Silver Maiden

CHAPTER XLIII - Zwei Herzen, Eine Seele

Ruby was the first of her team to wake up; at least, that's what she had thought before looking over to Weiss's bed, which was empty. They had taken their old room from when they were still students here. Team JNPR had gotten into their old room across the hall as well. Everybody else was lodged in the same building on different levels.

"Where's Weiss?" Blake said as she yawned.

There was knocking on their door. Ruby opened up.

"Rise and shine!" Penny greeted loudly enough to jolt Yang out of her bed.

"Holy crap," Yang said, rubbing her head as she stood up. "Penny, what the hell?"

"It's breakfast time! You guys better hurry up before Nora finishes all the food!"

"Breakfast?" Ruby groaned. "The sun's not even up yet."

"Yup! We all gotta catch up to those other two!"

"Other two?" Blake said as Penny left the room. "Who's she talking about?"

* * * * *

Weiss let out a yell as she repelled Bedivere's magic attacks with Durandal. After dispelling the magic, she dashed forward to engage in a high-speed series of sword clashes with him, the entire exchange appearing as nothing more than a blur of silver, blue, and gold.

"You've gotten accustomed to your new powers quite quickly," Bedivere said, missing a swipe meant for her legs.

"I've got a good teacher!" Weiss said, missing a swing to his head.

Both held their hands out, building up power in their palms.

"Frostatem!" they chanted at the same time as two orbs of ice-cold energy flew from their hands and collided with each other, creating a glaciated landscape directly beneath the point of impact. Both Bedivere and Weiss flew through the dense fog generated by the rapid ice formation, continuing their whir of blade attacks, which was violent enough to shatter the ice and dispel the cold fog.

"How long have they been at this?" Glynda said as she and Ozpin joined Qrow and Winter, who had been watching the training bout for a half hour now.

"Since before we got here," Winter said. "I still can't believe the kind of power that these two possess."

"I don't know what it was that brought them here," Ozpin said, "but Weiss certainly has something to do with it. Perhaps she is the common link after all."

"I always figured my sister was special, but this is on another level entirely. There's no precedent for a Schnee's Semblance to be able to summon beings from another world."

"Maybe Hollie was right," Qrow said. "Maybe I am good luck or something." He scoffed. "Well, if that were true, his Wraith wouldn't have tagged along for the ride."

"Gewitter!" Bedivere yelled, hurling a ball of lightning at Weiss.

"Teufelsatem!" Weiss shouted, countering with a fireball.

A storm of fire and lightning erupted where the collision happened. Weiss flew through the conflagration, swinging from above with Durandal, which Bedivere blocked with his claymore. The impact from her downward strike caused the concrete beneath Bedivere to crumble.

He saw an opening and moved in, getting past her defenses to grapple with her. She sensed his intentions and countered, but it was already too late. He had locked his arm with her own and it seemed he would bring her down to the ground for a swift victory, but she noticed one tiny misstep in his footwork and exploited that, redirecting his momentum until they ended up rolling on the ground, their armor ringing against one another, ending with her on top of him.