A/N

A few things to address before this story starts: don't expect frequent updates like my other stories. Life is really hectic lately, so I have little time to write these. Next, nothing in this story do I own! And lastly, I would like to mention that this is a rewrite of my first story on this website. But due to it being my first story ever, I scrapped it for it being way to OOC for the characters. That, and I got a LOT of facts wrong. Anyway, with all that said, I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Hunt of Forever Fall

'This is Remnant. It has one moon- well, half a moon, if you want to get technical, but it's always a beauty to look at in the night sky. It has four kingdoms, safe havens to mankind: Vale, Mistral, Atlas, and Vacuo. And each has its own Hunter academy, those being Haven, Atlas, Shade, and Beacon. These academies are made to train each generation of huntsmen and huntresses, and I am one of them. I study at Beacon in Vale. It's a nice enough place once you get settled in, and the people there are even nicer. Well, once you get to know them, anyway.

The only problems are the pests.

While ordinary places have mice or mosquitoes, we have...'

Deep within the autumn forest, a team of huntresses moved to pursue a pack of wild creatures. But one flying creature sent a volley of razor sharp feathers at them, which made them take cover.

"Grimm." The youngest of the team said, who also happened to be the leader. Her name was Ruby Rose, a youth who has always dreamed of being a huntress, and of being like the heroes in fairy tales, who always save the world without ever asking for anything in return. Her team was her half sister, Yang Xiao Long, a cat Faunus, Blake Belladonna, and an heiress, Weiss Schnee. Together, they were team RWBY. But now, they were hunting a pack of Grimm called Beowolves, large black wolf like creatures with bones as armor. They were also in pursuit of a large bird like Grimm called a Nevermore. But they soon found themselves right in the middle of an ambush, as a Borbatusk rolled right their ranks, splitting them apart.

Ruby and Yang found themselves surrounded by a group of Beowolves while Blake and Weiss were circled by Nevermores. They had faced worse if they were honest, but when an Ursa Major rose from the trees, they started to have doubts.

"Try to keep moving! Take out the easier targets first to get more breathing room!" Ruby shouted. Yang blew away a Beowolf that charged at her, while more advanced on her, which she took care of by creating a shockwave with a hard punch to the ground. Ruby then impaled another Beowolf, twirling her scythe around to decapitate three more. But it seemed that with each Grimm that fell, two more took their places.

"They just keep coming!" Yang said, blasting a Beowolf away.

"I hope my call carried through. Hopefully we should have backup soon." Ruby said.

"They better get there really fast, because I don't know how long we can hold out!" Blake shouted. Now they were starting to get swarmed by Beowolves, and the Nevermores took the first strike on them, sending volley upon volley of feathers at them. Their auras held up, but barely, as Blake had already drawn blood. She grasped her cut shoulder as a Beowolf charged at her, but she wasn't down for the count as she slashed upward and sliced the Grimm in half. Weiss covered Blake as she put pressure on her wound, but she had already lost a bit of blood, as it was already staining her sleeve. Weiss knew they needed to get rid of the Nevermores, but with the Beowolves around them, it made their jobs a lot harder.

"Yang, Weiss, Freezer Burn!" Ruby said. Yang nodded, and she leaped into the air over Weiss. She created a sheet of ice, which Yang crashed down on and created a smokescreen for the team. It let them cut down the Beowolf ranks much easier, and made it harder for the Nevermores to locate them. But they knew the screen wouldn't last forever, and with every slash Blake dealt, more blood poured out of her open wound. Eventually, Weiss stopped Blake, and put her blade to ice.

"This might hurt a bit." Weiss said, putting a thin coat of ice on her left shoulder. Blake gritted her teeth, as the pain was excruciating, but she endured. It did the job and stopped the bleeding thankfully. But now she only had one hand to fight with. And the rest of the team was starting to get a bit worse for wear. But when the smokescreen faded, the Nevermores were gone, and so were the Beowolves. And even the Ursa had vanished.

"This isn't good. They might be planning another ambush." Blake said.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly. Where did they even go?" Weiss asked.

"Uh, does anyone see that?" Ruby asked, pointing to the night sky. In the starry night sky, some stars vanished, and reappeared, and it continued. There was something up there.

"Yeah, I see it. Maybe it's a bullhead." Yang said.

"No way, if it were, we'd see it a bit more clearly. If Ruby hadn't mentioned it, I'd never had noticed it." Weiss said.

"It's a Grimm." Blake said.

"How can you-" Yang asked. "Oh right, cat Faunus. Night vision."

"What does it look like, Blake?" Ruby asked.

"It... looks like a..." Blake said, narrowing her eyes, but she shook her head. "I can't see it clearly."

"You've lost a lot of blood, take it easy for now." Weiss said.

"Dragon." Blake said. "It looks like a dragon."

"Uh oh." Yang said. A high pitched noise sounded in the cold air, as a ball of purple fire crashed a yard away from the team, and the force was so great it sent them flying from the blast.

"Yeah, definitely a dragon." Weiss said.

"What do we do?" Yang asked.

"Ice Flower!" Ruby said. She planted her scythe into the ground as Weiss created a glyph in front of the barrel. She aimed skyward, and waited for the moment.

"What's the hold up?" Weiss asked.

"Wait..." Ruby muttered, aiming her shot carefully. She saw the outline of the dragon, and steadied her aim. "Now!" Ruby then shot a blast of ice skyward, and they waited. Eventually, the sky lit up with a small flash of white, and afterward was the screech of the dragon, as it fell toward land.

"Woo! Way to go, sis!" Yang cheered.

"I actually hit it." Ruby said, as if she couldn't believe what she did was real.

"And look who finally decided to show up." Yang said. A few bullheads were flying in. Weiss shot a low energy ball of fire into the air to act as a flare, and the bullheads came in to pick them up. Inside was team JNPR along with some of the staff.

"Are you guys alright?" Jaune asked.

"Yeah, but Blake is in worse condition than us. She lost a lot of blood." Ruby said. Blake was carried over with Yang supporting her as she pushed down on her shoulder.

"We should take her back to Beacon. She needs medical support." Pyrrha said.

"Are you sure that the area is clear?" Oobleck asked.

"For now. The Grimm we were fighting ran off after the smokescreen we made vanished." Blake said.

"Hmm... this is odd. Grimm are not known for creating diversions and then running off. Usually, if they do end up creating diversions, they fight to the death. But why is this not the case with this hunt?" Oobleck wondered. "This is most troubling. But we should not pursue, as your team is a bit worse for wear. Let us return to Beacon for proper treatment!" They boarded the bullhead and flew back to Beacon, as dawn broke over the mountains. While they flew, one of the staff took the first aid kit in the bullhead and started properly binding Blake's shoulder. The ice on her shoulder had already melted from the blast, which saved them that trouble.

"What happened down there, anyway? It looked like you guys shot something down." Jaune said.

"Was it a new Grimm?" Nora asked excitedly.

"I guess. We didn't get a good look at it before we shot it. Blake was really the only one who got that look." Ruby said.

"It had the form of a dragon, and it fired a ball of purple fire at us. Even in the darkness, it could see us with almost perfect sight." Blake said.

"Woooooah. That... Is... AWESOOOOME!" Nora said. "I TOLD you dragon Grimm exist! You all thought I was crazy!"

"Nora, this was the first instance in our lives we've heard actual stories of a Grimm dragon. But yes, I guess you were right." Ren said.

"However, it is a tragedy we could not further observe this new species of Grimm. But perhaps this record in history is not lost. If one exists, there are bound to be more." Oobleck said.

"Which is a good thing?" Ruby asked.

"I would not say this is a good thing, Miss Rose. Those Grimm sound to be quite dangerous. If Blake's description is right, I fear they could bring the downfall of a whole kingdom if there were more." Oobleck said.

"Hopefully that Grimm is dead. I think I saw it fall down in the Emerald Forest on the western edge." Jaune said.

"Maybe it's still alive, but just downed. Maybe we can still get a good look at it and record it." Ruby said.

"It would be extremely dangerous to bring a Grimm of that sort into the school. We would have to double our watches, and we do not have the energy to do so. Perhaps it is best if we leave this creature to the wild." Oobleck said. Ruby looked out the window, and far off in the Emerald Forest she looked, to where the dragon might have landed.

'The eastern edge...' Ruby thought. 'I don't have to bring it back, maybe just get a photo, or even a sketch could work. If I could sneak out at some point, I could find it.'

[later that day, the western boarder of the Emerald Forest]

Ruby managed to sneak out of Beacon and get into the Forest with little trouble. Except for actually finding the dragon. She looked all over the forest, even the complete opposite sides of where it was said to be. But no sign, not even a broken twig. Though, she did find the tree she chopped down during initiation. Still in the same place as before. She often used it as a landmark if she ever got lost.

She yelled out in frustration and kicked a branch. She then sat down on a log and sighed.

"Maybe it died in the air, and it never researched land." Ruby said. She put her head in her hands and sighed. "Stupid Grimm. Why do they have to vanish when they die?" Ruby muttered. But she didn't watch where she was walking, and tripped in a downward slope. She looked up, and a whole tree was knocked over, along with a mud trail leading to an outlet. "How on Remnant did I miss this?" Ruby wondered as she walked over to the outlet, and just over the ledge was a sight she couldn't believe.

There in the center of the outlet was a dragon. It wasn't as big as she was expecting, only about as long as an Alpha Beowolf when sprawled out and just as thin as one. But unlike a Beowolf, it had long wings, about half the size of a Nevermore's, and a tail as long as she was tall, which was half covered in ice, and the dragon was entangled in thick vines.

One other thing she noticed was that instead of the normal bone armor that most Grimm had, it had its entire body covered in thick black scales. She approached slowly, and the dragon seemed to still be breathing. She was in so much shock that she forgot to take a photo of the large Grimm.

"I actually did it. I, Ruby Rose, have shot down this mighty Grimm-" Ruby said heroically, but when she planted her scythe next to the dragon like a flag, it shoved her off of it, and she pointed Crescent Rose at it. The Grimm was now breathing much more than before, and when it opened its eyes, Ruby saw the slit eyes of a cat, not the blood thirsty red eyes of a Grimm. She was so startled by this, if she did remember about the photo, it was all but pushed out of her mind. "I can't leave a Grimm this powerful alive. I have to kill it." Ruby said. The dragon let out a small growl, but it wasn't threatening. It was almost like a plea.

Ruby paid no kind to it, and raised her scythe for the kill. But she looked down on the dragon, and in its slit green eyes, she saw not the need to kill, but the need to live, and she saw one thing in it that she saw in everyone's eyes: kindness. She looked into its eyes, and saw its soul, and in its soul was the compassion of a human being. She shook her eyes away from its, and tried to bring the blade down. But inside the dragon, she saw one last thing: herself. She saw the person of herself, the traits of herself, the soul of herself. Though it was not human, and it carried no resemblance to her in a physical form, she saw the inner beauty of this horrifying beast, and she saw that it cared for her, even though she was responsible for it being down on the ground, entangle in this prison of vines. The only one she knew that would show that kindness was...

Herself.

Her mind struggled with her body, trying to use every muscle to bring the blade down on the beast, but her heart shouted a different argument, one that she never thought she would debate. 'Save the Grimm.' Her heart told her. Her mind shouted to kill it, but she couldn't bring herself to do it. She brought her blade to the ground, but not onto the dragon. She panted at her own inner battle, and sit back.

Ruby sighed. "Why? I've killed so many Grimm, no problem. Why is it that..." Ruby asked. But she already knew why, she simply didn't want to accept it.

This Grimm had a soul. And Ruby could never take another soul, even if she tried. It wasn't in her nature. Her job was to protect all souls of all creeds and nations. All souls.

"I know what needs to be done." Ruby sighed. She took Crescent Rose, but she picked it up by the end, where a small razor was. Sufficient for a knife. She took one of the vines and sawed it off with the end. The dragon was startled by the action, but Ruby kept tearing the vines off, one by one. Her heart race at the mere thought of freeing a Grimm, and her mind screamed at her to stop and kill it, but she blocked it out. When she chopped off the last vine, the dragon lunged at her, pressing her back to a rock. Crescent Rose was out of reach, and it was impossible for her to escape, even with her semblance. She struggled to get out, but then she met the dragon's gaze.

It was one of pure anger, anger she had never seen before. It wasn't an anger for blood, like the Grimm carried, or an anger for a petty crime, as a person may carry. It was an anger of vengeance, an anger of a want to kill, but also knowing that the person that they are about to kill has saved them. It was an anger of both revenge and forgiveness. The dragon reared back and opened its mouth, and Ruby thought this was the end, but the dragon roared in her face, one which made her ears ring. After that, the dragon dashed off, smashing the block of ice on its tail on a rock. It fluttered off out of sight, but Ruby wasn't so. Her heart was beating rapidly, and her mind was racing, trying to comprehend what had happened. Her ears still rung, and her vision blurred as she slipped into unconsciousness, hoping to God it was all just a terrible dream, and that the Grimm didn't have a soul, and it was dead in the real world.

A/N

That took a while to write. This'll probably be my last update for a while, as work is a necessity, and writing is not. But I do hope you enjoyed this chapter! And I hope I can do a better job on this than I did last time (and hopefully be able to post the final chapter, unlike last time I tried this.). Regardless, like and favorite this so you don't miss out on future updates, leave a review of what I can improve on next chapter, PM me for any ideas you may have for the future chapters, or if you just want to see some random thing happen in bonus chapters. Who knows. But with that, I'll be off. Stay weird, kiddos!

P.S., sorry if I made the fight scene a bit too graphic. I know HTTYD is "for kids", but RWBY is far from that.