"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be la-" Ruby's apology was cut short when the stunstick connected with her chest. She doubled over in pain. A furious heat erupted from her chest, spreading around her body. She coughed up a bit of blood.
Without speaking, the Civil Protection officer beat down on the poor girl while she writhed on the ground. Ruby curled into a ball, hoping to protect the more sensitive areas of her chest and head. Tears flowed from her face and stained the ground below her.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…" Ruby managed to speak in between choked sobs and pained grunts. The cop didn't relent, continuing to brutalize Ruby for the minor infraction of being two minutes late for work.
To Ruby, the beating lasted for hours, even if it was only three minutes in real time. Eventually, the cop holstered his stunstick and left Ruby on the ground without a word, but not before kicking her in the chest one last time.
Ruby wiped the tears from her eyes and shakily rose to her feet. The electricity from the stunstick still coursed through her body, seemingly causing every nerve to catch fire. She swayed in the wind, taking a few deep breaths to calm her rapidly beating heart.
The cops on site were smart. They'd beat you down, but not enough to prevent you from working. It was one hell of a cruel system, that's for sure.
After a few seconds of calming herself down, Ruby stumbled into the factory. She ignored the burning pain in her chest, and the blood leaking from her mouth. She brought herself to her post on the assembly line.
"Another day, another lien…" Ruby humorlessly chuckled to herself. It was an old saying, one that held no weight in the new Remnant. But it comforted her, even if it was a small amount.
Ruby sighed, as sets of Combine uniforms came down the assembly line, stopping in front of her. She would stitch them together, test the strength of the material by attempting to tear it, and if it was good, she'd hit the big button to her left to send the uniforms to the next part of production. It wasn't hard work, but it was monotonous, and the ever-looming threat of a beating for working too slow didn't help either.
Ruby wrinkled her nose. The factory always reeked of synthetic dye and whatever chemicals were used in the production process. She looked at the man across from her, on the other side of the assembly line. He was a taller man, with slate gray hair and blue eyes. The man worked mindlessly, stitching, testing, and pressing.
Ruby let out an audible sigh. Workers were forbidden to talk to other workers while on the job. It got lonely for sure. So Ruby took to using her imagination to help pass the time. The Combine took everything from her, but they couldn't control her thoughts. Right?
"Ruby, you're good at this!" Yang's voice echoed in Ruby's mind, as energetic as ever.
"Thanks, Yang! I try my hardest every day!" Ruby responded to Yang's imaginary compliment.
"You are pretty skilled." Blake said. Classic Blake, stoic and calm, a far cry from Yang's enthusiasm.
Ruby probably looked like an idiot right now, with a big stupid grin plastered across her face as she worked. But she didn't care. Her friends were back, even if it was just in her head.
Her friends… Ruby's smile soured as quickly as it came. "Blake… Yang…" she whispered under her breath. The two girls, along with the rest of her friends, had disappeared when the Three Hour War came to a close. Weiss was the only one to come back, but she wasn't the same Weiss Ruby came to love.
Ruby sighed sadly. Everyone once close to Ruby was gone. Her friends Blake, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, Coco and Velvet, and her sister, Yang. It took her a while to come to terms with it, but she knew it to be true. All her friends, her old teachers, her classmates, even her own sister, were dead. Their lives were savagely taken either during or in the years following the Three Hour War. Ruby could confidently say that she was the only survivor from Beacon Academy.
"What's the point…" Ruby mused to herself. "They're all gone." Ruby had convinced herself that she had to soldier on, keep the memory of Beacon alive. But recently, a new thought had invaded her mind. "Nobody would want me to live like this…" she repeated the intrusive thought.
What's the point of going on? All her friends are dead. Her sister is dead. Beacon is dead. Remnant is dead. Who exactly is Ruby trying to prove herself to?
"It would be a mercy at this point. In fact, it would be an act of defiance. The Combine wants you as a slave. Don't let them take you." Ruby's internal monologue echoed through her head. She tried her best to fight it.
"It would be so easy! Your apartment is on the third floor. Just open the window and jump. Then this nightmare will be over, and you can be reunited with everyone." Ruby's eyes welled up with tears as the thought rang through her head. It was right. The only way to reunite with her friends, the only way to end this hellish existence, was for Ruby to kill herself.
She sighed heavily and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Fine." She thought. "I'll do it."
Seven years ago, the thought seemed almost inconceivable. Ending her own life? That's impossible! There's so much to live for! The grimm are still out there, people still need protecting!
But that was before everything. Before the Combine, before the Three Hour War, and before the Fall of Remnant. That world, one still filled with hope, was nothing more than a distant memory now.
A loud sound snapped Ruby out of her trance. Before she knew what was going on, smoke began to billow up to the ceiling. An automated voice on the PA repeated one phrase over and over again: "EVACUATE. EVACUATE. EVACUATE."
Before Ruby could do anything, she was grabbed by a Civil Protection officer and thrown outside. Landing on her butt, she had a full view of the factory. Red and orange flames exploded from the windows, licking up the side of the building with furious anger. Heavy smoke spilled from the building's openings and rose to the sky, darkening the immediate area.
Another loud sound rang, and more flames burst out. Debris was rocketed away from the building, some of it landing right next to Ruby. It was an explosion.
Ruby stared in stunned silence as more workers left the building, and Civil Protection officers swarmed the area. Ruby has never seen so many CPs in one location before. The CP officers shook down and interrogated the workers on sight. Firefighting units arrived, desperately trying to put out the inferno.
In the chaos, one Civil Protection officer approached Ruby. They pointed at her. "You, citizen. Follow me."
Her mind softened by the shock of the situation, Ruby followed the officer without hesitation. They led her to a small area, with a CP armored personnel carrier and one other officer.
"Officer, what's going on-" Ruby's question was cut short with a sharp pain exploding from the back of her head.
She fell to the ground on her stomach, vision fading. The last thing she saw before everything went black was the two officers standing over her, one holding their stunstick in hand.