Shen looked over the weapons that Strike Six had brought back to the armoury. Collapsible weapons were not a new concept, having come about from the necessity of moving weapons in a more compact form; but the sheer audacity of having a weapon with multiple functions in a single package? It was either lunacy or brilliance, though the practical engineer in Shen insisted that it was the former. After all, who would willingly design a sniper rifle to double as a melee weapon? A scythe, no less!

"So I see that it can act as a monopod," Shen murmured, looking over Crescent Rose. Ruby had extended it to its full, razor-sharp glory, demonstrating how the blade could be used to steady the rifle's considerable recoil, "It is a...unique approach. I suppose we have never considered combining a bayonet and a monopod as practical. With such a large calibre, I do find myself wondering how you absorb the recoil,"

"Oh, that's simple," Ruby said proudly, pointing at the Crescent Rose's fully extended stock, "There's a triple gas buffer in the stock. It's enough to take most of the kick, but it still can throw people off when they're not used to it. There's also a muzzle brake integrated into the scythe,"

"Very interesting! I also would think that the weapon's mass itself would lend some stability,"

"Yup! Hey, what do you think of..."

Weiss tuned out of the conversation between Shen and Ruby, rolling her eyes. Considering the amount of knowledge that Ruby had concerning firearms and weapons in general, the two could likely talk for hours on end without exhausting even a fraction of the topics that they knew about.

"A penny for your thoughts, cub?" Papa Bear chuckled, noticing Weiss' bored expression.

"My thoughts? I'm only thinking that if we allow Ruby to continue talking with Dr. Shen, it's likely that we would end up getting nothing done,"

The man chuckled, clapping a hand on her shoulder. "If there's one thing that you should respect, it's the ability for someone to take care of their own equipment. But I wonder if she can actually use that the way she says she can. God, that thing is probably bigger than she is when it's fully unfolded!"

"I do wonder sometimes as well," Weiss replied, looking at how Ruby now had the scythe's blade extended to the point where it could be almost used as a spear, "It's not very elegant, is it?"

"Elegant? That's a quality you look for in your weapons?"

She looked at Myrtenaster and picked it up, examining its blade. Satisfied that it was free of chips and nicks, she picked up a fire dust canister from a nearby workbench, slotting it into one of the revolver rapier's dust magazines. "Sometimes it's not the size of the weapon, but how you use it," she spoke, walking up to a booth on the firing range. "After all, in every sparring session, I've been able to beat her without ever taking a single hit. Blake and Yang are much more challenging opponents,"

Concentrating on the target dummy closest to her booth, the white-haired girl raised her rapier in a salute. Left foot forward...but not that far forward. Back straight...blade out, ready to parry or strike, she thought to herself, closing her eyes, steadying her breathing.

"You seem sure of yourself, cub,"

Quick as the wind. Powerful as a blizzard. Thrust like a thunderbolt!

With a flourish, she opened her eyes and raised a hand, conjuring an ice glyph in front of her. A shot of dust covered the blade of her rapier, and she thrust the weapon forcefully into the centre of the glyph. A thunderous blast echoed through the room when the glyph shattered on impact, releasing a blazing missile that streaked towards the target dummy, blasting it to bits of flaming scrap.

"Well now, that's certainly different," Papa Bear laughed, "Those floating things that you make, they don't only block bullets, do they?"

"It depends on what I want them to do. I could have them block strikes. I could stand on them. I could use one to speed myself up for a little while," she said, levelling Myrtenaster for another strike.

"Huh. Very interesting. I also noticed that you used that weird red dust before you attacked. Is that also part of it?"

Weiss nodded. The dust was indeed integral to the way her combat worked. It amplified the power of her glyphs many times over and altered their properties, enabling her to attack with whichever element she fancied. It was convenient for dealing with almost any kind of enemy, provided that she had an ample supply of the required Dust types.

Provided that she had a supply of Dust.

Her eyes widened as she realised the dire implications of her thoughts.

What her weapon used. What the rest of the team used. Dust-based munitions.

Dust was an unknown resource on this planet. She looked at the small cache of Dust rounds and Dust canisters on the workbench. There was only enough for a single mission. If these were all that were taken from the team when they had been abducted, then it would not be more than they needed for a single Grimm hunt.

"Something wrong with your ammunition?" Papa Bear asked.

"Yes- well, no, not exactly," she answered, removing the fire Dust from her rapier's cylinder, "There's nothing wrong with the ammunition. The problem is that this is all we have. We can't produce more of it, and I don't think there's even any on this planet,"

And without Dust, her team's weapons would be next to useless. They would be only useful as melee weapons.

"Look, cub. Why don't you talk to Dr. Vahlen about this? If she can come up with some weird all-curing medicine from lethal poisons, I'm sure she can recreate whatever it is that you use for your weapons. Right now, she's probably in her biolab,"

Weiss nodded slowly, frowning. Dr. Vahlen was not exactly the friendliest of people, though Papa Bear did have a point. If she could fix Blake's broken legs without any surgery required, then maybe she could think up of a solution to her Dust supply problems. Her thoughts, however, were interrupted by the thunderous report of Crescent Rose from the firing booth beside her.

"Ohh, sweetheart. How I missed you," Ruby cooed, stroking her scythe-rifle affectionately.

Even after a few months of living together in the same room, there were just some things that one could not get used to. Weiss decided that this was the best moment to leave the room before things got any weirder. Taking one of each canister of elemental dust, she quietly sneaked out of the room while every pair of eyes were still fixed on Ruby's odd ministrations to her beloved Crescent Rose.

"Dr. Vahlen. Specialist Schnee is requesting permission to enter your laboratory,"

"Permission granted. Five minutes,"

When the blast doors to Dr. Vahlen's biological research laboratory hissed open, Weiss found herself almost knocked out by an overpowering odour of antiseptic mixed with the sting of hard preservatives. A persistent, unpleasant hum filled the room from the numerous ventilation fans lining the ceiling, which seemed to be doing very little to put fresh air into the room.

Dread filled Weiss' heart when she walked further into the laboratory. It was impeccably clean, as would be expected of a research facility; yet its contents were disturbing beyond anything that she had ever imagined. Glass cylinders of various sizes contained alien body parts, suspended in sickly green liquids. She barely resisted vomiting when she saw what looked like two human hearts suspended next to each other, linked to the same arteries and veins; almost as though they were duplicated on purpose.

But what truly filled her with horror was the glass chamber in the far back of the lab. She could hear the shrill whine of a mechanical bonesaw being warmed up, before muffled tearing noises filled the air. Yellowish-green splotches of what could only be described as alien blood splashed against the inside of the glass chamber. Behind the glass, she could see several scientists in bulky rubber suits covering them from head to toe. They were cutting methodically into an alien that seemed to be a hulking mass of muscle, systematically removing organs and chunks of muscle and dropping them into marked cylinders similar to those that she had seen before.

"Dr. Vahlen will be with you shortly," a scientist outside the room said to her, "She won't take too long in decontamination,"

"Very well...thank you," Weiss muttered, clapping a hand to her mouth when a wave of nausea hit her.

Sure enough, the stern-looking woman emerged from an airlock on the side of the autopsy chamber within a minute. She looked at Weiss up and down once, as if confirming that it was her.

"Oh, good. Have you reconsidered about the experiment I proposed earlier?" she said nonchalantly, approaching the heiress.

"If you meant the experiment about finding out how I can create glyphs," Weiss replied, staring at the rather messy dissection happening to her right, "...I'd prefer to remain in one piece, thank you very much,"

Dr. Vahlen followed Weiss' gaze and then baulked, holding up both hands and shaking her head vigorously. "Goodness, nothing of the sort. If we dissected our own personnel, I would have a mutiny in my laboratory in no time. That is, if the rest of the XCOM operatives haven't broken down the lab doors and shot me first. But yes, have you reconsidered participating that experiment that I have talked about?"

"No, not yet. But there is something else that I think you can help me with," Weiss said, holding up a canister of fire Dust, "I need to find a way to make more of this,"

Vahlen walked towards Weiss, examining the glass canister closely. "If that is what I think it is – the volatile powder that we had found with your weapons – I am afraid that I have already examined it. Every single kind. I have cross-checked every chemical database that I am aware of, and there is nothing with even remotely similar properties to it,"

"So...you're saying that there's no way to make more of this?"

"At this point in time, I highly doubt that there will be in the immediate future," declared the doctor, "While the amount of energy it releases is very impressive, we simply do not have enough of it to warrant further research. It would be different, however, if we had some way of procuring more of it,"

Weiss huffed in exasperation. "Which is not going to happen, is it?"

"Unless the aliens find some reason of bringing more specimens from your homeworld, then yes, that would be an accurate assumption,"

Her face fell. Perhaps there were some things that just wouldn't work out, no matter how hard one tried. She looked sadly at the rapier hanging at her hip. As long as there was a shortage of ammunition, she couldn't risk taking her precious Myrtenaster along for a mission. Being caught without a supply of Dust in the wilderness was no idle threat for even veteran huntresses; many had died to a Grimm when they could no longer fight back effectively. With their Aura only partially effective against the aliens' weaponry – and even their personal Semblances significantly more draining than it ever did – perhaps they needed to learn how to fight as the other soldiers did, after all.

"Dr. Vahlen. The workshops are requesting any spare elerium crystals that we have for making some plasma rifles," one of the lab assistants called out from behind a trolley loaded with extracted alien parts, "Should we send them our remaining ones?"

"I didn't think that we had any left in our storage. If they must have it, then by all means, have them sent," she said, waving him off.

"Elerium crystals? Can I ask what those are?" Weiss asked, her interest piqued.

"Elerium. Element 115," sighed Vahlen, "If it existed on earth, fossil fuels would have become outdated in less than a decade. It produces incredible amounts of energy when exposed to heat or high-velocity particles. Unfortunately, we've only been able to acquire it from alien ships that have landed or been shot down,"

"Could I see a sample?"

"I suppose there's no harm in knowing what it looks like," the doctor said, putting a hand into her lab coat's pocket, pulling out a shining blue crystal contained in a thick glass vial that was heavily reinforced with steel webbing and handing it to Weiss. It was absolutely minuscule; the heiress' little finger would be larger than the tiny sample inside. But the crystal's shape – its colour, its weight. Everything about it was familiar to the heiress.

After all, she had seen samples of virtually every product that her family produced.

"This resembles a raw Dust crystal...but different, somehow," Weiss murmured, examining the sample in her hand, "The faces are too regular, too smooth. Too perfect,"

"That was what some of my colleagues also believed. These look too perfect to be anything but manufactured. But you said that it resembles...raw Dust? I assume that Dust is the volatile powder that you and your friends use as ammunition?"

Weiss nodded. "The Schnee Dust Company offers Dust for almost every requirement of life. Fuel for heating and cooling. Energy for lighting and personal devices. And of course, munitions for combat," she said, reciting the oft-repeated marketing spiel that her father was so fond of.

"Hmm. Perhaps it may be worth investigating if there is any link between Dust and elerium, given the similarities in both their use and their appearance. But that idea must wait. Now, if you would return my elerium sample?"

Reluctantly, Weiss handed over the glowing crystal back to Dr. Vahlen. "It's a very interesting specimen," she commented, to which the scientist nodded briefly.

"Indeed it is. Now, if you aren't here to assist with the rest of the autopsy, I would like you to remove yourself from the laboratory. The commander has requested that I complete this in six hours, and I cannot afford to waste any more time,"

After an hour of discussing wild ideas about weapons and modifications with Dr. Shen, Ruby returned to the barracks with a wide smile. Who knew that in other worlds, there would be someone with as much interest in weapons as she did? Within five minutes, the doctor had already pointed out areas where she could improve the weapon's melee capabilities, by redistributing the weight towards the front for greater momentum during strikes and for stability during shooting; and also by coating the blade with an ultrahard material and then honing it to a monomolecular edge with a precision laser. Of course, with the foundry workshop already fully booked out for at least four weeks, she had to wait her turn.

That did not, however, mean that her enthusiasm was any less. On the contrary, she was bounding up and down with excitement at the idea that her Crescent Rose could be improved at all!

"Now, now, Ruby. You do have other issues that are more immediate, don't you think?" Shen chuckled, shaking his head in amusement, "Your weapons – and those of your fellow squadmates – function on a completely different technological base than ours. Your Dust-based munitions are impossible to manufacture in this base, and the supply of those is very limited. You would need to resolve this issue before Officer Bradford would even consider allowing you to take your weapons to a mission,"

The brunette pursed her lips for a moment, thinking, before clicking her fingers. "Oh. That's easy enough!" she responded happily, "Got a list of standard ammunition calibres and cartridges? I could just pick those closest in dimensions and bore a few new barrels. Probably give them new magazines, too. Easy!"

"A good start, but you must keep in mind that Dust appears to be far more powerful than the propellant that we normally use in our weapons. If you tried to fit a...shotshell...that would fit into Ember Celica's magazine, for example, I highly doubt that the recoil would be sufficient to load the next shell,"

"Oh," she said, looking down. She didn't consider that. "Dust does blow up really well, yeah. Hey, how about giving the shells a new propellant?"

"A small high explosive charge could work in a reinforced steel casing, but you would have to be very careful about the quantity that you load,"

"Alright! That's the problem solved!"

"Well, then you know what you need to do. My personal workshop has the equipment needed to do those modifications. You will not need to use the Foundry to make something like that," Shen said, checking his watch. "Ah, but it appears that I am needed somewhere else at this time. Breakfast calls, and it seems that both Miss Xiao Long and Miss Belladonna have gone ahead without us,"

Her stomach rumbled. "Yeah, breakfast sounds like a good idea. I'll see you there, Dr. Shen!"

As she turned to collect Crescent Rose from the equipment workbench, she noticed that Weiss was now standing at a shooting booth. But Myrtenaster was on the same workbench as Crescent Rose was, which confused Ruby. Everyone knew that Weiss would never be parted from her rapier if at all possible; it was kept in its sheath under her pillow while she slept, and she had even taken it into the bathroom whenever she had to take a shower. So why did she leave it alone?

She noticed that there was a heavy-looking revolver held in the white-haired girl's right hand. Her aim was unsteady, and her arm was trembling, not used to wielding a weapon of that size and weight.

"Weiss?" Ruby asked, worried for her friend. There was no response other than a slight stiffening of her back. A thunderous muzzle blast came from her revolver; a streak of golden-yellow shot past the target dummy, smashing into the clay backstop.

She fired one shot after another, emptying the cylinder. Not a single one touched the target dummy. Wordlessly, she reloaded the pistol with trembling fingers. Again, she raised the pistol and fired all six shots. Not a single hit. On the next round, however, her hand lost its grip after firing, causing the pistol to fly backwards and land on the floor with a clatter. She fell to her knees, clutching her wrist.

"Weiss!" yelped Ruby, dashing over to the white-haired girl.

"I'm fine. It's just a little sore," huffed the heiress, "I didn't think that firing a pistol would be that difficult,"

"It's your first time using one, isn't it? Of course it'll be hard. Why not use Myrtenaster, like you normally do?"

"And proceed to run out of ammunition?" countered Weiss, glaring at Ruby, "That would not be a very good idea. I talked to Dr. Vahlen earlier about making more Dust. It's not possible, which means that we've got a very limited supply,"

"We can just modify it,"

"Oh, I've heard. I was listening to your conversation with Dr. Shen," Weiss said bitterly, standing up and picking up the fallen revolver, "Modify the weapons so that we can use their ammunition. That, unfortunately, will not work with Myrtenaster,"

"Why not? I'm sure we can,"

"Because, you idiot, there IS no way to change it to fire a bullet!" she all but screamed at Ruby, who shrank away at the heiress' sudden outburst, "Do you see a barrel? A stock? A magazine? No, you don't, do you? It's not a gun. It wasn't ever meant to be a gun! It-"

"Enough of this, cub!" roared Papa Bear, stomping over to the arguing pair, "I've heard enough. I've heard from Blake and Yang that a huntress makes her own weapons, and that it's theirs for life. I get that you're attached to your damn rapier. I get that it's not a gun, and won't ever be one like the other weird weapons that your teammates have. Does that give you the right to scream at your team leader?"

"Well, I was-"

"Let me reword that. Does that give you the right to scream at your squad commander, Specialist Schnee?" he growled, making sure that he used her formal title. She gulped and shook her head; the man had more fury than Miss Goodwitch on a bad day when he was annoyed. "I have not heard a response yet, Specialist Schnee! Answer me properly, or I'll damn well make you do latrine duty for a month!"

"No, sir," she quietly said. When she noticed that his eyes continued to narrow on her, she spoke a little louder, "No, sir, it doesn't,"

"Good. Get that damn head of yours screwed on right," Papa Bear sighed. His expression was softer, but there was a certain disappointment in his eyes that shamed her. "Corporal Rose was kind enough to assist with your problems. She doesn't have to. She could just order you to take a gun from the armoury and use it, whether you liked it or not. If this is how you respond to her, I wonder whether I made the right decision asking her to take care of her guardian angel,"

Weiss remained silent, looking at the floor in shame. She had half a mind to apologise to Ruby; yet her pride as a member of the Schnee family urged her to never back down.

"Weiss..." Ruby said slowly, reaching for her free hand. Only to have her hand batted away by Papa Bear.

"No, Corporal Rose. Stand down. If you will not discipline a squadmate that has stepped out of line, then I will do it,"

"Okay...sorry,"

"You have nothing to apologise for. This young lady, however, does. Whether she does or not is up to her. But let me tell you both this. Do not regret anything you do in your life, and do not do anything that you would ever regret," he said harshly, though without malice, "Now, enough of this nonsense about weapons that you can't use. If you are so concerned about how you would change your personal weapon to suit your new environment, perhaps you need to change yourself to suit a new personal weapon. Remember that there are at least two fine weaponsmiths in this base,"

Weiss gawked despite herself. That was such a simple solution. Hunters and huntresses created their personal weapons, with or without the aid of others. That was a given. But nowhere in their traditions did it say that they were limited to one personal weapon – only that it was the norm. She looked at the revolver in her right hand. It was bulky and heavy; and although it was elegant in its form, she felt that perhaps the handle and frame was too large for her hand. The mouldings on its grip did not align with her slender fingers, being made for the much larger hand of another man.

This was someone else's weapon. Not hers.

"Bah. Too early for a counselling session. I'm going to need several cookies and a cup of coffee," grumbled Papa Bear, shaking his head and turning for the door, "When you two are done putting this crap behind you, I want you both to see me at breakfast. I'll be waiting,"

Weiss turned to face Ruby. She knew what she had to say; a single word, a very simple word – yet one that always had a very difficult time rolling off her tongue. The door behind her hissed and slammed shut, indicating that Papa Bear had left for breakfast; the silver-eyed girl remained in front of her, looking into her eyes with an odd mix of hurt and expectation.

Perhaps, she thought to herself, it would be best to let go of her pride for the time being. Ruby was only trying to help, after all.

Just like last time. And every other time, ever since they met at Beacon.

"I'm...sorry. For being difficult," she sighed, bowing her head. She felt a pair of arms wrap around her midsection, and a hand gently patting her back.

"That's not needed," she heard Ruby whisper into her ear, "I'd be mad too if I couldn't use Crescent Rose. But I really do want to help, you know? It's kind of hard when you won't let me, and when you're mad at me for some reason. Now, let's make you a new personal weapon!"

Dust damn it, you adorable ball of energy. How can anyone resist you, Weiss thought to herself, returning the hug in earnest. "Fine, you dolt. Let's get started,"

"Alright. That should do it!" Ruby cheerfully said, tightening the last screw on the weapon that she had just finished crafting. "Here, Weiss! It's all yours,"

The white-haired girl gingerly took the bluish-silver revolver from Ruby's hands and gasped in surprise at just how light it was, and how comfortable it felt. The plastic grip was moulded to match her right hand's grip with the help of Dr. Shen, which helped to keep the weapon stable in her weaker hand. The barrel of the pistol was rather long; almost a quarter of Myrtenaster's length, with a large suppressor further extending it. A long, narrow blade formed an integrated bayonet on its underside, tapered to a needle-like point on the tip.

Dr. Shen had offered to lend them some leftover scraps of what he called 'alien alloy', curious to see what Ruby could do with it. The things that she did – creating components and parts with incredible speed and precision – was something that the doctor had never seen before. The only thing he had to offer was general guidance on how to balance and construct such a unique weapon, as the brunette seemed to have a keen knowledge on the manufacture of weapon parts. While he doubted that the weapon would ever become commonplace in XCOM due to its esoteric nature, he had to admit that its creation was truly mentally stimulating.

"Alright. I believe that would be everything that should be required. Let's see how it performs," Dr. Shen said, nodding to both of the girls, "I recall that the other revolver's rounds were of the same calibre,"

"Yep! Go on, Weiss!"

The heiress nodded with a smile as she collected six rounds from beside the old revolver sitting on the workbench and slotted them into her new revolver's cylinder. Taking aim at the nearest target dummy, she breathed out slowly.

Feet forward. Not that far forward. Shoulders relaxed.

Strike.

An ear-splitting blast rang throughout the room when Weiss pulled the trigger. The target dummy's head exploded into a hundred tiny fragments. In disbelief, she took aim at it again, and fired another three shots. Two blasted clean holes through the dummy's chest, while the third carved a ragged gash on its arm. Even after firing four shots, her hand remained firmly seated in the weapon's grip, not even the least bit sore.

"Ruby! It works!" she squealed, all decorum momentarily forgotten in her excitement, "I have a weapon again!"

"I knew you could do it!" cheered Ruby, "Do you have a name for it yet?"

"No, not yet. Let me think, you dolt," she said, still grinning in glee, "I think I'll call it...Wisteria,"

"A beautiful name," Dr. Shen commented, approaching the two, "Congratulations, to both of you. If you wish to use my workshop again, Ruby, feel free to do so. I must admit that I am most entertained by watching the speed and precision at which you work,"

"Thanks, Dr. Shen," the younger girl said, beaming, "Now, let's get back to practice!"

A/N

A bit of a filler chapter this time. When you can have all the Dust you could ever want in Beacon, sometimes it takes a massive shortage to just alert you to how precious it really is...

playwars:

It will follow a large part of XCOM:EW, yes. That being said, I don't have the Zhang DLC, so I can't exactly write about that one. And yes, there will obviously be story mission chapters, as there will be changes to how those pan out.

Exalt being rather parallel to the white fang, it'd be an injustice to not have them.

Characters -do- have their semblances, but they're not as readily available as on Remnant.

Next: The girls finally realise the true meaning of terror - and what defending the people actually means.