Ruby: The Path Ends

Chapter Eight

     The plan looked suicidal. Ruby shrugged and agreed to it.

     They would use sewers and access tunnels under the city to get close, swarm in with everyone they had and put Ruby in the lead. If they tried to turn her on her companions, she would just fight harder against Ozpin's people. There were a lot of unknowns when it came to Ozpin's headquarters. They knew there would be a lot of security and probably all well trained. It was all or nothing now. Kara Long would be staying behind, if anything went wrong she would be made president and do her best to keep the people safe.

     Of course Ruby knew what would happen. Ozpin would be waiting, they would be trapped, forced to tell the location of the compound and the resistance would be over. She would have to watch as everyone was executed, then she would die and wake up to do it all over again. At least this time she would get to feel like she was doing some good.

     After the meeting she trudged back to her room, pausing when Rose came running toward her as she passed through the common room. She smiled faintly as the little girl launched into the air, caught hold of her neck and hung there like a necklace, hugging her almost too tight for Ruby to breathe.

     "I missed you, Miss Rubyrose!"

     "I missed you, too." She said with as much conviction as she could muster. Play along... She reminded herself, trying not to think about Rose stabbing her again.

     "Can you teach me about scythes tomorrow? Pleeeeeeease?" Rose asked, looking up at her with a bright, hopeful smile.

     "When we get back from the mission, okay?" She forced herself to smile back.

     "Yay! You promised! No more sleeping all the time!" She ordered as she dropped back to the ground and ran to tell her parents the good news.

     Ruby sighed and turned back to her door and almost ran into Sky. He studied her with open concern. "Are you really sure about this?"

     "Why not?" She shrugged. "It's something to do other than sit around here waiting for something to happen."

     "Do you still think this is a dream?"

     "Nightmare." She nodded, watching him warily. "Same as usual."

     It was tiring trying to predict the direction things would go. It wouldn't surprise her if he turned on her now, spoke the trigger phrase or just outright killed her. It would be sort of a pity, she was looking forward to the siege. It was something new. A different way to die.

     "What would convince you that you are actually awake? That this is real?" He asked.

     "If I die and don't wake up again." She shrugged.

     "You... sound like you're okay with that." His shoulders slumped ever so slightly and she actually felt bad when she saw the pained realization in his eyes.

     She stepped around him and opened her door, knowing he would not believe any lie she had to offer to make him feel better. Ruby froze as she felt arms around her and Sky whispered. "Please, don't die. You have to survive this."

     "I'll try." She said, wanting to mean it. How could she care so much about the feelings of an illusion? He let her go and she didn't turn around as his footsteps retreated, just stepped in to her room and closed the door.

     It didn't matter. Tomorrow they would all die and she would wake up again.

     She woke to knocking. A quick look around showed her apartment, a dubious relief. Dragging herself up from the bed she answered the door and Jaune smiled at her. "Time to get ready. We leave in four hours. Once you're prepared join us in the conference room. We're going to go over the strategies a couple more times to make sure everyone remembers what to do if things go wrong."