"Are you an idiot?"

Of all the ways I had expected her to react, this hadn't been one of them. If I had been in a better mood, maybe I would have asked her to explain herself. As I was, though, the thought never crossed my mind. I grabbed her by her cloak and hauled her to eye-level. She seemed not to care for it in the slightest, kicking her dangling feet violently, which made it difficult to maintain my grip. Growling in frustration, I grabbed tighter around the front of her cloak, pinching some of her skin and earning an agitated grunt. "Now it's your turn to answer me. Why'd you kill her? Isn't she supposed to be your best friend?"

Her dark pupils trailed mine, then locked onto Weiss a few feet to my right and her hands balled into fists. "Why would you care about some Grimm? I thought you'd be celebrating another one biting the dust."

I dropped her, and she collapsed to her knees. There was no use in arguing with her. She was just as stubborn as the real Ruby, and I doubted I could change her mind. Why bother, anyway? Whether some fake understood me or not was pointless, an exercise in futility. Besides, I had more crucial things to attend to.

I hurried over Weiss to better access the damages. Her dainty hands rested over her abdomen, and if it weren't for the gaping hole in her stomach, one could have mistaken her for sleeping. Yet, the dried blood on the tips of her fingers and the stain on her dress told a different story. Drawing Aura into my hands, I pressed my palms against hers and focused on intertwining our Auras. Of course, it was an impossible task from the start. What worked to save her from a javelin previously couldn't be replicated here. After all, Aura couldn't be amplified if it didn't exist in the first place.

"Damn it! Think…" I mumbled to myself.

I had always been the team's medic because of my unique Semblance, but that meant little here. I was only good at–only capable of–healing Huntsman. My actual medical knowledge was limited to knowing how to wrap a sprain and set a broken bone. Unfortunately, both were of no use in such a dire situation like this.

My frustration boiled over, and I took it out on the person pacing behind me. "Can't you do something?"

She stopped pacing to give me a sad look. "Like what? Us creations live and die on a whim, and I don't know how to undo what you did."

My anger dissipated at that. I sharply inhaled, confused by what she meant by that. It wasn't possible that I had killed her by falling on top of her. That was just impossible. So why did she say that? The confusion must have been clear on my face because she snorted. "If you quit blaming me for everything for one second I could have told you from the start I had nothing to do with this."

"But the fall–"

"Had nothing to do with this," she interrupted me. "Your Semblance did. It was too quick for me to see but it had to be like that Aura amplification thing you were trying before."

My chest constricted and suddenly my breathing felt shallow; a light sheen of sweat enveloped my face. What she had told me couldn't be true, could it? Yet, I didn't sense any deception coming from her. Still, for my attacks, which had always been overly choreographed to be fast enough that Ruby couldn't follow was insane. And furthermore, I wasn't even in possession of my weapon, meaning that it was indeed likely Semblance induced. Normally I would have been thrilled by the prospect.

Instead, I felt sick.

My head pounded increasingly worse in protest. Whether this was due to the sniper round or me killing my friend was something I didn't have the luxury of considering. I slumped against the wall, sliding down it until I was kneeling next to Weiss. Now that I was more aware of what happened it was clear Ruby's scythe couldn't have inflicted this kind of damage to her. I could see the telltale sign of a precise puncture wound, dregs of her clothing stained with blood. I absentmindedly grabbed the tear in her clothing, imbuing it with a blue glow.

"You really are an idiot." I glanced up at the woman wrapped in the red cloak as she continued to speak. "A human shouldn't bother trying to save a Grimm."

I growled in annoyance, the blue glow growing brighter as my frustration peaked. "I don't care."

"A real hero wouldn't care about Grimm like us. All the fairytales say so."

"All those fairytales are bullshit." I growled in annoyance as she opened her mouth to defend them. "They were made up by some foolish old man and woman who would rather wage war than talk it out like adults. They never gave a shit who they hurt in the process! We're all just pawns to them!"

"Then why bother fighting against her at all?"

The question was simple. That didn't mean it didn't strike me to my very core, though. Why did I bother? Because I wanted to save them all? I would've answered her in a heartbeat if they were still my precious friends from Beacon. These twisted abominations were anything but. So why? Revenge? Peace of mind? Because I didn't know any better? I decided to settle on the easiest answer.

"Because I'm the only one left."

Ruby stared at me without blinking, pulling up the hood which complimented her eyes perfectly. Her horns poked out conspicuously, pushing tufts of her hair over the cloth. Yet, it was her steely gaze that forced me to look away. It was the same one that Ruby–my Ruby–would often have before throwing herself into some heroic stunt.

"Fine, if you save her life, I'll join you."

Another simple statement from someone who was formerly a simple person. It confused me further. "Join me?"

Her expression remained unchanged, but she furrowed her brow in what I could tell was a vain attempt to understand what I meant. "You're going to fight Salem, right?"

I nodded.

"Ok. Then, like I said, I'll help you out and try to get Weiss to do the same."

There was so much wrong with this that I couldn't form a coherent thought if I wanted to. It was strange enough that she seemed to hate Grimm–if you didn't count her partner–despite being one herself, but she also didn't seem overly concerned that I wasn't one. I was human, and she wasn't. Yet, this crazy woman wanted to form some sort of allegiance to kill her creator? This all had to be some big fever dream.

I opened my mouth to speak, only to click it shut and decided to refocus my effort on healing Weiss. My teeth bashed together, but I forced myself to ignore the pain, more concerned about the bony hand grasping my ankle. Looking to my right, I noticed the familiar red eye of a Grimm and a more intimately familiar pale blue eye staring up at me.

"Coward! How dare you strike down a Schnee in such a pathetic sneak attack!"

Ruby calmly played with the hem of her combat skirt while I screamed.