I'm not sure how long this one will be, but it may not be too much longer than what Pharaoh's Gate was. I wanted to use this as a chance to visually express some theories I have for the RWBY series and possible conflicts that arise in the future. I hope you enjoy it! - Zephyr

The top of the desk began collecting dust. Not the magical stones of various colours that helped empower the people on the world, but the icky flakes of dirt and grime that were made visable with the blinding glare of morning sunlight. A cloth went to it and some gentle rubbing, before the white haired girl threw it fustratingly into the upper bunk she stood next to. It landed in the face of a girl with short red hair that was once sleeping peacefully, but alas, no more.

The dirt cloth blocked her abhorrently loud snoring causing her to choke from the dirt before forcefully sneezing herself awake. Around her eyes was a black beowolf inspired sleeper mask, complete with cute red eyes. They blocked her vison as she sat up trying to figure out what the hell was going on. Somehow, before she had a chance to lift the blockade from her eyes, she voiced the opposing white-haired woman's name. "Weiss!" The poor red head blinked, trying to wake up from the sudden surprise. Before the victim had a chance to speak further, she was greeted by a rather harsh and loud retort.

"Ruby Rose! Just because it's the weekend doesn't mean you can not clean up after yourself!" Weiss seemed in a sour mood, a usual attitude that poor Ruby had to endure on a daily basis. The angry Weiss Schnee was already fully clothed in her field attire; She wore a snow white v-shaped shirt and pastel blue jacket with expanded cuffs at the wrists. She wore an abhorrently short hoop-skirt that revealed her bare legs as if she were wearing a giant snowflake.

"You're supposed our team leader." The white-head placed a hand on her hip and tilted her head. "You should be doing your part for the dorm AND the combat field."

Ruby lazily grunted Weiss's harsh words off and ignored her in favour of checking the adjacent beds. The top bunk had a blonde sleeping with a brown dog-faced pillow. Yang Xiao Long. She was Ruby's adoptive older sister, hence why they lacked any notable resemblance. Somehow, Yang had managed to sleep through Weiss's tantrum and probably for the best; on rare occasions when she got mad, it was something to make even Weiss tremble. The lowest bunk was empty; the final member of the team RWBY, was not present.

"Oh hey," Ruby asked, changing the subject.

"What now!?" Weiss complained, trying her best to hold onto a pointless fight with the girl.

"Where's Blake?"

"No idea. She was up before me this morning. Probably plotting against my family or something." Weiss quite clearly had some kind of grudge with her as well. Ruby sighed. Once Weiss had got going on a rampage it was hard to bring her down. Before long a knock was heard at the door, the inevitable distraction the poor little girl needed. Ruby tiptoed over and opened it ajar to see who the visitor was. Her eyes met with bulging blue eyes trying to cram the person they belonged to through the door. "HELLO!" The woman behind the door shouted at the top of her lungs, forcing Ruby to jump back in utter suprise a few feet. Ruby then went back to the door and peeped back "Hi Nora," she sounded like a tiny whispering mouse in comparison.

Nora shouted back, less loudly before but still filled with a concerning amount of joy. "Pyrrah told me, to tell you to come train with us since it's our day off~ Lot's of fun-fun things too, y'know?"

"Sure." Ruby nodded. "I wasn't really planning much this weekend aside study for our exam anyways."

"Ohhh exam? More like PARTY!" Nora slapped her hands together excitedly. "Ren told me we can show off our skills and stuff!"

"... with limitation. We don't need the town buried under rubble." Ruby barely managed to finish her sentence when Nora was called off for goodness knows what reason. Probably Lie Ren again.

As Ruby shut the door behind her softly with a muffled clang she heard Yang in the make-shift bunk bed behind her yawn loudly as she slowly began to wake up. Arms outstretched, she seemed in a chipper mood. "Good morning everybody!"

Weiss still didn't seem in the slightest bit of a positive mood. Ruby just sighed expressively and shrugged it off.

After getting prepared, dressed and all squeaky clean-feeling; the three girls made their way outside of the Academy of Beacon. Ruby, much like Weiss wore a puffy short skirt, but it was black as night and had frills as red as roses. She wore a red cape with a hood that was down, making her appear like a certain character from a fairy tale about a wolf in the woods. Yang however, was much more casual in her dress sense. She wore a lot of leathers, a bright orange scarf and colossal boots. Much like her golden name, her hair was bright blonde, long and wild, much like her personality. As they walked, Yang casually outstretched her hands and casually clicked her bones in her fingers. "So where are team JNPR hanging out today?"

Ruby pointed to a patch of trees hanging over the walls of Beacon. "Just in the clearing of that small woodland where the flowers bloom. They said that they would be training there. You know there'll be a pretty big mission in a few days time right?"

"Yeah of course!" Weiss cried out with her arms waving as if she was trying to cover up that she didn't know. She hated the thought of not being anything less than perfect and it was more than obvious on the surface. "I got to do MY best so that I can uphold the Schnee family name."

After some short pacing, the girls made their way through the gate of Beacon to the outer grounds. Ahead of the cobbled pathway leading out of the college setting was a large tree signifying the gateway to the woodland. Under the branches of the tree sat a brown haired boy, perhaps 2 years younger than Ruby herself. He sat in mid-length grass off the side of the path and looked like he had some kind of sketchbook in his hands. Rather than be engrossed in painting, he was talking to a girl in black, who seemed familiar to the group of girls. Dressed in a tight black and white costume with long black hair and an abhorrently large black bow engaged conversation with him. Weiss folded her arms from afar and cocked her eye suspiciously "Just what sort of schemes is she up to this time?"

Yang flipped her hands into the air "You still have some growing up to do Weiss. Just because she's a Faunus doesn't make her any less of a friend. She's part of Team RWBY now."

Ruby waved at the final member of their four-girl team. She cupped her hands around her mouth like a megaphone. "Hey Blake!"

The girls ran to her as she finished her conversation with the younger boy. He seemed rather timid up close. Under his ragged tatty brown hair was a set of two emerald coloured eyes and he shyly went back to drawing in his book trying to look away from the girls in bashfulness. Blake slanted an eye towards Ruby Rose behind subtly waved back. "Hey."

"What's up? Who's this cute little kid?" Ruby asked, trying to eye over his drawing. The poor boy pulled his book up to try and hide the picture from her, but she still managed to make out a black creature on it with a white mask. It looked like a Grimm, but not one she had seen before. It looked more like a four-legged lizard with large horns. "Heeey, that looks really cool!"

Ruby's big sister also became interested. "Really? That good? Let me see!" Suddenly the red head and the blonde where looming over the little boy with overexcited expressions, scaring him.

"You're getting too close...you're kinda scaring me."

Blake grabbed them both by the scruff of the collar and pulled them back. "His name is Uther. I was just asking him a few questions as to why he's so close to the Beacon Academy." Ruby and Yang's arms dangled like little creepy fangirls.

"I come here for a little inspiration, that's all." The boy leaned his head back against the tree. "I don't get along very well with my father... so I come out here and draw things from my imagination. Something about this place makes me feel closer to home."

Ruby applauded his talent before realising that she, Yang and Weiss hadn't come out all this way for no reason. "Hey Blake, JNPR want us to meet with them a little further into the woods. We should go as a team."

Blake smiled and nodded with her weird passive expression she always had. "Yeah, I figure it was related to our secret mission when the weekdays kick off again, so all the training we can get would be worth our time. I left the dorm early for that reason, sorry for leaving you to guess where I was." she then bowed at her error. With some disagreement with Weiss, they eventually moved on together into the forest, leaving the boy to his own devices. The Schnee heir still wasn't fully convinced about who the boy was. Blake didn't openly talk to strangers without reason; and of course Weiss dropped into her usual anxious internal anxiety fit again. In short, Weiss didn't like White Fang members; even if they were former members due to the amount of damage they had inflicted on her fathers company.

Jaune Arc, Lie Ren, Nora Valkryie and Pyrrah Nikos, members of the team JNPR were practising on the clearing of the small woodland. Dotted around were small patches of flowers of purple and white which gave the surroundings a relatively calming atmosphere. Jaune Arc, the yellow-headed leader of the group sporting his silver armour and black hoodie had just finished exchanging some gentle blows with Pyrrah's spear against his own sword. Pyrrah looked sort of like a female gladiator in a collesseum; she wore a gold decoration on her head, around her neck and on her chest arms and legs. He emerald eyes looked into Jaune with some caring support "Remember," The redhead said as she thrust her spear forward to meet his sword "This is just a warm up. Don't hold back when we battle for real, okay?"

Jaune whimpered and nodded. He was still a bit of a shaky fighter and not one hundred percent experienced in his craft or battle finesse, but Pyrrah tended to help him out a lot with a lot of that. He wondered why Ozpin, head of Beacon and of all people, would have chosen him as the leader of JNPR. Either way, he had taken some advice from Ruby to help him work as a team leader and as a group, rather than worry about the position he was privileged to be given. Pyrrah gave one last hard push with her bronze spear causing Jaune's sword to loosen and fly from his hand to the ground, disarming him as he was distracted for a moment. She smiled "Move too slowly and a Boarbatusk will knock you flying along with your sword just like that."

Jaune merely gulped at the thought of one of those creepy skull-faced pig menaces. He relaxed his arms and snapped a button on his white and gold shield, causing it to fold up into his sword sheath. How so much metal could cleverly compact itself was anybodies guess. He lifted his sword from the ground. Slightly dirty from the Vytal soil, he rubbed it a little with his brown glove so the sheen appeared in it again. Pyrrah offered out her hand to help him back up. "You're getting better."

Jaune accepted her hand but didn't seem fully convinced "No I'm not. I don't think I'll ever beat you at this rate."

Pyrrah placed her hands on both of his shoulders "Listen. It's not about beating me, Nora or Ren. We're here to work together. Each of us are trying our best to be able to overcome all our obsticles as a team."

"I still don't get why you weren't the team leader." Jaune woefully questioned.

"Consider me more the advisor of the group." Pyrrah chuckled. "Besides, I think with you being leader, you have a lot more room to grow." She released her grip from him, leaving Jaune to his own devices. It was then behind them they could both hear the kick of grass to the south. It wasn't their other members, Nora and Ren, since they were to the east of the forest goofing off; at least, Nora definitely was. Ren wore a green asian tunic and baggy cream pants. His hair was short and as black as night, with a single magenta highlight. Nora, whom Ruby saw earlier could now be fully seen. She had mid-length pumpkin-coloured hair and a white and black uniform with silver armour plating. She seemed to openly poke Ren on the face several times as if he was some kind of toy.

A rustle of grass in the distance.

Jaune noticed the bright contrasting gold of Yang's hair in the foliage background, soon followed by Weiss, Ruby and Blake, completed the team RWBY in front of him. Delicate at a glance, they were a group of skilled fighters, capable to surpass him and be a worthy match for his team. Ruby, the team leader of RWBY, waved at Jaune when she caught eyes with him spread a cheerful grin on her face. She strode over the grass towards him ahead of her other teammates and held out her hand in greeting once more. "How's it going Jaune?" She glanced at Nora and Ren in the background, the former of which let out a loud goofy moan as she swooped down her hammer. Ruby's eyes widened in suprise at Nora's frequently odd behaviour.

Jaune noticed Ruby's glance at his goofier team mate and attempted to distract her from it. "S-so, how are you lovely ladies doing?"

"Great!" Ruby responded. "So, we'll be training here? Seems like a really good spot." She waltzed forward into the grassy surroundings like a curious schoolgirl.

Jaune placed his hand behind his head nervously."Yeah, we'll need to be at our best if we want to perform well at the physical exam tommorrow. We'll be going up against a ton of other teams... maybe even you guys."

Pyrrah waved her hand down and shrugged away Ruby's downer mood. "There'll be no need to be worried. No matter what happens, we'll still be your friends. A little win or loss shouldn't be getting you down. On the flipside, it will allow us to work together a bit better in a sort of competitive sense."

Runy sighed with relief and relaxed her shoulders. "Well, when you put it that way, it doesn't seem too bad."

In the background behind her, Yang was crouched down looking at a large purple flower. In the center of its white pollinated center was a yellow and black striped bumblebee. Blake looked over her shoulder in curiosity. As Yang watched the poor shy creature buzz off of the flower out of the girl's presence, the loose pollen from the flower caused her to sneeze. "Achoo!"

Blake jolted back a bit, nearly into the tree behind her before maintaining her balance and facepalming.

Pyrrah launched the spear that was once tucked away from her back somewhere and she threw it up a little into the air before catching it. "Perhaps we can train together, we might end up learning a thing or two."

With a click of a gear, the spear folded into some kind of rifle weapon and she knelt down and practised pointing with it. Jaune got a little panicked when she aimed it at his head for a brief second but she pulled it away when she saw his whimpering face. Jaune relaxed his tense body and exhaled a sigh of relief. "Pyrrah, I hate to admit it but on very, very rare occasions you scare me just a little more than Nora."

"Well," Ruby stumbled around with her arms loose and swinging. "If you guys are alright with it, I'd be glad to at least. Not sure about the girls though." Ruby felt a chill as a cold hand landed on her shoulder behind her. Weiss had caught in on the banter "Why do you think I would pass up a chance to analyse our competition." Despite the brash delivery of her words, Ruby nodded in agreement. "What about Blake and Yang?"

Even though they were several paces away, Blake heavily nudged Yang to attention and informed the blonde about Pyrrah's plan... somehow. It was due to her acute hearing ability as a Faunus, but that was something team JNPR didn't know about; they just assumed it was her Semblance or Aura or whatever strange power she had. Yang walked over to Ruby and Weiss as they talked with Jaune and Pyrrah. For a while, they exchanged a few laughs.

Within the space of ten minutes, the banter had changed to a quieter, more tense mood. The groups had scattered, in the center was Yang standing a good distance apart from Lie Ren who looked back at her in a relaxed pose with his arms folded. Yang's body language was quite different, she stood with one foot forward and her arms prepped and ready as if she were about to run the 100 meter dash. On the sidelines stood the remaining members of JNPR and RWBY as they carefully observed the battle that was about to commence. Ruby Rose noticed the drastic difference in their stances "Ren looks so calm. He looks no where near the type to pick a fight with you." She watched as he casually warmed up his shoulders.

In the distance, Nora held out her silver rocket launcher-like weapon skyward. "May the best Ren win!" she cried, as if she was almost drunk (bearing in mind this is normal behaviour for Nora) and she relaxed her arms, before pulling the trigger launching silver bullets into the sky.

Start. Yang's small yellow bracers locked over her wrists like metal gauntlets which snapped and clicked like a loaded shotgun. One warning punch from them launched an explosive bullet of fire at Ren, who remained still and calm. The bullet hit the dirt where Ren was standing, causing a massive blast of earth to burst into the sky before falling in a dusty debris cloud. Yang stood there still ready to fight. She couldn't relax until she could see Ren fully defeated.

Ruby gasped as she watched Yang utterly decimate the opposite end of the field in a matter of seconds, feeling partially sorry for the poor blades of grass that fell victim to the burning cinders of the blast. It was then she witnessed Ren approach from behind Yang, who was still intent on the now settled dust cloud. Before her fears could be realized; her back was met with a powerful pushing force that launched her to the cratered mess she had created with a roll and tumble, head over heels. She only had seconds to regain her senses, gripping the dirt she stood up to challenge Ren as his approached quickly and swiftly. He didn't currently his usual green pistol blades in his hands.

Blake standing observant with her arms folded and her narrow expression unmoving reinforced this action. "He didn't pull his weapons yet, and relied on some kind of Aura or Semblance power."

Frustrated with missing her mark; Yang shot forth more punches unleashing more bullets. It was then Ren pressed harder with his foot onto the ground, launching himself in the air above the bullets. Like a magician, two green blade guns appeared in either hand and he shot down a rain of bullets upon the golden haired girl. Her hair flared and flickered like a candle and she used one gauntlet as a tiny buckler to rain from the bullets while she used her other hand to launch more shots at Ren. The green-dressed man landed on her with a slam, using his weapons now as blades trying to pierce through her defenses aggressively. Occupied trying to fend him off, Yang pulled out her leg and coiled it round, sweeping him over.

The fighting continued on for a while. Ren was a quick fighter, Yang was fast as well volleying her own array of deviating attacks. Ruby's eye slanted to the side where Weiss was standing. Her head was down, her arms were hunched over in a very unladylike distracted position. Was that a notebook? She was scribbling notes down inside it. "Weiss, are you trying to learn their fighting style so you can win against them?"

"O-of course not!" Weiss pulled her nose from her notepad and gave a stern look back. "I'm merely finding points of which they can improve on the next time!"

Ruby lowered her tone to a whisper so the angry Weiss wouldn't hear her. "It's still the same thing you know." by the time she had turned back to face the duel between Yang and Ren, a large explosion obscured the battlefield. When the smoke cleared both competitors kneeled to the ground unable to stand. Yang's hair was a burning gold flicker of fire; that was until it petered out and lost its vibrant shine. Ren threw his weapons to the side to show he had no intentions of fighting further and Yang merely looked up at him. He held out a soft pale hand in a truce, and Yang accepted it. He noted that her hands were slightly cold from the dirt ground perhaps. "You fight hard." Yang smiled.

Lie Ren smiled and took a bow "You as well."

With a slip of grip; Yang nearly dropped off of his hand. Her vision blurred momentarily, with a sensation of vertigo she nearly tipped to the ground. Ren tightened his grip on her hand hand tried to lift her woozy legs to her feet, but before he knew it she had faded into a slumber. While the party of friends stood in shock at the sidelines, Ruby ran to her side. "Sister!"

Ren lay her on the ground where the Yang opened her eyes briefly. He face was drained of colour and she looked at her younger sibling with a smile on her face. "Don't worry, I'm just a little tierd is all."

Lie Ren placed his hand on her forehead. "She's got a fever. We should stop for today. Ruby, assist me back to Beacon."

"Seems like it's just a flu. Nothing to be panicing over Ruby, really." Pyrrah reassured that the girl's older sister would be alright. "Sometimes sickness gets the best of even the greatest of warriors."

A tense mood loomed over the silent grassy field.

Yang was now awake and looked at Ruby with a smile as she was being watched over. For a change Ruby was standing on her own two feet; rather than being the one that was being coddled over. In a way, she had hardly noticed the confidence she had now. The seeping light of the sun leaked in, it was still very much daytime but Ruby was stuck taking care of Yang. Blake and Weiss had departed to relax a while under the heavy atmosphere of unrest. Ruby stirred a hot mug of chocolate by the desk. "So, how you feeling right now Yang?" She asked anxiously, rubbing her nails together.

"A little better than I was, thanks." She placed her hand on her forehead "If only I was stronger..."

Ruby shook her head. "Nope. I think you did pretty well for being under the weather when you fought Ren."

Yang smiled. The comfort of her sister's words filled her with a with a beam of hope. However, that wasn't the least of her burdens. She had less than a day and a half to get better and help out her team during the test in several days. Being anything less than well would mean she was putting her team down. As she grew tierd, she fell asleep without realising it. "I just wish I didn't have any more burdens. I'm already bringing sister and the team down as it is." But she couldn't tell them. She couldn't tell them about the dark haze of a golden eyed woman staring down on from above in her dreams. She couldn't tell them about the slaughter of hundreds of people she had seen before her eyes or the gauntlets that were once tainted red from blood stains.

Ruby watched over the now sleeping Yang. She grabbed the covers a bit and pulled them up so Yang was a little more awry of the cold. She then shut the curtains to block out the sun made her way to the door. Before she did so, she looked back at the room as a last check to see if her sister was alright. "Yang. I'll be going with the others back to the entrance of Beacon. Keep safe." With that, Ruby shut the door behind her.