1,047After a long time, I could finally bring myself to start writing again. This was something I've been wanting to try out, a fic in which Ruby basically is thrown in unforgiving and harsh conditions, right after the biggest painful event of her life. I also wanted to make sure that nothing of this sort had already been written before, and the closest one I found was the story by capt. H called Sleepy. It's a pretty good fic, and you may say its similar to what I wanted to write but I think my version is still different. A lot more darker, longer and will focus on Ruby instead of the whole gang. This story takes place right after Ruby uses her silver eyes against Cinder when Pyrrha dies. In the bleach verse, the story is taking place quite a while before Aizen enters Hueco Mundo. Meaning at a time when there were no arrancars, and only adjuchas and vasto lords
Initially I only wanted to experiment a Rule 43 type of story(Meaning one where an innocent character goes through a lot of trauma) involving someone innocent like Ruby Rose and see how far I can take this. But when I planned out a general idea of the events and how I want to write them, I thought I really wanted to see this written out. I plan on 2 parts. In part 1, it will tell the tale of how Ruby basically goes through all kinds of situations, grows and matures. Part 2 will focus on her being in Remnant after going through all that she's gone through.
WARNING! This story contains some psychologically disturbing themes, such as torture through experimentation (which to be honest was already present in bleach through Szayelaporro and Mayuri), Mental Trauma, PTSD and so on, but NO graphic violence or sexual themes. This story is written for the troupe of 'Corrupt the Cutie' where Ruby goes from Frolicking and Innocent to Mature and adult-like. This may not be for everyone, so if this isn't your thing, I suggest you turn back now.
Disclaimer: I neither own RWBY nor Bleach, only this crossover story.
Prologue
A blind flash of light and intense pain. That was all she could recollect and though her mind was drawing a blank when she tried recollecting the events before she witnessed this flash of light, she was too tired to care about it now. There was no feeling, no pain or any sense of urgency in her being despite the lack of aforementioned things and all she was left with was black, black and black. On her senses and her mind.
After what seemed like an eternity, darkness slowly dissipated from her vision, slowly being replaced by blurry, lighter black. Soon, the lower half of her vision was filled with a much forgiving, lighter color which she confused for white at first, but the grainy texture of the color indicated to her that it might be sand. That cant be right, she thought to herself. Sand was supposed to be yellow, not white.
The tiredness soon caught up with her, although she was still confused why she felt so drained out in the first place. She had the distinct feeling she was supposed to be alarmed about something but urge to just drop was just too much, too sweet and too alluring to ignore. Whatever it was, it could wait. Right now, she just wanted to sleep. She'd probably get yelled at by Weiss, or perhaps her beloved sister Yang would just wake her up later on anyways, probably by hugging her until she was suffocating. And so, she swiftly gave in to the feeling, and black filled her being once again.
This time though, she saw images. Or perhaps they were dreams? But they felt so far off, like she was viewing photographs of things long gone through a veil. Images of a tower and stranger yet, apart from the visual input, she actually felt her other senses receiving stimulus, as if she was experiencing the events in the photographs. The wind rushing at her side as she rushed towards the top, the urgency pervading her thoughts to reach the top. The scene changed, and she then saw a mix of red, gold and black, with orange, flowing shapes mixed in. Screams and sounds of explosions decorating the back of her senses. And then, a distinct moment. The figure in gold looking down, glowing, with something jutting out of her midriff, while the figure in red towered over her. And then, she saw the blind flash of light.
It was then that she woke up, breathing heavily, gasping for much needed air. She was sweating profusely, her body burning up as if she was on fire, like the figure in gold from her visions. Pain shot across multiple parts of her body, and for some reason, her face was tear stained. Her mind was still mush, as if she'd just woken up from a long sleep. Trying to regain her senses, she struggled up, picking herself up from the ground, blinking her eyes, rubbing them to clear her blurry vision. She'd really overdone her sleep, she told herself. Finally after a few painful minutes of disorientation. The scene before her became clearer and her sense of urgency became more and more greater. Stretching before her was what seemed like an endless ocean of white sand, as far as the eye could see with the occasional withered tree here and there. This was only in contrast with the black sky, with a crescent shaped moon to provide some light. The air felt cool and dry. Many questions pervaded her mind, but that final image from her dream spilled out first.
It all came back to her then. Why she as climbing the tower. About Cinder Fall, about Pyrrha and the arrow that Cinder shot through her. She wanted to shout, to scream, but no sound came out. It seems her body was too tired for another round of blacking out. She felt faint, her breaths becoming hard to draw in. The realization of the events that led to that finally falling in place one by one. She clutched her head, dropping to her knees, realizing that without question, she'd failed to make it in time to save her friend and that was what she'd seen at the top of the tower. Tears were automatically falling from her face, staining the white sand below her. She stayed like that for another 10 painful minutes before she could compose herself and start addressing the other questions biting away at her mind.
Where was she? This couldn't be remnant, she told herself, almost in self observation rather than in worry. The moon wasn't in pieces after all. And no place she knew in remnant had endless deserts of white sand. Her body's terrible condition was next. Wherever this was, she wanted a place to rest. She wanted to see her friends, her sister, her dad, her headmaster, anyone. She wanted to go home. Why was she here instead? Wasn't she in remnant just a few moments earlier? How long was she out? She couldn't tell. All she knew, is that she was mentally too drained to think about anything and just wanted someone, anyone to talk to. This deathly silence and bleak landscape was torture and the last place she wanted to be right now. She just wanted to fall into the peaceful embrace of Yang and clear out her worries.
And so, she looked around, noticing that her trusty gun-scythe, Crescent Rose lay right next to where she blacked out. Being the weapons maniac didn't stop even during her current predicament, as indicated by the relief she felt when she saw that her weapon was alright save for a few scuffs and scratches. It felt noticeably heavier in her hands now, further indicating how bad she was beat up. She really must have pushed her semblance when she struggled to race up to that tower. Her aura too, it seems, was pathetically low.
And so she began to walk, aimlessly, calling out to her sister, Weiss, Blake or anyone from Beacon academy, in hopes that they could tell her what was going on and where she was. Even walking here was a chore for some reason, and it wasn't until much later that she noticed it. At first, she assumed it was due to her tired physique, but now she noticed that couldn't be the case. The air itself seemed to exert more pressure on her than usual. As if the atmosphere was dense here.
Her stomach rumbled, and her throat felt parched and sore. Even crescent rose was just being dragged along the ground, Ruby in no condition to hold it upright. I really need something to drink or eat, she thought desperately. But so far, she hadn't happened across a single speak of the stuff of life or any sign of vegetation. What she thought were withered trees turned out to be mineral in nature, confusing her even more. At some point, shed given up calling out for her friends and family. She simply didn't have the energy to do so. But just standing here wouldn't quench her thirst or sate her hunger, so she grudgingly pressed on.
Ruby rose had no idea how long had passed. It felt like months, maybe even years. Or perhaps it as just as short as a day. But such thoughts were inconsequential to her. She just wanted some of those delicious looking cookies that filled her vision in the distant horizon.
"Ehehe who'd have thought I'd get to live out my fantasy of drowning in a sea of milk with cookies to go with, right Yang" she spoke out, giggling incoherently turning to her left. The familiar figure of her big sister filler her vision some distance away, with her same loving expression on her face as always. If she could only run to those cookies in the horizon, she would, but with this ocean of milk around her, she could only swim there she reasoned. It made sense to her mind. After all, why else would she be crawling on the ground and reaching out to them with her hands? And come to think of it, her sister, Weiss with her ever present annoyed expression and Blake with her indifferent attitude, Team JNPR and their members were all there in and about her, so why was she looking for them in the first place? That made no sense to her.
"Eeeh…I keep going but the cookies never seem to get closer…isn't that funny Yang?" she asked the figure of her sister again, with a lopsided expression on her face. So tiring! Her arms were really turning to mush now, as if the milk in which she was swimming on was dissolving her entire being like cookies dipped in a glass of milk. She really wished the cookies would just come to her.
"Aaah so hungry~~" called out Ruby "Hey Yang, I think I'm gonna drink some of this milk first, is that ok?" Although she asked her sister, as usual, she was just gonna go for it first. Her sister always forgave her for eating her share of cookies after all. And so, without further ado, she got a mouthful of that delicious looking milk. She couldn't tell how it tasted for some reason, but it didn't seem like she was able to drink it in the first place.
Maybe I can only have it with those cookies, she reasoned to herself. When she looked ahead, she could see the cookies in the far back, at the end of a tunnel with light pouring out of it from the other end. She reached out with her right arm but before she could reach them, the light from the end of the tunnel grew brighter and brighter, until it enveloped her completely, and her mind faded to darkness once again.
At first, its mind was a blank. All it knew was that it was hungry and needed to find something to sate the gnawing hunger that permeated throughout its body. It cared for naught else but to diminish its hunger, that was all it would take to satisfy it. No, that wasn't right. The feeling it felt was not that of hunger alone, but also of fear. No matter what it needed to do, it never wanted to be hungry ever again. The fear that if it didn't satisfy its hunger, it wouldn't be enough for the things it needed to do. That fear of being hungry and disappearing alone kept it going. It would go to any lengths to avoid such a fate. This feeling was so strong, so compelling, that the moment it came across another Gillian, it immediately proceeded to sink its fangs into its neck, draining it of its essence until it was no more. And then the next, and the next and so on it went until nothing remained that moved save for itself.
And yet, this being that devoured everything that it came across, still protectively covered the small, fragile, degenerating body in its hands. The body of a young human looking girl, wearing a black and red outfit with dark black hair and silver eyes. The decaying, degenerated state of the corpse meant that it wasn't even useful as nourishment, so the being could not understand why it was still carrying it. The being remembers carrying it ever since it was born, until the time when a large shadow with a white mask devoured it. Things were dark for a while then, but slowly, it began having thoughts. They were mundane at first, beginning with basic words which then slowly became concise sentences. And then it had emotions. It was at this point that the being felt the pressure and resistance that it was oblivious to all this time. All around it, was a tidal wave of something, threatening to consume it and render it part of the whole. Just maintaining what little emotions and feelings and sense of self it had was painful and torture. At many times, it felt it would all be over if it just gave in to being consumed by the mass around it. Atleast the pain and suffering would stop. When it looked down on the corpse that it was currently carrying, it felt empty, as if it had lost something very precious. The feeling to fill in that emptiness and the drive to sate its cursed hunger persisted, until it could suppress the mass around it threatening to consume it, until finally, it had control. And then the being would let out a loud wail, as that was all it could do to express what it was feeling. And then it would go looking for something to hunt and eat.
A long time passed in this manner, and the being lost count of the number of these large shadows it had eaten. At some point, a name sprang up in its mind. Gillian. That was what this being was and that was what the other large shadows it had been eating were. But unlike itself, the other Gillian didn't seem to possess these feelings and thoughts that it itself had. The thought of eating Gillians had seemed wrong to this being at first, as if the being was meant to hunt them, not eat them. As if the being was something that was meant to hunt these Gillians. Even the name sounded wrong. The being felt they should be called something else. But the desire to sate its emptiness soon overrode any doubts the being had and from there, eating Gillians was like second nature.
Many days had passed, and before long, a name resurfaced in the being's mind, one that sounded so familiar, one that filled the being with a warm and comforting and soothing sensation, as if some part of its empty shell was filled. At that moment, the being began to change, glowing brightly at first. The being's body began to morph and shrink, becoming more defined, compact and sleek. It had long thin legs, a long tail with its body dark red in color, with a white mask reminiscent of the face of a cheetah, complete with two red tear like facial streaks and silver eyes. Its body had 3 black stripes running along its back, as well as numerous black spots which were only slightly distinguishable from the dark red color of its fur. Its head was small and rounded, although the mask made it look slightly more slant than a cheetah's head. A single tear was flowing down from both of its eyes.
"Ruby Rose" it said to itself, finally having regained a small portion of its former self.
The adjuchas named Ruby rose was on her last straw. After getting her current form, she found that she perceived herself as a free spirited and curious girl who loved to speed along the dunes of Hueco Mundo in search of prey and also hunting said prey. She discovered that while her light frame didn't offer many means of a strong offence, her high agility and speed more than made up for it along with her precise and deadly strikes from her claws or fangs. She also discovered that eating Gillians did nothing much to sate her hunger anymore, even though it was enough when she was a Gillian. And that was when she trusted her instincts, which is what gave her the answer, which was to target Adjuchas. She also seemed to have a sense for telling how dangerous her prey were which was what ended up saving her life. She found that there were so few adjuchas as compared to Gillians and often this meant going hungry for extended periods of times. So when she did find them, it was already a life or death struggle while fighting them in a weakened state plus the adjuchas were much more of a challenge than the Gillians.
And yet, her will and her drive to fulfill the emptiness in her heart prevailed almost always, and she would be the survivor. But not this time. She had walked and walked and walked, and not a single being in sight. She already needed to rest and recover from her previous fight and now, there was no nourishment either. Even if she found something, she doubted it would go well for her. Soon, the fear returned. The fear that she would just drop flat at any point, left to die of starvation. She walked slower and slower, the fear encroaching her more and more. It became harder and harder to breathe, and her vision began to blur. Even her will was slowly fading, the fear causing her to hallucinate. The features in the sand dunes began to twist and distort, and tears were slowly welling up in her eyes. This was the thing that scared her most.
Not again, she thought to herself, pushing herself hardest to move even just a little bit. As far as she knew, this was the first time she was in this state, and yet, why did she feel this had happened before? She set down the body she was always carrying before with her, which was just bones at this point. The red and black cloak still wrapped around it like a comforter. She just stared at it, and let out a loud dying wail. She no longer had the strength to drag it along, nor did she have the strength to move herself. And yet, she could not tear her eyes away from the corpse. She almost felt she was looking at herself when looking at the corpse. Her eyes blinked several times, her surroundings becoming increasingly distorted. It pained her that out of all the things, she was dying by starvation. Next to the incredibly distorted image of the body in front of her, she saw another approach, a figure in white and yellow. It stirred something from the depths of her soul.
"Y…..yang….?" she cried out meekly and softly, before succumbing to the darkness.
So that's the prologue! It's a bit longer than I planned, but I essentially made it to give a good introduction to the premise and where the story is heading. I hope you like it, and as always, I welcome reviews and suggestions if you think I need to fix or correct something regarding the story or even if you feel there are parts I can improve on. See ya next time!