Author's Notes: I have finally decided on a title of my series - it will be called 'Journey' - inspired by the ending of Volume 3. It is a simple meaning, and yet it is something that everyone of us have to go through, long or short, pain or happiness. The third Journey of this series will of course be, as foreshadowed-quite-carelessly during the interlude 'Forty Days', Weiss Schnee's story. This fan fiction will be updated on a weekly basis if there aren't too many complications in my life.

Stay sharp!

EDIT: After writing a visioned summary of events, I realize I made some mistakes - probably verily because I tried to plow into this without a clear vision in my head - and edited some parts of the story so it'll actually make contextual sense. Much apologies for this.

Journey III: Chains of Glass

The first thing I heard when I woke up were the screams. Shrill, terrified screams that pierce the ears like a rapier. It was exhausting. I tried lifting a hand to shut them out, but the only thing that greeted me was physical, gut wrenching pain that dug into almost every part of my body. It hurts. Even my face - is it wrong to feel thankful that my throat is unhurt? - was not spared from the misery. What happened? Almost immediately the memories came beckoning to my call, and just as quickly I pushed them away in attempt to forget they ever exist, but it was futile. I remember everything. The signs, the darkness, the betrayal. Your betrayal. Why? Why did you betray me? Why did you let me live? I can feel the crown on my head; its cold, hard frame clenching too tight to ever forget that I'm its eternal prisoner. You know what I have to do. You know what I must do if I have even a single breath left in my body. And I will, for I am the ruler of this frigid land, High Queen of the only free Kingdom of Remnant, the one and only rightful heiress of this accursed bloodline. I am Weiss Schnee.

I will claim what is mine, and yours, with blood.

Weiss Schnee, at the second weakest moment of her life.

It is a cold day in the mountains; frigid wind scratching against exposed skins and falling snow signalling the beginnings of a storm. Wrapped tightly within warm coats and cloaks, four heavily geared travelers trekked carefully along a crooked animal trail, believing that it would lead them towards a cave that will shelter them from the upcoming weather. Autumn had only scarcely start, and yet these lands are already showing signs of deepening their eternal color: White, white, and more white.

"... There. That is where we'll be staying for the night. With luck, our bear will be of the edible kind."

"That will be great, because I'm starving and it's been like what, twelve days since our last hot meal? Please let it not be an Ursa, please let it not be an Ursa -"

"Do not worry, my friend, for my sensors have picked up exactly one heat signal matching to that of an adult black bear! We will have a feast tonight!"

"... Uh, yep. A great feast we'll be having... Yay."

Yang Xiao Long, her usually loose outfit switched for a warmer thick wool suit and double layer pants, fiddled nervously with her furry collar as she attempted to put some distance between herself and a certain sentient android. She didn't succeed. The second she took one step away an invisible thread coiled and tightened round her waist instantly and pulled her right back to where she was; right beside Penny. The blonde could only dip her head in depression. Just how long is this going to continue? From their backs Blake Belladonna watched curiously the exchanges between Yang Xiao Long and her virtual captor. Nearly two weeks ago they had an unfortunate run-in with a number of old enemies, and the most troublesome of them, Penny decided that she would 'observe Yang Xiao Long at her natural habitat' and had since stuck to the party like a gum beneath a shoe. She didn't know Penny personally and thus had no opinion about her presence, but Ruby Rose wanted nothing more than to cut down - or at the very least, ditch - this nuisance once and for all. However, it was an impossible task. Setting aside the fact that the android would take an insane amount of effort to defeat, she had also glued herself to Yang and refused to budge an inch no matter the moon shattering threats Ruby had thrown at her. Penny's veiled threat was obvious: try anything funny, and she wouldn't hesitate to use Yang as her leverage. Thus the strange and fragile symbiosis was established, and the five of them had traveled together ever since.

Penny wasn't the worst of their troubles, however. Part of the reason Blake could not keep her eyes off Penny was her association with her companions, yes, but her true concern was in fact the human shaped, wool wrapped thing carried firmly behind the android's back. And it wasn't 'just' shaped like a human either; it totally is a living, breathing human, one who can, no pun intended, summon the might of an entire Kingdom and crush them with the ease of a single breath. Her thoughts turned dark. I should have killed her. Be that as it may, there isn't enough room in this tiny world - and certainly not mine - to accommodate someone as dangerous as Weiss Schnee, the High Queen of Shiva.

"Belladonna. Get to work." Ruby ordered. Before she knew it, they had already arrived at the mouth of the boulder-wide cave they were about to set in. "Don't order me." Retorting instinctively at her would-be murderer if she wasn't immortal, she simultaneously ignored a cheerful, "Can I try? I've never killed a real bear before!" from Penny Blake gazed at the beginning bristles of a startled black bear and summoned her power. Everything that falls under the shadow is her domain, and the task was done as soon as it began with a cross-dimensional stab through the skull. Then, not even bothering to step her body towards the corpse, she began butchering it from afar startng by skinning its carcass, removing the fats, stripping its innards before finally extracting its meat by cutting them into many, cube-like pieces. Meanwhile, the rest of the party did their own thing while waiting, such as Ruby wasted no time in gathering dry branches and leaves from nearby trees. Within fifteen minutes' time the group had settled themselves comfortably around a warm fire while eating barbecued meat.

"... Haahh," Yang chewed at a piece of skewered cube, swallowed, and sighed like she was floating in heaven, "I'm full to the brim, and yet I can't stop myself. This is the best food I've had since forever. I didn't know you're such a good cook, Blake!"

"It's nothing. I just have a lot of experience preparing wild games while hunting Grimm around my home."

"Is it really that tasty?" Penny chewed (it was made clear during the first night that Penny apparently has a digestive system, even though it isn't very energy efficient) and made a pondering look, "How odd. I am certain that on a scale of 100, this food is 19 points lower than the normal meals my father cook for me, which in literal terms means very average."

Immediately Yang sneaked a peek at Blake's direction while making silencing motions with another hand, "Don't be rude!" she could hear the blonde hissing towards Penny, although personally Blake didn't mind it at all. The android was right; all she did is to grill the skewers until they're suitably well done, add in a pinch of salt, and let hunger and exhaustion do the rest of the seasoning.

"Yang, Penny, the two of you will be keeping watch for the night. Wake me up after 4 hours. I'm going to bed."

A trail of red petals fluttered by the campfire, and when the gang came to Ruby Rose had already lied down facing the wall with her body wrapped completely inside her own cloak. The blonde frowned as she watched the evenly breathing form. It was a clear sign as any that her friend had succumbed to her well used silence again, and yet being the most forward person of the group Yang would not accept it without a fight,

"Ruby? Are you feeling alright?"

"... I'm fine."

"Then come sit with us! It's only seven thirty and we haven't even finished the bear yet!"

"Yang," Ruby's sudden raised voice drew everyone's attention, "There's someone else you should be talking to. See you in the morning."

"Huuuh?"

The plastic handle of her fork bent abruptly, and Blake cast a shocked look towards the back of the quiet redhead. It can't be, how did she...? Dammit, she's sharper than I thought. She felt like defying expectations and just keep quiet for the rest of the night, but in the end Blake sighed and gave in to more practical reasonings. She wants me to talk? Fine, I'll do just that.

"She's talking about me."

Yang turned around to face her with a question mark, "Blake?"

The nightshade sucked in a deep breath, and after a gathering of wits - huh, since when did it become this hard to converse? - cut to the chase immediately, "We need to talk – we need to decide on what we want to do with our 'queen', tonight."

The blonde's eyes darted immediately towards the other person leaned against the wall, and back. Wrapped within her her cloak with snow white hair spilled across her shoulders, Weiss Schnee breathed peacefully and slept without a care for the discussion of her survival, "I think I know what you're going to say, but go on."

Blake said, "We've fed her and taken care of her wounds for twelve days straight. Even though she hasn't woken up yet, she's basically in stable condition. So I suggest that we part ways with her now. We are only fifteen miles away from Edmonton (a border settlement of Shiva), and I can just drop her off at a police station or a hospital."

The blonde closed her eyes for a moment before looking at her seriously, "Blake... You know about the coup, don't you?"

Exactly two weeks ago, a monumental disaster had taken place at the capital of Shiva Kingdom. The official statement was that, due to a number of capital offenses such as the Independence Day mass murder, the assassinations of multiple Shiva High Council officials and Atlas Ambassador Mr. Fredric Ironwood, treason through the invitation of Grimm leading to the destruction of multiple border towns so on and so on; the High Council of Shiva had unanimously agreed that the High Queen was no longer fit to rule and that they would withhold governmental power until a new governing system can be decided. To put it concise a coup d'état happened, and Weiss Schnee, once the most beloved angel of her Kingdom, had fallen from grace and hunted to the point that she nearly perished by their hands.

The dark-haired woman nodded with an even more serious expression, "Who doesn't? The whole Remnant is talking about this. All the more reason to di... let her go while we can."

"If we do that we'll be sending her to her death."

"So? I have to admit I don't really care about these supposed 'atrocities', but even so have you heard what she's done? She had it coming." Just like me. "We've done our best - in fact, we've done far more than she deserves. We've treated her wounds even though she attacked us; we've fed her and kept her safe while risking our own lives in the process. We don't owe her anything. So, Yang... let's leave her already."

The blonde let out a sigh and chugged down water from a bottle by her side. Then she stared at Blake again and nodded one sharply, "Yeah, sure. I agree with you."

For a second Blake opened her mouth to argue, but then her mind processed the reply and she looked taken aback, "You... agree with me? You're okay with leaving her behind?"

Yang shook her head her with a playful tsk while wagging a finger, "Look Blake. I'm not sure what you think of me, but I'm not actually stupid you know. I won't put our team in danger just to save a stranger's life."

The nightshade wouldn't necessarily agree they are a band of like-minded individuals, much less a team, but she digressed, "I mean - of course. That's great. I'm glad you agree. So, I'll drop her off at Edmonton then?"

"For now? Nowhere."

"What?"

"We are not leaving her. Not now." Yang said casually. "Yang -" the katana wielder felt her blood boil up in an instant, but Yang interjected before she could protest,

"Let me explain first, okay? So first, it's too dangerous. You can't carry another person in your Shadow Dimension, can you? It'll be incredibly risky even for you to infiltrate past their guard and drop Weiss without being caught. Two, even if you did manage without leaving behind a trace, her reappearance is definitely going to provoke a huge reaction from the two Kingdoms. If we think about it logically, they will most likely cease their search activities and put their attention onto deciding Weiss' fate, but... something tell me that things aren't as simple as they seem."

"... You worried that it might cause something we didn't expect? Maybe cause a threat we couldn't see coming?"

Yang nodded, "You've said it yourself. Mysterious assassinations, civilian massacres, Grimm invasions so on and so on, all the way back to 4 months ago. Somehow Shiva - and I'll bet my gauntlets that Atlas' in it as well - has managed to keep all these under wraps from the entire world until last week. You can give me a million dollars and I won't believe for a second there isn't a pile of dungberg conspiracies hidden behind these stinking mess. We really shouldn't so carelessly decide what to do with Weiss until the bigger picture becomes clearer."

"But we don't have to shoulder that risk in the first place!" Blake argued immediately, "Obviously Weiss Schnee is a continent level time bomb, so the smartest thing to do is to ditch her asap! Fine, let's not leave her at Edmonton - we'll leave her here. At this cave. Her Aura's strong enough to sustain her for a week. Then all of us will be safe!"

"It wouldn't make a difference, kitten. We are still a week away from passing through this controlled Dead Zone, and the search network will probably find her here by tomorrow. In that case, best we carry her along until we can be sure we can escape whatever trouble comes after."

"Yang, ugh," Blake scratched her bow in frustration, "Look, I understand your explanation, but - listen. Weiss Schnee, is trouble. We, don't want any trouble. Even if your speculation is sound, it is just as likely that this 'trouble' won't affect us. No matter how you weigh it, it's just safer to leave her while we can!"

"If I lived my life that way, you would already be dead."

Blake shuddered. It wasn't meant for her ears; something the blonde muttered under her breath with an indistinguishable tone, but she caught it anyway with her inhuman, enhanced hearing, "... What?"

The blonde broke out of her temporary reverie and continued, not noticing the paling of her cheeks,

"Here's my final reason, Blake, and I will admit that it's a selfish one: I don't want to put someone I saved in danger, especially when the person herself isn't even conscious to realize it. It seems so... wrong. If Weiss Schnee is awake right now and she chooses to surrender herself, then that is her choice and I won't stop her. But to just leave her like this, knowing what her Kingdom would most likely do to her - what difference would it make than to kill her with my own hands? I can't ."

She could feel a strange heat gathering inside her head until it hurts; her fingers balling into fists so tight it they could break. She said flatly, "So. All this boils down to is that you, want to give her a choice."

Yang glanced up worriedly at the sudden steeliness in her voice, "... Yeah."

"She lost her throne, her people hates her, she had to run away from her own country and her whole life is ruined and she deserves it for all the sins she has committed, and you want to give her a choice. Do you know why she isn't waking up? Because she couldn't stand the horrible reality sticking her in the face, and even if she could she knows that will most likely be killed or spend the rest of her life a fugitive. To suffer or to die. What a great conscience you have there, Yang! Perhaps you've never thought that maybe, just maybe, she doesn't want to have this choice?"

Blake was breathing hard and shaking uncontrollably at the end of the outburst. At the corner, Ruby shuffled a little in her sleep. Penny lost her signature smile and became void of any expression. Weiss Schnee continued to slumber without a care for the world, and Yang... Yang just looked sad. She had never seen her this sad and hurt even when she was talking about her past.

"Blake... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I -"

"Enough. You made up your mind, and I'm just the follower. Do whatever you want." She stood up abruptly from her seat and headed towards the cave mouth. Yang tried to follow her, but immediately she stopped the blonde with the coldest tone she could muster, "Don't. I... I need some time. Alone."

She disappeared into the dark.

"Ha - ha choo! Uuunghh, I should've worn an extra shirt. Or five."

"You won't be able to fight well then - There you go, take care not to spill."

"Finally! Thanks Pyrrha!"

A man and a woman sat by a fire in the middle of the night, drinking hot coca underneath a leafless tree. The tall blond with messy hair wore a white chestplate and shoulder armor on the top and blue slacks at the bottom. Coupled with a bland sword strapped to the left of his waist, Jaune Arc looked the perfect image of a strong generic melee warrior, if he hadn't wrapped himself inside a thick blanket and shaking like a leaf that is.

On the other hand, the woman to his side looked far more reliable. She had noble red hair tied in a ponytail, green eyes and thin lips. Hidden beneath her cloak is a two piece, strapless leather armor with a thin sheets of metal sewn on the inside, to provide protection while maintaining the high mobility of its wearer. Her weapon, a javelin and bronze shield were strapped to the back in the open for ease of use, and perhaps a warning against predators who might see them as potential preys. After all, beyond the safety of the walls, every danger they encounter could very well be life threatening.

"I'm starting to regret undertaking this mission. It's been ten days since we tracked down these criminals, and we haven't even seen their shadows anywhere at all! Are they really out here?" Jaune Arc mumbled from within his comfy blanket.

Pyrrha smiled gently at her partner, "We found their campfire remains, didn't we? While they are certainly sneakier than the mission ranking suggests, I'm sure we'll catch up to them pretty soon."

"... Pyrrha, I don't mean to sound defeatist, but are you sure you don't want to give up on this mission?" a weak sounding question suddenly fell out of Jaune's mouth, and his red headed friend stared at him with surprise, "Of course not! We're definitely going to make this a success, aren't we?"

"From the remains we found two days ago, we deduced that their group has at least three or four people, right?" the blond mouthed his speculation slowly, "And from the reports we know that these criminals are good enough to beat the crap out of an Atlas infantry squad. Not that you can't do that yourself and without breaking a sweat even, but... I'm worried. What if we can't beat them? What if I... drag you down?"

The red head let loose a soft sigh before saying, "You are not dragging me down, Jaune. You are as strong as any Huntsman in the Academy, if not better. Be confident about yourself!"

For a second the blond looked like he wanted to argue, but he changed his mind at the last second before looking away, "I guess. Still, it doesn't change the fact that we're outnumbered."

Pyrrha mused for a second before nodding, "You're not wrong. If things turn out more dangerous than we can handle, then we definitely should turn back and report back to the Professor... Remember the first rule of being a Huntsmen? Safety is always the first priority."

"… Of course. Would be a shame if my handsome face gets beaten in, yeah?" Jaune responded with a toothy grin on his face. The girl understood that it was his way of hiding his insecurities, but she revealed nothing and grinned right back with a firm slap on his shoulder,

"Not on my watch, pretty boy. Now go get some sleep. I'll stand the night."

"Hey, my cocoa! Aw, man!"

Ignoring her partner's protest, Pyrrha stood up and laid herself behind a large tree trunk overseeing their camp and stared into the darkness. Then, with a soft tone that no one but herself could hear, she whispered,

"I'll protect you."