A/N: Thanks to the people who have reviewed/favorited/followed. It has been a long time since I've wrote a fanfiction.

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Three weeks after the manor incident.

The trail up to Patch Cemetary was a narrow one, barely wide enough for two people. Tombstones littered the grass on either side of the dirt road. The morning sky was clear blue and birds chirped as they flew overhead.

Ruby wasn't paying attention to any of it. Instead focusing on her destination, a particular tombstone at the rear end of the cemetary. The tombstone of her late friend, Richter Bremen.

She arrived at Richter's tombstone, his name engraved on it as well as the words "Treasured Friend." Underneath it. The petite girl sighed, rubbing her arm awkwardly. Starting conversations was always tough for her.

"Hey Richter." Ruby said quietly to the tombstone, "Sorry I haven't visited in a while, been really busy." She paused for a moment, trying to think of what to say, "Pearce and Trista told me they've been visiting you a lot. That's good, you had trouble making friends, just like me." She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I fixed Crescent Rose, she had a faulty locking mechanism." Her head lowered in sadness. "In my excitement, I kind of didn't inspect it like I should have…" She suddenly perked up, "But not any more though! I'm going to be inspecting my weapons like a hawk from now on!"

More silence ensued, Ruby rocked back and forth on the balls of her feet. She wanted to say more. The entire walk here she was running through her mind all the things she wanted to say to her late friend. However, now that she was here, it was like grasping at straws.

"I remember what you said, about me becoming a great huntress." Ruby started up again, "I feel a little awkward you now? All my friends and family expecting great things from me, but I'll do my best not to let you down." She felt her lips curl upward in a smile, "I'm going to try to get into Beacon, it's where Yang's going. If I work hard enough maybe they'll let me in too!"

The alarm on Ruby's scroll went off as she grabbed the device out of her pocket. "Well, that's all the time I got for now." She informed the tombstone, "Bye Richter! I'll visit again soon!" With that, she took off back the way she had come.

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Richter's world was nothing, but darkness. There was nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to touch. There was just nothing. He wondered if this was what the afterlife was. All of your senses stripped from you.

Suddenly, a wave of pain washed over Richter's entire body with such intensity that he had to clench his teeth to keep from crying out. Next, the darkness receded from his vision and he began to see colors other than black. Lastly, the sound of machinery beeping filled his ears. One by one his senses returned to him, but why? Surely that didn't mean he was alive?

He took a look around the large room he was in, with numerous glowing light-blue lights on some high-tech machinery. Richter tried to get up, but found he was strapped to a metal table by his wrists and ankles. All he could was move his head. He also noticed with some alarm that there were various tubes attached to the back of his skull and his bare chest. He didn't want to think about what they were for. Was he in some kind of research facility?

How the hell was he still alive? He remembered his body literally ripping apart as he activated his semblance to take as many grimm with him as he could. He should be dead, but this didn't look like a place the dead would reside in. Did that mean someone saved him? If so, why wasn't he in a hospital? Where were his friends?

"Well this is a surprise." A sultry voice suddenly said. Richter raised his head as he spotted a woman walking towards him from a dark corner of the room.

The woman was beautiful. She was tall with long ashen-black hair. She wore a red dress with some sort of weapon resting at the base of her spine. The most notable feature for Richter though, were her eyes, they were amber. Maybe it was because he was still getting his wits about him, but it almost looked like her eyes were glowing. It was probably just a trick with the lights though.

"I didn't expect you would ever wake up again." The woman said.

Richter groaned in pain, "Yeah…me neither. What is this place?"

"An old lab of mine. Built under the manor." She answered, Richter heard her heels as she paced back and forth. "To tell you the truth, I had almost forgotten about this place. Until you and your friends disturbed the grimm I kept here."

Richter gulped, forcing himself to stay calm, "You…kept grimm here?"

She gave him a small smile, "That's right, it was a little troublesome, but they made good research material."

"Research for what?" Richter asked, sweating. The woman walked to him on the left side of the table. She stroked his chin delicately with her left hand before seizing it in a deceptively iron grip.

"Silly boy." She purred, "I'm asking the questions here." Her amber eyes narrowed, "How did you find this lab?"

"We were just testing our weapons." Richter answered truthfully, "We didn't even know this place existed!"

She smiled at him, a smile devoid of any warmth. "Really?" The woman released her grip on his chin and began walking away. "Well, alright then."

Richter pulled futilely against his restraints, "Uh, are you going to let me go?"

She turned back to look at him, her gaze predatory, "Why would I let you go when we can have so much fun?"

"I'm kind of not into the bondage thing…" He joked, trying to keep himself from panicking.

"Cute." She remarked, raising her arms from her sides and gesturing to the entire room. "I have all this equipment here, but I can't test it unless I have a guinea pig."

Richter did not like the sound of that. "Who's the guinea pig, is it me? Because I really don't want it to be me right now."

The woman gave a sinister chuckle. "It'll be interesting to see if you break." She turned and walked away, her form melting into the shadows.

Richter tugged at his restraints harder, getting desperate. "Wait! Wait! Is there a safe word I'm missing? Is it peaches? Maybe yogurt? Come on lady! Work with me here!" His pleas fell on deaf ears.

The sound of extra machinery whirring to life caught Richter's attention. He looked around frantically, trying to locate the source of the noise. It was then that he noticed the clear tubes attached to his body were being filled with a black liquid and it was slowly flowing towards him. Richter redoubled his efforts on the restraints, but it was no good. In addition to still being weak from his battle with the grimm, the leather restraints were solid. Unless he had help, he wasn't going anywhere.

He took rapid deep breaths as he saw the black liquid get closer and closer, until finally, it reached his body. Richter grit his teeth as he felt a burning sensation in his head and his chest as the black liquid began to flow into his body. The pain was excruciating and seemed to be building with every second. Eventually, it grew too much for the young huntsman and he opened his mouth in a scream of agony. A scream that got louder as more of the liquid was injected into him.

Richter's last rational thought before his mind was consumed by the fiery pain was that this was way worse than fighting the neverending tide of grimm.

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Over a year later….

Ruby Rose watched the derailed train as Schnee company workers frantically moved to and fro, attempting to get the train repaired as soon as possible. Apparently, there was a malfunction in the wheels somewhere which caused the derailment. Ruby's team had taken on the mission to safeguard them as they worked, on the insistence of Weiss of course. At the moment, the train was stopped in the middle of a forested area and the workers were nervous that the forest held grimm.

Ruby sighed in boredom, this was a far cry from a few weeks ago when they had to suppress a grimm invasion at Vale. That had been crazy! Since then however, the White Fang had all but dropped off the radar, and grimm activity had dropped too surprisingly. Perhaps they had killed a significant number in Vale. Whatever the case, there was not much to do at the moment.

"See anything strange?" Ruby's sister, Yang asked, her long blonde hair swaying in the wind.

"No." Ruby replied sounding disappointed.

Yang cast her eyes down at the train. "So what's so special about this train anyway? The White Fang has been quiet for weeks now. Huntresses shouldn't be needed for a mission like this."

Ruby shrugged, "Weiss said there is something special on the train."

Yang smiled mischievously, "Special huh? What is it?"

Ruby frowned, "She said it was classified."

The tall blonde huntress rolled her eyes, "Of course it is."

Ruby tapped her earpiece, turning it on so she could speak to the other two members of her team. "Weiss, Blake, you two have anything?" She listened to their responses and sighed. "Okay." She replied, tapping the earpiece again and looking at Yang. "They don't have anything either."

Yang put her hands on her hips, "Weiss is probably just being paranoid. I mean she'd be in big trouble with her dad if that 'Special' thing got stolen right?"

"Probably."

Ruby continued to watch the workers, her mind beginning to wander. She thought about Team JNPR, who were still in Vale. They were probably having way more fun than them right now. She thought about her friends back at Signal, Pearce, Trista and a few others. It had been a while since she updated them about her adventures at Beacon. She would have to do that once she completed this mission. Which seemed to be taking forever.

The petite girl began furiously rubbing her hands over her head. "Ugh! This is so boring! I wish we could…" She stopped suddenly, her huntress instincts kicking in. Yang noticed her change in demeanor.

"Ruby?" Her older sister said.

"Something's coming!" Ruby informed Yang, a lot of somethings actually, judging by the footsteps she was hearing. Footsteps that weren't human. They grew steadily louder until something large burst through the treeline behind them.

Ruby instantly leapt to her right, Yang leaping in the opposite direction. Looking back to where she was previously, the red-clad huntress spotted a boarbatusk charging ahead, running straight for the train. She landed on a tree branch and watched as numerous other boarbatusks burst through the same treeline, headed in the same direction.

"We have to cut them off!" Ruby shouted to Yang, who was in a treetop across from her. The blonde huntress nodded and leapt away, using the added boost from firing her gauntlets behind her. Ruby leapt to follow when something caught her eye. Something was headed towards her from her right, something fast.

She brought up Crescent Rose just in time. Parrying an attack that was strong enough to send her sailing backwards. Ruby hooked her scythe into a tree branch, spinning around it a few times before switching her weapon to gun-form, landing easily on her feet. The petite girl kept her eyes open, looking for the thing that knocked her out of the air, but the only sounds she could hear were the sounds of her team fighting the boarbatusks in the distance.

Suddenly a shadowy form blurred towards her from her right. Ruby pointed Crescent Rose straight down and fired, boosting herself in the air and avoiding the shadowy form as it passed under her. She saw the glint of metal and a moment later the tree she had used to kill her momentum began toppling over, the trunk had been sliced clean in half.

It was in that moment that Ruby got a good look at her attacker, judging from the person's build, they were male. Their face was covered in a cloth, making them sort of look like a mummy. Their hands were also covered with cloth, all the way up their forearms. The masked man wore a black shirt, pants and boots, a grey cloak draped over his shoulders. In his right hand was a single-edged sword and it looked familiar…

Ruby put the information aside in her brain, she needed to focus on the fight first. Still in mid-air, she fired two consecutive shots. The masked man deflected them both with his sword. Ruby fired at her opponent a third time, using the recoil to backflip and plant her feet on a nearby tree trunk. She then fired at the tree trunk, boosting herself towards the masked man, her weapon switching back to scythe form. Ruby reared back, preparing to swing her scythe as her opponent dashed forward, matching her speed, his grip tightening on his sword.

They clashed hard, the shockwave partially uprooting some of the nearby trees. Ruby immediately went on the attack. Swinging her scythe numerous times in various looping swings. The masked man parried, dodged or deflected them all expertly. He even forced Ruby on the defensive for a good ten seconds, his strikes mostly aimed at her face and neck.

Ruby swung her scythe in a horizontal arc, aiming for the left side of her enemy's head. The masked man ducked under the swing and in the next moment brought his sword down on top of her weapon, pinning it to the ground. She felt her face flare up in pain as her opponent slammed his left elbow into her nose. Ruby staggered back from the hit, only to be knocked backwards further as the masked man planted his left boot into her abdomen.

The petite girl flew backwards, managing to right herself and land on her feet at the last second. She still slid backwards a meter or two due to momentum and when she finally stopped her opponent was already attacking her again. This time, the masked man was high in the air, in front and above her, his sword raised high above his head in a reverse-grip. He was trying to impale her through the top of her head, but that wasn't going to happen today.

Aiming right in front of her, Ruby fired Crescent Rose, the recoil moving her backwards and out of the masked man's path, making him bury his sword in the ground. Seeing an opening, the petite girl twirled her scythe and brought it down towards the back of his head in a downwards vertical slash. The masked man dislodged his sword and leapt backwards just in time, the tip of the scythe's blade was just inches from the back of his head before he jumped.

The two combatants stared each other down, when the masked man suddenly spoke. "You've improved quite a bit with this thing haven't you?"

Ruby blinked, eyeing him suspiciously, "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm no one." The masked man answered. "I'm just…" the sword in his hands suddenly shifted into a pistol as he took aim at her. "….A complete failure." She mentally scowled, a failure? Yeah right, not with skills like he had.

Ruby twirled her scythe in front of her as she deflected the masked man's shots. His voice, it was very familiar, but she couldn't quite pinpoint it. Maybe if she ripped that stupid mask off his face she could identify him.

The masked man suddenly surged towards her, moving so fast he blurred. His weapon had shifted back to sword form and he lashed out, the blade heading for her waist. Ruby managed to block the slash with the handle of her weapon and the sword bounced off. The masked man stopped just two steps behind her, his grey cloak billowing so close to her she could reach out and touch it.

She swiftly ducked, narrowly avoiding being beheaded by her opponent's weapon. The petite girl then switched Crescent Rose to gun form, aiming for the masked man's chest. A split-second before she could fire, her enemy deflected her weapon to the left with his sword and she shot a bullet harmlessly into the forest. She quickly lined up her shot and pulled the trigger again, but the masked man deftly deflected her gun to the right this time.

Ruby smirked and switched her weapon to scythe form, swinging it horizontally from right to left, the tip of the blade heading right for her opponent's left temple. However, the masked man leaned his head backwards at the last moment, dodging a fatal blow.

That had not been Ruby's intention though.

The tip of Crescent Rose caught onto the cloth masking the man's face and as Ruby completed her swing, she ripped the cloth clean off. She looked hard with her silver eyes at the man's now-exposed face and nearly dropped her weapon in shock when she recognized who it was.

Standing before her, with his slicked back medium-length dark hair and his eyes nearly as black as the night, was Richter Bremen. Her childhood friend. The one that had died over a year ago.

Ruby's eyes were as wide as saucers. "R-Richter!?"

Richter's expression was neutral, his lips twisted downwards in a slight frown. "Hello Ruby. It's been awhile." He greeted, his voice cold.

He charged forward, performing a downwards vertical slash aimed to slice her in half. Only Ruby's instincts and muscle memory saved her as she blocked the slash with her weapon's handle, her brain still processing that Richter was alive and that he was attacking her.

"Stop!" She pleaded, "What are you doing?"

Richter's face remained impassive. "Isn't it obvious? I'm trying to cut you in half."

"Why?"

"Because, you stand in the way of our goal."

"What goal? Richter! What's happened to you?"

Richter's eyes narrowed, "That's none of your concern."

Ruby clenched her teeth, "Of course it is! I'm your friend!" Richter's eyes widened slightly for a moment and Ruby used that opportunity to shove him a safe distance away from her.

For a moment, she thought she saw a spark of her old friend, but too soon his eyes returned to their cold expression. "My friend?" He repeated, lowering his head. "That word…" Ruby's eyes widened in surprise as she was suddenly looking at the tip of Richter's sword just inches from her left eye. "….No longer has any meaning to me."

He then thrust the blade forward.