Queens, New York

December 3rd, 2040

6:15 AM

Jacques sat in his chair, anger almost emanating from him as he stared at the two officers that stood in front of him.

"The two of you had… an entire night to find two Grimm. And somehow… two fucking children managed to get past not only two of my best task force members, but two fucking task forces!"

"Sir, had it not been for Sergeant Rose's—" Raven began.

"SHUT… up," Jacques said the last word calmly before asking, "Where have they gone…"

"Sergeant Rose bought them tickets for Haven. They should arrive within the hour or so," Taiyang said.

"Branwen, go contact the G.D.T.F in Haven and inform them that the Grimm should arrive within the hour."

"At once, sir," Raven said as she walked out of the office.

Once Raven was out of the office, Jacques leaned back in his chair and sighed, "I'm already getting the shit storm of the century, Tai. Reporters, the governor, all of them are demanding that you be fired."

"Let me go after her to bring her in."

"Excuse me?"

"I said let me go after her."

"Why would I do that? You're too attached to the case."

"Because you're already planning on firing me… aren't you?"

"…"

"Let me go after her. If I can bring her back, then maybe we can lower the storm."

"…I can't authorize you to take the team—"

"It would just be me. All the other officers, including Branwen, will remain here in New York while I continue the pursuit."

"…Inform officer Branwen that she will be acting as temporary lieutenant in your absence. I am giving you until the end of this week to bring Ruby Rose and any other Grimm to justice. That gives you three days. When you return, with or without Ruby, I will be expecting a resignation letter on my desk."

Taiyang stood up and walked out of the office. Walking into his department, he saw Raven run up and ask, "Well?"

"I have been allowed three days to go after them," Taiyang said as he walked into his office and grabbed various items from his desk.

"Should I come with. You will need—"

"What I need you to do is to stay here and take charge of the task force. Chief Schnee has decided to put you in charge while I am away," Taiyang said.

Raven stopped walking upon hearing the news and said, "Tai—"

"Look after the place while I'm gone, okay," Taiyang asked.

"…Okay. And when you get back, I have something that I need to tell you."

Tai nodded as he gave Raven a peck on the cheek, "Okay. I have to go."

Before Taiyang made it out of the door, he heard Raven yell, "Sir!"

Looking back at her, Raven saluted to her lieutenant, "Good luck in Haven, Lieutenant."

"And good luck here, Sergeant," Taiyang nodded as he walked out of the precinct.

Getting into his car, Taiyang saw Summer sitting in the passenger seat and looking back at the precinct.

"The Red Rose flies towards the Northern Star, only to perish… and a Bright Dragon shall rise from its ashes."

Activating his car, Taiyang had one thing on his mind.

"I'm coming, Ruby…"

Harlem Line, New York

December 3rd, 2040

6:30 AM

Ruby suddenly shot up, panting and sweating, after having the strangest dream. Taking in her surroundings,

"Ugh hey…"

"What's wrong," Ruby asked.

Ruby looked across the aisle at Jaune, who was rubbing the nape of his neck and groaned, "These stupid chairs will never be comfortable, no matter how hard they try…"

"I would rather be in an uncomfortable chair than back out in that snow storm last night," Ruby chuckled as she tried to stand up, only to feel a soreness in her tail bone, "Okay… maybe I change my opinion.

Jaune chuckled as he looked out of his window, "It looks like things have calmed down though."

As the two sat in a small moment of silence, Ruby said, "Hey Jaune?"

"Yeah?"

"I have a question that I have been wanting to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Why did you decide to leave now?"

This question seemed to surprise Jaune as he asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well, the G.G.B has been announced for over three months, and when it was first announced, there were so many reports of Grimm being detained, I couldn't turn on the TV for a week. So why didn't you leave?"

"…It was my little sister's birthday a few days ago. I was planning on leaving before, but I wanted to see my little sister grow up just a bit more, to see her smile just one last time. So I spent a couple of days trying to figure out the next opportunity to leave, and the timing had to be next to perfect, then there was the storm advisory and I knew that was my way out. That night after the party, I chose what I was gonna take with me for the journey and when the time came, I left a note to my family and left through my window."

Ruby watched as Jaune wiped his eyes as he had begun to shed a few tears.

"So, why did you come to school then?"

Jaune reached into his bag and pulled out a picture and handed it to Ruby.

"Is this…"

"It's a family photo my mom gave it to me on my first day of elementary school. She told me that it was to remind me that no matter when or where, my family will always love me. I figured that I might as well take it with me.

Jaune wiped his eyes, looked to Ruby, and asked, "What about you? Why didn't you leave?"

"…I guess I just didn't want to."

Jaune looked at me with confusion as I continued, "I guess I was just thinking that something was going to happen and the bill wouldn't have passed. The more that I thought about leaving, the more I kept trying to convince myself that it would get better… but I was only lying to myself."

"If we didn't meet yesterday… would you have left?"

Ruby released a quick breath before admitting to Jaune and herself, "…No. I probably would have stayed and hoped that something would have happened. But… now I'm here, and likely wanted in the entire state of New York."

'The route to Haven is now seventy-five percent complete.'

Jaune, upon hearing the intercom, stood up and said, "Well, it sounds like it's time to improvise."

"What?"

"Even if we made it out of New York, we didn't exactly leave discreetly. After that mess at Grand Central, I wouldn't be surprised if the G.D.T.F in Haven are already waiting for us."

"So what are you planning on doing? The only thing that can cut the brakes are the conductor androids, and we didn't really leave the last droid and console in working condition."

"And Haven is most likely waiting for us to arrive so that they can catch us. So if the train can't stop until it reaches the destination… then the only way for us to get off would be… No, that's crazy," Jaune paced around the train, going up to multiple areas of the locomotive and mumbling to himself, "But what if… Okay… Okay, okay, okay, I know what we can do."

"Should I be concerned about what you have planned?"

"Uh, don't worry about it. Um… you may want to put your bag on and strap it on as tight as you can."

The two grabbed their respective bags and tightened them to their backs before Jaune walked up to the nearby train door. Placing his hand on the door, Jaune wrapped his other arm and leg around the pole closest to him.

"You may wanna hold onto something."

"Jaune? What are you—"

"Do you trust me?"

"I don't know."

"Good because you would be crazy to trust what I am about to do, now hold on to the pole like your life depended on it."

Ruby did so and held onto the pole next to her for dear life. Jaune wrapped his arm around the pole next to him, opposite of Ruby, and placed his palm on the door.

"Electricae."

Ruby heard the door make a strange noise before it suddenly opened up, a brief powerful suction rushing out as the cold air swept in.

When the two were stable, Ruby yelled, "Are you crazy?!"

"Only a little! Come on!"

Ruby carefully walked up to Jaune by grabbed one pole, pulling herself forward and rinse and repeat until she was beside Jaune, "What is the plan?"

"If we stay on the train, then we will be caught the second we get off in Haven! And forcing the train to stop will just cause the G.D.T.F to rush to the train's destination sooner. So if we can't stop the train, we are gonna have to jump!"

"Jesus Christ, Jaune, you are crazy!"

"Like I said, only a little… Okay, on three, we'll jump, got it?"

"Oh god…"

"One!"

As I stared out into the rushing scenery of brown, white, and green, I felt like my heart was going to burst. The most intense thing that I did before all of this was go to a go-kart location with the family for my birthday, but that doesn't even come close to the adrenaline I was feeling.

"Two!"

As I began to amp myself up, whispering words of confidence to myself, I felt a physical pressure on my hand and saw that Jaune had taken a hold of it and held it tightly in his. I could see that he was as nervous about this as I was, so I responded by slowly wrapping my fingers around his and interlocking.

"Three!"

The two jumped out of the train. Upon impact, Ruby felt a rough and hard gravely ground as the two tumbled down the side of the train tracks. Soon, however, the feeling of the rough rocks were replaced with a soft and wet feeling as the two had rolled into the snowy grass.

Once the two came to had finally stopped rolling, Jaune was the first to move as he rolled onto his back. Watching as the train continued on without them, Jaune smiled as he stared up into the grey snowing skies, letting out a single, audible, noise.

"Ow."

Jaune suddenly heard faint laughter that was slowly getting louder and turned his head to see Ruby was laughing hysterically while holding her side, tears shedding and a smile on her face as she just kept laughing.

"What?" Jaune asked, a smile forming on his face as well.

"…Ow…" Ruby said.

Now both of the teenagers were laughing as they stayed there for a few moments.

6:35 AM

Finally calming down from their hysteria, Ruby leaned up to look for any distinct landmarks. There was nothing around them but the frozen lake behind them and the train tracks that they had just leapt from.

"Well… seeing how we have no tracks to follow other than the train's, I suggest that we follow our former ride," Jaune slowly got onto his feet, shaking off the snow on his body.

"Here," Jaune said as he offered Ruby his hand.

While Ruby took a hold of Jaune's hand, she used her free hand to scoop up a handful of snow. As soon as she was on her feet, Ruby smashed the handful of snow on top of Jaune's head.

"Agh! What the…"

Jaune began to wipe the snow off of his head as he heard Ruby starting to laugh again. Looking up at her, he couldn't help but form a smile on his face.

"Oh, you are so gonna pay for that," Jaune said as he quickly grabbed some snow under him and formed a ball.

It was a massacre, I tell you. The battle between friends was devastating. There was snow being thrown left and right, up and down, horizontal and diagonal. Jaune managed to hit me a few times and vice versa. But little did I know that Jaune had an ace up his sleeve.

Quickly hiding behind a tree, Jaune grabbed a clump of snow and formed it into a snowball. Taking the opportunity to use one of the few spells that he knows, Jaune whispered, "Nix". The snow in his hand began turned into a small clump in his hand as he yelled, "Think fast!"

Ruby was collecting a new snowball when she looked up just in the last second as the wave of snow made contact with her. Being a spell, the snowball sent Ruby back a few feet.

"Oh my god… Ruby!" Jaune yelled as he ran over to his traveling companion.

Once he was right up next to her, he was staring in horror as Ruby had not moved, "Ruby?"

Ruby quickly faced Jaune with both of her hands extended, "AER!"

Jaune was sent up into the air a few feet into the air, Jaune flailing around helplessly as he fell back onto the ground. Ruby laughed as she brushed herself off, "Using a spell during a game, Jaune? Have you no shame…"

"Ow… Okay, okay I deserved that…" Jaune said.

"Now take my hand and accept your defeat," Ruby said with her hand extended.

Ruby was so caught up in her victory that she did not see Jaune hiding the snowball behind his back. As he was lifted up, Jaune smirked which sparked a sense of confusion in Ruby. Ruby was quite surprised when Jaune quickly tightened his grip and smashed the snowball on the center her head. Ruby's expression shifted from a victorious smile to a distasteful glare towards Jaune.

"Now we can call it a truce."