Here's Chapter 13 of RWBY: Necrophobia. Enjoy.

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The Cerca Mine Incident Part 2

A few minutes after the drill came to its conclusion the small trio was on their way to the excavation site again. Or rather, they would have been. One thing that Ari hadn't considered with the sightseeing surprise was that the tram and any other more convenient way was shut down for the section-by-section security drills. So that left them with two options: Either take the long way, nearly three miles of rounding and twisting paths (some of which may be locked down for the drills), or kill a bit of time until the trams came back online. Needless to say, they took the latter.

Weiss skipped around merrily, much more cheerful than when she first entered. She was humming a tune as she skipped, never straying too far ahead or behind her mother and their faunus escort.

"Well, someone's certainly happier than before." Ari said, smiling at how the shy little girl had become so happy.

"I knew she just needed a bit of time." Adala said, looking at her daughter with a grin on her face. "After what she just saw, she probably thinks this is the best place in the world."

"Well, to some people, this place is the unofficial, 'Fifth Kingdom'." Ari stated.

"You've got to be joking." Adala laughed.

"Not sure if I am." Ari used his arm to gesture to the walls of the hallway and the path back towards the main cavern. "Heck, if you filled this place up with more people, put in a couple of shops, gave it its own government, it could actually be considered something along the lines of the kingdoms."

"It's just a couple of cubic miles under a mountain. Not like it encompasses a small part of the continent."

"Give the idea some credit, I mean, heck, I don't think there's a nomad group on Vytal that doesn't try to stop here. And I know there's no community on Remnant that hasn't heard of Cerca Mine." Ari stroked his chin, as if thinking. "Come to think of it, what will you do with this place once it starts to run dry?"

Adala laughed. "Cerca Mine? Run dry?"

"I'm serious." Ari said, but he also couldn't help but chuckle a little. The notion of this place running out of Dust was ludicrous to all who worked here. "You've invest a lot of money in this place. The massive ventilation system, the generators, and not to mention the blast doors. I don't think I'm the only one curious as to what will happen to this place in its final days."

"Well…I was thinking of selling it to the kingdom of Vale actually." Adala stated. She noticed the surprise on the faunus's face so she quickly continued talking. "Not now, if this place ever runs dry. You've practically described how this place would be perfect for any kingdom's expansion and it would put the remains of this place to good use. Think about it. This place would be a perfect outpost or a possible expansion of a kingdom."

"You mean like Mountain Glenn was meant to be."

"…Yes…but hopefully not like how it turned out in the end." Adala said. She bowed her head slightly, as if to mourn the people she never knew. She picked her head back up.

"So, any less depressing topics you'd like to talk about?"

"Well…" Ari thought for a moment. "You could tell me that story about how your personal project became Cerca Mine."

Adala stopped walking. Ari slowed his pace to a stop as he noticed and Weiss stopped her cheerful skipping as she noticed that the two adults had ceased walking. The little girl looked at them curiously as her mother looked ahead and behind them.

"I guess it would be okay. But…let me finish before you react."

Ari raised an eyebrow as he looked at the Schnee woman. "You act like this is some dark secret or something." He was silent for a moment before he became slightly nervous. "…Is it?"

"It's not so much a secret, as much as it's just…not something you would openly discuss." Adala leaned against the wall, her eyes closed. "Cerca Mine… was originally a Grimm nest."

Ari felt his jaw drop and even Weiss's eyes widened. Before he could say a word Adala's arms shot up, palms facing him. "Let me explain, let me explain."

She exhaled a held breath. "I'll start off by setting you at ease; All the Grimm that once lived here are long gone. Dead and deceased. But its origin as a Grimm hive is how we got the land so cheap. After all, Dust or no Dust, who wants a cave system filled with Grimm?"

Ari leaned up against the wall with Weiss taking a seat next to him, looking at her mother as if this was story time. Heck, for a kid her age, this might as well be for her. He thought.

"Whereas most people would give up on the notion of getting Dust out of a Grimm nest I, on the other hand, had an idea. I rented out use of this property to Beacon Academy for training their huntsman. It was a good deal for both sides: We got money for someone else clearing out the Grimm and Beacon got a new environment to train their more senior students. A couple years later and this place was ready for development."

"And you're sure the Grimm are gone?" Ari asked, concerned.

"Yes. And that's why I've hired huntsman to be near this place at all times. Just to be safe." Adala said, putting the faunus at ease.

Ari sighed in relief. "As long as you have a contingency."

"In case you're still worried, think of it like this:" Adala said, crossing her arms. "Do you think I would bring my daughter someplace where she could get hurt?"

"Okay, fair point." Ari stated. "But you did bring your daughter to a Dust mine."

Adala looked the faunus in the eye. "Was I wrong in assuming that this was the safest mine in my husband's company?"

"Not in the slightest." Ari answered. "With the new mining tech, this place hasn't had a severe accident in years."

Adala nodded, feeling sense a pride at that fact. Then she realized something. "Wait, do you mean that there have been accidents here?"

"Yeah, but they were mostly because of user error. And none of them were very serious or so I've heard."

Adala released a sigh. "Glad to hear that no one has been seriously hurt. You had me worried for a moment there."

"Yeah, well, I think you can thank the new plasma tech for that. I don't know how, but that new tech doesn't set off Dust."

"Yeah well, that equipment already went through numerous tests to ensure it would be safe for workers."

"Really?" Ari asked, confused. "I was under the impression that we were the ones testing the new equipment." He hadn't been the only one. He'd heard several other faunus complaining that they were being used like lab rats for this new technology.

"Yes, but I like to call it 'practicality testing'." Adala stated. "Meaning that we're just giving this new technology to Cerca Mine to see if it's worth investing in. Since this place is what it is, we can afford to take a few investment risks here and there. Either way this place still turns a profit, so we can use Cerca Mine to try new mining methods and technology to see how well they do. And that plasma tech seems to work fantastically."

"Oh it does, but that does raise the question of why these aren't standard issue in your other mines?" Ari said, curious. If she agreed that the new tools worked so well, why weren't they used across the company?

"Well…" Adala said, wondering how best to describe the situation. "It's sort of a legal thing."

"Could you elaborate?" Ari requested.

"Since the plasma tools could be used as weapons, in the eyes of the kingdoms, they're classified as firearms instead of regular tools. There are a lot of regulations about purchasing these sort of things en masse. Our lawyers are trying to argue with the councils that these things are just tools like any other, but it could take a year or two."

"A year? Any reason why it would take so long?"

"The councilmen are busy people. If it wasn't for the fact that this is one of the largest Dust mining companies on the planet, I seriously doubt they would have even bothered to listen to our arguements in the first place."

"Any hope of that all that effort won't go down the drain?"

"Well, we managed to convince them to let us use Cerca Mine as a trail run. Personally, I take that as a good sign." Once Adala finished speaking she noticed that Weiss was tugging on her sleeve, trying to get her attention. "Yes sweetie? What is it?"

Weiss was quiet for a moment before she looked at her mother with big, blue eyes. "…Can we please go see the Dust stars again?" She asked innocently.

Both adults felt their hearts melt at the request. Adala sighed and bent down to Weiss's level. "I'm sorry sweetie, but everyone needs the lights on for work, so the stars are gone now."

Weiss looked down and pouted. "Awwww…"

Adala stood up, wondering what she could do to cheer up her daughter. She looked ahead and saw a sign on the wall. "Oh Wei-iss." She sang with a smile on her face. Weiss looked up, still looking a bit disappointed that they couldn't go back to the main cavern.

"Yes mommy?" Weiss asked. Adala whispered into her daughter's ear. At once Weiss's eyes lit up and a massive grin grew on her face. "Yes-yes-yes-yes-YES!" She cried out gleefully. She wormed her way out of her mother's arms and starting bouncing up and down. She grabbed her mom's sleeve and started to drag her down the hall.

"Mind telling me what's got her so excited?" Ari asked wondering how the little girl could have gone from her childish disappointment to incredibly hyperactive with just a few words.

"Well, no matter what Weiss is feeling, there's always one thing she loves to see." Adala glanced at her watch (or at least tried to, the task being slightly difficult since Weiss kept pulling her arm). "Besides, we still have some time left, so why not?"

"Still didn't answer my question." Ari stated.

"You'll find out soon enough." Adala said as they passed the Firing Range sign.


The small trio entered the firing range with the small nine year old dragging her mother along. There were a handful of workers in the area, some aiming at targets, others standing around talking with one another. As the group entered, some miners stopped their conversations to look at the newcomers. They were somewhat surprised to see a child with two adults. Granted, it wasn't uncommon for some workers to bring their children here to show them the mine during its monthly power failure drills, but no one ever brought their kids to the firing range.

When Weiss noticed that people were looking at her she stopped dragging her mother. After releasing her mom's sleeve, she hid behind her and Ari, nervous at all the people looking at her. Several took notice of the child's shyness and went back to their previous occupations, but some kept their eyes on the trio.

Adala patted Weiss on the head. "It's okay sweetie." Weiss seemed to be less nervous, but she still hid behind the two grownups.

"So," Ari said. "I take it your daughter is some sort of weapons fanatic."

"No, not really." Adala said, walking over to a counter. She picked up a small training cartridge as she continued speaking. "But there is a weapon she always likes to see." She shook her head, put down the cartridge, picked up a different one. Ari caught her mumble, "Maybe this one."

"And what weapon is that?"

Adala looked at the faunus and grinned. "Mine."

The elder Schnee looked at the cartridge she had picked up.

"Those are practice rivet rounds." A voice from the firing line said. Adala looked over to the worker. He was a tall faunus, with short black hair, with two pointed horns sticking out of his head. The horned faunus was currently firing a line gun at small rectangular targets. He didn't look at Adala as he spoke to her.

"Thanks for telling me." Adala said, trying to be polite.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." The faunus said, sounding uninterested. He finished up his clip, punched a few commands into the practice range holographic keyboard, and proceeded to leave.

"Well, he seemed friendly." Adala muttered sarcastically. She glanced over at Weiss and saw her hiding behind Ari's leg. It brought a small smile to her face to see her daughter putting that much trust in someone that wasn't family.

"Yeah." Ari said, also not pleased with the miner's lack of manners. "Argo's not exactly the friendliest guy around, but I like to think he means well."

"Oh, you know him?" Adala said, inspecting the training rounds.

"Not really, no. We occasionally share a shift together, but other than that, I don't really see him." Ari stated. "What exactly are you doing?"

"Inspecting these training cartridges." Adala answered.

"I'm pretty sure they all work."

"That's not why I'm looking at them."

Ari looked at her curiously. "Then why are you going through them?"

"I'm checking to see if any are compatible with my weapon." Adala stated. She cracked a smile as she looked at the training rounds. "The practice rivet rounds should work."

Adala pulled up a bag she'd been carrying. She rummaged through it and pulled out an object. It had what looked like two handles; one like a pistol, the other like a sword. Both handles were attached to some sort of large cylinder.

The Schnee woman placed the practice rounds into her weapon. She then walked over to the training console. The holographic display lit up with several practice options. Adala moved her finger through the list until she found one that seemed suitable: Perimeter Security Training. She pressed the holographic icon and the sound of gears whirring filled the air. The hologram target generators had begun to shift forward and backwards, spreading out to prepare for the training drill.

"So who's the lady getting ready to practice on Security?" A faunus asked, walking up to Ari. Weiss hid behind the cat faunus while keeping her eyes on her mother.

Ari leaned over and said, "Adala Schnee."

The faunus's eyes widened. "Oh, this I gotta see." He said, an amused smile on his face.

The ears of several other faunus perked up upon hearing that their employer would attempt the practice course meant for security personal. Others asked what was going on and their eyes widened as they were told the news. Grins appeared on their faces as they stopped their own practice sessions and gathered around to watch Adala's target practice.

A message appeared in front of Adala. It read: You have requested to preform Security Training with an incompatible ammo type. Do you wish to proceed regardless? Y/N. Adala hit the 'Y' and a holographic countdown appeared on the far side of the target generator. Everyone quieted down as the numbers neared zero. When they did, a loud buzzer was heard as the test began.

A red holographic figure, in the shape of a Beowolf with several bullseyes on it, appeared on the far side of the training course. It shattered almost immediately as a shot rang out and Adala's weapon recoiled. Another red figure appeared and shattered almost as fast. The next holographic figure to appear was blue and shaped like a person. A red Beowolf appeared behind it. Both were up for a few moments before the Beowolf target shattered like the two before it. The blue target receded, completely intact. The speed at which the targets and false targets appeared increased, as did the rate at which Adala's shots echoed throughout the firing range. At the moment when three targets appeared Adala's clip ran empty. With one hand, she yanked out the empty magazine, slammed another one in, and shot all three targets before her empty clip had hit the ground.

Now Adala was reaching the end of the training test. Several workers grinned in anticipation of the final target. Since this particular drill was used mainly by security personnel, the final target wasn't widely known about. It would be a large Beowolf target, with much more visual detail than a simple red outline. The target would appear directly in front of whoever was practicing, along with a recorded sound of a Beowolf's roar. It was designed to intimidate whoever was practicing (and, although no one would admit it, provide a good laugh for everyone else upon seeing the reaction of whoever got spooked). And so everyone leaned forward, waiting to see what their boss's reaction would be.

Adala shot the second to last target. At once, a loud roar was heard as a lifelike Beowolf projection appeared directly in front of Adala. Weiss cowered behind Ari's leg as she watched her mother. She wasn't alone, as several other miners, who hadn't seen the security simulation before, also jumped back. They could only imagine how real it must have looked to the Schnee woman, since the image was designed to look like a life sized, three dimensional version of a Beowolf to whoever was standing in the shooter's spot.

Without batting an eye, Adala flung her weapon back with one hand and grabbed the sword handle with the other. Almost simultaneously, a needle-like blade extended from the barrel where the shots had been fired from. With a single motion, Adala thrusted her blade into the center of the holographic image. She then pulled it back to her side as the image shattered into pieces.

Everyone was quite for a moment. Then, slowly, everyone in attendance began applauding. Adala turned around, smiled, and took a dramatic bow.

The crowd dispersed as Ari and Weiss walked up to Adala. Weiss ran up and hugged her mother with a massive smile on her face.

"Nice shooting." Ari congratulated Adala. He tilted his head to the side to look behind her. "Hey look, you made the leaderboard."

"Leaderboard?" Adala asked as she turned around. Ari was correct. On the far side of the wall was a scoreboard listing a top ten, with the number six spot blank and a small bar flashing under where a character would have been. "I made sixth place?" Adala asked, more to herself than to anyone in particular.

"Yep." Ari said. He leaned over and pushed another holographic button. On the training course, each holographic dispenser produced a holographic Beowolf. This time however, each bullseye on the targets had an 'X' over some part of it. Numbers on each part of the target were now visible, revealing the scores of each hit. "Looks like you hit every target. I'm impressed."

"I'm flattered." Adala chuckled. "But it looks like I only hit the center three times. And one of those was at point blank range." Adala looked back at the holographic display and began to enter her name into the leaderboard. "Once upon a time, I might have been able to hit every bullseye dead center. But I suppose those days are behind me now."

"No need to be so modest." Ari said, sounding cheerfully sarcastic.

"Hey, I made the leaderboard, I think that entitles me to brag a little." Adala looked at Ari. "Speaking of which, what is this an Arcade? Why's there a leaderboard?"

"I don't know." Ari shrugged before awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "If I'm being completely honest, when I first found this spot, I thought it was a game room."

"I suppose when you think about it, that's probably a nicer way to think about this room than just target practice." Adala said. She noticed how Weiss had her eyes on her weapon. Ari noticed it as well.

"So are you sure your little girl isn't some sort of weapon fanatic?" He asked.

"Ehhh…For all intents and purposes, she really doesn't care much about weapons at all." Adala answered. "The exception, obviously, being mine. Weiss really likes to learn about our family's history and, well, this weapon is part of it. On my side of the family, it's tradition for each child to create their own rapier when they grow up."

"So every member on your side becomes a huntress?" Ari asked.

"If that's what they want to do. The tradition is only to make the weapon, right Weiss?"

"Yep!" The nine year old replied cheerfully. "When I get older I'm gonna make my own! Mommy told me I would."

"So she's going to get to make a gun-sword too?"

"Not necessarily. The rapier is the base design, but after that, everything's fair game. Heck, my grandmother somehow made hers transform into a bow that shot reloadable blades as arrows."

Ari imagined how that would work. "Hm, I think I'd like to see that."

"I have seen it." Weiss said proudly. "It's back home with the others."

"Others?" Ari asked, looking towards Adala for an answer.

"Yeah, we have-" Adala began but was cut off by an intercom.

"Your attention please. The monthly power drill has been completed in all sections of Cerca Mine. Tram functions have resumed. Please proceed back to your designated work stations."

"Well," Adala said. "I guess that's our cue."

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I have been meaning to mention this for a while, but I have no intention of adding in Isaac Clarke to this story for the foreseeable future. The main Dead Space aspect of this story is the Marker, Necromorphs, and a bit of the mining tech I managed to work in. (After all, Dead Space weapons are just mining tools, this takes place in a mine, so I figured they'd go well together.)

I mentioned last time that I would try to have a couple of chapters in stock so that I could provide regular updates for a while. I still want to do that, but it will still take a while. (What I'm trying to say is that I don't have the next chapter written yet.)

I decided to leave up the Favorite chapter poll. So far, chapter 5 has 3 votes and chapter 10 has one.

On the topic polls, I decided to add a new one. This one asks which aspect of the story you're most interested in. By that, I mean do you like the RWBY portions, the Dead Space portions, or how I mix the two. If you could find some time to vote, I'd appreciate it.

Finally, the suspenseful chapter I mentioned last time isn't this one. I thought I would have put the next chapter with this one, but this seemed like a good place to stop. And since, (in my opinion, you might view it differently,) this chapter didn't really end with much of a cliffhanger, I'm going to tell you something that I plan for the next chapter.

Next time: We finally see the Marker.

Well, please fav, follow, or leave a review to let me know what you think of this Chapter. If you already have: Thanks I appreciate it.