"Hm..."

Ruby continues to flicker through various channels, her thumb pressing against the button automatically as if it were akin to breathing. Despite having a rather neutral sense of taste when it comes to TV shows, she can't seem to find anything remotely interesting. Programs like cooking shows, cartoons, or reality TV, never really pulled her in.

As boring as it may have sounded, Ruby actually preferred the weather channel. It gave her useful details, like the forecast for the current day, and the latest news that circulated their city. Once she settles the remote down beside her on the carpet floor, Ruby leaning back against the end of her bed, she closes her eyes and listens to the sound of music pouring in from the tiny screen. It was what made the weather channel her favourite.

Before she knew it, she begins to nod off, her eyes starting to droop as she struggles to keep her head from dropping any further to her chest. Ruby's shoulders gradually begin to sag, her arms limping to her sides and her vision a mere blur.

She absently takes note of the soft rumbling that occurs within the building. Probably just a small earthquake...

... An earthquake?

Ruby almost passes it off as nothing until the soft sound of music gets cut off and is replaced by crackling noise. She practically jumps from where she sits, eyes blinking blearily past the haze of near-sleep when loud static replaces the screen.

She rubs away the exhaustion over her eyes with an arm and sees a reporter on television. Ruby notes how the woman's voice slightly crack whenever the camera shakes from the amount of people running around them. Where has she seen those stairs, before...

Ruby sits up from where she rests, crawling up to the TV and finally recognizes the familiar setting. Her and Yang were supposed to head home tomorrow...

"We are reporting to you live from within Sanctum Station," Ruby squints as the monitor crackles and the woman's voice is slightly drowned out, "- has been no news regarding the whereabouts of the culprit. So far, the death toll is twenty-four people."

Ruby spots a burning train just behind the reporter, where the firefighters seem to be struggling with putting the inferno out.

"Police have yet to confirm the cause. As to whether- "

She jumps, startled, when an explosion erupts from behind the news lady, the sound blaring through the television. Ruby can feel the room shake, the reaction nearby considering how the station is just a few blocks away.

Ruby wastes no time changing into a more appropriate attire, tightening the corset and tying her boots as she straps Crescent Rose behind her waist.

It's a wonder how Yang could still sleep through all the blatant ruckus she doesn't bother hiding as she trudges around for her ammo casing, throwing clothes here and there amidst the floor. She doesn't remember packing this many socks for the trip. Ah, there it is. Why is Yang's bra on top of it?

She considers waking her sister up, but remembering how much Yang hated the cold, Ruby thought better of it.

Ruby sneaks one last glance over her shoulder at her slumbering sister. Yang is snuggled comfortably between her bed and blanket, her pillow completely covered amidst long thick locks of blonde. A small smile leaves her lips.

"I won't be out too late," she whispers her promise, gently closing the door behind her.

Ruby doesn't know what to expect when she sees smoke out in the distance, various sirens going off on the streets where help was coming from.

She keeps herself hidden amidst the darkness the alleyways provide for her, waiting for the incoming firetruck heading her way. It's dark and the full moon is up, giving just enough light for Ruby to know when she needs to jump, releasing Crescent Rose and letting it go to scythe form.

As soon as the truck whizzes just beside her, Ruby makes a quick sweep of her weapon and latches onto the ladder perched on the roof of the vehicle.

It certainly was a lot faster hitching a ride than attempting to dash her way through to Sanctum Station, even if it was a few blocks away.

Ruby sheathes Crescent Rose and makes herself as comfortable as she could atop the ladder, blinking away the frost on her eyelashes from the cold air speeding past her face.

Despite the freezing temperature, Ruby enjoys the weather and scenery, the landscape full of white, a beauty she's sure she would continue to admire for years and years.

She almost gets carried away until she spots two women amidst the white landscape.

The sound of the blaring siren of the firetruck doesn't seem to deter the strangers in the slightest, and because Ruby instinctively feels like there's more to it than just a staring contest, she hops off from the truck and settles herself on a tree branch.

When she squints to somehow better her vision, Ruby believes the woman in white looks familiar to her. From where, Ruby can't quite recall, the answer seemingly just at the tip of her tongue.

But when she sees the woman in white draw her sword back for what looks like a powerful blow, Ruby acts on instinct. Police and firefighters can handle things like a burning train, she's sure, but certainly not things like this. So she lets herself in on the fun.

She hasn't realized that the reason for such animosity was because the woman in black was becoming a monster.

"Oops," Ruby can't help but feel shy, hopping beside the clearly quietly seething woman in white, "I guess I shouldn't have protected that thing, huh."

She really didn't know! Really!

"Yes," her tone is frighteningly cold, her gaze a mixture of frustration and emptiness. "You really shouldn't have."

Ruby momentarily pushes away the thought of why the woman looks so familiar, and hopes that maybe, just maybe, she'll be able to make up for her silly mistake. She hopes she'll let her. Ruby tightens her hold on Crescent Rose.

She isn't blind. Ruby can see how the woman is tired and bleeding. The blood that stains the woman had momentarily frightened her upon closer inspection.

She'll have to make this quick.

Weiss assesses her current situation, plugging in the newcomer in red into the equation.

Involving the innocent was never something she approved of, but considering how this child had voluntarily gotten in the way of what was supposed to be the finishing move to something that wasn't supposed to still be standing, Weiss thinks it's rather appropriate to just take advantage of the kid as consolation.

"Leave it to me!"

It certainly helps when said child offers herself so willingly.

Weiss lets the stranger play bait as she casts more runes of magic beneath her feet. Her concentration gets cut when the girl in red almost recoils right into her.

The beast in all its black and deformed glory, jumps at the second it sees hesitation, before Weiss raises a barricade of ice to shield herself from such claws. A flash of red speeds past her, her momentum carried by the shots of her weapon, before she slashes across the monster with a scythe too big for her stature.

Weiss watches the girl in red flicker before her, appearing and disappearing in a haze of rose petals - where they come from, she has no clue - as she continues to hack and slash at the murky form of the beast.

She would have acknowledged the girl's fighting prowess if it weren't for the fact that her style was rather barbaric in terms of offence and lacked the necessary partner in battle called defence. Weiss sees that the girl lacks common rationality on the battlefield.

Weiss interrupts the girl's crude slashing with a strike of ice when she spots the beast's tail attempt to sneak an attack from beneath.

"Woah!"

The girl narrowly avoids a claw from the side before jumping back and away from the wriggling tail that had nearly pierced her from below.

"Thanks for the -"

Weiss quickly spins the dial on Myrtenaster and intercepts another strike from Bahamut with fire before it reaches the girl's face.

The beast's howl practically rivals the girl's shrill cry.

"You nearly burned my face off!"

Weiss doesn't bother to pretend like she cares, moving in towards the enemy instead to finish what she had started, the girl in red gaping from a distance to inspect the strands of hair still on her head.

"You know what," Weiss' brow twitches in annoyance at the persistent presence of the girl appearing - again - beside her, "that was incredibly dangerous! What were you thinking?!"

Weiss snaps back as cold as her element as she dodges a slice from the beast.

"It certainly was not about saving you, if it makes you feel any better."

"Knowing that wouldn't even make anyone feel any better!"

Weiss manages to roll her eyes despite parrying Bahamut's tail from stabbing into her.

"You need to set your priorities straight," the princess states, the girl in red narrowly missing a slice to the head by the beast's claw.

"My -" she jumps atop the monster's arm and recoils into its face with a swing of her scythe, "- my priorities are straight! A burn to the face would have been horrible!"

What a petulant child, Weiss thinks bitterly.

"- RrRrrRraAAaaaAAaAaAaHhhHhHhhH!"

Weiss softens a hit to the side with a layer of ice she manages to grow beneath her clothes and over her skin. Her injured left arm skids painfully across the snowy floor, the bumpy walls of frosted cement cutting into the recently burned flesh.

She hears the girl's annoying voice amidst the ringing in her ears.

"Hey, you okay?!"

It takes longer than usual for her to get up, her vision blurring in and out as she gets to her feet. Must be because of that annoying child's voice...

"Don't worry, I'll finish it!" The girl yells out, attempting to be reassuring.

When her head finally stops spinning, Weiss quickly forms a circle under her and increases her speed, pulling Myrtenaster back just as the girl swings her large weapon. They both parry the incoming claws that come crashing down towards them, Weiss sliding beneath the monster to slash at its legs and tail, the girl in red assaulting its arms and torso.

The spray of black liquid gushes at every cut they make, the beast roaring in sheer pain as it stumbles backwards, into Weiss' glowing red rapier.

Weiss narrows her eyes despite the flames licking at the beast's black flesh. Something begins to move and protrude from the monster's back and Weiss has to jump back when black liquid shoots out as if to grab her.

The girl in red is standing clear from the monster several feet away as Bahamut continues to roar. Weiss watches how the black formless thing begins to structure itself into giant wings. Before she realizes its intention to escape, Bahamut is already in the air, drips of black leaving a trail in its wake.

Weiss is driven to go after it.

It's mere impulse that moves her limbs, moves her legs and makes her brain register the drips of black that stain the white snow. She manages to take several steps before the girl in red calls out to her.

"Hey!" Weiss attempts to ignore the girl entirely, continuing her motion to follow the trail. "We make a great team, don't we?"

Her frustration begins to rise when the girl pops up right in front of her.

"Don't think so much of it." Weiss sheathes her rapier, dusting herself off from excess snow that stains her torn dress. "You were just bait."

The girl actually manages to look horrified.

Weiss attempts to make up for her blunt honesty; though not entirely.

"At least you were good at it,"

She thinks it's all she has to say to get the girl to leave her alone before little red begins chirping all over again.

"The name's Ruby! Ruby Rose," the girl says confidently, jabbing a thumb to her chest for unnecessary emphasis.

Weiss ignores her blabbering introduction, sidestepping the girl and continuing her walk onwards. She has no time for such petty conversations.

She almost groans behind her indifference when the girl - Ruby - sidles up beside her again.

"You look really familiar, y'know?"

When Weiss bothers to actually look to her left to see the girl's analytical eyes, she doesn't miss how Ruby's expression shifts into surprise in an instant.

The awe-struck tone in her voice isn't difficult to notice.

"Wait, aren't you–?!"

Weiss doesn't wait for Ruby to finally connect the dots. The girl in red continues to sputter incoherent syllables as Weiss trudges onwards once again, quickening her pace.

"You're that frozen princess!" Ruby finally lets out something coherent amidst all the squealing and shrieks of glee she had spat out.

This girl is loud.

She isn't quite sure whether it's a good or bad thing that this child knows her true identity.

"Come to my place so we can talk about how you woke up!"

Definitely a bad thing.

"No."

"Pleeeaaaaaase?"

Weiss ignores the sound of footsteps that continues to trail after her.

She almost lashes out when she feels Ruby's hand tentatively grasp at her elbow, the simple touch sending a burning sensation across her burnt skin. Weiss at least has enough self-control to just yank her arm back instead and dismisses the hurt look the girl momentarily displays before it disappears and is replaced with stern determination.

Small tinges of worry spills from Ruby's lips as she clasps her hands together in front of her, as if to make up for the implicit rejection Weiss had just given her.

"And you're hurt, so..." Weiss narrows her eyes and a snappy retort almost leaves her mouth - 'I'm fine on my own,' - before Ruby intercepts as soon as the princess' lips begin to motion. "... what if it gets worse? I know you're tired and you're still bleeding-"

"I'm fine."

Ruby's face shifts from concern to frustration in seconds that Weiss has to remind herself that she was still a child.

"- and no one will be there to take care of you?"

"I. Said," Weiss punctuates her words to prove her point, "I'm. Fine."

"Not for long,"

The princess narrows her eyes at how defiant the girl has become. To think she bothers to even defy her. How ignorant.

"I will actually burn you," she states through clenched teeth, "if you will continue to get in my way."

"Then do it."

Weiss is on a mission for her lost crown. She has no direction, no resources, to use at her pleasure. She has no lead or map to tell her where she needs to go. Now a remnant of Bahamut is on the loose and she is to blame for it.

Weiss considers the pros and cons of dealing with such a child for an extended period of time, but seeing as how the only con was a headache whenever the girl's voice reaches a particular pitch, Weiss thinks she can handle it.

She'd be careless if she were to dismiss any sort of contact that can help her adjust and gather information in this timeline.

Deciding that this was a tactical choice for survival, Weiss relents.

"And this is where I'm staying at!"

Ruby watches how Weiss stares curiously at the large entrance, the revolving doors evidently catching most of her attention.

"How... does it exactly do that?"

Ruby shrugs. How would she know?

They manage to make it through, though much longer than necessary since Weiss spent most of the time timing each rotation of the door and deducing calculations that Ruby could hardly stand all the fancy math lingo and basically pulled her by the wrist just to get in.

She was cold!

They finally make it to the lobby after Weiss' several failed attempts to exit the revolving does. It was either she didn't realize that she was supposed to leave the doors once the opening to the lobby appeared, or that the princess was too fascinated with the door itself to even fathom leaving it without properly analyzing it first.

Ruby honestly doesn't know which.

Once they reach the elevators, Ruby notes the sudden discomfort placed on the princess' face. But before she gets to comment on it, Weiss opens the topic for her.

"It's warm,"

"Well," Ruby starts, letting one hand rub her elbow as they wait for her floor. "Considering how the blizzard was earlier, it's no wonder they increased the temperature."

Weiss doesn't say anything more despite the clear indication of pursed lips and furrowed brows.

When they walk down the hall heading for her temporary room, Ruby spots how Weiss is beginning to lag behind.

Though when she looks over her shoulder to check on the quiet princess, Ruby can't help but blink her eyes several times just to make sure she was seeing things.

She remembers Weiss' skin tone being a snowy pale. So why does it look like she got even paler than she already was? Her skin now was practically a sheet of white!

"Um," Ruby breaks the silence that currently haunts the two of them, "are you... feeling okay?"

Her voice comes out with slight hesitance at the stern expression Weiss has on her face.

The princess' voice is as rigid as her posture.

"I'm fine."

Ruby doesn't buy it, but it doesn't look like she can do anything more as she hovers near the door to her and her sister's room. Maybe the heat's getting to her.

It would certainly make sense, knowing how Weiss was the princess of ice. Maybe that's why Weiss seems almost fearful of the warmth, because the White Palace maintained a temperature below at least fifteen degrees. Perhaps having been frozen asleep in ice influenced her reception of heat, too.

Whatever it is, Ruby hopes the paling of Weiss' skin was just a normal thing.

"We're here," Ruby reminds Weiss, though feels doubtful of her choice in bringing her over when she sees how far away the princess is from the door. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Weiss' disgruntled response doesn't make the doubt stop growing in her head.

"I..." the woman in white pauses to swallow just to finish the rest of her sentence, "... I'm fine..."

The princess' shallow breathing doesn't go unnoticed.

Ruby's face shifts to worry and the tremor in her voice isn't hard to miss.

"I knew things would get worse, so just stay where you are; I'll get the first aid kit." She reaches for the knob and twists, not yet opening the door. "Wait here, okay?"

Weiss' slight nod is enough to get Ruby moving.

When Ruby finally pushes the door open, Weiss is left screaming.

It burns.

It burns. It burns. It burns. It burns.

She's burning.

Weiss crunches from where she stands, hardly even close to the door. She made sure she was as far from it as possible, but to think she underestimated the enormous heat that she already felt from the lower floors—

"WEISS?!" She can barely hear Ruby's own panicked shrills amidst her screams and the fire eating away at her.

She was careless.

Her hands are already making the motions to counteract with the blaze, but even when she manages to finally cast a circle beneath her feet and she's submerged in a giant ice berg, she can feel her skin sizzling from the sudden drop in temperature, smoke erupting from red, red, skin.

It burns. It burns. It burns.

That's all that matters in her head right now. That it burns.

Weiss can only hear Ruby's muffled cries, unable to understand her words because of the many layers of ice she made sure to coat herself with. Her shield is too thick to hear or see through.

And to think she even lowered her own body temperature several degrees to rival ice itself...

She should have known. She should have been more aware. She should have been more careful.

Weiss can feel the burns on her skin gradually turn numb, the scorching sensation finally dwindling. For now, as she shuts her eyes and curls into herself, allowing the ice to tend to her injuries - even for a little while - Weiss lets herself rest.

This was what excruciating pain felt like. She remembers it; it's been so long. Weiss doesn't miss it, the feeling.

... It hurts.

"WEISS?!"

Ruby doesn't understand how it had happened. She doesn't understand at all.

One minute, Weiss was merely a pale princess following her to her room, and then the next, she was literally a burning ball of flame.

"WEISS!"

Ruby continues to bang her fist against the ice berg, unable to see the other girl through the frozen water. The giant glacier was practically stuck in the middle of the hallway, slivers of ice creeping up the walls, ceiling, and floor from its source.

What just happened?

"What's with the giant ice pack, sis?"

Ruby yelps when Yang appears beside her, already inspecting the giant glacier with sleepy eyes.

"Yang! Help me break this thing,"

Ruby ushers the older woman closer to the frozen block, Yang still clearly half-asleep as she stumbles to the ice berg. Yang merely rubs at her eyes with the back of her hand before tentatively touching the glacier out of curiosity - though mostly just to balance herself.

Her eyes widen when her hand begins to melt the ice beneath her skin.

"Since when could you do that?!" Ruby yelps in surprise, though moves closer to her sister to inspect the melting ice.

"I... I don't know,"

"Well, whatever you're doing, don't stop!"

Yang merely cocks an unsure glance towards Ruby.

She does as she's told, though not without a growing doubt, and leaves her hand over the frozen block. She even lifts her other hand to touch the ice and lets them both burn through the cold wall, taking tentative steps forward once the ice begins to sink in.

She realizes being close to the structure was enough to get it to melt through with just her body temperature.

"Do I just keep going, or...?" Yang asks warily.

"Yes! Keep doing what you're doing!" Ruby answers as soon as she finishes.

Yang wonders why she even bothered getting up from her warm, comfortable bed. Now she was left melting through an ice berg in the middle of a hotel's hallway as if she was some sort of hot pack, when she could just be getting her much needed beauty sleep, instead.

Her choices in life clearly still sucks.

Like winning this trip just to go to the coldest city in all of Vale and look at a frozen Palace with ice as its actual structure! She did not sign up for all this cold she's currently forced to go through!

And what the heck was Ruby still awake for at such an ungodly hour?!

Yang's mental rant pauses abruptly when she spots a woman in white curled into herself like a ball in the centre of the glacier.

"Err, I think I got something!"

Though she isn't sure if a woman was what she was supposed to be looking for.

"Hurry and get her out of there!" Ruby's panicked cries register quickly in Yang's now awakened state.

Feeling just as jumpy as her little sister from the worry that spills from Ruby's voice, Yang grasps at the sleeping woman's wrist and tugs. If it's to save a person, then she certainly needs to get herself together.

"Um," she lets out, doubt creeping into her bones as she calls for Ruby, the sight making her hesitate at what she's doing. "I think I'm burning her,"

"What?!"

Yang notes how her palm is making the white woman's wrist turn red. The skin is sizzling from her touch - and her hold wasn't even remotely tight! - smoke beginning to erupt from such a small contact.

"Do I still—"

"Just pull her out fast!"

Yang doesn't let Ruby repeat it twice, yanking as hard as she could to rip the unconscious woman from her frozen cocoon. The temperature within the glacier is suddenly getting colder than before and it makes Yang slightly worried. Wasn't she already melting it?

Her thoughts get interrupted when her arm goes deathly cold. The sudden drop in temperature makes her blood's movement go to a slow, the numbing sensation making her arm immobile, forcibly letting the woman go. Her fingers are freezing.

She sees that her arm is engulfed in ice.

Yang flares at the sight. She hates the cold.

A/N

Well. That was a thing. Definitely a lot longer than my previous three chapters. Hopefully the fight scene wasn't too awful to read. And yeah, some humour has been mixed in because well, I think it tends to follow Yang and Ruby around like a puppy. It's hard not to write some when either of those two are involved.

Yes. You've read it right. Weiss basically got burned. And I realized half-way through this chapter that I like to write about people almost/or are, getting burned. I mean, Ruby nearly got burned - twice, Blake/Bahamut got burned on the back, and Weiss got legitimately burned twice. I think I finally realized what kind of person I am. So I tried to even it out and froze Yang's arm at the end. Oh whales.

To answer a fellow reviewer's question - which may, or may not, interest the rest of you - regarding whether there will be pairings in the story, the answer is no. I mean, all you readers have to do is put those Yaoi/Yuri/Hetero goggles on and voila; you've got pairings. I always found myself enjoying non-romantic stories more so than actual romance-based ones simply because I get to over exaggerate all the 'subtleness' and things like that. But yeah, there won't be any pairings. If there were, you'd need to be a ninja to catch it.

Like before, thank you once again for all the faves, follows, and reviews. Please do continue to spoil me with your endless expressions of internet love. It makes me feel fluffy inside.