"We should probably get going," Qrow said as he slowly polished the blade of Harbinger, sitting on the edge of his bed.
Ren, Qrow, Oscar, and Jaune were all in their room, either on their beds or on the floor. Jaune was standing glumly in the corner with his arms crossed, looking down; Ren was in a meditating position in the center of the floor, sitting down; Qrow was polishing his sword, and Oscar was laying on his bed, slowly healing his injuries that Jaune had inflicted on him earlier,
He had explained that he had just fallen down the somewhat rocky hill close by, outside of the house, and that his fall had been responsible for the damage that had been delt to him. The others had bought it, and Jaune said nothing to either confess or agree.
"When?" Jaune asked quietly from his corner.
"As soon as Oscar remembers where the Relic is," Qrow answered, looking at his reflection on his now shiny blade, "Then we'll leave as soon as possible and try not to take an eternity to find and then take it. We also need to make sure that when we break open the vault that we don't make a public spectacle of ourselves."
He turned his blade to get a better angle of his facial hair, then lifted to sharp tip of it to his chin and skillfully shaved a small bit of the black hair off. He continued doing this, slowly and carefully, as he and the others discussed.
"How are we gonna do that?" Jaune asked, his eyes still fixed on the floor, "I thought it would be some sort of crazy explosion or something." He spoke in a low, gloomy voice, ambient enough and the room quite enough for the group to hear without straining to listen.
"Maybe," Oscar mumbled from his bed, "That just depends on weather or not we do it as naturally as we can."
"Naturally?" Jaune asked, finally looking up at his current foe, "What does that mean?"
"What he means is that he uses Ozpin's magic as rawly as he can muster, breaking open the gate with as little resistance as possible," Ren finally spoke up, his eyes closed as he continued meditating, "After all, the Maiden's magic originates to Ozpin's, therefore meaning that using Ozpin's magic would be a similar, if not direct source."
"Exactly," Oscar muttered, holding up his mildly glowing green hand to his face and pressing it onto a large bruise. He winced for a moment as his hand first touched it, and then he closed his eyes and relaxed as it healed.
"Great," Jaune said, his voice drained of most of emotion, "So where's the Relic, Oscar." He looked towards him, the other two men following suit.
Oscar mumbled something under his breath as he finished up healing his face, then he sat up with a sigh and looked hard at the three others. A moment of silence passed as Oscar went deep back, through the barrier of his own thoughts and memories, and then back to the ones that were not his own.
He closed his eyes and concentrated, squinting as he went back to the time where Ozpin had been placing the Relics in the Academies to hide them from an threats and power-thristy entities searching for them...
Then he opened his eyes.
"It would be a lot easier to say the exact location," he began, trying to ease out of his Ozpin-mode, "If were were actually in Atlas Academy right now, but as for right now, I can tell you that I'm pretty sure it's up higher. Like, in the tower part of the place."
The three others exchanged glances and then looked back at Oscar.
"So should we head over there right now?" Jaune asked, "Or should we stay put."
"No, I think you pansies have had enough rest already," Qrow cut in, "We've been here for several hours and spent the night. We got our bodies rested up, our bellies fed, and our mission gloom set back a few paces. I think we're all set."
Oscar looked at Jaune, and then at Ren, a questioning look in his eyes.
"I agree with Qrow," Ren said with a nod. Jaune seemed to think a moment before narrowing his eyes and firmly setting his jaw.
"Yes," he said, sounding somewhat angry and also somewhat determined, "You know what? Let's do that. Let's get the Relic and then get out of this city and find the other ones."
Oscar shrugged. "Well okay then. I guess we'll get ready to go then."
"I'll inform the others," Ren said, standing up and heading for the door. He quickly exited and left the other three alone.
"I'll get ready," Jaune said, flashing Oscar some kind of glare before he began rummaging through his stuff without looking back up. He still seemed somewhat upset at the moment, even two hours after his punching spree with Oscar and a nice large lunch.
Oscar and Qrow exchanged a brief nod, both knowing what the other was implying, and then Qrow stood up, grabbed Harbinger, and then left the room also. Then Oscar, not wanting to be near Jaune at all right now, quickly left through the door, leaving Jaune to himself.
Meanwhile, Ren was walking through the halls, headed towards the kitchen where Maria, Blake, Nora, and possible Yang were, likely cleaning up the remnants of lunch. Ruby might also be in there, considering how her door had been locked when they had tried to get her to come and eat. Maybe she had come back and eaten some leftovers.
He entered the kitchen to see Maria vigorously scrubbing a sink of dishes and singing a loud, clamorous, old-sounding tune while Blake and Nora were clearing the table, Nora singing along with Maria. Blake looked annoyed as she silently did her work.
Yang was energetically wiping the counters with a clean rage, singing with Nora and Maria and working her arms like she would in a fight. Her hair was wiping around behind her as she swung her head from side to side while she sang. It was a funny scene to walk in on. Unfortunately, Ruby was not there.
"It's time to leave for Atlas Academy," Ren informed them as he stood at the entrance to the kitchen, "Take your weapons and get ready to leave shortly."
"Hold it there, Hushboy," Maria yelled for no particular reason, "We aren't leaving until my kitchen is as clean as the toilet!"
"Uhm..," Yang said, looking questioningly at the back of Maria's head, "How clean is your toilet, exactly?"
"Impeccably clean!" Maria shot back, lifting the soapy sponge she was using and then wiping it at Yang, sending a spray of warm and dirty dishwater at her, "What did you think? I never clean them? Inconceivable!"
"Okay, okay," Yang said, wiping the water off of her herself, "I get it. Understood, Ma'am."
Ren sighed and shook his head with a faint smile.
"Alright," he said, "I suppose, if you ladies don't take too long."
The girls all nodded and continued on with their work with more energy than before. Ren nodded and then headed for Ruby's room, which was upstairs. He climbed the flight of stairs, walked down that hallway, and then stopped in front of Ruby and Nora's room, hoping that it was either unlocked, or Ruby wasn't in it.
He knocked softly on the door, knowing the consequences of simply barging in. It had happened once with Nora, and boy, what a catastrophe that had been. Nora hadn't seemed to mind, grinning as she had been in the process of dressing, but it had scarred Ren permanently. Nora still laughed at that memory.
There was no reply, so he knocked again, a little harder and then called somewhat quietly,
"Ruby, it's time to leave for the Relic. We're all getting ready."
Still no reply.
"Ruby, wake up!" Ren called louder, "It's time to go." Unfortunately, his loudest calling voice wasn't much louder than his normal calling voice, and it wasn't much of a surprise to him when there still wasn't a reply. Maybe Ruby still felt sick.
Sighing, he turned around and walked back to his room, down the stairs, past the loud kitchen, and then past Oscar, who was staring at the floor as he walked past him. He certainly was in a good mood today.
He finally met up with Jaune, who now had his shield and his sword all read to go.
"Ren," Jaune said, "Is everyone getting ready?"
"The girls are cleaning the kitchen with Maria," Ren reported to his leader, "They'll finish their work and hopefully pack up soon after."
"Oh, Ruby's finally out of her room?"
"No, the door is still locked and she isn't answering me when I call to her."
"Is she still sick?"
"I have no idea."
Jaune shook his head and sighed, looking very stressed and exasperated. This mission had really seemed to put some weight on him, that was for sure, but there seemed to be something else. He had seemed a little more upset after he had talked to Ruby. And her door was locked now, after her conversation with Jaune...
"Aright," Jaune finally said after a few moments of silence, "I'll go try to get her up; you make sure that everybody else is ready and waiting outside."
He patted Ren on the shoulder, gave him a brief nod, and then the two of them headed back down the hall, parting ways when Ren walked into the kitchen to help speed things up and Jaune went up the stairs.
Just as he started down the hallway, however, he bumped into Oscar, who seemed to be going in the same direction as he was. He had entered the hall from the bathroom, which was a few doors from Ruby and Nora's room, and was walking directly towards the room.
The two stood there, looking hard at each other. Oscar's face was all healed now, and only a soft but upset face lingered from that incident. Jaune's face portrayed only anger and frustration, nothing much more, as he glared at Oscar with his deep blue eyes.
Neither said anything for a full minute as they stood there, only the sounds of the activity downstairs being heard. Then Jaune took a step forward and Oscar immediately went in front of him.
"Where are you going?" he asked him.
"Why?" Jaune answered, suspicious, "Are you trying to go sweet talk Ruby or something?"
Oscar's eyes widened and then squinted in anger. "No, I was just trying to get her up since it's time to go."
Jaune looked unconvinced. "Are you sure about that?" he said stubbornly, "I'm doing that."
He started walking forwards when Oscar stopped him with his arms, a determined, stern look on his face. Jaune frowned, getting more impatient and more angry with the man in front of him. He wanted to punch him again, this time, out the window and onto the cold, snowy ground below.
"No, you are not," Oscar said firmly, "Now get out there and help the others get ready. This is my thing to do, and if you don't want her to hate you, I suggest you do as I say."
Oscar was getting bitter again, in an Ozpin-type way. But this time, it seemed purposeful, as if he was trying to do that to scare him away or something. Jaune wasn't sure, but all he knew was that he hated Oscar right now and he was sick of him and the fact that him and Ruby were "together".
Giving out an angry snort, he turned and stomped down the stairs, wondering if he should go back up and knock Oscar over, or just continue the preparations to leave. He decided hesitantly to do the latter, and he joined the noisy conglomeration in the kitchen.
Meanwhile, Oscar stood in front of Ruby's door, his heart thumping in his chest. Despite the fact that he had dangerously stood up to Jaune and had purposely used some of the mildly distant Oz stuff, he felt relieved that he had been able to do that.
He knocked on the door, wondering if she had woken up since Ren had been here. When she didn't answer, he knocked again, this time much louder. Again, only silence answered him.
Clearing his throat, he spoke with his mouth agains the wood.
"Ruby," he said, "It's me, Oscar. It's time to go. Are you feeling okay?"
Nothing.
Shrugging, he held up his hand and watched it start to glow a bright green. Then he slowly pressed it up against the door, close to the knob, and watched as it melted into the wood and appeared on the other side, in the room. Feeling around for a minute or so, he finally felt the lock on the handle and unlocked the door.
Then he slid his hand back, the wood completely unfazed.
Nifty.
Then he carefully opened the door, stepping inside the room and then closing the door behind him. He glanced around the room, hoping that Ruby wasn't missing or something bazar like that. Then again, was it? She was being hunted all the time...
"Hey, Ruby?" he began as he looked from side to side, "It's time to go and the others are waiting. Are you feeling-"
He paused when he laid eyes on her, blinking for a moment and then smiling.
Ruby was laying on her bed, half on her back, half on her side, with the blanket loosely covering about half of her body. She was wearing tight black clothes, outlining every possible feminine charm about her. The thing it most accented was her bump.
Smooth, round, and firm, it could be very easily seen; knowing it was there, or not. It was much larger than he remembered it ever being, and without any clothing much to cover it up and hinder its size and shape, it easily made her look like a cute, pregnant girl. It also made her look kind of pretty.
He sighed, walked over to her, and then pulled the rest of the blanket up over her. Then he stepped back towards the door and took one last look at her, a twinkle in his hazel eyes and a soft smile on his lips.
"You know what," he said quietly, looking deeply at the love of his life, "Go ahead and sleep. We'll be fine."
Then he silently exited the room, locking the door before closing it, and then walking back down the stairs to find the others. To his mild surprise, they were all waiting for him outside, standing by the porch in the snow. It was lightly snowing, nothing serious or delaying. It was actually somewhat pleasant.
"There you are!" Nora said loudly.
"Where's Ruby?" Jaune asked.
"Are we leaving yet?" Yang complained, purposely adding some draggy whine.
Oscar blinked at the questions that had all been hurdled at him all at the same time. Then he held up his hands, beaconing for them to please stop talking and to let him finish walking down the steps of the porch.
"Ruby's still feeling sick," he announced, "And she really isn't feeling well. I asked her to come, but she told me that it was pretty bad, so I told her that if she was feeling better enough to head over to Atlas Academy as soon as possible. Otherwise, we'll have to do this one without her."
A mix of disappointed looks, upset looks, and "oh well" looks broke out amongst the group, and then they all shrugged and then nodded back to him after a short while. Jaune looked the most unhappy.
"Well then in that case," Qrow said, casting a slightly concerned glance to the window of Ruby's room, "Let's get going. We don't wanna take forever to get this thing."
The group all nodded their affirmative answers and then, after Jaune took the lead in the front of the group, they started off on the path to Atlas Academy, without Ruby and without Weiss.
Weiss walked through the long, somewhat chilly hallway, the cold lights from the crystal chandelier above making white patches of light on the royal blue carpet that lined the hall. The light from the windows next to her also let in plenty of similar light, and altogether, the whole place was rather bright today. It was also a bit drafty.
Her footsteps from her heels echoed as she walked, like they always did, and all she could do was wonder what in Remnant she could do. She was bored out of her mind, like she always was when she was here.
No missions to spend her energy on. No Grimm to fight. No lives or homes to save. No friends to talk or laugh with. Instead, she was walking in the long, cold hallway of a rich and fancy mansion, with no world-saving burden on her shoulders, and nothing to do.
I could try to call Winter...No, I should't be interrupting her for no reason, nor should I give her the wrong thoughts about the fact that I'm at home right now, upon my own free will. Gosh, she'd think bad of that.
She shook her head and walked a little quicker, keeping her head down. For some reason, she felt that if she were to look up, Willow would appear and do or say something unpleasant. She wasn't even exactly sure what unpleasant meant at the moment. It just wasn't something she wanted to happen.
She finally arrived at the large glass doors that opened up to the large balcony where she used to train, sometimes with Winter. It just looked so empty sometimes when she knew all that was there was the stone, paint, and wood it was made from. When she knew she was about to fight or something, it was more like a battle field.
But right now, as she stepped out onto the chilly balcony, it was just a balcony, the large stone statue of the Schnee crest with two wings alongside it standing proudly there. The many columns that bordered the large balcony led up to the second level of the mansion, several windows and doors along with it.
As grand as it was, it was somewhat cold, as she could see her breath puff out in front of her, and it had no appeal to her. It was all just the same old same old, like everything here was.
She walked out into the center, watching a few tiny icicles that hung off the sides of the other small balconies above drip slowly onto the ground. Then she looked up at the sky, which was cluttered with light gray clouds. It was lightly snowing, not much of a thrill or a problem. More boredom.
She sighed, drinking in the unbearable silence that she was already drunk on, and then looking down at her shoes. It felt weird not wearing her scarf. She had only been wearing it for a few weeks, but now that she wasn't anymore, it felt somewhat strange for whatever reason.
A sudden disturbance in the atmosphere caused her to look abruptly up, alert and tense. She looked up just in time to see something long, silver, and pointy falling right towards her.
She gasped turned around, catching it perfectly by the handle before it could hit her, and if fit her hand perfectly, whatever it was. She looked at it, surprised and confused at what it was.
She was now holding Myrtenaster in her hand.
Not only was the fact that her own weapon had just fallen at her out of nowhere and she had caught it surprising and confusing, but the fact that a swirl of wind and snow had started up and a familiar growl was heard a moment after.
Swinging around, she looked just in time to see a large white Beowolf just about on her. Slicing elegantly at it with her sword, she sliced its head right off, and it faded quickly away.
Before she knew it, several of the same Grimm, white and snowy looking, had appeared, circling her and snarling furiously. The all charged her at once, and Weiss' instincts kicked in immediately.
She formed several glyphs all in a row in front of her, gliding along them as they amplified her speed, and then she formed another glyph behind the first Grimm in her path. She leaped at it, landed on the glyph, and then shot herself back from it, stabbing the Beowolf through before quickly dispatching the rest of the surrounding ones.
The dial on her sword switched to fire and she swiftly let loose a large wave of fire, disintegrating a few Grimm about to pounce her, and then she made a few more glyphs surrounding the next few coming for her.
Then she ricochet off of those glyphs, stabbing every Beowolf within the perimeter of her trap. When all of those Grimm had disappeared, she sprinted at the next three, her dial switching to ice, and soon those three were frozen and then dead.
She jumped at one that was in front of another, kicked herself off of its head, landed with a stab to the other one's head, and then delt several perfect slices to the back of the one in front of her that she had jumped off of.
Panting, she turned around, wondering if any were in sight. When she saw the glowing blue eyes of one farther away than to be fought off right away, she quickly stabbed her Myrtenaster into the ground, a massive white summoning glyph forming in front of her. She concentrated, and faster than last time, Arma Gigas appeared, nice and large with his sword out.
He charged at the Grimm farther out and smashed it instantly with his large sword. The next few smaller white Grimm that raced for Weiss were immediately destroyed by Arma Giga's sword, and then, there were none.
Smiling, Weiss stood up straight with smug satisfaction. Then she saw another Grimm appear over yonder. But it was not a simple Beowolf or Ursa. It was something larger, more dangerous looking.
Looking harder as it approached her, Weiss' eyes widened when she saw that it indeed was a Beringle. Large, glowing white, and terrifyingly glorious, it stood on its feet and towered over her, its hands crunched into fists.
Weiss took a deep breath, washed over her training again, and then began the difficult task of controlling both Arma Gigas in full battle, and fighting as hard as she could herself. She had done it before, but with less effort.
She formed a few glyphs and used them to jump up onto her summoned ally's sword while he swung it, riding on it and then aiming a leaping elegantly from the swiftly moving sword onto a new glyph behind the Beringle's head. She shot herself off of it and stabbed her sword perfectly into its neck.
However, the hulking Grimm had an armor-like plating mostly covering its neck, and Myrtenaster didn't do much damage with that well aimed attack. Making another glyph below herself, she sprung herself off of its neck and landed in some back handsprings.
Arma Gigas began slicing wild, heavy hits at the Beringle, who seemed to possess some kind of intelligence to block some of the many attacks being unleashed on it. While the Grimm was busy with the large white glowing knight, Weiss had formed several glyphs in a long line upwards and was now flying up them.
Once she had reached the top of her little "tower" of glyphs, she turned around, the dial of her sword on white and now glowing, she shot herself down at an insane speed, allowing Arma Gigas to throw his sword at the Beringle's feet, tripping it, and giving Weiss the perfect angel for her to shoot through its stomach and onto the ground below, perfectly.
The whole thing disintegrated in midair, and then seemed to shatter on the floor behind her, much like White Armor had when she had first defeated him. Panting heavily, she looked up and around herself, feeling refreshed to some extent, and also tired. The cold weather was forgotten during the fight, and now her cheeks flamed.
She looked happily at her sword and smiled. She felt satisfied and accomplished. She had just completed her training for today and won. She had beaten all of Winter's Grimm and-
Wait, Winter's Grimm?! But Winter wasn't here, and she wasn't training. What then, had just happened. What in Remnant had just happened.
Weiss turned around, looking at the once again empty balcony. Had she been dreaming or something? No, because she felt her heart racing and and exhaustion from the fight still fresh on her. The memories were too vivid to be dreamed, too.
Looking at the mild fog that had somehow formed at the end of the balcony, she squinted, thinking she saw something. It was somewhat like a shadow, or a silhouette? No, it was more like the shape of a person.
How could those Grimm have appeared without being summoned? Those were clearly summoned, but I didn't summon those. Only one person could have, and that's-
Just as soon as her thoughts were confirmed, the figure leaped out at her in a unique, specific way that she was very familiar with. The next thing she knew, she had clashed swords with and was now locked with Winter.
She looked up, shocked, into the slightly darker eyes of her sister, who was bearing down on her with her cutlass.
"W-Winter?!" Weiss stammered, "B-but how?"
Winter just gave her a stern, but eager grin, and then she let Weiss off of her sword and began slashing skillfully at her. Weiss struggled to block and dodge the blows, but did so successfully. Well, at least she mostly did. One well placed slice from her elder sister sent her flying backwards.
But Weiss quickly recovered with a glyph and then launched at her, trapping her in her little trap of glyphs as she ricochet off of all of them and attacked her sister with rapid hits and slices.
Winter deflected some, was hit by few, and dodged one or two. Once final, built-up attack from Weiss was unleashed, and Winter took advantage of it. She held up her cutlass right in front of Weiss' oncoming face, which smashed painfully into it.
Weiss was sprung back from a roundhouse kick dealt by her sister, joined by a swift slice, accompanied with ice dust. She landed roughly on her back, scraping the ground, and then flipped back up to her feet, only to be met by a flurry of attacks.
Her dial switched to lightning dust and she used it to make a time dilation glyph, allowing her to speedily block and then make a slick counter to a sly slice from Winter. Winter was knocked back with decent force, but she recovered with back handsprings and made a few speed glyphs.
Speeding towards her younger sister with her sword pointed at her, she unleashed a powerful strike, knocking Weiss back despite her sword up to block it. Weiss skidded backwards on her feet, her heels leaving marks on the floor, and looked up to see her older sister hurling at her again.
The two of them fought on, the sounds of swords clanging, glyphs being formed, and the constant grunts and shouts produced by the two competitors the only things being heard. Then, realizing that she was loosing, Weiss used a glyph to shoot herself backwards, giving her enough time and space to quickly summon her massive white knight.
Arma Gigas immediately began attacking Winter, who dodged every attack he threw at her, but was quickly hit by Weiss, who had sliced at her while she had been busy with her spawn. Winter quickly changed gears and split her cutlass into two, dueling her fighting.
Then she had to fight off both Weiss and Arma Gigas. It certainly wasn't the easiest thing to do, but she had faced worse before and won. A minute after she began fighting the two of them, seeming to be loosing, she quickly drew herself back and summoned her own spawn.
A single King Taijitsu. It didn't have its second snake, just the one, but it wrapped itself tightly around Arma Gigas, and the two summons began a fight of their own, neither winning in particular. Winter and Weiss resumed their one-on-one battle.
It wasn't until Weiss felt her strength depleting and knew that her aura was bound to be running low that she decided to finish this fight. She'd either win or loose, and she guessed it was the latter. But she would try. Winter hated sore losers, especially if it was her own little sister.
Closing her eyes, she allowed Winter to strike her, throwing her roughly onto her back. But instead of getting back up and fighting back, she lay there with her eyes closed, as if she had been knocked out. She allowed herself to pant freely, as she wanted to.
Winter halted her attack and stopped, looked at her sister, and the slowly began walking towards where she lay, the large white snake and the large white knight battling fiercely behind her. When her heels were mere inches away from her sister's arm, she looked down at her face, frowning.
"Weiss Schnee," she began with that scolding, sisterly tone, "If it took you this long to summon and get a taste of the level of combat I've had to go through, I wouldn't expected you to at least get me down to my knees once. And now you've been so easily defeated. Shameful."
She shook her head with disappointment, and Weiss had to keep herself from grinning as her plan ran itself through her head one more time. Mentally ordering her summon what to do, her eyes flashed open as a glyph appeared under her, sliding her away from her sister in a blur.
Just as Weiss had sped away, still laying down, the massive blade of Arma Gigas' sword smashed into the ground where she had been, causing Winter to jumped backwards, ending with a back handspring. Gritting her teeth, Winter turned to see Weiss leap at her from a glyph.
Winter deflected Weiss' blow, but received a numbing kick to her cheek with Weiss' heal, which hurt more than she had remembered a heel hurting. She stepped backwards and spun around, slicing at Weiss, who was no longer there.
Arma Gigas smashed his sword at her, she jumped onto the blade, and then, as the massive knight swung his sword swiftly at the side of the building, jumped off. But the moment her feet left the blade's surface, Weiss crashed into her, intentionally.
The two of them fell to the concrete, and Weiss quickly rolled over and threw another attack at her sister. Winter dodged it by rolling over as well and then jumped to her feet, pulling out her single cutlass. Her other one had been tossed aside when Weiss had smashed into her.
After some more brief attacks, dodges, counters, and blocks, Arma Gigas finally brought his sword down hard on Winter, forcing her to her back, and then, with one more smash, Winter's aura flashed down and she went temporarily limp.
Weiss could hardly believe it. She had won! She had beat Winter! And she was a whole few years younger!
"Yes!" Weiss squeaked, "I finally beat you! I finally beat Winter, after all this time. Oh my gosh, and can't believe it!" She hopped happily on her feet as Winter's eyes flickered open and her stern expression softened to one of love and sisterhood.
"Congratulations, sister," she said, standing slowly to her feet, "You have finally managed to claim victory from me. Well done."
Weiss looked ready to explode with news, excitement, and overall happiness. But through it all, one thing physically happened, something that she hadn't done in front of her sister since before Beacon.
She cried.
She broke into tears and threw her arms around her sister, wrapping her tightly into a hug. She sobbed continuously, burying her face into her shoulder and squeezing her with all the strength she had. Winter hugged back with a light, loving hug, her face portraying the emotion gently.
"So what are you doing here?!" Weiss asked, her voice in mid transition from her previously strong emotion, "I thought you were in-"
"Father told me that you had returned back home," Winter answered back immediately, cutting into her sister's unfinished question, "He said that you had come on accord of your own free will, admitting that he had been right to say and do what he did, and that you had been wrong in spitting off of him and following me."
Her expression looked stern again, regal and disciplined. But it was just so...Winter, and Weiss could only lightly smile as she spoke.
"Yeah, so, about that..," she began, "I'm sure you know why I'm actually here. And because no one is currently around us or in earshot, I'll just tell you that me and my team, along with some others, are on an important mission."
"And what does this mission consist of?" Winter asked, raising a brow.
"Well...stuff that I'm sure you have no awareness of, whatsoever," Weiss answered, putting her hands behind her back and shifting her weight to each leg nervously, "I mean, unless General Ironwood told you about all of it, but I seriously doubt it."
Winter looked both intrigued and suspicious.
"General Ironwood has told me many things, but none of them have ever been of particularly secretive matters. Most of them have been commands, orders. Subjects concerning our military and the fact that we are on the brink of a war. But he has never given me a reason not to trust him, if that is what you are implying."
"No, no. I trust him a lot more than some other people I know. I just know that he probably knows what me and the others are trying to accomplish. Well, what we are trying to protect everyone against."
Winter looked even more curious and suspicious.
"And what, exactly, are we up against?" she asked, putting some pressure on Weiss.
Weiss shrugged.
"I don't think I should tell you," she said, wondering if it had been a stupid thing to say, or the right thing to say, "Even though I love, trust, and look up to you more than almost anyone else I know, I don't think I should. It's just that clandestine, I guess."
Winter sighed and looked down. She was debating whether or not to continue seeking the answer she wanted, or to let it alone. She decided on the latter. Nodding her head, she answered,
"Alright then. Although it is not much of my interest to leave such a matter uncovered, I will let it pass."
Weiss breath a sigh a relief. Glancing around, she felt the excitement of what she had learned run through her. Taking in a deep breath, she opened her mouth to blurt out everything she wanted to.
Wow, that Weiss fight really might have been WAY too long and/or detailed. Sorry about that if it was; I got a bit carried away while writing it. Just to let you know, the fact that these last 3 chapters have been coming out closer together is not something that will last. It just so happens to be what's happening right now.
Thanks to cbustroyer and Firewyrm2 for their feedback and such, Combine117 for the reminder to post these left-aligned, and all of you who have been reading this and supporting me.
Thank you for reading and tune in for more chapters!