Hello and welcome to chapter 16!

First of all, good job making it this far. Next, brace yourself.

Finally, for those who think that Weiss is dead…

"It's colder than it looks, isn't it?"

Ignoring his partner's complaints, Alvin sliced away the chunk of ice that had been in his way with his sword. It was bad enough that they had to come here in the first place; he did not need the whining to worsen his day further.

"Whoa," he whispered, staring into the large room that was almost entirely filled with ice.

No less than twenty giant suits of armor were frozen in place, weapons drawn and gathering towards the center of the room. None of them moved, but Alvin was sure he had seen a couple struggle within the ice.

"We're not gonna make it all the way there," he sighed, straining his eyes to try and look at the control panel at the back of the room. "Too much ice in here. The machinery's probably all frozen up anyway."

"Well, let's get the hell outta- wait, what's that?"

"What's what?" Alvin asked, sounding very irritated. "It's called ice, you retard."

But when he saw where his partner was pointing, he shut up. He could not see it clearly from where he was, but it was clearly no suit of armor.

It looked like a person.

"This wasn't part of the plan," Alvin muttered, slashing his way towards where the suits of armor were gathering. "What in the name of…?"

"Who's that?" his partner asked, staring at the person – a human girl – trapped in the ice. Even while frozen, her beauty was unblemished, preserved in an everlasting block of stopped time. The only things that might have marred her beauty were the two trails of tears across her cheeks, frozen in place like the girl and the world around her.

"How can you not know?" Alvin asked incredulously. "That's Weiss Schnee, idiot."

Jaune heaved a sigh of relief as he took off the fake Collar around his neck. That annoying piece of metal, now that it was no longer life-threatening, was just a pain in the neck. Literally.

"Today was wasted effort again," Pyrrha sighed. She looked just as beautiful even with the obvious lack of sleep and food, but her usual composure was now nowhere to be seen.

"It's not wasted, Pyrrha," Jaune corrected. "At least we know now that those people don't know. It just increases our chances of finding someone who knows."

Pyrrha opened her mouth to say something, but decided against it in the end. Jaune's misplaced optimism was certainly anything but realistic, but it was all that kept him (and by extension, Pyrrha herself) going even now.

"Yeah, you're right," she managed. "We'll have to move fast tomorrow, though; Yang said that we'll be moving to their contacts' hideout soon."

"What's wrong with the Lighthouse?" Jaune asked.

"It…" Pyrrha hesitated. "It doesn't have the glyphs' protection anymore, so it's not really safe."

"I… see…" was all Jaune said, in a voice robbed of any and all energy he might have had. In the end, he never did manage to confess to Weiss, and now he would never be able to.

"S-speaking of which," Pyrrha said nervously. "W-we have to get back to training too; we're raiding Beacon soon, and we'll need all the preparation we can get to… you know… prepare…"

She trailed off upon seeing Jaune's distant expression. She could not blame him, either; she had hardly any intention of fighting either after losing Ren, Nora and Weiss. Right now, even though she appeared to be combat ready, Pyrrha had never been more insecure in her life.

Even though she had hated it, she found a small part of herself longing for solitude – the one thing she had gotten used to, then tossed aside, and now faced with once again.

Before Beacon, she had been the unrivaled champion. She had been the unmatched Number One, whose skills were so superior that 'second place' was merely a formality to acknowledge the next best, regardless of the huge difference between their actual abilities. No one could be her equal, and thus she never had one. In the end, there was no one who could look at her evenly in the eye, like a fellow peer. Like a teammate. Like a friend.

She had come to Beacon harboring the fears that she would have to be alone again, but he proved her wrong. Some called him ignorant, but Jaune Arc was someone who saw her for who she was – just a normal girl. To Pyrrha, that was more than enough; to the champion whose superiority led to solitude, he was the first ever friend she had made.

She had wished for those days to last. She had wanted to be by him, and be by the teammates she would entrust her life with. She had said goodbye to her own solitude back then, and perhaps she had never wanted to see it again. But now that she knew how much it hurt to lose, Pyrrha could not help but want to run and hide. Compared to the excruciating pain in her chest, wallowing in the depths of solitude seemed like a far better option. Maybe it would have been better to have never made friends in the first place.

"Jaune," she said, breaking the silence with a voice on the verge of cracking. His expression – his pained, despaired expression – was too much for her to bear. Losing control of her emotions, Pyrrha once again let her heart take over. "I-"

"There's Ruby," Jaune pointed out flatly, gesturing towards a familiar red hood in the distance. "I'll go talk to her a bit. Head back without me, Pyrrha."

Without listening to the rest of Pyrrha's words, he walked off. Jaune had always hit it off better with Ruby, and the latter was far better acquainted with Weiss, so it was no surprise that he preferred to talk with her rather than Pyrrha. Even though she accepted that, even though she knew that Jaune did not see Ruby as a potential romantic interest, she could not help but feel jealous at how close they were.

"Please…" she begged in a hushed whisper, speaking to no one in particular. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she was unable to stem their flow. She had been glad that he did not treat her like a special existence, so why was that fact hurting her so much right now? "Just a little… notice me…"

Left alone once more, the fragile Huntress wept.

"Ruby?"

Ruby hiccupped, turning around slowly to face the blonde. If Jaune looked bad, then Ruby was downright terrible; her eyes were swollen and red, and top of that bore extremely deep dark circles. Her face was sunken, and glaring tear tracks, indistinguishable from old and new, scarred her cheeks. Her lips, dry and unmoving, just froze in place without uttering a single word.

"W-what're you doing out here?" Jaune asked, momentarily caught off-guard by Ruby's appearance.

Ruby did not reply. Remaining completely silent, she stared lifelessly at Jaune without looking at him, as though he had not asked a question at all.

"Let's go back," Jaune tried, managing a weak, unconvincing smile.

"Go… back?" Ruby repeated. "Go back… to who?"

Jaune flinched. He had not expected that reply, and was by no means prepared for it. Instead, he just stood there, stunned and speechless, absorbing the meaning behind those words.

Team RWBY was down to three, and JNPR was down to two. On top of that, the Lighthouse was not safe anymore. Did they really have anywhere to return to like this?

"To Yang," he said at last. "To Blake, to Pyrrha and to me. And when they return, to Ren and Nora as well."

"Then what about Weiss?" Ruby asked. There was no hostility in her question; rather, there was not a single ounce of emotion left in that voice anymore. "She's alone. Who'll she return to?"

"I…" Jaune paused. He had no idea what to say, and if he said something bad there would be no taking it back. He had to think it through, but what on Remnant could he say? "That's why we have to protect the place she once belonged to."

Those words struck Ruby hard; her eyes widened in shock, as though just realizing that Weiss could no longer return. The tears resurfaced on the edge of her eyes, threatening to cascade down her cheeks again.

"M-my great-great-grandfather fought in The War," Jaune went on. "The weapon he used was passed down all the way to me, but that wasn't all; he also left us his fighting spirit."

Ruby barely registered those words. The day she and Jaune first met, and was introduced to his Crocea Mors, seemed so far away now, and if anything, it felt far more painful; it was the day she first met Weiss as well after all.

"I heard a lot of stories about him," Jaune explained. "I've heard of how he lost many of his comrades on the battlefield. Friends, rivals… it didn't matter; no matter how close they were, they died. My great-great-grandfather lost much more than all of us combined, and he cried, that's for sure, but he kept fighting. Do you know why?

"I heard that he fought for those who died as well," he said, kneeling down in front of Ruby, who was rubbing one eye in an attempt to stop her tears. "To protect those who survived, and to protect the place they all shared – living or dead… People die, and we can't help but feel sad, but we still have to protect the moments we shared together; if we don't, we'd have destroyed those happy memories with our own hands, right?"

Ruby met his eyes for the first time, and almost gasped. Jaune's voice had been steady, and his smile had been weak but encouraging, but tears were flowing down his face nonetheless.

"I miss them too, Ruby," he admitted, wiping his with the back of his hand. "But right now, we have to beat the enemies and save the world they wanted to protect. Can you do it, fearless leader of Team RWBY?"

"Jaune…" Ruby muttered. "You still say the cheesiest things with a straight face…"

"Guess Yang's rubbing off on you," Jaune chuckled, pulling her up to her feet. "Come on, let's head back; Yang'll be worried sick when she wakes up and you're not there."

"Gimme a minute," Ruby replied. "I need to wash my face a little. You head back without me."

"Fair enough," Jaune nodded, turning and heading back in the direction he had come from.

He had no idea it would happen. No one saw it coming. And when it did, no one knew what to do anymore.

"Say, Blake…"

"What is it?" Blake asked, looking at her partner.

"What's it like to kill?" Yang asked. "I mean, when we invade Beacon, we might end up… you know. Is there any way to prepare ourselves mentally or something?"

"I don't know," Blake replied. "For me, it was… unexpected. It caught me off-guard. It just happened, and when I realized it I just sort of… lost it and…"

"It's okay," Yang comforted her. "You don't have to say it. Sorry for asking."

"No, your thinking is correct," Blake said, shaking her head lightly. "For me, I wasn't prepared so I lost control once I caught on, but if you go into battle prepared to kill, maybe it'll help you keep your cool. Just maybe…"

"What happens when you aren't prepared?" Yang asked, her voice lacking the confidence and energy it usually had.

"You snap," Blake answered simply. "If you've never killed anyone before, you become so scared that you lose control. You fear everything – yourself, for killing, and others because you think they're going to harm you for what you did. You can't think properly in all that and it just overwhelms-"

"Blake," Yang cut across her sharply, keeping her gaze firm but gentle. "That's enough. Stop… Please."

Blake nodded wordlessly. Nothing but silence followed afterwards, but within the lack of verbal exchange, much was said between them with an uncanny eloquence.

Ruby let the cold water crawl down her face, drip down her chin, and disappear into the flowing river below. As she knelt at the side of the river, she paused, staring at her own reflection on the clear surface.

"Such a terrible look…" she muttered out loud. What would Weiss have said if she could see her now? "Not ladylike at all, huh…"

But she was no longer around to say those words. She was no longer around to see her, to reprimand her, to flick her forehead, or to kiss her anymore. She was gone. She was gone, and she was never coming back.

Just like mo-

"No!" she cried, slamming a fist onto the tranquil water surface. It sank right through and crashed painfully on the rocky river bed, leaving a brilliant burst of diamond-like droplets in its wake.

Shaking her head violently, she tried ridding those thoughts from her mind. Some part of her was clear on what she had to do, but the rest of her was unable and unwilling to comply. As much as she wanted to focus on the mission at hand, she could not just stop thinking about Weiss; for some reason, it felt like without her there, Ruby would forget about her if she just stopped thinking about her for even a second.

"Um… are you alright?"

Even though it was nothing like Weiss's voice, Ruby looked up swiftly, desperation brimming in her eyes. When she saw the cat ears, however, all the hope that had resided in those silver irises vanished instantly.

A Faunus. A young cat Faunus girl, no older than Ruby was, had appeared. Even though Weiss's glyphs were supposed to prevent outsiders from making it this far, a Faunus had managed to come here.

"What's going on?" she asked, fear and confusion evident in her voice. "Why… Here… Weiss's glyphs…"

Where's Weiss?

Regardless of whether they were friend or foe, people had managed to get past Weiss's glyphs. She had to find her partner and confirm her safety, and have her set up a new-

Weiss isn't here.

"What's wrong?" the stranger asked. "Are you lost?"

Weiss is dead.

"You don't have a Collar, so are you a Faunus?"

The White Fang killed her.

Reality struck her like a tidal wave, crushing her minute being with its massive, overwhelming force. Her whole body shook and she could not move, instead rendered unable to anything besides watch the girl approach.

The Faunus killed her.

"Dad!" the Faunus called. "There's a lost child here!"

She's a Faunus.

Her fingers flew, and her hands moved swiftly. Ruby's ears barely registered the metallic clicking sounds from Crescent Rose, and her panicked and confused mind was unable to process it anyway.

They killed Weiss. They killed Weiss. They killed Weiss.

Someone was in pain. Someone young, and probably a girl, was suffering. She might have been begging for it to stop – for something to stop, but Ruby did not know what.

Warm liquid splashed onto her face, which was odd since the river had been cold. Her vision filled with red, but it was not the red from her rose petals; it was a red that splattered, flowed and gushed into the air.

Dull impacts shook her palms, and when she finally came to, the world had gone silent. The girl who had been in pain moments ago was nowhere to be seen or head, but for some reason Ruby was kneeling in a pool of something warm. Something fresh.

When she first saw her, she wanted to scream. The cat Faunus from seconds ago was on the ground, staring at something, something other than the sky, something far off that no one else could see. Her clothes, stained with a glistening scarlet hue, were torn here and there by something sharp.

"A-are you…" Ruby whispered, lips trembling from the effort. "Hey, are you...?"

She's dead.

Then she noticed. She noticed Crescent Rose's blade buried in the girl's body, its red frame covered in something of a deeper, darker shade. And holding its handle, trembling and soaked in blood, were her own hands.

I killed her.

As the realization slowly started to hit her, Ruby's eyes widened. The young girl's face, stricken with fatigue and grief, were slowly painted with a fresh wave of shock and despair.

I killed someone.

The words – her thoughts – howled in her mind, tearing at her consciousness and ripping pieces of her sanity. The world was spinning, and nothing seemed to come into focus anymore; it was just chaos, and nothing but that chaos.

"What's wrong, T- w-what…"

Reinforcements. They were here to kill her, for what she did. She killed someone, so now she had to pay the price. She would end up like Weiss, without a place to return to, dead at the hands of the enemies they had to defeat.

With a blood-curdling battle cry, Ruby disappeared. In her wake, a swirl of rose petals danced, and they were stained with blood before they even touched the ground.

Crescent Rose danced gracefully and elegantly, cutting through the air without pause and sending countless droplets of dazzling scarlet into the air. It moved swiftly and fiercely, seeming screeching with a bloodlust of its own. The more it buried its fangs into something, the more fervent it became, until at some point it became impossible to distinguish it from the masses of red – petals and blood alike.

Ruby panted, kneeling as the world around her cried. The heavens wept in tears of bright crimson, drenching the earth with the color of Life. The color of raw, pulsating despair.

Beneath her, a pool of dark red spread steadily, staining the lush celadon grass with its hue. It spread unevenly, looking less like a circle and more like-

I killed them.

Her entire body was shaking violently, and her weak, powerless fingers could no longer even hold her scythe. Beneath her, as though paying her suffering no heed, the crimson flower continued to expand. It made no sound, but its presence was overbearing; even in this desolate void of thundering silence, it managed to flood it with the rancid odor of death. Within that space of violence and despair, she opened her mouth.

I'm a murderer.

Kneeling atop the blooming rose she had carved onto the world with her own hands, Ruby Rose screamed.

To clarify, Nora is dead. I'm having Weiss play a different role in this story, so yeah… For now, she's the one alive but believed dead while Nora is the one dead but believed alive. See what I did there?

Probably too late for this reveal, though. But if you're still reading this, here's a thumbs up to you! Till next chapter!