AN: Okay, so this one isn't as long as the others, and that might be a trend to continue. Shorter chapters would mean faster updates. This one took a while because of that two weeks of training I was talking about. We really didn't have much spare time.

Like last chapter, this chapter introduces a new character, only this one already exists in the RWBY-verse. I hope that my interpretation of her will keep you interested, given how little of her is known in canon. Anyway, hopefully you guys enjoy this chapter. Not getting any reviews last chapter was kinda surprising. I want to know if I'm giving you guys good content! :)

So, as always, read, enjoy, and please review!

Changes in Management

When Blake stormed into work two days after the attack on the hospital, she was furious. She gave a curt nod to the guards manning the lobby as she swiped her way through the security gate, and even through her rage, she noticed that there were more of them than usual, and there had better be a heavily armed and armored quick reaction force somewhere on the premises, she grumbled to herself as she briskly strode to the elevators. "Hold, please!" she called out to the group of workers boarding one of the elevators, and she impatiently checked her watch as she stepped onto it. "Thanks, floor twenty, please." She pulled out her scroll, going to the tab she had saved that reviewed all the security steps the company was taking. There were company-wide vehicle checks ongoing, in the off chance that the Crimson Claw wanted to try and repeat the same sort of attack that landed Ruby in the hospital in the first place. The elevator dinged, and she nodded respectfully as she brushed past the other people still in the car. There would be no repeat of the attack that started this whole debacle.

And speaking of debacles…she didn't even bother to acknowledge Hana sitting at her desk or even to knock when she reached the doors to the CEO Suite, she just pushed through them, her trench coat flaring out behind her. She instantly catalogued the silver hair not done up in the off-center ponytail but an elegant bun, the blue eyes that weren't as cold, and the scarless face. "Winter," she ground out, eyes narrowing at the nineteen-year-old girl lounging in Weiss's chair.

"Why, Miss Belladonna!" Winter gasped in surprise, ditzy tone grating against Blake's nerves. "I would have thought that you were polite enough to knock, instead of just bursting in here like a thug." She tutted gently. "We're going to have to be more respectful while I'm running the company, silly." The smile she shot Blake was dazzling, but that fact made Blake want to punch her even more. Fool of a girl! How could Weiss be this airheaded socialite's sister? "Oh, and speaking of respect, you will address me as Miss Schnee from now on."

"Am I?" Blake asked quietly as her hands curled into fists.

Winter giggled. "Of course you will! After all, I'm your boss until Weiss is ready to take control again. Or do you want to fight the Board's decision?" When Blake made no retort, Winter gave another ditzy smile. "Shut the door, dear, you're letting in a draft."

Shoulders stiff, Blake turned around and closed the doors behind her, not making eye contact with Hana. Once the doors clicked shut, she turned around and shot Winter a tight smirk. "Anything else, Miss Schnee?"

Winter straightened up in the chair, face losing that vacuous quality that Blake had always associated with her. "Yes, if you could turn off all the recording devices in this room…including the ones that Weiss doesn't know about. We have business to discuss, and I don't want any of it recorded."

Blake blinked in shock at that. Winter was always the one that shirked responsibility of the Schnee name, instead using her family to get what she wanted. She was the perfect example of a spoiled little daddy's girl that didn't want to work…wasn't she? Cautiously, she pulled out her scroll and deactivated all the bugs in the room. "Done, now what's this about?"

Winter rolled her eyes as she pulled up the holographic monitors that were part of Weiss's desk. "You know, I would have thought Weiss capable of having better firewalls and passwords. It only took me about fifteen minutes to get access to the entire system." Cold eyes peered over the top of one of the holo-screens. "Going a little fast, weren't you? Luckily the Chief of Police decided to keep it on the low."

Blake blinked, worry whispering against the back of her neck. That file was buried deep in Weiss's computer system, and should have been accessible only to Weiss or herself. For Winter to get access to it so quickly…then the anger hit. "Listen, you-!" she snarled as she stepped forward.

But before she could finish her sentence, Winter leaned forward, eyes widening with delight. "Oh ho! Running a torture house? I didn't think you had it in you!" Winter crowed, and Blake froze mid-step, the worry from before morphing into a ball of icy dread. She had been so careful…that information should not have been available from Weiss's system, especially not from a girl who frequently barely passed all of her courses in school!

"How did you…?" she started, a cold sweat gathering between her shoulder blades.

At her tentative words, Winter shot her a glance that was full of annoyed anger. "Really? That's your reaction? Head of security for the SDC and practically born into espionage, and your first reaction isn't to deny, deny, deny?" Her lips peeled back in a disgusted sneer. "Really, I'm disappointed in you. Especially since you know for a fact that there is nothing in the world that outright states that you have a torture house." She rolled her eyes. "Come here."

Blake did as she was asked, moving around the desk to stand at Winter's shoulder, eyes seeking out the reports that the younger girl was pointing at.

"Okay, so, these are from when Weiss took control from father. There was a large overhaul across all of our branches, so there's a lot of data. But here, under miscellaneous expenses, there's quite a few oddities. The SDC bought an old warehouse out in Vale's agriculture district, but then it's not mentioned again. Then, in Atlas, a lot of soundproofing material is bought, and then is reported as stolen a little later. But then there's a train shipment down to Vale with dimensions large enough to ship that soundproofing stuff plus even more construction material. The shipment ledger states that it's equipment that is hazardous and independently inspected…equipment that isn't anywhere else on the SDC equipment lists. It arrives in Vale, the appropriate third party transpo company picks it up, and it promptly disappears."

Winter paused, and looked back to Blake with an amused grin. "By the way, sensory deprivation? How deliciously evil of you," she almost purred, and Blake glared down at her.

"What makes you think that?"

Winter scoffed. "Really? An abandoned warehouse out in the middle of farm fields? There's no one around to hear the screams, and the amount of soundproofing stuff you got would do for two or three buildings of comparable size."

Blake crossed her arms, rolling her eyes. "Good for you, you figured it out. You want a cookie and some milk for being smart?"

All mirth fled from Winter's face, and she glared at Blake. "Smart? I'm not smart, Belladonna. I'm a genius."

Now it was Blake's turn to scoff. "Isn't that a little presumptuous of you?"

"Normally, yes. But given my Masters in Operations Management, and Baccalaureates in International Business and Finance, and I was the head of every…single…class I was in should say something of my intelligence. More than that, I've convinced the entire world that I'm a simpleton not capable of running this company. And I've taken many tests to try and see how smart I really am. Let's just say that ninety percent of the time, I'm the smartest person in the room, and one hundred percent of the time, I'm within the top three most intelligent in a room."

Blake stepped back, brow furrowing. This…this was NOT how this meeting was supposed to go. She was supposed to confront the weak-minded little girl that Winter had appeared to be and find out why she was really there, when the Board could easily keep control until Weiss was ready to return…after all, her wound really wasn't that bad, for her Aura had deflected most of the damage. But Blake fully intended to bully the younger Schnee into confirming Blake's suspicions that she was there only to be a pawn of the Schnee patriarch, who had signed a contract forbidding him from taking direct control of the company, unless he was the only Schnee left alive. Instead, this little girl showed herself capable of thinking circles around Blake, all while spilling Company secrets without hesitation.

"But…why? If you're this smart, why not take control of the SDC?"

Winter giggled again, and playfully spun in her chair. "Because," she explained, "I don't give a shit about the company, or the Schnee legacy. I only care about me. I'm nineteen, I wanna party, have fun, meet cute boys. Running the company would so cut into that!"

"So why are you here now?"

The joy fled, replaced with an angry sneer. "Because daddy pressured the Board into selecting an 'Emergency CEO' for the company while Weiss is recovering. And of course, because I'm just this ditzy little girl with no ability to think for herself, he was planning to control the company through me. Him, control me. Me! Stubborn old fool doesn't know how in over his head he is." She sighed angrily, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. But then she smiled again. "Though, the look on his face if he were to find out about your negotiations with the White Fang before you were ready to release it to the public would be hilarious. Might even give him a stroke. Of course, he could also leak it to the press with a negative spin, and get Weiss removed from the company and quite possibly disowned as well…"

She trailed off, eyes glittering as she peered at Blake, and Blake swallowed past a dry mouth. "Is that a threat?"

Winter burst out laughing at that. "Oh, of course not, darling! Threats are so passé. It was merely an observation. But there are those within the company that probably don't like what Weiss is doing, and they would have no qualms with crushing her. So. I'm going to help prevent that."

"How selfless of you," Blake snarked drily, even as her mind was racing. Dissidents within the workforce? She had thought that she had been thorough during the switchover.

"Selfless? Don't be silly. If Weiss is removed, I'd probably have to take over, and like I said before, I have no desire to stop having fun. So, let's get down to business. I'd suggest creating some sort of traffic to your little house of fun in the agriculture district. It can just be on paper, but if there's just this building out in the middle of nowhere being used by nothing, someone is going to notice, and start asking questions. Maybe have it be an additional storehouse for Dust overflow. Then you could also justify having a full time staff out there, under the pretense of them being guards. Hell, make it official. I doubt you have it up to capacity, you aren't bloodthirsty enough. So, actually store some Dust out there. Have it be supposedly unstable Dust so people are less likely to go poking around. Maybe even buy some more land and dig a magazine to make it more convincing." She leaned back in her chair, face pensive. "But we might have bigger problems to deal with that are a good deal more pressing."

"The Crimson Claw?"

"Indeed." Winter frowned thoughtfully, chewing on her lip for a moment. "Have you ever noticed how stupid they were with the hospital attack?" she suddenly asked after the short silence, and Blake quirked a brow at her.

"Stupid? How so?"

Winter shook her head. "Well, maybe not stupid…but sending in assault teams really was one of the more inefficient ways to kill Rose. How would you have done it?"

It only took a moment for Blake to come up with an answer. "A sniper using an antimaterial rifle in an opposite building. The window's glass was warded and Ruby's bed was behind a column, but a skilled marksman with the right equipment could fire enough shots to break the ward and glass, and put enough explosive rounds through the column and into Ruby to get the job done. Only downside is that they wouldn't know for sure. The buildings offering the right vantage points were also in use, making discovery more likely. We also discretely beefed up the security in them for that very reason. If not a sniper, then use a Bullhead armed with guided rockets and an autocannon."

Winter laughed again. "You really aren't that bloodthirsty, are you?" she asked gaily. "I would have taken a garbage or delivery truck, packed it full of explosives and Dust, parked it as close to the building and underneath her room, and taken that whole side of the hospital down. What better way to kill her than to also send out a message about your own ruthlessness?"

Blake stared at Winter in shock. "But…you really wouldn't do something like that, right?"

Winter rolled her eyes. "Weren't you listening, dear? The only important person in my world is me. If I have to kill someone in order to further my own gains, I will do it in a way that won't result in failure, and who cares if others become collateral damage? Because really, is there any difference between murdering one person or murdering one hundred, or one thousand people?" She scoffed. "I would have thought that the Crimson Claw would have come to that same conclusion."

"You're a sociopath," Blake breathed, horror running up and down her spine, and the glare she received in return for her words was scathing.

"Really? Going to labels now? Honestly, I would think that you should be thanking me for what I'm doing."

"Thanking you? I'd only thank you if you were doing any of this out of a sense of service or obligation to others. You are only doing this to fulfill your own selfish desires!"

"Then you should be thankful that my selfish desires run concurrent with your own objectives, Miss Belladonna. Because let's be honest…if I wanted to crush you, it would not end well for you."

"And what's to stop me from snapping your little neck?" Blake asked past a curled lip that bared her canines. "Hypothetically speaking, of course."

"Didn't I say that threats were passé, Miss Belladonna?" Winter asked as she leaned back into the chair, giving off a sense of boredom more than concern for her welfare. "You are perfectly capable of killing me. But you won't. Weiss would never forgive you. It's entirely illegal. I'm not your enemy. And while you may not have consciously accepted it yet, you have already realized that you really, really need me. I want the company to prosper so that I can continue to pay for my lifestyle. I won't do anything to stop Weiss's more radical plans for a happier future so long as they don't jeopardize my own future. I'm sure you can understand that."

"Yes, I can. However, how do we really need you?"

"Very simple, my dear. Even after Weiss recovers and Rose is able to fight again, I can act as the substitute CEO until Weiss is fully ready to take the reins of power back and I can go back to partying. I can free not only you but all of Team RWBY up to do what you do best."

"And what's that?"

The grin Winter shot her was dark and full of malice. "Hunt."