Hello again! First and foremost: Yes! Finally someone gets the greatest of doctor Oobleck! I love that he must remind everyone that when they call him professor. Also with regards to Blake it will come, but Ruby is just not a very social person. Add that with the fact that she does not have to openly interact like she does in cannon as she is not the team leader and I find that she would be slow to approach her. More a factor of intimidation from Blake's initial persona.

Once again thank you all for reading and I will have a short authors area after the story this time as well.

It was a dark night in a forest that Ruby has never seen before. As far as her eyes can see it is as if the world is either pitch black or blood red. The tree's leaves seem to show that many people have died on these lands just through their colors alone. Every single leaf is the color of the vital life fluid and it only adds to the atmosphere of the forest that surrounds her. She continues to look around as she slowly starts to wander and yet the scene never changes. The ever present trees just seem to surround her on all sides as if trying to capture her to add to their own supply of blood. The trees themselves look to be hungry for their next sacrifice and it sends shivers across her arms.

Unconsciously Ruby grabs behind her back for her weapon, only to feel thin air between her fingers. There is nothing there and it only adds to the dread of her situation. As if in laughter the leaves shake in the slight breeze that flowed through the forest, sending waves of pulsign red around her. Ruby always loved the color red since she was a child, but for once she actually feared the color. Panicking she starts running through the open path before her, eyes darting around her only bringing more fear. The more she looks the closer the trees appear, as if they were encroaching on their next prey.

This flight of fear of hers was cut short when she heard a loud bang far down the path that she was heading, causing her to skid to a halt. That's when she heard the scream. It sounded ethereal in nature and every hair on Ruby's body stood up at the wail. Yet despite that Ruby's mind pieced the scream to a person, a person that she actually knew. The scream was Weiss's. Fear again pulsed through her body as it stood stock still looking down the path before her. After a moment she regained her senses and looked around the forest that surrounded her and fear hit her once again.

The trees that were surrounding her in their attempt at hunting had receded, as if something else caught their attention. The path before her now easily had a ten foot spacing on both sides where the trees left, as if telling her that she must go forward. She must see what they wanted her to see. As if they enjoyed the fear that they brought the hooded woman.

With the fear ever present Ruby began to inch her way down the path, not knowing what lay ahead. That's when she noticed something else strange about this forest of blood, there was no other sound. The only thing she could hear was her own steps, her own heartbeat thundering in her chest, and the rustles of the leaves in the wind edging her onwards. It's as if she was the only living thing in the entirety of this forest and that thought continued to drive the fear deeper into her heart. Yet Ruby was a huntress to be, so she pushed forward even with the ever growing fear present.

She soon saw a clearing appear at the end of the path that she took and felt joy for the first time in that forest, forgetting what noise had driven her there. That was until she heard the panting from in front of her. The noise that was coming from the very clearing that she was approaching. Fear once again gripped her heart as she slowly came to the very edge of the clearing. Fear that only grew when she saw the occupants of the very clearing in front of her.

The first thing that she noticed was the blood that surrounded her in the trees was pooled up on ground ever growing from a single source. The source was one single body, broken and crumbled on itself. The body was half soaked in the same red that grew on the forest floor, but what wasn't covered in it was pure white. The hair, the skin, and the clothes. The only thing not white about the body was the dull blue eyes that lacked any warmth of life within them. The body was Weiss's and Ruby felt a steel weight drop within her stomach.

The next thing that she noticed was the person hovering over Weiss's corpse. His once black undershirt and pants now stained in the very blood of the woman before him. His gray armor dripped the very life force of the woman that he towered over, even when she would have stood next to him. The blood that dripped from his lower neck locking as if it was feeding the golden bird in the middle of his chest piece, it looked as if it needed more blood. His blue eyes looked wild and hungry, searching for any sign of life in the corpse laying before him. Even his burnt orange hair was not allowed to escape the blood that surrounded the two, as flecks dripped off of it staining his face. His once black mace was only one color and continued to drip down his arms, red, blood red. It was Cardin Winchester and soon he noticed her. When he did his expression changed only to the look of pure ecstasy at the disgust and horror on Ruby's face.

Ruby felt every drop of fear within her body instantly boil into pure anger at the face that she just saw. A man that was sworn to help others killed her partner, her leader and he enjoyed it. The anger only raged more and more within her tiny body, threatening to explode out of her if she did not release it. The edges of her vision only continued to grow more and more red, not from the trees anymore or the blood before her. No, from the pure anger that she felt. The furry that was burning in every pore of her being. She roared at the top of her lungs and the noise traveled across every square inch of the forest and clearing around her. Then she charged.

Cardin tried to attack her straight on with the very mace that he killed Weiss with, but she knew his style. Straight forward and try to overwhelm his prey. She was smarter than him, she was faster than him, and her anger was more powerful than anything that he could muster. She dodged to the right of his swing, and punched him square in the jaw. She felt the crack as it broke under her fist, not caring that his aura should have protected him. No, her mind was on only one thought and one thought alone. She must kill him. He tried to sweep his mace to hit her across the side, but she simply jumped above it and slammed her right foot down on top of his head. Another sickening crack echoed throughout the air and he was slammed into the ground. Yet that was not enough for Ruby, no she needed more, he had to pay for what he did to Weiss.

She quickly moved to his right arm and she used all of her force to stomp her foot down on his elbow. It crunched under the force and bent in an angle that it was never meant to be in. Yet despite all that she had done to him she never heard a single noise leave his mouth. As if he was taunting her, saying that she couldn't do enough to make him scream out in pain. So she took the challenge to heart and snarled. He took hit after hit, every one responded with a crack as yet another bone of his was broken under her force and yet he never screamed. Even to his dying breath he never uttered any noise between those lips of his and it made Ruby furious.

It took a long time for Ruby to be able to regain her composure after her one sided fight, but after she did her mind finally raced to another body in the clearing. Weiss. She did not deserve to be stuck in such a place in this hungry forest and needed to be taken to safety. Ruby turned around and fear once again pulsed through her body. Where Weiss's body once laid stood one tree with fresh blood red leaves across it tops. All signs of blood that once stained the grass were gone, as if they were licked off the ground. She instinctively looked back towards the body of Cardin to see that it too was replaced by a tree. Quickly she looked around the clearing to see that it had shrunk by half its size by the approaching trees. Whenever Ruby looked at them they did not move, but when out of sight they crept closer and closer.

The fear taking control of her body again she bolted from the clearing back into the forest, desperately trying to find any way to escape this forest that was looking for its next victim. No matter where she went, the trees were there, waiting for her to make a mistake. Waiting for their chance at getting another meal today. Looking around she failed to notice the tree in front of her and slammed into it head first. She fell backwards onto her back and her vision became blurry for a moment. When her vision cleared again she noticed it, she was completely surrounded by the trees. Trunk to trunk in a circle around her, she couldn't escape anymore and this time she could see the trees inching closer. Inch by inch the circle closed more and more the trees beginning to meld together into a monstrosity of a tree. Ruby began to feel claustrophobic as the circle closed in more and more on her. Her vision slowly began to darken, until it was completely filled in darkness. She heard nothing, felt nothing, and saw nothing. She was in a void.

Ruby awoke with a jolt from her sleep. Her eyes darted around her to ensure that she was safe. After a moment she realized that she was safely in her bed back at Beacon and a wave of relief hit her. She slumped a little as she let out a breath of air, and felt the sweat that drenched her entire body. She felt worse than when she would after an entire workout regimen. She looked around the room to see if she had inadvertently awoken any of her teammates up. She already knew that Yang was asleep, as she could hear her elder sister's snores from across the room. So she scanned to the bed beneath her sisters and saw the silhouette of Blake under her sheets. She looked to still be within slumber's grasp and Ruby was once again relieved. For some reason Blake was the one to always look out for accidentally waking up, Ruby had already done it a few times across her many early morning workouts. Getting out of bed and to the door proved to be almost a challenge at this point to make sure that the black haired woman stayed asleep.

Next she peered over the edge of her bed to see if Weiss was awake. Her eyes darted around the bed beneath hers, the broken moon giving no help tonight in her sight. Eventually she heard the soft breathes under her and judging by the time between them Weiss was still asleep. Ruby once again laid back on her bed and went for her scroll. She wanted to see the time that her nightmare had awoken her at. Once she did she signed at the ungodly hour that she had awoken at. It was two in the morning, even she never got up at such a time. Yet deep in her mind she knew that she would never be able to fall asleep after that nightmare that she was forced to go through. So she just stared at the ceiling wondering why such a thing happened to her. She hasn't had any of these nightmares in years by now, so why now? What has truly changed to cause such a thing to occur? Did she make a mistake somewhere?

Eventually Ruby chose to do something else to get her mind off her ever increasing questions within her own mind. She chose to do the only thing that will quell her ever racing mind and that was exercise. Nothing calmed her more than blasting music and forcing her body to push its own limits. So once again she snuck out of her room and headed towards her destination, albeit a couple of hours earlier than she usually did.

To say that a night workout was different from an over morning workout would be lying. The two still had the lack of other individuals in the room with her. Though she was much more tired than she would usually be during said workout. It led to some less than stellar results during her combat forms portion and that left a bitter taste in her mouth. After she was finished and showered she arrived back at her dorm just after five in the morning, her usual get up time. Yawning as she entered the room she decided that it was a better option to try to go back to sleep now and have more energy for the day. So she laid back down and covered herself in the warm embrace of her sheets. Slowly she drifted back into darkness that was her slumber.

Ruby awoke with a jolt as someone had shoved her shoulder. Her still awakening brain caused her to jump up and wave her arms around crazily in hopes of protecting her body. This got a chuckle out of whoever woke her, and even her sleepy mind recognized the voice behind the laugh. It was Yang.

"Whoa Rubes, calm down there. I was just trying to wake you up before the Ice Queen decided to frosen you to the bed." Yang's voice came out. Ruby could already hear the grin that was on it as she slowly processed the bad pun her sister had just said. She wasn't the only one to react to the pun as underneath Ruby she heard Weiss exclaim "Hey" and Blake groaned from across the room. Of course Yang had to open up their day with a bad pun, that was obviously the best course of action.

Choosing to ignore her sister and her ever worsening puns, Ruby checked her scroll and realized that she only had ten minutes until the start of their first class of the day. She bolted out of her bed and her still groggy mind failed to connect that gravity was still a thing. She slammed into the ground and groaned in the heap that she found herself in. Yang herself started full on laughing at the sight of her sister potentially falling to her doom, and it did not help Ruby fight the embarrassment that was pulsing through her body. Covering her face Ruby rushed to her drawer, grabbed her school uniform and rushed to the open bathroom. She slammed the door behind her and quickly changed into her clothing, she did not want to be late for class.

Rushing out of the bathroom she was greeted by the sight of her team staring at her. It unnerved her at all the eyes in the room, solely being on her at the moment, but then she noticed something else that was off. The rest of them were wearing their combat uniforms and not their school uniforms. Why would they be doing that?

As if answering the question on Ruby's mind Weiss stated in a neutral tone "You dolt, we have the field trip today, remember?" As if her brain was waiting for the moment to finally connect the dots she realized that today was the day that they were going to Forever Falls as a class and thus had no other classes. Of course they needed to be in combat gear, the forest did have active Grimm in it. Albeit weak Grimm, but Grimm nonetheless.

"Ugh , I forgot." Ruby groaned out as she face palmed herself. She then went over to grab her combat uniform and went back into the bathroom to change once again. This morning was really not starting in any good way for her, stupid nightmare!

Once everyone exited the bullheads the class was deep in the forest that was Forever Fall. The usually bright forest that was always in a state of autumn brought wonder to most of the faces amongst the group. Save a few. Ruby was unfortunately one of the few that was not struck in the wonder, no instead she was stuck in horror. Around her were the very trees from her nightmare, they surrounded her as if mocking the hooded woman of their true intentions. Despite her fear and nervousness, no other student noticed her disposition. No, instead they focused on the forest and the sole professor that was their chaperone. Of course of all the professors to join the students it was none other than Glynda Goodwitch.

Of course in classic Goodwitch fashion she was also giving them a stern lecture about the forest and what they were to do within it. "Yes students, the forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful." she started as she continued to march down the path, not looking towards her students. "But we are not here to sight see. Professor Peach has asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest and I'm here to make sure that none of you die while doing so." She said as she turned around to the group once again. This caused all the students to stop in their tracks and caused a mishap where Jaune, who was carrying far too many jars at the moment with a strange white box underneath them, bumped into Cardin before him. Cardin himself just glared at Jaune as he sheepishly tried to apologize.

Ruby saw this interaction and rage filled in where fear was once held. Rage at Cardin for continuing to bully Jaune, rage for Jaune to still be at his beck and call, and rage at Cardin for the nightmare that was still burned into her memory. She glanced over at Pyrrha to see the red haired woman giving a sad look over at her partner. The two might be on good terms now, but Ruby surmised that Cardin still had something over Jaune. People like him shouldn't even be here!

Professor Goodwitch continued her speech "Each of you is to gather one jar of red sap, however this forest is full of the creatures of Grimm. So be sure to stay by your teammates, we will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun." The professor finished her speech with a slight smile that caught every student off guard and for a moment an awkward silence held the group. That was before Cardin grabbed the collar of Jaune's hoodie and began to pull him away from his team. Ruby's anger just continued to grow, but she knew that she still had to remain with her team. So she followed Weiss, who at this time seemed to be leading both team WYBR and the remains of JNPR to a set of trees.

Ruby had finished her jar within the first minute of arriving at a tree. She looked at the red sap that was currently sitting in her jar and images of her nightmare came back to her mind. She physically gagged at the sights and the mere thought that what was in the jar was blood from some unfortunate sole. She gagged harder when she caught the sight of Nora downing jar after jar of the same sap that Ren kept trying to hand her. This in turn caught the notice of both Yang and Weiss, who both stared at her. They kept quiet as if they wanted her to start the conversation, yet when she didn't Yang came forward.

"Rubes, you ok?" she asked.

Ruby gulped down whatever tried to free itself from her stomach and looked towards her sister and said "Yeah, just feeling a little queasy. Nothing to worry about."

Weiss then interjected "If you do not feel good, you should relax back with professor Goodwitch. She should be at the rendezvous spot. You already have your jar and we are with team JNPR so we can keep each other safe."

Ruby mulled over it in her head for a moment and quickly rushed her answer when she saw Nora going for the next jar. "Y-yeah that sounds like a good idea Weiss. I will go over there now."

Yang hung around Ruby for a few more seconds, as if trying to make sure that her sister was safe. Once she had her answer she gave the hooded woman a pat on her shoulder and returned to the rest of the group. Ruby on her part started to slowly walk back towards the professor while her mind was racing around. Her thoughts kept coming back to the nightmare that plagued her the night before and how accurately it showed this forest that she found herself in. Something just constantly felt off about the entire situation and she began to get lost in her thoughts. Unbeknownst to her was that in her unfocused state her body was tracing the very path that she followed within that very nightmare.

Soon she began to hear something, voices. All of them were male, and by the sounds of it there were five of them. She approached slowly toward the clearing that was slowly coming into view before her. That's when she heard Jaune's voice yell "I said no!" With that she quickly hopped into the trees and darted from tree to tree until she landed on a large branch that hung with a clear view of the clearing below her. Her blood ran cold at the sight before her.

In the clearing was the entirety of team CRDL and Jaune looking to be having an argument. Jaune by the looks of it had lost all of the bravado that he had when he yelled and was slowly curling in on himself as the four others began to crowd around him. Yet none of that was what Ruby truly focused on, no she was focused on Cardin himself. Across the chest of his armor was the very red that Ruby's nightmare had shown her. The bird that was across his chest looking to be drinking in the very fluid that was dripping slowly down his chest. Ruby started to slowly hyperventilate as she continued to look down into the clearing, her mind racing faster and faster.

That's when her mind stopped on a single thought. More a difference between now and her nightmare from the night before. This time she had her sweetheart with her and this time she wouldn't let Cardin feed this forest. She quickly unfolded Crescent Rose into its rifle configuration and slowed her breathing. She slowly looked down the scope and zeroed in on her target, Cardin's left kneecap. If she couldn't kill him, she for sure would injure him to the point where he couldn't be at Beacon anymore. That is what a huntress would do, protect the people from his sheer incompetence. She held her breath and slowly her finger began to squeeze the trigger.

Yang was worried about her little sister after what had happened earlier. Truly she was worried all day, something seemed off about Ruby. She seemed almost out of it today and when she started gagging at the sight of something that she would have loved, it set off a lot of red flags in the brawler's head. Still she did agree with Weiss that Ruby should relax until the field trip was over, though that didn't stop her from eventually getting the rest of the group to also head back shortly after Nora had finally stopped eating all the sap that was being collected by Ren. It took almost twenty jars for that to happen and Yang almost felt bad for the trees that she must have sucked dry.

So now the group of six arrived at the meeting location that they had sent Ruby earlier to. Yet only professor Goodwitch was there, no Ruby in sight. So Yang approached the professor and asked "Have you seen Ruby?"

The professor on her part stayed calm before replying "No I have not. Wasn't she supposed to be with you right now?"

Weiss came up and responded "Actually we sent her back earlier because she was not feeling well. She should have arrived already."

That is when the professor's face finally showed a hint of fear, albeit for a second and that drove the dread into Yang's heart. Her sister was in a forest full of Grimm alone and no one has seen her since she left her team. Yang's mind was racing at what could have happened to hear when she heard the familiar bark of Crescent Rose firing off. Its sound reverberating throughout the forest around them. Shortly after she heard screams, and to her relief they all sounded male in origin. None sounded anything like her precious sister. Still Yang could not forget the sound of Ruby's rifle being fired. Thus Yang's feet could only carry her towards the noise and soon she found herself sprinting, followed closely by her teammates and the blonde professor. 'Don't worry Ruby, we are coming!' Yang screamed silently in her head.

Authors Section:

Hello again, I felt that it was quite fitting to leave it on a cliff hanger here for you all. I wanted this to be a bigger part of the story and thus wanted it to take up more than just one chapter. Plus who doesn't love a cliffhanger? To add to the suspense I am also taking a small break to deal with some personal issues, so the next chapter should be expected on Monday instead of the normal Friday. Sorry about all that. Otherwise enjoy yourselves until next time!