But for a week, Ruby showed no signs of doing anything of the kind. Thus, Blake (and Weiss) were unprepared for what Ruby had in store.

It was Saturday night, and they were about to go hit up the Valish movie theater. Blake was excited because it was the premiere weekend of Howling at the Moon, her favorite book second only to Ninjas of Love. Even after discovering Zwei was the author, she couldn't deny the genius-level storytelling and couldn't wait to see how the movie turned out. Though Ruby and Yang were more into action adventure type movies, they were looking forward to seeing this one just to see how amazing Zwei was. And Weiss of course adored the corgi the most out of all of them.

As such, Blake was already dressed and ready two hours before the movie started. She had to stop herself from constantly telling Ruby and Yang to hurry up in her excitement. Still, Yang saw the look on her face and grinned.

"Relax Blake, we've still got an hour and a half til the movie starts."

"I know…but you better not take forever with your hair."

"Now look here missy." Yang pointed a finger at Blake. "These golden locks are the pride of Vale. They need a lot of caring! Don't you, beautiful?" Yang addressed the last question to her hair, caressing her golden locks and making weird noises that Blake simply rolled her eyes to. Nothing new with this goofiness.

"Hey Blake, can you grab my hood from the closet?" Ruby asked.

"Sure."

Impatient to get going, Blake hurried over to Ruby and Weiss's walk-in closet. Weiss was in there trying to choose an outfit. She turned around as Blake walked in.

"Hey Ruby—" Weiss startled as she realized it was Blake. "Oh, B—Blake, did you need something?"

"Ruby asked me to grab her hood for her."

"Oh. It isn't in here. It's in her dresser outside."

"Oh okay."

Blake turned toward the closet door and tugged on the handle a few times.

"It's locked."

"What?!"

"It won't budge."

"That's impossible!" Weiss strode to the door and rattled the handle so hard Blake was worried she might tear it off.

"Stop, you're going to tear the handle off."

"There isn't even a lock on the inside! This is impossible. Maybe the door got jammed." She kicked the door to no effect.

"Ruby, the door got jammed!"

No answer.

"Ruby?"

"Yang?" Blake called out. "Get us out of here!"

"What did you say?" Yang's voice was muffled.

"The door's jammed, help us out!"

"I can't hear you, what was that?" Yang said in a way that meant she could hear every word clearly.

"Yang, cut it out! We're serious!"

"What's the matter?" Ruby sang.

"Ruby, you dolt, get us out of here! The door is caught!" Weiss screeched.

"Mmm…no."

"What?!"

"Nope."

"Yang!" Blake yelled.

"I'm with Rubles on this one."

"But—but why?"

"You two have some serious talking to do."

"That's ridiculous!" Weiss yelled.

"But—but the movie's going to start!" Blake blurted out.

"You care about a ridiculous movie at a time like this?"

"What's your problem, princess? You were jumping up and down about ten minutes ago!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Ugh!"

"See? This is what I'm talking about," Ruby quipped.

"Shut up!" Weiss and Blake yelled at the same time. They blinked at each other in surprise, then turned away from each other, uncomfortable now that they'd both spoken at the same time.

"Just proves her point all the more," came Yang's sunny voice. "Don't even think about trying to bust out until you've made up. You have the Yang guarantee that you'll fail."

"Meaning we have a good chance of busting ourselves out."

"Haha, very funny Blake. Let's just say you won't like it if you try."

"Oh yeah?"

"Unless you want all of your stuff covered entirely in dog hair and poop. Including your limited edition Ninjas of Love."

Out of the corner of her eye, Weiss saw Blake go pale. As much as she was at odds with the cat faunus at the moment, she couldn't help but have a slight amount of pity for the poor girl.

"You would never!"

"Ruff!" barked Zwei.

"See? Zwei agrees with me." Yang said.

"Don't think we let you off the hook either, Weiss!" Ruby called out.

"A little dog hair isn't going to bother me, especially if its Zwei's!"

"Nope. But an F in class might!"

"What?!"

"We have it rigged so that busting out triggers a highly disrespectful e-message to be sent from your scroll to all our professors. When they see that message, let's just say they'll be less than happy."

"You can't do that! You don't even know how to do something like that!"

"Don't I?"

"Huh?"

"All I needed was your birthday and a little Scrollsearch and wala. Access to your account."

"You're bluffing," Weiss retorted, but out of the corner of her eye Blake could see Weiss trembling on the verge of an anxious breakdown.

"I'm also a weapons geek, which automatically makes me a techy person. You know that."

At that, Weiss blanched. "I swear Ruby, if you send that message—"

"I won't! But only if you and Blake talk and figure things out."

"Better hurry up if you don't want to miss the movie!" Yang called out.

"Good luck! We'll let you talk," said Ruby.

"Wait don't leave!"

"…"

"Ruby!" Weiss exclaimed.

"Yang!" called Blake.

Silence.

"…"

"…"

"…I should have known Ruby would try something like this," Weiss sighed.

"She tried to talk to you too?"

"Naturally."

"I guess nothing gets past her."

"No, nothing does."

They remained silent for what seemed like an eternity, still facing opposite directions, the tension in the air palpable. Finally, Blake worked up her courage and spoke up.

"I—I suppose we should talk then."

No response.

"Weiss?"

Still no response.

Here I am, actually trying to make an effort and she won't even listen to me! Angrily, Blake spun around and strode toward the heiress, covering the distance in two strides. Grabbing her by the shoulder, she forcefully turned her about.

"Hey!"

A glyph appeared between the two girls, shoving Blake backwards. Caught by surprise, Blake slammed into Ruby's side of the closet scattering some of her clothes and hangers on the floor. Weiss only had a second to comprehend what she had done before a hanger slammed into her face. Unbalanced, she cried out and fell rather ungracefully onto her bottom. Propelling herself forward with a shadow clone, Blake crouched over the heiress, one hanger pointed at Weiss's throat and a second raised above her head ready to deal a blow.

"Take it all...just…please…please don't kill me." It came out as little more than a whimper, and it was only then that Blake noticed Weiss's hands raised in surrender and her eyes scrunched tight in fear. She was trembling. A stab of pain shot through Blake's heart and her hangers wavered in the air.

"You're…you're afraid of me."

Weiss opened her eyes then at the sound of Blake's voice. "Blake?" The image of the snarling White Fang member with dual knives changed with a blink into an uncertain Blake with hurt in her eyes.

"Blake! I'm—I'm sorry, I just…I…this place…" Weiss shook her head as if trying to clear out a bad memory. Blake tensed, wondering if this was a ploy to let her guard down or if this rare break in the Schnee's composure was genuine.

"… I'm sorry," Weiss whispered.

That alone convinced the faunus that Weiss meant what she said. The heiress never apologized once if she could help it, let alone twice. Blake lowered her hangers to the floor and sat down next to the heiress. Weiss started to sit up only for her hand to slip. Blake immediately reached out and caught Weiss behind the shoulder. Another glyph appeared but not before Blake had shadow-cloned out of harm's way, prepared this time. Still, Weiss didn't miss the glimmer of hurt in her teammate's eyes.

"Blake! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that."

That's the third time she's apologized already. Something must really be affecting her. "It's okay, no harm done." She returned to her place next to the heiress, keeping her guard up for any other subconscious glyph flares.

Weiss noticed and dropped her head, saying softly, "But I have. I've hurt you." She turned her head away and quickly brushed her eyes once, hoping the faunus wouldn't notice.

Blake saw and her gaze softened. "I can see there's a lot more going on right now. Can…would you like to tell me?"

The gentleness in Blake's voice was too much for Weiss's heart to handle, and she curled up and put her head in her arms so Blake wouldn't see the tears streaming down her face. You blubbering bit of nonsense, stop crying dammit! She'd never told anyone what had happened that night. Winter had been there too, and the one time Weiss had started to bring it up Winter flew into such a rage against the low life who'd almost murdered her little sister that Weiss had immediately dropped the subject and never brought it up again. Still, the faunus haunted her dreams sometimes and she would wake up in a cold sweat.

"If you don't want to, that's okay."

"No! I—" Weiss paused. Should she tell Blake? Would it cause more harm than good? She'd already hurt the girl enough. "I just don't want to hurt you anymore."

"I doubt anything you say could hurt me right at this moment. But even if it did, I'd rather hear it than not."

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

Weiss still looked reluctant though, so Blake added, "Plus, if you didn't tell me I'd probably die from curiosity. Cause you know, curiosity killed the cat."

A light chuckle escaped Weiss's lips before she could stop herself. To distract from her break in composure, Weiss quipped, "You're starting to sound like Yang."

"No, she wouldn't have been smart enough to think of that joke."

"Fair."

They shared a smile at the blonde's expense before Weiss grew serious again. The joke, as crude as it was, had given Weiss the courage to move forward.

"This place…brings back memories."

Blake caught the change in tone. "This place? You mean this...closet?"

Weiss took a deep breath and started talking before she could lose her nerve. "This is a lot to say so please don't interrupt me until the end. Otherwise I doubt I'll be able to say it all." Blake acknowledged her request with a gracious nod that Weiss returned. She took another breath.

"When I was little, I used to hide in the closet all the time," Weiss confessed. "It felt…safe. The sound of my parents screaming at each other and glass bottles shattering was muffled by the clothes. So every time a fight was happening, I went in there. Winter knew. She would always fetch me once everything was over. " Blake's eyes widened at this new glimpse into the Schnee heiress's childhood, but remained silent.

"One night I woke up and heard fighting again. It sounded different somehow though. There were loud shots and bangs. I had never heard gunfire before. So I went in the closet and waited there for Winter to come get me when the fighting was done." Weiss hugged herself. Blake listened intently, cat ears cocked forward under her bow.

"I heard footsteps in my room. They didn't sound like Winter's, but I was too scared to notice. Then I heard the closet door open." Weiss visibly shuddered. "'Winter?' I called out. But it wasn't her." She took a breath, trying to calm down the sudden panic that welled up inside.

"He—he never said a word. Just unsheathed his knives and spun them as he walked toward me. I backed away, calling for Winter, but Winter wasn't there. I—I couldn't see his face because of his mask. But he had two horns on his head and he looked…looked…" Weiss took a shuddering breath. Blake thought Weiss looked like she would break at any moment and wanted to show her support, but remembered at the last minute that Weiss could take a friendly touch the wrong way and restrained herself. So instead, she scooted a little closer to the heiress, being careful not to touch her. Weiss acknowledged the gesture with a slight nod, and swallowing, continued softly.

"Monstrous. He looked like a monster out of a nightmare. He tried to attack me and I put my hands up. It was the first time I'd ever used my Semblance. He flew backward but got up quickly. The glyph was weak, after all. My aura was weak before I started training. He advanced and I panicked. He knocked me down and held his knife over me. And then he finally spoke."

You Schnees stole everything from me! And now I'm going to take it back.

T—take it all! Just please…don't kill me.

You don't understand. My daughter is dead. I will make Jacques Schnee feel the pain of losing his daughter too.

Please! Th-there's l-lien over there-

You arrogant bitch! All the lien in Remnant will never bring my daughter back! I'll rid Remnant of every last Schnee that exists and the world will finally be pure! Starting with you.

GET OFF OF HER!

"Winter had finally come," Weiss whispered. "She had only started training her Semblance for a few months. But she knocked him aside with a glyph and immobilized him with another one. She called my name and I ran to her. We escaped out the window using her glyphs to jump down a few feet at a time. By then the police had arrived. We waited with an officer."

Weiss let out a breath and Blake realized she had been holding her breath too. "Father came out next. I wanted to run to him but Winter held me back. I didn't really understand what was happening at the time. But I think Father was more angry that the White Fang stole five thousand lien from the family vault than about the fact that someone had almost murdered his own daughter. Winter told me to keep quiet, so I did. Mother came out last, carrying Whitley. I don't even think Father noticed."

Blake thought Weiss was done and opened her mouth, but Weiss continued, "Father was in a rage for months afterward. That was when he started tightening the security and adding his own measures on top of what Grandpa Schnee had put in place. We found out that it was one of his closest business advisors who had leaked information to the White Fang, hoping to gain a profit from what they stole. I learned that day that you can't trust anyone. Especially a faunus." Weiss stopped, and when she didn't continue, Blake spoke up.

"I'm…sorry Weiss. What happened to you was horrible."

"It's fine," Weiss said, even though both of them knew it wasn't. "The Schnees have always risen above every obstacle they have faced. We will survive and we will thrive." Weiss's eyes hardened and she straightened up a little. Blake simply nodded, well acquainted with the Schnee mantra.

"What I don't understand, is why."

"Why what?"

Weiss studied her hands. "Why the White Fang wanted our blood. Why they still want it to this day." Weiss looked up, fixing on Blake with a steely glare. "And why you were part of all that."

More to come! Stay tuned for an update. :)