She kept her head on a swivel as she walked, her face contorted into a worried look, her eyes darting left and right every few seconds as she placed on foot in front of the other, moving solemnly along the black and red path. Her eyes had clouded over with tears, her vision hazed, her ears flattened atop her head- this path was one she should not have taken, but it's too late to go back now. She couldn't go back now, she could hear the battle outside her head, the one in the 'real world', but she could also hear some sort of pleading voice; she had heard that voice before, and this was exactly why she wanted to go and see her memories first. To be quite frank, not even the madness scared her as much as her emotions did, and so the reason of why she walked this lonely road was born.

Her memories flashed around, bringing attention to themselves every now and then.; the first time she had a cookie, the first time she read a book, the time she met the Schnee woman; these were all good memories, ones she didn't ever want to forget, and they were currently what were bringing tears to her eyes.

There were then the exhilarating times; the first time she escaped from jail, the first time she dived off a cliff, the first time she fought back at her assaulters- these times were the ones she would gladly repeat, the times she needed to repeat again to smile like she used to. These were the times she felt alive, pumped full of enough adrenaline to kill a cow. These were the times she wasn't the monster everyone claimed she was; these were the times when she was just Ruby, not Reaper-the scumbag wolf Faunus 'terrorising homes' and 'destroying lives'.

Then, her bad memories showed; the times when she was beaten, the times when she was attacked, the times she was stabbed, shot, and generally put through hell. These were the times when Ruby wished she had died from the previous beating; she never did figure out why she was hated. She figured the people of the world, Faunus and Human, hated her for some reason, but for the life of her, she could never figure it out. She tried, she would track down her attackers and ask them, she would even beat the answer out of people- the answer was always the same; "You're a...

...Lonely little wolf Faunus..." Blake's voice sounded through the sky, replacing the words that were supposed to be there. An image appeared before her- Blake, that girl was so kind, she was practically a ray of sunshine in Ruby's hazy, dark, misted world. She moved on, a small smile playing on her face as she searched for the memory of which her mind was trying to show her...

One caught her eye though, one with a pink and brown-haired girl with a wide smile and an umbrella...

(^^^^^^)

Ozpin couldn't walk anymore; the look in Ruby's eye stopped him dead. That look...he had seen that in no one else before, not even Cinder. That look was of anger, but there was malice, hate, anguish, surprise, and that ever-life-destroying madness...but this was different.

He noticed the other person wasn't even fighting her anymore; the strange pink and brown haired girl was plainly dodging the attacks being thrown at her, and he noticed that she wore an expression of horror and...Was she scared? This girl, who had started this fight, was scared of Ruby. Though, Ozpin could see something else in those silver-amber orbs...

...something he had seen in suicide victims, in death-row convicts, in those performing mass murder in the hopes of getting murdered themselves; Ruby wanted to die, she was hoping for Ozpin or someone to end her pain-filled life. That must be the reason, he deduced, that the pink and brown haired girl was dodging her attacks. She wasn't a student- he would know her name if she were- she was sent here; by whom? It doesn't matter. The only thing that did right now was, as Ozpin bypassed the two fighting girls, to help his old friend and teammate, Qrow.

Qrow, on his half, looked like he was paralyzed, he hadn't moved since Ruby knocked him down; he was mortified, as his expression showed. He saw Ozpin move out the corner of his eye, but did nothing.

Qrow was utterly, completely and utterly, shocked that his niece, his sole reason for coming to Beacon, was either blocking him out, or genuinely didn't know him; it scared him to think what it would be like if she met her mother...

...Ozpin stopped sneaking for a second when he saw his friend visibly shudder, and unknown to him, Ruby had spotted him out the corner of her peripherals, her amber-silver gaze on him for but a second before she disappeared in a cloud of petals, roses spraying their vision to tunnel, causing them to either cough on some of the aura-made petals, or simply bow their heads to see better.

Both of these were weaknesses, and both got exploited; Ozpin, in his old age, coughed and wheezed, dislodging the petals from his throat before they evaporated, but this was a distraction to his current goal that Ruby used reverently; she reappeared behind him, the cloud of petals looming around concealing her placement, and in one swift kick, she placed one foot on his aged back, and pushed with the force of a raging bull in a china shop: once he reached the floor, his head banged against the shattered concrete, and then he saw no more; his consciousness gone from him, he lay there. Motionless.

Neo was luckier, however, for Ruby, as she spotted her kneeling beneath the cloud, used this to her advantage and used the shadows looming around her. She outstretched her hand, in the direction Neo was in, and with a flick of her wrist they all slithered along the ground, coiling as snakes would while they moved slowly, noiselessly, towards their target.

Neo jumped, narrowly avoiding the shadow-tendril that was poised for her ankles. The cloud had thinned to a certain point just as the shadow neared its target within a mere twenty centimetres away, and she had her aura raised to enhance her movement, and as such, she used this to her advantage to back flip into the air, away fomr the cloud and into a clear zone; as she did so, she spotted the shadow stabbing the air where she was a mere second away, and wiped her brow in an exaggerative movement, thinking how lucky she was, when she spotted Ozpin, to not end up like him.

Something happened, and all of a sudden, Ruby was on the ground, motionless with a tangle of glyphs keeping her in place; Glynda had decided to join, and stop the fight before anything else could happen.

The green and cyan flat edge of a dagger that slammed into her, knocking her out cold, releasing the glyphs.

For some reason, Ruby's body disappeared, and reappeared a small distance away from her falling point, standing with Crescent Rose- where did she even get it from?- extended and her hands clasped around the barrel and trigger, stood stock still with her hood covering her face, her scythe behind her; she looked like the modern day Grim Reaper.

She dodged a shotgun shell aimed at her head with a simple forty-five degree turn of her head. The rest of her body had not moved, and as she turned her head back, she saw two figures; one with green hair, and one with shotgun greaves.

Something went off in her head though; something powerful happened to her mind, something odd, and wonderful.

(^^^^^^)

Something happened; her mind began to play real-time images of the battle outside, and Ruby could do nothing bt flatten her ears and watch as two figures, one green and one black, stepped into the fight.

Then a distant memory came to her, and she almost cried.

Neo.

That was her name; the memory shocked her back into reality for a brief second, and for some reason, something odd happened.

A memory played itself.

(^^^^^^)

She could feel the beowolf gnawing on her arm, and if she did not get rid of it soon, she could die; Ruby had to make a choice.

She looked to the side, to see Neo parrying and blocking attacks with her parasol, and then turned her head back to the beowolf; she had made her decision.

She needed to make sure Neo survived, she needed to make sure she was happy and living, she needed to keep her best friend breathing. With this in mind, and thumping through her system, she pulled with all her might, and sick ripping noise filled her ears, followed by the sound of tearing muscles and marrow, of shredded bones and sinew; then she screamed, so loud and noisy that she almost went deaf with the solid screech she had made, but she powered on, she kept pulling and screaming.

Then her arm dislodged from her torso, and the sheer pain was enough to make her blank out for at least a minute; clearly, to the beowolf that was finished gnawing on her severed arm, that was enough time to sink its teth into her shoulder and drag her into a bushed area, digging its claws into her other shoulder, ready to tear her arm off...

...before a loud gunshot blew its head clean off and destroyed its chest; Ruby's eyes shot open as the noise it her sensitive ears, and she screamed in pain again when she felt the blood begin to pool out of her severed arm stump-

-that was until Neo came over and lifted her head up, placing it into her lap and singing a song for her as she wrapped a small, pink and red scarf around the stump, stopping the bleeding.

"You are my sunshine,

My only sunshine;

You make me happy,

When skies are grey.

You'll never know dear,

How much I love you.

Please don't take,

My sunshine,

away."

It was a cheesy song, but it meant the world to hear it before her arm began to swell with pain, and deafen her as she began to lose consciousness form it.

She could vaguely see Neo begging, literally on her knees and grasping Ruby's hand, pleading her to stay awake; but she could not hear her- so when Neo got up and dashed off unexpectantly, she began to well up with tears. Of course, since her pain had caused her temporary deafness, she didn't hear her say that she'd go find help.

Ruby weakly dragged herself up on one foot, then the other, almost blacking out from the pain, but making it nonetheless. She then limped off into the forest, forgetting all about her treasured right arm...

...and Neo as well.