AN: I've been working on for the past three years, and since RWBY Volume 5 is pretty much here I decided to finish this. It didn't help that I forgot I wrote this, and the story ended up changing a few times too.

A lone girl, in the red forest of Forever Fall, slumped down against one of the trees somewhat tired from the travelling and fighting she has done since her graduation at Sanctum back in Mistral. Sensing no danger nearby the girl closed her eyes trying to get some sleep. "You should take cover in one of those ruins, Iris."

"I'm fine here!" Iris shouted.

"Alright, just get some rest, okay?" It didn't take long for her to fall asleep from how tired she was from travelling.

Not long after a girl in a red cape pushed past some bushes after hearing some voice that she didn't recognize. "Is there somebody here?" She called out but didn't get a response. "I thought I heard a voice not too long ago." She gasped as she noticed a girl lying against a tree. Without a second thought, she rushed over to the girl. She dropped to her knees and began to check for injuries. Lucky, she wasn't able to find anything that could be alarming to her. The sleeping girl wore a short-sleeved black jacket with blue-ish violet accents and a lavender turtleneck sweater underneath a silver breastplate on top. Around her neck was a deep indigo scarf that somewhat covered a small golden amulet with engravings of Hunter and Huntress back to back on it that rested on top of the breastplate. The silver forearm guards that rested above her jacket sleeves had engravings of a floral pattern along the edges. A blue-ish violet cloth with a black flower symbol that blooming and wilting on it hanged off the left side of her hip. She also wore light grey pants with a brown belt that five pouches attached to it and dark grey boots. The girl looked at the sleeping girl's face but was only able to see half her face since her purple hair covered the right side of her face. She reached up to brush the girl's hair to the side to see if there's anything serious that needs attention. But her finger brush against something that felt like leather. Before she began to wonder what could it be the sleeping girl began to shake in her sleep. She stopped when her black hat fell off her head and revealed the animal ears on top of her head that began to twitch. 'Faunus? Cat Faunus.' The sleeping Faunus started to mumble something about some kind of monster.

Her sudden waking up startled the caped girl. Still feeling a little groggy from the small nap, Iris noticed someone kneeling down next to her and the next she noticed it was a girl, but it was like her mind was playing tricks on her. The girl had silver hair and blue eyes, but the light was making it somewhat hard to see her features, but there was no mistaking it. "Y-You? You... can't be..." But her vision started to go back to normal and she noticed the girl was gone and somebody else stood next to her. She reached for the spear on her back, and changed it to its gun form, which happened to be a small thin crossbow and aimed it at what appeared to be a girl in a red cape.

"Who are you!" Iris knelt down while still aiming at the mysterious girl and picked up her hat once she noticed that it fell off.

The girl in the red cape raised her hands as she answered. "I-I'm Ruby Rose!"

'Rose? Why does that name sound familiar?' Iris thought. "What were you doing to me?"

"I-I was checking up on you! You seemed a little hurt so I was worried!"

"Yeah right! Like I'll believe that. You're probably one of those goddamn bandits that prey on the innocent!"

"I-I'm not! I swear!" The girl, Ruby, lowered her hands slightly.

"I don't believe you! All you humans are the same! You show no remorse to us Faunus!"

"I'm not like that, I swear! What's your name?" Iris lowers her weapon a little because for some reason she felt like she could trust this strange girl but she ignored it and aimed it back at Ruby.

"...I don't need to tell you." She said. "Now, tell me what you were really doing?"

"Ruby? What's going on over here?" Once she heard a voice come from somewhere near the trees behind her, she turned around and fired at the direction of the voice. The bolt hit the tree right next to the blonde haired girl.

"Whoa!" The blonde said shocked, not expecting to get shot at so suddenly. The shock soon turned to anger as the mysterious girl in front of her aimed gun at both her and Ruby. "Hey! What are you doing to Ruby!?" The blonde yelled as she took a couple of steps forward.

"Hey! Back away!"

"Leave her alone then!"

"Why would I?" Iris was about to say something else, but the blonde girl charged at her, angrier than before. Iris fired at the blonde but she was able to dodge all of the bolts.

"Yang! Stop it! It's a misunderstanding!" Ruby pleaded Yang to stop, but it fell on deaf ears.

"You sure about this, Iris?" A voice said in her head.

"Of course! We don't know anything about these two! We don't have to trust them. They could be scum for all we know." Iris reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a small container that had a small lightning bolt on it and once she popped it on the crossbow it auto loaded itself. She waited for the right moment as the blonde brawler ran towards her and once close enough her left eye started to glow purple. Yang threw her punch but was surprised when her punch didn't connect. She continued her assault with a series of punches, but every one of them didn't make contact. The way she was moving it was like she could predict her every movement. Iris swept Yang off her feet and before she could hit the ground Iris' boot made contact with Yang's stomach, and the force of it was enough to send Yang flying in the air crashing into a nearby tree. Yang slammed her fist on the ground in anger before she picked herself up and continued her assault. Yang kept up her guard as she dodged the dodge the bolts as best she can which once it made contact with the ground discharged electricity. Yang brought her arm back and shot it forward and fired a shell from her gauntlets. Iris dodged as she popped the bolt case and transformed it back into a spear while she readied herself for the battle.

During the fight, Ruby watched as they clashed against each other but she didn't notice that her other teammates arrived after hearing the commotion. "What's going here?" Ruby's white-haired teammate asked.

"Weiss..." Before Ruby could say anything else Weiss noticed Yang fighting someone she never met before.

"Ruby!? Why aren't you helping her?! She could be dangerous for all we know!" Weiss pulled out her weapon and rushed in to help.

"Weiss, wait!" Ruby tried to stop her too, but just like Yang, she wasn't successful.

"Ruby..." The voice of her other teammate, Blake, spoke as she also caught up. "What's going on?"

"I found this girl sleeping against a tree. I got worried and began to check for injuries. I didn't find any, but she woke up and started to assume I was dangerous."

"We got to settle them down."

"Yes, you're right."

Iris glanced to the side and noticed someone else rushing in. "Shit! More of them!"

"Should we do it, Iris?" Iris reached for a grey case that hanged off of her lower back.

"No, we don't need to, at least not yet," Iris said.

"Yang! What happened?" Weiss asked.

"I found her threatening Ruby, and she fired at me when I showed up!"

"Come on, let's do this together! It'll end faster if we work together."

"She's a little bit troublesome and I do want to do myself, but you're right." They turned their attention to the girl and they noticed she was aiming at them

Weiss flicked her wrist to make a glyph appear in front of them, and the bullets bounced off the glyph. They both noticed Iris run off into the forest to try and gain some distance between them. "We can't let someone like her escape!" Weiss said as they chased after her.

After thinking she put enough distance between those two. Iris came to a stop since she figured she couldn't outrun them. Iris hopped on one of the tree branches to hide. She patiently waited for them to arrive. She transformed her spear into a crossbow and quickly reached for one of the pouches for a bolt. She pulled out one that had a red dust crystal attached to it and loaded it into her crossbow. She aimed at her crossbow at the tree she passed. Once again her eyes started to glow again as she stared at the tree and she fired at the tree which the bolt embedded into it and started to glow faintly. She pulled a slightly larger bolt that had a very small container and loaded it into the crossbow. She aimed at the previous bolt she fired and she slowly aimed towards at a different tree like she was calculating something. She fired it at the tree and waited for them to arrive.

Weiss running with Yang up ahead her and she started to wonder how far she could have gotten with the time she had. A clicking noise caught Weiss' attention. She looked to the side in shock as she realized that she sprung her trap. "Yang! Stop!"

Ruby and Blake chased after their teammates trying to stop them. They both came to a stop when they both heard an explosion in the distance. "What was that?" Ruby asked.

"I don't know. Let's hurry!" Before they could continue the chase something caught Ruby's attention. Ruby came to a stop and walked over to the strange object. It was a small and slightly worn out red book. She looked at both sides, but there wasn't a title or anything. After wondering what the contents were Ruby decided to opened it up to read some of it.

"What is it, Ruby?" Blake asked.

"I think I found a journal of some kind," Ruby said before she started to read it out loud. "'It's been a week since I lost my parents to that... monster. I'll never forget it! The sound of its hooves walking on the stone roads. That unholy roar. I'll kill it! If this she didn't find me, I wouldn't have been able to get my revenge.'." Ruby was filled with sadness, knowing what it's like to lose a parent. She flipped to a different page as she continued reading it out loud. "'I don't know when it happened, but there's this strange mark appeared on my hand, just like Moms. I always thought it was some tattoo, but I don't think that's the case. Mom did give me her journal before she and... dad... She told me to read it, but I couldn't look at it. It reminds me too much of that day... But, maybe there's some sort of answers in it.'." Ruby examined the drawing on the same page which looked like a small orb with black markings that looked like it was corrupting it.

"That sounds a little strange," Blake said.

"'I've been training and studying every day since the incident and I've finally been accepted into Sanctum. But, this girl with silver hair keeps bothering me. She's just like everyone else. Only pretending to keep up appearances.' It sounds like this person's from Mistral. Oh, this one's from the same day." Ruby said, but she noticed that it was written a little more frantically than before. "'I can hear it! In the distance! It's faint, but I can hear it! It woke me from my sleep. I can't stop shaking... Why do Faunus have to have such sharp senses?'."

"Something must have scared this person a lot," Blake said. "Come on, we've wasted enough time here."

"R-Right!" Ruby closed the journal and placed it into one of her pouches.

Weiss watched as the trap went off and the explosion sent Yang flying. Before she could hit the ground the other bolt trap went off which shot a rope at Yang to restrain her. Weiss rushed over to Yang and knelt down next to her to check on her. "Yang! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine... Just worry about her..." Yang said as she struggled against the trap.

Weiss heard rustling coming from one of the trees and she gasped a little once she saw the person they were chasing flying at her. Weiss summoned a glyph between herself and her assailant to block her attack. Iris' spear bounced off the glyph and once she touched the ground she charged forward at Weiss. Weiss readied herself waiting for the right moment to strike. Iris swung her spear at Weiss only for her to counter it. Weiss deciding this was the perfect moment to strike. She went for series of slashes and stabs, but only for Iris to use her spear to block most of her hits.

'So fast and precise... If this keeps up, I might be in trouble.' Iris thought.

Weiss kept up her assault and dodged whenever her assailant tried to attack. Occasionally, both sides would be able to get a hit in. Iris jumped away from Weiss and quickly changed her spear into her crossbow. Iris fired a bolt next to Weiss the moment she loaded it in and Weiss quickly noticed the red glow. Weiss quickly summoned a glyph underneath her feet to get herself out of the blast zone. The bolt went off and Weiss was able to get to safety, but she once turned her attention back to her assailant. Weiss gasped as she was already close, her boot was inches away from making contact. Iris kicked her with enough force to send her flying into a tree.

"Weiss!" Yang yelled out as she finally freed herself from the trap and rushed to help her teammate. Iris pointed her weapon at her to stop her from coming any closer, but Yang noticed that she started to wobble.

"Not again!" Yang heard Iris mumble to herself so she decided cautiously watch her as a strange purple pulsating glow appeared around Iris that she could only guess was her aura. She watched as Iris' crossbow slipped out of her hand while she fell back on the ground unconscious. Yang walked over to the unconscious girl while Weiss recovered from the last attack.

"What just happened?" Weiss asked.

"I don't know."