None of this was right. Her life was falling apart, her heart broken, and her very soul trembling with despair.

And yet, the sunlight flowed into the room like honey, the pleasent smell of flowers wafted through the room with a wonderful breeze. Instead of hearing screams of pain and despair, she heard birds chirping. Instead of blood and dirt covering her body, expensive makeups and a beautiful white dress covered her body. None of this felt right.

Why was only her world falling apart?

The soft click and creak of the door should have made her put on an act, to start smiling and welcome in a guest during 'the happiest day of her life'. But she couldnt even bring herself to look away from the mirror. The reflection of her blue eyes the only thing that she could find that looked as dead as she felt.

"Weiss...? Its time." Her sisters words helped more then she expected, though no where near as much as she needed. Where there should have been warmth, she felt only cold strength coming from Winter. Perhaps she could use some of that, but she wished more for the warm sisterly embrace that she had seen quite a few times over the last year or so.

She doubted Yang would ever look as happy around her again... and she trembled at the thought of how the other sister would look at her from now on.

"Are you ready?" She wasn't, she couldn't be. She could never be... and yet, the world didn't care. Today would happen, she would be a part of it, and nothing she could do could change that.

"Yes." Lier.

The cathedral was lovely. The sunlight bathed the large room with warmth, the beautiful windows all different colours of the rainbow and depicting Vale's history, the wood floors a deep almost black colour, and the flowers... roses. Of course. It had to be roses.

At least they weren't silver.

Her father was practically tugging her along down the asle. Not that any outside observer could notice, but she didn't have the strength to join him stride for stride. Somewhere deep in his mind, she knew he cared for her at least a little. But not enough to stop this from happening. This man was perhaps her greatest enemy because of today... an enemy she could never defeat on her own.

But wasn't the point of today that she would never be alone again? Her husband to be stood tall, he looked stronger then when she had last seen him. His suit was expensive and clearly he didn't choose it himself, perhaps Pyrrha had a little fun while she forced her loved one into an outfit like that... Weiss could only hope that the warrior killed her out of vengeance for this. But as her eye caught the spartans, she only saw compassion.

"You're too nice for both our sakes..." the bride managed to mumble, the same level of volume she would usually lecture a certain redhead about.

Blue eyes met her own and her husband to be beamed as he awaited her at the end of the aisle. She met his smile with a weak one of her own. This wasn't his fault, she knew that. She also knew that he was a good person, he wouldn't touch her till she was ready. The thought of having to do that... knowing that she would have to pretend to want it for them both to fulfil there duty...

This would have been so much easier if he was a monster.

The real monster in the room tighted his arm around hers, she nearly winced at the unexpected nature of it, but she kept her eyes forward and her body still as she walked.

"This isn't about you. Hold yourself together." His words were spat like venom yet his face remained that of a father filled with so much pride and love that he was about to cry tears of joy. "Once this is over and done with. You can return to parading about with that peasent of yours." Her surprise at his words were overpowered easily by her despair at the mention of Ruby. She would never be able to face the girl again, how could she? This isn't what they thought there efforts were leading towards, this was a nightmare that replaced reality and corrupted all hope. She would protect Ruby by never letting herself be seen by the girl again, she would support Ruby by continuing her funding. But she would never, ever, torture the girl with her presence. With the burning question of what could have been.

The aisle seemed to last forever, stretching till the end of time with hundreds of faces she didn't recognise and would most likely never see again. Perhaps they were all Schnee's. But her familys signature hair was only seen at the front on her side. Of course... who would want to sit in front of royal blood? Her mother and brother sat together, she was suprised to see her brother at all, being the crown prince of Atlas, she expected him to still be there in there fathers stead. But the little shit was here, he even looked at her with a little of that same compassion Pyrrha had... she did miss him.

Her mother had no such compassion, instead looking on with the brightest smile she had ever seen from the woman when she wasn't holding a wine glass. She was sure that the lack of one would only last till the end of the ceremony.

Winter stood as her maid of honor... the only bit of strength she had. She was confident that if she asked, her elder sister would fight everyone in the room to let Weiss escape. While an entertaining show that would make, Weiss wasn't even sure if her sister could beat the legendary Pyrrha Nikos. This thought process only distracted her long enough for her father to let her go as she reached the altar.

Jaune smiled across from her. He would fight too to get her out of here if she told him she was being forced into this. She knew he would. His false charisma and terrible humor hid a truly good person underneath. If he had truly awoken the hero's blood like his ancestors, he would have actually been strong enough to protect her from her fathers influence. She had to wonder... if her heart sidnt already belong to someone else, could she have learned to love him overtime? He was good enough apparently for the Spartan to fall for him, she was a princess with no special powers to speak of... maybe if she was an awoken, she'd be able to sense the latent power of a Hero inside of him. Perhaps that was part of why Pyrrha loved him.

No.

No she knew it wasn't.

Love wasn't so easily produced. She had felt love. Deep, burning love. She could still feel it in the fragments of her heart. She knew that Pyrrha's feelings were true because she recognised the look of someone in love.

The same look she had every time her eyes met those silver pearls.

The priest started his rambling. She didn't care. Her life was ending around her, and appropriately, her memories surfaced. Her life flashed before her eyes.

But her mind focoused, and her heart swelled. She only wanted to focus on one thing. One person. Her mind found those memories... and they were so vivid it was like she was there again.