Chapter Twenty-Seven: Embers.

The week that followed the attack on Vale was tense. People tried to return to a normal sense of life but with the aftermath staring them in face it was hard. Many of the buildings that had been affected were still structurally sound but with the clean up going slow it was a harsh reminder of how bad the attack could have been. There were a few buildings that had to be taken down due to the damage but they were just being carted out with the rubble.

An investigation into who had hijacked the 'Eisen-Krieger' had revealed that the White Fang had been behind that attack and not Atlas, but that did little to resolve the tensions that had sprung up between Vale and the northern kingdom. One of the biggest questions that was on the majority of people's minds was why was a General of the Wall in Vale? Why had James Ironwood come to their city with an Atlasian Battleship and then left that ship with a skeleton crew guarding it? And what had generated that beam that brought it down? Questions were prevalent but answers were scarce.

To add to the seemingly endless bad news, Mantel had erupted. The day after the attack on Vale the people of Mantel had stormed a government building taking control of it and holding the higher-level officials hostage. Pictures of the building painted the new as the people inside hung the flag of their Revolution out of windows and kept the Atlas military at bay. News of on going negotiations were the only sign that someone was trying to end it peacefully.

"Okay Weiss here's a question." Yang had asked one afternoon when Team RWBY was in their dorm. The blonde had her leg propped up on a pile of pillows, Velvet nearly had a coronary when they had carted the brawler into the infirmary, she had also ordered Yang to stay off her leg as much as possible since the metal had hit the bone but after a few stitches and a couple of bags of Aura boost had seen her back to her dorm before lunch the next day. "Why do some people call it Mantel while other's call it Atlas?"

Weiss leaned back in her chair as she backed away from her notes on her desk and spun her pencil idly around her fingers, "Well it depends on who you ask." She looked over to the blonde who gave her a blank stare back. With a sigh the Heiress shook her head in exasperation. "Mantel is the oldest Kingdom on Remnant, and it was also the Kingdom's original name. As time passed and more cities rose up within the Kingdom and more people came to the Kingdom they started to feel that they deserved their own Kingdom, and thus started the first wars. The original government of Mantel sought to keep the Kingdom whole while others tried to break away. Obviously the others failed and Mantel remained whole but every few years or some it would happen again but eventually it died out until Atlas was founded."

Weiss turned her gaze out the window as she continued, "The idea behind Atlas was for it to become the continuing world leader in industry, technology, and production. It was meant to be an entrepreneur's dream city where the government wouldn't step in a regulate it, where they were to push themselves to the limits of advancement. At first the city was fine, the people who resided in Atlas were fine with being part of Mantel but like all things history repeats itself but this time the people were smart about it. The claimed to be what's called a 'City State'."

"What's that?" Ruby asked from her position on the lower bunk, she had curled up shortly after returning to the dorm for a nap but had woken up to listen to Weiss.

With a smile Weiss brushed some of her wolf's hair away from her silver eyes, "A 'City State' is a sovereign city that claims its independence from its original Kingdom but still resides within the Kingdom's boarders." Seeing a hint of confusion cross Ruby's sliver eyes the Heiress clarified, "Think of it like this, if Patch was like it is now, completely self sustaining and governing but instead of being an island it was actually part of the mainland of Vale."

"Oh, so like Vale's government didn't have any effect on Patch?" Ruby asked cocking her head to the side, Weiss had to stop her chuckle as the picture of a puppy popped in her head again.

The Heiress nodded, "Yes Ruby exactly like that. Except for Atlas was never fully accepted as a City State. Instead Mantel's government just ignored their claims and continued on as if nothing was happening. So as time went on and Atlas grew in power and money the government started to shift itself to Atlas, which was beginning of it's down fall."

"Once the government was in their city the people of Atlas began work their way in and corrupt it from the inside." Weiss sighed and shook her head, "Essentially what happened was the people in power in Atlas started to see that the power of the Mantel government was taken away from them and given to them instead. Once that happened it was a slippery slope that slowly saw all of the actual power in the hands of corrupt businessmen and the government of Mantel being a mockery of what it was. You'll hear many people call Mantel a 'defunct state' and that it's Atlas that has the power. While those people aren't wrong, they also aren't completely right either. Atlas does hold most of the power they do not hold power over the military or the Hunters. But because Atlas holds the power to equip, maintain and train a military and Hunters Mantel can't use the military to take back the power it's lost."

"So is this what the Revolution is about?" Blake questioned from her spot beside Yang, "I mean it sounds like it but who's on who's side?"

Weiss shrugged, "Honestly I'm not sure. The Revolution is centered in Atlas so I suppose you could say that it's the people trying to take back the power from Atlas and give it back to Mantel but since Mantel is trying to prevent it it's really hard to say what's going on."

"That sounds awful." Yang shook her head, "The people are trying to help their government but the government is being forced into stopping them."

"That's politics." Weiss sighed, "The men in power don't want their power taken away and will do anything to make sure that they keep it. Honestly this couldn't have come at a worse time, with General Ironwood stuck here in Vale it becomes more likely that the Atlas officials will be able to pressure the other General's into action. He was the main voice of reason in the military and he always favored the people."

"Mantel sounds worse than Dragnaire." Ruby gave off a halfhearted chuckle. "At least there you know who's fighting who."

Weiss nodded in agreement, "In a way you're not wrong, in Dragnaire it's usually the people attempting a coup against the current government or a small militia attacking other small militias."

"And now their Grimm populations have grown so large that even those has stopped." Blake commented, she had talked to several of the fourth years that had just returned from their own missions do the far Kingdom.

"And that's another cause of their near constant state of war." Yang nodded, "Dragnaire has never been able to have an Academy to train Huntsman and Huntresses so they have to rely on hiring them from other Kingdoms."

Ruby curled in on herself slightly, "It just seems like all the bad things are happening at once." Her voice came out in a slight whine causing Weiss to go over to the small wolf and stroke her head to comfort her.

"The bad things were always happening," Weiss said as Ruby placed her head in the Heiress lap. "We're just more aware of them now because of where we are." The girl's lapsed into silence, as they all were lost in their own thoughts. After a few minutes Weiss sighed and tapped Ruby on the head softly getting the wolf's attention, "Ruby let's go get some fresh air before dinner. It will do us no good to just sit here and be sad about things we have no control over."

With a nod Ruby stood up and stretched as she looked over to her sister and the panther, "You want us to bring you something back or are you guys going to make your way there eventually?"

"We'll make our way there in a bit," Yang waved the wolf off, "I want to go to the infirmary and get cleared by Velvet before anything else. I know she said to take it easy but I'm getting bored." Both of the girls nodded and left leaving the other two alone. After a moment Yang looked over at Blake, "So you want to talk about it?"

Blake sighed as she closed her book, she knew that this conversation was coming. After the attack she had very briefly explained who was attacking her to Coco while the others understood right away. They also hadn't pressed her for much beyond her initial reaction of she was fine. "What do you want to know?"

Yang frowned slightly before taking Blake's hand and giving it a soft squeeze, "I know you said you were fine, but really Blake how are you feeling? You told us what he did to you, I have a hard time believing that you're just fine after seeing him."

"Honestly Yang I don't know what I feel." Blake closed her eyes as she leaned against the blonde, Yang's arms folded around her. "Right after the fight I really didn't feel much of anything, probably because of a slight case of shock and now, now I'm feeling too many things all at once." Yang nodded as Blake snuggled in closer, "I'm angry that I couldn't put up a better fight against him, I'm frustrated that I let his presence shake me, I'm confused as to why he was here and mostly I'm terrified."

"What?" Yang questioned as she pulled back slightly.

"Yang you don't know what he's capable of. He can find anyone's weakness and then use it against them to make them do what he want." Blake whispered, "That's how he got me to do everything he did, he knew he could get manipulate me through my parents legacy." Blake shuddered as she tried to keep her thoughts from slipping into the past, "If he realized by feelings for you, there is nothing that would stop him from trying to hurt or kill you."

"I'd like to see him try." Yang snorted.

Blake shook her head quickly, "No Yang he'd do it and not even blink. As strong as you are you'd not last a minute against him." She felt Yang pull back slightly and Blake looked up into her lilac eyes to see the confusion hanging in them, "Yang, Adam's style of fighting is not something you could survive against. It is fast, precise and extremely deadly. It is the exact opposite of your hard-hitting retaliation style. A hit from him is not something you could channel into your semblance. If you fought him you'd wind up either dead or seriously maimed." Blake buried her face into Yang's chest trying to keep the tears from falling, "I don't know what I would do if something like that happened to you."

Yang pulled Blake even closer and stroked her hair and placed light kissed between the panther's ears, "Hey, hey, it's okay Kitten. I'm not going to go anywhere, you're not going to lose me that easily." She cooed as she tried to comfort the crying girl. "It's alright to be scared but you don't need to hid it from me. If you're that scared then we can start working on ways to help ease that fear." Blake nodded as she pulled back slightly; Yang pulled her chin up and softly whipped away the tears before kissing her lips lightly. "We'll get through this Kitten, promise."

Ruby noticed something was off with Weiss the moment they left the dorm. Normally Weiss was quite and reserved but she always had a soft warm air about her, now however the air was retracted and distant. "Weiss?" The wolf called for her attention.

"Hmm?" Weiss responded, her thoughts still obviously distant. Ruby pouted a bit at her continued distance.

"What wrong?" Ruby asked as she stepped in front of the Heiress making sure she had her attention.

Weiss blinked several times before she frowned slightly, "Nothings wrong Ruby, I just have a lot on my mind." Ruby cocked her head to the side, which made Weiss smile as she brushed some stray hair out of the wolf's face. "It's just a lot of these events have had me thinking about my sister."

"Oh." Ruby nodded, she noticed the small frown return to the Heiress' lips. "Is that a bad thing?"

Weiss sighed as she shook her head, "It's just…" Weiss sighed as she took Ruby's hand and led her to a bench that looked out over the city near a large tree. "It's hard for me to think about her." Weiss continued once they were seated, the Heiress pulled Ruby so that the wolf's back was pressed up against her front, her slim arms encircling the younger girl's waist.

"I'm sorry." Ruby muttered.

"Dolt." Weiss sighed as she pressed her lips into the crimson lock, "There's nothing that you need to be sorry for. Just to many things have me thinking about her and for me it's a bit of a tough topic."

"We don't have to talk about her if you don't want to." Ruby replied as she settled back against her girlfriend.

Weiss shook her head, "No it's alright. As long as we don't go into depth I should be fine." With another sigh Weiss treaded a hand up into the wolf's hair, "I've told you about my family right?" Ruby nodded, "Well despite how cold and distant my father and mother are it was the exact opposite with Winter. Winter was the one bright spot in my childhood, she was always there for me, whether it was to talk or for a shoulder to cry on or for a word of encouragement, she was always there. I guess that's actually part of the big sister deal, to look out for their younger sister." Both girl's chuckled slightly at her words. "She was also the ideal Schnee or at least in the eyes of my father. Winter was always more politically savvy than I was, she could control her semblance much better than I ever could and she mastered it much faster too, her swordsmanship was always leagues above anything I could even imagine and as a Dust mage she could perform feats that never seemed possible."

"How old is she?" Rub asked leaning into Weiss' hand as the Heiress scratched at her scalp.

"She's ten years older than me." Weiss answered. "And even though she was in Atlas' Academies to become a Huntress she always came home to check on me. Even when she was in the Academy in her later years, she always made time for me." Weiss paused and Ruby felt the Heiress' heart beat slightly faster. "I admit part of me was jealous of her because she got to go to the Academies when I was kept at White Castle and trained through private tutors. Though now when I look back on it I can see why my father did that, he was afraid I'd never live up to Winter's example and hurt the Schnee name."

"My father loved to compare us and show me that Winter was always better. And deep down I wanted to hate her for that but I couldn't because she was my lifeline from my parents." Weiss buried her face in Ruby's hair and tightened her arms around the wolf's waist. "She was the only reason I could push myself some days. She motivated me to show my father he was wrong. She's the reason I came here."

"She sound's amazing." Ruby whispered as she pulled one of Weiss' hands up and lightly kissed the back of it.

"Just like your mother." Weiss smiled and pressed a kiss into Ruby's neck. "And just like you're mother I miss her very much."

Ruby stiffened at the Heiress words, "Oh, I'm sorry…"

Weiss shook her head, "It's fine it's not your fault." The Heiress voice was soft and Ruby could feel a few tears leak out onto her neck. "Five years ago there was an… accident and it changed her. My father pulled her away from the front of the SDC and forced me into her spot. He and mother stopped talking about her and removed any real evidence that she had ever existed, very few people actually know about Winter because of them."

"But she's alive right?" Ruby asked turning so that she could rest her head against Weiss' chest. Weiss nodded but it was very hesitant. "Well then when you take over the SDC you can bring her back."

"If only it was that simple." Weiss muttered darkly. "I'm not even sure if the SDC will be standing at the end of this."

"What do you mean?" Ruby questioned.

Weiss sighed and pulled back slightly to look up at the sky, "Atlas is in chaos right now. The people are revolting and aiming to bring down the system, a system set up and overseen by my father." A small grimace pulled at the Heiress' lips, "If the people find out and are able to actually topple the system, they may just take the SDC down with it. Which I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not."

Ruby frowned at that, "Why do you say that?"

"Because without the SDC much of the prejudice and hate that is so prevalent in Mantel wouldn't exist but if the SDC wasn't there then I could never correct everything that my family has done." Weiss sighed, "If I don't have the power that the SDC can weld as a company then I'll never be able to prove that the Schnee name is not another synonym for hate."

"Oh." Ruby nodded. After a few minutes of silence Ruby looked up at Weiss, the Heiress' ice blue eyes were distant and staring off into space again and a small frown pulled at her lips. With a quick scan with her ears Ruby was sure they were quite alone and pulled herself up into the white haired girl's lap cause her blink once before the wolf latched onto her lips.

Weiss let out a soft gasp before closing her eyes and returning the kiss with a fever. With a swipe of her tongue Ruby entered the Heiress mouth tasting the sweet spark of mint as Weiss' tongue pushed back against hers. Ruby moaned as Weiss bit gently on her lower lip and pulled back slightly. As the wolf followed her back Ruby could feel her hands migrate up Weiss sides giving small squeezes every once and a while, she could also feel the Heiress' return the favor as the heat began to build between them.

Steeling herself Ruby slowly let her hands drift towards the Heiress' chest, there was no rebuke from the girl so the wolf continued. Weiss let out a soft moan as Ruby cupped her right breast and gave a gentle squeeze to the soft mound through the fabric.

"R-Ruby." Weiss gasped as she pulled back, her cheeks flaming red as she quickly looked around, "We-we're in public." Ruby nodded but noted that the Heiress didn't make a move to remove her hand. "There is a decent time and place for such things."

"Oh and were would such places be?" Ruby asked as she pecked at the Heiress' lips.

Weiss blushed harder as she finally moved Ruby's hand from her chest, "Well Miss Rose if you need to ask then maybe you're too young for such things." Her tone had taken on a haughty note as she narrowed her eyes at her wolf.

"Awwww." Ruby pouted jutting her bottom lip out and making her eyes go wide, ears dipping slightly. She knew what she was doing, Ruby Rose was using her deadliest weapon according to Yang, she was using her puppy pout.

Weiss took in the look with pure horror, she knew Ruby was cute but now, now the wolf in her lap was coma inducingly cute. How could she get her eyes so wide and make her lip quiver just so? Weiss was looking into the face of her greatest weakness and she had no idea what to do to make it stop. "R-R-Ruby stop that right now." Weiss clamped her eyes shut hoping that blocking out the sight would help, only to hear a small whimpering whine come from the wolf. She could feel Ruby push against her cheek slightly with nose just as another whine came out. "R-Ruby Rose stop that this instant." Weiss cracked open one eye just to see the pout still in full force.

But only for a moment longer before Ruby's ears perked up and her tail swayed happily behind her, a large smile on her face. "Okay Weiss."

Weiss sighed as she fully opened her eyes, "Never, and I mean never do that face again." She narrowed her eyes at the wolf making the girl dip her head sheepishly. With a shake of her head Weiss kissed Ruby's lips and smiled at the wolf. "How did Yang ever survive growing up with you if you can pull off that look?"

Ruby smiled and winked at the Heiress, "Well I may have used that look when I really wanted cookies but I couldn't use it all the time cause then she would have gotten use to it. Dad fell for it even worse. Actually the only one in my family who wasn't fazed by that look was Mom. She thought it was cute but she would never fall for it." Ruby frowned before shrugging, "Might have been a Mom resistant power."

"Probably." Weiss shook her head in agreement. "You should probably have that registered as a deadly weapon."

Ruby laughed, "You know Yang says the same thing. Though I don't know how effective it would be against Grimm."

"You'd never know." Weiss smiled, "Now come on let's go get dinner." Ruby nodded and hopped off of the Heiress to head to the cafeteria.

After they ate Ruby and Weiss walked around the campus some more enjoying the cool nigh air. "So what do you think brought down the Battleship?" Ruby asked as she bounced beside the Heiress.

"I still have no idea." Weiss sighed, "Whatever it was has to be extremely powerful to generate a beam that has the intensity to blast through a Battleships armor. Atlasian Battleships can withstand an tremendous amount of punishment before weakening."

Ruby was about to respond when she hit what felt like a solid wall knocking her to the ground. "Oww." Ruby whined as she felt Weiss stop beside her.

"Ruby are you alright?" Weiss asked.

"I'm fine." Ruby muttered as she looked up at whatever she had hit. A girl with bright orange hair and bright green eyes stared down at her with a curious look.

"Are you unharmed?" The girl asked, her voice held notes of curiosity as she stared down at Ruby.

"Yeah I'm good." Ruby nodded as she stood up as she breathed in, the scents of oil and metal filled her nose causing her to blink at the girl. Her curious look had morphed into an overly wide smile.

"That is most wonderful to hear." The girl said as she nodded, Ruby turned her ears towards the girl and was confused at what she heard. Instead of a heartbeat and breathing the wolf heard the whirling of gears and humming of wires. The oddness of the girl sent the wolf on edge. Keeping her eyes on the girl Ruby stepped slightly in front of Weiss her hand slowly going towards Crescent Rose. "I did not mean to knock you down. I was looking at the scenery and did not see you."

"No it's my fault." Ruby replied, she decided to not draw her weapon unless the girl did something. "I wasn't watching where I was going."

Weiss sighed from behind Ruby, "I've told you, you need to pay attention." The Heiress had noticed a slight change in her wolf but didn't know what had caused it.

"Sorry Weiss." Ruby muttered, "So are you new here?"

"Yes." The girl nodded, again the sound of whirling gears was caught by Ruby's hearing. "I came with General Ironwood to Vale. A shame our trip had been interrupted."

"The General brought you?" Weiss asked, why would he bring a girl to Vale with him.

"Yes. My father thought it would be good for me to see more Kingdoms so he asked General Ironwood to bring me to Vale." The girl nodded again as she smiled, "It is such a lovely place."

"Oh well I'm glad you're enjoying your stay." Ruby nodded, if this girl was with the General maybe she wasn't bad. "Will you be staying at Beacon while you're here."

"Indeed." The girl nodded, "Headmaster Ozpin as provided me with a room while I am here. I do hope that I can attend a few classes while I am here too. It would be most exhilarating to see what is taught here."

"Oh well we might see you then." Ruby nodded, "I'm Ruby Rose." The wolf extended her hand to the girl.

"Salutations Ruby Rose." The girl smiled a bit to widely again as she took Ruby's hand, again the wolf felt something was very wrong, the girl's hand wasn't warm it was cold. "My name is Penny Polendina. It is also a pleasure to meet you Miss Weiss Schnee."

Weiss was slightly taken back as she studied the girl, sure Ruby had said her name so it shouldn't be too surprising that the girl, Penny, knew who she was but there was something that started to creep up in the back of her mind. Something that whispered that this girl was familiar, but she couldn't place how. "Yes it's nice to meet you too." The girl's smile widen causing a shiver to run up Weiss spine, something was off with this girl. "Well come on Ruby we need to get going, Yang and Blake will be wondering where we are."

"Right," Ruby nodded, "Well, see ya around Penny."

"Yes. I will see you around." Penny nodded.

Ruby and Weiss quickly walked away from the strange girl, each of them slightly unnerved by her. After she was sure they were well away from her Weiss finally spoke up. "Did she seem a bit… off to you."

"Yeah." Ruby nodded. She was about to tell Weiss what she had smelled and heard when her scroll went off. Stopping Ruby pulled out the device and looked down at it. "I've been called to the Headmaster's office for a briefing."

A/N: And there we have some information! Hope the whole Atlas/Mantel thing makes sense, if not sorry. The mystery of Winter deepens but is slowly being resolved. Penny makes contact with our white rose duo! What's her objective and why was she sent to Vale? And why was Ruby called to Ozpin's office? Find out next time on Grimm Reality!... I really need to stop watching 90s anime when I type...

With that: A continuous thanks to all of you, if you feel up to it say what's on your mind, and may you have a fun filled day that is full of smiles.