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Chapter 7: The World's Shadow - The Girl in the Manor

As worlds collide and myths become reality, what can you see as you look into the darkness? A broken, perverted reflection of your own self? Or a soul much like your own, unable to free herself from her chains?

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"Do not fall."

Ambrosius' warning still rang in Weiss' ears as she plummeted into the pitch-black abyss alone, a hand still out-stretched to grab Winter's hand. She had stopped screaming a while ago and was now silently falling in the seemingly unending void.

'Yang, Blake, Ruby...Neo.' Weiss mentally listed off their names, adding Neo with an afterthought. 'They also Fell. Are they just falling endlessly like me? And the others...'

Penny was dead, killed by Jaune so Cinder couldn't get the Winter Maiden's powers. She didn't know what happened to the aforementioned young man, but the remains of JNPR went through the gate, she was sure of it, so what were the odds he hadn't left to join them? Her family should be there with them as well, in Vacuo...

Vacuo. Her friends and family and nearly hundreds of Atlesian refugees, still stunned by the destruction of their home, in Vacuo, a Kingdom infamously known as a den of criminal activity and a chaotic place where only the strong ruled. While she would begrudgingly admit that Vacuo was currently the safest out of the Kingdoms, her upbringing led her to think otherwise. She was a Schnee, and Schnees work only with absolutes and guarantees! As long as there were variables out of place, any action could result in devastating results! She needed to make it back to her friends and family to make that guarantee!

Attempting to form a Summoning Glyph with her outstretched hand, Weiss frowned as the glyph flickered and shattered moments after its creation. "That's...odd," she thought aloud. "I thought my Aura recovered enough to Summon by now."

She tried to form a second glyph, only for it to shatter as well. Tsking, she created a third, it beginning to stabilize as she poured more of her Aura into it before the glyph was destroyed again, although this time in a brighter flash of light. She tried again with less Aura than usual, the Glyph not even materializing. A fourth, this time a Time Dilation Glyph, fought for survival before breaking. A Gravity Glyph that shattered instantly upon creation. A final Glyph, fueled with more than half of her Aura reserves shattered in a blinding explosion of white light. Several failed attempts later, Weiss sighed as her head leaned back in resignation to her fate. "This is ridiculous..." She breathed.

No matter what she did, no matter how much of her Aura she fed to the glyph or what glyph she even attempted to create, it broke all the same. She would fall forever, eternally alone in the void. She gritted her teeth, slowly closing her eyes as she clenched her fist at the unfairness of it all. Any victory Weiss and the others had achieved were immediately followed another disaster they had to stop or another failure they had to deal with. She and her friends were so close, so close to finally being the heroes after the Fall of Beacon! But they couldn't save Beacon, they couldn't save Mistral, and they couldn't save Atlas or Mantle! And now...she wouldn't be able to save anything anymore.

"This is just...utterly ridiculous."

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The feeling of warmth was what tipped her off. The void was...strange really. It didn't feel overwhelmingly cold or hot; she normally couldn't feel a thing in there, so why was it suddenly so warm? Her eyes shot open, staring up at a familiar white canopy above the bed she laid in. Suddenly very confused, Weiss sat up and gazed at the bed, then the rest of the room.

'Isn't this...my room? I'm in the Schnee Manor?'

That doesn't make sense. With the creation of that evacuation center, Atlas couldn't stay in the air. The Kingdom's fall to Remnant's floor likely resulted in its and Mantle's destruction, her family home now likely nothing more than rubble. How was she here?