Yang sighed as she kept walking across Beacon's campus, after Blake slapped Lily and the older Ruby ran off RWBY and JNPR agreed to split up and find her. Yang suspected the reasons that JNPR, Weiss, and Blake agreed to find Lily in the first place was the fact that they all saw Lily burst into a cloud of petals, just like Ruby could. Yang wasn't sure how she, Lily, and Ruby would even explain how the two Ruby's shared a semblance, they couldn't even claim to have a hereditary semblance since their mom had her own unique semblance.
Yang picked up the pace at the sound of weapons clashing, and bullets being fired off, she kept running until she found herself in an isolated corner of Beacon that she hadn't explored before. In the small isolated corner Lily was fighting with CRDL, or rather she was just fighting Cardin. Russel, Dove, and Sky were all kneeling on the ground, clutching various body parts in pain. Cardin himself was effortlessly getting pushed back, and Yang could tell that Lily was just toying with him. Lily seemed to get more and more bored as Yang got closer, it was like a switch was flipped, Lily suddenly went from allowing Cardin to recklessly attack her, then she was suddenly pushing him with an offense that was almost too fast to keep track of. Lily was currently fighting with two swords, a rapier, and a katana. Yang thought they looked familiar but once she was close enough to fully identify the weapons she almost fell back in shock, because while their color, and proportions were slightly tweaked and enhanced, they were fundamentally the same as Myrtenaster and Gambol Shroud.
Lily's feet were always moving as her onslaught of attacks continued, she was either continually pushing forward, or she was twisting her body in ways that didn't look comfortable but she made it look effortless. Yang had to admit that she was very impressed with Lily, the girl had a strong understanding of her strengths and weaknesses, and didn't try to fight in a way that was disadvantageous to herself, she knew her speed was her greatest asset and her style reflected it, she was quick, agile, and deadly.
Cardin's aura just kept getting chipped away, Lily's hits weren't particularly strong, but they were fast and it seemed that every time Cardin managed to block one of Lily's blows two more would still land on his aura. Yang watched in confusion when Lily's onslaught suddenly ceased and the older Ruby Rose suddenly back flipped away from Cardin. Lily landed easily on her feet and struck a meditative pose, balancing herself effortlessly on one foot with her hands to the side, and her shoulders forming a carefree shrug. Yang couldn't help but feel that the carefree and coy smile on Lily's face looked out of place and the older Ruby, on the younger Ruby such a smile would be a normal, sure it would be a happier smile, and less of a teasing smile, but on Lily it almost looked artificial and forced.
Cardin growled at the sight of Lily openly mocking him, and Yang knew that the leader of CRDL had fallen into Lily's trap. Cardin made a big show of raising his mace above his head. Lily reacted with reflexes honed in battle, right before Cardin brought his weapon down Lily broke her teasing pose and cartwheeled to the side, using the momentum of the cartwheel Lily side flipped and began spinning in a way reminiscent of a corkscrew. Yang's lilac eyes widened when bullets suddenly came flying from Lily. The bullets slammed into Cardin and sent the bully sliding further back. Lily landed easily and shifted her posture so she was no longer facing Cardin. While Cardin was still recovering Lily cartwheeled again, as soon as she landed the cartwheel Lily immediately back flipped transferring her moment into a large back flip that had Lily easily land behind Cardin. The bully had no chance and soon his back was met by a shotgun enhanced sidekick. Cardin's aura chose that moment to run out, and the bully slammed a hand onto the stone ground, only to wince when his aura was unable to take the impact. Lily walked over to the fallen leader of CRDL and roughly grabbed his face. Cardin tried to protest only to immediately get punched in the face. Lily continued to brutally punch the leader of CRDL until his face was a bruised and bleeding mess. Yang surged forward pulling Lily off of the defeated bully.
Ruby blindly thrashed against her older sister, attempting to throw off the unseen attacker. Ruby briefly stiffened up when Yang began humming Red Like Roses but like always the song managed to soothe the haunted girl long enough that she stopped fighting Yang's embrace.
Yang released the older Ruby once she stopped putting up a fight. Lily was breathing heavily and her single silver eye was filled with an amount of hate that Yang had never seen on her younger sister. "Better?" She whispered to Lily. Lily stayed silent before she pulled a serrated knife out of her sleeve.
Lily threw the knife with expert precision and the weapon easily pierced itself into Cardin's shoulder the bully let out a screech of pain when the weapon pierced his skin. Lily slowly stalked her way to Cardin, clearly enjoying the fear in his eyes. Lily's own eye was alight with malicious joy and she roughly plied the knife from Cardin's shoulder, savoring his last whimper of pain.
Yang could only watch in horror as Lily slammed the knife's hilt into Cardin's head. The other members of CRDL finally stopped nursing their own injuries in time to watch Lily knock out their boss. "Get out of here!" Yang snapped at the three boys, the team wasted no time, grabbing their unconscious leader and dragging him back to their dorm.
"What was that?" Yang demanded as she roughly pushed Lily into a nearby wall.
Lily let out an insane laugh, "I thought that you would approve!"
"Why the hell would I appreciate you torturing Cardin?"Yang's eyes began turning a deep crimson, "Yeah he's a prick, but he didn't deserve that!"
Lily's eye narrowed in anger, "He's more than that, he's a filthy rat!" Lily spit out the last word like it was acid, "Besides I did this for you!"
"What?"
"He insulted you, made fun of Ruby, and the faunus."
"I was under the impression that you had no love for the faunus."
Lily sneered, and Yang felt that the expression shouldn't look normal on Ruby's face, but somehow it did, "I don't hate faunus." Lily scoffed scornfully, "I just hate that the White Fang tries to justify their actions by claiming that they fight for equality."
"What did he say about me and Ruby?" Yang inquired, her eyes returning to their normal lilac.
"He said that Ruby was only accepted because of who our mom is." Lily admitted, her single eye looking down at the ground expression somber and downcast. Yang realized that she still had lily pinned against the wall and gently released her, "So naturally, I took that personally."
Yang noticed that lily seemed reluctant to speak anymore and gently prodded the older Ruby, "And what did he say about me?"
"He called you a whore." Ruby admitted, her eye filled with tears of anger, Ruby gently lowered herself down to the ground and sat herself against the brick wall, "Said that someone as dumb as you only could have gotten into Beacon by sleeping around."
Yang's eyes turned crimson once again and her hair began moving like fire, "He said all those thing about me?!"
"Yeah." Ruby admitted her voice dry, but quiet.
"So you beat the crap out of CRDL for me?" Yang asked, feeling oddly touched by the gesture, sure what Ruby ended up doing to Cardin was wrong, but in Yang's personal opinion he deserved it.
"You basically raised me Yang." Ruby admitted, "I know how hard you worked to get into Beacon."
Yang felt her own eyes fill with tears because the way Ruby talked about her Yang wasn't the way that one would talk about a sister, Ruby talked about her sister the same way Yang and the younger Ruby talked about Summer. Ruby saw her Yang as a mom.
"Tell me about her."
Ruby's eye widened and she began talking about a woman who was happy, and responsible, but complicated and sad. As she talked the usual glaze in her right eye faded, and a small but sad smile formed on her face. In that moment Yang really could see Ruby within Lily, despite what Lily said yesterday about how everyone she knew died, and the hold the dead had on her Yang could still see glimmer's of life and hope, and she knew that Ruby was still there.
"You basically raised me since you were five." Ruby admitted.
Yang sat down next to her and gently grabbed her hand, "What about mom? And dad?"
"Summer died when I was only three, fourteen years ago on my Remnant." Ruby's eye was so full of pain, and Yang was suddenly struck by the horrifying thought that Ruby was never allowed to truly grieve and move on, the way she spoke about Yang's counterpart and Summer's counterpart was like someone who had recently lost someone, and never was allowed to mourn, "Father shut down after Summer died. He was drunk the entire time I grew up."
"So he left a five year old to raise a three year old?" Yang asked her voice horrified and shocked, no wonder Ruby turned out more than a little unhinged.
"I don't know how we managed." Ruby admitted, "Uncle Qrow helped out a lot, he basically sent us most of his money, so we could pay bills."
"But even that wasn't always enough." Ruby continued speaking, but she seemed lost in thought, almost like she was reliving her time as a child, "We got jobs when I turned twelve" Ruby shook her head ruefully, "Between our jobs, Uncle Qrow's money, and Summer's will, we managed to afford Signal and Beacon."
"And did your father ever recover." Yang asked, her voice hesitant, but she was dreading the answer.
"No." Ruby sighed, running a hand through her messy hair, "He died during our first year at Beacon."
Yang paled before she turned green, that would be this year on her Remnant. Yang felt her heart go out to Lily, and she quickly thanked any god out there for the blessings she and her younger sister received. It was certainly humbling in a way, knowing that if her mom had died her dad would shut down and become a neglectful drunk.
Yang's eyes trailed down to Ruby's leg, she immediately stood up in a panic because blood was spilling from a long but thin cut on Ruby's left leg, "What happened to you?" Yang demanded.
Ruby idly glanced down to her leg, still sitting, "Huh" Ruby sounded surprised like she hadn't even noticed that she was bleeding, "must have been from CRDL"
"How did you not notice that!"
"I'm used to stuff like this." Yang felt her heart break again, because no one should be forced to be used to bleeding and pain.
"Wait hold on." Yang held her palms up and quickly grabbed ruby's scroll, "It says here that your aura is still at a hundred percent, how could you possibly be bleeding?"
"..."
"Ruby, tell me now." Yang's voice took on her older sister's tone and Ruby knew she would have to answer.
"Suppression." Ruby admitted in a low whisper.
"What?" Yang sounded baffled.
"I'm consciously suppressing my aura, it won't provide any protection as long as I suppress it."
"What? Why would you ever do that?"
"..."
"Ruby."
"..."
"Ruby" Yang pleaded, "Please tell me."
"..."
"TELL ME!" Yang screamed her eyes red and her hair fiery.
"Because I want to DIE!" Ruby screamed right back at her, energy began trickling off Ruby's right eye, and it almost took the shape of a wing.
"What?" Yang took a step back in horror.
Ruby hunched in on herself, trying to appear small, "Because I'm selfish and want it to end." her voice now barely over a whisper, "I know that I'm awful for wanting this, when my family is still suffering in death. But I don't want to do this anymore." Ruby was practically whimpering at that point, and she pulled her cloak and hood around her body, trying to defend herself from unseen assailants.
Yang grabbed her own scroll and immediately called their mom. Summer answered quickly and Yang began frantically speaking into the scroll "I need you to get Lily mom." Yang felt like she was talking at several miles an hour trying to explain the situation, "It's worse than we thought." Yang turned her scroll once Summer abruptly hung up. Ruby was still trying to curl up into a ball, desperately mumbling apologies for being selfish. Yang sighed to herself and brought a palm up to her face, "What happened to you?"
A/N: I really feel like I put Ruby through the wringer in this chapter. Also I apologize for my terrible fight scene, they are not my forte and I'm trying to approve but if you thought the fight was trash well I thought so too!
Random65: No, Ruby wouldn't harm her friends and family, not unless she was trying to teach them a lesson.
Merendinomiliano: Ruby definitely could have handled the situation with Blake better, but Blake did overreact a little as well, both sides are at fault in this situation.
Nurse Amiya: Most therapists would take one look at Ruby, here her story and just immediately write her off as crazy and lock her up. In this case the truth is crazier than anything Ruby could come up with, but it's still the truth. I mean Ruby is crazy in a way, mad with grief is probably the best way to describe it. Ruby will keep talking about her problems to an array of people, but a therapist would probably not be one of them/
Ccl1995; It's definitely a when problem. Blake will find out that Illia is dead, and later she will find out that Lily was the one to do the deed. In this instance I would have to say that Ruby was not justified in her killing of Illia, she had no right to judge someone on future crimes, but Ruby did it anyway, she's not a shining paragon of virtue, that role goes to Summer and he younger self.