"Weiss? You in here?" Ruby called as she looked into a darkened, locked executive lounge down a hallway past the cafeteria. While the whole wall between it and the hall she stood in was opaque glass, the dark furniture and lack of lighting, as the overhead lights were shut off, made it hard to see anything inside. She could make out a couch and dining table off to the side along with some counter tops and a miniature fridge, but nothing that appeared to be her distressed comrade. Stepping inside and flicking the lightswitch, the room became bathed in fluorescent light, revealing a cowering white-haired heiress behind the couch. "Weiss!" the reaper gasped as she ran over.
"Go away, Ruby." Weiss murmured, not taking her watery eyes off the portion of the floor she had trained them on.
"Not until you tell me what that outburst was about back there." Ruby demanded.
"It's not much of your business, Ruby, team leader or not." Weiss coldly replied.
"I know, but as a friend, it is." the brunette tried to reason, getting closer and kneeling down at Weiss' level. "Was it why you were crying after the first test?" Weiss shifted her eyes away again. "What did he say to you?" she pressed more.
"He basically called me a failure."
Ruby's eyes widened as the girl in front of her admitted such a thing. "Your own father? That can't be right. He's been such a nice guy so far." Ruby thought to herself aloud.
"Believe what you want. He said it right to my face." Weiss grumbled. "All because I'm not at the same level that Winter was at during my age."
"Speaking of Winter..."
Both girls turned to face Blake entering the room, Yang alongside her. "We need to talk about your sister, Weiss."
"Can it wait until Marron shows up? She's overseeing our mission. She should hear what you have to find too." Ruby asked.
"Wait no longer, kids!" Marron announced as she walked into the lounge the rest of her Huntress group was in. "So, what'd I miss? Probably not much, right?"
It wasn't long before the five were sitting in at the dining table of the break room listening to Weiss talk about how, in painfully accurate detail, her own father berated her accomplishments in her own face behind closed doors. While she had been part of the team that saved Vale from being torn to more pieces than Cinder and the White Fang had already left it in, all that seemed to matter to him was if she had been honing her semblance. She doubted if she beat Cinder singlehandedly, he would change his mind.
"Weiss, that's crazy. You've improved so much from since we first met you." Blake said, throwing in her two cents after the heiress finished her explaination.
"According to my dad, he doesn't care about what I've done; only if I can summon something with my glyphs." Weiss replied dejectedly.
"Summon something?" Yang asked, unsure what her friend meant.
"My family all has the same semblance. Everyone on my father's side can do so much more with our glyphs than just conjure elements or distort time." Weiss explained. "Some of us can create spirited versions of fallen foes."
"What, like necromancy?" Blake asked.
"Not exactly, Blake." Marron spoke up. "I've seen Winter do it before on a mission back when I was your age. Using the concentrated power of a glyph combined with a memory of someone or something a Schnee has defeated in the past, be it a Grimm or a person, they can summon a spirit-like form of it controlled by their aura."
"And it's the one technique I can't do." Weiss finished. "I've nearly perfected every other kind of technique from conjuring and time dilation to forming platforms and adhesive glyphs. Summoning's just something I haven't been able to do."
"Well, who cares what he thinks, Weiss?" Ruby spoke up again.
"Yeah, so what if you can't do that? Think of all the other things you already do with your semblance." Yang added.
"That is true..." Weiss said as she mulled over the advice.
"That's the spirit." Marron smiled before things became serious. "Now, why I left you guys earlier...I got some on how the breakout of Chad Aens and the mole here may be in common.
All of RWBY turned with wide eyes towards their supervisor. "From where? And how?" Yang asked.
"I had a word with an old friend of yours before his court appearance, Yang." the Arc answered.
"Mercury?" Yang asked in surprise. "What could he have told you?"
"Well, for one, there's a chance that it isn't Cinder who broke him out, but her father instead." Marron explained. "I don't understand the full story myself, but he did tell me that he's still using the mole that gave Cinder the codes she needed to take over General Ironwood's ship and drones."
"Did he give up who it was?" Weiss asked.
"Even if he did, it's irrelevant." Blake spoke up. "Yang and I found this while we were looking for you in Winter's office." she continued as she produced the bronzed envelope addressed to the older Schnee sister. It simply read, "A new Queen is on the board. Prepare for the next move."
"A new Queen?" Yang asked.
"The Black Queen chess piece was the image shown in that virus Cinder used to hack the military's hardware. If it was Cinder's codename, they may have gotten someone to take her place for the mole to report to." Marron explained, as she bit her lip at the sight of the envelope. "I'm really just hoping this is a cruel joke that it's my old teammate."
"You say you found it on Winter's desk?" Ruby asked.
"No, that can't be right." Weiss shook her head. "Winter wouldn't be capable of something like this."
"This evidence isn't pointing in her favor, Weiss." Yang solemnly explained.
"Weiss, I know this sounds crazy, but we knew it was somebody high up in the company." Marron tried to reason.
"But my own sister?" the heiress repeated, her voice starting to raise.
"Look, it probably isn't the case and this is just some sort of ruse." Ruby suggested. "I'm prepared to give her the benefit of the doubt, but we still need to follow up with this lead."
"Look at my lil' sister talking like a big tough leader." Yang cooed while the younger just rolled her eyes.
With a sigh, Weiss gave in to the thought. "Fine." she sighed. "But please, keep this serious, Yang."
It didn't take the five long to compose themselves for this juncture. The ride up the elevator was mostly silent as the girls waited as they reached the executive office levels on the top floors, the ones Blake and Yang were in not even an hour ago.
"We're sure it's her?" Weiss asked, speaking up for the first time since the team of Huntresses left the break room.
"Weiss, I know it's hard to understand, but there's nobody else who it could be with this evidence." Ruby solemnly said as the elevator reached the top floor of the company headquarters.
"Well, to be fair, we didn't guess who else it could be." Yang shrugged.
"We can rule out Weiss' father and that security guard captain, Morrison." Blake said with a roll of their eyes. "Their view on Faunus doesn't exactly share the same one as somebody that would work with the White Fang."
"Well, what about Doctor Rojas?" Weiss tried again, secretly hoping her sister wasn't the double agent.
"Wait, Sangre Rojas?" Marron asked. "I read about him. He's the one who ratted out Doctor Fall's experiments on his daughters. I doubt the Falls would want anything to do with him."
Weiss' heart sank further as she lead the group into her father and sister's office. That was it. There was no way she could try and help prove her own sister's innocence. She looked up as they walked in to find Winter speaking on the phone with someone as she kept her back turned to them, staring out the window as she continued her call.
"And remember to let them know the next phase of the plan doesn't go into effect until we're sure he's no longer in Atlas." they could hear the executive saying to whoever was on the other side of the line through a crack in her door. As Ruby knocked, the older sister did a double take as she looked back to see company behind her. "I'll have to call you back." she murmured as she closed her Scroll. "To what do I owe this encounter, Marron?" Winter asked as the Huntresses entered her office.
"Sit down, Winter. We need to talk about something important." Marron motioned to the desk as she and Weiss took the seats in front of it.
"It'll have to be quick. I have to join a meeting to attend to in ten minutes." Winter complied as she took the seat at her office chair next to them, her eyes scanning her former teammate, her younger sister, and the other three Huntresses in training standing behind them.
"Is it with October Fall?" Weiss asked accusingly, shooting up from her seat. The only reaction her sister gave in response was a blink and a raised eyebrow.
"...No, Weiss. It's with executives of the Zales Trading Company from Vacuo. They need to re-secure out shipping contract with us." she corrected. "What is this about?"
"I was hoping you could tell us." Marron replied, taking the telegram Blake procured and placing it back on the desk it was originally taken from. Winter's eyes narrowed for a split second. "It's addressed to you, Winter. We have reason to believe it came straight from October Fall himself."
"Winter, why would you be working with them? Do you remember what Cinder alone did?" Weiss asked.
Winter stared between the telegram and the girls before her for a moment before replying. "Weiss, girls, you don't seem to understand..." she started.
Weiss' eyes widened at that response, her hand immediately going for the hilt of Myrtenaster. "So it's true?" she asked, her voice raising.
"Weiss, calm down-" Marron tried to reason. The younger Schnee didn't listen as she fully drew her rapier and pointed it at her own flesh and blood, not faltering whatsoever.
"Winter Schnee, by order of the Huntsmen Association, you're placed under arrest." Weiss ordered, glaring her sister down.
For a moment, Winter did nothing. Her face was one of surprise of how her own sister was pointing a blade at her. She dared not to strike her, but the fact it was even pointed in her direction was a surprise. Slowly, she rose to her feet. The remaining members of Team RWBY kept their eyes locked on the wall-mounted plaque holding her pistols. They kept on edge, in the event she was planning to go for those to defend herself in an attempt to escape, even though there weren't many options of an exit to choose from. Instead, she sighs and locks eyes with her sister. "I was ready to explain myself, but you're leaving me no choice." she finally said. Unknown to the girls, her leg was edging for something under her desk.
"For what?" Weiss asked, her grip on Myrtenaster tightening to the point her hand started to ache.
"You know exactly what." Winter frowned as she suddenly flipped the desk with a swift kick upwards. Not even stunned for a second as the furniture in front of her, Marron and the rest of RWBY, Weiss summoned a glyph in the knick of time to pulse the desk back towards her sister, only for it to be slashed in half. Her eyes narrowed to find that her sister now held a dueling saber in her hand, waving the sword towards her younger sister enough for her to parry the deceptively strong strike before going for the window behind them.
"Wait!" Ruby cried out before the older Schnee dove through the window, her Aura protecting herself from the shards of glass flying out along with her. Weiss and Marron ran forward, expecting to find Winter dropping to the ground, only to see her sliding down the slanted glass roof over the offices of the lower floors.
"After her!" Marron ordered as she and Weiss leaped out after her, the rest of RWBY readying their weapons as they followed. With the help of her glyphs, Weiss closed the distance gap between her team and her sister, jumping forward as she sent a flurry of slashes with her rapier that were blocked easily by the saber she now wielded. As Weiss backed off from her failed attack, Marron took her place, producing wide swipes with her halberd that Winter had to duck to avoid. The sheer force of one strike missed, hitting a glass ceiling panel instead, smashed it to smithereens and rained tiny shards onto unsuspecting businessmen and women below. "When did you take up swordsmanship?" she called.
"All Schnees are adept in bladed combat. The pistols were a juvenile decision to take through Beacon!" Winter answered, before deciding there was enough talk as she summoned an adhesive glyph to slow Marron's sliding after her to a near full stop. Taking her place were the Rose-Xiao Long sisters as Ruby and Yang flanked her with fire from Crescent Rose and Ember Cilica. Each missed shot had to be dodged by the sisters. Winter was so busy staying focused on the shots coming from either sides of her, she barely noticed, out of the corner of her eye, Blake and Weiss coming in fast with a dual attack primed and ready. Thinking quickly, she pulled the pump on the inside of her saber's hilt, a small parrying dagger jutting out from the handle and giving Winter the second blade she'd need to defend herself from the incoming rapier and katana. The block made contact just in time, but the force knocked her off the edge of the roof they had reached, sending them plummeting fifteen stories to the parking lot below. To cushion all their falls, Winter formed a glyph for herself to land on, Weiss doing the same for she and Ruby to platform down. Blake was able to rappel down by using Gambol Shroud to hook on to an air vent jutting out of the wall on one of the middle floors. Yang and Marron took a more barbaric approach by just bracing for a hard landing on top of a rather expensive looking company car in the lot they landed in, leaving two massive craters in its roof and on its hood.
As she swung in with Gambol Shroud, Blake angled herself to go straight for a strike from above on Winter. However, the older sister was ready as she not only parried the strike with both the raven-haired girl's blades, but kicking out with her sharp high heels and smacking the ninja into the front bumper of another car with enough force to dent it and set off the alarm on it. As Blake shook herself out of it, she looked up just in time to narrowly dodge the saber lunging at her head in a stabbing motion, feeling the blade come very close between her hidden ears as she lept away under her leg before she could bring it down from her sword lunge. Yang and Ruby once again took her place, Winter using her parrying blade to keep Yang at bay with short stabs to counter her punches, while keeping her saber focused on combating Ruby's massive scythe. The plan was working, as at one point, one parry from Ruby and another counter from Yang accidentally had the two's weapons cross paths as Crescent Rose mistakenly hooked around the gauntlet on Yang's left hand. With the two in one place, Winter had no trouble sending them barreling into Marron with a kick through a propulsion glyph, leaving her just to deal with her sister and her Faunus friend. Wait...Faunus?
"Interesting..." Winter commented as she looked at Blake. It was that realization that not only was that near miss from earlier close to cutting between Blake's ears, but it slashed her bow off, revealing her cat's ears. "So not only do you trick us into letting you in to investigate us, but you also bring a Faunus with you." she commented.
Blake growled as she lunged forward again, ready to strike while Winter was in her monologue, only to be knocked aside as the platinum-haired woman dug her saber into a ground, the force of her glyph being summoned knocking her back. Out of it came a storm of pure white dwarf Nevermores that swarmed Blake. Every close swipe of their wings felt like razors slicing across Blake's skin as she tried to fight her way through the flock, only for it to disappear as suddenly as it began. Her Aura weakened from defending herself, Blake dropped to her knees in exhaustion, Gambol Shroud's cleaver falling from her grasp.
"Blake!" Weiss exclaimed as she became overcome with rage. Summoning a propulsion glyph of her own, she charged her sister at a ludicrous speed, while Winter herself simply replaced her parrying dagger into the slot on her saber's hilt, then keeping it drawn at her side. Feeling like she was being taunted, Weiss focused more Aura into her strike to the point Myrtenaster began to glow a feint white. Just as the strike should have landed, Weiss felt herself collide with an extremely heavy immovable force as she was suddenly thrown backwards by a thick hand and disarmed of her rapier in one impossibly quick motion. She hit the pavement face first and hard, the cold, rough asphalt stinging her face as she was dragged across it by the force of being shoved backwards. Once she came to a rest, she lightly pulled her head off the ground to find small red droplets dripping onto it. Looking into a puddle next to her, she discovered why: her scar had reopened. Fresh red blood dripped from just below her eye, all the while burning in pain like pure hell. She looked up to find the cause of what caused her to reinjure herself, the immediate sight of it filling her with dread. Standing in front of Winter, with a bright gold glyph charged in his gloved hand, was her father, a look of pure fury on his face. "F-Father..." she stammered.
"What is the meaning of all of this!?" he roared, Weiss flinching at the sound of his shout.
"It was Weiss, Father." Winter spoke up, while the younger Schnee could only stand there, completely mortified. "She attacked me in my office out of no reason."
"Th-That's not true at all!" Weiss tried to defend herself. "Father, she..."
"I've heard all I need to hear, young lady!" Silbern boomed again. "Attacking your own blood, damaging company property..." His monologue ended as his eyes rested on Blake, ears out for all to see. "...And on top of all of it, you have the GALL to sneak one of THEM IN HERE?" he roared again. "MORRISON!"
The chief guard ran up, another of his fellow security men following. He immediately read the situation as his eyes focused on Blake. "Mister Schnee, I have no idea how she didn't get flagged during the entrance screening.." he apologized before being cut off.
"Stop making excuses and just get rid of this...vermin!" he spat, Blake simply seething as she had no strength as Morrison and his company picked the raven-haired girl off the ground and away from ground zero of the quick battle that took place and completely decimated a half a dozen very expensive cars and left a large crater in the pavement. Crawling out of the wreckage of one of those cars was the other half of RWBY, plus their chaperoning Huntress.
"Where do you think you're taking her?" Yang asked viciously, her eyes glowing a dull orange.
"Where do you think, Goldilocks?" Morrison's assistant sneered. "Little Menagerie's the only place this little kitten belongs."
Yang was about to issue a retort, her eyes completely crimson, before Marron held her back as she stepped forward along with Ruby. "You can't detain a Huntress on duty, Morrison. That breaks Huntsman law on so many levels." she ordered.
"Yeah! Blake's our teammate!" Ruby nodded.
"Teammate or not, kingdom law trumps Huntsman law everywhere on Remnant." Morrison replied. "You're a hero around here. Call in a favor to Slate or something, and you'll get her back by morning."
Marron backed down at that statement, knowing she used her last chance for what ended up as a fruitless effort to gain information, leaving the two younger Huntresses feeling helpless as they watched their friend taken away, a security van pulling up intended for Blake. She quickly turned to the Schnees for an answer to this problem. "Silbern, Winter, you can't let them do this!" she yelled.
"I think I can for a chaperone who I thought was my friend, who let their Huntresses under her command attack me." Winter sneered.
"Enough is enough, Marron." Silbern ordered. "You are no longer welcome at my company or my home. You have the time you need to get your belongings, but afterwards, you are to leave this kingdom. I don't know what Ozpin is teaching your students, but I will have no more of them attacking my family." he finished, turning on a heel to walk away, Winter following him.
"Father, wait..." Weiss pleaded, stopping the businessman, but not making him turn her way.
"That goes double for you, Weiss." Silbern said coldly, his voice void of any emotion."As of this moment, I only have one daughter."
Weiss' whole world shattered at those nine words. She was completely speechless as she watched her father and sister walk off, the van transporting Blake driving off with the amber eyes of her Faunus friend looking back at her through the window. She was feeling numerous emotions at once as she was overwhelmed with them all. All she could do was sit there as blood and tears streamed down her face, not even caring as Yang picked her up into caring arms. "C'mon, Weiss. Let's get you cleaned up." she said, focusing on the well-being of her team rather than her anger at the moment. She could feel the heat from her frustration burning in her arms and chest as she was pulled close as they walked towards the exit, Ruby and Marron following with the discarded weapons of the distraught pair in their hands.
I've been waiting a bit to get this scene done, to put it into scale, much longer before they even revealed Winter at this past RTX. I'm finally glad it's done, and exactly how I envisioned it. I don't have much else to say, so I just want to thank you guys (and girls) so much for giving this fic the attention its gotten. I haven't gotten much praise or attention under any penname for any fandom I've written for in the past, so it really means alot that you all have been watching my work this far in. I missed my one year anniversary on this site a while ago actually, so that's my thank you speech from it. I read all my comments so please leave one, or at least a like, and I'll see you lads and lasses next time.
