Memento Mori Chapter Two: Part One

"Ruby? Ruby, where are you?"

Mark hears the voice first. He's unsure just how long it's been since Ruby collapsed, and he's worried sick for her. It could have been hours, or even a day or more. Time has no meaning in that void of red and black.

"Ruby!"

He can't see anything beyond that accursed world that he awoke in one year ago, but he recognizes the voice. It's Ruby's sister, Yang. He wants to call out to Ruby again, to try and snap her back to reality, but he can't. All that comes out is a hoarse rasp that doesn't sound anything resembling intelligent speech.

Of course, it makes sense that it would.

After all, his voice gave out hours ago.
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"Ruby!"

Yang rushed forward and fell to her knees beside her baby sister. The girl was huddled up, her bottle of pills laying on the ground open, the pills themselves spilled out and useless.

She pulled the young girl to her and held her in her arms, her mind was racing with questions. Why was Ruby here? What had happened to her? And most importantly, who was to blame for hurting her?

Her eyes blaze red for a moment, but she forced her anger down. Now wasn't the time for it. She had to tend to her sister first.

"Ruby," She said softly, stroking her sister's face, "Ruby it's me, Yang."

The young girl slowly looks up, her eyes red and puffy from crying, and focuses on the figure before her. All she sees is blonde hair, and that was enough.

"...Mom?"

No words could describe the pain that shot through Yang's heart at that one simple little word. It was the first time since that horrible incident that Ruby had uttered that word, had even thought about the woman. All she could do through the tears was smile down at Ruby and say one equally simple word in return.

"Yeah."

The little girl's eyes filled with tears and she wrapped her arms around the older woman, her sobs filling the alleyway. Yang held on tight and cried as well, rocking her sister back and forth.
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Ruby's eyes slowly opened, and she found herself staring up at that red sky and black moon. The stench of blood is everywhere once more, and she sighs. She hates this place. There is nothing good about this void of red and black, and there never has been. The ocean of blood, the dark sky, all of it serves as a reminder, a reminder she does her best to forget. It's only then that she realizes that her hair isn't wet, and her head is elevated slightly. The ground underneath her is also soft and warm.

Suddenly, Mark's face fills her vision, his scarred visage an unpleasant reminder of what she had done. But his blue eyes, the most striking thing about him, are filled with nothing but kindness and concern.

"Hey ya little snot," he croaks, his voice hoarse and raspy, but still full of humor like always, "I know I'm not Yang, and don't have those glorious legs that older sisters tend to have, but hopefully this is enough and isn't too weird for you."

Ruby blinks, and turns her head. The "soft ground" that she's on is actually Mark's lap. She bolts upright and scrambled back, cheeks glowing a bright shade of red, and Mark chuckles as best he could.

"Guess that answers my inquire. Alas, I lack that feminine charm that your sister has."

"T-that's not it," Ruby says, trying to cool the heat in her face, "It's j-just embarrassing...that's all."

Mark scoffs and shifts, sitting cross-legged in front of her. How he's calm when he's surrounded by blood every single day for the past year still baffles Ruby.

"W-why's your voice so hoarse?" She asks, trying to get her thoughts away from his lap and the situation she had found herself in.

"Eh," Mark shrugs, "I was yelling your name and trying to get you to talk to me for hours, or days. I can't really tell the passage of time without you awake and aware of what's going on. This is the result of me not stopping."

Ruby's eyes shift downwards, and she stares hard at the blood. Once again, it was her fault that something happened to Mark.

"Hey," his voice gets her attention and she looks up at him, "You feel like talking? I've never seen you react that way before, and it really worried me. Did...did it have anything to do with what happened a year ago?"

She thinks about it, but only for a moment. No, she doesn't want to talk about it. To talk about it would bring up the memories. To bring up those memories would bring back...IT. And that was the last thing she wanted.

So instead she shakes her head and pulls her knees to her chest. She hates this place. Not even having Mark there makes it tolerable for her. She hears him sigh, but it doesn't sound like he's disappointed. It was actually pretty amusing, if she had given it some thought and had been in the right state of mind and mood. She'd gotten good at reading his emotions and mood just from the verbal ticks he gave off, even if she knew nothing about him.

"Well, even if I think you should talk about it, I'm not going to force you. That wouldn't be right, and would do more harm to you than good. I want to, but I won't. But when you feel like the time is right, when you've recovered from...whatever happened, well, you know where to find me. To be honest, there's not many places for me to go."

He stands up and walks over to her and sits down next to her. He's not too close, maybe a foot away, and their shoulders don't touch, but he's close enough to be a comforting presence.

Mark wondered how he could help the little girl. It took everything he had not to continue to question her, to get right to the source of what troubled her. He wanted to shout, to demand answers, to do something! He desperately wanted to know what happened and why she reacted that way, but being stuck with her for a year had taught him one important thing; getting Ruby to talk when she didn't want to was nearly impossible.

One had to tread carefully in regards to that. Push too hard, and Ruby would shut you out completely, or leave if able to. He'd seen her do it to other people, and she used to do it to hm, early on, back when he tried getting to know her. So he pushed down the urge to find out the truth. He held his tongue when all he wanted was to talk, to find out the truth, and then maybe help her heal.

For now though, besides resting his voice, he'd just be there for her in his own way, as it was all he could do at the moment, and hopefully be a comforting presence for her. They both sat there in silence and stared up at the broken moon above together.
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When Ruby woke up, it was in her bed back home, with no memory of how she got there. In fact, she couldn't remember much, other than what transpired at Blake's house. She slowly sat up and looked around the room. To her immediate right sat Yang, head in her arms as she slept half on Ruby's bed, half in the chair she was sitting in. However, almost as if sensing Ruby's gaze, Yang sat up with a yawn, stretching. The minute her eyes fell on Ruby, she immediately reached for the younger girl and pulled her into a hug.

While she was momentarily surprised, Ruby quickly returned the gesture, and both sisters sat there for a minute just holding each other. When they pulled apart however, Yang's gaze grew stern.

"Who hurt you?"

Her tone was terrifying, but Ruby wasn't in the mood or right state of mind to talk. Not yet.

"Nobody did," she said quietly, "I-I just messed up...that's all..."

Yang didn't believe her for a second, but she knew better than anyone else that if Ruby didn't want to talk, then she wasn't going to talk. She wanted answers, but with her sister having just woke up, she wasn't about to go forcing her to speak. So the older woman sighed instead and gave her baby sister a weary smile.

"Well...alright. Only if you insist, for now. Stay here and rest, OK? I've got to go file a prescription refill for you, and then I'll be right back. Will you be alright?"

Ruby nodded, and Yang kissed her forehead before leaving. When she was gone, Ruby immediately reached under her bed for her journal that Yang had got for her a few years ago. She flipped past the more recent pages that detailed her meeting Blake, and began to write.

Dear Diary, she started, determined to put her feelings to words, I messed up again. Badly. I was invited to Blake's house, and at first we were having a good time. We were laughing, talking, everything was fine. Her AC was broken, and she recommended that I took off my jacket, or at least take off everything under my jacket but my undershirt, and I did. Then she touched my scar. Diary, I freaked out. I think I hurt her, and I ran away. I was a coward and I lashed out at her when she didn't do anything wrong. Blake has done nothing but be kind to me, and this is how I repaid her. She was the only one I felt comfortable being around, besides Yang, and I blew it.

Ruby stopped writing as her lip quivered, and tears threatened to fall. Sniffing, she wiped them away and closed her journal and put it away. For a minute, she actually thought about talking to Mark, but she quickly dropped that idea. His voice was still hoarse, and she didn't want to cause him any more pain than she already had.

No, better to bottle it up like she always had.

When Yang got back, she sat down beside Ruby and put an arm around her. The refill would be in tomorrow, and then Yang would immediately go get it. Until then, the sisters just stayed near each other, basking in the other's presence.

Night fell and Yang ordered dinner, and the two ate in relative silence. Ruby was still thinking about that afternoon, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she got at herself.

She should have done better! Of course Blake would have been curious, anyone would have! She had reached out in concern, and Ruby had pushed her away. All those weeks of them laughing and reading together, all of it undone because of her.

Ruby didn't feel like talking afterwards, and went straight to her bed. Mark was still quiet, but she didn't mind too much. She was tired and didn't want him asking any questions again.

The next morning fared no better, as Ruby continued her personal vigil of silence.

"Hey baby girl," Yang said quietly, sitting down next to her, "How you feeling?"

Ruby didn't reply, and just stared moodily at a nearby wall. Yang held in a sigh and wrapped her arm around her sister.

"I don't have anything going on today, so I was thinking of renting a movie that we could watch after I get back from picking up your pills. What do you think, anything in mind?"

Still nothing but silence. Yang's smile faltered just the slightest, but she persisted, for Ruby's sake.

"Well, we'll discuss the movie later. How about lunch? Anything you want to eat?"

Ruby shook her head, and drew her knees up to her chest. This time, Yang's smile did fade, and she sighed. When Ruby did that, it was a clear indication that she wanted to be left alone.

"Alright kiddo. Just...come talk to me if you need anything, OK?"

Yang slowly stood up and left the room, pausing at the door to look back at Ruby, before leaving, closing the door behind her. Ruby knew that she should have said something, but she didn't feel like speaking to anyone. The scene from yesterday kept replaying over and over in her head, and she couldn't stop thinking about it.

"Ruby..."

It was a whisper, the sound of one's voice just coming back, but she heard it all the same. However, Ruby wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone, not even Mark. She heard him once more, but ignored him.

This continued onto the next day, with Ruby leaving the apartment without saying anything to Yang. The anger in the pit of her stomach gnawed at her, and she found herself becoming more irritable as time went on.

She walked around the city for a bit with her headphones on, no destination in mind, hoping to get lost in her music.

"Ruby, you don't have to respond, but please listen to me, even if it's just this once."

There was Mark again. His voice was improving rapidly, quicker than she had thought it would. She wasn't in the mood to listen to him preach at her though.

"Ruby, I know you don't want to, but you need to tell someone about what happened."

She grit her teeth, but held her tongue. She wasn't going to be goaded into responding though, and she pretended not to hear him, humming along quietly to her music.

"Nice try, kiddo, but I can practically read your mind at this point. The whole ocean here is roiling from your emotions, and I know you can hear me over your music. Look, it doesn't have to be me, it doesn't have to be Yang, hell, it doesn't even have to be a living person! Just...talk to someone. Vent, rage, scream, let it out. Don't bottle it up inside, like I know you always do. It's not healthy. I mean, look at you now!"

She turned her music up, and she heard Mark growl. Well, that was new. She'd never heard him do that before, and she almost stopped walking to say something. Almost. She chalked it up to him being frustrated at her, and paid it no mind.

She continued to walk with no destination in mind, until she found herself at Beacon. Wordlessly, she got some food and then retreated to a table in the corner of the cafeteria. The sound of people laughing and talking to each other grated against her, as it reminded her of how happy she had been, hanging out with Blake, and her mood continued to sour considerably.

She poked at the tray, a small part of her mind unsure as to why she got the food to begin with, repeating the events from three days ago over and over in her head. Speaking of her head, it was pounding.

You failed once again, a treacherous voice whispered in her ear, Back to downing pills and being alone once more. All that progress, all that work, for nothing. And Ozpin had hope for you.

"Mr. Ozpin...I'm sorry," Ruby whispered quietly, tears threatening to appear once more.

And then, suddenly, a voice cut through her thoughts. One she didn't recognize.

"Hi there."