Chapter 23:

Ruby was asleep. That would be the conclusion anyone would have gotten when they looked at the dark haired girl. That is they would think she was asleep, if they didn't know what really happened. Ruby Rose team leader of RWBY, student at Beacon Academy, sister of Yang, friend to Blake, and the love of Weiss had been 'asleep' for little under an hour.

Weiss gazed on her girlfriend. Weiss desperately wanted to see Ruby's silver eyes; they were the most unnerving feature about Ruby, those eyes. If Weiss didn't know better, unfortunately she did know better, she would think Ruby was just asleep. 'Well she acts like she is asleep. She looks like she is asleep. So by all accounts Ruby should be sleeping.' Weiss needed to confirm this with the others.

A dragon had torn free the dome, and rescued Beacon. However the people inside the building had yet to react. No shouts of joy, no proclamations of terror, there was nothing to indicate anyone was still inside the academy. "What would Ruby do?" Weiss mumbled to herself.

The answer came to the white haired girl, who sat with Ruby in her lap. Ruby had used the Grim Sphere, after that she collapsed. Weiss had caught her, since she still had her arms around Ruby. Ruby's head began to loll forward. Weiss lay Ruby down on the warm grass. The temperature was due to the heat from the dragon's fire blast, which had destroyed the dome after the dragon had launched the dome into the air.

Ruby was asleep, or at least Weiss hoped so. Even though Yang would disapprove, Weiss pressed herself on top of Ruby. Weiss, leaning down, slowly began kissing Ruby. Ruby reciprocated Weiss's advances, moaning something about this being the best dream she'd ever had.

Weiss felt bad about taking advantage of Ruby while she was incoherent. Weiss from the separation couldn't help herself. After all, Ruby should have died a few hours ago. "Weiss what are you doing to her?" Yang asked in an angry voice.

Parting from the kiss Weiss replied, "I can't help myself, besides you've hade Blake for days now. I haven't seen my girlfriend for a while. The only thing left to live for is Ruby. We won't be accepted back into Beacon."

"Mmm…Weiss we will. After all we just accomplished our mission." Ruby said. She had just woken up, although still half asleep.

"Ruby you're awake. What should we do?" Weiss asked. Ruby yawned.

"Well we probably should just go back to our dorm room. I mean wouldn't we want to sleep in our own beds? Like I said we just finished an important assignment given to us by the Headmaster. We still have more than 3 and a half years left before we graduate. Shouldn't this adventure be over?" Ruby said still groggy from sleep.

"We can and probably should go back to our dorms. However I have a feeling that our adventure isn't over just yet." Weiss said.

Team RWBY agreed to head back to there dorms. Ruby was awake now. "Ruby how are you healed?" Yang asked with concern.

"I guess it's because…well I really don't know why I was healed. It could have been multiple things." Ruby said as the group of now inseparable friends walked back to their dorms.

RWBY walked into Beacon, they saw multiple columns of smoke coming from the main courtyard. The team had entered near where the dorms were, so they didn't enter at the entrance. Ruby and Weiss wanted to stay inside the dorms. However Yang wanted all of them, including Blake, to go see what was going on.

"What could it be?" Ruby asked.

"Most likely it's a funeral fire for the people who must have died from the Darkness Plague." Blake said.

"Oh I've seen this before. In my opinion it's really depressing." Ruby said. The group was huddled outside the door to their dorm room.

"Ah yes. I remember that." Yang said with a sad yet thoughtful expression on her face.

Blake sensing something was wrong, and asked with a hesitant voice, "Wait when did you two attend a funeral where they burned the bodies?"

Ruby suddenly broke into uncontrollable tears, the sobs shaking her shoulders. Ruby sat down hard, cradling her head in her hands. Yang was trying desperately not to cry; yet tears were streaming down her face. At the sight of Ruby braking down, Yang broke into sobs.

Both Weiss and Blake were alarmed with the sister's reactions. Weiss unlocked the door while Blake led Yang into the room. Blake pulled Yang into bed, getting in beside the grieving girl. Weiss looked back at Ruby. What Weiss saw and heard broke her heart.

Ruby's voice didn't say words, but she sounded ready to crack. Apparently Ruby already had, since she soon started to add screams into the sobbing. The shrill sounds were tortured, sounding as if they ripped their way violently up through Ruby's throat.

Weiss could see the signs of depression clearly enough. She had no idea Ruby had kept the symptoms hidden for so long. What ever had happened was bad, it must have happened in Ruby and Yang's childhood. Weiss looked back very briefly to see how Yang was doing. She saw from the brief glimpse that Blake was comforting Yang.

Weiss turned back to Ruby, who was now screaming uncontrollably. 'What the hell happened? I can't imagine what could have happened during her childhood that made her like this.' Weiss tried to go near Ruby to comfort her. Ruby only screamed louder, and started to twitch.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Ruby howled. It sounded like a demon straight from hell was tormenting her soul.

"Ruby, calm down. At least let me hold you." Weiss shouted over the sound of her love's screams. Weiss refused to scream back at Ruby.

"NO, NO! I DON'T WANT TO! JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Ruby's mind had apparently started to descend into insanity. It was startling to Weiss how something so simple as a funeral could provoke such an extreme response from Ruby. Ruby was normally so…then it clicked Weiss suddenly understood. There was no helping Ruby at the moment. Weiss needed to know the exact ages in which Ruby and Yang had the experience of their parent's grisly death.

Opening the door Weiss slid inside the dorm. Weiss shut the door behind her, which did almost nothing to muffle Ruby's screams. "Yang! What age were you when your parents burned before your eyes?" Weiss said refusing to accept the possibility as truth.

"No it wasn't that, I was 7 years old, Ruby was only 4. Some men came to our house and took us; there must have been dozens of them. They took our parents and tied them to crosses. They tied me to a chair facing them, forcing me to watch. Ruby had it much worse." Yang said. Yang stood up from the bed facing Weiss, Ruby had fallen completely silent. "They forced Ruby to torment our parents. Cutting them with knifes and gouging them with sharp implements. They held a knife to my throat, telling her they would kill me if she didn't do what they said. At the time Ruby didn't understand that her parents would die. Ruby thought they were invincible, me not so much. So she did what they asked, going on and on. Ruby finally broke when she set their cloths on fire, and they burned to death."

"And she got better right?" Weiss asked hopefully.

"I don't know. We didn't talk about it at all, even though we both remembered it very clearly." Yang said. "Ruby stopped screaming, is something…"

Yang was interrupted when Ruby opened the door. She looked haunted, tortured. "I've been listening to what Yang said. It's all true." Ruby said. "I tortured my parents to death at the age of 4."

…

A/N: The idea for this chapter came to me as I finished writing the first 900 words. I didn't realize when I started this chapter that it would get this dark. I still hope your enjoying this, despite the direction its turning. Review, like, favorite, follow if you feel so inclined.