So here is another relatively short chapter as a response I had to V3E5 when it had aired. There was, in particular, one moment I saw that connected a little too well to this story and I could not pass up the chance to expand on it a bit for the purposes of this story. On another note, I am absolutely terrified and excited for what Miles, Kerry, and Gray throw at us this weekend with the V3 finale. At this point I know where I'll be hopping out of what Team RWBY is doing to follow a little event in E11 that I saw a great deal of potential in. Other than that, I hope everyone is as eager to see what the RWBY team was in store for us! In the meantime, enjoy the next installment of this story.

"Soooo…remind me again why you guys decided on Weiss and Yang for the doubles round?" Frost asked between bites of popcorn as he glanced over towards Ruby and Blake. "I mean Yang I get, what with her Semblance and her being a really good close-quarters fighter, but why Weiss? Wouldn't it be difficult for her to use half of her glyphs given how they require prep time that she would have less of in a 2v2 situation rather than a 4v4 fight?"

Blake gave a wry grin as Ruby giggled lightly before responding. "Come on silly! Give Weiss a little more credit than that! Her Glyphs have been what's helped us win a whole bunch of fights up to this point!" Ruby looked upwards with a ponderous look as she began listing off different fights aloud. "Let's see…there was the Nevermore during initiation…that mech that Torchwick used during the White Fang rally…that ice crystal she made so we wouldn't get hurt from the train crashing through into the city-" Frost pounded a fist against his chest as he choked on some popcorn for a moment before sputtering out a remark.

"Hang on, she did what?!" Frost exclaimed as he looked over towards Ruby and Blake's nonchalant expressions. He shook his head clear for a moment before giving the two of them a shocked look. "I can barely manage to make a regular sized shield with my Semblance and the dust inside my bracer. How the heck does she manage something like that without any ice to begin with? That rapier cannot hold that much Dust inside of it, there's no way."

"Well of course not, duh."

Blake smiled slightly before turning back to Frost. "What Ruby means to say is that Weiss' Glyphs draw on assorted objects as well as Dust to activate. Didn't you notice when she made that large block of ice in our fight with Team ABRN?"

"I mean I saw it get formed, sure." Frost stated as he scratched the back of his head. "But I wasn't really focusing on who made it. I was more interested by the setup you guys did with slingshotting Yang around like you did. Seriously, that was pretty sweet. I imagine she enjoyed that a lot judging from the giant grin she had on during it."

"You realize that Weiss made that giant ramp as well, right?" Blake asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Blake said with a smug look as she turned back to face the arena as Yang and Weiss began to enter the open field.

"I still wonder why you guys didn't consider more of the options if you or Ruby had joined in with Yang instead. Or even Weiss for that matter. Or have the two of you fight, even." Frost said with a shrug of his shoulders as Ruby leaned over from the opposite side of Blake to add her own take on the conversation.

"As much as we considered it, Yang was an obvious choice for the doubles round. I may be fast, but I've never been that good at long fights given how my Semblance works. And since Blake's clones are more for dodging out of the way of hits, she can only dodge for so long before she gets tired out from whoever they fight against. And since Weiss can still do a few things with her Glyphs in a short amount of time, she seemed the obvious second choice to go on."

"Fair enough, I guess. I still think that running circles around them until they throw up is a viable battle strategy." Frost stated as he turned his own attention to the field as Yang and Weiss' opponents entered the field, even as Blake and Ruby cringed slightly at his suggestion. His jaw immediately dropped however, as they all heard Neon's comment to Yang about her…proportions. "Did…she just insult her chest size?"

"Oh, here we go."

The trio watched the fight go on for a while as blows were exchanged. Or more accurately, as Weiss and Flynt traded blows and Neon continued to aggravate Yang, who had yet to land a single blow on the colorful Faunus. Frost decided to focus more on Weiss and Flynt after a while as Yang continued as Yang continued to get toyed with, only for his eyes to widen in shock and his mind begin to go into a panic even as Ruby and Blake yelled out Weiss' name. After all, teammates would do that after seeing one of their own take a nosedive into a geyser of flame to attempt to take out their opponent. Unfortunately, it was for naught as Flynt emerged from the smoke only partly singed while Weiss lay unconscious on the ground.

"Nonononono..." Frost started muttering under his breath with a look of fear in his eyes. Blake and Ruby both noticed this and gave each other a worried look for a moment even as they turned back to see Yang finally finish up the fight. The two of them immediately got up to rush to their teammates to congratulate them even as Frost sat rooted to his seat. His knuckles were beginning to turn white as his grip tightened on the armrests. If one looked closely they could even see that his arms were glowing white slightly as he began to lose control of his Semblance in the high-stress scenario.

Frost began to sweat as his thoughts continued to scatter silently. "Not again. Please not again. I've already seen this once and I don't think I can handle it happening again to someone that I consider a friend or closer. This is just a dream...Yeah! That's it! I'm just imagining how the fight is going to play out. In fact, it's still the night before and the fight has yet to even be determined. There's no way this is actually what happened. Nope. Just a hallucination. Nothing at all to-" His thoughts were immediately brought to a halt as he was carefully approached by Team RWBY, who were all regarding his lost expression with varying degrees of concern.

"Hey…Frost? You there?" Yang asked slowly as he turned his head to face them with a bit of a crazed look in his eye.

"Hey guys!" Frost said with a slightly higher pitch to his voice and a plastered smile on his face. "I hope that your fight tomorrow goes better than this dream one did! Getting hit in the face with a pillar of fire can't be good for your voice, so try not to do that in the doubles round, OK Weiss?"

"Umm…okay, can someone explain why Frost is acting like he's broken?" Ruby asked with a worried look towards her teammates. "Guys?"

Weiss gave a deep sigh which ended in a brief cough as she ejected a bit more smoke from her lungs. "I think I know…but I need to get my throat cleared, first."

"That's a good idea! Can't have you losing the ability to talk or anything like that!" Frost said with a crazy look as a few observers slowly walked away with grimaces or looks of worry on their faces as well at the odd spectacle.

"Come on Frost, let's go." Yang walked forward and gently pried his hands from the armrests, wincing slightly at the obvious indentations from where his hands were digging into the metal armrests.

"Sure thing Yang!" Frost exclaimed as he hopped up from the seat the moment his hands were no longer gripping the chair. He gave them all eager looks as they all gave him worried glances before heading off towards the medical centre aboard the colosseum. They all jumped slightly as Frost's voice immediately burst out again. "And can someone let me know if they see Torchwick? Since this is a dream, I bet I can get him to let me beat him up…you know, for science!"

They all grimaced as they continued onward, many other viewers of the tournament giving them a wide berth as they noticed Frost's crazed expression.

"So you're telling me I had a crazy look on my face, was constantly muttering under my breath, and even scared off a few people since I was claiming that they were all figments of my imagination?" Frost asked with an eyebrow raised as he gave a deadpan look to those around him.

Weiss had, in the time it had taken for the relaxants to take effect, gotten herself cleaned up and taken a few pills and a glass of water to help her replenish her Aura levels a little faster to speed along the healing process of her throat. The doctor had recommended that she avoid speaking too much for the rest of the day so that way her voice could go back to normal a little faster. The rest of the team had made sure to keep an eye on Frost while they waited for the drugs to take effect on him and bring him back from his panic attack. Now the five of them were sitting in the dorms as the girls gave Frost looks as they awaited explanation.

"Yup, pretty much." Yang stated bluntly while Weiss gave her a swat on the shoulder. "What? He asked, and I answered."

"Have a bit more tact than that, Yang." Weiss stated with a stern look as she regarded the blonde brawler.

"Yeah, Yang! We still haven't had a chance to let Frost explain why he freaked out like that!" Ruby exclaimed from her space on one of the two lower beds as they al turned back to face Frost.

"And here I thought I could cleverly dodge around that one…" Frost groaned as he slumped over in defeat. After a few moments of silence, he let out a deep breath as he looked up to face the girls once more. "Fine. I'll explain as best as I can from what the doctors told me a few months ago."

"Basically, it all comes down to how this all started. By now you've all heard that the reason I worked for Torchwick in the first place, and why Neo doesn't talk, is because I accidentally blew up a warehouse he was storing a bunch of stolen Dust in. What I never wanted you guys to know was the mental effects it left on me following our treatments whenever I got around fire and large quantities of Dust. In hindsight I guess it explains one reason why Torchwick didn't bring me along for the train operation. I tend to get pretty nervous around that much Dust, and I've been known to let out bursts of energy if I get too emotionally unstable as it turns out. Part of the territory when I'm as inexperienced as I am with my own Semblance. Only having a strong grasp of it for less than a year tends to do that to you. Especially when it's as unstable as it is on a regular basis." The girls all heaved a sigh of relief following Frost's regaling of his diagnosis. They were all familiar with tales of PTSD, given how many huntsmen in history left the job after a too-stressful ordeal that affected either themselves or someone they were close to. It was just another reason to be fully committed to the task but still having someone to talk to in between missions. If huntsmen went out and did missions on their own all of the time, then there would likely be even fewer of them in the world. Hence the importance of teams, both in and out of school.

Frost gave them all a pleading look as their expressions returned to normal from their previously worried states. "Please don't start coddling me now that you know this. The doctors tried to do that, as well as the matron at the orphanage before Neo and I left. It never helped. Just treat like you would any other day, even though you know about this side of me, okay?"

"Did you really think we'd start babying you after hearing something like that?" Yang replied with a smirk as she walked up and ruffled his hair, to which he responded by wincing back and giving her a disgruntled look. "All of us have had to deal with some pretty messed up stuff in our lives, and we don't think differently of each other despite that. It may have shaped a part of who we are, but it doesn't define us. Some of us have even gotten to trying to get that part of our lives to a point where it doesn't bother us anymore. It takes time, but it'll get better, trust me."

Frost smiled as he got up and gave Yang a strong pat on the shoulder. "Thanks, Yang." He then moved to the side to look over her shoulder as he regarded the rest of the girls. "And thanks to you guys as well." He then took a deep breath as he turned to open the door to the hallway before beckoning towards the open hall for the others. "Now…shall we got get something to eat? I don't know about you guys, but I am surprisingly hungry right now."

"Seconded!" Yang exclaimed as she jogged over to the open door, egging the others up as she went.

Frost could only smile and chuckle lightly to himself as he watched Weiss attempt to tell Yang and Ruby to slow down as Blake slowly followed after them. Moments like these had been a very common occurrence for him in the last while, and he could only hope that nothing would happen in the near future that would interfere with the relative peace they were all feeling right now.