"Are you alright?"

"Yes," Weiss lied.

Blake flattened her ears and sighed. That wasn't where they needed to start this.

"I'm more alright than most of us, but considering everything that's happened during the past few days, let alone year, I doubt any of us are particularly stable and I'm counting the non-Exalted among that," Weiss said as she rummaged through the boxes and bags under the bed. For all that she acted like a complete mess most of the time, Yang was actually much more organized than either Blake or Ruby; it didn't take long to find one of the 'good booze' boxes.

"Then why are you doing this?"

"First, I am incredibly annoyed at them and wasn't able to control my outburst. This is giving me enough time to process it and regulate." Weiss pulled the box out and considered the mostly empty bottle. "Second, if I'm being affected this badly then everyone else will need not only a break, but also some form of stress relief."

"Mmh hmm." Blake nodded, "And third?"

Weiss sighed, "Third is… that if I appear to be less in control of what's happening and breaking down, it won't feel as strange for others to. I don't think we can drink enough to hit inebriation easily, so I won't actually lose control of the meeting, but it will seem less tense."

Blake chewed on her lip for a second while Weiss kept looking. "You're sure that's what you want to do? After all of the shouting about you pulling stunts, doing another one? I think we can all handle this without excuses."

"It's hard not to." Weiss whispered and dropped her head so it rested on the side of the bed. "Just by looking at the room and thinking for a moment, I can see ways to strengthen or ease the amount of tension that everyone's feeling. If I second guessed and confirmed everything that I might conceivably do, then I would never be able to act at all."

Blake opened her mouth, but didn't respond. What could she say about that considering how much she'd already done? After far too long a wait, she laid a hand on Weiss' shoulder and crouched down to hug her. "That sounds hard."

"We're all working through it. I'm certain that there's something you can do. Something which is as intuitive as this is to me, engineering is to Ruby, or physics breaking nonsense is to Yang."

"I don't. It's all too-"

"Blake," Weiss turned so their foreheads were touching and looked up at, eyes sharp despite the shimmer of tears. "You can tell when I lie; you should turn that on yourself. I don't believe for a moment that there isn't something you realize that the rest of us are blind to. Yet another piece of knowledge that might be the key to solving all of this."

Blake grimaced and tried to turn away, but Weiss caught her chin. "I… I'm like Yang. It's all how to hurt, steal, and kill. Nothing that I should be-"

"How to steal…" Weiss cut her off with a finger on her lips. "How to transport more weight than a dedicated transport vehicle by means of something unusual."

"I just cut a rift throu…" The word was on the tip of her tongue, something she had touched but didn't know. How could you describe the absence of something… of anything? She spent several seconds trying to find the explanation when Weiss shifted and the heat creeping to her face trapped any thoughts.

"Continue."

Blake had lost the thought but… she needed to say something. Anything. "Cut a rift from here to… somewhere else and shove things through it."

Close enough.

"Is this the same way you vanish from everyone's sight?"

"Not really, that's more like…" Blake cringed. "Vanishing is like what you and Ruby do… Or maybe not… Well, it's like how people forget Ruby sort of, but not entirely…"

Weiss took a deep breath and stared in a way that forced Blake to turn away, "Think about it. What and where you interact with, how it feels and what about it isn't the same as normal life."

"I…"

Weiss waited, eyes boring into Blake's own no matter how much she knew that Weiss didn't mean to make so much pressure appear on her shoulders. There was something Weiss thought she knew that could save countless lives, but she couldn't explain any of it. A small mote, a kernel of darkness and despair formed as she failed to-

"Blake-" Weiss' voice forced its way through any other thoughts. "This is not a judgment or an admonishment. You are as talented and incredible as the rest of us. Your ability to avoid drawing on the more unethical parts of your abilities is unusual and unparalleled even within team RWBY. I doubt that anything you would be willing to do would cause any concerns."

She couldn't look at Weiss anymore.

"Explain when you know, until then I'll continue working with what I can."

How long would that work last?

Blake didn't ask the question, though it sat at the tip of her tongue.

Ruby and Weiss had taken on the burdens of the entire team. Despite how much she'd stolen, it was those two who the other Kingdoms cursed. No matter how much she'd kept track of what resources they had, she shoved the responsibility of what to do with it onto her teammates who were willing to fall on the sword.

They had a city… no, all of Remnant to care about… What could even be enough? It was too much for one person to manage. It was too much for four!

"How can we do this?" The question slipped from her lips as the other was obvious. 'who could handle so much responsibility?'

"We can do better than those who came before… No more, no less." Weiss finally pulled one of Yang's favorites from under the bed. A bottle of rum from the Menagerie.

Blake knew the brewer and what they did with the money.

A white mask with red eyes.

A blade which took the lives of those who hurt her people.

Or…

A book that convinced people they were wrong…

Was that better? Yes, it had to be.

What more could she do?

What more should she do?


Blake followed Weiss as she returned to the meeting. There was so much they still needed to decide on and no time to do so.

She took her position on the couch and looked around. Emerald was still sulking in the corner. Ren and Nora were whispering to each other loudly enough that Blake needed to try to not listen in. Penny and Ruby were talking about some engineering something. Weiss was updating the board and… Wings beats told her where Yang was right before she and Pyrrha flew back in. Yang hopped over the back of the couch, head landing on Blake's lap again.

"Have a good flight?"

Yang thought for a moment, "Yes."

Blake considered whether or not she'd have the time to question that.

"Ahem," Weiss called attention to herself right after taking a drink. "We only have so many hours left and a lot to discuss."

Penny passed a paper to Ruby and shuffled back to her chair.

"To finish our prior discussion. I nominate a veto for Penny so long as the topic is not directly related to Atlas." Weiss slid the bottle to Ruby, who picked it up, took one sniff, and passed it along.

"I…" Penny passed the bottle, pausing for a moment. "I think that is fair. I'm not able to be objective about my home."

The motion passed without issue and Ruby stepped next to the board. "Alright, so… Let's try to not have something like that happen again. Since we're going out of order, how about… Well this is in our original order, but trade policy?"

The bottle wound up in Ren's lap after Nora just took a drink from it. "Why are we determining this? Do any of us have any skill in that?"

"Weiss does." Team RWBY said simultaneously.

"I've been handling a good amount of the SDC's operations and have a proposal for what we offer to each of the kingdoms that everyone can read." Weiss pulled out the document and no one took her up on checking it.

"All in favor of this and explaining it to team veto being Weiss' problem?" Ruby started by raising her hand.

"I-" A stab of guilt made Blake pipe up. "I can try learning it to help. Have more than one person working on it too…"

"Blake and Weiss' problem then?" Ruby kept her hand raised and the rest of the room joined in.

"Great! After that is how we're going to handle relationships with the kingdoms." Ruby took a deep breath. "They're mostly not willing to talk to anyone from team RWBY directly, so"-she drew the word out for far too long-"looking for volunteers to take point on that."

"Can't the mayor do it?" Nora said.

"He can do some, but…"

"We already have other cities asking to join our kingdom." Weiss finished Ruby's statement. "We'll eventually need official ambassadors, but we don't have many people we can trust with that position just yet."

Blake watched everyone's reactions. No one was happy to take on such an important, stressful, and difficult role. Especially since they all, minus Emerald, were training to be Hunters, not diplomates.

Eventually the silence grew strong enough that someone impulsive broke. Not the best way to make a decision, though they didn't have many better ones.

"Sure, I guess!" Nora raised her hand and was swiftly voted in.

"Thanks, Nora." Ruby chuckled sheepishly and put Nora's symbol in the column. "And… next is…"

"Cinder," Weiss folded her hands in front of her and took a deep breath. "A problematic topic for many reasons."

Weiss conjured an image of her from silver light. "The woman we fought at the docks, a servant of Salem, and a Solar. She's been stuck in the basement of Beacon since we left."

"What are you proposing we do?" Ren asked.

"Well," Ruby stepped forward. "I think the safest thing would be for me and Blake to sneak in and kill her. You've all seen how fast we got better. She was already able to fight us and that's only going to get worse."

"Are you sure you can? Isn't that a huge risk?"

"Yeah, but we're going to have to at some point anyway. From looking at the future, she'll still be there in a few weeks so whatever Vale's planning to do isn't going to work. It's going to take us and… no offense, but Yang isn't exactly good at sneaking and Weiss has already lost to her. If we take her by surprise, I'm pretty sure we'll be fine."

Blake looked over at Emerald, who had decided the lights outside were more important to watch. "You don't think you could work with her too? It's just kill her because she's an enemy."

"Emerald," Weiss' voice had an edge pointed at Emerald. "Cinder has tried to kill all of us at some point and did kill both Professor Ozpin and Goodwitch. She's the enemy."

"So have I!"

"And you're still here more as a prisoner in need of deprogramming than a free person. If you had Cinder's power, you wouldn't be because we wouldn't be able to keep her contained safely."

"You could try talking to her…"

"Look, I don't like it either, but we already stepped onto this path." Ruby picked up where she'd left off. "Some Anathe- Exalted will need to be taken out, not all of them and I hope very few, but if there's any who have to be stopped is the person who's already serving Salem and has killed I don't know how many people."

"You've killed more." Emerald muttered under her breath.

"Yeah… probably…" Ruby got very quiet. "And that's something I need to live with. Now, I wish there was another way, but I couldn't find one. I'm also pretty sure that in my place Cinder would've done much worse."

Blake didn't know what she could say to that.

"Sooo…" Nora spoke up next. "Why are we talking about this then? Like, it sounds like we already know what we need to."

"Because Vale doesn't want us in their kingdom." Weiss turned the image into a map. "After the last call we have highly provisional access to Atlas, but none of the others. If we do this, then we're going to be violating another kingdom's sovereignty right after we made peace with them. It'll also mean that Ruby, who's in control of our Grimm and defense against invisible attacks, will have to leave our base vulnerable."

"So… Ruby's for and Weiss is against?"

Both nodded.

"I… I think it's probably worth-" As Nora continued ruby brightened up.

"No," Ren cut in. "They'll know who did this and we have no idea when more Grimm will appear. I'll veto this right now to save us time."

"But-" Ruby tried to start talking, then sucked in a breath. "Okay, vetoed. Off the table… I think this is going to make things worse, but… But we're going to move on. Next topic… demons."

Blake closed her eyes, ready for a very long talk that she didn't have any real opinions about besides trusting Weiss and Yang.

"Is no more an option?" Yang muttered. "The bugs did good, but…"

"There's information that we have no other sources for. I've been trying to figure out how to break into this 'second circle of sorcery' without any real luck. From one of the demons, there are tutors who could be summoned to say nothing of what calling more hands to help build would do." Weiss had another pour of the bottle. "I understand that no one here likes it, but we don't have many options."

"You trust what they tell you?" Ren shifted in his seat, the chair creaking.

"I trust what Blake can verify that they tell me."

"I don't like it."

"I didn't expect you to." Weiss paused for a moment. "But, that's not the real question. Does anyone have a good reason for us to stop or is calling on more going to be vetoed?"

"What are you going to do about the cults?"

Blake winced and Yang shifted. That was another one that would be a problem.

"Please make them stop," Ruby begged. "I've tried, but they forget it's me who said to stop worshiping me every time."

"I just found out there was one for me and don't have any particular need for it," Weiss said.

"Mmph," Blake made a couple of noises and prodded Yang's side.

"Okay, guys, I know this is a rough topic, but these are people we're talking about. We didn't come here and set up shop, they were already worshiping us and we just kind of walked into it." Yang stood up and addressed the room… Mostly Ren and Nora. "You two have a lot of damage around that and I don't blame you. Give me a chance to explain our situation though."

Neither Ren nor Nora said anything.

"First, I… need mine to not do other, worse things. That demon shouting at me will lay off after I give some sort of sermon, even if that's just telling them to go party. Will this help the others? I really don't know, but I doubt it'd hurt."

No response.

"Second, they make us stronger. My aura was coming back faster than ever and it took a long time to figure out why. It's being worshiped and I can tell there's more power sitting under the surface that I've ignored." Yang took a deep breath and looked at the window. "We've been given power by the gods and it responds to that. I think that we could do a lot of good if we accepted that instead of running."

"I… support Yang in this thought," Pyrrha hesitated slightly. "How faith is handled in different regions is vastly different, but people find their gods however they will and it brings a lot of strength to have that acknowledged."

"Also, I'm pretty sure every person we draw to us is one less who'll go to Salem." Yang dropped the other knowledge bomb that they'd been holding. "I'm not sure how much the rest of you know about the Grimm cults, but we're run into a few already."

Ren closed his eyes and sat for a while. "I want to veto this idea. I'm not capable of being objective about the top-"

"Then I will because I'm not going to be objective!" Nora jumped in. "No proshp… prophetilimina… expanding. Yang needs hers to not go crazy and I hate that. I can't just say make yourself crazy, but no, no trying to get more people in."

Yang's wings tensed like she was about to lept at Nora, but she sat back down instead. "Okay…"

"Bringing us back around to demons," Weiss called attention to herself. "My proposal is we seek knowledge with Blake, for validation; Yang, for disposal of any who prove troublesome; and one of our vetoes, to say stop in the event of an issue, present for all summonings."

A very grumbled group voted in favor and Weiss started erasing the board.

"Actually," Yang stopped them from leaving. "I have a proposal of my own."

Ruby gave her a thumbs up.

"The past month sucked. People, and I'm including all of us in this, need fun in their lives. It'll delay some of what we wanted to build, but I think we need to actually celebrate getting through this and give everyone a hope for the future. We take what resources we have, the extra food, the ruins to rebuild… all of the red and black Grimm… and throw a Moonless Festival that'll put Vale's to shame!"

Weiss sighed, "You are aware that Atlas' traditions don't call for a massive party, but instead a personal and intimate week with those who matter."

"I bet, I can get more people coming to whatever I put on than you would."

Weiss threw a withering glare at Yang, "I know that this is mostly to help your own psyche… If you and Blake join me for one night of Atlesian solitude, then I'll accept."

"Deal."

Blake let out the breath she was holding. They didn't explode.

Now there was only a ton of work to do.


"That's all of your treaty?" Kali flipped back to the first page of the agreement in front of her. It was only forty pages, seven of which were spent defining terms. "Frankly, I expected a novella."

"You'll have to wait a bit before Blake publishes one of those," Weiss Schnee smiled from across the table, teeth pointed every bit as much as many from the Menagerie. "Assuming she ever does."

"Hopefully it will be better than the books she thought I didn't know about." Kali sighed. Finding her daughter's hidden stash was something she would have loved to do in front of her. Maybe she could have them wrapped up on Blake's bed when she visited. "It will make for an easier explanation even if some of these terms are…"

She couldn't quite pick the right word for it.

"Generous?" Weiss supplied.

"No. Well, yes." Kali couldn't deny that part. "So generous that it feels like there should be a trap that I'm missing when I look through them. Like, here…"

She pointed to one of the stranger parts. A region of their choice would have an 'Essence Plant' built with an eight hundred megawatt capacity, along with inspections for how to operate it. They would come by to make repairs twice per year for ten years or in the event of emergency.

"I'm not entirely sure what this would entail even if it does sound like a very generous offer, especially considering that you're asking for only two tons of Orichalcum and Moonsilver to be delivered over those same years. While that is a hefty amount of material, it hardly compares to the price. So, I have to ask, what else are you getting out of this?"

"This would be providing a power source similar to our own, that only Ruby or Yang is truly capable of servicing at this time. We don't have many resources to offer besides information and construction that is impossible for anyone besides them to perform. While generous, there are two main reasons for the generosity.

First, and I cannot overstate this, you came to our aid in this time of need. More so than any of the other Kingdoms, the Menagerie took a risk to help and we want to reward this however we can. Secondly, we want this technology to be in other places. If you have to sell it as such, call it an investment. We're the only ones capable of it right now and I'm confident that when you see how much better this is than current power plants, you'll be asking for even more."

Kali nodded. "We were unwelcome in human lands before, we know what it's like to be left on your own."

"Regardless of the reason, you still came." Weiss paused for a moment." Though, that is something I was curious about. Everyone, even the Menagerie, has participated in hunting Anathema before. Why the change of heart?"

"I would be lying if I denied that my daughter wasn't part of it, but the reasons do go deeper." Kali took a sip of her tea, musing, "Many Faunus believe that the reason we've been so hated is that humanity fears what we're capable of. The Silver Brotherhood has done everything they can to protect 'the best of us'. They fail, but the Menagerie as a whole didn't take part in these battles as willingly as the other Kingdoms would have you believe. We know that being openly accepting would simply mean another war and the loss of our freedom, so we fight, but there's a lot that can be done to stall."

Kali chuckled to herself.

"And, since Mistral thinks we're too stupid or incompetent to succeed on our own, they handle the dangerous, dirty work for us. Their guilds are responsible for more of those hunts than my own people, even if we do supply them with information."

Weiss nodded. "Why exert the effort when they would step in no matter what you did."

"Precisely."

"We're almost certainly going to be the new refuge for that."

"And we do not have any problem with this so long as any problems are also yours to fix."

Weiss nodded again, then moved the agreement to the side. "Repairing our own damages is the least we can do."

"The least you could do?" Kali said, "Is that as the leader of a new kingdom or also as yourself."

"Both, though one is harder than the other. My family has caused a lot of hardship that will take years to fix."

Kali nodded, "You in particular are a bit of a controversy. The Brotherhood cannot agree on whether or not they should reach out to a Schnee, let alone the rest of the Menagerie."

"I'm not certain I would accept their offer if it came. I'd rather prove myself trustworthy through my own actions than the color of my Aura."

"Well said, though I'm surprised you need as much Dust as this treaty indicates. I figured that would be solved."

"My responsibilities to the SDC and my responsibilities here are separate, though, I'm also no longer as in control of the company's operations as I had been. Atlas has laws about foreign dignitaries being in leadership positions in their companies. There's also the issue of the anti-Anathema laws, but we're working on those." Weiss took a sip of her own tea.

"That's another part I'm curious about. What will change in that regard?"

"We can't control what the kingdoms will do, but we have an open offer of asylum to any who would flee them. Those who come in as criminals will be judged by us and any sentence determined based on what happened."

"And what of yourselves? Are you going to hold the damage done to get here?"

A soft laugh and the bearing of fangs, "Oh no, the actions we took while at war and those which Atlas high command did will stand without additional punishment. If someone else shows up tomorrow and replicates either Ruby's or Yang's actions, they won't stand."

Kali licked her lips, "A bit hypocritical that."

Weiss shrugged. "It's the prerogative of victory and the nature of the beast. By all accounts, we should be demanding reparations for damage done, yet instead we've made less generous offers to the other kingdoms. It will in no way pay for the lives lost and money spent, but none of that would have happened if they'd let us be in the first place."

"Very, very interesting. I'll let the Brotherhood know." Kali pushed the document aside. "But, there is something else I need to know."

Weiss raised an eyebrow.

"Just what has my daughter been up to?"

The rest of the meeting was simple gossip. She left Weiss with the names of a few books to make sure to pick up.


A/N: Barely making it in before the finish line. I had this chapter mostly ready for several months, but still aren't happy with it. Figuring out how to get out of the corners I've written myself into has been a challenge.

Certainly, ideas and plot points I'd thought up four or five years ago don't make as much sense any more. The die's been cast though and if I want to finish up my largest writing project, I might just need to trust that the characters I've build up in my mind will make progress in interesting ways.

Anyway, happy holidays all! I hope I'll be faster with the next one, but can make no promises.