A Cracked Mirror

Pt. III

Weiss was leaning against a stone wall, struggling to catch her breath. She was exhausted from all the running around she had done to support the main force as they stormed through the breach the Paladin mech had made in the fortress wall. She could feel the ache in her shoulder; the morphine was beginning to fade away and the Aura stimulant was wearing off, leaving her with only her own Aura to finish healing her. She could feel the new scar tissue stretching and reopening with every move she made, but they were so close to capturing the fort that Weiss had decided to put off seeing the medic for the time being. Instead, she made her way to where the last pocket of Mistral's forces stood.

Making her way into the fortress, the Specialist quickly found where they were holed up. Six soldiers were all stacked up against the walls that were on either side of what was once a set of grand oak doors. Now they were nowhere to be seen, but Weiss had an idea where they went from the look of the black blast marks around where the door once stood. All around the ground, she could see bullet shells and Knight robots lying where they had been shot into shutting down. She then witnessed a soldier prepping a grenade and leaping out of cover to throw it, only for his arm to be shot as soon as it passed the stone wall that divided them from their enemies.

With a cry, he dropped the grenade and fell to the ground, clutching his arm. Acting quickly, Weiss thrust her rapier and formed a protective glyph around the explosive before it detonated. Her ward contained the blast and shrapnel as everyone flinched and dove for cover. When the coast was clear, they dragged the wounded soldier away to be patched up before everyone took up positions once again. Making her way to the one with the highest rank on the wall, she pressed as close as she could to the wall as a burst of rifle fire forced everyone into cover.

"What's going on?"

The soldier turned around and shook his head. "A last stand, Ma'am. They're probably the last combatants in the area but they're refusing to give up." He threw a thumb over his shoulder to whoever was stopping them. "I think they're trying to die for their cause." With a nod and a sigh, Weiss began to make her way up to the front of the stacked soldiers. They easily gave her enough room to be the closest person to the door before she reached back and pulled on the radio a soldier had and turning the volume on loudly so she could try to talk some sense into them.

"This is Weiss Schnee of the Special Operations Unit of the Military State of Atlas. Your fort has fallen and you have nowhere else to run to. Throw your weapons to the ground and surrender peacefully and I will personally guarantee your safety." They replied with a hail of gunshots against the stone walls and the sides of the stone were chipping away as more bullets ate through the walls. With a shake of her head, Weiss checked her Dust stock in her weapon before looking to the soldiers on either side of the door. "I'll go in first and draw their fire, you storm in ten seconds after I create some cover for you."

"Yes, Ma'am!" they all called out in a chorus.

With a deep breath, Weiss formed a large ice wall as she turned and sprinted into the room. Instantly, the soldiers inside began to open fire into the wall, chipping away at its thickness as she prepared her next set of glyphs. As soon as the bullets stopped and the sound of dry clicking sounded in the room, she ran to the side and slashed her blade through the air, creating another glyph for her to jump on and send herself across the room nearly instantly.

When she landed, she was behind a makeshift barricade of wooden tables and small tourist stands that held information about the room they were in. She managed to catch the first soldier, a man with a heavy stubble that blended in with his tanned skin, unaware as he tried to put another magazine into his rifle. She knocked him to the ground and ran him through with ease with her rapier. The next second she running towards the next person, a woman with short, red hair and freckles across her face. She managed to reload her weapon but was too slow to aim it before the Specialist's blade slipped through her ribs and sent her falling to the floor with a cry of pain.

By now, the other two had their weapons reloaded and aimed at her. Before she could erect a glyph to protect her, the other soldiers came from the side of her ice wall and fired a few bursts into the of the Mistral fighters in the room. They systematically spread out, to check on their allies as well as confirm the dead combatants. Weiss sighed and turned around to walk towards them when they all shouted and aimed their rifles at her. On reflex, Weiss raised her blade to summon a protective glyph to defend herself. Now that Weiss had taken the fort, Gift had no need for her now.

Before she could though, she felt an arm wrap around her chest as someone pressed up against her back. The person's other hand came around the side of her head and she saw a bloody hand clutching a grenade. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the woman she had run through before, blood seeping from her lips with a wild look in her green eyes. Their eyes connected and she smiled gently as she spoke, "For it is in passing, that we achieve immortality..." with that, she released the grenade.

Her mind played everything in slow motion. Sapphire eyes watched as the explosive device began to drop, the lever jumped up and it dropped slowly through the air. Weiss held her breath as she simply reacted with reflex and summoned something as the device slipped from her fingers. A white Beowolf appeared in front of her and reached out as fast as lightning and grabbed the grenade as it bounced off the ground and held it close to his chest before curling up into a ball. A second later, the explosion ripped through the air, knocking the Mistrali woman and Weiss to the floor as the fire and shrapnel ripped through her summon and went flying through the air.

The sound of the small explosion filled her ears, then nothing except for a loud ringing. The room was spinning around her as she tried to get to her feet, in the sway of her mind, she saw a few of her soldiers on the ground while another one was kneeling over a fellow soldier doing chest compressions while his mouth moved. Weiss did not know what he was saying as she felt her eyelids slowly crawl across her eyes as the dust began to settle.

Rolling over onto her side, she felt so weak as she tried to push herself up, only for some rubble to slide under her hand and cause her to fall onto her face. Everything was in a strange numbness for her, she knew that she was in pain, but it was like her body did know it yet. Looking back she saw that the woman who had used the grenade was laying on her back. A large shard of the grenade shell was jutting out of her neck, her skin covered in the crimson water. Weiss's arms gave out again and she fell once more, her eyes never leaving the empty look the enemy had.

Slowly, feeling began to return to her body. She could feel the throbbing in her shoulder and moisture on her face as the insistent ringing began to fade away. The room was slowly filling with shouting and people running in with weapons drawn. Running a hand down the side of her head, she pulled back to reveal blood and wondered where it came from when Penny came rushing up towards her. Looking at her, Weiss saw her mouth moving but could not understand the words that were coming out.

Weiss stared at her as Penny shook her by her shoulders for several seconds before the ringing finally left her completely and she could finally hear what her friend was saying. "Weiss! Weiss, we need to get you to the medic!" With a nod, Weiss went to try and sit up only for Penny to throw her arm over her shoulder and lift her up with ease and carry her over her shoulder. Weiss knew this was embarrassing, but she just did not have the energy to deal with it.

Around her, more wounded were being moved to the medics, who were rushing back and forth deciding who needed to be shipped back to a MASH unit or who could just be patched up and sent for rest. There was a third option, but she really did not want to think about it.

As gently as she could, Penny sat her down on a crate and Weiss leaned against the cool stone wall. Her strength was returning to her, but the feeling of vertigo and nausea was not fading away. Most likely a concussion, if she had to guess. Someone shook her knee and Weiss jerked into consciousness, not even knowing when she had closed her eyes. "You doing alright, Specialist? You're looking pretty bad," a young man asked as he reached up to her face and pulled it to the side gently, opening her eyelids wider so he could shine a light on them. For whatever reason, he sounded off to her.

"Yeah, I think I have a concussion..." she managed to get out of her mouth. The medic nodded and began to turn her head to the side a bit to examine her.

"Yep, and I see you've used your foam. Still going to need to take out the shrapnel and stitch you closed though," he said as he helped her remove her chest plate and put it to the side. Pulling her small jacket off, seeing the sickly green foam mixed with her blood made her stomach roll as he took a combat knife out of its holster and began to scrape away at some of the crusty hardened foam in her shoulder. The foam itself would help her heal, but he still needed to sew her wound up. When he removed enough of it, he took a suture kit out and got it ready in a matter of seconds before pushing the curved needle into her skin and pulled her separated flesh closer together.

As he was doing this, Weiss watched as soldiers rushed back and forth, carrying wounded and separating the dead; collecting dog tags, ammunition and weapons from the fallen so they could either be used or destroyed safely. A stinging sensation passed through her body as the Medic sprayed some antiseptic over the fresh stitches and stuck a bandage over the damage. He quickly checked her body over for any more parts of metal jutting out from her body. Thankfully, her Aura managed to slow the shards of the grenade down to just under the skin and did not damage anything irreparable before he looked closely at her ear. After using a light to look into her head, he brought his hand up to her side and snapped his fingers right next to her ear a few times.

"Did you hear that?" he asked her. How could she not? it was right next to her ear and it was loud. With a nod, she pushed his hand away to stop him from doing it again. Moving his hand to the other side of her head, he watched her face as she began to pull her jacket back over her shoulder. "And here?"

"You didn't do anything..."

But when he pulled his hand in view of her face, he snapped his fingers again, and Weiss heard nothing. She held her hand up to her right ear and snapped her own fingers and did not hear anything. She brought her hand up to her face and snapped her fingers again just to make sure she was not imagining this. Her left ear picked up the snap, but her right could not. Looking up at the medic, he put his hands on her shoulders and looked right into her eyes. "Specialist, I need you to calm down and take a breath."

As she took deep breaths, the medic moved to her left side and spoke quickly. "You have a ruptured eardrum which caused you to go deaf in your right ear. I don't know how bad the damage is but it's usually temporary, usually a few months to fully heal. We're going to have to send you to a proper doctor to really know the damage, but you're alive and standing with all your bits still attached. Keep water out of your ear and see about a medical transfer onto the Dreadnaught for a better look. I need to go tend to others." He handed her two little white pills, which Weiss swallowed before taking another deep breath.

A medical transfer was out of the question with Gift's threat hanging over her. She would need to figure something out to keep Gift off her back for the time being, right now, she was just too tired. Sitting on the box, people left her alone as she leaned against the wall. She nodded off a few times, but the shock of her sliding to the side stopping her from getting any restful sleep. As the sun began to set, all the work was already done. Bodies that were still intact were loaded up into trucks to be sent back home for burial in home soil, while Mistral bodies were set to the side so the enemy could collect them from a location later.

While Weiss was chewing on a dry ration pack, Penny came up to her once again, smiling at seeing that she was alive and well. Weiss was already feeling better with something in her stomach and just sitting around and resting for a few hours. "How are you feeling, Specialist Schnee?" the ginger asked with her usual enthusiasm.

"I've been better, Penny. But I'm alive."

"That is good to hear."

"Is there something you needed?" Weiss looked up at the false human as she spoke.

"Yes! lieutenant Gift if wishes to speak to you immediately."

"Of course he does..." Weiss mumbled under her breath as she pooled all of her mental strength to just deal with whatever he was going to do. With a few deep breaths, she prepared herself and pushed up to her feet, only to stumble a bit as exhaustion and pain flooded her body. Using the wall to help her walk, she waved Penny away, saying that she would make her own way to Gift. Truth was, she did not want Penny to know about her deafness because she would likely inform someone of it and she would be pulled off the assault.

As she walked, she felt her strength slowly come back, feeling better as she went. She managed to stop using the wall to walk straight but found herself with a slight limp. Using her canteen of water and the reflection of some intact glass of a storefront, she managed to wash the blood off her face and neck to make herself more presentable as well as hiding whatever evidence that she might be injured too gravely. When she arrived at his tent, she saw two soldiers standing in front of it, rifles at the ready and looking straight ahead. She could not help but notice that their armour was pure white and clean, they probably were not there during the attack.

When she walked into the tent, the man himself was sitting at a small table with a chicken dinner on a plate. He was reading over a report on a large scroll as his fork stabbed a potato chunk before it went into his mouth. "Another resounding success, Specialist. Good job," he said with a small bit of food in his mouth without looking up from his report, "Sixty-five enemies eliminated and with minimum casualties on our side. You deserve a medal."

As Weiss walked up to him, she looked around the tent for herself and saw a number of items that she knew he did not come with, including a small liquor cabinet filled with half-full bottles of various different vintages. "We're going to push towards the capital as soon as we can. So make sure everything is ready for my order."

"Your order?" Weiss had to tilt herself to the right slightly, just to pick up what he was saying. She was glad that he did not notice it, or else she might have a bigger problem on her hands. "What about Major Acero, what are his plans going forward?" she asked as she slipped her hands to her side, one gently resting on the hilt of her blade.

"Major Acero has been compromised to a permanent end." Gift finally looked up at her as he shook his head, "A member of the White Fang had infiltrated our ranks and when the attack happened, he was assassinated before anyone could do anything." He reached for a tin cup and sipped from its contents. "But we must move forward, we cannot look behind us, we must let the past die." He then looked at her, his pale green eyes meeting with her deep blue ones. "Kill it, if we have to."

A cold chill passed through her body as he spoke those words. The realisation hit her stomach and she stared at the man. "You killed him. It wasn't the White Fang that did all of this, it was you."

"He was an archaeologist in charge of an army. We must destroy the things that hold us to our past and build the future on top of the rubble." He then leaned forward to whisper to her quietly, "The official records will show that it was the White Fang, and that is that."

"I know it was you who did that." Weiss stood before Alkmene in his tent. "You ruined the chance to save those people! If you and your little cult hadn't gotten involved, the Mistrali could have just gone home with only a few killed, but you had to storm a fucking Paladin through the main gate." Her voice was quiet enough that if soldiers passed the tent, all they would think was that Weiss was yelling at the man. Not that it was far from the truth, but the less information that gets leaked, the better. The man in question looked up from the table, where he was halfway through his meal on a thin metal plate.

"No cause comes without sacrifice, Schnee," he said while pointing his food at her; a bit of chicken speared at the end of his fork.

"They were just soldiers, ignorant of your hand in all of this. They didn't deserve that end."

Weiss was about to continue her tirade when a sudden burst of weapons fire echoed through the air. The two soldiers paused their argument to listen in order to make sure they both heard the same thing. A second stream of bullets and cries followed suit. A firefight had broken out in the middle of their camp. Running to their weapons, Weiss pulled her rapier from her side as Gift racked the breach of his rifle and switched the safety off. The two of them rushed to the entrance of the tent when a dark figure walked in.

The person was tall; all features were hidden behind mottled black and grey clothing. A full face Grimm mask hid their identity with a hood over their head to hide their hair. Their forearms were covered in painted black steel with dark red lines running up the lengths, matching the intricate patterns on their mask. Weiss acted instantly with a thrust of her weapon. The blade was caught in assailant's hand. Weiss tried to pull her blade free; but it would not budge from their grip, despite only holding onto the blade with their gloved hand.

Whoever this was yanked suddenly, causing Weiss to lose her balance. A swift kick connected to her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs as another kick blocked her vision. Weiss was knocked onto her back with such ease that she needed a second just to register what had happened. When she got up, her stomach protested against the movements, but she pushed through the pain of her stitches pulling her flesh. Looking up, she saw that the unknown assailant, who had just disarmed the Specialist in mere seconds, was currently going after Alkmene.

The person grabbed the barrel of the rifle with their hand as a round was fired, but if it affected them, they did not show any of it. A strong enough Aura being focused could do that. As the rifle was torn from his grip, the person reached back for a mighty punch, and Weiss saw a blade spring out from the gauntlet. It was long and had a series of lines that ran the width of the blade, not unlike box cutter blades. Weiss rushed to her feet, adrenaline pumping in her veins as Gift ducked under the slash and tried to run away, knocking over his dinner table in the process.

The specialist quickly rushed to pick up her weapon as the White Fang assassin stalked towards its prey. Weiss was quick to slash and thrust at them, but the area was so limited that she could not fully use her Dust or Glyphs to do anything more other than purely martial attacks. Her blade bounced off the metal gauntlets on their arms as her wrist was captured in a feat of hand to hand combat, before twisting it and throwing her over her shoulder and onto her back. Weiss cried out in pain as her stitches were ripped out of her skin and her weakened Aura flickered out.

As she struggled to get to her feet, Weiss saw that Gift was doing his best to fight for his life. He was trained in hand to hand combat, but not to the limit of their assailant. Every punch he threw was blocked and countered. He threw a hard right, only for it to be smacked to the side and for a fist to rearrange his nose. He cried out in pain as he held his face and backed up as far as he could go; into the liquor cabinet. He threw the door open and grabbed one of the bottles and went to smash it over their assailant, sending glass and alcohol as it shattered against the gauntlet.

Now faced with an improvised weapon, they became a lot more cautious with their attacks. Weiss found her chance and rushed towards their back with her blade. They managed to jump just out of the way as their Aura was healing a small cut on their side as it happened. Rolling out of the way, the attacker rushed forward with their gauntlet blade and thrust it towards Weiss, only to have the blade caught when she created a glyph to trap it. They tried to pull it out of the glyph as Gift used this chance to run.

With no other option, the attacker quickly twisted their wrist and snapped the blade along one of the lines before punching the air and sent what was left towards Gift. The metal blade was shot right into the black of his knee, making him fall to the ground and cry out in pain as he began to crawl through the dirt to where the entrance to the tent was, trying to escape. No longer held by her glyph and with Gift incapacitated, the White Fang member turned to Weiss and quickly got into her reach.

Weiss tried to defend herself, but she was too sluggish and was easily thrown to the floor once again with a solid punch to her face. A haze came over her mind as Gift was dragged back into the tent and was flipped over onto his back, only for him to grab the broken neck of the bottle he was using earlier and slashing it towards his attacker. The glass was embedded in the attacker's arm, but they gave no inclination that it affected them at all.

They grabbed the man's arm and slipped it between theirs before applying pressure. He cried and screamed until a sick snapping sound came from his arm until he released the neck of the bottle and was crying even louder in pain. The attacker proceeded to drive their fist into his face over and over again. The sound of wet flesh being beaten filled the room as Weiss fought for the strength to get up. Eventually, they got off of him and circled their prey before grabbing his hair and forcing him to kneel. The attacker walked around to his back and Weiss saw Gift's face, covered in blood and broken. One of their hands slipped under his chin while the other grabbed his head.

"No!"

Snap

Alkmene Gift fell to the ground, his neck twisted in a frightening angle as all strength left his body, blood leaking from his nose as he stared unblinking at the wall. Weiss did not know if he had given Watts his report yet. If he was late, then someone she cared about was going to die. Fear for her loved ones drove her to her knees as she created a glyph to stop the murderer from leaving. Seeing this, the masked person looked back at Weiss, and she saw them shake their head before turning towards her.

It took all of her strength just to stay upright as the person walked towards her, stepping onto his body without a care. Weiss needed to kill this person, maybe if she delivered the body, Watts would understand what had happened and would let Winter or someone else live. When they got close enough, Weiss lunged at them weakly, only to have her feet knocked out from under her and fall to her hands and knees. Defiantly, she stared up at the attacker as tears began to well in her eyes. The last thing she saw was the attacker line up their large fist to her face.

"Sorry Ice Queen."

And all she knew was black.

A warehouse was holding several vans as White Fang members were loading up what they managed to grab from their ambush. A few wounded were helped into the backs as handfuls of weapons, Dust and ammo were loaded up in record time. While everyone was rushing, one person was walking calmly towards one of the vans and someone else in a full White Fang uniform jumped out and looked at them. "Dragonfly, Is it done?" the man asked, his mouth moving from under his White Fang visor.

The attacker visibly deflated as they reached up and gripped the full-length Grimm mask and pulled it off of their head, followed by the hood that held long, golden locks at bay as she fought. "Alkmene Gift is dead," Yang said solemnly, pulling the voice changer off her neck. The man nodded and began to shout at everyone to load up and that they were leaving in a minute. The rush back and forth sped up as people found their spots for the long drive back home. Yang just looked back up at the shattered moon and remembered how desperate Weiss sounded when she had killed the target that Velvet had given her. She remembered that his death was just one more step towards Saving Ruby, then she turned back and got into her seat as the convoy made their way back home.

A/N: What a twist!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter and sorry I haven't put a chapter out in a while, I've been busy with playing the new Destiny 2 DLC. It's really fun!.

Editor's Note: Sorry about the delayed edit, I had some personal issues I needed to handle that got in the way of getting this done before now.

If you enjoyed, please leave a Kudo! If you already have, leave a comment! I love reading them and I love replying to them. This story is also posted on under the same name, so if you read over there, come show your support! I also have a Tumblr (AngryFaceWritings) Come say hi!

And always, thank you for taking time out of your busy days to read my slice of madness.