Beautiful interactions between Weiss and Winter. This sisterly thing must be your strong suit. Nothing seemed weird about Winter, meaning I believe you did a great job of portraying her. I'm still reading through your previous chapters, and I'm happy to see that Weiss and Winter do have an actual loving relationship with each other despite the past of their cold house. I know that such a relationship was shown in canon, but I was happy to see that the case was the same here. You go more in depth here for a backstory for Weiss than in the show, and it actually made me think that their relationship was near non-existent, like it is with her father. And Winter knows about the maidens, huh? Interesting change. It seems that she was only told after the fall of Beacon in canon. I like your change, since Ozpin had his people that were in on the guardians. I thought it only right for Ironwood to have a Glynda to his Ozpin, which would be Winter.
That thing that Weiss and Winter did was pretty cool. Partially summoning one to another place through a channel created by identical glyphs. Nice idea. And now this thing about a parrying blade is being brought up again. Now I see why she was so adamant about not getting one.

I didn't expect the over-heating thing at all. I can definitely see Yang's submissive side coming out to play, but I find it genuinely sad that she can't seem to find someone she can fully be herself with without "turning them to ashes", another thing that you had mentioned in a previous chapter. Upon reading the scene about 2-3 times I can better visualize some of the phrasing, but I guess it's indeed mostly up to our imagination. So Amber was the party girl influence in Yang's life? I love imagining it. You didn't do a bad job at all of writing what transpired.

Ruby and Penny is next! Finally! I've been waitiiiiiing. I know it'll be great like this one and the others. Keep up the great work!

Less than 10 chapters remaining? :(

As always, I loved the chapter. Yang’s concern for Weiss’ relationship with her father is expected from her personal experience in this story. I love the one-on-one interactions between Yang and Weiss and am grateful for this last one you’ve given us. I love the “I volunteer as tribute” line. Total contrast to the Hunger Games moment with Katniss, but perfect for getting Yang where she needs to go for her mission (although I can’t remember the details of said mission). Pushing Weiss twice has its humorous benefits as well.

We get to see Weiss interact with the elite from her native country, and I could imagine how tired of it she must be especially with how the cold persona associated with these events and her past life in general was melted away into something loving by Team RWBY. Of course, a mask is a mask. I find it adorable that she has Ruby on her mind so much, and I feel it for her that she had to be around people she could care less about (besides Ironwood. We love Ironwood) instead of with her partner, although admittedly Ruby probably would want to interact with Penny by herself. Weiss does an excellent job of resisting to indulge in the lovely but compromising characteristics of Ruby that would otherwise put her in quite an embarrassing situation as the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company.

Points for Yang throwing doors off of their hinges with a flick or her wrist. Automated doors, right? Impressive. Could have read it wrong, but such is how I imagine it in my head. The dedication to her drink is to be admired as well. Not a drop is to be wasted. And who could resist the urge of swirling a glass of alcohol? Being completely honest when I say the analogy of being on the top bunk kinda flew over my head, but maybe I’ll understand it better on a reread. I do understand her strong nature and her forced maturity for Ruby clashing with a desire to just live freely, making her capable of being a leader even if she doesn’t necessarily want to. She surely asserted her dominance over Ruby numerous times during the Breach. Out of love, of course. Hoping for a great solution to all of their concerns, or whatever paves the way for a third book from you :)

Looking forward to the next chapter, and the one after that!

I read this soon after you published it, but didn’t leave a review. Before this chapter came out I started rereading the series, starting from the previous story. I still love it, and this chapter matches the story’s charm. Keep up the good work. I wait excitedly for the next chapter. It’s Penny time!

Oh yeah new chapter. Ironically this is basically the opposite to some of the problems I had with the last chapter regarding the team. It was very balanced between the four and I had none of these „eh“ moments.

Not gonna lie that talk between Yang and Weiss has me chocked up a little. I’m not even just saying this I got very slightly chocked up when Yang started crying. Those two really make for the best emotional talks. I’m also kinda happy that Yang knows more now. Though I agree that telling her „yo Ruby’s basically being held together by a thin sheet of my aura and if penny can’t help right now she’s a goner“ wouldn’t be good giving her the story of what happened is probably a good thing. I would say that you better have Ruby tell her everything after this evening I kinda don’t think it’s gonna go so well. I mean Ruby’s not gonna die quite yet do penny has to do something to help but I doubt it’s just gonna be fixed.

So the soul dive really mixed the two to a small degree. I like it. Though I would assume the effects are strongest now and are gonna fade over time right? I mean it’s never gonna go away again but if the memories already start to get foggy again I guess some stuffs gonna go away. Btw wasn’t it dangerous for Ruby to put a piece of her soul into Weiss? There’s not really much left of it. Or can Weiss‘ piece just replace that part with no problem? Honestly I’m not sure with Ruby’s little Frankenstein’s monster soul at this point :p

Well... that was a thing.
I feel like the plot might have been dragging it's feet a bit too much so you just up and kicked it's butt to get into gear with this one xD
Mind you, when I say "dragging it's feat" I don't really mean this in a big negative way. There was always some stuff happening and it was by no means boring. Just... the general concept of Ruby being hurt (and keeps on being tortured by a somewhat sadistic author), keeping it hidden and moving on has been going on for a while.

So anyway, this chapter did A LOT and frankly I fear I lack the vocabulary to fully express everything this had me go through.
For one, as always we had the beautiful team relationship that just feels the most real out of any RWBY fanfic.

But now lets talk about the juicy bits... literally given all the bleeding that's happening. I love the way you described the whole soul merging thing. The way both Ruby and Weiss sorta experienced each others lives. I also find it interesting how convinced Weiss was that Ruby had died afterwards. Because she did! It doesn't just nicely serve as a contrast to how much Weiss initially rejected the very notion but also serves to drive home the point that Ruby DIED!
Of course, if you soul merge with someone and literally get to experience dying first hand, I guess that is fairly convincing. And seeing as people don't make a habit of coming back from that I guess you WOULD think that's where the story ends.
Anyway. You said "...how she might react to such terrible news, and hopefully this keeps her from reacting the same way if the unthinkable actually happens." in regards to her attempting suicide but I would say that the very reason she even reacted this strongly is because of the soul dive to begin with. I have no doubt that Weiss would be hit bad, just like everyone else, if Ruby just up and died overnight but I would say not *that* strongly. Yang on the other hand...

We also got to see a bit more of what Summer did. I dare say we don't have the full picture yet though. On that note, I love that Ruby mentioned being somewhat mad with Summer. With her being all about self sacrifice (to a downright dangerous degree) she would obviously never want someone to die for her sake. Even more so if that someone was unwillingly sacrificed. E.g. Summer abandoning Patchwork to save Ruby.

And then Ruby just up and almost dies again then and there :P At least Weiss managed to... patch her up :D
Seriously though, I think Weiss now at least believes how serious Ruby is about meeting Penny. Speaking off, I was actually unaware that sharing her aura with Penny was what kicked all of this off to begin with. Maybe I should have noticed but in my defense it's been a while since then.
Penny and Ruby is generally one of my favorite ships. For one, they are just too adorkable together and for the other it can play really well into Ruby's shy and withdrawn persona that wants to avoid people and rather be with her tools, weapons and machines to fall for a robot. Of course, this is just a rough outline and still needs proper care to write but yeah.
Now I know you don't really "ship" people in this story it's more of a "everybody just cares for each other in a much deeper way" but still. Ruby being accepting of Penny and even protecting her secret while having someone literally dive into her soul and having all of HER secrets and memories laid bare... Ruby's got character xD

So yeah. Bloody awesome chapter and I'll be looking forward to what's to come from here on out (as always).

I agree that making it a normal romantic relationship would be a downgrade at this point but I also can’t see them (ruby and Weiss) having any true romantic partners outside of each other either - it just seems too superficial in comparison. As such my personal wish for those two going forward is that they become your two way soul mates (or hunter partners, whichever term is more accurate in this fic) and are sexual with each other as just a part of their partnership dynamic. I just can’t stand the idea that they place that much physical trust in another when they have a ‘soul mate’ already- it just feels like some sort of betrayal or maybe waste of a beautiful partnership.

As usual, great chapter. Also really sad, I was on the verge of tears the entire team while reading. Good job on that.

Well, that was a thing.

Lots to unpack this chapter so lets go.

The first thing is more a general problem I have with the whole fandom and canon of RWBY. This is mostly personal preference rather then an actual flaw but still.

Im not sure I said that last time but I loved the whole picnic thing. It was so wholesome havin them all together like this. But at the same time it shows the problem I have with a mindset the show has created. What im talking about is being a team versus being partners. The reason this topic bothers me so much is because the show, and as an extantion the fandom, cant commit to one or the other. On the one hand you have the message that working together and being united is the strongest weapon and the best defence the heros have. On the other hand the show goes out of its way to seperate the team into its partners where it can. That leaves me in this limbo where I get invested into one just to get shoved the other into my face.

Lets take two examples. One from the show one from the story.

At the end of volume 3 we basicly have 2 big plotlines. Cinder and the maiden and Adam and his confrontation with Blake. Its more complicated then that of course but simplifyit thats what happens. Now Blake gets confronted and Yang, her parnter, comes trying to safe her. On the other hand we have Ruby trying to sve Pyrrah and stop Cinder. Now Weiss helps her up the tower but lets be honest, this was Rubys part and Weiss was there just to be there. And I blame this partner mentality for this. Imagin how interesting the whole Adam encounter could have been if Weiss, a filthy Schnee!, was there to help. I dont even mean that the end result is different. Yang would still lose her arm and Blake would still run blaming herself.

Now to an example from here. We have, as I already said, this realy cute team picninc that realy makes the whole team feel like a unit. All 4 there for each other. I love it. But then we switch and have the whole Ruby/Weiss thing. Dont get me wrong, the whole thing was amazingly done (more on that later), but it gives me that same kind of wiplash. The big problem I have with this is that it always makes one or 2 people in the team seem so removed from the problem. Now for example we have Yang as Rubys sister thats close to the problem and Weiss thats just did the whole, you know, thing. That leaves Blake pretty far removed from all this. Now this in itself isnt bad but its a recurring theme everywhere I look that just makes me wonder why. I think this one isnt a great example because it kinda fits with the story but please just imagin that most of the time its more like example one.

Again I dont think you did anything wrong. Please dont think im complaining that your story isnt catering to my personal wishes.

Well on to the meat of the story. He said, after having spend 20 minutes writing stupid stuff about his pollination fetish.

So I guess now we have the whole story about what happened that day dont we? Unless theres something still coming out of left field I think thats the whole picture. Now theres a very big question we have to ask ourself after hearing Rubys confession.

What did Summer Rose realy do that day?

As I see it there are two options. Option one. Summer used her soul and magic to drag Rubys soul, battered and bruised maybe, back from the beyhond. Forced it into her dead body and ducktaped the whole thing together with her own soul. Selfish but honestly I may have done the same thing in her situation.

Unrelated to the question, I like that part of Ruby is angry with her mother for what she did. It was incradible selfish what she forced other to endure because she couldnt herself. I dont blame her but I realy like that Ruby realises the full rammifications of these actions.

Now option one isnt so bad. As I said its not a heroic sacrifice but an understandable one. Now option two on the other hand ...

Option two is that Summer Rose, after seeing her daugther dead, couldnt take it. She ripped her own soul out of herself, put it into her daugthers body and took on the role of Ruby Rose. Memories shouldnt be to hard to change from watching her to being her. Hell this chapter even shows us there is some controlle over memories. With Ruby cencoring some. And with her soul and magic involved anyway who could realy tell the difference?

In other words, did Summer actually managed to bring someone back to life or did she create a horrible mockery born of a broken mind?

The reason I came up with that theory is mostly because I always imagined Rubys life hanging by a thread. A thread her mother made to save her. But there was no thread. Ruby died. Her soul left, as seen by what Weiss saw. And honestly, even with the power of a maiden this seems a little op as far as powers go. Though I realy hope Summer was actually that powerfull.

Some more smaller stuff. Weiss thread to cut Beacons funding if they take Zwei actually made me laugh. Like actual laughing. It was great.

Yangs antics about Ruby and Weiss was great. Though a little bitter sweet now that I know for certain they dont know how bad it actually is with Ruby.

You know I had 2 updates in my mail. This and another story thats basicly just 90% pollination fluff. This chapter was still the most heartwarming ive read today. It was honestly great. And with Weiss' patchwerk job (hehe get it?) maybe Ruby actually has a chance.

Ok I wrote way to much about this. I always get nervous when I complain about concepts like team vs partners. I always feel like im telling people they do something wrong.

Don't normally leave a review, but just wanted to say love your stories, especially how you go into so much emotional which I alway found the web series sometimes lacked or only slightly touched apon it.
Honestly doing an awesome job, can't wait to ready what happens next.

Yang's nightmare is kinda what I expected to have actually happened. I dunno why honestly but the idea that Yang has moments where she is mad at Summer seems... natural to me. Not to question whether she loves her or not but I think it's not too unlikely that a step-child would blow up on their "new" mother. And now she is haunted by the question if it was her fight that had brought the Grimm and how she only survived herself because she ran away.
All in all the sequence, despite being short, was just an amazing insight into Yang. Also, they say that Ruby's nightmares are bleeding into their dreams but I wonder if it wasn't actually Yang and she'd just hiding behind Ruby also having issues.

Speaking of Ruby, there were some interesting revelations I feel. We already knew that Ruby was self aware of how she's falling apart but having her actually mention that she herself believes to be running out of time just increases the dread you're feeling while reading. But more than anything I'm interested in what she thought right afterwards. How Penny is her only hope and how she'd "stop the charade". Apparently Ruby knows more than she let on and even kept her family in the dark about things. She even knows that she gotta get to Penny.

On that note, I wonder how she's gonna meet up with Penny now. I expected them to meet on the ship when she goes with Weiss but seeing as that option appears to be out of the window now I wonder how you plan to go about it.

Lastly, I once again love Arslan. I love how she refuses to play Yang's games and didn't get agitated by her yet at the same time casually burns her and breaks her hand. I feel that Yang is the kind of character who need repercussions. Not so much in your story but still to some extend. Yang is often written as this prankstar type person who throws her weight around a lot and sure enough, she's got the strength (and looks) to back up most of her attitude but every now and then it doesn't hurt to have someone who can put Yang in her place.
And while your Yang is obviously a very loving and caring person, there is also a certain arrogance to her. Having never gone all out against Pyrrha and otherwise lacking in competition in her own year, I suppose that's to be expected.

Lastly lastly, I love how ABRN has some respect for Ruby as this young prodigy. Yet poor her has any authority undermined by her team standing in front of her for protection. I get why they do it but it still undermines her as leader if she can't even get a word in let alone be able to stand in front of her team. They don't do it on purpose obviously but I'd still love it if Arslan or Coco or someone like them pointed it out :P

Amazing chapter as always and I'm looking forward to the next one :3

Oh yes, give me that delicious Angst. This is exactly the kind of stuff Yang would dream about. And since her last memories with summer were much worse here then in canon I don’t doubt that she would feel incredible bad about it. No wonder that comes into her nightmares when Ruby is basically dead man walking. But did you mean Yang is drinking to sleep? I can see it but it feels kinda out of left field for me. Or did I forget something from last chapter?

I know it’s not pollination as in pairings but damn that whole team bonding scene was cute. The whole situation, while really bad for Ruby, really gets some good team fluff moments.

Im a Little embarrassed to ask but what did penny do again? I remember she kinda helped Ruby with her aura but it’s been to long for specifics.

So, turns out I forgot to write a review... for shame.
Anyway, nothing terrible happened to Ruby for once, so she just has to continue to suffer through the stuff that pilled up over the past chapters xD
Poor Ruby needs a break but then again, if she got one she would just throw herself head first into the next dangerous situation.

Yang can be such an incredible and varying character to explore. She often takes the role of the teams big sister/mother and generally being the shoulder to lean on for everybody. Yet that also means she generally doesn't have any shoulders to lean on herself most of the time.
I love how Glynda fills that role here and their entire character dynamic as a whole. Glynda always strikes me as the strict but caring type. The one who, while you wouldn't be able to tell by just looking, puts her students above all else... kinda motherly in her own right. So seeing her caring side with Yang like that is just something I adore :3

Frankly, I love ABRN being a red herring. I dunno why but when I think about it, I don't think I've ever seen a story that does that since we (the readers) already know Cinder and co. to be the villains. And... I mean yeah, we know it even when restricted to this stories context but it's nice to see.
The thing I don't understand is why Yang is so fixated on Arslan. From a competitive perspective sure but not why she'd think Arslan would attack Ruby like that. Who knows, maybe Arslan is just interested in Ruby as a grade-skipping prodigy and thus scouting out the competition... or maybe she recognizes her as the patchwork survivor?
In any case, it's so frustrating though aaaargafjasf. They are so close to figuring out Emerald and Neo yet ABRN just had to be there.

Coco and Velvet were a nice little addition. You don't get to see Coco vulnerable like that often, so I appreciate it . The cybernetic leg being a nice addition as well. I wonder though... if Blake heard two showers when she entered while Neo and Emerald were on the floor, doesn't that mean that Coco and Velvet didn't shower together, which, when Goodwitch later asks them would come up? E.g. it implies that the illusionist hid using their ability and with Neo and Emerald coming out later it sorta kinda implies to be one of them. I suppose you can work your way around it though.

So yeah, awesome chapter and a late happy new year.
Looking forward to whenever the next chapter comes around.

I’ve been reloading chapter 29 almost each day waiting for this update! This chapter was awesome! Well, as awesome as massacres get. I know you know what I mean though. It was well written and carried those heartfelt moments filled with tension. I loved it! Keep up the good work. Praying for you!

Ah man, the poor team. They really don’t have it easy at the moment. I have to say the moment they all stood there in the room looking at Ruby felt so soul crushing. What are they supposed to do. Standing there is all they can do. Hell even with the info I as a reader have over them I couldn’t give them a better course of action. That really hit hard when you have that picture in your head. Of course I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff :p

So Yang came clean. Well mostly. Probably for the best. But I agree, Yang and Weiss going at each other because they are worried is always really fun to read. And poor Blake sitting in the corner blaming herself. Funny that her theory on someone causing this is so spot on.

Glynda as this confidant for Yang still feels weird. Not bad weird but it’s such an under used character, especially in that context. I this I like it overall.

So did neo use „overactive imagination“ (god I love they all have names now) to fool the cameras? Or does emeralds „hallucinations“ work differently then most semblances of that Kind?

And poor Yang. I love mama Yang with a passion but damn if it doesn’t hit right in the feels. And the last moment with Blake at the end really didn’t help. I mean there’s more going on with Qrow and Tai but she really doesn’t have mutch else then Ruby now. Summers dead and Raven is, well Raven. I mean she talked about wanting Ruby to stay at beacon if she’s not gonna make it but I’m pretty sure she’s still sure somethings gonna happen. It probably is but in the story it’s probably because she can’t accept the alternative. I don’t blame her. I’m actually not sure what would happen to her if Ruby did die. I don’t feel like Blake and Weiss are equipped for this.

A little bit of critic here, the later half of the talk with Goodwitch felt a little long. While I get why you wanted Arslan to have a little buildup it started to drag just a little on top of anything else. The Pyrrah part also on top just seemed like to mutch. It’s not a big deal mind you I wasn’t sitting here, bored out of my mind but towards the end it was like “there’s still more?“.

Oh and i have to make this clear. Having nothing bad happen to Ruby because something bad is still happening to her does not count as „nothing bad happened to her this chapter. But I find it interesting. I’m not sure if it’s intentional but as Ruby goes more towards a mix of crack addict and cons patient, the chapters get more and more focus on other people as Ruby’s thoughts become less and less coherent.

Anyway, I’m really glad this story came back this year and didn’t end up abandoned like I thought. I hope we start the next year with a new chapter :p I wish you a very happy holiday and a great new year!

I must say this probably one of my favorit chapter, seeing what actually happened to Summer and Ruby back then. Ruby's reaction though really unpredicted, I didn't expect she would get basically a seizure fit. But then again some terrible past is just too much for someone's mind especially Ruby who is still a child.

However, with Emerald and Neo having their hands on this I wouldn't take it to face value, it could be just the fraction that true while the rest is Emerald's doing by exaggerating the memories but if what she is doing merely to trigger the memories again then there's something deeper going on around here.

I'm curious to see what happen next after they calm Ruby down, like will she reveal her source of nightmares to her teammates? Welp, just have to wait lol.

Thanks for the chapter.