Author's Note: Neo is mute in this story and any dialogue from her is implied or inner monologue and will be written in italics.

RWBY and all the characters within are the intellectual property of Rooster Teeth Productions, Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross, Gray Haddock and the late Monty Oum. I am not being compensated in any way for this story and wrote it merely for entertainment purposes.

Neopolitan shivered and clutched her thin jacket closer to herself as the freezing wind gusted and blew more snow in her face. She tried to look through the swirling snow for any sort of shelter to get her out of the cold but there was nothing she could see. It didn't help that she no idea where on Remnant she was but she reminded herself that even if she did know, there wasn't anywhere safe she could go to. And as much as she was focused on just trying to survive, there was a small part of her that wanted nothing more than to find that bitch and dismember her into so many pieces that she'd lose count. It was all her fault that Neo was in this mess.

A few months ago, Neo and her best friend, Roman Torchwick, had been working on a plan to bomb the city of Vale with one of the abandoned trains from the Mountain Glenn ruins and flood the city with Grimm. But then those brats from Beacon had shown up in their secret hideout and Roman had decided to execute the plan earlier than scheduled. The plan mostly worked but because of the huntsmen and huntresses at the scene and nearby, Vale escaped with minimal damage and Roman was arrested. Neo had managed to escape, however but she had a fate worse than incarceration waiting for her afterwards.

The woman who had planned the attack, Cinder Fall, was not pleased one bit by Roman's decision and failure of her plan. And since she couldn't easily get to Roman in order to punish him, she decided to take it out on Neo, instead. Neo had been beaten and tortured for weeks by Cinder and her henchmen, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. Then they confiscated her parasol weapon and banished her with a warning to not try come back or they would kill her. Neo tried to escape to one of the many safehouses she and Roman had acquired over the years but found that Cinder knew where they were and had the hideouts trashed and guarded by her men. She made a bold move and tried to disguise herself to get into one of them but without her weapon, she was swiftly captured by the guards and held captive again.

Cinder had left Vale to return to whoever her boss was and get new instructions and didn't want to fly all the way back to deal with Neo so she told her henchmen to take care of it. They then put Neo in a box and loaded her into one of their airships to dump her into the sea. At least that's what they planned on doing but a storm over the water caused them to eject their cargo without seeing where it would land and she just happened to hit just off the shore of an island. But after breaking her way out, Neo found herself caught in a massive blizzard with no idea where she was or where to go. So, she just began wandering off into the forest, hoping to find someplace to take shelter even just for the night.

"Roman, I'm so sorry," Neo thought to herself glumly. She knew she was in a bad way and likely wouldn't survive the cold through the night. "It's all Cinder's fault that I'm stuck in a blizzard and you're in jail. If she would have just left us alone and found some other thieves to use for her plan, we'd still be nice and comfortable at home right now. I swear Roman, if it's the last thing I do, I will free you and then together, we'll bring that bitch down."

But as she seethed in her mind about wanting revenge on Cinder, it brought about some unforeseen consequences. As Neo imagined all the vicious and brutal ways she wanted to hurt Cinder, she suddenly heard some growls over the howling winds. Neo stopped in her tracks and looked nervously around. Through the trees, she could see several pairs of burning red eyes bearing down on her. "Oh, fuck me," she thought as over a dozen beowolves surrounded her. Normally Neo would have been able to handle this many Grimm without too much trouble. But without any weapons, she knew that her quickness and gymnastic abilities would only buy her so much time.

As she quickly glanced to the trees to try and find any friendly branches she could jump to and try to make an escape, one of the beowolves lunged at her and tried to bite down on her leg. Neo quickly dodged out of the way and kicked the monster's leg out from under it to send it crashing into the snow-covered ground. She allowed herself a brief satisfied smile but another one slashed out at her from behind her and clawed her right in the back. That caused Neo to stumble and as she turned to face the Grimm that had struck her, two more made their move on either side of her and leapt onto the small woman. She fell to the ground under their weight and immediately was smothered by the beasts. Frantically, she tried to wriggle out and escape before any serious damage could be done. After a few seconds of wild flailing, she got a little bit of daylight and managed to bolt away. With her survival instincts on autopilot, Neo scrambled up a tree and away from the danger. Neo stopped for a second to make sure she had some relative safety but only found the beowolves clawing their way up the tree themselves. Neo started jumping from branch to branch on all the nearby trees, desperate to escape.

After a few minutes of swinging through the forest, Neo couldn't hear her attackers behind her and stopped to rest. She was completely exhausted from the physical exertion and the sweat from her head was beginning to freeze. Even though she'd managed to escape certain death, she wasn't out of the theoretical woods yet so she started formulating a plan to get out of the real woods without any further incidents. But then another huge gust of wind blasted through the trees and caused the branch under Neo's feet to snap. She tried to catch herself on another branch but it was too late and she plummeted out of the tree, crashing into several limbs on her way down. When she hit the ground, Neo felt the last little bit of her aura break and pain shot through her body. Despite her excruciating pain from the beowolf attack, falling out of the tree and the cold, Neo pulled herself to her feet and began hobbling out of the forest.

A few hours later, night had fallen on the island but the snowstorm had only gotten worse. Neo was frozen down to her bones and couldn't feel most of her body anymore. She was beginning to lose hope of making it out alive but she crested a hill and saw a small cottage with the lights on and smoke coming from the chimney. With a new sense of hope, Neo resumed limping towards her possible salvation. But as she trudged towards the house and hoped that whoever was in there would be kind enough to take her in, her body finally gave out on her and she collapsed to the ground. Determined to not give up, she crawled along the ground towards potential safety as her body went completely numb. Unable to continue, she slumped down, ready to accept her death. As her eyes closed, she heard a familiar howling sound and resigned herself to the inevitability of being eaten alive by a beowolf. The last thing she felt before losing consciousness was its warm breath on her face.

Taiyang Xiao Long anxiously stood at the front window of his house, looking out for his older daughter. Yang had gone out to cut down some fire wood just in case the power went out. But she had been longer than he'd hoped and worry was starting to creep in. This was certainly one of the worst blizzards he'd seen in his life and even someone as tough as Yang wouldn't stand a chance out in it for very long. So, he'd began pacing around the living room and looking out the window for Yang every ten seconds.

"Daddy? Would you like some cocoa?" Taiyang turned to see his younger daughter Ruby standing in the doorway to the kitchen with two steaming mugs in her hands with a mountain of marshmallows on top.

"Sure honey, thank you," he replied, offering as warm of a smile as he could. Ruby handed him the mug and they toasted each other. Taiyang sat down in his recliner and took a sip. The hot chocolate helped ease his nerves a bit and he took a deep, steadying breath.

"Any sign of Yang?" Ruby asked as she wiped some of the frost off the window and peered out herself.

"No, I haven't seen anything," sighed Taiyang as his stress returned. "I wish she would have just listened to me and taken her scroll with. It's too dangerous out there to go out without a way to contact someone."

"But she was right, dad," reasoned Ruby. "The cold would have made her scroll useless. And the service has been really bad on mine for a few hours now because of the storm."

"Even still, if she had gone out this morning to chop wood when I told her to, she wouldn't be in this mess right now."

"Dad, calm down. Yang's going to be fine." Ruby knew her dad had a right to be worried but he could get seriously annoying when he slipped into his worried father mode. Ruby downed the rest of her mug and went to go put it away in the kitchen when she saw a familiar head of blonde hair as she passed by the window. "Hey Dad, it's Yang!"

"Really?" Taiyang asked as he scrambled to his feet. Sure enough, when he looked out the window, he saw his daughter running up the path with her arms full. But it didn't look like she was carrying any logs. That looked like…

Oh no.

Taiyang quickly pulled on his boots and coat as he threw open the door. A large pile of snow came flowing into the house as he dashed out to meet Yang and their dog Zwei who were both hustling through the snow to get to the house. In Yang's arms was a small, unconscious woman with pink and brown hair and badly tattered clothes.

"Yang! What happened? Who is that?" Taiyang called to her.

"I found her passed out in the snow about a half mile away," answered Yang. "She's in really bad shape. I have to get her inside now before she freezes."

"Where's the firewood at?" Taiyang asked.

"I had to drop it so I could carry her. It's back up the trail where I found her."

"Okay, you get inside and get yourself warmed up. I'll go get the wood and then I'll see what I can do for her." Yang nodded and continued towards her house as Taiyang left to go find the firewood Yang abandoned. Zwei reached the house first and immediately began barking for Ruby.

"Zwei? What is it boy, what's the matter?" Ruby asked as she returned from washing her mug out in the sink. Zwei led her back to the front door just as Yang came bursting in with Neo.

"Ruby, where are you?" Yang called out in a sterner tone than she meant. "Go prepare the guest bedroom with every spare blanket we have and grab your warmest pair of pajamas."

"Okay, but why?" Ruby asked in confusion. But then she saw what Yang had with her and the color drained from her already pale face. "Oh…oh no. Okay, on it sis."

Ruby zipped away into the house as Yang closed the door and carried the unconscious Neo to the guest bedroom. Once inside, Yang quickly stripped off Neo's frozen clothes and chucked them into the hallway. She gently placed the naked woman onto the bed and wrapped her up in the few sheets that were already on the bed. A few moments later, Ruby burst in with three comforters and her fuzzy flannel pajamas. Yang quickly took the pajamas and redressed Neo before wrapping her up in all the blankets.

"Thanks Ruby," gasped out Yang as she sat down on the floor and tried to regain her breath from how much she'd exerted herself in the past few minutes.

"Is she going to be okay, Yang?" Ruby fretted, staring in horror at the shivering Neo.

"I don't know," answered Yang gravely as she put her head in her hands. "I've done all I can until she wakes up. She really should get to a hospital but I don't see how that's possible with the storm."

"Wait a minute," said Ruby suddenly as her eyes went wide. "Yang, isn't that—"

"Yes, Ruby, it is," interrupted Yang through gritted teeth.

"But…but what is she doing here?" Ruby squeaked in fright.

"I don't know. But that doesn't matter right now. All that matters is keeping her alive long enough to maybe get some answers."

"And you're sure that this is the best thing to do?"

"What else was I supposed to do Ruby? Just let her freeze out there?" Yang snapped as Ruby backed up a step from Yang's sudden outburst. Yang closed her eyes and took a breath through her nose to get her composure back. "Like I said, all that matters right now is trying to keep Neo alive."

"Okay," replied Ruby warily, still not sure if this was smart. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"

"Would you be willing to make me a cup of tea, please?" Ruby nodded and headed back towards the kitchen. Once she was gone, Yang let out a heavy sigh as she started to shed her winter clothing. Her eyes fell on Neo's battered body and she scowled. There was a small part of her that was also wondering why she'd bothered to rescue Neo. But Yang couldn't just let somebody die like that, even if they were a sworn enemy. After she finished getting undressed from her wet clothes, Yang pulled back the blankets and climbed into bed with Neo. Her skin was freezing cold but Yang wrapped her arms around her and hugged her close against her own body. She could feel just the smallest hint of a pulse and breathing from Neo but that was all that Yang needed for right now. She just had to make sure she stayed alive.

Author's Note: Been awhile, huh? First off, let me offer up an explanation for my absence. Last summer, my laptop was stolen out of my bag while I wasn't paying attention on the bus. And with it went all the stuff I had written and planned for other stories. But now I've finally got myself a new laptop and am starting back up with writing again. For those of you who are subscribed to me and are wondering what the deal with this is and why I didn't restart Worth A Thousand Words first, I still plan to come back to that. But it's been over a year since I've been able to put anything down for that story in writing. So while I do remember the general idea of what I want to happen and where I want the story to go, I still need to mull it over a bit before I really dig back in. But this idea has been gnawing at me since I got the computer. So instead of trying to force something, I decided to get this down first and hopefully get back into a groove.

As always, don't expect any sort of concrete schedule from me with updates for this. Just know that I have plans for where I want it to go. Hopefully you enjoy.