'I am Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, a member of team RWBY and, the partner of its leader Ruby Rose. I am eighteen years old. I have faced down owners of rival companies, chased down whole sounders of boarbatusks and, managed to stay somewhat firm in the face of Ruby's patented puppy dog eyes. I can do this.'
Weiss stared into the small oval mirror of the airships bathroom as if challenging her reflection to disagree with her internal pep talk. In the mirror she could see the door behind her looming. On the other side of that door sat her father, mother and, younger sister, in the passenger area of the private and needlessly lavish airship.
Family trips like this in which the entire family travelled together were rare. The last time Weiss could remember it happening she had been thirteen years old and on her way to her grandmother's funeral.
So what had prompted this airship ride and where were they headed? The answer is Weiss' return to Beacon.
Sending Weiss to a school for hunters and huntresses had been a strategic move by her father to show off the fact that his daughter was not only a well bred young girl, but also a strong woman not to be dismissed as a simple decoration; at least not until he had picked out a suitable man to make his heir by way of marriage.
The idea was for her to be seen as a perfect student for a year and then withdraw her from the school with stories of turning her exceptional talents to the growth and protection of her families company.
Neither of her parents nor even Weiss herself had imagined that she would want to continue attending Beacon. She had tasted freedom there; she had met people who didn't care that she was the heiress of some multi-million lien company. She had experienced true friendship. Perhaps most importantly she had learned to see the world from her own eyes instead of through the glasses that were her upbringing.
She did not want to give it up.
So before her parents could make the call to withdraw her from the school Weiss had made sure to call the headmaster directly to confirm her enrolment for the coming year. If Ozpin had been surprised by the call he didn't let on. Later when her parents had called him he was quick to tell them how happy he had been to have received earlier confirmation that their daughter would once again be attending Beacon. He also made sure tell them just how wonderful it was that news of such a high standing member of society continuing attendance at Beacon was causing an increase in first year applications.
Dinner at the Schnee household that night had been a rather strained affair.
Weiss had spent her summer holidays locking horns with her parents over the matter. Fortunately for the young heiress both Professor Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch stood fast behind her refusing to let her parents withdraw her from the curriculum.
Now on the second last day of her holidays Weiss was getting her way. The airship they were riding was headed to Beacon. However the taste of victory was bittersweet.
Yes she was returning to Beacon, to her team, to her friends, to the place where she could for once be herself. But first she had to endure the scrutiny of her parents.
They were unable to comprehend her desire to return. Admittedly Weiss had only given her parents half truths and carefully constructed arguments about how it might reflect badly for her to pull out after only a year of schooling. As such it had been decided that the family as a whole would see her back to Beacon. To the rest of the world it would no doubt seem like a show of support from a close knit family. In reality her mother and father would be snooping around for a more acceptable reason as to why Weiss was so adamant about staying in the school. As well as sniffing out any and every hint of impropriety they could in an attempt to fabricate a reason to make her leave. Winter of course would just be tagging along for appearances sake before she was taken back home to her tutors and socialite friends.
"Ladies and gentleman we will be landing shortly, for safeties sake we ask that all passengers return to their seats and strap themselves in."
Drawing herself up to her full underwhelming height Weiss turned away from the mirror.
'It's not like I was going to be able to hide in here forever.' She abruptly shook her head. 'No. I wasn't hiding. I have no need to hide from those people. All I was doing was freshening up.'
With that thought in mind the supposed ice queen of team RWBY pushed open the door and went to her seat with her poker face set. No sooner had she clicked her harness into place did the airship make the sharp jerk that signalled the final decent into the landing dock.
"You took your time in the bathroom sweet heart, are you sure you're feeling up to this?" The question came from Weiss' mother. By all accounts the image of what Weiss would look like thirty years in the future the woman in question wore a concerned smile. To a casual observer it might have seemed genuine, but Weiss had long since identified the cold glint that never seemed to leave her mother's crystalline blue eyes.
Focusing her gaze on her mother Weiss manufactured a courteous smile feigning ignorance of the way her father's steel coloured eyes had narrowed in on her, waiting to hear how she would respond.
"Was I Mother? I got rather distracted trying to remember if I had properly organized my summer home work before I put it away. It would be annoying to have to search through it all to find the right assignment five minutes before class."
"Yes, I do suppose it would be" her mother replied her own smile hardening just barely enough to be noticeable. Weiss allowed her gaze to wander over to the window where she could see the familiar lobby of the Beacon airship docks coming into alignment.
Eyes of blue and eyes of steel tried to stab her for a few more moments before giving up, realising their daughter was not going to engage them any further.
There was another slightly less jarring jolt as the craft finally came to a halt. This was quickly followed by the hydraulic hiss of a metal ramp sliding out from its compartment and a resounding clunk as metal arms locked it into place.
Weiss was out of her chair and half way to the opening door before the pilot could finish announcing their arrival.
The deciding battle for her freedom was about to begin. Failure was not an option Weiss would tolerate.
A/N:
So here I am with my second published fan-fiction and I've set myself the challenge of having more than one chapter. Which I don't think is gonna be a problem in term of ideas. When the idea for this story first came to me I knew it'd be way to long and have too many changes of scene and perspective to be comfortably read in one huge chapter. The one problem I do think might come up is that I have too many ideas.
So to get a better grasp on where I'm going to take this and to give any readers a chance to have their say I'm gonna ask a couple of questions. If you wanna help me out by answering please keep in mind this is going to be pretty Weiss-centric fic. I'm happy to and probably will look in on other characters but if I'm gonna give them any real exposure they'll probably get their own fic.
1. I plan to write about Weiss' interactions and thoughts on her family (who might as well be OC's for all the information we have on them) as well as a bit of personal growth type stuff. Naturally her different lifestyle at Beacon and the new relationships she's forged are going to play roles in this so the first question I'm going to ask is should I make one of those relationships a romantic relationship?
2. If you answered yes to question 1 would you rather see some Whiterose, Monochrome, or something else?
3. If you want to see something else, what is that something else?
The reason I'm asking Whiterose or Monochrome is because as it is I can currently see 3 semi clear paths the third of course being no romance. However if enough people vote for a different ship I might be able to think up a few more ideas. Honestly I ship pretty much everyone in RWBY it's not hard to get me excited about a ship and get the ideas flowing.
Any way thank you to anyone who took the time to read this chapter, I hope you've enjoyed it and that you'll continue to do so.
