In my mind, I see myself

But not just one of me.

I see how my actions shape

And what I could have been.

My acts that night, I do admit

Were worse than I should fear

But to kill Jaune, before my eyes

They better hope hell keeps them there.

Ruby's eyes were the warning point for Cardin, and he barely managed to manoeuvre his mace into the oncoming scythe swing. The sheer fury in them was paralysing, and due to that, Russel couldn't raise his knives in time to block the rebound swing. Crescent Rose cleanly cleaved through his arms. She rotated the blade with a minor gesture, and hit the trigger. The recoil sent the blade catapulting towards her, cleanly splitting the thug in two. As he dropped, he managed to arm both knives, and as they hit the ground, each one launched forward with micro-rocket thrust. In a flash of rose-petals, Ruby was no longer in the way, and Dove instead was pelted with the one-two combo of exploding knives, leaving him dazed and bleeding. Of course, thanks to that, he never had a chance to even flinch as the scythe impaled him through the crotch. Almost casually, Ruby spun the giant weapon over her head, and the body flew into the jungle, food for the Grimm. Cardin exchanged a nod with Lark, and the two attacked together. Cardin went low, his mace in hand ready to crush a femur. Likewise, Lark went higher, aiming for Ruby's slight chest. Neither of them found success as Ruby seemed to teleport into the air. She fired the sniper-scythe, busting Cardin's hand clean open with the bullet and forcing him to drop his mace. Lark was even less lucky, as the young woman pinned him to the ground with the flat head of the scythe against his chest and jammed her small foot down onto his crotch.
"You shot him. Time to join your friends in hell." She raised the scythe, but instead of swinging, she spun. The blade cleaved through him twice – once at the knees, then again at the neck. She growled and left the body to bleed as she spun on Cardin.

"Now, to kill the main traitor of the lot," she spat. Crescent Rose arced up, and began to swing down towards his heart, but Cardin acted first. He raised the rocket-knife he'd stolen from Russel's body, and hit the trigger. The mini-rocket launched and stabbed Ruby clean in the gut – a wound that was clearly not going to be fatal, but was defiantly painful as the rocket exploded, driving the metal deeper into her flank and scarring the area around it with burns. Of course, even that impact couldn't stop the cold steel of her scythe, which simply dropped and stabbed him through the chest. Ruby doubled over, clearly badly hurt, but as the life faded from Cardin's eyes, he saw a sight that would leave his final moments in confusion – a young woman whose face was halfway between satisfaction and horror.

Ruby looked at the devastation around her, and simply froze up. Three bodies lay around her, each one dead or dying, and the blood was everywhere. It covered her. The stench of blood and gunpowder was everywhere. The blade on her scythe, as much as it would normally be clean and the bodies left as flower petals, dripped with the blood of the dead. A sob burst from her throat. She hadn't just killed them, she'd massacred them. She started to straighten at the waist, even with the shooting pain from the knife in her gut, but a gasp left her frozen. Nora stood there, just staring.

"OhmygodRubyjustkilledthemall!" Nora was always energetic, but this wasn't just a burst of energy. It was infused with her horror. Ren was right behind her, and his silence spoke volumes. It wasn't accepting. It was furious and betrayed. Then, the two members of Jaune's team stepped to the side, and Ruby found herself underneath the withering gaze of her sister.

"You… you think you can do things like this and it's all good?" Yang's face wasn't holding anything back. Her eyes were red, and her expression could have melted plate steel. Even without the flames that surrounded her body. "You killed them. Murdered them. They could have given us information, and faced justice for what they did. But no, Ruby knows best, because they killed someone close to her." Yang turned away, and her final words were barely more than a whisper. "I can't believe I'm related to you."

Ruby opened her mouth to speak, but Weiss and Blake's appearance next to Yang silenced her.

"Enough of this nonsense. It's clear that Ruby isn't in control of herself, and has no place with a weapon like… that." Weiss gestured to Crescent Rose, the blade still imbedded in Cardin's chest. "I say we take it from her, and leave her to face the Grimm alone."

"Yes." Pyrrha forced Blake to one side, and pulled the scythe from the corpse with a sickening squelch. "I will remember today as the day I lost two friends. One was killed. The other became the very thing she hunted – a monster." The giant scythe didn't seem right in the woman's hands, but when Pyrrha handed it to Sun, it seemed complete. All of her friends felt she didn't belong. They were turning their backs on her. Revenge had led her to become what they hated. She watched as they walked away, but Ruby's voice failed her again. Instead, two ethereal figures floated up to her. Bodies glowing white and passing through the trees. Ruby felt her heart leap.

"Summer? Jaune?" her voice was faint and gravelly, like she'd been screaming for hours. In a way, she guessed, she had. But, when she saw Jaune's face, she knew it wasn't good. He was furious.

"I died, and this is what you decide is good to keep my memory alive? Killing the people that got me?" he spat, although she couldn't see anything. "Ruby, no matter what you think, if I knew you were going to do something stupid like this, I would never have become your friend. I would never return your feelings. And what the hell were you doing, falling for me? Did you want to ruin your friendship with me? With Pyrrha? Your emotions could have single-handedly ruined everything!" His expression shifted from fury to regret. "Oh, wait. You just did."

Even the spirit of Summer Rose, the woman from the altar, wasn't playing nice. "You think that you are worthy of the name Rose? Thorn is more appropriate. You aren't even worth the effort to guide any more. I hope you enjoy your rewards, because this is more than you deserve." Both of the sprits faded, and Ruby could hear the faint whispering between Jaune and the elder spirit, speaking how she was 'so promising', and how perhaps the 'next Rose' will be better. Then, it hit her.

She was alone. Silently, she raised her hands to her eyes to cry, but they hit something hard, like bone. Desperate, she grasped one of Russel's knives, and studied her reflection.

There, across her petite face, was the mask of the Grimm.

Ruby sat bolt upright in bed, panicked. Sweat caked the clothes to her skin, and when she looked, these weren't her pyjamas. Hell, this wasn't her bed. It was a hospital room, and she was wearing what looked like a white nightie. One of Weiss's? She couldn't tell. Yang sat on the chair next to her, and jumped at the surprise of the redhead's sudden awakening.

"Ruby!" The older girl dived for her sister, but the smaller one slipped from her grasp.

"What happened?" Ruby's face was confused, and Yang's face fell.

"Oh, you don't remember. You got hurt. Badly. Ursa hit you across the head, knocked you out. Wouldn't have made it if it wasn't for Jaune, and he got pretty badly hurt protecting you. Apparently, he caught a stray bullet from one of Cardin's team members just before you were hit…" Yang found herself cut off by Ruby's sudden disappearance. One second, the redhead was there. The next, she was gone.

Within seconds, Ruby was at the nurse's station, and without waiting to see anyone, snuck a glance over the desktop. A room number - 132, marked to the name 'Jaune Arc'. She could hear Yang start to come after her, but Ruby didn't care. Instead, she followed the numbers, and found herself outside room 132. She could see, without much effort, a person sitting at the chair by the bed, but without holding back, she burst in and overbalanced, falling flat on her face.

"Ruby! Are you ok?" Pyrrha stood from the chair and helped the young girl back onto her feet. Jaune, sitting awake in the bed, smiled at her.

"Good to see you're ok. You gave us all a scare." Ruby was frozen in surprise. Jaune had been shot, just like in her dream. But he wasn't dying. He wasn't badly wounded. There were bandages wrapped around his shoulder and torso, but other than that, he seemed fine.

"You…you were shot…" Jaune shrugged it off.

"My aura mostly protected me, and it was an accident. I was between him and the Ursa, he apologized. No big deal. Well, aside for having to get a bullet out of my lung. Not gonna be fighting for a few months, but I'll be up and ready for action again before long." Without explanation, Jaune was blushing. Was it modesty? Embarrassment? Ruby stood there, confused. Finally, Pyrrha broke the tension.

"Um, Ruby? Why aren't you dressed?" The young girl looked down. The nightie she had been wearing was partially see-through thanks to the sweat sticking it to her skin, and clearly meant to be worn under a hospital gown. Not one of Weiss's at all. Here she was, giving the boy she liked and one of his friends a full view of her body. So, she did the only thing she could.

She fainted.