Ruby Schnee

"Don't look... don't turn around... don't meet their eyes... just... transform... and fly away."

Oh, if only it were that simple. If only she could just take those few more steps with ease and spread her wings. Changing form was once such a difficult thing for Ruby Schnee, something she couldn't do no matter how hard she tried... yet now? Somehow in this moment it was even harder. The actual change was easy, it had been for years. But what came next would be almost impossible. Ruby hadn't been away from her family since Argus had been born. All trips they took together, all events and activists they shared... Ruby awoke to her wife's presence before waking her son in another room, and finished the day by wishing them both goodnight one after the other. The next few days wouldn't have that, unfortunately.

"How do Yang and Blake leave their kids for work...?"

Her respect for both of them grew, but she was simultaneously sure that neither of them wanted to leave their children... or each other.

"Calm down Ruby... It's just a small trip... a few days... then straight back home..."

One foot after the other, she slowly but surely took the steps needed to reach the centre of the landing pad. For a moment, she paused, taking a breath and simply feeling the wind pass through her hair. A spark of a connection rung through her, like she was a part of the World itself as she just existed in the moment... before it passed, and Mana flowed from her soul to her body. The same wind that had previously pushed and flowed against her hair, now ever so gently tore her body apart. Piece by piece, she broke and shattered into an uncountable number of rose petals, forming an almost snake like shape as it slithered along the wind and moved to rest just in front of where she had previously stood. The cloud of red grew in size, the rose petals rapidly growing in number, as the mass gained shape and formed into the large figure of a creature everyone present knew well.

Bright red petals melded together and became bright red scales. The hide of the creature heaved with the ease of its every movement... Ruby took a breath, her first one in this form in quite some time. It was different from her base, or even her half form... besides just the obvious. Strength was something that couldn't be easily defined, yet whenever she entered this state, her mind naturally grew anxious that she had accidentally activated Pride. How could it not? The sudden shift in scale was enough to make anyone question it. A single breath took in more air than any Humanoid could in a dozen, her lungs moved more mass than even existed in the average human... and it felt like the environment was more of a suggestion than a defined shape. The air wasn't empty space, it was another path she could move along. Walls weren't roadblocks, they were simply slightly more difficult directions to move in.

For several more moments, she breathed it all in. The breeze... her form... the sights all around her... even the World itself. Then, with the ease only a Dragon could, her wings moved with a beat sounding like thunder, and the air caved with its presence. Her body shot into the sky because that's where she wanted to go, the ground couldn't tether her and the air couldn't resist her. In a single beat of her powerful limbs, she had reached a height nearing the highest reaches of the castle's tallest tower. Had Weiss and Argus not been Dragons they surely would have been thrown from the landing pad... but, besides how easy it had been, Ruby had wanted to put a smile on her son's face. And she had to hope that would be enough.

Without glancing back to check, her wings split through the sky again, and with a sound almost like the crack of a whip did she bolt straight towards the city's barrier. Luckily, the large mass of magic would let her pass without a single bit of resistance. Besides her obvious key to pass through it, the ritual recognised its creator. It was less like a bubble popping as you moved against it, and more like a door opening before you even reached for the handle. Without a hint of struggle or even a lull to pause and admire the city behind her, she exited the barrier, and entered the region of Vale proper. She turned north-east, moving in almost the opposite direction of the island Patch, the place she had once called home. Ruby had every intention to reach Atlas tomorrow at the bare minimum, so her flight lacked grace or any kind of restraint. Within less than a minute from transforming, Vale was a distant blip behind her, no details besides the peak of the castle and the floating Colosseum being visible to even her eyes.

The speeds at which her wings carried her made the wind a genuine threat to anything not covered head to toe in scales as thick as hers. A gentle breeze had turned without warning into a series of slashing blades of air only reproducible by magic, she had shot forward at such speeds that arrows released by anything less than a magic bow of her own creation wouldn't be able to reach a target before she did. Fields of wheat and fields of grass that she passed over all melded together as time passed, even the Emerald Forest gave way to flat stretches of land that slowly but surely began to carry a chill. Ruby was feeling the frigid environment before she even reached the sea, but no part of Vale froze over besides Mountain Glenn unless winter covered the region. Her destination for today was a place to rest, she had every intention to cross the 'small' stretch of ocean that separated Vale and the Island of Vytal... the birthplace of Vampires.

"I wonder if Emerald grew up there..."

It was less of a stretch than one would imagine, given Ruby didn't know the woman's age, for one. Who knows, Emerald might even be old enough to have seen the signing of the treaty between Vampires and Werewolves... the birth of the Vytal Festival. Though, that would make her older than Ruby's Uncle, or even her father... so she wanted to doubt it. After all, once upon a time, Emerald had been engaged to Whitley. The Dragon shuttered at the thought of an eighteen-hundred year old Vampire flirting with a Human teenager.

"I guess... Emerald didn't actually want to marry him anyway... and she definitely never flirted with him."

A small groan slipped from the Dragon, a strange noise considering its strength. Ruby hated that, even after all these years, she was still defending Emerald in her head.

Even after she had sworn to kill the Vampire.

The cold was a bite not unfamiliar... yet, this particular chill was foreign to her.

Ruby knew the cold. She had experience frozen winters, snowy skies, and even the touch of Weiss Schnee... but this was different. It was unusual, strange even... the feeling of frosty winds over the sea.

She had left the land of Vale, the continent she knew as home was left behind... though, the whole landmass wasn't exactly friendly to her. Sanus was the name of the continent, home to Vale in the east and Vacuo to the west... connected in the centre by a large field that melded into desert sand, forests and mountains lining it from different sides of the border to the two countries. The Border Barrier cut through the centre of that range, and was the most likely place for Vacuo to attack if they didn't stick to the defensive during this war... of course, they could attack by sea, but that would risk attacks from aquatic Grimm. That was also the same reason why they wouldn't cross the short distance to the continent just north of Sanus and then attack Vale with a more direct route... the northern Continent, the one above Sanus and just west of Solitas - the home of Atlas - was unnamed for a reason. Only once did people try to build and settle civilisation on that place, and the results of that were listed in a document that managed to survive the Great Erasure. Nearly all of it was unreadable... but it did hold inside of it a note from one of the settlers who perished along with all other life on that landmass. That note... that letter... it was how the modern world, the world Post the Erasure... knew of the word 'Grimm'. A word that carried a heavy magic energy, but wasn't a part of the magic language. Ruby only knew of one other word with those same properties, one which no one else knew the unique nature of.

"Schnee..."

Ruby didn't know how or why those words carried power. She was also unaware of why exactly one of them was in such a prominent place of the Dragon Formula. Her best guess so far was that it was an anagram of sorts, that it filled in the place where six other words should... making the Dragon Formula a ten word Formula when counting them all besides Schnee itself. But, that was just a theory for now, and it certainly wasn't on her list of priorities to figure out.

Slowly, but surely, the large island of Vytal revealed itself in the distance. Luckily for the Rose Dragon, no Grimm had decided to challenge her from below in the deep waters of the sea. The Island was many, many times bigger than her original home of Patch, and it featured three main regions to it. The first, taking the southern side of the isle, was the Lycan domain. The northern edge, was of course the Vampire's domain. And in the centre where they met was the heart of the Island. A town constructed next to a deep crater that had served as the construction site for the floating Colosseum currently housed in Vale. The town lacked a name, but that was due to its construction only serving at first to support the workers making Amity Colosseum... it wasn't anyone's intention for the town to become a permanent feature of the Island, but it still had a population even to this day. Apparently, said population threw some of the biggest celebrations of the Vytal Festival in all of Remnant.

To get this far, Ruby had to pass over a familiar fortress. The memories of her experience in that place, her first mission as a Hunter... and one of the only ones she ever went on. That team, RJVE, they spawned good memories, even considering what would later come of one of its members. Ruby hadn't thought about Emerald much in years, yet now of all days she couldn't get the woman out of her head. Thoughts she wanted to have, memories and images of her family, were instead plastered over with her once friend...

"She's still in prison... after all this time..."

Annoyingly, frustratingly, Ruby felt bad for her. Even if only a little.

Passing over the island of Vytal now, she couldn't help but admire the large crater in the centre of the landmass. With only a glance she could recognise it as the floating Colosseum's origin, but even so, she did more than just glance. Her sight was practically telescopic when she focused, so, with nothing better to do... she scanned over the quarry. It was lit up well, open completely at the top and getting smaller as it went down. Trace amounts of Dust could be seen along the walls of the mine, but not enough to be useful. Across the whole thing, there was probably only as much Dust as her son could make in a few minutes... if he was making Ice Dust. Besides that, ores and metals were galore in the large pit, though it had clearly remained untouched. The nearby town - nearby in this case meaning literally right next to the giant hole - seemingly hadn't scavenged the crater for anything... not even grabbing the stray pieces of Dust, instead, choosing to keep the place as a memory of what the festival meant.

"Four more years till the next festival... huh?"

Unless this war was still ongoing, of course. The festival of peace wouldn't exactly carry the same meaning during a conflict of this scale.

"Not that the first attack has even been made yet..."

Ruby shook her head. In her mind, she had delayed over the island for too long... even if her speed hadn't dropped at all. With a great flap of her wings, a new burst of speed rocketed her through the sky.

She wasn't planning on resting anywhere but Atlas tonight.

She found it strange how flight had gotten so much easier.

Years prior, it had taken her six hours flying at max speed to reach Vale's closest border to Atlas... of course, said border was before the sea, and certainly before the Island of Vytal. So, as the temperatures dropped further, as the clouds grew heavier with snow rather than rain... she couldn't help but smile as a familiar sight came into view.

Just... not familiar to her own memories.

How long had it been since Rory last saw this place? In the hundreds of years that had passed since then, it remained nearly unchanged. Surely, some streets were different, some stores and buildings now served a different purpose, and a large portion of the populace were most likely different people... but even with her sight, she couldn't spot any great differences.

Ruby passed through the cities edge without issue, the capital lacked a barrier like Vale sported... of course, Vale didn't have an armada of airships either. Luckily, she was expected. Weiss having rung ahead... otherwise surely a great deal of the fleet would be up in the air before she even got close to the city. The light of sunset had passed some time ago, which left her with a beautiful view of the glowing city, one she couldn't help but compare to a view Eirwen had once shared with Rory as they danced so high above the ground... probably at the same height she flew at now. A glance to her side, one made out of curiosity, and she laid her eyes on the place her ancestor once called home... The college looked the same, baring the damages done to the dorm room she had memories of. Ruby could actually pick out which window it was... and how painfully different it looked now. Yes... it was painful. Even if the memories weren't hers... she felt a cold sort of nostalgia to this place, one she couldn't shake.

"I'm not Rory."

She knew that, in her heart, mind, soul, and body. Only a small piece of him remained, one locked in a sort of chest deep in her subconscious to keep it from escaping... Yet, she couldn't help but stop in the air, her wings flapping to keep her hovering as she looked forward... over the castle of course, her eyes were set on the backdrop of the Schnee's home.

The Dust Spike was a marvel, to put it lightly. It was one thing to hear about the great crystal, and another to see it in person... Of course, she had seen it before in Rory's memories, but the best view he had gotten of it was when he was dancing with Eirwen... a time when he was focused on her, and her alone. Ruby admired the crystal, the source of the Schnee's strength... perhaps even the birthplace of magic itself.

"Everyone in Remnant was Human, after all... once upon a time."

Early Humans used Dust to make the first spells and rituals... and not long after were the first Formula's discovered. Ruby hovered in the sky, high above the city, staring down what was perhaps the progenitor of civilisation itself. The Dust Spike was gigantic, it resembled a single crystal of Dust, but wider than even Amity Colosseum... and of course its width was its smallest dimension. It breached the clouds, and went higher still. Its peak was taller than Ruby herself flew, and probably stood as the highest point in all of Remnant. Yet, it had no chances of tipping over. For as tall as it was above ground, the crystal truly was a spike of the earth, spawning from deep underground. Its colour was beautiful, vibrant, it reminded her of Argus's scales... before the moving rainbow of colours had settled on his hide as he grew older and gained control of himself.

This place, it felt like two lives were intersecting here... her own, and Rory's. She looked at the crystal, and was reminded of both her son... and Rory's dance with Eirwen. He looked at the castle, and was reminded of the place Weiss grew up... as well as the place Rory had been walking to, in the last memory she had seen of his. The whole city felt like that. Atlas was home to feelings and memories she would sooner see ejected from herself than pursue for the sake of 'a trip down memory lane'. Suffice to say... She didn't like this place.

"And that's before I even have to deal with the in-laws..."

Setting down gently on a landing pad that had clearly been prepared for her, Ruby got the gist of the situation incredibly quickly. People had been waiting for her, a crowd of civilians and even rows of guards all holding a salute... it was like a royal procession. As her eyes slowly glanced up and got a view of the path ahead of her... she realised that that's exactly what this was. The landing pad had an incredibly wide path leading into the castle, the great structure of white brick looked almost to be made of shaped snow... and from what she could see of the indoors, it was all decorated with the Schnee's favourite dark-stained wood. She still stood tall as the full figure of the Rose Dragon, mainly because it seemed like Whitley had every intention to welcome her like this... and, as she had feared...

"Sister, welcome."

Her teeth almost grit as he stepped out of the entrance to the castle... well, this entrance. Ahead of her, the path that was wide enough for a Dragon lead into a large doorway of an opening that was also built for the same scale. Stepping out was her brother-in-law... Whitley Schnee. Though, he was in a form that she had only seen once. Ruby wasn't too sure why they were doing things like this... but, Weiss had trained her to be flexible in more ways than one.

"Whitley-" They weren't speaking out loud, Dragons couldn't after all. But, that telepathy was a skill one didn't have to train in order to master. "-How have you been?" It was strange to look over him... Ruby still hadn't spent much time in this form herself, and this was the first time she stood before another Dragon also transformed. His form matched closely to Weiss's own, the differences mainly coming in bulk that Weiss had lacked in certain places... though, still nowhere enough to compare to Ruby or Yang. While The Frost Dragon could be called elegant, with wings that seemed to drape over her almost like a dress... Ruby would compare Whitley to a proud looking creature, with wings that resembled more of a cape. Truly, the Snow Dragon was quite a sight to behold... if a bit difficult to see, thanks to its white scales back dropped against the white castle.

"Truly, you are still the definition of class." His face seemed to mimic the movements of laughter, but no sound came out.

"Well, it's not like we're talking out loud."

"Perhaps we should fix that? I would certainly love to watch you fumble with the 'royal talk'." Ok, now he was definitely laughing.

Still, Ruby rolled her eyes... and they both changed at the same time. It was like they were a reflection of each other, each of them changing in the exact same way... baring the colour and material. Ruby's body collapsed into an uncountable number of rose petals, the mass swirled and collected into a tighter-packed form closer to the ground as she reformed in her base state. Her eyes were wide as she watched Whitley throughout her change... as baring the fact that he had turned into snow, the movements were exactly the same.

"I'll show you to where you're staying, then... we can get to why you're here." His voice had changed, now taking on a more regal nature when speaking aloud. Still, Ruby found it mildly entertaining that he was only as tall as herself. Though, obviously still nowhere near the short stature that was Weiss Schnee.

"Of course." Ruby smiled, mainly to keep up appearances. In truth, she kept repeating Weiss's guide to talking respectfully in her head... the advice was mainly just be polite, and talk as little as possible.

She followed close as he turned, stepping through the large 'doorway' and moving into the castle proper. Ruby noted the guards following them closely, but also found the hallway itself strange... as it kept that same scale from earlier. "How much of the castle is designed with Dragons in mind?" Only after she asked did she realise she had already messed up Weiss's advice.

"A large amount of it. No one could be bothered changing its scale to matching that of a Human when we lost the power of the Dragons." Ruby nodded at his explanation... Though, she would remember to avoid bringing things up about how the Schnee's all used to be Dragons... Probably not the best of subjects to talk about. "Weiss mentioned the purpose of your being here. I agree that changing Winter is a good decision-"

"Of course you do, she works for you." That thought she didn't share through telepathy.

"And I was hoping that you would agree with me when it came to... another matter. Though, one of similar circumstance." His words filled her with worry... mainly due to something else Weiss had warned her about... given Whitley's position, it would only make sense that he would try something like this... but... Ruby had really been hoping that he wouldn't.

"Elaborate." Her words dipped into a... less respectful tone, but that didn't really matter anymore... after all...

He wanted something from her.

"Well, while you're here... I see no reason as to why you can't also turn my wife into a Dragon."

13th Day, Fourth Strike, 2115 PE