WARNING!

This chapter contains excessive grimdark bordering on grimderp, probably many inconsistencies, way too many character deaths, Weiss ranting, Pyrrha being a crybaby, less-than-stable!Weiss…

Among other things.

So if you don't like any of those things, you are advised to hit the button on the top left corner of your screen that is an arrow pointing to the left.

Basically the backstory of the entire fic explained in one chapter, also, the first chapter was updated with a new omake and some more author notes, do check them out.

Pyrrha's voice caught in her throat as her mind attempted to process what she had just heard.

"W-what do you mean g-gone?" She gasped out as she raised her hands to her mouth.

Weiss merely stared at her, "gone as in dead-gone Pyrrha, although…" Pyrrha's eyes widened, was there some good news after all?

"I suppose it was pretentious of me to say 'they're all gone' and 'I'm the only one left', your former teammate Nora Valkyrie is still kicking around…"

"Oh! Where is she?" Pyrrha interrupted.

"…In an insane asylum," Weiss ignored the interruption and continued, "she was never quite right after Ren…ah…blew himself up." Weiss gave a thoughtful expression for a moment before focusing back on Pyrrha.

"…He what…?" Pyrrha stared at Weiss with an incredulous expression.

"Overclocked his aura or something I heard, it was apparently quite spectacular from the survivor's reports, the resulting explosion…well…he took Yang with him…and the island of Patch…and signal academy…and a couple dozen of Cinder's lackeys…and another Grimm dragon…and maybe a few other things I'm not aware of." Weiss slowly counted off and shrugged.

"And you…you can just stand there…and" Pyrrha struggled to get the words out, "and…joke about it…" She hung her head and stared at the floor, completely unsure of what to feel.

"Ironic isn't it?" Weiss made a hollow chuckle devoid of any feeling, "And to think I used to be such a stuck-up bitch…" Weiss looked almost wistful as she turned and stared out the window.

Pyrrha's eyes widened at the curse-word, Weiss noticed this and smirked, "Yeah you don't enter the military without picking up how to swear and curse, suffice to say I still consider myself controlled, you should hear some of the men speak, you'd go as red as your hair in the second." Weiss continued without ever dropping her smirk.

With that said, silence reigned as Pyrrha thought about everything that Weiss had just told her, she swallowed hard and blinked back her tears, if that had just been Nora, Ren and Yang, what had happened to everyone else?

As Pyrrha tried to keep a straight face in front of Weiss, the admiral sighed, pulled open a cabinet and to Pyrrha's surprise, took out a revolver in its holster and clipped it on her belt followed by a long sabre in its sheathe which she clipped on the opposite side.

"Come," Weiss said as she walked past Pyrrha, "I'll show you around while we talk, there is a lot for you to catch up on, and I mean a lot." Weiss gestured as she opened the door and moved out, Pyrrha right behind her.

"Azure, please hold all of calls for the rest of the day, I need to attend to this business urgently." Weiss ordered.

"Of course ma'am." Azure nodded.

"Follow me." Weiss spared a glance at Pyrrha behind her and moved on.

"So…" Pyrrha started gingerly, "the others…how did they…?" She trailed off uncertainly, unsure of how to ask.

"Well if you're thinking that they all perished together in one great big battle…" Weiss paused for a moment, "you'd be quite wrong, for all of them I suppose you could say…fate just…caught up to them, or their luck ran out."

"W-what do you mean by that?"

"What I mean is we…they…all died off one by one, slowly as time and the war wore on and on. In the end it seemed that, although you may only have a 1% chance of dying on any given mission, doing twenty or thirty such missions just increases that chance to 20% and 30% doesn't it? Law of probability and such." Weiss explained and gave a great sigh; Pyrrha remained silent as they walked along a road.

"How…how did the others die?" Pyrrha asked as they walked together slowly.

"Not very peacefully is the answer." Weiss deadpanned.

"I suppose I'd better start at the beginning, after you ah…disappeared, I was taken back to Atlas by my father for my own safety, Blake went on the run by herself, and Yang went to pieces in her home, Ruby formed Team RNJR and went with your team to Haven to look for Cinder. You following?" Pyrrha nodded.

"Great, so they spent some time in the wilderness, Jaune finally unlocked his semblance –empowerment by the way, turns out that aura reserve is partially for other people's use- when they got to Haven they didn't really find anything, Cinder attacked there again, though it was a spoiling attack more than anything else." Weiss's head drooped a little.

"But Cinder gloated a little too much; it ended up revealing that she had her own master, some weird eldritch asshole who called herself Salem and could control Grimm and wanted us all deader than dead. Well that was a pretty big revelation for everyone, so the focus switched to whoever this other bitch was. Meanwhile, Blake was hunting down the White Fang while Yang finally got off her ass, apparently her mother was quite the hardass on Yang and so she came to Atlas trying to get a new arm…while the White Fang was on the move trying to kill me and my family. You still following?" Another nod.

"Well so things came to a head in Atlas right at the Schnee Dust Company headquarters, Yang trying to get a new arm, me at some stupid office job, Blake hunting Adam. It was the perfect time to reunite as the White Fang attacked the HQ. Adam himself led the attack, blowing up the SDC HQ, killing my father and my sister as she held him off so I could run and live. Things happened, I reunited with those two, and we and the Atlesian military chased Adam and cornered him as he tried to escape, it was in the ensuing battle that…" Weiss stopped and rubbed her pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Even with the three of us, it wasn't enough, I went down and Blake took a fatal hit protecting me, we weakened him though, and so General Ironwood intervened to put down that bull for good." Weiss tapped her head, "A single shot through the head, and Adam Taurus, leader of the White Fang was no more, Blake bled out in Yang's arms…"

Flashback

"Yang…Weiss…" Blake gave a pained look, "is-is he…?"

"Yep, he's dead alright, looks like the bull finally had to pay up for all that china he broke." Yang pulled the dying cat into her lap and cradled her in her arms.

"Ah, I see…thank goodness…" Blake slowly closed her eyes.

"No! NO! Hold on Blake! You're going to be just fine!" Yang cried as she held her dying partners hand, blood from a gaping chest wound pooling around them.

Blake could only give a sad smile as tears fell from her eyes, "I-I-m so sorry Yang, I ran and…"

"NO! SHUT UP! You're going to be fine! Where's that goddamn medic?!"

"Help me…my bow…" Blake said, and Yang pulled the bow off her head, freeing Blake's cat ears, "I…I'm free now, no more running from him…no more hiding…it feels so…light now." Tears were falling from both girl's eyes, Weiss staggered and stumbled to join them, using a shattered Myrtenaster to keep herself upright and falling to her knees before Blake.

"You idiot…" Weiss voice cracked as she knelt before them, "why did you have to do that?!" Weiss was shaking and trying to bite back her sobs.

"I…couldn't let him…take…" Blake choked and strained out, "anyone…else."

"Shh!" Yang shushed her, "Don't speak anymore, save your strength, we're getting you out of here, you don't have my permission to die, come on use one of your nine lives kitty." Yang begged.

"Last one Yang…" Blake managed to smirk somehow before eyeing Weiss, "Weiss…thank you…" Blake whispered softly as her eyes began drooping.

"F-for what?" Weiss choked as she held Blake's hand tightly.

"For showing…me…" And with that last gasp and smile, Blake closed her eyes for good.

Weiss was breathing heavily as the memories flooded back into her, the image of a bloody Blake, Yang pulling off her bow, and the last words spoken. Pyrrha remained quiet, she had not talked much with the quiet Faunus and maintained a mostly distant friendship with her by way of Ruby.

"How-how long was it before…" Pyrrha looked away, unable to bear looking at Weiss in the eye.

"It was about a year after Beacon fell." Weiss stated softly, "with the CCT down, it was a long time before either Ruby or Sun found out, they were both utterly shattered." She turned and continued walking, Pyrrha close behind as they passed hangars and large storage areas.

"As Yang and I picked up the pieces in the aftermath, Team RNJR continued chasing answers. Your death awoke something in Ruby, a strange power to defeat the Grimm, the same power that Dawn and Hope carry in them, the silver-eyed guardians who fought the Grimm in a time before dust…" Weiss trailed off and turned to look at Pyrrha, "I was absent from these events, only Nora would know what happened in those times and places, but she's out of it at the moment, so I beg your pardon if inconsistencies from third party hearsay result."

Pyrrha nodded, "it's alright Weiss."

"So they chased endlessly for answers from one corner of Remnant to the other, all the while beset by Salem, in the process unearthing all sorts of things best left buried. Well to cut short, the Grimm were an experiment by some ancient, millennia-old, hyper-advanced civilization that grew over proud and tried to see what happens when you take away all the bad emotions from a person. Whatever happened backfired and it spun out of their control, the resulting being, the first Grimm…well apparently the phrase 'Misery Loves Company' is quite literal here. You know how we always say the Grimm are attracted to negative emotions?"

"Yes, it's always been the general belief, but never proven." Pyrrha said with a thoughtful expression.

"Well turns out they are literally fueled by negative emotions, you can't simply take something away and expect it to just disappear, the Grimm are formed of the collective negative psyche of humanity, that's why they have no soul, and why they simply 'disappear' after we kill them, they were never a material thing to begin with, just a concept and a thought given form…you still with me? I know this is quite a lot since you just returned a few hours ago."

"Its fine, I need to catch up quickly, but what about the silver-eyed guardians you mentioned?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh that, well it turns out it's not that they're especially good at fighting Grimm, what texts RNJR dug up suggests that they've been around even before the Grimm, no one really remembers how they came about, they've just been humanity's protectors for as long as the ancients remember." Weiss shrugged.

"I see."

"Right, so somewhere along all that chasing Ruby and Jaune hooked up...somehow, and also found the other three maidens, none of whom were very happy to learn that the powers given to them were being abused, still with the recommendation of RNJR the other three went into hiding as RNJR returned to Mistral. It was there that I and Yang reunited with them; Cinder by this time was making a real push to wipe out Mistral, the dragon had gotten free again, it was there we all fought her down and chased her off as one…but we couldn't vanquish her, and she escaped albeit we dealt her a great blow." Weiss looked slightly smug as she recounted the events in her head, oh the joy of seeing Cinder's face as Ruby who had learned to control her powers somewhat, annihilated the dragon with Jaune's empowerment.

Then Weiss's features darkened again, "Salem wasn't very happy with that though, she broke out of her dimension and turned Vale into her personal garden, it was here that the professors, who led whatever remained of Beacon hunters were wiped out evacuating them to Atlas, and where Cardin…" Weiss's eyes lit up

"Cardin…" Pyrrha hissed, recalling the bully "is he still…?"

"Come to think of it he's still around as a trainer in Atlas; his entire team is dead though, so much was lost in the chaotic evacuation of the survivors from Vale…" Weiss looked up at the sky, the last streaks of light were fading into the distance, and soon night would be upon them, the most dangerous time of an entire day, when sensory equipment was powered up to its maximum to see into the inky blackness.

"And then the war was really on, for six years we fought and for six years we died, the maidens came out of hiding to lend us their aid and with their help, we held Salem at bay. And yet the dead just piled up endlessly, Team CFVY was overrun and wiped out holding an evacuation zone, Sun lost himself to grief and essentially committed suicide against a horde of Grimm, Team SSSN vanished and no one has seem them since. Of Team BRNZ only the sniper May survived when they were ambushed, ABRN lost Reese when she sacrificed herself as a distraction…" Weiss took a breath.

"And that's all that I can remember, there are whole bunches more dead and maimed and walking wounded around…I…" Weiss grit her teeth and closed her eyes. Memories, endless memories of reports coming in…killed in action…wounded in action…missing in action. She put one hand to her eyepatch and forced the tears back.

"I lost my eye to a nevermore feather during an assault on one of Salem's strongholds. Cinder's lackeys didn't survive either, her assassin; Mercury Black was cut down by Jaune. Emerald, the mind manipulator who gave you and Yang the illusions…destroyed by Yang. Neapolitan…"

Flashback

"What do you want you loathsome pest? Fancy seeing you here after all this time, what...did ol' Torchwick's death kill you on the inside? I guess you've been-"

"That's enough Yang." Ruby stated firmly.

"What? I said-"

"And I said that's enough, she came here in peace, we will see what she wants." Ruby finished.

"So what do you want?" Weiss started slowly, her hand gripping her sabre tightly; the ice-cream girl pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to her while glaring at Yang. The paper had only one word written on it.

Revenge.

"For Roman Torchwick apparently, she fought with us for a few years handling infiltration and subversion. Remarkably, she actually survived the entire war, she disappeared at the end with nary a word or letter, just disappeared entirely after the final battle."

"What happened at the final battle?" Pyrrha asked, she could feel a growing sickness in her stomach.

"Long story short, Jaune snapped, six years is a long time to suffer endlessly seeing everyone die off. He, Ruby and Ruby's uncle and step-mother, Craven and Crow or whatever infiltrated and fought their way into Salem's own home and confronted her there…I wasn't there to watch it, but I did see the end of it…"

Flashback

"Weiss! Take Ruby and go!" Jaune handed a barely conscious Ruby in his arms to Weiss as she jumped out of the hammerhead.

"What about you?" Weiss gave the knight an incredulous look.

"I-" They were interrupted when a blast of lightning hit one of the hammerhead's engines.

"And just where do you rats think you're going?" Cinder hissed as fire poured out over the area.

"Shit! That was a major hit! We can't take another one like that." The pilot sounded out.

"I'll hold her off! Just get Ruby out of here!" Jaune shouted as he turned and deflected a blast with his shield.

"No escape! You will all die here!" Cinder smirked viciously.

"No…Jaune…" Ruby feebly reached out for him, Jaune grabbed it and squeezed it.

"I love you Ruby, take care of her for me snow angel." Weiss's eyes widened.

"Ma'am we can't stay here any longer, they're all over us!" The pilot screamed, Weiss bit her lower lip and turned her back.

"Good luck Jaune, I'll see you on the other side." Weiss hissed and summoned a glyph to shield the aircraft as she stepped into it carrying a distraught Ruby.

"No! Jaune, don't leave me!" Ruby weakly struggled as tears ran down her eyes, tears were gathering in Weiss's eyes as well as she held her partner tightly, grit her teeth and shouted.

"Get us out of here!"

"Roger, taking off!" The pilot shouted back and they flew off with Ruby screaming Jaune's name as the door closed.

Pyrrha bit back a sob as Weiss placed a hand on a wall to hold herself steady, she sniffled and stood back up straight and wiped a tear that came to her cheek.

"So…in the end…they failed?" Pyrrha weakly asked.

"No, they found an imprisoned and weakened Ozpin in her black fortress, together they all fought, Ozpin sacrificed himself to give them the opening they needed, and they succeeded beyond anyone's wildest hopes…but in all the chaos of the war with that witch, we completely forgot about her original pawn."

"Cinder." Pyrrha growled out the name.

"Yes, after her defeat at Mistral, Salem cast her away and she disappeared, but she bid her time, quietly subverting us like she always had, waiting for us to defeat her master for her, and then stole her powers when she fell and took out Craven and Crow…and disappeared for some years after that. The war was over, and we began to rebuild, for eight years slowly but surely the kingdoms were restored as far as we could while the maidens went into hiding once more. Ruby gave birth at the beginning of this; Jaune had impregnated her the night before they left, who'd have thought?" Weiss gave a hollow chuckle.

"Ruby and Yang went back to Patch with Ren and Nora where they raised their families, and for a while it was good, we tried desperately to believe that the end had come and gone and that Cinder had chosen to disappear elsewhere never to bother us." Weiss ground her teeth and clenched her fist. "That was wrong, ten years ago…"

Flashback

"It's good that you're here Weiss, we should have gatherings like this more often." Ruby gave a weak smile as she relaxed into the couch.

"Yeah I know, my work keeps me busy though." Weiss gave a soft sigh as there were a series of rapid and sharp knocks at the door, "let me get that for you." Weiss got up as more knocks sounded.

"Alright keep your damn pants on you impatient-!" Weiss threw the door open and a young woman with icy blue hair fell into her arms.

"C-cerulean?! What're you-?!" Weiss caught her; the winter maiden was injured and bleeding out.

"Cinder…" Cerulean whispered, "She's-" The maiden was cutoff as an arrow pierced her through, she gave one last gasp and went limp. Weiss's eyes widened as she looked at a tall woman in a red dress walking towards them slowly.

"Cinder!" Weiss yelled as she drew her sabre.

"Tonight, all will either bow before me." Cinder smiled as she fitted another arrow to her bow, "or die."

"As it turns out, power hungry madwomen don't give up after the first shot." Weiss looked on solemnly, "That was the night we lost everything, through eight years she had used her powers to form a cult around her, this cult subverted us at the highest levels and before we knew it, Vale and Vacuo had fallen and Mistral was in chaos. General Ironwood, who had lived and survived through the war, dead in his sleep before we understood what was happening, we couldn't stop Cinder, we'd all grown soft in eight years of peace. It was only by Ren and Yang's sacrifice that we escaped at all." Weiss sighed.

"That was it for Ruby; she sucked it up and continued on when Blake died, held fast when Jaune and her uncle died, but seeing her father and sister go? That was all she could take, a month after it happened, she disappeared. I don't know where she went or what she did, but I know that Grimm activity dropped drastically in the weeks after she disappeared, so whatever she did must have worked."

Pyrrha looked a little green.

"And now here we are, you're probably wondering where I fit in through the story, well after Blake died, I did my best to carry on her legacy, I made her a hero, I did my best for the Faunas and rallied them in her name to our cause. After that I…ended up joining the Atlesian military as a specialist," Pyrrha looked shocked and clearly wanted to say something but was stopped by Weiss, "Before you yell at me, I accepted Ironwood's offer because I wanted to be able to give access to Atlesian resources wherever and whenever we needed it, that's how I got Ruby out at the end, that's how we survived the shattering." Weiss finished.

"I took the kids in after that, where else could they have gone? They've been born and raised into a military life, not that they or I could have helped it, the Titan is basically their home now, they will fight to the death to defend it." And then Weiss started laughing and giggling.

"W-Weiss? Are you-?"

"It's so fucking Ironic isn't it? I wanted to be the leader of Team RWBY so much, and now here I am, commander of an entire fucking fleet to prosecute the war against Cinder after everyone else has died." Weiss threw her arms out in a grandiose gesture.

Pyrrha dashed over to a nearby trash can and dry heaved into it.

"Easy there." Weiss strode over quickly and grabbed Pyrrha's hair out of the way.

"Why…?" Pyrrha barely whispered, tears were beginning to fall from her eyes.

"Why what?" Weiss raised an eyebrow as Pyrrha finally stopped heaving and stumbled away, only to lose her balance and fall on her butt.

"Why was I alone brought back? Just to see all the suffering that happened in the end?" Pyrrha wept brokenly.

"My best guess? Whatever power brought you back wanted you to actually achieve something before you died." Weiss shrugged.

"W-wha…?" Pyrrha looked confused; Weiss sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"Did you notice anything at all about all of the deaths of our friends while I was talking?" Weiss raised an eyebrow. Pyrrha thought hard about that, but was not able to figure out what Weiss meant, she shook her head slowly. Weiss's expression changed, from the dull emotionless face, she now looked rather angry.

"Did you get nothing at all from that?" Weiss scoffed in a manner resembling her younger self, "typical, as usual no pays attention, but to cut it short they were able to achieve something with their death, you on the other hand…a rather doubtful prospect no?"

This time, it was Pyrrha's turn to be indignant, "What're you saying? I chose to sacrifice myself-" She started, and was promptly interrupted by Weiss.

"And in doing so…accomplished…what exactly?" Weiss narrow her eyes dangerously, "you death may have spurred others on, but ultimately you proved to be nothing more than a speed bump in the overall plan. You failed to prevent the collapse of the CCT, you failed to defeat Cinder and regain the Fall Maiden, and you failed to buy any sort of time for anyone to arrive because at that point, no help was forthcoming Pyrrha. The professors and Ironwood were all busy fighting for their own lives in Vale, what could Ruby and I have done where you failed? Try to keep fighting and lose our own lives in the process?" Weiss explained, she took Pyrrha's stunned silence as a signal to continue.

"In the end, your death accomplished nothing, Cinder and Salem got everything they wanted let alone needed, the collapse of the CCT caused fear and panic to spread in the other kingdoms, Atlas was mistrusted because many believed it had declared war and fired the opening shots." Weiss paused for a moment to let it sink in before continuing, "Do you know I hated you for some time?" Pyrrha looked shocked, "we all mourned for you when you passed, but as time wore on I began to hate and envy you, you who had merrily run off to your own death would never have to bear the burden of witnessing what happened after, would never have to watch as your friends died one by one. I don't know what you were thinking when you pushed Jaune away and ran to your 'destiny', but whatever you thought, whether you were so fucked in the head that you wanted to die, or whether you believed you could actually do something against the woman who had just chased off Ozpin…" Weiss took a breath.

"It all turned into nothing, you didn't see the grief that nearly drove Jaune to suicide, you didn't experience the pain RNJR went through, didn't have to watch as everything was torn away from you piece by piece. No you went to your death first like a coward, too afraid to continue trying to live on and so throwing your life away in the futile pursuit of your so-called 'destiny', hopelessly trying to have faith in a victory that was already lost; you threw your life away and abandoned us all to pick up after you!" Weiss ranted and raved for some time, in the course of the rant her hand went to her sabre and she advanced on Pyrrha threateningly, who had backed up on her hands, still tearing up.

"I…I…" Pyrrha stuttered out as she choked back sobs, when she had pushed Jaune into the locker and went with all her might to face Cinder, she had believed that she could have bought time for others to arrive, prevented the CCT from falling. When she thought about the battle, she could not find a single misstep or error she had made, every piece of footwork, every swing of her blade, every throw of her shield, all precisely made without a single miscalculation or error. She had gone into battle with absolute confidence, believing that she was making a difference.

If she had known she had done basically nothing with her sacrifice, she most certainly would not have been that confident in her fight.

"Oh fuck it." Weiss swore loudly, "what the hell am I doing? Wasting my breath scolding some champion from long ago like some child…" She sighed, and pulled out a cigarette from her coat pocket and a lighter. Putting the cigarette to her lips she took a long drag and blew out a tall puff of smoke, Pyrrha looked absolutely stunned.

"Oh don't give me that look," Weiss scoffed, "we all have our ways of coping, Yang had alcohol for some time after Blake's death, Ruby damn near went that way too when Jaune died, Ren and Nora did recreational drugs for a while…" Weiss trailed off and stared at the now dark sky.

"Shit," She swore again, "I'll probably die here, in battle, maybe someone might mourn me, or if the entire base is destroyed maybe no one will mourn me and I'll just become another name on the list of casualties." Weiss sighed and gave a dark chuckle.

"Ain't that the shit?" She raised an eyebrow at looked at Pyrrha out of the corner of her eye.

Pyrrha had no words for that as Weiss took her cigarette out of her mouth and walked up to her and offered her hand as the champion was still on the ground, the back of her hand covering her mouth.

"Well what're you doing over there? Get up and stop feeling sorry for yourself." Pyrrha took the offered hand gingerly, and was surprised when Weiss nearly threw her to her feet with a hard pull.

"…So what happens now?" Pyrrha asked as she wiped her tears away.

"Well what I'm going to do is put you and those three on a transport bound for Atlas tomorrow, then-"

"I can fight Weiss." Pyrrha sternly remarked and folded her arms.

Weiss rolled her eyes and took another long drag, "yeah you can fight girly, Grimm and other people with rules in a tournament probably." Weiss spat, "Cinder doesn't just use Grimm anymore y'know, there are plenty of people who have dedicated their lives to her and her cult, men and women who will give their lives so that we can't have ours, so I'm being nice, you don't want to kill people? Fine, so I'll just put in a word for you as a desk jockey or clerk or some such shit."

There was silence and Pyrrha hung her head.

Weiss stared at her for a moment before continuing, "Yeah it's a wonderful world we live in isn't it? But what're you going to do about it? Complain? To who? The Beacon staff?" Weiss sarcastically noted, "Let me just be clear about this, I will not, repeat, will not allow you to fight alongside me, not unless you can make me believe that you can follow my orders."

Pyrrha opened her mouth to protest but Weiss shut her up as she continued, "and when I say 'follow my orders', I don't mean like follow whatever battle strategy I have in mind like Jaune. I mean that when I tell you to do something, you. Will. Do it. So when I tell you to shoot someone because we don't have time to deal with prisoners, when I tell you to leave a comrade behind because he is slowing you down, when I tell you to more or less condemn a person to death, you will do so unquestioningly and without hesitation." Weiss stared Pyrrha down.

"I-"

"I know you're no murderer, so I'm giving you this chance to walk away, do something else with your second chance, there are plenty of other ways to help the war effort, farming, training, manufacturing, medical support, hell if you want to I can pop you back in Mistral as a police officer or something, you can keep the peace all you want…" Weiss hung her own head as she took the cigarette out of her mouth, "I won't let you serve on the frontline, I will block every attempt you make, not until you prove you can take another life, I'm not saying you have to feel good about it like a psychopath, god knows how many people I've sliced open or shot through the head, but I need you to be able to do it first and foremost."

Pyrrha was stuck, she had no idea what to do, she dearly wanted to help out on the frontline, prove that she could make something out of her second chance, but if it meant taking another life? Well…

She really did not know if she could do it.

"If…if there is anything I can do to…to prove it to you…"

"Prove it to me…hm…ok just gimme a moment." Weiss turned her back to Pyrrha, took out her revolver and fiddled with it a little and then turned and handed it back to Pyrrha.

"Imagine there's a real live bullet in the cylinder, now point and shoot me." Weiss grinned.

"W-what?" Pyrrha stammered and looked at Weiss; clearly the admiral had gone insane.

"What what? You want to prove to me you can kill? So shoot me, don't worry it's unloaded and I still have my aura, as you can very well see yourself." Well Weiss was apparently right on that at least, so Pyrrha raised the gun hesitatingly, and squeezed the trigger.

It went off with an ear-splitting BANG.

Pyrrha stumbled back in shock, looking first at the revolver and then at Weiss.

Who was laughing hysterically?

"Oh crap, you should've seen the look on your face!" And she burst out into another round of laughter. Pyrrha could only stare in shock.

"Just a blank, a game I like to play sometimes with my subordinates when I get really bored." Weiss smirked as she took back the revolver and reloaded it before holstering it, "so what we can conclude from that little exercise is…" Weiss stopped and looked into the distance, a dark mass could just be made out coming over the horizon

"We're under attack." Weiss stated with a grim look as a siren began wailing.

"All hands to battlestations, I repeat, all hands to battlestations! This is not a drill!" An announcement came over a loudspeaker as soldiers dropped whatever they were doing at the moment and began rushing back and forth.

"Aw shit, and I was about to finish this one too." Weiss sighed and plucked the cigarette from her mouth and flicked it away. Pyrrha stared at her, still unsure if this was the same Weiss that she had once known from Beacon academy even if that had been nearly three decades ago.

The dark mass was getting closer and closer, all sorts of announcements and warnings blared out over the floating fortress.

"Well that certainly is new, that bitch is trying to make a push for it isn't she?" Weiss glared right at it as the cawing of nevermores sounded out and a few flew overhead as triple-A and SAM turrets came online.

"Just like old times?" Pyrrha's eyes widened and she smiled a little.

Weiss laughed, "Well hardly I guess, I have a few new tricks up my sleeve, for example…" Weiss whipped her revolver out of its holster, and with six rapid shots knocked six griffons straight out of the sky as they attempted to land on the deck. She snapped the cylinder open, held the revolver vertical to let the empty casings slide out, and then swiftly rammed in moon-clip and snapped the cylinder back in place.

"Welcome to the new Remnant Pyrrha, Year 0010 P.S., that stands for post-shattering by the way." Weiss gave a devilish smile that sent a chill up Pyrrha's spine.

I know there are probably a whole bunch of things that don't entirely make sense in the backstory, I'd love to handwave it by saying that's what happens when an unstable soldier tries to explain 27 years of bullshit to a friend who just came back from the dead.

But I'd rather not make that excuse, so yeah the backstory is probably kinda crappy.

I suppose it does not need pointing out, but I tried to portray Weiss as not being of an especially stable and sane disposition in the story. Playing silly games with Pyrrha (I was inspired by that scene on the train in Wolfenstein: The New Order, I love how creepy the scene is) using her revolver, ranting at her, laughing about everyone's deaths like it's nothing to her.

She has already buried basically everyone that ever mattered to her, and since Pyrrha is around, she just develops a convenient excuse to vent all of her frustration on the champion.

Her views do to an extent reflect my own views about Pyrrha's sacrifice, it was heroic and awesome and incredible that she fought to the last.

But ultimately pointless EXCEPT for Ruby ex Machina.

I believe the phrase here is, "Only the dead have seen the end of war", Pyrrha in that case is very lucky, she only gets to see the START of everything going to hell (i.e. the start of RWBY becoming a darker series), by dying she absolves herself of having to go through that hell herself, meanwhile her friends and teammates are all going to have to carry forward and onward scattered as they are.

And now for something more light-hearted after all that, Half-life 2 references inbound!

Crowbar Champion

"Take this." Weiss tossed a crowbar at Pyrrha, who caught it in her hands.

"What...?"

"Well I don't have anything else to give to you, you'll just have to use that until you find something else."

Pyrrha never did find anything else to use, from one end of Remnant to the other, the "Crowbar Champion" became wildly feared among the enemy and a source of inspiration to her side as she endlessly bashed her way through wave after wave of Grimm, cultists and whatever else Cinder could throw at her. Through Vale, Vacuo and Mistral, the Crowbar Champion carved a bloody path of bashed-in heads through the enemy.

Any obstacles (wooden crates and such) were merely bashed to pieces, any that could not be bashed into pieces (Metal barrels and such) were picked up and thrown to the side by her polarity.

Years later, after the war was over and Beacon had been rebuilt, it was Pyrrha's statue -with the crowbar- that stood in front of Beacon for all new hunters-in-training to see and be inspired by.

So there you go, something hopefully a little more fun than the grimdark/derp piece that I just wrote.

I also now can't get the image of Pyrrha using a crowbar to smack beowolves around out of my head, so there's that.

I appreciate all your reviews faves and follows!