AN: Before we start, I want to address Gry24: Thank you so much for the suggestion! I'll definitely be utilizing some of it! What did you have in mind for the rest of the team, if you don't mind sharing?

With that out of the way, onwards!

(TW: Sexual assault)

Chapter 80

The long walk from Weiss's room to her father's office was just as cold and empty as she remembered. Everywhere she looked, as could see pure opulence, an indicator of her father's pride in his family's status.

After Beacon, it all seemed so meaningless.

She silently continued the trek to her father's office before a voice startled her.

"Good afternoon, sister," her younger brother Whitley said. He wore a blue-and white suit to match Weiss's own dress. He pressed his hand against his chest to bow to her. She turned to face him, the sound of her heels echoing through the halls. "A pleasure to see you out of your room for a change."

"Hello, Whitley," she greeted. "You're in a cheery mood today."

"Klein made crepes for breakfast," Whitely said. Smarmy little brat.

"What do you want?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I heard Father shouting with someone in his study earlier."

"Mother?" Weiss asked.

"No, she's already drinking in the garden," Whitley responded with contempt. "I think it was a man. I just wanted to warn you. I heard he had asked to speak with you."

"I'll be fine," she said dismissively.

"I know you will. You're strong, like Winter."

"You never liked Winter," Weiss pointed out, finding it odd that her brother would be so willing to openly praise their oldest sister.

"True, but you can't deny her resolve."

"You… seem different," she said.

"And you've been gone," he quickly responded. "I'll have you know I didn't stop growing while you were away at Beacon." He turned around to leave, sparing her one last glance over his shoulder. "Anyway, good luck with Father."

"So, what's your world like?" Ruby asked Cloud after the rest of Team RNJR had fallen asleep. Cloud looked up at her in what she was going to pretend wasn't annoyance. "Does it have a name?" The blond man sighed.

"It's called Radiant Garden," he said.

"Oh, sounds pretty," Ruby commented.

"I guess it does."

"I've never been outside Remnant," Ruby said. "Well, there was this one time where my team and my mom were in the realm of darkness, but that doesn't count. Those worlds were all destroyed."

"But you're a Keyblade wielder," Cloud said with a raised eyebrow. "Isn't your job to travel to different worlds?"

"Well, I can't actually do that," Ruby admitted a little sheepishly. "My mom is a Keyblade Master, she's the one who trained me, and she said that we can't leave Remnant because it's trapped in the realm of Darkness."

"Weird," Cloud commented. "Didn't think there were any worlds here."

"Yeah, that's what Mom said." Ruby looked down sadly, remembering why Mom couldn't be out here with them.

She hoped she and Yang were doing okay.

She shook her head.

"So, uh, did you have any friends or family back home?" She asked Cloud, trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Not really," Cloud answered. Ruby deflated.

Why was talking to people always so hard?

Yang stepped out of the store, grocery bag in hand. She had put a grey jacket on over her tank top, the right sleeve tied in a knot. One of the many drawbacks of having only one arm was the limited amount of things she could buy whenever she went shopping. For today, since she forgot to actually bring her backpack, she just had to settle for getting some snacks. She didn't want to be gone too long in case Mom needed her, so she just wanted to buy her stuff and get home quickly. As she turned to walk down the street towards home, a group of three young men suddenly stood in front of her with smirks on their faces. One had red hair, one had brown hair, and the third had black hair.

"Well, look who we have here," the black-haired boy said.

"Can I help you?" Yang asked, her hand resting against her hip.

"You're Yang Xiao Long, right?"

"Yeah," Yang answered.

"Saw you in the Vytal Tournament," the brown-haired one said. "Gotta say, that was life-changing." Yang's eyes widened, realizing what they were talking about. "Still got that video saved on my scroll. I watch it pretty much every night."

"What do you want?" Yang asked, her voice lowered to a growl.

"We've seen so much of what you've got to offer, we want to see the real thing," The redheaded one said. "So come on, how much?"

"Excuse me?!" Yang asked.

"I said how much?" he asked again. "Come on, we're dying to try you out. Is it per person, or are we doing this as a group?"

"I-I'm not for sale!" Yang said. She clenched her left hand into a fist, ready to drop her bag and punch this boy in the face, but then she saw the sneer on his face.

In her mind, his red hair had black horns sticking out of it.

A white mask covered his face.

He held a sword with a red blade in his hand.

Her hand started shaking, and she found that she couldn't move.

"Aw, look," he said. "She's trembling. Must be excited. Come on, sweetheart." He grabbed her wrist, one of the other ones took the stump of her right arm, and a third one stepped behind her to guide her.

"S-stop," she said, still finding that she couldn't actually move. "Let go!"

Damn it, move!

"We just want to have some fun," the redhead said, the sneer he sent her way sending her into a renewed pit of anxiety and fear.

Someone, help! Please!

A large hand gripped the redheaded boy's wrist, squeezing hard enough to make him let go of Yang.

"Ah!" the boy cried out.

"I believe the lady asked you to let her go," a familiar deep voice said. "Didn't your mother ever teach you respect?" Yang looked up and saw a familiar dark-skinned, large man with a machine gun for a right hand.

"Barret!" she said in relief. She had no idea what he was doing here, but she wasn't going to complain.

"Stay out of this, pops!" One of the thugs shouted. "Can't you see we're busy here?"

"Yeah, we're just having some fun, right Blondie?" the one behind her asked.

"Yang, these boys bothering you?" Barret asked. She nodded. "So, what kind of fun are you referring to if she doesn't want any of it?"

"It's none of your- Agh!" the redheaded one shouted, before Barret squeezed a little harder and Yang could hear the bones in his arm snap. He tossed the boy to the side, pointing his gun at the other two, who tensed and backed up.

"I'd take him to the hospital if I were you," Barret said, his voice even and threatening. "Looks like the damn fool went and broke his arm." The boys, clearly scared out of their minds now that they realized Barret was a Huntsman, scrambled to pick the red-haired one off the ground and ran away. "You okay, Yang?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "Thanks."

"Big Sis Yang!" a voice called, and Yang smiled when a little girl in a pink dress wrapped her arms around the blond girl's leg.

"Hey, there, Marlene," Yang said, putting her bag down so she could pat her on the head.

"So the next town is…" Ruby said, looking at the map. "Uh-huh…uh-huh… We're lost."

"You know, it helps if you hold the map the right way around," Cloud commented, making Ruby flip the map around with a deep blush on her face.

"…I, uh, I was just testing you," she said. Jaune chuckled.

"We don't even really need the map right now," Jaune said. "The next town is Shion. My family used to visit it all the time."

"Oh, yeah. Don't you have, like, four sisters?" Ruby asked.

"Uh, seven," Jaune corrected her.

"You know, that actually explains a lot," Nora said.

"Wait, what do you mean?" Jaune asked, looking at his teammate.

"So, what did you guys do there?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, all sorts of stuff!" Jaune said enthusiastically, pointing to the map. "Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special. Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair."

"Didn't like the look?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but personally, I think I'm more of a 'warrior's wolftail' kind of a guy."

"That's just a ponytail," Ruby said.

"I stand by what I said."

"Heads up," Cloud said. "Smoke up ahead."

"What?" they asked, looking ahead of them to see the village in front of them had been completely destroyed. Fires still raged, buildings had toppled over, and they could see several bodies lying on the ground. Without hesitation, the group ran towards the ruined town, Cloud turning around and drawing his weapon to stand vigil at the town's entrance.

"There could be survivors!" Ruby said, looking desperately around the village for any signs of life.

"Over here!" Ren called out, calling their attention to a man leaning up against a broken wall, his hand holding a bleeding wound in his side. He was wearing armor, not that it had helped him.

"A Huntsman!" Ruby said, watching as Ren put a hand on the man's shoulder.

"What happened?" Jaune asked. "Who killed all these people?"

"B-Bandits," the Huntsman said, trying to catch his breath. "The whole tribe… Then, with all the panic…"

"Grimm," Ren finished for him. Ruby, Jaune, and Nora stepped away to talk, calling Cloud back over.

"Alright, we can get him to the next village and try to find a doctor there!" Ruby said.

"Yeah," Jaune said in agreement. "Ren, Cloud, and I can take turns carrying him."

"Provided he even makes it," Cloud said.

"He will," Jaune snapped. "He has to."

"If we get going now, our chances will be better," Ruby said, sending Cloud a glare. "I can run ahead and look for help."

"Guys," Ren called out. The rest of the group looked and saw that the Huntsman's head had slumped forward, and the rise and fall of his chest had stopped.

The man was dead.

"Should we bury him?" Nora asked.

"We don't have time," Cloud said. "Let's keep moving before something else shows up." The blond mercenary started walking towards the town's exit, and Ruby noticed how downtrodden Jaune looked. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"It'll be okay," she said.

"If only we had gotten here sooner," Jaune said.

"And what?" Cloud asked, stopping to turn around. "Then we might have gotten caught up in whatever happened here."

"Well, it would be better than letting all these people die," Jaune sad, glaring at the blond man.

"Sometimes, bad things just happen, and there's nothing you can do about it. All you can do is keep moving forward. Looking back does no one any good."

"…Cloud's right," Ren said. "All we can do is keep going, and hope we can save the next ones." Jaune looked thoughtful for a few seconds, before letting out a sigh.

"I'm not talking about the good of my company!" The voice of Weiss's father shouted from inside his office. Whitley wasn't wrong when he said Father had been arguing with someone. It made Weiss hesitate when she reached for the doorknob. "I'm talking about the good of Atlas, our entire Kingdom!"

"That is a load of garbage and you know it," a voice Weiss recognized as belonging to General Ironwood said. Weiss finally worked up the nerve to peek through the door. Her father was seated behind his desk, and the general was seated in a cozy chair across the room. Neither had noticed her entrance.

"I beg your pardon?!" her father roared.

"Jacques, will you please, just hear me out?" the general asked.

"You are a trusted friend and ally to this family, James, but what you're suggesting is absurd!"

"You are blowing it out of proportion," General Ironwood said, trying to calm down Father.

"The council will never agree to it!" her father continued arguing.

"You forget, I hold two seats on the council," the general responded. Weiss had never been sure on exactly how that worked. It seemed like a bad idea in her mind, to give someone that much power. And how could one person hold two seats at the same time?

"Your Dust embargo has already cost me millions!" her father yelled. That was likely the crux of the issue. He could pretend all he wanted to that he was looking out for the good of Atlas, but the bottom line was that he was upset about losing money. "I can promise you, I have not forgotten!"

"So this is about you," the General said. Weiss quietly stepped into the room, but the door closed loudly behind her, drawing the attention of the two men.

"Miss Schnee," the general said, giving her a polite bow. "My apologies. I should have been gone by now."

"I-it's okay," she said, giving him a polite curtsy. The general turned back to look at her father.

"We'll continue this another time."

"Indeed," Father answered. "Klein can show you out."

"Don't worry. I know the way. Until next time, Jacques," the general said. Weiss stepped aside to allow him to leave, but he turned to look at her first. "Please know, you'll always have a home at Atlas Academy, Miss Schnee. We'll be back in session before you know it."

"U-Um, General," she said. "I never got a chance to ask, but how is Professor Branwen doing? I heard she was injured when…" The general sighed.

"…Unfortunately, a portion of Beacon Tower fell on her during the attack. She has been confined to a wheelchair ever since."

"No…" Weiss said, putting her hands to her mouth in shock.

"But rest assured, we are currently making arrangements to have her brought to Atlas for treatment."

"Thank you," she said.

"No need to thank me," the general said, giving her another polite bow before leaving the room.

"Did you forget your manners while you were away?" her father asked. Weiss stamped down her anger at him and looked up.

"No, Father," she said. "I'm sorry."

"Can you believe there are still people in the world that blame Atlas for what happened to Beacon? To Vale?"

"Well, they weren't there," Weiss commented, walking forward to stand in front of his desk, her hands clasped together in front of her.

"It's a wonder Ironwood wasn't stripped of his rank," her father said. "I suppose the council trusts him, for better or worse."

"I trust him," Weiss said, prompting her father to sigh.

"Thanks to him, Atlas is forbidden from exporting Dust to other Kingdoms. 'A precautionary measure', as he puts it, 'until we're certain no one is going to declare war'. How anyone could possibly find that logic to be sound is beyond me."

As much as she hated to admit it, her father kind of had a point. How was the general supposed to prove to the rest of the world that Atlas wasn't a threat if he was cutting off their access to the SDC's Dust? Thanks to her father's aggressive business practices, they practically had a monopoly on the stuff, but with the company unable to export it out of Atlas, they would have to rely on inter-Kingdom branches to try to keep up with the demand, which was frankly impossible. Depriving the other Kingdoms of their primary source of energy and weaponry wasn't exactly going to endear him to them.

"Which is why the Schnee Dust Company will be holding a charity concert in the coming weeks," her father said, surprising her and snapping her out of her thoughts. "We need to show the people of Remnant that we are on their side. That we are all victims of the fall of Beacon."

"That's…wonderful news," Weiss said with a smile, genuinely surprised at her father's sudden burst of generosity.

"I know," he said. "And I think it would make a lot of people happy if you performed at the event." Weiss's smile fell.

"Excuse me?" she asked.

"Many forget that you were there. My own daughter, a Schnee, on the grounds, defending another Kingdom! We need to remind them! And we need to show them that the Schnee family is just as strong as ever!" Weiss knew it was too good to be true. He just wanted to use her for publicity.

"Are you asking me if I'd like to sing, or telling me?" she asked. He leaned forward in his seat, sending a look at her that indicated that there was no room for discussion.

"I think it would make a lot of people happy," he said. Weiss sighed.

"I'll start practicing."

"That's…my girl," he said. Weiss turned around to leave, seeing her butler Klein waiting for her with a tray as she left. He was a stout, balding man with a brown bushy mustache and brown eyes.

She absolutely adored him.

"Hot coffee, Miss Schnee?" he asked. "I always find he keeps his study dreadfully cold." Weiss smiled, taking the mug off the tray.

"Thank you, Klein," she said.

"You know what I think?" he asked, putting the tray in front of his face to hide it. When he moved the tray, his eyes had turned red and his voice had become much harsher. "I think it's to balance out all his hot air." Weiss giggled scandalously, looking back to see if there was any indication that her father had heard.

"Klein!" she said. He suddenly sneezed, his eyes turning blue.

"Uh, apologies, madam," he said, his voice higher-pitched. He sneezed again and wiggled his mustache, prompting Weiss to giggle again. His eyes turned yellow and he look at her with an affectionate smile.

"Ah, there's my happy little snowflake," he said. Weiss sighed in relief, finally able to stop laughing, before giving her butler a grateful smile.

"Thank you, Klein."

Yang was approaching the house, Barret next to her and Marlene riding on her shoulders. Barret had offered to carry her bag for her so she could focus on holding onto Marlene's leg so the girl wouldn't fall off.

"…So, what was that about back there?" Barret asked, breaking the silence.

"It was just a couple of dou-uh-scumbag guys who wanted something I wasn't gonna give them," Yang said, having to stop herself from saying the word "douchebag" in front of Marlene.

"That's not what I meant," Barret said. Yang refused to meet his eyes. "You normally would've kicked butt, one-armed or not. But you hesitated. Why?" Yang sighed.

"He reminded me of the guy who took my arm," she said. "I just froze up when I saw his hair."

"That been happening a lot?" Barret asked.

"…Yeah."

"Have you told your mom?"

"No," Yang said, shaking her head. "She has it way worse than I do. She doesn't need to worry about how I'm doing."

"I guarantee you she does anyway, if she's anything like how you've described her."

"I know it's not rational, but this is something I have to deal with on my own. So when we get to the house, please promise me you won't say anything to her."

"…Fine," he said, as they saw the house coming up before them. Mom had apparently seen them coming, as she opened the front door and moved her wheelchair out to greet them.

"Hey, Mom," Yang said.

"Hey, sweetie," Mom said. "I see you've brought company."

"Hi, Miss Aqua!" Marlene greeted cheerfully.

"Hi there, Marlene," Mom said with a smile before looking to Barret. "And you would be?"

"Oh, uh, I'm Barret," he said, shyly rubbing the back of his head. "Barret Wallace. I met your daughter at Beacon. We, uh, happened to run into Yang here in town, and she was kind enough to invite us over."

"Well come on in, then," Mom said. "I just brewed some tea. It'll be nice to have some company."

Yang sent Barret a grateful look for not telling her about the jerks back in town, but the man just shook his head disapprovingly.

Ruby groggily opened her eyes in the early morning hours. She looked around their makeshift camp, and saw that the fired had died long ago. Ren, Nora, and Cloud were still asleep, but Jaune's sleeping bag was empty, and he was nowhere to be found. She looked around for a few seconds, and realized that she could hear faintly hear a voice coming from the woods. She quietly got up and left to investigate. She quickly realized that the voice she was hearing was Pyrrha's.

"Alright, Jaune, just like we practiced," her voice said. "Follow these instructions. Shield up." She could see a clearing, where Jaune was sitting down on a fallen log, looking at a video on his scroll that displayed their friend. She couldn't quite discern the look on his face. Was it sad? Angry? Longing? All of the above, most likely, considering how abruptly their relationship had ended.

"Keep you grip tight. Don't forget to keep your front foot forward. Ready? Go." Ruby had realized what this video was. She had at some point recorded some instructions for a training routine for him. But why wasn't he following it?

"Again!" Pyrrha's recording said. "And again. Okay. Now, assuming you aren't cheating, we can take a break. I know this can be frustrating, and it can feel like so much effort to progress such a small amount, but I want you to know that I'm proud of you. I've never met someone so determined to better themselves. You've grown so much since we started training." Ruby could see Jaune gripping the scroll tighter, his facial expression morphing into more obvious anger. "And I know this is just the beginning. I just want you to remember that I love you, and I'm always going to be there for you."

"So why?" Jaune asked the recording, knowing she couldn't answer. "Why did you leave? Why didn't you let me help? Damn it, Pyrrha."

Ruby heard footsteps behind her and saw Cloud walk past her and into the clearing. Jaune looked up at the blond mercenary.

"What do you want?" he asked. Cloud looked down at the paused video on Jaune's scroll.

"Who's that?" Cloud asked. "Girlfriend?" Jaune glared for a second, and then sighed.

"Ex," he answered. "She dumped me out of the blue. Not like you'd understand that. You probably have someone back home."

"Not really," Could answered, surprising both Jaune and Ruby, who was still watching. "I'm not exactly a people person."

"I noticed." Cloud quietly drew his sword, pointing it at the younger blond. "What are you doing?"

"Pick up your sword," Cloud said.

"Why?"

"Because we're travelling together now. I need to know if you're up to snuff. Make sure you won't slow us down. Now pick up your sword."

"…Fine," Jaune said, standing up and drawing his weapons.

Ruby silently backed away, leaving the blonds to their training.

AN: I realized that in canon, we never saw Yang face any kind of fallout for being framed for assault. The general populace doesn't know she was framed, yet we never see her being harassed by people, or get dirty looks from people that think she assaulted someone. That's why I decided to include the scene of her being accosted by those boys, but her PTSD stopped her from defending herself.

Also, I've been just plain forgetting about the fact that Zwei lives with Yang and Aqua. Sorry about that.

And I kinda like the interactions I've been giving Cloud with the others. I'm excited to keep exploring his character.

I would also like to say that Weiss's Volume 4 outfit is her best. Hell, everyone's Mistral outfit is their best.

As always, thank you very much for reading, and I'll see you all next time!