CHAPTER 2

Weiss looked down at her scroll which lay in her lap. Displayed on its screen was a white ticket. The cold, unfeeling white of the slip and the black barcode displayed under it stared back at her. She sat next to a window, and if she had gazed out of it, she would have seen an equally hostile landscape; Atlesian greys and blacks covered by a layer of snow so deep that a person could drown in it.

It was an hour before her scheduled flight, and she was in the VIP lounge of the airship terminal. She flipped the scroll over, as if to look at the back of the ticket but only saw the reverse-image and backwards-text of the image on the other side. It was a meaningless action that only reflected her hesitation, as if she was waiting for something that she didn't even know she was waiting for to come.

Attention all passengers waiting for flight A2847, due to unexpected complications, your flight has been delayed until further notice, please listen carefully for future announcements, we apologise for the inconvenience.

Weiss perked her head up as the announcement came to an end. She scowled at the thought of being delayed, though more out of habit than for any real annoyance that the voice over the comms brought. She looked back towards her scroll once more time, this time sighing out of frustration realising that she was not going to get anything done if this continued. She pocketed her scroll as well as a golden slip that lay beside it, giving the collars of her jacket a gentle tug then leaving the otherwise empty lounge.

As her luggage had been checked in hours earlier, she wandered the shuttle-port to her heart's content. There was little to do, one of several dissatisfactions plaguing her. She could have reread the materials assigned for her entrance into Atlas Academy, a set of textbooks that she had already finished a fortnight after receiving them, not to mention the supplementary study given by her private tutors had been completed as well. Even in the face of her trademark Schnee upbringing, she was, less than tempted to search for more reading material. Ultimately, they were re-hashes of information she already knew. She eventually settled for a private lounge, situated away from the majority of the traffic, sipping a decorated Frappuccino while idling through ambient magazines.

Though she was several decades away from becoming the head of the Schnee Dust Company, there were still small areas of the company she oversaw. Jacques Schnee had moulded her into the ideal heiress and company asset after Winter had abandoned the company for the military. It had left Weiss facing more than her fair share of her father's outbursts as he funnelled his anger towards her. Both her singing career and her planned huntress training were little more than figurative medals around her neck, purely for the public image of the Schnees.

A half-hour passed. Thrice she had heard announcements concerning her delayed flight. The people that filled the lobby continued to filter through to their respective flights. Her flight had been rescheduled to leave in an hour and a half's time, leaving her an hour remaining left to herself. The entrance to the cafe would chime every now again as the door was opened, and rang once more as a man entered who chose to specifically sit on the opposite side of her table for two. Apart from her and the stranger, there were only four or five other groups sat in the café, there were many other tables to choose from.

Which made the intrusion of her privacy that bit more infuriating when the stranger had the audacity to pull out a flask from his jacket and proceeded to down a brown liquid that could have only smelt of alcohol, as did his breath.

"Are you okay there sir?"

A waiter walked up to their table, not intending to come across as rude but also visibly confronting the stranger. He balanced several cakes and cups of coffee atop a tray that he held with one hand. Despite whatever he had intended to achieve, the stranger barely acknowledged the person next to him, throwing a large handful of lien onto the waiter's tray before he slammed his flask back onto the table.

"Get me a drink and the most expensive thing on the menu, I'm absolutely starved."

The waiter gave him a questioning look, before he turned around and apologised towards Weiss.

"I'm sorry if he's bothering you miss, if you want, there are plenty more seats in the shop for you to choose from."

He walked away after receiving no confirmation from her, Weiss had her eyes focused on the person opposite her. The waiter gave up, walking to another table to deposit the items on his tray before returning to the counter.

"Who do you think you are?"

The man who sat opposite her paused, his flask already halfway up to his lips to finish the last drops of alcohol in it. He flashed a wink and a mischievous grin,

"Dashingly handsome and someone way out of your league missy," and the contents within the flask disappeared down his gullet. Weiss was well on the way to growing a noticeable shade of red and had her rapier not been in her luggage, she was sure she would have drawn it on him, or maybe thrown something and hoped that said something gave him more than a black eye.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" she ground out between her teeth. She slowly placed her scroll onto the table, and let her hand drift towards the empty cup that sat in front of her.

The person sitting opposite her just slammed the bottom of his flask onto the table, belching loud enough to even attract the attention of a few passerbys.

Just as Weiss took aim with the cup, she was interrupted by a stack of sandwiches that dropped onto the table in between the two of them. To say it was substantial was an understatement: It managed to reach eye level for her, and easily looked like it contained more than just a single loaf of bread's worth of sandwiches.

Both quality of, and variety within were nothing to scoff at either. Even though she wouldn't have admitted it, Weiss found her eyes lingering on the immense variety of meats and other fillings,

"Sorry it took so long, here's your order for the Hunter's special and your Atlesian Black sir, if there is anything else either of you need just call for me ok?"

If the waiter was aware of the situation he managed to defuse, he did not show it. The man opposite Weiss quickly took a half-sandwich and stuffed half of it into his mouth while she slowly gawked at the audacity of both the waiter and the stranger. Her face was rapidly developing a flush that threatened to turn her into something akin to a cherry wearing white.

"You're one of the Schnees aren't you?"

The stranger squeezed a sentence that was surprisingly audible through his stuffed mouth.

"Took you long enough," she scoffed.

The man gave a single eye-roll, picking up the cup of dark coffee to wash the last of his sandwich down, already reaching for his third.

"Wow, sure are one for conversa-HACK"

The room was violently shaken with the stranger's coughing fit. He immediately got up and dashed away from the table to reach the potted plant that sat behind Weiss, violently spewing the black liquid into the roots as he grabbed hold of the pot that it sat in. The barista who sat behind the coffee machine at the back of the shop smiled in satisfaction, as well as the waiter who tried to hide his own behind his tray.

"What the hell is this shit?"

The taste that pervaded his mouth was something akin to what he had described as 'the malformed offspring between a bottle of drain cleaner and pure caffeine'. For a brief moment, Weiss felt a twinge of sympathy for the stranger, as she already had first hand experience with the beverage. Even her sister agreed with her harsh criticism of the drink, as much as it went against classic Atlesian patriotism. Said sympathy was quickly brushed aside. She set her cup down and had reached back for her scroll but only brushed her hand against the tabletop.

She whipped her head around. Her eyes fell on the stranger who stood beside her. He was swiping back and forth across her scroll, whistling as he looked through it.

"Wow snowflake, offers from both Atlas Academy AND Beacon? Colour me impressed."

"Oi! Give that back to me! What the hell are you doing?"

She leapt up from her chair, immediately trying to snatch the device out of the stranger's hands, who took a step back and raised his arm upwards so that the scroll was even further out of reach for Weiss than it began with, all the while messing around on the screen, always keeping enough space between him and Weiss so that she was unable to simply jump up and grab it. The exchange lasted for a half-minute, with the stranger almost falling over their empty chairs twice as he danced around the table.

"What the hell! What is your problem?!"

She tried to grab him this time, trying to snatch a hold on his jacket as he attempted to run another lap around the desk. In return he placed one hand on the table and flipped over it with a surprising level of dexterity for someone who was well on the path towards intoxication.

"Hup hup missy, hands off the merchandise."

She was absolutely furious. This time Weiss properly grabbed her cup and pelted it at the stranger. It looked as if it was going to connect well with his jaw, and the pairs of eyes that were in the room traced the white espresso cup as it flew towards the stranger. It arced slightly in the air, almost brushing his jaw.

In a single, effortlessly quick motion, he swiped it out of the air, examining the cup briefly as if some intricate artwork was carved into its side.

"Now missy.. Don't you think that was just a bit uncalled for?"

Weiss silently fumed, her frustration leaving little room for her own public appearance despite the fifteen or so pair of eyes looking at her. There was a stand-off between the two, Weiss's ice-cold glare matching the dishevelled man's smirk. The silence within the small cafe, barr the faint conversations and footsteps that remained outside… and the very audible buzz and chime of Weiss's scroll beginning to go off. The stranger took one look at the device, eyes quickly flickering from amusement to indifference before throwing it unceremoniously back to Weiss. She fumbled it twice before managing to catch it with both hands.

Caller: Winter Schnee

Weiss looked at the caller ID, before looking back and forth between her scroll and the stranger, who seemed to suddenly lose interest in whatever fiasco he had created before.

"Hey, aren't you going to answer it?"

She glared briefly again at the stranger, who managed to return it with a somewhat entertained and satisfied smile. Despite her distrust to the stranger she still answered the call, raising the device to her ear to listen in to her sister in private.

"Hello?"

Hello Weiss, where are you right now?

"I'm at the shuttle terminal right now, my flight was scheduled for noon."

But it's 1 right now.

Weiss rolled her eyes, noticing the figure that stood before her slowly move back to the table, again scoffing down another slice of sandwich. She looked at him in disgust, but didn't get any response as he seemed to have lost all interest in her, which made her even more and yet less infuriated at the same time. She gave up and decided to sit down again at her table.

"I know, my flight's been delayed so I've been stuck here for the past hour."

Huh… Ironwood told me you might be around. Which terminal are you in? I have two hours before my next errand.

"You're here?"

You sound surprised. As weird as it may sound, even soldiers have days off Weiss.

Weiss immediately stood up from her chair, walking to the front of the cafe to check the numbered terminal she was at.

"Outside terminal 9, I'm in the cafe beside it."

Okay. I'll be there.

The line disconnected.

She turned around, and Weiss found herself again walking to her table. The plate was now only filled with crumbs, and the chair that was opposite her own was neatly pushed in. It took her a few seconds to realise that someone was missing.

"Where did that scoundrel get off to?"

She turned both left and right, before making eye-contact with the barista who shrugged as to the stranger's whereabouts.

Five minutes later the front bell chimed again. Weiss looked up expectantly from her scroll, and her eyes found themselves pointed at a familiar face, white hair and blue eyes similar to her own, possessing a different form of grace that also radiated her own authority. Even despite this, her gaze still held a particular warmth for her sister that none else in her family had for her.

"Winter!"

"Weiss." She replied. She made her away across the room and took the seat opposite her, stopping Weiss as she attempted to stand up to pull out Winter's chair for her.

"No need for such formalities, we're sisters. I'm not even on duty anyway so I'm as much of a citizen as you are right now."

Weiss flushed a bit as she sat back into her chair. Winter gave her a warm smile as she sat down, removing her scabbard so that she could lean her sabre against the table, as she did with both her elbows as well.

"So, Weiss, how have you been? It's been a while since we last talked."

Weiss clasped her hands around her (new) cup of coffee.

"Yeah, it has been several months, hasn't it?"

Winter hummed in response, gesturing towards a waiter to take her order.

"Indeed it has. I heard from Ironwood that you got an offer from Atlas Academy, not that I ever doubted your skills but I am impressed."

"Not only that…"

Winter turned back to Weiss as she reached towards the pocket of her jacket, pulling out the yellow ticket from earlier, and sliding it across the table. Winter picked it up, examining the front and back of the ticket.

"Beacon Academy?"

Weiss nodded slowly, taking a sip of the coffee in her hands.

"I received a personal offer from the headmaster."

Winter looked carefully on both sides of the slip before handing it back to Weiss.

"Not that I have worked with many, but all of the colleagues I have worked with before that have graduated from the academy, have been of exceptional character and ability."

"I know.." Weiss wanted to slump into her chair.

"You're worried?"

Weiss nodded. "Not only that, Ironwood made a specific request for me to consider attending Beacon, though father was more than a little against it."

Winter tilted her head at her sister, "He didn't tell me that."

Weiss was surprised for a moment, thinking back on the few words that she received on her scroll from the headmaster months ago. Winter waved it off, assuming that Ironwood had his own reasons for his words. Their father did not have the best relationship with the headmaster of Atlas, but her enrollment in the academy would allow for her father to retain his influence over her sister. She paused for a moment, deep in thought.

"Ironwood is not daft, he would have his reasons in telling you so."

Weiss only nodded slowly to her sister's reasoning, and her sister could see that her mind was in another place.

"So which one will you take?"

"Atlas."

Winter raised a single eyebrow, looking at Weiss who didn't really look at any space in particular except at her still full cup of coffee.

"I see…" She murmured. "I am assuming it is to follow the words of father?"

"What choice do I have?"

"What choice did I have?" Winter asked back.

There was a moment of silence between the two, save for the other conversations happening within the small shop. Weiss refused to make eye contact with her sister, until she felt a hand placed on top of her own which clasped the side of her cup. Winter wore a sympathetic expression,

"It's not my place to tell you what to do either, and we could always continue this conversation later anyway. Tell me, how is Klein treating you back home? It's been a while since I talked to the old man."

Weiss welcomed the change of subject, and the conversation between the two lasted for a while. She would bring up her subject choices, and then Winter would reply with her own reminiscence of her high school days, as if she had not only graduated five years ago. Before long, a half hour had passed, and Winter had also ordered a drink of her own.

All passengers waiting for flight A2967, your flight has been cleared for departure and boarding will now commence in terminal 19. All passengers awaiting flight A2967 please make your way to terminal 19, thank you.

Winter paused at the announcement, looking back at Weiss's scroll that lay on the desk.

"Isn't that your flight?"

Weiss waved it off, picking up her scroll to check the time.

"It isn't, the flight was scheduled for terminal 9 and it's still not leaving for another 15 minutes."

Winter shrugged her shoulders, and watched Weiss flick through her scroll. It took a moment for her to pause, then quickly flick back, the ticket's reverse showing through the back of the scroll. Winter clearly saw the black text printed against the white slip, but also saw the number that was printed in the middle of it.

"That's not terminal 9."

Weiss's face flushed red, and her finger whipped back and forth on her scroll as confusion slowly turned to panic in her eyes.

"But- I could have sworn- Wha?"

"Weiss, maybe you should run."

Weiss nodded twice in agreement, quickly pocketing her scroll and muttering a few goodbyes to her sister.

She scrambled out of her chair, rushing past the counter and leaving an amount of credits that was probably well in excess of what she had to pay for, leaving Winter to watch her almost trip over an elderly seated couple on her way out of the small store. The front door closed behind her with a jingle, and Winter saw her disappear into the crowd towards her flight. As soon as she lost sight of her sister, Winter's gaze returned to the seat opposite her and the raven that sat atop it.

"I know you were watching."

The bird tilted its head in response, before expanding, first into a quickly growing black mass that quickly became the same, dishevelled man from before.

"I do believe we haven't been formally introduced yet before?"

Winter summoned a small glyph below the table, and a white fox emerged under the table, curled in on itself as if it was sleeping.

"Don't mind it. Atlesian fox Grimm are known for muffling the sounds of their surroundings to stalk humans. With this we will be able to talk without being listened to."

"Qrow Branwen, I believe you are the little birdy that Ironwood sent?"

Winter judged qrow silently, specifically noticing the scent of alcohol that seemed to float around him.

"Winter Schnee. Yes, I shall be the one working with you on this mission."

Qrow whistled, it bugged Winter.

"To think that Ironwood would trust me on a mission with his personal liege, I'm honoured."

She scoffed at the claim, ignoring the lack of tact that of the person sitting opposite her.

"Floor 0, I have several other soldiers expecting you, we'll be departing in half an hour so …"

He had already started to filter out the conversation, noticing the yellow slip that Weiss had left behind on the desk. He picked it up, and examined both sides without any particular interest.

"... and if you need anymore questions you can ask me, preferably before we are to board the flight."

"Yes, of course, any questions at all, gotcha."

To maintain her professional air, Winter limited her actions to at most an eye-roll. The fact that she felt like she was dealing with the equivalent of a drunk man-child who was fascinated with some toy he found on the floor was not helping at all.

"I'm sure you have, may I ask you why you find that piece of paper so fascinating?" The thought of kicking him under the table briefly flickered through her mind, to perhaps persuade him to actually make an effort to pay attention.

He snorted, flashing a smirk at Winter and making no other effort to reply.

Clouds blew past her window, and Weiss found herself in the company of golden silence, thinking back on the conversation she had with her sister. She eyed the inside of the first-class room, finally managing to settle down after the shuttle had taken off. Not in the company of any others, she flopped onto the bed, letting her hair fan out onto the mattress behind her. There was a small beep over the PA system, followed by an automated message.

"Thank you all for travelling with Vale Airways, we are 7 hours out from your destination at Vale, the weather is clear today so all travellers can expect a fast and gentle service, thank you."

'7 hours left… until we reach Vale…' She thought to herself.

'Vale.'

'Vale?!'

She panicked and raced to the window. Sure enough, below her, through the clouds she could just barely make out the faint outline of atlas slowly disappearing into the horizon.

"Surely, there has to be a mistake,"

She hurried to grab her scroll, opening it up to her ticket as quickly as possible. It was still the same black and white as the Atlas flight ticket, though half of the details were different from what she had remembered. The emblem printed into the top left, was also no longer the Atlas Emblem, instead replaced with the same two interlocked axes of Vale that was on the other ticket. Not a second after she began taking all of it in, her scroll buzzed in her hands.

Hello Miss Weiss Schnee, glad to hear that you accepted our offer into Beacon. We will be looking forward to having you with us this year.

Regards: Ozpin.

...

"What!?"

SHIROU

The morning after, he found himself waking well before the sun had appeared, yet even in the morning there was a degree of haste that could be felt within the hospital. Doctors and nurses would constantly walk up and down the hallway outside of his ward. He didn't really pay much attention but as the hours passed, the hospital only seemed to grow more and more alive. The pace only made the morning hours pass ever faster, and before he knew it the nurse who was taking care of him for the past day had returned, with the riding crop lady from yesterday in tow. (

A brief conversation was shared, and after it ended, he was given a tray of what he could only assume were his belongings. A tablet almost identical to the one that the riding-crop-lady had held, if not smaller, small enough that it would have been able to fit in his pocket if he wanted it to. There also lay a folded pile of clothes next to it, as well as a small envelope that was laid on top of the clothed bundle.

"Normally you would collect whatever belongings upon leaving, but there was not much for you, so April thought it would do to bring them up for you anyway."

He looked briefly at the nurse who was setting the clothes down on the table at the foot of his bed. She smiled at him before rolling the tray out again, leaving Shirou to sit up and examine the objects himself.

"We've provided you clothing for when you leave, I'm sorry if it's not what you're used to, but it would have to do. I doubt you would find the hospital gown as a fashionable means of casual-wear."

His eyes skimmed over the clothes, noticing the tablet and the envelope. Upon further inspection he had never recalled ever seeing anything quite like it. The middle was completely transparent, as if made up entirely out of glass, as if the screen took up the entire body of the device, and not a single button was seen anywhere on it.

'Maybe it's an American brand or something..?' he thought. It was completely different from the flip phones that he was used to, the only device that he could reasonably compare it to.

"You're free to use the bathroom to change, as well as shower if you so wish, though we have already bathed you yesterday. Other than that, you are allowed to leave today but are more than welcome to stay another week if you feel that it's necessary."

Shirou nodded in confirmation. There were a few more words traded in between the nurse and riding-crop-woman before he was escorted to a seperate room by the nurse, who left his belongings on a bench inside the room before leaving.

"I'll be right outside if you need me okay? Just give me a knock if you need any help."

And that left Shirou alone in the washroom. He noticed the layout of the small room, the shower was situated on one side, walled off by two glass panels that stretched down from the ceiling. Other than that, there was also a washing basin on the wall opposite, below a glass mirror that stretched from the basin to the ceiling.

Deciding the shower was a good choice as any at this point, he removed his gown, noticing a bandage still wrapped around his chest. The staff probably forgot to remove it.

He walked over to the basin, looking into the mirror to try undo the bandage but not before making eye-contact with 'himself' in the glass

His reflection stared back at him through the mirror. Golden eyes met gold, but apart from that, those were the only similarities that the two bore. A tentative finger brushed against the softer jawline, tracing upwards to touch a burned cheek. His right hand, like his face, was also burned. There was a very distinct line of pale skin where the skin had turned from that of a natural tan to streaks of scarred white.

As if to hammer the last nail into the coffin, his other hand found the end of the bandage around his chest, and it fell to the floor, cementing Shirou's own confusion in an expression of mild shock and slowly growing embarrassment as he slowly lowered his gaze.

"You okay in there?"

Shirou flinched at the harsh rasp on the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine!"

The nurse that was taking care of him seemed to get the message and told him to call for help if he needed anything, leaving him to spare one last look at his reflection on the glass.

It only lasted for a second. The glare in the eyes were unmistakable, the same golden eyes, though with such determination that Shirou could not help but match her gaze. Three unspoken words were caught on the tip of his tongue.

'Who are you?'

And like that, the fire disappeared, the expression that he found in the mirror was again truly his, though on a borrowed face and body. He spent a good half-minute unnerved, his (or her?) legs refusing to move, before he decided that the person on the other side of the glass wasn't going to return. His feet slowly shuffled back from the mirror, before his found it in himself to avert his gaze, which wandered for a bit before landing on the bench beside him. His belongings still lay on it, where the nurse had left it.

'So these are 'mine'..'

The envelope was a simple, cream coloured rectangle, that was sealed with a wax seal in the shape of two crossed axes. He opened it, examining the paper that sat folded inside of it.

Central Tower. As soon as you're out.

Ozpin.

Running out of space in his brain in the morning to actually bother being confused by a letter from seemingly no-one (Well, nobody that he knew anyway), he folded it up again and tucked it into the shirt's breast pocket, leaving the envelope on the bench and reaching again for the pile of clothes. He decided to ignore the letter, he had more important matters at hand.

'Sakura and Rin are probably waiting for me..' he thought, suppressing an immature feeling of when he found a bra amidst the clothing pile, discarding it in favour of the bandage that he was already wound around his chest.

'Actually, I never found out how long I was here for.. I hope it's less than a week. Wait, will they even be able to recognise me?'

He paused, there was an even greater problem that he had found at the bottom of the pile, under the folded jacket and waistcoat that seemed to place him more at unease than the thought of having to put up with somehow explaining this to both an angry Rin and worried Sakura.

"You have got to be kidding me.."

The door to the bathroom rattled slightly as it was opened just enough to sit slightly ajar. The nurse that escorted him to the bathroom was alerted by the noise, quickly moving to try and assist Shirou.

"Miss Emiya, is everything okay?"

An eye peeked through the crack in the door, and her patient stood on the other side, still wearing the hospital gown leggings in her otherwise newly acquired Beacon uniform.

"Please tell me these also come with pants."

Author Notes

YEAH wassup,

So I didn't end up getting a beta reader so I just read it myself lol but yeah.

For those who didn't read my announcement which I would have taken down to post this chapter, I have had an unwelcome wake-up call that I simply no not have the time in my schedule to write at the speed which I originally intended, which is due mostly to my work-schedule as it is right now. That's not to say I will be stopping I will just be trying my best to write out new chapters with no set deadlines in place. (So I may end up taking anywhere between 2 weeks and 3 months to write a new chapter).

On the other side though, if I do successfully pull through for this year I will be much more free starting 2021 so hopefully I can squeeze it down to a monthly or twice-monthly release schedule, we'll just have to see.

But yeahhhh, feel free to criticize the chapter in the reviews, I will probably end up posting a re-write of this chapter (paragraph edits, wording, small stuff like that) with the next chapter since I did not really have a chance to get someone to beta this chapter. (I was too impatient and just really wanted to get this shit out because like, yooo wassup i actually managed to finish another chapter? Who could have thought)

With that in mind, probably by the next two chapters we can get Shirou to take his new body out for a test-drive, so yeah. Get ready for that.

Ramen-noodelzzz out.