Dream Theory - Chapter 11 (Patreon)

Blake hated feeling helpless, but that’s all she’d felt since the dream with Yang in the library.  Helpless, useless, out of her depth, and guilty.  She could go back into the Dreamscape and hope Yang was still there - leaving clues, somehow - but she knew she would be discovered as soon as she closed her eyes.  

She waited while Ruby searched for answers, but, if they didn’t find something soon, she would use the Dreamscape anyway - risks be damned.  Until then, she sat at the kitchen table hoping for something to happen while her knee bounced up and down.  Weiss had returned to the kitchen several minutes ago, and opted to sit across from Blake while reading and responding to messages on her constantly-buzzing phone.

They hadn’t spoken a word since Weiss stormed off earlier, and that was just as well with Blake.  She didn’t want to argue; she didn’t want to start a fight.  All she wanted was to find Yang and find a way to protect everyone going forward.

Now that the situation had changed so drastically, however, she wasn’t certain she could protect anyone anymore.  Her cover was blown.  Yang’s shield of ignorance was destroyed.  The only thing she had left was the carefully-guarded knowledge she refused to give anyone.

“You know,” Weiss said, finally breaking the silence while laying her phone on the table.  “I’ve met the woman who replaced you.  Dr. Webb.”

Blake looked up but didn’t respond, which Weiss took as her cue to continue.

“She’s very smart - very capable.  From what I heard, they were worried about launching Daydreamer without you, but she stepped in and kept everything on track.  She’s accomplished some amazing things as well.”

From Weiss’ neutral expression, Blake couldn’t tell if she was being insulted or merely informed of how her replacement was faring.  Based on prior interactions, however, assuming the worse didn’t seem unreasonable.

“She was always very capable,” she replied.  “I’m not surprised she’s done incredible things.”

The answer felt adequately diplomatic, but Weiss examined Blake for a few seconds before gesturing with one hand.

“I believe this is where you say you taught her everything she knows.”

Like before, the words were openly confrontational.  The incessant prodding would eventually make Blake lash out - to say or do something without a filter in place - but that might be the purpose.  Unfortunately for Weiss, she had ample experience keeping her thoughts and emotions in check - that was, after all, the essence of being a dream theorist.

“I taught her a great deal of what she knows,” she replied calmly, not shying away from Weiss’ cold gaze.  “But you already knew that.”

While the two of them stared each other down, Blake weighed her options as to what she wanted to say next.  On the one hand, she didn’t have any interest or desire to get into an argument with someone she just met.  On the other hand, Weiss was intentionally provoking her, and that wouldn’t stop until she made it clear that she wouldn’t tolerate it.

“Weiss!”  

Ruby’s voice immediately ended their staring contest, and both of them spun towards the door while Ruby stuck her head into the kitchen.  Spotting them at the table, she waved them over.  

“Blake - you gotta see this.  I found something!”

Without a word, Blake and Weiss rushed into the computer room, where Ruby returned to her position in front of the screens and gestured towards one of them.

“Look at this,” she said, drawing a circle around whatever it was she wanted them to look at.  “See it?”

Enlarged on the screen was an image of one of the kidnappers dragging Yang out of the apartment - the image so jarring and fear-inducing that Blake’s first instinct was to look away.  Resisting that urge, she focused on what Ruby was trying to show them: a small spot on the front of the kidnapper’s shirt, only visible when their jacket moved out of the way.

“A...stain?” Weiss guessed.

“Bingo!”  Ruby zoomed in on the area within the circle, where Blake saw what looked like a small, red stain - not exactly a map to Yang’s location.

“How does that help?” she asked, not understanding how a sloppy shirt led them anywhere.

“Because who wakes up in the morning and puts on a dirty shirt?” Ruby replied before waving her hands.  “No one!  Well, some people do, but most people don’t.  And if most people wouldn’t put on a dirty shirt in the morning…”

“Then the stain happened at some point during the day,” Weiss answered with a nod.

“Exactly!”  After grinning at Weiss, Ruby turned back to the screens and brought forward windows upon windows of additional camera feeds.  “It’s reddish-brown, right?” she asked while working.  “So I figured ketchup, BBQ sauce, or - you know - blood.  But I started with any restaurant serving either ketchup or BBQ sauce.”

Ruby quickly showed them a map with about a thousand dots marking various locations around the city.

“It’s...a lot,” she said before continuing.  “But I pulled the feeds for as many as possible, then wrote a program searching for people making ‘mistakes’ with their condiments.”  Ruby spun a carousel of video clips on the screen, each one showing some poor soul spilling sauce on themselves.  

“Then I told it to only look for people wearing white shirts,” she explained as the carousel shrank to only a few videos.  She then grabbed one and expanded it to play full screen.  “And bingo.”

In the video, a young man with short, well-groomed hair ate a hamburger in one corner of a busy restaurant.  When he took the first bite of his meal, however, a big glob of ketchup slipped out and dropped onto his shirt.  Setting his burger to the side, he grabbed a napkin and wiped it off as best as he could, but a stain was left behind.  

Freezing and enlarging the video, Ruby circled the stain.

“Look familiar?”

Pulling up the video from Yang’s apartment, she put the two pictures side-by-side.

“I can’t believe it…” Weiss said, staring at the screen for several seconds before turning to Ruby.  “You just tracked a ketchup stain.”

“You know it!”  Beaming at the accomplishment, Ruby returned her gaze to the screen and opened several tabs containing more photos and information about their prime suspect.  “He’s an intern at Dreamscape - started a few months ago.  And…here’s everywhere his phone has been in the past few days.”

Another map appeared, this one marked with locations the boy frequented.  Several spots glowed brighter than the others, likely because those were the places he visited more often.  Blake recognized one of them as Dreamscape’s headquarters, while the other was probably his home.  Besides those two points, there were a handful of other spots he’d visited less frequently.

“People are so dumb…” Ruby commented while parsing through video files from each location.  “They wear a mask but carry their damn phone everywhere.  They don’t realize that if you crack the mask, you nail them with their phone.”

“Then you found her?” Blake asked.  When Ruby pointed back to the screen, Blake felt a flicker of hope ignite in her chest.

“I think I did, but the views from these two locations are super scrambled.  It’ll take some time to unravel them, but these are the only two that make sense.”

As soon as Ruby highlighted the two locations, Blake’s worry worsened.

“She’s here.”  Stepping forward, she pointed to the dot in the bottom right of the screen.

“How do you know?” Ruby asked while zooming in on the location.  And, as more distinguishing features came into view, Blake grew more assured that she was right.

“Because that’s the old Dreamscape lab,” she explained, her heart growing heavy from the words.  “We used it until the new building was completed.  Now, it’s mostly storage.”

Storage and a place to hold a hostage.  And with the amount of lab equipment left there…

“I’m going to get her,” she said, spinning away from the screen and heading towards the door.

“‘I’m going to get her’?” Weiss repeated.  “What does that mean?”

“It means I’m going to get her,” Blake repeated, giving Weiss a look that dared her to argue.  Of course, Weiss didn’t shy away from the look in the slightest.

“That’s an idiotic idea,” she snapped back.  Crossing her arms over her chest, she stepped between Blake and the doorway to block her exit.  “We’re calling the police - they’ll get her.”

“The police?”  Blake scoffed and shook her head at the idea.  “You don’t understand.  We can’t just send cops rushing in there to pull her out - we don’t know how she’ll react to that.”

“I’m sure she’ll react just fine to being rescued.”

“What if she thinks she’s in a dream?” Blake retorted.  Explaining everything was irritating, but Ruby and Weiss clearly didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.  

“Why do you think they took her there?” she asked, motioning towards the screen while Weiss glared at her.  “Because they have the equipment to force her into dreams, and we don’t know what types of dreams they put her in.”

When Weiss and Ruby just stared back at her, she sighed.  

“The theorists I worked with are the best out there - they can put her in a dream so lifelike, she won’t know the difference between that and reality.  What if, in that dream, her friends are now her enemies?  What if the department turned on her?  What if she’s running from them?  What if they’ve threatened her life?  What will she do if the tactical team suddenly breaks down the door?”

Scrambling someone’s sense of reality created confusion and fear - the perfect emotions to cause knee-jerk reactions in search of self-preservation.  With Yang’s training...she could potentially hurt someone before they subdued her.  And what if they had to use force to subdue her?

Fortunately, Weiss and Ruby seemed to understand the situation now, as evidenced by the worried look they shared before turning back to Blake.

“And what makes you think they haven’t poisoned her against you?”

In a continuation of what seemed to be a trend, Weiss easily zeroed in on the root of the issue. 

“I don’t,” Blake replied with a frown and stabbing pain in her heart.  “But...I think that no matter what, she’ll give me a chance to prove myself.  If the police run in guns blazing...I just don’t want her to do something she’ll regret.”

When Weiss pursed her lips but didn’t respond, Blake knew her argument was at least partially accepted.

“We can call Casey,” Ruby suggested.  Blake flinched at the name, but Ruby continued unaware.  “He’ll help us.  Yang trusts him, and we can trust him.”

“You can’t trust anyone, Ruby.”

When Ruby and Weiss shared another look - taking far too long with this decision - Blake lost her patience and brushed past Weiss.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get Yang.”

“With what expertise?” Weiss asked while following Blake into the kitchen.  “I don’t know if you noticed, but the people who took Yang carried very real weapons.”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“I’m coming with you,” Ruby said, rushing to catch up to Blake near the front door.

“No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am,” Ruby repeated more forcefully.  “I went through the academy just like Yang did,” she pointed out while again blocking Blake’s exit.  “Sure, I don’t do that stuff all the time anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m incapable.  Plus, I’d like to see you bypass a tri-level security system without me.”

Ruby had a point, and she knew it.  For as knowledgeable as Blake was about the Dreamscape and crafting dreams, she knew very little about the inner workings of computers and security systems.  Plus, she didn’t have the police background that Yang and Ruby did - the only times she’d fired a weapon were the few instances Yang dragged her to a range to learn for self-defense.

“No.”

Blake sighed at Weiss’ interjection, knowing all of this back-and-forth only delayed her further.

“Weiss…” Ruby said, but Weiss shook her head.

“No, Ruby.  This is a job for the police - and I realize you’re part of the police,” Weiss added, raising her hand to stop Ruby’s complaint.  “But rescuing someone is a job for the tactical team, not the tech whiz and a dream theorist.”

Surprised by the response, Ruby looked at Blake as if asking what to do.  Blake, however, was done with the discussion.  Instead, she reached for the handle of the front door.

“James, lock the front door,” Weiss said.  The handle immediately stiffened under Blake’s grasp, refusing to budge when she attempted to turn it.  Irritation flaring up, Blake spun towards Weiss and glared.

“Unlock it.”

“No,” Weiss replied while crossing her arms over her chest.  “I’m doing you a favor - now you’ll live to see another day.”

“You’re keeping me from saving Yang.”

“I’m keeping you from doing something stupid.”

“How about this -” Ruby cut in, lifting her hands as she stepped in between them.  “We’ll check it out.  If there are armed guards and those scary robot dogs, then we’ll collect as much info as we can and get the hell out of there.  But, if it looks like we can sneak in, we get Yang out as fast as possible.”

When Ruby turned to Blake for approval, she reluctantly nodded.  At this point, she was willing to accept anything that got her one step closer to Yang.  Weiss, however, continued to look unhappy with the situation.

“And what do you propose I do?” she eventually asked.

“You stay here and watch the camera feeds just like I taught you.  That way you can warn us about anything we don’t see.”

Arms still crossed, Weiss thought about the solution for several long seconds before sighing.

“You’d better not try to be a hero,” she said, directing the words to Ruby only.

“I won’t.  We’ll be smart.”  Ruby glanced at Blake out of the corner of her eye before adding, “I’ll be smart.”

The corrected response probably wasn’t meant a dig at Blake’s intelligence, nor did she take it as such.  She knew as well as Ruby that her emotions were compromised, but for good reason.  Every second they waited was one more second Yang spent in a dream.  And every second Yang spent in a dream was one second closer to her mind accepting an alternate version of reality - probably one where Blake was an enemy rather than friend.

“Take my car,” Weiss added, walking away from the front door while Ruby dutifully followed.

“Should we really take a car from here?” Blake asked, following the pair towards what was likely the garage.

“Sure, why not?”

“Because it can be tracked?  How secure is the surveillance field?”  When Blake motioned towards the walls of Weiss’ house, she earned a scoff.

“Very secure.” 

“Extra secure,” Ruby corrected.  “Around-the-clock facial masking, time splitting, and enough event pieces that it won’t loop for five years.”

Pausing by a closed door, Weiss looked at Ruby in genuine surprise.

“When did you set that up?” 

“You don’t remember?  That night you wanted to read that book?  You hung out at my place, and I asked if I could upgrade your surveillance stuff.” 

“Oh.”  Looking part impressed and part unsure of how to respond, Weiss eventually smiled and placed her palm to a scanner beside the door.  “Well, thank you.”

“You’re welcome,” Ruby replied before casting another glance Blake’s way.  “Yang wouldn’t let me do the same for her…” she added before shaking her head and taking a deep breath.  “But yes, we can take a car - I can scramble the feeds on the way.”

“Of that, I have no doubt,” Weiss replied, squeezing Ruby’s shoulder and offering a smile of consolation before turning slightly away.  “James, unlock the garage.”

Blake heard latches slide out of place as the AI driver followed orders and unlocked the door.  Weiss then led them into a large garage with a sleek, silver car parked inside.  The vehicle looked very much like something a high-powered attorney would drive - flashy, expensive, and sure to draw attention from both passerby and surveillance fields across the city.

As Blake watched, however, the paint shimmered to jet black before her eyes.  The windows darkened to a level of tint no one on the outside could see through, with camera reflection built into the glass.  And, as Ruby tapped several buttons on her phone, the license numbers scrambled and reorganized into a different set entirely - something only someone with special access or a high degree of coding confidence could do.

“That should do it,” Ruby muttered before pocketing her phone and turning to Weiss.

“Be careful,” Weiss immediately said, the words sounding like a cross between a demand and a plea. 

“Don’t worry.”  Pecking Weiss on the lips, Ruby smiled and opened the passenger door.  “We’ll be back before you know it.”

Opening another door for herself, Blake slipped her holomask around her ear and stepped into the vehicle without a word.  She felt the icy glare aimed at her back but ignored the feeling while settling into the spacious cabin. 

Without a doubt, this was the nicest car she’d ever ridden in.  From the leather seats to the stocked workspaces and full-sized video screen taking up the front of the vehicle, it was outfitted for someone who took their work everywhere.

Hearing a second door close, Blake looked over as Ruby slipped into the seat across from her.  As soon as Ruby settled in and situated her own holomask in place - her brunette hair lengthening and gaining a red hue, she tapped several keys on her phone and turned around when the garage door opened behind them.  With another push of a button, the vehicle came to life - the cabin lighting up with various electronics - before smoothly shifting into reverse and moving out of the driveway.  

“God, I love this car,” Ruby sighed as the garage door closed behind them.  Once the vehicle reached the street, it seamlessly shifted into drive and set off on the route programmed into the computer.

“How long?” Blake asked, much more interested in how far they were from Yang.

“Not long.  Maybe ten minutes - taking us a few long ways to avoid the camera alleys.”

Accepting that answer with a nod, Blake stared out the window as the streets moved past.  

Using private transit made her edgy.  Even though she knew Ruby would mask their identities and locations as much as possible, a personal vehicle provided fewer means of blending into the crowd.  Especially when the only ones driving themselves around these days were the police and the wealthy...they were sure to draw eyes.

“Yang calls it the ‘bitchmobile’...” Ruby said, looking momentarily downcast at the mention of her sister before shaking her head.  “Says only someone like Weiss would drive something like this - that she uses it to intimidate people.”

“That sounds like Yang…”  Feeling a lump of emotion appear in her throat, Blake looked at her hands and tried not to cry.  She needed to stay strong.  Yang needed her to stay strong.

“Don’t worry.  We’re getting her back.”

When Blake looked up and saw Ruby’s encouraging smile, she quickly went back to staring out the window.

“I hope so...” she whispered, feeling both undeserving and unwilling to accept Ruby’s optimism.

Without context, Ruby couldn’t understand how easily someone’s mind could be turned against them.  As human beings, they inherently wanted to believe what they saw - what they felt.  By manipulating the universe and constantly changing the rules, a person could be trained or conditioned to accept alternate realities.  Or worse, they could develop a long-lasting paranoia that they were always dreaming.  Right now, Blake’s only hope was that Yang’s experience in the Dreamscape allowed her to pick up what was real and what was fake.

As the car turned the next corner and drove beneath two streetlights, Blake clenched her hands in her lap while regret reared its ugly head.  

She should have prepared Yang for this.  She should have done more explicit training so that Yang had the skills to combat the environment.  Instead, she concerned herself with maintaining the integrity of their relationship.  If they didn’t talk like they used to - if she forced Yang to prepare for some unknown threat instead - could they have lasted this long?

At the time, she was willing to take the risk.  But she chose wrong.  That seemed like a common theme, these days...

“I’m gonna drop us off around the corner,” Ruby said, lowering her voice to a whisper even though no one could conceivably hear them inside the vehicle.  “That way no one sees the car.”

Blake responded with nothing more than a nod while watching the streets grow more familiar by the second.  This used to be the way she traveled to work every morning - via the transit line on the left side of the street.  While time and weather had worn down many of the buildings, the lack of light only added to the sense of abandonment and isolation surrounding them.

“Weiss?” 

When Ruby said the name and turned towards the front of the vehicle, the video screen came to life and showed Weiss standing at the computer they just left behind.

“I’m here,” Weiss replied, her eyes flitting to Ruby before returning to the screens in front of her.  “Where are you?”

“Just circled on your screen - near the convenience store.”  Putting her phone away, Ruby turned towards Weiss.  “Do you see anything on the cameras?”

“Nothing abnormal.  A patrol car went past a few minutes ago though.”

“Which direction?”

“Towards downtown.”

“Good.”  Taking one last look at her phone, Ruby nodded and took a deep breath as the car slid to a stop.  “Then we’re out.”

“Be careful.”

With that last urge of caution sending them on their way, Blake and Ruby left the car in favor of the chilly night air outside.

“Remember,” Ruby whispered while they walked towards the sprawling building.  “Armed guards or robot dogs - we go to Plan B.”

Even though Blake nodded, she knew there was no Plan B.  At least, there wasn’t a Plan B that she approved of.  She wouldn’t force Ruby to help, but she wasn’t leaving this place without Yang.

“Lights are on,” she pointed out as they approached the massive block of land that used to hold Dreamscape’s first combined research and production campus.

“Doesn’t mean much…”  Pulling out her phone, Ruby lazily tapped the buttons as if sending a routine message.  “Most places keep the lights on to deter thieves.”

While the answer was somewhat reassuring, it also meant they would have to ‘sneak’ into a building bathed in artificial light.  There would be no cover of darkness, and turning off the lights would provide a clear sign that something was going on.

“You worked here, right?” Ruby muttered after they passed a pair of college students hurrying home from the nearby campus.

“Years ago, yes.”  Glancing to the right, Blake searched for signs of life inside the building while also trying not to look suspicious.  Ruby was much better at it than she was, but Ruby had the benefit of looking immensely at ease whenever she fiddled with her phone.

“Then you know which entrance we should use?”

If the layout hadn’t changed, Blake had a good idea of where Yang might be...if Yang was here at all.  At the center of the building was a large atrium the size of a sports field.  ‘The Brain,’ they called it - it was there that research and development of the original Dreamscape was undertaken, and it was there that most of the old research equipment remained.

If Blake wanted a quiet, secluded location with everything she needed to bend someone’s psyche...this was the perfect place.

The front door was closest, but it was also probably the most heavily secured.  Fortunately, a myriad of secondary entrances littered the sides and back of the building.  Some were used for deliveries, but most were for staff to access the plentiful green spaces provided to help them ‘de-stress.’

“This way.”  Leading them around the side of the building, making sure to keep to the sidewalk for now, Blake kept her eyes peeled for signs of life but found nothing.  Nothing besides the steady light emanating from inside the building.

“That door there,” she said, looking with her eyes but not gesturing towards the entrance tucked underneath an awning on the other side of what looked like a miniature park.  Small areas like these littered the exterior of the building, serving as rest areas but also sources of dream details.  It looked like the neighborhood had claimed those areas as their own after Dreamscape’s departure, as evidenced by the group of people barbecuing at the far end of the campus.

“Ok.”  Stopping on the sidewalk, Ruby checked her phone one more time before putting it away.  “Our eye in the sky says things are clear.  Let’s take a closer look.”

Without hesitation, Ruby walked towards the building while Blake hurried to keep up.  She didn’t understand how Ruby looked so calm under the circumstances, but she walked as if she belonged here, with her hands in her pockets and her head held high.  Blake, however, tried not to look over her shoulder every other second, and felt her heart beat louder and her palms grow clammier the closer they drew to the door.

“Too bad we couldn’t call the department…” Ruby muttered on the way.  “Then they could just thermal the building and see if she’s here…”

Blake understood Ruby’s frustration, but she wasn’t sure what Yang would do under those circumstances.  Plus, she needed to know everything Yang remembered, and she didn’t want to risk the wrong information getting into the department’s hands before she had the opportunity to interpret it.  So...they were doing this the hard way.

“What do you think?” she asked when they reached the park and Ruby slowed down.  Blake still felt her nerves flying like live wires through her chest, but Ruby calmly sat at one of the picnic tables before motioning for Blake to sit across from her.  

“This place is a lot less cobweb-y than expected.”

“Dreamscape still owns and maintains it,” Blake explained, glancing towards the street before chiding herself for the look.  “They store equipment marked for breakdown here, but they only staff it during the week.”

“And use crazy security on the weekend.”  Ruby held up her phone to show a labyrinth of data filling the screen.  “Motion detectors, sound detectors - I’ve already spoofed a dozen sensors that would’ve picked us up on the walk over.  Can you pretend like you’re talking?”

“Uh...yes?”  Confused by the request, Blake nonetheless tried to comply.  “Uh, we...we used to have competitions over who could recreate these rest areas most accurately.  It encouraged people to focus on work even when taking a break.”

“Bet you won all of those, huh.”

“I won plenty.  While I was allowed to compete, that is.”

“They disqualified you?” Ruby asked, looking up from her phone long enough to catch Blake’s nod.  “Same thing happened to me,” she replied.  “Used to win all the hacking challenges at school, then they said I couldn’t participate anymore - to make it fair for everyone else.”

Ruby turned back to her phone and typed for a few seconds before a small holoscreen appeared in front of her.

“Why punish the kids who excel?” she mused while moving a complex series code into different positions.  “I almost quit, but Yang wouldn’t let me.  She came up with challenges on her own and used her allowance to buy prizes I could ‘win.’  She made it fun again.”

Ending the holoscreen, Ruby grabbed her phone and stood up.  

“We have ten minutes of looping video running through this feed,” she said while heading to the door.  “So we need to hurry.”

Before following, Blake glanced towards the group of barbecuers some distance away, but they were too busy with their music and food to pay much attention to anything else.  Feeling somewhat assured that no one had noticed them, Blake caught up with Ruby at the industrial door leading into the building.  As soon as Ruby saw the lock beside the door, however, she gasped and held her phone up to it.

“Oh my god...it’s a Codemaster 8000.  Do you know how expensive these are?”

“Probably pretty expensive - can you open it?”

Ruby scoffed at the question while typing on her phone.

“Can I open it...” she muttered before a green light appeared seconds later, along with the sound of locks sliding open.  “Apparently, I can!” she added before pushing the door open and slipping inside.  Blake was quick to follow but paused when she saw the familiar hallway looming in front of her.

Years ago, employees filled these halls.  The walls buzzed with excitement and anticipation - everyone aware of the impact their work had on the world and their future.  The building never slept, and the employees hardly slept either.  

That feeling was long gone.  Left behind was an eerie emptiness and overwhelming sense of foreboding.  The foreboding was probably of Blake’s creation, but the feeling only amplified when she heard the locks slide into place behind her.

“Easier to lock it than keep fooling the system,” Ruby whispered.  The explanation made sense but offered no assurance of a quick exit.  And Blake wanted to leave this place as fast as possible, with Yang in tow.

“Do you know where to look?” 

“Yes.”  Without questioning her decision, Blake led the way towards where she suspected Yang to be.  

Heading further into the building meant they’d be further from the exit.  It meant they could easily be surrounded or trapped by any number of different tactics.  Still, she pressed onward, ignoring danger in favor of following her determination to get Yang out of here as quickly as possible.

She used to hate the color of the walls - a sterile white that reminded her too much of a hospital.  Their only redeeming quality were the embedded video screens located every few feet.  The screens ran all day long, playing a range of media from the daily news to nature documentaries.  All of it was meant to stimulate their minds and keep them thinking even while walking from one room to the next.  New environments, new presets, new features - whatever the content inspired them to create, Dreamscape would use with impunity.

Without the video screens bombarding them with visuals, the walls were just...barren and white.  The lack of distraction made the ‘decorative’ sheets of reflective material in every corner all the more obvious, and Blake cast a wary eye at the first one they passed, wondering if the authorities were already on the way.

“Don’t worry - I got ‘em.”

With Ruby’s reassurance that the cameras were dealt with, Blake quickened her pace and hurried towards the room she once considered home as much as her apartment.  The main laboratory made up the entire center of the building, and the room was responsible for nearly all of the early advances in dreaming.  She’d spent many late nights and early mornings using the testing bays and coming up with new theories, but she’d never rushed towards the room feeling anything but excitement before.

Today, she felt nothing but anxiety while rounding the corner and finding the lab filling the view in front of her.  The outer wall of the room was glass, with glass doors providing clear visibility of the room beyond - old desks, old computers, old testing bays, and... 

The moment she saw Yang - unmoving and strapped to one of the test bays - she lost all sense of caution and broke into a run.  She heard Ruby running beside her, the two of them making it to the door at nearly the same time before forcing it open and flying into the room beyond.  Within seconds, they were at Yang’s side.

“Yang,” Blake said first, reaching out and touching Yang’s shoulder to see if she would wake.  With her head rolled off to one side, Blake’s first thought was the most heartbreaking - and she would’ve succumbed to the despair right then had she not noticed a small lock of blonde hair move when an exhale passed Yang’s lips.

Relieved beyond measure, Blake quickly set about loosening the straps holding Yang in place.  

“Why did they leave her?” Ruby asked while helping with the straps around Yang’s ankles.  Blake didn’t have an answer for that, so she just hurried to release Yang from the booth.  They could figure out the rest later - right now, they needed to get Yang out of here.

She was alive and breathing, but looked like she’d been through hell.  Scrapes and bruises covered her arm, with several cuts deep enough to require sealing to stop the bleeding.  Those now shimmered with a sheen of bioseal while dark red, jagged lines showed underneath.  

It didn’t look like the injuries were intentional, although Blake wasn’t an expert on anything related to this field.  But they looked like the result of a fight - or, more likely, the result of Yang fighting back.

Pushing the hair out of Yang’s eyes, Blake found more cuts and bruises, including one on her forehead that looked particularly painful.  Besides the injuries, a Dream Disk sat on her temple, which made Blake hastily search for an operating Dreamscape.

“Ruby, look for anything that’s running,” she said while checking the cabinets and workstation nearby.  Everything looked powered down, but that didn’t mean Yang wasn’t still dreaming.

“Dammit.”  Checking several more cabinets and finding nothing, Blake felt her alarm grow as their time ran out.  If she couldn’t find the Dreamscape, she didn’t want to remove the Dream Disk and risk tearing Yang out of a dream.  

“Leave that on her,” she finally said.  “Let’s get her out of here.”

Once they were far enough away, the Disk should lose signal strength and trigger the internal wake-up procedure.  That would prevent any negative side effects...hopefully.

Ducking underneath Yang’s arm, Ruby held onto her sister and stood upright.  

“She’s...kinda heavy...” Ruby huffed, struggling to grab something from her pocket while also keeping Yang upright.  “Here,” she said while holding a small, square piece of metal out to Blake.  “It goes on her neck.”

Blake accepted the device and stepped behind Yang, but held it up to the back of Yang’s neck with a bit of hesitation.  She’d never used one of these before - she’d only ever seen them used on television or in movies.

Turns out, they were fairly simple.  As soon as the piece of metal touched Yang’s neck, a beam of protective sheeting dropped to the floor, and a soft humming filled the air.

“There we go,” Ruby muttered while ducking out from underneath Yang’s arm and prompting the hovercart to lay flat.  With the blue-grey material holding Yang securely, Ruby took a step forward and nodded when the device followed her.

“You got her?” Blake asked, earning another nod.  

“Yup.”  Before moving, however, Ruby pulled a second holomask out of her pocket and slipped it around Yang’s ear.  Once Yang’s identity faded away, Ruby nodded.  “Let’s get out of here.”

As Ruby started towards the exit, Blake was about to follow when her attention caught on a phone sitting on the desk nearby.  Picking it up, she tried to unlock it and was surprised when it accepted her retina scan.  The shield wallpaper confirmed it belonged to Yang, so Blake pocketed it before hurrying after Ruby.

“Why did they leave her?” Ruby whispered, her eyes moving to Yang every other second while they rushed out of the lab.  “Blake, why did they just leave her?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe...I don’t know.”

There was no one here - why was no one here?  Why did they leave Yang’s phone right where she would find it?  As soon as she woke up from whatever drug they gave her, she would have released herself and called for help - but why?  Why kidnap her only to let her go?

Doing her best not to let her emotions overrun her, Blake squeezed Yang’s shoulder and tried to gain reassurance from her presence.  It didn’t work.  Seeing Yang so vulnerable only added to Blake’s rampant fear of what was happening.

“Makes no sense…” Ruby muttered, her brow furrowed when she glanced at Yang and tried to solve that riddle.  But now wasn’t the time to solve riddles, not when they still needed to make it out of the building.

“Do you remember the way?” Blake asked, trailing behind Ruby so that she could stay closer to Yang.

“Yes.”

They quickly made it back to the hall, which was still empty and abandoned.  Part of Blake couldn’t believe that the building was empty - why would it be empty? - but she pushed the questions aside in favor of following Ruby at a near run.  The exit wasn’t far now.  Just a few more hallways to cross, and they’d be there.

While crossing one of the hallways, however, Blake caught sight of something out of place and stopped.  Unaware, Ruby hurried ahead.

“Wait,” Blake called out, staring down the adjoining hall while Ruby rushed back to her.

“What are you doing??  We need to leave.”

“I’ll be right back,” Blake replied, leaving Yang and Ruby and hurrying down the hall.

“Blake!” Ruby hissed after her, but she had to solve this mystery.

Of all the doors in the hallway, only one was open - the door to her old office.  Under ordinary circumstances, she might assume it was a coincidence.  Under these circumstances...

Pausing just outside the door, she listened for sounds of life before poking her head inside.  

The first thing she noticed was that the computer screens on the wall across from her were on, and -

She didn’t know what she expected to find, but what she read sent a wave of ice through her veins.

‘DON’T SLEEP’

Typed in a blocky, black font across a white background, the words served as a warning - a notice that they knew she was back.  They knew she was alive, and they would stop at nothing to hurt her or the ones she loved.  Yang and Ruby weren’t safe anymore.  No one she cared for was safe, not even if she ran again.

Swallowing against the panic brewing inside of her, she ran out of the office and made it back to Ruby and Yang as fast as possible. 

“Hurry,” she said while heading towards the exit at a faster pace than before.

“What was it?” Ruby asked while jogging beside her.

“Nothing.  Someone just left the screens on.”

Ruby opened her mouth to ask a follow-up question, but a soft beeping suddenly broke the silence of the building.  Eyes widening, she grabbed her phone and looked at the screen.

“Oh shit.  Let’s go!”

Blake didn’t need a reason - she broke into a sprint as soon as Ruby did.

“Someone called the cops!” Ruby explained while they tore through the building, the sound of their rapid footsteps bouncing off the walls.  “Drone’s already dispatched!”

“Can’t you call it off?” Blake asked, her breath coming in short gasps while trying to keep up with Ruby.

“Not fast enough!”

Accepting the answer, Blake pushed her legs to their limit.  Besides her elevated breathing and their footsteps, she thought she heard another sound added to the building.  A far-off buzzing or humming...

“Ever been stung by a police drone?” Ruby asked while they ran.

“Of course not,” Blake huffed.  She definitely heard it now - the sound of rotors spinning while a drone flew through the halls in search of them.  The sound grew closer by the second, far outpacing them as they sprinted towards the exit. 

“Can’t we hide??” she asked when the droning became loud and unmistakable.  

“It follows heat signatures - we need to get the hell out of here!”

Mumbling an expletive, Blake pushed her legs as fast as they would go.  The exit was just around the corner - Ruby already had her phone out and was somehow typing while she ran, trying to unlock the deadbolts before they got there.  The drone closed in on them all the while, inching closer and closer in pursuit.

Ruby got to the door first, and focused on her phone while the keypad remained red.

“And…dammit,” she muttered while Blake stopped beside her.  

“Ruby -”

Looking behind them, Blake saw the drone round the corner and immediately spot them.  Its lights flashed red, but that was all she saw before Ruby grabbed her arm and shoved her outside.  A siren sounded as Ruby got Yang outside and slammed the door shut behind them.

For an instant, Blake thought they would have to sprint all the way back to the car.  That was, until she saw the jet-black vehicle tearing across the manicured grass towards them.  It screeched to a stop in front of them, and the passenger doors automatically popped open.

“Go,” Ruby urged her.  When they reached the vehicle, the two of them lifted Yang from the hovercart and maneuvered her into one of the seats.  As soon as that was done, they both dove inside, and the doors hardly closed before the car sped away from the building.

“Weiss?” Ruby asked, tapping a few buttons before Weiss showed up on the video screen.

“Thank god.  You’re ok?  Is she ok?”

“Yes.  Yang.”  Turning around, Ruby removed Yang’s holomask and tapped her forehead in an attempt to wake her up.  Yang’s eyes fluttered in response, but then her head tilted over in sleep.  “Damn, they dosed her good,” Ruby muttered, letting Yang’s head rest on her shoulder while the car made it back to surface streets.  “Weiss, do you have any of that No-Doze stuff?”

“I don’t think so…”

“I think I put one in that emergency kit I gave you,” Ruby replied, calmly taking Yang’s pulse while speaking.  After counting silently for a few seconds, she nodded - which Blake took as a good sign.  “Can you check?”

“I’ll find it.  Are you almost here?”

“Yeah, we’ll be there soon.”

When Weiss hurried away from the camera to complete her assignment, Ruby checked each of Yang’s injuries for their severity before applying pre-medicated bandages to the worst ones.  Blake hadn’t even thought to bring bandages - why hadn’t she thought to bring medical supplies?

She knew the answer to that question, and she was suddenly extremely grateful that Ruby insisted on coming along.  And that Ruby could think clearly under high stress and emotional duress.

After every injury was checked, Ruby nodded and turned her attention to her phone while Blake gently held Yang’s hand.  Warm, calloused, and strong - just like she remembered...

“Now to erase that drone...” Ruby muttered.  A holoscreen appeared in front of her, which she used to manipulate string after string of code before eventually sighing and pushing everything back into place.  “Wiped its memory,” she explained while the vehicle raced around a corner.  “Now I’ll switch the video feeds.  If anyone tracks the car, it’s driving downtown instead of to Weiss’ - using video from test files last night.”

Blake never understood how Ruby did these things so easily, but she knew by now to trust in Ruby’s genius.  So, while a less-skilled pair of capers would probably be picked up by the police by now, they made it back to Weiss’ house and pulled into the garage without flashing lights following them.

“Let’s get her out,” Ruby said as soon as the garage closed and the car turned off.  Hurrying to the door nearest to Yang, the two of them struggled to lift the still-unconscious girl from her seat.  Ruby ducked under Yang’s arm and shouldered most of the weight, but Blake helped as much as possible by wrapping her hands around Yang’s waist and lifting.

Weiss hurried into the garage right as they got Yang clear of the car, and moved out of the way so they could carry her into the house.

“To the kitchen,” Ruby huffed while struggling inside and down the hall.  Blake struggled right along with her, but reached up and removed the Dream Disk from Yang’s temple - to be destroyed later.

“James, lock down please,” Weiss said while rushing into the kitchen ahead of them and pulling over one of the chairs.  Between Ruby and Blake, they lowered Yang as gently as possible into the seat and kept her upright.  As soon as Ruby let go and Yang’s head drooped to one side, Weiss handed over what looked like a small bottle of perfume.  After giving it a good shake and pulling off the cap, Ruby held it under Yang’s nose.  The device let out a tiny spray, and Yang jolted awake.

“Woah there,” Ruby said, holding Yang’s shoulder to keep her from jumping right out of the chair.  “Calm down - you’re ok.  You’re at Weiss’ house.”

The words calmed Yang slightly, but her eyes still shot frantically around the room - searching and searching until her gaze fell on Blake and stayed.

So many emotions ran through Blake at that moment - happiness, remorse, and disbelief, to name a few - but her heart swelled with love and longing.  They were finally back together, and she stepped closer, wanting to be as close as possible to the person she’d missed more than words could describe.

Yang watched Blake’s every step, eyes never leaving hers.

“Yang,” she whispered, tears stinging her eyes while she reached for Yang’s hand.

The instant their hands touched, however, Yang jerked away.  She then looked at Blake with an expression unlike any Blake had seen before - part fear, part hate.

“Stay the hell away from me.”