Amity Colosseum was a dangerous project, but one that bore fruits from just its cultural significance alone. There wasn't a single more recognisable structure in all of Remnant, it was even more commonly spoken of than the Dust Spike itself. Of course, in its construction no expense was spared. Fund's and resources poured in from many different noble families and of course all four kingdoms, but even still, down at the bottom of the structure as it was being made... Some of the people working on clearing that space, sorting the materials, stuck between the earth beneath them and the mound of earth above them that they were going to make into a Colosseum... Well, some of them decided that rather than wait for more resources to arrive, it would be easier to just get them from their surroundings.

An entirely logical - if a bit impatient - decision thanks to the ease that came with Magic when one was mining. No pickaxes had to be swung, just a wave of your hand, and you could clear away meters of stone and dirt without issue. At the bottom of the great crater, they left many of these 'caves' leading in all kinds of directions as they followed material outcroppings. The bottom of the symbol of peace in all of Remnant was practically a mine, and the twisting and turning unnatural caves that sprawled all over its base was evidence of that.

If one were to wish to hide, what better place would there be on such an island?

Ruby Schnee

"So, this is the crater."

"We saw it earlier, Ruby."

"Well, yeah, but it feels different down here." It really did. This was the third perspective Ruby had viewed it from, first high in the clouds, then again at ground level, now once more at the bottom of the chasm. Soft dirt and rough stone made up the floor in equal parts, small almost ponds of collected and pooled water held a surprising amount of life as they passed by. This place felt like it had its own ecosystem, even besides the fact that there weren't any plants so far down here. Which felt almost unnatural. This place had existed like this for a long time... How long had people been trying to preserve it? Surely, nature should have taken its claim over it again by now.

Yet it hadn't. This place was, and still is, just a symbol. And nothing, not even the progression of life, was allowed to interrupt that.

Ruby found that to be equal parts depressing, and hopeful to think about. Obviously, the denial of progress and the prevention of life moving down the walls of this deep crater wasn't a good thing... But the fact that people tried so desperately to keep this place the same, serene, calm, untouched... Peaceful... It was uplifting. More people than not wanted Remnant to be a peaceful place, and this glorified hole in the ground was proof of that.

"Maybe I'm taking that pamphlet too seriously..."

Moving from the centre, both women made their way to one of the many 'cave' entrances that dotted around this bottom layer. Ruby wasn't sure if Blake had picked this cave on purpose or just at random, but they started to walk down its length nonetheless. For all purposes, it may as well have been a natural cave. It was made too long ago for there to be any Magic residuals still left in its walls, and the only spells that had been cast on it were the ones designed to construct it in the first place. A basic earth spell, perhaps one of the easiest Terraforming Magic's that one could learn, all it did was move dirt and rock into a point, compressing it down and forming something stronger. The entire cave was made with walls, ceilings, and floors of this same material, rather than move the excess earth away, it seemed that they cleared the cave's space with the same spell that reinforced its structure. A smart idea, and one Ruby was sure that was used in more places than just this corner of Remnant.

The path twisted and turned, intersecting with other caves of the same design as it wandered throughout the earth surrounding the crater. Ruby figured that they were using some kind of spell to detect ore deposits, and they changed direction as they made the cave as necessary to reach said deposits. Mining wasn't the most physical of activities, not unless you lived in Atlas. Moving earth and stone to find metal was easy with magic, but only a fool would use anything else than the perfect tool to mine Dust. The Dust Spike itself luckily couldn't be set off as a whole. It was made up of too many types of Dust that contradicted each other, you wouldn't be able to set off more than a tonne before the reaction stopped... and that initial blast would more than likely kill whoever had royally messed up by starting it in the first place.

Silver eyes flicked to the back of Blake's head as they walked, Ruby's thought process settling on the mining of Dust... and how Faunas were often used to do it.

No one knows why exactly, but more Faunas than not seemed to be hired by the Schnee's to mine the Dust Spike. The working conditions obviously weren't great, and setting off Dust would lead to a fine for wasting it... A fine that was often left to that miner's family, as more often than not did the workers die in those accidents. The White Fang had started as nothing more than a few Faunas workers trying to unionize, and after a particularly bad incident that set off nearly a Tonne of Dust, all but one of their founders were killed. Of course, the remaining member claimed foul play, and all that managed to accomplish was the loss of their job. Things just progressed from there, getting worse and worse until the current White Fang stood as it was today. Ruby didn't know if those original founders had been killed on purpose or not, and it certainly wasn't her place to say. But, she did know that the current White Fang had seemed to have forgotten why the organisation was formed in the first place.

As a Faunas, Blake no doubt had experience with them... Especially since Adam Taurus himself had come to her home in an attempt to kill her. Adam wasn't exactly the leader of the White Fang, but as a Harbinger, he commanded nearly as much of their loyalty as Sienna Khan did. So much so that he was nearly as wanted as she was... But, still not enough to put him above Raven Branwen. By all logic, Famine and War should have been equal in terms of power... But if Pyrrha and Qrow were anything to judge the others by, Ruby knew that Raven was either second only to Qrow, or equal with him.

Thoughts finally settling, Ruby concentrated on the task at hand... being walking, of course. The cave's twists and turns were starting to weigh on her as Blake led them to a destination Ruby was becoming convinced didn't exist.

Until she was proven wrong, of course.

Rounding a corner, both women froze as they stared at the sight before them. It was like time had frozen as they stared at the Faunas, the White Fang goons just as surprised at seeing them as Ruby and Blake were to see them here. Ruby had expected to hear them long before encountering them, and even though her hearing wasn't as good, Blake should have as well. The grunts seemed equally confused about that as they stood at their stations still, some of them moving crates, others just standing by as guards... Until finally everyone realised they should probably be doing something.

"Well, this is awkward." Channelling her inner Yang for a moment hadn't been the smart play, as their enemies quickly pulled out their weapons, the grunts firing bolt after bolt towards them from their decently sized crossbows. Blake and Ruby both ducked behind some rocks, and as a bolt slammed into the wall behind them, Ruby gave it a once over and confirmed that they were in fact using Abaddon Bolts.

"I'm immune thanks to the Anti-Aegis, but Blake-"

Had already moved from cover, apparently. The woman rushed forward, darting from cover to cover as she tried to approach the firing line of their forces. The White Fang seemingly had a decently sized presence here, as more and more of them poured from further down the cave. Ruby begrudgingly left the safety of her cover and followed Blake, flowing over the rocks and reforming next to her as a mass of rose petals.

"Blake! Stay behind cover!"

"We have to deal with them!"

"I know that-!" Admittedly, Ruby was getting a little frustrated. "But if you get hit by those bolts-!"

"It's a risk I'm willing to take." Blake settled into a stance, crouching down as she summoned a dagger made of shadows into her hand.

"What...?" But for some reason... Those words had ticked Ruby off. Annoyed her, made her angry. "Blake, what the hell?"

She seemed to recognise her mistake, but Ruby was already pissed. "Ruby-"

"No!" She stood, letting scales blossom over her body as horns sprouted from her head. The Rose Dragon assumed its half form, and she eyed down Blake. The bolts that flew past her were completely ignored as she stood without a care that her top half was out of cover. One of the bolts even connected with the side of her head, only to bounce off as she eyed down the still behind cover Faunas. "I'm here for a reason, Blake." She was sick of people risking themselves for her. Ruby could fight, she was strong!

"I refuse to be weak. No... I don't just refuse it..."

"I know I haven't done a great job of proving it to everyone...-" Turning to face their enemies, who were still firing upon them, she reached behind her back, drawing a small handle attached to her lower back as a weapon formed around it. "But I'm not weak."

Even though she considered it a failure, even though she could beat them without it, even though she wanted to prove that she didn't need it or simply wanted to wait for a better one... Ruby drew her weapon. The handle expanded as she pulled it from behind her, forming into a long pole arm length as a blade formed at the opposite end she was holding. It was a mixture of colours, the base of it seemed to be silver, while red took on the primary colour that would be what most people called it if they were to define it as one single colour. The blade of the weapon extended out in a curve to such a length that it was probably at least half the size of the handle, but felt scarily bigger. It was thick to put it lightly, almost giving the impression of a cleaver as she finished drawing it.

For the first time in live combat did her scythe present itself, the Legendary tiered weapon finally getting the chance to make its mark on the battlefield. Their enemies were already intimidated by her, first by her transformation, even more so when the bolts failed to pierce any part of her body, scared even further when she drew the weapon that seemed to drip with magic... Then terrified as she started swinging the thing.

The frankly gigantic scythe was handled less like a weapon and more like an instrument as she twirled it, spinning it without issue to such speeds in her hands and around her body that it seemed to lose its shape and just meld into a circle of silver and red. The spinning stopped just as quickly as it started, abruptly ending without warning or an instant of slowing as she stepped forward. Their attacks focused completely on her as she moved, talking calm steps as her mind worked out a path, coordinating steps and planning movements... Before she began to dance.

Spinning the scythe one more time, she appeared before her first opponent in a flash of rose petals and wind, the sudden speed being too much for anyone to even realise she wasn't still far enough away from them to warrant using ranged attacks. By the time they had noticed her movement, another volley had been fired off at somewhere she no longer was, and they were now down a member. The White Fang grunt that had been unlucky enough - or perhaps lucky enough - to be her first target was already dead, split in half by a single line that stretched from his shoulder down to his opposite hip. Moving into her next step, she didn't stop the scythes movements for a second as she zipped to a different enemy, cleanly slicing him in half without once slowing her blade or changing its direction.

Her movements were clean, fast, they flowed together like it was all natural. The scythe never stopped moving for even a second, spinning around her to keep going and rotating slightly to attack from different angles as she darted from one opponent to the next. Her flow never stopped until there were simply no more beats to step into, their enemies being completely cleared out... But the number of bodies on the battlefield nearly doubling.

From the moment of her first attack to the moment the enemies were fully dealt with, was less than two seconds. The entire ordeal being a flurry of ringing slices and a storm of rose petals as she cleanly wiped them out one by one.

After all was said and done, she looked down at her hands, at the weapon she was holding. Ruby felt a cold sense of a feeling, less thinking on how many lives she just ended, and more on how much easier slicing damage was to use than blunt attacks... She had to hand it to Onyx, he certainly had been right.

Even though all of that had been overkill... It made things easier.

"Ruby...?" This was the part she dreaded. Turning around, she slipped her weapon back into storage on her lower back, most of its volume disappearing until it was drawn again. Her eyes met Blake's, a stretch of bisected bodies and pools of blood separating them as they stared at one another. "Are you... alright?"

A small smile graced Ruby's expression. She knew Blake wanted to say so much more, she knew that all of that was probably out of character for what everyone thought of the 'innocent' Ruby... But maybe that was why she had done it, why she had been so brutal and efficient about it. If Ruby wanted people to rely on her, she needed to show them who she was.

And to put it simply, Ruby wasn't that innocent girl that they thought she was. Not completely. Not anymore.

"Yeah. I'm fine." It was the truth, and they both recognised it as such.

Ruby had once questioned her ability to kill when she promised herself to do that very thing to someone... But now, she felt good, having proof that she could do it.

Ruby now knew that she could kill.

"And if I ever get a chance at any of them again... I won't hesitate."

Perhaps it should have been awkward, moving past all of that and continuing down the cave... But, it didn't feel that way for Ruby. Sure, she didn't get the impression that Blake was exactly thrilled from seeing that sort of thing... But Ruby had no doubts that both her and Yang had done much worse to many more people. They were Hunters. Equal parts Knights, and mercenaries. Now that Blake had seen Ruby do that sort of thing, it wasn't that she thought more highly of Ruby, rather, she had been forced to accept that Ruby was her equal. An adult. Someone she could confide in.

It's what Ruby had wanted. But perhaps it was disturbing that she was happy with this outcome, given how it was achieved.

Continuing through the cave, eventually, they came up on a larger opening, resembling a warehouse in scale. The room was made the same way the earlier caves had been, so Ruby just figured it had been home to a large ore deposit. Now, of course, it was home to their target.

They weren't hard to spot. The two ships looked mostly taken apart and salvaged for parts, but their frames were solid enough to have made harvesting the metal too much effort for the White Fang here to have tried. The frames sat at the end of the room, surrounded by the shed remains of what was once the rest of the transport vessel, and attack ship respectively.

The way the ships sat as far away as possible from the entrance, the way the room opened up massively, the way the rocks and extra crates and cargo sat around the edge of the room... Like to offer cover...

"Well... This is the most obvious trap ever." Even Ruby could see it, and Blake seemed to chuckle in approval of her words.

"I can't see the Dust crates from here." That's what they were here for, so if Blake's eyes were to be trusted... they were done.

But.

"I say we spring the trap." Ruby felt a surge of confidence, even without using Pride.

Blake seemed less enthused. "Ruby... I don't think that's a good-"

"Every time this sort of thing happens, one of them shows up." Them in this case being Cinder's group... Or Adam. "Worst case scenario, they weren't planning for a Dragon, and the trap won't be enough."

"That's worst case?" Blake's voice shared the same surprise as her raised eyebrow.

To which Ruby nodded. "Best case scenario... We get a swing at Cinder or Adam." Before giving Blake the chance to object, Ruby pulled something from her belt and slipped it into Blake's hand. Then, without a care, Ruby stepped into the room.

The trap met her expectations to say the least. It didn't trigger until she was in the middle of the room, and once her foot had crossed the threshold of the centre was she 'attacked'. More grunts from earlier all stuck up from behind the obvious cover, surrounding her from every side of the room and beginning to do - once again - exactly what she expected. Crossbows fired from all angles and bolts struck her form from every side, the metal blades being too weak to pierce her body even if they hit the skin of her head in her half form.

Ruby's eyes flicked around as she looked at them all, completely ignoring the bolts that struck her from every direction. She figured quickly that this would continue until she did something... But it raised an important question in her mind.

"These things aren't cheap to use... How many do they have...?"

How much Dust were they spending just here alone? Let alone wherever else they used these... That question sparked her curiosity further, and she kneeled down to pick up one of the many bolts that had failed to pierce her scales and simply bounced off. Unscrewing the head, she reached in to examine the ritual... To find that it was empty.

Truthfully, she almost laughed. Her mind instantly thinking "Of course" as she casually dropped the bolt. They wouldn't have enough Dust stored up to do this, and as they continued in their efforts to fire at her, Ruby felt a bit of vindication in her soul.

"Guess I was completely safe in giving Blake the Anti-Aegis anyway..."

It wouldn't work properly for the Faunas, after all, it didn't have the Shifter Enchantment. But Ruby had made sure all of her Magic items had a use for others besides herself. That particular one in this case could simply form a small field of Anti-Magic in front of the user like a barrier... Which, hopefully, Blake was doing.

After all... Taking out all these enemies that were surrounding her from every side would be a pain to do one at a time.

But she had a way to get rid of them all at once.

The Rose Dragon could smell their fear as her body morphed and moulded, increasing in size briefly as the full head of the Dragon shot from the mass of rose petals collecting in the centre of the room. Ruby doubted that she could move around this place in her full form very well, so she didn't plan to fully commit to her transformation.

Still, her Innate spell worked just as well in this state.

The bolts all stopped coming at once as her maw opened in a roar, the sheer pressure coming from it overwhelming as she pushed the volume as loud as she possibly could. The amount of Mana she poured into the spell this time was closer to what Rory had once used to nearly knock out Weiss... Suffice to say, nearly all of them were knocked out instantly.

Save for one. She didn't see who it was, but she heard a male voice scream out: "You bitch!" As she roared. The voice only said the one line, but it was towards the start of her spell, and the roar didn't just last for one second.

Only after her jaw closed and her spell stopped did she return to her half form, drawing her weapon and spinning around quickly to look around the room. She displayed the scythe in a stance meant for combat, a part of her brain not feeling confident that she got them all... That voice, whoever had yelled... Did they really only resist long enough to yell that before passing out?

As Blake approached, she decided it didn't matter. The faunas handed her back the small silver cross, and gave her a half thankful look, and half annoyed. "You couldn't have warned me?" Her voice, however, only displayed the irritation.

"You were fine." Ruby playfully waved off the Faunas's complaints, but in truth, she was correct. That roar was powerful, but it could only either disorientate or knock you out, it actually actively used Mana to prevent dealing damage to anything it hit that contained Mana... Which Ruby found confusing.

Even though Ruby decided they were safe, both of them went around and checked each White Fang grunt anyway, just to ensure she had gotten them all. Once convinced that they were out for the count, their investigation moved to the ships. As expected, the transport vessel had been completely stripped of all it contained as well as its parts... But even more worryingly, the weapons on the attack ship were nowhere to be found... If the White Fang had gotten their hands on those designs...

"Sure, they probably won't waste Dust on them..."

But mounting those things on some wheels and having people manually power them was better than a couple ballistas.

"Dammit Ironwood... Why didn't you just wait for Winter to get back and have her protect the transport..."

Ruby was now less worried about the missing Dust than she was the weapons being stolen... But her attention was quickly moved elsewhere.

"Ruby!" Moving over as fast as she could at the sound of Blake's call, Ruby found her behind some of that earlier cover. The space was clearly some kind of general area for those White Fang members, a large wooden table surrounded by chairs... and a huge Scrying Orb in the middle. One that was on an open channel, ready to receive a call. "Who were they calling-?" Blake didn't have to wait for an answer.

The cloudy Orb cleared, and the figure that appeared was one they both recognised. The man making both of them feel rage at just seeing him again, even through a call. His black uniform, red hair that seemed to glow, mask that only covered his eyes...

"Adam."

"Report-" His voice hitched as he froze, his eyes landing on the last two people he probably expected to see here... Well, maybe Qrow or Ozpin would have been more surprising. "You." His voice settled into anger, but Ruby wasn't sure if he was eyeing down herself or Blake. "I suppose this means the trap failed."

"Not much of a surprise there." Ruby was impressed by how quick Blake was to tell him off. Even with the distance between them and the fact that she couldn't actually feel his presence... Her soul was still aware that his was Famine. There was an aura of intimidation there that couldn't be worked around. Well, that wasn't true, Ruby had a way to do just that.

"I imagine you were looking for this." Her frustration hit an all-time high as held up the proof of his victory, regardless of the failure of his trap. A vial, that contained a Magenta powder. About two-hundred grams of it. "Don't worry, I'll make good use of it." This time, Ruby reacted first. Her mind flicking on that switch that filled her with confidence and let her ignore the fact that she was about to say this to the Harbinger of Famine.

She used Pride. "You'll use it? Don't you mean Cinder will use it? Or Carmine?" Her sudden attitude switch was enough to make him stop talking momentarily, and Ruby continued as she eyed him down. "You're nothing but a coward, Adam. You weren't brave enough to face us today, and you weren't brave enough to face Pyrrha both times you 'fought'."

She practically laughed with her words, and it left Blake with a satisfied smirk as Adam practically stammered before speaking. "Only a fool wouldn't retreat-"

"-You mean run like a bitch?"

"-From a Harbinger!" Ruby could swear that he was actually getting flustered from her words.

This time, she spoke with a smirk. "Then I must be a fool, Adam. Because if we ever meet, I'll stand my ground, and kill you myself."

She wasn't sure if the Scyring Orb ran out of fuel or if he actually stopped the call, but either way, the connection cut off, and they were left in silence for a moment. Ruby couldn't help but smile as she deactivated Pride, turning to Blake with an explanation ready.

But she hadn't needed one. "I wish I could make him that embarrassed." The approval ringing in her voice redoubled Ruby's smile, to which Blake reached out and actually pat her head for a moment. "I'm proud of you, Ruby."

Maybe it wasn't the best moment to say it, maybe Blake should have instead told her that what happened today was wrong or upsetting... Perhaps Blake should have instead asked her how she had felt when she killed those people... But that wasn't the kind of world they lived in.

After all, The World was cruel.

Someone Else

"My orders are to bring them in alive... but..."

With grit teeth did he slink out of the room, evading their presence and heading back into the twisting and curving cave network. He had been sent here on a mission, yet failed anyway. That had never happened before! His frustration was great as he thought about that... About Ruby Schnee, the woman who had made him fail her for the very first time.

"I'm sorry Mistress... But that task is no longer possible for me."

He practically scurried away through the caves as he thought about everything he had seen her do today... Ruby had crossed a threshold now. She was too strong. Not strong enough to beat him perhaps, but strong enough that his only choices would be to go for the kill, or lose. Capturing her was no longer something he was capable of.

"She'll forgive you..." He whispered to himself as he ran off like a rat. Or, perhaps a scorpion.

22nd Day, Fourth Strike, 2115 PE