Here's chapter 4 of the remake hope you guys like it.

Ch. Remake 4

"Nevermind, Ruby I found out."

-Ruby-

"How are you doing, kid?" Lux whispered, popping out from her collar slightly so he wouldn't be seen.

"W-well, my throat hurts from screaming so much. There's also a bullet in my leg that I can feel whenever I move it, though on the plus side I didn't bleed to death like they do in the movies, so I have that going for me," Ruby laughed a bit, or at least she tried with her throat being sore it made it impossible. After she paid the toll, the masked man threw her in the truck, ignoring her shrieks of pain. He then slammed the back doors shut, locking them as well, then joined his squadmates at front. The truck's cargo side must have been soundproof, seeing as her cries where ignored indefinitely. The armored vehicle roared to life then started moving shortly after.

"How long has it been?" Ruby asked Lux while trying to sit up.

"A little-."

"Do you usually talk to yourself this much?" the sudden response from someone else startled her that she jerked her injured leg making her wince from the pain. When the pain subsided, she turned to see who had surprised her.

"O-oh, it's you umm hello," it was the boy with the ashen hair that spoke he was sitting in the corner shackled to the seat.

"Hello to you as well, Ms. Crazy," he said calmly.

"Hey! I'm not crazy!" the boy looked at her with a doubtful expression

"I don't know after you finished screaming, you started talking to yourself. You even asked yourself a question."

"No! I was talking to my uh my uh," Ruby trailed off, trying to figure how she was going to explain she was talking to a bird.

The boy watched her with a raised eyebrow.

"Where you talking to your imaginary friend or something? Because if you where that's fine, I won't judge."

"Wha!? No, you got it wrong! I wasn't talking to my imaginary friend I was talking to my bird...friend," as the words slipped out, Ruby realized that wasn't any better. The boy snorted, not believing her, "Surrrreeeee, if that's what you wanna call your imaginary friend, then that's fine."

"He's real! Look!" not wanting the boy to look at her like she should be in a stray jacket, Ruby reached into her shirt and pulled Lux out. "See! Look, he's real! I'm not crazy!" she held Lux out on the palm of her hand for the boy to see, but his expression grew more concerned.

"So you carry a small Grimm bird inside your clothes and talk to it? Are you sure your not crazy?"

"Ugh...When you say it like that, yea, it sort of does sound like I'm crazy," the boy chuckled bit leaning forward in his seat.

"So, what's the little birdie's name?" before she could say Lux spoke up.

"Lux is the name," the boy was shocked hearing the avian speak, though so was Ruby. She expected Lux to stay quiet, not introduce himself as if a talking bird was a common occurrence.

"W-Well, that's surprising never thought I'd see a talking nevermore. The name's Zack. I'd shake your wing, but I'm a bit restrained at the moment," his restraints kept his hands bound tightly to his seat.

No worries nice to meetcha," Lux then turned his head slightly to look at Ruby.

"..." after a few seconds of silence, Lux started nudging his head a bit like he was trying to tell her something.

"Is there something on my face?" the nevermore sighed and pecked her on the forehead.

"Ouch! what was that for?"

"Introduce yourself numbnuts!"

"O-oh, sorry, ah, my name's Ruby ah umm nice to meet you too?" Ruby mentally slapped herself for giving such an awkward introduction.

"I see you're an expert at introductions," Ruby meekly laughed at his sarcasm.

"Yeah, sorry, things just haven't been going very well for me."

"I can tell most people wouldn't be here if things were going good for them. So what's his name?" Zack pointed at the wolf resting behind her.

"That's Kindred."

"Does he talk too?" Zack asked

"Na that mutt's brain isn't very big, so I doubt it," the wolf hissed at the avian's insult.

"Hey, be nice, Lux."

"Yea, yea, I'll be nice," gliding off Ruby's palm Lux landed on Zack's leg then pecked at his hand. It surprised the boy; yet, he made no attempts to swat Lux away.

"Lux! That's Rude! You can't be pecking at people's hands!" Ruby reached to grab Lux and pull him away only for him to fly off landing on Zack's head.

"Sorry I couldn't help myself I haven't eaten since I fell asleep I'm starving."

" That doesn't mean it's okay to eat people's hands!" Lux rolled his eyes

"I wasn't eating his hand dummy I was eating what was coming out of his hand."

"What?" not understanding what he meant. Ruby looked at Zack's hands. "Oh! That's right. You also have dust coming out of your hands..." her voice trailed off as she realized the distance between Zack and herself had shrunk quite a bit. Their faces were no more than a few inches apart. Silver gazing into silver, something she'd never thought possible since her eye color was remarkably rare. Sure there was her mother, but she'd never gazed into Summer's eyes and felt speechless, nor blushing madly either. Ruby's mind was turning to mush; she wanted to say something anything to make it less awkward. Unfortunately, every time she opened her mouth, weird sounds would come out. Ruby cursed herself for being so socially inept, especially when it came to the opposite sex.

"Hey"

Ruby squeaked, hearing Zack's voice.

"Y-yesh?" she managed to say even if it was a bit fumbled.

"If you're going to keep staring at my face while making weird noises, I'm gonna have to start charging you," he said with a coy grin. It was just a joke, Ruby new that. Now all she needed to do is laugh it off and apologize for staring too much. Easy right? Yet the words that came out of her mouth betrayed her. "U-um h-how much?"

Zack was amazed at her response, although not as much as Ruby, the girl's head sank, burying her face in her hands. The young girl's eyes where practically swirling in confusion.

'How did I screw that up? Ah geez, he gave me a way out and somehow made it worse. He probably thinks I'm some kind of crazy pervert now. Wait if I laugh it off and say I was kidding right now I can probably fix what I messed up.'

The young girl raised her head to meet Zack's, who was still flustered from Ruby's response. Not able to force a laugh, she threw the idea out and went straight for the line that would fix this mess of awkwardness she created. "I was-" her line was cut short as the truck jumped from hitting a bump on the road causing the girl to shoot forward. Time slowed for Ruby as she was propelled forward towards Zack. His face growing closer by the millisecond. Ruby felt her heartbeat jump. She had seen enough anime to know where this was going. The famous 'accidental kiss.' Usually, the pair would form some type of unbreakable bond or go on a fantastic quest together full of danger, friendship, and a whole lot of ecchiness after the deed is done. At least that's what happened in the anime's she watched. However, she missed one crucial step for the 'accidental kiss' trope to work. Ruby needed to kiss him on the lips, not headbutt him in the face.

Both were down for the count with a loud thud groaning in pain with Lux laughing as he perched onto of Kindred's head.

"Haha! The good ole headbutt to the face classic," Ruby slowly picked herself up and glared at the nevermore.

"Not funny," Ruby turned to look at Zack, who couldn't fall as he was shackled to the seat or even use his hands to rub his injuries like she could. He just rubbed his face against his shoulder.

'Are you okay, Zack?" she steeled herself, fully expecting him to lash out at her for headbutting him.

"Yea I'm good don't worry too much about it," Zack rubbed his nose one last time making sure he wasn't bleeding then looked up at a surprised Ruby.

"What's wrong? Am I bleeding somewhere?"

"N-no, I was just surprised, that's all."

"That you didn't kill me with your headbutt attack? Or that you didn't get that accidental kiss?" he said with a smirk. Ruby shook her head and hands denying the accusations even if one of them was correct; he didn't need to know that. "I was surprised you weren't yelling at me for headbutting you," Ruby held her breath, hoping she didn't make another mess.

"Oh. Na, I'm not gonna yell at you for that. Even if you did injury me, it would just heal in a minute or two," his tone was light, which was good since it meant there was no malice between Zack and her. She released the breath she was holding, finally relaxing.

"Yeah, I guess that's true. I was just worried that you would be bleeding for the whole day like I usually do when I get injured."

"Really? for the whole day?"

"...Yeah? is that weird?"

"It kind of is. If you're like me, then your injuries should be healing pretty quickly," Ruby realized why it was weird now semblance users had increased healing compared to an average person.

"Well, I just recently unlocked my semblance and stuff, so I'm still new to this," she said, meekly rubbing the back of her head.

"Ah. That makes sense. Then that means you probably don't know what I meant when I said 'you're like me,'" Ruby was puzzled at the way he said it.

"What do you mean?" Zack took a second to think before speaking.

"Do you have any family that works as a huntsman?"

"Yeah, my dad and mom both work as a huntsman. Why?"

"Has either of them been shot in the leg before?"

"My dad has it was an accident if I recall. One of his students he was training when he used to be a teacher shot him on accident. Since it caught him by surprise, his aura cloak wasn't able to protect him."

"And how long did it take him to heal?" Ruby was perplexed by the question, did it really matter how long it took for her dad to heal.

"I think it was about a week. He stopped feeling pain after two weeks."

"Seems about right. What about the average person? How long would it take them to recover if they were shot in the same place as your dad?

"Ummm, I think maybe around three months to heal and six months for them to stop feeling pain," Ruby was beginning to lose her patience, what was the point of these questions.

"Alright now, what if I told you someone healed a similar injury to your dad's in less than a few hours," Ruby scoffed. "That's not possible aura may accelerate one's natural healing ability tenfold, but it has its limits. My dad, for example, he needed aura booster shots once a day and two surgeries to help him fully recover. Without that, his leg would never fully heal. A semblance user's accelerated healing is amazing sure; however, that's all it is. If you break your arm, it'll heal quickly, but never to 100% without a form of treatment involved," when Ruby finished her explanation, she heard a low clap coming from Zack.

"*clap* *clap* Bravo, you definitely know your stuff, Ruby."

"Nerd!" Lux yelled out.

"Quiet you!" Zack laughed as he watched Ruby try to catch the avian to no avail.

"Hmph!" after a few minutes, Ruby sat back down pouting.

"Awww don't pout Ruby. I'm sure Lux was just teasing you."

"*Sigh* I know... So you said you knew someone who healed a similar injury in a few hours or less who was it?" Zack grinned, pointing a finger at her.

"You."

"What?! That's absurd I've never been...shot..in..the...leg...," Ruby looked down at her leg that was injured at least it was supposed to be injured. The gunshot wound had miraculously healed.

"B-but, how?" she traced her fingers around where the wound was supposed to be. Her skin was smooth and creamy, just as it always was not even a scar was left. Ruby even pressed on the area yet felt no pain at all. It was like it never happened.

"Your probably thinking aura shouldn't have been able to heal this so fast and to this extent, right?" Ruby looked up at Zack, who wasn't fazed at her abnormal healing.

"It shouldn't be possible," she mumbled, still rubbing the skin for any signs of injury.

"And your right, it isn't possible at least not with aura," Ruby remained quiet, letting him continue.

"What if I told you that you don't have an aura."

"That's impossible," she said immediately. "Without aura, I wouldn't be able to use my semblance, and Lux and Kindred wouldn't have been born," Ruby wasn't entirely sure if that was accurate, but it was no mistake that her familiars where her semblance in some way. Aura acted as a form of energy source for semblances. Like a mage needed mana to cast a spell without aura, you couldn't use your semblance. There were no alternatives. Yet Zack's grinned widened like if he was about to prove her wrong.

"Dust," just a single word was said.

"Dust?" Ruby was lost what did dust have to do with this?

"Yep dust," he pointed at her hands that were still emitting the usual reddish dust. She raised her hands studying them for a bit; then, her eyes widened, finally realizing what he was saying.

"Are you saying dust is my source of power?"

"Bingo"

"That's...,' she wanted to say it impossible, but the facts were right in front of her. It explained the dust she emitted along with the glowing eyes and hair. Ruby could argue that her sister's eyes and hair glowed as well when she used her semblance; however, they stopped radiating once her semblance wore off. It wasn't permanent like hers. Kindred and Lux were both born from dust as well. Lux even said he wanted to eat dust that emitted from Zack's hands. Yet there was one thing that didn't add up.

"If dust is the source of my power, then my accelerated healing still shouldn't have been able to heal my leg completely," Even if dust replaced aura as a source, it should still work somewhat the same. Right?

"Wrong dust is entirely different from an aura."

"How so?"

"Aura enhances your body, making it faster, stronger, and durable. Right?" Ruby nodded. A few things were missing, but overall he was right aura enhances all your body's core attributes nothing more nothing less. "Now dust, on the other hand, doesn't improve anything. I'm sure you've noticed that you don't feel any different from before you awakened." she nodded again. Now she couldn't see her stats like in a game, but she was confident nothing had changed. She was still the same goober before and after.

"While it doesn't enhance anything dust, however, does change how our whole body works," Zack raised his hand, pointing at her leg. "What's missing from where you got shot?" Ruby wanted to say the wound itself was missing, but that couldn't be it. She looked around the area, but nothing else seemed out of the ordinary—just a hole in her orange uniform there wasn't any stains since it was brand new. Yet she felt like something was missing something significant that happens when you get shot or get injured in any form of way.

"...Ah! There's no blood!"

"Correct! If you cut an average person or a semblance user, they'll bleed blood, but not us. We do something different," Zack then began emitting more dust from his hand that swirled around it then started clumping together, forming a small ashen dagger made of dust. He grabbed it as it fell then handed it to Ruby, who had a look of amazement at what she just saw. "Now cut yourself and see what happens. It doesn't have to be deep just enough to bleed," Ruby flinched a bit.

"Wouldn't that hurt," she said softly, looking at the dagger in her hands. Zack rolled his eyes.

"Then cut my arm then," he stuck out his arm, showing her it was okay.

"What! No, I'm not going to cut you!" she protested, pulling the dagger away from him.

"Geez, Ruby, I'm not asking you to murder me. Just cut me a bit so I can show you what happens."

"O-okay, but tell me if it hurts," Zack rolled his eyes again, but lifted his sleeve, gesturing her to do it. Ruby reluctantly angled the dagger, so only the blade's tip was touching his skin. Then with a quick motion, she pulled it across a short distance before pulling away. Ruby watched as the cut on his arm opened, fully expecting to see a drizzle of blood. She was surprised to see dust flow out gently. Not in liquid form either it was the same dust that emitted from his hands. The dust only flowed out for a few seconds before the cut healed itself.

"That's-"

"Pretty cool, right?" Ruby nodded. Aside from the fact she cut someone seeing dust come out instead of blood was pretty cool. It explained the lack of blood on her clothes and on the floor of the truck.

"Now I don't know how much dust has changed in our bodies, but I do know our healing isn't just accelerated as aura would do for us. I...I've... well let's just say a while back I was heavily injured to the point that even if I had the best aura in all of Remnant, I wouldn't have been able to survive. Yet I'm still alive and kicking. So whatever dust does for us is entirely different from what aura would do for us," Ruby let the information sink in first before she asked her question.

"How is this even possible having dust as a source instead of aura?"

"I don't honestly know. Everyone I have told has either just ignored or told me I'm crazy. If anything I completely lucked out you're like me or else you'd probably call me crazy too," Ruby couldn't deny that. If she had been normal, she too would just call him crazy.

"Is there anything else you've been able to find out?"

"Yeah, there is one more thing we're able to-" his words word cut short as the vehicle came to a halt.

"Looks like we're here where ever we are," he said. There weren't any windows, so they couldn't see outside. The truck's engine was shut off, seeing as they couldn't feel any vibrations.

"Ruby, sit over there and keep your hands where they can see them," She nodded and sat on the opposite side of the truck with Kindred laying near her feet.

"Lux hide in my shirt they don't know you're here," stretching out her collar, the avian crawled inside.

"I'm not sure what's gonna happen, but try to stay near me and don't do anything that would get you shot, okay?"

"Okay," Ruby wasn't sure how Zack looked so calm when she, on the other hand, was nervous and scared. The sound of a key jiggling could be heard then the cargo doors opened up, blinding her with bright lights.

-Zack-

When Zack's eyes adjusted, he noticed the same masked men from before stepping inside. They had their weapons drawn; however, they were only aiming at Ruby and her familiar who weren't shackled or restrained like he was. They approached her, slowly instructing her to keep her hands where they could see them, which she followed. Zack was thankful Ruby wasn't like the other inmates he was with there was no doubt in his mind they would've started spewing insults then attacked one of the masked men. Potentially getting him or both of them shot. He watched as they shackled Ruby with the same restraints as himself. They probably didn't do so before since they assumed with her injured leg she wouldn't be able to do anything. Zack noticed two of the masked men looking at Ruby's leg, presumably wondering how it's already healed.

"You said you shot the kid, right?"

"Yeah, she was crying and everything. You can even see the bullet hole on her uniform."

"Well, she looks fine."

"Screw it; I'm not going to worry about it means less paperwork we gotta fill out."

"I hear that. Now come on, let's take them inside the head overseer wants to see them right away."

"Ugh, that lady creeps me the hell out."

"The quicker we take them, the faster we can leave now come on you take the girl you shot, and I'll take the boy," his partner nodded then walked towards Ruby while the other stepped towards him.

"Alright, kid Ima unhook you from the seat, though no funny business or you get to taste lead like your friend over there did. Got it?" Zack nodded. He was unhooked then led outside of the cargo truck. Zack looked around once he was out. They were in some sort of hanger except there were no planes, only military-grade vehicles of different sizes and models spread about, with every truck having a team of masked men. He looked towards the open gates to see nothing, only darkness.

*Smack*

"Stop looking around like some tourist and walk," Zack wanted to curse at him that he could have just told him to walk instead of hitting him but held it back. He started walking forward but glanced behind him to see if Ruby was behind him.

'At least they aren't separating us yet,' Ruby was following behind them with the wolf sticking close to her. They walked to the very back of the hanger to a lift that was large enough to hold a large group of people. Another set of masked men guarded the lift. The masked men put the young duo in the center of the elevator while they surrounded them. One of them pressed a button making the lift descend. They went down quite a bit before reaching the bottom. The sub-level was much different from the top level. It seemed to resemble a hospital of sorts with personal to match. People in typical hospital attire zoomed across the place, entering and leaving rooms. No one seemed to have time to spare them a look as they walked down the middle. The hospital seemed high-class as Zack noticed all doors where electronic sliding doors with keycard's as keys. The equipment outside of the rooms all looked pretty expensive. Nothing looked unmaintained or filthy in any way. He wasn't able to peek inside as there were no windows for him to see in the rooms, but he assumed they were offices for the staff. They eventually reached another elevator that was a regular size. The group entered, again with Ruby and Zack in the middle. They descended deeper though this time Zack could see how deep.

'We're going to the 10th floor, which is the deepest it goes. I wonder what the other floors have.'

The doors opened when they reached there chosen floor revealing an empty lobby that had three connecting hallways. They took the left hallway that led them to a large gate labeled A1. They stopped in front of the entrance and waited as one of the men talked into his radio.

"Head Overseer, we've brought them as you asked."

"..."

"Understood," shutting his radio off, the man walked towards Zack and removed his restraints. Then did the same for Ruby; he even gave Ruby permission tp remove the muffler Kindred was wearing on his mouth as well as the gloves on his paws. The gate then made a loud beeping noise before opening up real slowly, unveiling a vast room.

"Alright in you go," hesitantly, they walked inside Zack scanning his surroundings Ruby doing the same thing. The gate beeped loudly again, which made them turn to see the gate slowly closing on them. Neither attempted to go back as it probably wouldn't end well.

"This place looks like an arena," Zack turned to Ruby.

"How do you know?" he asked.

"I went to see my dad compete once, and the arena looked almost exactly like this. There's even a monitor up there that probably tells you how much aura you have left," Zack looked up to where she was pointing; sure enough, there was a monitor. There weren't any seats for spectators, only cameras spread about at every corner.

"Zack, I think this is some sort of closed arena."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," Zack felt himself get a bit nervous; Ruby was probably even more nervous than before after all arenas are where people fight. Question is what are they fighting against?

"Hello Children," both looked up to see a booth slide down from the center roof of the arena. Inside was a female doctor Zack couldn't make any details as she was a good distance away.

"Now you are probably wondering what you are doing here, but fear not, I will explain everything shortly. All I need you to do first is survive."

"What!?" both said in unison. Zack was about to yell 'survive what,' but then a spot on the arena started opening, revealing a pool of black ooze. It bubbled excessively; then something shot out landing not that far from them with a loud splat. The thing that splatted on the floor was starting to twitch and shake. Zack had no idea what was happening. He turned to Ruby to see if she had any idea. Only to see her face had paled as if she had seen a ghost.

"Ruby, do you know what that is?" Ruby gulped and spoke in a heavy tone.

"It's a Grimm spawn."

"Your kidding, right?" she shook her head.

"Well, shit, do you know what type of Grimm it spawns," Zack then heard an awful growling noise that sent chills down his spine. He turned to see a bear-like Grimm with bone armor plating scattered throughout its body.

"Nevermind, Ruby I found out."

An Usra

Stay healthy everyone.