Chapter 1: Epilogue

Ruby's POV:

Red like roses fills my dreams and brings me to the place you rest,

I trudged along an old gravel walkway, with my hood up and my headphones on. I listened to the mellow and melancholic music as I made my way back home after spending the day in a car repair shop near my home with my uncle, Qrow. Today wasn't a very busy day, meaning I got to leave early and spend the rest of my afternoon with my sister.

White is cold and always yearning, burdened by the royal test,

I've always had an affinity for mechanics, seeing as how I could always understand the parts of a machine better than I could a person. Qrow taught a mechanics class in Signal once, before my time, and opened up a car repair shop, he figured instead of teaching mechanics he would actually do something regarding it. Qrow was getting older and needed some help around the shop and he figured it would be a good learning experience for me, an offer I eagerly accepted as Qrow had become my own idol, I picked up his interests in mechanics, and soon enough I nearly became an expert in that field, knowing what was wrong with a machine just by looking at it. Sadly, however, it was only a summer job, and this joyous season was coming to an end.

Qrow wasn't really my uncle, he was Yang's, but he became a family member to me as well, as I had started to call him such as well.

Black the beast descends from shadows, yellow beauty burns… gold~

The song went into a more upbeat tune, becoming totally instrumental instead of there being any vocals, which made it impossible to not quietly hum with as I walked up the beaten-down walkway. Because Qrow was already my tutor in mechanic, he also took it upon himself to teach me more advanced things along the way, so instead of being a freshman, I would start off the new school year as a junior.

As the beat of the song slowed down, there was a slight pause, until it picked back up again, except much faster, and then I couldn't help but hum even louder with the tune.

As the song slowed to a stop, I got closer to my home; a rather large cabin for a family of three, each member had a room of their own, including a guest room in case Uncle Qrow decided to drop in for a week or so.

As I slowed to a stop, I checked my phone to see what time it was.

'2:30,' Ruby thought to herself, 'Maybe me and Yang can play a little Street Fighter…'

I still had yet to beat my older sister, Yang had a streak of 7 wins in a row, and after that, Ruby made a vow that she would break that streak.

Yang had always been good at fighting, real or not, it's always been a gift of hers. I remember one time, in middle school, some boys were bullying me and were calling me lewd names. One day, I came home crying about it and I told Yang all about the three boys who were picking on me. The next day, I discovered that the two gooneys had black eyes and broken noses, and the leader had both his eyes blackened, an arm broken, and a few cracked ribs. They never even looked in my direction ever again.

I grabbed the keys from my pocket and unlocked the door to my home, my dad wasn't back yet due to his busy work schedule, he teaches physical science at Signal Academy for summer school.

As I opened the door, I called out to my older sister to see if she was home.

"Yang?" I called out, "Yaaaaaang,"

"Hey, little sis!" Yang called from the loft that led to their two bedrooms, she was dressed in a yellowish-orange tank top and grey sweatpants, her golden hair was pulled into one massive ponytail, she leaned over the railing on the loft, "You're home awfully early."

"Yeah, work was kind of slow today, so Uncle Qrow let me leave early," I replied with a shrug, "what have you been up to while I've been gone?

"Not much," she replied, "just getting ready for school later this week, gotta start packing for the dorms, ya know?"

I had totally forgotten about that, Yang had just been accepted into the most prestigious private school in all of Vale; Beacon Academy. One more thing I had forgotten about was that she would be leaving their home, and Ruby wouldn't have anybody to hang out with. Beacon High was hundreds of miles into the heart of the continent of Vale and too far away for them to see each other that often.

"Awwwww," I pouted and pleaded, "please don't leave me..."

"Rubes, I gotta, you know that," Yang said with her brows furrowed, "I wish I didn't have to, but Beacon is at least 6 hours away by airship, and I obviously can't drive to and from there every day."

"Then take me with you!" I put on my infamous puppy dog face, "Pleeeeease?"

"If I could, you know I would," She knew better than to make eye contact, so she averted her gaze until I wiped the heart-melting expression off my face, "but only students or kids on field trips are allowed on campus."

"I know," I trailed off, "I'm just gonna miss you…"

Tears started to well up in my eyes, 'me and Yang do almost everything together! What am I supposed to do when she's gone?'

"Rubes…" Yang made her way down the stairs leading to the loft, "I'm still gonna visit when I get a chance to, you know that, don't you?"

"Of course! It just won't be the same," Tears began to fall, "I'm gonna miss sharing funny stories with you, and playing games with you, and riding on your motorcycle with you, and-"

Yang cut her off with a hug, "Ruby, we can do all of those things when I come back home for holidays or something!" She held the hug, "Besides, you're still planning on applying for Beacon, right?"

She was right. I did intend on joining as soon as this new school year began, because of my good grades, that meant I had a good chance on being able to apply and be accepted into Beacon High. Beacon was a lot like a college, hence the need to apply, however, a student that desires to join such a prestigious academy was required to have phenomenal grades.

She sniffled, "Yeah…"

"Then you have nothing to worry about!" Yang said with a big smile, "I'll be seeing you soon!"

"But what if I don't get in?" I started to panic, "Then what do I do? What if I hardly ever see you anymore?" What if-"

"Hey," Yang pulled away and grasped my shoulders firmly, "You are beyond your years in nearly every subject, Headmaster Ozpin would be insane if he never let you in."

"I know…"

"Rubes, I'm serious."

I wiped the tears from my eyes and my face, I then willed my silver eyes to meet Yang's lilac ones, "I know."

"Good!" Yang patted my left shoulder, "Now, I need to finish packing up some of the smaller stuff, stuff you don't need to worry about, so I should be done in about, say, an hour? Yeah, that sounds about right," she began to walk back up the stairs, "watch some TV or something and I should be done around that time."

As Yang made her way back upstairs, I made my own way into the kitchen to find an afternoon snack, 'I wonder if there are any cookies left…', as I was about to find out, a loud knock echoed throughout the entirety of the Xiao Long-Rose household. As I was about to go answer the door, Yang's older sibling senses kicked in.

"Uh-uh-uh," Yang hurried her way down the stairs, "you let me take care of this, sit down in the living room or something, yeah?"

As I began to make my way to the living room, I heard Yang greet someone I had only heard of in conversations, "Headmaster Ozpin? What are you doing here?", Yang asked incredulously.

I quickly hid behind doorway that led into the living room to listen to the conversation between her older sister and the headmaster of Beacon Academy. I peeked through the doorway to get a better look at the man named Ozpin, "May I come in? I was hoping to speak with you and your younger sister."

"Of course," Yang opened the door so that the middle-aged man could have plenty of room to get in, "make yourself at home."

Although he leaned on his cane for support, the man was a staggering six and a half feet tall, with a slim build and a pale complexion, he wore a black cardigan with a thick, green scarf around his neck, tucked into the said cardigan. The man had soft, brown eyes behind small glasses, all paired with silver, tousled hair.

"Thank you," he limped through the doorway, looking at pictures all the while, until he caught me staring at him while he did so, "Hello, and might you be Miss Rose?"

"Eep!" I leaped out of my once safe hiding place and greeted him with a red face, "Y-Yes! Are you Headmaster Ozpin? Of Beacon Academy?"

He let out a small chuckle, "Yes, I am," he continued to walk forward, "and it's a pleasure to meet you," he held out his hand for me to shake, and let's just say I shook it a little too long for comfort.

"May we sit down?" Ozpin asked politely, "my knee is giving me quite the trouble."

"Of course!" Yang said, breaking the awkward tension, "right this way, sir."

Yang led him to the kitchen and pulled out a chair for him to sit in, he leaned his cane against the table and slowly sat down as to not make his knee go out and make him awkwardly fall on his rear.

"Can I get you anything to drink?" Yang asked in the most polite tone she could give.

"Some coffee would be lovely," Ozpin said with a smile.

"Coming right up!" Yang said as she made her way to the coffee maker, "stronger or normal?"

"Just normal would be nice,"

"How about anything to eat?"

"No thank you," Ozpin said in his cheery and kind tone, "I ate before I came here, the trip from Beacon is a long one."

"Speaking of which, why exactly did you need to talk to us?" Yang asked with as much curiosity as I was feeling.

"Ah yes," He leaned forward as to grab our attention a bit more, "As I was doing research about you, Miss Xiao Long, I noticed your younger sister was quite the scholar too."

Yang giggled, "It's intimidating, really," I chuckled out of nervousness and blushed at the compliment.

Ozpin laughed along as well, "Yes, well, I noticed that this upcoming year, Miss Rose would be eligible to join my academy as well, and I wanted to give her the option if she so desired to."

"Ummm," the sudden offer threw me off guard, "I beg your pardon?"

"Would you like to join my school?" Ozpin asked with a strange frankness, "it's a very big question to digest, so take your time with your response."

A thousand thoughts were running through my mind, one above all else though was the fact that I had a chance to still be with my sister. I know I sound insane for loving her so much, but after my mother's death, one regret I had was not having the chance to really get to know her. Sure, I was young, only about three, but I hate that she wasn't a part of my life. I just don't want that to be the same case with Yang.

But for once my ADHD had to be focused on the one question Ozpin asked me; 'Would you like to join my school?' I want more than anything else to be a part of Beacon, but it won't be a walk in the park being there. I meant it when I said it's one of the most prestigious academies in all of Vale, people from different walks of life congregate in one place to test their mettle and talents, hoping to be acknowledged above all others.

Because of Qrow, and his seemingly infinite knowledge, my knowledge puts me beyond others in academics, putting me on equal playing ground with the rest of the juniors and seniors in any high school, I might even have an advantage over some of them.

With a deep breath and a moment of contemplation, I carefully worded out my response to his polite invitation.

"I would need to talk to dad about it," I said very carefully, "but I would love to be a part of Beacon Academy!"

"No need to worry about your father, Miss Rose," Ozpin said with anticipation in his eyes, "I have already talked to him about it, and he said he would be beyond happy if we would have you."

"Yes!" I couldn't help but to pump my fists and do a little jig, "Thank you so much, Mr. Ozpin! I'll make you proud!"

"I have no doubt," Ozpin gave a warm smile, "I will hopefully be seeing you later this week then."

"You won't be disappointed, sir!" Ruby said adamantly, "Thank you again."

As I said thank you for the tenth time, Yang handed a mug of coffee to Ozpin, "Thank you, sir," Yang said with a smile.

"Honestly," Ozpin said with a shrug, "it's no trouble."

As Ozpin finished his cup of coffee, he stood up as slowly as he had attempted to sit down, "I must be going then, I will be seeing the both of you when this semester starts, thank you both for having me."

As Ozpin walked out, Yang turned to me, "I told you I'd be seeing you soon!" Yang scooped me up in a big embrace, one of which I happily returned.

"I know! I mean, I didn't know that quick, but still," I let out a hearty laugh, "I have to start packing up too!"

As I turned to the stairs, Yang soon followed along to finish up her own packing, I made a mad dash towards my room and went to work immediately.

I kept on beaming with an inhuman smile and a hearty laugh. All things considered, this truly has been the best day of my life.