Chapter 19

The mines were pitch black. The lights had long since gone out, thankfully they had their scrolls to use as a torch so they weren't fumbling around completely in the dark. Pyrrha and Jaune took point, shields raised and swords at the ready. Ren took the rear, leaving Ruby and Nora in the middle.

They all kept their scrolls clipped onto their chests so that their hands were free for their weapons. Jaune gulped as they marched further into the darkness. Even with Pyrrha to his left and everyone just behind him it was uneasy being at the front.

They could be attacked at any moment.

Minutes past them by as they slowly marched further into the darkness. Eventually, they arrived at their destination. The right wall had collapsed outward, likely where they had dug into the cavern beyond. Mining equipment was strewn all over the area, most of it damaged or broken.

"No bodies…" Pyrrha whispered. She was right, any bodies that had been here were gone. There looked to be blood stains but nothing remained. Jaune gulped again.

"Be ready." Ruby whispered back. They all nodded. Pyrrha moved first, taking a position on the far side of the opening. Jaune stepped up to the opening and peered in.

The cavern was tall, easily as big as a two-story building. It was long and wide as well. It could have easily fit a few hundred people.

"Alright, what's the plan?" Jaune asked.

"We don't know how many Grimm are in there, nor what kind. We could try a trap?" Ruby responded.

"I don't know if we could make a trap big enough without threatening to cause a cave-in. We could try burning them out?" Jaune countered.

"We don't have much Burn Dust. We'd have to expend all of our remaining supply." Ren said.

"Plus if there's Dust in there we might set it off and collapse the tunnel on us." Ruby added.

Jaune hummed. "They don't seem to be reacting to our lights. Maybe sound?"

"Or they want to trap us." Pyrrha whispered.

"Or that. I think I have an idea." Jaune stepped into the open and waited for a brief moment. Nothing came so he took a step into the cavern. When there was still no response he sheathed his sword and reached into his pack, pulling out a blood-red crystal. "Get ready to fight guys." He loudly whispered back.

He took his scroll in his other hand and shone its light upwards. There, perched between various rocks were hundreds of small Grimm. Vaguely bat-like in nature, with leathery blood coloured wings, the familiar bone plated face and an external ribcage. As one hundreds of eyes opened and stared down at him.

For a moment nothing happened.

And then they came. A wave of fur and leather and claws slammed into him. He grunted as he was pushed into the ground by their combined weight of the Grimm. Hope this works!

He pulsed his Aura into the crystal in his hand and lobbed it upwards. After a long second, it exploded, sending flames everywhere. What Grimm didn't perish immediately flew around erratically, some on fire others just surprised. Jaune stood and drew Crocea Mors once more.

Gunfire echoed all around as his friends joined the fight. Nora jumped into the fray, throwing her hammer around to catch as many as she could. Pyrrha joined him and together they cut down any who came near. Ren stayed near the back, picking them off with his SMGs. Ruby transitioned between guns, sniping some and firing a volley into a pack when they grouped up.

With the Grimm on the back foot, it didn't take as much effort as Jaune had expected. Many had died from the fire and the rest fell quickly enough. By the time they started their counter-attack they had lost half their number and between the five of them, that was hardly a threat.

It took a total of five minutes to kill every last one of them, becoming harder to catch each individual as the horde thinned.

Jaune took a deep breath as he waded through the disappearing corpses of the Grimm that covered the floor. "What were those things?" He asked.

"Ravagers. Typically found in Vacuo. They tend to hibernate in the day and seek out people at night. A little more territorial than other Grimm, they form a central nest and range from there." Ren rattled off.

"Ravagers huh?"

"Weird that they're here though. You don't see them very much outside of Vacuo's deserts." Pyrrha said.

Jaune looked around, scanning for anything strange. It took a minute but eventually, he saw what lay beneath the Grimm's bodies. Bones. Lots and lots of bones. All picked completely clean.

"Hey, guys… I think I found something." Ruby called to them from the back of the cavern. They rushed over and quickly saw what she had. A metal door built into the back wall, lightly painted to appear like the rock around it. They all shared a quizzical look.

"What's a door doing here?" Jaune asked.

"And what's behind it?" Ruby asked back. She reached up and pulled on the doorknob. It was locked. They all turned to Pyrrha, who blushed and raised her hand. After a moment they all heard a loud click as the mechanism clicked into place and the door unlocked. Ruby pulled it open.

She stepped into the room with her weapon at the ready, but there wasn't a need. The room was devoid of life. She lowered her scythe and cautiously moved in deeper, allowing everyone else to enter.

The room was pretty large. About the size of a small hospital wing. The comparison was apt due to the series of hospital beds along one wall. Each had a couple machines surrounding it, likely to keep someone alive. Near the entrance was a large table that was filled with all kinds of tools.

Ruby felt uneasy as she walked down the room towards the other end. There was another metal door and several boxes next to it as well as a large metal slab.

Ruby almost gagged.

The slab was covered in bloodstains and next to it was a corpse. It looked to have fallen off of the slab. A human man, cut open and dissected like a lab experiment.

She turned away quickly and took several deep breaths. She walked over and inspected the boxes, cringing when she saw piles of torn and bloody clothes.

She was horrified, terrified and angry all at once.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to Ren who gave her a slow nod. She felt her emotions fading, they slipped away from her. She nodded back. They were there but distant. Enough to keep working.

The second door was locked as well but with a wave of her hand, Pyrrha unlocked and opened the door. It was another tunnel that gently slopped up.

"We should take some pictures. Record all of this." Ruby said with a cold voice.

"Whatever this is." Jaune muttered. It didn't take long to gather evidence. They closed and locked both doors and travelled up the unknown tunnel in the same formation as before until it grew too small it forced them into a single file line.

After about an hour they finally reached another locked door. Pyrrha opened it and they all shielded their eyes from the sunlight. They were outside in the wilderness, completely outside of the town. They had come out into what looked like a small forest cave, likely once the home of a bear or the like.

Besides the remains of a very old campfire, nothing was there to indicate human activity. This door like the last had been painted again to look like the surrounding rock. Whoever had done it was talented, that was for sure.

"Alright what was all of that!? There was a dead guy and bones and an underground hospital!" Jaune cried out.

"I think we are dealing with a serial killer." Ren replied, rubbing his chin in thought.

"Piles of clothes. A large room with gear designed to keep people alive. Various tools and a nest of Grimm next door. If you could keep the Grimm from killing you, you'd have a pretty good way of taking care of bodies." Ruby said. She felt sick. Once upon a time, she might not have believed all of this, but after everything Cinder did?

Some people were just monsters.

She wasn't alone in her thoughts as everyone else looked just as sickened. "So… what do we do?" Jaune asked with a shaky voice.

"I say we find the culprit and stop this." Ruby answered. "We can't let this go."

JNPR thought for a moment before each of them nodded. "Let's look at what we know so far." Jaune said.

" There's the Ravagers, a type of Grimm that shouldn't be in this area." Pyrrha offered.

"A fully-equipped miniature hospital." Ren provided.

"Bones! Lots of bones among the Grimm!" Nora proclaimed.

"A body and a lot of ruined clothing." Ruby said with a growl.

"And doors painted to look like rocks." Jaune finished. "So an artist trained as a doctor and Grimm expert?"

"Possibly has a Semblance that helps them." Ren replied.

"We should check in town for any missing persons cases. Maybe we can find a common thread?" Pyrrha said.

"It's a start. Let's do that tomorrow. For now, let's go back the way we came and report to the mayor that the mission was a success. We don't want to alert anyone by coming back from an unexpected location." Ruby took charge.

They marched back down the tunnel, closing each door behind them as if they had never been opened. After a couple hours, they had returned to Kiku and went back to the mayor.

They were quickly let in. The man gave them all a bright smile as they entered. "Welcome back! I assume it went well?" He asked, his gaze falling on Ruby.

"Yup. A large pack of Ravagers had moved in. We aren't sure how so we might stick around and investigate, just to make sure that there's no more on their way. Is that alright?"

"Of course! Now we hadn't talked much about a reward, so here." He stood and walked around his desk. He grabbed Ruby's hand, shook it for a moment and then handed her a small bag. He gave her a wide smile and went back to his seat. "A few Lien to keep you going. I hope you can find the cause of these Grimm soon my dear. Good luck."

They took the dismissal for what it was and left the building. Ruby checked the contents of the bag and let out a low whistle. "This is a good amount of Lien! It should supply us for most of the trip to Mistral."

"Wow really?" Jaune asked. "If he pays that well maybe we should do a couple more jobs for him."

"I don't think we should stay here any longer than necessary." Ren said. He looked around them. "This town feels off."

"We'll leave once we solve this case. For now, let's find an Inn." Ruby replied.

A stream of red flowed across the ground like a river through the streets of Vale. Through the town on Patch. Through their house. Ruby followed the stream, she walked along its bank.

She passed by Signal and the port and Vale's docks and the streets and a familiar Dust shop. She passed by the airport and Beacon. Through the Emerald Forest and Forever Fall. She walked through the floating arena of Amity Colosseum. Through the vault and the tower.

Village after village passed her by as she followed this one stream of red. At moments it looked less like liquid and more like petals, gently floating above the ground.

And then she was at home, eating cookies as a child. Her mother smiled as she offered another, fresh batch. Ruby and Yang eagerly took it and munched down.

And then she saw red, more petals, and blinked and she was in a forest watching Yang train with their father. She was sat on Summers lap. She felt at home.

And then Summer was gone. Another mission. How many times was it? How often was she gone?

The grave was cold stone. It didn't show the love she had given. It was blank grey stone. A name and emblem but nothing else. Cold and dead, like the mother who had never come home.

Somewhere in the world lay Summer Rose, covered in red. Red like the petals that came from Ruby when she used her Semblance. Red like the roses they took their names from.

Ruby felt so cold and empty. The petals made a trail. She followed. She always followed. Once it led to a single grave, a single hole.

But three more sat beside it now. Covered in petals of red.

Ruby gasped as she awoke. The bed creaked under her but didn't wake either Pyrrha or Nora. It had been a long time since she'd had that particular dream. But it had changed too. The roses led her to more graves.

Ruby still felt tired but not sleepy so she decided to start the day early. A shower. It was heavenly, and a warm meal prepared in an actual kitchen courtesy of the inn staff.

As she waited for her friends to wake up she pulled out her scroll and had a look through it. The town had a basic CCT system up which allowed anyone within the town to operate as if the CCT tower network was up. Just without the ability to message other towns. It let her check local news and message boards.

Mines cleared by Huntsmen. Somebody's dog was missing. Someone was asking for some plumbing help. A tree had fallen over during the night and crushed someone's shed. Normal town things really.

Ruby smiled and took a photo of her breakfast, a delicious beef stew and bread. She had to commemorate such a good meal after all! Huh? She paused.

When had she been taking photos? There were a lot more than there used to be… Ruby opened her folder and had a look. She was sure she would remember if she saw them.

Her spoon dropped as she saw the contents.

When did I… when did we see this!? I don't remember this at all! She felt a chill go up the back of her neck.

She had to talk to the others, and quickly.

A/N: What a weird thing to find on your phone am I right? So strange! On a different note, I don't remember too many people bringing up Red Like Roses pt2 basically telling us Ruby has nightmares. I forgot myself until I was writing this chapter. I typically listen to the RWBY soundtrack when writing and it came on and I just went "Holy shiiiiiiiiiiiit, how did I forget this!?" Good times. Let's see where this all goes shall we?

I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time!