And here's the next chapter! It has a scene in it I know a lot of reader's have long been waiting for. I hope I did it justice ^^;

Glynda stood beside his desk, watching the door close as they left. An emptiness was gnawing at her belly. She inhaled, straightening her back.

"Are you positive this is the right thing for us to do, Ozpin?" she asked.

"It is." She wrapped her arms around her stomach.

"Then why do I feel so empty? Like I've just killed someone?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

Winter stared down into her ramen bowl, stirring the few remaining noodles with her chopsticks. The flies buzzing into bug zappers, the other patrons, and the tv playing behind the counter were all white noise to her.

The gardens were her favorite place to play in. So many statues to climb on, so many bugs to look at, so many flowers to sniff. Klein always told her not to go to the gardens when mama was out there but she had had a nightmare and wanted her mama to hold her.

She rounded a hedge corner, white roses starting to bloom. She smiled, running forward.

"Mama!" Winter exclaimed, throwing her arms out. Her mama was in her chair, a silver vase with a snake head sitting on the table. Her mama didn't look over at her, she stayed in her seat; that special glass she drank from during dinner was hanging from her hand. She stopped in front of her mama; her eyes were shut, drool running down her chin. A large red stain was on her white blouse, and on her blue skirt. Winter wrinkled her nose; why did mama smell so bad?

She rested her hands on her mama's knees, gently shaking her.

"Mama? Mama, wake up." Her mama snorted, her eyes fluttering open. She stared at her as if she didn't recognize her, before narrowing her eyes, her brow knitting in anger.

"What are you doing here?"

Winter looked up from her bowl, and scowled. Qrow stood next to her, his arms crossed.

"What do you want, Qrow?" she asked. He took the seat next to her, motioning at the old man running the stall to come over and take his order.

"I came for some grub. Didn't expect to find a Schnee lowering herself to commoner food." He looked her over. "Though with that get up, I'm not surprised no one's noticed you yet."

After leaving the meeting she had returned to her ship and switched into her civilian attire; a blue hoodie, white jeans, and blue sneakers. Winter sighed, and grasped the sapphire necklace resting against her jacket, running her thumb over the comforting surface. Qrow cocked an eyebrow.

"You never struck me as a religious woman."

"Did you not notice this when I wore it with my uniform?" she asked. Qrow shrugged.

"I thought it was just a gaudy decoration. My bad." The old man brought Qrow his order. Qrow looked around the bowl, sighed in annoyance, and pulled a fork from his coat pocket before beginning to eat.

"Qrow, why are you really here?" Winter asked. He held up a hand while he slurped up some noodles. Broth dripped onto his coat as he finished slurping them down. He wiped the broth off his lips with the back of his hand before looking at her.

"I wanted to apologize."

"For?"

"Trying to punch you." Winter chuckled.

"You're kidding." He frowned.

"I'm not. I was drunk and trying to start shit, and you just happened to be the closest person I felt like fighting." Winter cocked an eyebrow; he still reeked of alcohol.

"You're still drunk," She said. He shrugged.

"A bit. But I'm being serious." He lifted another forkful of noodles to his lips. "It wasn't right of me to pick a fight with a kid like you." Winter narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm twenty-nine, Qrow. I'm no more a child then you are." He laughed dryly.

"You're still a kid to me," he said.

They ate in silence for a while, Winter finishing her few remaining noodles. She drank the broth, savoring the taste. She set the bowl down, and glanced at Qrow. She inhaled sharply, leaning back in her seat.

He had his flask out and was raising it to his lips. Winter scowled at him.

"Put that away." She said.

"I'm thirsty." He replied.

"You have broth. They sell sodas. You don't have to drink that in front of me." He glanced at her, annoyed. He shrugged and pocketed the flask.

"Thank you." She said. She looked into her empty bowl. "Why do you do that?" she asked after a while.

"Do what?" he asked, his voice muffled as he ate. She turned to him.

"Drink. Do you not realize what you're doing? What kind of an example you are setting for your nieces? Do you have any idea what it is like for a child to see someone they look up to get too intoxicated to move?" Qrow turned to her, setting his fork off to the side. She saw her mother.

"I've been through a lot Winter. It helps me," he said. Winter's scowl deepened.

"That's no excuse. I've been through a lot too, and you don't see me poisoning myself or making a fool of myself in front of my family. You're pathetic." He frowned.

"Don't act like you know me. You have no idea what kind of shit I've been through." Winter shook her head.

"It doesn't matter. There is no excuse for what you're doing." Qrow looked into his ramen bowl, silent. "You're selfish if you think you're the only one affected by your drinking. You're making the lives of your nieces so much harder when they have to see you like that." She snorted. "But of course you don't care. Drunks like you only care about your alcohol; getting your next fix. Consequences be damned, as long as you can get your next sip everything is A fucking okay in your stupid little mind. You wouldn't care how devastating it would be for Ruby or Yang to find you passed out drunk. Or if you hurt them while drunk. Fuck you, Qrow." Winter spat. Qrow continued to stare into his bowl; his face betrayed no emotion.

"You done? Got it all out?" Qrow asked. Winter looked away.

"Yes," she said. She heard him get out of his seat. She looked over at him; he had his back to her.

"It's been a while since I've gotten a verbal ass-kicking. Not since I pissed off one of my old team mates."

"Your sister, I assume?" she asked. He shook his head and walked off.

Qrow walked away from the food stalls, stepping into the darkness surrounding the rest of the fairgrounds. He stopped against a closed stall and leaned against its wall; the tears ran down his cheeks, and he hiccupped. He rested a hand over his eyes, sobs rocking his body.

Her smile

Her silver eyes

Her white cloak

He pulled out his flask, and started to chug from it. The burn was soothing.

There was a clanging, the sound of something being struck against metal, and Qrow started to choke on his whiskey. He hit a fist against his chest as the coughing fit passed, pocketing his flask. He looked over and felt himself sober up; a set of white eyes were staring at him from the darkness. He grabbed his scythe, the blade springing into place. He held the scythe in front of him, the white eyes narrowed.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The white eyes moved closer, and Qrow could see the figure that the eyes belonged too. It was a petite woman with pink skin and brown hair, her clothes a sterile shade of white with faded pink and brown accents. She carried a frilly pink umbrella with her. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"What do you want?" The woman started to motion with her hands, and Qrow cocked his head to the side. She saw the confusion on his face, and pouted before pulling out a notebook from her pocket. She patted her pockets down, frowned, and held up a finger before slinking back into the darkness.

Qrow tightened the grip on his scythe as he heard a rat squeak in pain before it screamed. Silence. The woman stepped into his line of sight again, a limp rat in her hand. Qrow tasted bile; the rat's stomach had been ripped open, blood soaking the woman's hand. She smiled at him sweetly before she dropped the rat, and pulled out her notebook again. She flipped through a few pages before tracing her index finger over the page. She held the book up to him.

Y are u here?

Qrow cocked an eyebrow, not lowering his scythe.

"You one of Cinder's?" The woman nodded, and tapped her finger on the page, smearing blood on it.

"I'm looking for Spring." The woman watched him for a moment before she flipped to a new page, writing on it.

Does she know ur here?

"She sent me to look for Spring, I'm looking for her. Salem doesn't know where Spring is, so why would it matter if I'm here looking while you're here?" The woman narrowed her eyes, and flipped to a new page.

Are you going to help us?

He shook his head.

"That's Cinder's task. I'm not gonna help her gain favor with our Goddess." The woman pouted.

U'll miss the fun

"I'll pass." He watched the woman's face fall. "When is it happening? So I know when to get out of town." The woman perked up, and stared him in the eye for several minutes. Qrow's skin crawled as those soulless eyes stared into him. The woman smiled at him.

I can't tell u that

The woman began to back up, disappearing into the darkness. She blinked, and Qrow saw the white eyes change to pink and brown before disappearing. He gripped his scythe, backing out of the stalls slowly, his eyes darting around to catch any sign of movement. There was nothing, and he couldn't hear anything different from the usual background festival sounds. He collapsed his scythe, and holstered it as he reentered the light. He rested his back against a stall, listening to the patrons laugh and talk.

He pulled out his flask and drained it.

Yang opened the door to the dorm room, letting them in. Penny's voice was a buzzing in Weiss' ear as Penny waved at them from her bunk. Weiss stopped in the center of the room, Ruby rushing past her and climbing onto her bunk and hugging Penny. Yang headed to the restroom, saying something about her hair.

Blake.

She was at the bookshelf, sorting through her novels, a quizzical look on her face. Weiss curled her hands, her nails digging in.

"Blake."

She looked back at her, her lips parted slightly as she looked at her. Weiss took a breath.

"Blake Bella-" she stopped. She took another breath. "Hōzuki Blake. I need to talk to you." She could feel them staring at her, Yang's hand resting on the door handle as she watched her, Penny and Ruby growing silent and releasing each other. Blake's bow twitched, and Blake blinked as she looked at her. It was dead quiet; Weiss swallowed, her heart thumping against her chest.

"I'm…I'm not good at this kind of stuff, Blake."

"Do you want us to leave you two alone?" Ruby asked. Weiss shook her head, keeping her eyes on Blake.

"No. All of you need to hear this." She crossed her arms, her wrists aching. She straightened her back. "Do you know why I hated the Faunus when we first met, Blake?" Blake's face darkened. She shook her head. She looked from Blake, to Yang, to Ruby and Penny. "Since my father took over the SDC, he has been discriminatory against the Faunus. Firing many of the Faunus executives who worked with my grandfather. He lowered the wages of the Faunus he kept, and he didn't allow Faunus to rise up in the company, they could only be miners. Not counting his encouragement and strong-arming of other companies to do the same with their Faunus employees." She laughed darkly. "By all accounts, my family deserved what was coming."

She took a step towards Blake.

"But when the White Fang set their sights on my family, the people they killed weren't the only victims." Blake's bow twitched. "My father is not a kind man. There is not a single thing about him that is warm, or loving. And do you know what he would do to me after a CEO, a family friend or distant relative, was kidnapped and murdered?" Silence. "How furious he would get when he would get a call at home about a huge shipment of Dust being destroyed?" Blake was getting fuzzier. Her voice cracked. "Do you know what it feels like, to know you were nothing more to your father then an outlet for his rage?"

"My mother wasn't any better; she spent almost all of her time drinking in our mansion's gardens. I can count on a single hand the amount of times I've talked to her while she was sober. You know what she would do if she saw father hitting me or yelling at my younger sister?" They all stared at her in disbelief. "She would just tell my father to keep it quiet, she didn't want to her us." Blake's mouth fell open. Weiss snorted.

"And I told myself for so long that I had no reason to feel the way I did; that I was acting like a spoiled brat for not eating for days. I had no right feeling so empty and dead." She uncrossed her arms, her hands shaking. She took her jacket off, holding her arms out in front of her, her underarms visible. Her lip quivered as they gasped at her, Blake's eyes widening, and starting to tear up. "That I had no reason to do this to myself. I'm rich. I can buy whatever I want in this world. I'm a gifted and famous singer. I'm a talented swordswoman, and am skilled with Dust. I have a house, I have clothes, and food. I don't have to worry about the Grimm or Raiders destroying my home. What more could I want?" She looked away.

"I didn't think it could be because my parents were awful people that they would do those things to me. It had to be someone else. It had to be the Faunus. They were the ones my parents always told me not to trust. They were the ones who were killing family friends. They were the reason why my father would hit me." She felt the tears start to fall. "I was stupid. So stupid." She took another step towards Blake.

"I was so deadest in my ways before I met you. You helped open my eyes to the Faunus. You taught me so much about your people, that when I learned who you really were I… I couldn't…. I wasn't able to process it. I never thought that you were someone who would do such horrible things. That you no doubt would have hated me and wanted my entire family dead for most of your life." She wrapped her arms around her chest as she stared into Blake's eyes. Blake was crying. "I wanted to hate you. I wanted to believe you truly didn't care about me; that all along this was some clever ruse for the White Fang to assassinate me." She shook her head. "But you're not like that anymore, Blake. You saved my life when you could have let that Faunus with the chainsaw butcher me. You nearly worked yourself to death trying to hunt down the White Fang and stop them." Blake took a step towards her, her lip quivering. Weiss smiled at her.

"Neither of us are the people we were taught to hate. And I know you did things that you are not proud of in the past, but I want you to know that I don't care. That was a different you, and the you standing before me would never do those things." Blake hiccupped, resting a hand over her mouth. Weiss unwrapped her arms. "I forgive you. And I'm sorry I took so long to say so." Blake embraced her with a cry, holding her tight. Weiss wrapped her arms around her, holding her close.

She felt Blake's hot breath in her ear as they hugged, Blake's voice shaky and quiet.

Three words

Three words she had never heard without a smug smile going with it.

Three words she had only heard from her parents after the bruises healed and the wine ran out.

She felt fresh tears welling, and buried her face in Blake's hair as she tried to stop them. She whispered her response in Blake's ear.

Four words.

And that's it!