How did things get this bad?
Of course, Ruby already knew the answer to that. It was all her fault.
If only she'd paid attention when she should have, maybe things would have turned out differently. If only she had stopped for a second to think, maybe she could have prevented the catalyst that sent the world into chaos.
She still remembered what her team was like before. Weiss was cold and sarcastic, but still friendly in her own way. Blake was quiet, but she still talked to her team when she needed to.
And Yang... Yang was so cheerful. So happy.
But in the end, the biggest change had to be in Ruby herself. She used to be a nice, friendly girl who never wanted to hurt anyone, and she turned into...
She cut that trail of thought off. It wasn't healthy. It wasn't something she needed to remind herself of.
Ruby knew what had to be done and she was going to do it. Nothing else mattered.
After all, if it came between having to live with a horrible decision or the extinction of the human race, she knew exactly which she was going to pick.
But still, she couldn't help thinking about the very moment when everything started going wrong: