Next chapter will introduce something a little different that kinda breaks the pace of the story. If it looks like a lot of you don't like it, I'll come up with something.
Ruby sat watching the horizon of the Mistralian plains, deep in thoughts while at a short distance away, sat her current travel companions. Her musing was interrupted when she heard the distinct sound of a metalic lighter being flicked opened.
"Hey, red. Got a minute?" Asked a man with a southern accent wearing a cowboy hat.
She turned towards him with a teasing grin. "As long as it's not related to any of your previous conquests, sure."
He chuckled while lighting a cigar. "Very funny, but no. I wanna talk about you." He said while sitting close to her.
It was Ruby's turn to chuckle as she replied while imitating his accent. "Sorry partner, not interested."
He raised an eyebrow before shaking his head. "Not about that." He then pointed to Crescent Rose, which had been strapped behind her back in its compact form. "About why you haven't used that in a while. Last I remember, you couldn't shut up about how much you loved that thing."
Ruby's happy demeanor fell as she took her weapon and sat it on her lap. She ran her hand along its metalic surface with a sigh. "Why does killing become so easy?"
The man froze for a split second before taking a large intake of his cigar. "Now that's a loaded question, ain't it?." He replied while exhaling the smoke. "What brought that up?"
The ravenette stared back at the horizon. "When I left home, it was so easy not to kill. Whenever someone caused problems, I could just fight them until I could either knock them out or restrain them." She balled her hands into fists. "But ever since I... killed for the first time, it feels like every fight that I wind up into makes it less and less possible to avoid it." She gazed back at her weapon. "Especially when I use her..."
He remained silent for a while, simply enjoying his smoke before he started playing with his lighter. "Killing is... an unfortunate part of the job, as I'm sure you've realized by now. You may think of it as bad, but the way I see if? If killing one man saves even just two lives? Then you bet your god damned ass that I'm pullin' that trigger." He said while upholstering his revolver from his hip. It had a simple design, a powerful revolver that could shift into a short sword for close quarters combat.
Ruby hugged her knees to her chest while resting her chin on them. "But what if I don't want to. What if I want to save all three?"
He let out a short laugh which she glared at him for. "That's a nice dream, but not really how the world works. Sure you could manage before, when all of your enemies were small town bandits, but you're fighting trained mercenaries and deranged lunatics now. They won't just accept defeat." He stood up while throwing his finished cigar away. "If you really don't want to kill, I'd suggest changing weapon. Yours looks like it was made to take lives."
The rising celebrity frowned as his words echoed in her head. She didn't necessarily agree with the philosophy of her temporary teammates, but they did give unique insights to her various dilemmas. She turned towards him as he slowly retreated towards their campfire.
"Jaxton?" She called out, making him turn his head. "Thanks... for the talk." He tipped his hat before continuing his march.
They had different world views, but they were good people. So why...
Fire burned the surrounding houses of a village they rested in as she jumped backwards to dodge bullets. When she landed, avoiding the recent barrage, she could see the nearby dead bodies of the villagers. Most had a deadly wound to their heads while some were dismembered and died from blood loss.
The sound of a spinning cylinder caught her attention as she saw Jaxton reloading his weapon. While he was still standing, there was one thing he shared with the dead bodies around them; under his skin, laid a strange silver moss that spread from his head towards each of his limbs.
The hand he used to reload seemed to tremble, making him drop some of the bullets he tried to insert. "It's too late Ruby, you heard what that psycho said. Even if you get her, it won't stop this."
Tears fell down her face as she sobbed. "I can fix this! There has to be another way!"
"God damn it woman! Look around us! Look at your hands! Those are Jessie's weapons! You want me to believe that she just gave them to you?!" His gun wielding arm suddenly jerked upwards and started shooting towards the ravenette, forcing her to dodge once more.
What he said was true, in the silver-eyed woman's arms, were the two swords of one of their teammates which she took after the woman had cut off her own head.
"Listen, red..." He said in a gentler tone, reloading once more. "This... thing inside us will not stop going after you, not until one of us dies." He held back a sob while trying to keep his arm down. "Please... it's over for me. I'm ready for the next step."
Ruby had been crying by then as she raised her swords. However, he seemed to have regained control of his body enough to shake his head. "Not with those." He glanced at Crescent Rose, stored behind her back. "You may not have intended it, but your weapon has a purpose and you've denied it for long enough."
She hesitated for a split second before being forced to block two bullets shot by the man, knocking the swords off her hands. "Well what do you know? Looks like this moss thing agrees with me."
The silver-eyed woman exhaled as she reached behind her back and deployed her signature weapon. Firmly grasping it, she gazed at the man, her vision blurry from her tears yet she could see that he was concentrating on stopping his arms from reloading. She screamed before dashing towards him, swinging her weapon sideways which slashed through his stomach and both arms.
He now laid on the ground, bleeding to death with a smirk on his face. "You know, that gun... was my third weapon. I left the other two behind after I... finished the goals I had set for myself... at the time." He chuckled. "Silver-eyed warriors, huh? Looks like I bit off... more than I could chew." He gazed at the blood stained blade of Crescent Rose. "You made a great weapon for killing, doesn't mean that... you can't have more." Life slowly drained from his eyes as he mumbled. "Who knows? Maybe you'll leave that one behind when you're done too..."
As his body laid lifeless, Ruby fell to her knees and screamed to the sky while the village continued to burn around her. Her knees were now covered in Jaxton's blood, but that barely mattered now. Sadness, anguish, sorrow, it all died once she heard a laugh behind her.
Pain, anger, rage, hate, bloodlust. She felt it all as she picked up her scythe and rushed at the figure standing behind her. Her hateful silver-eyes meeting with playful, mocking ones of the same color.
"Ruby!" Screamed Yang while raising her arms to defend herself.
The ravenette's eyes widened before twirling her body mid air to redirect her strike towards their window, the strength behind it created a hole in the wall, blowing the debris in the garden and waking their neighbors while triggering the security system. Panting, she looked around the room and saw that both Blake and Weiss had been knocked out against the walls while Yang laid on the floor, trembling as she kept her arms up. Gazing at her hands, she noticed that she had been using a lamp which she reinforced with her aura as a weapon before dropping it. Falling to her knees, she crawled towards her sister as tears fell from her eyes.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it. Please, I'm so sorry." She repeated as she drew closer. She stopped when Yang recoiled and folded onto herself, still using her arms to protect her head. "Yang... please..." She mumbled before feeling something strike the back of her head, knocking her out.
When she woke up, the first thing she noticed was the tight feeling around her throat and the fact that she couldn't deploy her aura.
"She's waking up." Called out an unknown voice.
Slowly opening her eyes, she was greeted by the ceiling of the medical ward of Beacon. She tried to move her head but quickly found out that she had been tied down in a way that made sure not a single limb could move freely.
"She should be in jail!" Came the familiar voice of Glynda accompanied by two sets of footsteps.
"What miss Rose needs is help, Glynda, not incarceration." Said Ozpin as they got closer. "Or are you asking to lock away every single veteran huntsmen in the kingdom?"
While Ruby couldn't see them, she knew that they were close enough to hear her. "Where's Yang? Where are my girls?! Are they okay?!"
The headmaster's grey hair came into her field of vision as a hand rested against her shoulder. "They are in a separate room and they are fine, some minor injuries but nothing they won't recover from by tomorrow."
The ravenette slightly calmed down yet still remained on edge. Ozpin stared into her eyes with a serious expression. "Is your head clear?"
She blinked, confused. "What?"
"If we let you go, will you attempt anything rash?" He asked. Glynda protested in outrage but he motioned her to remain out of this before turning back towards Ruby. "Well?"
She wanted to shake her head before being reminded that she couldn't. "No."
The headmaster looked at someone who was next to her. "Release her."
Suddenly, the binds she had disappeared allowing her to slowly sit up. Staring around herself, she noticed that most teachers were here and pointing their weapons at her. The silver-eyed woman ignored them as her gaze continued to wander the room. A couple of medical employees were standing at a short distance from her, yet she could tell by their posture that they were afraid of getting too close.
The sound of a chair made her turn towards its origin, only to see Ozpin sit down. "What happened?" Ruby glanced at the teachers, telling him all he needed to know. "Leave us." They argued against his decision but ultimately followed through. The only ones left in the room where the headmaster, the celebrity and the head doctor. "Now, miss Rose, I understand that you went through a lot in the past. Most of the staff are asking for you to be sent away, but please know that I simply want to help you."
The ravenette dwelled on his words for a minute. He already knew everything, they had exchanged quite a lot of confidential information with each other the day she arrived at Beacon. She took a deep breath and told them of her nightmare, of her memory. Once done, the headmaster turned to the doctor, who seemed to have gotten more comfortable as she talked.
The man cleared his throat while looking at the notes he took during her retelling. "From what I've gathered, miss Rose seems to be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Fortunately, her case is the simplest to treat since she is aware that she has a problem. If I understand correctly, you are also able to control yourself to the point where you almost never have memory flashes while awake." Ruby nodded while remembering yesterday's incident. "Then I will prescribe you with some antidepressants, nothing too strong since we still want you to be able to perform. I recommend taking them before your classes and before any actions you believe could trigger a reaction. Additionally, you will be given sleeping pills to avoid any future accidents like the one that happened tonight."
Once done writing the prescription, he set down his pad and stared into the ravenette's eyes. "As for the treatment, it can only work if you are willing to try." The scared figure of her younger sister flashed through Ruby's head as she nodded with a serious expression. "Good, most cases are treated through coping mechanism. Now listen here, there are good and bad coping mechanism. Substances other than the prescribed medicines taken responsibly are not good ones. No alcohol, smoking or any other drugs. I recommend finding hobbies to help take your mind off the edge. I also understand that you are very fond of your teammates, spending time with them outside of classes and combat could help you recover."
They finalize the documents and did an examination just in case, before letting her leave the bed she had been on. As she and the headmaster left the room, Ruby turned towards him. "When can I see the girls?"
Yang sat next to her two teammates' beds while twirling her thumbs. The doctor had told her that they would be fine since they seemed to have activated their aura before anything serious happened, but that they should still take it easy for a short while. While it relieved some of her worry, she still had another problem occupying her head.
"It's even worst than what she had back home..." A flash of Ruby's glowing murderous eyes appeared in her mind which made her grip her head in fear. "She didn't mean it. She's still big sis Rubes. She would never hurt me."
A groan coming from her side snapped her out of her thoughts. "Weiss! You feeling okay? They said it might hurt a bit for a while."
The heiress held her head while hissing. "Could you keep it down? My head is pounding." They remained in silence for a while until the white-haired woman seemed a little better. "That was more intense than what Winter described."
Yang seemed confused for a moment. "The headache?"
Blue-eyes closed as she shook her head. "No, miss Rose's... episode. My sister tried to get a professional to help her, but she kept refusing, saying that she didn't need it."
"Something similar happened back home before we came to Beacon. She started screaming out my name in the middle of the night and when our dad check up on her, she said that she had a nightmare about the night she first killed." Yang said while staring at her hands.
"Why would she scream out your name then?" Asked Weiss.
"Apparently I was one of the people she couldn't save in that nightmare." She answered as they both fell silent.
A moment passed before Blake turned towards them, revealing that she was awake. "Her class makes a lot more sense now..." She then sat up. "I don't want to know how it would feel to take a life and have to deal with the consequences on my own."
They remained silent once more as they let their mind wander.
"I'm so far from being the best partner and yet, Ruby needs help now. There must be something, anything that I can do. I can't let her spiral into something worst, not like Adam..." Thought the bow wearer while gripping her sheets.
"She trained me, gave me advices, helped me through harsh times and showed me that there is more out there. All while hidding her own problems. This cannot stand. There must be a way for me to pay her back, there has to be." Pondered Weiss as she bit her lip.
Yang saw her teammates' conflicted expressions and tightened her fists. "At this point, they know more about Ruby than I do. Hell, they've known her after her time in Vacuo. I'm her little sister. Shouldn't I be the one to know how to help Ruby? How to read how she feels and..." She remembered the glaring silver-eyes again. "To be brave when she needs help?"
"It is good to see that you are all relatively unharmed." Said the recognizable voice of the headmaster, pulling them out of their thoughts.
Before the monochrome duo could say anything, Yang stood up and stepped towards Ozpin. "Where's Ruby?"
He raised a hand and motioned her to sit back down as he did the same. "I believe that we should have a little chat."
He then spent a few minutes, explaining everything that transpired with the ravenette, withholding any unnecessary sensitive information which they all listened to carefully.
"PTSD..." muttered Yang. "Yeah, that sounds about right."
"Where does that leave us? Is our team going to be...?" Asked Weiss, worry dripping from her voice.
Ozpin shook his head. "Doing so would most likely be detrimental to miss Rose's recovery."
Blake's faunus ears twitched without her noticing which, thankfully, only the headmaster caught. "How so?"
"Along with the medications, she was recommended to find a hobby and spend time with her loved ones." He paused to drink from his cup. "It just so happens that she holds the three of you dear to her heart. In fact, the first thing she asked upon waking up was, well, about miss Xiao Long, but she demanded to know you three's whereabouts afterwards." He turned towards Yang with a sympathetic smile. "I have been told that you were stricken with fear when a staff member apprehended miss Rose. I hope that she will prove herself worthy of forgiveness and that you will both be able to mend your relationship as siblings."
The blond stared at the floor with a frown on her face. "I'm not scared of my sister." Her hands shook as a tear escaped her eyes. "I'm scared of Ruby Rose. I'm scared of the way she was looking at me, of how they were glowing in a way that screamed murder." She raised her head to stare directly in the gray-haired man's eyes. "Why were her eyes glowing?"
He sighed while swirling the cup in his hand. "I'm afraid that I cannot reveal that information without your sister's permission." He stood up and started walking towards the door. "Do not worry about your dorm, miss Goodwitch has already repaired the damage."
"What about the students who were near?" Asked Blake.
"We have been telling your classmates that an accident with misplaced dust occurred. Do make sure to use it as an alibi when asked." He answered while reaching for the door handle.
"What about Ruby?" Asked Yang, standing up once more. "When can we see her?"
He smiled and opened the door. "It would seem like they want to see you now."
As soon as he finished his sentence, Ruby had stepped forward into their line of sight and turned towards them. She was still in her pyjamas as she hesitantly stepped inside, somehow still managing to look naturally elegant as she did so. Ozpin closed the door behind him, leaving the four of them alone.
The ravenette played with her fingers, unwilling to meet their gaze. "I've been told that you were all relatively unharmed. That's a relief." When she was met with silence she started fidgeting in place. "I, uh, got sleeping pills now, so this shouldn't happen anymore. At least, that's what they told me." More silence. "I-I also have these pills to take before my class, something about stress or whatever, y'know?"
"We already know." Finally said Weiss.
Ruby froze. "Know what?"
"About your PTSD, and your antidepressants." Followed Blake.
"Oh, well, now I feel silly." She mumbled while scratching the back of her head.
Yang, who was still standing, took a step forward which caused the ravenette to take a step back. They repeated this until the older sister had her back against the door.
"I‐I should go." Said the silver-eyed woman, reaching for door handle when Yang suddenly slammed it close.
The two sisters were now centimeters apart, the taller one anxiously looking away while the shorter one leaned her face closer, her eyes glaring into the older sibling's. When it was obvious that Ruby wouldn't look her way, Yang grabbed her by the cheeks and forced her to face forward.
"Yang!" Screamed the monochrome duo. While they shared their shocked expression, Blake additionally had a slight blush on her face.
"My sister wouldn't be afraid to look at me." Said the blond releasing her grip on the older woman. "My sister wouldn't act all scared even when she knows that she did something bad. She wouldn't try to run away from her family because she's nervous."
While Yang spoke, Ruby's anxiousness slowly disappeared and was replaced by sorrow until the brawler wrapped her arms around her.
"But if my sister can't do any of these things. Then so can't I. Because the sister I know is brave, kind, strong, she knows when she did something wrong and will do whatever she can to fix it. She will sing, cook, say some jokes she took from the internet and give the warmest hug that anyone has ever given on Remnant." She said while burying her face into the ravenette's shoulder. "I promised that I wouldn't hate my sister, that I wouldn't give up on her. Don't give up on her too..."
The brawler felt two arms wrap around her. "I won't." Came the soft voice of her sibling which slightly wavered while tears fell on top of her head. "I was gone from your life for so long... I'll be there for the rest of it."
Yang chuckled before sniffling. "I know, you said that already." They remained in each other's arms for a little while longer as their teammates watched with a smile, though the desire to be hugged by the ravenette did fester in the back of their mind.
When morning came, rumors of team RWBY having a dust related incident had spread over the whole school which caused the three younger members to be teased at having two dust explosions on their first day. Needless to say, their second day had been rather embarrassing for them. What did confuse the students however, was the presence of professor Goodwitch during Ruby's class. She had sat in a corner while glaring sternly at the ravenette, analyzing every movements and gestures she made. The celebrity's teammates obviously knew the reason, which made them slightly nervous when their friends had given them questioning glances. The silver-eyed woman, however, continued working as if nothing had changed.
Once classes were finally over and the students ate their diner, team RWBY's dorm had a heavy atmosphere as they prepared to sleep. As they all laid down in their respective beds, the three younger women gazed at Ruby as she read the instruction and dosage for her sleeping pills. The ravenette had already noticed her teammates' tension but pretended to ignore it since they were in every right to be worried.
"Here goes..." She muttered, swallowing her pills and laying down. "Goodnight girls."
Unfortunately for them, the probability of waking up to a rampaging Ruby will prevent any of the three young adults from having a good night of sleep for a few nights before being convinced that the pills worked.