Disclaimer I own nothing and do this for fun.

So this chapter will be shedding some light on Ruby when she was younger hope you guys, and gals like it.

Ruby Rose was many things, a sleep lover included, having left Ozpins office several hours earlier to get some rest, very little sleep over the last three weeks and constant battle had pushed her body to the breaking point. After alieving her teams fears and accepting her scolding from her sister she just wanted to sleep. It seemed though Yang was determined not to let her out of her site and held onto her well into the night.

Wiggling herself from her sister's almost crushing grip, Ruby managed to extract herself, and hopped onto the floor. Making her way to her bed she catches Weiss staring at her, seeing the narrow eyed stare Ruby shrugs and mouth's 'What'. Weiss just huffs and points to Ruby's bed.

Ruby getting the hint nods and climbs up onto her bed, causing it to swing slightly as she does. Getting comfortable she surveys the room, Yang is holding one of her pillows in the same crushing grip she was in not five minutes earlier. Blake was surprisingly still awake also, reading one of those books she always had on hand. Weiss, though she couldn't see her was still awake from the fact that frost was creeping up her bed post.

Esdeath though wasn't in the room making Ruby wonder where their unofficial fifth member could be. Shrugging her shoulders Ruby decided to worry about that later, Esdeath could take care of herself after all, and settled down to go to sleep. As she slowly nodded off she thought of the carefree days she had with her best friend.

She fell asleep to thoughts of the dark skinned, green haired, red eyed spitfire that was her very very best friend.

Flashback/Nightmare

"Catch me if you can Emmy!" Came the excited cry from a six year old Ruby Rose as she zipped around a clearing, giggling as she evaded her best friend's attempts at tagging her.

Launching herself off one of the trees seven year old Emerald Sustrai tried to catch her elusive best friend, sadly missing Ruby once again as she disappeared in another shower of rose petals.

"No Fair Ru-Ru you know I can't catch you if you use your semblance." Here Emerald stomps her foot childishly as she regains her balance from the jump.

Ruby stops and looks at Emerald before giggling again and launching herself at her. She ends up sending them both to the ground in a shower of giggles and laughter as they rolled around.

Emerald seeing an opportunity at revenge as they rolled around starts tickling Ruby, causing her to laugh even louder. Ruby squirms under Emeralds evil tickling hands, causing Emerald to tickle her even harder.

"Hahahahahaha…ok stop Emmy please you win uncle uncle." Hearing this causes Emerald to smirk triumphantly.

"Silly Ru-Ru I always win the tickle fights because Ru-Ru is a big softie. Now what should Ru-Ru forfeit for losing another tickle fight. Hmmmm how about Ru-Ru gets no cookies for today." The grin that appeared on Emeralds face is positively evil as she watches her Ru-Ru tear up and give her the 'Puppy Dog Pout'.

"B-bu-but Emmys cookies are the bestest in the whole world!" Ruby starts sniffling at the thought of Emmy denying her, her strawberry mint cookies.

Reaching behind her back Emerald pulls a bag of slightly crushed cookies out and holds them in front of Ruby. Ruby if she had a tail if would be wagging, as she stared with stars in her eyes at the ooey gooey treats in her bestest friend forevers hand. Emerald deviously grins at having got the look she soooo loved to see from her Ru-Ru.

"Oh fine Ru-Ru, you know I would never deny my best friend her cookies." Taking the bag she unseals it letting the freshly baked smell of the duos favorite cookie waft out.

Getting themselves comfy against the tree they rolled into Emerald puts the bag between them and they both go to town on the cookies, devouring them in no time flat.

A half hour later we find them both full and content, Ruby leans her head onto Emeralds shoulder and slowly drifts in and out of sleep.

Emerald seeing this smiles and brushes her hair over her ear, before asking her a question. "Ne Ru-Ru how come you don't avoid me like the other kids do now?"

Ruby stays silent, scaring Emerald into thinking she had did something wrong, before she starts shuffling and moves her head to Emeralds lap. Looking up at Emeralds terrified face, Ruby smiles softly and puts her fears to rest.

"Silly Emmy you're my bestest friend that's why, you've looked out for me for as long as I can remember. When mom died you stayed by my side. When everyone looked at me with pity, you put a smile on my face."

Ruby smiles a blinding smile at her best friend. "So why would I listen to some stupid heads who make fun of you for your eye colour. You should know red is my favoritest colour and they make me like you even more."

Emerald tears up at Ruby's words and hugs the stuffing out of her muttering 'thank you' over and over again.

They stay like that for another three hours Emerald unwilling to let her best friend go, right up until the sun begins to set.

Seeing the sun begin to set Emerald reluctantly lets Ruby go. "Guess we had better head back to patch we don't want them to send a search party out for us, do we Ru-Ru."

The best friends grab the leftover snacks and drinks before putting them in a bag and tying it up, Ruby making sure the knot is secure gives a thumbs up to Emerald who hoists it into a tree.

There secret stash secure for another day both friends nod at each other and race each other back to patch.

Before they can get very far however the sky blackens and the screeches of all types of Grimm are heard in the distance, the echoing booms of Patches anti Grimm defense guns sound in the distance, and the blood chilling screams of people echo throughout the forest.

Ruby and Emerald go pale as a massive conflagration is seen, and both girls are sent flying as something massive slams into the ground thirty meters in front of them.

Ruby the first to get her wits about her scrambles to her knees, her jaw dropping as she sees one of the barrels from patches twenty two inch 'Grim Patron' guns in the ground in front of her blackened and cracked.

Emerald seeing Ruby's expression turns to look at what she's looking as she gets up, she shivers in fear when she sees the gun barrel, terrified of what could do that to Patches invincible defenses.

The screech of a deathstalker snaps both of the out of there stupor and they hastily get up and take off running towards the town, afraid they may be trapped.

Running through the forest can only be described as a nightmare as all manner of Grimm are heard; eventually making their way to the edge of the forest they get their first look at what Patch has become.

Gaping holes litter the small port city's wall, the three of the massive guns that had stood as Patches shield for over five hundred years are nothing but scrap and the last, though still firing in the distance at unseen threats, has been battered to high hell and is missing one of its barrels.

Emerald drops to her knees when she sees that her parent's bakery has been burned down, with Grimm crawling all over its carcass. She weeps in despair, sure that her parents are dead.

Ruby seeing her best friend in such a state kneels down beside her and wraps her in a hug whispering. "It'll be alright Emmy you'll see we'll get through this alright and your mom will be baking cookies for us again in no time.

Though she says these words in confidence they both know they aren't true and are only meant to reassure them both that they would get through this.

Ruby pulls Emerald up and pulls her along telling her they have to find her uncle Qrow, because if anyone can get them to safety its him.

Both girls take off running to Patch, determined to get out of this alive. Emerald knowing the slums like the back of her hand from exploring, leads Ruby through all manner of shortcuts in the back alleyways, cutting a twenty minute run down to just five minutes.

However before they can make their way through the last alleyway, the house just to the left of them collapses and a massive deathstalker charges through, straight at Emerald who freezes in terror.

"Emmy RUN!" Ruby shouts as the deathstalker barrels down on her best friend. But Emerald doesn't run, she is to terrified to move an inch, sure her life is over she whispers.

"Goodbye Ru-Ru." The sound of something piercing through flesh is heard and all Emerald can feel is weightlessness, opening her eyes she's horrified to see that she's soaring through the air and Ruby has been stabbed straight through her stomach by the deathstalkers stinger.

The deathstalker brings the stinger, with Ruby still on it close to itself, noticing it had not gotten its intended prey it flings her away like a used rag. Ruby soars through the air and slams into the ground, rolling a few times before coming to a stop, blood quickly form's a puddle around her.

"RU-RU!" Emerald screeches', but to her despair she doesn't even twitch, this however reminds the deathstalker that she is still there and it focuses its attention on her.

"GAH!" Ruby shoots up panting her heart beating so fast it felt like it would leap right out of her chest. Her head whips around as she gets her barring's, she calms down slightly as she realises she's still in her dorm room and it had only been a memory.

"Wh-why would I dream of that now, god what brought that on my latest episode?" Ruby is quite shaken to have dreamt what she did, considering she had all but suppressed those memories.

It takes another ten minutes before Ruby calms down enough to not jump at every little thing; she ends up noticing Esdeath had returned sometime in the night. Deciding to worry about where her wayward friend had been all night in the morning she lays back down and goes back to sleep, her dreams happier and less gruesome this time.

'Well that was interesting, I know her file said she grew up on Patch but I didn't think she was there for the 'Requiem' as the Atleasians call it. I have to say though this little trinket is already paying for itself in spades.' Here Esdeath who had rolled over to face the wall when Ruby shot up panting rolls back over and holds her hand up.

A gleaming ring with a blue and white crystal, glowing in the darkness rested on her right hands index finger. 'Very Interesting indeed Little Reaper, Very Interesting.'

Right so I'm going to use these nightmares as a way for Esdeath to pear into Ruby's mind so she can find out what makes her tick, and show what her life was like before the story in this universe.

Mini Codex Time!

Patches 'Grim Patron' Twenty two inch boomstick: Regarded as an oddity among the kingdoms on account of the fact they are guns from a super battleship, what super battleship you may ask, well seeing as how Patch started out as Valeian Navy corsairs they were understandably good at what they did, and what did they do? They stole Atleasian ships in the great war, not supplies ,whole ships, their most successful heist was hijacking the Newly commissioned flagship of Atleasian Royal Navy, The Super battleship Ironwood, named after Admiral Augusta's Ironwood who had died earlier that year in battle. The corsairs Hijacked the ship on its solo shakedown run, the ship itself not supposed to exist under the Kingdom Tonnage act, they took over the entire ship by gassing the crew with stink grenades, yes...STINK GRENADES. It was the most embarrassing moment in Atlesian Navy history and they have never quite forgiven the Patch corsairs for it.

Now as to what happened to the battleship, well they renamed it Big Burtha and it sat in Patch for five years, the engine being completely defective and having failed, causing the ship to remain anchored in port, after the Grimm appeared the ship provided long range artillery for the Patch militia, it proved marginally effective, eventually the ship was sheared in half by what is only known as 'Big Momma' an underwater grimm that has never been seen but is more then a match for anything on the high seas.

The ship remained in the harbor, both pieces partially sunk, until Alex'Not Enuff Dakka' Rose got the bright idea to rip the massive guns out, move them to the only way in and out of patch by land, and mount them in massive bunker complexes, the wall was built after.

Till the day of Patches Requiem these guns remained the stalwart defenders of Patch, denying any who dared to harm their charges entry, before delivering a 'Lazy Boy' Round to the face of said threat.

To this day even after Patches destruction one gun still stands defiant, two of its three barrels still prepared to give hell to any who oppose it.