Ruby

I pull the trigger and roll backwards blasting the grimm's head off. I hop back up to my feet and spin on my heel slicing out with Crescent Rose cutting a second grimm in half. I quickly look around and see Weiss fighting a heavily armored grimm.

I plant Crescent Rose into the ground and aim down the sights. I aim at the base of the neck and pull the trigger. Instead of the loud gunshot though, I hear an empty click. I reach for a new clip but my hand takes hold of empty air and my heart freezes.

The grimm bats away Weiss's rapier and raises its other paw into the air. "No… Weiss!" I scream. I yank Crescent Rose and crouch to the ground feeling a rush of cold energy fill my legs as I charge my semblance. I push off and go soaring through the air over to Weiss.

"Like hell I'm going to let it end like this. Not to Weiss!" I think to myself as I slide to a stop pushing the heiress to the side and slashing upwards.

Weiss

I prop myself up on my elbows trying to shake the ringing clear of my ears. I place a hand on my aching head and open my eyes but immediately shut them again, my blurry vision making my head hurt more.

A few moments pass and the ringing subsides so I slowly open my eyes. I look up and see Ruby standing over holding her scythe loosely with one hand. "Ruby? What...happened?" The hulking grimm I was fighting a minute ago lies dead in front of her.

"Oh, Weiss. You're safe. That's good..." she quietly says. "Hey, do you remember when we first became partners how you told me I would be slow and hold you back? It turns out you were right. I was a little bit too slow after all."

She teeters on her feet for a moment before falling backwards. I shuffle forwards to catch her and when she falls into my arms I'm surprised at how wet her clothes are. "Ruby are you…?" I ask as I slowly lower her to the ground.

However once I lower her down to the point where I can see her face my muscles lock up in horror. Three deep gashes are gouged down the length on Ruby's body with blood spilling out like a river. I unfreeze and drop Ruby to the ground and quickly press my hands against her stomach. "Ruby!" I shriek.

"Hey, not so loud. I'm right here you know. You don't need to shout," she says lazily. I panic unable to stop the bleeding as it keeps welling out of her wounds.

"Ruby don't talk!" I somehow manage to say, fear having closed up my throat. "You need to save your strength… please..."

"Mmm I don't think so. I just sort of feel like talking right now. Ooh! Hey! Remember what we did a few nights ago? We should do that again soon, that was nice." She coughs painfully and blood spurts out of her mouth.

"Okay," I say. "Okay anything you want just don't die on me. You hear!? If you die I will never forgive you!" I close my eyes and bend my head down over her chest starting to cry as the blood begins to pool on the ground beneath her.

Ruby just snorts, "Die? I'm not going to die Weiss. Geez you're so dramatic." She seems to notice my body shaking with sobs and says, "Hey, you're crying. Why are you crying?"

"Because you're hurt you dumbass!" I scream at her, lifting my head up. She tries to say something else but I lean down and kiss her hoping that Ruby will just stop talking not caring about the blood on her lips.

When I finally break the kiss Ruby smiles lazily at me. "That was nice, you hardly ever kiss me. Except for that time a few nights ago. You kissed me a lot then. Maybe I should get hurt like this more often."

"No!" I shout. "No more getting hurt! Get it!? You're going to live dammit and you're going to live forever!"

Ruby just keeps smiling at me like she didn't hear a word I said. She struggles to weakly lift an arm up to my left eye and wipes away a tear. "Did you know that from the moment I saw you I always thought that scar of yours was really cute?"

Shaking I grab her hand and more tears spill out as I look down at her smiling face surrounded by her red curls. "I'm a little tired you know? I think I might take a nap for a little bit. Wake me up for dinner okay?"

She closes her eyes and her arm goes slack along with the rest of her body. "No… Ruby," I whisper. I spin around and cry out, "Someone help me! Please! Help me!" I turn back to Ruby again and collapse on top of her sobbing. "Ruby… Ruby! RUBY!"

"A few days ago," Ozpin starts, "Vale faced its biggest threat in years. The invasion of the grimm. Our warriors fought valiantly and defended Vale so that we may live another day. And yet while we have cause for celebration, we also have cause for tears."

"For a great many of our valiant warriors lost their lives within that battle. Though none of those deaths were as tragic, as that of Ruby Rose." I lower my head and squeeze my eyes tight against the tears that threaten to spill over again.

"Ruby Rose," the headmaster continues, "was a huntress, not one in training, but a true huntress to the very end. The person she dreamed of being since a child. She knew the risks that came with it and accepted them wholeheartedly."

"Now that being said, Ruby was not simply a huntress. She was a friend to many of us. An inspiration to others. Ruby was special…" I block out Ozpin's talking unable to take any more. I draw my knees up on the chair and bury my head as the tears start to overflow.

At some later point everyone at the funeral stands up and we walk over to the spot where Ruby's coffin is beginning to be lowered into the ground. I stand stoically by the side aware of my whole body trembling. I grit my teeth semi-thankful for my bangs covering my face.

The coffin starts to descend into the hole and nearly lose it. I sink to the ground holding my chest feeling like my heart has been ripped out of my chest, torn to shreds, and sloppily put back. I hear a horrible wailing and realize it's me. Someone places a hand on my back but I don't feel comforted. Instead I just feel worse.

The coffin is fully lowered into the pit two workers start shoveling dirt over the wooden box. Now I really lose it and for what seems like forever people have to hold me back from running over to Ruby's grave until the hole is completely filled in and the gravestone is placed.

Whoever is holding me back lets me go and in a second I'm in front of the grave. I stay there for who knows how long. Whenever someone tried to drag me away I would trash around and fight them tooth and nail until I was let go.

Hours pass but I don't move. The day changes into night, the wind bitterly cold though I don't feel it. Eventually the sun rises again, lighting up the top of the hill where she was buried. In the newfound sunlight I stare at the rose crest carved into the stone.

Underneath are the words, "Here lies Ruby Rose. 907-922" Underneath that is something Ruby once said before we had even become partners. And I respected her for that. It was what made me stop thinking of Ruby as a child.

She was talking with Blake late at night and I stormed over to her for making such a ruckus when she said, "As a girl, I wanted to be just like those heroes in the books... Someone who fought for what was right, and protected people who couldn't protect themselves!"

I was stunned. More than that I was inspired. Maybe that was when I fell for her. To find someone so pure in a world so corrupted… "You damn stupid girl..." I whisper.

"Why did you have to come to Beacon two years early? Then I would have never met you and I never would have fallen in love with you and I wouldn't have to feel this way right now."

I bow my head wanting to cry more but my tears have dried up making it impossible. "Step away from my sister's grave Weiss," a voice says behind me.

I turn around and look up to find Yang standing above me, Blake behind her. "Oh, Yang. Blake. It looks like I've been here all night." I let out a weak, exhausted giggle.

"I told you to step away from my sister's grave," Yang says again, her voice completely even. "You don't have a right to be here. It's your fault Ruby died."

"Yang!" Blake snaps. The faunus girl lays a hand on Yang's shoulder but she shrugs it off.

"No! It's her fault Blake!" she shouts spinning around to face her. She turns back to me and yells, "If you had been stronger then Ruby wouldn't have died saving your worthless ass!" She makes a grab for me but Blake holds her back.

The words, "Your fault" ring in my head and I get angry. I rise to my feet and step up to Yang. "My fault? MY fault!? What about you Yang!? Where were you when this was happening? She was YOUR sister wasn't she!"

I get in Yang's face and keep going. "If you cared about her as much as you say you do then shouldn't you have saved her!? Don't try to pin this on me you whore!" Both she and Blake are taken aback. "Oh yeah, don't act all surprised, You really thought I couldn't hear you two every night? No, of course not. You thought you were being so secretive."

"Like you're one to talk!" Yang fires back. "What about you? You screwed my sister!"

"If you care so much then why did you never say anything huh?" Yang takes a step back unable to answer that. "That's what I thought," I say. "At least I cared about Ruby. What did you ever do?" With that I turn around and walk down the hill unable to be around Yang any longer.