A/N: Less than a week until the third season starts, yay.

I know I said that I would probably not get back to this for a while because of Black Rose Admire. But my imagination brainstormed this chapter. Maybe because I have an actual outline for this story that ideas are coming more easily for me.

I'm quite happy with this chapter compared to the last, with the exception of one scene. I feel like I got the hook to pull people in that felt absent in the last chapter.

Based on the season three's opening I made a small assumption about Winter's character.

Watery Meeting

"Ruby, let me go." The white haired girl complained as her young leader hugged her tightly.

"Sorry, Weiss." Ruby said sheepishly as she rubbed the back of her head. She turned to look at Blake who had also suffered from the over enthusiastic girl's embrace. "It's just been so long since I've seen you guys."

"It's been three months." Weiss pointed out as a matter a fact. All around them fellow students had returned to Beacon for another year of training. Teammates were reunified. Friends were reunited. And rivals reignited. Although she would never admit it openly, the heiress did miss her friends in the short time they had been separated.

The team that she became a part of gave the young heiress something she wasn't accustomed to. Variety. Weiss's teammates various personalities were a stark contrast to her family's lifestyle. From her father's rigid routine to her sister's stoic behavior, the white haired girl's life and been very rigorous until she came to Beacon. And she had her friends to thank for that.

"So, what have you two been up to?" Yang asked, clearly wanting to move a conversation along.

"Not much." Blake said offhandedly. "Took up a job at a café in Vale. Had a… occasional visitor."

"That occasional visitor wouldn't happen to be a blonde haired boy with a tail would it." The brawler said with an evil grin. To which Blake glared at her partner. Weiss couldn't help but give a little laugh.

"What about you, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"I've been spending time at my family's company." She said. The white haired girl couldn't help but smile a bit at what she said next. "I did take some trips to Mistral."

"Were you going to see Neptune?" Ruby squealed making Weiss jump in surprise. "Were you doing all of this in secret against her father's wishes. It sounds like a romantic tale."

The pale skinned girl was fully aware of how red her face was turning. And a small bit of sweat over how accurate the young girl's statement was.

"Ruby." Weiss gritted through her teeth trying to regain her composure. Lucky for her Yang seemed to have read between the lines.

"Okay Ruby, leave it be." The blonde said.

"What?" The young girl said oblivious to the egg shells she was stepping on.

"What have you two been up to?" Blake said clearly taking the initiative to change the subject.

"We went on camping trips around Patch with our dad and uncle." Yang said. "It was pretty fun. The great outdoors, campfire stories, s'mores and sleeping under the night sky. It was great."

"So," Blake said as they ran out of things to talk about, "what should we do?"

"How about we help the new students?" Ruby suggested as she looked around. Weiss took the moment to take in the people around them and indeed there were many new faces standing by themselves amongst the crowed, the looks on their faces' showed that they were confused on what to do.

"That's a great idea, sis." The blonde said while rubbing the young girl head. "Let's do that."

Another large airship passed over head flying towards Beacon Academy. It was the seventh ship he counted as he waited for his targets to show up. Tristan laid on his back on the flat roof of some businesses that he didn't care to check overlooking a back area surrounded by buildings. He had been relaxing in that spot since sunrise waiting for a meeting to take place. If his information was correct someone would be there that could lead him to Isolde.

The young boy's mind drifted back to the passing airship that was heading to the school for hunters and huntresses. He couldn't help but wonder if his life had been more fortunate would he have attended such a school. Would he have developed his skills more effectively, made friends and fight the monsters that threatened humanity? Tristan let out a sigh at is wandering thoughts. He would never know the answer; he had gained his own training and had his own monster to deal with.

The sound of activity below got his attention back to the reason he was there. While avoiding making any sound he peaked over the roof's edge to see a small group of men in black suites and red ties. Tristan could tell they were anxious. Some of their heads were shift ever so slight back and forth as if they were expecting the meeting was going to go bad. The lead man, a very large man, was tapping his foot on the pavement as he glared down the alleyway. Eventually a few men came walking into the back area. One in a business suit, the others in armor. Clearly the businessman thought there was going to be trouble.

"I wasn't expecting you to bring so many men with you." The businessman said. "Nor was I expecting to meet in a back alley. I was expecting to meet at your club."

"Ever since you came to me my men have been having problems." The large man said in clear annoyance. "The money better damn well be worth it."

"I assure you that my client will pay you quite handsomely if the information you give leads us to our target."

Tristan tightened his grip on one of his weapons. He was certain now that this businessman held the information he wanted. But the young boy kept himself from attacking until he knew for sure, he had jumped the gun to many times already and it had gotten him nowhere.

"You didn't give me much to go on. All I can say for certain is that your target is in the city." There was a moment of silence passing between the two groups before it was broken.

"We were told that you were a reliable information broker." The man turned and began to leave. "I see now that was a mistake."

He had to act now. Tristan jumped over the buildings edge. As he fell he pulled out both of his blades. He knocked one of the black suited men down before he touched the ground. There was a moment of stunned silence before someone started to yell and black guns and red swords were pulled out. The young boy quickly kicked the closest man next to him before deflecting a blade that came for his side.

Form there all out hell broke loose as Tristan unleashed some of his pent-up fury. Every blade that came at him he was able to block with relative ease as most of the men didn't seemed to be well train to use. Some of them swung too widely. Others too wildly. Although a couple of them did seem to know what they were doing.

There attacks were more precise. Going for his openings to which the young boy had to pull back from and go on the defensive. Luckily for Tristan he was just a bit better trained. His defensive tactics made openings in his opponents' stances to which he was quick to take advantage of with quick jabs and kicks. Theses tactics were mute against the guys with the guns.

Those guys knew what they were doing compared to their companions. When he saw the first gun went off the dust round came at him slowly and the young boy was able to move his body just in time for it to grace his shoulder. Tristan quickly jumped behind a dumpster as a hail of bullets began to rain towards him. He took the moment to get his breathing under control and get his racing heart to slow down. His new position gave him a view of the alley that the businessman had come from. Just in time to see his target disappear around the corner.

Damnit. Tristan screamed in his head. His anger was now starting to rise again. When he heard the sound of dry clips the young boy threw caution to the wind and jumped out from his cover charging head long into the group of men. He didn't let up as he slashed and kicked relentlessly by the time it was over the red suites were lying on the ground in pain. Tristan walked towards one of them and lifted them up.

"Who was that?" He demanded. Although Tristan was certain he knew who the person was working for he had to make sure. "What are they looking for?"

Before the man could answer him the young boy felt a heavy blow to the back of his head and he fell hard onto the ground. His head was in a daze as he looked up at his attacker. The large man that seemed to be in charge of the red suits. Tristan berated himself for forgetting about him in the chaos of the fight. The man kicked him in the side and the young boy grunted in pain.

"Stupid kid." The man said though his teeth. Tristan was vaguely aware of the red suites getting back up. Some more slowly than others.

"What do you want to do with him, boss." One of his cronies asked. The boss looked down on the young boy.

"I'm sick of these kids messing with me." He said while still glaring down at Tristan. "Get rid of him. Painfully."

After they had helped out the new students before they were called away for Ozpin's speech Team RWBY decided to head down to Vale to catch up some more as they checked out the town after being away. Weiss had come up with the brilliant idea of getting school supplies. None of them could come up with an excuse to avoid it because they all needed to. Ruby was glad to get that out of the way and continue on with the day for some real fun.

After a while the team stopped at the café Blake had said she had been working at to get something to eat. After which Ruby excused herself to use the bathroom, she had to go around the corner to get to the entrance of the café, as they had decided to eat outside. When she came back out she noticed something happening in an alleyway across the street. The young leader couldn't help but feel something was wrong. She knew she should get the others but in the short time it would take the hooded girl to get her teammates and explain to them what was going on whatever was going on could be over with.

So Ruby decided to run across the street and into the alley. Once the young girl reached the area there was no one around. She quickly looked around and just barely caught movement around a corner and she quickly gave chase, but also made sure to be quiet, not wanting to charge head first into a situation. Ruby quickly figured out she was following a few men in very familiar black suites and red ties. And they were carrying something. The young girl couldn't get a good look at it because it was covered.

Ruby continued to quietly follow the men as they continued to move through back alleys. She was able to tell that they knew what they were doing. They rarely ventured out of the alleyways and when they did they made sure the area was deserted. Whatever they had with them they wanted to make sure no one caught them with it. The girl was looking forward to ruining their day, because no one acted like this doing an honest deed.

The young girl lost them when she got to the docks. The first thought that crossed Ruby's mind was to wonder how long she had been following them to get this far. The second was to find out where the black suits had gone. That question got answered when she heard some commotion behind some containers not too far from where she stood. She quickly got up to containers and looked around them to find the black suites but what really got her attention was what they had been carrying. It was moving.

Finally one of the men pulled the cover away and Ruby was shocked to see a young boy. From where the hooded girl stood she could see that he was light skinned and had dark blonde hair. He look perhaps her age if not a little older. One of the men pushed the boy with his foot breaking the young girl from her shock. She was about to jump out before one of them started talking to the blonde.

"Don't know what your deal is kid." He said with little feeling. "Was this some kind of vigilantly idealism?"

The boy said nothing in response.

"Whatever." Another said. "End of the line kid."

That was when Ruby noticed it. The man had his foot resting on a cinderblock. A cinderblock that had a chain wrapped around it. That chain was wrapped around the boy's legs.

"Hey!" Ruby yelled as she jumped out from behind the container, just in time to see the boy disappear over the dock.

Maybe I had bitten off more than I could chew. Tristan thought as he sunk deeper into the water. It was going pretty slow for him, giving him time to try and think of a way to get free. His hands were bound tightly and his legs wouldn't budge an inch in the chains that were dragging him to his death. Perhaps this is for the best.

Tristan couldn't help but smile a bit. How this would throw a wrench into Isolde's plans. As he sunk deeper he could swear that he was hearing something happening above him. He remembered hearing someone yelling as he hit the water. Whatever was happening was being muffled by the water that was now suffocating him. And then he heard the sound of a loud splash.

The blonde boy looked up to try and see what it was that had just entered the water; but his vision was being blurred by the water. All he could see was that it was a person who was wearing a lot of red and black. Once they reached him the first thing they did was free his hands. Tristan found a great sense of relief flooding over thanks to this person risking their own life for him. Even with his blurred vision he could tell that his savior was a woman. She began pulling at the chains that were binding his legs and he joined her in the attempt to break him free.

The relief that he had gained was now replaced with dread. The chains were too sturdy. Neither he nor the woman would be able to break them. She seemed to realize this had pushed herself way. At first Tristan thought she was leaving him for dead. But then she pulled something out from her back. That something extended itself out. Just for a split second, in his dreaded filled mind, he thought that the grim reaper had come for him. Because even though his vision was blurred, he could tell the woman was wielding a large scythe. Thankfully his reasoning quickly came back to him as she swung at the chains and cut him free.

Just as he was about to rush his way to the surface he noticed that woman wasn't going for the surface herself. In fact Tristan saw that she wasn't moving at all. In realization he quickly grabbed her and for reasons he couldn't explain, her weapon as well. The blonde broke the water's surface taking in a deep breath of air. He heard movement above him. Looking up he saw that the dock was right over him.

"You see anything!" A man's voice yelled.

"No!" Another said. "Think they're dead?"

"As long as the boy is that is all that matters."

The running footsteps across the dock told Tristan that the suites had left. The blonde swam to the sandy edge pulling the woman that had saved him with him. Once he made it to solid ground he took a moment to get his bearings before returning his attention to the woman. To his surprise it wasn't a woman per se, but a young, maybe his age if not younger, pale skinned girl with black hair with scarlet tips. But then the young boy noticed something more alarming.

She wasn't moving. Not an inch. He hurriedly got close to the girl and put his fingers against her neck and the side of his head up to her face. He felt a pulse, but he couldn't feel any air escaping her lips. He acted quickly. He began performing compressions as hard as he could. The boy heard a cracking sound coming from where he was pushing but he kept at it before he bent down and breathed air into her lungs. As he returned to performing compressions a stabbing sensation hit his chest.

No! No! No! Tristan started to scream in his mind. Not now! Not Now!

Part of his mind was telling him to reach for one of the cylinders in his pouch but the other part told him he couldn't stop what doing or the girl would die. The debate didn't last long as he chose the latter and ignored the pain that was beginning to spread through his body. The blonde continued to do compressions and breathe oxygen into the girl's lungs for a few minutes; all the while biting through the pain. Finally the young girl began coughing up water, as well as the contents of her stomach. Tristan was quick to move the girl's body to its side while ignoring the screams of his own; allowing him to clear the girl's airway more easily with his fingers. She hadn't regain consciousness but she was breathing and that was all that mattered to him.

Tristan could no long ignore the pain that had spread throughout his body. He shakily reached for the pouch on his leg and pulled out one of the cylinders. But just as he raised it to his neck his whole body cramped up. He couldn't move. The cylinder slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground. His vision dimmed as he collapsed. The last thing the blonde saw before he blacked out was the girl beside him.

A/N: I hope this chapter came off better than the last and that you enjoyed it. Hopefully I did Ruby's near drowning accurately. As always feedback is appreciated.