After what felt like weeks, Ruby finally felt herself awakening, surprised that she was still alive at all. She felt the ground where she landed to feel a large bed of flowers. Around her was a circle of worn down pillars, no doubt victims of time. Faint rays of sunlight trickled through the hole above, the last sunlight she'd see for a long time. It was filtered through hundreds of vines that decorated the hole above, making the stone walls and floor around her to have more of a purple hue. To her left was the Aster Sword, planted in the ground and maintaining its silver sheen despite the filtered light.

Finally assessing her own situation, her aura thankfully took the brunt of the attack, leaving her skin unscathed for the most part with only minor scratches. Her entire left sleeve was burnt off though, and her red cloak was only hanging onto her right side, which that too was also seared and charred by the blast. She tried to stand up, only now feeling the post-battle fatigue hit. Her knees buckled and she fell over off the pile of dandelions. She hardly had the energy to move her arms to take the impact of the fall, and hardly any left over to shout for help. Her voice came out more like a whimper than a shout though, hardly traveling through the cavern.

It was then that fears began to fill her mind. What was down here? If they're like the creatures before, are they hostile too? Who's to say there's even anything left down here at all? If that's the case, how long does she have before she runs out of rations? How big are the tunnels down here? Do they even lead to an exit? It was obvious that the creatures weren't Grimm, but would she be forced to kill them? She had the capability, but she would prefer to avoid needless violence. Suddenly every worst case scenario came to mind. What if these creatures exceed humans in terms of power? What if they actually succeed in their genocidal crusade? What if the Grimm take advantage of the chaos and cripple both sides, resulting in the planet's extinction? What worst case scenario would be worse than the planet's extinction?

Before she could answer that question however, the sound of large footsteps approached her. This place wasn't abandoned. Please be a human, she prayed in her head, over and over again. Instead, what met her was a creature similar to the beast that fought her before. Adrenaline immediately surged through her veins, she took the Aster Sword in hand as fast as she could and took a defensive stance. Her mind couldn't form words quick enough, all she could manage was fast and heavy breaths. As they stood in stalemate, Ruby took in the appearance of this other creature. Unlike the last one, this one wore no armor, simply purple robes with a crest at the middle of the chest. Its horns were also much shorter, and it seemed to have a more feminine figure and face.

"Please, there is no need for violence." The female goat creature said calmly, her words feeling motherly to Ruby. But despite her pacifist demeanor, Ruby couldn't lower her guard. Not after what she just experienced. And yet, this creature looked unarmed. But no, Ruby recalled that the beast could summon fire like magic, without any Dust. Being merely unarmed was not enough for her.

After a minute of nothing happening on either side, the adrenaline wore off for Ruby, and she doubled over in pain, using the sword to prop herself up. Then, she felt it. A stream of blood coming from the left of her hip. The pain was too much once it hit. Already, it was gathering in her boot. The goat woman approached slowly and carefully, and so much more fear filled Ruby's mind. This was it, she thought. It wasn't the fall that killed her, but the culmination of her wounds preventing her from fighting. Her head went light, she was losing too much blood. She didn't even see what opened the wound. Not that it mattered now. She didn't even really say goodbye to her team. Hundreds of these regrets piled in her mind as her vision went black, her body growing colder with each second. But then, a pulse of unbearable heat surged at her wound. It felt like someone stuck a torch in her hip and kept it there for two seconds. She couldn't even scream in agony. She wasn't even sure she was still alive.

Then, after what felt like days of constant agony, she woke up in a soft bed, neatly tucked in with a slice of pie on the nightstand next to her, as well as a cup of water. The room around her was neat, hardly any clutter around, with smooth yellow wood covering the walls and floor. At the foot of the bed was a pretty carpet with a beautiful pattern woven in. And on the dresser was her dress, partially stitched back together and cleaned, though the left sleeve was still missing. Not even the blood on the side remained, surprisingly.

It was then that Ruby checked her hip, seeing that it was completely bandaged. She was wearing a peculiar blue shirt with pink stripes on it, and jean shorts. The shirt was about a size too big for her, but the jeans fit her perfectly strangely. Feeling her dry throat at last, she reached over to the water only to feel the pain in her hip return for a second. "Guess I'm not fully healed yet." She said, reaching over again for the water, this time much slower as to not open her wound. As she drank the whole glass at once, the door to her room opened to reveal the goat lady from before. Ruby stiffened with fear before the lady smiled at her.

"It's good to see you awake at last. I feared you might not." She said, taking a seat in a chair next to her bed. "How are you feeling?" Ruby scooted away from the lady, with her sighing. "You don't trust me at all, do you? I assumed you met them before you fell." She stood up again, putting the slice of pie closer to Ruby's bed. "Don't worry, it doesn't rot or spoil." With those odd words, she left Ruby, who stared at the pie. She was surprised to still be alive at all, let alone in the company of the same species that tried to kill her before.

Though, now that she thinks about it, that could be rather racist. Judging an entire species by the actions of a few… hundred of them. But the White Fang are hundreds of murderous Faunus, and yet Blake is one of her closest friends. Maybe these creatures aren't as bad as her first impression would make her believe.

With that thought refreshing her nerves, she took a bite out of the pie. Her tastebuds were met with a delightful mixture of cinnamon and butterscotch, as if the food was magically enhanced to be as delicious as possible. It was also then that she realized how hungry she was. She couldn't stop herself from gorging on the wonderful treat. It was unlike anything she's ever tasted back home! It was like the wonderful cooking of her mom came back from beyond the grave just this once to grace her!

That thought brought her back. Back to before she became a Huntress. Back to before she was even at Signal Academy, before she was even training to become a Huntress. All her childhood memories came flooding back to her, and she couldn't help but cry at the idea that all that could be gone now. That she can never go back to the life she had. That a genocidal army is hellbent on ripping her world apart as brutally as possible.

And yet, here she sat, in a comfy house far from the war outside, where she may as well be dead for everyone else outside. Here, she could escape it all. Whether the monsters succeed in their crusade to rid the world of humanity or not, it wouldn't matter here. At that moment, she felt herself staring down two roads, each one equally as terrifying to her. She could stay here and abandon everyone she loved, survive in place of everyone on the surface. Or she could leave there, return to the surface, and battle the monsters once more. But with what weapon? The Aster Sword vanished without a trace, and Crescent Rose was God knows where. If she went to fight as she was, she'd be killed in mere moments, if not by the hands of the monsters then by the Grimm. It was impossible. Every path led to mass death. It was the choice of whether or not she wanted to abandon everyone.

She couldn't bring herself to make a choice, not yet. As she dressed herself properly, revealing the bandages over her body, she could still feel the pain where she was bleeding before. However long it was that she was out, it wasn't long enough for her wounds to heal fully. There was no way she could fight in her condition, not that she couldn't fight without a weapon anyway. In hindsight, maybe taking those unarmed training sessions with Yang wasn't that bad of an idea.

The thought of those training sessions with Yang only made the sting of being away from the team that much more painful. Ruby then noticed a burn mark on the left of her hip. She tore the bandage off to see the wound was surrounded by a massive burn mark, most likely from the goat lady cauterizing it. If that's the case, just how far deep underground did she get taken? If it was long enough to where the wound had to be burned closed, they had to be half a mile underground at minimum. And who can say how intricate this place is? The most likely answer is that it's a labyrinth, it'd be impossible for her to go back to where she came down from without help.

She began to give up all hope for ever leaving the underground. Even if she wanted to, she was doubtful the light of day would ever touch her face again. Suddenly her worries shifted from escaping to avoiding vitamin D deficiency. But maybe staying there wasn't that bad. Sure, she wanted to help people in the world, but she always had a deep seeded desire to just settle down and have a life of peace. But until that point, she didn't see it as an option. And yet, now she was given that choice.

As she walked to the living room, she heard a faint whisper, belonging to a voice faintly familiar to her. The sound seemed to originate from the stairway, though she couldn't see what was beyond the chandelier's light. Must've been nothing, she thought, and left for the living room just a doorway away.

In there was the goat lady, reading a book on her rocking chair seated next to the fireplace. As she was then, it was hard for Ruby to imagine her as a beast like the others. For the first time, she let her guard down around her and sat in front of the fire. The warmth melted away her stress, as if she had just stepped into a hot spring. Not even the burn on her waist was irritated by the heat.

"You seem more at ease, child. Are you feeling any better?" The goat lady asked, with Ruby simply nodding. "That's good. I suppose I should introduce myself, shouldn't I? My name is Toriel."

"Ruby." Ruby replied. Her anxiety slowly decayed around Toriel now that she had a moment to adjust to her presence. A calming warmth began to fill her body, her consciousness drifting as she sat by the fire. It was a calm that she had not felt in so long, not for years.

For the next three days, Ruby lived in peace with Toriel, the quiet life being surprisingly relaxing for her, more so than she would have expected. Her mind was at ease, and though she would sometimes yearn for the old days at Beacon, she allowed herself to relax for once and enjoy life.

Though every time she passed by the stairs to the basement, she would always feel a pull. On the fourth day, she finally caved into her curiosity when Toriel wasn't looking, and found an unpleasant surprise. A large door, sealed merely by the weight of it. Shock was the first emotion she had, quickly tailed by anger. She remembered she had asked Toriel more than once if there was a way back to the surface, to which she would always deflect. She knew why at that moment.

"Ruby." Toriel said in a mix of fear and surprise. Ruby glared at her with eyes that stared daggers at her.

"You knew. You knew, but you never told me! How could you?!" Ruby said.

Toriel quickly regained composure after Ruby's outlash. "It was for your safety, Ruby. If the monsters knew you were still alive, then—"

"Everyone up there thinks I'm dead! My friends, my family, you're saying I let them die because it's convenient for you?!"
"No! I'm not saying that at all! But you saw the might they wield, you couldn't beat them at your best. If you went to battle them as you were, you surely would have died!" Toriel's concern carried in her voice was enough to silence Ruby for a moment.

"Then I'll just get stronger! Stronger than I've ever been before! Strong enough to save everyone! I won't let them destroy my world!" At that moment, her veins shone with a silver light. Before she could let out another word, she felt a sharp pain course through her entire body. As if every nerve in her body was being electrocuted at the same time, the pain was too much, causing her to double over and scream in agony. At that moment, flames erupted from every inch of her. They didn't burn, and yet she could feel the immense heat coming from them, hot enough to melt iron.

"That's..! Ruby! Control your emotions!" She heard Toriel shout, though her words were slightly warped through the roaring flames. She couldn't see anything but the fire around her, but she tried to ignore the pain, if only for a moment. Focus, that's all she needed. Focus on the energy around her, within her, and suppress it.

Until at last, the flames subsided, and the silver light became nothing but a faint whisper, barely illuminated through her skin. "Wh— What was that?" Ruby asked.
"It should be impossible. Humans shouldn't be able to wield magic. And yet…" Toriel observed Ruby's body, as though it were an enigma. "Tell me, have you heard of Celestium?"
"Celestium? N—No, I don't think so." Toriel seemed puzzled by this response.
"Then how on… it should be impossible. Humans need a catalyst to summon magic. Unless… no, there is no workaround, Celestium has always been the end-all-be-all catalyst. So how…"
It then clicked for Ruby. The silver light matched the light that was around the Aster Sword, which was a silver metal. Focusing for a second, she tried to picture the Aster Sword's form. And from thin air, as if transmuting it from the air itself, the sword formed, though now its power was felt. The same silver light circled at the center of the blade, but now it formed a symbol at the center of the circle.

Toriel retreated from the blade, as if frightened by it. But then she became calm after she saw no ill intent in Ruby's eyes. "I see. That is your catalyst. That is why the barrier is gone now."

"Barrier?" Ruby asked.

"You did not know? That sword you hold was powering an immense barrier around the mountain. It prevented every monster from leaving, for… thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of years."

Ruby looked back at the sword, amazed at its power. Just what were its limits, she wondered. But as she held it, she could feel power surging from it, starting to get beyond her control. But as she wished for it to return to her body, it did just that, vanishing to nothing. "I can't control it. I can summon it, but I can't control it for long."
"That is unstated. The Aster Sword, from legend, is perhaps the most powerful relic to ever exist. Some say that it draws power from the very universe, perhaps even the multiverse. But to see it for myself… it should not exist. Celestium, it can't be forged like this."
"What do you mean, it can't be forged?"
"It can be forged, but no larger than a ring. It's repulsive of itself, to forge a sword like that would mean bypassing its repulsive nature, which is impossible. We monsters have tried to forge our own Aster Sword, but to no avail."

"What happened when you tried?"
"It was explosive. If it were not for the barrier the entire mountain would probably have collapsed under our attempts. The Aster Sword… the impossible weapon. Utterly fascinating." Toriel closed her eyes, and sighed. "Perhaps, then, with this power, you could save them. Perhaps you have the power to stop this senseless war."

Ruby paused for a moment. She was flooded with emotions at that moment. Elation at the fact of being able to end a war before it truly starts. Fear that she won't make it in time. Concern of what happens if she can't control the power. The hope of seeing her friends' and family's faces again. Then back to fear again, at the anticipation of having to fight a war. Even with all this power, the thought of having to murder others, even if it was for a good cause— no, she immediately cast away that excuse. It was foolish to think there was ever such a thing as a good war.
"Will I have to kill them?" Ruby asked, leaving Toriel silent. Not a single sound was made in that one room for a minute. "Please tell me, I don't want to kill them."
"I'm sorry, child. War is never kind. There may be no good solution, no solace at the end of this war. Either way, it will end the same, with one side extinct."
The fear only grew in Ruby, how could she make such an impossible choice? To either allow humans or monsters to survive this war, such a decision could not be made, not by any sensible person.

She refused to believe it, that those were her only options. No, with the power of the Aster Sword, there must have been a better way, one that didn't involve needless bloodshed. If Toriel could turn out passive, then surely she could do the same for the other monsters.

She stood facing the large door, with only determination in her eyes, determination to stop the war before one side killed the other. "You should know, child, beyond that door is a world that contains a bottomless hate for humans. Some of them might not have retained their sense of self after all these years." Toriel said.

"I'm ready." Ruby said. She opened the door, a brisk chill rushing over her. This was her beginning, and the beginning of Remnant's end.