Fandom Distorted Mirror [IC]

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

"I'LL BE RIGHT BACK! PROMISE! JUST GOTTA DO A THING REAL QUICK!" She shouted back to try and ease his concern, adding under her breath. "god sorry weapon maintenance partner with the cool and also bad lightshow that just went on here I totally blanked on you please don't be mad." Her eye drifted over to Penny, the embarrassed blush returning now that Watts was unable to see it from his position. "Erm...you know, I could've just flown by myself. Not that I'm against being carried, there was this one time with Hazel but..." She rubbed the back of her neck.​

"But you're hurt" Penny answered, her voice full of concern as they touched down near Ruby. It didn't particularly matter if it wasn't life threatening or if it didn't have any affect on Cinder's ability to fly; it was the principle of the thing.

"Also do you think other Penny is gonna be...okay? That was a really harsh lecture. Like, I've had similar sentiment thrown at me about risking myself...including by a you...but that was like, up to eleven on the harsh scale."

"I'm *hic* fine!" She said with the most rigid smile Cinder had ever seen. She quickly waved her hands and shook her head. "My emotional wellbeing is not the priority at the moment, is she okay?!"

 

[MyrtenRose]

"But you're hurt" Penny answered, her voice full of concern as they touched down near Ruby. It didn't particularly matter if it wasn't life threatening or if it didn't have any affect on Cinder's ability to fly; it was the principle of the thing.

“Point taken. Thanks for looking out for me.” As they landed, she hopped down and approached the frozen Ruby. The teenager dropped down to a knee and placed a hand on the ice, which almost immediately began to release steam and melt away.​

"I'm *hic* fine!" She said with the most rigid smile Cinder had ever seen. She quickly waved her hands and shook her head. "My emotional wellbeing is not the priority at the moment, is she okay?!"

“You’re a worse liar than Watts and that’s saying something.” She chided playfully but nodded, sharing that concern with Penny about Ruby’s condition. Cinder fell silent for the rest of the relatively short process and by the time the unfrozen Ruby began to stir, she stood up. “Ta-da, one defrosted Rose.”

Apart from an intense bout of shivering from the cold, Ruby seemed to be alright as she stood up. “What uh, happened? I take it you guys won—“ Ruby blinked suddenly at something and leaned over towards Penny. “Is that a knife?”

“I can hear you.”

“Why is there a knife in her???” She looked towards Penny for explanation, also confused with how casual Cinder was being about that!​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Weiss had wanted one thing out of this. Literally just one thing. For Yang to be safely out of her orbit and the relics to be secure in her hands, perhaps the only pair she trusted to carry them.

Okay, so she wanted two things.

But of course, she couldn't even have that much. It was just too much to ask.

And now, to stop a murderer from making off with the most valuable and closely-guarded state secret in kingdom history because of choices she made, she had to do something really rather crass.

The most dangerous Schnee could be petty, a bit spiteful, maybe, but she wasn't actually a vengeful person. It truly, sincerely just wasn't a trait in her wheelhouse. It was one she'd seen encapsulated time and time again by her father, the man she'd spent much of her life desperately, vehemently trying to prove she was better than, and while one of the day's numerous revelations was that they had far more similarities than she cared to admit she was just too stubborn to allow the qualities she actively despised most about the man be among them. He was always scheming, always plotting ways to stab a knife in the back of his enemies for no reason other than personal vindication.

Weiss schemed. She plotted. But it was never, ever in the interest of petty retribution, or paying back a slight that had gone unanswered. She conspired against those who stood against her, eliminated pieces she deemed necessary; but only as required. All part of the veil of moral benevolence she had worn with such pride before today, the one she'd gone so long without taking off she deluded herself into actually believing it. Even her impulsive retaliation against the Shadow Fang had been born of protective instinct, along with the compulsive need to ensure the mistake she had made was one that could never happen again.

Gods forgive her, even after what had happened in the prison she still felt that way. The only person she blamed for that injustice, hated for it, was herself. Above all else, Weiss just wanted to understand. To fix problems. To put things right. Maybe that was why the Shadow Fang galled her so much, why she kept making mistakes during her dealings with them; no matter how hard she tried, she never, ever could. She understood that now. It was an issue beyond her ability to fix. There weren't too many of those in existence; the one she had found had vexed her, stumped her, eluded her until she felt like screaming into a pillow, and the extreme measures she ultimately resorted to had already cost her everything.

And now, just to put the final nail in the coffin of the ridiculous little picturesque image she had once entertained of herself as a good person (or at least one committing harsh acts in the name of a beautiful goal), she was going to have to invoke more of her father's most repulsive traits. More similarities to the demon she was naive enough to think she vanquished just by killing.

It probably wouldn't have been so bad if it just stopped at vengeful, but desperate times demanded she go all the way.



"BLAKE BELLADONNA! WE HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS!"

Ironwood's desk became the latest thing to explode through the ceiling as the wrath of a vengeful maiden erupted from underneath it, eyes and aura flaring with celestial might. Healing oneself was about as much more complex as performing self-surgery was compared to operating on another, and the show of might was largely performative; but Belladonna wasn't in her best condition either, and this was preferential to letting her pull a Blake and run away with the one thing in this room Weiss absolutely could not afford to let fall into enemy hands.

"EVE TAURUS IS BURNING IN THE EXACT HELL A MONGREL LIKE HER DESERVES, YOU FAUNUS PIECE OF FILTH! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!"

The most charmless thing she had ever said? Almost definitely. But if Blake Belladonna wanted to lose herself in Atlas she was going to, and she only had faith in one thing that might make the woman prioritize her own interests over Ozpin's; the chance for revenge, and possibly to gloat about how right she was all along.

Oh well. It wasn't like anyone here actually believed she was a nice person anyway.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

The Dragon barely needed to catch Yang by surprise, because Yang was too busy being flabbergasted that the lady who already loST HER PORTAL ONCE THIS FIGHT-

Then she got put into the wall, and the follow up punch struck true harder than any hit she'd taken her life. So did the next,and the one after. She took it all, every hit, all of the strength in those fists and all of the emotions they carried; all of the anger, the rage, the sadness and despair, the fear, and the hatred. She took all of it into herself.

She got it. Gods did she get it. A world without her dad? Where Ruby hated and tortured her and worse? Where her mom still left, and no Summer took her place? Where she didn't meet Blake until she was a human hating murder ninja, or Weiss until the dragon had already been too far gone to help? She didn't have to imagine hell; that was hell. Just thinking about living the life this Yang had to live made her wanna curl up into a ball and cry.

But she had to believe she wouldn't have; that she would've gotten away, still broken, but not like this; that this wasn't a life that she could've ever lived. And more than that; it didn't matter how she got here at this point, in this moment. All that mattered was that this bitch had threatened one Ruby and maimed the other. Maybe deep down, she really did feel something for her double past the anger and disdain she'd shown her up to this point. Sympathy. Pity. Fear for what could've been.

All she let herself feel in the now was absolutely sure she was gonna kick this lady's ass.



Her hand snatched the grimm near the base, and showed it just how strong the feelings it had been trying to consume and suppress were with a grip could have almost threatened to tear Atlas academy straight out of its roots by itself.

"Hey"

The punch the dragon inevitably threw was caught in a vice grip that didn't budge an iota, and the heat that had started to fill the room at Raven's interjection started to burn gold instead of red.

"My turn"

She planted a boot straight into the Dragon's chest with just a fraction of her strength, planted her feet, used her grip on the grimm arm to reel the Dragon back in, and let loose with with the most powerful haymaker she'd ever thrown in her life without letting go of the black appendage

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

It was telling that the impact generated by the fist of a Yang who had been ragdolled by Tiger, and Pyrrha, and herself, colliding with the iron jaw of another her whose aura was barely scratched was about as loud as the force Weiss had just exploded with, rolling out a shockwave that had ears popping and hair rippling all across the room as it blew out what little glass remained in the window. The Dragon's frame wanted badly to rocket across the room and probably further like a bullet from a rifle, but her arm being intertwined with and gripped by her double meant her body stopped short with a sickening tearing sound, snapping her back like a broken elastic.

All of which made it really, impossibly absurd that this chick was still standing.



Her hair covered her eyes, but from the bend to her knees and slight shakiness to her posture it was plain to see she was rattled; perhaps even out on her feet.

But she was the dragon. Pain came more naturally to her body than air. Any day where her brain wasn't being numbed by something was a day it wasn't worth getting up, and even while her aura flickered in uncertainty at taking such a ridiculous amount of damage all at once her shorter cut hair ignited, a flame deeper and more devilish than Yang's gold matching the fierce determination in her eyes. She spat, a gob of red too deep a shade to be blood from the mouth landing at her feet.

"T... t-tooooo... ssofft."

She spoke with the slurred, unsteady cadence of someone with a broken jaw or brain damage, or both. But she took the hit and didn't go down, for better or worse, and a moment later she came stumbling in with a wild haymaker of her own.

It wasn't that good. Regardless of whose technique was superior, Yang knew the dragon should've been capable of better. Which could only mean two things.

Either something was wrong, or her deranged twin wanted her to hit her again.​

 

[Indolent]

The glance he indeed took into his subordinate's thoughts was met with little more than a derisive, contemptuous sneer, a bit more disgust slipping through the aged general's mask than was customary as he tore his eyes from the sniper's position on the horizon and spat in the direction of the colonel's boots.

"Your generation makes me fucking sick to my stomach, boy, you know that? There's no respect. No deference to the systems and traditions that made this kingdom great once upon a time, for the men and women who bled so you could have the freedom to grow up swaddled in your cuffed boots and fancy cologne and stand in front of me now yapping on about humanity and the future and all these prissy little fairy tales of peace and togetherness. That's not humanity, runt. Humanity is blood. Humanity is the war for dominance, it's our god-given right to sit at the head of the table because we carved that chair out of the bones of those too weak to take it for themselves."

The former colonel's posture was steadfast throughout the whole of the general's spiel, listening undaunted without the slimmest trace of being cowed by the words. His garb's headgear stifled what was a derisive snort at the midpoint, Ector making no effort to disguise his utter disdain for his words.

"The tripe you're spouting.... it's only a savage madman attempting to rationalize his course in life after all, to justify his monstrous behavior ultimately hinging on the pursue of personal satisfaction. To kill or to be killed, a system of hierarchy eked out by blood. Even if we ignored that and considered only the utter crap you've just said... what a loathsome and archaic way of thinking, it does nothing but stymie humanity's progress. There must be progress or we will regress for the worse."

A pointed pause hung at the end of his words before he added.

"We're lost if it's you at the forefront of it all."

His sneer had twisted into a dark, antagonistic grimace of amusement, that last sentence having pointedly seen him switch his eyeline from Ector to Navano wherever he was sprawled in the room without the slightest fear of reprisal from either. He was crossing the room, now, a leisurely canter to his step and his back to the younger officer as his pace took him all the way over to where the Relic of Knowledge hung, telepathic reach allowing his voice to continue reaching Ector's ears.

"Candles get snuffed, son, but you're not even that. I've seen men who burned, and that's not what you are; you're not any kind of fire. You're a speck, just another snowflake like the Schnee whelp, floating all the way down to live with the animals below same as all the rest. But the snow doesn't fall in Atlas."

It was clear in everything from his voice to his pace to his posture. He wasn't worried. He had no reason to be.

Men like Ector were a fad. Men like him were forever.

He had all the time in the world.

He ripped his sword free, a labor Ruby had struggled with carried out by his augmentations in a single clean yank, and caught the falling lamp's handle between his teeth in a grip so tight not even the highest caliber of bullet was going to dislodge it. He spun in the same motion, swords swept out to either side of him in a low, powerful crane stance, and let his eyes settle back on the colonel with a gleam of genuine excitement at the prospect of a duel with the man who wanted to replace him. Like the other soldier, he didn't move. Didn't launch into an offensive or try to close the distance, despite Ector's obvious advantage at a range. A contest like this wouldn't be decided like that.

As always when it came to clashes of ideology on ideology, it would be conviction. The lesser man who blinked first and showed their throat, that was who was wrong. Who had to die out to build a stronger future.

He looked forward to seeing if that was him this time.

"It never has."

"Oh?" Came his mental reply that was as an abrupt shift as it was sardonic, a stark contrast to the severity of the circumstances, "I always understood that to be because of the hardlight barriers encapsulating Atlas." It was an indicting disregard for the prose the general deigned to throw his way considering the next to come was just going to be an addendum to the sequence of violence that played out within the office.

What followed was a stand off for the slimmest of moments before the silver flash overtook the office and it was at that instant a radius was bathed in incandescence with the general at its center, smaller globules of the selfsame infused with yellow glimmers propagating outward. There was a second set of explosions firing simultaneously encompassing the space between the staff and Belladonna's last known position strictly from spatial memory alone. The lighting affected him as it did everyone indubitably with one difference.

He was adorned in his Pied Piper outfit that was used for the wildly illegal tournament of before, designed for the persona of the theatrical flautist slash demolitionist heavily favoring an obscene plethora of explosive traps (that were really dust-laden placebos for Ector's semblance). Coupled with equipment serving to mitigate the fallout were he caught in their radius, such as goggles that protected his vision from effects of said explosives, it was well suited to someone like Ector. The end result was a diminished luminosity that allowed his eyes to recover with urgency.

A shame his user flaked and never demonstrated this then for the hilarious incredulity everyone would've conveyed at this point

The little candle would do nothing but burst into an inferno here and now before the personification of malice and shadow's onslaught.

 

[MyrtenRose]

She pulled her head back when it became abundantly clear to her she could not locate Ironwood from this spot. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, she couldn't be sure of, but she hoped and prayed that it was the former. Gwen had just managed to pull herself over to the nearest wall and leaned against it in as relaxed a sit as she could manage in the current circumstances when the office desk exploded. Watery reddened eyes tracked it until it went through the ceiling, her gaze lowering after to take in Weiss, those words shouted to the heavens themselves echoing in her ears. Her eyes widened after it all sunk in before flitting to the side. She had never known the councilwoman to be overtly racist, or at least not in the way many of Atlas's elite were.

But if she knew anything about the unyielding personality of Weiss Schnee, it was that she never did anything without a reason. Or so Gwen believed. This time couldn't have been any different. Those words had a reason for being said, not merely shouted to be pointlessly cruel. Then it hit her. Even with her clever mind wracked by overflowing emotion and distracted by the throbbing pain, she didn't have to think extensively about it. That breeze that had rushed over her, she knew what it had been now.

"Hneh." The sound that escaped her mouth was half pained grunt and half snicker. Smart move, that. Rather than try to chase her down, twist the knife on her emotions and try to provoke her into returning. Cold, hurtful, harsh, cruel, all of the above, but also smart. The words were not genuinely meant, or at the very least Gwen hoped they were not, and she subsequently refrained from judging Weiss on that act of desperation. "C-councilwoman." Gwen coughed out as loudly as she could before anything else crazy happened. It was followed by a shaking hand being pulled up for a salute as her eyes drifted downwards to Weiss's knee.

"I'm....sorry. I...I...it was my fault. I f-failed to..." Another series of coughs interrupted her, hand dropping from the salute to press against her torso directly over her broken ribs. Her teeth gritted together in a pained grimace and she didn't try to speak again, just leaning back further and eyes flickering about to see if Weiss's gambit paid off.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

It was only after the fact that Masque pondered.

'if the Grimm is a part of me...then will this hurt-'

There was quite the light show in the office as two warriors of silver eyes both activated their bloodline's power at the same time.

Bright enough that the sniper in the airship across the way had to squint her eyes and glance away as her scope suddenly filled with nothing but white.

It was only after the overwhelmingly bright light of the two working in unison had receded and faded away, that Ruby realized she wouldn't be able to tell if their combined power managed to wholly purge the horror within. Despite her utter confidence and surety in her plea to get her counterpart to attempt it. There came a few blinks before she looked back towards her double and asked directly.

"Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....did it work? Do you feel different? Better?"​

 

[MidwayLives]

It was only after the overwhelmingly bright light of the two working in unison had receded and faded away, that Ruby realized she wouldn't be able to tell if their combined power managed to wholly purge the horror within. Despite her utter confidence and surety in her plea to get her counterpart to attempt it. There came a few blinks before she looked back towards her double and asked directly.

As her eyes began to dimmer, Ruby...started panting. It looked as though she'd fallen into something of a cold sweat.

"A...Actually...me...Something...Something's not right..."

Her eyes didn't glow like they used to...
​

"Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....did it work? Do you feel different? Better?"

She wasn't screaming or rolling around in agony.

But the strained expression on her face said enough.

"I...I'm in a lot of pain, me. Like...I'm really hurting...I...I think we hurt me really bad with what we did. It's not your fault though...things happen for a reason. I'm sure I had this coming...but it's all okay now...."

The growl had turned into more of a low rumble.

"I think you...should save yourself...me." Gritting her teeth, Masque rolled over onto her side and clutched at her stump.

"Don't worry about me, ok...? I'll....I'll be okay. I AM okay...."

"Really....I'm just fine...." ​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

BOOOOOOOOOOOM

It was telling that the impact generated by the fist of a Yang who had been ragdolled by Tiger, and Pyrrha, and herself, colliding with the iron jaw of another her whose aura was barely scratched was about as loud as the force Weiss had just exploded with, rolling out a shockwave that had ears popping and hair rippling all across the room as it blew out what little glass remained in the window. The Dragon's frame wanted badly to rocket across the room and probably further like a bullet from a rifle, but her arm being intertwined with and gripped by her double meant her body stopped short with a sickening tearing sound, snapping her back like a broken elastic.

All of which made it really, impossibly absurd that this chick was still standing.

View attachment 819953

Her hair covered her eyes, but from the bend to her knees and slight shakiness to her posture it was plain to see she was rattled; perhaps even out on her feet.

But she was the dragon. Pain came more naturally to her body than air. Any day where her brain wasn't being numbed by something was a day it wasn't worth getting up, and even while her aura flickered in uncertainty at taking such a ridiculous amount of damage all at once her shorter cut hair ignited, a flame deeper and more devilish than Yang's gold matching the fierce determination in her eyes. She spat, a gob of red too deep a shade to be blood from the mouth landing at her feet.

"T... t-tooooo... ssofft."

She spoke with the slurred, unsteady cadence of someone with a broken jaw or brain damage, or both. But she took the hit and didn't go down, for better or worse, and a moment later she came stumbling in with a wild haymaker of her own.

It wasn't that good. Regardless of whose technique was superior, Yang knew the dragon should've been capable of better. Which could only mean two things.

Either something was wrong, or her deranged twin wanted her to hit her again.​

Shit.

She'd taken gambled, pulled the trigger in that game of semblence Russian Roullete, and it looked dangerously close to one that wasn't paying off. No matter how tough a person was, if anyone else had been such a reeling, stumbling, hot mess after she put that much power in one swing, she'd have taken it as a win, aura staying up or no.

But that was just it. She wasn't fighting a person. Or at least, not just a person. The Dragon had been so different after the first time they fought. That thing on her arm wasn't just some shitty, goopy version of what had replaced hers.

What if she was already winning the fight against one of her opponents, but feeding into the plan of the other? Was the Dragon's arm a partner or just a parasite?

Just who was asking her to hit harder?

She sidestepped the wild haymaker and shifted her foot between the Dragon's stance and leveraged the grip she held on The Arm to flip the Dragon onto her stomach

"You know what the problem here is? I want to fight you, but I don't know if I can. I'm a huntress. I fight criminals-"

She planted her foot on the dragon's back as her prosthetic joined her real hand in gripping The Arm.

"- but I kill Grimm."

The fire around her burned ever brighter as she flexed her arms and ripped upwards, intent on separating the two with every ounce of strength she'd been given this fight

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Weiss had wanted one thing out of this. Literally just one thing. For Yang to be safely out of her orbit and the relics to be secure in her hands, perhaps the only pair she trusted to carry them.

Okay, so she wanted two things.

But of course, she couldn't even have that much. It was just too much to ask.

And now, to stop a murderer from making off with the most valuable and closely-guarded state secret in kingdom history because of choices she made, she had to do something really rather crass.

The most dangerous Schnee could be petty, a bit spiteful, maybe, but she wasn't actually a vengeful person. It truly, sincerely just wasn't a trait in her wheelhouse. It was one she'd seen encapsulated time and time again by her father, the man she'd spent much of her life desperately, vehemently trying to prove she was better than, and while one of the day's numerous revelations was that they had far more similarities than she cared to admit she was just too stubborn to allow the qualities she actively despised most about the man be among them. He was always scheming, always plotting ways to stab a knife in the back of his enemies for no reason other than personal vindication.

Weiss schemed. She plotted. But it was never, ever in the interest of petty retribution, or paying back a slight that had gone unanswered. She conspired against those who stood against her, eliminated pieces she deemed necessary; but only as required. All part of the veil of moral benevolence she had worn with such pride before today, the one she'd gone so long without taking off she deluded herself into actually believing it. Even her impulsive retaliation against the Shadow Fang had been born of protective instinct, along with the compulsive need to ensure the mistake she had made was one that could never happen again.

Gods forgive her, even after what had happened in the prison she still felt that way. The only person she blamed for that injustice, hated for it, was herself. Above all else, Weiss just wanted to understand. To fix problems. To put things right. Maybe that was why the Shadow Fang galled her so much, why she kept making mistakes during her dealings with them; no matter how hard she tried, she never, ever could. She understood that now. It was an issue beyond her ability to fix. There weren't too many of those in existence; the one she had found had vexed her, stumped her, eluded her until she felt like screaming into a pillow, and the extreme measures she ultimately resorted to had already cost her everything.

And now, just to put the final nail in the coffin of the ridiculous little picturesque image she had once entertained of herself as a good person (or at least one committing harsh acts in the name of a beautiful goal), she was going to have to invoke more of her father's most repulsive traits. More similarities to the demon she was naive enough to think she vanquished just by killing.

It probably wouldn't have been so bad if it just stopped at vengeful, but desperate times demanded she go all the way.

View attachment 819923

"BLAKE BELLADONNA! WE HAVE UNFINISHED BUSINESS!"

Ironwood's desk became the latest thing to explode through the ceiling as the wrath of a vengeful maiden erupted from underneath it, eyes and aura flaring with celestial might. Healing oneself was about as much more complex as performing self-surgery was compared to operating on another, and the show of might was largely performative; but Belladonna wasn't in her best condition either, and this was preferential to letting her pull a Blake and run away with the one thing in this room Weiss absolutely could not afford to let fall into enemy hands.

"EVE TAURUS IS BURNING IN THE EXACT HELL A MONGREL LIKE HER DESERVES, YOU FAUNUS PIECE OF FILTH! WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?!"

The most charmless thing she had ever said? Almost definitely. But if Blake Belladonna wanted to lose herself in Atlas she was going to, and she only had faith in one thing that might make the woman prioritize her own interests over Ozpin's; the chance for revenge, and possibly to gloat about how right she was all along.

Oh well. It wasn't like anyone here actually believed she was a nice person anyway.​

For a good while, it seemed like Weiss’ challenge had been for naught. The only answer was the breeze outside, completely inaudible against the clamor of explosions, gunfire, meteoric punches, and machismo dripping one liners coming from behind her.

The first sign that it had an affect was far more distant; the sound of a high impact round slamming into the tower below her, the staccato of smaller gunfire at a great distance, barely audible over the din of combat-

Blake crested over the edge of the tower with nary whisper, the gunfire still coming from far, far off, and none of it reaching the building as it had before to interrupt her charge as she snaked towards Weiss in a nigh impossible to trace path for a vicious slice with both swords.

Yet as Blake neared, Weiss saw something was very, very wrong. It was almost easier to notice the small things first; The hand’s mask was whole, uncracked, and her ear was no longer wounded. Her arm wasn’t as floppy as it had been when she’d ghosted out the window.

All of that paled in the face of something else;




There was absolutely nothing behind the mask



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Blake responded how Blake Belladonna always did to her problems at first.

She ran.

The epiphany the Dragon helped her reach applied to Weiss as much as Carnelian; what use was revenge if you gave that which you hated what they wanted in return? Carnelian wanted a fight to the death; whether to prove his superiority or just for the sake of it, it didn’t really matter. Giving in to the hate would just be giving him what he wanted. How was that vengeance?

It was the same now. Weiss wanted the staff. She wanted Blake. The Hand was many things, but a fool wasn’t one. To as much of a degree as you could when there was so much hate in your heart, Blake knew Weiss Schnee. That sort low brow nasty scraping at Blake’s deepest wound wasn’t the sort of words that Weiss used to cut with. No. She’d been on the receiving end of it too many times, of the false claims of necessity and moral rightness, of the vicious cold, the feeling of being picked apart at the seams by eyes that saw your every weakness.

Those words weren’t Weiss Schnee. They were a ploy. More Schnee puppet strings that bade a faunus to dance to their tune and strangle themselves with in the end.

And yet.

And yet.

Blake fell silently through the window of one of the academy’s outer buildings, her feet landing deftly on the floor of the abandoned classroom with nothing but the moonlight through her entrance lighting where she landed.

And yet somehow it didn’t matter.

Her breaths were slow and heavy as she stared at the blank chalkboard in front of her. It didn’t matter. Why didn’t it matter? It wasn’t even a fight she felt confident she could win; Her right arm was still useless, and a maiden that stood, no matter how battered, was a maiden at full strength insofar as Blake knew. Besides, She was the Hand, She was Ozpin’s most loyal servant. Quite genuinely thousands of faunus lives were in her hands if she failed those two obligations. False words shouldn’t have mattered.

Except they did.

Weiss Schnee said her name. Weiss Schnee thought she could say that name and not bleed. Weiss Schnee thought she had the right to that name. Weiss Schnee had said her name, and Blake wasn’t killing her for it. Blake could be hurting Weiss right now and she wasn’t. Eve’s killer was using her memory like a stick to beat Blake into line, and she couldn’t do anything about it, because the staff in her hand was too important to-

The staff.

Blake twirled it around in her hands to hold it up to the light. Its crystal was dull, asleep. The power that held Atlas afloat for a century wasn’t there to call, at least not now. But she didn’t need to float a city. She already created with her semblance, mastered the power of her soul to a level few had ever reached, and she’d seen how well the ancient magics of the gods played with the power of the soul. She just needed a push.

She just needed to kill.

Her eyes glowed blue, at the same time the staff’s crystal began to flicker a dark purple.

 

[MyrtenRose]

As her eyes began to dimmer, Ruby...started panting. It looked as though she'd fallen into something of a cold sweat.

"A...Actually...me...Something...Something's not right..."

Her eyes didn't glow like they used to...


She wasn't screaming or rolling around in agony.

But the strained expression on her face said enough.

"I...I'm in a lot of pain, me. Like...I'm really hurting...I...I think we hurt me really bad with what we did. It's not your fault though...things happen for a reason. I'm sure I had this coming...but it's all okay now...."

The growl had turned into more of a low rumble.

"I think you...should save yourself...me." Gritting her teeth, Masque rolled over onto her side and clutched at her stump.

"Don't worry about me, ok...? I'll....I'll be okay. I AM okay...."

"Really....I'm just fine...." ​

"...." Ruby's face fell, hearing that. She hadn't wanted to hurt her double, misguided and damaged as she was. What was worse was there was no telling from her perspective if her attempt had actually worked on the grimm infestation snaking its way into that stump. Not completely. Ruby shook her head, so apologetic and concerned, but ripped her gaze away from Masque a moment later to gauge the rest of the room. Everything else seemed to be going just as well. Which was to say, not. The staff was nowhere in sight now, Carnelian had the lamp firmly held as he faced off with Ector, and Yang was locked in combat with her other counterpart, though that seemed to be reaching an end pretty soon. On the slightly plus side, Weiss was up again...but even that hardly offset the bad. There was no telling if she had managed to purge that darkness from her other self. Nora was down, scarred. That one other Atlesian soldier apart from the Colonel that had sided with them was down too.

And the staff was gone.

All that arguing Weiss had made, all the efforts made to secure them both during the fight and it was all for nothing, at least with the relic of Atlas. But there was still the lamp, though it was in the clutches of one of the biggest threats in the room. Weiss was powerful, she knew that, but she had barely pulled herself together. Ruby wasn't sure how--she blinked as a portal suddenly sprang to life near Yang. One that also got Raven to blink, she hadn't...recognition came to her eyes then, a moment before a familiar but also not figure stepped forth. "Well, this is a shitshow, isn't it?" The other Raven hardly needed to look around to know that much.

She was remarkably different from the last time this world's version of Raven had seen her. Most of her hair, gone, cut short into a messy look. And her eyes...they were the same as Weiss's but reversed. And hers was not even the only surprise appearance in store. It seemed she had been putting in some serious work. Two more emerged together from the portal before it faded away, each just as familiar to many of the people in the room.

The counterpart of the very same man the group here had been meant to reach in Vacuo, and the other the bandit who had cost them dearly back at Haven, her brown hair cut back into a close approximation of the length it was back then, but the dark circles under her blue eyes and tired lines in her face stood out as different. Both of them had managed to reconstruct their weapons, given how they hung on their backs. As appearances went, Ruby had to admit it was one heck of a surprise. She hadn't expected either to show up here, and yet...

"Now!" The short-haired Raven barked an order, and those blue eyes turned dark as night. Every single person in the room who was fighting against the group trying to get the relics to Vacuo were suddenly stricken utterly blind to end any threat they posed, so that Raven hoped. Save for one. Dark red and light blue eyes locked onto Carnelian in a narrowed glare. More specifically, the relic he had held within his teeth. A dangerous man. His skills, his semblance, that robotic eye of his that countered Vernal's semblance, all made him a very, very formidable threat. But if nothing else, that relic had to end up back with the group. And if there was any advantage to be harnessed, it was the one of greater numbers. The former bandit king Qrow and former bandit maiden both rushed forward as one. They were followed quickly after by the Raven that had just popped up, stopping only long enough to shove her better counterpart forward into joining their assault on Carnelian.

"This ain't time to stand by, you idiot me!" Raven growled at the huntress. Three Branwens and one hardened, skilled ex-bandit in addition to the colonel already attacking the man? She prayed that would be enough to overwhelm even him and take back one of the relics they needed to get home.

Ruby briefly entertained the thought of joining in, but ultimately felt she would only serve to get in the way. She glanced one more time at the Masque and spoke: "Please be okay, for real. Promise." Even misguided as the woman was, nobody should have to suffer through that mess with her arm. After that, Ruby sped over towards the councilwoman, the familiar appearance of her partner. "Weiss!" She called out just before she skidded to a halt by her. "The staff, I...tell me you have a plan. You always seem to have a plan here."​

 

[MidwayLives]

"...." Ruby's face fell, hearing that. She hadn't wanted to hurt her double, misguided and damaged as she was. What was worse was there was no telling from her perspective if her attempt had actually worked on the grimm infestation snaking its way into that stump. Not completely. Ruby shook her head, so apologetic and concerned, but ripped her gaze away from Masque a moment later to gauge the rest of the room. Everything else seemed to be going just as well. Which was to say, not. The staff was nowhere in sight now, Carnelian had the lamp firmly held as he faced off with Ector, and Yang was locked in combat with her other counterpart, though that seemed to be reaching an end pretty soon. On the slightly plus side, Weiss was up again...but even that hardly offset the bad. There was no telling if she had managed to purge that darkness from her other self. Nora was down, scarred. That one other Atlesian soldier apart from the Colonel that had sided with them was down too.

Masque weakly reached out towards the other her.

It felt as though she were looking at a well of missed opportunities. This other her existed in a world where she'd been dealt a better hand. Where she had friends and family who loved and cared about her. Masque gazed over to where the two Yangs were currently beating the shit out of eachother.

"Don't be so sad, ok? Whatever happens to me...I'll be okay."

She smiled.

"I'm you, remember?"

The hero of her own little story.
​

And the staff was gone.

The staff had been snatched.

By who Ruby couldn't say. On account of her mind being elsewhere.

The rumbling deep within her arm was growing louder and louder by the second. Like a drum being beat over and over.

She still felt numb...As if nothing in the world could bother her right now. That is, apart from the stunt that her other had just pulled.

Wiping away the beads of sweat off her forehead, Ruby tried to stagger to her feet. Clutching at her stump all the while.

'All that fighting...and for what...? I lost the thing I'd said I wouldn't let them take. Shows how reliable I am. How much I'm worth.'

There had to be something she could do...

Anything!~
​

The counterpart of the very same man the group here had been meant to reach in Vacuo, and the other the bandit who had cost them dearly back at Haven, her brown hair cut back into a close approximation of the length it was back then, but the dark circles under her blue eyes and tired lines in her face stood out as different. Both of them had managed to reconstruct their weapons, given how they hung on their backs. As appearances went, Ruby had to admit it was one heck of a surprise. She hadn't expected either to show up here, and yet...

-Seeing her dad and Vernal really wasn't what Ruby's fragile psyche needed.

She hadn't seen them in...years....Ever since she left to become the 'Red Masque.'

She gripped tighter onto her stump.
​

"Please be okay, for real. Promise." Even misguided as the woman was, nobody should have to suffer through that mess with her arm.

"...I.."

Ruby mulled over any potential scenarios in her head.

"...Promise."

​

 

[Gus Gungus]

Shit.

She'd taken gambled, pulled the trigger in that game of semblence Russian Roullete, and it looked dangerously close to one that wasn't paying off. No matter how tough a person was, if anyone else had been such a reeling, stumbling, hot mess after she put that much power in one swing, she'd have taken it as a win, aura staying up or no.

But that was just it. She wasn't fighting a person. Or at least, not just a person. The Dragon had been so different after the first time they fought. That thing on her arm wasn't just some shitty, goopy version of what had replaced hers.

What if she was already winning the fight against one of her opponents, but feeding into the plan of the other? Was the Dragon's arm a partner or just a parasite?

Just who was asking her to hit harder?

She sidestepped the wild haymaker and shifted her foot between the Dragon's stance and leveraged the grip she held on The Arm to flip the Dragon onto her stomach

"You know what the problem here is? I want to fight you, but I don't know if I can. I'm a huntress. I fight criminals-"

She planted her foot on the dragon's back as her prosthetic joined her real hand in gripping The Arm.

"- but I kill Grimm."

The fire around her burned ever brighter as she flexed her arms and ripped upwards, intent on separating the two with every ounce of strength she'd been given this fight

The other Yang was, indeed, a hot mess, and offered about as much resistance to being leveraged and pinned down as a resistant drunk might present a bouncer at closing time. Her other fist hit the floor and immediately started pushing back with force that—despite her hair's glow being little more than weak, flickering embers—wasn't insignificant, and as the dragon writhed the boot on her spine had her back arch and her eyes flare a bit with a submissive whine that Yang was probably best served writing off as pain and pain only.

The shout of indignant pain that came when the bitch started trying to tear off her bestie, on the other hand, was considerably more urgent, not a million miles off the reaction Yang herself had whenever someone yanked on her pigtails as a kid. The Grimm flesh stretched like putty and her squirming's energy level ramped up considerably in response, but all the blows the other Yang had accumulated served her well; with a focused mustering of effort, she was able to keep her bucking twin down and finally rip the appendage loose, a hiss of corrupted fog bursting forth from the spot the sadistic Yang's original arm had been severed as she screamed, bucked once more, then went limp.

This was around the point a normal Grimm would've gone limp, died, and begun the immediate process of evaporation, their fluid biology's evolutionary defense against being studied.

That didn't happen. The reason why was simple.

It wasn't a normal Grimm.

Truthfully, it didn't even bear more than a passing resemblance to Cinder's arm. Judging by the effects it had had on her insane self's psyche, her attitude, everything, this was something completely different. Something horrible. Not much was known about whatever parasite of the soul Ozpin had seen fit to graft to her darker counterpart, but twice now Yang had been present while it survived a direct, sustained dose of silver eyes; and the only Grimm that could do that were old.

Which meant the brawler now found herself holding onto a long, shadowy tendril that spanned about two and a half times the length it had been on her first yank, and her immediate realization was that it was far from limp. The opposite.

It went into an absolute frenzy, and the way it suddenly lashed around her body was like something out of the nightmare every child had the night after they first saw a Grimm. In the time it took to blink, it was all over her; tightening around her arms and legs, looping in between them and in on its own folds so it tied itself in knots so tight they groaned and creaked with the friction, to say nothing of the human ensnared within. It was less a question of the Arm's strength against Yang's and more one of pure leverage, the trappings of the human body when compared to a boneless, shapeless entity like the grimm; unless Yang's semblance spontaneously developed a new trait that let her dislocate large parts of her skeleton on command, raw power just wasn't going to cut it. It could've been Tiger herself standing there, supercharged to 300% and straining every muscle in her body, and it wouldn't have made a difference. She had form, structure, limitations.

Whatever she was wrestling with did not.

What had once been the palm hovered just above her eyes, its elongated wrist wound around and around her mouth and jaw to force her head back at an angle so she had no choice but to stare up into it. For a moment, only the faceless black abyss of a Grimm piece stared back.

Then she heard a crack. And another. And another. A continuous, warping crackle like woodchips grated against her ears as the hand's claws fused together and it started to fold backwards, the bone structure it had seen fit to adopt within deemed unnecessary for the moment. At the center of what had been the palm she saw a jagged seam crack open and begin to widen, revealing nothing inside save for a malignant red glow. It took a second before she realized the jaggedness came from the fact that what she was looking at was a row of teeth, spontaneously grown and separated into two uneven halves; a gruesome picture made all the worse by the lone, blinking slit that opened up just above it to stare at her with unnerving stillness.

An eye. Only it didn't look like any Grimm eye she'd ever seen before. This one had an iris, a sclera, a pupil, even. It was engorged, bloodshot, but it looked almost human. Horrible enough in its own right, but it got worse. It wasn't red.

It was the exact shade of lilac as Yang's own.

The teeth moved.

"̴T̸H̸E̵N̴ ̴T̶R̸Y̶.̶"̵

Then it lashed forward with a snarl to clamp down over her eyes as well, and the sensation she felt most as she was plunged into darkness and it started to drain her was a strange one, considering.

This didn't feel so bad.

For a good while, it seemed like Weiss’ challenge had been for naught. The only answer was the breeze outside, completely inaudible against the clamor of explosions, gunfire, meteoric punches, and machismo dripping one liners coming from behind her.

The first sign that it had an affect was far more distant; the sound of a high impact round slamming into the tower below her, the staccato of smaller gunfire at a great distance, barely audible over the din of combat-

Blake crested over the edge of the tower with nary whisper, the gunfire still coming from far, far off, and none of it reaching the building as it had before to interrupt her charge as she snaked towards Weiss in a nigh impossible to trace path for a vicious slice with both swords.

Yet as Blake neared, Weiss saw something was very, very wrong. It was almost easier to notice the small things first; The hand’s mask was whole, uncracked, and her ear was no longer wounded. Her arm wasn’t as floppy as it had been when she’d ghosted out the window.

All of that paled in the face of something else;

There was absolutely nothing behind the mask

While the rest of the room lost its mind around her, seemingly for the umpteenth time, Weiss was having a bit of a problem.

Everything was wrong.

This wasn't... This wasn't how it was supposed to go. This wasn't how it had ever gone. Nothing seemed to be going the way she expected it to, like it always had. The chessboard was empty. The pieces were refusing to be pieces. This wasn't how people were supposed to be. People were predictable. People were easy. What... what even was this?

The answer, of course, lay at the bottom of that pit of the human condition called emotions. They had never been Weiss's strong suit, from the very first day she looked at her mother and father and realized she didn't love them. The cruel reality was that she was a person who felt a lot of things, and the cold, unwelcoming framework of Atlas she was born into had led her to scorn that part of herself, deem it a weakness and lock it away somewhere dark and neglected to rot. Feelings became something she scoffed at, a manipulable flaw she looked to in men like her father and the many business rivals she stepped over to replace him. That spectrum of emotions, those of pettiness and greed and spite, those were fine. Those she could handle, and in Atlas they were plentiful.

It was the rest of them. The ones a sheltered Atlesian noble with a long-extinct familial bond, who allowed herself few friends and strode confidently through the circles where selfishness and pride ruled all, might be less inclined to have dealings with. Warmth, attachment, loathing, despair, she didn't understand. It didn't make sense. She just didn't understand.

She didn't understand how someone could be as patient and gentle and kind as the other world's Yang Xiao Long was.

She didn't understand how someone could hate her as much as Blake Belladonna did.

She didn't understand how Raven Branwen could just throw aside the most powerful artifact in Remnant to aid a daughter who wasn't even hers, or why the sight of two sisters who meant nothing to her coming to blows might make Ruby Rose go catatonic, or why James had looked at her that way when he learned about Winter or why Helios looked at him that way when he did what he did it didn't make sense it wasn't rational she didn't UNDERSTAND—



"No, you aren't... that isn't..."

If Blake could hear through whatever amplified version of her shadow clones she had created, it was the most satisfying sentence she ever heard Weiss Schnee speak. A wall of glyphs firing elemental volleys was making the clone's path into the building more complicated than expected, but nothing could put into words how overwhelmed she felt. How helpless, like a child whose dolls had just been taken away.

With Winter, she had already destroyed something in Weiss; hurt her in a way the maiden didn't know she could be hurt. But it was fleeting, and she had still ended up back in a cell.

This may well have been the first confrontation with Weiss Schnee that felt like victory.

"̴T̸H̸E̵N̴ ̴T̶R̸Y̶.̶"̵

Then it lashed forward with a snarl to clamp down over her eyes as well, and the sensation she felt most as she was plunged into darkness and it started to drain her was a strange one, considering.

This didn't feel so bad.

"...it's not supposed to... this isn't the plan..."

Yang needed her, needed help, needed someone. But everything was happening at once and she just, she couldn't think, this was all so wrong. They had Ruby, they had the relics they had Yang no one was listening to her what was she supposed to—

She was remarkably different from the last time this world's version of Raven had seen her. Most of her hair, gone, cut short into a messy look. And her eyes...they were the same as Weiss's but reversed. And hers was not even the only surprise appearance in store. It seemed she had been putting in some serious work. Two more emerged together from the portal before it faded away, each just as familiar to many of the people in the room.

Really? Her?

And them? Ew.

After that, Ruby sped over towards the councilwoman, the familiar appearance of her partner. "Weiss!" She called out just before she skidded to a halt by her. "The staff, I...tell me you have a plan. You always seem to have a plan here."

That was it. She had had it. Ruby by way of proximity became the unfortunate recipient of a soul-destroying, ear-rupturing shriek of pure, indignant outrage as Weiss's bottled-up emotions finally caught up with her and she absolutely pitched a fit.

"WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND AND LET ME THIIIIINK!"

Light enveloped the room, softer but just as dazzling as the silver that had washed over it from Ruby's eyes. Glyphs appeared absolutely everywhere; on the walls, in the ceiling, covering the floor like a carpet and manifesting on the outside of the tower as well as the inside, calm, gently spiralling patterns that reflected the cold of the region. For a moment, the scene was illuminated in a snapshot; Blake, tantalizingly close to making it inside. Carnelian, suddenly on the back foot as he was swarmed by the colonel and his impromptu allies, still wearing that rigid, unperturbed look of professional rage. Tiger and Nora, the destined foes whose heavyweight bout had once again ended inconclusively. The two Yangs on the floor, one blind and the other worse off, either struggling against the elder grimm or accepting its kiss. The Red Masque, wondering just what it was she'd been so worried about lately, and Gwen, whose worries had probably never been more numerous. Then there was Weiss herself, fists balled, heel stomping, and roaring herself blue as she tried vainly to impose some sliver of order on a situation that had none.

Then all hell broke loose. Again.

Blake's clone found itself buffeted by gale-force winds blown at her like a fan from the glyphs outside, rendering precision unnecessary as it ferried her back far enough for what Weiss had in mind to keep her out.

Carnelian, down to one eye and driven back to the precipice of the elevator shaft by the tandem of Ector, the Ravens, Qrow and Vernal, yet still fighting, still parrying like a madman with blades that would've seemed more at home on the head of a helicopter than in the hands of a man, let his focus slip just for an instant at the sight of the glyphs and did the one thing he thought he'd never do in his life.

Tripped.

The relic slipped from his teeth and bounced off his knee into the air as he teetered over the edge for balance, a sword already thrust forward to hook it while the other went into overtime trying to parry the rain of blows coming his way. He was falling, no question about it, but he could still take the damn thing with him. It was still his. It should've been. But there was a curved blade in the mix just that bit more poised in the right spot, just that bit better suited to hook something, and an instant before he was finally knocked off the ledge and into darkness his biological eye flared with wrathful accusation as he realized his undoing.

Bad luck.

The Grimm and the Dragon screeched in unison as the former was obliterated in a hail of icicles, its relentless grip on the huntress finally loosening as the piece that had detached melted away. Her evil twin's screech became layered, the two consciousnesses remerging into one.

Then Weiss's eyes exploded, and the varying lights in the room—that of glyphs, elemental bombardments and explosions—were all overwhelmed by a single, unilateral white.

When their eyes cleared it would've been fair to assume they were in a different room, that Weiss had managed to teleport them somehow. The air was much, much colder, for one thing, as though they were somewhere out in the tundra. Gone were the sleek furnishings and overhead constellations of Ironwood's office; gone was the sweeping view of Atlas's skyline.

There was just... Ice. Ice everywhere. It was like they were in a cave, or some sort of literal representation of Weiss's heart. A reality marble if you will.

But alas, they were still in the office. The office (and just about everything in it, including anyone remotely on Ozpin's side) had just been completely and utterly frozen over, and outside the dome of ice encasing Atlas Academy's topmost floor Blake found fifteen feet of solid ice between her and her prey. Weiss collapsed to her knees, panting as her aura shattered again from sheer exhaustion, and only after several seconds of gasping for air did she find the clarity of thought and strength of lungs to utter her response.

"...Get out."

If anyone had missed it the first time, she made sure they didn't the second.



"Every single one of you GET OUT OF MY KINGDOM!"​

 

[MyrtenRose]

That was it. She had had it. Ruby by way of proximity became the unfortunate recipient of a soul-destroying, ear-rupturing shriek of pure, indignant outrage as Weiss's bottled-up emotions finally caught up with her and she absolutely pitched a fit.

"WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND AND LET ME THIIIIINK!"

Light enveloped the room, softer but just as dazzling as the silver that had washed over it from Ruby's eyes. Glyphs appeared absolutely everywhere; on the walls, in the ceiling, covering the floor like a carpet and manifesting on the outside of the tower as well as the inside, calm, gently spiralling patterns that reflected the cold of the region. For a moment, the scene was illuminated in a snapshot; Blake, tantalizingly close to making it inside. Carnelian, suddenly on the back foot as he was swarmed by the colonel and his impromptu allies, still wearing that rigid, unperturbed look of professional rage. Tiger and Nora, the destined foes whose heavyweight bout had once again ended inconclusively. The two Yangs on the floor, one blind and the other worse off, either struggling against the elder grimm or accepting its kiss. The Red Masque, wondering just what it was she'd been so worried about lately, and Gwen, whose worries had probably never been more numerous. Then there was Weiss herself, fists balled, heel stomping, and roaring herself blue as she tried vainly to impose some sliver of order on a situation that had none.

Then all hell broke loose. Again.

Blake's clone found itself buffeted by gale-force winds blown at her like a fan from the glyphs outside, rendering precision unnecessary as it ferried her back far enough for what Weiss had in mind to keep her out.

Carnelian, down to one eye and driven back to the precipice of the elevator shaft by the tandem of Ector, the Ravens, Qrow and Vernal, yet still fighting, still parrying like a madman with blades that would've seemed more at home on the head of a helicopter than in the hands of a man, let his focus slip just for an instant at the sight of the glyphs and did the one thing he thought he'd never do in his life.

Tripped.

The relic slipped from his teeth and bounced off his knee into the air as he teetered over the edge for balance, a sword already thrust forward to hook it while the other went into overtime trying to parry the rain of blows coming his way. He was falling, no question about it, but he could still take the damn thing with him. It was still his. It should've been. But there was a curved blade in the mix just that bit more poised in the right spot, just that bit better suited to hook something, and an instant before he was finally knocked off the ledge and into darkness his biological eye flared with wrathful accusation as he realized his undoing.

Bad luck.

The Grimm and the Dragon screeched in unison as the former was obliterated in a hail of icicles, its relentless grip on the huntress finally loosening as the piece that had detached melted away. Her evil twin's screech became layered, the two consciousnesses remerging into one.

Then Weiss's eyes exploded, and the varying lights in the room—that of glyphs, elemental bombardments and explosions—were all overwhelmed by a single, unilateral white.

And that was that. The man was neutralized, the relic retrieved. That only left all the other shit to deal with. But life had another plans, and the whole room lit up by a single, all encompassing overwhelming bright light that rivaled if not surpassed the effect of the silver eyes. There was little to do beyond averting eyes or covering them up until it passed and by then...the whole room had changed so dramatically, both Ravens did indeed briefly wonder if they had been whisked away elsewhere. But they hadn't. Everything was just beyond coated in ice, and the room was so freezing that several auras began to slowly drop. Gwen had it the worst, the auraless soldier stricken by intense shivers that did her absolutely no fucking favors, considering her shattered ribs. As Weiss struggled to regain enough breath, some had their attention elsewhere already.​

-Seeing her dad and Vernal really wasn't what Ruby's fragile psyche needed.

She hadn't seen them in...years....Ever since she left to become the 'Red Masque.'

She gripped tighter onto her stump.

The Qrow that had just showed up took a few steps over and just...stared down. It had been so long since he'd last seen her, and was there anything in this world more awkward than an unexpected reunion between a deadbeat dad and his long lost daughter? He forced himself to open his mouth and speak after a weird pause. "Hey kiddo." He really didn't know how else to start.

Vernal on the other hand, strode over to somebody else specific. Somebody she also hadn't seen in some time. The Dragon, and this time, it was with her short one human arm. It had been replaced by something utterly inhuman, but her eyes were more focused on staring into the frozen eyes of that Yang, while she still could. If nothing else, she was familiar with how explosively heated the kid could be. Blue eyes stared, scrutinizing deeply for reasons she didn't share, and nothing was outwardly reflected in her face or body language, but there was undoubtedly something rough going on in her thoughts.

But the moment passed.​

"...Get out."

If anyone had missed it the first time, she made sure they didn't the second.

"Every single one of you GET OUT OF MY KINGDOM!"

"What, no thank you?" The short haired Raven crossed her arms. "Where's the usual Atlesian gratitude?" It was more biting sarcasm than anything genuinely meant and she just shrugged a second later. "Fine by me. The less I look at you, the better, thief." The irony of specifically her using that word was not lost on her but she didn't really give a damn about that.

"That doesn't include me, does it?" Gwen groaned from where she sat, leaned up against the corner.

The other Raven sighed before she opened another portal down to Vacuo. It was disheartening, especially since the reason they also didn't have the staff was solely because of her. She had gone against logic and followed emotion, and that cost them. She should have known better, been better...she was an experienced huntress. But she just couldn't. She'd own her mistake, deal with the consequences, and that would be that. "Anyone who is ready to go, the time is--" The huntress didn't have the time to finish before a jet of fire blazed through the portal from the other side.

"YO GUYS WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OVER HERE, WHAT GIVES--"

This icy wonderland was not the all business office she had left. "Um...excuse me?" She looked towards literally anyone for explanation.

​

 

[MidwayLives]

But alas, they were still in the office. The office (and just about everything in it, including anyone remotely on Ozpin's side) had just been completely and utterly frozen over, and outside the dome of ice encasing Atlas Academy's topmost floor Blake found fifteen feet of solid ice between her and her prey. Weiss collapsed to her knees, panting as her aura shattered again from sheer exhaustion, and only after several seconds of gasping for air did she find the clarity of thought and strength of lungs to utter her response.

Tiger was about as out of it as you can get without straight up losing consciousness.

She wasn't aware enough to know for sure if they'd succeeded in their goals.

....But she believed they did.

"Heh."

Then everything went black.
​

 

[MidwayLives]

But alas, they were still in the office. The office (and just about everything in it, including anyone remotely on Ozpin's side) had just been completely and utterly frozen over, and outside the dome of ice encasing Atlas Academy's topmost floor Blake found fifteen feet of solid ice between her and her prey. Weiss collapsed to her knees, panting as her aura shattered again from sheer exhaustion, and only after several seconds of gasping for air did she find the clarity of thought and strength of lungs to utter her response.

Ruby huffed and panted.

"...Cold."

She held her arm and stump close to her chest.
​

The Qrow that had just showed up took a few steps over and just...stared down.

Ruby's breaths intensified as her father approached.

There were so many things she would have said. 'I hate you' 'Leave me alone' 'Get away.'

But the anger, the hatred, that was necessary to say such things.

Ruby honestly couldn't find it right now.

Slumping against the floor, Ruby spared a glance at the ethereal mist that was resembling the blackened skin of a Grimm's arm with each passing second. Exhaling through her nostrils, Ruby followed it up with a well earned(in her opinion)sigh. Her Yang had really got her good. Couldn't even muster up the energy to be mad at her deadbeat dad.

Her eyes finally met his.
​

He forced himself to open his mouth and speak after a weird pause. "Hey kiddo." He really didn't know how else to start.

"Why?"

Ruby couldn't find the strength to scream or rave.

She could still do this much.

"Why are you here, dad?" Ruby eventually managed to string together diplomatically.

​

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

Liza Krane did her best work from afar. In a world of monsters that flew, ran, burrowed, crawled, and swam while covered in bony, bulletproof protrusions, and criminals and enemy combatants who could do almost anything the imagination could think of depending on how they fared in the genetic lottery, she was an improbability among snipers; she was a consistent shot. From distances that Atlas’ most dangerous foes could react after the bullet left most shooters’ guns, she found her mark more times than she missed it. Some people wondered whether her claims of a lack of semblance was true, but there wasn’t anything supernatural about her ability. It all came down to talent, endless hours of practice, and a combination of focus and rhythm

Analyze. Sight. Shoot. Repeat.

Distance was just another variable of part one. As fearsome as her reputation as the colonel’s personal sniper might’ve been, she was just as good at hitting those shots up close.

This was about to be very important.




Her rifle was leveled across the tower. She might’ve been a bit too far to make out what Weiss was saying, but she couldn’t imagine it was anything other than trying to coax the Hand back into play. Her patience was rewarded with the sight of a black shadow flickering back up the tower’s surface in a jagged rush. Hard shot, small time frame. Far from impossable, and plenty of time for her.

Analyze. Sight. Sh-

The barrel of her rifle jerked upwards as something struck it from below, and her shot went wild. Her eyes narrowed, and she leaned over in her crouch to peer just over the edge of the Manta’s bay to see who could’ve already been shooting her, and caught a blade to the chin that sent her stumbling backwards. She barely twisted to the side as Gambol shroud tore through the air for her, and reached for her side arms under either shoulder at the same time the hand yanked herself forward using the weapon and ribbon now embedded into the manta's inner chassis

*BANG*

In a battle where one side could rarely be hit and the other almost never missed, the outcome of the first shot was almost predetermined. It was everything after that that was a mystery. Yet Liza’s eyes flicked wider in surprise as her quickdraw shot hit the mask square in the mask as intended and found no aura between it and its target, but didn’t pass through it like one of the Hand’s clones. Metal was puncutered. Flesh and bone tore. Yet instead of blood,a hazy black mist sprayed out of the back of the Hand’s head as her momentum carried her past Liza as the soldier sidestepped with both pistols still pointed at her foe. The Hand hit the wall with a sickening thud, motionless before she slowly begin to dissolve away into more black mist.

“...What the hell?”

Her aura warned her too late for it to matter as an open palm strike sent her head rattling against the side of the manta’s opposite door as the twin of the woman she’d just shot dead appeared out of nowhere. She tried to swing one pistol around for another kill shot, but the Hand was faster this time, Liza's arm buffeted by a slash, then another to the chest, before a much smaller flick of the wrist while Liza was still on the back foot tilted her other pistol towards the Hand’s knee as she squeezed off a shot, making the creature buckle under its own weight just long enough for the other pistol to slam against the side of its head, a foot to sweep through its other leg’s attempt to compensate, and a trio of bullets to go through its chest while it was tumbling to the ground.

Liza’s breath heaved as she stumbled over to the side panel and slammed the close button just in time for another gambol shroud to impact the sliding cover instead of the Mantas inside and ping harmlessly off the more armored outer shell. “We’re compromised, get us out of here.” She called up to the cockpit. “Colonel, be advised-” she said as she pressed her hand to her earpiece “-Your out any fire support for now, my position's under attack by The Hand. I think. We’ll try and relocate to-”

She blinked as she looked out the manta’s viewport and saw a mask covered void staring back at her before its gaze flicked over to the engine turbine it was next to

"...Don't you dare-"

It flung itself straight into the turbine with the sound of tearing flesh and bone and metal far more monstrous than a single bullet going through a skull.

*BOOOM*

The manta listed to the side as it began to plummet through the air in wide arc for the Academy grounds

 

[Schnee Corp Lawyer]

The other Yang was, indeed, a hot mess, and offered about as much resistance to being leveraged and pinned down as a resistant drunk might present a bouncer at closing time. Her other fist hit the floor and immediately started pushing back with force that—despite her hair's glow being little more than weak, flickering embers—wasn't insignificant, and as the dragon writhed the boot on her spine had her back arch and her eyes flare a bit with a submissive whine that Yang was probably best served writing off as pain and pain only.

The shout of indignant pain that came when the bitch started trying to tear off her bestie, on the other hand, was considerably more urgent, not a million miles off the reaction Yang herself had whenever someone yanked on her pigtails as a kid. The Grimm flesh stretched like putty and her squirming's energy level ramped up considerably in response, but all the blows the other Yang had accumulated served her well; with a focused mustering of effort, she was able to keep her bucking twin down and finally rip the appendage loose, a hiss of corrupted fog bursting forth from the spot the sadistic Yang's original arm had been severed as she screamed, bucked once more, then went limp.

This was around the point a normal Grimm would've gone limp, died, and begun the immediate process of evaporation, their fluid biology's evolutionary defense against being studied.

That didn't happen. The reason why was simple.

It wasn't a normal Grimm.

Truthfully, it didn't even bear more than a passing resemblance to Cinder's arm. Judging by the effects it had had on her insane self's psyche, her attitude, everything, this was something completely different. Something horrible. Not much was known about whatever parasite of the soul Ozpin had seen fit to graft to her darker counterpart, but twice now Yang had been present while it survived a direct, sustained dose of silver eyes; and the only Grimm that could do that were old.

Which meant the brawler now found herself holding onto a long, shadowy tendril that spanned about two and a half times the length it had been on her first yank, and her immediate realization was that it was far from limp. The opposite.

It went into an absolute frenzy, and the way it suddenly lashed around her body was like something out of the nightmare every child had the night after they first saw a Grimm. In the time it took to blink, it was all over her; tightening around her arms and legs, looping in between them and in on its own folds so it tied itself in knots so tight they groaned and creaked with the friction, to say nothing of the human ensnared within. It was less a question of the Arm's strength against Yang's and more one of pure leverage, the trappings of the human body when compared to a boneless, shapeless entity like the grimm; unless Yang's semblance spontaneously developed a new trait that let her dislocate large parts of her skeleton on command, raw power just wasn't going to cut it. It could've been Tiger herself standing there, supercharged to 300% and straining every muscle in her body, and it wouldn't have made a difference. She had form, structure, limitations.

Whatever she was wrestling with did not.

What had once been the palm hovered just above her eyes, its elongated wrist wound around and around her mouth and jaw to force her head back at an angle so she had no choice but to stare up into it. For a moment, only the faceless black abyss of a Grimm piece stared back.

Then she heard a crack. And another. And another. A continuous, warping crackle like woodchips grated against her ears as the hand's claws fused together and it started to fold backwards, the bone structure it had seen fit to adopt within deemed unnecessary for the moment. At the center of what had been the palm she saw a jagged seam crack open and begin to widen, revealing nothing inside save for a malignant red glow. It took a second before she realized the jaggedness came from the fact that what she was looking at was a row of teeth, spontaneously grown and separated into two uneven halves; a gruesome picture made all the worse by the lone, blinking slit that opened up just above it to stare at her with unnerving stillness.

An eye. Only it didn't look like any Grimm eye she'd ever seen before. This one had an iris, a sclera, a pupil, even. It was engorged, bloodshot, but it looked almost human. Horrible enough in its own right, but it got worse. It wasn't red.

It was the exact shade of lilac as Yang's own.

The teeth moved.

"̴T̸H̸E̵N̴ ̴T̶R̸Y̶.̶"̵

Then it lashed forward with a snarl to clamp down over her eyes as well, and the sensation she felt most as she was plunged into darkness and it started to drain her was a strange one, considering.

This didn't feel so bad.

Yang had expected the thing to fight back. This wasn't some ploy to disarm her enemy (heh) or kill The Arm in one shot; she had a gut feeling it wouldn't be that easy. She just assumed it'd be easier to fight the thing separate from the Dragon than as a unit. That, and even if this version of her was actually the worst, if this shitty grimm was pushing the Dragon past the point no return, there was a chance she was gonna kill herself.

Like... she had enough issues. No need to add that one to the pile, please.

She definitely got what she wanted: The beast was out of the Dragon.

She just did not expect to be... that.

Spoiler: she was really starting to hate this place

I burned myself today
To see if I still burn
I focus on the burn
the only thing thats burned

The burning burns a hole
the old familiar burn
try to burn it all away
but I remember every burn

what have I been burning?
My sweetest friend?
everyone I know burns away
in the end

and you could have it all
my empire of burns
I will let you down
I will make you burn

The sound that escaped Yang as The Arm suddenly snaked around her like the world's grossest straight jacket slash bondage harness was the sort of primal shout of fear that had nothing to do with cowardice and everything to do with basic evolutionary survival instinct. She tried to beat it off, but it was like fighting a shoelace that was eighty feet long and hated you, and punching that was about as effective as it sounded it would be. She still thrashed and flailed as she was tangled up, but it wasn't getting her anywhere, right up to the point it started to feel nice.

Oh hell no.

Just like her doppleganger, Yang had always been a bit of a beast beneath the beauty. Sometimes it felt like she just... felt things more than she supposed to. The anger and hurt about her mom. The pride and love she had for her sister. The pride she had in herself, and how easy it used to be for people to hurt it. The thrill of kicking a moderate amount of ass and looking good doing it.

But she'd never tried to hide or bury how her heart felt. Manage it, sure. Control it instead of letting it control her, absolutely. But she'd always embraced it as part of who she was; A big part of why Yang Xiao Long was Yang Xiao Long. The Arm had met a Yang who wanted all that stuff buried, who tried to repress it all at first and then just wanted to only feel the good. In that particular arena, against that particular predator, in other words; easy prey.

Yang Xiao Long wasn't anyone's easy prey.

For every buck of her limbs, for every muffled grunt out of her covered mouth, and for every degree the temperature kept rising on her skin, she put double the effort into fighting off the feel good fuzz, and put every bit of that stubborn determination that Weiss couldn't decide whether she hated or appreciated (she totally appreciated it) into putting this slab of black meat in its place.

That was it. She had had it. Ruby by way of proximity became the unfortunate recipient of a soul-destroying, ear-rupturing shriek of pure, indignant outrage as Weiss's bottled-up emotions finally caught up with her and she absolutely pitched a fit.

"WOULD YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP FOR ONE SECOND AND LET ME THIIIIINK!"

Light enveloped the room, softer but just as dazzling as the silver that had washed over it from Ruby's eyes. Glyphs appeared absolutely everywhere; on the walls, in the ceiling, covering the floor like a carpet and manifesting on the outside of the tower as well as the inside, calm, gently spiralling patterns that reflected the cold of the region. For a moment, the scene was illuminated in a snapshot; Blake, tantalizingly close to making it inside. Carnelian, suddenly on the back foot as he was swarmed by the colonel and his impromptu allies, still wearing that rigid, unperturbed look of professional rage. Tiger and Nora, the destined foes whose heavyweight bout had once again ended inconclusively. The two Yangs on the floor, one blind and the other worse off, either struggling against the elder grimm or accepting its kiss. The Red Masque, wondering just what it was she'd been so worried about lately, and Gwen, whose worries had probably never been more numerous. Then there was Weiss herself, fists balled, heel stomping, and roaring herself blue as she tried vainly to impose some sliver of order on a situation that had none.

Then all hell broke loose. Again.

Blake's clone found itself buffeted by gale-force winds blown at her like a fan from the glyphs outside, rendering precision unnecessary as it ferried her back far enough for what Weiss had in mind to keep her out.

Carnelian, down to one eye and driven back to the precipice of the elevator shaft by the tandem of Ector, the Ravens, Qrow and Vernal, yet still fighting, still parrying like a madman with blades that would've seemed more at home on the head of a helicopter than in the hands of a man, let his focus slip just for an instant at the sight of the glyphs and did the one thing he thought he'd never do in his life.

Tripped.

The relic slipped from his teeth and bounced off his knee into the air as he teetered over the edge for balance, a sword already thrust forward to hook it while the other went into overtime trying to parry the rain of blows coming his way. He was falling, no question about it, but he could still take the damn thing with him. It was still his. It should've been. But there was a curved blade in the mix just that bit more poised in the right spot, just that bit better suited to hook something, and an instant before he was finally knocked off the ledge and into darkness his biological eye flared with wrathful accusation as he realized his undoing.

Bad luck.

The Grimm and the Dragon screeched in unison as the former was obliterated in a hail of icicles, its relentless grip on the huntress finally loosening as the piece that had detached melted away. Her evil twin's screech became layered, the two consciousnesses remerging into one.

Then Weiss's eyes exploded, and the varying lights in the room—that of glyphs, elemental bombardments and explosions—were all overwhelmed by a single, unilateral white.

When their eyes cleared it would've been fair to assume they were in a different room, that Weiss had managed to teleport them somehow. The air was much, much colder, for one thing, as though they were somewhere out in the tundra. Gone were the sleek furnishings and overhead constellations of Ironwood's office; gone was the sweeping view of Atlas's skyline.

There was just... Ice. Ice everywhere. It was like they were in a cave, or some sort of literal representation of Weiss's heart. A reality marble if you will.

But alas, they were still in the office. The office (and just about everything in it, including anyone remotely on Ozpin's side) had just been completely and utterly frozen over, and outside the dome of ice encasing Atlas Academy's topmost floor Blake found fifteen feet of solid ice between her and her prey. Weiss collapsed to her knees, panting as her aura shattered again from sheer exhaustion, and only after several seconds of gasping for air did she find the clarity of thought and strength of lungs to utter her response.

"...Get out."

If anyone had missed it the first time, she made sure they didn't the second.

"Every single one of you GET-!"

-Which was the real reason Weiss' demand got cut off by the loudest yang had ever screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh oh."

The thing was gone.

She scrambled to her feet and whipped her eyes around the room, and found that she had way more questions than she did answers about what she saw, her brain slowly playing catch up. One particular thing stood out, past even the complete absence of what they came to Atlas for in the first place. Her hands briefly touched at her temple before they gestured forward with an absolutely baffled frown

"...Weiss. If you really think I'm about to leave you here alone after everything that happened in the last two minutes-"

"-CEASE AND DESIST ALL HOSTILITIES oh dear."

The jet of flame was quickly followed by two different sets of green; A dark green suit of armor that stepped through with hardlight shield at the ready and both its arm guns and shoulder cannon primed to fire, and Penny Polendina swooping up into the air above the other two members of the intrepid reinforcements with her swords at the ready, her words echoing through the icy dome and across her shocked features.

"...What... what happened? Where- where is the staff? Where is the General???"

 

[MidwayLives]

Neo was at a loss at understanding whatever the hell happened.

Then the portal suddenly reappeared!-

She fell to the wayside as eveeryone on her side rushed back through.

Picking up Roman's hat from where it'd fallen, Neo brushed it off.

....

Well, what was the alternative? Stay here with the passed out drunk? Or go through that portal? Literally going back the way she'd came.

....

She shrugged and jumped through. With a bit less flair and more 'i'm done' energy.

She promptly slipped on the ice and landed on her ass.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Why?"

Ruby couldn't find the strength to scream or rave.

She could still do this much.

"Why are you here, dad?" Ruby eventually managed to string together diplomatically.

He shrugged.

“Does it matter?” That blunt response came out much easier than anything else, followed a second later by him reaching into a shirt pocket and pulling out his flask for a quick drink. “I’m here now.” He continued after. “Don’t really see how the why of it matters. Besides, could ask the same of ya.”​

 

[MyrtenRose]

She promptly slipped on the ice and landed on her ass.

Despite the pain, despite everything, Gwen couldn’t help but laugh.​

 

[MidwayLives]

“Does it matter?” That blunt response came out much easier than anything else, followed a second later by him reaching into a shirt pocket and pulling out his flask for a quick drink. “I’m here now.” He continued after. “Don’t really see how the why of it matters. Besides, could ask the same of ya.”

"Good talk, dad."

Ruby said without much heart behind it. Pushing herself up, Ruby looked towards the open portal.

Didn't seem like they were going to get rid of this arm without the staff.

it was probably due to the Grimm's current influence on Ruby's demeanor but she didn't think going with the others was a good idea.

Not while this thing was attached to her. She hadn't even been able to help save the relics.

She headed towards the portal with various thoughts running through her head. 'Maybe if I tried walking out of here...I'd get gunned down before I could get back to...' Before her Yang had part of her Grimm infest her younger sister's body, the idea of returning to the side she'd left disgusted her. It was something she never felt she could do. She'd come too far and cared too much about the other Yang...and...Weiss. Her own double had even tried to help her. But with this thing attached to her, as fine as it felt, she didn't want to be a burden. Anybody's problem to look after.

Right now, Ruby just wanted to be alone. Just...tired...and away from stuff.

She moved to step through the portal.​

 

[Gus Gungus]

...Weiss. If you really think I'm about to leave you here alone after everything that happened in the last two minutes-"

"-CEASE AND DESIST ALL HOSTILITIES oh dear."

The second after (or more accurately, before) Yang finished her sentence became a chaotic mishmash as a trio of people with no qualms about making their voice the loudest one in the room all warred to get their message across, Weiss in absolutely no mood to give anyone else the floor or answer any more of these people's stupid questions so they could all stand there blinking at her like idiots and start nattering away all their moronic little opinions before promptly proceeding to do anything other than what she asked. She balled her hands into fists and started flapping them by her side in a manner that might've been funny had it been a Weiss at Beacon freaking out about their dorm organization or something and not one in the midst of what honestly looked like a full blown panic attack crossed with a conniption, rounding on the huntress with an incensed screech.



"-yes well how about shut up, Yang, have you ever thought about that?! Have you ever for one moment in your life even fleetingly entertained the possibility of SHUTTING UP?! AND YOU!" She shrieked, giving Penny the closest sensation the android could ever possibly experience to a heart attack as she whirled on her and let her fists flail in a manner that was quite frankly childish and inelegant, taking a short, threatening step in her direction. "I already told you to lower your VOICE!"

She turned her back on both of them before either could respond, ponytail whipping in a frenzied arc with the motion and just how little she wanted to debate or look at or even think about either of them right now.

Any other queries went ignored as well, Weiss instead retreating into her own little world as she lapsed into a short, frenzied cycle of pacing back and forth that induced dizziness and stress just to look at, to say nothing of what it must've been like in the councilwoman's head.

Again, in other circumstances it might've been funny. But they had never seen this world's stern, assured, ice-cold iteration of the heiress seized by such intense histrionics before, breathing shallow and uncontrollable, frankly sounding no more than a stone's throw from starting to cry.

"I have a headache just, j-just stop making noise and stop asking questions and stop, STOP not LISTENING TO ME!"

Her gesticulations ebbed and soared with the emphasis of her voice, the uninhibited display coming so easily and naturally to her one had to wonder if such a jarring loss of control over a situation after having maintained it with perfect consistency for so long had triggered some sort of relapse into repressed territory.

"And you-you people have the audacity to wonder why I couldn't trust you with the truth, w-wh-why I had to lie and manipulate and move you around like chess pieces instead of just telling you everything from the beginning WELL THIS IS WHY! None of you can be trusted, n-n-absolutely none of you are willing to accept that there are times when you just need to shut up and listen and PLAY YOUR PART! You're all so s-small, you all have your own stupid agendas and ideas because of all your stupid little emotions and now, n-n-now they have it and that's the ONE mistake I absolutely unequivocally needed to not make and NONE OF THIS WOULD BE HAPPENING IF YOU JUST LISTENED TO ME!!!!"

She had yet to pause for breath, and as the broken scroll she'd taken out mid-rant and started impatiently trying to turn on failed to respond again she abruptly howled and pitched it at the wall.

For someone who prided herself on her apparent rationality, her clarity and foresight and ability to divorce emotive thinking from logical action, Weiss's emotions had been on something of a rollercoaster from the moment she woke up this morning. She let on that she didn't feel, but the truth was she wasn't so dissimilar from Yang in that sometimes she felt things more strongly and unmanageably than most.

What she was good at was not allowing herself to feel. At not acknowledging, processing or dealing with those feelings in any way, shape or form, at shoving them into a dark, icy cavern somewhere deep inside herself and leaving them there to just... freeze. From the moment Weiss had been old enough to talk, she'd had it drummed into her head that emotions were nothing more than a failing of those who lacked discipline.

She had to be perfect. She had to represent the Schnee name. If she lost her temper or raised her voice, she was a diva. If she teared up or started to cry, she was frail and hysterical and it was 'typical' of her 'type'. That wasn't how you got respect in Atlas; at least, not for one half of the population. After a childhood spent watching her father's petty fits of pique be lauded as 'firm' and 'decisive' and 'showing initiative' and her mother's increasingly unreliable behavior be pitied and tutted and condescended at length with fascinating amounts of enthusiasm, she had decided she wasn't going to be like either of them. She was going to be better. Her feelings were just another part of her that could be tamed, disciplined, brought to heel. Suppressed when she needed to seem like she had all the answers. Deployed when she needed someone afraid. And in a way, she had done exactly that. And honestly, until now it had been working just fine for her.

But she had done a lot of other things right as well. The memory of failure, of losing control, of not getting her way, had become so distant and buried she had almost no recollection of it. She had never had a good reason to believe she wasn't right on all counts.

The full-on nervous breakdown they were watching now was the consequence. The toll of someone who had conflated victory and success with a refusal to acknowledge her emotions, to keep them in a cage and depend on things like cigarettes and alcohol to keep them in check.

Now the cage was open. The glacier her heart was encased in had eroded until it was cracking, crumbling, coming entirely unglued and falling apart into the sea.

She didn't know how to handle it.

The distant boom of the manta seemed to ground her at least momentarily, and she marched over to Gwen in the midst of her gesticulations to snatch her scroll away from wherever it was mounted with a scowl. She pivoted again, jabbing it between the group and the portal and immediately building her voice to its shrill crescendo again as she stomped her foot.

"Take the relic and GET OUT!"

She hated them. She didn't care if hate was petty or Jacques-like or something she wasn't supposed to feel or whatever, in that moment she was certain she hated them, blamed them for how wrong everything had gone because if they were to blame, she wasn't.

And she wanted them gone.​

 

[MyrtenRose]

"Take the relic and GET OUT!"

She hated them. She didn't care if hate was petty or Jacques-like or something she wasn't supposed to feel or whatever, in that moment she was certain she hated them, blamed them for how wrong everything had gone because if they were to blame, she wasn't.

And she wanted them gone.

"You heard her. We're leaving." The short-haired Raven added barely a second after Weiss's hysterical shrieking came to an end. Without hesitation, her gaze locked onto Yang, red and blue eyes both blazing with authority as she immediately tried to take charge. "All of us." She made even more clear, eyes narrowing further. "And I don't want to hear any objections from any of you. I did not wake up in some abandoned & broken home, spend days tracking you down and following you, retrieve the relic where all of you had failed, get dragged into many deadly fights time and time again, get forced to leave a daughter behind as a prisoner in this viper pit of a kingdom, have my finger almost bitten off by a tiny curmudgeon military woman, be confronted by a better version of myself who made all my failings stand out even more, get crippled by some twisted monstrosity and be forced to suffer the humiliation of a wheelchair, have my power and even a part of myself stolen by that white haired sociopath because I made the mistake of wanting to try to numb all of this for just a little while, fly myself across the world to track down these two in Mistral, come back after all of you had once again disastrously failed and once again got you the damn relic of knowledge and get us closer to returning to our own fucking world...I didn't go through all that, do all that, JUST FOR SOME OF YOU TO BE SO BLINDED BY A FAMILIAR FACE THAT YOU DON'T RECOGNIZE THE DIFFERENT PERSON UNDERNEATH! THAT YOU THINK YOU KNOW THEM, AND THAT STAYING ON THIS REMNANT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN RETURNING TO OURS!"

She finished showing where exactly Yang had inherited that explosive anger from with a harsh glare at all of them, fully intent to cut off any objections before they even started. "Now you can either go, or I will make you go. One way or another, you're all going. No one is staying."​

 

[MyrtenRose]

The jet of flame was quickly followed by two different sets of green; A dark green suit of armor that stepped through with hardlight shield at the ready and both its arm guns and shoulder cannon primed to fire, and Penny Polendina swooping up into the air above the other two members of the intrepid reinforcements with her swords at the ready, her words echoing through the icy dome and across her shocked features.

"...What... what happened? Where- where is the staff? Where is the General???"

Gwen, in contrast to the councilwoman, bothered to answer those questions from Atlas's most advanced robot, that miracle of robotics and engineering all wrapped up as a frankly adorable girl. Pietro had a special gift in that regard. The special operative turned to Penny with a pained grimace and after a couple coughs, answered, albeit succinctly. "It's gone. They took it. As for the general...one fell from that window over there-" She nodded towards it. "-and the other took a trip down an elevator shaft." She jerked her head that way. "Both turned on us, on the councilwoman. They orchestrated the prison break of the Shadow Fang members we apprehended, stood alongside other killers and helped make this mess." She gestured at the frozen everything.

"Speaking of...if somebody could let me in on what is really going on here, what those things are, why they are so important, what exactly I got my ribs broken for...I would really appreciate knowing!"​