A/N: Sorry for the huuuuuuuuuuuuge gap between chapters, I always get writer's block at the beginning of a new year and even though I still have a few chapters ahead of this written, I don't wanna post when I can't keep writing ahead.

Anyway, gonna try to get back into the swing of things, hopefully this doesn't format weird (actually, I hope it's the correct chapter entirely...) because I don't wanna proofread it. I figured if I didn't go ahead and post this now I never would, I need to get my muse for this story back before I can keep writing ahead though. There's a character that appears in a few chapters that was reeeeeally hard to write, so they're partly what's causing trouble.

I'm also trying to get back into the Coco/Fox series, for those of you interested in that. Gaah, so many fics to write and catch up on!

Jolting awake, Jaune looked around the dark room. It took him a moment to recognize the familiar dorm he shared with the rest of his team, but when he did he relaxed slightly.

Somehow he knew he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so instead he quietly got up and crept out of the room. He didn't notice the bright magenta eyes that snapped open at the sound of movement in the room as he did so.

Out in the hall, Jaune stretched and yawned, debating for a moment where he could go until he felt tired again. It couldn't be later than three in the morning, so he knew no one else would be up, especially no one on team RWBY. Blake and Weiss were finally sleeping well again after weeks of restless nightmares, so they wouldn't hesitate to murder him if he woke them up, and Yang was practically a zombie. Jaune wondered if she'd been getting any sleep at all. Their leader was, of course, still in the infirmary.

The sound of the door behind him slowly creaking open caught the blonde's attention, and he turned to investigate. Ren had followed the leader out and was now shutting the door behind himself, looking curiously over at Jaune. "Can't sleep?"

"Ah, I had a weird dream." Jaune said, waving him off.

Ren's eyes flashed, betraying his sudden interest. "What sort of dream?"

"Uh… It was in this weird dungeon looking place, I think? And Ruby was there." The blonde paused to think for a moment. "No, wait, there were two of her, one was really creepy and kept giggling."

"What did you do?"

Jaune blinked, unnerved by how Ren was quizzing him. It was just a dream, right? "The creepy Ruby attacked normal Ruby, and I stopped her. I think I grabbed the weapon she had? I think it was mine… And then we got flung somewhere entirely different and she got mad at me, then I woke up."

The other male was nodding, seeming satisfied. He fixed a pointed stare on his leader as he spoke again. "You did well." His words felt like they had more meaning than he was letting on. Before Jaune could ask about it, Ren was already vanishing back into JNPR's dorm room, leaving the leader alone in the hallway to wonder what his teammate meant.

Lighting a new candle, Ruby stared at the door in front of her. Just like way back on the completely silent floor, she had a bad feeling about this one. It was quiet, though not deafeningly silent, but there was definitely something on this floor that was giving her chills. Come to think of it, wasn't there someone with me on that really quiet floor..? She shook her head. I'll try to remember that later, for now I need to focus on what's in front of me.

She pushed the door open, glancing down the left side of the hall as she cautiously stepped out. Seeing nothing there, she let the door fall closed as she turned to the right.

And then she found herself face to face with Yang. She froze as she noticed the one red eye staring down at her, the other still covered by the bandage on the blonde's head. Then Yang's enraged scream tore through the air as she moved to attack Ruby, and the shorter girl dashed down the hall and away from her sister.

Ruby wasn't sure if her leg just slowed her down that much or if Yang had gotten faster, but either way, the blonde was gaining on her. She had a feeling Yang really was just faster now, but her leg definitely wasn't helping. Before she even reached the end of the hall it was burning in pain, and she was pretty sure it was bleeding again. She was sure she'd collapse any minute if something didn't happen soon to help her get away.

At the end of the hall, Ruby took a sharp turn to the right that made her nearly lose her balance, and her leg burned in protest as she fought to stay on her feet. That didn't last long, though, because suddenly there was a dark shape in front of her and she ran right into it, bouncing off and falling to the ground.

"Oh, hello Ruby." Looking up, Ruby found a pair of light brown eyes watching her with vague surprise, the person's messy grey hair shining slightly in her candlelight.

"Professor Ozpin?!"

"Hello." He waved, repeating his previous greeting with a slightly amused tone.

"Wait, where's Yang?" Ruby was going to ask what he was doing there, but instead found herself staring back into the dark hall behind her in panic.

"Your sister? I don't see her."

"She was chasing me! And it was scary. And she has my scythe!" Ruby turned to look back up at Beacon's headmaster.

"Ruby, are you sure you're not just imagining things? Yang would never try to hurt you, and on top of that, she isn't a scythe wielder. Why would she have your weapon?" Ruby just stared at him, mouth agape.

"Uh, professor? Have you seen where we are?"

"Yes, looks like a dark hallway to me. One that is very lacking in scythe-wielding scary Yang monsters." Came his teasing answer, and she just blinked. He's totally relaxed. Shouldn't he be saying stuff like, 'we should get out of here before she comes back' or something? Ozpin held out a hand. "Come on, the floor doesn't look very comfortable."

With another confused look, Ruby warily took the offered hand, and he pulled her to her feet. She looked behind her again, wondering where Yang went. The rampaging blonde had just vanished. "So why are you here?" She asked, turning back to Ozpin.

He held up the mug that Ruby swore had to be glued to his hand. "Coffee run."

"… What."

"I went to get coffee." He explained, leaving the girl even more confused. There's no coffee down here. "Look, why don't you accompany me to a room with a bit more light? Then we can talk about Yang, and you can get your scythe back."

Ruby gave him another long stare, scanning his face for deception, but he seemed sincere. Finally, she nodded uncertainly, and he turned to lead the way down the hall. As she followed him through the darkness, Ruby noticed the magenta lotus on her belt was glowing angrily, like Jaune's had before. Is Ren trying to get to me? Wait, wasn't there something important Ren told me..? Her memory was still extremely fuzzy, though, and she couldn't remember what Ren had said to her before, no matter how hard she tried. Shrugging as the symbol stopped glowing, Ruby continued to follow the green clad professor down the hall.