This story takes some elements from The Maze Runner (which I've never seen/read before), and Shadow Of The Colossus (which is one of the greatest games ever), and it takes place the day after the Fall of Beacon... kinda-sorta... you'll see.

The loud, discordant turning of old gears and the steady rumbling of the hard floor stirred Weiss awake.

It was pitch black. Attempting to blink away the darkness, she couldn't even see the surface of whatever she was lying face-down on, and her body felt the sensation of its gravity being shifted as if she was going up on some kind of an elevator. She lifted herself up just off the ground with her forearms, and the front of her entire body's bare skin clung to it.

She was… naked?

This was bad, as waking up in a foreign place without clothes usually was.

Weiss sat up on her knees and fought back a sudden, dizzying urge to vomit. Her head was pounding, body weak and laden with partly-dried sweat. Swallowing down the wave of nausea and rising to her feet with trembling legs, her hands floundered through the darkness searching for any kind of clue and came to find themselves resting on something firm.

Was it some kind of hardened plastic? Fingers scoured the object, exploring the top flat surface of it that met curved edges. '… It's just a big box,' she concluded in thought after examining it.

Her head perked up as voices emanated from above outside of… wherever she was. Instinct compelled her to call out, "Hello?"

She cursed herself for making noise after waking up in a strange place, which she knew never to do after seeing so many horror movies. Weiss focused passed her extraordinary headache and strained to make out the indistinct words.

The muffled conversation seemed to be getting closer, almost clear, until she was able to discern one sentence with clarity, louder than the rest, "It's coming, everyone turn around!"

Weiss took a defensive stancte and steeled herself, making a promise that she was going to make whoever was lying in wait to ambush her very, very sorry for choosing a Schnee as their target…

The elevator came to a slow stop and she felt her stomach almost float away.

The arched covering of her tiny dome-prison began to peel away back into the ground with a mechanical hum as the cool air and blinding light of the day poured in. It was far too bright to see through after having just been confined to darkness for who knows how long. She brought an arm up to shield her eyes.

She heard a surprised gasp and a light patter of quick footsteps approached across grass, then concrete, and a familiar, albeit slightly deeper, voice rang out, "Weiss!"

The heiress was hit by a force of what felt like someone running full speed and wrapping a heavy blanket around her, trapping her arms and pulling Weiss into a crushing embrace. Squinting through the brilliant radiance of the sun bearing down upon her, she pulled her head back just enough to get a look at who was assaulting her.

"Ruby…?"

Ruby squealed with delight, "Ohhhh, I can't believe it, I haven't seen you in foreverrrrrrr!"

In her irritated state, Weiss had half a thought of slapping her partner right then and there for being so dramatic. "What are you talking about? I just saw you yesterday." The dark haired girl didn't budge however, and only tightened her grip, wiggling her from side to side. Weiss felt a deep blush overtaking her face, "Ruby, I am exceedingly nude right now, get off of me!" In an increasing desire to reclaim her personal bubble, she shouldered Ruby to the ground, eliciting a pained grunt, while managing to keep the blanket bundled around herself.

Her icy glare dropped down to her partner, and then to the girl's hair that had somehow grown a ridiculous length overnight, coming down to rest on her bust. "Ruby, what in the world happened to your hair?... And… just what exactly is going on here?"

With her eyes finally adjusting enough to the light, she scrutinized the platform she had been delivered on. It was just a plain, circular slab of concrete for an elevator, probably about 8 feet in diameter if she had to guess, surrounded by another outer circle of the same nature, then green grass at the rounded edges where it sloped downwards. "Where are we?"

As Ruby stood up, the heiress lifted her confused gaze and finally took notice of what she had failed to realize. Standing before them was a small crowd of people looking on, separated into smaller groups and all wearing the same dark gray uniform with a simple, purple stripe across the chest.

Weiss's eyes darted between all the faces in a panic… Sun and Neptune, that one dumb brute named Cardin, Jaune and Nora beaming a smile up at her, the entirety of team CFVY, Yang… oh lord why in the world was she missing an arm?... an unfamiliar, tall faunus with red hair and horns (who seemed like he might be giving her a vague scowl, but she wasn't sure as he was wearing a black blindfold) and a younger woman she didn't recognize, and… Roman?

She blinked once. Then twice.

What was he doing here? The man who had tried multiple times to murder them in the past was just standing around so casually and... without his hat. Roman merely returned her incredulous look with a smirk and a wink.

Weiss felt a blazing anger rising within her from seeing his stupid, smug face and his stupid, dumb hair and his stupid, damn-

Her inward ranting trailed off as her focus drifted passed him to what would have been a magnificent sight had she not been freaked out or standing in front of so many people… naked.

Apparently sprawling in all directions from the platform she was standing on, a plain of grass extended out about an eighth of a mile until it reached a massive, textureless metal wall that stretched across the entire way around them, enclosing them in a giant open-ceiling stadium. Embedded in the wall were, what seemed to be, a large number of gigantic doors evenly dispersed along three quarters of the dome's edge.

Turning her head to scan the entirety of the wall, she counted twenty-one doors in total. The first two entrances going counter-clockwise were already slid open vertically. Between the first and last door was a tiny forest behind a few buildings that looked incredibly primitive. Had they built those? Just what exactly was going on there?... And here… well, everywhere.

Just trying to absorb and make sense of her surroundings left Weiss overwhelmed, and brought back that lightheaded feeling of nausea.

Her head had already been spinning when hands on her shoulders twisted her around to face Ruby. "Therrrrrre is a lot of stuff I need to explain to you," she offered with a sympathetic smile.

However, Weiss was unable to articulate any kind of response as the words didn't register. Instead, she ended up lurching forward and throwing up all over her partner's shoes. She could barely make out several disgusted and surprised groans from the crowd as Ruby jumped backwards with a shriek.

"Ha! See, Nora," Yang started, "told you Weiss would be the first to blow chunks. Now pay up!"

Nora tossed her hands in the air, letting out an exaggerated, disappointed whine.

The walk to, what was apparently going to be, Ruby's cabin took an eternity. Making her feeble march in the blistering heat was made only slightly more bearable by her partner rubbing gentle, soothing circles on her back, but less bearable by Yang's incessant gloating over having won some bet.

"And then I said, 'no way, Nora. Weiss even threw up once when Zwei shit in her bed!'"

Trying to ignore the blonde, Weiss gave a side-eyed peek up to Ruby. Why did she seem so tall now? The girl somehow had a few inches up on her. The heiress looked down to see if she was wearing platform boots, or something of the height-increasing nature, but only reminded herself where her vomit had landed. Ruby was walking barefoot now after having to toss her puke-riddled shoes elsewhere. Weiss shook off a guilty blush creeping up her cheeks.

Off to the side and slightly behind the house they were approaching, something caught her eye. A small cross sticking out of the ground above disturbed dirt gave her already-shaky body a shiver throughout. There was little doubt in her mind, it was a grave.

Weiss breathed out a sigh of relief as they finally reached the cabin. Pulling open the wooden door, she stepped inside and plopped down on the first available seat, a wooden chair in front of a bed. Still grasping the blanket firmly around herself, Weiss peered around the basic, square, one-room building.

Wood… the whole place appeared as though it was poorly constructed out of wood by someone who was enlisting the help of a do-it-yourself booklet but didn't know how to read. A bed was pushed up against each of the left and right walls at the headboards, untucked with thin sheets, and a chair next to each.

Weiss looked up to the sisters standing around awkwardly in front of her, "Can I have some clothes?"

Ruby's eyes lit up and she reached behind herself to produce a small pile of clothes seemingly out of nowhere. She outstretched her hands to the white haired girl, offering the garments with a toothy smile.

The heiress simply raised a suspicious brow at the clothes that seemed to match everyone else's. "Where did you get these?"

Yang stepped forward, "From the supply box you came with." She lifted her hand to point a thumb backwards as if it were right behind her.

Sparing the blonde a scowl, Weiss took the offered clothes and examined them briefly. Unremarkably plain, dark gray colored long sleeve shirt with the same purple stripe across the middle of the chest, and pants, underwear, and black tennis shoes. All of it was obviously made by someone with no sense of fashion whatsoever. She loathed the idea of wearing what looked like a high school's tracksuit uniform, but knew she wasn't really in any position to deny them. "Can I have some privacy?"

Ruby and Yang exchanged uncertain glances and shrugged before peering around the room, presumably looking for anywhere to go in the small cabin. Ultimately, they opted to simply turn around.

Weiss rolled her eyes, "Outside, please."

Yang snorted and gave her sister a light nudge of her elbow before receiving an annoyed shove to her side and they exited out the door.

After Weiss had finished dressing herself in the suspiciously fitted clothing and retaken her seat, she announced her decency and her teammates reentered while Yang was snickering and whispering something about 'the ice princess.'

The missing arm of Yang drew Weiss's attention as she stepped back in. Just above the elbow a clean cut had been made, though, oddly enough, it had somehow healed an extraordinary amount in such a short time... How was that even possible?

Snapping herself out of her thoughts, she realized she was gawking and then met eyes with the blonde.

"You can't see it, but I'm giving you a thumbs up," Yang said with a grin, lifting the nub of her arm at her.

Embarrassed from being caught staring, Weiss quickly redirected her gaze to Ruby who was trying and failing to stifle a giggle. Not only was her hair longer, but her face seemed thinner. Her voice was a little different too, perhaps deeper? No, 'matured' was a better word. How did her leader manage to seem so different in such a short amount of time? Somehow, her new look made her seem charming. Though Ruby always had a certain charm about her, this was different, she was almost… Weiss shook her head and sharply brought her focus back to the situation at hand.

A hundred insisting questions wracked her mind, all demanding to be asked, but there was one burning inquiry that she needed an answer to immediately, above all others, "Did you get hair extensions without consulting me first? Because they look awful."

Yang immediately burst out into a laughing fit while Ruby stood playing dejectedly with a strand of her unkempt hair, "They're not extensions…" Ruby muttered mostly to herself.

A few successive knocks on the already open door caught their attention and Jaune poked his head in, "Uhh, hey guys." He gave a quick wave. "How's the conversation going?"

Ruby nervously rubbed at the back of her neck as she glanced over to Weiss. "Umm, we haven't really started yet."

"Oh… Wellllll, can I help?"

Yang wore a smirk, "Tch… And how are you gonna help?"

Crossing the threshold of the doorway and softly letting it close behind him, he puffed out his chest and straightened up into a more confident posture at the inquiry of his potential services. "Moral support? Maybe a shoulder for Weiss to cry on?"

Weiss narrowed her eyes, shooting Jaune a pointed look, but noticed that maybe he looked a little different as well.

Yang cocked her head to the side, putting her hands to her hips and raising a brow in suspicion, "You mean like when the grimm attacked and you ended up crying on Ren's shoulder?"

His frame slumped, feeling the low blow, "That was one time, and I told you, there was dirt in my eyes!... What about that one time I took down that pack of deathstalkers single handedly?"

"Yeah, the baby deathstalkers?"

"There was a lot of them!"

"I… think there was three," Ruby softly interjected, holding up the appropriate amount of fingers.

"But they were still kind of big!"

Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger, frustration compounding, "Will you all please stop spouting nonsense and just tell me what is going on?"

"Oh… right," Ruby acquiesced. "Well, what do you remember from before you got here?"

"What do I remember?" Weiss scoffed, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "I remember we were at school…" She furrowed her brow in concentration, arms crossed and gaze focused on the floor.

What did she remember? It was all so hazy. Stills of images from the previous night flashed through her mind and her eyes flew wide open. "… Beacon was attacked," she whispered in disbelief. Weiss was at a cafe with Blake watching the match between Penny and Pyrrha when…

She shuddered and pushed the picture of a dismembered Penny aside.

Weiss strained herself, reaching further into her head for anything else that would come back. More memories of the night revealed themselves to her, the sight of her injured team lying on the ground. "… Blake was hurt… Ruby and Yang were unconscious," Weiss returned her gaze to the blonde's missing limb, looking it over intensely, "Your arm…" Weiss didn't know what had happened to them exactly, only that Yang had gone off to look for Blake, and they both returned in very bad shape. "The last thing I can recall was that I had just received word that my father was coming to take me back to Atlas… And that was it…" She let out a distressed sigh. "But that still doesn't explain any of this."

"… Well," Ruby hesitated and averted her gaze. She scrunched her lips into a thin line and fidgeted with her index fingers, rhythmically poking them together. "The thing is, we don't really have much of an explanation for why we're here… This place, those huge doors out there… everything here feels like one big test that we have to pass."

The dark haired girl's eyes met icy blue once again and she continued with a cautious tone, as if afraid to further annoy the heiress, "The first door was already open when I got here, so, naturally, I investigated. There was a small plain in there, and there was this huge grimm that walked on two legs wandering around…" She stretched her arms up in the air to emphasize the size of the grimm. "It was terrifying and exciting to see for the first time."

Ruby raised a hand to point towards the back of the house. "And, there was this weird thing in the forest out back, it was like some creepy shrine or something. There's twenty-one sockets in it and, in the middle, it just says, 'The Titans' Eyes,'" She droned the last part for dramatic effect. She crossed her arms, displaying a pensive look. "Twenty-one sockets, twenty-one doors… I figured it could only mean one thing, but there was no way I could take it on my own..."

After a moment of silence, the leader's mood seemed to perk up all at once, "Oh! But then, more people started to show up - like Jaune!" Without looking, she stuck her finger directly in his face, narrowly missing his nostril as he casually tilted his head back. "And then more people showed up and we took the Titan thing down and we put its eyeball-gem-thing in the socket thing and the next door thing opened and ohmygoshWeissitwassocoolyoushouldvebeenthereeeeeee!" She paused to take a deep breath "… And then- "

Weiss shook her head and slammed her eyes shut in a frown, tuning her partner out for the sake of her growing headache. Unwilling to even entertain such a ludicrous concept, her mind jumped to the possibility that she was being toyed with and her eyes flung back open.

'Yes… that must be it,' she thought. This was just like them to do this!

They all must've thought they were so hilarious, pulling a ridiculous and elaborate joke over on the heiress like this. How much time and effort did they put into this whole thing? Well, it mattered little now because she was very over it. She was losing what little patience she had left and fast.

"Do you think this is funny?" Weiss's voice was staggeringly loud in the quiet cabin, halting Ruby's rambling mid-sentence. "Is this some kind of game to you? Beacon has been attacked and you're more concerned with playing pranks?" Weiss pushed herself up off the chair and turned away, crossing her arms.

The taller trio looked between each other, sharing surprised glances until Ruby attempted to continue, her voice ever so gentle, "Weiss… I know this might seem like nonsense- "

"It is nonsense, Ruby!" Weiss's declaration was harsh, cutting through her partner's words as she spun back around, facing them with cold, critical eyes.

Coco appeared through the door suddenly, slamming it open and against the wall in her wake. "Wake up, ladies, the grimm are back!" She flashed a pearly grin. Weiss noticed the lack of her trademarked sunglasses.

After Jaune let out an offended whine, he and Yang wasted little time stepping into motion behind Coco, hastily accompanying her back outside.

Finally - something familiar to Weiss, something that actually made sense around here, something that would never go along with one of Ruby's absurd schemes, something that she could take her frustrations out on - the grimm.

She reached for Myrtenaster, but, of course, without her gear, it wasn't there. Instinctively, she turned to look for it, but a hand on her shoulder pulled her focus. "Stay here," Ruby firmly commanded as their eyes met. The team leader headed for the exit.

Weiss's glare tried to bore a hole in the back of her partner's head. Did she really just expect her to sit and wait? Why would Weiss be doing anything but helping to drive off the grimm? The heiress had dispatched at least a horde's worth of them before. She obviously wasn't some helpless girl in need of coddling; she was a huntress, damn it! …Well, a huntress in training… but still...

An incredulous, "No!" resounded through the room and Weiss moved to follow her partner to battle.

Ruby whirled around with determination on her face, taking a wide stance and stretched her arms taut across the doorway, stopping the snowy haired girl in her tracks. "Weiss, please! I'll explain more when I get back, but this isn't- "

"I'm done with your games. Out of my way, Ruby!" Weiss tried shoving the taller girl, but was surprised by her inability to even make the girl budge. Stepping back, it took her only a second to ponder and come up with a genius, impromptu plan, because there was nothing -NOTHING- that was going to keep her here suffering through her team's pranking shenanigans.

Weiss widened her eyes, pretending to gawk at something over the girl's shoulder. "Ruby, look, cookies!"

"What!?" The team leader started to turn her head.

In a flash, Weiss ducked under Ruby's arm, awkwardly shoving herself between the arm and the leg blocking her escape. After managing to squeeze herself through and gracelessly flopping to the ground on the other side, the heiress quickly rose to her feet and broke into an unsteady sprint, hearing footsteps trailing her own.

"Weiss, you don't understand, it's too dangerous to- "

"Of course it's dangerous, Ruby! And if you really thought it necessary, you'd use your speed to stop me," she called out between breaths.

"That's just it, we don't have our- oof!"

Hearing a thud, Weiss looked back over her shoulder to see her partner lying on the ground, face squarely in the grass. The heiress couldn't hold back a smirk as she turned forwards again.

Off in the distance, in the middle of the plain, Weiss could see a battle that Coco, Yang, and Jaune had just entered.

At the fringes of the fight, Sun and Nora were riding on the back of an Ursa Major, desperately clinging onto spikes jutting from its back while wailing on it with flimsy nun chucks and a sledgehammer as it ran and thrashed about, chasing a fleeing Cardin. At the center, Velvet shot an arrow from her bow at a Deathstalker and ran the other way, attempting to distract it, as the rest of her team surrounded it wielding variations of cheap-looking blades and a revolver. Behind them, the unfamiliar man and young woman seemed to be handling a few Boarbatusks somewhat well, slashing and whipping at them with flimsy weapons.

This wasn't a battle… this was unorganized chaos, and Weiss was right in the thick of it quicker than she realized.

A large shadow dashed across the ground in front of her and she skidded through the grass to a halt. In the air, a young Griffon, only a little smaller than the ones that attacked Beacon, circled above.

"Snow Angel?" Weiss turned to see a smirking Neptune leisurely sidling up next to her as he slowed his jog. "You're back on your feet pretty quick," he commented, giving her a once-over and a subsequent double take. An awkward feeling of being inspected so thoroughly creeped through her until he finally raised a curious brow at her, "Where's your weapon?"

The question seemed to barely process in her mind. Offering only a blank stare, she looked down to her nonexistent sheath, and back up to him in bewilderment.

Neptune hesitated for a moment, studying the heiress's lack of response. He pulled a compact taser from his pocket to hold on display for the heiress, lightly shaking it, "You know, the weapon that came in your box?... Ruby didn't give it to you?"

Blue eyes snapped open in realization. '… Oh, dust…'

In her hasty endeavor to join the fray, she had somehow completely forgotten that procuring proper arms was necessary for combat. Her actions had always been so precise and calculated, how could she have been so absentminded?

She placed the blame on her team leader without a second thought.

"Weiss?" A grip on her shoulder twisted her rather forcefully to face Yang, her gaze filled with surprised concern. "What are you doing out here? Did Ruby say it was okay for you to fight?"

The heiress scrunched her irritated brows together and swatted away the hand. "Yang Xiao Long, I am a huntress. I do not need the explicit permission of our team leader, or anyone else for that matter, to- "

She clamped her hands over her ears as the Griffon overhead released a deafening screech.

Their eyes snapped up to see the beast descending rapidly towards them, talons poised to strike. Weiss dodged to the side with a roll, just ahead of the WHOOSH! and gust of wind following through as it slammed down onto the ground where she had just been standing. She stood back up and blew a strand of silvery hair out of her face.

The Griffon stood surrounded by Weiss, Neptune, and Yang, staring down the blonde haired girl that held a sword in her hand… A sword? Weiss placed that question away on the mental list with the many others that she would later look for answers to. Right now, there were more pressing matters. But, with the three of them, this was going to be an easy task, even without Myrtenaster.

Weiss adopted an aggressive stance and focused up her strength into her semblance. Turning thoughts into action, all she would need to do is summon a time dilation glyph under the grimm, and thennn…

She let out a hum of bemusement, her brow creasing at the lack of a glyph appearing. Confused, she tried again… but still nothing…

Her semblance wasn't working.

"Weiss, get out of here!" Yang called from the other side of the Griffon while swinging away at its head with her sword and dodging backwards to evade the claws. The weapon rang out repeatedly as it clanged off the beast's armor on its skull.

Neptune rushed in from the rear, sticking his taser into the grimm's left hind leg and pulling the trigger. The Gryphon, however, hardly reacted to the initial shock, and instead raised its leg to deliver a swift kick to the boy's chest, sending him tumbling backwards and losing the taser.

Tossing him a very brief him glance, Weiss decided he would probably live, and she turned her focus back to the monster in time to see its barbed tail swaying towards her. She ducked under it, though a little too close for her liking, and moved to reach for Neptune's dropped weapon, scooping it up with grace.

In an instant, Weiss had a plan. Taking a page from Neptune's book, she ran to the beast's side, pushing the feathers from its wings out of her face, and planted the taser into its ribs. She pulled the trigger, discharging a small shock and catching its attention. The Griffon turned and lowered its head to erupt an immense, threatening screech in her face. With a smirk, Weiss jumped up to plant a shock in the hole of the grimm's armor, right into its deep-red eye.

The Griffon jerked its head away in pain and cried out. It swiped and slashed its claws about, trying to fend off enemies in a blind thrashing. Weiss was shoved by the broad side of its arm as it ebbed, getting a mouthful of feathers, and she fell to the ground.

Yang tried moving in for the killing blow but couldn't find an opening through its flailing. The beast began flapping its heavy wings to prepare for retreat, kicking dirt up into the group's eyes to protect itself.

As she lay in the grass, Weiss could barely see Roman leisurely walking up alongside the Griffon, swinging a metal bat by the handle and whistling an unfamiliar tune all the while. He sized up his weapon, his enemy, and then his target, before bringing the bat down upon the grimm's clawed toes with an intense strike and proceeding to walk off towards another fight. Again, the Griffon gave a shrieking howl, its retreat interrupted.

Another figure made an appearance coming from behind the avian grimm, running parallel to it, and reaching up to slash at the junction of where the wing met its body. With one quick slice of her sickle, the feathery appendage separated from the Griffon, evaporating into dust, and Ruby bolted over to Weiss's side as the beast recoiled backwards. "Weiss, are you okay?" Ruby's concern spilled out in her words and she hastily scanned her partner for injuries.

Brushing aside her leader's worries, Weiss gave a huff as she stood and dusted herself off, "I'm fine."

With raised shoulders, Neptune marched forward with a grumpy frown and snatched the taser back from her hands, mumbling to himself, "It's cool, don't ask if I'm okay…"

Ruby opened her mouth to say something more, but the Griffon had stomped its front legs against the ground in a challenge, apparently seeking revenge on the sickle-wielder who took its wing. "Get back!" Ruby and Neptune placed themselves between Weiss and the aggressor, facing off against the beast.

There was a moment of hesitation from all parties, but Neptune was the first to act, moving in a circle around the grimm to pull attention away from Ruby and Weiss but still keeping his options open with some distance.

Weiss looked to her partner in front of her, "Ruby, I know you have my sword. Give it to me." She tried to make sure her tone left no room for negotiation.

Ruby turned just enough to glance at her from the corner of her eye, a hint of sadness in them before closing and reopening them with replaced fervor. "Weiss, as your team leader, I am ordering you to back down!"

It was Ruby's turn to leave no room for negotiating. She quickly turned back and leapt forward at the opening provided by Neptune. She was able to get a few sticks and cuts in with her sickle while the blue haired boy attacked from the other side. Ruby caught eyes with her sister. They exchanged knowing glances and nodded, coming to an understanding of some unspoken plan.

Amidst the duo's assault, Yang took advantage and moved in through the Griffon's blind spot. With all her might and agility she thrust her sword into its neck and twisted, exploding it to dust, but not before Ruby had been thrown back by the Griffon's backhand swipe of its paw.

Weiss grit her teeth in indignation. Though the strike against Ruby wasn't even close to lethal, she had always hated to see others taking hits on her behalf, and she wasn't going to let it continue.

Ruby made an awkward attempt at handspringing back up to her feet, ready to join Yang and Neptune as they ran off to assist the others with the rest of the grimm, but Weiss stood firmly in her way.

"Ruby Rose, I've had entirely enough of this! Either hand over my sword or we are going to have serious problems, you and I!"

Ruby let forth an exasperated stomp of her foot. "What is wrong with you, Weiss? Why won't you just trust me!"

"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you! Why are you treating me like I'm useless?"

The dark haired leader jerked back slightly with a frown lowering her head and voice, "You're… you're not useless, Weiss,"

"Then why! Why are you acting like this, Ruby!?"

"Because someone died under my watch last week!"

Weiss's heart almost broke for an instant at the anguish in the girl's strained words. She sounded so genuine in her plea… but… no, that couldn't be. That was impossible… it just didn't make sense.

Frustration took over again and she swiped at the air with a dubious scoff. "When will you let this joke go? Why do you keep pretending like you've been here so long? We were all at school just yesterday!"

Before the heiress could flinch, Ruby reached out and snatched her wrist, her deep silver eyes heated with anger. "Will you just listen to me, damn it!"

Weiss sunk in on herself. Her eyes flew wide and flickered between the almost-painful grasp on her wrist and the severe glare her leader was leveling down at her. 'Did Ruby just curse…? She never curses… But she just cursed… at me…'

"Weiss, this place isn't like what you're used to," Ruby shouted. "Everyone showed up here just like you did, one by one, exactly four weeks apart. Our auras and semblances don't work here so everything you know about combat is different, and you are in no condition to be fighting yet! And I know that that doesn't make any sense right now, but please…" She paused to inhale a deep breath and compose herself. Loosening her grip, she calmly took Weiss's hand in both of her own, slowly rubbing her thumb over the reddened wrist.

Ruby softened her voice and her eyes, "But please, as your friend, your team leader… and someone who has missed you so, so much… please believe me when I say that I haven't seen you in over a year." Ruby dropped the white haired girl's hand to wrap her arms around Weiss's own, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Fourhundredandfortyeightdaystobeexactbutwho'scountingright...?" The taller girl let out a sheepish chuckle.

Weiss could barely process the words she had just heard or the fact that she was being hugged. Her jaw hung open. Ruby said it had been over a year since the last time they'd seen each other, and Weiss believed her now. But she hadn't been in a coma or anything, at least she didn't feel like she did (not that she knew what that felt like), so, how could this have happened…? Nonetheless, she knew this wasn't possibly a joke anymore; she could hear the sincerity in her partner's voice and Weiss scolded herself for even thinking that Ruby could somehow pull off a prank of this scale.

And if Ruby was telling the truth, then that meant that they would really have to keep fighting off these waves of grimm without their semblances or auras to protect them, along with the Titans, whatever those were.

It also meant that someone had really died recently like Ruby said.

Weiss's eyes slowly widened with horror.

One person's absence stuck out immediately. Someone significant that she had yet to see or hear any mention of since she got there, and it sent a horrible shiver tingling all the way down her spine just thinking about it.

"Ruby…" Weiss quietly started. The taller girl pulled her head back just enough to see the terrified stare of the heiress. "That… grave I saw earlier, by your cabin… is… is it Blake's?"

They each held their gazes for a moment, a tinge of sorrow in Ruby's face, yet somehow still blank. Weiss found she was unable to read her partner's indistinct expression.

Ruby's eyes flickered to somewhere over Weiss's shoulder and she parted her lips.

"Look out!"

For a split second, Weiss could feel her partner tense up and brace for impact.

Let me know what you think so far! Whether you think it's great, total shite, or just want to give some criticisms, I wanna hear it because nothing motivates me more than reading comments! Thanks for checking it out!