Once upon a time on tumblr, someone in the RWBY tag randomly asked something to the effect of, "What would Ruby's reaction be if Crescent Rose was damaged really badly? What if someone *coughCardincough* intentionally broke it?" My first thought upon reading that post was, "Yes, I will gladly inflict this pain upon the precious cinnamon bun that is Ruby." Then it took on a life of its own and became a sibling fic.
This took months to write because I got so busy with college that I couldn't even think of ideas, but my muse is back, and the second chapter/conclusion should be up within a week.
(The title will make sense to a few of you, and for the rest of you, it will be explained eventually.)
Part One - Broken
"Unnecessary Roughness" was the official name of the rule breach, although this particular instance of it was unprecedented. A student being disarmed was nothing unusual. The problem came when Cardin Winchester had swung his mace with all his might upon Ruby's weapon as it lay on the ground, with his only goal being to damage it.
Ren quietly seethed, Pyrrha called it despicable, while Jaune and Nora chanted, "Cheater!" until their throats were raw. Weiss glared and muttered about pulling strings to make Cardin suffer, Blake hissed through her teeth as her face distorted into a snarl, and a red-eyed Yang screamed from the bleachers that it was "Grade-A douchebaggery."
Ruby might have had all sorts of words for it, but all that came out were tears and whimpers, because Crescent Rose was in pieces on the arena floor and Cardin's laughter was ringing in her ears like a death knell and her world - beautiful and dangerous and clear as day - was now blurry and confusing and terrifying.
From the stands it might have seemed an unassuming bend in the middle of the grip; nothing serious. It could easily be re-forged. Ruby knew better. The barrel had been warped by Cardin's heavy blow, and one long piece of metal had split off and pierced the chamber, jamming the magazine and rendering it impossible to reload or fire. The shifting mechanism was shattered, leaving the large weapon stranded in its scythe form, and not a very sturdy version of that form, either. This went beyond a simple crack or dented barrel. This was crippling damage.
It was almost unreal, but her senses screamed that this was no nightmare. Crescent Rose, her confidante and constant companion, was in ruin.
Cardin, still chuckling, planted his mace in front of him and leaned on it. "This ain't daycare, kiddo," he said. "Why don't you cry home to Mommy about your broken toy?"
Ruby forgot her tears as anger flared up in the pit of her stomach. She kicked low and hard, sweeping Cardin's mace from under him and across the room. He fell face-first to the floor with a yelp, and Ruby leapt onto his back. She swung the mutilated Crescent Rose with as much deadly precision as ever. The blade landed with a crunch, digging several inches into the concrete floor only a hair from Cardin's nose.
"Death blow! Ruby Rose wins!"
The cheers from the crowd became a dull thrum in Ruby's head as she released Cardin and walked to where several small shards of her beloved weapon still lay prone in the middle of the arena. She picked them up with reverence and squeezed, not registering the jagged metal cutting deep into her palm. The moment she was sure that she had retrieved every piece, she sprinted from the stage in a flurry of rose petals, blood dripping from her fist in a red trail that followed her all the way back to the dorms.
"Ruby…?"
Weiss's voice was uncharacteristically soft, almost meek.
"Go away."
Ruby sat in the middle of the floor, desperately trying to arrange the bloody pieces of metal into their proper order like a macabre jigsaw puzzle. The footsteps and murmurs of her teammates were an unwelcome intrusion on her reverie.
Reverie. Not mourning. Mourning meant that something wasn't coming back.
"It's our room, too, y'know."
It was just like Yang to make light of something dire. Even Zwei was taking this more seriously than Yang; he had retreated under Weiss's bed and stayed there.
"Go away."
"Ruby, come on. The forge has plenty of space to work."
Blake and her logic. Logic had no place in Ruby's mind at this moment.
"Go. Away."
"Blake's right. And there's a ton of spare metal down there, so getting that thing up and running again should be no prob—"
Ruby moved too fast for the eye. Nothing unusual for her, but the petals in her wake were now black and brittle. They dissolved like ash in a whirlwind around her as she confronted Yang with a rage that dwarfed any temper tantrum that the blonde could boast of. Her eyes flashed red, void of the childish innocence and happiness that she usually bubbled with. Weiss and Blake quickly backed away, dumbstruck by Ruby's sudden outburst. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the collar of her sister's jacket, and Yang found herself hauled several inches off the ground by the smaller girl and shoved against the door.
"Don't talk about Crescent Rose like she's just some piece of scrap metal!" she bellowed.
"R-Ruby, come on, I didn't think—"
"Of course you didn't think! You didn't think and you don't know because you weren't there! You weren't there! Mom was gone, Dad was in his own little world, and you were off on your wild-goose-chase 'bounty missions' that never led anywhere and Crescent Rose was all I had! She's half the reason I got into Beacon in the first place, and now she's gone! Even if I could fix her she's never going to be the same, and you act like she's some kind of replaceable knick-knack!"
Yang's face fell. She wrenched herself from Ruby's iron grip and stumbled back. "Don't say that kind of shit, Ruby," she said, straightening her lapel in a failed attempt to act nonchalant.
"Why not?! Oh, because 'it's just a weapon', right? Because it's stupid to say that weapons are an extension of ourselves, right? Well, maybe I'm not the stupid one here!" Ruby charged at Yang again and began pounding her fists against her chest, angry tears streaming down her face. "Stupid! Stupid!" Each blow was accompanied by the word, but they grew softer with every repetition. "Stupid! S-stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid…"
The whirlwind of black petals slowed to a halt as her voice began to crack. "S-s-stupid. Stupid… S-s-s-sss…" Her lip quivered. "SSSSTUPIIIIIIIID!"
Ruby buried her face in her sister's shoulder and sobbed. Yang's strong, warm arms wrapped tightly around Ruby's trembling form, her chin coming to rest on top of the younger girl's head. "Hey, hey, come on. Ssshhhh. You're okay. You're okay." Yang lowered herself and Ruby to the floor, pulling her sister into her lap and slowly rocking her back and forth. She turned her gaze upwards to meet Blake and Weiss's bemused faces and mouthed, "Give us a few minutes." Her teammates wordlessly complied, and coaxed a shivering Zwei to follow them.
Once their footsteps had faded, Yang gingerly stood and lifted Ruby over to the nearest bunk, not caring whose it was. She continued rocking her, rubbing her sister's back and humming no song in particular as Ruby clung to her and kept sobbing.
The blonde's eyes fixed themselves on the far wall, her jaw set and brow furrowed as her sister's words continued to echo in her head. She hated to admit that she was suddenly hurting. Ruby's physical assaults she could handle with no trouble. She'd endured far worse, and besides, any Huntress worth her salt needed to have a high tolerance for pain. A few emotion-spurred punches were nothing.
The phrase, "You weren't there," was another story.
Somewhere in Yang's haze of guilt she managed to hear Ruby's sobs grow quieter. She gently kissed the top of her head and murmured, "You're okay, Sis. I'm right here."
Ruby pulled her face away from Yang's now damp shoulder, her breath coming in little bursts. "I- I know you ah- are." She tripped over every word as her voice hitched with her blubbering. "I know. An- and you al- always ha- ha- have been. I- I ju- I just-"
"Sshhh. Slow down. Just breathe. You need air."
Ruby obeyed and drew in a long, shuddering breath. "I'm s- sor- sorry. Sorry."
"Hey, don't apologize, dork. You didn't do anything." Yang cleared her throat to hide the fact that her own voice was quickly becoming almost as shaky as her sister's. "Anyway, what are you sorry for? I'm the one who didn't… stick around when I should have."
Ruby wiped her eyes on her sleeve and hiccupped, "Y-you had stuff you had to do."
"I could have still saved some time for my baby sister."
"Yang, really, I overreacted. I shouldn't have-"
Yang gripped the younger girl tightly by the shoulders and locked eyes with her. "Ruby, can you shut up for five seconds so I can apologize because it's already super hard and you're just making it worse!"
It was as if the world stopped in the silence that followed Yang's roundabout attempt at saying 'sorry'. Her breath was heavy and ragged with emotion, mostly anger at herself. She hung her head and groaned. "God damn it, I'm an idiot. I'm such an idiot." Ruby found herself locked in one of Yang's trademark bear hugs, but it lacked its usual intensity.
"Yang…"
"I'm sorry." Now Yang was crying, too. "I'm so sorry. I never knew you were hurting, I really didn't. You were so damn confident after you got into Signal, I had no idea that I was… That you still needed me to be there. You just grew up so fast that I thought…" Yang released her sister and pulled back to look into her silver eyes, still shining with tears. "It doesn't matter what I thought. I don't have an excuse. No one could have an excuse. I left you alone when you needed your big sis and I was too busy to notice and I am so, so sorry for that, Ruby."
Ruby all but dove back into her sister's arms. "It's okay." They stayed like that for god-only-knew how long, sobbing into each other and holding on for dear life, and yet it ended as quickly as it began. "It's okay," Ruby repeated, and finally pulled away to make eye contact with Yang. "I forgive you. You didn't know. And, uh, it's kind of cool that you thought I was that awesome."
Yang chuckled and rubbed away her tears with the back of her fist. "Alright, alright, don't let that ego get too big." She ruffled Ruby's hair and grinned. "And, if it makes any difference, my offer to help fix Crescent Rose still stands. How about it?"