The toy wagon was painted red like roses, filled with the half-formed dreams of a tired toddler. Dreams that were disturbed as a stray stone got caught under one of the wheels, lurching the wagon to one side.

Ruby whined as her forehead bumped against metal. "Nose goes, please."

Yang mumbled a weak apology, more focused on pulling the wagon back on its course. When she finally replied to Ruby directly, it was in a funny voice.

"Subject appears in a state of delirium, likely still in shock from the first stage of the binding process. Otherwise, the Grimm mold is assimilating her smoothly."

"Wut?" Whatever pun Yang was hiding in that thick word-soup, it flew right over Ruby's head. She wasn't in the mood for jokes, either. She was too tired to laugh, and her eyelids felt heavy…

But Ruby couldn't seem to close them, no matter how hard she tried to blink.

"I said we're almost there," Yang continued, trudging through the forest trail like a huntress on a mission. The canopy above them blackened as the treeline grew dense and wild. This was not a place where people lived, not in a long time.

Ruby frowned, briefly abandoning her quest to blink as she peered curiously at the overgrowth closing around them. Did it look like this the last time Yang brought her this way? Ruby could have sworn it looked different…

Wait, last time?

"Yang, what are we doing here? Didn't we already do this?" Last time, Uncle Qrow had to step in and save them with his handsome hunk of a weapon, Harbinger. Its debonair charm paled in comparison to the chic, contemporary beauty of Crescent Rose, but that was besides the point. "We should turn back."

Yang kept pulling the wagon forward. She did not turn her face, only looking ahead. "We're already here, sis."

And she was right; the cabin ahead of them stood on shaky foundations, every moldy plank groaning in unison as the wind swept through the ruin. The door was busted open, hinges long since rusted and worn away. The sunlight did not reach past the door frame, cloaking the entrance in obscurity.

Whatever Yang was looking for, only darkness waited inside.

"We should turn back," Ruby said quietly. "Dad must be worried sick."

Yang scoffed. "Worried about you, maybe."

"Yang—" Ruby's voice caught in her throat as she noticed a glint of red bleed through the shadows. A pair of eyes, simmering with hateful hunger, glowed starkly against the cabin's empty doorway. More eyes ignited in the dark as Yang pulled Ruby ever closer. Yet, none of the Grimm moved to intercept them—

The darkness was content to keep waiting.

Ruby was not. "Yang, we need to go." When Yang made no move to turn around, Ruby jostled her awkward baby body and tried to slip out of her wagon herself.

Before she could wiggle out, Yang spun back and titled the wagon harshly, flopping Ruby back inside with a painful thud. Her sister's eyes were a wrathful red. "You don't get to leave me. Not this time."

"W-what are… you talking about?" Ruby croaked, struggling to breathe right as Yang held her down with one hand. It was much heavier than it should have been, and Ruby felt a sudden and violent urge to cough as something viscous lodged in her throat.

"Ah, it seems the mold has reached the subject's trachea." The white in Yang's eyes faded to black, matching the fiery glares of the Beowolves growling behind her. "Always a milestone if the subject survives past that step without my intervention. Will continue to monitor, in case of necessary pruning."

"Y-yang… you're not… making sense." Air became a luxury, one with a price of strength Ruby couldn't match. Not with her little, pudgy toddler arms, and especially not against her big sister. She was always the stronger one. Her vision blurred as her mouth clogged with bile, or maybe something worse. Whatever it was, the taste burned.

"After everything you've put me through, you think you can just walk away?" The black faded from Yang's eyes, but the red remained. "When mom died, and dad shut down, it was my job to keep you fed, and warm, and safe. Even when Qrow got dad to get his shit together, everyone still expected me to pull my own weight with taking care of you. I gave up half my childhood for you."

As Ruby's vision blurred, so, too, did the scenery behind Yang. The abandoned cabin disappeared, and a far more familiar one took its place—

Their home—

Before even that disappeared.

When Ruby's eyes refocused (still unable to blink), Yang was bigger—older—and in her Beacon combat outfit. Ruby felt bigger, too, but she was still trapped, even as the toy wagon disappeared from under her. Instead, Ruby found herself grasping desperately at her sister's hand while being pinned on the training floor of Goodwitch's dueling class. The student bleachers were not empty, either. Beowolves sat passively in the seats as they watched the two sisters fight, drooling and howling all the while.

"And when I finally had a chance to live my own life, to strike out as a huntress without you leeching off of me for a couple years," Yang continued, oblivious to the monsters staring down at them. "You just had to skip a couple grades and ruin Beacon for me. I just wanted this one thing, but you couldn't let me have it. Was having the better mom not enough for you?"

Ruby choked, but not because of her breathing. Tears fell from her freely as everything she'd ever feared her sister held against her came out all at once. Air became less scarce as she cried through her clogged throat, but at least she could breathe normally again. It wasn't a comfort. "Yang, I never said… she never meant… Yang, mom loved both of us. You should know that better than I do."

"Then why do I care so much about finding Raven?" Yang spat. "If I really didn't feel like you stole Summer from me, why am I so eager to run off and be someone else's daughter? A mother that will put me first. Silver eyes or not, I want to feel special, too. Who are you to take that from me?"

Ruby fought to say something—do something—that could save herself from the ire in Yang's eyes. All resolve abandoned her as the arm holding her down disappeared in a searing flash of ash and fire. Only a bandaged stump remained, yanked back and hidden as Yang turned away from her.

"And worst of all, the one time I wanted—needed—you to stay with me… you left. Just like everyone always does." Red bled to lilac, and her fire gave way to tears. "Is there something wrong with me? Is that why no one wants to stay? Because… I'm not enough? Am I not worth sticking around for?"

Ruby scrambled up from the classroom floor, lunging towards her sister with a shaky hug. "You have always been enough for me, Yang—"

"I don't know, Ruby, I think she's onto something. She wasn't enough for me, after all."

Ruby froze. Looking up, Ruby did not find Yang sobbing in her arms—

It was Blake, bored and indifferent. "You done? I'm not a contrarian like Weiss, Ruby—if I wanted you to touch me, I'd actually ask."

Wincing, Ruby let her arms drop, gaping only momentarily as Goodwitch's class shifted into the messy shelves and cluttered study-group tables of Beacon's library. "Where'd Yang go?" Her forehead throbbed as she tried to remember how she got here in the first place. "What's happening to me?"

Blake rolled her eyes. "It's always about you, isn't it? I shouldn't be surprised, though; that's just your character." Her bow twitched in interest as she spotted a nearby row of books in the fiction section. She traced her fingertips down their spines as she considered her options. "Chosen One narratives are always so cliché."

"All about me? What about you!?" Ruby snapped, struggling to follow Blake through the book aisles as she was hit by a sudden wave of vertigo. "Yang sacrificed her flipping ARM for you, and you just ran off? Who does that?"

Blake shot her an unamused glare. "Uh… you?"

The rebuttal was a slap to the face. Yang had just been lamenting about that to her, right? Why was it getting so hard to remember…

As Ruby stumbled at the scratching pain behind her eyes, Blake flipped through the first few pages of one book before slotting it back on the shelf, disinterested. "Our semblances are like personifications of our souls. If you think about it, it's a clever foreshadowing device."

Ruby's head hurt too much for this. "Wut?"

"Yang's semblance is to take the hit, and my semblance is to let someone else take the hit for me," Blake explained excitedly. "Pit both of us against someone who wants us dead, and the story practically writes itself. Honestly, yours is… kinda like both. You can dodge and phase through attacks, letting them hit you, but not really hit you." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "I wonder what Petal Burst foreshadows about your future…"

Ruby rubbed her forehead irritably, both for her headache and for this conversation. "Blake, we aren't characters in a story—this is real life we're talking about!"

Piercing, cat-like eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. "You think I don't know that?" The shelves shook with her voice, every book rattling as something black and full of teeth spilled from their pages. "The day we met, I warned you that real life isn't like a fairy tale. Unlike you, that's a lesson I learned a long time ago."

The snarling shadows flooded down the aisles throughout the library, consuming it all as the walls crumbed away to reveal the rest of the campus. White Fang members and Grimm tore through the courtyard as hunters-in-training rose to confront them. Both humans and faunus on both sides fell to violent gore as the only victors in the end were the Grimm.

"Do you know what it's like to be hunted like an animal, Ruby?" Blake stood alone in the shadows, casting off her bow as she stared mournfully at the bloody horizon. "To wake up every day knowing there's a part of yourself you didn't choose to be born with, and want to love, but there are people in this world who would do everything in their power to rip it away from you?"

Ruby clutched the hem of her skirt self-consciously. "Not in the exact same way, but I can relate—"

"There you go again, making everything about you." Ruby winced, mumbling a meek apology in response. Blake didn't care. "You think you've suffered, but you haven't. Having a dead mom doesn't make you special, and neither does your destiny. You've lived a comfortable life otherwise, with everything you've ever needed. My entire species can't say the same."

As Ruby glanced past Blake, taking in the carnage of Beacon, she was surprised to find herself… numb to the blood and destruction. Worse, the longer she stared at the bodies, and watched as the Grimm chewed through tendon and bone—

A small part of herself, gnawing at the edge of her mind, urged her to join in and take a bite of her own—

"Nope!" Ruby shook free of whatever that intrusive thought was, prying herself away from the bloodied courtyard. She turned her attention back to Blake. "You're right, Blake. I haven't suffered like you have. My problems are so… small compared to yours. I've always felt that way, ever since you first opened up to us. I'm sorry. But I'll help you fix it, I promise—"

Blake laughed bitterly, breaking out into angry tears. "Fix it? How are we going to fix all of this?" She gestured to the school, the White Fang dying outside, and even herself. Her hands shook as blood dripped from her fingernails. "I've had to do terrible things just to survive, Ruby, just to prove I'm worthy of living. I'm not like you—I can't just be happy and ignorant all the time. I'm too broken… and so is this world."

"We can still try," Ruby managed weakly. "Wasn't that your dream? To make any difference you could? To change the world for the better?" She reached out a hand. Wherever this place was, why ever she was reliving these moments… Ruby believed in Blake.

She hoped Blake believed in herself, too.

Blake glanced at her hand and scoffed. "What would you know about change? You're nothing but a static character. No matter what happens to you or anyone else, you'll always be the same."

Ruby pulled her hand back, defeated. "I'm trying my best—Blake? Blake, what are you doing?"

The shadows around Blake grew thick and gnarled, the teeth stretching open to a massive, monstrous maw. A thunderous growl rumbled from deep within. Blake stepped towards it, lifting one foot over a lower canine. "Just one jump, and I can be done. No more pain, no more hiding. No more running." She met Ruby's eyes and she looked dead inside. "This is the only path you've left me."

"Blake, no—"

"Goodbye, Ruby." Blake jumped—

And Ruby rushed forward, chasing after her into the dark. She tried to Petal Burst, but her Aura wouldn't work right, and the more she tried, the more her eyes hurt. She still couldn't blink. That didn't stop her from leaping into the unknown, letting the shadows consume her—

As she fell into a bush, skidding her face against the ground. She tasted dirt in her mouth, but it tasted a little more coppery than normal. She looked around, noticing only trees and distant mountains. "Blake? Where are you? Are you okay?"

"She's fine, you dolt, stop shouting."

Ruby knew that petulant tone anywhere! "Weiss?" She spun around and, low and behold, there the heiress was, leaning against a tree as she inspected her nails. "Did you see where Blake went?"

"Honestly, what kind of leader can't even keep track of her own teammates?" Weiss crossed her arms, flipping her hair back over one shoulder. "I swear, you'd lose your own cloak if you didn't wear it everyday."

Ruby didn't have time for this. "Have you seen Blake? Or Yang? I don't know what's going on, but we need to find them." Ruby couldn't lose them, not again. She'd failed them enough.

Weiss sighed. "Ruby, we don't need to find anybody. The only person who's lost here is you."

Ruby cringed. After Yang and Blake ranted off, she could guess where this was going. "Weiss, I'm sorry I'm so immature and stupid and worthless, okay, but can we please, please focus on finding our teammates? They're hurt, and confused, and it's all my fault—"

Weiss silenced Ruby with a finger. "That's not what I meant. Take a breath and look around. What do you see?"

"I-I don't know! Trees, dirt, birds—who cares!" Ruby needed to save them—she needed to save everyone. What else was she good for? "If you're not going to help me, I'll just do it myself."

She tried to rush off into the forest, but Weiss held her back, grabbing ahold of one of Ruby's sleeves. "I'm trying to, but you're not making it easy. Just… breathe. Really breathe." Her thumb grazed gently across Ruby's wrist. "For me?"

As jittery and on edge as she was, Ruby almost ignored her. But the pleading undertones in Weiss' voice made her pause. She almost stumbled from how weak her knees felt, now that she wasn't trucking forward on adrenaline alone. She felt tired. "Okay…" Breathing came more easily, though more nasally than usual. Was she sick? Is that what the headaches were for?

"Where do you think we are?" Weiss asked softly, reining Ruby back to the present.

"We're…" Ruby trailed off, taking a moment to truly take in the bright, verdant color of the leaves, and Beacon's cliffside overlooking them in the distance. "We're in the Emerald Forest?"

"Very good. Took you longer than necessary, but it's a start. Now, why are we in the Emerald Forest?"

"Because…" It took a second, but the memory came to her, as though it only happened yesterday. "Is this our initiation day?"

Weiss did a slow clap. "Bravo, you did it. You lost some partial points for the execution, but you got the answer in the end."

Ruby blinked. What answer? She was still so confused. "Are things… repeating?" Several action movies fired off in her brain. "Gasp! Am I in a time loop?"

Weiss gaped at her. "Did… did you just say 'gasp'? And, no, you're not in a time loop." She shook her head incredulously. "You're lucky I'm such a patient study partner." She snapped her fingers, and the world lurched under Ruby's feet. "Pay attention, dolt."

When Ruby found her footing again, she was back at Beacon. Specifically, stepping off of a bullhead onto the main courtyard, while red-eyed silhouettes crowded behind her. She noped away from them pretty quickly until she bumped into Weiss again, falling backwards onto her butt from the impact. Above her, Weiss laughed. Ruby blushed in embarrassment. "What's so funny?"

"It's just… this is how we met." She dried a happy tear from her face, stifling her last laugh with her hand. "You're consistent, I'll give you that."

The sight was almost enough to make Ruby giggle, too… if it weren't for the circumstances. "Are these… my memories?" She stood back up, dusting off her skirt as she glanced around. Besides Weiss and the weird, low-budget shadow people, there didn't seem to be anybody else on campus. "Are you even the real Weiss?" What about Yang and Blake?

"Reality is composed of what we can perceive, Ruby," Weiss said. "I am real, and I am a Weiss, but only your perceived version of her. Does that make sense?"

Something clicked in Ruby's head, and she connected the dots. "Aha! You're Dream Weiss!"

The heiress sighed. Again. "Sure, if you want to be reductive. I'm 'Dream' Weiss."

Yeah, that tracked. "So, what happened? Am I in a coma or something?" She couldn't remember. "Is this like that Nightmare we fought at the start of our first semester—"

"We don't talk about that!" Weiss pouted at her, huffing as Ruby rediscovered her own smile. "And, not exactly… but it is similar. You'd remember that, if your head wasn't all over the place."

Ruby almost could. The more Weiss hinted at it, the more she remembered somewhere dark, illuminated by an amethyst light. Something about… bologna? Or some other deli meat. The pain in her head was subsiding, but her eyes still hurt. It only worsened when she thought about her conversations with Dream Yang and Dream Blake. "Hey, Dweiss—"

"Don't call me that." Noted.

"Why are you so… nice?"

"Gee, thanks," Dream Weiss grumbled. "I'm glad I could surprise you by being less bitchy than the original."

"Sorry, that's not what I was getting at." Real Weiss (™) was actually a really sweet and considerate person. She was just… prickly. "Dream Yang and Blake were really mad at me, and I don't know… shouldn't you be the same?"

Dream Weiss sighed (AGAIN). Ruby might need to start a tally. "This is exactly why the dream analogy doesn't work well for this situation. I'm not just a dream, some random hodgepodge caricature of a person your brain made up for fun. I represent something real about Weiss, something you think of her subconsciously. The same goes for Yang and Blake."

"So… is that how I really see them?" Ruby said quietly, ashamed at how poorly she must think of her own teammates. "That… that doesn't seem right."

"Because it isn't. Now you're getting too literal," Weiss scolded. "We aren't full perceptions of them; we're fragments. Personifications of feelings, if you want to use Dream Blake's terminology. Think, Ruby—what did both Dream Yang and Blake have in common?"

Ruby thought about it, scrunching her brow for new answers. "I mean, I already said they were both mad at me—"

"Think harder."

So she did. It hurt, and her vision swam with red the more she tried to visualize her memories—the ones she wasn't currently reliving. The answer came to her slowly. "Fear." It was so obvious, especially if a Grimm really was involved somehow. "What they said to me… were the words I feared they'd say the most."

"You're close," Weiss said. "It's a type of fear. Or, perhaps more fear adjacent. Regardless, you're on the right track; it's about your negative emotions. Your anxiety—your insecurities—tailored for each teammate in this conjured, dream-like space."

"Insecurities?"

"Yes. Take Yang, for example. Deep down, you're scared she resents being your sister. That all you've done is hold her back. That maybe, if you weren't born… she would have been happier. And if she could choose between having you or your mother in her life, well… you get the idea."

"And Blake?" Ruby already had the beginning of an answer, but she asked for it anyway.

"Blake is a mess and—for whatever reason—you think that's your responsibility to fix. You're afraid she secretly hates you, quietly stewing in her problems that you have no idea how to help her with. You feel bad complaining in front of her, because you think she's had a far harsher life than you."

That… seemed accurate. Her head felt lighter, if more drained. "And… what about you?"

"Me?"

"What do you represent?" Ruby couldn't figure her out. Dream Weiss was just as snooty and as pedantic as the original, but otherwise… just as patient and nurturing. Weiss liked bringing out the best in people, whether she'd admit to it or not.

One thought, and the landscape shifted again. The courtyard fell away, brick by brick, and reconstructed itself into team RWBY's dorm. Ruby leaned back on her top bunk as Dream Weiss (clad in her pajamas) offered her a mug of coffee. She could tell from the color alone it had been drowned in cream and sugar.

Just the way she liked it.

"Typical," Weiss said haughtily, barely suppressing a smirk. "But to answer your question… you don't actually have many insecurities about me. Sure, we argued constantly—especially at the start—but despite how closed off and sheltered I came across as… I'm still very blunt. Yang gets angry with you sometimes, sure, but there's a part of you that's worried she's been holding back her real feelings. Same with Blake. But not with me."

Ruby took a sip of her coffee. It was warm. Her head felt even lighter, almost clear of its fog. She was so close to remembering. Something about… Salmonella? "Real you certainly loved making a fuss," she admitted.

"Hush, you dolt." Weiss swatted at Ruby playfully, staring up at her fondly while Ruby lost herself to the warmth and comfort of her bunk. "But that's exactly right; because I'm so vocal about my problems, you trust that I'll be honest with you when you're one of them. That's what you like about me—you don't have to guess as much." She trailed off with a blush, saying quietly, "That's what makes me your bestie—"

"You said it! Ha!"

"Dream me said it. Don't get full of yourself, Rose."

Ruby was counting it anyway. Whatever this situation was, this was fun. Why had she been so worried again? She'd get out of this place, wherever it was. She just had to believe in herself—

"So, no, I don't represent anything that you're afraid the real me is hiding from you. The opposite, actually." Weiss hoisted herself onto Ruby's bunk, crawling towards her quickly on all fours. The collar of her shirt hung low from her neck, showing off the skin and a hint of the cleavage underneath.

Ruby gulped and looked away. "Uh, w-whatcha you doin' down there?" she stammered. She tried to laugh, but ended up sputtering as Weiss straddled herself over Ruby's hips. "W-weiss?"

Weiss smiled mischievously, and the curl of her lips spun Ruby's stomach into a fluttery knot. "You know exactly what I represent Ruby. You've fantasized about it enough." She brought her mouth to Ruby's ear. "The only thing you're scared of is what my voice does to you… and your little friend."

Ruby's cheeks burned. "Thorny, no."

"Thorny, yes." Weiss grinned, her wiggling only making it worse. "Admit it, Rose. You want me."

What happened to just being psychoanalyzed while drinking coffee? Could they go back to that, please? "I do, but… not- not like…"

"Not like what, Ruby? Say it." Dream Weiss reached for the bottom of her shirt, starting to lift it up—

Ruby dropped her mug, letting it shatter and spill against the dorm floor, as she grabbed Weiss by the wrists. "Stop. I… I like you physically, but—" Her breath hitched, guilt rushing up her throat. "I… I don't like you romantically."

Weiss' smile fell. "There it is—what I represent," she said coldly. "Was that so hard to admit?"

Ruby didn't like this part of the dream anymore. "I-I should go." She tried to push Dream Weiss off of her, but she pushed back. "Weiss, please—"

"The saddest thing," Dream Weiss continued, speaking over Ruby. "Is that… you don't actually believe Weiss has any interest for you to begin with. So it's not like you're sparing her feelings. This isn't about an unreciprocated crush or anything that cute or innocent. No. It's more perverse than that."

Ruby froze. She didn't mean—

"You like it when I talk down to you, don't you?"

Oh brothers, she did. This wasn't the same vein of fear as she felt with Yang or Blake, but it was still scary to confront. Ruby felt disgusting. "It… it wasn't on purpose—"

"You think that makes it okay? Perception is reality, but there's nothing real about the way you look at Weiss. Even if it's an accident, even if it's just a glance or a daydream—you lusted after her while sharing a room with her. Where she slept. You trust her, but how could she ever trust a deviant like you."

Ruby's breath turned ragged, the air suddenly so cold she could see her breath. All illusions of warmth were gone; it was the Ice Queen's domain now. Even her outfit changed, shifting into something militaristic and familiar, stolen and repurposed from another dream.

Nightmare Weiss glared at her with a withering look. "You're afraid because she's your best friend… and you turned her into your fucking fetish." Weiss ground her hips roughly against Ruby. It hurt. "Go ahead, Rose. Take me."

"Get off of me…" Ruby said weakly, hiding her face behind her hands.

"Why? This is what you wanted, right? Your friend, Thorny, certainly thinks so."

Ruby hid her face even more. She felt like a freak. "I-I don't know how to make it stop…"

Nightmare Weiss smirked, and the curl of her lips twisted Ruby's stomach into a nauseous storm. "I can think of one way…" Her hand reached for Ruby's waistband—

"I said GET OFF OF ME!" Ruby thrashed her arms, shoving Nightmare Weiss off from her body and out of her bunk. Weiss fell over the edge of the bed, the dorm floor shattering into ceramic shards upon her impact. She fell through the cracks and into the abyss of red-eyed shadow people below.

Their hands, formless and infinite, reached to take Ruby down with her.

"DON'T TOUCH ME! STOP IT!" Ruby thrashed against the hands, biting at their amorphous fingers whenever they strayed too close, but she couldn't fight against the inevitable. They grappled her and dragged her into the void—

And dropped her unceremoniously onto a sidewalk. Ruby blearily stood up on some random Valean street corner. "I need to wake up." She'd been through enough, had seen enough, and her head was finally cleared up enough to tackle this problem directly. Maybe the reason she couldn't blink this whole time… was because this was all in her head? Maybe if she tried the opposite—

Her foot caught on something as she stepped forward, and someone squeaked at the impact. Ruby sighed. She had hoped Nightmare Weiss would disappear like the rest of her dream-mates. "Weiss, I said—"

"Salutations, Friend Ruby!"

Her heart stopped. That was not Weiss. She glanced down.

Penny smiled brightly at her, lying awkwardly flat on the sidewalk. It was just like the first time they met. Though, Ruby wasn't the one who had bumped into her back then—

Focus, Ruby! This was a dream. She needed to wake up, and didn't have time for fake side quests, no matter how tempting. Struggling to open her eyelids—her real ones—she walked around Penny, hoping to avoid the confrontation entirely.

Dream Penny had other plans. "Where are you going, Ruby? And may I accompany you?"

"You aren't real," Ruby replied bluntly. She kept up her pace, repeating the words over and over again in her head to make them stick. It was the only thing she could do to stop herself from turning back.

"Oh," Penny said weakly, the one warbled syllable like a knife to Ruby's chest. "I-I see. I tried my best to be like a real girl." Her voice cut out like splintered static. It was the only way she could cry. "I'm sorry I wasn't real enough for you."

Ruby wasn't as strong as she needed to be; she cracked. "Penny, wait—"

But when she turned around, Penny wasn't there. Nor was Ruby even in the city of Vale anymore—

She was sitting in the bleachers of Amity Colosseum.

All around her, the shadow people sat silently, staring not at the stage, but at her. Even as she leapt from her seat, rushing down towards the stage entrance, she could feel their eyes burning into her back, branding her with their scorn. Why did they hate her? What did they want? She didn't care to find out; Penny needed her, and she wouldn't be late. Not a second time.

Distracted, Ruby didn't watch where she was going properly, and collided with one of the shadows. As she brushed herself off and tried to veer around it, she froze as she noticed it was the only one with a visible mouth. The orifice was outlined in red, like the stark cursive of someone's pen. The visceral ink dripped down the sides, still freshly drawn.

"The subject has almost reached the end of her assimilation." The bloodily-drawn lips moved like a two-dimensional image, flat and devoid of depth or emotion. "Soon, the chrysalis will form, and her gestation will begin."

Each word drove a pounding burst behind Ruby's eyes, and she snarled at every impact. There was something violent brewing on the horizon, but she didn't have time to address it. There was never enough time, no matter how fast she pushed herself to become.

Scrambling past the shadow, Ruby finally found herself at the entrance to the stage. But, as she skid through the doors and out towards the fight—

She was too late.

Penny's head rolled across the stage and didn't slow down until it bumped into Ruby's feet. Her eyes were wide and unfocused like the aperture of a camera lens. Absolutely lifeless.

Ruby trembled as she carefully picked up Penny's head and cradled it to her chest. "I-I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry, Penny."

"It's okay, Friend Ruby. You'll do better next time!"

Ruby blinked, glancing down at Penny's face. It was still unmoving and dead. So where—

"Over here, silly!"

Ruby followed her voice and, sure enough, Penny was still standing on the stage, waving for her attention. Correction:

Hundreds of Pennies still stood on stage. Each one waving, and smiling, and so brothers-damn happy it made Ruby's heart clench. "What sick direction is this dream taking me now?"

Ahead of the Penny collective, a pale imitation of Pyrrha waited with her spear outstretched. Grimm-like and colorless, she was barely distinguishable from the shadow people in the arena's bleachers. It was only the grey shading of her skin that helped her pop out. Otherwise, she was just as hollow as the audience, expressing no joy as she swung out—

And lopped another Penny's head off. Then another. And another. It was a death march of Pennies, all of them lining up and welcoming their deaths with that same, stunning smile. They were even taking turns.

"Penny!" Or… Pennies? It didn't matter; they all looked at her in unison. "What are you all doing? Get out of here!"

"What are we doing? What a silly question, Friend Ruby." Seven Pennies died during the course of those two sentences. "We're waiting for you to save us."

Ruby needed to wake up, pronto. "Why?"

"You weren't fast enough to save us before," another Penny said, the previous one already gone and processed out of the murder queue. "So, we devised a solution; instead of waiting for you to get better, we're giving you as many chances as it takes. You're bound to succeed eventually."

"Just walk away," Ruby begged. "Pyrrha didn't even mean to do it! You can just leave!"

"That would be a more logical course of action," yet another Penny mused, already stepping towards the chopping block. "But this isn't meant to be logical, Ruby. This is just your hero complex at work."

"What?"

"You've thought about it every day, right? What you could have done better to save us, when we needed you—" That Penny was cut down before she could finish speaking, so another one continued, "So, here's your chance to try every variation you thought of. No time limit, no pressure—just go ahead and shoot your shot!"

"Even if it takes a million tries—" Dead.

"We all believe in you—" Vivisected.

"So save us—" Ripped apart.

"Save us, Ruby. What are you waiting for?" One swing missed, but it was a fluke—she still died.

Ruby tried to take a step forward, but her legs shook as Pyrrha spun to size her up. The champion wiped the oil and green grease from her blade with an effortless flourish. It never dulled, no matter how many times she swung.

"Save us," the Pennies repeated endlessly, marching onwards like the expendable soldiers they were designed to be.

Ruby tried another step, almost touching the stage itself. Pyrrha shifted Miló back into its spear form, pointing it at Ruby in challenge. The champion didn't care who came for her title—

She'd strike them down just the same.

"Save us," the Pennies insisted firmly, but Ruby didn't know how.

"SAVE US!" Penny corpses littered the stage, and the more Ruby noticed them, the more she realized it wasn't just Penny's insides staining the battlefield. Yang and Blake and Weiss and Dad and Uncle Qrow and Ozpin and—

"SAVE US! SAVE ALL OF REMNANT, RUBY!"

"I CAN'T!" Ruby fell to her knees, sobbing as she finally broke down under the weight of her world. She flipped her hood over her face to drown out the voices, and cried snot all over her cloak. "I can't . I'm… I'm not enough."

Silence. Not muffled, or distant. Their voices were just gone. Ruby still waited a few minutes before she left safety of her hood, taking in yet another change of scenery—

Her mother's grave towered over her, the shadow of Summer's legacy never more apparent.

"I'm sorry, Mama," Ruby blubbered, digging her nails into the snow-capped dirt. "I'm not like you… I could never do this. I'm sorry I tried, Mama."

Where once the winter wind, the rush of the cliff waves, and the cawing of a crow would help break the silence, there was nothing.

Nothing but a single, soft voice.

"It's okay, baby."

Ruby's first instinct was to look at the grave, expecting her mother to climb out from the soil in a pile of shambled bones and rot. But the voice came from behind her, and her body wasn't sullied by dirt or change at all.

Picture perfect, her white cloak clasped with a silver rose pendant, Summer Rose knelt down to Ruby and said, "You know… I was never down there. I couldn't be; they never found my body."

Ruby clutched at her mother's cloak desperately. Dream or not, she needed this. "Then where were you?"

Summer smiled, and it matched the only photograph of her Ruby owned. "Who can say?"

Ruby knew this was just her talking to herself, another figment summoned from her subconscious. But was it really any different than how she had been speaking to her mother before? Talking to herself and an empty grave? At least this time, there was a response. No matter how self-serving it was, she still heard it.

"Is this even what you sounded like?" She clung to her Mama with a vengeance, clawing at her clothes because she was never letting go.

"As best as you can remember, baby."

Ruby felt her legs leave the ground. Her mother was carrying her. She felt small again, toddler sized and baby-brained. She just wanted to be protected. She didn't want to hurt anymore.

So why did she ask, "Mama… can you say my name?"

Summer laughed, light-hearted and shrill all at once. "Oh, baby… you know I can't. I only know your old one."

That broke Ruby all over again. "Oh… right."

Ruby still couldn't close her eyes to her nightmare and all of its horrors, but she could nestle her face into her mother's chest, and pretend it meant something real. She felt her mother move forward, even if the snow under her feet made no noise as she did. "Where are we going, Mama?"

Her mother didn't answer her this time, silent as her grave. Ruby's gravity shifted as the incline increased slightly.

Against her better judgment, Ruby turned back to her nightmare. Staring back at her was a black ocean, full of red eyes and teeth and snarling waves. It crashed against the cliff, each attempt getting higher as the Grimm water clambered to reach her.

No no no no no no no.

"M-mama, what are you doing?" She pressed herself back into her mother's cloak, but Summer firmly pried her away from her sanctuary. "Mama, no, please no."

Summer's voice wasn't soft anymore. "It's time to grow up."

Her arms stretched out, lifting Ruby over the precipice of the cliff's edge. The Grimm waves lapped beneath her, howling against the stone in excited hunger.

Ruby grabbed at her mother's arms, clinging with what little strength she had. "Is it because I wasn't good enough? I can do better—I can be a better daughter, I swear."

With a shake of her head, Summer snuffed out the lingering hope in Ruby's heart. "It's not about being better, baby. There was nothing you could have done." Summer's smile lost its luster, dimmer than the shadow of her grave. "From the day you were born, it was already too late for you."

Ruby opened her mouth—

And Summer let her fall.

Gravity had never scared Ruby before. Her semblance, as young as she developed it, had always made such fears feel laughable. She didn't laugh this time. Not as the cliffside flew past her as she descended, nor when the waves of Grimm rose up to smother her. When fear finally kicked in, and she screamed bloody murder as a Beowolf mouth opened wide enough to swallow her, she heard one final voice speak over the snarling waters.

"Good. The gestation has begun."

And finally, mercifully—

Ruby blinked.