secret that was currently sitting in a box underneath her bed. "I wasn't actually doing homework, I was sleeping and I had a bad dream...it was about mom"

Taiyang's smile quickly turned to a frown, right then he knew what the problem was. "Ah, I see…did you have panic attack again?"

Ruby tightened her grip on her blanket, she hated admitting to it outloud so she simply nodded.

Tai slowly shook his head. His youngest daughter is certainly as stubborn as her sister. "Why did you try to hide it?"

"Because...I don't want anyone to see how weak I am...How vulnerable I've become..." Ruby felt a tear fall down her cheek. Next thing she knew, she was being hugged by her father.

"You're not weak, sweetie. You're one of the strongest and smartest people I know." Tai released Ruby, giving her a warm smile. "And it's ok to ask for help from time to time. Even I sometimes need help, remember the first time I tried to make you and Yang brownies? I nearly set the house on fire!" Taiyang let out a boisterous laugh.

Ruby giggled as she wiped away her tears, she remembered that event as if it were yesterday. "Yeah, Uncle Qrow had to use two fire extinguishers just to put you out."

"Yes, and In the end he helped me bake you girls brownies without anymore trouble." Taiyang moved some of Ruby messy bangs away, revealing more of her face. "So, are you gonna keep hiding your problems from me and your sister?"

Ruby hugged her father tightly. He was right after all, but it's gonna be difficult. What could she do that would help her not feel so weak? If only there was something she could do that made her happy again in the real world. "Alright...I'll try really hard not to hide my problems anymore, but to be honest...It's gonna be kinda hard."

Taiyang kissed the top of her head before tucking her in bed. "That's fine, all I'm asking is for you to try your best. Anyways, I'm gonna go clean up the house. You're sister and her girlfriend kind of left a mess in the living room." Once Ruby was tucked into bed, he got up and made his way to the door.

"Hey dad?" Ruby called out

Taiyang stopped in the doorway. "Yes, sweetheart?"

"Thanks...for everything."

"No Problem, kiddo." And with that, Taiyang left and closed the door behind him.

Ruby laid there in her bed, thinking of what she could do that would make her happy again. It's not like she could play sports again and college is too expensive at the moment.

'As much as I'd hate to admit it, but maybe I should go ask Glynda for advice…'

Suddenly, her phone started buzzing on her nightstand. Warning her that she had a message. She grabbed her phone and unlocked it. It was Nora, spamming her with messages.

[Nora] Ruby, what happened? Are you ok? Jaune was freaking out when you got pulled from the game but I covered for you, so don't worry about him knowing anything."

[Nora] Seriously, are you ok? Message me soon.

There were about ten more messages of Nora trying to get a hold of her. Ruby typed out a response before setting her phone back onto her nightstand.

[Ruby] I'm fine, just had a panic attack. Also, sorry I didn't respond sooner, was having dinner with my family.

This monday was probably the most exhausting monday in her entire life. She could barely even think at this point as she closed her eyes as the day's exhaustion finally consumed her. Ruby had a busy week ahead of her and she needed as much sleep as she could get, she had a feeling that today's study session with Weiss was going to be nothing like the rest that await her. Ruby had no idea how right she was in her assumption.