"She's following me again." I said into my scroll. I couldn't keep the panic from seeping through my voice, and I heard Yang give a disapproving sigh.

"Weiss, you need to calm down. She's not following you. She stopped following us years ago. You're doing it again." Part of me didn't want her to be right, but a bigger part of me did. It was much better than the alternative. The alternative was that the monster that took my partner was back for me.

Ruby's fall still haunted my dreams. The moment her eyes turned from silver to black, the insane laughter as she stabbed Crescent Rose into Professor Ozpin over and over again. Our entire team frozen in utter shock as she licked the blood off the blade, constantly shuddering in pleasure as some dark form pulsed under her skin. The black rose petals that fell to the floor as she disappeared.

After that she started following us. Always at a distance, always gone by the time we reached her. Piles of black rose petals littered the paths behind us. Until, one day, she stopped following us and turned to only following me. Or, at least, that's what I thought at the time. But Yang or Blake never saw her, and the petals were gone. Eventually I realized that nobody was there, that the stress of losing the woman I loved in such a terrible way was making me paranoid.

After everything that happened, there was no way I could stay in Vale. I returned home, joined the Atlas academy, and was fine until six months ago when General Ironwood handed me a lamp and told me to guard it with my life. Ever since then, I had been worried about what might come looking for it.

Now I was seeing her again. A dark figure in a red cloak wielding a massive scythe, hiding in the shadows all around me. Unless she wasn't, and the paranoia was driving me mad again. I called Yang to find out, but this conversation wasn't proving to be as helpful as I'd hoped.

"What if Salem found out I was hiding a relic? Who else would she send to get me?"

"How could she possibly know? The only people with the Relic locations are Ozpin, Ironwood, Qrow, you, me, and Blake. Do you really think any of us would ever tell Salem anything?" She asked.

"Of course not, but that doesn't mean she couldn't find out in other ways. There's no telling what she can do."

Yang's voice suddenly softened, and I could picture the familiar way her eyes lit up with compassion. "Do you want me to come stay with you?"

Yes, I desperately wanted her to be near me. But Yang guarded her own Relic, and we couldn't chance them being together. "No," I lied, "I'll be okay. I probably just need some more rest."

"That's a good idea. Take some time off. You'll feel better once you relax a little. I'll call you to check up in a few days." Yang hung up, and I felt a sudden chill come over my body as soon as her voice disappeared. Maybe I was being paranoid, but I didn't want to be outside anymore. I left my office and started walking to my apartment when I got the intense feeling that someone was watching me. I immediately started sprinting down the street. I weaved in and out of the people in my way, and I must have seemed like a lunatic to them. Which is fair, because it's entirely possible I was insane.

I didn't live that far from my office, and it didn't take me long to get home at my pace. I couldn't stand being in the enclosed space of the elevator, so I sprinted up the six flights of stairs to my floor instead. My apartment was the first one on the right, and I quickly opened it and finally walked into what I thought was safety.

I was wrong. The immaculate apartment I left this morning was now a nightmare. All of the furniture was smashed into pieces, and the walls were covered in scratches. I started hyperventilating as panic seized my entire being. I wanted to leave, now, but some sick fascination of mine drew me further into the apartment.

When I reached my living room I froze. Sitting on my couch, his throat cut wide open, was one of my neighbors. There was a snowflake carved into one of his cheeks and a rose carved into the other. On the wall, written in his blood, was a simple message in her handwriting. "I missed you, Weiss". When I read that any thought or reason utterly abandoned me. I ran out to my hall, punched a hole in the drywall, grabbed the safety deposit key for the Relic, and fled my apartment.

I took the stairs down three at a time to get out of there faster, but it wasn't enough. When I was halfway down, I heard her voice calling from above me. "Weiss!" I didn't dare look up. I flew down the rest of my stairs and burst out the apartment door, right into a pile of black and white rose petals. I barely managed to avoid slipping and started to run up the street before I brought up my head and stopped cold. She was standing in the shadows in front of me, red cloak billowing behind her and extended Crescent Rose in hand.

I couldn't stop the rising terror inside me from turning into a shriek as I reversed direction. She let me run for a few seconds before I felt her blur past me. She stopped about ten feet in front of me, and all I could do was turn to run down the alley beside my apartment. I heard her giggle behind me as I ran. The exit to the other street was covered in shadows, which is why I didn't see the massive steel containers blocking it until it was too late.

I knew then that there was nowhere I could run. I pulled out Myrtenaster and turned to see her slowly stalking towards me. Ruby was in the light for the first time, and I could finally fully see her outfit. Underneath her normal cloak, she was wearing some kind of utterly impractical black armor that covered almost nothing. I could see how much Ruby had grown up in certain areas since she left, and I couldn't stop a warm flush from running through me at the sight of her.

Ruby stopped and gave me a sly smile. "I've missed you, my love. So very, very much." She purred seductively. "Why don't you come here and give me a kiss?" I took a few steps towards her automatically before stopping myself. What was I doing? I knew she would kill me if I got near her. But wasn't a kiss with Ruby worth it? My mind filled with images of pushing her against the wall and kissing her, of ripping off her clothes and indulging in everything I ever wanted to do with her, of kneeling at her feet and waiting on her pleasure. My feet resumed moving. It would be so easy to go there, hand her the Relic-

A flutter of panic shot through me at that thought and shocked me out of my haze. I suddenly heard whispering around my head, as if the very air was talking. I summoned a glyph and shot out a pulse of freezing cold. Shrieks of pain came from all around me before small black forms clattered onto the ground. My head was suddenly clear of those horrible thoughts, and I felt utter disgust at what I had almost done.

Ruby sighed. "A pity. That way would have been so much more fun."

I took a deep breath and finally summoned the courage to speak. "You can't beat me. Leave now or I'll be forced to kill you."

She laughed, the same insane one that still haunted my dreams. "Oh, my silly little Snowflake, you can't fool me. I can taste your fear."

"I'm scared for you, Ruby. That you might make me kill you." I lied.

She giggled. "Aw, I knew you still cared. I'm going to have so much fun playing with you." She blurred forward, but I was ready for her. She bounced off a glyph, but she quickly recovered and leapt into the air over me, firing shots as she went. The first two hit me before I managed to roll out of the way and summoned a glyph to shoot shards of ice at her. Crescent Rose spun around and sliced them into pieces as Ruby rushed forward again. She slashed down at me, but I caught the blow on Myrtenaster. The force of it drove me to my knees; Ruby was much stronger than the last time we sparred. I pushed forward off the ground into her, briefly knocking her back, and used the opportunity to stab at her unprotected stomach.

There was a hard click as I felt Myrtenaster slide along whatever it hit without doing any damage. As Ruby quickly retreated a few steps to get out of my range, I looked down to see that her black armor had somehow extended to cover her entire body. I could have pressed forward but instead I stopped. I tried telling myself it was wariness over that new armor, but I knew that was a lie. Deep down, I still didn't want to hurt Ruby.

Ruby let out another peal of insane laughter when she noticed my gaze. She twirled in place like she was showing off her hot new outfit. "Do you like it? It's a gift from my Mistress. She couldn't let her favorite servant die from some silly stab wound." It writhed around as she spoke, and I focused all of my attention on it. This wasn't Ruby, it was a Grimm using Ruby's body. I might not be able to hurt my former partner, but I knew how to deal with Grimm.

I summoned a glyph at her feet to bind her in place before summoning glyphs all around her. I let out a cartridge of ice Dust, and a swarm of hailstones shot out of each glyph. Each one was tiny, but they were going fast enough to shatter glass. She collapsed under the barrage, and I saw small cracks start appearing all over that black armor. They quickly grew, and I knew in a few seconds her protection would break into pieces.

So did Ruby. She screamed, the sound as loud and terrible as if from some great beast. A shockwave of force radiated out around her, and my glyphs disappeared as it reached me and knocked me to the ground. I knew I needed to get up, but I was too disoriented to move. I managed to rise a little before I felt a warm hand wrap itself around my throat and pull me into the air. I looked into her eyes to see the black pools perfectly reflected my own terrified expression.

"Nice try, Weiss." Even after that entire struggle, her voice was sickeningly playful. She slowly skipped over to the wall before slamming me into it over and over again. Each hit sent pain shooting across my entire body, and it only took a few before my aura broke. Two hits later, each one accompanied by the horrific crunch of my bones breaking, and Ruby released me to slide down to the alley floor. She reached down and fished around in my pocket for a few seconds before grabbing the safety deposit key.

"There we go." She smiled at me from ear to ear. "Aren't you so happy we got to play together again?" She asked as she raised Crescent Rose above her.

"You don't need to do this, Ruby! You can fight off her control!" I pleaded. Her expression became confused, and then it changed to the slight grin I knew from the old Ruby.

"You're right, Weiss." The madness in her voice was replaced with a hopeful tone, and my heart soared at the sight. My partner, the woman I loved with all my heart, was back. "I don't need to hurt you." Crescent Rose suddenly swung down and stabbed me in the chest. I looked up to see the madness was back in Ruby's eyes. "I do, however, desperately want to hurt you."

She let out a childish giggle as she kneeled down and started stroking my hair. "Of course, I'm not going to kill you. I could never do that to my poor Snowflake. My friends here are going to take you to my Mistress, and she'll fix you right up. You'll see thing my way, and we'll get to serve our Mistress together. Doesn't that sound great?"

"No, please, don't." I managed to get out through the horrible pain.

"It'll be okay. This is so very much fun, I'm sure you'll love it. When you're nice and healed up, I left a toy in my room for you to enjoy. Make sure to lop off a few body parts for me. After all, a promise is a promise. Just be careful not to kill him; I want to do it together to celebrate our new relationship." She leaned forward and kissed me, and despite the agonizing pain, despite the terror, I couldn't help the pleasure it sent flowing through me. She stood up, giggled again, and blurred away.

With Ruby gone, I noticed for the first time the two large Grimm standing in front of me. They reached down and started dragging me away. Even if I was strong enough to try, I wouldn't have bothered resisting. Ruby's madness clearly blinded her to the fact that I would bleed out long before I could be taken anywhere. Then one of the Grimm reached down and put some dark creature over the wound. Tendrils reached into my body, and I could see a black ooze pumping into me. A second later every nerve in my body burned, and I screamed out in agony. Thankfully, it didn't take me long to pass out from the pain.

In the depths of my dreams, I heard a voice whispering. "Come child, I will save you." It was very soothing after the trauma of the few days, and I followed wherever the voice led me. After the past few horrific years all I wanted was to be saved.