It had taken Ruby the rest of Saturday to convince Summer to let her visit Beacon, after she had walked out on the family dinner on Friday, and after she had blown up at Summer, and broke her scythe earlier Saturday morning, the older woman seemed to think Ruby was unstable, and that visiting Beacon, a place that held so many memories for her would only aggravate Ruby's condition. Tai surprisingly was the one to come to Ruby's rescue, stating that perhaps the reason Ruby was so antsy was the fact that she hadn't left the house sense she arrived on this Remnant, of course the man didn't know about Ruby's little excursion to Vale just a day prior, but what Tai didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

So Ruby found herself sitting in a bullhead on her way to Beacon once again, she had an old notebook on her lap, which carried her finished blueprints, but Ruby absentmindedly sketched on the notebook. Drawing was kind of like photography, something that Ruby was good at and enjoyed, but never something she would willingly do with her life, not when she had the power and the strength to make Remnant a safer place for the people.

Ruby frowned as she watched her younger self talk to Yang in a hushed whisper, 'But' Ruby thought as she watched the two sisters share a quiet laugh together, 'Can I even claim to do that anymore?'

Ruby suppressed a shiver as the dead swarmed around her, they had been relentless after her argument with Summer, and hadn't let up during the night, resulting in Ruby getting two hours of sleep at most. If Ruby had a mirror with her she would have seen the bag under her right eye be more pronounced than ever, and her skin was beginning to take on a sickly appearance.

"I'm really worried about older me." The younger Ruby whispered to Yang. The older Ruby Rose looked worse than ever, the usual glassy look in her right eye seemed more pronounced than usual, Lily looked paler than she had a couple days ago, and she was rocking herself back and forth for seemingly no reason. Once again Yang was struck by the thought that Lily was seeing or hearing something that no one else could, but wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

Ruby kept idly drawing on the notebook, swaying back and forth as she worked, Ruby made a silent note to herself to take some pictures when they arrived at Beacon, the last time she was at the school she was barely conscious, and the time before that the entire kingdom was in ruin. Besides she didn't know when she would see her home again. Ruby supposed it was a sign just how fucked up her life was that she considered the school that she hadn't even attended for a year to be her home. Ruby saw Yang, Blake, and Weiss lean in closer to her, and Ruby was forced to stiffen up when Yang's spirit started humming a hauntingly familiar tune. Ruby immediately recognized the tune, it was one of the few things she remembered about her mother, not the Summer she was currently living with, but her mother. Yang had hummed it to Ruby countless times when she was a child. Qrow had explained the song briefly once, on one of his more drunk days, apparently the lullaby was called Red Like Roses, and it was supposedly composed by one of Ruby's great-grandmother during the Great War, supposedly it had been an elegy for Ruby's great-grandfather who had died in the war after giving birth to her grandpa Sam.

Ruby felt tears beginning to form on her right eye when Weiss and Blake's spirits began signing the words quietly into her ears, Ruby brought her hands up to her head, her drawing forgotten for the time being, as she instead desperately tried to silence the ghosts, "Please," Ruby whispered trying to avoid drawing any attention to herself, "I just need to reforge our weapons, RWBY will strike back."

Ruby almost stumbled out of her seat when the bullhead came to a stop. Ruby let her younger self and Yang go off on their own, they would undoubtedly meet up with THEIR friends, "They'll never be your friends! You don't belong here! They would hate you if they knew what you've done!"

"But everything I've done, I've done for you!" Ruby tried to protest to the spirits, Ruby, Yang, Summer, Tai, Qrow, they would understand if they knew the whole story wouldn't they?

"Yes you have Ruby, and WE understand, but THEY wouldn't! All you have left is us! Without us you're nothing!"

"I know that I'm nothing." Ruby muttered as she began walking to Beacon's forge, "You don't need to remind me of that." Ruby looked down to her burnt, and scarred hands, "The loss has become a part of me."

"No!" The voices yelled, startling Ruby and causing her to jump, "The loss is you!"

"You're right." Ruby agreed as she reached the forge. Ruby wasted no time in grabbing all the metal that she could, rolling out her blueprints Ruby decided to work on Crescent Rose. Ruby forged her scythe in record time, with her prior experience with the weapon, and Beacon's high tech facility Ruby finished the scythe in hours as opposed to days. Ruby began working on Myrtenaster, she managed to replicate Weiss's weapon even faster than Crescent Rose. Despite the vast utility of the rapier it was a relatively easy weapon to make, since the only really special feature it had was the dust chamber. Gambol Shroud's replica was harder than Myrtenaster but easier than Crescent Rose, trying to have the pistol part of the sword still function without the ribbon was annoying but not excruciatingly difficult. Ember Celica, like expected, was the hardest weapon to forge, forging a weapon if the shape of boots in and of itself was annoyingly difficult. Ruby eventually managed to do it, but then she had to work the shotguns into the boots, if Ruby hadn't fought against Mercury several times she doubted that she would have been able to figure it out, but she finally managed to make the weapon functional and wearable. Beacon actually had leather for Ruby to use, and when she finally was finished Ember Celica simply looked like a pair of unassuming leather combat boots. Ruby gave a small but genuine smile when she kicked her old and ratty boots off her feet and slipped Ember Celica on instead.

Ruby had to spend some more time in the forge looking for sheaths for Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud but she eventually found them and proceeded to sheath both blades to her waist before switching Crescent Rose to compact mode. Ruby had to admit that it felt strange but good to have Team RWBY's weapons with her again, in a way it made her feel closer to the team that had basically become her family, but the weapons also brought the sense of grief Ruby always felt when she thought of her family. Seeing the weapons again brought up many happy memories of time spent with her team and JNPR, but she could also remember several instances that she would like nothing more than to forget.

"There she is!" Ruby stiffened up at the voice of her younger self, the younger Ruby was practically pulling Weiss by the heiress's arm, while Yang and Blake walked a short distance behind them, Blake like usual was reading a book while she walked, but the cat faunus managed to avoid tripping over anyone's feet.

"Weiss, Blake, this is Lily." Ruby was almost running in place in her enthusiasm, oblivious to the dark and haunted look in her older self's eyes.

Ruby ran forward as Weiss's body fell to the ground, the heiress's aura was spent, and she was coughing up blood. Ruby knew that her girlfriend had no chance the moment she slipped from her grasp. Ruby gently lowered Weiss's body to the ground and Cinder watched triumph clearly written all over her face. "Weiss! Please Weiss don't leave me! I can't lose you too!" Tears fell from Ruby's silver eyes as she desperately pleaded to her girlfriend, blood was still pouring from her wound, and Weiss looked up at Ruby weakly.

"You dolt." But there was no bite in Weiss's voice, instead she spoke fondly to Ruby, " I'm…. going to…. Have to….. Leave… you…. now."

"Please Weiss!" Ruby's voice coming out as a quiet whisper, "Will your memory haunt me too?"

But Weiss was starting to lose her strength, the heiress weakly reached into her pocket and pulled out a small black box, and pushed it into Ruby's hands. "I'm sorry….. Sorry…. That we never" Weiss paused to allow her own blood to fall from her mouth, "Had a future…. Together."

"No! No!" Ruby desperately shook the limp body of her team mate, her partner, and her love, "Weiss, don't go!"

"Now isn't this a touching scene?" Cinder asked mockingly to Emerald and Mercury, the mint haired girl nodded, desperate for Cinder's approval. Mercury only grunted but he had a small smile on his face, "You know Ruby." Cinder started with a sinister smirk on her face, "I think this should be the last thing you ever see."

The fall maiden snapped her fingers, and the scorpion faunus, Tyrian stepped forward, a manic grin on his face. Cinder's smirk grew until it split her face when Tyrian plunged his stinger into Ruby's exposed left eye.

The last Rose immediately let out a strangled scream of pain as her eye was brutally stabbed. Ruby blindly stumbled around for a while until she could no longer see due to the blood running down her face.

"An eye for an eye." Cinder's voice taunted Ruby but the fall maiden's voice seemed to be coming from a long ways away. Ruby screamed even louder than before when she suddenly heard something pop out with a disgusting sound, then the pain came Ruby screamed until her voice was hoarse, blood still pouring down her face, as she now desperately tried to focus with only one eye. Ruby heard Cinder kneel down, and vaguely Ruby saw Tyrian come towards her right eye and something in the girl snapped.

"NO!" The holy power of the silver eye activated and Cinder, Emerald, Tyrian and Mercury were all thrown back in surprise. Ruby scrambled to her feet and desperately began running not even aware of where she was running. But she just kept running, desperate to get away from Cinder, from Weiss's body, and from the ghosts that now had a new member in their ranks.

"Lily! Lily!" Ruby was painfully jolted back to reality by Yang shaking her shoulder. Ruby looked down to the ground in shame, only to see tears on the floor. What was wrong with her? She just kept falling to pieces! Soon she would be worthless to her family, and what purpose in life did she have other than saving their souls? Without that, what could she do.

So Ruby put her mask back in place, hoping that RWBY would fail to see the pain in her eye at the sight of them, it wasn't their fault since they didn't even know, but if Ruby had her way no one would ever know what she had been through, "What?" Ruby asked roughly, hoping that Team RWBY would leave her alone.

"You spaced out there for a sec." Yang's voice was filled with concern, and Ruby was left wondering why, why would someone like Yang care about a monster like me? "Are you ok?" Ruby looked away when Yang touched her arm. Yang's lilac eyes widened when she realized that it was the second time within five minutes that she had touched Lily, but she hadn't flinched away either time.

"Why?" Ruby asked Yang and her younger self, when they gave her confused glances she sighed and elaborate, "Why are you here?"

"Well" The younger Ruby spoke up looking slightly sheepish, "I was hoping that Team RWBY could get to know you better!"

Ruby's single eye blinked itself in confusion, 'They want to know me?'

Ruby flinched when the voices of the dead cried out louder than normal, "They don't want to know you! Ozpin probably set them up to this! Or Summer did!"

Ruby's eye turned colder as she considered the voices of the dead, they were right of course, no one would want to associate themselves with a monster like her, "If you want to waste time on small talk seek out Jaune or Nora!"

Somehow the younger Ruby didn't get the message because somehow she was even more excited, "That's a great idea, I'll go get JNPR, you guys stay here!"

The younger Rose broke off into a cloud of petals and ran off to find the other team, Ruby rolled her eyes and sighed. She took a few steps forward before sitting herself down on one of Beacon's benches. Ruby pulled out her scroll and took a few pictures of the school, she had missed it very much, and she was beginning to wish that she had accepted Ozpin's offer and stayed on campus. But the thought of living in such close proximity to her friends terrified her more than it excited her. If she lived with them, they would see how broken she was, and they would turn away from her.

"So did you guys see the news?" Yang asked, trying to ease the visible tension between Lily, Blake, and Weiss.

"Of course." Weiss herself seemed pretty happy to talk about the news, a rarity for the Ice Queen, "I would be surprised if people didn't see the news, nine murdered faunus, and all of them were members of the White Fang."

Blake discreetly bristled at the words, and Ruby suddenly realized that no one on her team knew that she was a faunus yet. It was something that she had known for so long that thinking that Blake was human was almost impossible for Ruby to do now, but Blake hadn't shown her heritage to her team yet. "We don't even know those faunus were members of the White Fang." the faunus in hiding protested, "The murder easily could have stolen the masks and planted them on the corpses."

"Maybe." Weiss admitted, "But if those faunus were members of the Fang then they got what they deserved!" The heiress finished scathingly, and Ruby was suddenly struck by the thought that Weiss and Blake were very different than she remembered them as, Blake was far more closed off and mistrusting than Ruby remembered, and Weiss seemed way crueler.

"How can you even say that?" Blake sounded horrified by the very notion, "They're people just like we are!"

"But can you really say that the White Fang is justified?" Ruby but in on the conversation.

Blake looked at Ruby, distrust clearly written in her eyes, "They're a group of misguided faunus!"

"Misguided? They want to enslave humanity!" Weiss protested.

"Maybe they are misguided." Ruby said, but the doubt could clearly be heard in her voice, "But the White Fang is not some shining paragon of virtue."

"The fight for equality!" Blake continued to protest

"Equality?" Like with Illia Ruby's voice was filled with contempt as she spoke, "Did a faunus do this to me?" Ruby gestured toward her eyepatch, "For equality!"

"That could easily be fake!" Blake continued to fight but even she knew it was a longshot.

Ruby glared at the younger version of her best friend before she slid the eyepatch off her left eye, revealing the empty socket to WBY. "This is what equality looks like?" Ruby asked Blake mockingly.

When the cat faunus didn't have a response Ruby slid the eyepatch back in place, covering her ruined eye once again, "Maybe that wasn't done for equality." Blake finally admitted her voice quiet, "But those faunus, they had family, friends, people that they love."

"Why does that matter to you?" Ruby snapped.

A fire was burning in Blake's eyes as she stepped forward and glared at the uncaring Rose, "As if." Blake practically screamed out for everyone in Beacon to hear, "A heartless monster like you could ever understand love."

Ruby took her own step forward, her singular eye glaring at Blake with just as much venom and fire in it, if not even more, "Yes the White Fang." Ruby's voice was mocking, purposefully egging Blake on, "They love their people so much, that they make humans hate faunus even more-" Ruby was cut off when Blake's hand moved towards her face. A resounding slap could be heard, as Blake breathed in heavily, while Ruby touched her now red face, she forgot how much Blake's slap could hurt, but she had endured worse.

Ruby gave Blake one last glare before she stormed off, transforming into petals. Once she was out of sight the younger Ruby came back with JNPR in tow, "What did I miss?"

A/N: So Ruby remakes her weapons, remembers how Weiss died, and how she lost her eye, and met Team RWBY only to immediately get into a fight with Blake, and this is the second time in a row that Ruby's aura has failed to take a blow for her, any guesses on the why? And this chapter explores Ruby's mental state a little more, she is consumed by her guilt and regret, the losses she has experienced have basically become what she sees herself as.

Vjcoro: Ruby feels a lot, and one of the misconceptions the other characters have is that Ruby just doesn't care, the problem is that Ruby cares way too much when it comes to certain stuff, mainly avenging the dead.

JackTheSpades: yeah that conversation is not going to go over well, especially since Blake already slapped Ruby just for looking to be another racist human, and even if Ruby tried to justify her actions, with Illia killed you in the future, Blake will not care at all.

ARXENIX 2.0: Thanks yeah each fic is unique and special in their own way, and I'm glad that you like mine, stuffs just gonna keep getting more and more intense man. Best has yet to come

Merendinomiliano: Thanks

Chaosgod3456: I'm still on the fence about the entire thing, but I think I probably will end up changing the rating to M, because the blood and death and messed up stuff isn't just gonna stop.