Chapter One: Meet the Heroes

He crouches, ready to jump after Midna for the last stretch, when the shout comes and startles him so bad he almost nosedives into the purple mist below. "Yang!"

Link scrambles away from the edge in time so he doesn't tip over when Midna zooms onto his back once again. He growls lowly at the harsh, added weight of the imp. Midna hushes him with a thud on his head. Link huffs, but crawls forwards when the woman leans on his ears to peer where the sound comes from up ahead.

"Weiss!" calls a higher-pitched voice. Not quite as high as Ilia, or even the imp's crazed laughter, but Link could see it getting annoying really fast with his newly heightened sense. "Blake! …Anyone?! Yang! Someone! Is there- Oh!"

He tenses when a shadow with a hint of white light moves behind the gate up ahead, just before the place his map marks as having two of bugs-of-evil. Midna leans forwards even more, making him grunt as she squashes his head into the ground. "Eee hee hee, now what's this? That's not a spirit."

She squawks and pinwheels when he jerks up. Dread hits because she's right; through the fog he can see the outline of a person climbing over the gate. A young woman brushes off her skirt, and he can see there are a few slim rays of white peeking around the black circles covering her eyes. Just as he goes to jump to the stone ahead, Midna pulls him back by the ear. "Hold up, servant. Aren't you curious as to how she's untouched by the twilight?" She pulls his ear back further, and Link almost growl at the strain. Midna's next whisper makes him pause. "You had to turn into a wolf to be protected, remember?"

Maybe she's like the princess, he wants to say, but her words ring in his head. They remind that he is a beast now, not a Hylian. He also has the imp on his back here in the twilight covered forest. His first instinct, to rush to the woman below, would not end well. She would either see them and be scared – just like the villagers, and Midna was in his shadow then – or be unable to spot them like the other spirits.

"Yang! Weiss! Blake!" the young woman shouts again. She draws her hands behind her and takes a deep breath to scream. "Yang! Wei- Ah!"

The bugs-of-evil burst from the ground, and the woman takes a step back. Able to see him and Midna or not, Link sets up to jump. His rider doesn't protest this time, gliding through the air to hover over the stone he needs to jump to. The wolf pauses and swings his head towards the human woman when it sounds like something grinding. Even Midna turns, both imp and wolf staring in disbelief as the woman cuts the bugs into pieces with a… scythe?

"Ew," the woman groans and whines, shaking the large scythe-like contraption to get rid leftover gunk from the bugs. Then she folds up the scythe – how? – and tucks it behind her back, under her cape. "Please let that be the last of them."

The woman doesn't spare the leftover tears of light more than a glance as she walks to the destroyed bridge. She sighs, takes a few steps back, and then runs towards the purple smog.

"You idiot! Stop!" Midna's shout follows Link's worried bark.

But the woman's turned into flower petals and shot off to the other side of the area before their words reach her. Link runs to the opposite side of his platform, and can see the red cape flow as the woman walks towards the cave. Midna snaps out of her stupor to come and watch, and makes a strangling motion when they hear the woman call out again. Then the imp drops back on Link's back, crazed cackle spilling through her lips. "Well, that was interesting and all, but we have a job to do wolfy."

He can't even bring himself to growl because she sounds as disturbed by the whole thing as he is. Still, it's been a crazy couple of hours – days – and a girl turning into flower petals is not nearly as strange as giant light spirits sending him around to gather their lost parts, or how the world seemed to be taken over overnight.

Out of curiosity, he sniffs the petals once he reaches the ground. Roses. He doesn't think he'll forget that smell anytime soon.

;;;

When Ruby pondered how third year was going to go, she never imagined something like this. Then again, she thought they'd make it to this year's Vytal Festival without incident. They had a two month streak of nothing going horribly wrong on their missions, the longest it's ever been. No criminal organizations hiding in abandoned railways, no backstabbing city officials hiring untrained mercenaries on the side and expecting her team to get along with them, and no unexpected Grimm showing up and possibly killing everyone in sight.

She had so much hope in a normal third year. All it took was a stupid helmet taking offense to Weiss' new prototype-grade dust to screw it up.

(It wasn't Ruby's fault this time and she plans to rub it in her partner's face when she finds her. Take that, Weiss. She is not a trouble magnet, thank you very much.)

Ruby trudges back to the giant tree she originally ended up in. How she ended up in the tree is still up for debate, but she's blaming it on the helmet piece that was in her hand when she woke up. Maybe she should return to the room with the giant plant. She was hoping to find something that would defeat it. That stupid, sentient people-eater plant which ate the helmet piece now has skin too tough for Crescent Rose to cut. Maybe those strange people she helped out have an idea of what to do.

Ruby pauses at the sound of a howl. It doesn't sound like a beowolf, but at this point she would gladly take Grimm over the bugs, rats, people-eating plants, and bats. At least the Grimm don't leave behind goo and guts. These things do turn to smoke – or bits of light – instead of dusty particles, so she can at least pretend it's the same.

Ruby yelps and ducks behind a rock when the world seems to shimmer. The young woman gapes as everything lightens and rectangles stop falling from the sky. Hesitantly, she pulls the sunglasses from her eyes and checks her reflection.

"Score!" Ruby cheers, pocketing the item and skipping up the path to the tree. Her eyes have finally stopped glowing, which means she can go all stealth-mode and not risk the creatures coming after her because she's a beacon in the night. That was annoying to figure out, along with realizing activating the full-brunt of her 'special power' burnt all nearby creatures to a crisp. A pang echoes through as she thinks about the first guy she accidently almost killed in this world, when her sunglasses came off and she freaked.

Making an annoyed huff at the sight of a spider web covering the tree's entrance – again – Ruby takes out her scythe and cuts it away. She knocks with her free hand and calls out. "Hello? Are you guys still here?"

There's shuffling and someone calls out a willowy, "We are here."

Ruby smiles and skips in. The strange, light grey skinned people of wherever she's ended up – because this is most definitely not Remnant, and these people have no clue either – stand nervously inside the first room. They seem to relax when she appears, and the tallest one wrings his hands as he moves closer to her, speaking in the same willowy, almost moaning, tone they seem to have. "Are you alright, Lady Ruby?"

"I'm good, guys," Ruby smiles and holds up a thumb. "How are you all holding up?"

"Better," willows a woman, bowing her head in greeting. "The curse no longer holds us."

"Glad to hear," Ruby nods quickly. She sneaks a glance at the tall man. "Again, I'm really sorry."

He waves her off with his good hand, the other with its burning white marks in a sling. "We are free, thanks to you."

The third stands and nods his greeting. "How fairs the world outside?"

"I think well?" Ruby frowns and glances behind her. "The square-thingies all stopped falling and there's sunlight now, so I suppose good? I couldn't find my friends, or any more of you guys."

The three light grey skinned people frown and exchange nervous glances. "The curse…"

"If the Light World has returned to normal, it makes sense the curse left with the twilight," the third says, wearily. He turns and bows to Ruby, making the human feel more awkward. "We do appreciate all your help, Lady Ruby."

"Er," she nervously scratches her head. "Yah, sure guys. Are… Is everything alright?"

"We will be unable to leave until the sun sets," the woman speaks softly, rolling her shoulders. Her armour tinkles and she moves to sit again. A quick laugh escapes her. "It is worrisome."

"Well," Ruby glances at the exit behind her. She should look for her teammates, but at the same time she knows the other women can handle themselves. Ruby looks back at the three former shadow beasts, and just knows this is what she has to do. "I'll stay with you, and make sure you guys make it wherever you need to go."

After their surprised looks, she gets their thanks. Then she sits down and makes them tell her everything they can about this world, where they come from, and just what the heck is going on.

It's not good. Ruby curses the helmet and swears to take great joy in destroying it if – when – they all return to Remnant.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Legend of Zelda or RWBY franchises. The Legend of Zelda belongs to Nintendo. RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.

A/N: I've been going through my old, unposted stories and found this. I don't know… I thought it might be nice to put this up… Thanks for reading