Ruby had been through this song and dance so many times before that she had begun to lose count. As she felt the Grimm's foul presence slip into her mind she couldn't help but scoff at just how disgusting the creature's act was.

Grimm were as varied as there were stars in the sky; and endless stream of ceaselessly disgusting abominations. Yet there was just something so natural about the creatures existence, something... enticing. Knowing that Humanity, while the absolute top of the food chain, had an equal along such a fundamental aspect of life was curiously comforting in a way. It seemed that nature had once again showed it's way of balancing the world out, regardless of what the twin-gods had intended.

The void shifted as control left Ruby's body, and the slick pressure across her limbs slowed and shifted into place, as if she were wrapped in a binding of snakes. For most this would be a wholly revolting affair, and yet for the experienced woman it was nothing more than routine. Often times she wondered just how many different ways had these breed of Grimm slipped their illusions into her mind, and despite never being able to pinpoint an exact number she was always able to deduce one simple fact.

It was a always too many.

Her vision strained as she felt the creature's will lock itself into the deepest recesses of her psyche, no doubt looking for a foul memory to draw it's twisted sense of fearmongering from. For an instant she smirked at the thought, knowing full well just how mindless these Grimm were. Despite sifting through her very being, something that even past lovers could not do, the Grimm had shown her it was nothing like it's sibling.

The Dream-Spinner had created a will, a mind of it's own; this creature had none, and was no different than the rest of it's kind.

It would seem her wait was over as the landscape shifted to a new scene, one that while mostly forgotten to the tides of history was ultimately one of her darker experiences. She was bound, splayed across the mud and grass, all the while flames tore across the forest surrounding her. Ruby was no stranger to failure, and yet while she had always survived each and every encounter that did not mean she escaped completely unscathed.

Torture and pain were close friends of hers, but torture itself didn't always involve the splitting of skin and breaking of bones. Sometimes it was the theft of innocence that would rend one's spirit.

Ruby found herself in a younger body, beholden to a scene she distinctly remembered; they often say you never forget your first. It had been her third attempt to re-write their fate, and as such she had started to form a routine. Unlike her most recent attempt which let her keep her body - something she assumed was because she didn't exist in the current time period - she instead would arrive back in her younger self's body at a choice point in time. From there she would attempt to mimic the actions she'd performed the first time, up until she made it to and was accepted into Beacon. At that point she would set a new plan in motion. Eventually the years would meld together in her mind and she would forget most of them, with only the more important ones to retain a permanent place in her memories for either turning out better or worse than before.

This time was one of the latter.

They had once again dealt with the attack on Beacon, and much like the previous attempt had failed to stop it. Beacon was sacked by Grimm and White Fang alike, and as it was and regrettably would be for the next several tries the academy fell, and Cinder had and would continue to obtain the Maiden powers.

At this point Ruby had grown a resentment towards the group, and had foolishly allowed her anger to get the best of her. While only her third time replaying the events of the past she had failed to reign in her vastly growing hatred towards the ones responsible for the multiple travesties seemingly destined to befall Remnant. She had been seething at that point, and when an opportunity for some payback presented itself Ruby was just unable to deny the delectable chance to dish out some cold and dirty vengeance.

This had been a mistake.

Ruby had seen much, but in the grand scheme of things she was still rather innocent to some aspects of evil, and despite what many would think she hadn't even lived for more than thirty-three years by the third trip back.

Remnant first met it's end only five measly years after the fall of Beacon during the first line of history, with Ruby just barely managing to make the first of many leaps back through the currents of time. She was able to postpone the end for an extra two years on the second attempt, but still she ended up jumping back, joined by the sting of failure. The multiple leaps at that point had instilled a sense of arrogance in her, as she had begun to believe she had seen it all.

A belief that had been cruelly ripped from her during this very moment.

Ruby looked ahead to the gory sight, and despite how vile it may have seemed from the Fang's perspective she couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in her past handiwork. Ruby had caught a small portion of Fang trying to flee into the forest, away from the burning school, and it was there that she saw fit to unleash her years-worth of fury.

It had been only moments since Pyrrha's death, and with it Ruby forced her silver eyes upon her friends murderer. Cinder had recoiled as her body was scared from the light. Ruby would try to attack the woman, but she had always been too late as after the light faded Cinder would surround herself in flame and winds as she made her getaway, and the silver eyed girl would cry out in hatred at having once again let the woman escape. In her anger she rushed away, intent to try and leave the chaos of Beacon behind in an attempt to clear her mind.

She was well on her way back to the landing pads near the front of the school when she stopped on a broken pillar just a few minutes away. Her eyes caught sight of several Fang leaping from an all too familiar cliffside, and as they fell Ruby gave chase. The cliffside was overlooking the forest they had performed their initiation in, and Ruby at that point had the layout memorized by heart. In that moment her hate surfaced in full, and with Pyrrha's death fresh in her mind she began to wonder why these horrid people were allowed to live instead of her friend. In her moment of weakness Ruby decided that just for once she wanted to know how it felt to instill fear in others, to feel the supposed rush of power from said fear, just like the Fang who seemed addicted to the act.

A twisted smirk fell over her as she allowed the hunt to begin.

One by one she would corner and cut-off the group individually, silencing them before they could even utter a cry. After the first three she began to notice it wasn't just one group who fled to the forest, and with that knowledge she decided to make it a game. The still relatively inexperienced Ruby would move the bodies around to places she knew the others would stumble through, posing them just so as to get across the point that it was nothing but a game to her now, and bit by bit some poor sobs would stumble across the horrid displays. Eventually she would hoist them up by their clothing, displayed as if they were a fresh catch of a hunter's game. Fear quickly rose, and soon enough the girl began to lose herself in her monstrous little game.

It wouldn't last.

Ruby heard a twig crack, and her vision shifted to the bloody man. He was masked, wounded, and very, very angry.

"So that's all we are to you huh? Nothing but hunting trophies to be strung up on display..." The man was slathered in blood and muck, with his wounds opening with every step he took towards her. His eyes froze over as he stood above, looking down as his emotions visibly died out and his broken mask finally lost it's grip and fell. "Well then... I suppose it's only fair now for me to take my trophy right?"

Ruby had been caught off guard at one point, shortly after setting fire to the woods in an attempt to weed out the last remaining few. As she had torn through several more the fire had begun to eat at her aura, and she willingly ignored it as she hacked away at body after body. She had forgone her method of 'display' and resorted to simply cleaving through as many as she could. It was only after hacking another straight down the middle did a force crash into her back, downing her as her vision blurred.

She had already been weak and tired at that point, and with her aura gone from that final blow she could do nothing as her body was shifted and bound. Her arms had been restrained above her head onto a nearby tree trunk, and from that point her fun would die.

A click crossed her ears, and Ruby saw his pants drop to his ankles.

Long ago she had been horrified, and even through her dulled fatigue at the time she knew instantly what would happen next. Her dress had been torn, her chest exposed, and through the few screams she managed to muster he set to work with a vengeance of his own. She would cry, and a pain would rapidly tear through her as the man let loose a wrath she'd never felt before; even the previous failures had never brought something like this. On that night he had linked them both, but not in love like she had once wished during the first iteration of history, but in a vile act of hatred.

Eventually after several minutes of pure agonizing suffering he would end it, and with his rage sated she had, through blurred tears and silenced weeping, expected him to take her life. Instead he spit on her, and turned to leave. With the forest burning he had most likely thought the flames would do her in, and in a way Ruby thought that also. However the fire was slow, and just before it could spread to the tree which held her a soothing feeling returned.

Her aura had just barely managed to regain enough strength to allow use of her semblance, and with that opportunity she took it just in time to escape the blaze. However the strength was fleeting, and Ruby would instead lay broken and violated in the center of the small clearing, only a few meters from where she was held. The blaze burned around her, and yet it remained locked to the foliage, with only the heat of proximity to reach her. When the fire finally died some hours later she was found by a couple Atlas soldiers. Atlas along with the help of Vale had managed to regain control of the battle, and they had been attempting to round up any White Fang who might have fled.

They found her instead.

Ruby would be taken and nursed back to strength within a simple Vale hospital, surrounded by the few remaining friends who stayed at Beacon. However a shame would stick with her throughout that long forgotten history, born of her inability to control her anger, and with it several nightmares of the event would haunt her dreams. However that regret would fade as her hopes for a better future were slowly snuffed out with each passing year. Eventually she would overcome the few nightmares of the event, and some years later she crossed paths with the man who had ravaged her back then.

And killed him.

Ruby raised a brow as the man's belt clicked, and like before his pants dropped to the ground. He lowered to the dirt above her, and moved once again, just like back then. However rather than fight or cry or scream like she had during the initial moment in time Ruby instead relaxed her body.

She allowed him in.

The scene stuttered for an instant, and Ruby smirked as all feeling left. The man continued his motions, however the world was blurred and no pain was felt. Everything seemed to slow, and Ruby couldn't help but chuckle as she felt the raw hatred begin to swell all around her.

"Stupid, like all the rest of them." She spoke aloud knowing the Grimm couldn't understand her, however it gave her a sense of pride knowing just how to deal with these kinds of foes.

It leached on the memories that held the most negativity, and would attempt to use it to coax out all of the terror the individual once felt. But the past was the past, and people grew over time. It was only human nature to overcome the traumas of history, and with it people gained new bouts of strength.

Ruby was always changing, as if she hadn't then she would have given up hope long ago.

This particular memory was merely one droplet amongst the sea of suffering she had endured over the past thousand or so years; she had experienced similar tortures time and time again, and compared with everything else she'd faced it was nothing in her eyes now. In that time she would find new hopes and despair along her seemingly endless quest to escape Remnant's doomed fate. Yet for such a doomed fate Ruby found herself always able to move forwards, and with that realization she amassed a will of unbreakable steel; one to rival the very concept of impossibility. Most would escape her, and yet she held onto key moments and attempts in her mind, if only to prove to herself that there was a chance to change everything; that destiny could be shifted.

Everything shuddered and faded as Ruby found the darkness itself seem to shift. This Grimm - like the others of it's type - appeared to rely only on that past terror to maintain it's illusion, and would force the victim to relive the event, expecting them to feel that fear once again and re-intact their previous response. By defying the fear and refusing to fight like she had before, by revolting against what should have occurred she'd broken the façade. The Grimm didn't know what to show her, as her terror had been what filled the memory, and without it the creature couldn't feed.

That had been far from the worst memory she held, and the fact that the Grimm chose that one in particular showed Ruby just how animalistic the creature was. It chose at random, and by extent showed it had no understanding of severity or growth.

For being creatures of destruction and change the Grimm were awfully stagnant.

Ruby relaxed her body, and in the moment of silent reprieve she allowed some of her own corrupting darkness to swell from within. For an instant everything stilled, and she could feel the Grimm repulse as her own darkness seeped out and lashed at the world around her.

The beast held her within, attempted to change her, and now it was her turn to do the same.

.

.

Qrow was regrettably stuck waiting on his sister.

The others still had not returned from their mission, and at this point he knew something went wrong. Though inexperienced the kids were clever and skilled, and as such even if it went wrong they still would have created a massive racket. There should have been a big battle being dragged into the streets; the usual for them when they failed at subtlety. The haunting silence instead drew nothing but worries for the man, and he'd fully accepted that they were in trouble; almost certainly caught if the quiet of everything was to be believed. Yet for all that knowledge he was unable to act.

Make no mistake he wanted nothing more than to storm the building and stir up all sorts of chaos, but he knew better than to allow his emotions to fuel a stupid decision. Qrow knew that should he charge in then whoever managed to capture the kids could easily dispose of them in an attempt to shatter him. Should it happen he wasn't sure he could live with himself, and so he had forgone any attempt to stage a rescue on his own.

All he could do was hope Raven would return with help, and in that moment he heard a familiar noise.

"Speak of the Grimm and they shall appear." He didn't even need to turn from the window to know it was Raven.

"I'm back."

"And I'm assuming you're not alone." He spoke as several sets of boots graced his ears.

"No, but we're going to need a bigger room." That prompted a response, and with the continued sets of footsteps constantly multiplying he dared to look back in curiosity.

He was not ready for the sight of what looked like the pouring flow of civilians, all of which were distinctly Faunus. One of those Faunus he did recognise, as she had been the girl who was part of Ruby's team, and the one who had also barged in on the White Fang investigation back in Vale; Blake, if he recalled her name correctly. Next to her was the Schnee, strangely robed in what looked like a stylized version of the other civvies clothing, only the miniature ice queen's was much more decorative than the plain cloth strewn about everyone else and was similar to Blake's. Despite the robes loose cloth it seemed as though the Girls had no trouble moving around.

Qrow revolted slightly as a heavily scarred Sun passed through the portal, yet he pushed the feeling off as the kid passed off to the side and allowed for more to come through, only giving off a slight nod of acknowledgement to Qrow.

"Uh, Raven..." He paused as the stream continued to pile out, now with several moving out into the halls as to allow for more to come. "I'm pretty sure I said only to get the kids. I don't quite remember asking for an army of Faunus."

"Wasn't planning on it myself, but as it turns out these little tikes of yours have been scheming."

"Uh huh... right." Qrow looked to both Blake and Weiss. "So why are we borrowing the assistance of so many civilians, and who's idea was this anyway?"

"We'll need them if we want any hopes of facing Adam with minimal bloodshed."

For a moment Qrow wanted to sigh, and then he took in just who's voice that was. He froze up, realizing that the voice was not only familiar, but impossible as well. Yet Oz was always prattling on with how nothing in the world was ever truly impossible, and as his eyes moved back further in the large crowd they locked onto one particular figure, one which he hoped wasn't just an illusion.

As the boy pushed through the crowds Qrow could deny it no longer, and with him coming to a stop right between both Blake and Weiss the hopes Qrow felt swelled into a fit of joy. Cut against Blake's dark and Weiss's light Qrow couldn't help but find an ironic sense of visual contrast in just how much the kid seemed to be a mix of both aspects; it gave the group a sense of unity. Despite his change of attire and more determined and sure standing it was still the same kid Qrow had watched over.

"You son of a bitch." Qrow's smirk stretched deviously.

"I'd give a greeting, but I'm sure you know we have a lot of work to do, so let's save that little thing for later." The boy's standing spoke of purpose, and Qrow couldn't be happier.

Vermillion was alive, and once more they had their wildcard against Salem.

Author's note

...

Well this one took a toll.

Another chapter out, and on time again. This one however finally has a meeting we've been waiting for, that's right, V is back on the board properly with Qrow and the others. Everything's about to go off, and soon enough it seems Mistral's gang problem is going down.

Once more we learn a bit about Future Ruby's past, and while dark as usual it seems she's almost completely unfazed by the events; for better or worse. Now however it's time for her to take control, and we get to see how that goes later.

That's it for now.

See you next chapter.