Author's Note:

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Naze's attention was distracted from his planning when his orb of control alerted him to a knocking at the door of his puppets room. The body reacted quickly, standing and walking over to the door, and opened it to fine Blake standing in the hall.

The Faunus spoke without waiting to be acknowledged, asking, "Where is team JNPR right now?"

Naze raised an eyebrow, and said, "Most people might be a little more courteous when asking something like that. You seem upset, Blake. I think that perhaps you should be a little more careful about-"

Blake cut him off, waving her hand in an aggressive manner and saying, "No! I don't care! I know you know where she is, and I want you to tell me!" Naze raised an eyebrow again, and weighed his options. On the one hand, he could guess what she was going to do. Her emotional state made it clear enough that she was in quite a bit of distress, and the fact that she was visibly armed suggested her intent. He knew what was going to happen if he did, but if he didn't, he was sure that the girl would find out on her own.

An idea formed in his head, and it was something that could be to his advantage. Thus, he acted on it, and started to speak. "They are currently at the nearest hospital in Vale, recovering from their rather traumatic ordeals of late. If you're going to go, I would suggest being gentle with them, I doubt that they can handle more stress."

Blake snorted through her nose, and said, "Sure, gentle, yeah. Whatever." With that, she turned to walk away, her fists opening and closing tightly as she walked. Naze watched her go, calculating in his head the chances of what he expected happening. They were fairly good, and he made certain to watch the girl through his shades.

As she walked, Blake tried to dismiss the fury that was burning a hole in her chest. She knew that it was just a shield, protecting her from the sorrow that she would've felt if she had no one to blame. She did, however, have someone who she could blame. The person closest linked to the demons that had stolen the place of her childhood away from her. Nora Valkyrie was going to pay for what her new kind had done, and Blake didn't care how.

She exited the dorm building, and found the air outside filled with foreign sounds. A kind of distant thrumming, that vibrated through the ground just as much as the air. Beneath the bow on her head, her Faunus ears started to twitch rapidly, irritated greatly by the sound. She started to turn her head, trying to find an angle where the sound didn't penetrate quite so well into her skull, but she was unable to find one. As a result, her ears simply folded down against her skull, twitching occasionally. What was making this sound, she didn't know, but she wanted to find out. She would go after finding Nora.

She grit her teeth again at the thought of the girl. Traitor, more like it. She had gone against humanity, and against the Faunus. She had to be punished for that. It was only fair. She wrapped her fingers around the handle of Gambol Shroud, trying to vent some of her frustration by squeezing the grip. She made sure to keep her fingers away from the trigger, even with the safety on, but if she did accidentally fire she wouldn't mind too much. At least she would be sure that the thing worked.

By the time that she reached the hospital, it was late morning, the sun just starting to beat down on the city. It didn't do anything to calm her nerves, but did inspire more zeal in her steps. She walked through the doors to the large white building, and approached the desk, her expression making her mood very clear.

The man behind the desk looked up, and started to say, "Hello, what can I-"

Blake cut him off, putting her hands down on the counter in front of him with a loud thud and saying "Where are Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren, and Nora Valkyrie?"

The man looked taken aback, but Blake didn't care about his feeling at the moment. She just needed to find them. The man looked her hesitantly over, before turning slightly in his seat, careful to keep her in his peripheral vision, and started to type on his computer. "Uh, they are here, but before I tell you where, I'm going to need a name."

Blake rolled her eyes exasperatedly, and practically spat, "Blake Belladonna, student at Beacon Academy." His fingers flew across the keyboard as he started to enter the information, and call up what she requested.

"It seems like we've only got one of those people in the system. Lie Ren. It says that he's a student at Beacon too. Is that-"

He was cut off for a second time, and Blake said, "Where? What room?"

The man ran his fingers through his hair, and said "Ma'am, I don't know if you can…" his voice trailed off when she drew one of her hands back onto the hilt of Gambol Shroud, and he shook his head, quickly recovering by turning his screen towards her, and pointing. "There, that's their room."

Blake peered at the number for a few moments before stalking off, not wasting any more breath on the man. She entered an elevator, and punched the button to go to the proper floor. When she reached it, the high pitched "ding" from the doors caused more irritation, and she walked out, feet moving quickly. A few hospital orderlies passed her in the hall, giving her concerned looks, but not saying anything.

When she got to the door, she took a few seconds to peer into the room through the window in the door.

Ren was lying on the bed, an IV in his arm, his eyes closed. Jaune and Pyrrha were sitting on either side of the bed, speaking to someone that she couldn't see. She thought she knew who the fourth person was, though, and opened the door, hitting it against the wall its hinges sat on. Jaune and Pyrrha both looked up, startled, but Blake paid them no mind. Instead, she walked into the room, ignoring the "Blake? What's wrong?" that came from the pair. She cast her gaze around the room, and found what she had been hunting for.

Nora sat on a large seat, several empty plates of food next to her, and one in the process of being devoured. She had put her utensils down, and was looking at Blake with sad, tear stricken eyes. Blake didn't know what had happened to her, if she had been freed of the demon or not, but she didn't care. The anger she felt overcame her, and she found herself unable to move, just staring at the redhead with nothing but pure malice in her eyes.

Jaune and Pyrrha said something else, but the roaring in Blake's ears was growing too rapidly for her to hear them. She stood, her breath growing faster and faster, until she was practically panting. Nora still hadn't said a word, and was still looking up at Blake, confused.

This carried on for a few tense seconds before Nora put the plate on the nearby table and stood up, looking Blake right in the eyes. Blake was somewhat startled by the fact that Nora was now a little taller than her, but kept her rage flowing. Nora's body was changed, not only taller, but more solidly built, and more curvy. In other circumstances, Blake might have complemented this, but now it only revolted her.

Nora spoke, her words soft, saying, "Blake, I…" before her voice trailed off, and she closed her eyes. Reopening them, she then put a hand out towards Blake, intending to pull her into a hug.

The pressure that had built inside of Blake snapped, and her aggression was released. She knocked Nora's hand to the side with one arm, and reached for Gambol Shroud with the other. Nora saw this, but seemed to be too stunned to do anything. Instead of drawing Gambol Shroud first, she pulled the whole scabbard off her belt, striking out with its sharpened edge. Nora still seemed to be unable to move, and Blake aimed her strike at her chest.

The angle of the blade's approach was perfect, forming a straight slicing path for the weight of the weapon to follow. The force that Blake put behind the cut was also nothing short of devastating, all of her hatred fueling the fire that drove her. She knew the blade could slice through the bones of a Grimm easily, Nora wouldn't stand much of a chance.

It was for these reasons that Blake found herself very confused when what should have been at least a disabling strike only seemed to dig about an inch deep into her foe's flesh. She didn't have much time to puzzle over this however, because Nora's response was almost immediate.

Something in what had just been a very sad and worried face changed into that of a cornered animal, and Nora lashed out at Blake with speed that she had not expected. Nora's hand, claws that Blake had not taken into consideration, racing towards her. She didn't have to time to dodge the attack, not even with her semblance, and was knocked aside, batted away like a ragdoll.

When off the ground, she had no control over her orientation, and found her back slammed into the wall beneath the large window sill opposite the door. She heard plaster crack, and felt the bones of her spine light up in pain, but didn't let that stop her. Instead, she got back to her feet as quickly as she could, and yanked Gambol Shroud from its sheath.

Jaune and Pyrrha tried to get between them, but Blake knew that bypassing them would be easy. She sprinted forwards, making it look like she was going to try and go right, but just as she almost passed Pyrrha, she made use of her Semblance to change direction and fool her friend. In order to change direction quickly enough, she was forced to twirl on one foot diagonally past Pyrrha, which was a difficult maneuver to pull off. But she managed, and continued her sprint past Jaune, who was trying to keep Nora in place. As she passed him, he tried to reach out for her, but it was already too late. She was too fast.

With the way now clear, she could fire her weapon without fear of hitting the others. The high pitched whine of dust rounds being spat out of Gambol Shroud's barrel filled the air, and she smiled when she saw that Nora was forced to raise her arms to protect herself. The bullets seemed to have little surface effect on Nora's toughened hide, but that didn't matter. Every second that her arms were between her and Blake was another moment that she could get closer.

When she did get into melee range, she used the momentum of her sprint to her advantage, using one foot to stop her forward motion, and throwing the other to the side so that she would spin. This slash had far greater force behind it, and he wasn't using the scabbard anymore. She was using the knife-like blade on the top of her gun, intending to slide it precisely through Nora's ribs.

She felt her arm jolt to a halt, and could tell that it had pierced something. When she looked however, she found that it was Nora's hand, not her chest that she had impaled. She tried to retrieve the blade, but Nora's other hand was quicker, and grabbed ahold of Blake's wrist. She was lifted off the ground, and brought to eye level with Nora.

The redhead stared at her for a moment, then, in a voice that was almost totally silent, said, "Please don't hurt me."

Blake breathed heavily. Nora sounded almost like a child. It was disturbing, really, but if Nora had done it to manipulate her, she wasn't going to let it work. She lashed out with her free hand that still held the scabbard, and cut Nora's wrist. This time the cut she scored was deep, and caused Nora's fingers to go limp. She dropped back to the ground, and started to turn back to face Nora, but when she did, she found her crying, holding the cut with the hand that had been stabbed, which looked already mostly healed. She choked out. "Please, I don't want to do this anymore! It's not my fault! I didn't…" she started to gasp for breath as the words hooked in her throat, "I didn't do it! It's not me!"

Nora's words struck right to Blake's heart. They reminded her that Nora was perhaps not an enemy. That didn't change the fact that she was guilty. She had done more harm than anyone else in the situation. She was going to give her what she deserved.

Blake's pause lasted just a little too long, though, and she felt the strong grip of Pyrrha take her arms and place them behind her back, where she couldn't do anything. She struggled wildly for a second, before a loud, piercing, beep sounded through the room. All attention instantly went to the bed to their side, and all of them saw Ren pushing himself up, rubbing his head and trying to open his eyes.

Gambol Shroud, both scabbard and body, clattered against the floor. Pyrrha's grip left Blake, who dropped back to the ground weakly, and looked back up at the bed. Ren slowly tried to push himself to the side of the bed, but Jaune and Pyrrha were by his side in an instant, trying to keep him still and comfort him. "Ren, you need to stay still." "Don't try to get up, you're in the hospital, everything's fine."

Ren shook his head, and his eyes cracked open as he said, "I… I heard Nora. Where is she? Is she in trouble?"

Blake looked back over her shoulder at the subject of Ren's worry, and was surprised to find that Nora seemed almost shattered. Her expression was something between intense joy and absolute sorrow. Her hands were shaking, and she seemed to be on the verge of some kind of breakdown. Guilt washed over Blake as she realized what she had done. Attacking a friend? That was something a madman would do, not her.

A headache suddenly split her skull, crown to base, and she knew that it didn't have anything to do with the damage she had taken. She winced, putting a hand to her temple, and pulling her knees up to her chest, tucking her face behind them. She wished she could just disappear. Not only had she made an immense fool of herself, but she had probably just lost four friends as well.

Nora stepped over the Faunus, who was now almost totally forgotten, and walked unsteadily towards the bed. She didn't want to suddenly feel one of the urges to hurt something that Tiny used to give her, and was thus hesitant to approach at all. It took almost constant reminding of herself that Tiny was gone, and that she would never feel its urges again to even consider getting close to Ren while he was awake. She was so scared. He had been reduced to such a frail state over the last few weeks, and it was all her fault.

Ren's eyes drifted sleepily over to her, and he tried again to push himself up. Pyrrha and Jaune kept him down, and he abandoned his weak attempts to get back up, instead simply speaking. "Come over here."

Nora's breathing started to turn spastic, and she felt her body start to shake harder. She did as she was told though, and approached. When she was almost there, one of her legs refused to respond to her commands mid-step, and she fell to her knees. This didn't bother her, and she scooted the rest of the way, kneeling next to Ren, and taking ahold of his hand. Her wounds had healed by this point, and left nearly no markings at all.

Ren spoke, and his voice was audibly strained as he said, "I thought I heard you in pain…" He took a deep breath. "I'm glad you're alright, Nora. It's alright, what you did. I don't blame you. It wasn't you doing it."

Nora's lips started to quiver, and she bowed her head into the soft sheets that covered the bed, nodding. Ren, after a few moments of effort, removed his hand from Nora's, and placed it on top of her red hair. She stopped quivering, feeling the comfort of his fingers in her hair and against her skin. He petted her, a bit like a dog, as he had before all of the disastrous things that had happened.

She had always loved that. And she had always loved him, now that she thought about it. She didn't feel the kind of painful urges that Tiny had made for her, she now felt only a soft kind of comfort from him. She hadn't known before, but that was love, she was sure of it.

Jaune was the first to tear his eyes away from the reunification, and look at Blake again. She was clutching her head like she'd had a steel rivet blown into her brain, tears rolling down her cheeks and body shaking from her silent sobs. He glanced back at Ren, trying to decide if it would be insensitive or not to help Blake, then shook his head. Insensitive or not, she clearly needed it.

He walked over to where her weapon had fallen, and retuned the blade to its sheath. It slid in easily, and he put it on the ground beside her, not sure what to say. There wasn't really anything that he could say to make her feel better about what she'd done, it was pretty bad, but he didn't want her to simply be crying on the ground. Nora would forgive her, he was sure. And Pyrrha, along with himself, would be able to understand her drives.

They had turned the TV off a while ago, seeing as it upset Nora. They didn't know how they were going to tell Ren about it. Something like that was going to be difficult for someone waking up from a coma to believe.

He glanced back to the bed, then than to Blake again. He couldn't just leave her there, like that. He had to do something.

With as gentle a movement as he could manage, he reached down and put a hand on Blake's shoulder. Her sobbing slowed a little bit, but still continued, and her face didn't turn towards him. He knelt down, taking her weapon in a soft grip, and tried to pull her up. "Hey, come on, get up. It's alright, no one is going to blame you. You should say hello to Ren."

Blake tried weakly to shrug him off, but he knew that Ren would be able to help, whether he meant to or not. He always helped, that was simply part of his thoughtful personality. He never failed to make someone feel better about themselves. And Blake certainly needed a little of that now.

It took a few more seconds of prompting, but with a little work, Jaune was able to get Blake up to her feet and herded her over to the side of Ren's bed. Nora had broken down into tears again, and Pyrrha was trying to tell Ren some of the things that had happened in his "absence." She had said nothing about Menagerie yet, and Jaune hoped that she would leave that topic alone for a while, but based on how Ren was already reacting to things.

He appeared panicked when Pyrrha told him how much time had passed since he was last fully conscious, or conscious at all, for that matter. Jaune had expected something like that, he knew that he would be freaked out pretty badly if someone told him that he had been out for a week. What seemed to get under Ren's skin (and under Jaune's too, he had to admit) was that he seemed to have fragments, just little bits and pieces, of memories from when he had almost been awake. Jaune could tell that he didn't want to say what they were with Nora around, and he didn't blame him. With the weird stuff that had been going on when he and Pyrrha had stumbled upon them, he wouldn't want to talk about it either.

It wasn't long before Ren took notice of Blake's presence, and greeted her in his now hoarse voice. "Blake! What are you doing here?"

She couldn't quite speak through the spasms in her diaphragm, but she managed to make a small wave with one of her hands. Ren quickly took this to mean that he likely shouldn't try to speak with her, and didn't press any further. He looked down to Nora, whose head was still beneath his fingers, and gave it another rub. He was glad to be awake again, but was still disturbed by everything that had happened. He also got the feeling that they were trying not to tell him something, but explained it as his imagination. It was bound to be acting up after waking up from sleeping so long. The nurse that had visited him had said that he wouldn't feel quite himself for a while, maybe this was a part of that.

It was a feeling that he couldn't dismiss, though. Every time he looked up, they seemed to be avoiding his gaze, or looking at one another with hesitance or dread. Things they shouldn't be feeling around him. He didn't say anything about this, though.

Instead, he tried to talk about something a little less depressing than the current mood of the room. "So Blake is here, but where's the rest of RWBY? Are they going to be coming by later, or is it just coincidence that you're here?"

The question was aimed at Blake, but the way that she slowly looked up at him, a stunned look on her face. In a manner as slow as the way she looked up, she said, "No, I don't think it is." It was clear that she was coming to grips with something, putting as much thought towards something as she could. What it was that she was focusing on, though, Ren didn't know. He looked at the faces of his other friends, and found that they looked every bit as confused as he felt.

Jaune was the closest to her, and turned to face her, a careful expression on his face. He didn't want to make anything worse, but he also wanted to know what she meant. "Blake, what does that mean? Did someone send you?"

Blake's crying had stopped for the most part, and she was now focusing on whatever it was in her head. It was a few seconds before she said anything, but when she did, it seemed that she was somewhat chilled. "No, no one sent me. I just…" she stopped for a second, taking a deep breath, then turned more towards Jaune and Pyrrha than Ren. "I asked Naze where you guys were, and he told me. He saw that I had Gambol Shroud, he had to. He knew what I was going to do, and he told me anyways. I think he had to have known what was going to happen here."

Jaune and Pyrrha looked stunned, Nora didn't respond, and Ren looked more confused. Something had happened with Blake's weapon? Had she fought someone or something on the way over here?

Pyrrha spoke again, saying, "Are you sure? He knew that you were going to…" her voice trailed off, and she glanced over to Ren. The two looked at one-another for a few seconds, before Pyrrha sighed and said. "Ren, you should know what woke you up. You said that you heard Nora in trouble, right?" Ren nodded, and Pyrrha continued. "Well, she was. Blake came here because she…" Pyrrha looked over at Blake, choosing her words carefully, "...she was in a lot of distress. Something happened recently that was really bad, and she thought that Nora had something to do with it. She didn't, but Blake didn't really know that. The two fought, and Blake got Nora a few times. That sound was what woke you up, we think."

Ren blinked, processing this. His head had a faint ache near its back, but he didn't let that deter him from trying to puzzle out what his friends were talking about. "So what you're saying is that Naze knew this was going to happen, me waking up and all."

Jaune rubbed the back of his head, and started to speak, but Blake interrupted him before he could. "He had to. There's no way something like that happens on accident. You guys know how he works, right? With manipulation, and using people."

Her voice sounded upset, and all of them could understand the indignance that Blake might feel at being used like this, if she was being used, but she also had to look at the positives. Ren was awake again, and there was no permanent damage from the fight. Everything was well. In fact, Jaune and Pyrrha were somewhat surprised by the fact that Naze had done something that didn't benefit him at all. At least, in any way that they could see. They had to remind themselves that Naze had access to a lot more information than they did. Maybe there was some plan in store for them, there was no real way to know.

Ren nodded, and said, "Oh." In a kind of even voice that no one had quite expected. This news had been expected to make him feel uncomfortable, or provoke some kind of reaction, at least. But instead he seemed to take this revelation in stride.

They soon found out that this was because something else was troubling Ren. After a few heavy moments of silence, he asked, "So what was the disaster that brought Blake here? If she attacked Nora, it must've been pretty bad, right?"

When he asked this, he felt Nora's shudders beneath his fingers quicken, and knew that he had struck a nerve. A large, important nerve, which he wanted to know more about. Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other again, and Blake grit her teeth in a way that seemed to suggest she didn't want to talk about it.

Ren sighed, and said "Blake, why don't you just leave. I think it'd be best. I appreciate you coming by, but you look like you're getting uncomfortable."

Blake looked up at him, then gave a plastered-on smile. It was insincere, but he didn't blame her for anything she had done. He was sure that he would do no less than what she had, were he in her position. He returned her fake smile with a genuine one of his own, and gave a weak wave as she started to walk towards the door. Everyone bid goodbye to their Faunus friend, Ren even got Nora to give a small whimper that almost sounded like a few words.

When she was gone, the two more lucid of his three teammates looked back to Ren, anxiety showing obviously on their faces. He spoke again, feeling some part of his throat grind against another in a rather painful way, and feeling his hoarse voice vibrate in the air around him, "Well, tell me. I can take it."

Pyrrha sighed, Jaune turned away from the bed awkwardly, and Nora grew more distressed beside him. He could tell that this was going to be interesting.

The shades always had been quick to work, and this assignment was no exception. It wasn't long at all before Summer's corpse was found high on a frigid mountain range north of Atlas. The conditions of the area made observation difficult, but the shade's unique abilities allowed them to bypass that. It was revealed that her body was frozen in a solid cube of ice, almost large enough to be classified as a glacier.

Atlas was certainly a cold enough place to generate formations like this, but Naze doubted it was a natural formation. If it were, it would not have been able to move fast enough to take Summer's corpse inside of itself between the time she died and now. Something had generated the icy formation other than the usual buildup of snow in the mountain range.

Summer was not shown her corpse, but neither was Naze. Not even the shades were able to penetrate the glacier well enough to get a clear view. Even though the ice itself was clear and pure, bends and excessive amounts of air bubbles made the distortion too great to make out any detail about the body. The amount of bubbles told Naze that the glacier had been formed extremely quickly, and he had checked already for record of a glacier in the area. There was no record.

With all this in mind, he decided that the area was still dangerous, and that they could not simply send in a recovery team. Most recovery teams would be able to extract the body quickly, but he was considering going himself to the site. He would be able to pull the corpse out in a matter of minutes, rather than hours, and time was certainly something that was starting to grow short. Summer needed the body soon, and he would be able to restore her to it immediately.

Summer made a request that he considered somewhat odd, though. She wanted her children to come as well, to be there when she took her first earthly steps in years. It would be dangerous for the children, Summer knew this, but she was sure that with Naze's protection, no harm would come to them. Naze had agreed to this request, if the children themselves accepted. He had inquired if she wanted her husband to be there as well, but she refused this. She didn't want him to undergo the stress.

No additional information had come from Summer, unfortunately, so they would be going into the area mostly blind. Naze didn't expect this to be too much of a problem, especially considering that he and his guard would be present, but there would be emergency procedures in place just in case something did go horrendously wrong.

He still had to contact Ruby and Yang, though. This would be easy to do, and he was sure that they would accept. Although he could go through Yang, he anticipated that an appearance from his puppet would have seemed more "personal" to them. "Personal" had never been a strong suit of his, but it was something that he had learned to imitate.

When he put his focus into his orb, and his consciousness started to work through the preserved corpse, animating it to life again. When he started to move, he noticed a thin layer of dust starting to settle over the more flat surfaces. The thing was being used less, but that was fine. It had served its purpose already. If it truly became useless, he would recycle the crystals inside of it, and dispose of the rest.

When he knocked on the door to team RWBY's room, he knew that Blake had not yet returned from her little escapade to the hospital, but he knew that the visit had gone exactly the way that he had expected it to. Ren was once again conscious, which would allow Nora to join in the combat, if required. He looked forward to seeing how the girl fared against those who had been corrupted to a lesser extent than her. He would have also liked to learn from her demon, Tiny, but that creature had been destroyed by the arch demon Timor. It had offered help to him, but in doing so, destroyed his greatest asset to learning more about its kind. A clever ploy, perhaps, but one that Naze didn't feel degraded the demon's offer.

His attention was snapped out of its raveling the future up, and back to the present. Ruby opened the door, and when she saw Naze, made an expression of slight fear. This look only lasted for a second though, as a smile quickly replaced it. "Oh, hi! Is there something I can do for you? Blake isn't here, if that's who you're looking for. She went to find Nora. I don't know if she found her, though." Suddenly Ruby's expression of mild surprise was replaced with one of worry. Her fingers went to her mouth, and she started to bite the ends of her nails.

Naze shook his head, and said, "No, I'm not here for her. I'm here for you. To make you an offer, more specifically. You see, your mother's corpse has been located, and she wishes you to go on the expedition to retrieve it."

Ruby's jaw dropped, and she said, "Mom's body?" Not sure of what response Ruby expected from this, he nodded, and it wasn't a full second before Ruby had disappeared, leaving fluttering rose petals in her wake.

Naze heard her voice deeper inside of the room, but didn't enter. There was no need to, Ruby would explain what he had said to her sister.

Her voice chattered quickly, illegible, with another deeper voice that was identifiably Yang's, then two sets of raucous footsteps thundered towards him. Yang and Ruby both stood before him, practically bouncing on their heels in excitement. Naze didn't have the opportunity to speak even if he wanted to. Ruby and Yang both started to talk at once, creating a mesh of questions, comments, and noises that was difficult for even Naze to decipher.

The things that he was able to understand seemed to be general sorts of praises and questions about where they could be going. He held up a hand to halt the barrage of words, then said, "The body is inside of a glacier north of Atlas. We could set out at any time, and your safety is fairly guaranteed, so long as you stay alert. Now, I assume that you're both willing to go?"

Instead of questions, he was now assaulted by hundreds of affirmations from the two girls. Again, he held a hand up to stop the volley, and when it was done, said, "Very well. Take the time to ready yourselves. I will contact you when everything is set for departure."

The responses of "Thank you!" and "Please hurry!" came as he had expected, and he turned around again to return to his own room. The body was barely back into the room when he took his focus back from it, and he set his attention to ordering the forces he would take with him. A few Death Knights would be more than enough, and none too large an investment. They were strong enough to handle any situation. Even if they were placed inside of a glacier just like Summer's corpse was, they would be able to break free.

That would be all he needed, and the process of extracting the corpse itself would be easy. There was a multitude of choices at his disposal, but he decided that arcane magic would be the easiest to use. It would slice through ice like it was nothing, even the huge amount that he would have to dispose of.

Transportation to the area would be more difficult than it had been to Patch. Runes needed to be drawn or etched in something that would allow them to stay virtually unchanged for long enough to use them. A hostile mountain range was not one such environment. No shade would have the strength to carve a symbol like what was needed into solid rock, and winds would blow away any other markings.

They would have to enter the area closer to the base of the mountains, and make their way up. This would not be a problem for himself or the Knights, but Ruby would have to be careful to avoid damage from cold. Her aura would likely be able to provide adequate protection, though.

A number of shades set about making the marks they needed to, and the Death Knights moved to join their lord before they set off.

He also informed Summer that she would have to prepare herself, as he expected her to accompany them as they went out. If anything started to go awry, there was a chance that she could recall some detail about what had slain her, and possibly give some insight as to how to deal with it. Summer's response was enthusiastic, and she made it clear that she couldn't wait to be corporeal again.

Ruby clutched Crescent Rose tightly to her chest, barely able to contain her excitement. "Yang, we're really going to see Mom again!" she rocked back on her bed, letting out a high pitched squeal as she did so. Yang looked up at her sister, smiling as she made sure that the single gauntlet of Ember Celica that she still used was secure on her wrist. The yellow metal didn't leave any slack, and was fastened a little more tightly than she ever would have in life. She didn't have to think about the discomfort that it would cause now, which was good. One thing that did register somewhere in her brain was that if too much pressure got put on it, it would cut slice her flesh. Not deep enough to really impede her abilities, but enough that she would've bled pretty heavily if that were still a concern.

Weiss looked on at the pair from the chair by the desk. She didn't want to sound petty, but she felt like she was being left out. The feeling made sense, she was being left out, and for good reason too. Getting back a family member's body for reanimation must've been a pretty personal thing.

Still, though, she'd be lying if she told herself that it didn't sting. Even though they could get on her nerves sometimes, she considered the members of team RWBY to be a better family than her flesh-and-blood ever had. She knew that they likely didn't feel the same way, what with Yang and Ruby still having a father, and Blake probably having someone to at least take the place of a parent. They'd be more distinguishing. She didn't blame them for it.

But even still, it felt like she was simply unliked in general, being left alone like she was. She tried to tell herself they didn't mean it, but it just didn't sound right.

She admired the two, though she never really would've said it. They weren't even full sisters, and yet they acted like they were two parts of the same mold, forming a synergy between them. Weiss thought of her own sister, Winter. There wasn't much difference between Ruby and Yang's ages or Weiss and Winter's, but Winter had always been so distant.

When she thought about it, she supposed that she wasn't entirely free of blame. Winter took more after her father than Weiss did, which would naturally create conflict. As a result, Weiss had spurned her the first few years, and that had created a rift that would never mend. She felt bad about it now, because Winter wasn't their father. She was a much better person, whom Weiss genuinely wanted to be friends with.

Ruby finished checking over her weapon, reporting with an, "All ready to go!" and sliding off the side of her bed to the floor below, bouncing happily.

Yang gave her sister her signature cocky smile, and said, "Alright, let's go do this." The two of them started towards the door, but stopped before they passed Weiss. Yang was the first to speak to her, saying, "Hey, are you going to be alright here on your own? I mean, we don't really know when Blake is going to get back, so…" her voice trailed off, and she raised her arms to indicate Weiss would be alone.

Weiss nodded, and said, "I'll be fine. I've got plenty of things to get done anyways." It wasn't true. She'd finished all her homework the day before.

Yang smiled, and said, "Good. Then we'll be back before you know it. See you later!" Both girls resumed walking towards the door, and Ruby called out over her shoulder, "Bye!" Weiss rose a hand, waving. As the door closed again, she let the hand fall limply back to her side. She was alone again.

A heavy sigh found its way out of her chest, and she looked around the room. There wasn't really anything that she could do, other than root through the other's things. That would be rude, though, and she hadn't done it before. She wasn't about to start now.

As she thought about what she should do, she kept thinking about seeing Ruby and Yang, so close, acting like real siblings did. It was strange to think that she might've had a relationship like that with Winter, if she had tried a little harder to look past her flaws. An idea about what she could do to occupy her time started to form in her head, and she wondered if she could contact Winter easily. She wanted to talk to her sister now, and see if she could mend the damage that she had caused. She hoped that she wouldn't be angry.

Ruby took a deep breath as she walked out, staying close to Yang's side. She didn't want to leave Weiss, doing so made her feel bad, but there was simply no real place for her. It was more of a family matter than anything else, though. She wanted as few people to be there as possible.

She looked up to Yang, and asked "Mom is in the mountains, right? How are we going to get there? Please tell me its not-"

Yang answered her question before she could finish, smiling a bit as she did so. "We're going to have to take the runes again, Rubes. Sorry. Yeah, you hate it, but you've gone through, like, twice now. It's all good."

Ruby stuck her tongue out, blowing a small, sad raspberry. She knew that it was probably the safest possible way to travel, and definitely the fastest, but it made her uncomfortable. There was no other way to do it, though, so she would just have to deal with it.

The two walked across the hall, and Yang opened the door to Naze's room without any hesitation. She strutted in, and motioned for Ruby to follow. "Well, are you coming?"