~Notice: POV changed to Weiss Schnee, present~

Weiss awoke the next morning – much later, than she usually did. Overslept! She thought right before falling about one and a half meters, when rushing out of bed. She hit the ground left arm first, which started to hurt quite a bit immediately. When turning onto her back, the heiress looked up to Yang, who was fully geared up, and kneeled down to her.

"Did we forget something, Princess?" the blonde jested, as she usually did. There were no signs of aggression or hostility, as Weiss had anticipated, feared even. However, Weiss actually DID forget that Ruby slept in the lower of the two improvised bunk beds, because of her injury. After the incident, it was the least the heiress could do.

"Yes," Weiss simply answered, and got up. Yang put her left arm around Weiss shoulders, which made the heiress freeze in place.

"You know, Blake and I had a long and heated discussion about all this yesterday…" Yang started explaining. Of course Weiss knew it has been her cowardice that had lead to that dispute in their relationship. She was responsible. And Yang's partner was nowhere to be seen, as well as Ruby. "And we agreed that we – meaning you and me – need to talk this through."

The blonde brawled stayed silent for a brief moment, before Weiss started talking in a low voice: "I… I already explained… H-how it happened… What else should I say, but I-I'm sorry…"

"You could start by looking me in the eye, Weiss…" Yang answered calmly. Weiss continued looking at her own feet for a few moments, but eventually looked up to Yang, who looked at Weiss both concerned and relaxing. The brawler then spoke up again in a calm, quiet voice: "You're afraid…" the blonde realized, looking confused.

"Yes…" Weiss answered almost incomprehensibly.

"Why?"

"I don't know…"

"Of what?"

"I don't know, either…"

"Strange…"

"I'm sorry…"

"I know."

"Can I make this up to you guys?"

"Of course."

"How?"

"Conquer the fear."

After having said that, Yang left Weiss to herself, her thoughts, and her hurting left arm. Weiss prepared for the mission ahead, but the pain did not get better in any way. Regardless of the obviously hurt arm, the heiress joined her team at the Bullhead, which would take them to forest to the north-east once more. Yang was leaning against the aircraft, Blake was leaning against Yang's left shoulder, and Ruby supported herself with the crutches, which she had been using the day before.

"Hey, Weiss!" the little rose greeted her partner, cheerful, as she always was, but the look on her face became a mixture of curiousness and worry in mere seconds. "What's wrong with your arm?" she asked. Weiss was wondering at first, before she noticed that she was keeping the left arm in front of her, and even held it with the right hand. It was only normal to notice, something was off with this behavior.

"N- I fell…" Weiss answered, without looking at her team mates at first, "out of the bed… The arm hurts since that," she finished her explanation, while not looking at Ruby, but at Yang, who just nodded in agreement.

"Then you should better go to the infirmary, and let them check the arm…" Ruby was serious, and Weiss was about to obey her order, when another Bullhead landed on the neighboring landing pad. This in itself was nothing out of the ordinary, but the medical personnel, who showed up during the landing maneuver; that was something out of the ordinary. Just out of curiosity the whole team went closer to the landing pad, as Jaune literally fell out of the aircraft – exhausted, by the looks of his face – and threw up right in front of his own feet. While Weiss could feel a subtle smirk on her lips, Yang almost laughed out aloud. But when Pyrrha was carried out of the vehicle, Yang almost choked on her laughter, while the smirk on Weiss' face gave way to a sincerely worried expression. Ren and Nora were even more exhausted, than Jaune appeared to be, but were at least unharmed.

This merged pack is dangerous, Weiss thought to herself, and gasped in disbelief, as the infirmary's staff carried none other than Erydias Grey herself out of the bullhead. While Jaune tried to help Pyrrha to get onto a handbarrow – Yang assisted the leader of team JNPR with that – and Ren simply talked to Blake and Ruby – probably explaining the situation – Weiss herself barely managed to get out of the way in time. What happened?

The question lingered in Weiss' head, as she took a very close look at the seasoned Huntress. She appeared to be unconscious, but no injury could be seen anywhere on her body, neither any damage on the armor, besides a few scratches and a little dent in the right shoulder plate. Pyrrha and Ms. Grey were taken to the infirmary swiftly, and Weiss did not ask anyone about what happened, yet. She was not even listening to any word, which was spoken around her, until Yang shouted loudly.

"Remnant to Weiss! Anyone home?!"

"Huh! Yes, yes, I'm here, Yang. What is it?" Startled as she was, Weiss' voice was shaking during her short answer. She was afraid again, but since she was not involved in anything that happened to Jaune and his team, the heiress struggled to find an answer as to how that fear came to be at that time.

"Let's go," the brawler said.

"Where?"

"To the infirmary. Your arm still hurts, right?"

As if on command, said arm just started to hurt again, dragging Weiss out of her thoughts and back to reality.

"I'll go with Weiss," Ruby then said, "Yang, you and Blake go to Professor Ozpin, and tell him that Ms. Grey just reached the Academy."

The couple simply nodded, and went to the headmaster's office in order to carry out the given order. Ruby and Weiss surely did take their time to reach the infirmary themselves. The heiress considered helping her partner numerous times, but every time she offered her help, Ruby rejected it. Clearly the little rose wanted to show that she could manage things by herself, even with her injured leg. To finally change the subject, Weiss asked: "What happened to Pyrrha?"

"Huh?" Ruby took a curious look at Weiss. "You didn't listen?" To that the heiress shook her head.

"Okay… Ren told me that one of the Beowolves stomped on the knee, and that the kneecap seemed to have withstood the impact, her crucial ligament as well. Bones themselves are broken, he said. Her Aura absorbed most of the damage." Ruby answered, and looked at Weiss concerned.

"Just as yours did, when I cut your leg…" the heiress said quietly. "I wonder how it managed to do that."

"She got separated," Ruby continued to retell, what Ren had told her previously. Weiss swallowed heavily, imagining how it must have looked like. "Luckily, Ms. Grey was close enough to prevent anything worse than some broken bones around the knee."

"Wait. She was with them? How?" Weiss asked. The way how the seasoned Huntress acted towards her when they met did not add up to her following the others.

"She came out of nowhere, Ren said," Ruby answered.

"Then only she knows, why, I suppose," Weiss concluded.

"We have your arm to worry about first, I think," Ruby added to the conversation.

The infirmary staff was treating Pyrrha's injured knee, piecing together the damage that had been caused there, while Ms. Grey had been laid on a bed – in order to remove her armor, or afterwards, Weiss could not tell. The Huntress' eyes were closed, her skin pale, and her breathing movements were barely visible. Soon, the heiress was drawn away from the sight, and brought into a separated area for the examination of her arm.

The fall had caused a simple bruise, which the heiress' Aura did not absorb, due to Weiss being distracted or just being inattentive. Now with medication and Aura enhanced healing, the bruise should trouble Weiss only for the remainder of the current day. While they were at the infirmary, Ruby got her bandages changed.

"Meeeh…" Ruby suddenly complained, and Weiss looked at the silhouette of her partner. She just realized that the little rose was there, as they were separated by a simple curtain, and the lights threw Ruby's shadow against it.

"What is it, Ruby?" Weiss asked.

"We're too late for breakfast now…" the little rose explained, making Weiss smirk in the process.

"It's not like we couldn't get something to eat elsewhere, Ruby…" I don't know why you are so annoying when you do these things. Weiss thought to herself, while Ruby gestured in excitement behind the curtain.

"…We can?" Ruby asked in confusion. Weiss started to grin to herself.

"Of course we can, du-do that. There's a kiosk right inside the cafeteria, and even if nobody would be there, there are still some vending machines we could use." Weiss explained, and took a deep breath. She was getting angry at Ruby again, for such a nonsensical reason. The heiress sighed quietly at herself, before speaking up again. "I'm sorry, Ruby," she said.

"Well…" Ruby answered, as she began to move around the curtain. Sticking only her head around the fabric, Ruby grinned at Weiss sheepishly, and exclaimed: "Let's find breakfast, then!"

Without further ado Ruby took Weiss right hand, and pulled her off the bedside the heiress was sitting on. Following a swift and energetic turn on her left heel, Ruby went forward, out of the infirmary, straight towards the cafeteria. On the way the duo met several other students, exchanged some pleasantries with them, and moved along. Weiss saw this as a return to the daily routine she had become used to over the time at Beacon Academy – aside from the injuries she and her team leader had. And since their mission had been cancelled for obvious reasons, the class schedule was the order of the day. Luckily they only missed the first lesson, which was history, one of Weiss' excellences. The rest of the morning would be combat class with Prof. Goodwitch. Because of their injuries, Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrha could not participate.

The first duel was held by Yang and some other student Weiss could not remember the name of. Naturally the blonde brawler stomped the poor guy into the ground – metaphorically - and used every opportunity to boast in front of everyone. The heiress assumed, Yang was trying to impress none other than Blake, and by the looks of her Faunus friend, it actually worked. Weiss let her thoughts go into very intimate speculations for a few seconds, before clearing her throat, while being slightly embarrassed about it. Hopefully nobody saw anything… she thought to herself. After criticizing Yang's boastfulness, praising the prowess of both students, even though the other guy seemed to be way behind the brawler, and glancing at Jaune for a brief moment, Prof. Goodwitch decided that he should fight next, in order to show his progress.

Thus, the following duel featured Jaune and Nora as his sparring partner. Weiss had to admit that his swordplay had improved over the last weeks, and wondered how he managed to make these jumps in performance in such a short period of time. Listening to Pyrrha cheering for Jaune, the heiress got an idea who might have helped "Vomit Boy" with his training. Comradeship at its finest, I suppose.

Even though Jaune did not win the duel against Nora, his performance was satisfactory to Prof. Goodwitch, let alone his team and his friends. Even Cardin shared a word of praise.

After receiving a call by the headmaster, Prof. Goodwitch delayed the next duel for some reason, looking at her wristwatch from time to time, while the students were supposed to analyze the recorded footage of their respective partner's last duels for errors in stance, areas for improvement and so on, discussing those topics with each other – most likely to keep them busy, while the Professor was waiting.

"…And here, you were – uh, Weiss?" Ruby poked the heiress in her left arm, who cringed in pain because of the impact – even as gentle, as it was. "Oh, oops…" Ruby said as apology.

"Ouch…" was the heiress' answer. "What is it?"

"You weren't listening," Ruby replied, and continued to show Weiss the flaw in her stance during her last fight against Jaune. Her balance point was too far back, and too high as well, which Jaune could have used to throw the heiress off her feet completely. To Weiss' surprise she could see that Jaune actually tried to do just that, and only her better reaction timing saved her that victory.

"Huh…" Weiss said after Ruby was finished, "So, he IS clever enough, he only lacks practical experience… I thought he was just plain bad at fighting."

"Nope, he's not."

"Anyway, we're supposed to talk about me, not him, which is what we did. Now's your turn, Ruby," Weiss exclaimed, picked up her Scroll, and wanted to start the recording, when suddenly the door of the combat class room was opened. Of course many heads were turned to the door, but what was seen standing there surprised everybody in the room, most of all Weiss herself. Erydias Grey, clad in her white armor, and wearing the black fedora on her head, entered the room after closing the door behind herself, and went up to Prof. Goodwitch.

"Ah, Miss Grey. The headmaster told me you were headed this way for an evaluation. This combat class is in its first semester. However, they are very talented fighters, and should be able to provide you with a sparring partner who is up to the task at hand."

Weiss looked to Ruby and she looked back at the heiress. "This. Is. Awesome." Ruby tried to be as quiet as possible, while her excitement was about to get the better of her. The heiress was excited herself, as probably every other student in the room was.

"Damn it, I already had mine!" Yang cursed, while Blake simply shook her head, smiled to herself, and put a hand on her lover's shoulder. There was some unrest in the class, while Prof. Goodwitch prepared the stage for the upcoming duel, ignoring it for the time being. The White Knight, however, looked at the students critically, one by one, arms crossed on front of her chest.

"You there," she eventually said, nodding to Cardin Winchester, "boots off the table. And feet."

Weiss looked at the young Atlesian man, who just did what Ms. Grey told – literally ordered – him to do. He even stood up without a word. After that, she simply flipped, and pointed towards the stage behind her. "Get yourself up there," she ordered while doing so.

Weiss felt uncomfortable again in Erydias' presence. This woman seemed to be able to intimidate people by simply looking at them in a certain way, using body language more than actual words. Afterwards the heiress noticed that the measuring systems were fully prepared for the upcoming duel, showing Cardin's portrait on the right side, and Erydias', with her fedora, on the left side. Both participants were taking their positions as Prof. Goodwitch spoke up.

"Students, I want you to watch this duel very closely. After that, we will analyze the performance of Miss. Grey here, and see how well trained she is." Having said that, the professor turned towards the stage, and addressed the duelists. "Begin!"

The next chapter: Evaluation

So, this has been in the pipeline for a long time, but now I present to you: The next chapter of 'The Outcast'.

Again, feel free to criticize, but do so in a constructive matter, please. The updates will come irregularly, as always, since life keeps me busy a lot.

I am sorry for the waiting time, and grateful for the patience.