Blake was lying on the seat of a Bullhead. Her face was staring sideways, and some unknown form under a red cloak laid on the seats across from her. She wasn't entirely sure what was going on or how she got here. She tried to move or speak, but no matter how much effort she put in she couldn't do anything. She was alone with nothing but a pounding headache to keep her company. She sat like that for a time before she felt her head being lifted into someone's lap. Someone started gently stroking her hair, and a wave of calm ran through her. She managed to summon the will to look up and saw her partner sitting with a sad smile on her face.

"Rest, Blake. I promise it'll be okay. I'm not going anywhere." Yang said. Blake realized that something was wrong with this, somehow, but she couldn't put her finger on the problem. Her head was too fuzzy, and anything like a coherent thought that formed was quickly shaken loose. It was too much for her to process, and she passed out again.

When she woke up, she recognized her surroundings as a Beacon hospital room. She had about half a second of bleary confusion before the air was driven from her lungs as a red blur jumped onto her. "Blake, you're awake." Ruby said. Her voice sounded so despondent that Blake could barely believe it came from Ruby. "We were so worried about you." Blake didn't have enough air to respond, but that was fixed when Weiss grabbed her partner and pulled her off the bed.

"The doctors said you shouldn't try to move, okay? You have a severe concussion, a broken arm, and three broken ribs." Weiss said. Her voice was more controlled, but there was a little bit of depression that seeped through it. Blake really didn't understand why it was there. Were they still worried about her head injury? Sure, her head wouldn't stop buzzing, but was it really that bad?

Blake tried to sit up, but her muscles wouldn't move that far. All she got was a little twitch from all her efforts. The best she could do was turn her head to look at her teammates and see that their appearances matched their voices. Weiss' face wore a hopeful smile, but the tears in her eyes revealed it was fake. She occasionally glanced over at Blake, but most of the time her focus was on her partner. A focus which Blake completely understood when she looked at Ruby.

She was even worse than Weiss. Tears marks ran heavily down her face; it was clear she had been sobbing for quite some time. Her eyes were clear now but lacked the shining light Blake had always seen in them. These were sunken and haunted. The abundant energy that she always displayed was completely gone, replaced with a sense of fragility. She looked like a woman seconds away from falling apart.

Suddenly everything came rushing back to her, and Blake felt like her heart stopped beating. The mansion, the basement, the Death Stalker. The most horrible grief she ever felt raced through her, and she couldn't stop the tears from appearing in her eyes. "Yang, is she" was all she got out before Ruby collapsed. Weiss grabbed her before she fell and pulled Ruby into her arms. Ruby buried herself in her partner's shoulder, and her entire body shook with sobs. Weiss, tears already flowing from her own eyes, could only nod.

Blake could barely even process what had happened. Yang, dead. Her partner, dead. The strongest among them, the person who burned more strongly with life than anyone Blake had ever met, the woman who could take punishment again and again and only grow more powerful, gone. The woman she just started to realize she loved, deeper and more fully than anything she had ever felt. Out of her reach forever, before she could even talk to her. And it was all her fault. She suggested they split up, she suggested they keep looking around, she was the one who was knocked defenseless. Those claws should have pierced her, that Death Stalker should have killed her. After everything she had done, she didn't deserve to live, not if Yang had to die.

The three of them, Team RWB, sat together in silence, sharing in their grief over their dead friend. The only sounds came from the tears that none of them could stop shedding.

/

When Blake opened her eyes, she was on her bed in her dorm room. She felt something wet on her face, and when she went to wipe it off she was surprised to find they were tears. Whatever nightmare she experienced must have been pretty bad. She tried to remember the details, but all she got was a creepy house and something to do with claws.

She considered getting up, but it was a Saturday. There was nothing urgent to do, and her bed was so very comforting right now. She laid there and enjoyed the warmth for a while before the door opened and Yang walked in. "Good, I was just coming to wake you. You've been lazing around for way too long kitten."

"We have nothing going on today. Weiss and Ruby are off getting a definitely-not-awkward breakfast with Winter." She looked straight at her and gave Yang her most suggestive smile. "Do you really want me to get up, or would you rather join me?" The excitement that lit up Yang's face answered for her, and she came over and snuggled right up to her. Blake enjoyed the warmth radiating off her girlfriend, but there was one place the warmth didn't reach. Her stomach remained cold, and when she reached down to check why she felt liquid squirt onto her hand. When she brought it up, she saw her hand was drenched in blood.

She screamed and jumped off the bed. Yang's only reaction was to turn and prop herself up onto her side. "What's wrong, kitty cat?" Blake looked at her stomach and saw the massive holes on either side, and suddenly the memory of everything that happened flooded into her mind.

"This isn't real. You're dead." She said.

"Don't be ridiculous, Blakey. If I died, who would take care of you?" Yang replied with a laugh. Upon hearing that, for a few glorious seconds, Blake believed her. Her heart soared as she imagined Yang being alive.

But it was too good to be true, and Blake knew it. "I saw you get stabbed. I saw the Death Stalker break your neck."

"What, this?" Yang asked in an incredulous voice as she gestured downwards. "These are simply flesh wounds, kitten. They'll heal soon enough." Her face suddenly lit up in a sly smile. "Although if you want to nurse me back to health I wouldn't be opposed to it. We can get you a nice little costume. I'm sure I'd heal much faster with a gorgeous view." Blake felt her heart rate quicken and her breathing increase as a warm wave flushed through her. She was sure she would enjoy that as much as Yang.

But it wasn't real. Yang was gone. "This is a nightmare. You're a figment of my imagination. You'll disappear when I wake up, and I'll still be alone."

"Wrong. Here, I'll prove it to you." Yang got up, reached under her bed, and pulled out a letter. The ribbon wrapping it closed was a twin to the bow on her head. She walked over to Blake and handed it to her. "I wrote this for you a long time ago. Go on, read it."

Blake undid the ribbon, but before she could unfold the paper Yang grabbed her hand. "But first, I need you to do something for me." Blake fixed her gaze onto those beautiful lilac eyes. She never wanted to leave this moment with her partner.

"Anything."

Yang's words rang out as serious for the first time in the conversation. "Blake, you have to wake up."

Blake sat up in bed with a start. She was still in the hospital bed, and Ruby and Weiss were sleeping wrapped in each other's arms on a bed beside her. The happiness she felt in the dream shattered, and she started crying again. She couldn't help herself; it felt so real that even when she realized it was a dream she couldn't stop her hopes from going up that somehow Yang would be sleeping beside her. She laid down again, alone in the dark, and cried herself to sleep.

/

"I want to remind you that I don't believe you, Blake. The only reason I didn't freeze you back into that hospital bed is that you waited until Ruby was gone before bringing it up. The doctors said you shouldn't even be moving." Weiss said. Blake nodded.

"I know, okay? I know it was probably only a dream. But it felt so real, I need to at least check." Blake said as she opened their dorm room door. She knew she was setting herself up for disappointment, but she hadn't been able to get it out of her head the last few days. There was no way she could keep going without finding out. "In my dream, it was right under her bed." Blake reached under the same spot, fully expecting to feel nothing. She let out a shocked gasp as her hands closed on paper. She pulled it out, and it was the same letter with the black ribbon from her dream.

Blake felt her heart shoot up. This proved Yang wasn't gone. She didn't kill her partner. Somehow, she was out there, communicating with her. Her hands tore into the ribbon, and she unfolded the paper as quickly as possible.

Dear Blake,

If you're reading this, I'm dead. Which sucks, obviously. But, even worse, it means I never told you how I felt. It started growing inside me right after we became partners, and it's never stopped. Right now it feels like my heart might burst from its strength. But I can't bring myself to tell you yet. Because I'm scared. I'm scared that you don't feel the same. I'm scared that telling you might ruin what we have now. I'm too terrified of losing our present to try and find out what we might be in the future.

Maybe by the time you're reading this letter, things have changed. Maybe I'm sitting on the bed next to you, and we're laughing at how I was so sappy and ridiculous. But in case we're not, in case I'm gone before I work up the courage to tell you in person, I need to let you know. I love you, Blake Belladonna, and I always will.

She felt her eyes tearing up, and she turned to Weiss. She was standing there, completely speechless, staring at the letter. Her eyes had the slightly glazed look that Blake recognized she wore when she was trying to make a tough decision. "This proves Yang is still out there somehow! We need to talk to someone, we need to figure out how to find her!" Blake yelled. She couldn't help herself. For the first time the crushing guilt she had been carrying every waking moment was gone.

"Do you really think that's what happened?" Weiss asked. Her voice was uncharacteristically gentle. "What's more likely, that Yang is communicating with you in your dreams, or that she told you about this letter years ago? Does it make sense to hide a letter to you somewhere nobody would ever find it?" When put like that, the choice seemed obvious. The happiness that was coursing through her vanished as the crushing grief came back. Weiss, noticing, moved forward and grabbed her arms. She started pulling her back out the door. "We've been through a lot, Blake, and you hit your head pretty hard. Let's go back to the hospital and rest some more." Blake nodded, too demoralized to do anything but let Weiss lead her back to her hospital room.