It was the morning of the tournament. Blake and Pyrrha had both been preparing immensely for it, as it was a chance to prove themselves against the best of the best.

'How are you feeling?' Pyrrha asked Blake as the Faunus did some stretches before her match.

'A little nervous, but I'm sure I can handle it. I plan on winning the tournament after all, and I'm especially not going to lose in the first round.'

'I'm glad to hear it,' Pyrrha shot back. 'I'd be disappointed if you couldn't at least make it to the final to give me a challenge.'

As the two girls began finalizing their pre-match preparations, Ruby and the others were preparing to take their seats in the stadium when they ran into a familiar face.

'Jaune!' Ruby exclaimed, giddily throwing her arms around him. 'God, it's been over a year since I've seen you!'

'Ruby… can't… breathe!' Jaune managed to splutter, Ruby retracting her arms after realising just how tightly she was hugging him.

'Oh, uhh… sorry.'

Taking a moment to breathe, Jaune spoke.

'Hey, Ruby. How have you been?'

'I've been great! I just came back from a job myself. It's a shame Ren and Nora aren't here, though. It's almost like the whole gangs back together.'

'Yeah,' he chuckled, taking his seat. 'I hear Pyrrha's been doing really well recently.'

'Yup,' Ruby excitedly answered, 'she's trained really hard for this tournament. Obviously Blake is still gonna win it, but Pyrrha might come a close second.'

'What? No way. Pyrrha was part of team JNPR, so there's absolutely no way she can lose. You'll see.'

After Weiss and the others said their greetings to Jaune, he returned to his playful argument with Ruby before an announcement silenced the stadium.

'Ladies and gentlemen, I, Ozpin of Beacon Academy welcome you to the prestigious Vytal Championships with open arms. I hope that you enjoy the tournament and all the other festivities the event has to offer, so without further ado we shall begin the first round of the tournament!'

Amidst the cheers and excited squeals from the audience, the first two of the one hundred and twenty eight competitors stepped out into the arena, one being Pyrrha and the other being a very familiar face.

'She's up against him?' Jaune commented, surprised at her opponent, 'oh boy, this is gonna be a grudge match for the ages.'

'So, I'm fighting you first? I'm actually a little glad they keep the matchups secret. It makes a nice surprise to spar against an old classmate,' Pyrrha competitively taunted.

'Don't give me that crap,' her opponent replied. 'You won our last match even with my whole team around, but I've gotten a lot better since then. I'm gonna take you down and win this whole thing.'

'Whatever you say, Cardin.'

A silent air of tension filled the arena as the two stared each other down. As soon as the order was given the match would begin, and the atmosphere was perfect for the fight.

'Begin!'

Immediately after that word rang through the stadium the two Hunters moved on each other, Cardin rushing towards Pyrrha and swinging his mace down, although it was nimbly dodged by Pyrrha. He managed to recover in time to block her spear however and with a flick of his wrist he put Pyrrha in a bad spot, leaving her wide open for an attack. Thrusting his mace forward, she let a small smile creep onto her face as she let go of her shield, using her foot to launch it forwards directly into his stomach. The impact interrupted his attack and knocked him back, giving Pyrrha time to launch an attack of her own. Using the blunt end of her spear she followed up by thrusting it into his chest, sending him sprawling across the arena.

But… something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Cardin may have been arrogant, but he was far from weak. Yet her attacks were causing him to writhe in pain. Pyrrha knew her own strength, and she knew she didn't apply enough force to cause so much damage. There was something very strange going on.

'It's working?' Benihime asked, quite pleased with herself.

'Yes. The medicine is lowering his pain tolerance quite significantly,' the man replied. 'He can barely take a hit without being reduced to agony.'

'Excellent. Give it to every one of her and Blake's opponents. Slip it in their drinks somehow. I'm sure you can find a way, after all you've done much more dangerous things in the past.'

'I really hope you aren't doubting my ability, Benihime. I'm not someone who takes kindly to being looked down on. Just because I'm working under you for now does not make you my owner.'

'If it came across that way then I apologise,' she said without a trace of regret in her voice. 'Just make sure it gets done.'

He cut off the call soon after, leaving Benihime slightly annoyed at the tone he took with her.

'Criminals really are a handful, aren't they?' she said to one of her men, turning her head to face him.

'You're quite the handful yourself.'

She chuckled at his light-hearted chide, turning to one of her other men instead.

'How is Operation Red Star coming along?'

'It's going smoothly,' the man responded. 'They're completely helpless to stop us.'

'Good. Soon we'll have all the red dust we need, and by then… I plan to make Ruby's life even more exciting.'

'The winner of the match is Pyrrha Nikos!'

The audience erupted in cheers from the amazing show that they had been granted, being able to see Pyrrha in all her glory. Pyrrha however was less satisfied with her victory. She knew there was something going on behind the scenes, and she didn't like it. She wanted to earn her own victory, not have it earned for her. Back in the changing rooms it seemed Ruby and the others also noticed Cardin's odd behaviour.

'How did you…?'

'We're highly respected Hunters,' Ruby answered Pyrrha. 'I spoke with Ozpin and he got us permission to come speak with you.'

'You noticed it, didn't you?' Pyrrha asked, already certain that Ruby was aware of the bizarre behaviour Cardin showed.

'Of course I noticed it. The only question I have is why. I mean, Cardin isn't the kind of guy who would throw a match intentionally, and it didn't look like he was having much fun out there.'

'He looked like he was in agony,' Pyrrha added. 'It was horrible. He might not have been the nicest guy, but he is not evil. He didn't deserve to suffer like that.'

'Tell me about it,' Yang butted in. 'I wanted to kick the crap out of him at Beacon, but even I wouldn't go that far.'

'Who do you think would do something like this?' Pyrrha asked them, obviously distressed by what happened in the arena.

'There are two reasons,' Ruby explained. 'Either someone really doesn't like Cardin, or they want you to advance no matter what.'

'Which do you think it is?'

'Honestly at this point it's impossible to tell. I'm leaning more towards the latter, though. If they wanted something bad to happen to Cardin then there are plenty of much safer alternatives than showing it to fifty thousand people. They could just attack him in his sleep or something.'

'You have any idea who would do this?'

Ruby knew exactly who would do something like that, and her facial expression reflected that, however she told Pyrrha she didn't know.

'I see…'

Weiss decided to add her two cents to the conversation.

'Look, just take a break and relax. We will make sure this scoundrel doesn't get away with this, so don't you worry one bit.'

Pyrrha was reassured slightly by her words.

'Yeah, you're right.'

The matches soon progressed, and a few hours later Blake fought her opponent, a person whom she also won easily against. Her opponent also seemed to suffer excruciating pain from each attack, confirming Ruby's suspicion that it wasn't just a hate attack on Cardin.

Back at Ruby and Yang's apartment, they spoke about what had happened in the arena.

'You think it's her?' Blake asked Ruby, a troubled look sprouting across the redheads face.

'It's her. I'm sure this is all part of one of her games.'

'What are we going to do?' Weiss asked, fretting over Benihime's appearance after what happened the last time she showed up.

'Should I drop out of the tournament?' Blake asked. 'I mean, if I'm not competing I can't hurt anyone, right?'

'No. Whatever happens, do not drop out.' Blake seemed surprised by Ruby's sudden sternness but listened nonetheless. 'We know what this person is like. When she kidnapped Winter she threatened to kill her if we made any moves that she didn't like. We were lucky that it was only the Schnee Dust Company that we lost. It could have been so much worse. If we pull you and Pyrrha out of the tournament she's not just gonna let that slide.'

'So… what now?' Yang asked, unsure of their next move.

'I'm going to do some research on the festival. There are plenty of VIP's here, so I'm sure her plan has something to do with them at least in some way. If not, there might be some other significance to whatever she's planning. For now, I think we should keep this on the down low. You can investigate however you like, just don't draw too much attention to yourselves. If I find anything I'll share it with you guys. That OK with you all?'

There was no disagreement from the others, and Ruby began to do some investigation on the festival, making sure to run background checks on all the VIP's attending. Unfortunately, she found absolutely nothing.

'Damn… why is it so hard to find anything out about this woman?'

Ruby grew more and more frustrated at the lack of information. There was virtually nothing to go on other than the kidnapping fiasco. It was like Benihime didn't even exist, like she'd just appeared from another world.

And then the phone rang.

Chills spread through her body. She didn't even need to look at the number to know who it was. Answering it, she confidently spoke through the receiver.

'Benihime.'

'Ruby.'

It was indeed Benihime, meaning her hunch that the tournament was another of Benihime's schemes was spot on.

'I'm calling because I'm assuming by now you noticed those strange happenings at the tournament and realised who it was. Am I correct?'

'Yeah,' Ruby disdainfully responded. 'It wasn't hard to guess. Only you would do something so elaborate.'

'Well then, I suppose I don't need to say much more. That's handy. I won the first game, if you'll recall the kidnapping scenario for me. I'd say escaping with everything I wanted counts as a win, right?'

Ruby didn't respond, and Benihime sensed the hatred Ruby felt for her.

'Well, now you get to enjoy game number two. This one should prove to be even more exciting than the last, so I do hope you enjoy it. I wish you luck, and I suspect this one might prove to be a little more explosive than our last game of cat and mouse.'

Saying nothing more, Benihime hung up.

'Damn it,' Ruby exclaimed, annoyed at Benihime's cockiness. 'You'll regret this, Benihime. I will catch you even if it costs me my life!'