AN: I should note that this story began before any details about the Schnee Family had been revealed beyond Winter's appearance on screen, so please remember that this is an alternate universe. Also the book Arnalda is reading is real and there is a great overview on it by the popular youtuber CGP called, "Rules for Rulers"and its follow up, "Death and Dynasties"
SOME TIME EARLIER
Arnalda Schnee rarely waited for anything, but this was an exception. Putting on a display of power often had critical timing issues, so she sat there in her rented office space on the top floor of whatever building her servants had managed to find for her and read to pass the time. The space would serve her purposes.
She'd had the room redecorated to match her outfit. The walls, the floor, even the furniture was a sterile, gleaming, torturous white. All sexy, sleek and soulless. White showed its flaws better than any color, whether stained or dingy - all the better to squash any imperfection. All the better to show the proof when perfection was finally attained. Arnalda's business suit and pencil skirt had been washed, dried and ironed less than an hour ago and their white displayed the same naked invincibility as the rest of the room. Her white purse laid on the floor next to her chair, holding the three weapons she soon would wield to destroy her victim.
Of all the books not in her private library, The Dictator's Handbook maintained a special place in her heart. Rudimentary by the standard of the books she'd commissioned, it had nevertheless played a critical role in her early rise to power, and she regarded it with more than a little nostalgia. It's lessons had won out time and time again as she'd tried to prove the author wrong. Power could not be maintained in isolation. You couldn't literally give people nothing and expect to be able to control them. The desire to prove the author wrong had still led to some lesser successes.
In her early days, she'd sought to circumvent the need to share anything resembling power through the formation of a cult of personality, but finding key supporters with the competence necessary and the propensity to be drawn into her orbit had been tiresome and time consuming, though far from impossible. In the end, The Cult of the High Lady had been stocked with absolutely devoted and mostly competent worshippers - perfect automatons for work where security and trustworthiness mattered most and moderate competence was all that was required.
The book had taught her another lesson. For power to be truly secured, an obvious heir had to be ready to take the reigns of power. It didn't matter to her what became of the Schnee Dust Company after her eventual death, but it would matter to her key supporters and that had a tangible effect on her power in the present. Winter couldn't be that heir. The Grand Matriarch had been a touch too….efficacious in ensuring her oldest's obedience, and it had ruined her ability to lead. Winter had become far too afraid of angering her mother to make executive decisions. Fortunately Arnalda had a spare, though it appeared she had overcorrected with that one. Weiss needed to be brought to heel, and without destroying her utterly.
The muffled screams told her that her victim had arrived, but she took care not to appear to take notice. One of her worshippers threw the captive to the ground near her, but she kept her eyes on the book she was no longer reading.
"Mr Rathbone, thank you for coming," she said, emphasizing his lack of choice and thus his powerlessness in this situation.
"Please take a seat," Arnalda gestured across the small table she was sitting in front of to the chair across from her, waited a moment, and then finally turned to look at her captive. He'd been bound hands behind his back and with his feet tied together as per her instruction. And he'd been muzzled. His eyes showed fear. And it wasn't just the shock or the powerlessness of his situation. No, she looked deeper into him than that shallow reality and saw the weakness that defined him.
A moment passed between them, and the Grand Matriarch let her face go limp and her eyes turn hard. Her captive got the message and struggled to his feet, hopped over to the chair, and managed to fall into it without falling right back out.
"Do you play?" she said, reaching her left hand out over the table, palm down and snapped her fingers.
From 64 small sliding doors opened in the frosted glass of the table in an eight by eight pattern, and 16 tiny robots rose from a hidden compartment. They had the shape of chess pieces. Normally Arnalda Schnee was not one to give up even the slightest advantage, but for this particular display it had been important to give her captive the white pieces.
The captive's eyes darted around the room, taking in his circumstances. Given the shock, he probably only now would notice the ten other worshippers in the room and the oppressiveness of its architecture.
"I don't enjoy repeating myself, Mr Rathbone." she said as if she were gently scolding a child.
He looked up at her and nodded.
The Grand Matriarch smiled the way a shark would smile, "Of course you do. What kind of pseudo-intellectual hack doesn't play a little chess?"
She flipped her left hand out to the side and snapped her fingers again. This time one of her worshippers approached her captive and deployed a switchblade precisely as close to her captive's face as he'd been instructed. He then circled around the captive and cut his bonds and removed the muzzle.
"I suppose you're wondering why I invited you here today, correct? My sources tell me that you're reasonably intelligent. So tell me why you're here. And play."
Her captive took a deep breath.
"King's pawn to e4. I suppose it would be insufficient to say that this is regarding Weiss? " He said immediately. The white pawn on the fourth column sprouted legs and scurried forward two spaces.
"Quite" the Grand Matriarch replied immediately, and then added, "King's pawn to e5" and it's black counterpart marched forward to meet it.
He took another deep breath, "From what I understand, you disapprove of her relationship with Mr Arc. Beyond that she defied you when you ordered her to terminate the relationship. You intend to teach her the price of disobedience."
"Again correct" Arnalda replied, expectantly.
"Obviously you intend to use me to do it, probably with threats and blackmail to ensure I don't simply tell her about this meeting."
"Likely, " Arnalda replied. She reached into her purse and withdrew a small data-only scroll composed almost entirely of glass. It had a small picture of her captive in the top left and the rest was filled with text.
She continued, "I've come to know quite a lot about you recently. You seem almost competent, but there's only so much that can be gleaned about a person without meeting them. So the primary purpose of this meeting is to determine whether you will become my servant or my slave. That is to say, whether you deserve to benefit from doing my bidding or if you do not."
Her captive looked at her without attempting to mask his skepticism.
Arnalda smiled, "I have certain assets...in particular an individual who has become more trouble than he's worth recently. And an important rule of business is to rid oneself of toxic assets. I believe you've heard of Adam Taurus?"
Her captive's eyes widened. According to the reports, he'd been selling weapons to the White Fang ever since his romantic entanglement with the terrorist-turned-huntress almost certainly in an attempt to get access to her ex-lover.
"King's bishop to c4. Am I to understand, " he began, "that you control the White Fang?"
The Grand Matriarch cackled, "Queen's Knight to c6. My dear boy, I created the White Fang...at least the current version. The original movement created a great deal of bad press for my company, so I corrupted it. I sponsored Mr Taurus's rise to prominence and used it to generate sympathy for the Schnee Dust Company in the public consciousness. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to make a multibillion lien, multinational corporation appear to be the underdog, but in the end I think I was reasonably successful, don't you?"
He blinked, paused for a moment and then said, "And you're offering to withdraw that support?"
Arnalda shrugged, "Kill him for all I care. I can ensure your ability to catch him off guard and unprotected"
Her captive looked down and said nothing for several moments. Finally he looked up and said, "What are you going to do to Weiss?"
Arnalda smirked, "I thought you were intelligent. You tell me."
"No." he said without a moment's hesitation.
"Excuse me?" she asked with equal amounts of shock and indignation in her voice.
"Even though I've only just met her, it's possible that I might think of a way to hurt Weiss that you would not. I'll not make her suffering the tiniest bit worse by helping you handcraft it."
Arnalda gritted her teeth. She did not like being told, "No."
But instead of replying with words, she simply reached back into her purse and withdrew another data-only scroll. This one had Blake's picture on it.
Her captive looked at it, knowing it for the threat that it was and clenched his jaw.
"You'll hurt the people she cares about," he said, the words seemed to make him sick.
Arnalda's face screwed up in distaste, "Please. I'm not some amateur. I'm going to hurt the people they care about. Hurting the people closest to her would be threatening, but it would generally take them away from her presence. This way she can watch her friends suffer and feel responsible for hurting them all the while. In this case in particular I can be quite efficient about it. Her sister, Winter, is in love with Ruby's uncle. I've had him accused of sexual assault and placed in a maximum security prison pending trial."
She smiled and added coyly, "Huntsman are far too dangerous to be placed in a normal jail of course. I even supplied the Semblance Suppression Collar he's wearing as a charitable donation from the Schnee Dust Company and had him housed in a cell quite near the leader of a prison gang I have particular influence over. And we all know how sex criminals fair in prison…"
Her captive stared at her in horror as he spoke, "You're going to force a confrontation between Winter and Weiss."
Arnalda smiled, "I broke Winter long ago. In fact I believe I did too good of a job, but the situation can be salvaged. By forcing the confrontation, I can give Weiss a clear picture of her future if she continues defying me. It was the gentlest correction I could think of."
He paused for a moment, "Queen to f3. And what will Winter do to her sister?" her captive asked.
Arnalda shrugged, "Queen's Knight to b4. I haven't given her any explicit instructions, but Winter has learned the subtleties of my wrath in intimate detail over the years. The details of Winter's actions don't concern me. Regardless of the specific shape of the conflict, Weiss will see the pain and hopelessness in her sister and it will shake her to her core. Weiss always looked up to Winter you see."
"And what is to be my role in this tragedy?" Her captive asked, his sarcasm fueled by hopelessness rather than defiance, Arnalda recognized.
"You will keep my associates here abreast of the goings on in teams RWBY and JNPR. They will relay that information to Winter so that she may better plan how she will pressure Weiss into compliance."
Her captive paused for only a moment, "And if my performance is less than satisfactory?"
Arnalda reached into her purse and retrieved her third and final data-scroll.
Ruby Rose.
Basil knocked over his king.
