Ok so I promise I will have New Divide updated again before the New Year. Admittedly I am having writers block with that story, but I do have four pages written for it. I am just at a stalemate right now for it. So this story I worked on a bit longer as a way to help with getting the creative juices flowing again. That and my mental state at the moment is a little low. So here we go.
Breaking Point
The point at which something loses force or validity
The point at which a situation becomes critical
The point at which a person gives way under stress
"Where is the rest of your team?" Winter asked slowly looking to her sister's group with her hands behind her back. Qrow for his part stood silently to the side just observing. This was their rodeo, not his. After all he had been with Clover and they had given their debriefing before Ironwood went to talk to Pietro Polendina about Penny's situation.
"Ruby went to the training room just before Nora and Ren informed us of this meaning." Weiss said in the same tone, "They said Jaune and Oscar had gone there as well so they should be here in a minute."
Ren nodded, "That is correct. Oscar asked Jaune if he could do some light training with him. We did send them that message ten minutes ago though…" He trailed off as he looked at Nora.
"Hey you watched me send him a message that Winter called a meeting."
"Unless they are trying to get Ruby to leave." Yang muttered with a troubled look in her lavender eyes. Qrow straightened up at this and looked at his niece.
Winter caught the shift out of the corner of her eye and then saw the uneasy gaze of her sister, "Ms. Xiao-Long? Care to elaborate."
Team RWBY looked at one another and Blake sighed. When she had folded up the scraps of Ruby's report, she had placed them in the pocket of her jacket just so they could look at them further later. Pulling them out, she handed them to Winter and started to explain what had happened in the few precious minutes prior to Nora and Ren arriving, "That is not good." Qrow spoke now for the first time, looking at the report on Winter's desk as the Specialist herself tries to decipher the words.
"Tell me and be honest." She starts slowly as she looks up to glance at new hunters, "How has Ms. Rose taken to dealing with past and current events?"
Their eyes widened at the question as Winter and Qrow looked at them, "I mean…she's taken the hits in stride…" Yang said slowly, "Better than I did really." She looked at the others for help.
"She's kept fighting." Blake said exchanging glances with Yang, "She was with you the most. What do you think?" She asked Ren and Nora.
"Things were rough for us initially." Nora said with uncharacteristic like tact, "But we came together." Ren nodded in silent agreement.
Weiss noticed something in Qrow and Winter's looks and states, "That isn't what you are asking of us is it? You know what she was struggling with to write." Silence fell over the room now as they looked at the adults.
Before anyone could comment the door banged open and Jaune came in panting, "Please come quick."
"Jaune what is it? What happened?" Nora asked noticing her friend's distress.
"She is going to kill him."
"Who?" Ren asked going over to him and helping him stand up a bit straighter so he could breathe easier.
"Ruby." He gasped out, "She started fighting Oscar and he doesn't have much aura left. We have to go. Now!"
"Hold on I am having a hard time-" Nora started to say.
Jaune shook his head, "We are wasting time!" He looked at Qrow and Winter, "Come on we have to go." Blake, Yang, and Weiss exchanged worried glances, no doubt thinking of when they entered the room.
There was another sound of footsteps walking passed Winter's office with some laughing, "Oh man that is some sparing match." They heard one person say.
"Red is kicking Farm Boi's ass for sure." Responded his friend with his own laugh before letting it die and saying as an afterthought, "Seriously though, remind me to never get on the reaper's bad side."
"True. Shame I liked Farm Boi, it was nice knowing him." They heard them turn the corner.
Jaune looked at them, "Now you believe me?"
"You don't think-" Qrow asked slowly not wanting to believe what his younger niece could be going through.
Winter gave him an uncharacteristic sympathetic look, "You know this profession just as well as I do. Come on let's go get them." Jaune led the way as the others looked at one another before quickly following.
When they got to the training area, they were met by a horrifying sight. Oscar's body shimmered green as he was thrown backwards. Ruby was pivoting back around and lunged towards him once more. Oscar raised Long Memory in defense just as Crescent Rose swung in a wide arc motion. Immediately something was flying towards the group and Weiss and Winter acted on honed instincts summoning their glyphs, shielding the onlookers just as the object was imbedded in the glyphs mere inches from Blake's face. The faunus looked surprised, color draining from her face, as Yang gripped her arm. No one spoke as glyphs vanished and the object fell to the floor; it was the top half of the famous cane belonging to their former headmaster.
Slowly looking at the dueling duo they saw Oscar falling to his knees, now a cleaved Long Memory falling from his grasp and clattering to the floor, uselessly next to him, "I yield." Oscar's strained voice rang out.
"No. No you are not allowed to." Ruby said growling out.
"Ruby I yield." Oscar pleaded, "You win."
"Pick up your weapon."
"No."
"I said pick up your weapon. Now!"
"I won't. I'm done fighting you."
Ruby looked down at him and there was a moment of a flash in her mind. She stumbled back, one hand going to her head as she lowered Crescent Rose with the other, "Do you believe in destiny?"
"Stop. Make it stop. I just want it to stop!" Ruby yelled as there was another flash of the scene that had been the cause of all this. She turned back to Oscar, not noticing their audience. If he wasn't going to raise his weapon willingly, then she would force him to. With a fierce growl, she lurched forward once more.
"RUBY!" Yang yelled as she made a move to run forward, but someone else was much quicker. There was a sudden audible clang.
Oscar had his eyes closed and slowly opened them to see a black cape in front of him, "Go." Qrow growled out as Ruby's scythe was pushing against Harbinger, "Now! Get over to the others!"
Oscar swallowed and struggled for a moment, grabbing his weapon and going towards them, "You alright?" Jaune asked running forward to help him, "Just what the hell were you thinking?"
"Trying to get Ruby to snap out of whatever has come over her." Oscar said, "She wanted Ozpin, so I acted like him to reach her and reason with her. I didn't think she'd try and kill me." He looked at his weapon, "Now how the hell am I going to fix this?"
"Ruby will do it once she is back to her senses." Blake said recovering from the shock, "We just have to find a way to reach her."
"But how are we going to reach her? Like what the hell is going on? Is she possessed by a Grimm or something?" Yang demanded as Qrow forced Ruby back two feet. The caped girl was staring at him critically, not truly seeing her uncle.
Winter had her saber out, "That would be too easy I'm afraid." They looked at her now.
"What do you know?" Weiss demanded as she too kept Myrtenaster close.
Winter looked at her sister and then met the stern gazes with the others, "I'm afraid your leader is suffering severe flashbacks. From what we managed to read, they were triggered by the events of that party."
"You were stabbed." They heard Ruby say before they could have a chance to comment, "He stabbed you."
"What is she talking about?" Yang demanded slowly as she tried to get a read on the intense situation.
Ren, Nora, and Jaune felt a tightness in their throats as they recalled the moment Ruby could be talking about, "Tyrian. That scorpion faunus;" Ren said, "Ruby said he was at the party. He committed those murders."
"So is she remembering that?" Nora asked slowly, "This just seems a little extreme-"
"No it cannot be just that." Jaune says cutting her off. His mind was going a mile a minute as he thought back to before he had gotten his reinforcements. Aside from the obvious, what was with the party that triggered this massive break in their red cloaked leader?
Ruby for her part was staring at Qrow, not really seeing him. Instead she heard the echoing clang of Harbinger and a different weapon, one owned by a certain scorpion faunus; then the sound and image changed:
She is fighting for her life and for the life of her uncle. She thrown back from his two-footed kick. She isn't paying attention to her surroundings until she sees that her uncle is standing before her with Harbinger drawn. The wooden beam had given way and would have crushed her, had he not saved her. The feeling of relief and gratitude had vanished in an instant just as fast as it had come as Qrow gasped in pain, having been stabbed by Tyrian's stinger. She had reacted without thinking and, "I took his stinger." She growled out glaring at her uncle, but he knew that she wasn't really glaring at him, "I took that damned faunus's stinger." She spat out now.
Blake winced at the unfamiliar and ferocious tone coming from the normally compassionate and forgiving young girl in front of them. Weiss is equally shocked at this tone and Yang does what she can to support her partner, knowing that Ruby hadn't meant anything by her tone in general, "I know. I was there." Qrow said gently keeping his distance, making no move to approach his niece.
Ruby growled now and started pacing, completely forgetting that her fight with Oscar was interrupted, "I should have taken more than his stinger, I should have taken that faunus trash's life."
"No. Ruby no, you don't mean that." Qrow said quickly.
"YES I DO!" Ruby yelled, "It wasn't Penny's fault! It was his fault! He killed those innocent people!" Once more flashes of that night came to her and she said in a quieter tone, "It wasn't their fault."
Their? Weiss wondered perplexed now as she cautiously watches her friend, her stomach balling into a knot.
Qrow recovers from Ruby's outburst, "But we are not a judge or jury or even executioners. That's not what we do. That's not what you-"
This made Ruby laugh suddenly in disbelief, "You defending him?!"
"What? No of course not. Ruby-"
"Well you must be because I have a hard time believing you are giving me adult life lessons here about morality." She countered venomously, "You nearly got us killed at that damned farm!"
Qrow looked like he had been slapped, and made no move to defend himself, not that Ruby gave him a chance, "You said we would leave by first light, but you let us oversleep because of your late night binge drinking."
Tiredness and a sense of hopelessness. The expression on their faces as they had been about ready to leave. A well was hypnotically calling to her. Beckoning her towards it. The Relic of Knowledge suddenly in her hand as she stares longingly into its blackness, "I am...really...tired..." Her own detached voice echoing in her head as she longed to drop the thing into its pool of darkness.
"You were too drunk to know what was happening. How…how…" Her voice trails off now, not knowing how to continue. Crescent Rose is feeling heavy in her hand, she grabbed her head with her other hand, haunting images come to her again:
They are on all fours when they heard the Grimm Apathy scream. The sense of wanting to give up, until Maria calls out about the exit in front of them up a set of stairs. She crawls towards Weiss, begging her to move forward when she hears a weapon dropping echoing in the tunnels. Turning back she sees Blake on the ground with the Grimm coming ever closer, "Blake...get... up!"
"How I almost killed us." Ruby managed out finally.
Auburn pupils dilate and her voice is soft as she sighs out, "It's fine..."
She watches as the faunus gets a dazed look. More Grimm emerge from the entrance. Horror floods her and fuels the desperation. She crawls and attempts to reach out towards Blake, who continues to lie down motionless. The Grimm reach their hands down to the cat faunus, "BLAAAAAKE!"
As she hears her echoed voice in her head, she snaps back to reality and lunges forward. Qrow just barely raised his weapon to defend himself. Once more a loud clang echoes in the training area, startling the on lookers. Weiss, Winter, Ren, Nora, and Jaune made a more towards them when Qrow calls out, "Stay back!"
"But-" Nora states not liking that this is happening.
"His semblance is misfortune." Yang said as Qrow and Ruby are moving in their deadly dance, she is the only one who did not move to his defense, "He cannot control it. It is not discriminate who it affects. It's why when he fights with us, it is with the enemy who is furthest away."
"Ruby-" Oscar got out weakly, not liking there was nothing he could do to help.
Before Yang could comment, Harbinger and Crescent Rose once more became locked together as Ruby and Qrow pushed against one another, "Let's not forget Argus." Ruby growled out as she tries to push Qrow back, "Leaving us in front of that damn Atlas military base while you drank in self-pity."
Each accusation made him wince, eyes that had once been filled with wonder and admiration for him, were now looking at him with distain. He growled low against Ruby's strength, wondering when she had become the stronger one. He allowed her to push against him for a bit longer before suddenly shifting his weight and moving to the one side causing her to be thrown off balance.
He shifted his weapon from sword to gun and fired at her. Ruby shifted and blocked the dust round before shifting into her semblance to appear behind him. He vaulted over her and quickly shifted from gun mode into war scythe mode, swinging it around. Ruby vanished into petals once more and appeared out of range, swinging her scythe around to meet his, "Then you have the gall to try and shoot down our plan after we found you passed out from another episode of drinking? Yea let's keep giving life lessons out like they're candy. Brilliant move on your part." She got out as if the conversation had not been paused.
Both scythes swung around and with the amount of power in both wielders swings, the force of the blows blew the two apart, causing both auras to shimmer. Ruby recovered the quickest and made to move towards Qrow again but was met with a giant ice knight in front of the older reaper. Ruby's eyes widened and she diverted her course. Everyone else looked at Weiss, standing back straight and Myrtenaster pointing in the direction of the makeshift battle field, "Quick someone disarm her now while she's-"
"Weiss…" Ruby breathes out and they look towards the young reaper. Crescent Rose is finally released from her grasp and falls to the floor, "No…no…Weiss no…"
Panic. She's panicking. All she can see is Weiss, near lifeless on the ground surrounded by Jaune, Nora, and Ren. She's holding her head, trying to gain some sense of reality. Weiss's body changes to Blake's in the tunnels, surrounded by Grimm, "No…please Blake no…my fault…"
Yang run's forward with Blake behind her now, the ice knight vanishes as Weiss follows. Qrow is already by her and pushes Crescent Rose away from her reach, "Ruby…Ruby we're here…"
Ruby doesn't hear him, and instead pushes him away from her, "Stop it!"
"Ruby its ok. Its-" Yang tries to get out as Jaune, while supporting Oscar, with Nora and Ren come over.
Ruby again moves away. She sees their hopelessness and defeat at learning the truth about the fight with Salem. She sees her friends in their weakened state trying to help battle the mecha. She hears the screams of the people in Argus when the Grimm start attacking. Then the fighting in Mantel after the elections and the party itself.
Winter stands by Qrow's side as he holds Ruby's weapon and his in his hands, "Ruby please it's alright." Weiss said softly, "Let us in to help you."
Weiss voice reaches Ruby somewhat. She looks up and sees her team's faces but her face focuses on her sister's. Once more the image merges with Penny's own devastating expression and she cannot stop that particular vision from playing out again, "It wasn't her fault!" Ruby yelled desperately.
"Who-" Weiss asked surprised but relieved that Ruby no longer wore a menacing expression.
"Yang's!" Ruby yelled again desperate to get her message across as they looked at her in shock with the exception of Winter and Qrow, "She didn't attack Mercury!" Then she growled out in pain as her head throbbed.
"The tournament?! This goes back to Vytal-" Yang asked wide eyed and looked to see the Specialist and her uncle not looking so surprised, "You knew?!"
"Suspected." Winter said, "Based on footage from it and what we were able to decipher from her report."
Weiss looked at her sister with slight distain for not being outright forthcoming until she hears Ruby growl out, "Jaune…"
Jaune steps forward, "I'm here Ruby…I'm-"
"We have to go!" Ruby stated urgently to Weiss.
Weiss saw the panic and determination in the silver depths and immediately it was dawning on her what was happening. To Ruby, she was not in Atlas Academy, she was in the hell that had begun all of these terrible events to take place: the battle of Beacon. Looking at the rest of them, she saw the others come to the same realizations. Hence why Ruby wasn't responding to them, but only to Weiss because she was there with her, "Let her play it out." Winter said gently seeing Weiss's own panic expression.
"We have to get up there!" Weiss looks back to Ruby and sees that she is pointing to some training tower. In a heartbreaking moment she knew what came next, as did Jaune when she saw his face go sickeningly pale.
"Ruby we are-"
"Weiss we have to get up there! There isn't much time!" Ruby said urgently, not knowing why her partner was hesitating on this.
"Wait a minute. She froze the Wyvern with her powers." Ren said quietly, "If we let her play this out, then-"
"There is a chance that she might activate them here." Nora finished, "We saw what Cinder looked like. Who knows what she might unintentionally do to us…"
They all looked at each other, then to the experienced hunters, "Play it out. Someone meet her at the top then knock her out." Qrow said sadly looking at Weiss, "It's the only way to snap her out of this."
Weiss met their gazes and nodded. Blake disappeared from the group and they watched the cat faunus scale the other towers, waiting to meet Ruby. Yang looked away as Weiss hesitated a moment longer, "You can do this…" Weiss said more to herself than to Ruby as she summoned a trail of glyphs.
Ruby sprang from her spot onto the glyphs, part of her mind internally screaming at her that something was wrong with this situation. However the emotional part had broken the flood gates and refused to believe anything else. Once she reached the top though, she stopped and it was like an ice bath overcame her and each horrible event came to her, hitting her with ten times the power than the initial trauma. Every bottled emotion erupted like a volcano. She wasn't aware that she was screaming until she felt her eyes burning a familiar burn before blacking out completely.
Blake stood over her with Gambol Shroud out and looked sadly down at her leader, "I'm sorry Ruby."
"I got her." Blake turned to see Yang climbing up now and throwing her sister's arm over her shoulder, having all of Ruby's deadweight lean on her, "I might have to tell her though to layoff the cookies." It was a poor attempt at a joke, but at least it loosened up the tension.
They got down using Weiss's glyphs and they looked at the young reaper sadly, "Let's bring her and Mr. Pine to the medical wing, and then we will all have a talk." Winter said, "Because clearly there are unresolved issues that need to be dealt with and I am not just talking about your team leader." With that they followed the Specialist out of the training area knowing that her words rang true. After hearing and seeing Ruby's outburst, they all felt old wounds that had not quite healed reopening.