Ruby slowly became aware of the splitting pain that was echoing through her body. She hurriedly opened her eyes, only to be greeted by a hazy whiteness with occasional black spots drifting across it. She struggled to roll over, feeling startled as her grasping fingers sank into something grainy and warm.
"B-Blake? Weiss?" Her voice was barely above a hoarse, cracked whisper. She opened her eyes again and the whiteness slowly faded, leaving only the throbbing pain in her skull and limbs. "Yang?"
Ruby didn't know exactly what she'd been expecting to see, but it certainly hadn't been ocean breakers rolling toward her, shattering against the golden sand that she was currently lying on. The haunting cry of seagulls overhead made her jump, hurriedly glancing around in search of her teammates. They were nowhere to be seen.
A few feet away, a lone figure was sprawled limply across the sand. Ruby's heart leapt into her throat as she recognized the thick ginger curls and fragile build. Penny.
Ignoring the throbbing pain in her limbs, Ruby half-crawled, half-staggered forward, frantic to reach her dearest friend's side. Nausea flared in her stomach when she saw the deep pool of blood beneath Penny's still form.
"N-No," Ruby gasped, bending over Penny and gripping her hands. They were limp and cold. "No! Penny, you have to wake up!"
There was a burning pain behind Ruby's silver eyes as they flickered, but there were no Grimm to destroy this time. There was nothing but Penny's lifeless body, lying on the sand as the waves lapped gently against her. Ruby gripped her head in her hands as the splitting pain intensified, spreading through her entire body. She couldn't tell if it stemmed from her eyes, or from her heart. She didn't care. She only screamed.
"It's not fair!" Ruby cried, her shoulders heaving with sobs. Her vision was so blurred that she could no longer even see Penny as she bent over her lifeless body, wrapping her arms around it, holding it as close as she could.
"She only just became human! She didn't even have a chance to live her life!" The hoarse cries of rage and grief left Ruby's lips, muffled by the soft creamy fabric of the bodice of Penny's dress. The crimsonette's body shook with tears as she buried her face into the last lingering warmth of her beloved friend's skin.
"Ruby! Ruby, if you're out there, please answer me!"
Yang's voice was hoarse and broken from shouting her sister's name, but there was never any response. She'd been wandering up and down the beachfront for hours in search of Ruby, her sense of horror growing when she realized that she didn't know if her sister was somewhere above her, or lost on the island, or even still alive.
Tears burned in her eyes and she clenched her fists as she screamed Ruby's name a final time. Like all the others, empty silence followed. Yang's eyes flared blood-red as she remembered the sadistic grin on Neopolitan's face as her parasol had come seconds away from piercing Ruby's heart. If she.. if Ruby was..
I'm going to murder that ice cream psychopath.
Yang's posture tensed and her heart leapt out of her chest when she suddenly heard a panicked feminine voice shouting her name from what sounded like a good distance away. "I'm coming! Stay there!" She shoved away the gruesome scenarios of Ruby potentially being injured or even dying; she was determined to get to her as quickly as she could.
In her reckless haste and frantic relief, Yang didn't realize that the voice calling to her was deeper than her little sister's.