Akashic

"You awake? Can I come in?" Arthur asked after knocking on the door to team RWBY's room. After a few seconds of silence he heard some light ruffling from behind the door as it slowly opened, revealing Weiss now in her sleepwear of a pale blue pastel night gown and her hair loose, hanging over her back, her expression still tired but calmer and less distraught then she had been this afternoon, yet still distracted and worried judging by her frown and unfocused eyes.

"Hey, just wanted to check up on you, see if you want to talk for a bit more before bed" he said a soft smile on his face.

"Come in…" Weiss weakly muttered and walked back to her bed taking a seat on the edge of it, Arthur following behind after closing the door, taking a seat next to her.

"How you doing? You look a lot better" he asked, noticing that the bags under her eyes had nearly completely disappeared, but was just visible.

"Still trying to process everything… there's so much I don't know anymore, I feel like I'm walking on ice that gets thinner and thinner the more I walk, and the further I walk the colder the water underneath gets, and if it break there will be no way for me to go back." She said curling up into a ball on the bed.

"Seventeen years… seventeen years I have been called the 'Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company', and I pride myself on that, a lot, I pride myself that I… that Weiss Schnee is the future leader of the biggest dust company on remnant. I pride myself so much on everything my grandfather and father have built up and achieved. And now, now I don't know where to put my pride, there's so much blame, and yet, all the 'proof' is shoddy at best." She said, her back resting against the headrest of her bed, while Arthur leaned back, propping himself up with his hands as he silently listened to her.

"Every article I find on the disappearances are from official announcements from the SDC, my father giving speeches, or from news companies that I KNOW he has had numerous private meetings with." Her voice raising slightly "and even then, the coverage is always open and shut, they would write about how the victim was somehow at arms against the White Fang or faunus in general and blame them for it. Like the Eisen family… they were loved by the faunus, but do you know what was written in the announcement of their attack?" she asked, continuing after Arthur shook his head.

"They were killed because they made a deal with the SDC just a few days prior… and yet, the only thing I remember from the day the Eisen family came to my home is screaming, arguing and the Eisen family's declaration that they would never make a deal with someone like my father. And yet, they 'made' a deal with him." She went silent, her palms now over her eyes as she let out a groan.

"I don't know what to do… If I just forget about it, I can go back to being 'Weiss Schnee, Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company'. Or I can keep digging, at best, it actually was the White Fang and everything's back to normal, at worst, my father is somehow involved with it all. But then what? My father has met with nearly every council member in Atlas, he supplies every grain of dust the military use, he's friends with General Ironwood, THE general of the entire military might of Atlas and the current headmaster at Atlas academy." She listed, her breathing getting more erratic as she spoke. "What do I do? I-If I even bring any of this up, it'd be like painting a target on my back if there is something going on" Her body shivering at the thought as she curled her body even more and began to hug herself.

Arthur kept quiet for a moment as he thought, his body straightening as he brought one leg on top of the bed and turned to Weiss, his right arm rising above her head and causing her to flinch at the expected feeling of having her head hit once again. Except this time, instead of suddenly feeling something hit her head she instead felt her head being gently c.a.r.e.s.sed by Arthur.

"Weiss… you, don't have to do anything" he said, "Because, you are forgetting a single thing I've told you twice now… you, are, not, alone. Me, Ruby, Blake, Yang, we are all there for you, we will always side with you, no matter what you choose." He said, his hand still gently rubbing the top of her head, Weiss's eyes closed as she listened to him while her mind focused on the comforting feeling of his hand.

"You just have to ask us and we will raid the SDC searching for answers, we would dive into swarms of grimm just to get you out, we would go to war with the entire world let alone Atlas, because to us, you are not 'Weiss Schnee, Heiress of The Schnee Dust Company', you are 'Weiss Schnee, our friend'" he said with a small smile as Weiss stared downwards to her bed.

Arthur lifted his hand from Weiss's head but quickly found his hand pulled back onto it when Weiss shot her hands up and grabbed his hand and forced it back onto her head. Seeing this Arthur was left speechless but when he saw the small smile on Weiss's face he decided to go with it as began to gently rub his hand into her hair.

"Thank you…" Weiss muttered, "I-I'm just not ready to tell them yet, I-I need to think about it for a bit…"

"That's alright Weiss, I wouldn't want you to tell them tomorrow or even the day after, I don't even want you digging into it until you are ready to tell them. You need time to process everything, give it a few days, we have class tomorrow, so just go to sleep, wake up, get some breakfast and go to class, spend time with Ruby, Yang and Blake as well as team JNPR and me, clear your mind from all this, we will wait until you are…" As Arthur spoke he felt Weiss's grip loosen as her hands fell to her sides, as he turned to her he noticed her head had fallen forward and her shoulders had slumped, her breathing soft and rhythmic, indicating she had fallen asleep.

"… I'm not sure how I should feel that I keep putting girls to sleep when I'm talking to them…" he muttered, giving himself a light chuckle as he stood from the bed and pulled Weiss's body down until she was laying on the bed as he brought the blanket over her.

"We're all here for you Weiss" he muttered, rubbing her head one last time before standing and exiting her room.

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"You three can go to your room now, though, do be quiet, she's sleeping" Arthur said as he entered his room, seeing that both Ruby and Fairy had fallen asleep atop his bed while Yang and Blake were playing a card game and Summer was watching the news from earlier in the day on his tv where a lavender haired woman was presenting the news, this woman being Lisa Lavender of the Vale News Network.

*Yesterday evening tragedy struck Vale as a fire broke out in the Grand Tree Orphanage, tragically killing it's headmistress Jazz Nava and her husband Aryl Nava. Luckily all the children apart from one, along with all the caretakers working that day were able to escape before any significant damage had been wrought to the building.*

Arthur moved behind the couch and watched the news broadcast with a frown as he saw the footage playing of the orange flames and the children huddled together staring up at the burning building.

*But unfortunately, one child was unable to escape from the flames and became trapped inside along with the headmistress and her husband. But luckily, two brave souls charged into the flames to rescue this child, these being Coco Adel, a current student at Beacon Academy and a currently unknown boy, also assumed to be attending Beacon as of this time.*

Both Coco's and Arthur's faces appeared on screen, from after they had left the flames

*Yet, while these two individuals were within the building, a strange occurrence happened as the flames suddenly turned black for currently unknown reason. Today with us we have professor Mizu Melone, a world renowned scientist famed for his research into the interactions between aura, semblances and dust and how they could affect the world around us.*

The screen zoomed out revealing a man sitting across from Lisa was a a middle aged man with dark green hair with black stripes in it and bright red eyes, with a seemingly eternal frown on his face as his fingers interlocked atop the desk.

*Good to be here Lisa* Professor Melone said

*So, professor, what can you tell us about this unusual fire and the equally as strange black pillar of flames that shot out of the orphanage that some say resembled a dragon?" Lisa asked.

*Well, Lisa, currently, not a lot, I had only just gotten to the site of the fire late last night and was only able to just scratch the surface of these unusual flames* he responded.

*Then, what can you tell us about them? Do you have any idea as to what may have caused the fire to change colour?*

*Currently I believe that the flames changed their colours and general properties because of a mixture of someone's semblance and dust, but currently I have scoured the dust archives for any dust that may potentially have effects like this and come up empty handed, so it is either an entirely new dust mixture not yet publically released or the semblance of whoever created them acted as the main catalyst for both the flames and that fire whirl which we have seen in recording.*

The screen changed to show the orange flames turning black and the dragon like fire pillar, soon followed by the fire ball falling to the ground.

*Yes, as shown in the video I believe that the creator of these flames used their semblance to push their aura into the flames giving them control over it, they then proceeded to use their control over the flames to create a form of makeshift platform which launched them into the sky*

*And this grey dot? Do you have any idea as to what this may be? It seems that whoever is in the flames is chasing after it. Do you have any idea who might be the one within said flame?*

*I personally believe that this 'grey dot' is possibly the originator of the fire that burnt down the orphanage while I do believe that the person in the fire is the boy who later exited the building along with ms. Adel and the child*

*You believe the fire was not an accident?* Lisa asked.

*Yes, I have spoken extensively with the firemen that were on scene during the initial stages of the fire, as well as those who later entered the still burning fire where they discovered a large crater evident of an explosion in the meeting room where aspiring parents could interact with their soon to be children, the kicker, there were no possible causes directly within the room, no gas pipes or anything, so I believe that this 'grey dot' is possibly someone who entered the orphanage under the pretense of adopting a child but in reality was there to cause terror among the populace, which seemed to work as I've heard from some of my colleagues that study grimm noticed that more had appeared in the surroundings of Vale during and directly before this incident, but if you really want more information on this I'd advise you to speak with someone more up to date on that field of study.*

*T-that is a truly terrifying thought, and why do you say that the boy is the one who can control the flames? Couldn't ms. Adel be the one to have done it, or maybe even the child?*

*Hmm… I do not think so, I work very, very closely with the various academies, every now and then I would go to one of them and ask for volunteers to allow me to study their semblance as well as do a few experiments with them involving dust. And just this last year I visited Beacon where ms. Adel and her team were part of my volunteers, now in the efforts of not revealing any of their private details I will say that neither ms. Adel nor her teammates have a semblance that can do anything like what we have seen. As for the child… no, I do not believe that she would be capable of something so extensive, especially at such an age.*

*Then how do you explain this?*

The screen changes to the image of Arthur kneeling in front of the unconscious Fairy, his black hair and eyes turning white as his body bursts into a white light as a team RWBY along with Coco and Velvet trying to run to him but being pushed back as soon the area around Arthur fills with white light particles that converge into wings crafted of the same particles, which flare out into a blinding white light which fades away revealing the wings had begun to disintegrate eventually completely dissipating as Arthur's body fell to the side and was caught by Weiss.

*We can clearly see that the boys semblance is seemingly related to whatever these shining white particles are, as well as being for healing as we gathered reports that the child he walked out of the flames with was wearing a bloody bandage around her missing left leg, which some noticed was completely healed when one of the huntress's-in-training removed the bandage directly after this incident*

*I am sorry, but I cannot answer that, Semblance's are a complex thing, I would need to meet this boy, and get permission to study his semblance outright. But it is possible that both the flames along with the light particles are part of his semblance, as we can see in the video you just showed us, both his hair and eyes changed colours, from black to white, so it is very possible that his semblance has some connection to this phenomena and that his hair colour somehow indicates his usage of either the flames and the particles.*

*Thank you professor, it has been a p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e speaking with you but our time has come to a close*

*It was great being her Lisa, I hope we can do this again once I know more*

*Well, I know I would love to have to back on Professor.*

The screen zoomed back in on Lisa

*That is all for this mornings news recap, if you have any information as to the cause of the fire please contact the number shown below. This has been Lisa Lavender, signing out on the Vale News Network*

"I feel like I'm going to get an inquiry about an interview soon…" Arthur muttered.

"What'd you expect? You ran into a fire, turned it black, turned into a giant fire pillar the shape of a dragon and then exited the fire with a child and became an angel. I'd be more surprised if people didn't want to interview you." Yang said, scratching her head as she tried to figure out what do during her card game against Blake, where Arthur could see Blake had a black ace card poking out of her sleeve.

"Point taken…" he responded.

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Alternate Chapter names: [Professor Watermelon] [Pat to sleep]

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