Another clang ran threw the darkness of Patch as Ruby Rose once again ran her weapon threw the dirt. She kept her eyes trained on the treeline, more so than usual. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but she expected something to happen. Alas, it never came.

"Well, you're up early." Yang comments, walking onto the farm plots, her boots kicking up dirt. "Yaaaaang i just tilled that earth! Can you please stand on the sidewalk!?" She motioned to the stone tiles with an annoyed hand, causing her sister to let loose a hearty laugh and quickly hop off and out of Ruby's workplace.

"Seriously tho-" Yang reels the conversation back in line, taking a quick swig of a mug in her hand, which she likely obtained from the local tavern. Yang always drank after a zombie attack, a bad habit picked up from her uncle. "Why are you working so early? I mean i know its, like, eight AM, but you usually don't start working till like, eleven."

The numbers were rough guesstimates, but her point remained. Ruby was doing something abnormal, and it was her sisterly duty to make sure everything is fine. Given that Tukson had been taken only a few nights before, the possibility of Ruby being stressed, hurt, or otherwise troubled due to her failed attempts of catching that damn undead were fairly high.

"I just want to get my job done quick so i can go to the library asap" This elected a raised eyebrow from Yang. "You? Studying?". Ruby reverberated with her mouth. "Oh please, i study! I got my education all by myself at home. You're just never around to see it!" She poked her sisters nose, making Yang take a step back. Despite her harsh tone, Yang knew how to recognise when Ruby had no real malice in her.

"Alright alright, no need to get defensive" Yang smiles, roughly ruffling Ruby's hair. "If you're in such a rush, i'll leave you too it." She waves over her shoulder as she turns back to the farmhouse "Love ya sis!" She calls out, before taking another swig from her mug.

"Love you too" Ruby says with a friendly smile, before going back to tilling the soil with renewed vigor that, sadly, didn't last long. Well Ruby didn't actually lie, it sure felt like it. Ya, she was going to the library, but it wasn't to study. It was to search the shelves for any sign of that stunning undead she met a few days back.

She was an undead, she was likely brought back to life nearby, almost certainly by Cinder. That means there was a good chance she was in the local history books. It wasn't like Ruby could just go out and search for her and ask her what her name is, so this was the second best thing.

When Ruby had finished her job, she put her Scythe away in a nearby shed, locking it before bolting into the town at a blistering speed. She skidded to a stop, rose petals flowing behind her, as she had whipped them off the flowers the locals had placed to mourn Tuskan simply due to the winds caused by her run.

Smiling up at the tall, multi storied library, she eagerly stepped up the stone steps and swung open the wooden door. "Hey Ruby" the man behind the desk said with a smile "Nice to see you again, you holding up alright?" He asked, a tad concerned for the town hero. "I'm fiiine. Ugh you sound just like Yang" Ruby whines, causing a small laugh. "We mean good, little red."

"I knoooow" Ruby whined like a child, before walking past him and heading inside. She stated what she had done for the past three days; research. Ruby grabbed a book off the shelf, sitting down in a dusty, rarely used leather one person chair, and began to flip threw the crusty book. An hour later, she sighed and put the book down. "Nope" She says with her signature pop, before moving onto the next decade.

Ruby put the book back in its slot on the dusty shelf, and grabbed another one, one with a bright red ribbon. Another hour, another book, another ribbon. If people realised what she was doing all this time, people would surly call it an obsession. Maybe a few of the more paranoid would claim its some sort of spell or curse. To Ruby, it was simply an intense curiosity.

Ruby spent most of the day and the following night in that library. After reading through another six or so books, she finally picked up one that would contain what she was looking for. A book with a pale blue ribbon, one that was torn along the bottom, the edges of the book appeared to have once suffered from waterlog. Clearly this old book was not in its optimal condition.

But Ruby didn't care, knowledge was knowledge, and she eagerly started to flip threw the pages. She skimmed until she caught sight of something that may have some relation to the undead. After accidentally skipping it due to habit, she quickly flipped back a few pages to read it in further detail.

Ruby lost herself in the book like she had never been before. The book went into great detail about the legacy of a long dead royal family. Well Ruby would usually skim threw books that didn't have any pictures or were talking about dragons or weapons, this was the exception.

"So, she is a Schnee...?" She spoke aloud to herself "Must be... I've never seen anyone else like her, and these people hit all the right notes." She silently flipped the page. The book was mostly about the later stages of the Schnee legacy, and about the fall of the family. A war with Faunus had broken out due to the most recent King's racism for them, and in the end, a revolution brought down the royal house and marked the end to the family name.

The main thing that caught her eye, however, was the fact that the heiress's body was never found. The body of Weiss Schnee.

On the other side of the island, a cart was slowly wheeling itself threw the woods. A brown, elderly horse with a orange hue to its fur was pulling a tall cart that was completely loaded in various supplies. Inside, three individuals resided. A man with orange hair and overly fancy attire sat near the front, holding onto the reigns for the horse from within, watching ahead threw the open window that sat at the front of the caravan.

Behind him were the other two. A short girl with ice cream coloured hair and a tight outfit that matched, almost resembling a magician's assistant. Her eyes were a beautiful pair of complementary colours, both of which held so much emotion behind them it was almost blinding.

The last one, a young man, looked to be in far worse condition then the other two. He had tattered rags for clothes that hardly held onto his body and the layers of grime made him look older then he actually was.

"How much farther kid?" Roman called out to the man behind him. "I don't know!" he responds with fright clear in his voice, prompting a scowl from Neo. "I told you, Patch is at the end of this road. When you reach the end of the road, you'll be there." He yelps as Neo drew a blade from her umbrella, that was seemingly just for decoration or class. It was common for traveling merchants to hide concealed weapons, and these two were no exception.

"Relax Neo" Roman says casually, prompting Neo to remove her thin blade from his neck. "We need the kid alive. Unfortunately." he mutters the last bit, prompting a devious snicker from Neo and a nervous look from the boy.

Then, everything shook. Roman held tight onto the reigns with one hand, and the other went to his hat as he leaned against the wall to avoid falling off his elevated position. The cart shook and tilted off towards the side, before all went still. "What the hell is going on?" Roman snapped angrily, as he leaned forward and out of the cart to see what just happened.

The cart was elevated several meters into the air on various, tall, thick icicles. Many stabbed into the bottom of the cart, tearing apart the wheels. The horse in particular, was in very poor shape to say the least. Icicles had pearled threw its chest and torso and out the other side, soaked in blood that has been turned to a snow like powder.

The horse weakly kicked its legs, letting out weak breaths, unable to even scream in fear. It surly wouldn't last long. It was as good as dead! A horrifying wail came from behind, prompting Roman to whip his head around.

A long, thin blade had pierced the ornate wood of the cart, and had found its way directly into the passengers chest. Neo had inched back on the bench, either in an attempt to avoid the blade or keep blood off her expensive silk outfit. A sickening crack of bone sounded as the blade was forced upwards, cutting right threw his shoulder and splattering blood on the wall. The dark red fluids quickly poured down his outfit, and he weakly gasped for breath. He'd be dead from blood loss within minutes...

The rapier was slowly withdrawn from the cart, and the ice princess gleefully licked the blood off the blade. A tantalising sample of the carnage that was sure to follow. "Mm, your a con-artist, aren't you?" She spoke to the two living members inside, climbing up from the side of the cart onto the top. Kneeling down with one hand on the roof for support, she lifted her rapier into the air, over her shoulder. "Perhaps you'd like to play a game? Its a personalised version of 'a needle in the haystack'.

With that, the blade was quickly stabbed downwards, Neo inching back to avoid the blade that was dangerously close to her former sitting position. "I'm not interested in any of your games demon!" Roman shouted, lifting up his walking cane and pointing it to the roof. "At least not one named that badly. This isn't exactly child's play here!" He couldn't help but throw in a sassy, characteristic comeback despite his life being on the line.

Weiss heard a howling sound from within the cart, and side-stepped, a blast of fire erupting out from within the cart, bursting threw the roof. "Aw come now, I'm no demon~" She fakes sounding hurt, looking down threw the hole in the roof at the man pointing his cane at her. It was normal for traveling salesmen to have concealed weapons, even more so with con artists. It was no surprise her prey's walking cane wasn't exactly a walking cane. "I'm a princess, get it right" She hisses, her tone turning vile.

Well you could say she enjoyed the thrill of the hunt, it wasn't exactly that. She already had the upper hand, it was more like watching a mouse try to weasel out from under a cats paw, with the cat knowing there was no hope of escape. Its only a matter of time till Weiss gets what she wants.

And what she wants is his flesh.

Authors note: Over half of the time between this and the last chapter was due to me being unsure how to implement the fight scene I had planned. I had a start, and finish to the fight but not the middle, and I wasn't sure how to go about writing it. So, I have a question for you guys: Please, tell me, would you rather me delay this story further to get you the fight scene you want, or, would you rather I gloss over it? I have almost the entire fanfic planned out, this fight scene is my only major roadblock.

As a secondary question: I have an idea how to add Blake. It would increase the duration of the story, giving more time for character development, and give you more whiterose, but it will again delay the story drastically as I try to figure out a proper way to work her into the story without botching the plan I already had in place.

Both of these are questions of time, vs story. Would you rather wait forever and a half for something extra, or do you just want more story to read? Please, tell me. And as always, reviews are always appreciated, even if there not related to these two questions.