Weiss returned home alone after sunset. The city was lighting up and Vale seemed like a scene from a romantic movie.

The streetlights setting the pavement aglow, the people walking around surrounded by their loved ones, the scent of scrumptious dinner wafting from several places at once, and soft romantic music heard from a park. It really was a nice place to have a walk but the heiress didn't stay long to watch the scenery.

She slid in the car and requested to be driven home in her spacious vehicle. It irked her that the little things from the past week with her new companions already became normal to her. Now, they weren't there.

Like how in every car ride, Ruby requests to play the latest songs at the stereo as she played new games in her new scroll. How Weiss always hears the smallest movements from Ruby during car rides, and how ridiculous the driver and Ruby would sing along the old songs from half a century ago.

Now, the silence was her only acquaintance in the ride. It was an unwelcomed familiarity as she watched the scenery of the city pass by.

"Darwin, play some songs." She finally requested as she closed her eyes and tried concentrating on something else. Soft pop songs she recognized started playing. The filled felt better, relaxing, and soothing. Not long after, she had drifted to sleep.

Upon arriving home, she asked her things to be arranged in her closet and waived dinner. No questions were asked. Weiss was left alone to her devices as she wandered around the mansion.

The estate could easily accommodate several families but the presence of those who came before her was enough. Their hard cold eyes like her mother and father's, their stiff and formal stands on paintings, photographs, and statues showed how the Schnees have maintained their elegance and regality through centuries.

Rumor even has it that they were descendants of royal blood from centuries ago. That wasn't hard to believe. The paintings were more proof than needed for an ordinary person. She continued on around to the upper floor, looking for nothing in particular.

She recalled a little story that her mother told her. That the Schnee family have resided in Vale centuries ago because of the ports, the life, and the rich warmth of the sun in the summer. "To thaw the cold of the north from Atlas" she would say. It's the same mansion she currently calls home. It remained there and was restored over and over again, now it's standing as one of the oldest structures in Vale.

It was a small palace compared to their place in Atlas which was practically a castle. This place seemed better. It felt more of a home to her even if none of her family was there. She found comfort in a smaller place to pace around. No extra pair of eyes to watch her every movement.

Weiss surprisingly found a pair of doors that looked antiquated. The knobs were made of brass with the wooden door and frame sculpted ornately. The entryway looked untouched since its establishment despite the numerous times the house had been renovated. It just made her more curious.

She cautiously opened the huge doors and entered the room. The air hung cold with must, dust, and crust. The room was dark but with a flick of a switch, the room was illuminated with chandeliers of yellow light. The walls have been lined with shelves of wood and metal. Some old, some new.

Weiss walked in deep into what seem to be the archives, her fingers touching the books and parchment scrolls lightly. Her eyes lit up as she disturbed them from their places, feeling history literally at her fingertips.

She would have kept going further but a scroll fell out of its place. The tie it has been held with had unraveled, the parchment opening and revealing what's inside. Weiss turned around to check what had fallen, picking the paper up gingerly like it was a thin glass that might break from touch.

Written on the parchment were lines to a story that she had not read before and was never told about. The language used was nothing she did not understand but it was ancient that not many but scholars would bother to know.

The heiress took out her scroll and illuminated the writings to read them. What was in it was not something she should have read.

Lines upon lines of history through a Queen who wrote the story with fear and fascination. She wrote the story as a warning, that the gift of the family was to be passed to every daughter of the bloodline. This will cause resentment, wars and it must be a secret to be kept from those who think they wield it.

Weiss wondered more of this and the deeper she went, the more fear welled in her chest. The more she wanted to laugh because it was a miracle she was even born.

It was a long scroll and the night has gone deeper and darker, making the room eerier as it is but it didn't bother Weiss. She continued reading with the light of her scroll, getting rooted in this matter.

Who knew Schnees were this complicated?

Her deep reading didn't stop at one scroll. She went for the next ones and the others that helped her. How far back their bloodline came from was astonishing. She also discovered the reason why and how they lived up high in a floating city called Atlas.

Weiss knew how her new magic worked, how she can use it, how she uses it. It was not normal that the whole Schnee ladies had a history of the magic but she'll make sure that no one finds out. Not even the supernatural hybrid she adopted in her home. Not yet anyway.

The weekend was the only barrier to the new semester. Weiss suddenly dreaded that this might be something she shouldn't have touched but it was going to ruin her if she didn't know the whole of it.

***

The siblings rode home carelessly on the blonde's beloved bike. Their sudden appearance surprised their father, Taiyang Xiao Long, and uncle, Qrow Branwen. Yang didn't warn them of their guest but it got them off their guard. It wasn't unwelcome but it is a definite surprise.

"Dad! Uncle Qrow!" RubynRose swiftly ran to hug them both of them by the front door of their home. The men surprised upon seeing the face of the precious girl. She didn't age above sixteen nor did her bright smile change much.

"RUBY!" Taiyang hugged his daughter tight in his arms, warmth spreading in his chest, and tears of relief streaming on his face. His days as a father waiting for his daughter to be free was over. "You're home! You're safe and home!"

And indeed Ruby was. Her Uncle Qrow was happy to see his nephew's smile once more. Even if they were hardly ever meeting before her imprisonment, Ruby was the closest thing he had as his child. The girl had a certain soft spot in his uncle's heart.

"Hey, kiddo! You're back! You're alive!" Qrow said in glee and relief, hugging Ruby tight. Yang smiled and watched how much her sister was missed. The blonde knew that this was the reason why her family was a treasure.

"I missed you both! I wanna know what happened while I was gone! What did I miss?! Oh, and I'm attending Beacon this year. Again!" She announced, surprising her male guardians once more. To her, this was a laughing matter. To Qrow and Tai, it was the other way around.

Yang couldn't help but laugh as she watched her father's and uncle's faces fall slack from Ruby's gift. It was a delight to watch as none of them were easily bewildered like that.

"Ruby, you've only been out for--how long? And you're going back to Beacon? The same place that you got imprisoned?" Qrow asked his niece, wondering about her choice. He knows Ruby is wiser than her age. She holds so much hope and spirit, which is admirable, but she is crazy.

The amount of fight, strength, and guts to smile after what she had been through speaks volumes of her character. Ruby Rose isn't the child of their family anymore yet here she was.

"I'll be fine! I have a new friend that can help me get out of trouble." She attested, arms pulling her guardians close. "What's life without a few dangers?"

Yang, Qrow, and Tai decided to head inside the house after they made sense that Ruby was set on her own decision. They couldn't possibly change her mind now. They'll just have to keep an eye on her, on all of their wards.

Ruby sniffed the air to inhale the scent of home. The smell of chicken pot pie wafting from the kitchen to the living room was making her hungry. "Smells good!" The brunette walked around looking for little things that changed and that was almost everything.

Old furniture was no longer seen, new shelves for books of teaching material, standard weapons given for practice, Yang's consoles were new and dusted off clean as well. It was like a new place but the things that made it home was still there. The pictures of their uncle, father, and mothers back then when they were in a team, the storybooks that their mother would tell them before bed and sleep. Ruby smiled as she felt the warmth of home settle in. "I missed this place."

Yang towed her older sister to the dining table and they ate dinner with everyone after a long time of separation. Although she had been eating dinner with Weiss for a week, Ruby felt a different kind of warmth being at home with her family. It was entirely different.

Her mind drifted to an image of Weiss sitting alone in the dining hall, eating on the long table without company. It was sad. Weiss doesn't deserve to be that unhappy and alone in that huge mansion. The staff would gladly accompany her but that's just it, they were there to serve her. Her family and her only friend were away.

"Ruby, come on. Let's eat! I baked cookies for dessert too." Her dad urged her, removing her from the daze she was in.

She smiled back at them, breathing deep to clear her mind. "Right! Dinner!"

Her time with family just started and she needs to cherish it. The start of the new school year was close and she had a lot of things to think of--but they can come later.

Family first.

"Let's eat!"