Note: Happy new year, everyone! And happy final year of LUBYP! At least the first Volume. We hope. God, we hope. Anyway, did you know writing is hard and frustrating? It is. Around two years ago, we started planting seeds and developing Weiss's backstory with the idea that in the future, we would be able to explore it in more detail. Well... it's the future. And we hope you enjoy.

Weiss's fingers traced against the wall as the singing led her deeper into the castle. The others were behind her, whispering worriedly as they followed her, but their words may have well been another language for how little Weiss heard them. She felt light, like walking on air, and even as every click of her boots against the ground ricocheted off the walls like gunfire, the world seemed distant. Her face was blank, and her entire body, after several minutes of exploring the mansion, had mostly gone numb, save for the very slight throbbing in her shoulder, and the sharp tense sensation that hit the back of her leg with every other step she took. The singing grew louder.

"Can't you… see inside me…"

"Hey, Weiss, maybe we should be a bit careful?" Jaune suggested. When Weiss responded, it wasn't to him.

"How long ago was that?" she asked in a whisper.

"Weiss? He's talking to you," Velvet stated. She tried to be reprimanding, but her worries about the ex-heiress's health made the comments come out empty.

"Tell me what is begged of me so that I can atone…"

Ren, trailing in the back of the group, gently tapped Nora on the shoulder. "I don't think Weiss is okay."

"No kidding," Nora muttered back. "She has to be going through a lot. Losing your big fight because of something out of your control, then watching your teammates get kidnapped by a God and then eaten by a giant frog… that has to be rough?"

"Do you think Yang is okay?"

"I mean, she was swallowed whole, so at least someone had a chance to fish her out. If Pyrrha's with them, I'm sure she got rescued."

"I wish I had your confidence," Ren shook his head.

"I wish I had confidence in my confidence," Nora agreed.

"And Ruby?"

"No clue. Hey, Weiss!" Nora shouted. Weiss didn't answer. "Weiss! What's the deal with silver eyes?"

The ex-heiress continued walking throughout the mansion unfettered until the opposite wall opened up and she stepped out into a long balcony overlooking the mansion's atrium, clean and precise and glistening like marble like the rest of the space, empty save for a chandelier and a tall statue of a knight that proudly watched over the entranceway. Her fingers traced the wall until the touched a three-dimensional structure, a protrusion in its surface. The texture was smooth and polished, and Weiss glanced up at it solemnly, taking a step into the center of the hallway to better admire it. The others, entranced by her curiosity, gazed at the thing that enraptured her. It was a portrait of her family, standing proud, her father in the center sat on a chair so prestigious it was fit for a king. Weiss stood on his left bearing a genuine smile, and Winter was behind her, a hand resting comfortably on her shoulder. Kneeling by his feet was a boy that none of them recognized, as well as an older woman by his side. She had Weiss's eyes.

"Is this your family?" Jaune asked cautiously. "I didn't know you had a brother."

Velvet smiled hesitantly. "You look so happy together."

A sneer danced on Weiss's face and then vanished. "Yeah, well… the painter took creative liberties."

"I'm sorry to hear that," Velvet sighed. Weiss kept staring at the painting.

"What do you have to be sorry for?" she asked simply. "You didn't do anything."

Velvet clasped her hands together by her waist. She wasn't usually much to prod people past the point where they were comfortable, but they were in extraordinary circumstances, and given Weiss's familiarity with their surroundings, she thought it relevant to ask. If they were going to make it out alive, she needed to know what they were dealing with. At least, that was what she told herself.

"So, this is your home," she started. "Is there any reason why you think you were brought here?"

"I don't know," Weiss answered. "I thought I'd never see this place again."

"But… it's your home," Jaune said, confused. "Why wouldn't you be able to see it?"

"Are you familiar with Atlasian culture?" Weiss said pointedly.

Jaune winced. "Not really."

"There are a few fundamental truths you have to realize when you're born in Atlas," she explained, her eyes fixated on her own image. "When you're a woman, there aren't many options for you to elevate your status. You can belong to a wealthy family, but even then, you are only ever as valuable as what has been inherited to you. My mother was given control of the Schnee Dust Company because she was the only child to my grandfather. Winter was in line for control first, and when it became clear from a young age that she was proficient in combat, the burden fell to me. And then, when Whitley was born… it was taken with the snap of my father's fingers."

"A male heir," Velvet said, closing her eyes.

"My options after that were limited," Weiss said coldly. "My father wanted to sell me off to another family. Become a bride by the age of fifteen. Form connections that could help our family legacy spread across the Kingdom. It would bring incredible honor to our name."

"But instead, you became a Huntress," said Jaune.

Weiss silently clenched her fist, her nails digging into her palm. "Honor through military service is the only other escape most women have. The Knight is the only genderless God amongst the Aspects. Under its gaze, all are equal as long as they can fight for Atlas. We have the highest percentage of women in high ranking military positions of any Kingdom in Remnant." She smirked. "Isn't that funny how that worked out?"

"But, I don't understand how that means you can never see your home again," Jaune explained. Weiss broke away from her visage and continued to walk down the hallway in solemn acceptance. The walls contained so many memories, and they could not help but flood back to her as she observed their empty surfaces.

"I was born with a… condition," she said carefully. It felt wrong confessing such a thing to people she barely knew, but the segments of her mind that would inhibit her from thinking were worn away from her failures. "It's called animanecrosis. Soul Lapse. An extremely rare birth defect that prevents proper connections from forming with a body and its Soul. It prevents me from generating an Aura. Or a Semblance. Incurable, as far as every person who has ever studied it can tell."

"That's awful," Velvet said, placing her hand to her lips in stunned disbelief. "I never even knew that existed."

"Most don't," Weiss shrugged. "When I was young, I realized that becoming a Huntress was the most… preferable option. My father realized, too. A child of Jacques Schnee should do more than produce offspring, he figured. Defending our Kingdom with my life, dying on the battlefield… there was nothing so noble as that. I was officially diagnosed at eleven. He was—"

"What did I ever do to deserve something like you?"

Weiss grimaced. "He didn't take it well. He started contacting other upper-class families, arranging potential suitors. Sons of bankers, doctors, noblemen… even some royalty. It was easy to garner interest when the daughter of a Schnee was up for grabs. Of course, he couldn't give up on his dreams of forcing me into Huntress services either. He already put too many resources into that. So, he decided to put a few more."

"A… few more?" asked Jaune. "Like… training?"

"Yeah," Weiss whispered. "Something like that."

Another vision struck her. She was on the operating table, legs strapped to the leather. Her eyes were wide open. She needed to be awake; they had to determine if she could still control herself while they were putting her back together. Injected into her body were syringes, three of them, keeping her numb and delirious. Her left arm was laid out on a small table, crowded over by a group of surgeons. The flesh was splayed open, split down the tendon and stretched open, the muscles pulled away to expose the bone to the air. Sparks flashed as metal pistons were seared onto her joints. Her fingers twitched out of her control with every prick of the doctor's tools.

"Poor thing," she remembered one of them saying. "Prep her other arm for surgery."

"The plan," Weiss said hesitantly, "was that with my enhancements and my name, I would be able to enroll with Atlas Academy. Once I was there, he figured, they would be able to train me in a way to compensate for my illness. That was always his assumption. And the truth was," she smiled softly, allowing herself to lower her defenses, "when I interviewed for them, I thought it went well. They smiled and said so many nice things about me. I practiced for weeks answering any question they could throw my way, and I spoke so confidently that I didn't even feel myself shaking. When I had to perform a combat trial, I didn't get hit once. Every movement went as planned. Every step, every thrust: perfection. When it was all over, they shook my father's hand, and they told me how much of an honor it would be to have me become a Huntress."

Weiss stopped in the middle of the hallway, and she had to take a moment to clear her throat and rub away the tears before she continued. She let out a dark, quiet laugh.

"I got my rejection letter two weeks later," she admitted, the words barely escaping her lips. "It turns out… who gives a shit how good you are if you can't generate an Aura? All those smiles and kind words were just part of the show. I was just fucked from the start. And I guess it's a small world in the circles of Atlasian elite, because within a day after my rejection, all of the offers for my hand in marriage suddenly vanished. Makes sense, right? What good is the Schnee bloodline when its… corrupted? All in the snap of a finger, every door in my future shut. I don't know how my father took it. He kept himself in balled in his office for a few days." She shrugged. "I guess it wasn't too well, because he forced me to run the God's Arm by the end of the week."

Velvet tried to say something, but she decided against it at the last moment. Cruel families were a concept that she had some familiarity with, even if Weiss didn't know about it. She could have—if she really wanted to—tried to establish some connection there, but it was abundantly clear that Weiss wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to understand anything past her own. She wasn't going to get through to her or help her in any meaningful way. It also very quickly became clear that if they were going to assist Weiss, they needed to get out of that mansion, which Weiss promptly resumed exploring in a haze. Jaune looked at Velvet defeatedly, hunched over and miserable.

"We need to keep up with her," he said. Velvet just nodded. Behind them, Nora tapped her foot, frustrated.

"Hey, Weiss! What's the deal with silver eyes?" she asked again. Ren shot her a disappointed glare, but unlike before, Weiss had the wherewithal to answer.

"There is no deal."

"What?" Nora said with surprise. "There has to be some deal."

"There isn't," Weiss said plainly. "I've studied those texts my entire life. I don't know everything, but I can't remember a single instance of silver eyes being mentioned anywhere. They mean nothing."

"Well, do any of the other Gods have silver eyes? Maybe it thought Ruby was one of them?"

"There isn't any way it would mistake Ruby for a God," Weiss stated. "I don't know what it was talking about with silver eyes."

"But the big blue man seemed to be really into them," Nora claimed. "It thought she was its bride because of them. Like, is there maybe a God in Decum Luna that everyone just… I don't know, forgot about?"

"I don't think that's very likely, Nora," said Ren.

"I'm just brainstorming," she countered. "There has to be some reason. Maybe—"

"Wait," Weiss said suddenly. The others froze at her command. The singing, they soon realized, had been growing steadily louder with every step, and now, it was at its peak as they found themselves in front of a small door located at the end of the hall. The lights surrounding them were notably dimmer than other parts of the mansion, and they concluded that they were in a more ancient part of the house, one that was kept separate from the rest. The door was older too, resting on old hinges and looking like its bottom had been scraped away against the ground for ages. Weiss's hand moved automatically to the handle, as her own voice called to her from within.

"If you can't forgive me… why should I… continue as myself? My Soul is tortured… split between… the rest of me and someone else…"

Weiss mouthed the words as a familiar chill traveled down her spine. She saw herself as a young child standing in the same spot, eagerly waiting to enter, Winter standing to her side and smiling at her. She took a deep breath, and like all those times before, opened the door.

The voice ceased once the door opened, and on the other side, there was no one there. There was only a small room, not much bigger than her dormitory, empty save for a mirror that took up the majority of the space on the back wall, and a grand piano off to the side, closed and covered in dust. The five of them filled out the room. Velvet was drawn immediately to the piano, brushing her hand across its old surface and leaving a trail in the dust, while Jaune took a seat on the bench. Ren and Nora quietly shut the door behind them, while Weiss instinctually moved to mirror, captivated by her reflection. She stood in its presence and simply gazed upon herself. She had almost forgotten what she looked like, and in the musty room, she barely recognized herself. She looked older, paler. Her skin was not as smooth. Her bangs had fallen down into her face, and the brightness of her icy blue eyes seemed to have dimmed into a cool grey. The blood on her shoulder—she had not realized just how much of it there was, how deeply it stained her clothing, how it seemed to seep into her exposed skin instead of coating it. Had it really been that long since she had looked into that very same mirror? No… maybe a few months, at most. But that was a lifetime ago.

Velvet carefully lifted the piano cover and scrunched her nose as she looked at the keys. "Did you used to play, Weiss?"

"No," Weiss said, her eyes not leaving her reflection. "Winter would play. She took lessons in her spare time. Eventually, she became pretty good at it."

"It's a lovely instrument," Velvet commented. "It's a shame it hasn't been used in a while."

"Right. There hasn't been a reason since…" Weiss drifted off. Those memories were a bit too strong for her. The room fell silent out of respect. Velvet, not exactly sure what else to do, gently pressed her finger down on one of the piano keys, and a soft, resonant note was released. C sharp. Slightly out of tune.

Then, a voice echoed through the walls.

"O, dost thou remember thy song?"

Ren and Nora immediately tensed up, pressing against each other back-to-back-ready for a fight. Jaune jumped out of his seat, landing on the floor hard. Velvet searched around nervously for the source of the voice, finding it nowhere. The piano keys began to play themselves, causing her to leap away from it, terrified as a chaotic, twinkling melody filled the room. Weiss barely reacted.

"Where are you?" Nora shouted. "What did you do with the others?"

"Weiss Abailess Schnee-Saeva," the voice cooed. It came from the ceiling, the floor, surrounding them, permeating the thin air. "Dost thou remember the sanctity of this place? The beauty of thy words for me?"

"Weiss, what is it talking about?" Velvet asked before turning to the walls. "What do you want from us? Let us go."

"Speak, child of Decum Luna," the voice instructed. "Remember thy song."

Her song? Weiss would never forget it. Her mother insisted that she learn some art aside from fighting. It was maybe the one place in her life where she was actively involved. Her sister was taught how to play the piano, her brother the violin. But her? She was taught how to sing. Twice a week, from the age of five, she would be led to the music room and would spend at least a few hours practicing her vocals. Her mother's favorite genre was opera, and even as a soprano, it took years to train her voice to handle the high notes with any degree of confidence. There was something overwhelmingly comforting about standing in the room, her sister guiding her through her lessons, segregated in a distant corner of the mansion. She could be proud and unafraid—the exact opposite of what she felt at that very moment.

"Thou wast beautiful in song," noted the voice. "Not as beautiful as my bride, but all things' beauty increases tenfold when they partake in the arts."

Velvet gritted her teeth. "Ruby… where did you take her?"

The voice laughed. "My bride… she is with me. Safe at last after millennia. O, how times apart have changed her."

"What are you talking about?" asked Jaune.

"She forgets herself. Calls herself Ruby. The name of her bastard race. My beloved would never confine herself to such a miserable creature. She must be wrested free of her bounds, released from the prison of her mortal flesh."

"You keep your hands off of her," Ren warned. "She isn't your bride. She's our friend. You've made a mistake."

The voice boomed. "The Aspects of Decum Luna make no mistakes, mortal. We rise above thy mortal instincts. I have seen within her. She bears the eyes of my beloved."

Nora groaned. "Dude, I hate to break this to you, if it's been thousands of years, your wife is probably dead."

"Do not dare to besmirch my judgment. Thou art a nonbeliever. Thou canst not taste the fruit. Dost thou continue to doubt in my presence?"

"Not doubting," Nora sneered. "I'm just saying… lots of people probably have silver eyes. I think its just a big coincidence."

"We shall see," moaned the voice. "I will cut the Soul out of her and examine it in the moonlight. I will see its true nature. When my beloved is returned to me, thou will learn the trueness of thy folly."

"Um, guys?" Jaune said nervously. "That's the second time he's said something about cutting Ruby's Soul out of her body."

"Don't worry," Nora stated. "We'll stop it."

The voice let out a hearty laugh. "Thou will halt my efforts? Four nonbelievers, and the Schnee-Saeva who could not complete my Trials? Thou who resorted to cheating in the God's Arm will attempt to defy my will again? No. Thou will face a great punishment for thy transgressions."

That comment stirred something within Weiss. Cheating. She… didn't cheat. She didn't cheat. She had done everything that was asked of her. She fought with honor, and cunning, and skill, and every damn thing that anyone had ever instilled within her. Her entire life as a Huntress depended on those Trials, and she had been walking around broken and defeated… for what? Failing when she was in the right? Blake and Yang were the ones that interfered. They were the ones that screwed her. They were the ones the God should have been mad at. Them, and Ruby for distracting the God, and her father for putting her through everything, and her sister for—no, not her—but the others, all of them. They had ruined everything. Maybe she would have lost anyway. Maybe she wasn't good enough. Hell, she knew she wasn't good enough, for the Gods, for her family, for any of them. But she had fought for too long to watch someone else destroy her life. If was failing, she was going to fail on her own goddamn terms. It was what was expected of someone like her.

She closed her eyes, resting her palm upon the glass.

"I didn't cheat."

The music grew faster. "Speak again?"

"I didn't cheat," Weiss stated, the muscles in her hands twitching.

"Thou brought more than thy share of Witnesses into the Trials. Thou violated our will."

"I didn't know, and I didn't cheat," Weiss said again, her voice shaking and underlying a tempered fury. "They didn't help me. They didn't interfere, and the Trial was only stopped because of you."

Velvet, sensing something was horribly wrong, rushed over to Weiss's side as the music's tempo increased again. "Weiss, what are you doing?"

What was she doing? Quite frankly, what she was doing was absolutely insane. But she didn't care. She had nothing to lose anymore. If arguing her case against a literal God was what it took to keep herself alive, she was going to argue. Thankfully, all of those sparring sessions against Blake had sharpened her in more ways than one. She opened her eyes and walked toward the center of the room, nearly snarling as the others watched every emotion that she thought dead return with a vengeance.

The voice laughed. "Art thou denying your God, Weiss Abailess Schnee-Saeva?"

"You aren't my God," Weiss reminded it. "I have two Gods. I know my scripture. Screlias 10:18. You know what it says: My fate is determined by those who watch over my family. They get to judge me. You don't."

"Thy judgment is in Trial. I determine thy Trial," said the voice. The music sped up, now unrecognizable as such, blending into nothing more than a quick succession of random notes.

"And the Miner determined theirs. I had to slay a hundred bergkwok, and I did. The Miner, in all its wisdom, did not protest when it could have. In your Trial, you tasked me to slay two royal toads or die. I was in the middle of doing the former when you stopped it to kidnap one of my Witnesses. Those Witnesses are part of the ceremony of the God's Arm, but unless they interfere, the ceremony shouldn't determine my success."

"Thou dost not understand ceremony," explained the voice. "God's Arm is not merely about success on the merits. Thou must have a conversation with the Aspects, understand and respect Decum Luna. The pageantry of ceremony is to prove thy dedication. I say thou hast failed."

Pageantry. Of course. The truth hit Weiss like a bullet. She needed to rethink her plan. Arguing blindly was going to get nowhere. She had to think as Ruby would. Tactically. Understand her opponent before moving in for her attack.

"If the purpose of the ceremony is to prove my worth to Decum Luna, then the ceremony is manifestly unnecessary," Weiss claimed. "I have sworn myself to the Aspects. I've done what you all wanted. If you want a more in-depth conversation, I'm right here for you to speak to."

"Conversation with no pageantry? And what does this conversation constitute as?"

Weiss, not knowing what else to say, simply sneered.

"Improv."

The music suddenly stopped, and with the piano cover slammed down sharply on its own with a vicious clang. There was a brief moment of silence. Everything went completely still. Then, the voice released a joyous, hearty laugh, like a crack of thunder.

"Thine honesty amuses me," it said brightly. "Thou have a sharp tongue. This is performance, is it not: thy story against my own? Thine actions are understandable, mortal, and thy gall is commendable. Perhaps a new arrangement can be made between us."

Jaune, having not moved from the floor since the voice's arrival, picked himself up and hurriedly scooted over to his teammates, whispering frustratedly. "Do you have any idea what's going on?"

Ren shook his head. "I think Weiss is trying to get us out of here."

"Get us out of here?" Nora asked doubtingly. "I'm… not so sure about that."

Within a few moments, the mirror on the wall began to warp and change, and Weiss suddenly saw her reflection melt away, and soon it was replaced with a new image. Yang. Blake. Pyrrha. They were in a strange place, an endless violet crystal maze that seemed to stretch out into forever. They seemed microscopic from their view, walking amongst titanic structures that surrounded them at every turn. Yet, that wasn't what drew Weiss's eye, nor what elicited a shocked, horrified gasp from Velvet. What did scare them was what lurked beyond every corner: royal toads. Hundreds of them, ready to strike their unsuspecting and defenseless friends at a moment's notice. The spoke again, oozing with delight.

"Thou seek to amend my judgment. Thou must survive," it moaned. "Find thy friends and save them from their just punishment, and I will consider granting thou the opportunity for redemption."

The others recoiled, but Weiss merely bowed her head and sighed. The Reveler wasn't taking her seriously, just as it took nothing seriously. It was all a game to it. A show. Fine. If it wanted to make a show of her struggles, she would give it a show. She would give it whatever it wanted. For her own sake.

"Let your new Trial begin."

"Wait!" screamed Nora suddenly. "You aren't even going to give us our weapons?"

The God laughed again. "Thou dost not understand the concept of punishment."