It was a quiet night, the shattered moon hung high in the night sky. The day before had been exhausting, full of classes and assignments. Yet sleep seemed to evade Ruby. She had laid in bed for several hours by now but she still found herself wide awake. It was at some point during the Rose's restless night that she heard her new partner get up in the middle of the night. Ruby was about to ask what she was doing, but thought better of it. Weiss had been upset when Ruby was named leader over her, and she hadn't changed since then despite the attempts of the teachers to get her to change her mind. However as Weiss left the room Ruby decided to follow and see where it was that Weiss went.
'Whether she wants it or not I'm responsible for her I should make sure she is fine'. Ruby thought to herself. As she followed Weiss she found her heading towards the headmasters office, which was interesting since neither of them should be out past curfew. Sure enough Weiss took the elevator up to Ozpin's office, which Ruby quickly followed in the next ride.
00000000
Ozpin looked up from his late night paperwork as the elevator dinged open. He was mildly surprised when the Schnee girl set foot in his office.
"It's awfully late for a student to be up, can I help you Ms. Schnee?" he asked her.
"My father sends a message Professor." Weiss said with perfectly polite tone of voice.
"Oh? I can't imagine what he would have to say to me considering how I turned down his last offer." Ozpin said slowly standing and coming out from behind his desk.
"Yes, well his message," Weiss began before her eyes suddenly began glowing with the power of the winter maiden, "Was that he wasn't asking!" Weiss suddenly unleashed a flurry of ice spears at the headmaster. Ozpin somehow managed to dodge each and every one before leaping forward, cane suddenly in hand, and the two began to fight in earnest.
0000000
When Ruby's elevator opened the first thing she noticed was how unbelievably cold it was inside Ozpin's office. The next thing she noticed was Weiss and Ozpin engaged in what, at first glance looked like an amazing dance. Step, thrust, parry, counterattack. However she soon noticed the killing intent laced into each blow.
"Weiss! What's going on?!" Ruby shouted out, catching the attention of the two combatants. Weiss tskd to herself while Ozpin shouted to Ruby.
"Ms. Rose run! She is much more than you can handle!" Ozpin said as their battle raged on. Ruby sat there dumbfounded as her partner and mentor raged battle with forces she had never even seen before. Ruby watched as Weiss flew towards Ozpin in a lunge, literally flew, and Ozpin as he seemed to be able to be in three different places at once as he dodged and struck twice at the same time. Eventually though Ruby could see Ozpin become tired. Weiss managed to knock away Ozpin's cane, effectively disarming him before diving in for the killing blow. She was surprised when her strike was deflected by an overly large scythe.
"Showing off again?" Weiss said turning on Ruby..
"No just doing the right thing," Ruby said, while parrying the fencing blade off of the shaft of her weapon, "Weiss I don't know what's going on but I'm going to stop you!" So focused was Ruby she failed to notice how her weapon was starting to freeze over and become brittle.
"Hardly" Weiss said as she grabbed Ruby's weapon in one hand and caused it to shatter. Ruby stared in shock as the shards of her beloved weapon fell to the ground. She was completely unprotected as Weiss drove her weapon into Ruby's chest. When Weiss pulled her weapon free Ruby sank to the floor.
"RUBY, NO!" Ozpin shouted before Weiss flicked her sword in his direction, and slit his throat. Ruby could feel her eyes brimming with...something. They were not tears but soon in front of her turned white. Weiss reacted by sending a storm of ice shards at Ruby. Many of the little projectiles struck true and threw Ruby out the window. Ruby fell from the top of Beacon tower, she fell past the cliffs and into the ocean.
00000000
The next morning a fleet of airships arrived from atlas, all bearing the Schnee emblem. They launched a full invasion and had secured the city within days. Vale had no military, trusting all of their military might to the huntsmen and huntresses of the kingdom. Weiss had troops seize Beacon the first day and locked down all of the huntsmen and huntresses in training as well as the teachers there. With no one to coordinate Vale's scattered huntsmen they soon fell to the might of the Schnee's new robotic army. The huntsmen were then given the choice to join as Schnee Specialists or retire. With huntsmen disbanded the protection of city was given to the new Robotic Defense Initiative. Within a week Vale was no more, the renamed Viridian city joined Atlas in becoming part of the new Schnee empire.
00000000
Off the shore's of Vale, a day after the invasion, aboard a small commercial fishing boat, the crew was reeling in their nets to see what their catch of the day had been. A small wolf faunus boy with grey hair grumbled as yet another wave sent sea spray onto him and the members of the crew on deck.
"Can't this thing work any faster?" he wondered aloud. He was currently holding the button on the winch that was pulling the net out.
"Hey Aero, what's going on?" One of the other crewmen call out.
"I don't know it's being really slow!" the boy, Aero answered. Soon enough they saw why as the net rose to reveal a battered and bloody girl.
"Good lord what happened to her" one of the crewmen said as he moved towards her. "Did someone dump her out here after they killed her?" He set about untangling her from the net when she suddenly moved a tiny bit. The crewman jumped back, "Holy crap! She's alive!" one of the other crewmen turned to Aero, "Boy go get the Captain, he needs to know about this!" Aero nodded and took off in the direction of the ships bridge.
"Pa! Pa! You gotta come quick!" Aero shouted up into the bridge.
"Aero? What's the matter boy?" A grizzly man with grey hair and beard said as he stepped out of the bridge.
"There's a, There's a girl!" Aero said, out of breath and trying to come up with the right words. His father raised an eyebrow, he wasn't opposed to women serving on his ships, his late wife had done the same, but he was fairly certain his crew was all men this time around. Aero caught the look of disbelief in his father's eye and clarified. "We pulled her out of the water, she looks bad." Recognition sparked in the old man's face and he ran to the back of the ship where the crew were gathered around the girl.
"Out of the way let me get a look at her!" He bellowed to his crew. They instantly stepped aside except for the one crewmember attempting to do first aid on her.
"She's got a weak pulse sir, but" the crewman began with a grimm look on his face, "I don't think she'll make it, she's lost a lot of blood, she's got a ton of puncture wounds that look infected and don't even get me started on what exposure to the elements has done to her." The Captain looked and was about to agree until he noticed the girls belt. Her outfit was extravagant, nothing new in Vale, but her belt held several sets of .50 Cal. ammunition as well as a magazine pouch large enough to fit the same size rounds in it. This girl was not the frail tiny girl she first appeared to be.
"Take her down below," He said to the crewman, "she still has a chance." the crewman looked up incredulously at him.
"How so sir?" He asked.
"She's a huntress," The Captain told him, "They can survive the unthinkable, granted she's in bad shape but don't count her out yet." He then turned to his crew, "Alright if you aren't helping get her below get back to work," he then turned to his second in command, "Scar, you're in charge for a while, I'm the closest we've got to a doctor so I'll be working on her." The crew did as he said and got back to work.
"Right away, Captain Berg." Scar said as he nodded and went to the bridge. The Captain looked at the girl as they carried her down. 'Good Lord, she's young, how did she get this badly beat up?' he thought to himself, then he recognized that he was going to have to put her back together 'this is going to be a long night.'
0000000000000
At about two in the morning they had managed to get the girl to where she wasn't in any immediate danger, Captain Berg hadn't worked on a huntsman since the faunus wars, he forgot how difficult it could be to work on someone when their body was trying to heal itself. He stepped onto the bridge, while he was ready for, and wanted nothing more than to go to bed, Scar had told him that he needed to see something.
"What's going on Scar?" Berg asked. Scar was staring at the scroll terminal situated on the bridge. It seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over again.
"Well, sir, I tried to contact someone on the emergency medical channel but just got this strange message, It's repeating on any government channel, I checked with the other ships out here and they're getting the same thing." He said pointing at the screen, "nobody knows what it means." Berg came closer and listened to the message.
'That's an old military code, it hasn't been used since the Faunus Wars' he recognized, before informing Scar of the information and asking for a pen and paper. Scar quickly got the requested supplies and Berg began to decipher the message.
"Winter has struck, Castle has fallen, Journey is perilous" Berg repeated as he deciphered the code.
"What's that mean sir?" Scar asked him. Berg sighed before turning the terminal off.
"Don't turn it back on until I say." He said, before explaining, "Journey is perilous means that it is unsafe for military forces to return, and Winter refers to Atlas" he said slowly with a heavy heart.
"And the part about the castle?" Scar asked.
"Castle has fallen, means that Vale has been defeated." The two men shared a look and had a similar thought.
"Sir, Vale doesn't have an army anymore…" Scar said slowly, "huntsmen and huntresses guard the kingdom now."
"Yes, that's correct." The Captain said waiting for Scar to voice their similar thoughts.
"You said that girl we picked up was a huntress." Scar finished.
"And that is exactly why we are going to be holding on to her until we know what's going on." Berg said, "If we turn her in to proper medical authorities it could be the end of her."
"I understand sir." Scar said, "I'll go talk to the men, they should know we'll be out at sea for a little longer than planned." He finished as he walked off the bridge.
"You do that." Berg said while wondering what exactly he was going to do.
0000000000
A/N hey all! I recognize that this is yet another new story on my profile but I have actually had almost three chapters of this one written for a while. I wrote them at a time when I was with my unit in the field so they needed some major editing done but no real writing done. So I'll be putting up what I currently have throughout this next week. My main focus will still be Shadows Rage and Rogue Rose: Code Red as those seem to be everyone's favorites. Anyways hope y'all enjoy!