After 1

With one swing of a blade came the decapitation of a black-colored beast. With another swing, two more smaller creatures fell lifelessly. They collided softly against white snow, and then evaporated like the smoke of burning wood. Creatures of the same black composition fell in droves. One or two died every couple of seconds, nearly a hundred in total in the span of the past few minutes. Yet, they weren't even the target of the one responsible for slaying them. They were killed as collateral, a result of interfering with something beyond them.

Ruby swung crescent rose vertically, and the head fell like a bolt of lightning. The snow around it melted and evaporated, creating a small cloud of steam. Unfortunately the snow wasn't the target, who managed to roll away at the last second.

Her opponent was none other than Emerald Sustrai. Once upon a time, she was one of Cinder Fall's lackeys. Now, she was a fugitive wanted by all four major world powers. And it was Ruby's job, as a huntress, to bring her to justice. Despite this notable rise in notoriety, she hadn't changed much. She was still a petty thief stealing from shops and restaurants alike. She still used the same kind of dual-kama pistols. She still used her semblance to help her steal.

But her semblance was half-wasted against Ruby. The lavender eye which sat in the right socket and adorned with a rippling pattern nullified any visual tampering. All she needed to do was close her left eye, and the illusions were gone. And thus, Ruby substituted her red scarf for a blindfold and fought with only one eye open.

With the head of crescent rose in the ground, Emerald took her chance to strike. But rather than letting to to avoid the attempt, Ruby threw herself to the other side of the large weapon and used the pole to block. The curved blade of one of Emerald's kama peaked over the side, which Ruby grabbed a hold of and kept in place.

"That's enough!" Ruby exclaimed, looking Emerald dead in the eye. The glare caught the darker skinned girl off guard, at least enough to stop her movements for a moment. "Just give up, you can't win this."

"It's not over. Not while we're both still breathing." Emerald shot back. Her eyes fidgeted, strained as far as they could, as if she was trying to force Ruby to fall prey to her tricks.

Ruby pulled the trigger on Crescent Rose. The electric tag within the barrel discharged, the ensuing blast ripping the blade out of the ground. Ruby allowed it to travel further, letting go just as the back end clipped the kama pressed against it. Both scythes were sent flying a few meters away, skewering the last remaining beowolf during the flight.

Emerald stepped back and switched her remaining blade into it's pistol mode, and fired a couple of shots at Ruby. However, by the time the bullets reached their destination, Ruby exploded into multiple bodies of red petals, separating and flying around Emerald. They reunited into a single mass just behind her, and Ruby reassumed human form to deliver a kick to the criminal's back. Emerald stumbled forward before turning around and firing another two rounds. Ruby sidestepped and dashed forward, Once close enough, Ruby jumped up to plant both feet into Emerald's abdomen.

It knocked the wind out of the latter's lungs, and was enough shock to her system to prevent her from making a controlled landing. Thus, Emerald found herself rolling to a stop across the snow. It was fortunate that she had worn appropriate clothes for the environment, or she might have gotten frostbite in some places.

Ruby was quick to pin Emerald against the ground, pulling out a pair of handcuffs andlocking each around the criminal's wrists.

After she confirmed the capture with the metal clicking sound, a wave of relief washed over her. Her shoulders lowered from their stiff position, and she let her head lean back. As she faced the clear blue sky, she let out a deep sigh. If her eyes were open, she could've seen the vapor that her breath made.

"Looks like we're both still breathing, huh." Ruby said allowed, before lowering her gaze to notice Emerald's face was still buried in the snow. In a hurry she yanked the green haired girl's upper body off the ground, undoing her makeshift blindfold to wipe the snow off of her—less than appreciative—face.

"Oops."

"You think this is funny?" Emerald spat, glaring daggers at her captor even as she was hoisted to her feet. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be in prison?"

"Nope. Never had to." Ruby replied promptly. "But y'know, you only have yourself to blame for this." she said as she took out her scroll and dialed a number.

"I didn't have a choice." Emerald grumbled.

"You did have a choice, both you and Mercury. But you chose to stay thieves and murderers." Ruby fired back. She held her scroll next to her ear. "This is Ruby Rose. My target has been successfully captured and we're waiting for transport."

"Heard you loud and clear Ruby." Yang's voice came out from the scroll. "I got things wrapped up on my end too. I'll be there in a minute."

"Neat." Ruby smiled proudly, hanging up and pocketing her scroll.

"You don't know a thing about me." Emerald muttered.

"You're right." Ruby answered in a casual tone. "But I do know people who've done plenty worse than you. Sure it's hard, but it can be done. Hopefully you'll realize that when you get out."

Not another word was shared between the two, and thus they waited in silence. It was another few minutes before the distant sound of a running motor came into range. And it was at this sound that Ruby smiled jubilantly.


"Excellent work Ms. Rose, Ms. Xiao Long." A Vale police officer said, lowering her head. Behind her, Emerald and Mercury were both escorted by armed guards through some metal doors, where prison cells awaited them. "On behalf of the city, we thank you. Capturing these two couldn't have been easy."

"It was a piece of cake for the two of us." Yang gloated proudly, wearing a smirk on her face.

Conversely, Ruby let out a dry chuckle. They had caught their quarry alright, but it hadn't gone anything close to what was expected. They only managed to capture the two after being eluded two other times in the past. The siblings had practically been chasing them across the world.

"We're just happy to do our part." Ruby said with a more humble smile.

"Well, a simple thank you is hardly appropriate compensation." The officer giggled, "The reward money is being transferred to your accounts as we speak. As well as an extra payment for the amount of grimm you eliminated according to your logs."

"Thank you very much!" Yang clapped her hands together. "C'mon Ruby. Let's get something to eat. It'll be on me today." She said as she turned towards the station's front door. She gestured for Ruby to follow, and the two made their exit from the police station.

"Man, I can't tell you how glad I am that we're done with that!" Yang exclaimed, stretching out her back while she and Ruby walked down the sidewalk. "I can't believe it took that long."

"I haven't been able to sleep well for awhile." Ruby groaned. "It's like, no matter what, every hotel bed is either too big or too small."

"You can say that again. The one's at home are just right. But I gotta say: the food in Mistral's definitely the best."

Ruby made a pouting face. "They serve way too much food for one person. I always feel bad when I don't finish."

"Even after graduating you're still tiny" Yang said, lightly punching Ruby in the shoulder and causing her to stumble. "Good thing I'm always hungry enough to finish for you huh?"

"Yeah…" Ruby frowned. It really wasn't fair how everybody except Ruby hit a growth spurt and was several inches taller. She barely grew two. It felt like a cruel joke whenever she had to undergo a physical examination.

"So how did it go for you? Y'know, beating up Emerald?" Yang asked curiously.

"Well, it went actually pretty easy. I just had to cover my left eye," She said, demonstrating so with her left hand. "And then her semblance wouldn't work at all. And, uh, I realized she actually isn't that good of a fighter too. I don't know why this took so long."

"On the bright side, fighting isn't what thieves are usually good at. They're good at running away."

"Yang…" Ruby glared, unimpressed at her older sister. It wasn't even a pun that either could snicker at.

Upon realization of what she just said, Yang couldn't help but smile awkwardly, scratching her head nervously. "Yeah, my bad… but y'know, you have more cool powers than just your semblance. Like that electricity stuff, and what about those eye powers you have."

"Not like they would help." Ruby crossed her . "The electric stuff is too dangerous. Once I got the hang of it, I could punch through solid rock. I want to use that against Grimm, not other people. And… I don't know why Madara wanted this thing. All it does is make these black rod things." Ruby said, holding up one hand. From her palm, a thin black object started to emerge as if growing out of her. However, it quickly sank back down and became impossible to notice. "They're good for hitting things with, and I can make a lot of them, but that's all. They even disappear when they break so I can't actually make anything out of them."

"Well, maybe they do something else?" Yang shrugged her shoulders.

Ruby sighed. "If they do, I have no idea. I didn't get the chance for anyone to teach me how it worked."

There was a brief silence between the two, save for the tapping of their shoes against the sidewalk. Yang was in the middle of taking out her scroll, to Ruby's curiosity.

"Actually, that might change soon." Yang said, looking down at the screen. "While we were heading back, I got a text from a certain someone. You won't believe who it was."

"Yang, it's not my birthday and it's not yours either." Ruby was quick to remind her sister. Skeptical she was, to say the least.

"Here, just look at this." Yang presented her scroll to Ruby, with the screen displaying the message in question. Ruby mumbled to herself as she read the two messages sent in the last hour. After a few seconds the mumbling stopped, as did her eye movement.

Embracing her inner pyromaniac, Yang leaned in towards Ruby's ear. "Madara isn't alone, remember?" she whispered, adding fuel to the flame.

And in the next moment, Yang was no longer holding her phone. It was in the hands of her little sister's before she could even blink.

"Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh!" Ruby said as if she was chanting. "They're finally coming back! They're really coming back Yang!"

"Knew you'd be excited." Yang smiled wider, tilting her head slightly.

"We gotta get Blake here too!" She exclaimed, suddenly on the opposite side of Yang.

"And we need to call dad! And we need to get a cake!" She moved again, this time pressing herself against the glass window of the store next to them.

"Team RWBY's finally getting back together! And he's coming home!" Ruby was quite literally running circles around Yang, who decided that it needed to come to a stop.

All the blonde had to do was stick her leg by a little, and there was a sudden and loud thud. She grinned at her little sister, who had to peel herself off the pavement. Thanks be to aura for protecting people from harm, or she would've surely had a broken nose if not much worse.

"Calm down Ruby," Yang said, extending her hand.

Ruby took the offer, hoisting herself up. "How can I be calm? This is great! We haven't seen them in so long and in a week they'll be back!" She all but screamed, but then she looked in her other hand, which held a broken scroll, and her smile quickly flipped. "Oh yeah, sorry about your scroll."

Yang chuckled, rustling her sister's hair "I figured it'd happen, so I ordered myself another one in advance. But you'll have to be making the phone calls y'know."

"I'll do it later tonight… Uh, so what were we talking about again?" Ruby asked awkwardly.

Before Yang could answer however, Ruby's head suddenly shot upwards to look at something behind them. Yang turned to look, and saw something high above them. Some kind of white object falling from the sky like a meteorite. Their eyes followed the object as it hit terminal velocity, and shortly thereafter touched down with incredible force.

They both could feel tremors even despite the distance they had from the place of impact. The cars around them felt it too, and their alarms activated all at once. If that wasn't enough, the nearby civilians who didn't know what was happening started panicking as well.

Yang and Ruby didn't need to say anything, not that they'd be able to hear each other given the amount of noise around them. A glance at one another was enough, and they locked hands. A second later, and the two combined into a mass of rose petals which soared through the sky like a comet towards ground zero.

They eventually arrived at the impact zone, or rather the impact crater to be more precise. There were a couple of police vehicles present, which were probably in the area before the crash even happened. Ruby and Yang returned to using human bodies and hurried towards the perimeter formed by the local law enforcement.

An officer moved to intercept, but stopped as the two pre-emptively brandished their hunter's licenses.

"Huntresses coming through!" Yang shouted as she and Ruby ran past two police cars. Thankfully, they met no other resistance on the way..

They stopped at the edge of the crater. To their only mild surprise, there was a person at the epicenter. But for better or worse, it wasn't someone they recognized, or anything even close for that matter.

They didn't exactly blend in well with the environment, with their bright white attire that resembled Mistrali fashion from a few generations back. It was also stained with blood in multiple places. Foreigner would probably be the perfect word, given their pale white skin and bluish-white hair that couldn't be found anywhere in Vale. And, were those horns protruding from their forehead?

END