This is a work of fan fiction, created for entertainment purposes only and with no claim to the characters depicted. Ownership of RWBY characters and concepts belongs to Rooster Teeth. Ownership of Iron Man characters an concepts belongs to Disney.
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Chapter 36: Apotheosis
It took all of her social training to keep Weiss from fidgeting nervously as she rode the elevator up to her father's office at the Schnee Dust Company's main office in the heart of Atlas. Though she was alone, she knew for a fact that one was never really alone in an SDC building. There were cameras everywhere, and plenty of people—her own father included—might be watching her looking for any signs of weakness or dissent.
What worried her today was that it had taken her father a whole week to summon her after they separated in Vale. Weiss of course got into contact with her sister that very night before Team RWBY's reunion with Blake to make sure her family had gotten out okay, but her father hadn't replied to any of the messages she'd left, not from that morning when she left for Atlas and no since her return.
It didn't take a genius like herself to know he was very cross with her. She intended to spin standing with her friends against the Juggernaut as making sure the man-turned-monster didn't threaten her family as well as doing her best to gain intel on his origins. She just couldn't decide whether it would work or not, especially given the seven-day silent treatment.
The other thing that nagged at her was the fact that her father hadn't made a move against Arc Industries yet. True to her word, she'd had every intention of trying to convince him to soften the blow, but in a week of no communication, she'd fully expected him to have razed everything Jaune had created to the ground.
And yet... nothing.
That could only mean that something was taking priority over putting someone 'in their place', as Wilhelm Schnee would say. Her mind reeled wondering what that could be.
When the elevator dinged upon reaching the top floor, Weiss almost ran into the man himself as the doors opened. He'd clearly been waiting there since getting the notification that his daughter had arrived.
He held up a hand to stop her from exiting and instead stepped aboard beside her. Not a single word escaped his lips until the doors were closed. Then, retrieving a key from the inside pocket of his jacket, her fitted it into the elevator's control panel and turned it, causing a second, concealed panel to open.
"It's good to see you made it hope from Vale, Weiss," he said with an even tone as her touched a sequence of controls in the hidden panel. The elevator began a slow, steady descent.
"Thank you, Father. It's good to see you was well." Weiss kept her eyes forward, her tone respectful. "I have some things to report that you might be interested in."
Wilhelm grunted. "We have a long way down. Let's hear it."
Taking just a moment to steady herself, Weiss nodded. "There is another faction in Vale we didn't know about. They arrived after the Juggernaut was defeated to take him into custody. They aren't a minor organization either: they have impressive resources, lots of personnel and apparent police powers seeing as they were able to contain the area of the battle without police interference."
"Interesting. We'll have to take a closer look into this group. What else do you know about them?"
Here Weiss's nerves felt like she was going to shiver out of her skin as she contemplated something she feared being caught doing more than anything else: Lying to her father. It wasn't like she had a lot of choice in the matter: Wilhlem would do whatever it took to get the information her wanted, and if he knew the truth, that would include using his influence in the military to strong-arm Ruby.
"Not a great deal I'm afraid. We were detained for a short period and released with an admonishment not to discuss the Juggernaut with anyone. I can draw a few conclusions however."
"Let's hear them."
Weiss nodded, careful not to sigh in relief that she'd managed to lie without detection. "Their personnel appear to all be Hunter-trained or some equivalent thereof. All of their equipment from weapons to their custom bullheads are top of the line. A princely sum had gone into establishing and maintaining this organization to say the least.
"Moreover, I heard them speaking about the Juggernaut as if it were supernatural rather than someone using their Semblance or Dust to achieve the effect. Obviously they believe they're fighting some otherworldly threat and are equipped for it however delusional they might be."
She put just a hint of condescending laughter in her voice at the end there. That night had made a believe in the supernatural out of her, but as far as her father knew, she believed nothing of the sort, so she had to play it that way.
But she was not prepared to see Wilhelm Schnee, the unflappable man behind almost everything going on in Atlas flinch. It was like watching a stone edifice break down into tears it was so unnerving to her. It lasted only a moment before he composed himself, but in that moment, it also struck Weiss like an Ursa in full charge that her father knew about the supernatural too.
Before she could ponder that further, Wilhelm spoke, unashamedly changing the subject. "Have you been following the other news out of Vale? Sienna Crossroads? The Emerald Forest incident the other night?"
Weiss's heart all but stopped. But even that couldn't keep her social programmed from kicking in and forcing her to speak. "I saw the reports on the news. Do you think these new Hunters in powered armor are related to what we were just discussing?"
"It's possible, but it is just as possible that they're part of some new military program that Vale is developing."
"Do you believe Vale is breaking the Vytal treaty?" Weiss asked, suddenly worried about the implications of that. According to the Vytal treaty the four kingdoms were each given a very specific role to ensure all of humanity was sharing the burden of surviving on Remnant evenly. Atlas provided for the common defense and fielded military might to defend the kingdoms from criminals, gangs, hostile nomads and Grimm incursions too large for Hunters alone to turn back. No other kingdom was to have more than a self-defense force.
If Vale, tasked to be the bread bowl of the world, producing the vast majority of food, was trying its hand at an advanced weapon, it could be seen as a breach of the Vytal treaty and inspire other kingdoms to arm themselves as well. It could start the world on the road to war.
The exact opposite of what Jaune and Pyrrha ha set out to do, Weiss noted bitterly. Her fears were confirmed by her father a moment later.
"We have to consider that possibility and prepare to formulate the appropriate reply." For the first time since entering the elevator, Wilhelm turned to look at Weiss. "Weiss, you love your family and your kingdom, correct?"
Social skills be damned, Weiss sputtered at that. "Of course I do, Father. Everything I've done has been for one or the other!"
Wilhelm nodded, the slight upturn of his lips that passed for a smile from him telling her she's said the right thing. "As have I." The elevator began to slow. "And your loyalty is why I believe you're the perfect candidate for our counter whatever it is Vale is doing."
"Candidate?" There was nothing about that word in this context that Weiss liked.
Wilhelm gave one of those laughs he used at business luncheons. "It will be easier just to show you." He'd timed his comment perfectly, as the second he finished talking, the elevator doors opened onto a floor Weiss had never seen before.
They stepped out onto a gantry overlooking what appeared to be a factory floor. Unmoving assembly lines stood in four straight rows leading back to he far wall. Robotic line worked moved on overhead rails, tending to spheres of crackling blue energy surrounded by copper and steel rings. Through the energy fields, Weiss could see dark shapes moving.
"It's time to came to see the truth that many of the great thinkers of Atlas have, Weiss: the peace of the Vytal treaty cannot last. The only reason it's lasted this long was the continuing threat of the Grimm. Given the proliferation of Hunters and related technologies, it's been estimated that we could render the Grimm threat manageable within four more decades. The boy Arc, however, has moved this turn table up to sometime this decade."
Weiss furrowed her brow, trying to put the pieces together before she was told. "And that's a bad thing."
"Most wouldn't realize it, but yes. The moment the Grimm cease to be a threat, there will be no reason for the kingdoms and the factions within them to cooperate. War will break out and even the conquering nations will be torn apart by infighting from within. Only those who are prepared for the fight ahead will survive."
Wilhelm manipulated some controls on the gantry and it began to lower from the level of the elevator.
As they came closer, Weiss tried to see through the nearest energy fields. She was only just able to catch a glimpse of the sleek, pacing shape of what appeared to be a big cat.
"This place is how you intend to prepare then, Father? And you need my help?"
"Indeed. Tell me Weiss; do you know what humans did with Dust before modern weapons appeared?"
Weiss nodded obediently. "They embroidered crystals into clothing. Before that, there are records of people actually implanting the crystals in their own bodies."
The gantry reached the ground and, to Weiss's surprise, her father opened the gate and gestured for her to go first. She did, feeling the fine hairs on the back of her neck starting to stand up from all the suspicious behavior.
"Correct," said Wilhelm, leading Weiss toward the nearest assembly line. "Implanted Dust crystals impart grand power upon the recipient, but are horribly inefficient, depleting almost one thousand times the rate of a crystal used to power a Dust circuit."
He cast a baleful look in his youngest daughter's direction. "If there's anything the insolent pup Arc is correct about is that naturally-occurring Dust is a finite resource. Crystals of a usable size are more rare still. However, several years ago, a researcher for the SDC asked a question long overdue: what happens if you implant a depleted crystal into a Grimm?"
With that, they were finally close enough for Weiss to see through the energy field. She had to bite back a shriek.
The creature within was the size of a luxury car with a powerful, low slung feline body covered in shadowy flesh and fur interrupted by plates and spikes of bone. And its face was a bone mask decorated with thin, looping lines of blood red that matched the horrible crimson eyes peering from slits where a normal panther's eyes would be.
Upon seeing her, the Grimm hurled itself against the energy barrier, claws scrabbling against it but failing to gain purchase.
Wilhelm went to stand just inches from the barrier, daring to stare the berserk Grimm in the face. "This, my dear daughter, is a rare type of Grimm native only to the jungles of Vacuo. They call it a Bagheera and it exhibits the best balance of strength, agility, resilience, sensory capacity and cunning." As if further enraged by his utter fearlessness in the face of it, the Bagheera began slashing wildly at Wilhelm to no effect.
"Just five years ago we thought containing Grimm for longer than a few days was impossible." Wilhelm said, more to himself than anyone. Then he turned back to Weiss. "We chose the Bagheera because the recipient expresses traits of the donor Grimm. The trials using Goliaths, Creeps and Boarbatusks were especially gruesome."
As they watched, a set of assembly line robots arrived. One dropped a thick ring attached to a tangle of hoses atop the energy field, dissipating it within the ring's circumference. Then a second arm, this one holding what appeared to be a depleted and inert elemental Earth Dust crystal int its actuators, trust down into the enclosure with the force of one of Yang's punches.
The crystal punched through a seam between two bone plates and the results were immediate. The Bagheera shrieked, bowing it's back before throwing itself to the floor of the cell trying to rub the crystal off.
It wasn't helping, as the shadowy mass that was its body began to spiral and plunge impossibly into the facets of the crystal. The once-green gem began to turn black as if it were burning away from within.
Weiss couldn't keep from shivering as the pieces fell into place. They were somehow charging Dust crystals with Grimm essence... and then putting them into people. How many had they done this to? What had happened to the 'gruesome' results? Did her own father really mean to commit such an abomination on her?
Wilhelm just stared at the tortured, dying Grimm as parts of its body were no longer substantive enough to hold on to the bone plates and spikes, allowing them to drop to the floor of the cell. "The other complication was the fact that all the previous test subjects hadn't had their aura unlocked. The process rapidly deteriorated their bodies and they... degenerated."
There was nothing on Remnant that would make Weiss want to know what he meant by that.
"All accept one: the one that gave us the key. A wolf faunus brought up from the main mine. The pain and stress of the process unlocked her Aura." A cold glint lit his eyes. "She was magnificent. Stronger, faster, better in all ways and stable. We got seventy-two hours worth of data out of her before we had to terminate her."
She didn't want to know the answer to this either, but Weiss asked anyway. "W-why?"
For the first time in years, Weiss heard her father's laugh—an actual genuine laugh. It still sounded cold. "Did you miss the part where I said she was a faunus? We can't trust one of their kind with this power. I wouldn't trust most humans with it."
He turned to fully face her. "That is why I want to give it to you."
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AN: Some might get the impression that Mr. Schnee might be a bad guy from all this. You know, a correct impression.
And yes, this make Weiss technically Black Cat and Black Panther. Probably won't use those names though. For Weiss's stuff, I'm drawing a lot from the 90's Spider-man animated series, specifically John Hardeski's involvement in stealing Project Rebirth which resulted in Felicia becoming Black Cat, and later, Dr. Herbert Landon's mutate research (and not just because his last name is my first name).
I used the Dust crystal implantation thing because I'm well aware that this fusion's been more Marvel than RWBY recently, so I'm focusing on a RWBY power source here. The implantation stuff is canon, though they never explain why people stopped doing it (my theory is that this is the origin of Semblances).
Can't take credit for the Bagheera though. It's been one of he more prominent FNDM Grimm types for a while now, next to Nemians (lions). I do have an original one coming up. Hint: it might be the reason we don't see many goats in RWBY.
I was very careful here to make Papa Schnee as distant as possible here. His children aren't emotional beings to him, they're god soldiers in his war to get what he wants. So you'll notice he doesn't even use pet names for his kid. Not dear or honey or sweetie, just Weiss. That's all she is to him.
Here we also see more of Jaune's unintended consequences. He's making people think Vale is making weapons and spooking paranotic war-hawks who think Grimm are necessary to keeping the peace. How far would those people go? We'll see.
One more issue before we get back to Jaune, Pyrrha and the team. Next however, we'll travel with Cinder to the heart of Grimm territory as she reports to Salem and we learn her original plans for Jaune and how they've changed.
Next chapter: Divergence