Dead By Roselight

Chapter 16: Friendly Faces

Weiss was slowly making her way through this new world she had been thrown into. The white-haired girl had her head hanging lowly as she took small and very slow steps with no destination ahead of her. The horrors she had just faced were still fresh in her mind and haunting her. What was especially causing her grief was the fate of her dear friend, Pyrrha, who had become a mindless killer of this world.

As she kept walking, Weiss thought about everything she had lost so far to this world. Before she had even come here, she had lost her best friend, Ruby. Once she had been taken in this world, the heiress lost all her friends from team JNPR, along with Blake. And if these losses weren't bad enough for her, she had to lose her new comrades that had saved her earlier, Clark, Bruce and Lois. The only friend that Weiss might not have lost yet was Yang, but the chances of the blonde being still alive were minimal at best.

With her heartbreaking thoughts weighing her down, the white-haired girl fell to her knees, unable to keep herself going anymore. Just how much would she have to lose? Hadn't she lost enough already? Thanks to being born into the Schnee family, Weiss already lost numerous things that could never be replaced, such as a safe and happy childhood, stable family and being able to make friends for the most of her life. Yet even after not having any of these, she still had to just lose more irreplaceable things. Just how much more would the heiress have to go through before it would all end?

But the most important question wasn't necessarily what more she would lose. Instead, the question was, what was it all for? What kept her going, despite how painful things got for her?

When Weiss asked this from herself, her mind went back to what she had sworn to do, once she had become a Huntress. The white-haired girl had sworn to turn her family company around, making it into something that people could look at with pride, instead of being despised for it's criminal acts.

However, would it really be worth it all in the end?

Weiss suddenly felt strangely cold. She looked down at the ground and saw that there was a thin layer of snow there. Slightly alarmed by this sudden change, the heiress looked up to see where she was and saw what looked like a ski resort ahead of her. Apparently, the realm had done a sudden and unexpected change, causing Weiss to end up in this place without her knowledge.

With nothing else to do, the white-haired girl got up to her feet and walked into the resort. Upon entering it, she started to look around and inspect the place to see what it was like. Much like the other places she had been at, the ski resort was a mess. Everything that she saw was old, abandoned and falling apart. There was a ski lift that had pretty much broken down. A couple of the lifts had fallen to the ground with the others barely hanging on. There was also a very large building in the middle, most likely a hotel of sorts for the visitors. The building was in really bad shape, as a large part of it's roof had collapsed along with a wall. Upon taking a closer look, it seemed like the building had become a hangout for gangs and other hoodlums, as the place was covered in graffiti with different names written all around.

However, there was one picture that seemed to stick out from the rest. This one was a large and colorful mural that read "The Legion", which Weiss could only assume was a gang of some sorts.

As the heiress kept walking around, she suddenly heard footsteps behind her. Her body froze as she realized that the sound was coming closer to her, meaning that someone had noticed her and was now walking up to her. Knowing that there were only two types of people in this world, killers and survivors, Weiss immediately assumed that whoever this was to be most likely a killer, so she prepared herself to run for her life. And she would have run, if the person behind her wouldn't have started speaking.

"Hey! You there!" the person behind the white-haired girl whispered, causing her to turn around. "If you want to survive, come with me! I know a safe place with other people!"

Weiss looked at the person who had called out to her. He seemed to be a boy in his late teens that was wearing a dark gray hoodie with a black leather jacket over it. He was also wearing tight pants with green combat camouflage pattern on them, black combat boots and white bandages over his hands. He also had his hood up, so the heiress could only see his face.

"Hi there. Sorry if I scared you," the boy said with a small smile. "My name is Frank. What's your name?"

"I'm Weiss. Weiss Schnee," the white-haired girl introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you. Now come on. We should head to the place with the others," Frank said as he turned around and began to walk away. "Follow me."

With no better ideas, Weiss decided to follow the boy. Perhaps this time she could find a group that would stay with her, unlike the ones before. It was at least worth a try.

It took some time, but Frank eventually managed to lead the heiress to what seemed like some sort of a storage building, most likely for skis and other such things. The hooded boy knocked on the door lightly, which was then opened by someone on the inside. Frank walked in with Weiss following close behind, before the door was closed again.

Now that they were inside, the white-haired girl looked around a bit to see how big of a group she had just joined. There were a bit over a dozen people there of different ages, ethnicities and genders. It was a real mixed bag of people.

"Everyone, I would like you all to meet the newest addition to our group," Frank said, stepping to the side a bit so that the others could see Weiss. "This is Weiss Schnee and she will be with our group from now on."

Upon hearing the heiress' name, the people immediately began to whisper among themselves, most likely surprised by their newcomer's identity. After all, it wasn't everyday that you would get to meet a person that was practically royalty.

However, Weiss wasn't all that thrilled by the reaction her name brought. Not only did she not like to be judged by her name, there were also possible problems her identity could bring. This group could have people in it that held grudges towards the Schnee family, much like Ellis had. Not only that, but there could be trust issues between herself and the others. It could be very difficult for her to work in this group.

"Weiss!? Did you just say Weiss!?" an excited voice called out from the back. A voice that the white-haired girl recognized. Her eyes went wide upon seeing a familiar face emerge from behind the other members of the group. "Weiss! It's so good to see you!"

"KLEIN!?" Weiss exclaimed in shock, having not expected her family butler to be in this world. "Is that really you!?"

"It's me, my little snowflake!" the butler said happily, before the heiress ran up to hug him, which he returned gladly.

"Klein, do you know her?" Frank asked out of curiosity.

"Indeed I do! I used to be her family's butler," Klein answered with a smile. "I used to look after her, when she was little. Even more than her own father, actually."

"Klein, how did you end up here? And what do you mean by saying that you used to be our butler?" Weiss asked. "Just what has happened with you?"

"I'm afraid that things haven't gone all that well for me, madame," the butler said with a sad sigh. "You see, back at the Schnee manor, we happened to hear about your disappearance. While Winter and I were obviously horrified over what had happened, your brother wasn't all that saddened. Nor were your father. I think it's safe to say that they might have even been somewhat happy by the news. I couldn't bring myself to listen to how they spoke of you, so I... kind of dumped a tray with a tea kettle on them."

"Klein!" the white-haired girl exclaimed in shock. "Why would you do that!?"

"To be honest, as foolish as what I did was, I didn't regret it one bit," Klein explained. "Even if I have been working for your family for years, I've never really liked most of your family, especially your father. You were honestly the only person I really cared about in that family, and you sort of become a surrogate daughter to me. I just... I just couldn't listen to your father and brother speak so horribly of you, after you had disappeared."

"Oh, Klein..." Weiss said as she proceeded to hug the ex-butler again. "You're too good for your own good, you know?"

"I guess I know that now," the butler said with a small chuckle. "Anyways, after I did that, your father was obviously not pleased with me, so he fired me right away. Thanks to what I did, I was unable to get another job, so I was stuck spending time in an apartment I had rented. One night, after I had gone to sleep, I woke up to find myself here. It's honestly a miracle I've survived this long."

"Well, I'm certainly glad for that miracle."

The sound of Frank clearing his throat brought the happy reunion to a sudden end. Both Weiss and Klein turned towards the hooded boy, wondering what he wanted.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your reunion, but I feel like we have some things that need to be talked about," Frank said. "Mainly concerning the killer of this realm."

"I suspected there was one here as well," Weiss said while breaking up the hug with her butler. "So what is the killer around this area like? I have met two so far, so I have some experience when it comes to dealing with them."

"Well, the thing about this killer is that it's a bit special," the hooded boy answered. "The killer in this realm is known as The Legion and it's not made up of only a single person, but several that work together."

"Wait, what?" the heiress asked with wide eyes. "I thought every area only had a single killer patrolling them. How does this place have more than one?"

"Like I said, they're a bit of a special case. I'm guessing they used to be a gang or something, before getting brought here. You can even see their logo on the large lodge in the middle of this place," Frank explained. "The things that makes The Legion very dangerous are their teamwork and speed. All the other killers are relatively slow when compared to them, so they are tough to escape from."

Before Weiss could ask any other questions, a sudden scream was heard from the outside, the white-haired girl, along with Klein and other survivors, walked up to the building's windows, where they could see what was happening.

What they saw was a man running away from something. The man had several cuts on his body and was struggling to run. His escape was suddenly cut off, when another person ran in front of him and stopped him. Soon two others appeared as well, surrounding the wounded man and leaving him no way of escape.

The three killers that had caught up with their prey were all wearing similar clothing, which consisted of dark clothing that included a hood that was pulled up. They were all wielding knives and had a white mask covering their entire faces. While one couldn't tell too much about what they looked like due to the masks and clothing, you could still see that two of the killers were female and one was a male.

Before the wounded man could do anything to defend himself, the three killers jumped on him like wild animals and began to viciously stab him. The man screamed in pain and terror, as his body was turned into a bloodied mess. It didn't take long for the screams to end and the killers to step back, leaving behind a body that couldn't be recognized anymore.

Weiss and Klein stepped back in horror, having been shocked by the violent murder they just saw before their eyes. They both felt sick in their stomachs, as the sheer brutality of the killers was something they could have never expected.

"Oh God... Klein, what are we going to do?" Weiss whispered to the butler in horror.

"Don't worry, madame. They still don't know we are here," Klein said, hoping to calm down the white-haired girl. "We just need to stay quiet and wait for them to-"

"Hey, they're walking towards us!" one of the survivors at the window whispered in a panicked voice. "Why are they coming here!? Do they know we're here!?"

Both Weiss and Klein felt their blood freeze. They prayed that the killers didn't actually know where they were hiding and would just head to another direction. Otherwise, they would be in serious danger.

"Weiss, listen to me carefully. We don't know if they know about us being here just yet, so we should move to the back of this building and stay very quiet," Klein began to silently instruct the heiress. "I think there were a couple of lockers that we can use to hide ourselves. Even if we are discovered, we might be able to escape in the confusion of them coming here and attacking the others. I need to you to stay as close to me as you possibly- Hurk!"

The white-haired girl looked up in horror as the butler's face was twisted in a painful expression and he had blood falling from the corner of his mouth. He then fell to the ground with a deep wound on his back that was bleeding very badly.

"KLEIN!" Weiss screamed as she knelt down next to the man. She then looked up to see what could have caused Klein to get wounded in the first place.

The heiress' face turned pale upon seeing Frank standing there with a bloody knife in his hand. He was also wearing a white mask that was covering his face, similarly to the three killers of The Legion on the outside. The mask had a twisted, smiling face drawn on it.

Frank was also a member of this realm's killers, The Legion.

Author's notes: I decided to use The Legion for this chapter, as I could use them for what I'm planning with Weiss. Not to mention, I also wanted to use them, as the idea of The Legion being made up of several people instead of just one seemed like an interesting trait.

The idea behind one of The Legion members being able to disguise themselves as a survivor came from the original trailer for the killer. It actually has Frank, the main member of The Legion, pretend to be a survivor, before stabbing another survivor in the back.

Anyways, hope you liked the chapter and I'll try to get the next one done soon.

Until next time.

RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Dead by Daylight belongs to Behaviour Interactive.