New Divide
"Do you want to talk about it?" Blake asked hesitantly repeating the question that was asked early that morning.
Breakfast was held in team RWBY's room, not that any of them truly had much of an appetite. They were joined by JNPR and Oscar. Ruby had just shared her messages with Qrow, explaining that they would be meeting the elder huntsman in his lodgings; in fact the same lodgings she had stayed in during her first visit to Haven in her own timeline, "In order to explain, I have to answer the question you asked me last night…my own…mortality." She answered with hesitance.
There was silence as they watched the reaper. Her hands were clasped together and she was staring at the floor, almost willing it to swallow her whole just like the giant purple dragon had done in her dreams. Weiss saw the look and reached over and grabbed one of her hands. Yang saw this and sighed, with her arms crossed, "Its ok Ruby. We are not going to judge you, whatever you may have done."
Ruby shook her head, "It's not ok though. I guess I'll just start and you'll see why. After Weiss…I was numb. I shut down emotionally. My brain refused to allow me to process any emotion after I decapitated Tyrian." Ruby started out, pulling away from Weiss, now choosing to make eye contact with her team/friends, "I had one goal in mind and that was to get to Vale."
"Why Vale?" Pyrrha asked softly watching the reaper carefully.
"The relic of Choice." Ruby said, looking at Oscar, "It is located at Beacon Academy."
"If you knew that, why did you not go after that relic first?" Ren asked slowly not understanding Ruby's thinking.
Ruby nodded and sat back this time, "Right now it is…or should be…safer at Beacon. Despite it being a nesting ground for Grimm." She sighed, "In the beginning of my journey I met little Grimm resistance due to my…apathetic state. The only time I ever ran into any was in the rare villages that I came across. That started to change when I would run into White Fang factions and those whose loyalty lay with Salem. I grew angrier the more skirmishes I fought in."
"Eventually I found my way to Beacon. However that did little to quell my rising anger when I saw the state of what was our…home…" Ruby looked away and swallowed, "Before I did anything I went into the Emerald Forest. It was still fairly…peaceful. It helped calm me. It was there that I decided to make a memorial of sorts; by the cliff where we had first come together as a team." They saw a small bitter smile grace her lips, "I thought it would help…and it did, at least it gave my purpose renewed vigor."
They allowed the ominous silence that followed. Jaune looked at his first friend and voiced what they all were thinking, "What do you mean Ruby?"
Ruby looked at them and motioned for Nora to hand her Crescent Rose, which was placed next to Myrtenaster. Nora hands her the sniper scythe and Ruby closes her eyes thinking back to that moment, "I shall not rest until their death. I shall take the lives of those I need and shall not take the lives of the innocent. With their deaths, I will sow then reap the seeds. Even if I was once born an angel, a gift from heaven, I shall fall with elegance." She looks back at them and says, "It was a vow I made to avenge each and every one of you. It was there that I could no longer abide by the 'noble' ways of the huntsmen's codes." She then ran a hand over her weapon, as if drawing comfort from it as she felt their eyes on her, "I had already fallen after the incident with Yang, so there was nothing really stopping me now. I opted to feed the darker part of me that offered the drive I needed to end this once and for all…"
"No matter the consequence if you died in the process?" Nora asked uncharacteristically quiet.
"I was already dead the moment Weiss was killed. She…you," Ruby motioned to Weiss in an apology, "were the last link I had to the life I had once led. Yes I kept fighting you, but you still offered me an anchor of sorts. So in my mind that anchor was gone. I added my name to the memorial after her name, symbolizing that team RWBY was officially dead."
"Ruby…" Yang sighed out sadly wanting to hug her sister, but knowing that this was not the time.
Ruby looked at Yang, "It's alright sis. I've…come to terms with it. There were a lot of skirmishes that happened, fights where I offered no prisoner, no mercy, no quarter to anyone that crossed me. Those that managed to live and escape started to spread my title as the 'Bloody Scourge of Remnant'."
At Ruby's tone, it was almost as if a weight came crushing down around them: the overwhelming anger and sadness and grief. Ruby kept describing her horrible timeline in such vividness they all could imagine the scenes she described: blood soaked battlefields with bodies of White Fang soldiers and Salem's army as well as disintegrating Grimm monsters, "I killed a lot of people and faunus. I nearly killed Raven Branwen, which I will tell you about later Yang." Ruby said sternly as she saw her sister ready to pounce on that fact.
Yang sighs in resignation, opting there was already so much information to digest that she could let this tidbit go…for now, "You better."
Ruby nodded slowly as she continued her story, "There was a reason that I attacked Weiss when I first woke up." She heaved a sigh of her own, "Emerald used her semblance on me more than once when our paths crossed. In order to get out of it I had to do some…horrible things…"
"To us." Blake said once Ruby had left that ending unspoken. She could see the torrent of emotions playing across her face, eyes darkening considerably.
"Yea…in the end though they got to what was coming to them." Ruby said darkly, "As did Cinder in the end. In fact I suppose we should thank Raven eventually, if she makes the right choice." Ruby scoffed to herself after saying that, then sobered up some.
Oscar saw this and went rigid for a moment, no one taking notice as everyone was just watching Ruby. His posture straightened as his eyes gleamed, I wish you would have warned me.
I'm sorry, but I need to face her, came the response as he coughed, "Ms. Rose?" They looked at the young boy as he made his way forward, "I'm sorry for all that you went through. I had prayed your generation would not have had to fight."
"Then you prayed to the wrong Gods sir." Ruby answered.
"I understand your frustration-"
"Forgive me sir, but I highly doubt that. You spent nearly two lifetimes in a drunken stupor, then scheming your way out of the hole of your own making and still failing fantastically." Ruby stood up now to face him, "You brought us into this mess and it was me who had to try and clean it up."
Ozpin looked away from the penetrating silver eyed glare, "It is true that I made some mistakes, as I've told you before. It was never my intention to have you all fight my battles."
"Ruby please." Weiss commented now, going towards her partner, before Ruby had a chance to respond.
Ruby looked at Weiss critically for a moment, then stole a glance at the others before resigning and sitting back down again. Ozpin took this opportunity to continue with his words, "I know I cannot apologize enough for the experiences you had, and right now my words seem empty; however did you-"
"No." Ruby said cutting him off, "I left Raven Branwen alive, and forgive me for alluding to this Cinder did die, but not totally by my hand. Her 'death' was the result of my silver eyes and the conflicting powers of the maidens. Hence why I could not be the new Fall maiden."
Ozpin nodded and took a step back away from the reaper, "You called it 'natural order of magic'."
"Beacon could not prepare us for everything, despite your best efforts. Even after finding out magic's true existence, there was still a lot of learning to be done. You were…more forthcoming, but there were things you still played close to the chest." Ruby leaned back and finished with, "So I had to research things on my own."
Ozpin again nodded, impressed with the resourcefulness of the young woman, "I see."
Ruby could see the pride in his eyes and continued with her story, "Anyway I will skip the gory details, and just say that it was finally the time to face Salem. I found her in her kingdom. A dark place where there are black pools that produce Grimm. It was disgusting, and horrifying. I didn't care though. I came with one purpose and that was to destroy that witch."
"Even if it killed you." Yang voiced out loud.
"Let me make this clear, ok? Yes I intended to die, but I had not intended to die alone." Ruby allowed that to sink in as their faces paled. She took a deep breath and retold the last moments of her life on her hellish version of home, "There had been snow on the ground, and yet it wasn't pure white like we were used to. I had stained it red and black."
She closed her eyes, even after all this time, her memories of that day were still fragmented at best, "I entered the compound and was met with no resistance. I had two relics and she had the other two. We fought. I recall trying to use my eyes. It worked to an extent, but she was too powerful. I even used my other powers, but it was no use. In the end, my aura ended up shattering. She delivered a mortal wound, sending me to the ground. I watched as she grabbed the relics, Choice and Destruction. I watched as she brought them together with Creation and Knowledge. I tried to summon my eyes once more, but was blinded by another pure white energy mixed with black energy."
Ruby shook her head and everyone held their breath, "It shot out of the compound, towards the sky from the four relics erupting the atmosphere. Oh the colors it produced, I mean picture this ok, a vibrant array of colors: reds, yellows, blues, purples, greens. It would have been beautiful." Ruby sighed, "But then it pulsed back down. There was this…mushroom like wave and it had me flying backwards towards the cliff. I just remember feeling weightless as I went over. Weightless and molten heat. I had no aura or energy left, but then what was the point? Jinn had told us what would happen if the relics all came together and the Brothers saw we were not united. In all honesty, I was hoping I would have been dead before hitting the water."
Yang shook her head and hid her face in her hands. It was bad enough hearing about her own and her friends' deaths, but now to hear that her little sister actually died? It was becoming too much. Blake offered her own silent comfort, not knowing what words were able to be used for this. JNPR all looked to each other and then towards their sister team. Their thought process the same as Yang's. Hearing the death of the once cookie loving reaper was painful, and yet they knew it was only going to get worse somehow, "I woke up in a strange area. It was like the Cliff-side Forest located on Patch, before it was destroyed. It was there I met them…"
"Them?" Ren asked curiously.
"The Brothers." She looked at Oscar and saw that indeed Ozpin was still in control, "Recall Professor I told you I made a similar deal with them."
He closes his eyes and looks away, hands balled into fists. No one is given the opportunity to comment as Ruby continues, "They had learned from their mistake. They had taken my soul from my physical form, preventing me from crossing over…they made me an offer I couldn't refuse."
"We are doing something unprecedented. We are going to offer you a choice, just like Ozma was given." Ruby said repeating the God of Light's words.
The words weighed heavily on them and they only grew heavier, "They made it perfectly clear what exactly I would be doing and what would be entailed." Knots formed causing them to feel nauseous, "My younger self's soul would be gone and merged with me. As I said in the beginning, I was me only in my younger body…and you all would be alive."
"THOSE BASTARDS!" Yang yelled now, eyes ablaze in blood red, heat filling the room "They literally used us!" Yang snarled out as she saw Ruby's reaction as she had to relive this moment again, it was raw heartbreak, the hope, the anger, and finally the acceptance.
Weiss wasn't much happier, "They dangled us in front of you as if we were a piece of meat."
"This is so sick and wrong." Jaune said balling his fists at his side unable to comprehend what he was hearing…or had happened…he groaned in frustration at his thoughts. Stupid time travel.
"Agreed." Nora said, "If I ever meet them…I am breaking their legs!"
"Nora I don't-" Ren started to say. Blake and Pyrrha cut him off, "We'll probably be helping you."
Ruby chuckled sadly, "Thanks guys really. It was my choice though, and of course you know the choice I made. However they gave me a warning…one that you know about…the warning that started this whole saga 'some things you cannot change. They are meant to happen we cannot say what events are not allowed to change, you will have to come to terms with that yourself'."
The silence was deafening and they saw Ruby's eyes glistening, her form shaking. Finally the strong bravado cracked. She had the blanket clenched in her fists. The memories of the battles and the loss overtaking her. The control she had fought hard during the discussion shattered into pieces. No one moved a muscle as they all felt the same loss and heartbreak for the young reaper.
I've put my trust in you, pushed as far as I can go.
For all this there's only one thing you should know:
I tried so hard and got so far, but in the end it doesn't even matter.
I had to fall to lose it all, but in the end: It doesn't even matter
