Team RWBY and Taiyang carried on along their original path to get towards the docks. After the slight delay in Ruby getting absurdly excited about seeing her father again for the first time in a good few months, and Yang having to get the little red speed demon under control, it was slightly later on in the morning, and less students walked by as more had already gotten their own visitors in and around the school on impromptu tours.

"So," Taiyang said, "would you mind introducing me to these two lovely teammates of yours properly, Yang?"

He is so similar to Yang, it's scary.

"Well. Short stuff in white with the cold attitude would be Weiss Schnee."

"Hey!"

"She has a bit of a reputation for being cold, so cold she's called the ice queen."

"That is not tru-"

"And she has a kickass multi-action dust rapier! It can use dust to set things on fire, or freeze things…" Ruby interrupted Weiss. Yang quickly added, "If her attitude doesn't freeze them anyway. Heh."

Weiss didn't even get a chance to talk.

Taiyang's eyes were full of mirth as he watched the odd spectacle of friendship unfold. Yang was wiping tears from her eyes, and Ruby was now fussing over the heiress, who did not look to be in a good mood. Her eyes had regained that ice cold sharpness that they always did when she got angry, and Blake knew it wouldn't be long before she started to have a go at the sisters for being loud, or messy, or rude, or just about anything she could think of. Before this could happen, Yang saved herself by shifting the focus away from Weiss, and onto Blake.

"And this here is my partner, Blake Belladonna."

Considering that Taiyang was a lot closer to Yang in disposition than he was Weiss, like Mrs Schnee was, Blake thought it would be a good idea to go in for a polite handshake.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Xiao Long."

Never had she made a bigger mistake in her entire life.

Taiyang moved his hands towards hers and at the very last second, just as Blake was about to close her hand around his, he brought it up to his nose and wiggled his fingers, making a ridiculous sound with his tongue.

Ruby was doubled over in laughter. Yang was laughing heartily. Weiss looked mildly horrified that this man was allowed to take care of young children.

"Ha-ha! Gotcha!", he shouted. Blake couldn't believe it. She hadn't been tricked like that, ever. It was so humiliating. No way was she ever going to be able to recover from this.

A certain blonde daughter of Taiyang noticed this and obviously decided that being sad wasn't allowed.

Wrapping her arm around Blake's shoulders, Yang said "Pfft, Dad, you're literally the worst. Cheer up Blake! We'll be getting to watch these two squirts spar, won't we?" Blake pretty clearly picked up the subtle implication meant for Taiyang that there would be some action today. It seems that he also picked up on it, turning towards Ruby who was walking by his side.

"You and the ice queen are having a spar?"

"Why does everybody keep calling me that...?"

"Yup!", she shouted, "You betcha! She's gonna use her Myrtenaster, and i'm going to use sweetheart of course, and we're gonna have this amazing fight and AAUUUGHHH, you're gonna LOVE IT!"

The girl could barely contain herself, and she was quite literally bouncing up and down as she was walking along with the group. Blake, on her usual keep-Ruby-pinned-down duty, put her hands on her shoulders and walked behind her. "Very easily excited, she is. Does she get that from you, Mr. Xiao Long?", she asked the man himself.

"Eh, I'm not sure. That might have been from her own mother, but who knows, eh?"

Upon hearing this, Weiss was now interested in what kind of secrets Ruby and Yang held from her. She already knew that Blake used to be a White Fang operative, and she had already spilled the beans about her own difficult childhood as heiress, but it had only just occurred to her that she had very little knowledge about the sisters' past, beyond knowing that they grew up on a small island. She wanted to ask Ruby where her mother was, why she looked so different to Yang and Taiyang, but it wasn't her place to ask. She should be respectful when handling the two, and let them tell her in their own time.

If they were ever going to.

The group were still walking towards the docks when Weiss stopped in the middle of her sentence, talking to Ruby, and remembered something.

Winter and Mother are coming.

That's why we're going to the docks.

How will they react to Tai- Mr Xiao Long? Oh my gosh. This is not good.

She stopped abruptly and turned to the whole group.

"Winter and my Mother are still coming, please remember that. That means you, Yang, no awful puns. Ruby, don't go on a sugar rush like you usually do. Blake, you carry on being Blake. Lose the attitude Ruby, it's not my fault they're such perfectionists. And no, for the last time, you can't do a strip search of the bullhead to see if there are actually any weapons."

Taiyang raised an eyebrow. "Oh, so that's why we were still going to the docks? To meet the Schnees themselves? Well, what an honour that is."

Hardly.

"She must mean it Ruby, and you Yang, so just be on your best behaviour."

"But Daaaaaaaad!", Ruby cried out, acting like a child, "I was like this yesterday and they were totally fine with it."

No you weren't, Blake added mentally, you nearly collapsed every time Winter started talking.

"They're right there. Just stay here, I'll go get them, and then we'll head off," Weiss said in her firm tone. That tone she always used when she wanted zero arguments, and no debate. That didn't stop Ruby from trying, though.

"But Weiss, why-"

As if she could read the future, Blake already had both hands on the young girl. "Go on," she said to Weiss, who thanked her and went on her way.

Weiss stepped towards her mother and sister, who were waiting by one of the docks.

"Mother, sister, how did you enjoy your night?"

"It was dreadful," Winter started. "I mean, a five star hotel that doesn't have cashmere sheets? What kind of barbarians live here in Vale?"

Weiss rolled her eyes, hoping Winter wouldn't notice. Then her mother spoke. "I'm sorry, deary, you know how sensitive Winter is to the most trivial things. The hotel was fine. I do have a complaint about the breakfast. I understand a la carte breakfast, but there was not much choice really. The only thing that was in high supply was different kinds of toast. But then again, it was edible, so it's not really a complaint, more of an observation. The beds were perfect, though."

Winter seemingly noticed Ruby and the rest of the group. Of course that included Taiyang. "Sister, who is that man back there?"

Weiss looked at the man as if she didn't see him before. "That's Ruby's and Yang's father, Winter. He came today, rowing all the way from Patch."

"Patch?", Winter asked in a raised voice. "What's Patch?"

Weiss sighed. "It's an island off the coast of Vale, about thirty miles south."

"That's impressive," mother said. "He must be very strong. Well then, you were saying something about watching you train?"

"Yes," Weiss said with a slight hint of a smile. "Me and Ruby are going to have a spar. Should we go towards the park?"

Mother nodded and Weiss led her family towards her team. When the white haired trio reached the team, Weiss suddenly felt a little nervous. "M-Mister… Taiyang, this is my mother Bianca Schnee," Taiyang slightly bowed before kissing the older aristocrat's hand, "and this is my younger sister, Winter." Taiyang repeated the moves he used on the mother. Winter looked at him with slightly masked disgust, but Taiyang either didn't see it or didn't mind.

Weiss looked at her team and noticed Ruby was slightly shaking again. It's not that cold today. Is she sick? "Ruby," she asked and the younger girl timidly looked at Weiss, "are you okay?"

"P-Perfectly fine, Weiss."

"You're shaking," Weiss said, pointing out the obvious.

"Oh, that," Ruby said while scratching the back of her head. Cute. "It… It's because… Because I'm a little nervous. Y-You know, beating you to a pulp in front of your f-family."

"You're on, Rose! Don't think I'll simply let you win, you know!"

From the back, Winter was looking at this whole exchange while secretly observing Ruby's every move. The girl was shaking for some reason and Winter didn't know exactly. She didn't know why she was so dazzled by this younger girl's scruffy and childish look. Her hair was swept in messy angles by the wind, the cloak was swaying back and forth as if it actually had some kind of conscience, and her dazzling face which always seemed to light up at the littlest things… She was interesting, certainly.

"Anyway," Weiss ended the trash talk between the partners, "let's go to the arena. I don't want to delay this for longer than needed." With that, she started walking back towards the park on the campus that was perfect for the spar.

It was going to be a hard fight for Weiss, she knew. Probably the hardest of her life. Scratch that. Second hardest. She unwillingly lifted her hand, touching the scar under her left eye, the fight that gave her that scar coming back to her. She quickly realized what she was doing and dropped her hand back down to her side.

Not long afterwards, the group reached the quite sizable park with barely any obstacles. Just a flat piece of land, covered in grass. Taiyang, Yang, Blake, Winter and Mrs Schnee stood by the side while the two girls walked to the centre of the park and stood face to face, their weapons in hands. A small forest wasn't too far off, and that meant she would probably have to be careful using her fire dust, lest she repeat the initiation accident.

Okay. You can do this. Stop shaking, Ruby kept telling herself, but for some reason Winter's presence made her a little weak at the knees, and she didn't exactly know why. She tried to force herself to concentrate on the fight before her.

Why is she still shaking like that? And why do I care this much? Weiss stood there, her pose the perfect fencing stature, Myrtenaster tightly in her left hand's grip. She had a focused look to herself, the one that left no room for jokes or anything that wasn't specifically what was at hand. Well, she is my partner, so I guess I sort of have to take care of her...

"Oh, hey, guys! Are you going to have a spar?"

Everybody looked at the source of the voice, which belonged to a certain blonde with difficulty getting hints. Behind him, the other three members of team JNPR stood. Nora, with her wild ginger hair and huge hammer. Pyrrha to her left, with her spear and shield on her back, flowing red hair topping her head as usual. Ren stood silently behind Nora, simply enjoying the surroundings.

"And who in the name of Dust are you?" Ruby was surprised at hearing Winter say that, even in such a dismissive voice, probably only saying it because she wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible. Somehow her voice made her quiver just a little more. Damn it, and I've just calmed down. Why am I quivering so much?

Maybe it's how sassy she is?

"My name's Jaune Arc, snow princess. And you?" Ruby rolled her eyes, but didn't see Pyrrha's disappointed face.

That face was not missed by Weiss and Blake, though. Blake felt hurt for Pyrrha - anybody watching the redhead and the knight interact would clearly see that the spartan was trying so desperately to get him to notice her. Both of them cringed a little and Blake sent a look of compassion at Pyrrha. The redhead gladiator saw that and sent a thankful smile back.

"Wow, um, rude," Winter's sass oozed from her as she looked at Jaune in disgust. "For the record, I'm Winter Schnee and I'm not just out of your league, I'm out of your planet, oaf."

Ruby had to admit, that was a very good comeback. And somehow that made her shake a little more. Oh, gosh, Ruby! Calm down, by Dust! She had a spar to fight not even a few seconds from now. Going in with shaking knees would not help at all.

"I… I…" Jaune was speechless. Yang got to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Jauney boy," Yang started. "I think the term you're looking for is 'you got wrecked!' - that's spelt R - E - K - T, by the way."

Jaune looked down in defeat and moved to the other side of the field.

"Hey, Ruby, do you mind if we watch you two spar?"

Ruby shook her head. "No, Pyrrha, not at all." She then sent a subtle gesture towards Jaune and a hopeful look in Pyrrha's direction, hoping that she would understand that Ruby meant to make sure Jaune didn't do any more stupid stuff. Then she positioned herself in a battle stance, her knees almost turning to normal again.

"Okay, Ice Queen, let's do it."

Weiss nodded, just slightly annoyed at the nickname. "I don't even care at this point. Ready when you are."

Ruby dashed towards Weiss, just like Weiss expected. Crescent Rose's hilt blade was pointed towards Weiss' midsection, but Weiss saw that and easily blocked, but before she realized what happened, the back of her head was struck by the flat side of the blade. The impact sent her flying a little.

Weiss then quickly picked herself up and positioned herself back into defensive stance, preparing herself for the inevitable flurry of strikes that was coming her way. She remained on the defensive for quite a while, blocking hit after hit and failing occasionally. Ruby was quick to gain a lot of advantage, especially in the aura department, as Weiss had to block some hits with her own aura.

The light blade of Myrtenaster was definitely not something designed to go head-on into battle with such a huge and heavy blade like Crescent Rose's. Designed for stabbing, parrying and then retreating, it was the perfect blade for a situation opposite to the one she was in.

A huge slice of Crescent Rose diagonally, coupled with Ruby's smirk urged Weiss on not to give up. Try as though she did, every time she went to deflect a blow from the huge scythe, the sheer force behind the swings would simply render the move useless and more often than not knock Weiss back a fair few feet. Her only hopes were to be faster with her blade, but battling against somebody like Ruby, with a semblance which was literally super speed, trying to be faster than her opponent was pointless.

It was actually surprising how quickly and deftly the young girl could swing the weapon - it was taller than she was, and certainly wasn't light. She almost felt sorry for the beowolves who had to face this weapon. Now though, she was the one facing it, and with every swing, she was losing ground and losing aura. A quick slash to the right in a meager attempt to block another huge arc of Crescent Rose confirmed Weiss' suspicions - she would need to get creative here.

Finally, she decided it was enough, and had her plan hatched rather quickly. She parried a hit, rolled away and rolled the Dust Revolver on her Myrtenaster, stopping it on Ice. She then made a small artistic figure with the tip of the rapier and a ball of ice erupted from it. Seeing this pretty obvious display of Dust, Ruby was already in the air, holding Crescent Rose above her head. She's so dangerous with that oversized weapon. The ball of ice managed to strike Ruby directly into her abdomen, from where an icy beam formed and pinned the younger girl in place, suspended in the air.

Another roll of the Dust Revolver, this time stopping on Lightning, another artistic move and a bolt of lightning made her way towards Ruby's suspended body. The lightning bolt hit Ruby and shattered the ice with its strength, propelling the younger girl a couple dozen feet back and draining quite a sizeable chunk of her aura. As if nothing happened, though, Ruby managed to do a backflip in the air and graciously land on her feet, prepared to lunge towards Weiss again. She couldn't just carry on using her Dust, and Weiss knew that, but with a smaller blade and being severely outgunned, it was the only hope she really had.

Ruby had a different idea, though. She turned Crescent Rose so the barrel faced the ground, and pulled the trigger, resulting in a loud bang. The recoil of the shot sent Ruby flying straight into the air and Weiss couldn't see her partner as she was covered by the sun shining brightly, blinding Weiss if she'd watch there. She quickly remembered that she'd see a shadow on the ground as the younger girl would start coming closer.

Another loud bang and Weiss knew what that meant. She braced for impact, still watching the floor intensely for any sign of Ruby's shadow.

Weiss noticed the shadow just a fraction of a second too late and all that remained for her was to brace herself, putting her aura up in hopes of minimizing the damage.

Oddly enough, the blow from the wicked scythe never came.

Ruby had tumbled over in an elegant spinning attack, and Weiss didn't know why or how. Putting it down to dizziness and perhaps a loss of aura, she made sure to find her footing and prepare for the next part of the battle, where semblances would really start to kick in and be used to their full effect. It wasn't often huntresses opened up fights with their semblances - usually costing a fair amount of aura to use, it was a reckless move, and if the opponent could be defeated without using a semblance, then it was a waste of time.

Ruby, meanwhile was kicking herself internally. In the air, she had spotted Winter looking on at her with what was pretty clearly awe, and a lot of it. This revelation made her feel light headed, and the momentary lapse in concentration was more than enough to throw off her entire attack. She's looking. Oh dust, she's looking. I wonder if she saw me looking at her.

Propping herself back up, loading a new thick red magazine of gravity-dust empowered ammunition, Ruby searched the treeline for her opponent. Taiyang… team JNPR… Weiss' mother… Winter's pretty form… the rapier wielder was quite literally nowhere to be seen. It was almost as if she had simply disappeared. Making sure to not get too relaxed, she shifted her legs into a more defensive stance, as she waited for the other girl to make the first move.

Bursting out of the trees in a flash of ice dust, Weiss skated along the ground towards Ruby in her graceful lunge, which was less than pleasant to be on the receiving end of, she knew. Jumping out of the way, a swipe to Weiss' left with Myrtenaster sent a column of ice sprouting upwards from the ground Ruby's way, and had she not quickly launched herself into the air with recoil once again, she'd have probably lost there and then.

She's in the air, again. I have no counter for that, I just have to wait for her to come down.

With a practiced movement, Ruby flipped Crescent Rose around in mid air, and the scythe shifted into its rifle form, allowing Ruby a lot more freedom of movement than she had with the cumbersome scythe. Taking several potshots at the girl on the ground, Weiss seemed to dance around most of the impact areas, and before Ruby knew it, she was flying through the canopy.

Unfolding her scythe once again, Ruby angled herself towards the thickest tree she could see, and one she was heading towards very quickly. Holding Crescent Rose out, the scythe blade caught the thick old oak and she spun around the tree before launching herself off of her makeshift catapult with another heavy shot of the gravity rounds. Weiss barely had time to react as the crimson blur flew overhead, but not without a good attempt at Weiss' stomach with the blunt end.

Just because it was blunt didn't mean it did not hurt like hell. Weiss almost doubled over, but refused to back down as she came up with yet another plan - A plan shot down immediately by another pass from the girl in red, who was now bouncing from tree to tree, like a pinball. If pinballs had deadly red scythes, anyway. Perhaps it was the scythe that made her act like she did.

While Ruby's aura was slowly trickling away, Weiss' was taking large chunks of damage at a time, and it was not looking good. When the reaper finally stopped launching herself around the battlefield, probably feeling the first effects of fatigue, the two engaged in close quarter combat once again. Weiss made delicate but lethal patterns with her rapier against Ruby, who was having a bit more trouble after expending the amount of aura that she did. In response, Ruby had brought up her scythe's shaft in order to block this downwards strike, anticipating a move in advance which never came.

What instead came was a jab from Myrtenaster that almost sent her reeling, had she not tensed at the moment of impact, softening the damaging move. Now on her back, with Weiss approaching fast, she attempted to recover her standing in the battle, by swinging her scythe around in a large arc, and Weiss was forced to back off as she rose to her feet in a fancy looking flip.

"Haa-" she breathed, "y-you're gonna have to try harder than that, ice queen."

Winter was watching the fight from the sidelines and her mouth made a tiny smile every time Ruby landed a small hit on Weiss. She is very good. She wanted Ruby to win. There was no denying. The younger girl stole her heart when she wasn't looking, probably without even trying. The childish girl managed to do something Winter never thought anyone could.

Weiss was once again met with the crimson red steel of Crescent Rose's blade, and once again she found herself swinging Myrtenaster upwards in what was now becoming desperate moves to make sure she didn't sustain any blows to herself. It was definitely becoming a common theme, she thought, as a jab and a hop backwards proved to still have a fairly small effect on Ruby. Backing off, the girl in red had made an interesting decision, as she had the advantage in close up combat, and they both knew it.

Then, she twirled her scythe around, a good fifty metres away from Weiss, planted the lethally sharp blade into the ground, and began the barrage.

Twenty millimetre ammunition was nothing to laugh at. Nor was a rate of fire of one per second something to laugh at either. Weiss almost wished she listened to Ruby's ramblings about weapons, as if it would give her the edge in this battle.

The only edge that was in action now was Weiss running forward, having to get closer to use what little dust she had left, and making small palm-sized glyphs to protect herself. Such a heavy calibre shattered the magical constructs upon impact, but they defended Weiss nevertheless. When she was within about fifteen meters, Ruby had panic on her face as Weiss spun Myrtenaster's barrel to choose her fate.

Red. I don't use that often. There's plenty left. It's red like roses.

Taking the opportunity of the redhead finally running out of ammunition, Weiss twirled around and stabbed the thin blade into the ground. The red shaft of the sword buried itself into the ground, and flames spread in a huge circle around Ruby, effectively trapping the girl in. Oh dust. I can't lose this!

Burning hot flames caused by the red dust seemed to surround and envelop Ruby, trapping her as the heiress manipulated the flames closer and closer towards the victim before finally making her move, and dashing in with a fire-powered strike against Ruby. Weiss, of course, knew it was now over - there was no visible way out of the firestorm she had created, and that lead to her being once again surprised when her rapier swung and successfully hit thin air.

She's gone! Again! She ran out of ammo a long time ago, though, so-

A heavy blow dealt to her back let Weiss know everything she needed to, as did the shower of rose petals and the rushing of wind, almost putting out the strong fires which were still ablaze at her feet.

Her semblance.

Stopping at the other edge of the field, Ruby looked towards her bystanders whose expressions were of different ranges, between the excited Yang, interested Taiyang, the cheering Nora and the absolutely mortified Schnees. Probably not because Weiss was getting her backside handed to her, either. They probably never saw battles like this.

A quick wink at the shocked Winter gave Ruby all the strength and courage she needed to literally fly towards Weiss in her signature blizzard of rose petals. Winter watched, slightly dreamy, at the spot where Ruby was not a second ago.

Pulling back the reflexive blade to make the scythe as straight and easy to handle at such high speeds as possible, Ruby was now in full semblance-powered sprint towards her target, covering dozens of meters every second.

The Schnee doing battle, on the other hand, was not having this. She saw Ruby making her next move already. If she didn't act within a few seconds, the fight would be over for her. Summoning up what strength she had left to fight, her glyphs lined the ground once again as the ice patch in front of her allowed Weiss to move incredibly quickly, at speeds even she thought weren't possible.

If they were going to clash, Weiss would lose, and that's why her last remaining dust was spent forging the huge ice cleaver sword.

That's why when they did clash, everything seemed to stop still, completely still, as if time itself had frozen. One large scythe, made of the shiniest red metal. One huge icy sword, carved into the ground. A trail of destruction in the two girl's wakes - Weiss didn't even realise she had used so much dust, having pushed Ruby back as far as she did, barely a meter or two away from the bystanders once again.

And then was the crack, the shattering of ice.

And then was the ring of metal, the folding right next to her ear.

And then the ice cold tip of Crescent Rose was no longer in the ground in front of her, trapped by a prison of ice.

It was hooked around her neck, and that was that.

What annoyed her most was the fact that she could literally hear Ruby's stupid smirk even though she hadn't made a sound or even looked at her.

After several deep breaths, Ruby nudged the scythe a bit, and whispered into Weiss' ear, in a tone completely unlike Ruby's own, were the three simple words, "I win, princess."

Weiss fell to the ground, clutching her winded stomach, trying to get as much air into her body as was physically possible. She didn't dare to even look at her scroll to check their aura levels, because she knew they were well beyond empty. They had pushed themselves to the limit, to their absolute maximum, and it had felt so good.

She didn't even spare a thought as to how Ruby got behind her in the end, because she was just so tired, she wanted to fall into bed and do nothing for the rest of the day. Perhaps even sleep in and have breakfast in bed. Her muscles ached so badly, her entire body felt like it was as hot as her own red dust which she had used earlier, but it had been worth it. It wasn't often that Weiss would willingly admit that going all out for a simple spar was as worth or as fulfilling.

Ruby was just as exhausted, but she spared a look at her scroll to see their aura levels. The display read "Ruby Rose - 0.5% Weiss Schnee 0.3%". Ruby's mind went almost blank at seeing the exhaustion of both their auras. This was much more than just a spar. It was a battle of life and death. Any more combat and we'd be hurting ourselves. Ruby's eyes widened in an unforeseen fear. She never thought she could deplete that much of her aura.

She then turned around to where Yang and her father were, but instead, she noticed a certain twin-ponytailed white haired girl smiling widely and clapping. Ruby's knees shook, though she couldn't tell if it was because of fatigue or the attention she was receiving from the younger Schnee. When Winter winked at her in a similar way as Ruby did before, the team RWBY leader only managed a weak smile before her vision turned black and her legs gave way. The last thing Ruby heard was Yang's distraught cry, calling Ruby's name.

Winter was the first one to her side, in a mad dash.

EPIC FIGHT! Thanks to JackThePegasus for his amazing fight choreography (and some other bits and pieces of the chapter, of course). Tell us what you think, and as always, thank you for reading and following this story! See you next week!