Argus Schnee
Home didn't feel like home anymore. Once, the young Prince explored these halls with a smile, wandering around corners and into places that felt hidden from all, even The World. Yet, he never felt alone. It always felt like his mum was just two corners away if he needed her, and his mother's location was always obvious. Now though? These explorations of his weren't to find secrets or have fun, now, he found the most hidden corners of the castle in order to hide. Not that he really could anymore, not with the people here to watch him while both his parents were off somewhere fighting or working...
"They won't die..."
He knew that. Everyone had told him the same things about the war, Vacuo and Mistral didn't stand a chance. Things were going to be fine. Vale and Atlas would surely crush the opposition, and there would be peace again. Argus would take the throne long after Remnant had grown boring again, and that was exactly how he wanted it. After all, it was better than the alternative.
Hiding away in the furthest reaches of these twisting halls and rooms too big to use for anything less than parties, Argus sat against a wall, legs up and knees tucked to his chest. Surely, his mother would throw a fit with how he was scrunching up his clothes right now.
"If she were here..."
Left sitting like this for so long, his sight could only pass over the bookshelves in front of him so many times before he grew bored. This wasn't the grandness of the Royal library, no, apparently whoever had owned this place originally was something of a heavy reader... This was one of the castle's many 'smaller' libraries. Which of course raised the question, who needed that many books? Argus wasn't sure he could read all of them, even with his eternal life. Not thanks to lack of time, mind you, rather, a lack of patience. Ironic for a Dragon to lack, though, he doubted his mum had an abundance of that anyway.
"She never acts like it..."
Sometimes he really did doubt if she had cracked the Dragon Formula or not, even with all three of them as living proof.
Whenever Argus sat for too long, he would feel a strange sensation. Like something with an uncountable number of legs crawling up his spine, even without touching his skin. This sensation, this 'itch', it annoyed his very soul, and the only way to 'scratch' it was quite unorthodox. With a small sigh that quickly turned into a breath of relief, his itch became scratched as small crystals began to form around his body. They almost seemed to freeze and grow from the surrounding floor, some of it even forming from his clothes as he tried to relax. The Light Blue crystals were small at first, and his eyes closed as he felt his body rest. Not sleep, it was the middle of the day, and he had been raised better than that... But, he could still rest.
Training had become practice, and practice had become fewer and farther between until eventually completely stopped. Now, the only time his innate spell found use was in moments like this, when he couldn't find an escape to the itch besides it. Still, in the time since his mum had been gone, his usage of the spell had grown better. Now finding himself able to create Dust in more places than just in his hand. Perhaps he could come up with a system to weaponize the formation of it, creating Magic Items that could make use of the infinite Mana he could pull from thin air... But there wasn't a point. Not one he could see, and not one his parents could see either... allegedly, anyway.
Argus was many things, a good liar not yet being one of them, but his mum was even worse. Bad enough that even he could tell she wasn't being honest when telling him that his power couldn't work in combat. It wasn't a cruel lie, he didn't want to fight after all... It's why he hadn't called her out on it. He had to assume that if she was lying, then so was his mother... But why were they lying? Was it simply to encourage his stance on not wanting to be a combatant? Maybe...
Argus didn't want to be a Wizard. He had known that a long time ago, but justifying that decision was quite the difficult task. Especially to others, especially in this position. Here he sat, reflective surfaces all around him no matter which direction he looked... Having covered half this section of the 'small' library in what many would first assume was Ice... But quickly identify instead - to their own horror - as Dust. Argus looked around, some of the larger collections of crystals made their ways up the shelves around him, with many more growing from the floor around them. Truly, it resembled the effects of some kind of flash-freezing Ice spell.
Surrounded by all this Dust... all this Mana... He once again found his choices and wishes impossible to justify. Argus didn't want to be a Wizard or fighter, but, he didn't want to give up this power either. Which was perhaps the most selfish position he could take. Why have all this power if he had no intention to use it? The boy didn't want to sling spells or throw punches... He didn't want to haul around a heavy weapon or dart across a battlefield. He wasn't made for fighting... But, maybe he was made for this...?
"... I don't even know what I'm talking about..."
As his parents had told him so many times, it was too early for him to make decisions about his life. Seven years wasn't long enough to decide how to spend eternity. For now, all he could make decisions on was the moment. How each thing he did made him feel.
The boy didn't want to follow in his mum's footsteps... He didn't want to be a fighter.
But... Sitting here? Surrounded on all sides by glowing crystals of Dust that could light up an entire city and then some? The Dust Dragon could breathe a sigh of what felt like relief... as all of it slowly continued to grow.
"Argus? You in here, buddy-?" That first part was clear, and even with closed eyes, Argus could recognise that his Aunt Yang had just found him. The next part, however, was a whisper that came from the same room, if still a bit distant. "... What the fuck..."
Even given what most people would think, Yang didn't swear around the kids. So the Prince's surprise was what made him open his eyes, which promptly widened in shock. Instead of seeing his Aunt's surprised expression from across the room, his eyes lay on large crystals that surrounded him on all sides. There was a bit of breathing room at least, the crystals formed from the ground about two metres away from him, and the cocoon of Dust he found himself in didn't have a ceiling. Instead, just having walls made up of solid Dust crystals, with the biggest stretching up to about seven feet tall.
Looking around, Argus was too stunned to reply to his Aunt, who was no doubt growing increasingly worried with every second that passed without an answer. The amount of Dust around him was frankly ludicrous, and he was sure that what his eyes could spot was simply the layer closest to him, which raised a question... How long had he been sitting here? At no point did he think he had fallen asleep, he was sure that consciousness hadn't evaded him for even a second... It was more like he just... relaxed? Like he didn't care anymore?
"... No, that's not it... I still don't know what I'm talking about."
"Argus! You in there!?" The voice was much closer now, and the outline of her blonde hair could even be spotted through the Light Blue crystals... If only barely.
"Yeah, I'm here." His response wasn't because he wanted to move or because he actually wanted to talk, rather, he just decided it would be better to act before his Aunt decided to try and punch her way through. While it would be cool to see how much damage all this Dust could do to the castle if it went off, the Prince made the smart decision to not see that experiment through.
With a flash of light and a sound reminiscent of crystals cracking, his wings sprouted quickly from his back without delay, and with a single flap he cleared the wall of Ice Dust. Even before crossing over the top, he was intent of saying something to reassure Yang... That idea quickly went out the window as his eyes set on the rest of the room. "Oh." Suffice to say, what he could see previously was much less than what covered the rest of the room.
With a thud, his boots set on the ground and slipped against the clear material covering the floor, his footing barely recovered with the support of his wings, and his sights washed over the room once again. It was like the room had been flooded, drained, and while still covered in remnants of water, frozen over. Dust crystals were everywhere, and some of it had even formed together to create a clear Ice-like flooring that covered substantial portions of the room. Countless books were likely ruined, and wherever the ground met a wall or shelf, the crystals formed against the angle like a cobweb. Weirdly, as his hands flailed about in order to help him keep his balance, some of those thinner crystals that hung to the shelves by weak supports... They shook slightly.
While Argus took careful steps across the Dust covered floor, Yang looked apprehensive and twitched every time his boots set onto the slick surface. She stood further away than he had first thought, her feet planted on the closest spot of flooring that lacked any Dust. He was a little surprised, not expecting her to be so cautious about setting the Dust off. Though, perhaps he didn't have the best point of reference for that. For whatever reason, he just didn't seem to have bad luck when it came to the material. It never seemed to go off when he didn't want it to...
With steps only cautious thanks to the slippery nature of the surface, he slowly made his way to his Aunt, who immediately picked him up into a crushing bear hug. "You worried me there, you know! Do you know how pissed your mother would be if you got hurt on my watch?" Despite her words, he couldn't help but smile a bit at her worry.
"It's only a bit of Dust-"
"A bit?"
"-And besides, I wasn't gone for long."
Apparently not the correct thing to say, judging by the frown that quickly spread over her expression. "Ok, just because you're gonna live forever doesn't mean you can say that six hours isn't a long time to be missing." A retort died in his throat before words could leave his lips, confusion replaced it instead, and the noise that left only slightly resembled a "huh?".
"But... It, it didn't feel like six hours." He hadn't been asleep after all, had he really just... lost that much time?
Weirdly, at his words, his Aunt actually smiled. Almost like she was looking a little relieved. "So this is what does it to you, huh?" She gestured her hand back to the room covered in Dust before setting him down and leading him from the... Well, calling it a library anymore was probably just wrong. Back up Dust storage, perhaps?
"What do you mean?"
"Your mum, she felt like that too. Losing hours or even days, hell, sometimes weeks while she just worked." If he had to take a guess at what she was working on... "That was back when she was chasing the Dragon Formula." And the Prince got it in one.
Though, he couldn't agree. "I don't think I really get much from mum." The meekly spoken words were quickly disproven as his Aunt pointed a finger straight at his Silver eye. To which he obviously couldn't argue.
"You're more like her than you think." They both exited the room, and he assumed she was leading him somewhere specific.
"Maybe..." Honestly, Argus believed he was more similar to his mother. "I don't think we think the same, though."
"Why's that?" Genuine intrigue matched her raised eyebrow.
"... Because I wouldn't want to be away from her for a year..." Well, a year and a half. Not that that made it any better.
His hung head made her stop walking, and his own feet followed suite. "Argus... I know Ruby not being here sucks but... She's doing it for a good reason, she's just trying to protect all of Vale, and especially you." As she spoke, Argus watched with confusion as Yang's eyes lit up with confusion of her own... Like the words she was speaking didn't make sense to her. "Trust me, Ruby will rush back here as soon as she can. And I'll bet anything that this time away has been hell for her."
That last part didn't make him feel better... Sure, he was upset that she was gone but... He didn't want his mum to be hurting. Still, he chose to believe his Aunt for now, and they kept moving down the hall.
Though, they only made it a few steps before he heard her mutter something to herself.
"Guess I have my own biases... Especially when it comes to mums..."
"So... Pretty great weather today, huh?" An excitable voice that practically rung directly into Argus's ear, to which he could only respond with a weak affirmation... So the other young boy tried his best to keep the 'conversation' going by himself. "Watcha reading?"
Mismatched eyes flicked up to the seat opposite his own, and met the blood-red eyes belonging to someone much too kind to belong to the stereotype Berserker eyes held. Then again, the same was true for Yang. "Just a history book." As much as the Prince wanted to avoid conversation for now, his cousin was adamant in his attempts to cheer him up... and Weiss hadn't raised a child so rude as to not respond when asked a question.
"What's it about?" Jasper's expression matched his voice, and the Prince realised that he was somehow losing this 'battle' as the other boy smiled triumphantly at his response.
"Just a story... One about two brothers." Argus was certain that if his cousin was transformed, his tail would be wagging... So, he continued speaking. "Well... It's a history book about the Great Erasure, specifically things that survived it. One thing that managed to make it through was a children's book, a story about two brothers." Once the Prince started, it was hard to stop, and he couldn't help but smile with the realisation that his cousin had definitely won. "The story tells of two Human brothers that stumbled across a garden, but, the most beautiful garden that could ever be made. One brother wanted to use it to his advantage, to use its resources and beauty. The other, he wanted to watch over it, to protect it."
"Huh... That's kinda rude of them." Jasper's words were confusing enough for Argus to tilt his head in intrigue, and the Hellhound boy shrugged. "I mean... if it was a garden, that means that it belonged to someone, right? They just stumbled in and decided to do things without asking first." Argus had never actually thought about that... It was an interesting way to view the story, but he personally didn't think that was the message behind it. It was just a tale meant for children, after all. "How does it end? The story, I mean."
"Well..." Argus glanced down at the book again. "Apparently... The brother who wanted to take advantage of the garden, he got carried away, and it became too much for him to handle...?" Honestly, Argus wasn't sure about the logic of this part... "It eventually got the better of him, and it turned him into a great crystal emerging from Remnant."
"Oh, it's a story about the Dust Spike?"
Argus nodded, though, he was still a bit unsure. "I guess?"
"Did they have names?" Jasper was more into this story than Argus was... Or, maybe he was just trying to keep the Prince talking.
"One of their names survived the Great Erasure... But, apparently it was messed up? It was corrupted, having been written down in a language that didn't exist anymore, so... Wizards had to cleanse the corrupted text, it was a complicated ritual that translated the name into our language."
Jasper looked pretty confused now. "A different language? You mean, besides the Magic Language?"
"Yeah."
"Woah... That's weird." He chuckled. "What's the name? In our language, I mean."
"Oh, it was translated to 'Snow'."
Before either of them could speak again, another voice interrupted. "Yo-" Two heads turned to look at the blonde hair that peeked around a corner of the doorway to look at them. "Your mother's back." Sun eyed the Prince with a look that told him well enough that he didn't get to just sit here and not welcome her home... So, he stood, and both him and Jasper followed the larger boy down a hallway. One that led to the air dock, Argus could recognise the path well by now.
Looking at Sun was strange now adays. The Faunas had always looked the same for most of the Prince's life so far, but two years ago he finally began to change. Obviously, that was to be expected, and all children save for Humans and a few rarer species would go through the same thing, Dragons included. Still, to know about it was one thing, and to see it was something else entirely. Sun was taller, and bulkier too. He was quick to start resembling a more athletic version of his mother's bruiser style of fighting, or rather the body shape that would come with such a style.
Celica on the other hand... Well, she certainly wasn't as physically imposing as her brother, but even as a Dragon, Argus felt intimidated by her Magic. He honestly had no clue what it was, but he always felt a bit scared of Celica whenever she used her power.
"Which is weird... She only has a double Affinity for fire."
Ah, sweet distractions to think about on this walk that he almost certainly didn't want to make. Though, said thoughts quickly collapsed once they exited the safety of the castle walls and walked out onto the air dock. Where, of course, Yang and Blake were already waiting. It wasn't that Argus wasn't excited to see his mother again... Rather, every time he came here to see her come home, he would get his hopes up... Hoping, praying, that his mum was also on that ship. Every time was the same, every time his hopes were for nothing.
Of course, he didn't expect this time to be any different.
Weiss Schnee
"Are you still mad...?" Her eyebrow twitched long before her mouth opened to reply to her wife. Even though the Queen had been adamant thus far that she wasn't angry at Ruby... The other woman refused to accept it. Weiss wasn't mad or upset with her, she wasn't.
"If these questions keep up, though, I might be."
"For the fifth time, Ruby, no. I'm not mad. Shouldn't you be more worried about how our son's feeling?" Admittedly, she did let a little frustration seep out into that sentence.
The reaction she got wasn't what she had expected, Ruby looked away, averting her eyes downward while smiling with a gloomy air about it. "I mean... Probably, but honestly, I'm scared about how he'll feel... I'd rather take my mind off it until we land."
With a strike to her heart that only a loved one could deal, the Frost Dragon practically squirmed with guilt upon seeing her wife's expression. "Well... Um..." So much time apart - and quite a bit of stress shared between them - hadn't exactly made their relationship easy over the last year and a half, so admittedly, Weiss was a little out of practice. So, she just defaulted to what she did get plenty of practice with.
Getting up from her seat, she was next to Ruby before the woman had even realised, and was quick to pull her close. "It'll be ok, Ruby." Her reassuring whispers were accompanied by gentle strokes across the woman's back, and her wife stiffened quickly in the hold. Channelling her motherly instincts to use on her wife was a little odd to Weiss at first, but this wasn't exactly the strangest of things to do for her partner. The issue came after Ruby started crying into her hold... And Weiss remembered that motherly love was probably a bit of a sore spot for Ruby.
"Have I gotten that bad at this!?"
Trying her best to quell the torrent of emotions that was her now weeping wife, Weiss failed in her task to calm the crying Dragon right up until the ship landed. Mentally cursing as the airship came to a stop, the Queen had to do her best to save face. Or, more accurately, her wife's dignity. It wouldn't do for the first time their son had seen his mum in a year and a half for her to look so pathetic.
Even as she tried to calm the woman in her arms, she frowned.
"That was too harsh."
Even after so long, even after everything that had happened... No, especially after everything that had happened... Was Ruby really ok?
Her lock of safety and warmth tightened, a layer of red cloth between them that practically covered the still crying girl. Weiss was allowed to be annoyed, angry, upset... But thus far, perhaps she had been too tough on Ruby. Not for a second during her time away from Vale did Weiss ever think her wife didn't want to come home. Looking down at those tightly shut Silver eyes, Weiss wondered to herself what exactly had happened so far... Why was it Ruby, every time?
Why was Ruby the one who had been forced to shave away at her soul to chase that Formula so they could be together?
Why was Ruby the one who had nearly lost their mind to a hostile force multiple times now?
Why was Ruby the one who had to spend a year and a half away from her home, her family?
What would she be forced to do next? What would Weiss unwillingly leave her to handle on her own... While she simply sat in wait for her return.
"Next time... It will be me."
It had to be. She couldn't just sit and watch as Ruby was torn apart again and again... But, as much as she wanted to make that promise out loud. Weiss was plenty aware that it was unlikely The World cared for her opinion about Ruby's fate.
"If I could wipe it all away... If I could restart with you... If I could let you live without these memories and buried pain..."
But 'if' wouldn't do anything, neither would her wishes. What Weiss wanted frankly didn't matter, and the painful awareness she held for that fact would keep her up at night.
For just a few more minutes... For just a little while longer... She could let Ruby cry in her arms. She could listen and take as much of what Ruby stored up as she could release. Argus was waiting outside, not even aware that Ruby was here. But, for now, as much as she knew her son needed to see both of them... Ruby needed these precious moments more.
"I wonder... What will it be that next tries to take you away from me...?"
Stepping out of the ship and onto the ramp, her eyes darted from face to face before making contact with her son's. The boy looked gloomy, but he still smiled as he saw her. What came next, though, as Weiss stepped further down the ramp and someone else moved out after her... Well, Weiss had never felt so happy about not being the favourite parent. The boy's mismatched eyes lit up like fireworks as he saw his mum, and only the proper etiquette trained into him kept him from running straight to her... For about five seconds.
The distance was cleared fast enough to make her question if he knew Enhancement magic for a moment, and his body slammed into Ruby's own in a tight hug. The Prince practically disappeared into his mum's warmth, her cloak surrounding them both as she kneeled down to hug him back. No words were exchanged, instead, Argus simply cried in relief to have her back home. It was a sight that filled Weiss with life and warmth, and in many ways it mimicked the positions herself and Ruby were in only moments earlier inside the airship. All traces of that event had left Ruby, and she now looked every bit like the warm and always happy mother that Argus no doubt wanted to see. While a lovely sight, it filled the Queen with dread.
"For being so bad at lying... Ruby is good at hiding her emotions..."
How often exactly had she done that?
"Thank you for the welcome home, son." Weiss's pretend annoyance was enough for both the other Queen and the Prince in her arms to let out a light giggle, and the slight hurt Weiss had felt up until now thanks to her son's ignoring her was forgotten. Leaning down behind the boy and pressing a kiss to his head, she fixed his hair before moving away, stepping over to Yang and nodding to her as a 'hello'. "I'll be in my office, I need to make a few calls."
Say what you will about the Blonde Dragon, that was enough for her, and Weiss was allowed past into her own home. Spared the family reunion in favour of the work she had to do.
The path to the Queen's office, or 'study' as it was probably meant to be called, was one she had long since memorised. Frankly, the positioning of the room was the one place she could recognise a direct path to no matter where she was... Including outside the castle.
"Though, I guess ninety-percent of those paths would just be a straight fly to the window..."
With a push that felt too weak to move anything, the doors to her 'lovely' office opened and welcomed her to another session of work. Though, perhaps 'work' was subjective when one never has to leave home... and is rich... and lives in a castle... and is immortal-
"This is why I don't openly complain." Too often, anyway.
Setting down at the desk, a button was immediately hit on the underside of the wood to open up the top, letting a large Scrying Orb lift through the crack. "Alright... What first..." Two calls to make at the bare minimum, and only one of which was directly part of her duties... So, she supposed that came first. "Jaune Arc." With a surprisingly quick response time, the Orb connected to another, which most likely sat in the Arc estate.
"Your Majesty-!"
"Spare me the ass kissing, Jaune. I get that enough from all the other lords in Vale." Atlas too, now that she thought about it.
"Isn't it my duty to suck up to the Queen now that I'm a lord?" Another sigh from Weiss was quick to make the so called 'lord' laugh, he talked as if that hadn't happened two years ago now. Though, given his appearance, it was likely his experience of time was similar to a Dragon's. He looked practically the same as his wedding day.
"Well, you can suck up to me by talking to me normally, trust me, you're already my favourite among the lords in this city." Not a hard bar to clear by any means.
Still, he seemed to look happy about it. Or pretend to, anyway. "Aw, stop, you're gonna make me blush."
"You've been hanging around Yang too much."
"Yeah..." The man rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Pyrrha said the same."
"No doubt for a different reason, though."
Not that she thought for a second that Jaune would ever cheat on Pyrrha... Actually, even before that, she could never imagine Yang cheating on Blake. With a frown, she decided this wasn't the most fun of thought processes.
"Report."
With that simple command, all jokes stopped and he grew serious. "The same as every other time you've left for the Flat's Lock, Dagon has made no appearances. Despite his Mana still being present in the ocean near Vale."
"So his appearance really was just to keep the both of you here..." Leaning back with a sigh, Weiss cursed under her breath. Obviously, even if it was meant to keep the both of them here, it had still been the right call to make. After all, if Dagon attacked the city... Without either Harbinger present or the Hero, Weiss had to wonder if the Dragon's actually could beat the fragment of a High Devil. "That's fine for now... The Flat's Lock is over, so we can focus more attention on Dagon now."
More than likely, Ruby would prove to be invaluable in tracking the creature... Which left a poor taste in Weiss's mouth.
"I wish I could just freeze those waters over..."
But, even if it was only a small piece, Weiss wasn't strong enough to overpower a High Devil. And more likely than not, she never would be.
Of course... Things with smaller chances had occurred before.
"Thank you, Jaune." She dismissed him with a genuine smile.
"No problem, your Majes-" And her smile disappeared as she ended the call, cutting him off.
Another sigh left her lips as she reached for the control pad once more. "James Ironwood." This call had a much longer wait before it was answered, the General no doubt being much busier than the Arc Lord. When it connected, he greeted her with a salute... Unfortunately, for this call, she couldn't ask him to skip the ass kissing.
"Your Majesty, how can I be of assistance?" A completely solid and serious voice, it almost gave her whiplash after talking to Jaune.
"General. I was hoping you could send me your newest model of Golem, preferably something more powerful than an Arma Gigas." Her hopes for something of that level were small, after all, her specific Arma Gigas was one of a kind, having been modelled after her ancestor's armour.
"That is... Not quite the request I was expecting. Of course, I could do that... But, may I ask first, is this to do with your Summoning?"
"Yes. I need something stronger." Much stronger.
Her words made him apprehensive at best. "Unfortunately, not much in our arsenal is stronger than that Golem... Instead, I could offer to get a show-room ready? You could come to Atlas and pick out a Golem of your choosing instead."
That wasn't too bad an idea, and of course, if she brought Qrow, she might be able to gain multiple Summons instead of just the one. Not that her Arma Gigas was destroyed, of course. No matter how many she got, so long as it was more than zero, this would leave her with two Summons, at least.
"I suppose I'll be returning to Atlas then, if only briefly." Ironwood nodded with a genuine smile, but, the Queen was sure that everything else she was about to tell him would leave him feeling the opposite of whatever emotion had created that expression. "Now... About the Atlas weapons Vacuo stole from that shipment..."
6th Day, Ninth Strike, 2116 PE
