I hadn't remembered anything before waking up in my bed with my room crowded with bodies. Teams DEEP, JNPR, RWBY, CFVY and a few others had fallen asleep scattered around the room.

Elise and Blake were cuddled up next in front of me with Velvet, Pyrrha and Weiss sleeping behind me. Ruby slept on the pillow above my head and Yang slept in a ball at my feet. I spotted Nora on top of my bookcase, and Jaune, Ren, Peyton and Elin slept in a puppy pile on two beds pushed together.

Yatsuhashi was half under the two beds, Coco slept on Elise's bed with Fox lying sideways across her.

A few others were sprawled on the floor and on top of our storage chests.

I didn't think the room was made for so many people.

Careful not to wake anyone, I got up to use the bathroom and prepare for the day. I was startled to find Mykel sitting cross legged in my chair, as easy as you please. He smiled when he saw me awake. "Good morning, Ms. Dahlia. How are you feeling?" He asked mildly but underneath it, I could sense a strange mix of emotions. Concern, wonder, and curiosity.

"Fine, thank you." He stood up fluidly and came to her side. I laid back down, unsure of what he was doing. "Why are you in my room?" I whispered, his strange eyes searching my face. He reached down and brushed his fingertips over my cheek. As if seeking… reassurement?

"Just making sure you were alright." He murmured back before he retracted his hand and then he stepped back, nodded and exited the room.

How utterly strange, I thought, sitting up to use the bathroom.

My pants were ruined and I tried to remember how that had happened but I threw the ruined clothing away and retrieved another pair of leather pants and a new set of boots because one of my old pair seemed to be missing.

And my cloak was nowhere to be found.

After a shower and dressing, I went and found an ecstatic Medro and told him of my extra guests.

He hugged me, praising the Gods that I was alive. Of course I was alive. I couldn't die.

He prepared a veritable feast and ordered an army of kitchen boys to carry. It was interesting to me that his Semblance was knowing how much food and what kind everyone would want. Useful for a Head Chef.

The others were just starting to wake when I got back with our breakfast.

"Morning dears." I said to the sleepy room.

Elise was awake instantly. "Dahlia! What are you doing out of bed?!"

I raised my eyebrow. "Bringing breakfast a group of sleepy huntsmen and huntresses."

Nora snored. "Pancakes..."

"Yes, Nora we have pancakes." I said to wake her.

"Dahlia, you need to lie down. God woman, you are insane." Jaune said.

"Why?" I said incredulously. "Do you remember nothing from yesterday?"

I thought about it.

"I remember the Forever Fall trip and Jaune's incredible fight with that big Ursa and I... oh... I must have passed out after I... oh."

I sat down in my chair, fingering the etchings along Orchid.

Pyrrha looked at me. "After what?"

I blushed.

"As you all know, my Semblance is Healing." Everyone knew. My abilities weren't a secret and many utilized my skills.

"Well, when I saw Jaune fighting the Ursa, I could feel how low his Aura was after taking so many hits from Cardin and his team. So, I did something that only true Healers can technically do and don't do it often because of the possible effects."

I turned shy. Jaune looked at me seriously. "Dahlia, what did you do?"

I smiled painfully at him. "I couldn't let you die, Jaune. You just needed a little extra armor."

Blake looked stunned. "You didn't..." She began but I gave her a look.

Then I sighed.

"I tapped into Jaune's Aura and blended mine own into his. So when he took blows from the Ursa, it was my Aura that took the brunt of the hit. Those were hard blows as well. The first or second hit would have killed you Jaune." I said pleadingly.

"Your Aura is incredibly strong, but it had done too much with Cardin and his cronies to have lasted through the attacks."

Everyone stared in shock. Healers could do that?

"But the pain was too much and I guess I fainted." I said sheepishly.

"Dahlia... you saved my life." Jaune said. Pyrrha sent a rush of gratitude towards me. "You're my friend. I didn't do much. I couldn't have beaten that Ursa in the state I was in after Healing Med the day before. I only did what anyone here would have done in my place." I smiled.

"I'm just glad you guys got me back here."

Ouch. The rush of emotions slammed into me.

"Well, Dally. There is something we haven't told you." Elise looked at the people who weren't a part of the three teams who got the message, grabbed breakfast to go and left quietly.

"What's wrong, dears?"

No one would meet my eyes.

Pyrrha was the brave one. "We didn't actually bring you back, Dahlia." She whispered.

Ah, so that was the source of the guilt.

"How long was I there?" I asked conversationally.

"Till a little past dusk." Peyton said, with great big tears in his eyes.

Oh. That's why everyone felt guilty.

They had forgotten me.

"Anything else?" I said mildly.

Ren surprisingly answered. "Your leg was chewed off below the knee by a big Beowolf."

That explained the missing boot and the torn pants.

"But it grew back on the way home. Ozpin and you were in the medic room and Glynda went in and then came out and told us that you were fine and had your leg again. You're like a starfish." Nora said between bites. She ate halfheartedly.

My face didn't change. "I see." Was all I said before I stood up.

"We didn't mean to, Dahlia. Please don't be mad-" Elise began. I cut her off with a smile.

"I'm not mad. Relax, I'm just going to visit Professor Ozpin. I'll be back in a little while. Stay. Eat. I'll only be a little, sweetlings." I murmured, before I turned with Orchid in hand and limped out the door, closing it quietly behind me. The soft click and the silence that followed were louder than a thunderclap.

There was a burning behind my eyes and a tightness in my chest and throat. I began to walk quickly, coming down hard on my right leg to cause more pain. Somehow the pain kept the tears at bay.

He was in his office.

The doors slid open when I gave my name. Inside was a steampunk theme. Clocks and clockwork was the main idea. It was beautiful.

I stepped inside slowly.

"Professor Ozpin." I said neutrally. I could feel the hurt in him brought to the surface.

"Ms. Derivalle. It's good to see you up and about but shouldn't you be resting?" He replied with the same neutrality.

"Believe me, Professor. I'm perfectly fine." I said through my teeth.

His gentle smile cut me to my core. He clicked his cameras off.

"No, my dear Dahlia. You are not fine." He said, standing up.

I tried to take a breath but it got stuck in my throat. "I'm fine." I said but my voice cracked and wobbled on the final note.

That was the last straw.

No amount of pain would prevent these tears. The emotions were too strong.

"How could they just leave me?" I asked despairingly.

He crossed the room as I began to sink beneath the weight of my depression.

I dropped Orchid and covered my face with my hands.

Everyone had forgotten me.

My friends. My teammates. My own sister.

They had all forgotten me.

His surprisingly strong arms wrapped around me and together we sank to the floor.

Oz's care was a balm to the heart-pain that wracked my body. He held me tight against the sadness that wanted to bring me into the darkest depths of my soul where even I feared to venture, petting my long partially wet hair soothingly.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my face into the crook of his neck and gripped the fabric of his jacket tightly in my fists, afraid that if I let go, I would fall.

"They left me." I cried with forceful sobs. The feeling of abandonment was crushing.

"That's the worst part about being the strong one, dearest. No one ever wonders if you're okay." I sniffed and pulled back a little.

His face was very close and I could smell the intoxicating aroma of his closeness. He smelled like coffee and clean man. His voice was low and soft near my ear.

"Your friends didn't leave you, Dahlia. They assumed that you were fine and well. In their minds, perhaps you were just absent after the attack and were back here doing whatever the mysterious Dahlia does whenever no one can find her." He smiled and I pulled my head back to look at him. I gave him a watery giggle and wiped my eyes with the heel of my hand.

"You have no idea the fear that ate at me when Ms. Thayet told me you were missing. They had turned Beacon upside down looking for you and I terrified Glynda half out of her mind with my need to get to the Forever Fall." He tucked my head under his chin and closed his eyes.

"I don't know what I would have done if we hadn't gotten there in time."

I listened to his heartbeat, for once glad that I had survived.

"They told me about my leg."

He winced. "Yes. A remarkable ability you have. Whoever Omar is, he has grand ideas."

I gasped and stared at Ozpin.

How did he know who Omar was? How did he know that Omar was the one who turned my body into a partially immortal being?

"You woke up a little on the ship after your leg regrew." He said. "You said you were tired after doing silly things." He began. I tried to smile.

"I told the teams this morning of a true Healers ability to blend Aura's to protect a person. I did this for Jaune and that's why I passed out. I shouldn't have done it. I wasn't strong enough after I Healed Med but Jaune would have died without a little help and I gave what little energy I had to protect him. Silly things like that." I murmured. Ozpin gulped and chuckled.

"You are truly remarkable." He said. "You told me about your late night visits to the garden. You thought that we were in the garden when you woke up."

I blushed. Why was I so weird half asleep?

"When you said soon, I thought you meant sooner rather than later." He blushed deeply. "Yes...well... complications and such... well..." He stuttered.

I laughed and nuzzled his chest.

"And when I spoke of your leg, you told me 'of course it grew back. That's what Omar trained it to do.' Then you spoke of how you couldn't die unless you were beheaded." He touched the gorget on my neck. "And that's why you wear this." I nodded.

The fear that he was associated with Omar eased.

His heart grew sad. "And then I asked you if you wanted to die? Do you know how you answered?" I said. I knew the answer. "I said, yes."

"You said yes, worse you said you deserved it! How could someone so unique and wonderful as you, who was obviously put on this planet for a grand reason, want to go back to the void?" He said, wishing to disbelieve it. I didn't answer him. I was still too protective of my secrets. Instead I countered. "I could say the same for you." He was stunned by my response. Oh yes, Oz, I can read that deeply into a person's soul, especially when something resonates in my own. I'm not the only one who wishes for death.

"I have nightmares now of you." He whispered.

"I always find you laying as if asleep, in a bed of roses. You look so peaceful, so utterly beautiful laying there. All black and silver, with your tattoos and this lovely hair, like spun moonbeams. But you're never sleeping. I try to wake you but you just lay there and that's when I see that the rest of the roses are white. Yet all the rose petals around you are stained red. And somewhere, I can hear the howling of Beowolves."

I pulled my head back. "Isn't there a song, where one of the lyrics is 'Every nightmare just discloses, it's your blood that's red like roses'?" He looked at me confused.

"Music and drawing are my escapes. Especially from my own nightmares." And I sang the lyrics I just told him. Then I sighed.

"Maybe if you come to the garden tonight, we can talk more." I whispered.

His arms tightened for a moment then reluctantly let me go.

We helped each other stand slowly and he handed me Orchid. I still hurt, but it wasn't raw pain. I could forgive my friends.

I was the strong one. And they were my pack. I wasn't a lone wolf anymore.

"Good day. Ms. Derivalle." He said turning away.

"Oz." I said reaching for him.

He turned and I put a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you." I said gratefully. "I'll see you tonight."

And with that, I turned and began to leave when I spotted my cloak on his chair. I opened my mouth then thought better. With a secret smile, I continued out of his office and towards my friends.

"That was much longer than you said!" Weiss cried when I came back inside.

I felt calmer. "Sorry. The Professor and I had much to discuss." I said coming to sit back down in my chair.

I took a deep breath.

"I lied earlier. I wasn't mad. But it hurt really bad that my friends forgot me. After talking to Professor Ozpin, I think I understand. But I'd like to hear it from you." I met their eyes. "How could you leave me in the Forever Fall? I thought I was your friend." I said sadly. I fixed Blake with a sad stare.

Her guilt was of two pains.

This was not the first time she had left me to die.

"Sometimes, it's like you don't need us." Elise whispered.

I looked at her.

"There is something about you, something no one can reach. You take care of everyone around you and I guess I never really thought that maybe you needed to be taken care of a little. You just seem so powerful, even with the things that make you insecure." She said.

Everyone nodded.

I sighed, with a little laugh.

"You guys honestly don't think I need you more than you need me? Does anyone here realize how terrified I am of being alone? I need you guys like I need air. Maybe more. Now that I have friends, one of my greatest fears is losing them." I said amazed at how oblivious my darlings were.

"I was told this. The worst part about being strong, is no one asks if you are alright. Yes, I may seem strong but I need you. All of you. No one can be strong all the time and when I falter, even I need a helping hand."

Nora belched loudly, the trays cleaned off. I laughed and everyone seemed to relax.

But not enough.

"I need you all to close your eyes."

Each one immediately did so. It confounded me that they so blindly followed my orders. No one even asked the normal question of why.

"Take a few deep, calm breaths. Focus on the sound of my voice. I'm going sing you a little song."

I sensed all eleven of them trying to do as I asked.

Taking a deep breath, I tapped my foot slowly. Wings was a slow sweet song.

One life... is not a long time...

when you're waiting... for a small sign...

I reached into that deep, dark blue of my Aura and activated the strands of my Semblance. I plucked eleven strands from myself and pressed them into my friends.

Patience... is hard to find...

Shadows... seem to fill your life...

I tied the Healing to their heartbeat. I eased guilt, healed the rifts in their souls and took away their pain, replacing it with hope and happiness.

Don't be disappointed, don't let your heart break

Don't spend another in... this... way...

I saw smiles on some faces, calmness on others.

It's... oh.. kay...

Once I could heal no more, I pulled the strands back into my body and let my song trail off still tapping my foot till everything was back to normal.

With the last tap of my foot, eyes opened.

"That was incredible." Ren murmured.

"I feel all warm and fuzzy." Nora said smiling in that bubbly way with a warm look in her turquoise eyes.

I petted her orange hair. "My Semblance isn't just physical Healing but mental and emotional Healing as well."

Pyrrha nodded. "That makes sense actually." There was a chorus of agreements.

"And, my healing Semblance is powerful strands of Healing energy that are tied into my body. That's how my leg grew back. My body activated the strands and it Healed me in the only way it could which was regrowing the limb. I can't do that for other people but my body was trained from a young age to do what we call Quick Heal. It's my secret advantage in battle. No matter what the blow, my body will recover. Even death wounds, won't kill me. There is only one way to kill me." I said touching my gorget.

Eyes were wide as saucers. "How did you train your body to-"

"I don't want to talk about it." I snapped as Weiss tried to question me. Blake touched the pale girl's arm and an understanding passed between them.

Memories of the past once again came. Inside I crumbled. My leg pulsed with pain, feeling angry with my treatment of it before.

I closed my eyes and rested my hands against my right thigh just above the source of my constant pain.

Then a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders. And another. And a hand grabbed mine.

When I opened my eyes, I was surrounded by my friends. Blake held my hand and squeezed it.

I pulled my friends in tight.

"I love you guys." I whispered.

They needed no words. I could feel their answer and it healed the last of my pain.

Night began to fall. Medro sent another army with food for us and it was incredible to feel the bonds developed in the room.

Tighter than friends, stronger than family. A true pack. And somehow, I felt accepted.

As if their rescue had formed another bond with me. They were more like family than anything I'd ever been in before.

I finally had a real family.

Though, when I had revealed another secret, it made me much more willing to move on Yang.

As everyone separated for the night, I caught her on the way out.

"Tomorrow night, I'm headed out for a drink in town. Want to come along?" She agreed happily.

Score one for Dahlia.

But that night I had already made plans. If Oz didn't show I would take it as a final rejection.

He hadn't come to the garden since we first met there and it had been months. If he even felt the slightest thing for me, he would come.

If not... well, I'd think about that later.

With a mixture of excitement and resignation, I dressed in my long black silk nightgown and an open front charcoal gray satin sleep robe. I spent time watching my team fall deep asleep brushing out the curtain of my hair till it felt as silky as my clothes. The moon was a thin broken crescent in the sky.

I collected my sketch pad, charcoals and charcoal cloth, hairspray, a blanket and Orchid before I slipped out the room.

I closed my eyes and refused the fragile hope in my heart that he would come. Please, let him come.

I parted the ivy and stepped inside my garden. Even with the lack of light, I could see fine and the shadows were deep and beautiful. The light gave a silvery sheen to the secret garden.

I padded to my favorite tree and sat down with the blanket on the ground and around my shoulders. Orchid was propped up against the tree to my right. The grass was soft beneath my feet. I propped my sketch pad up in my thighs and thumbed through some of my sketches slowly. I preferred charcoal to any other drawing material. It was hard to work with but the finished product was something special.

I began on a fresh page, singing the lyrics the Red Like Roses to myself, remembering Oz's nightmares about me.

There was little hesitation in my hands. The bold black lines and the soft gray lines blended into the image I could see of Oz's fear.

A bed of roses, my hair splaying around me wildly. My eyelashes were hard but I couldn't deny my stark beauty when rendered. And as my final touch, I drew Orchid, lying near my outstretched hand. Her sleek lines and beautiful swirling orchid designs.

Hours past as I sang and drew. I focused on every tiny detail till it looked beyond real. More like a picture than a drawing.

I wiped my fingers on my cloth and set my drastically shortened charcoal stick down. I brushed my hand across my forehead to move my bangs, leaving behind a dark line of charcoal across my skin.

I spray the drawing with hairspray to set it and prevent the hateful unintentional smudging.

I sighed and looked at the moon that had risen to its peak.

He hadn't come.

He didn't want me enough to come to me.

I stared at my drawing.

Perhaps I had misinterpreted his feeling's back in his office. Perhaps I had been wrong about everything.

Hurt flared and I seized the paper, thinking for a moment to rip it apart.

"I do hope you don't tear it up." A soft voice said near me.

I jumped a little, surprised that he had snuck up on me.

The hurt was gone in an instant. Hope lit up inside me.

"Oz... you came." I said happily. I stood up slowly with the aid of the tree. "It took me a while to get the courage to come but I couldn't stand the thought of you sitting down here all night waiting for me. I couldn't stand the thought of disappointing you." He admitted bashfully.

I was surprised to see him in a tight long sleeve gray shirt and long loose green pajama pants.

"It's strange seeing you so informal looking." I said smiling. I limped over to him without the aid of Orchid and slid my arms around his ribs in a gentle embrace. He was so warm.

"It's strange seeing you look so... vulnerable." I looked up at him, resting my chin on his chest.

"How do I look vulnerable?"

He smiled and I felt something akin to melting. Emotions are so odd when you are reacting to an attractive person.

"You look so soft in your night clothes. Much less like the warrior I see every day… you really have no idea the effect you have on people?" He murmured, helping me to the tree.

He sat next to me and tucked the blanket up over my shoulders.

"Normally, in your black attire you look like a fierce, powerful warrior who is untouchable in every way. Delicate fragility offset with brutal strength." He said, looking at me, running his eyes over me. I observe the deep bags under his eyes, a match to my own.

"Now, you seemed much more accessible and soft. So very lovely." He said, taking a closer look at my image of his nightmare.

"Perfect." He said quietly.

He stared a long time at the picture and I could feel the nightmare nibble at the edges of his sleep deprived mind.

With a gentle wave of my Semblance I brushed it away, like sweeping cobwebs away.

He sighed in relief. "Thank you." He said taking my hand in his.

"I am a True Healer, like none I've ever heard. For years, I've studied and researched for someone with my same set of gifts but my searches all turned up fruitless." I said turning my head to look more fully at him.

Beneath the shelter of the pale beech tree, I suddenly felt very open to the handsome man who caused such strange feelings inside me. Or were those his feelings? I couldn't tell.

"I've come to the conclusion that I was created this way."

"By the man, Omar, who you mentioned before."

I nodded slowly and took a deep breath. It was hard to let go of such painful secrets. I had guarded them for so long and I still felt reservation about telling anyone.

What if it affected the way they treated me?

"I was an experiment for most of my life. It was a cruel existence, living under the thumb of Omar Derivalle. So much of me is a show of his hand. I've never actually known whether this was the way I was supposed to look or be like or whether this is that way Omar wanted me to be. He is my Puppetmaster." Oz stayed quiet. He just listened with his sober brown eyes looking into my face, completely open.

"But he messed up. He didn't mean to cripple me but he did. And by the time he realized his mistake, it was too late to fix. He couldn't start over. He had spent too much time creating me already. So he taught the cripple to be his weapon." I said rubbing my thigh.

"What did he do to cripple you?"

My smile was gentle but it dripped with sadness.

"He trained my body to heal itself. He taught it to Heal nearly instantaneously." I whispered.

His horror grew as he realized what I meant.

"In order to teach my body, he chose a spot on me to create the reaction. And he chose right here." I said pointing to the middle of my right thigh.

"Omar would break this bone in various way to test and train the Quick Heal in my body. Shattering, clean break, etc. Hour after hour, day after day, I was manacled to a stone wall in the dark little room that I spent my life in, having my femur broken, Healed then rebroken an hour later. Then half an hour later. Then fifteen minutes. Training my body's response to injuries. Oh now, of course, he didn't just break my leg. He cut me, beat me, tortured me to make sure my body knew how to handle anything."

I spoke without inflection, pretending that I was telling about what happened to someone else. But every time I said Omar's name, my leg was shot through with pain.

"But one day, he tried to do a Heal too fast. He broke my leg and then five minutes later, shattered the healing bone, then five minutes later he broke it again. By then it healed wrong, having been broken wrong and it healed badly. That's where the pain stems from. There are nerves that are constantly under the grinding on the bones, causing immense pain and my limp. I would have moved the nerve long ago if it was only one. But when Omar broke the same place so many times so quickly, he scrambled several nerves out of place into the bone structure."

Now Oz's horror was compounded by his fury.

"Now I heal almost instantaneously. A useful trick in battle but he was always disappointed about his one failure. My leg is the one place on my body that I cannot fully heal ever again." I said sadly. I purposefully mentioned that it was the one place on my body that couldn't be healed. On my heart, mind and soul were other wounds that would never fully heal. It wasn't just my body that was crippled.

He reached over and put a hand on my thigh, right above the break. His hand was warm through the silk of my night gown.

"Who is this monster who would do such vile things to such a remarkable child?" The Huntsman Ozpin said fueled by an out-of-character rage.

It was sweet how he raged over the pain I had been forced through.

I placed my hand over his where it rested on my leg. "Omar is my father and was my first lover." I said, feeling my stomach roll as the words fell from my mouth.

He was suddenly on his feet pacing angrily. I missed his warmth keenly.

Hate was not a feeling unfamiliar to Oz. He kept it tightly locked down though. But it filled him then as he paced.

For one heart stopping moment, I thought it was directed at me.

Then he began to mutter. "If I get my hands on that creature, I'll make him pay."

I shivered at the thought of Oz meeting Omar.

He noticed. He came to sit back down and he lifted me up and sat down, then placed me down between his legs with my back resting against his strong chest. He wrapped his arms around my waist and linked his fingers in my lap.

"You are truly remarkable, Dahlia. Anyone else would have broken under that-"

I cut him off. I tilted my head back till I could look into his adoring eyes.

"Oz, I did break... I'm still broken." He went silent and stared at me.

"I'm the one thing in the world that I cannot truly Heal. I've done some truly horrible things and I can never fix that. That's why I came here to learn. I wanted to learn how the real world worked and perhaps begin trying to balance out the bad I've done with the good I could do as a Huntress." I whispered, looking at my sketch. He rested his cheek on my head and cuddled me closer.

I had never sat so close to a man in such an intimate way.

It was really nice.

I could have stayed that way happily, with a strength stronger than my mine own cradling me.

But too soon, Oz woke me up, helped me stand and gather my things. I hummed happily as he handed me Orchid and the rest of my things.

"You should draw something for me." He said.

I sleepily agreed. But at that point, I would have agreed if he told me that the sun would rise in the west and I would have to walk on my hands whenever it rained.

Before he left, he promised to come see me again. And he, like Elise, didn't break promises. I swore him to secrecy but I needn't worry. Oz wanted our special relationship to remain just ours and my secrets were safe with him.

He left me with a gentle kiss on my cheek. It warmed the coldest corners of my heart. I returned the kiss on his cheek and felt the same phenomena inside him.

I walked back to my room, wondering at the strange, sweet feelings that made me feel as if I was floating, even when I was far from him. Truly, human emotions were strange.