Chapter 5: Red Trailer

A/N: Trouble IRL. Not going into too deep. I just haven't had much time for writing, but I forced myself to write this up. Hope you all enjoy and hopefully I can get this next chapter done before next week. Thank you all for your support!

Disclaimer: Darkish themes, some angst and well… death…

Disclaimer: What do you mean I don't own Rooster Teeth or RWBY? That's bullshit… but true… if I did own Rooster Teeth Adam would still be a badass… but sadly…

Three months before the events at Beacon…

Ruby tossed and turned in her bed as her sleep became more and more troubled in her perpetual nightmare.

Ruby stood at her mother's grave. Her cloak whipped around her as snow began to fall like white rose petals. The snow at the foot of the grave was bleeding crimson. Where there was once just a soft purity, white snow, there was nothing but red stain.

Why did she have to go?

Ruby remembered vividly crying, trying to get her to stay, but there was something in the way she smiled. Something that held her up. Summer Rose gave her a big smile and a hug. She comforted her small daughter in her arms and told her that there was nothing to fear. Everything would be okay, and she would be back soon.

'Be a good girl and be very brave for me okay? I love you Ruby.'

Then she was gone. She left and didn't come back.

Ruby walked down the snowy path. It mirrored the one she had taken so many years ago. A stupid little girl who had waited too much. She had loaded up her little red wagon with her comic books and her cookies and had set off into the woods of Patch looking for her mother. Sure that she would be there. Her mother was just around the corner helping people! She was going to come back and give her lots of hugs and kisses and tell her how brave she had been waiting for so long!

Ruby kept walking watching over her younger self. How stupid could she be?

The little girl came to a clearing and froze. Grimm. Older Ruby grimaced as she watched her younger self come face to face with a pack of Beowolves.

Little Ruby was scared. She was tired from walking for hours, pulling her stupid little red wagon. Her throat was sore from calling out to her mother, trying desperately to get her to find her like she always did. Her mother always found her when she was lost and scared and needed a hug. She was super mom! She could-

The Grimm lunged at their weak, tired, and helpless prey who was radiating the most delicious fear. They loved to kill the young ones. It always seemed to cause such despair… it was positively delicious to them.

Suddenly, Older Ruby was there. Her red cloak flapping in the wind and holding her scythe aloft. Beside her was the memory of Uncle Qrow. They mirrored each other's movements. Practiced so often in her head that they were in perfect sync as they systematically exterminated the vile creatures of darkness and her nightmares.

Creatures that would kill little girls who were only trying to find their mothers…

Creatures that had killed mothers with little girls waiting for them to come home only to never return, turning them into liars, and-

Ruby's fury flowed through her hands, and into her instrument of death Crescent Rose, as she lopped off another head with hard, steel grey eyes.

And as she did a new feeling rose like bile in throat causing her to easily keep pace with Qrow as he slashed and ripped and ruptured the Grimm with deadly precision. She was a furious tornado of blade and death incarnate. This was why Crescent Rose was the most dangerous weapon a girl her age could possibly afford. This all-consuming feeling.

Hate.

Ruby hated few things in this world. Almost never actual, physical people. But Ruby hated the Grimm with such unrelenting fury she almost took some kind of twisted pleasure in killing them. The feel of her blade slicing through them, her sniper rifle blowing their damn heads off… to feel powerful, to have them fear her. It was the best thing imaginable… Almost. It was a pleasure that was marred by so much loss and hate she could never really find happiness or joy doing what she did. Ruby could never truly feel safe as long as even one of them were alive. She was scared of them. She hated them for making her afraid. She hated them for what they took from her.

Not just her mother.

Not just her innocent belief that the world was a happy place.

Not just her peace of mind. For months she would be checking under the bed, and outside her window for Grimm until she finally, finally came to the conclusion that their home in Patch was safe… and even then…

Another yelped as it was blown in half by the fifty caliber bullets of her weapon's sniper form. Another screamed as she tore it in half, ripping it open with an angry expression, all while her younger self watched, horrified.

No… what Ruby hated them most of all for was the fact that they made her mother break her promise. That they broke her hope that her mother would return.

In that moment, Older Ruby calmed and watched Uncle Qrow annihilate the Grimm to stand by her younger self. Young Ruby had finally understood that her mother was never coming back. That she was truly gone and with it all the peace and happiness that she had always associated with her. This, this here broke her little heart into thousands of pieces.

Little Ruby was bawling as her Uncle took her into his arms and just held her as she screamed for her mother. She kept asking her to come back and would only get worse with every second that her mother wouldn't come see her. This only made her uncle hold her tighter. Eventually Little Ruby was breathing in the way only children could when they cried and just couldn't cry anymore, but they wanted to… soft shuddering breaths…

'I'm so sorry kiddo…' The memory of Uncle Qrow said, still holding her. He was crying too. 'Here. Your mom gave me this… She wanted you to have it.'

With that Qrow took off his red hooded cloak and wrapped it around his tiny niece. It was warm, the red reminded her of her mother, and only the faint smell of alcohol and cigarettes let her know Qrow had worn it. Qrow picked up his tiny niece and hefted her gently in one arm, the other hefted his blade ready to strike down anything foolish enough to try and harm his young charge. Little Ruby was still hiccupping and crying with her little arms wrapped around her uncle's neck for support and just to have something there.

'I need you to be brave.' Qrow said. 'Heroes don't cry okay? Sshh… that's right… just breathe kid… Now listen… Y-you are gonna be alright. You scared me and your father half to death for a minute there, but you are gonna be okay. Okay? Yeah… it's all gonna be okay…'

And so Qrow kept chatting occasionally having to deal with more Grimm attracted to the tiny crying five-year-old girl. Nothing stood a chance against his blade. His fury. But even with Uncle Qrow she hadn't felt as safe as when she was in her mother's arms. Her hope and peace shattered forever… and blown away like petals scattered in the wind.

And so Ruby grew… she decided to always be armed. Always be ready. But that wasn't enough. She wanted her mother back. She wanted to believe in something. To be like her…

And so that's what she did. She would cut her hair to her mother's length. She wore things like corsets and battle skirts trying to mimic her mother's style. With barely effort Ruby had transformed to look exactly like Summer. So painfully so that her father could only grimace and force himself to smile whenever he saw her.

Since her mother died, her father, just… broke. Taiyang Xio-Long, the man of one hundred tales, the bravest and most reckless man in existence, had just given up. He gave up his life adventuring as a Huntsman. He settled down to raise his two daughters and tell them stories about brave Huntsmen he met on his journey. But at the mention of Summer Rose he would grow distant and quiet. His eyes would become far away, and he would just shutdown. As such, Ruby tried not to ask about her unless she really needed to know something.

One time when he was drunk, he had wrapped his arms around Ruby and just… cried. Ruby had been so scared for her dad at that point. He thought she was her mother… He had just kept saying 'I'm sorry I wasn't strong enough…' and had eventually passed out. Ruby never told him about it. She had tried to forget it, but the moment was burned into her mind. Her Daddy was a broken man and nowhere close to being at one-hundred percent.

Yang, the super cool big sister, was also not immune. It hadn't happened in a while but when it was Ruby's turn to wake Yang up for school, sometimes Yang mistook her for Summer as well. Yang would wake up quickly however and would awkwardly avoid looking at Ruby for a few hours…

Ruby never mentioned it… but she wondered if maybe she was wrong for trying to be like her mother. To cause the people she loved pain just to hold onto a fantasy.

Ruby walked with her Uncle in this terrible dream world. One where she relived her sadness and pain night by night. Cold trees, snowy ground marred by bleeding scarlet of innocence lost through death, and replaying the moment when she had finally understood she had lost it all.

Ruby stopped at her mother's grave again. The weirdest part was that she felt oddly responsible for all of it. She remembered so much about that day so vividly, but things about her mother, her favorite food, what she would say when waking her, pet names, things like that… just seemed strangely… blank.

All she could remember about her were the stories she could coax out of Yang. Stories from another little girl who also lost her mother and wanted to paint her in the best light for her little sister. Once again Ruby was left staring at the grave, the testament that not all storybooks have happy endings, wondering about her…

Did she ever struggle?

Did she ever just want to run away?

Why was it so hard to keep walking the way she did?

Smiling no matter the hardship?

Always doing what was right, no matter how hard it was?

How… how could she give such comfort to those around her?

Why would she lie and tell them all that everything was going to be okay?

There was always a villain in fairytales, there was always some horrible demise that needed to be conquered, so why did she set herself up as some hero that would take on all the burden?

Life was never that simple, so why would she make such a promise?

Ruby felt soft arms around her, causing Ruby to freeze in place. White petals flew across the grave making tears come to Ruby's eyes.

'I'm sorry…'

Ruby woke up with a start. She was… in Yang's arms? She looked up with wide eyes and panting breath. Yang looked… sad… but held her closely. Ruby tried to wiggle out of her sister's arms but was held firmly there by the much stronger girl. Ruby's head rested on Yang's 'shelf' and when she quit struggling her sister's arms loosened some. Not enough to get out of, but much more comfortable.

"Yaaaanngg…" Ruby groaned. "I'm fifteen now! I'm not a baby…"

"I know." Yang smiled softly. "But you needed me. So… here I am."

Ruby pouted but snuggled into her sister's chest more.

"How come these are softer than my pillow?" Ruby pouted. Yang let out a snort.

"Because they are filled with the hopes and dreams of virgins everywhere." Yang chuckled. "Gotta keep em somewhere."

They were pretty soft… Yang's slow, steady heart beat was making Ruby more drowsy than any lullaby… Ruby's eyelids grew heavy as Yang rubbed Ruby's back in small circles and she slowly… gently… fell back asleep…

Ruby was once again at her mother's grave, yet this time there was not snow everywhere. Instead there was some sunshine, small birds chirped, and there was the promise of happier days. Ruby however didn't get her hopes up…

It was still grey skies and darkness here and there.

But perhaps grey skies were part of life the way sunshine and darkness were.

Ruby would keep up her happy persona.

She would keep smiling and celebrate grey skies.

Gently, gently she blacked out and her dreams became dreamless void of those who were too tired to dream.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought! Follow, Favorite and Review! Thanks!