Chapter 1 – A new era

“Legends, stories scattered through time.

Mankind has grown quite fond of accounting the exploits of heroes and villains, forgetting so easily that we are remnants, byproducts of a forgotten past.

Man, born from dust, was strong, wise, and resourceful. But he was born into an unforgiving world. An inevitable darkness, creatures of destruction, the creatures of Grimm, set their sights on man and all of his creations. These forces clashed, and it seemed the darkness was intent on returning Man’s brief existence... to the Void.

However, even the smallest spark of hope is enough to ignite change, and in time Man’s passion, resourcefulness, and ingenuity led them to the tools that would help even the odds. This power was appropriately named ‘Dust’. Nature’s wrath in hand, Man lit their way through the darkness. And the shadow’s absence came strength, civilization, and most importantly... life.

But even the most brilliant lights eventually flicker and die.

And when they are gone, darkness will return...

So you may prepair your Gardians... Build you monuments to a so-calld free world. But take heed. There will be no victory in strength...”

-RWBY Vol. 1 Episode 1


“Blake Belladonna, Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the White Knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY, led by... Ruby Rose” Weiss stared puzzled at Ruby standing next to her, when Ozpin pointed out Ruby to be the leader of the group instead of her. Ruby on the other hand was happy about her new title. Not even 2 seconds passed before her sister Yang embraced her with the words ”I'm so proud of you!”. Ozpin ended with the words ”It looks like things are shaping up to be an... interesting year”. If only he knew the year would not even begin for the new students. The members from Team RWBY had not yet left the podium before the raid alarms sounded around the city. Many of the students and teachers ran up on the balcony along the wall in the huge banquet hall, where the team building ceremony took place. From there they could see all the way down the city, where smoke was popping up everywhere and explosions could be seen. The sounds of explosions were overheard until now because of the ceremony, but since the crowd grew more silent everyone could hear them. Soon after the doors to the banquet hall slammed open and a man ran as fast as he could up to Ozpin. “The Grimm.. They have broken our defences!” Ozpin saw the man was severely injured and made sure that he came under immediate treatment, where after he ordered all students to be ready for battle.
Ruby and her team wasted no time. They entered their locker codes into their communicators so the lockers landed just outside the front doors of the banquet hall, where they grabbed their weapons on the way out. When they came out they saw the Grimm had already reached the bottom of the cliff which the school was placed on top of. They ran towards the Grimm to prevent them from closing in on the school, while being followed by the students who were present. Soon after the older students also joined the battle.

3 years later...

“We have to move the people to a place with more supplies!” said Ruby to her sister while they walked around in one of the dilapidated malls, where they searched for canned food. “Yeah I know, but where can we go? We're save here. Unnecessary fights against the Grimm at this point would be suicide since we're almost out of ammo.” Ruby pushed over a shelf to see what was underneath. “But we will starve here! We already lost so many, and we don't even know how many students made it 3 years ago... Both Blake and Weiss disappeared then.” Yang picked up 2 cans she found which still looked good. “I know, but we still have Pyrrha, Coco and Jaune.” She picked up another can, which had rolled under one of the counters. “Yeah, and the 64 other people who can't defend themselves.” Yang looked at Ruby. “I know, I know. We can discuss it with the others, when we get back, but I really don't want to move unnecessarily from here if we end up losing as many people as the last time. It's a loss I don't want to witness again.”

After several hours of searching for food, they went back to the camp they had established, in the basement of one of the collapsed buildings. It wasn't optimal at all, but being picky was not an option in this kind of survival situation. They dropped off the newly found supplies, and a group of people arranged and handed out rations for everyone. Ruby and Yang went and sat down with the three former classmates. Pyrrha looked at them. “How did it go today?“ Ruby shook her head. “We have to move again. There is no food left in this place. We have to find a place where we can hunt for food instead of searching for canned food in mall-ruins.” Pyrrha got her point and nodded in understanding. Coco, who had been laid-back, with her feet up on a table, which really was actually just a big part of a collapsed wall, took her feet down from it and sat up correctly. “But where can we move to? We are on the outskirts of Vale and the rest of the city is filled with Grimm as far as we know. For us to be able to hunt for food, we have to go outside of the city, where there are even more Grimm.” Ruby sighed. “I know... But... if we stay here, we starve! So we have to figure out some kind of plan.”
One of the people in charge of the food came over and placed a bowl in front of each of them. The amount of food was not worth bragging about. After the third spoonful the ration was gone. Jaune joined the discussion right after the meal. “If our problem is that we need to move to search for food, but we are afraid that something will happen to us while we do it, then I suggest that a small group of two or three people leave and find a place which seems more promising. We can keep in contact with our communicators. There should still be enough power on them to do one more task, if we only keep one of them on in each place.“ Yang looked surprised at him. “Maybe he's not that smart, but when he says something useful, it sure IS the most useful thing being said ever!” The others giggled a little by that comment except Jaune who was a little offended. In any case, the plan was ready and Ruby and Yang decided to leave the next morning.

When morning arrived, they left. Because of their small number of people, they could easily sneak by the Grimm in the city without ending up in a battle. An hour went by and they reached the city gate. Luckily there were no Grimm by the gate, and so they sneaked out of the city, but they did not come very far before they fell through a hole in the ground, which suddenly appeared right underneath their feet.