Team RWBY, along with Prof. Ozpin and Prof. Goodwitch are in a large room with a large pinkish rope bed with Azura lying on it with pink threads covering her eyes.

Shion: The nightmare has buried deep in her. We should send one person to do recon.

Ruby: I'll go. 

Yang: Ruby -

Ruby: I'm team leader, and I'm the fastest.

Shion: Her twin would be best. The two of you would have the closest bond.

No one corrected them, saying they've only known each other a few months. Azura always said, "Let them assume we're twins, makes it easier for us, and neither of us has to explain anything."

Yang: Alright. All you Rubes.

Ruby climbed onto the bed and laid down as pink threads went around her eyes and let Shion's semblance take effect.

Inside the dreamscape, Azura dressed in a combination of prison warden and Grimm Reaper that matched Ruby's colors, walked into a prison security room with guards that look like US marines. She walked up to a table in the center of the room and put her hands on the table.

Dream Azura: (sighs) Report.

Guard: Ma'am. The prison is full, and the... public executions of reincarnators are set up. The punishments wait.

Dream Azura: I see...

Another Guard: It's been reported that Ruby is missing from her dorm.

Dream Azura: She can't see this. She can't see what I've done.

She turns and goes over to the glass of the security room and looks down at the prison below hundreds of cells, all with a weapon embedded above the cell.

Elsewhere in the dream, a chibi Ruby was running down a sidewalk, passing dozens of shadow people that all seemed too busy to interact with one another or even her. Buildings stretched high into the sky and roads criss-crossed like a maze with no real reasoning.

Ruby: Ugh! I feel like I'm running in circles. I'm also incredibly short and cute. 

She reached another intersection and looked down each path with each looking the exact same. She took out a coin and flipped it in front of her as a meter came up and took the coin before turning into a box with a rotary phone that matched her current height. She grabbed it as it called Shion in the real world. 

Shion: Shion here.

Ruby: Hi. It's Ruby. Can you hear me?

Shion: Loud and clear. Tell me what you've found.

Ruby: Uh, incredibly tall buildings with roads that feel like a maze. Shadow people that don't acknowledge each other or me. 

Shion: This may be more difficult than we imagined. Leave breadcrumbs and look for clues on how to proceed. And don't intervene with any events that happen. 

Ruby: Uh, alright.

She hung the phone up, and it disappeared. She walked by an alley and tossed another coin as another meter appeared as a normal sized door soon appeared, taking the place of the meter.

Ruby: Really, the phone box was accommodating, but the door wasn't. Being this short is not fun.

She huffed, turned back around, and kept running. The shadow people passed through her like she wasn’t even there, all rushing somewhere, nowhere, everywhere, each with the same frantic pace and identical silhouettes. It wasn’t hostile… just overwhelming, like the entire city was too busy to breathe.

Ruby kept checking each intersection she passed, leaning out just far enough to peek without losing her spot. Every street looked identical, same tall gray buildings, same sea of shadow people, same looping feeling like she’d been here before.

She skidded at another intersection, panting, squinting down each direction, and froze. At the far end of one path, cutting through the dreamlike smog and drab monotony was a bright, unnatural light. Not sunlight. Not a sign. Not a reflection.

Ruby: Well… that’s not creepy at all.

She straightened her tiny chibi cape, took a breath, and darted toward the light, weaving around the shadow people who never noticed her. The closer she got, the brighter it became harsh, theatrical, almost stage-like. And then she broke through the last wave of shadow people and stepped into Times Square. The multiple screens blared red with Azura standing in the dead center on the screens. There was a metal stage in the center with a group of actual people with some in matching uniforms around a group of four people in what looked like some kind of Huntsman outfits. One was a faunus, but I couldn't make out what kind of faunus. The guards looked rigid, armed with weapons that seemed way too foreign to Ruby. The scene before her felt heavy and heavily uncertain about what it would lead to. 

Ruby: This doesn't feel... right.

The one thing Ruby could tell was that something bad was about to happen. Ruby crept forward, trying to see what's happening.

Guard: Prisoners One, Two, Three, and Four… you stand accused of the crimes of reincarnation, and unauthorized world knowledge.

The accusations of the prisoners surprised Ruby.

Ruby: What? Reincarnation... What's going on?

She continued watching as the guard continued. 

Guard: Your sentences have been confirmed by the Reaper Warden Azura. Execution is to be carried out immediately. 

Ruby flinched as her eyes cartoonishly widened at the sentence. She turns towards the biggest screen with Azura on it, wondering why this is her nightmare. Azura soon spoke her voice trembling, uncertain, haunted.

Dream Azura: I have to... for balance. I'm sorry.

The guards aimed their foreign rifles at the prisoners head.

Ruby: Azura... she wouldn't do this... she wouldn't! 

Dream Azura: I'm trapped in this role... I must...

Ruby: Stop!

But all that followed was the ringing of four gunshots. No one stopped it. She walked away from the stage, uncertain of how to process what she had seen and heard. She took out a coin and flipped it in front of her towards the building with the biggest screen as a meter came up, took the coin, and turned into another marker door. 

Ruby: What has Azura been hiding from us? What do I do with what I saw? 

She turns back to look at Times Square as the broadcast of Azura ends as it's replaced with recordings or videos of Azura killing reincarnators. Ruby didn't know what to say or think from seeing it with her own eyes. All she did was run down a street opposite the side she came in from, not wanting to be there anymore.

Back within the prison security room 

Guard: Ma'am. Ruby was spotted by some guards leaving Times Square. 

Dream Azura: She saw...

She sank into a chair, her hands slowly covering her face.

Dream Azura: She's seen what I am...

She gets up from the chair slowly.

Dream Azura: I... I have to find her... I have to explain... before she sees me as...

She turns and leaves the security room.

Back with Ruby, she eventually found herself at an entrance to a park, a metal arch for a path had Central Patch written in metal. 

Ruby: Azura has never been to Patch. Has she?

Ruby made another marker door and had another make a map.

Ruby: What?! It only shows me where I've been! (Stomps her little chibi foot) I wasted a coin. 

She did take a picture of the current map before it disappeared. 

Outside the dream

Yang: How could this have happened? 

Yang walked up to the two suspended by the pink threads as Blake walked up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder. 

Blake: Panicking won't help them.

Weiss: She's not in the dorm with us for long before leaving for the rest of the day, at least lately. Maybe it was during one of her outings.

Shion: Unlikely. With how developed her nightmare is, it's been longer than that.

Back within the dream, Ruby is running through the many trees being chased by statues that held stone swords in one hand, stone scales in the other, with a blindfold over their eyes. She got behind a tree and  tossed a coin out as the meter turned into a decoy copy of Ruby as it bounced away.

Decoy Ruby: Leave me alone. Leave me alone.

Ruby got away from the statues as they chased after the decoy instead. She busted through a hedge and rolled out onto a familiar dirt path.

Ruby: (sighs) Why... were they chasing me? 

She got to her feet and looked around only to stop when she saw her home in front of her. It looked exactly like it. But what drew her attention was her uncle Qrow standing absolutely still next to the house with his weapon drawn like he was mid spar. He wasn't moving at all like he was frozen in time.

Ruby: Uncle Qrow...? How does Azura...? I just keep having more and more questions.

She slowly approached the house and carefully walked in and saw her dad in the living room on the couch completely still. The television was on but also frozen. The whole place felt eerie to Ruby, but she was curious about this place.

Ruby: Azura has never seen home, never seen dad or uncle Qrow. How would she -

She entered the kitchen and wasn't expecting to see anyone or anything different, but she saw someone she never expected to see.

Ruby: (eyes tearing up) Mom?

Summer Rose was in the kitchen with an apron on with a tray of cookies in her hands, but she wasn't moving like her dad or uncle Qrow. It didn't matter to her she still hugged her, hoping for some form of reaction, but she never moved. Ruby didn’t let go. She knew this wasn’t real. The air didn’t feel right. The warmth wasn’t there. Summer didn’t smell like cookies and rose petals. Her arms didn’t tighten back. Her heartbeat didn’t exist. But Ruby hugged her anyway.

Ruby: (voice breaking) …I don’t get it. You’re not supposed to be here.

The kitchen was perfect. Too perfect. No dust. No clutter. No scorch marks from her dad burning dinner. No signs of life. It was a memory reconstructed without understanding. Ruby let go, rubbing the tears away as more questions built in her mind.

Ruby: Azura… you never met her. You never met any of them. So why are they here?

She left the house, not wanting to see anymore of it. She threw a coin for a door as she continued to walk away deeper into the park. She didn't get very far when a voice called out to her.

Dream Azura: Ruby, there you are. 

She spun around to the voice, uncertain of how to feel when she saw Azura approaching her. She grabbed another coin, questioning whether to leave or not. She saw a side of Azura she didn't know she had, and it scared her. 

Ruby: You killed people.

Azura's friendly smile faded as she spoke again but softer.

Dream Azura: I told myself I'm keeping everyone safe from people who would likely view this world as their personal playground... I was asked to fix the mistakes of gods... So I'm doing what I can to protect what's precious to me...

Ruby: By killing?!

Azura flinched from the outburst. 

Dream Azura: They were given a second chance they never deserved... I was sent here to fix mistakes they would cause...

Ruby: Sent... by who?

She looks down for a moment before looking into the distance behind her at a large building in the distance shaped like a scale.

Dream Azura: By a God who wants balance... (quietly to herself) or maybe that was a lie...

Ruby followed her gaze and saw the building in the distance, albeit barely due to her current height. She readied the coin.

Ruby: I'll save you Azura with the team, and after that, we need a lot of answers.

She flipped the coin. Then Ruby disappeared in a flurry of pink threads. 

Outside the dream, Ruby sat up suddenly as the threads around her head and eyes pulled away.

Ozpin: Miss Rose. Did you find the nightmare? 

Ruby: I think I know where it is, but I couldn't go there when I figured it out. Azura found me.

Shion: And how did she seem?

Ruby: I... I saw her earlier in the dream but on a screen... ordering executions of people that were labeled reincarnators.

Yang: What? She wouldn't do that. There's nothing that would explain that.

Ruby: I know what I saw, and I didn't like it. But Azura is the only one who could explain it.

Weiss: She seems so much like... you though. 

Blake: Did you get any info as to why?

Ruby: Uh, she said during the execution that she's trapped in a role or something. She didn't sound proud of what she's done. It felt like she viewed herself like she was guilty.

Ozpin: Ehem. I might be able to clarify some things. What I'm about to say does not leave this room.

He stepped forward closer to the team.

Ozpin: Shion, please be discreet with what you're about to hear. 

Shion: Of course, Ozpin.

Ozpin: Azura has been killing these reincarnators since she arrived here.

This news clearly shocked the team as each had a different reaction to the info.

Ozpin: I found her after she killed one, thinking she was Miss Rose here. We talked in private, and she knew she was caught, so she explained her God-given role to me. She was sent here because other gods not of Remnant have been sending ill-fitting souls here. She was sent here to restore balance.

Yang’s jaw was tight, fists clenched at her sides.

Yang: …So you knew.

Ozpin didn’t look away.

Ozpin: Yes. I even looked into their background, and every one of them had none beyond them reaching a kingdom one day.

Ruby felt something twist in her chest.

Ruby: And you just… let it keep happening?

Ozpin: I allowed it to continue.

Yang: Allowed it?! You’re telling us someone we care about has been executing people, and you just decided that was fine?!

Goodwitch’s voice snapped like a whip.

Goodwitch: Miss Xiao Long -

Yang: No! Don’t “Miss Xiao Long” me right now!

She pointed at Ozpin, eyes burning.

Yang: You found her after she killed someone. You knew what she was doing. And you let her walk around Beacon like nothing was wrong!

Weiss: Headmaster… these people. The reincarnators. Were they dangerous?

Ozpin: Some of them… might have been.

Blake’s ears twitched beneath her bow.

Blake: Might have been isn’t an answer.

Ozpin exhaled slowly. This continued back and forth on what Ozpin knew from what little she told him.

Ruby: I think we should take a break and let everyone settle with this info.

Shion: Yes, I still need to recharge my aura before sending people in again.

No one said anything more. They each left the room going their own way to process all the info they've been given. After some time to their own thoughts, they came back determined to get answers from Azura herself.

Rwby: We're going this time.

Shion: Are you certain about where the nightmare is?

Ruby: Yes. Azura stared at this weirdly shaped building for a bit before I left. It might be very important. 

Shion: Alright, everyone, lie down.

Inside the dream

Yang in a tomboyish cowgirl outfit lifts a chibi Ruby up into the air in the middle of the city they appeared in.

Yang: You're so cute! Why didn't you say anything about being so cute in this place!

Blake was examining her outfit while feeling it being incredibly racist with her in a cartoonish ninja outfit with cat paw mittens and a cat tail. Weiss was also examining the business woman attire she's wearing but also viewed Ruby as "cute" in her current predicament. 

Ruby: Yang! Put me down!

Yang: Okay, okay.

She sets Ruby down and looks around, trying to figure out what direction she took the first time.

Weiss: Before we go rushing off, let's check how many coins we have.

Ruby: Good idea.

They each check their pockets, each pulling out three coins. 

Yang: Three each, not a lot we can do with that.

Blake: Okay. Ruby, which way do we go to the door?

Ruby: Uh... I don't know... all the streets look the same. And they all interconnect. Oh, but there is a place where I placed a door. It's... where I saw the executions and had massive screens.

Yang: Then we stick together so we don't get lost and find this place.

They chose a direction and started walking, constantly checking each direction at each intersection. 

Weiss: This city doesn't really match any building style in Atlas or Vale.

Blake: They're massive, too. Impossibly massive. 

Yang: Hey, I see a weird glow down this street.

Ruby: (walking over to her sister) That should be the place. 

They rush down to it, finding Times Square screens on the buildings, each showing one of Azura's kills. The metal stage was empty as shadow people continued to walk around, ignoring the team and ignoring each other.

Blake: How many has she killed?

Suddenly, the screens glitch to static for a moment, catching all of their attention. It went back to the executions before switching to something else entirely. It was a bank with men in masks waving guns around.

Ruby: (looking at each screen) It's on all of them.

Weiss: It doesn't feel like it's part of what was shown earlier.

There was a loud reverberating bang as the screens went static and changed to a new scene, white hallways rushing past a point of view. Rhythmic beeps were heard throughout the area.

Yang: A... hospital? 

Then another loud, more explosive sounding bang went out as the screens changed to static before turning back to a new scene of a collapsed ceiling debris everywhere around a central point of view with an arm out in front of it banging on the debris.

Azura: Help... (coughs) someone... in here...

Ruby: That's Azura, but she's alive. When did this happen?

Blake: It looked like a memory like the loop that was on the screens before. 

Then the screens cracked with some shattering, and the remaining went back to the memory loop of Azura, killing people.

Weiss: That wasn’t... normal.

Ruby: Come on the doors over here.

They followed her to the door that was under the now shattered massive screen. 

Ruby: Uh, the Central Patch house.

The light above the door flickered before staying on. Yang opened the door as it led to Central Patch now. They each go through the door as they reach the copy of the Rose Xiao Long household in the dream. 

Ruby: There!

Ruby was basically pointing at the large scale-like building that could be seen from where they are. 

Ruby: Azura stared at that place when she found me. 

Weiss: (following where Ruby is pointing) It also doesn't really match the earlier architecture. 

Yang: It has to be important. 

They started making their way there, and upon reaching it, they circled it, looking for an entrance. They couldn't find anything that looked like an entrance until they saw Lady Justice statues walk out of the side they were at.

Ruby: It's those weird statues that chased me before.

The statues raised their blades but not in offense but towards the wall they came from.

Yang: (lowering her fists) Huh?

Lady Justice: Pass judgment...

They walked between them cautiously phasing through the wall and ending up in a prison. Each cell was filled with shifting silhouettes of people and weapons embedded above the cell.

Yang: What... is this place?

Blake: A prison by the looks of it.

Ruby: Azura is called the Reaper Warden in the dream. Maybe she has an office?

They walked through looking for a way forward but could hear things from the cells, not the prisoners' voices but Azura's.

Azura: I'm sorry... it'll be fast... I should have done something different... I shouldn't have accepted that...

They could feel the emotions radiating from the cells like fear, regret, and guilt. They reached a staircase that was blocked by two buff looking guards.

Guard: No one is to see the Warden in her cell.

Blake: (quietly) So she's a prisoner in her own prison.

Weiss: We were asked to pass judgment.

Guard: No one is to see the Warden.

Yang: Guess we're fighting our way up.

Yang threw a punch right at the guard's face, her gauntlets firing and taking him out. The other raised its weapon only for Weiss to take the other one down. They ascend the stairs to see more guards coming down towards them.

Ruby: (pulling out a coin) Decoys.

She flipped the coin as it entered a meter, and a decoy of herself appeared.

Decoy Ruby: (Bouncing away from the group down a different path) Can't catch me! Can't catch me!

The guards started chasing after the decoy as they climbed the next set of stairs that led to the same level as the security room and a sealed cell with Crescent Rose embedded above the cell door.

Ruby: There!

They rush and open the door and enter the room, turning to see what looks like a home living room. Pictures litter the walls of a family with one kid, but the kid's face is blacked out in every picture.

Yang: This place feels... off.

The door closed behind them as Weiss looked at the wall of photos. Staring at the smiling parents and the child between them with a black void obscuring any detail of the kid.

Weiss: All the pictures are like this. Happy parents with a kid, but it's like they don't know how they looked.

Ruby: (unnerved) Let's look somewhere else.

They searched and found a decorated door with what looks like a name adorning it, but it's blurred. Yang opened the door, and they immediately saw the nightmare with its thorns wrapped around a weapon they didn't recognize as Azura was nearby curled up her knees to her chest, her head buried into her knees as her arms were holding them in place. They ready their weapons and aim it at the nightmare. Then the room started to warp, the walls turned white, the ceiling fell slightly, debris appeared around the room, and the bed was overturned.

Azura memory: Help... (coughs) someone... in here...

It then violently reverted back to the room before. The nightmare spasms its thorned vines thrashed about as Azura could be seen shaking.

Ruby: Huh? It hurt... the nightmare?

Yang: It affected Azura, too.

Weiss: Nightmare first questions after we wake her.

They started slashing, stabbing, and shooting the nightmare as it barely reacted like it was stunned. After a short time of the onslaught, it was killed, and it dissolved into dust.

Outside the dream

The vines on Azura receded to a single point as the nightmare was soon ejected out of her as Shion used their threads from their dream catcher to capture the nightmare and put it into a container. Soon, team RWBY woke up and waited for Azura to wake. She did leaning up and stretching.

Azura: (stretching) What time is it?

Ozpin: (chuckling) Well, past classes for the day.

Yang: (to Azura) We need to talk... privately.

Azura: Oh, uh, okay.

Azura's pov

I was led to our dorm it felt like a massive pit was in my stomach as we entered as Ruby, Blake, and Weiss sat on Weiss's bed as Yang stayed by the door. I was gestured to sit on Blake's bed, which I did.

Ruby: We... want to talk about what we saw in your dream.

Weiss: And what Ozpin told us.

I visible shrink as I just wanted to disappear after hearing that.

Ruby: Before we get into the hard question, I want to know about that Patch in your dream, Uncle Qrow, dad, mom. How do you know all that?

Azura: I... I was given a list of people to copy. People who could be a good bait to lure reincarnators that knew the world to seclusion. I would gain their looks, their memories, their skills, but also some of their quirks too good and bad. You, Ruby, felt like the best to work with.

Yang: Why did you come here?

Azura: I... died back on my world. I don't know how best guess is it was bad, very bad. My mind is suppressing it so I don't break. (Jokingly) The human mind is a wonder.

The tension didn't change regardless of my attempt.

Azura: But I was given a second chance. A purpose. A reason. (Voice wavering) Who wouldn't take it, though I should have asked more questions before I was sent here.

Blake: What kind of questions?

Azura: How I needed to deal with reincarnators, how the world worked overall, what happens to me if I stop doing what was asked of me?

I was looking down to the ground as Weiss spoke next.

Weiss: You said you were sent. This God, whoever they are, gave you a mission. Rules. A purpose.

She paused, choosing her words carefully.

Weiss: Did they ever tell you that what you were doing was… optional?

The question hit harder than I expected.

Azura: I... I don't know. I just know my system incentives killing.

Ruby: System?

Azura: It tells me when a reincarnator is close, gives me "quests" every so often, a store, and store points after I kill a reincarnator.

Weiss: What can you buy from this store?

Azura: Skills that could be akin to Semblances or straight magic, weapons, ammo, food, drinks, some nostalgic stuff from earth, clothes,... alcohol. But none of it can numb the guilt, the fear, the doubt.

Ruby: (quietly) Azura... did you ever hesitate when you killed them?

Azura: After the first one, not really no. But I try to make it fast and painless.

Yang: First one?

Azura: Before I know exactly how I wanted to deal with them, that killing was a preferred method by the system. I wanted to know how bad the reincarnators were. So I found one, a guy roaming around Vale. He looked like he was searching for something or someone. I approached him, and he played the new to vale card and wanted to be shown around. I obliged, knowing Vale through Ruby's memories. I acted like Ruby the whole time. He seemed friendly and kind, but when it was over, he yanked me into an alley and tried to... I had my Crescent Rose on me and was able to grab it. I learned how some of these reincarnators were that day horrible pervs, then arrogant douchebags, and delusional edgelords.

The room went deathly quiet. Yang’s jaw tightened, knuckles whitening where her hands clenched at her sides. Weiss looked stunned, lips parted like she wanted to say something sharp and calculated, but couldn’t find the right words. Ruby had gone very still again. Blake was the one who spoke.

Blake: …And after that?

Her voice was level, but I could hear the tension beneath it. The kind that comes from recognizing something ugly because you’ve seen it before.

Azura: After that… I started paying attention. Not to what they said they wanted. But how they looked at people.
How they talked when they thought no one important was listening.

Blake’s ears flicked despite herself.

Azura: Some wanted power. Some wanted to “fix” the world. Some wanted harems, glory, revenge… or to live out fantasies without consequences.

Ruby: Not all of them were like that, though. Were they?

There it was. The question she didn’t want the answer to.

Azura: …No.

Ruby’s shoulders sagged.

Azura: Some were scared. Confused. Just trying to survive in a world they didn’t understand. I wouldn't be surprised a chaotic god sent them just for them to die to Grimm instead of me. I... always tried to end it fast and painlessly for all of them regardless of who they are.

Ruby didn’t look at me. Yang finally moved, one step forward, then stopped herself. Her hands were shaking now, fists clenched so tightly I thought her nails might draw blood.

Yang: …That doesn’t make this okay.

The words weren’t shouted. That somehow made them worse. Weiss swallowed, composure cracking at the edges.

Weiss: It explains it.

But explanation isn’t the same thing as justification.

Blake: And what happens if you stop?

The question hit deeper than all the others.

Azura: ... I don't know. But it's a God there's usually a punishment, but if there isn't, what's stopping them from sending someone else but this time... (tears forming) I'm on their list.

My hands were shaking now. I clenched them in my lap, nails biting into my palms like it might anchor me to something real.

Azura: If I stop… if I hesitate too long… then I’m just another problem to be corrected.

No one spoke. Ruby still wouldn’t look at me. Yang exhaled sharply through her nose, turning away again like she couldn’t stand to look at me and risk saying something she couldn’t take back. Weiss closed her eyes for a moment, steadying herself, then opened them with something brittle and conflicted behind her gaze.

Weiss: So you’re trapped.

Azura: …Yes.

Blake: And you decided killing was better than letting someone else do it.

Azura: At least if it was me… I could try to be merciful.

That was when Ruby finally spoke again.

Ruby: I need time.

Her voice was quiet. Not angry. Not forgiving. Just… tired.

Ruby: I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel right now. And I don’t want to lie to you about that.

Yang: We’re not saying anything tonight. And we’re not deciding anything either.

Weiss: This doesn’t end here.

Blake: I’ve seen what happens when someone convinces themselves they’re the only one who can make the hard choices.

She didn’t say Adam’s name. She didn’t have to.

Blake: Be careful who you let decide what you’re allowed to be.

They all slowly left the room together. Leaving me alone with this pit growing in my stomach as tears slowly started falling from my face. I didn't move at first. I didn't know what to do or where to go as I felt like I lost people, I considered friends.

Azura: (quietly to herself) I don't have anywhere to go...

3rd following team RWBY

They walked together to a spot that felt secluded enough, ending up in an empty classroom. Weiss locked the door behind them for security. Yang went down and leaned against the professor's desk. Blake sat in one of the many students' seats that's closer to the front of the classroom, Weiss stood in the front of the classroom area, and Ruby sat on the desk near the front of the class.

Yang: Rubes how are you holding up? About the reason she looks like you, how she could be you perfectly if she had to?

Ruby didn’t answer right away. Her boots tapped lightly against the desk as she stared at the floor. For a moment, Yang wondered if she hadn’t heard her. Then Ruby spoke.

Ruby: …It feels wrong. Not just scary. Not just confusing. Wrong. She chose to be a copy of me from a list. She could have been a copy of you, or Weiss, or Blake, or any number of people we could have known. Was my... quirks the best for her to handle?

Yang: That’s not on you, Rubes. None of this is.

Ruby: But she said she picked me. Out of a list. She learned how to be me. How to sound like me. How to think like me.

Silence followed for a bit before Yang spoke up again.

Yang: What gets me is that she didn’t just copy you. She used you. Walked around Vale wearing your face, your voice… and someone tried to hurt her because of it.

The room went still. Ruby’s hands trembled slightly.

Ruby: Yang -

Yang: No. (voice cracking) I keep thinking about that alley. About what would’ve happened if it had actually been you.

Ruby: (sliding off the desk) ... I know. Every time she talked about using Crescent Rose, it felt like someone was borrowing something precious without asking.

Yang: She got a copy of it, not the real deal.

Weiss: Azura definitely has her own personality, but if she can slip into your mannerisms and personality, that isn't just a tool... that’s intimate.

Ruby: I don't think she meant to hurt me. She said she wanted to protect what's precious to her in the nightmare. What or who do you think she meant?

Weiss: (walking up to Ruby)... You, Ruby. Or at least what you represent. Home. Safety. People who care without asking for something back. Someone who still believes the world can be better, even after seeing how ugly it gets.

Blake: Or she chose you because you don’t look at people and immediately decide what they deserve.

Ruby: That doesn’t mean she was right.

Blake: No. But it does mean she wasn’t choosing power.

A silence followed, thick, heavy.

Ruby: She keeps saying she’s trapped. Like every choice she has is already poisoned. But… if that’s true… then she hasn’t actually been choosing who she is. Just how much of herself she loses each time.

Yang: Maybe we should head back. If she was just dropped in, she probably has nothing for her. No home, no family.

Weiss: She didn’t say that to us.

Yang: No. But she didn’t have to.

Blake: Even if she doesn’t believe it… she expects to be alone.

Ruby looked down, fingers tightening against the hem of her sleeves.

Ruby: I don’t want that. I don’t know what we’re going to do about… all of it. About the system. Or the killing. Or the god thing. But I don’t want her thinking she’s already been abandoned.

Yang: (nodding) Okay.

They left the classroom and went back to the dorm. Ruby opened the door to see Azura curled up, leaning against Blake's bed, and her breathing was shallow. The others looked around or were tall enough to look over Ruby to see the exact same thing.

Yang: ... Damn it.

Ruby walked over and kneeled next to her and saw red tear streaks down her cheeks. She gently caressed her cheek, feeling the areas that were still wet from her tears as Azura flinched slightly in her sleep.

Ruby: She... cried herself to sleep.

Yang: (clenching her fists) ... We really screwed this up, didn’t we?

Weiss: We didn’t know how else to handle it.

Yang: Doesn’t mean it didn’t hurt her.

Blake crouched down next to Azura.

Blake: She didn’t try to leave. She didn’t lash out. She just… shut down.

Ruby: She said she didn’t know what would happen if she stopped. That she might be punished. That she might be corrected. And we just... walked away.

Weiss: She was honest with us. About everything that mattered. Even the parts that made her look worse.

Blake nodded.

Blake: That’s not something monsters do.

Ruby grabbed hold of Azura, who flinched again and grabbed Ruby's cloak.

Yang: Rubes -

Ruby: She doesn't deserve to sleep on the floor.

Weiss: It would be best to actually put her in a bed.

Ruby: Mine like usual.

Blake grabbed on to Azura and helped Ruby put her in the suspended bed. Ruby covered her up as she got in bed with her.

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Bacca: Okay. This one took the longest to set up hope you enjoyed the mass publishing so far.