Author's Note: So for those of you that looked at my profile recently, you will have seen that I have been working on something special for a long time. Ever since my birthday a little over a month and a half ago, I started writing out chapters for this new story. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it. And since I've been working on it for so long, I will have a good number of chapters backlogged for y'all. They will be posted weekly, every Thursday night (for me, it's a Thursday night right now). Shout out to my boy Gorsouul and a friend from college for beta reading this for me, and helping me get better. Enjoy!

The "future" is now, and yet… I yearn for the past...

The day is quiet. Much quieter than it should be. And I'm sitting here at my desk. This empty, worthless desk. A beautiful desk in the right eyes, I'm sure. With all of its fine carpentry, the expensive wood, the quality paint... But beauty is gone from me. All of my joy left a long time ago. I slam my fist into the table, suddenly overcome with rage

Damnit, Ruby… Why did you have to… Why did you have to go?

In the next moment, the anger gives way to a piercing sadness that nearly makes my heart stop.

Before me sits a book full of pictures. Of memories. Turning the pages brings me face to face with the memories that have filled my life up to this point.

A picture of Team RWBY on the first day of Beacon after getting assigned teams.

Pictures of parties at Beacon with the team. Ruby and I sitting off in the edge of the picture whereas Yang is drunkenly hugging Blake. Blake blushing and pushing her away, even though she later admitted she liked it.

Pictures of Ruby and I as bridesmaids at Yang and Blake's wedding. She looked so beautiful that day.

A tear falls from my eye, dropping against the desk, and more soon fall, following the first to their own demise. I wipe the tears from my eyes, get up, and head towards the mirror in my office to get a good look at myself. The dark circles under my eyes confirm that I look as bad as I feel. I haven't slept well in weeks, I've stopped caring about skin care, and somehow, my scar looks worse than normal. No, I haven't been able to say that I'm doing okay; not since that day. That absolutely horrible day; the day when I lost both my best friend and the love of my life. Tears well up again, but before they can fall, a loud, obnoxious ringing breaks my thoughts. I turn to see my office phone with a call on the line for me. Walking over, I hesitate to pick it up, my hand faltering as I touch it. My will to be alone fails me, as I answer anyway.

A cheery voice greets me from the other end of the line. "Miss Schnee? Yes hi, it's Linda, your secretary. Anyway, I'm calling to remind you of your meeting with the head of research and development in the SDC later today."

"Thank you, Linda, but I'm not in the mood for meetings today," I say, almost emotionlessly. Truth be told, I hadn't been able to muster any energy at all today to get work done. What was even the point? Life felt so meaningless.

"I hope you don't get mad at me for saying this, ma'am, but you haven't been in the mood for meetings at all in these past few weeks. Not since Miss Rose-" My breath catches at her name. "Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Schnee, I shouldn't have said that."

"No, it's okay Linda. It's fine. Just…" I hesitate, holding myself from going off on her. "Do you have anything else? Or can I get back to what I was doing?" I wasn't doing anything, but I just want to end this phone call.

"Oh! Yes, about the meeting today, I was told to tell you that this is really something you're going to want to see. And that she's tired of you moving the meeting date over and over again. But most importantly that this is something you want to see."

"Alright, I'll try and humor her. What time is the meeting?" I ask, feigning enthusiasm.

"Well, it's at 2 PM. So should I tell her that you'll be in attendance?" There was a faint hope in her voice that this time, her pleas wouldn't be in vain

I look at the watch adorning my wrist to look at the current time. 10:30. Damn, it'll still be a while. "Yes, go ahead and let her know that I'll be there. Now is that all?" I ask, growing impatient and wanting to be alone again.

"Yes, that'll be all for now, Miss Schnee. I hope your day gets better!"

"Thank you, Linda. Goodbye." I say in a voice that's probably too harsh and hang up the phone and sit down at my desk, my head resting itself in between my hands. The cheerfulness was well-meant, but nonetheless annoying. I didn't like how it made me feel like the bad guy either.

Minutes pass before I move from that spot, but it feels like hours. Time has become irrelevant to me now. I just want to see her again. I think to myself as I finally start moving again. I'd do anything to see her again.

I check my watch again, and much to my dismay, the blasted thing reads 11:15. Not nearly enough time had passed. Sighing, I grab some papers from the large stack of paperwork that had recently been accumulating at an alarming rate. I might as well try to work on SOMETHING.

Five sets of paperwork later, my mind has gone blank. I guess this is what happens when you do nothing for three weeks and then try to jump back into the swing of things. However, upon looking down at my watch, I'm happy to see that the time now reads as 1:00. Damn, that took a while, but I guess it helped things speed up. Anything to end the day faster.

Sighing to myself, there is a faint regret in not being able to delve into work with all abandon, just to be able to find relief for my tormented mind..

My stomach rumbles, interrupting my musings before the sadness fully hits me again. I stand up, heading to the small mini refrigerator and getting my lunch out of it. One would think as the CEO of SDC, I'd have more than a large expensive desk, a chair, and a mini fridge in my office, but that's not the case. I wanted a simple room. My lunch is a simple salad, devoid of any taste, as most things are. Finishing that consumes a bit of time, as I pick through my food. It's hard to have any sort of craving for food when the one person you cared about the most, more than yourself at some times, is gone. One day here, and the next gone without a trace. Without a word. Without a goodbye…The phone suddenly rings again.. I snap out of my trance-like state and pick it up.

"Miss Schnee? Your two-o'clock meeting is here." I glance at my watch to find that it is indeed two-o'clock.

"Oh, okay. Send her in." I sit back in the desk and wait for her to come in. The all-too familiar head of research and development walks in with a kind of swagger that most people these days don't seem to have. Her bright yellow hair and somewhat cocky attitude is the only things to recognize her by from the years in Beacon. Her look is a much more professional one, and less of a partying sorority girl.

Fond memories fill my mind for a second, the wistful reminiscence taking me back to better days when life felt bright and the days were filled with joy.

"Hello, Yang," I greet, motioning her to the chair in front of me.

She doesn't sit.

"Weiss, it's nice to see that you've finally agreed to meet with me." Her tone is somewhat annoyed, but it is laced with care.

A pang of guilt hits me."I-I'm sorry, Yang. I-It's just that…" I trail off, rubbing my arm awkwardly and looking anywhere but Yang's eyes.

She lets out a weary sigh, her expression growing somber."I know it's been hard since Ruby died. And I don't blame you for that. I know how you felt about her. I'm devastated too."

I feel tears welling up again at the mention of Ruby. Yang sees this and walks over to comfort me, and I immediately throw my arms around her as tears run down my face.

"It's just… Why did she… Why did she have to d-die so soon? I l-loved her! And I n-never got to tell her!" I sob. Yang just rubs my back soothingly. The hug is soothing, her warm embrace giving me a small sense of comfort.

"I know, Weiss. I know. We all feel it. Trust me, we all feel it. But, that's actually why I'm here. I have some news you might want to hear. You'll have to get up though. Think you can follow me back to the lab?" She asks. She looks very excited to show me whatever this is. It's weird seeing her this happy considering what had happened. I nod in response. I put my arm around her shoulders, and she helps me up. Now standing on my own two legs, I walk next to her out of the office and into the hallway where Linda is seated.

"Headed out, Miss Schnee?" Linda asks as we walk past her. She looks happy. Probably because I seldomly leave my room at this point. It's good to see that someone is happy.

"Yes I am, Linda. Hold all of my calls until I get back, okay?" I regret how I snapped at her earlier, so I said this with a bit more compassion in my voice than earlier. She simply nods in response.

I follow Yang out to her car - another thing that is different. She no longer uses Bumblebee as her only mode of transportation - and get in the passenger side. The drive is short, but nerve-wracking. What news does she have? How can she be so okay with what happened? She looks so calm. Not like me. I'm a mess.

We get out, and Yang leads me through the facility. There are people behind some glass messing with chemicals in vials, doing tests with refined Dust, and the refining itself of Dust. She leads me past some of the people in suits, dealing with radioactivity in some testing rooms, and leads me back to the very back room. Sitting in the room is a large chamber with lots of wires, cables, and monitors hooked up to it. There are a number of scientists standing around it.

"Yang, what is this?" I ask, motioning to the large chamber.

"That," she starts, "is the news I have for you. You know as well as I do that there have been great advances in the scientific fields as of late. Well, what you don't know is that we've been working on this… little project here for about two years now, and as of last night, we finally had a successful test trial."

"Wait, if your first success was last night, then why have you been trying to schedule a meeting with me for weeks now?" I question. "Also, what is it?"

"I'll get to what it is in a second. As for why, I tried to schedule meetings because I knew what we were working on, and how it could help. Help all of us, but most of all, you," she explains in a slower, kinder tone. She grabs my shoulder and gently squeezes it

"How is this going to help me? The only thing that can help me is to see Ruby again..." I trail off, doing my best to hold back the tears. I have to stay as strong as I can in front of all my employees..

"Exactly!" She says, looking at me with a large smile.

"What do you mean exactly?"

"Weiss, this… What we made? It's a Time Machine. We got it to work last night." Her smile has grown to even larger proportions. She's bouncing on the balls of her feet.

A Time Machine? What does she think I am, twelve? I don't believe her. How can I? What she's saying is absolutely ridiculous!

"You're messing with with me, right?" I deadpan.

"No, Weiss. I'm not. I'm being completely serious. We found the perfect code to make it happen. Adding the right amount of Dust into this chamber with the time traveller, and then sending two atoms into the chamber at the speed of light from these tubes here will allow the user to travel through time. The atoms colliding creates the immense amount of power that is needed to power the trip, and then that, combined with the Dust input fuels the time warp itself. We found the exact ratio to do it."

The more she explains it, the more I lower my guard. "So… we can go and save Ruby? Go back in time to a point in time before she died, and stop her from going on that mission?" I ask.

"Well, in a sense, yes. See, if you were to go back as you are now to the point before Ruby died to save her, you'd create a paradox, Saving her would have removed your desire to go back and save her, thus removing your ability to save her, and so on and so forth. So large jumps into the past like this uses a different form of travel through time, as you travel through space as well. In order to not create said paradox, there would have to be a split in space, which you'd be jettisoned through into an alternate reality." Yang explains, showing me diagrams and formulas throughout the explanation.

"And so… you want me to go back in time to stop Ruby from dying. And in order to do that, I have to be pushed into an alternate reality to not create a contradiction in logic and physics. That about right?" I ask, walking through it in my head.

"Exactly. But, it wouldn't be a time in close proximity to Ruby's death. With all that you know now, your behavior around her would be different, and she would definitely notice it. That'd put her off, and she wouldn't listen."

"This sounds like a load of crap, Yang. But at this point, I'd do anything to see Ruby again. And even if this fails and kills me… at least I won't be living without Ruby. So then… where, sorry, when will I be going?" I ask.

"Wow, Weiss. That thing you said right there? That was depressing. Anyway, we've decided the best course of action for you to take is for you to go back to the first day at Beacon, that way Ruby can meet you with this knowledge, and that will be the real you to her. And now with the added benefit, you can pursue her when you fell for her like you always wanted to. Or at least, that's what you always told me was when you fell for her." Yang smirks.

"Shut up, Yang. I told you that in confidence, not for you to blab in front of all of these strangers." I scold.

"Aw, come on. Don't put me on… Weiss just for that." An audible groan can be heard from the rest of the people in the room. Yang just chuckles. "You know you guys love me. Anyway, you'll be put in place of your younger self. And don't worry, Ruby will be just like how you met her. She'll only change what you make change. Just… try not to come across as obsessed. That's a huge turn off."

It hits me then that this… this might be really possible. It might really be possible to see Ruby again. To be with Ruby. To save Ruby.

Images flash through my head: memories of the young and hyper huntress.

Ruby and I on the first day, when I scolded her and she exploded.

Ruby and I when we were chosen to be partners.

Ruby's unwavering optimism.

Ruby's beautiful smile.

Ruby.

Ruby… I'm coming.

"Yang, send me back in time to save Ruby."