Here we are at Chapter 12. The battle continues in Weiss' dream as our heroes find themselves at a crossroads. I do not own RWBY Ice Queendom. They belong to their respective owners. I only own my OCs. Here's chapter 12. Enjoy.

Chapter 12: World of Dreams

"Ruby? Ruby!" Jaune yells as he tries to wake Ruby up. "I don't understand. What's happening to her?"

The boys laid Ruby on the floor as she remains asleep. Khazhak inspects Ruby and notices vine marks on her right hand.

"It's the Nightmare. It's sunk its vines into Ruby's heart!" Khazhak realizes.

"Wait, what's that supposed to mean, Brother? Is Ruby asleep while Weiss is asleep or something?" Lloyd looks confused.

"Remember what Professor Shion said: we must never allow the Nightmare's thorns to touch us. But, it touched Ruby during out last trip into Weiss' dream. She was fine for the most part, but the second that she started to doubt herself and see herself as a failure..." Khazhak trails off.

"Her heart became vulnerable to the Nightmare's influence," Lloyd finishes.

"Hold on, what's that mean?" Jaune still doesn't get it.

"It means that Ruby is asleep, even within Weiss' dream. A dream within a dream. I know it sounds impossible, and it's definitely weird, but that's the only explanation I can come up with," Khazhak replies.

"But, how do we wake her up?!" Jaune pleads.

"I don't know. Maybe we need to-," Khazhak stops when they see vines popping out of Ruby's right sleeve and her hand start to freeze. "This is really bad."

Dream Pyrrha walks up and then points above them. They look up at Jaune's sword sticking through the ceiling.

…

In the real world, Shion's wand shakes, the crystals hanging from it vibrating violently. She continuously types 'wake' on her computer for Ruby, but nothing is happening.

"What's Ruby's status, Shion? Is it that bad," Ozpin asks.

"It is. Ruby has been trapped by a dream within a dream. Something must've happened to her while inside Weiss' dream and the moment it saw an opening, the Nightmare snuck its way into her heart. It's also blocking my semblance. I can't reach her," Shion explains.

As she watches over them with Ren and Nora, Pyrrha gasps as her eyes turn to Jaune.

"It's Jaune," Pyrrha says.

"Wait, what's up with Jaune?" Nora asks.

"Jaune's aura... it's getting stronger," Pyrrha sees his aura glowing.

…

"Wait, that might work," Khazhak says as he eyes the sword. "If that blade makes this train immune to the Nightmare's influence just like you are, then maybe," he picks Ruby up in a bridal carry. "Time to wake up, little rose," he then jumps up to the ceiling, bringing Ruby's hand up to its tip.

The second he does, the vines and ice fade away and one of her coins glows.

"Wait, Weiss!" Ruby yells as she wakes up and they land back on the floor.

"Rise and shine, little rose. You okay?" Khazhak is relieved she's back.

"Glad you're awake, Ruby," Jaune sighs in relief.

"Yeah, don't scare us like that," Lloyd adds.

"Khazhak? Wait... are we still in the train?" she then notices their position and pouts with a slight blush. "Can you put me down now?"

"Oh, right," Khazhak lets her down, rubbing his head afterwards with a slight blush too.

Ruby reaches into her pocket and pulls out a coin, "It's my coin," she watches as it fades away.

…

Back in the real world, Shion's wand stops shaking and she hangs up her phone.

"I don't understand exactly how it happened, but it appears Ruby is no longer within her own dream. My semblance still has some strength left, too. We still have a chance," Shion says.

Ozpin turns to Jaune for a moment, "If I may ask, what is Jaune's semblance exactly?" he asks his team.

"Well, the truth is we don't really know what his semblance is. Not even he knows," Pyrrha says.

"He did only recently unlock his aura and learned how to fight with it. His semblance hasn't been unlocked yet, though," Ren notes.

"I mean. Honestly, what's he been doing if he didn't understand either of those things before he came to Beacon?" Nora wonders.

Ozpin hums, "There are many ways to unlock one's abilities. Strife and battle are two strong examples of this. And the powers hidden deep within us as well," his eyes turn to Ruby and Khazhak.

…

Back in the dream, Porphyrius's group managed to get inside the manor before them, with Blake leaving her sheathe sword in the doorway to prevent Bashful Klein from closing.

"Oh, p-p-please don't try to do any s-s-s-sight-seeing. It's t-t-terribly embarrassing, you know," Bashful Klein pleads.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but this place feels... unpleasant," Reaper notes as he looks around.

Inside the manor, they see weird things everywhere, even in the air above them. They see a smaller version of the SDC train they rode on, more puppet men in suits, members of the Grimm Fang, masks, Dust containers and shipments. Even normal things like bookcases and furniture are up in the air. Yang pulls out her scroll to try and contact Ruby, but only gets static.

"I can't get in touch with Ruby," Yang notes.

Porphyrius raises his scroll, "I've been trying to contact Khazhak, but no luck either. The Nightmare must be interfering. We're running out of time,"

Yang looks around, "You know, this place remind me of our old shed back home, but it was nowhere near this creepy,"

"What do you suppose any of this stuff means?" Porphyrius asks as he looks around.

"Can't say. Looks like a bunch of weird junk that just stays around and makes a big mess," Yang then quickly regrets her words. "Oh, I wasn't talking about you, Porphyrius. Or you, Blake. You're not like that,"

"No, it's okay, Yang. I know what you're talking about. I get the same feeling here. I think... Maybe, this is the place where things that don't belong anywhere else go. Whether inside the city or even outside it. This is where they're all stored," Blake says as they walk up a stairway, only to gasp when she spots an old White Fang flag on the wall.

"That's the symbol of the White Fang, but back when it was a peaceful protest movement. They changed it when they became an extremist group and it's more menacing now," Porphyrius notes.

"Yeah... the White Fang," Blake mutters.

Continuing on, they come to a door and open it to find a room lit by candlelight. Inside, there are bookshelves filled with books. At the far end is another weird arrow symbol... with a black relic within it.

"Is that... a relic?" Yang walks over and picks it up. "This one must be for you, Blake. I figured we'd find it eventually."

Suddenly, the arrows on the sign turn, showing small White Fang symbols.

"That's... hopefully not a bad sign," Reaper notes.

They then hear low moaning behind them and turn with their weapons ready. They see a shadow figure walk by the open doorway.

"What... was that?" Yang wonders nervously.

"Let's find out," Porphyrius says and they exit the room.

Outside, they find several Grimm Fang members, walking around like zombies.

"So, are those grimm, or White Fang, or something else? And why aren't they attacking us?" Yang wonders.

"It's probably because I'm here," Blake says. "In Weiss' mind, I'm no different from them,"

"Blake, there's no reason to think so low of yourself. You've proven otherwise time and time again. Besides, everything that happens here is because of the Nightmare's influence," Reaper says.

"No, I finally understand now. The White Fang see all humans as evil and terrible people. And Weiss and others like her; they view the White Fang and all Faunus the same way. That is what all of this represents. But... I also knew in my heart that not all of them were like that. Maybe I used that to justify to myself why I had to keep fighting them," Blake explains.

"Well, even if that's how you were before, that's not how you are now, right? For now, let's just focus on getting this relic back to the others," Yang puts the black relic away. "And then take care of that annoying grimm. I can just use a coin and-," Yang starts to walk off, only for Blake to grab her shoulder.

"I don't think that's a good idea. If we try what we did before, Negative Weiss will only stand in our way again. Her powers are too strong for us in this dream," Blake says.

"Blake has a point, Yang. The last two times we tried that, we got our asses kicked. We don't have the time or the luxury of trying the same thing again," Porphyrius says.

"They're right. Negative Weiss will see us coming before we even get close," Reaper adds.

"Oh come on, we don't know that for sure. I'm sure Ruby and Khazhak are working on way to fix that right now. So, let's just quit the talking and get moving and-," Yang starts to get upset.

"I'm sure that both Ruby and Khazhak realize that if we don't come up with a new, better plan, then we'll never defeat the Nightmare and save Weiss," Blake retorts.

"We've done all the thinking we can. What do you suggest we do: just sit around and wait until we're immune to the Nightmare like Jaune and Porphyrius? That is not how I do things," Yang crosses her arms.

"And maybe that's the problem. Yang, not every problem in life can be solved by simply punching your way through it. Brute force isn't always the answer," Reaper says.

"Oh, and you have a better-," Yang starts to get angry.

"Wait!" Blake stops them all. "Maybe... that's what we need to do," she holds her chin in her hand, leaving the others to give her confused stares.

…

In the city, Ruby looks around with her scope, seeing vines everywhere, shadow people frozen in place, Batley sleeping on a lamppost, and the whole city looking even gloomier than it normally does.

"See anything, Ruby?" Khazhak asks next to her.

"Nothing's moving out there," Ruby replies, then stares at her weapon. "Weiss... why did you turn my weapon around?"

"Ruby, what are you talking about?" Khazhak asks.

"While I was asleep, I spoke to Weiss. She said that everything happens for a reason. That I can do things that she can't and move around however I want to. When I told her how she got the barrel on my weapon backwards and that it was all wrong, she said that wasn't the case. She said that she made it that way for a reason and also that 'it hides in the shadow of the one facing it'. I still have no idea what she's talking about," Ruby explains.

"It hides in the shadow of the one facing it'...Strange. There must be something to that, but what?" Khazhak wonders.

Inside the train, Jaune tries to open the door to where they need to go, but it won't budge. Throughout the city, several of their doors have been caught in the Nightmare's vines, and any people who aren't with them now are frozen solid. Any doors they can still open are ones they don't need.

"It's a bust. Only a few doors opened up, but they don't lead anywhere near where we need to go. They lead to nowhere basically," Jaune says as Ruby and Khazhak join them.

"Well, that makes things more difficult," Lloyd notes.

"We didn't see any robot guards out there. Maybe if we hurry, we can get to one of those buildings," Ruby suggests.

"Are we sure that's such a good idea? We might want to look for the others first. And we're almost out of coins," Jaune shoots the idea down.

"Hey, Mr. Depressing, we don't exactly have all day to find the others. They could be anywhere, or even outside the city. We're running out of time," Lloyd retorts.

"Lloyd is right. Weiss told me in my dream. If she falls asleep, then she'll never wake up again," Ruby says.

"But, then we still have that huge statue at the manor. If that thing starts moving again, the dream will make things way harder for us. And we can't defeat Negative Weiss," Jaune again isn't helping.

Khazhak scoffs, "Speak for yourself, Jaune. I can take her,"

"Look, I'm just saying if we just move around without a real plan, then-," Jaune says.

"Then, we'll just have to come up with a new plan!" Ruby stops him, making them both feel bad.

Khazhak sighs and stands before Ruby, "Ruby, look at me," he holds her shoulders. "We will save Weiss. But first, take a breath. Master yourself. Take a moment, then think,"

Ruby listens to him and takes a deep breath. She calms down before her eyes dart up to the sword in the ceiling.

"Hold on. We got the train in here with no problems, right?" Ruby asks.

"Yeah, the sword made it practically invisible to the Nightmare," Lloyd replies.

"What if we used the train to ride us all the way to the tower?" Ruby suggests.

"But, there aren't any tracks ahead of us. It's stuck here," Jaune says.

"So? When we came into the city, the city changed and created new tracks for us. The dream changed," Khazhak says.

"He's right, and we have me," Ruby says.

"What do you mean by that?" Jaune looks confused.

"As long as I'm with the train, it can move. In my dream, Weiss told me that I'm free to go wherever I want in the dream. She also said that she doesn't actually hate me. I believe she'll let us in. I believe she'll understand," Ruby explains.

"But, you're forgetting something. That was the real Weiss telling you that. If we move, then Negative Weiss will attack us again!" Jaune doesn't like this idea.

"That's a good thing, genius," Khazhak says.

"How is that a good thing?!" Jaune exclaims.

Khazhak rolls his eyes and grabs Jaune by his collar, "It means that Weiss hasn't fallen asleep yet. That means we haven't lost yet. We can make some time dealing with her, which should allow the others to reach us. No doubt in my mind that they're figuring things out on their end and trying to get back to us, but we can't afford to just sit and wait for them. You may want to just sit here and do nothing, but we're moving whether you like it or not," he lets Jaune go.

Jaune turns his eyes to the sillies behind them, "And what about them? Are we bringing them with us?"

Ruby glances down, "I want... to free as much of Weiss as I can. Maybe I'm just being selfish and stupid, but I feel like it's the right thing to do here. I think they should fight with us,"

"But, don't you remember what happened the last time. Those girls could get turned into monsters and then they'll cause all kinds of trouble for us," Jaune still doesn't like it.

"Man, you are not helping here, Jauney-boy," Lloyd groans.

"Jaune, it was the Nightmare that did those things. But, Pyrrha never turned into those monsters," Ruby glances at Dream Pyrrha, who nods in reply. "I think they only turned into monsters and went crazy like that... because I told them that they needed to fight for their freedom."

"Okay, but what should you tell them now?" Jaune asks.

Ruby rubs the head of one little Weiss holding onto her, "This time, I'll ask them all to fight for Weiss' sake,"

"She's right. Let's fight with them again, but this time for the right reasons. Deep down, we all want the same thing, Weiss included. We need Weiss to understand what she really wants. And that's to leave this crazy dream and wake up with her friends," Khazhak says.

"Yes, so let's go to Weiss. All of us," Ruby declares.

They move up to the front of the train, where Ruby pulls forth on a lever. The train horn sings out and suddenly tracks appear in front of it. The train starts moving, and the city shifts and changes to suit Ruby's desires. The city clears a path and forms tunnels and tracks, allowing the train to move deeper than it ever did before. As it does, the head of the big statue moves to look at it and robot guards appear in the city. As soon as the robots see the train, they start firing upon it. However, two get destroyed by Ruby up top. The train's windows open up, allowing Khazhak, Lloyd, and the sillies to aim their weapons and fire back at the robots.

"Yeah, now this is more my style!" Lloyd cheers as he fires his gauntlets.

"Keep moving all the way to the Schnee Manor," Khazhak says, firing his sword guns.

Inside the train, Jaune moves some crates around, "Good thing this is a Schnee Dust Company train. It's loaded with Dust. Which means we have all the ammunition we could ever need," he says as Dream Pyrrha empties her rapier, reloads with new vials, and fires off more Dust shots.

The statue raises its arms and tries to smash the train to bits, but the tracks change course and the train moves around the arms. Just like Ruby wanted.

"Please Weiss, you have to let us in. Please, let us come to you," Ruby pleads.

The train gets closer to the manor, and Ruby stands at the front with Khazhak coming up right behind her. They see the knight from before jump down on the tracks and braces itself against the train as it hits, trying to slow it down. Two glyphs appear behind it, freezing the wheels on the train until it finally comes to a stop just shy of the manor. Robot guards surround the train, but Khazhak and Ruby are focused only on Negative Weiss, standing on an ice pillar to meet them at eye level.

"Negative Weiss," Khazhak mutters while cocking his blades.

Ruby readies her scythe, "Weiss, please let us in. If what you said is true and you really trust me and care about me, then you'll let us go,"

Weiss creates a glyph to put her book away, "Don't be such a fool. Even after everything, you still don't understand how outclassed you are here. Once I have given you my judgment and you are punished, I will put you all to sleep," Nega-Weiss readies her rapier.

Khazhak narrows his eyes, "Now who doesn't understand. The only fool here is you, Weiss. I said before, and I'll it again... The only one who has the right to cast judgment is me,"

Negative Weiss conjures a glyph and fires off a few Dust shots. Khazhak deflects them with his blades while Ruby runs around him. They jump over the knight and run towards the manor, but Negative Weiss gets in the way. She swings her rapier, but Khazhak blocks the strike with his right sword. Ruby tries to go over them, but Weiss conjures a glyph to fire more shots, forcing Ruby to fly back. Khazhak's lightning bursts forth from his left blade and he swings it to push Negative Weiss back. Fusing his blades into their greatsword form, Khazhak charges up his semblance before swinging downwards, sending out a cyclone of lightning at her. Negative Weiss creates a large glyph to block the attack. Meanwhile, the robots begin firing on the train, while Jaune, Lloyd, and the sillies fire back, but are slowly being cornered. The knight jumps onto the train and pulls out his sword, throwing it away.

"Oh, that's not good," Lloyd mutters.

With their protection gone, the Nightmare's vines come out and begin wrapping around the train. Lloyd swings his claws at them to keep them away from the others. Back with Khazhak and Ruby, they rush at the manor, but one of the statue's arms swings down at them They dodge, but then Negative Weiss conjures a glyph under Ruby's feet, sending her flying back.

"Ruby!" Khazhak yells, but jumps back when the statue's arms try to crush him and prevent him from reaching her.

Negative Weiss stands over Ruby, "It's time to sleep now, Ruby," she aims her rapier at her.

"No, it's not... I have to save Weiss!" Ruby flies around her with her semblance.

Negative Weiss aims behind her and fires off a powerful blast aimed at Ruby. Khazhak sees a chance and bolts for it, managing to get behind Ruby to block the shot, but they both still take the brunt of the blast. Negative Weiss approaches them as Khazhak gets on one knee and Ruby is on the ground.

"I told you, it's over. It's time for you all to sleep forever," Negative Weiss gets ready to finish them, but a sudden roar rings out. "What was that?"

The entire area starts shaking. Cracks form in the sky above until it breaks and makes a hole in it. On the other side, the old manor outside the city glows an eerie red. From the whole, Grimm Fang soldiers appear and begin attacking the robots.

Lloyd see's what's happening, "What the Hell is going on here?"

The door in the train opens up and out comes Yang, wearing Jaune's cloak, andReaper on her motorcycle, with Porphyrius right behind them thanks to his wings.

"Yang! Reaper! Porphyrius! What the-," Jaune yells.

Yang waves, "Hello~,"

"Sorry to keep you waiting. The cavalry has arrived," Reaper says.

Outside, the chaos continues between the Grimm Fang and the robots.

"What the Hell is all of this?" Khazhak mutters as he and Ruby stand up, seeing all of this.

"The White Fang is here? But how?" Negative Weiss doesn't understand it.

Just then, Khazhak and Ruby look up. Appearing through the hole in the sky is a young woman wearing black and red clothing, wielding a pair of red swords on chains, cat ears on her head of long black hair, and a grimm mask with red markings. The woman swings her sword down on Negative Weiss, who blocks the attack with her rapier.

"Daughter of the Schnee Family. Human or Faunus. Today is the day that we settle everything. Once and for all," it's Blake, but different.

She has become... Negative Blake.

And that's the chapter. The two groups come up with new plans after realizing a few more things about Weiss and about themselves, and now things have really gone crazy. Now, it's Negative Weiss vs. Negative Blake. Will these new plans of theirs work out, or did they just make things worse? Until then, please Read and Review.