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

Crunch, Crunch

The sound of snow being crushed underneath her feet was the only sound besides her own breathing that filled her ears.

The cold air from a strong gust of wind nipped at her skin even through her bright fur lined red cloak, her black corset jacket and black undershirt. The cold even passed through her fur lined skirt, leggings, and belt and boots, all of which were a dark red and black. She was thankful that she was always a fan of the cold. It was not very often that it was a discomfort for her.

She moved at a slow pace as she made her way through the woods. The slight orange hue that lit the sky as the sun began to rise let her see the hundreds of leafless trees that surrounded her path. She could see the very tip of the sun as it was starting to make its way over the horizon.

"As beautiful a view as ever." She whispered to herself.

She had always loved Patch in the winter. The way the snow blanketed the ground, yet never seems to pile so high as to be an annoyance, the way the trees became distinct from one another as their leaves left the branches they rested on, and the peaceful silence that normally enveloped the island this time of year.

Some of her best memories of her time spent on the island were from winter. Playing with her sister in the snow, making snowmen and snow angels, taking her dog out on walks first thing in the morning, and being able to see the sunrise from her backward as the snow continued to fall. Even her first time training with her father to become a huntress, and the first time she killed a Beowolf were all on this small little island during these cold months of the year.

The sudden sound of movement from a bush next to where she was walking pulled her from her thoughts. Grabbing her weapon from the holster located on her back, she deployed the weapon as she quickly turned toward the sound, pulling the scope of the bulky rifle up to her eye as her hood fell in the process, her hair flipping around into her face for a brief moment before settling down behind her, reaching down below her shoulder blades.

Her breath grew steady as she stared at the bush, the cold air showing her breath pattern as it settled down. Her finger hovered in front of the trigger, ready to fire a dust enhanced bullet into whatever was unlucky enough to try and attack her.

After a few seconds an orange fox slowly walked out of the bush holding a stark white rabbit in it's mouth. Blood from the dead animal's neck slowly dripping down onto the snow below it, painting part of the ground a bright crimson color.

The woman relaxed as the fox stopped and looked up at her. Tilting it's head slightly, bright green eyes staring at her as she lowered her weapon. She slowly put her weapon back in its holster and ran her hand through her hair. Pushing any strands left in her face behind her ear.

Her and the fox held eye contact for a few second before the animal took off past her. Probably taking it's kill somewhere it felt it was safe to eat.

She watch the fox retreat into the forest once again running her hand through her hair. She stopped as she saw the black ribbon that was tied around her right forearm. A flash of pain made it's way through her heart as memories of its former owner came flooding into her head. Looking up into the sky she watched the snow continued to fall.

"I miss you so much, it's so cold without you here..."

"You seem a little jumpy today Ruby." A familiar voice called from behind her, drawing her from her thoughts. "It isn't like a grimm is gonna pop out at you these days." She could hear the slight amount of joking that came from their voice.

Turning around she saw a tall man standing on the path behind her, his hand buried in the pockets of his stark white pants. A green jack hung around his shoulder. The ends of his tail coat sticking ever so slightly out from behind him. The wind picked up, causing his ponytail to blow in the wildly in the gust. Ruby looked into his Magenta eyes as he moved the pink strand of his black hair out of his face. A small smile formed on his face as their eyes met.

Lie Ren, her partner of the past three years stood in front of her. He had changed a bit since their days at Beacon, he had grown quite a bit, half a foot since their first day there. Being six foot two, he was a full ten inches taller than Ruby, who had only grown two in the same time span. He had continued to let his hair grow until it reached down below his tailbone, and his bangs nearly covered his eyes.

It was funny. When they were in school, she and Ren had never really interacted much outside of a few casual conversations, but ever since the attack on Beacon from Cinder five years ago, and the mission that had gone terribly wrong two years after that, the two of them became very close. As she got to know him it turned out he talked a lot more than people thought. Albeit it for certain things most of the time such as cooking, and his ideas about the world, but he even enjoyed cracking jokes from time to time. He just reserved himself in larger groups, but get him one on one, and he can talk up a storm if he was in the mood to, even if he did prefer to remain quiet. Over the years Ren has become one of the only people that she actually trusted anymore.

"The grimm may have been gone for years Ren, but it is never a bad thing to be precautions, and you know that." A small smile of her own made it's way to her face before quickly vanishing as soon as it had appeared.

"True enough," He agreed as he began to walk towards her.

Turning around she began to walk towards her destination, hoping to reach the cliff that she always visited at the end of her walks. She slowed her pace slightly to let Ren catch up. "So how long have you been following me?"

"Ever since you left the base. How long did it take you to notice that I was following you?" He said as he caught up to her. She looked over and saw him scanning the area around them as he spoke, stopping when he noticed a pair of white rabbits running through the snow, only after they ran out of his field of vision underneath a knocked down tree did he continue combing the area.

His attention was brought back to the shorter woman next to him when she spoke. "About ten minutes after I left." She flashed him another small smile. "You stepped on a tree branch right near the base. You're getting a little sloppy."

A small chuckle was his only response before she continued talking. "You know I was only going for a walk, you didn't have to follow me." she finished turning her head away from Ren, and back in the direction they were walking.

"You and I both know that isn't true Ruby. After what you did outside the Kingdoms, there is no way Ironwood is gonna let you leave the base without someone watching you." Ren's tone becoming much more serious as he spoke.

Ruby's face remained passive and unchanging as she thought about what she did almost a year ago. Her last adventure into the faunus kingdom nearly got her kicked out of the rebellion.

"It was not that bad." Should could feel Ren's eyes on her as they continued to walk, she didn't have to imagine the annoyed look he was giving her.

"You disappeared for a month, a lot of people ended up dead, and when you came back you were the most wanted person in the faunus kingdoms. Hell the bounty they have on your head only gets bigger every month." He could sigh as she simply shrugged her shoulders. He looked at her with sadness in his eyes. "How can you just shrug off what you did?"

"Anyway that doesn't explain why you were the one to follow me, you don't always have to be the one to keep an eye on me." she turned to look at Ren as she spoke.

"Well I am your teammate, it makes sense that I would be the one to look after you. Also it gets me out of that base. It can be cramped at times." He chuckled slightly before continuing. "Besides most other people at the base are scared of you."

Ruby couldn't help but laugh. He was not wrong, ever since she had returned from the aforementioned journey into the areas outside the kingdoms, people had been very weary of her, most people around the base kept their distance from Ruby unless they were ordered to be around her for a mission. Ren was one of the few people that she still kept in her company often.

"Fair enough, so tell me why did you come out and distract me this time? Normally you just let me wonder until I make it back to base." She stopped and turned to fully face him, leaning back against the nearest tree.

Ren pulled out his scroll and tossed it her way. Ruby caught it with ease and looked at the screen. There was was a message from Jaune pulled up.

Ironwood wants to see us ASAP, grab Ruby and head to the meeting room.

"What the does he need us for? Today is one of the few days off we actually get, he does know that right?" A mild amount of annoyance in her voice as she tossed Ren back his scroll. "Looks like the cliff will have to wait till later."

Ren simply shrugged as he caught the device. He slipped it back into his pocket before turning around and continuing to walk.

"I am sure it is something important, now come on let's not keep them waiting too long. You know Weiss will get annoyed if we take too long." Turning around his face fell as he noticed the smirk on Ruby's face.

Ruby pointed in the opposite direction before walking off. "Come on, this direction has a much better view."

Ren could only shake his head as he began to walk after her. "I shouldn't have said anything."

Weiss woke up to the sound of pounding on her door. Glancing over at the clock, she saw that it was only eight in the morning, a good hour before she normally woke up on her days off. slowly sitting up in bed, she rubbed her eyes with her forearm. Turning to her side, she flicked on the lamp that was located on the nightstand next to her bed, bathing the room with light. "Come in." She yawned out her response to the loud knocking.

Her door opened, and a tall, well muscled man with shaggy, blond hair and a beard wearing nothing but grey sweat pants walked into her room. His well toned body became ever clearer as he reached his hands above his head to stretch, doing so let her view the numerous scars that ran along his chest. His arms fell as he began rubbing his closed eyes, trying to fight off the urge to fall asleep.

"Jaune, what the hell are you doing waking me up this early on our day off?" the annoyance of her tone almost lost by the drowsiness that accompanied it.

"Ironwood needs us asap. He sent someone to get us. I already sent Ren a message to get Ruby and meet us in the briefing room." he replied without even opening his eyes. His voice letting on how tired he was. "Get ready to go, I'll start making something to eat." he yawned as he slowly turned around and shuffled out of her room, shutting the door behind him.

Weiss stretched her arms above her head and let out a heavy yawn before throwing her blankets off, and getting out of her bed. She dragged her feet towards the bathroom located at far side of her small room. Opening the door to she turned on the light and walked over to the sink. Turning on the water she splashed some water on her face, the cold quickly waking her up. Grabbing the hand towel next her, she wiped her face dry.

Putting the towel back in its place she turned her attention to the mirror above the sink. Her appearance had not changed all that much over the years. She still wore her hair in the same style as she had back then. Sadly since she was seventeen she had not grown much physically. She had only grown a whopping two inches since then, and she didn't improve in other aspects of her anatomy either, much to her disappointment "Twenty seven years old, and you still have the chest of a teenager, why did Winter get all the good genes it seems?"

Looking at herself her eyes quickly came to the two scars that decorated the left side of her face. The long one that ran down her eye had been with her for almost her whole life it seemed, even though she only got it during her early teenage years. The horizontal scar that bisected the original just below her eyes was relatively fresh in comparison. Having only been around for five years, it remained a grim reminder of the attacks on Beacon. One that she would always have to wear.

Bringing up her right hand, she touched the second scar. The third scar she received from the attacks coming into view. The metallic right hand was cold as it brushed her silvered flesh, tracing the patterns. Pulling her hand back she stared at it for a few seconds curling and uncurling the hand. After five years she had become used to the prosthetic, yet every now and then she would catch herself staring at it. Most of the time she had to catch herself from thinking back to the events of that day. She hated when her memory wandered there, she had lost so much more than just her hand that day. Those were memories she would rather forget.

She turned on the shower before walking out of the bathroom towards the closet located next to her bathroom. Wanting to get her outfit ready for the day while the shower heated up. She grabbed her clothes and laid them out on the bed so they would be ready for her once she finished her shower.

She took off her nightgown, so that she now stood naked in the middle of her room, and went back into the bathroom where she and quickly took her shower. As she came out of the bathroom she began putting her hair into it's normal ponytail, looking around her room briefly as she did. The room was almost barren except for the bed and night stand that laid against the far wall of the room. Next to that was a simple dresser with a full length mirror next to it. Placed in the sides of the glass were a few pictures. Next to the mirror was her weapon leaning against the wall. The pale yellow light from the lamp cast a dim glow along the grey walls of the room, the dust old glass of the mirror barley reflecting the light after having gone unpolished for so long.

She quickly got dressed and walked over to the mirror. Her outfit had changed over the years. Gone was the combat skirt, now replaced with a white belt that held up long white pants, which was partly covered by her thigh high grey boots. She wore a red button up blouse, that was covered by a long white tail coat.

Looking at herself she couldn't help but laugh. During her younger years she always used to think that her sister dressed too formally; now she dressed almost exactly the same. It was funny how things changed.

As she was looking at herself her vision fell on the pictures that occupied a space on the mirror. There were three of them in total, two were on the left side of the mirror one just above the other, and the final picture was sitting opposite of the other two.

The lone picture was of her old team during their first year at beacon. The school was in the background the team was standing in front of the historical statue at the front of the school. Weiss had an annoyed look on her face as her team leader was draped over both her sister, and herself. Pulling both of them into a hug. Ruby and Yang both had wide grins on their face while Yang was flashing the peace sign at the camera. Blake was standing off to the side slightly, looking at the rest of her team with a sly smirk on her face as she looked on at the antics of her new friends. "That seems like it was a lifetime ago now."

The next picture was another one of her team. It was in the same location as the previous one, only this picture was taken at the start of their third year at Beacon. The girls were all standing next to each other grinning at the camera. The picture was much more tame than the last one. Blake and Ruby were standing next to each other, and just to the side of them was Weiss and Yang, who was still flashing the peace sign. The team had become much more professional than they had two years prior for the most part. "Some things never did change though."

The last picture was a single picture of Yang and herself, taken the day they graduated from Beacon. They were sitting together on a cliff that overlooked the forest just outside of Beacon academy. Their backs were facing the camera, and Weiss's head was leaning against Yang shoulder. Yang had her arm around Weiss's and was pulling her closer as they sat and watched the sunset together.

Weiss picked up the picture and smiled, flipping over the picture, she read the writing on the back.

Glad you are happy with my sister, be sure to take care of her.

P.S. You guys are really bad at hiding the fact that you are dating.

-Ruby

Her smile fell into a slight frown as she finished reading the back. "If only everything was as good as it was back then, I miss those days," She flipped the picture back over and stared at the blond mane that was Yang's hair. "And I miss you the most."

"Weiss breakfast is ready." Jaune's voice broke her train of thought.

Looking back at the picture her small smile returned to her face. "I'll see you again, maybe not soon, but one day."

"Alright, thank you Jaune." She placed the picture back in its place on the glass before she grabbed her weapon and fastened it into the holster on her hip. Strutting over to the lamp, she turned it off and walked out of the room. Ready to see what Ironwood needed.

Well there is the next chapter. We have four new characters introduced. I know it is a lot of exposition, but I am gonna try and make next chapter not so much that, so I guess this is kind of prologue 2.0.

I am sorry this took me so long, but a combination of writer's block and finals fucking killed my productivity with this. Expect more consistent updates during the summer.

Well let me know what you guys think of this chapter by leaving a review, I really do enjoy reading them, and I try to respond to most of them in PM's.

Until next time

~Redwing~