"Miss Rose, you are under arrest for interrupting a highly classified mission and causing extensive property damage," the beautiful woman with white hair accused. She handed me back my identification card and her military foot soldiers surrounded me

"What? You can't do that," I yelled and continued to snap back. "It's YOUR fault that YOUR mission interrupted ME. I just so happened to be around the area, trying to escape this despicable iced hell hole. But nooo, YOUR problems came running to me." I continued to shout with my arms crossed underneath my chest."In fact, you should be on your knees thanking me that I caught that criminals in the first place! Him and his accomplices were going to blow up the town with large quantities of pure dust!" I threw my hands up to exaggerate my point. "And where were you during that time? Oh wait, definitely not here! You're lucky enough that I'm a faunus and I know what explosives smell like." My tail behind me swished angrily.

Wow, she was easy on the eyes, but man she has one hell of an attitude.

"Miss Rose, I-" A phone call interrupted the militant commander. She glanced down at her scroll and proceeded to take the call. "General Ironwood, Sir. Yes sir, it was successful mission."

I rolled my eyes at her. She was taking my credit.

"That's good news sir! I'm glad she made it safe and sound. Yes sir. Also, I would like to bring someone back. Someone... interesting you would like to meet."

Interesting? Since when was I interesting? Last time I checked, I was a criminal in her eyes. Unless she found criminals as interesting.

"Yes sir." She ended her call and looked at me. There wasn't any point of fighting the military army with my scrap Crescent Rose. I couldn't have my baby breaking on me in the middle of the fight. Especially when I partially restored her to her already low quality condition.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. Maybe if I followed along, I'll get a roof over my head. I extended both my hands out, waiting for handcuffs to be placed on my wrist. The militant woman raised an eyebrow, confused with what I was doing.

"Well? I'm waiting for that friendship bracelet you're going to place on me." I pointed at the pair of cuffs that was dangling on the side of her hips. She scoffed at my snarky remark and cuffed me.

"Oh yay. Now we'll be best friends," I spat out sarcastically. She escorted me back to Atlas, the place I was trying to escape from.

The Atlesian military headquarters wasn't as far as I would have imagined it. It stood far away from the residential district as it towered over the city, surrounded with Atlesian robots and foot soldiers. The white hair commander ushered me inside the building as we headed towards the top of the floor. She then knocked on her superior office's door and dragged me inside.

"Winter, you're back early." A well dressed man with white streaks in his black hair spoke up. "Dr. Polendina, meet Specialist Schnee." The other associate sitting across from the man stood up from the leather couch.

Winter huh? Reminds me of 'him', especially the white hair.

"A pleasure to meet you Miss Schnee." Dr. Polendina stuck his hand out to and Winter shook it.

"The pleasure is all mine, doctor." The woman used her respectfully polite voice. Dr. Polendina cocked his head over Winter's shoulder and was startled with what he saw.

"Hello there Miss Rose. It's good to see you again. Though it only has been approximately..." He paused and checked his watch. "...8 hours. I thought you were leaving Atlas," the doctor said with surprise.

"Oh hey doc. Well you see... I ran into a problem." I rudely pointed at Winter. "But don't worry, I got a friendship bracelet in return!" I grinned widely and raised my hand cuffs for him to see. "If you would like one, I'm sure Specialist Schnee have extras."

Dr. Polendina hummed amusedly at my sarcastic comments. On another note, Winter did not take it too lightly as she was scowling at me, hoping to bury me 3 feet under with her deathly gaze.

"So this is the person you said was interesting. I have to admit, she has an interesting..." The older commanding officer hesitated, looking for the right words. "Sense of humor," he finished.

"Sir, disregarding her banters, her combat seems to be... Top notch, compared to most Atlesian combatants here. She single handedly took care of my assigned mission," Winter hesitantly admitted.

"So um... Can I get these off?" I shook my handcuffs to let them know I was still present in the room.

"Miss Schnee, if you would please," her commanding officer requested as he gestured his hand towards me.

"Yes Sir." She unlocked the handcuff and clipped it back onto her waist. I stroke the red marks on both of my wrist, massaging the pain away.

"So uh, who are you?" I pointed at the male superior officer.

"Pardon me for my lack of introductions. I am General Ironwood, headmaster of Atlas Academy, and a general in the Atlesian military," he answered and extended his hand out for me to shake.

"Ruby Rose," I revealed, politely taking his hand.

"Ruby Rose huh?" The general raised his eyebrows in surprise. "So Miss Rose, I have many questions for you but I'm afraid I have to cut most of it short. If you don't mind me asking, how do you know Dr. Polendina?"

"Long story short,I- ah. Helped him with, um. Penny sir," I replied back. The general gave Dr. Polendina a quizzical look but the doctor only nodded in agreement with my answer.

"So you know of Penny," General Ironwood mumbled while scratching his morning shave. "Miss Rose, I would like you to keep Penny undisclosed from the public. Rather, you must, since she is a highly classified technology ." Ironwood strongly emphasized on the word 'must' .

I took a few moments to absorb the new information. Classified huh? I smiled and took the opportunity to make a compromise.

"Sure thing general, but only if you do something for me in return," I said with a pleased smile. "If you want me to keep this a secret, I only need a few things. First, I want the best durable material you have in stock. The material must be explosion proof too. And I'm going to need a workshop because Crescent Rose needs a new body!" I happily exclaimed. The thought of Crescent Rose being properly refurnished made me restless. It's been awhile since I held and used a proper weapon.

"That's a lot you're asking for Miss Rose. How about you temporary work with Miss Schnee on her next mission considering you have high capabilities. Materials do not run cheap you know. Her mission should last for a week. I'm sure your abilities will not hinder her considering she sort of... acknowledges your skills," he proposed. I waited for Winter to make an interjection but to my surprise she stood professionally straight with her hands clasped behind her back.

"You also have to consider that I wrapped up your last mission. Throw in a few dusts, clothes, and a new scroll and you have yourself a deal," I stated. General Ironwood nodded his head and shook my hand as we finalized our verbal contract.

I felt a strong nudge trying to awaken me from my deep slumber.

"We're here. Welcome to Beacon," the woman spoke in a monotone voice. I rubbed my eyes and blinked multiple times, letting a big yawn as I stretched my arms.

The door opened and we walked out of the docked airship, returning back onto flat solid ground. Leaving the outer perimeter and more towards the main area, Beacon stood proudly as it became visible to our eyes in the darkness. The huntress led me down the main avenue and to the direction of the massive clockwork tower that stood right smack dead center of the campus. Entering the said mysterious building, we stepped into the elevator and headed straight up towards the top.

"So why are you taking me here?" I asked, trying to avoid the silence once again.

"Like I have previously state before, someone would like to meet you," she answered. I rolled my eyes because there was absolutely no point in trying to probe her for answers.

A 'ding' echoed in the chambers of the elevator as its door propped open to let us out from its long and boring vertical transportation. I stared straight ahead and noticed a tousled silver hair middle aged man wearing glasses spectacles. He was resting his chin against his folded hands, waiting for me.

"Ruby Rose...You have silver eyes. Please take a seat," the man stated as the blond woman returned right beside him. "How are you liking the view of Beacon?"

I took his offer and slumped against the seat. The woman glared disapprovingly at my action and slapped her crop against the man's table, jolting me to sit up straight.

Yikes, she's scary.

"Beacon is... Nice." My posture was straight, with my hands folded on my lap. "But more importantly, I would like to learn how you know my name?" I ignored his compliment about my eyes as I was hung over about how he knew my name. I didn't make myself well known, because I had other things to focus on.

"Let's just say that a certain general briefly mentioned your name," the mysterious man chuckled. "If you don't mind me asking, how did you meet the general?"

Great, General Ironwood is gushing over me.

"I happened to come across Pe-" I coughed to cover my slip up. It wouldn't be good to break a deal that Ironwood and I made just about two weeks ago. "An associate," I fixed myself. "I happened to come across one of his associates. I left constructive criticisms about their new invention about how it needs a... proper tune up."

Yep, Penny definitely needs major tune ups. Poor girl needed to fix her lack of social awareness and her sense of direction. She got lost in Atlas and I happened to be one of the most interesting people to talk to because I was a faunus. Unknowingly to her, it was a really awkward conversation. A few minutes into our conversation later, I freaked out because she buzzed in weird ways and smokes steamed from her body.

"And what is a faunus such as yourself walking around in Atlas?"

"I was a vagabond," I shrugged. "I took the cheapest airship and left without know where I was going."

After my kidnapping in Vacuo, I took the most inexpensive bullhead that I could afford. Money was difficult to come by, especially as a faunus. I headed straight to Atlas because it was the cheapest flight I could take. However, little did I know that Atlas held a notorious reputation for their discrimination against faunus. I didn't know about it during that time until I experienced a hell a lot of prejudice from the residents. They threw whatever their hands could get, and spat whatever came to their mind. By the end of the day, I dug through tossed away scraps to restore as much of my weapon as possible so I could get the hell out and find a way to earn money again. And that's when I accidentally bumped into Penny.

"A vagabond you say? And how did a vagabond learned how to fight like this, or let alone wield the most dangerous weapon ever designed?" He flipped through a slideshow of videos of my fight on Vale's streets.

"My Uncle?" I half lied. I remembered about my uncle going over the basics of how to properly swing a scythe around, but most of it was from dedicated practice and previous knowledge back from my world. "I think it was my uncle, but I'm not too sure myself because I lost my memories. I just know I have a family and retained some memories of the time we spent. But I can't seem to place a name or a face to go with those memories. Or let alone remember where in the world they lived."

Ozpin took a sip of his coffee and nodded with sympathy of my past struggles. Before I could ask him anything, he threw another question out at me.

"Do you know who I am?" He placed a box of cookies onto his table from his drawer.

A loud grumbling noise escaped from my stomach as I hungrily eyed the box of cookies. The man gave a nodding approval, a signal for me to indulge myself. Hesitantly, I took a piece and ate one. Then two. Then three. Then I inhaled the whole box.

"You're Professor Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon." I confidently answered after swallowing my last piece. Back at Atlas, I read a newspaper article laid out on Ironwood's desk. It had a picture of the four headmasters with a description to go along with it.

"How would you like to attend Bea-"

"Not interested," I bluntly cut him off. Ozpin was taken aback with my straightforward response.

"And why is that, Miss Rose?"

"Well first of all, I'm a lone wolf and I don't need a team. As a matter of fact, I'm too young to even join your prestigious academy."

Other than my temporary alliance with Winter, I worked alone during my five years of wandering around. I learned that being a faunus had its disadvantages. Even though they had unique abilities, their social status wasn't highly notable. Thus, I travelled alone and fought grimm alone. I shortly left Atlas's premises once I returned Penny. I ruled out that there was no way in hell my family would reside in that despicable iced shell hole. And it just so happened I interfered with Winter's mission when I crossed the next closest town.

"After examining your abilities from this night's excursion, we have deemed that you are ready to attend Beacon. Then, you would be allocated into a team. After all, a wolf needs its pack." The headmaster stated, refusing back down.

"Why?" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. I was slightly curious, but I wasn't exactly willing to give in that easily. "Why do you want to go to Beacon?"

"I think your parents would be delighted to know that their daughter is attending the same academy that they graduated from."

I flinched from his response. "Y-y-you know my family?"

"Indeed I do Miss Rose. Your family was devastated on your disappearance. Your uncle was constantly looking for you whenever he could."

I was stunned with what he just said. "I-I don't understand." I whispered softly. "How hard could it be to find a little girl stuck in Vacuo?" I was confused. If they were dead set on finding me, how could we have missed each other?

"Vacuo? Why were you in Vacuo when you were last seen in Vale?" Ozpin shot a questioning look at me.

A throbbing pressure pulsated on my head. "W-What do you mean?"

"You family scoured all of Vale to look for you." Ozpin pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"I was in Vacuo the whole time..." I softly spoke. My fingers curled in my hair, digging into my scalps as things started to connect. There was no way that my family could find me because we were in two different kingdoms. They searched all of Vale, while I searched all of Vacuo. I had guessed that my family lived in Vacuo because the White Fang's hideout was deep in the forest of Vacuo.

"It seems like there was an unforeseen complication in our search," Ozpin solemnly looked down and shook his head disappointedly.

I gritted my teeth and stared at the tiled floor. I was frustrated. Frustrated that I spent practically five years stranded in one kingdom just to find out that everything was for naught. My determined eyes glanced back to Ozpin. With a deep cleansing breath, I made my final decision. "I'll do it. I will join your academy, but I want you to answer a question."

"Of course Miss Rose. It is our job as professors to answer all your questions appropriately." He smiled at me.

"Then where can I find my family?"

"Time will tell Miss Rose."

"Bullshit!" I slammed my hands on his desk, rattling the antiques that sat neatly. The blond woman felt threatened and readied her weapon, but Ozpin held his hand up. "Don't give me that when time already wasted five years of my life!"

"Do you believe in destiny?" He raised his an eyebrow, unfazed by my impulsive behavior.

"No." I muttered, trying to calm myself down.

"Then I hope you have a little more faith in destiny," he smiled at me again. "First orientation will begin tomorrow morning. I suggest you get a good night sleep. I'm sure you've already met my assistant Glynda." He gestured his hands towards the blond woman. I looked at Glynda and she scowled at me back.

"That's professor Goodwitch. Be sure to show up at 9 A.M sharp."

I stormed out of his office, frustrated with vague answer. I left the clockwork tower and proceeded take my anger out on a nearby tree. My fist slammed against the bark, shaking a few leaves off its branches. There was nothing I could do about it. Ozpin was my answer to find what I was looking for.

I strolled around campus until I found a large enough bench to lay on. It wasn't the most desirable bed, but it will do. My tail wrapped snugly against my waist with my cloak as my only blanket.

Tomorrow will be a long day.

"This will be the day we've waited for, this will be the day we open up the door."

My scroll chimed its alarm and jolted me wide awake with its blaring music. I slammed the button to stop the buzzing device and picked up the scroll to check the time. 5:45 A.M. I groaned out loud as I wasn't use to waking up this early.

I sat up with my back slouched over. My face pressed flatly against the palm of my hands and I rubbed my eyes to rouse myself. Between my fingers, I peeked around to see if there were any bystanders.

Nope, thank goodness.

I wasn't in the mood to deal with people with questioning look on their faces of why a faunus is sleeping on a bench. Actually, I'm pretty sure I would have been harassed if they saw me.

I shuddered at the thought of Atlas. The people there were just dreadful.

I stood up from the bench and extended my toned arms high up in the air, stretching my body as much as my toes allowed me to. Satisfied with the kinks unrolled, I took a walk around Beacon to familiarize myself with the area and later made a short pit stop by the bathroom to clean myself up.

Got to look presentable at least.

By the time it was 7:30 A.M, I noticed a bustling crowd at the docking bay. I sat on a nearby bench at the center of the courtyard and decided to observe the incoming students as they came out of the vehicular deathtraps. A shaggy blond hair boy with a diamond shaped chest plate was the first to exit one of the docked airships. He tumbled out of the entrance and threw his head into a nearby trash can to empty his stomach.

I chuckled at the entertaining but grotesque sight. It was orientation day and this guy was already a mess. Poor guy. My eyes trailed to the students around him and noticed another blonde shooting a death glare at vomit boy. A pulsating headache shot through when I glanced at the woman. However, I ignored it and continued to observe her. From the matching color of her yellow and brown outfit, I noticed a slight unusual color stain on her shoes, blemishing her perfect attire.

Oh man, vomit boy is certainly having a rough day.

I laughed out loud to myself, drawing unwanted attention. People gave me weird looks and shuffled away, most likely identifying me as 'weird' and placing me in a 'do not socialize' category. I rubbed my neck and decided to leave the main avenue early.

While taking long strides on the massive pathway that lead to the main building, something caught my attention. Attached to someone's back was something that I vaguely recognized.

Holy shit! Is that a bowsword? Oh wow it is! It looks similar to -

"GAH," I yelped as I collided into a luggage cart with its heavy suitcases toppling all over me.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" A woman voice shrieked into my ears. Gosh, she was really loud.

"Ah! I'm so sorry I-" I yelled out a genuine apology. When I opened my eyes, my breath got caught in my throat. My eyes scanned down the young girl dressed in all white with her white hair, pulled back, asymmetrical ponytail glimmering from the sun's rays. A crooked scar marked down on her left eye to complete her badass but sexy look. Then I felt a creeping blush growing on my face. Oh dust, she was gorgeous. She looked similar to Winter but younger and definitely hotter.

Silver met cerulean eyes

"Apology not accepted! Do you know how much damage you could have caused?" The attractive white hair girl screamed. "This is dust! High quality dust from the Schnee quarry!"

Schnee? Winter owns a dust farm? Maybe she can hook me up with some discounts.

"Are you even listening to me?!"

Okay Ruby, play it cool.

"Um, yeah of course. I-uh, you know-um. Damage control is definitely my middle name..." I drifted off slowly while awkwardly laughing.

Smooth.

Really, damage control? More like damage inducer. I internally slapped myself for having absolutely no experience in the realm of dating. I didn't have time to find people. Being a guild leader itself was already time consuming enough.

The girl jerked her suitcase right from my hands. "Look, high quality dust!" The woman opened the white suitcase and took out a purified red dust crystal. She further emphasized her point as she shook her dust crystal in front of me. "Do you even know what dust is?"

"Uhh... Not really? I mean yes! Psh, of course I do! It's- " Before I could woo her over with my nonexistent intelligence on dust, my face scrunched up to the flakes of red dust entering through my nostrils.

Aw shit.

"ACHOOO"

I made an involuntarily expulsion of air. At least, I wished it was a harmless sneeze. We exploded instead, damaging a good portion of the school's courtyard.

Way to make a good impression Ruby. You just showed her how great you are at exploding. I just hope Ozpin wouldn't arrest me for property damage.

"GRAH! YOU COMPLETE DOLT!" The woman threw her hands in the air with frustration. "This is what happens when you give a faunus a few dust! Their pea size brain can't comprehend its complexity!"

Great, the good-looking girl is a faunus hater. Way to pick and choose.

"Look, I already said sorry. Just accept my apology already, Princess." I finally snapped.

"It's heiress, actually. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." A new husky voice joined the conversation.

Weiss and I turned our attention to the unfamiliar voice. A girl with amber eyes and long raven hair stood off to the side with a bow wrapped on top of her head. She had a distinct scent around her... Like a faunus smell.

"Finally, some recognition!" Weiss said smugly.

My eyes trailed back to the heiress. Wait a minute... Weiss Schnee. Schnee? My eyes widen as it finally clicked in my head.

"The same company infamous for its controversial labor force and-"

"How could I miss that?!" I cut off the other faunus's sentence, startling both women with my loud shouts. "You're a Schnee." I now pointed at the white hair woman who was now giving me a look of 'obviously'. "The resemblance and attitude is uncanny. You're Wi-"

"Ruby? Is that you?"

There was an awkward brief silence in the air before I diverted my attention to the source of the voice that just cut me off. It was the same blond woman who shot death glares at vomit boy.

"Who are you?" I asked without a smile

"It's me... Yang."

Song credit: This Will Be The Day by Jeff Williams

To clear up any confusion, the White Fang transported Ruby from Vale to Vacuo. She was stuck in Vacuo for nearly 5 years and left recently to Atlas. So yes she did attempt to find her family. Why didn't she leave earlier than 5 years in Vacuo? Well, it's hard to earn money especially as a faunus. It's like living a life of a homeless person, and I will explain little by little in a bit more details in future chapters.