In Memory Of

Monty Oum (1981 – 2015)

"Keep moving forward"

Chapter 1 – Do You Like Dark Chocolate?

Ruby Rose was happily skipping along on a long, hilly path. The green of the hills stretched on for as far as the eye could see. The day was a very pleasant on for the young huntress-in-training, a clear blue sky with a pleasantly warm sun glowing down on her. Her happy smile reached from ear to ear, humming away on a tune that she couldn't remember the name of. After the hectic past few days, she felt like this was the perfect way to relax and unwind. She didn't have a set destination in mind. Instead she opted to just see where this path took her, enjoying the perfect weather as she went. Maybe one day she could take her team with her to this little slice of heaven, it's been too long since Yang and herself had just taken a walk like this. Just simply walking for the sake of walking, without a care in the world.

Her normal attire of her black corset, combat skirt, leggings and boots kept her nice and warm from the gentle breeze that was blowing in front of her. The wind was light and gentle, causing her red cape to sway softly behind the Huntress-In-Training. Ruby had decided to keep her hood down during this pleasant trip, so that she could feel the breeze blowing through her dark hair.

It was at this moment that she smelt it – a faint, but distinctive sweet aroma made its way into her nose. She took a few quick sniffs, curious about what this new smell was. It was there, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it – just what was this sweet smell that she had found? Her curiosity piqued, she followed the smell, hoping it would lead her to something nice. It smelt nice enough to make her think that something good was out there.

As she started walking towards her new destination, the sweet smell started to get slightly stronger. Her eyes started going wider as it suddenly hit her – she recognised this smell! Her slow walk quickly became a jog until she found herself sprinting towards the source of the smell. If it was what she thought it was, this could turn out to be quite possibly the best thing EVER! Getting closer to the source, she started noticing that the sky had started changing colour. No longer was the sky its familiar blue, instead it slowly changed into a chocolaty brown. Normally Ruby would have been concerned about the sudden change, but the smell had taken priority for the little Grimm reaper. She suddenly came to a halt when she had arrived at her destination. Her jaw hung wide as realization hit her - this was the source of the scent she found. Her eyes widened as she read the sign above her head. There was no way what she found was real, but there it was straight ahead of her! She couldn't contain her excitement anymore.

"COOKIE LAND!" the girl screamed. The fabled cookie land, a land that Yang said didn't exist, was right in front of her. Yang had lied, there really was a place called cookie land! As if to prove her point, a huge sign saying 'Welcome to Cookie Town!' was placed atop of the entrance gate. The background was coloured in chocolate brown, and the lettering was spelled in a mixture of colours. The place was HUGE! Buildings 100 foot high, an amusement park that went on for miles and miles filled to the brim with lots of rides, a river made out of nothing but milk.

But the best part of it all – everything was made out of cookies!

Without wasting another second, Ruby rushed into the town, her semblance making her movements in to a blur. She rushed towards a random building and gave it an experimental lick. This was Cookie land after all, everything was meant to of been made from cookies! As soon as her tongue touched the wall, her taste buds exploded with flavour – it was made from double chocolate chip cookie dough!

Without wasting another second, Ruby opened her mouth as wide as her jaw would allow and bit into the wall. She couldn't believe it; she was actually eating a wall made out of cookies! Aided by her semblance, she started eating into the wall as fast as she could. Where she had started eating, the hole on the wall grew from a tiny dot in the wall, then rapidly became bigger then Ruby herself. She jumped a couple of times to try and bite at a part of the wall that was just out of reach when, to her horror, she saw what was inside the building. Ruby felt like a deer Faunus caught in the headlights- two people, made entirely from chocolate, and were looking at her. To her surprise, they didn't seem angry. In fact, they seemed the complete opposite. The two chocolate people, both of whom looked like just blobs of chocolate to look like a person, had a calm and peaceful look to them both.

"Are you alright, little one?" the male asked. Ruby scratched the back of her head, her face scrunched up in confusion. Shouldn't they be yelling at her for ruining their wall?

"Ahh, sorry about, err, eating your wall. I got, um, carried away. I'm really, really sorry!" Ruby replied. She felt herself panic, what if they made HER into chocolate? What if she got hungry afterwards and started see if she tasted like chocolate too? Her fear of eating herself must have been obvious on her face, as the woman walked over to her.

"Don't worry dear; this is Cookie land after all. Eat whatever you want, it's OK." She explained, giving the Grimm reaper a soothing hug. The chocolate woman must have towered over Ruby, as the young embarrassingly found her head resting on top of her, well, chest. Ruby didn't care though: she was just told to help herself to whatever she wanted! She hugged the woman tighter in response.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" she cried, her voice muffled by the bigger woman's body. Ruby had permission to eat whatever she wanted. She could eat all of the buildings. Drink all of the milk from the river. Ride all of the fairground rides, and then eat them all when she was done! With so much possibility, Ruby couldn't help but drool a little at the thought.

Soooo much chocolate…

"Uh, Ruby?"

Huh? What was that? Did that sound just like…?

"Ruby! Wake up already!"

Ruby opened her eyes slowly, wandering what all the fuss was about. She was having a dream. Something to do with cookies, and now here she was, somewhere, coloured white and uncomfortably big.

Wait, white and uncomfortably big?

"You know sis, you can be really clingy sometimes." Ruby's eyes shot wide open. Two realizations hit her at once – she had just awakened from what just might be the best dream in the world EVER! Also, she was hugging her sister, dressed in the standard Beacon Academy school uniform, with her head wedged in between her chest.

"Sorry!" The sleepy student in pyjamas apologised, letting go of her sister. The blond bombshell just laughed to herself as, Ruby noticed, she stepped down from a chair.

"Don't worry about it, Rubes." She replied, as she put the chair away back to the desk that it had come from. "Must have been some dream to make you hug me that tightly."

"Or drool on you." A voice that sounded like a disgruntled Weiss came from below Ruby. Was everyone already awake? Ruby looked to the other bunk bed and, sitting on her bed, was Blake, also in school uniform, and reading one of her many books. Zwei, the little gray and white corgi visiting from Patch, was laying on his back, looking up towards Ruby happily by desk in the far corner. Yang's head looked down to inspect the area that her sister's head had been resting a few seconds ago

"Ruby!" Yang cried, surprise filling her face. The Faunus girl lowered the book she was reading and turned towards her leader, an eyebrow raised in curiosity.

"I'm really, really sorry Yang!" Ruby apologised franticly, waving her arms in front of her. "IwashavingthisreallyawesomedreamwhereIwasskippingalongahillandthenIsmelledthissweetsmellthatIjusthadtofollowandthenasIfollowedittheskybecameallchocolatyforsomestrangereasonanywayasIfollowedthesmellitgotstrongerandstrongeruntilIarrivedatCookielandwhichyouliedtomeaboutbythewayohyoushouldofseenitguysitwasthishugecitythatwasentirelymadeofchocolatetherewerebuildingsthatweresuperhighmadeofchocolatearivermadeofmilkandevenafairgroundandthebestpartwas–"

"RUBY!" Weiss yelled, accompanied by the sound of something hitting her bed. "Please stop, you're giving me a headache." The young leader looked between her sister and Blake, both sharing the same, confused expression after hearing about the dream. She scratched her head nervously, this was seriously awkward. Surely nothing else could go wrong?

"Team RWBY, please report to the headmaster's office immediately. This is a priority Omega directive. I repeat, team RWBY to the headmaster's office." The voice of Professor Goodwitch's voice spoke over the intercom system. Ruby's eyes opened wide, a priority Omega directive? That was normally reserved for when a team was needed for an emergency meeting concerning city defence. As quick as she could, Ruby jumped off her bunk, grabbed her school uniform and rushed into the bathroom. She thanked her lucky stars that her semblance was speed, as it allowed her to change into her uniform at record speed. An important meeting like this did require her to at least look presentable.

What could they be needed for?

The Beacon tower. One of the tallest buildings in Vale. A shining beacon of hope to all who see it standing proud. Office to the headmaster of Beacon academy, Professor Ozpin. A building with a rich history of overseeing countless hunters and huntresses in training realizing their dreams.

A building where one Ruby Rose wished she didn't have to be in on such an important moment.

Ruby, who was now dressed in her own school uniform and cape, fiddled with her two index fingers, worried about what was to come. A priority Omega, whilst not the highest security alert, still meant something serious had happened. The last time she was summoned to this building, it was to report about the infiltration that had happened during the school dance. It was seen as a priority Beta alert – a direct attack on school grounds, be it physical combat or cybernetic warfare. In the case of the infiltration, it had been the latter. Only priority Alpha is considered higher than that – an attack by the Grimm in Vale. She can still remember the sirens that went off when the priority alert was triggered just a couple of days ago.

"Ruby, are you OK? You've been playing with your fingers since we got here." Yang asked, the drool spot long gone, thanks to a quick burst of her semblance. The younger sister quickly moved her hands to her sides.

"Oh, sorry Yang. It's just that, the last I was here was after the dance." Ruby's eyes looked everywhere except a Yang, her nerves starting to get to her. The blonde bombshell crossed her arms over her chest and gave her younger sister a comforting smile.

"Don't worry Rubes, this time we're all here together." At this, both Weiss ad Blake nodded their agreement, trying their best to reassure their leader.

"Thanks guys." Ruby replied, a small smile working its way on her face. She never liked situations like this, being put in the spotlight was definitely something Ruby did not enjoy. Mercifully, the elevator came to stop with a crisp 'ting'. The awful moment of truth had arrived.

"Come in" came a male voice on the other side of the door. They opened up to reveal both professors Ozpin and Goodwitch, their backs to the young huntresses, standing in front of a holographic display. Despite their backs to the approaching students, Ruby noted that they both wore their normal attires. Whilst Glynda's cape prevented Ruby from seeing her body langue, Ozpin's green suit hid nothing – his body was calm and relaxed, despite the situation before them. On the screen, General Ironwood's head and shoulders could be seen in front of a white background, blending in slightly with his white suit that the young Grimm reaper saw him in during his last visit. The stern look on the general's face confirmed Ruby's worst fear – this was serious. The two professors turned to greet the young girls.

"Ah, team RWBY. Good timing. Now we can officially start this urgent meeting." Professor Ozpin greeted. Glynda remained silent, although she gave a courteous nod towards the team in greeting. "Allow me to make formal introductions. General, this is team RWBY. Team RWBY, this is General Ironwood." The general nodded his head to the team.

"It is good to meet one of the teams that helped repel the Grimm attack from the other day." Ironwood greeted. Ruby couldn't help but smile. Even in a serious situation like this, the general always had this polite manner to him.

"It's good to see you again, sir." Ruby replied. A small smile appeared on Ironwood's face.

"Likewise, Miss Rose." At this, the smile returned back to the serious expression from before. "I'm afraid to say that I have called all of you hear for a serious matter. Professors Ozin and Goodwitch have already been informed. What you hear during this meeting is to be considered classified. Understood?" Everyone present in the room nodded their heads in agreement, the room standing quite apart from the cogs working above their heads.

Ironwood nodded in satisfaction. "Good. At 14:37 hours, our detainee, Roman Torchwick, escaped our custody. The means of his escape are currently under investigation. As we speak, we are conducting a full search to find him. We will continue to do so for the next few days, although we hold not much hope at the moment. From our current location, the possibility to find him is high. Sadly, he continues to elude our search teams as we speak. Rest assured, we will do everything in our power to find him." Ruby could feel her jaw hanging loose. Torchwick had escaped! How can he possibly be able to escape? From an airship no less! None of this made sense.

"What you are about to see is footage from the security camera stationed outside Torchwick's cell." At this, the image of the general shrank into a small box in the bottom right corner of the screen. In his place, the security footage appeared, taking up the whole screen. Two guards were standing in front of a door, presumably the door of Roman's cell. At first nothing happened, making Ruby wander if someone forgot to press play. Without warning, the screen was suddenly filled with static. The team of teenagers looked amongst themselves, trying to figure out just what it was that they were seeing. After a good few seconds passed, the screen came back to life, though what team RWBY saw shocked them into silence.

The two guards lay on the ground, their bodies crushed like a soda can.

"We are unable to explain how the men were killed." The general explained. "The only explanation we can come up with is that it is somehow connected to Torchwick's escape. Our only proof comes from the security footage from the armoury seconds after the cell camera came back online." The main screen then switched cameras, showing a screen filled with the same static filled image as last time. When the screen returned to normal, Torchwick could be seen standing in the middle of the secured room. He took a few moments to survey the area and, when he saw what he was looking for, walked to the left of the screen.

Standing in front of a secured locker, Roman looked towards the ceiling and started talking to someone. Was he using some kind of hidden earpiece to talk to someone on the outside? Roman's focus then turned back to the locker and, touching it with only his index finger, the lock started to melt away. Within seconds, the locker opened. With a happy look on his face, Torchwick collected the contents of the locker: his custom-made cane, and his bowler hat. After retrieving his property, he made his way back to the centre of the room and stopped. Turning his gaze towards the camera, he smiled wickedly and removed his hat, bowing sarcastically with his hat in his right hand and cane in the left. As he straightened himself out, the screen was, once again, filled with static.

"That, doesn't seem physically possible." Yang commented. As Ruby poked her head towards her sister, Blake, who stood in between her partner and Weiss, spoke up.

"I'm more worried about how he managed to get into the locker. I've never seen such a technique like what he did before." As Blake explained her thoughts, the image of the general returned to its original position from before, his face looking down in deep thought.

"Indeed." He answered. "We are still trying to figure out how he was able to pull off such, unnatural feats. This leads me to a question I wish to ask you, Miss Belladonna." All eyes turned towards the young Faunus team-mate. "In your report, you were the last confirmed person to confront Torchwick before his state of unconscious. Do you recall if he, at any time, had used any application of Dust without use of his weapon?"

Blake's head lowered a little, thinking back to her last encounter with the Dust thief. After a few moments, she faced the general. "No sir. Both times I had encountered him, he relied on his weapon. The only Dust he used was to fire Dust rounds from the bottom of his weapon."

"Very well. That takes out one theory we had then." He did not show it, but it was clear in his voice that he was disappointed. "It goes without saying, but this man is now considered extremely dangerous. As Huntresses-In-Training, I urge you all not to approach this man. We do not know what he is capable of, or what his motivations are. You have my word; we will bring him back to justice. Thank you all for coming. I only wished we would meet under happier circumstances. If there is any update to the situation, we will be sure to keep you all informed."

"Thank you, general. We'll be in touch." Professor Ozpin said as Ironwood disconnected himself from the conversation. So that was it? Despite all their help, now they were being kicked out of the investigation? Just like that? Ruby wanted to be angry, but the rational side of her calmed her down. There wasn't much they could do for now whilst Torchwick was on the loose. Ozpin turned towards the girls, as did Glynda. "Ruby, you and your team have permission to have the day off for today. I'm sure that this was a lot to take in."

Without argument, the four girls slowly made their way towards the elevator. There had been a lot of information to take on board, and not all of it had time to sink in yet. Torchwick had escaped yet again, this time using a method that no-one could even begin to understand. Now he's at large, probably wanting revenge. As the last member stepped into the elevator, the doors closed and they began their decent. Ruby let out a loud sigh, guess it was time to count how many diamonds there were in the elevator walls. Like she did the last time she was here.

The long trip back to the dorms had been a silent one. What could they say? There wasn't much any of the girls could say to lighten up the mood. They all seemed to be in the same mind-set – they wanted to talk about what they just heard, but they also knew that they couldn't say anything in public. What they had just heard was strictly confidential. The only safe place for them to talk now was at their dorm.

Eventually they had made it to the dorm. Yang opened the door and walked into the room. A few excited barks escaped from the open door.

"Hey Zwei, we're back. Sorry boy, gonna need this chair."

Weiss entered the dorm, followed by Blake and Ruby, the latter closing the door with a tired sigh. She knew what was to come, and this would either be a quick discussion or a long debate.

"Well, that was something." Yang stated, her normal cheerful tone absent. She sat on the chair that she placed in between the bunks. Weiss and Blake had decided to sit on their bunks. Looking at the position of her team, Ruby decided to grab a chair from the desk on her left and placed it in between the bottom of both bunks. Zwei jumped up on top of Ruby's lap and laid flat on his stomach. Despite the dark mood, Ruby couldn't help herself scratching Zwei's ear.

"It just seems so, unreal." Blake said, shaking her head. Weiss rested her right index finger on her chin, lost in thought.

"It didn't seem like he had used any form of Dust to escape. The Atlesian army would have had to of searched him for anything that he may of hidden on himself." She stated.

"Then how do you explain the finger burn he gave that locker?" Yang countered.

"I…I don't know!" Weiss replied, giving the shotgun-gauntlet wearing girl an annoyed glare. After a few moments, Weiss closed her eyes and took a deep breath, calming herself. Opening her eyes again, she continued. "It might be possible that he used his semblance, although I seriously doubt it." Everyone looked away from the ice princess, thinking about what she said. If she, the heiress to the largest Dust supplier of Remnant, had doubted that Torchwick had used Dust to escape, then the likelihood of him using it were very slim at best.

Yang's eyes suddenly shot wide open in realization "Hey, you don't suppose his henchmen helped him escape, do you?"

Ruby looked towards her sister. Was she referring to the girl she fought on the train from her report? "What do you mean, Yang?"

"Well, after we destroyed the Paladin mech, she used some form of optic illusion to help Roman and herself escape from us. When I punched her, she just shattered into a million pieces."

"You think it might be her Semblance?" Blake asked

"Yeah. Maybe she found a way to sneak onto the airship, and when she saw her chance, used her semblance to help Roman escape."

"And his personal belongings?" Weiss asked as a smirk appeared on her face, happy that she turned Yang's previous question against her.

"I…well, I don't know." She replied with a simple shrug. There was still something that was bugging Ruby, though.

"That doesn't explain how we never saw her in either footage." The team leader pointed out. "Besides, how would she get out of the ship? It was really high up in the air, and Ironwood didn't mention any dropships missing." Ruby asked. At this, Yang lowered her head in defeat.

"If it's any consolation, I wonder if the White Fang would be willing to trust Roman after this. A lot of members would see this failure of his as an excuse to not work with him again." Blake thought aloud.

"It might work to our advantage then." Weiss concluded. "I mean, they may want to regroup after what has happened. We could use this time to try to find any leads on where Torchwick went, however I seriously doubt we will find much."

Ruby decided to stand up. She nudged Zwei off her lap and stood up, stretching when she got to full height. "Then it's decided; we'll use Weiss's idea and try to find out what happened to Torchwick. In the meantime, Professor Ozpin gave us the day off; let's use it to change out of our uniforms and recharge our batteries."

Everyone managed to smile at that statement. Ruby had always managed to find a way to find something to be cheerful about, even during the gloomiest situation. Within an instant, the heavy tension had been lifted, and, after getting changed, the four girls started going in their separate ways. Blake, wearing her normal white undershirt and shorts as well as her black vest, stockings boots and arm ware, reached under her pillow to get the book she was reading earlier. Ruby searched her schoolbag to find the assignment she needed to finish for professor Port, Zwei decided to go wherever Ruby would go whilst Weiss, in her white corset, Borolo jacket and boots, made her way to the door. Yang, wearing her yellow top, black shorts, tan coloured leather jacket, belt and boots, along with her orange kneepads, made her way towards the door not long later.

Professor Ozpin had given team RWBY the day off, and the girls were going to make the most of their free time.

Hello internet! Welcome to my first ever story, "Breaking the Boundaries". If you have read this far down, thank you very much for reading this story. I've had the idea of a Persona X RWBY crossover story in my head for a good while now. I just never had a strong enough story to give it justice. Now though, I believe I have found the solution!

Being my first ever story here, I would greatly appreciate any constructive criticism to help make this as awesome as it could be.

Again, thank you guys so much for reading this story. Please favourite, follow and review. I would love to hear what you awesome people think about this story.

I've been A.K.b00m, and thank you all for reading my story. Have a great day!

Edit: November 21st, 20125 – Made a few changes to the chapter to give story more mystery. Also correct some errors (how the hell did I think the Beacon tower was called the 'Glass Tower'? I'm an idiot).