The Schnee Black Sheep

A/N

Sup guys and gals, sorry for the late update but it's been a pretty hectic week for me. It's a shorter chap this time round as well just because time has been very short for me so for that I do apologise. Plus, I really don't want to rewrite a lot of scenes that are basically word for word repeats of the cannon. Coal may make a few things different but not much as he is only one human.

Yeah, I know been a long while since I've actually wrote and AN but I think I have to own up to a few things…

Firstly… Coal and his operation. Now I know a lot of you probably just expect me to let him survive and that there is almost no chance of me killing him but that is not entirely true. When planning I made 4 different plans. One of which where I do actually kill him. Thus, that is how I got to his 24% survival rate. Those numbers were real and the only reason I used this story was because I up it down to a roll of a dice having been unable to decide on a plan myself and I still do not have a beta reader to bounce ideas off. so the dying arc had a 25% chance of coming up seeing as I used a 4 sided dice (yes they exist look it up).

Secondly… Orchid. Now the Orchid hate from you lot has been unbelievable. I mean shit guys, all she wants is a baby in her! HAHA. Kidding aside, am I going too far with some things or am I not going far enough? I mean, where is the line with you guys? Though after the shit I put Coal through I'm already way over some lines…

Thirdly… Coal, Crimson, Wrythe and Cobalt. Now as you all have read, Coal is fucked up in the head. But I think I need to explain this further and it's easier to do it here than in the chapters. Coal's soul is fractured. Like for reals. When watching vol 4 and Qrow is talking about how the forces of darkness and light come together to make humans, I got the idea from that. A persons soul has both light and darkness melded together so what if those parts were ripped apart? That is what Coal is. He is the fractured parts of those light and dark sides. The darkness being Crimson and Cobalt and the light being Wrythe and Coal. now a bit more about the sides. While they do co-exist with each other they all have influence over the host body, referenced by the colour of their eyes and the format of the speech. Wrythe and Coal were the first split, split when the dust was first infused inside of him. The pain that it cause him split his aura and subconscious into two personalities which became his childish and hyperactive tendencies (Coal) and his more wise, and bespoke gentleman like side (Wrythe) which was cultivated by his father. Thus the reason for why he called Wrythe his worst side when he was trapped by Orchid. The dark sides of him are a little easier to understand. I've mentioned it a lot but Coal is in tune with the Grimm that he can summon due to the glyph in his back. His animalistic nature comes from those creatures and eventually formed into Crimson, the second subconscious voice and the third fractured piece. Crimson will only eat, sleep and can be very territorial yet will only kill when pushed to. Like any animal, he prefers the hunt to the kill and relishes in watching the live drain from his victims eyes. Cobalt, the last of the four fractures on the other hand, kills first and asks questions later. More like executes than kills. He is the part which has come around due to the life Coal had as a soldier. Trained to kill and not ask questions. Cobalt is also very tactical and plays the long con game well, a trait he gets from both ironwood and winter, but is very quick tempered. Thus the most dangerous of the four fractures.

Lastly. I'm going to update this fic at least every two weeks. The reason for this is because my time right now is really short so if you all can respect that then I'd love ya all to bits!

Understand all that?

Fuck it, story time…

Chapter 26: Calm before the Storm

38 hours

That was the current length of time that Coal had been in surgery. 38 hours since Blake had first seen him lying motionless on that metal table as a team of hospital butchers cut into his skin and dug deep into his body in means of curing him from his plague. Blake wasn't able to stomach the sight for long before she needed to escape from that observation room. She couldn't watch as the person that she had just admitted to herself that she potentially had feeling for was cut open and reassembled. Once again, she had to run away.

Her semblance, shadow, enabled her to do exactly that. Run from anything and leave a lifeless clone to take her place as she escaped into the shadows. Even when someone that she cared about was doing something that had such a high chance of killing him… She couldn't even bring herself to stay by his side. Blake had quickly returned to beacon to find some sort of comfort from her friends and teammates. Yet, as she walked through the door and into her dorm room, she instantly buried her emotions and forced herself to keep quiet. Coal had requested that she not tell his twin about his operation, his sickness… His limited time. Having had the time to think about everything, she realised that he had more of begged her to not reveal his secret than having asked her. She couldn't betray the trust that he had shown her. Not now when something was potentially brewing between them.

After assuring her teammates that she was perfectly alright and that Coal was spending some time with the General to keep away from Orchid, which wasn't entirely a lie, Blake retreated to bed as the following day she and the rest of her team were going on their unofficial mission to bring down the White Fang.

Currently, Blake was sat staring emotionlessly as professor Port rambled on about some odd story about his youth, paying no attention to what he was saying. Her head was filled with thoughts and doubts about Coal and his condition. Was he okay? Had anything gone wrong? when was he going to get out of surgery? Nothing could distract her form those questions. Not even Jaune.

"So Weiss." Jaune said leaning closer to the Schnee girl. "You know uh, I was thinking that after this, maybe we could go grab a bite to eat?"

Silence. Weiss seemed to have completely ignored Jaune and continued to stare at the clock as she waited for the final minute for class to be over.

Blake tuned out the rest of Jaune's attempted to woo the Schnee as she once again found herself worrying over the condition of her human. Well not exactly her human but well her maybe or maybe not human… They never did get to go on that date and find out exactly what was between them. Would they get that chance back?

"Ooh em… Timed that one wrong I guess." Port announced as the final bell rang, interrupting his exciting tale and breaking Blake from her thoughts. "Well the stunning conclusion to the story will have to wait. Until next time."

The students all stood up to leave, Jaune turning to Weiss and asking as she walked behind him ahead of her teammates.

"Weiss, did you hear me?"

"No, no, no, yes." Wiess listed off as she shut down the blond and continued walking with purpose. Leaving a depressed Jaune who faceplanted the desk. The rest of RWBY walked passed him, yang reaching out and patting him on the head.

"One day." She assured hopefully wondering if her matchmaking skills could be used on those two as well as Blake and Coal. Blake was slightly envious towards the blond knight. At least he had some closure.

"I thought that class would never end." Blake muttered as she was now thankful for the distraction. She needed something take her mind of her doubts and a mission would do just that.

"Alright guys, today's the day. The investigation begins!" Ruby perked up from her top bunk.

"I'm glad to see were taking this so seriously." Weiss deadpanned from the bottom bunk.

"Hey we've got a plan" Yang defended. "That's… Moderately serious."

"Right. Everyone remember their roles?" Ruby asked.

"You and I will head to the CCT and check the Schnee records for any other Dust robberies or inconsistencies." Weiss confirmed. "Seeing as I'm in the family, it shouldn't be a problem." Weiss said confidently however, internally she was concerned with exactly what she could get access to after her… Eccentric departure.

"The White Fang has regular faction meetings to hand out orders and recruit new members." Blake said next. "If I can get in, I can hopefully find out what they're planning."

"I have an old friend on the shady side of town that typically knows everything going on I Vale." Yang perked up last. "Getting information out of him shouldn't be too hard."

"Junior by any chance?" Weiss asked tilting her head curiously towards the blond.

"Yeah… How did you know?" Yang asked folding her arms behind her head wondering why someone from the high class way of life would know such a person. Weiss pulled something out of her pocket and chucked it over to the blond.

"Just in case you need it as proof." Weiss stated as Yang eyed up small black box. "Can you collect Coal's package? Junior should have it by now."

"Yeah sure." Yang said as she tried to lift the lid off the box only to find it stuck tight.

"Don't try and open that please." Weiss instructed. "Coal uses that so its probably riged to explode or something if it's not opened with the right keys."

"Great!" Ruby chimed in trying to get her team back on track. "We'll meet up tonight near Yang to go over what we've found. Let's do this!"

"Yeah!" Came a male voice from just outside the window. Team RWBY all snapped their gaze to the window to see Sun hanging upside down from his tail smiling at them having heard the whole plan.

"SUN!" Blake yelled startled by the Faunus' presence in such a weird place.

"How did you get up there?" Yang asked also startled.

"Ah its easy." Sun shrugged. "I do it all the time."

"You do WHAT?" Weiss yelled feeling very concerned.

"I climb trees all the time." Sun saved. Though Weiss did continue to glare at him, not entirely trusting the Faunus. Not because he was a Faunus, but because of how easily he was just hanging there, watching them… it almost seemed too natural. "So… are we going to get back at the Torchwich guy?" Sun asked wanting to know if he was going to get a chance to bash that man's skull in this time, seeing as how Coal wasn't around to get in his way.

"We are going to investigate the situation." Blake said, daring him to challenge her. "As a team."

"Sorry Sun." Ruby chipped in to agree with Blake. "We don't want to get friends involved if we don't have to."

"Pfft that's dumb." Sun shrugged. "You should always get friends involved. That's why I brought Neptune." He said pointing out the window. Team RWBY all poked their heads outside to see Neptune standing on a very thing ledge just outside their window.

"Sup." Neptune said in a cool confident manor.

"How did you even get up there?" Ruby asked thinking that all boys were just weird for wanting to climb everything.

"I have my ways." Neptune said cryptically, shrugging it off as if it was nothing. "Seriously though can I come in? were like, really high up right now."

Moments later, both Sun and Neptune were standing alongside the girls of team RWBY going over the plan once more.

"All right. I'll go with Weiss. Sun, You can go with Blake. And Neptune, you can go with Yang since she doesn't have a partner." Ruby instructed as she forcefully pushed Neptune over towards her sister. "Everyone good?" No, not everyone was.

"Actually Ruby why don't you go with Yang?" Weiss said trying not to sound overly keen. "After all she is your sister."

"But Weiss who would go with you then?" Ruby asked before she looked around her room thinking that Coal would have popped out of nowhere like he was prone to do from time to time. Yet nothing happened.

"Well, I guess Neptune could come with me." Weiss said in a sort of, well if he must then I wouldn't exactly mind kind of tone. Ruby only laughed at the idea before she walked across to her partner and started to drag her way from the collar of her jacket.

"Nah." Ruby snickered further as she and Weiss disappeared down the hallway accompanied by the protests of the Schnee girl. From that day onward, Weiss would forever remember the moment when Ruby had just done the female equivalent of a cock block.

Yang rolled her eyes at the girls obviousness. She couldn't help but feel slightly sorry for Jaune seeing as he had no chance with Weiss whatso ever. She flicked her eyes over towards Blake having already prepped a teasing joke towards the Faunus, yet she said nothing as when she saw the look on Blake's face, Yang became incredibly concerned.

"Uhh, Blake?"

"Huh?" Blake jumped in place having been startled from her thoughts.

"Something wrong?"

"No. Everything is fine." Blake deadpanned before leaving with Sun in tow. Yang watched as her partner left with a quick pace. What was going on with Blake lately?

Later, Ruby and Weiss were walking through Vale up towards their destination.

"WOW!" Ruby awed looking up at the tower in front of them. "I forgot how big the transmit tower looks up close!"

"You should see the one in Atlas." Weiss said from alongside her partner, having gotten over the betrayal from earlier.

"That was the first one right?"

"Correct. Atlas developed the cross-continental transmit system to allow the four kingdoms to communicate with one another." Weiss informed. "It was their gift to the world after the great war."

"Ooo look at me, my name is Weiss, I know facts, I'm rich!" Ruby teased before stifling a laugh the best she could.

"Don't be a pest." Weiss said irritably. "Besides the only reason were here is because you like the tower so much. We could have just as easily made a call from the library. Or gotten Coal to hack a few files."

"I know but it's so cool! Oh, I'm going to take a picture!" Ruby stated as she pulled out her scroll. Fumbling with the device, Ruby dropped her scroll which landed at the feet of another girl. The girl picked up the device and held it at arm's length so that she could return it to its owner.

"I think you dropped this." Penny said, holding the device out for Ruby to take only for the scythe wielder to become confused at the sight of her friend's behaviour.

"Penny? Where have you been?" Ruby asked forgetting about her scroll for a moment. "We haven't seen you since the night at the docks."

"Sorry… I think your confused." Penny said awkwardly before releasing a hiccup and throwing the scroll back to Ruby. "OH, I've got to go." With that penny made a quick exit.

"What was that about?" Weiss questioned as her eyes followed the ginger haired girl as she ran off.

"I don't know… But I'm going to find out!" Ruby said as she went to follow Penny. "You go make your call, I'll meet up with you later!"

"Wait!" Weiss protested before Ruby dashed out of sight. Weiss huffed in annoyance before turning on her heel and walked up to the large tower to make her call. She was not looking forward to getting back in contact with her family's business but they could potentially find out a few things with the information that she could get.

As Weiss walked up to the sliding glass doors, she wondered how her twin was doing. She hadn't seen him in days and was starting to get worried over his wellbeing. Of course, she knew Orchid coming here would cause some problems but it also brought its benefits alongside it. She just needed to find a way of removing her entirely from the equation so that her twin could finally be free. But that could be dealt with at a later time. After all, someone in his condition didn't need to worry about marriage at this point in time.

It didn't take her long to reach where she needed to go. Weiss stepped into an elevator and waited for the doors to close.

"Hello." Came an automated voice through he elevators intercom. "Welcome to the CCT. How may I help you?"

"I'd like to go to the communications room please." Weiss asked politely to the static voice.

"Absolutely. Could you please place you scroll on the terminal to verify your identity."

Weiss did as the machine instructed and within a moment she was whisked upwards towards the communications room. Stepping out of the elevator, Weiss made her way over to the front desk where a hologram of a receptionist lit up behind the desk.

"Welcome to the Beacon Cross-continental Transmit Centre. How may I help you?"

"I need to make a call to Winter Schnee."

"I'm sorry. Ms Schnee has been unavailable for the past two days."

Weiss groaned for a moment before clearing her throat. "Sugar, November, Oscar, Whiskey." As soon as the last word was said, the hologram glitched out for a few moments before it reset.

"Code confirmed. Could you please say your pass key?"

"To forget means you need not forgive." Weiss said.

"Pass Key confirmed. Welcome, Coal and Weiss Schnee. Terminal One is ready for you and the line has been distorted and secured."

Weiss huffed at the hologram as she stepped around the desk and into a privet booth used for delicate business only. When she and Coal had spent some time together after one of his many Military trips, Weiss had been very unconvinced that Coal could do anything with computers let alone hack into one. To prove her wrong, he had not only hacking into the Atlas military database but he had also hacked into the CCT and created a privet network solely for their own purposes. Allowing them to make any calls to anyone regardless of clearance levels or whether the person was deemed as out of communication. It also served as a means of them to keep in close contact when Coal was out in the field and Weiss felt alone. He always made sure that they could contact each other regardless of the situation.

As soon as she sat down, Weiss saw her older sisters face on the screen.

"Weiss. It is good to speak to you." Winter said in a hollow and quiet tone. She looked dreadful. Having not slept for a single second since her younger brother had gone into surgery almost two full days ago.

"Yes it is." Weiss replied in a hollow tone of her own, thankful to be away from the rest of her teammates so that they didn't have to see her upset. "How is he?"

"He's… Doing great…"

"Winter…"

"He is still in surgery." Winter informed sadly. "They had to slow down further after his heart rate and blood pressure dropped again." Weiss nodded in understanding before speaking again.

"What does Lucian say?"

"He said that he is not sure anymore…" Silence rang after Winter spoke those words as Weiss tried to accept the reality of the situation. "Don't be angry with him Weiss… He wanted to tell you…"

"But he didn't!" Weiss said with more anger than she meant. Releasing a heavy sigh, she quickly assured her sister. "I knew he wouldn't tell me personally…"

"Like you aren't keeping secrets from him either." Winter joked trying to lighten the atmosphere. It seemed to work as Weiss let out a small chuckle at the statement.

"True, very true… It still should have come from him rather than you, no offence."

"None taken dear sister." Winter smiled. "But don't thank me at all for this, I'm the one who put him on that table. If he dies, that is on me."

"No… It's on father."

…

"Regardless, here are the files you need." Winter said as a few files came up on the terminal screen in front of Weiss. "Not only did Coal manage to get every single bit of trade history and dust theft the Schnee company has ever had, but he also confirmed that the Octavian's have no connection to the White Fang."

"Where did he learn to do stuff like this?" Weiss said as she looked over the vast amount of data in front of her. there was way more here than she ever could have gotten a hold of herself. Because she was looking over the data she never saw her sister's eyes narrow in disgust.

"Ruin…"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. You shouldn't have much problem on your end."

"What are you going to do?"

"Oh, not much… Just completely ruin a few criminal organisations that we have our eyes set on."

"And Coal?" Weiss asked hopefully. Winter grew a mischievous smirk as she answered her younger sibling.

"How much do you know about escape plan forty-eight?" Winter asked. Weiss mirrored her sister grin as she answered.

"It was my idea to begin with Winter."

"I should have known…" Winter hummed rolling her eyes. "No wonder it's taken this long to complete it."

"HEY! I take offence to that, why do you think I asked you to bring Orchid here in the first place."

"I know I know. To force him to actually face up to his problems." Winter sighed knowingly. "I just wish we knew about this stuff before we brought her here."

"Yeah…" Weiss agreed. "That dolt better survive this thing so I can kick his teeth in."

Winter hung up the call and looked back through the window where her younger brother was still being operated on. How could she have let this happen? Coal was her responsibility, he had been since he was born. Their father had never really cared for him other than when it came to his studies, grades and combat lessons, heck he forgotten the twin's birthday on more than one occasion. The more she thought about it, Winter figured that she was more of a parental figure to them both.

Minutes turned to hours as she watched without interruption, waiting for the surgeons to be finished slicing up her brother. The next shift change came around and as the doctors switched positions with the refreshed team, they all stopped for a moment and shot their eyes towards the unconscious boy on the table. Coals body started glowing a faint white aura. One of the doctors, Winter couldn't quite tell who, move over to the machine which monitored his wellbeing and saw that the boy's vital signs were still fine, in fact, they were higher than they had been in the last 38 hours.

A burst of white light blinded all the doctors in the room alongside Winter behind the glass who couldn't take her eyes off what was happening.

When her eyesight returned, Winter looked back to see her younger brother still lying on the table motionless. His heart rate and other bodily function appearing normal from the display on the many machines which surrounded him. But there was one more body in the room with the teams of surgeons. Standing alongside the doctors was a huge, frost white Beowolf with glowing, crimson red eyes.

Before anyone could mutter a whimper of fear at the beast's uncanny appearance, the monster dashed out the doorway and ran on all fours down the hallway looking for an exit. Winter stood still, motionless as she recalled the look in the monster's glowing red eyes. Just before it had dashed away, the Grimm cast her a quick sorrowful glance. Almost as if it was sorry for something.

Winter quickly ordered the team of surgeons to return to working on her younger brother before something worse happened before pulling out her scroll and barking down the speaker to the person who answered.

"Myth! We have a code RED."

A/N

What the fuck right? A second A/N? well heres the thing… I need to take a little break from writing. Im sorry to you all but I need a week or two for reasons I would rather not discuss with you all as it is very personal. Im sorry people but I hope to return stronger and blast out a new chapter for you all soon. Like I said in first A/N it might be about two weeks but if its longer then please don't hate me, I just got to take care of some things.

See you guys soon!