A/N: Hey guys, just popping in with an author's note that probably should've been here since the beginning. Thank you so much for your patience, both new and old readers, as I struggle to work with this text editor.

First, the good news. With this chapter, The Greatest Trick and Equal But Opposite have been completed and I'll finally be delving into new content. Next weekend (12/20) I'll be releasing the last rewritten chapter alongside a new chapter and both will be the start of a new section. Again, thank you very much for your patience with me. If you haven't already, I would take a look through all the previous chapters to make sure you're up to date on the changes. My new structure is close third person with each chapter focusing on the perspective of a specific character. Thus, chapters will be shorter but also more numerous and be coming out in batches of two or three each week. I might stagger their release throughout the week if multiple chapter releases confuse the system too much, though.

Now, the bad news. I've been struggling hardcore with FF's system and it really doesn't seem to like what I'm working with. This is mostly effecting the formatting of my work in ways I haven't been able to predict, as well as restricting certain things that, in my opinion, lessen the impact of some scenes (lack of a strike through option seriously effects Ren's perspective in my opinion). I will continue to try and fix this, but if these formatting issues are too much for you, I would recommend heading over to my Archive of Our Own version of the story where everything is going more smoothly. Here's the link:

/users/Glackdos

Again, thank you for coming in to read this fic again after so many years of dormancy and thank the rest of you for checking this out for the first time. I've had a lot of stories come and go in my head over time, but this one above all others has managed to stick with me throughout. With any luck, I'll give it a legitimate ending.

Have fun reading!

Equal But Opposite: Ruby

As she had a hundred times before, Ruby found herself in the murky fog she could remember from before her thoughts had any substance. Sparse scenes from infancy would drift in and out, a reminder of who she was before she was a real person. Then, the fog broke away and she became aware of everything around her. The soft cotton of the dress her mother had made for her. The cool metal of the wagon her sister had placed her in. The stark white teeth protruding from the pitch black maw, aching to sink into her. From that instant formed her first real thought.

Am I going to die?

Dread began to consume her as the teeth lurched in her direction, only for the rows to separate and turn to sickly ash. Behind them stood the silhouette of a man holding a large stick with a larger blade. Her infant memories identified him as 'uncle' as the vision faded away.

That moment, her first moment, came to her often. The same every time. What came after, however, was always new.

As substance faded back in, Ruby recognized the crunch of snow under her feet and gazed out to see a field of monsters all bearing down on her. She'd remembered this fight. She had gone to pay respects to her mother the night she decided to embark on her plan. It was like a test from the world. Something to let her prove she was ready to fight for humanity. She drew her weapon, her true source of strength and means of making her mark, only to find it was just a branch with a curve on the end and she was just a little girl of six years. Something told her this was the biggest branch she had been able to find, and yet it was clearly not enough for the sea of monsters in front of her, which had grown from the pack she'd slain on the cliff to a horde spanning a whole countryside. Every instinct in her body told her to flee as the rose petals that signified her semblance whirled around her, but she would never obey. She leaped forward to attack the nearest monster, but the action was rendered futile as its jaws grew to consume her and she was plunged into darkness.

Ruby sank deeper and deeper into the hostile abyss, choking on the shadows as she struggled to get her bearings in a realm with no up, no down, nothing to center herself on. Something brushed against her shoulder and she whirled around to identify the source of the contact. Floating in that darkness with her was another girl. Her hair was like copper and freckles dotted her cheeks, arms, and legs. Her torso and pelvis were clockwork; gears upon gears linked up and rotated in sync with one another up and down her middle in a poetry of mechanics. Upon her automaton breast was a healthy flesh and blood heart. It beat in rhythm with the turning cogs, a perfect fusion of soul and steel.

She was the most beautiful thing Ruby had ever seen.

The clockwork girl smiled at Ruby with a warmth that touched her very soul and offered a welcoming hand to the awestruck wayfarer. Ruby reached out to take hold of her savior, only to find she was just out of reach. Desperately, she tried again only for the girl to drift further away. There was a resigned sadness in the girl's eyes as Ruby tried over and over to reach her, as though she knew this would come to pass. Ruby grew desperate, now truly feeling herself drowning in this abyss with the air right in front of her. The clockwork girl's smile turned sad as she mouthed some wordless affection that would touch no ears. Then, smile never leaving her lips, the gears converged on the girl's heart and tore it to shreds between their teeth.

The girl went limp and drifted into Ruby's arms. The gears had gone still once the heart was gone. The weight of Ruby's grief was so great it restored the concept of down to the abyss just so she could start plummeting. Her descent was so forceful it ripped the girl from her arms and sent her hurtling into the black.

The fall continued and something about landings began to tickle the edge of Ruby's memories. A shiny, flint surface was rushing up to meet her and with all her might she contorted her body to make a feet first impact. It was only too late that she noticed the steel plates fastened to her boots. The instant she made contact with the jagged black floor, she saw a pair of sparks ripple from under her feet. The sparks grew into flames and the flames existed to consume their creator. Gold-in-white scorched her right leg as green-in-orange consumed her left, both racing to engulf her entirely for the damage she'd done. The fire touched all parts of her; body, mind, and soul begging for release from the agony. As they climbed up to her chest, the colors began to fight among themselves for the honor of burning her, each must have thought they had the better claim. Ruby didn't care which color won so long as it would just end. Her wish was denied, though. At the pinnacle of her misery she could feel a new fire growing within her own mind. It was hotter than all the others, almost beyond heat in its unparalleled intensity. The pressure behind her eyes built harder and harder and harder until, all at once, the dam finally broke and a mass of silver poured out of her gaze like a cleansing sun, dripping down her cheeks and dominating the other colors pooling over her heart.

Silver, gold, white, green, and orange folded in on each other over and over as Ruby's skin turned to wax and then to charcoal in the overwhelming heat. She felt every lick, every ember, every cinder as her body crumbled to ash and the fires continued to war. There was no stopping the suffering, no numbing the pain. Instead, her mind was assaulted with a dawning realization.

This was hell.

This was hell.

This was hell.

This was hell.

This was what she made.

Ruby awoke with a start, wrestling against what she had thought were flames consuming her body, but in reality were the folds of her cloak. Her struggling halted when she realized this and she let out a shaky sigh. Another nightmare. That made five in a week. She wasn't a stranger to night terrors like this (if anything they'd become a staple of nights in team RWBY's dorm), but even at their worst they'd never been so frequent.

Slowly, Ruby sat up on the couch she had been using as a bed and absently glanced over the sky box she resided in. She hoped getting a real bed and a change of clothes would be enough to ward off the harrowing visions that had been haunting her since her first night in Amity, but somehow she doubted it would be as simple as getting a new sleep mask. Just another price she hadn't considered when she planned everything out.

Just as Ruby was about to fall asleep again, a ray of sunlight assaulted her eyes and she let out an exasperated groan. The infernal light bringer just peeked over the horizon, shining through the windows with an intensity that would make rest impossible. So much for slipping back into a REM cycle. With that reprieve out of the question, she decided she might as well take a walk.

While certainly better off than it had been immediately following the attack, Amity had more than a few things in dire need of fixing up for the long run. Laser burns and bullet holes littered the hallway Ruby currently strolled through, along with the occasional bloodstain that had completely dried over time. Ruby tried very hard not to ponder whose blood it was. That thinking would only make things worse for her at the moment.

An Atlesian Knight greeted her on the way to her destination, its programming deciding on a tight salute. Appropriate, Ruby supposed. After all, she was their new commanding officer. At the moment, only a few dozen or so of the drones had been reactivated to perform guard duty. The others remained on standby in the lower areas until it would inevitably be time for combat deployment. If there was a single complaint Ruby had for the knights, it was how white really wasn't her color. Maybe she could make a deal for some painting equipment later on. That would certainly help her keep busy.

After a few minutes of walking, Ruby paused just outside the arena's entrance. She'd done her best to avoid this place since she'd taken over the stadium. The 10'x10' block of ice currently being sustained by Amity's biome technology was the reason why. She needed to face this now, though. Otherwise, sleep would never come to her. The first step was the slowest. Every step after that become progressively faster until she was finally upon her goal.

"Long time no see," Ruby started up as she gazed into the icy prison that housed her most peculiar guest. "Sorry I haven't come out to check up on you, but things have been pretty busy since we last met. Every day we're getting closer to being fully operational. When we have everything ready? Things are finally going to start changing for humanity.

"Anyways, you're probably wondering why I'm still keeping you. Well, you've always been fascinating to me since I first saw you. So powerful, so otherworldly, so outside of human thinking. I'm pretty sure you're not even human. Whatever you are, though, I'll bet your body holds all sorts of interesting secrets about the world outside the kingdoms."

Her eyes flashed in pseudo delight as she placed her hand against the frozen side. Cold as ice, just as it was supposed to be. Cold enough to preserve a corpse until such a time as it would be dissected and traded away.

"How does it feel knowing the last thing you'll ever do is help humanity expand its knowledge, Cinder?"