As had become the norm over the last few days, the first thing Ruby felt after waking up was crushing sadness. It took a few seconds to remember why, and then it only got worse. She sat up, wrapping the blankets around her, and leant back against the bed head. Something swung free as she sat up, and made a ting as it fell back to her chest. Ruby reached down and pulled up her pendant. For a moment she was surprised to see the rose alongside the snowflake, but then she remembered her resolution from the day before.

Be happy.

Somehow that made her feel a little better.

Her scroll was sitting on the bedside table; Ruby reached over and tapped a button. The curtains in the room drew back and allowed the light of the morning sun to shine into the room. The warmth of the sunlight washed over Ruby like a gentle caress. Throwing the blankets back, she got out of bed wearing a not-entirely-fake smile.

Yang was sitting at the table, munching on cereal and reading something on her scroll. Blake was leaving the kitchen, holding a plate of toast with what Ruby guessed was tuna on it. They both looked up when Ruby walked in. At first they seemed surprised when she gave them a pleasant, "Good morning!", but they quickly recovered and replied with broad smiles.

Blake set her plate on the table, but didn't sit down. "Do you want me to make you anything?" she asked.

Ruby shook her head. "That's okay." She walked into the kitchen, pulled out a bowl, cereal and milk and made a quick breakfast. She joined Blake and Yang at the table and the three of them began the day with a pleasant chat. Halfway through, Blake got up to brew coffee for Yang and Ruby, and tea for herself. Something about the warm coffee in her stomach soothed Ruby further.

"So what are you guys doing today?" Ruby asked after they lapsed into silence.

Blake and Yang looked at each other before Blake answered. "We uh… We're going to get back to work. We've taken a couple of days off because of…" A cloud of sadness seemed to pass of Blake's face. "Anyway," she continued, giving Ruby another smile. "We need to get back to it."

"What're you guys working on?" She'd heard that they were working on something important, but no one had—until now—had the chance to tell her about it.

"Well, it's uh…" Blake grasped for words, unsure of where to begin. Thankfully, Yang stepped in.

"You know the Dust shortages we've been having?" the blonde Huntress asked.

Ruby nodded.

"Well, we think that someone's stealing the Dust on its way into Vale. And we think they might be sneaking it in after that, to avoid suspicion."

Ruby nodded thoughtfully. "Saves them from stealing it once it's in Vale and risk it being noticed…"

"Exactly."

Ruby looked up and met their gazes. "This sounds very similar to what was happening in Mistral."

Another shared glance between the couple.

"Yeah," Blake said. "We think so too."

"So do you think it might be the same people behind it?"

Blake shrugged, nonchalant. "It's a possibility. The people here are dangerous though. We know they're inside the system, working within the government against us."

"And if they have that much power, it's likely they could do the same in other kingdoms," Ruby added.

Blake sighed in resignation. She knew that Ruby wasn't going to back down. Ruby smiled a little more. She'd promised Weiss that she would find the people responsible for her death, and it looked like she already had a lead.

"I want to help," Ruby said.

Yang frowned. "Are you sure, sis? You just got back. You should rest up a bit more."

"I'm fine. I can help. Let me help?"

Yang started to speak again, but Blake cut her off with a pat on the shoulder. "You can help, Ruby," the faunus said. "But you need to promise me one thing." Ruby raised an eyebrow. "Don't overwork yourself, okay?"

After a moment's hesitation, Ruby nodded. "Okay."

Blake eyed her for a moment, driving the promise home, and then nodded. "Alright. Well, once we finish up here, we can get going."

They finished their drinks in silence. The tension in the air was almost palpable. Ruby was like a coiled spring, about to burst into action at any moment. She could barely contain her eagerness to start, but she forced herself to remain as calm as possible. Blake was right. She needed to be careful. But even as she thought that, she only felt excitement.

Eventually they finished their drinks. Ruby suspected that Blake had started drinking hers slower after their conversation, but dismissed it. It didn't matter; they were leaving now. They piled into Blake's car and headed towards Beacon through the morning traffic.

It was a busy morning in Vale. The streets were crowded with other cars and at various points, the city came to a standstill. Every second that passed was like a hammer to Ruby's head. She wanted to start. The first thing she'd look for, she decided, was a link to Mistral. That was where her Huntress-mind took over and warned her. She needed to be careful. She wanted to find a link to Mistral, which would make it easier to see any evidence someone might otherwise pass over. But the problem was that she wanted to find a link to Mistral, and she might see connections where there really were none. Taking a deep breath, Ruby tried to calm herself down. She wanted to find the people responsible, but getting too caught up in the chase would get her nowhere.

After almost an hour, they arrived at Beacon and climbed the steps carved into the face of the cliff Beacon was built on. It felt nice, Ruby had to admit, to be returning to Beacon, ready for work. It felt nostalgic. All that was missing was Weiss, walking at her side, and then the picture would've been complete. But Ruby knew that from now on, they'd have to settle for incomplete pictures. She smiled sadly as they reached the top of the stairs and stepped onto the Beacon Academy grounds.

There were a few students still wandering the grounds, despite classes having started by now. A couple called out to Blake, who smiled and waved at them, and one approached Yang, looking somewhat nervous. Ruby and Blake stopped to wait as Yang turned to talk to the student, but Yang gestured for them to go ahead. Ruby glanced at the student—a girl she'd never seen before—then nodded and followed Blake inside

The door to Blake's office was already open when they arrived; a thick textbook was sitting on the floor, holding it open Ruby took a breath in an only partially successful attempt to calm herself, then followed Blake in. They hung their weapons up on a rack near the door as they stepped inside. Blake called out a greeting to everyone in the room. Nora was sitting in a chair on the right, gazing wistfully out the window. Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting on the lounge. Ren was nowhere to be seen.

Jaune and Pyrrha both jumped slightly as they saw Ruby and split apart. Jaune smiled his usual broad grin at Ruby and patted the cushion in between he and Pyrrha. Something about Jaune's grin pulled one onto Ruby's face. His smile had always been infectious. With nowhere else to sit in the room, it would have been rude to decline, so Ruby settled onto the lounge in between them.

Ruby offered each of them a grateful smile; Jaune returned it with a widening of his grin, but Pyrrha had already turned towards Blake. The sight of the back of Pyrrha's head wiped Ruby's smile away. The two of them hadn't been on the best terms of late; Ruby had often taken Jaune out with her on missions when she was still in her spiral of self-destruction, and it had caused no small amount of friction between Jaune and Pyrrha. Jaune was never one to get mad at Pyrrha though, and Pyrrha knew that, so rather than getting angry at him, Pyrrha had turned her frustrations and anger on Ruby. Needless to say, it had made life hard for Jaune.

Seeing it now drove home how selfish Ruby had been over the last year, and strengthened her determination to be stronger now. There was no good reason for her to hurt her friends like that; it didn't matter how miserable she was. And after all the grief she'd given them up until now, she needed to find a way to thank them for all they did, and apologise for all she'd put them through.

Ruby squared her shoulders as she looked away from Pyrrha and shot Jaune another smile. As she looked away from him, she saw a look of relief pass over his face out of the corner of her eye. So Jaune had been worried too. I'll be fine, she told herself. I'll prove it to them.

As she looked around the room, Ruby remembered that Ren wasn't there. Nora seemed more reserved than usual as well, which was a little unnerving. Ruby had never seen anything break through Nora's usual hyperactive good cheer; it was hard to imagine what had finally managed it.

"Hey…" Ruby said, still wondering if asking was a good idea. "Where's Ren?"

Nora shot her a look and shrugged before looking back out the window. That worried Ruby even more.

"He's been gone for a few days now," Blake answered. "He said he was going to talk to his 'contacts' and do some private searching for us."

"'Contacts'?"

Blake shook her head with a rueful smile. "Yeah, we don't know either. Who knows what Ren gets up to when he vanishes?" Ruby glanced briefly at Nora, but Blake shook her head. "Whoever he's talking to, he kept that card close to his chest. He's okay though; he sends Nora a message whenever he gets a chance, just letting her know he's alright."

"Right…" Ruby trailed off. Ren had always been someone who appreciated his space. He was nice enough when he was around, but that wasn't exactly a regular occurrence. But being gone for this long? And what 'contacts' did he have that would give them information on Dust thefts? Ruby frowned and glanced once again at Nora.

Yang chose this moment to enter the office, giving everyone in the room a bright greeting. Ruby smiled up at her older sister, then raised an eyebrow as Yang glanced around the room as if searching for someone.

"Where's Raud?" Yang asked, glancing at Blake and Jaune in turn.

Ruby frowned. Who the hell was Raud? Jaune caught the look and nudged her in the side, catching her attention.

"New guy," he said quietly into her ear. "He tipped us off, got us started, and has been helping out."

Ruby began to ask another question, but Pyrrha answered Yang, cutting her off.

"Probably with Kelly, as usual," the red-haired Huntress said. "Those two are inseparable now."

Jaune chuckled while Yang rolled her eyes. "Give me a sec," Yang muttered as she turned and left the room. She crossed the corridor and rapped sharply on the door across from them. There was a sound of clattering wood—like a chair knocked to the ground—and a moment of silence before the door opened, revealing Kelly. The woman looked flustered; strands of her hair were out of place, and her face was red. She looked up at Yang, pretending nothing was amiss.

Yang greeted her with a broad grin and stood up on her toes to peek over Kelly's head into the room. "Send Raud in once he's dressed again."

A look of shock flashed across Kelly's face, but she recovered in an instant. With an unsmiling nod, she closed the door and Yang re-entered Blake's office.

Ruby looked at her sister with a mixture of amusement and confusion. In all the time she'd known Kelly, the assistant had never shown any inclinations towards relationships. Whenever Yang had pointed out an attractive man or woman in Kelly's company, her usual reaction was a disdainful scoff. It was hard to imagine her falling for a man she'd met not even two weeks ago.

"Alright," Blake said, clapping her hands. "We might as well get started. Raud can catch up when he gets here."

Pyrrha, Jaune and Yang were focussed in an instant; all eyes were on Blake. It took Nora a few seconds longer to turn around; something outside seemed to have caught her attention.

"It's been a couple of days since we made any real progress," Blake began. "So we really need to get somewhere today. We need to find this Dust, and we need to find it soon."

Ruby raised a hand. "Question."

Blake smirked. "Yes. Ruby."

"'Find the Dust'? How are we meant to do that? Do we have any idea where it is?"

Blake shared a look with Pyrrha and sighed. "I guess we'd better fill you in," she muttered. "Get you up to speed… Okay! Long version. Raud came to me last week and told me that Dust was being smuggled out of Vacuo. He had been sent here to warn us, in case something similar was happening here. At first, we weren't sure, so we just started checking the city's Dust stores, which have been much lower than usual for the last few months.

"Right before this, Pyrrha and Jaune were on a mission in a mining village under attack by the Black Talon, and the village was mining Dust as normal. As far as we can tell, all the villages are meeting their quotas, but somewhere along the line, the Dust is going missing. As far as we know, it's not making it into the city, and it seems there are officials covering things up, making the thefts seem like shortages on the mining end.

"We know they have people in government—or in power at least—because Yang, Jaune and Pyrrha captured some possible informants, who were all killed before we could talk to them. Knowing this made the thefts seem much less unlikely; there are definitely people in positions where they could cover things up.

"Then Jaune, Nora and Pyrrha found that some of the caves outside of Vale—near the train lines—had been mined through into Vale's sewers. It looked like Dust had been used to break through into the city, and we think that's been the cause of the recent earthquakes. And… I think that's it."

Ruby nodded thoughtfully for a few seconds before replying. "So we don't know for sure that the Dust is being smuggled back into Vale?"

Blake hesitated, mouth open, then nodded reluctantly. "Y-yeah. I guess so. We're kind of operating on the assumption that it is, hoping to stop whatever might be afoot. From what it sounds like, the other kingdoms have people investigating as well; we're focussing on Vale. If they're stealing the Dust and smuggling it away, then we don't have to worry about it for now. It might be a danger down the line, but we can deal with that later. If they're smuggling it into Vale, then that's a serious danger. We have no idea what they could be planning, but with that much Dust, it can't be good."

Ruby nodded thoughtfully again, and then gave Blake a firm nod of agreement. "Makes sense. 'Hope for the best; plan for the worst'. Let's find this Dust."

Blake smiled and took a breath before continuing. "Okay. So, first thing, we need to find where those tunnels come into Vale. Clearly, searching from this side alone isn't going to help, so I've been thinking that we should send a few people outside the walls, back to the cave mouths. Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha, you three found the tunnels first…"

Pyrrha nodded. "We can go back out and find them again. We'll head through the tunnels into Vale and see where they come out. It might take us a while to tramp through all of them, but it'll do."

"Alright," Blake said with a nod. "So that leaves… me, Yang, Ruby, Raud and Kelly in Vale, searching from this side…" The faunus trailed off, in thought, then looked back up at Pyrrha. "Could you take one more with you? That way we can all split into four teams of two and search. You can search two tunnels at a time, and still be safe in anything happens, and we can do the same here."

They all nodded. It was a good idea. Ruby glanced around, wondering who would volunteer to go beyond the walls. She would be happy to, of course, but she wasn't sure if Pyrrha would want her coming along…

Yang glanced briefly at Nora before stepping forward. She began to speak, but then another voice cut her off.

"I'll go out with them," a deep, gravelly, strangely familiar male voice said. "I can't leave the fuzzball alone; not if her boyfriend's still not back."

"Ah, Raud," Blake said with a rueful smile. "Nice of you to join us."

Ruby glanced towards the door and felt a lightning bolt of recognition smash through her. The hulking, shirtless man—Raud, apparently—let out a deep laugh and shrugged.

"Yeah, sorry about that. You weren't here when I got here, and Kelly was here, so I sat with her and…"

Blake raised a hand, waving it frantically. "Yeah, yeah, yeah. We get it. No details, please."

Raud let out another laugh and nudged the book holding the door open out of the way. He turned around the close the office door, and Ruby saw the massive, black battle-axe on his back. That sealed the deal. The Huntress got to her feet.

The man had his back to her still, and Ruby used the moment to lunge towards the weapon rack and grab Crescent Rose. The scythe sang viciously as it swung free and came to a stop, the blade a mere inch from Raud's neck.

"Ruby, what are you doing!" Blake yelled, looking frantic. Yang's eyes were wide, and she looked frozen, unsure of what to do. Everyone else leapt to their feet, but remained there, watching,

Nobody moved. The blade hovered near the man's neck, but he remained still until he ever-so-slowly turned his head toward Blake.

"'Ruby'?" he asked in a calm voice.

Blake, still looking afraid, nodded. "My sister-in-law. Yang's sister. She just… got home from a trip. Ruby… what are you doing?" Her voice turned into a hiss as she pleaded with Ruby.

Ruby never took her eyes off Raud's back. There was no doubt about it. "Blake… You remember the last time I came to see you before I went away?"

The faunus nodded. "Yeah… You were beat to hell…"

"What!?" Yang yelled, rounding on Blake. No one seemed to notice her outburst.

The faunus was eyeing Raud now with a measure of trepidation and suspicion. "Ruby…"

"It was him," Ruby hissed.

Blake's eyes narrowed. "Ruby, are you sure? Raud's been helping us."

"I'm sure, Blake." Ruby's voice was filled with venom. Crescent Rose was beginning to tremble in her grasp as she itched to drive the blade home.

"Ruby—"

"I'm sure!" Ruby screamed.

The faunus took a breath. Ruby could only see Yang in her peripheral vision, but she could tell everyone was on edge. Yang had Ember Celica deployed, a fist cocked, and looked ready to commit bloody murder. A grin crept onto Ruby's face at the sight. Got you, you bastard.

"Raud," Blake said, her voice firm. "Explain yourself."

Taking a deep breath, the man began to explain. "I snuck into Vale illegally. I didn't want the people responsible for this knowing I was here, if at all possible. The police almost caught me, but I got away from them. Then I guess Ruby here attacked me. I didn't want to risk being caught, so I fought back. I thought the mission was too important."

It made sense, Ruby had to admit that. If it was a lie, then it was a good one. But her grip on Crescent Rose didn't loosen; the blade, poised to strike, didn't waver.

"You almost killed me!" she hissed.

There was silence for a moment. "That was… unintentional," Raud answered.

"Unintentional!?" Yang screamed, finally taking a step toward the man. "How the hell do you 'unintentionally' almost kill my little sister!? I should 'unintentionally' kill you!"

"Yang…" Blake tried to call out to her wife—to calm the blonde down—but it had no effect; Yang's hair was smouldering now, and even Ruby could feel the heat rolling off her sister.

"We all have our demons," Raud muttered. "Mine just like to come out now and again."

Ruby opened her mouth to speak—to cut off Yang's next outraged outburst—but Raud beat her to it.

"So… Ruby Rose, huh?" he asked. "Red scythe, red lock of hair, a general red tone to the clothing. I have to say: you match your description almost to the letter."

"M-my… description?"

Raud sighed and flexed his shoulders. Muscles rippled in his back as he straightened up, standing at his full height. Even with his back to her, it felt like he was towering over her menacingly.

"That's right…" Raud said, his voice dropping to almost a whisper. His voice was cold, emotionless. He let out another sigh. "I guess I don't really have a choice anymore; I doubt any of you will really trust me after this."

"Raud…" Jaune stepped forward, an appeasing smile on his face. "Just relax, man. We'll still trust you. You've just got to explain this all to us. What's going on?"

Raud shook his head. "It doesn't matter. Yang's not going to let this go. Blake will stand by Yang. And Ruby's… well… I almost killed her. Why would she ever trust me?" He rolled his shoulders and swung his neck in a circle, narrowly avoiding Crescent Rose's blade. "Stand back, knucklehead. I like you. I don't want you involved."

"What the hell is going on!?" Ruby yelled, fighting the urge to swing Crescent Rose back and end the whole incident right then and there.

"Your… description," Raud muttered. "My employers gave it to me. I was sent here with three objectives: warn you about the danger, so you'd trust me; find out as much as I could about all of you; and—if the opportunity arose—kill Ruby Rose."

Silence followed his declaration; none of them really knew how to respond. Ruby winced at the word "kill", and almost yanked her scythe back on instinct. But she held herself back. He was at her mercy, and if they caught him, he might be able to provide information.

"You bastard," Yang hissed. "I'll kill you!" The blonde lunged towards Raud, ignoring the cries from Blake, Jaune, and Pyrrha.

Before Ruby could react, Raud stepped back and slammed into her. The wall stopped her dead and she was crushed in between the solid stone wall and the hulking mercenary. As he stepped away, one of his hands brushed against Ruby's arm, while the other reached up to the haft of his battle-axe and yanked it over his shoulder. He swung it down, pushing Crescent Rose away, and then toward Yang's oncoming attack. Yang crossed her arms and blocked the blow on the armoured backs of Ember Celica, but she was knocked back a few paces.

Before anyone could react, Raud turned and swung his axe towards Ruby. With an awkward swing, she managed to get the haft of Crescent Rose in the way and deflected the axe into the wall. Sparks flew as the metal grated on stone and the axe skittered off the hard surface, throwing Raud off balance. With no room to swing her weapon, Ruby jumped and slammed both of her feet into his chest. He stumbled back and Ruby gasped in pain, as if a sledgehammer had caved in her ribs.

Yang lunged and threw a punch, which Raud deflected before throwing his own quick jab. Yang easily side-stepped the blow and swung another fist, which landed solidly on his jaw and slammed him into the window.

Ruby gasped in agony as wrecking ball crashed into her face.

The glass shattered behind Raud, and he tumbled out into the courtyard below. He landed on both feet and glared up at the window, as if daring them to come down.

Yang threw herself out to meet him. Blake turned to Jaune and Pyrrha and told them to find other faculty members, as well as the school's security. It was important to catch him alive. Ruby was the next one out the window. A flash of agony tore through her side as she fell, and, unable re-orient herself in time, she crashed to the flagstones with a pained grunt.

Yang and Raud were a few metres away, sending up sparks with every blow exchanged. They were evenly matched enough that neither of them ever hit a solid blow on each other's bodies; only the merest of glancing scrapes. The glancing blows that Yang landed didn't faze Raud at all; he didn't even react at all. The sudden bursts of pain that lanced through Ruby—perfectly time with each of Yang's strikes on him—jogged another memory of their first encounter. She glanced at her arm, where he's touched her, and saw a strangely patterned, black mark. Another burst of pain prevented her from examining the mark further, and by the time her vision cleared, she realised it didn't matter.

"Yang!" she called out. "Stop!"

Yang shot her a glare for a fraction of a second, and Raud gave her a blood-thirsty grin and jumped back a few steps. "So you figured it out, huh?" he said as he heaved his axe up onto his shoulder.

"Figured out what?" Yang asked.

"His semblance," Ruby said bitterly. She raised her arm to show Yang the mark. "This is from him. Now every time you hit him, it hurts me instead."

Yang went pale. She looked down at her hands, as if counting the times she'd hit him, and blaming them for each blow. After a few seconds, she clenched her fists and shot him a glare.

"So how the hell are we supposed to beat him?" the blonde asked.

"You can't," the mercenary answered. "Not without hurting Ruby."

"Dammit," Yang growled.

Raud attacked then, while they were off-guard, trying to think things through. He obviously didn't want to give them the chance. The axe sang as the blade cut through the air, and Yang only just managed to knock it aside before it slammed into her chest. Ruby swung her scythe back and prepared to attack, but a hand came down on her shoulder. She looked around at saw Blake next to her, frowning.

"I heard," the faunus said.

The pair locked eyes for a moment, and in them, they saw a sense of hopelessness. Ruby knew she wouldn't be able to defeat Raud; she'd knock herself out from the pain before she wore him down. Yang and Blake couldn't defeat him; Ruby knew that neither of them would try to hurt him if it meant hurting Ruby. He had all the advantages.

Raud's attack of relentless. He pushed Yang back, across the courtyard, sparks flying with every blow. The blonde was entirely on the defensive; all she did was block his strikes. There were so many openings he was leaving open, safe in the knowledge that Yang wouldn't take advantage of them, and—sure enough—Yang made no move to counter-attack.

"Stop now, Yang," Raud said as he attacked. Ruby and Blake could only just hear him over the sound of their weapons clashing. "I'm only after Ruby."

"Why!?" Yang hissed as she blocked a strike aimed at her knee. "We trusted you!"

Raud stepped back, breathing deep, and nodded. "I know. And I like you guys, really—"

"Then why are you doing this!?"

He sighed, and Ruby saw his grip tighten on his axe. "I'm a mercenary, Yang. There's no such thing as a merc with a conscience. I learned that lesson long ago. If we gave up as soon as our employer asked us to do something we don't like, we'd never get paid." He brought the axe back, ready to strike. "So while I may not like it, it's my job. And you're not part of that. So get out of the way now, and I won't kill you as well."

"Like hell." Yang raised her fists again, ready to defend. "No one hurts my baby sister."

Ruby turned to Blake, unsure of what to do. Blake would know; Blake always knew. But the look on the faunus' face was all it took to tell Ruby how false that idea was. Blake was just as clueless as the rest of them.

"Miss Belladonna…" a voice said. They both turned towards the voice and saw Kelly standing nearby, a shocked look on her face. Ruby almost opened her mouth to scold the woman—where the hell have you been all this time?—but the clash of steel drew her attention back to the battle. Yang was blocking every strike Raud sent her way, looking more determined than ever.

"Oh gods… Kelly…" Blake muttered. "Kelly, go back inside. You don't have to be here."

"What's happening?" Her voice sounded uncertain, confused.

"Raud betrayed us, Kelly. I know you liked him, but we can't let him go. You don't have to be here for this; go back inside."

"He… I see." Steel entered Kelly's voice. "I understand. Let me help."

"K-Kelly? Are you sure?"

"He betrayed us," Kelly declared. "I owe him nothing."

Raud managed to slip a strike around Yang's guard and knocked the Huntress flying. She cried out as she hit the ground and Ruby dashed in without a second thought. Blake called her name, but Ruby was already swing Crescent Rose at Raud. The mercenary blocked it instinctively, and then gave Ruby a rueful grin when he saw it was her.

"I didn't want to do this," he said. "Don't take it personally."

"You haven't killed me yet." Ruby took a step back and fired off to the side. The recoil sent her spinning in a whirlwind of rose petals towards Raud. He made no move to block it, and the blade sliced along the back of his shoulders, setting Ruby's own back ablaze with pain. Someone called out her name as she staggered away, but Ruby paid it no heed.

Raud stepped after her and swung his axe at her leg. The spike at the end of her scythe's handle caught the blade, which slid down the spike to the ground. Ruby swung a kick at his wrists, hoping to loosen his grip on the axe, but only succeeding in loosening her grip on her own weapon as pain lanced up her arms. Raud slammed a kick into her hip as she winced and she too was knocked to the ground with a cry.

Something crashed above her head; a shower of sparks fell down around her. Ruby looked up to see Yang standing over her, with Raud's axe caught in between her crossed gauntlets.

"Just knock him over?" Yang shouted. Ruby furrowed her brow—knock him over? What?—but a jolt of pain stopped her from worrying about it for much longer. Yang had slammed a foot into Raud's knee, and delivered an unexpected crushing blow to his face.

Raud was knocked to the ground, and Yang immediately turned away from him. The blonde crouched down at Ruby's side.

"You okay, sis?"

Ruby dragged herself up. "Raud…" She reached her feet just in time to see Kelly leapt onto the mercenary. He struggled, but Kelly held both of his arms like a vice. The woman with the green lock of hair closed her eyes and took a breath. The mercenary continued to struggle to no avail.

A faint, white light appeared around the two, and rapidly grew more defined. A bright, shining, pure white sphere appeared around them, blocking them from view. A high-pitched whistle filled the air, almost too high-pitched to make out, and the sharp smell of ozone filled their noses. The light burst in a bright, blinding flash, forcing Ruby and Yang to cover their eyes, and once the light faded, Kelly and Raud were gone.

"Uh… what?" Ruby stared at the spot where they'd been only seconds before, incapable of any other words.

"Sorry," Yang said. "Blake gave me a bit of warning. Turns out Kelly's semblance is… well… that. They figured that the only way we could get rid of him without hurting you."

"But…" Ruby trailed off. Can't he just hurt himself to hurt me, wherever they went, was what she'd been about to say. But she checked her arm, and the mark was gone. Only a certain range, maybe? She pondered. Then she shook her head. It didn't matter.

They approached the spot where they'd left and examined the mark left behind. A perfectly circular chunk of the pavement—about three inches deep—had been seamlessly carved out of the ground. Ruby thought back and remembered the sphere around the two of them flattening out against the ground. Apparently not.

"That could be a dangerous semblance," Yang muttered.

"No kidding…" Images of people half-inside flashed through Ruby's mind, sliced cleanly in half.

There was another flash of light a few metres away and—once it dispersed—Kelly had reappeared, on all fours and panting heavily. Yang, Blake, and Ruby descended on her like vultures, plaguing her with questions rather than sharp beaks.

"Are you okay?"

"What was that?"

"How did you do that?"

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Where is he?"

"What happened to Raud?"

Kelly waved off their questions and spun herself around into a sitting position. She hung her head back and sucked in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, and then blew it out. The three Huntresses gave her a moment to herself, though they were all eager to question her more. After a minute or two, Kelly opened her eyes.

"He's dead."

The three blinked in surprise; Blake even took half a step back in shock.

"W-what?" Blake asked. "You… you killed him?"

Kelly took another breath and nodded. "Dropped him into the Emerald Forest from about a mile up. Even if he survived the fall, the Grimm will have finished him off."

They all gaped at her, at how nonchalant she was about it. Not fifteen minutes ago, they'd had to drag Raud out of Kelly's office, and now she'd killed him with almost no qualms whatsoever. Ruby promptly changed her opinion of the woman.

It was at that moment that Pyrrha, Jaune and Nora rounded a corner and arrived with Ozpin, Goodwitch, and a group of armed Beacon security guards. They looked around for Raud and frowned in confusion when they didn't see him. Blake knelt down next to Kelly and patted her comfortingly on the shoulder before heading over to explain.

Ruby and Yang looked at each other. "Well that was a thing," the blonde said.

"No kidding…" Ruby watched Blake talking to Ozpin for a moment before glancing at Kelly again. "So what now?"

Yang put a hand on her hip and scratched her cheek. "I guess we clean this mess up, sort this out with Ozpin, and then… get back to work. Even if he was paid by the bad guys to get us investigating, we've found too much evidence that someone's up to something to stop now."

Ruby nodded and headed over to Blake and the others. As she stepped away from Yang, she heard the blonde mutter under her breath.

"So did he kill those three after all…?"