Chapter 59

The Schnee manor was a massive white mansion, beautifully crafted and designed. A monument to the Schnee's success.

And a monument to their arrogance.

Ilia let out a sigh as she stepped out of the car and gazed up at the building that served to house a family that had exploited her people. They're not all that bad though. She thought, glancing over at Winter Schnee, who was next to Ironwood at the head of their procession. Winter was… okay. She wasn't like her father, which was good, but she was a bit too loyal. Winter reminded her of those in the White Fang who would do whatever their commander said, no matter what it was. It was the kind of thing that led to releasing Grimm inside of a school.

And of course, there was Weiss Schnee. I never met her, but it sounds like she was very different from her father as well. Ilia shook herself. Now wasn't the time to be distracted.

The grand doors opened ahead of them. Ilia held back a wince as she saw that it was pulled open by a pair of Faunus butler's. The moment they entered she couldn't hide her scowl. Looking around the room was filled with people, but there was an obvious, if invisible, line. The rich were all human and the servants were all Faunus.

"Ah, General Ironwood. Welcome." A young man with white hair greeted them as they entered. Whitley Schnee. Ilia recognised him quickly. As far as she knew he was just like his father. "I don't believe the invitation gave this many plus ones. Just how many seats do you think we have General?" He asked with a smile.

"I happen to know you could fit everyone in this room. But anyway, this is everyone involved in the recent incidents. They're here in case the Council needs their testimonies." Ironwood replied with his own smile.

"I see. Then they can wait out here with the other guests." Whitley spoke with ease, as if he had expected this. He's been trained well. Ironwood nodded and followed the boy to the dining room, taking Winter, Clover and Penny with him.

"Ace-Ops, on the perimeter. Kids, stay here and stay attentive." Clover ordered before heading off with the General.

As the Ace-Ops left the room to follow their orders a servant came up to Qrow and Taiyang, offering glasses of wine. Taiyang easily refused, but Qrow stumbled over his words. "N-no thanks… I'm uh… I don't… drink anymore…"

The servant shrugged and left. "Let's go work the outside." Taiyang offered his old friend, who quickly agreed. That left Ilia, Ruby and JNPR alone in the hall, surrounded by the rich and powerful.

The moment the adults had all gotten out of earshot Ruby turned around. "Alright. Ilia, you and I are going to do some investigating. JNPR, you guys stick here and see if you can't find anything out."

"You want to go snooping?" Jaune asked. "I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Jacques obviously didn't win fairly. There might be some evidence here. If we can find some, we can expose him. Ilia is basically a trained ninja and my Semblance allows me to hide pretty well too. I did it in Kiku." Ruby replied.

Jaune winced as she brought up Kiku. "That's… fine. Okay, we'll cause a distraction for you two."

"Thanks, Jaune. Let's move." Ruby smiled as they got to work after a quick strategy talk.

Nora and Ren followed Ilia towards the stairs before moving to block her from view, allowing her to call upon her natural ability along with her suits technology to blend in with her environment. In but a second she was incredibly difficult to see. She quickly made her way up the stairs, passing Whitley on the way, and went to the left as they'd discussed.

The hallways of the mansion were large, absurdly so. It wasn't as if they had anything large taken down them very often if ever. Ilia sighed and started checking rooms as she went.

Bedrooms. Ballrooms. Music rooms. A library. She found many different kinds of rooms as she snuck around. Eventually, she found a lone butler, human this time, with a sad look entering a room alone. Ilia, interested in whatever he was up to, followed him into a large bedroom.

It was what she expected from a rich person's bedroom, massive and ornate and far too opulent. However in one corner, on what appeared to have been a study desk, was a memorial to a young woman. The butler was… praying? He was silently standing before the memorial with his hands clasped and eyes closed. There was a picture amongst several other memorabilia. A picture of Weiss Schnee.

Ilia considered for a moment and then shut the door behind her while disabling her camouflage, alerting the butler. "What?" He whispered.

"Sorry. I just… that's Weiss Schnee, right? The picture."

"Y-yes." The butler swallowed, his blue eyes full of sadness. "I was her butler… back when she lived here. But what are you doing here?"

"Investigating. We want to know if Jacques Schnee has done anything… illegal during the election."

"I see. Well, you won't find anything here."

"Was this her room then?" Ilia asked, looking around.

"Yes." He answered. His eyes were steeling, however. She had to be careful of her words. "Why do you want to know about the Master of the house?"

"My friend wants to make sure it was legitimate."

"Your friend?"

"Yeah. Ruby." Ilia bit the bullet and told him. The way his eyes widened in surprise let her know it might have been a good choice.

"Ruby? As in Ms Ruby Rose?"

"Yes."

"I see. Weiss spoke of her often in her letters. They were… close friends, from my understanding. And she wants to investigate Master Schnee?"

"She does."

The butler thought for a moment. "Well, a little bit before the election night there was an… odd occurrence. It was as if our security just… stopped working. Master Whitley seemed shaken that night as well, though he wouldn't explain why. Perhaps what you want to know happened then."

"Thank you."

"It's no trouble miss. I… I believe that Mistress Weiss would have found issue here as well."

Ilia smiled. "I'll tell Ruby about this. Thank you." She snuck back out the door, blending back into the wall and made her way back to the others. There was a well-known target who could have disabled the security here.

Arthur Watts was in Atlas.

A commotion filled the main hall moments after Ilia had left as Jaune 'tripped' and spilt some food over a woman's dress. Ruby took that chance to race up the stairs as a small, compact ball of petals. It was hard to compress herself so much, but it was worth it. Ilia had gone left, so Ruby went right.

Thanks to her Semblance it wasn't that hard to investigate each room. All it took was sending some petals through the cracks between the doors and their frames. In between rooms, she fluttered to the ceiling. After all, nobody looks up randomly.

She found conference rooms, study rooms and the like. It was a wing geared more towards supporting the business. It was slow going, especially when maids and butler's passed by beneath her, but eventually, she came upon what appeared to be an office which, judging by the portraits and decor, was likely to be Jacques Schnee's.

Finally returning to her normal form Ruby began to investigate. She went as fast as she could without causing noise, which was pretty slow all things considered. Doesn't look like there are any documents around, so I'll have to try and break into the computer. Let's see… password huh? What would he put? Money? Nope. SDC? Nope. Family? Whitley? Weiss? Winter? Ugh.

As Ruby wracked her brain for ideas the door clicked open. She immediately ducked beneath the desk and turned into petals.

"No use hiding. I was watching you." An older woman's voice called out after the door closed. "I haven't seen anyone who could turn into rose petals before." She knows. Damn it.

Ruby sighed as she reverted and stepped out from behind the desk, hand on her scythe. Before her was an older woman. Oh? She looked like Weiss and Winter, but a few decades older. Must be their mother. Weiss never did say her name…

"So you saw me. How?" Ruby asked.

Weiss' mother swirled a glass of alcohol in one hand, with a half-full bottle in the other, as she walked closer. "I set up cameras throughout the house, in case I needed them. Imagine my surprise upon seeing a ball of petals sneaking around."

"So. Where's this going to go?"

"What are you looking for?"

"Evidence." Ruby answered with a shrug.

"Let me guess: of Jacques cheating the election?" The woman asked with a laugh. "Of course he did. The issue is that he never leaves any evidence."

"But you said you have cameras. So, you have some don't you?" Ruby took her hand away from her scythe.

"And if I did? What would you offer for them? What could you offer that would be worth giving up my husband?" She looked down her nose at Ruby, but it seemed like an act.

"Oh? Don't want to help out your daughter's best friend? That would make her sad, I think." Ruby raised an eyebrow and folded her arms.

"My daughter?" Her eyes narrowed. "You don't seem military which means… Weiss?" Her voice shook.

"Yes. Weiss was my friend. I'm sure you know she'd want to expose Jacques."

"So you're Ruby Rose…" She whispered to herself. Her shoulders seemed to deflate and, after a moment of thought, she downed her drink. "Alright. I'll make a deal with you. I have your evidence and I'll give it to you, but I want something in return."

"Of course. What do you want?"

"My son. He's… he's been left here, with us. He needs to be… freed. Taken away from here. Treated like the boy he is. Given the life he deserves. I… I can't help him and Jacques… well he's part of the problem. Winter and Weiss escaped but Whitley… he's stuck with us. I want you to help him."

"Help Whitley?" Ruby furrowed her brow. How could she do that? She wasn't going to be around often and Jacques would likely be removed after this… but her words made sense. Weiss was… not fun to be around at first but just by having friends she could be herself around she became free. Whitley needed the same. I don't necessarily have to be his friend, I just need to help him find a place to be himself. I can probably do that.

"Alright. Deal."

"Here." She offered her scroll with a video ready to play. Ruby pulled out her own and started the download as she pushed play.

"So that's him…" Ruby scowled as Arthur Watts introduced himself.

I need to hurry.

"Ahhhh… I do so love watching everything begin to fall apart." Arthur let out a satisfied sigh as the heating grid turned off. Rain turned to snow and the end of Atlas had begun.

The stage is set. All I need to do now is weaken them and Salem will be most pleased. Victory is in my grasp!

Soon. Soon he would get to see the look on Ironwood's face as Atlas collapsed. The look on Pietro's as his pet project was turned into scrap metal.

Aaah. What a beautiful night this will be!

A/N: Apologies for the wait. Busy week. Anyway, we get Ilia and Ruby being all sneaky. We get to see Klein being sad and Willow being drunk as usual. I do add her deal with Weiss, but to Ruby this time. Willow just really wants her son to get help and Ruby seems like a good option. After all, she did help Weiss out of her shell. Next up, Jacques Trial and the Battle for Mantle. How will it go down with the different members? How will Cinder's side of things go, with Neo having stayed in Vale with Roman? We'll have to wait and see.

I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you next time!