Summer's sitting in a soft green meadow, near the tree line where grasses and wildflower gave way to darkened woods. Just within the shade rests a ghostly form. A woman wreathed in darkness wore ever more black in the dress that clung to her body. The crimson of her irises was dull, lifeless, barely visible within the black of her eyes and the shade that wreathed her. She sat on a black velvet cushion, keeping the hellish woman's rear just above the dew-covered grass below. The girl was laying down on her stomach, her face inches from a plate in front of her. It holds only crumbs, and the girl —who couldn't be more than seven or eight — reaches into a basket for another sandwich. The woman watches with alien fascination, as if every motion the girl makes is novel, bizarre. When the girl has her sandwich in hand, and her wide silver eyes are focused once more on the night matron, the woman speaks with an echo-y timbre. It vibrates blades of grass, the leaves in the trees begin to shudder, the very air becomes thick with anticipation.

The story of men is one you already know, little one. In an era long past a lone witch lived in Remnant. Where she walked she was followed by beasts of all kinds, birds flitting in trees and beowolves hiding in bushes. When she was young, many people walked the land, yet a great tragedy tore them from the earth. One day, when she was lonely, she gathered some of the animals and told them a grand story, weaving magics between her fingertips as she spoke. From that group of animals did she create the first things like man that the world had seen in eons. People with ears like cats, tails like dogs, she made them all with magic that boggled the mind. These were the Faunus, and what was the Witch's name?

'Salem', the girl answers, her toothy smile unfaltering in the presence of the mother of death.

Ruby woke with a start, her jaw clenching tight as she flinched in Cinder's embrace. Her breathing came ragged and sweat began streaming down her brow, stinging her eyes. She could see little in the dark, but the faint blue light of the nearby alarm clock read 4:00AM, which meant she'd been asleep for a few hours. It hadn't done much, as a thick fog clouded her mind. She felt exhausted and restless at the same time. Limp and wired. She closed her eyes and tried to focus on her breathing, attempting to match it to Cinder's sleepy pattern.

"Shh." Cinder whispered, pulling Ruby's back tight against her bare chest. "No nightmares in my bed."

"They're not nightmares." Ruby replied, lifting a hand and resting it on one of Cinder's. The older woman had one arm just under her breasts, the other hanging over her waist. Ruby was faintly aware that Cinder had moved it there from between her legs, but she didn't really care at this point. "They're memories."

Cinder hummed at that, squeezing Ruby even tighter. "I thought you stopped struggling with them."

"Me too." Ruby sighed. She tried to relax into the embrace, inhaling deeply through her nose before exhaling out her mouth.

"Your back's hot."

"I'm well conditioned." Ruby joked.

Ruby could fairly hear the rolling of Cinder's eyes. The older woman pinched Ruby's abdomen, getting a squeak out of the younger girl before reaching behind her and turning on a lamp on the bedside table. The yellow light was soft enough it didn't harm their eyes as Cinder prodded Ruby to sit up.

After some shuffling Ruby was sitting on the side of the bed, her back to the lamp with Cinder near beside her. The light highlighted the grooves and ridges of Ruby's form, both from muscle and bone as well as scar. Right along her spine, in the valley between her shoulder blades, a black mass writhed beneath her skin.

"This isn't good." Cinder muttered to herself. She placed a hand on Ruby's back and could feel the inhuman heat being given off. Her skin had a pallor, despite the heat, and she could see Ruby shivering even in the relative warmth of the room. "How long have you been like this?"

"A few days, maybe longer." Ruby mumbled. "They don't get worse per se. I don't remember dying or anything like that."

"That would be a bit macabre." Cinder hummed. "The… thing Salem put in you, it's poorly behaved." Cinder pressed a finger into the center of the dark mass and it shifted towards the point of contact. She couldn't feel any resistance but it felt… odd. Alien. Which Grimm were, she supposed. But there was an almost nostalgic feeling, a sort of realization or emotion that welled up in Cinder that forced her to jerk her hand away.

"Real convenient of her to leave it in the one place I can't check by just like, looking in a mirror." Ruby grumbled.

Cinder shrugged. "Only Salem knows. It's magic, after all. Forcing someone's aura into another's body isn't something that any human has ever accomplished." Cinder traced a fingernail along the path of a particularly ugly scar that ran just parallel to the cut of her spine. The blade had been sharp, the cut clean, but the Huntsman's aura had corroded everything it touched, including Ruby's flesh as it severed it. "Even she couldn't do it perfectly.

"I'm well aware." Ruby said with a bit of a cringe, wiggling away from the offending finger. "She didn't have a solution last time so I'm out of luck."

"And I'd prefer not to repeat what we did last time." Cinder whispered, wrapping arms around Ruby's middle and pulling her back until she was between her legs. "So do you have any bold ideas?"

"Hope it stops on its own?"

"How about one that's proactive?"

Ruby sighed deeply and shrugged. "I'm sure Salem knows a way, but she doesn't want me to suppress mom's memories. She's hoping I become her. Or something like her." Ruby rolled her shoulders and lifted her head to look out the window in front of her. The sea was an inky black, and the ocean beyond held no light at all. "But if it's inevitable, I'm definitely going to run out the clock."

"We have worked too hard just for you to disappear before the finish line." Cinder growled, placing her chin on Ruby's shoulder. "I had the greatest respect of anyone for Summer but… this…" Cinder paused, swallowing. She was quiet for a moment, collecting herself as Ruby remained silent out of respect for the older woman's pride. "You made me a promise. I will help you keep it."

"I know." Ruby whispered, tears forming in her eyes. "I'll try my best, Cinder."

The two remained like that for quite a while. Cinder clutched on to Ruby as if she might disappear that very moment, and Ruby tried her best to feel strong. As the darkness coiled and spread on her back she could sense the memories teasing at the corners of her mind. If she let herself think about it, she'd recognize tastes on her tongue of food she'd never eaten, or the all-too-fresh scent of the Ocean rushing against the deserts of Vacuo. But she did not think. With her eyes wide open, burning with tears that fell silently, she stared out into that darkness. She willed her mind to be calm, and in the sea she could found it.

For now, at least.