The girl opened her eyes and stretched like a dog. Which was appropriate considering how much she looked like a werewolf made out of bones.

"I didn't think you would wake up." The man was tall, with scruffy long hair.

The girl sprung awake at that. "Starrk!" she said, tackling the man into a hug.

"Hey don't forget about me!" a second, short girl with a bony helmet said.

"Lilynette!" the girl said, adding the new girl to the hug. "I didn't expect to see you guys again!"

"Make that both of us," Starrk replied. "You realize you fell asleep for... I don't know how long, it had to have been something like 3 years."

"But that can't be right," said the girl, tilting her head, "It's only been... I don't remember how long it's been, but it hasn't been 3 years!"

"Do you remember anything?" Lilynette huffed. "Or do you still not remember your name."

"Oh no, I remember now! It's," the girl paused. She was sure she knew it, it was on the tip of her tongue... aha! "Xiao Long! Like my older sister! It's... Ruby Xiao Long!" though even as the words left her mouth, she felt confused by them. Why would her last name feel wrong...? Ah well, it's not all that important anyway.

"You have a sister?" Lilynette replied back. "What's she like?"

"Oh she's great, she..." Ruby had to pause. What was her sister like? It's so hard to remember here, like all the memories are fuzzy. "She's two years older than me! And she's learning how to fight monsters!"

Starrk gave Ruby a calculating look. "You know, I'm surprised to see you again. Most hollows simply die in my presence. The stronger ones will last an hour before my reiatsu kills them. But you just, didn't. How did you do that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Ruby said sheepishly. "I don't even know what hollows and reiatsu is."

"Idiot," Lilynette muttered. "How can you be here and not know that?"

"I don't know." Ruby said. "I just wake up here sometimes, I don't know how things work."

"Hollows are ghosts!" Lilynette replied. "Souls of the dead bent on consuming the living to survive!"

"Oh, that sounds scary," Ruby said, leaning her back against a rock as she struggled to keep her eyes open. "Could you do me a favor and wake me up if you see one?"

"Oh no, you're not going back to sleep that easily!" Lilynette shouted, shaking Ruby back and forth. "We waited 3 years for you to wake up, 3 years! You're not falling asleep on us again!"

But the words were lost on Ruby as she softly snored her response. Lilynette dropped the girl's body to the ground, crossing her arms. "Well, this was a huge waste of time."

"I'm keeping her," Starrk replies simply, lifting Ruby onto her back.

"What? Why?"

With a bored glaze in Lilynette's direction, Starrk replied, "No one else lives long enough to talk to."

"Well, you're carrying her then," Lilynette huffed back.

With a light chuckle, Starrk simply says, "I suppose I am."

vvvvvv

With Captain Tosen to his left and Captain Tsubokura to his right, Aizen was optimistic about his latest aquisition. A Hollow so powerful that it's spiritual pressure alone would kill any who ventured into his desert. Not even Aizen was immune to the raw power sparking through the air as he approached the... trio? No, duo, the girl and the man have the same reiatsu. Interesting.

"Excuse me!" The werewolf of the 3 shouted their way with the voice of a teenage girl. That voice did not go with that body, although the fact that she was even alive so close to the target arrancar merited her some consideration. Pretty fast too, Aizen wasn't sure even he could keep up with this... hollow? No, around the eyes the mask is chipped off, arrancar. "It's great to see someone out here, but you should turn back before Starrk's reiatsu kills you. He can't hold it back very well."

"Ah, but that's why I'm here," Aizen responded. "As both a scholar and a shinigami captain, I believe my organization could be exactly what you need."

"Can your organization stop my spiritual pressure from leaking out," Starrk asked blandly.

"Of course," Aizen replied, appraising the 3. He had no idea if Octava could but solving these kinds of problems and developing his next generation of arrancar was the man's job, and Aizen expected that he would deliver. Aizen used the pause he created to quickly assess the situation, why would this hollow split his soul in two and want to lessen his spiritual power? And with that, the answer became obvious to the man, as he said, "I would not be here if I could not fix your problem. You will never have to be lonely again."

"Do you really believe these people," Lilynette asked, "They'd hardly be the first to claim they could handle you."

"Hey, we found Ruby," Starrk replied back.

"And she still spends 23 hours a day asleep!"

Holding Lilynette down with a pat on the shoulder, Starrk replied, "Me any Lilynette here would be glad to take you up on your offer. What about you Ruby?"

"Definitely! I always wanted to see some of these other arrancar you keep mentioning!"

Aizen chuckled, "I shouldn't be surprised to see you've made a friend out here. Someone had to be able to survive you after all these years."

"Don't you mean two friends? Me and Lilynette?" Ruby asked.

Aizen gave the three of them a calculating look, quickly analyzing the dynamics. So he hasn't told this wolf arrancar that he and Lilynette are the same? Well, spoiling Starrk's fun wouldn't help his recruitment whatsoever, so Aizen simply said, "Excuse me, I misspoke." Let Starrk explain himself to the girl on his own terms.

He was never going to get used to hearing a teenage girl's voice coming out of a 6 foot tall skeletal werewolf.

vvvvvv

Alright, all the Beowulves were dead. It could have gone better, Weiss admitted, but at least her and her new... partner are both alive. She turns to face her partner and "Oh my god what are you doing!"

"Eating," Ruby shrugged, the black and red guts of the Grimm dribbling down her face, making Weiss nausious.

"What? Why?" Weiss demanded. "Why would you eat them?"

"Because they taste good. You should try some," Ruby answered back.

"Ew, no, put that down right now!" Weiss demanded.

"Sorry Weiss, but I need to keep up my strength. I haven't eaten in a few days."

"What, but, how?" Weiss sputtered.

"I mean hollow. There hasn't been much hollow to go around. Gotta make do with what you got."

Weiss raised her hand to speak, but then paused, took a deep breath, and decided to try again. "So you're saying... you have to eat 'hollows'... or else you get hungry for Grimm? What does that even mean?"

"Right, you wouldn't know, Hollows are the angry ghosts of dead people. Don't worry, they don't appear on Remnant."

"Nothing you're saying is making any sense!" Weiss shouted. Throwing up her arms, she added, "Look, I'm just going to go over there and look at that tree. And cover my ears. And pretend the sounds are not you eating raw Grimm. Just, do your thing, quickly, ok?"

"Alright Weiss, I'll be done in a minute!" Ruby said.

Weiss pointedly stared at that tree with her ears covered and most certainly did not hear the crushing bones and tearing meat of quickly dissolving Grimm behind her. That is definitely not what that sound was. And when Ruby came back 5 minutes later without so much as a whiff of Grimm on her cloak, the offending viscera having completely dissolved, Weiss glared.

"It's really not a big deal, now come on, those relics won't find themselves!" Ruby said, rushing ahead deeper into the forest.

Weiss really wished she went with Jaune instead.

vvvvvv

As the newly minted team RWBY left their dorm room to head to dinner, Weiss held Yang back, telling the others, "We'll catch up with you in a minute."

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked. "If it's something important, I'm sure we can work through it as a team."

"No, no, it's not that, this is just between me and Yang." Weiss replied.

Ruby stared at Weiss for a moment, before slowly nodding in comprehension. "Alright, but before you get your hopes up my sister is straight," Ruby says, bursting in a fit of her semblance.

Well, that made it awkward. Yang was laughing like a madwoman as Weiss found herself sputtering for a response. Blake was hardly immune herself, getting red as a tomato before chasing after Ruby.

"So ice queen, you heard my sister-" Yang began, before Weiss interrupted her.

"No!" Weiss huffed indignantly. Time to take control of this conversation before Yang turned this into a festival of innuendo. "No, it's about your sister's dietary habits."

"Hm? You don't think she's eating right?" Yang asked.

"I saw her eating the Grimm we killed."

Yang gave Weiss a questioning look. She was Ruby's sister, shouldn't she know how to deal with this?

Yang replied back, "Is that... a joke? I don't really get it."

"No! No, I mean we killed some beowulves, and then before the corpses dissolved she started stuffing them in her mouth, saying she hadn't eaten these hollow 'things' in a few days! It was scary and disgusting and I want to know what that was about!"

Yang's expression slowly turned to a glare as she responded, "My sister wouldn't do that. Sure she has some weird dreams but she wouldn't do that."

"Well, she did," Weiss said. This was harder than she was expecting, she was sure Yang would have known all this seeing as she lived with Ruby, but Weiss supposed that was too much to ask for.

"Stop lying! My sister wouldn't eat Grimm!" Yang snapped.

"Why would I lie?" Weiss snapped back. "Why would I make up a story about my partner snapping the bones and nashing the flesh of the Grimm while I waited by the side, pretending I couldn't hear it?"

Yang continued to glare, before slumping into a defeated look. "Ruby... has been having weird dreams. Dreams about these things she calls hollows, vengeful hunter ghosts or something. She has mentioned that she needs to eat their corpses in the dreams. I've known about it since forever, but I was hoping it was just weird dream stuff. Sometimes it bleeds into what she does in reality, but... this is the first time I've heard of her eating Grimm."

"So you had no idea..." Weiss said.

"We haven't been pressing her to talk about the dream stuff," Yang explained, still slumping. "The opposite, if anything. She doesn't really talk about vengeful dream ghosts, and we don't press her on them. Me and dad, we figured it would be better for her to keep quiet about all that stuff, it would help her grow up normally."

"I imagine my father would do the same," Weiss said. Well, her father would make his disapproval very obvious, after which Weiss wouldn't speak a word out of line from what her father believed to be proper for a young lady again, but it was almost the same.

"Don't worry, I'll have a word with Ruby, she won't do that again," Yang said, leading Weiss out of the room. "Now come on, it's been a long day and I'm sure we're both starving."

vvvvvv

With a yawn, Ruby opened her eyes. Huh. This was a nice room, weird she didn't recognize it. Oh, but Starrk and Lilynette are here. "Hi Starrk! Hi Lilynette"

"It's about time you woke up, you were out for a week," Lilynette huffed, kicking Starrk out of his nap.

"Sorry!" Ruby said, "I guess I was really tired." She then gave herself a look-over. "Hey, I'm not a beowulf anymore!"

"Nope," Starrk said. "And I don't have to worry about killing people by getting to close to them."

"That's great! Hi five!" Ruby said, raising her arm. "Does that mean now we'll get to meet new people soon?"

Starrk slowly held his own arm up, letting Ruby slap his hand. Just another weird thing about his friend, none of the other arrancar he met so far did it, so he wondered if it was something unique to Ruby. "Yes, yes it does. Aizen actually recruited me to work with his team. I'm filling the role of Primera Espada on a ten man team."

"That means Starrk's number one," Lilynette bragged. "None of the other arrancar could so much as touch him. Like I'd expect anything less."

"That sounds so cool! Can I join too!"

"You can be one of my fraccions. They're arrancar who are friends and subordinates of each of the ten espada."

"Neat," Ruby said, rushing over to the one mirror in the room in a burst of speed. It was weird, seeing herself here in Hueco Mundo for the first time, and she looked like a girl! A girl wearing the skull of a beowulf, but, she actually looked human now.

"Don't you have any questions or anything?" Lilynette asked. "I mean, waking up in a strange room, losing almost all your hallow traits, who is in our new team... Anything?"

"Not really. I figure if it's important I'll find out eventually."

Lilynette shook her head. "None of this seems strange to you? You have no questions at all, you airheaded narcoleptic?"

"Oh, right, just one thing," Ruby said, rushing from the mirror to face Lilynette. "Do you know where there's some food in this place?"

"That's it?" Lilynette shouted, her irritation completely ignored by Starrk and Ruby "That's the only thing bothering you about any of this?"

"Well, you see, I ended up eating in front of my new partner, and it really disturbed her, so I don't want to do that again."

Lilynette sighed. "Ruby, that was a dream. Again."

"But it tasted so good! And W... W..., the girl I was with felt so real!"

"What did she look like?" Lilynette said. "What did she act like? Was she short? Tall? thin? fat?"

Ruby gave Lilynette a glazed over look as she wandered into her own memories. She remembered the girl was... scary? And explosive. Like, the girl was an explosion? It was all too fuzy for her, but she was sure she had a new partner...

Lilynette looked Ruby, then growled, "Come on, lets get you some grub and meet the others. Better that then go through all your memory nonsense."

Starrk shouted to Lilynette, "Pick me something up too, I'm going back to sleep."

"Get it yourself you lazy piece of crap!" Lily returned, dragging Ruby off.

vvvvvv

The two girls went down some stairs and went through an insanely tall doorway into a hallway the size of a stadium, with 5 doorways on each wall.

"Woah, big," Ruby said.

"Each of these doors belongs to an Espada. We're the last one on the right. At our end is where Aizen lives and where Starrk meets with the Espada, at the other end is the infirmary, the food stocks, barracks for low ranking arrancar and hollows, that kind of thing."

"Wait, hollows, as in evil ghosts?"

"Yeah, Ruby, hollows," Lilynette answered.

"Huh," Ruby said, images of Grimm and hollows served up like a pork roast filling her mind. "I guess we won't have to go out for food then!"

"No, no, the hollows are on our side," Lilynette said. "Well, most of them are. There are a couple in the dungeon they keep around for eating."

"Cool." Ruby said. "But how do they keep the hollows under control? Is it Aizen's semblance?"

"Aparently they just listen when you talk to them," Lilynette shrugged.

"Weird," Ruby added, picturing a beowulf with a monicle and a tophat sipping tea and debating politics with a strong mistalean accent. At least, until Lilynette snapped her out of her daydream with a light slap on the back. Well, backbreaking slap on the back to pretty much anyone else, but it was pretty light for Lilynette.

"You know, they don't have a name for those semblances you keep talking about. A lot of them have superpowers, but they haven't come up with a name for arrancar superpowers?" Lilynette added. She's heard them referred to as hollow abilities, special abilities, superpowers, and a couple weirder ones, although the most common was Resurrección abiliti-hey wait a minute. "Ruby, we forgot your scythe."

"No, no, that's back at Beacon."

"No, not that dream stuff, when Aizen made you look human, he gave you a scythe. You need that. It lets you go back to werewolf again. It lets you be super powerful," Lilynette explained.

"Oh," Ruby shrugged. "Neat."

"Yeah, so don't forget it. None of the arrancar around here go anywhere without their weapon."

"Kind of like Beacon!"

"I don't know what that is," Lilynette said.

"I'll have to take you there someday," Ruby replied.

Repeating herself for the hundredth time, Lilynette grumbled back, "Ruby, that's dream stuff again."

At least Ruby had the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry," the girl said. With a blink of an eye she was gone, and about 2 seconds later, she was standing right where she was before, her scythe on her back. "Are we good now?"

Lilynette could never quite get used to that. She thought it was just Ruby's thing until the Septima arrancar Zommari started bragging about his sonido. She'd have to try it some time, it's supposed to be pretty easy for arrancar. When she wasn't already busy. Lilynette slapped herself across the forehead, then remembered to pretend she was exacerbated at Ruby and not her own distraction. "Yes! Lunch! We're doing that!" Lilynette said, leading Ruby down the stadium-hall.

vvvvvv

"This is it!" Lilynette said. In contrast with the other rooms of Hueco Mundo, this one had chairs and tables. And a couple people too.

"Hey chef, two legs of hollow!" Lilynette shouted.

The guy at the back, he looked mostly human except for the scissor-like hands and the pale, white mask, nodded once, before scurrying through the back door. Meanwhile, Lily dragged two chairs to the sole occupied table. "Ruby, this is Ulquiorra, the cuatro espada," she said, gesturing to the pale one with the small lizard grimm on his plate, "and Yammy, the diez espada," she continued, indicating the giant chomping down on 5 steaks. "Yammy, Ulquiorra, this is Ruby, from before Starrk and I joined up with Aizen."

"So you're the trash Lilynette keeps complaining about. Damn brat won't shut up about you sleeping all the time," Yammy said, earning a growl from Lilynette.

"Yeah," Ruby said, rubbing the back of her head. "It's going to be so fun working together. When do we get to hunt hollows?"

Yammy let out a guffaw, while Ulquiorra calmly replied, "We mostly defend this castle and oppose the soul reapers."

"Huh, I've never heard of soul reapers before," Ruby said.

"Soul reapers-" Ulquiorra and Lilynette both started, before Ulquiorra motioned for Lilynette to continue.

"Soul reapers are bad guys who kill arrancar. They live in soul society, where all the good ghosts go when they die. Aizen and his two fraccions were soul reapers until they rebeled against soul society, and now they lead us against the soul reapers!" Lilynette explained, giving Yammy a dirty look as he let out another chuckle.

"So Aizen's a hero of justice, defending the weak from the tyranny of the soul reapers, and we're his rebel forces. That is so cool!" Ruby said.

Yammy just looked at her for a second, before losing control of himself, slamming cracks into the table as he laughed too hard to breath. Meanwhile, Ulquiorra gave them his look of utter boredom, before simply responding, "I would not call us heroes of justice, although it may be a useful way for you to think about it."

Meanwhile, the chef came back with two cuts of meat that looked like the legs of a particularly sick cow, one for each of the girls. "Enjoy," the chef said, before scurring back to his spot.

There was not much conversation after that.

vvvvvv

As Ruby finished inhaling her leg-of-hollow, Hueco Mundo rumbled.

"That happens a lot, doesn't it," Lillynette said.

"Unfortunately," Ulquiorra replied, "Some of us find themselves unable to temper their base instincts."

"That's just the trash working out which of them is the least worthless," Yammy added. "It's pretty much inevitable when you bring this many hollows together with a leader that believes in letting the lower ranks sort out their own squabbles."

Another rumble shook the room, knocking over a table.

"Well I'm checking it out. See you guys later!" Ruby said, grabbing Lilynette.

"Wait wha-" Lilynette said, before the two popped out of existence.

"20 kan says it's Grimmjow," Yammy said.

Ulquiorra stared right back at Yammy, eyes half-lidded in bordom with a blunt, "I'm not betting when it's obvious."

vvvvvv

"-at?" Lilynette finished as she and Ruby popped into existence outside.

30 feet away, and no where near the safe range for a fight between the two arrancar involved, a panther man was attempting to claw through the 6 scythes of a 6-armed guy, only for his claws to be deflected by 4 of the blades while the other two went to decapitate the man.

Then both men jumped back, switching their battle stances to face Ruby and Lilynette.

"Are you two trying to die?" the panther man asked.

"That was awesome!" Ruby said, turning to 6-arms while unsheathing her scythe, showing off the blade. "Can I see your scythes? I'm a scythe user too! Oh, wait, introductions! I'm Ruby, this is Lilynette and your scythes are really awesome! What's your name? And what's your friend's name?"

Lily then bonked Ruby on the head, saying "Ruby, you can't just interrupt a fight like that."

"Oh, sorry guys, keep going," Ruby replied.

The two men shared a meaningful look, before the scythe guy replied, "Well since you asked, that's Grimmjow. Me, my name is Nnoitra Gilga. Remember that name, because," Nnoitra said, before both men vanished and reappeared in front of the pair "It's the last name you'll ever hear!" Then Grimmjow and Nnoitra struck at the same time, as Ruby grabbed Lilynette and vanished.

"That's really rude," Ruby said from behind the two.

"It's one of those honor and respect things guys are big on here," Lilynette explained. "A lot of the arrancar aren't as chill as Starrk, so disagreements tend to come to blows."

"That's kind of extreme though," Ruby said, "I mean, it looked like they were trying to kill us."

"They were," Lilynette said.

"I am the Sexta arrancar," Grimmjow said. "He is the Quinto arrancar. That means we're the number 5 and 6 soldiers in Aizens army, and that means as far as you're concerned, anything we say, goes."

"Wait, but I thought Aizen only had 10 people in his army to start with... so why are you guys being jerks when half of Aizen's army outranks you?" Ruby asked, to which Lilynette simply slapped herself on the forehead.

"Aizen has ten generals, Ruby, Not ten soldiers."

"Oh, so they each lead an army of like a thousand people, right?" Ruby asked, quickly being forced to dodge a scythe blow.

"No," Lilynette said, jumping backwards to avoid a claw swipe, "Just their fraccions, which they have about 5 of between them."

"Oh," Ruby said, holding Lilynette as she fled the dozens of slashes Nnoitra threw her way. "Well, their still being jerks about it!"

"K, on 3 you send us back to Starrk's room," Lilynette said as her left "eye", or more accurately the eye of her mask, began to glow.

"3, 2," Lilynette said between the mad dodges Ruby was making to avoid being struck by either the enraged berserkers. Then with a burst of light she blasted the ground with a laser wider than she was tall, exploding it into an enormous cloud of dust. "1! Go! Go!" she shouted, tapping Ruby's shoulder.

In an instant they were back with Starrk, Ruby's ears still ringing from the blast.

Starrk peaked his eyes open and asked, "So did you bring me any grub?" to which Lilynette replied with a pillow to Starrk's face.

vvvvvv

Ruby had a hole through her chest.

She only really noticed when she took her shower and water started flowing through it.

"Huh," Ruby said, appraising the hole one last time in the mirror. Went straight through where her heart should be and out the back.

Ruby knew it wasn't normal to have a hole through her chest in Remnant, but, well, half her friends had holes in their chests too. Didn't seem to bother them.

So with a shrug, Ruby dressed for the day and left the bathroom, immediately bumping into Yang.

"Hey, Ruby, before we meet the other girls at breakfast," Yang said, pausing. She was looking sheepish, which meant Ruby did something Yang thought was weird again, and Yang was looking for a polite way to say it.

"What did I do?" Ruby asked with a resigned sigh.

"Weiss told me about the Beowulves. During initiation," Yang said.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to keep fed, it won't happen again," Ruby replied.

Yang slumped her shoulders, "Don't eat Grimm. I don't care what happens in those dreams of yours or how hungry you get, Grimm can't be good for you. Understand?"

Ruby nodded. She understood well enough, Remnant was really picky about what qualified as food. "Yeah, I understand. Weiss was really freaked out."

Yang smiled a tired smile and with a pat on Ruby's back, said, "She sure was. Come on, let's go get breakfast."

vvvvvv

Professor Port gave Weiss a lot to think about. Sure, she might be more qualified to lead than Ruby, or at least less disturbing than the girl who eats Grimm, but she really wasn't being fair to Ruby. She decided she would at least give the dunce more of a chance then a single class session.

As Weiss walked in on Ruby getting ready for bed she froze.

There was a giant hole in Ruby's chest.

"Oh, hey Weiss, I was thinking about some of the stuff that happened in Port's class, and I'm really sorry for distracting you," Ruby said.

"There is a giant hole in your chest." Weiss said, for lack of a more coherent response than the obvious.

"That thing?" Ruby asked, pointing at the hole. "Yeah, it's new," she added as she put on her pajama shirt. "Anyway, I was thinking, maybe we could become study buddies, you know, so we know how to keep up with each other."

"How are you still standing?" Weiss asked, as Ruby climbed into her bed with a book on making friends and influencing people. "That thing is going straight through your spine!"

From her perch on her bunk, Ruby gave a casual shrug. She then laid down on her belly to read her book.

"We need to see a doctor, now!" Weiss said, turning more pale than usual.

"Nah, it's fine Weiss," Ruby said. "A lot of my friends have holes like this... It's weird, but it never seems to hurt... anybody..."

"Ruby, get up, we're going to the infirmary," Weiss said, shaking Ruby. But the girl was already fast asleep, face down into her book, and wouldn't wake up no matter how Weiss jostled her. "God damn it Ruby," Weiss added, flipping through her scroll, sending out texts to Yang and Blake as she put Beacon's emergency line on speaker.

"Beacon after-hours services, this is the emergency line, what is your emergency?"

"I need a stretcher in room 205!" Weiss shouted to the operator, before remembering her own voice. "I need a stretcher in room 205, I can't wake Ruby Rose and she has a huge hole through her chest."

"Sending someone over, please stay on the line. Is your current scroll the callback number?"

"Yes, yes, I'm fine, you can call this number back but please hurry!"

"Right away ma'am. Next question, is the person who attacked your teammate still in the area?"

"What?" Weiss said. "No, there's no attacker!"

"Then I'm going to assume the room is secure. Ma'am, I'm going to need you to find some cloth, like a bedsheet, and try to stop the bleeding."

Weiss stared at her scroll for a second, before adding, "But there's no blood! Just the hole!"

"How did Miss Rose get injured?"

"I don't know!" Weiss said, hyperventilating, as the door slammed open.

"What's wrong with Ruby!" Yang said, charging Ruby's bed.

"Ma'am, I'm having some trouble hearing you," the dispatcher said.

"Look, I need to hang up and explain things to Ruby's sister," Weiss explained.

"Ma'am, it's very important that you stay on the line, I need you to perform first aid on Miss Rose until the stretcher arrives. Now, I need you to confirm that Miss Rose isn't bleeding," the dispatcher replied back, Weiss already turning Ruby over and pulling down the front of Ruby's pajama top to examine the hole, making it visible to Yang. "Lay her on her side, but try not to move her more than necessary when doing so."

Yang stared in shock, before shouting, "Oh my god why is there a hole in Ruby! Weiss, what did you do!"

"I didn't do anything! She was like this when I came in!"

"We got to get her to the infirmary!"

"I know!" Weiss shouted back, gasping for breaths. The two girls were driving each other into panic, which wasn't good for anyone; Weiss knew she had to keep her head even if it did look like their team leader was dead.

The operator interrupted the two girls. "Ma'am, I need you to confirm that Ms. Rose is still breathing."

"Right, breathing!" Yang said, rushing to Ruby's side. "She's still breathing! That's good!"

At that moment two men carrying a stretcher came to the door. "Ladies, which of you is Ms. Rose?"

"She's the one on the bed!" Yang shouted, as Weiss finished her call.

"Excuse us," the first man said, motioning them to the hallway as he examined the girl. "You said that she had a hole in her chest?"

"Yeah, right under her top," Yang added.

The man pulled down on Ruby's top an inch an examined the hole for himself, before calling into the mike, "We have a DOA, alert headmaster Ozpin."

"No, she's alive, she's still breathing!" Yang shouted back.

The medic looked at Yang, then took Ruby's pulse. As he did so though Ruby let out a tiny snore, drawing all the man's attention. "Correction, we have... I don't know what we have, but alert Headmaster Ozpin anyway, and open up a unit for Ms. Rose in intensive care." Quickly transitioning Ruby to the stretcher, the man nodded to the two girls "We're taking Ms. Rose to the infirmary, going to run full diagnostics, try to make some sense of this. The two medics then rushed down the hallway with Ruby as the 4th member of the team rounded the corner.

Cone of ice cream in one hand, she saw the ashen faces of Yang and Weiss, the open door, and the stretcher, before her scroll chirped. With a quick glance, Blake was helpfully informed "RUBY HAS A HOLE IN HER CHEST GET HERE RIGHT NOW!"

None of them knew what to say, so the 3 of them stood there for an awkwardly long time, before Yang grabbed Weiss and Blake by the arms and started dragging them to Beacon's infirmary.

vvvvvv

Ozpin was not looking forward to speaking with Taiyang.

Ruby's father had more than enough tragedy for one life time after his wife's death, telling him his daughter is in a coma with a hole in place of her heart would break his heart.

At least she appeared physically healthy. None of the nerve damage he had expected after hearing parts of her spinal column were missing, plus a healthy pulse with average blood pressure that made no sense to Vale Medical's senior cardiac specialist, let alone the school doctor. If it wasn't for the coma Ruby would be a perfectly healthy 15 year old girl.

He should have made the call hours ago, when he asked Yang if he could be the one to break it to her father. He told himself he was waiting until the man woke up; no sense in waking the man over something neither of them could fix. Ozpin knew he was stalling, that he should just get on with it.

6:47. Ruby's been out for almost 9 hours. 9 hours of Yang watching over Ruby until the blonde passed out. 9 hours of staring at his scroll, reading over page 33 of Beacon's annual budget and not remembering any of it, 5 hours since the other two members of team RWBY had left, partially due to the doctor's insistence and his own polite suggestions. Yang remained in spite of both their assurances, and, not wanting the doctor to become a patient, Ozpin recommended letting the blonde stay.

Ozpin finally put down his coffee, and dialed Taiyang's number. He had the number saved of course, dialing it one digit at a time was just yet another attempt to stall this conversation as long as possible.

The other end of the line let out a huge yawn before replying "Xiao Long residence, Taiyang speaking."

"It's Ozpin." That's all a man like Ozpin really had to say to set the tone he was going for.

"What happened," Taiyang replied back, all traces of sleep gone from his voice.

Ozpin turned his back to the observation glass. Getting emotional wouldn't help, he just had to do this fast. Like ripping off a band-aid. "Your daughter, Ruby. We aren't sure of the details, but she has a hole in her chest and she's in a coma."

The silence at the other end of the line spoke volumes to Ozpin. Then the man replied with a curt, "How." It wasn't a question, it was a demand.

"We don't know," Ozpin replied back.

"Did someone attack her?"

"We don't know."

"Oz, this is my daughter," Taiyang said. "You have to give me something."

"She wasn't stabbed, shot, or hurt with any weapon I have ever seen. If she was attacked, it was with a semblance the likes of which has never before seen in Remnant. It's a cylindrical hole, the inside of which is black and smooth to the touch, that doesn't appear to affect her heart in any way while passing straight through where her heart should be. I'm sending you the pictures," Ozpin said with a couple taps of his scroll.

There was silence on the other end of the line. Ozpin wasn't surprised, it took him a few minutes to get used to the idea while watching it in person. If anyone other than Ozpin sent those files, Taiyang would have probably dismissed them as a mean-spirited joke.

But this was Ozpin.

"Tell me everything," Taiyang demanded.

Ozpin turned back to the observation window, taking a sip of his coffee. "One of her new teammates, Weiss Schnee, saw she had a hole in her when Ruby was getting ready for bed." Ozpin gave Ruby a wave with the hand holding his mug. "Over her teammate's objection she went to bed anyway," Ozpin said, mug to mouth, freezing mid-sip. He took another look at Ruby, who was currently being crushed by sisterly hugs and definitely not in a coma, and noticed that the front of his suit was now covered in lukewarm coffee.

"Oz?" Taiyang asked.

Right, he was still on the phone. "And it appears your daughter just woke up."

"Put her on," Taiyang demanded.

"Of course," Ozpin quickly walked by the window and into Ruby's room proper, then explained as he switched to speaker, "I was just on the phone with your father about your condition, Ruby."

"Yang, too much!" Ruby said, straining against the strength of older sister hugs. When Yang let go she took a few huge breaths of air, before asking, "What condition?"

Yang explained, "Rubes, you were unconscious for hours!"

"I was asleep!"

"None of us could wake you up!"

"Yeah, I can sleep pretty deeply..."

"You have a hole through your chest!"

"Tons of people have those..."

"Ruby!" Yang said. "This is serious! We thought you were dying!"

Ruby looked at her lap, before saying, "Alright, Yang, Dad I know you don't like dream stuff... but... this is all dream stuff for me."

"Dream stuff?" Ozpin asked.

"Dream stuff," Both Taiyang and his daughter, Yang, said as if it explained everything.

"Yeah, in my dreams, almost everyone has holes in their chests. Sometimes the hole is higher or lower, but there's almost always a hole..."

There was a moment of silence in the room, before Taiyang added, "Ruby, you said it was all dream stuff. As in, not just the hole."

"Sometimes the dream people complain that I'm asleep for so much time between dreams, and awake for so little time during them. They say it can be anything from hours to months between each time I see them. I think I once slept for 3 years straight..."

"Ruby, promise me you won't fall asleep for 3 years!" Yang said, grabbing Ruby in another hug.

"Yang... stop... crushing..." Ruby said, with a wheeze.

"Not until you promise," Yang said.

"I... promise...!" Ruby said, gasping for breath as Yang let go. She then looked Yang straight in the eyes and repeated, "I promise."

It was truly touching to see how much the sisters cared for each other. Ozpin wished more families were like them; the only thing which could have made the moment sweeter was if he was holding his coffee instead of wearing it.

vvvvvv

Weiss was having a bad week.

It wasn't Ruby's fault. It wasn't Ruby's fault. She reminded herself again it wasn't Ruby's fault that team RWBY was stuck in quarantine.

No, it was Vale Medical's fault for waiting until after Ruby woke up to declare her condition an unknown disease instead of an injury. It was their fault that she just spent the last week cooped up with Yang and Blake, the former going stir-crazy with boredom and the latter proving surprisingly catty under these conditions.

But as of an hour ago and no additional symptoms affecting Ruby or anyone she was in contact with, they had hit the manditory maximum quarantine period for an unknown disease.

Which Blake had helpfully pointed out use to be four times longer twenty years ago when the Valian Council used god damn Quarantine Law to keep faunus out of the professional workplace.

Specifically, Schnee doctors working with the kingdom of Vale to abuse cheap faunus labor.

Blake knew more about how her family has abused faunus than anyone she had ever talked to, and after a week of the two being stuck together all these little factoids were starting to get on Weiss's nerves.

So the first thing she did was go outside, in spite of it being after 10:00 at night. Forget curfew, she was not spending another minute stuck in a tiny room with Blake and Yang.

The second thing she did was call father.

"Hello, you've reached Jacques Schnee, president of the Schnee dust company. Please leave a message and I will return your call at the earliest convenience."

Father wouldn't appreciate a message for the news, but he'd appreciate Weiss neglecting to call even less.

"Father, I am glad to report that the quarantine period for my team leader's condition has ended. While I understand your concerns, no one in contact with her has shown any additional symptoms," yet, "And Ruby's condition has been determined to be non-contagious," with 95% confidence, though she didn't plan on mentioning that other 5% unless he asked.

"Our team leader is being released from the hospital tomorrow morning," Weiss said. "In spite of the inconvenience, the Beacon staff has been very accomidating, and my new team has been using the time to work on our studies," when Yang wasn't devoting the time to come up with new puns she wanted to try. The blonde had a list. A list!

"Hey, Weiss is here!" a voice right in front of her shouted. Weiss looked up. Ruby was in a while hood and wearing a wolf skull, standing next to a girl wearing an indecent amount of clothing and a skull helmet. She had no idea how those two snuck up on her, they were about as subtle as a beowulf in that getup.

"Ruby, how could you know her, you've never been here before!" the skull-helmet girl said.

"...And I look forward to speaking with you in the morning father." Weiss said, closing her scroll as fast as she could. She then turned to the two girls. "Ruby, what are you doing with this, this...?"

"Lilynette?" Ruby finished for Weiss.

"Seriously? You know each other?" the indecent girl asked. Why did this girl think an open vest and a pair of underwear was appropiate? How did Ruby even know this person?

"Oh yeah, Weiss is on my team from that hunter school I keep telling you about," Ruby said, as if it explained everything.

"But Descorrer shouldn't go there!" Lilynette said, "That place doesn't exist!"

Ruby stared at the school, then at Weiss, before turning back to Lilynette. "It looks pretty real to me," Ruby shrugged.

"Lilynette, was it?" Weiss asked, interrupting the girl's rebuttal. She was only now noticing that the tattoo on her stomach wasn't a tattoo, but a hole like Ruby's. First thing first, introductions, then questions. "My name is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee dust company."

"What, like, cobwebs and stuff?" Lilynette asked.

"No, no, you know, dust!" Ruby answered, earning a blank look from Lilynette. "I'll explain later."

"And I notice you and Ruby both share a hole through the stomache and chest area," Weiss powered through. "Why is that?"

"It's because we're dead." Lilynette says as though it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"We're not dead," Ruby replies.

"No, we're very dead," Lilynette replies back.

"Nah, if we were dead, we wouldn't be talking to each other."

"It's because we're ghosts Ruby."

"If we were ghosts then I would have died," Ruby says in response. "And I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have forgotten my own death!"

"Most ghosts can't really remember their own death," Lilynette says.

"Wait, but, I can't be dead, I have a family and a team at Beacon and I was going to be a hunter!"

"Sorry Ruby. On the bright side, you get to work with Starrk."

"I guess," Ruby says, looking at the ground forlornly. "I still think you're wrong about me being dead!"

"Look, we can argue this all you want at Hueco Mundo, okay?"

"Fine," Ruby said. Then she opened a portal to a murky hell dimension right in front of Weiss what the hell.

"Wait, um, Ruby, since when were you friends with ghosts? Since when could you open magical fog portals?" Weiss asked.

"Forever, and since I just tried it five minutes ago. I'll tell you all about it when I fall asleep," Ruby said.

"This time are we going to the real earth instead of this shattered moon earth?" Lilynette asked.

"Hopefully!" Ruby said as the portal closed behind them, leaving no hint they were ever there.

Well.

Weiss suddenly had a strong desire to be cooped up safely in her dorm room with the catty faunus-rights supporter and blonde punmaggedon.

vvvvvv

"Yang." Weiss said.

"That was fast. Miss us already?" Yang asked, in a playful tone Weiss did not want to deal with.

"Where's Blake?" Weiss replied curtly.

"I dunno, the library?"

"Good," Weiss said. This conversation would be confusing enough with just Yang. "Do you know who Lillynette is?"

"...Yeah, I think that might be one of Ruby's friends?" Yang said.

"I think I just met her."

"Not likely," Yang said.

"She had a skull helmet, and she had a hole in her just like Ruby. They mentioned a place called 'Hueco Mundo' and were dressed with really stylized White Fang masks."

"That's not possible," Yang told Weiss. "We both know it's not possible."

"That's why I'm talking to you," Weiss said.

"Weiss," Yang said. "Am I a bad sister for hoping that it's what it sounded like, that Ruby and one of her friends are white fang sympathizers and they're just protesting faunus rights?"

"It's not my place to say," Weiss said, going for the diplomatic answer. She couldn't imagine what she or her father would do if Winter had the... challenges Ruby came with.

"This is the worst it's ever been," Yang said. "Ruby's a good little sister, she's smart, she's a prodigy among hunters, and she tries really hard not to worry her big sister and dad with the dream stuff. If you hadn't walked in on her and seen the hole for yourself, she would have kept going like nothing was wrong, with none of us the wiser." Yang looked Weiss in the eyes, every day of the past 10 years etched on her face, the older sister was the most exhausted Weiss had ever seen her. "The one thing that scares me more than the dreams being just dreams? That the dreams might be real. Usually I just ignore the problem, Dad does too, because neither of us know how to help her."

"So do me a favor," Yang said, grabbing Weiss by the shoulders. "I'm not sure what you saw, but can you pretend it didn't happen? That Ruby has a friend who is just a little overenthusiastic about faunus rights, I dunno. If she brings it up, sure, talk to her about it, but otherwise..." Yang looked away. "Worrying about this stuff has never helped Ruby."

"I don't think we should just do that," Weiss said. "We can't ignore that there's more going on than weird dreams. I mean, your sister looked like she was impaled, doesn't that worry you?"

"More than anything in my life," Yang replied. This was maybe the second time Weiss ever saw Yang look vulnerable, the first when she was watching over her sister in the infirmary. "Look, I get where you're coming from, but I want her to be as normal as she wants to be. Just, don't press her on this stuff, and give her a chance once she's out of the hospital."

"I'll... try," Weiss said.

Yang patted the smaller girl on the back. "Good enough for me, Weiss cream," Yang answered back with the smallest of smiles, earning a groan from Weiss.

vvvvvv

"Is this it?" Lilynette asked.

"The moon isn't shattered, so I guess so." Ruby replied. It was weird seeing the moon form a crescent like that. And it was so small compared to Remnant's.

The pair find themselves in the center of a quiet town road. "It kind of looks like your fake earth, except with more buildings. And shorter." Lilynette saids.

"What do you think all the other arrancar were doing here anyway?"

"I dunno. I just wanted to see new stuff," Lilynette said, looking around. "This place feels... weird. The buildings are too short and there's too many of them. And what's with all the wires? And trees? I didn't know there were still trees."

"Hueco Mundo is the weird place for not having them," Ruby replied back.

"Huh," Lilynette said. "Now what?"

"Now we go shopping I guess?" Ruby shrugged.

"What is shopping?"

"Right, you've never left Hueco Mundo, have you?"

"Nope!"

"Shopping is when you give people money to get stuff."

"Can't we just take their stuff? I'm pretty sure we're stronger than most of them." Lilynette replied.

"No, no, that wouldn't be fair to the stores," Ruby explained.

"I don't see why not. I mean, we're letting them live, aren't we?"

"That's really not how fairness works," Ruby said, holding Lilynette back.

Lilynette scoffed in response. "Have you met any of the other arrancar in Hueco Mundo? That's how they all act!"

"Lilynette, that's not a good thing!" Ruby said. "Look, Lilynette, we can look around, but you have to promise not to take anything while we're here. Be on your best behavior."

"Fine." Lilynette grumbled. "What's the deal with the place anyway? Why is everyone so interested in it?"

"You tell me," A redheaded boy growled in their direction, sword drawn.

"Oh wow, your sword is so huge!" Ruby said, zipping over. "How do you compensate for all the weight in the middle of the blade? Is there a reason you went for wrapped cloth on the handle? What's your sword's name? I named my scythe cresent rose, because the name just seemed to click, I want to hear all about how you forged the stee-mmphf!"

"Sorry, Ruby here can get a little overenthusiastic," Lilynette shrugged, covering Ruby's mouth.

"Look, I'm only going to say this once," the man said. "Go home. And tell Aizen he can piss off."

Ruby freed herself from Lilynette to say, "But we just got here!"

"And we're never going to let you have your way with Karakura town," the man replied.

"You mean buying clothes and stuff?"

"I mean your plan to kill hundreds of thousands of people!"

Ruby and Lilynette both stared, before Lilynette broke the silence, "Are you high?"

"Aizen's plan? To create a key to the king of soul society? Using one hundred thousand souls?"

Ruby said simply, "Aizen wouldn't do that. I mean, he is a soul reaper, but he's not the kind that reaps souls, he's the kind that rebels against the soul reapers to save all the arrancar."

"What?" the redhead replied.

"Yeah, the soul reapers are the bad guys here. They're trying to kill all the arrancar. Killing hundreds of thousands of people is totally something they'd do," Ruby said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Staring at the two with the best 'You are an idiot' expression Ruby had ever seen, the man said, "Have either of you even met a soul reaper before?"

Lilynette piped in with pride, "I'll have you know I work with 3 different shinigami captains back at Hueco Mundo!"

"Although they look just like regular people to me," Ruby added.

"Yeah, I mean, they look just like people, but they're also ghosts?" Lilynette said. "Like, they're ghosts that don't have holes that really like killing arrancar? As opposed to hollows or regular ghosts."

The man then hardened his stance and said, "You do realize that I'm a soul reaper, right?"

"You are?" Ruby and Lilynette said. Lilynette then added, "Wait, you do want to kill us too? Does this mean we have to kill you?"

"Before you do that," A 4th man said from the roof of a nearby building, surprising the other 3. The man adjusted his striped hat and continued, "Let me tell you how Sosuke Aizen came to betray the Soul Society"

vvvvvv

"So what you're saying, is that Aizen," Lilynette finally said after the man, Urahara, finished his story, "...is a dick."

"Pretty much," Urahara shrugged.

"He killed thousands of soul reapers trying to build an army!" replied the redheaded man, Ichigo. "And he's planning on killing thousands more!"

Lilynette continued, "And that's what makes him a dick."

"You got it," Urahara said.

"And the soul reapers would leave us alone if Aizen wasn't leading us?" Lilynette asked.

Urahara shrugged. "They don't care what you do in Hueco Mundo as long as you leave the living world alone."

"But none of that makes sense!" Ruby said "I mean, I get that he wants power, and that this has all been about power for him, but why? Why do all that? Why does he need power so badly?"

"Assuming everything this guy says checks out," Lilynette said.

"Of course," Urahara replied. "Just ask him. Aizen would probably tell you all this if you just knew to ask. If not him, then one of his subbordinates. Gin wouldn't shy away from telling you the truth, if only to see the look on your faces."

"But it's just power! He's already really strong! Did the soul society at least betray him or something?" Ruby asked. "There has to be more to it than that, right?"

"Power is the most important thing to a lot of people," Urahara said with a tiny smirk. "Everyone wants to be the strongest."

"No, they don't," Lilynette replied simply.

"No, they don't," Urahara agreed.

Ichigo looked between the two of them, and went to ask Ruby, "What the hell are they talking about?"

"Me and Starrk used to kill everyone around us with our reiatsu," Lilynette answered for Ruby. "Aizen is the reason why we're having this conversation, instead of me watching you choke to death under the force of my spiritual pressure."

"That's absurd. You?"

Suddenly neither Ichigo nor Urahara found themselves able to stand, forced to the ground under the surge in spiritual pressure that threatened to crush them. Then, just as quickly as it came on, it stopped.

"Yes, me," Lilynette said.

"Now aren't you glad I stopped you from fighting them?" Urahara asked, regaining his footing.

"Bastard," Ichigo grunted in reply.

vvvvvv

"Why did you betray soul society?" Lilynette asked Aizen, Ruby by her side.

Aizen's throne was the largest chair Ruby had ever seen, designed for an arrancar 3 times the size of the already towering man. Anyone else would have looked tiny sitting there. But Aizen's absolute confidence dared anyone to say he didn't belong there, which was the only reason he pulled it off.

Aizen smiled, "I want to become one with the Hogyoku."

"Your power gem? Why." Lilynette pressed.

"It will allow me to ascend beyond the powers of shinigami and hollows, and reach the soul king," Aizen replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"And does reaching the Soul King require sacrificing a hundred thousand souls?" the short arrancar continued.

Aizen nodded to himself. "I see you've been asking around. Yes, that is part of my plan."

"And why do you want to reach the Soul King,"

"The knowledge and power I gain there will allow me to ascend further," Aizen stated, as though it were fact instead of ambition. "Soon, I will surpass even Him."

"But why?" Lilynette pressed. "Aizen, why do you want to do all this? Is it because you want to lead the arrancar to a new golden age, to rule soul society, to be able to blow up buildings with a twitch? Endless years in an endless desert taught me all that power is pointless if you don't have anything you want to use it on."

Aizen leaned back in his throne and asked in response, "Why do birds fly?"

"I dunno," Lilynette answered. "Because they can?"

"Exactly," Aizen replied.

As Ruby watched on, Lilynette took about half a second to glare at the man, and said, "You're an idiot," before storming off. With a yell, she added, "Don't fly too close to the sun."

It took Lilynette a minute to realize Ruby wasn't following her, which was really throwing a wrench into Lilynette's dramatic exit. "Hey, Ruby, come on, we're done here-"

"What about Karakura town?" Ruby asked Aizen.

"They're a necessary sacrifice," Aizen said matter-of-factly.

"No they're not!" Ruby shouted. "None of this is necessary! All you've ever done is sacrifice people, and for what? So you can get power from a magic rock? You're the leader of Hueco Mundo! You have an army of arrancar that equals the soul reapers! Why are you throwing us away just so you can punch things harder?"

"Because I can," Aizen replied. "And because I have the power to do so."

"That's it? That's the reason?" Ruby asked.

"I could lie and say it's to help the arrancar or to save Soul Society from itself, but those are just happy coincidences," Aizen replied. "And if I lied, you might try to subvert the plan. Stop the deaths that need to happen from happening. Because I agree, the plan is distasteful. But it is necessary for me to obtain the power I want. And you and your fellow arrancar will help me. Because I am strong, because I am the leader that gives them what they want, and because I make no secret of where they stand beneath me. For your Primera Espada, I am the reason he can meet other arrancar. For the others, I am the leader that has the strength to keep them from killing each other for food. Or the leader with the power to stand up to soul society. Or the benefactor that gives them the materials they need for their research. Or simply a convenient source of food that only asks a few small favors."

"We're not going to help you murder people by the thousands!" Ruby shouted back.

"You will. You might not be on the front lines, but you will help me. Because I am the leader you need. I'm the leader all the arrancar need. That is how I became the King of Hueco Mundo."

Ruby glared at the man, before stomping after Lilynette. As she did so, she added, "I doubt you care, but thank you for saving Starrk and Lilynette."

"And when the people you attach yourself to need it, I hope you have the power to save them," Aizen called to the two girls as they departed.

vvvvvv

"We shouldn't be in Aizen's war," Ruby said. The three of them all had beanbag chairs for this meeting; one of the many benefits of Starrk being the Primero Espada.

The Segunda Espada Baraggan would argue that this was an absolute waste of the priveleges, but then again he would argue that arrancar should be executed on the spot for choosing to retreat rather than die, so the trio didn't put much stock in his opinion.

"It would only leave a whole bunch of us dead, just to make Aizen stronger," Starrk added. "There's no point."

"So. What do we do." Lilynette stated more than asked.

"We owe the man our lives," Starrk said.

"I wouldn't mind if he were asking us to fight to protect Hueco Mundo," Ruby said. "But this is different."

"The other arrancar will follow him to die regardless," Starrk said. "The others don't care about civilians, or even understand what a civilian is. And the ones that do care are too afraid to go against Aizen's orders."

"Should we be protecting them?" Lilynette asked.

"If that's the case, then I definitely should not be helping Aizen fight," Starrk added. "All his plans involve me being on the front lines with other arrancar."

"That's really stupid," Lilynette said. "You can't go all out if there are other arrancar around, your reiatsu would kill them!"

"I almost wonder if Aizen's counting on that," Stark said.

"Huh?" Ruby asked, turning to Starrk. "Why wouldn't he want you to go all out?"

"Aizen can beat all the other arrancar in combat if he needs to. But he's never tried to fight me. All his invasion plans have me going against the toughest pair or trio of soul reapers they send, while surrounded by the other arrancar," Starrk stared into the distance a bit, before finishing, "I think he's either testing me or trying to kill me on a soul reaper's sword."

"That's terrible!" Lilynette and Ruby agreed, to which Starrk shrugged. Ruby continued, "Listen, Starrk, I don't care what you have to do, you're not allowed to die."

"Not to give a power boost to a jackass with a megalomania complex, that's for sure," Lilynette added.

"It's not going to work," Starrk explained. "No one in all of Hueco Mundo is stronger than me, not even Aizen."

"But the Soul Reapers are from outside of Hueco Mundo you idiot!" Lilynette explained.

"This is their job!" Ruby continued. "They live for taking us down! That's the point of a soul reaper!"

Starrk looked at the two girls, then said, "Alright, alright, when we fight them I won't play around. I won't hold back, even if it ends up hurting my allies. And win or lose, I'll come back alive. But I am fighting. I owe Aizen that much."

"That's right you're coming back!" Lilynette shouted back to Starrk, "None of us are allowed to die, and don't you forget it!"

Ruby frowned, adding, "But what about all those people in Karakura town? And all the weaker arrancar Aizen will also send?"

Starrk looked at Ruby for a moment, frowning himself, "I can't do anything to save them."

"What? Why not?" Ruby asked.

"Aizen has at least 3 other arrancar who will kill them with their spiritual pressure alone," Starrk explained. "Once the fighting begins, all he'll need the other arrancar to do is to release their reiatsu and the town will be toast. And the arrancar will be forced to do that just to fight the soul reapers." Starrk leaned back, continuing, "Honestly, the only reason he hasn't done it already is because then he'd have to fight all the soul reapers at once, and he's not yet ready for that."

"But then, the whole town...?"

"I'm sorry, Ruby."

"Lilynette, back me up here," Ruby replied.

"No, he's right. If Aizen wants to destroy the town, we can't stop him," Lilynette said.

"But... but..." Ruby said. But neither of her friends had an answer for her.

vvvvvv

Nora had the whole afternoon to herself. Ren was working on martial artsy stuff, and Pyrrha and Jaune were training together which Nora would have assumed was code for making out in a closet, except Pyrrha was being coy and Jaune was being dumb.

That meant she got to spend the afternoon making new kinds of grenades for Magnhild! Since no one was around for her to accidentally blow up. Again.

*knock* *knock* *knock* went the door.

Nora looked up. That was a new knock to her, which meant it couldn't have been Ren because he would have just come in! And it couldn't have been Pyrrha or Jaune, because when they knocked they always asked if everyone was decent after the first time!

"Come in!" Nora called.

"Hi," Ruby said. Everyone knew Ruby, she led the team that was just quarantined for a week! Ruby continued, "Hey, do you know where I can find an oven?"

Nora gasped. "Are you baking? I love baking! Let's do it together!"

"Yeah," Ruby said, indicating the paper bag in her arms. "I'm making apology cookies, you know, for the whole quarantine thing."

"You can't help being sick. I'm sure they understand!"

"I know, but I still feel like I let them down," Ruby replied. "And maybe this will cheer them up?"

"Well, to be fair, no one feels bad after a good plate of cookies!" Nora started jabbering, dragging Ruby into the room. Like a whirlwind, Nora was throwing bowls and knives out from under her bed, as Ruby caught and dodged the respective cooking implements. Finally she came out with a huge chef hat and took Ruby's bag, dumping all the ingredients on a cutting board. "This is a new recipe I've been wanting to try," she explained, ripping open the flour bag and covering herself in the process. She then emptied the carton of eggs into the flour, before getting out her mighty hammer of justice! Was there anything Magnhild couldn't do? Well, lots of things, but breaking eggs was not on that list!

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Ruby asked as the hammer came crashing down. The cutting board Nora was working with was smashed in two, and the two girls were covered in egg and flour, but that was just part of baking when Nora did it.

"Nope! That's what makes it a surprise!" Nora said, emptying the sugar bag, the chocolate chip bag, and the butter into the mess on the floor. She then pulled out a microwave from under her bed, scooped a blob of the mixture off the floor, then stuck it in there for an hour. That should make sure the inside of Nora's Super Cookie (patent pending) was cooked this time!

"Now, we wait," Nora finished, laying in front of the microwave in complete concentration. "This is the tricky part, you have to take them out at just the right time or they won't taste right!"

"Oh." Ruby said, staring at the microwave with Nora. After a minute, Ruby said, "So, I'm Ruby..."

"Oh my god, I forgot to introduce myself!" Nora started rambling. "I'm Nora Valkerie, hunter extrodanaire and baker of legends! Or at least Ren thinks so!"

"Cool." Ruby said. "I like your hammer."

"This thing?" Nora continued, dragging out her precious Magnhild. "It's a rocket hammer! I outfitted it so it can convert into a grenade launcher too!" Nora said, flipping it into it's other mode. "Her name's Magnhild."

"She's awesome!" Ruby said, pulling out her scythe. "This is Crescent Rose, my high-impact sniper-scythe! I can kill a beowulf at 100 yards with her!"

"What Magnhild lacks in range she more than makes up for in power! Her standard grenades will decapitate a deathstalker, and let me show you the custom ones I'm making for a rainy day..."

vvvvvv

"Have you thought of mixing fire and lightning dust in your rounds?" Nora asked.

"Wouldn't that just explode in your face?"

"Only about half the-cookie!" Nora shouted.

"Cooki-oh," Ruby said.

The cookie was on fire.

Fortunately, Nora knew exactly what to do in this situation. She ripped a CO2 fire extinguisher from under the bed, opened the microwave door, and started spraying everything in the room. You can never be to careful with fire! Fire is the enemy! And the enemy can be very sneaky indeed.

And then the smoke alarm went off.

"What is going on in there!" Jaune shouted, barging into the room in a combat stance. Silly Jaune. You can't fight fire with swords! Wait, but if you could fight fire with swords, the you could train hunters to fight fires! Nora made a note to look up fighting fires with swords later.

Oh look, the rest of her team was there too! Along with the rest of Ruby's team!

"Apology cookie!" Nora said, thrusting the giant ball of burned dough into Weiss's hands.

"You know, because I got you all quarantined?" Ruby muttered. "Sorry."

Ren looked at the two, then looked at the room around them. Ruby was covered in egg and flour. Nora was covered in egg and flour. Actually, pretty much everything in JNPR's room was covered in egg and flour.

Nora followed Ren's gaze, having the decency to look sheepish for all of two seconds, before saying "Right, cleaning, I'll go get the mop, Ruby, you shut off the alarm!"

"Nora," Ren said calmly. "You and your new friend, go get cleaned up. I'll get started on the room."

"Right on, Ren!" Nora saluted, before zipping into the bathroom.

Weiss, still holding the giant burned-on-the-top dripping-on-the-bottom 'cookie', was the first to speak. "Does this happen a lot?" She asked.

Ren smiled, picking up Magnhild from it's spot on the floor and using the reach of the hammer to shut off the smoke alarm. "Only when she tries to cook."

vvvvvv

By the time JNPR's room was cleaned, the burnt cookie dough properly disposed of, and Nora and Ruby were defloured, it was pretty late at night. Team RWBY was officially esablished a week ago, but this was the first night Ruby would actually get to sleep in the team's dorm room. Last time didn't count, since she spent most of it in Beacon's infirmary.

Ruby left the bathroom dressed for bed. She decided it was better for everyone if they didn't have to see the hole again. No reason to make her team worry any more than they were.

"So, Rubes," Yang said. "Anything we need to know? About your condition, I mean."

"Not really," Ruby replied. "None of the doctors could find any, ah, 'expected symptoms', they just said to 'keep the affected area clean'."

"That's good." Yang said. She then lowered her voice to a whisper, "You know you can talk to me about anything."

Ruby looked at the ceiling. There was one thing. "You ever meet someone who you thought was good and helped you out, only to find out they were planning to do terrible things."

"Yes," Blake cut in immediately, her nose still in her book.

Ruby and Yang both looked at Blake, waiting for her to elaborate. When it became obvious she wouldn't say any more, Ruby asked, "What did you do?"

"I left."

"Oh." Ruby said. "I don't think that's an option."

The room lapsed into silence again. The kind of silence daring its inhabitants to break it, where everyone knew they wanted to speak but nobody knew what they wanted to say.

Finally, Yang spoke. "Rubes, talk to me. I'm your sister, I don't care if it's a little weird."

"No, no, it's nothing like that," Ruby said. "Or at least it's nothing real."

Blake and Weiss both glanced in Ruby and Yang's direction, Yang shaking her head. The message was clear: Ruby would talk about it when she wanted to talk about it.

Finally making up her mind, Yang said, "It doesn't have to be real. I'll still listen."

"I know," Ruby said, lying herself in bed. "And if there really was someone like that you'd be the first to know." She then laid on her side so she could look at Yang, "I dunno, it's just a vague feeling, you know? A minute ago I was sure that one of my heroes is about to do something terrible, but I can't think of anyone like that."

"Well that's a good thing, isn't it?" Yang replied.

"You're probably right," Ruby said, drifting to sleep. "Goodnight Yang... Weiss... Blake..."

"Goodnight Ruby," Yang said.

But Ruby was already dreaming of a castle amidst endless sands.