Chapter 12: Divide and Conquer
Looking up I could see the moon shine down on me, only this was my moon, the shattered moon. I tried to think but it was foggy, like I couldn't hold a thought for more than a moment. Looking around myself I was on a cliff, with the grave of Summer Rose in front of myself.
Turning around there was a field. A great and beautiful field, full of roses. Rose petals drifting with the night breeze as they fluttered around me. A giant willow tree stood off to the side of the field.
The only thing destroying this uniform field of red was a patch of yellow lily flowers that surrounded the willow tree. I decided to walk closer to the yellow flowers, only to notice a phenomenon happening.
Yellow turning into red and then red turning to yellow. An endless loop if not for the yellow flowers slowly loosing the battle. It was slow, very slow, but still noticeable. The lily's were turning into roses. Without much thought I decided to pick one of the yellow lily's.
"WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME!"
I dropped the flower as soon as I picked it up. The world shook from the loud roar that came from the flower. My mind was echoing with the voice of Mason screaming at me in pain. Tearing up I tried to speak but something horrifying was happening to me.
The hand which I touched the flower with was slowly disintegrating into yellow and red petals. I pushed through the fog that was blocking my mind and tried to speak, to say it wasn't my fault. Only to see that more than half of my body was already gone, drifting in the wind.
Trying my hardest to form the words they appeared. "I will fix this! Don-t wo-r..." I tried to look down only to be shaken. I was gone, no longer there.
"Ru...! Rub...! Ruby!" I was shaken from my dream as Lena was trying to wake me up. Feeling something wet trailing down my face I noticed I was crying. 'Why am I crying...' I thought as I heard Lena sigh in relief.
Tears falling down my face I looked towards Lena, who was looking up towards the ceiling. "Jeez love, you gave me a scare. Heard you mumblin something so I woke up only to see you having a bloody nightmare."
Lena looked down to see my crying and smiled slightly. She then got on my bed, laid down next to me, and gave me a hug. "Must have been a bad one huh. Couldn't wake you for anything love, I was about to get Angela."
'So, that's what's happening...' I thought as I was beginning to remember the nightmare which I just faced. Remembering back to how Mason was screaming I started to cry a little more, only to be hugged tighter by Lena.
"Shh don't worry love, I am here for you." Lena said as she was hugging me. Shaking slightly I hugged back to feel her warmth.
Shakily I mumbled out "You are right, it was a really bad nightmare..." while I was still hugging Lena. Looking behind her I saw that it was 3am.
Lena was patting my back as she asked me "Wanna talk about it? That usually helps me out."
Offering to listen to me I decided to trust Lena with a secret of mine. "If you promise you won't tell." I firmly said as I was still buried in Lena's hug. Slowly but surely I began to calm down, no longer crying and I felt Lena nod.
"Sure thing love, my mouth is zipped."
Hearing Lena's promise I began to think back to the nightmare. It was noticeably difficult to remember it, like a fleeting dream. I began to slowly describe it to Lena.
"It was back home, it was my moon not the one you see in the sky, and I was standing next to my moms grave. I used to go there to tell her everything..." Lena nodded towards me to keep going.
I scooted a little on the bed to get more comfortable with Lena laying next to me. "Everything was perfect, except it wasn't. A rose field was there, petals drifting in the wind. I walked towards it to see that something was wrong. The roses were being turned into beautiful yellow lily's as a patch of yellow lily's were being turned into roses. "
A picture of a flame entered my mind as I compared the picture of the yellow and red flowers fighting for control with a fire. "I decided to pick one of the lily's only to hear a scream for help from someone I am very close with... After that, there was nothing..."
Getting sad once more as I remembered Mason, I hugged Lena again. Lena simply laid there as I tried to recollect myself.
"I'm sorry if I woke you up... I just haven't been having good dreams recently because of everything that happened." I mumbled Lena an apology as I pulled away from her. Inwardly Lena was wondering 'What did she go through for this to happen...'
Looking towards Lena I saw that she had an understanding look on her face.
"Don't worry love, I can relate... You know we all have bad dreams sometimes." Lena sat up from the bed and looked towards the clock. "As long as you are there for me when I have a bad dream, then I will be here for you."
I smiled and chuckled slightly. "Sure... After all I owe you one." Lena turned towards me and smiled as well. Laughing slightly Lena said "Ha, well now you owe me two. You can start to repay me by letting my stay here."
I looked in confusion towards Lena so that she could explain what she meant. Looking back towards me she smirked and firmly said "It's too cold and too late to make my way to my bed, so I am staying here."
Now that I understood what she meant I blushed slightly but then deadpanned towards her. "Your bed is 5 feet away from mine..."
Lena sighed and laid down on my pillow. In a dramatic voice she muttered "Love, its too far... I just can't get to it. Besides you oweeee me one." She said the last part while wiggling her finger.
'Oh well... Not like its going to hurt anyone.' I sighed out and decided to scoot over closer to the wall. "Fine... you can stay." I said as turned towards the wall to hide my blush.
Lena smirked triumphantly and scooted closer to me. "Just don't do anything weird..." I muttered quietly just to make sure Lena didn't do anything weird, Lena chuckled slightly and said "Sure thing love, now lets get some sleep."
'Might as well, I have to wake up in 4 hours...' I thought as I slowly drifted asleep, only to feel Lena grab me making me wake up.
'What is she doing?!' I tried turning around only for my plans to be forted by Lena's insanely tight hold on my waist. Blushing I tried whispering loudly to wake Lena.
"Lena! Lena!" I whispered out only to sigh seeing as she wouldn't budge. Slowly I wound back down as I got comfortable. Feeling Lena's comfortable hold on me I blushed and decided to just accept it.
My final thoughts before drifting to sleep were on the line of 'Lets just let it happen, besides it isn't that bad...'
For the rest of the night we both slept comfortably. No longer was I haunted by my thoughts or nightmares as I slept peacefully.
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Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
Waking up groggily I tried to turn over to only see that I couldn't move.
'What the?' I tried moving again only to feel the grip tighten around me. Something was wrapped around my legs and chest, holding me down. Turning over albeit with difficulty, I was nearly face to face with a sleeping Tracer.
'Oh my gosh!' My mind blanked for a moment until I was soon the same color as my cloak. Trying to pull away from Lena she tightened her grip on me. Locking my legs and body in place, like a koala she stuck around me.
Struggling to break free I began to wake her up with my constant movements. "Lena! Lena get up pleaseeee!" Begging at this point I finally saw Lena groggily wake up. Blinking a couple times Lena looked at me who was a face away from her.
Taking a second to see how close we were, Lena blushed as well and let go. Falling out of the bed, she quickly stood and scratched her head.
"Heh heh, sorry love. I tend to do that when I sleep, add on to the fact that you were so warm I just couldn't help it..." Lena began to trail off about how it was her fault and I simply stopped her.
"It's ok, I kind of enjoyed it too, but now is not the time! I have been trying to wake you for like 10 minutes! I already have to make you breakfast because of the bet too." Frowning I quickly got up and grabbed the outfit that looked like the one I used to wear in Beacon.
"My bad love, how about I help you again this time? After all you got that test dontcha?" Lena asked as she began to search for her outfit.
Nodding towards Lena I said "Yeah I'm slightly excited, I told Angela and McCree as well so they are coming to watch."
Lena stopped looking for her clothes that were scattered across the room and looked towards me. "No way! You got McCree to come? Usually he is out drinking on his days off!" Lena said excitedly.
"Yeah, he reminds me of a couple people who drink a lot. I just got him to come after listening to him talk for awhile." I happily said until I got a sudden headache as I remembered a couple people who were similar to McCree.
Flinching at the sudden pain I grabbed my head lightly. 'What the... Oh yeah its not just Uncle Qrow, Mason had an Uncle who drank as well...' I thought as memories of Mason's uncle made themselves known.
Lena looked at me with worry and lightly said "You ok love?"
Looking towards Lena I put on a smile and nodded my head. "Yeah just a sudden headache, I will be all good." I said the last part while giving her a thumbs up.
Giving no time for Lena to speak I quickly said "Alright I am going to quickly change and start breakfast, meet you in the commons room!"
And with that I vanished in a cloud of roses into the bathroom to change. Changing quickly I threw my pajamas into Lena's room and made my way to the kitchenette. Looking around the commons room I only saw Angela, once again drinking coffee, albeit this time not passed out.
"Ah good morning Ruby, I'm excited to see you do well in your test in a couple hours." Angela greeted me as I was walking towards the kitchenette.
'Hmm I wonder if she want's anything for breakfast.' I thought as I greeted Angela.
"Good morning to you too! Great to see you aren't asleep at the table again, heh." I chuckled the last part to Angela and she blushed slightly.
Stammering out a reply she said "I-I was simply just tired from working."
Laughing at her reply I calmed down as I noticed her glare. 'Better not get on her bad side...' I thought as I remembered all of the needles she stuck me with.
"Heh, sorry? Oh yeah do you want something for breakfast? Me and Lena are going to be making something." I asked as I tried to change the focus of the conversation.
Surprisingly it worked and Angela stopped glaring at me. "Hmmm if it isn't too much work for you I will just take whatever you make. I'm not that picky." Angela replied.
And with that I began making breakfast. About 5 minutes later Lena came teleporting in and began to help. We made a simple but classic dish for breakfast, which was Bacon, Eggs, and Toast.
I chose to make a sandwich with mine as Lena and Angela decided to eat there's as it was.
Angela ate her food and said "Oh wow I am surprised that both of you can cook so well."
Lena took pride and pointed her thumb to herself. Cheekily Lena said "Ha of course I am the best cook on base love. The only other person who can compete is my good friend Ruby!" Lena grabbed my shoulder as I laughed slightly.
After that Angela, Lena, and I all had a short conversation about the rest of the day and made our way out of the commons room to do our own things. Lena decided to go do some exercises while I opted out and chose to see Winston.
Traveling down the halls I passed a multitude of different people who I greeted occasionally. Approaching the science wing I came across Winston's massive lab. Knocking on the glass sliding door I heard Winston approach.
"Ah Ruby, I see you have come for the device to transfer photos and videos?" Winston asked as he typed in a code on the door and it unlocked. I smiled and walked in.
"Yep!" I happily replied as I entered the lab and Winston led me to a small table in the corner. On the table was my scroll and some small cylindrical device.
"The device is all finished, I have left everything here for you to do it yourself. After all you might have something that I shouldn't see." Winston said towards me as I gratefully nodded towards him due to his thoughtfulness.
"Thanks Winston, this means a lot to me." I blurted out as I took the device. Trying to turn it on I had some difficulty until Winston pressed the top of the device and a hologram popped out.
"Alright on your scroll I want you to connect to the device. It should appear as an unlisted device." Winston told me.
I smiled at the thought of saving my photos and happily did what Winston told me. Opening my scroll I connected to the device. I watched as my scroll screen shared to the hologram, showing my menu for the scroll.
Completely forgetting that Winston was behind me, I began to quickly go through all of my old videos and photos on my scroll. I looked at the video of Pyrrha giving tips for Jaune. Getting slightly upset I sent the video to the device.
Slowly but surely I went through videos and photos of my family, team, and even some training videos by Uncle Qrow. Since I had some time I looked at a video of team RWBY and I fighting against some grimm. The video taken by Nora, you could hear her happily cheer in the background.
"Look at them go Ren! I can't wait until it's our turn!" Nora excitedly shouted in the video as I slashed a large Ursa in half with the help of Weiss.
"Ahem!" I paused the video and turned wide eyed as I saw Winston was trying to get my attention.
"Ruby, is that a movie you were filming or was that real?" Winston asked me as he observed the grimm in the background of the video.
'Oh my gosh I'm an idiot...' I thought as I began to become nervous.
"Uhhh... I was filming a movie?" I said sheepishly as I poorly lied to Winston. Winston saw right through me and deadpanned at me.
"So then it wasn't a movie... Where did you find those creatures? They look like grotesques experiments gone wrong." Winston asked me as he was staring at the video.
'Why does no one believe my lies...' I helplessly thought as I tried to come up with an answer for Winston.
Getting a slight headache, one of Mason's personality traits appeared. His ability to play off and lie. Flinching in pain for a moment I came up with an easy answer.
"Haha! No need to worry Winston, it was just a simple video my friends and I made. Those are simply props, no need to pry." I boisterously exclaimed to Winston.
Winston hummed for a moment and looked down at me. Almost seeing my change in demeanor from nervous and meek, to powerful and boisterous, he became slightly nervous.
"Ah you must be right, I apologize for prying Ruby. There is no way those nightmares would be real, I will go back to working now. Call me if you need anything." Winston quickly said and scampered away.
"Don't worry my friend I will call you if I need anything!" I happily shouted as I began to go through photos and videos of RWBY. 'Hmm these photos and videos are quite...' I thought only to be cut off by a pain.
Clutching my head I nearly dropped to the floor. "Aghh!" I exclaimed as I stumbled slightly. Winston saw my pain and quickly came over to help me balance myself.
"Are you okay Ruby?" Winston asked as he helped me sit down in a chair next to the table.
Breathing heavily I felt the pain subside, slowly I let go of my head and nodded towards Winston. Putting on a fake smile I told Winston "Heh, no need to worry. I just had a pretty bad headache all of the sudden."
Trying to play off my sudden pain, I watched as Winston looked deeply into my eyes in worry. Winston stared at me and sighed.
"Are you sure you are okay? Have you been having these pains a lot?" Winston asked me like a doctor would.
Playing off my situation I smiled and said "Yeah I'm fine. I just woke up with a bad headache today, nothing bad."
Winston stared at me and walked away towards a larger table. Opening a drawer on it he pulled out a bottle filled with pills. Walking back over he handed me one of them and said "Here, take these. It is medicine to help with headaches. I keep these for myself so they should be more powerful than normal."
I frowned slightly but took the pill anyway. Swallowing the pill I thanked Winston and told him he could go back to doing his own thing. After that I went back through old videos of my team and downloaded them to the device.
About 5 minutes later I finished transferring everything from my phone to the device and told Winston.
"Winston, I finished! Now what do I do?" I half yelled across the room to Winston who was eating peanut butter. Winston heard me and put down his bananas and peanut butter, and walked over to me.
"I will take care of the rest. This device should have transferred everything to two different computer chips. You just have to plug the chip into a computer and it will automatically download." Winston said as he began tampering with the device.
Pulling out two chips he handed both to me and said "There is two incase you lose one of the chips, so make sure to place the other somewhere special."
Nodding towards him I took both chips and put one of them in a very small hidden pocket on the inside of my cloak. "Thanks Winston, again for everything. But looking at the time it seems I have to take my test now."
Winston smiled slightly and turned off the device. "No problem Ruby, I enjoy you're company. Also if you keep having headaches you should talk to Angela, she will help."
I got up from the chair and walked out of the lab while waving goodbye to Winston. Pocketing both my spare chip and scroll, I began to walk to the room where I was told to be. After some time of walking I saw a room with the door open and a sign saying Training Room, above it.
'Welp, this is the place... Let's do this!' I cheerfully thought as I made my way into the room.
Entering the room I saw a massive open area that was split based on what training you were doing. There was a shooting range which was long enough for sniper training. A small obstacle course that had a timer above it. What seemed to be the training citadel from Starars the Clonewars. And finally a large arena, meant for fighting.
'What the...' Was all I could think as I saw how massive the training room was. 'Is this where they spend their budget!?'
Shaking my head I saw a small overhang where a couple people were standing. Anna, Angela, Lena, and McCree were all standing up there. Checking my scroll for the time I saw I was 5 minutes late, so I quickly made my way to the ledge.
Approaching the ledge I shouted up to Anna. "Hello! What do I do first?"
Anna was having a conversation with the people around her but suddenly stopped. Turning her head down to look at me she had a vein appear on her head.
"You are late! By 5 minutes! But I will let this slide only once, so first I want you to follow me." Anna shouted towards me as she and everyone else made there way down from the overhang. They all entered an elevator that opened up on the wall that took them down to me.
Anna stormed out of the door with a sniper on her back and made her way to the shooting range. Quickly I followed while thinking 'Huh if memory serves me right, Anna was the best sniper in the world at one point...'
I followed Anna all the way to the other side of the training room, which was a very long walk, and stood behind her at the sniping range.
"Alright, I want to see your skills with a sniper. You already have one so I will allow you to use that. The goal is to hit as many targets as accurately as possible with one magazine." Anna told me as she began to demonstrate.
Anna took the sniper from her shoulders and began to aim. Slowly she hit a target at the end of the range in the head, and then began to move to others.
Bang!
The sound of her sniper going off like a thunderclap was deafening. She hit nearly 6 headshots until she missed her 7th and hit the neck of a moving target. 'She's good... Real good.' I thought as I watched the targets move towards us to show her work.
Anna saw the neck shot and sighed. "That paperwork has been rusting my skills..." Anna said disappointedly.
'What? That is still really good?! How can she be upset.' I thought as I stared in disbelief at her statement.
Anna shook her head and readied new targets. Sending the targets down the range she simply said "Alright, your turn."
And with her mark, I pulled out Crescent Rose. Not unfolding Crescent Rose all the way, and leaving her in the sniper configuration I began to take aim. Ignoring the few surprised glances at my gun, I began to shoot.
Bang! Shinck!
The sound of my shot rung around as a casing hit the floor. The shoot flew true and hit the head of a moving target.
'Let's do this!' I cheerfully thought as this was nowhere near as difficult as hitting grimm. The thing is, hitting grimm with a sniper is much more difficult than it seems. Different sizes, different armor, and different speeds all plays into my ability to hit the grimm with a fatal shot. That is why I had different dust rounds, which I can still use somehow.
Chuckling slightly I thought 'At least I don't have to do this while falling, like when I fought Cordovin and her mech."
Bang! Shinck!
The sound repeated itself as I shot almost all the target with a headshot, until I missed one shot entirely on a target that quickly ducked behind cover. With my last shot I waited for it to pop back up.
After a couple seconds it popped back up and I aimed for where its heard would be. Taking aim I shot and saw as the bullet went straight through the target.
Wiping my head from nonexistent sweat I checked to make sure Crescent Rose was empty. 'Wow, that last one was a little difficult...' I thought as I put Crescent Rose back into her compacted state.
"Hmm not too bad, you are nearly as good as I am." Anna said as she lightly clapped while smiling towards me. I turned and looked to see McCree nodding, Angela clapping as well, and Lena cheering.
Lena jumped up and interrupted Anna "Wow love I never thought you could shoot that good!"
Angela was smiling while McCree made his own opinion known. "You are a good shot, deadly and proficient. Where did ya learn to shoot like that?"
Smiling slightly I scratched the back of my head after hearing McCree's and Lena's compliment. Deciding to answer McCree I said "Well I had a lot of training but mostly my Uncle Qrow taught me."
"Well, he must have been quite skilled." Anna spoke up finally as she looked at the targets that just made it back. Anna then took the targets down and put them in the trash.
"Alright, next up is going to be hand to hand combat. Our good friend McCree here has volunteered to fight you." Anna said as she walked up and patted McCree on the back.
Hearing that I was doing hand to hand I had flash backs of all my failures with Yang. The only thing that kept me from feeling downtrodden was all of the memories of martial arts from Mason. The only issue being is that Mason focused on grappling techniques, and with my body and size, it would be much more difficult.
Gulping slightly I nodded my head nervously as McCree and I made our way to the arena.
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(Authors Note)
Hoped you enjoyed this chapter, as the training simulation will continue next chapter. I just wanted to let it be known that this will be eventual Multiverse travel, and it might take awhile as I am trying to make each world matter or have a lasting effect.
I plan for the Overwatch world to be a base world, or somewhere she will stay at the most as she try's to make her way back to Remnant. The plan is for the first Multiverse travel to be sometime during the span of when Overwatch was disbanded. So it might take some time, as I am slightly slow with progression.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
GaZe_Zero
GaZe_Zero Hope you enjoyed the chapter, put a little note at the end for anyone wondering when I will get to Multiverse Travel. Hoped you enjoyed the slight amount of romance/fluff. I am now going to be starting the long journey of Mason/Ruby merging completely, but it will take some time sooo... Other than that cya next chapter.
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
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