Remembrance

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

- William Shakespeare

I walk up up to the stage, my beautiful red dress gliding over the ground with every step. "Normal knees." I whisper to myself, trying to cover up the excitement and fright that is making my stomach curl. I hear Ozpin's deep voice over the loud speakers situated above us, and the crowd cheering to our backs. "Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long." I look up as I reach the stairs, giving a sweet smile to my friends. That's when I take the first step... ...and my world falls apart. - - -     I watch reality shatter around me, pieces of my life fly by like shattered shards of glass. I look into the one nearest to me: my friend, Weiss, fighting a small boar with armour. Her silver ponytail dances around her as she dodges the boars charges. She counters by slamming it with Dust, flipping it over, before stabbing it in the chest. I reach out to grab the shard, but it disappears and runs through my fingers like sand. I turn around, looking at another shard: me, running up the side of a cliff, carrying a large bird by the neck. As I reach the top, I swing the Crescent Rose around, chopping the bird's head off and unleashing a fury of rose petals. Again, I reach out for the shard, but it too turns to the small crystals that run through my fingers. "Ruby?" I hear, and I turn around. What was that? I start to walk on air, shards floating past on my sides. "Hello?" I whisper, trying to find my voice. The shards disappear, replaced with a bright yellow light. Warmth washes over me, before I see another shard rise up in front of me. Yang, her bright yellow, wild hair smiling at me with Weiss and my other friend, Blake, stand behind her. "Ruby!" "Yeah?" I hear, my voice croaky. "Are you okay?" It is now that I see the concern crossing over the three of their faces. "No." My voice croaks, and I want to punch me - that me - in the face for being so weak. "C'mon Ruby." Yang leans in, her arms wrapping around something unseen. "Don't die on me." she cries, tears flowing from her eyes. She rests her head as she sobs to herself before the shard combusts. I stare, looking at where the shard was, for many minutes after it's destruction. ''I died? Impossible.'' "Will she be okay!?" I hear Yang's voice cry behind me, and spin to find a shard of darkness. "It depends." says a deep, masculine voice. Ozpin. "Her heart is still beating. She may just be in a state of suspension." "So..." a new voice begins, stretching out the sound of the "o" for seconds. "She's not dead?" "Correct." "Do you think I could help?" "I do believe this may be above the powers that you currently have, Ms. Schnee." "We have to try, though, right!?" Yang cries out, her voice clearly desperate. "Anything!?" "Waking her up may result in amnesia, short-term memory loss or...." he stops, and I know what he's going to say even before he does. "Death." I hear gasps, then silence. "If you wish." I see flashes of colour in the shard: burning oranges and cold blues. I jump back, feeling pain crashing in my chest. "It's not working." I hear a third voice - Blake's - say. "How did this happen, anyway?" I look up quickly. What did happen? The last thing I remember is hearing my name alongside my friends' at our graduation. "When the explosion occurred, shards embedded themselves within many people, including Ms. Rose, over here. I--" Ozpin says, before his voice echoes into nothing. "Ruby!" echoes as silence once again falls. Explosion? What explosion? I punch the shard and it explodes into a fury of smaller crystals. "What is going on!?" I scream at the crystals falling down into the void below me. "Why am I here?" Better question, how long have I been here? The shards fly up around me, encircling me within a large diamond. The combine into one, and I see a large scene unfold in front of me. I'm on a cliff with beautiful plants sprouting up around me. Yang sits by my side, as we stare into the sunset. Brilliant shades of red, orange and purple swirl in the clouds above us. "Ruby?" she says, breaking the perfect silence. "Yeah sis?" "What would you do if told you that you're not who you think you are?" "Well," I say, looking down as my feet. "I'll ask 'who am I?'" She sighs as she stands up. "When we thought you were going to die, Ozpin told us about you." I look at my shoes, tears building up in my eyes. "I don't want to talk about my real family, Yang. You know I don't remember them much." "Not that!" she says, spinning around behind me. "You! Your aura." "My aura?" She sits back down, and looks over the cliff. "He said that some people share a direct connection to the Grimm. In their hearts are both dark and light aura. He said that those with both auras hold a direct link to a deceased member of their family." "Mom." I whisper, holding my cape in front of my chest. "Those people with a link, are especially strong in combat." She says, and I look up to her. She continues to stare at the ground below us as she resumes talking. "They are also targets for the Grimm and much weaker mentally." Wow thanks, sis. "He said that you are one of them, for you have silver eyes." "Huh?" "Your mother, Ozpin's sister, had silver eyes before she died. He told me that she was connected to her mother - your grandmother. When he found out about this link, he started looking into it." Silence fills the air as I look at Yang, absorbing everything she said to me. She looks away, activating her gauntlets - the Ember Celica - as she does so. "Yang?" I ask. "I'm so sorry." she says, avoiding my gaze. "Yang!? What are you doing?" She lifts her arm and fires a blast of bullets into my chest. "I'm sorry, Ruby!" she sobs. I regain my voice, watching myself lying motionless on the ground. "But... I'm not dead." The diamond around me shatters, and a tall woman stares at me from the debris. Tall and skinny, with red hair like me. She's definitely older than I am, her face shows that, but she still looks very similar to me. She wears a white cape with a hood, just like mine. "Come on, Ruby." "Mom?" I say, recognizing the woman in front of me. I stand in awe for a few seconds before running into her outstretched arms, wrapping her in a bear hug. "I missed you." "I missed you too, honey." I sob into her clothes as she pets my hair. "Mom?" I squeak, reminding myself of a young little girl. "Yes?" "Where are we?" She stops petting my hair, and I take a step back. "Well, that's up to you. Why?" "No reason." She smiles and hugs me again. "Come on." She says, taking my hand. We walk down the way I came, the shards now missing and the purple void around me now red. The bright yellow light burns in front of us, and we step into it. "I love you." I whisper to her, closing my eyes. "I love you too, Ruby." says Yang's voice. I open my eyes, and she throws her arms around me. "I'm so sorry!" she cries. "I know." I whisper, sitting up in my bed. Yang gets up off me, standing in between a smiling Weiss and Blake. And behind them, stands my mom, standing tall and smiling apologetically. "I told you I'd be back." "I remember." I say, before closing my eyes to sleep. "I've never forgotten."