Fipp: Well, this is it, the final chapter. This is the first "longer" fanfic I've written in a while, so it was fun to do something like this again. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Chapter XX: Wake Up

Ruby landed on the ground, on one knee with Crescent Rose laid across her shoulders, and her cape flowing behind her as rose petals danced into the air. Baku's body landed on the ground behind her with a thick thud. His head followed seconds later, crashing nearby where the corpse ended up. Taking a deep breath, Ruby lowered her weapon and turned around to where Baku laid, dead. The body was laying flat on its stomach, while the head faced her, half its mask broken off, leaving yellow golden eyes to stare widely open, while thick dark black blood oozed from the wounds. The sight of the kill nearly emptied Ruby's stomach; she'd kill Grimm before, lots of them, but none of them were nearly as human-liked as Baku. The very idea of killing something that looked like a person, no matter how much of a monster they were, was not something that sat well with her.

A sudden cry knocked her out of her shock, and she looked around to its source, only to find herself being hefted up by a big mass of yellow.

"You did it!" Yang cheered, squeezing her sister tightly as she swung her in the air from side to side. "I can't believe you did it!"

"Yang!" Ruby gasped, kicking her legs fruitlessly as she felt her ribcage snap. "Put me down!"

Yang relented and gently lowered Ruby to the ground, before releasing her hold on the girl, before smiling at her, something that Ruby returned.

"So, is that it?" Both looked towards the direction of Weiss voice, to see her, Blake as well as JNPR approaching them. "Is he really dead?"

Eight pairs of eyes looks to the body and head, which did nothing but bleed.

"Guess he really lost his head there in the end, huh?"

Blake sharply jabbed a elbow into Yang's side.

"So, if he's really dead now, what now?" Jaune asked, cautiously looking away from the body and head.

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asked, curiously. "Our primary objective was to defeat Baku, and we've done that."

"No, I mean, what about after that? We're still trapped in the dream."

A heavy silence fell over the group.

"Ah shoot," Ruby mumbled, kicking at the group. "Baku said that he'd let us out, not that he was telling the truth, but it was better than nothing I guess." Her shoulders slumped. "And then I went and cut off his head."

"How do you wake up from a dream, from inside a dream?" Ren said, scratching his chin. "Ow!" He then suddenly flinched, and grabbed at his arm before looking to Nora, who have him a sheepish grin. "Pinching doesn't work Nora."

"There's got to be something we can do." Ruby began to pace around, looking across the void and darkness, trying to think of a way out of this. Scratching her head, she looked back to the others. "Maybe if we all fire our guns in the air, we can make enough noise to wake us up?"

"Do you honestly thing that would work?" Weiss asked skeptically, folding her arms over her chest.

"Not really. I mean, only six of us actually have guns, but we'd need to produce a lot of nose and-"

A loud, twisted roar filled the air, shocking the group, causing them to turn to where Baku's bits rested.

Two thick streams of black blood poured from the wounds on the body and head, each one reaching into the air, writhing around in an erratic frenzy, before the two ends headed right towards each other, connecting to one another. Suddenly the body twitched, and raised its arm and planting its hand against the ground and began to push itself up, while the head was lifted above the ground and hung listlessly before the stream of blood began to retract, pulling it back to the body, which had pulled itself to its feet. With a horrific wet squelch, the head reconnected to the body, though facing the wrong direction until a pair of hands reached up, grabbed the head and snapped it forward until it was looking straight forward.

Baku lowered her hands and cracked his head to the side, a loud snap accompanying the actions. Eyes burning, he glared right at the group. "We're not done yet, children, Ruby Rose," he said, growling. Thick black blood leaked from between his lips, and out from the wound in his neck.

"How the hell are you still alive?" Yang said, horrified. "Ruby cut off your freaking head! How does that happen?"

"Oh, don't get me wrong," Baku said, his breathe heavy. "This is an extremely taxing thing for me to do. I'm currently on Death's door right now, but I simply refuse to leave this world with the knowledge that you are still live." He raised his sword, and pointed the broken blade at them, small flames smoldering out on its length.

"Baku, stop it!" Ruby shouted, stepping in front of the group. "You can keep fighting if you want, but there's no way someone in your condition can fight, let alone eight of us. You lost, now let us go back to the real world now."

Baku gave a ragged cough, the blood sputtering from his mouth, between the sharpened teeth, landing on the front of the damaged robes he wore. He glared at them, directing gaze mostly at Ruby in particular. They all stood silently, ready to draw their weapons in case he decided to make one last desperate attack.

He gave a tired sigh and let his shoulders drop. "You're right, you win," he said, sounding tired and defeated. In his hand the sword crumbled away, then burning into nothing, and he lowered his arm. "I cannot defeat your or your friends, Ruby Rose, not like how I am now. I am simply too tired and injured to do anything that would result in my favor. I could continue to fight, but that would certainly result in my death, and if that doesn't happen first then my mental stamina to keep you in here would run out, Either way, you would all escape, and my physical body would be helpless, completely at your mercy, and I know see that that there is truly no way for me to claim victory over you. Congratulations, I bow down to you." Placing one arm at his back and the other at his front, Baku leaned forward, giving a gentlemanly bow.

The members of RWBY and JNPR look amongst each other, unsure what this meant for them exactly. Did this mean that he was going to release them now?

His head then shot up, a wide and dangerous grin over his face. "No, wait, I got another idea!" He then stood straight up and held out one hand, a gesture that put the group on alert, each one grabbing for the weapons to prepare for battle.

Instead of summoning a sword, or throwing out fire, Baku plunged the hand right through his chest.

A sickening crack filled the air as bones snapped and blood poured from the wound, and the limb moved around in the cavity, as if searching for something. "Got it," Baku said, pulling the arm out, a thick clump of something in his hand, a heart it seemed, connected to the inside of of his chest by arteries. Baku held his heart out in front of him, a vial trophy on display for them to see, still beating in his hand. The group had been so shocked by the act that any thoughts of acting against him were wiped from their minds, all they could do was stare at the still beating heart in his bloodied hands.

"Like I said, there was no way I could possibly win," Baku said,a grin on his face growing so wide that the side of his mouth were ripping. "If I cannot win, then I might as well make sure you don't either. Good night, Ruby Rose, it was a pleasant experience to meet you."

Ruby looked at the heart. "Baku, what are you do-"

The heart then exploded in a spray of thick black shreds of viscera and blood as Baku crushed his hand down around it.

A final laugh could be heard as Baku fell backwards, obviously dead, and dropped through the supposed floor. He descended quickly, falling into the void beneath them before his body was finally out of sight. The group stood, shocked at Baku's suicide, and wondered just what this meant for them now.

A deep rumbled shot through the void, coming from below, and a dark cloudy shape began to take form, a gap seeming to form in the nothingness, and suddenly they all dropped through where they stood and deep into the darkness. They all screamed and shouted, trying to gasp at any solid surface they could find, hoping to save themselves, and failing that, they tried to grasp at each other, but they were all too far apart to reach.

Ruby wildly waved her arms and legs in desperation, as the air rushed past her, and attempted to use hr cape as a parachute, though this was a vain attempt at best since it, at best, only managed to put her slightly above the others. She then looked down below her, and saw the cloudy vortex as saw that it was beginning to take another shape, forming what looked like a massive set of sharp jaws, ready to crush the, and while she didn't have a proper frame of reference to determine the size, she could tell it was massive, maybe one of the largest things she had ever seen in her life, and it terrified her to her very bones. The very realization that she was unable to do anything to save herself or the others did not help in the slightest. They were now so close that it was beginning to close its jaws, now able to swallow them all.

Something then caught her eye, something from above that shined, and Ruby looked up. Far above them was a purple glow, faded away in the distance, but a thin beam of light shot down from it, racing down towards them at an incredible speed. It struck Yang, who was then became surrounded in a magical glyph, and a similar glowing aura before she vanished entirely. Ruby had no time to react to the disappearance of her sister before more lights came down, hitting the others, one-by-one, taking each of them away from the darkness. She looked down and round her once more, just as the jaws were about to snap shut around her, before the light hit her too.

Everything faded away into a bright light.

000

Ruby's eyes open, bleary and aching, and she squinted against the darkness. She felt cold and tired, and turned her head, shifting it on the dirt and stone floor, trying to ignore the varying glowing lights that dotted the edge of her vision. Groaning, she tried to push herself up, only to collapse back onto her front.

A loud hiss reached her ears and she turned her head to look forward. What she saw were a pair of legs, dressed in black stockings and heels, turned away from her. In front of the legs she saw a shape, one burning away into the darkness, becoming less solid by the second, before it was all gone, leaving nothing behind.

"Guys..." she rasped, reaching forward. The legs turned around, and Ruby tried to look up, but she found this to be too much, and soon lost consciousness. As she fell into darkness, the last thing she ever saw was a tall figure with a bit of blonde at the top.

000

Mumbling to herself, Ruby shifted in her bed, in the nice warm and comfy sheets, burying her head further into the pillow. It smelled nice, like a field of flowers, or something nice like that. Blindly, she around the mattress, hands grasping at something that wasn't there, which she found disconcerting.

"Where's my puppy pillow?" she said, her words muffled by the pillow. "I want it."

"Ruby!" a voice suddenly called out.

"Agh!" Ruby screamed, jumping up and throwing herself off the bed, tangling herself in her sheets and hitting the floor hard. "Ow!"

"You dolt!" the voice said again, sounding more alarmed than angry.

"Weiss?" Ruby shot up, her head covered by the blankets. Fumbling, she tore the blanket off her head, ignoring the mess it made of her hair, and saw Weiss standing over the bed on the other side. She smiled and said, "Hey Weiss!"

"Don't you "Hey Weiss" me!" Weiss walked around to the other side of the bed just as Ruby stood herself up. "Don't you realize how worried we were all about you?"

"Huh?" The younger girl looked around the room, and she saw that she was not in the dorm. Instead, it was a larger, cleaner room, with about a dozen beds lining both walls. Though she had only been here once or twice during her time at Beacon, the room was recognizable enough for her to know that she was in on resting rooms in Beacon's medical wing. "Why am I here? Did I get hurt or something?" She loudly gasped in shock. "Oh my god! Did I get into an accident? Do I not remember it? Am I going to live!?"

"What? No! I mean Yes!" Weiss ave a frustrated sigh and brought a hand to her face. She breathed in and out several times, letting herself calm down while Ruby did the same thing. "Ruby," she said, softly, bringing her hand down. "Do you honestly not remember?"

"Um..." Ruby thought back to, well, whenever, or at least a time that would cause Weiss concern, but nothing really came to mind. Well, except the dream. "Oh! I had a cool dream. I dreamed that I was fighting an evil elephant, and he he kidnapped you and Blake and Yang an-"

"Ruby," Weiss said firmly and Ruby snapped shut. "That wasn't a dream, technically speaking, but it was real. Baku trapped us in our dreams, but we made it out. All of us."

"It was real?" Ruby asked, now distant, trying to process the information. "Y-You mean everything? Like the doors, and the Dreamgaurds and all those other things?"

Weiss nodded. "Yes."

"Even Baku?"

Another nod.

Ruby sat herself down on her bed and took a deep breath. "If we beat Baku, then what happened?"

Weiss took a seat next to her leader. "Goodwitch found us passed out in the cave. She was the one too-"

"Ruby!"

The girl instantly ducked to the floor to avoid the tackle-hug from her sister as she leaped over the bed, only to crash into the next as she missed her sister.

"What is wrong with you?" Weiss hissed, standing up to chastise Yang as she pushed herself to her feet. "You're sister has only just woken up from a coma, and the first thing you do is try tackle her?"

Yang rolled her eyes.

"It wasn't a coma Weiss, she was just sleeping." The three girls turned around as Blake entered the room. "She was just asleep, and considering what she did in the dream, I'm not surprised."

"I was still asleep?" Ruby said, running a hand through her hair. "What happened exactly? And where is Jaune and the others."

"Oh, don't worry about them, they're getting something to eat in the cafeteria," Yang said, bouncing up to her sister. "Blake and I were just down there to eat dinner."

"Dinner?" Ruby looked up and out the window to see the night sky. "How long was I out?"

"All day," Blake answered. "Goodwitch found us in the cave around ten minutes after Baku got to you, she said that she saw you running through the woods after you left to wash your cape. She followed you to make sure you were staying out of trouble, but ended up finding us asleep, so she killed him when she realized what what happened to us. She arranged for us to be brought back to Beacon, and throughout the day we all managed to wake up, though you stayed asleep longer than any of us." She then reached out and held out two brown paper bags. "Yang and I were going to wait and see if you woke up, but Weiss insisted that we eat something, so we brought something back."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "Is it tuna?"

Blake placed the bags down at the end of the bed. "It's great to see that you're awake, we were all worried about you."

"That wasn't a "no"."

"Oh hush you two," Yang said, wrapping one arm around Ruby's shoulder's while using the other to reach for the bagged dinners. "Ruby hasn't eaten anything since breakfast, so let her have a moment to herself and enjoy her dinner." She then looked to Weiss. "Same goes for you, you're already stick-thin."

Weiss huffed and folded her arms over her chest. "For the last time, I'm not-" An annoyed sigh escaped her lips, seeing the fruitlessness of trying to argue with the blonde, so she decided to change the subject. "Anyway, don't you remember? We were told that once Ruby woke up, both us and Team JNPR were to go to Ozpin's office, we're supposed to give him reports now what we experienced."

Taking a deep breath, Ruby took one of the bags from Yang and opened it up, reaching inside for the sandwich inside. "Really? Well, okay, but let's just eat first, please? And then we'll all go there together, alright?"

Reluctantly, Weiss agreed, and then took the bag offered to her. Blake then step away momentarily and used her scroll to call Jaune, to inform him and his team about Ruby's current state. Yang then went to find a nurse, to let Ozpin know the same thing.

Ruby on the other hand, chewed her food in silence, thinking about what she would say.

000

Roughly thirty minutes later, Ruby had finished eating, Team JNPR had come to join them, and the eight students stood in front of Ozpin in his office, Glynda Goodwitch by his side. Ruby stood off-center to the left of his desk, with Weiss, Blake and Yang to her left, while Jaune stood to her right, with Nora, Pyrrha and Ren going down the line. She had never been to his office before, but she had to admit that it was great; the view over Beacon Academy, the large gears turning overhead, constantly moving varying mechanisms in and out of place, the lower rumbling and clanking of the gears as the mashed against one another, a perfect machine working the way it should, everything moving as it should. The whole thing reminded her of the more complex weapons, like Crescent Rose.

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, and Ruby wondered how late at night he drank it, before putting it down on his desk. He leaned forward, resting his chin on his folded hands. "An End Beast," he said simply, his eyes scanning the two groups. "It's name was Baku, correct?"

"Yes sir," Ruby answered. Before coming here, it was agreed between all of them that she should be the one to answer any question not directed at anyone in particular, since she was the one who had the most experience during the entire escapade.

"Fascinating," Ozpin said, curiously. "You honestly don't see an End Beast around too often. They're far too rare and dangerous to just run into, in fact, most people go their whole lives without ever seeing one, let alone surviving one."

"He said he was weak, sir," Ruby said. "He said that he was coming off of a long nap and wasn't as strong as he could be."

"Then perhaps you should be thankful," Ozpin said. "While I am no expert on such creatures, you would have to refer to Professor Port on this, I do know that something like a Baku should have easily overwhelmed you. Catching it the end of a hibernation cycle was perhaps what allowed you to have any chance of defeating it in the first place. Nonetheless, that does not lessen your actions today; that you eight, a group of freshman Huntsmen and Huntresses, were able to defeat one of the more powerful classes of Grimm. That is certainly an accomplishment if I'd ever seen one." His eyes slid over to Ruby. "You in particular, Miss Rose. From what I heard, you mostly carried the others here for a good portion of your journey, an impressive feat."

"Oh, thank you sir." Ruby found herself slightly grinning at the praise. "But, we all had something to do with beating Baku. Honestly, I don't think thing would have worked out so well if if we hadn't all worked together."

"Duly noted." Ozpin leaned back in his seat. "To tell the truth, while I do wish to know more about what happened, I must admit that it is getting late in the evening, so I let you all off for the night. I will however call you all back tomorrow for a more proper briefing." A series of relieved sighs came from the eight students. "I also think for having gone through this whole ordeal, I do no think it's not unreasonable to give you a the next few days off from classes." Half the group then cheered at this piece of news, only to be shushed by their respective partners. "That will be all for the night, you can retire back to your dorms for the night and we'll continue these discussions after lunch tomorrow."

The student then left, several of them biding their goodbyes to the headmaster and his assistance before leaving the office, shutting the door behind them. Ozpin reached forward, grabbed his coffee, and took a long sip of the hot drink inside.

Glynda let him finish his drink before she spoke. "Sir, if I may-"

"If you are going to complain about a few days off, Glynda, must I remind you that the usual commission of killing an End Beast is enough to pay for a large mansion." The man spun in his chair to face the woman. "Considering today's economy, that's saying a lot."

Glynda's response was to sigh and roll her eyes. "No sir, about where the End Beast was found; Everything you ordered is ready to go."

"That's good, Glynda, excellent as always," he said, grabbing his cane and standing up from his chair. Turning around me began to make his way towards the giant window that faced Vale in the distance, and Glynda followed behind him.

She flicked a screen across the scroll in her hand, lighting the device to life, information spreading across the screen. "Tomorrow Professor Port will, as well as several other Grimm experts and veteran Huntsmen and Huntresses, will make their way to the reservation to see if there are any more End Beasts located in the area. We have full support of the reservation's owners, and they've agreed to shut it down until we can confirm that nothing that powerful is there."

"I don't think they'll find anything," Ozpin said, coming to a stop at the window, looking out of it. "End Beast are incredibly rare, as well as territorial, so chances are that the one Baku they fought is the only one in the area. However, it always pays to be careful in situations like this."

"Of course sir." Glynda nodded her head and pressed at the screen of her scroll, popping up several more boxes of text. "We cannot hope things will work out that easily, we cannot rely on the same luck they did, that anything else will be in a weakened state." Shaking her head, she gave a heavy sigh. "How they survive is beyond me, by all rights they should not have woken up at all, but-"

"But they did, Glynda," Ozpin interrupted. "We must be thankful that they survived, yes, but I'm certain that it was more than that."

"Hm?" Glynda lowered her scroll, raising an eyebrow.

"It's as I always say Glynda, sometimes the key to the most important victories, is a pure soul, no matter how small. If today's events have proven anything, it is that."

He looked down through the window, down to courtyard below. At this time at night, past curfew, the only people out were the odd staff members as the custodians as they began their rounds for the night, they were joined by a group of students, coming out of the tower that held his office. Ozpin found himself looking to the red figure as they walked back to the student dormitories.

000

Ruby loudly yawned and slumped forward as they walked down the hall to their room. Clearly all the sleeping she'd done today had helped in no way.

"Well, here we are," Yang said, stopping between two opposing doors. "Home sweet home."

"Finally," Ruby moaned, reaching into her skirt pocket and pulling out her scroll to wave it in front of electronic lock. With the door now unlocked, she turned the handle and pushed it open, letting her teammates go in before her. Instead of going through herself, she turned around to JNPR's side of the hall to see them entering their room as well. Nora already appeared to be dozing off, using Ren as a support to help her walk into the room, while Ren himself didn't seem to complain, used to the fact Nora didn't bother with physical boundaries with him. Pyrhha raised a hand to her mouth and stifled a rather loud yawn, when it was finished she looked back and gave an embarrassed smile before ducking back into the room, leaving her and Jaune alone in the hall.

"Well, it was certainly a weird day, huh?" Jaune asked, leaning against his dorm's door-frame.

"Yeah, like really weird," Ruby replied in kind.

"So, does this mean that we like owe you our lives?"

"What?" Ruby sputtered. "Of course not! No one owes me anything, I know you all would have done the same thing if you guys got out first."

Jaune replied with a quick laugh. "Yeah right. Knowing me, I would have tripped into the first door." They both laughed at this. "No, but really, you saved us all, that means a lot."

"Like I said, it was nothing," Ruby replied, kicking at the ground she was now looking at.

"Yeah but-" He sighed. "Good night, Ruby, see you tomorrow." Jaune turned around and entered the threshold of his room.

"Night, Jaune." Ruby waved as the JNPR door shut closed. With nothing left for her in the hallway, she entered her own room. Upon shutting her own door, she was assaulted by Yang, who pelted with with her nightly, and sloppy, goodnight kisses. Ruby tried to defend herself by shoving her fist into her sister's face, all while Weiss yelled at them to be quiet. Blake's response to this, as usual, was to shut off the lights.

Ten minutes later, after everyone had attended their to their nightly routines and changing into the pajamas, the girls each fell into their own beds, and with the only light in the room the moonlight shining through the window, they were all asleep. Except for Ruby that it.

The younger leader laid down on her back, underneath the covers, hands folded across her stomach as she she stared at the ceiling. All around her were the darkness and silence of the night; owls and crickets outside the window, which had the moon streaming through it, with the occasional rustling of sheets and weak mummers from the inside. Unable to sleep, Ruby turned to her side, the bed swaying slightly as she did so, the ropes creaking, though it was never enough to really worry her, despite all of Weiss' complaints, and looked to the bunk across the room.

Yang snored quietly, her arms and legs sprawled out around her, laying on her hair like a large golden blanket. She slept without her sheets covering her body, leaving them made on the mattress, a habit she had formed when her semblance first began to develop. She'd often complain about it being too warm to sleep underneath the covers.

Looking down, she Blake curled under her own blankets, drawn up to her shoulders. The side of her face had been buried into the pillow, with a hardcover book right next to it, usually in case she woke up at some point and decided to read. On top of her head, the two cat ears would occasionally flicker, a likely response to whatever dream she was having.

Turning herself upside down, she then finally looked under her bunk to Weiss. She had wrapped her blankets tightly around herself, leaving only her head open to the air, and her unbound hair to pour out onto the sheets behind her. It was odd seeing her like this, her looking so peaceful and serene, with any sort of scowl on her face. It made her look nice.

Breathing deeply, Ruby rolled onto her back and looked back up to the ceiling, stifling a yawn as she did so and pressing the heel of palm to her tired eyes. Reaching over to the other side of her bed she grabbed the corgi pillow and held it above her head for a moment, simply observing the simple and cute pillow, before clutching it tightly to her chest. Reaching up she then pulled down the sleeping mask on her forehead down so that it was covering her eyes, leaving her in darkness, no light sources able to penetrate the soft material. Rolling over to her side, she hugged the corgi with one arm even tighter, before wedging the other one beneath the pillow underneath her head before burying her head further into the casing filled with soft and fluffy down.

Minutes later, she was asleep, and this time, thankfully, there were no bad dreams.

000

THE END

000

Please be well,

Mrfipp