Ruby struck the red-hot bar of steel, her heavy hammer working the metal into the flatter shape she had designed. It was slow, tireless work, but Ruby didn't have a choice. She needed a weapon; Adam wasn't going to kill himself.

Her neck craned over to the side, taking a quick glance at her reference. The handwritten parts of her weapon's blueprints were a psychotic scrawl, while the typeface sections only served to make the former look even worse. It wasn't pretty, but she didn't care. She didn't have time to care. Her eye burned— she'd spent the last night in a waking trance, scribbling, writing, designing, then transferring it all to a machinable medium.

Ruby growled as a strand fell out of her poorly folded bun and drooped tauntingly over her field of vision. This wouldn't normally be a problem, since she usually wore headphones while working, but the idea of listening to anything besides the deafening anvil made her feel sick. She tried to blow the stray lock away, then had to push it back, then grunted as it returned. She'd have to reassemble her bun.

Her hammer rang loudly as she dropped it onto her anvil. She stepped away, tearing her black hair tie from the similarly-colored locks it had failed to contain. It all spilled down, unwashed and heavy with sweat and oil and soot.

Ruby blearily wandered over to her shop table. It had a wide, horizontal mirror so she could watch two sides of a project at once, but it would work well enough. She angled it up on its hinge, finding her own reflection.

The creature staring back brought a grimace to her face. The scar was the most prominent thing, besides the fact that she only had one eye remaining. The wound had healed substantially, but the scar it left was ragged, ripping from her upper left lip all the way to her absent eye in a jagged line. Her eyelid had also been scarred, which she'd only discovered after ripping the eyepatch away in an earlier fit of frustration; the straps irritated her scalp and made her ear sore. As a consequence, she now had to partially focus on keeping that useless lid closed, lest something find its way in.

Her other eye was an empty grey, with a ring of red around the iris that she attributed to… well, everything. No sleep, forced to become a cyclops, girlfriend probably dead, assailed with uncontrollable visions. Yeah. Everything.

Ruby reached into her thick, dark locks, which drooped nearly to her collar like frayed black curtains. She pulled back the longest parts from the front and tied them into a half-up bun, giving the most strained section of her scalp a break while also keeping the hair out of her eyes. Unfortunately, this also gave her a better view of her entire face. Ruby frowned at the mirror.

Her eyes bore dark circles, her scarred lips seemed to be pulled in a permanent scowl, and her face was coated with a layer of pain, soot, and sebum. All in all, she looked like shit.

Hair 'fixed', Ruby returned to working the slab on her anvil. She had plans for it, robust plans that could withstand more than a few blows from an oversized katana. Fewer moving parts in different places, a more robust semi-static head, and a one thick blade that could be affixed with superior reinforcement. She hoped Qrow knew how much she appreciated his schematics for Harbinger; they were extremely inspiring.

Ruby smashed the red-hot slab, pounding it thinner and longer before—

"Hey, Rubes."

Ruby jumped as her father entered her open-walled work shed, but didn't cease her work. She hummed an acknowledgment and kept hammering the slab.

"I, uh… heard about what happened. Your sister told me."

Ruby scoffed, but kept her eye on her work. "Which part?"

Ruby could feel his furrowed, worried brow beating down on her back. She hammered the slab again. She really didn't want to deal with him right now.

"Ruby," Tai muttered, closer this time. "What's wrong?"

The hammer crashed hard against the hot metal, creating a splitting ring that made Tai wince. "What's wrong?" Ruby repeated mockingly, shoulders tightening. "What do you think?"

Tai stepped closer, reaching out for his daughter. "I'm just trying to talk to you, could you stop—"

The moment his hand met her bare shoulder, Ruby whirled on him, hammer in the air. She must have been quite a sight with her filthy appearance and sleepless eyes, but Tai didn't flinch. Instead, his worry visibly doubled as he stared into her right eye. Ruby couldn't tell, but it had turned a blazing crimson.

"Oh, Ruby," Tai softly muttered, pitying eyes on his child.

Ruby loudly dropped her hammer back on the metal block. "Shut up," she seethed between grit teeth.

"It's going to be okay," he insisted, "we—"

"Shut up!" Ruby shouted. "I'm done being sad, I'm done being jerked around, and I'm done being pitied! I'm going to find him," she swore, moving to lift her tongs again. The steel had gone cold. "I just need a weapon."

Ruby's hands grasped nothing but air. She turned, confusion morphing into anger when she saw her tongs in Tai's hands.

"What you need is some sleep," Tai ordered, putting on his 'dad voice'. Ruby tried to reach after the tongs, but the taller man just held them higher, beyond her reach. "I can make you some food before you go to bed, I'm sure Yang'll be hungry too."

Ruby growled, then flashed into petals. She flew at the tongs, nearly catching them before Tai moved, his body flowing around her attempt like water. He knew her too well.

She tried to turn and make a second attempt, but her Aura suddenly faltered, dumping her out of her Semblance with a pounding headache and a bleeding nose. Ruby glared up at her father, who looked down on her with pursed lips.

Prone on the work shed's packed dirt floor, every second of missed sleep struck her at once. Crimson seeped back behind silver. Ruby groaned— she'd never been on such a comfortable floor before.

A pair of burly arms hooked under hers and brought the girl to her feet, but she was too exhausted to do anything but fall limp into Tai's hold. Ruby barely managed to keep her own legs beneath her as he dragged her inside the house, nearly supporting all her weight himself until he dumped her into the dining chair. She watched her father return to the kitchen.

Like clockwork, Yang arrived with the sound and smell of food. Eggs in bacon grease, judging by the popping pan and savory scent. Ruby's mouth watered.

"Remember your tablet?" Tai diligently asked his eldest daughter, without even looking over his shoulder.

Yang's rear had been inches from hitting the chair when he asked. She pantomimed a deep, bellowing groan and began to turn back to her room.

Tai laughed from the kitchen, drawing her glare. "Ya left it on the counter, you goober," he jerked a thumb to his side and, sure enough, there laid her tablet. Yang swiped it with a roll of her eyes and a petulant raspberry.

Ruby felt a burgeoning smile threaten to rise, but forced it down. She couldn't be happy. Not yet. Instead, she pursed her lips and stared down at the table. How could they smile and joke while Beacon burned?

Yang dropped heavily into her chair, nearly tipping the thing over. She gave Ruby a quick (unrequited) smile before lazily tapping a couple words on her tablet, 'u slep ok?'

Ruby absently nodded, her tired mind beginning to drift toward odd, inconsequential things. Her eye itched, and not the one she still had. She really wanted to scratch it, but the idea of even touching that hollow lid made her nearly sick.

She missed Crescent Rose. She barely even got to use it on Grimm, except for… that one time. She hadn't even found an opportunity to use her new scope until her literal last chance.

And what had that odd artifacting been? The orange specks in her scope after Beacon exploded— they shouldn't have been there. She'd spent so much time calibrating it with Penny, then testing it, then recalibrating it, repeating the cycle over and over again until the Aura-sight definitely worked. So why was there artifacting? The scythe had been in her locker when everything happened, she definitely hadn't damaged it. She remembered seeing Adam's Aura just fine. She couldn't forget it. Spiky black tendrils, striking out violently from his massive form.

His sword high in the air. His talon reaching for her last, pulsing eye. She bent over the toilet, thick black ooze bursting from her mouth by the liter. Her eye thro—

A plate landed in front of her, the loud clatter making her yelp as her hand flew to her back on instinct. When her hand grasped nothing, she remembered where she was. Her heart hammered against her chest, each violent pulse reverberating behind her eyes— her eye. Tai and Yang stared with concern.

She hated that, the way everybody looked at her like a dying puppy. Ruby snatched the plate, rushing to dig into the breakfast platter. Her fork loudly scraped the dish as she lanced a fried egg. Yolk seeped out like blood from a shorn arm, but she shoved it in her mouth before she could think about it. Unfortunately, she desperately needed protein.

The other two warily followed suit. Even with Ruby in a rush, Yang still somehow managed to finish first. With her hands no longer occupied, she typed on her tablet, then showed it to her sister beneath the table. 'u look like balls', it read, bringing a tight frown to Ruby's scarred lips.

Ruby stabbed too hard with her fork, eliciting a terrible porcelain shriek. "I feel like balls," she muttered in reply.

The two turned on her with wide eyes and gaping mouths, shocked by her vulgarity.

"Yeah, I get it, innocent little Ruby said balls," she shoved another forkful into her gob, eye rolling. "Big friggin' whoop."

This time, Yang wrote and presented her message above the table, 'what's wrong dude?'

Tai audibly smacked his forehead, groaning, "Yang…"

Ruby turned on her sister, fork dropping loudly onto her plate. "My fucking girlfriend got kidnapped, 'dude'. But hey, what could possibly be wrong with Ruby?" The words came hard and fast, but they felt good, so she just kept going. "She's always so happy and sweet, I'm sure she'll pep up in no time! I mean, she only lost an eye, nearly got murdered by the same psycho that killed Glynda Goodwitch, lost her most prized weapon that she spent years working on, and, oh yeah, got her girlfriend kidnapped the same fucking day they finally decided to be together!"

Her voice had raised to a shout by the time she was done. Everybody was staring, even Zwei.

Yang blinked, then wrote on her tablet again, 'Your eye's red'.

Ruby recoiled, blinking rapidly. "Huh?"

Tai spoke up. "It turned red just now, like when Yang gets angry. It was red at the forge, too."

Ruby shook her head, her anger suddenly thrust beneath confusion. "W-what? No, that doesn't make sense."

Tai and Yang shared a silent look of concern.

"Stop just looking at each other!" Ruby demanded. "What do you mean my eye was red?"

Yang deferred to her father, who pinched the bridge of his nose. "It started when you got angry," he parrotted unhelpfully.

Ruby gave him a frustrated grunt. "No, that's you guys' thing. It's part of your Semblance."

Yang and Tai shook their heads in unison, with the latter speaking for the both of them. "Yeah, no, that's not how that works. It's just a thing we Xiao Longs have always had, kinda like Qrow. Like a curse, I guess."

Ruby shook her head in confusion. "What? Qrow?"

Now Yang joined her sister in staring at Tai, confused. He coughed awkwardly, buckling under their collective scrutiny. "Crap, do you guys not know?"

The girls gave their dad an empty stare.

Tai groaned, massaging his temples as he tried to assemble a passable explanation. "Okay, so… Qrow can turn into a crow. Like a literal bird. It's not his Semblance, he can just do that."

Yang and Ruby stared blankly. "What," said the latter, aptly summating their collective confusion.

Tai continued like he was making sense. "Now any Branwens after him would also have that ability— it's a bloodline thing, totally separate from their Semblances."

Ruby shared a dumbfounded look with her sister, then spoke for the both of them. "So… how can he do that?"

Tai shrugged. "I dunno, Ozpin gave it to him and Raven, or something. It's a weird magic thing."

"A… magic thing?" Ruby slowly repeated, incredulous.

"Yeah, a magic thing, like a curse," Tai waved her off. "Ozpin's super magical."

Ruby blinked. "So he gave you… the magical gift of uncontrollable rage?"

"What?" Tai let out a hearty laugh. "No, no, no, that'd be a real dick move," the curse escaped his lips before he could stop it, but he slapped a hand over his mouth anyways. "Sorry."

Ruby gave him a deadpan stare. "It's just a regular magical curse, then?"

Tai nodded, ignoring his daughter's mocking tone. "Yeah. Xiao Longs have just been like this, pretty much since forever. We kinda thought you wouldn't get it, though."

"Why?" Ruby drawled, growing extremely tired of her father's meandering.

Tai sighed. "Okay, so Yang's got that Branwen bird blood, so she should be able to turn into a bird, right?"

Ruby nodded, following his logic.

"Well, she can't, but she can become considerably more powerful when enraged. Hence, Xiao Long," he proudly motioned between himself and his eldest daughter.

Ruby nodded slowly. "So one just overwrites the other?"

Tai shrugged. "Guess so, it was just kind of a toss-up if my girl was gonna be a bird or a brawler."

Yang moved, writing away on her tablet before displaying the message with a proud smirk: 'woulda been a brawler either way lmao'.

"That's my girl!" Tai reached across the table to deliver unto Yang a righteous fist bump, accompanied by explosion sounds. The two shared a proud laugh, ignoring how pitifully quiet and wheezy Yang's was.

Ruby's brow creased deeply. "Wait, so why would you think I could get something else? My mom didn't have a curse or anything."

Tai's smile immediately died, the joy sucked away by the mere mention of his late wife. He frowned, voice somber. "Not that you saw, no. She was really good at hiding it."

Yang and Ruby stared expectantly.

"Look, Summer…" Tai's voice dropped low with melancholy. "Summer's really was a curse. I don't know how she coped with it."

"And why haven't you talked to me about this?" Ruby interrogated, frowning at her father. "If it's so bad, it would've been nice to know what to look forward to."

Tai threw his hands up in defeat. "I know, I know! I fucked up!" He ignored the swear this time, continuing, "I've had so many of 'The Talks' with you guys, and you don't even share my gender! Or, uh, sex, I guess… don't want to put you in like a box or any—"

"Dad," Ruby interrupted.

"Y-yeah, sorry. I just… I never saw anything that worried me, so I just let it go— I mean, you seemed fine, Rubes, and I kinda had my hands full with Yang's thing," he answered lamely, as if he was barely convinced by his own excuse. He sheepishly rubbed his neck and avoided his kids' gazes. "Sorry."

There was a long, silent pause before Ruby spoke again. "Well?"

Tai looked back up, head cocked.

"What was it? Mom's curse?" Ruby asked, a knot growing in her stomach.

Tai scowled, clearly reliving the memory behind his eyes. "She didn't talk much about it, but it wasn't something Ozpin gave her. She told me that her mom had it, and her great-grandma, so it seemed like a bloodline thing, but none of her brothers had it."

Ruby tried not to show her shock. She didn't know she had blood uncles… Why had no one told her that?

"It was bad," Tai lamented, face growing more crestfallen by the second. "You're lucky you got the rage, honestly."

"What was it," Ruby hissed, frustrated by his dancing around the answer.

Tai looked around, then sighed. "She saw everything— Past, present, future; visions, vague prophecies, picture-perfect reenactments, not all of them even from her own perspective. They were random and uncontrollable, all squeezed into her head. There was nothing we could do, even if we were in the middle of combat."

Tai had a severely pained look on his face. The family remained silent for a long time, each for different reasons.

"I mean," Tai mumbled, "I think sometimes she—"

"That happens to me too," Ruby interrupted, almost in a whisper, her gaze firmly on the mostly-empty plate before her.

Tai stood up from his chair, both hands landing on the table hard enough to make it wobble. "What?"

Yang's head whipped her way, too, worry thick in her eyes.

"I-I can't control it, I've had… visions," Ruby's voice began to tremble. "I saw him. That guy, A-Adam, like he was at the school. I remember it still— he was in Beacon, he attacked me."

Tai's mouth hung agape, but Yang feverishly wrote on her tablet. 'U didnt say anything!' The message read, accompanied by an accusatory glare.

"I'm sorry!" Ruby threw her hands up. "I thought it was just a…a bad dream, or something— how was I supposed to know it was a prophecy of the friggin' future! It's not like anyone gave me a primer on this!"

Tai gulped as another pair of glares scrutinized him. "Anything else?" He asked, face reddening with shame.

"I've had a lot more s-since…" Ruby answered, motioning to her empty eye socket. Her shoulders fell at the mere mention.

Yang typed quickly, then nudged her sister with the message, 'zoning out?'

"Y-yeah," Ruby nodded in shame, her gaze firmly on the table. "It was… bad, that day."

Tai leaned across the table and laid a hand on Ruby's, drawing her gaze. He gave her his best attempt at a comforting smile. "What did you see?"

Ruby felt her hand immediately clam up under her father's grip, and pulled it back to hold it close to her chest. She shrank into herself, her eye darting around with sudden panic. "I-I really… please don't make me talk about it," she begged, terrified of letting the memories out of her mind, fearing that articulating them would make them real. She wanted— needed for them to stay locked away in her head, where nobody else had to bear what she saw.

A sad, but sympathetic smile crossed Tai's face. It was clear he'd done this before. "That's what Summer would always say," he muttered wanly, dropping back into his seat. "You don't have to tell me."

Ruby pushed her plate away and held her waist tightly, appetite long gone. "S-so… what's wrong with me? I've got both?"

Tai shrugged. "Sorry, Rubes but I don't know what to tell you. This isn't something a lot of people are even aware of."

Ruby hugged herself even tighter, but that didn't make her feel any better. After a long while, she stood, not bothering to excuse herself before retreating to her room.

Ruby fell into the hammock that lay across the corner, the only kind of bed she had in here. She hugged her knees tight to her chest. Mattress or not, sleep took her the moment she achieved a horizontal posture, flinging her deep into darkness.

"Ruby?"

The girl in question opened her eyes, finding herself before a door— her door. Her front door. She pulled it open.

Weiss stood at her doorstep, with a small box tucked under her arm. Ruby thought it was odd that she was just wearing her regular clothes, what with all the snow outside, but figured that Weiss was just used to that kind of weather.

Ruby stared at the beautiful person before her. Her hair was down, spilling over her shoulders in choppy strands. Her white shirt was pristine and tucked into her grey slacks, and her embroidered half-cape kept her empty sleeve hidden. Myrtenaster was nested in its frog at her side, with Rosenwache hanging opposite.

"Well?" Weiss asked, head cocked as her cerulean eyes darted between her partner and the cabin's interior. "Are you just going to stand there and drool, or are you going to let me in?"

Ruby shook herself. She didn't realize she'd been staring. "Weiss," the name was like water in a desert, "y-yeah, please come in."

Ruby stepped back from the open threshold and allowed her girlfriend in, who gave Ruby a quick kiss on the cheek as she passed. Weiss slowly entered the empty cabin and cast an unsure gaze about the interior.

The shorter girl turned back to Ruby and lifted her box with a questioning look. Did Atlesians do Peaceday differently? Ruby pointed to the decorated tree in the corner, and Weiss promptly added her box to the collection beneath the squat evergreen.

Weiss stood back up again and looked around, seeming altogether lost. "Sorry, this is my first Peaceday," she admitted. "What do you people do to celebrate the defeat of my home country?"

Ruby laughed awkwardly, her face blooming with red. Was that really what Peaceday was about? She just remembered the fun stuff, like presents. "We, uh, we sit around, drink hot cocoa, chat, open presents…" Ruby plopped herself down on the couch and patted the cushion beside her. "Enjoy each other's company."

Weiss rolled her eyes, but joined Ruby on the couch nonetheless. She curled up under the taller girl's arm. "Anything else?"

Ruby giggled deviously. "Ohoho, I could certainly think of some ways to enjoy ourselves."

"I mean for Peaceday," Weiss said with a deadpan look at her girlfriend.

"It counts as a Peaceday activity if it's under the mistletoe," Ruby countered.

Weiss sighed, her face slightly reddening as she searched the interior. "Aren't there other people here?"

"Psh, yeah," Ruby waved her hand dismissively. "But they're asleep! And since you got here super early, we've got plenty of time."

Weiss looked around again, excuses dwindling. She blushed. "W-well, if it's for Peaceday…"

Ruby felt her heart jump giddily as she wrapped her girlfriend in her arms and pulled her close. She reclined along the couch, bringing Weiss on top of her as their lips met.

Weiss had gotten much better since her first attempt, and that wasn't just because the bar had been set so low. After a drawn-out kiss, she pulled Ruby's bottom lip between her teeth, drawing a moan from the girl as she bit down. Weiss chuckled softly, hands drifting down to Ruby's shirt.

Ruby let out a whine as Weiss pulled away from their kiss, but was cut short as she felt the buttons of her flannel being nimbly undone, each one accompanied with long kisses that traveled down her neck, all the way down to her collar. She felt the last button come free, followed by Weiss' cool hands against her stomach, pushing her undershirt up.

A knock on the door poured cold water on the experience, and Ruby nearly knocked Weiss to the floor when she launched to her feet. Her hands furiously pulled her shirt back down, then buttoned her flannel. "It's probably Qrow," she muttered, frustration clear in her voice. "He just shows up whenever."

Ruby leaned down to give Weiss a quick parting kiss, mostly as an apology, then hustled to the door. She pulled the handle, allowing the winter breeze to blow into the house once more. The snow brightly reflected the light, casting an intense silhouette on the thing in her doorway.

Adam.

Towering over the girl, he stood motionless in the threshold as all the world's color drained into his shadow. He stared down at Ruby, breathing heavily, hungrily, clawed fingers twitching at his sides.

"Ruby?" Weiss' voice called from inside. "Who is it?"

Ruby couldn't move. She couldn't speak. She could do nothing but watch as the monster's milky eyes slowly drifted beyond her, towards Weiss. His face split into a Beowolf's smile.

Ruby bolted awake with a cry. Her entire body trembled as the sheets clung to her sweaty skin. She looked around the room in a panic, but it was empty. She could hear the downstairs TV reverberating through the walls.

She tried desperately to remember her dream, to grasp those fleeting moments with Weiss, but the memory was already gone. No future, no prophecy. Just a nightmare.

She felt the urge to cry build in her throat, but her eyes refused to fill with tears; she'd already cried too much. Instead, she got to her feet and made her way downstairs.

Yang and Tai lay together on the couch, with the former sprawled across the latter's lap. Bottles and cans, presumably once full of beer, dotted the floor. Ruby frowned, but remained quiet as she walked past her slumbering family.

She made her way outside, straight to the workshed. The part she'd been working on was still on the anvil, so she stuffed it in the furnace and powered the device on. It heated quickly, eventually giving the metal a familiar orange glow.

She lifted the slab onto her anvil and took a deep sigh. Her muscles sorely ached in anticipation of the labor to come, but she didn't have a choice. She needed a weapon.

So she worked, hammering the piece slowly and carefully so she could bring it to a shape that was more easily refined. With each strike of her hammer, she came closer to killing Adam.

From the corner of her eye, she caught something. A small wooden bowl, containing a material that she was intimately familiar with: inert Dust, pulverized for metallurgical purposes. Leftovers from the dagger she'd made for Weiss' birthday.

The bowl was in her hands before she could even consider otherwise. The process came to her quickly— it was so tedious that she couldn't possibly forget it. Ruby returned the metal to the furnace, and let it get much hotter than before, so hot that it drooped and sagged onto her anvil; the Dust wouldn't set right unless the metal was extremely hot. It would derogate some of the process she'd made shaping the piece, but it would be worth it in the end.

Ruby grabbed some of the pulverized crystals and quickly tossed them at the semi-melting slab, ducking back as soon as she threw the powder. Even inert Dust was unpredictable, and had a tendency to react violently at high temperatures.

As she expected, the Dust loudly popped and threw out bright sparks as it settled, but she could only let it sit for a few seconds before she had to begin working it again. If she didn't work quickly enough, the crystals would congeal as they cooled, forming brittle zones across the whole part. The sweet spot was something she'd struggled with on Rosenwache, but now she knew the process. She let a couple moments pass, then returned to striking the metal.

The Dust continued violently sparking as she worked, but she couldn't stop now. Even as the flaring specks burned her arms, she continued hammering, ignoring the pain. The burns were nothing; she'd been through worse.

She heated the slab, sprinkled Dust over the center, then began working it again. Heat, sprinkle, hammer. Heat, sprinkle, hammer. She repeated the process until the bowl was empty and her arms were numb, then kept hammering the metal itself. Hammering, heating, hammering, heating, gradually making up for the progress she'd lost. Hour after hour passed without pause, the girl beating the steel even as the sun began to peek over the horizon.

Yang found her sister asleep on the workshed's dirt floor.

AN: ive never titled a chapter after a song before, but my gf brought this one up and i couldn't deny its allure lol. speaking of dreams, i usually dont write hot stuff like that, so please give me any critiques. oh and i hope the dialogue dump sufficiently explained the whole curses/abilities thing.

anyway, any guesses as to ruby's new weapon? it's definitely a scythe, ill tell ya that much, but what kind of funky forms and functions will it have, eh? huhhuhu, who knows? i definitely havent spent way too much time working on designs myself.

and, in an accidental parallel to DH, next chapter is kind of a dress-up episode lol. its both more and less lighthearted than this one, shows more of her weapon, has a bit of a fight, but caps off this string of perspective pleasantly. and after that, it's time for Blake, Qrow, and Penny! woohoo! thanks for reading, yall, comments appreciated as always and i will try to respond to most if not all of them. Peace!