Disclaimer

I don't own RWBY, or any company related to it.

Chapter 5

Ruby woke up, due to the sound of people standing up, grunting from lack of sleep and preparing for work. Only seven people were on the floor getting ready to leave, as the rest of the barrack was still on beds trying to catch a sleep or sitting on bed.

"Damn I need a coffee" One person grumbled on his bed.

"You can get one from the canteen, but you need to pay for it. The price is one lien per cup, but at least it is a strong one. If you are unlucky, then you will need to either save up some credits in your balance, or get used to waking up without one" answered this ungiven question of one of the people standing.

"Thanks?"

"Name Derick, number 97"

"I will remember. People call me Gabriel, given number is 86"

"One important thing to all of you. You can work and take a break inside mine and as long as you spend ten hours inside, you won't get electrocuted at midnight, but if you want to drink coffee, eat something better, or get some new clothing then you need to work. Don't treat the account balance as lien, because it will only make you angry and depressed. Make it into some kind of score, like in game, that you can spend to get new items. That kind of thinking saved a lot of us from depression and breakdown"

"What if they catch us doing nothing in mine?" One of the newcomers asked and she was also interested in this subject.

"The staff and guards are forbidden from entering the mine shafts for risk of death by explosion, cave in, or 'accident'" though the last one said with a small smile.

"If I may ask, what happened with the people sharing our numbers?"

"They all died from the explosion of a fire dust crystal. Somebody either made his last mistake, or decided to commit suicide, but with it he took a lot of our friends and comrades. In the end the explosion was big enough to spit the fire outside by an emergency exhaust located in the mine entry way. On the way it burned wood and killed more people. Later we had to collect what remained of their charred bodies and melted insides" she and a lot of other people felt sick after hearing his story.

"Don't be scared, as explosions big as that are a rarity, due most of them being strong enough to make a big noise, blow up yours pickaxe and damage yours hands" These words though not sounding to reassuring, they made a sense, due to amount of people she saw leaving the mine with burnt and missing fingers.

"Now I am gonna eat breakfast and get mining" with these words Derick left the room with all the seniors leaving them on their own.

She immediately stood up with a grunt from aching muscles and headed for exit, as she still had clothes from yesterday on her. On the way to the canteen she decided to look around for a clothes shop for future reference and other things. Maybe she would be able to get access to a washing machine for her clothes, some kind of nightwear and spare clothes, but she only managed to find the store.

Deciding to check it later, she headed to eat something. Entering inside the canteen, she saw that nothing changed and even the price sign was the same. With her remaining balance, she decided to take two times rice and juice making her account zero, but it was better than gruel.

She ate at moderate speed and observed others how they behaved and what they ate. Most of them had gruel and water for breakfast, which caused her to shrug a little. After finishing eating there was nothing else to do than going mining. She repeated her yesterday procedure in mine until she reached the part where she ended yesterday. She started mining using aura, but she stopped when she realized something with her semblance. In her semblance activated she was dematerialized and after materializing it carried her momentum. If she were to use it during mining, it would make her strikes stronger and a chance to find dust bigger, which means better food and new clothes in future. Maybe even freedom.

Ruby decided to apply her plan into action. First she coated herself and pickaxe in aura, as everything she would dematerialize need to be coated by her aura, or it might be left partially materialized and fell into a ground, which if it were to be a limb, would make a very ugly view with a clean cut in place where the limb was supposed to be. She then dematerialized, swung her pickaxe and materialized just before striking rock with aura still active augmenting and protecting her. The hit caused the part of rock to shatter in place of impact and a break in larger structure. She felt a little spent and saw a pile of dissipating rose petals under her, which were made from her semblance power waste. If she were to minimize the amount of petals flowing out of her dematerialized state, then in theory she could hold it longer, or many times more.

She then continued using her aura to mine with a semblance strike every once in a while, where she tried to cut the loss of semblance off. The moment she actively decided to fight her petals, she saw a lesser amount of them, by her next special strike, meaning more common usage of it. It would take her a lot of time to master her semblance, but she had a lot of time to spend.

Five hours later she took a longer break and took a look at her job. In place of a small nook, there was a full sized corridor of about five centimetres length. There was also one small dust crystal and some unrefined dust with stone mixed inside her wheelbarrow. Her aura and she herself was tired out. Ruby decided to cut a break outside of mine, by taking a shower and lunch.

At the examining table the staff member simply said "8 lien", which meant for her a better food to quill her stomach.

Later that day after going back to mine, Ruby had an accident, which depleted her aura by a moderate amount, as her pickaxe hit a small crystal hidden underneath rock causing a big "bang" sound and exploding while throwing rock shards everywhere. Lucky her aura stopped Ruby from getting injured, but she learned her lesson to be always watchful. Also her earning was about three lien that afternoon, but she did not mind as she wasted a crystal. Lucky practicing the usage of semblance decreased the waste amount in rose petals by two per use.

Luckily she saved two lien from lunch and was able to have a simple meal consisting of chicken meat and rice.

3 MONTHS LATER

It's been three months since she arrived at the mine. Her muscles were much bigger now with a lot of mine working and proper food, as she daily was able to mine between three to thirty lien worth of dust. A month ago Derick died in an accident, as a dust crystal exploded and one of the shards hit him in the throat cowering him and her as she was passing by with blood. She tried to save him, but she lacked the knowledge to do so. He died shortly after and one of the miners practically ripped her away from him, while the others took his body outside. She never saw what happened later with him.

Yesterday she heard in the canteen that Gabriel died too in an accident, causing her to cry again as they befriended each other and he became her parental figure. She was on her way to mine, much later than yesterday as her nerves were in shatters and when she was about to enter it she heard a loud bang.

She stopped outside of the shaft, due to it and it saved her life as a stream of fire left one of the corridors and went into the emergency fire shaft. She then heard a staff member yelling "miners take the wheelbarrows and clean up the remains from that place".

She numbly picked her wheelbarrow and unloaded the pickaxe and with a couple of other faunus she entered the corridor with her face lacking in colors and smelling burn meat. Later she repeated what others did in loading the remains into wheelbarrows and after they finished the staff member outside the mine led them outside the wall and ordered "dig a grave here. Remember that you need to mine too so be fast with it".

They were handed tools and two hours later she was standing above a shallow grave.

"Now dump the remains here and cover them with dirt" and they just did that following the staff member's orders. After covering the bodies and placing tools back, Ruby used her semblance to reach her barrack toilet and started puking her stomach content. Even after there was nothing left, she still wanted to puke. I took her an hour to stabilise herself and realise that she needed to go back into mine, or she will be punished.

She then used her semblance to speed up to the mine entrance, as it was already afternoon and ten hours would make her work until midnight or later. She had given up and went inside to mine.

Later at 1 am she left it and headed straight to her bed after earning thirty lien in small crystals and unrefined dust, as due to her semblance practice she was able to use it in every fourth strike and regenerate, without tiring herself than before with every sixth strike.

After entering her barrack she saw something that scared her. It was empty, meaning that all of the people she had met and befriended were dead. Ruby at that moment decided to close her heart as she cried herself to sleep by going straight to her bed.

Three days later a new batch of faunus had arrived, but this time it was about thirty two people with all having a tattooed number to replace the dead people. Ruby felt sick and continued to the canteen in order to eat breakfast.

Later that day she saved one of them from accidently striking a dust crystal in mine, due to sweat gathering in his eyes, by using her semblance and catching his pickaxe just before hitting it.

The newbie, a rabbid faunus, looked scared a little when he felt somebody catching his swing and then was surprised to see that it was a small girl in dirty and ripped gothic like clothes.

She released his pickaxe in a safe distance from the crystal and pointed it with her finger. Ruby saw a shocked expression on his face as he realized how close he was to possibly dying and turned his face to the girl and nervously said "hehe thank you. You saved me. What's your name? Mine is Jim"

Ruby ignored him completely and decided to go to her mining spot. On her way here she heard "I will make sure to pay you back somehow!". Deciding it was not worth answering, she made it to her place and started mining.

Later she found out that they were sharing a bunk bed and groaned a little seeing his happy expression after he spotted her going to her sleeping spot. He then started talking about his family and a sister named Velvet who wanted to become a huntress.

TWO YEARS LATER

It's been two years and three months since her coming here. Ruby was now wearing simple, but practical clothes with better protection in mine, which also were much easier to wash and had also some spares.

She heard that the white fang had a change of leadership from a pacifist Belladona to militarist Khan. They started to fight against racism and slavery. The guards started to be more alarmed at their presence more than before, showing that people were becoming more afraid of them than before when they used to show their apparent superiority every moment they could.

The rumors from newcomers stated that the biggest feat was liberating the mine in Vacuo territory, which boosted their ranks and appropriation in their kind eyes. Ruby for the first time in two years had a glimpse of hope in her eyes. She checked the balance and found it stating 80 000 lien. In these two years she managed to almost master her semblance causing her mining speed to skyrocket. She looked into the sign in the canteen and saw a staff member removing 'freedom' price. She asked "why are you removing it?"

The staff member answered "with the white fang out there it was declared too risky to let any miners out of the compound in fear of them learning about the localization of this place. The freedom will be bringed back after squashing white fang under the boots of the atlas military".

Ruby decided to get a luxurious meal and a beer, since no one would forbid her, as she had a lot of savings; it didn't even put a dent in her account… After drinking she felt a little high, but decided to go mining while still practicing. She hoped that white fang would show up and save her.

10 MONTHS LATER

Ruby was inside mine when she heard a loud bang. She was about to launch her semblance and speed out of the mine, but one of the miners next to her reacted faster and pushed her into a nook in a wall, while covering her body with his.

She then felt the heat and fire stream going through her right arm, that was outside.

After a stream of fire and smoke she felt the person behind her slide to the ground and after turning her head, she tried to reach him with her right hand in order to yell at him, but she was unable to do it. She took a quick look at her hand and saw only a strip of flesh hanging from place, where her elbow should be. She fainted from shock, low air supply, smell and pain hitting her at the same time.

She stirred awake, to find herself on a wheelbarrow being transported to the graveyard. "Shhh, be silent. They think you are dead. Act dead and don't make a noise. You will be free and able to find help, there is a small fire dust crystal in your breast pocket to cauterize the wound. Can you use your semblance?" Jimmy instructed and asked her in a whisper. Couple of faunus ears picked it up, but decided to ignore the talk, as that might give them a hope of reaching the white fang and rescue, since recent actions were performed in the Atlas kingdom.

She nodded her weakly and he said "on the words 'oh fuck' you need to use it and run away to the right. I will give you a clean window. At least I can do that for you after these years. Jim Scarlatina out"

After they reached the area and started digging Jim said pointing at a three in front of them yelled "oh fuck, a Grimm on tree!?"

Ruby immediately used her semblance and flew through the forest for five minutes, without leaving as much as a single petal behind her. After stopping and looking around, she found herself in the middle of the forest in cold weather. Using the fact that her speed allowed her to gain a long distance from the camp and group, she collected some sticks from the ground. After building a sizable fireplace, Ruby used her crystal to start a fire. Now preparing for the most painful, but needed part of removing the excess arm from elbow and cauterizing it.

She carefully used her aura to cover her whole body without the part needing to be amputated and waited for the fire to be big enough. After reaching the point, she used her semblance to move herself and arm next to fire and proceeded to cauterize the wound with a yell of pain escaping her mouth.

Ruby did it and has fallen unconscious on the forest floor next to the fireplace and the remains of an amputated elbow, leaving her arm from the shoulders to above the former elbow.