Author's Note: ... Let's go.
Enjoy...
Disclaimer: RWBY is the property of Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth. I do not claim ownership of anything pertaining to RWBY or any related properties. This is a work that began before Volume Two's release, and some details are subject to debunking. Any other references to non-related things are also not owned by me. This is a nonprofit fan work.
Rated T for: Language, suggestive themes, fight scenes and...
Original Post Date: 12/23/14
The indoor arena couldn't be called "indoor" any longer; the damage it had sustained from both the imperiled pair of students and the father with a loose morality was too much to begin with, and then it had just been torn open by some adventure the likes of which they couldn't fathom in their current states...!
Ruby, Weiss, and Lord Schnee were fully committed to seeing one side prevail over the other, there was no other recourse...
It was Ruby who decided to act first, taking a quick slide back before planting her scythe into the ground and firing off a few quick rounds. The Schnee head saw fit to break the clash he had with his own daughter, parrying the quick kick Weiss gave him when he did with a palm, and blocking the sniper rounds with a brick of ice hastily formed from the ground up.
"Weiss, to me!"
"Got it!"
Using her glyphs to propel herself, Weiss veered around her father and vaulted into the air, noticing that he was concentrating on something forming in the air...
Meanwhile, Ruby pointed Crescent Rose down as she shot off another round, knocking her into the air as well and smoothly making to her partner with a hand around her waist. The heiress nodded, just before she made a glyph underneath them to brake to a stop, then materializing another directly behind them as both pointed their weapons at their target...!
"Ice Flower mk. 2!"
Both girls aimed and alternately fired, sniper rounds from Ruby, and ice energy from Weiss, the element freezing in midair in a starburst before gunfire made it shatter. Speed was king, because as soon as it broke, more of Myrtenaster's ice quickly came in and formed anew, catching most of the shrapnel and making a much deadlier and crystalline object before the process continued. The sequence went by in the span of seconds, before the glyph behind them went alight and propelled them in the direction of their technique...!
Ruby and Weiss gave it their all as they came up from behind the deadly Ice Flower and delivered a straight kick into its center, rocketing the sculpture directly into Glassen Schnee's concentrating self!
"Grrrrrrrrrr...!"
The attack hit its mark, causing the patriarch to wince in pain as it hit his protective Aura with its bulk and splintered into a maelstrom of ice as it broke apart! However...
"I must admit, you have plenty of audacity to use this type of Dust against me, my daughter...!" Glassen gave off a smirk before he plunged both of his arms into what remained of the Ice Flower, glowing an eerie cerulean around where his hands were.
"But the reality of it is, it is the poorest choice when it comes to facing me...! HrrrrrrAAAAGH~!"
With his infused pair of hands, he tore the offending ice apart like it was a stack of paper, not without difficulty but easily enough, much to the pair's surprise and shock. It was then that Weiss saw through the flower and saw the ice it was made up of now converging into the points of energy her father had been concentrating on.
"Ruby, we have to move!"
"Y-Yeah, i see it!"
Glassen clenched both of his hands, his Aura ignited as the concentrations of cold energies he held aloft surged forward and converged into a great beam of solid ice! The girls went their separate ways as the element brought itself forward with speed that could never be classified as "glacial", spearing into a wall with ease.
The crimson reaper stuck to the ground, juking and weaving as the stationary permafrost above her branched out and formed more offshoots of obstructive and debilitating ice, not unlike seeing a very fast time-lapse of the roots growing from a tree.
Meanwhile, the heiress apparent took to the air, hopping from glyph to glyph as the ice encroached upon her as well. Being more at home with ice than her leader, however, enabled Weiss to buckle down and slide on the huge branch in order to tackle some of the more trickier brambles.
"You don't have to do this, Father," exclaimed Weiss, resentment for her progenitor in her voice, "Stop this nonsense and just listen to me!"
On cue, a section of the icy beam broke apart, and a harsh gust of snowy wind blew upwards, catching Weiss off guard as she shielded her face. It was then her father shot forth from the opening, catching her by the jacket!
"Ahh!"
"I could say the same thing...!"
Landing a frozen punch into her side, he launched Weiss high up into the air! He didn't hesitate to draw energy from the Dust lodged into his body, firing lances of ice at her as she sailed. Weiss was quick to recover, bringing up a glyph to deflect one heading at her and using the momentum to move out of the way of another..., but relief never came as more and more lances were being shot at her with breakneck speed! For every one she evaded or guarded against, she was in the way of another few...
"Weiss, I've got you...!"
Ruby sped off, leaving rose petals in her wake and ignoring a few encroaching barbs of ice, shooting herself into the air just as Weiss had to endure putting up a glyph for herself, witnessing at least seven icicles spearing into her Semblance and rapidly expending her Aura reserves as she put up more glyphs in defense.
"Rrrr... Ah, dammit!" she hissed, feeling her strength being sapped.
"WEISS!"
"Don't worry about me, I'll live...!" She shouted, still focused on halting her father's distant assault while clutching a shaky forearm . "Just keep going, Ruby! I'll be fine!"
Even though she was in trouble, Ruby trusted in her partner to hold out as she pointed her scythe to the ground and shot a propulsive round in the direction of the wayward father. Glassen did stop as the team leader neared, having anticipated her approach from his chatty daughter vocalizing her intentions, and immediately stopped to form a jagged ice saber in his right hand, swinging it down onto Ruby!
CLANG!
The sound of metal on ice bounced off the frozen landscape as she poured more and more strength into maintaining her hold with Crescent Rose against his sword. Lord Schnee raised a brow at the ferocity evident in Ruby's silver eyes. She did not take the attack on Weiss lightly...
"Now there's a surprise," he muttered with a bit of feeling in his voice, "What could I possibly have done to earn this sort of enmity from you, Ruby Rose? You are too young to be shouldering that sort of hatred inside you."
"WHY DO YOU THINK?!" Ruby yelled in his face as she held her ground. "You're Weiss' dad, you're supposed to be there for her, and not put her through all this! You just hit her, you... y-you bastard!"
"Language, Miss Rose," he chided, "Despite the circumstances leading up to this moment, I do appreciate it if you minded your manners."
"I have a pretty good reason, don't you think?!" Ruby pushed harder, but they were both at a standstill. "You're trying to take Weiss away from me! My friends are everything to me, and I don't appreciate you butting in!"
"Oh, so even if you weren't something more than friends with my daughter, you would respond like you are right now...?"
"That doesn't matter, I'll always fight for them!"
Both Ruby and Lord Schnee disengaged their standoff, only to close back in with their weapons, one parrying after the other in a flurry of clashes that both managed to keep up with!
"Interesting...," started Glassen as he came off of another blocked swipe from Ruby's scythe, "Has your mother's death affected you that much...? I swear, it is always the idealistic ones who never stay quiet, even after they disappear..."
"DON'T TALK ABOUT MY MOTHER LIKE THAT!" Ruby was pissed off, fearlessly throwing herself above her foe's coming strike to leap over him as a whole, already aiming down her sights in midair as she shot several sniper rounds into him..., only for him to anticipate the maneuver the moment she jumped past him, resulting in every shot getting muzzled into a block of ice. She was still in mid-fall when Lord Schnee decided to close the gap between them by sliding on the ice, readying several smaller blades of ice by his side as he flung them forward at Ruby! The reaper didn't have much time from the moment she landed to intercept them, speeding away from the initial barrage with her Semblance before she advanced, deftly working her Crescent Rose and being able to deflect the knives away from her person, meeting the CEO halfway as they once again locked their weapons together.
"How do you know of her anyway?" questioned Ruby, looking no less calmer. "I don't think she would know somebody like you, because she would definitely complain about you!"
"I only through stories and hearsay," Glassen freely admitted, "I had absolutely no stake in her occupation, nor her passing, and just think she is a shining example of what a peacekeeper shouldn't do."
"What...?!"
"Haven't I explained this already...?" He merely pushed the scythe-wielder away, forcefully breaking their duel and letting his saber droop along with his arm, to her surprise. "Senseless sacrifice is not the way to bring change, and is just the kind of behavior your type of personalities exhibit quite flagrantly...!"
"That...! That still doesn't mean you should disrespect her! If you have a problem with that, then take it up with me! I won't give up...!"
Meanwhile, Weiss had been focusing on replenishing her Aura and catching her breath, trying her best to keep a bead on the action when the fighting stopped...
"What's going on...? Why is it qu— Ruby...?"
She kept still as she looked over to her girlfriend, who looked angry yet uncertain as to where this conversation was going, then over to her father when Glassen's cold, cerulean eyes flickered with both anger and a hint of understanding. "I think I see now... It's as plain as day that Summer Rose's death has instilled some rather negative feelings inside of you...!"
Ruby's own silver eyes widened with how absurd that sounded...
"What?! Quit being crazy..., I'm not negative about anything! Except maybe the severe lack of strawberries around winter..."
"Don't be ridiculous!" he shouted, startling her and stopping another attempt at an attack as she wanted to step forward. "I knew there had to be a reason for your unending optimism; you merely wish to keep your feelings bottled up, so no one could ever see how much you truly resent how your life turned out!"
"Th-That's not...!"
"Yes, that has to be it!" A short, yet malicious smirk appeared on Lord Schnee's face as he went on... "I can only infer so much, but it seems that you feel that many people in your life had failed you as well...! You must have hated how powerless you felt when you heard of Summer's death, the truth that you were unable to prevent it, and despising the fact that no one else could have!"
Lifting a hand up, his fingers were curled up enough so that he could clench them in a fist as he spoke...
"Normally, I wouldn't even deign to care about delving into what makes up a person's mind, but it seems you and I have more in common than I thought."
The crimsonette shook her head with denial.
"N-No, I'm NOTHING like you! I don't hate how everything turned out, I DON'T feel weak anymore, and I'm definitely not going out of my way to hurt my own family with what I do!"
Ruby was still, a tenuous hold on Crescent Rose as the girl herself could be seen shivering as she thought...
'I... I don't hate everything like he's saying...! H-He's only trying to get me to not focus! ... But why...'
"Denying yourself is no way to go about life, Ruby Rose," her foe calmly stated, "You would be surprised at the results you can achieve if you were much more honest about who you really are. However, don't misinterpret my actions...," Glassen succinctly "corrected", "My actions ARE meant to help my family, ergo the entirety of Remnant as the Dust we provide is vital, whereas you only serve to provide Vale with more of the chaff to combat both Grimm and criminal activity, providing your body and mind to a venture much more suited to those with a death wish such as your own.
What do you even hope to accomplish with your idealism, I ask..."
"Shut up...! Please be quiet...!"
He narrowed his eyes at Ruby, watching her cover her ears in trying to block him out, her resolve dwindling as a more frightened expression spread across her face. "Even if I would have had an ounce of a possibility of accepting you with this information, the fact of the matter is: You are useless, ineffectual and obstructive, a detriment to yourself and to others with your feckless hope—!"
"SHUT UP! Stop it, just stop it...!"
"—and out of your element as a whole, not like my daughter. Yes, there is no comparison."
His tone became disturbingly calm at the mention of Weiss, as he made a passing glance of distorted pride at his resting daughter. Weiss had been listening in, of course, and he knew that as much as she would want to barge in and help her leader out, her own resolve would be similarly affected with how the red-hooded one was reacting. His daughter's blue pupils looked to be very narrow as she couldn't believe she would see Ruby Rose falling apart.
In fact, while Weiss was very distressed with watching Ruby trying desperately to remain of sound mind, he relished the fact that Ruby's optimism was fading away as she started to break. It allowed him to have a moment to himself without much on his mind as he turned once again to see her sniveling form.
"As much as you would like to believe otherwise, I am not a monster, Ruby Rose. I may have been dismissive of her efforts before, but I see a tremendous amount of potential in Weiss, the likes of which can restore the family name to its former glory! I have not once raised my hand against Weiss, nor her mother, and my way of raising her is only to make sure that she can lead with no regrets, no shame, no second guesses."
Thoughts of their past flew by quickly in his head, from the time he introduced the art of fencing to a hesitant Weiss...
"F-Father...? Do I really have to fight you with this?"
"You are starting to show doubt, Weiss... Have you already forgotten what being a Schnee is about?"
"Sorry! Sorry, I forgot, but—"
"Being able to defend yourself is an invaluable asset to learn so long as you bear the Schnee name..."
"I know that, but I'm just worried that I might hurt you is all..."
"An amusing thought, but unlikely. If anything, you mustn't hold back whenever you swing your blade. The important thing to know, Weiss, is that when you take up the sword, there is little one can do that doesn't involve taking life. I will judge you on this... Your strikes need to be swift, and they need to be sure, do you understand?"
"Yes, Father. I understand. Like this?"
"No, keep your arm level at all times! The margin of error one has to defend oneself can be measured in parts of a second... Try again."
"O-Of course..."
...to instating a curfew around the time his daughter was starting to talk about budding friendships...
"Father? May I speak to you...?"
"What is it, Weiss? Be brief."
"Right. Um, some of the girls from school wanted us to get together after school and—"
"You will not go."
"Huh? But why?! They looked nice enough to not be another repeat of—!"
"This invitation is right on the cusp of that incident over in the town square, where I've told you was forbidden to wander around without the proper security detail! My answer remains."
"...That's not fair..."
"Hm? Did you say something?"
"No, it was nothing..."
"Do not forget that merely being outside is a hazard to a Schnee, as is associating with the wrong people... Only through diligence and training can one stay a step ahead, and you are still much too inexperienced."
"..."
"This conversation is over. You may return to your studies now."
"Yes, Father..."
All in all, he had been strict but lenient, he thought. Perhaps it wasn't conducive to a lifestyle where one has more than just themselves in their lives, but it was enough at the time. Everything had been going well..., and look where things had gone now.
Now having settled those brief memories back into his mind, he returned to addressing the impudent girl before him.
...
Ruby never moved from her spot, and with every word that Glassen Schnee spouted, the more she wanted to reject them, and with each rejection came denial. Coupled with the fact that she knew that denying it wasn't going to solve anything, it only served to amplify her own doubt.
'N-No, I'm not useless, I'm not in the way of any...thing... Especially not about Weiss..., I think? No, Weiss won't accept this for sure, but... What about... me? Am I fit to even know her after all this... No, I need to calm down! I need to get my head back in the game, Weiss' dad is just being—"
"If you are just going to stand there, then ponder this: Weren't those the kinds of feeling you have given to her, Ruby, as a child playing hero to a born leader...? You were incompatible from the start, no matter who initiated your perverted waltz."
Whatever confidence she tried to build up had been torn down; Ruby still fervently clutching her ears as she dropped to her knees.
'I...! S-So what, am I just a simple, stupid girl then? Is that right?! I don't get it, why does everyone keep calling me that? So many people told me that to my face, it stopped being a joke long ago...!'
Her own memories of her childhood sprang up, fogging her mind as she remembered hurtful words, chastising, and every put-down fitting for a childish girl like her.
'B-but I never cared about that... I had myself and Crescent Rose, and that was all I needed. All I needed was her, and I could forget my own sadness as I made the world a better place...! That's what Mom would have wanted, I'm sure. Beating down the bad guys and monsters, making them all go away so everyone can live happy...!
So yeah, maybe I am simple, but I was never dumb... Is it wrong to be simple though?'
Images and recollections of students just passing by on their way as Signal was in their sights; many would pay her mind, some would willfully ignore her as she tried to make conversation, and some decided to take their frustration out at her...
"Why are you pretending to have a tea party with that shoddy scythe, you slow child?"
"Hm? You mean why am I doing this? Well, you heard what the professor said about treating your weapon right, so I'm treating Crescent Rose like I would my best friend!"
"Are you kidding me...? That's like playing with dolls when you know how to drive! Are you stupid or something?"
"N-No, but hear me out! Who else has your back when you're out hunting Grimm, huh? You gotta take good care of your trusty weapon, or else things might end up bad..."
"R.b..?..Ru..,...t's going o...?! R..Y!"
"Ugh, even your speech sounds all stunted! What, did your mom forget to tell you to stay above water during your bubble bath? You obviously don't have all your brain cells."
"Huh...?! What are you saying, my mom isn't—"
"While we're at it, quit trying to be friendly with everyone; no one wants to be friends with a loser like you! Don't even think about sitting in the same lunchroom as us, you got it?"
"I didn't even do anything! Why are you all being so mean, can't we be just play nice...?"
"Ans... me, R...! I'm co..., so o...! AH!"
"This is what I'm talking about; there's no room to play nice when those monsters are out there, waiting to kill us all when we let our guard down! You're so soft, you'll only bring any team you're a part of down!"
"Th-That's...! But I...!"
"Are you going to cry? Do you need your mommy to wipe your tears for you?"
"No...! No, I don't!"
...
'They just didn't know better..., rather they didn't care to know better. Didn't matter, I kept on smiling long after I stopped seeing them in Signal. But it still hurt. It still stung every time I got pushed in the dirt, whenever they'd stomp down on Crescent Rose right after I finished polishing her... Yang and Dad weren't of much help; my sister wants to beat the other students' light out, and Dad would try to smooth it out with the school..., only for nothing to really be done as the next day would have the others bother me with an eye out. Sometimes life doesn't play like you want to, after all~.
Why do I... feel so cold...?'
"RUBY! Listen to me, you need to wake— Dammit! Let me through, Father!"
As Ruby silently wept to herself, Weiss had tried to intervene, to comfort her and snap her out of her melancholy, but her father was one step ahead of her as he not only shot disruptive bolts of ice at her and the ground, but also at precise places around Ruby, causing a chill to slowly overtake her senses. Direct contact could have snapped her out of it, and he didn't want that.
"You shouldn't interrupt someone while they're deep in thought about themselves, Weiss. In fact, you interrupted me."
Glassen smirked, taking delight out of the situation, his mind very gone with the prospect of a spirit-crushing vengeance. That is, for a few seconds, before his expression dropped to that of indifference when he realized he had the girl in his clutches, and could have easily gotten rid of her. He had been too full of himself, and it was proven seconds too late as Weiss mustered enough strength to get over her fatigue and speedily closing the distance with the help of her blue Dust loaded into Myrtenaster. Her father's eyes widened as he had to let go of control over his constructed ice in order to defend himself with a held, frozen slab.
Her father was quick to go on the counter-offensive, letting their weapons slide down a little further, as he detonated his makeshift weapon in her direction, causing many shards to fly at close-range! Weiss was no sitting duck, though, as she backed off with a well-timed backflip, going onto one of her glyphs and gracefully flying up and over her father and getting into a position to strike back...!
Lord Schnee merely flicked a wrist along his tattered suit's jacket, churning the cold air into a stinging bluster that forced Weiss to cover herself, summoning a glyph in defense as further protection. Glassen saw opportunity as he then grasped the magical sigil, freezing it over in a repeat of earlier, and shattering it well.
Weiss mentally kicked herself for slipping up, as she quickly layered on another glyph to protect against her old one, but its protection wasn't foolproof. Several shards were sent blowing in her right shoulder, piercing past her Aura's defenses and sharp enough to draw blood.
"Agh...! Damn you, Father...!"
The heiress then kicked off of the ground, funneling her reserves into spacing herself and getting towards Ruby in no time. Her father thankfully didn't give chase, but that was because Weiss so readily wished him damnation.
'This should come as no surprise to me at this point... Weiss is still green enough to shackle her life to someone so inferior.'
Arriving by her leader's side, Weiss frantically brought her sword onto the ice that sought to weaken her best friend!
Ksshing!
It didn't budge, the ice held up.
Weiss kept at it, ignoring everything else as she hacked away with broad swings, chipping away little by little at the risk of her own weapon's integrity.
"Hang... In... There..., R-Ruby! I'm here...!"
Her father shook his head in frustration; he couldn't believe he's seeing his daughter go through the trouble for someone like Ruby...
"Rrr, so why am I hesitant...? Honestly, this display is pathetic..., I should have just ended this before it proved troublesome..." he muttered to himself, yet he couldn't find it in him to remain as angry. "Just who is she to you, Weiss...? What do you see in her that I don't?
Hmph, right now I only see how I felt when I saw what the world had in store for me, only I came out all the stronger for it. At least, I can only presume so at this point, what with more than a few people here out for my head. Still, why am I this... unmotivated as I am, right now of all times?!"
Glassen Schnee cursed himself; so willing to just let his daughter bring Ruby back from the brink, as he started to acknowledge his own shortcomings, as well as his daughter overcoming her own...
'This show of when humanity is at its most desperate; when one person is willing to uphold someone's ideals to the end... I see that in my own daughter towards the Rose girl. I've seen that in myself with what Hilde and her family were willing to do, as well as their generosity. I cannot say that I would have ended up the way that I am if it weren't for that one act of kindness...
Trifling matters and catastrophes alike can bring out the best in someone... It is never the same for everyone, however, as my own past can attest to. The potential that lies dormant within oneself is something indeed to be in awe of.
Leadership, subservience... Weakness and strength... Without one, the other cannot exist, that much is certain.'
He continued to witness Weiss breaking through the ice, now already at enough down so she could attempt to lift her up and out, yet the ice remained jagged enough that she needed to keep hacking away.
'One thing is clear to me: If Ruby and Weiss wish to prove me wrong, they will have to earn the right to do so! Only one of us can be right, and only one of us will be fit to lead while the other party bows out. I can only move forward now, this is what has to be done.'
He then started to wait patiently, waiting for a spark of life to return to Ruby Rose.
'Hm, it seems that perhaps the others weren't wrong about my penchant for waxing philosophical...'
Weiss questioned nothing about her father's actions, or lack thereof, and after a few moments of her own, she held Ruby in her arms after staying so long in the cold.
"Ruby! Ruby, wake up! I'm here now!"
Nothing. Ruby was cold to the touch, though with how close Weiss held her, she felt a steady heartbeat from the girl's chest. Her eyes were clenched shut, almost like she didn't want to wake up. She was still lost in her own misery.
'It... It's all true, isn't it...? Ever since Mom died, I felt like I wasn't strong enough to protect her... I was weak. I still am... I hated myself, and I hated the other Hunters on staff for letting it happen on their watch...!'
"Ruby?! Answer me, Ruby!"
'I... I also hated my sister for not being stronger either..., but I was able to get over that! B-But Dad was also... I tried my best not to be so unreasonable, but in the end, I did end up hating everything for a while...!'
As her snowy partner tried to shake her stiff, Ruby was still losing herself in her mind, letting a single tear fall as she went on ignoring her partner's pleas for her to wake up...
"Don't make me do something I'll regret, you comatose dunce!"
'And above all, I just wanted to do good for Mom...! Why does no one understand this, it's like I'm destined to be the plucky one without much depth. That's wrong in so many ways, but the damage has been done, hasn't it? I bet even Weiss looks at me like I need some sort of aid...
Weiss... Weiss...! Where are you...? I'm so alone..., please come back...! I'm sorry that I needed as much as I did. I promise to be a better leader for you, so you don't have to be disappointed in me any longer...! I'm sorry that I somehow made you feel something you shouldn't have..., I'll take it all back if you can forgive me for—'
"For the love of— WAKE UP!"
In a fit of panic, Weiss brought her hand up and slapped Ruby across her cheeks, holding her by the front of her cloak as the girl started to register feeling in her nerves.
"Ow! Wh-What...?! What's going on?!"
"You stupid..., inattentive..., susceptible, insensitive DOLT!"
Weiss shouted right in front of her leader, chewing her out for her blank spell as she held the younger girl in her arms.
"You listen to me, and you listen to me well, Ruby Rose! For shame, why did you let my father get to you like that? I don't even understand...
I may never completely understand, because you are you, and that won't change...!"
The heiress shuffled her arms a bit to hold on with less constriction as she backed off enough to look her leader in the eyes, wiping a tear from Ruby's cheek.
"Didn't you already forget that you're not alone here, Ruby? I think you did, and that is unacceptable!"
"Weiss, what...?"
"No matter how badly you might want to retreat or barricade yourself from everything, you have friends and family who will want you to come back to them...," Weiss then separated herself from her, putting on a stern, yet welcoming grin as she went on, "and if you fall to despair, you don't even have to ask before one of us comes over to pick you up. It's not the end of the world, so buck up."
She then took the red-clad girl by the shoulders and shook her like one would a ketchup bottle, causing Ruby to make a few warbling noises as she was shaken.
"Wei-Wrblrblmrrphmp!"
"Are you with me so far? Because I really need you right now, as you can plainly see!"
"Well put, Weiss," her father cut in, spurring the snowy girl to turn and face him as he stood there with his arms crossed. "I believe that as much as I want to snuff out this little rebellion, it would be preferable to do so with the context that you understood why it was unwise to defy me...!"
"Well why did you wait then, Father?! I've already said all that I wanted to you, and you are as stubborn as a mule!"
"I shall take the latter as a compliment. As for my hesitation, you needn't concern yourself over it. Need I remind you two that this is the field of battle, is it not? There are many tactics that can be considered viable in and out of many situations, from brute force to subterfuge, hit and run, dissecting the manner in which the adversary fights..., and my personal favorite."
With a raise of his hand, Lord Schnee summoned five evenly-spaced spikes from the ground in slow succession, prompting Weiss to shove Ruby to the side so she could not only keep her from danger, but so that she had a free hand with which to wield Myrtenaster. Unfortunately for her, her father used both the delay and Weiss' action to his advantage, as he was able to fire several bolts of ice down to her feet, pinning her on the spot. Before she could voice her complaints, the spikes themselves shot forth with thin beams of ice with the aim of encapsulating his daughter, starting with the shoulders and legs.
"To divide and conquer. It is no secret that I prefer you to live past today, Weiss, so accept this gift while you're grateful."
As he saw his daughter giving him a nasty look as she struggled, he saw from the corner of his eye that Ruby stirred with a spark burning within her...
"WEISS! Oh no, I can't stay like this...!"
She fought against the cold and aching muscles so she could sprint off to save her partner...
'As expected, she is not one to let her companions fall into harm...'
The cold father would have nothing of it, as he slid towards his daughter, intercepting Ruby as he stood between them with an indifferent stare...
'I have already stated how I felt about such a self-sacrificing way of living, though now I have intrigue as to how far that line of thinking will take her. As counterproductive as it sounds..., I have acquired a need to challenge her. If anything, this shall prove once and for all who is superior, a relatively easy thing to accomplish.'
Despite looking weird as he stood there thinking to himself, especially to a rushing Ruby, Glassen brought his foot up and threw out a hardened kick with ice at the sole. The reaper girl took a gamble as she drew Crescent Rose out, stopping the incoming attack with the metal that preceded the blade!
"What the hell...?" 'I have spoken too soon...!'
He was referring to the fact that his attack had an unexpected side effect in freezing his foot onto Ruby's scythe, which the girl had the nerve to smirk at as she took advantage of it, tilting the scythe and throwing him off his center of gravity. The moment she saw his expression change, Ruby folded up Crescent Rose into its compact form and proceeded to follow it up with a move she learned very well from her and Yang's childhood: she stuck her free arm out to her side as she ran forward, catching her foe by the torso and freeing her weapon as she sent him down to the ground in short order. Ruby was too scrawny to come out all right, however...
"Ow...! I don't think I'm buff enough to pull off a clothesline yet..."
Thinking nothing of rubbing her arm, Ruby aimed her rifle and made quick work of the encroaching ice around her partner, and now it was Weiss that was being held tightly in an effort to warm her up...
"Weiss, are you okay?! Are you cold, are you stiff, are you hungry...? Please, say something!"
"Th-the... The squeeze...! I can't...!"
"Oh."
Ruby had been holding Weiss too tightly, enough for the pale heiress to appear as red as a tomato until her leader released her. With a sheepish grin, Ruby took hold of one of Weiss' hands, whisking the both of them away and reappearing on top of a nearby flagpost.
Weiss blinked when she realized that the scenery changed; the air didn't feel as oppressively cold, and she felt the faint snow landing on her fair skin. It was enough to lighten her mood and warm her cheeks..., though not as much as what she was about to say next.
"I... Thank you for saving me after... I did the same for you." Weiss smiled warmly. "I don't want to sound like a broken record here, but know I am with you, Ruby... Don't lose yourself, understand? We have a lot more to lose, and it wouldn't help to stay moping about what couldn't be prevented... I need you to stay with me."
"I will... Sorry to worry you, I was being an idiot... Thank you~." The red-hooded girl offered a grateful smile for worrying Weiss, the other girl softening up with much-needed relief. "It could have been... a lot worse if I kept on like that, and Dust knows that I always have a hard time concentrating in real life as it is, but I'm really really thankful for—"
"Quit talking for just a moment," replied the heiress, placing a finger on top of Ruby's lips to stop her from rambling. "Let's make one thing perfectly clear: You weren't being an idiot... You were being a dolt."
Ruby giggled with Weiss' reassurance, returning to her former self in no time...
"Am I your dolt though?"
"Did you seriously just go there?" Weiss' hopeful expression flattened in the blink of an eye. "Honestly, that phrase gets thrown around and used so commonly, that it's lost its meaning, don't you think?"
The younger girl blinked, unsure of what the meaning of that was all about, when Weiss playfully tapped a finger onto her nose.
"But I guess that's as correct as can be~. You are my dolt, you big idiot."
Both girls giggled to themselves, soon finding that they were able to take a breather when they noticed that Lord Schnee was not taking pursuit, his eyes trained on them in building rage. A faint flickering of cerulean that was coming from him signified that he was recovering from all the spent effort, from both drawing Dust into his body and expending so much of his energy. The break was just what the girls needed to recover as well, as they convened to themselves...
"We need him to lose the Dust, Ruby."
"I know... I read up on it for the Chemistry test two weeks ago, remember?" Ruby looked proud of herself as she went on, swelling with pride in her mind when Weiss smiled gratefully for what the leader knew was telling her that she did a good job. "As much as the body grows unstable during the sublimation process, if one can make the power boost from the Dust infusion manageable, then there is nothing to worry about when it comes to making him... uh, explode if we hit him too hard."
Ruby smiled with apology when she noticed that Weiss dropped hers with the mention of her dad literally blowing up. "We need to keep fighting, that much we need to do, but your dad is tough, Weiss! Didn't the Headmaster fight this guy before we ever did...?! Why wasn't it over with there and then? This sucks!"
Quirking her mouth into a slight smirk, the heiress responded matter-of-factly, "I suppose he had placed his faith on us finishing the job. I don't know how capable he was, however, so that doesn't quite answer everything..."
"He's weird like that," replied Ruby, stifling a small giggle. It was then she turned a little to her left and noticed... a great, confusing calamity.
"Wh-What's going on?! Why's there a lot of armor and junk on the floor, and why are our friends fighting a bunch of big Grimm?!"
Weiss blinked, looking over to where her girlfriend was looking at... Her response was also as bewildered.
"What the...?! HOW did all that happen?! Wait, do I see Penny in there...?! Why is Team CRDL here? THE ELEPHANT?!"
Blinking in awe and not understanding a thing, they were speechless as they saw Ellie the elephant Grimm trying to gore its tusks into a King Taijitu as Professor Port hitched a ride on the serpent and tried hacking away at its black head with the axe at the end of his blunderbuss. Meanwhile, Ren and Nora were tied up with occupying a Nevermore's time, Nora emulating Port by hitching a ride on the raven by crackling lightning into the shape of painful reins as Ren doused its chest with gunfire to little effect other than staggering its flight.
Noticing they were off their guards, Glassen thought of interrupting them... until a few broken pieces of armor and robotics fell by his feet, prompting him to look as well.
"Well, it is... safe to say that the latest prototypes have ALL failed me..., but how..." He nursed his temple with his left hand, seething as he growled out, "How did this all devolve into such chaos...?! I didn't expect half these people at all!"
Just then, Pyrrha cartwheeled into driving her xiphos into an Ursa Major that Jaune was distracting with his lacking swordplay, giving him the impression that he felled it when his partner stabbed it where its spine met its head. Unfortunately for her, the effects were very immediate as he witnessed the bear sliding off of her weapon and sulking when he realized that he didn't do all that much. Meanwhile, Penny gleefully kept rending and blending many oncoming Beowolves into a mess of blackened ichor and blood, manipulating her blades with ease and paying no attention to how it was all staining her skin and clothes.
"Don't worry, Friend Ruby," she exclaimed with fresh blood dripping from her smiling face, "I shall save you from a horrible fate along with Friend Weiss, just please hold on for a moment~."
Both girls stared blankly at the mess, preferring to ignore... everything.
"Weiss," started a deadpan Ruby, "As much as they look to not need help, I... don't think I'd want to get involved..."
"Agreed. Let's not let their effort be in vain, however." The heiress than turned to her father, resuming her combative state of mind and ignoring two of her teachers trying to calm down two erratic Faunus students from their emotional highs of screaming out cusses and laughing maniacally, respectively.
"Such madness," he muttered to himself, shaking off the mental images of a cow creature playing volleyball with a bunch of Grimm against the unsuspecting backs of four delinquents as he faced his daughter and her choice of a significant other.
"No more distractions!" he roared with impatience as he sped forward on an ascending slick of ice and into the air, rearing back an arm with ice concentrated into a clawed hand.
Weiss now held Ruby as she flipped them around in midair, taking a short free-fall to the ground below...
"Now's the time for any sort of plan...! Do you have one?"
Ruby pondered as they landed without incident, but up above, Lord Schnee had rebounded from their flagpole, sailing higher up and was now coming down with arctic energy swirling around his bundled fists.
"We run interference, Weiss~!" She said as she swiftly pointed off into the all-out brawl that her friends were a part of, relieved when her partner nodded without need of an explanation.
"Don't think you can enlist help so easily, Ruby Rose!" exclaimed the father, just when he slammed his joined fists down on a protective glyph, taking the brunt of the physical attack and deflecting the rapidly-forming ice away from them both! The glyph itself was on the verge of breaking apart, when Weiss turned her Dust Chamber to purple as she struck into the mass directly in front of them.
"No, we're not the ones asking for help...! You are!"
With a steady hand, Weiss managed to slice completely through the attack, striking her father between the knuckles and causing the man to lose hold of the ice, the chunk soaring through the air until it finally broke apart... and landing between the eyes of the King Taijitu that some of the others were fighting off.
Angry, the deadly serpent glared at who threw the projectile, ignoring the professor atop its head..., but ignoring Port's bulky companion for a a few, brief seconds. Ellie slammed hard into it, causing the massive snake to topple over and shake the earth! Port could be seen jumping back onto his mighty steed beforehand, just as the white head sprang up for revenge. It failed when Ellie managed to sidestep its strike, biting down onto its head in retaliation!
"There's a good girl! Now toss it good!"
With Port's command, the not-Goliath began swinging the Taijitu around at a slow speed, due to how big the snake really was, but quickly built up to bundling it up while its darker head still dragged on the ground. Snorting in between its efforts, Ellie finally bucked its head forward and caught a bunch of the serpent's weight onto the tusks, hefting it with little difficulty before tossing it in the direction of a reeling Glassen Schnee.
Despite receiving a rapier to his hand and hissing out in pain, Lord Schnee's supercharged Aura was quick to patch it up as he reared his fist back for another strike with a sharpened ice spike at the end! Weiss parried it well enough, however, smiling confidently as her father continued to advance.
"You shouldn't believe you have the fight won, Weiss," he said through his teeth, "I've taught you better than that."
"Yeah, well I think I've learned that I'm already better than you!"
Weiss smirked, dodging gracefully with a spin and striking down onto her father's back, staggering him even further. Looking with her own back turned to him, she boisterously muttered, "By the way, you're about to have some company..." before Ruby swooped in, making them both vanish in a veil of rose petals.
Glassen Schnee had little time to realize that something large was already heading his way until a large shadow had already obscured whatever moonlight that enabled him to see better. The King Taijitu made the ground tremble with its mighty landing, churning the ground and ice with its body and destroying what was left of the arena, turning it all into rubble...
Both girls then perched upon a tree off to the side, trying their best to continue recovering from their fierce fight.
"Is it... Is it over...?" Ruby was trying to catch her breath, with difficulty thanks to the passive chill that Weiss' father constantly gave off.
"Don't be so sure, Ruby...," replied the heiress, wiping the cold sweat from her brow. As she did, however, a pleasant surprise caught her eye. "Never assume it's the end, but from what I'm seeing, it seems that the potential overrun of Beacon has been resolved!"
Sure enough, all of the participants, both willing or otherwise, have quelled the uprising of android and Grimm alike; everyone taking the time to recover as well as fraternize. Jaune and Sun were getting patched up by the ladies of JNPR, with Nora wistful that she couldn't ride the Nevermore anymore thanks to her Semblance vaporizing the creature ("I wanted to name it Mister Air Horse..."), Ren and Velvet were keeping to themselves in keeping the faith that it was truly over, and the professors were all keeping watch over Team CRDL, who were split up and atop both of Port's tamed Grimm-cow and elephant.
"Wait, not everyone's here," muttered Ruby. Yes, Penny was... somewhere; it was surprising how an android girl covered in the blood of her enemies could just disappear at times... The hooded girl wracked her brain for an answer, while Weiss looked to be amused, giggling to herself as to how cute the younger girl was when she tried to be serious...
"YANG! BLAKE! Oh no, we forgot them!"
Ruby's cry brought her partner out of her merriment, turning towards the destruction that tossing the serpent Grimm had caused. There was no sign of anyone stirring inside...
"We... didn't think this through...! Oh no, oh no, oh no...!"
Both Ruby and Weiss remembered far too late that Yang and Blake were unconscious by the time the fighting took off, much to their abject horror.
"How did we slip up like this," asked a despairing Weiss, "In the thick of it all, we forgot our teammates in the battle..."
"What are we going to do, Weiss...?" Ruby turned to her partner, her expression stricken with grief as tears threatened to fall... "I think Yang might not like her hair getting frayed with all that roof on her head..., if she isn't already dead..."
Weiss was dismayed to hear such a dismissal of life and well-being. Despite the attitude that Ruby held that her sister was alive, she turned sharply to her leader and complained, "D-Don't take your own sister's demise so lightly...! What about Blake, she's a terrible person when she gets up in the morning, and having a bunch of building on her when she wakes would subject us to a nightmare filled with 'test scratches'!"
"This is the worst Christmas ever!"
...
Somehow getting their priorities mixed up, they both sulked. A few more people stepped up to congregate around the tree where the red and white pair were perched, viewing the event at their well-deserved leisure.
"Whoa, what happened here...," asked an inquisitive Sun. "This place really got jacked up something awful, huh?"
"Mister... Wukong, was it?" From the sides spoke a none-too-pleased assistant; Glynda Goodwitch impatiently tapped her wand/riding crop on her folded arms. "Please don't take the situation so lightly, or else you will find your stay here to be unexpectedly cut short." Glynda's biting remark made the monkey man cower in his boots.
"Don't be so harsh on the boy, Goodwitch~," assured Bartholomew Oobleck, downing another few gulps of coffee from his thermos, "I'm sure he is as worried as the rest of us when it comes to this chaotic mess! Say, have either of you seen the cheerful girl who seemed to be floating and flying throughout all this? She really has a lot of potential!"
Before anyone could question where Penny was, or why she was even there, said cheerful girl flew out of the clearing smoke, bolting up from the wreckage, and flying up and over Penny flew up the King Taijitu (which had to be unconscious or something as it didn't disappear), and upon landing in front of a now grounded RWBY pair deposited the B & Y with no incident.
"Ruby~! I have retrieved your sister and your other friend! My sensors tell me that they are going to live, although Friends Yang and Blake will feel a little chilly for a few days..."
Both girls were in awe and in appreciation of their robotic friend's gesture as they descended from their perch; Ruby looking like she hadn't seen a friend in ages~. But before any of them could speak, Goodwitch walked out from behind the arrival, pulling out her Scroll as she approached the resting bodies...
"Let me take a look at them. This will only take a second to confirm..." Looking over the readings and data with care, she eventually came to the same conclusion as before and lightening up her own tense expression as she said, "The new girl is right, they will be fine, though I suggest putting them back in the infirmary before things get exacerbated any more than they are now. You have my thanks for retrieving them, Miss Penny."
The android girl beamed with the compliment.
"It is no problem at all, Ma'am~! I was only doing this for a friend in need."
"Penny, I could hug you right now, but this is just too much!" True to her word, Ruby was not only feeling ecstatic and restless to have a friend whom she had not seen in a while pop up, but also from finding out her friends are safe. "S-Seriously, I don't know who to hug here! Weiss, help me!"
"U-Uh, I don't know! Don't look this way, everyone's watch— ACK!"
Ruby lovingly squeezed the everloving life out of Weiss, making the heiress red through means other than embarrassing her, though the prospect of being so openly affectionate with such an audience was also achieving that as well. She had to ignore a few whistles and hollering from her fellow students and the others...
"Whoa, getting a little frisky there, aren'tcha, ladies?" Nora said, wiggling her eyebrows like a caterpillar.
"There's no need for that, Miss Valkyrie," cut in a speedy Dr. Oobleck, as he eyed the spectacle from behind his spectacles. "Ah, the wonders of youth...! Been a while since I've been a teenager. I don't miss it. However, I for one do hope they keep the PDA away from my History class, as it would be a shame to reprimand them for such."
"I guess I never stood a chance with her, huh..." sulked Jaune, crestfallen with the reminder that it wasn't happening between him and Weiss... after so many chapters and exposition.
"Don't be so down, Jaune...," muttered Pyrrha, before she decided to reprimand her leader by floating him up by his armor and leaving him to dangle, thanks to her polarity powers. As he yelped, she merely responded, with satisfaction, "It looks like I'll need to be a little more direct from now on... Stop flirting so shamelessly, okay~?"
As he nodded profusely, another made their quirky opinion known...
"Whoo-hoo! C'mon ladies, show us just how big of a dork you are for one another~!"
That last one made Weiss freeze...
'W-Was that Velvet...?!' Okay, she wasn't the first one that Weiss thought would stoop so low as to cat-call them...! 'The nerve! After that stunt she pulled...! What's gotten into her, she's swinging one of her ear warmers in the air like this is something meant to be a lot more raunchier!'
"Sh-Shut up! All of you!" Weiss blushed with all the attention being given to her at the expense of her reputation. It didn't help that Ruby was making all sorts of content noises as she buried her head into the heiress' modest bosom.
"Why is this going back to me?! Shouldn't we worry about the MASSIVE GRIMM still parked into the building?! And what about my father, is he going to be okay?"
Everything stopped with her reminder: they had been so caught up in their celebration that the thought hadn't crossed their minds.
The quiet one of JNPR got up from his meditative stance, quirking a leery eye towards the Taijitu and stating with hesitation, "Grimm are supposed to disappear within minutes of expiring... This one hasn't so it stands to reason that this isn't over yet."
Penny nodded, looking a bit more calm as she asked, "Was there supposed to be another person...? I apologize, I could only detect two humanoid heat signatures from the demolition. The rest of my vision was covered in blue, so there was only cold..."
Port jumped out from the far side of Ellie, the pseudo-Goliath, brushing his thick mustache of snow as he stated, "Well, isn't this a lucky turn of events~? It seems I have a new charge to teach, as soon as it wakes up! Let me just get my housebreaking kit, and soon I shall have a new—"
Interrupting Professor Port's intentions of getting another Grimm for his stable, a large chunk of the Taijitu's midsection then froze in a violent flash, shattering like concrete and sailing past everyone as Weiss' father snarled furiously at the reaper girl. Everyone jumped with alarm at the sudden intrusion, and were stunned silent until Glassen Schnee dashed forward and angrily brought a frozen greatsword down on Ruby, the girl managing to block at the last possible moment with her scythe's shaft.
"Y-You...! How did you...?"
"It appears I have missed the memo about a celebration," he uttered in a dark tone. "Since when did you all assume that I was to be dispatched so easily? You should be ashamed..."
"RUBY!"
As Weiss brought herself closer to intervene, her father saw fit to summon forth a strong, frosty gale below their feet, swiftly propelling all three of them up and away from everyone around them, sending them flying towards the rooftop of the same recreation building that housed their fight from before, now plenty ruined on one wing.
"Ruby! Weiss!" Jaune called out, as he and many of his comrades prepared to give chase and help their friends...
"That won't be necessary, Mister Arc."
From up above them all, in the same tree where Ruby and Weiss once sat in, stood a very relaxed Headmaster sipping away at his mug of coffee.
"H-Headmaster?!" cried out a very livid Goodwitch. "What are you doing here, you should be in the infirmary after what that you just went through!"
"Calm yourself, Glynda. Everyone as well, put down your arms..." He had to wait until everyone did, except for... "Miss Valkyrie, please put down your actual arms..."
"Tee-hee~!"
Nora put her limbs down, letting the Headmaster continue. "I'm glad to see so many of you committed to the cause, and it makes me proud, but for now we need to trust in the power that both Ruby and Weiss hold." Ozpin closed his eyes, adjusting his glasses and preempting a few complaints as he said, "Do not fret, we will intervene when it is deemed necessary. As much as it is very likely that we can overtake him, this is something that they need to handle themselves... After all, overcoming personal challenges can only make them better for it, I'm sure you would all agree."
Everyone looked to be in agreement, save for his beleaguered assistant, who just shook her head, and Team CRDL, who were still
He took another sip of his coffee, looking peaceful until he glared intensely from behind his lenses. "Bartholomew, Peter, Glynda... Surround the building in every cardinal direction, take some of our capable audience with you, and let no one unwelcome through. We will mete out punishment for that man, no matter what the outcome! I will personally see to his downfall if he prevails..."
Onlookers, personnel, and friends all agreed: the most they could do at this point was to sit on the sidelines, supporting those who are currently locked in battle and hoping for Ruby and Weiss' safety. However, precisely none of themwill hesitate to jump right in if need be.
"After all, the villains are not the only ones with the right to play unfair! Isn't that right, Milady?"
Confused as to who Ozpin was referring to as "Milady", none of them were prepared to see what was practically a white-haired meteorite crash-landing just a few feet away from Beacon's top Hunter, hitting the ground with a surprisingly light thud and slowly getting to her feet as she discarded her headwear with a shiver...
"Eugh, remind me to bundle up a little more before attempting cross-regional flight ever again..."
A/N: So this turned out much longer than I thought, so I split it up into two chapters. There you go.
Am I going to make it to Christmas after all?! :D It's up in the air.
See you soon?