Weiss walked along the halls of the castle, her thoughts focused on the architecture of the place. From what she could tell it seemed fairly well lit, and the sunlight that shined in from the windows only gave the palace a more glamorous display of elegance. Despite not having much experience with the world around her before meeting Ruby and her companions, she had to admit that the look of the castle seemed pleasing to her. It was almost as if she felt like this would be the kind of place that she could call home.

While she was walking through the halls, she looked over to see a training ring outside in the courtyard. Turning to walk over towards it, she saw that both Jaune and Pyrrha were inside training against each other. From what she could tell it looked like Pyrrha was teaching him something regarding swordplay, something that Jaune clearly was having trouble fully grasping a hold of. Weiss stood out at the edge of the ring and watched as the two inside practiced move after move for a few more minutes before Pyrrha finally noticed that Weiss was watching the two of them. "Oh hey there, I didn't know you were watching us," Pyrrha stated.

"I could tell." Weiss said as she herself walked into the ring. She walked straight towards Jaune, stopping a few feet in front of him as he stood there hunched over and trying to catch his breath. "Your swings are too wild, uncontrollable and easily avoided against a faster enemy. When you wind up your swing you basically give away what you are going to do and give your opponent too much time to avoid it and plan a counter attack." She paced back and forth in front of him, thinking of other criticisms to mention. "While it does have a decent amount of power to it, if you actually happen to get a hit in of course, it takes more energy to do that than to use short controlled strikes, tiring yourself out quicker than if you were to control yourself." She noted.

Jaune didn't know how to respond to that, and even if he had, he was too out of breath to say anything. Fortunately for him, Pyrrha was willing to step in on his behalf. "While Jaune may not be the greatest fighter, he is trying his hardest to improve. He has already improved tremendously since we first met up and he can only keep going up from here. Give it some time and you'll see him come through."

Weiss turned away from Pyrrha and Jaune, sighing as she did so. "Give it time? That's all you have to say?" She said at first, leaving Pyrrha and Jaune dumbfounded. Turning back around, her face was adorned with a cold expression. "Time is the one luxury that we don't possess." She walked right towards Pyrrha slowly as she continued. "The enemies we'll be fighting won't give us the luxury to become better. Out there in the middle of the battlefield, you won't be getting a second chance, and no one will show you any mercy or fight you fairly." Pyrrha stared at her, shocked at her words. After a moment of pause, she turned to look at Jaune, who was just as shocked as Pyrrha was. "You're not ready," Weiss stated to him as she turned and walked out of the ring and back into the castle. "No one ever is," She whispered softly to herself as the memories of her past life caught up to her.

Walking back down the halls of the castle, Weiss thought of Ruby, and how she was faring. She could only imagine what the red haired huntress was going through, but everything she thought of seemed grim and bloody. It was hard for Weiss to imagine just how much the thoughts of Ruby being hurt brought pain to her hearts. The girl somehow pushed through the layers of ice that Weiss had put up to keep the pain away from her, and now she seemed to be an important fixture in Weiss' life. Yet for the first time, Weiss didn't feel pain from it; she felt acceptance, appreciation, compassion, all of the things that she had never once felt before.

Suddenly she felt someone run right through her shoulder, knocking her off balance. While she managed to stay upright, she looked to see who had run into her. The blonde wonder known as Yang had been the culprit of course. "What the hell, Yang?" Weiss cried out.

Yang stopped and turned around, quickly shouting back to Weiss before she took off again. "Ruby's back in the city!"

When Weiss heard that, she stood frozen in time. It was like hearing that someone who had moved away was finally home after years had gone by. She chased after Yang and eventually caught up to her as they neared the city gate. Upon reaching it, they noticed that a crowd of people had made their way to the front and had surrounded them. Yang pushed through the crowds easily, and Weiss did her best to stay right behind her so that she could avoid getting caught inside of the crowd.

Once they had fully pushed through, Yang and Weiss ran towards Ruby and the rest of the group that she was with. "Ruby, you ok?" Yang asked upon reaching Ruby, grinding to a halt with a slide.

"Just a little bit beat up. But we got Ren outta there, and we even found Sun," Ruby said, smiling.

"More like I found you guys," Sun offhandedly said.

"How we found each other doesn't matter, just that we're together now." Ruby said. She went to take a step forward, but her body was still hurt from the fighting earlier in the day, and she fell over.

In an instant Weiss reached out to grab hold of her, but Yang beat her to it. "Easy there, Ruby. We got you, so don't worry about it." She started to carry Ruby towards the throne room, and most of the others followed them up. Weiss however, was left staring at the gate, upset over not being able to help her friend Ruby.

'She's really important to me if I would act this way towards her huh.' Weiss thought to herself as she shut her eyes. It hurt that she didn't even get so much as a "hello" from Ruby. 'Who are you kidding, it's just because of what happened. I'm sure she would have said something to you if she could.' She turned to walk up to the throne, but was surprised to see Blake standing there waiting for her. "What do you want?" Weiss asked, her voice filled with unnecessary venom.

Blake walked forward and up to Weiss, placed a hand on her shoulder, and then pulled the girl into a hug. "Ruby will make sure to talk to you alone when she gets the chance to. Just know that she needs to rest right now," Blake whispered into Weiss' ear. "For now, let her do her work. I'm sure that she needs to relay any information to King Port and that's more important at the moment. Just don't let that shake your faith in her that she'll come talk to you." Blake moved away from Weiss and started to walk towards the throne. "Just give her the chance to come to you, since you know that she will."

Weiss had to admit that Blake had definitely put things in perspective for her. She had just been caught up in the moment, and wasn't thinking clearly. After rethinking the moment, it made sense to her how things occurred. If anything, she just wished that Ruby could have said something to her, given her some kind of sign that things were alright between the two of them. 'Is this what love feels like? If it is, then I hope this feeling for Ruby never ends.' Weiss ran as fast as she could towards the throne room.

Ruby had to admit, Vacuo had some really well-trained doctors available. In no short time, her body was fully healed. The doctors however told her that she needed to stay in their care for the night. After a few minutes of arguing, Ruby relented under the condition that the King come to speak to her about how her assignment went, and that she get to see how the rest of her companions were faring, Nora and Ren included.

After the doctors left, Ruby and Yang were alone in the room together. Yang walked over to the bed that they rested Ruby on and ruffled the hair on her head. "Hey!" Ruby yelped when Yang messed with her hair. "That's not cool, I'm injured."

Yang couldn't help but laugh at that. "Please, I'm your sister, I can get away with anything," Yang said in between laughing fits. "I can't help it if you look so adorable. It's too good to pass up."

Ruby playfully shoved Yang out of the way, before breaking out into laughter herself. Suddenly it dawned on her that Weiss didn't follow her back to the room, recalling how Weiss looked dejected when Ruby had accidentally passed her without saying anything. The laughing stopped and she put on a more serious face instead. "Yang, can I ask you something?"

"Sure Rubes, what's up?"

Ruby took a second to figure out the best way of wording her question to Yang. "What do you think of Weiss?"

Ruby could tell that Yang and Weiss wouldn't get along, for some reason or another. Still Yang knew that Ruby was trying to show Weiss that the world was a wonderful place, and that she was a true friend to the white haired girl. "Honestly, I think that she's really harsh with people, and doesn't want anyone to know who she is. It's understandable given how she was raised and treated, but she needs to get past that." Yang said after a few moments had passed.

"Yang, it's really not that simple. What would you think if it was me in her position? She needs people to be there for her, just as much as you and I need each other. Sure she can be a bit harsh at times, but when that's all you know, do you expect her to act any differently?" Ruby reasoned. "She didn't choose to be the way she is, and she doesn't deserve any of the crap that she went through before. So promise me that you'll try to be more friendly with her?"

Yang sighed and let her head drop. She didn't want to be so open with Weiss, at least right now, but Ruby was right after all. None of this was Weiss' fault, and so there was no reason to get mad at her for all of things that had happened to her during her lifetime. So she nodded her head in agreement. "Alright. I'll give it a try at least, and it won't be an instant change, but I will try to do better, for you at least." Yang picked her head up and gave Ruby a huge toothy smile.

"I'm glad to hear it," Ruby said to Yang as the two of them hugged each other. Just at that moment Ruby noticed King Port walk in with Ren and Nora following behind him. The two young fighters looked like they had gone through a storm, but they were on their feet easily enough. That looked like a good sign. "My lord, I'm honored to see you," Ruby said, ending her hug with Yang.

"It's an honor to see that you yourself have returned safely as well. I am grateful that you have brought back young Ren to us in one piece, aside from a minor dent here and there." The King said. "Now, before I can assure you that these two warriors travel with you on your quest, there is still the issue of the White Fang encroaching on our lands."

As much as Ruby hoped that they could head out immediately, she understood that some issues needed to be addressed as soon as possible, and this was one of those issues. "Very well then, what would you have me and my companions do?" Ruby asked.

"We believe that the White Fang will attack us soon, and we would ask that you help us root out this problem. They cannot be allowed to defeat this city, or it's military. I would ask that you merely stay with us in the city until the fight is over. Once the battle is one then I can assure you that Nora and Ren will be sent with you on your quest," The King stated with his normal bombastic tone. "I hope that is fine by you."

Ruby nodded. "I will let everyone know that we are staying here for a little bit to help you out."

"Very well then. I leave you to your recovery. Whenever you are released, come see me at my throne and we shall discuss the information that Ren here has procured for us." With that the king walked out of the room with Nora and Ren following behind in company. It left Yang and Ruby all alone yet again.

"So we're staying for a bit then." Yang said. "Can't wait to see what this city has to offer." Yang seemed excited about the ordeal.

"Just don't get too excited we still got other things to take care of first ok?" Ruby stood up and walked over to the window to see Weiss walk into the building. 'Some things more so than others.' She thought to herself.

AN: Took me long enough, but I finally got the next act in this saga out and ready to go. Took much longer than I originally thought, but it's finally here. I'm going to try and get this to run as a weekly update, but that may change with time.

So I'm hoping that the quality of the writing is much better, especially since I have someone to edit for me (that being one of my friends from college). I hope that you guys like how the writing is now because it can only get better from here.

I'm glad that you guys stuck around through the long wait for this and I hope that you guys enjoy what is to come.

-Noble