Not much to say this time prior to the chapter. I got it out within the 2 week mark I try to keep to, and it's actually a bit of a longer one as well to help compensate for the shorter chapter last time. As for the story itself, we still are continuing at a good pace in a way that has me projecting at least 30+ if not 40+ chapters making this story longer for sure than my last one. Enjoy!

The three of them casually strolled down the streets of Atlas towards the social event as though they had always been a part of the rich environment of the capital. Aside from the odd look some civilians gave them as to the fancy attire they wore no one bore them any special attention as they continued on their way. So far everything seemed to be proceeding alright, however they had only just started and had next to no idea what the event itself may look like nor how to act in a way that let them bend in and still try to find Weiss or Ironwood to try and find some answers as to current events in the northern kingdom.

Frost spoke in a hushed voice to the two on either side of him. "I'm just saying, we don't really have any experience acting fancy and stuck-up. What the heck are we supposed to even do once we get in there? We don't exactly want to blow or cover right off the bat even if the event doesn't require an invitation. It'll be obvious pretty fast how much we don't belong."

Emerald angled her head slightly to respond from Frost's right in a way that would still be audible to Neo and not be too loud for anyone passing by. "I already explained, just be quiet for a bit and look at how others are acting. Once you have an idea on that just act similar to them. Don't force it though; otherwise it'll stand out more. Just speak in short sentences and brief replies so that you don't have to focus too hard on what you're saying."

"Easy for you to say," Frost mumbled back while Neo silently listened to the two banter with a roll of her eyes. "You've had practice with this sort of thing, and so has Neo since both of you can use your Semblances to pretend to be other people without much effort. I don't have that same kind of ability. Especially with the cover we decided to go with if someone asks who we are."

"You've already been around one of them long enough. Just act in a similar fashion to what you've already seen and you should be fine." Emerald snapped back.

"Based on what I've seen versus what I've heard about them?" Frost replied back with an incredulous tone. "Easier said than done. I doubt the others will be quite as subdued as the rumors put them."

Neo turned to hush the other two as they finished their approach towards the gates to the Schnee Mansion. At that Frost begrudgingly set his concerns aside while Emerald turned her head back to face directly ahead as a pair of guards moved to stop them like they had been to other arriving guests.

"Hand over any personal belongings for a routine scan folks." One of the guards mentioned as he detached a device from a belt holster. "Routine scan for any weapons or dangerous materials before entering the premises."

Emerald gave Neo a sharp look as the latter hesitated for a moment in handing over her parasol that she had tried desperately to convince Emerald to bring along. The two turned to face Frost to see what his expression would be, surprised to see an unconcerned look etched across it. In fact, he was also facing Neo much like the guards, but with an almost impatient look on his face.

"Well? Hand over the parasol to the man already." Frost stated in a slightly nasal tone. "We already anticipated this to happen so we may as well explain while they look it over." The concerned looks Neo and Emerald gave each other as they both looked to Frost in bewilderment didn't seem to faze him as the guard thanked him for assisting before flipping a switch on the device he had retrieved before running it back and forth across the parasol. For a few moments, nothing seemed to happen as the device beeped across the surface of the weapon around the upper part where the veil was collapsed, however that changed to a frequently flashing with an increased pitch as it reached the bottom half where the Dust canisters lay hidden within the barrel of the modified gun.

The other guard raised his gun in a warning stance as the beeping intensified, the guard holding the scanner bracing as though expecting the object to explode once the pitch increased. "Explain this! No one is permitted weapons within the Schnee premises, much less concealed ones. Respond or you will be detained and removed from the premises at which point you will be taken to Atlas Military HQ for questioning and potential imprisonment!"

"You'll have to forgive my companions for me, kind sirs." Frost continued on in his nasally tone, his face unmarred by concern or worry as he continued to keep a straight face. "We came from outside the kingdom the moment we heard this event was to be taking place, and thus I needed to bring some friends as mine to act as protection- in secret of course- in case I was set upon by the White Fang on my way here. You know how they can be."

"Sir, I'll need a name to check on before I can accept a story like that." The guard holding the scanner replied as he kept a tight grip on Neo's parasol, much to her frustration.

"Fine. But I'll be having a word with your commanding officer about better information for the guards the next time one of these events goes on. My name is…"

Weiss sighed as she stood amongst the pandering crowd of guests to the event her father had been so "gracious" to host for the benefit of their neighbor kingdom of Vale.

"What seems to be the matter, Miss Schnee?" A light voice asked from nearby as Weiss turned to face the figure in full with a bored expression. "Your father made this event in part to help you ease back into Atlesian customs after being away to Vale for so long in case you had forgotten how privileged you were before leaving. Why do you appear disinterested in such a show of fatherly attention?"

Weiss was silent for a moment as she looked around at the throngs of people milling about, unconcerned about what had occurred outside their borders and even going so far as to insult them for not having better protection like themselves. It had taken every ounce of her willpower not to snap and lash out at something and instead move to one side of the room to silently think to herself. Unfortunately the bodyguard that had been assigned to her at Winter's own request was forced to follow her around as well, thus leaving her unable to be truly separate from the party to a place where she could train instead of satisfying the snobbish Atlesian nobles her father catered to. At first Weiss had been ecstatic to have a familiar face near her again, but after realizing who it would be her eagerness to have a guard quickly diminished. Now it felt more like a leash than a guard.

"…Because it's hardly being done for my benefit. Father simply seeks to establish his usual caring persona outside the office so that people eat up the words he has to say before moving on with more of his biased nonsense. He doesn't care about how I feel, and he never will."

Weiss' bodyguard remained silent and rigid as she finished replying before she turned back to face the crowd with a downtrodden sigh. A moment later a buzzing sound originated from one of the guard's ears to which Weiss stood straighter before turning back with an expectant, albeit bored look.

"Well? Who does Father wish me to speak with now? I swear if it's another potential suitor I'm going to throw something."

The guard turned to face Weiss after a few moments to receive the message. "Nothing quite so plain, Miss Schnee. It does however appear that you have family visiting."

"Winter is here? I thought she was too busy doing operations for the Military right now?"

"I'm afraid this isn't Specialist Schnee visiting. It is a distant cousin of yours. He claims to be the son of your uncle Crispin Schnee, on your mother's side. He has been in hiding since your uncle was killed by White Fang terrorists during his work in Vacuo to try and bring them into a more modern way of living. He also said he had a message for your ears only and demanded that he have a chance to speak with you."

Weiss stood confused as the words stated by her guard were processed. A cousin? From an uncle she had barely heard about? She HAD heard a bit about him and that he had left for Vacuo before she had been born, but he had a son? This was the first she had ever heard of such a thing. Normally a Schnee having a child would be celebrated quite profusely by the more pretentious members of the family like her father as it allowed them to continue their lineage through their children. Weiss knew now how much that was just manipulation and oppression on the part of the less reputable side of the family, but to keep one secret? What was the purpose? Then she remembered the second part of what her bodyguard had stated.

"Relay the message and tell them to bring him up here at once."

"At once, Miss Schnee." After a brief beeping sound from the same ear of the guard and quickly relayed response, the message was repeated out loud for Weiss to hear.

"The rose is safe and sound and in the company of a kingdom missing it's champion. The dragon is recovering and the panther is unknown. The snow has descended near mountains of white and brings aid from unforeseen sources in the fight."

"I'm sorry…what?" Weiss stood confused as she replayed the message over in her mind. None of it made sense. It sounded like a riddle out of a terribly written children's book. Clearly it had some hidden meaning, but as to what it was, she had no idea. "How long until they arrive from the front doors?"

"I would say…roughly 10-15 minutes given the length of the building and the crowd they will need to pass through within the main hall. Perhaps 5 if they are able to move uninterrupted."

"That should be enough time to decipher most of the message then. I have a slight idea as to the first half of it, but the second had me horribly confused."

The group of three traversed through the crowd of guests as a guard led them through the masses towards the doors that would head into the rest of the house. Frost led the way as the other two followed after him, gently nudging their way through the crowd as they moved. Once or twice Neo had to swipe at Emerald's reaching hands as the temptation to pocket a wallet or two tempted her along the way. Emerald snorted as she replayed part of Frost's message through her head, the absurdity of it still not lost on the group.

"Are you done, yet?" Frost snapped in a hiss as they moved towards the large ornate doors. "I didn't have a lot of time to think on that one."

Neo placed a hand on Frost's arm with a bit of a reach as they walked through the doors with the aid of a pair of armed guards at a nod from the one they were following. "It's fine…Noel. I'm sure you just got a bit of it…confused; what with the details you were trying to relay."

"Yeah," Emerald replied with a cheeky grin, "I'm sure it was just your inner poet trying to sneak out a bit as you came up with it. That's all."

"You could have helped you know, Miss Master-of-Disguise." Frost replied with a bite to his tone.

"Maybe if you had given us more of a heads-up before taking the reins I could have. But since we had to be so secretive you wouldn't even let me know about this message ahead of time to tell you where it went wrong."

"…Whatever. Next time it's your job to come up with a secret message." Frost replied with a grumble as they turned to face a set of detailed doors where the guard leading them had stopped to face.

"This is the place folks. Miss Schnee is just inside waiting for you as asked. As soon as you're done, we'll be expecting you at the party down the hall. I'm sure Mister Schnee would be glad to see some family from out of the kingdom visiting." The guard stated with a salute as he turned and marched back down the hall away from them. The three of them all gave each other a brief look before nodding as Frost stepped forward to turn the knob and enter the room. Hopefully Weiss had deciphered the message enough in such a short amount of time.

As soon as they entered the room, they saw that Weiss seemed to be sitting by a desk facing away from them as she furiously scribbled away at something. The three of them moved further into the room to address her, only to be startled by the door seeming to close itself behind them with a sharp click as controlled on its own. As they all whirled to see if they had been caught in a trap, instead they were all left speechless at the sight of someone standing next to the door. Someone quite familiar to one and recognizable to another, as a matter of fact.

"Miss Schnee, your guests have arrived. They seem quite interested in me for some reason. Would you happen to know why?"

"I'm sure it's a mystery, Penny. As far as I know you've never met before to my knowledge." Weiss stated without turning to face the rest of the room's occupants. "Just give me a moment to finish deciphering this. I've gathered enough to know that this is obviously written by that dunce Frost and the first half applies to Ruby, Blake, Yang, and Arc's team, I just haven't figured out what his unforeseen aid is. How many people are there besides a white-haired male?"

"Two. One with multicolored hair and another with-"

"I'm sure we can introduce ourselves, thank you very much." Frost interrupted urgently as he stopped…Penny…from ruining everything off the bat by saying that Emerald was right there without explanation.

"Oh, good. I was right. You're ability to make riddles needs work by the way. The last half is atrocious and reeks of children's nursery rhymes." Frost opened his mouth to reply but Weiss beat him to it with an additional response. "And growing up in an orphanage is no excuse. You should still know enough between being brought up there and going to Beacon for a bit that messages between Huntsmen need better cipher's than that."

"Thank you!" Emerald replied with an exasperated tone before realizing what she had just done after throwing her hands into the air and turning to see the shocked and worried looks frozen on Frost and Neo's faces. "…Oops."

Weiss' posture froze the moment that Emerald's voice echoed across the room as she slowly started reaching for Myrtenaster atop a stand laying at the end of her desk. "You have ten seconds to explain why SHE is in this room with us before I call security…on all of you."

"Do you need me to apprehend the visitors Miss Schnee? Are we under attack?" Penny asked in her usual chipper tone, completely oblivious to the current situation.

"Now, now. There's no reason to get hasty here. Let's just all sit down and chat like we originally intended to." Frost shakily stated as he put up his arms meekly as a sign of being unarmed. "There's no reason thing need to come to blows here."

"Five seconds."

"EmeralddefectedafterIhelpedNeoinValeandshe'stravellingwithustouncoverCinder'splanoncewegeteveryonebacktogethersothatwecangfightasoneunitandstopwhatevertheheckisgoingoninthekingdomswithOzpindisappearingandtheWhiteFangworkingwithhumans!" Frost took deep heaving breaths after running his mouth like crazy while Neo had her hand ready to flip the switch to engage the shield on her parasol if the need arose and Emerald stood with her arms still raised somewhat with a meek look of apology on her face.

Weiss turned to face the three of them after a moment, her posture now slightly more relaxed than it had just previously been, but with her eyes focused intently and unmoving on Emerald. "Good. Now you won't have to explain from an Atlas cell, thank you for that. Now…explain in more detail and at a pace that doesn't make me wonder if you are actually Ruby in disguise."

"Do you have any other chairs first of all? This could take a while." Frost replied with a brief look around the room as he tried to see something to rest on so that he wouldn't be standing the whole time.

"Oh, just start talking. If I know anything about my father's security, all three of you are already having background checks done on you from behind closed doors like every other guest here. And when they find nothing matching they'll be all over this room in moments to arrest you. So explain and then leave as quickly as you can."

"Alright, guess that answers that then." Frost stated as he started regaling the events of everything since leaving the hospital in Vale after the Fall of Beacon. "You see…"

"Great, so the other dunce has run off trying to be the hero again and it's with the useless blonde to boot. We can count on those four being slow going at least so catching up shouldn't be too hard for the three of you to do."

"The three of us? What about you?" Neo asked in regards to Weiss' statement. "You said you're not the heiress anymore anyways after you talked back to your father, so why can't you leave with us?"

"Because I'm effectively under house arrest. You've already noticed the fact that Penny clearly isn't dead despite the actions of one of us in this room."

"Hey!" Emerald retorted from her position leaning against the wall.

Weiss ignored the brief interruption as she carried on. "She's been rebuilt and reprogrammed as a 'bodyguard' for me. More accurately she has been made to keep me from ever leaving the Schnee Mansion under my father's orders. How he managed to supersede General Ironwood I don't know, but I'm unable to go anywhere."

"What about electrically disabling her? Wouldn't that either turn off the new programming or straight up disable her?" Frost asked as he crossed his arms in thought with a brief look towards Penny's unmoving form. "By the way, good call on having her deactivate her hearing in a private mode while we talk. Why does she have that kind of programming anyway? It seems counter-productive to a house arrest."

"Winter informed me that she had a few programs added as well when she requested Penny be rebuilt to guard me instead of using existing manpower and to have a familiar face. Beyond that, I couldn't say unless she anticipated something like this happening. Either way, by now they'll likely be here soon given that the system will have found nothing about the three of you matching the information you gave. You should leave before they actually arrest you."

Frost, Neo, and Emerald all moved in a way that had each of them resting a hand on one of Neo's shoulders for the teleport they would be making in a moment. Frost turned to face Weiss after this was done with a determined look on his face.

"We'll be back to break you out of here. Obviously now's a bad time with the heightened security for the event, but we'll be back in hopefully a day or two when things aren't quite so packed here."

One of Weiss' eyebrows rose incredulously. "And the fact that you being here will likely have them increase guard presence anyways? What about that?"

"I can teleport to places I've already been to with ease. At least one of us will arrive when everything moves into place for us to move out. Like Frost said, we'll be back." Neo replied with confidence as they all disappeared with a flash.

Weiss sighed as she shook her head and turned to face Penny. "Penny, enable auditory systems."

"Do you wish for me to apprehend the intruders Miss Schnee?"

"That will not be needed, Miss Polendina." A female voice came from a speaker built into Weiss' desk that she had been standing in front of the entire time she had been talking to the others even from when they had arrived in the room. A moment passed in silence as quiet filled the room. The voice then spoke with a softer tone as it spoke to Weiss instead. "Are you sure about this, Weiss?"

"Yes, Winter." Weiss replied as she picked up Myrtenaster from its stand and examined the containers for it to make sure they were still filled and ready at a moment's notice. "You already have guards stationed outside of the hotel they're staying at I presume?"

"From the moment they stated which building and rooms they would be staying in. They'll be apprehended within minutes, thankfully enough time for them to change out of the nice clothing they purchased for tonight. It would be a shame to waste such nice finery after the trouble they went through."

"I hope they'll forgive me for deceiving them like this." Weiss spoke sadly as she sat back down at her desk.

"Once I get the chance to speak with them everything should clear to be set in motion. But what about the house arrest protocol out father had put in place?"

"I trust that Frost will have that covered. Despite his lack of ability with subtlety, he is quite resourceful. We'll be fine."

"I hope you're right, little sister. We both know how father will respond once everything happens- regardless of if it works or not."

Weiss looked out of the large window within her bedroom that overlooked Atlas with a determined look on her face.

"I know."