The Wilting Rose

Pt: II

The soft crunch of snow echos through her mind as Ruby walks down the path between the snow covered trees at night. She walked down this path before, she knew it like the back of her hand. But it changed , it was not the same. No, this was different. She has had this dream before, it was a nightmare. A dream that was red like roses. Before her, the path she took had a thick bar of red spanning the path. She continued to walk down the red path, knowing that her destination lead to the same place it always did.

Her cape flowed behind her, her red petals cascading and fluttering out like always. She watched as squirrel dart out from the trees to cross the red path. It took one step onto the crimson colour and it froze unnaturally, still bounding for its destination. Instantly, the woodland creature became red and dissolved into petals. This was not a place of life, this was a place frozen in time. Ruby pulled the the hood over her head more, covering her face against the wind, but the cold never coming with it.

The path came to an end, behind her was a dead forest as far as the eye could see. In front of her, a cliff that span infinity to either side of her. Before her was a stone baring the mark of a rose. The epitaph of her mother "Thus kindly I scatter" chiselled into the gravestone. She walked up to it and knelt before it, a silent prayer to a person she remembered, Summer Rose, before the other one appears like she always does in the red dream. The wind blew off her hood in a sudden gust, Ruby looked up and she saw Summer Rose, smiling at her sadly, like she always does.

"Ruby" She spoke softly. "Please, you must stop this. You can't keep doing this to yourself"

"I don't know how..." Ruby said soft as she bowed her head in shame. "This has become my world now...War. Death. I do what I must to protect who I can. Is that no how a Huntress is suppose to live her life?"

"A Huntress is suppose to live with honour! Duty and compassion! To defend the weak and protect the realm! Ruby, what you have become, it's not a Huntress-"

"But a soldier" She heard Ruby's, her voice call out behind her. Standing up, she slowly turned around and looked upon the person who had spoke out. Before her stood the Red Death. She looked just like Ruby, the same height and form. While she looked the same, she was also different. Her skin was much paler than her own, her cape was much darker and It looked like it was soaked, weighed down as dark red petals dripped and pooled around her feet.

Her hair was also just as different as it was the same. It looked like someone had dumped a bucket of red liquid over her head, the crimson dripped from the tips of her hair, staining the white shirt red and trails of red water flowed down her pale skin. The Red Death looked up at Ruby, her eyes were black, with silver irises, making her eyes dark and threatening. Black tears stained her cheeks as she took a step closer to Ruby. "You are not a Huntress" She said lightly, her voice deeper than her own, more threatening and commanding. "You are a soldier"

Ruby found it hard to breath, the Red Death leaving a dripping trail of petals in her wake as she walked towards her. "You had the enemy in your grasp, and you let her slip away" She said as she narrowed her dark eyes at her. "Why?"

"It was Weiss. I couldn't hurt Weiss..."

"She was the enemy!" The Red Death screamed at her, making Ruby flinch and cover her ears at the volume. "You show no weakness! No feelings on the battlefield! Or you will be killed! Then who will protect the young, the weak and the old? Nora? She's a mute that won't do anything. Ren can't use his legs and the other soldiers are useless. You are the only one who can defeat the enemy, Ruby!"

"Weiss is not the enemy!" Ruby snapped and shouted back at the Red Death. "She is my friend! They all are!"

"Really?" The Red Death hummed gently as she raised her eyebrow lightly.

Suddenly, a white light came from the side and she watched as Weiss charged at Ruby with Myrtenaster, her rapier, in hand. Ruby went to defend herself, but her own weapon was missing from its holster on her lower back. He looked back and braced for impact when the white haired woman suddenly froze, her entire being had become a red statue. Her weapon just inches away from her chest. "Weiss is from Atlas. Atlas is the enemy" The Red Death said as she walked past the frozen figure.

Next, Blake showed up and swung her weapon and Ruby. She too was frozen into a red statue, her features were one of anger and aggression. The ribbon of Gambol Shroud frozen in its waving from behind her as the blade stopped just before her head. "Blake ran from everyone, abandoned her duty. She is the enemy" Finally, Yang appeared to next to Blake. She was dressed in their father's old jacket with her hair done up in a pony tail. They locked eyes for a second before she looked down and turned away, only to be a crimson statue like the others.

"And Yang is useless. Only the strong survive in this world and she was not" The Red Death walked up and stood behind the row of statues that were her friends and her sister. "They betrayed you, abandoned you, refused to help you. They are the enemy" Ruby looked at each of her friends, the three closest people in her life and tried to think of them as anything else, other than her enemy. She reached up and covered her ears, trying to block out her words.

"You're wrong!" She cried out. "They're not the enemy!"

A cold, clammy hand touched her face. Forcing her to look up and into the black eyes of the Red Death. She stared into them and saw nothing. Her eyes were a void of emotion and logic. Only one thought drove her, the idea of death. "You must be stronger, Ruby" She began, crimson dripping from inside her mouth and down her chin. "Or else all the world will be your enemy. And when that happens, there is only one thing we can do" She said as she released her face and took a step away from her.

The Red Death answered the unasked question by reaching out behind her and pulling out her sniper scythe, Crescent Rose, and in a single motion, it opened up into the extended scythe form and spun quickly. Cleaving through the red statues that were her friends and they each exploded into a storm of red petals. Red was all she could see now, it coated the ground and blocked out the shattered moon. She looked up at the Red Death and she smiled a grim, red grin.

"We will paint the world, red like roses" She brought the blade of the scythe to bare and swung at Ruby. She saw the reflection of her own, fear stricken face looking back at her as the steel bit into her collar-

Ruby's eyes shot open as she gasped for air. The person next that was kneeling next to her swore out loud as he jumped to his feet. When her head finally cleared, she realised where she was. She was laying down on one of the pews of the church they took cover in, her cloak wrapped around her like a blanket. The person who was kneeling by her was finally identified as Concador the marksmen. Looking around, she saw the rest of D-squad and cease what they were doing before and looked over at her.

They were illuminated by the glow of the shattered moon coming in through the stained glass windows, painting everyone in random colours. A few open ration packs were scattered around while weapons were never out of arm's reach. The sun was gone, meaning she had been out for a number of hours at least. Swinging her legs off the seat, she cleared her throat lightly and felt her mouth was dry and gross, just as she was about to ask for something to drink, Midori had held his canteen out to her.

Taking a few gulps, she handed it back to him with with a nod in gratitude as she looked around. "You alright, Rose? Gave us a bit of a scare there..." He said as he leaned against a pillar nearby while everyone else eyed her up. She noticed how mixed their expressions were. Some were mad, others were filled with sorrow or compassion. Even Concador's normally emotionless face was poking through, of what she was not sure.

"Yeah, I'm fine" Ruby said finally as he took a deep breath and stood up slowly. "What happened?"

"You killed that big ass thing and then fell all of a sudden..." Midori said as he pointed up to the ceiling.

"Never saw Midori haul ass like that before" Auburn said as he ran a hand through his dark hair with the blond stripe through it.

"Well, if I hadn't, Rose's brain's would be splattered all over the ground..."

Ruby ignored the banter as she looked up at the dark ceiling of the church. Sure enough, Crescent Rose was still stuck into the stone by its spear tipped shaft. Her attention was brought back to Midori when he asked if she knew what caused her sudden black out. Ruby just shrugged and kept it to herself. She figured it had something to do with the fact that she took two doses of Stimulant at the same time instead of staggering them, but they did not need to know that.

"I think it might have something to do with this..." Violet said as she lifted up a small glass vial. Ruby knew exactly what it was. Quickly reaching behind her, she slipped her fingers inside of her pouch where she usually kept the Aura Stim and felt around, completely empty. They had taken her drug, the syringes and the medical tube she used to tie her arm off as well as all her concentrated boosters. She jumped to her feet and stared at the medical trained personnel and held her hand out.

"Give it back" She demanded.

"What is this stuff, Rose?" She asked as she pulled it back away from Ruby.

"It's mine!" She screamed back at her. Her voice echoed through the old building and as she took deep breaths. "Give. It. Back" She said through gritted teeth. No one moved, no one spoke. Everyone just watched Ruby as she vibrated in her anger. They violated her trust, they stole her drug and now keeping it away from her. Midori just folded his arms over his chest and looked at her, she could feel him judging her with his pale blue eyes. "NOW!"

"Answer my questions and you'll get it back" Midori said as he reached over and gently took the glass vial from Violet. Ruby stayed silent as she fumed over this. Being interrogated by her own squad, if she had her weapon, she would not have to deal with his bullshit. But with her Aura drained as much as it was and weaponless, she was at their mercy. Taking her silence as her answer, Midori began the questions. "So, what exactly is this stuff?" He asked as he held it up to a stream of moonlight and shook the contents lightly.

"Aura Stimulant" She replied quickly. The look on his face told her that he was not going to be satisfied with simple answers. "It's something that works inside the body that reinvigorates the Aura, bringing it back to full strength over a period of time. Don't know how or why, I just know it keeps my Aura at a stable level day to day, otherwise it's pretty depleted. The small blister packs are more concentrated doses, the spike is higher but the drop is more extreme, probably why I blacked out..."

"How long you been using it?"

"Two years?" She was not sure exactly, time tended to blend together for her.

"Where did you get it?"

"Found it"

"No you didn't" Violet spoke up. She hand her fingers laced together, resting behind her head. Her legs her straight out and crossed over each other as she leaned against a wall. "That's Atlas Medical supplies, you don't just 'find it' "

Ruby glared at the woman with freckles and grit her teeth. "I stole it from a supply transport we raided in Vale. Food, water, ammo was passed around, I kept the Stimulant for myself. I learned about it after a fight with an Atleasian specialist. He almost killed me because of it, I was lucky in that fight, but I needed something to help me turn the tides. So I began to use it. Everything became easier after that. I didn't need to sleep as much so I could keep watch more often. I didn't need to eat as much so I could give out pieces of my rations out or make them last longer."

Violet shook her head. "You thinks that's good? I've checked you over while you were out, let me tell you, you're not healthy." She asked as she lifted up her hand and began to count her fingers. "You've got sleep deprivation, malnourishment, dehydration, not to mention a wicked infection from your injection site if you keep picking at your scabs. And that's not even touching on your mental wellness" She finished off as she looked at her with deep caramel eyes.

"I'm fine" She said as she glared at the woman. She scoffed and shook her head as she folded her arms.

"You were screaming in your sleep, Rose" Ruby looked over at Midori as he spoke. "Screaming and crying. That's not normal" Ruby glared at him as she felt her nails digging into the palm of her hand. She remained silent as her squad looked at her, waiting for a response. After a few tense moments, Midori sighed heavily and tossed the vial back to Ruby, who caught it with ease. He ignored the protests as he closed the gap and handed the syringes and medical tube back to her.

"You all got a problem with that? Need I remind you that if Sergeant Rose wasn't using the Stimulant, we'd all look like Pewt right now..." All eyes went over to side where a body laid in two pieces. Dark, torn curtains hid the two halves of his body, soaked in blood, turning a dusty blue to a shiny purple. She looked away from the corpse and began to methodically place her drug and tools back inside the pouch they were taken from. When everything was back in place, Midori asked what was the next plan of action.

After everyone packed up and Pixie helped her to get Crescent Rose back by boosting her up with her strength and Ruby using her Semblance to fly higher. She landed with ease and folded her weapon back into the rifle form before showing them the steel trap door Ruby had found earlier. After some effort, the trap door opened to reveal a cold, dark tunnel that lead deeper into the church. They all put flashlights onto their weapons and entered the darkness.

Without a flashlight attachment for her weapon, Ruby was forced to the third position of the Squad as they slowly and carefully walked down the tunnel. She noticed a branches from their path that ended with rotten food or a dead body. People were hiding out down here once, perhaps during the bombings, but died one way or another. They came to another cross roads, but saw that one of the paths had a lit torch on a wall. Silently, the whole Squad stacked up and began to slowly make their way in that direction.

They came up to another entrance when Ruby noticed something odd about the walls, they were covered in bullet holes. She examined one of them and lightly touched the impact area with her fingers. Probably 20mm rounds, if she measured correctly. Whats more was that they were everywhere, the walls were littered with the holes, meaning there was a very large firefight with several soldiers using very large caliber weapons. Or one person shooting a lot.

She looked down and saw Auburn was about to turn down a hallway when she heard something a low hum echoing off the walls.

"Enemy"

The Red Death barely finished speaking when Ruby flew past her squad and pushed Auburn out of the way as the the corridor he was about to go down was fulled with bullets that would have torn him to shreds. Holding him onto the ground, she waited for the firing to stop before shouting at her team to keep down and against the wall. She flew down the corridor, petals flowing off he body as she sped towards the person who was using their weapon.

She leaped over another burst of automatic fire and closed the gap between the two of them. The flash from the weapon blocked her vision, but she knew where she needed to go. Zig-zagging her way towards her target, she slid under one final volley and brought her weapon up, the scythe unfolding and coming up to the person's neck. She was about to pull the trigger, making the sharp edge slice through their skin when she heard her mother's voice in her head, screaming at her to stop. The one moment of hesitation was all she needed to see who she was about to kill.

"Ruby?" the person, a woman, said as Ruby saw her reflection in designer sunglasses.

"Coco..."

Coco Adel stood in front of her. The spinning barrels of her weapon slowing to a stop as she pulled back finally, Ruby doing the same. She was wearing what she usual wore, the light brown sweater and the darker waist cincher showing off a bit of her midriff. Instead of the furry neck and scarf, she wore a deep v-neck with her series of beaded necklaces dangling off her neck. Something with insulation would have made anyone get heat exhaustion very easily.

The next thing she noticed that had changed from the last time she saw Coco was her face. She could see deep scars coming from under the left half of her sunglasses and another long one pulling at the left part of her mouth, forcing her to have a cold, grim smirk at all times. Next thing she saw was her hair. The signature beret still sat on top her head, but the caramel lock of hair that was usually free was weighted down by two coloured beads. One a deep maroon and the other a faded green.

Ruby took her weapon away from the woman's neck and looked her over once more, she felt Coco do the same. Her left arm had armour on it that was not there before. A large, red gauntlet and a green shoulder pauldron. Each had scars from bullets and claw scratched that damaged the pain and metal. Everything else was about the same as before. "Looking good, Ruby" Coco said with a grim smirk as she reached up and took her glasses off to talk to the younger woman.

Ruby was taken back slightly from what she saw, her left eye was damaged badly. Gone was the rich chocolate of her eyes, now her left was a milky, clouded mess of damage. Her right eye was almost cross eyed trying to make up for the loss of vision in her other eye. Ruby was at a lost of words as Coco looked at her in the eye and nodded. "You the cavalry?" Ruby nodded lightly and Coco sighed in relief. "Good, cause we were going to run out of supplies pretty fast" She said as she replaced the glasses and walked behind a few boxes that were set up as a makeshift barricade.

Ruby signalled her team that it was all clear and they came running in. They all followed Coco down another path where four soldiers jumped and aimed at them before lowering their weapons in relief. They wore the red and black of the Reclamation army, around them, six others were laying on the ground, groaning and holding onto their bodies, trying to make the pain go away. Violet quickly opened her pack and began to help them out.

As Coco began to give orders to start packing up, Ruby saw someone she had not seen since the start of the war. Making her way past the bodies, she crouched down next to Sun Wukong and looked at him. His usual white shirt was replaced with the military fatigues with the purple and tan camouflage pattern of Vacuo. He had a large, blood stained bandage wrapped around his stomach and his tail was in his lap. She noticed that it was only half of its length, the tip scarred over and short.

"Sun..." She shook the monkey faunus's shoulder lightly and he looked up at her. His blond hair an even bigger mess that it usually was. His skin was pale and moist from blood lose. Blue eyes looked at her and widen with surprise.

"Ruby?"

"Come on" She said as she grabbed his arm gently. "Let's get you out of here."