Chapter 12

Yang

I can't believe things like this happen. I upset my sister and now she's drowning into insanity. I want to bring her back but how…? There's no way I could face her after what she did to me. I'm still hurt from her insults and treatments.

I clutch my knees to my chest. The visions of her torturing herself are still playing in my mind. How could she endure it so much? Even I myself couldn't bear to see it. When I saw her plunged the blade in her gut and twisted it, my insides were churning that I almost puked. Not to mention that she almost swallow the blade. Why would she torture herself that much? No, she's not torturing herself. She's torturing me…

She knew my weaknesses. I'm totally vulnerable. I'm sure she's going to do the same thing when I see her again. But I need to find her. I need to bring her back. I need to shine her life once again. I don't want to lose her. Not like him…

Flashback….

"Brother, what are you doing?!"

"Yang, why are you doing here? You should go home!"

"No! Don't do this! There's got to be other way!"

"I'm sorry, little sis… A psycho like me doesn't deserve to live. Send my regards to mom and dad, okay?" He raises a revolver to his head. He slowly pulls the trigger. I saw his lips moving. I can't hear what he said but I know he said, "Goodbye, my little light…" And collapse to the ground like a lifeless rag doll…

Present…

I don't want the same thing happened to my sister. I love my sister just like I love my brother. I don't care that she's a psycho. She's my sister and I've been look after her ever since she was taken into our family. When I look at her for the first time, I couldn't help but to see the resemblance of my brother. My brother was a psycho in our family and here comes Ruby Rose.

I remember how my brother always looks after me so I did the same thing as he did. I swore to myself I would protect her till the day I die. Unfortunately, what's left now is nothing but shattered dreams. I can't let insanity took her away from me. Just like how it took away my brother. But how can I fight with someone like her?

"You have to be like her…" I heard a sinister voice in my head. I look up and saw a black figure before me. I curl myself and look at it with fear. Is this the figure that Ruby keeps mentioning? "I mean no harm. I'm here to help you…"

"Help me? Insanity never helps anyone… You just want to manipulate me to fall for your tricks, just like you did to my brother and Ruby!"

"Of course we don't help anyone! Humans never help themselves! They're mad with power and blinded with greed! What makes you think we would help anyone at the first place?! We won't even exist if none of this would happen!" He's right. Insanity wouldn't exist if it wasn't for us. I look at the figure who's smirking at me.

"Consider yourself lucky I would like to help you. Your sister will die if she's going too far with insanity…"

"No! Anything but that! Please tell me how I can bring her back!"

"Simple, you need to feel the insanity she's in. Once you feel it, you enter her mind and shine her aura. The thing inside her will leave her body."

"But how can I feel insanity? I'm not a psycho like her…"The figure chuckle. He settles himself at the edge of my bed. "Silly girl, you don't need to be a psycho to feel insanity. Everyone have insanity inside them even the most innocent person in the world. This is why I'm here to help you…"

"How can I trust you…?" He looks suspicious. What if I suffer the same thing as my brother and Ruby? I stare into his red eyes. Insanity always fills with lies. How can I trust him if he would kill me too? "Let's just say it runs in the family…" Runs in the family? Does that mean….

"Brother…?" The only one I could think of. Is he the one who possessed my brother? I can see him smirking at me. Surprisingly, I smile at him, "Your brother entrusted me to look after you. Insanity can possess people too, you know. He has a good heart. And you meant well to bring your sister back…"

I can't help but to feel proud of myself. I got the chance to fight my sister and bring her back! I don't need to feel fear anymore. What I know is that my sister will return to me. Don't worry, Ruby! I'm coming for you!

Ruby

I aimlessly walk in the streets while dragging my scythe. Blood from the scythe and my face begin to reeks. I give out a hysteric giggles while singing a song that I don't even know where I learn from:

Wander freely, wander far,

Off beneath the devil's star…

In the dark, a girl so bright,

Got up to see the day by night…

Her fear in hand, her fear in heart,

Her fear will tear her soul apart…

White of flesh and white of bone,

The worms will leave your soul alone…

On and on the road does go,

Beneath into the depths below…

In the darkness dwells a place,

Where demons and devils do its grace…

Off you went to see the king,

You wish to hear the devil sing…

I keep dragging my weapon and tilted my head left and right. Before me I could see darkness. Black mist slowly burn down everything around me. I can feel the burning sensation of the black fire. I feel so bored. I aimlessly swing my scythe.

The city is empty. No one wants to play with me. Too bad, I thought. I invented a game though. If only there's someone wants to play with me. Come to think of it, where's that blonde girl? She's a lot exciting than her friends. I wonder where she lives…

Why do I feel loneliness? I feel like something's missing, something bright. Of course, I lost my light. Where is my light? I extend my arm forward. But I can't feel anything. I only feel the black mist that surrounds me. It burns. It's enjoyable. It's…boring. I want my light.

Then, I heard someone behind me. I slowly turn myself and face it. It's the same blonde girl. Her hair shines within the black mist. I grin at her and said, "My little light, do you come to play with me again?!"

Yang

Her little light? What is she talking about? I look into her crimson eyes. I feel the loneliness inside her. I heard the voice inside my head, "Looks like her insanity slowly devouring her mind. You see the black mist around her? That's her aura. You need to bear in mind that she needs light."

Her aura is dark. It's darker than black. Is this the Ruby I know and love? No, this is Nero. Ruby is inside her. I need to enter her mind. And to do that, I need to get close to her. 'What's wrong with her?'

"Nero is slowly devouring her mind. When she's done with her mind, she'll proceed with her life. We need to bring Nero out of her before it's late."

"My little light, I've invented a game! Do you want to play with me?!" she said and burst into a maniac laugh. I think I should be ready but the voice said, "Not yet, her insanity level is too high. Buy me some time would you?"

Suddenly, she swings her scythe to me. I manage to parry it but she punches me at my stomach. I reload my Ember Celica and punch her back. She was thrown few meters away but she stood up and laughs, "Is that the best you could do?! Do more and stronger, will you?!"

'Are you done?!' I ask the voice.

"Not yet, just a bit longer!"

She swings her scythe to me. The blade almost penetrates my skin. The black mist hits me, burnt my skin. I groan in pain. She took the opportunity by swing her scythe to me again. The blade cuts my skin. Blood flows out from the cut. I kneel on the ground while holding my wound. She maniacally laughs at me while dragging her scythe on the ground and approaches me, "Aww, does it hurts? Don't worry; you'll never feel pain after this!"

The black girl swings her scythe to her side when suddenly the blonde parry her attack with her hand. Nero gasps and saw the blonde girl grins at her. She gets up and grabs her cloak, throwing her further. The black girl gets up and looks at Yang in disbelief. However, she smirks, "Looks like you finally snap, my little light! This is going to be fun!"

She charge to her and aimlessly swings her scythe. The blonde follow her steps and punch her violently. The black girl laughs, "That's it, more! MORE!" Yang gives out a hysterical laugh, "As you wish!" She landed her fist onto her face, breaking her nose. The black girl wipes the blood from her nose.

"Now you just need to get near her. Use your Aura to enter her mind!"

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL ME!" Her golden hair glows and her eyes turn red. The black girl created a large cloud of black mist, covering almost half the city. Both of them lunge at each other. As their weapons collide, time suddenly stops.

Yang

Where am I? Why does this place so dark? I look around to find my way but this place is like an abyss. Is this Ruby's mind? It's different than I thought. I swim my way deeper into her mind. I look around again and saw a glimpse of purple light emitting not far from me. I slowly swim to it.

It looks like a rose, a purple rose. I gently pick it up. I feel so cold and dark. I feel the pain from it. Then I heard the voice, "It's your sister's Aura. After Nero took over her, her usual red Aura turns purple. She tried her best to resist the insanity. You better find her before her Aura becomes pure black. You're on your own, kid. There's no turning back…"

I nodded in determination. I need to take the risks. If it's going to bring my sister back, then so be it. I clutch it to my chest. It's so cold yet I feel faint warmth from it. I open my eyes and I'm in some sort of room. There are dead bodies and blood on the floor. I look up and saw a figure on the floor. I slowly approach it and I caught a glimpse of red cloak. "Ruby…?"

She didn't respond to me. I try to look what she's doing. I gasp in horror as I saw she's chopping a person using an axe. I call out to her again, "Ruby…?" She stops chopping and drop the axe but she didn't face me. I try to touch her but she wouldn't allow me.

"Why are you here…? I told you don't look for me…"

"Ruby, I'm worried about you. Look, I know I didn't tell you about your past. I'm sorry…"

"Sorry doesn't solve anything! You think you just barge into my mind and seen me just to say you're sorry?! What do you think I am?! Five years old?! This is a serious matter, Yang! Once you break my heart, there's no way it would come back together! So just…leave me alone!"

"What's it going to take, Ruby?! My life?! You can kill me right here, right now! But that doesn't going to change my purpose of coming here! I'm going to take you back no matter!"

"YOU CAN'T! You just can't… I'm stuck here…"

"W-what do you mean? A-are you still mad at me?"

"That's not true! There's no way I would stay mad at you! I just can't get out from here…. I'm no longer exists in this world! Nero took over my body after I get into mental breakdown! He's the vessel who kills anyone in order to get a body! I'm no longer in control! There's no way I could get out from here…. I want to go home…. I hate it here…."

Nero, that motherfucker is going to pay for what he had done to my sister. I kneel down next to her and pull her into a hug. Her body stiffens for a second before she clutches my arms. I hear her mutter, "I miss you, sis..." I hug her tighter and reply, "I miss you too, little sis..." Suddenly, a hysterical laugh echoes in the room. I get up and activated my weapon. Then, I caught a glimpse of red eyes beyond the darkness coming towards us.

"I'm quite entertain with this family reunion of yours. However, I must end this once and for all. Don't worry, both of you will meet again in the afterlife and you two will be thanking me..."

I return to my body with a jolt. I back away from Ruby who suddenly scream in pain. A cloud of black mist coming out from her mouth and surrounds her. I heard someone call my name, "Yang!" I turn around and saw Blake and Weiss running towards me. "What's going on?!" Weiss ask.

I look back at Ruby who fell from the building. I immediately run towards her and caught her along with Crescent Rose. Her skin becomes brighter and her clothes return to the usual red and black. I sigh in relief and tears roll down my cheeks. I brush away her hair from her face. She looks tender, I thought.

I heard a hysteric laugh coming from above, "I was about to spare you after I had fun with her. But you interfered with my excitement so I'll just have to kill you instead. Well, that's too bad but don't worry, your sister will join you in the afterlife!" He casts numerous arrows and aim it to me. I quickly dodge it and bring Ruby to Weiss and Blake. The three of us look up to Nero.

"You can run but you can't hide! I know every single corner of this city and there's nowhere for you to hide!" Suddenly, he was knocked down to the ground by Nora who came out of nowhere. We saw Ren leap down from the building, Pyrrha and Jaune soon join us. I can't believe they come here to help Ruby. Then, I feel someone squirming in my grip. Ruby begin to open her eyes. I meet with her silver eyes and tears of joy begin to flood my eyes.

"Yang…" she mutter. I pull her into a tight hug as I begin to cry. I feel her hands on my back as she hug me back. I slowly release her and give her a smile. She respond it with a grin. She look at Nero who struggles to get up. She get on her feet and offer her hand to me. She help me to stand and I handed her scythe. She activated Crescent Rose and aim it to him. The black figure cackle, "Heh, you think you can defeat me?! Not for a thousand years!"

Nero casts arrows and aim at each of them but they manage to avoid the attacks. Weiss attempted to froze him but the black mist countered her attack. Ren and Blake ambush him from behind but every time their weapons touches him, it goes through his body. He said in a mocking tone, "You think you can touch me?! I'm immortal!"

"Well, taste some of my fist!" Yang landed her fist onto his face and crashes to the ground. As he about to stand, Ruby jump in and landed her scythe onto him but he parried it with his axe. The younger girl gasp. Nero take this opportunity and kick her away. He later create a large black mist, surrounding half of the city. All them were thrown away to the streets due to the force of the black mist.

Yang struggles to stand. She gasp as she saw Nero not far from her. He gave him a large demonic grin and said, "If you didn't interfere, none of this wouldn't happen! You're helpless! You're weak! You're nothing but a piece of trash! Now, SAY GOODBYE, YANG XIAO LONG!" He cast an arrow and plunge it into her. Unfortunately, the arrow didn't penetrates Yang.

It went through Ruby….

Yang

God, please make this a dream! I keep blinking my eyes, hopefully what I saw was an illusion. But it wasn't. The arrow penetrates my sister's stomach. Her blood spatter to the ground. I watch in horror as she slowly raise up by the arrow. She didn't scream nor groan. She silently receive the pain…

"RUBYYYYYY!" I scream at the top of my lungs as I run towards her. Nero dropped her to the ground. I dashed towards her and lift her head slightly, making her face me. She violently cough blood. She slowly tilted her head and meet my eyes. "Yang…" she mutter.

She held out her left hand and touches my cheek. I clutches on her small hand to mine. Her dark, cold eyes watching me while smiling at me. Tears shower down my cheeks. "I-I'm sorry, Ruby…. I-I failed you… I-I failed to protect you… Please forgive me…." I stuttered.

"It's okay, Yang…. You did your best….. I didn't….blame you….. I'm glad that….you're here….with me….." I hold her hand tighter as she say every word and cough. Nero doesn't seem to do anything. He watches us from afar. Ruby caresses my face with her hand, wiping away my tears. I can't stand seeing her like this. I don't want to lose her again.

"D-don't cry, Yang…. That's not…nice…. Be tough….just like you…..always said…. Please….don't cry…." She slowly breathing for air. Her hand begin to lose warmth. Her pulse grew weak. "No, no please don't do this to me, Ruby! Y-you're going to be okay! Please stay with me, RUBY!"

"Yang….you're always…be my light….. And….."

"And what? Please tell me, Ruby!"

"You're the best sister….that I ever had…..Thank you…..for being the best…..for me…..big sis…." After she muttered her last words, she closed her eyes. I shook her body violently and yelled out her name, "RUBY! PLEASE WAKE UP! DON'T DO THIS TO ME! RUBYYYY!

Nero

I look at the siblings with a weird emotion inside me. The little red one already left this world. Why the blonde girl keep calling her? This is why I hate humans. They're so selfish on themselves. She's dead! It's no use to wake her up! "Don't you realize what you did, Nero? You torn her apart. You used her anger and use her body against her sister. You think she would accept her death like that?! Shame on you!"

Shame? Why should I? I never feel shame for my whole life. I've killed countless of people and took over their body. Why I thought of shame of this one?! And what is this weird emotion churning inside me?! Is this what humans refer to as….sadness and sympathy? Why should I sympathize them?! I'm Nero! The black entity who possesses humans and kill them for excitement!

The blonde mourns the little girls lifeless body. I thought of walking away and return someday for revenge. But my body wouldn't move. I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Among her friends, she terribly mourns her death. When I'm inside the little girl's mind, I can see how close both of them. And I'm aware of how she feel for her. I look down to the ground and look back up. I've made up my mind. Of course, it won't be relevant for me but this guilt will never die unless I redeem my sins.

I approaches the blonde and look at her. She look up to me and hold her sister tighter. She glare at me with anger. I kneel next to the red girl and place my hand onto her head. I close my eyes and chanted, "Beneath the Netherworld and beyond the skies, return the soul of this poor child in exchange of my sins." My hand glows in red. The blonde girl look at me in awe. The process took a few seconds to finish.

I pull my hand away from the girl. She slowly breathe for air. The blonde girl smiles and hug her tightly. I can't help but smile at both of them. Her friends slowly gather around them. The girl with a bow on her head pointed her weapon to me but the blonde girl said, "No, we owe him this time. He brought Ruby back. We have to let it go…." She look up to me and give me a small smile.

"It's the least I could do after what I've done…. I've committed enough crimes to gain the sins. This is….as a token of forgiveness after what I did… I'll return this city the way it was and everyone won't remember any of it."

"But why now? You used her countless of time in order to satisfy yourself. Why didn't you do it before..?" The white-haired girl said.

"I may have killed countless of people and tortured them. But that didn't mean I'm heartless. I was born from her anger and it become my source of energy. As my source vanished, the urge to kill dies and replaced with sympathy. Well, I shouldn't be here any longer. You better bring her back and get her wound to be stitch. Also, give this to her when she woke up."

I threw her heart-shaped necklace I accidentally took it along. The blonde caught it with ease. After give them a smile, I vanish into thin air, leaving a cloud of black mist.

Ruby

I woke up and find myself in the infirmary. I saw my friends and my sister around me. My sister hug me tightly, almost choking me, "Yang, I can't…breathe…"

"S-sorry, I didn't mean to!" she said and rub the back of her head. I hold my stomach and find a large stitch on it. I thought I was dead. But how come I'm still alive? "It's Nero. He brought you back to life…" Weiss said. I can't believe at first but Yang handed me my necklace. There's a note tied on it. I take it out and read it, "You owe me this time, little rose!" I smile as I read the message. He's not so bad after all, I thought.

Suddenly, Yang pulled me into another hug but this time, Weiss, Blake and team JNPR join in. I'm crushed in the crowd but I enjoyed their affection. I'm glad that things begin to return normal. Well, maybe I'll miss my insanity a bit.

I stare into the night sky. There's lack of stars hanging in the sky but there are some of them glow brightly. Not to mention about the moon. I always thought it's like an eye, watching us in the night. Then, I heard someone utter my name, "Hey, Ruby…" It's my sister, Yang.

"Hey, sis. Can't sleep either?" She shook her head. She join me into staring to the sky. Something caught my attention so I pointed at it, "Hey look! Doesn't it look like a heart to you?" Yang look the direction I pointed. She stutters, "Y-yeah, it does look like a heart…" I saw her cheeks reddened in the dark. I giggle. She look at me with her cheeks puffed up, "What so funny?!"

"It's nothing. You look cute when you blush," I said. Her face is burning red. She quickly look away, avoiding eye contact with me. I smile at her. For someone like her, it's quite rare to see her blush. When she turn her head towards me, I quickly presses my lips onto hers. She was shocked at first but then she respond it. I darted my tongue into her mouth. She moaned and both of us tongue wrestle.

I pull away my lips from her, leaving a string of saliva. Both of us flustered for a while. Then, Yang said, "Soooo, are we still sisters?" I place a finger onto her lip and mine. I wink at her and said, "Let's keep this a secret between us, okay?" She nodded in agreement.

She excuse herself to go to sleep after she pecked my lips. Suddenly, I heard a voice next to me, "Nice one just now, little rose," Nero said. I raise a brow and look at him, "Look who's doing it." He chuckle, "So how long will you keep this secret?"

"As long as we can. But what's the difference? They'll know eventually…"

"Well, suit yourself. Congratulation, anyway. I'll be taking my leave now."

"You're not going to stay here?"

"Someone like me doesn't belong here. But remember, I'll always watching you, Ruby Rose. Auf wiedersehen!" Just like that, he left in the dark night. I'm going to miss that figure. I wonder if we'll ever meet again...

Author's Note

So here's the end of insanity. I really enjoy writing it. I hope you guys enjoy reading it. This is the longest one so far. Last time I wrote 3000 words. This time, I wrote 4000 words! It took me few hours to finish it and I'm really exhausted. Now I'm going to focus on Downfall so I need to get some fresh new ideas. In other words, I'm going to take a break from writing for awhile but that doesn't mean I won't write. Fresh ideas and fresh new stories. I've made a poll on my profile so you should check it out. I'll pick the first two highest poll to be a one shot. I guess that should be enough for now. Au revoir~!