WARNING! This story contains multiple triggers and heavy plot points, do not read if you are at all uncomfortable with the following:
-Major Character Death
Preface
This is not a romance. It is not a story of love conquering all else, or of love as a cure to all ills; it is not the tale of love washing away the darkness of black soul, of good health and healing. This is not a bedtime fairy tale, there is no hero, no damsel, no happy ending, and no villain.
All this story has…is the man who has everything, and the girl who has nothing. The woman running, and the boy chasing her. The queen smiling on a lonely throne of fear, and the gentle king desperate to move her. The corpses of the loved, and the tortured souls that remember them.
In this world, love is an infection, a disease of the heart that toys with its victims like the monsters at the kingdom gates. There is no romance where there is affection, happiness is relative to the tragedy of existence and desire is relative to the heavy sense of loneliness. Love, in this Remnant, is a prison.
And the story of it begins with an end.
oooOOOooo
It was all burning. The city, the school, the arena…everything was bathed in flames. Ruby watched in horror from the windows of the aircraft, her arms bound tightly behind her torso as Neo fiddled with her scythe a few feet away. The infamous Roman Torchwick stood beside her, a cheerful smirk plastered across his face as he watched thousands lose their lives to the flames and the Grimm. She would say that he was enjoying it too much, but then again, he was a bad guy, and victory must have been far too sweet for him to even recognize that vindictive pleasure.
Ruby continued to survey the calamity below, helpless to aide her friends as the coal black monsters descended on them in hoards. The aircraft hovered towards the docks, and Ruby let out a soft gasp as she recognized a familiar blonde girl fending off an enormous hoard of Grimm. And slowly but surely, she was losing. Ruby's face contorted further in despair as she watched her sister get pushed back further, exhausted further with each punch and losing balance quickly. With only a moment more, Yang collapsed, and Ruby let out a soft, helpless whimper.
"No…no…Yang get up, please…get up…no, please, Yang…" Ruby didn't notice that Roman and Neo had turned their attention to her, her eyes had become entirely fixated on her sister as she watched the blonde struggle to lift up her torso. A pack of Ursai surrounded her, waiting as she continued trying to get back on her feet. But she fell. And they dived for her. "NO!" Ruby screamed in despair as she threw herself against the window, helpless and crying as her sister disappeared under the pack of hungry Grimm. "Get up Yang! You can still fight them! Please just get up! Please! Don't you dare die on me! Yang! Yaaaaaaannng!"
She didn't notice as Roman pulled her off the window. She could see the Ursai disbanding through her blurred eyes, and no matter how much she tried to tell herself otherwise, nothing could change the facts. Yang was dead. Ruby's chest heaved up and down sporadically as her breathing became labored, her tears poured down her cheeks in streams. "Don't leave me…" She gasped as a large hand clad in a leather glove came over her eyes, and she heard Torchwick click his tongue in annoyance.
"Jeez, Red, if you don't like the view, don't look at it," he muttered as her tears continued to fall, her breath escaping her in labored hiccups. She had only just become aware of his other arm wrapped firmly over her. She focused on evening out her breathing, holding until she had calmed herself before struggling out of Roman's arms. He hadn't expected it, and as he staggered back in surprise, she fell back harshly onto the glass with a resounding "thwack". Roman coughed a little, hesitating a moment before his one visible eye returned to her with a sense of calculated rage, as if he were a feral beast examining his prey.
It didn't faze her. "I…will never let you win," Ruby growled as she struggled to her feet. "It doesn't matter how hard you tie me down…or how many times you beat me…I'll never stop fighting you!"
His frown persisted for a second before his lips cracked in a wry grin, his head craned back and his laugh echoing across the control room. "Man, Red, you are a riot! What are you gonna do, hm? Shout? Scream? Are you gonna try to bite us to death with your baby teeth?"
"Shut up!"
"You're really not in a position to be pushing your luck, Red," he smirked, "I'm not obligated to keep you alive or treat you nicely. And frankly…" Roman picked his cane up and started towards her, stopping only inches away before using the handle of his weapon to lift her chin. "There are so many things I would love to do to you right now that I simply lost count."
Ruby wrinkled her nose in response. "You're disgusting," she hissed.
"I'm a criminal, kid, it comes with the territory. Now then," Roman stepped back, his trademark smirk still plastered across his face. "Neo and I have a few more things to get done before we catch up with our boss, and I'd rather you didn't get in the way, so I'm afraid you'll have to take a small nap. Neo, do you think you could give little Red here her medicine?"
Neo smiled and stepped forward, pulling a syringe out from behind her back as her left eye suddenly changed from brown to pink. Ruby backed up instinctively, pressing herself firmly against the window while the smaller woman advanced towards her. Her glare persisted even as she tried to shrink away from the needle, but powerless as she was, it didn't take Neo much effort to pin her arm down and administer the drug. From there, it was no more than a waiting game—Ruby's balance slowly deteriorated and her legs collapsed beneath her, her vision blurred and her awareness of her surroundings became limited to cold metal beneath her and the bright orange light beyond the glass. The last thing she could recall was seeing the sky.
It was the last time she'd see it for nearly two years.
oooOOOooo
Rosewick trash Peeves reporting in…yeah. If you're still expecting anything cheery from this story, abandon that hope now. I'll be pasting some disclaimers below that will be present at the end of each chapter from now on, please acquaint yourselves with them as soon as possible.
1.I do not own RWBY or any of its characters
2.This will be a future AU, but it will be near future and will still include implications of sexual content at the least. Thus, count this as underage, since Ruby will not be eighteen quite yet.
3.This story will contain a lot of triggers, on AO3, they will be listed in the story tags, but on ffn, I will not have that privilege. So if you are reading this on ffn, I will provide a list of trigger warnings for the chapter at the top, so please read them to ensure that you know whether or not any content will trigger or squick you.
4.I cannot stress this enough—DON'T LIKE DON'T READ. I hate saying this since I think it should be a give in, but I mean it. This plot vein is not for the faint of heart, and even if you like my writing, I won't take responsibility for any distaste or discomfort you feel because frankly, I warned you, and I'm going to do a lot to continue warning you.
5.Please, please for the love of all that is holy, do not read this story with the thought that any of the relationship depicted will be "cute" or "romantic", and don't refer to it as such once we get to areas where affection is exhibited. This story may involve rosewick as a pairing, and it may involve a love story, but it is not romantic, or sweet, and it should not be idealized. A lot of this story will center around a very unhealthy relationship, a lot of the factors in that are real issues and I am not going to romanticize any of that. Most of the relationships in this story, much like the story itself, are written with the express intention of being fucked up.
6.I do not condone any of the messed up shit that happens in this story.
Rosewick trash Peeves out until next chapter.
