"Turn right," Weiss mumbled, the group turning at her command. "Remind me why I can't have anything? You're going to get yourselves killed if I'm just dead weight."

Ruby, who seemed to be slightly swaying on her feet as she followed close behind Weiss, reached forward to give her a reassuring pat on the back. "Because you're a hostage," she explained. "It'd be suspicious if we let you be armed."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Oh, yes, that's the part that's suspicious. Not the fact that it was obviously me who broke you out, and that I nearly killed my father to do it."

Ruby hissed, realizing she had a solid point. "Do you think you could hide a dagger?"

Weiss bit her lip. "Maybe? Depends on if it'll fit in my boot."

Ruby's belt jingled and clanked as she extracted her steel dagger, comparing it to Weiss' footwear. "Sorry, I don't think—"

A loud sigh interrupted her as Blake dropped back from her spot at the front with Yang. "Here, princess," she drawled, passing the heiress a small blade— one of her throwing knives. "If you lose it, I will flay your body and turn your tanned hide into a new cloak."

Weiss slowly took the knife as the vivid image processed in her brain. "Wow… thanks," she sarcastically intoned, squinting at the puny weapon. "I'll be sure to use it if we're accosted by… I don't know, a small rodent? Perhaps a vicious gang of infants?"

Blake easily pinched the blade before Weiss could stow it. "I could take it back."

Weiss looked to Ruby for support, but the smith just gave her a mildly chastising look, one that told her 'just take the damn thing and say you're sorry.'

It made her feel like a peasant, being scolded by these commoners, but Weiss grit her teeth and managed to mutter a strained 'sorry'. For Ruby.

Blake leaned closer, pulling her bandages under her ear for dramatic effect. The long appendage sprung free, accompanied by a cupped hand from the fay. "Sorry, what was that? Huh? One more time, princess, I don't think I—"

"Blake," Ruby's voice cut across like a cleaver through the arm. "Just stop. She said she's sorry, so let's move on."

Blake recoiled, blinking hard before slowly returning to Yang's side. The two shared a couple hushed murmurs, but didn't waste any more time in leading the group once more.

Weiss looked back over her shoulder, shooting a grateful smile towards Ruby. She slowed down a little to fall instep beside the smith. "Thanks, Ruby, that fay is—"

Ruby held a hand up before she could say anything else, and it suddenly struck Weiss how tired the girl looked. Dark bags around her eyes, sickly pale skin, swaying with each step; her Aura had clearly taken a lot of energy in its initial burst of healing, and her blood loss hadn't yet been compensated. "Please, Weiss," she muttered, "I really like you, but I need you to be good to my friends. Not just for this, but for my sake, okay?"

Weiss watched the smith half-trip over her own feet before smoothly catching herself and playing it off as adjusting her cleaver's strap. Shit, was she a bad person? "O-okay, I'll, er… try to do better."

Ruby nodded, a relieved puff passing between her lips. "Thank you."

Weiss nodded numbly, then returned to her spot in the group's middle. "L-left here," she directed, her voice cracking as her exposed vulnerability still seeped into her words.

Blake looked over her shoulder, but didn't say anything. She just nodded, faced forward, and turned left with Yang.

Their advance remained uncontested as they cautiously crept through the halls of Palace Schnee, occasionally having to step over the unconscious bodies that Yang and Blake had left behind from their initial entry. Ruby passed dozens of downed guards, each one armed and armored with quality equipment, and felt proud of her sister. Her and Blake must have been a brutally efficient, but extremely calculated duo, judging by the distinct lack of blood under the incapacitated. There were plenty of broken limbs, cuts and burns, along with general bodily damage, but Yang had managed not to turn these men into corpses. Her self-control was truly impressive.

"I don't like this," Blake thought aloud. "Getting in here was like pushing through an army, but now it's just… empty."

"I'm feeling it too," Yang concurred.

Ruby wasn't really feeling much of anything, she was too focused on not collapsing. Still, she kept a palm resting on her falchion— she expected a professional Huntress like Yang to have superior instincts.

"They're surrounding the castle, there are only a couple exits." Weiss stated, her voice grim as her hands began to shake. "They're not going to let us leave."

Yang scoffed and raised a fist. "As if they could stop us!"

"They really were a sorry bunch," Blake added, "I imagine the four of us can push out."

"Are you insane?" Weiss suddenly shouted, stopping the group with her loud stomp. "They'll be facing us with the entire regrouped guard, plus Pyrrha bloody Nikos!"

Yang raised a dismissive brow. "She can't be that strong, there are four of us."

When Weiss caught Ruby's frown, she realized they were thinking the same thing. "She could beat every single one of us within an inch of our lives," Weiss exclaimed, "with one hand, blindfolded! Do you even know what she is?"

"Human," Yang immediately answered, "which means she—"

Weiss let out a loud whoop of laughter and melodramatically doubled over. "Is that really what you think?" She let out another cackle and wiped away a fake tear. "I suppose an oaf like you—"

"Weiss," cold, sharp, and right next to her ear— Ruby, whose dark-ringed eyes highlighted the threat within her boiling silver irises. "That is my sister."

Weiss scrambled away from the suddenly-terrifying smith, who did not move to pursue her. "S-sorry, Ruby—"

A sharply pointed finger from Ruby directed Weiss' vision to the Huntress towering behind her. Yang looked down at her with a smirk.

Weiss shrank back, caught between Ruby and Yang, and muttered another ashamed apology. When a hand landed on her shoulder, she nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Okay, we get it," Blake drawled, "Now let's stop spooking the princess and get back to what matters. Weiss, what do you mean about Pyrrha?"

Weiss stared up at the fay with wide eyes, backing away. Had… had Blake just defended her against her own friends? Weiss shook her head, but didn't find herself clearing away the impossible scene before her. It took a long moment before she could eke out, "Right, er… Pyrrha isn't human."

Ruby immediately recoiled from thr information. "Eh?"

"She's a fay, then?" Yang asked in return, her eyebrows peaking.

"That doesn't make sense," Blake stated, "she looks perfectly human."

Weiss shook her head, her earlier shock fading. "She's extraplanar," she claimed, "sort of."

The word shocked precisely one person in their group— Blake, the only one who knew it. "So… she is from the Shimmer?" The fay asked.

Weiss chuckled, her head slowly shaking. "No."

Blake's eyebrows furrowed deeply. "She's a daemon?"

"Worse," the heiress explained, "Pyrrha Nikos is from the Ængvaldr Chasm."

Blake recoiled, her back straightening as her eyes widened in shock. "She's fucking what."

Ruby and Yang stared as the two threw around meaningless mouth-noises. "Uh, what?" Ruby piped up.

Weiss, smugly content with blowing the fay's mind, casually explained, "There's a space between all planes, so large and empty that normal magic users can't cross it without an immense well of energy and an enormous amount of risk. Fay have it easy since their gates fold the space between them, allowing them to freely travel, but anybody else has to form a magical bridge so long that it takes years to cross. If the bridge's energy source flickers for even a moment, every single person on it will be cast into the Chasm's infinite depths, doomed to fall until they starve."

Yang raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Okay? So what's Pyrrha got to do with it?"

"Who's Angvald?" Ruby asked in tandem, her voice overlapping Yang's.

"Ængvaldr," Weiss corrected, her pronunciation barely different, "was the first man to cross the Chasm into the fay realm."

Ruby blinked. "Wait, wait, I thought we went to war against the fay."

"We did," clarified the heiress, "Ængvaldr is the one who showed them our realm, thus allowing them to gate to it on their own."

"That's insane, why did—"

"They threw him into the chasm afterwards," Weiss stated. "Legends say he's still falling, sustained purely by his rage at the fay's betrayal."

"Oh, please," Blake scoffed, "Ængvaldr stole from them!"

"That's a lie, pure sh— fay propaganda." Weiss argued, "But even if it were true, your punishment for petty thievery is death without trial?"

Blake laughed deeply and stomped back towards the heiress, extending a finger to poke into her chest. "Ohoho, that is fucking rich considering Ruby—"

"Okay, okay, guys!" Ruby placed herself between them, her arms extended. "We're getting off track. What's Pyrrha got to do with this?"

"Ruby, she's from the Chasm," Weiss elaborated. "Can't you see the problem there?"

"No?" Answered Ruby.

Yang was beginning to flush red from frustration, her foot rapidly tapping on the stone floor. "I still don't get how she's not human," the Huntress said.

"Looks can be deceiving," Blake refuted.

Weiss nodded— agreeing with the fay again— and sent a cautious glance down the hallway. "Our scouts found her naked and trembling, hanging halfway out of a planar tear, apparently just a few hundred feet from the Palace. Sure, she looks human, but identification magic has only stated the opposite— she's everything but human."

Ruby and Yang stared blankly, the latter speaking for both of them. "Then… how does she look human?"

Weiss chuckled and shrugged. "Ask the Watcher."

So nobody knows. Ruby shivered at the thought. "And that means she can beat us?" The smith asked, her hand tightening around her falchion's pommel.

"Handily," Weiss confirmed. "Whatever the Chasm did to her, it made her into a bloody force of nature. Father was lucky to bind her into fealty before somebody else could." After a tense silence, she quietly added, "Gods, somebody like her could probably tear the empire in two."

"Crook and cane…" Ruby whispered.

"Shitting hells," agreed Blake.

"Fuck," Yang concurred.

They stood in uncomfortable silence for a long while, only occupied by the sounds of their breathing and the passive clanking of Ruby's various equipment. Even when she was nearly motionless, her things had a nasty habit of hitting each other.

"Well…" Ruby broke the silence, her voice quiet and hopeful. "Is there another way out? Some sort of… secret tunnels? Catacombs?"

Weiss frowned. "Probably, but my father has chosen to keep that knowledge to himself."

Ruby huffed. "I really hate that guy."

Weiss hummed in agreement, her fingers tapping her chin as she imagined every way out of the castle.

"Well…" Yang started, her voice unsure. "Blake can still gate us."

When Ruby's bright, hopeful eyes turned to the fay, she felt her heart tug with guilt. "Err… not from here, no. And like I said, it can get very unstable after the first. Especially with all four of us."

"We can take our chances," Ruby suggested.

Blake shook her head. "Sorry Red, but unless you want to find yourself suddenly buried twenty feet underground, I really wouldn't recommend it."

Ruby's gaze fell to her shoes, downtrodden.

Weiss frowned at the sight. Even if the smith insisted she treat the fay like a person, she still found herself deeply caring for the dolt. Seeing her wilt put a damper on her… thoughts…

Wilt.

Weiss' chin rose high, a glint in her cerulean eyes. "I know a way out."

AN: kept you waiting, huh?

sorry this took so long lol, was visiting family in tx and didnt have access to computer ;-; yo how about pyrrha tho? how tf did she do that? crazy huh? oh gosh golly this things gonna end soon, the only way ill be able to expand more on it would be if i wrote a sequel... ahahaha jk jk,,, unless? fr tho i dont wanna stop writing this and there's a ton of stuff to still expand upon so expect a sequel. sorry mecha fans, that one's gonna have to wait

anyway, thanks for reading :)