Breaking The Chains

2-DAY EARLY RELEASE FOR ALL MY PATRONS!

Listen, I enjoyed the Yang/Blake VS Adam as much as anyone else, believe me. It's just that from a writer's point of view, having Weiss be there with, or instead of Yang, makes a lot of sense. I just wanted to play around with the idea and give it my own two cents.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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													Breaking The Chains

Blake tunes her ears as she listens to the instructions of how to disable the tower's security. Weiss runs swiftly and silently beside her through the forest, casting the occasional glyph or two beneath their feet to help propel them forward more quickly.

Once Blake has gotten her marching orders, she hangs up her scroll and looks ahead to where she can just barely see the tower peeking above the trees now. Weiss turns to her, head titled slightly to one side.

"Do you think you can do it?"

Blake glances to her teammate in what she hopes to be reassurance.

"Sure thing. Like I said, this isn't the first time I'll be disabling Atlas security."

Weiss heaves a sigh.

"You're unbelievable."

Blake chuckles sheepishly.

Weiss casts them another glyph and they shoot forward a few dozen feet more in a split second. This is where they come to a brief pause.

"You're sure you'll be all right?"

Blake scans the area, which is quiet and still.

"I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be. Go help the others. I'll meet up with you soon."

Weiss holds her gaze for a second before looking past her toward the tower, then back over her shoulder towards the cliffs beyond the few miles of forest. That was the plan, for Weiss to get Blake to the tower as quickly as possible and only stay with her if she needed help. If not, she was to reenforce the others against Cordovin.

Blake seems confident in what she'll be doing, and Weiss doesn't see any reason not to go to the rest of the group.

"Fine," she says. "Just be careful. We'll be waiting for you."

"Thanks. You be careful, too."

And with this they part ways, Blake towards the tower and Weiss toward the cliffs.

Blake's ears flick back toward her teammate, at the sound her semblance creates when she runs, a tinkling like wind-chimes in the winter.

Blake pushes onward until she's reached the foot of the tower.

And much like the rest of her journey here, it's quiet. Not even her keen ears can detect any forms of muffled communication from any guards or radio transmission static. It doesn't feel right.

She takes a step back toward the forest, keeping to the shadows of the trees for cover. She knows time is of the essence for the others, but she dares to waste a minute to observe her surroundings. But she can't glimpse a single guard up on that tower.

Something twists in the pit of her stomach, but she can't abandon her mission. That would be the same as abandoning her teammates, and she'd already done that once. Never again.

So she creeps forward, not making a sound, and makes a silent leap up to the lowest level of the tower. No one opposes her.

She climbs higher and higher, finding it the same each time. There's no one here.

At least, not anyone who's supposed to be here.

That's when she notices the first guard, slumped back against the tower, motionless. She gasps and retreats several steps, senses on high alert now. It isn't that they aren't here. It's just that they've been silenced. Perhaps indefinitely.

"No..."

The word tumbles out of her mouth, both because she can't let anything interfere with her mission, and because she doesn't want to believe what part of her already knows.

It can't be him. There are a million other crooks and criminals that could've done this. It can't be Adam. It just can't be...

She draws her weapon and rushes close to the tower, using the structure as a shield. Her heart is in her throat, and the blood is rushing like an ocean through her ears. Everything inside her is so loud while the forest around her is eerily, unnaturally silent.

Her instincts tell her one thing and one thing only.

Run.

But she can't. Not this time. Not when her friends are depending on her. If they never make it to Atlas it will be her fault.

She's determined enough to make herself move in spite of the terror taking hold of her. She tries to keep quiet, but now every move she makes sounds so terribly loud.

She checks all around herself, in every possible direction and then some, before making the jump up to the next highest level. Two more slumped guards greet her, and her stomach heaves.

"Please no..."

And then all of her worst nightmares come true at the sound of a deep, snarling voice.

"Well, well, well..."

Blake presses herself back against the tower, but it's no use. Adam looks directly up at her from his position on the ground and reveals his teeth.

"Hello there, Blake."

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All the while as Weiss is racing through the snowy forest, she can't shake the sinking feeling in her chest.

She's felt this before.

It's the kind of dread that digs its claws deeply into her body and drags her down slowly.

It's the feeling that she's made a terrible mistake.

And it's so powerful she can't ignore it. It stops her in her tracks halfway to the cliffs to reenforce Ruby and the others. She doesn't want to risk speaking on her earpiece now, not if it means potentially interfering with an important message someone else might need to give.

But that's part of the reason for her discomfort. Blake had never reported in that she'd completed her task. And, knowing her, she should've done it by now.

It nearly makes Weiss nauseous, and she can't even properly explain it. She'd been raised on logic rather than instinct. It was against her nature as a Schnee to act on a feeling rather than factual evidence.

But if she'd learned anything at Beacon with her teammates, it was that sometimes you had to throw logic to the wind and trust your gut.

So with one final glance toward where she should be going, she turns and lets the digging claws pull her back the way she came.

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The harsh clang of metal on metal echoes through the forest as Blake puts every ounce of force she can muster into her blocks.

She can tell Adam isn't holding back either. He's swinging his sword as hard as he can, moving as quickly as possible, and pouring every bit of hatred he's ever felt into everything he's doing now. He's fighting to kill, and Blake knows it won't end this time until one or both of them is dead.

It can't be her. She won't let it be.

They fight viciously, with Adam ferociously trying to slice her throat and Blake fiercely trying to defend herself.

But she can't just defend this time. She can't just run away and hide. As much as she hates it, and as terrified as she is, she knows she's going to have to attack, and fight to kill. It's the only way.

But she can't bring herself to do it just yet. She can't possibly muster up that kind of courage.

So she does what she's always done, and what she does best.

She runs.

And he mocks her for it, scathing words that burn into her like the scar on his face. For every blow she hits, he hits her back twice. His blade comes close to her neck once more, but she twists just enough to have it cutting her jacket instead. She's almost glad to be without the extra weight, and continues running.

Maybe something else will happen. Maybe he'll have to let her go for now. Maybe...

But every time she glances back, he's hot on her heels, anger and hatred burning through his aura and making every swing of his sword turn crimson.

Blake is forced to stop when she reaches the waterfalls. She can't keep running. She's been hit and hurt too many times already, and running would only give him her back. She needs to stand and face him, as horrifying as it is. She needs to finish this.

And yet it's the very thought of killing him that causes her to hold back. She blocks more than she attacks, and when she does attack it isn't with her full potential or an unmistakable intent to kill. Her attacks lack the desire for blood.

Unlike his.

It's much easier for him, given the fact that he's killed dozens of people before, most of them innocents. It's child's play for him to murder a comrade. Blake had seen him do it. She'd just never imagined that someday she might leave him and earn the same fate in his book.

That's how he tries to get under her skin. He makes it her fault. As she raises her weapon to defend a blow from above, he snarls furiously into her face.

"I wouldn't have to be doing this if you'd just behaved!"

His grip burns on her wrist as he yanks her arm away, pulling his sword free from where she'd lodged it in Gambol Shroud's sheath. She hears the rush of air just seconds before the impact, but it happens so quickly she can't do anything to prevent it. He slams the hilt of his sword into her temple with concussive force, so viciously she's sure her skull has cracked.

It sends her flying into the dirt, utterly stunned. Numb with fear, she knows he could finish her right this very second.

But he's never been merciful with his kills. He'll take his time with her, make her suffer as much as possible.

She has to get up. If she doesn't, she'll never see her friends again.

"But you're selfish!"

His accusation echoes around the falls, and Blake pushes herself up with all the force she can muster. She leaps back just seconds before his sword comes down. But her head is still spinning and her chest is still throbbing in pain. She doesn't stay on her feet for longer than a few seconds before he's bowling her over again.

"You're a coward!"

The words sting almost as badly as the physical hits. She'd worked so hard trying to build herself back up from rock bottom. She'd tried so hard not to think of herself that way, or let herself believe her friends thought so poorly of her.

And now he's shoving it all in her face again.

Every time she pushes herself up he's striking her down again, back into the dirt where she'd started.

But she won't stay down. Not anymore.

Ears flat, she glares up at him with the one thing he hates most of all. Defiance.

"You're delusional."

He stalks toward her, blade searing and thirsty for blood. She crawls backward, but he's upon her in seconds, hovering his sword right over the old scar.

It's all she can do to life her weapon to block his strike, heavy with hatred and rage. It's so weighted by his fury that the force of it snaps Gambol Shroud in two. Blake's shoulder is nearly wretched from its socket, and her arm goes numb.

He advances on her again, more slowly this time. But the next time he reaches up, it isn't for his sword.

He removes the cloth from over his eyes to reveal the terrible scar, one she hasn't seen in years, but has always known was there. Her ears flatten just a little, and she has to look away, considering she personally knows the daughter of the very man whose company was responsible for those scars.

Adam's voice lowers into a growl, one that sounds almost sad, but only for himself. It's just like what he's always done. He'd yell and shout one moment, and then soften his voice the next, dragging her into a cycle of abuse and lies.

"People hurt me long before we met. All sorts of people in all sorts of ways. But no one hurt me quite like you."

He tries to pin it all on her. Tries to weigh her down with the guilt, when in reality every bad thing that's ever happened to him has been because of his own actions, and no one else's.

Blake tries not to look, but she has to. He compels her to take the blame for something that wasn't her fault.

"You didn't leave scars. You just left me alone."

But then, there's a sound. A sound that pulls her from his despairing clutches and back up into reality.

The rush of the waterfall is still a heavy thrum in the back of her head.

But this is different. It's smaller, lighter, like the sound of wind-chimes...

"So," he grunts. "Tell me, Blake. How does it feel to be alone?"

He pulls his sword free of the ground and readies it for what should be the final time.

She uses that second, that split second when he's already soaking up his victory, to use her clone. He slashes his blade down right where he would've impaled her on the same old wound, with enough force to kill without question.

But Blake's already behind him, picking up Gambol Shroud's sheath as the sound of wind-chimes grows nearer. The clone fades, and Adam snarls as he turns to face her. Blake holds the ache in her side with one hand, her weapon in the other, and stares him dead in the face.

"I'm not alone."

The massive white sword of the Giant Armor comes quite literally out of thin air. It's hurled from its glyph at the mountaintop and slams directly into Adam with such force that it knocks him back a dozen yards into the dust, and shatters on impact.

Its summoner follows with an elegant landing, emitting every ounce of grace she's ever gathered in her life as a Schnee.

Weiss lands with her heels together, posture poised and rapier ready. The wind from the falls caresses her hair and dress, and her eyes burn blue.

Blake feels her heart lift, and a smile even appears on her lips.

But it doesn't stay for long.

Adam spits curses as he shoves himself up from the dirt, his good eye blazing as furiously as the damaged one. Blake can see his shock draining into something much more dangerous.

It's a hatred even more intense than his hatred for Blake herself. Now it's become much deeper, much more deadly. This is the hate towards the daughter of the man who had branded him for life. It seethes into his voice, dripping with venom.

"You..."

Weiss fires a shot that he manages to block, but she stands tall. With Adam temporarily immobilized, Weiss turns her attention to her teammate.

"Are you all right?"

Blake can barely remember how to speak. She's so relieved, and yet still so terrified, for Weiss now more than herself.

"Weiss- ngh-" The pain in her side, along with the aches pulsing through the rest of her body, suddenly brings Blake to her knees, winding her.

"It's all right," Weiss says gently. "No need to push yourself. Catch your breath. I'll handle him."

"Weiss, wait-"

"She's right, Blake. It's okay." Adam crouches low and readies his sword. "Miss Schnee and I have some unfinished business."

Weiss wrinkles her nose at him and glances at Blake.

"What's he on about? I'm thankful to say I've never met him before in my life."

"Oh, perhaps you haven't met me..." Adam moves closer, out of the shadows cast by the trees, and into plain view. The bright red of his scars become clear now. "But Daddy has."

Blake's ears swivel at the sound of Weiss' sharp inhale. Her blue eyes grow wide in horror, and her rapier lowers half an inch.

"What-"

It's only a second, but her lapse in focus is the perfect invitation Adam needs. He rushes forward, charging up his sword in its sheath before raising it high to bring it down on Weiss. She only barely manages to block and parry, jumping back out of range.

Adam keeps his eyes on her, forcing her to look at what her family had done to him.

Weiss feels sick. Sicker than she'd felt back in the forest when her instincts had told her something wasn't right. Sicker than she'd felt upon seeing Blake at the other end of his sword just a moment earlier.

The three letters marring his face are unmistakable, and there's no other possible meaning they can have other than the obvious. It feels like the world heaves beneath her, and she sways.

"What... what is this?"

All her intent to fight is sapped away by the horror staring her in the face. She can't comprehend it. She's always known her father and his men had mistreated the Faunus, but she'd never known them to do things like that.

But the sheer malice in Adam's impaired gaze says enough. He charges her again before she can even process everything. It's all she can do to cast a bit of ice at the ground to deter him, forcing him to jump back for a beat.

"What-"

But he just brings his sword down on the ice instead and shatters it.

"Oh, don't play dumb!" He swings at her throat, missing by only inches as Weiss leans back and throws out her own blade. She parries him again, but he overpowers her with ease, pushing her back towards the cliff's edge. His breath burns in her face. "You knew all along what your father was doing to us!"

"No! I-I-"

"Liar!" Adam shoves her back another foot or so, closer to the edge. Blake tries to get up, but her body feels too heavy.

"Stop! Adam, she's not the one who hurt you!"

"Well, she sure as hell didn't do anything to stop the people who did!" He swings his sword at an angle, turning his whole body into the blow. Weiss doesn't have the space or the power to defend properly. He knocks her back and her heel skids on the edge.

"Weiss!" Blake scrambles to her feet.

But at the last second Weiss casts herself a glyph and uses her Air Step to regain her balance, soaring high above his head and landing back on solid ground at Blake's side. He rounds on them, breath white, blood boiling. His eyes are only on Weiss.

"You did this," he growls. "You did this, and you know it! Safe inside that big pretty mansion of yours while you made the Faunus slave away in the mines! We made you the money so you could have that mansion! We died in those mines so you could have a nice hot meal for dinner!"

"I-"

"It's all right." Blake puts her arm out in front of Weiss to stop her. "You don't have to defend yourself to him. He won't listen, anyway."

"And you!" Adam turns his rage back to Blake. "How dare you accept her? How dare you defend her? After what she's done to us?"

"She-" Blake snaps, "hasn't done anything to us. All she's done is try to change what her father's been doing all this time."

But her words also fall on deaf ears. Adam charges up his sword and crouches low.

"You're the one who's delusional, Blake!"

He lunges toward them, and the two girls separate. He knows Blake is the weaker of them right now, so he goes for her. She only has the sheath of her weapon to use as he brings another blow down on her. She ducks, but just before the blow hits she feels a force pulling at her feet.

Weiss uses a glyph to pull her safely back out of range, then charges in herself. She casts ice at Adam's feet, forcing him to turn and break it before he can face her. While his back is turned, she fires a shot and aims a jab. He only barely manages to get free in time to dodge, then charges right back at her.

She moves swiftly to parry, trying to create an opening for Blake, but Adam seems to know their movements before they make them. He attacks Weiss viciously enough for her to need to jump back, and then immediately turns on Blake.

But Weiss is faster. She propels herself forward with a glyph and puts herself between the two Faunus. She feels the heat of his blade just a heartbeat before her repulsion glyph forms at her fingertips.

It flashes black, and the force of his downward blow is deflected back, sending him halfway toward the cliff's edge. He shouts and curses again, kicking the dirt and swinging his head from side to side.

Weiss grabs Blake around her waist and helps her up, keeping Myrtenaster pointed at their opponent.

Blake gasps for breath, noticing that Weiss has lost hers as well. She can feel the heiress trembling. She's never fought Adam before. She isn't used to his movements, his tactics, or his unbridled rage. But she's still doing everything she can to help Blake.

Blake can recall a time where Weiss might've left her to fight her own battles.

But she's changed. Of all the people Blake's ever known, Weiss Schnee is one who has changed the most. And for the better.

But then, there were some people who never changed.

"Cowards," Adam barks, glaring at Weiss. "Hiding behind your Dust. Dust that we died mining for you." Then he shifts his gaze to Blake. "You're pathetic. Letting a Schnee of all people protect you. You're weaker than I'd thought. And a traitor."

Blake's ears go flat. She returns Weiss' support with a hand on her back as well.

"She's not protecting me, Adam." Blake shares a brief glance with Weiss, whose eyes are still ridden with guilt and fear. But Blake smiles, just for a second, just for her, and Weiss takes a breath. Blake turns back to face their opponent.

"And I'm not protecting her." Her fingers curl gently over Weiss' injured side, and Weiss' fingers do the same for hers. Equal support. Blake lifts her chin and stares Adam dead in the eyes.

"We're protecting each other."

She says it with conviction, enough so that she knows Weiss can feel it too. Blake feels her breathe in, then out again, much more steadily this time. Blake can sense the heiress' resolve as clearly as her own.

Where he stands, Adam sneers.

"Well isn't that just precious," he chuckles. "A Schnee and a Faunus - one of my own - protecting each other."

"Yours?" Weiss snaps, and her grip on Blake tightens. "How dare you-"

"Shut up!" he shouts. "As if you didn't have your own little pets back at your mansion, you bitch!"

Weiss takes the verbal hit without flinching, but it makes Blake's skin crawl.

"It's okay," she murmurs. "Don't let him get to you."

"He won't," Weiss assures her.

Adam scrapes his blade through the dirt.

"Whatever you're plotting won't work. There's no way you can win this, even two-on-one, and even with all your fancy tricks." He takes another threatening step forward and stares Blake down. "Besides, what makes you think you even have the right to oppose me now that you're standing with a Schnee? You don't even deserve to live."

"Well, too bad!" Blake shouts. "I'm not dying now! I don't have a choice! I have people who actually care about me, and I made a promise that I'd never leave them again!" Her words are as firm as her grip on Weiss - sturdy and strengthening. Weiss almost feels she doesn't deserve them.

"Blake-"

"Hah!" Adam spits out a laugh. "You really are the delusional one if you think this girl actually cares about you, Blake. Do I really have to remind you of what her family's done to us? To me?" His damaged eye almost seems to bleed with how enraged he's become. "Does that mean nothing to you? Do all of our promises really mean nothing to you anymore? What about when you promised to stay by my side? Look how well you've kept to that."

Blake narrows her eyes. But before she can speak, she feels Weiss move a step forward. She raises her chin in the poised, proper, passive-aggressive manner of a Schnee.

"Well, honestly..." she says calmly. "Can you blame her?"

He snarls, revealing his teeth, and for a split second Blake thinks he might charge them then and there. But he doesn't. Not until he's made one final declaration.

"Either way, you've made your choice, Blake." He puts his hand on the hilt of his sword and prepares to draw. "And I've made mine."

Some childish part of Blake had truly hoped that this could end in conversation, but that fantasy dissipates now. Warily, she steps apart from Weiss, who also readies her rapier.

There's a beat of silence, with nothing but the rush of water behind them.

Then it begins.

Blake can't even keep track of how quickly everything happens. She's lunging forward, leaping back, using her clones and keeping an eye on Weiss and on Adam all at once.

Weiss is focused and fierce beside her, using her Dust sparingly and only when she's certain Blake won't be affected. She freezes Adam more than once, which allows Blake to land a kick or two before he bursts free.

Weiss works swiftly even without her glyphs, and only uses them when it's absolutely necessary. She knows a summoning would benefit them, but she can't afford to waste the time or energy on the process. She would need Blake to occupy Adam's attention during the time Weiss would cast her spell, and she despises the idea from the start.

Everything is lightning-speed action, so fast it's difficult to make sense of what's happening. Weiss pays closer attention to Blake than to Adam, sending glyphs out for her to either help her dodge or send her in closer to land a kick.

At one point Adam aims a strike that would've ended things, but Weiss had been watching closely. She just barely finds the second it takes to cast time dilation. She's only ever successfully used it in battle once before, and only with Blake.

Blake recognizes the odd feeling that heightens her senses. It feels like it makes her faster, but in reality it makes Adam slower for a few split seconds. It's enough time for her to dodge what would have been a devastating blow, and instead she lands a hard kick on his spine.

As soon as Weiss' spell has ended, Adam sputters and crashes into the dirt. Blake jumps back to rejoin the heiress, who is a bit winded from using so many spells. Blake's head and chest are pounding too, and she feels at this point the adrenaline is the only thing keeping her going.

As Adam staggers to his feet, Weiss holds her rapier directly at him, taking a step forward to put Blake behind her.

"This is your last chance. Leave. Blake. Alone."

"Heh," he spits. "Like your family left us alone and let us live our lives? I don't think so."

Blake notices it first, how he begins storing up his attack in his sword, both eyes trained solely on the heiress. Blake gasps and shrieks her name.

"Weiss-!"

With a shout, Adam slashes his sword through the air, sending out a pulsing wave of crimson directly at the girl in white. There's the sound of wind-chimes, and when it all finally clears, Blake's heart is in her throat.

A broken wall of ice stands before Weiss, having taken the brunt of the blow. It crumbles into power now as Weiss readies her stance and her sword.

Adam charges again, and the fight continues.

Blake does everything she can with only the sheath of her weapon, but given she has no blade, she's forced mostly to block and dodge. Weiss does most of the damage, but ends up taking it as well.

She's figured out by now that Adam stores his energy in the sword and then sends it back onto the opponent at will. She can't risk lessening the power of her own strikes, lest she simply waste her energy. She needs to fight to kill just like he is.

But the danger in that is being hit by his rebound, getting her own deadly force sent right back at herself – or worse, at Blake.

Everything is a risk, but a risk she has to take.

As the fight rages on, Weiss catches her companion's eye. Unspoken understanding resonates between them as Weiss casts her a glyph. She continues fending off Adam as she casts them one by one, only for Blake, ensuring Adam is never close enough to steal them for his own purposes.

Weiss ends up taking several hits from Adam due to her divided attention. He rams her head-on with the hilt of his sword and knocks the air right out of her chest. Weiss sputters and drops to her knees.

But just before he can bring down his blade, her final glyph lights up. Blake follows the path of circles, her already-impressive speed enhanced to three times what it normally is. She raises her weapon up high when his attention is on Weiss, aiming what could have been a finishing blow.

Yet he twists at the last second to block her, suspending her in midair for a brief second before the stored-up force repels her. It sends her flying, crushing her against the mountainside and shattering what's left of her aura.

Weiss watches in horror as she crashes to the ground and rolls clean off the edge.

"Blake!" Weiss tries to send out another glyph for her, but Adam forces her attention away as he collides his blade with hers.

"It's just us now, Schnee. Let's see how long you can last."

She crouches, and when the inevitable shove comes she uses the push to leap further backward. As she's in the air she glimpses Blake hanging onto the edge of the cliff.

But again, Weiss' intentions to try and assist her are thwarted when another blast of red comes her way. She can only cross her arms in front of herself to block, and feels the terrible heated impact sap at her thin layer of remaining aura.

Weiss is too concerned about Blake to be able to focus on the fight. She ends up taking several blows, needing to dodge more than attack. She can feel blood oozing at her side and refuses to look down to see how much.

He swings at her again, and all she can do is leap back, heels skidding. Adam saunters closer with the smugness of someone who's already won.

"Disappointing. I thought you'd be faster than this."

He swings again and again, and each time Weiss can only dodge and block. She has only a bit of Dust left in her chamber and she needs to use it sparingly. She only looks for Blake as she's twisting and jumping back through the air, so Adam won't notice the subtle turn of her face and take note of Blake scaling the mountain behind him.

Weiss lands again and steadies herself, already forming a plan. Her temporary peace of mind is shattered by his booming voice.

"Hit me already!"

Weiss flicks her rapier and sprinkles a bit of fire ember Dust at his face to stagger him before she ducks beneath his sword and out of range. He snarls, whirling around to try and slice at her, but she jumps high. She doesn't give him what he asks for, and only dodges rather than attacks. It infuriates him, along with something much more poignant.

"What does she even see in you?! A Schnee-?!"

He wrenches his sword from the dirt and slams it down where she'd been standing seconds earlier.

Weiss takes note of Blake's position, then squares up to confront Adam once more. She keeps her eyes on his, on the horrible branded letters of her father's company. It still makes her sick, makes her feel wretched enough for long enough to lapse her judgement.

He swings at her again, and though she lifts Myrtenaster to block, his force overpowers hers. He sends her yelping into the dirt, her aura flickering visibly now. She pushes herself up and feels a few tears drip down, less from the pain and more from the guilt of what her own family's company had done. But she shakes herself off and wipes the tears out of her vision.

Adam is already charging her.

She needs more time-

"You're just a coward like her!"

Time.

It slows down, but only his.

Weiss uses the very last of her energy to cast time dilation on him, and then the last of her Dust to create more ice. The red glare of his sword slows to a fraction of its normal, deadly speed, whereas the ice forms instantly around it. She freezes his blade, captures it, and then resumes his time.

Adam falls onto his hands and knees.

At the same time, Weiss sprinkles the last of her fire embers and slashes her rapier across the ice. It shatters in a deafening mist of white, shards and sparks flying directly at him. He covers his face and reaches for his sheath-

-only to find it empty.

When the mist clears, Weiss is holding both their weapons. She looks him dead in the eye with a haughty confidence that borders smugness.

"Perhaps I'm not as fast as you'd expected..."

She watches the rage in his eyes turn to shock as she lifts his sword.

"-But I'm definitely smarter."

With a grunt, she tosses the red sword clean over the edge of the cliff to the chasms below.

"No!"

Adam chases after it with hands outstretched in a futile effort. And just as he peers over, a rush of air comes at him.

Blake springs up as hard and as high as she can, slamming her fist into the underside of his jaw. He staggers back, spitting and stomping, shaking his head in fury and panic.

They both spot the fragments of Gambol Shroud at the same time.

They both lunge.

Weiss races forward from behind Adam with her rapier ready.

Blake knows the heiress hasn't used her time dilation again, but everything seems to slow down for that split second. Her hand is suspended in midair beside Adam's over the blade of her broken weapon.

And for a heartbeat, she doesn't know if she'll make it.

It's up to fate...

No. Fate be damned.

She isn't going to let him win again. She isn't going to break her promise.

She's always been faster, anyway.

Time resumes its terrifying speed as her fingertips brush metal and curl tightly. With a cry, she uses all the strength left in her body to push the blade up into him. Seconds later, Myrtenaster impales him from behind, the polished white tip now dripping red.

Blake feels the weight of his body sag over her until she's the only thing left holding him up. She watches the anger fade from his eyes, turning into a disbelieving melancholy.

He'd thought he was invincible. He'd thought she was beneath him. Up until his final moment he'd never stopped thinking he would win, never thought it was possible that he wouldn't.

Blake grits her teeth and pulls her blade free, and Weiss does the same. Adam's blood sprays down onto the grass as he sputters, staggering forward until his legs buckle at the edge of the cliff.

For a second, Blake feels he'll stand up again, turn around and come right back at her.

But the reality is that he just slumps there, still refusing to believe he'd lost.

And then he's gone.

If not for the splash that echoes up to reach her ears, she might've thought he'd saved himself somehow and started climbing back up.

But he never comes back.

She's free.

But there's little relief in it, and certainly no joy.

Her arms are shaking so violently it spreads throughout her body in seconds. The exhaustion, the loss of adrenaline, and the sheer feeling of it all brings Blake to her knees. She drops her weapon – almost ashamed for having done what she did – and sobs. Harder than she's ever sobbed before.

The grief consumes her like the hatred had consumed him. It chokes her, makes her shudder from the inside out, makes her stomach heave and her chest pound. It feels like the world might split beneath her and drag her down into the same depths as where he is...

Weiss watches the whole thing. She watches Blake's tormentor of so many years plummet at breakneck speed over the edge and into the waters below. She watches Blake drop to the ground and sob – something Weiss has never known her to do before.

Weiss almost feels she shouldn't go to her, like she doesn't deserve to. After all, she is a Schnee, and therefore partially responsible for the mistreatment of the Faunus, if not by her own actions, then by a lack thereof. What right does she have to go to Blake now?

But years with her teammates and friends from Beacon have inclined Weiss to think a little differently than her old family ways had.

Blake doesn't think so poorly of her, not anymore, and Weiss knows it. Perhaps she isn't Blake's favorite person in the world, but she's certainly not her worst enemy.

Weiss takes a step forward, then another, slowly making her way towards her teammate. She wants Blake to know she's coming, wants to give her the chance to tell her to stop if she wants to. But she never does.

Weiss drops her rapier first and then collapses to her knees beside Blake. She's beyond the point of thinking now. She just throws both arms around her and gathers her into her arms, holding tightly to her shoulders.

And Blake hugs back, as if she'd been hoping for this, needing it. She weeps in Weiss' arms, distraught fragments of her voice rising up like the steam of the falls. Weiss cries too, more quietly, but Blake can still hear it.

"I-" The Faunus girl shudders, pressing herself close, drawing Weiss nearer. "I'm not gonna break my promise... I swear..."

Weiss is almost startled by how badly Blake is shaking. She's never seen her express so much emotion all at once like this, but Weiss can't blame her. She locks her arms gently across Blake's back and gives her another squeeze before easing away. Weiss looks up into her tearstained eyes, reaching up to cup Blake's cheek. She rests her forehead against hers, letting their noses brush.

"I know," she murmurs. "I know you won't."

Blake breaks down all over again, clinging to Weiss with fingers that shake so badly she can barely find purchase in the first place. Her heart is broken, but somehow it's still beating. She can feel Weiss' too, a steady thrum up against her chest that helps Blake remember this is real.

It's over. It's finally over.

She cries, her voice cracking and rasping as she all but wails. And all the while, Weiss holds her through it.

Blake isn't sure how long it lasts, but eventually she has no tears left to shed. Her body jolts with sobs that produce no tears now. Everything aches, but the pain in her side is more hurtful than the rest. When she glances down she can see that the old scar on her stomach has started to bleed again slightly.

But before she can react, Weiss is already reaching forward, gently resting her hand over the injury. She unlocks the last ounce of her aura and shares it with Blake. It feels like a trickle of cool water easing its way into a fiery mix.

Blake finally begins to calm down, enough to notice the red leaking through Weiss' dress as well. She sniffles, eyes wide in panic.

"Weiss, you-"

"Hush. It's fine. It's only a scratch."

Blake knows that may be the case, but she also knows the blood is coming from Weiss' own serious injury. She hadn't been there at Haven to see it happen, but Yang had told her about it before. Blake still shudders to imagine it, Pyrrha's spear nearly taking Weiss' life at Cinder's hand...

Blake manages to compose herself enough to reach forward and mimic Weiss' position, putting her own hand on the heiress' injury and letting the last of her aura flow to her.

Weiss is quiet. Even as she cries, she barely makes a sound. Blake's ears flatten as she moves a little closer, keeping both hands on Weiss to support her. She feels her sigh, hears the breath hitch in her throat.

"Blake... I-"

Blake straightens up right away and looks her in the eyes, fearing Weiss has been hurt elsewhere.

"What's wrong?"

But Weiss' eyes harbor a different kind of pain, not the one Blake is expecting. The heiress shakes her head and bows it.

"I'm... sorry. I never knew my father and his company were doing such terrible things... And even if I had... I doubt I would've done anything to stop it..." The tears start falling faster, shortening her breath. "What... What kind of huntress did I ever expect to be... if I couldn't even help the people suffering right under my nose...?"

Blake brushes her fingers against Weiss' cheek and coaxes her to lift her face once again.

"It's not your fault."

"But I-"

"You've changed," Blake says in earnest. "And... that's more than what can be said for a lot of other people, Weiss."

Weiss feels a ripple of emotion surge through her chest as more stinging tears rise up behind her eyes. But this isn't about her. Not in the slightest.

Blake's still trembling all over, and Weiss can only imagine her emotional distress. She lifts both of her arms now and curls them gently around her teammate's shoulders, drawing her in.

"I'm sorry," she murmurs. "About everything... but you're safe now. That's the promise I'll make to you in return."

Blake crumples against her, burying her face into the side of Weiss' neck and crying tears that don't come. Weiss holds her close, keeping her eyes and ears alert for any other signs of trouble. But nothing comes, only the rush of the falls.

It's a short while later when Blake finally lifts her head, ears swiveling to perk up once again. Both their injuries have stopped bleeding by now. When she looks into Weiss' eyes, she can see the heiress is hesitant, but also knows they need to get moving. Blake answers her silent question with a nod.

"We need to go."

In spite of Blake's reassurance, Weiss keeps close to her anyway, supporting her as much as she can as they both stagger to their feet. They wipe their eyes as they check each other over once more, then gather their fallen weapons.

During the quiet moments, Weiss had regained a bit of her energy. As she casts a trail of glyphs through the forest, Blake casts one last look to the waters behind her. She silently sends out her final farewells, and lets go of everything else she'd ever known of him.

When she's ready, she turns back to accept Weiss' outstretched hand. She joins her on her glyphs, and together they hurry back to find the others.

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A/N: I just really like the idea of Weiss seeing Adam's scars, and letting her fight him. It would have been so incredibly powerful to see her - a Schnee - fighting with Blake against him. I can only imagine what he would've said and done. She must've been one of his most hated people along with Blake. And to imagine Weiss' fighting style with her Dust, glyphs, and time dilation in this situation would've been amazing.

I tried to stay true to the canon dialogue, but just gave it a twist here and there depending on how I altered the situation. And I didn't give it much more romance than the canon Yang/Blake fight did, but I hope you enjoyed this concept!