Hey, everyone! You're all in for something special today! This chapter isn't actually a continuation of Crossing Swords, however, the next chapter will be posted tomorrow, 11/29/14. This chapter is actually my version of my good friend and editor's story, A Frozen Heart. He and I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with each other's stories so I finally decided to rewrite his. Muahahaha. But, he supports it. First, however, I ask that you read his most recent chapter, which this is based off of. His name is CushionySiren3 and his RWBY fanfic is titled A Frozen Heart. It is a whiterose fanfic, which I don't support at all. His chapter basically started off just like this, verbatim for a little bit. He should be posting it soon. Tell me what you think about his story, as well as my version. Take that, whiterose!

Ruby stared blankly at the TV screen as the sound of loud punching, music, and shouting rang through Team JNPR's room.

"Ruby, do something!"

In less than 24 hours Ruby would be on a date with Weiss. Her best friend.

"Ruby, give me the controller!"

Just her and Weiss. On a date. Alone.

"Fatality!"

"Woooo, I'm Queen of the castle!" Nora laughed maniacally as her character held Ruby's bleeding head and spine in triumph. "Ren what's the score?"

"20 to 0" Ren mumbled, "Can I go to bed now?"

"No!" Nora shouted ecstatically as she jumped up and down on the bed.

"Aww, Ruby that was our chance to beat her." Jaune complained as Ruby continued to stare at the screen, distracted by her fearful anticipation. "Remnant to Ruby. Ruby, are you feeling alright?" Concern began to well in Jaune as he nudged Ruby's shoulder.

"Maybe the gore is getting to her." Pyrrha suggested as she examined the box with disdain; her game of choice lying in neglect on a desk across the room.

"Eh, that's not it." Jaune dismissed Pyrrha's guess as he began to snap his fingers in front of Ruby's face.

Ruby blinked a few times and tried to get a hold of her big problem, for now. Ruby wasn't here to play fighting games, no matter how fun that would be on a different occasion.

"Hey Jaune, can I ask you something?"

Jaune was slightly taken aback by Ruby's quick return to reality. "Uh, yeah sure."

"Outside?" Ruby pointed towards the door and set her controller on one of the beds.

Nora stopped jumping on the bed and began to point at the two of them, "Ooooooooooooh!"

"Nora please," Ren pleaded while trying to suppress a yawn.

"What's she doing?" Ruby asked in sheer confusion.

"Just ignore her; let's go." Jaune said as he got up and walked out into the hall, Ruby following close behind. Ruby turned to close the door and couldn't help but giggle as Nora was barraged with pillows after pulling out a banner emblazoned with the horribly inaccurate letters "OTP".

"So, what's up?" Jaune asked as he sat down on the floor.

Ruby let out a heavy sigh as she pressed her back against the wall and slid down to the floor. "Jaune, I have a date-thingy tomorrow."

"Oh… well congratulations, I suppose." Jaune said cheerfully, still cautious of what could be concerning her. "Are you nervous or something?"

"Yeah," Ruby muttered

"Don't worry about it too much. It's just a date. Just have fun and enjoy yourself." Jaune stated positively to reassure his young friend.

Ruby wasn't looking at Jaune though; she was staring at the door to her dorm standing parallel to her. Ruby just wanted to crawl into her bed with a hot cup of cocoa and hibernate through all the drama and the snow storm that had suddenly and seamlessly taken hold of Vale. The campus was covered in a layer of snow and the dorms seemed like the only safe haven from the weather. The halls were cold and the floors were wet from people constantly tracking in snow and slush from the outside. Ruby didn't expect a snow storm to roll through Vale, but nature was unpredictable. Kind of like a lot of things recently.

"I like the person more as a friend, but I kind of care about them too." Ruby muttered loud enough for only Jaune to hear as she pulled her knees up close to her chest.

"Well um… Have you told him you just want to be friends?" Jaune asked hesitantly.

Ruby squeezed her knees tightly at Jaune's suggestion for two reasons. The first was the idea of cutting off Weiss. Dashing her hopes after reinvigorating her expectations would be beyond cruel. The second was just that one word. It was normal to say "him", but this wasn't normal.

"I hadn't thought about that." Ruby lied softly.

"Ruby, listen. In all honesty, if you're not comfortable with something, then don't do it. It's as simple as that." Jaune replied, doing his best to help his clearly distraught friend. "If they truly care about you, they'll understand. It's not like you're obligated to do anything romantically, this is the present after all. If they don't understand, then that's their problem." Jaune stood, feeling that his advice would suffice.

Jaune held a hand out to help Ruby up. "No thanks, I think I'll just sit out here for a bit."

"Okay, Ruby, this is exactly what I mean." Jaune took a seat by Ruby again, drawing a quizzical glance from her. He wasn't just going to leave her out here, not in her current state. Only a fool would do such a careless thing.

"It's obvious that you're upset. I mean, everyone can see it. It's not like this is some fanatical storyline where everyone is clueless to each other's lives unless they blatantly state their concerns."

Ruby wasn't expecting something like this out of Jaune. She stared silently at the young knight, half hoping he would continue and half that he would not.

"Ruby, this date of yours isn't a guy, is it?"

"Er… what do you mean?" Ruby was caught off guard by his question. How could he possibly know?

"Ruby, I've been your best friend since we first got here." Jaune stared at her knowingly. "You went from cheerful and eager to succeed to flat and dull… all about the same time this mysterious conflict with Weiss occurred."

Ruby mentally kicked herself. She wasn't ready to discuss this so openly. Her thoughts were running wild on how to get out of this. No. She needed to get this out.

"I'm sure you want to talk about it."

"Yeah…" Ruby stared at the ground.

"I may not be the smartest… or the coolest… or the anything for that matter. But I'm still human. I'm sure everyone in that room back there could pick up on what you were feeling. I'm just the one who stood up to try and help you."

So Ruby told him. She and Jaune sat there in the hallway as she went on about her entire conundrum. The fight with Weiss, most people knew about that. But all of it. The confusing emotions, the concern, Weiss' sudden admittance. Everything.

"Wait… so Professor Chaux actually told you to take her on a date?" Jaune was a little disturbed by this.

"Ye– Yeah…"

"Against all the obvious? You being upset, clearly not romantically caring about Weiss. Against you making it very obvious that you're not a lesbian. Against all professional standards that a Professor at such a prestigious academy should have. She set a minor up on a date?"

"Umm… yeah…" Now that Ruby thought about it, it did sound pretty absurd and unprofessional.

"Ruby, that's disturbing. Now, that matter can wait for a bit, but we need to help you out first." Jaune replied, understanding the full gravity of what had transpired and concerned the young huntress for so long.

"Ruby, even though Weiss may say she cares about you, it's not right." Jaune stated outright.

"What do you mean?"

"What do I mean? She's been a heartless bitch to you all your time here! She insulted your sister without any sort of rational hesitation! She insults your behavior and personality all the time. She looks down on everyone and everything that isn't a clone of her. And even then, she'd probably insult that as well and find something wrong with it!" Jaune was shouting this now, upset that such a horrid person could do something like this to his innocent friend.

"After all that, she pretends to justify it all by saying that she cares about you and that's why it all happened?" Jaune laughed at this. "Don't you see? She's manipulative. She gets what she wants and as soon as something goes awry she demands it all back, not matter what."

Ruby was listening intently now. What Jaune was saying was actually making sense, unlike the overall situation.

"That's not how a friend treats another friend. I mean, sure when we're little we may throw crap at our crushes, but mental abuse and domestic violence is definitely not normal. It's wrong, Ruby. Now, I can't make you do anything, but I don't feel comfortable with you going through with any of this. You're my best friend, I can't see you like that." Jaune stared at his friend, waiting for her to reply. He wasn't sure how she was going to react.

"You're right…" Ruby spoke at last.

"I am? I mean, I am." Jaune corrected himself. It wasn't a usual thing for him to be a beacon of advice and opinion with such a concerning matter.

"Jaune… Thank you." She sighed a breath of relief to have finally gotten this all off her chest.

"Anytime, Ruby…" Suddenly things became silent. He didn't know whether he should speak or not, until a final thought hit him.

"You know you're going to have to tell her, right?"

"How am I going to do that?" She asked.

"By being brutally honest, for lack of a better word, in all honesty." Jaune took on a more serious tone. "If you honestly don't feel comfortable with her and don't want anything romantic with her, then call it all off. Tell her how you feel. Tell her how you felt obligated and the only reason you did it was because she didn't want to ruin your friendship. If she's genuine, she'll understand. If she's not, then you'll know you made the right decision."

"Wha– What?" Weiss stared open mouthed.

"I can't do it." Ruby spit the words out so blatantly, so as to be sure she'd understand. "I can't do any of this, Weiss. This is wrong."

"You're saying I'm wrong for feeling this way? For liking another girl? Is that it?!" Weiss became defensive. "Well listen here you–"

"No. You listen, Weiss. I meant this with you. Not your choice in partners. You're horrible, Weiss. You're mean. You don't care about anyone else, but yourself. Unless of course it's to your own gain." Ruby was brutal; she had to be.

"How dare you!" Weiss retorted.

"No. How dare you. How dare you play with someone's emotions like that, Weiss. You think you can just justify all your bitchy remarks and criticism by saying you care? That's disgusting! What is wrong with you?! Everyone here has been nothing but nice to you and yet you hurt everyone. You just have to have it your way, don't you? Ruby was practically screaming at the heiress now.

Her words stung. They didn't just sting, they were a hard hitting dose of reality. Weiss didn't know what to say.

"Weiss, you're a part of my team. Now either get your crap together and stop being such a bitch, or get the hell out of here." Ruby turned to leave, but paused.

"You once told me that I was just a child. You criticized me in the beginning for getting here so early." Ruby refused to look at her partner. "I worked hard for this, Weiss. We all got here fair and square. I may be an exception to what's normal here, but you're the only one who doesn't fit in." With that she left.

Weiss stood in her place. She stared at the ground where Ruby had once stood near the balcony. Her emotions were at war with themselves, but she couldn't tell what she felt. Was she really that awful? What was she going to do now? She turned to the view before her. The moon shone bright over Beacon. The forest in the distance illuminated in such a way that momentarily distracted her. She took a step toward the ledge.

"Thank you, Jaune." Ruby embraced her friend tightly.

"For what? You're my best friend and I couldn't stand to see you like that." Jaune replied.

"For all of this. Your words of advice were just what I needed." Ruby stared at the ground. "I'm not good with this sort of stuff."

"I don't think anyone ever really is." Jaune was relieved that Ruby was able to sort things out. "Don't worry, Ruby. Weiss isn't the only one out there. You'll find someone someday, someone who genuinely cares. Someone who will be there for you no matter what, and let you go if they must, just to see you be happy.

"Someone…" Ruby looked up at her friend. "Someone like you."

"What?"

"Professor Chaux, can I speak with you a moment?"

"Yes, of course, Headmaster. How can I be of assistance?"

"A little birdy told me that you've been playing quite the cupid. Care to enlighten me?"

"I… I can explain…"

"Yes, do so, please. Please explain to me why a Professor at my prestigious academy would set up an obviously emotionally distraught and abused minor on a romantic quest for failure with someone who clearly is cruel and mentally abusive."

"Well, you see, it is my professional opinion that in matters of the heart–"

"Matter of the heart. We live in a world of evil and chaos; a world of advancement and science; a world where these children are our future saviors."

"Well, I…"

"You've violated several ethic codes of conduct. I cannot condone such reckless disregard for the well being of my students. What do you think this is, some sort of fairytale story where everyone is clueless as viewers across the fourth wall watch helplessly?"

"What…?"

"Get out of my academy."

Tune in tomorrow for the next chapter of Crossing Swords! Hope you enjoyed this version of my friend's latest chapter!