4 hours before the incident

"And that is a job well done," Ruby said as she pulled the blade of crescent rose out of the last Beowolf, and turned to face the rest of team RWBY, "Now, let's setup camp for tonight". Weiss groaned about sleeping in the wild, while Blake silently began setting up camp alongside Ruby. Yang smiled as she watched her sister step more and more into her position as the leader of team RWBY. To think, a few months ago she was trying to help her sister make friends, and now here she was, a team leader of what she was confident would become the best first year team at beacon. At only 15 years old too.

Team RWBY was out on a camping trip, looking for some time to relax after the incident with the white fang at the docks. They had decided on a night out in the emerald forest, staying close enough to the academy that they had the professors to rely on if anything went wrong. The trip was doing well so far, and Yang was proud to see that Ruby was taking her role as team lead seriously. Although Yang had coddled her for the first few weeks, after a stern talking to from Weiss about how this might affect Ruby's development, she had finally realized that her baby sister wasn't her 'baby' anymore. Yang smiled as she walked over to help set up camp

10 minutes before the incident

A flash lit up the sky, waking 3 of the 4 girls up from their slumber, Ruby having already been up due to it being her turn to act as lookout. "What was that," Weiss asked, looking in the direction the light was coming from.

Yang groggily rubbed her eyes, wanting nothing more than to just go back to sleep, "It's something we can worry about in the morning".

"No, it could be an emergency, I'm gonna go check it out now," Ruby said before she turned into rose petals and rushed off in the direction the light came from.

Weiss lightly facepalmed before standing up and facing Yang and Blake, the former still clearly half asleep. "I'll go catch up with Ruby, Blake, can you take sleepy head here and meetup with us at the source?"

Blake, who was already up and ready for combat, nodded, and watched as Weiss dashed off in the same direction Ruby had gone. After Weiss had disappeared fully from sight, she pulled Yang up, and after a couple minutes of letting Yang get herself moving, the two walked in the direction the other half of team RWBY had gone, having no Idea of what was to come.

Present

As soon as the portal closed, the heat left. It was like a fog lifted from her mind. Weiss relished in the clarity for a moment, until the weight of what she just did crashed down on her like a ton of bricks. The crazed smile on her face dropped, making way for an expression of shock and confusion, which quickly turned into horror as she stared at where the portal had just been. Yang had collapsed down to her knees to her right, while Blake remained by the edge of the clearing, her mouth wide open in shock from what she just witnessed.

"What have I done," Weiss mumbled, starting to break down in tears, "I didn't mean for this to happen, I didn't… I wouldn't…".

"WEISSSSS," Yang screamed in pure, unadulterated rage. Weiss turned to face Yang, but flinched as she saw the look of anger on her face. Yang's semblance was going off at full force, her eyes burning a bright red, and her hair blazing as if it was made of flames. She sprinted across the clearing towards Weiss, sending her flying with a devastating punch to her abdomen. Wiess crashed against a tree, having the wind knocked out of her despite her aura taking the brunt of the blow. Yang quickly closed the distance, and was about to smash her fist in Weiss's face, before being stopped by Blake grabbing her arm.

"Yang! Stop it," Blake said, struggling to keep Yang's fist from breaking free from her grasp and pounding into Weiss' face, "Weiss, what did you do?"

"SHE JUST KILLED RUBY," Yang screamed, gnashing her teeth as she kept trying to break free from Blakes grasp.

"I… didn't mean to…" Weiss mumbled out under her breath, still in shock from what just happened.

"LIKE HELL YOU DIDN'T!," Yang shouted, almost yanking her arms out of Blake's grip.

"YANG!" Blake said, raising her voice. "Weiss, elaborate".

This seemed to break Weiss out of her shock a bit, bringing her back to her senses. "I… don't know. I just remember being really really angry for no reason. It felt like someone was whispering in my ear and telling how much I hated Ruby…".

"Oh my god," Yang said, tightening her grip on the heiress, her rage causing her semblance to flare up even more, "It was all about the stupid team leader stuff. You're still hung up on that".

"NO NO, I'm over that by now. Or at least I thought it was," Weiss muttered out the last part, looking down in shame and self pity.

Blake frowned, tuning out Yang's screams of fury. As arrogant and bratty as Weiss had been at the beginning of the school year, she had made great progress not only as a team mate, but also as a person. Blake had felt Weiss's sincerity when they reconvened after the incident with the White Fang at the port. Trying to get rid of Ruby just isn't something current Weiss would do, Blake thought. There was something about this situation that seemed very familiar to her. Suddenly, a very specific memory from her days in the White Fang sprung up in her mind. "Weiss… did you feel… hot, by any chance?" she asked the still somewhat shell shocked princess.

"WHAT. DOES. THAT. HAVE. TO. DO. WITH. ANYTHING," Yang screamed, still struggling to break free from Blakes grasp.

Weiss looked at Blake in confusion, before widening her eyes in surprise. "I did. Actually, I still feel a bit warm " She replied, creasing her brow in concentration.

Blake nodded as if confirming something in her head. "Yang, put her down, Weiss didn't do it," she said, "At least, she wasn't herself when she did".

Yang looked at Blake in confusion, her anger slowly dying down as her grip on Weiss's collar loosen. "What do you mean, she wasn't herself?"

"I've seen something similar happen once. I saw it happen to one of my closest friends from the white fang," Blake said, releasing Yang's arm from her grasp now that it looked like she wasn't going to pummel Weiss to death, "But more importantly, There's a pretty good chance that Ruby isn't dead. She fell through the portal, which means that if we find where the other side of that portal led to, we find Ruby".

Yang released Weiss fully, allowing her to drop to the ground, before falling to her knees to herself, tears welling up in her eyes. Weiss did the same, the knowledge that she didn't kill Ruby lifting a large burden off of her chest.

"She's still alive!" Weiss choked out through her sobs.

Blake sighed again, not wanting to break up the happy atmosphere. "There's no guarantee that she will survive for long though," Blake said, "There is no guarantee that Ruby landed close to civilization, and her emotions must be pretty dark after basically being betrayed by her teammate and one of her closest friends. Ruby can hold her own, but she can't do it forever".

Weiss sobs intensified at Blake's words, the regret and self hatred evident on her face. Yang, on the other hand, to the surprise of Blake and Yang, wiped the tears off her face, and stood up. "Well, what are we waiting for, let's go find Ruby".

"I think we might have to put a hold on that for now," Blake said, drawing her weapon as red eyes began to appear along the tree line, "We have company. And I don't think Weiss is going to be much help for this one". Yang nodded and stood next to Blake, making sure to position herself in such a way so that Weiss would be between her and Blake.

As WBY prepared themselves to fight off the horde of Grimm attracted by their negative emotions, they were unaware that Ruby had something much more dangerous than Grimm to worry about.