The room was ink black, the shadows swirling around her. A figure emerged, distorted and demonic, a grotesque skull for his face.

"What do we have here? A plaything for me?"

"No! Please no!" Ruby strained against her restraints, the rope digging into her flesh as she squirmed to get away from the fiendish entity.

His eyes burned red in their sockets as he reached out for her. She shrank away at his touch to hear a familiar voice.

"Ruby, hey, it's me! It's Yang. It's ok, I'm here now."

Ruby opened her eyes to see Yang, eyes burning red as the blood spattered across her whole body. Yang's golden locks floated around her in the nothingness, adrift as if she was in the sea. Everything about the scenario was surreal, yet the intensity Ruby felt of every moment was overwhelming, threatening to drag her down like a wave. Ruby fought to hold onto any sense of reality in this world, terrified of what was around her, yet with no way to fight it.

Yang knelt beside her, her motherly smile twisting into a pained grimace as she laid her head in Ruby's lap. The inky shadows around them swelled and exploded, replaced with a blinding light that scorched everything it touched. Ruby raised her hands to shield her eyes, bewildered by finding them free. She looked down to see not Yang in her lap, but Jaune staring up at her.

"I'm ok Ruby, don't worry about me." Jaune's arm trailed away in a river of red that twisted to wrap around his body, billowing into a cloak.

The cloak enveloped him, obscuring his face and body. Ruby reached down to clear the material from his face, but to her horror, Jaune's body was replaced with her own.

Her face was pale and was sprayed with blood, cold as ice to the touch when she moved to wipe her face. The simple move made her head spin, and the emptiness around her pressed in to overtake her before she could right herself. Black walls crept into her visions, slowly threatening to envelop the young huntress before she could regain her bearings.

Ruby focused on breathing, pushing all thoughts from her mind as she tried to stop the pressure around her from crushing her. Slowly she felt the world around her return to normal, and she opened her eyes.

Above her, standing somberly, was her mother.

"Mom?" Ruby's voice was a mixture of shock, confusion, and feverish rejoicing.

Until she didn't respond. Her white cloak billowed around her, with her hood pulled over her face, obscuring any sign of emotion. Ruby struggled to run to her mother, but she was trapped. Flat on her back with her hands resting over her chest, her body was unable to respond to her mother's calls. An icy chill spread through her limbs the longer she laid there, paralyzed in the pit of darkness.

Am I… dead? She looked up and saw through her mother's grave marker. No, her marker. She was the one beneath it, and her mother was the one standing before it, wracked with grief.

No! I'm still alive! Mom! Ruby tried to scream, but the cold had locked her jaw shut. Then her mother began to scatter into the void, leaving nothing but dust and rose petals behind her as the darkness consumed her.

The world around her dissolved in the same way, the marker falling apart into ash as Ruby's bindings gave way and releasing her to the abyss beneath her.

Ruby's eyes snapped open as she jolted awake in a cold sweat.

Her memories of the past several hours were almost completely gone, but she remembered being treated and taken back to Beacon. She inhaled deeply, trying to slow her breathing. The cool winter air of their dorm was flavored slightly by the bunch of roses that her team had gotten for her.

For today. Her birthday.

As the reality set in, Ruby's breathing became wracked with quiet sobs. Ruby quickly put a stop to them as each movement sent a searing pain through her abdomen. She gradually forced herself to stop crying and blinked the tears from her eyes, unwilling to even bring her hand up to wipe them away for fear of another bout of pain from the deep cuts that stretched across her stomach.

Her eyes finally cleared, and were now adjusted to the dark. She looked around the room. She was on the bottom bunk, on Weiss's bed, with Yang curled up beside her, snoring quietly. A peek over Yang's brilliant mane revealed that Blake was fast asleep in her bed, and Yang's bed was still undisturbed, meaning Weiss had elected to take Ruby's bed instead.

"Yang."

No response.

"Yang." Ruby accompanied the whisper with a nudge.

"Mmhm, yeah? I'm up," Yang replied, her eyes still shut as she responded while still half asleep.

"I just want to sleep alone tonight."

"Wha? Oh, ok. I gotcha," Yang rubbed her eyes before shifting off the bed. A few steps had her to Blake's bed, where she proceeded to plop down behind the Faunus, pulling her close and nuzzling into her dark hair. Yang's snoring picked up almost immediately after that.

Ruby's mind wandered back to her nightmares. They were all extremely vivid and equally terrifying, but the one that she cared about most was of her mother. It has to mean something, or else there was no way I'd think of it.

Ruby sat up, gritting her teeth through the pain before swinging her legs to the side of the bed, leaving her feet dangling off the side. Slowly she slid to the edge of the mattress and stood, careful to not stretch and reopen the wounds across her midsection.

She padded over to the closet at the foot of their beds and silently cracked the door. Inside, her red and black combat skirt was hanging amongst her other clothes. She pulled the outfit out and examined it.

The front was in tatters and the sleeves were stiff with dried blood. Her silver rose insignia on the belt had cracked, and blood had tarnished the surface of the metal. She ran her hand through the cape at the back, and her fingers easily found holes in the material.

Ruby sighed and dropped the ruined outfit into the nearby trashcan. She returned to the closet and removed her gray, black, and red winter outfit. Gingerly she changed out of her pajamas and into the combat uniform, trying to make as little noise as possible. She fastened her boots and pulled her hood over her head before grabbing Crescent Rose and heading for the door.

As she grasped the door handle, she looked back at her team. Yang and Blake were snuggling together in Blake's bed while Weiss was curled up in a ball on Ruby's bunk, squeezing a pillow tightly to her chest as she slept peacefully.

I should ask her to come with me. We are partners after all..., Ruby's mind immediately flashed back to Weiss yelling at her the previous night. She had placed a higher value on her family's name than on Ruby, on her team. No, she would go alone.

Softly she turned the handle and exited the room. One last glance behind her, then she started her journey to Summer Rose's marker.

Sunlight streamed through team RWBY's dorm and warmed Blake's ears. She had begun sleeping without her bow now that her team knew her secret. It wasn't such a big thing, but the emotional freedom it afforded her was blissful. Blake yawned as she rolled over to check the time, but was instead now nose to nose with Yang.

"Yang!" Blake's ears flicked upright as she angrily whispered at the blonde figure laying before her.

"Mmhm?" Yang didn't even stir as she responded, likely still dreaming about riding her bike into battle against ten Ursai or something ridiculous.

"What are you doing in my bed?!" Blake didn't blame her though. Despite agreeing to just stay friends, the events of the previous day weighed heavily on her, and she was welcome of the company.

"Huh? Oh, Ruby said that she wanted to sleep alone," Yang absentmindedly scratched Blake's ears before opening her eyes.

"Yang!" Blake immediately scrambled backwards, fully alert.

"What?! What's wrong?"

"Your eyes…"

Yang swung herself off the cot and strode over to the closet at the end of the bed. She opened the door and cleared the mirror that they had hung there.

A gasp escaped her as she saw her eyes. They were no longer pure discs of lilac. A sunburst of blood red surrounded her pupil, threatening to overtake the entire iris.

Yang shut the door to the closet, attempting to play off the seriousness of the situation, "Ah, don't worry about it! Looks badass if I do say so myself." Blake knew that her partner was deeply troubled by the change, but decided not to push the issue as Weiss had finally woken up.

"What are you two dolts talking about?"

"My awesome new eye color. Would you like to Schnee?"

Blake and Weiss groaned in unison as the heiress slid off Ruby's bunk. "I can see them from here fine, thank you." Weiss turned to her bunk, "Ruby-" and stopped at the empty bed. "Where is Ruby?"

"Maybe in the bathroom?" Blake immediately volunteered, hoping to prevent any hysteria when a level head could take care of her problem.

"Crescent Rose is gone." Weiss's response was hollow.

"She could have gone to put it in the armory?" Any option was better than what they all knew had happened.

"No, she used to sleep with it if she had the chance. Dad had to explain to her that the damn thing could cut her in half if she forgot to lock it one night, but she'd always keep it close to her if she could."

The silence that followed was deafening, filling the room with a heavy mood. Blake was the one to finally shatter the silence, but only replaced it with the question they all dreaded to ask.

"So then where is she?"

Author's Note: After a severe case of writer's block coupled with an insanely busy week, Chapter 6 will be split into 2 parts, with Part 2 releasing 5pm CST on Wednesday, March 11th. My apologies for the split, I'll be back with Chapter 7 as normally scheduled. Thank you again for your patience and support.