"Well, that's gotta be a helluva crazy first day here." Sun remarked. Ruby and Yang had just finished filling Team SSSN in on the details of their time in Atlas over the past forty-eight hours in a cave not too far from where the two groups crossed paths, in another of Qrow's "Huntsmen Hidey Holes" as Scarlet had unofficially dubbed it. The group was either huddled around a portable Dust-powered heater for warmth or, in Marron's case, keeping watch for more Grimm at the mouth of the cave.
"Weiss, I'm really sorry that happened to you." Neptune apologized, edging closer to her, only for the duelist to edge away further.
"It's nothing for you to worry about, Neptune." Weiss said, brushing it off. Ruby and Yang, who sat on her other side, exchanged a look knowing the girl was lying through her teeth.
"Weiss, it's okay to let us in you know." Yang spoke up.
"Yeah, you've been pretty distant since the whole thing at the SDC went down." Ruby agreed.
"It's just..." Weiss started. "...I've been trying my hardest since starting at Beacon to show him I can be independent, be strong, without him lording over me every waking hour. After him cutting me out entirely...I don't really know what to do with myself now."
"Weiss..." Blake started.
"And Winter!" Weiss added, raising her voice slightly. "Even she was better to me than my father, and she's not just betraying my trust as her sibling, but all of Remnant! How dare she!"
"Yes, and you have every right to be angry at them." Sage agreed.
"But that's just it! I'm not!" Weiss shouted. "I got my family off my back, all I ever wanted when I decided to not live how my father expected me too! Now, I just...I don't know what to do with myself!"
"Then...who are you angry at?" Scarlet asked.
Weiss finally was able to admit it at this point in the discussion. "I'M ANGRY AT MYSELF!" she roared, pounding a fist on the cave floor, the power of her emotions taking over control of her aura, and forming a glyph under her hand. The power it unleashed was a gust of ice that froze over the heater in the center of them, startling the group, but mostly, startling Weiss at the sight of what she had done. "I...I'm sorr-" she started, tears running down her cheeks before Ruby quickly pulled her partner into a hug, Weiss returning it as she leaned into the reaper's shoulder sobbing.
Watching from the outskirts of the circle as the younger Huntsmen and Huntresses comforted the white-haired girl, Qrow walked towards the mouth of the cave where Marron was surveying their surroundings. "That didn't attract anything, did it?" he asked.
"No. This place doesn't echo much I guess." Marron shrugged, not moving her sights off the mountains around them.
Qrow nodded as he took another swig from his flask. "She's got her friends. She'll be fine." he thought aloud, before another thought crossed his mind. "What about you?"
"How do you mean?" Marron asked, turning to the more seasoned Huntsman.
"Winter was your teammate, right?" Qrow asked. "And that Chains guy Ironwood's men are looking for?"
Marron rubbed her arm uncomfortably. "Chad was our leader back at Beacon. After we graduated, he dropped off the radar after his family back home was killed by Anti-Faunus radicals. I think he joined the Fang to keep it from happening to anyone else, but he's become exactly what he's tried to fight." she remembered. "And as for Winter, she was my best friend. The thought of her actually working with the enemy...it's unheard of for me."
"We'll get some answers to that eventually." Qrow shrugged, looking back at his nieces and their friends, still comforting an inconsolable Weiss. Yang shared a knowing glance with her uncle. After breaking it off, they returned to what they were doing, Qrow taking his sword out and leaning it against the wall. "Go get some rest, Marron. I'll take the next watch." he volunteered.
"If you say so." The Arc nodded, retreating back into the cave as Qrow took her place.
"...Yes, Commissioner. Please do contact me if you get any new developments." Silbern nodded as he hung up the phone in his study, turning back in his desk chair to the smaller desk his long time butler sat at with a blank piece of paper and caligraphy pen in hand. "Pardon that interruption, Buxton. Are you ready to begin?" he asked the elderly servant.
"Of course, Master Silbern." Buxton complied as he brought the tip of the pen into an ink well for the words he was prepared to write.
"Put everything down from this point on:" Silbern ordered as he began, Buxton keeping in time with the audible scribbling of the pen's tip on parchment.
"I, Silbern Schnee, do declare that after I pass on from this life, my possessions, ranging from monetary assets, physical possessions, and estates and real estate under the Schnee Family name, will be handed down to the sole proprietor of my fortune: my eldest daughter, Winter Schnee." He paused to allow Buxton the time to catch up. "In conjunction, should Winter Schnee attempt to share these inheritances with her biological sister, Weiss, she will have them revoked and spread across the following board members:..."
He pauses again, this time, not to allow his butler the chance to catch up, but at the notice that Buxton has stopped writing altogether after the mention of Weiss' name. "Is something the matter, Buxton?"
Buxton places the pen down as he turns to the businessman. "May I speak freely to you, Master Silbern?" he asks.
"I believe you've earned the right. You may." Silbern nodded, gesturing for him to go on.
"Thank you." Buxton nodded before continuing. "Sir, I have served your family faithfully these odd fifty or so years. I remember fond memories of when you and your brother, Master Niklaus, would play as children do, as the joyous days of the births of your daughters."
"Daughter, Buxton." Silbern corrected. "There is only one."
"Despite the events from this afternoon, you cannot deny she exists, and that you are the one who had sired her." Buxton reasoned.
Silbern narrowed his eyes at the comment. "What are you getting at, Buxton?" he asked.
"All I ask is do you believe writing Miss Weiss completely out of your will and testaments will solve any problem?" Buxton asked, trying to get his employer to try and find a second thought about his decision earlier today.
Silbern lets out a long sigh. "Weiss had brought enough shame in her lifetime to my family's name. Today's embarrassment was the last straw, and it will take more than trying to spark some empathy in me to change my mind." he explains.
"Even I can admit times have changed, Master Silbern." Buxton said. "Why, I remember a time when I was a youth that Faunus couldn't even set foot in a Huntsman Academy anywhere in Remnant, let alone openly identify them self as one."
"That's different, Buxton." Silbern growled, beginning to become agitated.
"And I also recall a time when your skills with glyphs wasn't far off from Weiss' current level when you were her age-"
"Enough!" Silbern snapped, slapping the top of his desk with an open palm to stop the belittling of his decision. "Buxton, you may retire for the evening. I will complete this myself."
Silently complying, Buxton stood up from the desk and left the study, leaving Silbern to his own devices as the butler began to close the door, nearly startling himself as he noticed someone standing on the other side of it.
"Oh! Miss Winter, you surprised me." Buxton apologized, almost walking into the older girl.
"My apologies, Buxton." Winter said in return. "I...couldn't help but overhear from down the hall." she then admitted.
"Was I really that loud?" Buxton thought aloud before he caught himself. "I apologize for the argument you heard. It's unbecoming of a butler to say such things to his employer."
"No, it's not my concern." Winter countered. "In fact...I think you made a good point." she said, surprising the long time servant to her family.
Deciding not to question it, Buxton nodded in thanks at the comment. "Thank you, Miss Winter. Will you be needing anything else? Your father has retired me for the evening." he offered.
"Just one thing, Buxton." Winter nodded. "You have an extra set of keys to the private Bullhead, correct?"
A pair of sapphire eyes watched out of Qrow's range of sight as she braced the arctic blasts of icy wind blowing through the mountain pass. The gusts suddenly changed intensity as she felt a steady blowing from behind her, turning to see a large Griffon flying towards her, a black-clad form on its back as it landed and let out a squak in front of Violet, who pulled down her hood as she approached the Grimm and its passenger crawled off its back.
"Father. I was not expecting to see you before I arrived at the tomb." Violet nodded, greeting her father.
"I decided to take it upon myself to meet you in person for the progress report." October explained.
"They're waiting out the night in that cave below us." she reported, gesturing to it as October looked over the cliff.
"I see." he nodded. "We're on a tight schedule. The White Fang is edging to get going. If this is to work, we need to have those Huntresses there before they arrive."
"Am I right in assuming you have a solution to displace them and get them moving again?" Violet asked.
"Yes." Her father nodded, placing a hand to the ground behind them as a glowing black image of an eye appeared on the snow below their feet. From it, a puddle of black ooze formed as he backed away from the ever growing pool. A second later, three Nevermores, each the size of a small plane, flew out from the pool, one of them letting out a loud screech that awoke any of Team RWBY and SSSN sleeping inside, as well as alerting Marron and Qrow.
"We've got company!" Qrow announced, extending his sword's blade. Rising to their feet, the younger group of Huntsmen and Huntresses gathered their belongings and readied their weapons.
"What is it?" Sun asked, running up to his team's chaperoning Huntsman, only to duck back inside the cave as one of the Nevermore wedged its head into the mouth, trying to grab at anyone inside with its beak, letting out another deafening caw as it failed to grab anyone in the first go. Running up, Marron aimed the barrel of Aurum Wing at the gaping beak of the Grimm, letting a round crack off into its gullet to blow the monster out and give them an opening to escape.
"Run! Head to the north!" Qrow ordered, leading them out as they slid down the mountainside.
"What's to the north of here?" Yang asked as she followed him down.
"Old network of mines the SDC used to occupy before they moved operations worldwide." Qrow explained. "That's where we've been headed." He turned back to check on their pursuers, taking note of the other two Nevermore he had previously not noticed. They could barely be seen, their black figures blending with the night sky and snow whipping past them, the icy cold wind blasting each face as they continued down the mountain at a quick pace.
"Neptune! Scarlet! We need somebody holding them off!" Sun ordered his teammates, that wordlessly complied, Neptune taking out his energy rifle and Scarlet his new weapon in the form of a flintlock pistol. The shots did little to deter the beasts as they continued to follow them. Ruby and Yang took the initiative to join them, their weapons being enough to actually get one of the Nevermore getting too close for comfort off their backs as one of Crescent Rose's shots struck through its eye, the body crashing into the snow-covered wall behind them before dissipating into nothingness as all dying Grimm do.
"Nice shot, Sis!" Yang cheered before a new rumbling caught their ears.
"Avalanche!" Sage alerted everyone as a tidal wave of snow started crashing down behind them.
"As if we didn't have enough to deal with!" Neptune complained, looking behind.
"Is that a ravine?" Scarlet asked, looking ahead at a large drop off ahead of them.
"Get ready to jump!" Ruby yelled as she activated her semblance to propel herself over the ravine to the other side. Yang and Marron used the blowback of their weapons to rocket themselves over, Blake and Scarlet using their weapons' grappling hooks to swing across. The rest relied on jumping across on a set of glyphs Weiss used to get across. Just before Weiss made the last jump, she was almost plucked out of thin air by another Nevermore were it not for a slug from Ember Celica punching it in the face, stunning it long enough for Weiss to get over. The Nevermore was not lucky enough to recover in time, and the torrent of ice and snow poured over it and forced it down into the seemingly bottomless ravine below.
"Too close...Blake sighed, catching her breath as she reconfigured Gambol Shroud into its katana form. Everyone took a quick moment to recover as the third Nevermore suddenly came down, landing on the ground behind them as the avalanche dissipated and the last of the falling ice fell into the gap.
"Oh, come on!" Yang sighed as she reloaded her gauntlets.
"Don't worry, Firecracker. We're in the home stretch." Qrow said, looking out ahead of them. Down another snow-covered and steep hill, they could see the outlines of an abandoned rail line going through the mountains on a cliffside. "We just need to make it to that cliff below us." He turned back to face them, only to join them in ducking as the Nevermore swooped over them, missing as it tried to grab one of them.
"Weiss! Can you get a clear shot on it with your ice dust?" Blake asked.
"I need to get closer to do that" Weiss answered, trying to calculate the aim and range she'd need for the perfect shot as she switched Myrtenaster's chamber to use its ice features.
"Let's get you in there then!" Yang smirked as she jumped down the hill, sliding towards the bottom as the Nevermore took notice of her.
"Blake, quick! Bumblebee!" Ruby ordered. Blake threw her half of Gambol Shroud down to the blonde brawler, as she caught it in her left hand, getting ready as the Nevermore began banking right to come back around and go after Yang. With the combined force of sliding down the hill and being swung towards the beast by Blake, she ducked under the flying Grimm as it swooped over her, grabbing the Nevermore by the tail and slamming it into the side of the hill. The stunning of it gave the Huntsmen the time they needed to slide down the hill to the rail line below. As they descended, Ruby and Qrow came up behind the grounded Grimm as Yang was struggling to keep it down with her strength. Sage had joined in trying to pin it down with his bare hands, but even the adding of Weiss launching blasts of ice at its joints couldn't keep it from thrashing about. In order to finally put a stop to the Grimm, Qrow switched his weapon to its scythe feature as Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose. With precision timing, the niece and uncle duo brought a swing of both weapons across the neck of the beast just as they made it to the bottom of the hill, its severed head smashing through an old support beam used to keep snow from the above mountains off the old tracks, weakening its support and causing another avalanche.
"Quick! Into the tunnel!" Qrow yelled as he ran ahead, SSSN, Marron, and Blake already getting inside as Qrow helped lead the others to the tunnel opening. Yang and Ruby had gotten the lead before the younger of the two sisters looked back, Qrow was right behind them, but Weiss had tripped and fallen to the ground.
"Weiss!" Ruby cried as she turned back.
"Ruby!?" Yang called in surprise as her sister suddenly did a 180 and ran back for the heiress. Weiss looked up to call back to her before a chunk of ice from the second avalanche bashed into her head, knocking her out. Not wasting a second, Ruby picked up Weiss in the knick of time just as they started running back, a crashing wall of ice, snow and rock right on their heels as they made a diving leap for the tunnel.
"WEISS! RUBY!"
CLIFFHANGER!
I'm sorry for cutting it there, but I just had to get one more out before I head out from Boston to Austin tomorrow. Who else is as hyped for RTX as I am? I don't have much else to say besides that, so please follow this story if you enjoy it, leave a comment because I love feedback and read all my comments, and I'll see you lads and lasses next time!
