[hider=Exposed Faces]
Sapphire sighed as she entered her dorm room with a slight smile on her face. She was wearing an attractive black dress and heels, her hair was pulled back with a silver clasp and she was wearing a rather expensive looking necklace, her grandmother's idea. Many who knew her would have sworn she'd rather face a dozen ursa, alone, unarmed than wear these types of cloths. She still had Morpheus and Phobator on her wrists but she'd had left her deconstructed polearm in the dorm. Another oddity in her normal routine. Tonight had been her first official date with Oswald Connolly. After several months of sparing practice and a fair amount of encouragement from his own teammates [i]and[/i] Sapphire's, Oswald had finally gotten up the nerve to ask her out.

It had been nice, Oswald had taken her to a classy restaurant, low ambient light, wood stove, freshly baked bread and exotic food. It was a rather romantic setting. Afterwards they taken a walk along the pier then the airship back to Beacon. Much to her surprise he'd kissed her on the airdock. The kiss had been almost electric, like a spark jumping between them. He'd asked her to come with him to see the Blood Moon, an astrological even that look place once every five years in which the stars lined up at just the right angle to give the moon both a dark red hue and the appearance that it was still intact. Flustered and nervous from the kiss (an uncommon condition for Sapphire) she'd declined, needing to sort the night out in her own head. Oswald had smiled and left her to return to the dorms.

At dinner they'd talked about most of the usual things. Life at Beacon, their teams and teammates, and to some extent their home lives. Sapphire had avoided the subject of her parents as best she could not wanting to ruin the mood. She'd never been on a proper date before and so wasn't exactly sure of the protocols. She'd told Oswald about her younger sister Demetra's struggle to control her empathic semblance, how her older sister Cecily had gone to art school, she'd mentioned that her brother Oliver had run away when she was little but didn't elaborate on the circumstances surrounding it.

Oswald himself talked about what it was like growing up in a small town on the outskirts of Vale. Sapphire had heard of those kinds of places. They were just outside the Vale wards and so didn't have the same protection from the Creatures of Grimm that the rest of the Kingdoms did. It had always sounded like a difficult life to Sapphire. Most of the people had to become hunters in their own right out of the need to survive as well as whatever they did for a living. The general store owner kept a dust empowered sword behind the counter, the records keeper had a case of dust capsules. No one who lived in a place like that didn't learn to fight. It explained why Oswald never attended a pre-academy school like Signal. Aside from having to defend the town Oswald's childhood had sounded nice, it seemed to Sapphire to be a simple existence. In a small town everyone knew you, you were friends with the neighbors kids and the entire town showed up when there was a barbecue. Sapphire didn't have a similar experience that she could relate. 

"What do you think the world would be like if the Grimm were just gone?" he'd asked her. 

Sapphire who was a little bit high on caffeine (she'd had three glasses of cola so far) smiled and said "I think we'd be out of a career." 

Oswald smiled too. "I doubt you'd be out of one for long, with you're kind of stealth abilities someone would be looking to hire you." He said good-naturedly. "But I"m serious, if all the Grimm where eradicated how do you think the world would change?"

Sapphire shook her head. "I think everyone would be a whole lot better off. The Kingdoms would be able to expand as they liked."

After that the conversation had moved to less intense matters.

Sapphire pulled off her heels. While they did look good on her they also hurt like hell. Her feet where burning from wearing them for a couple of hours.

The girl with the azure hair changed into softer clothing, hanging the black dress up in the dorm closet. Most of it was taken up by Shiro's mess of stuff but Sapphire had managed to wrestle a small section of it away from everyone else. Luckily her teammates had been too scared of damaging her cloths to put their stuff to close to hers. Somehow her reputation as a psychopath had gone up after their team pet, Scoot the telepathic ferret had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The truth was that she'd taken him to an animal shelter after she'd found him worming around in her violin case (She'd had to have the instrument and its case detailed after the event) but Shiro and Gren were fairly certain that she'd killed the animal in some horrific way. Sapphire never bothered to correct their suspicions.

Now in her pajamas Sapphire crawled into bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

The next day, mercifully a Sunday was one of the rare occasions when Sapphire slept late. Under normal circumstances it would not be abnormal to find her awake as early as six O'clock. Her nightmares, usually about her family were still a very real part of her sleep cycle and though she did not mention it to anyone, least of all her teammates after closing her eyes on the pillow Sapphire often feared what the night would bring her. A small mercy was that last night she had slept completely soundly for the first time in a month. Undisturbed rest did not come to her very often.

Slowly Sapphire convinced herself to get up. Pulling the blanket off herself she got to her feet and walked into the bathroom. She stripped out of her pajamas and turned on the hot water. She still had near boiling showers. When Shiro had asked about all the steam that filled the bathroom during her showers she'd replied that she liked hot showers cause she was practicing burning in hell. He'd recoiled a little bit which Sapphire found deeply amusing.

With her shower complete Sapphire returned to the dorms and dressed in something a little more casual. Her weapons of course along with ripped black jeans, a studded belt, a black tank top that hugged her figure, and black converse hightops. Though she had a bit of variation this was her most common casual appearance. The skirt and leggings were reserved for combat, as was the jacket embroidered with her emblem, an ornate tree, a symbol of life.

As she was getting ready to leave, no plans in particular she just wanted to move around somewhat the door to the dorms opened. It was Gren. "Wow, finally awake, I don't think I've ever seen you sleep this late."

Sapphire shrugged. The friction between her and Gren had been slowly intensifying as the year went on. He seemed to think she wasn't open enough about herself and her past and this made her untrustworthy while Sapphire herself thought that Gren was far too nosy and she was fairly certain that he thought he'd make a much more effective leader than she did. This was not based on anything concrete, just the way he tried to take charge whenever Swangsong was on a mission.

"Got in late last night, had to sleep it off."

"Where were you last night anyways?"

Sapphire didn't really think it was Gren's business but as it wasn't any particular secret (in fact it would likely be common gossip by later today) she didn't see the harm in telling him. "I was on a date."

Gren looked almost flabbergasted. "A date? You? With whom?"

Sapphire smiled "Oswald."

A look of confusion passed over Gren's face. "Oswald...? Oswald who? Is he a student?"

Sapphire stared, he had to be joking. She couldn't say they were exactly friends but Gren and Oswald knew each other fairly well. They were in the same armory class. "Yeah... Oswald Connolly." she said her confusion mounting. "He's part of team Codex."

"Codex?" Gren asked "I'm not familiar with that team, what are their letters."

Something was seriously wrong now. Sapphire couldn't understand, maybe Gren might not have recognized Oswald's name but he should know the names of the other teams. "C-O-D-E."

A look of understanding bloomed over Gren's face and for a moment Sapphire thought he remembered. "Your confused, I think you mean team Cadet C-[b][i]A[/i][/b]-D-E."

"[i]A?[/i] Who's name is that?"

"Aurellius."

"Aurellius... No. He dropped out first week of school."

"You know Sapphire I'm sure there's a lot of guys at the school that would be simply delighted to go out with you, you don't need to make someone up. Besides I'm sure you can come up with more believable lies than that one."

Sapphire knew that Gren was questioning her credibility but she disregarded it completely. [i]Where was Oswald?[/i] No the most obvious explanation was that Gren was messing with her. There was an easy way to prove it though. Sapphire leapt to her feet and left the room. She ran down the hall to find Team Codex's dorm room. Except when she got there the sign on the door read:

[center]
[b]Team Cadet
CADE
Cobalt Chideta, Aurellius Bellum, Diamond Frost, Emerald Felicia[/b]
[@floodtalon], [@SirBeowulf], [@Forsythe], [@Abillioncats]
[/center]

Ignoring the breaking of the forth wall Sapphire stared at the plate in disbelief. It was impossible. Sapphire knocked on the door desperate to be sure, it was always possible that Gren had altered the name plate to further his gag. Emerald answered. "Oh hi Sapphire. You need something?" The cat faunus looked rather disheveled, she was likely also sleeping late this Sunday morning.

"Is Aurellius there?" Sapphire asked certain she was about to be asked [i]'Aurellius who?'[/i] as Emerald could only have met him once or twice several months ago.

"Yeah, he's polishing the Ascalon. You need..."

Without waiting for Emerald to finish Sapphire shoved the door open further to see inside. There sat Aurellius just as Emerald said doing maintenance on his weapons which Sapphire had always regarded as rather clumsy. "What are you doing here, what happened to Oswald?" Sapphire demanded.

"Whoa whatcha doing?" Emerald said her cat hair standing on end at the surprise.

Aurellius looked up at the disturbance. "Hi Sapphire, I live here, and who's Oswald?"

"You dropped out first week of school. You're not supposed to be here."

Aurellius had a look on his face that suggested he thought Sapphire had lost her mind. "If you don't mind, I'm not [i]supposed[/i] to be anywhere this morning. It's a weekend and this is my dorm. I suggest you have your psychotic meltdown in your own space." Aurellius got up and shoved the door closed in Sapphire's face.

This had gone too far. Calling Aurellius back to the school was going to far even for Gren. Something must have happened to Oswald. But that didn't explain why Aurellius had returned to the school or why no one seemed to know who Oswald was. Sapphire decided to ask Ozpin about this. If Oswald had ever attended this school (which some part of Sapphire was starting to doubt) there would be a school record of it.

Sapphire stopped right before Ozpin's door at the top of the tower. He'd be here at this hour. Of course if what Sapphire was beginning to suspect was true then Ozpin was going to think that she had gone crazy. Never the less Sapphire had to know if Oswald had actually attended this school.

Sapphire knocked on the giant doors that led to Ozpin's office. "Enter." she heard spoken calmly but loudly from the other side. She pushed the door open and walked into Ozpin's office. Upon seeing her the headmaster looked over his spectacle. "Miss Rode, what can I do for you today?"

"I was... that is..." Sapphire wasn't really sure how to ask if Ozpin had ever heard of a student which until yesterday had attended this school.

"Speak Miss Rode."

"I was wondering if you could check the school records for a student called Oswald Connolly?" Though Sapphire said it calmly her heart was pounding in her chest as though it wished to escape.

"Hmm... The name does not sound familiar but I can search the records if it is that important."

"It is."

"Very well." Ozpin turned on his computer and after a moment or so of typing he turned back to her. "I am sorry Miss Rode. The most recent Oswald Connolly to attend this academy did so nearly sixty five years ago. He is no longer living.

"So there wasn't a student of that name enrolled... say, at the beginning of this year?"

"Not that I am aware of." Ozpin said evenly. "If I may ask, what is the significant of that name? You seem rather disappointed that I did not find anything."

"It's not important anymore." Sapphire said, a little dejectedly. "I think I just lost something that's all."

"Indeed," Ozpin said, his eyebrows raised giving Sapphire a look that seemed to say he knew exactly what she wasn't telling him. "Well Miss Rode if you ever wish to discuss this, thing you lost. I will be here."

"Yes sir." Said Sapphire. She walked out of his office, the usual defiant spring in her step missing. As she left a brilliant light shone from where Ozpin was sitting. Assuming it was merely one of the instruments on his desk being activated Sapphire didn't bother to look back and failed to realize that he too had vanished without a trace, the objects pertaining to him vanishing from the office and the school right along with him.

Sapphire spent the rest of the day wondering aimlessly around campus. Had she imagined Oswald as Gren had insinuated? That wasn't possible, then again, a guy who respected her for her abilities, didn't pry further into her personal life any more than she liked, wanted her help improving his own combat abilities and was unphased by her harsh persona. If anyone had bothered to ask that might have been how she described her dream date. Maybe she had thought him up to comfort her when she felt totally alone at Beacon. All the evidence suggested that he had never been born.

The next night Sapphire slept fitfully. Along with the usual nightmares about her father's training, about drowning and about losing her sisters Sapphire's head was filled with images of Oswald reaching out a hand to her. [i]"Why have you forsaken me?"[/i] he seemed to ask her but she couldn't respond.

Sapphire got up early again next morning, she had another boiling shower and dressed in her combat gear for class with Goodwitch. When she arrived in class Sapphire was surprised to see Professor Port standing in the area. As the class filed in Port began to announce the days task in his usual boisterous manor. Sapphire sat in the stands and leaned over to Abel who was sitting a seat over from her. "Where's Goodwitch? Why isn't she here today?"

Abel looked at her funny. "Goodwitch? Why would she be here?"

"She teaches this class."

Abel raised his eyebrows in mild disbelief. "She hasn't done that since my parents were at this school. She appointed Port to the position after she was promoted."

"Promoted to what?"

"Headmistress. Obviously."

"Headmistress?" Sapphire asked confused. "What happened to Ozpin?"

"Who?" Abel asked trying to listen to what Port was saying.

"Ozpin, glasses, white hair, green scarf. Kinda gives off an all knowing vibe."

Abel shrugged. "Doesn't sound like any teacher at this school. You sure you didn't have a strange dream last night?"

[i]Several of them.[/i] Sapphire thought. Her head was spinning. She could understand hallucinating a boyfriend to comfort her in her dark moments but Ozpin. The man had always sort of given her the creeps. He wasn't the type of person [i]she[/i] would dream up. That had to mean one thing. People were disappearing, not only from the school but from memory as well. And she was the only person that remembered them. It was impossible.

As she went through her classes she noticed certain people missing from class. Amy, Ebon, Lauren, Sepia, Jack, Robert among others. Sapphire made some discreet investigations into their whereabouts (and with the exception of Robert who seemed to have tripped down a flight of stairs and was now in the infirmary with a broken arm) no one had heard of the missing students. In some cases drop outs that Sapphire remembered had returned to fill vacant seats on teams and in the case of Teams Bastille and Kiss had merged to create BSSK, [b]B[/b]er[b]ss[/b]er[b]k[/b]. At the end of the school day Sapphire downloaded a copy of the school register, as proof that the students still present in the school did actually exist.

When their last class let out Sapphire sought out the last person she expected to ask for help: Shiro. She found him in the Beacon gardens. He'd dropped his sixth period: Computer Sciences a month into the term and now had a free period.

"Shiro." Sapphire said rather than calling him furball.

The tiger faunus perked up at his name and jumped to his feet. His tail fell almost immediately on seeing who had greeted him. "Ah Sapphire, well, um I've got to go." He attempted to walk past her but Sapphire stepped in his path.

"Shiro I need your help, can we talk?"

The tiger faunus looked dumbfounded like he couldn't believe what had just come out of Sapphire's mouth.

"Uh, okay, sure." He said sitting down on the garden bench.

"Have you ever heard of the names: Jack Orpheus, Amaranth Desire, or Sepia Russet?" There was no use going through the entire list of missing students. Sapphire was sure she'd get the same answer and she herself wasn't sure of all of those that had disappeared.

Shiro stuffed his tail into his mouth as he thought. Finally he spat it out and said. "No, but the last two sound cute. Wait, do I know them? Did I have another episode? I've been cutting back on my semblance but..." Shiro looked visibly worried.

It wasn't Sapphire's normal role to console Shiro but she desperately needed help and somehow she thought he might just believe her. "Don't worry, its got nothing to do with your semblance." Shiro looked relieved. "Look I'm going to tell you something and it's going to sound nuts, just try to keep an open mind."

"Alright," Shiro said putting his tail back in his mouth. The sight looked very strange to Sapphire but she had more pressing issues.

"Those names as well as a number of others belong to Beacon students that up to yesterday attended this school." Shiro looked confused but motioned her to continue speaking. "The thing is when I woke up this morning they were gone. Not just that but no one had ever heard of them. Their teams have new members and have been renamed, the school has no records of them and it seems I am the only one that remembers they were ever hear. I called some of their parents and even they didn't know the names."

Shiro spat out his tail. "Did you take a blow to the head recently?" Shiro asked.

"What?! No!" Sapphire yelled. In truth she had in Friday's combat class but that wouldn't really help her credibility. "I figured you of all people would give me the benefit of the doubt."

"Why me?"

"Cause... I figured you would know what it was like everyone thinking you were crazy."

"Think about it logically." Sapphire snorted. "Okay I know I'm not the poster child for that but think about it, either people have been vanishing from time, space and memory except for yours for some reason... or... that blow you took during Friday's class was a little harder than you thought."

Sapphire set her jaw. "Fine don't help."

"It's not that I don't want to help Sapphire but assuming what you say is true, what could I do?"

Sapphire turned away from the tiger, disgusted she closed her eyes, about to rally an argument for why he should believe her but she never got the chance. A brilliant blinding light illuminated Sapphire's eyelids. She turned around to look at Shiro. Behind him was a sphere of light that undulated and spun like a giant crack in space. "Shiro!" she shouted, "Get over her quick." she said looking past him at the rift.

"What is it?" her teammate asked. "What are you looking at?" He turned to look at the light but showed no sight that he could see it at all.

"Please Shiro! Just trust me, move away from it. Just come towards me." She said her body flooded with fear and adrenaline. Shiro looked rather nervous but he stood up.

"What is..." he started but he never finished the sentence. The rift surged forward and enveloped him. She saw him vanish in light, the look on his face still as though he had know idea it was there. "SHIRO!" she screamed looking at the place where he'd vanished.

Sapphire turned and ran. She kept going and going till she slammed into the door of Swansong's dorm her chest heaving. Gren opened the door in response to the noise of her stopping herself against it. "Sapphire, where's the fire?"

"Gren, when was the last time you saw Shiro?"

"Shiro? Another new student? Haven't met him, how's he fight?"

"SHIRO!" Sapphire shouted, "You're partner, our teammate!"

"Sapphire are you okay? Our teammate is Abel Fulgurate. Are you okay."

"Then who's the fourth member of our team?"

"Sapphire, teams at Beacon only have three members."

Sapphire was aghast. She pulled the door half closed to look at the plaque on it. It read:

[center][b]Team Swansong
SAG
Sapphire Rode, Abel Fulgurate, Gren Orchid[/b]
[@Prince of Seraphs], [@Lugubrious], [@Lucius Cypher][/center]

Sapphire looked at Gren for a moment then started running again. She didn't stop till she was standing in Beacon's Hall of Awards. It contained the trophies of all the students ever to get accommodations as well as team photos of every team to pass through Beacon. Sapphire scanned through the photos. Each only had three members. She came to the photo she was looking for, one of her mother, her father, a blond boy she'd never met and her Uncle Danny. Except Daniel wasn't in the photo. She remembered what it was supposed to look like. Her father was leaning on Daniel's shoulder, Melanie was in a crouch with Morpheus and Phobator in her hands and the blond boy was hanging out of a tree. The photo was the same except Janus was leaning on a his sword instead of Daniel. It couldn't be.

Sapphire wandered through the day in a haze, like a girl watching someone else's life. She was like a zombie till she went to bed that night. She lay awake for hours fearing that someone else would be gone in the morning. When she finally did sleep she had the most surreal dream.

Sapphire was standing on a battlefield. The ground had turned to mud with the amount of blood that had been spilled on it. Buildings were burning all around them and with a shock Sapphire realized she was standing in the Beacon square, except it looked like a war zone. There were shouts not far off. Sapphire saw people lumbering towards a lone figure. On closer look she realized that each person was a student or teacher at Beacon except they appeared to be dead. Huge gashes and cuts all over their body, ashy skin and lumbering stocky movements, like zombies. The most chilling detail was that each one wore a Grimm mask that was fused to their faces with black tendrils of darkness.

The lone figured they were approaching was Oswald. He was fighting each of them off with all his might and skill and a number of maneuvers that she herself had taught him. Even if these Grimmified students lacked the coordination and skill of their live counterparts they were much stronger, unyielding and never dying. After Oswald cut one down they got up again, placed their severed limp back in place where the bones reattached though the skin remained sliced to pieces.

"OSWALD!" Sapphire shouted. She drew her shotguns and assembled them into their polearm form with the sickle blades extended. She slashed through dead Grimm students to the boy who'd asked her out a few short days ago. "Oswald, thank god, I thought you were gone."

Oswald looked at her like she was the last drop of water in a desert wasteland. "Sapphire," he said and the tone of his voice shattered her heart. "Trust me I [i]am[/i] gone. I made a huge mistake. I tried to fix it all. I should have known there was a reason [i]they[/i] didn't do it this way." He was raving, huge bags under his eyes declared that her hadn't slept in days. He continued to slash at the dead students keeping them away from Sapphire. "They were keeping it at bay, limiting it to our dreams but [i]I[/i] let it out. Now it'll come for everything. Beacon then Vale then the other kingdoms. [i]THIS[/i] he shouted in desperation motioning around at the destruction of Beacon surrounding them. "[i]This[/i] is what awaits everyone. I brought this down on all of them."

"Oswald, calm down." Sapphire said, slashing Ebon and Shiro with her polearm before slicing Gren in half. "Tell me what I have to do. There must be a way to reverse this right?"

"There's nothing you can do Sapphire, he'll come for you to. But he wants to make you suffer first. He wants to punish me more for protecting your memory by taking everything away from you before he snatches you up and spits you back out, like them." He said motioning to the hoard surrounding them. Sapphire kicked Professor Port and Oobleck out of the way before looking back at Oswald as he fought with Sepia and Skyra.

"The kiss." Sapphire said thinking of the electric charge that had passed between them when Oswald had kissed her on the airdocks what felt like centuries ago.

"There was a rare form of dust on my lips that protected you from what I was trying to do but it went wrong. All wrong, and now everything will end because of my arrogance. I thought I could do it better than the Dust Men. I thought I knew what I was doing but it's all over now. We're all going to fall away."

"There has to be [i]something[/i] Oswald. Don't force me to be the voice of hope, it's not a good look for me."

A small smile broke over Oswald's cracked lips. "I don't know what you can do, but there's a historical excavation report, written by Oobleck about the Kingdom wards. It gave me the idea, it'll tell you what happened. Just remember whatever happens I'm sorry... and I love you." Sapphire was about to respond when Oswald's eyes widened. "SAPPHIRE LOOK OUT!" she shouted but it was too late. Sapphire felt a blade touch her neck and slice right through her aura. She fell to the ground and her decapitated head saw Napoli Fiordilatte standing with a deranged look underneath his own Grimm mask. Even though his Rapier wasn't designed to slice the dead man's brute strength had pushed it clean through her neck with ease.

A second later Sapphire sat bolt upright in bed. She looked at the clock. It was four in the morning. There were only two beds in the dorm room. Her's and Gren, Abel had vanished. Sapphire didn't sleep that night. She sat rocking back and forth staring out the window at the shattered moon and waiting for dawn. Finally it came and along with it only a marginal amount of relief. Gren didn't know who Abel was so there was no point in mentioning it. Instead she had her shower as usual and went to combat class. The room was almost completely empty with a half dozen people and now Oobleck teaching the class. When she asked Gren about it Sapphire was startled to discover that with the exception of Goodwitch who was still headmistress Beacon didn't have any other teachers, it also didn't seem to have any other students. The names on the class register Sapphire had printed off had a fraction of the names on it and despite the fact that Beacon hadn't changed sizes almost all of the dorms had blank name plates or only had one or two names on them.

The girl with the azure hair looked up Oobleck's paper on her scroll before he vanished too and his work along with him. It was a bit dusty but the message was fairly clear:

[b]Bartholomew Oobleck - Excavation Notes
Page 38
Effects of the Blood Moon[/b]

[i]Ever culture in Remnant both those past and present has some sort of mythology regarding the Blood Moon that occurs every five years, in which the alignment of the stars give the moon the astonishing appearance of being whole as well as a red hue comparable to blood, hence the name 'Blood Moon'. The artifacts cataloged on Page 13 are the first tangible evidence that this piece of folklore began on a basis of a real event. Most ancient cultures cite the Blood Moon as the time when the demons converge on the world. We can assume this is a reference to the Creatures of Grimm and it has been noted that Grimm are more active on the night of the Blood Moon. One such tale says that the Lord of Nightmares visits the world once every five years, the Blood Moon allows him access to this world after the ancients banished him centuries ago. This is likely just embellishment to give the story a more dramatic appeal but the idea that these "ancients" banished a creature of power that very well may have been a Level 5 Type Grimm seems according to the evidence I've gathered be rooted in fact.

I believe the discovered artifacts proves that the Dust Men, Remnants first recorded people used a rare brand of dust, what they referred to as "Banishing Magic" to create the wards that protect the four kingdoms from the Creatures of Grimm, something specific about the formation of the Blood Moon allowed the "Banishing Dust" to act in a way that was abnormal to create this result. Item 12A seems to be a vile filled with this dust. Item 12B, a tablet which the vile was stored with seems to warn of a calamity if the "Magic" is ever employed again. It may refer to the fact that this dust may be able to reverse the creation of the Kingdom Wards. Further inquiry into why these wards were not made larger is required. A speculatory hypothesis is that the wards would be unsustainable at larger sizes. We have no evidence at this point in time to suggest the validity this hypothesis.[/i]

As Sapphire read it became painfully obvious what Oswald had done. He'd discovered another source of this rare dust, possibly stolen from this very excavation trove. During this year's Blood Moon Oswald had attempted to use it to expand the Kingdom Wards. Clearly something had gone wrong, Sapphire didn't understand exactly how but it seemed that because of whatever Oswald had done people were vanishing out of space and memory. Yet Oswald was still alive, somewhere, trapped in some sort of limbo. Perhaps the others were too. Maybe this could be undone. But another Blood Moon wouldn't occur for another five years. Plus she didn't have any more of this Banishing Dust. Oswald had likely used up his supply.

Someone tapped Sapphire on the shoulder, she'd been so engrossed in the report that she had become oblivious to the outside world. It was Gren. "Sapphire we're going to be late for our next class."

Sapphire looked around, the classroom was deserted. "Where'd everyone else go?" she asked.

Gren looked confused. "Everyone else? Come on Sapphire we're the only ones that go to this school."

Sapphire looked back down at her scroll. The Excavation Report was blank. Oobleck was gone. "What about teachers?" Sapphire asked frantically. "In a school this size, hundreds of rooms, we are the only people here. No teachers, no other students. No nothing?"

Gren shrugged. "We've never needed teachers before." he said nonchalantly. Sapphire wasn't listening as she was blinded by the brilliant light of the vortex opening behind Gren. Now knowing there was nothing she could do to stop it the girl with the azure hair looked at her last remaining teammate sadly.

"Goodbye Gren, I'll miss you."

"What are you talking about?" Gren asked confused as the vortex advanced on him. "I'm not go..." he was cut off as the rift consumed him, erasing him from the world.

Sapphire walked the empty corridors of Beacon, seeing empty pictures, blank honor records, class plaques devoid of name. The memorial wall without an inscription. Sapphire got her mother's fiddle from her room and walked out to the air docks. She didn't have any options left. She had no cards to play so instead she rosined up her bow, attached the rest to its base and started to play. At first fast and furious songs like 'Fairy Queen', then slower ones like 'Midsummer' and finally slow depressing songs such as 'Suil a Rune' and 'Parting Glass' as the sun sank low in the sky. She knew what was coming as she looked at the sun vanish and the empty school in front of her. The sun disappeared and when it did the airdocks were lit up with the brilliant light of the vortex, here finally to take Sapphire herself away.

Sapphire set the instrument down on the airdock, placing the bow next to it peacefully. She walked towards the light like someone greeting an old friend. She had one last hope, it was a long shot but Sapphire considered that this all started with Oswald, he was the vocal point, if she could return him to the real world everything else might snap back into place. But she could only retrieve him from the other side.

Sapphire walked into the light. As soon as she touched it the girl with the azure hair was standing in mid air. She looked down and started to fall. She hit water, ten feet deep, in a pool that she remembered all too well. Memories flooded her mind and Sapphire started to flail wildly, her head sinking under the water. She fought back to the surface but she couldn't help but continue to flail. She felt like she was dying, this place, this water, the pool. It was all just like it had been. She sunk under the water, drowning not just in water but in memories, horrible, horrible memories.

Maybe she was there for a few seconds, or perhaps an eternity, drowning and dying and returning just to drown again. Finally something broke the cycle. "Is that what you call treading water Sapphire?" The voice was cold and calculated, steady and even. No trace of the slurs and anger that filled it when he was drunk late at night. At this moment just cold disappointment. Just like that Sapphire was seven years old again, tossed into the deep end of the pool. The funny thing was that she used to love to swim. She and Cecily and Oliver would spend hours in the pool. Now there was nothing that terrified her more. "Sapphire! Are you paying attention?"

Sapphire gasped for a breath to answer him with. "Yes sir."

"Then act like it girl. Beacon will never accept you if you cannot manage aquatic combat. Now dodge." Janus tossed several vials of ice dust into the pool. In a panic Sapphire attempted to swim out of the way as pockets of ice exploded into being all over the pool. One caught her leg and she went under the water. Her leg trapped she struggled to make it to the surface. "What a disappointment you are my daughter. It would have been less effort to locate Oliver than it is to train your miserable skill."

This wasn't her father. Janus had never been this cruel, this callous. These tests Sapphire remembered. The ice dust, the cold tone of voice, the swimming pool but if the ice ever actually caught her Sapphire's real father tossed a fire capsule in to melt the ice. He was a strict teacher not a sociopath.

Suddenly the scene changed. They were standing in Janus' study, several broken bottles littered the floor. Some of the wall paper was scratched up and desk looked as though someone had taken a sword too it. "You failed all of us!" Sapphire's father shouted at her. "What a poor excuse for your brother you are. Pathetic! Unworthy! You don't belong here, you don't belong anywhere!" Sapphire remembered this rant, she knew how it ended. Janus walked towards her, his steps slightly off because of all the alcohol he'd consumed. He grabbed Sapphire by the wrist and held her hand open as he pulled a small black box from his pocket. It was Phobator collapsed into the form that normally rested on her bracelet. Janus slammed the box into her hand and the dagger expanded, its point slicing through Sapphire's aura and her flesh, pinning her hand to he wall. Janus then released her.

Pain bloomed from her hand. More than Sapphire could ever remember. This was her memory. Though she'd likely had more extensive trauma since this injury, her twelve year old self remembered this as the most excruciating thing she'd ever experienced. With her other hand Sapphire ripped the dagger out of her hand. "That's [i]not[/i] how it happened!" she screamed at her father, fighting through the pain. "It was an accident, he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't realize what the box was. [i]This[/i]" she said raising the the dagger, "Is the wrong blade, Morpheus cut me. Why are you torturing me!" she screamed lunging at her father. The small stature of her twelve year old self pushed the adult only two steps back but it was enough. He stepped back into the moonlight, though it had not been that way in reality the light of a Blood Moon was streaming through the skylight. As it touched Janus Rode his face melted away into a shapeless shadow. A harsh laugh emanated from the mass of darkness.

"Because I can, because it is fun, because you have so many memories of pain and hardship that I want to see in all their glory."

Suddenly a detail of the Excavation Report returned to Sapphire. "You're the Lord of Nightmares." Sapphire said suddenly sure of herself.

"Not the most original name I've been given, so many betters ones, Melinoe, Hades, Hypno, Somnus, Seth, Osiris, Apophis, and of course ones I'm sure you'll appreciate: Morpheus and Phobator. I am the Lord of Dreams and the stuff of Nightmares. I am all that you fear."

"The Dust Men, they locked you out of the world with dust as their ally. They created the wards to keep you at bay."

"Indeed." Said Somnus, "I was relegated to creating bad dreams and terrifying children. I was all but forgotten by those that should have feared me. Until now,"

"Cause Oswald let you in. He tried to alter the wards. Make them bigger and stronger and you pounced, punching you're way back into the world." Said Sapphire, hate etched into her face and blood dripping down her hand and falling in a steady stream to the floor.

"It is as you say." Responded Somnus "Your foolish boyfriend gave me everything I needed to tear the world apart."

As Sapphire stared with anger at this being she saw a glint of brilliant white in his core and realized something. He [i]was[/i] the rift, his body stole people away. Which meant that she could use him as a portal, to get to Oswald. Sapphire lunged at him, grabbed the speck of white, as she touched it her blood smeared over it and the rift started to grow. Sapphire dove into it thinking of Oswald's face. She heard a screech of anger but it was too late for Somnus to stop her.

Just like that she was standing in Beacon Square. The school was burned to the ground and Sapphire could see Oswald fighting not far off. As she got closer Sapphire realized that the ring of Grimmified students and faculty members had formed a circle around Oswald who was fighting a single solitary fighter, this zombie was more nimble than the others, it darted around Oswald gracefully at astounding speeds and as Sapphire approached she realized that it was not some random student. It was her, Oswald was fighting the Grimm controlled corpse of Sapphire Rode.

Sapphire could clearly see the marks from where Napoli had decapitated her in the dream though the zombie had placed her head back on her shoulders. Sapphire couldn't help but be impressed with her duplicate's style. While Sapphire was skilled she had to admit that the zombie was mimicking her fighting style on her top level day of combat. Oswald for his part was doing just as well against the zombie version of Sapphire. Evidently their sparring matches had been paying off.

"Oswald!" Sapphire shouted "Her ribs!" Oswald looked up to see her and though a new joy lit in his eyes he had no time to examine what was happening. He knew exactly what Sapphire meant. She'd had several rip breaks and fractures on various recent missions. Some of which were only newly healed. As a result at least for the next month or so her ribs were fragile and she had to wear a brace and stand up extra straight.

Oswald used his shield to force zombie Sapphire into a precarious position and after several failed attempts cracked his shield over the side of her chest. There was a crunching sound and her left chest cavity collapsed. Without the ability to stand up properly zombie Sapphire's movements were severly obstructed and it was not difficult for Oswald to crush the Grimm mask in her face. As zombie Sapphire died and evaporated so did all of the others.

Sapphire ran to Oswald and they embraced tightly. Sapphire released him and looked at his face. He looked like he'd been fighting non stop for days and she couldn't have looked much better for her soaked hair, wet clothing, and bleeding hand. "Sapphire, you came back." Oswald said with relief in his voice.

"Did you doubt I would?"

"Honestly while I was fighting undead you, just a little. So what happens now?"

"We need to get you back to the real world. You're the epicenter of all of this. Somnus drew you into this world at the exact moment you accessed the wards. I think if we return you to the world it will restore the wards and everyone who was taken will return."

"Did you have a plan for getting me out of here?"

"Not one you're going to like." Sapphire said sheepishly.

"Run it by me."

"Well they say you can't die in a dream..."

"I don't like where this is going."

"So I figure if we jump from the airdocks then we might just wake up back at Beacon."

"You're right... I don't like this idea but its the only plan we've got. It's not like it can be worse than all of this." Oswald said gesturing to the Beacon tower which was half collapsed and on fire.

Oswald and Sapphire walked to the edge of the airdocks and looked down. It was an awful long way to fall. Oswald looked at Sapphire. "You sure about this?" he asked.

"No. But I don't have any other ideas."

Oswald glanced at the fall again. He looked back at Sapphire. "For luck." he said before he leaned in, touched his hands to the sides of her face and kissed her as they both fell over the side of the docks. Sapphire clutched Oswald closer as they fell, if this was the end for her she didn't want to go alone.

A second before they would have made impact with the water Sapphire opened her eyes. She was lying in her bed back at the dorms. The room had four beds, each of the occupied by one of her teammates. Swansong was all accounted for. Sapphire looked at the class register that she'd left on her nightstand after it went blank. She read the list of names with a smile on her face. Everyone was back and no one was there that shouldn't have been. The only evidence to suggest that anything at all had happened was that Sapphire's hair was still soaking wet.

A moment later there was a knock at the door. Sapphire opened it and was not surprised to see Oswald standing on the other side. "Did that all just happen?" he asked.

Sapphire shrugged "I think so. Is everyone back where they should be? Your team all accounted for, Emerald, Cobalt, Diamond?"

A look of confusion crossed Oswald's face. "Who's Cobalt?" he asked.

Sapphire looked startled and terrified for a second before she punched Oswald in the arm. "That's not funny."

"Ow, that hurt." Oswald complained "And it was from where I was standing." Oswald said smiling.

On impulse Sapphire reached out and grabbed the sides of Oswald's face pulling him into a deep kiss. His arms wrapped around her waist. The kiss lasted several seconds before it was broken.

"What was that for?" Oswald asked.

"I just wanted to make sure that was real too." Sapphire responded, a clear genuine smile of happiness blooming on her face for the first time in what seemed to be a lifetime.[/hider]