1. It Started With a Voice
Ruby woke up that morning the exact same way she had done for months, ever since arriving to Beacon. There may have been a few subtle differences or out-of-place oddities, but for the most part it was the same. Ruby opened her eyes ever so slightly, noticing Yang and Blake on the opposite side of the room still asleep. Her eyes were still blurred from her recent sleep, but she could notice that it was still dark outside.
'Why am I awake...it's not even morning yet.' Ruby said at barely a whisper to herself. Without a second thought, she instantly dozed back into a comfy slumber to enjoy these last few moments before the day really began. It wasn't much longer (in Ruby's mind at least) until she was abruptly brought to her senses by Weiss. The heiress shook Ruby awake rather violently, complaining about the younger girl always trying to sleep in too much these days. Perhaps that was the reason Ruby liked the girl.
"Oh my gosh, wake up! You idiotic dunce...stop over-sleeping!" Ruby instantly opened her silver eyes to the world upon enduring Weiss. They didn't even have classes today, which confused Ruby as to why her teammate was so concerned with waking her up. Once the little reaper was awake, Weiss had no reason to stick around, instantly turning back around and walking off to do 'Weiss things'.
Ruby stretched a few times, even venturing so far as to take off her sweaty top in the empty room. Usually it didn't matter if she was alone or not, they all changed in front of each other anyway. She climbed out of her bed that hung in place above Weiss'. She walked over to where her pile of day clothes laid and slowly collected them. Before she had the chance to finish changing out of her pajamas, something clicked inside of her head. She didn't fully understand it, but a thought arose out of nowhere that she had no control over.
'Weiss is such a bitch for waking me up like she did. I didn't deserve that one bit.' It was enough to make Ruby freeze where she was. She tried to speak out to the empty air.
"What?" Her voice became high-pitched and squealy out of fear and confusion. She didn't know where this was coming from. Of course Weiss acted entitled and annoyed all the time, but Ruby still liked Weiss despite that. She didn't agree with her thoughts one bit. But before she could think about it anymore, Yang suddenly walked into the room completely disregarding the fact that someone may be inside already. The blonde's eyes immediately fixed themselves onto Ruby's still exposed breasts. Ruby noticed exactly where her sister's purple eyes were looking, blushing deeply.
"Y-Yang! Stop staring at me!" Ruby yelled, blushing more. She immediately flew her arms in front of herself to cover her chest. Yang simply continued to stare, smiling widely.
"Aww...my little sis is starting to become like me!" Yang became giggly at the hint she just made about her own large breasts. Ruby was becoming a young lady faster than Yang thought. After the fit was over, Yang walked over to her bed and picked up Ember Celica. She had somehow forgotten them while in a hurry to get out of the room. She took one last look over at Ruby before dashing back out the door.
Ruby looked down at the pile of clothes in her hands and remembered that she was still half naked. Without wasting any time, Ruby quickly dressed herself into her day clothing, thinking about what she was going to do today. Something didn't feel right though. It was as if all she could think of was negative thoughts.
'Spend the day by yourself Ruby! Your teammates aren't worth your time. Weiss woke you up abruptly and the others aren't even around!' Ruby had no control over her thoughts. She wanted to think of something by herself, but something, or someone, was inside of her head. She suddenly felt very faint, falling to the floor where she previously stood. A voice bounced around in her head without her consent and all she could do was listen to it. The cold words she felt in her head towards her friends and sister were too harsh to be hers.
'Blake the animal, Pyrrha the loner, Jaune the cheat, Nora the psychopath, Ren the quiet one. They aren't really your friends are they? Ruby...you're better than them, and they just cast you away because they think you're younger and less experienced. As if you're below them.' Ruby raised her hands to her ears to try and block out the augmented reiteration of her own voice. Her head was pounding and her blood was boiling. Just when she was about to say something, to counter this forced cruelty...
It was gone. The voice ceased, her head felt fine, and she was more awake than ever. Fear and anger was replaced with confusion, and pain was non-existent. Ruby stood up and exercised her mind to make sure it was her in control.
'Okay...um...Be my friend, Weiss. We're suppose to be a team, Weiss. You're super cute, Weiss. Well, it looks like that voice thingy is gone.' Ruby stood a little more confidently now that she knew it was her thinking her own thoughts. She walked over to where her Crescent Rose lay, picking it up gently.
"I'm going to use you today." Ruby spoke out loud to the empty silence. No one answered as expected. She sheathed the scythe into its usual spot on her lower back and headed out of the dorm room. Her destination was the Emerald Forest for some alone time with her precious sweetheart. She felt the need to kill that morning, and it would also provide a good chance to think about the reason behind her mind being hijacked. She walked the long corridors alone, emptying her head at present.
'Surprise, bitch!' Without warning, the anomaly returned. Ruby didn't have two seconds to prepare herself before she felt an outside force intercept her aura, activating her semblance. A mild yelp was all she could manage before slamming into the wall in a flurry of rose petals, nearly knocking her out cold. Her body ached incredibly, making her wish that she was unconscious right now.
'Goodnight Ruby Rose...You'll need the rest.' Were the final words she heard in her mind before her vision blurred and finally blacked out entirely.
Ruby hadn't fully awoken yet. She couldn't move or open her eye, only think. What she was thinking right now was unusual though. It was almost like she was entirely inside of her mind. Not physically, but when she opened her eyes all she saw was a wall of crimson, with various images and moving fragments of her memories. She focused her attention on the memory replaying the night she met Torchwick and Glynda, smiling with fondness of the excitement the night brought.
Without warning, the crimson and memories faded and were replaced with a darker shade of maroon. In the center of it all was a white symbol she had never seen before, splattered with blood-red coloring. The symbol looked like an 'R' with a knife piercing the top curve. Ruby's attention was brought off of the symbol when she heard the voice from earlier ring out loud.
"If the circumstances were different, I would be sorry about earlier when I knocked you out. But the situation doesn't physically allow me to feel such sympathy. Don't feel too bad Ruby, after all, I am part of you." As the cold words ended, a dark figure formed in front of Ruby, taking on a familiar shape. The entity that now faced Ruby was...Ruby. But the new version was different, noticing a change of color in her eyes, hair, and clothing.
She had crimson colored eyes that seem to ignite her whole face in an evil bright red. Her hair's color scheme was inverted to Ruby's, being mostly red with black tips and streaks throughout. Her clothing consisted of a maroon colored corset that looked soaked in blood and a black combat skirt that had minor changes from Ruby's originally worn one. Ruby felt her voice returned to her weakly upon seeing this crooked reflection.
"Wh-what are y-you?" Ruby asked in a high-pitched tone, receiving a wicked stare from the formation
"It should be obvious, but your mind isn't very developed yet. Allow me to justify my reason for existing. Imagine a conglomeration of negative emotions. Anything on the block that Grimm are attracted to. That's how I was made, or rather born. You have two sides to you, Ruby: the cute, innocent side that everyone loves and the dark, venomous side that is in every way evil. I am the evil that lurks inside you." The second Ruby finished her statement, turning away to walk off.
All that was left was darkness and Ruby couldn't even think straight. She didn't even know when she would wake up. All she could think of was the white symbol with the knife in the top of it.
Ruby woke up an undetermined amount of time later in a medical bed in a pristine white room. It was plain except for a few machines near the bed that appeared to be turned off. Her head pounded but at least she no longer heard the voice of that evil copy of herself. The bed was pushed near a corner that had a giant window set in the stone. Ruby noted that the room she was in, based on looking out the window, was at least five or more stories high. No one was present in the room except her, but coming from somewhere was the sweet fragrance of roses.
She turned her head towards the door to see the thick wood slab cracked open a small bit. Ruby assumed the aroma was coming from outside of the room. She blinked a few times and sat up in the bed. She really loved the smell of roses, taking in deep relaxing breaths. A few moments passed and Ruby completely forgot where she was or why. The door opened a bit wider and both Yang and Weiss rushed into the room.
"Ruby! I'm so glad to see you're okay...when we found you, you were unconscious in the hallway and we didn't know what happened. Do you remember anything?" Yang immediately asked Ruby, receiving a confused look from the younger girl. Ruby couldn't think straight at the moment, just staring at her sister as if she was still processing her words.
"I...I don't know what happened. My semblance acted on its own and I just ran into a wall." Ruby tried to explain, battling against the impending headache. Immediately after saying what she had, another thought popped into her head that she couldn't suppress. It pushed itself to the forefront of her mind. The younger girl blinked a few times, her eyes changing colors from silver to bright red.
"The roses are dying. I-I can't save them. Yang, help me! They're dying!" Ruby didn't even know why she was saying what she was, but tears started forming in her eyes and she could no longer see Yang or Weiss clearly anymore.
"Ruby, what's wrong? What roses are dying?" Yang tried to help.
"The rose petals are falling...losing life...a-and when I try to help I make it worse and...Yang please help! The roses are dying!" Ruby was completely losing it over these roses. Weiss stood behind Yang, holding something in her hands out of Ruby's sight. Weiss was planning to give it to her to help her feel better, but now wasn't the time.
Weiss twirled between her fingers a white rose flower. She knew that they were Ruby's favorite flower because it reminded her of Summer.
"Ruby, calm down! I'm here and there's no dying roses! You're the only Rose here, and you're perfectly fine, see?" Yang was doing her best to comfort the young girl, but Ruby was insistent on continuing her rant about dying roses.
"Y-Yang...she knows...and she's going to kill us..."
"Who's gonna kill you? No one here-"
"I don't know yet. But she will kill us...for killing the roses...please listen to me, the roses are dying..." Ruby muttered, starting to squirm around on the bed. Before Yang could react or stop her sister, Ruby bolted out of the bed and used her semblance to dash out of the room. In the chaos, the flower fell from Weiss' fingers and gently floated to the floor. Miraculously, the rose hadn't lost a single petal. Weiss bent down and picked up the flower from amongst the scattered red rose petals. Yang ran after Ruby, calling out to her the whole time.
Ruby just ran until her vision blurred and she collapsed, rolling a few more feet to compensate for the speed. But as Ruby collapsed and fell unconscious, another figure continued running when Ruby had fallen. A different version of Ruby. A more crimson-colored version. Yang soon reached Ruby and helped the girl to her feet, slightly waking up a little and whispering softly.
"When I fell...she kept running..." Ruby pulled Yang towards where the other Ruby had split off towards. Yang didn't bother fighting Ruby as she pulled towards the elevator, then towards the front entrance of the hospital once they reached the bottom. Ruby was still weak, but had a surprisingly strong grasp on Yang. The two girls ended up just outside the front doors of the hospital to see another girl standing twenty feet in front of them with her back turned. She looked almost identical to Ruby, except she had a prominent black cape that waved in the gentle breeze.
"Who are you and why are you scaring my sister so much!?" Yang shouted at the dark figure. The other girl turned her head to face Yang, giving her an evil grin.
"I'm Ruby's...other side. But you can call me...Crimson."
