RWBY FanFic 2

AN: Here's another thing I wrote, only got one chapter written thus far because that's how I roll, but if you guys like it I can do more. Please note that this is not a happy fic; it's labelled Angst for a reason. If you still want to read, grand. If not, I'm sure there are many other good ones out there. Hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1

Weiss just looked at the cracked and burnt ground; face contorted into a mix of confusion, pain and relief. No tears fell yet, but in due time she knew they would. The view changed slightly and she realised she was walking. Here and there the sandstone pebbles shone through the charred mess where someone had kicked them aside, and she found herself unable to look at the three darker patches of ground. Those where were the police had moved the bodies.

With an effort, she looked up at the now ruined mansion she once called home. Several streams of smoke lazily climbed over the broken walls, evidence of the small fires still raging within. At some point whilst she was staring at the ground the roof had collapsed, the colossal lead structure dragging down some of the weakened walls with it. A handful of windows remained intact, but the soot and grime coating the inside of them mercifully obscured the view of the rest of the house.

Weiss felt Goosebumps rise on her arms as a breeze drifted towards her, robbing her of the warmth she had previously felt. She tried to pretend that the gust of wind hadn't come from where the majestic oak door once stood, a shield between the Schnee family and those who would do them harm. Said door now lay broken on the ground, scorch marks evidence of the flames that had danced their hungry dance throughout the house. A crunching underfoot caused Weiss to look downwards and she immediately regretted doing so.

A hand. A single human hand, burnt mainly to the bone but with enough crisped flesh left to be recognisable. Had she been thinking clearly Weiss may have been able to identify who the hand had previously belonged to, but she was still in a daze from that phone call. That dreadful, dreadful phone call.

"Hello, is that Miss Schnee?" the unfamiliar voice drifting through her scroll sounded tired but authorative, and Weiss didn't hesitate to respond.

"Yes it is, to whom am I speaking please?" she replied, the manner and tone with which she did indicating that this was routine for her.

"My name is Detective Inspector Anderson. I'm afraid I have some very bad news for you Miss Schnee, you may want to prepare yourself," so saying he paused for a few seconds to give her time to adjust before continuing, "I'm sorry to inform you that there has been a fire at the Schnee mansion. We arrived as fast as we could but sadly there were no survivors. Going on the evidence we have thus far, we believe this to be the work of terrorists."

The policeman had said many other things, but Weiss took none of them in. She merely hung up and stared ahead. So many emotions were running through her at that moment and so broken was she that any one of them could have surfaced and overcome her. Instead she continued to stare; only realising later that she was sat in a car, a chauffeur-driven car that seemed familiar somehow. Normally she would have identified which car and which chauffeur, but today she could barely process the sights bombarding her brain.

When she had arrived at the mansion, one of the mighty iron-wrought gates lying shattered on the ground, she could only stare at the remains of her home for a brief second before she cast her gaze downwards towards her shoes, keeping it there for a long, long while.

Weiss didn't register getting out of the car, but she must have done so at some point for her to follow the curving sandstone path that led from the gates to the front door. About twenty metres out, the regular yellow of the sandstone was replaced by a dull black from the soot and the smoke and the fire, the fire that had robbed her of her family.

A few members of the police and a single fire engine were parked outside the ruined building, one of them setting up some inspection tape, another taking photos and the majority tasked with the grisly job of removing the many corpses from the scene. Having not been home for over six months, Weiss couldn't remember which members of staff would have been working that night, but she knew for certain that both her parents would have been in. Her father's butler would have been manning his station, and despite there only being two permanent residents, the number of staff would have been in the teens.

An elderly policeman had walked over to her during her thought processes, and was stood in front of her, waiting for her attention. When he sensed that she had noticed him he cleared his throat and began talking, "I am so deeply sorry you had to see this Miss Schnee. My name is Anderson; I was the one who rang you earlier. Come, let's walk." So saying he gently led Weiss to a stone bench situated a bit away from the house, and deliberately facing in the other direction.

"Now Miss Schnee, we can allow you into some parts of the house with an escort if you want to retrieve some personal items, but I must inform you that most items are severely damaged," Weiss didn't realise she had shaken her head but she must have done going by his reaction, "I see. I am sorry to tell you that we have positive ID's on the three bodies we found outside. One of them was your father's gentleman's gentleman, one of them was a cook and one of them was your mother."

Weiss just looked down and nodded numbly, slowly processing what had happened. Her mother had died, probably burned to death along with the rest of the staff. Her father had, wait, what about her father? There had been no sign of him, maybe he had made it! But as Weiss looked at Anderson with a glimmer of hope in her deep blue eyes, his reaction crushed that hope. "We found your father earlier. I won't stop you but I seriously suggest against seeing him. They… tortured him, tortured him badly. And when they were done…" he trailed off, not needing to finish that sentence. When they were done with him they executed him.

Making a decision for the first time in a while, Weiss pulled herself up off the bench and turned towards where her father's body had been found. As she did so she glimpsed at the mansion and visibly cringed: it still hurt her inside to look at it. Following the young girl, Anderson held open a gate for her and followed her through, maintaining a respectful amount of silence for the dead family. Motioning to a white forensics tent, Anderson put his hand on Weiss' shoulder at the entrance to reassure her. Holding open one of the flaps, he watched as Weiss took one look at the mess that was her father and fainted. Expecting this reaction he gently caught her and carried her outside and back towards the car waiting for her, waiting to take her away from this terrible place.

The rest of Team RWBY were understandably alarmed when they opened the door and were greeted by the sight of a servant carrying an unconscious Weiss in his arms, but before they could question him he approached the nearest bed and gently placed the young girl down. He rapidly began to talk when a cocked Ember Celica was pointed at his head, and he hurriedly explained the whole affair, taking care to avoid going into too much detail. Once he had finished his macabre tale he bid the team farewell, pausing only to ask them to care for Weiss as he left.

The entire room was silent, each member trying to process the information presented to them. Ruby's youthful optimism seemed crushed, her face as pained as Weiss' as she instinctively took the unconscious girls hand in her own. Yang glared at a wall, weapon still cocked and curses steadily flowing from her mouth. She looked for all the world like she was going to put a hole in something, maybe even her teammates, but for the first time in her life, Yang was helpless. All she could do was stand there and curse.

Blake shrank back onto her bed, a look of panic etched on her features and her breath coming out in sharp, painful gasps. This sounded like the White Fang, and if they were able to strike somewhere as secure as the Schnee mansion, what was keeping them safe here in Beacon.

Thus the three of them stood, no-one registering the message that came through from Ozpin. None of them noticed the sun peak in the sky and begin its steady descent towards the horizon or the swift rapping on their door. All three of them stood unwitting guards over their broken friend, unaware of the world around them as their charge slept, her dreams haunted by the sights she had seen.

AN: Yeah, I did say it would be kinda dark. I don't know whether to continue this or not, but if I get a positive enough response I will at least try to. If I do, I doubt I'll go into much detail with some of the things, as I think even with an M rating describing torture is a bit far.

'Til next time!