"And now we are approaching the ending of the Great War, when the King of Vale used the blah blah blah…" Ruby sighed. Professor Port seemed to drone on forever about nonsense and war time stuff. Over time, the words seemed to morph together into one big sound that Ruby simply couldn't focus on with her active imagination.
Of course however, she knew she had to focus up and take note. She was just one semester away from graduation from Beacon with her team by her side. She had nearly survived Beacon unscathed, for the most part, and all she needed to do was pass these final classes and she was done. She would become an official huntress. Over the years, she had matured from the child-like girl she was when she first stumbled into Beacon two years ahead. She had learned how to keep her cool when times got intense and how to stay mature and lady-like when the time arose.
As she glanced to her left, first saw Weiss, paying close attention and jotting down notes and usual. Next way Blake, who had her notebook open and a pencil in one hand, but the latest edition of her favorite "smut", as Ruby had learned to call it, sitting in her lap as she read it. And finally came Yang, her older sister who had guided her through the toughest of times, trying to steal a glance at a few of the hot juniors across the room. Ruby smiled to herself as she turn ed her attention back towards the front.
Gotta focus she thought, this might be on the next test. So Ruby picked up her pencil and focused her attention at the board, trying to jot down some notes. However, her active mind quickly lost interest and could no longer focus on the board. Quietly dropping her pencil on her notebook, she put her head in her hands and groaned to herself. Even after all these years, she still couldn't keep her active mind in check. She had been told that she probably had ADHD and that she needed to take some medication for it, however, she forgot day after day and soon lost the bottle of pills.
Now, as Port continued to babble on about something to do with a fancy spear, Ruby slumped in her seat. How am I going to pass if I don't focus? She thought, her eyes slowly beginning to close. With eyes half opened, she leaned forward and put her arms on the desk in front of her and lay her head in them. She had forgot she only got three hours of sleep the night before, studying for a test she took earlier in the day. Soon, she was asleep, her mind wondering as the noises around blended into a single sound. Her surroundings melting away as she fell into a deep sleep very quickly. Time sped up as Ruby dozed off in the mind of class before…
Suddenly, Ruby's body awoke with a sudden and violent jolt, causing her arms to flair and her body to sit straight up. Her knocked her notebook and pencil off her desk, causing them to fall into the row in front of her, where Jaune and Pyrrha sat close together. Ruby looked around in a frantic motion, like she didn't know where she was, her breathing increasing dramatically. After a couple second, Ruby realize where she was and began to look at her other classmates and teammates. Yang was trying her best not to burst out laughing in class, while Blake let out a silent chuckle. Weiss just starred at her with the evilest eye, trying her best not to kill her. She glanced down at Jaune and Pyrrha, who besides looked a bit startled and confused, still managed to smile and hand Ruby's stuff back.
"Sleeping in class again, Ms. Rose?" Professor Port said.
"Sorry sir, didn't get enough sleep." Ruby said, grabbing her things.
"Well make sure you do tonight so this doesn't happen again?" Port boomed from the front of classroom.
"Yes Professor." Ruby said, trying to hide herself. The rest of class was uneventful, besides a few other students silently laughing. Class ended twenty minutes later, and all the students returned to their dorm, included an embarrassed Ruby.
"Mind explaining what that was?" Weiss asked Ruby condescendingly. Ruby was lying in her bed, which still hung from the ceiling, copying notes from Yang.
"I don't know. I just passed out and my body was just like 'NOPE!' and caused me to do, that." Ruby replied, not looking at Weiss.
"It probably knew that sleeping in class is a very rude and obnoxious thing to do, like copying someone else's notes when you should have taken notes yourself!" Weiss said, reaching up to Ruby's bed and grabbing Yang's notebook.
"Hey! I was using that!" Ruby yelled, propping herself up on her bed in an attempt to grab the notebook. Weiss held the book behind her head, well out of the reach of Ruby.
"Let her have it." Yang said, snatching the notebook from Weiss and tossing it back up to Ruby, who quickly began jotting down the notes again. "Besides, she was up late last night studying. Can't really blame her." Yang replied, giving Weiss a look.
"I can, and I will." Weiss replied before sitting down on her own bed.
"What happened anyways, Ruby?" Yang asked.
"Like I said, I don't know. I closed my eyes, fell asleep for a few minutes, and then like a bolt of lightning hit me, I jolted awake." Ruby said, rolling over on her back.
"Your brain went into panic life saving mode." Blake said, causing the trio to look at her.
"Panic life saving mode?" Weiss asked.
"It's the fancy name I gave it a couple years back. Basically, when that happens, you heart rate decreases so rapidly your brain jerks you awake to make sure you're still alive." Blake said with chuckle.
"That's… kinda terrifying." Yang responded.
"However, there are some that believe that when that happens, somewhere in an alternate timeline, a different version of you was just killed." Blake said.
"I don't know which one is worse." Ruby said, freaking out jokingly.
"So let's say that tomorrow in Glynda's class, Weiss falls asleep and that happens to her." Blake began.
"Psshh. Won't happen." Weiss said with a smirk.
"Hypothetically speaking, if it were to happen, that means that on that date, in a different timeline, Weiss was just killed." Blake explained.
"By what?" Ruby asked.
"Anything. A car, an arrow, a jealous ex-boyfriend. Doesn't matter. Just that something killed her." Blake said.
"Okay, all joking aside, that's still pretty scary." Yang said.
"So, Ruby, somehow, somewhere, you died today." Blake said, looking at the younger girl.
"Oh, can we guess on what killed her?" Yang said, a bit too gleefully.
"Hopefully something painless." Ruby said, rolling back over and going back to copying down notes, ignoring the onslaught of guesses coming from Yang. Still, Ruby couldn't shake the thought that she was killed on this day.
I wonder how it happened…
Ruby lay on the dirt path, covered in so much blood, she couldn't tell what hers was and what wasn't. She gripped the stump that used to be her right arm as she half consciously, looked around. She saw what could only be described as a massacre. Blake and Yang, who were still holding hands, were clearly dead with most of their blood drained from their bodies and badly burned. Turning her head a bit to the right, she saw Qrow who was barely alive. He also lay on the ground, attempting to crawl towards his weapon before his body fell limp. Then she noticed was remained of Tyrian, bits and pieces scattered across the path.
Ruby then turned to her right and was now face to face with Weiss. She too was covered in blood, most of it hers from the large shotgun blast wound in her abdomen. She gripped her stomach as more and more blood seeped. Ruby could see her intestines through her hands and knew she too was near the end of her life.
Suddenly, a large hand grabbed her neck and yanked her up off the ground, with Weiss weakly protesting. She tried to break free of the grasp by hitting the hand holding her, but all this caused was a bit of her lower intestines to fall out of her abdomen and hang loosely.
"Where's the relic?" Asked the man holding up Weiss. Her response was weak and quiet, but Ruby could clearly make out a 'fuck you' before a gunshot went off and the grasp on Weiss was released. Her body fell directly in front of Ruby, Ruby's eyes looking to Weiss' now lifeless eyes, with blood now flowing from a new hole in the side of her head. Ruby could see bits of brain in and around the hole and could see the remaining color drain from her face. She tried to look away, but her body refused, like it was beginning to shut down.
Suddenly, Ruby was also grabbed by the neck by the same large hand and pulled off the ground. It now had a light splattering of blood across it. The grasp was tight enough to restrict the amount of air flowing through her neck, but not enough to choke her. As she was raised up, he recognized the man with the large hands as Hazel. She looked into his eyes, which showed little to no emotion before she outstretched his hand and turned his wrist, so Rub was facing away from him and towards someone new.
Cinder.
"As you can see Ruby, you're our last option. Your friends from Beacon proved to be of no use, so they have already been dealt with. So I believe it is in your best nature to tell us the truth. Were did you hide the relic?" Cinder voice turned from this snarky tone to a condescending, angry tone.
"Why…does it matter... for me? You're just… gonna kill me anyways?" Ruby choked out, blood trickling from her mouth.
"Your answer depends on whether your final moments are painless, or painful?" Cinder said, a fire sword appearing in her hand.
Ruby laughed. "Humor me if I'm wrong, but I don't trust that." She said with a smile.
"Very well then, let's see if I'm wrong." Cinder said, before plunging the hot, serrated blade into Ruby's stomach. Ruby's face turned from snarky to a look of pure pain. She looked down towards the sword, then back at Cinder. Cinder, with a look of pure glee, plunged the sword even deeper into Ruby and turned it, causing more pain to shoot through her body.
Ruby then felt the grasp on her neck disappear and realize that her entire body weight was being supported on this sword. And even though the grasp was gone, she still found it very hard to breathe. Ruby looked back down towards the sword, which was turned at a near 90-degree angle flat across her body and then back at Cinder. However, Cinder looked at Ruby, she noticed Ruby had a big smile on her face.
"What's so funny?!" Cinder basically screamed.
"You don't know where the relic is now." Ruby said with a smile as she coughed up blood some that was quickly filling her mouth and sent it spattering all over Cinder's face. Cinder face quickly turned to that of realization, then anger before ripping the sword from Ruby's body and yelling out into the world in anger, causing Ruby to fall back to earth. More jolts of pain screamed through her body as she landed on the new stab wound. She quickly felt the life draining from her body and she looked around at the massacre around her. Everyone she knew was now dead, with her being the last one standing.
Slowly, she began crawling towards Weiss, who know lay in a bloody, mud puddle, her clothes soaked a new color. Her face was completely drained of all blood and her eyes were void of life and color. Still, Ruby made her way over to her best friend, leaving behind a large trail of her own blood. Eventually, she made her way over and weakly grabber her friends hand, it feeling cold to the touch. She began to softly cry, apologizing for not saving her beforehand.
As the pool of Weiss' blood grew large due to the fact Ruby's blood was beginning to pool in there as well, Cinder noticed this final act of friendship. And it made her sick and angry.
"Hazel," Cinder said, causing Hazel to turn around. "Go finish her off. And make sure she sees it coming." She said. Hazel nodded in agreement and made his way over to Ruby while Cinder stormed off angerly. It took but a few steps to reach Ruby, who was still holding Weiss' hand and crying quietly to herself. Hazel placed his boot underneath Ruby and forcibly rolled her over, causing her to now be facing the large man. Hazel then proceeded to raise his right boot up in the air, directly above Ruby's face. Ruby knew what was coming next and simply closed her eyes and as tightly as she could, gripped Weiss' hand.
Then, with all the force he could muster, Hazel stomped down on Ruby's head, sending pieces of brain and skull out in all different directions. The blood exploded out and up and proceed to splatter all over Weiss face and body, along with Hazel's boot, with some of it landing on Hazel's face. As he did this, Ruby's nerves let out one more serge of energy, causing her whole body to jolt like she had just woken up suddenly from a nap.
Author's Note
I'm sure some of you are about to call bs on this story. I now know that my "scientific" explanation is wrong. However, I was already too deep into the story to change it and this seemed more fitting (and too lazy). Just know that I'm aware that this is incorrect.
Anyways, Follow, Favorite, and Review.
Peace.