Shadowed Reflection: Chapter 2

This one really got away from me! Nearly 8k words on a snippet has to be a new record for me! Hope you all enjoy!

~~~

If you asked her, Blake Belladonna would be the first to tell you that she was a good person. Or at least, she thought she was. Once upon a time.

The teen's short life had been one plagued by all of the mistakes she had made in the pursuit of making things better for people like her, for all of faunus-kind. From the very beginning, she had tried to do right by her people, but trying to do right was harder than actually doing right. She made mistakes, she hurt people, and it took her far too long to realize that in her pursuit of helping her people, all she was doing was hurting their chances to finally be seen as equal to the humans around them. 

That was why she had come to Beacon. Why she had abandoned the life she had known for so long in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, she would be able to leave her sins and mistakes behind with the old her. Or at least atone for them.

As she flew through the air, launched by a hydraulic platform that probably didn’t live up to any sort of standard health code put in place by any kingdom though, she couldn’t help but wonder if she could have chosen an easier way to make up for her mistakes.

She soared through the air, watching as students around her dropped into the forest below, ready to well and truly start their initiation. Most of them clearly knew what they were doing, graceful and competent even as they flew a million miles an hour, while others were… not. Blake watched a blonde in white and gold armor flail uncontrollably as he tumbled through the air, screaming at the top of his lungs for anybody who would listen. Clearly, some of them were more ready for this than others.

Shaking her head, Blake focused on the forest around her as her flight began to stall as she lost momentum. Descending into the forest, she unhooked Gambol Shroud, unsheathing the weapon and twirling it around via the ribbon. As she crested the treetops, she launched it towards the thickest tree she could see, watching as the weapon wrapped around the thick trunk before the ribbon pulled taut.

She gripped the ribbon and her body snapped in that direction, swinging around the tree and bleeding off almost all of her momentum so that simply rolling once she reached the ground was enough to prevent any injuries. She stood, yanking on the ribbon to retrieve her weapon as her keen eyes and hidden ears scanned the forest around her for any nearby people or grimm.

All was quiet. Leaves fluttered to the ground from her landing and birds chirped merrily in the treetops nearby, signs that she was pretty much completely alone. She put her weapon on her back, relaxing. Landing complete. Now all she had to do was find a partner, get a relic, and she’d be in.

Blake honestly didn’t care who she happened to partner up with. She was pretty good at adapting to her circumstances so there probably wasn’t a single student here that she wouldn’t be able to work with. Well, almost, but what were the chances that she got paired with the only Schnee to ever attend Beacon? There were more than two dozen students in this forest, there was no chance they’d run into each other.

Blake began her trek through the forest, keeping eyes and ears out for any sign of possible grimm or other students. Two beowolves were hanging out near where she had landed, but they were easily dealt with. They were clearly newly formed, with only the bony masks that all grimm started with. She had faced worse.

As they faded into smoke, her ears picked up the sound of combat nearby and she immediately began to make her way in that direction, eager to meet her new partner.

As she pushed aside the brush and peered into the clearing though, Blake froze.

‘There’s no way.’ She thought, staring at the sight in front of her. She actually couldn’t believe this. How in the world did she get so unlucky?

Somehow, some way, Blake had managed to stumble upon the one person she was hooping to avoid in this whole thing. Weiss Schnee was only a few yards away from her, currently battling a group of four beowolves and a single, large ursa. The girl hadn’t noticed her yet as she fought off the monsters, and Blake didn’t move, scared that she’d call attention to herself and seal her fate for the rest of her term here. 

Blake stayed silent as she watched the girl fight through the thin veil of leaves separating them. And though she hated to admit it, the girl was good. She fought like she was performing some kind of elaborate dance, slipping between attacks and reciprocating with her own as she waltzed her way through the pack of grimm with a focused expression on her face. 

She ducked underneath a beowolf’s claws and cut off its head as she stepped past it, before jumping up and onto the back of the ursa that tried to charge her, stabbing her sword into its spine to send it tumbling to the ground as she leapt off gracefully.

Her weapon was impressive too. Blake didn’t get a really good look at it when she was showing it to that other girl yesterday, but was clearly well-made. Every swipe left a trail of glittering mist lingering in the air behind it, and each time it bit into a grimm, frost coated the wounds like paint. It was like the whole weapon had been dipped into liquid ice dust which, given who it belonged too, wasn’t impossible.

As Blake watched the Schnee dispatch the creatures of darkness, she slowly became aware of something else present in the clearing. It started small, but as Weiss danced across the ground and lopped off heads and limbs, it steadily grew until it was impossible not to notice. It was a strange pressure, pressing down on the Belladonna from every direction and making her tense up and her hair stand on end. It sank into her clothes and made her feel cold and tense, like she was a child listening to Adam yell at new recruits from behind a closed door. It was unnerving.

Was that Weiss’s semblance? As fitting as it would be for a Schnee to have a semblance that caused fear in the people around her, Blake wasn’t sure that was the case. Schnee’s were famous for having pretty much the same semblance throughout basically their entire family line, why would this girl be any different?

Well, whatever the reason was, it didn't change the fact that Blake wanted nothing to do with her. As the Schnee dispatched the last grimm, Blake backed out of the bushes, trying to be as quiet as possible so she wasn't noticed.

Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side this time. As Blake tried to back out of the brush, she accidentally stepped on a patch of leaves dried by the sun. They crunched underneath her shoe, and she froze as the sound played through the forest moments before a length of cold steel was pressed against her neck.

Swallowing, Blake slowly looked up. Yellow eyes met blue, and what Ozpin had said during his speech echoed in Blake's mind.

‘’The first person you make eye contact with after landing in the forest will be your partner for the next four years.”

‘Well shit.’ Blake thought, and judging by the resigned look in Weiss's eyes, she wasn't the only one.

~~~

Weiss had an unhappy frown on her face as she pushed aside a low-hanging branch, making her way deeper into the forest. Behind her, Blake ducked to dodge the branch as it snapped back into place, narrowly avoiding it hitting her in the face. She narrowed her eyes at the Schnee’s back, “Really?”

Weiss’s lips quirked at the annoyance in the other girl’s voice, “Oh, I’m sorry. You’re just so quiet that I forgot you were even back there.”

“Freaking Schnees…” Blake grumbled just loud enough for Weiss to hear, causing the girl’s frown to immediately return, “Do you even know where we’re going? Or did you just pick a random direction and start walking?”

“No. I don’t have a clue where we’re supposed to be going.” Weiss responded, ducking under another branch. Blake stopped in her tracks, staring at her back incredulously as she continued walking, "But at least I’m trying to actually figure out where the relics are instead of just complaining and grumbling under my breath.”

“By just wandering around for half an hour, hoping we get there?” Blake asked sarcastically, and Weiss took a calming breath to keep herself from lashing out at her new partner.

“No, I’ve been wandering uphill so that I can find a place with a good view of the forest.” The Schnee retorted, “We don’t have any idea what the relics look like but with how much of a spectacle this whole initiation has been so far, I imagine they’re propped up somewhere, looking pretty for students to find.”

Pausing, Blake looked behind them to verify the girl's words only to realize that, yes, they had indeed been steadily walking uphill this entire time. She had been so preoccupied with being angry at having a Schnee as her partner and arguing with the girl that she hadn’t even noticed. Her cheeks burned at her folly, and she muttered out some vague apology that Weiss pretended not to hear, completely embarrassed that she hadn’t noticed before.

They continued on in silence for some time, before Weiss pushed back one final curtain of brush, revealing that they had reached the top of the hill. She looked around, searching for a hole in the trees around them that they could use to find where they were supposed to be going. She couldn’t find one. The trees were still too thick to get a clear view.

Clicking her tongue, Weiss turned to Blake who had clearly noticed the same thing judging by her expression, “How good are you at climbing trees?” She asked, cutting off the gloating remark that she could tell the other girl was about to make.

Blake raised an eyebrow, “Okay, I guess.”

“Good, because as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not.” Weiss said, “Climb one of these trees and take a look around. Maybe we can finally figure out where we’re going.”

“Sure thing, your highness.” Blake retorted, causing Weiss’s eye to twitch. The girl walked to the nearest tree and, with much more proficiency than that of someone who was just ‘okay’, began to scale the monolithic plant until she was far enough into the canopy that Weiss lost sight of her.

Weiss watched her go with a resigned sigh, resting a hand on Myrtenaster’s hilt as the black-haired girl ascended into the branches. She couldn’t believe that out of the dozens of students that attended the assembly and the miles upon miles of forest that laid between them all, she just happened to run into the one girl who had a grudge against her family and as a result, hated her guts.

Weiss didn’t know Blake outside of the near fight the two of them had gotten into outside the assembly hall, but it was clear that the girl had some sort of chip on her shoulder when it came to the Schnee name. Weiss… could understand where she was coming from, but that didn’t mean that she was going to let her say what she wanted about her entire family’s legacy. She was still a Schnee. Even if some people would rather than not be the case.

Weiss shook off the thoughts as Blake dropped back down to the ground in front of her, walking up to the other girl as she patted herself off, “So, did you find anything?” 

Blake nodded, “Yeah, I found the place.”

Weiss smiled, “Excellent. Where is it?”

“Oh, just a mile and a half back the direction we just came from.” Blake said smugly, causing Weiss to freeze, “Guess you aren't as smart as you think you are.”

“I-I had the right idea!” Weiss protested as Blake turned to head in the direction of the relic, “And I didn't hear you offering up any solution to our issue! All you did was complain!”

“Who wouldn't complain about being paired with you.” Blake asked derisively as they descended, “I could have been partnered up with anyone in the forest, literally dozens of people who would all be better than little miss nepotism who probably got accepted on her daddies word instead of her own merit.”

Her words stopped Weiss in her tracks, and the heiress could actually hear her jaw click from how hard she was gritting her teeth.

“You don't know anything about me.” She hissed. The vitriol in her voice made Blake stop and look back at the girl. Weiss stared her down with fury in her eyes, “I have faced ridicule and obstacles every single step of the way towards this opportunity, and my father would rather see me disowned than fail here and make a mockery of the family name. This is an opportunity I've worked for my entire life and you will not stand there and tell me that I didn't arrive here on my own merit.”

Blake stared at Weiss as the girl walked past her, “If being my partner disgusts you that much, then by all means, ask the Headmaster for a new one. But we are finishing this test, because I refuse to go back home to that man as the failure he always saw me as.”

~~~

The rest of the walk was done in complete silence, completely bereft of even Blake's complaining. Together, they made their way down the hill and through the forest, before the forest around them gave way to a large clearing covered in crumbling ruins. A ring of pedestals sat in the center, covered in what was likely the relics they were here to obtain.

There were only two other people there, though the lack of relics on the pedestals indicated that more might have come and gone. The two remaining were talking loudly with an exuberance that made Weiss exhausted just watching them. Well, one of them was, the other was just watching as his partner went on and on about something or other that Weiss couldn't make out.

Weiss recognized the two of them from the initiation and didn't hesitate to make herself known, eager for more polite company, “Nora, Ren, it's nice to see you two managed to find each other.”

The two of them turned as she and Blake walked into the ruins, and a wide smile spread on Nora’s face as she recognized her, “Hey Weiss! And I know, right? I knew that Renny would recognize my signature sloth call all the way across the forest and come find me and he did!”

Ren sighed, “Nora, I'm not sure what kind of sound a sloth makes but I doubt that was it.”

As the three of them chatted, Blake walked over to the nearby pedestals, gazing at the various colored chess pieces sitting upon them, “So these are the relics? Chess pieces?”

“That's what Nora and I believe. They could also be decoys, but I don't see why Headmaster Ozpin would bother considering rhe test was to get here in the first place" Ren said, walking over to the pedestals. Blake looked around, before grabbing a golden rook and bringing it over to Weiss who studied it.

“Chess pieces?” Weiss asked, eying the rook, “How quant.”

“LOOK OUT BELOOOOOOW!”

Everyone looked up into the sky, and their eyes widened at what they saw, before Nora's mouth split into a wide grin and she grabbed her friend's sleeve, pointing up at the spectacle, “We should have done that!”

If she wasn't sure before, then Weiss was sure now that the girl was absolutely insane. She had to be, because why else would anyone want to ride a Nevermore, much less crash one into the ground via repeatedly punching it in the back of the head.

The teens jumped out of the way as the giant grimm slammed into the dirt nearby. It let out a dying shriek, moments before the blonde girl riding on the back of its neck silenced it by slamming a gauntlet-clad fist into the back of its skull.

“Whoo! That was awesome!” The girl cheered, jumping off of the fading grimm's back. She landed solidly on the ground, dusting herself off before turning back towards the bird, “Told ya we'd make it, Rubes! I never overshoot these sorts of things!”

“You would have if I didn't fix it, Yang!” Another, higher-pitched voice called back. The dying grimm shifted, before a tunnel of swirling rose petals raced across its back and came to a stop beside Yang. Putting her hands on her hips, Ruby gave her sister a pout, “We should have gone with my plan.”

“Nah, yours was boring. Why would we just jump off when we could ride it the whole way?” Yang said, before facing the rest of the students, “You guys agree, right? That was so much cooler than if we just jumped off.”

“I’ll withhold my comment on this one, I think." Weiss said dryly, before flinching as Nora rushed past her.

“I won't!” The orange haired girl yelled, “That was so cool? How'd you get on the birdie's back? Ren! Let's find a Nevermore-ooh! Or a Deathstalker! They're big, right?”

“Hey Weiss!” Ruby walked up with a bright smile on her face, “Who'd you get as a partner?”

Weiss sighed, turning to look at Blake who stared back at her with narrowed eyes. Ruby followed her gaze and winced, “Oh. I'm sorry.”

“I suppose that's just the way the cards fall sometimes.” Weiss said, “Perhaps when initiation is done, the headmaster will be nice enough to allow one of us to switch teams. Until then, we're stuck with each other.”

A rustle and then a boom from the nearby forest cut of whatever Ruby was about to say. As one the students turned towards the noise as two figures rushed out of the underbrush, twin expressions of terror on their faces.

Weiss recognized one of them from the initiation, a blonde in a hoodie covered in armor: Jaune. The other took a moment for her to place, but as the girl’s fiery red hair danced as she twirled around and pulled the spear and shield from her back, to face whatever they were running from, a name clicked into place in Weiss's mind.

And with that name, came quite a bit of uncertainty. After all, if Pyrrha Nikos of all people was running from something, then it was almost certainly one of the most dangerous things in this forest.

Weiss turned to Jaune as he reached their side, “Hey guys! Boy am I glad to see you.” He panted, putting his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“I’d certainly say so.” Weiss said, watching as Pyrrha slowly inches towards them, never taking her eyes of the forest, “What has the two of you so spooked?”.

The ruins rumbled in response to her question, and everyone present gazed at the forest as the trees rustles, moments before something truly monstrous burst out of the thicket, roaring angrily.

Weiss had seen depictions of the average Deathstalker before and they could be rather large, but this thing was absolutely colossal. Saying that it towered over them would be an understatement. It was also covered in much more armor than the standard variant, shielded from head to toe in the white, bony substance that all grimm were known for.

The beast's red eyes locked on to them all and Jaune gulped, “That.”

“Yeah, that'd do it.” Ruby said, staring at the massive grimm, “Wow, that's a big Deathstalker.”

“Bigger than the ones back home, that's for sure.” Yang agreed, eying the grimm eagerly, “How old do you think it is? It's gotta be like a hundred, right?”

“Probably two.” Blake said, unsheathing her own weapon.

“Uh, we're not gonna fight it, are we?” Jaune asked nervously, “That thing is way too big to fight!”

“Nonesense. There's eight of us and one of it.” Weiss said, unsheathing Myrtenaster and pointing it at the colossal grimm, “If we work together, I'm sure we can take it down.”

“I’m with Weiss!” Nora agreed, pulling her weapon from her back. It shifted, becoming a large warhammer which the girl brandished eagerly, “We just gotta wail at it until all that armor breaks and then it's free picking!”

“Hell yeah! Let's do it!” Yang slammed her fists together and her aura flared briefly.

“Uh then, can we at least make a plan?” Jaune spoke up meekly, but none of the girls heard him as they ran towards the Deathstalker. He sighed, turning to look at Ren who just patted his shoulder commiseratingly, before unsheathing his own weapons and following the crowd.

“Oh man…” Jaune sighed miserably, running to catch up to the rest of the group as they did battle with the beast.

The Deathstalker, though overwhelmed, managed to put up an extremely good fight. Due to its size and the armor covering its body, it was easy to tell that the grimm was extremely old and more than likely experienced. There was no telling how long it had been in the Emerald Forest, preying on any human or faunus who happened to cross its path.

Myrtenaster’s blade threw up sparks as it skittered across the beast's armor. Crawling tendrils of frost tried to take hold in the tiny cuts her weapon had made, but failed to find purchase in any meaningful way as the grimm struck out at the girl.

Weiss danced back and Yang took her place, grabbing onto the Deathstalker's pincer with both arms. She slid back, her boots carving small trenches in the dirt as she was forced backwards by the grimm's immense strength, but she kept the smile on her face as she latched on to the limbs and held on fast.

As the grimm tried to free itself, Pyrrha and Ren rushed forward, capitalizing on the opportunity. As Ren peppered its armor with bullets, the Deathstalker's stinger came down towards Pyrrha but the girl batted it away with a single arm and reared back her spear stabbing it into one of the creature's many eyes.

The Deathstalker let out an agonizing roar as her weapon slid home into its flesh. It reared back, lifting Yang off of the ground and jerking its arm,  tossing the girl away as its attention narrowed on Pyrrha whose eyes widened and she brought her shield up just in time to block the massive pincer that it swung at her.

As she fell back, the Deathstalker went to capitalize on the opening, mandibles clicking as it skittered closer, but it hissed in rage as bullets pinged off of its armor, before its body was obscured by a bright pink explosion.

“Get some!” Nora shouted, sending grenades flying downrange. They weren't enough to do much but stun the creature, but that was more than enough for Ruby to take action. Unfolding Crescent Rose, the girl raced through the smoke created by Nora's explosions to slice the grimm up with her scythe.

As the students went to work, showcasing the combat abilities that got them here in the first place, Jaune frowned as he noticed something important.

“We're not getting through its armor.” He said, making Nora look at him curiously, “It's too thick, barely any of our weapons can even pierce the smallest portions. We need something bigger.”

He eyed the grimm, searching for some sort of weak point in its armor. He stared at the thick plates of white, stretching over the creature and keeping it safe for harm, before his eyes strayed upwards.

“That's it.” He muttered, stepping forward and cupping his hands around his mouth, “Weiss, Ruby!” 

The girls in question looked back at Jaune as he called out to them. He pointed, gesturing to the golden orb dangling from its armored tail, “Cut off its stinger! We can use it to get through the armor!”

Weiss followed his gaze and grinned at what she saw. The joint between the stinger and the rest of the tail was segmented, meaning that a blade in there would do much more work than anywhere else.

She shared a look with Ruby and a plan passed between them in an instant. The hooded girl went low while the heiress went high, planting her shoes on the other girl's back and kicking off. She reared Myrtenaster back, narrowing in on the limb as it swung back and forth.

Her blade sliced through the thick, chitinous flesh like it was butter, only stopping once it was practically already through the tail, with just a sliver of flesh keeping it attached. Ice spread from around her cut, freezing what was left and making it extremely brittle as the moisture within turned to ice.

As the heiress went to fall back and let the rest of the team finish the beast off, the tail suddenly twitched. She raised her sword, placing her palm against the flat of the blade as the Deathstalker suddenly washed out, slamming the bulk of its extraneous limb into her sword, sending her flying backwards.

She rolled on the ground, scraping her cheek against a sharp stone and drawing blood, but other than that, she suffered no damage as she jumped up to her feet to watch as the rest of the team went to work. 

Pyrrha, Yang and Ren kept the monster distracted, using skill, brute strength, and agility to dodge and block the Deathstalker’s claws and keep it occupied, while Ruby dashed upwards in a furry of rose petals, finishing the work that Weiss had started with a single swipe of her massive scythe.

As the golden stinger fell and slammed deep into the monster's skull, Jaune and Nora, who had been waiting for this exact moment, enacted their plan. Using the recoil of her weapon combined with the sturdiness of Jaune's shield, Nora launched herself into the air, soaring upwards, before coming down like a meteor  slamming her hammer down into the Deathstalker's broken stinger.

The ground underneath the grimm cracked as its head slammed into the dirt. The light in the grimm's eyes faded as it was forcefully ejected by the equivalent of an oversized nail and hammer, and Nora let out a giddy cheer as she jumped off of the smoking corpse.

“That was so much fun!” She threw her hands up, wrapping one arm around Pyrrha and Yang and pulling them close, “Did you see that!? That was a bonafide combo attack straight out of the books! Presented live by the one and only Nora Valkyrie!”

“Pfft, please. We did most of the work there, you just finished the job!” Yang said, but the smile on her face made it clear she was just kidding.

Noa returned her grin with a challenging one of her own, “Yeah? You wanna prove it?”

“Being it on!”

“I will! Ren! We're gonna go find another Deathstalker!”

“Nora, no.”

“Nora, YES!”

As the rest of the team celebrated, Ruby and Weiss walked up to Jaune, giving the boy a smile, “That was quick thinking, Jaune! We would have been chipping away at that armor for a while if you hadn't thought of it.” Ruby said.

Weiss nodded in agreement and Jaune rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “Heh, thanks. I didn't really think about it, I just came up with something on the fly.”

“Well even so, it was more than enough to beat that grimm. Well done.” Weiss said, smiling at the other teen. Jaune's cheeks were bright red as he turned to Weiss to respond, but as he caught sight of her, he froze and his eyes went wide.

Weiss tilted her head at his expression, “What?”

“Weiss… you're bleeding.” Ruby said, her voice and expression the very picture of concern. Something warm and wet dropped down Weiss’s face, and she brought a hand up to her head, gazing at the red stain on her fingers.

“Did your aura break?” She asked, “How? You only got hit once!”

Weiss sighed as the others were quickly alerted to her circumstances. They crowded around her with expressions of concern and confusion, and she lamented the fact that she had gotten injured so soon. She wanted to save this until her position at Beacon was already secure, but she supposed even she couldn't get through the whole initiation without being injured.

“It's fine, everyone.” She held her hands up, silencing their questions and concerns, “My aura didn't shatter. I just don't have any.”

“Huh?” Seemed to be the general consensus, with Blake stepping forward a moment later, confusion written all over her face, “How can you not have aura? I've seen all the stuff you can do; no regular person could do that.”

“I was just born without it, I suppose. My family tried everything they could, but they couldn't unlock it no matter what they did. Every attempt was a failure.” She shrugged, "I've more or less come to terms with it, and I'm not exactly helpless even without aura, as I'm sure you've all seen.”

She could see they had more questions, and held a hand up, “It isn't really the time for these kinds of questions. If you really want to know, I'll explain it to you later but we should finish the initiation before–”

A roar unlike any other pierced through the air, making all those present freeze. It was a discordant cacophony of anguish and rage, mingled together in an almost human-sounding shriek.

As the sound came to an end  Jaune stared at something over Weiss's shoulder, holding out a shaky finger as he pointed, “Uh, guys?”

They all turned to look at what he was pointing to, and Weiss’s breath caught in her throat at what they were met with.

It was a grimm, but not any that Weiss had ever seen or heard of. It was seven feet tall and covered in thick, boney armor. It's hands were oversized, thrice the size of Weiss's own head and topped by razor-sharp claws. Glowing red eyes peeked from a bony white mask depicting a snarling wolf-like creature.

“What is that thing?” She whispered, staring at it in disgust. She didn't know why, but something about it stirred Weiss's stomach, making her want to throw up.

“I don't know, but it's begging for a smack to the face.” Nora said, squinting at the humanoid grimm. She glanced at her friend who gave her a resigned look, already knowing what she was thinking, “Hey Renny, you thinking what I'm thinking?”

“Unfortunately.” Ren sighed. The group watched curiously as he backed away while Nora pulled out her hammer, rearing the weapon back with a massive grin. Ren took a running start, sprinting towards Nora and as he passed her she let loose.

“BATTER UP!” She cried and with a cacophonic boom, the teen was launched like a bullet in the direction of the grimm. Twirling to bleed off her weapon's recoil, Nora soon followed after him wit a giddy smile on her face.

Weiss could somewhat see what the pair were going for. With Ren’s weapons and agility, it would be easy for him to soften up whatever target he was thrown for, getting them prepared for Nora who would come and deliver the finishing blow. A sound strategy. Single, but effective.

Unfortunately, it wouldn't work out that way this time. Weiss's gut curled as the grimm remained completely still even as Ren approached it at supersonic speeds. The teen held out his weapons, firing as he flew and the bullets pinged off of the grimm's armor, seeming like gnats for all the good they were doing. And as Ren drew closer, shifting his submachine guns into their, something terrible happened 

In an instant, the monster burst into motion. It raised a single hand as Ren drew near and, without any flair or fanfare, slammed it into the boy's body.

Every single bit of Ren's momentum was immediately transferred into the ground as his course was diverted downwards. He slammed into the dirt with a cry  and his aura flared brightly for a single moment before crumbling into flecks of energy as it broke.

“Ren!” Nora yelled, shocked and enraged at what happened to her partner and best friend. She doubled her pace, rearing her hammer back even further, “I'm gonna smash you to pieces!”

As the hammer-wielding girl approached it, the monstrous grimm let out a roar that shook all the students to the bone. Its mouth opened revealing a yawning pit held just behind the bony mask. Red light began to coalesce, and something inside of Weiss spurred her into action as a screaming orb of energy burned to life inside its jaws.

Blake and the rest of the students flinched as Weiss's body suddenly blurred and the teen disappeared from their midst. She reappeared directly in front of Nora, wrapping her arms around the girl and tackling her out of the way just in time as the noise reached a fever pitch.

A beam of crimson energy burned through the air, singing Weiss's hair as the girls narrowly escaped the line of fire. It continued straight towards the nearby cliff wall and slammed into it, exploding in a spectacular display of burning stone and hellish light.

As the rest of the teens stared at the display of power, Weiss reappeared beside them, holding onto both Nora and Ren as she panted harshly. She had never carried someone while doing that, much less two people.

“We have to get out of here.” She said between breaths as Nora embraced her friend, “I don't know what that grimm is, but we can't fight it. We need to alert the professors.”

“We can take it!” Yang protested, clenching her fists as she stared at the grimm, “We just beat that giant Deathstalker like it was nothing! We just need to work together like last time!*

Her sister didn't look nearly as confident, “I think Weiss is right. I've never seen a grimm like that before. It broke Ren’s aura in one hit and that beam thing looked pretty scary. We don't know what else it can do.”

“I, for one, don't feel like dying any time soon.” Jaune added on, “We already have the relics. I say we get the heck out of here and live to fight another day.”

His words were met with agreement from the rest of the team, but just as Yang moved to argue that they could, in fact, fight the monstrosity before them, something horrifying happened.

With a sound akin to distorted static, the monstrous grimm disappeared from where it was lurking just like Weiss had moments before. One moment it was there, and the next, it was standing in front of them, one massive claw raised as it struck out at the one who had denied its prey only moments before.

Weiss brought Myrtenaster up just in time as one of those claws, each of them the size of her torso if not larger, slammed into her like a runaway bullhead. 

“WEISS!” Ruby screamed, watching as the heiress was sent flying away. Myrtenaster slipped out of Weiss's fingers as she ragdolled, moments before her flight was brought to an instant sun exceedingly painful stop by a stone pillar.

She slumped to the ground, her head lolling and her vision blurring as she slowly lost consciousness, and the last thing she saw was Blake of all people running towards her with eyes wide in panic.

~~~

Less than a second later, blue eyes snapped open as Weiss awoke with a start to find herself somewhere completely different from the shattered ruins she had been in moments before.

Her body tingled strangely as she slowly sat up, blinking as her fingers sank into the ground around her. She looked down and furrowed her brows at what she saw, “Is this… snow?” She asked aloud, running her fingers through the soft, frozen water.

It was. She looked up, watching as snowflakes drifted through the air in a thick curtain, obscuring the dark forest around her. She slowly stood up, taking in her new surroundings with a wary eye.

She was in a dark stretch of forest, covered in layers upon layers of freshly fallen snow. It stretched for as far as the eye could see, looming trees extending for miles in every direction as their twisted limbs stretched towards the–paradoxically–cloudless, starry sky high above.

This place… it felt familiar. Weiss had never been here before in her life, she knew that, but something in the back of her mind tingled with recognition as she gazed into the darkened forest around her.

“So you finally made it, huh?” Weiss jumped as a voice pierced through the silence, looking around into the swirling snow to try and locate the source. It came again, this time from behind her, “I almost can't believe it. I thought you'd never actually show up.”

The voice was scratchy yet feminine, and just like the rest of this place, it was strangely familiar.

“What are you talking about?” Weiss called back as she turned in a circle, “Who are you? Where am I?”

Laughter emerged from all around her, “You really don't know, do you? Come on, Weiss, open those eyes and feel it. You know exactly where you are.”

A thud came from behind her and Weiss whirled around, coming face to face with the person who had been skulking in the darkness. And as her eyes locked with a pair of the clearest blue, she froze as an almost nostalgic sense of familiarity overwhelmed her for a brief moment.

Sitting in the tree, gazing at her with a fanged smirk as one hand rested on a sword beside her leg, was a woman with the most singular appearance that Weiss had ever seen. She was pale, wrapped in furs that were clearly too thin to fight off the cold of this place. Wild, black hair hung around her face like a curtain of obsidian spikes, framing pale skin covered in bright blue paint. Two furry black ears twitched in the cool air and a fuzzy tail swished behind her as she lounged there cooly, gazing at Weiss with eyes like mirrors.

Weiss gaped at the woman. She had seen her before. Flashes of a fanged grin and the sensation of a cool breeze on the hottest summer nights swirled through her mind as she slowly walked forward, “You….” She said haltingly as she stared at the woman, “I've seen you before, haven't I?”

The familiar woman burst out in laughter at her words, “I’d say you have, kid! I've only been trying to talk to you for the past eight years!”

As she laughed, the woman shifted, and Weiss's eyes were attracted to the glinting steel blade she was resting on the tree beside her. Panic stirred in her heart as she recognized the weapon, and she reached to her waist, groping at empty air where none should be.

Her stomach dropped, and she glared at the woman who seemed to grin wider in response to her anger, “Hey! Give that back!” She yelled, pointing at the sword that was most definitely hers.

The woman stopped laughing, glancing down at where she was pointing. “Oh? Why should I?” She held up the sword, staring at it thoughtfully, "You've been hurting my feelings with the way you've been acting, I'm not sure you deserve such an awesome weapon.”

Weiss's eyes narrowed and the ever-present power inside of her stirred as the world around her blurred. One moment she was standing on the forest floor, tens of feet below the lounging thief, and the next she was right in front of her, leg extended as she prepared to kick her in the head.

Weiss was fast. She knew this. It was one of the things she was most prideful about. Those explosive bursts of speed that she could achieve during combat was what allowed her to keep up and even outpace her instructors when she was younger, and they had only become stronger as she grew older. 

But that didn't seem to matter now. Weiss gaped as the woman held up an arm with the casual demeanor of someone blocking the glare from the sun. The snow on the tree exploded off the bark as her foot slammed into the woman's outstretched arm and didn't budge an inch further

The woman gave Weiss a smirk as the girl stared at her in stark shock., suspended in midair as her momentum was brought to a dead stop in an instant, “That was pretty good, but you're jumping the gun here, kid. I'm trying to help you.”

Weiss fell back to the ground, staring up at the woman with confusion wrapped in thinly veiled hostility, “If you want to help me, then give Myrtenaster back!”

The woman twitched oddly as Weiss demanded she return the weapon, “Nope. Not until you apologize.” She said with all the petulance of a child.

“Apologize!?” Weiss sputtered, completely baffled, “I have nothing to apologize for! You stole my sword!”

“Can't steal something that belongs to me, princess.” The woman rolled onto her back, hanging upside down on the branch as she stared at Weiss, “And besides, she's more mine than she is yours anyway. Especially since you’ve been calling her by the wrong name for eight years.”

Her words made Weiss pause, “What? What are you talking about? I named her, how could it be wrong?”

“You think just because you give someone a nickname, their real one doesn't count anymore?” The woman shook her head, “You need to learn to respect your weapon. You aren't listening to her and it's starting to piss her off.”

The way she said it was strange, like she wasn't really talking about someone else and was just using them as an example to make her point. As a matter of fact, it was almost like she was talking about… herself.

Weiss stared at her for a long moment, an impossible thought flashing across her mind for a single moment. It didn't make any sense, and if anyone said it aloud in her presence, Weiss would call them insane, but something about it felt right.

“Are you…” Weiss hesitated, not wanting to sound like an idiot for saying such an impossible thing, “Are you my sword?”

It was such an asinine question, but the woman smiled widely the moment Weiss said it, “Well would you look at that. The princess got it in one.”

Still upside down, the woman reared her arm back and Weiss’s eyes widened as she hurled Myrtenaster directly at the girl's face blade-first. She tensed, preparing to dodge, but a moment later the weapon split apart at the seams, bursting into a spray of snowflakes that swirled around Weiss before coalescing upon her hip.

As Weiss stared down at her weapon restored, the woman jumped out of the tree, landing right in front of the heiress. Weiss slowly looked up at her, and the woman gave her a smirk, leaning down to place a hand on her shoulder as she looked the girl in the eyes.

“You and I got a lot to talk about, kid.”

~~~

Weiss awoke to find that time had passed at a snail's pace. Though she had spent what felt like an eternity in her inner mind, only a few minutes had passed in the real world.

Those few minutes were still more than enough for things to progress very badly however. Since she had fallen, it seemed that the negativity of her fellow students had attracted yet more grimm, and now they were facing down a veritable horde of darkness. Beowolves, ursa, and even a few boarbatusks were slowly advancing towards them, all seemingly led by the grimm that had put Weiss down.

Hundreds of bullets flew down the bridge at the horde, seeking to slim their number, but it was clear that it wouldn't be enough. Even Nora's grenades only got a handful of them at a time, and each shot damaged the bridge underneath their feet, meaning she had to use them sparingly.

It seemed like a hopeless situation, but Weiss knew that it wasn't. In those few minutes she was out, she had gained a new clarity of the power resting in her soul, and she knew without a doubt that she could turn the tide of this battle.

Her weapon was lying sheathed on the ground in front of her. Weiss was positive she had dropped it before she passed out, but here it was, ready and waiting for her hand. And as Weiss reached out and grasped it, her soul sang with newfound understanding.

Nearby, Blake turned as Weiss slowly stood up, “Weiss? You're alright?”

Weiss nodded, sliding her sword into her belt, “I am. But if we want it to remain that way, we need to deal with that grimm.”

Nearby, Yang snorted, “Good luck with that. Even Ruby can't get through that thing's armor. It's thicker than the Deathstalker's!”

“Leave it to me. In fact, leave it all to me.” Weiss said, striding forward with purpose.

“Wait, what are you doing?” Blake called, reaching a hand out to pull the heiress back. Weiss slipped out of her grip, walking past the other confused students as she unsheathed her sword.

“Really not the time for a heroic sacrifice.” Yang agreed, but didn't move to stop the girl as she passed her.

“Weiss…?” Ruby asked hesitantly, watching as Weiss came to a stop in front of them all. The heiress didn't respond, standing strong in front of the oncoming horde, staring directly at the mask of the abomination who was clearly responsible for their odd behavior.

She inhaled deeply, tightening her grip on her sword as blood trailed down her face. The weapon and the spirit within vibrated with anticipation, a feeling that was shared in turn with Weiss herself as cleared her mind of any errant thoughts.

She had come this far, broken her body and spirit over and over again just to prove that she was worth something more than people thought she was. She didn't know what kind of grimm that was, but refused to allow all of those years of soul-crushing effort to be thrown away by that thing.

The other students around her flinched as the temperature around her dropped like a rock. Her breath misted the air as frost gathered on the ground under her shoes, and the strange grimm flinched back as it realized something was wrong. It was too late for it though, and Weiss’s eyes sharpened as she spoke four words that resonated with her soul more powerfully than any before 

“Set the stage, Hyōsekka.”