The moment Ruby got to the top of the tower, Weiss dissolved the glyphs that propelled her and turned her attention towards the rapidly approaching swarm of Grimm. Despite the aches and exhaustion from the previous hour or two of fighting, she had lifted her sword and began jabbing and slashing her way through, Beowolves and Boarbatusks falling as fast as she could move.

Before long, the courtyard was once again clear. Weiss rammed Myrtenaster into the ground, and leaned heavily on the blade. She looked up at the tower, saw the flashes of light coming off the top. It appeared Ruby was battling whomever Pyrrha had went to fight.

Weiss tried to launch more glyphs on the wall, but as she raised her shaking hand, she realised that she wouldn't be able to help. Fighting through the robots, White Fang, and Grimm, along with summoning a giant sword had ripped away what strength she had. Grinding her teeth together, she put a hand to her stomach, but quickly drew it away when she felt something wet.

Pulling her hand upwards, she spat a rare swear at her blood soaked hand. The wound didn't feel critical, and she had some aura left to patch it up, but if it was bleeding then she was officially done. Any help she could offer to her team leader would be more dangerous to her than her opponent.

Ruby was up there, in danger, and all she could was stay out of her way. It made her blood boil, but sadly she lacked Yang's ability to draw strength from anger.

Oh God, Yang. Weiss had forgotten the blonde's lost arm. She didn't know what happened, but she remembered the bloody bandages circling her… stump.

Yang had a stump instead of an arm now. Despite the fact that she had stared at the girl until Ruby had caught up with them, Weiss still couldn't believe it. Yang, the person who relied on her hands more than anyone else on the team, was crippled. For life.

Weiss shook her head, and pulled her sword out of the ground. Her condition was too poor to fight, but she could still walk well enough to get out of the danger zone. Despite the cracks of gunfire from the city and the noise behind her, everything felt… quiet. No Grimm, no White Fang, no robots.

A roar sounded out from behind her, and she saw the dragon circling the tower. She could just barely make out orange and red flashes from the top, presumably Ruby and her opponent.

Again she wished to help, but what could she do? Ruby was the only person left who wasn't defending the evacuation site or, well, stumbling towards it.

Indeed, the best way to help Ruby was to keep her from worrying, let her focus on the fight. So she walked, or shambled, towards the bullheads.

Surprisingly, she arrived without incident. Blake and Yang were still lying next to each other, only now they were both unconscious. Weiss's breath hitched when she saw the small puddle of blood Blake was lying in, although the relatively clean bandages circling her stomach helped alleviate some of her worries. Sun was standing over the two, his hands on his hair.

"Sun?" She called out, making him turn to face her. He was pale and obviously scared out his mind, but a small smile broke through.

"Weiss! You're okay!" He said, elated, before his face clouded, "Where's Ruby?"

"She went after Pyrrha." She explained, sitting down next to Yang and Blake. "I got her up the tower, but then…" She raised a shaking hand. The blood was dry now, but still visible against her skin.

He nodded. Weiss turned her head to look at Blake, and the unhealthy colour of her skin.

"Are they okay?" She asked.

"I…" Sun started, before faltering. "I don't know. Just after you guys left Blake passed out, and then she started bleeding and… I mean, I tried to fix it but I don't know what I'm doing and she hasn't woken up—"

"Sun, stop." Weiss quickly checked over her teammates. "The bandages are fine. There's nothing more you can do, so don't…" She said, before she suddenly felt incredibly dizzy.

"Weiss!" Sun shouted, just before she fell to her feet. He rushed over to her side.

"I'm fine!" She insisted, "Really, I am. Just… need to sit down for a while…" A bullhead set down in front of her, spewing out half-dozen armed soldiers onto the ground. With the practiced motions typical of soldiers, they lifted ten or twelve injured students into their ship, and got back in the air in minutes.

She waited for a second ship to land, but none came. Far in the distance, Weiss could barely see the lights of a returning ship, but it would be several minutes before it arrived.

Several minutes she feared they did not have.

"Did you see Neptune?" Sun asked, pacing in front of her feet. His weapon was out now, although Weiss was certain if was for protection or simply something to do with his hands.

"No, I, we didn't see him." She said, still staring at the encroaching ship. "Although we weren't really looking all that hard." Then the reality of what he said caught up with her.

"You don't know where he is?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm hoping he got out, but I haven't seen him since the paladins, and since that's when the dragon thing came…"

An ear-splitting screech broke through the night sky. Weiss turned to face the tower, ignoring the pain that ripped through her side at the motion. Up at the top, she saw the dragon begin to attack, screaming like it was possessed.

Her heart skipped a beat when she saw some bright red flash.

"That's Ruby, isn't it?" Sun said.

It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

She lowered her gaze to the ground, staring at the destroyed tower, the craters, the smoking trees, Blake and Yang's prone forms, everything.

She started laughing, a quiet, broken laugh.

If she was standing, the view would be almost identical to her first day. The day she met Ruby, and Blake, and all her other friends. Her first, real friends.

"It's over, isn't it?" Sun said.

Weiss looked at him, preparing herself to either deny it or give conformation, she wasn't sure which, when her vision suddenly grew lighter.

Turning to the tower, she saw a huge explosion of light from the top of the tower. She raised an arm to block it, but it was no use.

Her vision quickly faded to white.

Of course, this meant that once she awoke, it took her a few seconds to realise anything had changed. The roof was nearly the same colour as her vision had become, but once she realised she was lying on a soft mattress rather than concrete, it became clear.

Slowly, she rose, gritting her teeth in anticipation of the pain that was assuredly about to follow. However, her ascent was only met with a few cracks as her joints stretched. Her sheets rustled as they fell off, landing in an inelegant pile on the ground.

Where was she?

Weiss took a look around the room, squinting her eyes at the sunlight streaming in through multiple windows. Once her eyes adjusted, she saw a balcony, combined with a view any artist would die for. A computer sat on top of a milky white desk, framed with small photos that she could not make out from her bed.

This was her room.

What was she doing in her room?

She got out of the bed, placing her bare feet against the cool floor. It didn't creak. She lifted up her skirt, just enough to check her stomach where she got her wound, but it was clean. No scab, no scar, it was as if the injury had never existed.

BEEP!

Her scroll sprang to life, blaring out an obnoxious beeping noise. She fumbled for the device, hands stiff.

Finally, she found her scroll, and smashed the off button. Her room became quiet once more, save for the sound of her breath. Her hand went to her side again, and she stared at the unmarred skin.

It wasn't impossible that the injury healed well enough to avoid leaving a scar, especially considering her family's wealth, but it would have required a visit to the hospital. Her father may have wanted to keep her at home, and if her injury's had been minor he most certainly would have, but the Schnee manor was simply not prepared for surgery or whatever medical treatment was used on her.

Walking over to her desk, Weiss picked up one of the photos on her desk. It was a photo of her, a year or so younger, standing in front of some house, Ruby at her side—

She dropped the photo, uncaring of the glass shards on the ground. Weiss started picking up photos at random, discarding them as fast as she was picking them up. The floor behind her was soon filled with dozens of picture frames, each one landing with a crack.

She saw photos of her, photos of Blake, photos of some blond guy, but mostly photos of her and Ruby, sometimes with the other members of her team. All of them had her doing things or going places she'd never heard of before, let alone been to.

Weiss stumbled back, absently activating her aura to protect her feet from the glass.

What was going on here? Did Father…? No, he couldn't have done this, even he couldn't manufacture a few dozen photographs, place them in her room, and then…

THUD!

Something hit the wall on her right. Weiss's hand went to where her sword would have been holstered, had she been carrying it. But she had no sword.

Well, she did manage to summon a giant sword…

Weiss walked over and opened the doors, crouching the moment they began to swing open. Slowly, quietly, she crept out. She checked behind every corner, and every bush, but found nothing.

Reaching the edge, she leaned over the side. Below her was a tree, branches thick with leaves, beating against the wall.

Weiss sighed, amused at her own nerves. It was nothing more than a tree. Later, she'd let the gardeners know about it. Although finding one in the fall would be—

The leaves were green. Leaning over again, Weiss saw that the grass was still a bright and vibrant emerald as well. The sprinklers had turned on, spraying down everything in the yard with copious amounts of water.

The air still felt chilly, but it wasn't the steadily increasing cold that she'd been feeling over the past few weeks. Even in the brief time she had stood there, Weiss felt the sun warming her up, far more efficiently than fall would allow.

For a long moment, she stood there, on the balcony, barely breathing. Her whole body was rigid, not a finger twitching anywhere. Weiss wasn't afraid, exactly, but she certainly had no idea what to think. So she simply stared out into the city, hands gripping her nightgown hard enough to turn white.

An insistent beeping sound from her room drew her back in. Her scroll was the culprit, so she grabbed it and smashed her finger on the screen, intent on destroying the infernal machine once and for all. However, her fist was stopped by the words written across the top.

8:00, meet Father in office.

After dressing herself and picking up her weapon, Weiss made her way to her father's office. Her footsteps echoed in the hallway, as she never passed another person. She was…slightly creeped out. Although she couldn't remember there being many more people, the manor still felt empty, at least compared to Beacon. Normally there would be bodyguards, or servants, or at least some business men.

But today, she was alone when she reached the door to her father's office. Weiss raised a hand to knock, but held back. The moment she knocked, the moment she entered, she had to face her father. The father who could be less than pleased about her performance during the attack. Assuming the attack had actually happened, she was no longer certain of that.

Weiss let out a sigh. No point in waiting any longer. Twisting her face into a mask of neutrality, she raised her fist and tapped the dark wood in front of her. The sound echoed through the hall, insuring that Father heard the noise, no matter what he was doing.

Sure enough, after a few seconds of waiting, Weiss heard, "Come in." Taking a deep, steadying breath, she stepped into her father's office.

It was like much of the house, walls painted white, marble everywhere, but it was one of the few places that actually looked lived in. Father never let anyone else touch this room, and even with his talents for organisation, papers still piled up on every surface. The man himself was sitting in front of a computer monitor, set so that he could see the door even while working. There was two chairs in front of him, but Weiss didn't move to take one. She waited for him to finish whatever it was that had come up.

"Good morning Weiss," He said once he was finished, "Please, take a seat."

TSilently, Weiss complied. The seat was cold and old, with its ancient leather surface creaking.

"How was your sleep?" Father asked, the screen going blank.

"It was…fine."

"Good." He said curtly, "Do you remember what's happening tomorrow?"

Weiss slowly shook her head. "Um…no?"

"Hmph, of course not." He grumbled, "Too busy talking with your 'friends'."

Friends? What?

"At any rate, tomorrow you go to Beacon, as per your wishes."

For the second time that day, Weiss found herself frozen. Father continued to speak, but she was far away.

Going to Beacon? Tomorrow? How was that…what? Briefly the idea that everything she remembered had been some odd dream passed through her head, but Weiss dismissed it. No dream would be as detailed as the memories she had.

"And although I have my doubts about your skills," Weiss heard after refocusing on her father, "Your instructors have told me that you are, apparently, ready. I, however, wish to see this in person."

"Go to the training room, and await further instructions." He picked up a paper, "I'll be a few minutes."

Weiss nodded, and slowly left the room. Neither she nor her father looked at each other.

Once out, and after closing the door, she put her back to the wall and slid down, cupping her face with her hands.

Tomorrow she was going to Beacon.

Out of everything her father could have said, that was the absolute last thing she expected. It made a certain amount of sense; the season, and her lack of wounds. But how? How in the world was it even possible? Outside of movies and books, Weiss had never even heard of time travel before. She could manipulate how she perceived time with her glyphs, but not throw someone back or forward in time.

Letting out a deep breath, Weiss got to her feet. She might not know exactly what's going on, but she did know that keeping Father waiting was a bad idea.

The training room was originally built as a ballroom, back when networking meant lavish parties and generic music. However, aside from art carved into the walls themselves, very little remained of its origins. The old floor had been replaced with marble, with layers of steel and foam padding providing protection from Dust detonations. Fluorescent bulbs ran along the ceiling, harshly lighting her figure as Weiss took inventory.

She still remembered this fight from last time—still sounds weird—and wasn't terribly worried about winning it. After fighting giant birds, robots, chainsaw wielding terrorists, more robots, that crazy guy with the tuba, and enough Grimm to overwhelm a small country, a giant suit of armor felt almost… quaint.

She quickly glanced towards the wall, where she could see her father in the viewing area, seated near the glass. He showed no emotion, no acknowledgement of her.

Weiss pulled out her weapon, intent on looking it over before the fight. She hadn't had time to do so before now, having grabbed it from storage just before meeting Father. At first glance, it appeared normal. She lifted it up and slashed down, noting the weight and balance. All good, exactly as she remembered it.

It was once she spun the Dust chamber that she discovered the changes. Although it was never a struggle to switch Dust types, Weiss could usually feel the gears clicking as she switched. Now, beyond a light tap that told her it was in place, it felt smoother than the waxed floors beneath her.

Lifting the hilt up to examine it, she failed to see any apparent differences with the mechanism itself. It just spun, well, better.

There was a small difference on the hilt itself. On the guard, just out of sight, was two letters, carved into the metal.

R.R

There was nothing else to the signature; the letters themselves were not written in any fancy font. It was just… there.

Of course, Weiss had a pretty good idea who had signed Myrtenaster, and if she was being honest, there was worse people to have unknowingly modified her weapon. But it was still a problem, one that she really did not need right now.

She huffed, and then moved her sword into position and waited.

She didn't wait very long.

THUD! THUD! THUD!

Moving slowly, carrying a giant sword, came the armor. Aside from its footsteps, and the clinks of its armor, it was completely silent. A few metres away from her it stopped, and mirrored her stance.

At first, neither of them moved. Weiss shifted her grip on her sword, and took deep, slow breathes. She could do this. Big as this thing was, she'd killed bigger.

The armor lifted its sword, and charged. Once it got close to her, it swung at her feet.

Weiss leaped over, angling her jump towards the armors head. She slashed at its neck, sending off a flurry of sparks. A few landed on her skin, her aura sizzling at their touch.

While she was still in the air, the armor threw a fist up, trying to punch her. Weiss quickly cast a glyph, both blocking the armors attack and allowing her to jump away.

Landing six or seven metres from her enemy, she held out her sword and concentrated. A pulsating glyph, adorned with four swords appeared at her feet. Tightening her grip, Weiss tried to remember what she did when she fought the paladin. She tried to remember what it felt like when she summoned the sword, but her mind drew a blank.

Her glyph fizzled out, just in time for her to catch the tip of her opponent's sword. The blow sent her sprawling across the floor, several metres away from her original position.

Scowling, Weiss returned to her feet. The armor jumped at her, sword swinging above its head, but she threw up a shield before it hit.

She cast another glyph underneath the armor, this one with red Dust. It exploded, and smashed the armor into the wall. When it fell to the floor, bits of rubble fell with it, along with a huge cloud of powdered marble.

Why didn't her summon work? Weiss thought she had it figured out, after all, she'd already done it once. Perhaps she needed to actually take some time and think through what happened against the paladin.

Her musings were interrupted by the thundering footsteps of the armor. Its free hand grabbed the handle, and it swung its sword up.

Weiss's sword collided with its blade, sparks flying from the impact. Placing a glyph on the sword, she pushed, with her both arm and semblance, forcing the blade away from her. The armor tipped, nearly falling over.

Weiss leapt to its head, spinning Myrtenaster fast enough to blur it. She struck its head, its neck, and its back before she landed behind it.

The armor spun on its feet, the sword on a collision course with her skull, but Weiss vaulted over it as it passed, before lunging at its chest.

TWANG!

It stumbled back; a large dent clearly visible where she had hit it. In the very center laid a small hole, the only part that she managed to cut.

To the things credit, within seconds it was charging at her again, sword swinging away.

Weiss pulled up a glyph and froze its sword arm, unbalancing it enough to make it fall.

After skidding on the ground, it pushed itself to a standing position, and smashed its frozen hand into the floor, shattering the ice. It didn't charge, instead grasping it's sword with both hands and waiting. Presumably for her attack, at which point it would counter her blows and take her out.

Weiss smirked, and raised her sword to her chest. Tip pointed up, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

A yellow glyph, adorned with roman numerals and two hands lit up beneath her. She could feel the Dust from Myrtenaster flow out, powering the glyph.

Weiss opened her eyes. The air, the armor, everything seemed to be moving through quicksand. She took in a breath, smiling at how it felt like she was drinking the air through a straw.

Pulling her sword in front of her, Weiss sprinted towards the armor, almost as fast as Ruby could move. It tried to swing its sword at her, but it was far too slow.

Seconds before she reached it, Weiss threw herself over the armor with a glyph, slashing at its form as she rose.

Once she was hanging over its head, she launched herself off a glyph, sword cutting at the armors left arm. Just before she reached the floor, she cast another glyph, and attacked its neck.

She continued to throw glyphs, striking different parts of the armor each time. Metal shavings flew off with every blow, littering the ground with scorch marks wherever they landed.

However, after striking its neck and almost getting punched for her troubles, Weiss realised that her time dilation glyph was starting to wear off. The armor was beginning to rally—well, as much as it could considering its arms were about to fall off—so she needed to take it down now.

If she hadn't already tried it earlier, this would be the best time to try for her sword summoning again. A fitting coup de grâce, or at least an ironic one.

Weiss let out a sigh.

At least she still had one other option.

Jumping up and angling herself towards the armor with a glyph, Weiss cast one final glyph with a plentiful amount of ice Dust, right in front of her.

Quickly double checking to ensure her aim was accurate, she jumped towards her opponent's chest. Once she contacted the other glyph, her blade was encased in ice, forming a larger, flatter sword.

She thrust it right into the hole she created earlier, and lifted it up. The metal ripped open, all the way up to the head. At which point her ice sword decided it was enough, and shattered.

Already the armor had begun to dissolve, allowing her to fall through it and land neatly on the floor. The rapidly decaying corpse fell on her, wafting away to nothingness just seconds before it touched her.

Weiss looked up, towards the viewing area, attempting to gauge Fathers reaction. But he was already gone.

Quickly sheathing Myrtenaster, Weiss left the room.

She didn't look back.

Father had left her a message on her scroll, stating, "You pass." No words of encouragement, no acknowledgement of how she did. Just, "You pass."

Weiss tried not to think about it. Before, while her father had been cold and distant at times—okay, all the time—he still told her if she screwed up, and how to make it better. As good as her performance against the armor undoubtedly was, it was far from perfect.

Sighing, Weiss scrolled through her contact list. Father acting like a royal ponce was far from new, and quite honestly, she had other issues to deal with right now.

Like how she had Ruby, Yang, and Blake's numbers, despite the established time travel thing. What was the saying? Don't look a gift horse in the mouth?

She quickly tapped out a message, one that would hopefully clue Ruby in to her knowledge if she knew, but also not make her sound like a raving maniac if she didn't.

Weiss glanced at the clock. If she remembered correctly, she had about two, or maybe three, hours until her transport was ready to go. Should be more than enough time for her to pack.

Entering her room, she paused briefly by the mirror. Her face stared back at her, blue eyes wide open, mouth set into a hard line.

Tomorrow she was starting her training at Beacon. Again. It was… an odd thought, to say the least. Hopefully reconvening with her team would give her a chance to puzzle her situation out.

Still, the odds of Ruby or Yang or even Blake knowing anything about their situation struck her as incredibly unlikely. Blake and Yang passed out before she got transported, and Ruby…

Well, Ruby knew either nothing, or everything.

Weiss sighed, and left to pack.

Perhaps he was supposed to be happy.

His daughter, despite his concerns, had proven herself in combat. She pulled off an incredible performance, one far beyond what he believed was possible for her age.

But he couldn't see it that way.

All he could see, through the haze of the half-drained whisky bottle in his left hand, was his daughters face, smiling at him from the photo.

Right next to a girl with silver eyes.