This is my deepest dream
This is how I show you my love

This is it speaking to me
This is me speaking to you

My heart hurts and my heart breaks
No one belongs here
Not here where we leave our hearts
The illusion for your weakened love

This is not what we were made for
Far from the compassion we have known
Far from the love that we have shown

My heart tells me that love will endure all things

This is my deepest dream
This is how I show you my love
So Beloved, let us love one another

- 1 month until summer break -

It had been roughly a week since Ruby's fire-lit battle with the Grimm when Yang cornered Weiss in the hallway leading to their respective rooms. The heiress was returning from classes, and it was a Friday, the first one of the month, which meant team night. Yang had been waiting for her, arms crossed, leaning up against the wall.

"Hey Princess."

"Oh great. You look like you have something to say."

"If you'll stop walking and give me just a minute, then yeah."

Weiss huffed, but stopped and spun around so that she was facing the blonde, her ponytail whipping through the air as she did so.

Yang grinned. "Thanks for your time. So, I just really have one question. You've been dating Ruby for what, six months now? This is your half-year anniversary, right?"

Weiss shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. "That dunce just can't keep her mouth shut. But yes. It is. Now can I go?"

"Ah ah ah, that wasn't the question. Got somewhere to be?"

"Yes, actually. I have to get dressed and ready for tonight. Ruby did tell you we're going to the orchestra right? Since it's my turn to pick."

Yang shrugged. "Yeah, she told me."

"Then why don't you go get ready? Yang Xiao Long, an opera is a civilized affair. I will not have you showing up like a... like a half-dressed street hooker."

"Ooh, you wound me. But I would go put on my stripper make-up and hooker clothes, if you would just let me ask my question."

"Well just ask it then!"

"Why haven't you dumped Ruby yet?"

Weiss was so taken aback that her anger fled, leaving only confusion in it's wake. "Wait, what?"

"I asked why you haven't dumped Ruby yet." She kept a straight face, as if she were asking what shoe size Weiss wore.

"Why... why would I break up with Ruby?"

"Ding ding! Ladies and gentlemen, she's figured out my question, and after only two tries!"

Weiss was still too confused to be aggravated by the blatant jab. "No, I mean... do you want me to break up with her? Is that what this is?" Now she was getting angry, and she could feel her brow furrow.

"Weiss, I would ask you if you're stupid, but I know you aren't. It's a very simple question."

"Simple? How is it simple?" Her shrill voice rose with her anger. "Where are you going with this?"

Yang only laughed in response to the heiress' obvious anger. "Oh my dust. Weiss. Why are you still with Ruby after six months? Why haven't you just dumped her yet, and moved on to some other chump dumb enough to believe that you actually like them? Like a rich asshole like you should've done long ago?"

Now Weiss was furious. "Because I love her!" she practically yelled. Her voice rebounded down the empty hallway.

Yang smiled, leaned forward, and patted her on the shoulder, and Weiss froze. "That's all I wanted to hear. I'm gonna go get ready for your opera now."

As Weiss stared in disbelief, Yang turned and strode down the hallway with her usual hip-swinging gait. As she neared the corner where the hallway turned left, she looked back at Weiss over her shoulder. "Just remember, you break Ruby's heart, and I break you."

Then she promptly turned the corner and disappeared.

Weiss slumped back against the wall and tried to make sense of what had just happened. Was that Yang's version of a blessing? Or was it a warning?

Distantly, she realized that the small indent that Yang had been leaning on was where Ruby had run head-first into the wall a few weeks ago. She couldn't remember why it had happened, and she wrote it off as a just another doltish Ruby 'accident'. The brunette had acted like it hadn't hurt at all. Weiss thought otherwise.

And then, the blonde's unmistakable, husky voice echoed back down the hallway. "And don't have sex with my sister unless she comes on to you first!"

Weiss turned and slammed her head into the wall. And yes, it hurt.

"Ruby!" Weiss called, her voice echoing out from the fogged-up glass doors of the shower. "You'd better not be thinking of wearing anything casual tonight!"

"Oh come on!" the returning cry came from their room. "I already had my hoodie on and everything!"

A heavy sigh escaped from the heiress' lips, and she pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and forefinger. Ruby never seemed to learn anything about high society. "Ruby, this is an orchestra house, not a movie theatre. There is absolutely no way that I'm letting you dress like a street rat tonight. This is my team night, and we're going to see an actual work of art. Something that took years to write, and months of preparation and planning. I will not have you show up in anything less than your best. You are wearing that dress I picked out for you, and that's final."

There was a pause, and with growing aggravation, she wondered if Ruby was even listening to her.

Then: "Are you done with your speech yet?"

"Ruby, when I get out of this shower, I am going to strangle you, and then put that dress on your cold, dead body!"

Ruby's laugh echoed from the tiled bathroom walls. "Yeah, but then you'd have to undress me first!"

"I... well I..."

"Ohmygosh you are too cute! Fine, I'll wear the dress! Don't get your panties in a bunch!"

Weiss slammed her head into the wall of the shower with a heavy thud. It hurt. She needed to stop doing that. Suddenly, the hot water running down her back wasn't helping her mood anymore.

"Of all the insufferable people I've ever met in this short life," she growled through clenched teeth, "why did I have to fall in love with her?"

"I don't know," Ruby's voice came from behind her, making her jump, "you're the one who went gay for me."

Weiss' answering screech followed her as she bolted, laughing, from the bathroom.

"Forgive me yet?" A kiss to her cheek.

Weiss clenched her teeth as she sat facing the mirror, struggling to pin her earrings on: long silver bars that shined in the lamp-light.

"Oh come on? Please?" A kiss to the back of her neck.

She felt Ruby's arms snake around her waist, and she cursed her body's instinctive reaction as she leaned backwards into the embrace.

"I promise I'll behave at the orchestra?" A kiss to her bare back, a spot left open by her back-less, shimmering silver gown. That one made her shudder.

Weiss sighed. "Fine, fine, I forgive you. Happy?"

Ruby leaned in front of her and pressed a short kiss to her lips this time. When she pulled back her silver eyes sparkled, matching the smile on her face. "Yeap. As long as you're happy."

Weiss couldn't contain a smile of her own. "Yes, I am happy. And if you behave at the orchestra, I'll be even happier. If you're good, when we get back, we can make some popcorn and watch a movie on my scroll."

"Ooh, that sounds great. What are we gonna watch?"

"We'll figure something out." Weiss finally pinning her earrings on, and turned around. "Now let me see you."

Ruby grinned and stepped back, doing a quick little twirl in her red cocktail dress. The hem fell to just below her knees, and the neckline was modest by any standard, but still seemed like it struggled to contain her ever-growing bust. The sleeves ended at her shoulders, and were ruffled. The silky crimson material clung to her womanly figure in all the right places, and Weiss felt her pulse quicken.

Ruby's hair was up in a tight ponytail with a crimson tip, and there was a red rose set just above her brow.

"Wow..." was the only word she could find. Ruby looked absolutely gorgeous.

The brunette clasped her hands in front of her and swayed back and forth with a nervous look in her eyes. "So... good wow or bad wow?"

"Good! Good, like... Ruby you look..." she searched for the word she needed to fully articulate just how heart-stoppingly beautiful her partner looked, but all she could come up with was: "You look hot."

Ruby blushed and giggled at the same time, and Weiss smacked her palm into her face as she realized what she had said. "Urgh. Not hot. Pretty, gorgeous, breath-taking, all those," she mumbled into her palm.

Ruby chuckled and lowered herself onto the heiress' lap. "Don't worry Weiss, I get the idea. You know, you don't look half-bad yourself."

Not half-bad? Not half-bad?! This dress was a Tarence Zimmerman, extravagantly priced, and well worth every cent. The priceless silver material shimmered in both sunlight and starlight, and while it was loose around the shoulders and the legs, it didn't obscure her, as Ruby would put it, 'deliciously thin' waistline. And as a final touch it was backless, and would leave the smooth, pale skin of her back exposed to the cool night air. Or at the present, Ruby's hands. She was even wearing her hair down. She almost never wore her hair down in public.

She glared at her partner. "I don't look half-bad? Are you serious? After all the time I spent with this make-up, and picking out this dress and..." she trailed off as she saw the twinkling in Ruby's eyes: an unmistakable glint of humor.

"I'm only kidding," Ruby whispered. "It's just a lot easier to say that than 'you look so beautiful it makes my chest hurt.' "

"Oh. Well I... oh."

The orchestra hall, a massive, oval shaped building, was down by the docks, on a large pier that stretched out onto the open water. The lights of the opera house glittered on the dark ocean as they approached, and the night air was cool on their exposed skin.

Once inside, Ruby stared around, in awe of her surroundings. The interior of the hall itself was a cavernous space, a vast open room with a gently sloping ceiling that fell down towards the massive stage at one end of the room. The rows and aisles of seats were arranged around the stage like a crescent moon.

Up above, the ceiling stretched up until it was lost in shadow. A latticework of thick wooden beams stretched across ceiling halfway up in a checkered pattern, serving as a mounting point for various speakers and spotlights. The entire hall was lit by clusters of golden lights that were concealed behind sheaths of wood, so that while the space was comfortably, if sparsely lit, the actual source of the light could not be seen. It gave the whole place a shadowy, yet somehow familiar feel.

The stage itself was well-lit, and the floor of it was made out of some kind of tan wood. It was wide, easily capable of accommodating an orchestra of a hundred people or more. The stage only reached about a fourth of the way to the ceiling however; the rest of the wall facing the open water was one gigantic glass window. The moon shone through it, making the whole place seem somehow surreal.

That's how it felt to Ruby at least, as she walked down a crowded aisle, following behind the rest of her team. Yang had decided to wear a strapless, ruffled lilac dress that only barely came to her knees. And of course, the cut was low enough to highlight her assets. This was Yang, after all. The rest of the team had left their weapons behind in a guarded holding area, but the blonde wore her gauntlets, in their retracted state, on her wrists. They looked like nothing more than gaudy, oversized bracelets. Her eyes matched her dress, and her hair matched her gauntlets. She drew stares and hungry glances, but they didn't worry Blake. Hell, if anyone was admiring how Yang looked that night, it was her faunus girlfriend. The two walked arm in arm, and the blonde's golden high heels, along with Ruby's and Weiss', clacked on the plastic-tiled floor.

The more literary-inclined member of the team probably drew the least amount of attention to herself, but only because black is outshone by other, brighter colors of the visual spectrum, such as red and yellow. Black doesn't tend to draw the eye. Nevertheless, it wasn't as if she wasn't beautiful in her own right. Her raven-black hair was curled and hung down to her waist, her feline ears proudly uncovered atop her head. Although instead of a dress, she wore a tuxedo. A black and grey affair of tailored silk, the coat hung down to her upper thighs much like a Zoot suit, and her coat-tails hung even lower than that. Shiny dress shoes and a smart black bowtie completed a look that blended sophistication and class.

Together, Team RWBY maneuvered around groups of well-dressed patrons that were either engaged in lively discussion, or just trying to find their seats. A few people openly stared at Blake's exposed faunus ears, but Yang met each prejudiced gaze with a furious glare, and the targets of her wrath seemed to wither and shrink under it.

Excited conversation echoed throughout the vast orchestra hall, mixing with the discordant sounds of the symphony sound-testing their various instruments. Horns blared, ,violins squealed, guitars strummed, clarinets sounded, and drums beat in time as each member of the huge group of musicians made sure their particular artifice of sound was up to par.

They found their seats and took them, Ruby on the far left, followed by Weiss, then Blake, then Yang, but only a minute passed before the older couple excused themselves to go find refreshments. Yang colorfully declaring that the only way she would make it through the whole affair was if she was 'smashed'. Blake went along to make sure she didn't get anything too strong.

Ruby shifted in her seat to find a comfortable position, which was actually quite easy considering the chairs were large, cushioned affairs with a good amount of leg room. Something which the ever-growing brunette found to be scarce these days.

Releasing a satisfied sigh, she sank back into the seat. "Um, Weiss?"

The heiress looked up from the program she had picked up at the door. "Yes?"

"What was this play called again?"

"It's an orchestra Ruby, and it's a piece written by Tayorn Malorkai. Eloquently titled: Understanding What We've Grown to Be. It has..." she looked down at the program, "three acts. Repression, Denial, and Acceptance.

"Sounds super interesting," Ruby said with a completely straight face.

Weiss narrowed her eyes at her, trying to discern whether or not the brunette was being sarcastic. They stared at eachother, but Ruby began to show signs of breaking. She pursed her lips, and she began to tremble slightly.

Weiss' eyebrow twitched, and the brunette lost. She burst out laughing, bending over and clutching her sides. People around her stared.

"No cookies for a month."

Ruby stopped laughing instantly. "What! No! You can't!"

"Quiet, it's about to start."

As she spoke, the last few groups of people were taking their seats, and Yang and Blake, laden with drinks, dropped into their seats next to them just as the lights began to dim. Ruby, crestfallen, slouched over in the darkness.

A loaded silence fell with the warm darkness, a hushed expectance of the opening act. Blake passed Weiss two glasses of champagne, and the heiress passed one further on to Ruby, who accepted it with a gracious 'thank you.'

Weiss heard her partner take a sip. "Ooh wow this is good."

"Hush dolt."

Next to her, she could see Ruby slide down into her seat like a kicked puppy.

And then it began.

A lone flute sounded in the darkness, clear and piercing; almost cold. After a few chilling seconds, it was joined by a single clarinet. In contrast it was low and muted, and for an instant the two sounds were discordant, jarring like nails on a chalkboard. But then the twin sounds mixed and became one, joining eachother in perfect harmony, and Weiss felt her spirits soar as a trumpet joined the ensemble, adding it's own distinctive brand of ringing majesty. Then a french horn joined in, then a trombone, then a tuba and then a bass clarinet.

A few seconds passed with all the wind instruments blending together in a ringing clarion call, and then the strings joined in. Violins and cellos, viola's and double bass'.

Then finally they all joined together, and instruments of all kinds united a single uplifting note of grand majesty that seemed to shake the hall. The lights went up with the music, and Weiss felt a smile grow on her face. As a child, one of the few things she remembered actually enjoying was when her parents took her to the opera, orchestra, or ballet. She felt truly alive when she watched such beautiful endeavors of hard work and time come together, a feeling that was rare in those days. Before Beacon. Before Ruby.

As the grand opening note faded and the first act began, she glanced surreptitiously around to see how her teammates were faring.

Ruby actually looked interested. She was leaning forward, and there was a wry grin on her face that was mirrored in her twinkling silver eyes. It made her glad that Ruby, at least, was having a good time. They had never had all that much in common, her and her partner, but it was an encouraging thought that Ruby might come to enjoy the finer things in life. She'd just have to ease her in to them, she decided.

Looking to her right, she wasn't surprised. Blake looked interested, but detached. Yang looked like she'd rather be watching paint dry. Her glass of champagne was already gone. And she was eying Blake's.

The first act came and went, as most opening acts do. True to its title: Repression, it was, for the most part, muted and repressed. But as the act drew to its close, the instruments seemed to be battling with eachother, like two different ideas in your head, both vying to be heard and fully realized. But just as the music came to a crescendo, like the final moment before the start of a great battle... it died. The lights faded, and signaled the end of the first movement. Hushed whispers echoed through the massive space, following in the wake of the light. It left the audience unsatisfied and wanting more. But that was good, Weiss knew. After all, it was only the first act, and its job was to set the stage for the later movements.

The lights went up, and they revealed a great velvet curtain which had fallen over the stage. The whispering was replaced with a rolling applause, the sound of thousands of hands all clapping together. Everyone joined in, even Yang.

After it died, people got up and started to move about, stretching their legs and heading to relieve themselves or get food and drink. Yang, who already had a glazed look to her eyes, went off to get even more champagne. Blake followed her with a sigh.

"Hey Ruby, you want something?" Yang called back.

"Uh, water?"

"Kay. Weiss?"

"Nothing, thank you," the heiress replied, then turned to her partner. "So, what do you think?"

"I actually really like it," Ruby answered. "I didn't think I would, ya know at first, but it's actually really cool. There's something about the music I guess. It just makes you feel things. Like..." She frowned, clearly trying to find the words she needed. "Like emotion in musical form? I don't know if that makes sense. And you can really tell that everyone playing put a ton of work into this. So yeah, it's awesome."

Weiss smiled at her. "That's the way I feel about it too. It's uplifting and inspiring: music on a scale this large. So many things coming together as one, harmonious whole. I'm really glad you're enjoying this."

Ruby smiled back. "I'm willing to give anything a shot, for you. I'm always dragging you off to stupid movies and stuff. It's about time we do something that you like."

"Ever been to a ballet?"

"Ooh, not too sure on that one. They always looked really silly to me. I mean, I would be fine, but Yang... we'd probably have to make that one a date."

Weiss felt a jolt of panic down her spine. "Ruby, don't say that out loud!"

"Oops," Ruby laughed. She covered her hand with her mouth. "My bad..."

The heiress frowned and stared at the stage. "Just be more careful. I know you're trying. But it's only for another month, alright?"

"Yeah, I hear ya." She leaned over and whispered in the heiress' ear. "I just really wanna kiss you right now. In front of allll these people."

Great. That was all she needed right now, to be blushing, with Ruby whispering in her ear, in the middle of the crowded orchestra hall. She covered her mouth and chin with her hand and stared at the stage, keeping her face as expressionless as possible.

Yang and Blake slid back into their seats, and Weiss noted with growing apprehension that the blonde actually had a glass of whiskey this time. She shot a pointed look at Blake.

"Not my fault," the faunus answered with a shrug. "She's twenty-one now, and I'm not her mom."

Yang laughed and rested her head on Blake's shoulder, who smiled slightly as the dimming lights signalled the audience to return to their seats.

As they did so, Ruby half-whispered, half-shouted over to her sister. "Yang! My water?"

"Hahha, I forgot! Sorry!"

The brunette frowned and plopped back into her seat, folding her arms over her chest as she did so. The lights faded to blackness, and all was quiet as the audience eagerly awaited the start of the second act.

She didn't remember how it started. She didn't remember how it ended. All she knew was that she came back to herself when the lights went down, and the hall once again filled with the sound of clapping hands. But this time it was deafening.

A man rose to his feet, the man next to him followed, and before she knew it, the entire, vast hall was giving a standing ovation.

Hell, even Yang was on her feet.

And even stranger, the emotion she was left with wasn't joy, or happiness, or even satisfaction.

The only feeling she was left with was remorse. Regret, and despair. So cold, so piercing, so real, that she couldn't do anything but applaud.

It reminded her of nothing more than how she had felt when she denied her feelings to Ruby. When she had forced herself to bury her emotions, give up on her dreams, and drown herself underneath a tide of duty and tradition.

And evidently the brunette felt the same way, because she felt her warm, calloused hand slide easily into her own in the darkness.

The feelings of regret fled like darkness from the dawn, and were replaced with a profound sense of happiness and affection for her excitable partner.

That was the beautiful thing about music, she reflected as Ruby squeezed her hand, especially on a scale like this. It was different for everyone. The man with tears in his eyes to her left had probably experienced something completely different, but it was no less profound or heartfelt for either of them. Music was personal; its shaped by your own experiences and views.

The applause faded, Ruby's hand slipped from hers, and people started either sitting down or moving off towards the rear of the hall.

Yang and Blake both decided to stay seated, but Weiss felt the sharp urge to stretch her legs. "Ruby, let's get something to drink."

The brunette simply smiled at her and nodded. They walked up the gently sloping aisle, moving carefully around other attendees as they headed for the bar. After waiting in line for a time, engaged in easy conversation all the while, they left with a glass of champagne, and Ruby's long-overdue glass of water.

"I'm telling you Weiss, that was just incredible. I've never felt that way before. I mean, with music at least."

"I know, I know," the heiress laughed. "That's the third time you've said it." She risked looking over her shoulder as she walked, shooting Ruby a warm smile. "I'm really glad you're enjoying it."

Turning back to the fore, she was hit with a strange feeling, a premonition almost. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but something just felt... off. A space cleared in the aisle, and a well-dressed man approached her coming the opposite way. A rabbit faunus, judging by the floppy grey ears stretching out from his shoulder-length blonde hair. Just before they passed, he looked down, she looked up, and their eyes met. He smiled, and it chilled her to the bone.

And then he passed, and the moment passed with it. She nearly bumped into the woman in front of her, and a small amount of the champagne she was holding spilled onto the floor.

"Whoa, you okay Weiss?" Ruby asked from behind her.

"Yes, I'm... I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Positive. Let's get back to our seats."

They returned along with the vast majority of the crowd, and the lights dimmed lower as the last few people left in the aisles ducked their heads and quickened their pace, trying to get to their seats before the start of the third, and final movement.

"Ah," Weiss thought as she sipped her drink, "the third act. Where it all comes together, where everything is wrapped up and the story comes to a close." Looking down at the program in her lap, she saw the title of the final movement.

Acceptance.

The more she thought about it, the more the entire piece seemed to be a simulacrum, a musical embodiment of her relationship with Ruby. Repression, denial, and then... acceptance. Was it a coincidence that they had come here? She had nearly brought her team to a movie, after all. But the orchestra had caught her eye.

Was it fate? Maybe, she decided. But then, she would have to believe in fate in the first place.

The lights died, darkness fell, and she felt Ruby's hand groping in the darkness, searching for her own. She suppressed a chuckle and met her partner's hand with her own. Their fingers curled slowly around eachother.

The crowd sat in collective silence, awaiting the start of the final and most important act of all.

Only, it never came.

With no warning the lights flared on, and a collective gasp was heard around the room.

Standing front and center on the stage, in front of the orchestra, was a group of at least thirty armed men. Or faunus, to be exact.

Deer faunus, hawk faunus, dog faunus, turtle faunus, even giraffe faunus. All with different body types and sizes. All wearing different suits. The only thing that they held in common was a loaded assault rifle, and a grim smile.

"Goooood evening ladies and gentlemen! I sincerely apologize for this interruption to your regularly scheduled programming. But I just need a moment of your time, you understand?"

The deep, booming voice, projected somehow by the halls own speaker systems, clearly came from the man who stepped forward from the rest of the group. Only, not a man. A rabbit faunus, with floppy grey ears and shoulder-length blonde hair.

Weiss' blood went cold.

Beside her, Ruby leaned forward, and she heard the metallic *clink-chunk* of Yang extending her gauntlets.

"Blake, get our weapons," Yang whispered, without moving her eyes from the stage.

The faunus nodded, and then slipped away. It was so smooth and sudden that if Weiss hadn't been watching her, she would've been inclined to say that Blake had never been there in the first place. Certainly no one else noticed, being far too fixated on the scene in front of them.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the voice echoed from the speakers. The rabbit faunus waved his hands animatedly as he talked, pacing the front of the stage. "My name is Charles. And I, and my friends here, are members of an organized group of faunus rights activists. Perhaps you've heard of us? We call ourselves the White Fang."

A collective gasp echoed throughout the crowd, followed by harsh whispers. Several people stood and tried to leave. As soon as they did, the White Fang members stepped forward and raised their rifles.

"Ah ah ah!" Charles shouted. "Don't even think about trying to leave. Seriously, how rude is that? I've only just introduced myself, and you're already trying to beat feet out of here."

Shakily, the would-be escapees sat down. But the White Fang kept their assault rifles up.

"So, as I was saying, we are members of the White Fang. But don't let that scare you. Because I only want," he held a finger in the air, "one. Of you. Just one person, out of this entire crowd. And once I get this person, the rest of you can fly away!" He waved his hands like a pair of wings. "Free as a bird!"

Weiss felt a heavy sense of dread fall on herself like a hammer blow. She had a distinct feeling that she knew exactly who they wanted.

Ruby grabbed her hand and squeezed it tight. She looked at her partner, and saw a look of grim determination on her face. Evidently the brunette had come to the same conclusion. "I won't let them have you," she whispered. "I'm never letting you go, remember? Not now, not over."

Ruby's words sent a wave of calm over her. It would be fine, the brunette's firm grip on her hand told her. It would be fine, no matter what. Ruby was here. And so were Yang and Blake. They would find a way out of this.

"So," the rabbit faunus continued. "one person. That's it." A wave of nervous glances made the crowd look like a rippling ocean. Nobody knew who the person would be, and nobody wanted it to be them.

Charles stopped pacing. He stood straight, and faced the crowd with a wicked smile. "Weiss, Schnee!"

A dead silence fell on the room. Then, Weiss saw a pair of eyes land on her, from a man in front. Then another. Then another, and another, and another. People turned, following the gazes of the people around them.

And now, every single person in the room was staring right at her. She felt like a deer caught in headlights, like a rabbit snared in a trap. There was no escaping now.

She almost started to tremble, but then felt something else. Ruby's warm, calloused hand. It steadied her, brought back her confidence. She was Weiss Schnee. Heiress of the one of the most powerful companies in the world, and raised to be strong and unflinching in the face of danger.

She stood.

"Ah, and there she is! The lovely Ms. Schnee, heiress to a corporation build on questionable business practices, dangerous working conditions, and slave labor. And daughter of one of the worst perpetrators of faunus rights abuse since the Human-Faunus wars."

The crowd still stared at her, judging her, condemning her. They wanted to give her up, if only for their own self-preservation. She could see it.

But she had hardened herself, and wouldn't back down now. She raised her shrill voice so that it carried to the stage. "Charles, although obviously that isn't your real name, I have to ask what exactly you plan on doing with me once you have me. Blackmail? Are you going to try and get my father to give your people better wages?"

Charles stared at her, but didn't say anything.

"Extortion? Is that it? Want to force my father to pay you? How many lien? A million? Ten million?"

"We're not doing this for money, Ms. Schnee," he laughed. "And we're not trying to blackmail your father, as satisfying as that would be. We're doing this because it has to be done."

"And what exactly are you doing then?" she shouted back.

He smiled, slow and chilling. "Killing you," he said.

As nervous as she was, she couldn't help but smirk. So that was how it was going to be. "And, I might add, trying to do it with a minimum of collateral damage," he said, indicating the crowd with a sweep of his hand. "So that's why I'm giving you one, emphasis on one, minute. Say goodbye to whoever you need, call whoever you need, whatever. And then you come up to the stage. And I kill you."

"And if I don't?"

He held up a small black cylinder with a red button on top. A detonator. "Then I set off bombs all over the theatre."

The crowd gasped, and several people tried to make a run for it. But this time, the White Fang didn't hold their fire. Stuttering bursts of assault rifle fire ripped through the hall, and the men and women trying to run through the aisles dropped in sprays of blood.

"Oh, what a shame!" Charles shouted with a laugh. "What a shame! See? See what happens when you try to run?"

The crowd stayed in their seats now, but gripped the edges of their chairs and sent frantic glances around the room and to eachother. The smell of gunpowder hung in the air, and several people were sobbing.

Weiss stood resolute. She was clenching her fists together so tightly that she drew blood. But she ignored the pain. It was nothing compared to the anger burning in her chest. She swore to herself that not a single member of the White Fang would leave the hall alive.

Ruby stood next to her. And judging by her burning gaze, she felt the same.

She didn't even have to look at Yang. She could feel the intense heat wafting from the blonde.

"So," Charles started. "You've got one minute. Otherwise I blow the bombs."

Weiss' mind raced, her thoughts sharp and calculated. He was bluffing, she was sure of it. There was no way he would have been able to plant bombs in the orchestra hall, their security was too tight. She had ensured it personally.

"You're bluffing," she shouted.

Unexpectedly, he shrugged. "You're right."

That took her by surprise. "Wait... what?"

"You're right, I was bluffing." He laughed, but there was no humor to it. "I was gonna blow the bombs anyway."

Ruby exploded into action, shooting towards the stage in a blur of crimson. But she was too late. The rabbit faunus thumbed the detonator.

Weiss shot her hand out towards Ruby, Yang shouted something incomprehensible, and the world disappeared in a flash of white.

Heat. Powerful, burning heat.

Light, the kind that turned the back of her eyelids red.

Screams, hundreds of them, all of different pitch and intensity. Some right beside her.

She opened her eyes, and awoke to a world of flames.

Spurned into action by the fire, she got to her feet. Her side hurt like hell from where the blast had slammed her to the ground, but other than that, she was fine. She spun, taking quick stock of her surroundings.

The orchestra hall was on fire. People ran past her, scrambling in a mad rush to escape with their lives. Others weren't so lucky. Broken and burnt bodies lay all around her, and she realized that she had survived solely due to her aura. These people didn't have that luxury.

Anger burned in her blood, rushing through her veins as she looked upon the dead. These people were innocent. The White Fang had no right to take their lives, or anyone's for that matter. She remembered her previous conviction. They would pay, she thought with gritted teeth. Every single one of the White Fang would pay for this.

Her eyes were drawn towards the stage. Half of the White Fang had broken off and were charging towards her, using their rifles as bludgeoning tools when screaming people got in their way. She had a few minutes before they reached her, at least. The other half were lighting Molotov cocktails, and chucking them into the few parts of the hall that weren't yet in flames. Charles, the rabbit faunus leading what was now obviously a kill-mission, was nowhere to be seen.

Yang's distinctive voice sounded near her. "Weiss! You're alive!" The blonde rushed up to her, gauntlets deployed and at the ready. Her dress was singed, and she looked absolutely livid. But she sounded relieved that the heiress was alive, and Yang's concern touched her.

"I'm fine! Where's Ruby? And Blake?"

Yang jerked her head in the direction of the entrance. Her speech was rushed and breathless, mostly because of the smoke starting to clog the air. "Blake's still getting our weapons, I hope. Haven't seen her. Ruby flew off towards the stage. That girl can do the dumbest things, I swear."

The screaming crowd surged around them, two solid stones in a rushing river of bodies.

"Blake should be back soon, but you've got to find Ruby," Yang said.

Right as the blonde finished speaking, four White Fang members shoved their way through the press of screaming people. Their rifles were slung on their backs, and they each carried single-edged steel blades with a hooked tip. Weiss' immediate reaction was to avoid them; she was still weaponless. But the White Fang spotted them almost immediately, and grinning, advanced on them. People shouted, and a space cleared in the crowd as they saw the raised weapons. The White Fang spread out around them in a half-circle, Yang dropped to a fighting stance, and Weiss stood her ground, in the middle of this flaming hell that painted flickering shadows and the walls and made her sweat.

The heat of the flames was nothing compared to the fire that burned in her breast. They would pay.

Yang shot towards them with a blast of Ember Celica, and Weiss charged with her, enraged. "You animals!" she screamed.

The White Fang were caught off guard by the fury of their assault, and the first one fell to a crushing blow to the head from Yang. The blonde flowed into a series of kicks and punches, meeting the blades of two of the remaining three.

The last raised his sword and swung at the heiress, three times in rapid succession. She spun and dodged each one.

With his last strike he overextended, and Weiss kicked out and swept his legs out from under him. He dropped his sword, and it clattered to the floor. She didn't give him time to recover, and aimed for his head with the heel of her shoe.

In the blur of the smoke however, she misjudged her target and missed, and he shot his arm out and grabbed her heel, pulling her to the ground. He rolled on top of her and she scrambled to get away, but his sheer strength was telling, and he overpowered her and got both hands around her neck.

He squeezed, and the world began to blur. "Animals! We're just animals to you, aren't we!" he shouted. She scrambled for purchase, even punching him repeatedly in the head. But his eyes were burning with rage, and he didn't even flinch.

This wasn't right, she was a swordsman, not a brawler. She couldn't win this. Where was Yang? Where was Blake? His grip tightened, and she could feel her own struggles weakening.

Where was Ruby?

"I'm going to choke the life out of you, you heartless bit-"

The pressure relented, and she gasped as her vision cleared. The tip of a hooked blade was protruding from his chest. "Gambol Shroud," she thought with relief, as Blake's head appeared beside his. His eyes went wide with shock, and blood leaked from the corner of his mouth.

"No, she's right." Blake spoke in a low monotone. "You are animals. You don't deserve to be called faunus."

The raven-haired girl shoved his body aside and reached out her hand, which Weiss gladly took. "Th- *cough cough* - thank you," she managed to say.

Blake smiled at her and hauled her to her feet, then pressed something solid into her hands. Weiss' fingers instinctively curled around the familiar grip. Myrtenaster.

"You're welcome," Blake replied. "Now go find Ruby. I've got Yang."

Looking over to her right, she saw that Yang was now battling not two, but seven White Fang members. The blonde was a blur of motion, blocking sword blows and delivering bone-shattering kicks and punches in return. Her hair was on fire, but the flames were her own. She was more than holding her own, she was winning.

But more White Fang faunus were appearing from the flames, and she was going to need help soon. Luckily, she had Blake. That was what partners were for after all.

She looked back at Blake and nodded. The cat faunus clasped her on the shoulder, then spun around and rushed off to help her girlfriend.

Weiss took a deep breath, or as much of one as she could in the smoke-filled air. The flames were spreading, and most of the ground floor was engulfed in blazing orange fire. The crowd, thankfully, had mostly fled. The few people that remained were either dead or unable to move. But she couldn't stop to help, as much as it hurt to ignore them.

She had to find Ruby. That single, overriding concern filled her with a fearful energy, almost as powerful as the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She had to find Ruby.

She took off running towards the stage, picking a path through the flames, which was difficult in the choking, smoke-filled air.

As she ran, she looked at every motionless body she passed, and she was struck by a growing sense of dread. What if the next body was Ruby's? What if the girl was already dead?

No, she thought with gritted teeth. She vaulted over a row of chairs that was the only clear path through the flames. No, Ruby was still alive. She had to be. She had to be.

As she moved further into the orchestra hall, she began to feel a presence. It grew stronger the closer she moved to the stage, and she instantly recognized it. Ruby's aura.

Now guided by her partner's spirit, she broke into a dead sprint towards where the feeling was strongest.

And stopped. There was a literal wall of flames between her and Ruby's aura.

Thinking quickly, she cycled Myrtenaster's revolving chambers, then shot a blast of ice at the feet of the wall of fire. The ice was dust-created, and much harder and colder than regular ice would be. Instead of melting, it created a gap in the flames long enough for her to dive through a wall of smoke.

She had no way of knowing what was on the other side, but she didn't care as long as it brought her to Ruby.

She cleared the flame wall, but hit the ground hard, smacking into a chair that had been toppled into the aisle. She quickly scrambled to her feet and looked at the aisle in front of the stage.

Her eyes narrowed, and dread warred with relief as she looked at the scene before her.

Ruby. She was there, but clearly not conscious. She lay in the middle of the aisle on her side, but her breathing was regular and steady. That wasn't the problem, however.

The problem was the five White Fang members surrounding Ruby, aiming their rifles not at the brunette, but at her. They had been waiting for her. Someone had known that she had come for Ruby.

"Ready to die bitch?" one of them shouted. The anger returned, burning through her body and filling her limbs with a frenzied energy. They were all going to die.

Just as they opened fire, she finished making the symbol of a protective glyph, and it sprang up in front of her; a white, shimmering circle inscribed with runes of safety and deflection.

She ran forward with the glyph held in front of her, and the incoming rounds bounced off of it with a sharp cracking sound and spun away into the fire.

The sound of that many weapons discharges so close made her flinch, but she ducked her head and kept the glyph up. And then she was amongst them.

They dropped their rifles and pulled their swords, but they were too late. Blade-craft was her territory.

Before the first one could get his sword fully out of the sheath on his back, she lunged forward and stabbed her rapier through his neck, withdrawing it just as quickly. He stumbled back and clutched his neck as blood poured through his fingers. One down, four to go.

The man she had stabbed was in the middle of the group, and she shot out a glyph of force that threw the two men to her right to the ground. Now she only had to fight the two on her left, at least until the other two picked themselves back up. This all happened in the space of a few seconds.

The two still standing launched towards her with a battle cry and swung their swords in wide, sweeping motions. They clearly broadcasted their strikes. "Amateurs, good," she thought.

Easily parrying one blow and dodging the other, she threw up a repelling glyph behind her with her free hand. When the other two picked themselves up, it would be a few seconds before they broke through it.

One of the two men facing her was clearly overzealous, and instead of fighting with his partner as he should have, he charged her. She sidestepped him and his blade, and swept Myrtenaster at his legs as he rushed past. Blood sprayed, and he toppled over with a scream. The second man cried out in rage and raised his sword for an overhead blow, but she was quicker. She aimed Myrtenaster and shot him in the face with burn dust.

Instantly engulfed in flames, he dropped his weapon and stumbled backwards, screaming in horror. In his panic, he tripped backwards and fell into even more flames. Two down, three to go.

The man whose leg she had cut was struggling to rise, and she quickly strode over to him and stabbed him through the back of the neck. Three down, two to go. Each kill filled her with grim satisfaction. These men had already murdered dozens, and they had meant to kill her and her team. They had meant to kill Ruby. She didn't feel an ounce of remorse.

With cries of rage, the two remaining White Fang members finally bashed their way through her repelling glyph, which was little more than a temporary barrier at best. But still, she was grateful for her semblance. She might not be as fast as Ruby, or be able to fight as long as Yang could, but with her glyphs, she could do so many things they could not.

The last two White Fang charged her. She stood her ground.

It all happened in a second. One swung at her, a wide, horizontal slash from her left. The other didn't bother to use his sword, he simply launched into a flying kick.

She ducked the kick and the slash. At least there was one benefit to being short. Coming up, she stabbed the man using his sword through the chest. The blade easily pierced his sternum, and he gasped like she had struck him with a hammer. His charge carried him past her as she slid the blade out, and he crumbled to the ground.

The man who had attempted to kick her stumbled past, not expecting to miss. He spun and faced her. She spun and faced him. Then she shot him in the face with a canister of lightning dust.

A bolt of eye-achingly bright lighting leapt from her blade and struck him, and he howled in agony as he fell. Smoke rose from his twitching body. One down, one to go.

She glanced to her right, at the man she had stabbed in the chest. Never mind, he wasn't moving. One down, none to go.

She lowered Myrtenaster and took a deep breath, working to calm her racing nerves. The adrenaline was starting to fade, and her head cleared slightly. What wasn't clearing however was the smoke. It was growing thicker, and made it hard to see and even harder to breath. The deep breath she took sent her into a coughing fit.

But Ruby, Ruby was the priority. She stumbled over to the brunette's body and, kneeling by her side, immediately noticed that her breathing was irregular now. The smoke! Lacking consciousness, she wasn't able to control her breathing, and her body was sucking the tainted air in without heed.

She had to get Ruby out of here. In a frenzy, she looked back towards the entrance of the orchestra hall, which now seemed an impossible distance away. All she saw were sheets of flame. The fire was beginning to creep up the walls now.

A burst of inspiration struck her, and she looked up, remembering the network of crossbeams stretching across the ceiling she had seen when they entered. They were still there, a checkered network of wide wooden beams that made the ceiling look like a chessboard. Hopefully the smoke hadn't risen up yet.

She shook Ruby and shouted her name, hoping the brunette would wake so they could escape this burning hell together. No such luck; Ruby was still comatose.

She would have to carry the girl out then. With a grunt, she put her arms beneath Ruby and lifted. Dust, the girl was heavy! She dropped the brunette, sheathed Myrtenaster, and this time slung Ruby onto her back instead of trying to simply carry her bridal-style.

A fireman's carry. Fitting, she thought with a wry grin.

With Ruby over her back, she used one hand to hold the brunette's legs in place, and another to form the hand-signs she needed to create a glyph of propulsion at her feet. She forced all of her concentration into it; it had to be perfect. One small mistake and it wouldn't launch them high enough, and they'd fall back into the flames. Or it would send them too high, and they would hit the roof.

With a grunt of effort she finished the glyph, and prayed to whatever gods there were that this would work.

She triggered it. With a dizzying burst of vertigo, her stomach dropped into her gut and she shot up into the air. Up, past the flames, past the lights on the walls, past a gap in the crossbeams. And just as she thought she had overshot them, her momentum bled off and she landed right in the middle of one. Ruby's weight proved too much for her, and they both dropped to the ground.

But they were safe, for now. The smoke was much thinner up here: she wasn't down among the fires anymore and the roof above her was far enough away that the smoke collecting under it didn't reach her. She took several deep breaths. Then she stood, made sure Ruby's body wouldn't roll off of the beam, and looked around. Above her, the domed roof curved up to a point. Below, the entire hall was engulfed in flames, including the only exit. To her left and right the crossbeams ran into a wall, and behind her they did the same. There was only one escape: the giant glass window that stretched up from behind the stage and reached to the ceiling.

Somehow, she would have to get both of them out that window. Maybe she could use her glyphs to propel them to the roof, or use one to halt their fall into the bay full of water that she knew lay below.

Either way, she had to get there first. There was still a good distance between her and the window.

Her mind made up, she bent down to throw Ruby over her shoulder, but then heard the thunk of feet landing heavily on wood.

She jolted her head up. Standing between her and the window, was a rabbit faunus. With two floppy grey ears, shoulder-length blonde hair, and a wicked smile. And a hooksword in each hand.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise." His voice was deep, which seemed at odds with his sharp face and fluffy rabbit ears. I see you got your partner to safety. A feat truly worthy of the final movement of this orchestra. And what a final act it has been, wouldn't you agree?"

"You're a monster," Weiss growled through gritted teeth. "Do you have any idea how many people you've killed already?"

He looked at her like she had just told him that two plus two equals purple. "Are you serious? You think I'd order my men to fire on these civilians, then have them throw Molotov cocktails into the crowd, and not have any idea what I was doing? What kind of fantasy world are you living in? Oh, let me guess. I must have some sort of mental disorder, and I don't realize what I'm doing, right?" He laughed, but it was more a low chuckle with no humor behind it. "Trust me," he finished with a wicked smile. "I know exactly how many people I've killed. And soon, you're gonna be another number on the body count."

"No, I'm not. "Weiss replied with rage burning in her veins. "I'm going to kill you, and I'm going to make it slow. You're going to suffer like these people have."

Charles unbuttoned his coat, top to bottom in slow, deliberate motions. "Well then, you're going to have a hard time of it. You didn't think was going to be easy did you? The hero defeating the evil villain and saving the townspeople?" He finished with his coat, and dropped his hands to his sides. His fingers twitched. "There's a little twist to this story princess. I already killed the townspeople."

He moved like lighting. Whipcord-fast, he reached inside his unbuttoned coat, and when he pulled his hands back out, he clutched throwing knives in between his fingers. Her only warning was the glint of cold steel, and she threw herself to the side as ten steel daggers whizzed through the space where she had just stood.

She landed on the wooden beam to her right, barely keeping her balance. She looked back at her opponent, but he was already right in front of her, swinging his hookswords at her head.

She barely managed to bring Myrtenaster up in time to catch both of the blades. He swung the swords so fast, it sounded as if they ripped the air itself. This was bad, she thought. He already had her on the back foot, and he was pressing his advantage hard.

She swept her leg out in attempt to knock him off his feet, but he nimbly leaped over it and crossed his blades together like a pair of scissors, then brought them together. Weiss did a quick backflip over the point where the blades met, putting a bit of distance between them.

She stood at the ready, Myrtenaster held out before her and her other arm resting at her side.

"Enough of the dirty tricks, okay?" Charles said. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the roaring flames. "Let's make this a simple contest between swordsmen. Or swordswoman I guess, in your case."

Weiss didn't bother to answer him. With her free hand, she created a glyph at his feet that would launch him into the air.

He glanced down at the last second, and leapt backwards. The glyph detonated, but did nothing but blast the smoke in the air upwards.

"Ooh, that's nifty. I guess dirty tricks are still on the table. Eh, all's fair in love and war."

Weiss was still too furious to reply. She simply stared him down and waited for him to make his move. That was how she would have to beat him, she realized. He was fast, almost as fast as Ruby, but with that kind of raw speed, you were bound to make a mistake sooner or later. And she would be waiting.

She had at least one thing to be grateful for: so far he hadn't made any move towards Ruby's prone form. Either he thought she was dead, or he simply didn't care enough to finish her off. Actually now that she thought about it, he probably had something sick and twisted planned, like forcing Ruby awake to see Weiss' lifeless body.

"Oh come on, this is the part where you say something cool like: 'Have at you wretch!' No?" He frowned. "Well you're making this no fun."

"Shut the fuck up," Weiss growled, "and fight me."

He cocked his head to the side and grinned at her. "Well alright then."

And then suddenly he was in front of her, swinging his hookswords with a deadly combination blinding speed and brutal force. Weiss fought with equal ferocity, but also with a measured grace and skill. Where he was blinding speed and aggression, she was discipline and refined, near-perfect technique.

Their swords clashed together over and over, several times a second, and the sound of crashing steel filled the flaming hall. Weiss concentrated harder than she ever had before, forgetting conscious thought and letting all her countless hours of training with Myrtenaster take over. He pressed forward as he attacked, moving her backward step by step.

The most unnerving thing of all was that his face didn't match the fury of his blows. Somehow, he didn't even look angry. That stupid grin was still on his face. She was fighting for her and Ruby's lives, and he was enjoying it. Her anger boiled over, more than she thought possible, and even though she knew that it was a mistake, she let her rage take over her actions. It filled her with vitality and energy, and her strikes became brutal, powerful things.

For a few seconds he was caught off guard, and actually began moving backwards, retreating from the raw fury of her blows. But the problem with fighting with only your anger is that it prevented you from thinking, from making rational decisions. If she was thinking, she might have put a glyph under his feet while he was focused on fending off Myrtenaster. If she was thinking, she might have shot him with a canister of dust, which he wouldn't have been expecting either.

If she was thinking, a lot of things might have happened. But she fighting purely off of rage and instinct, and her technique grew sloppy and uncoordinated. And instead of him making a mistake, like Weiss had planned, she made one.

It was only a small slip-up, a tiny error that she would have easily corrected if she was training back at Beacon. But this wasn't Beacon.

She lunged forward just slightly too far, while he still held his other sword at the ready. He backed up and, overbalanced as she was, she stumbled forward. He lashed out with his second sword, hooked the tip through one of the holes in Myrtenaster's ornate crossguard, and pulled. His strength was brutal.

He yanked his arm backwards, her hand slipped from the rapier's grip, and Myrtenaster went sailing through the glass window behind him, shattering it with a resounding crash.

Her eyes went wide with shock, and terror wrapped its clutching fingers around her heart.

She frantically tried to backpedal, but he kicked out with the heel of his boot, striking her kneecap at an angle. The bone broke with a sickening snap and she cried out in agony, but he grabbed her arm and held her upright before she could fall off the beam.

"How's that for a dirty trick?" he laughed. "Bet that hurts like a bitch huh?"

Weiss' scream of pain turned into one of rage, and with her free arm she punched him in the side of the head. His head snapped to the side, and she managed to grab ahold of one of his rabbit ears. She didn't really know what she was planning to do with it, but in her desperation she pulled it to the side as hard as she could.

He roared in pain and anger, and their eyes met. His were full of rage, and hers went wide as she fully realized the danger she was in. It was incredible how quickly things had gone wrong. Not twenty minutes ago, she was simply enjoying a night at the orchestra. And now she was about to die.

With one arm he held her up on her tiptoes, and with the other he punched her in the face, hard. The blow nearly knocked her out, and the world became hazy and indistinct. She could feel blood run down her chin, and realized her nose was broken. But it was all strange, as if she was in a dream. The pain was muted for some reason; it didn't feel real. The flames didn't look real, the smoke didn't look real. None of it did anymore.

She thought about laying on her bed with Ruby, eating popcorn and watching a movie together, and-

He punched her in the head again, and the world went black.

Ruby awoke from a world of darkness to the sound of clashing steel.

She immediately tried to stand, but gasped and gave up when a sharp pain pierced her skull. She clutched at her forehead as the splitting headache grew worse, worse... and then disappeared almost entirely.

The sound of colliding blades still echoed, and smoke filled her nostrils. She could also feel a dull warmth, slowly rising in intensity. Daring to open her eyes, she saw that it came from the flames that were steadily climbing the walls of the orchestra hall. Wait, how did she get up in the rafters? She clutched the beam she was on; the wood was somehow still cool and firm to her fingertips.

The headache returned, partially at least, and she groaned and shut her eyes. She focused on trying to remember how she got up here, but try as she might, the last thing she remembered was the White Fang, and a bomb going off. Actually, there was more... she remembered leaping towards the stage with a burst of her semblance... and she remembered Weiss trying to stop her... wait, Weiss!

A particularly grating blow of steel on steel caught her attention, and she looked over to see who the combatants were, suddenly worried that one of them would be her white-haired girlfriend.

And as fate, or divine providence, or whatever spiteful deity looked down on her that day would have it, she was.

Weiss was fighting for her life, against that same rabbit faunus who had detonated the bombs. Ruby snarled and reached for Crescent Rose, but started suddenly as her hand clutched at empty air.

"Crap, I never got Crescent Rose from Blake! Well then, guess it's gonna have to be the hard way," she thought.

She struggled to her feet, careful not to fall off of the wooden beam, and took off running towards Weiss. And immediately fell. She barely brought her hands out in front of her, otherwise her skull would have rebounded off of the unforgiving wood.

Growling in frustration, she reached down to her knees and ripped the sides of her dress, so that she could freely move her legs this time. "This is the last time I let her convince me to wear a dress."

She looked back up, praying to that same spiteful deity that her slip-up hadn't cost Weiss her life. She was just in time. To see Weiss suspended in the air by her arm, weaponless, blood streaming from her nose.

She was just in time to see the rabbit faunus pulverize her face with a right hook, just in time to see Weiss' body go limp.

Just in time to see him sneer with contempt, and suspend her off the edge of the beam by her right arm.

Over the empty space below. Over the reaching flames that threatened to consume what had become her entire world.

Ruby exploded into action, bracing her feet on the forward edge of the beam she stood on and launching herself towards Weiss. She activated her semblance, pouring everything she had into it, and time seemed to slow. She moved so fast that the world became an indistinct blur around her. She had never moved like this before.

She could only see one thing clearly, and that was Weiss. The girl seemed to hang in the air, suspended in time. The rabbit faunus' hand was clearly open; he had released her to fall into the fire. But Ruby would die before she let that happen.

In slow-motion, so slow that she could see individual beads of sweat slip from her arms as she flew, she drew closer to Weiss and the rabbit faunus. And as slow as she was moving, she had all the time in the world to plan her next move. She grinned as she brought her foot out in front of her, in a sort of flying side kick. This was going to feel good.

Closer, closer, closer, and then it happened. The heel of her shoe struck the rabbit faunus squarely on the right cheek, and she watched in slow-motion as his skin rippled and his head snapped to the side. And with her arms held out in front of her, she grabbed ahold of Weiss' body before it had a chance to fall more than a few inches.

And then she was past the rabbit faunus, whose body began to turn into a spiral that would send him falling into the all-consuming flames.

She kept flying, Weiss clutched securely to her chest, with nothing now to stop her.

Nothing but the gigantic glass window that opened to the bay. She had forgotten to plan this far. But there was no stopping now.

Even in slow-motion, she winced involuntarily as her outstretched foot hit the glass and shattered it outwards. Spinning fragments of glass whizzed through the air around her, reflecting the night-time lights of the city. She watched in fascination as the shimmering shards collided with eachother, and shot out into the empty space beyond the window.

And then she looked down. Luckily they had already cleared the short stretch of pier behind the orchestra hall. They would hit water now.

The only problem was that they were still about five stories up in the air.

"Crap," was all she could think. Her semblance wore off, and time began to speed up again. "Crapcrapcrapcrap!"

And then she was free-falling, trying all at once to bring her legs together and point them downwards at the water, and trying to make sure that Weiss' limp body did the same.

And then she hit the black, churning waters of the bay.

A few harrowing minutes later, filled with swimming, gasping, sputtering, and trying to keep Weiss afloat, she finally dragged them both onto the grey concrete lip that was the edge of the bay. Luckily the tide was high. She didn't know what she would have done otherwise.

She lay on her back with her chest heaving, one hand clutched securely around Weiss' arm just to make sure that the other girl was still there. That she hadn't lost her. The stretch of waterfront sidewalk she was lying on was lit by a line of streetlamps, and their harsh white glow stung her eyelids.

Dimly, she could hear the sound of rushing feet. She rolled onto her front, rose up onto all fours, and coughed out a lungful of water. People started to surround her, asking if she was okay, calling for help, and then a few made the mistake of trying to touch Weiss.

Ruby snarled at them like a cornered animal, and they backed away in surprise. "Stay away from her!" she half-shouted, her voice dull and raspy.

It wasn't as if she would deny Weiss medical attention, but she had no way of knowing if the White Fang had agents in the crowd itself. This would be the perfect opportunity for one of them to finish the job.

She struggled to her feet, wincing as her vision swam. "Just, please, stay back." She looked around at the confused crowd. Her back was to the water, and it felt like they were pressing in on her, pressing in on Weiss. Her protective instincts overrode all rational thought.

Taking a second look at the crowd, she saw that they were all either attendees of the orchestra, or passers-by from the street. No one that looked like they had any medical training.

"Are there any medics here?" she asked. "Any first responders?" Not waiting for an answer, she looked down at Weiss. The girl was breathing steadily, and the damage to her face looked to be superficial, aside from her bent, clearly broken nose. But her leg was canted at a strange angle. The bone itself seemed to be bulging at the skin, and her knee was already swelling.

Weiss' dress of shimmering silver was ripped and torn in places, and soot-stained. And knowing Weiss, that was what would probably anger her most. Not the broken leg or broken nose, but the ruined, fabulously expensive dress. "What had she called it? A Terry Zimmerman or something?" Ruby wondered. She sighed, and contended herself with the knowledge that Weiss was at least alive. They were both alive, miraculously. The adrenaline was leaving her system, and Ruby felt light-headed and weak in its wake.

"Hey. Hey, girl, are you listening?"

"Huh?" She snapped her head up, not realizing that the man addressing her from the crowd had been doing so for some time already. "I said there's fire trucks and ambulances over that way." He pointed towards the front of the orchestra hall. "If you need help, I can carry the girl..."

Ruby flashed him a smile. "Thanks, but no thanks. I've got her."

She had carried Weiss out of the burning hall and across the bay; there was no way she was letting a stranger carry her for the final stretch. She reached down and picked Weiss up by the shoulders and knees in a bridal carry. She attempted to keep the girl's broken leg at a normal angle, but that was difficult considering Weiss was little more than a dripping, limp body at this point.

She cradled Weiss to her chest and walked forward, and the crowd parted for her, staring at them as she passed.

"Let them stare," she thought. "That's all they can do is stare. I'm the one that rescued the princess today. I'm the one with Weiss in her arms."

She smirked. The heiress definitely owed her a tray of fresh-baked cookies for this. Probably more.

She carried Weiss to the nearest ambulance, which was in a line of vehicles from the fire department, police department, and more. As soon as she drew near, two men in blue first responder uniforms rushed over to take Weiss from her arms.

She glared at them and told them in no uncertain terms what would happen if they tried to take her. If they wanted to work on her in the ambulance, that was fine, but she would carry her there.

They relented almost immediately, and led Ruby to the open back of an ambulance, a red, blocky vehicle with flashing lights. And it wasn't the only one. The entire vehicle-crowded intersection was illuminated by flashing blue and red lights; they flashed off of the walls and windows of the nearby storefronts. Firemen and police officers rushed back and forth, receiving orders from their respective chiefs and moving to carry them out.

In the distance, she could see giant streams of water lashing at the orchestra hall, which was now completely engulfed, top to bottom, in roaring flames. The blazing light cast deep shadows at her feet, and at the foot of every person and emergency vehicle there. It was a world of sharp contrast, blinding red and blue light warring with pitch-black shadows. She held Weiss a little closer.

As carefully as she could, she stepped up inside the ambulance and lay Weiss on the gurney, then stepped back. Immediately, the medics got to work on her. One dabbed her face, telling the other there wasn't much they could do about the broken nose here. Once at the hospital, they could set it. She had a deep gash in her side that Ruby hadn't seen, and that they quickly cleaned and disinfected, then stitched up.

As for her broken leg, after setting it and splinting the bone with a plastic splint, they informed her that Weiss would, obviously, need a cast. Which, once again, could only be done at the hospital. The only problem was that there were far too many injured people, and not enough ambulances. They couldn't make a run back to the hospital just for one girl in non-critical condition, when there were still dozens of people with far far more life-threatening injuries.

Ruby agreed as much, but did so reluctantly. The medics told Ruby to keep Weiss' leg in the splint, and that she should be awake soon; they couldn't be completely sure, but it appeared that she hadn't suffered any head trauma. They gave her a heavy blue blanket, and sent her off.

As soon as Ruby, now carrying Weiss, cleared the ambulance, not one, but two wheeled gurneys approached at speed. As they were being loaded into the ambulance, Ruby couldn't help but stare at the patients. One, a tallish man in his late forties, had second degree burns all down the left side of his body. His eyes were glazed over from the Novocaine gas he had been given; otherwise Ruby knew he would probably be screaming. The second gurney held a woman, whose left leg looked mangled and twisted. There were also pieces of wooden shrapnel clearly embedded in her chest; they poked out of her expensive-looking navy blue dress.

Ruby stood in quiet contemplation, clutching Weiss to her chest. Part of her was still in shock, not wanting to believe that tonight was real. The other, rational part hoped that all the injured people would be okay. She hoped that the orchestra building could be saved. But above all, she hoped that every single White Fang member who had entered the building that night was dead. And she hoped that Charles, the rabbit faunus who led the operation, had still been conscious when he fell into the fire.

As wrong as it felt, she wished she could have heard his screams. Maybe that would deaden some of the pain she was feeling; that dull ache that clutched at her heart and squeezed like a vice. The pain that all his victims had felt, and were still feeling.

It was incredibly selfish, she knew. So many others had lost loved ones tonight... but she was elated beyond belief that Weiss had survived. If she hadn't... she didn't want to think about it. Just entertaining the prospect made her heart burn and her headache start to return.

So she settled for sitting down on a nearby sidewalk, setting Weiss down next to her and resting the white-haired girl's head on her lap. She stared at the burning orchestra hall and stroked her girlfriend's hair.

Several minutes later, the orchestra hall came down.

Everyone started shouting all at once, and then people rushed away from the burning, creaking building like ants from a flooded anthill. The building gave out a massive crack, and then all at once the roof caved in, sending a massive gout of sparks shooting up into the night sky. Ruby watched it happen with dull, lifeless eyes. It still didn't seem real. This was supposed to have been a simple night at the orchestra, nothing more. The burning sparks in the sky mingled with the stars before they burned out, and for a brief instant the number of bright lights up there in the black infinite tripled. The embers were indistinguishable from burning balls of gas billions of light-years away.

The thought was somehow sobering to Ruby. "As if I wasn't in a bad enough mood already," she thought.

There was more shouting, closer to her, but this time it was a voice she recognized.

"Oh holy shit Ruby! You're alive!" Her older sister was running to her, with Blake in tow.

"Yang?" Ruby stood, and it struck her that she had completely forgotten about Yang and Blake until now. She quickly wrote it off as her just being too concerned with Weiss, and knowing that the two could easily handle themselves. No group of White Fang was going to take her sister down. Hell, they wouldn't have taken her down either, if she hadn't been an idiot and rushed off to the stage without waiting for her partner... Then she realized that Weiss being injured was totally, completely, one hundred percent her fault. If she had just stayed back...

She almost started to cry, but then Yang had her wrapped up in one of her trademark bear hugs, completely crushing the life from her. Her headache immediately returned with skull-splitting intensity, and she cried out in pain.

"Ruby! What's wrong?!"

She clutched her head, and struggled back down into a sitting position to the right of Weiss.

"N-nothing..." she managed to say. "Just a massive headache... and you made it come back..."

"Oh... crap. Sorry." Yang sat down to her right. Blake followed, sitting next to Yang and putting a hand on the blonde's shoulder.

"So... other than that, are you okay? And..." Her eyes traveled to Weiss' prone form. "Is Weiss gonna be okay?"

"She'll be fine," Ruby muttered. It was all she could manage at the moment. The headache was lessening, but not by much. She probably had a concussion, she realized. Maybe she should have let the medics examine her after all.

"She's got a broken leg and her side's cut up pretty bad, and that fucking rabbit bitch knocked her out... but they said she's gonna be okay."

Yang spoke softly. "They?"

"Yeah, the medics. They can't take her to the hospital right now, she's not critical condition or whatever. And they apparently have a lot of those tonight."

"Yeah," Yang said, as she looked back at the collapsed mass of flaming wood and stone that had once been the orchestra hall. "They do. We tried to find you guys once we dealt with the rest of the White Fang, but the smoke was too thick. We had to get out."

Ruby nodded. "Makes sense. I woke up in the rafters. Weiss was fighting that rabbit faunus, and I grabbed her and busted out the window into the bay. Almost drowned too," she finished with a chuckle.

Blake spoke up, in her usual dull monotone. "Ruby, that faunus... did he survive?"

"He better not have," Ruby growled. "I kicked him into the fire myself."

The faunus nodded, then returned her gaze to the street in front of her. "I used to know him."

Yang snapped her head up. "Wait, you did? When you and... I mean... when you were part of the White Fang?"

Blake nodded. "I always knew he was a sadistic bastard, but this... even I don't know what they've become anymore."

"Did any of them make it out alive?" Ruby asked softly.

"No," Yang said. Her eyes burned with fury, and Ruby felt a brief wave of heat emanate from her sister. "Me and Blake killed every single one."

"That's good," Ruby said. She got caught up in a brief coughing fit, but when it was over, her head felt better. She thought she might even be able to stand.

The three of them, or four, if you counted a very unconscious Weiss, sat in silence. They listened to the sounds of the night: the screams of the wounded; the shouts of the firefighters and police officers; the roar of the flames; the piercing shriek of the sirens. None of them spoke. There didn't seem to be anything left to say. Maybe later, when their minds and bodies had recovered, but not now. Not while the orchestra hall still burned. Not while Weiss lay on the ground in her comatose state, wrapped in a heavy blue blanket.

Ruby was staring out beyond the flames, at the ocean, when she heard a weak, tiny voice from beside her. "Ruby?" it asked.

Ruby froze. It took her a second to realize who the voice belonged to. Then: "Weiss!"

The heiress' eyes were open, and her expression pained. The only thing Ruby wanted to do at the moment was to wrap Weiss up in a crushing hug, but she realized that would probably be bad for a broken leg and a lacerated side. So she settled for taking Weiss' hand, whose fingers curled around hers.

"What... what happened?" the heiress asked.

Ruby's voice hitched. "Nothing... I mean, I woke up and grabbed you before he could drop you and broke the glass and we fell into the water and then I dragged you here, and took you to the ambulance and they said you were gonna be fine but I wasn't sure and, and..." She broke off, unable to continue.

Beside her, Yang laid a hand on her shoulder. Blake looked on in silence.

Weiss smiled. Her voice was still little more than a whisper. "So... you saved me."

"Um... yeah. I guess so."

Weiss looked up at the sky, her expression turning thoughtful. After a while, she spoke again. "Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you pull me into your lap? I'm pretty sure my leg is broken."

"Well it is but... Weiss, there's people everywhere... are you sure?"

The heiress nodded, slowly. "Yes. I'm sure."

Ruby let out a tiny squeak of happiness, then grasped Weiss by the shoulders as carefully as she could. With infinite care, she lifted her girlfriend up and pulled her into her lap. The blanket slipped off while she did so. Almost immediately, Weiss closed her eyes and leaned back into her. She turned to the side with a grimace, but snuggled into the crook of Ruby's neck.

Ruby sighed, and she felt as if the world had finally returned to normal. Even through her dress, in the chill of the air, she could feel Weiss' warmth. And even though the orchestra hall still burned, she felt at peace.

Yang and Blake remained silent, but the cat faunus rested her head on her partner's shoulder, who pulled her into a one-armed embrace.

Once more they sat in silence, all of them quite happy to simply be alive.

And then off in the distance, down the near-empty street to their left, came the approaching glare of headlights. Ruby shifted her head to look at them, and Weiss, disturbed from her rest by the movement, followed her gaze.

And then seemed to shrink. "Ruby, take me off your lap. Now."

"Wha? What? But I-"

"Now!"

Ruby didn't question her further; Weiss sounded as serious as she had ever heard her. Gently, she lifted the heiress off of her lap and set her on the sidewalk to her left.

The headlights grew brighter, and then dimmed completely; the driver had seen them and shut them off.

Life turned back into a dream. In a daze, Ruby watched a sleek, black limousine glide down the street, and then stop directly in front of them. The stark silver hood ornament was a stylized snowflake. The exact same symbol that Weiss wore on the back of her jacket. The symbol of the Schnee Dust Corporation.

The passenger and driver doors opened in sync, and two large men in dark suits and darker sunglasses stepped out. "Why are they wearing sunglasses at night?" Ruby wondered. "This must be a dream." One man's head was shaved, the other sported close-cut, chocolate brown hair.

The four of them watched as the two men moved to stand in front of them. They stared at Weiss for a moment, then chocolate hair spoke. His voice was a deep bass. "Mistress Schnee."

She stared back at them, her face hardened and resolute. "Yes?"

His next words hit Ruby like a hammer blow. "We're here to take you home."

It wasn't a dream anymore. They were here to take Weiss away.

Weiss sounded just as shocked as she was. "What? No!"

"We're under direct orders from Lord Schnee himself. If you won't come willingly, we're authorized to simply drag you there, if it comes to that." He smiled, but there was no warmth behind it. "I'd rather it not come to that."

"But it's not summer break yet! I still have a month left before I finish my third year at Beacon!"

"Believe me, Lord Schnee is quite aware of your situation. However, considering what happened tonight," he indicated the remains of the orchestra hall with a broad, sweeping gesture, "I'm sure you'll understand that he places the safety of his daughter over her studies at a Hunting Academy." He spoke 'Hunting Academy' as if the words left a bad taste in his mouth.

Ruby took the chance to finally speak up. "But she can't go just yet! Look at her, she needs to go to a hospital!"

The bald man looked at her like she was a particularly disgusting bug he had just found in his kitchen. "I assure you that White Castle's medical facilities are better than any you can find in Vale. She will be fine."

As argument after argument fell flat, Ruby looked over to Yang and Blake for help. They looked as outraged as she was, but there wasn't any point they could bring up that Weiss couldn't. It was her father, after all, that was making the call. Weiss was notoriously close-lipped about her family. To everyone but Ruby, at least.

But as she looked pleadingly at Yang, she saw salvation approaching, in the form of a blue-uniformed medic from the ambulance.

"Gentlemen, what seems to be the problem?" He seemed calm and collected, even when faced with two intimidating, dubiously armed men. But then again, Ruby reasoned, he was probably used to crisis situations.

"None of your business sir," chocolate hair said. "You just go back to your ambulance."

"No sir, I can't do that. It seems like you're trying to take this girl somewhere?"

Both men nodded simultaneously.

"Well you can't. She has a laceration on her left sternum and a broken leg. I can't let you have her before she receives proper medical care. And not wherever it is you're going. Here, in Vale." he finished, pointing at the ground.

Ruby sighed in relief. What could they say to that?

But they didn't say anything. The bald man simply pulled out a black cell phone. He flipped it open without looking, then hit a button. Ruby could faintly hear a ringing tone, which stopped almost as soon as it started.

A voice sounded from the speaker, but Ruby couldn't make out the words, or even the tone of the speaker. But she assumed the worst, and a leaden weight dropped into her chest.

The bald man nodded. "Yes Lord Schnee. Yes. We have a small delay. There's a man I need you to speak with, if you will."

Then he held out the phone to the medic in blue. The man stared at it for a second, then reluctantly took it. He held it up to his ear. Nobody moved. Ruby felt frozen.

Then slowly, the medic nodded. "Yes Mr. Schnee. I understand. Thank you sir. Goodnight."

He handed the phone back to the bald man, then spun on his heel and started back towards the line of emergency vehicles without a backwards glance. Ruby watched him go. That was it then. There was no stopping them now. Weiss was leaving. Who knew for how long.

But then the heiress spoke. This time, her voice was strong and clear. "I'll go with you. But on one condition."

Chocolate hair replied, his expression as neutral as ever. "That depends on the condition, Mistress Schnee."

Weiss reached over and laid her hand on Ruby's shoulder, and her heart stopped. "I'll go if I can take her with me."

Both men were silent for a moment, then looked at eachother. But then chocolate hair nodded, and Baldy pulled out the cell phone again and briskly strode to the other side of the limousine. The medic returned with a pair of crutches, and handed them to Weiss with a brief apology. Then he ran back towards the ambulance.

"Weiss..." Ruby whispered." Are you sure about this?"

The heiress simply nodded.

Ruby looked over to Yang, but the blonde too, just nodded and smiled at her. "Don't worry Ruby," Yang said, "Blake'll take care of me. You worry about your girlfriend. Someone needs to."

Weiss glared at the blonde, and Ruby grinned. She really did have the best big sister.

And a few pulse-pounding moments later, Baldy stepped back around the limousine. He returned to his place beside chocolate hair, then looked at Weiss.

"She can come."

"..."

"..."

"Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt? The broken nose or the broken leg? Or the laceration on my side?"

"Um... all three?"

Weiss smiled through the pain. "They hurt. But I'm alive."

Ruby smiled back. "That's good. I mean, crap, not good that it hurts, but good that you're alive..."

Weiss shook her head in amusement.

They sat across from eachother in the shadowed interior of the limousine, as it traveled out of the city of Vale and towards the city's air station. From there, a private airship would fly them over the ocean to a private landing pad in Atlas, where another limousine would take them through the mountains, and finally to White Castle, ancestral home of the Schnee family.

Weiss had further explained that although it wasn't Schnee Dust's corporate headquarters, all the important business deals and decisions were made there. The company's actual offices were spread out through the rest of the civilized world.

Weiss stared out the window for a while, at the night-bright city sliding by. The windows were tinted, and she could see out, but no one could see in. She would have been completely comfortable then, in the privacy of the limo, if it weren't for one thing. The driver's compartment had its own window that looked back into the passenger room. The two men in front could watch them at all times. That was the reason she sat across from Ruby, and not next to her. Or in her lap.

She fingered her crutches for a while, while Ruby closed her eyes and leaned back into soft, cushioned leather. Crutches. She would have to use crutches. She hated the idea; she saw them as nothing more than a sign of weakness. And it was social suicide to show weakness when you were the daughter of one of the richest, most powerful men in the world of Remnant. It was like jumping into shark-infested waters with an open wound.

But she knew it was either the crutches or a wheelchair, and that was out of the question. And if this cloud had a silver lining, it was that the only person who had seen her with them so far was Ruby and the rest of her team. If she was lucky, she would be off them before she left White Castle.

But as for how she would be leaving White Castle...

She still planned on telling her parents about her relationship with Ruby, and her intentions to become a full-fledged huntress. To shrug off the shackles of an imminent arranged marriage, to take control of her own life and do what she wanted to do. Ruby gave her the strength to do that. The strength, and more than that, the reason she needed to confront her parents. She'd never had a real reason to stand up to them, no real cause to risk their wrath. Nothing that could possibly be worth the consequences. Until Ruby. Ruby was worth it.

She figured at best she would be removed from the family, and lose all the privileges and bottomless sums of money that came with it. At worst... Would they lock her up in her room? Would they keep her there, the proverbial princess locked away in the tallest tower of the castle? And what would they do to Ruby? She wondered which would anger them most. The fact that she was dating a commoner with no future and no social standing, or the fact that she was dating a girl.

Her worry must have shown on her face, because Ruby reached over and touched her hands, which were folded across her lap.

"You gonna be okay?" Ruby asked.

Ruby. Her partner. Ruby, the girl who had shown her how to live; how to laugh. The girl who had shown her how to love. The girl who had shown her a hidden strength inside that she never knew she had. Strength enough to stand up to her parents, her rulers, the tyrants that had dictated every aspect of her life for the past twenty-one years. Would she be okay? She looked at Ruby, at her beloved who was smiling at her with more warmth and love than anyone ever had. Than anyone ever would.

"You know what Ruby? I think I will be," she said, and smiled back. "I think I will be."

The brunette leaned back. "Hey Weiss, weird question, but do you know how close we came to not meeting?"

"What do you mean?"

"A crack in the sidewalk."

"...What? I don't follow."

Ruby grinned, and leaned forward. "Alright so, the night Ozpin accepted me into Vale, I was walking down the street, heading home after seeing a movie. I was listening to music on my headphones, and I wasn't really paying attention so I tripped on this just completely random crack in the sidewalk. I almost fell." She chuckled. "Maybe I really am a klutz."

Weiss smiled. "As if that wasn't already evident."

"So anyway, I almost trip, and it knocks me out of this little trance I get into while I'm walking and listening to music. So all of a sudden I snap out of that trance and actually look around, you know like, really look around. And there's this random dust store I've never seen before with some new weapons magazines in the window. And I figure, hey, why not go in and check it out? Not like I've got anything better to do."

"Wait," Weiss asked, "is that the store where you fought Torchwick, met Ozpin, and got accepted into Beacon?"

Ruby grinned. "Yeap," popping the 'p'.

"So... if you hadn't tripped on that crack in the sidewalk..."

"Exactly. I'd have never gone in the store, never met Ozpin, never got into Beacon, and probably, never met you."

Weiss stared at her partner, trying to find some uplifting message or encouragement in Ruby's story, but failing. "Well... do you have a point? I mean honestly, that kind of makes me nervous. That we came so close to never meeting, I mean."

"Do you believe in fate? Or, or destiny?" Ruby asked.

Weiss frowned in contemplation. Then: "No, I don't think I do. I think we make our own choices, that we create our own path through life. If destiny was real, then mine is just to take over Schnee Dust, and run the company just like my father did. If destiny was real, I'd marry some random man with good social standing and a lot of money. If destiny was real... I don't think we'd be together."

Ruby nodded. "That actually makes a lot of sense. I honestly like to believe that we're fated to reach certain points in our lives, that it's our destiny to have to make certain choices and decisions. But I like to think that the choices we make, and the consequences we live with are completely our own."

Weiss couldn't help but smile at her naivety. "That's a pretty idealistic view of life."

Ruby smiled back. "Better than the alternative though, huh?"

"The alternative?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah you know, like it being your destiny to take over Schnee Dust. I think you're fated to make the choice, to take it over or not. But I believe the choice is completely up to you."

"That's... interesting," Weiss said. She rested her chin on her palm. "You know, thinking about it like that... it doesn't seem so bad all of a sudden. This is going to be hard. No way around it. And it probably won't end well."

Ruby reached over and took her hand. "Well you know whatever happens, I'll still be here. If they disown you or whatever, we can just go live in some cool log cabin in the mountains or something. Just be huntresses, ya know?"

Weiss smiled. "That doesn't sound too bad, ya know?"

"Hey, don't mock me!"

"Well someone has to. Might as well be me."

Ruby frowned in mock hurt and folded her arms across her chest. "Man, you can be such a jerk sometimes. Here I am trying to be all nice, and you go and make fun of the way I talk." A small grin broke through the frown though, Ruby was never very good at frowning.

"Well maybe you should change your speech patterns then," Weiss said in mock anger. "Maybe stop talking like a brain-dead teenager."

"But I am a teenager still!"

"Oh that's right," Weiss chucked, "I forgot. I'm partners with a brain-dead teenager who should have just graduated from Signal."

"And I'm partners with a stuck-up jerk who thinks money solves everything."

Weiss smiled at her, mouthing the words 'I love you,' so that the men listening in wouldn't hear.

Ruby grinned and leaned back into the seat. She mouthed the words back.

"But seriously Ruby, thank you for saving my life tonight."

The brunette shrugged. "When I told you I'd never let you go, I meant it."

Weiss' smile grew, despite the pain in her side and leg. "I know."

And as they spoke, the black limousine glided through the dark, drawing ever closer to White Castle. Closer, closer, closer.

The lyrics at the beginning are from 'Dreams' by We Came As Romans. Leave a review, if you feel so inclined. It always makes my day.