Ever since Winter was born, all Weiss's dad, Jack, would talk about was infusing his youngest with Dust when she turned one year old.
"Just think about it," Jack grinned as they ate dinner. Winter was asleep. "Schnee Dust Company's CEO has a daughter who's infused with Dust! Isn't it amazing? Then Winter could be heiress! She'd be Dust herself!"
"But dad," Weiss, who was three, said innocently. "I'm the oldest. Aren't I heiress?"
"Weissy, you have to be worthy of the title," Jack smiled down at his eldest.
"Huh?"
"This means you have to compete with Winter to be heiress," her mother, Marigold, explained. "You're rivals now, princess."
Rivals? Weiss thought. Compete? That means I'll have to be better than her!
When Winter was a year old, she was taken to the Schnee Laboratory to be infused with ice Dust. The Schnees were waiting outside of the room in chairs.
"Why are you putting Dust in her, dad?" Weiss, who was now four, asked her father. Her hands were pressed to the door as she looked through the small window in it.
"She'll be unstoppable in battle!" Jack grinned in pride.
"What about me?" Weiss asked, turning around to look at Jack.
"It's too late for that," Jack sighed in disappointment. "It would've been nice to have two powerful daughters instead of just one..."
I will be powerful. Weiss thought, determined. Just watch, dad. I'll be better than Winter no matter what!
It was time. Winter was finally thirteen, Weiss was sixteen and the royal test was about to start. Winter and Weiss stood back to back, ready for the battle, weapons in their hands.
Winter had white hair down to her shoulder blades. Due to the Dust infusion, she had glowing ocean blue eyes. She wore dark blue knee-high boots and stockings of the same colour. She wore a slightly lighter blue dress that reached mid-thigh with gold around the hem and a bolero of the same design.
She did not have a Multi-Action Dust Rapier like her sister. Winter instead wielded an Elemental Claymore, which was suited for Dust-infused wielders. She could coat it in ice at will, hit the ground with it to make ice appear anywhere and use it to throw ice at her opponents. Winter hadn't been training with it for long, only three years, but she was able to wield it well.
The sisters took ten paces each, still facing away from each other.
"Begin!" The announcer shouted.
The competitors faced each other in one swift motion. Instinctively, when Winter turned she sent multiple large shards of ice at Weiss. The older sister created a blue glyph around her, creating a gravitational field. She pointed Myrtenaster in her sister's direction, sending the attack back at Winter. Weiss quickly made a circular motion with Myrtenaster and made restraints on Winter, making her unable to move and get large cuts on her body from her own shards. The restraints disappeared, having done their job.
Winter snarled at her and coated her claymore in ice. She charged at Weiss and slashed at her several times. Her attacks were mostly blocked, but Weiss ended up with a slash wound that started at the left side of her jawline and ended just above her eye. She yelped in pain, holding her eye.
Winter gasped and backed away. She didn't really want to fight her own sister, let alone give her a major wound like that. She stared in horror, eyes wide and jaw dropped, as Weiss lifted her hand off her face and saw blood dripping off of it.
"I-I'm so sorry..." Winter whispered, covering her mouth with her hand.
Weiss's grip on Myrtenaster tightened as she shook some blood off her other hand. She got into her battle position.
"We fight now. No apologies," Weiss hissed. She had to prove to her parents that while she had a bit of a disadvantage, she would win no matter what. She wasn't a weakling.
Weiss created a yellow glyph underneath her and she dashed towards Winter. She slashed a few times in a blur of white before disarming Winter, the claymore falling a few feet to the left. When Winter went to retrieve her weapon, Weiss sent fireballs to assault her. Winter flipped out of the way from some of them towards her weapon, but two fireballs knocked her back and sent her flying into a wall.
The younger sister peeled off the wall and fell to her knees, but she wasn't out yet. She slowly got up and used her Semblance, temperature manipulation, to heat up Weiss's weapon, which turned orange at the sudden heat blast.
"Hot! Gah!" Weiss tossed Myrtenaster between both hands. While she did that, Winter sprinted to her weapon and picked it up from the floor. She stabbed the ground with it and a pillar of ice came out of a wall and slammed into Weiss's side, sending her flying, but her grip on Myrtenaster remained the same.
While Weiss was on the floor Winter made another pillar of ice, which rose from underneath Weiss and shot her into the air. Weiss grunted as she hit the floor again. She quickly realized that Winter was going to have a pillar come from the ceiling and put Myrtenaster in the red setting. Just as it was rushing over her, just above her head, she brought her rapier up and blocked the attack, causing the ice pillar to disappear into glitter. Weiss rose from the floor and looked at her sister.
Winter was glaring slightly at her and charged, her claymore coated in ice again. Weiss used her glyphs to zoom out of the way everytime Winter charged at her. The claymore wielder got frustrated and turned the dark room into an ice rink, complete with the below zero temperature. Weiss shivered and slipped on the ice, falling on her side. She kept shivering and falling everytime she tried to get up.
It's not over, Weiss thought as she got up successfully, wobbling, shivering and teeth chattering. Her body seemed to be frozen in place as Winter seemingly skated in her direction rapidly. Weiss's face hardened in determination as she put her rapier in the white setting, gliding to Winter also. As they passed each other, they each made a slash for the finishing move.
The two sisters crossed paths and slowly slid to a stop about ten feet away from each other. Weiss and Winter both had their weapons poised and blank expressions on their faces. In the end, it was Winter who crashed to the icy floor, a serious horizontal slash wound on her abdomen. Weiss stayed standing with a wound going across her shoulder blades, as Winter had spun when her claymore made contact with Weiss.
"And Weiss is the victor!" The announcer's voice boomed. "Weiss Schnee had been declared Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company! Congratulations!"
Weiss could already see her parents' look of disappointment on their faces as she walked over to Winter, the floor no longer icy.
"Come on, let's get you to the infirmary," Weiss murmured, slinging Winter's arm across her shoulders and putting a hand on her waist. The sisters left the arena to go to the infirmary.
"I can't believe you lost!" Weiss could hear her father screaming at Winter in the next hospital room. "I thought you were infused with Dust! You were supposed to win! You have shamed us all!"
Weiss didn't even get a congratulations from her father, only from her mother, who was happy for her.
"Congratulations, sweetie!" Marigold carefully hugged Weiss, who was lying in the hospital bed. "You're the heiress! This is wonderful!"
"Dad doesn't think so," Weiss said bitterly. "He thinks Winter should have won because of her enhancements. He's not happy for me at all."
"I'm happy for you, Weiss," Marigold smiled at her.
"You're supposed to be unbeatable!" Jack screamed in rage. "What the hell happened to you?!"
"I haven't been training as long as Weiss..." Winter's soft voice could be heard. "You can beat skill with experience, dad."
"Not when you're a living element!" Jack argued. The doctors were trying to drag him away from Winter, as she was sobbing. "You clearly had the advantage! You're too stupid to realize that, you window licker!"
"Why did we even have to fight, dad?!" Winter shouted unexpectedly. "Was it to show me off? The oldest it always supposed to be heiress, that's how it goes, like royalty!"
"How dare you say I wanted to show you off!" Jack snarled. "You're a filthy little rat with nothing to show for!"
Weiss and Marigold looked at each other in utter shock.
By the time Winter and Weiss recovered, their father had told the family that he was sending Weiss away to the kingdom of Vale to attend Beacon Academy in a few months. Every since that day, the sisters had been distant, often avoiding each other and even eating at different times. Now that Weiss was the heiress, she needed extra lessons in etiquette and being proper, which took up even more of her time that could have been spent with her sister.
When she left for Beacon, Weiss had cut off all contact with her family.
The day she went to gather information on the Schnee Dust Company and heard her sister's name, she remembered how much she hated her father and how unforgiving he was with Winter. Weiss was going to set things right someday. She would repair her relationship with her family.