Chapter 21:

"What's the dome for?" Ruby asked.

Team RWBY was standing on the edge of Forever Fall looking at Beacon. A protective dome was stretched over the entire structure. After trekking through the forest of Forever Fall for 1 full day, the sight of something so strange disturbed Ruby to no end.

"Well all I know is that dome isn't telling us if Beacon is still standing." Weiss answered. Weiss stood next to Ruby, her head tilted up to observe more of the strange object around beacon. "What do you think it could be fore? Protection?"

"Well that's what it looks like. Only problem is how are we going to get in?" Yang asked, who was standing next to Ruby.

Yang was tall, however over the last few weeks her friends had grown. More specifically Ruby had grown. Blake was still around 5'10", which was about average for a Faunus female. Weiss had grown to from 5'7" to 5'11". Yang was the tallest out of all of them. Not when it came to Ruby, however. Yang was 6'2". Ruby through no fault of her own was now taller of Yang.

Ruby turned her head to look over Blake, who was standing next to her, and down at Yang. "How are we…"

"Ruby how tall is you?" Yang interrupted.

Ruby who hadn't been asked the question in some time, gave it some thought. "I don't know Yang, do you have a measuring stick. After all your 6'2" tall, if I stood against the dome with you next to me we could see exactly how much taller I was, using the measuring stick." Ruby said.

"Are we sure we want to touch that thing?" Weiss asked, worried it might be electrocuted. "I'm worried it might be rigged to kill whoever touches it from the outside."

Ruby was walking towards the dome in question. "Oh don't worry so much Weiss, we'll be fine. Come on Yang get next to me. Blake measure Yang and me, Weiss…just stand in front of us looking cute. I'd sure love it when you look cute." Ruby said.

Weiss blushed at Ruby's comment about her looking cute. Weiss had a felling Ruby really meant it. That was one of the reasons Weiss had fallen for Ruby in the first place. Ruby was Loving, and she wasn't afraid to admit it.

Blake produced a measuring tape. Chuckling the cat Faunus said, "I knew this would come in handy."

Blake took the Tape and walked toward the two sisters. Yang and Ruby were standing side by side against the metal of the dome. Yang measured out to be 6'2" exactly. Ruby on the other hand measured out to be 6'5". This fact stunned team RWBY. Before the assignment Ruby was the second shortest of them all, the same height as Weiss. "What made you grow like that Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"I need to tell you guys something. I stole the Grim Sphere." Ruby said. The tall dark haired girl took out the artifact in question. The Grim Sphere was dark still pulsating with darkness. "Well that's strange I thought I ate it all." Ruby said

"Wait you ate the Grim Sphere? How, and more importantly, why?" Yang asked somewhat intrigued and somewhat disgusted.

Blake answered for Ruby, "I saw her eat the darkness coming off of the Grim Sphere. It didn't look good, but it seemed to help Ruby. Also it did 'illuminate' our way back."

"Where did you two go?" Weiss asked.

"Well I was just escaping imprisonment. Blake went to go find me. A bunch of auditory and vision hallucination shadows were attacking me, 12 to be exact. They looked like shadowy humanoids to me. However they look like Faunus to Blake." Ruby said. "Blake why were you so upset?"

"I was worried about you Ruby. Really I was and still am depressed about your immanent death. I kept having thoughts about suicide. I also thought I had a huge crush on you. Really I have a gigantic crush on Yang." Blake said. Yang blushed at the Blake's last comment.

"To answer your question, Yang. When I was imprisoned I came close to dying. At the time it came to 2 days left. The pain I was experiencing connected me to the darkness. This allowed me to be able to talk to an entity called Grimm." Ruby said. "This entity told me that the only way I could same myself was to become the Mistress of Darkness. The only way I could think of doing this was to eat the darkness emanating from the Grim Sphere."

Yang was looking up at Ruby, which was a strange sensation since Yang wasn't used to Ruby being tall much less taller than her. Yang had a feeling Ruby wasn't done growing either. The darkness Ruby was feeding off of must have been slowly transforming her into the picturesque Mistress of Darkness.

Weiss didn't mind Ruby being so tall. In fact Weiss loved the look on Ruby. The dark nature that seemed to be creeping up on Ruby, it only seemed to complement her red cloths.

The group decided to move around the dome trying to find an entrance. First they decided to check where the main entrance was. Surely the ones who build the wall didn't totally lock them out, intentional or not. The team soon discovered after one full revolution, that the dome had no weakness.

This worried Weiss, Blake, and Yang. However Ruby decided to take a better look at the roof. Ruby took the Grim Sphere in hand. And in a show of her growing understanding of the artifact, transformed into a speeding black arrowhead. The object shot upwards rapidly. Once the dark entity was approximately 500 feet in the air it transformed back into Ruby. Only Ruby's was made entirely of vibrating shadow. The vibrating seemed to be keeping Ruby aloft.

After a bit of time had past shadow Ruby transformed back into a dark entity. Descending the dark entity, once it hit the ground, transformed back into Ruby's shadow less human form. "There is no brake in the wall, I'm starting to think this is the work of an enemy. After all I didn't see any air holes. The people inside will suffocate eventually." Ruby said, giving her report.

"How did you see that there was no breathing holes?" Weiss asked, wanting to know all about her new girlfriend.

"When I was darkness I could only sense objects. I was using a portion of my power to sense the surface of the dome. I couldn't find any protuberances, let alone any holes meant for air. I also have a feeling we might need to rescue the people inside Beacon." Ruby said in response to Weiss.

The only problem now facing RWBY was how to get rid of a 500-foot tall dome that completely surrounded the entirety of Beacon Academy. "The dome weighed exactly 500,000 tons." Ruby informed her self and her teammates.

Inside the dome

There were no air holes leading into or out of the dome. Beacon's inhabitants, were approximately 12,000 in number. The suffocation hadn't taken hold just yet, but it was inevitable. The only way Ozpin was able to enter and exit the dome was because of one unfinished panel. However once the Headmaster had gotten back from his journey the panel was fixed, and the dome sealed.

Ozpin after some thinking had held a general meeting. The Headmaster then spoke to all the students and staff members of Beacon Academy. Ozpin told them that the air inside Beacon would run out in approximately half a day.

...

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this one. It wasn't as dark as the last chapter, at least it gave a little more background on the 4 main characters. I just found it funny to have Ruby be the tallest out of the group. Leave a like, favorite, follow, or a review if you feel so inclined.