Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-43756665-20200208204457/@comment-86.152.12.193-20200216094900

TEXT WALL INCOMING!

Okay, so as our Hypothetical Volume 8 starts (to be referred to from here on out as HV8 for simplicity's sake) Salem's forces sweep into Atlas and decimate its military and Huntsmen defences. Team FNKI, the remaining Ace Ops and Team NDGO are among the named casualties. When Ruby's group lands in Atlas after the initial blitzkrieg, the sight of all these dead bodies and the lists of the dead cause Ruby to have what is known as a 'Heroic Blue Screen of Death', which is where the dialogue above comes in. Of course, the stragglers of the Grimm invasion force show up soon after and force RWBY, ALPN and Penny to fight them off, so she doesn't get much time to grieve.

Some time after that, Ruby's been doing fairly well - she's been a bit quieter and more reclusive than usual, but not too severe - when the team gets a distress call from a part of Atlas that had been relatively untouched by Salem's forces. Ruby jumps at the chance to help, but the rest of her team isn't so sure.

Blake: Ruby, I want to help those people as much as you do, but it's too risky. Salem's forces control the skies - we'd need an army to blast our way through.

Ruby: We don't need an army, we have a Maiden!

Penny: I am glad to know that you appreciate my skills!

Yang: That would draw too much attention. We need to be smart about this - pick and choose fights we can win. If we try to fight Salem as we are now, we'll lose.

''Ruby is noticably angry, pacing back and forth and gritting her teeth. ''

Weiss: Ruby, listen...

Ruby (yelling): No, you listen! Ten THOUSAND people died when Salem struck because we weren't fast enough to get there in time! Now we have a chance to make up for that! So I am hereby or henceforth or however the heck you Atlas uppercrusts say it pulling rank as team leader and ordering us to go and help them, and we are not leaving without as many people as we can fit in this ship with us! Are we clear?

The rest of her team agrees, though begrudgingly, and they head out. That mission goes south due to an encounter with a further Grimmed-up Cinder (I've got an entire seperate theory on that I can go into if you want me to, but not here) and they escape with only half of the people they had planned to rescue. This sends Ruby into another Heroic BSoD, and she stalks off to her room to brood. Some time later, Yang elects to go and talk to Ruby in the morning, but that quickly falls apart and descends into a full-scale shouting match between the sisters, as I have detailed below:

Yang: Hey, Ruby? Can I talk to you for a second?

Ruby (tersely): Yeah, sure, go ahead.

Yang: Okay. So, we've been going through a rough patch lately, I'll admit that. But Blake, Weiss and I had a talk, and we think you're overexerting yourself.

Ruby (sarcastically): So what, are you going to give me a hug and a pillow to scream into and say it's all going to be fine?

Yang: What gave you that idea?

Ruby: Because you treat me like a kid! You're always pulling the other two away for 'adult conversations' and leaving me out like I'm somehow too immature to get what you're talking about! I'm not a kid anymore, Yang! I'll be eighteen in a few months!

Yang: I didn't mean for it to come off that way. If you want us to treat you more like an adult, then sure, we can do that.

Ruby: Nobody cares what you meant to do, Yang. Nobody cares that I meant to save all those people. All they care about is what you did. And I failed.

Yang: You're still beating yourself up about that? Ruby, it wasn't your fault!

Ruby: Yes it was! I should have made them turn back, I should have made us stand and fight! But I was too scared, I was too weak!

Yang: Being scared isn't being weak! It never has been!

Ruby: Oh, and while we're on the subject of being scared, at least I'm not scared of admitting I love someone who's the same gender as me!

Yang: What's that supposed to mean?!

Ruby: I'm a lot of things, Yang - BLIND isn't one of them!

Yang: What are you implying?

Ruby: What are you inferring?

Yang: Oh, just say it!

Ruby: FINE! YOU'RE AFRAID OF COMING OUT AS LESBIAN!

''Silence. Yang does not know how to respond to this. Somewhere, Bmblb shippers are cheering in ecstasy. ''

Ruby: I just... I need to blow off some steam. See ya.

And she storms off.

Immediately after that, Ruby begins practicing with Crescent Rose in a training area of some kind. At this point, a new song called 'Chains of Command' would start playing, which would sort of be Ruby's answer to Path of Isolation. The lyrics have the general theme of how being a leader is restrictive because you always need to be stronger than your teammates so they have a focal point in you, and showing any kind of negative emotion is percieved as weakness. The music starts out slow and contemplative and becomes faster and angrier the further in we go. If anyone with more songwriting skill than I wants to come up with lyrics to that, I only ask that you include this phrase somewhere: "Can't be sad, can't be angry Cause they need you to be strong Can't be weak, can't be uncertain Can never put a foot wrong" As the song and the training scene progresses, Ruby's fighting style and aim gradually deteriorate and become more erratic and angry, and she starts screaming and crying the angrier her style gets. As the song crescendoes, she's just taking blind swings at the targets, lashing out at anything within range, screaming at the top of her lungs and hallucinating her enemies everywhere. Eventually, as the song ends, she's too tired to even lift her scythe, and she just collapses on the ground and breaks down into breathless tears, having screamed herself hoarse. At this point, Blake enters. She begins walking towards the crying Ruby.

Ruby (through tears): GO AWAY! I hate you! I hate you for always being calm in any situation and I hate Yang for being too scared to admit that she loves you and I hate Weiss for being cold and reserved and icy (faster, more quavering) and I hate Ren and Nora for carrying on a completely stable relationship despite the fact that everything's going down the drain and I hate Jaune for being able to hold his team together while I'm slowly coming apart and I hate Oscar for constantly reminding me that Ozpin said I'm not allowed to be weak and I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU ALL! (descends into sobbing)

''Blake pulls Ruby into a hug. ''

Blake: I'm not going to pretend everything's going to be okay. That's crueler than telling you it's all doomed. It's not either of those things. I just want you to know that I'm here. As a confidant, a friend... or just a shoulder for you to cry on when everything's too much. Right now, I think you need the third one.

''Ruby continues to sob uncontrollably in Blake's arms. Episode ends.''

Ruby is fine for some time after this incident until seeing the again partially-Grimmed Cinder kill Winter (again, I have an entire seperate theory for this that I will detail if you want me to) causes her to have a violent relapse and go on rampage to catch the fleeing Maiden, straight-up killing the Atlas soldiers who try to stop her. She confronts Cinder and they do glorious battle, fire and lightning are tossed around, etc. until Cinder breaks her Aura and she proceeds to go completely berserk, her eyes glowing white and flash-stepping all over the damn place, taking advantage of Cinder's lack of Aura to get in heavy damage until she kills Cinder by impaling her with Crescent Rose's war scythe form.

Ruby: This is for PENNY! For PYRRHA! For EVERYONE you've KILLED with that SICK, TWISTED SMILE ON YOUR FACE!

Cinder: You... stupid...

Ruby: SHUT UP! JUST! FUCKING! DIEEEEE!!!

Yeah, Cinder's straight-up dead at this point, and Ruby goes into another Heroic BSoD due to her actions while on rampage. This problem is then exacerbated by her discovering (via a call from Raven to Yang) that Yang has been keeping the fact that Raven is the Spring Maiden a secret from them (except Weiss). Another shouting match I don't have the exact specifics on ensues, but Ruby at one point yells 'IT'S BECAUSE I'M STILL JUST A KID TO YOU, ISN'T IT?' and Yang responds with 'YEAH, AND YOU'RE ACTING LIKE ONE!' Blake pries them apart and Ruby storms off again, brooding on a rooftop for a bit until she sees Weiss crying her eyes out over Winter's death. Ruby looks up at Salem's Grimm Whale in the distance and makes the (stupid) decision to fight Salem herself. That plan goes downhill faster than a cart with no brakes and, as we've discussed on another thread, Salem mind-rapes Ruby and forces her to relive all her worst memories while also showing her a fake vision of her mother's death that shows Summer surrendering to Salem and letting the witch kill her. Ruby, completely broken, collapses on the deck of the Grimm Whale, sobbing, and doesn't even resist when Emerald and Mercury toss her in a cell and chain her up.

Ruby: (through tears) Weiss... Yang... Blake... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry... I wasn't good enough...

The last shot of the HV8 is Ruby shaking with silent sobs on her cell bed, her wrists red and raw from the manacles, and her face streaked with tears.

Good grief, that theory is not kind to Ruby - which was kind of the point, so, mission accomplished. Feedback, constructive criticism, comments etc. are welcome and apologies for the massive wall of text.