For those of you who didn't know, this story is now filed under the "Fate/Stay Night X RWBY" crossover archive.XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
Chapter 2: Making Plans
Jaune shivered under his layered coat, hugging his arms to preserve warmth while also trying to keep the bouquet in his arms from freezing over. "Gah, I d-d-don't know how the A-a-Atlesians can take the c-c-cold." He said in between the clattering of his teeth.
"This is one of the many, many contradictory strengths and weaknesses to humanity. Their ability to adapt to various environments, while also being weak to an equal number of them." Gaia walked behind him with this amused expression on her face.
"W-w-well that's b-b-because humans are able to adapt to the v-v-various environments because they have t-t-time to adapt to said environments. A-a-and most of the time t-t-they're able to adapt t-t-to these environments b-b-because they were b-b-born in those environments, giving them more than enough time to adapt." Jaune replied irritated.
Gaia hummed in an almost… proud manner. "Hmm, as expected. Humans are such resilient creatures."
"You know, for someone who once wanted humanity dead, you sure sound proud of them."
"Well, with the extinction of my True Ancestors, not to the mention the death of Crimson Moon, I have absolutely no means of protecting myself. So I took the time to learn about humans in order to be able to eventually manipulate and control one to do my bidding, but the more I learned, the more I came to respect humans. To be able to survive the various hazards I throw at them, and also surviving the looming threat of Angra Mainyu and his creations. Eventually I came to admire, and even respect humans."
Jaune seemed to beam with pride. "Hehe, well we humans are pretty resillient."
"Yes, a resillient virus. Adaptable, downright lethal in large quantities, and virtually unkillable without killing the world in the process. But resillient nonetheless." And, there goes a shot through the heart.
"And the Gaia that hates humanity is back." He said despondently.
"Oh, it's not an insult. If I'm not mistaken the old humans used to put viruses into themselves to grow immune to it. So viruses can be beneficial, in small doses that is."
"Gee, thanks." He said sarcastically.
He eventually stopped at the gates of a large, white mansion, with a snowflake emblem on the gates. Despite being quite a common colour in Atlas, it either worked well or worked horribly. With the white paint practically acting s camouflage under Atlas' near constant state of snow, it worked well in making a place nearly invisible from a distance, which helped when you have a safehouse somewhere in Atlas. What didn't help was that this camouflage kept places hidden even from owners, which is a real hassle.
Cases where people couldn't even find their houses aren't exactly uncommon.
"Oh, finally. I thought we'd never make it here." Jaune sighed in relief. He didn't want to stay out in the freezing cold more than he had to. And he couldn't ask for a cab either, drivers in Atlas are rare due to the ability to navigate in the heavy and near constant snowfall being a major requirement if you want to get a drivers license in Atlas. If he really wanted someone to drive him somewhere in Atlas, he'd have to officially hire them, and even then most of the licensed drivers in Atlas are already hired by the Atlesian upper class.
He walked to the wall beside the gates to find an intercom. After finding it, he pressed the button labelled "buzzer" on the intercom, creating a buzzing sound. "This is the Schnee manor, state your business." The other side of the intercom spoke.
Jaune pressed a button with the image of a microphone on it and replied. "This is Jaune Arc from the "Moonlight Garden" flower shop. I'm here to deliver a package to Ms. Willow Schnee." There were a few seconds of silence before the intercom spoke again.
"Miss Schnee has been expecting you Mr. Arc, Klein will show you to her." The intercom sounded a buzz and the gates slowly opened.
When Jaune walked inside the mansion, he was greeted with a short, slightly overweight man with balding brown hair and a large moustache. His red eyes seemed to scan Jaune for a moment before they shifted to a bright yellow colour.
"Ah, Jaune! It's nice to see you again. Did you bring the madam's flowers?" He said jovially.
"Hello Klein. It's nice to see you two. And yes, I did bring them. I managed to keep them from freezing." Jaune reached into his jacket and pulled out a bouquet of flowers… that have a sheet of ice over them. "Or not."
Klein chuckled at his misfortune. "Ah, such a shame. Worry not Jaune," Klein walked over to him and whispered in his ear. "The flowers aren't the reason you're here anyway." He then turned around and gestures for Jaune to follow him. "Now, follow me please. The madam is not one to wait too long."
The two walked through the pure white halls of the mansion. And Jaune – despite being here once before – thought if the Atlesians think that the abundance of the colour "white" was supposed to mean something. Cause' if they didn't, whoever decided to paint the Schnee mansion is subtly torturing anyone that live there. With how bland and boring the white everything of the Schnee mansion, it would be a miracle for someone to think of this place s home. Heck it hardly feels home at all.
Jaune could understand if the Atlesians paint the exterior of the house white to blend in with the snow for camouflage – though he still didn't understand why – but for the love of go, don't paint the interior to match the exterior!
Jaune was brought out of his ramblings when Klein started snapping his fingers at him. "I'm sorry, I spaced out." He quickly shook his head and apologized.
"It's the paint isn't it?"
"I just don't understand why they had to have everything white. I mean, would it kill them to put a little colour in this place? And I do no mean blue."
Suddenly Klein's eyes turned red. "Looks like Jacques wanted the house to match how boring he is." The two shared a short laugh before Klein composed himself, his eyes turning a light-brown colour. "Well, Madam Schnee is right through this door." He said when he stopped in front of a door.
"Thanks Klein. Is Jacques Jr. around?"
Klein's eyes turned red yet again. "Young master Shitley is learning for his father. Honestly, that boy is becoming just like him, maybe even worse."
Jaune grimaced remembering his first encounter with the little shit. "Oh, god. Hopefully the actual heir does much better."
Klein's eyes turned yellow again. "I believe the Little Snowflake plans on going to Beacon two years from now. Hopefully that'll help her grow out of her father's training and become a real Schnee heiress."
"Here's to hoping Klein." Jaune said before knocking on the door.
"Who is it?" Came the voice on the other side.
"It's me, Jaune Arc." He replied.
"Come in." Jaune opened the door and walked in.
The room – in contrast to everywhere else in the house – had a bit of colour on its walls. With the walls having a vibrant mix of orange and red with white clouds on top, but if you looked to the ceiling, you'll see that beautiful mix of black and blue with spots of white here and there made it seem as if you're looking straight into the night sky.
Sitting on a chair by the window, sat a woman with pure white hair tied to a bun, wearing and elegant ice blue dress. The dress was clearly made with movement and elegance in mind, the combat skirt was long, but not long enough to be a hindrance, and it had long sleeves big enough to hide something inside, but not large enough for it to be obvious. Really the woman simply screamed elegance.
"Are you going to just stand and gawk every time you come here, Jaune?" The woman asked.
"When you're surrounded by beautiful flowers everyday, you learn to just stop and appreciate the beauty of it." Jaune said as he walked over to her.
The woman gave a light-hearted chuckle while hiding the blush that adorned her cheeks. "Always the charmer, Jaune. Did you bring the flowers?"
He showed her the frozen bouquet of flowers. "I'm afraid they caught a little bit of snow on the way here."
"That's fine, just put them in the vase." Jaune put the flowers in the vase and the woman raised her hand close to the flowers and melted the ice on them.
"How are you, Willlow?"
"A lot better now that I've stopped drinking. I really appreciated your help back then."
"Don't thank him, he's not the one who came up with that drink." Gaia suddenly spoke up behind Jaune.
See, back when Jaune first came to the Schnee manor to deliver flowers, it was in the middle of one of Wiese's drinking sessions. And it was during this drinking session that Wiese experienced alcohol poisoning. With the help of Gaia, Jaune was able to make a concoction mix of Ice, Fire and a glass of water that helped flush all of the alcohol in Wiese's body in about two hours. (A/N: I know this isn't actually a thing. But considering that Dust is used for absolutely everything in Remnant I did this thing.)
"Of course, it's good to see you two Lady Gaia." She greeted the embodiment of the world.
It turns out that Willow was actually a Maiden, which was basically a woman with 1/8th of Gaia's power. Jaune himself has dominion over all plant life on Remnant and the Earth element, which is of Gaia's full power. The other half belonged to someone named "The Wizard" who held the other which was dominion of the elements; Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Thunder, who gave his power to four women who then proceeded to pass them down to their own successors.
"So, Willow. What seems to be the problem? I know you wouldn't ask me to personally come here unless it's important."
"Hmm, I really can't hide much from you can't I?" She pulled out her scroll and handed it to him. "There's a dust mining camp 10 miles outside Atlas borders. It's one of the SDC's best dust mines, having some of the best Dust veins in Atlas, both in quality and quantity." She says as Jaune opened the scroll, turning it on.
"Doesn't sound like a problem, I assume there's something wrong with it?"
"I want it wiped off the map." Jaune froze for a second, before regaining his composure.
"You sure? I mean, wouldn't a Dust mine this good be a huge setback for the company?"
"There are six more just like it, and in much less frigid climates," she paused for a moment. "Among other things."
"You're gonna have to give me a little more reason to wipe out an entire Dust mine."
"It's all in the scroll." Jaune didn't like how she said that, so he looked into the scroll and opened up "Images".
He wished he didn't.
A few of the pictures consisted of Faunus workers being beaten by the guards with batons, both regular and stun variations, all while tied to a chair. A few more consisted of Faunus being tied to a chair with a sack above their heads, and being splashed with water. Another set of pictures depicted Faunus in a sorry excuse of a Med bay, their arms and legs either having cut wounds or entirely wrapped in barbed wire. Probably the worst one is a video showing a group of Faunus having an eternal smile on their faces, their facial muscles locked in place, constantly laughing.
It was absolutely disturbing.
"Once again, humanity's cruelty to its own people rear it's ugly head." Gaia remarked, her face showing a look of utter disgust, Jaune himself felt like he was about to puke on the spot.
"How did you get this?" He said, his hair covering his eyes, and his arms were shaking while holding the scroll.
"I had one of my spies look into the Dust mines, when one of then came back with this I felt I should look into it personally." She got up from her chair and walked to the window. "I saw all of that first hand. It's called "Camp Termina", a place where rowdy Faunus workers from all of the other Dust mines are sent to be... "Educated". They beat them, torture them, and if they're especially rebellious, get drugged with what's called "Jester's Smile". They use it to reduce the negativity there and try to prevent the Grimm from storming the place. And to think my so-called "Husband" gave them clearance for this." She clenched her knuckles to the point they started bleeding.
"To think my father and I agreed to let Jacques handle the Schnee Dust Company as the CEO. I feel so disgusted for letting this happen. I couldn't sleep the night I got back, the nightmares of those Faunus' screams filled my ears at night. It's maddening." She let out a shaky breath, trying to keep her composure. "I want that place wiped off the map, free the Faunus there from their torment."
"What about Jacques? There's no guarantee there isn't another place like "Camp Termina" sanctioned by that bastard." Jaune's voice gained a dangerous, he was more than willing Jacques the moment Wiese gave the green light.
"That scroll has more than enough evidence to put Jacques and his associates in jail for life and strip them and their families of their possessions."
"But with Atlas' prejudice against Faunus, the case won't gain much traction."
"I know, that's why I'm suing him in International Court. My contacts are looking into all of the Schnee Dust mines across Remnant. It's only a matter of time."
Jaune got up from his seat. "Coordinates?"
"I'll send it to your scroll, I'm going to need that one though." Jaune handed Wiese her scroll before walking out the room, not even giving Klein a second glance.
He had a mine to destroy.
XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX
This chapter is partially inspired by the fanfic "Arc of the Revolution" by Aleadrex as will the next chapter.