Weiss jumped back into the waking world thanks to the sudden jolt of the airship entering turbulence. Ozpin's personal shuttle was currently flying high above Vale, and they would soon be out of city airspace.

She was seated in one of the many passenger areas of the ship. It was comfortable enough, with seats all along the walls, clean marble flooring, and a variety of distractions that included a mini bar, pool table, poker table, and so on.

She wasn't alone either. Sir Arc had and his team were escorting her with Ozpin; Just as her father had said. And Weiss was thankful for the company. The young knights had helped Weiss pack and bring her few suitcases, though she would've brought the whole castle if she could. Thankfully Sir Arc helped remind Weiss remember that "the longer she stayed, the more she'd think about not leaving".

She would always hate her home, but it was still Weiss's home regardless. So for the first time in her life, Weiss felt homesick.

Or, maybe it's got more to do with her father...

Weiss's bags had been set in a storage bin under her seat. Sir Arc was sitting in the seat to the right, and Dame Nikos was seated on her left. Sir Lie and Dame Valkyrie were right across from the aforementioned knights, sitting at a nearby table.

Sir Lie was talking to Dame Valkyrie as she sat there silently, Dame Nikos attempted to get comfortable by trying to sleep, and Sir Arc was playing with his scroll till he noticed Weiss had jumped awake.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

Weiss rubbed away the sleep from her eyes before addressing Sir Arc.

"I'm fine. Just having a hard time getting rest. I'm not the best flyer."

Sir Arc gave a small smile, then nodded in Dame Nikos direction. "If it helps, Pyrrha's also a pretty bad flyer. Gets sick every time we have to take a shuttle of any kind."

Weiss turned her head to Dame Nikos. The Dame grumbled, "If man was supposed to fly, we'd have wings."

Just as she finished, another quick round of turbulence came and went. When it was done, the Dame had started to turn a shade of light green. Causing Sir Arc to start chuckling with Weiss joining him.

This commotion grabbed Sir Lie's attention. He broke off from Dame Nikos, turning his attention to Sir Arc.

"Oh I just remembered something Juane, you never answered me on what we're to do after escorting the Princess. Are we to head back to Vale, or stay with Her Highness? I mean it would be amazing to see where the new Beacon Academy has been built, since you know the last one was blown up and all. Its okay if we have to go back though, I didn't mean to sound like a coward or anything, but you do know how I feel about violence. Speaking of which-"

"Ren, you're doing it again." Dame Nikos interrupted. Causing all the knights, even Dame Valkyrie, to laugh a bit. Weiss just looked confused.

Sir Arc leaned over to whisper in Weiss's ear, "Ren is a great fighter, but his mind tends to get off track and his mouth tends to run off. Especially when he's nervous. Though normally he's really shy. In fact he couldn't talk to me when I first joined as leader, so had to scream pop quiz just to get him to speak. He's gotten better. And for the most part, he can hold a conversation with me and Pyrrha"

Sounds a lot like me. Weiss thought.

"He seemed fine talking to Dame Valkyrie." Weiss whispered back.

"Well, he and Nora have been close since they were kids. From what I've been told, it started when some kids were picking on Ren. Nora helped him by breaking the kids' legs, and they've been friends since."

Well that's... lovely. Breaking someone's legs seems a bit extreme, but she did help him out. Maybe she's normally nice.

"Commander. Ren asked you a question. You didn't answer him." A gruff, hostile voice sounded. Dame Valkyrie's first words in front of Weiss.

Maybe not...

Sir Arc started to look really nervous all of sudden. He tried not to look at any of his teammates; going back to doing something with his scroll. A loud failure beep came from his scroll with every attempt he tried to make.

Suddenly a black energy surrounded his scroll, causing it to fly off into Dame Niko's hands. This startled Weiss, though no one else seemed to react but Sir Arc.

"Pyrrha! Give that back this instant!" The knight shouted.

"How did you do that?" Weiss asked.

"My semblance is polarity. Comes in handy when you need to disarm someone." Dame Nikos calmly answered Weiss, before turning her attention to her leader, "Juane what's wrong? Is everything alright?"

All eyes were on Sir Arc. He looked to each of his teammates several times. He started stuttering, fumbling over his words. "I, uh… You see…The thing is…I meant…Telling you guys…I didn't know…I just… The truth is...Uh..."

Before Sir Arc could finish whatever he was trying to say, the door near the front of the room opened up, a tall woman leaning in. She had rabbit ears, and was wearing a... revealing...maid's outfit.

The sight made Weiss's jaw drop and she suddenly felt sick. Both of the boy knights were blushing badly and had huge sweet drops. Dame Nikos's eyes had turned to white circles. And Dame Valkyrie could be seen grinding her teeth.

This was just, wrong. It's Ozpin's ship and all, and perhaps it was a standard work uniform for Ozpin's work team. But the fact Weiss remembered how Ozpin acted earlier, and the fact the woman had chains on her was infuriating! Faunus or human, that's humiliating and disgusting! She's a living being! Not some pet!

"Ozpin wishes to speak to you Your Majesty." The maid said with a bow.

Sir Arc shook away his initial shock, jumping up to his feet.

"I'll go with you." He shot out quickly.

The…"maid", just shook her head. "He wants to see her alone. My apologies."

Weiss tried to shake away her disgust and anger, putting on a professional royal face. She got up, and walked out with the woman. Sir Arc trying his best to convince the woman he should go with them.

He was denied every time.

Weiss rode up the elevator with the woman in silence. She didn't try to make conversation, and Weiss was fine with that. What would they've talked about anyway? Outfits?

Regardless, Weiss couldn't help but feel uneasy. With Sir Arc acting strange, and now with a sudden lowered opinion of Ozpin, she felt like something was wrong. She did have her trusty sword if something did go wrong. But this Ozpin's personal airship. Why should anything go wrong?

The elevator stopped, and the doors slid open. Weiss exited, stepping into a luxurious office quarters. Plush red carpet, huge self portraits on the walls, and a giant mahogany desk in front of a large glass window that overlooking the city.

Weiss thought it was all a bit much. She always imagined Ozpin as a quiet and humble man. Then again all she ever her was stories. Few pictures and documents survive about the legend (The people of Remnant's worst habit. Loosing history).

Speaking of Ozpin, he was sitting in a plush red velvet chair and had his feet propped up on his desk. His hat was off, showing off his long curly red hair. He had his cane in hand, swinging it in circles by him. He was talking to two people when he saw Weiss.

"There she is! Our guest of honor! Come on over, join the fun!" He called.

Weiss slowly made her way over to Ozpin and his guests. Both of whom were getting up to leave, passing by her. One was a tall man with red hair, carrying a sword. The other was a woman in a red dress and high heeled shoes. Weiss didn't give the pair much of a glance, she was focused on Ozpin.

"Take a seat." He said warmly. Giving a equally warm smile.

As Weiss took a seat, Ozpin shouted in the direction of the elevator. "Remember kid, don't wear that thing to long. It's experimental and might start screwing with your head. Oh and tell your bosses what we decided!"

A female voice responded back.

"I hope you'll be able to clean up this mess. Tonight has been such a waste, and quite frustrating for us. I don't want any more complications." Her voice sounded so, seductive. But at the same time it was very commanding.

"You have my word." Ozpin shouted back cheerily.

The ding of the elevator closing answered him. Though something else happened that made Weiss jump.

Chills suddenly flowed through Weiss's body, and air seemingly became colder. A voice seemed to echo in the air, a voice that sounded like it belonged in some of the worst of her flashes. It sounded like that woman at first, but soon became...something else.

"Do not fail me, vermin!"

When Weiss looked back behind the chair, all see saw was a closed elevator. The source of the unnerving demonic voice nowhere to be found. Though every very hair on Weiss's body stood up straight, and goose flesh covered her.

When she looked back at Ozpin, for a moment looked just as terrified as she felt. But the look vanished just as quickly as it appeared, and he returned to his friendly domineer.

"What was-" Weiss started.

Ozpin cut her off, "Oh nothing to be worried about. Just some business partners of mine."

He lowered his feet off his desk. Quickly replacing it with a bottle of scotch and two shot glasses.

Ozpin opened the bottle, filling the two shots to the brim. He quickly put down the bottle, gulping down one of the shots. He slammed the shot back onto the desk, already refilling the glass.

He downed the second shot just as quickly before taking notice of Weiss again.

"Well aren't you going to have yours?" He said while refilling his glass for the third time.

Weiss took one look of the drink, then went back to Ozpin.

"No thank you professor. I don't drink…anymore." She said timidly.

He stopped midway from his third shot and stared at Weiss. After a moment, he shrugged and downed his shot. He even picked up her shot and downed that too.

After finishing with a satisfied ah sound. Ozpin stood up, and began pacing the area around his desk.

"Now I bet your wondering why I called you here Ms. Schnee."

WWWWWWWW

"Jaune, we're a team. You know you can tell us anything." Pyrrha tried to soothe their panicking leader.

"No I can't. Not now anyway. We have to get to Weiss right now! I'll explain everything later, but we need to move now."

Ren raised his arm, waiting to be called upon. Groaning, Jaune called on him to speak.

"Jaune, if I may, don't you think we can handle the truth? We've been a team for almost a year now. What could honestly be so terrible you wouldn't want to tell us?"

"If he doesn't talk, I have ways…" Added Nora, who was currently polishing her weapon.

"Nora! That's not very nice." Ren scolded.

"I know…I'm just saying we have options…" She stopped polishing the hammer. She pushed a button, switching it into its grenade launcher form. Then she started loading in rounds for no particular reason.

Both Jaune and Pyrrha stared at Nora with big white circles for eyes. Though both quickly refocused back at the matter at hand.

Pyrrha stood up, and grabbed Jaune by the shoulders so he'd stop pacing. She was tired of this routine. She didn't like seeing their normally confident leader like this. She made him look her directly in the eyes as she said,

"Sir Jaune Arc. You are the leader of the knights of JNPR. Whatever you have to tell us, we'll understand. That trusting nature of yours has never lead you astray before, and I doubt it will now."

Jaune opened his mouth to argue, though instead sighed.

"Alright. Fair enough."

Pyrrha smiled in triumph. Another of Jaune's traits: Being able to admit he's wrong.

"Exactly. See it's times like this that I know I-" She quickly cut herself off. She wasn't even thinking about what she was saying.

DON'T SAY IT! WHAT ARE YOU DOING? DON'T SAY THAT! ARE YOU INSANE?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

"Uh, Pyrrha? You okay?" Jaune questioned, still being held in place by her.

Pyrrha's face had turned as red as her hair. Her eyes had become shrouded in a blue shadow, and her mouth hanged open mid sentence. A world record size sweat drop hanged, and she couldn't speak or move.

After a long and awkward silence with Pyrrha stuck in that state, Jaune gently lifted Pyrrha's hands off his shoulders. He took a few steps back, looking over his team. Friends he gotten to know so well. Friends he'd come to care for more than anything in the world.

Only in truth, they knew nothing of him. Only lies.

"Alright guys…" Jaune said, lowering his head in shame. "The truth is…I'm not really-"

That's when the door exploded. Bullets and armored soldiers following in its wake.

WWWWWWWW

"Yes, that is one of the many questions I've asked myself tonight." Weiss responded.

Ozpin continued to pace. Not responding for a long time.

"Have you ever heard of a man named, Roman Torchwick?" He finally asked.

Weiss suddenly felt tense. Now she knew something wasn't right. What did those cultists have to do with anything?

"No…" She answered carefully. "Should I have?"

Ozpin stopped. He gave a light laugh before smashing his cane into Weiss's right arm with incredible force.

Weiss gave out a shriek of pain. She fumbled out her chair, trying to recover and draw her sword.

"Well then allow me to introduce myself." He said still in his cheery tone.

He used the curve of his can with incredible speed to trip Weiss onto her stomach. He then stomped his foot down on top of Weiss's back, trapping her in place on the floor and causing Weiss to scream in pain.

"My real name is Roman Torchwick. And it's a pleasure to make your company, Ms. Schnee." He said.

Before Weiss could counter with an instinctual Glyph, Roman began humming a song of some kind as he wound up his cane like a bat. He then started to swing with incredible speed, landed hit after hit on Weiss. Two or three were aimed at her head, several blows landed at her sides and back, and some at crippled her legs.

Each blow would make a sickening crunch up hitting. Blows to her head were even worse, causing her vision to go blood red and her ears to start ringing. Weiss's aura had never been good at defending, so almost all the force of the attacks seemed to make it through.

This isn't happening! This has to be a dream, or a flash! Wake up Weiss! Wake up right now!

Eventually Roman stopped swinging, letting the pain settle into Weiss.

Weiss's vision was starting black out, and sounds were beginning to dull. Though Roman's voice was somehow still clear enough to be heard.

"You know, apparently getting someone to kill you has been very difficult. One damn frustrating thing on top of tonight." Weiss could feel his breath as he got close to whisper into her ears. "So I think I'll take my time with you. Don't worry. I won't be gentle." His insane laughter started echoing around the room.

WAKE UP!

WWWWWWWW

Weiss's eyes flew open, her breathing extremely rapid. She was screaming hoarsely and was trying to get to her feet in panic.

"Whoa whoa whoa, calm down! Calm down, you're safe! You're safe!" A woman's voice called.

Weiss looked up to see a girl kneeling above her. She had Lilac colored eyes, and flowing golden hair.

It's the girl. The flame in the forest.

"Just chill the hell out lady. You're fine. The medicine and Dust seems to be working. You just need to relax." She said with a stern voice.

Weiss calmed down some. She looked around to find she was on a mat under a single light.

Boxes and crates surrounded the two. Cloths soaked in blood littered the floor along with empty vials and containers of medicine and Dust. Blood covered the mat, and Weiss was covered in soaked bandages and sprinkles of different colored Dust. She had a crude cast on her right arm.

"Where, how, why…" Weiss tried to speak, but it came out choked. The girl put a finger to Weiss's mouth.

"Shhh. Don't talk. Just rest for a moment. I'm going to get you some water, okay?" Her voice now soothing and calm.

The strange girl got to her feet and disappeared from view. Leaving Weiss with the fresh memories of her recalling dream.

I'm alive. I'm somehow alive. But, what about JNPR? Did they make it? I...I can't remember what...

A thought buzzed through Weiss's head.

If they're dead, then it's my fault. They came with me to make sure I'd be okay. Roman would've killed them too. I'm the reason they're dead. It's my fault.

With that revelation in mind, Weiss started to weep for her brave fallen knights.

Their blood would forever be on her hands.