With the festival in full swing, breakfast at Beacon was a sight to behold. The cafeteria was packed with semi-awake students from every corner of the world. Whether Atlas or Vacuo or Mistral or Vale, this rainbow of humanity (and faunus-ity?) put their differences aside to cram caffeine and lard down their throats. Lovely. A shame it was all going down the shitter in three days. Today (Tuesday) marked the conclusion of the full team round, then two days for doubles matches, and then...this party would take quite a turn. By the time the weekend rolled around, Beacon would be a burnt-out ruin and most of the colorful brats in here would be corpses. Now, Mercury Black was not a sentimental man. He was, overall, at peace with his career choices. He knew he was in line for some sick perks once Cinder's boss set up her new world order, and if a few million people had to die in the process, that was life. But still...the smell of delicious breakfast food filled the air, utterly unlike the sometimes literal pig slop his father had used to feed him, and he couldn't help a twinge of regret. Were there any Grimm who could make hash browns this good? What did it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet lose his fried potatoes?

Thinking about it made his head hurt. To hell with it; his talents lay in killing people, not philosophy. He and Emerald piled their plates high and went in search of a table. It was just the two of them—Neo spent no more time with her 'team' than strictly necessary, and Cinder was back in their room. According to her it was safest for her to limit her public exposure, considering how a certain avian Huntsman was snooping around. In Mercury's opinion, that was a load of bullcrap; she just wanted an excuse to sleep in and have her peons deliver her breakfast in bed.

"Oh, hey Emerald!" A shrill, irritating voice blasted his ears. Little red Ruby Rose was waving cheerfully at them, oblivious to her impending doom. "Congrats! You guys won yesterday, didn't you?" She only had half her posse with her today—her sister, two Schnees, and that blond idiot, Juan or whatever his name was. Emerald visibly considered ignoring the greeting and going off to eat her waffles, but the need to keep up appearances won out. She plastered a fake smile onto her face and shot Mercury her typical 'let me handle this, dumbass' glare. If one believed what she said, socializing was an intricate art comparable to rocket science in difficulty (considering Remnant's lack of a space program, that was very difficult indeed). A meathead like him couldn't possibly be trusted with it lest he blurt out all their evil schemes while trying to say 'good morning'.

Not like he was in the mood for small talk anyways. It was going to be awkward chatting up two teams who were on their potential target list; of course, the final call would depend on who advanced to the one-on-ones. The punchy blonde or the hammer-wielding nutcase could be relied on to safely break his legs; the Schnee boy on the other hand...based on his fight yesterday and rumors about a certain incident in Forever Fall, that one preferred targeting a different body part. In their room last night, Emerald had cracked a joke (in very poor taste!) about how seeing an innocent man castrated on live TV would really help attract Grimm. For a horrible moment he'd thought Cinder would actually agree. To his relief she'd merely smirked and made her usual smug remarks about everything going as planned.

"Uh, hi Ruby." Emerald said awkwardly, back in the present. Truly, she was a master of manipulation. "Congrats to you guys too. You did great. Know who you're sending to the next round yet?"

That was one of most blatant attempts at fishing for info Mercury had ever seen, but luckily Ruby was too dense to notice. "Oh, yeah. It was tough deciding who to leave behind." she said, with the sorrowful air of a mother choosing which child to sacrifice. "We were debating for, like...all night! But I figured it out! We're sending—mmph!" Before she could spill the beans, Weiss Schnee reached over to cover her partner's mouth. "Ruby, no, that's a secret, remember?"

"Geez, paranoid much?" Ruby's sister (who looked nothing like her) leaned forwards. "Come on, you can't even tell family?"

"Especially not family." Weiss said sharply. She cast her brother (who looked more like a sister) a suspicious look across the table, completely ignoring the bonafide supervillains a few feet away.

Emerald turned her attention to the other team leader present. "Oh, hey Sable. Didn't see you there. You guys did great too—"

Once again, Emerald's flattery proved about as effective as throwing honey at a brick wall. "Nice try. Still not telling you anything." Sable grunted, without even bothering to look her way. Yang sighed and punched him on the arm. "But thanks." he added grudgingly. "And your team, eh, you didn't do too badly either. I liked how you finished off Cardin, actually!" He nodded at Mercury, smiling in a slightly creepy manner, and mimed stomping on a fallen opponent with his boot.

That got a genuine laugh out of the assassin. "Ha! Glad to hear it. They say not to kick people when they're down, but if you think about it, isn't that the best time to kick people? It's only practical." He nodded back, a seasoned killer acknowledging a budding one. "Like, say, nut shots."

Sable's eyes lit up. "See, you get it! Can you believe they booed me for that?"

"I mean, it was sort of...uh, unsportsmanlike." Ruby ventured.

"Unsportsmanlike my ass." Mercury snorted, making the girl flinch. "What are we supposed to do, be sporting to the pe—uh, Grimm we ki—fight?" Emerald cut him off with a peal of fake laughter. "Ha-ha, well it was nice talking but we better go Merc gets real weird when he's hungry see ya!" She dragged him away in a hurry, so they could go eat their (now slightly cold) breakfasts. "I told you, leave this stuff to me." she hissed once they were out of earshot. "Gods, you're such an edgy bitch. You and that kid both."

"I kind of liked him." Mercury whispered back. "Why isn't he on our side?"

Two pairs of siblings and one Jaune walked out of the cafeteria, safe from starvation for the time being. Nora had gone on off on a noble quest to sample every single deep-fried delicacy at the Vytal fairgrounds, dragging Ren and Pyrrha with her, and Blake was presumably doing Blake things (whatever those were), leaving the other five to figure out what do to with their free day. Ruby suggested they go back to their rooms and play some fighting games. Sable snapped that it sounded like a waste of time when they could be honing their skills with actual fights instead, which Weiss agreed with. Yang snarked that the twins were just bitter about getting three-stocked last time round, which led to a whole host of angry recriminations. Jaune stared into space, clearly wanting no part of the argument. "Hey, look at that!" he suddenly exclaimed, pointing straight up. "That is one weird looking ship."

"Huh?" Yang lifted her head, distracted from the brief yet intense debate over the fairness of playing with stage hazards on. A sleek white airship was passing overhead towards the Beacon landing pads. Long ribbons, double the length of the entire ship, streamed from each wing. "No kidding. That, uh, doesn't look aerodynamic."

"And what if those ribbons caught on something?" Ruby wondered. "Right guys—guys?" Both Schnees were staring slack-jawed at the impractical ship. Weiss, normally so aloof, was practically quivering with excitement; meanwhile Sable bore a distinct deer-in-the-headlights expression. Ruby knocked on her partner's head a few times. "Hello? Remnant to Weiss?"

"Eep!" Weiss let out a high-pitched squeal and began hopping in place like a deranged rabbit. "What the hell—what the heck, Sable, why is she here?!"

"H-how should I know?" Sable whimpered, a comically large drop of sweat running down his face. "If she didn't tell you she was coming—hey, hey, wait, damn it!" Weiss had already sprinted off towards the pads, forcing the others to give chase. They were halfway down Beacon's main avenue before anyone thought to wonder why. "What the hell are we running for?" Yang demanded.

"Winter is coming." Sable answered grimly.

"Why did you say it like that?"

The ship was still descending towards the pad when they got there. "Oh good, we made it in time." Weiss said, relieved. She turned to see her brother catching up...along with Ruby, Yang and Jaune. "Why are all of you here?"

"Something wrong with that?" Yang shot back. Weiss, of all people, had run here like a kid chasing the ice cream truck; how could anyone not be curious after that? "What, you scared we'll tell your sister about—"

"I'm not scared." Sable insisted, though she hadn't been asking him. "Fine, you can stay if you want to so bad. Your funeral."

Yang cocked her head skeptically at him. "Pfft, whatever. Can't be more awkward than my mom." The ship touched down softly on the pad. Its ribbons might have been an impressive sight in flight, but now, pooled on the ground like loose spaghetti, they seemed downright absurd. "So what's Winter like?" Ruby asked. "Is she, you know, nice?"

Sable barked out a brief and slightly hysterical laugh. Ruby and Jaune both gulped, wondering if it was too late to leave; Weiss, however, gave her brother a reproachful look. "Winter is wonderful." she said firmly. "As for nice...well, she's certainly nicer than him."

"Low bar." Yang muttered. A ramp lowered at the rear of the ship, and a white-clad, white-haired woman appeared in the doorway above. Three of the five students had never seen her before, but her snowy complexion and ice-blue eyes left no doubt whose kin she was. "Whoa." Jaune breathed. "Um, I—I mean, whoa, she really looks like you. No birthmark though?"

"What birthmark?" Weiss snapped.

"You know, that eye thing you've got?" With one finger, Jaune drew a line next to his left eye. Both twins visibly tensed at the comment. "Wasn't born with it." Sable muttered. That earned him a few raised eyebrows, but no one had time to analyze the implications too hard. A cold snap had blown into Vale, despite it only being October. The firstborn of the Schnee family marched down the ramp and advanced on their position, her hair and spotless uniform glimmering in the sun. Like soldiers awaiting a drill sergeant's inspection, they all found themselves standing a little straighter. Even without saying a word, the way she carried herself sent a very clear message. I am incredibly badass/awesome/other cool adjectives, it roughly went, and will totally judge you if you aren't.

"Winter!" They were ten feet apart when Weiss could no longer contain her excitement, and broke formation to run up to her sister. She raised her arms as if to offer a hug, then caught herself and dipped into a curtsy instead. "I'm so—! I mean, it is...pleasing to see you again."

"Hello, Winter." Sable bowed his head politely, trailing a few paces behind. "This is, um, quite unexpected..."

"It has been a while, has it not?" Winter said matter-of-factly. "Good to see you too, Weiss." she added to her sister, with a slight twitch of the lips. She stepped past her siblings and cast her piercing gaze upon the three strangers. "And who might these be? Friends of yours, perchance?"

Ruby looked ready to melt into a puddle of nerves. "I-I'm Ruby. Weiss's partner. Uh, it's a pleasure to make your...acquisition!" She tried imitating her partner's curtsy, but tripped over her own foot and would've fallen on her face if not for Yang grabbing her hood.

"I'm Yang, 'sup?" Yang flashed a peace sign, casual as could be. She stared Winter down, daring her to make some catty Schnee comment about Ruby's near-accident. Winter raised an eyebrow, but they seemed to come to an unspoken big-sister understanding, and she moved on to Jaune. "Jaune Arc." the blond boy stammered. "Short, sweet—ack!" Sable clocked him over the head and stopped him from finishing that cursed sentence. Winter's eyebrow practically vanished into her hair. "Was that necessary, Sable? Let the poor boy introduce himself."

Jaune rubbed the fresh bump on his head. "Ow. No, it's fine. I, uh, deserved that one."

Winter peered at him as if he were a bug under a microscope. "Hm. You must be my brother's partner, then. He has written to me of you, Jaune Arc."

"That's great..." Jaune attempted to smile, but only managed to look vaguely nauseous. "Uh...only good things I hope?"

Winter crushed his hopes in ruthlessly efficient fashion. "I believe his precise words were that you left much to be desired and needed to be rectified. So not particularly."

"Oh. Guess that's fair." Jaune said sadly. Ruby reached over to pat him on the back, giving Sable a dirty look. "That was at the start of the year!" Sable said defensively. "He's gotten a lot more, um, adequate since then. He even got a knockout in our tournament match, Winter, I don't know if you saw—"

"I saw." Winter interrupted. "As I recall, your partner had to sacrifice himself because you neglected to watch your back."

Now, Sable towered over his oldest sister by at least half a head. Over the past year he'd faced down ancient Grimm and terrorists and killer robots without flinching, earning a reputation as one of the boldest (to put it nicely) and most psychotic (to put it less nicely) students of the year. Despite all that, he cowered like a small child being scolded. "I didn't—"

"And don't get me started on your tactical decisions." Winter plowed on over his feeble excuses. "Whatever possessed you to challenge the enemy leader to single combat? Or to engage at close range despite knowing what his Semblance could do? And that stunt with the Fire Dust, you were lucky not to blow your hand off!" She smacked him on the wrist for emphasis. He, the same boy who'd once taken a bullet from Crescent Rose with barely a sound, yelped and rubbed the sore spot. "Do we need to go over Dust for Dummies again?"

Weiss took pity on her brother and placed a calming hand on Winter's shoulder. "Winter? Perhaps you could—I mean, um, of course he could've done better, but they won. So did we!" She smiled in the manner of a puppy anticipating a treat. "It was perfect, Winter! We took out all four of them in minutes!"

Winter raised a hand for silence. "I saw that as well. You really should have dodged that coconut." Weiss shrank back, pouting, her metaphorical tail tucked between her legs. At the sight of the twins so easily defeated, Yang couldn't help but laugh. "Wow! Can you teach me how to shut them up like that?" she asked.

"Hm?" The question seemed to take Winter by surprise. Ruby and Jaune also leaned forward, brimming with barely disguised curiosity. "Ah. I see." She favored the three of them with a somber nod. "My thanks for keeping my siblings company, then. And my apologies if they have proved...troublesome."

"She's only joking." Weiss insisted. "We haven't caused any trouble—" Yang began laughing even louder. "Well, I haven't."

"Uh, what about that one Grimm Studies class?" Ruby whispered dubiously.

"No. Trouble."

"Shut up, damn it—" Sable growled at his still-giggling teammate. His language earned him a second smack. "My especial apologies for him." Winter continued without missing a beat. "I tried to tame Sable the best I could, but I fear my efforts were insufficient."

Yang shrugged graciously. "Don't sweat it. It's tough for a big sister to replace...you know, that person. 'Sides, I think you did all right." She bumped Sable with her shoulder. "It'd be boring to have a total goody-two-shoes for a leader, anyways."

Jaune mustered the courage to speak again. "Yeah...um, Miss Winter? Sure, it was rough sometimes...really rough...but I wouldn't have got this far without him."

"And Weiss is pretty much, like, my BFF now!" Ruby felt obligated to stick up for her partner too. She looked around the landing pad, struck by sudden nostalgia. "This is where we first met, you know! Yang ditched me right after we got off the ship and I got so lost and accidentally—"

"All right, enough. I don't have time for a recap episode." Winter interrupted again, but her voice was noticeably warmer. "I'm relieved to hear you say so, however."

Weiss mopped her brow. "Me too..."

"Yeah." Sable sighed, slightly muffled. His face was mostly hidden behind his sleeves, but he couldn't entirely hide its pinkish tint. "Why are you even here, Winter? Just to embarrass us?"

"Of course not." Winter scoffed. "Or rather, that is not the sole reason for my presence. I had arranged to meet someone here, in fact." Frowning, she reached into her coat to check that fancy Atlesian gadget known as a 'watch'. "He's late. Most unprofessional, but I should have expected that."

"Am not!" a voice called from above. They all looked up to see a dark figure casually sunbathing on the roof of the airship. Qrow Branwen sprang from his high perch, did a couple flips for style, and landed on the cobblestones with a feather-light touch. Ruby squealed and tackled him around the midsection. "Oh, hey there." The alcoholic Huntsman ruffled her hair affectionately, then shook his head at the sight of the Schnee trio. "Gods, three of you. This place is going to the dogs."

"Branwen." Winter said icily. "How did you even get up there?"

Qrow stuck out his tongue and flapped his arms mockingly. "Grew wings and flew, Ice Queen."

Yang and Sable rolled their eyes, but Winter scowled, clearly taking his answer for sarcasm. "Fine. Keep your secrets." she grumbled. Qrow's elder niece strolled up to greet him, in much more relaxed fashion than Ruby. "Hey, old man. You been in Vale this whole time? How come we never see you around, too cool to hang with the family?" She socked him lightly on the arm, then lowered her voice to a whisper. "Who are you, my mom?"

Qrow shuddered. "Hell no. Don't even joke about that. Sorry girls, but Oz has me busy with mission stuff. Maybe after this stupid tournament." Seeing the familiar way they interacted, Winter stared wide-eyed at them, her imagination running wild with awful possibilities. "Uh, before you ask, they're not mine."

Winter exhaled, freed from deeply unsettling hypotheticals of Qrow procreating. "Thank gods."

"I'll keep it simple for you. My niece here—" Qrow patted Ruby's head. "—is teammates with your sister. My other niece—" he pointed to Yang. "—is teammates with your brother." He shrugged helplessly. "Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. Just bad luck, I guess."

"I'm not related to him." Jaune clarified. Everyone ignored that.

For the first time since her arrival, Winter seemed at a loss for words; after a few seconds of silence, she apparently decided to pretend Qrow hadn't said anything. "Be that as it may." She straightened up and addressed him in a formal tone. "It is my duty to inform you, on behalf of General Ironwood, that pursuant to your request we have located an individual matching your criteria—"

"Oh. Neat." Qrow said, slightly disappointed by her lack of reaction; after a few seconds of silence, his slightly addled brain processed her words and he did a double-take himself. "Wait, you seriously found—what? That was only yesterday!"

"We keep things on schedule in Atlas. Not, of course, that you would understand." Winter said, a touch smugly. "She's waiting for you on the ship. I have family matters to deal with, so I will regrettably not be joining you." She flapped her hand as if to dismiss an annoying dog. "Go."

Qrow broke into an evil grin. "So...you're letting me on your ship. Unsupervised."

Winter looked as if she'd swallowed a lemon. "General's orders. Don't get used to it." she ground out. "No eating or drinking on board, keep your feet off the furniture—hey, are you listening? Scratch the paint and I'll have your head!" Qrow had turned to leave as soon as she began reciting the rules. He strolled up the airship ramp; in the doorway, he turned back, winked, took a swig from his flask, pulled a piece of toast out of nowhere, took a hearty bite out of it, spraying crumbs all over, then vanished inside. "Ugh, the nerve of that man." she grumbled, then turned her attention to her siblings again. "You two aren't busy right now, are you?"

Weiss shook her head. "No, there's nothing going on except the tournament. And everyone we know fought yesterday. I think?"

"If you forgot, they're not important." Sable reassured her. After the appropriate goodbyes and good-lucks and see-you-laters had been said, the Schnees departed in the direction of Beacon castle. "So." Yang said, to the remnants of their dwindling party. "How about those video games, huh?"

"Yeah, let's Smash." Ruby agreed.

"Never say it like that again."

"And that's game! Dew Gayl is eliminated by Aura level!" Professor Oobleck announced. "My goodness, what a statement! Hardly any of us had heard of Penny Polendina before today, but that's certain to change after how she took Team NDGO apart!"

Port roared his approval as well. "Ha-ha, indeed! It's been years since I witnessed such a brutally efficient display!"

Penny bowed politely at the four battered bodies lying on the arena floor. In the background, a girl in a blue beret nodded and checked her watch. It was all over in three minutes, thirty-four seconds. "My thanks. It was a most edifying battle."

"Edi-what...?" a blonde girl in a green dress groaned. Dew Gayl glared balefully at Penny, barely propping herself up with her spear. "You cocky...thesaurus-havin'...bleh." Then she collapsed, joining the rest of her team in dreamland.

Dew was, perhaps, a little justified in her bitterness. Shade Academy's overall tournament record now stood at 0-6. And for the second day in a row, one of their teams had gotten wrecked by a solo fighter. While losing to the famed Invincible Girl might be understandable, suffering the same fate against some no-name was not. Their 68-year Vytal Festival drought seemed doomed to continue indefinitely. When your school was surrounded by crime-ridden slums and miles of desert sand, it was hard convincing top students to attend, and showings like this didn't help on the recruiting trail. The Vacuan fans in the stadium were a picture of abject misery. 'SHADE IS BACK' banners lay abandoned; hands were placed on heads in the infamous 'surrender cobra' gesture; a few had taken to donning paper bags out of shame. The Atlesian contingent, meanwhile, reacted with as much befuddlement as joy, clapping politely while wondering who the hell this girl was and how come they'd never seen her before.

Still, at least one person was enthusiastic about the outcome. "HELL YEAH, LET'S GO PENNY!" Sun roared from a lower-deck seat. His robotic friend's state-of-the-art ears easily picked up his voice, and she whirled around to wave happily at him. Four golden clones spawned beside the monkey faunus; using their tails, each of them reached into his bag and took out a large, brightly-colored plastic horn. Sage and Neptune were aghast at the sight. "Bugger my arse..." Scarlet groaned in dismay.

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZ

Three rows down, Velvet Scarlatina toppled to the ground, twitching and holding her rabbit ears in agony. The human audience took it only marginally better. Boos and hisses and pleas for mercy rang out in that section of the stadium. Flynt Coal covered his ears and apologized to everyone in sight, just in case Sun had gotten the idea from him. The only ones who seemed to enjoy it were a few depressed Vacuans who cheered to hear the sound of their traditional vuvuzela.

The Sun clones followed up by ripping their shirts open, rendering the audience blind as well as deaf. Penny's eyes made sure to record the entire thing at 300 frames per second, for research purposes. And if she saved a few more copies than were strictly necessary...well, no one could blame her for being safe.

Down in the fairgrounds, at a stall selling deep-fried butter, a redheaded girl stared at the TV screen with obvious hunger in her eyes. "Oh my." Pyrrha Nikos whispered. "Our battle will be legendary."

Compared to her alma mater, Winter found Beacon to be woefully unoptimized. The King of Vale's castle really ought to have been made into a museum, not a Huntsman Academy. The walls were made of flimsy stone rather than superior high-tech alloys. The green gardens on the grounds were pretty enough, but quite useless against mass Grimm attack. Filling the space with shield generators, automated turrets, and mechanical sentries would have served better. Yet she couldn't deny the sight was relaxing in a way that Atlas, with its ominous black towers against a perpetually overcast sky, was not. Gods knew she could use some relaxation after the brief (but still too long) pleasure of Qrow's company. She shuddered to think of the depredations he was probably inflicting on her beloved ship.

As they walked along the causeways, Weiss rambled on about the minutiae of school life, about class syllabi and cafeteria food. Not the most interesting of topics, but it had so long since she'd heard her sister's voice and Weiss seemed so content that Winter just let it slide. Sable stayed mostly quiet, chipping in with the odd aside. He kept sneaking uneasy glances at Winter, as if expecting her to resume scolding him any minute. Perhaps she had gone too hard on him earlier. Truth be told, she was reasonably pleased with how the twins had done away from home. It was a good sign that three of their teammates were willing to at least tolerate their company. Between the baggage of the Schnee name and their...admittedly at times less-than-approachable personalities, she had nearly despaired of them ever making friends. Some days, even getting along with each other had seemed like it would take divine intervention. Winter's thoughts wandered back in time, Weiss's voice fading to background noise...

She was six the day they arrived. Even in those happier times, the Schnee house was cold and vast and lonely, and she'd been excited to have some company. A strange warmth bloomed in her chest when she first saw Weiss in Mother's arms, every inch the little sister she'd imagined—a smaller version of herself who she could play dress-up with, impart wisdom from her years of life experience to, and generally mold in her image. Then the dark-haired creature lying in the crib ruined the moment by wailing so loudly her ears rang for the next few hours. When Winter laid eyes on her new brother, a strange chill ran down her spine. This can't be right, she thought, that's not supposed be here, then felt instant shame for thinking something so awful. An extra sibling was fine, right? Better, even. Twins were fun! She wouldn't mind having a couple of adorable little brats in her life who spread joy via comic mischief.

At least, that was what the children's books she read led her to expect. But as was often the case, reality proved different from fairy tales. Her stupid books had never mentioned that twins could be natural-born arch-rivals as well as natural best friends. Keeping the peace was a constant struggle, one that might have turned Winter's hair white were it not that color to begin with. The trouble started at the age of three weeks, when Weiss and Sable engaged in a titanic battle over a spare blanket, respectively wielding a teddy bear and a baby rattle. Their first quarrel of many ended with them holding half a torn blanket each. No fewer than six stuffed animals met a similar fate at their hands; by the time they were three, Klein had learned to order toys in sets of two. When they got to school age, Winter held out hope they would be too busy to continue their petty feuds; instead, every assignment and every exam took on the significance of a Great War battle. Woe betide whichever scored a mere ninety-eight while the other got a perfect grade. And this was before they unlocked their Semblance scarcely a day apart. At the time Winter left to attend Atlas Academy, they'd just started sparring with real swords, and so fiercely did they go at it she half-feared she'd come home to a couple of half-siblings. Luckily, both had somehow survived with all their body parts intact. The only visible damages were those odd facial scars they both bore; neither was keen to speak of how, but Winter had her theories. Their scars were highly similar in location and shape, almost too much so—

"—Winter? Hello?" She returned to the present with a jolt. Weiss was looking anxiously at her. "Um...I'm not boring you, am I?"

The past is the past, Winter reminded herself. Regardless of what had happened, they had obviously been able to work things out. They were still here, still together, and that was what really mattered. "No, Weiss. I was simply...distracted." They were now standing next to some random building, the landing pads nowhere in sight. She realized she was utterly lost. "Where are we going?"

"We were following you..." Weiss said meekly.

"Yeah, you've been walking in circles for five minutes." Sable added.

"Oh." That was awkward. "Then perhaps we could start with your quarters?"

The quarters turned out to be surprisingly normal. Two rooms, each with four full-size beds (Atlas students only had bunks; Winter was mildly jealous), four small desks, and four chairs. There was no evidence of illicit drugs or other debauchery, just normal things normal teenagers put in their rooms: clothes, posters, ammunition, and crates of highly explosive Dust. The most unusual item was the small bookshelf in a far corner of Team SJBY's dorm. "Your teammate reads?" Winter said approvingly. "You'd do well to learn from them. It's good to keep the mind active." She moved closer to the shelves, wondering what was on them. Treatises on mathematics and science? Huntsman field diaries? Or mere escapist fantasy? Not the best use of time, that last one, but sometimes people needed an outlet from the grim realities of life.

Sable cleared his throat. "Winter? Um...I don't think we have time to read a whole library..." It was a weak excuse, but seeing how nervous he and Weiss looked, Winter decided not to press the point. It would rude to browse without permission, after all, and she wasn't here to harangue them over their literary habits. "How long are you staying, anyways?" he added.

What, so eager to be rid of me? "At least through the festival. Not solely to visit you, of course." Or serve as Qrow's personal taxi. Winter sat down on a bed she assumed was Sable's, judging from the number of Dust boxes stashed under it. Following her cue, her siblings seated themselves as well, Weiss on the bed next to her and Sable in a chair. "It's technically classified, but after your last mission you've earned the right to know. Let's just say I'll be helping clean up the mess you left."

"Mess?" Sable bristled at her description."We saved the city!"

"Technically, Ruby and I saved the city." Weiss reminded him. "You were stuck in—"

"Enough." Winter was not in the mood to sit through another round of bickering, or to debate the semantics of what constituted a 'mess'. Her face must have shown it, because they both swiftly went quiet. "Er, I think I understand..." Weiss said after a pause. "All those Grimm, they're still stuck behind that wall, aren't they?"

"Correct. And judging from the noises, the horde's only grown larger." She didn't bother explaning why that was a bad thing. No need to insult their intelligence. "I'm to command the force guarding the containment point. We've shipped in a hundred of the new Paladin-290s—"

Sable pulled a face. "Oh, those things. At least they'll be on our side for once."

"They're considerably more helpful when not in terrorist hands." Winter said drily. "It should be sufficient to stop the Grimm from breaking out. Or anyone else from breaking them out, for that matter."

Weiss sighed. "I suppose few hundred casualties haven't stopped the White Fang?"

If only. The Atlesian Military had eliminated far more than that, but still they kept popping up in the Mantle slums, as if spawned from pools in the dark underbelly of the world. That wasn't actually true, of course; faunus reproduced at the same rate as everyone else, even the rabbit ones. "I'm afraid that would be too much to hope for, yes. General Ironwood is of the opinion that they—or whoever is pulling their strings—have more machinations planned."

"The Dust." Weiss murmured. "They were stealing it for months, but there was hardly any on the train..."

"Among other things." Winter said vaguely. Truth be told, she didn't know exactly why the General suspected what he did (not that she'd admit that in front of her siblings), but she trusted his judgement.

Sable smirked contemptuously at mention of the White Fang, or at least tried to. When it came to smirks, there was a fine line between 'confident' and 'deranged', and his grin bared a few too many teeth to remain on the right side. "Lovely. Well, we could use some excitement. It's been a month since anyone tried to kill us—"

His flippant tone grated on her nerves. "This is not a joke, Sable. I'm warning you—"

"We're not children anymore. They've come at us three times already, know that?" Sable interrupted her, ignoring the fact that they'd arguably been the aggressors every time. He leapt out of his seat and swept his arm out in a violent-looking gesture, knocking his chair to the floor. "Those scum are all rotting in jail or dead, and we're still here, so tell me what we've got to be—"

Winter was off the bed in a flash. She was dimly aware of her hand striking something and a loud smacking sound."Be quiet. You think you're invincible just because you bested some Grimm and two-bit goons? Barely, at that!" As the General's aide, Winter had access to most of the files he did, Qrow's report on the Mountain Glenn incident among them. It had been harrowing to read about how close a call it'd been; slightly less so (but still annoying) to realize her siblings might owe their lives to a Branwen. "Grimm are mindless. The average White Fang thug isn't much smarter. There are far worse things in this world, things that can't be beaten with boasts and stupid Fire Dust tricks. You could stand to learn some fear!" Hopefully before the likes of Taurus and Khan hack you to bits. Apparently one year of Beacon hadn't quite eliminated...certain tendencies of his. Winter still shuddered at the memory of their first Grimm-slaying lessons. She'd thought it'd be a good idea to start the twins on a diet of her own summons—safer and much easier than smuggling a pack of Beowolves into the house. Weiss generally fought with the proper composure (if not skill level at first), but Sable...goodness, once he got going he might as well have been a Beowolf himself. He could be disarmed, his Aura low, and he would still try to beat the pack to death with his bare fists. More than once she'd barely dismissed her summons before they could rip his guts out; naturally, he still had the gall to insist he'd 'had them' afterwards. "A good Huntsman knows when to back off! The ones that don't, they end up—"

"Winter, calm down..." Weiss tugged gently at her arm. Winter snapped back to reality, finding herself inches from her brother's slightly intimidated face. Looking down, she saw both her hands clenched at his lapels, pinning him to the wall. Oh. She sheepishly let go, and Sable pried himself free, smoothing out the wrinkles in his beloved jacket. "Fine." he muttered sullenly. "We'll keep our heads down. Like good kids."

Too harsh, a voice whispered in the back of her mind, again. In hindsight she wondered if Sable's personality might have turned out better with more carrots and fewer sticks, but (again) the past was the past. Mother might have (would have, should have) handled him better. Willow was always the patient one of the family...too patient when it came to certain things...ugh. That Yang girl had been right; it was hard for a sister to replace a mom. She'd been barely more than a child herself back then, and didn't every girl with a little brother dream of giving him a few swats when he got annoying? Sable had been annoying a lot, and, well, no one had really bothered to stop her. "That's not what I meant. Well, it sort of is." Winter admitted. "But you're still in training, all right? You can't expect to eradicate all evil on Remnant in a year." Gods help us all if it ever comes to that. "I'm...reasonably satisfied with your progress thus far, to be honest. I even hear you've made a breakthrough with your summoning—obviously it's still inconsistent but—"

Sable groaned and dropped his face into his hands. "Oh gods, don't remind me."

"We've been trying every day since Mountain Glenn, but he hasn't gotten it again. And I, um, haven't gotten it at all." Weiss sounded frustrated. "I don't understand!"

"I swear it's just taunting us at this point—"

"We even tried, um, replicating the original conditions—you know, depleting our Aura and lying on the floor and—"

"That's not how any of it works!" Winter gave them a bonk on the head apiece, albeit gently this time. "I've told you, with summoning your emotional state is what matters. Sable, what were you feeling when you did it the first time?"

"Um...a lot of anger?"

Weiss rolled her eyes. "There's no way that's the trick, or else you would've summoned when you were a month old!"

The image of a baby proudly showing off a ghostly white teddy bear came to mind; it took all of Winter's icy stoicism to keep a straight face. Sable scoffed at the jab, but couldn't resist a small smile himself. He rested his chin on one hand in a stereotypical thinking pose. "There was a King Tajitu. A big one." he finally said. "The white head was going to hit Yang from behind. And I couldn't help her because I, um kind of overexerted myself...look, we were running and fighting for hours and I had to use a lot of glyphs to keep us alive—" Winter cut off his rambling justifications with an impatient gesture, willing him to get on with it already. "I felt—I hated it, okay!" he burst out. "My teammates were fighting for their lives, and I was lying there being fucking useless!" Her hand twitched on instinct, ready to reprimand him for his language, but she suppressed the urge. It wouldn't do to ruin the moment. "I wasn't even thinking about summoning, I just wanted to do something and, uh, it just happened?"

Winter nodded. "Then I think you have what you need."

"What, the power of hate?"

She snorted. "Not that. You know what I mean." Cut through her brother's usual negativity, and it was a surprisingly wholesome story. She was glad he had found at least one friend worth protecting. As for who that friend was...well, she was still glad. Winter, of all people, should know better than to judge others by their relatives. Qrow might drink himself to a stupor over his nieces being corrupted by capitalism and cold weather and everything else he despised about Schnees, but she was simply happy the twins had friends at all for a change. Although it did raise the somewhat concerning prospect of—nope nope nope getting way ahead of things. She wasn't entirely sure either of them even preferred girls.

Weiss silently stood up and walked to the middle of the room with a thoughtful expression on her face. She drew Myrtenaster from her hip in one fluid motion and dropped into a casting stance. "Are you seriously doing this in my room?" Sable complained.

"I just wanted to try..." she muttered. "Probably won't work anyways." She flourished the rapier, and a flickering glyph appeared on the floor. Winter had never seen her sister produce more than a hazy blur when trying to summon, but now she could see the rough shape of four swords arranged in a cross. A clear improvement. It seemed likely to still fall short, though; the glyph was slowly fading again despite Weiss's gritted teeth and the sweat beading on her brow. Sable watched curiously over her shoulder. "Pretend I need your help." he suddenly said. "Weiss, if you don't summon right now, I'm going to die—"

Her eye twitched. "Don't say that!" The next moment there was a bright flash of white light. When it cleared, a surreal sight greeted the three of them. Amidst the beds and various knick-knacks, a massive armored fist sprouted from the carpet like a bizarre shrubbery, thrusting a proportionally massive sword at the ceiling. Ethereal white particles swirled around the blade, the mini-snowstorm only adding to the beauty of the scene. "Oh. Wow." Sable broke the silence, his voice almost unrecognizably soft. "Is that...?"

"The Arma Gigas..." Weiss stumbled forwards as if dreaming. She reached out to stroke the disembodied hand; her own was tiny in comparison. Oh! Winter hadn't seen this particular Grimm firsthand, but she knew the story. When the twins had broached the topic of attending Beacon, Jacques Schnee had been more than happy to hear his elder son was leaving for a different continent, but his heiress was another story. In his infinite wisdom, he'd hired a couple of Geist busters to wrangle the most ornery specimen they could find and stick it in a suit of armor, then forced Weiss to fight it. He'd calculated that she would lose and (somehow) be forced to stay home in shame, but for a businessman, he had proved quite bad at math...

"It's solid..." Weiss whispered, awestruck. In the end, she had methodically taken the monster apart with about a quarter of her Aura to spare. Winter wished she had been there, if only to see the look on Father's face. As it happened, a near decade of studying the blade, with an equally driven partner pushing you at every turn, did interesting things to your power levels. He might have learned that sooner if he'd bothered to actually pay attention to his children's interests. The summon flexed its wrist experimentally, swinging its sword in a broad quarter-circle. "I really did it...?"

Winter smiled proudly at her. "Welcome aboard."

"HOLY CRAP!" Realization hit like a sack of bricks. The summon faded away as Myrtenaster dropped forgotten to the floor. Sable drew back his hand for a high five, grinning widely, only for Weiss to hug/body-slam him into a wall instead. In stark contrast to his usual reaction when his sister attacked him, he just laughed and affectionately messed up her hair. "I knew you'd miss me!" They spun each other in circles, shouting excited gibberish; for once, the real twins acted just like the ones Winter had fantasized about so many years ago.

The fun ended when the ceiling lamp creaked ominously and dropped right atop their heads. A glyph (Winter wasn't sure whose) intercepted it halfway down, whereupon it shattered into hundreds of glass shards. Oh dear. It had been a nice display of combat reflexes, though, getting that glyph up so quickly. "Not again!" Sable exclaimed. He looked up, only to groan in dismay at the sight. A giant gash, looking suspiciously like the work of a giant sword, had been carved into the ceiling of the room. More 'snow', which she now realized was actually bits of plaster, rained continuously from above. The gash stretched across the ceiling and down the hall-side wall, cutting the door neatly in twain. "Oh my." Winter said nervously. She was suddenly glad Weiss and Sable had waited until they were out of the house to learn summoning. Toys were one thing, but they had never gone so far as to break an entire room before (save on one occasion—the Bunk Beds Incident haunted her memories to this day). "Wait, what do you mean, again?"

"Nothing!" Weiss answered hastily. "It'll be fine, Winter, Miss Goodwitch can just fix it!"

Sable sighed. "You ask her. I'll probably get another detention if I do."

"That...that is fair."

Almost another 2 months, but here's Chapter 29. I understand why long-running fics die now, I really do. It's hard to stay motivated about one idea for so long, but I'll try to stay determined. There are scenes coming up that I've pictured since the very start and I'd like to at least try doing them justice.

I hope "Story Time with Winter" was what you all were waiting for (probably not). Way back in Chapter 6 I remember one reviewer hoping the story would make it this far, and well, here we are, all the Schnee siblings back together.

*sad Whitley noises*

Winter and Sable's relationship was an interesting one to write. Considering their personalities, I could only imagine their interactions involving copious amounts of la chancla. Which is...probably not the healthiest way to discipline your emotionally troubled brother; in Winter's defense she really shouldn't have been in that position, but their mom has crippling depression and their dad is a sociopath and...holy shit, should this story actually be tagged Humor?

And I wonder who Qrow is meeting with? Hmm.