It had been a long, tiring night for Team RWBY, and they had precious little to show for it. They'd revisited nearly every place Blake and Yang had been and turned up not a hint of the Guardians. They had spent a short time in each location, and Blake had found herself increasingly flooded with emotions and memories. Not memories of pain and suffering, but memories of her last happy moments with Yang. Drinking at The Ice Castle, drinking more and singing a duet at a karaoke bar, dancing at a club called The Tarantella. Blake held on to these memories with a strange duality. Her heart felt warm just thinking about sharing those laughs with Yang, yet it ached with the knowledge that it would never happen again. Fading memories were all that remained of her. The images in her mind now shone as bright as the sun, as bright as the golden hair of her goddess, but time would wear them down. Someday they would be no more than a dull glow in a void of darkness, and no light would ever replace them.

Before they finished their route, Team JNPR had called them. They'd had some luck and scored some information. They were calling everybody back to Beacon to organize and form a new plan. Blake was grateful not just for their breakthrough, but for their interruption.

The last place on their route had been one Blake was dreading returning to. It had been somewhere Ruby had been very insistent they shouldn't go. Blake had, with forced determination hiding inner terror, demanded it in the name of thoroughness. But as they got closer and closer, her fear gnawed its way out from within. That lonely, dark stretch of street where they were first attacked. They had been so drunk, both on alcohol and on each other, that they'd let their guard down. They were both laughing, Yang leaning against Blake for support at they walked. With no warning, horrific pain had shot through Blake's body. A knife had entered her lower back to one side, near her kidneys. Though she didn't know at the time, the knife's edge had been made of a carefully carved Dust crystal. An explosion of energy, generated by a complicated and precisely-designed series of smaller crystals set in the blade, had traveled through the knife and into her body, temporarily frying her aura. It was an incredibly painful sensation. Yang had only managed to stumble backwards a step, turning to face the attacker in confusion before another Dust blade was thrust into her side, just below the ribs. Yang had shrieked in pain, and had swung her fist at the man, but he caught it in his hand and stopped it dead. Blake's own attempt to whirl around and strike was cut short by a hard punch to the temple. Unaccustomed to taking a hit with no Aura, Blake had been knocked senseless. Yang had looked at her own fist in confusion, then swung again with her other hand. This he caught as well. A man appeared behind her, that same scarred face that Blake had been seeing in her dreams. The killer. The monster. He reached his hand around Yang and jabbed a syringe into her neck. Yang had gasped in surprise and fallen unconscious. Their attackers then grabbed the both of them roughly- Blake wasn't injected with anything, but was quickly handcuffed and had a bag pulled over her head- and dragged them to a waiting van.

It was these memories that made Blake appreciative of the excuse to not return there. The teams of Beacon gathered in one of the training rooms. Jaune had reported JNPR's findings, and they all discussed their next move. Blake was mostly silent in this debate.

"We can't just take out every single gang they supply," Ren had said, "We'd be making more enemies, without getting any closer to the ones we want."

"I'm not saying every gang," Cardin Winchester replied, "Just a few. Show these assholes we're not a threat they can just ignore."

There were shouts of agreement. Team CRDL had, among all the teams, been the least subtle in its use of violence in the search for the Guardians. Cardin had been vocal about his disgust towards those responsible for the attack. He seemed intent on sending a message to his fellow students that, asshole or not, he had a sense of justice, and he would not allow the murder of a fellow Huntsman or Huntress to go unpunished.

"There are better ways to do that," Velvet Scarlatina declared, "CVFY has been looking into locally owned shipping companies, and storage facilities, looking for fronts. We can find-"

"No, no, no," Cardin interrupted, "This isn't a criminal investigation, its a war! We want to find them, we need to start knocking down the people they're hiding behind!"

The conversation went on like this, and didn't get much of anywhere. The general agreement at the end of the night was that the hunt for information was still on, with different teams planning very different methods.

Blake was now in the bathroom, finding herself once again staring hard at her own reflection. She just couldn't get over how wrong she looked without her ears. Her bow had been abandoned at the warehouse and she'd gone without it since. Her eyes had deep bags underneath them. She realized that she needed sleep, but she was hesitant. Whenever she slept, she saw it happen again. Those last moments. The unfinished final request that Blake would never be able to fulfill. She wondered if seeing it over and over might eventually make her lose her mind. Maybe she had lost it already.

Blake exited the bathroom, walked down the hall to Team RWBY's room, and slipped in quietly. It was late, and Weiss and Ruby were already in bed. She closed the door, then stripped down to her underwear. She dropped her clothes to the floor, not caring where they landed. Zwei, who had been curled up underneath Ruby's bed, stood up on his stubby little legs, walked over and sniffed at the clothes. Blake stared down at him, blankly. He looked up at her, and tilted his head, an empathetic look in his eyes. He waddled a little closer and sniffed at one of her bare feet. She nervously withdrew her foot at first, but then set it back down. He licked her calf. Blake sighed, and then climbed into her bunk. Zwei whimpered, then curled up on top of Blake's abandoned clothes.

Blake lay in bed, her head resting on one pillow and another squeezed tightly in her arms. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. The room was filled with a deafening silence. The only sound was the voices bouncing around in Blake's head. Blake tried to put them out of her thoughts, but they persisted. Without the slightest warning, tears began falling from Blake's eyes. She felt like she might scream. She imagined running out into the Emerald Forest where nobody would hear her, and simply screaming and screaming until she lost her voice. She was just about to start getting up, when there was suddenly a soft thump on the mattress behind her. She felt a small, soft arm reach around her and hug her from behind.

"Ruby?" Blake asked, in a whisper.

"Hi, Blake," Ruby's voice said from behind her. The girl pulled herself tight against Blake.

"Didn't want to sleep alone?" Blake asked.

"When my Mom died, Yang and I spent a lot of nights curled up in bed together. We helped each other through it. I felt a little safer in her arms, and when I woke up from a bad dream, she was there next to me."

Blake held in a whimper.

"She was... it was like..." Ruby trailed off, unable to articulate her thoughts.

"Like the entire world was cold, but she was warm?" Blake suggested.

"...Yeah. That's exactly it." Ruby said, "I miss her so much."

Me too, kiddo," Blake said, "me too."

They lay there, in silence for some time. Blake felt a little better with Ruby next to her. The pain was still there, but dulled. She let Ruby's embrace lull her into into docility. She had stopped crying, though there was still a small wet spot on the pillow next to her cheek. She let her eyes slip shut and started to drift off.

"Blake?" Ruby whispered, "Are you sleeping?"

"...No," She answered, "What is it?"

Ruby was quiet for a moment before speaking.

"Can I ask you something? About you and Yang?"

Blake opened her eyes, she glanced over her shoulder, "You can ask me anything, Ruby."

Again, Ruby was silent for a long time.

"Did you and Yang ever have sex?" She whispered, finally.

Blake was slightly taken aback, "What?"

"Its okay if that's personal," Ruby was quick to say, "And I don't mean to sound as if that would be a problem, you know, if you did. I wouldn't have any reason to have a problem. But..."

"I... no, Ruby." Blake said, "We never had sex."

"...oh."

There was another few seconds of silence.

"Why do you ask?" Blake said, "If you don't mind me asking?"

"Its... its stupid," Ruby said, "Its just, you made her happy, you know? Most people would think Yang was never not happy, but I lived with her for years, and she was never as happy as she was with you."

Blake held in another outburst of tears.

"And... I thought... I mean, I knew she was a virgin when she started at Beacon, and if you two never did it then I guess she never... And it made me sad to think she never shared that with somebody who made her so happy."

Silence.

Is... is that weird? Is it weird for me to think about that?"

Blake opened her mouth to reassure her, but couldn't make a noise. She squirmed around to face Ruby, and squeezed her tight.

Weiss lay awake in her bunk, listening to the two of them talk. Weiss had spent the week since Yang's death trying to hold on to her emotions. She'd known people who'd died before, but never one she'd connected to on such an emotional level as Yang. Yang's boundless energy and friendliness had had a huge part in convincing Weiss to believe in this team, and feel she was a part of it. Her death pained Weiss greatly. She hadn't been Weiss's sister or lover, but she was a close friend. Weiss's upbringing had taught her of an importance in maintaining one's composure. To keep her feelings on the inside. She had failed to do that many times over the past week.

Blake felt Ruby shifting in her arms, and she opened her eyes and looked down at her. Ruby's eyes were open, slightly red from tears. She looked back at Blake.

"Yang... she wanted me to tell you something." Blake whispered.

"What?" asked Ruby.

"I don't know. I don't... she never got to finish. I was in that chair, those... those fucking monsters dragged her over to me and put her on her knees. She told me she loved me, then she started to tell me to tell you something and then... and that's when..."

Ruby hugged Blake tighter than ever, tucking her head under Blake's chin. Blake had been holding these words in for a long time. Now all of her emotion and pain began spilling out all at once.

"I still hear her, Ruby! I keep hearing her say those words as clearly as you can hear me now! But I never hear her finish because then I see her die again!"

Blake was no longer whispering. She was crying out, screaming her agony at the world. Weiss listened, her heart hurting. She felt her stomach turning over, at first feeling like sympathy pain but getting worse.

"Over and over, I see her getting run through!" Blake cried, "and I can't stop it! I couldn't save her and every time I see her die I feel like I failed her all over again! It was my fault she was there! They were after me! They murdered her just to hurt me!"

Weiss suddenly realized the uneasy feeling wasn't emotional. Something was turning her stomach, something that was permeating the entire room. Weiss realized that the beds were shaking. They weren't moving much, but they absolutely were being shook by something. Zwei was awake, looking around the room and whimpering.

"I'm going to find him, Ruby! I'm going to kill him!" Blake almost screamed, "Because I can't see Yang without seeing her die, and I don't know how I know, but I know it won't stop until he's dead!"

There was a sudden burst of movement in the room. Weiss actually felt the position of her bed shift slightly. Weiss's scroll exploded where it sat on the desk in the corner. An apple on a side table next to Weiss's bed burst apart. The light bulb in the night light that Ruby insisted the room have shattered violently. All at once, the movement stopped and the room was quiet again. Weiss looked around the room, her eyes wide, jaw hanging wide open.

"Oh, Blake," Ruby cried, "Blake... Blake, are you okay?"

Weiss looked over to Ruby, who was looking at Blake in concern. She was glad it was dark, or Ruby would see her look of utter terror.

"Is- is she okay?" Weiss asked.

"She's asleep," Ruby said, "She just passed out."

Weiss put her face in her hands, as what had just happened started to sink in.

"What was that noise?" Ruby asked, "Did you break something?"

"Its fine, everything's fine," Weiss said, very much lying, "Go to sleep, Ruby."

Ruby seemed to look around in the darkness, then slowly laid back down. Weiss crept about the room, cleaning up the mess as quietly as she could. As she hid the remains of the light bulb and the scroll (Zwei licked up the bits of apple on the floor), she couldn't stop herself from glancing towards Blake's sleeping form, and feeling very uneasy. And more than a little scared.