Hey everyone! So I hope you all enjoyed the prologue for Nevermore's Wrath. This is the first actual chapter in the story. With this semester coming to an end soon I should be able to post chapters more regularly now. Let me know what you guys think.
I
Weiss Schnee awoke to the sound of heavy banging on the door to her home in the business sector of New Vale City. She squeezed her eyes shut in hope that she could will herself back to sleep in order to not have to answer the door. However whoever was at the door started to knock louder and louder. She finally opened her eyes and pulled herself into a sitting position before reaching next to her bed and locking the wheels on her wheelchair so that it could not move. She then slowly pulled herself into the wheelchair before unlocking the wheels and pushed herself out of the room and into the wide hallway. She quickly pushed herself down the hallway until she reached a balcony overlooking the foyer, just in time to see a half asleep Eira hurrying to the door.
"Well there is little use opening the door now that whoever is knocking on it has awoken the entire neighborhood." Weiss said with a frown as she wheeled herself into a small elevator at the edge of the balcony before going down to the foyer.
Eira lowered her head as she backed away from the door to allow Weiss to answer it. The twelve year old girl was tall for her age, slender but athletic, and had long white hair and big golden eyes. She respectfully cleared her throat before speaking up.
"I'm sorry Councilwoman Schnee, I didn't mean to allow the knocking to wake you but…" She began before Weiss held up a hand and gave her a soft smile.
"Firstly, I told you to call me Weiss. It's been five years since I took you under my care so if I'm going to be your mother then I expect you to drop the formalities. Secondly, there is no need to apologize since we are expecting company anyways. And lastly, you shouldn't be so timid. A beautiful young girl like yourself should hold her head up with confidence. I can't allow someone who has been through so much and yet still agree to be adopted into the Schnee family act like some timid mouse. Now can I, Nina?" Weiss said before letting her smile grow as the young girl raised her head at the sound of her birth name.
Shortly after the attack on Beacon Academy the surviving students were left with the question as to who would help take care of Nina and protect her from Roland who would no doubtingly still hunt her. After several conversations as to who was most fit to act as the young girl's mother, Weiss proposed that she adopt Nina and use her family as a way to protect her. Nina agreed to the proposal and requested to change her name as to make it harder for Roland to find her. After several days of thinking up a new name she asked Weiss if the name Eira was acceptable. Weiss was more than happy to see that her newly acquired daughter had chosen a name befitting of the Schnee family. And so with Weiss' connections in the SDC and Atlas she took a position on the New Vale council, further protecting her daughter from any threat from Atlas or Roland.
"Even after all these years I still struggle at times with my identity. You've been so good to me that sometimes I just fill that it's required to treat you with the upmost respect." Eira said with a small blush.
"Nonsense, child. Even my father grew to accept you before his passing. You are a Schnee as long as you wish to be one. Now, go get cleaned up. We shouldn't keep our guests waiting any longer." Weiss said with a waving hand before quickly opening the door to her home.
Outside of the house stood four faunus, one of which was a wolf faunus who had a sour frown on her otherwise beautiful face. The leader of the group was a largely built male ram faunus with a broken horn who nodded respectfully at Weiss. Next to the large male faunus was a slender weasel fuanus and a shy looking fox faunus. The irritated looking wolf faunus stepped forward with a frown.
"About damn time! Do you know how long we have been waiting for you to open up? I understand you got to make it downstairs but you could have at least had Eira open the door!" The young faunus said as she walked into the house, her tail swaying with every step she took.
"Well good morning to you too, Amber." Weiss said as she rolled her eyes at her. "You know you could learn to be a little patient, right?" She continued as Amber stopped in the foyer's center.
"Come on, Weiss. You know how Amber can be." The large ram faunus said gently as he stepped forward before bending down to hug Weiss.
"Hello, Gwyn. Sometimes I just don't know how you all deal with her." Weiss said with a playful smile. "And hello to you as well Yamabuki and Rose. Come in, come in. I just sent Eira to freshen up before her lessons. Who will be training her today?" She continued as she wheeled herself back into the foyer.
"That would be me, your majesty." Amber said as she bowed, her tail wagging at the thought of training the young girl. "I don't know why you always have her 'freshen up' before her training. It's not like she isn't going to get sweaty anyways." Amber said as she rubbed one of her wolf ears.
"I've told you, Amber. It's best to be fully awake before training. I wouldn't want my daughter to get injured while training with some of the best fighters in New Vale." Weiss replied before rolling into the next room.
The room that Weiss entered was her private medical room. It had all of the equipment one would find in a standard doctor's office. Weiss used it to help nurse Eira's scrapes and bruises from her training with Team GRAY. But every few months it was used to allow Rose to use her healing semblance on Weiss' spine. After five years of healing, Weiss' spine had slowly improved. She still would never be able to walk again but the pain in the rest of her body from her injuries at Beacon had all but disappeared thanks to Rose.
Rose slowly entered the room behind Weiss and took a seat next to a medical bed. She patiently waited as Weiss pulled herself from her wheelchair onto the bed and laid face down. Rose closely examined her friend's back and legs and quickly wrote down some notes.
"Are you still in pain? Any phantom pain? And are you having any trouble getting in and out of our bed?" Rose asked after several minutes as she looked up from her notes.
"No, I'm feeling better with every session. The pain in my back is all but gone and I think it's safe to say that I've mastered getting in and out of the chair. It's been quite a while since I asked Eira to assist me." Weiss replied with a proud smile.
"She's right. It's been a few months since the last time she required my help with the chair. In fact she has grown quite cranky at me asking if she needs any assistance." Eira said as she came into the room, dressed in her training clothes and her long white hair in a ponytail.
"Ah! There's my favorite little lady!" Amber exclaimed as she hugged Eira. "Are you ready to train? Your mom has to talk business with Gwyn and Buki so it's just going to be us today." She continued with a sly smile as she motioned to the door.
Eira looked at Weiss worriedly as she noticed that both Gwyn and Yamabuki had pulled up chairs of their own around the bed her mother was laying on. Weiss nodded reassuringly before smiling at her.
"Go ahead, Eira." She said gently. "You'll be fine. It's not the first time you've had to train with Amber alone. We will all be in the training room to watch as soon as we are done here." She continued.
Eira nodded and took a deep breath before confidently walking with Amber out of the room. She closed the door behind her and picked up her weapon that she had laid on a nearby chair before hurrying to follow Amber down the hall.
"It's alright, kid. Your mom has been healing nicely these five years. And you've gotten a lot better at fighting. Now, why don't you say we have some fun?" Amber said with a playful grin as her tail began to wag, much to the entertainment of Eira who nodded and followed her to the training room.
Back inside the medical room, Rose began to use her semblance on Weiss' back as Gwyn and Yamabuki awaited Weiss' approval to begin their meeting. After a few minutes Weiss finally looked up at them from the bed and in a serious manner addressed them.
"Alright, what's the latest reports on Peacekeeper movements? Tell me what Yang has retrieved from her bar in No Man's Land. And tell me what you've learned from the faunus sector of the slums, Gwyn. I'm meeting with Jaune later tonight so I need to know what to expect when we go over our next operation at HQ." She said as she looked towards the large male faunus who cleared his throat before speaking.
"It's Amber's brother, Silver. Reports are coming out of Mistral that he and his team, Team SHDW, has been whipped out by Roland. Amber is taking it as well as you'd think but she keeps assuring us that she can tough it out." Gwyn said sadly with a shake of his head. "With that being said, my team and I want to take part in the next big operation. We've grown tired of just being a source of information as of late. Jaune doesn't want to risk us being caught but it's been so long since any of us have seen actual action that it's become rather boring. Silver was a hell of a fighter and was very close to Amber and Rose. For Amber's sake, we want you to convince Jaune to allow us to take part in this operation." He continued with a serious tone.
After several minutes of silence Weiss sighed and closed her eyes. She waited a few seconds before beginning to reply to Gwyn's request.
"Fine. I'll talk to Jaune about it. But you have to be able to keep Amber under control. Trust me, I know what it's like to lose loved ones." She replied sadly as she thumbed a silver locket around her neck.
"Still no word from Ruby?" Yamabuki asked softly.
"None. Not even Yang has heard from her in years. There's no telling if that dolt is even alive." Weiss said with a sad frown. "But enough about depressing topics. What has Yang reported lately?" She continued, changing her tone back to one of a serious nature.
