"You ready?" Her father asked as he stood on the head of their ride.

Weiss stood several steps away from him on the neck of the giant Nevermore. She tried her best not to let the Grimm's unnerving gaze get to her. It was not an easy thing to do. Weiss had been involved in a battle against a Nevermore. Needless to say, she wasn't a fan of the thing, especially when the one she was atop was undoubtedly greater in size than the one her team and team JNPR had slain on the Temple of Emerald Forest.

"Yes, father." She replied with a resolute tone.

"Good. Our stop is near the Second Aircraft Platform." He turned to look at her while speaking with a rising voice, trying to make himself heard clearly through the deafening sound of the Grimm's flapping wings as it sped towards Beacon. "The Nevermore is far too big to make a clean landing with all the debris and Grimm on the platform. The moment it passes over it, we're going to jump!"

Weiss didn't reply. She merely nodded as she advanced to stand closer to him, all the while trying to ignore the glowing red eye that seemed to follow her every move.

Her gaze moved from her father's back to the growing silhouette of their destination, more precisely Beacon Academy. A great sense of shame filled her guts as she beheld the wrecked state the academy had deteriorated into. In mere six days, the school had become almost unrecognizable. The once proud building was left a mere shadow of its former glory.

Her gaze settled on the being responsible for the destruction of the academy. Even several kilometers away, Weiss could clearly see its form. Easily several hundreds of feet tall, with massive wings that encircled the tower.

The Wyvern, the strongest Grimm.

Even when his body was frozen, it was still a massive threat. The seemingly endless hordes of Grimm were a testament to that.

"Weiss, get ready!" Her father yelled

Weiss threw one last glance at the tower, at the place where her friend had laid down her life against the enemy. 'Pyrrah..' Weiss made an oath to herself that Cinder Fall will pay dearly for what she did. 'Even if it's the last thing I'll do.'

"In three…two…." Her father started the count down as the Nevermore approached the Second Platform. "Three!"

Weiss had prepared herself to jump off the back of the Grimm at the signal of her father. However, that proved to be pointless. Mere milliseconds after the Schnee Head finished his countdown, Weiss found herself in the air. She had not jumped, nor was she pushed.

The Nevermore disappeared from beneath their feet.

Without a warning, the creature had simply exploded into a massive dark cloud of Grimm ashes. Still, she couldn't let herself get caught up in her surprise, not with the ground rapidly approaching. Folding her knees and pushing her upper body forward, Weiss corrected her falling position. She pointed the tip of her Myrtenaster towards the ground and passed her index and middle finger across the length of the blade. Over a dozen Glyphs appeared in her path.

As she began descending in a much comfortable manner, Weiss spared a glance in her father's direction. He was several meters beneath her. Judging by the speed he was falling at and the way he angled his body, the man hadn't bothered to come up with a landing strategy. The thing that really drew her attention was the black trail he was leaving behind. However, upon longer inspection, she realized that the darkness was entering his body rather than leaving it. 'He's absorbing the remains of the Grimm?'

For the nth time today, Weiss felt confused as a result of her father's actions.

As expected, her father had hit the ground at terminal velocity. He landed with enough force to crack the ground of the aircraft platform. Not that it seemed to do anything to him; the man seemed more annoyed with the dust that settled on his clothes than anything else.

Several seconds later, Weiss's feet landed not too far from him, but in a gentler and appropriate manner befitting of a Schnee. Her eyes scanned the scenery for any possible threats. Predictably, the place swarming with the creatures of Grimm, yet none of them seemed to take offense at their recent, and in her father's case, violent, arrival. If anything, the Grimm seemed almost unwilling to get closer to the Schnee pair.

Weiss almost questioned her father again about the Grimm's behavior but held her tongue. She had no interest in hearing the man tooting his own horn. The heiress was smart enough to take a hint that he had no interest in divulging information about his powers, whatever they were. Therefore, Weiss decided to ask about something much more urgent.

"You have yet to tell the reason for us coming here?" she inquired as she sheathed her weapon. "Beacon in its current state is nothing but ruins. What possible reason could we have to be here?"

Her father looked at her with a bored expression, before he started walking in the direction of the city. "Making preparations."

Weiss waited for him to expand on his answer, but he didn't seem inclined to do so. Withholding a scoff, Weiss's heels clicked as she moved after him. "Can I ask what these preparations are for?"

"I am here to make sure that everything is in order for the mission." He answered cryptically. "In a couple of days, we are going to launch an attack in an attempt to get destroy the Wyvern, and reclaim Beacon. Though perhaps saying 'we' is giving those idiots too much credit, seeing how I'm the one doing the Lion's share of the work."

Weiss's eyes widened as she listened to her father's words. Beacon was going to be liberated! She knew was being too optimistic, but she couldn't help it. This was the sole positive piece of information she had heard since the attack. Closing the short distance with a couple of steps, Weiss was nearly in her father's face. She started firing one question after the other in a rapid manner. " How?! You're not messing with me, right? Are you actually sure you can kick the Grimm from Beacon? What about the Wyvern? "

With each question, her father's face seemed to twitch in annoyance. "You're asking too many damn questions." He said as he put his palm on her face and pushed her away from him. "How it's going to be achieved is for me know. You, on the other hand, are going to keep your mouth shut and do as you are told. Is that clear?"

Weiss took a deep breath to calm herself down. She was too caught up in her excitement that she had started behaving in an inexcusable manner. She was the Schnee heiress, not Ruby. "What should I do?"

"Here." Her father threw something at her.

Weiss raised her hand and caught it easily. She turned it around to inspect it. It was…"A scroll?" she voiced.

"Open it."

Weiss did. What she saw was some sort of urban map with several red dots scattered across it. Upon closer inspection, Weiss found herself actually recognizing several locations on that map.

It was a map of Beacon.

"Those red dots represent all the Dust refining stations, safe houses, and major stores on Beacon. Since you should be familiar with the layout of this place, you will be acting as my tour guide." He answered her unspoken inquiry. He looked down at her. "I know I'm expecting too much of you, but not to fail too much."

Weiss felt anger swell within her, but she kept it from coming out. Her father had always been cold towards her but never like this. The man was being actively cruel. She checked her map again and found that there was a Gravity Dust storing center not too far from her place.

With a huff, she waltzed past him. "Let's go."

Weiss was going to make her father eat his words. She will be the greatest tour guide he had ever seen.


Weiss looked down at the scroll in her hand to check.

'This is definitely the place.' She thought as she gazed at the busted warehouse in front of her. The place had better days. One of the massive steel doors was torn from its hinges, while its twin suffered from several dents. The roof of the place was also in ruins from what she could spot.

Her father moved in without waiting for her.

Not wanting to lose sight of him, or worse be left alone in the Grimm-infested place, Weiss quickly followed after him. The inside of the warehouse was somehow in a worse shape than its exterior. Her vision was dim. All the lights inside were defective. The only source of light was from the rays of the sun penetrating through the holes in the ceiling; that and the numerous pairs of red glowing eyes swirling inside. The Grimm had left very little undestroyed. However, aside from a few bottles scattered on the floor, she spotted no sign of the Dust they were after. She lowered her gaze to the floor under her feet. 'It's most likely underground. Keeping near the entrance is too dangerous.'

Snapping out of her momentarily distracted state, Weiss chased after her father. The man paid no attention to the equipment as he walked to the center of the room. Or at least where the center of the room was supposed to be.

What met them was a several meters wide hole. She peered over the edge and saw nothing. The depth of the hole seemed to go on forever. Weiss dreaded to think about what kind of Grimm could've accomplished this.

Her father kicked a nearby stone into the abyss. The pebble disappeared, but no matter how long they waited, they heard no sound of it reaching the floor. It would take an eternity for them to descend.

As if coming to an unsaid agreement, the father-daughter duo jumped down.

Weiss wasted no time in summoning her glyphs. Even if jumping down was undeniably the quickest way down, she had no intention of simply letting her body fall into the dark unknown. Her glyphs granted her the ability in a timely but controllable manner. The fact that they offered her better vision due to the glow they emitted in the darkness was another plus.

She spared a glance at her father. With a sigh, she begrudgingly materialized several glyphs in his path. The man began using them without a fuss.

'Not even a thank you.' Weiss thought with a scoff.

"Never asked you to.' Her father said.

Weiss almost misstepped in surprise. She turned towards him with wide eyes. 'Di-Did he read her mind?'

"Yes." He said with a bored look on his face. Weiss didn't know if he was telling the truth or just messing with her.

Weiss was really getting creeped out by her father.

Their travel didn't last nearly as long as Weiss feared. After a while, dim lights appeared in the distance below, lights that she had come to associate with Gravity Dust.

The pair touched down and were met with their objective. Several tons of Gravity Dust stored in a massive room inside hundreds and hundreds of tightly locked containers of reinforced glass within metallic frames. It was by no means a small amount, but it was not what stole Weiss's gaze.

By now, Weiss had come to accept that the presence of Grimm in Beacon was a given. In every nook and cranny, they passed, a throng of the creatures of darkness was present. Eventually, the heiress came to terms with that, and slowly, she stopped getting tense whenever they passed by them.

She had no idea how her father had pacified the Grimm since the man refused to give her a straight answer. However, it seemingly worked. She sensed no hostility from any of the Grimm they've encountered.

Until now that is.

In the middle of the storage stood a Grimm like none she had ever seen or heard of before. The thing's size was comparable to that of a Megoliath even as it hunched its back. The Grimm had no eyes; its face was nothing but a smooth white mask with two crossing red lines. Nonetheless, Weiss was fairly sure that it saw them with no problem.

It reminded her of a mole. A massive, ugly mole with claws that were as tall as her body and twice as thick.

The thing turned to his face towards her, and Weiss felt her body seize in fear. Not a single thing compared to this Grimm. As she stood there she realized one thing.

The Grimm was going to kill them.

The tense atmosphere was cut by a whistle. Snapping out of her fear, Weiss turned toward her father.

"You sure are one rude bastard. Coming in uninvited into people's homes and making a mess." Her father insulted the Grimm. The Mole growled in response. It opened its mouth showing its sharp teeth in a display of dominance.

"You said that the Grimm would not attack." Weiss gritted out, her eyes never leaving the Grimm. "This one is clearly planning to."

Her father smirked as he removed his jacket. "That's because this one is not a pure Grimm. It's an abomination Negative Energy and Magic created for one sole purpose."

What the hell did he mean Magic?! There was no such thing as magic! And what the hall was even negative energy!?

Weiss had no time to ask for an explanation as her father spoke again. "You should stay back, Weiss. This one is way above your level." He threw his jacket towards her. Weiss caught it and found it rapidly changing its color from white to black. "Hold this. I don't want it to get ripped."

"I'm not going to leave you alone!" Weiss refused. The thing was clearly too strong for a sole huntsman to take on. "We need to retreat!"

"Just shut up and wait at the corner." He waved her off as he squared up against the Giant Grimm. "I'll be done in a couple of minutes."

Grudgingly, Weiss retreated. "Don't die." She warned. As much as she disliked him, the man was still her father. She would never wish harm on her own family.

Her father smirked. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

The mole lowered its head and spread its arms In preparation to attack. It roared to intimidate.

"To think that I would meet one of her creations so soon. I guess I don't have to wait for the Hound after all." Jacques muttered, as he got closer. With each step, he left a trail of rising black mist. He raised his hands and bent his knees.

"[Grimm]" He declared.

"Come, abomination. Allow me to show you what a true monster looks like."