Unsurprisingly, Ruby's food tasted like nothing. She decided to attribute that to the fact it was cheap and fast, rather than the rampant depressive thoughts aching in her brain.

'Where next?' Yang signed, hands and mouth littered with sesame seeds and sauce from her comically large burger.

Ruby sneered a little and passed a napkin to her sister. "Depends on what's closer, craft supplies or Signal."

Yang nodded, took an overzealous bite of her quadruple-patty burger, then started using her scroll without a thought towards wiping the nastiness off her hands. Ruby sneered brazenly this time, and huffed when her proffered napkin was ignored. After poking around on the device, Yang signed the words for 'thing store' and jerked her head to the doorway.

Ruby looked down at her unfinished food. "But my nuggies…"

Yang rolled her eyes. 'Take them,' she signed, 'eat and walk.'

Ruby stared at the fried nuggets and ate one. It turned to tasteless mush almost instantly, and she realized she didn't really care about taking her food. "Okay. Let's go."

Yang smirked as she watched her sister throw her nuggets away and move to the door. She brawler remained sitting.

Ruby turned towards her. "You coming?"

'I'm still eating,' she pointed out in signs, 'but your hands are free.'

She finished that sentence with a point to the myriad shopping bags around legs. Yang couldn't even muster a look of shame— she reveled in the tiniest victories.

Ruby groaned and marched over, taking all the shopping bags with ease; she may not have been a beefcake like her sister, but Ruby knew she was pretty darn cut. It was a consequence of wielding an oversized gardening tool as a weapon— the thing was a weight of its own, and she had no doubt that its use had given her the endurance to outlast even Yang in a fight. Just so long as she didn't get hit, that is.

Yang followed her out of the store, taking smaller bites so she would have an excuse to leave the scythe-wielder with the bags. The craft store wasn't too far.

That trip was quick. Ruby managed to get in and out without having a total breakdown and/or seizure. That was apparently a high bar now, so she had thoughts about it. It wasn't fun.

Ruby hadn't even noticed that her sister had slapped some saddlebags on the bike until she loaded them with their shopping goods. The large leather satchels had a bunch of cat stickers on them, each of which had a halo of heart stickers.

"Wow," Ruby muttered, smirking at the adornments. "Very subtle."

Yang looked over, smiled warmly at them, then typed on her tablet: 'there not supposed to be lol'.

Ruby raised an eyebrow at her.

'What?' Yang signed, followed by another typed message: 'y u think i tried to get blake to come over during the break? i planned on putting thr moves on her'.

Ruby snorted. "You're really somethin', sis."

Yang flashed her a thumbs-up and a cheeky grin.

"I don't see how you're all confident with it," Ruby said, growing a little disheartened as she did, "I just kinda… flopped around… hoping things would just happen, I guess."

'its a strat', Yang typed, 'but not a very good one. y didnt u just ask for help? i coulda done something'.

Ruby side-eyed her sister dubiously. "Uh, Yang, no offense but… no. You couldn't have. You would've made it way worse."

Yang went aghast with disbelief, typing, 'worse? i woulda set u up on a nice date or something! some sweet shit!'

The doubtful look upon Yang only intensified. "You nearly broke her wrist just for kissing me!"

'pff ya dude weve been over this :/', Yang typed with a scoff, 'yk I dont fw that'.

Ruby felt a little… something. Like pinching a lit match, the hot sensation situated directly under her sternum. Amid all the emptiness, it was all she could see inside her soul, and that worried her. She knew what it was. "That's…" Ruby sighed, forcing the freshly-lit ember down beneath her breath. "Beside the point. I had it handled."

Yang shook her head and furrowed her brow with confusion. 'handled? u didnt do anything.'

Ruby threw up her hands. "Why do you think, dumb—" she locked the curse behind her teeth and breathed. She shouldn't be angry. It's Yang. She just needed to calm down. "Have you considered that I didn't mind being kissed?" Ruby asked— calmly— after another deep breath. "Maybe I'd known Weiss liked me, but considered her avoidance as a warning and decided to wait until she led the way. Sure, the moment hadn't been ideal, but at that point it was what I'd been waiting for!"

Yang stared at her for a long time, her brows knit tight in thought. Ruby kept straightening, tensing, and suddenly wilting throughout the uncomfortable silence. Her lips twitched and pulled, bordering on a sneer before being quashed beneath a frown.

Yang moved her fingers, but the words slipped through her digits like sand. She used her tablet instead, typing, 'I didnt think of that'.

Ruby rolled her eyes and mumbled something bitter. Unfortunately, Yang did hear it, so Ruby paled when her sister typed, 'what was that?'

Ruby looked away guilty. "N-nothing."

Yang asked her to clarify again, her interrogative gaze leaving no room for deflection on Ruby's part. The scythe-wielder squirmed under her glare, locked in place by her sister's demand. She didn't want to say that. It was mean. It was inconsiderate.

Those lilac eyes pierced her, making all her bitterness and shame fester until—

'Just say it,' Yang signed, her hip cocked expectantly. 'I won't be mad.'

"You don't have to think about that kind of stuff!" Ruby blurted, unable to hold it down any longer. "You've got something simple and normal!"

Yang reeled, confused. She pulled her tablet out and typed, 'fym normal'.

"You and Blake aren't, like… fucked up," Ruby mumbled bitterly. "You're just happy, right?"

Yang stared for a long time, fingers contemplating on her tablet before they started to fly across the screen, typing, 'well if its fucked up and ur not happy maybe u just shouldnt'

Ruby raised her voice before Yang could finish the text, her voice hot. "Shouldn't? Shouldn't what! We just shouldn't be together because things are hard?"

'hats not what im saygin!' Yang frantically wrote, too rushed to care for mistakes. 'i just sdoint want to see you get heurt!'

"You're way too protective of me, dude!" Ruby argued. "Like, I'm almost seventeen and I kill monsters with a giant friggin' gun-scythe! I can handle myself! I don't need you to butt in on all my relationships just cuz you don't like them!"

Yang immediately puffed up to argue, her hands typing fast. 'well i have high standards for u! you cant just mack on every tom dick n sally! ur my sister! u deserve someone as good as u are!'

"Oh, and Weiss isn't?" Ruby shot the words out like a darting snake, and her sister made it look like she'd actually been struck by one.

She'd fucked up. Big time. Yang clenched her jaw, suddenly glad she couldn't speak, because nothing she said could un-fuck this cake— the can was open, worms were tumbling out by the dozen, and every second of silence only made it seem worse. Sure, Weiss was her friend, but for Ruby? As a girlfriend? Nuh-uh. She could see bad omens in that particular future, and the only thing that kept her from actively preventing it before (though she tried) was the fact that Ruby did, admittedly, deserve to make her own mistakes.

Yang wanted to take it back, but she couldn't. She couldn't just lie to her sister, and she'd risk stoking her ire if it meant she might steer the girl in the right direction. Would she get punched in the face for it? Maybe. Was she scared of that? Not really. She was pretty sure that, if it came down to it, she could restrain Ruby. She could win— no. Fighting Ruby was an immediate loss on her part, no matter the outcome. Instant disqualification.

But still, she might end up needing to. There was no way that Yang would pass up this opportunity to be a guiding hand for Ruby, and she clearly needed that right now. Yang would make sure her sister found someone who could promise a future of happiness. Someone who wouldn't jerk her emotions in all the wrong directions. Someone who wasn't an active danger to her sister's future. Someone who was just as good and pure as Ruby needs to be once more.

The pressing silence was made doubly invasive by Ruby's borderline-dangerous stare. 'I'm sorry,' Yang gravely signed, 'but no.'

Ruby took in a sharp breath and bit her cheeks. The emotional muck snuffing her flames couldn't smother that; the only thing that kept her fist unmoving was the fact this argument was taking place in the middle of a big, public parking lot.

Yang seemed about ready for it, though— even with one eye, Ruby could clearly tell. Her stance was already lowering because she knew her freak sister couldn't hold herself together for more than twenty minutes at a time. Ruby scowled. She was on a hair-trigger now— even the slightest shred of distress could throw her over the edge, straight to her only mood setting besides guilt-ridden depression: rage.

But she shouldn't hit her sister. Yang was just saying how she felt. She was allowed to feel things and talk about them, just the same as Ruby. She couldn't detonate over every little thing.

But she wanted to detonate. This anger was the first thing that had gripped her today, and she knew that as long as she held on, it would keep her from sinking back into the thoughts. All she had to do was scratch the itch— come on, Yang was practically begging for it! She knew what would happen if she said that, how couldn't she? And she definitely started putting her hands up before she said it, right? She must have!

Yang's hands were not up. She had her hands out— placatingly— as if to say, 'Ruby I didn't mean to hurt you but you're scaring me'.

It's Yang; her hands are above her waist, so they're up. She could easily snap them out and grab Ruby, pin her to the filthy concrete, and beat her into the pavement— Yang's never harmless or placating. She's just trying to get Ruby's guard down.

It's her sister. She didn't hit her last time, she wouldn't hit her this time.

And wasn't that so disappointing?

No. It was not. She was glad her sister didn't fight her.

No, the disappointment was definitely there. It was just a shred, but part of her had been intensely dissatisfied when Yang pussied out. She could make up for it. She just had to—

No! No, she—

She hadn't felt like this in days. This was the first thing that had made her feel alive, so who was she to spurn the feeling?

"Why?" Ruby seethed through her teeth, dragging out the sound as she tried desperately to cling onto something outside her own head.

Yang haplessly fumbled around with her stupid meat-fingers, but her brain was too wrung to cobble her shit together. Instead, she lamely signed the word for 'tablet'. Ruby just stared, twitching, her eye roiling in shifts of red and silver.

Yang slowly pulled out her tablet and started— ah, look at that; Yang was glancing up every few words to watch Ruby, as if she was scared the girl would jump her within a moment's notice. Which was totally fair— it took everything she had just to hold herself back.

'Look, Weiss isn't the worst,' Yang deliberately typed out. 'But she's not great either. She can be a bit of a prick and she very clearly tries to keep distant from you while also being super needy. Like even before y'all actually got together. Her pining was insane and obvious. She's clearly got unresolved stuff with her dad that's actually super dangerous in a very real way, stuff you shouldn't get involved in, but you will if you guys are together. Weiss has daddy issues that you do not want to fuck with. Also, she's clearly emotionally stunted and traumatized and I don't think you can give her the help she needs.

'Also, I think she's still kinda racist.'

Ruby stared at her sister. "Yang."

Yang matched her gaze, typing, 'its the truth'.

Ruby's hands clenched tight, drawing blood as her nails pressed hard into her palms. "You really think that?"

Slowly— agonizingly slow, as if she wanted her sister to see every single twitch of every single muscle— Yang dared to nod.

Ruby also nodded like she was actually processing; she even hummed a little, though her brain was pure crimson static. "Hmm, mhm, Yang let's go somewhere else."

Yang tilted her head, signing, 'Why?'

Ruby nodded again. "This is a parking lot."

'It is. And?'

"We're going to fight," Ruby stated, "and I don't want to be interrupted when we break someone's stuff."

Yang recoiled, her hands signing wildly. 'Fight? No we're not!'

Ruby turned, waving her sister along. "Signal's nearby. We can do it there, I'm sure the kids will enjoy it."

Yang's jaw hung open, unable to produce anything useful through her mangled voice-box.

"I need to." Ruby said— Yang hated how calm her voice was, as if she were giving a presentation in class. "It's going to happen, here or there it's up to you."

Yang ran around Ruby's front, clutching her tablet as she rapidly typed, 'im not figting you! we cant just fight because i said something you dont like!'

Ruby shrugged. "Oh yeah for sure, but I'm fighting you, and I'm not gonna get all weepy this time."

'this is wrong! ur getting angry!'

Oh, she wasn't getting angry, she was miles past that now. "You know what else is wrong?" she hissed, her voice like a whetstone's razor-sharp rasp. "All that shit you just said. Sorry I can't be in a perfect picturesque couple like you, but I happen to like Weiss whether she's fucked up or not, and I don't give a shit about whatever she's gonna pull me into, because I am worse!"

Yang moved her fingers on her tablet, but Ruby continued. "I cut her fucking arm off, I traumatized her, but we can get past that— we were getting past that— but you know what we can't get past?"

Yang stopped typing. Ruby didn't care, she was going to keep talking either way. She gripped her sister by the collar and wrenched her close, pulling her own eyelid wide with a finger, forcing Yang to stare into the splay of wild, seething red.

"This," Ruby spat, "I am never gonna get past this. I'm the one that's fucked here, Yang."

She'd never heard Ruby say her name like that— like it was a curse.

"Weiss can pull me into whatever the fuck she wants to and I'll be happy with it," Ruby's voice was hot and wild, her crooked fingernail jamming hard into the skin of her face. "I don't care! I'll do it. She wants to bring her stupid company down, I'll burn it to the fucking ground, I'll walk out of it covered in blood. I'll do anything— whatever she wants, anything to make her happy— I don't care what it is! Anything to make her happy!"

Ruby's voice cracked. Yang watched her sister's eye become glassy. Whether it was from real tears or the ocular tissue drying out, she couldn't tell. The red still raged.

"You think I give a shit about her, what, fucking 'daddy issues'?" Ruby spat. "You would call it that, you asshole."

Yang reeled— she tried to. Ruby just wound her fist tighter into her collar.

"I don't give a single fuck about whatever her shithead dad wants to do, and the shit that he can and will do is probably gonna haunt me forever," Yang tried to back up again. Ruby grabbed her shirt with both hands to keep her still. "But that doesn't matter! I don't care whatever mafia bullshit they're gonna put on me, on her, because I. Will. Be. There. I'll keep her safe, I'll make her happy— but whatever happens to me? I won't give a fuck! Because whenever Weiss is happy, I will be happy."

There was a pause. Yang tried to type, but Ruby shook her, forcing her fingers to drag uselessly along all the wrong letters. The pause was just that; Ruby wasn't done.

"I'll be as happy as I possibly can, because I can never be happy with this!"

Yang dragged her gaze up. Ruby pointed back at her eye. The red pulsed, silver writhing deep beneath, her pupils reduced to psychotic pinpricks.

"I'll do whatever I can for her, because this is going to ruin me— it's probably gonna kill me some day. No matter what I do, no matter how I feel, this will always torture me. Think I can have a nice date with my girlfriend? Think we can do anything together when I can just suddenly have a fucking seizure at complete fucking random? Do you think that's something we can just ignore? They're terrors, Yang, they don't fade away, they stick. I'm not having sweet little dreams while I'm slamming my fucking head into the floor, I am tortured with hours of psychotic oracle bullshit— either that or I'm reliving my happiest memories with Weiss, just knowing that she's somewhere in a ditch with her fucking head cut off!"

Ruby laughed, mad and enraged and so, so sad. She yanked back a fistful of her own hair, messing up her fresh style.

"Yeah, we'll be having our nice little ice cream date then boom! It's Adam! Splitting my fucking arm in half! It's mom, all mangled and fucked because now I know exactly how she looked when she died! I know how she felt! Or I'm doing my own surgery again, pulling out my own fucking eye, or I'm back in some winter hellscape, arms and legs blown to chunks in the snow! Alright, straight back to dessert!"

Yang stared, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. Ruby's tirade left her breathless. It took a long, long moment to realize exactly what she'd just said.

Empty breath passed Yang's lips. Slowly, she mouthed a harrowed, 'What?'

Ruby felt her rage vanish almost instantly, replaced by sheer, vacuous horror.

Yang tried to actually say something, winced, then brought up her hands to sign, 'You… what?'

The scythe-wielder trembled, unable to meet her sister's panicked eyes. "N-no, it's— it's— I didn't—"

'Your arms and legs?'

"No, no!" Ruby shouted, smacking both palms over her ears, as if she could shut out the oncoming throb. "Shut up! It's not real— they're not always right!"

'What do you mean arms and legs!'

Ruby thrashed against herself. "It's nothing! Forget what I said— it's not real!"

'Tell me!'

"Shut up!" Ruby grabbed Yang's shoulders and shook her, her one eye mixing red and pulsing silver. "You don't fucking get it!" she shouted, "You can never get it! So shut up and leave me alone!"

Yang made a single move— barely a twitch of her shoulders— and Ruby felt her world crack like a director's clapboard had announced the scene violently cut. The blonde suddenly collapsed beneath her, her nose bleeding, that same blood on Ruby's fist— wait, that… that wasn't right— that wasn't happening, she wasn't hitting Yang, she wouldn't hit Yang, she loved Yang!

Her eye flashed the memories back— no, it was projecting them before, or during the— no, before— after she did it, rearing up the punch; during, when Yang collapsed; before, when the blood was on her knuckles. Her mind rocketed back and forth and forth and back— too shocked for an Aura— the relief, the pain, the knuckles, the bleeding— the collapse and the thud of the punch, the thud against the concrete, the thud hammering her skull— red blood white knuckles the before during—

Ruby was lost on a tightrope bordering future and memory, events bleeding overunderthrough each other, unbalance throwing her down, catching her neck in its noose— catching everyone, hurting everyone, hurting Yang her sister her her the fist smashed her cheek, during the after before, now and then, her sister rearing back—

Ruby didn't know where she was— the world was a blur before, blurring, blurred after— she was flying, had flown, flew to Signal to picking pick picked up the parts to build had built was building her scythe scythed the murdering murdered Weiss weapon revenge avenging Adam— trip fell struck striking bounced paving paved path pathed pathetic— stumble shambled shaking shivering shuffled shifting pushing opened heading head hurting bled breaking bleating bleary— taking hiding spoke hidden scaring scare scared scaring fearing slammed shifting pressing fixed fresh followed finished flee flight soar sore screaming torn fleeing flew forest need needed weeping teary tearing tearing tears torn—

When Ruby crashed back into her being, she found herself in a forest, shaking, twitching, bracing herself against every stray wind as she awaited the next shattering. She rocked back and forth, her pen biting through her journal— consistency brings stability— clutching and ripping her scalp— scratching and writhing, rocking, thrashing, rocking, thrashing, consistency, thrashing, rocking, stability, rocking, rocking, thrashing—

She was going insane. This was it. Perception itself was breaking against her like ocean waves against a giant statue of her dead girlfriend. Ruby whimpered. Some of Yang's blood was still on her knuckles.

Silence passed. Ruby wished it would just take her and be done with it, finish breaking her and leave her alone, but it didn't. She wasn't done yet. It wasn't her choice.

The scythe, her new scythe, she had it. The last few hours of her life were on playback, blasting behind her eye: flying to Signal, burning her Aura, hitting the pavement, zombie-walking through the school, half-mumbling dismissive nonwords while she took her scythe parts, then assembling it with muscle-memories that weren't hers. The images were blurry and confusing, barely in any kind of cohesive order, but the completed weapon sat in her hands nonetheless. Ruby feverishly rubbed her hands against it, desperate for something real she could touch, not remember or foresee. She forced her eye to drink every detail.

It was long and rugged, made with more rustic sensibilities akin to Qrow's own designs: one head, two blades— whole blades, not just exchangeable segments— longer and thinner than Crescent Rose had ever been and spaced almost parallel before meeting at the tip. They were set in a rotating mechanism similar to Harbinger, save for the lack of ornamental cogs her father had (smartly) criticized, now replaced by a simple, solid plating. Two more blades, barely more than a foot long, flared out and up from the dorsal side of the mechanism, coming together in a V-shape that housed her front irons in the gap.

Ruby kicked out the lever-shaped trigger, unlocking the rotation of the head, then kicked it out more until she heard a click, freeing the mechanism completely as she let gravity take the blade. Fully loose, it fell with ease, but the tip halted a few inches short of impaling her hand. With its head curved so intensely it looked like a bardiche— she'd sharpened both sides of the blade explicitly for such purpose— and the telescoping shaft allowed her to turn it into a bladed semicircle that enclosed both hands, since she needed some kind of compact carry-form.

She dragged a finger along the outer edge, testing it. Maybe she should be glad she'd sent her blades to Signal; they were sharpened to perfection, probably used by the teacher to show students how to hone a Dust-imbued blade. The crystals themselves glimmered bright red along the dark blade— the inert Dust's color being tainted by her Aura's proximity to it. It'd be gold if Yang held it, purple if Blake held it,

White

Ruby bashed her forehead with the shaft until the static went away. She forced herself to keep staring at her scythe, to feel something besides the everything that boiled behind her eye.

She wanted so badly to be proud, to admire her work, but… it wasn't her work. Some part of her subconscious-hyperconsciousness had enslaved her to its construction, trawling actions from past and future memories while the rest of her was busy crumbling into hourglass-sand. No part of her, at least no part that mattered, had a real hand in it. She'd formed no lasting memories like with Crescent Rose. This was just cold steel and alloy, sitting in her hands like a corpse. Beautiful, yes— more so than she'd imagined— but not hers.

It was some other Ruby's. Some Ruby with more and less eyes, arms, and legs. Some Ruby that laid in the snow. Not her. There wasn't a her anymore, and if there was, she wasn't. She couldn't feel her fingers, her toes, her lips, her nose. Her skin itched hot, begging to be free— the end, the end, the tunnel, the snow, the blinding dark and the crushing white

She was losing it, her hands slipping off the wheel— no, the wheel was gone, and something else was wrenching her along by the fucking axles. She clawed into the curved handle, glad she'd opted out of trying wood accents when her nails scraped hard, unpainted metal. She wasn't done yet. It wasn't her choice. It. Wasn't. Her. Choice.

She didn't know what part of her was saying that, but she didn't like it. She hated it. She hated every part of it. She hated its rage and fear, its two shattered halves pushing her forward and onward, the pied piper tugging her towards the snow, the tunnel, the pit— she hated it! It wasn't her! It'd never be her— she wouldn't let it, she couldn't!

She wasn't a puppet, she wasn't beholden to some stupid oracle-curse, she was a person! A person with the freedom to act on her own, regardless of whatever magical prophecies told her— she could choose— she would choose, and nothing would stop her! She wouldn't let herself be yanked along by something she couldn't control, she would be the one in control! Screw the future, screw the snow, screw the cigarettes, she wouldn't let herself become some hollow, predestined freak!

She didn't care what she saw. She didn't care what she knew. Every moment she spent following the footsteps of some psycho-future Ruby only dragged her closer to that snowscape, and the people closest to her followed along like lambs to the slaughter.

She wouldn't let that happen. She wouldn't take them down with her, not any more than she already had. She couldn't. The name Ruby was a weight around their ankles, dragging them to the ocean floor, so she'd set them free. No more selfishness. No more secrets. No more snow, no more blood, no more dismemberment, no more muting.

No more thoughts. Those had moved to her hands, and they'd stay there. Forever.

She'd choose.

Ruby bit her cheeks. Cold metal nuzzled against her chin. Thoughts pulled at her fingers, tightening them against the trigger-lever, the tense spring begging her to be a coward, to be weak like she'd always been, but she wasn't. Not anymore. Even as her hands shook— she was in control, nothing else. Nothing else.

Her jaw clenched hard, the barrel dug into her chin. She could choose. She would choose, and no stupid curse would stop her! Life sucked anyways! She'd choose!

The scythe fell from her fingers. It thumped into familiar grass.

Ruby stared into the forest. She had been here before. Screams, slashed legs, an open throat— she'd never forget. She pulled at its memory every night. Every day. Every morning. Every evening. With her first bite of food. With her last piece of dessert. Swinging, stumbling, swinging, screaming, dying. She told herself to look, watch, record, as if some part of it was important, even when she knew it wasn't.

Her mother dies in this memory. Her death held no answers. Nonetheless, she played it back time and time again, torturing herself with a search she knew was fruitless.

"I'm scared," Ruby croaked. "I don't know what to do."

Nobody came to help. Ruby Rose kneeled in the grass and sobbed.

"Mom," she whimpered into the uncaring aether. "What… what'd you do? How am I supposed to do this?"

Her mother had no answers, because she was dead. Among this place, in the glade where Summer's bones surely lie, love was absent from the air. Desolation was all that remained. Hopelessness thrived. Her eye pulsated mockingly, teetering on the edge of a full, final meltdown, one from which no Ruby would be left to recover. Nothing but a maddened husk, puppeted by the threads of fate.

Teetering, tipping, her being drifted from her body before a sudden ocular spasm slammed her back into her bones. Pushed off the cliff, but yanked back up by her hair before she could hit the ground, over and over as she rocked back and forth. Perhaps this is hell.

Her hands pressed into her face, nails digging red tracks on her skin. "Mom… I… I…"

'I' what? What else did she have to say? What, was Summer's ghost supposed to etch answers in the dirt?

Indignant heat sparked in Ruby's chest, but its warmth didn't reach her. "I… we talked, didn't we?"

She was dying— better yet, dead— at the time. Literally passing on. Of course Ruby's dying mind would try to comfort her with a vision of her mom. The fact she'd been all fucked up was probably just the eye-thing's influence.

"But…"

But what?

"But… but I…"

She couldn't be a coward anymore. She needed to nut the fuck up— new scythe, new hair, new Ruby. Eye or no eye, kicking ass is what she's best at.

The heat slowly built. If the raging curse in her soul was trying to comfort her, it wasn't working. "I'm not… it's not enough— I'm not… enough…"

Then she'll become enough! She can't just act like a fucking pissbaby! She's already in the hole, all balled up and whining at the bottom, the only way she's getting out is if she crawls until her gods-damned fingernails peel off! She's Ruby fucking Rose, she's been through worse!

Ruby clutched at her sternum, as if she could physically press down the sparking, burning embers. "No… I haven't…"

Fine! What the fuck ever! She'll grit her teeth and fucking weather it because that's what she does!

"I can't do this anymore," among everything else, Ruby didn't pay any mind to the fact she was talking to herself. The fire in her chest strained to break free, battering at her ribs like an inferno stuck in a jar. "I'm tired."

That wasn't even true, and she knew it. She was restless. She couldn't contain herself any longer.

No, she… she didn't want to fight anymore. She was done. She just wanted to lay down and—

"Liar."

The voices had switched.

"Fighting's the only thing we have left," Ruby growled. "If you can't do that, I will."

She… she couldn't do that! That's her body! It's hers!

"Yeah, it's mine too. Get angry about it," Ruby's voice challenged. "Fucking do something."

She tried, but—

"You're not fucking trying!" She spat— actually spat, as if her pathetic reflection were before her. "Taking the easy way out? Coward."

Ruby's head buzzed, pure static.

"It's fucking lame! How dare you pull that shit with us, with me, just throwing everything away because you're so sad your fucking gi—" her voice cracked, but the sound was broken by the hard bite of her teeth against each other. "Because it's 'too much'. Well guess what? It's all too much! My whole fucking life has been too much,and I've thrived in it, but nowyou're just gonna fucking killus? What kind of pussy are you!"

She… she wasn't. She just wanted the pain to stop, the fear, the visi—

"It's not about the fucking visions!" Ruby shrieked. "It's all because you don't like the fucking responsibility of it! You don't like that things get worse, when they're already so fucking bad! Well guess what, I matter, I'm important, I've got shit that no one else has and I'm not just gonna fucking throw it away! I'm gonna use it! If I need to lose some limbs, so fucking be it! I don't give a shit, because I'm gonna live, I'm gonna fight, andI'm going to win!"

She wasn't scared of responsibility, she was scared of hurting her friends!

Ruby growled. "No you're not. You're scared of letting them down, so scared that you'd put a gun to my chin. Asshole."

She… she didn't…

"Just one little pull, and no more hard stuff," Ruby taunted. "Off to the land of pretty clouds, no responsibility, and mom, because apparently you just wanna be babied."

Stop it.

Ruby laughed. "Stop me, then."

How was she supposed to do that?

"How is a dissociative persona of your Xiao Long curse supposed to take over your body?"

That— it— it wasn't! It was just a piece of her brain, neural cells and electric impulses, and all those things were hers!

"Ha. Ha-ha-ha. You really think so?"

Of course she did!

"Do something about it. Act on your knowledge. I'm just a figment at the wheel, aren't I? Then take it all back! Keep living a shitty life that you, of all fucking people, 'just can't handle,'" she mocked venomously, the disgust in Ruby's voice a perfect mirror of the cowardly wretch within. "The fuck're you gonna do with this body back, huh? Just lay down here and keep wallowing?"

N-no, of course not, she'd… she'd get up! Yeah!

"Yeah, no you wouldn't. I'm you, dumbass, ya can't lie to me."

Ruby tried calling to her mother's soul.

Ruby's entire face crinkled with dumbfounded disbelief at her weakness' idiocy. "The fuck is that supposed to do?"

Help?

"You believe in her too much."

That's her mom! Of course she believed in her!

"Yeah, and she died. Like, right here," Ruby pointed around the glade and smirked cruelly. "And over there, over there, some more of her's over—"

Shut up!

"She fucking left us!" Ruby screamed, whirling around as if she were turning on a real person. "She left! At least Raven had the courtesy to stay alive!"

Raven was a horrible mom!

Ruby sucked her teeth. "Horrible's better than dead."

Mom didn't have a choice!

Ruby scoffed. "She could've stayed home and… I dunno, cooked some fucking waffles or something! Spent time with her kids if she really thought we were important!"

She did!

"Then she died."

She was killed!

"She did that to herself."

Did that to— she was murdered by Grimm!

"Psh, yeah," Ruby evened her fingernails with the scythe's razor edge. "Summer Rose, felled by a lowly Beowolf."

Maybe she was driven by a vision, then caught by surprise! Nobody could survive a full ambush like that, especially with how much negativity the eye-thing can drum up! She'd have pulled the whole forest— probably summoned Grimm from all across Patch— that wasn't something that could be beaten alone!

Ruby tightened her grip on the scythe. "We could."

Doubtful. This deep in the forest, there was no telling how many Grimm could be lurking.

"We have to."

Huh?

Ruby cast her gaze about, her arms slackening as she extended the compact scythe back into its bardiche-form. It felt good in her hands: rough, cruel, and heavy. The blade shone in late day canopy-light, sun rays catching the forest haze and bouncing off every Dust crystal. Darker red glimmered along the black edge, like hundreds of murderous Grimm eyes.

Speaking of which, there were many— Grimm, that is: Beowolves, Ursas, the lurkers of Patch's forests. They'd caught the scent of her delectable despair, their jaws slavering with hot, drooling hunger.

"Look at what you did," Ruby snarked.

The Beowolves stalked towards her— they all walked slowly, with a level of deliberate control that Ruby didn't think they had. The Ursas towered in the back, watching, waiting. The Grimm came in like a sudden high tide, leaving Ruby in a tiny circle of solace. She wrenched her shoulders back until something popped.

One of the Alphas approached her, its eyes a sickly yellow instead of the standard red. Ruby stared it down, her muscles eagerly tensing. The creature's jaw unhinged and a voice seeped through, genuine confusion lacing its words:

"Child? Why are you here?"

Ruby immediately locked up, muscles nearly tearing with how hard they flexed against her skin. She knew this voice, but last time it came from Adam's throat. "Where the fuck is Weiss!" she yelled without hesitation. "Give her back, you piece of shit!"

"Is she special to—"

"Of course I fucking care!" Ruby loudly interrupted, though it seemed more like she was talking to… herself? The Alpha's head cocked, its puppeteer unused to third-wheeling. The beast watched her curiously.

"She's mine too!" Ruby shouted to herself again. She stared off for a second, as if hearing a response, then said, "Alright. At least there are some things we can agree on."

The Alpha stared. "Who… hm. Nevermind. Would you like to talk?"

Of course she wanted to talk. She had one opportunity to interrogate the thing that killed her mother and her girlfriend— why would she pass that up? It was simple logic.

Unfortunately, logic wasn't at the wheel. "Fuck no, die."

Even the Alpha, or whatever controlled it, seemed a little off-put by her brazen tone. "What?"

Ruby tensed, tightening her grip on the bardiche. She lowered it to the side, ready for a rending upwards blow as she shuffled her feet towards the Alpha. "You heard me. Where. Is. Weiss."

The creature stared, its mouth still hanging wide. "I killed her."

Ruby snarled, but managed to keep herself from launching. "Prove it."

A crackling laugh escaped the Alpha's gaping jaw. "You actually want me to? I'm still learning how to use this Scroll thing, one of my minions could show me how to send pictures."

There was a shattering feeling inside of Ruby. She'd been holding onto the barest hopes, gripping her future visions with Weiss, but she already knew they could be inaccurate. In her mind, she always knew it wasn't possible. Weiss was dead. When the time came, and she lay limbless in that desolate snowscape, nobody would reach for her.

The dread swelling in her gut, as much as it made her want to curl up and die, seemed to have an inverse effect on the one in control. Ruby's lips wrenched up into a manic grin, her crimson eye shining like a pool of gore. Her voice rumbled up her lungs, roughed past her throat, seething through her lips, "I guess I've got nothing to lose."

Ruby leapt towards the Alpha and swung up, catching it under the jaw and bisecting its head. The greater pack held a moment of surprised pause. Just a moment, long enough for them all to gawk as Ruby straightened from their possessed leader's corpse, her ichor-blackened face contrasting one red eye and a maddened grin.

The beasts awoke all at once. Lunging and gnashing, snarling, screaming, claws ripping across her Aura, bodies barging into her form.

But she saw them all. It was as if her infernal half had its own control of her oracle-sight, and could peer into it at will. She ducked and weaved around foreseen swipes, cleaved through masses without ever laying eyes on them, and took small hits that avoided larger ones later. Ruby wove through them, impeccably twisting, pivoting, slamming through handfuls of bodies at a time with the new heft of her weapon.

Ruby simmered red, subtly draining her Aura so she could lord over each tick of the clock. Red petals, half-there and vibrating, drifted from her being, their slow descents following a path of ichorous viscera. Grimm blood sprayed black and fetid, each droplet perfectly visible wherever the silver-red maelstrom of her eye cared to turn— which it didn't. It was focused on her steps, her sweeping motions, the turn of her waist to bring about the heavy new bardiche.

The blade ripped down a hefty form. Ruby didn't check what it was. She just let the momentum take her to the ground, slammed her bardiche into the dirt, and pole-vaulted herself through the air. She turned in flight, kept turning, burning through Aura until she spun like a blender and tore black-stained swathes through the pack of Grimm.

Whatever thing Ruby had become was better than she'd ever been. She held perfect control, utter dominance, and an uncontested talent for hitting really fucking hard.

The bardiche was perfect for her, as if Ruby had crafted it just to appeal to this part of her soul. Her muscles rejoiced with its heft as weakling Grimm squealed under the broad cutting edge. Stronger Grimm found themselves rent at the limbs, crashing atop their kin before their spines were severed. Ruby whirled with monstrous glee, giggling, her eye wide and glassy. Grimm were split by the dozen, ichor flew, claws brushed Aura.

Ruby was perfection incarnate— manifest, untouchable, implacable. Grimm were made to devour human souls, Ruby was made to devour Grimm. She didn't need anyone else, she'd drink the world alone. Tear the beasts asunder. Soak in the bodies. Revel in her purest self. Breathe the corpse-ash.

She didn't need Yang or Tai or Qrow or Blake. Or Weiss. Or Weiss. Didn't need her. She didn't. She never did. She hated her.

Hate like Tai hates Summer. She left him alone with two kids, one of whom was a nigh-perfect mirror of her mother down to the torturous visions that haunted the edges of her life. She died. After his heart had already been broken once.

Hate like Ruby hates Summer. She left. Died. Now Ruby needed her the most. She needed help, the kind that only Summer could give, but Summer was dead; the Ruby she'd made was dead now, too. Something else was controlling her— not just in terms of whatever was wearing her face— she was tied to the threads of fate, star-crossed to a future that ended in death and bloodshed. This Ruby, at least, knew how to move forward.

She didn't need Weiss to do it. She didn't need anyone. She especially didn't need Weiss. She never wanted to see Weiss again. If she saw Weiss again, she'd kill her. She hated Weiss. Despised. Loathed. Seething, boiling, burning… bleeding… aching….

"Hey, me!" Ruby screamed to herself, barely audible through the black carnage. "It's just like last time, remember!"

She started screaming. Wailing, rough and torn like she'd eaten glass, a bloodcurdling screech in cruel mockery of—

"Here!" Ruby flew through another handful of Beowolves, her bardiche cracking their Alpha's bone-plate before launching the creature back. Its spiky body crushed and stabbed whatever kin stood in its wake. Ruby followed it with her eye and kicked out her trigger-lever; the blade turned scythe-wise again. "This one'll be Weiss!"

Ruby chased after the now-collapsed Grimm, leaping high with a burst of petals as she jerked her scythe downwards. The Alpha even raised a hand to stop her— a perfect replica. Her blade cleaved through the rigid bone, drawing a gout of rancid black blood.

The creature wailed and thrashed, grabbing for Ruby, catching her wrist and forcing her to prop herself up with her weapon. It wrenched her down and pulled her face closer to its maw, making her ears ring as the Beowolf's scream gradually bled into something harrowingly familiar. When Ruby met its eyes, they were blue— a wide, begging cerulean, one hand clutching Ruby as her shorn arm sprayed red, warm red, sickly hot red that Ruby could feel seeping between the threads of her clothes. She stared, frozen. A small part of her was happy to see Weiss again.

The gridlock in Ruby's mind and muscles only lifted when she realized she'd cut the wrong arm.

Ruby cried out as she ripped her head back from the Beowolf's jaws, raking her face on the backs of its teeth. She yanked her scythe inwards and let it drop, catching the Grimms head in its crook before she pulled back, digging the blade in deep enough that the beast released her arm with a yowl. Ruby properly took hold of her weapon, kicked out the lever, and let the head drop back into bardiche-form.

Ruby let loose upon the beast, artlessly hacking at its skull until there was nothing left but mush.

The rest of the Grimm scampered; she wasn't worth the effort. Ruby kept her eye on the one below her, panting, waiting until it scattered into dust, just to make sure it wouldn't change again.

A/N: sorry this took so long, my editor/wife needed a break and this was a lot. a lot a lot, more a lot than that fucked up chapter of kotwr. its also the longest thing ive posted, so have fun with that. thanks for stickin around, updates should get more regular now, i hope