Weiss and Yang took a tentative step back while sharing a look of concern.
"What do you mean you're in there?" Yang asked slowly.
Ruby used her semblance to dash across the room before landing in one of the chairs at the table while grasping her head with both hands, pulling at the roots of her hair. As she struggled to control her breathing Weiss walked over to her resting her hand on her shoulder.
"Ruby, it's okay."
"It's not okay Weiss. You don't understand, none of you do."
Weiss sat down in the chair next to Ruby's pulling the hand closest to her off of Ruby's head and into her own hand, drawing Ruby's eyes towards her.
"Then explain it to us, help us to understand."
Weiss held Ruby's hand in a firm grasp, squeezing it slightly for support as Ruby brought her other hand down over her face rubbing it in frustration.
"After the incident with the Nuckelavee, Salem punished me for failing her." Ruby took a deep breath as she locked eyes with Weiss and placing her free hand on the table as Yang and Blake walked over standing behind her.
"She gets into your head whether you want her to or not, you've seen what she's done, she's taken everything from me-."
Weiss squeezed Ruby's hand interrupting her. "Not everything Ruby, not your friends, or family."
Ruby and Weiss shared a small smile as Ruby looked between the three of them before she continued, taking a deep breath before she did.
"Salem has this way when she gets into your head where she creates copies of you. She tortures them, and I feel everything they do, we're linked, hundreds of them all broken by Salem in hundreds of different ways." Ruby turned her gaze towards the door that held her other.
"And she was the first, Salem wanted to see how far she could go." She raised her free hand pointing towards the door. "And that's what she got."
"She got something even she couldn't control so she locked her away… but not before she did something to her that she made sure I would never forget how it feels." Ruby closed her eyes using her free hand to rub her eyelids. "I can still feel the burning, like a campfire in the morning."
Weiss moved her hand from Ruby's over her back resting on her shoulder. "It's okay Ruby she can't hurt you now."
Ruby gave a weak laugh before turning to Weiss, her eyes seemed defeated to Weiss. "I wish that was true." She whispered softly.
Yang stepped forward next to Ruby. "It's okay sis, no matter what's in front of us we'll beat it together, as a team." She crossed her arms and puffed out her chest as a demonstration of confidence as Blake placed her hand on Yang's shoulder.
"Yang's right Ruby, we're stronger together… As a team."
Ruby shot up suddenly surprising her teammates who watched in shock as Ruby stormed her way over to the door.
"You don't get it do you? What's in there is something so dark, so evil that not even Salem the queen of Grimm could control. Something that is worse than a Grimm, at least they are drawn towards negative emotions, she just creates them for fun, Because she can!" Ruby lent her head against the door, small little noises that were difficult to discern could be heard coming from it.
Weiss' hand pulled Ruby around, so she was forced to stare at the faces of her teammates.
"It doesn't matter Ruby, we're here, we've made it this far and together we'll finish this."
Blake spoke with such force that it surprised the rest of them and even herself, breaking her usually quiet façade.
Ruby looked down in shame, she felt she had failed as leader, she couldn't look at them anymore.
"How can you guys say that, I was just trying to kill you all moments ago?" Her eyes stayed glued to their feet, of which she saw Yang's step forward followed by a hand pulling her face up by her chin until she was looking at the warm smile and lilac eyes of her sister.
"That wasn't you, it's not your fault, Cinder and Salem are to blame for that. What happens from now is your choice, we'll never take that away from you Ruby… so what will it be, leader?"
Ruby smiled as she nodded before turning and grabbing at the sturdy handle, she turned it but before she pulled the door, she paused turning her head slightly towards her team.
"Whatever you do, don't make a noise, not a peep and pray that she doesn't notice us, if she does… well it could get ugly."
It was their turn to nod, but a small amount of worry had crept into their expressions as something that scared Ruby this much must be serious and after seeing what this place held, they were all concerned about what it could be.
The door gave a small squeak as it came free from its holding, it made little noise other than that as is swung open as Blake reached out grabbing it before it could hit the wall preventing it from banging.
Ruby took a deep breath and stepped forward before pausing again.
"Do your best to follow my footsteps." Ruby spoke quietly before continuing her slow pace.
The rest soon followed behind as the door quietly and slowly crept closed not even making a sound except for the little tick signalling it had locked itself. As they followed Ruby, they took the time to survey the room, it was a wide room almost like a ballroom except the front seemed to go on endlessly and it was devoid of natural light, through the windows it was as if night had descended as the only source of light were strips of bulbs that ran along the walls and hanged from the ceiling.
The door they had appeared from seemed to be a side door and Ruby stopped before pointing towards another door on the other side of the room which had a small sign above it lit in green marking Exit.
It took a moment for them to notice it but there was a clear sniffling coming from the room like someone had tired themselves out from crying as they continued to follow Ruby their eyes searched for the source of the noise, landing upon the stand at the front of the room. They could see a small figure draped in a red cape on her knees with her head against the ground, in front of her were rows and rows of small little concrete pillars, as they focused on them, they realized they were tombstones which went on as far as the eye could see.
They had almost made it about halfway across when Yang almost walked into Ruby who had stopped leading causing Yang to look at her sister, when she did she saw Ruby looking behind her with her eyes wide open in horror, spinning her head around Yang looked past Blake to Weiss who was bringing up the rear, except Weiss was a noticeable distance from the rest, she had frozen staring at the other Ruby in the room. Blake took small steps back retracing her steps before landing her hand on Weiss' shoulder. The contact snapped Weiss out of her state causing her head to snap to Blake's followed by a quick vocal snap.
"What?" Weiss said without thinking, instantly realizing what she had done the group all froze. Silence descended on the room as even the small sniffling stopped. The only break in the silence was a small flutter which was accompanied by a flurry of rose petals. Weiss stayed locked on Blakes eyes which were flicking between Weiss' and something next to Weiss, the look of concern on Blake's face made the hairs on the back of Weiss' neck stand up.
Weiss slowly turned her head towards the front of the room. She almost gasped in shock as less than an inch in front of her she was met with Ruby's face, except it wasn't. The first thing she noticed were Ruby's trademark silver eyes were missing, as if they had been burnt away and there were visible scratches around her eye sockets. The second thing she noticed was the huge grin that was spread across her face. Weiss stayed silent even holding her breath.
Blake turned her head towards Yang who had tapped her shoulder lightly without making a noise, Yang gestured for her to look at Ruby who pointed at Blake and Weiss, she was mouthing the word pull. In an instant Ruby activated her semblance as Blake yanked Weiss towards her placing her hand softly over Weiss' mouth to signal for her to be quiet, Ruby appeared where Weiss had stood taking her place almost exactly save for the difference in height. While she seemed to hold a stoic look the way how her jaw was constantly tensing, and releasing showed that she was nervous.
"Hey Ruby." She spoke softly leading to her blind counterpart to take a step back in confusion as her eyebrows crossed in frustration.
"You're not Weiss, IcouldhavesworniheardWeiss." She spoke faster than Nora on caffeine the excitement of having someone in her room clearly overflowing from her.
"Nope, just me." The way Ruby spoke meant it was evident that she was nervous.
Blind Ruby took a step forward back to where she was before taking a deep breath through her nose followed by the return of the huge grin she just had. The way she stared at Ruby you would think it was as if she still had eyes.
"I can smell her you know; now why would it smell of Weiss?" She spoke victoriously as if she had trapped Ruby with her question.
"It smells like Weiss cause I'm thinking about her, we always are." Ruby followed up her point with a jab of her finger at the blind girls stomach to emphasise her point, however her grin somehow only got wider.
"Then why do I also smell Yang and Blake?"
Ruby stepped back in concern as she looked towards her team, the other Ruby looked around the room as if it would help.
"They're here aren't they? Really here! Come on it's been so long. Let me see them. Pretty please?" she ended with a pout almost as genuine as Ruby's trademark puppy dog eyes.
"There not here and even if they were, I wouldn't let you, you'd just want to kill them." Ruby spoke matter-of-factly as if the answer didn't surprise her, but she could tell from the looks on her team it this shock them.
The blind Ruby used her semblance to appear behind Ruby resting her head on the girls shoulder wrapping her hands around her stomach.
"Ah come on don't be such a grouch, if you let me then they get to stay here forever with the both of us." Ruby shuddered as she felt the girl talk next to her. Before she could respond the other girl continued to speak and while Ruby couldn't see it, she could almost hear the smile on the girl grow bigger.
"You're a lousy liar Ruby Rose and you especially can't lie to yourself. Besides the moment I stood here, I could hear their heartbeats." Ruby's eyes snapped open in shock but before she could react blind Ruby flipped her over her back causing a loud thud, turning towards the rest a Crescent Rose appeared in her hand except it was dripping with blood. What followed was the sound of the trio also drawing their weapons while standing defensively.
The girl laughed at their attempts to defend themselves. "You really think you can stop me in my own head!" she continued laughing to mock them. As she stepped forward the sound of Crescent Rose extending into its full form could be hear except from behind the girl, what quickly followed was a slashing sound and metal meeting flesh and the scraping of metal into the ground. The blind Ruby's smile dropped as she looked down, her foot had become trapped in the ground and she could feel blood running from whatever had pinned it. The others could see Ruby stood behind her, she had swung her own Crescent Rose down into the girls foot.
"RUN!" she shouted to the three who followed their leaders promptly running towards the exit. Behind them they could hear the blind Ruby laugh. She ripped her foot clean off her own leg leaving it pinned into the ground with the scythe before stumbling over, another foot quickly grew back except this was black with red veins as if it was a Grimm leg. The girl quickly got back to her feat turning to her original, both raised their scythes for a fight.
"They don't love you, you know, once they realize what you have done, they'll abandon you or worse kill you, better to do it to them first."
"I don't care, they're my family now and I'm not gonna fail them again."
The blind Ruby scoffed in response before activating her semblance and striking at Ruby.
The trio dashed across the room quickly coming to the exit, Weiss and Yang quickly undid the bolts keeping it closed before turning to look at their leader. What they saw was a blur of reds clashing, one a noticeably darker shade than Ruby's, the two blurs were clashing and bouncing around often crashing into the walls before recovering and reactivating their semblance.
Weiss turned towards Blake whispering in the hope the blind Ruby wouldn't hear.
Blake nodded and ran back over to the two Ruby's.
"RUBY!" she shouted cause the two to stop and look towards the Faunus girl. Blake unleashed rounds from her weapon at the blind girl peppering her with bullets that she was forced to block with her aura, running as she fired, she grabbed onto Ruby.
"We're leaving!"
Enraged at the statement the blind girl charged at the two smashing into and shattering the clone Blake had left behind, as the girl shook off the shards Blake grabbed her wrapping her arms around the girl pinning her hands to her side, activating her semblance again she left behind a stone clone that kept the girl trapped momentarily while Ruby used her own semblance to rush the two through the open exit door following Weiss and Yang who quickly slammed the door shut. Weiss spawned a gravity glyph in front of the door, as soon as the glyph appeared a crash rang out from the other side along with wailing and screaming, soon you could hear the clicking of the bolts relocking and Weiss released the glyph.
The group breathed a collective sigh before turning around, they came face to face with a Beacon Hospital Ambulance. Realizing they were outside they ran around to the front of the Hospital meeting up with Raven. Before anyone could speak a cracking sound could be heard, the 5 of them looked up to the roof of the hospital which had split open spreading debris everywhere, Ruby turned to the group.
"You guys need to go now!"
Raven turned slashing her sword out in front of her opening a portal. Weiss ran over to Ruby putting her hands in her own and resting her forehead on Ruby's.
"Will you be okay?" she whispered.
Ruby nodded softly. "Don't worry about me, you saved me, now it's my turn to save myself."
She pushed Weiss off her slightly.
"Now go. All of you."
The three girls followed Raven into the portal.
…
The three of them and Raven suddenly gasped as they released their hands from each other, Yang spun around in shock realizing they were all back in Haven Academy's hall.
"Are you okay, did it not work?" asked the surprised voice of Oscar.
Yang looked down at the kid confused. "not work? We were gone for ages."
"Maybe for you but for us only a couple of seconds passed"
Yang went to respond but was distracted by a gasp from Weiss.
Weiss had fallen to her knees in front of Ruby who had only just regained consciousness. Ruby was the first to break the uneasy silence that had fallen across the group.
She spoke quietly as her voice threatened to break, she kept her face hidden behind her hair as she looked down at the ground.
"Can you guys release me please?"
Blake took a step behind Ruby holding onto her ribbon that kept the girl's hands pinned behind her.
"Why?" she asked concerned they had failed.
Ruby raised her head causing her hair to part to the sides, tears were flowing freely from her eyes as she looked straight at Weiss.
"So, I can hug my partner please." She cracked out.
Blake unspun the ribbon and in an instant Ruby activated her semblance sending petals everywhere. She crashed into Weiss causing the smaller girl to make an audible oof as she was knocked back onto the floor. Ruby had wrapped her arms around Weiss how had reciprocated with her own.
"I'm sorry" Ruby repeated multiple times until the soft shushing of Weiss stopped her, Weiss was running a hand through Ruby's hair comfortingly.
"You have nothing to apologise for."