RWBY||Defender of Remnant

Chapter 14: Living in a Nightmare: Part 4

"I wanna have fun! I wanna play all the time!" a quartet of little Weiss children giggled as they ran around the courtyard hand-in-hand, smiling as though everything were right with the world.

"This is getting kinda crazy," Sincline chuckled, shaking his head as his wraith-like armor caught the sunlight. "This is madness," he laughed.

Something touched the side of his armored leg, and he glanced down to find a little Weiss tugging on one of the side fins that protected the side of his knee. "What now, Onii Chan?" she asked, head tilted so cutely that Sincline nearly squealed at her adorableness... Okay. What just happened? he wondered.

Shaking his head, he reached down and gently ruffled her hair, much to the giggling girl's delight. "Don't worry. All we have to do is wait for her to show up. Once she does..." He trailed off, his breath hitching as he realized that, once he woke up Weiss, all the little ones would... Stop that, he silently chided himself. They're a part of her. I'll still see them again... right?

"Then we can make big Weiss happy again!" the little one giggled, smiling happily as her voice broke Sincline out of his thoughts.

Sincline chuckled once more and rubbed her head. "Yeah. Yeah, we will—"

A flash of light. A massive glyph formed, and a brilliant explosion shook the entire courtyard as bolts of icy blue energy erupted in all directions. A shockwave slammed into Sincline's chest, and he was thrown back as the entire courtyard shattered, drones and Little Weiss's alike vaporizing beneath the force of the attack.

"Onii-Chan?"

Sincline whirled and found the same little Weiss who had been at his side looking at him in bewilderment... and that's when a bolt of frozen energy struck her through the heart. A flash of light, a burst of snow, and she was gone, vanishing in a gust of icy wind.

For what seemed like a small eternity, Sincline stared at where the little girl had been in bewilderment. Just like that, the innocent little girl had been... She wasn't real, he thought, clenching his fist. But... she was real to Weiss.

"Weiss," he whispered, his body shaking as he turned, his glowing eyes locking with hers as the young woman glared down at him from a rooftop, her rapier gleaming.

"How dare you..." Nightmare Weiss said softly, her voice carrying despite the distance between them. "Do you have any idea of what you've done? They can't be free and out in the open! They're not allowed!"

"So that gave you the right to kill them?" Sincline demanded, glaring up at her and ignoring the wind that was picking up around them as the temperature dropped.

Nightmare Weiss gritted her teeth, stamping down a rush of unease as a cold, ancient, powerful aura filled the courtyard and a heavy weight pressed down on her shoulders. "You know nothing about what you speak," she whispered, her voice sharper than an ice pick.

A flash of energy, and twin scimitars exploded into his hands, the edges shining as though lit with an inner flame as he glared up at her. "If that's the case... why don't you enlighten me?" he challenged, raising a gleaming scimitar and leveling it with her heart.

Nightmare Weiss's eyes narrowed. "Very well." She stepped off the edge and plummeted. With a sharp crack, her feet hit the ground, and the stone pavement shattered beneath her heels. Raising her head, her eyes flashed, and she stood. "Even at this stage, you still don't understand what is and isn't allowed," she stated, placing her book inside a glyph and her shades in her left breast pocket.