So this chapter will be a little bit shorter than the last as it is more of a build-up chapter once again as we have just surpassed a major plot point in the course of this story. As for how things have been so far, I hope all of you reading have been enjoying it thus far and enjoy what is to come. Either way, onto the next chapter!


Everything was silent in the corners of Frost's mind as he traversed the dreamscape. He knew this as he once again followed after a distant memory of his family wandering the streets of his former home in quiet comfort. The sounds of wind blowing through the trees and plants brushed by, and the sounds of laughing children carried from a nearby park near the center of town.

None of that mattered, however.


Frost silently watched as his family walked towards and then beyond their home, before stopping at the house next door as they knocked and patiently waited on the doorstep for the residents inside. After a few moments that clattering of small feet on wooden floor sounded before the door slowly opened, and the face of a young Neo filled with excitement could be seen within before it angled to look back towards the interior of the house.

"Mom! They're here!"

"Well tell them they can come in, they don't need to wait on my account! Besides, dinner is almost ready and I can't leave this food or it'll burn."

"Okay!" Her head snapped back to those at the door as she reached out and latched onto one of Frost's hands to pull him inside ahead of his parents.

"Too hard, Neo! It feels like my arm is gonna pop off!" Young Frost moaned as his parents chuckled from just behind him.

"With a grip like that, she'll probably be leading him around for years." His father chuckled to himself as he likely pictured the image in his mind.

He had no idea just how accurate that would be in some of the days to come.

"Let's hope he doesn't end up being as clueless as you were when you were younger then." His mother replied with a smile of her own and a twinkle in her eye.

Frost's father looked at the two as they played in the living room for a bit as Neo's mother put the finishing touches on dinner. "The two of them? I could see it, but I'd be more worried at how much of a lady-killer our son will turn out to be after inheriting our genes."

"What, and get your charm and charisma? He wouldn't stand a chance then." Frost's mother retorted with a light shove to his shoulder.

His father scoffed. "Hardly. I hope he gets yours; all he needs from me is a fighting stance and the will to defend. That'll do for me. Heck, he's already got your hair color and soft expression compared to my gruff exterior. I think he'll be fine."

His mother blushed for a brief moment before sighing wistfully. "It's moments like these that remind me why I married you in the first place, sweetheart." She leaned over before giving him a light peck on the cheek before turning back to eye the children, who were looking at the two of them with differing expressions.

"Ewwww…they're being all romancy again." Frost groaned as he faked a gagging motion with his tongue out.

"I think it's sweet." Neo replied as she smiled, albeit with a slightly sad look on her face.

"Hey now, Frost." His father called out to his younger self. "Don't be so quick to knock it. One day you'll want to do this sort of thing with someone you care about."

His younger self shook his head rapidly. "Nope! I won't have time for romancy, mushy garbage cause I'll be too busy saving the world from Grimm!"

"Yeah, and look at how that turned out." A voice whispered in Frost's ear. "He went from wanting to save the world from Grimm to slowly becoming one himself. The world is so ironic, isn't it?"


The happy scene around Frost slowly faded away as the dreamscape collapsed and left himself in a large open space devoid of color or anything of significance. His smile morphed into a frown as he turned to face the only thing he knew would talk like that. Especially in his own mind. But not once did he show anger or fury on his face while he did so.

"Oh?" His doppelganger spoke in mock surprise as it looked at his face. "This is new. No whining or complaining about my still being here? No rage at the forces of the universe for taking something else from you before you had a chance to enjoy it?"

Frost's expression was unmoved as his mirror image gave him a sickly twisted smile showing rows of jagged, sharp teeth. "All it does is encourage you and feed you more, so why should I bother?" His tone was apathetic as he crossed his arms in front of him before sitting on a chair that willed its way into existence even as his counterpart did the same in a much more relaxed manner as a table also appeared between them. "All I really want to know is this- Why even bother with this when you know what the eventual outcome is going to be? I would sooner die then let you destroy the person that I am. So why egg this on if it only speeds up both of our demise?"

"You seem to think that you still have control in this scenario, and I find it entertaining. I can see now why Torchwick enjoyed toying with you so much. Your will to live and stubborn nature make you an excellent person to toy with and torture." His mirror calmly placed his elbows onto the surface of the table as a replica chess set appeared between them. There did appear to be some noticeable differences between their pieces, however.

Frost's side of the board seemed to have his pawns taking on the image of ordinary Huntsman and Huntresses while his special pieces took on the images of his friends and family, much to his brief surprise. However what was odd were the empty spaces in a few spots on his side of the board. While he had one of his rooks, both of his bishops, his queen, and his king, there were no signs of one rook or either of his knights. The one rook he had was the spitting image of his father, the bishops of Weiss and his mother, the queen being Neo, and the king…himself.

As for his doppelganger's side of the board, they all took on the appearances of Grimm for the pawns, followed by different people he had come to detest over his time in Vale along with the more powerful Grimm. As he scanned the board he recognized each piece with ease. The rooks each took on the images of either a Boarbatusk or an Ursa, the knights of a Nevermore and a King Taijitu, the bishops of Mercury and Torchwick, the queen as Cinder, and the king of his doppelganger.

"I would say that we both have our pieces to play this little game, but it appears you still haven't gathered your entire army yet. So I'll be nice and give you this one opportunity before we do play. Find your friends, have them join you. And once you've done that…we play. And the winner takes control, no questions asked."

"And why should I agree to this? You'll cheat, obviously, and leave me in a losing position right off the bat."

"This is all in your head, isn't it?" His clone smirked at him from across the wooden surface. "This wouldn't be here if you didn't want some way to symbolize your control in the situation. I can't influence any of this board no matter how hard I try. Both sides are based on the decisions you make. For every victory you achieve, your pieces will gain the advantage; while each mistake or loss will cause mine to move instead. This entire game is on your shoulders for the result. Play wisely and you just might come out on top."

Then he woke up.


Frost groaned from within his seat on the airship as they moved swiftly through the skies of Remnant towards their destination. His eyes blurred for a moment as he slowly turned his head to look around, wincing as he felt pain lancing from multiple points on his body.

His groans of discomfort reached the ears of those currently in the back of the vehicle, two sets of eyes turning to face him with surprise written on their faces. Who they were, he was unable to tell as his vision refused to focus properly at present from the dizziness present in his mind after everything that had happened both in and out of his mind.

"Frost? Are you alright?" Neo's voice came from the closer of two sets of eyes as he slowly nodded his head and his vision finally began to clear, allowing him to see where he was at present. He nodded his head briefly before blinking a few times in rapid succession as he glanced around the cabin of the ship.

On the far end of the ship sat Penny's motionless body as it slumped slightly to one side, likely from gravity trying to bring it towards the floor of the ship only to be stopped by the harness of the seat she was currently strapped into. Inside the cockpit he could see Weiss carefully looking over the controls of the ship before flipping a switch and turning her seat so that she was facing into the cabin and towards his seat. Emerald sat on a seat across from him in the cabin with her arms crossed but not strapped in at present, while Neo appeared to be looking at him from the seat just next to him with an anxious look on her face.

"So…what I miss?" Frost tried to sound nonchalant from his current position, but the bandages across multiple parts of his arms and torso seemed to disagree with his casual approach to things.

"Wakes up from fighting a psycho, killer android and THAT'S the first thing he says? This is gonna be good." Emerald stated with a brief laugh from her seat as Weiss gave her a brief glare before turning back to face him while Neo never took her eyes off him for fear that he would disappear and hurt himself in some crazy way once again.

"In my defense, the plan WAS for me to distract Penny so that they three of you could get to the airship." Frost retorted from his side of the ship. "It worked, didn't it?"

"Yes, it did. But fighting Penny head-on was about the most boneheaded thing for you to do. Even Ruby wouldn't do something so ridiculous." Weiss stated matter-of-factly from her seat at the front of the ship. "All you had to do was simply dodge her attacks until we arrived and then leave as she wouldn't have been able to fire on us given that I was within the airship and made sure that I was visible by being in the cockpit for her to notice when she scanned the ship once you had hopped on board. Instead, you manage to receive multiple burns and cuts from her weaponry in your efforts to disable her. Brining Penny along wasn't a part of the plan, so why bother?"

"Because the real Penny is still in there. I could hear it just as she was shutting down when I landed my hit. All of her combat experience and practice had to have come from previous memories or else they wouldn't have had time to have her in working order so soon after Beacon fell. I just needed to get in close to disable her so that we can see about removing that block on her memories before she reboots herself."

Weiss groaned as she placed one hand over her face in frustration. "And how are we supposed to do that without any access to Atlas tech in the middle of Patch- which we'll be arriving in soon by the way, given that you've been unconscious for half a day while your Aura recovered."

"Half a day? Damn, how much Aura did I lose? I've never been out for more than a few hours before with stuff like this."

"Frost." Neo's voice caused him to turn his head to look at the girl next to him. "Your Aura was completely depleted. You used up all of it in your fight with Penny. We had to put you on an IV for a few hours to help boost its recovery before we were sure you'd be alright." Frost looked over to an empty plastic bag hanging from a railing on his left side where he now noticed a slight itch on his arm where a bandage covered the spot where the IV had been previously.

"You could have died."

Emerald spoke up from her side of the ship once again. "He would have, too, had he mistimed his jump to dodge her last attack. Pretty ballsy if you ask me."

Weiss' glare could freeze a volcano as she whirled to face Emerald. "Not. Helping. Emerald."

Frost could only chuckle as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. His attention to that didn't last long however as he heard the sounds of awkward shuffling beside him as he looked over to see Neo anxiously holding her fists clenched over her legs with her head facing down to hide her face. At the sight of that, he carefully wrapped his right arm around her side to pull her into a sideways hug to help calm her down. As he did so, he felt the tension in her body slowly ebb away as she relaxed into his embrace.

A few minutes later, the rhythmic sound of beeping came from the far end of the airship, causing all heads to whirl and turn in the same direction slowly and fearfully. A moment later, Penny's head jolted upright as the lights in her eyes blinked on, signifying that she was once again active. Her head slowly turned to face the four of them in the front of the ship before her face widened into a smile.

"Salutations!"

Frost was the only one to speak as they all sat dumbfounded and worried about their current predicament.

"Well…fuck."