Yang silently looked down at the chained up Ruby in the infirmary. Blake stood next to her, gently holding her arm. Yang wasn't quite sure how to feel. Her younger sister had finally been found, sure, but she still lay asleep, chained up as if she was a prisoner. Ruby also seemed changed somehow. She was visibly older than she had been when she disappeared, her once shoulder length hair now reaching down to her waist. Ozpin had explained that there was a time difference between where Ruby had been found and the beacon, so who knows how long Ruby had been trapped there. Alone, without Yang to be there for her, to help prop her up when she needed it.

"Everything alright Yang?" Blake asked, noticing the melancholy expression on Yang's face.

"Yes… it's just that, Ruby…" Yang sighed, "I basically raised her as her mother".

Blake coughed to cover up a snort, the image of a motherly Yang coming up in her mind. Yang glared at Blake, before continuing. "Ruby and I have different biological mothers, although I see Ruby's mom as my real mom," she said, turning to look out the window, "My "mom" left shortly after I was born, and Summer, Ruby's mom, is the one that raised me. Or at least she did, until she disappeared on a mission".

Blakes eyes widened at Yang's words. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, squeezing Yang's shoulder reassuringly.

"That isn't the end of it," Yang said, grimacing, "After Summer disappeared, Dad went into a funk. He was barely present, and it was up to me to look after Ruby. But I was 8. I didn't know what I was doing. So I figured that if I found my Mom, everything would be alright again. The moment I found a clue of where she could have been, I put Ruby in a wagon, and I went to find her. The trek was longer than I thought, and we got caught in a blizzard. We ended up making it, but all I found was an old rickety cabin, surrounded by grimm. If it wasn't for Uncle Qrow finding us in the nick of time, we would have died. Ever since that day, I have vowed to make up for my mistake, and I made sure Ruby grew up safe and sound. But when she needed me most, I couldn't be there for her".

Blake pulled Yang around to face her. Yang had tears streaming down her face, and was "Yang, you can't blame yourself for this, you can't be expected to be there for every second of every day of Ruby's life. You've done what you can, and now Ruby's back safe and sound.," she said, looking her partner in the eye, "Now calm down, you don't want Ruby to wake up and see her big sister like this".

"But-" Yang started to say, but was immediately cut off by Blake.

"No buts," she said, as she wrapped the distraught blond in a hug. Yang reciprocated the hug, and began to quietly sob.

Outside the infirmary, Weiss sat down against the wall with a blank look on her face. She didn't even seem to notice her fellow students looking at her as they walked past, some of them giving her weird looks, others giving her sympathetic ones, as they were already aware of her situation. Ever since team RWBY had returned from their mission a week ago, and delivered the news to Ozpin, she had been despondent, merely going through the motions. Even when classes had resumed, she hadn't been able to focus on classes, and hadn't talked to anyone. Everyone outside of team RWBY merely thought that Ruby had gotten separated from them on the mission. Only she, Blake, and Yang knew the truth. She thought back to the conversation they had had after they got done reporting to Ozpin.

1 month ago - the day after the incident

"Why did you cover for me?" Weiss mumbled out to Blake, as she was curled up in the fetal position in her bunk.

"Because," Blake replied, "It wasn't your fault".

Weiss frowned at the statement. She had slowly regained her memories of the incident. Of what she had said to Ruby. Of what she had done. "It sure doesn't feel like it's not my fault," she said, hugging her knees closer to her face.

Yang was in a similar position to Weiss, sitting on her bed with a blank expression, having already cried out all her tears. Only Blake seemed to be actively thinking about their situation, and was in any position to take over in Ruby's absence. "You said it wasn't exactly Weiss who pushed her," Yang said, her voice lacking any emotion, "What did you mean by that".

Blake sighed as she stood up, walking over to the window, "One of my closest friends in the white fang went through something similar," she began, "He used to be one of the brightest stars of the white fang, and he was one of the biggest activists for equality between the faunus and humans. Then one day, things changed. While on a mission, some human workers got caught in our attack. They weren't involved in anything, they were just there to make a living. Adam simply explained it away as an accident. I wanted to believe so I brushed it aside. But then it happened again on the next mission. This time, it wasn't just a couple workers, it was a small family that happened to be on vacation to the place that we attacked. They got caught in the attack, and he excused it away as they simply got caught in the crossfire. His attitude continued to devolve over the next few missions. The next mission they died because they attacked first. The next one, they were witnesses. It all came to a head on the night before my last mission as a member of the white fang. I was worried about him, so I went to talk to him in his room. He was talking to himself, rambling on and on incoherently about how humans had ruined his life. But it was as if he was talking to someone. But when I knocked on the door, it was just him inside. After he reassured me that everything was alright, he went to give me a hug. But there was this unbearably hot heat radiating off of him. It all came to a head on the mission for the next day. We were to sabotage a Schnee dust train. No one was supposed to die, we were just supposed to destroy the dust and move on. But Adam… he had a different idea. His plan was to set off all the dust without evacuating the people inside. He didn't care if they were human or faunus. The thought of people dying seemed to bring pleasure to him," Blake shivered at the memory, "So, I cut the train cars with the workers in off from the car he was in. I just remember the look on his face as the rest of the train pulled away. It wasn't the person I had grown up with, who was a shining star within the White Fang. This was a monster. A demon. Weiss, your situation is similar to Adam's. You had the same unbearable heat, and you had something whispering in your head. The only difference was that your conditions accelerated a lot quicker. You're not at fault Weiss. Someone was manipulating your mind, controlling you to do their bidding".

Yang and Weiss silently looked at Blake. Digesting everything they had just heard. Yang was the first to act, turning to face Weiss and giving her a smile. "I'm sorry for trying to beat your ass," Yang said, walking over to pat her teammate on the shoulder, "I should have known that you wouldn't do something like that". Weiss looked up and gave Yang a shaky smile and a quiet thanks.

Blake looked at the two with a satisfied smile. "Now let's get some shut eye," she said, yawning and rubbing her eyes. Yang nodded in agreement, Climbing back into her bunk, Blake doing the same. Weiss held her shaky smile until she was sure that the two of them were asleep. Then she burst into silent sobs. Blake was wrong about one thing. Whatever was whispering into her ear wasn't making up thoughts to give to her. It was digging up feelings that she thought she had long since suppressed. Despite everything the team had been through up to this point, Weiss was still unable to let go of some small doubt that Ruby wasn't fit to lead the team. All that the voice had done was prey on those feelings. With self doubt and hatred swirling around in her mind, Weiss eventually cried herself to sleep.

Present Day

Weiss shook her head, pulling herself out of her memories and back into the present. A loud crash pulled Weiss from her depressive thoughts, and for the first time in a week, she felt aware. Her training taking over, she quickly rushed into the infirmary, fists up in a combat stance, ready to fight. The scene inside caused her fists to drop, and tears to well up in her eyes.

The Grimmlands

Salem was sitting in her throne, enjoying the growling noises of the Grimm that echoed from outside. She casually pet a rather large Beowolf that was laying on its stomach next to her, its tongue hanging out of its mouth. She let out a sigh of boredom. All of her minions were out on tasks, and she was currently alone in the castle. She let out a sigh as she walked over to the large window that overlooked the Grimmlands, observing the barren wasteland full of ancient and powerful Grimm. She felt a rare smile come across her face. Soon Ozma, I will have what I deserve, she thought to herself, feeling her smile turn more sinister by the second. Suddenly, she froze. Something had changed. She shivered, as she backed away from the window, tripping and falling on her rear. She felt through her connection with the Grimm, that all across Remnant, the Creatures of Grimm, that fed on negative emotions, and thrived most off of fear, were all frozen stiff. She grit her teeth as she felt her eyes tremble. Why was she, the immortal, all powerful, queen of Grimm, trembling like this. Salem knew the answer, but she didn't want to accept it. She had faced the brother gods themselves head on, but she hadn't felt like this since she was a child, and was still scared of the dark. She didn't know what was causing it, but she did know one thing for sure. For the first time in a millennium, Salem felt fear.