It was almost 10 pm, but little six year old Ruby didn't care. The letters she and her big sister Yang Xiao Long, were sent from their uncle Qrow were much more important. Reading under her sheets with a flashlight, Ruby couldn't put them down. She scanned through the words as if she were a computer processing lots of information very quickly. Wanting to re-experience it, she started from the beginning and slowed down her reading, getting much more into it than last time due to the more fun, way to engage with the words.

A pillow was thrown at her. "Hey.' She cried out. She pulled off the covers and looked at the culprit, Yang, who was laying in a bed across from her's.

"Go to bed, I'm tired."

"But I can't, Yang." Ruby cried out with eagerness, but quiet enough as to not wake up her mother and father.

"Read them tomorrow. I want to know what they say, too, so stop looking at them without me." She pulled the blanket over her head. Ruby decided to set the letters on the floor and turned the flashlight off. About five seconds later, she turned the lamp on. Yang groaned. "Why Ruby?"

Uncle Qrow's a Huntsman, Daddy's a Huntsman, and even Mommy. She's a Huntsman, too."

"Huntress. Girls are Huntress."

"Do you remember their stories, Yang? Fighting Grimm, defeating thieves and robbers, and saving the world."

"I know, Ruby. That's what it means to be a Huntsman."

"Well, I wanna be like them too. I wanna be a hero like our family someday."

"Well, not me. I probably want to make motorrcycles."

"But I thought you wanted to be a Huntsman, too."

"Huntress, Ruby. Well, I don't know yet, and I won't if you don't go to bed."

"Okay. Good night, Yang."

"Good night, Ruby."

Ruby turned the lamp off. She closed her eyes slowly, and dozed off to sleep...

"Take that you ugly Grimm... Leave my puppy alone..."

Well, almost.

...

Ruby was swinging her little wooden sword around, pretending to slay as many Grimm as she can. She ran for a ledge overlooking a valley below. This memory faded from her mind as Ruby, now a 16 year old young woman, is overlooking a similar valley, but she is in the Kingdom of Mistral.

...

Down below in the valley, she found what she was looking for: a small spring surrounded by trees. It was a very quiet place. She sat down, legs crossed, and closed her eyes in silence. She could hear the tweeting of birds, nothing else. She opened her eyes and looked through a piece of paper.

"Okay. Quiet place, check... zen mode, check... reflect on memories as a team, I don't even need to try... so how is this suppose to help again? Darn it, Qrow, why do I have to figure this out on my own?"

She remembered what happened earlier that day with her Uncle.

"Come on, kid, you've done this stuff before Beacon, you can figure it out."

"Qrow..." She whined. "No phone or anything?"

"You said you wanted to be a better leader for the team, right? All team leaders have to do this, your mother did as well, remember kid?"

She sat down, looking towards the ground. "I'm not as confident doing things alone as I was at Beacon."

Qrow chuckled. "You don't have to remind me. I've seen how much you've changed since you joined Beacon. But school's over, real lessons are learned in the real world, kid."

"I don't know if I can do this, Qrow."

"I doubt not having a phone with you for-"

"It's not that." Qrow looked at her, curious what she means. "I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

"What are you talking about? Of course you do."

"No. I don't. We were suppose to get to Mistral, and here we are. I know how to lead my team into battle, not those close to me to war."

Qrow chuckled again. "Doubting yourself much? That doesn't seem like you at all." He went over and sat next to her, pulling her close with one arm. "This training is for you, not as a Huntress, but as Ruby."

Ruby continued looking down at the ground, thinking. She then looked up at him, smiling...

Upon remembering that, Ruby's confidence returned to her. She closed her eyes, but opened them back up upon seeing a group of Snowy Owls flying overhead. At a closer glance, she noticed they had the red markings of the Grimm, but they were just regular Owls. Suspicious of them, she followed them.

...

The Owls landed on a house in a nearby village. They didn't really do anything except hang out around it. Ruby felt she might have been jumpy but her instincts told her that there was something wrong with them. She stayed nearby, just in case.

That night, Ruby woke up and noticed some time had passed. It was already dark. One of them was hooting in the dark. Something on all fours was heading towards the house. It was too small to be a Grimm, it looked more like a large dog. The Owls flew down towards a window and opened it. That's when it hit her:

They were leading it here!

The little baby slept in her crib. The figure loomed over her. It was a large White Wolf with red markings like the Grimm had as well. It's right eye glowed bright red.

"You will not cry when you see me, child... you will still be dreaming before you can."

The blade of Ruby's scythe was pointed at his neck. This was not a threat to the Wolf. "Ssh... you'll wake the baby." He turned his head towards Ruby. She kept her position, but everything about him threw her off. His red eye glowed bright red. Ruby looked surprised, but a red laser beam shot out towards her, and sent her flying. She slammed against a tree. She got back up. "You have a semblance?" The Wolf faced her, eye glowing brightly. Ruby grabbed her Crescent Moon, swung it into a battle position and charged. The Wolf grinned and shot out more beams that acted like veins. They grabbed the Crescent Moon and leeched onto her as well.

The Owls grabbed the baby, still asleep, and flew off. The Wolf went with them. After they had left, the veins of light disappeared and she was free from them. She got up as quickly as she could. She saw that they had the baby, but sadly, the talons of the Owls meant that it was already dead. Ruby widened her eyes and a tear fell. Who were these animals? They were not going to get away! With her semblance, she turned into Rose pedals and followed them.

Many hours had passed but she found herself at the edge of the sea. Seeing a boat appearing from out of the water and washing itself on shore, she didn't have time to think where it came from, so she hopped in and pushed herself out, but before she continued she looked back at Mistral. She knew that she would be away for a while but this was important. Talking animals with the appearance of Grimm. "And that could just be the tip of the iceberg", she thought. She pushed herself out to sea. The boat began to move itself like a motorboat but with no motor. Things were getting weird.

More so than she could imagine.

...

Your death, little one, is not something to be sad about. It is your existence, yours and all of human and faunus kind, that does not belong. I believe that, and so do your creators, the brothers. Your a joke to them, as am I. It is strange how you were their superior choice of creation. Yet here you are, left to die like everyone else, like Grimm... like me.

To Be Continued...

A/N: Only request from the author to you, the reader. For the mysterious character, read it in Christopher Lee's voice.