Another long chapter, but not nearly as long as the previous one. Still, important stuff happens here. The original version of this chapter contained the one scene that gave this story its rating. Since writing that scene, I've come to quite strongly dislike it, and I no longer feel that it has any place in the story. Oh, the actions still take place, but the explicit description of them is gone. Everything else remains the same. In any case, enjoy, and please let me know what you think.

Chapter Seventeen: Light in the Darkness

According to Weiss, her mother lived on the other side of the city, which meant another trip with the monorail. I was absolutely fine with it, because Atlas had a lot to look at. They had fancy buildings for all sorts of things, from cool ones like building amazing weapons to boring ones where all they did was hold meetings all day.

But on this trip, I was too busy getting nervous over meeting Weiss's mother to really enjoy the architecture of Atlas. I knew it wasn't going to be like meeting her father, but this would be stranger in a way because Weiss hadn't even known where to find her mother before today. I wasn't sure exactly how long they hadn't spoken, but I guessed it wasn't going to be a short period. I looked at Weiss, who was absently staring out of the window, and wondered what would be going through her mind at that moment. It was hard for me to imagine, because my own mother had died so long ago. Unlike Weiss, I'd always known where to find her, but she wouldn't ever reply. For Weiss, that long time of silence would finally end now. I was happy for her, even though a part of my heart seemed to hurt a bit thinking about it.

Weiss noticed that I was looking at her and smiled at me. Even though it looked the same as her smiles before, it still seemed somehow brighter now that her relationship with her father had been patched up.

"We're almost there," she said.

She sounded like she did the one time she got all of us to go with her to a lecture on Dust applications. It was more boring than the pamphlet she'd given to me on our first day at Beacon, but I'd never seen her more excited, until now.

"So Weiss, what's your mother called?" Yang asked. I realized that, as Weiss's girlfriend, I should probably have been the one to ask that question.

"Fotiá Chovóli," Weiss replied. "She was originally from Mistral and later moved to Atlas to go and live with my father."

"She didn't move back after they split up? I wouldn't really want to be anywhere near my ex-husband after that, especially if he's pulling strings to keep me away from my kids," Yang said.

Weiss sighed. "I can only guess that my father used his influence to keep her from leaving. I highly doubt she remained here of her own volition. But…we can ask her soon enough. Our stop is up next."

This station, unlike the one in front of Weiss's house, couldn't be called clean no matter how you tried. The platform was grimy, half of the vending machines had 'out of order' notes on them, and one of the trashcans had been ripped clean off its holder and kicked over.

"I thought Atlas prided itself on its strong law enforcement," Blake said as we walked past the carnage.

"This area is considered to be 'low priority'. It's beyond the touristic areas that are often seen and it houses very few buildings of interest. Areas considered low priority are the ones that have their law enforcement greatly diminished in the event of a threat, and with a large part of the army in Vale for the Vytal Festival, these areas only have token forces consisting of Humans and outdated Knights," Weiss replied with clear disgust. "Honestly, Atlas as a whole has the unmistakable pragmatism of the SDC written all over it, and General Ironwood doesn't have the finances to do anything against it. Winter has complained about it to father countless times, but he's always refused to budge. Maybe after his change of heart, he'll be a bit more receptive to the idea."

We walked down the broken escalator and stepped into a street which seemed to be entirely orange in the light of the setting sun. Here, the buildings were much lower than they had been in the area of town where Mr. Bluefield's garage had been located, and probably even lower than regular apartments in Vale. After the fancy appearance of nearly everything else in this city, it looked boring and almost depressing.

Weiss led us down the street and after a while turned right into a narrow, one way street. I'd almost expected the street lights there to be broken after the way the monorail platform had looked, but those, at least, seemed to be intact. We walked into a footpath with some trees in the middle, clearly planted there to spice up the dull gray of the buildings on either side. Weiss stopped in front of one of the houses, distinguishable from the others only because of the black '37' next to the door. It was only slightly wider than Henry's house in Mistral.

I could see that Weiss was nervous, so I stepped forward and put my hand on her shoulder. "We're all with you," I said encouragingly.

She smiled faintly at me and took a deep breath, then stepped forward and rang the doorbell. I could hear through the door that it sounded more like a buzzer than a bell. Weiss nervously shifted from one foot onto the other while we waited.

Then, the door was opened. In the opening stood a woman slightly taller than Weiss, with red hair much like Pyrrha's, only her eyes were a slightly darker blue than Weiss. Her face looked almost exactly the same as Weiss's. At first, the woman looked a bit puzzled, but as soon as she saw Weiss her eyes widened.

"Weiss?" she asked. Her voice sounded warm and friendly, despite her tone of surprise.

"Hello…mother," Weiss stammered nervously.

For an awkward moment, nothing happened. Then, suddenly, Weiss's mother threw her arms around her and pulled her into a hug, before letting go and telling us all to come in. She led us up a narrow and steep flight of stairs, which made a turn at the end into an equally narrow hallway. It had a dark carpet on the floor, and a door on the left led into the living room, which looked surprisingly cozy compared to the stern outside of the building. The floor was made out of fake wooden planks, the walls painted white. In the left side of the room, there was a heavy looking wooden table with four chairs. On the wall was a picture of a forest. A dark metal cabinet with glass doors was placed against the wall with the door in it, with a green chair next to it. On the right side of the room, there was a gray couch with a blue chair next to it, with a TV opposite it. Weiss's mother gestured at the couch and we all sat down. She herself sat down on the blue chair. She couldn't keep her eyes off Weiss.

"It's been so long," she said after a moment.

Weiss just nodded. She seemed just as unable to tear her eyes away from her mother as her mother was from her.

"I wish I could have visited you sooner," Weiss said. "But father always prevented me from finding out where you lived. I couldn't even track down your phone number to call you."

Her mother's eyes narrowed. "Yes, Jacques has a way of getting what he wants in this city," she said. "I've never been able to get in touch with you or Winter, either, despite my best efforts. I suppose I should count my blessings that I could still find a job in this forsaken city."

I winced at the bitterness in her voice. Clearly, a lot had happened between her and Mr. Schnee in the past.

"Well…" Weiss said hesitantly, "I've spoken to him. He says he's going to change how he does things, from now on. That he'll return to being the man he once was."

Her mother raised an eyebrow. "Jacques is very good at making promises, much less so at keeping them," she said. Then her eyes flitted towards the rest of us briefly, before returning to Weiss. "But first, I think I owe your friends an introduction. My name is Fotiá Chovóli. I am, as I suppose you already know, Weiss's mother. I'm going to assume you're Weiss's teammates at Beacon, but I'm afraid I don't know your names."

Yang and Blake introduced themselves first, and then it was my turn. "My name is Ruby Rose. I'm Weiss's partner at Beacon and…" I hesitated and looked at Weiss, who nodded almost unnoticeably. "…and I'm also her girlfriend," I finished, feeling all warm and fuzzy inside because Weiss had given me approval to say it.

It still felt strange, but it was a very good kind of strange. Weiss's mother blinked once, and then a wide smile appeared on her face.

"Girlfriend? Weiss, that's great!" she said. "Such a cute girl, too," she added after another look at me. Weiss and I blushed and Yang chuckled.

"Yes, she's absolutely precious," Yang said with a mocking grin.

I groaned.

"Jealous your little sister has a girlfriend and you don't?" Weiss's mother asked innocently.

Yang's face turned as red as my hood and she stammered, "What…that's not…I mean…I…"

Weiss stared at her mother with wide eyes while I doubled over laughing.

"I'm guessing you got your wit from mother, then?" Blake asked drily.

"You'd be surprised, actually," Weiss's mother said. "Jacques actually has a supremely dry sense of humor, or at least he had long ago. That's one of the things I used to like about him."

I couldn't really imagine Mr. Schnee as the type of person who would crack a joke, but before I could comment on it Weiss's mother had already changed the subject.

"So, Weiss, what brings you to Atlas? I can't imagine you would come here just for a family visit."

While Weiss explained what we were doing here, not even bothering with our cover story, I thought about how often we'd told people our mission lately. Every time we did, I realized just how little we actually knew about what the White Fang and Torchwick and Cinder were up to. Even though we kept finding new leads, we still weren't any closer to actually stopping whatever it was our enemies were planning for us. Even our new destination, Northern Star, didn't have anything else to it than that, a location for us to go to. Was this really how a normal mission would work? Going from place to place, just to find out what you were actually supposed to be doing? I'd always known that being a Huntress was about more than fighting evil monsters of darkness, but even then I would have thought that a Huntress would at least know what she was supposed to do on a mission. We had nothing like that, and that worried me.

Weiss finished telling the story to her mother, who, just like all the other parents we'd met recently, wondered why Professor Ozpin would send us on a task like this.

"I mean, this sounds like the kind of mission you should leave to a fully qualified team of Huntsmen, not some first-years," she said, looking at all of us in turn as if she didn't really believe we'd thought it through.

Weiss sighed. "I know. I don't really understand it either, and I'm not really sure whether or not Professor Ozpin is doing the right thing. He seems to see things beyond what is immediately obvious, but what those things are, I wouldn't know. But when we agreed to this mission, we also agreed, implicitly, to trust his judgement on the matter. I'm not going to go back now, not after everything we've already gone through," she said.

I grinned at her words. It hadn't even been that long ago when Weiss had argued against going after the White Fang because we were still first-years. And now, here she was defending our choice to go after them.

Her mother nodded somewhat unhappily. "I guess I should be grateful, too," she mused. "If it hadn't been for this mission of yours, we wouldn't have been able to meet up again like this. So…let's just leave the serious business for what it is for now. Tell me about how you've been, the things you get up to in school when you're not off on crazy missions, how you ended up falling in love with your teammate…"

"Mom!" Weiss interrupted. "We've had the embarrassment, thanks," she said pointedly.

Her mother cocked her head curiously. "That's the first time in years you've called me 'mom'," she said.

I felt a chill running down my spine and knew immediately how significant that moment must have been to her mother.

Weiss blinked a few times. "Yeah…I…I guess it is," she said.

Weiss's mother threw her arms around her and pulled her close. For a few moments, no one moved or spoke. Weiss's mother eventually let go of Weiss and looked at her with watery eyes.

"I never thought I'd hear you say that again, instead of 'mother'." Now she looked at me and smiled. "I guess I have you to thank for it, otherwise I'd have had no way to embarrass her that much."

I chuckled and smiled brightly at Weiss, who like her mom had quite watery eyes.

For the rest of the evening, we told stories of our time at Beacon, our teachers, our friends in other teams, and about our earlier run-ins with the White Fang.

With every passing minute, I saw Weiss getting more relaxed and happy. I understood her all too well. Much like Blake on Menagerie, this was Weiss's moment to face her past and it had gone far better than she had ever dared to dream.

Weiss's mother told us about her life after she'd left Mr. Schnee. She'd wanted to stay in Atlas so she could still keep an eye on Winter and Weiss, and had picked up her old job as a blacksmith again.

I gasped so loudly that my friends thought I was choking when she revealed that. "You mean you make weapons for Huntsmen and Huntresses?!" I asked at perhaps a slightly loud volume.

She nodded. "That's right. Even though most Huntsmen make their own weapons, not all of them are good at that. They come to me, and together we come up with a design that suits their fighting style and Semblance, which I then build. Of course, I also do repairs on weapons made by others, if necessary. I actually forged Myrtenaster's predecessor, Amaryllis, for Weiss when she was younger."

"That is so awesome!" I grabbed Crescent Rose and began pointing out all of the features I'd installed on her.

"Ruby, you dolt, we're not here to discuss our weapons," Weiss said sternly, interrupting my explanation of the various kinds of ammo I could load Crescent Rose with.

"But your mom's a blacksmith," I protested. "She's probably the one aside from Uncle Qrow who can appreciate the inner workings of awesome weapons like sniper scythes."

"Qrow? Qrow Branwen?" Weiss's mother asked.

I blinked stupidly. "You know my uncle?" I asked, at the same moment Weiss asked, "You know that vulgarian?"

Weiss's mother laughed. "I know him, yes. Whenever he's around Atlas for missions he drops by. I met him years ago when he was blackout drunk and his weapon wouldn't function properly…insert your own raunchy jokes here," she added with a look at Yang, who decided not to make whatever joke she was readying, having been beaten to the punch. "In any case, ever since then we kept in contact. I don't think I ever bothered telling him about my connection with Jacques, since he was quite vocal about his dislike for the Schnee family. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he knows exactly who I am, it's hard to tell with him sometimes." She looked at me. "I'm guessing he helped you build your weapon, then? It figures. Scythes aren't that popular with people. Too difficult to handle and not very useful in cramped areas."

I nodded. "He taught me everything I know," I said proudly.

"It's a small world, I guess," Weiss's mother said. She looked out of the window. "I think it's time for you to get going." She looked back at us. "It's been great, getting to know all of you, and to finally reconnect with you, Weiss. When your mission is done, I hope you'll come over to visit for a longer time, but right now I don't want to keep you from your work. If Northern Star is indeed in danger, like you said, it's probably best if you get there as soon as possible."

Weiss nodded sadly. "I know. I…I'm really glad I got to see you again, after all this time," she said. She seemed about to say something else, but she couldn't find the words.

Her mother understood her perfectly, however, and drew her close for one more hug. "Keep up the good work, Weiss. Stay strong, and you'll be fine, I know it."

"Yeah…yeah, I guess," Weiss said softly.


We walked back to the monorail in silence. I was holding Weiss's hand, but I knew she was lost in thought so I decided to leave her be. Yang and Blake, too, kept quiet. Once the monorail began to glide out of the station, Weiss seemed to be shaken from her thoughts.

"So," she said, a bit awkwardly. "What are we going to do once we get to Northern Star?" she asked.

"I say we find an inn," Yang said. "This day has been incredibly long, and we're not going to uncover any plots if we're half asleep."

Blake and I agreed with Yang, and Weiss nodded.

"Right, then we'll head over to Seaview. The name is rather generic but it's a very luxurious hotel. After a month on a boat I'm dying to get into a comfortable bed again, even if only for one night."

Yang nodded. "It sounds good, but how exactly will you pay for that?"

Weiss shrugged. "The SDC financed the build of the hotel for a large part. I'm sure they can rent us two rooms for one night against a reduced rate."

Yang grinned. "I'll leave that up to you, then."

When Yang began a conversation with Blake, Weiss turned to me. "I, um, I was thinking," she whispered.

I noticed she was blushing a bit and I felt my own heart rate climbing in response. "Yeah?" I whispered back.

"I…A lot has happened today. I feel happier than I have in years. We're alone tonight. What I want to say is…well…maybe we can…you know…do something. Together."

She was bright red when she finished speaking. Judging by the heat in my cheeks, I wasn't looking any different. I knew what she was talking about. In my head, I'd been thinking 'yes' from the moment I realized what she was saying.

"I…I think I would like that," I whispered.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Yang looking at us and smiling lightly.


In true Atlas style, the hotel was at the end of the monorail line. It was by far the largest building in the small village, brightly lit by spotlights around it. Northern Star itself had mostly low buildings, styled to look like they were much older than they actually were. The streets were patrolled by the newest Atlesian mechs and well-armed soldiers, necessary because the village lacked the massive wall of Atlas itself. Normally, the weaponry would have been incredibly fascinating to me, but now I was focused on other things.

We entered the lobby of the hotel and walked up to the counter, when an impeccably groomed man with gray hair and a thin moustache was waiting for us. He gave us a somewhat disapproving look, until his eye fell on Weiss.

"Miss Schnee," he said, with a small bow. "How may I help you tonight?"

His voice was trained to be polite, but even I could hear that this man preferred to deal with wealthy businessmen instead of a group of teens.

"I'd like to book two suites for tonight," Weiss said.

The man behind the counter smiled widely, but there was no warmth. "Certainly, but you surely know that our suites do not come cheap," he said.

Weiss nodded. "I'm aware. You may put it on the tab of the SDC," she said.

Now the man did give a genuine smile, although it was a very greedy one. "I shall reserve our best suites immediately, Miss Schnee. If you could just sign here…"

Weiss and the man behind the counter took care of the paperwork, and Yang whispered, "'Reduced rate' my ass…she's just letting her father pay for everything." She chuckled. "Not that I'm complaining. I've always wanted to find out how good high-end hotels are."

Weiss finished the paperwork and held out a key to Yang. "Well, here's your chance," she said. "Our rooms are on the top floor."

She began walking to the elevator, and the rest of us quickly followed her. The hallway we had to walk through to get to our rooms was incredibly long and the doors seemed to be spaced oddly far apart. I wondered if that meant the rooms here were really that big.

Eventually, Weiss stopped walking. "This room is ours, Ruby. Yang and Blake, yours is the next one over."

"Well then, ladies," Yang said, "Good night to both of you. I'm going to find out if these hotels are worth the second mortgage you need to stay here."

She and Blake walked over to their room, while Weiss opened our door. The room I stepped into was far bigger than the one we'd shared in Mistral, even though that hadn't been a cheap hotel either. The bed alone would fill up a normal-sized room, and there were countless pillows on it. I entered the bathroom, which actually had marble tiles in it, as well as the fluffiest towels I'd ever felt and a bathtub you could swim in. I was so busy admiring the room that for a moment I forgot my nerves. They came back when I turned around and saw Weiss standing right in front of me.

"So..." I said uncertainly. "Now what?"

Weiss took a deep breath. "First, let's just get ourselves cleaned up. After that…we'll see," she said. She turned around and said, "You can go first."


I sat on the edge of the bed, wrapped in one of the hotel's fluffy towels. I felt a bit awkward, sitting there in nothing but a towel, since I usually got dressed immediately after coming out of the shower. I also didn't think I'd been as clean as I was now in years.

My mouth was a bit dry as I sat waiting for Weiss to finish up in the bathroom. The big light on the ceiling was turned off, and the room was only lit by the fancy lights above our nightstands. A massive flatscreen TV decorated the wall opposite the bed. My heart was pounding. Until now, I'd only ever fantasized about doing…the kind of stuff Weiss wanted to do now. I had no real idea how it would work, how it would go, in reality. I held up a hand. It trembled slightly and I took a deep breath. I was probably just overreacting. After all, how difficult could this really be? I'd probably be fine.

I heard the bathroom door open and my heartbeat went up by a thousand beats per minute. Weiss round the corner from the bathroom door. She too was wearing a fluffy towel. Her hair was undone, not in her usual ponytail. I tried to control my breathing. Weiss sat down next to me on the bed. I looked at her. The light wasn't very bright, but I could see the gleam in her eyes.

Slowly, she leaned in towards me, and I mirrored her. When our lips met, I felt pinpricks all over my body. I could feel Weiss's soft lips, smell the mint of her toothpaste. She pulled back a little bit and smiled at me.

"Relax," she whispered, and I nodded faintly.

She leaned back in again and kissed me again, this time gently putting her hands on my back. I did the same and pulled her in a little closer, made the kiss a little more intense. I felt that Weiss opened her mouth a little and once again I followed her lead. It was a strange feeling when I felt her tongue against mine. I felt heat rushing through my body and every movement of Weiss's hands on my back sent little shocks through me as if her fingers were coated in lightning Dust. Eventually, we parted again.

"Ruby…are you sure you want to do this?" Weiss asked.

I nodded, still breathless. At that moment, there was nothing I wanted to do more than be with Weiss, touch her, kiss her, and do many other things.

"Then…let's lie down," Weiss said softly.

Everything after that moment was a blur. A blur of so many different things and feelings and experiences and whatever else you can think of to call something like that. Was it everything I imagined? Yes! But it wasn't just that. It was so much more.

You know how a dream feels real, but when you're awake you know it's real? That's what it was like. We did the things I had been thinking about in the few moments I'd had to myself in the past couple of weeks, but to actually feel Weiss's body against mine, to really feel it instead of just thinking about it, made everything so much better than I had thought it would be.

I felt static, like lightning Dust had been spread throughout the bed somehow. Everything was warm and soft and tingly and I had no idea how much time we spent like that. I didn't care, either. Every second was better than the last.

And even better, I knew Weiss was loving every second of all this as well. The way she moved, the sounds she made… I'm sure she could have described all of this much more fancily, but I don't think even the best writer or poet could have really understood what this moment was like for Weiss and me. It must have been hours later when we, um, finished. Nothing I'd ever done myself even came close to what I felt right then.

"Ruby…" Weiss whispered as we lay next to each other, still breathing heavily.

I knew what she wanted to say, and even in my happy haze I somehow knew that it wasn't the time yet.

"I lo…"

"Not yet," I interrupted her softly.

She gave me a confused look. I didn't really know what to say, or why I was so certain that now wasn't the time for it yet. All I knew was that those words had some kind of power to them. A…weight, that just wouldn't match with that moment. I tried to find the words to explain, but I guess somehow Weiss knew what was going through my head.

"Okay. Not just yet, then...but promise me that when you're ready, you will say it," she said.

I nodded, more in love with Weiss than I had ever been before. "I promise."

And so ends another chapter. Some notes: Weiss's mother's name means 'Fire Ember' in Greek, because I figured I already changed Weiss's heritage a lot, might as well change her mother into a very different character as well. With that said, please let me know what you think, and I will see you next time.