Wind whipped by Weiss' face, pushing her neatly done ponytail around over her shoulder. Beside her, the rest of her team was being hit by a similar gust, and everyone except Ruby's hair was being tousled. Yang seemed particularly annoyed, constantly trying to pat down her hair, and Weiss rolled her eyes at boisterous blonde. Weiss looked down at the ground rushing by beneath them, spotting the occasional dark silhouettes of Grimm. They were flying overtop of the forest of Forever Fall, and the sight would have been beautiful and peaceful were it not marred by the knowledge that, at the moment, it was one of the most densely populated regions of Vale by Grimm. Weiss let go of the strap attached to the open door of the hover jet and moved back inside, taking a seat across from Pyrrha. The redhead was sitting next to her team leader, Jaune, while Ren was actively trying to block Nora from going anywhere near the open side door of the jet.

They were being dropped deep inside the forest in the hopes that the Grimm near the fringes, where many small villages were, would chase them into the woods. They were going to be let down thirty miles from some ancient ruins that had once served as a scouting outpost before being overrun. Professor Oobleck had been more than willing to give them a full rundown of why that was the only reasonable place for them to be extracted, as no other area in Forever Fall is defensible enough to land a hover jet. They had a week to get from the landing zone to the outpost where they would be extracted. That meant covering about four miles a day, and Weiss was beginning to regret wearing her high heeled boots. It wasn't really that far, but she could feel the ache in her feet already. She would have to talk to Ruby and find out if there were any combat boots in Vale that were a little more... Appealing than her team leader's.

"Are you ready Weiss?" Pyrrha asked, snapping Weiss from her revery. She had always enjoyed the redhead's company. Since both of them had shared the burdens of fame, Weiss had always felt a vague sort of kinship with Pyrrha.

"Of course I-" Weiss stopped herself, realizing that she was dropping back into her habitual 'snooty' voice as Yang had dubbed it. "Yes, I'm fully prepared, thank you. And yourself?"

"I'm ready, though I'm a little worried about Blake." Pyrrha's green eyes darted towards the raven haired faunus looking out at the mountains lining the horizon. Pyrrha turned her attention back to Weiss, and the white haired woman nodded.

"Same. With eight of us, I'm sure not much can go wrong, but she's been on edge since we talked to Ozpin."

"Maybe killing some Grimm will do her some good." Jaune said, cutting into the conversation. "Blow off some steam, y'know?"

Weiss didn't bother answering him.

They flew for another half an hour until Ruby called for everyone to come have a look. Weiss stood and walked over to where the other short member of team RWBY was standing, pointing out of the open side door. A ways in the distance she could make out the vague outline of a large hill, atop which stood a few large pillars and crumbled walls. The place was definitely old and run down, but Weiss could tell that once upon a time it must have been an awing structure. Oobleck had informed her, while the rest of her team listened with glazed eyes, that despite the fact that it was relatively small and in an area completely surrounded by Grimm, that it had lasted half a century before being overrun.

Inside the hover jet, Jaune knocked on the window that separated the pilot from the two teams, and the jet slowed until it was stopped a hundred feet or so above the forest. The eight students lined up behind one another, ready to jump out. Ruby was first, followed by Yang and Blake. Weiss was behind the dark haired faunus, and behind her team JNPR had lined up in the same order as their in their team name. Ruby crouched low, but before she jumped she paused.

"Hey, what's that?"

In the distance, Weiss could just barely make out a small dark dot moving against the clear blue sky. It was too far away to make out any distinctive features, but whatever it was was definitely large.

"Nevermore?" She suggested, and behind her Jaune broke off from the line.

"Go ahead Ruby." He called.

The hooded girl nodded at Jaune then jumped out of the jet. Yang followed, leaping off the plane with a bit too much enthusiasm for Weiss' liking, and Blake followed behind her partner. Weiss hopped gingerly off the plane, making sure that her moves were precise and graceful. She fell through the air, and felt it rush by on her face. She felt the adrenaline pump through her veins in response to the free fall, and smiled slightly.

What are you doing? She reprimanded herself. She had definitely been spending too much time with Yang. She was actually enjoying herself, plummeting towards her death. Weiss closed her eyes and let herself fall for a moment, allowing herself to break free of her composed image for a brief instant. She was falling quite quickly though, so after only a moment her eyes shot open again. She raised a hand in front of her and summoned a glyph, the white snowflake symbol surrounded by a circle glowing in front of her at a steep angle. She extended a leg and landed on it, absorbing the impact as she raised her hand and several more glyphs flared up in front of her. She bounded off the first one, but Weiss felt herself coming off faster than she had expected. She leapt back and forth between the glyphs in front of her, but as she came off the last one just above the ground, she was still going too fast. That moment in the air where she had allowed herself to relax had given her too much velocity.

She raised her hand and a black glyph appeared on the ground. She landed on it, and felt herself pulled into the ground by the glyph. It slowed her, as she had intended, but she was still moving quickly. She leapt forward and twisted, landing on her hand while moving backwards. She did a few more handsprings until she had slowed down enough to come to a complete and graceful stop, her toes pointing at the exact point where she had originally landed. Weiss smirked to herself a little, knowing she had adjusted perfectly to the situation. Beside her there was a loud crash, and dirt sprayed all over Weiss' white clothes, undoubtedly staining them.

"What are you doing?" The heiress exclaimed, looking down at her spoiled garments. "I have to wear these clothes for the next seven days you preposterous dunce!"

"Ease off it Weiss, a little dirt never hurt anyone." Yang said, smiling and removing her sunglasses. Weiss couldn't figure out where Yang had even got sunglasses.

"Hmph!" Weiss exclaimed, but she saw Ruby walking towards the clearing.

"Thanks Yang!" The younger girl called.

"What are you thanking her for? Letting every Grimm on this half of Vale know we're here?" Weiss said, absolutely flabbergasted.

"No," Blake said, walking in from between two bushes. "So that we all know where to meet."

"Yep!" Yang exclaimed from behind her, wrapping an arm around the heiress. "I'm doing this all for your own good."

"Well I think that the dirt was unnecessary." She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"Weiss?" Yang asked.

"What?"

"Snooty voice." Weiss rolled her eyes, but smiled a little.

There was some shuffling in the bushes, and team RWBY turned to see Jaune's team walk into the clearing. Nora was skipping alongside everyone else, and they all seemed unharmed. Weiss looked around, searching for the hill that housed the extraction point. She saw it off in the distance and grimaced. It was going to be a long walk.

"We should get mo-"

"Whoa, Weiss, looking a bit worse for wear there." Jaune cut her off grinning at her, and Weiss rounded on him, anger surging through her.

"I'm going to freeze him." She said, dead serious, looking straight into Jaune's sky blue eyes, her hand going for her rapier.

"Whoa there Weiss, come on." Ruby said, tugging her partner's arm back. The heiress sighed and relinquished her hold on Myrtenaster. "Let's just get going, we need to find someplace safe to sleep for the night."

The party moved off, heading towards the hill way out in the distance. Weiss allowed herself to be caught up in the beauty of the forest. The soft, velvety rosy petals fell all around her, some occasionally alighting on her skin or tickling her face as the wind blew them past her. She had only been to Forever Fall a few times, but every time that she came she was astounded by how beautiful it was. She had considered asking Neptune if he wanted to go with her to visit it once, but it seemed far too forward seeming as they weren't dating and Weiss was still somewhat timid around him. Nonetheless, Weiss had to admit that the forest seemed like a very romantic place.

Off to the right, she heard a low, menacing growl and the slight rustling of bushes. On her left a branch snapped, and Weiss' head whipped towards the sound. The Grimm definitely took away from the romantic value of the forest though. Ahead of her, Pyrrha and Jaune readied their swords and shields. Behind, she could hear Yang's gauntlets clicking into place and Ruby's scythe clanking as it extended. Then she heard a high pitched squeal of excitement.

"Keep it down Nora." Jaune said from in front of her.

All around them, the growling grew in volume. Weiss reached her hand down to her hip and drew Myrtenaster. She held her sword levelly, turning to the side as the two teams formed a circle. In the shadows of the woods, she could see a set of bright, red, glowing eyes. She locked her eyes on them as they slowly approached, and a large Beowolf stepped out of the shadows. In the corner of her eye, Weiss saw several more of the lumbering creatures step into the light, perhaps two dozen in all. Hardly a challenge. Weiss put her foot forward, and readied herself, crouching slightly. All she needed was Ruby's word.

"Go!" She heard Ruby and Jaune call at the same time.

Weiss lunged forward, ducking under a sweep from the large Beowolf. She brought her rapier up and cut across the creature's torso, then summoned a glyph behind it. She leapt from its side to the glyph and used it to propel herself towards the creature's back. She held her sword forward, impaling the Beowolf right through the spine, killing it instantly. There was a howl to her right, and two more of the Grimm charged her. One brought a massive claw down towards her, and Weiss brought her sword up to catch the blow, angling the blade down to deflect the blow. She had never been strong enough to block direct blows, but she had learned at a young age that blocking was just deflecting with bravado. She dodged to the side as the other monster snapped its jaws at where she had just been. She whirled Myrtenaster and waited for her chamber to click into place before slashing out at the Beowolf that had just lunged at her. A crescent of fire flew forth and blasted the Grimm backwards. She twirled around and brought her elbow back, about to bury it in the chest of the second creature, but just before she struck, a sword cleaved the Beowolf in two. The two halves fell to either side to reveal Jaune, who gave her a quick nod. He put on a nervous smile though as she didn't lower her sword, and Weiss studied him for a moment. Then she brought her sword down into the ground, and spikes of ice shot out of the dirt until they hit Jaune, ensnaring his feet.

"Oh, come on!" He exclaimed, obviously not too pleased.

"Um, what?" Yang asked.

"I told you I would freeze him." Weiss smiled a little, pleased with her joke. She walked forward and tapped Jaune's feet with Myrtenaster, letting out just enough fire dust to thaw the ice. She didn't really have anything against Jaune anymore. The blond had grown into quite a respectable young man during his time at Beacon once he had stopped his irritating attempts to ask her out. The two were actually quite good friends now, and she knew he wouldn't mind the joke.

"We really need to work on your sense of humor, Ice Queen." Yang said from behind her, but Jaune chuckled.

"I'm trying, and that's something isn't it?" Weiss said, a little disheartened that no one had appreciated her joke.

"Guess I deserved that one." Jaune said chuckling a bit, and Pyrrha came up from behind him to see if he was alright. He assured her he was so, and everyone dusted themselves off and started towards their destination once more. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful other than a few minor Grimm encounters. Nora and Yang started to play a game, seeing who could give themselves a bigger handicap and still beat a Grimm.

"You can't be serious." Weiss said, unbelieving as Yang tied a strip of cloth around her eyes.

"Oh yes I can! If I can kill a Grimm without even looking, I totally have Nora beat. There's no way to one up blindness."

Weiss shook her head and decided not to get involved. As it turns out, Nora did try to one up Yang after that, by tying her arms behind her back. After Nora got thrown into a tree by an Ursa, Jaune officially called the competition off. Yang took that to mean that she had won, and then Ren had to spend the next half hour consoling his partner.

They covered more terrain than they expected that day, and as the sun set they started to hunt for a place to make a camp. They came across a small rocky overhang, and set up a small fire pit. Blake made a quick lean-to, a skill left over from when she pretty much lived in the wilderness, and everyone set up their rolls and sleeping bags under the simple structure. They decided to have two people take watch at any given time so no one fell asleep on duty, and Weiss volunteered to take the first watch for team RWBY. Pyrrha took the first watch as well, and the two set up a log next to the fire pit, stoking it every once in a while to keep the flames going. Weiss noticed her friend glancing towards the lean-to every few seconds, and she could guess where the redhead was looking.

"Is everything okay, Pyrrha?" Her friend looked up, her bright green eyes opening in surprise.

"Yes, everything's fine." Weiss looked at the redhead dubiously. It was no secret that Pyrrha had had her eyes on Jaune since they had come to Beacon, and yet she had never openly said a word about it to him. Weiss didn't want to press though, so she let the topic drop.

"What do you think is drawing all the Grimm to Forever Fall? They've never congregated here like this before." Weiss asked instead, steering the conversation away from something so personal. Weiss could guess that Pyrrha hadn't had many romantic involvements before, so the whole fiasco with Jaune had to be treated carefully. Though Weiss wished the knuckle headed blond could just put two and two together already.

"I have no idea. It's odd though, and dangerous."

"Do you think it has anything to do with Torchwick?" Weiss pondered aloud. It was strange that the two events were taking place so close together, but she couldn't think of a reason as to why they would be related.

"I don't think so, or at least it wouldn't make sense. There's no real way of controlling the Grimm. They do as they please, and we're just here to stop them."

Weiss nodded in agreement, and they continued to talk deep into the night. She looked up into the sky as the moon reached its zenith and her eyelids were growing heavy. She had always been curious about the moon and how it had come to be shattered like that. She wondered what it would have been like before it was broken into a thousand pieces scattered across the sky. Some days it was full of course, but Weiss remembered reading that the moon would have probably gone in cycles before being shattered. She shook her head hard. Such trivial hypothetical questions had no place in the real world. Her father had made sure to drill that lesson securely into her head as a child. Her hand drifted to her cheek, tracing the thin silver scar that ran from just above her eyes to mid-cheek. Her hand froze as she realized what she was doing, and she quickly moved it away.

"Why don't we rouse the next two watchers?" Weiss suggested, partly to draw attention away from what she had just done and partially because she knew Pyrrha was growing tired. The other girl nodded in agreement.

Weiss made her way over to where her teammates were sleeping and shook Blake's shoulder slightly. The faunus jerked awake, eyes fully alert and her hand drawing Gambol Shroud faster than Weiss could react. Realization dawned in the raven haired girl's eyes though, and she re-sheathed her blade.

"Sorry, Weiss," She said, and Weiss shrugged.

"It's alright, old habits die hard, I know. But Pyrrha and I are both falling asleep on our feet. It's your turn to keep watch."

"Alright," Blake rolled out of her makeshift bed, which was pretty much just moss on top of her travel mat. Weiss took her place next to Blake's bed, and looked over to see Jaune walking out of the other side of the lean-to, rubbing his eyes to rid them of sleep. Weiss wasn't surprised that Pyrrha had chosen to wake him. She smiled slightly, then laid her head down on the mat, and she could feel sleep pulling at her conscience.

"Weiss, you awake?" She was yanked from the brink of unconsciousness by the sound of Yang's voice.

"I am now, thank you very much for that." She said, letting the irritation color her voice.

"Do you think Blake's okay?" Weiss heard Yang's sleeping bag shuffle, and opened her eyes to see that the blonde had rolled over to look at Jaune and Blake, chatting idly by the fire. Jaune was sharpening his blade, and Blake had her notebook tucked neatly beside her. Weiss looked at Yang, who looked back at her. Her lilac eyes were filled with worry, and Weiss softened a bit at seeing the normally zealous and energetic huntress in training look so concerned.

"I don't know. That thing with Torchwick really got to her. It's almost like we're back in first year again, and I'm worried that she's going to burn herself out." Weiss answered finally.

"I know, and I'm worried. What if she does something to try and stop him? I'm not sure there's much she wouldn't do if it meant getting him locked up."

"Maybe Sun can help keep her controlled." Weiss suggested. Yang was silent for a moment.

"Yeah, Sun probably can." Yang's voice was hollow, and Weiss looked at her with concern. Before she could ask what was wrong though, Yang rolled over again. "Goodnight Weiss, we should probably get some sleep."

Weiss looked at Yang's back, but decided to let her be. Partially because she was so tired she thought she could sleep through a rampaging ursa. Weiss made a mental note to talk to Yang later, then pulled up her warm sleeping bed. Despite the discomfort of the forest, she was asleep in moments.

/

"Hover jet!"

Weiss was immediately on full alert as she woke up. She could feel the ground under her body tremble slightly at slight intervals, and leapt up. She grabbed Myrtenaster and looked around. Ruby and Ren were both already packing up the camp as quickly as they could. Everyone else was scrambling out of their beds, and Weiss quickly rolled up her sleeping bag and travel mat. She threw them into her bag and slung it across her back, dashing up beside her leader. She looked at Ruby, who nodded towards the sky. Above them was a standard issue jet streaking by above them. Behind it trailed a small cloud of...

"Is that dust?" Weiss asked as the jet roared by above them.

"Looks like i-"

Behind them came a massive crashing sound. Weiss looked above the tree tops and saw the source of the commotion. A massive Grimm was storming towards them. It didn't seem to have noticed them, but was rampaging blindly straight towards them.

"We need to move." Ren said, and everyone rushed to pack up. Once everyone had their knapsacks donned, the group ran for the forest edge. As they reached the edge of the clearing surrounding the rocky outcrop that they had camped under, Weiss ducked under a large juniper bush. The rest of the party followed suit, hiding where they could as the vibrations in the ground grew more and more powerful.

There was a loud cracking sound and a few trees fell onto their makeshift camp. There was another stomp and the beast's leg came into view. The tallest tree came about halfway up its thick leg, and Weiss looked in awe at the creature. She had seen large Grimm before, but this one was on a completely different level. It could easily fit a house on it's back, and those tusks looked like they could obliterate a stone wall. The Goliath thundered by, and the two teams waited until it's massive stamping receded into the distance.

"What is it doing here?" Weiss exclaimed as she walked out of the bush.

"Which one? The plane or the Goliath?" Yang asked, dusting a slight layer of dirt off her skirt.

"Both I suppose." Weiss replied, her mind racing.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha asked, turning towards JNPR's leader. Weiss looked at him as well. Though she still had the best grades of the group at Beacon, she couldn't deny that Jaune could be quite perceptive. Especially when it came to battle or strategy, the blond was almost unparalleled. Weiss had made the mistake of playing him in chess once, and had quickly regretted it. Jaune was looking at where the Goliath had come from, studying the trees closely. In the distance, Weiss heard a few howls from Beowolves.

"We need to leave, now." He said.

"Why? That thing's gone now." Yang said, scratching her head.

"The Goliath was following that plane. I don't know how, but somehow that plane got a Grimm to follow it. If it got one to follow it-" Weiss heard the roar of an Ursa, much closer than the howl of the Beowolf.

"Then there's probably more close behind." Ruby finished.

"Time we left." Ren said, nodding in acknowledgement to the leader.

"Wait, but that jet was on it's way to the scouting outpost." Weiss said.

"We need to take a detour. We should loop around to avoid that Grimm." Blake said, and no one argued.

The eight of them started racing away from the clearing that they had camped at. Weiss could feel her heart beating as her legs pounded against the ground. Beside her ran Pyrrha, who seemed unfazed by the physical exertion. Ruby was in a similar state, and Weiss had to work hard to keep up with the two. Before long, her legs were burning, and the sounds of the Grimm receded behind them. Before long the group slowed and then stopped. Weiss did her best to not show it, but she was out of breath.

"Okay, what is going on here?" She demanded to no one in particular. Everyone looked at each other in confusion, and no one had an answer.

/

Next chapter out pretty soon as promised! So for the first few chapters, the perspective is probably going to jump around quite a bit just so that I can show how all the characters have developed over the past three years. After that, I'll be writing from the perspective of however makes sense in a given chapter, but that will probably settle into a few main characters. Other than that, I'm pretty excited for this story! There's going to be one more setting chapter before we hit the real jumping off point, but after that it should be pretty continuous actions until the end of the story! I'll release one more chapter tomorrow then it might slow down to a more normal pace. As per usual, any comments, criticism, suggestions or ideas are always welcome! Thanks for reading!

-Unjax