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"And that is why Juvia needs to do something before this huntress harlot steals away my darling Gray!" Juvia proclaimed, her teeth gnashing in fury. Of course, a moment later she calmed down and blushed bashfully. "But I can't violate my darling's wishes to be left alone or seriously injure our new guildmate. Please help me, Gajeel!"

The Iron Dragon Slayer held Juvia's pleading gaze for a moment. Then, pulled out a piece of paper from his belt and started scribbling on it. "Please help me Gajeel, you are so awesome… that would make a good lyric."

"Gajeel!" Juvia begged, bending over the table towards his side, Pantherlily and Levy sitting on opposite ends from him. "Please! I need your advice before I lose my beloved forever!"

"I don't see what the big problem is," Gajeel noted. "Just beat her up. Then, if Gray's not an idiot, he'll pick you."

"Gajeel!" Levy scolded, snatching a book from her small pile and smacking his shoulder with it. "She shouldn't beat up our guildmates. And Gray is not some prize to be won."

"Of course not. But by beating up the prissy white chick, she'll assert her dominance. Then Gray will pick Juvia for being the better provider."

"You're thinking of wild dogs," Pantherlily pointed out. "People do not choose their partners based off strength alone. You of all people should know that."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Juvia tuned out the bickering between the partners. She had decided against assassinating Weiss in her sleep, but to challenge her to open combat? There was nothing wrong with that. Fairy Tail members fought all the time, her beloved dueled Natsu almost daily. So, if she challenged Weiss and crushed her like the insignificant ant of a love rival she was, and was also as merciful as befitted a fellow family member… yes!

Already she had hearts in her eyes as she imagined the results of her victory over the harlot—new family member.

'Juvia, now that you've beaten that Weiss girl into the dirt so brutally, yet so compassionately laid her body down to rest, I see now that I was wrong. I was so blinded by the allure of this interdimensional siren, that I could not see the illustrious goddess that had been with me all along.'

'My darling, do you mean?"

'Yes, Juvia. Please, be mine.'

"Eeeeeee!"

"Juvia!"

"What?" the water wizard mumbled, realizing all three Shadow Gear members were staring at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. What did you say?"

"You were in one of your love daydreams," Levy told her, a concerned eyebrow raised. "Are you sure you're not going to do anything crazy?"

"Normal person crazy or Fairy Tail crazy?"

Levy sighed. "I guess the latter really isn't avoidable."

"Eh, who cares anyway," Gajeel waved off. His eyes narrowed seriously right after that. "We have bigger problems."

Pantherlily cocked an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"Salamander's apprentice already has a cat!"

Even Juvia tilted her head at that declaration. "What are you talking about Gajeel?"

"The blond bimbo!"

"Lucy is not a bimbo!"

"Not Lucy, the other blonde! Salamander's training her and she's already worked her way up to cat level."

Levy sighed. "Cat level?"

"Yeah. All real dragon slayers have cats."

"What about Laxus and that Cobra fellow?" Juvia asked.

"Second generation hacks." Gajeel spat.

"Right, ignoring the fact they've nearly killed both you and Natsu multiple times," Levy noted. "What are you even so worked up about? Natsu isn't teaching Yang Dragon Slayer Magic, and she doesn't have a cat—are you talking about Blake? You think Blake is a cat?"

"She has the ears."

"She's a faunus! They're a species on their world, that doesn't mean she's actually an animal."

"She's her partner, just like Lily is mine, Carla is Wendy's, and Happy is Salamander's," Gajeel explained. "She has adorable cat ears. Therefore, she is a cat! And I refuse to be outdone by that flame brain idiot like this! I need to get a student to cat level too!"

"That would require first having a student," Pantherlily reminded him.

"You could take Weiss," Juvia suggested eagerly. "I'm sure she'd love to train with you instead of Gray."

Gajeel stroked his chin as he hummed in thought. Finally, he turned to Levy. "Shrimp, you're becoming a Dragon Slayer."

"What? You don't know how to teach!"

"How hard could it be? Salamander's doing it."

"I'm not changing my magic!"

Juvia sighed and shook her head as the two started flirting. Seriously, between them, Lucy and Natsu, and Elfman and Evergreen, it seemed like she was the only romantically inclined person in the guild who actually said what they meant. Well, unless she counted Cana and her alcohol, but that was a different matter altogether.

Still, with her old friend's wonderful advice, she now had a plan. She would challenge Weiss to a duel and prove herself to be the stronger and more fitting partner for her beloved Gray.

A part of her wondered what she, a wizard with over a decade of training and experience under her belt, would prove by battling someone who had only learned magic a few weeks ago, but that silly section of her mind was quickly beaten down by the rest of her as she glared across the guildhall at Weiss' booth where she sat with the strongest team, her friends, and most importantly, her darling Gray, who was already taking his shirt off.

Oh yes. She would prove she was worthy of him.

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"Does anyone else feel like someone's staring at them?" Weiss inquired, glancing about the table Team RWBY and their mentors, minus Mirajane who was about serving people (much to Blake's relief as she hid under the table), sat at.

Lucy smiled at her. "Does it feel like a demon has locked you in their sights and will devour you whole if you make one wrong move?"

"Actually… yes."

"Oh, don't worry then. It's probably just Juvia," Lucy assured her. "She does that to… well, any girl who talks to Gray for a few minutes."

"I asked her to stop doing that," Gray muttered, his shirt absent from his toned chest.

"Wait, is she the one who's been stalking us up the mountain?" Weiss inquired.

"It's not as big a deal as you think," Lucy told her. "She does it to me all the time, but she's a good friend when it counts."

"I'll take your word for it," Weiss sighed. She didn't exactly enjoy being stalked, but as the Schnee heiress, she was more than accustomed to having unwanted eyes on her. Though her teacher seemed to invite them, and she glared at his near naked form. "Can you at least keep your clothes on? We're eating for goodness' sake."

Gray glanced down at his bare form, and blankly raised an eyebrow. "Huh. When did that happen?"

"Did you seriously not notice?"

"No. Do you?"

"What are you talking about—"

"Weiss," Ruby popped up from observing Natsu and Yang's eating contest. "Why are you taking off your dress? Are you hot?"

"What?!" The white-haired huntress' eyes went wide as she froze her hands in their tracks. Her jacket had already been discarded next to her and her fingers had been in the process of pulling down the zipper at the back of her dress when her partner had warned her.

"Eep!" she squealed, righting her garment and plucking her jacket from the floor and placing it around herself. She glared at Gray. "What have you done to me?"

"Nothing," the ice mage placated, his hands held before him. "This sometimes happens, a side effect of the training. I mean, Lyon didn't get it, but from what I can gather your body subconsciously finds all temperatures—"

"You knew this could happen?" Weiss screeched. "Why didn't you warn me? A Schnee does not strip in public!"

Lucy cocked an eyebrow. "A Schnee?"

"Relax, okay?" Gray insisted. "I don't see the big deal. I do it all the time."

Carla shook her head and sighed. "And every time we tell you not to."

Even Wendy nodded at that, with Gray finally having the decency to look away.

"Enough about that," Ruby said. "What's this Fantasia Parade you guys were talking about?"

"It is a time-honored tradition of Fairy Tail," Erza declared proudly as she nibbled on her cake. "Every year during Magnolia's Harvest Festival, the entire guild comes together to dazzle the citizens with a parade through the city, showing off the greatest displays of showmanship we have to offer as thanks to the citizens for allowing us to live here."

"And to apologize for all the property damage we cause," Lucy noted.

"You guys cause property damage?" Yang asked, in between breaths of her eating frenzy. "That's sweet. One time, I took down a whole club."

"Awesome!" Natsu complimented as he took another chomp out of a drumstick. "But I've done better. I blew up a giant magic cannon thingie on a walking robot island. And beat up Gajeel too."

"Woah! You guys just get better and better." Yang ducked her head under the table. "Hey Blake, did you blow up anything big back in your White Fang days?"

The cat faunus popped out from her hiding place and frowned at her partner. "Please don't use my time as a terrorist to try and one-up someone."

"Eh, you were a freedom fighter."

"I thought I was a freedom fighter. I was a terrorist."

"Come on—"

"No."

"I have fish."

"…Still no."

"It's tuna."

"… Ugh! A Schnee Dust Company storage complex, a mile square"

Yang smirked. "See? Was that so hard?"

"It better be grilled, you demon," Blake muttered as she scampered under the table just as Mira went by with a tray of drinks.

Wendy coughed to reclaim Ruby and Weiss' attention. "Anyways, I've never actually been in the parade before either. This month will be my first, just like you guys."

"What?" Ruby squealed, her cheeks the same color as her cloak. "No, no, no, no, we can't possibly join in the parade, we've only been here—"

"I wasn't here much longer when I was in the parade," Lucy reassured them. "And since the guild has been out of the city proper for the past few years, it's everyone's big comeback. You guys will fit right in."

"Well, yeah…" Ruby stuttered. "But… people… lots of people… watching me! Watching me not kill monsters! I'm just… not sure it'll be my thing."

"Don't worry," Gray said. "Erza gets stage fright too and she's fine on the floats."

"I do not get stage fright," the Titania mumbled as she shoved another bite of cake into her mouth.

Weiss rubbed her chin as she considered the idea. "I suppose it might be fun. It has been a while since I got to sing."

"You can sing?" Natsu asked, an entire chicken in his mouth. "That's great! Now we don't have to listen to Gajeel's crap!"

A pillar of metal suddenly rammed into his head and put him through the floor.

"I heard that, Salamander!"

"What about it?! It's true!"

"To your tin ear, maybe!"

"You're the one with a tin ear, metal head!"

Weiss sighed at the pair's escalation. Then she yelped we they leapt towards each other and clashed over the table in an explosion of fire and iron, blasting everyone except Erza away.

"Are you two crazy?!" she screeched. "This place is made of wood! You'll burn it down!"

"Actually, of all the ways the guildhall has been destroyed, being burned down actually hasn't been one of them," Lucy noted as she snagged Blake from where she'd hit her head and scurried behind a far-off bench, Wendy close behind. "But unless you want to get caught up in the chaos, I suggest hiding."

"Chaos?" Ruby inquired. "What chaos—"

"My cake!" Erza wept. Natsu and Gajeel froze mid-swing at each other, their eyes widening as they saw what the blowback of their initial clash had done to the contents of the table, specifically the Titania's dessert. The Dragon Slayers squealed as a pair of swords appeared in the knight's hands. "I'll take your heads as recompense!"

Weiss wasn't sure exactly how it happened, but from there the entire guild hall erupted into one massive brawl, ice, lightning, playing cards, and multicolored flames surging through the air like the deadliest fireworks display of all time. She grabbed Ruby by the hood and darted over to join Lucy, Wendy, and Blake behind their bench. She'd have felt bad about leaving Yang in the middle of that mess if she hadn't spotted her teammate trading blows with Elfman, who despite transforming into some grotesque horned beast seemed to be rather even with the blond brawler's pink blaze.

"Wow!" Ruby whispered in awe. "Does this happen often?"

"Pretty much weekly," Lucy informed them, shivering as a man wearing an ancient looking helmet (Bixlow, she believed?) went soaring over their heads, a quintet of totems following close behind.

Wendy winced. "We do our best not to get caught up in them."

"Why?" Ruby asked, gazing over the chaos like a kid in a candy store. "This is amazing! No words, no annoying socializing, just pure awesome fighting!"

A bead of sweat dropped down Lucy's forehead. "I guess that's one way of looking at it."

"Face me, love rival!" some blue haired girl screamed, a pair of water whips sprouting from her arms. "I shall assert my dominance as Gray's one true love!"

Lucy sighed. "And that's another. One of the many reasons I try not to get involved in these things."

"Your loss," Ruby shrugged. "Requip!"

Crescent Rose flashed into her hands and had deployed into scythe form a moment later. Weiss' partner turned back to her and Blake expectantly.

"Pass," Weiss said. "I'd rather not indulge such ruffians."

"Aw, come on, Weiss, it'll be just like the food fight."

"There is a difference between a bit of lunchtime fun and jumping into a Grimm breeding pit naked."

Ruby cocked an eyebrow. "Naked? Is that why you're taking off your—"

"The answer is no," Weiss snapped, catching her hand as it began to slide her jacket over her shoulders.

Ruby sighed. "Blake?"

"No thanks," the cat faunus replied. "Not my scene."

"Man, you guys are no fun," Ruby pouted. "How about you, Wendy? Want to jump into the fray with me?"

"Ruby, duck!" Wendy shouted.

"That's the spirit—wait, duck—oof!"

A pair of playing cards smacked into the side of Weiss' inattentive partner and sent her flying.

"Gotta keep your guard up, newbie!" Cana shouted from the midst of the fray.

Ruby scowled and hopped back to her feet, little worse for wear. "I'll show you whose guard is up! Ah!"

She burst forward in a flurry of rose petals, leaving Weiss to facepalm. "Those dolts."

"Tell me about it," Lucy sighed, glancing back towards the battle as Natsu ran away from a somehow fire breathing Erza. "But you wouldn't trade them for anything, would you?"

Weiss smirked and shook her head. "Not for all the worlds in existence."

Lucy shared a smile with her as the sounds of battle echoed out from beyond the bench.

"Weiss, forgive me if this is too personal," the blond mage began. "But some of your mannerisms, the way you speak, are you from the upper class of your world?"

"I am," the huntress confirmed. "My family owns the largest dust mining, refinery, and distribution company on Remnant."

"Run on the backs of oppressed faunus," Blake chimed in, a dark look shadowing her eyes, though Weiss knew better than to think it was intended for her personally.

"Unfortunately, yes," Weiss continued. "Ever since my father took control, our company has been… less than benevolent. I hope to change that one day, gain respect as a huntress and take back our name, but my father is… controlling to say the least. Just getting him to let me come to Beacon was a trial."

"I know how that feels," Lucy grumbled. "After my mom died, my dad threw himself into his business. At best, he was cold to me, at worst, he wanted to use me as a pawn to advance his interests. When I ran away to join Fairy Tail, he hired our rival, Phantom Lord to kidnap me back. After we settled that mess, I went back home and made clear where we stood. If he tried to hurt my friends again to get to me, I would destroy him."

Weiss chuckled wistfully. "I wish I could do that to my father. But, as long as he controls who inherits my family company, I need to at least stay on speaking terms with him. I refuse to let him define our legacy."

"Fair enough," Lucy nodded. "I did have the advantage of not wanting anything to do with the business. And the Heartfilia name crumbled seven years ago, along with the company."

"Your doing?" Blake inquired.

"What? No! Even if I knew how to do that, I would never go after my own father like that. He left us alone, like I told him to, doing anything else would have just been petty revenge. Besides…" Lucy's mouth curved into a wistful smile. "After the company collapsed, he changed. He apologized for what he did before and restarted his life from the bottom up. We were trying to reconnect when… well… Tenrou Island happened."

Weiss frowned in empathy. "He died during the seven years you missed, didn't he?"

"After he paid my rent all that time too," Lucy chuckled, a note of subdued pain in her voice. "It's… it's just something that happened. He loved me, and I never really got to tell him I forgave him for his mistakes."

Weiss frowned. "Ever since I got here, I've been… off guard. Back on Remnant, there isn't a person alive who doesn't know my family name, well, except Ruby, and they've already formed their own ideas about who I am. Ideas that I, admittedly, did not do much to dissuade until recently."

Blake looked away at that, catching the reference to their own early arguments. It was fine. Weiss didn't blame her for them, just as she knew Blake didn't blame her. Their conflicts were the sad consequence of two people on opposite sides of a war coming into contact, and they had settled them in the end. They were friends, whatever mistakes they made in the past didn't matter.

"Back home, there's a standard that I have to meet, a certain level of decorum that I have to maintain lest some tabloid catch wind of it and spin it into a smear campaign against me or my family," she continued. "But here, no one knows who I am, and they don't expect anything from me."

"It's liberating, isn't it," Lucy smiled.

"Yes. But it also makes me feel guilty."

"Huh?"

Weiss squished her head into her knees, her mouth hidden by her folded arms in shame. She was immensely grateful to Fairy Tail for taking them in, for treating them like family and doing everything in their power to help them get strong enough to go home. Their openness, their warmth, it was a blessing and a comfort in an impossible time. But at the same time… it was almost overwhelming.

"People here don't expect anything from me, and I'm afraid that that might eventually make me not expect anything from myself," she surmised. "Everyone here is so vibrant and… wacky, even more than the people from Beacon and trust me there were some characters among them. It gives me the freedom to be myself instead of the Schnee I trained to be. But, I don't hate all of who I trained to be. I'm proud of my discipline, my singing, my manners, and yet a few weeks with you all and I'm stripping in public without even noticing."

"To be fair, at least you acknowledge it's a problem," Carla noted. "Gray seems to have resigned himself to the situation."

"But he's teaching me magic," Weiss pointed out despondently. "You all have been so kind and more accommodating than anyone could reasonably expect you to be, and I feel like I'm looking down on you. Because I don't want to be a girl who randomly strips in public, or gets into a bar brawl for the fun of it. And I'm scared that the longer we stay, the more like that I'll become, that I'll lose everything I worked so hard to become, good and bad."

"And then you feel guilty because you think you're disrespecting us?" Lucy clarified. When Weiss nodded, the mage sighed before smiling at the white-haired girl. "You do realize that I'm hiding behind here too, right?"

"Well… yes," Weiss admitted. "But you and Wendy are more exceptions than the rule."

"That's true, but your first mistake was thinking there is a rule," Lucy explained. "It's true Fairy Tail is a melting pot that accepts everyone who wants to join, and it's true that the more eccentric of our personalities tend to attract more eccentrics."

"You hit like a real man!"

"That's 'sir' to you, beast boy!"

Lucy chuckled. "Case in point. The more bombastic are the ones who are more easily seen, and are admittedly the majority, but they're hardly the only ones here. And no one is begrudged for being who they want to be, fancy or not fancy. Because we're all family, we would never want anyone to have to be anyone but who they want to be, no matter how different from the rest of us they might be."

Weiss knew on an intellectual level that what Lucy was saying was true. After all, Ruby and Yang were sisters, and they were hardly copies of each other. And Team RWBY, despite giving her the freedom to indulge in some of her more juvenile desires, never pressured her to get rid of her decorum. Fairy Tail may have had their wackiness turned up to eleven, but they weren't trying to rid her of her training.

Maybe it was just her own messed up experience with 'family'. With her mother hiding away, and her father domineering the entire household, trying to manufacture her and her siblings into his perfect little heirs. That family certainly hadn't tolerated dissent.

And that was why, unlike Lucy, she didn't think she'd ever be able to forgive her father.

"Thank you," she replied to her friend. "I'm sorry about making such a scene about something so meaningless."

"How you're feeling isn't meaningless, Weiss," Blake assured her, her teammate crawling around to place a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Coming here, it's been hard for all of us, but that doesn't mean in the same way. If we don't talk to each other, we won't be able to help each other."

"You're really not one to talk on that front," Weiss teased with a smile, receiving a grin in turn. "I just don't want to be that whiny little brat I was when we first met."

"You're not," Blake replied with a smirk. "That Weiss would have been affronted that she was being made to hide behind a mere bench."

"Oh, haha."

"Hey, you mentioned you liked to sing, right?" Lucy asked.

"Yes," Weiss nodded. "What about it? Do you think you can get me a spot in the Fantasia Parade?"

"Better than that," Lucy grinned. "The guild usually has a karaoke night every few days or so. Mira controls the lineup, so I'm sure she'd be able to squeeze you in."

"Really?" Weiss beamed, the idea of being able to perform as she once had, but without her father controlling the occasion, singing because she wanted to, perking up her spirits. "Are you sure it isn't too much trouble?"

"Please, we can go ask her now," Lucy cheered raising her head out from behind the bench.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!"

"Ice Make Lance!"

"Iron Dragon's Roar!"

"Circle Sword!"

"Water Slicer!"

Lucy's eyes went wide as the cornucopia of colors screamed towards each other. "Or, maybe later."

She snatched up a silver key from her belt and panickedly waved it in front of her. "Open: Gate of the Clock!"

Weiss was very grateful that the arriving clock celestial spirit, who she later learned was named Horologium, was able to stuff them all inside his compartment and shield them from the blast of the attack collision. What she was not happy to learn was that somehow, while she was being teleported within a sentient, magical clock, she had lost her clothes. Again.

On second thought, she could really use that bar fight right now. She had issues to work out.

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Now that she actually had time to settle down and talk with her, Winter was noticing quite a few changes in Weiss that she hadn't had the time to register during their meeting at the landing pad.

They were mostly little things, details so minute that most outside the upper class wouldn't notice them or care if they did. Winter herself certainly didn't. But after they had both spent hours upon hours being taught the correct manner of sitting or posture for high society, had it drilled into their heads that even the slightest misstep would bring dishonor to the Schnee name, as if it hadn't already been soiled enough, it was hard not to notice her little sister's legs not being perfectly clasped, or her 'disrespectfully' leaning her elbow on the table as she described an especially lengthy anecdote about one of her new friends.

But there were also other changes, ones that Winter was thrilled to see. Where once Weiss had been stiff in her shoulders, withdrawn and closed off like the perfect porcelain doll Jacques wanted her to be, now she moved and emoted freely, like a snowflake dancing in the wind, the weight of the world no longer bearing down on her back.

Winter had hoped to see such improvement when she'd learned her little sister had chosen to study at Beacon instead of Atlas. Though the school had provided her with a path to escape their father, her alma mater's militarized methods hadn't done wonders for Winter's social experiences. General Ironwood had helped patch those deficiencies once he'd taken her under his wing, but it had been a long time before she'd made any sort of friends, even among her team. Weiss, whether as a consequence of leaving their homeland or not, had accumulated a vast circle of friends who cared about her as a person, who'd helped salve the scars left by their upbringing and helped her blossom into an exquisite young huntress. She could not be prouder of her little sister. Even if she kept tugging at her clothes for some reason, wincing as soon as she pulled her jacket. What was that about?

She caught sight of the white tattoo of Fairy Tail on the back of her hand and was reminded that not all of Weiss' new social circle necessarily had her best interests in mind.

"Is everything alright with your clothes?" she asked her sister, the both of them sipping tea in one of Beacon's lush gardens. "You keep fiddling with them."

Weiss flinched, clutching her hands on the side of the table. "Nothing's wrong. I just… had to have them hemmed is all. I grew unexpectedly and the stitching is still raw."

Winter raised an eyebrow. "Stitching? Then why is there duct tape under your sleeve."

"That's… the best solution I could come up with," Weiss sighed. "Believe me, it's better than the alternative."

"Oh?" Winter pried. Could this be a clue about Fairy Tail? "And what is the alternative?"

Her sister flushed at the query. "So, how long are you staying?"

The specialist frowned. It was unlike Weiss to so blatantly change the subject. Whatever she was hiding must have been worse than she'd thought if she was being so clumsy in diverting attention from it.

Still, Winter doubted she'd get answers by acting like a battering ram. Weiss may not have been as deft as Qrow at leading a conversation, but she'd still run her around the ringer if she let her emotions take control of her.

"Just for the tournament," she replied. "Originally it wasn't even supposed to be that long, but the general feels the festival warrants additional security."

"More? There's a squadron of battleships in the sky." Weiss pointed out. "Not that I'm not glad you'll be here longer, but with Roman Torchwick locked up and the White Fang still licking their wounds from the Breach, how much more security is needed?"

Winter decided against telling her sister that the general had felt the need to not only keep her in Vale, but also send for an additional unit of specialists. She trusted Weiss with her life, but she wouldn't share classified troop movements with her. COMMAND ESR had done his job right for once finding this new route, there was no need to put more people in the know.

"General Ironwood believes in being thorough," she said. "With all of Remnant watching, we can't afford to let anything go wrong." She leaned forward and tenderly clasped Weiss' hands in her own. "That doesn't mean there is anything you need to worry about. If there is danger, we'll deal with it, but you should keep your attention on the festival. You've done well for yourself coming to Beacon, and this tournament is a chance to enjoy yourself to the fullest."

Weiss smirked. "And to prove myself to the rest of the world. Maybe father will finally stop pestering me then."

"He's been making demands?" Winter surmised, recalling her own experience with Jacques'… persistence.

"He's been calling me every day since I got back— since the festival started," Weiss confirmed. "He even canceled my card when I tried to buy my team lunch."

"How embarrassing," Winter teased.

"You have no idea. All that time I lectured Ruby about mishandling our jewels and she wouldn't get that smirk off her… you're being sarcastic."

"Not at all," Winter grinned. For all her sister was skilled with the tools of classical wit, she could sometimes be quite ineffectual at recognizing them. "Though, I wasn't aware you and your leader had taken to sharing jewels. Or that Ms. Rose was in any position to acquire them."

"Eh, did I say jewels? I meant fake jewels," Weiss hurriedly explained. "We played poker with them, but she was careless and bet them all… on a stupid illusionist who got what he deserved."

Okay, subtlety wasn't working. Something had happened to her sister recently, and it had something to do with her new tattoo and the organization it represented.

"Weiss, the headmaster said you and your team went missing for a few days before the festival," Winter said. "The next time anyone saw you, your team had these markings on your hands."

Weiss winced. "You know about that?"

"Indeed. Weiss, why would you join this Fairy Tail?"

All at once, her sister stilled. "How do you know that name?"

"I searched for the symbol in the Specialists' database," Winter lied. "There wasn't any other information about them though."

Weiss frowned, wrinkling her brow in thought. "That makes sense. But then why would Ruby and Yang's uncle know…"

So Qrow had already started asking. Good to know.

"Branwen, despite his many flaws, is a fully capable huntsman," Winter declared, covering that her inquiries were in fact connected with Ozpin's right hand. "It is not too surprising that he has happened upon mention of this organization before."

"More than you'd think," Weiss grumbled. She shook her head and looked her sister straight in the eye, bold and confident, as a true lady should be. "Regardless, you have nothing to be concerned about Winter. My team joined Fairy Tail as a matter of necessity, but they proved themselves to be more than hospitable."

"Be that as it may, I'm worried for you," Winter explained. "Weiss, there is absolutely nothing about this group in any CCT database. I don't need to tell you how impossible that is. Or how eager any organization would be to count a Schnee among its number."

Surprisingly, Weiss chuckled at her warning, a warm thing, as if she'd just made a particularly funny jest and she was trying to be polite about it. "Don't worry, Winter. Fairy Tail is many, many, many things, but they were hardly after me for my name. I'd count the friends I made there among the kindest people I've ever met."

"Appearances can be deceiving, little sister."

"And you are far too cynical, big sister," Weiss teased back. When Winter's icy façade didn't crack, she just sighed. "Please, Winter. I promise you, the guild only has my best interests at heart."

Winter always found it hard to deny her baby sister anything, she'd practically raised her before she'd left for the academy. But still… "You only knew them for three days. How could you possibly be so confident in their intentions?"

"That's… a very complicated story. One I'm not sure you'd believe if I told you," Weiss admitted with a frown.

It didn't last long, however, and her face lit up with excitement a moment later, She snatched Myrtenaster from her belt and handed it over the table. Winter raised an eyebrow but took the offered weapon. "What are you doing?"

"Showing you what Fairy Tail taught me. Or at least some of it. I have some techniques involving my sword but I don't want you thinking it's just fancy dust work." Weiss hopped to her feet and preened. "I have gotten quite good at it."

"Oh, really?" Winter grinned playfully. "So you've improved your glyphs than?"

"Immensely," Weiss stated proudly. "I've even started time dilation."

"And your summoning?"

The proud heiress cringed. "That… fell by the wayside, a bit. But I'm sure I'll get it eventually, I just have to keep working at it."

That was interesting. The last time Winter had spoken to her sister about learning to summon, Weiss had despaired and complained about the one aspect of their shared semblance that did not come easily to her. The fact that she had gained the confidence in herself to be assured of her own potential was an excellent improvement.

Had Fairy Tail caused this? What was this group that could change her sister so much in so little time?

"However, I think you'll find that the skill I focused on in its place was very much worth the effort," Weiss assured her, placing a fist in the center of her opposite palm. "And the fight with the crazy water wizard it took for me to unlock it."

"Crazy—what?" Winter stuttered, rising to her feet, unsure if she heard correctly. "Weiss, what are you—"

"Ice—"

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"Weiss Schnee!"

Oh, for gods' sake, why?

Gray knew why of course. Juvia, for whatever reason he couldn't fathom, was incredibly attracted to the messed up whackjob that was him. But while he treasured her as a guildmate and a friend, he did not return those feelings and dealing with her continuous decrees of devotion, and declarations of war on any unmarried girl who spent a significant amount of time with him, had gotten tiresome long ago.

He'd made a point of letting her know exactly what he thought of her actions at the Grand Magic Games banquet and she'd tried to back off afterwards, which he very much appreciated. But with all the time he'd been spending training Weiss, she must have finally burned through whatever reserve of self-control she'd been utilizing.

He and Weiss, both in only their underwear, whirled around to face Juvia, her deep blue coat easily visible in the pure white snowdrifts of Mt. Hakobe.

"Um, hello?" Weiss replied awkwardly. "Nice to meet you?"

"It's nice to meet you too!" Juvia called pleasantly, her serious expression vanishing as she waved at the huntress. "It's so wonderful to have you in the guild!"

"Oh, thank you," Weiss answered, a smile spreading across her face. "It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"We will fight for Gray!"

Weiss' grin warped into an expression of utter confoundment. "What?"

"Juvia," Gray sighed. "I don't know what's going through your head, but I'm just teaching her. We don't have any more of a relationship than you and I do."

"What?" Weiss repeated, her gaze now on Gray.

"I understand that, my darling," Juvia professed with hearts in her eyes. "But I must prove that I am a superior marriage prospect than this interdimensional hussy!"

"WHAT!?" Weiss roared, glaring daggers at the water wizard. "How dare you? How dare you… you… slander me like this?! To make it clear to your clearly delusional brain, he is my teacher, not… that other thing."

"You're allowing him to see you naked!"

"It makes just as little sense to me!"

"Enough!" Gray shouted. "Juvia, I told you before, I'm not going to put up with any more of this ridiculousness. And I'm certainly not going to let you attack our guildmate—"

"No," Weiss cut in. Her fury was still sharp, but there was a shrewd calculation to it now, her livid eyes analyzing Juvia like she was trying to figure out the best place to stab her with an icicle. "No. You want a fight?"

"Yes!" Juvia roared. She suddenly shifted far more meekly. "Was that not clear?"

"No, it was clear," Weiss replied. She marched over to her discarded clothes and whipped up her rapier from the pile. "And I accept."

"Hooray! I shall defeat you in the name of my beloved Gray!"

Gray himself cocked an eyebrow. "You don't have to do this."

"No, but I want to," Weiss declared. "I've been training for weeks on this stupid mountain. I want to see how far I've come."

The ice mage frowned. "You're not ready for Juvia. She's not Natsu, but she's a lot stronger than you're thinking she is."

"My beloved Gray thinks I'm strong! Take that, homewrecker!"

Weiss' eyebrow twitched. "If she's as good as you say, then I'll appreciate the challenge."

Gray opened his mouth to argue but just sighed. "Fine, fine, give it your best shot. Just don't get cocky, okay? You've been picking this up faster than anyone I've ever seen, but that doesn't mean you're a master."

"Not yet," Weiss declared. She stomped forward through the snow to stand before Juvia, blade drawn and ready for battle. "Alright, give me your best shot."

"As you wish! As your caring guildmate, I shall accommodate your request!"

"Just fight already!"

Juvia recoiled from the shout and nodded. Her bubbly and furious demeanor evaporated immediately, replaced by the same cold expression she'd worn when Gray had first met her during the Phantom Lord War. She threw out her hand.

"Water Lock!"

Weiss' eyes widened as she was suddenly encased in a floating orb of water. Her limbs floundered as she suddenly found herself without oxygen. She quickly attempted to swim out of the prison, but the liquid inside shifted fast enough that she couldn't make any real progress.

"My Water Lock is nearly invincible," Juvia declared. "The number of wizards who have escaped it, of course including my darling Gray, can be counted on one hand. In a few minutes, you will run out of air and lose consciences, losing this battle without suffering any excessive harm."

Gray could admit, it was a good strategy. Simple, but effective. There weren't many wizards who had a counter for such an entrapment, and if it worked, the fight was over immediately. He'd only been able to circumvent it because his magic was a natural counter. He'd been teaching Weiss that same magic, but he wasn't sure if she was far enough along to do what he'd done.

The huntress however, turned out to not need to freeze the sphere as he had. Instead, she whipped her sword through the water, a line of white glyphs materializing from her place suspended in the liquid to the ground outside. She placed a foot atop one of the sigils and was suddenly rocketed out of the water and into the snow.

"Oh?" Juvia stoically noted. "So this is the 'semblance' I've heard so much about. Mira mentioned that your blond friend used hers to deal Natsu quite the blow. I wonder if yours will prove to be as impressive."

Weiss spat some snow out of her mouth and rose to her feet, her rapier noticeably left on the ground. She panted for breath as she glared at Juvia, the snowstorm raging over the cliff to their side. "Trust me, you have no idea what I'm capable of."

Gray smirked. He couldn't say he approved of the reason for the duel, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't looking forward to watching. Weiss was right. She and the others could train every waking second, but the best way to learn how to use their magic to fight would always be to fight. They'd have to do some jobs eventually, Erza couldn't pay for their rooms in Fairy Hills forever, but other Fairy Tail wizards would be stronger than most of the opposition they'd face out in the world. He didn't think Weiss would be able to beat Juvia just yet, but this would be a good measuring stick to see how much farther she had to go, maybe even provoke her to unleash the true power he was sure laid within her.

And who knew? Maybe his student had some secret trick up her sleeve. She might have been completely in control of this madness.

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Weiss was very much realizing that she'd lost control of this madness.

She'd underestimated her opponent. Even with Gray's warnings, she'd thought she was just some delusional stalker, all bark and no bite. She was a member of the guild, so she would have some power, but nothing Weiss couldn't handle. Of course, she really should have known better, she'd spent enough time with Nora to know that craziness almost always meant someone was insanely strong, at least in their line of work.

But after the fight with Natsu and training with Gray, she'd come to think of magic as a purely physical force. It amplified punches, fired blasts, summoned armor or demons to boost martial abilities. She hadn't been thinking about an entrapment technique like that Water Lock. But that same blindness might work in her favor.

Juvia had seen her semblance. She thought of her as an otherworldly invader. So she'd catch her off-guard, smash her with every magic attack Gray had taught her, let her see exactly how much of a wizard she was.

With Myrtenaster on the ground, she had both hands free for spellcasting. She slammed a fist into her open palm, just as she'd practiced for weeks.

"Ice-Make Lance!"

She released the required ethernano, a pale blue magic circle materializing in front of her hands. Four spires of clear ice shot out, cutting through the cold winds and curving straight for the water wizard.

Juvia calmly spun to the side, the lances smashing into the snow where she'd stood a moment before. She threw up her arms twice as she twirled.

"Water Slicer."

Four thin blades of water rushed towards Weiss, the snow below them, and even the rock beneath that, sliced in two by their edge.

The huntress' eyes widened. She dove to the side to dodge, but when she looked up, there were already half a dozen more blades already soaring towards her, her opponent's arms busily charging more.

Weiss did her best to avoid the barrage, but the rate of fire was simply too much, She grit her teeth as she was forced to take two of the water blades on her aura, more already incoming. The spread was too wide to escape right, and there was a cliff to the left so that was out.

But maybe… yes, that could work. It was one of the more advanced techniques Gray had shown her so far, but if she could do it… she could do it.

After all, she was a Fairy Tail wizard, wasn't she?

"Ice-Make Geyser!"

She was too far away to launch the attack at her opponent, but she was perfectly capable of using it on herself. A titanic mass of ice erupted from her hands and propelled her into the air. It was cut to pieces by the water blades a moment later, but it was enough to get her out of range. Weiss grinned, summoning glyphs to give her more horizontal distance out of her fall. She had the high ground, and she'd use it to finally crush this crazy girl.

She leapt off the final glyph and raised her hands above her head as she dove through the air.

"Ice-Make Hammer—"

"Water Cane."

A massive whip of water streaked through the sky and came down on Weiss just as her hammer formed above her head. The huntress' spell crumbled, and she was slammed back down into the snow.

"Is this all?" Juvia inquired stoically. "My darling Gray is more than an adequate teacher, you've learned the forms well enough. But that's all you've learned. You know nothing of the spirit of Maker Magic. All you can do is copy his movements, only weaker, slower. Gray deserves an equal, not a doll."

"In what world is a psychotic stalker an 'equal'?" Weiss snarled.

Who did this girl think she was? Spirit of maker magic? She'd practiced the forms to perfection because that was what a student did. It was how she'd learned singing, dancing, and combat. She was no one's doll!

She wanted to see something more than the basics, fine.

… Except she didn't know anything but the basics. Gray had only demonstrated his Lance, Hammer, Axe, Geyser, and a few other techniques. She didn't have an especially large arsenal.

Think. What would Ruby do? Probably come up with some ridiculous scheme combining all their—combining! That was it!

She'd been trying to avoid using her semblance to catch her opponent off-guard, but if that wasn't working, then she needed to try something new.

She summoned a line of glyphs and dashed over to her sword, plucking Myrtenaster from the snow. She held her offhand's palm out before her and slammed the pommel of her blade into it. It wasn't precisely the required ready stance, but it would have to do. She needed focus to use both her powers at once and her sword helped her concentrate.

Juvia flicked her hand, sending more Water Slicers downrange.

A glyph with a clock face appeared beneath Weiss' feet. The approaching water blades seemed to slow, or rather, the huntress' sight had accelerated.

"Ice-Make Lance!"

Just as before, a magic circle spawned in front of her hands. However, unlike before, Weiss instantly cast the spell again, her time dilation of herself allowing her to fire off more spells in the same timeframe. It was exhausting to use both her magic and her semblance to such a degree simultaneously, but like hell was she going to let herself be overcome so easily.

Before long, she'd spawned half a dozen magic circles, each one unleashing a horde of frozen spears downrange, obliterating the Water Slicers and surrounding their caster.

"Let's see you dodge this!" Weiss roared. "Ice-Make Phalanx!"

The surge of lances crashed into Juvia, a cloud of snow and ice erupting from the point of impact.

Weiss dropped her stance, the glyph fading from beneath her as she regained her breath.

"Not bad," Gray smirked proudly. "But don't let your guard down."

Weiss cocked an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? There's no way she could— could—"

The huntress' eyes widened. Walking out of the cloud of ice and snow, was Juvia. But far from being unscathed from the assault as Natsu might have been, the wizard was missing large chunks of her chest, stomach, even the side of her face, floating globs of water instead taking their place.

"That's… that's…"

She couldn't say impossible. She was in another dimension, after all. She didn't know what was possible and what wasn't. But that was… that was…

"What are you?"

Water pooled from Juvia's wounds and suddenly she looked good as new, even her clothes somehow. "I am Juvia the Rain Woman. My body is entirely made of water."

"How?!"

"Magic. Magic I've had since the day I was born. Magic that once trapped me in gloom, and despair, and loneliness for all my days. Until my darling freed me from my curse and showed me the light of Fairy Tail. And that is why, my beloved guildmate, I WILL NOT LET YOU TAKE HIM!"

Juvia's stoic façade shattered into a feral snarl of fury. Like a flood erupting from a dam, she surged forward on a, no, as a torrent of water, her arms pulled back as they gathered titanic mass. Weiss barely had time to throw up a glyph as a ramshackle defense before the wizard smashed through it and threw her arms forward.

"Water Nebula!"

Two enormous waves of water slammed into Weiss, shattering her aura and launching her into the air.

She was powerless. Just like always.

Her life never seemed to be within her control. Even back on Remnant, she always seemed to be trounced by foes like that chainsaw wielding White Fang brute that she was sure Ruby or Yang could have beaten. No matter how much she tried, she failed tests that she knew Winter had passed with flying colors at her age.

And now? Now she had been thrown into a world of monsters and magic and things she had never trained for, with her only chance in hell of returning home being to defeat an entire guild of the most powerful dark wizards there were. Helpless again. She was surrounded by crazy people with strength and talent beyond anything she'd ever imagined, and she couldn't hold a candle to them. No matter how hard she trained, how could she hope to defeat someone who could just turn to water whenever she attacked?

Why didn't anything she did matter?!

She tumbled to the ground, flat in a snowdrift only a few feet from the cliff.

Juvia reformed her body proper, her anger breaking into concern. "Are you alright? I remember Mira saying you fight with your aura, but are you vulnerable when it breaks or after it breaks?"

"After it breaks, Juvia," Gray called out. "Now that's enough. This fight's over."

"Of course, my darling! Did you see how I was able to defeat her—"

"No!"

Both Juvia and Gray turned as Weiss staggered to her feet, her head low, her mind barely thinking. But she could not be powerless. She'd worked too hard to be powerless!

"No?" Juvia growled, her brow scrunching in annoyance. "But if I go any further, I might seriously hurt you, and I don't want to do that! Just yield and admit that I'm a better prospective prospect my darling and we can stop this—"

"No," Weiss repeated mindlessly, her grip faltering as Myrtenaster slipped from her fingertips. "No, no, no, no, no."

Juvia's fist tightened, a glob of water boiling in her hand. Steam rose from the orb as falling snow sizzled against it.

"Juvia…" Gray warned.

"She will not yield, my darling," Juvia replied. "I'm sorry, but I cannot disrespect her by letting her will go unchallenged—"

"Let?" Weiss snarled, finally managing to pick up her head. "No one 'lets' me do anything. I decide who I am! No one else! Give me your best shot, you third-rate harpy!"

"Third-rate?" Juvia repeated, affronted. She raised her arm. "Scald!"

The stream of boiling water blasted out towards the huntress.

Weiss recognized that her taunt was foolish. She'd lost this fight. Juvia was more experienced and her water body was a natural counter to anything Weiss knew how to do. But she just couldn't take it lying down. She was tired of having her life controlled.

Her father did it, with her barely escaping under his thumb to Beacon. Even there, he'd been repeatedly trying to call her and reclaim his influence, drag her back to Atlas. And now, she was stuck in another world by some book she knew nothing about, possibly barred from ever achieving her dream of purifying her family's legacy.

She was done. She wouldn't be controlled anymore. She would be the master of her life. Not her father, not fate, not the gods themselves if they were real.

And if they were, and they tried to mess with her, she'd just cut them down.

She didn't completely understand what happened. Ethernano surged from her origin, but flowed in ways she'd never felt before, in paths she'd never conceived by somehow felt so natural. Her beaten body was filled with energy, and with a furious bellow, she threw her head to the sky.

All around her, a cascade of pitch-black ice erupted from her body, battering aside Juvia's boiling stream and throwing both her and Gray off their feet. Even the mountain's blizzard was stalled for a moment, the falling snow shoved away by the glacier, even as the ice behind Weiss plummeted off the cliff.

The huntress' body sagged, her energy spent. She'd never released so much magic at once before. She didn't even use a spell, she'd just been so wrapped up in her rage and it had just… come out. It was rage and wrath and power on a scale Weiss had never felt before.

It was amazing.

Unfortunately, it probably wasn't the best idea to use when her body was already exhausted and beaten. Her knees turned to jelly, her legs faltering as she fell back.

Right off the cliff.

Her vision flickered, freezing air, strangely still not feeling cold, shearing across her bare skin.

A figure in blue dived after her, a long tentacle of water snagging her out of the air. Once more, she was encased in a Water Lock, only this time, she was heaved upwards, carried back over the cliffside before the bubble popped and she was laid out in the snow, the rush of the liquid snapping her back to something resembling consciousness. The squealing embracing her did the rest.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" Juvia fretted, pulling Weiss up to a sitting position and desperately looking her over, even slamming her ear into her chest to check her heartbeat. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry! I never meant for that to happen, I promise I didn't want to really hurt you, well not like that, I did want to ruff you up to prove myself to my darling Gray, but I didn't want to kill you, I swear!"

"Uh, that's, uh, alright?" Weiss managed out, not really sure how to respond to the woman's frantic blubbering. "Honestly, I've been attacked for worse reasons, my family isn't exactly… nevermind."

"But are you okay?!" Juvia questioned, terrified, clutching Weiss even closer. "Do you need Wendy? Or Ms. Porlyusica? Do you need a blood transfusion? I know how to do that! Water-Make—"

"No!" Weiss finally shouted, shoving the wizard off her. "No! I am fine! I don't need your… whatever this is."

Juvia pouted and looked down ashamed. "Oh. I'm sorry."

Weiss sighed. "It's fine. Thank you for saving me."

"Don't mention it. I would never let a guildmate fall off a cliff. Well, unless my darling asked me to, but he is so wise that he would only do so if it was in their best interests."

"…Right," Weiss remarked. "Why are you so obsessed with him anyway?"

Juvia raised an eyebrow. "I mentioned it during the fight. Did you not hear?"

"No, I just… nothing," Weiss sighed. She didn't think people talked as much during fights back on Remnant. Or maybe it just happened at a level she hadn't reached yet. "He brought you into Fairy Tail, right?"

"He did," Juvia reminisced softly, gentle admiration ghosting across her face instead f her usual rampant adulation. "Before I knew him, I couldn't control my magic very well. Everywhere I went rain would follow and because of that… well… no one wants to be around a person like that. It was a lonely existence. And because of my darling, because of Fairy Tail, I don't have to suffer that anymore."

"That's why you're obsessed with me?"

"Darling!" Juvia exclaimed, jumping up embarrassed. "You heard that?"

Gray nodded, his expression far more touched than Weiss had ever seen before. "I never knew that was… why you feel like you do."

"Well, it was also love at first sight, but your princely chivalry only made me more devoted!"

"And there it is," the ice wizard sighed. "Look, Juvia, I've told you before, I'm not okay with this whole 'being stalked' thing. And honestly, I'm not looking for a relationship right now. You're my friend, but this has to stop. No more fighting every girl who talks to me for more than five minutes. Okay?"

"Yes, my darling, of course," Juvia consented. "But what about ten minutes?"

"Moving on," Gray turned to Weiss and smiled proudly. "You did good."

"What are you talking about?" Weiss sulked. "I was slaughtered."

"True," Gray conceded. "But it's better to take a loss here than out there. Here you can learn from it. So what did you learn?"

"That Natsu isn't the only wizard with stupidly unstoppable powers."

Gray chuckled but shook his head. "Juvia is strong, but I've been able to beat her before and I don't have Natsu's level of bullshit magic power. Your head's one of the best weapons you'll have in a fight. The more creative you are with the tools at your disposal, the more ways you'll have to outmaneuver your enemy."

"My darling is so wise—" a pointed glare stopped Juvia in her tracks. The blue-haired girl took a breath and looked back to Weiss. "Gray is right. The reason I dodged your first attack even though it wouldn't have done anything is because I've learned from experience that it's better to have my water body as a surprise than rely on it. You wasted valuable time later on an attack I knew wouldn't hurt me. Though, that moment was by far your most impressive. It was where you truly started to understand the spirit of Maker Magic."

Weiss raised an eyebrow. "When I was using my semblance?"

"When you were fighting like you."

Gray nodded. "Like I told you before, Maker Magic doesn't have the power of other styles, it relies on creativity. Your creativity. Just copying my attacks like you were doing there won't be enough. You can work them into your own style, but it has to be your style. Your semblance, if you want, can be a part of that."

Weiss scrunched her brow in thought. For years, all her training was to master form, fencing techniques tried and tested over centuries. She repeated drills, again and again, until her muscles could do them with only the slightest incentive from the brain. She'd thought learning magic would be the same.

But if it wasn't, if she had to invent her own style...

She chuckled. She'd confided to Lucy that she was afraid of losing who she'd trained to be in this wacky world, but in her fear, she'd also closed herself off, just as she'd been before she met Ruby. Freedom, agency, the things she wanted most, they didn't mean sticking to only the things you knew. It meant trusting yourself to take a bit of everything from everyone, whatever worked. But she'd still been waiting for someone to show her which path to take. In a way, Gray and Juvia had.

Now she had to walk it.

She wasn't going to be jumping into bar brawls anytime soon, that was simply reckless. But it would fun to snipe people from the edge. Preferably the loud, pink-haired, fire breathing kind. Or the pun-making kind.

Of course, there was one question that still needed answering.

Gray cocked an eyebrow at Juvia. "How did you so much about Maker Magic anyway?"

"Oh, I've been looking into Water-Make ever since we got back from Tenrou. I'd hoped it would… eh… endear me to you?"

Gray sighed and facepalmed. "Of course."

Juvia's face turned beet red. "You mean it worked?!"

"No! That's not—"

"What is that?" Weiss inquired, pointing towards the spires of black ice that had been formed from her final outburst. "I didn't cast any spell when I made them and they're… well… that."

Gray grinned like a madman. "That is what I've been hoping you had, the reason why the cold hasn't bothered you from the start. A very special type of magic. A Slayer Type."

"A Slayer?" Weiss asked. "Like, Dragon Slayer? And Ruby's eyes?"

"Yup. Only yours is a bit more suited to gods."

Weiss' mind froze at that statement. "Go—Gods?"

"Congratulations Weiss!" Juvia cheered, pulling the huntress in for another hug that would have made Nora beg for air. "You're an Ice God Slayer!"

Weiss was still trying to wrap her brain around the idea that Gods were real. And that, apparently, she was somehow supposed to kill them.

This world was just getting wackier all the time. What would her sister say if she could see her now?

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Ozpin sighed as he turned away from the viewscreen, pushing up his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose.

He should have been thrilled, both in public and private. Team RWBY had just scored a resounding victory over Team FNKI, one of the better teams of Atlas' freshman class. Neon Katt had attempted to use mobility and taunts to wear Yang down, but Ms. Xiao-Long had proven that, while she was very much susceptible to the latter, she had evidently increased her speed enough to overtake the cat faunus in the former, her rage only assisting in that regard. Or at least the pink flames she'd conjured with it.

Ms. Schnee, on the other hand, was nearly done in by Mr. Coal's unconventional ranged work. Ozpin had seen many items used as weapons over the millennia, but a trumpet was a new one. Most musician themed combatants he'd encountered in the past had gone for guitars.

However, despite Flynt's brass barrage, Weiss had managed to use a burst of wind dust combined with the volcanic environment to distract the Atlas student with a burst of hot air in order to get in close. And then, surprisingly, she'd proceeded to take advantage of his lack of a melee weapon to beat him over the head with her sword pommel.

He hadn't been aware Weiss was capable of such an… inelegant tactic, but he could hardly disagree with its effectiveness.

Headmaster Ozpin should have been proud that his students had represented their school well and advanced to the next round. Ozma, the warrior wizard who was desperately trying to bring harmony to Remnant in order to get the Gods to come back and help him stop Salem from killing everyone and invading… suffice to say he should have been happy that the team filled with ties to his inner circle and numerous public figures was advancing as huntresses.

But, along with Winter's report that James had forwarded him, the man behind him ensured that he couldn't let his guard down.

"So the Ice Princess can kill gods?" Qrow noted sarcastically. He took another swig of his flask as he leaned against the wall. "Just what we need, a Schnee with an even bigger head."

Ozpin sighed. "Ms. Schnee is a perfectly kind and polite young woman."

"Still a Schnee. The Ice Queen might be a mile better than her old man, but she's still got a stick up her ass."

The headmaster decided to drop the subject and whirled around to face his lieutenant. "Just to be clear, Yang possesses some sort of fire magic and Ruby has Requip and her eyes, correct?"

Qrow nodded. "That's all I could get out of them. Yang seems eager to show off what she can do in the singles round."

"I can imagine," Ozpin chuckled. "The girls likely still have quite a bit of ethernano still in their origins from Fairy Tail. With any luck, they won't use it all up before Salem comes for them."

That was one of the primary annoyances of returning to the world. When he'd lived before, ethernano had been bountiful in the world, enough for any mage who wanted to learn to have their fill and have plenty left over. But when the God of Darkness had revoked his gift, and wiped out most life on the planet, he'd taken the majority of the crucial particle with him. Salem, thanks to her unique condition, had an ample supply, though she really didn't need it given her propensity for curses.

As for him, his wife had been more than willing to share when they were reunited. When they had fallen out… it'd taken him an eon to scourge together the power he'd used to create the maidens, themselves gifted with the power to create their own, so much that it radiated out to their immediate surroundings. Anyone else would be restricted from using any truly impressive magic for an extended period simply from lack of fuel. There was a reason he'd only taught Qrow and Raven basic transformation magic. It was simple, but easily sustained.

Of course, that meant it was only a matter of time before Team RWBY's leftovers ran out. So, it was best that he got to work on providing them a maiden to help replenish their stock.

He could only hope Ms. Nikos agreed to his request. He knew asked too much, but if Salem got to Team RWBY, if she completed all twelve of her Gates…

He couldn't let that happen.

Quite obviously, this is a Weiss chapter. She ain't suddenly going to stop being Weiss, but she is loosening up bit by bit, trying to find a balance between the composed and elegant girl she wants to be, while also freeing herself to accept all possibilities and find whatever way she can to take control of her life.

Juvia was unexpectedly fun to write this chapter. I never really cared one way or the other about her in Fairy Tail proper, I liked her but I liked others more, but having her here was a blast, and just served as a reminder how powerful EVERYONE picked for Tenrou Island was. There was a reason Juvia was S-Class in Phantom Lord.

An extra huge thank you to my patrons: ArcherMcMuffin, Gregg Tracton, Keith Traction, StabKingPro, Annaya Chan, and Nora Okonus.

Thank you for Reading! I hope you enjoy what comes next!

Go Forth and Conquer!