Chapter 1: Beacon Called

Weiss Schnee

"The fact of the matter is simple, Mrs. Schnee, you need to come back to Roseland." Weiss' lips twitched at the request, finger reflexively tapping on the white leather of her snowflake crested armchair. She did not lean back, posture perpendicular and proper, there was no slumping of the shoulders, no evident weakness or reaction, even if underneath her muscles ached from a long, long day.

"Captain Thrym, in the last ten years you have been in my employment you've never needed anything. Leave the protesters alone, let them air their concerns, and in the meantime send the SDS to wipe every grimm around Mountain Glen from existence. Don't let them coalesce. Last thing we need is more uneasy people." The holographic image of the wolf faunus distorted as the second generation Thrym sighed in visual frustration, uncontained and sincere. This was probably what Weiss valued most in her security chief. "Your suggestion is under advisement. Good evening."

The call ended, image fading, switching to the loading Schnee logo, a vibrant light show of whites and translucent blacks. No accounting documents, project proposals, or reports filled the waiting desktop, instead a ring once again interrupted, the secretary line on the bottom floor. "Mrs. Schnee, Knight-Captain Belladonna is here to see you," the young woman's voice carried a cheery soprano that only mildly annoyed her. The secretary's insistence on referring to Blake by such an arcane title likely did the same for her.

"Pass her through." The display flashed the repeating logo again, reflecting Weiss' image back at her. She looked young, despite approaching forty. No lines on her face yet, baring the scar, if she was graying it's not like her hair would change. Sure, the signs of bags manifested under her eyes, but the Irises were still bright. She looked strong, authoritative, formal white dress clothes, both the coat and pants accented with touches of blue and red. The open collar displayed her neck, made her look taller than she was. Wasn't as freeing as a combat skirt, but her hunter's robes had their place outside the office. Weiss still had the pony tail, though its childish asymmetry was gone. No point in rebelling against the crown when she was the crown.

When the door opened, Weiss did not seize up, lift her shoulders, carry herself with more elegance than she lived with every day . Instead, she instinctually eased, just a little more. Blake made things easier, safer. "Are you here to give me a subpoena again?"

"No," Blake stepped passed the doorway with an immediate grin, "I'm the chief of police, not an intern. Speaking of which, can you tell them to stop with the captain stuff? Honestly, it just makes convincing the public I'm not your puppet harder." Blake never aged past twenty-five, besides growing taller, criminally so. Her hair got longer with proportionally, more controlled and professional, though it occasionally parted over her left eye. She had abandoned the bow years ago. Ears up and alert, twitching with distant reverberations, Weiss often wondered what the world of sound was shaped like to them. Blake had kept her work outfits fitting of a hunter like herself. Arms wrapped in ribbon, sleeves rolled up on a black bullet proof jacket over a white dress shirt. She wore tight monochrome jeans with purple highlights for the most part, though slacks were not uncommon now that she forayed into politics. The centerpiece of the whole arrangement was the seal of Vale on her chest, overpowering her own nightingale crest.

"I wish. You are far too nosey to be anyone's puppet, and moody, and god if the world understood how completely angsty you get for a woman in her late thirties," Blake found that funny apparently, her silent shuddering chuckle a familiar fixture of her personality, "As for the title, they just miss their captain, Blake. As do I, honestly." Weiss had learned to just be honest with her best friend. Years of drama, patching each other up, fixing the other's breaking relationship, or just muttering the dumbest, cheesiest things about their respective family lives did form a unique bond. "So what do you need?"

"I miss you, too, Weiss," Blake replied, spinning one of the office seats around, near where she use to work every day before taking the position with Vale's finest. "Which is why I came to ask if you would like to grab some tea, perhaps at your place. Enjoy a ladies night in." The two of them worked endlessly with people, usually stressed-filled borderline shouting matches toxified by the fact that neither of them liked talking to people much in the first place. Nights out were not how Weiss and Blake spent their time together.

"What's the occasion?" Weiss thought she already knew.

"There is no occasion." Weiss absolutely knew.

"I'm fine, Blake. Honestly, you don't need to fret, I'm not a child," but Weiss was a parent, and today as spring folded into sweltering summer, Beacon called for its junior huntsmen and huntresses to walk in their doors and become the next generation of warriors. A child leaving home was a moment of pride as much as anxiety, even if they chose to live close. Both Ruby and Weiss agreed that for Summer and Azura to grow, they needed to be one with their teams, even if it meant the halls of the Schnee estate be vacant save Weiss, the dust, and the memories.

"You know, I cried the day Dawn left for Beacon," Blake admitted with not one change in expression or tone. Her amber cat eyes loaded as if with more experience than anyone could imagine. It was sweet smelling horse shit.

"Liar," Weiss declared, considering at what angle she would need to throw her pen to hit her old teammate square on her lying mouth. Blake chuckled in place of a defense, "I've never seen a prouder mother. You practically kicked her out on the streets."

"I still missed her," Blake countered, leaning back against the office corner wall. The space was empty, as was most of the office aside from holographic displays. Weiss prefered an austere work space. "Whenever the police need to go to Beacon, I always go personally, sneak a few seconds with her."

"You know you can just visit her," Weiss muttered, rolling her eyes in mock indignation. It wasn't like the headmaster was going to throw the chief of police out of the school for Sunday brunch with a student, even if Weiss' niece might detest the parental attention.

"Yes, but that feels like admitting defeat," Blake clicked her tongue on the last syllable. That was the holy word, wasn't it.

"We are so weak," Weiss joked, lifting herself up from the locked leather monster. Her knees felt relief as they locked into standing position, the body supporting its own weight for once. How long had she sat there working? It looked close to dusk now, the sun dropping down to near the tower's level, blinding the office's view of airships coming to and from. "I will, however, take you up on that offer, Blake. I swear, I've spent the last year on the phone trying to prevent children in suits from blowing up the planet." An exaggeration, Weiss noted, but it was taxing. Why must nothing be simple?

"What now?" Blake asked, giving Weiss a moment to close shop. A flick of her hand sent every display inot scattered snowflakes before flashing back to darkness with the lights. Such a lifeless place. Flowers, maybe?

"An anti-faunus protest group. They are claiming faunus criminals are stealing from Valen merchants in Mountain Glen and the authorities are ignoring it." Mountain Glen had been Vale's greatest national disaster, barring perhaps the battle of Beacon, the grey ruins and decay a famous staple of human failure. Ingenuity was the dominion of mankind, however, and Ruby Rose had whispered an idea to Weiss years ago, when the SDC first came into her power and began to hemorrhage funds. Armies couldn't protect Mountain Glen, but a sharp cliff shielded Vale for a millennium. Collapsing the famous tunnel from Vale to Glen and onto the sea made a false river so deep and so rapid that, when combined with a new rail on top of a defensive wall, cut a micronation from the grimm cloth of Remnant. The combined maidens powers and a legion of now unwanted Atlas Knights cleared out the rest. Together, RWBY birthed a new province of Vale, managed by the SDC and defended by the SDS, Schnee Defense and Security. Roseland.

"The White Fang?" Never was there a phantom in life or death that haunted anyone more than the white and red wolf of the fang did to Blake. Mention of faunus organized crime smoked out hope from her eyes and made her visibly twitch. The demon died years ago, but it never was enough for Blake. Her wife's metallic hand made forgetting impossible.

"No, the White Fang has never managed to get even an unofficial foothold in Roseland since we secured the territory. The protesters appear to be from Vale. Thrym is inclined to think someone is paying them to show up and cause controversy," Weiss declared, walking right passed Blake, typing away on her new scroll, a mail or two sent off telling the company in so few words to leave her the fuck alone.

"True," Blake admitted with an uncomfortable sigh. Roseland had more faunus per capita than any major settlement on remnant. All of them looking and finding more freedom and opportunity under Schnee, and she delivered. Only lips that spoke of the Fang there were kids who never knew a damn thing, before being immediately scolded by wiser adults. "Are you planning on moving back?"

"No," Weiss replied, annoyed at the question. Moving back to Vale enabled the kids to stay at home and go to Signal with just a short ferry ride. Everyone assumed Beacon meant the Schnee-Rose family would march all the way back to their new city. "I want to be nearby, at least for their first year."

"Wimp," Blake whispered just loud enough for Weiss to hear, lips forming a happy crescent. The silver huntress scoffed in protest, walking right past her to the small executive floor. Passing the nodding desk clerks and the Vale regional executives, Weiss called up the chrome elevator, Blake sliding right in as it opened. "Don't walk away, I miss my little teammate even if you're a little on the wimpy side."

"Aren't you suppose to be making me feel better, not harassing me?" Weiss complained, punching the lobby button. If Blake wanted to insult her they could do it at home, sitting on a couch doing something stupidly wasteful.

"You can't be sad about Beacon if you're angry with me," the faunus shot back, nearly humming in self-satisfied hubris. "I think that since I'm personally giving you a police escort home, you can forgive a little teasing."

"Oh now," Weiss sung, mocking the honor she had apparently received, "Does that mean we get to speed?"

"If I put my lights on," Blake clarified, shifting auburn eyes towards her smaller friend, "and you don't tell on me."

Yang Xiao Long

"Right side!" Always the right side, like the grimm could smell the metal end of her limb. Their mistake, Ember Cecilia was never a weakness.

"I got it!" The boarbatusk spin tore up the grass and ground of the Emerald Forest, a tornado of black hide and white bone. Yang turned on her heel, sliding out of the trajectory, her right arm, the dark steel and plated gold, curled its mechanical fingertips around the beast's tusk. Its full body weight, powered muscles and perfected killing prowess, all of it thrown into the force of one single smash. The tug on Yang's right shoulder was enough to drag her, just a little, but Ember Cecilia, she didn't nudge, her grip as iron as the protective plates that shielded the black box circuitry within. With minimal effort, the blonde huntress slammed the boarbatusk back into the ground, sinking the ivory skewers into the Emerald Forest soil. The creature continued to squeal, body flailing around in the dirt. One quick pop to the belly with the other gauntlet silenced it, the black blood evaporating from the bursting wound. "Well, this one's a little gooey," Yang remarked of the boiling liquids. A pair of creeps tried sneaking up on her, but a swift burst from the robotic Celica pumped a scatter shot of dust through their tiny bodies.

"Say cheese!" The flash of Velvet's camera might have been old, but it was never not uncomfortable. It was impossible to deny the sweet faunus girl. Time did nothing to wear at her quiet gentle ways, the girl barely changed. Still in bronze and gold colors, hair tied in a braid during combat, an acquired taste from Coco Adel.

"Come on, give me more time next time, let me strike a cool pose." Yang didn't even know if her film was something you could even print, but if this was a photoshoot there was no excuse for looking shitty. "I'm not too old to be a model!" Velvet chuckled, finding a moment of fun in the doldrums of Beacon's yearly culling. Emerald Forest hosted the first year team selecting process, the mixture of fields, dense trees, and ruins allowed for a versatile fighting arena. However, kids were kids and grimm were grimm. A cleaning was ordered in secret for as long as Yang had been a huntress. Professors and bounty hunters selectively wiped out the larger nets and bigger pray. Not cleansing the area completely, but dwindling the numbers and normalizing the area.

"I don't know if holding a photo shoot on duty is exactly what they paid us for," Velvet reasoned, her voice still dripped of her odd accent. Asking where she was from was long overdue.

"Velv, we've off and on worked with each other for about ever, can I ask you something?" Yang was punctuated by the burst of distant support fire. Pyrrha's protective sniping adding to the atmosphere. Yang wondered how comfortable it might be at the top of the tower and not under the beating heat.

"I'd think so Yan—" Shadows, less polite, interrupted Velvet. The airflow picked up, flapping wings of a nevermore pulling the emerald leaves with it as the riled beast passed. Explained the popping sound. "Neptune?" Velvet asked, casting her vote for blame.

"Yeah," Yang agreed, commanding her arm with a single thought to reload, plates snapping open, a yellow glow heating up as mechanical parks slid in new scatter shot shells and split the old discharged onto the floor, "ready to roast a big chicken?"

Best part of big nevermores is a lack in subtlety. They blacked out the sky with their bloated wings or pelted the ground with razor-like feathers, sharp enough for old tribes to make weapons out of them for as long as the bird lived, which with nevermores, could be a while. This particular creature kept flying in low circles, the smell of scorched plumes tainting the air behind its path, the shock rifle marks of one particular first year history professor. Its bombing feather runs brought it low into one of the many clearings carved into the forest, mostly by these very confrontations. The last pass before Velvet and Yang made it to the tree line ended in squawking shouts of pain from the nevermore, but the thing simply flew back up, so ravenous it could think of nothing else but continuing its assault.

"Son of a—" Yeah it was Neptune, hair pulled back and greased with sweat he quickly slathered on his armored jeans. Not much about the kid had changed since their Beacon days, except for the stupid blue patch of fur on his chin and his now evaporated luck with women. "That nevermore has my goddamn halberd!" Explained the scream and Pyrrha's repetitive pops from a distance.

"Hey Neptune, what's got your feathers ruffled?" Neptune's eyes were obfuscated by the dual yellow lenses of his goggles, but Yang could guess from the twitch in his cheek, the jokes were unwanted. "Well Velv, you got something to clip its wings?"

Edging lines of light answered for her, the azure glow of Velvet's weapon crafting one of many tools she liked to save up. The circular revolving barrels and belt of holographic bullets appeared, a ghost of Coco's weapon of choice. "Give me a second." The spin up of a minigun would take a moment. The nevermore was not inclined to give it.

"Incoming," Neptune warned, dodging with a quick half step and avoiding the bombarding points of the grimm's assault. Yang had enough, sliding on the black sunglasses she used whenever the summer flame began to burn. The day was hot, hot even for summer, enough to boil a girl in just a light vest and yellow scarf. Still not as hot as the light dragon herself, the maiden of summer.

"I'm just done!" The metallic snap of her artificial fingers helped Yang focus the fire in her eyes and magic burning her blood. The feathers combusted as soon as they approached, ribbons of black torching into ash before they rained down on Velvet and Yang.

"Ready!" The holographic bullets were real enough to split the flesh of the nevermore's right wing from its body, the limb falling to the ground, a stump dripping black grimm blood into the soil and mist into the air. The core of the beast lost its control of the sky, the halberd still lodged in its neck as it tumbled through the air, cracking hard against the forest floor. Dirt kicked up as it twisted and contorted on the ground, red beads burning with fury, unable to understand what had happened to its body. Yang was about to teach it what burning felt like.

"Hey buddy," Yang shouted at her pray as she approached, a blood-orange hue spreading out from her eyes. The monster snapped its jaw, kicking up dirt and grass as the body convulsed, thirsty for one last meal. Yang rewarded it with a boot to the beak, a stomp pinning the marble grimm head to the earth. "Squeal all you want, you son of a bitch," Yang slammed the metal of her first into the bony skull of the nevermore, right between the eyes, every strike cracking the exoskeleton even more. With every scattershot the fissure greatened and the bird struggled more. Neptune held it down with his spear as the wound opened enough for Yang to get her last laugh. Another snap of the fingers and her mind birthed fire that spread through the wound, igniting the black blood like fresh dust. The smell of smoking bird was a sweet taste.

"What did you do to attract this thing?" Velvet asked, wafting the smell away from her sensitive nose. She didn't like meat, much less a bonfire of dying grimm monsters.

"Nothing, I just found a pack of creeps, started gunning them down, and then suddenly this bastard shows up," Neptune explained, pulling out the halberd from the now dead bird. The fire had cooked through the insides.

"There are just too many creeps for this area," Velvet declared and Yang agreed, silently of course. "They aren't too dangerous for the students, but this isn't right; they shouldn't be here this close to the surface." Taking a second to breath, Yang felt the flame leave her lungs, the summer maiden power withdrawing deep into her gut. It wracked her body after using it, fired with energy and jitters even from a little thing like this. With a clear head, Yang could focus on figuring out why every subterranean maggot was summoned from the depths today.

"Today has just been way too long," Neptune mumbled, pulling from his pocket a pack of smokes, an awful habit to have, and a deep craving reared up at the sight. Nothing made Yang want to smoke more than the maiden's power in her blood.

"Hey Neptune," Yang cracked, reaching out a hand, "Pass one!"

"Blake says you're not allowed to smoke," Velvet cut in. Moral police come to rat her out to the wife.

"Actually, I'm not allowed to buy cigarettes, but bumming doesn't show up on our bank statements!" The mind is very good at rationalizing anything, and with a hearty laugh and a cracking grin, Yang was keen into rationalizing this, "Oh damn it, I have made, birthed, and raised an adult person since the last time anyone let me smoke. Come on!"

"Yang, she's right," Neptune joked, pointing his pack like a knife at Yang. The blonde considered ripping off his blue fur as he moved his lips. "These deadly tar sticks are too dangerous, no one in their right mind should ever smoke. I'm gonna keep them for your own—" Pop. Neptune's pack burst apart, one bullet hole from the side facing Beacon and a gnarled mess of burnt paper and tobacco on the other, shredded from a sniper's shell. Neptune dropped it immediately. Velvet nearly dropped herself, bent over completely cackling. "Pyrrha! The hell!" Neptune tossed his hands up to the gods seated at Beacon tower. That was a really good shot.

Yang groaned, leaning backwards, hands pressed on her lower back. The cold of her right hand no longer surprised her. Things were strange, not too dangerous, but strange. Dawn would run initiation tomorrow. Second time for her. Yang hated sensing something off when it was her daughter that would deal with it. The vanishing beast's blood, like ink, colored the spilt cigarettes, matching poisons calling each other. From where they mixed the head of a creep burrowed himself out of the ground. Pulled to the surface.

Yang snapped her metallic fingers out of habit, eyes of fire burning once again.

Ruby Rose

The mist made the Beacon tower light spread through the sky like an emerald flood. The shattered moon and last light of dusk all competed for the spatial command of the early evenings. Combined there was no room for stars. Vale should be proud, Ruby thought, they competed with the heavens in a battle of light, their airships proudly cutting between the other sources and her view of the ether. The Schnee manor, despite its closeness to Beacon, and distance from the city center, was not immune to views of man's machines.

Ruby kept her eyes searching for other lights. A southern summer cools quick in Vale's temperate air, oceans soaking up the heat and leaving salty winds. Dusk made for perfect sky and street gazing from the top of their three story monstrosity. Black slanted roofing between each floor with its Atlas style, triangle dormers gave Ruby a nice corner to squeeze in. Her red cloak a makeshift blanket with a few discolored patches and fraying rips. From that little nook, Ruby had a full view of the inner courtyard, an overzealous packing of red and white bricks, forming an oversized Schnee logo with a fountain at the center. Why Weiss insisted on this lavishness was absurd. She rarely used the second floor at all. With bedrooms on the third and dining at the first, there wasn't need for the wings. Aside for her garden. Weiss deserved that greenhouse of hand kept flowers, deserved whatever she wanted. Ruby just hated the silence now, the house absorbed all sound, the third floor deaf without Summer or Azura. Ruby could not stand it.

White light. Beams approached the outer gate, automated security knights stopping the two sedans that approached, both black with separate vinyl designs. One Schnee logo, Weiss, the other police sirens and emblem of the great Kingdom of Vale, Blake. "Yes," Ruby whispered to the air as the gate opened and the automatons let them pass into the property.

Both slowed to a stop under the parking canopy, both cars turning off and lights shutting down. Didn't take long for chatter to start after the daily commute. Weiss mostly, expression marred with tired annoyance, whined about the shifting whether from blistering hot to chilled over a handful of hours. She was so pretty. Ruby slapped a finger on her lips as soon as she saw Blake. With that faunus, especially in the dark, the rule was simple: if you saw her, she saw you. The flash of moon lit amber proved her right, but the police chief said nothing to Weiss. Good teammate.

"You're still relying on automated security?" Blake complained, winking at their former leader's rooftop HQ. Weiss groaned, Ruby thrilled to see her so distracted. The faunus truly was the best spy of their group.

"I told you last time, security threats are a complete minimum and the Atlas Knight are mostly there for convenience, to be honest," Weiss retorted, unlocking her front door with her scroll. She didn't notice the rush of sudden wind, the light drop onto stone, lost in thought. The give away came in a little red petal drifting onto the bridge of her nose. "Ruby?!"

"Weiss!" The younger woman struck from behind, latching onto her wife with a two weeks starved desperation. Quick to drink in all the smells of Weiss' hair, the feel of her figure, of her body, despite the layers of clothes and overworked stress. Ruby clutched her partner of over twenty years. It never got less needy, less consuming, even if she got a lot better at hiding it in front of polite company. Blake not included, she could watch them be dumb. She'd seen them do worse... much worse.

"God damn it you loveable idiot, you scared the hell out of me!" Weiss complained, covered in Ruby, her body easily out growing the shortest member of the team over time. Despite the height difference the huntress was happy to dig her face into the white of Weiss' neck, wild shoulder length, red and black hair getting just about everywhere when she did it.

"Hello, Ruby," Blake made herself known despite growing more than use to the pair's open affections. Not that she and Yang were much better in their younger and crazier days. "Looks like I picked a bad day, we'll have tea another time Weiss."

"No!" Ruby declared, letting go of her tiny, adorable wife. Spinning on her heel, Ruby came full circle with arms open and out for a big old embrace. Blake was not leaving tonight. It was time for a hug. "Come on buddy, bring it in!"

"It's only been two weeks, Ruby." Blake still accepted the hug, the Long-Rose sisters had shattered any aversion she might have had for physical contact over the last couple decades. Blake passed Ruby in height just barely, embracing her for a moment before breaking. If only Yang were here, Ruby lamented, or anyone else for that matter. The front lock snapped open, and an exhausted Weiss had done well enough waiting, climate controlled air and loving couches awaited inside.

"Wait, Weiss, stop being a butt!" Ruby chased after her in a swift second, petals blowing into the house as she caught up to her. The place was unchanged in her fortnight departure. Wooden floor refused to creak even a little least Weiss rip it up, stairs opened to the right towards empty guest rooms and conference halls, another floor to the domicile domain. Below and passed the extended foyer, a room used for nothing besides a pair of black leather love seats and a gray old Atlas Knight Ruby started calling Jim.

"Calm down, I'm making tea," Weiss called from the kitchen and living room, the only part of the first floor to get much use other than Ruby's weapons workshop in the right wing and the library behind the stairs. Holographic display popped on with an illusionary fire, all their white cloth covered seats faced it in worship. Blake passed Ruby and started to assist Weiss with the boil, leaving Ruby to sway and wander, eventually finding comfort on the bar stool.

"What do you want from me, sweetie?" Weiss asked, refusing to look at her. She historically perfectly straddled the line between loving and pissed.

"Your undivided attention," Ruby requested with an open grin, a little embarrassed with how cheesy she got in the consistent comfort of marriage, "once you finish your tea, of course."

"You are an extremely old and affectionate child, but okay," Weiss whispered the end, causing Blake to snort down a laugh. The Schnee ignored it, flashing her controlled smile and intense blue eyes at Ruby instead. They turned a dreary dark, the smile vanished. "Ruby, what happened to your face?" Weiss's tone had years of command experienced lined with it, hand reaching out, slender digits gracing the gauze bandage over her right jaw.

Shit, you forgot to change the gauze, Ruby chided herself knowing the red stained gauze patch was subtly guarded by the red of her cloak, but with their matching color horrifying once discovered. "Hey, don't worry, it looks worse than it is. Doctor says it won't even scar." Just bleed a lot, the tight skin of the face always did.

"What happened?!" Weiss was not in the habit of repeating herself. Ever.

"I screwed up trying to get the attention of a goliath, maybe a little too hard. He swiped me when I wasn't ready. Just screwed up rushing the job," Ruby admitted, feeling a little ashamed considering how long she'd been at this work. The beastly grimm rarely crossed with hunters, but the times Ruby had, usually the younger foolish ones separated from the pack, she had dispatched them without so much as a scratch... well at least started doing that in her thirties.

"What the hell were you doing fighting a Goliath? Or rushing?" Weiss' demands continued, fingers still picking at the dry blood crusted throughout the cloth.

"It was a job. A Goliath got separated from a herd north of Vale, started charging straight through villages, running for something. Couldn't get it to stop till I jumped on its face. And well," Ruby gently slapped her bloody cheek. Weiss must have felt the sting for her, because it was the Schnee who winced in pain. "Second try involved a railgun and some fast footwork, but I certainly made it stop." Ruby smiled, proud of herself for the kill. Lucky she thought to bring one of the many side weapons she had collected, a railgun-great sword called the Royal Charlie.

"You are such an idiot," Weiss chastised, shaking her head, teeth resuming an unhealthy grin, "what possessed you to rush that?"

"I wanted to be home today," Ruby pulled back, instinctively tugging at her cloak, fighting the urge to choke on it, "I wanted to, you know, say goodbye to Summer and Azura before they go to Beacon. Have some family time." Instead, she lost half a day getting stitches in a tiny town practically built on the ruins of the previous tiny town. They did it for free, perks of being a huntress, but time, time burned away. Trying to save it cost double. It was her fault. "No one was here when I got home. They left already, didn't they? I missed them?" Ruby didn't bother looking either of her teammates in the eye, she already knew, watching the clenching of her hands was about all she was willing to do. Her dad had stayed to say goodbye, and mom, if she could have... she wouldn't have made that mistake. "I'm kind of a sucky mom, huh?"

"Oh shut up, you baby." The softness of Weiss' hands felt counter to the words she spoke. Gently, her thumb wiped at the welling water drops in her eyes, little affections were her specialty. A sweet kiss to the forehead began to wash away the constricting vines around Ruby's heart. This shit always got to her, a personal paranoia. "Summer barely said two words before driving off, she is too old to want anything to do with us. Azura left right after. They are one very cheap airship ride away."

Ruby breathed, emotions cooling down slowly, even as the tea heated up. "Ruby, I hate to ask, but you said you were north of Vale? The only goliath herd north of Vale are weeks away. How did one get so far away?" The pop and hiss of a kettle drove a stake through the conversation, all eyes snapping back to the stove top. "Shit, let me take care of that," Blake added, pulling the kettle off the burner, and the topic off the table.

Summer Schnee

'Do you think I'm ready to lead mom?'

'Leadership isn't being prepared, it's being what you need to be when you need to be it. So I guess, go find out. Hope to see you tomorrow! :D'

The vibration that charged through Bucephalus' frame got rougher up the near ninety degree cliffs that separated Beacon from the rest of the city. Taking the motorcycle with her meant also taking the ferry to her new school and riding up the criss cross supply path, one side of her body facing the wide river that split Vale down the center, second the thunder of rapids running out of rock, Beacon's personal waterfall, and the sharp incline of rock.

"Thanks for the ride," Azura mumbled into to their older sister's back, passenger helmet smacked up against the plate of Summer's armor. Just them and Bucephalus meant this old white motorbike had two duffel bags hanging off the sides and tied backpacks on the rear. Thankfully, mother had shipped most of their necessities to Beacon directly, headmaster holding them till dorm assignments were passed out.

"You could have taken the airship, you know?" Summer replied, driving to the top of the final stretch. Dusk was beginning, the last few shipments of new students were flying above them, metal buses sailing through the air. It was time. "Azura, look." The slope's edge ended, Beacon's tower coming into view. The monolith visible from every corner of the city stood in an unbroken rebellion against the dark, the green torch lit, calling the next generation of fighters to descend into its halls. Arches and wings shot off from the core campus. Dining room dome pronounced, the dorms packed on the opposite times, separated by year and nationality. The statue of hunters unchanged happily watched over the rushing students blurs of faunus and human would-be hunters.

It was not the only monument. A stone dragon built in memorium of disaster wrapped its body around the center tower, mouth reaching for the light, ready to snuff out its prize. A warning, against comfort, against carelessness. The beacon must be kept alight.

"Are you ready for Beacon?" Didn't matter, ready or not, Beacon called.

*** Hello Everyone! This is the first chapter of my New Future AU called Summer's Vale. Thanks so much for taking the time to try it out! Really want to thank everyone who have been supporting me and especially people like LazyKatze who has edited for me and Chezforshire who did the cover art (if you're reading ) which is actually a small piece of a bigger piece of art for Summer Schnee.

So yes this story will heavily involve OC children of RWBY, I understand if that makes you all nervous, but I was really excited to give it a try. The chapters are about half them half RWBY doing adult stuff (though the next few chapters will be RWBabies heavy because it's just getting them started.) I hope you guys know I'm worth your time as a writer and you give them a shot, if not I understand.

Next bit probably has both people not familiar with the Vale AU and is confused. Well if you didn't read the Vale AU. Spoilers White Rose and Bumblebee happened and Weiss took over her company. There, you're caught up lol, but those who are are probably wondering about how I've incorporated Volume 3. Well with every new Vale addition I always drag in the events of the show. All the events of all the volumes, (and I mean all of them) happened, just as they did in the show (even Pyrrha, trust me I'll get to that). When conflicts arise between them, default to the show. I actually have been considering going back and updating the old fics to match the show (wouldn't take much), but consider it a loosey goosey they both happened, just with a few details a little different.

Anyways Thanks so much see you around! Review and let me know what you think!