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Ruby drinks the tea. She honestly doesn't know if the people in front of her are really her team, but she really can't be bothered to care anymore. Once they realize they're better off without her they'll stop mourning.
Before she knows it She's falling. She can feel her aura around herself go wonky. Out of the corner of her eye she sees the kaleidoscope of colors its turning. Spots turning green to orange to blue, and some colors that might not have names. She's so focused on staring at it that she doesn't see the sky shift to a blue around her, the ground shes rapidly approaching the orange sea that is the deserts of Vacuo.
Before she knows it she's hit concrete, protected from going splat by the vestiges of whatever insane logic the ever after runs on.
Crescent Rose managed to fall next to her, as she stares it at she hears a multitude of gasps from behind. Its Nora, Ren, Oscar, Emerald, and Winter. Oscar... All of them just, stare for a while.
Its Oscar who speaks up first. "Ruby?" he questions. Right, everyone probably thought they were all dead.
"Hey." She musters, just collapsing back onto the concrete. Maybe now instead of dying to make sure she doesnt hurt anyone else she could just, leave. Maybe Raven had the right idea after all...
Her musing is interrupted by Winter, "Is Weiss ok?" She prompts, clearly desperate for information on her sister.
Ruby's mind immediately just goes to rage. Of course they ask about everyone else first, its not like she just fell from the sky after being presumed dead and is now currently a prismatic disco ball. She speaks without thinking, "If I told you they were dead, would it get you to shut up?" she snaps, she immediately feels bad, even if she's broken like this at the very least she's alive. She needs to put everyone else first. Her thoughts pause, why does she need to do that again?
Winter can only see a facsimile of a dead girl. Ruby would never act like this. she draws her sword, her eyes igniting in the flames of the winter maiden, "You are not Ruby Rose!" She declares.
Ruby could only wish that was true, she wouldn't have to have the entire world on her shoulders anymore, supporting her teammates. "I wish I wasn't." she replies before continuing, "Ruby Rose is a child, who thought she knew better than everyone else on Remnant and it got her friends killed again, and again, chasing a stupid dream to be a storybook hero like her mother went off and died to be!" The shimmering on her skin seems to almost stabilize at the bitter filled words, turning a muted grey with the occasional flash of color.
Its all the prompting Winter needs to attack apparently, launching an icy blast of pure blue magic at her. On reflex she dodges, picking up Crescent Rose with her, and begins firing back. She's lucky that apparently magic tree juice restores aura, who knew?
Winter doesn't give her room to breath immediately flying at her with magic at her feet. Ruby tries to scatter into petals to dodge but whatever weirdness going on with her aura has affected her ability to use her semblance. Would it come back? She doesn't know if she even wants it back.
Her hesitation is punished instantly, taking a heavy hit from Winters Sword, knocking her across the courtyard and the breath out of her lungs. Before she can even get a moment to recover she's pinned against a wall, ice creeping up her legs to trap her from the neck down in ice, Winters sword pointed at her throat. "Who are you? Why did Salem send you?" Winter exclaims.
Ruby can just stare, at her possible immanent death, for the second or maybe third time within a couple hours. She cant help but start giggling at the absurdity of everything that's happening. It clearly unsettles Winter, looking behind her she can see its unsettling everyone, Emerald, ORN, CFVY and SSSN, she hasn't seen those last two for a while. She cant help but start laughing at the look on everyone's faces, everyone looking at the great and unshakable Ruby Rose losing her mind.
She paused when she heard the familiar shotgun of Harbinger. Its shot hits Winter directly before she hears the voice of her Uncle, "My niece comes back from the dead, and your first thought is to start attacking her?"
Qrows face wasn't shock, or anger, it was love and relief at seeing his niece returned to him. Her aura returned to a shattering of every color possible, and tears started leaking from her eyes.
Qrow simply walked up and put a hand on Ruby's head before continuing, "Ice Queen, your going to unfreeze her, and then your going to go be anywhere else." he stated with a sense of authority. Winter followed the instructions, silently receding the ice that trapped Ruby.
The moment the ice was gone Qrow pulled Ruby into a full body hug. "Good to see you again kiddo" he said softly. All of it was too much for Ruby, and she began to weep, soaking Qrow's shirt in tears. The response only caused Qrow to hold her tighter.
She stayed in his embrace for a few seconds, or maybe it was a few minutes, it was hard for Ruby to tell after the week she had. Just last week everything was fine, Atlas was still a kingdom, and Penny was still Alive. At the thought of Penny she just started crying even harder.
What fully brought her back to reality was Oscar. He said something, she didn't hear it, she could just hear his shock at her attacking him, even if it was just an illusion she hurt it still felt too real. "Go away." She muttered into her uncles shirt.
Qrow was the first to respond, "Lets go find somewhere private you and me kiddo. Come on, we need to talk." He spoke with such caring in his voice as he lifted Ruby into a bridal carry and she quickly reburied her face into his shoulder.
She could feel the eyes on her as Qrow walked to wherever he was taking her. After a couple minutes of just holding Qrow and feeling every step, twist, and turn Qrow put Ruby down next to him, continuing to keep an arm around her shoulder as both he and Ruby sat on the floor from where Ruby quickly laid her head back on his chest, taking solace in the privacy and lack of judgement.
Qrow spoke up first, "Fighting the Ice Queen in a Huntsman Academy Courtyard is kinda my thing kiddo, wanna tell me whats wrong?" He spoke calmly and slowly.
Ruby's thoughts seemed to unpause as everything she was thinking just, leaked out. "I keep getting people close to me killed, I keep failing everyone. And its supposed to be my job to use my barely functional magic silver eyes to do something to stop Salem. The immortal Salem, the one we can't kill and have no plan to stop." She took pause to take a shaky breath in before continuing, "Am I supposed to just try and fight her until she kills me? Like She killed mom? I don't want to throw away my life like mom did. I'm tired of being like mom, she chose running off and dying as opposed to staying, with us. At least Raven had the decency to live for Yang to be angry at." The shimmering of her aura seemed to tone down as she continued speaking, colors changing every few seconds instead of every moment. "She promised she would stay she promised!, and she left anyway and now everyone is expecting me to throw my life away to win this fight just like she did. I barely even remember her, why do I have to do the exact same things she did!" She finished, unburying what she had kept pent up since Summer first died.
Ruby looked up to Qrow and surprisingly found no judgement on his face. He looked up at the ceiling, and took the opportunity to speak up, "I didn't want to say this, thought it would hurt you to hear it, but I think Summer running off on the mission that got her killed was the worst thing she ever did." He replied in agreement. "She loved you, never forget that, but I think she knew she was leaving to die, or at least strongly suspected it, yet she did it anyway. We won't ever really get answers for what exactly Summer was thinking unless we manage to get the lamp back, but remember this. She loved you, and you can love her and be angry at her for what she did. Part of me still loves Raven, she's my sister, can't forget the good times before it all went sideways."
When Qrow looked back down at his niece he found determination on her face, the colors surrounding her setting into warmer colors, blues and greens vanishing from the patterns. "I don't want to die for this." She stated
Qrow just smiled, "If anyone asks you to I'll punch them for you." he joked, eliciting a small smile from Ruby for a moment,
Ruby just continued, "I don't want to be the leader anymore, I'm tired of making plans, I'm tired of picking people up when they're down."
"You've done enough of that for a lifetime kiddo, you were the person under the most pressure on Remnant, you deserve to think of yourself." He agreed. He peered down to Ruby's aura. It seemed to simmer down into a red like it once was, darker, far darker than the bold red it used to be, far more comparable to Qrows own dark red, but still brighter.
Ruby stated one last thing, "I don't want some magic eyes, I want to be a normal Huntress with normal eyes." She finished.
Qrow looked back at her to temper her expectations, "I don't know abo-" and he paused, because the silver eyes that marked her to have what would generously be described as an interesting life were gone, replaced with a washed out red, mirroring his own. He took a moment to gape before amending his statement. "Well kiddo, be careful what you wish for." He replied, pulling out his scroll to show Ruby the change.
Ruby gazed into her new eyes from the makeshift scroll mirror, as she did, her aura finally finally settled on being a burnt red before fading back into its normal invisible state when not being actively used. Changed but still Ruby.