A/N: The following is a joint story between a friend and me. If the writing style ever seems to change, that's why. For the record though, this entire first chapter is written by him, not me. My writing will make itself known in Chapter 2 as I mostly write the Fairy Tail characters while he writes the RWBY characters. Though there are exceptions to that rule. Exceptions that will show up in due time.

Weiss Schnee dared to take a sidelong glance at her partner, attempting to disguise it by pretending to check the straps of the heavy pack strapped to her back. A small frown turned the pale girl's thin lips- her partner seemed a bit more distracted than usual. While Ruby Rose normally looked a little disheveled with her messily cut dark hair twinged with red, today she looked like she had rolled in bed for hours to achieve a new level of messy that she hadn't even thought possible. And then there were the bags under her eyes. Weiss was no stranger to seeing those bags. Truth be told, Weiss had a few sleepless nights of her own under her belt. But where she would lie there and stare at the ceiling, Ruby would find something to do. More often than not, it was scrawling out some battle plan on the desk next to their bunk beds. Or drawing schematics for weapon upgrades. One time Weiss could've sworn she saw Ruby reading one of Blake's Ninjas of Love books, but she hadn't been entirely sure. But the bags adorning her team leader's face looked a lot more fresh. It didn't take a professional to see that she hadn't slept a wink last night.

Weiss' heart went out to Ruby. Though they hadn't exactly met on the best terms, the two had eventually formed a close friendship and partnership, and dare she say it, she saw Ruby as close as a sister. Or maybe something more... But now was neither the time nor the place to focus on those kinds of thoughts. Ruby needed her. She needed her and Blake and Yang. Both for emotional support and for the dangerous task at hand.

"...I found out where Mom was last," Ruby Rose had revealed at breakfast two weeks ago. Several forks and jaws had been dropped in surprise. While the team had known that Ruby's mother had disappeared some time ago, little was known about the exact circumstances aside from the fact she had gone out on a top secret mission from Professor Ozpin. But now that he was dead, no one was left alive who could give the quartet any information.

Well, perhaps there was someone. Ozpin still existed in Oscar, to some degree, so if anyone had the best chance of weaseling the information out of him, it was the farmboy. And it had been that very boy that had practically knocked their door down to talk to Ruby the night before.

Yang was the first to find her voice. "Are you sure you found the right place?" Her tone seemed slow and deliberate, like she was trying to control the storm of emotions brewing inside her. Yang had spent a good chunk of her early years trying to find out what had happened to Summer, but her findings had more often than not led to absolutely nothing.

"...Oscar told me. So I think it's gotta be pretty accurate," Ruby responded, pretending to be interested in the barely-touched bowl of oatmeal in front of her.

Silence pervaded the small dining room, only broken when Ruby chose to speak again. "Ozpin had... reports on strange activity in a cave in southern Vale. Something about energy spikes and readings like nothing he'd ever seen before. So he sent Mom to investigate..." Content with abandoning her oatmeal, Ruby's calloused hands found the edges of the white cloak- the only thing she had to remember her mother by- and wrapped it tighter around her body. Normally, doing this made it feel like her mother was giving her a warm hug. But now... it just felt empty. It felt wrong. Like there was something that didn't add up. If her mother was truly gone, she would know, right? She needed answers. And only one place could give her them. "Guys... I want to go to that cave."

Wide-eyed lilac orbs met with her younger sister's gleaming silver, and Yang immediately understood the reason behind this quiet determination emanating from the young Rose. Ruby had never given up on finding out about Mom's fate. Not... not like she had. A pang of guilt caused a frown to dampen her normally cheery face. How could she give up so quickly? Ruby barely remembered her mother and still hadn't given up. What kind of older sister, no, what kind of daughter would she be to stop trying to find her mom? Yes, Raven had birthed her. But Summer had raised her. If anyone was qualified for the role of Mother, it was Summer. And Yang was not going to give up on her ever again. "Then that's what we'll do, Ruby. We'll find Mom together."

A small smile from the cat-eared Blake Belladona sitting across from Yang preceded her own call, "I can't exactly let my partner go into the unknown without me. I'm in too."

Weiss, likewise, asserted her desire to go as well in the Weissiest way possible. "Well if you're going then I'll go to. Somebody has to watch Ruby's back, after all."

The beginnings of tears stirred in Ruby's eyes. She almost couldn't believe it. The fire in Yang's eyes, the compassion in Blake's, and the unbreakable bonds of friendship that Weiss had failed to hide... Maybe it could be possible if she had the three of them with her. She had already prepared herself mentally be dressed down by them. Scolded for daring to take on such a daunting and potentially deadly task so soon after their last bout with danger. But the overwhelming support? She had never dared to expect that. "You guys..." she murmured, a sheen of pink coloring her cheeks, "you're gonna make me cry..."

Two weeks of hard travel had brought them to where they were now. Somewhere near here, of Weiss was reading their map properly, was the cave that Summer had investigated. Refocusing on the task at hand, Weiss sifted through her pockets and pulled out a few vials of Dust. Nature's Wrath, as some called it, had some interesting properties when mixed. After breaking off from her oh so lovely father, Weiss had dedicated her efforts into creating her own business. Something that would prove that she didn't need his money or influence. She had turned to the one thing she knew best, Dust. While in her training schools, she utilized a rotating barrel to feed different kinds of dust into her blade. She had kept the kinds of dust separate from each other at all times, never tempting fate. But as of late, she had learned just how powerful different mixes of them could be. That had become the source of her new business, an Alchemy shop. Alchemy was the science of dust, and she had made a fair few discoveries of her own in the field, such as the mix she was making in the moment. A little bit of Earth Dust, a bit of Lightning Dust, and just a hint of Gravity Dust could create a very effective makeshift energy detector. Oscar hadn't given them a very specific location, but had said that the energy readings were definitely still wonky. This vial would be their ticket to narrowing it down. The silvery glow it gave off with grow more intense as it approached strong readings.

Which made it an excellent compass.

Giving the vial a shake, Weiss held her arm out in an arc, staring at the silvery glow with a well-trained eye. "Take a wide left turn," she intoned to the others, noting the small increase in luminosity on the right side of the arc.

Weiss wasn't the only one who had changed through their battle with Salem's forces. Daddy's little heiress had transformed into a fierce woman motivated by her heart to improve herself and help others. Likewise, Blake had pushed herself to break her own limits. She walked behind Weiss and Ruby, Yang stomping through the forest at her right. But Blake was not as focused on those immediately next to her as she was on everything else. She had focused the last few months on developing her Faunus abilities. Cats were hunters and trackers by nature, which meant she should be able to take on more of their traits than just the enhanced hearing those extra ears gave her and quicker reflexes her nature blessed her with. Her duty on this trip was keeping watch. For anything. At any time. It was almost like she could see everything in a radius around them. Even if she closed her eyes, she had no doubt she would be able to sense the locations of each of her teammates and the dozen trees on her radar. Her senses had already saved their asses from monstrous Grimm several times over, but she could never be too careful. Grimm seemed to be attracted to the area around the cave, which is why Ozpin had sent one of his most skilled warriors.

This new ability brought her much closer to her heritage. She even hissed a little when she was mad. Or when she sensed large groups of Grimm. Like now. "Tighten the arc. There's a den of Ursa off to the left." She closed her eyes, blotting out her normal senses until all that was left was the barest instincts. "Twenty full grown. No need to waste our energy on them."

"But Blakeyyyy, it would be fun to kick their asses!" whined the blonde beside her. She never really did get Blake's new sense of caution. They were one of Beacon's strongest teams. A group of Ursa should be nothing to them! So what if they had to use up some aura. Besides, she hadn't fought anything all day. Oh she wanted to. But even Ruby had silenced her. Something about 'You can't set fire to another forest, sis.' Bsh. She'd done it one time. One. Time. What's the big deal? She could control her flames so much better now.

Is what she would like to say. But deep down she knew Ruby was right. The intense, fiery aura she had learned to call upon at will may drastically improve her fighting ability, but it did leave her with a bit of tunnel vision. If Yang slipped up, she could very well set the forest ablaze and endanger people living on the edge of it. Or call forth even more Grimm to their location. Powerful or not, large numbers of Grimm were difficult, even for the strongest of Huntsmen and Huntresses to deal with.

"Listen to her, Yang." Ruby glared back at her older sister, an intense glare in her sleepy silver eyes. Dear gods did she want to sleep, but with the answers to the most potent question she had ever dared to ask right in front of her, she couldn't. Even though she was exhausted, her body moved like it had a will of its own. A will it shared with her. A will powered by the white cloak wrapped tightly around her. She was going to find out what happened to her mother. No matter what.

The party traveled in relative silence, with Weiss and Blake chiming in once and awhile to slightly alter their course. Since Ruby's body moved with singleminded purpose, her thoughts were free to roam. What could they find at this cave? Summer had to be still among the living, so where had she been for so long? Would she even remember Ruby when she got there? Okay, maybe that question was a bit silly. Of course she would remember. Ruby and Summer were not just daughter and mother, they were best friends. There was no doubt in her mind that her mother was somewhere out there waiting for her to find her.

Ruby was abruptly yanked from her train of thought by a sudden bombastic explosion beside her- she turned her head to the side moments later, a chuckle caught in her throat. There stood a Weiss who looked like she had taken a dive into a pool of pepper. Soot covered her face and trailed down her pure white dress. The explosion had also blown her hair out of the right bun she had worked it into, giving her this wild, untamed look that honestly had Ruby staring a bit too long. There was just something insanely attractive about her partner when she didn't care about her looks. That said, Weiss would religiously wear her labcoat when working on her research, so she was probably going to be a little angry about her dress getting all dirty.

If she was mad, she didn't show it though. She merely pointed to the cavernous opening to her left. "Uhm. I think we found it..."

Ruby Rose's silver eyes were as wide as dinner plates when she finally noticed the cave herself. Had this been any other mission, she might have geeked out over how cool the massive cave looked or how well it had been hidden in the clifface. If they weren't looking at it from this very angle, they wouldn't have seen the entrance. Though something seemed odd. Far down into the cave, she could see a shimmering light...

She took a few steps closer, wanting to get a better look and- she probably shouldn't have. The instant her dark shoes touched the edge of the cave, she felt a powerful tug on her navel, a force, she realized, her teammates were also feeling. She tried to yell out to them, but the vacuum-like force whipped Wind so strongly around them she couldn't even hear her own voice. Each of the four struggled to hold their ground. Weiss iced herself to a tree, Ruby drove her scythe into the ground, Yang embedded her metal arm in a rock, and Blake drive her sword and sheathe into the hard dirt. But none of those measures were enough to beat the otherworldly forces working on them.

They were sucked, weapons and all, into the streaming vortex giving off that light.