Warm, golden rays stir Ruby from her sleep, she groaned as she slowly opened her eyes. Her sleep wasn't a pleasant one and her body feels sore. Though that could be the fact that Nora is holding on to her tightly, with a grip rivaling a Beringel. She squints her eyes as she looked out to the window, the morning sun shining faintly but just bright enough to hurt her eyes.

She changed her attention to her body under the blanket, her chest was already Dusk, beautiful lunar white skin marred with red veins. A disappointed sigh escaped as she realized her mood was getting in the way of maintaining her masquerade. One look and everyone would know what she was.

A homunculus.

She shook her head to take her mind off the insult, she had to get to the bathroom quickly.

She carefully replaced her body with a pillow as she got out of Nora's death grip, standing up from the bed covertly enough that Nora only groaned from the movement. She made her way to the bathroom on her tiptoes, careful to not wake anyone else.

It was strange at first, constantly deluging the darkness within her wasn't pleasant, though it started to come to her as naturally as breathing with time. She can start experimenting with other forms of Grimmomancy in the future. Not that it would be helpful in front of anyone, but it would be fun to try out. Or at least practice against some Azure Darkborn if she can't get access to the Emerald Forest, preferably in the forests surrounding Beacon.

It does beg the question though. Through the constant expelling of her darkness, is she killing herself? Surely, constantly removing the darkness within her should've upset the delicate balance within her, but she feels fine so far. Her books would have mentioned some sort of negative drawback, some sort of malady or sickness that should've arisen by now, and yet it doesn't. Does this mean that the Duskborn are more in touch with the light than they thought?

She shakes her head, she's not a philosopher and she can't waste time pondering the meaning of her existence. Ruby expels the darkness from her body as usual, before disposing of the essence. She freshened up in the bathroom but paused when she looked in the mirror.

Her eyes were brighter than normal. She rubbed them, and they remained brighter than normal. They were only fading to their typical hue after a moment of intense staring. She was confused, but still on a time limit. Ruby quietly put on her clothes from yesterday before tip-toeing her way out of JNPR's dorm.

Ruby gently closed the door, before walking to her team dorm, but paused.

She meditated on entering, especially given what happened. However, her clothing and materials are in the dorm. She sighed, before unlocking the door and slowly opening it.

Blake's bow twitches at the sound of the door opening.

Ruby carefully steps inside, making sure not to wake them from their slumber. She stops halfway to her equipment and stared.

She stared at Weiss, calmly sleeping on the top bunk as if nothing happens. A loud smack echoed through her mind as last night played in her head, followed by the crackle of lightning. A purposeless girl called out by her of all people, if it was her trainer or the mother she carelessly abandoned the pain would've been softened. But Weiss Schnee, daughter of the most wretched man on Remnant, the same man threatening her mother and by extension her kingdom through his idiotic actions?! She clenches her fists as her vision narrows, her breathing getting more erratic as she looks at her in anger and fear. She takes a step forward and stops.

Ruby takes a deep breath, to calm her mind and purge the dark thoughts in her. Besides, she doesn't have the right to complain, her absence is already causing the same fear within Mother to grow.

Reacting emotionally has caused this situation, it has caused her worldview to collapse. Like a Blind Worm aimlessly wandering the deserts of the Kingdom of Freedom, she does not know what her current goal is except to keep going and hope that something occurs. However, now is not the time to dwell on past actions and wonder what could've been.

Now is the time to plan how to recover from this web of gossip and intrigue she webbed herself into.

"That's…how it goes in court, right?"

She curiously asked in her mind, remembering overhearing discussions from the nobility at the White Palace, more specifically around certain scandals. They often let their guard down around her, discussing topics that they would shut around her Mother or rivals due to her young age. She didn't hate it, but looking back it was rather strange. Was it due to her mother's behavior regarding her, or was it simply due to the fact she was a mere 15 cycles over the usual hundreds that consist of the nobility?

From new nobles that won their nobility examination to old guard houses managing Yggdrasil since Azure Scarf, politics was a rather interesting minefield she'll have to partake inevitably. It seems tiring and annoying.

Ruby walked to her trunk, the lock was broken. Opening it reveals that the corrupted dust was missing, the books were completely disorganized, her incense was a mess and her tanto was not in the right position. Did she leave them in such a mess and forget to restock them, and how did the lock get broken in the first place?

She made a disgruntled sigh, so many questions, and the moon, or rather the sun, has just come up. She looked towards the Snowflake, before disregarding that thought. She's a wench, but she doubts that she's the type to pilfer through her belongings. She has to make new corrupted dust now.

Ruby grabbed a standard dust crystal, wind, from one of her bags and went into the bathroom. After locking the door, she looked at the dust crystal, before gripping it with her normal hand. Her hand turned moon white as small black tendrils wrapped around the wind crystal. The crystal begins to glow and shake as liquid darkness seeps into its very core, Ruby made a pained gasp as she concentrates corrupting this dust with her very essence. Small, cracking sounds can be heard, alongside the faint call of the howling wind. The glowing stops and Ruby looks at the corrupted dust crystal.

Gale, corrupted wind dust, howls faintly in Ruby's hand, and she can feel the wind blowing on her hand.

Ruby gets up and leaves the bathroom, she places the dust crystal back in her trunk before carefully forming another lock made out of Grimm bone, looking to see if everyone is still asleep. She noticed that Blake was in a different position than before, but she chalks it up to her moving in her sleep. Ruby finishes the lock and quietly walks out.

The sooner she leaves the sooner she doesn't have to deal with the rabble of Beacon or Weiss.

Forever Fall forest was beautiful.

A large, mountainous forested region to the north of Vale, it is a land of perpetual "fall" as red trees constantly shed and regrow their leaves since time immemorial. The Fall Tree produces one of the most valuable luxuries in Yggdrasil, Forever Sap. The sweet, honey-like magenta substance produces a vibrant, powerful flavor that surpasses the spices grown in the climate of Luna Naturae. It can be fermented and turned into elegant wine or powerful mead or used in delicious holiday treats or meals. Even the Darkborn are entranced by its aroma and are seen occasionally, consuming Forever Sap from fallen trees.

Ruby had to stop herself from drooling at the thought of consuming sap, besides she was there to account for and manage the sap gathering for Professor Peach's studies on Forever Sap along with Professor Goodwitch.

Professor Goodwitch led the assigned teams to the designated harvesting area. Forever Fall is filled with Darkborn, Houyi often expressed disgruntlement with Mother with how often the cleansing operations occur and the costs of essentially asking the spies to do work assigned to the military. However this chosen area was recently swept by Huntsmen teams, the only Darkborn around here should be stragglers or younglings.

Ruby grimaces upon reflection before she takes a deep breath to calm herself. It's been a long time since she left Luna Naturae, if they haven't found her then, they will not find her now. Besides, their base would be farther up north, by the coast and they'd wait until night to emerge, even with adaptation to the sun.

Three hours, one jar of Forever Sap for each attending student. Ruby watched as they all went deeper into the forest. Jaune himself was carrying more jars than he could realistically carry and was walking with team CRDL.

Jaune with team CRDL? No, no he wouldn't betray her right? He was there, he saw everything, and he comforted her just yesterday! He wouldn't betray her, he wouldn't betray her. Traitor, traitor.

Ruby takes a deep breath and exhales. She takes another deep breath and exhales. She can interrogate him about his connection with CRDL later. But the idea of Jaune being around those moronic idiots infuriate her internally.

Ruby and Goodwitch returned to the bullheads. Ruby grabs a list and begins checking inventory. Snacks, medical supplies, storage for Forever Sap, and additional jars should students desire to obtain extra credit for bringing more sap-filled jars. Ruby diligently made sure that the trip is well-equipped for any situation that may arise here.

"Miss Rose?" Glynda calls out from the outside.

Ruby steps outside and looks at Goodwitch, she's holding a glass jar and offers it to Ruby.

"All students must provide at least one jar of red sap to pass this trip."

"But… isn't my purpose of providing thee administration assistance…during this trip~?"

"Assistance or not, you're still a student and need to provide a sample to pass. Just be careful when encountering Grimm, I've sent a location to your scroll where you can acquire a high-quality sample."

Ruby hums, before taking the empty jar and walking into the forest. Only stopped and heard Glynda mutter something with a worried tone, before Ruby shrugged and continue walking.

\\======/

Ruby watches the red dot gets closer to the marked location while walking. She's been somewhat fascinated with this piece of technology, but frankly, she doesn't understand its appeal. She only uses it due to being a requirement of academia and even then, it's only used for work. Paper and quill or pencil are just better in Ruby's eyes.

She continues her stroll until she hears a group of people in the distance, close to where this marker on her scroll leads to. Ruby walks faster, and sees her team and team JNPR, barring Weiss and Jaune.

"Hey, Silver's here!" Nora shouted, drawing the attention of everyone to her.

"Hello~." Ruby waved slightly as she walked to the group.

"I thought you would be with Professor Goodwitch?" Ren asked Ruby, to which she simply shows the glass jar to him. Ren nodded in understanding before smacking Nora's hand from trying to eat the Forever Sap straight from the tree.

"Where is Jaune~?" Ruby asked Pyrrha.

"I haven't seen him since he went with Cardin, do you need him for something?"

Ruby's mouth curled into a disappointed frown.

"Oh~. No, I was…just curious~."

"Hey, Silver! You think you can help me over here?" Yang shouted to Ruby.

Ruby walked over to Yang, who was struggling to get the sap to ooze out of the tree.

"What does… thou require Yang~?"

"Stupid trees wouldn't give me sap! This is the fourth time I've checked these trees, and three of them barely had any sap! " She angrily kicked the tree trunk, which chips some of the bark.

"The fourth one…~?"

Yang only looked towards Nora with a disappointed look on her face. Nora notices and gave a cheerful chuckle before her hand gets slapped again by Ren.

"Perhaps…I could be some assistance…to thee~."

"It's all yours, Silver."

Ruby inspected the tree Yang tried to obtain sap from. Botany was certainly not the most interesting of subjects she studied, nor so the ones she enjoyed out in survival training. Mother specifically was harping on about knowing what plants to eat, what to use in medicine, and what to avoid. Why was she so ardent about botany in the first place? She never saw Mother particularly interested in the gardens or the White Forest. At least what she thought was useless training and knowledge proved to have merit today.

"It's a dying tree~. The bark feels weak, the leaves faded~. The…sap thou would've acquired…would be in poor quality~. " She repeats verbatim, drawing from her memories of her studies.

"Really? Ok then Princess Ivy, what does a healthy tree look like?"

"The leaves a vibrant red, the bark strong…resilient and a deep brown, a fruity, powerful smell that brings nostalgia~."

"Silver…Every tree around has exactly what you described, except the smell. How are you even supposed to tell the difference between them?"

Ruby walked to another tree and felt its trunk, before tearing a piece of its bark. She shook her head and walked to another tree. A leaf falls from a branch and Ruby grabs it, inspecting the leaf of its color. It was slightly faded, but it was not good enough. She then walks to another tree and inspects it. She knocks on its trunk, which feels sturdy, and looks at its leaves. So red, so serene. They make her feel strange yet familiar.

"Yang, try this one~!"

Yang walked over to Ruby and tore off a large piece of bark from the tree. Sweet, delicious Forever Sap slowly oozes from the hole Yang made. Ruby looked at the sap hungrily as Yang places the jar under the fluid.

"Huh. I guess you were right. Say…Silver, how do you know so much about this? Forever Fall is far from what place you call home, and there isn't much research on these trees besides the fact they're in perpetual fall. Was there some ancient book Ozpin failed to give us in the library or something?" Yang looked curiously at her.

Ruby froze. It dawned on her what she had done.

How, how can she be so stupid?! The one time, the one time listening to the stories and her immense studies became a detriment rather than a boon, and it was when she was just trying to be helpful to her teammate. She started to panic, was her cover blown? Of course, it was! She just displayed knowledge about a plant she was supposed to never encounter before until now!

"I-well…thou shalt understand…it's…um, a very l-long story a-actually, The…t-the library-~." Her heart starts to beat faster.

"Who stole the rapier wasps?!" A distant, angry male voice shouted in the distance. Cardin.

"Y-yeah~! Who stole his rapier wasps~? We shall investigate their disappearance at once~!" Ruby has no idea what she's talking about, but she hopes this distracts Yang long enough for an excuse to arrive.

Ruby dragged a confused Yang back to the group, who were finishing their sap collection, and then she stopped.

Weiss was there. Weiss was there.

The two locked eyes as Ruby's heart started to beat even faster, her breath starting to become ragged as Weiss's cool eyes pierced directly into her soul, revealing Ruby for the Grimm abomination that she was. Yang can casually blurt out her actions and she'll know, she'll know. She can tear apart her facade and kill her right then and there.

"What are you doing here?" Her tone was cold, unwelcoming as if she was addressing a lesser that dared act out in front of her.

Ruby's body nervously ached. Her eyes dart around, everyone was looking at her. She couldn't bear it, their eyes, their lightborn eyes, they stare and stare and stare. Why do they stare at her?! She hears muffled words all around her, but it was unintelligible. She could not hear, nor see, nor speak, and so.

Ruby ran.

"Silver!"

Blake's voice echoed in the red forest—no response besides the rustling of fallen leaves. She cupped her hands and shouted louder.

"Silver!"

Again, no response. This shouldn't be too difficult for Blake. Forever Fall was home to Adam's camp, alongside numerous Fang training sites deep within the woods. Outside of the "forbidden zone" by the northern coast, she traveled and trained in this area for a good amount of time, she knows her way around here. Yet finding Silver was proving to be infuriatingly difficult. She's big and has a white arm yet she can't find her in this stupid forest.

Blake stopped and facepalmed. She saw her move through the train cars with ease when they first arrived here and can wield a scythe with one arm. The idea of her sprinting through the entire Forever Fall forest wasn't an outlandish one.

Gods, it's been a while since they snuck past Vale PD from the train station, from the Schnee train. Schnee.

"Fucking Schnee." Blake cursed under her breath.

Silver was an oddity, but she has a kind heart. She stood against racist bullying, treated Faunus as if they were people, and forsaken her "honor" to protect Velvet. Yet all she accomplish was degradation and humiliation of herself, it wasn't fair. Someone like her should be treating the Faunus as if they were still in chains yet she had shown more humanity than some of the humans here at Beacon. Especially Weiss, a self-serving arrogant little princess.

She also has the gall to claim that her actions were protecting the rest of the team from her. That Silver will get them disgraced and make them lose their licenses. Lies and excuses, just like a Schnee. If it wasn't for Jaune being Jaune Blake was sure Yang would've started attacking, the look on her face reminded her of Adam.

Blake sighs before coming across a river and looks around. To her right, the river appears deeper and the banks steeper, with a few rapids here and there. To her left, the river calms down and ends in a large shallow pool that leads to a waterfall. There is a figure she can't make out in the distance. That must be her.

Blake runs to the figure in the distance, her mind trying to come up with ways to calm Silver down similar to what Jaune did. Hugging can always work, and then she stopped.

That's not Silver.

The figure's form is clearer to Blake now that she is closer, and that was not a human at the end of the waterfall. It was way taller than Silver.

It was a humanoid Grimm, staring out into the wilderness below on a rock at the edge. Its armor was an intricate monochromatic pattern, the style of which was extremely ancient and yet regal bone armor. Blake sees two large white feather wings on its back. Its "head" was an armored helmet with an angelic appearance, and above it was a halo.

Blake quickly hid behind a tree.

"Was that Odin?!" She thought to herself as her heartbeat started to race. Odin sightings are rare, but this Grimm didn't have a fake arm, did it change its appearance?

Blake decided to peek from the tree to look at the Grimm. It was surreal, all of the Grimm Blake knew were animalistic in appearance, even the Imp Grimm from Anima tend to have some animalistic traits such as horns or grate-like mouths.

But this Grimm looks completely humanoid, and instead of wandering around for Humans or Faunus to kill or a settlement to raze. It was content with simply staring out into the wilderness, the slight tilting of its head shows that it was looking for something. This Grimm violates everything Blake knew about the Grimm and how they operate.

The head turns.

Blake quickly hides back.

She waits, the only noise she hears besides the river was her heartbeat betraying her position.

She peeks again after a minute.

It was gone.

Gone, it was completely gone.

Blake's ears didn't hear any noticeable shuffle in the leaves, ground, or air, it was like it was never there in the first place.

Was she hallucinating? Did she have some sort of allergic reaction to the tree sap? Who would even believe her in the first place, a Grimm not attacking a person is unheard of. Even Odin, for all of its strange behavior, still cost lives at the sites it raided. Is this just some sort of once of a lifetime occurrence?

Then Blake hears the splashing of water. Frantic Splashing alongside panicked gasps and breathing in the distance.

She looks toward the source of the sound, and her eyes widen.

"Silver!"

Ruby takes a deep breath and leans on a tree. The deep river was calming to her, she needed it after what she went through

"How did it come to this? How did I fall so far from what I used to have?"

Her face went sour when she saw her reflection. Gods, she's looking at an impulsive idiot.

All she had to do was simply heed her Mother's instructions and warning about the surface but no. She had to act like an utter selfish brat who ran away upon receiving the slightest of disciplinary action and go to the surface of all places. She risked her family, her culture, and her life, for what?! To go play hunter with the lightborn?! She hated this despair and inability to act. She wants to go home, but she doesn't want to face Mother.

The shame and disappointment from her would be too much for Ruby to bear in this world. Her shame only intensifies when she remembered two certain words.

"Cultural Contamination..."

She lets out a long exhale before rubbing her eyes. She's trying not to cry but it's so hard for her. She has forsaken everything just for a childish dream, and damned the people she considered friends.

"What do I do?"

She focuses on the river once again. The sound of running water soothes her aching mind as she thinks. However, it stops once she smells something familiar.

Turning to the source, it was a tree. Oozing delicious, pure forever sap. Ruby immediately started to drool. The magenta sap is just calling her, begging for her to consume it, it enchants Ruby with its vibrant smell. She doesn't want to eat it, she can just gather the sap right there and leave. But oh, oh it smells so good, she just wants to eat every last drop of it. She walks closer, jar in hand, and maintains a grip on her desires.

Ruby removed a chunk of the bark and the smell immediately assaults her nose. It smells so good. The woody, vibrant smell made her drop the jar as she stared hungrily at the sap.

She can't resist it anymore, she must have some.

Her aetheric hand grabbed some sap and she licked it, her white hand staining magenta as Ruby enjoys the sap. Her body shivers in excitement.

"Oooh, that sweet, deep warmth. How I crave it with every fiber of my body~."

She starts voraciously eating the sap, going through it like an ursa with a carcass. She eats more and more, and that deep warmth gets warmer and warmer as Ruby indulges herself. A drunken smile forms as her vision darkens, her only thought was indulging herself with the warm, nostalgic sap as it provided a way to escape her anguish.

She awakes to find herself not in Forever Fall. The sounds of war and shouting echo around her as she slowly got up. Her vision dimmed, her movement dull, and the ash of war fell gently on her clothing as Ruby gazed upon the war-torn environment. She looks around to see packs of Grimm moving to an unknown location, while machines of war screech above. So much carnage around her.

The fools! Don't they know that they are delaying their inevitable salvation? Why can't they understand that what she is doing is for the good of the world?

Ruby gave paused at the thoughts in her head before a splitting headache hits her. It's so hard to properly think, she can't tell if her thoughts are her own or caused by the hallucination. She holds onto her head and rubs her temples, the headache quickly goes away. There's a dead body lying on a tree, he was impaled by a bone spear through the lung and is wearing an armor design that is simultaneously unknown and familiar to Ruby. The radio on his chest crackles to life.

"-have engaged in direct combat with the Shadow Empress! This war is almost over!"

A horrific roar is heard as Ruby sees a Wyvern drops liquid essence down below. Several great arrows hit it and it roars in pain before a bolt of red lightning pierces the armored head, followed by a distant draconic roar.

A pitiful mockery of her creations. She will never recreate the raw power and skill of the Dragons.

"Wait a minute," a different voice called out on the radio. "Why did Surtr stab herself?"

A hollow pain fills Ruby's chest as if she was struck by something.

"Noo…" a third, distinct voice that sounds similar to a lightborn from Vacuo spoke. "BY JERICHO, RETREAT! RETREAT!"

There was no explosion as Ruby expected, but the sounds of men and women screaming can be heard all around her. She only watched in horror as a black-red cloud accompanied by a buzzing sound rolled across the forest, soldiers running and screaming as they futilely try to escape their deaths. Those caught screamed in anguish as they quickly began coughing black liquid, some took off their helmets only to have black tears streaming from their eyes as they rotted from the fog.

Ruby didn't move.

As the fog envelops her, Ruby felt her face being stung and bitten and clawed and stabbed. She tries to cover her face but it did nothing, her body starts to rot too. A discordant chorus of laughter is heard as Ruby panics and backpedals to escape. She clung to her face, hoping to save what little flesh from falling off her face.

She didn't know there was a ledge behind her.

Her breath left her as her eyes shot toward a shattered, blood-stained moon before being obscured by water.

Water! She fell into the river!

She feels her body being dragged by the current. Instinctively, Ruby takes a breath only to have water enter her lungs. She started to panic. She quickly rises to the surface only to cough violently and fall back into the water. She tries to stay afloat, but her leg hits a large boulder underwater and it was harder to concentrate with the pain. Over and under, breath then water, it was hard for her to concentrate.

She has to get out. She has to get out!

The more she breathes the harder it is to live. Every time she sees the air she can only get a quick gasp before falling under the current, water filling in her lungs.

Her splashing was starting to get less and less frantic and she was feeling so tired.

Visions of a black sea fill her eyes.
A dim portal of light above her.
Genesis.

A chain snaps from the flowery prison that dwells within.

There was a muffled sound of something falling into the water.

"A branch? A way out?" Her thoughts were forced out of her panicking mind. She tries her best to move, but her arms aren't moving as well, it feels so exhausting.

Something grabs onto her and begins to pull on her. Her head finally breaches the surface and Ruby begins coughing violently as what dim thoughts are left in her head encourage her to start swimming backward.

The muddy ground of the river bank touches her boots as she was let go by her savior. Ruby cough violently as she tries to get her bearings together. A mixture of river water and dark essence comes out of Ruby as she finally takes a deep breath of air while on her knees. She turned her attention to her reflection in the water. Her face was partially exposed.

Half of her face was exposed. Lunar stone white skin on her right side clashes violently with her pale lightborn skin on her left side. Her right eye had black Scalera, making her pupil appears like a beacon in the dark, while the left remained normal. Traces of red veins slither down the right of her face to her body. Gods, she looks inhuman, the masquerade partially fell off and gave her the appearance of a beast wearing someone's skin.

She hears a startled gasp.

Ruby gulps and looks up to a horrified, drenched Blake. A ribbon is attached to her waist and connects to the tree behind her. In her hand was her weapon, pointed at Ruby.

"What are you?"

WN: In recent times, the existence of Forever Fall had confused scientists. From the perpetually falling leaves to the Grimm attracting sap, many attempts to study the forest in great detail have failed largely due to the Grimm. It was only after the establishment of the Alexandria-Vale railway did Vale started purging the forest of Grimm to moderate degrees of success. The area that remained untouched by huntsmen was a small section of the northern coast, which was occupied by Shadowblades harvesting sap for Yggdrasil. Scientists from Atlas and the now-defunct Merlot Industries expressed interest in studying sap for use against Grimm. Often commissioning Beacon to provide sap samples in exchange for Lien.