Breaking Point

Weiss was awoken by creaking right above her head. She was annoyed at first, half tempted to punch the bottom of the bed until she realized that Ruby was muttering in destress, "Ruby?" Weiss whispered. No response other than more whimpering, "Ruby?"

"No…I don't believe you."

Weiss got up. Through their window the shattered moonlight illuminated the room and she could see tear tracks on her leader's face, "Ruby? Wake up. You are dreaming."

"Not true." Ruby groaned out clutching the blanket desperately, "It's not true."

"Ruby wake up!" Weiss called out just a bit louder this time shaking the young woman.

The light was flicked on and she looked to see that Blake had gotten up, but Yang was still asleep, although from what Weiss could tell, looking like she was fighting to stay asleep, "What's going on?"

"Ruby's in a nightmare, I cannot wake her." Weiss said as Ruby let out another heartbreaking whimper.

"Should we wake Yang?"

Weiss hesitated. Last time they woke Yang up for something-(granted it was for something stupid)-they had gotten an earful. Then again it is her sister who is currently in distress, "Let's wait one more minute…I'll try one more time." Weiss said after much thought.

Blake conceded, ears folded down at Ruby's whimpers, muttering for Yang, her father, and…mother? "Ruby please. Wake up."

"No. No. It's not true! Stop lying!" Ruby now yelled.

"What the hell is going on?!" The black and white duo sprung to see Yang sitting up, eyes a blood red color, and heat radiating from her.

"YANG!" Ruby yelled now awake at her sister's voice, ignoring the duo, she sprung out of bed and leaped into the furious blonde as Yang had hopped down onto the floor fully prepared to stomp over to the pair, "Yang it's a lie. It's a lie. We got to go. We have to go now!"

Yang's fury died down as she felt Ruby squeeze her hard, "What-?"

"It's a lie. They are lying. We got to go. We got to do something!"

Yang looks at Blake and Weiss, and they are equally confused. Yang looks back at her sister, silver eyes glazed over and yet were gleaming with tears and frantically looking at her, "Ruby what is going on?" Yang asks softly.

"They are lying! Mommy is not dead! She promised Yang! She promised me! She is not gone! We got to find her if Daddy and Uncle Qrow aren't going to do anything! Come on get your stuff we got to go!" Ruby said desperately. Before Yang could react, Ruby let go for her and immediately started grabbing their belongings. Leaving Weiss and Blake looking startled as their stuff remained untouched.

"Ruby wait what-" Weiss started to ask, going over to her partner, but Ruby blew right passed her as if she wasn't even there.

Blake looks over at Yang and sees the blonde pale as a ghost. She goes over to her and lays a hand on her shoulder, "Yang?"

"It's one of those memories again." Yang says slowly, shrugging the hand off, "I can't. I can't even…" Weiss looks over now as Ruby is still going through their things. As Ruby pulls her pillow off the bed, a book falls to the floor with a thud.

Weiss reaches down and picks it up, looking at the unlabeled black cover. Opening it, she reads, "I couldn't take, couldn't stand another minute. Couldn't bear another day without you in it-" Weiss stops reading out loud and scans the rest in silence before saying, "It's a journal." Hesitantly she hands it to Yang.

With a shaking hand, and Blake's help, she opens it and reads silently the page that Weiss was reading, "She was writing about Mom…Summer." Yang says eventually, "I can't believe I-"

"Yang come on! Get ready!"

Yang gulped as she looks at the eager and desperateness of her sister, "Ruby mom is-"

"NO!" Ruby yelled as she stomped her foot in anger that startled the faunus and ex-heiress, "She isn't gone! She is in trouble! She has to be." Ruby says the last part softly, and she shakes her head as if clearing it.

"Oh for the love of the brothers. I don't want to have to do this again. Please don't let it be true." Yang says to herself, but Weiss and Blake hear her anyway. They look at the blonde in sadness and confusion as she handed the book back to Blake and closes her eyes for a moment while taking a deep breath, "Even if that were the case Rubes," Yang starts out as she slowly goes over to Ruby and places her hand on her shoulder, "how do you expect to help Mom without any weapons?"

Ruby pauses for a moment. Her eyes darting towards her sister to the ground and then to the door, "Harbringer. We can use Harbringer! You're strong Yang! You can wield it to protect us!"

"Shit." Yang muttered, then out loud she looks at their friends, "It is a memory. It's the night that Qrow broke the news to us that Summer was presumed dead on her mission."

"Oh no." Blake says ears folded down.

"Ruby…" Weiss muttered looking at the hopeful and optimistic expression and once more the cloaked reaper started to gather other things for their 'journey'.

"Weiss use a glyph to seal the door." Yang says not appear having to have heard their sympathies, "She is going to try and bolt for it when I am about to convince her otherwise."

"Should we call Qrow in here?" Blake asked getting Yang's scroll.

Yang shook her head and reached for her mechanical prosthetic, "No, he wasn't here when I had to actually sit and explain to Ruby what they were saying. She was young. We were young." She attached her arm, the heartbreak was real on her face; "I don't want to do this again." Blake placed the scroll back on the table. She and Weiss exchanged a look as the ex-heiress placed a glyph on the knob of the door. Weiss gave Yang a nod, showing she was ready.

The blonde shook herself out of her own self-loathing as to what was going to come next as that night echoed clear in her mind, "Rubes, hey can we talk about this for a minute?" She asked gently, taking the lead again as Ruby finished packing up their things.

"No Yang there isn't time. I need to sneak into Uncle Qrow's room and get Harbringer before he wakes up!"

Yang places both hands on Ruby's shoulders. She swallows hard, "Daddy and Uncle Qrow were not lying. Mommy…isn't coming home Ruby."

Ruby stares at her, and Yang counts the seconds as her younger sister stares at her, "No. Why are you believing them?! Mommy promised she'd be home!"

"She…she…" Yang shakes her head and could feel Weiss and Blake watching them closely, as if getting ready to react to restrain Ruby if need be, "She promised she wouldn't leave right? And she left right?" Yang hated to say it. She absolutely hated it, especially after seeing and learning what they had learned over these last months together.

Ruby continues to stare and rubs her face with her hands, "She left. She broke her promise." Breathing became harder and she was mentally fighting herself now between that small child not understanding that her mother wasn't coming home, to being the young adult that understood the delicate balance of life and death.

"She didn't want to Ruby."

"No. No. No." Ruby whimpered out, "She's not gone. I refuse-"

"SHE'S GONE!" Yang yelled the feelings as raw as they were back then, "SHE IS GONE AND ISN'T COMING BACK!"

Ruby stared at Yang and suddenly broke down; she begins crying and quickly lowers her head and presses her hands to her eyes. She backs away from Yang, and Yang just stands there watching, her hands at her side. Blake and Weiss just watch, a coil in their stomach forming a weight. Yang feels her own tears threatening to spill, but she knows she cannot break just yet, no matter how painful she feels. All she can do right now is play her part.

For Ruby, an image comes to her mind. Her mother standing far away from her, turning her back to Ruby, with the wind blowing hard, billowing her white cloak around her and disappearing. Ruby frantically wipes her tears away. Yang watches closely and suddenly takes a cautious step forward, she watches as her sister's eyes flicker a couple of times, and then the three of them yelp as their leader's eyes emit a brief flash, "Ruby!" Yang calls out as she hears Ruby's whimper and watches as she grips her head and swaying.

Ruby drops to her knees, sobbing and whimpering with her head in her hands. Yang runs to Ruby's side and drops to her knees beside her, and Ruby leans over to rest her head on Yang's lap, "She's gone Yang. I…I remember…she's gone and she isn't coming home."

Yang rests her hands on Ruby, looking distraught. Blake kneels down beside her with the tips of her cat ears folded, while Weiss watches with wide eyes, feeling sick to her stomach before slowly approaching the trio and tried to offer some comfort as Ruby continued to silently cry, "It's ok Rubes. We'll be ok." Yang said. Blake though could hear the underlying pain in the blonde's voice.

"We're here Ruby." Weiss whispered as she touched Ruby's head gently as the soft cries started to settle down, "We got you."

Blake just nods and places another hand on Yang's shoulder, "That goes for you as well."

Yang doesn't do anything except nod as she continues to try and comfort her broken sister. They do not know how long they stayed like that until Ruby's cries settled down and she drifted off to sleep. Yang waited a moment or two longer before trying to move the reaper. It took some effort, but Yang managed to place Ruby back into her bed before sighing and settling herself back on Blake's bed, she rubbed her face with her hand, "Yang?" Weiss called softly as she sat on her own bed. Yang hummed in response, "I won't ask if you are okay, but I mean you going to be okay?"

"Memories are a funny thing Weiss." Yang responded, "Sometimes they warm you up from the inside, but they also tear you apart." Blake sits beside her and grabs her hand, giving it a soft squeeze, Yang sighs, "It is after this moment we had the service. It had it for Ruby that mom wasn't coming home." She glances to the bed, waiting to see if her sister was going to wake up again, "She shut down after that, as did my father. She recovered a bit faster than he did, but to see her so broken…"

"You took care of her." Blake said softly, "Of them."

"I had no other choice. I couldn't let us starve. That and it was easier to focus on something than my own problems." Blake nodded, recalling the story of Yang and how she took Ruby into the woods to try and find Raven Branwen, her biological mother.

"But you couldn't be a kid…" Weiss muttered out, hearing the implications.

Yang shrugged as if it was no big deal. Before Blake or Weiss could comment further, Yang got up and went over to the desk where the book was and opened it, re-reading it again, "Why would she write about this?"

"You never asked her how she felt when she was old enough?" Blake asked, reading over Yang's shoulder.

"I…" Yang paused closing the book with a snap and sighed heavily, "We never discussed that night or anytime after. It was one of those things that once the door was shut, it was to never be reopened so to speak."

Weiss looked over sadly at her best friend, "I guess we just have to talk to her then."

No one else commented as they got back to bed and turned the lights off. However no sleep came for them that night, unsure of what the morning would bring.