The Coming Storm.

A snow storm appears at Brunswick Farms, making visibility nigh difficult. A wind howling is heard.

Ruby sighs "I don't get it. The empty towns I've passed through were all damaged or unfinished. But this place looks... fine".

Team RWBY, Lucina, Severa, Qrow, Oscar, and Maria arrive at the porch of a residence. Other than some minor broken stuff caused by the cold and strong wind, the farm looked mostly in tact, like someone could still be living here.

Weiss is shivering as she wraps her arms around her to keep herself warm "Maybe everyone left in a hurry. Before things took a turn?".

Qrow tries to open the door, only to notice it was locked "Hmm. Stay on guard".

He kicks the door open, everyone proceeds forward with their weapons drawn. They cautiously look around the place, ready in case any grimm had managed to sneak inside.

"Close the door already! It's cold enough in here as it is" Maria walks into the house. Afterwards, Blake and Oscar push a nearby drawer to block the door.

"I saw a chimney from the outside. Maybe we could get a fire going?" Blake suggested.

Weiss nods in agreement "Please. I'll look for some blankets".

"Yang, go with her" Qrow ordered.

Ruby lingers by the entrance hall for the bit while the others look around. She could feel that something was wrong. There was still so much stuff left. Even if this place was abandoned in a hurry, surely there would be time to grab something... And given the lack of damage and the door was even locked, whatever caused the abandonment of this place wasn't to dangerous... so where is everyone?

Oscar can be heard opening a door "Looks like a study. Or, a library?".

Ruby walks forward to notice a group of pictures on the wall of the family that owns Brunswick Farms. This only added to her suspicion, someone was clearly still living here, and yet the house was as silent as a grave.

Blake walks up next to her "What do you think?".

"Something doesn't feel right" Ruby answered.

Severa walks up "Yeah... it's like a ghost house. But other than the cold, it still looks good enough to live in".

Blake nods in agreement "Let's look for some-".

Suddenly, a high-pitched scream is heard, Ruby knew right away who it was "Weiss!".

Ruby, Severa and Blake head up the stairs and run into the room Yang and Weiss were in. Qrow also arrives. They look on the bed to see a pair of decomposing corpses...


A fire is burning in the fireplace. Weiss watches it, still shaken from what she saw earlier. Blake wraps a blanket around Weiss before sitting on the couch Yang is on. The group hears the door open and close, and Qrow walks back in brushing snow off himself.

"It's the same in every house" He said in a somber tone.

"What?" Yang asked.

"Bodies. Every bed in every home. It's like the whole estate just went to sleep and never woke up" Qrow explained.

"Like this place wasn't creepy enough..." Severa said.

"Then we're not staying here, right?" Weiss asked, clearly wanting to leave, and no one could blame her.

Qrow walks over to the fireplace to warm up "We don't have a choice. Storm outside's only getting worse. We'd freeze to death before we made it anywhere".

"Well, might as well get comfortable" Maria said as she walks over to a bookshelf, it was amazing how unaffected she seemed to be by the whole thing.

Yang almost scoffed "Yeah, fat chance".

"Okay, then, let's do something. If this place wasn't abandoned it might still have supplies we could use" Ruby said.

"Hey, yeah. Maybe even a car" Oscar added.

Qrow stands up "I'll do another sweep of the grounds. No one else goes anywhere alone".

"Yang and I can search the other buildings for vehicles" Blake said.

Yang looked annoyed "Fine, whatever gets me out of this house".

"I'll go with them" Severa said.

Severa, Yang and Blake leave, with Ruby moving the drawer to let them exit. Afterwards, Ruby looks over to see Weiss at the doorway to the living room with a melancholic look on her face.

"Food always makes me feel better" Ruby said before she chuckles nervously "Just saying".

"Right..." Weiss said.

Ruby looked at Lucina who was uncomfortably silent "Hey Lucina... want to help us look for food?".

Lucina looks at her for a moment before she sighs "Ok...".

She, Ruby and Weiss leave the room, leaving Oscar and Maria alone together.

"I'll tell you what. You keep that fire fed..." Maria said as she finds a book with an "I" on the cover "And I'll find us a story to read before bed".

Maria sits back down on the couch and begins reading while Oscar sighs.


Outside, Severa, Blake and Yang walk through the snowstorm toward a nearby shed. They enter it and find rows of shelves full of supplies on it and a tractor.

Blake looks at the tractor "Something tells me that's not street legal".

"And even if it was, it would take forever to get anywhere on it" Severa said.

The three of them continue walking through the shed.

"What do you think happened here?" Yang asked.

"There's that well in the square. Maybe water contamination?" Blake guessed.

"Yeah, maybe" Yang stops and puts a hand on her forehead.

Blake looked concerned "Hey, are you okay?".

"Yeah... I mean, no. But, I don't know. I'm just tired" Yang answered.

"Yeah" Blake agreed, feeling tired herself.

"Tell me about it... I have not felt this exhausted for a long time" Severa said while rubbing her face.

"Will you be alright?" Blake asked.

"I'm sure it's nothing a little a sleep can't fix... a hot shower would be nice too, but I doubt that one is an option" Severa said, she would kill for a hot shower... and maybe even have Blake join her... this made her blush.

"Something the matter?" Blake asked.

"N-Nothing. Nothing at all" Severa said.

Yang couldn't help but to smile for a second, knowing exactly why Severa was blushing, she continues walking forward and noticed something "Hey, I found something".

She sees a flatbed trailer next to a window. Through the window, Yang sees a figure of Adam unsheathing his sword. Yang gasps and reels back. Blake and Severa runs up to her.

"What is it?" Blake asked as Severa looked ready to pull out her weapon.

"I..." Yang looks back outside and sees a tree in the place where Adam stood, she sighs "I was just seeing things. I'm sorry. I still get flashes from that night".

Blake and Severa sees Yang's flesh hand shaking uncontrollably before she composes herself.

"Do you think Adam's still out there?" Yang asked.

"I don't know. If he went back to the White Fang there would have been serious consequences. But, he never really liked people telling him what to do. Adam's strong, but his real power comes from control. He used to get in my head, make me feel small. But now I see he just wanted to pull me down to his size" Blake explained.

Severa touched her eye patch "I lost an eye because of him... And he caused us all so much pain... part of me hope I never see him again... while another part of hopes he does show up... so I can have some payback".

"Yeah..." Yang said.

Blake grasps "Yang's prosthetic hand "Hey, I'm not leaving. And if we ever see him again, I promise I'll be there" The three share a smile "And I'll protect you".

At this, Yang's eyes widen and her expression turns into a frown "What?".

Blake looked oblivious "What?".

There was an Awkward silence before Yang pulls her hand away "Forget it. Let's just head back".

Blake looked at the trailer "But what about-".

"We're fine. We can hook that flatbed up to Bumblebee in the morning. Should carry everyone. Mission accomplished" Yang walks away while Blake looks down sadly.

Severa puts a hand on Blake's shoulder "Don't take it to hard, Blake. It's just that Yang has spent so much of her life being strong and confident... But after what happened at Beacon, she felt weaker than she's ever felt before... And she hates feeling weak, and there thought of needing protection is something she refuses to accept... I know, because I feel the same. We need your support, not your protection".

"I'm sorry..." Blake said.

Severa sighed, and made Blake look at her "Blake, there is no denying it. We were all hurt when you ran of, and I understand you are trying to make up for it. It will take time before I feel like I can fully trust you again, but I am willing to give you a chance. So don't think for a second that you're not wanted here".

Blake was silent for a second before she nods "Understood... Thank you, Severa".

Severa smiles as she began to leave when Blake spoke again.

"Hey, Severa. I know this isn't the best time to say this but... I never stopped thinking about you... nor did I stop loving you. I still love you Severa, even now" Blake said.

Severa was silent as she looked at Blake. She opened and closed several times, clearly wanting to say something, but couldn't bring herself to say it. She looked away, a single tear escaping from her remaining eye before she walked away. Blake looked down sadly, knowing she pushed her luck with what she said... but she couldn't leave it unsaid.


Back inside, Ruby uses her scroll's flashlight to look around, Lucina and Weiss were with her. She finds alcholic bottles on the shelves. Weiss uses Myrtenaster to send small flames to light up the candles in the room.

"There" She said as the three look around the room. Shelves are full of alcoholic bottles and a bar is seen as well.

Ruby frowns "On second thought, maybe we should keep this room closed".

Weiss looked at her confused "Huh?".

"I'm just... Not sure how well my uncle's taking all of this" Ruby said.

Weiss understood now "Oh".

Lucina said nothing, her mind was far away, and her silence did not go unnoticed as Ruby and Weiss grew more and more concerned about her.

"Come on, we'll never get to Atlas on an empty stomach!" Ruby walks forward, though Weiss lingers and sadly looks down. Ruby then opens up another door.

"Ruby? Are we really still going to Atlas?" Weiss asked.

Ruby looks at her "Why wouldn't we be?".

"I mean... you heard what Jinn said. If there's no way to kill Salem, then what's the point in all of this?" Weiss said, making Lucina visably flinch at the mention of her evil grandmother.

"Weiss, you can't be serious" Ruby said.

Weiss sighs "Sorry, I- I don't know what I'm saying, I'm just really tired and I really, really hate this place" She walks up to enter the room with Ruby "Anything in there?".

Ruby turns around and uses her flashlight to look around. She sees more alcoholic bottles arranged on a shelf on the right side of the room making her very annoyed "More alcohol... At least we'll never have problems starting a fire".

"What's that?" Weiss said as the two noticed a large, metal cellar door in the ground. Its handles are chained together "A wine cellar? Great".

Ruby then looks up to her left and lets out a yelp before zooming over.

"What? What is it?" Weiss asked.

"Food!" Ruby holds out a can.

Weiss looked at her, completely incredulous "Canned food?".

Ruby smiles "Oh trust me, you put enough salt on anything, and it will taste juuust fine".

"Well, I guess it's better than nothing" Weiss said and the two share a smile. Weiss walks over and helps Ruby grab a few cans of food "But I still seriously hate this place...".

The two then walk out of the room. Unbeknownst to them, the metal cellar door opens slightly, before shutting again with a startling bang...

"Hold on, where did Lucina go?" Weiss asked as they noticed Lucina was gone.

Ruby got even more worried now "Lucina? Lucina are you there? Lucina?!".

Weiss was worried too. Sure they knew Lucina was really shaken up from the revelation that Salem was her grandmother, but they didn't expect her to just vanish like this. Where did she run of to?


As for Lucina, she had left the house and was walking away from the farm. She was already a good distance away before she finally stopped. She pulled out her sword and looked at it for several seconds before she pointed it at her own neck. Her hands were shaking as she was gripping her sword tightly... But no matter how hard she tried to make her arms push her sword in to her neck... she just couldn't do it.

She let out a loud scream as she began cutting down several trees, her built up emotions finally spilling out. She continued her emotional rampage for several seconds before she fell on her knees breathing hard before grabbing handfuls of snow and forced it in to her face, but not even the cold snow could numb the pure agony she was feeling.

"WHAT AM I FIGHTING FOR!?" She screamed and her voiced echoed through the snow storm.

She buries her face in the snow, screaming in to it... only looking up when she heard someone running towards her. She looked and saw Ruby, who only managed to find her because she noticed the trees falling. Lucina said nothing as she just began crying... loudly. Ruby quickly hugged her her as hard as she could, allowing Lucina to cry in to her shoulder.

Ruby had to fight the urge to start crying herself... She felt so powerless, Lucina needed her now more than ever... And she had no idea what to do... All she could do... was to be there and let Lucina cry...

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Tell me what you think.