"Water, earth, fire, air. Does anybody know what these are?"

A hand shoots up from the back of the class in response. "The four basic forms of dust" A girl answers quickly

"Very good Miss Schnee. Yes it is from combinations of these four forms that we create all other types of dust" The professor states. "Long ago people believed them to be the building blocks of our world. While that may have been incorrect in the literal sense, it is not without basis."

Weiss allows herself a smile, if anyone knew the answer to that question, it was obviously her. She was the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company of course. A hand flies up next to her face, offering a high five for the correctly answered question. Weiss didn't even have to turn her head to know it belonged to Ruby, her hooded leader and teammate. After a few seconds of waiting with her hand there, Ruby begins to lower it dejectedly, letting out a disappointed little "oh." Sighing, Weiss extends her hand towards Ruby, which is met quickly with a SMACK as Ruby's smile grows from ear to ear "My BFF!" Ruby whisper-shouts.

"No." Weiss answers with a glare, though it was an empty gesture, the two were best friends, there was no denying it.

On the other side of Ruby sat the other half of team RWBY, Blake and Yang. Blake sat quietly, taking notes. Meanwhile Yang slouched back in the chair, not so subtly using her scroll. She pauses her texting every few seconds to toss a few cheesy fish-shaped crackers into her mouth. Blake glances at her and opens her mouth, earning a soft chuckle from Yang and a few of the crackers tossed her way as well.

This continues on for the rest of class, Weiss and Blake writing down notes that Ruby and Yang would no doubt mooch off of later. Before long the bell rang and the class began to file out of the room. As Blake and Yang make their exit, Weiss stops only to wake Ruby up, and the four girls leave together.

The team returns to their dorm, exhausted after the day of classes. Despite the fact that they all knew they had homework to do, none of them are able to keep their eyes open for very long, each collapsing into their beds within a matter of minutes.

/\/\/\/\/\

Ruby wakes up slowly, covered in a cold sweat as the wind chills her to the bone. She blinks her eyes, trying to adjust to the darkness. It was freezing, did Weiss leave the window open open or something?

Something wasn't right. As Ruby shoots upright that becomes increasingly clear. First of all she was outside, secondly she was in her combat outfit with Crescent Rose strapped to her back. And finally... she had no idea where she freaking was!

"Ok Ruby, don't panic, don't panic" She says to herself a few times, trying to make sense of her surroundings. She was on a beach somewhere, thankfully there were no Grimm in sight, but that could change at any moment. "Yaaaaang?!" She shouts, praying for a response "Blake?! Weiss?! Anyone?!" she calls out, before resigning slightly. She looks around, spotting a cave a little ways down the coast, with what looked like a fire flickering inside. Taking a deep breath she pulls Crescent Rose from its resting place on her back and cautiously approacges the cave.

She was only a few feet from the entrance now. A cold wind hits her back, but before she can reach back to adjust her cloak, she hears a young man's voice. "Hi! Who're you?"

Ruby whips around, Crescent Rose leveling straight at the boys face.

"Whoah whoah!" The boy exclaims, reflexively raising his arms as a pillar of earth shoots out of the ground and knocks the compact scythe out of the girl's hands.

Ruby assumes as best a fighting stance as she could, cursing the fact she didn't pay more attention when training with Yang.

The boy twists his foot, and Ruby finds herself quickly sinking into the sand and unable to move as it solidifies to stone around her.

Hearing the commotion, the boy's friends run out of the cave, and Ruby soon finds a club, a spear of ice, and a giant boulder all looming over her.

With her eyes finally adjusting to the dark, Ruby looks around and is able to get a decent view of her assailants. The first boy was short, no older than 13, with a head of short black hair and a headband around his forehead. Then there was a small girl who seemed even younger than the boy, but who seemed to barely contain a ridiculous amount of strength in her tiny body. The way the small girl's arms were positioned, she seemed to be holding the boulder that was hovering above her head. Then there were two older kids, who both seemed to be around Ruby's age. A boy with a ponytail and a club in his hand and a girl with long, flowing hair who seemed to be suspending the spear of ice.

"Who sent you?" The older boy demands.

"Wh-what? Why would anyone have sent me? Who are you people?" Ruby flounders

"This is why I said school was a bad idea! Someone must have followed you!" He shouts at the younger boy, who sheepishly rubs his neck and offers no response.

Seeing the obvious fear and confusion on Ruby's face, the older girl sighs. "Sokka, I don't think she found us on purpose. Look at her"

The older boy, who must be Sokka, takes a break from his shouting to actually look the very panicked Ruby in the eyes.

Stepping in, the younger boy sits down so he's as close to eye-to-eye with the sunken and trapped Ruby as possible. "What's your name?" He asks calmly

"Ruby. Ruby Rose." She answers nervously. The boy looks to the smaller girl who simply nods in response.

"Are you Fire Nation?" Sokka asks

"Uh... what's that?" Ruby asks in response. She glances around nervously, hoping that wasn't the wrong answer.

"What do you mean wh-" Sokka starts to reply, only to be stopped by the small girl

"She's being sincere, but I can tell she's disoriented, heart's beating like crazy, eyes moving so fast and so often I can feel the vibrations from here." She says

"Aang, maybe we should pull her up, I doubt she can give us any real information like this" The older girl suggests.

"Seriously Katara?" Sokka asks incredulously.

"She's right" The boy, Aang, replies "Pull her up Toph, I don't trust my earthbending enough to not crush her by accident"

"No crushing please" Ruby squeaks

The small girl, who must be Toph, lets the boulder drop behind Ruby before pulling her out of the ground with a single stomp.

Katara rushes to her side and offers her a hand "You said your name was Ruby right? Where are you from?"

"I'm from Vale" She answers, eyeing Crescent Rose, but not daring reaching for it. Instead she takes Katara's hand and pulls herself up.

"Where is that? The Earth Kingdom? You said you weren't Fire Nation"

"No no, the Kingdom of Vale. I mean I guess im technically from Beacon Academy, but thats right outside the main city of Vale, and I grew up on the island of Patch, but thats right off the coast and wait what's the Earth Kingdom anyway?" Ruby rambles before finally arriving at a question

Sokka sighs and pulls a map from his bag. "Just point" He says, laying it on the ground

"Uh... what kind of map is this? All the continents are in the wrong shape" Ruby asks, puzzled. She looks up at everyone and finally notices the moon on the sky "Wha-what happened to the moon?"

"What do you mean? The moon is fine don't try to change the subject" Sokka replies, clearly annoyed

"Why is it in one piece?" Ruby clarifies

After a moment Aang pipes up, "Ruby, I think you might not be from around here"