Chapter 16: Family

Blake Belladonna

The sickle is perhaps the weapon that most suited Blake over the sword and gun modes of Gambol Shroud. Some might call it unclean, but a blade would swing past her opponent, an opportunistic miss, and with confidence the enemy would ignore it, she would pull at the ribbon and from behind she would strike without even moving. Much the same in this moment as the Emerald Forest trees let her glide above the forest floor, she dropped Gambol's sickle on the floor, let the White Fang goon chase her on foot, let the ribbon run loose, and as soon as he passed it. Blake pulled her string, the edge flew up, caught him, and he was down. All without Blake taking even a moment's pause. After all, she could not afford it.

This whole thing was a trap, this trip, this location, this team hunt. Everyone was separated into groups, everyone was a long walk away from Beacon and devoid of the usual warning signals they could deploy. 'A true hunt' was a true trap. Blake saw it coming, or at least felt it just lightly in the wind. She wanted to trust Azura, and maybe she could be trusted, but Weiss needed back up, now.

Then there was the warning. Weiss' father had told her to watch over Weiss, that there was something going on, some event this week. She didn't know this nightmare was for sure until the scroll she had snuck out with glowed a red, the snowflake turning from white to red. An emergency. She tried to warn the team, but the White Fang appeared, a squad caught off guard by a baby nevermore. Not near enough to give them trouble, but too much to get rid of quickly. As much as it ripped her heart out, Blake left them, Ruby and Yang, as a distraction.

Well not quite. She would never have ditched them in a fight if she believed for a second they were in any danger. Yang alone would have been enough, but better to leave her at least Ruby, keep her safe. The only one in danger was Weiss, alone at worst, with a sickly teacher older than anyone in Beacon at best. Ruby might have been faster, but Blake had her scroll and an ace. Whatever program made the snowflake crest turn red made the point directed at Myrtenaster glow a vibrant blinking crimson, a compass directed to the only north that mattered to Mr. Schnee. Weiss.

Blake was the only one, so she pressed on, passing parting paths and precious few friends. Gunfire could be heard, the familiar blast of Coco's gatling in a distant wood suggested they too were under attack as well as the popping punch of Sun's weapon towards another far retreat. None of them in the direction she needed, none where the arrow pointed.

Between kicks against the branches and skips across the tree line, the sickle was left to smash into the trees, scarring them deep into the bark, white lines that lead a trail. The others would know what it meant, had to know. She believed in them, in Yang and Ruby. They would turn this around. Everyone was going to go back to the dorm, enjoy some stupid game, fight and bicker, everything. Her former brothers were dead to her if they thought they could steal her new family.

The beeping turned to a flash and the canopy began to recede and a clearing came through. There were more White Fang here, but most defeated, some dead. Shards of ice, marks of fire and lightning, residue from dust and the smell of that special fire and force dust mixture reserved for regular bullets that always clung to the air after a conflict. The Schnee radar glowed to tell her she was at the mark, she could see Myrtenaster. The sword itself was lodged into the heart of a tree, thrown from the center of the battlefield.

In the far corner of this clearing was her target. Weiss, backing away to the tree line, unarmed and otherwise defenseless, crouched at a cracked tree, her aura low and body winded. The aggressor was the worst possible one, armed, armored, and just as fearsome. Azura Thrym, their professor, one of her childhood heroines. She was going down.

Blake charged, footsteps all but silent as she ran, years of training working to make her approach null to the ears of her targets. Weiss saw her, Blake could see her blue eyes light up, but she said nothing as Azura hobbled towards her with the railgun pointed and ready. Whatever reason she had for holding Weiss at gunpoint it wasn't reason enough.

Perhaps she would have delivered the first and final strike, perhaps it was the look in the heiress' eyes or the subtle crack of the most minor of ice fragments from under her feet as Blake charged, but when she struck out, dual swords striking in opposing horizontals, the wolf twisted, that runic shield sweeping to guard her back. The force itself was incredible, its dust fused magic reverberating through her bones as the swords were knocked back, revealing the circle shield's true tower shape of holographic defenses.

The knock back was sudden, but Azura was more so, her eyes glowing the same amber that Blake's did naturally, her massive sword dropped down, its tip alone could rip her asunder. Blake wasn't some rookie, she wasn't an unarmed tricked Schnee girl. She was a huntress.

The clone took the strike for her, the vestige of herself collapsing from the weight of Azura's weapon, but where the body was ice dust remained. A trick learned in training with Weiss. Dust could be used in anything, and so now, boom.

The ice covered the earth, the sword, and locked them both in place. Could she pull it from the ice? Most certainly. Blake had no intention of granting her the time.

She pulled and Blake hopped on the Royal Charlie, a balancing act near no one else could hope to match. The rushing steps on the ice covered edge pushed only by her forward momentum and the spin in her arms as both her blades whipped around in a strike.

Azura ducked, the strike catching her helmet and knocking the piece of armor to the floor. She was poised for a counterattack, Blake wouldn't stay to feel the strike. Kicking off the top of her former teacher's head, she bolted away. In the fighting Weiss disappeared, but Blake had no time to think about that. The wolf couldn't be beaten while she had that shield, even without her weapon the roaring woman would tear her apart.

Diving for her, Blake tiptoed just out of reach as the full force of Azura's body smashed into the earth. It was a quick succession of movements, get over her arm, drop the sickle, dive before she stands, get back to the ice, she would be standing now, a mess of steel and faunus, pull the ribbon.

Pull the ribbon.

The sickle flung back from the floor as Azura roared in a charge, the small scythe easily catching on her shield forcing her arm forward, an unexpected force to throw her off balance and once with a quick snap Blake wrapped it around the frost covered greatsword. Everything was just as before, but now the professor had no weapon, her shield arm was pulled tight to the floor, struggling against the special weave of Blake's ribbon. It would give, but not in time. Blake still had one special tool, the sheath turned sword, and she was not afraid to use it.

"Belladonna, let me go, or I will have to break you!" Azura punctuated with a beastly howl.

The cat faunus heeded no warning, one knock to the head and the professor would be captured. One more step towards a world with no more White Fang, no more traitors and villains, one more for freedom.

"Blake, watch out!" Weiss, Weiss from somewhere screamed and perhaps that was the only thing that saved her arm. She had always wondered what Azura's semblance was, what her nature was, it was the wolf. Not the same way all faunus could call on their primeval side, it was a deeper connection. The way her eyes turned into a glowing yellow, the way her long blue and black hair became almost thicker and matted, fingers became like claws, voice became more of a monster's, fury grew more intense, but what was the most frightening were her teeth, and as the cat swung forward, Azura did not duck or dive, she leaned in, teeth sharp and white. The bite was deep.

The pain was magnificent, but with all of her aura and Weiss' warning, she saved the bone and arm, but the teeth punctured her, tore at the muscle, and in shock Blake became limp. With just her own body, the professor tossed Blake right into a tree. She could not feel it over the pain in her arm. The immediate shock still rocked her body in tremors, but staring at the wound she knew it was not permanent, bleeding teeth marks would leave temporary scars, and all damage to the bone was nearly prevented, though it drained her completely of aura, blurred her vision, and left Blake defeated at the foot of the tree. Fact was no one in RWBY could beat this Azura, a professional aged huntress. It was a bad call, they needed the other teams, needed even just Yang and Ruby. Something to tip the balance.

"I like you, Belladonna, so I need you to sit right there and lick that bite!" The wolf was free of her trap, Gambol was so far away. As the Royal Charlie glowed its awful colors afire as the blade split apart, the railgun from before pointed at the younger faunus, and though her vision was blurred, she could clearly see no way out.

"Why? You hate the White Fang! You're hurting our people!" Blake let out with an added groan. Her eyes could not stay open, dropping closed despite the humming noise of the railgun, the heavy breath of their former professor, the hiss of Myrtenaster turning, the popping of firefights from every corner of the forest.

The hiss of Myrtenaster turning.

Azura cursed as the floor beneath her feet lifted, flaked with ice, a glyph that knocked the faunus off balance, causing her to fire a useless shot of the railgun into the air, all sound and fury, but no point besides, if they were lucky, a warning. Blake's eyes shot open and saw the beast turned around, angry and covered in frost. Weiss standing on the forest edge. She had her sword back, the spinning wheel armed and ready.

"Thrym, if you want me as your bait, find me!" She was never the fastest, but Weiss had a lead. Dashing into the woods, only a faint glow of dust that worked its magic as she drifted into the darkness of the dense emerald trees.

"No, no, no! I'm so close! You won't ruin this, Schnee!" Azura was howling and shouted more and more inhuman as she did so, the wolf taking more hold. Grasping at her weapon with her mouth alone, freeing her hands to aid her charge, the adult huntress looked more like the grimm than a former Beacon graduate.

Blake could not move to complain, her body lulled into rest against her will, all she could manage was, with the leftover ribbon, tie up the chewed arm, not the long cloth that hung off Gambol Shroud, which sat mournfully between patches of grass so far away, but with some extra she had brought in case of any number of occasions.

Despite herself, Blake's eyes closed again, head resting back on the rough bark. Hands became slack as they tied the makeshift bandage knot and sleep came, perhaps. It was impossible to tell if she truly slept at all, or if it had been an hour, or just a few minutes. Regardless of the measure of time, her eyes closed, her mind faded and snapped back again.

"Blake!" It was Ruby's voice, she was alert again. Aura still reduced to a child's level, but body primed and ready.

"Ruby! I'm here!" Blake shouted, leaning forward so she could be seen in the tree line. "Ruby, are you there?!"

"Blake!" the shout came closer and before she could see Ruby, Blake felt the cold air of her dash. Petals burst from their leader as she appeared, from which direction Blake didn't know, but she needed her tool. "What happened? How did you get hurt?! Yang's gone to get help. Where's everyone else?" The redhead's eyes were locked on the wound. Huntresses rarely saw blood, if something got through their aura it probably killed them. The sight of crimson was cause for concern.

"The professor, she was attacking Weiss. She sort of bit me," Blake answered with a bit of a shrug, downplaying her injury as a minor mishap, concealing the panicked emotion.

"She does that." It was apparent that the meaning of this had not fully been absorbed by Ruby, yet each layer of emotion began to unfold in her eyes and caused a quiver in her lip. Poor girl. "Why would she do that... Blake where is Weiss and Auntie... where are they now?!"

"Weiss got away, running into the woods," with her unhindered hand Blake pulled out her scroll, still useful and still tracking, the red snowflake point beeping towards the deeper parts of the Emerald Forest, "Professor Thrym went after her. You can't beat her alone and neither can Weiss, together though you have a shot, or at least a better one. I need to rest some. Once I get enough aura to heal my arm I'll come help you. The three of us can take her no problem. Use the scroll, it points to Weiss."

"Blake—"

"Ruby, go. Now!"

She did, in a burst of petals, and for a third time Blake closed her eyes and let herself rest below the shade of an evergreen.

Weiss Schnee

Weiss was not Blake, she did not have the natural affinity for combat in the woods. Her training was performed mostly in the ballrooms, whether dance oration or fencing. This was the opposite of her natural habitat. Despite this it was ironically Azura's own class that doomed her, or more accurately impeded the huntresses' progress.

"Learn to be subtler." Azura had drilled into her during special practices. Yang and Weiss pitted against each other in these woods, many of the techniques she used were straight from Blake's short tutorials. Keep to the tree line. Branches don't leave footprints and aerial advantage is always useful. A special temporary glyph that created a visual illusion as well, she could not use magic to become invisible, but color swapping white for green, pale skin, her eyes, and red all for brown was easy enough. It was a camouflage that would never hold up scrutiny, but made her distinctly less obvious in the canopy.

Azura was perpetually on her tail, more beast than ever before. She moved on all fours, charging always forward, even into the trunks, hungry.

"Weiss, come out and make this easier, our little window is getting tighter," she spoke with a snarling voice, the amber eyes of the predator bright like yellow stained coals. They were never far, always visible between the shadows of trees, sometimes just distant enough to allow a breath, more often though they were close, frighteningly close. Simply luck that she managed to leap gracefully to another section of twisted branches. Thankfully they supported her weight, largely due to her dainty frame but mostly due to good fortune, and with unknown grace they did not groan or creak loud enough to alert her.

For a time.

A twisted limb cracked, the wood shattering down the center, and though it held, the professor's eyes became fixed on Weiss. Her camouflage had failed, she was seen, and time was out.

Now came the defense. Hammer pulled back, as the wolf leapt with sword in hand Weiss blasted what ice remained to form a shield. Space, she needed space.

Azura crashed into the wall and the heiress hopped to another tree, spinning her wheel again, this time to fire red for a more tortuous barrier. The ice had not held, and now the former professor was clawing at the trees.

"Back away!" Weiss shouted, pulling the trigger, the waft of flame formed from dust inside her revolving cylinders, dividing the forest with a fence of barbed fire. It did little to slow her advance, the wolf bounding over the barricade, the ends licking at her armor nothing more.

Defense was a strong point of Weiss' after being her weakness in the previous year, but Azura was the master of assault. Force glyph buffered it, but even a single swing of Azura's sword sent Weiss' back, barely able to keep on her feet. There was no stopping her, only dodging, black platforms giving her some vertical advantage to her guard despite blows coming her way.

"Stop running!" Azura called out as she gave chase.

"You're trying to kidnap me!" Weiss, narrowly missed the next step, the tip of the great sword slicing the very end of her boots, almost clipping her toe—

Three shots.

One missed entirely, shattering a tree behind Weiss, bark chips bursting from the back of the hole. One struck Azura's a shoulder, taking off and warping much of the plate armor, but leaving the flesh unharmed. One blew through her hair, shredding one of the long blue bangs she kept to hide her scarred face, the gush of the air behind it lightly burning the faunus' face.

She was coming.

Azura spun a complete one-eighty, her shield raised to give some protection from the large red bullet coming her way, spinning forward with such speed it brought more than petals in its wake. Speed was her weapon, and the ball of crimson struck the shield harder than anything they could have mustered before. For the first time in Weiss' knowledge, Azura lost her footing, dropping to a knee and sliding in the mud as the cyclone spin smashed into her defense.

"Ruby, go away!" Azura shouted back as she pushed against it with her weight. The move grinded the younger huntress to a halt, the girl underneath the red was revealed, eyes grey, clouded with tears, so unnaturally angry. She swung with the scythe, but Azura blocked, without momentum the wolf had the advantage, but Weiss was not unarmed.

Sword glowed green, enhancing dust sped her up and she struck from behind. Azura brought her sword to her defense and absorbed the blow. Still she was completely stuck on the defensive. The two partners, despite on opposite sides, coordinated their strikes from experience and trust alone. They moved together, both putting pressure so Azura could not counter. This was how they could win. They had the experience, and Weiss knew that Azura's semblance would knock her out soon enough. They would win together.

"Why, Auntie!? Why are you doing this!?" Ruby cried out, twirling a crescent strike down on Azura, but the shield raised against it. Azura seemed unwilling to attack her, so the zweihander was swung exclusively at Weiss, but under pressure, these strikes were barely pokes.

"You don't understand! This was for the best! For all of us!"

A hole in the defense opened up, Weiss could see the opening, her blue eyes fixed on the exposed chest, she dove. Expecting the stab would be blocked, it was not. The sword pierced deep, enough for blood. The sword was stuck.

She left the opening to force a change and Weiss went for it. Idiot, she thought, knowing there was nothing she could do as the heiress took a hardened fist to her face. The aura took the strike, but it knocked Weiss near ten meters, right into a tree. Now Ruby was alone, no way she could win with the shield blocking every strike. Animal like endurance of Azura too more for a student.

Weiss remembered a training exercise, last winter. A robot meant to defend. Ruby could never get past the shield. No matter how much Weiss pressured until... Semblance. Ariel. The glyphs.

"Ruby! Momentum!" Was that enough? Would she remember the lessons, their practice? Her grey eyes looked sad, but when she locked them with Weiss there was understanding as she burst apart into a blur and petals. It was almost like teleportation. In one second she was striking from the left, next the right, then behind. She formed a looping circle the shield twirled around in repetitive exhausting rhythm despite only truly taking a few moments. A pattern was formed and that was when the change happened, the switch.

Striking with momentum she leapt above Azura, still a blur that the professor could barely match with, but this was the moment Weiss prepared for. With a flick of the wrist, a prepared amount of dust, a slowing glyph formed around the faunus, she could not block in time, the scythe swung low, catching the shield arm and digging deep. It must have hurt both of them, but with a quick twirl the muscle that wrapped around Azura's shoulder, the joint itself was torn asunder, and the arm, while attached, slumped a crippled twitching wreck. Checkmate.

"No!" Azura screamed, a human scream, as she struck out. Weiss didn't think she could manage the attack with her body racked in pain. Weiss snapped into action, but it was a pointless one. Azura did strike with her sword, but with the flat face, easily swiped away by Crescent Rose. "I was so close," she mumbled, eyes returned to the pools of blue, tears streaming down her face. She couldn't hurt Ruby, but Weiss didn't know that. She stabbed her rapier directly into the right shoulder, just trying to disarm the teacher, but it punctured straight through, robbing her of either arm, body collapsing to its knees. She didn't scream anymore, just cried softly, face hidden by the long locks of blue and black hair. Weiss, pulled her rapier out, and Azura dropped, would have fallen to the floor if Ruby hadn't caught her.

The Heiress felt a guilt, knowing her final attack was pointlessly brutal, but Ruby didn't look at her with anything resembling hate, her innocence back, though meshed with deep worry for both of them. She didn't seem to notice how the professor's blood was staining her clothes.

"I didn't know she was giving up," Weiss tried to explain. They were alone now, and it was calm for once. Birds were coming back, and the soft crunch of animals could be heard in the forest from every direction. Most of the distant fighting seemed to have ended.

"I know. We have to get Auntie back to Beacon, she's hurt. Blake, too. Please?" Ruby spoke so softly that it was barely a breath from a whisper. She already seemed willing to take on the blame for her pseudo-Aunt's actions. It was tragic, but with a storm brewing outside, collecting so suddenly, perhaps what was causing the movement in the trees and animals, even grimm, scurried to find cover. They needed to leave.

"Yeah, let's fire off the flare. We need to get back to Ozpin."

Ruby nodded, but she clearly didn't want it. They both knew Azura's fate was going to be harsh. Weiss was about a mile out from forgiving anything about what the professor had done, but as she wept soundlessly and finally became still, inert, there was some sympathy, if only because of Ruby, because it hurt her. Still, she intended justice.

"Thanks Weiss. I can drag her. I'm sorry."

"Ruby, it's not your fault. Listen, I'm not exactly the warmest about people, especially people trying to kill me, but you are my partner. I have your ba—"

The crackle against the small twigs and leaves that littered the untraveled floor weren't distancing themselves from the oncoming storm, they were following its skyward trail of lightning, following it to them. Ruby heard it too, the two partners locked eyes and engaged, Weiss lifting her rapier in the left hand, point out and ready for whatever was coming. The redhead engaged Crescent Rose folded into sniper mode, resting firmly in her left hand. Both stood facing away from each other, back to back, a step between them only to allow more versatile movement. Weiss didn't need to see behind her, she had faith in her teammate's abilities. Together they were unstoppable, they had to believe that, even as the worst news reared itself once again, men and women in white masks bearing curved swords. These were not recruits, their masks that covered the full face marked them as elite.

"Weiss, stay close. I'm right here, stay with me," Ruby whispered as the White Fang elite began to encircle them. Weiss pulled her right hand back, angled her body as her style demanded, but instead of finding nothingness, a pale hand grasped her's, Ruby's right, holding her sniper one-handed.

"Of course, we're a team, no matter what, I'm here with you. Thank you, Ruby," there wasn't any other time to be sentimental, they were coming, the charge was now, "Thank you for giving me a family." Even now, when the canines of the white wolves were baring down on them, which was still terribly embarrassing. Instant regret.

"Weiss, I lo—"

The White Fang hung back, only to allow their leader the first charge, the enigmatic Adam Taurus, though confrontations with him were short lived, rare, they were potent memories of defeats and victories, memory of his semblance imbued strikes most of all. It happened in one moment, Weiss launched a fire bolt, Ruby pumped out a round of her sniper, Adam struck something and all vision became gold.

A roar.

"Touch her, touch my niece, I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" There was little human in her voice, all that remained was in the words themselves, muffled by the handle in her mouth. From the gold, the burst of light, a damaged Royal Charlie was swung hard into the katana Adam had, the move catching him off guard. Caught everyone. Azura could not use her arms, so she used her teeth, madly swinging it back and forth, letting go to change position, grabbing hold and turning her whole body to attack, arms flailing without control. The attack was barbaric, and to those caught up in the first berserker's strikes, devastating. Adam, dodged with reflexes bordering on Blake's and a face that seemed unimpressed.

"We come to save you from the very people you promised to capture and this is how you greet us?" Adam, with brute force that paired Yang's, blocked the brunt of the strike with all his might, it pushed him back, but Azura was not the warrior that just fought Ruby and Weiss. Her eyes burned a blinding yellow, her body propelled by her semblance alone, blood seeping from her wounds and muscles that could not stand up to the abuse. Still, she fought on. "Have you given any thought to what they will do to you? The humans? The faunus are your only way out, stand down before Beacon's hunters come and you get put away for life. You want that?!" Adam turned the tide with a swift kick into her lower chest, between plates, causing blood to spit from her mouth and the wolf to fall back. She must have been in so much pain.

"Fuck the Taurus, fuck the faunus, fuck you!" she growled, tilting the Royal Charlie straight up and released. The button, the bottom. The flare. Sword hit the ground at an off angle, but above the deep red light fired into the sky. Everyone was coming. Everyone.

"Weiss!" Ruby shouted and turned her back to face forward. One was coming at her silently, but in full force. Expecting to catch her off guard, Weiss disarmed him with a flick and sliced him under the belly. Ruby had long since let go of her hand, but the red girl kept to the white one's back, popping off shots to the White Fang that surrounded them. More came and they circled together, back to back, knocking them down one at a time, bolts of ice, fire, lightning, rock, and all manner coming from their united circle. If they snuck past Ruby's shot, Weiss' magic would catch them, if not then the scythe of Crescent Rose would snag them. They were invincible together.

However, they were pinned, pinned while Azura fought a losing battle against Adam. She would charge with nothing but her mass and wolf teeth and Adam would swiftly dodge and chip away at Azura, cutting out her aura, her armor, sometimes bits of her. Still the wolf pressed on. What drove her was beyond Weiss. Vengeance for something? Or was it Ruby? How did a faunus love some human kid so deeply? Why? Weiss did not understand betraying them just to betray her own kind. There was no saving her, and longer and the old wolf would die to the new one.

"Azura stand down!" Adam swiped his sword right for the head, no shield, weapon, or even arm to block it.

"No!" the wolf faunus roared, biting back against the sword, catching it with just her mouth, the boldest move Weiss had ever seen. That made Adam twitch, as he struggled to get the sword free from the clenched, though perhaps cracked teeth. "Who's screwed now!" she mumbled and laughed with a katana held in her bite.

The White Fang elite had gotten their senses, pulling away and reformulating their plan as Weiss and Ruby continued to dance around each other. Now they weren't reforming, they were retreating. Shots were coming from inside the forest and airships spun overhead. Beacon was here!

It wasn't Beacon. The double Axe was not the crest on these soldiers pouring out of the woods, or on the ships that dotted the sky. Everything was snowflakes. Schnee.

"Hey cuz!" an ancient irritation spoke from the deep of the woods whilst arrows darted out and burst into flakes of ice as they struck the White Fang. It was Vera, her delightful cousin, the worst person she could think of to be responsible for their rescue. But how? Vermillion was half a day from there by even their best airships.

"Vera! What are you doing here?" The distant relative walked out into the open, her red lined white coat matched the others worn by the Schnee's personal armed security force. They were all stark looking, with crimson as their only highlighted colors, remnants of the old days when knights were actually a thing, now little more than fancy named mercenaries.

"I got you bull boy!" Azura mumbled from her struggling mouth. Adam was pinned, doomed perhaps. Though a few of the elite dispersed in time, he was getting nowhere.

He almost stopped struggling before it happened. A last ace, luck at the time that Weiss would only discover later was the use of a different old woman's semblance. The storm which unnaturally hovered above went a bolt down, the rod of light cast from the sky struck nothing, but exploded in the air, all the energy converted to light, a white intense glow that blinded anyone unlucky enough to be looking at the space between the two faunus, which unfortunately managed to be everyone. Except one person, the one person wearing a mask. Adam disappeared with the flash, leaving only a collapsed professor on the floor. Body convulsing from over use, the semblance was finally extracting its fine on her and no one knew it. No one but Weiss.

"Hold on ma'am, we can't let you approach the White Fang," one of the many still wiping his eyes called out, catching her as she tried to approach.

"She's dying!"

"She's a faunus, and she tried to kill you, why bother?" Vera commented, unwelcoming. Ruby tried to protest, but she was already being brushed away, another lose student to be sent back to Beacon. This was not the peace she wanted. Ruby looked to her, so afraid, for Azura no doubt, her Auntie was dying. Weiss felt a bit of rage. She was covered in her own sweat, there was stains of blood from the battle, luckily none of her own, there was dirt everywhere, she was horribly sore, her body wanted nothing more than to sleep, and now they were making Ruby cry.

"You, you know who I am?"

"Yes, ma'am?" he replied nervously.

"I will one day be the person deciding if you have a job or not. I will remember you, find you, and one day you will either remember this moment fondly, or regret it deeply. She has medicine in her breast pocket, she needs extreme medical attention. Take care of her or deeply regret it!" Weiss used the lovingly named command voice. The young man balked, and rushed over to the fallen faunus. At first no one helped him, but soon a few of the younger soldiers did. It wasn't a guarantee, but it was enough perhaps.

"You are really going to piss the boss man off," Vera mumbled and laughed. Her hands rested comfortably in her greatcoat sleeves, pleased with herself despite being late, despite catching nothing, despite every fabric of her disgusting personality.

"He can sulk in Castle White."

"Or Beacon. He's here."

*** I can't tell if I hate this chapter or just I don't know. Definitely was the hardest chapter of MV to write and honestly I don't know how I feel about it, what might be wrong or anything. I'm interested in hearing what you all think? THANKFULLY next chapter has no fighting in it. Really worn down on writing fight scenes. This formally ends Arch 2 Old Wolves and New, now the final and shortest Arch begins! Let me know how you liked the finale!

Want to thank LazyKatze as always for helping me write this and editing. She is now like my best friend and writing really has been made so much better because of you so keep on being awesome!

Hope everyone enjoys and new choice is next! Have a happy January!