The mysterious woman was on her scroll, about to update her leader when she saw something that stopped her in her tracks: Yang Xiao-Long passionately making out with Blake Belladonna in the royal garden. The mysterious woman quickly snapped a picture and left the area with a smirk on her face. Although neither Belladonna nor Xiao-Long were the targets for her mission at the Princess Trial, this photo would be useful for another part of her mission and make for good drama, and she loved leaving chaos in her wake.

Wait until Adam Taurus sees this, the mysterious woman thought.

...

Later that day everyone knew that two of the princess candidates were seeing each other- the photo was all over the internet, and it was leaked from the chirper account of Weiss. The photo was captioned with the comment, "Yang is a beast banger and Blake is a rabid slut." The account of Cardin Winchester, an obnoxious Beacon classmate of theirs, liked and re-chirped that comment.

Some people were shocked or even disgusted that a human was dating a faunus. Although relationships between humans and faunus had been legalized in Vale right after the Great War, people from Vale weren't the only people who watched and commented on the Princess Trial. Some- in particular those with ties to the anti-faunus hate group, Humanity First- said Yang was degrading herself by being with a faunus, asking what she was teaching her sister Ruby, while others said that Blake was just proving how loose and unfit for royal status the faunus were. Others didn't care about race but were scandalized by the fact that two princess candidates were dating each other when they were supposed to be there for the prince. A religious leader from Children of Light- one of Remnant's few remaining religions- wrote an essay on how the fact that two girls were dating was evidence of moral decline in the princess trials. Blake's, Yang's, and Ruby's approval ratings in the trial went down, with calls for all three girls to be eliminated.

Other people supported Yang and Blake, and were more put off by the bigotry on display by Weiss, who was the second most popular princess candidate after Pyrrha Nikos. Weiss was being called the mean girl of the Princess Trial.

Yang would not let the hate get to her. She loved Blake, was not ashamed of their love, and was tired of having to sneak around with her as if the Great War hadn't happened 80 years ago, or as if they lived in Mistral. Or even as if they lived in Atlas, a kingdom that had only legalized human and faunus relationships five years ago. The only reason why she'd agreed to keep their relationship a secret in the first place was because Blake was worried about them being targeted.

"You guys, I swear I didn't do this. Somebody must have somehow gotten access to my account. You believe me, don't you?" Weiss asked.

"I believe you," Yang said confidently. "We know you're not like that."

There was a silence, and both Yang and Weiss looked at Blake. Yang got worried. She remembered that Weiss and Blake's relationship had gotten off to a rocky start, and hoped this situation wouldn't undo their progress.

Blake stared at Weiss for a long moment and then finally spoke. "I don't think you would do something like this. A while ago, someone close to me changed, so this is hard for me. But you're not him. I believe you."

Unfortunately, the power of friendship wasn't enough to keep the audience from voting Ruby, Yang, and Blake out of the Princess trial. But the prince used his one save to keep Blake from being eliminated because he wanted to take a stand against all the hate. Like all of the other eliminated princess candidates, Ruby and Yang would remain at the palace until the princess was chosen. The five remaining princess candidates were Pyrrha, Weiss, Penny Polendina, Blake, and Cinder.

...

The next day Weiss was walking through the hallway when she saw Prince Jaune on a balcony with Pyrrha. His mask was off. The two stood very close, and Pyrrha had a look of intense emotion in her green eyes. Weiss peaked at them and listened to them from behind a pillar so she wouldn't be seen.

"I need to know. Who do you love?" Pyrrha asked.

Weiss felt her heart racing in anticipation.

"The truth is, I think I'm in love with both you and one other person here," Jaune answered quietly. "But the woman I've chosen to marry- to be the princess- is you, Pyrrha."

Then they kissed.

Weiss felt her heart sink. She supposed she shouldn't be too surprised. Pyrrha was amazing- Weiss even admired her. She was her favorite celebrity, and yet she was so down to Remnant. Kind, beautiful, a great warrior. She was everything a huntress and a modern princess should be. Even at Beacon, Jaune and Pyrrha both had seemed to have feelings for each other.

But Jaune had seemed to have feelings for Weiss too, and Weiss knew she had feelings for him.

Jaune was the younger brother of Queen Saphron Arc and Weiss was the second daughter of Queen Willow Schnee of Atlas. Her older sister, Winter, had been stripped of her title four years ago. Both Vale and Atlas shared the custom of keeping young royals masked and unknown to the public, their names and faces hidden until after they turn 18 and get engaged. It was because of this practice that they were even able to attend Beacon unmasked as if they were regular civilians, Weiss enrolling both in the school and the Princess Trial as 'Weiss Solstice' and Jaune attending the school as 'Jaune Archer'.

Weiss had actually met Jaune when they were both 14- Weiss and her family had been invited to Vale palace. Somehow both she and Jaune had ended up ditching their guards and the mask had slipped off of her face. Frustrated, young princess Weiss had insisted, "Since you've seen my face I get to see yours too." Young Prince Jaune had complied, taking off his mask and smiling warmly at her. She was stricken by how handsome he was, and they'd both stood there blushing at each other.

Years later when they saw each other again at Beacon Academy, Jaune had been a little cold toward her at first. Weiss had an idea of why that was: shortly after she had turned 14, negative false rumors had suddenly started to follow her. Rumors that she was a terrible bitch with a personality disorder- at 15 she had even been falsely accused of homewrecking. When she was younger she used to obsessively lash out against the rumors online through fake accounts. But by the time she was 17 and at Beacon, she decided to refute the hurtful rumors just by being herself, proving them wrong.

Throughout the year, Jaune had seemed to warm up to Weiss. One day, Weiss had playfully told Jaune in private, "I've heard that the princess of Atlas is entering the Princess Trial. Hopefully the prince of Vale doesn't find the idea of the prince x the princess to be too cliche."

Jaune had grinned at her and said, "It's not cliche, it's a classic."

As Weiss had gotten closer to her friends, she'd eventually revealed to her team exactly who she was, trusting them with her secret. That trust had spread to the rest of team JNPR as well, and Jaune had likewise revealed his identity to the rest of team RWBY.

But Jaune would always be the first person outside of family who had seen Weiss without her mask.

As Weiss watched Jaune kiss Pyrrha, she couldn't help but wish it was her. He'd said he was in love with one other person- could it be her? Did it matter at this point? Weiss had entered the princess trial for two reasons- to bring back honor to the royal Schnee family name, and most importantly, to marry the guy she'd had feelings for since she was fourteen years old. But it looked like it hadn't worked out that way. Weiss let her mind go to the conversation she'd had with Jaune after that photo of Blake and Yang had been leaked- how she'd sworn she was innocent. She'd thought Jaune had been upset over the situation but not with her. Had she misinterpreted that?

As Weiss felt the tears come to her eyes, she thought, Did Jaune choose Pyrrha over me because of the photo scandal? Does he really think I would do something like that to my friends, or to anybody? Has he believed the rumors about me being a terrible person this whole time?