The Schnee manor was always defined by its cold interior, as if it were a representation of its family, more specifically its patriarch.
Weiss walked through the halls in silence, having nothing to do since she was forcibly taken back home by her father after Beacon fell. Not caring about her wishes as per usual, not caring about her state of mind, as per usual only caring about the company and the name.
Weiss heard the mumbling coming out of her father's office, clearly arguing with someone.
Against her better judgment she slowly stepped towards the door, the clacking of her heels echoing through the hollow halls of the manor, but not loud enough to alert anyone and slowly but surely she put her ear at the door to listen to the conversation.
"You lose my company secrets and you have the gall to ask me to assist you with this!" she heard from the other end, clearly the voice of her father.
"This is the man that put your daughter into a nightmare induced coma! I figured that would at least incentivize you to help us with that" the other voice said, followed by a loud thump.
She could deduce the voice as General Ironwood, she knew that he and her father often did business together, but his visits where a bit uncommon. But as the conversation went on Weiss could feel herself grow more and more uncomfortable, like a rising pit in her stomach.
"You let him escape. Do you realize the public scandal I would have to endure the moment that it comes out what he did, how will the Schnee name and the company handle this."
"You can't be serious about this Jacques," she heard Ironwood yell "I tell you that the man who put your daughter into a coma has escaped and your first reaction is to worry about how this will affect your name!."
From the moment the sentence was uttered Weiss stepped back from the door in shock, processing what she had just overheard.
Escape! It can't be, Weiss felt her back the nearby pillar as she tried to control her breathing. She felt as if she were shocked multiple times.
Though she didn't hear the full conversation she could infer what they were talking about. An escaped someone who put her into a coma. There was only one person they could have been talking about?
But at that moment as she leaned against the pillar the door opened and she saw a displeased General Ironwood walk out of it and close the door behind him. It didn't take him long until he saw her standing against the pillar.
"Miss Weiss…" he said as he looked back at the office door and then back to her, immediately coming to a realization.
"Did you hear anything?" he asked. Weiss could only nod in response, still overtaking by her feelings of worry and dread.
Ironwood sighed and walked over to her "walk with me Miss Weiss" he said to her.
As they walked away from her father's office, Weiss felt a bit safer in Ironwood's presence, the big tall military man who had done so much for her family was a safe option to be around especially her current state which ached her to ask the question to which she honestly didn't want to know the answer.
"General..," she started softly "what you discussed with my father…was it…is it."
Ironwood interjected as he put both of them to a stop in the middle of the hallway. Looking around every corner as to make sure they were not overheard.
"I wish I could've told you this earlier Weiss but I'm afraid what you heard is true," he said sighing "yes Alector Nirvana has escaped."
Weiss' heart shattered and her pride sank in her shoes upon hearing those words. The words she dreaded ever hearing as her mind drifted off to the dark place she was put in by him, figuratively and literally. The dark place he had forced her in and the feelings she had to endure following his actions.
"How long?" Weiss asked solemnly looking down.
Ironwood sighed again, rubbing his temples. "After Beacon Fell…he was broken out by the other prisoners that had escaped."
Weiss was afraid to ask more questions, the worst she had imagined to be happening had already occurred. Alector Nirvana was and has been a sore spot for her since the events that had occurred while he had pretended to be a new professor at Beacon. The whole truth of what he and whom he really was had shattered Weiss, and what he did to her had become even more of a sore spot.
"I am truly sorry I didn't come to tell you this earlier but I was hoping to recapture him the moment I learned of his escape. But as you can expect the fall of Beacon and resulting aftermath have put a damper on everything and I have been unable to find him."
Weiss wanted to say so much. She wanted to yell him out for allowing Nirvana to escape but ultimately no words came out of her mouth.
"I will find him Miss Weiss I promise I will…"
His words where interrupted by a yell followed by a thud of something hitting the floor.
Weiss and Ironwood peaked their heads up and as if by instinct immediately ran towards the origin of the sound. And when they located they found the Schnee family butler Klein lying face down on the floor.
"Klein!" Weiss yelled out running immediately over to him.
"What happened?" Ironwood said aloud as he immediately scanned around the hallway for any signs of intrusion, his usual paranoia about being watched settling in.
"Klein please get up!" Weiss shouted worried as she tried to get her butler back to attention but to no avail. Ironwood circled the two and kept his eyes laser focused on every corner of the hallway as if expecting an attack at any moment.
"Miss Weiss you need to watch…"
A shadow past by him in an almost lightning fast place.
Suddenly Ironwood felt himself dropped onto the ground as he saw a dark cloaked figure standing atop him as he reached for his breast pocket and pulled out something. Ironwood quickly tried to grab the figure but before he knew he had already jumped off him and landed a few feet.
Quickly grabbing Due Process and firing away, the figure ran with blistering speed out of sight across the hallway. The shots echoing through the hallway as Ironwood breathed heavily and turned back to Weiss who was trying to shield her butler from harm.
"Miss Weiss are you okay?" the general asked.
"Yes general….who was that?" Weiss asked concerned.
"I don't know but we need to inform your father and…." The general suddenly fell silent as he went for his breast pocket only to realize that something was missing.
"General…what's wrong?"
"It's…It's gone! Whoever that they took it" Ironwood spoke up looking around the corner for any sign of the attacker but finding nothing, only the cold white hallways of the manor.
"What! What did they take?" Weiss asked confused.
Ironwood looked at her with a solemn and worried expression.
"Nirvana's portal device. They took the device I confiscated from him."
With Team RJNR:
The team including Nirvana and his pet kitten kept on tracking through the forest on their way towards Haven.
"Awww you're so cute!" Nora babbled as she once again tried to pet Milena who once again made her usual response, hissing with gritted teeth.
"Milena takes a lot of time to warm up to people Miss Valkyrie" Alec said in response, his hands once more tied behind his back with every one of the team keeping their eyes on him. Jaune was once again completely quiet and refused to speak unless it was absolutely necessary, Ruby gave Alec nothing but a side eye with a disgusting expression.
She was disgusted that he had tried to blackmail her. In hindsight she felt stupid for thinking he actually had anything on her. Would Jaune even believe him? Let alone believe Nirvana who said he heard it from his cat.
For his part Nirvana had kept his word and not said anything much either, in fact for most of the trip he was uncharacteristically quiet. Usually he either talked their ear off or made passing snide remarks against them. At the beginning this was usually met with Jaune threatening him and then Ren trying to calm Jaune down, as per usual Ren was the one who made sure to keep the peace.
Nora was trying to make friends with Milena to no success and Ruby just kept her distance, not willing to rock the boat anymore then she had already done by allowing Nirvana to travel with them.
"You know I think it's about time you undo my restraints. I think I have already proven not to run away nor try anything, also realistically where would I even go?" Nirvana said as he came to a standstill.
Nora and Ruby who had been walking beside him came to a step as well before Ren and Jaune turned around.
Jaune immediately stepped forward and Ruby was quick to get in between them as she had promised, Jaune looked at her with disapproval before turning his angry and annoyed gaze back onto Nirvana.
"You're not exactly in a position to make demands so quit complaining and keep walking" was all Jaune said before he turned back to resume their route.
"You know I'm kind of tired of you treating me like I'm the worse scum that has walked the earth since the arrival of the Grimm. Yes I may have not made the best decisions when I came here but don't you think I paid my dues already! I'm not exactly Roman Torchwick or Cinder Fall now am I?" Nirvana said annoyed.
The entire team was frozen in place by those words. Ren was eying him suspiciously but regardless stepped forward and gave a sign to Jaune to not say anything.
"Yes you are not like them. But that doesn't change what you have done, it doesn't change the fact that you put our friends and fellow students in danger just to try and rescue your friend over there," Ren said pointing over to Milena who was silently sitting on Nirvana's shoulder "and you keep trying to justify it by saying we would've done the same. But we all have lost our friends and we haven't resorted to what you did. So yes you may not be as bad as Roman Torchwick or Cinder Fall, but you are in a league of your own and you have shown us no signs you wouldn't stab us in the back the moment it's turned."
Nora and Ruby where surprised by Ren's words, he spoke them in his usual calm and stoic manner but it was more than he had usually spend on the situation. Even Nirvana seemed surprised and taken aback, as he had no response to what Ren had said to him.
The tension could be felt in the air.
That is until it was suddenly filled with a bright multi-colored light.
"Guys…." Jaune spoke as the team turned to him and in front of them, in a small clearing a rainbow collared round spiral had appeared, pulsating with energy.
Their eyes were drawn to it, all in surprise and awe, except for Nirvana.
"Oh no….this is not good" he mumbled.
As soon as the pulsating spiral energy had appeared it was gone again in a literal flash, and in its place a figure had appeared. Cloaked in black with a hood covering their identity, with black cargo pants, a belt fashioned with multiple knives around their waist and their exposed arms had matching tattoos of swords, both completing each other.
The entire group looked up in surprise as the figure stood up and observed them, before the gaze seemed to linger on Nirvana.
"Alector Nirvana, what a coincidence finding you here" a soft voice spoke.
Nirvana stepped back in apparent fear, almost hiding behind Nora and Ruby as he looked at the figure and took notice of the tattoos on her arms, his eyes went almost cold "oh no…" he said.
The figure removed the hood, what appeared was the face of a young woman, her hair was long and blonde and her head was shaved on the right side, with the tattoo of spiral on the shaved side. She grabbed a knife from her belt and looked at the group and grinned, staring especially at Nirvana.
"Hello Leana, it's been quite a while" was all that Nirvana said as both he and Team RJNR looked at the armed and clearly dangerous woman in front of them.