Chapter 10

A Break in the Action

"Aw, man, you were so close! Just a little bit longer and you would have had 'em!" Ruby Rose said to Velvet Scarlatina as she and the rest of her team joined Team CFVY in a break room set aside for competitors. Coco Adel and Velvet were currently resting on a small couch while Fox Alistair and Yatsuhashi Daichi stood on either side.

"Yeah, talk about bad luck! You absolutely kicked ass!" Yang Xiao Long agreed.

Velvet smiled bashfully, a light blush dusting her cheeks, as she said, "Thanks. I wish I had gone all out against Mercury when it was just the two of us, though. Pretty sure we would have won then."

"Don't beat yourself up, dear. There's no way you could have seen Emerald's Semblance coming," Coco said as she placed a hand on her partner's shoulder. Velvet gave her a tired but grateful smile.

"What is her Semblance, anyway?" Weiss Schnee asked. "Coco just started to attack thin air while Emerald attacked her freely."

"Illusions," Velvet answered. "I don't know the exact mechanics but she seems to be able to place people under near perfect illusions. You see and hear only what she wants you to; I didn't even hear the announcement that Coco had been taken out. I only knew that something was wrong when I saw Coco coming from the wrong direction."

Ruby gave a meaningful look at Emiya Shirou who simply shook his head as he said, "That's certainly a very powerful Semblance. Unless you have sharp instincts or some other trick up your sleeve, there's no way to counter it. It seems to have a pretty sizable drain on her Aura, though, so she can't maintain it for too long."

"Given what it does, she doesn't really need to use it for that long in most fights," Blake Belladonna pointed out.

"So, that means that Emerald's going to be the one going on to the finals, right?" Ruby asked.

"I think not," Yatsuhashi said. "That sort of Semblance works best if the enemy does not know about it. Even if they are working under the impression that no one figured it out, it would be too obvious if she used it during a singles match."

"Yeah, that makes sense," Yang said with a nod. "Pyrrha's a lot like that, too."

"What would it matter, though? This is the finals. There're no fights after it," Fox asked.

"No official fights," Shirou corrected. "They're up to something. I don't have any proof of it nor do I know what they're up to but… be careful and be ready for anything."

Coco sat up straight in alarm, "You think there's going to be an attack or something on the festival?"

"I don't know. I might just be paranoid but…"

Team CFVY shared a look and nodded at each other before Coco said, "I think Velv and I will keep our weapons on us. Fox, Yatsu, you two might want to get yours and we should all have them tomorrow."

"Yatsuhashi and Fox might arouse suspicions given how large and obvious their weapons are. If I turn out to be right and you two need weapons right away, just come to me and I'll take care of it until your lockers get here. I can replicate just about any bladed weapon that I can see so long as it's not too complicated. I won't be able to give you your exact weapon, Fox, but I can get you something close enough."

"I suppose you're right," Coco said with a wave. "Blake, Yang, your match is scheduled for this evening, right? Good luck. Hopefully, you won't run into the same problem we did."

Yang put her arm around her girlfriend's shoulders as she said, "Hey, we've got this one in the bag! Flynt and Neon won't know what hit 'em!"

OoOoOoO

While it wasn't known for such things, there were many places in Vale that one could go if one wished to avoid mingling with the commoners and riffraff. These were places carefully curated by Vale's upper crust, such as they were, to try and preserve what they saw as the sanctity of the nobility of the kingdom's yesteryears. While they couldn't explicitly keep people out— that was against Vale's anti-discrimination laws— they could use a combination of social engineering by congregating in an area and building it up, items for sale that were luxuries or things that the common folk wouldn't see the need for, and prices that were at just the right point to turn away your average person. All of that was effective in making sure that the common folk couldn't live there or linger for too long but they were more than welcome to come through and marvel at the superiority of their betters.

The sole exception to that magnanimous behavior was the Faunus, naturally. If there was any justice, those flea-bitten stains on the world would never be allowed to so much as set paw in this district but there wasn't thanks to, again, those ridiculous anti-discrimination laws. There were ways to achieve similar results while skirting around the letter of the law, though. The prices for goods in the area were never listed— if you had to ask, you couldn't afford it— so it was a simple matter to double or triple the price for any Faunus. If they tried to eat there, they would simply be served last and given leftovers. Even if they simply tried to pass through the neighborhood, the glares and scowls of the locals would drive them off quickly enough.

Given all of this, Weiss was distinctively uncomfortable being there and eating at something that could loosely be considered a restaurant. It was an outdoors affair with Weiss sitting in an ornately carved pavilion with a plate of croissants and strawberries on the table. While the current Weiss wouldn't be caught dead in this area, her sister, Winter Schnee, had invited her out to eat here during the break in the tournament. Weiss didn't know if her sister didn't know about the area's reputation outside of being high class or if she did know and just didn't care. It was also entirely possible that she didn't know and wouldn't care if told. Regardless, Weiss wasn't entirely sure how to bring the matter up without potentially leading to a confrontation.

"You're… leaving?" Weiss asked in response to her sister sharing the news after they finished the main course.

Winter took a sip of her tea before setting the cup down and saying, "Yes. I was merely needed to oversee the transport of additional units to Vale." In truth, Winter still had no idea why she was needed for this when the Spec Ops would do just fine but it wasn't her place to question things. "Our last shipment was lost to an ambush. I believe you had a run-in with its cargo, actually. It's fortunate those Paladins were in the prototype stage; otherwise your team may not have fared so well." Weiss sighed as she looked down dejectedly. That being said, given what she knew now regarding Shirou's capabilities, she wasn't entirely sure about that.

Winter reached over and grabbed her sister's hand where it rested on the table, making Weiss look up in surprise, "Weiss, you've done… well, out here, on your own. You should be proud. I'll be honest, it was quite amusing seeing Father's face the day you left for Beacon!"

Weiss chose her next words carefully. Her sister wasn't a fan of their father— she honestly wasn't certain that anyone was other than the other moguls who profited from him— but there was this unspoken something that existed; a performative measure, mayhaps. Their father was the opposite of fine but they had to pretend that he was more-or-less fine in order to protect the family name. It was frankly a tad ridiculous but Weiss was already going to be facing an uphill battle to restore the family name from her father's inhumane practices once she took over. Adding more to that plate seemed ill advised.

As such, the only response was to cross her arms proudly and say, "I can't wait to show him what I learned!" This wasn't entirely untrue but the reasoning was different. She didn't want to show him because he'd be proud of her— she didn't think he had ever been proud of her— but rather to rub it in his face that she can become strong following her own path.

"Oh? Then what do you think you've learned?" Winter asked coyly.

"You saw the match, didn't you? My physical and tactical abilities have increased dramatically and my control over glyphs has become much more precise. I have even developed new strategies for them."

"Yes, that trick you did using the modification to Myrtenaster was fairly inspired and you receive top marks for your usage outside of that. However, what about your summoning? If your goal had been to showcase your capabilities while you had the chance, that would have been a significant display."

Weiss looked away from her sister, chewing her bottom lip in embarrassment. "I…" Weiss sighed and slumped in defeat, "I still can't do it. I've been working on it, though! While it's nonstandard, I was given some advice that's been helpful."

Winter raised her brow in interest, "And what is this nonstandard way, exactly?"

Weiss hesitated for another moment. She was never quite certain as to where her sister stood on certain matters of tradition and so didn't know how she'd react. There was nothing for it, though, as she had already started down this path.

"Rather than just using the glyph as the focal point, I've also been trying to use my own body. One of the greatest weaknesses of our more powerful summons is that we're vulnerable while they're out; we're effectively switching ourselves out as combatants. There are things like what you did with the birds when fighting Qrow, of course, but such summons only work as a distraction at best; if they were sufficient on their own, we could handle the threat directly. This idea will instead use the summons as a sort of armor to empower myself."

Winter hummed in thought as she mulled this over. She was silent for so long that Weiss was starting to actually fidget from her nerves before Winter said, "That is certainly a fascinating idea. Father would certainly have a fit buuuuuut…" Winter smiled knowingly at her sister who gladly returned it. "So, how far have you progressed with your idea?"

Weiss deflated again, "Not as far as I'd like but I also haven't been working on it for that long; what time I had to train was also taken up by helping my teammates. The best I can do right now is this." Weiss held out her left arm and conjured a glyph around her shoulder. From it, a faint aura of blue translucence that took the shape of vaguely familiar armor appeared but it looked fragile and was flickering in and out of existence.

"The end result will certainly be fascinating to see but you clearly have far to go still," Winter said once Weiss canceled the pseudo-summon. "You must remember that we Schnees are unique. Unlike many, our Semblance is hereditary but that doesn't mean it will come easily. Remember that a Semblance is much like a muscle; the more you practice with it, the stronger it will become. You have clearly been practicing a wide array of applications for it and pushing your limits so I am positive that you will master this new application and make great use of it."

Weiss beamed at her sister's praise. It was a hard thing to earn but that just made it all the more special. While her opinion of the rest of her family ranged from neutral to loathing, her big sister was the only one she truly considered family.

OoOoOoO

"You'll never beat me, old man!" Ruby said resolutely.

"You're nothing but talk, kid!" Qrow taunted in response.

"You can do it, Ruby!" Yang cheered from the sidelines.

It turned out, however, that Ruby could not do it. "SOARING NINJA WINS! TOTAL ANNIHILATION!" the video game's announcer said as Qrow scored yet another flawless victory. Ruby and Yang pouted while Qrow looked cockily at his essentially adopted niece and said, "And by the way, don't ever call me old."

"My turn!" Yang said as she pushed her sister out of the way and took up the controller. She quickly chose her character and set the stage to random before starting the match.

"Now, where was I?" Qrow asked as he was only half paying attention to the game. Something he found both sad and hilarious was that he was thrashing them without using his Aura to increase his reaction and movement speed while he was fairly certain that his nieces were.

"You were telling us about your last mission!" Ruby said excitedly as she popped up behind the two.

"Right, right…" And so Qrow began to regale the two with a story that was most certainly not his last mission or even a mission he had ever really been on. While certain segments of it were more-or-less true, if exaggerated, they were bits and pieces of various missions he had been on over the years strung together in a cohesive enough narrative. He wasn't overly fond of lying to his nieces but keeping them out of the loop so that they could enjoy a comparatively normal school life was for the best.

"That was when I was defeated… by the mere sight… of the innkeeper's skirt length!" he finished dramatically at the same time as he won another flawless victory against Yang. Yang reached over to Blake's bed and threw a pillow at his head as hard as she could but Qrow just casually caught it as he and Ruby laughed.

"You are theworst!"

"Best two out of three?" he offered as Yang took up the controller once more. She remembered reading up about that one infinite combo so maybe if she tried that…

"So, Uncle Qrow, did you get in trouble with Ozpin?" Ruby asked as she took a seat on Weiss' bed.

"Nah, me and Oz go way back. We're cool," he replied while waving her concern off, taking advantage of the fact that he was currently just blocking baby's first infinite combo to take one hand off of the controller.

"Cool for an old guy," Yang said with a scoff, her frustration at not being able to get a hit in growing.

"Not funny," Qrow replied with a bit of heat in his voice. It was then that Yang flubbed an input in her combo so Qrow stopped holding back and showed her what a real combo looked like. Yang's character was taken from full health to zero in the span of about ten seconds as she was rendered completely powerless by the perfectly chained hitstuns.

"So, what are you doing here anyway? I thought Dad said that you would be on a mission for, like… ever."

"Well, a professional Huntsman like myself is expected to get results as soon as possible," Qrow answered while Yang growled in frustration, her eyes briefly flashing red before she closed them and calmed down with a deep breath. He was actually mildly impressed by how much she had grown.

"Yeeeeaaaah, I get that," Ruby said with a laugh. "We're pretty much pros, too."

"Oh really?" Qrow said skeptically.

"Psch, yeah! Read the news sometime. We totally saved Vale while you were gone," Yang said as she started up another match after switching characters. Qrow took most of his attention back off of the game to give her a fighting chance again.

"I'll admit that what you girls did was pretty impressive but don't let it go to your heads. Real professionals are expected to do at least that much pretty much on a daily basis." At that, Qrow once again won a flawless victory. Yang just sighed and turned the game off.

"Well, we helped take down Roman Torchwick! He's locked up in Ironwood's ship and crime's been down ever since! That's basically a bounty mission!" she said, insistent on expressing how awesome they were.

"Sure, you may be acting like Huntresses, but you're not thinking like one. You really think four girls and their friends could end all crime in a kingdom?"

"I mean, I did until you said that…" Ruby said as she tapped her fingers together in embarrassment.

Qrow put down the controller and dropped his typical laidback act, "Violence hasn't dropped since Roman got nabbed; it's stopped, completely. No White Fang activity anywhere around the city. You cut off the head of the King Taijitu but now the second head's calling the shots. That's what Ironwood can't get through that thick metal head of his."

Ruby and Yang exchanged a look before the latter said, "You… know the General?"

Qrow resumed his typical persona as he said, "Hey, I know everybody to some extent. Remember, you're talking to a member of the coolest team that graduated Beacon!" He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a photo stained with age and lined with creases. It was a picture of four people taken in Beacon's courtyard— Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, Raven Branwen, and Qrow Branwen. "Hah, Team STRQ (Stark)," he said with a fond smile as a million different scenes played out in his memory. "That's where I met your parents. We were pretty well known back in the day."

"Well known for a crummy fashion sense!" Ruby teased.

"Hey, we looked good! And I have a number of inappropriate stories to back that up!" he said in defense as he wiggled his eyebrows. It was then that he noticed Yang still staring at the picture— specifically at his sister— so he put it away. "But I'll save those for when you're older."

"Oh, gross!" Ruby said as she recoiled in disgust. For Yang's part, having a number of "inappropriate" stories herself, she was somewhat morbidly curious as to what they could have gotten up to.

"Anyways, I'm too old to be hanging out with a bunch of kids. You're gonna cramp my style," Qrow said as he got up and started to leave. He paused at the door and sighed. He honestly didn't like playing teacher all that much (he had only taken up the teaching job at Signal to get Summer off of his case about having a stable source of income) but some lessons needed to be taught. "Look, just remember that you've still got a long way to go…" he said as he turned around to face them and held up a finger. Ruby and Yang both knew that this meant it was super serious time. "And don't think for a second that graduating means you're done. Every day out there," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder to indicate the outside world, "is worth a week in this place. You two, you're gonna go far but only if you keep learning; if you never stop moving forward."

With those last words of wisdom, Qrow took his leave.

OoOoOoO

Weiss and Winter stood in the courtyard where they had been eating lunch, the former holding her left arm out as a glyph appeared over her shoulder. Weiss squeezed her eyes shut in concentration as the ghostly visage of armor slowly enveloped her arm. Winter had been curious to learn more of Weiss' strange new idea and also wanted to provide what aid she could.

"Your glyph structure is excellent! It should be perfect for what you are trying to accomplish," Winter said encouragingly as she watched her younger sister from the side. "Now think of that fallen foe! Envision it protecting you, strengthening you! Every foe we face that pushes us to our limits and molds who we are becomes ingrained upon our soul. Call to it and it will come."

Weiss grimaced as the glyph flickered in and out of existence, the spectral armor fading away in splotches. Eventually, Weiss growled in frustration and let the glyph fade.

"I can't!" she said angrily as she stomped the ground. Summoning was the most important ability that Schnees had and being unable to use it was a stain upon herself and her family name.

Winter rolled her eyes as she walked up to her sister and smacked her in the back of the head. "Stop doubting yourself!" she said, having identified the problem immediately. She had gone through pretty much the exact same thing thanks to their upbringing, after all.

"I'm trying!" Weiss said as she rounded on Winter.

Winter paused for a moment in thought before suggesting, "You may not believe in yourself but do you have others who believe in you?" It was a bit of a rhetorical question; bare minimum, Ruby Rose absolutely believed in her.

"Of course! All my friends do!"

"Then, if you can't believe in yourself, believe in them. Believe in their assessments, believe that they would not lie to you or coddle you. Don't believe in the version of you that you see, believe in the version of you that they see."

Weiss looked down as her mind went through the countless instances of her friends praising her and trusting her with their lives. She thought back to not that long ago when she and Ruby had been training together to improve Ruby's Semblance and Weiss' general capabilities, including this very thing. She remembered how she had gotten frustrated back then as well and how Ruby encouraged her, praising her progress and insisting that she'll master it in no time.

Weiss acted confident and even a tad smug but that had never been how she actually felt. When you had a lifetime of nearly everyone around you pointing out your flaws, saying that you weren't good enough and never will be, having confidence in yourself was nearly impossible. That being said, she had faith in her friends. She had faith in Ruby. She could be a bit on the simple side, to be sure, but in that simplicity came reassurance and beauty. She wholeheartedly believed that her partner was amazing. Did Weiss really think that Ruby was wrong?

All of the harsh memories of her childhood came rushing back. All of the times her father had berated her, humiliated her, scorned her, punished her. The way her teachers were cold and stiff and almost never praised her. The chains that bound her. Those memories and emotions were stifling, crushing, and made it hard for her to breathe as panic rose in her chest. This had been her struggle, her burden, for her entire life. What made her think that she could escape it now?

Then memories of Ruby's encouragement returned and pierced the dark clouds of her thoughts like a ray of sunshine. Her partner, her best friend, was reaching down toward her, waiting for her to grab her hand so she could be pulled up. From behind her, she felt the hands of all of her friends on her back pushing up from below. She had people who loved her and cared for her now. Her new family believed in her capabilities and wanted to see her become the best version of herself.

The chains around her heart that bound her began to crack.

Weiss took a few steps away from her sister and closed her eyes once more as she held out her left arm. She couldn't do this for herself as she currently was. Not because she was powerless on her own— the match against Team ABRN proved that much— but because she was powerful with others. She had a multiplicative effect on her team and they had one on her. For so long, she had tried to stand purely under her own power as she had been taught but no longer. Her friends showed her another, better way. Her friends were her power.

The glyph appeared on Weiss' shoulder once more and from it came the ghostly visage of armor that surrounded that arm and a broadsword almost as long as she was tall rested comfortably in her hand. She opened her eyes and stared at the partial pseudo-summon. What was it that Ruby called it? Ah, yes, synthesis. Unlike the rest of her bloodline, she wasn't a summoner, she was a synthesist.

Weiss gave the blade in her hand a few experimental swings and marveled at how easy it was. The blade absolutely had weight and that weight wasn't insubstantial but her synthesis granted that arm greater strength. To test that, she let the broad side of the sword rest against her right hand and she had to struggle to hold it up for even a second. The tactile sensation was all wrong but she figured that problem would be fixed when she was actually wielding Myrtenaster.

Off to the side, Winter beamed with pride as she clapped for her sister, "Absolutely excellent! This is a magnificent first step! Now, let's put it to the test, shall we?" Winter drew her sword and held it in a horizontal blocking stance. "Come at me."

Weiss looked uncertain for a moment but then followed her sister's order. The space between them wasn't that great so she took a few deep steps to close it while putting all of her strength in a massive overhead swing. The copy of the Arma Gigas' sword slammed into Winter's and Weiss was amazed to see her older sister actually slightly flinch. After struggling against her for a moment, Weiss disengaged and dismissed her synthesis.

"The results were even better than I imagined they would be," Winter congratulated as she sheathed her sword. Weiss positively preened under the praise. "Your attack was slow and clumsy but you have no experience fighting with a sword like that. Practice with it when you can; finding someone who might be able to teach you is preferable but not strictly necessary. Now you simply need to get it to cover your entire body instead of just one arm."

"Thank you, sister. My next goal is being able to do it with both arms at the same time and then slowly work from there."

"Not a bad idea," Winter said with an approving nod. "Remember that your emotions can give you strength but you shouldn't let them control you. Act calmly and rationally as you let your heart guide you and I know that you will go far." Winter chuckled slightly, "I was planning on talking about how, if things went the way I expect, Father cut you off from your funds and how you have a choice to make but I can see that you've already made it. I'm glad."

There was a series of beeps which caused Winter to pull out her Scroll. "It's time for me to go," she said as she put it away. She took a step to close the distance between them and wrapped her younger sister in a hug. Weiss was surprised for a moment but quickly returned it.

When they finally broke off, Weiss smiled up at her sister and said, "It was really good to see you, Winter." There was a moment of hesitation as she recalled an indirect and unintentional lesson that her team had taught her. She didn't think that she'd ever said these words but, if anyone deserved to hear them, it was her sister. "I love you."

Winter looked utterly flabbergasted for a moment before pulling herself together enough to beam at her sister, joy clear on her face even though it was tainted with sadness. "I love you, too. Until next time, sister."

A/N: Another chapter that's a bit more same-y than I would have liked but my hands were kinda tied. There was nothing that I could reasonably change in the scene with Ruby, Yang, and Qrow (aside from one small bit) and I changed as much of the Winter and Weiss scenes that I could (thankfully, the changes surrounding Weiss made that very easy). So, I did what I basically always do when stuck in this situation: Use the narration to explore a character's thoughts and feelings. There's admitted not even a whole lot of that in the Ruby et al section but I at least got some amusing power scaling out of it.

On to actually talking about the Weiss and Winter stuff. These scenes were very important to me for a large number of reasons. Aside from establishing my plans for Weiss regarding her summons, it also let me show how I've softened Winter's relationship with her younger sister. Those two experienced the exact kind of hellish upbringing and both of them hate their father so it makes sense that they'd want to reach out to each other. It also lets me further show off Weiss' character development (she's honestly probably my favorite of the four girls at this stage but I love them all). As for Whitley, we'll get to him when we get to him.

To answer Weiss' uncertainty at the start of their segment, Winter didn't know about the reputation of that place and would have left if she had learned it. As for why Winter was chosen to come, Ironwood's reasons are twofold: First, because Winter is the person he trusts the most and is stronger than any individual member of the Spec Ops. Second, he wanted to give Winter the chance to spend time with her little sister.

Anyway, that's all from me for now. Next week, we'll be getting perhaps the most fun fight I have ever written. Before you go, here's probably the last interlude of this volume unless I either think of a new one or someone suggests a good one. I'll see you all next week!

Interlude 13
I've got Your Number
During V3C10

"Miss Rose, can I speak to you for a moment?" Winter Schnee said as she approached Ruby Rose in the halls of Beacon.

Ruby spun around to face her and stood ramrod straight while making an awkward salute, "O-of course, Miss Schnee, ma'am, sir, ma'am! It would be my gratuitous honor to entertain your acquaintanceship!"

Winter chuckled as she slowly shook her head, "There's no need to try to be so formal, Ruby. Any friend of my sister is a friend of mine."

Ruby immediately deflated, "Oh, thank goodness. What can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you would be willing to exchange numbers with me. My sister is very fond of you so I think it would be a good idea for you to have my number in case you need to contact me and Weiss isn't available."

"Sure thing!" Ruby said excitedly as she pulled out her Scroll and sent Winter her contact information while Winter did the same. "I'd really like to get to know Weiss' family more so I'd love it if you'd text me when you have the time. If you don't mind."

Winter smiled at Ruby, "Of course. I would like to get to know you, as well. It's a shame that we don't have the time to talk over tea while I'm here. Be sure to keep my sister out of trouble."

"She's usually the one keeping me out of trouble," Ruby said with a laugh.