Sitting in her bed, Ruby Rose had just learned from her Uncle Qrow the shocking things her silver eyes could do to grimm when a news report on the TV from Lisa Lavender caught her attention.

"Twenty-one-year-old Cinder Fall, whose brutal disappearance as a young girl once shook the nation of Atlas, still continues to evade authorities along with her accomplices Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai. She appeared to be seen on camera taking the life of the beloved Pyrrha Nikos."

Brutal disappearance as a young girl? Did something awful happen to Cinder as a kid or as a teen? Ruby wondered. Tears threatened to fall at the memory of what happened to Pyrrha in the palace of Vale. Images of Cinder appeared on screen, her arm of grimm on full display.

Lisa continued on. "The young woman who entered Vale's Princess Trial this year alongside Nikos and many other young huntresses and huntresses in training remains the primary suspect in the attack on Vale's palace, bringing the celebrated competition to a tragic end. Adam Taurus is also wanted for his role in the attack."

The Princess Trial was a televised competition held only in Vale. Women from around the world, but mostly from Vale, auditioned to become the next princess of Vale and marry the prince, who had been masked for the first 18 years of his life to protect his identity. In years where the heir to the throne was female, it was called the Prince Trial, even though there had been occasions where a same-sex mate was chosen. Although princess candidates were judged on a variety of factors such as popularity with the audience and the feelings of the heir, semblance and skills as a fighter seemed to be what mattered most. There seemed to be a goal of keeping powerful royal bloodlines in the palace. The princess wasn't the only person being chosen in the trials- huntresses were also chosen to serve as the guards of the winning princess. Even when a contestant was eliminated, they remained in the palace until the competition was over.

Contestants had different motives for entering this competition. Some were in it for the romance. Some were in it for the lien. Some were in it for the fame. Ruby was a second year Beacon student who had entered the competition so she could be chosen as one of the huntresses to guard the princess, following in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother Cassandra Rose. She didn't have any romantic feelings for the prince- she saw him only as a good friend. Ruby's sister and teammate, Yang Xiao-Long, who was only a few months older than her, had entered to be chosen as a huntress to guard Blake Belladonna, her girlfriend. Ruby's friend and teammate Blake was the only faunus in the competition, and had entered to serve as positive representation for the faunus.

But now it was ruined.

"Queen Karen Kuro and Prince Chad Kuro of Mistral have called for former princess candidate Cinder Fall to be put in The Hunt, and so far have the necessary number of votes to do so. It marks the first time in the history of The Hunt that a human will be executed in the show. Because Fall was born in Mistral, she will be deported to Mistral for The Hunt when found."

"Uncle Qrow, what is The Hunt?" the 18-year-old asked.

"A harsh, sadistic reality of the world that your parents worked very hard to shield you and your sister from, making sure you couldn't watch it on television," Qrow Branwen replied in his gravelly voice. He took a sip from his ever-present flask before continuing. "The Hunt is a hell Mistral usually reserves only for faunus- an execution show for killing off faunus criminals. It's hosted by a person labelled 'the god', and the host changes every 3 years. Mistral Coliseum is made partially of blood dust. You know what that means, don't you?"

Ruby had heard of blood dust before. "It means nobody can use semblances inside of the coliseum?"

"Semblances or magic, according to Oz," Qrow answered.

Qrow had explained to Ruby that there was magic in this world around the same time he explained to her what her silver eyes had done, the fact that there were relics hidden throughout Remnant, and who was really behind the attack on the palace: Salem. It was a lot to take in, but Ruby guessed she shouldn't be surprised that blood dust worked on magic the same way it worked on semblances.

"Several faunus criminals are hunted down on camera in a wooded area inside the coliseum. They're called game. Then one faunus criminal- usually chosen because they're controversial, attractive, or both- is chosen to be the Villain. The Villain is the main spectacle of the event, held captive in a cage for public viewing until all of the 'game' has been hunted. The villain is judged for their actions, given an exit interview, and then violently killed, usually with their faunus features cut off first."

"That's wrong," Ruby said, feeling a mixture of disgust and anger.

"You're right," Qrow agreed, "and since something as innocent as dating a human is a crime punishable by death for faunus in Mistral, clearly not all of the faunus executed in The Hunt are bad people.

Ruby thought of Yang and Blake, and felt saddened that there was a place where their love was illegal. Maybe that was part of the reason why their relationship had been a secret, until they were outed a few days ago.

"Even if a person is bad, they don't deserve to be put in something like The Hunt," said Ruby.

"That's true," Qrow agreed. "Over the past several years, the hosts of the hunt have been trying to one-up their predecessors with the Villains- both in the kind of Villains they choose and in the ways that they're killed. A while back the villain was a young male faunus who had supposedly harassed and assaulted a human female. Every bone in his body was broken. After his death it came out that the human woman lied. She faced no punishment. Then in last year's Hunt, there was a dog woman faunus who was stabbed to death over 200 times for supposedly falsely accusing a human male producer of abusing her. Her execution got an animated film adaptation. Just this year, it came out that the producer had abused other women and girls too, and new evidence came out that he did, in fact, abuse the faunus who was executed.

"In recent years The Hunt has also started to get backlash for only offering up faunus criminals to suffer and die for people's entertainment. Offering Cinder, a young human woman, up to suffer and die for entertainment may be a way to silence those pesky discrimination allegations and serve up shock value at the same time."

A fresh wave of horror washed over Ruby as she thought of Cinder, the upperclassman she had spent a year pining for and whom she and her friends had gotten closer to, being made to suffer such a fate. Then Ruby's mind suddenly went to Grandma Cassandra.

...

It was Grandma Cassandra's last vision. It had happened six years ago, shortly after Ruby's mom, Summer Rose, had mysteriously died and shortly before Grandma Cassandra herself had died. Her semblance had been the ability to get random premonitions. One day Ruby had been bringing Grandma her tea when she saw her aura shimmering, and knew instantly what it meant.

"What did you see?" Twelve-year-old Ruby had asked, once the shimmering had stopped.

"Years from now, a troubled young woman from Mistral will be brutally executed for crimes she did not commit," Grandma Cassandra stated.

Her silver eyes locked suddenly on Ruby as she said, "But you can save her. You, and your friends."

Ruby's dad Tai then came in to give Grandma her meds, so Ruby didn't get the chance to ask her more about the vision.

As Grandma Cassandra had gotten older, her visions had become less accurate- especially after her daughter Summer Rose died. But this one had stayed with Ruby.

...

Could Cinder be the young woman in her grandmother's last vision? Cinder, who had held Ruby so tenderly on the night when she'd saved her life, making her promise not to reveal the fact that she could fly? Ruby had taken a stupid risk one night at Vale palace, standing on the ledge of a balcony in a long, frilly red ballgown one night for the thrill and accidentally tripping. Ruby could have and would have used her semblance to save herself, but Cinder had happened to be watching her out the window and flew to where she was and caught her. Cinder hadn't given an explanation for why she was able to fly when her semblance was something very different. Ruby later learned it was the power of the Fall Maiden that had enabled Cinder to fly.

Lately it seemed like there was a lot that Ruby hadn't known about the girl she had been crushing on. Was Cinder the killing machine she was being made out to be? Her heart said no, but Ruby knew that it wasn't only her feelings for Cinder telling her that she was innocent. When she had seen what had appeared to be Cinder killing Pyrrha in front of her, something had happened that made her question whether it was actually Cinder who she was seeing. But was it enough to save her from The Hunt?

"Don't worry about The Hunt right now," Qrow said. "Right now, all you need to know is that the enemy's next target seems to be Mistral- the relic hidden at Haven Academy."

"Uncle Qrow, is Yang here?"

"Yang lost her arm during the battle. She's in her room right now."

Concerned, Ruby instantly went to her sister.