Please read the Author Notes for important information:

The leaves of early autumn were starting to fall, but it was always that way in the forest of Forever Fall. A eery quiet hung in the air, the only sounds being made were the crunching of the leaves beneath Ruby's boots as she walked amongst the graves of those who had fallen before her. It was a strange picture to anyone who would see it without understanding why it was like that in the first place. How could someone so young walk amongst the graves before her and not ask so many questions about life or death?

Looks like there are two more graves this time. Ruby thought to herself as she passed them by. It's only been a week since I was here and it always seems to be home to a few new people each time. Ruby started to walk in between the graves now, looking to find one in particular.

A lot has changed about her, for instance her blouse was now white, and it's sleeves were rolled up above her elbows. She still wore her black corset over the blouse, and she still wore her black skirt and crimson red cloak, but the cloak and the skirt were worn and had tears in them from the battles she had gone through up to that point. Her hair was much longer, and there was a much more noticeable difference between the black and red in it. Under her skirt, she now wore crimson greaves to cover her leggings, and her boots now served as weapons since Crescent Rose was destroyed.

"I hope you're doing well." Ruby said once she found the grave that she was looking for. She placed her hand on the grave, her wrists now adorned with bladed gauntlets that she also used to fight with, since her original weapon was destroyed. "It looks like Russel will be joining you soon. So you know, just make him feel welcome I guess."

Ruby knelt down in front of the grave before her. "Everyone really misses you, especially Yang. I know you did what you did to save her life, but it's really affecting her the most." Ruby remained silent for a moment as she looked at the name that was carved into the tombstone she was kneeling in front of, a name that she never hoped to see in such a place.

Blake Belladonna

3 years ago

In the beginning of Team RWBY's third year at Beacon, the city of Vale and Beacon came under attack by Cinder Fall and Roman Torchwick. The attack left the school in shambles and the city in ruins. With the White Fang on their side, Torchwick and Fall turned Vale into a warzone. Despite the sudden and destructive assault, many of the hunters and huntresses in training at Beacon survived and created an army to fight back against the white fang. But as in every war, no one involved leaves without scars.

Yang fought hard against Mercury, dodging his blasts from the shotguns attached to his greaves, and parrying the kicks that he sent her way. She was fighting for her life, knowing that she couldn't mess up, or else she wouldn't be going home. Dealing attacks and defending herself when her attacks were blocked, Yang finally made her fatal mistake. Mercury launched himself towards her with an overhead swing of his foot, one she couldn't block in time. The kick sent her back, and caused her to lose balance. "Gahh." Yang cried out when the blow was struck against her.

"Game over Blondie." Mercury called out to her as he readied the fatal blow. He brought his foot up and was preparing a blast from his shotgun that would kill Yang.

"No!"

The blast went off, and both Mercury and Yang were shocked to see what had happened. Yang had a tear in her eyes as she saw that someone had stood in the way of the shot and took the hit for her. Unfortunately for her, she saw that her own partner was the one who had taken the blast. With Mercury's foot still against her chest, it looked like there was nothing left for her. Time slowed down, the screams of battle around her were drowned out by the sight Yang saw before her. Her mind became a whirlwind of fear, anger, despair, loss, and sadness.

"Don't..." Yang was surprised to hear Blake speak after what she went through. "...ever..." Mercury tried to pull his foot away, but he felt something keep it in place. When he looked down he saw that Blake had grabbed a hold of his leg in his hesitation to move, and he was trapped. "...hurt..." Blake, with Gambrol Shroud in hand, plunged her blade deep into the heart of Mercury. "...my friends."

With that, she pulled the blade out of his chest, and let his failing body fall to the ground, where it was dead as soon as it hit the floor. Yang believed that Blake was ok, but once she saw that Blake herself was collapsing, she immediately ran over to her and caught her before she hit the ground. Yang looked down at Blake's chest and saw just how badly she was hurt, a hole blown open in her chest from the shotgun's blast. Yang knew right then and there, that there was nothing that could be done for her, and because of that, she burst into tears.

Blake still had life left in her eyes, but it was starting to fade away. "Why?" Blake heard Yang ask her, giving her a reason to stay alive just a little longer. "Why would you do that Blake? You had to know that it would kill you, so why save me?" Yang's sobs caused her words to be muddled and hard to understand, but Blake knew what she was saying. It took Blake all the strength that she had, but after a brief moment she was finally able to answer Yang.

"Be-because, you're everything to me. Y-you t-told me once that you would die for me."

Yang, on her knees with Blake wrapped up in her arms, couldn't stop her tears from coming down. Everything that the two of them had built up together, the good times, the bad times, it all came up and she didn't want them to end. "But we were supposed to grow old together, you promised me that you would."

Yang's words struck a cord within Blake, a promise that she had made a long time ago to her partner. "I'm sorry Yang." Blake said as she herself started to cry, feeling as though she had let her blonde partner down. "I guess this is one promise that I can't keep." Blake looked up at her partner, who's lilac eyes were only focused on her. "I can promise you, that no matter what happens..." Blake reached up to Yang and pulled herself up as best she could. Her lips connected with Yang's, and she gave her one final kiss goodbye. "...I'll always be here with you, in your heart." Blake let herself drop back down to where she was before in Yang's arms, and took her last breaths. "Goodbye Yang...I love you." Blake said as the last breath of her life left her body.

Once she realized that Blake was finally gone, Yang cried out as loud as she possibly could. She had lost the one person who she cared about the most in this world, and now she knew that nothing could ever replace her. She didn't care anymore if someone came up from behind her and stabbed her in the back, she already felt dead inside. Despite the battle around her, she was left alone to caress the now lifeless face of her one true love. Yang rested her forehead against Blake's and whispered apologies, words of love and encouragement, anything that she felt could bring Blake back to her, but nothing worked.

After many moments passed, Yang finally moved. She stood up, carrying Blake within her arms, and started to walk away, the last life that she herself had, now gone as well.

Elsewhere in Vale

The fight was long and brutal, bodies of those wounded were starting to grow higher and both sides were pushing themselves to a point that they never thought they would reach before. Of those fighting, Jaune Arc and Pyrrha Nikos stood tall against the White Fang. The training that Pyrrha put Jaune through when he started at Beacon had most certainly improved his overall fighting skill, and his confidence had soared since he began. Standing shoulder to shoulder, Jaune and Pyrrha worked well together as they tried to hold back the White Fang.

It wasn't an easy fight, but the two of them were helping to hold back the seamlessly unending White Fang incursion. They were giving it all that they had, and their efforts were not wasted. As they fought, Jaune spotted something out of the corner of his eye, something that scared him tremendously. He saw Roman Torchwick aim his weapon, Melodic Cudgel, right at Pyrrha. Firing a shot a Pyrrha, Jaune didn't even think about what he was doing, instead just throwing himself in the way of the blast. The round connected with the ground not a foot in front of him, and the blast sent him flying backwards, right past Pyrrha.

Pyrrha noticed him go down, and she heard him cry out in pain as he laid down on the ground. She realized that if it weren't for him it would be her in that position instead, and so she knew that she had to do something to get him out of there alive. Channeling her semblance, she forced all the White Fang forces back with the sheer force of her magnetic powers. Once she was finished, she immediately ran over to Jaune to survey the damage, noticing just how horrific a wound he had received in his selfless act. She started to tear up, but pushed aside those thoughts as she took action. "Jaune just stay with me ok? I promise you'll be better soon." She said trying to calm him down.

Jaune tried to remain calm, but the pain was too strong to fight through this time. "It hurts so much Pyrrha, it hurts so much." He said to her, his voice quivering as he spoke.

Pyrrha decided that now wasn't the time to cry, she needed to take action. "Please Jaune, I know you can make it..." She started to pick him up and she carried him over her shoulders away from the battle, making sure to grab his shield and sword before she left. "...see, it looks like there's a medical tent right there." She said to him as she moved as fast as she could to carry him over to the tent. Once she reached the tent the medics that were there, mostly what was left of the Beacon medical staff as well as some senior level students with medical prowess, took Jaune to heal his wounds.

Once Jaune was in more competent hands, Pyrrha looked down at herself, the blood from Jaune's wound covering her arm and shoulder from where she carried him. She grew fearful for his safety, but she also realized that anything she could have done she did. She turned her attention back towards the battlefield all around her, her mind preparing herself to return to battle. It was the only thing she could do at this point and so she was prepared to jump back into the fight, but something caught her eye and she stopped herself. She turned her attention towards Ruby, whom she saw running towards her, parts of something being carried in her hands. "Ruby are you ok?"

Ruby stopped in front of Pyrrha, taking a moment to catch her breath. After a few moments she stood up normally and nodded to Pyrrha. "I'm fine, but my weapon was destroyed." Pyrrha noticed that Ruby sounded upset about that fact, and noticed that the parts that she carried in her hands were some of the pieces of her own weapon. "I was able to recover as much as I could, but I don't think I can rebuild it to what it was."

Pyrrha placed a hand on Ruby's shoulder, hoping that it would serve as a comforting embrace to the younger girl. Despite being now 17, she was still so young and had much to learn. "Well, at least you're still around. Things could have been much worse, and you can always build yourself a newer weapon with what you have. It may not be the same as Crescent Rose, but I'm sure it will be just as well crafted as that was, since it would be by your hands." Pyrrha knew that sometimes taking even the smallest optimistic point, and emphasizing it would be helpful, something she learned from teaching Jaune. She knew Ruby was a gifted craftsman, and so she made sure to bring that up to her.

It seemed to work as Ruby started to cheer up a bit, looking up to Pyrrha and giving her a smile. But that smile quickly faded as Ruby saw the shape Pyrrha was in. She immediately dropped all of her other concerns, and went into her leader mode. "Pyrrha, what happened?" Ruby said to her once she saw the blood that was on Pyrrha's arm.

Now it was Pyrrha's turn to feel distraught. "It's Jaune." She said to Ruby, taking a few steps away and looking towards the medical tent. She couldn't see it, but inside she knew that the medics were doing everything they could to heal Jaune's wounds. The image she saw when she first noticed his injury had been burned into her memory, an image of Jaune laying on the ground in pain, his right leg blown off below the knee and nothing left but a big bloody mess. She imagined that the doctors were doing everything they could to keep Jaune alive, but she knew that his leg couldn't be fully healed, only patched up and given a prosthetic to allow him to walk again. "He was hurt badly." Pyrrha said to Ruby, not wanting her to grow more distressed than she already was. Pyrrha fell down to her knees and she felt herself tear up over the image.

Now it was Ruby's turn to place her hand on Pyrrha's shoulder, returning the comfort that she had just received mere moments ago. "I'm sure he'll be ok. He always finds a way to bounce back from adversity." She knelt down next to her and gave her a smile doing her best to cheer her up.

Pyrrha nodded and her tears slowed down to a crawl. It wouldn't heal the pain but at least she could take light in the fact that he would be alive after this. "Yeah, you're right." Pyrrha said, her voice trailing off. She could revel in the fact that Ruby was right and that Jaune would be ok, and it gave her hope.

Unfortunately, fate wasn't being kind to Team RWBY or JNPR on that day. Pyrrha noticed Yang approaching off behind Ruby, someone being carried in her arms. As Pyrrha got a good look at her, she noticed something that made her shudder. Yang was carrying the body of someone, and judging by some of the details of that body, she realized that it was none other than Blake. "Oh my god." Pyrrha said, her voice laden with shock, fear, all kinds of emotions that made her feel weakened by the sight of her friend hanging limp from Yang's arms.

Ruby turned to see what Pyrrha was looking at, and she saw her sister coming towards them. "Yang?" She calls out as she stands up and runs towards her sister. "Yang are you al-..." Ruby stopped moving once she saw that Blake was being carried in Yang's arms. "Yang? Why isn't Blake moving?" Ruby was fearing the worst, that Blake would be dead and that she couldn't do anything about it. When she noticed that Yang had stopped moving, and turned her head to look at Ruby, that's when Ruby's fears were confirmed. Ruby dropped the parts of her past weapon to the ground, letting them scatter around her. She saw the bloodshot eyes that Yang displayed, the tears that had stained her cheeks, but what hit her most, was that she looked like all the life in her had just disappeared.

"No..." Ruby stated as she fell down to her knees. "...no, no no, this isn't happening." Ruby stated, the tears starting to come down. Pyrrha was over to her faster than she could be, wrapping Ruby up in a hug and letting her cry into her shoulder. "She can't be gone, she just can't." Ruby and Pyrrha stayed there for what felt like forever. Pyrrha, without saying a word let Yang know that she would do what she could to handle Ruby and that she could take care of Blake. Pyrrha didn't say anything, she knew that there were no words that could help heal Ruby's heart.

Pyrrha then noticed that one of the medics from the tent was walking towards her. "Miss Nikos?" The man said once he made it over to her and Ruby.

Pyrrha looked to Ruby, wondering if now was the right time to talk to the man, but she noticed that Ruby nodded to her, giving her an unsaid sign that she knew it was important, and that Pyrrha needed to take care of it. Pyrrha nodded to Ruby and whispered into her ear. "I'll be right back." Pyrrha stated. She stood up and walked with the doctor so that they were out of earshot of Ruby, not wanting to cause her any more problems. "Is everything ok with Jaune?" Pyrrha said immediately as they stopped walking.

The man turned to her and nodded. "We managed to stop the bleeding and we sealed the wound, so his body will be able to recreate any blood that was lost. He'll most likely be out of action for a few weeks while that happens." Pyrrha nodded, glad that he was ok, despite how bad the injury was. "Unfortunately, because of the injury, it's going to take quite some time for him to adjust. We can give him a prosthetic leg to allow him to walk, and possibly continue fighting if he does well with it. The only thing is, he may take the news badly, and some psychological issues may arise when he hears it." Pyrrha knew it wouldn't be good, but from what she could tell, things were looking like they would be alright after some time. "He's asleep now, but when he wakes up, it should be best that you're there next to him." He stated.

Pyrrha knew that this meant getting back to the fight wasn't the smartest idea, and honestly her concern for Jaune outweighed her need to fight at that moment. Besides, she knew that there were some things that were more important at the moment when she turned back to see Ruby. "I understand." She turned her head to face the medic. "Let me know when he wakes up?" She asked the man, who in turn nodded and returned to his duties. Pyrrha walked back over to Ruby and knelt down next to her. "How are you doing Ruby?" She asked, realizing after she said it that her choice of words was probably not that great.

Ruby rubbed her nose with the sleeve of her blouse, not even bothering to look at Pyrrha. "How am I doing?" She said quietly, her voice filled with a mix of sadness, anger, grief, guilt, and so much more that it pained Pyrrha to hear the way that Ruby sounded. "My sister is in tears, I haven't heard anything at all from Weiss since before the attack, and Blake..." Ruby didn't go on, she didn't want to say what had happened to Blake.

Pyrrha wrapped Ruby up in a hug, trying to make up for the mistake she made in her question. "I'm sorry Ruby, I shouldn't have asked that. I promise you that I'll make things right Ruby." She said, doing the best that she could to make up for her actions.

Ruby pulled out of the hug to look at Pyrrha, waving her hands to stop Pyrrha from going on. "No I'm sorry Pyrrha. It's just..." she didn't know what to say to the warrior. "...I never expected things to be this bad. I know you meant well." Pyrrha wanted to go on and say something, however before she could, Ren came up to her.

"Pyrrha we-" Ren paused when he noticed Ruby, her arms being held by Pyrrha. "-oh Ruby good. We found Weiss." Ren stated right away.

Once she heard what Ren had said, her expression changed. She became more concerned about Weiss' well being, and put everything else aside. "Where is she?!" She asked, shooting up from the ground as fast as she could.

Ren turned around and started to walk away, leading her and Pyrrha towards Weiss' location. "Follow me." He stated as he took off with Ruby and Pyrrha in tow.

They ran for a few minutes, leaping over rubble from destroyed buildings and through the wreckage that the bloody assault on Vale had caused. Ruby was gravely concerned for Weiss, and Ren was being vague for some reason. So she needed answers. "Ren is Weiss ok?" She asked, hoping that would be enough to get a response out of him.

It clearly worked, as Ren stopped for a moment to address her. After a few moments of silence Ren finally responded. "Ruby, Weiss is in bad shape. I can't say that she is in grave danger, but from what I saw, things didn't look well." Ren stated.

Ruby just stood there, silent, worry setting in again. She felt her heart shatter when she heard the news, fearful that she would lose Weiss as well. Pyrrha quickly went over to her side to reassure you. "I know that you're hurting right now, but like Jaune, there is a chance that Weiss will be fine. We just need to find her soon."

As much as Ruby knew that things were already bad, she saw Pyrrha's point. Ruby nodded to Pyrrha, wiping the tears from her eyes and steeling herself with a desire to find Weiss right away. "R-right, we need to find her." Despite the stumble in her voice, Ruby was filled with determination, and Pyrrha noticed it.

Ruby, Ren and Pyrrha moved even quicker then, pushing themselves further and further into the war torn city. Eventually they came up to where Weiss was, and what they saw shocked both Ruby and Pyrrha. There, in front of them, was Weiss. But it wasn't just her standing there normally, no, what they saw was Weiss, frozen into place by ice, and her weapon Myrtenaster pointed into the ground right at the ice's epicenter. Ruby saw that Weiss looked in pain, a sword of some sort just piercing the right side of her chest, the obvious wielder, a man wearing all black save for the white mask over his eyes, also trapped inside of the frozen block with her.

"Weiss?" Ruby said softly, taking a small step forward. Not a moment later, Ruby ran full speed towards Weiss, screaming at the top of her lungs. "Weiss!" Once she came up to the ice, she started to pound on the ice with all her might, hoping that she could break her out with sheer force. She felt someone grab her from behind and pull her back a bit. "Let go of me!" She shouted.

Ruby looked to see that it was Pyrrha holding her back, a saddened look on her face. "Ruby wait, if Weiss is frozen in there, breaking the ice might do more harm than good." Ruby didn't want to hear any of it, no matter how right Pyrrha was. She needed to get her partner out of there. "We need to wait for someone who can get her out without causing her more harm." She said to Ruby.

Ruby stopped struggling, giving Pyrrha the validation to let go of her. Ruby walked over to the ice block and let her forehead fall against it. Looking at Weiss, she whispered something that only she could hear, and that she hoped Weiss would hear. "I'll get you out soon Weiss, I promise."

Present Time

Ruby rubbed her hand along the top of Blake's grave. She still couldn't believe that was three years ago. Before she could go on though, she heard someone approach and speak to her. "You ok Ruby?"

Ruby turned around and noticed that her partner, Weiss, was standing behind her, looking at her with concern all over her face. In the years that followed the first attack, Weiss' outward appearance had changed as well as Ruby's. Her hair was much shorter, but it was still pulled up into her usual ponytail, and she let her hair in the front grow out a bit more, and she brushed her new, longer bangs over to the left side of her face, over her eye and most of her scar. Her trademark white bolero jacket was now switched up for long white, sleeveless tunic. The inside was red, like her jacket was, and it had the high up collar like before. In place of the sleeves, she now wore silver bracers on her arms from her wrist to just below her elbow.

The belt she wore was red, and it went across her waist and up diagonally, meeting into one piece on her right hip. Her boots were now silver greaves that went up past her knees and up her thighs, and she wore gray leggings underneath. What most people didn't notice right away, but what Ruby always pointed out, Weiss had grown taller in the time that she had known the white haired princess, and her chest grew more noticeable. Despite all of these differences, she was still the same Weiss that Ruby had known all these years. She rubbed off on Weiss as well, allowing Weiss to open up more with the red haired girl, and Weiss passed on some of her traits to Ruby as well.

"Just, visiting Blake, you know how I really miss her Weiss. We all do." The last part Ruby kept to herself. She turned back to Weiss and proceeded to change the subject. "You still having any issues controlling the dust?" Ruby asked.

After Weiss was freed from her icy prison, she was still in danger, and as a desperate last attempt to keep her alive, her body was infused with dust to give her aura the strength it needed to keep Weiss alive. As a side effect, Weiss learned that she could channel the dust's energy through her body and use it to create fire, ice, lightning, anything that dust could do, with a simple thought. Despite this though, Weiss still had trouble when it came to controlling the dust's energy, and as such, she has worked as hard as she could to bring it's power under her control. Occasionally though there are moments when she can't control it, though now they are few and far between.

With a snap of her fingers, Weiss lit a fire in her hand, signifying that, at least for the moment, she had control over the flames. "Not today." She extinguished the flames when she closed her hand into a fist. Returning her attention to Ruby, she still wasn't convinced that Ruby was alright, but decided to go for a more subtle approach. "I still can't believe that three years have gone by and I still have trouble controlling it sometimes."

"I still can't believe it's been that long."

Bingo, that was what Weiss was looking for. She knelt down next to Ruby, who was still in front of Blake's grave, and rubbed her back with her hand. "We all miss Blake, we really do, Yang especially. But I don't think she would want us to do this." Weiss looked around at some of the other graves that were around, too many graves to count. "She's up there with friends already thanks to this war." Closing her eyes, she thought of a few that passed through her mind. "Velvet, Nora, even Dr. Oobleck are all with her watching over us, they all are." Weiss opened her eyes and looked at Ruby, hoping that she could help soothe her partner, who had never experienced grief and suffering quite like this before.

Ruby nodded her head, and then turned to look back at Blake's grave. "I know, but I wish that this whole thing didn't happen." She closed her eyes, hoping that it would stop the tears that were bursting through, and she slammed her fist into her leg. "Why is it that good people have to die in this stupid war?" Ruby let it all out, even after years of crying over lost friends and past memories, she still had tears left in reserve.

Weiss sighed, she knew her partner had never truly been the same since the war started, and it pained her to see Ruby that way, almost like a part of her heart was breaking. "If I could change what happened, I would keep this whole thing from happening. But the reality is, I can't" Weiss embraced Ruby's face in the palms of her hands and turned her to face Weiss. "But, I promise that I'll do everything possible to bring peace to Vale once more." Weiss pushed herself up and held out her hand to Ruby. "Come on, we have work to do." She stated.

Ruby sighed as well as she grabbed Weiss' hand and let her pull the young fighter up. Not letting go of Weiss' hand, she looked Weiss directly in the eyes. "Promise me that you'll never leave me."

Weiss gave Ruby a small smile, pulling Ruby into a hug, and whispered into her ear. "I promise." Once she let go of her hug, she turned around and started to walk away. "Now come on, let's get going. Jaune says that this job is important so it's time to go." Weiss stated as she left.

Giving herself one last look at Blake's grave, she mentally made a promise to Blake that she would one day end this war. "I'm right behind you Weiss." She said as she turned and ran to catch up with Weiss as the two of them passed through the falling leaves of autumn.

AN: So yeah, this is a thing. I'm creating a story that hopefully gets recognized as a big AU, much like the Future AU or the Henceforward AU. So this is just the prologue to the actual story, which kinda explains some of the details that happen prior. Fortunately I have someone who is going to be working with me in turning this into a comic, which hopefully, it will get published onto DA and or Tumblr soon (at least the start of it).

Now importantly, yes I know that I've killed off some of the main cast already, but they all have a purpose for being killed off. It's not like I decided to do it for fun, in fact it was a hard choice to make, but it is what it is, and there will be more death to come from those who are still alive up till now.

Onto more important things, the artwork for Ruby and Weiss' new design, in relationship to this story, is already posted to DeviantArt under the artist's account (who happens to be my gf) and so you can find those two pieces of work here at sylverlyning67 deviantart com/ just replace the spaces with dots. (Thanks FanFiction)

I will be posting a more novelized version of the story on here, and if you wish to read the comic version, just look to DA or once we get it set up on Tumblr, you can go there.

Speaking of Tumblr, I finally have one, (despite not knowing how the fuck to tumblr at all), and you can find me at NobleMETA on Tumblr if you want to do things like that, but that's up to you.

Anyways, thanks for reading, I hope that you guys enjoy what's to come of this story and I'll try to update this as soon as possible.

-Noble