A/N: Annnnd we're back.

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As an elite Specialist of the Atlesian Armed Forces, Winter Schnee had always prided herself on being able to fulfill her mission, no matter the obstacle in her way. The last obstacle that she had ever expected to face, however, was the sheer staggering incompetence of one of her fellow Atlesian officers, an incompetence only exacerbated by the diminutive woman's intractable stubbornness. Winter fumed quietly as the troupe, now with the addition of one old woman who claimed to have "ideas", made its way back to Arc's sisters' place. Weiss cheerily stepped by her sister's side as they walked down the snowy avenues of Argus.

Winter's sister, her pride and joy, the light of her life, was very much not helping her bad mood, giggling as she cheerfully replayed the video of the incident on her Scroll. "Such language, sister!" the little cretin admonished, scandalized eyes wide with faux-innocence. Winter wasn't fooled for a moment; she'd heard her sister's friends whispering about her nocturnal exploits with Arc. Her sister was far more worldly than she let on. The soldier tried hard to keep her growing headache under control as Weiss just.

Kept.

Talking!

Make no mistake, Winter loved Weiss dearly. She would kill on her behalf, and had. But with that being said, she just couldn't help wondering just how lenient her orders to present Weiss "alive and unharmed" could be as it pertained to, say, throwing the brat off a cliff. She had Aura and summons, she'd be fine. Weiss had fallen from a much greater height, after all. And look, there was water and everything at the bottom! A little unscheduled swim would shut the girl up something proper, and if Arc complained about it, she could toss him off a cliff too.

Friggin' romance.

"How exactly does one… monger for that particular commodity?" Weiss continued analyzing her earlier outburst in excruciating detail. "Is that how you met Qrow?" she gasped.

"Silence, you boob!" Without thinking, Winter lashed out and slapped her sister upside the head. The two sisters came to an abrupt halt and stared at each other, eyes wide in mutual shock. Oh, Winter had struck her sister before, clouting her with the hilt of her sword, punching her, throwing her to the ground, playing fetch with Beowulves… but those had all been training exercises. Never before had she lashed out at Weiss out of anger. The younger woman wasn't physically hurt, of course, but the emotion behind the act…

Winter struggled to form an apology, her voice catching in her throat. Before she could work it out, Ruby Rose caught up to them. The young redheaded girl chuckled as she rubbed the spot on Weiss's head that Winter had slapped. "Heh. Boob." With that, she swept up Weiss and the two carried on, the white-haired girl much more subdued.

"Hey, you all right?" Qrow's raspy voice sounded wearier than normal, the strain of withdrawal making itself known.

"I…" Winter shook her head. "I cannot believe I just did that."

"What, smacking the princess? That can't have been the first time."

"But it was!" Winter wailed. "I'm the worst sister in the world."

Qrow rolled his eyes at her dramatics as he walked with her. The Ice Queen and her baby sister had more in common than they thought. "If I had a lien for every time Yang and Ruby had at each other, I could retire early. Smacking each other, slapping each other, pulling hair… and that was before Semblances came into it."

"What? But they seem so close…"

"They are so close," Qrow said. "And sometimes, siblings fight. Becoming closer means the two of you are gonna have to learn to read each other's moods." He chuckled. "Why do you think I've been so damn quiet this morning? Never expected you to lay into that officer woman the way you did."

She shook her head. "You don't understand. Ruby and Yang grew up in a normal family… or normal enough, at any rate," she added upon seeing Qrow's skeptical expression. "With Weiss and I… our mother was absent at best, and Father…" Winter's shoulders slumped. "He was quick to criticize. Harshly. While his words were cutting enough, they would, from time to time, be accompanied by more physical rebukes. I learned how to use makeup to hide the bruises before I was ten years old. I couldn't present anything less than perfection to the outside world."

Qrow forced himself to remain silent as he struggled to keep his own temper under control. He had a very good understanding of how it was that a fairly significant portion of the world's population wanted Jacques Schnee dead. As it was, his Semblance flared wildly. Store display windows shattered as they passed, a few pipes burst in nearby buildings, and one random passerby had his jacket ignite a small fire on the hem.

"I tried to shield Weiss from the worst of it the best that I could," Winter continued, blissfully ignorant to the havoc that just broke out behind them. "She doesn't need to know how many beatings I took in her stead, especially when it became apparent that she was never going to be the perfect firstborn son that he demanded."

That broke Qrow out of his growing anger. "Son?" He asked, his expression genuinely puzzled.

Winter cocked an eyebrow. "I already told Weiss is… you never looked up what 'transgender' means, did you?" The soldier's expression went flat at the realization.

"Uh…"

"Weiss was born a boy, you dolt," Winter explained in a low tone. Qrow, the dim bulb over his head flickering as it struggled to light, looked ahead to where the girl in question was speaking with her friends.

"... Really?"

"Yes. Really." Winter rolled her eyes.

Qrow still seemed skeptical. "You sure?"

"Oh, for crying out loud, yes! Just… keep it to yourself, Qrow. The only reason I told you is because it's important to explain why our father wants her dead. Beyond that, she is every bit the young woman that you've seen."

"...Huh. How'd you pull off hiding that from the old man?"

"It wasn't easy. I ended up taking custody of Weiss, explaining it as her needing treatment for a behavioral disorder. I think that Jacques intended to disinherit her right then and there. But… I could protect Weiss, but only by giving up on Whitley. I abandoned him to save her. And even then, when I grew older and started… developing, the punishments became charged, more humiliating. He… he started looking at me in a way no father should look at his daughter. I lost my nerve, and ran to the military as soon as I could. In the end, I abandoned them both, just like our mother."

Qrow put his arm around her. "Hey, look, you were just a kid. No big sister should have to try and figure out how to protect her siblings from their own parents, especially when she's at risk herself. It isn't your fault"

Winter reached up and dabbed a tear from her eye. She stared at the damp spot on a glove, finding her hand curling into a fist on its own accord. "For so long, it was just me against the world, with Weiss needing me. She's my sister, but I'm the one who raised her. Me. I take pride in her accomplishments. Her joy is my joy. Gods, if that Arc boy hadn't been able to save her at Haven, I don't know what I would have done. I did everything save for birthing her from my own body. She's more a daughter than a sister to me, and how do I treat her? I slap her around, just like our father would have."

"Hey!" Qrow came to a halt, his hands gripping Winter firmly on the shoulders. "You are not like your father. I doubt Old Man Schnee ever gave more'n a second's thought about how he treats his kids, the piece 'a shit. He certainly wouldn't have gone through a moral crisis over smacking her upside the head once in her entire life." He saw her look forlornly down and to the side. "You lost your temper. It happens. Hell, given everything you told me today, I'm shocked you don't lose it more often. All that means is that you need to be aware of it so you can fix it."

Winter crossed her arms as they arrived outside the Arc estate, contemplating her actions. She had been having trouble keeping her emotions in check that entire morning. She'd never really considered herself to be an emotional person before - there was a reason that everyone naturally gravitated towards calling her Ice Queen - but clearly, she needed to do some work to recognize and compensate for such innate characteristics.

"...Thank you, Qrow." She looked at him as he released her from his grip.

"Anytime, Snowbird. Just give yourself some time to cool down and then go talk to the princess. I'm sure she'll want to apologize too, probably more than you. It'll be fine."

"Well," she coughed. "Just so long as Arc doesn't get the idea that he can strike her as well. The first time he does is the last time he'll have hands."

"Unless she's into that sort of thing," Qrow offered with a smirk.

Winter pulled a face of disgust. "Why did you have to bring that up?"

"Because I'm a puckish and lovable rogue?"

"You're an ass, is what you are," she said, but it lacked heat. Qrow reached over to her, tentatively at first, and when she failed to snap at him, he put an arm around her shoulder to pull her into a hug. Winter thought that she really should put a stop to it, but another part of her remembered what Weiss had told her about her own relationship. When one was weak, the other was strong. That part of her wondered if it would really be so bad if she could indulge in just a little weakness, just as a test.

She let herself be lost in the warmth of his embrace. Qrow was lean, but solid and dense as she wrapped her arms around him. The stubble on his face scritched when she nuzzled against him. When Remnant failed to implode, she decided to allow herself just a little more time to -

"Wow. One punch in the morning, and they're a loving couple by lunchtime. Weiss, can we borrow you for a bit? Jaune and I have a little sister whose having some boy problems."

Upon hearing the Arc woman's observation from the porch, Winter gasped, let go of Qrow, and stepped back so quickly that she almost fell. She felt Qrow's calloused hand grip hers tight, holding her upright. He shot her a cheeky little wink, which was, of course, the exact moment that his Semblance chose to kick in. Qrow slipped, falling ass-over-teakettle. This, of course, sent Winter to the ground as well, and they both ended up in an undignified heap in front of the Arc wives' house.

Winter heard a slight tapping from the little old woman's cane as she stepped over to her, peering at the pair of them on the ground with her goggles making a slight mechanical whir.

"This is what passes for professional Huntsmen these days, hmm? It's a wonder we've yet to be devoured by the Grimm!" She punctuated her observation by jabbing Qrow in the leg with her cane. "Do get up, will you?" She then gave a wave towards the Cotta-Arc couple. "Hello, dearies. I take it you know these people?"

Saphron snatched up Jaune under his arms, being deterred neither by his yelp of protest nor by the fact that he was quite a good deal larger than her. She smiled widely as she held him up and forwards, presenting him in much the same manner as a child showing off a favorite puppy. "Hi, Miss Calavera! This is my little brother!"

The old woman chuckled. "Of course he is. Now, would you be so kind as to invite me inside? These old bones of mine are frozen stiff!"

[/]

"So…" Winter began as they had all assembled in the living room. "You mean to tell me that the state of the Atlas base at Argus has deteriorated to such a state that random civilians have been plotting the removal of its commander?"

"Pretty much, yeah," Terra admitted sheepishly.

Winter pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. "And you've not lodged a complaint through official channels because…?"

Saphron snorted in amusement. "Heh, 'official channels'. That's adorable. You think General Ironwood has time to listen to us? Between the CCT going down and the border being closed, we couldn't send a message even if we thought he would."

Winter crossed her arms. "I'm sure the general is doing all he can."

Saphron just waved her off. "Yeah, sure, but that doesn't change the fact that our lives are in the hands of a human divot. So me, Terra, Miss Calavera, and a few like-minded individuals are looking to get her ousted."

"About that," Jaune asked, leaning against a wall. "How exactly were you planning on running this?"

His big sister rolled her eyes at him. "C'mon, I taught you better than this. Our plans changed the minute you told us Cordovin wasn't going to just let you guys through. What do we have now that we didn't have before?"

"Well, us, of course."

"And we need you because…"

"Because the General will listen to us," Jaune finished. "Or more specifically, her," he corrected, pointing at Winter.

"And if she can't go through 'official means'," Saphron led him on, making exaggerated finger quotes that had Winter straining to keep from grinding her teeth.

"Then we need to get her there unofficially. That means, we just need to steal an Atlas airship and fly there directly!"

"Ta-daa!" Saphron held out her hand to high-five her brother. Winter looked back and forth between the two siblings, appalled.

"I can't believe you're teaching your younger brother to break the law!" She finally sputtered.

"Don't be silly," Saphron admonished the Atlesian woman. "I've already taught him how to break the law. More importantly, I've taught him when and why he may need to break it."

"But why, though?"

"Well, sometimes you need to be a little shifty to get things done. I'll have you know, I used to be a damn fine thief, con artist, and general ne'er-do-well."

"Than how is it that I have never heard of you before now?"

Saphron rolled her eyes. "Because unlike that idiot Torchwick, I'm actually good at it. He was just a thug with a hat, no appreciation for the true artistry of bad behavior." Saphron shrugged. "Since meeting my lovey Terra, though, I've settled down. She's got me on the straight and narrow. Well, the narrow, anyway," she said with an exaggerated wink. "Last job I did before this one was helping Jaune with some forged entry papers to Beacon. Been legit ever since."

Winter's jaw dropped. "I… I don't even know where to start with this. Weiss, did you know about this?"

Weiss shrugged, sheepishly. "About the con artist stuff or the Jaune's transcript stuff? Because the answer is yes to both."

Winter's eye twitched dangerously as she rounded on her sister's fiancee. "And you!" Winter pointed an accusing finger at Jaune.

"Me?" He asked, pointing to himself, the very picture of innocence.

"How do I know that anything about you is real? Why would you even need to fake an entry into Beacon anyway? Your skills are sufficient, and your Semblance an extraordinary asset."

Jaune coughed awkwardly. "Well, I, uh… kinda didn't have any training before Beacon. At all."

"Don't lie to me," Winter said dangerously. "I've seen you in action, and you hold your own amongst some of the greatest students of your generation."

Whatever response Winter had been expecting, it wasn't for a round of amused and awkward snickers. "You obviously never saw Vomit Boy fight back at Beacon," Yang offered. "He never won a single match in combat class. It was an open question as to what was gonna kill him first, the class or Miss Goodwitch."

Winter blinked. "You mean to tell me that you were a completely untrained civilian, and have heretofore faked your way into success as a Huntsman?"

Jaune just scratched the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, I mean, I wouldn't have stood a chance without Pyrrha, Weiss, and everyone else helping me along the way, but… yeah, that's kinda exactly what I did."

"Do you… that is… have you any notion how extraordinarily stupid that is?!" Winter sputtered. "Not to mention you've made a mockery of the Academy system, the Huntsmen as a whole, and I'm positive that you've broken at least a half-dozen major laws pertaining to your identity…"

"And it's a good thing that he did," Weiss interjected, gently - and cautiously - placing a hand on her sister's shoulder. "If he hadn't done what he had, then he wouldn't have been in a position to unlock his Semblance at Haven. Without him and his Semblance, then I wouldn't be here today."

Saphron piped up. "What does it say about the Academy system itself that my baby brother, with less than a year of formal training, can go out and literally fake it till he makes it? Is he just that good, or are your training methods at those big fancy schools just that bad?"

"Jaune's always been a noodle," Ruby added, to Saphron's amusement. "But he's always been our loyal friend. During our entire time as Team RWBY, there was never any doubt that if we needed help, JNPR would be there, with Jaune leading the way."

Ren pushed himself off of the wall on which he had been leaning. "He was never the strongest in a straight-up fight with another Huntsman, but Jaune has always fought tooth and nail to improve himself. Moreover, there has never been any doubt in our mind that he has our best interests at heart."

"It's why he's our Fearless Leader," Nora joined in. "If nothing else, you've got to admire the sheer nerts it took to start fighting Grimm as soon as his Aura was unlocked. People think I'm crazy, but I've got nothing on our Jaune-Jaune."

"Have I told you just how proud I am of you?" Saphron asked her brother, clearly touched by the glowing terms in which his friends spoke of him.

"I think you re-broke one of my ribs hugging me," he snarked.

Winter's sigh brought all eyes back to her. "Even if I concede that he may have had the best of intentions in doing so, that does not change the fact that he broke the law, and his sister is now asking the same of us. Do you really think that you can just break laws at will without consequence?"

To her frustration, the assorted cadets just shrugged at each other, indicating that, yes, they did truly believe such a thing. "Do you mean to tell me that you've all been breaking laws this entire time?"

Blake spoke up first. "I mean, there was the whole White Fang thing…"

"I once trashed a nightclub because the owner called me 'sweetheart.'"

"We were orphans and needed to eat."

"People think that I hold Nora back, when in truth, it's the other way around."

At that, all of his friends snapped their attention to Lie Ren.

"It's true," Nora sighed. "Without me around, he tends to stock up on sake and bullets and go on wild rampages. He once took out most of the Red Axe gang when I got the flu back at Beacon."

"Wait, that's where he went off to that one time?" Jaune asked.

"Those cheap suits light up real nice when you throw alcohol at them first," Ren answered, as his friends continued to stare at him as if truly seeing him for the first time.

After an awkward pause to process that, Winter then turned to her sister. "Sister, surely you've been able to avoid such felonious behavior."

Weiss coughed delicately. "During my flight from Atlas, I may have engaged in some… incendiary misadventures targeting Father's Dust storehouses. And a transport or two."

In almost desperate hope, Winter then looked to the two youngest of the cadets, Ruby Rose and Oscar Pine. Surely, these youthful, innocent souls would never have -

"You know, I think we technically broke some rules about accepting Huntsmen contracts when Team RNJR was travelling through Anima," Ruby mused. "But we ended up helping a lot of people, so I think it evened out in the end.

"I kinda didn't actually pay for the train ride that took me to Mistral," Oscar admitted.

She looked over at Qrow, who didn't even bother trying to look guilty. "Hey, you knew what I was when you hooked up with me."

Winter just threw her arms up in despair. "Children. I don't know what sort of irresponsible role models you've had before - "

"Pretty much just you," Weiss muttered. Winter, in the interests of not smacking her sister for a second time that day, opted to ignore that comment and carry on.

"- But I really must stress how important it is to remain within the bounds of legal behavior. Thus far, you have all been extraordinarily lucky that those in power have either been disinclined to prosecute you for your actions or else too distracted to have noticed them. That state of affairs cannot continue indefinitely. Most of you are now legally adults, and can be held to account as such. For your own sakes, I really must insist that we proceed in a manner that will keep us, all of us, out of a prison cell."

"Didn't you straight-up kill that guy that threatened Weiss?" Yang pointed out.

"I had leave to do so as part of my mandate from General Ironwood," Winter retorted. "That was just an instance in which my duty as a soldier coincided with my role as a sister. As such, I will not come under legal scrutiny. That's what I'm trying to get across to you all. We are all ultimately accountable, and you must learn to work within the systems in place, or else they will work against you."

"Ironwood isn't accountable," Saphron pointed out.

Winter frowned. "The General works for the good of the people of Atlas."

"Sure," Saphron shrugged. "But who does he answer to?"

"...Atlas is governed by a ruling council," Winter slowly began, already knowing where this was going.

"On which the good general holds not one but two seats," Saphron finished. "So in the instance of Atlesian law, it basically comes down to seeking Ironwood's favor. He's pretty much King in all but name at this point."

"The General has no interest in ruling," Winter argued.

"He sure issues a lot of edicts for someone who doesn't want to rule," riposted Saphron. "The point is, there aren't a whole lot of legal avenues to getting you and the kids into Atlas, because he closed it off, and he isn't interested in talking. Not to us, anyway. We could try getting the Mayor of Argus to lodge a complaint with the Council, but they aren't listening to her anymore than the rest of us. But if you're with the kids, suddenly it goes from random cadets hijacking a military vehicle to a trusted Specialist…. Hey, what's that word when someone important steals something but it doesn't count as stealing?"

"Commandeering," Weiss answered helpfully.

"Thank you. Point is, there's a world of difference between hijacking and commandeering, and you're the only one that can make that difference. Your involvement can keep the kids out of a cell, and really, it's the only feasible way to get to Atlas. Unless you were planning on trying to hike across Solitas on foot?" Saphron finished with a raised eyebrow.

Winter glared at Saphron.

Saphron stared back.

Winter held her gaze.

Winter let out a sigh of defeat.

Saphron smiled. "Well now," she said brightly, clapping her hands together. "Let's get ready for a heist!"

"Why wouldn't that mean old commander lady just let Winter in?" Nora wondered.

"Ol' Cordovin's got a real ego problem," the old woman, Maria, piped in. "She's insecure about her position, her abilities, and her age, and so tends to lord her authority over others. When this gal here showed up, well, she got nervous, but also saw an opportunity. Between that and the rumors, I don't think she could have resisted?"

"What rumors?" Winter asked, frowning.

"Ah. Well, to hear tell from some of the off-duty Atlas soldiers, they say that you and old Ironwood have more than your typical mentor-student relationship."

Winter groaned in exasperation. Those rumors had been flying far and fast since her first days out of the Atlas Academy. Winter wasn't blind to the implications of her family name, and given her physical beauty, it came as no surprise that others would come to salubrious conclusions about the nature of her relationship with Ironwood. Truthfully, there had been times, at the beginning of her service, when she had wondered if her name had paved the way for her career. As she had come to know Ironwood as a person, though, she had come to realize that he valued personal loyalty above all else in his subordinates.

As for the perceived romantic entanglement? Well, Winter had been one of the very few subordinates close enough to Ironwood to share a drink with the man as he went on and on about the many laudable qualities of one Glynda Goodwitch. Maybe, just maybe, Winter may have wished that a man would sing her praises with the unrestricted sincerity with which a slightly inebriated James Ironwood had spoken of the famously stern teacher, but she had never felt any sort of desire for that man to be her surrogate father figure. She was also sure that Ironwood felt the same way towards her.

"People have been spreading lies about me for as long as I've been a soldier," Winter said. "It comes with being young, female, and physically above average."

"Above average' she says," Saphron snickered. Terra elbowed her wife in the rib.

Qrow scratched at the stubble on his jaw. "Do you think it's possible these rumors are kicking up again because of your old man? He could be looking to stir up trouble."

"If that's the extent of his reach against me, then he must have fallen far indeed," Winter shrugged. "Still, I suppose it is possible. So, do you think this Cordovin believes these rumors and is… what, jealous of me?" she asked Maria.

"Fits with the pattern I've seen," the old woman answered.

"This is easily the most outrageously stupid situation in which I have ever been entangled," Winter groaned.

"So… revenge?" Saphron began, her smile widening.

[/]

A few hours later, the group adjourned, to get some rest and prepare dinner. As Jaune made to follow his sister into the kitchen, Weiss tugged on his sleeve.

"Hmm?"

Weiss popped onto her toes and kissed him on his cheek. "Smooch tax," she explained. "Now go on."

Jaune retaliated by planting a quick smooch of his own on her forehead. "Payback smooch," he smirked, before dancing out of her reach, stepping away with a jaunty salute and a smile. Weiss watched him join his sister, but her own smile dropped as she heard her Winter clear her throat behind her.

"Weiss, we need to talk."

With a nod and a pensive, reflexive gulp, Weiss followed her sister upstairs and into a small bedroom. Winter strode over to the sole window in the room and gazed out over the snowy streets of Argus. Weiss remained at the door as the silence stretched, bringing an increasingly unbearable weight upon the pair.

Just when Weiss could take the oppressive silence no more and opened her mouth to speak, Winter spoke first.

"Sister, I feel I must apologize for what happened this morning."

Weiss blinked. Why was Winter apologizing? "No, I should apologize. I was having fun poking you, and I never stopped to consider your feelings."

"Irrespective of that, I should not have struck you."

"Winter, sisters hit each other all the time. Ruby and Yang -"

"Are not like you and I, and you know it," interrupted Winter.

"You might be surprised by how much mothering Yang had to do for her own sister."

"Somehow I doubt that it is fully comparable, given the close age between them. They were able to switch into something more closely approximating a typical sisterly relationship, and I fear that that may prove more difficult for us."

Weiss looked to the floor for a moment. When she looked back up, Winter had turned to face her, her expression clearly betraying both emotional turmoil and her effort to try and hide it from view. Of their own volition, Weiss's feet carried her towards her sister, and she hurled herself into Winter's arms without a second's hesitation.

Winter's heart caught in her throat as she caught Weiss in her arms. Somewhere along the line, her sister had learned to love fully, even recklessly, with as much gleeful abandon as she had just shown to her. Winter wondered if she would ever be able to love the way Weiss had learned to. The only way to find out would be to start with the truth.

"Weiss… I have always been so very proud of you. And afraid for you. And… I've never wondered what it would be like to have children of my own, because there's always been you. I just… I would claim you in an instant. Your triumphs are my own. Your setbacks are mine as well. When I see how happy and strong you've become, I feel such fierce joy, and it… It's such a selfish thing. To see you bold and proud, and think 'that's my girl.'"

Weiss said nothing as she continued to cling to her sister, so Winter continued. "So today… I lost my temper. Completely and utterly, and repeatedly, for that matter. I struck you out of anger and irritation. Weiss, it made me feel sick to realize what I'd done. I hit you to silence you, just as our father would have done."

Now Weiss did speak up. "You're not like him," she said. "He never cared. Not for you, not for me, not for our mother. For him, contempt was his natural state. With you, I pushed and provoked. I just… I always saw you as this constant figure, and it never occurred to me that your patience with me could run out. I took you for granted, like I always have done, and I'm sorry." She tightened her grip on Winter. "And if it makes you feel better, when the others talk about their mothers, the only way I can really relate is through my relationship with you. I don't know where that puts us, but I'm willing to work with you to figure it out."

With that, they separated. "I'll… work on getting my temper under better control," Winter stated, with the awkwardness seeping in once more.

"Yang might be able to help with that. She used to be a literal hothead. And I'll make sure to keep in mind that you're a person with your own faults and limits."

"Forgive me?" both sisters asked at the same time, which caused the tension to break. Weiss giggled behind her hand as Winter just rolled her eyes.

"By the way, don't let that boyfriend of yours lay a hand on you. If he does and I find out, I'll physically punt him from here to Vacuo," warned Winter.

"I might ask him to try, but I don't think he'd be comfortable getting that rough with me," Weiss said before realizing just what she'd said and worse, who she'd said it to, covering her mouth in mortified shock.

The awkward silence came roaring back in full force as Winter did her level best to bleach her brain through the force of sheer willpower.

"...Thanks for the sex ed lessons?" Weiss offered hesitantly.

"I've done something," Winter decided. "I've done something positively horrible that has somehow slipped my mind, something that justifies the unspeakable horror that the Brothers have opted to punish me with…" her eyes widened as her words sparked a realization within her.

Weiss tilted her head in curiosity at the sudden change in demeanor that had taken over her sister. "Winter? What is it?"

"We need to gather once more. Just the Huntsmen crew, none of the civilians. There is something truly important that you and Jaune need to know before we continue, something the rest of us discovered while you were lost in the mountains."

"Really? What could that be?"

"Would you believe 'everything?'"

[/]

"Heh. That one girl called you a noodle."

Jaune paused in his task of chopping up green onions to look up and stick out his tongue in Saphron's general direction. "I'm not a noodle," he whined.

"Well, it beats 'Vomit Boy.'" Saphron carried on. "Seriously, how many times did you hurl around your friends for that to become a thing."

"It was just the one time!" he protested. "Though… they do still think it was motion sickness."

She arched an eyebrow at him. "Motion sickness? Really?"

"Well, you know, couldn't exactly greet new people with 'Hello, my name is Jaune, and I'm so incredibly nervous about faking my way in here that I'mma just go puke on your shoes now. Tends to be a real deal breaker."

On the other side of the kitchen, the blonde woman paused. "Jaune, about what that woman said today… do you think I'm a bad sister?"

"What?!" Jaune nearly dropped the knife in shock. "No way! You're the best!"

"Still… you could have got in trouble. Big trouble, and it would have been all my fault."

"Hey, you remember what you told me, right? The biggest rewards come with the biggest risks. Yeah, I could've gone to jail, or been trampled to death by the Grimm, or launched across time and space by Miss Goodwitch - " he shivered as he remembered the particularly exasperated expression on his teacher's face during Combat Class. "But if you hadn't helped me, I never would have met Weiss or Pyrrha or any of my friends. I would've been a completely different person. A much lesser person."

Saphron frowned. "Still, you should think about what she said. And it's dangerous out there too. Are you… are you sure you're going to be okay? Whatever took out Beacon has Ironwood spooked, and knowing you, you're running headlong at it."

Jaune shook his head. "I'm not gonna lie… it is dangerous. But it's also important. And crazy. Maybe one day, I'll be able to tell you all about it. Even so… we lost Pyrrha. And I almost… I almost lost Weiss too. As dangerous as this mission is, I'd never forgive myself if something happened and I wasn't there. But if we work together, we can make a real difference. For everyone."

She gave her brother a sad little smile. "I feel safer already, Huntsman," she said. She turned back to the counter and picked up the tray of fish fillets that she had prepared, sliding them into the oven to bake. "Well, I'm sure Mom and Dad will be very proud too. By the way, they'll be here tomorrow."

"What?!"

"Oh," Saphron noted as she stood up and set the timer on the fish. "Probably should have led with that. Yeah, turns out Dad can move real fast when he calls some favors in."

Jaune gulped audibly. "Did you… did you tell them about Weiss?"

"What, and deprive you of the glorious joy of breaking the news to Mom that her one and only baby boy is getting married? What sort of sister do you take me for?"

"Whelp, I'm dead," Jaune moaned. "Wait. You do know that we're going to be, you know, casing the base and prepping for the heist tomorrow, right?"

Saphron snorted in derision. "Oh, please, I've been plotting rings around Dad my whole life, it'll be fine. You just think of how you're going to convince Mom not to murder you, Noodle Man."

Jaune just groaned once more. "I'm not a noodle."

"Of course you're a noodle!"

The siblings turned to see Ruby Rose at the entrance of the kitchen. She had her most brilliant, innocent smile on her face, and Jaune didn't buy it for a second.

"Mrs. Arrrrc?" she began, her tone even higher and more youthful than normal. "I was just wondering if-"

"No cookies before dinner," Jaune interjected, well aware of her ploy. Ruby pulled a face.

"You don't know that that was what I was gonna ask for!"

Jaune just folded his arms across his chest and squinted at her.

"Well… it could have been something else!" she argued.

Her friend and former partner in Team RNJR just continued to stare incredulously at her, so Ruby opted to turn her megawatt smile and huge shining eyes on his sister. "I mean… maybe just one cookie wouldn't be so bad?"

Saphron just grunted, opened up a cabinet and literally tossed a chocolate chip cookie at Ruby as if she were a dog with a biscuit. "Here, take it, just quit being adorable at me!"

"Yay! Thank you, Jaune's sister!" Ruby clutched her prize to her chest and dashed out of the room.

"You caved," Jaune teased his sister.

"Ugh, I know! It's a good thing you and your friends aren't staying longer, or I'd end up adopting all of them. They're all just so damn cute!"

"What's this about adopting?" As if summoned by magical forces, Terra practically materialized in the kitchen, balancing baby Adrian on her hip. Saphron slumped and tossed her head back in exasperation.

"Ugh, Terra, babe, we've been over this. No even thinking about new kids for at least another year, okay? I was just talking about Jaune's little friends, and how Mom's gonna snatch them all up for her own."

Jaune snickered as he peeled carrots into the large bowl of salad he was making. "Yeah, that's a total lie. She was feeling more maternal again. Confessed and everything. Once we're gone, you should strike while the iron's still hot."

His sister pointed an accusing finger at him. "You're a bad person, and should feel bad."

"Yeah well, I had your example to look to."

"But seriously, it wouldn't be so bad," Terra began, as Saphron just banged her head lightly against the refrigerator. "We could at least fill out the preliminary paperwork so that we're ready in case there's a situation where some poor child needs a family and it just clicks, so then little Adrian will have a brother and sister!"

"Don't you mean or sister?" Saphron asked.

"I know what I said."

Jaune just smiled as he listened to his sister and her baby-fevered wife. It was all so refreshingly normal, no magical curses or relics of ancient gods, just the family concerns of a young couple deciding on how many kids to have. If he fought hard, fought smart, and got a little luck along the way, that could be him and Weiss one day. He wondered if he would be the one pressing for more kids, or the one saying that they'd had enough. He supposed it depended on how many children, exactly, Weiss would want to adopt.

Of course, jumping right into parenthood wouldn't be a wise move. As it was, when all of this was over - assuming they were still alive - and he and Weiss settled down somewhere permanently, he was totally going to take her to rescue a dog. He grinned to himself as he imagined how she'd react to that notion. Just one more reason to keep himself and his friends alive.

Speaking of his fiancee, he felt slender little Weiss arms wrap around his torso. She clutched tightly to him from behind.

"Hi."

"Hey, Weiss. Things okay with your sister?"

"Fair enough, I suppose. She has something she needs to tell us, Huntsmen only. I told her we would meet up after dinner."

"Huh. Well, I'm sure it's nothing too major." He moved to bring the bowl of salad and a plate of dinner rolls over to the dining room table, but Weiss still clung on to his back. "Are you gonna let go or what?"

"Hmm…" Weiss pretended to think it over. "I choose 'what.'" She held onto him, feet dangling off the floor as he started clunking along the way.

"Hey, whatcha got there, Jaune?" Saphron called after him, clearly amused.

"Oh, that's just my Weisspack. Muscles were feeling stiff."

Weiss let go with an exaggerated gesture, her feet hitting the ground with a little clacking sound. "Yang's a bad influence on you," she accused.

Jaune shrugged. "You're probably right. Oh, by the way, how would you like to meet my parents? They're going to be here tomorrow."

She froze. "Eh?"

"Yeah, took me by surprise too. Saph says they're on their way with a quickness. They, ah, they don't know about you yet, so I figured that if you needed some more time, I could cover for you."

Weiss chewed her bottom lip. "It wouldn't do to leave you to deal with your parents on your own. If nothing else, boldly presenting myself as your chosen wife-to-be might even earn some favor for courage."

He nodded. "Okay, fair enough. Just thought I'd give you the choice."

"Thank you. You're a good noodle."

"I'm not a noodle!"

[/]

Winter sat across from Qrow. He was too proud to ask, and she wasn't going to make him beg. Spare him a little dignity. Between them sat a glass, half-filled with water. Winter brought out a flask of her own, newly purchased and filled, then added wine to the water.

"Drink it," she said, holding the glass out to him.

A shaky hand took it from her grip. A moment later, a slightly steadier one set the empty glass back down.

[/]

After a lovely dinner - and Blake's high praise of the lemon-pepper salmon - the Huntsmen politely said their goodnights and the Arc-Cotta family went upstairs. Weiss and Jaune sat together on a couch, next to Ren and Nora, while the others stood or sat in a semicircle around them, with Oscar hanging back a few feet away.

"So," Weiss began. "What's this important talk that we need to have?"

After a series of meaningful glances, the group came to the consensus that Ruby should take the lead. "When you two were lost in the mountains… well, some things came to light. About Ozpin, about the Relics, and about… Salem."

Weiss and Jaune shared a look and sat up straighter. "What did you find out?"

Ruby fidgeted. "Ozpin had been… not as open as we would have liked."

"You don't say," Jaune muttered bitterly.

"First, he didn't tell us that the Relic of Truth that we retrieved can attract Grimm," Ruby continued. "After that, I… I used the Relic to ask what Ozpin was hiding. There was a magical blue lady in the lamp, and she showed us things."

Unnoticed by all in the room, Maria Calvera quietly sat up from where she had fallen asleep in a chair in a corner of the living room.

"Ozpin is old," explained Ruby. "Like, real old. He was a knight named Ozma, and he rescued Salem, who was a human at the time. They had magic, like the sort of real magic that Ozpin gave to Uncle Qrow, only waaaay more powerful. But as powerful as they were, they weren't immortal, so when Ozma died, Salem went to the Brothers - the actual gods, the Brothers - and demanded that they bring him back. Long story short, Salem took a dip in a pool that made her a Grimm, Ozma started his reincarnation mambo, and the Brothers kinda sorta killed everyone else. Like, all the people."

Silence reigned, broken only by the sip of water that Ruby took to moisten her throat. "So… the gods tried again, made more humans, and eventually Faunus too. But Salem and Ozma had children together, four daughters, inheriting a big chunk of Ozma's powers. They were the first Maidens. Ozma and Salem… fell out. They fought, and the girls were killed in the crossfire. But just like Ozma, they kept coming back, sort of, with their Aura binding to other young women throughout history. The gods had left, but they left the Relics. Ozma had been charged with uniting all the people of the world together, and bring the Relics together to summon them back. But if the gods come back and don't like what they see… they'll kill us all. Again."

"Here's the punchline," Qrow picked up after Ruby fell quiet. "All this time, and Ozpin never had a plan for how to beat Salem. He even asked the Relic lady too, asked her how he could do it, and she told him he can't. This shadow war of ours has been goin' on since long before I was born, and it'll be goin' on long after I'm dead and gone."

"Jaune?" Weiss looked over at her fiance, who was trembling in rage.

"Well?" Jaune shot to his feet, glaring down at Oscar. "You got anything to say for yourself?!"

"Since the confrontation in the mountains, Ozpin… hasn't been speaking." Oscar looked very small at Jaune's feet. "Not to me, not to anyone."

"Oh, and we're supposed to buy that?" Jaune stepped forward, making Oscar step back out of reflex. "He dragged Pyrrha into this with no plan beyond the next delay. He used her, used all of us, just like the pawns he had us fetch in the Emerald Forest! I bet that was a real laugh, huh, telling us exactly what we are to you. He never gave a damn about Pyrrha, and now that we're in a position to call him on his lies, he's hiding?" He reached out and grabbed Oscar by the shirt, lifting him off the ground and pinning him against a wall.

"Jaune!" Weiss stood up as well, moving to pull him off of the smaller boy.

"How do we know there's even anything left of Oscar in there?!" Jaune ranted. "He was just another piece for Ozpin to use, like the rest of us!"

"Jaune!" He felt Weiss's small hands on his shoulders, straining to physically pull him off of Oscar. Jaune stopped, his jaw going slack as he took in just where he was and what he was doing. He was a trained, Aura-awakened Huntsman, using his size and strength to slam around someone younger, smaller, and weaker than himself.

In that moment, Jaune had become a bully.

Almost mechanically, the young knight released his grip on Oscar's shirt, letting the boy drop to the ground as he staggered backwards. The back of Jaune's knees hit the couch and he collapsed into it, overwhelmed by the weight of the revelations and the guilt and disgust at his own actions.

Weiss remained standing as Oscar straightened out his shirt. "These revelations are troubling, to say the least," she said, addressing her friends. "I… we will need to consider what they mean in terms of our mission. But be that as it may, that doesn't mean that Ozpin deserves to be abused."

"Are you forgetting that we had a deal?" Yang asked, her voice bitter. "We risk our lives on his crusade, he comes clean. He couldn't even tell us that the damn lamp attracts Grimm, let alone that our enemy can't be killed. He didn't tell us about the lamp until it was too late, and he was never going to tell us about any of the other stuff. He broke our deal. Why would you stand up for him?"

"Because he helped me when I needed it," Weiss answered. "He allowed me to enroll in Beacon as a girl, no questions asked. He helped me change how I see myself and my body, and he was unfailing in his declaration that I'm just as much a woman as any other. Without him, Jaune and I wouldn't be as close as were are today," she said, directing that last part to Jaune himself, who sat downcast on the couch. "I'm not saying that we don't have good cause to be upset, but that doesn't mean that we need to kick the man when he's down. And Oscar certainly doesn't deserve it."

The group fell quiet for a moment before Winter spoke up. "Irrespective of Ozpin's status, that doesn't change the fact that we need to plan for how, exactly, we are to conduct this campaign against Salem."

"I always kinda figured that Ozpin wanted to use my silver eyes somehow," Ruby said. "But… I don't know how to get them to work. They just kind of… flash, whenever they feel like it. I asked Ozpin about it once, but he said he didn't know how to make them work either."

"Oh, I believe I can help with that as well," an aged, but warm voice called from a corner of the living room.

Slowly, with great disbelief and mounting horror, all eyes turned to the corner where Maria sat in a chair, covered with blankets.

Qrow blinked. "You've been here the whole time, haven't you?"

"How?!" Winter demanded, though whether she was asking Maria, Qrow, or herself, none could say. "How could I have missed someone sitting right there?"

"Have you considered that you lot just aren't very good at your jobs?" Maria jabbed.

It was with some degree of frustration that Winter realized that, after having made such a hullaballoo about lawful behavior earlier that day, murdering the old lady was out of the question. "Let the record show that today was not my finest hour," the soldier groaned out.

Still, if murder was out, she might as well follow up on a potential lead. "So, what did you mean, Calvera? How would you know about silver eyes?"

"Isn't obvious?" the old woman asked with wry humor. "I used to have silver eyes."

"What… what happened to them?" Ruby asked, with evident trepidation in her tone.

And so the Grimm Reaper told her tale.

[/]

Chapter Endnotes:

This chapter, together with the previous one, form Winter's Worst Day Ever. No, uh, no need to report everything to General Ironwood, right Winter?

I've always been intrigued by the way that Winter interacted with Weiss in "Brawl in the Family." She was stilted and awkward, and was quick to pop Weiss in the head for going on and on about the statistics of her education instead of the actual details of her life. I picked up on Weiss's comments about her "very difficult childhood" in Volume 1, and wondered if part of the reason for Winter's difficulty in interacting with her sister was due to an abusive upbringing.

On the other hand, no one else seemed to see that. It's entirely possible that I'm too sensitive to that sort of thing due to my unfortunate relationship with my older brother. Eh. I'm not a therapist. We've seen more of Winter now, and I reminded myself that a lot of the odd relationship that I had her have with Weiss was my own interpretation, not canon. It's still a little jarring sometimes, which I assume is due to my ego.

But yeah, been watching Volume 7, debating what to incorporate and what to leave on the wayside. Obviously, having shot Weiss's mom in the head and kicked off open warfare in the Schnee family, the Atlas plot is going to go differently.

The "Lie Ren goes on rampages when Nora isn't around" gag came from a short story that I wrote and then lost, called "The Wrath of Ren." It featured Ren racing in illegal motorcycle street circuits, dropkicking someone through a plate glass window, the aforementioned destruction of the entire Red Axe gang, and usage of the phrase "gimmee some sugar, baby." I'm unsure whether or not its loss is a bad thing or a good thing.

I also had a little fun with Saphron's character, setting up a split between a streetwise hustler who is also a wholesome and loving wife, mother, and sister. It tied in nicely to Jaune's… let's be polite and call it "lateral thinking." Boy breaks laws like crazy, and it somehow works out for him. While the situation in Volume 7 is complicated, Winter's little filibuster came about due to me acknowledging that the cast really does have a habit of running wild without any accountability. I actually blame Ozpin for a lot of that, as their experiences at Beacon really did teach them to bend, break, or outright ignore rules and authority figures.

With that being said, I figured that, in this continuity, Ozpin had done enough for Weiss to rate her sticking up for him, even just a bit. And while Jaune may have snapped against Oscar, he's too much of a good noodle to really hold it against him for too long.

Guess what time it is? It's time for another Anonymous Comment Theatre! This one I meant to highlight last update, but I forgot. Ever forget? Happened to me. At any rate, this comment, posted back in September 2nd, simply reads "normalizing pedophilia pog."

This baffled me. In fact, it baffled me for multiple reasons, a compound baffling, if you will. First of all, every character involved in the Horizontal Mambo in this story is of age. Oscar's antsy in the manner of a fourteen-year old boy who went from a farm in the middle of nowhere to being surrounded by a half dozen gorgeous gals, but, spoiler alert, nothing's coming of that. So, not sure how I'm meant to be "normalizing pedophilia." The next baffling part of that comment is "pog." Pog. Well, unless the commenter was calling me a delicious blend of Passionfruit, Orange, and Guava juice, it's most likely that he was calling me a piece of garbage. Having accused me, in the first clause of the sentence, of abetting the worst of crimes against children, why would he then resort to the most bloodless of insults? And why then dilute it even further by turning to an acronym?

People can be weird sometimes. But, just like always, the majority of comments are reasonable, well-thought out, respectful and interested in the story, and I just love that. See you next time!

-Mahina