Weiss sighed internally.

These functions got even more drab and boring each time. She laughed at a rather bland joke one in her group had said, as politeness dictated. Everyone else laughing an instant after her, deferring to her. She patted the shoulder of the person who said the joke and excused her to go after the hors d-eouveres. The hunger in her stomach overrode the instant denial response her brain gave her. She grabbed a small china plate and weaved her way expertly around the multitudes of people, smiling at everyone and making excuses to move on when the gestured to join them. She had gotten very good at that since the war had been won. Everyone wanted a piece of the 'Ice Queen', 'Perfect Princess', 'Winter Guardian'.

That last one was the hardest to stomach and she detested it. She never wanted that power, what it represented, Penny and of course that led to Ruby, oh damn. It flared up. She breathed slowly and when the temperature chilled around her, she panicked internally, and, still smiling, eyes roved for an exit.

There, a balcony, by the side. She gracefully swept her way to the door, smile, getting thinner and thinner as she kept a tight control over her powers. She swept through the archway, and the thick, embroidered (because Schnee obviously) curtain to the mild air, summer in atlas being the only time the heaters weren't needed and they could enjoy the outdoors although not many did. She gripped the railing at the end of the balcony and counted down from 10, forcing those powers down. She battled for what seemed like ages but could have only been seconds as she let the power ebb down, letting a little flow out of her hands into the railing below.

It coated the railing in ice and spread for a few metres as she breathed a misty breath.

"Can't say I missed seeing that".

Heart-racing, she whirled around and stared at the person who must have occupied the balcony before her, her mind too busy at the time. It didn't take her long though to calm down and reflexively shut down that power again when she spied General Ironwood. He looked far different now. He had been part machine before this but was now confined in one. His legs had been shorn away by Cinder, battling her in purely savage and rage-filled state as he stood over Penny, avenging her in the only way he had left. It was also probably the only way he was still alive. Every injury he had was cauterized instantly. Everyone thought he had died at the end of the final battle but his chest was still rising and falling. Even then it was touch and go. Everyone was injured, no one had aura left and he was still hours from any proper help. Weiss took control, utilising the little medical knowledge she had gained over the years (she was the support after all), and lowered his temperature enough for him to be airlifted out.

It had taken months for him to recover and he had all of Atlas resources to help him but he denied anymore prosthetics. His only response to why was "my war has been won". That's not to say he used those resources to make his wheelchair top of the line. Glidable, tricked out with so many armaments he could take on any Grimm if he had a death wish and a compartment for his favourite guns. What he claimed as the greatest addition though is a tiny drinks cooler. He had mellowed a bit.

Weiss opened her mouth and then closed it again after a few seconds, not really sure what to say. Both turned back to the view. Atlas had long fallen out of the sky but they had taken their ideas from the City of Mistral, building on the mountains surrounding Mantle. It had the problems of Atlas/Mantle and now the City of Mistral, the rich being at the top but it worked slightly better, Mantle not being in the literal shadow of the 'elite' anymore. Of course the Schnee's had a mansion right at the top of one of the mountains.

"I'm glad you were Penny's last thought, she at least died well in that regard" said Ironwood.

Neither turned. "Well the plan was for a Schnee to have it eventually," she said emotionlessly, tactlessly.

The general just grunted and said no more. After a few minutes, Weiss sighed audibly.

"I'm sorry. It's been a trying time".

"It's always been trying, you just seem to be trying a lot harder than most recently. You've gone to every function I even hear news of nowadays. If anyone deserves a break, it's you."

"Just because the war is over, doesn't mean that the world stops, we all just can't retire and appear when we like," snapped Weiss.

Ironwood held up his hands. "Woah, okay. Though judging by this melting ice, the stress can't be good for control. And I still get some military reports you know, of snow filtering down to the edges of mantle at very odd times, of a figure clad in all white walking through mantle in the harshest of winters."

Weiss stared challengingly at him. Ironwood, showing why he was the general stared back. "You do have control over your powers right, we don't have to step in?"

"I thought you were retired," Weiss retorted. The air grew slightly more chill around her and ironwoods eyes flickered to the air around her.

"Just a concerned citizen and teacher and … friend.".

Weiss sighed again as her slight rage subsided and the air warmed back up.

"I'm fine, my powers are fine if always there, like an itch," she admitted. "It's just, they're not like Aura, Aura's like an integral part of you, like an arm. You can almost always control it and it always protects you."

"The maiden powers are different; they're sentient for lack of a better word." She smiled and slowly traced a small finger in the air, her powers making various snow shapes in the air, a horse, a bee etc. "They're like a dog I guess, always excitable and playful when your happy." Her shapes took on a slightly more darker turn, towards Grimm. "When you are angry, they are snappy and snarling. Whatever the emotion, they're there. They never hurt me. Those 'figures' in white are me, I can never really get cold anymore. It's the people around me I don't want to hurt." The little snow flurries ended with a likeness of Yang and Blake before she brought both hands down and the snow disappeared.

"So I found a way to control them, don't feel any emotion and the power won't flare. Get tired enough that I can't think and they won't come up unbidden." Her face dropped and she turned away from him even more. "It's worked so far".

"Except when those emotions overwhelm you."

Weiss turned, opened her mouth and angrily stomped her foot but with nothing to say she turned back to the view.

"I won't patronise you and say this isn't healthy, you know that. But you need to let it out. Therapists are available, you even pay for one for Blake"

"I don't need therapists, I just need … uh". Weiss closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. She retreated into herself. She felt so stretched out, so thin. Truthfully, she was afraid. She was ducking the issue of her powers for so long and she didn't know how much longer she could hold out before something public happened. She considered the General's words. Need to let it out maybe it was that simple. She had constantly been so afraid of releasing her powers, of not being in control.

She raised her head, swept back some loose hair and looked at him. "You were right, I need to … do something. Can you stay for a bit?" Weiss tentatively asked.

One of the General's rare smiles (he had mellowed quite a bit) appeared. "Of course".

She turned and very quietly closed all the doors to the balcony, freezing them by their handles with her powers. She didn't want anyone to see whatever she was about to do. This wasn't their therapy session anyway. She strode back to the railings. She wasn't sure what to say or do. Her fingers sparkled with white energy and finally she let go, her mind wandering.

It wandered over to the general and what he had almost first said, something he clearly had wanted to say for a while. The power sparkled and hand flung out, releasing it. It settled into snowy figures dancing, fighting in the air. They settled into the figures of Cinder, Ironwood and Penny and they started moving like a little movie, fed by the power constantly released from her fingers. She closed her eyes and imagined the scene as she had seen it, knowing the scene would play out in the air but if anyone deserved to see it, it was the general.

Her eyes sparkled as she scrambled around Penny's torso, putting sparking limb against sparking limb and then freezing them together with Myrtenaster, praying to everything she knew that it would work but knowing it never would. The sounds of the general fighting Cinder was close, his screams of rage matched only by her maniacal laughter. She knew the general would lose, he knew, and Penny was (had) been their only chance. She froze two pieces of Penny's arm together, her haste and pure emotion fumbling with every task. She startled when something touched her cheek. She looked down at Penny and her one remaining arm.

"Say sorry to Ruby, Yang and Blake will you, I don't think I will be to catch up with you lot later, good friend Weiss." Penny managed to say, her voice coming out more mechanical, her throat partly slashed. The light dimmed from her eyes but her arm never fell, locked there by her parts. A strange white energy flowed through that arm into her and she screamed as the cold suffused her. She rose into the air.

"NO!" Someone had screamed behind her and a blast of pure fire threw her back to the ground. She turned to see Cinder's eye blazing as she backhanded, with the aid of her powers, what seemed to be a kneeling Ironwood. He flew several metres and crashed into a tree, slumping down, not moving at all.

She rose, picking up Myrtenaster as power swirled around her. She had no idea what to do, scared beyond her wits as every one else was but her anger overruled all that. The maiden' powers had been described by her from Penny, she knew what it could do, had seen it in action. She had no idea how to control it now it was inside her but dust, she knew how to control dust. This was just a more advanced form of ice dust, she reasoned with herself.

She ran her hand along Myrtenaster, coated its length in ice and took her natural position, one foot in front of the other. She then did something so very unlike her and beckoned Cinder on with a hand.

Cinder screamed and rocketed towards her. They constantly traded blows. She couldn't recall it perfectly, dangerously slipping into pure instinct, power swirling around the two of them. She lost Myrtenaster halfway through but not before running it through Cinder's grimm arm, severing it completely. Normally it would regenerate but she didn't allow that, pressing her attack with a pure ice form of Myrtenaster (Myrten-ice-ster, courtesy of Yang) now and forcing Cinder's attention onto her. They used every move they knew. Cinder was trickier and sometimes varied her weapon but she had intimate knowledge of her teammates fighting styles and threw them in. An ice fist straight into Cinder's face with textbook Yang form was what she remembered most. When their Aura's broke, they got cut several times. For her that was searing heat followed by cold, the ice surrounding the cuts misting constantly as she moved, becoming more 'Ice Princess'.

It was poetic justice that ended Cinder in the end. She had rolled away from an attack and spied one the Generals more simple weapons of a pistol lying on the ground. She covered it from view with her body as she turned and fired it point blank at Cinder's face, more specifically, her good side. Cinder's reflexes allowed her to dodge by turning her face to the side but that left her grimm side weak and facing Weiss. She didn't waste her opportunity spearing Cinder with Myrten -ice-ster.

The power emanating from Cinder cut off as she stared at the weapon jutting out of her body. She fell and Weiss stepped back, also instinctively cutting off her own power. There was no showy power transfer to her, it couldn't transfer to another Maiden, and Cinder died, alone, on the battlefield. Weiss didn't feel anything as the power retreated fully inside her, dormant for now. She turned to look around the battlefield and her eyes filled with silver.

At that she came back to herself, eyes opening, glistening with tears as the final image morphed into Ruby but not her from the battle, from when she was at Beacon, deliriously happy with the world. Weiss held that image, just staring at it, trying to imprint it onto her memory, the power constantly flowing.

She only cut it off and turned away when a hand touched her elbow. She turned to stare at the general

"Thank you," he said, his face quite sombre. She smiled, the power had settled in her and she felt a weight lift from her. She breathed deeply and they went back to staring at the view.

After a minute or so he coughed. "Those were some great moves you did, you incorporated your teams' fighting styles well. Glad I could help out in the end." His voice was much more militaristic this time around and his hands were clenched slightly. Weiss recognised it for the comfort tactic it was and with the sounds drifting back from the party realised she needed that too. The power was still there bubbling inside her.

Babysteps

One of the doors rattled slightly and she was startled, twirling around and thanking the gods that it was just a butler, one of the longer serving, discreet ones. She strode quickly towards the door, melting it with a wave of her hand before she even got there. The butler coughed as he slipped through the door onto the balcony, holding a household scroll in his hand

"A call about Ms Xiao Long, from the Warehouse again ma'am," he said, proferring the scroll.

She pursed her lips and turned back to the general who smiled wryly and nodded. She smiled back and then took the scroll.

Babysteps.

She put it to her ear.

AN: I'm actually really happy with the fight scene in this one, the rest ain't great but looking back I have no idea how I wrote that.

Not sure what else future Weiss would do (apart from head of Schnee dust company) so took inspiration from V4.

One chapter to go and you know who's next.