Weiss walked at a serene pace as the massive airship that brought her to Beacon landed, her hand unconsciously reaching for Myrtenaster which she had to stop midway as she remembered that the weapon was scheduled to arrive at Beacon before the end of the day.
While she could have just had the weapon commissioned to the private firm attached to SDC like in her previous life, she decided to forgo that and have the weapon made by the best of the best that money could buy.
And said 'the best of the best happened' to be the Travellers Home, a strange company that had just opened a year or so ago, yet already had made a name for itself as the best tech company on the plane when it came to innovation. They had even managed to secure a contract with the Atlas council to build what they called a "Fusion Reactor" to replace the Dust reactors that are used by the city to provide power and heating across Atlas and Mantle.
Frankly, Weiss was very unnerved by the existence of this company.
No matter how much she tried she could not recall ever hearing about the existence of such a company in her first life. This meant that either this company never got off the ground due to the actions of either her father or someone else on the SDC the first time around, or the person who established this company was someone who arrived in the past just like her and Blake. For now, Weiss was hoping that it was the former but was already nearly certain that it was the latter reason for the company's existence.
That was why Weiss decided to test the waters by having this company develop her personal weapon. At first, the company's representative refused since they were not into weapons developments but was soon convinced when SDC provided a very lucrative contract to the Travelers Home to develop cargo airships to replace the existing fleet and also help with improving the SDC's information security.
Weiss would take every precaution that she could to protect her company against the hacking attempts of Arthur Watts, no matter what the cost.
As she got off the airship, she could not suppress the emotions rising from her heart as she looked up at the massive castle of Beacon Academy. A place that gave her a family, a place to belong to. A home for her to return to.
A home that she failed to protect.
But not this time. This time, she would show Cinder the real power of a genuine witch, a true practitioner of Magecraft.
The steel armor that she imbued with runes clanked as she moved towards the massive open grounds where the rest of the airships would arrive.
There was once a time that she disdained people like Jaune and Cardin for their foolishness of wearing armor when they had Aura. But it was in the lands of Camelot that she realized the true value of having armor when her Aura proved to be useless for protecting her from the spells of Morgan and many other Magus that she fought in the name of her 'King' and friend.
As she saw the other airships starting to dock with the landing pads, she came to a halt and waited, her fears rising to the surface again which she crushed ruthlessly with her decades of training as a Knight of the Round table.
It was the same training that allowed her to control her emotions and not just dash across to the Airship when she spotted the familiar form of Blake from her memories, although she seemed to have changed her attire quite a lot and decided to hide her feline ears.
Fear and trepidation stopped her from talking even when Blake stopped walking and stood in front of her, hope and fear warring in her golden eyes as they looked into her own eyes in search of recognition.
Weiss simply gave a watery smile as she spoke.
"The new look suits you-"
That was all she was able to say before Blake enveloped her in a tight hug, a hug that Weiss returned with equal fervor.
For a few seconds, they remained in this position until they separated.
They did not speak, for there was no need for words between them. It has always been like that between them since their reunion after the fall of Beacon.
Silently, the W and B of team RWBY stood to the side, waiting for the rest of their friends, reassured in the presence of each other to keep their fears at bay.
Soon, their waiting bore fruit as the familiar form of Yang and Ruby departed from the airship. Although they looked just as changed as the rest of their team.
Weiss was wearing white armor and a long skirt similar to her friend Artoria from Camelot and Blake was wearing the classing Jonin attire of the Elemental Nations with her personal colors instead of the traditional green. Yang was also wearing armor that had carvings of animals on it with a modified version of her weapon, Ember Celica in place of proper gauntlets. Ruby was wearing a simple-looking black shirt, green military pants, and a green military coat.
All in all, their group attracted a lot of attention not just because they looked beautiful but also because of their somewhat weird-looking clothing style, but the onlookers soon dismissed such oddities since it was common for all Huntsman and Huntresses to dress oddly compared to regular people.
With a simple use of hand signals, the group decided to discuss their circumstances at a later time and decided to wait and see if they could see any more of their friends.
It wasn't long before they heard the loud shouting of Nora and a tired-looking Ren walking out of the airships and heading straight for Beacon without even stopping despite glancing at team RWBY in curiosity.
This incident gave conflicting emotions of relief and sadness to the whole team. Relief because they were happy to know that those two did not fall after them and sadness that they would not know just how much they meant to the girls.
It was also not hard to spot Pyrrha when she was surrounded by a few prospective students as she gave a fake smile at them and walked into the building.
Watching her leave, Team RWBY, and Ruby in particular, felt a heartache. Remembering her cruel death at the hands of Cinder Fall. But this time around, they would make sure that such a thing would not happen.
It was only thanks to Yang placing her hand on Ruby's shoulder and assuring her that Ruby finally calmed down from the emotional moment and waited for the last of team JNPR.
But as minutes turned to nearly an hour and the last airship was about to depart Ruby and Weiss felt a pit starting to form in their gut.
Ruby was now genuinely worried that her first friend at Beacon and her best male friend would not be around this time around.
Weiss because she was now starting to worry if Jaune did fall into the void after her and his absence here meant that he either did not arrive back in time or died in whatever world he found himself in.
Soon, the last airship departed and the worries of Team RWBY were proven correct when Jaune failed to show up.
"…..He is not coming. Why is he not coming?"
"Ruby, calm down-"
"I am calm Yang. I am just, worried. And afraid. Do you think something happened to him?"
Yang had no answer to her question just as Blake had none. When they turned to Weiss for help, they saw her pale face drained of blood and immediately felt worried.
"Weiss? What happened?"
"…Nothing, I am fine"
Yang and Blake were not convinced but knew that this was not the time or place to discuss such things. They followed as a dejected Ruby was guided into the building by a pale-faced Weiss who held Ruby's hand for support and to suppress the growing fear in her heart.
Weiss on the other hand, was extremely worried. Putting aside how this incident would change the dynamics of team JNPR, Jaune was her friend. She even considered family at some point. To lose one of her loved ones was a serious blow to her.
Even as she guided her younger leader into the halls of Beacon, her mind raced to recall all the details that she had managed to gain about the Arc family over the last two years in order to recall any clues to Jaune's location but came up empty.
Whatever the case may be, Team RWBY is back together although all of them had their own problems that they needed to deal with soon enough.
As night descended in the city of Vale, the streets were nearly empty of the common folk, save for the worst of society that decided to come out of their hiding holes.
But this night was promising to become one filled with blood.
In one of the many neglected and old buildings that were located away from any of the main population centers, a group of Faunus was sitting around a table and discussing their plan for the coming year.
They had recently received an assignment from the higher-ups of the White Fang to work with the human woman called Cinder to help her steam dust from across the city.
While this would have disgruntled the people of the Whtie Fang, the promise from Sienna and Adam that this work would allow them to finally bring equality for all Faunus and to once again gain the respect of the Faunus people around the world was enough to shut them up and work with her.
Unfortunately for this particular cell of White Fang, they would not have the opportunity to fulfill their mission.
As they were in the midst of the discussion, they were unaware that a sleek black ship was hovering over their building, invisible to all sensors and detection equipment of Remnant, Its sleek black form that had a storied history was given a natural camouflage in the darkness of the night.
The ship that was known as the Obsidian Wings, a ship that was once used by a famed Iron Lord, lowered its ramp as a figure wearing the traditional Iron Companion armor walked out.
The chest piece of the armor was replaced with the Hallowfire Hear chest piece. An armor that was the last thing ever produced and worn by the Sunbreaker sect of the Titans before their demise on Mercury.
The gauntlets were replaced with the Synthoceps. A piece of technology from the Golden Age. Synthetic muscles covered by powerful armor which provided its users with ungodly strength enhancement.
Just as the figure jumped from the ship and landed softly on the roof using the power of the Light to levitate for a few seconds, their Ghost, in its shiny Cosmos Shell transmatted and appeared by the figure's side.
"You know, I thought we were going to go meet your friends today, not kill unpowered civilians"
"I know, but this is an issue I cannot allow to fester. The White Fang is a truly dangerous foe that cannot be underestimated even if they don't look like much. Besides, my friends are the reason why I am doing this in the first place"
"I don't follow"
The Titan simply reached behind him and pulled out the bow that was known as the Wish-Ender. A kinetic weapon that was famed for striking its target even if they were behind a wall thanks to the infrared sights and its light-empowered arrows.
"If I want to make sure that my friends do not suffer in this life as they did once, I need to eliminate the source of their suffering. And as it happens, the White Fang is one of the major forces behind said suffering"
The Titan's ghost simply looked at his Guardian and made a motion that was akin to a nod and disappeared into the ether for safety.
"In that case, good hunting, Guardian"
The Guardian simply grunted in acknowledgment and slowly walked into the building.
As the Guardian walked in, he raised his bow to eye level as the visor of his helm synced to the infrared sights of the bow and allowed him to see the silhouettes of his targets even through the walls of the building.
Within seconds, he identified 30 Targets in the building and started developing a strategy to eliminate them without causing too much commotion.
He knew, deep down, that most of these were just desperate Faunus who wanted to lash out at humanity for their oppression, but he was not the naïve youth that he once was a long time ago. He no longer had any mercy for those who would harm their fellow men just to satisfy their dark desires.
That is why, he will eliminate this darkness, as is his duty as a Guardian.
He waited as the majority of the White Fang members slowly started to disperse from what he assumed to be a meeting room of sorts until there were only a few people left on the top floor.
He knew for a fact that this entire building had no one else aside from the White Fang because he had been watching this building for more than a few hours. This meant that he had no need to worry about unnecessary casualties.
He badly wanted to use his forte, the powers of a Sunbreaker, to burn down everything in the building including the White Fang. But he knew that it would attract too much attention, attention that he wanted to avoid lest it caused problems for him and those he associated with.
That was why, for this night, he decided to use one of his other powers.
As he breathed in and concentrated, he felt the ever-present Light of the Traveler retreat deeper into his soul as something else took over, something darker.
The ever-present haze of the blazing stars around his mind and body slowly retreated deeper as it was replaced by the ice-cold stagnation of the dark.
With the transformation done, The Guardian pulled the bowstring and let his arrow fly.
In a fraction of a second, the arrow silently broke through the wall due to its sharpness and directly passed through the skull of its first victim before lodging itself in the opposite wall. Then, it disappeared thanks to the Ghost of the Guardian trasmatting the arrow back to the Guardian's storage for further use.
The sudden action did not go unnoticed by the rest of the occupants of the room who started to raise a commotion.
Unfortunately for them, they did not even have the time to scream as the Guardian threw a Granade that was empowered with Stasis, causing the inhabitants of the room to turn into pillars of darkness-empowered Ice.
The ice only lasted for a few seconds before it broke apart and vanished into thin air thanks to its nature as ice conjured from Darkness. This also meant that there was nothing left of its victims to show that anything had even happened in this room except for the little blood on the floor from the Guardian's first victim.
With the top floor cleared, the Guardian moved through the building, slowly wiping out the White Fang either through the use of his bow or his Stasis.
It only took him half an hour to wipe out everyone in the building and leave behind no dead bodies except for a lot of blood staining the walls and the floors.
"You know, you really do live up to your nickname"
At his Ghost's amused words, the Guardian was reminded of the embarrassing nickname that the citizens and the underworld of Mistral gave him.
The Ghost of Mistral.
Shaking his head to forget those embarrassing memories, the Guardian started walking back up the stairs and to the room where his Ghost had already called the Obsidian Wings.
"So, Jaune. Where to next?"
The Guardian Transmatted into the ship and took off his helm, revealing the scarred face of a young man.
"Beacon Academy. It's about time I fixed my past mistakes"