Gray couldn't believe it.

There was only one thing that they were afraid of, and that was the X-Class known as Yuki.

And they had willingly invited her inside their home.

Backing away slowly, Yuki stood up, exuding an air of elegance and grace despite being a creature powerful enough to kill thousands.

'Do you fear me, human?'

Gray was definitely afraid. However, his fear changed to curiosity when he realised she was not attacking him.

'I shall ask again. Do you fear me?'

Her voice held a threatening weight to it, and Gray worried that if he didn't answer her then she would kill him there and then.

'Y-yes…'

His voice wavered, unsure of where she was leading the topic.

'Why is it you fear me?'

Is this a trick question? Is she seriously asking why we fear a monster capable of killing us with a thought?

'Because you're a mon-'

Carefully thinking about his words, he restated his sentence.

'Because you're a Grimm.'

'And that alone is worthy of hating and fearing me? Because of what I am?'

'Grimm eat humans. Of course I'd be afraid.' His voice was much more confident now, the feeling of terror all but disappearing throughout their conversation. Thinking about what he had said, Yuki seemed to be lost in thought before raising her eyes to meet his once again.

'So, you believe it is right to shun a man because his brother is a murderer?'

'What? Of course not! That's a ridiculous thought!' he replied, before realising just what she was implying.

'So then,' she continued, staring at him with such passion that it felt to Gray as though she was staring into his very soul, 'why do you continue to ostracize Grimm, even when they themselves have not attempted to harm a human?'

The thought made him sick to his stomach. Even if he wanted to deny it, he knew she was correct. Some Grimm really didn't seem all that interested in humans, and it seemed as though there were even some that were friendly to humanity. Even so, it didn't stop the humans mindlessly slaughtering every Grimm they laid eyes on. It reminded him of the Great War. When the four kingdoms were in combat, invasions happened every other day, and each one brought with it many innocent deaths. Thousands of people who surrendered were mercilessly killed, and Gray himself had taken some of those lives. The guilt had never left him, but he carried on nonetheless. Was it really the Grimm that were the monsters in all of this?

'W… what are you getting at?' he nervously asked, clearly disturbed by her words.

Ignoring his question, she carried on speaking about herself.

'You see, I have some very distinct memories. I was a human once, just like you. I killed Grimm, just like you. However, my death was not caused by Grimm. A bunch of vile scum managed to capture me and held me prisoner. They did things to me that I will not say for the sake of my pride and dignity, but they were far from gentle. When I fought the Grimm, they seemed almost desperate to defeat me and the people I travelled with. Almost as if they had some purpose we were unaware of. The humans, however, merely committed their sins for sport. There was no rhyme or reason to it; it was just senseless violence for the purpose of self pleasure. Afterwards, I could not bear to live on carrying those memories, and I claimed my own life. But I was reborn. I do not know how, and to be perfectly honest I do not care. But I realised one thing. I was reborn with a purpose.'

Gray began to quiver with fear as the floor beneath Yuki slowly began to freeze over, the ice crawling its way along the floor and walls towards him. Despite being right next to the door, he felt as though he was trapped in that room, forced to eternally suffer at her hand.

'I was reborn so I could destroy the real monsters.'

Giving him an infuriated look, she sent the ice shooting across his body freezing his legs to the ground.

'I was reborn to kill all humans.'

In the next instant, his body was completely frozen over, his heart giving out from the shock of the sudden temperature change. Opening the door, she slowly made her way through the facility, several guards noticing her, but before they could call for help she silenced them. The bodies stood, the last images of terror etched forever onto their faces, almost like some kind of disturbing effigy to her wrath.

This way leads to the room where they are. Ozpin… Glynda… you shall both pay for failing your duty as Huntsmen. You abandoned your students, making it look as though you had done all you could. In reality, you could have saved all of your students had you given your lives to protect them.

The first sin of humanity: self preservation above all else. If it places you at risk, you choose to save yourselves rather than save your school. The needs of the few rather than the needs of the many. How pitiable. You will suffer greatly in Hell for your crimes.

Walking back in silence, Ruby admired the beautiful view of the valleys, having missed the chance to properly look at them before. It truly was a sight to behold, the glittering white snow blanketing over the horizon, the sun glowing radiantly as it began to fade from view, the sky tinting a beautiful orange colour as night began to fall. Not paying attention, she ended up walking right into the back of Raven, hurting her nose.

'Oww… why'd you stop?' she asked, looking at Raven's face only to see her staring into the distance in disbelief. Turning her head to see what Raven was looking at, she too saw it. Even with the snow covering the ground, they could see that something was very definitely wrong. The facility was covered in ice, as though some sort of frozen dome was enveloping the structure. They began to sprint back, Raven unable to shake the feeling that she already knew what was happening.

Yuki…

Raven knew it couldn't be any other, her suspicions only gaining strength the closer they got.

Approaching the main entrance, all the guards were long since dead. Frozen in place, they were like living ice sculptures.

Carefully entering, the entire building was silent as the grave, giving an eerie impression of solitude. To add to that, it was essentially in the middle of nowhere, having been intended as a secret bunker used by the Vacuo officials.

'Why is everything covered in ice…?' Ruby asked timidly, not daring to raise her voice further than a whisper, fearful of what may be lurking around each corner.

'Yuki,' Raven answered, Adam nodding in agreement. 'It's her. She's finally come herself. We need to find the others and get the hell out.'

'Is she really that dangerous?'

'How much trouble did Taiyang give you?' Raven answered, her voice shaking as she spoke.

'A lot. I couldn't do a thing to him.'

'Well, imagine a Grimm of Taiyang's strength. Now imagine a Grimm that has twice as much power, and you've got Yuki. She only appeared around a year ago, but she's cited as one of the, if not the most powerful Grimm alive. Possibly even the most powerful one to ever exist.'

The thought of such a Grimm sent shockwaves of fear flowing through her. Yes, she had grown exponentially stronger compared to a month ago at Taiyang's castle, but even she wasn't sure her skill was enough to defeat a Grimm of that calibre. Nevertheless, they continued to follow the trail of death and ice that had been left in Yuki's wake, knowing that at the end of that path they would be confronted with an unimaginable terror manifested in the form of a Grimm.

'You will both pay for your sins.'

Yuki said these words as she stared down at Ozpin and Glynda, both of them knowing what she meant by those words.

'We may be at fault, but is that any reason to kill everyone else in this facility?' Ozpin asked, his usual casual demeanour now exchanged for a serious attitude that Glynda had only ever seen him wear once before. It was during the Faunus Rights Revolution. He had seen several of his friends killed before his very eyes, both Faunus and human alike, and had worn that same expression as he challenged one of the leaders of the revolt. Their duel was near cataclysmic, the strength used in that battle apocalyptic in nature. It was the only time she had ever seen Ozpin lose that cool-headed façade he always wore, and she knew that the return of that pained face meant a similar experience would soon occur. However, this was not the scale of opponent that could simply be defeated with sheer force. Yuki had an annoying ability to lower the air temperature around her to such lows that everything that came into contact with those temperatures froze almost instantaneously.

'Ozpin, this is neither the time nor place,' Glynda said, attempting to dislodge his anger, but he was having none of it.

'Glynda, leave me. This is a fight I shall undergo alone. There is no reason for you to risk your life fighting with me,' he said considerately, trying to force her to leave. The last thing he wanted was one of his closest and dearest friends to die trying to protect him. Truthfully, he knew that he could not defeat Yuki alone. He simply made the decision to fight her because he also knew that they would not escape her. At least this way he could save someone. It was a small consolation, and could never make up for abandoning his students but it was at least something. He didn't try to hide his crimes, because he knew that Yuki must have known about his past. Why else would she claim that they must pay for their sins?

'I'm not going anywhere,' she stubbornly stated, adamant that she was going to stay by his side to the very end.

'GLYNDA!'

She was taken aback by his sudden outburst of anger, as his eyes met hers, a combination of pain and anger dwelling inside his heart. Immediately she realised what his intentions were, and while it distressed her to no end she reluctantly began to comply.

I'm sorry, Ozpin. I'm sorry, and I'll never forget this act of heroism.

Faced with certain doom, Ozpin flung himself at Yuki whilst Glynda escaped through the main hall. She heard his cries of anguish as she ran, tears forming in her eyes. But she never once turned back. She had regrets, of course. Many, many regrets. The greatest, however, was the regret of lost love. She had never told Ozpin how she truly felt about him, believing it to be unfitting of a teacher to fall in love with the headmaster. She wished that she could turn back time and cause their love to blossom, but it was far too late for that now.

The man she loved was dead. He died to save her, no less. That was what hurt the most.

Swiftly making their way through the corridors, Raven made sure to get a good look at everyone who had died by Yuki's hand. She wanted to etch those faces into her memory, to make sure not a one of them was forgotten.

Those thoughts were soon overridden when she saw a certain person frozen in ice.

'No… please… tell me this is a joke…'

Seeing Gray's fearful expression, she dropped to her knees in despair.

'Gray…'

Adam knelt beside her, putting an arm around her to comfort her before he was shrugged off.

'She killed him… that man was like a father to me, and she killed him…'

Clenching Spectrum tighter than ever, she got back to her feet, her face a mixture of contorted rage and determination. Pressing her left foot against the ground, Adam and Ruby instinctively took a step back as a massive amount of aura gathered in her toes, before she used that aura to push against the ground with incredible force, uprooting the tiling as she rocketed down the hallway, picking up momentum and speed with each burst.

I'LL KILL HER! I'LL KILL THAT FUCKING BITCH FOR WHAT SHE'S DONE!

As she blazed down the hallway, she passed Glynda at such a speed that she wasn't sure whether she had actually been there or if it was just her imagination. Wielding Eclipse, the black form of her blade she saw the figure of Yuki coming into view. Swinging her blade, she abruptly came to a stop as her momentum caught up with her, the blade sinking right into her target. But she had not quite hit her mark. Rather than Yuki, the sword had sank into a wall of ice that had been hastily created in front of her.

Shit…!

Realising that her blade would rupture the ice and cause it to shatter in every direction, she raised her arm to cover her eyes. She didn't have enough time to equip her white blade, so she had to accept whatever injuries she was given. Sure enough, the ice sank into her flesh, like a series of vicious fangs trying to tear the meat from her bones. It hurt, but the pain was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. The emotional destruction she had felt upon seeing Gray's dead figure, frozen in place with a pitiful look of fear painted on his face was far worse. Her anger had begun to calm down however, after she realised that she had just launched an attack on a Grimm whose power she couldn't even begin to imagine. Ruby had been using her semblance to try and reach Raven as fast as possible, but she was still too late to prevent Yuki from beginning her assault.

'You're such a dolt, recklessly attacking an X-Class like that.'

Without any hesitation, Yuki began to freeze Raven's left leg, her skin losing all feeling as the ice took over.

This is gonna sting like a bitch, but I don't have a choice!

Changing her sword to green, she cut the leg clean off from the knee downwards, stabbing herself afterwards to close the wound and prevent blood loss. She heard the sound of footsteps behind here, and knew Ruby had arrived.

'Tell Adam to get to the tunnel! He'll know what I mean, now go!'

Changing her sword to red as she spoke, she created a portal, feeling the effects of Yuki's ice creeping up her leg again as she crawled through, quickly closing it afterwards. She had just barely escaped a second assault, and her vision was hazy from the strange feeling of missing half of her leg.

I'm an idiot, she chided herself. As if I could take on an X-Class Grimm… god, sometimes I wish someone would just slap me for being so stupid.

Ruby passed the message on to Adam, and he immediately turned to lead them to the destination Raven had specified. Glynda tagged along with them, using her aura to inhibit Yuki's movement, although it only slowed her down by a few seconds at most. Her ice was extremely powerful, and it seemed to only gain on them despite the speed at which they were running. Yuki herself seemed to be catching up, yet when they looked at her she was deceptively appearing to walk. Even when chasing her prey, she retained a formal grace about her that gave Ruby the image she had been given a very high class upbringing, as well as the manner of speaking she used. Seriously, who used the word dolt if they weren't upper class?

Sure, Weiss often used the word to tell Ruby off, but other than that she hadn't heard a single person use it in her life.

Wait…

Ruby began to think heavily as she ran.

That refined manner of speaking.

A semblance that revolves around ice.

She appeared around a year ago… that's exactly around the time that Weiss died…

It couldn't be…

Could it?

Lost in thought, she didn't even realise when they arrived at their destination. There was a large door in front of them, and a keypad next to it. It seemed to require a 16 digit code to open, but Raven had readied it in advance.

'Good to see you all,' Raven said with a false smile, knowing what was coming. 'Get in there, I'll be right behind you.'

As they all piled in, Yuki's silhouette soon appeared, growing ever closer as Raven internally calmed herself.

When the three of them were in the room, Raven slammed the door shut and rapidly inputted the combination again, the door making a resounding series of clicks to confirm that it had indeed sealed shut.

When Ruby had realised what was happening, it was too late. The door was locked.

'RAVEN! RAVEN, OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW! GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!'

Ruby's panicked screams met Raven's ears, but she quietly responded through the door;

'I'm sorry, Ruby. If you waited for me to get into that tunnel then I wouldn't have had time to seal the door. I'm the only one left that knows the code to this door, and you wouldn't make it if you waited for me.'

'Can't you use your portals to get in here?'

Raven tried, but she could not hide her sorrow as she spoke.

'That's out of the question, too. The room I'm in was built out of a material designed to render dust completely unusable whilst within these walls. That's what powers my portals, Ruby. Look, I understand that you're upset. Hell, I'm upset too, but this is the way it has to be. This is where I meet my end, Ruby.'

'NO! YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!'

Ruby's wails were all for naught, and she knew it as well as Raven did, but she couldn't help but cry. She had lost another sister, and the last family she had left. Yang was missing, her mother was dead, she hadn't seen Qrow in forever and she didn't know who her father was, and now even Raven was gone? It was too cruel. It was like life was playing one huge prank on her, except the prank had gone far past what was considered harmless.

Raven turned to face her fate, the snow girl staring down at her.

'May I ask a few things before I die?' Raven said, her voice bitter with acceptance.

'Of course.'

'Why did you target me? All those times you sent Grimm to this place, I was always here. What did you want from me?'

'Is that so? That was merely coincidence. I sent those Grimm to bring me an accurate layout of the building, so that I would know where to find those I wished to kill the most when the time came for me to personally make my move.'

'Alright,' Raven said, relieved that there wasn't some other reason that Yuki had attacked the place, 'then how about this one. You're a former human, correct?'

This time it was Yuki's turn to be surprised.

'I'm impressed. How did you come to that conclusion?'

'Well,' Raven continued, 'when I caught a glimpse of your face, for just a split second you hesitated. A pure Grimm does not hesitate. Battle is engraved into their minds, and survival takes priority over everything. Only an artificial Grimm would take even the slightest millisecond of hesitation.'

'You are correct. I left this world as a human, and was reborn as a Grimm.'

'So,' Raven asked, a contented smile crossing her face, 'what's your real name?'

Without giving an answer, Yuki simply created a spear of ice, driving it through Raven's chin and up through her skull, killing her instantly.

'My name is Yuki. My former name is unimportant.'

Ruby had to be dragged away from the door by force. She kicked and screamed, but after a few hours she gave up, submitting to Adam and Glynda. Yuki had not followed them, presumably being stopped by the door that led into the tunnel. When they reached the other side of the tunnel, they found that it led out towards the eastern side of the Snowpeak Valleys, and they arrived in the basement of a small supply shack.

Deciding to take a break, Ruby asked Glynda a question that had bugged her ever since her arrival at the facility.

'Where did you come from?'

Puzzled, Glynda asked what she meant.

'I know that after the Grimm attacked Beacon that you went to the Schnee house. So why are you here?'

Glynda immediately knew she had been caught out, so decided to lay bare the truth.

'The Schnee family were all killed.'

Ruby couldn't contain her shock. After just having lost one of her closest friends, now she found out that Weiss' family were dead?

This only made her even more suspicious about Yuki.

'How did they die, exactly?'

An uncomfortable silence drifted over Glynda, the blonde being reluctant to elaborate on the details.

'They were frozen to death, weren't they?'

Glynda didn't answer, but she didn't need to. The look on her face gave it all away.

'I knew it. Yuki came from the Schnees, didn't she?'

'…Yes.'

'Tell me what happened, Glynda. I need to know.'

She knew the redhead would not stop pestering her, so she decided to just spill the beans.

'They… they were trying to bring someone back to life.'

'It was Weiss, wasn't it?'

'Yes. It was Weiss.'

'How did they do it?'

Thinking about how to answer, Glynda sorted out the words in her head. It was complicated stuff, so she wasn't sure whether Ruby would understand or not but she tried anyway.

'This gets pretty confusing, so listen carefully. Long ago, back when man first fought the Grimm, we were killed by the thousands trying to stop them. When dust was discovered, people used its properties to destroy the Grimm and manifest aura, creating entire civilizations using the stuff. But people also believed something else. There were some who believed the Grimm were divine creatures, sent by a higher being to test mankind. The fact that Grimm did not need food to live furthered that belief, and they were often attributed with immortality, especially seeing how their bodies disappear a short while after death. Some people then though if the Grimm represented immortality, perhaps they also had ties to the theory of resurrection. It wasn't long after that people began drawing ritual seals powered by dust, using Grimm parts as catalysts to try to bring people back to life. There was no proof that it ever worked, but while me and Ozpin were patrolling outside the mansion, they must have attempted it. They had recently been informed of Weiss' death by Blake, Nora and Ren, and were coping quite badly with it. When we came back, we found a ritual seal along with all of their frozen corpses.'

'Is it possible that they really did bring Weiss back?'

'Maybe,' she replied, 'but I don't know. All I know is that Yuki was definitely there, and they carried out the ritual whilst me and Ozpin were gone.

Ruby was sure of it now. Everything all fell into place.

The Schnees had used the ritual to attempt to bring Weiss back to life, but thanks to the fact they used parts of a Grimm as the catalyst she was revived as a Grimm, with little to no memory of her previous self. The mannerisms and memories had slowly seeped back into her head, and Yuki, or rather Weiss, had slowly began to revert to her old self, but the Grimm was still in control. Blaming humans for her death, her Grimm half sought revenge and lashed out at all humans she found.

It all made sense.

Yuki was, no – Yuki is Weiss.