Chapter One: Sunset Over Beacon Academy

It was a single month from finals, and to be honest, almost no one in the Fourth Year really cared. Almost everyone went about their daily lives, ignoring the fact that their time at Beacon Academy was soon coming to a close. Teams RWBY and JNPR were ever the more closer to each other as the number of days they had at the prestigious school was getting smaller and smaller, ignoring their studies so that they could hang out before the two teams went their separate ways in the world. Of course, there was one person in that group of people who was all the more worried that their final test was coming up - Weiss Schnee. Unlike her teammates who were utterly nonchalant about their final quiz, the studious ice queen had already stayed up many nights with her head in one textbook or another.

Weiss lay on her bunk reading through the assigned pages in Professor Oobleck's Pre-War Vacuo handbook for the fourteenth time that evening, deep in thought. Twiddling a gray mechanical pencil in her left hand, she held open both the textbook and her composition book with her right. Suddenly, her peace and quiet was interrupted as the door to the small dorm slammed open, revealing a very annoyed Yang Xiao Long. Haughtily, she stomped into the room and directly into the bathroom for her evening shower, closing the worn door behind her quickly. Weiss sighed and stood up from the warm bed to walk to where Yang had been to close the front door for the upteenth time.

Every time, I say, she leaves the door wide open. Weiss thought as she sighed and sat back down on her bunk. Soon after she had sat down to get back to work, and the sounds of cascading water from the bathroom had faded into white noise, she was interrupted again by the muffled voices of Blake and Ruby in the hallway. Deciding to greet her teammates, Weiss stood again to walk to the door and open it, but stopped as the doorknob turned, and the pair stepped into the room. A cheery Ruby waved with a squeal and ran to give Weiss a hug - a trait of Ruby Weiss had eventually gotten used to. After Ruby released Weiss from her iron grip, she looked her over and frowned.

"Weiss, you look tired." She said. Weiss, easily annoyed in her very tired state, simply rolled her eyes and sat back down on her bed wordlessly. Blake eyed Weiss as she buried her nose in the book again before sitting down on her respective bed as well.

"Weiss?" Ruby said, still standing in the middle of the room. Weiss, exasperated, sighed and looked up.

"What?" She snapped, louder than she had intended. Ruby flinched, and Weiss instantly regretted raising her voice at the red reaper. Blake, who had already reclined against the wall to read a novel, peered out from above it to raise her eyebrows.

"I…" Ruby began, looking nervously at the annoyed ice queen, "thought that you should take a break from studying. It may be finals, but you're worrying a little too much. It's your last month here, I thought that you should enjoy it. You need it." Of course, Weiss expected this - especially from Ruby - and, with her mindset at least, became even more annoyed than she already was.

"I don't see how not studying would benefit me. This test decides whether I graduate or not, and I'm not going to fail it." Weiss hissed back, all the while still reading the text with her peripheral vision.

"But Weiss…"

"No, no buts. I'm not going anywhere, or doing anything until I completely burn this information into my brain." Weiss said, turning her attention back to her book. Ruby, looking completely crestfallen, nodded and silently climbed up the ladder to the bunk above Weiss. At the same time, the door to the bathroom opened, and Yang stepped out in a T-shirt and short-shorts. The brawler, unknowing of the short exchange that had just occurred, looked at everyone before beaming widely.

"Let me guess, Weiss is being the Ice Queen again?" Yang remarked loudly.

"Seriously, Yang, you need to stop calling me that." Weiss muttered, only half her attention diverted to Yang. The brawler smirked and walked over to the completely oblivious form of Weiss and poked her in the shoulder.

"You, my dear, need to go outside." Yang said, accentuating the 'dear' as she wiggled a finger at the white-haired girl.

"I swear to god, now two of you want to annoy me." Weiss said, closing her eyes and leaning her head on the edge of her book with a heavy sigh. Yang frowned and sat down at the desk under the large window, gazing out over the school's central courtyard before turning back to the engrossed young woman.

"Yep, you're coming with me." The brawler said finally, standing up and walking to Weiss quickly and taking her arm before she could protest. Of course, she did eventually, after her brain caught up with her body, and began shouting intelligible strings of words into the air as she was dragged from the room by Yang. Far down the hall, Ruby could still hear the loud protests of Weiss as she struggle to get free from the brawler.

Cracking her first smile since her exchange with Weiss, Ruby slid down from her bunk and walked over to a small cabinet next to Weiss' and Ruby's bunk bed, opening it to take out a small cellophane package of chocolate chip cookies. Ripping open the crinkly wrapper, Ruby - by default - offered one to Blake, who politely shook her head and went back to reading. Sitting down at the desk chair Yang had been, she quietly gnawed on the baked good while contemplating the different things her sister could have done with her teammate.

Weiss had stopped protesting quicker than she would have wanted to because she was so physically drained. Yang led her - not letting up on her iron grip on Weiss' arm - to the back of the building, and began climbing up the ladder to the roof. Weiss raised an annoyed eyebrow and just had to wonder where they were going. Yang replied quite simply 'To see the sunset.' Of course, the ice queen did not see this as a valid reason to halt studying, and quickly went back to complaining. And yet, Weiss fell oddly silent as they got to the top and she looked at the view. From their height, Weiss could see over the bustling city to the tall, hazy mountains along the jagged horizon.

The sun was beginning to dip behind the tallest of the mountains, casting a long shadow down the center of Vale where the sun's brilliant light was being blocked. Yang sat Weiss down on the flat roof before sitting next to her. Contrary to her previous thoughts on the matter, Weiss sat in wondrous silence while staring at the ever-changing sunset.

"See? I knew you needed to be outside." As soon as Yang said that, Weiss' original thoughts came back to her, and the complaining started up once again. Yang rolled her eyes and sat in silence as she tuned out the girl. She, of all people, was actually deep in thought.

Roman Torchwick and most of his followers - Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury - had been put in prison over two-and-a-half years ago, but Yang still felt uneasy. That girl she had fought on the train oh-so-long ago… Neo. Yes, she was still out there, somewhere. Of course, there was no way that Neo would be able to break her teammates out of prison - the Atlas High Priority Detention Facility was guarded by a thousand Atlesian Soldiers and multiple airships. Torchwick and crew had well over a dozen charges that led them to having jail sentences well over a hundred years. It was a wonder they weren't just killed. The fact that Yang, an overconfident, hotheaded individual would be worried about a single girl with an umbrella was… odd, to say the least, but the feeling in her gut stayed.

"Yang?" She was snapped from her thoughts by Weiss, who had since leaned over the reclines girl with a raised eyebrow. The sun had completely set, and the shattered moon had risen into the ebony sky. Sitting up, Yang looked at Weiss and gave her her signature smile.

"Yes, Ms. Schnee?" Yang said overdramatically, waving her hands around. Weiss rolled her eyes and stood up, starting for the ladder back to the ground. She paused and turned around before giving the smallest of smiles.

"Thank you." She said, before disappearing down the metal ladder.