A/N: This story is a sequel to another story of mine Miracles of Ancient Wonder. A lot of what's going on right now won't make any sense if you haven't read the first one so I'd highly recommend doing that. If you don't and want to puzzle things out, then I'd very interested in hearing your thoughts and reactions to everything that gets referenced.

You can find it here: s/11963185/1/Miracles-of-Ancient-Wonder

Ruby held Crescent Rose to her shoulder, an Ursa in her sights. She focused on the chamber of her weapon, which was empty, and the flow of energy as it led to the end of the barrel. With a quick pulse of her Aura and a pull of the trigger, she forced a unit of violence into existence. The Ursa's head exploded because that was the power of the gun, to connect the barrel with the target and deal death at a distance. Technically speaking, she could've forced the Grimm to be peaceful to her, and her only, but this wasn't a normal group of them, it was a horde that needed to be killed.

Her next three shots cleared the road of greater Grimm and opened a route to the fields surrounding Dōsatsu City. Regular Grimm were barely worth paying attention to, they crumpled under Bumblebee's wheels. Her sister's borrowed bike was every bit the vehicle of a Huntress that Ruby'd expected it to be: strong, tough, and fast.

As she crested a hill, the slate walls of the city took over the skyline. They were tall and built with late Colorless Empire sensibilities, designed at the point where the outlying regions couldn't count on Vale to send them any aid and enemy Aura-wielders were more of a threat than the Grimm. The Cross-Continental Transmit Repeater poked above them, lighting up the evening sky with a brilliant blue glow. It was a beacon of freedom and civilization in the far reaches of the territory Vale claimed. It was also near the last place that Blake and Yang had been spotted.

The fields around the city were coated in the inky blackness of Grimm. Explosions of fire and ice dotted the landscape, the results of the artillery that fired in staccato from the walls while the anti-air guns provided a solid tempo. Their blasts formed a line that the smaller Grimm couldn't cross, an area of denial that would funnel them towards Ruby's target: the whirlwind scything through the horde like a hot knife through butter. She could barely make out a feminine figure, who had to be the area's strongest Huntress, in the center of the winds thanks to all of the debris being thrown around.

Ruby gunned the engine and shifted Crescent Rose to her lance form, the blade rotating to be in line with the shaft. Her front wheel hopped into the air, smashing into an Ursa's back as it fell, and she cleared a path through the sea of monsters. It was easier to cleave through without worrying about hitting the ground if you rode on top of them.

The small tornado dissipated by being shot away from the city as Ruby approached. In the center was a tall, blond woman with a polemace that had a spinning head. Considering the thickness of the white and gold armor she wore, she should be a front liner like Yang, Pyrrha, Nora, and Jaune.

Ruby waved as she approached, slowing to a stop and using Crescent Rose's rifle mode to keep the Grimm back. Her Aura was almost definitely stronger than the woman's, but using too much of her power while wearing the mantle of Ruby Rose, Long-Wandering Huntress, would cause problems. She didn't know what type of problems and wasn't in any rush to find out since thinking about them sent a shiver down her spine.

"Hello there! Glad to see a fellow Academy Huntress entering the fray. I'm Celeste, Guardian of Dōsatsu City." The woman raised her head, ponytail spiraling behind her as she batted a rolling Boarbatusk away. After a moment, noticing the questioning look Ruby was giving her, she continued. "You're from Vale then. I'm the Huntress-Commander of the city, aka Guardian."

"Gotcha. I'm Ruby Rose." She continuously fired, keeping her eyes on their enemies. Though she did catch the slight frown from Celeste. "How did you know I went to Beacon?"

"Only three types of people can cut through Grimm like that: monks, syndicate heavies, and Academy Hunters. No offense, but you really don't seem like the type for the first two."

"Syndicate?"

"Mistral crime families. Ever since that mess at Beacon, they've been moving in along the coast."

"Oh…" Ruby'd have to do something about that if she found them since that was sort of her fault.

"Also, Stahl warned me that a Ruby Rose would be coming our way next. Even though I wasn't expecting you to be that capable from what he said." Celeste pressed a button on her weapon's shaft and fired a wall of razor wind with her next swing. "You couldn't have picked a better time to arrive."

If Ruby hadn't been wearing the scant bits that remained of her crafted identity, no one would have been able to remember her. "Are you low on Hunters?"

"Unfortunately so. The Anathema made sure of that." She spat at an Alpha Beowolf before slamming it across the field. "My junior Guardian was incapacitated after fighting them by the curse on Vale. I sent him to a hospital in the city until he recovers. And the regulars are distracting the rest of the horde in the forest."

"I'm sorry."

After a brief hesitation, Celeste shook her head. "It isn't your fault, but thank you."

Ruby barely resisted the urge to look away. That actually was her fault. "Did he particularly dislike the Anathema?"

"No, but when they came near, he insisted on fighting them," Celeste sighed. "I don't know what they did to him, but he couldn't get out of bed when he returned. Once that happened, the panic set in."

Ruby took a deep breath. What were Blake and Yang doing? She had been sure that they weren't bad people, that was a pretty big part of why she'd cursed Vale, but if they were hurting other people… Then she didn't know what she'd do. "You didn't go with him?"

"I'm not about to leave my city without a Huntress and my children without a mother. I've fought one of those demons before, one who had been active for only a month. It was almost beyond me." The lines of silver in the older woman's hair were obvious now that Ruby was closer. If it wasn't for those, and the cold calmness in her eyes, Ruby wouldn't have guessed her above thirty. "Two that spent most of a semester at Beacon would take an army that I don't have."

"Mmh." Ruby nodded. If it came down to a fight, she wasn't sure if she could take either Blake or Yang despite her not only beating one of the strongest Huntresses at Beacon one on one, but also having only gotten better in the months of searching for her runaway teammates. "Who's manning the cannons then?"

"We have a civilian militia and a squad of combat school graduates. Their Auras may be weak, but their hearts are strong and their aim steady." She pointed over her shoulder at the nearest cannon.

Ruby looked at the wall, quickly calculating the yield and fire-rate of those guns. She had the rounds to turn the tide of the ground fight. "Can I take command of the nearest group? I'll be more effective at range and should coordinate firing zones with them."

"Do you have any experience leading in combat?"

"I was a team leader at Beacon."

Celeste glanced at Ruby, backhanding a Beowolf as it lept at her. She pointed to a section of the wall with her mace. "Head for the east gate and take position on the wall. Command frequency is seventy three point four, I'll let the third know to expect you."

Ruby nodded, glancing at the gate. "One more question. What sort of Elder Grimm are we dealing with?"

This many Grimm would never coordinate without an older, more intelligent Grimm leading it. They would've come in small, easily taken out, groups.

"Ancient Boarbatusk. My scouts say it's almost thirty feet tall at the shoulder. It's still chasing them around the forest."

Ruby dropped the empty magazine from Crescent Rose and slammed one full of Dust rounds in its place. "Gotcha."

Several minutes of light combat passed before Celeste heard Ruby's voice over her earpiece.

"Ruby Rose, in position for fire support. Squads two through five, focus our fire on the edges of the battlefield and leave the main arc to me."

"What?" Celeste asked herself, momentarily freezing. The girl didn't think she could provide four cannons worth of fire herself, did she?

"Ruby, are you sure about-" Celeste's question was interrupted by the first shot of the girl's sniper rifle.

A massive Dust explosion, slightly smaller than one of their heavy shells, blossomed within the densest pack of Grimm. A moment later, a second appeared, and a third, and a fourth. The bursts of fiery energy continued until eight in total tore through their enemies. Ruby had in fact outdone four normal cannons worth of damage with what seemed like a single shot.

And then she fired again, a one woman artillery battery.

Celeste turned back to the Grimm, trying to ignore the clustered destruction surrounding her. That had to be the girl's Semblance. No one, not even Atlas' Specialists, would burn through such expensive ammunition that quickly. A single Dust round for a heavy rifle would have cost the same as a nice dinner for her family, so burning through something as advanced as a cluster warhead would be ludicrous. And yet, she couldn't deny its effectiveness.

But, it wouldn't do to rely so much on one so much younger to defend her city.

Celeste pressed a button on the handle of her Typherion. Wind Dust flowed into the head of the mace, spinning it faster and faster. Within seconds, it had been concealed by swirling clouds. Only then did she unleash her Semblance, strengthening the winds and giving them a razor's edge. They encircled her, narrowed until lines of sliced air could be seen, and she became the whirlwind once more.

She rocketed into the waves of Grimm, leaving piles of bodies and limbs in her wake. It was not an efficient combat strategy, as her teachers had told her many times, but it was impossible for the small ones to survive. Someone with a weaker Aura would have lasted minutes, but she was a child of Heroes with a soul to match. She hoped her own children would reach the same heights, but none seemed too interested in fighting.

With two Huntresses on the field, none of the Grimm made it close to the walls. They needed something stronger to push through.

A line of trees swayed to the side, it's steps boomed as they approached, and it revealed itself. The monster was a bit taller than she'd heard.

The great Boarbutusk briefly stopped, then came smashing through the edge of the forest in the roll that its species was so famous for. It dug a deep trench, kicking up mounds of dirt as it charged her. The lesser Grimm caught in front of it were crushed flat, but none of that would matter if it hit the wall.

Celeste pointed her mace away from it and spun more Wind Dust. The gale became strong enough that she was pulled away even with her heavy armor. But before she could move, a scarlet flash appeared in the air in front of it.

Ruby's red cloak whipped in the wind as she held her rifle out. Four Gravity Dust rounds hit it in the side, twisting its path, and one more launched it into the air, several impossible shots considering her position. It spun up, in a clumsy arc, soaring over the field and right into another attack by Ruby. As soon as she'd fired, she'd vanished into a cloud of petals and reappeared in it's path, spinning in the air.

The tip of her weapon caught the Boarbatusk and tore into it. They spun in opposite directions, allowing her the maximum amount of power behind the blow… or was it blows? Ruby was far off and spinning fast enough that it was hard to make out her weapon, but it seemed like there were five blades cutting into the Grimm in succession, as if she was a saw blade.

That all might be explainable by a duplication Semblance along with a martial art or weapon evocation, but it was very odd for someone that young to be so powerful. Stahl would've recognized someone that powerful visiting his town. Then again, he also hadn't seen her in a serious fight.

The massive creature hit the ground in a heap. Two of its legs and one tusk had almost been severed by the assault and yet, it tried to stand again. Ruby landed on its head, weapon pointed at its skull. She fired once, but the bullet deflected off of the monster's mask.

Ruby held a hand toward it, fingers outstretched. She closed them, as if she were grasping something, then pulled back. As her hand moved above her head, long strips were torn from the Grimm, as if she'd yanked wires that ran through its body free. When the last ribbon separated, it began to decompose.

Celeste drummed her fingers on the shaft of her mace. That was a very interesting attack. It was too subtle for sorcery, but could be a martial art. She'd need to look into just what Ruby did after they cleaned up.

Thankfully, finishing off the remaining Grimm was easy.

Ruby stepped into the entry hall of Celeste's house with a whistle. "Wow, it's so big. Thanks for inviting me over."

"It's the least I could do for the stranger who saved us." The older woman waved it off and shouted up the stairs, "I'm back and we have a guest."

The house was huge, more twice the size of Ruby's home in Patch, but, if someone had as many kids as the pictures on the wall showed, that made sense. There were five little ones, unless Ruby wasn't counting them right. The pictures closest to the door were the newest, with each line getting closer to baby pictures, and furthest in were what must've teenaged Celeste with her family of... six sisters and…

"Celeste?" Ruby paused in front of an almost full family picture. "What's your maiden name?"

"Hmm?" Celeste stepped behind Ruby and smiled. "Ahh, yeah, I thought that you'd recognize him. Jaune Arc, Hero of Beacon, aka my baby bro."

She pulled the picture off and ran her fingers over the glass. "I'm still Celeste Arc. Forest, my husband, took my name when we married."

"Why aren't you in that picture? And if you're a Huntress, why was Jaune so..." Ruby tried to figure out a nice way to phrase her other question without also sounding weird. "Why didn't he know anything about being a Hunter? When he came to Beacon, he didn't even know what Aura was!"

"You seem to know a lot about a boy so much younger than you."

"I still have friends at Beacon."

"Fair enough. Both of those questions have the same answer. Mom and dad didn't approve of my becoming a Huntress. Maribelle and Flora"- She pointed to the oldest girls -"both know, but as far as the others are concerned, I'm an armorsmith who cares more about her new family than her siblings."

Ruby could sense danger surrounding her next question, but pressed on anyway. Too many of her options were dangerous to ignore such a small amount. "That still doesn't explain his ignorance."

"When I decided to apply to a Hunter Academy, and even worse got in, they pulled the others out of school, moved to a very remote part of Vale, and home schooled them until they went away to college."

"How could they do that to their own kids?"

"I'm sure you've heard about our family legacy of heroism."

Ruby nodded.

"An Arc has lead the fight during every major war in the past century, the good ones and the bad. Papi and mémé were destroyed by what happened during the Faunus Rebellion. Dad says that his parents left to save their kingdom and came back as broken shells who hated their countrymen." Celeste closed her eyes. "They passed away when I was twelve, but I can still remember the way they looked at the Faunus, the regret and shame in their eyes."

Ruby looked at the picture again, then over to one of a happy old couple holding their grand-kids on their shoulders. "That's awful."

"Yeah, but that's how life fell into place." Celeste placed the picture back on the wall.

Ruby waited for a moment. "You should tell them. Now that Jaune's a Huntsman too, well Huntsman-in-training, they can't still be mad and there's no reason why you shouldn't rejoin your family."

She laughed emptily. "You're so young."

That was one of the phrases that Ruby had been tired of half way through her first month at Beacon.

"Maybe your parents are different, but do you really think they'd just accept you back if they spent years thinking that you could hurt your little sisters or brother because your own choices?"

And that was one of the questions still stuck in Ruby's head. Just how would Yang react when Ruby found her? What was dad thinking about?

"Now, that's not a good face for a pretty girl to have." Celeste clapped a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "I'm sure that whatever you're thinking of wasn't that bad and they'll still love you."

There was something in the woman's eyes beyond sympathy. Unfortunately, Ruby couldn't quite tell exactly what it was.

"And even if they don't," She pointed to a picture of herself with two little kids on her shoulders. "Once you have one of your own, that won't matter as much."

Ruby flinched at the thought.

Celeste's eyes narrowed. "You don't want children?"

"No!" Ruby shouted. "I'm way too young to even think about something like that and also-" She shuddered at the thought of going through that. "Ugh."

"It's a lot easier before the responsibilities pile up and you can't take several months off without something going wrong. Someone with your talent will be in high demand for her whole life." She crossed her arms and shook her head, eyes never leaving Ruby's face. "Besides, you look like you're at the perfect age."

"What are you-" Ruby cut herself off when her disguise reminded her that freaking out would be out of character. She was currently Ruby Rose, Long-Wandering Huntress and Beacon Graduate, who was in her mid-twenties, not her mid-teens. That didn't make the pushiness not annoying, but it was less of a terrible thought considering her mom was around the age that Ruby currently looked when Ruby'd been born. "Look, I'm not interested in any of that right now. I have much more important things to do, okay?"

Celestre watched her coldly. "Like what brought you so far from Vale?"

"Yeah."

She motioned to continue.

"I'm tracking down the two big Anathema."

"All by yourself? That's suicide."

Ruby shook her head. "No, it isn't."

Celeste grabbed her shoulder. "Listen, you might have just pulled of some crazy techniques earlier, but Anathema like that are no joke. They've beaten entire ships of Specialists."

"I have to."

"Why? You'd be throwing your life away by fighting them." Celeste wasn't saying something and Ruby had a good idea what it was now. The only question that remained, was how to get rid of her suspicion; even though, this identity was so short lived it being suspected of being Anathema wouldn't affect Ruby at all.

Ruby looked to the potential paths this conversation could take and, of course, found that there were none that would leave them both happy. Of course there weren't, there hadn't been any real win-wins since… She couldn't remember how long. At least she could make sure Celeste was less sad.

"It's not that simple." Ruby dropped her head. "One of them was my sister."

Yang still was her sister, as far as Ruby was concerned, but that was what a loyal Huntress would say. It was like what Weiss always did, say just enough to let something think they knew what you were talking about.

The extra emotion vanished from Celeste's eyes. She closed them and ran her fingers over her eyelids. "I'm sorry. That's been a nightmare of mine all of my life... having to Hunt my own family."

"You've fought Anathema before?"

She pointed to a crest on her armor, right above her heart. "Do you know what this is?"

Ruby shook her head.

"What are they teaching at Beacon?" Celeste groaned. "If Jaune comes out not knowing anything about the other kingdoms, I'm going to send a very strongly worded letter to the headmaster… That's still Ozpin, isn't it?"

"You didn't go to Beacon?"

"I'm a Haven girl and this"- she pointed back to the patch -"means that I'm a knight of the Titan's Fist. That's the guild that handles all things Anathema in west Mistral and east Sanus."

The major guilds she remembered, just not their symbols. "I thought they went after really powerful Grimm."

Celeste nodded. "We do those too. 'Any great and powerful foe shall fall to the might of the Titans.'"

"Do you do investigations, like the ones in Vale?"

"Not my responsibility, but we're the guild in charge of them." She narrowed her eyes at Ruby's reaction. "Do you have a problem with that?"

That explained why there was no good end for her and also all of the suspicion. Ruby was Anathema after all. "They're horrible and something that good, moral people shouldn't take part in."

"I wouldn't call all of the interrogators moral, but they're needed to keep all of us safe." Celeste crossed her arms. "The criminal guilds will cover for Anathema if doing so helps them and sometimes they need the information beaten from their lying lips."

"Criminals have guilds? Like, a thieves guild?"

"Oh yeah, they're just not called something that obvious. The Goldenforge is a good example. They're the biggest counterfeiters out there."

"If you know this, why don't you just stop them?"

"It's not that easy. They have a lot of legal business as jewelers and even though we know they make counterfeit bills, most of their members aren't criminals. Also, they have a lot of money that isn't fake to buy off anyone asking too many questions."

It was never as easy as just finding the bad guys and stopping them. Well, it hadn't been before Ruby could cripple organizations. She just needed to know which ones to target and have someone to use as an anchor for the curse. That would be easy, but the number of problems that she could, and wanted to, solve this way was adding up so fast she'd spend all of her Aura and still not be finished.

"Then, why aren't you going after all of the other Anathema in Vale? I heard that three more have been sighted."

"Two reasons. The first is that we haven't finished negotiating with the Vale council, they seem to think that Atlas is enough, and the second is that Dōsatsu City is a major airship port. All sorts of information passes through here."

"So, do you know where the Beacon pair is?"

"You're not going to listen to reason, are you?"

"I need to find her and… do what needs to be done."

Ruby could feel the weight of Celeste's decision and budged it in the right direction. Ruby Rose is not Anathema.

As the woman's Aura righted itself, she said, "After they caused the explosion on Mount Aitan, they were probably last seen in the Thistlebane Forest."

Why they blew up the side of a mountain wasn't first on Ruby's list of questions for Yang, but it was certainly up there. "Probably?"

"We've found six or seven distinct tracks leading into and out of the forest. If I were to bet, I'd say the reports of a blond Anathema arriving at the village in the middle was them, but… none of our scouts have returned since."

"I see." Ruby's ability to be ignored would help out there. If the Grimm had overrun it, she could just force them to be calm while she passed through. If Blake and Yang had actually taken over a town instead of people freaking out when they passed through… Well, she'd deal with that when the time came. "Though, can we talk about something else? Something happier?"

Celeste pursed her lips, clearly considering saying something else. Ruby shoved Celeste's Aura to force her into agreement. "How about pie?"

"Pie?"

"Forest bakes a different pie every time I go to the field as another incentive to come back home safe. I think you deserve a slice considering how much you helped." The older woman grinned. "On one condition."

"What's that?"

"You need to give him a full review of the flavor and tell me what you did to finish the Boarbutusk."

Ruby opened her mouth, but didn't say anything. How was she supposed to explain that she grabbed a hold of the Grimm's future and tore enough out to kill it right now? Then the perfect answer hit her. "Wait, that's two conditions!"

Celeste smiled and stepped further into the house, giving Ruby enough time to think up a good enough description of the technique. All it did was tear off the remaining destiny for her target, but there was no accurate way of explaining how that worked. The pie was also delicious, though not quite sweet enough for Ruby's tastes.

She accepted the offer of a bed in the guest room. Though, it was a little weird that all of Celeste's kids were staying at friends houses even though Celeste shouldn't think Ruby was Anathema anymore.

It was a real shame that Celeste was part of the Mistral Hunters. If she'd been with Vale, Ruby wouldn't have to do anything more and her city would still be safe. In Vale, the investigations were separated from normal duties and people were members of different organizations, so Ruby could curse one without hitting the ability of the other to function. In Mistral, that wasn't the case. Dōsatsu City was going to be down two Hunters until it was safe to release the curses, along with every other city Celeste's guild worked in.

It… should be okay for them to be weakened for now because Blake and Yang were less than a week away. All she needed to do was find them and then she could remove the curses.

But they were awfully good at not being found.

So, in the morning, Ruby sent an email to Haven Academy which let them know that the Titan's Fist Guild would be affected like Vale was, just in case. With that handled, she was off.