Author's note: There's a scene in this next chapter that I've been waiting to show for so long, y'all have no idea, and it's finally here. Hooray!


The year was winding on towards its end. Each day saw less and less sunlight, especially with the mountains around Skjulte Perle casting long shadows even when the sun could be bothered to rise. Temperatures were hitting new lows Weiss had never experienced before. The moderating effects of the ocean couldn't completely stave off that decline, and sometimes contributed to the misery with wet, biting winds.

Even when she was indoors, Weiss found plenty of things to irritate her.

"We're getting what?"

"Exchange students," Winter said with audible distaste. "Students from Beacon Academy, sent to Atlas to... 'broaden their education'."

"That doesn't clear things up for me," said Weiss. "If they're being sent to Atlas Academy, why are they coming here?"

"General Ironwood seems to think that they could use some enrichment," said Winter. Her tone of voice implied exactly what she thought about enrichment.

"So we're babysitters?"

Winter's tone turned to amusement. "They're the same age as you. If we're babysitting them, what does that say about you?"

"Hey! I'm an accomplished CEO, as you know full well!"

"You do play that part."

"Rude. Well… if nothing else, maybe we can get them to do the perimeter sweep we keep putting off," said Weiss thoughtfully. "We've delayed long enough we're starting to get more serious incursions. What did you say you fought in the mines last week?"

"An Alpha Centinel," said Winter. "An ancient Alpha Centinel."

"An Ancient Alpha?" said Weiss, aghast. "There's a standing advisory not to approach that kind of grimm without a full team!"

"I'm a team unto myself," said Winter. The words might have been boastful, but Winter's voice was not. She simply stated it as a fact. Weiss might begrudgingly concede the point.

"Be that as it may, we are long overdue for a perimeter sweep. We can push off these exchange students by having them do that for us. We'll tell them they're doing 'field research' on the grimm of Solitas."

"And that sort of creative problem-solving is exactly why I'm leaving them to you," said Winter smugly.

"You are the worst, Miss Schnee."

"You're a bad influence on me, Miss Schnee."

"And where will you be while I'm juggling these twerps?" asked Weiss.

"You'll only be juggling them when they're in town. I can't leave them to their own devices out in the wilderness. They are still students, after all. I'll go with them when they do their sweep. In the meantime, I have other things to do," finished Winter, both cryptically and finally.

"Alright," said Weiss, at something of a loss. She glanced at the time—she really ought to be getting off to bed. She was trying to do better, hard as that was. "I'll see you tomorrow night."

"We'll talk tomorrow tonight," corrected Winter.

"Good enough."


From beside Winter in the bed, wearing nothing but the top sheet and her scales, Ilia gave Winter an inquiring look. "So I'm just 'things' now?"

"You're a lot of things," said Winter sincerely. "And you're even more things to me."

"Good recovery," said Ilia. She smiled and leaned in. "Show me."

(Winter did.)


"Tell the administrators," Cinder said, "of the Silver Stream, Green Node, and Lucky Strike mines that they have a month to double production."

"A m-m… yes, ma'am," said Cinder's interchangeable attendant before scurrying away to convey the orders. They were fortunate they'd self-corrected so quickly. Cinder had no use for those who doubted her.

She didn't need her pawns trying to think for her. She needed only obedience.

This was a perfect example. None of them would see the purpose of this maneuver. The three mines she'd named were the ones most similar to the Schnees' Skjulte Perle in terms of output: predominantly Plant Dust, with smaller amounts of Wind, Water, and Stone.

Flooding the entire Dust market was, ultimately, unsustainable. Flooding the market for certain types of Dust, on the other hand? Fall Dust was in every Dust sub-market. Profits in one could compensate for losses in another, especially losses in her less-profitable types. As long as the prices for Gravity, Lightning, Burn, Combustion, and Hard Light held steady, Cinder could take massive losses on the other types and be just fine.

Schnee Dust Reborn could not.

This policy alone would drive SDR underwater, given enough time, but Cinder wasn't content to wait. Not when the Schnees had demonstrated a remarkable ability to wriggle out of trouble so far. There were other ways, too. Legal attacks, bribery, slander, industrial espionage… the full gamut was available to someone with Cinder's intellect and resources.

Including the simplest, most brutal methods. Methods that required little more than an airship, morally flexible underlings, and disposable people.

Her thoughts went to the Crater, to Schneeville. They went to her neck, and the scar she kept covered there.

In Atlas, there were always disposable people.


Urgent topics competed for Weiss' attention all through the next day. Notices of two new lawsuits against SDR from Fall Dust arrived first thing in the morning. There weren't any others filed against other Dust companies, which meant there was no chance of another anti-Fall Dust legal coalition. SDR would have to fight these on its own.

Weiss contacted the lawyers she'd worked with in the last round and forwarded them what she had. The lawyers received her call with the solemnity of doctors delivering a terminal diagnosis.

Cam was unable to resist tracking down Weiss and dragging her back to the machine shop. Cam felt compelled to show off the latest tweak they'd made to the purification process. Weiss did find it interesting—though not as interesting as Cam found it—and she found the cost savings even more interesting. Even so, she had to repeat her instructions to Cam that these things could wait until their weekly reviews. Cam was less than chastened by this; Weiss felt like the machinery heard her better.

Holly Hemlock's planned protest about the number and prominence of Faunus workers in Skjulte Perle flopped—though not for the right reasons, if Mayor Leif was to be believed. "She had a good number of people signed up," he said to Weiss over lunch. "They chickened out when they realized how many more Faunus were hanging around the protest site, waiting for them."

"It's a lot harder to abuse a minority when you're the minority, isn't it?" Weiss said with no small smugness.

"Sure is. But she's not done, not by a long shot. The emotions are still there, and she's not alone. I'll keep an eye on her."

"Thanks."

The two hours after lunch were spent butting heads with Cristata. He was less than amused by Hemlock's failed protest. The fact that it had failed didn't assuage him one bit.

"She's got more resources to tap," he said in his low growl.

"The impoverished individual in a backwater has 'resources'?" Weiss said scathingly.

He shrugged, unaffected. "By default. She's a human, so she's a somebody. It gives her the edge over us nobodies."

"You're not nobodies," said Weiss with heat. "Not here, not to me."

Another shrug. "You're not the one organizing protests."

After that it was back to their normal sparring over labor policies, which followed certain regular routines… though it was no less violent a conversation for being familiar.

"You aren't the only one who gets to care about our workers," Weiss said.

"You're management, I'm labor," said Cristata with a righteous jerk of his head that set his nose quivering. (Weiss was getting better at looking past it, but it still caught her sometimes.)

"I'm also an employee," Weiss shot back, "and you're also a stockholder. The lines are blurred."

"They're clear enough to me."

"That doesn't strengthen your argument for…" she reviewed the paper before her. "…'regular, paid, five-minute coffee breaks'."

"You're saying you don't take those?" said Cristata leadingly.

Weiss raised the insulated mug on her desk. "I take my coffee with me and nurse it as I go."

"In that case," Cristata said with an air of triumph, "I want our workers to be able to charge their mugs as a company expense."

Weiss sighed as her eyes fluttered shut. "I'll add it to the agenda for the next stockholders' meeting. As a discussion topic," she added before Cristata could gloat.

"Anything I claw away from you is a win," he said, buoyed all the same as he rose to leave. "Ah, I much prefer talking to you than Winter."

"Why's that?"

"'Cuz, unlike her, you bend." He gave a chuckle that sent his tendrils all a-quiver. "'Til next time, Capital."

Nothing without aggravation. It was that sort of day.

The afternoon was dragging on towards dinner when there was a commotion outside the hostel office. Weiss' patience was long gone. She gathered herself, ready to give the troublemakers a piece of her mind.

Before she could, the door burst open, and in stumbled the most extraordinary figures Weiss had ever seen in her life.

Leading the pack was a figure in red and black, with red-tipped black hair in a pixie cut, and a corset-skirt combination that used bullets as accessories. The capper was a red hooded cloak that caused the word "ridiculous" to blare in Weiss' mind, but the girl seemed unself-conscious about it. She looked young, too young for the weapon strapped to her lower back, yet here she was, ready to take on the world with bright silver eyes and verve. The feeling was infectious.

Next in was a boy, tall, with goggles that were set up high in his turquoise hair. He wore a maroon jacket most people wouldn't have dared but that he pulled off, somehow, over a tie that (she noted favorably) he actually knew how to tie. He looked cool. That was the only word that seemed to properly describe him. He was handsome, sure, Weiss would use that word too, but he was more detached. Not at ease, but able to roll with any punch, and certain the world would come to him without him needing to sweat it.

The next girl to enter was a study in blacks and whites. Warm clothing revealed almost no skin, while a cute if seemingly purposeless bow sat atop wavy, midnight-black hair. Amber eyes missed nothing while suggesting they held vast, unexplored depths. The girl's attitude was reserved, stoic, even enigmatic. It felt like getting to know her would be a challenge, but that getting her to open up to you was the greatest prize in the world.

The last girl was the tallest of the bunch. She was a riot of yellow: most prominent was a glorious mane of golden hair that reached below her shoulder blades, but she also wore yellow bracelets, an open fur-lined jacket over what appeared to be a yellow tank top, and what Weiss could only assume was a Gravity Dust-enhanced bra. If the boy seemed cool and detached, and the girl in red seemed certain in her purpose, this girl was even more of both: she radiated supreme confidence, like nothing the world threw at her could do more than entertain her for a moment.

For several long seconds, Weiss could do nothing but stare at this overwhelming foursome, this explosion of color that had detonated in her office. None of them would have been let through the front gate at Huber's estate, yet here they were in Weiss' lap.

"Good... afternoon?" said the girl in red.

Trained instinct took over. "Good afternoon, sir and madams," said Weiss. "Who are all of you?"

"Well," said the smallest girl, "I'm Ruby Rose, that's my partner, Neptune Vasilias, that's Blake Belladonna, and this is my sister, Yang Xiao Long."

"Hel-looo," said Yang with an exuberant wave.

"T'sup?" said Neptune with a head-jerk of greeting.

Blake might have nodded, but maybe not.

Weiss blinked twice as the names worked their way laboriously through her malfunctioning mind. "Team RVBY?" she said. "From the Vytal Tournament?"

"Oh, yeah, I suppose we did compete in that, didn't we?" said Ruby, putting a hand behind her head in apparent embarrassment.

Weiss blinked three times more, as if taking in the image of this extraordinary group was too hard for her eyes to process, like this was a cluster of new concepts too difficult to grasp.

"We're exchange students," said Ruby to fill the void. "Professor Ozpin sent us to General Ironwood, and then General Ironwood sent us here, so... Now we're here!"

"So you are," said Weiss weakly, holding the back of her hand up to her nose as if to plug it. "Could you please excuse me for a moment? I have to go attend to something briefly."

"Oh. Sure!" chirped Ruby.

"Thank you," said Weiss, her hand still in front of her nose. "I'll be back soon." She turned away from them and retreated into the bedroom. She shut the door behind her, drew her scroll, and dialed her sister. This was an emergency, after all.

Winter answered. "What is it?"

Even though Weiss was now in private, she curled up into a ball facing the corner, and spoke in an urgent, desperate whisper:

"They're hot!"

"…What?"

"They're hot!" repeated Weiss. She drew her hand away from her nose and saw the blood that had dripped from it. "They're hot! All of them! They're all hot! How are they all so hot?!"

"I think I'm missing some important context," said a bewildered Winter.

"The exchange students!" Weiss hissed.

"…oh." Now Winter understood. "Huntsmen, and Huntsmen trainees…"

"And Huntresses," added Weiss.

"…all lead an active lifestyle and are in peak physical condition," Winter went on, "with Aura helping to correct physical blemishes. They're encouraged to be stylistically diverse to weaponize their individuality. And they tend to wear lighter, more revealing clothing to help them stay mobile, since they have Aura to help ward off the cold. Put these things together, and the average Huntsman is estimated to be at or above the 90th percentile of attractiveness across all demographics."

"As I've never had to deal with any of that before, knowing it doesn't help me at all."

Winter sighed audibly. "My sister, Dust company CEO Weiss Schnee, is having a full-blown bisexual panic attack."

"Yes! Yes I am! Help me!"

"How am I supposed to help?" said Winter.

"I don't know, say something! Be a big sister! You have to know something about how this works, you're with Ilia!"

"I'm with—no I'm not," blubbered Winter.

"My dear sister, you are not nearly as subtle as you seem to think you are!"

"…fine. Yes, I'm with Ilia. That doesn't mean I know how it happened. It just… did."

"Thanks for all the nothing."

"I don't know what you expect from me," said Winter. "This isn't the kind of problem someone else can solve for you. You'll just have to learn how to deal with it on your own."

"That's all the advice I get, huh?"

"You want advice? Stuff some Ice Dust down your panties and be done with it. I'm hanging up now."

Weiss sighed and let her scroll hand fall to the floor. She knew the students wouldn't go away just because she was feeling awkward about them. And they were extremely unlikely to stop being hot.

Maybe she could convince them that masks were in fashion.

Weiss looked at the time. Well, it was getting on in the evening...

After stuffing some rolled-up tissues into her nostrils, Weiss reemerged into the office space. Blake had retreated to a corner, where she was poring over a book she'd apparently brought with her. Neptune was leaning against the wall nearby, apparently without a care in the world. Ruby had unloaded what looked like six people's worth of magazines on to Weiss' desk and appeared to be doing an ammunition check. And Yang? Yang was sprawled across one chair with her foot propped up on said desk like she was trying to display as much of herself as possible (and succeeding at the task).

They were all still ridiculously hot in their respective ways.

"You alright there, Ice Queen?" said Yang.

The words made Weiss' eyebrow twitch. Hotness didn't excuse everything. "I am quite alright, thank you. I realize I didn't show manners up to my standard in how I greeted you earlier—" apologies were not the Schnee way "—so let's try this again. Allow me to welcome you all to Skjulte Perle, headquarters of Schnee Dust Reborn."

"We'll consider ourselves, uh, welcomed!" said Ruby gamely.

"I'd like for you to join me for dinner downstairs, where we can talk about why you're here and what you could do during your stay."

"I'm always up for some chow," said Yang. She swung herself up and out of her chair in a motion that would have been nondescript for anyone else. For her, it would have made the bards of old bite through their lyres.

"I'm all for food," said Ruby. Her hands darted around almost too quickly for Weiss to follow, with magazines disappearing to unseen parts of her person and a few flung in the directions of her teammates. Apparently, this was normal; they all caught what was offered completely in stride. In moments, all four members of Team RVBY were ready.

"Follow me, then," said Weiss. She went out of the office and down the stairs to the dining area of the hostel.


Weiss was used to business dinners being fraught, contentious, treacherous affairs. Business dinners were an extension of business negotiations, which were a form of unarmed combat, with the singular addition of food that was too often a distraction for the unwary. Those experiences left her no way to describe this as a business dinner, even when it should have been.

For one thing, Yang and Ruby, who described each other as sisters even though that looked plainly impossible, seemed to treat eating as a full contact sport. They openly stole from each other's plates, clandestinely snuck drinks from each other's glasses, used cutlery in ways that would have made Weiss' etiquette instructor resign on the spot, and aggressively negotiated for all other parties' leftovers. Neptune chuckled along with their antics, though he was smart enough not to get involved, nor to leave his appendages between the sisters and anything edible. Blake seemed aloof the whole time, and Weiss wasn't sure she ever saw the reserved girl actually eating, but at the end of the meal there was no fish anywhere to be found—a remarkable feat given the fish-heavy Skjulte Perle diet.

It was more than their physical behavior that left Weiss so disoriented. The team had an easy rapport, common rhythms to their speech and their topics, and shared references that Weiss couldn't begin to understand. It flowed easily and naturally. What was more, there wasn't even a hint of contention to it. Despite the youngest girl, incredibly, being acknowledged as leader, there was no hint of jockeying for position, for reputation, or anything else. Oh, they all tried to gain the upper hand in what seemed to be routine banter, but it was completely lacking in judgment, edge, or wrath.

They also answered her questions without any reservations. All her questions, including one that had bugged her ever since she'd seen their names appear on the Vytal livecast.

"Why the name 'RVBY'?"

"I guess it's because mom liked the name," said Ruby. "Dad got to name Yang, so we think mom got dibs on naming me."

"No, not—not your name, the team name! Why is the team named RVBY?"

"That kind of mix-up is probably the reason," said Blake.

"We think Professor Ozpin saw the potential and couldn't resist," said Yang. "He's got a weirdo sense of humor."

"Even so," said Weiss, looking at Neptune, "I'm sure he could have found some other, equally whimsical alternative that uses your name as it's actually pronounced."

Neptune shrugged. "I don't mind. It's no biggie."

"We're pretty sure he was going there no matter who was our number four," said Yang, giving Weiss a far-too-troublesome look. "He probably would have kept the name if you'd been number four."

"You mean RBYS, right? Off the 's' in Schnee?"

"Nope," said Yang, all devil-may-care. "R-W-B-Y."

"My name is not pronounced like that! I refuse to even contemplate the possibility."

"I dunno, you look like you're contemplating awfully hard, doesn't she, sis?"

"Don't worry, Weiss," said Ruby in what was supposed to be a comforting voice. "Words give me trouble, too."

"You're solving the wrong problem." Weiss sighed. "I'm sure the team system has its advantages, but the naming system needs work. Starting with giving the headmasters pronunciation guides."

"Could be worse," said Yang, grinning harder than ever. "Remember that team from Mistral? Their letters were S, S, S, and T, so they pronounced it shh…"

"Sunset!" Ruby interrupted, red-faced. "They were Team Sunset!"

"…it," Yang finished, causing Ruby to cover her face with her hands in embarrassment.

"I liked them," said Neptune.

"You and their leader did get along like a house on fire," said Yang. She gave waggle-eyes at Blake. "Not that someone else minded having Sun and his abs around, either."

To Weiss' surprise, Blake visibly reacted to this—a dusting of blush rose in her cheeks, and she hastily hid behind a cup of tea.

Ruby's embarrassment had died away enough that she lowered her hands. "I halfway expected to have to trade you," she said to Neptune. "Why did you come to Beacon, anyway? Aren't you from Mistral?"

"I applied to Haven, too," said Neptune. "Got accepted to both. In fact, when I talked to Beacon's admissions, they explained they're only allowed to take so many international students a year, and I was the very last international student to make it. If they'd taken anyone else, it would have bumped me off, and I'd have gone to Haven." He shrugged. "Seemed like destiny to me."

"Well, we're glad that didn't happen," said Ruby. "We'd miss you if we didn't have you!"

Neptune froze up, as if the genuineness of the compliment had caught him off-guard and he couldn't pick the right reaction.

"You broke him again," Blake said with a sigh.

It was about that moment that Weiss realized she'd been using entirely the wrong vocabulary to try and parse this evening. This wasn't a team as she knew in a business sense, and this dinner certainly was not a business party.

Were they actually friends? Did Weiss even know what that looked like?

When that last thought occurred to her, Weiss' fork slipped from her fingers and clattered to the floor.

"You okay?" asked Yang.

"Yes, excuse me," said Weiss. She slipped out of her chair to retrieve her fork, but took her time to return as she rolled the thought over in her head.

Friends. What a novel concept.

Oh. So that was the sickly, gnawing sensation that she felt in her guts. These four acted like friends, or at least how Weiss imagined friends might act, and they were so audacious as to have three friends each. Three friends each... and Weiss had exactly zero.

These thoughts were so distracting that, when she returned to the conversation, she struggled to keep up. After only a few minutes more, she caught Ruby looking at her appraisingly, before Ruby turned to her team and spoke. "Alright team, we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow, and travel took a lot out of us. We'll head to bed now so we can be up bright and early in the morning."

"Not the whistle," complained Neptune.

"I confiscated that ages ago," Yang said with a nod in Blake's direction; Blake looked quite relieved by those words.

"Meanie," said Ruby, crossing her arms and pouting—and wow did she look young to Weiss' eyes when she did that. "We'll let it slide for now. But if my team is bad about getting up on time, I may just have to buy a new whistle. Are we clear?"

"Clear," said Neptune, getting up from the table. The others followed.

For an insane second, Weiss felt like she should be going with them.

For longer than a second, she wished she had.


Weiss found herself almost as affected by Team RVBY the next morning. She didn't pop a spontaneous nosebleed just seeing them, which was progress, but they still overwhelmed her.

Seeing them in person was so different from tiny images of them in tournament footage beamed across continents. They were more vivid, more real. At the same time, they also seemed more… trivial.

They got into small arguments over unimportant things. They were impressed or intrigued by things Weiss found totally insignificant. When they realized the town's train was functional, three of the four immediately clamored to ride it at the first opportunity. (Blake disagreed and gave no reason why.)

And yet this didn't disappoint Weiss or make her sick of them. Instead, she found herself strangely reluctant to assign the team the mission she and Winter had planned for them. Giving them that mission, after all, meant they would have to go away, and Weiss was in no hurry for that to happen. Just being around people who had such an easy, friendly relationship with each other made her long for more exposure. Their presence was intoxicating.

She found herself much preferring to show them around the town, show them all that SDR had built, even show them the machine shop, where a delighted Cam immediately launched into an extended lecture on Dust processing.

Cam was hitting her stride when Weiss received a message from Winter on her scroll. "Are you OK?" it asked.

Weiss sent back, "I'm fine."

"Then dial in," Winter shot back immediately.

With a sinking feeling, Weiss realized that she had missed one call on her normal daily agenda and was late for a second. She stepped outside the machine shop and dialed in, not announcing her arrival so she could pretend to have been there all along.

"Thank you for joining us, Miss Schnee," came Winter's voice in hard, sarcastic tones.

So much for that plan.

Weiss' embarrassment was not diminished when it turned out that her participation was not truly necessary. The meeting was informational, and the only actions to come out of it were for Winter to implement at the mining site. Weiss found herself resenting Winter's harsh demand that she join in.

The time she wasted on that call was time she could have spent with Team RVBY.

She slipped back inside the machine shop and noted that Ruby and Cam were deep in animated conversation. Yang and Neptune were milling around, looking at one machine or another, though with the good sense not to touch anything. Blake was leaning against a wall reading a book. Weiss didn't see where Blake could have been carrying said book; her outfit seemed too tight to have that kind of storage...

She had to rip her gaze away before her nosebleed returned.

It was only when she was looking away that she realized: she couldn't keep Team RVBY to herself. If she tried, if she allowed herself to keep them in town in her presence, she'd never be able to focus on her work. They were too distracting in all the right ways. Weiss knew what Winter would say if she wasted any more time on the interlopers.

No. Time to put them to work. With reluctance, she approached Ruby.

"This is really neat," said Ruby, looking at what Weiss distantly remembered was a centrifuge for Dust separation. "I've done lots of stuff with Dust before, but only as an end user, never as a refiner. This is all new and nifty."

"I know, right?" said Cam, over the moon at having an appreciative audience for once.

"I hate to break this up," said Weiss, "but I do have an actual job for your team. You were sent here to learn, and while I'm sure you could learn a lot about Dust mining, you can also learn a lot about the grimm of Solitas."

That drew Yang's attention. "Now you're speaking my language!" Even Blake consented to looking up from her book at those words.

"Then come with me," said Weiss, "and I'll show you what we're up against and what we need done."


The area map showed the grand semi-circle around Skjulte Perle's side of the fjord. Notes were written in several places about grimm the Schnees had encountered in those areas.

"Now remember, my sister, Winter Schnee, has the lead on this mission," said Weiss. "You're just there to support her."

"Oh ye of little faith," said Yang. "You said you saw us competing at Vytal."

"I did."

"Then you know we can… punch above our weight," she said while shadowboxing.

"Two points out of ten, not your best work," said Ruby from her position bent over the map.

"And even Vytal wasn't as good as we've fought," said Neptune. "We got into way more trouble when we weren't at Vytal. You have no idea."

Weiss had been wondering about that, had been fascinated about asking in fact, but now was not the time. She had to hold fast or she'd never get them out the door.

"We'll take it a section at a time," said Ruby to Weiss' surprise. Ruby was annotating the map Weiss had provided with shorthand notes, undoubtedly something she had learned at Beacon Academy, judging from how they looked like gibberish to Weiss but set the other members of Team RVBY to nodding. "There's no rush. General Ironwood told us to take all the time we need, and like my Uncle Qrow always says, a day in the field is worth a week in a classroom."

"And we'll be racking up the field time," said Yang, punching her hands together.

"You'll keep to the pace Winter sets," Weiss said, knowing Winter would give them no choice in the matter. "If you're ready, I'll get us a ride and we'll all go to the mining site."

"Just point me at a van," said Yang. "I'll drive us."

"Is that… safe?" Weiss asked.

"Sure! I drive a motorbike back home, and cars are way easier."

"Not that I don't trust you," Weiss said distrustfully, "but could I see your license?"

"Left it in my other bra," said Yang, grinning roguishly and jutting her chest forwards. "You can check if you want."

Weiss hid her short-circuiting brain behind a face-palm.

"She means it's in her wallet in her front right pants pocket," said Ruby in a not-this-again sort of voice.

"Spoilsport." Yang retrieved her wallet and displayed her license.

It seemed legitimate. It even listed her age. Odd, she didn't look twenty-one. Not that Weiss was looking, she thought sternly to herself.

"Alright, I guess we'll do it that way," Weiss said reluctantly. "Vans are over here."

As she turned to lead the team on, Neptune said in delayed-action surprise, "Wait, you wear bras?"

Ruby cracked up laughing. Even Blake couldn't help herself. "Neptune, you've been living with three women for how long now? And you're not clear on this concept?"

"Well, it's not like I was the one doing the laundry," Neptune sputtered. "I was trying to be gentlemanly about it."

"Which we appreciate," said Ruby charitably.

Weiss couldn't help but crack a smile she hid from the others.

She'd tried to delay or avoid this moment. She wished they were staying. She wished she could have kept them to herself. She had a million questions about Beacon, about Huntress training, about all the things that Team RVBY had done. She wanted to know why they'd dropped out of the Vytal tournament, and if it had anything to do with Team PeCe doing the same.

And all of that seemed much more interesting than getting back to work.

It was such a novel, staggering thought that Weiss nearly lost her balance just walking. Ever since the bankruptcy, and even really before that, Weiss had poured her effort into her business. It had been her number one priority. There hadn't been a number two.

Then Team RVBY had arrived. Were they a blessing or a curse? Weiss had gone back and forth on that question, but she was no closer to a solution.


Weiss found herself unexpectedly nervous as the van neared the mine. What would Winter say about being saddled with this bunch? How would she take their eccentricities, their… their antics?

And why was Weiss so nervous on their behalf? If Winter had a problem with these clowns, that was their problem, not Weiss'!

Despite repeating that over and over, she didn't truly believe it, and that frustrated her. She wanted them to make a good impression, and hoped they wanted that, too.

The van pulled up to the mining site office. Yang laid into the horn obnoxiously, finishing with a gratuitous grace note and grinning like a fiend all the while, before the five of them debarked.

Winter emerged from the office. She was still in conversation with Ilia, who was as ever bundled up warmly in her oversized coat.

"I hate to say this," lied Yang, "but I'm afraid you're getting demoted, Weiss."

"Ex-cuse me?"

"You're not Ice Queen anymore." Yang pointed at Winter. "That's Ice Queen. You're just Ice Princess."

Weiss' hands found her hips automatically. "That is not how noble titles work."

"You'll always be Snow Angel to me," crooned Neptune.

Weiss' brain crashed.

To distract herself, Weiss looked away, and found her attention drawn to Blake. Blake's stoic reserve had vanished, replaced by open shock and a disbelieving stare. Weiss followed Blake's eyes and found Ilia, who had similarly frozen in place and turned white.

Not just gone pale or bloodless—her skin tone had actually changed from its normal tan to the white of fresh snow.

Weiss knew she was missing something, maybe many things, and had no ability to find her depth.

She saw Winter (apparently unperturbed by Ilia's shift) arriving at the same conclusion, following the same path in reverse, from Ilia to Blake. Her eyes didn't stay on Blake, though—they moved along the group…

And then Eiszahn practically leapt to Winter's hand, its point drawing the shortest possible line towards Ruby's heart.

"Um… hi?" said Ruby nervously.

"Who are you?" demanded Winter in her coldest voice, her saber unshakingly leveled with deadly purpose.

"Ruby Rose?" said Ruby.

"You got a problem with that?" said Yang, stepping partially in front of her sister and bristling.

Winter's eyes flicked dismissively at Yang before returning to Ruby. She stared for another moment, then (with visible strain) lowered her saber. "I see. I may have drawn too quickly. You remind me of someone else I once knew who wore a red cape like that."

"The only person I know who wears a red cape is my Uncle Qrow," said Ruby.

Eiszahn leapt again. "Who?" said Winter, and now her voice was hot.

"Our Uncle Qrow," said Ruby, trying to maintain eye contact despite the sword point between her and Winter.

"Qrow Branwen," Yang elaborated, watching Winter unflinchingly. "Middle-aged, drunk all the time, is, like, one of maybe two people on the planet who uses a scythe. Ring a bell?"

Eiszahn shook in Winter's hand. "Very much so," she said in a voice as slow and inexorable as an approaching glacier.

"He's probably the coolest uncle ever," gushed Ruby, apparently oblivious to the danger.

"Did he teach you anything?" Winter demanded.

"Sure! He taught me how to use a scythe! And he taught me all about making weapons, and how to…"

"I mean," said Winter, and it was a wonder the words could get out from between clenched teeth, "do you share any of his vices?"

"Uh… well, there's this thing Yang can do with dice…"

Yang crossed her arms. "If you mean, Are we emo drunk sluts like him, then nope."

"Yang!" protested Ruby.

"It's what he calls himself, it's fine."

"It's not what I call him…"

"Well, I'm pretty sure that's what Ice Queen cares about, not the dice stuff."

"Until she goes to play a board game with you!"

With what Weiss considered exemplary control, Winter forced her eyes shut and slowly lowered her sword arm, which brought an end to the sisterly bickering. After an uncomfortably long silence, Winter's mouth finally unclenched. "Last question. Has he ever mentioned me?"

Ruby blinked. "Why would he?"

Winter's sword arm spasmed. "Answer the question."

"Uncle Qrow never talks about his missions," Ruby said. "It's pretty annoying, actually."

"He always acts like it's some big secret," said Yang, still halfway between Winter and Ruby. "Occasionally he'll tell us about some grimm he fought or some nonsense he got into on the road, but that's about it. Even then, he doesn't name names. That's just not how he rolls."

At last, Winter returned Eiszahn to her hip; Yang uncrossed her arms; everyone took either a literal or a metaphorical step backwards. "Very well," Winter said. "I will give you the chance to demonstrate you're not like him."

"Thank… you?" said Ruby.

"Just do not mention that man in my presence," she added.

Neptune frowned. "But you're the one who brought him up in the first place."

Winter shot Neptune a glare hot enough to melt wax.

"Okay, not the point," he said with a cringe, "I've got ya, no more person-not-to-be-named."

Winter held him hostage to her gaze for a few more seconds before slowly and loudly exhaling. "Fine. Let's get started. We'll see if you're as useless in combat as you are socially."

"I am ready to relieve you," Weiss said as Winter drew near.

"I stand relieved," said Winter distractedly, and she moved into the driver's seat of the van.

Ruby pretty much had to drag Blake from her spot staring at Ilia; only when eye contact was forcibly broken did Blake blink like a light was shining in her eyes and, with a furious blush, consent to being bundled into the van. At least she was silent: Weiss heard Yang and Neptune's conversation and wished she hadn't.

"Betcha ten lien Winter and Uncle Qrow boned."

"You're on."

"Ha! Sucker."

Then they were inside, Winter put them into gear, and the van was on its way.

Weiss followed it with her eyes until the curves of the mountains hid it from sight. With a sigh, she turned towards the office, only to find Ilia still standing there too, her eyes having followed a similar path. A look of distant longing was on Ilia's face—one she quickly stifled when she felt Weiss looking at her. Her skin had returned to its proper color, making Weiss' uncertainty all the keener.

Weiss was about to say something to Ilia about getting on with their workday when a new detail caught her attention. As bulky as Ilia's coat was, the front of her shirt extended down below its hem, which had never happened before. It was a different color shirt than Ilia's norm, too, a shade of white Weiss usually saw on—

Her eyes snapped up to Ilia's. "Are you wearing Winter's shirt?"

"No!" said Ilia. "O-of course not."

Weiss sharpened her glare.

Ilia's skin turned red all over. "Okay, maybe," she mumbled.

Weiss sighed. "And she says I'm thirsty. Come on, let's get you some Ice Dust."


Next time: The Truth Will Set You on Fire