(RWBY) Black: The Color Of Wilted Roses

With Fear, I Laid in Darkness

[Ruby]

Blake?

It was Blake?

Why did you pull the trigger? Why did you hurt Weiss?

I sat there in shock, holding my girlfriend's wounded body. A primal scream left my lungs, filling the sky with my vocalized despair. I held her close to me, screaming and crying, burying my face into Weiss's hair. Blake calmly walked over to me and pointed her gun at my face.

"Ruby, give up. No more blood needs to be shed."

I looked up at her and felt nothing but hate. Her quiet, unassuming tone raised the hair on my neck. "Why did you kill them? Why did you kill them!"

I glared silently.

Blake tried to compose herself, with her gun level against my forehead. "I knew there was something wrong... But there's nothing I can do except take you in.

"Give up, Ruby. Please."

I wanted to come to her, deep down inside. I just wanted this to be over, so that I couldn't cause this pain anymore. But my master would denounce me as a traitor, a disgrace. As quickly as the clarity came, my blinding hatred came back in full force, and I felt no love for my former teammate anymore.

"You... You bitch."

We stared at each other for what felt like eternity. Under her professional, cold demeanor, I swore I saw a hint of sadness in her somewhere.

"Why! Why did you hurt her, why did you hurt my Weiss? Why -"

A fist swung with the force of a plummeting comet landed directly on my head. My vision almost immediately turned to black. I hit the ground and looked up in excruciating pain.

"...Yang? No, oh no, Yang..."

My vision faded for good, and so did this memory. Torment consumed my body as I pulled and tugged on the chain restraining me.

I need to be free again. I gritted my teeth and pulled, until I ended up yanking my arm out of its socket with an audible 'pop'.

"Ow! Fuck!"

I fell in a slump. Ruby Rose, reduced into a subdued prisoner in the middle of who knows where. I felt tears swelling up within me, immersed in the pity of being a rose with no thorns.

Down the hall, three guards came running in my cell, with Jaune Arc by their side. The door was unlocked, and he ran to my side.

"Ruby? You okay? I swore I heard you scream."

I nodded my head in pain. "Yeah, it's my arm." I winced in agony, trying my hardest to keep the tears back. "It's broken."

Without hesitation, Jaune helped my body heal itself. At first I wanted to ask why he was even here, but I was tranquilized before I could even think of a response. My vision blurred and I felt the comfort of unlocked chains, and before I knew it, I was out.

I woke up to find my body healed of its injuries... And clad in thicker chains. Great.

I laid my head on the wall, and closed my eyes. In a moment of clarity, I started bawling in the cell. It felt like two different people in my head, tugging at the hemispheres of my brain.

Murder? Cold-blooded murder? "Oh god," I began, stricken with grief, before feeling a shudder of pleasure at the thoughts of my victims. "Oh god..." I threw my head back, my face contorting to a smile as I laughed in joy.

And then came the crying, again.

I could feel her, pulsing in the back of my head, serenading my mind again, feeding me the hatred I used to kill with no mercy. The shameless pleasure of ripping into human bodies with a sharp blade...

And then I remembered Weiss. I forgot everything and started crying, this time for a long while. By then, Weiss was all I could think about. The way her hair would fall every time she let it hang, and the feeling of her pale skin pressed tightly against mine...

I was trapped in my own mental hell.

A shadow appeared beside me. Stark white spots emerged from the dark as I sat there, crying. They were eyes. Eyes of judgement, maybe? Eyes to judge my sins, my crimes, the things I had to do in order to feel whole again.

I leapt up and flailed madly against the unsettling apparition, but that's all it was: a mere apparition. It wisped like smoke, like cinders cooling to dust in the black of night.

I stopped, realizing my vision degraded to hallucinatory windows. I slowly sat back down and rested my head on my skinned knees, softly crying.

The cell door opened. I didn't bother looking up. If it was part of my imagination, so be it.

"Ruby. Salem needs you. She needs you to be free."

I craned my neck up to see none other than Adam Taurus. "Adam...?" My voice sounded hoarse and dry, a pale imitation of its former cheer. Still, I refused to show weakness. "Why are you here? I thought the White Fang was disbanded." I looked at him with a cocky grin.

Adam had none of it. "Listen here, girl," he began, clearly paying no heed to my irreverence. "I can bring it back, and finally destroy you worthless -" He paused, making sure to emphasize his words clearly to me "- humans. I don't need you. But Salem does. If it wasn't for her, I'd slit your neck open myself." With a swift motion, he pointed his blade at me.

I chuckled. I laughed. In fact, I threw my head back and almost lost myself in a gregarious laughter. He hadn't realized how utterly hopeless I felt, how far down I had gone, assuming this even was Adam. I kicked his hand away, making him drop the sword. He grunted in frustration as I laughed at him.

"I can, and will, beat your ass senseless, with no hands!" He was fuming, but I sneered at him, too tired to care. "So you should watch what you say to me, girl." Sighing heavily, he picked his blade up and broke the chains off of me.

Finally. It felt so good to be free.

"Now, I'm assuming you're familiar with Weiss Schnee," Adam said.

"Yeah, I said, standing up and stretching my aching bones. "She's my girlfriend."

"Well, they never actually healed her."

I was taken back in rage. "But what? Why?"

"They're just stalling on her care. After your little performance earlier, they refuse to even consider releasing her in fear that she would break you out."

I was too tired to accept the circumstances. She's been laying on a bed, half dead for who know how many days. I need to get to her. Fast.

Adam must've sensed my frustration. "There's no way you'll get to her. She's guarded by Ozpin himself. Face it Ruby, he'd easily kill you on sight by now." I cursed under my breath. The worst part of all this is that I know he's right.

"Well, what should I do," I asked.

"Come with me to Salem. She misses you."

I turned away.

"Well, fine. But I can't leave Crescent Rose behind."

Adam opened a door. "In here." I looked at where he entered. "Now grab it. Let us leave this place."

"Fine by me!" I scooped up the great scythe and joined Adam. Pushing my doubts back, it felt good to be free, ready and willing to fight for my master once again.