Chapter One: Welcome to Beacon.

Ruby Rose leaned over the back of one of the cushioned benches that ran the perimeter of the massive air ship allowing her to press her forehead against the glass. She watched as the world past below her as she was carried to her new destination, Beacon, the world-renowned school for training Hunter and Huntress. Her tail and ears twitched in excitement as the massive towers of the school grew closer. She couldn't believe it. Finally she was going to start her dream to become a Huntress just like her mother.

Well mom I made it, A soft smile pulled the wolf's lips back as she grasped at the collar of her cloak.

"Hey Rubes!" a loud voice brought the Faunus from her thoughts as a large hand connected with her shoulder. Jolting away from the sudden contact Ruby glared at the smirking muscular blonde that had appeared beside her. At her glare the blonde's smirk became a full blown grin.

"What was that for Yang?" Ruby pouted as she rotated her shoulder about trying to get the slight stinging to go away, her Aura had protected her from the brunt of the blow but Yang underestimated her strikes from time to time.

Yang Xiao Long shrugged as she plopped down beside the crimson wolf, "You weren't paying attention so I decided to fix that." Ruby rolled her eyes as her sister stretched and rested her arms behind her head, "So what's got you so spaced pup?"

Ruby quickly glanced about making sure there was no one near before making sure her hood covered her ears and that her tail was still safely tucked against her before returning her gaze to the blonde, a small frown pulled at the older girls lips. "I know what you're going to say," Ruby quickly cut over any words Yang was going to say, "But I want people to notice me for me before they notice me for these." She gave a vague gesture to the top of her head incase anyone had been paying attention to the two of them.

Yang rolled her eyes but kept her comments to herself, if Ruby wanted to keep the fact that she was a Faunus from people until they knew her then that was her call. "Right well you haven't answered my question."

Ruby sighed before sitting down beside Yang facing away from the widow as well, "I'm worried what people will think about me."

"What do you mean?" Yang inquired.

"I got moved up two full years to be accepted into Beacon and I'm worried people will start to question if I should be there." Ruby muttered grasping her hands together in her lap.

A heavy arm fell across her shoulders pulling her into a muscular side as Yang chuckled, "Ruby you have never cared about what people think of you one way or another so why does suddenly being moved up into a new school worry you so much about this?"

"Yang I'm two years younger than everyone on this Airship, I'm technically two years behind in my training and yet here I am headed to one of the best schools in all of Remnant. I don't want people to think I'm special." Ruby hung her head slightly.

"Oh Ruby," Yang sighed as she pulled her sister closer roughing up her hair though the hood. "You are special, you're just going to have to learn to deal with that."

"But I don't want to be special," Ruby groaned as she tried to pull away only to be kept securely against the blonde. "I just want to be me."

Yang chuckled as the redhead continued to fight against her grasp, before quickly letting go sending the girl off balance and tumbling backwards. "Yaaang." Ruby complained as she landed.

A small ding from hidden speaker brought the girls attention upward, "Attention all students," A feminine voice chimed out. "You who have been gathered here are the best and brightest Remnant as to offer. The training you receive here will prepare you for your future as the defenders of humanity. You will be landing shortly, once you have disembarked please make your way to the main auditorium. Welcome to Beacon." Ruby and Yang both stood up and faced the widows, wide grins on both of their faces.

The ship gave a slight shudder as it anchored to the landing zones, as the doors opened students started to filter out and onto the large tarmac dropping of their luggage in designated areas. "OH WOW!" Ruby chimed as she finally got a good look at people's weapons. "Yang look, that guy has a flamethrower ax. Oh oh oh look look a harpoon canon and there's a spear whip and urk." Yang yanked the excited wolf by the back of her collar.

"Ruby heel." Earned the blonde a pout from the crimson girl, "Remember what we talked about." Yang added with a small chuckle.

Ruby dropped her head slightly, "I know, I know people before weapons. But I mean come on I have you so why do I need new people."

The blonde gazed away from her sister as she gently placed her hands on her shoulders, "Actually Ruby, I was thinking this would be a great opportunity for you to break out of your shell and meet new people so," With a quick twist she sent Ruby spinning on her heels, "See ya, gotta go, love you."

The wolf came to a stop glimpsing her sister's long hair retreating quickly away before totter over, "Yang why?"

As she fell to the ground she felt her back connect with a hard metal case before the sounds of crashing luggage surround her followed quickly by a high pitched voice that sent the wolf's ears even closer to her skull.

Weiss Schnee watched idly out of her window at the clouds as her private airship drifted through the air. Her ice blue eyes were unfocused as her thoughts drifted like the white pillows outside, if her family caught her looking like she did now they would have lectured her endlessly about how a Schnee should never let their mind drift listlessly or be caught with unfocused eyes. At the thought of her family Weiss' eyes hardened.

Twelve year, that's how long she had been training for this day. Twelve years and she had finally won her freedom from her family. Free from their bigotry, their coldness, and from all of the hate they had poured into her life.

Finally she could shake the shackles that had held her back for so long. She could meet new people that could help her with her goal to right the wrongs that those of her name had committed. She would complete her goal of making the world a better place in the name of Schnee instead of having it associated with slavery or hatred. Weiss clenched her hands against her dress as she remembered the last words her bastard of a father had said to her before she left.

"Lady Schnee?" A voice pulled her from her thoughts a maid in a white uniform bowed her head as she approached, Weiss had tried to break their habit when it was just her but had failed.

"Yes?" Weiss answered as the maid stopped a few feet from her.

"Forgive the intrusion but we will be arriving at Beacon in five minutes." The maid bowed again before retreated quickly. Weiss sighed glancing out the window as the large campus came into view. The main building dominated the landscape as the towers rose into the air. Different buildings covered the surrounding areas as trees and walkways wound their way about. She could make out several different gardens and courtyards as her airship made it's final pass allowing the public transport that had brought the other students to Beacon to clear the area before descending. She had made it.

Standing in a fluid motion Weiss adjusted her rapier at her hip, smoothed her skirt and made sure her hair was in perfect condition. She may not have loved her family or believed in their indoctrinations she still had been trained to be an heiress, and a heiress must always look their best. With a stiff nod the door to the airship opened swiftly allowing to Weiss to walk down the ramp, two butlers followed behind her pushing her luggage. She stopped to take in the full view of the courtyard before her.

Massive trees rose up on either side of the concrete, banners with Beacons crest flapped in the breeze, students milled about talking in groups all walking towards the massive buildings in front of her. She noticed several students placing their luggage on trollies for the staff to bring to where ever they would be staying for the night, with a small nod she wordlessly told her butler to follow suit as she started to walk.

Looking more at the students she spied something that made her stop, two other students, more specifically the shorter of the two. A red cloak bellowed in the wind behind the girl as she bounced around pointing at other students to the large blonde that was standing beside her. She could make out a soft smile on the blonde's lips as she nodded along with whatever the red figure was saying before a hand quickly caught the back of her cloak and spun her about.

Weiss let out an involuntary gasp as she finally saw the girl's face. She was obviously a few years younger that the other students, her face was soft and round with small features. Her lips where pulled apart in a wide grin revealing bright white teeth. But the feature that made Weiss stop was the girls' eyes they were silver. Not a dull gray silver but brilliant sterling sliver that shown in the bright light around them. She could see the happiness radiate from those captivating orbs.

She watched as the happiness gave way to confusion as the blonde quickly spun the girl about before making a hasty escape while the red girl tried to regain her balance, failing to do so she watched the cloaked girl tumbled backwards straight into her metal cases carrying all of her dust. In those five cases she had more than enough of the volatile substance to destroy a small village if it detonated. Anger and frustration shot through Weiss as she stormed up to the downed girl who was now shaking her head clear from her fall. "YOU IMBECILE!"

The first set of shrieking didn't bother Blake as she continued to read her book, nor did the minor explosion that stopped the rant momentarily she was at a school where such things were to be expected, even the second wave of yelling didn't jolt the panther from her reading what did make her look up from the words was a small tap at her foot.

Looking over the edge of her book she saw a small dust canister resting beside her shoe. Raising her eyebrow slightly she bent over and picked up the small metal container looking for any type of markings, there was the symbol for red dust on one side along with a symbol that made both eyebrows shoot up into her hair line, it was a symbol she was more than familiar with, a fractal snowflake.

Scanning about she spotted her target, a stark white figure yelling at an oddly red cloaked figure. A soft breeze brought over a strange sent that sent a spike of panic through Blake, wolf. Looking behind the two girls Blake looked to see if there was another Faunus, finding none she determined that the wolf was the cloaked girl.

Great just another Schnee yelling at a Faunus, Blake thought darkly as she approached the pair. "I said I was sorry Princess!" the cloaked figured yelled at the Schnee making her pause. Being closer Blake could finally make out the features of the girl in white, sharp features with ice blue eyes with a long scar over her left one.

"It's Heiress actually." Blake cut over any reply Weiss was about to say, "This is Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company." It was the scar that let Blake identify which Schnee was standing before her, though she was pretty sure it wasn't Winter Schnee or any of the branch family.

"Finally some recognition." Weiss smiled flipping her hair.

"The same company that is known for its back door dealings, corruption and otherwise questionable business practices." Blake continued not letting the heiress feel as if she was complimenting her. "They are also known for their hatred of a complete race just because they are different."

Weiss' face flushed red as she sputtered trying respond before giving off a huff and trying her head as she walked away, "I don't have to stand here and take this." The pair watched as the heiress stormed away.

"So that happened." The red cloaked figure said turning back to Blake. Amber eyes met with silver as the wolf cocked her head questioningly. "Cat?"

"Panther." Blake corrected, "It's nice to see a wolf actually in a kingdom for once. My name is Blake Belladonna." She was taking no chances on offending the wolf on the off chance that this small girl before her was an Alpha.

"Ruby Rose." Ruby responded with a large smile offering her hand out. Looking at it hesitantly Blake took it only to have a shock run up her spine. Ruby's hand quickly retracted as her smile faltered, "S-s-sorry about that. I'm kinda new to the whole Alpha thing so interacting with other Faunus can be tricky if I forget." Ruby chuckled as she motioned for them to walk off the path so no one would overhear.

Shaking her head Blake pushed the feeling aside, "It's fine Ruby just try and be more aware of it." Her eyes went wide as she realized she had just corrected an Alpha, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to…"

"It's fine Blake," Ruby waved the comment off, "I really don't think of myself as an Alpha yet so I'm not against getting advice, even when I do finally consider myself one I hope I can still be open to taking others advice still."

Blake was taken back by this strange wolf before her, every Alpha she had ever come across had been so full of themselves that anyone who had challenged their authority had been beaten or killed sometimes both. And yet here was this small wolf that was telling her that she was hoping to always be open to a second opinion.

"You're kinda odd aren't you?" The wolf happily bounced her head causing Blake to shake her own. "Well Ruby I think it would be most interesting to see if you can achieve that goal."

"Thanks." Ruby smiled, "I'm going to go explore some more, want to come?"

Blake shook her head, "No thank you I'm going to head to the auditorium and continue to read." Ruby shrugged and dashed off leaving a small trail of red petals behind as she disappeared further onto the campus. The raven haired girl watched as the petals faded away still trying to understand what had just happened.

An Alpha had just waved off a correction and even said she welcomed it. Even stranger still was the fact that the Alpha was a wolf. Blake could count on one hand how many times she had had an interaction with the reclusive Faunus species this one included; the last time had been a narrow escape from death. Shaking her head clear of the thought she stepped back on to the path pulling her book back out of bag on her hip.

While most people she past no doubt wondered how the black hair girl walked while reading without tripping, bumping into anyone or object it had become second nature to Blake. Even with her hearing slightly muffled by the silk ribbon wrapped around her ears she could still hear everything that happened around her making avoiding people extremely easy while the training she had received made sure her footing was always sure and true.

Reaching the auditorium Blake flicked her gaze quickly about scanning to see which other students had made their way here as well. Finding the room was only half full Blake made her way to the back of the room and returned to her book until the start of the ceremony the scents of other filtering in around her, was that gunpowder and lilacs?

Yang sighed as she left the small wolf behind her still spinning, Sorry Rubes it's for your own good. She was painfully aware of her sisters' reclusive nature due to being a wolf and was hoping that being at Beacon would break her out of the shell she had but if what she had said on the airship was true then the wolf was likely to shy away from people if she stuck around. So she had played the sneaky big sister and was forcing the wolf to find new people.

An explosion in distance made the brawler pause, maybe it was a bad idea to let the wolf explore alone. Shaking her hair out Yang replayed her dad's words again in her head, "Keep an eye on her but let her do her own thing."

"You forgot to remember she's a waking disaster." Yang chuckled as she entertained the idea that the small wolf was in fact the cause of the explosion doubting very much that she was. Ruby was smart surely she wouldn't blow something or someone up on their first day. Shrugging Yang let the thought go.

The new arrivals had two hours before the opening speeches were suppose to take place allowing them some time to explore and start getting familiar with the sprawling campus so Yang had set out in search of the one place she knew she would be spending a great amount of her time, the gym. She had grown restless on the long trip from Patch to Beacon and now she needed to release some pent up energy before she went crazy.

Ruby had always laughed and said that Yang was part Faunus herself because of her tendency to want to keep moving but to Yang it was just her nature. She needed to keep moving forward if she didn't she just felt as if the world would engulf her and drag her down. This nature had gotten her in trouble many, many times before.

If someone dug into her past they would find a record that stretched from Vytal to Vacuo. Fights, speeding tickets, property damage, several citations for noise violations, and more recently a few bars torched. How she had managed to avoid an actual criminal record was amazing the more Yang thought about it.

After about a half hour of searching Yang found the place she had been looking for. Looking around she took in the massive amounts of equipment the gym had, weight machines of all range and sizes, adjustable punching bags, speed bags, sets of uneven bars, parallel bars, hanging rings and various other equipment. The massive collection was nothing like she had ever experience before, most of the gyms she had belonged to only have a few of these machines.

"Fancy." Yang whistled as she approached one of the punching bags, it was suspended on thick chains several secured to the top and bottom. Giving the bag a soft push Yang noted how easily it swung making her smile. The smooth leather was obviously taken care and the sand inside kept clean and dry. Spinning the dial on the top of the machine she watched as the chains tightened down adding resistance to bag.

Giving it a few light taps testing the tightness Yang took off her brown jacket and yellow top leaving her in just a sports bra, she really didn't want to have to find her bag this early just for new cloths. Stretching her arms out Yang took her position next to the bag. Her first punch was a test to check the swing, still too much. Cracking the dial again Yang continued her tests until she was satisfied.

Clearing her mind Yang slowed her breathing and unleashed her first true blow, from how tight she had the bag it felt as if she was striking a stonewall. Anyone else probably would have broken their hand and possibly their wrist from the shear strength of hitting the bag but to Yang this was just a very light work out. Continuing her blows Yang let her mind slip into the soothing rhythm of flesh hitting leather.

To anyone else it would appear as if the bawler was lightly hitting the bag in rapid secession barely causing it to swing but on closer inspection they would see the tension of the bag was cranked up to the max making the bag the approximate weight of four tons and the blows that the blonde let loose would shatter stone without pause.

After an hour of sending countless combinations of jabs, hooks and uppercuts Yang steadied the bag with her hand, a fine coating of sweat over her skin. Glancing at the clock she gathered her shirt and jacket before heading into the showers. Grabbing a small bar of soap that the school offered to any student who may have forgotten to bring one she stepped into a stall and stripped save her bra and panties.

Since she didn't want to grab a new pair of cloths just yet she decided to give the undergarments a quick wash as well as herself. Turning the water cold Yang worked the soap into a lather before setting to work washing herself and cloths clean. Satisfied that her cloths where clean she finished stripping to continue her own cleaning. Without her shampoo or conditioner Yang just let the water run through her hair promising that she'd make sure it would get a good cleaning in the morning. Once she was done she rung her under garments out then allowed her semblance to run about her body drying her and the cloths.

Redressed Yang left the gym to find the auditorium. Once she reached the large hall she spied Ruby standing off to the side looking sullen. With a smirk she began to sneak up on the unsuspecting Faunus convinced the noise of the hall masked her footsteps.

"Don't." Ruby growled before Yang could grab the smaller girls waist. Yang paused, sure her sister had amazing hearing but surely the noise she was making was lost in crowd. "Yang we've lived together for years I know your scent by now." Ruby sighed turning around.

"But I even took a shower." Yang complained, she hadn't been able to sneak up on the wolf since she was five. "Different soap and everything, so how did you know it was me?"

"You always smell like lilacs and gunpowder." Ruby shrugged, "The soap you used doesn't really cover it, it just adds a layer to it."

Yang rolled her eyes pulling the wolf into her causing the small girl to start to struggle. "So how's your first day been?"

"You mean since you ditched me or since I exploded?" Ruby glared as she got away from her captor.

"Are you sure you're not being dramatic?" Yang teased causing the wolf to pout.

"No," Ruby defended herself, "I literally blew up, there was a girl and she was yelling then I sneezed and then there was some fire I think, then more yelling and I really just wanted it to stop." Yang smiled at her sister trying to understand her rambling.

"YOU!" a voice cut over the wolf making her yelp and jump into the brawlers arms.

"Oh Gods it's happening again." Ruby cowered into Yang.

Yang shifted her gaze from her sister to the new girl standing in front of them. She had long white hair and bright blue eyes that where cold and hard as she glared at the wolf.

"You're lucky we we're blown off the side of the cliff!" The girl continued cause Ruby to shudder.

"Oh my God you really exploded." Yang chuckled thinking back to the explosion she had heard earlier had in fact been her little sister exploding. Letting the wolf out of her arms she tuned out the mindless ranting of the girl in white as she looked about.

Very few of the students here looked as if they had seen actual combat outside of a training room. A tall red head stood a few feet away from them, her posture was straight but she still looked relaxed, a small girl with orange hair bounced excitedly beside a boy with a pink strip in his hair his eyes drooping in exhaustion. Finally her gaze took her to the back of the room where a girl with black hair stood against the wall, a book in her hand. Yang studied her, her posture said relaxed at first glimpse but she should see a hidden tension that made the girl ready to act at a moments notice.

A piercing screech made Yang whip her gaze forward as Ruby flinched beside her covering the top of her hood muffling her ears. On the stage now stood a blonde woman and a man with gray hair tapping at the microphone.

"Oh it's about to start." Ruby chirped looking up at the man.

A/N: Hello everyone/anyone who decided to read this. The name's Rosewood and welcome to my AU. Now first things first: Everyone say it with me "AU means Alternate Universe". Now that we've established that let's move on. I started this AU way back when we only had the first season of RWBY and didn't really know much about what was going on and this story started out as a ten page idea that slowly morphed into massive book idea. For the first few chapters things are going to stay close to what we saw in the first couple episodes with things being changed, tossed or new ideas added so please bare with me. This originally was going to be rated T but as we saw from this last season the world of Remnant is much darker place than originally thought and since I was planing on this being darker to begin with well let's just say I'm not going to pull my punches. I will be offering general trigger warning in the beginning of chapters when needed however cause I'm still a relatively nice person. Author Notes won't be a big thing unless I need to address something or answer questions.

I'll try to update this weekly, usually on Sundays but if I miss a week I apologize in advance.

With all of that said; Welcome to my mind, buckle up, and keep all appendages inside the ride at all time.