Chapter 18: Ragnarok Part 1

Scarlet cackled as she continues to kick Weiss in the side, of course this seemed to have been effecting the real world Weiss as blood trickled down the side of her lips. Dream Weiss, also known as Negative Weiss from what Shion had came to a conclusion of the different variations of mirrors. Was spitting up blood and gagging on it as well, she crawled over on her belly as she grabbed Scarlet's leg and glanced up at her.

"Y-You can't win.." Weiss said weakly as she slowly stood up, she clinched her side as she coughed up blood again. "Not in my kingdom... you can't..."

Scarlet cocked an eyebrow up as she tilted her head to the side and laughed insanely. "Is that so? Or have you forgotten, that I'm the red queen? I do what no one else can. Those who are not with me are against me, and I crush ANYONE who stands against me!" She leaned over and grabbed Weiss by her pony tail and lifted her up off the roof. "You see me as I am, and it will be the last thing you'll ever see." Within a blink of an eye Scarlet sprouted her Nevermore wings and flew up into the sky with Weiss still in hand.

Weiss yelled as she was being lifted up through the sky as Scarlet flew straight up over the town below. "Let me go, you're going to be in so much trouble when I get free from your grasp!"

Scarlet glanced down as she smirked. "Oh? What are you going to do? Torture me?" She smirked as she lets go of Weiss as she watched her drop from how high she had flown up with her.

Weiss gasped as it felt like her soul had left her body, the air was taken out of her lungs from the gasp she had given. She fell unconscious for what seemed like an hour, but someone intervened and managed to grab her in time. Scarlet glared down as she snarled, it seemed Shion had sent in team RBY into Weiss' dream. Yang caught Weiss as she glared up at Scarlet, she placed Weiss down onto the ground soon after.

"I don't know what you think you're doing, but we won't allow you to harm our friend." Yang said as her eyes went red and her hair glowing. "So I'd advise you to leave this place."

Scarlet descended down from the sky as she floated over Yang. "I see our sister needed some help from you and Blake, it won't change a thing if you save Weiss from this nightmare. But you can try as much as you'd like though." She smirked as she flapped her Nevermore wings and flew off towards the Schnee, mansion.

Yang scoffed and watched Scarlet fly away. "Running away?"

Ruby came over as she placed her hand on Yang's shoulder. "No need to focus on her, we have to locate the nightmare Grimm and kill it before it covers Weiss completely."

Yang nodded but when she turned around Weiss was gone. "The hell? She was just here, don't tell me she got up and vanished."

Ruby glanced around as she didn't see her either, she tossed a coin and called Shion. "We had Weiss, but now she's gone again. It might be awhile before we come back..."

Shion nodded as they glanced over to team JNPR. "If you can locate the nightmare's location, do it as fast as possible. If things get too hairy, I'll send Jaune in. He was the first one in contact with the Nightmare, so he'll be immune to it trying to latch itself onto him."

Jaune was puzzled by this and wondered if going into Weiss' dream would be too much even for Shion. But remembered that his team had gone into his dream to save him so maybe one more addition to the group wouldn't be bad, though of course they were unaware of Scarlet being in the other room already linked into Weiss' dream.

Yang, Blake and Ruby started to search for the location of the Nightmare Grimm, but were also trying to figure out how to get up to the mansion. Blake had a gut feeling the Grimm was within the mansion itself and not low to the ground like they were. Thinking over a plan, Ruby looked at her team and then over to the sillies.

"I know they don't talk but... maybe if we can somehow get them to come out, it'll alert the Klein bots and everything..." Ruby said as she crossed her arms to over think her plan again.

Yang closed her eyes to think while Blake's ears twitched, she looked around their surroundings as she saw the Klein bots surrounding them. "Uh, Ruby... we got bigger problems right now."

Ruby tilted her head as she looked over. "Oh."

The Klein bots placed their fist up waiting for them to attack, but this is when Yang gets an idea. She wrapped her arms around Blake and Ruby's necks and brought them both into a group chat.

"I have an idea, but it'll be risky." Yang said. "We surrender, and then they can take us to the mansion. If anything, there might be a holding cell there we'll be placed into. But we have two or three problems."

Ruby looked at Yang with a curious look, Blake already knew the answer as she looked at Ruby. Yang looked at them both before she glanced up at the sky. "We have that strange girl to worry about for one. Two.. we have to locate the Nightmare Grimm and three, we also have to make sure Weiss isn't going to be anywhere nearby waiting for us."

~~~

Weiss was back into the mansion and watched the screens, she noticed the Klein bots had captured Ruby, and Yang. But that's not who she was worried about, the screens didn't show Scarlet anywhere. Weiss was paranoid, yet the vines of the Nightmare Grimm continued to grow more and spread in the room wrapping around different objects.

"I need to know where she is." Weiss said while biting her finger nail. "Where the hell is she?" Her eyes scanned the screens as she watched the Klein bots take Ruby and Yang to their holding cell.

When Ruby and Yang arrived at the Sleepy Klein door, he woke up and looked at the two. "Ms Ruby and Ms Yang, what are you two doing out of your room? You shouldn't be wandering around you know."

"Sorry, just curious." Ruby answered as she watched Klein open up, behind him was their dorm room. But why was it here of all places, Ruby looked over at her sister in hopes that Blake was having a better time looking for the location of the Nightmare Grimm.

Yang and Ruby entered as Klein closed behind them, Yang looked around and was as puzzled as Ruby was. "Why...?"

Ruby thinks for a bit as she snaps her fingers. "I got it, okay... maybe there's still some hope left for us in saving Weiss. This is part of her memory, meaning we're getting closer to the Grimm."

Yang nodded in agreement as she crossed her arms. "Fair, but we have to wait for any news from Blake." She walked over to the bed and sat down. "All we can do is sit and wait."

Elsewhere Blake was dashing through the halls of the mansion as she came across a huge hallway with pillars, she stopped as she glanced around. She tossed a coin as a door appeared after, she went over to it and opened it up to see where the shortcut door was at. "Okay I see where it has been placed, don't have much more coins on hand, I need to save what I have to get out of here and report back."

Behind her Scarlet smirked and wrapped her hands around the back of her neck. "Thank you for leading me here kitten, but you're not going to be killing the Grimm on my watch."

Blake was surprised by the cold touch of Scarlet's hands on her neck, she turned her head to the side and glared at her. "What makes you so sure about that? I don't even know who the hell you are."

"Oh that may be true, but another variation of yourself does." Scarlet said with a snicker, she reached into Blake's pocket and grabbed what coins she had left. "And now you'll be stuck in Weiss' dream with no coins." She kicked Blake in the back and had let go of her neck. "You see, I can't allow you or your team to kill the Nightmare"

Blake hissed as she turned around ready to attack Scarlet, but when she did she noticed she was gone. "Damn, she ran away." Before Blake could continue searching for the location of the Nightmare, her ears twitched again as she was quickly side swiped in the side by Scarlet's guitar.

"Who said you could let your guard down?" Scarlet asked as she watched Blake go flying as she crashed through the pillars. "Home run, one point for me and zero for the cat Faunus."

Blake coughed up blood as she gagged on her own blood, similar to Weiss' body. Blake had blood trickle down the side of her lip, Jaune took notice as he looked over to the sleeping Shion. He walked over and shook them awake.

"Wake up, look at what's happening." Jaune said pointing to Blake. "Something's going on, and it's causing Blake to bleed."

Shion lifted their witch hat up from their eyes and glanced over to see the crimson red blood trickling down Blake's face. Shion scoffed under their breath as they got up from their yarn hammock. "We're going to send you in later Jaune, we need to wake them up fast." Shion walked over to their computer set up and started typing.

Ruby and Yang woke up, Blake hadn't and Scarlet hadn't as well. Pyrrha glanced over to Blake and then back at the others, Shion looked over to the hour glass as the sand was nearly down to the bottom. They grabbed the hour glass and flipped it over as all the sand from the bottom was now the top of the hour glass, this would give them more time to get things situated.

"Blake hasn't woken up yet, what's going on?" Ruby asked as she stood next to the desk as she looked at Shion.

"She must've ran out of coins, what happened before I woke you up?" Shion asked as they looked over at Ruby and Yang. "Tell us what happened."

Yang looked over to Ruby and then at Shion and explained to them what her, Ruby and Blake had planned. Shion rubbed their chin and closed their eyes for a bit before opening them, they turned their attention to Jaune and then over to Ruby and Yang. "Alright, you three are going back in, but since Blake is still in the dream. Everything is going to still be playing out like it had, but this time, perhaps... changing things will result in changes."

"You mean like freeing Pyrrha and the others from their cell?" Ruby asked as she looked at Shion before looking at Jaune. "Meaning if Jaune comes with us, the silly version of Jaune wouldn't be with the sillies of the other three."

"My thoughts exactly." Shion said and went over to the yarn like web. "You three get on, it looks like Blake's going to need your help more than Weiss does, but still keep your focus on looking for the Nightmare and getting it out before it cane drag Weiss any further."

RYJ nodded as they got onto the yarn and were soon wrapped up, inside the dream Scarlet snickered as she swung her guitar at Blake's side sending her flying through some more pillars. She walked over to Blake as she stomped her foot onto her back and smirked, she looked down at the Faunus and rubbed her heel into her back. "What's wrong Blake? Can't stand up and hold your own against little ol' me? Pity..." She leaned over and grabbed Blake by the hair and lifted her up off the ground. "Don't worry, you'll die nice and slow in no time. But I don't have any time to waste with you, I have better things to do than to toy with you." She then threw Blake across the hall and watched her land on the ground.

Blake was beaten and bruised up, she slowly stood up as her left arm was numb and had lost all feeling in her arm. Her right arm was scratched up and bleed, she glared over to where Scarlet was supposed to be at, but she was gone. "Damn it, where did she go this time?"

Elsewhere in the dream world, Ruby, Yang and Jaune appeared in the same area as before. This time however, Jaune was stuck in the snow as his legs were the only thing sticking up from it. He wiggled his legs and tried to pull himself out, luckily for him Ruby and Yang were there with him as the two sisters pulled Jaune up from the snow.

"Why Am I the only one that still looks the same and you two don't?" Jaune asked as he looked at his clothing to see it was still normal, but his sword was massive. "Holy crap." He tried to lift his sword up but fell over.

"Yeah... it's how Weiss thinks we are like." Ruby said showing him Crescent Rose. "I have to aim backwards to fire Crescent Rose." She started walking as Yang had an idea to make things easier, she looked over to the two before stepping off to the side.

"So..." Jaune said looking around a bit as he looked at Ruby. "Where do we go from here?"

Ruby pointed ahead as she turned to look at Jaune. "Straight ahead, but we need to change history here." She noticed Yang was gone and seemed puzzled but had a feeling she knew what she was doing. "Jaune, you and me can go ahead. I think Yang went off on her own to try to get to Blake's location."

Jaune nodded as he wobbled around the snow while dragging his sword with him. The sword wasn't an easy task to carry around, he grunted and struggled trying to carry it. But Ruby had a better idea, if they were going to catch the train in time before the Fang could knock it over. She knew her and Jaune had to be quick, she unwrapped her scarf and threw it one end around Jaune and made sure it was nice and tight.

"Hang on Jaune." Ruby said as she held onto the other end and used her semblance to dash off with Jaune in toe.

"Whooooaaaaaa!" Jaune yelled out as him and Ruby were flying over the huge gap and soon landing on top of the train.

The Fang took notice of Ruby and Jaune on the train as they charged in to attack them. Ruby and Jaune attacked back while all surveillance footage of the fight going on was being sent back to Weiss in the mansion. Weiss watched as she was puzzled as to why Ruby was defending the SDC dust train, but all of that thought was blocked out as the alarm went off near the theater room. She quickly had the cameras change over to that room as she saw Scarlet entering the room, she slammed her fist onto the table and stood up.

~~~

Scarlet had entered the theater room as she smirked, her eyes were locked onto the Nightmare Grimm as its veins were covering Weiss' dress. The dress though looked like it was something she had seen on Weiss before, but it didn't matter. The Grimm girl approached the stage as the Nightmare took notice of her.

"There you are my precious.." Scarlet spoke noticing that the Nightmare wasn't attacking her. "I am like you, I am one of you." She stopped halfway by the stage as she reached her arms out. "Come with me, and together we can trap anyone in their worst nightmares and deepest desires."

The Nightmare's flower petals opened up around its face as it looked at Scarlet with its one eye, it debated on this for a moment as if this was another intelligent Grimm like Scarlet and the Hound. But truth be told it was intelligent, if it knew what nightmares to give its host or hostess. But before anything could be accomplished a shard of ice came flying from behind Scarlet as it grazed along her cheek. Scarlet hissed as she turned around and spotted Weiss, her crimson red eyes glowed a blood red as she snarled at the Schnee.

"Get away from that." Weiss said as she had four Glyphs behind her, all four of them ready on standby. "You're not going to be given a second chance to grab whatever it is you're wanting from that."

Scarlet calmed down as she laughed. "Big talk for a Esdeath wannabe, what's wrong? Couldn't afford enough money to dress up to look like Elsa from Frozen with your freaky large hair?" She smirked as she dashed forward towards Weiss and before she could give her anytime to attack. Scarlet kicked Weiss square in the gut and sent her flying out through the side of the manor and outside, she turned around to look at the Nightmare. "Wait here, don't let anyone try to kill you. Not even Ruby Rose, be cautious of her eyes in particular. She has the Silver eyes, the one thing Grimm are weak against."

The Nightmare seemed to understand what Scarlet had said, and had added an extra layer of vines and thorns around itself and every other part of the theater, Scarlet smirked as she jumped out of the hole and landed on the side of the building that was connected to an even larger piece of the manor.

Weiss lunged at Scarlet with a surprise attack, but time came to a stop as Scarlet turned around and noticed Weiss. "When will you learn Weiss? You Schnees are always going to a pain." She gut punched Weiss several times before letting time resume with a blink of an eye.

Weiss gasped for air as she puked up blood and fell onto her knees. "How did you...?" It was clear that Negative Weiss and normal Weiss were unaware of Scarlet having a semblance. Of course the Grimm girl never really needed to use her semblance for easy battles like these against weak opponents. But where was the fun in that? She knelt down and grabbed Weiss' chin and smirked, that same smirk Neo had given Yang.

"Why am I not surprised." Scarlet smirked as she kissed Weiss on the lips before pulling away from her. "You people are always amazed by how a humanoid Grimm like myself has a semblance, capable of being able to use such a power that Grimm don't seem to harness within their own bodies." She let go of Weiss' chin and stood up, she towered over the Schnee and chuckled. "Why I'm surprised that Ozpin of all people haven't mentioned who the Grimm actually takes orders from."

Weiss was puzzled but she hurt like hell, she glanced up at Scarlet waiting for her to finish what she was going to say. "A-And who would that be..?" She was trying to stall for time, but it seemed like that wasn't going to happen anytime soon."

Scarlet kept her gaze down on Weiss and grinned. "Salem." She walked away from where Weiss was laying, she looked down to the village below. "Just think about it Weiss, you and your friends have yet to experience the terror of Salem's power." She turned her head to look back at Weiss. "An immortal being who only wishes to watch the world burn... call it whatever you want, but I call it.... Ragnarok." She then took one step back and glanced up at the Big Nicholas robot statue, she sprouted her Nevermore wings and flew up to the very top of Big Nicholas' head.

Weiss slowly stood up as she clinched her stomach, she wondered what Scarlet was going to do from up there. Not knowing that Jaune had entered the town and was able to talk Pyrrha into joining him, but while inside the cell there was a huge open area inside that looked like a fair. Then there was giggling as Jaune glanced around hearing this.

"Who's there?" Jaune asked as he saw a white pony tail sticking out from behind a booth, he got closer as he saw a loli version of Weiss. Several versions to be precise. "Wait, are these all.... Weiss? Then that means, these must be her inner childhood memories. "Alright, I'm getting you all out of here as well as you Pyrrha."

The loli versions of Weiss all looked at each other and then at Jaune, they were curious as to what the outside was like. They didn't want to be locked up in this cell and out of sight either, without making any big decision choices they nodded as Pyrrha was speechless since the silly version of herself that was there couldn't technically speak but only sing. But now wasn't the time for a song, Jaune knew Ren and Nora were too scared to join them when they had left. But it wasn't long before both had decided to leave.

Up on Big Nicolas' head, Scarlet noticed the loli versions of Weiss running through town with Jaune. A smirk spreads across her face as she swung her guitar around to her front, she glanced down at Weiss who was below her. "Get ready for a show Weiss!" She strummed the stings on the guitar as each string hit the notes perfectly. The sky darkened as lightning and thunder crashed through the sky behind Scarlet.

This drew everyone's attention as Ruby was on one of the buildings and was about to enter the door but stopped. Yang was inside the manor looking for Blake as she had also heard the guitar being strummed, Blake on the other hand was slowly making her way down the hall as she left a trail of blood behind her on the wall.

All of a sudden Scarlet started to sing, almost as if she had took singing lessons from the devil himself. This song she was singing, it was almost as if Ruby and the others were slowly coming to realize who they were exactly up against.

You're never gonna stop me

I'm the nightmare you've been dreaming of

Now the day is approaching

Gonna show you what I'm made of

This is just the beginning

Your anxiety is justified

Let me tell you something

There's nowhere left for you to hide

Justice will be mine

You can be certain

That sound of your heartbeat

Like a time bomb slowly ticking down

You won't see me coming

I can end your life without a sound

Hear me now

It's unavoidable

I fulfill my vow

There's no escape

I am unstoppable

There can be no penance

For the parasite that you've become

There is no repentance

This judgment can't be undone

There will be no mercy

No lenience while I'm alive

Vengeance is coming

Believe it now, you won't survive

Justice will be mine

You can be certain

That sound of your heartbeat

Like a time bomb slowly ticking down

You won't see me coming

I can end your life without a sound

Hear me now

It's unavoidable

I fulfill my vow

I am unstoppable

Don't bother running

It's over this time

You're going to pay now

For all you have taken

Hear me now

There's no escape

I am unstoppable

I am, I am, I am, I am

I am

I am unstoppable

I am, I am, I am, I am

I am

I am unstoppable

I am, I am, I am, I am

I am

I am unstoppable

Hear me now

It's unavoidable

I fulfill my vow

I am unstoppable

Don't bother running

It's over this time

You're going to pay now

For all you have taken

Hear me now

There's no escape

I am unstoppable

This song, it frightened them all. The loli versions of Weiss were shaking in their small boots, the thunder crashed louder as the lightning flashed. Ruby fell to her knees she felt hopeless and weak, she had no idea what she had just heard. All she could think about was an unstoppable force of nature that wanted nothing but murder and to watch them all suffer for the joy of it all.

Scarlet panted as she had no idea what came out of her, it just felt so good to let everything come out. But she knew this dream variation of herself was the only time she'd get to sing, she had tried to sing once before but it never sounded too good. But this, this felt like it was perfect, she glanced down and saw the terror in Weiss' eyes. "Now this.... this puts a smile on my face, let Ragnarok... begin."