They had returned to the command post quickly, the river guiding them towards their goal with haste. Despite all that was thrown at them, they had managed to take many of the supplies in the warehouse and bring them back to the one place that was left standing above the rubble. Beacon Academy, despite the poor condition it was in, was the last line of defense against a foe that had called for the total destruction of all Vale. It was the last truly safe haven for those who opposed the destruction of the White Fang and those who stood beside them.

After they had reached the dock, there was an airship already waiting to take them and the supplies back to Beacon. Ruby turned to see Ren standing next to the airship, waiting for them to arrive. Once he saw the red white and yellow trio, he made his way over to them. Weiss made her way towards the airship, passing by Ren with a simple wave hello. Yang put herself to work loading the crates onto the airships that were waiting for them to help the men and women move progress along quickly, leaving Ruby to talk with Ren.

"How did things go over there?" Ren asked.

"It went well, though Torchwick managed to escape with Neo while we were fighting the White Fang that was guarding the place," Ruby said in response. "Managed to get quite a number of supplies from them though, so that seems like a decent tradeoff."

"Yeah, it seems that way," Ren responded. He looked over to Weiss, who seemed to be looking tired as she leaned against the side of an airship. "You think she's ok?"

Ruby looked over to where Ren was looking, and she too noticed how Weiss appeared to be tired. "I'm sure that she's fine, probably just used up too much energy during the job," Ruby said.

"I'm not too sure of that, well, not entirely," Ren said.

Ruby turned her gaze to Ren, wondering where he was going with that. "What makes you say that?"

Ren turned to face Ruby. "Can't you tell that she's frustrated? She looks like she has this pent up anger and tension that needs to be released," Ren said. "You know what could be causing this?"

Ruby thought back on the job, how Weiss and Yang seemed to argue quite often during the journey over. She had to figure that Yang was the reason for her frustrations, so maybe Ren was right, maybe something was bothering Weiss. "During the job, Weiss and Yang kept getting into arguments. I tried to stay neutral throughout them, taking sides with both of them at different points, but it seems like the two of them would need to sort it out themselves."

Ren nodded, understanding what Ruby was trying to say. "Well then, why don't you go talk to her? Ask what's bothering her, and then try to go from there," He suggested to Ruby. "I would do the same with Yang as well, and then you could work out some sort of compromise."

Ruby smiled at the idea. "Thanks Ren, I really appreciate the advice," Ruby said as she began to walk over to Weiss. She stopped before stepping too far away and turned to face Ren again. "Um, before I go, I wanted to ask how you're doing."

The suddenness of Ruby's question caught Ren off guard. "Wait, what?"

"I wanted to know how it is that you're doing. You look like you're ok, but I want to know if you really feel that way," Ruby said.

Ren shook his head, knowing fully well where this was going. "If you're asking about how I'm feeling over what happened with Nora, then you don't need to worry. I'm not letting it bring me down anymore, it wouldn't be right to let the grief consume me when I still have work to do."

"I know you want revenge, Ren, we all do, but please, don't let it consume you," Ruby said. "Let us help you at least."

Sighing, Ren nodded. "I do appreciate the concern Ruby, and if I need your help, you'll definitely know about it. Now, I should probably finish helping with the cargo transfer. Shouldn't take too much longer so go get you and your team ready for the ride back to Beacon." Ren walked over to where the others were unloading the boats, only to load them onto the airships.

Ruby turned over to Weiss, who was staring out on the horizon. She walked over to the white haired sorceress, hoping to figure out what was going on with her friend. "Hey, you feeling ok Weiss?"

Weiss didn't even bother turning to face her. "Yeah Ruby, I'm fine. What makes you think that I wouldn't be?" Weiss said back to her.

"Well it's just that you seem, not fine," Ruby responded.

Weiss sighed. She had to hope that Ruby would at least listen to her. "You want to know so badly, fine," Weiss said as she turned to face Ruby. "I'm sick of your sister's 'woe is me' attitude. She keeps putting herself in positions where she is likely to die and yet she doesn't seem to care about it at all. One of these days it's going to get someone killed, and when that happens, I'll end up killing her myself over it." Weiss knew that Ruby wouldn't hear the next part, but she needed to say it anyway. "Especially if it was you."

Ruby just let her head hang down low. Weiss was right and she knew it, her own sister was walking down a very dark path that didn't seem to have a good outcome. "Believe me when I say this Weiss, but I hate seeing her like this," Ruby said to her friend. "She's my sister and if I can't talk to her and snap her out of this, then I'll feel like I failed her. I know it won't be easy, but I'll try to snap her out of it." Ruby and Weiss both looked over to Yang, who was busy working herself to death trying to get all of the crates onto the airships.

"See that you do," Weiss said.

Turning back to face Weiss, Ruby changed the subject. "So, aside from all that, is there anything else that you wanted to tell me?"

In Weiss' mind, she had quite a bit that she wanted to vent about, mostly about how Ruby has been treating her for quite a while now. She wanted to tell Ruby how she felt used by her, how she felt taken for granted on a near daily basis by her. Even if it wasn't Ruby's intention, or fault, she still made Weiss feel that way, and it hurt Weiss to see that the person she cared about the most, made her feel like nothing more than an object to meet some trivial goal.

"No, there's nothing else that I want to say," Weiss said, biting her tongue and keeping her own issues to herself. She didn't want to make Ruby feel guilty over this, it would hurt her to see that she caused Ruby to feel said. Despite how much Ruby infuriated her, Weiss just couldn't bring herself to tell Ruby what she was doing, her hidden love for the girl keeping her from doing just that. So Weiss stayed silent, letting it build up inside of her in the hopes that it wouldn't overflow onto Ruby one of these days.

Ruby just let her head hang low, she knew that Weiss wasn't in the mood to talk anymore. Even though she wanted to tell her how important she was, Ruby just couldn't do that right now, not while Weiss was pushing her away like that. "Ok, well if you do want to talk, you know where to find me," Ruby said solemnly, taking her leave and walking over to the airship and sitting down inside. She wanted to get back to Beacon, wanted to go back to the room they had set up for her and Weiss and just lay down until the day was over and she could sleep peacefully.

Watching Ruby walk away hurt Weiss, she hated doing that to her. Despite that, she had the right to be mad with Ruby, with Yang, with everyone. Taking her seat on the airship, she waited for everyone to finish boarding before they finally took off. The entire time she kept her eyes closed so that she wasn't bothered by anyone, not even Ruby. Her mind was stuck on other matters, the one common thought being the powers she had, and how she felt cursed because of it. Her mind constantly thought of herself being nothing more useful than a simple tool to be used at anyone's leisure, and it hurt her because she felt like no one saw her as a person anymore. She thought that no one recognized that she too had emotions, wants, needs, she too had a say in things, but she always felt like they had fallen on deaf ears.

Before she knew it, they had returned to Beacon, and Weiss walked away from the airship. She knew that Ruby would end up talking with Jaune and Commander Port about how the mission went, and so she decided to skip out on that to be by herself. She walked away, up to the one place she felt like she could be alone without disturbance. Opening the door of the roof where her old dormitory used to be, she looked out on the ledge and thought to herself about why it had to be her. Why did she have to be given this accursed gift of channeling the very powers of dust itself? Her mind flashed back to when she first learned of this power, all the emotional turmoil that came with what happened.

Flashback

When Weiss finally awoke from her month long coma after the first day of the war, she was confused. She wanted to know where she was, how long she was out for, why she was hooked up to medical equipment. Mostly, she just wanted to know where her teammates were.

The first thing she heard when she woke up was the sounds of a heart monitor beeping away as time passed. Her vision was blurred, and everything sounded faint, like someone had placed a filter over her ears. She groaned as she tried to move, but her body was still weak from her sleep. All of her attempts at moving were met with resistance and hardship, and she didn't know why.

Before she knew it, a nurse had walked in and noticed that she was awake. "Miss Schnee, please don't try to move. You need your rest so that your body can readjust," The nurse said, confusing Weiss even more. Why would her body need to readjust, and to what? Before she could ask, the nurse had already walked out of the room in haste. Weiss thought she was going to fetch a doctor, but when she came back and there stood her partner, she was pleasantly surprised.

"R-ruby?" Weiss said weakly, her voice feeling dry and cracked. She wanted a drink of water to parch her throat, which Ruby had already brought for her from what it looked like. Taking a sip of the cool drink, Weiss felt the liquid relief shower her dry throat and start to heal her cracked throat. "Thank you." Weiss sounded much better after that, though she still sounded weak.

"Of course, I'm just glad that you're ok," Ruby responded. Weiss could tell that she was hiding something, Ruby looked like she had lots of bad news to speak of. "How are you feeling?"

Weiss thought about it for a second, she had so many questions that needed answering. "Where am I?" Weiss decided to start of with something simple.

"You're in a hospital, specifically back at Beacon's infirmary," Ruby said. "Do you, remember anything of what happened?"

It took some time but Weiss eventually remembered everything of what happened before she fell into this state. "I remember, fighting someone from the White Fang, and having to encase myself in ice to stop myself from being killed," Weiss recalled the fight, the pain in her chest that she felt as she activated the last of her freeze dust. Upon recalling the event, her chest flared up in pain and she gripped it with her hand. She realized that she was injured despite her desperate last attempt at saving her own life.

Ruby immediately jumped into action, taking a hold of the white haired girls hand in her own. She pushed a button on one of the machines, sending a dosage of pain killers into Weiss' body to help. After a few tense moments, Weiss finally felt relieved enough to loosen her grip on Ruby's hand.

"I, I guess I still didn't come away unscathed from that," Weiss said, hoping to lighten the mood when she saw Ruby's terrorized face. She could see the pain that Ruby was going through, something that Weiss knew she was causing somehow. "Ruby, how long was I out for?"

"A month," Ruby replied softly.

Weiss' eyes went side as shock took over her mind. "A month? How is that possible?" Weiss questioned, desperate for an answer. "And why aren't Blake and Yang here?"

Upon hearing her teammates names, Ruby let her head drop down. She hated having to tell this to Weiss, but it was going to be her saying it, or no one else. "Yang, is currently out on a mission right now," Ruby began to say. "Blake," Ruby paused, she didn't know how to say it. How do you go about telling someone that a close friend died? "Blake didn't make it."

Weiss felt tears in her eyes start to form. No matter how many times she heard it, or whether it was said differently or not, hearing that her friend had passed away tore her apart. She felt as if something was piercing through her heart, someone trying to play a cruel joke on her by saying that one of her closest friends was dead. "Oh, god dammit," Weiss said, holding her hand in front of her mouth and shutting her eyes. "God dammit why did this have to happen?"

"Weiss, I'm sorry that I had to tell you that," Ruby apologized to Weiss. "She died a month ago and even after this long I still couldn't find the right way to tell you this. God I'm so sorry for throwing this onto you."

"NO, don't start blaming yourself over this!" Weiss said, yelling to emphasize her words. "It's not your fault that I ended up in this hospital for a month as you tell me I have, so don't go thinking it is your fault."

"You're wrong," Ruby whispered.

Confused by Ruby's reaction, Weiss wanted to know what Ruby wasn't telling her. "What?"

"It is my fault you're in here," Ruby said. She turned her head upwards to look at Weiss, tears in her eyes as she explained everything. "When we first found you encased in ice, I was afraid that you were gone. Fortunately we were able to get you out of there, and we realized that you were still alive. What we didn't know, is that you had a short amount of time left before we couldn't save you. So, with the help of your father, we were able to infuse your body with every single type of dust so that your aura would be strong enough to heal yourself."

Weiss started to shake, she finally started to feel the energy of the dust coursing through her. "Y-you mean," Weiss said, unable to finish her thought.

"Yeah, it means that you are living dust, capable of controlling it's powers for your own purposes," Ruby said, trying to spin a positive light on the situation.

Weiss however, felt as if she was burdened with more unwanted power. She never wished for dust to become a part of her, and now that it was there, she wanted it gone. "Why," Weiss said, her voice growing angrier and angrier. "Why would you do this to me?"

"I did this so that you would still be alive," Ruby said. "Please, I'm sorry for all of this but if I didn't, then you wouldn't be here right now."

While Ruby's motives were genuine, Weiss didn't want to hear any of it. She didn't want this power, she never wanted any of it. "Get out," She whispered to Ruby. Before Ruby could protest the actions, Weiss cut her off. "GET OUT!" She shouted, waving her hand in front of her hoping to get Ruby further away from her. What she didn't realize, was that in doing so, she unleashed a wave of fire right towards Ruby that forced her to fall backwards onto the floor. When she realized what she had done, Weiss was afraid of herself, of what she had done. She wanted nothing more than to ask Ruby to forgive her for that, but she froze at what she had done.

Ruby stood up after a very tense moment and brushed herself off. She looked at Weiss with tears flowing from her eyes and nodded. "If that's what you want," Ruby said as she backed away from Weiss towards the door.

Once she saw Ruby leave, she let her head fall back onto the pillow and she started to cry, stricken with grief over what she had done.

Present Time

After Weiss finished recalling that memory, she remembered just how pained she felt when she did that to Ruby. It wasn't her fault that Weiss was like that, Ruby was just trying to save her friend after all. Even after apologizing to her over it, she saw that Ruby still blamed herself for it, still blaming herself today as well. Every time Ruby tried to blame herself for Weiss being what she was, Weiss always told her that she didn't blame Ruby for any of it. She would never blame Ruby for any of it.

It was a reminder of why she couldn't stay mad at Ruby for too long over the way she would ask Weiss to do the simplest menial task because of her abilities with dust. The dolt that she loved probably didn't even realize what she was doing, and since Weiss didn't want to make her feel guilty over it, she shouldn't stay mad at her. Ruby didn't know what she was doing, something that Weiss made sure of. She could stand being a little mad at times over feeling terrible at causing Ruby to go on a guilt trip.

Next thing she knew, there was someone opening the door behind her. Turning around to see who it was, she was met with a surprise in the form of Sun Wukong standing in the doorway. "Everything ok up here Ice Queen?"

Weiss shook her head at the moniker. "Please don't call me that, Sun," She responded.

"Sorry, just trying to lighten the mood a bit," Sun said as he walked over and sat down next to her. "So, you never answered my question."

Weiss realized that he wasn't going anywhere without an answer, so she gave him one. "Just, thinking about some personal things is all."

"You know, I saw Ruby a few minutes ago, and she looked upset for some reason," Sun said. "Figured you would be able to explain it. But I guess I can already tell what's going on."

"And what might that be exactly?" Weiss questioned.

"Ruby somehow upset you and you are choosing to push her away so she doesn't feel bad about it, and so that you can stop being mad at her over whatever she did," Sun said in a 'matter of fact' tone. When Weiss didn't respond, he knew he got it right. "I've seen you do this to her enough times already that I realized that's exactly it. Look, whatever reason Ruby upset you, you should talk to her about it. I know that you're trying to spare her feelings from getting hurt, but it hurts her when she sees you push her away."

"It's not that simple, Sun," Weiss responded.

"What makes you say that?"

"Because of how I actually feel for Ruby!" Weiss shouted before she could stop and think of what to say. Once she realized what she said, she knew she was caught. "The truth is, I love Ruby, like in a , more than a friend kinda way." Sun waited patiently for her to continue. "Either way I handle this, Ruby gets hurt because of me, and it pains me that it's all my fault. But in the end, I'd rather not cause it because of something stupid I said, and instead would rather she hate me for not being around. It'll make the pain I feel because of either option easier to get over in the end."

"You say that like you don't think you could ever be with Ruby," Sun responded.

"Honestly, I don't think it could happen, not after what I've become," Weiss said back.

Sun stood up, offering his hand to help Weiss to her feet as well. "You'll never know until you try," He said to her.

Weiss thought about it for a moment before taking his hand and letting him help her up. "I'll tell her, but not until I'm ready to do so," Weiss said. Sun nodded in agreement as the pair walked back into the building. "Sun, thanks for talking some sense into me. I know it'll take a while for me before I do talk to her, but I will do so eventually." Weiss finally felt better about all of this, at least for now. She knew it wouldn't be the last time she was upset with Ruby, or anyone for that matter, but at least now, she knew that she could give herself the chance to make things right.

AN: Yeah, that was quite a long time between chapters. Not gonna lie, had writers block for this AU, and I couldn't think of what to do for it after the last chapter. Fortunately I was able to come up with this little piece of development and background, and hopefully I'll have more of this story coming within the next few weeks.

Anyway, lots of character development, universe development, as well as some back story on some of the major points in this universe. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it all and thank you for sticking with this even after so long of a drop.