Chapter 25-
The next morning Neo awoke early and was surprised to still feel Ruby holding into her loosely as she looked at the clock noticing it was just after eight in the morning, where Ruby would already have been awake a while.
Smiling to herself Neo enjoyed the fact she could wake up in Ruby's arms before her. As she basked in the feeling of this she started to notice that while she felt her own chest raising as she breathed in and out, she couldn't feel Ruby's nor her breathe as she slept.
Worried she quickly turned around and checked Ruby's pulse and breathing but found no pulse nor was she breathing.
Panicking Neo started to shake Ruby but she didn't even get any response from violently shaking the woman so she shouted out, "HELP!" Neo screamed out as she kept trying to shake Ruby awake.
The first to arrive was Raven who had just appeared next to Neo, quickly gauging the situation she did the same checks as Neo did but found that there was nothing.
Raven let go of Ruby, becoming numb as she pulled Neo a hug as she cried, she barely heard what she was saying as through the tears Neo said "You told me you had three days. Three days!" Neo cried out.
Qrow, Mizu, Winter and the others arrived shortly after and taking in the scene before them with the motionless, peaceful looking Ruby and the crying Neo, quickly working it all out.
Mizu started to cry alongside Winter who moved to hold her mother as they took in the scene before them while Qrow, like Raven was just numb with only a single tear going down his cheek as he hugged Raven and Neo.
Slowly but surely WBY arrived to see what had happened, each crying in their own way. It took almost an hour for them all to calm down, however Neo still had tears running down her face as she spoke to Raven, Qrow and Mizu about arrangements as she laid Ruby down flat on the bed.
Taking Ruby's dagger, she put Ruby's arms onto her chest, with the dagger in them gently as she took a step back, waiting.
"I'm sorry Ruby, but I couldn't stop it. The disease had spread too far after you exerted yourself and I had no choice." Maya said, mournfully to Ruby.
"It's ok. I felt myself getting weaker, I don't blame you. I'm ready to pass on. I wonder what my mother will think." Ruby told Maya while also wondering to herself.
"About that, Ruby I haven't…" Maya started to say before another voice shouted out.
"WAIT!" Another female voice shouted.
Rushing forward another woman dressed in a pure white dress and looked just as beautiful as Maya came rushing forward.
Maya immediately moved in front of Ruby, putting herself between this new person and Ruby, "Atropos, what do you want?" Maya asked, protecting Ruby from whoever this woman was.
"The cuter of threads, but why's she here?" Ruby whispered as she recognised the name. Hand resting on the handle of her sword at her side.
"You've done enough already Atropos; I will not allow you to do anymore damage." Maya said, stepping towards the other Goddess.
"Please I want to help." Atropos said hurriedly. "We don't have much time."
"Why do you want to help? You were the one who sent Ruby here. Like you do the others." Maya replied back harshly.
"I know. I'm not unaware of what I do but I know when my thread is messed with outside my influence." Atropos stated.
"What's she talking about? She controls when the thread ends, so how could it be messed with?" Ruby asked, surprised at hearing this.
"I chose when the thread ends but sometimes I can't predict when disease may happen but ever since I was given your thread something was wrong with it. Something happened at your birth where you were supposed to be a still birth but you weren't. You survived but you had this disease I hadn't seen before. In every way your thread shouldn't exist and I've had no control over it. Ever." Atropos explained, being blunt over caring like Maya.
"What? What do you mean by that?" Ruby asked stunned, looking towards Maya.
Maya just looked sad towards Ruby, "It's true. I met you as a baby for a few brief moments before you were pulled back into the land of the living. I knew when I next saw you at your first brush with death and ever since but I never told you. I'm sorry." Maya said mournfully.
"But…" Ruby started to say, stunned at discovering this.
"After that point your thread was supposed to be long, living to an old age while achieving much but then something developed during your first year of life. I was able to trace back along your thread that it was there at birth and conception but didn't develop until a year after your birth. But I had no control." Atropos explained to Ruby.
"At birth? Someone didn't want me to live." Ruby said, stunned at hearing this.
"No someone didn't. I don't know who but someone made you with this disease to kill you if you weren't stillborn." Atropos stated.
"Is this true?" Ruby asked, turning to Maya.
Maya looked sad but still replied back, "If she says it's true, then it is. I know of two times I should have taken you but you fought through it as you were still healthy. This time however I was unable to protect you." Maya replied.
"Maya may not be able to protect you any further but I can. I can extend your thread or rather, make it anew without this disease as you've technically died from it. I will have a certain amount of control where it ends but it'll be up to you. If you wish to return." Atropos explained.
"I do, you would do that for me? Why?" Ruby asked.
"Why don't you see?" Atropos said as she placed her hand onto Ruby's forehead.
Death, destruction. Thousands of dead as a floating arena falls to the ground over Vale. Killing thousands in mere seconds as the dust creates a massive burning cloud above. Screams of thousands of people dying all at once entering her ears.
A black Grimm tide rushing out of the forests surrounding Vale killing the survivors and any who wish to help. Beacon a smoking wreck as explosions ripple throughout the large school. A woman standing at the head of hundreds of thousands of Faunus. The dead bodies of people trying to defend Beacon on the floor in front of her.
The view changes as the vision goes over the faces of the dead bodies. Yang bloodied and defeated, Weiss, Winter and Mizu all strung up as prizes by the Faunus. Blake dying at their feet, her ears ripped off and the word traitor marked across her head with a blade.
Finally, the vision rested on Neo who had a woman in a white cloak lying next to her. Ruby's scythe in her hands as she lay looking towards the sky, mournful at what had happened.
Ruby was thrown out the vision violently as she collapses onto the ground beside the two Goddess. "That's going to happen isn't it?" Ruby asked weakly.
"Yes. You were the catalyst, the main driving force behind stopping them. But the others are inadequate to deal with the scale of the threat. Neo will be too stricken by grief that she can't step up until it is too late. Without you they would all fall." Atropos said emotionlessly.
"I see." Ruby said, emotionless. "Why are you doing this? Telling me all of this?" Ruby asked coldly.
"Because someone has messed with my threads, something has happened that shouldn't have happened in the first place. The fact you still live is you attempting to fight against it but now I can help you do that." Atropos explained.
"I accept than, but I want to know one thing." Ruby stated.
"What is that?" She asked.
"I was born to die wasn't I? Someone infected my blood or my growth so I wouldn't live past my first year. Correct?" Ruby asked.
"Yes, I don't know who. But someone infected what they used to conceive you to kill you." Atropos told Ruby.
"Thank you." Ruby said, bowing her head to the Goddess.
"I don't know when you'll be returning, time moves differently here than it does in the mortal realm. But I have given you a gift, your pilot will have the coordinates. Go there quickly before it is too late. Ruby." Atropos said.
No more was said as Ruby was enveloped in a bright white light before vanishing from the sight of the two Goddesses.
"You didn't tell her. Why? This could break her." Maya said, rounding on Atropos as she looked from Ruby's fading form.
"Why didn't you tell her about her mother?" The other Goddess threw back.
"You interrupted me before I could. But this will break her, you know it will." Maya accused.
"If she is as strong as you believe her to be, she will be fine. She will have to relearn but she will fight through this and we will have our champion." Atropos stated before vanishing from sight.
"Never a straight answer. Please be safe Ruby, and stay strong." Maya said the empty air.
A rush of air filled her lungs as she shot upright, breathing the life giving oxygen into her lungs. Ruby shot upright not hearing the startled gasps around her as she focused on breathing air back into her cold body.
"Ruby!" Neo screamed out, surprised at seeing Ruby alive.
"How long has it been?" Ruby asked weakly, her voice raspy.
"Half a day. You were dead." Winter answered, crying herself alongside Neo and the others in the room.
"What happened?" Neo asked.
"I don't know. One moment I was somewhere bright, standing in front of a path leading into the light and then I'm back here." Ruby said raspy, lying about it all.
"Is it really you?" Neo asked in disbelief.
"It's me Nea." Ruby said, falling back onto the bed as Neo hugged her tightly.
"Ruby! I'm so happy you're alive." Mizu said, approaching the two hugging women.
What no one expected however was the violent response Ruby had to the woman who was her father, as was with their tradition Ruby had been changed out of her dress for her combat clothes and cape with all of her weapons attached on her body.
Her hand immediately flew to one of her throwing knives as she immediately threw it right past Mizu's cheek. Stunned no one knew how to react until Ruby spoke, her voice dark and weak.
"Leave! It was your fault!" Ruby accused.
"What?" Mizu asked, stunned.
"Leave!" Ruby said louder as she reached for another knife.
Quickly leaving, stunned and crying Mizu left the room without any explanation as to what happened.
"Ruby! What's wrong?" Neo asked quickly, surprised at the sudden change in attitude by Ruby.
Winter moved forward slowly, looking at Ruby's eyes which were almost wild and scared all at the same time.
"Ruby. Calm down. It won't do you any good if you're feral." Winter said, trying to calm the woman down.
"Mother!" Aria shouted out, materialising and hugging her mother. Or her version of hugging her at least.
"Aria." Ruby said, seeming to return her to normal as she smiled warmly at her daughter while turning her body sideways to hug her.
"Ruby, what was that about? What happened?" Neo asked shortly after, allowing the two to see each other again.
"I saw Maya and Atropos. They…. they said I should have died at birth. Maya met me when I was a baby. And Atropos said that I was just born to die, I wasn't supposed to live past birth. Maya knew. She knew and didn't tell me." Ruby said coldly.
"What do you mean?" Winter asked, surprised.
"I wasn't meant to live. Someone had changed my genes so I would die or as a failsafe be left with a disease that would kill me." Ruby said coldly, but quickly.
"What are you talking about? Are you saying someone tried to kill you before you were even born?" Neo asked stunned.
"Yes. It could only have been Mizu. She was the only one who knew, my mother never knew how I got this disease. She assumed it was genetic but…" Ruby said quickly but as she was about to continue her eyes rolled into the back of her head as she collapsed onto the bed.
"Ruby!" Neo screamed out, falling with Ruby's body as she became worried over Ruby's collapse.
A/N
So I'm back with this story now, I sort of took an unintended day off posting last week so hence this coming out today.
I've finished this story and it'll be posted weekly or bi-weekly depending on my mood.
I'm working on one other story to be posted after this is finished but after that I'm not sure, I've got a rough idea of things I want to do but as of the moment I'm not entirely sure on it at the moment but I'll decide on that shortly.
Not much more to say, so thanks for reading and until next time.