Chapter Text
From a foot away, at six inches tall Weiss watched her teammates, enjoying that they were beginning to interact and dare she say flirt with each other comfortably. Yang deserves the world after all, she has systematically kept the team from feeling so helpless, and even in her darkest moments, the blonde was only hurting from feeling left alone. Then there was Blake, the charming woman enchanted with Yang, humoring her and silently mirthful every time the woman cracked a joke. She sighs heavily, a familiar memory floating up of observing how Blake seemed to enjoy the puns and attempting one herself, not to the approval of the ball of sunshine.
It was only when Little spoke up that was Weiss shaken from her thoughts. “You know, even I can tell you like the cat…” The resident Ice Queen was thankful the rodent was at least whispering, but to hear it out loud felt so finalizing, as if not acknowledging it would have been better. “...and that is saying something. I think you should tell her.” To that Weiss looks up at Little, raising a hand to which the mouse brings her head down to rest their chin on her open palm. She brushes their fur, in an effort to soothe herself while she answers. “No no. Little this is a secret. It’s the kind that never needs to be known, so I’m going to keep helping and nothing more.” Those two deserve it. She glances up at them across Ruby’s shoulders and smiles as Blake laughs at another of Yang’s comments. “She’s finding her own happily ever after.” She means it, she swears she is so happy for them, the cloud nine of elation even. Little confirms this with a “well that’s nice!” and Weiss thinks the subject is dropped, she can move on. Unfortunately, no such luck has been found in this storybook world. “,... but what about you?” Weiss looks away, immediate guilt and a painful swell of emotions tightening in her chest. Am I deserving at this point? The thought falls heavy and a tear threatens to fall if she stays in that mental rut. Immediately she pacifies herself by reaching up and petting Little’s head. Taking a breath she reconciles. “I’ve a lot to do, Little. I’m a Huntress.” This time the mouse doesn't pursue any further answers. Perhaps having to do with already asking everyone what a Huntress does.
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At the Herbalist was about to stab her other-self, reading the shape of her lips as she said “to be free” and was about to continue to say “with her”. Weiss stops her, cutting her off with her blade pointed at what she could only describe as her past self. She declares to the illusion, to her old self, that she has nothing and has already started ‘fresh’. That she will decide who she will be and what she will do to make her mark. She is a Huntress first after all.
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Meeting the rusted knight, finally someone she actually knows she likes in this stupid story, then he had to ruin it. He had to remove his helmet, her jaw drops, he- . He’s hot yeah, but he’s Jaune. Her only defense was that he was the goofy guy she didn’t want lingering after her and tried to make it as obvious as possible to say she wasn’t interested. But he was a source of comfort, a friend, and familiar to her. And he was hot. Distractingly so! Enough to put her mind off of whatever is going on with Blake and Yang's corner of their team. She also wished it was enough to distract her from the pang of longing she felt when she hear Blake's voice. Its after Jaune recounts the tale and everyone drowns themselves in problem-solving something that feels muddy that he takes her aside. He tells her he had noticed her staring at the faunus of her team. Jaune, fucking Jaune Arc. Jaune of all people noticed her regrettably obvious unrequited pining. Of course, he would he saw the brunt of it when she wanted to follow Pyrrha around like a lost puppy.
He’s talking to her, he’s saying things about how he is happy for those two, but he doesn’t want her to live in regret. She tunes back in instead of watching him yap and zeroing in on the glowing dandelion behind him, catching his remark “Try to be more honest with yourself, and maybe take a chance, you may be surprised how much lighter you will feel just getting it off your chest.” He rests his hand on her shoulder, attempting to be comforting, he’d know, wouldn’t he? How painful it feels to have regrets like these. She says nothing, her bank of kind words has run empty and she already tried to be funny.
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It’s mid-battle, Jabberwalker after Jabberwalker has been relentless. Yang had been doing great keeping them back, Ruby hadn’t been able to concentrate and Blake was making sure to keep her safe. Meanwhile, Jaune begrudgingly helped clear a path up the tree. Weiss doing what she does best, analyzing, avoiding any hits, and backing up her team. Until Blake’s defenses were swarmed, and Ruby was once again caught in the crossfire, Pulling crescent rose to block the Jabberwalker but it turns and its tail swung around so rapidly that Ruby had been knocked out on impact to her neck. It was comforting there was no crackle with the hit. It was Blake who yelled Ruby’s name, And it was the blast of flames that signified Yang had started using her reservoir of built-up kinetic energy. Weiss glanced their way but was immediately confronted with another Jabber- her rapier clanging against its hard-shelled head. Jaune atop Juniper appears, rabbit kicking the thing off of her before it made her drop Myrtenaster.
She breathes out a moment looking up towards the tree and then back over their battlefield where 5 more Jabberwalkers were charging up. She makes an executive decision, calling to the cat first and then skates by to tell Jaune to hold down the line. She speeds past Blake towards Yang near the roots pressing her hand against her back as the blonde held Ruby. “How is she, I need you both to get up that tree.” She says, she meant to be kinder but her tone shifted to clipped icy directions. Yang’s eyes dart up at her, a hand pulling Ruby closer to her and balancing her into a fireman’s carry. “I can’t climb with just one hand.” Weiss stands and raises Myrtenaster to the tree, flicking it up, and as if in delay to the motion the white glyphs appear as a clear trail.
“Take Ruby, I’ll stabilize the path for you.” Yang nods and runs up, her feet pressing against the bark and the locking of her soles to the glyph keeping her upright as she continues pressing forward, calling back behind her. “Make sure Blake catches up. Please.” Her tone softening with her plea.
Weiss doesn't respond, turning around and finding the cat faunus who had just finished off a Jabberwalker with a stab to its neck after tangling it in her ribbon. She hops down and glances at the path Weiss had constructed. “We have to give Yang more time!” she crouches again and looks on to the next Jabberwalker passing Jaune. “Blake there are too many, you need to get up there.” Blake looks at her with a confused and judgemental glare, as if her statement made no sense as if she asked her to give up.
She took a breath and grabbed Blake's collar. “Yang wants you to get out of here.” To make her point she steels herself and growls out the last three words. But shes too close and almost kisses Blake, she pulled her in too quickly and swoops herself in too close. Jaunes words of regret rang into her mind making her want to proceed with the last 2 centimeters of space between their lips. However, her resolve burst forward again, she is a Huntress, she is doing this for them and pushes her back. Now that Blake was shocked it was easier for Weiss to step forward in front of her, more Jabberwalkers were incoming, 5 of them to be exact. “Alright get climbing. Keep going, I will make more time.” She turns away from the Faunus fully and feels the yellow irises of concern on her “Yang needs you, Blake” Weiss states keeping herself turned away, and pulls her right hand, palm side facing the tree, a black glyph appears under her fellow teammate then shifts color launching Blake further up the tree. Had she the time to laugh she would have, imagining the unexpected boost scared the cute cat faunus.
The Jabberwalkers close in and Weiss is now able to summon her knight, or at least his arm as one leaps at her, the summoning glyph opening to allow a large sword to pierce its head. The creature crackles and pushes itself to open its maw in a vain attempt to consume the Schnee only to dissipate in pink shattered glass, another of Neo’s clones. Her thoughts go to her team as she and Jaune fight the other four enemies off the tree’s roots.
Ruby needs Yang, she needs her sister more than ever with the information that was brought to light in Ever After. Blake needs Yang, but she needs Ruby too. Ruby ignited her hope and her faith in the good of Remnant and its people. They will persist. She manages the thought as she skates by a Jabberwalker on her own glyph track sharing a look with Jaune at the opposite end and summoning the wings of her Nevermore.
Raining sharpened feathers down onto the battlefield, stabbing and pinning two of the creatures, the other two getting deterred in their path. Jaune flung himself off of Juniper as Weiss dropped herself from a spiral glyph tunnel, both of them diving onto the pinned Jabberwalkers, leading with their swords and plunging them deep into their respective targets until those too shattered into the glass. Jaune hopped up on Juniper as it ran by him, offering an arm to her in passing, which she grabbed and both of them charged on the two left. That is until one shifted to Ruby and then to the walker again, It gathered itself up in a predatory pounce, Claws seemingly aimed at Jaune but as he brought out his shield one of those sharpened claws glided against the rusted metal and turned into an umbrella as his sword pierced what he thought was its head, the glass shattering around him obscuring him from what had just happened, but Weiss’s strangled scream was unmistakable, the umbrella's sharpened tip narrowly missing her left eye, grazing along the skin just under it as she turned with the flow of the blade and slide off of Juniper. Jaune turns only to find no one and then the Jackalope is hit by the remaining Jabberwalker. Jaune flung off of his trusted companion in the process with a pained groan.
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Yang places Ruby down against her, breathing out a sigh only to cough, sandblasting past her making breathing a little more tedious. She raises her scarf over her mouth then raises and tightens Ruby’s red hood around her mouth. “We made it out Rubes, we are out of Ever After.” She hadn’t been this happy to sit in a pile of sand in a while. However as she looks around her concern grows, sand just sand, endless though the sky was clear, suddenly coughing can be heard and she looks behind her, her unease melting away at the visage of Blake.
“Need a mask?” Yang calls out, raising her handy purple handkerchief toward her girlfriend. Blake muttered to herself that they were in Vacuo before moving to stand and taking the offered piece of fabric. “Thank you”, she smiles and ties it over her face, allowing for a better-unobstructed breath.
They share a look between them and then out to the vast desert before them, unspoken between them that they would wait for the last two.
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Upon landing on the ground, Weiss turned her body with the momentum of their fall, knowing full well Neo intended to have her choke against the umbrella. The spin allowed her to block a hit from the hooked handle and with the use of another white glyph along with a combination of a black one against the enemy was able to create some distance between her and the deadly villainess. Her hands shook as she recalled the way it had ended with Cinder but she was determined, her grip on Myrtenaster tightening, her stance straightening, and her sword pointed toward Neo. Meanwhile, Neopolitan smirked mirthfully and looked to her left, suddenly 3 other versions of her appeared, then looked to the right when 3 more sprang forth. This…felt impossible.
“Weiss!” Jaune called out, his voice echoing “We need to make sure she can’t follow them!” When the Schnee acknowledges him, her reaction time was the only thing that saved her from having a ridiculous pink umbrella spearing through her shoulder. Blocking with Myrtenasters quillions and having only the blue-sleeved bolero pierced.
She barely glances another blow, using the push of a pirouette to block, gain distance, then stab unto the ground on the final spin summoning a boarbatusk that immediately used its spin to crash into and shatter the Neo in front of her. Weiss took on more and more as she used her agility to keep herself moving, narrowly avoiding hits and being pushed back against the tree. She was surrounded and Jaune was only able to stifle two of the 6 clones Neo had conjured. Weiss looks to him as they surround her. “Do you trust me.” “what” “Do you trust me?” She urges and points Myrtenaster towards one Neo and then another. Shifting as if lost. “Of course I do Wei-” “Then I need you to run up the Tree, now” she pushes him against the bark and uses a large black glyph to stick him up giving him a less dignified route of the ‘elevator treatment’ his scream echos in the distance “WEISS!” His view of her being surrounded and the multiple Neopolotans choosing that moment to jump her. Ending it once and for all. He didn't hear her scream, but he saw her reach out to a branch and then nothing. Bright light. He landed in the sands of Vacuo on his back, his eyes readjusting to the brightness of the sun. The man groans out frustrated and slams a hand into the desert sands below him “Not again.” His voice…immature, lost was the gruffness that came with age.
“Jaune?” Yang called hopeful.
Blake walked up to him and took his hand in hers, a temporary welcome instead of a hug. Her eyes look from him to the sand around him. “Where is Weiss?”
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The moment Weiss pushed Jaune against the tree she knew Neopolitan would take advantage of such an open target, and when she concentrated on the black glyph attached to multiple white ones to make an automatic shoot she gave the signal of an opened palm then stretching it to a branch. “NOW!!” She yelled closing her eyes as she felt the white-hot pain of a blade piercing her back, a second one dragged across her face, ripping her skin only part way through before a bright light flashed. Her mind swam at the momentary pause but she gritted her teeth with a small smile, Neo’s clones disintegrating until just one was left standing. The cat made good on their word, they would ensure the story here would be corrected, and never end.
–
Upon waking, She found herself on a thrown, her gown a deep red with gold trim. “Who am I?” she spoke, looking to her black-gloved hand. Then a cat most curious appears before her. “You my dear, are the Courts Red Jack. You are also the custodian of The Red Prince, my lady. You have a job to do.”
“Custodian...”
“Yes, you are charged with guarding him against the Hatter of course.”
"Of course I am."
The End