Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY or any characters depicted.

This is a slight AU story. Events will not fully match up with canon.

Cover Art: Official commissioned art for this story done by the amazing Noxypep

Ren blew into his cupped hands, and rubbed them together, trying to get his warm breath to give feeling back to his hands as he walked through the snow covered forest of Patch. 'Of course she decided to go out when the snow started to pick up' Ren looked around at the snow starting to pile up on the trees rather quickly. He noticed the trail of footprints that stretched out far past his vision was starting to get covered. Thankfully he didn't exactly need the trail he had been following for the past hour and a half. He already knew exactly where Ruby had run off to.

'You know, some of us don't have speed semblances that get us across the island super-fast Ruby, Some of us have to actually walk through the freezing cold.' A shiver ran up his spine. Ren never was a fan of the cold, he always preferred it to be warm and sunny outside. Much better than wading through ankle deep snow, the cold going through his clothes easily.

It didn't help that he was alone, no one there to try and help keep his mind off the cold with conversation. All he had was his own thoughts, the echoing sound of the crunching snow beneath his boots, and his own visible breath, which only served to remind him how cold it was. 'Thankfully she is just at the top of this hill.'

Speeding up slightly Ren made his way through a thick patch of trees, the sound of snow crunching beneath his feet dying down the closer he got till his walking was near silent.

As he passed the last barren tree, a small amount of snow fell off a branch, landing on the shoulder of his jacket, which he was quick to brush off. He came into a small clearing that lead to the ledge of a steep cliff. Running along the edge of the cliff side was a series of seven stone structures. Each an equal distance apart. Ren remembered the first time he had seen this cliff years ago. It used to be a single gravestone for Ruby's mother. Now six more joined it. The rest of their family and close friends had slowly been given gravestones along the cliff as the years had gone on.

Ren could see Ruby standing in front of the ornate stone in the center of all the others. Her hair a mix of its normal color and white from the amount of snow tangled in the locks of her hair. 'Looks like she hasn't moved since she got here.'

Ren turned his attention to the stone on the far left. Silently walking over he knelt down in front of the stone, a sad smile on his face. 'It has been awhile since my last visit, sorry I didn't bring any flowers this time' Ren ran his fingers over the name and sygiel engraved into the stone.

Nora Valkyrie

'I really miss you Nora," It was the way she was always happy that me missed the most. The way she was always bringing everyone up from their lowest downs. Even if it was inappropriate sometimes. He chuckled to himself slightly thinking about all the crazy things Nora would have to say about the events she has missed over the years she has been gone.

Ren was happy that Ruby came out here at least once a week, it was one of the main reasons he so quickly decided to look over Ruby whenever she left the base after Ironwood assigned her to have a watcher. Plus already being her teammate just made things easier.

Her coming out here gave him all the more reasons to pay Nora a visit.

Suddenly Ren didn't feel so cold anymore. Thinking about Nora brought him a warmth that he had only ever felt when he was around her. 'I always end up thinking about ways that I could have done something more to save you, but I can almost never come up with any.' The thought of Ironwood's meeting came back to him. 'Although now it seems like I might finally have an answer, even if it does sound crazy, I have to give it a chance. If it means seeing you again it will all be worth it.' His gaze shifted over to the brunette still standing stock still in the same spot. 'I imagine Ruby feels more strongly about this than I do. She definitely needs it more that is for sure.'

A loud, slow exhale of breath to his right brought him out of his thoughts. "How long have you been here Ren?"

Standing up he brushed the snow on his knees away, and stole a final glance at the gravestone in front of him. 'I'll come back soon for a more proper visit, I promise to bring flowers next time.'

"Not very long, maybe five or so minutes." He wasn't sure exactly how long he had been kneeling next to Nora's grave truth be told. Whenever he came to spend time with her he always lost tracks of how much time had passed.

"I didn't hear you this time, you use your semblance? Or did you just avoid the dreaded branch this time?"

The question hung in the air for a few seconds before Ren answered. "I guess you'll never know."

A sharp exhale of breath was heard from still woman next to him, her visible breath wafting through the air at a steady pace. "Fair enough.' Her voice held a somber tone that he began to notice.

For a few moments neither of them spoke, Ren focused at looking at the other gravestones. Next to Nora's was Pyrrha's gravestone, dead flowers from Jaune's last visit still visible from from under the snow lying next to it. Then was Yang's grave, followed by the one Ruby was staring at, the name Blake Belladonna etched into the center of the stone. The final three stones on the other side of Ruby were out of Ren's view, but he knew that they belonged to the rest of Ruby's family Summer, Qrow, and Taiyang.

"Why did you jump so quickly to violence with Weiss back there?" he sighed when the questions was only met with silence for several seconds.

"She acts like she understands me, and that she is a better person than me because she hasn't done the things I have done. Her high and mighty act pisses me off, it has ever since we met at beacon, especially when she is right and she knows it. Her bringing up Blake when she has no right to just pushed me over the edge." She replied suddenly.

"Ruby you can't keep blaming Weiss for Blake's death, it isn't going to make you feel better, you need to move on, especially since you know as well as I do that Blake…" Ruby held up a hand motioning for him to stop.

"Please Ren spare me."

After being meet with only more silence Ren began to walk over towards the short woman. "Look Ruby…"

"She really would be disgusted by me." The sudden statement was a surprise to Ren. Ruby's eyes looked across all the graves in front of her. "They all would be I am sure, the things I have done, the blood I have spilt would no doubt be a disappointment to them," she looked at him for the first time since he got here. "But I don't regret any of it. I think that is the part they would hate the most…"

"You know that you can change that right?"

Once again he was met with silence. Ruby brushed the snow out of her hair before walking close to Blake's grave, she knelt down in front of it and began whispering something that Ren couldn't quite hear before standing up and walking back toward the treeline.

"Come on let go, we have to get ready for our mission tomorrow." she beckoned him with her arm as she walked away.

Ren watched her walk through the snow with ease as she made her way toward the treeline. "What will you do if Adam really is there?"

Ruby paused mid stride and looked back at him, "Now that is a silly question Ren…" A sadistic smile coming to her face "I am gonna make sure he sufferers, and then I am gonna end his wretched life…Painfully."

"Do you think that will really help you get over Blake's death?"

Ruby seemed to ponder the question for a bit. "No probably not, but it sure as hell will make me feel a lot better knowing that I was able to sink Crescent Rose deep into his cold black heart, and I got to watch the blood run down my blade as the last flickers of his pitiful life leave his eyes." With that she pulled her hood up and walked off into the trees. 'And anyone who tries to stop me will wish I simply killed them' "Now let's get going."

Ren turned to the grave that Ruby had just left, turning back to watch as Ruby walked off. "She has changed so much since your death. She rarely smiles anymore, she is cold and distant to new people, and she never gets involved in any crazy antics like she used to. The girl she used to be has been replaced by someone who only seems to find pleasure on the battlefield. Although today when we learned about this crazy time travel plan I saw something in her I haven't seen in a long time. I'm sure that you are the cause of it, the thought of seeing you again must be giving her some hope." He once again blew into his hands as the cold finally started to bother him again. Putting his hands in his pockets he began to walk toward the tree line after Ruby. "Let's hope that if we do go back that you can help her, cause I have a feeling you are the only one who has any chance to fill the void in her heart Blake."

As he walked off he shouted out to the woman in front of him, "Try and not get into anymore fights with Weiss on this mission."

He barely heard the "No promises," she replied with.

Weiss stared at the white ceiling of the infirmary room she was in, after Jaune had brought her here a doctor immediately took a quick look at her and said she would be fine, gave her a tissue for her bloody nose and then walked out.

Now she had been sitting here for ten minutes longer than she needed to, old memories entering her mind.

Yang smiled at her, tears streaming down her face, which somehow did not lose its beauty despite it being caked with dried blood and dirt. "Take care of my little sister for me snow angel." she gestured the the unconscious brunette that was being held by Blake behind Weiss.

Weiss wanted to argue more than anything, she wanted to pull Yang into the airship with her and not let go, but she knew it wasn't going to happen, Yang was too stubborn to do it, no matter what she did. She nodded her head, tears welling up in here eyes. "I will, I promise."

Yang swiftly pulled her into a passionate kiss. Weiss melted into the kiss, as she got lost in the sweet taste of Yang's lips. A warm feeling washed over her as the world around her vanished, no longer was she sitting in an airship in the middle of a war zone, she was simple there in the arms of the woman she loved. Sadly that moment quickly came to an end as Yang broke the kiss before pushing Weiss further into the airship. As she hopped off the metal floor of the ship and back onto the ground she took one last glance at Weiss a giant grin on her face. "I love you." she then hit the side of the airship, signaling the pilot to take off.

Before Weiss could reply the side door to the airship was forcibly slammed shut by the soldier next to her and they were airborne, the soft sound of muffled explosions the only thing Weiss could here. The tears that had been building up finally fell free. "I love you too."

"Yang." Weiss said, staring at her metal hand opening and closing it.

Weiss was breathing heavy, trying to get air back into her lungs, clutching her stumped hand against her chest, trying to apply pressure so the bleeding would stop. Running her now only hand across her face she wiped off a combination of dirt, blood, and sweat.

"Weiss"

Turning to her right she saw Blake clutching her lower abdomen, blood seeping through the bandages that had quickly been tied around her waist. She turned to Weiss, a serious look on her face.

"I need you to throw me in there."

Looking over, Weiss saw Ruby fighting Cinder, the intense heat from the fires raging around them offset the cold feeling of the air and snow that surrounded the area that they currently occupied. Behind them she could see Adam had regained consciousness as he grabbed his sword and slowly stalked toward the two fighting individuals.

"Blake," She huffed, "If I do this you are going to most likely die you know that right? you are in no shape to go in there and fight."

Blake turned and smiled at her, "I know, but this is the only thing I can think of, please do this for me."

"Blake you know that I ca…" Blake limped over to her and wrapped her in a tight hug, tears started to flow from Weiss's eyes. "Blake please don't make me do this. We have already lost so many other, we can't lose you as well. Especially not Ruby."

"Weiss please, I need you to do this, you know there is no other way. I need to help her."

Weiss thought for a minute, the sounds of the fight getting louder and more intense as time passed, a debating in her head as to what the right choice was. Looking over she saw Jaune and Ren helping each other fight some of Cinder's men, both looking ready to just collapse from exhaustion. Finally after what seemed like an eternity she turned to the raven haired woman next to her.

"Fine." She tried to keep her voice steady, but failed to keep it from cracking. A sob getting caught in her throat.

Blake smiled at her, "Thank you, Weiss."

Weiss said nothing as used the last of her aura to prepare a glyph beneath Blake as she looked towards the fight to make sure her aim was where she needed it to be.

"Take care of her Weiss." A simple nod was all Weiss could offer Blake as she tried her best to choke back the small sob from escaping her lips.

"Yang, I'm sorry I failed you, I failed both of you." Weiss clenched her right hand tight, the sound of the metal of her fingers and palms scraping together could be heard throughout the small white infirmary room. "I didn't take care of her like I said I would, I just let her go off on her own and become a shadow of herself. I can see it in her eyes, the drive and passion that used to be there is gone, replaced with something much more dangerous and menacing." tears forming in the corners of her eyes. "I don't think we will ever be able to get her back."

"Dont beat yourself up over this again Weiss." a voice interrupted her rant. Looking over, she saw Jaune standing in the doorway of the room, leaning against the frame.

He slowly walked over to her and took a seat next to her on the bed she was currently sitting on.

"There is nothing you really could have done Weiss, Ruby started being a loner after Blake died, I doubt she would have let you close again, hell the only reason Ren got so 'close' is probably because he is the only person she can relate to, they both have lost everything." He rested his hand on her shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

"We lost the same people as well, it isn't like she is alone in that." Weiss anger slowly rising to the surface. "Yet look at the rest of us, we are not all driven by the same burning desire for revenge, it is like a fire that will slowly burn her until she is nothing but the simple ashen remains of who she once was."

"No, but I can understand where she is coming from, if only a little." Jaune voice lowered, becoming suddenly more serious.

"What?"

Jaune turned to look at her, an emotion she couldn't identify in his eyes. "I get where she is coming from, I want nothing more than to see Cinder's head get lopped off by my own sword for what she's done to the world, to our friends, to Pyrrha." The last part he said through gritted teeth. "Yet there is something always holding me back from just going after my desire for revenge."

"And what is that."

"I still have my family." Jaune reached into his pocket and fished out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it before handing it to her, what she got was a picture of Jaune surrounded by eight women and one other man. All of them were posed in the Beacon courtyard, many other students behind them jumping and dancing in celebration of their recent graduation. "Whenever I think about trying to just go get revenge I see Ruby and see the road it would take me down, and then I think of how disappointed my family would be, and it makes me just sit back and think."

Jaune grabbed the picture back from Weiss and put it back in his pocket. "Ruby doesn't worry about such things, because to her, there is no one left to disappoint, and she stopped caring if she disappointed us a long time ago. It is easy to see why she is the way she is now."

Weiss sat and thought about what Jaune said, "You are right, yet I can't help thinking that sometimes, maybe had I not listened to Blake back then she wouldn't have had to died. Hell if I had done more back when it was Yang then maybe she would also still..." Her eyes wandering to the floor.

Once again she felt a squeeze on her shoulder. "You know as well as I do that if you hadn't done what Blake asked you to Ruby would have been the one to die, Blake wanted to help the person she loved most. No matter what Ruby says, don't go blaming yourself." He removed his hand from her shoulder and leaned back on the bed. "We both know that Yang would have forced you onto the airship had she needed to. She chose to stay behind in Beacon to try and hold off Cinder's forces so we could get away, and you should know better than anyone that once she put her mind to something there was no stopping her."

Weiss let out a hefty sigh. "Once again you are right, but that doesn't make it hurt less to think about."

"I know how you feel, for the longest time I blamed myself for Pyrrha's death, and I felt so much anger at myself for the longest time. Thinking there was something more that I could have done."

A silence formed between them before Weiss decided to speak up again. "I just wish her and I could go back to being friends, but there is such animosity between us that I don't think things will ever go back to normal, especially with how different we are now, we can't see eye to eye on anything." She sighed as she hopped off the bed and onto the floor, Jaune mirroring her movements.

Jaune patted her on the back "Come on Weiss I'm sure it will work out in the end you just have to keep working at it, now let's go get something to eat and start packing, we don't wanna get caught up with last minute packing."

"You aren't gonna be trying to sing and play that guitar while we pack again are you?" Weiss said with a smile.

A blush formed on the tall man's cheeks as he scratched the back of his head. "No, what would ever make you think that?" A nervous laugh came from him.

she walked past Jaune and out of the door, whispering as she passed by him. "The walls are not as soundproof as you think, I can hear you practicing."

Weiss could hear him stammer nervously to try and find words as she walked out of the infirmary and made her way towards their room.

"Hey I have gotten a lot better since our days at Beacon right Weiss? Weiss?"

Weiss chuckled to herself 'Somethings never do change'

"What do you mean you still haven't found her? It has been over a year."

Cinder heard a sigh from the green haired woman behind her as the black clad, red haired man in front of them talked. Cinder held up her hand to signal Emerald to not make another sound and then gestured to the open chair next to a man with silver hair, wearing black and grey, who currently had his feet propped up on the large table in front of them, his hands resting behind his head, and his eyes closed as he took a nap.

Emerald ran her hand along Cinder's shoulders as she made her way next to Mercury. Who she quickly elbowed in the ribs as she sat down. Mercury bolted upright in the chair, his legs flying off the table as he woke up. "Hey, what was the for?"

"Pay attention." she scolded him.

"Pshh, Whatever bitch." he whispered.

"What was that!?" Emerald yelled at him

Cinder quickly tuned out the argument that started between the two, hoping to avoid the headache it would surely bring. looking back she focused on the Faunus sitting opposite of her at the table. An annoyed look on his face. "To answer your question Adam no we haven't, she and her little resistance have done a surprisingly good job of hiding their whereabouts this time. Our scouts have not been able to find anything, nor have our informants heard anything about their movements in quite sometime."

"I want that little silver eyed bitch found." Adam growled, malic laced in his voice.

Cinder was about to respond when she was cut off by Mercury. "Don't you have more important things to do that trying to find her like, I don't know, being a leader to your people?"

Cinder glared at Mercury who simply shrugged at her before throwing his hands behind his head and once again kicking his feet up on the table.

"Killing that woman is a top priority of mine, as a leader of the Faunus Kingdom I have made it my mission to protect my people, and she is a threat." Cinder could hear the composure in his voice slowly slipping.

"What, a girl slaughters a few villages and your top priority is to personally take her down, and not just better protect your territory? Seems like a bad leadership decision to me." Adam swiftly stood up knocking his chair over.

"Enough, both of you." Cinder spoke sharply, cutting off either of them from taking action. "Mercury stop antagonizing him," Mercury simply held up his hands above his head. "And you, calm down." she pointed to Adam who simply took his hands off his sword but remained standing. "Now we are continuing to gather information, and you will be informed when we find out anything, the minute they make a move I am postivie that we will hear about it, our informant network runs deep, but for now I need you to keep following my instructions to keep everything running smoothly, am I understood?"

The bull faunus opened his mouth but quickly shut it as he saw Cinder's eyes flair a brightly, like a fire had been light within them. A small warning to him that keeping the argument going would only serve to anger her.

Adam simply scoffed at her, and turned his back as he made his way to the door. Slamming it as he exited it. Cinder sighed as she leaned back in her chair slightly, only having to sit up again as a series of rasps sounded at the door and a red haired man with a white suit and a entered the room, tapping his cane randomly along the floor as he did.

"You know I never understood why you keep than animal around anymore, he has such a short fuse. It doesn't really seem worth putting up with all of his bullshit ya know." Roman stated as he slipped into the chair that Adam had just left. Pulling out a cigar he placed it in his mouth as he reached into his pocket to fish out his lighter. "So what is it you called me here for today?"

"Straight to the point Roman? How uncharacteristic of you." Cinder jested. Roman simply shrugged at her as he lit his cigar, taking a drag before blowing out the smoke, and once again letting it rest in his mouth. She opened her mouth to speak again only to be stopped by Roman as he held up a hand. Slowly he took another drag of his cigar, sighing as the smoke escaped his lips.

"Well you know me, busy trying to lie, cheat, and steal, so I'd like to make haste as to not lose time. The sad and miserable masses of society won't go picking their own pockets you know?"

Cinder simply smiled at his antics "That is fine, what I need from you is simple. Meet up with our major informant in Vale and see if he has gotten any information on the resistance, that shouldn't take up to much of your precious time i'm sure."

Roman leaned back in his chair, breathing in more smoke before smiling as he realized the breath trapped in his lungs. "Shouldn't be an issue, I do always love an excuse to visit the city, especially if it gets me out of this cold Atlas winter, plus there are plenty of suckers just waiting to be robbed. Ill head out immediately." With that he got up and walked back out the door, signaling to someone leaning against the wall. Cinder could hear him talking. "Let's go, we have a job to do. Oh boy this is gonna be so much fun." she could see a head of pink and brown hair start walking behind the man as the door closed.

Standing up she looked over at her two subordinates that had been through so much with her. "You both are dismissed for the day, relax for a bit." Mercury quickly hopped from the table and waltzed out the door.

"See ya." waving his hand at them as he walked off.

"I'll see you later Cinder." Emerald winked at her as she also slipped out of the door.

Cinder leaned back into her chair and looked up at the dark ceiling of the room. 'I might not know where you all are now, but this time when I find you, I will be sure to fully wipe you out.' Cinder thought a menacing smile on her face. 'I'll see you soon, Ruby Rose, and Jaune Arc."

Well here is the next chapter, slightly longer than the rest of them. Also with hopefully less grammar errors than last chapter. I made sure to double check this one, last chapter I really dropped the ball on the proof read, so hopefully I got any really bad errors this time.

I hope you all are enjoying the story so far, and I just wanna let everyone know that we don't have to many more chapters (Prologues) until the time travel actually comes into play, and the story really gets rolling. I planned on this being a long story so I wanted to establish a few things before jumping into the time travel, and well things just sorta kept getting added onto that. But I will happen soon I promise.

I hope I did some of the villains well because this was my first time writing any of them so I am a little nervous about how I did with them. We will be seeing a more of them in the next chapter.

Anyway please leave a review and let me know what yall thought of this chapter, and Ill see you next update.

~Redwing~