Qrow was sitting and drinking at the Crow Bar, which surprisingly, still remained intact and undamaged in anyway. He lifted the beer glass to his lips and took another sip before setting the glass down. The bartender watched on before looking at the two empty glasses beside him.

"Are you okay?" the bartender asked.

The drunkard sighed, not really giving him an answer. The bartender bowed his head in respect to General Ironwood.

"General Ironwood?" Qrow asked more than slightly buzzed.

As he entered, the stoic look on his face shifted to an exasperated expression before looking at both Qrow and the bartender perplexed. "You're still here? I thought this place would have closed."

"You would think, but a small crowd of locals try to drown out their sorrows by coming here. I know, I've seen it get crowded on weekend nights. Right now it's not so bad."

The bartender faintly yet slowly smiled. "I actually owe him. He's kept my business afloat. He's like a good charm!"

Qrow thought to himself, Oh little does he know that I'm the exact opposite.

He took a sip, finishing off the third glass. "Care to join me general?"

"I don't care for drinking, but I do wish to speak with you." The general turned to the bartender. "Do you mind if I speak with Qrow and trust you not to repeat anything I say here to anyone else?"

"Sure! Just pretend I'm not even here!"

The bartender took a few steps back to clean the glasses that he had not yet cleaned from earlier. Ironwood grimaced as he looked at the empty glasses. "Three full beers. This does not look like a good sign."

He was given another glass by the bartender. "You can make that argument."

"Is there... something going on or are you just depressed in general?"

"Both. Two terrible things happened along with the general malaise."

"I know it is none of my business, but if you are willing to answer, what are those two things?"

"The first was bringing the preserved-as-best-as-I-could corpse of Amber Scarlett back to her family and explaining what happened to them. Trying to get her to them was physically draining as it was emotionally. Eventually, I got there, told them what happened and since her body was already decaying, they decided to cremate her. I don't know what was done with her ashes. As you can well imagine, they were devastated. Not only did they learn of her death, they had been kept in the dark. Ozpin never told them anything. For an entire year they had been worrying, kept out of the loop, and now she's dead. As for the second thing... it is a lot worse."

The general gave the drunkard a questioning, confused look. "I am having trouble seeing what could be worse than bringing the corpse of a maiden back to her family and explaining how she's been put out of commission for over twelve months died and how she died. Let me guess, Grimm destroyed an entire village as well?"

"No, it's worse. Yang lost most of her right arm."

Ironwood looked visibly downcast. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Taiyang was devastated. Ruby's tried reaching out to her, but Yang just pushes everyone away. I've hardly even seen her since she suffered from her loss." He took another sip of his beer. "Now you can see why I like to come here."

"You can't keep drinking like this all night. This is the fourth glass if I'm not mistaken. You can't drown your sorrows in alcohol."

"I can try."

"Don't you have important things to do? Such as finding Ozpin's successor?"

"We don't know who that is or where he is. Heck, it's possible that a new vessel hasn't even been chosen yet."

Ironwood sighed. "How long does this process take?"

"According to what Ozpin once confided in me, the shortest amount of time for finding a successor has been two months. The longest was two years."

"Oh boy... So in other words, his successor could be trying to adjust to the situation and accept his destiny, or he hasn't even been chosen and won't be for a long time."

"Pretty much. How are things going with you by the way?"

"Not well. Many people outside the city, Beacon Academy and even a small few in Atlas incorrectly think the Fall of Beacon is my fault. One of them is trying to get me off the council. Obviously, with my two seats on the council and others to vouch for me, that won't work, but it does nothing to help the situation at hand. The remains of Penny have been gathered up and returned to her creator. He devastated was upon seeing his little girl sent back to him in a box." An alarm went off on his scroll and he looked at the time. "Shoot. I should have been at my ship on my way to Atlas now. The Atlesian Council is having an important meeting to discuss what we will do from here about the Fall of Beacon. I have to get going. Goodbye, Qrow." He started to walk away, before stopping to ask, "You are going to cut back on drinking, right?"

"If it helps you feel better, this is my last one today." Ironwood walked away to find his ship. As soon as he was out of earshot, Qrow asked, "Could you get me a bottle of Merlot to go?"

Meanwhile, in that same city, mostly ruins were seen as the cat and the monkey were roaming the devastated city.

"So, remind me, why are we stopping here again?" Sun asked.

"For a few supplies." Blake answered. "We need more food, some more water, and since Corvina tore it to shreds, a new bow to hide my ears." She held on to the top of her hat that she took from the captain with her right hand briefly. "Eventually this hat will get lost or be blown off, and I'd rather not have my cat ears visible when that happens."

"Fair point."

The two stopped at a cracked crossway with a street lamp. Blake handed something to sun. "Here's 20 Lien. That should be more than enough for one ribbon, although with Vale becoming a near ghost town, prices may have gone up. You get the ribbons and I'll get the food and water. Meet back here in thirty minutes."

The two went their separate ways to get supplies. Blake took only twenty minutes to get her stuff so she was left waiting for a while. A long while. Another twenty minutes had passed. Where was he?

"Blake, over here!" Sun called from the other direction.

"Ah there you are! What took you so long? I was starting to get worried."

Sun hid his hands behind his back. "It took me forever to find a store selling ribbons. Well I got good news and bad news. The bad news, I couldn't find any black ribbons." Blake frowned. "Good news, I found a lot of other colors."

He got out the ribbons from behind his back. His girlfriend looked at his hands as he tightly held the ribbons- they were white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, gold and silver. She looked at him, slightly dumbfounded. "You got me a bunch of ribbons?"

"They had every color but black. They were supposed to get another shipment, but it never arrived at the store, so I bought as many as I could." he explained.

"Aw, you're too kind. I wouldn't think that you would willingly and eagerly do something like this."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you always thought I looked better without the bow."

"Look, I know you aren't comfortable letting the world know you're a faunus, and I respect your desire to keep it secret. Besides, now you got your choice of bows and several backup bows." Sun held out the ribbons to his girlfriend. "Pick whichever one you want." Blake took the white ribbon out of his left hand and wrapped it around her cat ears to conceal them. "Good choice! It goes well with your tailcoat!"

Blake smiled. "Aw thanks." She then took Corvina's hat in her hands and tossed it aside. "Now come, we better get going to Mountain Glen."

"Well long time no see." Ren remarked.

Jaune waved. "Hi... Nice to see you guys."

"Jaune! Pyrrha! Man, am I glad to see you guys!" She threw her arms around the two of them, giving them a big bear hug. "I missed you so much!"

Pyrrha gasped for breath. "Nora... Can't breathe..."

"Oh, sorry!" She let them go. "I wasn't expecting you! What brings you here?"

"We need your help."

"With what exactly?"

"Me and Jaune are traveling to Haven Academy in Mistral to face Cinder, the woman responsible for the Fall of Beacon, and her allies and stop them once and for all. I made a promise to Penny that I would find the ones responsible for her death and bring an end to their evil ways."

"Sounds like you guys need all the help you can get." Ren turned to his partner in crime. "Nora, are you ready and willing to help them in their quest?"

"Sure thing!"

Ren suggested, "We might want to get more allies."

"Who you gonna call?" Nora asked.

"And who would be willing to aid us?" Jaune asked.

"What about team CFVY?" Pyrrha suggested.

"Can't, they transferred to Shade."

Ren mused to himself silently for a moment or two. "I know none of us really like them, but what about team CRDL?"

Jaune frowned, folding his arms. "No way. Didn't I tell you that they insulted and mocked me and Pyrrha after she got out of the hospital?"

"And besides," Pyrrha began. "I thought they went to Atlas Academy."

"Really?" Nora raised an eyebrow. "I thought they went to Haven." The valkyrie folded her arms. "Either way, that idea's tossed out the window." She smiled again. "Oh! We could try some of our friends, like team RWBY."

"But they've split up after the fall of Beacon." Pyrrha mentioned.

"Weiss is in Atlas, and something tells me that she probably wouldn't be allowed to leave the manor." Jaune theorized.

"We don't even know what happened to Blake after she ran away." Ren added. "And Yang isn't in any shape to fight."

"But Ruby might be able to help." Nora added.

"You really think she'd be willing to join us for our mission? I mean, she's probably very depressed with the events that happened. And even before..." Pyrrha began.

"But she knows it's not your fault that her friend Penny was murdered. I'm sure she wants answers as to who's pulling the strings." Jaune answered. "And we already have some of those answers. I think Ruby could help us."

The mostly silent warrior nodded. "I suppose it's worth a shot. Does anyone know where Ruby lives?"

"Hmm..." Nora mused to herself. "I think she told me where her place was one night when we were getting manis before the Beacon Dance. I know it's in Patch. I remember now- 7513 Thunder Road! Shouldn't be horribly far from here."

"Then we leave tomorrow morning." Ren said. "It's been a long day and I'm in no mood to go anywhere right now."

"So where are we gonna sleep?" Pyrrha asked.

The lotus warrior widened his eyes in realization before turning to his other teammates. "Oh yeah, there's only two hammocks used for beds. We're not really used to having company."

Jaune looked at the couch in the living room. "Rock paper scissors for the couch?"

"We could try and share the couch." Pyrrha suggested.

Jaune found himself blushing yet again. But why? It wasn't like they had never slept together. Albeit those times they were on an actual bed with an actual mattress. This time it was a couch, a much smaller space that one person could sleep on, but not meant for two. Still, it would have to do.

Ren turned out the lights. "Goodnight guys."

"Goodnight." everyone else said.

Jaune led back on the couch, with Pyrrha on top of him. She draped a blue blanket she had found over the two of them and leaned her head against his chest. Jaune gently cradled her as they slowly drifted off to sleep.

I'm the luckiest man in the world. he thought to himself.

The next day, at the Rose/Xiao-Long Family home, Ruby was petting and playing with the dog, Zwei, when she heard a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." she said to empty air.

Who in the world would come out here? Last I looked, dad hasn't invited any friends over...

She opened the door and saw team JNPR on the other side. "Oh, hey guys. What brings you here?"

"We need your help, if you're willing to aid us." Pyrrha began.

Jaune continued, "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to join the four of us to Mistral, more specifically to Haven Academy, to put an end to Cinder's evil ways and uncover the truth about the Fall of Beacon. It will be dangerous, and there is the chance that you might not come back. Do you accept the mission?"

"I accept. Can you give me about 30 minutes to pack up my gear?"

"Sure thing."

Ruby closed the door and went back inside. She climbed up the stairs to her room and started packing her backpack for the journey, putting in a few clothing items, a canteen of water, dust packs and a sleeping bag. As she grabbed the first few items, her eyes turned to a picture of herself and her older sister, Yang. She looked away, feeling guilty.

How can I even tell them? she silently asked herself.