With Weiss in the lead and a small army of insectoid monsters surrounding them, Weiss lead Team RWBY deeper into the woods. Her friends had their individual drawn, with the safeties off. The heiress couldn't blame her friend's cautious behavior, quite the contrary, she would be worried if this wasn't the case. Blake, in particular, had her eye darting around each individual Zerg that happened to come into her vision.
Ruby was faring even worse. She had her weapon in gun mode and aimed it at every Zerg that came even remotely close to her. Weiss didn't need to read the younger girl's eyes to know that she was nervous. She had it written all over her face. Her sister Yang was doing a better job at hiding her emotions, though her eyes were what betrayed her. They'd turned red a while ago and refused to return to their usual lilac color so far. Red eyes normally meant an angry or at least agitated Yang. Neither scenario was especially delightful. The blond was also staying very close to Ruby, never being more than three steps away from her sister.
"Weiss…" Blake spoke carefully as if she was afraid to agitate the creatures surrounding them. "...what...are those things?" she asked, having her weapon pointed at one of the Hydralisks.
"They're called Zerg," Weiss informed her Faunus.
"Zerg?" Blake repeated. "I have...never heard the name."
"I would be surprised if you would," Weiss stated, not turning her head around.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Blake, I know all of you have answers, but please wait just a little bit longer until we arrive at our destination."
"Speaking of destination, where exactly are we going?" the blonde brawler spoke up, eyeing one of the Roaches suspiciously.
"The Hive Cluster or to put it into simple terms the nest."
"THE NEST?!" All three girls exclaimed.
"Why are we going to the nest of these...what did you call them again?"
"Zerg, Ruby. And before you ask, I didn't come up with the name. As for why they're bringing us to their nest, is because we'll be saved from the Grimm there. I would like to tell you everything without being interrupted every five minutes by a pack of Beowulfs, thank you very much."
"Yeah, we'll be safe from the Grimm," Yang admitted, easily seeing how these Zerg thingies could easily tear apart some unfortunate Grimm. "But what about them?"
"Don't worry." Weiss waved off. "If they wanted to kill us, we would be torn to pieces already."
"How can you be so sure?" Ruby asked.
"We're alive, aren't we?" Weiss asked, a little sarcasm sneaking into her voice. "Plus, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't allow me to do this if they were hostile towards us." She headed over to a nearby Hydralisk and started stroking it's back in circles. The creature seemed delighted by the attention it was getting. It let out a low hiss and gently rubbed its head against the arm of the heiress. By now the others weren't surprised anymore.
"This is so messed up," Yang muttered under her breath, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Don't get any ideas, Ruby."
The girl in question spun around, surprised. "I-I wasn't going to pet one of them!"
"Sure, you weren't. You had that look on your face."
"What look?"
"The look you get, whenever you get to see a new weapon."
"I DON'T HAVE A WEAPON FE-!"
"Will you two cut it out?!" Weiss shouted, irritated.
"She started it!" Ruby pointed an accusing finger at her sister while pouting like she was five years old. The white haired girl facepalmed and shook her head, wondering for the umpteenth time how she came to respect Ruby as a leader.
The team ventured further into the forest, with the trees becoming denser and denser. It became hard to walk on foot through the treelines. The Roaches couldn't follow the main group anymore, at least not the normal way. Instead, they borrowed themselves underground, completely vanishing from sight. The Zerglings still managed to pass through and the Hydralisks even seemed to have the advantage in this terrain. Team RWBY remained quiet through most of the journey, only occasionally making a comment here and there.
Eventually, they found themselves in a clearing, where they made a very peculiar discovery on the ground. It was a violet colored, fleshy substance, which raised and lowered itself on a small scale as if it was breathing like a normal living being.
"What the hell is that?!" Yang exclaimed pointing in front of the group.
"I think I'm gonna throw up…" Blake muttered, already holding a hand in front of her mouth.
"Just imagine it's...jelly?" Ruby smiled carefully, only earning a groan from her sister and Blake.
"Not helping, Ruby." the faunus replied, a burp escaping her mouth.
Weiss in the meantime ignored the conversation of her fellow teammates and continued walking. Once she was only a couple of steps away, the girl stopped and decided to take off her high heel boots, revealing that she wasn't wearing any socks. With the pair of boots in her arms, the future CEO of SDC entered the creep field and let out a content sigh.
"Oh yes! My feet were killing me!" The white-clad girl moaned, enjoying the soft touch of the fleshy Creep. Unseen by the others, the substance began to massage her feet a little bit by putting pressure on key points from underneath.
"Wha-?! Weiss?! What are you doing?!" Blake exclaimed, her disgust loud in clear in her voice.
"Why are you going barefoot?" Was their leader's question.
But once again, Weiss ignored them. She didn't think that it was necessary to answer any more unnecessary questions. Without even as much as a glance, the heiress walked ahead, expecting her team to follow. And follow they did. She could hear everyone's footsteps on the Creep, which sounded like they were going through a field of soaking wet sponges. In less than a minute the first Zerg structures came into view. Static defenses to be precise, in the form of multiple Spine- and Sporecrawlers. The Spines had about the height of a two-story tall, building, while the Spines cut it in about 1.5 times of a normal human house. They were strategically positioned in front of a cave entrance. The huge Spines turned their attention towards Team RWBY, pointing their dangerous weapons at the team, but didn't attack. Ruby, Yang, and Blake stopped in their tracks as soon as they saw the first one moving. Weiss turned around, deciding that this was as good of a spot as any other. She mentally ordered her army to set up a defensive perimeter. The rest of RWBY watched closely as the Zerg seemingly disappeared back into the woods.
"Well then" Weiss announced, "I would love to give you all a proper tour through the Hive, but I'm afraid that at least one of you is going to explode unless I start explaining myself."
"About time," Yang muttered loud enough for everyone to hear.
Blake was about to ask the first question but was immediately cut off, when she noticed something growing out of the ground. In a matter of seconds, four fleshy thrones grew out of the creep, hardening themselves in the air almost instantly. Weiss walked around the one in front of her and took a seat, putting one leg above the other.
"Please, have a seat." she motioned at the other thrones. "There's no need for us to stand around all day."
"Cool!" Ruby cheered. The girl used her speed semblance to quickly sit down on one of the chitin-plated thrones. "Ooooh, it's so comfyyyyy." The girl cooed. "Yang, Blake! You have to sit on one of those! They're really great!"
"And not freaky at all," Yang said to Blake, who now had a really uncomfortable expression on her face.
"It's not like we have much of a choice. At least if we want to get answers."
Reluctantly Yang and Blake made their way towards the two empty thrones. Yang sat down on the throne, so she'd directly face Ruby, while Blake was on the opposite side of Weiss.
"So...uh…" Ruy began but was immediately at a loss for words.
"How about What the hell is going on, ice queen?" Yang asked with one of her rare serious expressions.
"Hmm…" Weiss pushed a stray hair away from her vision, before answering. "I guess it would be better if I first tell you my story of how I met the Zerg before I answer any specific questions."
"That would be helpful." Blake agreed. "But aren't we exposed here to possible Grimm attacks?"
"No," Weiss answered without missing a beat. "Any Grimm that comes within a ten-mile radius of this Hive is being eliminated."
As if to underline her words, a Nevermore came crashing down right behind her with poisonous Spines sticking out of its body. The creature already started disappearing seemingly into thin air and was gone in a matter of seconds. Only the Spines, which it had been shot with, remained and dropped to the ground, where they were absorbed by the Creep.
"Okay...that happened," Yang commented. "How'd he die anyways?"
"He was shot down." Weiss crossed her arms. "The Zerg do not lag anti-air units. You have seen the Hydralisks?"
"Hydra-what?" Ruby failed to repeat the word.
"Oh, excuse me. I forgot for a moment we're starting from scratch. The Hydralisks are the snake-like creatures. They can shoot spines out of their massive foreheads, which are not only poisonous but also can penetrate metal." Weiss looked up from her crossed arms and looked at each of her teammates. "Now if I just answer random questions that pop up in your head, we won't get anywhere. So I think it's best if I tell you everything from the very beginning like I said earlier…"
/X/
10 years ago, Atlas Airport, Private Bullhead of the Schnee Dusk Company
~"My father was never too fond of leaving Atlas, let alone go to the lower parts of the city. He sees himself above the low commoners and couldn't care less about them. However what he does care about is what those and I quote 'Lowly Commoners' think about our family or should I say himself. Public appearances were always planned out weeks, at times months in advance. The time, when we went on vacation was no different. My family owns a villa, there's really no other way on calling it, way up in the mountains and we were going to spend the next two weeks there.
We already appeared in front of the cameras, my siblings and I looked good in front of the Cameras, let the press take some pictures of us, my father said some words and at the time we were just waiting for the pilot to get permission for taking off.
My brother was sleeping somewhere in the front if I remember correctly. My older sister Winter was reading a book and I myself was simply looking out of the window, watching the planes and bullheads land and take off.
Eventually, it was our turn. I briefly remember father mentioning something about firing the pilot because we took off so late. He's sometimes...not the most reasonable man. Mostly when something is going wrong with the company.
On the flight, there were four more bullheads, which were hired by a private security firm. Not to repel any kind of Grimm mind you, the military keeps the skies around Atlas clear. No, my father was expecting the White Fang to come with their own bullheads and shoot us down. Well, shot down we were, but not by the White Fang, but rather by something out of our control: meteorites. Tiny meteorites, which entered our planet's atmosphere and by pure chance damaged the engines so much that we were going down fast. In fact, we dropped so fast, I barely had the time to scream until we hit the ground. Or rather, the mountain..."~
Six-year-old Weiss Schnee groaned, her tummy feeling like it's been riding the new roller coaster at the Atlas Park, which her daddy didn't allow her to ride in. Did they already land? She must have fallen asleep during the flight again and Winter was probably about to wake her up soon. Well, Weiss would show her big sis that she could wake up on her own. She just needed to open her eyes, easy enough and-
Little Weiss screamed. The entire front of the Bullhead was gone! The girl had a full view of the mountain range in front of her. The sun was already setting, snow was falling and a cold wind, which Weiss just now noticed, was hitting her face. The snowflakes felt like glass shards being thrown directly at her.
"Help!" She screamed. "Winter! Daddy! Where are you?! Help me! Please! Help me!"
But nobody came.
Luckily for little Weiss, she was still strapped into her seat or else she might have fallen down the cliff in front of her. Because due to her panic, the little girl was not only screaming louder than the human eardrum could endure, she was also throwing a tantrum, thrashing her body as much as she was able to do. This didn't last for long, as the cold temperature quickly drained most of the little girl's strength. It somehow had also the very fortunate side effect of calming her down enough to think at least partially rationally. She was a Schnee, so naturally, she was smarter than all the other children in the world. Firstly, she needed to get out of the seat belt. Oh, but why oh why was it so difficult to get out of those dumb things? To make things even worse, the cold air cooled down the steel parts of the thingie, making it even harder for the girl to escape. Her fingers felt stiff and her hands kept shaking like leaves in the autumn wind.
Finally, after a seemingly endless struggle, Weiss was proud to know a lot of smart words, the girl managed to free herself from the grasp of...that evil thing. She jumped off her seat, only to slip on the frozen carpet of the second half of the Bullhead.
"Ow, ow, ow, ow! Daddy! Winter!"
But nobody came.
Winter slowly managed to get up, after falling three more times mind you, and looked around. She couldn't see much, but even she could figure out that she was on one of the mountains, which was placed directly in between of Atlas and the original destination.
"WINTER!"
Weiss' voice echoed throughout the mountains, repeating itself a couple of times. But again, nobody came. She was alone. She knew it, but that didn't mean that she accepted it. She wouldn't cry. She couldn't cry! She was a Schnee! Daddy would be disappointed! And Weiss didn't like it when her Daddy was disappointed.
With those thoughts in mind, Weiss carefully made her way around the wreckage and started walking down the mountain.
/X/
"Ruby, remember when we talked about personal space?"
"Mhm."
"Good. Remember what I said back then."
"Mhm."
"Good. So would you be so kind to get off my lap and stop hugging me?!"
"Nope."
"What?!"
"Nope."
"Why?"
"Because you need this!"
"I do not need this, you dunce!"
/X/
Young Weiss had been walking for what felt like hours, though it only were twenty minutes. The girl desperately tried to keep herself warm by rubbing her arms, but it just did not work. The wind was going faster than before, the sun was almost gone and the girl was hopelessly lost wherever she was.
Weiss was tired, cold and hungry. Why wasn't the cake butler around? Where was Winter, who kept her company whenever she felt down? Why couldn't Whitely be useful for once and bring Daddy to her?
She couldn't go on anymore. She collapsed on her knees and fell face first into the snow. This was all a bad dream. It had to be a bad dream. After she closed her eyes, surely she would be woken up by her older sister Winter, who would tell her that they arrived at their destination.
Sleep...just sleep…
~"Maybe if I had been older I wouldn't have left the Bullhead. Maybe I would have been smart enough to go to the back, where there was still the toilette. It wouldn't have been comfortable, but at least I would have been safe from the weather.
But I didn't think that far at the time. It was probably for the better. When you wake up after a crash landing, with half of the Bullhead gone, you don't expect the others to have survived. They are all alive, don't worry. But any reasonable person would have thought the opposite and if I would have accepted this as a fact, well, I probably would have been frozen to death, while losing myself to the feeling of despair.
Of course, my actual situation wasn't much better. I was a child lost in the middle of nowhere. So far it looked like I had been lucky, considering the circumstances. No Grimm had attacked me so far. And as it turned out, there was a reason for the lack of Grimm on this particular mountain. This is the same reason as to why I am alive today and not some lost, frozen corpse."~