In a place unlike any other, where few traverse and fewer see, he sat atop one of the many wondrous hills staring vacantly at the scenery. He could hear someone approach from behind, with the strained shuffling of feet, though feet were not completely necessary here.

'Aegis, are you all right?'

Aegis gave an exasperated sigh as he turned around. 'Pandora...You know you're not allowed to leave your domain.'

Pandora trembled slightly. 'Sorry. It's just...you don't seem to be doing to well.'

Aegis gave her a perplexed look. 'What makes you say that?'

'Well.' Pandora started. 'For one. Uthuluc managed to escape and you haven't done anything yet.'

Aegis went wide eyed. 'WHAT?! He should have been trapped for a hundred years! Who-' Aegis stopped talking as he saw the guilty expression on Pandora's face and frowned. 'Pandora...'

'I-It was an accident.' She said, avoiding his gaze.

Aegis sighed. 'Wait here. I'll deal with Uthuluc.' He said as he left her and charged towards the immortal beast at the bottom of the hill. He jumped, placing him much higher than the beast could reach, and once again froze him. Satisfied, he returned to the hill and stood in front of Pandora. He was going to reprimand her for her carelessness but found himself unable to do so.

'You're right.' He reluctantly admitted, surprising both her and himself. 'I guess I have been...preoccupied, with other things.'`

Pandora believed Aegis was referring to her and gave a downcast expression. 'Sorry.' She said sadly.

'What are you- Oh! No, I wasn't referring to you Pandora.' Aegis explained, noticing her sad expression.

Pandora lit up at this but was confused. If she wasn't the cause of Aegis exasperation, then who was? She could only think of one individual.

'Is it your human friend?' She asked, remembering that Aegis was now allied with someone though she did not know their name. 'Did something happen to him?'

Aegis was surprised by Pandora's straightforward approach, but could appreciate what she was trying to do. 'Yes. I haven't been able to detect him anywhere on Lore.' He said. Noting Pandora's confused expression he explained. 'There was an...incident...a few months ago. Since then, He, Draco and I can tell where the other is regardless of how far apart we are on Lore. Oddly enough, I can't sense Draco anywhere either'

Pandora could tell by the tone of his voice that there was more to this 'incident' than Aegis was implying, but knew it was better not to ask.

'So if you can't detect them at all.' Pandora stuttered as she spoke, hoping she wasn't treading on thin ice. 'Does that mean they're dead?'

'No.' Aegis replied with certainty, shocking Pandora. 'I already visited the underworld. Death told me he wasn't there and, as was the case with I, could not detect them anywhere on Lore. Which made Death pretty angry considering how many favours a certain hero owes.'

Pandora gave him a confused look. 'So what does that mean?'

Aegis grimaced. 'It means. They're not on Lore anymore.'

Pandora frowned. She disliked seeing Aegis like this.

Despite the fact that Aegis usually told her off for various things that were not her fault (After all, she thought the field of ice flowers was beautiful, she didn't mean to set it on fire...twice.) Aegis was the only one that actually treated her as he did everyone else, and ever since he became a Soul Ally he had become a lot more friendly towards her and would often visit her in her domain. Thinking of what she could do for him, she recalled something that could help.

Suddenly grabbing his hand, she began to rush towards her domain. Aegis, surprised by the sudden and unusual action of Pandora stuttered as he spoke but otherwise allowed himself to be led along. 'Pandora! What are you doing? Where are we going?'

'You said they weren't on Lore. Right?' Pandora said, not slowing down or turning around. 'Then all we have to do is look somewhere other than Lore.'

Aegis, both confused and curious about what Pandora was hinting at, continued to allow her to lead him. He had learnt from his time as a SoulAlly that when someone offered to help you they either had an ulterior motive, were leading you into a trap, or genuinely desired to help you. On the last note, he had learnt that those that genuinely wished to help either knew what they were doing or were just going to make things worse.

As Aegis began to seriously ponder which Pandora would be, he failed to notice that they had already stopped moving and Pandora was looking at him with a smile. 'We're here.' She said snapping Aegis out of his thoughts.

Aegis was about to speak but found himself gawking at what was behind the other elemental spirit. 'Pandora.' He said.

'Yes?'

'What is that?' Aegis asked, pointing to a familiar looking mass of energy that was suspended in mid air.

Pandora grinned. 'It's a rift!'

Aegis was dumbfounded. How could a rift get into the Plane of Elemental Spirits? Then he remembered something.

This was Pandora's domain. The natural order doesn't apply here, and Aegis begrudgingly accepted the fact. 'Okay. So why are we here?'

Pandora grinned. 'This particular rift leads to different planes of existence, different worlds. So I figured that if your friends weren't anywhere on Lore-'

'-They may be in another world entirely.' Aegis finished, impressed by Pandora's reasoning. 'Wait. How do you know this rift leads to other worlds?' Pandora looked away and remained silent.

Aegis frowned.'Pandora...'

'It was just once...maybe twice...no more than three times...okay a lot more than three times. It gets lonely here, so I thought it would be nice to at least be around others, even if most of the time they can't see me.'

Aegis shut his mouth as she ended her sentence. She was right. Even he had to admit that Pandora's situation was unique as well as saddening, and he had no right to reprimanding her for desiring something he had grown so accustomed to, being with others. 'Okay then. So after we step through this portal we should be able to find them correct?'

Pandora went wide-eyed. 'M-m-me?' she stuttered.

Aegis smiled. 'Of course. Who else would I be referring to?'

Pandora was surprised, she didn't think that Aegis would want her to come along with him to find his friends. 'A-are you sure that's okay?' she questioned.

Aegis smiled and placed his hand on Pandora's shoulder. 'It's fine. I trust you Pandora, and I think you deserve to be thanked, and after all, aren't you interested to see what the world they ended up in is like. You might even manage to make some friends.' Aegis was surprised by the warmth in his voice.

Looks like I picked up a lot more from them than I thought.

Pandora was also stunned, and somewhat flustered, but with a smile she looked Aegis in the eye and nodded.

Smiling, Aegis and Pandora entered the rift.

I'll see you guy's soon. So don't get into too much trouble.

Rogue was in trouble.

The strange man that had put a gun to her head, her gun, and had managed to so effortlessly take on her team and JNPR as well as destroy the massive spears of ice with relative ease, was struggling against the new arrival, who was much stranger than Rogue himself.

At first, it had seemed as if the two were evenly matched. They fought against each other with a fierce tenacity, matching blow for blow and strike for strike. It was like a fight out of one of the many fairy tales she read as a child, how two great warriors would battle for hours on end in a heated deadlock until only one or neither of them came out alive.

Yet things had suddenly taken a turn for the worse for Rogue. The new arrival let out a ghastly, guttural howl and the strange dark energy surrounding his blade consumed him. Sensing the danger, Professor GoodWitch had already set about evacuating the students towards the assembly hall, hoping the reinforced walls would protect them. Her instincts proved right as the man transformed.

Now he no longer resembled a man.

His hair grew long, ridged, wild and dark. His skin became black, like that of a Grimm and the features of his face were consumed by darkness, leaving only blood red eyes and rows of jagged teeth. His blade seemed to go into his body, becoming one with him, and revealed itself in spikes that jutted out of his back and fingers like thin sharp daggers. His body became long and spindly making him a good head or two taller than Rogue, and his body grew large and muscular.

Ruby trembled in fear as she saw his appearance, but what terrified her was his aura. It was dark, full of spite and hate and radiated death. The grass and trees that surrounded the destroyed concrete pavement that had become their arena began to wither and died, and Ruby shuddered at the sight.

He attacked Rogue, his speed and strength increased, and Rogue was struggling. The man wielding Magnhild was fighting a losing battle. The battle had turned, no longer on even ground, Rogue was struggling to defend himself, just managing to block mortal strikes but still taking cuts across his body and bleeding profusely from a few.

Ruby tightened her grip around Crescent Rose and spoke up. 'We have to help him.'

Yang looked at her sister as if she had said the most unbelievable thing in the world. 'Are you insane! Why the hell would we help him?' She said, almost shouting, causing Weiss and Blake (Who had returned from the infirmary to come upon the scene of Rogue fighting a ferocious dark monster, before meeting with Weiss and making their way to where Ruby and Yang stood.) to overhear as they regrouped, warily avoiding the scene before them.

'What's going on?' Blake asked, somewhat out of breath from the previous battle.

Yang showed an irritated expression. 'Ruby wants to go help that bastard!'

Blake and Weiss shared Yang's dumbfounded expression.

'Are you an idiot!' Weiss said angrily. 'We have absolutely no reason to help him!'

'She's right.' Added Blake. 'We don't owe him anything. Besides do you really think we would be any help at all?'

Ruby glanced back at Rogue and the stranger. Rogue was slowly becoming more and more fatigued as the fight wore on and was gaining wounds upon wounds as the battle continued. Ruby had to admit that Blake was right. She and her team as well as JNPR and Professor GoodWitch had failed to even so much as land a hit on Rogue, and even Professor GoodWitch's massive attack with relative ease. This new arrival not only had Rogue on the ropes, but was winning.

However, this had caused Ruby to think.

'It's weird though. Don't you think?' She asked her team, who were confused as to what she was hinting at.

'What are you talking about?' Weiss asked indignantly. 'What's weird?'

'I've been thinking about this for a while. He's stronger than us, all of us. So why didn't he just kill us and get it over with?'

'Because he's a sadistic bastard who get's off on pointing loaded guns at my little sisters head!' Yang spat, her voice full of venom and her eye's burning red.

'Yang...there were no bullets in the gun.'

The girls froze as Ruby spoke. 'After he threw Crescent Rose back to me I checked the clip. It was empty. All the bullets had been taken out.' She looked her older sister in the eye. ' He was never going to hurt me.'

'We don't know that for certain.' interjected Weiss, who recovered from Ruby's strange admission. 'For all we know he could've taken them out after he walked off.'

'Maybe, but if that was the case then we would've seen some trace of them after we attacked him, but I don't recall seeing or hearing any sign of my bullets.'

'But look at what he did to Nora and Ren!' Weiss argued.

'Yes, but Ren took her to the infirmary and noted that she had already been healed by her aura. And Ren was the same.'

'He attacked us!'

'We attacked him! Think about it Weiss. He never actually initiated an attack! He either countered what we did or pushed us back but he never did anything beyond that!'

'She's right.' Blake muttered, earning odd looks from Weiss and Yang and a smile from Ruby.

'Not you to Blake!' Yang huffed, annoyed that the usually sensible Blake would even be considering Ruby's ridiculous train of thought.

'It's true. Yang, from what you told us of your first encounter with him, you attacked first.' Yang went silent at that. 'Not only that, but don't you notice something strange about the way he fought us compared to the way he's been fighting that thing?'

'Difference?' Ruby questioned, as confused as Yang and Weiss were.

'Yes. Whenever he swung Magnhild at us his movements were wide and readable, and though we didn't have enough time to dodge, we always had enough time to defend ourselves. But now his movements are quicker, harder to read.'

'What are you getting at?' Weiss asked reluctantly, not liking where she was going.

'He never had any intent to do any permanent harm to us, only tire us out so he could escape with the knowledge that we wouldn't follow him due to how futile the effort would've seemed.' Blake reasoned.

'That's ridiculous.' replied Weiss. 'Why would he bother with that?'

'I don't know.' Interrupted Ruby, regaining everyone's attention. 'But I do know that if he doesn't survive this then we will never know.'

She remained silent as she looked at her team, letting them decide what they wanted to do.

'Fine.' said Weiss, speaking first and surprising all present. 'I promised to support you the best I can. Besides, he has some stolen property to answer for.'

Blake gave a small smile and nodded. 'I have your back.'

The girls looked at Yang, awaiting her response. Yang looked at her sister and gave a confident grin. 'Let's do this! I'm still gonna kick his ass later though.'

Ruby smiled and the RWBY girls prepared their weapons.

'Okay. Lets- Jaune?!'

Ruby was interrupted as the familiar blonde haired teen charged to where Rogue was and successfully defended him from a potentially lethal blow to the head. The teen wasn't alone either. Flying next to him and joining the battle was an equally familiar creature, complete with green scales, bat-like wings and large red eyes.

Greenie let out a huge burst of flame in the direction of the strange, evil creature, and from where she stood Ruby could tell one thing.

Greenie was pissed.

Draco had never been as impressed with Jaune as he had been during today.

After Cardin (arrogant bastard, Draco made a note to burn all of his clothing later) had kidnapped him with assistance from his cronies, Jaune had appeared out of no where and stood up to him.

Cardin was shocked that Jaune bothered to stand up to him, again, and draw his sword. But it wasn't the gesture that Draco was impressed with, any two-bit hack with a sword can appear threatening, it was the sharpness in his eyes. He didn't look like the comical character he usually was, he looked like a guardian ready to protect their charge.

He looked like a Hero.

Cardin had noticed the change in Jaune's demeanour, and Draco could tell that he was put off. Reluctantly, he told his friends to release Draco and him and the rest of CRDL left. Draco stretched out and moved over to thank Jaune, choosing to nuzzle him with his snout due to the fact that Jaune couldn't understand him.

'Hey Draco, stop it that tickles!'

Draco froze and gave Jaune an odd look, which meant he simply turned his head to one side. Jaune understood the gesture, as he had done it many times before and explained. 'I mean...um...you're name is Draco. Right?' He asked uncertainly.

Draco nodded, still confused as to how Jaune knew his name. 'You're probably wondering how I know your name.' Jaune continued as if he read Draco's mind. 'Well...I don't know how to explain it...I read about you in a book.'

Draco's expression changed from confusion to scepticism. He didn't look like he was lying, but maybe Jaune's head wasn't screwed on right.

'I'm serious!' Jaune cried, starting to feel silly that he said it out loud. 'It was written by some guy named Ash Dragonblade!'

Draco went wide eyed, not for the fact that Jaune was most likely telling the truth, but for the fact that Ash had the mental capacity to write a book.

Jaune grinned, knowing he had Draco's attention. 'And that's not all I found.' He said triumphantly, putting his hand behind his back. 'TA DA!' he said as he brought his hand towards the front and held out a small blue book.

Draco was stunned by the title.

How to repair a Dragon Amulet

Written by Lady Celestia

Edited by Warlic and Cysero.

(And Re-Edited By Warlic due to reasonable worry and fear)

Jaune grinned. 'With this, we can fix your Dragon Amulet.' Draco gave a large grin and began to breath fire into the air in a gesture of joy.

Jaune was happy for his friend. He had been sad because of this and it was affecting everybody, Jaune was still uncertain of how the Dragon Amulet came here, but at least he could do something for Draco.

The two's moment was interrupted as an explosion from the rooftop of the Academy alarmed them. Though stunned, Jaune dashed straight towards the blast and Draco followed suit.

It had taken them fifteen minutes to make there way around the academy. Draco was still surprised at how large this place was and had only but assumed that it was because of magic. As they turned in the direction of the courtyard, Draco was stunned at what he saw.

Fighting in the centre of the courtyard was a massive being that looked astoundingly similar to EnTropy and fighting an incredibly familiar looking man that looked exactly like a certain DragonRogue.

Wait a second...THAT IS HIM!

Draco began to bark erratically at Jaune, who looked at him in confusion. 'What?'

Draco gestured towards the scene before them, and Jaune understood and his face went pale. 'You don't want me to...no way! There is no way. I could be killed! There is no way I could do anything against that monster!'

Jaune looked into Draco's crimson eyes. He didn't understand what Draco said, considering all that came out of the dragons mouth was either guttural snarling noises or fire (and sometimes drool) but he could understand his eyes. They held a great despair within them, as if telling Jaune that without help, the man engaged in battle with that beast was going to die, and that would break him.

Unwilling to put his friend through that, Jaune reluctantly drew Crocea Mors and prepared his shield. He looked at Draco and gave a strained smile. 'Well. I always did wan't to be a hero.' And charged, with Draco flying alongside.

Draco had never been so impressed. He flew up to the beast and let out a blast of flame after Jaune blocked one of the beasts claws, protecting his best friend from a potentially fatal blow. The beast stumbled back a bit, surprised by the sudden attack.

Now. I'm gonna burn this bastard to cinders!

Rogue believed that he must of been more badly injured than he originally thought, because it looked like Draco and Ash had come out of nowhere and had just joined him against the strange EnTropy like creature.

Unable to determine if they were real or not, he quickly grabbed both of them and jumped back, creating some distance between them and the EnTropy as it brought one of its massive claws down and smashed the earth, sending debris flying everywhere.

Rogue landed and found himself brought to his knees. He was losing blood faster than he could heal, and his mana was running low. He looked at the two he brought with him, the ones who possibly just saved his life. The first wasn't Ash, it was an older looking teen with messy blonde hair and blue eyes. He wore a white chest-plate and shoulder armour, underneath which he wore a black hoodie with red and orange sleeves, blue pants, and black shoes. He wielded a shield and sword, and Rogue was impressed with each but decided he could admire them later.

He then looked at the second, and realised he hadn't been hallucinating.

'DRACO!'

Rogue, despite his injuries, grabbed his dragonic companion and brought him into a tight hug. Draco, though pleased he had been reunited with his master/ best friend, did not enjoy being suffocated by him and struggled against his grip, before forcefully scratching at an open wound when he refused to let go.

'Ouch!' Yelped Rogue, glaring at Draco. 'What was that for?'

Draco responded, but without the Dragon Amulet, all Rogue heard were a series of snarls, barks, and yelps. 'I have absolutely no idea what you're saying.' Rogue admitted sheepishly, before narrowing his eyes. 'But right now our main focus should be dealing with that EnTropy.'

Draco stopped talking and nodded in response, before firing a large ball of flame at the EnTropy who was charging in their direction.

Rogue quickly glanced at the blonde-haired boy. Even though he had saved Rogue's life, he obviously was in no state to fight, terrified at the sight of the EnTropy, even if he was standing with sword in hand.

He placed his hand comfortingly on the blonde's shoulder. The teen was trembling and stared at him. Rogue gave him a smile. 'Thanks for the help.'

Jaune smiled at the strange and bloodied man, but that quickly disappeared as he was lifted up of his feet and thrown in the direction of the RWBY girls.

Aside from the sounds of his own screams, Jaune could hear the voice of Rogue saying something to him.

'Get out of here! I'll hold him off!'

Rogue noticed Draco giving him an exasperated but concerned look.

Rogue grinned. 'Don't worry buddy. We've dealt with worse than this.' He said as he drew Magnhild and charged towards the EnTropy. 'Let's do this!'

Jaune found himself flying towards the RWBY girls, and sincerely hoped one of them would help him and got his wish, but not in the way he would've liked. Rather than being caught, Weiss formed a glyph right in front them, causing Jaune to hit it face first.

'Thanks' he said, though it was muffled by the glyph, which disappeared, and caused him to land flat on the ground. He mumbled several curses under his breath as he stood up and raised his head. He was perplexed though. The RWBY girls were all looking at him as if he were someone else.

'Um. Is something on face? Oh god, don't tell me. I look hideous.' Jaune grabbed at his face, checking if anything was broken or out of place, and sighed in relief as he found nothing was.

However, that relief was short lived when he heard a very scary, very angry voice from behind him. 'Jaune. What do you think you're doing?'

Jaune stiffened. Slowly and mechanically turning around he came face to face with a very, very, very, very angry Pyyrha.

Jaune chuckled awkwardly, but was otherwise silent as Pyyrha glared at him. He had gotten her made at him before, but now she was absolutely furious. Jaune regretted he had not written his will sooner.

Pyyrha tapped her foot impatiently, waiting for whatever excuse Jaune would come up with for his reckless and life-endangering behaviour.

When Jaune had charged towards that monster she was terrified. What was he thinking? Why would he do something like that? He was going to die! So she waited for him to give his excuse. So she could tell him how stupid it was and yell at him anyway.

Jaune shook were he stood, but eventually calmed himself and looked Pyyrha directly in the eye. 'Pyyrha. I know you're really pissed with me right now, okay, a lot pissed, but we can discuss what horrible fate you have in store for me later. Right now, we're all in an incredibly dangerous situation and if we don't do something immediately then we will all end up dead. So for now, pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeaassee forgive me!'

Pyyrha considered what he said. She wasn't going to let this slide, but she couldn't argue with him. He was right, now wasn't the time to hold a grudge. 'Fine.' Jaune looked relieved as she spoke. 'But this isn't the end of this.' she warned, causing his relieved look to shatter. 'So what's the plan?'

Jaune glanced over at the RWBY girls. 'I was actually hoping you guy's already had one.'

Ruby nodded. 'Yup. We're gonna provide Rogue support.'

'Rogue? Isn't that the guy that Yang beat up a while back?'

Blake nodded. 'It's also the guy who just threw you at us.'

Jaune's jaw dropped. 'What! That's Rogue?!'

'We'll bring you up to speed later.' Said Ruby preparing Crescent Rose in it's gun form. 'Come on. Let's go!'

Aegis was thankful that Pandora decided to come along. Otherwise he would've gotten lost in this rift space.

Aegis likened the area beyond the rift portal they entered to an incredibly long and narrow corridor, riddled with doors, and each door lead to a room full of paintings. Each painting was unique, and acted as the gateways to other planes of existence.

If Aegis had come on his own, he wasn't entirely certain he would have known how this space worked if Pandora wasn't around. So far, they had searched twenty or so rooms, but Aegis had not yet detected any sign of them.

Uneasy about the silence, Pandora decided to ask something that had been on her mind for a while. 'Aegis. What exactly is the 'Incident' you mentioned before?'

Aegis stopped moving and turned to face her. 'Why?'

'Sorry.' Pandora shakily replied. 'It's just, you never really spoke much on it and I grew curious. After all, you're usually a lot more...animated, when you speak of your adventures in the mortal realm.'

Aegis was surprised. He didn't know that Pandora actually listened to him rabble on about his adventures and believed they bored her. 'Let's just say...It was my first and it will be my last mistake as a SoulAlly.'

Pandora opened her mouth to ask him to elaborate, when Aegis suddenly bolted down the hall, dragging her with him. 'W-what's going on?' She exclaimed after she caught her breath.

'I can sense them! But something's wrong. Their emotions are rapidly fluctuating while their life force is fading!'

He stopped in front of a door at the darkest end of the hallway and burst through it. He looked at the painting, there were hundreds upon thousands, but regardless of how many there were, Aegis could easily pick out which one it was and dived right into the painting, taking Pandora with him.

Hold on guys. I'm coming!

Weiss didn't know what she expected by going along with Ruby's plan, but she certainly hadn't expected this, and she regretted it greatly.

Ruby decided they should be able to give Rogue an opening by attacking the creature from long range. She reasoned that the creature would be to preoccupied with defending Rogue's attacks to actually bother attacking them. Everyone agreed that it was the most sensible decision and had done as such.

They were wrong.

As soon as they began firing at the creature, Rogue turned to them and went wide-eyed. 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING? GET OUT OF HERE YOU'RE IN DA-'

Rogue didn't finish as he was knocked across the courtyard by the creature. The creature then turned his attention to them, yet it didn't charge directly at them as it had Rogue. Instead it let out yet another ghastly roar and hunched over. The spikes jutting out of its back became long and wirey bladed-tendrils.

Tendrils that started to attack the Beacon students.

Everyone was in a panic. They managed to avoid the tendrils for the most part, throwing other objects for them to grab, but the tendrils still kept coming. Weiss had managed to avoid them for the most part using her glyphs, however, she had misjudged the direction of one and it almost cost her a leg.

Almost.

Rogue, the man she currently despised for stealing from her families company, saved her. He pushed her out of the way, giving the tendril a new target, and the bladed tendril pierced through his leg.

Weiss was astonished by his actions. Ruby and Blake were right, though she begrudgingly admitted it to herself. Something was odd about this man, but she didn't have time to ponder it as he suddenly turned to face her.

'YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE! YOU'll DIE!'

Something was REALLY odd about this man. He was their enemy, wasn't he? Why would he care for their well being?

Weiss was once again unable to ponder anything as she heard a shrill scream and a shriek.

'RUBY!'

Weiss went alert immediately and looked for Ruby. It didn't take her long and the sight made her blood run colder than the ice she commanded.

Ruby had been caught by the monster. The massive tendrils had wrapped around her arms and legs and had her hanging in the air, barely a meter away from the monster. The monster examined her like a curious object, as if deciding which way she would die. It grinned a malicious grin. It raised its dagger like claws and aimed them directly towards her.

Ruby's eyes went wide in fear, and tears began to stream down her cheeks as she was powerless against the demon, and she closed her eyes as the demons claws went down. Weiss was horrified, her friend was going to die and she was all but powerless to stop it.

'NO!' Weiss cried.

Then there was a flash of light.

Ruby didn't know what death would feel like, though she had thought about it often. She expected a cold, dark sensation as she continually struggled for life, before falling into its dark eternal embrace.

Yet, strangely enough, it felt nothing like that. It felt warm, comforting, as if she was being held tightly against the chest of a loved one and listening to the gentle rhythm of their heart. If this was death, maybe it wasn't so bad...

'I sincerely hope you don't think you're dead. Trust me, I've met Death, you do NOT wan't to owe that guy a favour! Never let's you forget it.'

...What?

Ruby opened her eyes. She was still in the courtyard, alive. The monster that had trapped her was now struggling against chains of pure energy, of aura, and was now further away then what she remembered.

'Soooooooo...Aren't you going to thank me?'

Ruby looked up, and was met with the strangest thing she had ever seen. A being, a human, whose body was covered in a bright blue aura. No, his very body was aura. He was looking down at Ruby and smiling, a gentle, comforting smile that made Ruby feel safe. Until she realised that she was being held tightly against the man's chest.

'T-thanks and all, but do you think you could let me go now?' She asked, flustered by their position. It was only then that Ruby realised something odd about his voice. He sounded like two people talking in complete harmony with one another. She didn't recognise one voice, but she did the other. 'Rogue?'

Rogue smiled at her once more before he moved her to where the rest of Ruby's friends where. He had quickly gathered them all together after he had chained the Entropy and saved Ruby. He put them in an area not to far away from the battle that he would lose sight of his enemy, but far enough that they wouldn't be in any danger.

He placed her down gently, handing Ruby over to her distressed older sister, who was hugging Ruby's so tightly that Rogue believed she may have been better off with the EnTropy. He then turned to make his way back to the EnTropy but his arm was suddenly grabbed by Ruby, who had managed to crawl out of Yang's iron grip.

Rogue raised a brow at her. 'Is there something you needed?'

Ruby fidgeted for a moment, unsure of what to say and uncertain of why she grabbed him in the first place. Sighing, Rogue took out the Dragon Amulet from his pocket and handed it to her.

Everyone was stunned an uncertain of how to interpret the gesture. 'That item is incredibly important to me.' He motioned towards Draco, or Greenie as known by Ruby and all the students at Beacon (Minus Jaune) 'So is he. I'll come back for both after I deal with that thing. So if you have any questions I'll answer them then.'

Ruby nodded, and with that, Rogue turned and made his way over to the EnTropy. The EnTropy finally broke out of its chains and howled. Rogue closed his eyes and calmed himself, allowing him to communicate internally with his long-time friend and companion.

Aegis. Thank's.

I should hope you would thank me. If I hadn't appeared you would be dead by now!

Yeah. I know. How long can we sustain Soul Synch for?

Your mana was already low, and I spent most of mine healing your injuries. Considering that, about five minutes, seven if we're lucky.

Rogue and Aegis smirked.

We won't need five minutes

Rogue raised his finger to the air and traced a thin line down. As he did so, a weapon formed. A one sided blade with a black body and circular hilt. He grabbed the handle and stared at the hundreds of tendrils forming from it's back.

The EnTropy glared at him, grinning triumphantly. Rogue smirked back and readied his blade.

'Bring it on.'