Ruby Rose sprinted through the forest in a swirl of wind and rose petals, one hand on the sheathed Crescent Rose, just to be prepared. She was worried about Grimm, but knew she was unlikely to be intercepted; she was too fast, and too quiet.

She skidded to a stop, her feet throwing up a shower of black soil as she hunkered down and came to rest next to a large redwood, resting her hand against the trunk and catching her breath. She allowed herself to let go of her weapon as she panted in exhaustion and looked around. It was nighttime, and the surrounding trees were still and quiet. Ruby's mind, meanwhile, was anything but.

An hour ago, she had picked up a lead that her targets were out here, in this forest. Jaune, Nora and Ren had been misled; they were off on a wild goose chase that Ruby had just found out was a false trail, too late to warn them not to go. She had been left with a choice: go after her quarries alone, or find her friends and risk giving the villains enough time to get away clean. She had chosen the former. They couldn't escape again. Not after Vale.

You're being reckless again, and you know it, said her inner Weiss. You can't beat them in a fight, not on your own. Not even close.

Ruby knew that was true. So she wouldn't fight them. Once she found her targets, she would watch, and follow, and be patient. She would find a way to contact the others... and then... they would improvise. But for now, the most important thing was that they not get away.

She stood up again, brushing a bit of dirt off her knees, and got moving once more. She was going fast, but not using her semblance. That was too fast. She needed to play closer attention now, and see if she could pick up a trail.

"Come on, come on..." Ruby muttered under her breath, scanning the ground as she jogged through the woods, leaping over rocks and fallen trees. She had picked up many Grimm trails in the past, in the woodlands of Patch, but this was the first time she had ever tried to track humans.

Finally, there was success. Ruby stopped on a section of open ground between some ferns and looked down. Drawing her scroll, she activated the light and examined the ground closely to be sure. A set of human footprints, made with thin, high-heeled shoes. Emerald, maybe, thought Ruby. She looked around, waving the light over the ground and pushing aside more ferns until she located a second pair of tracks, demonstrating large, heavy boots with a tiny hole in the center. Mercury, for sure! she thought triumphantly. And where there's smoke, there's fire...

It didn't take her long to locate the third set of tracks; heels again, but a bit deeper, either because the person making them was heavier, or because the shoes themselves had been made with a more solid, less pliable substance. Like glass.

Cinder.

Ruby stared at the footprints. The distinct clink, clink sound of Cinder walking echoed in the back of her mind, along with the common sense that she now heard in Weiss's imaginary voice. You don't really know that this was them. Not technically.

"No." She said outloud. "I know. They were here."

Ruby took one last look around, dimmed her light a bit, and began to follow the tracks.

clink. clink. clink. Cinder walked calmly along the stone, the night breeze sifting through her hair as she examined the ancient temple. A tiled stone floor, large, worn columns... it was all exactly as she remembered it. Emerald and Mercury were still back at the flight of ancient, eroded stairs leading up to the raised temple floor, a solid five feet above the forest ground below. They watched apprehensively as their boss walked over to one of the pillars, closed her golden eyes, and ran a hand across the rough stone, feeling.

Mercury, carrying a burlap bag over his shoulder, looked at Emerald, but she simply shrugged, just as lost as he was. Cinder kept running her hand across the stone, as though she were searching for something. After almost a minute of this, she paused, and smiled. "Ah..." she said in her usual warm, seductive tone. "Good. This site's still active." She turned and looked at Mercury. "Do you still have them?"

"Yep." he shook the bag.

"Good. Bring them through here."

She walked away through an archway in the temple, and her henchmen followed, unaware that they were being watched through the scope of a sniper rifle. Ruby was crouched on a large boulder in the treeline, gazing at them. She didn't know what this place was, or why Cinder had come here, and she had a particularly bad feeling about whatever Mercury was carrying in that bag. She shook nervously as she watched them go deeper into the temple and vanish from sight; actually seeing them again was bringing back unpleasant memories of what these three were capable of... the memory of Emerald and Mercury mopping the floor with Coco and Yatsuhashi flitted across her mind. Just recon, and observe, she kept repeating to herself mentally. Recon and observe, recon and observe...

Taking a deep breath, she hopped down and began to skirt around the temple, looking for a place to observe from.

It actually didn't take Ruby long to find a perfect spot: between bushes in the treeline, shadowed under a low ginkgo, and raised a bit up on a knoll, allowing her to see up onto the temple's main floor. She was practically invisible, could see clearly, and was even close enough to hear their conversation if they spoke. It couldn't have been more perfect. Holstering her weapon, Ruby lay down in the bushes and watched.

The villains had found their way to a large, open area of the temple, most of the floor of which was overgrown with a covering of thick, dark green moss, with some grass poking up here and there. But the most significant thing that Ruby could see was a gigantic stone archway, which seemed to go nowhere, and was adorned with a symbol, carved into the keystone and painted in ancient red. It reminded Ruby a bit of an eye.

Cinder was looking around the site, hands on her hips. "This is it. Set them up in the exact configuration I showed you." Mercury opened the bag, and he and Emerald both reached it- Ruby watched intently, but was relieved (and maybe a teensy bit disappointed) to see them merely pull out some candles. The deadly duo began lighting the candles and setting them up, taking more and more out of the bag as they went. It seemed they had brought dozens.

Cinder walked around the site, watching them as they worked. "Now, remember:" she said, somewhat more forcefully than usual. "You will show respect and deference. You will speak only if spoken to, no exceptions. You will remain in your bowing positions unless ordered otherwise. You will follow any and all instructions you are given immediately and without question. Is this clear?"

"We understand." said Emerald in a somber tone.

Ruby was confused, but kept watching in silence. Cinder was now donning a silver amulet from the bag, depicting an undamaged crescent moon. She then drew forth another silver artifact: a circlet, to be worn on the brow, also depicting the undamaged moon, and in three phases: waxing, then full, then waning. She treated both objects with an almost religious reverence, applying both to her person very carefully. To Ruby's eyes, it looked almost as though she were preparing some kind of spell or ritual.

Finally, the candles were complete: they took the configuration of a huge circle containing a five-pointed star. Up above, the eyelike symbol on the arch began to glow a dark, bloodlike red. It was starting to get very cold out... Ruby drew her hood over her head. Mercury and Emerald were taking positions: each got to their knees within one of the "legs" of the triangle, bowing their heads respectfully. Cinder stepped into the center of the pentagram, looking up at the arch. She raised her arm, pointing her palm at the center of the archway, before a smooth, long white glove appeared from thin air on her arm.

Ruby stared in surprise, wondering how Cinder had done that. She hadn't seen the glow of any dust, and it didn't look like a semblance...

The same symbol from the archway was depicted on the back of the glove. There was an odd sound, almost like the shriek of a strange creature crossed with the screaming of a woman, and a shimmering, swirling veil of dark red and black energy filled the arch. The temple was getting yet colder, and the inky sky above suddenly turned dark, blood red. Ruby looked around in fear, hoping the increased light wouldn't give away her position. But the way the branches in front of her were positioned, it was impossible for her to be seen from the temple.

She was also getting a bad feeling she couldn't explain. Somewhere, deep inside her tummy, there was this... not cold. Something like cold, less harmful... but somehow worse. She thought Emerald and Mercury must have been feeling this as well, because they both tensed up a bit. If Cinder was feeling the same thing, she didn't show it. Ruby watched carefully... and her eyes widened as a dark figure appeared within the vortex.

A figure with glowing red eyes.

Cinder was quick to drop to the same bowing position her minions had assumed. A black-clad foot stepped out of the portal slowly. As soon as it touched down on the mossy ground, all of the moss around it turned grey, withered, and died. This circle of desiccation spread outward from that spot. By the time the woman had stepped out of the archway completely, all of the moss was dead.

Ruby stared in the horror at the person- no. That wasn't right. The creature that had just emerged. It would have looking human, were it not for the pallid, chalky white skin, visible purple veins, and glowing red retinas against jet-black sclera. It wore all black, and an expression of mild amusement.

Salem looked around at the sight that greeted it. Slowly, its head turned, scanning the area, looking over the worn and overgrown temple. Ruby's insides went cold for a moment; she could have sworn the creature's eyes had lingered on her hiding place. Finally, after a lengthy pause, Salem turned its eyes to Cinder.

"Cinder." said Salem in a smooth, cool voice. "You've summoned me."

"Yes, Salem." said Cinder, without looking up. Her own voice lacked its usual silky warmth; she sounded utterly formal. Salem began to walk around the temple, its eyes lighting on Emerald and Mercury. "Why?" it asked.

"We were to give you a report on Mistral, once we were done there."

"So you were. Are these your helpers?"

"Yes."

"Introduce me."

Cinder nodded, even though Salem wasn't looking at her, and stood up, turning to gesture to her two cohorts. "This is Emerald Sustrai. And Mercury Black."

"Emerald and Mercury..." Salem repeated back, continuing to pace around the temple, and gazing at the eroded stone. "Goodness, look at my temple. This one has really gone to seed."

It turned to look at Cinder again, meeting her gaze. "Cinder."

"Yes, Salem?"

"You found this temple by memory? Told no one where you were going? Purchased no maps?"

"Yes."

"And you brought only Mercury and Emerald? Other than them, you came here completely alone?"

"Yes."

"I see. Cinder... do you remember what we spoke about last time? About how you were defeated in Vale by a girl with silver eyes?"

Ruby felt a sudden stab of panic. It knows. Cinder looked mildly surprised, but answered quickly and calmly. "Yes, of course. Why?"

Salem pointed to Ruby's hiding place. "Are you aware that she's hiding right there?"

Ruby bolted. Scrambling to her feet as quickly as she could, she turned around and shot through the trees as fast as her semblance would allow, pushing her speed to its limits. She knew that Mercury could move quickly with his boots, and Emerald could get inside her head... and that was without even addressing how lethal Cinder was. Her only hope was to escape before they could even react.

It didn't work. Ruby was most certainly fast enough to leave behind Cinder, Emerald and Mercury, but as she launched herself between trees, moving so fast that her slipstream was actually tearing apart ferns and uprooting bushes, she saw, in a shock, Salem emerge from the shadows between two trees some fifty yards ahead, still smiling calmly. Ruby tried to brake, but wasn't quick enough, as Salem calmly reached out a single hand and grabbed the girl by the face, clamping its clammy fingers tightly over her mouth. The wind behind Ruby shot past the duo, dirt and leaves whipping past through the air.

Ruby reached for her weapon, staring at Salem with wide, panicked eyes. She drew Crescent Rose forth... only for a paralyzing chill to run through her body, striking her limp and numb and causing her to drop her scythe. Crescent Rose thudded to the forest floor, and Ruby hung from Salem's hand, a foot off the ground and unable to move. The trees Salem had emerged from were already dying; their leaves had dropped off and their bark was turning mottled grey, splitting open in places and allowing sickly white sand to pour out. The same fate was starting to befall all of the surrounding plant life.

Salem held onto Ruby, its red eyes meeting her silver ones. "So. You are the one who immobilized my beloved pet." It leaned in close, to whisper. "I'd like to know how you did that."