A/N: Happy Sunday! Yikes, sorry this one was a bit late. Fiercesomest is almost never to blame for late chapters I've realized... Nope, this time it's a wild and crazy wonky sleep schedule wrecking me in the faceeee. Who else here has random spats of insomnia?

Anyway, here's to hoping the chapter makes up for it!

HUGS,
D

Ruby came awake slowly, or she thought she did.

Am I dead? She blinked and her hazy vision started to clear. She was lying in the grass under a tall tree with clear, shifting leaves. They looked like water, and they caught the sunlight like liquid crystals. A warm breeze stirred the treetop. Roses climbed a number of branching black iron lamp posts that seemed to be growing out of the earth like saplings.

"Ruby," the sound of the voice was muddy, like it was underwater.

Ruby tried to answer but she was exhausted. She could barely keep her eyes open. A hand stroked back her bangs and she managed to turn her head a little. The blurred figure beside her was clad in white and red. Ruby's question came out groggy and thick, "Mom?"

A sharp smack to the head snapped her the rest of the way awake.

The air was cold, and the sky was made of canvas. A tent? Ruby groaned. One of her hands was caught but she clutched her head with the free one, hazarding as she blinked away sleep, "Weiss?"

"You absolute dolt," the heiress scolded from beside her on the ground. She released Ruby's other hand, "What were you thinking, holding on for that long? Do you have any idea how dangerous that was?"

Ruby looked up from her sleeping bag in the semi-light of the tent. There were clothes and gear stacked all over the place. Crescent Rose lay next to her in compact form. Weiss was scowling going on in that way she did when she didn't get enough sleep. Still foggy with sleep, Ruby tried to keep up with her partner's exasperated ranting for another minute or so before the tent flap opened, filling the crowded space with cold winter light.

A familiar face peered into the tent, bright amber eyes smiling to see Ruby up and aware. Blake turned to speak to someone behind her, "She's awake." Blake stepped inside, making way for Ren, who came in bearing a bowl of bread and some kind of leafy greens, which he handed to Weiss. Another familiar face followed hot on his heels.

Pyrrha stepped quietly into the room.

She looked as warm and welcoming as always, but her demeanor was tinged with a new element of weariness. Her hair was pulled back as usual, but the gold circlet that typically adorned her head was missing, replaced with a much simpler band of some silvery metal with a single small horn of iron in its center. Likewise, her usual gold armor had been replaced with what looked like scrap metal cobbled together to try and resemble her former combat attire.

Emerald eyes swept over Ruby, tightening with unfamiliar lines of worry when their gazes met, but as Pyrrha knelt beside Ruby's bed, her greeting was still the same. "Hello again."

"Pyrrha?" Ruby was so relieved that all of a sudden there were tears. She rubbed her eyes on her frayed black sleeve. "You guys are okay?"

Weiss had gone silent. White as a sheet, she exchanged a glance with Ren and brushed her hair back over her shoulder. The red fabric at her collar showed as she adjusted her cuffs, "Ruby? Let me see your hand again."

"Huh?" Ruby complied, still a little hazy about what was happening as Weiss took her hand and... started aura healing? The glow that surrounded her was soft and white, almost invisible against the sun-bright walls of the tent they were in. Ruby's aura responded, tingling from her arm to her chest and out to the rest of her. She felt totally fine. Had Weiss had just decided she wanted to practice randomly? That didn't make sense. She tried to sit up and ask, "Why are you-?"

The look Weiss gave her was scathing, but behind that it was terrified.

The scythe-wielder lay propped on one elbow as Weiss returned her attention to her work and refused to look back at her. Something was wrong. Something other than what had happened to Vale and to everyone at Beacon. She looked up at Pyrrha and Ren, dread creeping into her chest even though she didn't know why.

Ruby's silver eyes were red.

Pyrrha's eyes were beginning to redden in a different way, tears slipping down her cheeks even as she smiled. "You're okay," she breathed, as if saying it aloud would make it a reality. Arms that had held her rifle's aim rock steady in the face of endless waves of Grimm trembled and shook as Pyrrha reached out, gathering Ruby into a tight hug, "You... you woke up-" was all she was able to get out before she began to cry in earnest.

Eyes flashing with sympathy, Ren came to kneel beside them, placing a gentle hand to Pyrrha's back and leaning close, speaking softly, "This means there's still hope."

"Mmmg," Ruby squirmed, half smothered in the hug.

"Great, okay, act like she's fine," Weiss had given up trying to maintain her aura healing with Pyrrha grabbing Ruby and crying. Her glance darted between her partner and Pyrrha, "You saw her eyes, though. That's not fine."

The only other time she'd seen Ruby's eyes like that, or close to that, had been after the Grimm Rat King, in that nightmare world. The fencer's throat went dry, thinking about it, about the feral red in Ruby's eyes as her hands tightened around her throat.

Ren shook his head. "Probably not. Though to be honest," his eyes dipped a fraction, "...I didn't expect her to wake at all."

Blake shifted uncomfortably, glad Yang wasn't present to hear this. "Why not?"

Ren held his silence, quietly looking to Pyrrha, whose tears were beginning to slow.

Gently disentangling herself from Ruby with a barely whispered, I'm sorry, Pyrrha forced the remainder of her swell of emotions down, wiping gingerly at her eyes. "Because," she started, hiccuping down another sob, "because Jaune is still asleep."

Ruby had flopped back on the pile of folded blankets, panting from lack of oxygen. She struggled back up at that, though, "Wait, my eyes? And Jaune's... asleep?"

Weiss's mouth was a thin line.

Ruby shifted to look past Weiss over to Blake, "What about Beacon?" being in a tent in the middle of winter finally registered, and her brow furrowed, "Where are we?"

The entire tent went quiet - aside from Pyrrha's slowly subsiding sniffles. Ren looked as though he wanted to say something, but looking to Pyrrha granted him little guidance, as she had her eyes glued firmly to the ground.

In the end it was Blake who broke the silence, Faunus ears flattened. "We... are at Beacon."

Ruby shrank down some, suddenly wanting to just go back to sleep for a while. She swallowed, her voice small, "Oh."

Ruby shielded her eyes from the sun as she exited the tent, Weiss and Blake at her side to steady her. The tent- or tents, actually. There was more than one- stood in the middle of a wide patch of gouged out, rubble strewn ground, surrounded by an enormous tilt of circular wall.

"It's the coliseum," Weiss's tone was as cold and hard as the look in her ice blue eyes. They were inside Amity Coliseum, home of the Vytal Festival tournament, a symbol of harmony between all the people of Remnant. Fragments of the four kingdom's colors fluttered in the bleak winter wind near the top of the circular wall. Ruby followed her partner's gaze, taking in the ring of stadium seating surrounding them. Chairs were missing from the stands, like teeth, or like corn kernels pried off the cob, leaving blank empty spaces. The glass of the announcer's box had shattered. The entire lower half of the structure was missing, and what remained was pitched at a crazy angle- the west half of it had crumpled into the ground on impact.

Twisted sheets of metal and shards of glass littered the ground beyond the small clump of tents, mingling with bits of equipment from one of Beacon's training fields, and... was that a blackboard? It was broken in half, but the chalk drawings were intact- Grimm biology. One of Professor Port's Deathstalker diagrams. Ruby also recognized pieces of one of the upperclassman projects nearby- a collapsible catapult. There were teeth marks on the main arm. Big ones. There weren't many tents here. Not enough for all the students at Beacon, let alone all the visitors from Haven and the other schools. She felt hollow, like everything had been drained out of her while she'd been asleep. After a second, she managed to squeak out, "Where's Yang? And where are..." she gestured helplessly at the sun-bleached canvas, as Pyrrha and Ren followed them out of the tent, "...where is everyone?"

"Yang's over there," Blake pointed to one of the largest tents, nearly a foot taller than the others and marked with a red cross haphazardly splashed across one edge in what she dearly hoped was not blood. "She collapsed halfway back to camp and has been... in and out," she added, tapping her temple to signify her partner's bouncing back and forth between being out cold and waking just long enough to ask about Ruby.

"Extreme semblance overuse," Ren commented with a small shake of his head, to which Blake nodded. He sobered up upon following Ruby's silver gaze around the empty area, continuing where Blake had left off, "Everyone else has either evacuated or... otherwise." His eyes dropped to the ground, but just as he was about to clarify, a booming CLANG resounded through the enclosed arena, stopping everyone in their tracks.

Ren didn't even look up, and rather than immediately pulling guard, Pyrrha smiled, her eyes lighting up as her head whipped around towards the source of the sound.

"They're back! Pardon me," Pyrrha excused herself from the group before jogging off towards one of the fallen arena's large doorways.

"There is only a small group of us left," Ren continued, finally dragging his eyes up from the ground to warily meet Ruby's, looking for all the world as though he'd rather fight a Goliath single-handed than hold up both of his hands and begin counting, "All of us in JNPR, Yatsuhashi and Fox from CFVY, Sage and Neptune from SSSN, and one girl who we think was part of Emerald's team... but we're not certain. She hasn't spoken a single word since we found her."

"That's..." Ruby couldn't keep from looking between the tent and the massive doorway. The safety gates barred it- somehow they'd survived the crash intact, it looked like. People were gone. Beacon was gone. The wind moaned across the open top of the colosseum. She had so many questions she felt light headed, but her team was her top priority, "Let's check on Yang?"

"She's probably unconscious," Weiss brushed her hair back over her shoulder, trying to play off being ready to support Ruby if she collapsed or anything, "but it wouldn't hurt to visit."

The heiress glanced at Blake to make sure she was coming as well.

Blake's amber eyes were trained elsewhere, quietly watching Pyrrha wave a hand to pull aside the safety gates like they were nothing, only for her other hand to sweep in the opposite direction, sliding open one side of the twenty foot steel doorway as if it were paper. She barely had the chance to wonder over the sheer strength the other girl was displaying when two familiar figures stepped through to greet her - Sage and Yatsuhashi, looking worn and weary, but well enough otherwise. Blake strained to listen, her Faunus ears barely catching Pyrrha's gentle, "Any sign of them?..."

She nearly leaped out of her skin when Ren gently touched her shoulder.

"Let's go."

"Right..." Blake stole one last glance at the trio at the gate - watched Pyrrha reach as high as she could to place a comforting hand on Yatsuhashi's shoulder.

Shrugging off a sense of unease, she followed the others to the medical tent.

The light was muted by the thick tan canvas, but Ruby could still tell the place was a disaster. Mostly it was full of boxes- sheets, tools, packages of medical supplies all thrown together. Ruby squinted, her eyes still adjusting as she looked for her sister.

"Hey," an unfamiliar voice greeted her. She was two steps inside when she noticed Fox from Team CVFY in the corner, sitting on the ground, sorting through supplies. His milky eyes were trained unseeingly in her direction. Had he had that many scars before? He bared a feral grin. "Didn't think you'd wake up."

A small, scuffling sound alerted her to Robin's presence. The tiny faunus girl peeked out from underneath a cot and scurried to Fox, handing him a piece of torn plastic before making herself small and staring at Team RWBY with scared eyes.

There were two cots set up- one on each side of the tent. Really, a medical tent would have been equipped to house more, but as it was a standard four-person combat team sized affair, there was only enough room for two in addition to all the supplies. Both were occupied- in one, Jaune Arc lay still, his breathing slow and even. He seemed pale, even in the dark light, but otherwise he could just have been sleeping. In the other cot...

"Yang," Ruby was at her side in two steps, searching under the thin blanket for her hand to hold.

Giving Ruby her space, Blake crouched down with open arms, beckoning to Robin.

Robin's ears went back and she scurried over, burying her face in Blake's jacket with a series of tiny whimpering sounds.

Ren stuck near the tent's opening, crossing his arms as he spoke to Fox, "Has she woken again since this morning?"

Fox shrugged, sorting out a number of unbroken bottles, "Once or twice. Her aura's pretty burnt out and she's got that hearing thing going on, but she'll probably be fine. She made it this far, right?"

Ruby knelt at Yang's side, clinging to her hand. Something in her eased, hearing she would be fine. (Probably fine was close enough to fine.) Yang's tumble of gold hair lacked its usual luster, and definitely wasn't glowing. Her eyes were closed. Ruby scooted in as close as physically possible, looking her over and wishing she'd open her eyes.

Weiss hung back, as if standing guard over the proceedings.

"Fox?" Pyrrha's voice came from just outside the tent, and she stepped inside, stopping beside Weiss as her green eyes scoured the boxes scattered around them, "Where did you put the medical tape?"

Fox tossed the medical tape to Pyrrha. He sniffed the air twice, "Antiseptic too, or is your aura good?"

A much larger hand parted the tent as Fox spoke, and Blake had to back up so that Yatsuhashi could bow his head and step through, raising his bloodied arm in apology.

Weiss gave Yatsuhashi a wide berth, averse to getting blood on her coat, "What happened?"

Yatsuhashi accepted the tape from Pyrrha, briefly glancing between Fox and Weiss. "I'm fine," he answered both of them at once. With a quiet nod to Pyrrha and Ren, he left the tent.

Trying to move back to her original position, Blake tripped over an errant can, knocking into a stack of empty crates that toppled backwards in a painfully loud clatter that made her ears flatten.

Unfortunately, or perhaps in this case fortunately, the noise was just loud enough to cause Yang to stir. Her fingers squeeze the hand holding hers, and she turned her head just slightly, willing her eyes to open. Dulled lilac met bright crimson and the brawler froze, though the fear quickly turned to confusion, then finally, recognition. "...Ruby?"

"Yang!" Ruby clutched her hand, not caring that the edge of the cot was digging into her ribs. Her eyes started watering all of a sudden and she had to let go with one hand to clear her vision, "You're okay? Like, tired, but really okay?"

Yang blinked, squinting as if trying to work out a fourth year Dust Theory equation as she watched her little sister speak. Tentatively, like she wasn't sure if she had the right answer, Yang cracked a smile and rolled her eyes, rasping out a "Yeah I'm okay, but uh..." she reached over with her free hand to weakly cup Ruby's face, tilting her left, right, and left again, examining her eyes from every angle, "...what's all this?" A wink to hide her trepidation, "Family genes finally kicking in?"

Ruby hesitated for a second, confused, but then she remembered how the others had freaked out after she woke up and she looked down at her hands, "Oh, um, I dunno. Weiss said my eyes are weird, but I can see fine so I guess it's okay?" she shrank some.

Actually, no one had really said why they looked weird- Weiss had given her that look though, like she was scared, and then everything else had happened, and... her shoulders drew up towards her ears as she glanced at Yang, going off the family genes comment, "I guess, uh... are they red? Do they look bad?"

Yang was squinting again, but this time she squinted for a great deal longer, ending in a short disappointed sigh. "I'm not really sure what you just said, but you're gonna be fine," she ruffled Ruby's hair, "And hey your eyes match your highlights now!"

Ruby let Yang mess with her hair, but a couple more tears fell because she'd messed up and gotten Yang hurt again. She hugged on to her, shutting her eyes tight against replays of the fight last night. Yang hadn't used her heavy rounds to jump. That had to be what had happened, "You should have said you were out. I could've just grabbed you or something. Or made a different plan."

"But you said she'll recover," Weiss raised a brow at Fox as she watched over Ruby, sparing only a little attention to glance at Jaune.

"Probably. Hey," he motioned to Blake, who had taken a seat on the floor and was being gifted scraps of debris by the tiny Faunus, "you can leave that kid here if you like. I'll keep an eye on her."

Blake hesitated, amber eyes lingering on the little Faunus before sneaking a look over her shoulder at her partner, quietly watching as Yang struggled against fatigue to hug her sister back.

"...Yes, thank you Fox." Turning back to the little girl, Blake very carefully stowed her handful of new treasures in one of her pouches, then gently took both of the girl's tiny hands in her own. "Robin, I need you to do something very important for me," she nodded to her partner, "keep Yang company today. She's feeling poorly, and she might need hugs. A lot of them. Can you do that?"

Robin looked at her hands in Blake's and then up at the bigger Faunus. Her ears went back, and she gave several small, quick nods.

"She needs to rest," Weiss moved to put a hand on Ruby's shoulder but hesitated and crossed her arms instead.

"Yeah," Ruby pulled back, sniffling. It was bad seeing what had happened to Beacon, and bad that Yang got hurt, but at least they were still together. And it did look like Yang was a hair's breadth from sleep. Ruby wiped her nose with the edge of her sleeve, "Hey, feel better soon, okay?"

The question still need to be asked, though. What had happened to Beacon?

"We can reconvene in the main tent," Ren came up to Ruby's side and spoke softly, so as not to startle her. He looked to Pyrrha next, who had moved to stand beside Jaune's bed. "Are you coming?"

Pyrrha stood in silence, half-lidded emerald green eyes dulled to something closer to jade as she watched Jaune sleep. "...Yes," she put on a smile, and looked to her upperclassman, "Fox, it should only be a few hours before Neptune and Nora return. One of them will switch with you."

"Right," he waved Pyrrha and the others off, "Hurry up and go. It's crowded in here."

Ruby got back up, backing almost into Weiss, who caught her by the hood and steered her to the door of the tent. Ruby hung back, wringing part of her cloak in her hands, "Fox, thanks for... just for taking care of her. And I'm not going away anywhere, just to... just, I'll be back really soon, so if she wakes up tell her I'll be back."

The red-head cocked his head at her, "Sure, kid."

Outside again, Ruby gave her nose and eyes another scrub and straightened up. To her two teammates she said, "Well, guys. We made it back. And..." her focus switched to Pyrrha. The inflection in her voice turned up towards the end, "when the others get back do we get to hear what..." she couldn't help taking another look around at the shell of the colosseum they were using for shelter, "... what happened?"

Pyrrha's smile broke, leaving her momentarily speechless until Ren placed a hand on her shoulder. They shared a brief glance, his calm sympathy allowing the read-headed warrior to quickly recompose herself and meet Ruby's shining red eyes. "We'll tell you everything we know."