Chapter 18: Legacy of the Schnees

"You know, it's quite odd to be sitting back down in a restaurant." Erick said, as he looked around the area. "Back when Moon, Sarah, Dyson, and I traveled, we kind of ended up stopping by restaurants all the time."

"Really?" Weiss asked, raising an eyebrow. "I mean, I've seen that Moon can teleport you all. You never did just go back to one of your houses and just eat some dinner for free?"

Erick's face went pink. "Yeah…well…funny enough…all of us had…family issues." He adjusted his glasses as a waiter set down two drinks on their table. "Moon couldn't actually go home after he left…no thanks to Pokey. Sarah's family ran a preschool, and her dad wasn't ever…comfortable with Moon's relationship with her. I lived in a boarding school since my father worked in a laboratory 24/7. Dyson was the ruling prince of a country, and while we could've just gone there. He wanted to sample human culture."

"How did you all…pay for that stuff? Is stuff just cheaper in your world?"

"You'd be surprised." Erick chuckled.

"Yeah, I suppose so." Weiss folded her arms as she looked at the genius' outfit.

Out of the corner of his eye, Erick spotted Sapphire sitting down at another table, possibly within earshot.

"You know, your intelligence questions me all the goddamn time." Dark Erick hissed. "What, did you think your stupid friends wouldn't monitor you?"

"So…I do have a question about…" Erick quickly shushed her and inched his head.

The ice queen looked at him confused.

He somewhat lowered his voice just in case to let her know about Sapphire. He just wanted to make sure this whole thing would go without the whole thing blowing up.

"Ah, I see." Weiss whispered. "I suppose that everything adds up."

"So uh, I remember you were struggling with the use of your glyphs semblance. You said your sister was likely going to come and watch you during the tournament right? I did a bit of looking into your semblance, you know, because the Glyphs were well documented, giving the strange history of your family's semblance somehow being hereditary."

"Ah yes, I suppose you could help. I don't know how useful it'd be. Even though my sister Winter was helping, it's quite difficult to get the hang of. Even for my own family members. I think my great grandfather Nicholas had bigger issues."

"Yeah, I suppose so, I'm not the most experienced fighter for everything. Moon, Sarah, and Dyson were the ones who helped deal with enemies, I mainly did support with explosives and my own inventions that I uh…improved…from broken materials. But I do think I could help try and train you if I could see how you try and use them."

"Yeah, I think I'd like that." The two turned their heads as the waitress set two plates down in front of them. Then, she outstretched her hand.

"Ah, right," Weiss fiddled around before pulling out a card. Which she handed to the waitress.

"Ah, probably should've accounted for that." Erick whispered.

"Anyway," Erick continued, "Would your own family even be okay with the two of us?"

"Can't imagine why they wouldn't be." Weiss continued. "I mean…to be as, not harsh as I can, you aren't a faunus after all."

"Yeah, I can imagine how the White Fang has soured your family's thing."

"Mhmm." Weiss hummed as she took a sip of hot chocolate. "As I'm sure you've gotten the idea from, my family's history with Faunus has been…less than stellar. I guess the reforms made my…" her voice kind of trailed off as the leer of Jacques entered her faint memory.

Erick just kind of brushed it aside, now wasn't really the time to pester Weiss about her family. "Yeah, I can understand, your PR websites say all Schnee Dust Company employees are paid equally, regardless of race. I guess years of Faunus abuse have been bitter enough for some. Especially since the forcefulness of it must've started when Ironwood took power right?"

Weiss just nodded her head solemnly. "Yeah, up until Blake opened my eyes, I guess I was just assuming that all the faunus within the White Fang were just vigilanties."

"Well, do you want to start heading back to Beacon then?" Erick asked. "We could get started on what we wanted to work on?"

The ice queen nodded her head as she stood up from the table. "Let's just get going back."

Salem sighed as she tapped the screen of seer Grimm as the imagery flickered in between. "I've got to get better established connections." she sighed.

A knock on her towered door had her lookup as Pokey, along with Seiros reentered her throne room. Both the saint, and the zombie took two seats at her courtship table as she turned her attention to the Seer grimm, which, by now, had stopped and fallen onto the ground.

"You know, I've had quite the nuisance with us just standing around and waiting." Rhea hissed as her white wings fluttered a little. "How much longer is this nonsense going to take?"

"It will be done real soon, Saint Seiros." Salem flicked her red nails against the table. "You and Pokey draw too much attention to our creations, you know. If you keep sticking around the Kingdom, things could get ugly real quick."

A flashing message had Pokey pull out a scroll and project the message to all of them. Showing the headline of the capturing of Roman Torchwick by the Atlas Military. "And was THIS a part of your absolutely ingenious plan?" the Zombie grunted.

"Torchwick and his little ice cream warrior will serve their use, you know." Salem hissed with a devilish smile. "There is a reason we have this system, you know. Both of your ideas for domination were too rash and were thorned out due to unforeseen consequences. I, on the other hand, have had centuries to prepare for this moment. I spent my time looking for the perfect puppets, slowly pulling the strings behind so I could get what I needed. Now, I've got Oz and his mates running circles panicking."

"They have a funny way of showing it." Pokey grunted. "Are you certain that this…puppeteer Cinder and her little lackeys would be willing to follow through? I mean, they half-failed once before and you had to have me come in and swoop through that bastard bird brained lackey and make sure he didn't get the best look at her."

"Cinder knows the consequences for potential failure here." Salem continued. "Years of careful planning have led to this moment, and I will be going to hit hard. Now that we know where they've hidden Autumn."

"Yes, which is why we're putting all our trust in five people and those freak meatshielded terrorists and not throwing everything we have at this." Rhea snarled. "Causing as much panic around the world as possible from your ingenious plans would certainly be better."

Salem's red eyes flashed a little at those worlds. "Why not throw everything and gamble? You're one to talk Seiros."

"Still," Pokey spat. "You're making us sit here and do jackshit as you divert your little minions around the world to just be a minor nuisance. I mean, a serial killer, an Atlas Genius looking for revenge, and that other bloke you got just sit around here not doing shit either."

"The people of Remnant are all the same." Salem sighed, twirling her fingers as a bit of Grimm magic started to flutter around. "They fear and rely on the good of others like the huntsmen to protect their fragile souls. Unfortunately, those that seek to be the protectors of the people are Remnant, they too are all the same. Just a bunch of naive little kids looking to be heroes. Sure, you'll have the occasional pure hearted soul just looking to actually be a protector. But many of them are simply not interested in that."

She slid around as her two underlying allies watched her. "I have studied the looks and minds of the many hunters I capture, you know." she continued. "You'd be surprised just how many of them are so naive and cocky when they face my little pets. Most of the time, they're only there for the nice little benefit those kingdoms provide them. They're just like moths to flames."

"You have a bit too much confidence as well." Pokey snarled.

"How many times do I need to smack it into your little brain Pokey." Salem snarled at him. "I swear, it's like Master Giygas was asking for trouble when he let you just try and run around. How is it that I, who have not seen our creations in years, somehow know exactly how they'd think?"

"Because we fucking told you what happened to us you stupid bitch." Pokey hissed, Seiros nodded her head in agreement.

"And that's exactly why both of you failed. Because you couldn't learn and evaluate as you went along." Salem shot back.

"Regardless, Watts has gotten the virus ready, and has sent it off to Cinder. She'll know what to do, so I think it's about that time." She paused for a moment. "Speaking of which, has the good Dr. gotten back to us?"

"He said that Mr. Schnee was…intrigued…by the proposition and description." Pokey muttered.

"Okay, I can tell you a bit too much, about form and the nonsensical analysis of how your concentration comes back to everything you ask." Erick as he walked around Weiss in the middle of the Beacon courtyard. "But I'm certain of something you've been told time before."

He looked up at Weiss, who was holding Myrtenaster's tip pointed down at the bricks.

"So, according to what I read up about the Glyphs semblance, your summoning portion is tied to your recognition of the foes you have defeated." Erick continued. "So, if you were to concentrate on one in specific, you should be able to call it forward and make it yours."

The snowflake mural began to develop on the ground, and the genius watched with a bit of interest as it began to rotate around like a clock. As the clock began to rotate faster and faster, eventually, an armored hand and a sword stuck out of the ground. Perhaps a knight of some sorts he reckoned?

He watched the ice queen shake a bit as her arm stuttered back with her rapier. Her body flashed a bit of white light with a few cracks. Perhaps the semblance was in some way tied to her aura? He hadn't exactly read about a trade off for it? Matter of fact, he'd argue that the fact she'd have to stop what she was doing to try and summon some big foe in the midst of battle was enough of a tradeoff.

Weiss' arm fidget as the sword and arm in the mural began to flicker out of existence.

"Here, do you mind if I try and help you with something?" He asked. The ice queen simply nodded her head as he walked behind her. He placed one hand on the waist of her white dress and then moved his hand and guided her arm a bit into a more steady position, in a similar way he had seen Moon use Saphria when trying to mimic a Blade Beam.

The snowflake mural stopped flickering and the sword and hand emerged out into a taller knight looking thing. Erick couldn't tell what type of creature this was supposed to be, but reckoned it had to have happened before they came here.

"I uh…I don't know much about your past." he said. "But…I assume that this is what you were trying for?"

Weiss nodded her head as she looked up at the knight looking thing. Erick noted her eyes looked a bit more nervous as she seemed to look at the knight with a bit of fear within it.

"You uh…what you tried to do with my position," she said. "Do you uh…think we could try that again?"

"The form is quite simple, I suppose I could help you move back into it. But you seemed to have it down, I only helped guide you there to feel more balanced. Is there any…"

"Yeah…its just that…when you were holding onto me, I uh…I think your darkside was trying to talk to me?"

The genius just blinked stupidly as he felt himself bite his tongue.

"Yeah Bozo!" Dark Erick snarled. "I can't talk to a dark version of her normally, but, I think there's something about her you oughta see."

"Not a chance." Erick hissed back. "I'm not that gullible."

He blinked back as he heard the snapping of fingers. Weiss kind of gave him a pouty look as she put her hands on her hips.

"Uh yeah," Erick said, quickly blinking himself into reality. "I probably should be a bit more careful if we touch each other…in a more physical sense I should say. Did…did you ever feel a bit of an acidic pain when Dark Moon held onto you for the first time?"

"A bit, and now that you mention it, Ruby talked a bit about it too after the first battle she and Pyrrha had against Moon and Sarah."

"Okay, yeah, another thing, within the bodies of us, Moon, Sarah, and I all have this passive trait of Giygas' bloodline called corruption. It's sort of like a passive defense mechanism to ensure people have a harder time getting their hands on anything that belongs to us. A-apparently too much corruption, from one of us at least, can tend to show people their worst nightmares."

Weiss' eyes rolled a bit. "You really aren't good at explaining stuff and downsides to our relationship are you? What's the point in your darkside doing all this nonsense to force a relationship with me if you can't even reproduce to begin with?"

Erick felt his face heat up as his own eyes narrowed. "You know, we try to out manuever these evil little shitshows in our heads you know? But predicting their movements and why they do what they do is about as easy as building a house out of leaves. Besides, with Moon and Sarah, this nonsense was applied to similar things. With you and me…it's just kind of…unventured territory. Speaking of which, what's with all your concerns about sex? For as creepy as Dark Erick may have been around you on that subway train, he's not ever going to lay a finger on you in a way you don't want. The heartbound works best when there's an emotional connection between two people. If you were afraid of me because of nasty things he would do to you, then the heartbound would be ineffective. United we stand, divided we fall?"

The ice queen just seemed to bite her bottom lip at that. "Well…it's not that…'' she rubbed her arm a bit as her own face blushed. "I know you would never do anything like that to me. It's just that…I kind of struggle to see exactly what they needed me for, especially if your darksides don't want to produce heirs or anything. There were plenty of other candidates. Some with semblances and talents that would far exceed mine."

Erick felt his brain kind of fizzle a bit. "Well…your guess is as good as mine. But…you know…you could always ask him yourself?" he outstretched his hand in an offering way. "I'll be there next to you this way, so if you really want to know, just take my hand and you can find out?"

The ice queen tilted her head. "You don't just want…to let him out here?"

Before the genius could open his mouth, the ice queen finished. "Actually, yeah, that was kind of a stupid question to begin with." Weiss put her creamy colored hand in his and the genius felt himself cut to black.

"Ah…um…" Erick blinked into the voided mindscape that he and his friends, used. Probably should've accounted for whether or not this would even be possible, but if Sapphire was able to do it, he reckoned she could as well.

"Where uh…where are we?" Weiss asked, looking around the empty void. It was just darkness all around, the only light shone from her and the genius' body.

"According to Moon, this is the Mindscape," he replied. "This world serves as the border and shared connection between myself, my friends, and our own darksides. Typically, Moon can just communicate telepathically with us. However, sometimes, believe it or not, we do talk to our dark sides face to face…typically though, they usually drag us into this place somehow."

"There's a multitude of other things that can go on in here." Both teenagers flinched as they faced Dark Erick. Compared to Moon and Sarah's dark sides, Erick always felt like his own dark side didn't have such a hissy raspy tone. He almost spoke normally. "However, for the sake of convenience, I'm certain any aspects will be brought up if necessary."

The eviller side to Erick simply snapped his fingers as Weiss felt her heels snap onto the ground, which she now recognized the flooring of. Looking to Erick, the genius likewise had been forced into grounded positions.

"It's quite rare that you ever get to speak to me." the Dark side simply floated around its host before turning his attention to Weiss, who shivered at the almost hungry look in those soulless red eyes. "Though, I'd wager a bet that you actually aren't the one responsible for this interaction now, are we?"

Weiss just shook her head. "Listen, I didn't come here to play guessing games. I have questions for you."

"Ah yes, I know all about your little confused nature." Dark Erick waved his hand around in a bored manor. "Quite frankly, I'm surprised you don't actually already know why I elected you. Perhaps the suppression of your past is deeper than I first expected."

Her stomach suddenly felt a bit knotted as she gripped her hand into a fist. "H-How did you…"

"Word to the wise snowflake." Dark Erick clapped his hands as a wine glass of some purplish appeared in his hands. "Just because I am bound in the body of a loser who can't develop the ability to use the wide range of powers I possess as Giygas. Doesn't mean I still don't have them."

"What the hell are you even going on about?" Erick grumbled.

"Perhaps a little life of mine would serve us well?" Dark Erick giggled mischievously. "It's story time motherfuckers!"

The voided black landscape of emptiness was suddenly replaced by the inside of the room. Erick looked around curiously, it appeared to be some type of large manor mansion.

As he turned his attention back to Weiss, he noticed that she looked over in a much more petrified state. Looking past her, the genius noticed a younger girl looking like Weiss. No, he knew it was likely a younger Weiss of the past. He could also hear distant screaming, which Weiss was walking towards.

"Mom?" the younger Weiss squeaked. As she started walking down a larger hallway.

Erick folate next to Weiss and waved a hand in front of her. Weiss blinked in shock before stumbling over herself.

"W-Wait?! Y-You can see this?!" She sputtered.

"I did tell you that anything he shows you, I'd see too." Erick simply shook his head. "If I had to guess, this is a memory you keep private for a reason. And, while it's not normally in my nature to be nosey, in fact, I typically advise Moon against it. I'd make the argument that it's imperative that I do see this to help…us."

The ice queen seemed reluctant as she looked down the hall towards her younger self continuously calling out to her mother. She rubbed her arm a bit before sighing. "I suppose, it wouldn't hurt, after all I know about you guys. Just…don't tell anyone about this."

The genius simply nodded his head and followed Weiss and the younger Weiss down the hall, as they passed, Erick took note of the many ancestry portraits. While the names seemed a bit blurred out, he reasoned, looking at the pictures, these were likely relatives of Weiss given the white hair and icy blue eyes. Eventually, the portraits grew still and they approached a cracked office door.

"Why?! Why would you marry me if you don't even care?! She's our DAUGHTER! YOUR OWN FLESH AND BLOOD!" The women's voices sounded distressed and panicked.

"I didn't marry you because I care about you, you filthy old hag." This time, a man's voice, a rather irritable, and unforgiving tone. Erick thought it sounded a bit like Pokey's old dad from the one time he met the man. "I only wanted the name and wealth! The Schnee Dust Company has never flourished so much! Not since the old days of Nicholas! The First Schnee!" Followed by a rather loud slap that had the woman cry much louder.

There was a low stuttering from the woman. Too low for Erick to really understand, but he had to guess some type of shock or realization came as the voice of the man got louder as young Weiss approached the door.

"The only reason I even want to have children with you is because of the fucking Schnee charm that demands a Schnee take over this damn company when my time passes! I'll have you know that, at my current position, I could find women 10 times your looks with a better attitude!"

"But…Winter…she-"

"Our first child made up her stupid mind when she turned traitor. She has no use for me anymore. All her leaving did was tell me that I haven't been raising the other two the proper way. If Winter won't take this company the way I want, she has no right to take the Schnee name, or the Schnee wealth. Especially if she's going to follow that narcissistic general."

Heavy footsteps of some type of dress shoe echoed as Weiss' little hand reached for the door. Before the little one could open it, the door swung through and Erick was greeted with the man he could only assume was Weiss' father.

Erick had to assume that there was some tomfoolery going on genetically wise. The abusive screaming he had heard made the man out to look nothing like Weiss. Matter-of-factly, that was the opposite. He too had white hair and blue eyes. And a mustache that just screamed. "Hey look everyone, I'm a fucking asshole."

He couldn't see the young Weiss' face, but he could notice her small shaking body within the blue dress the young one was wearing.

The man raised his hand, bound by a white glove, and quite viciously slapped the young Weiss across the face, knocking her to the ground.

"WEISS!" He couldn't quite hear the voice of who he could only assume now was her mother. But he could see the person that was apparently her father leer over her as the young Weiss pushed herself up.

"Let me make this very clear to you." The man hissed. "If you ever, follow in the footsteps of your bratty older sister. I will make your life miserable. Unlike your damn sister. You have no talent, no skills, and no future. You will be the heiress to this company. And you will do exactly as I say you little bitch."

Rather impressively, or, maybe rather surprisingly, Erick watched the young Weiss stamp her heels on the man's shoe. Her dad let out a rather pathetic scream as he quickly took the wine glass and threw it at her face, the glass collided and he watched Weiss fall back with a scream as a bit of blood leaked across her face, right where her scar that crossed her eye was. Not as bad as Moon's was, but still.

"You tested your luck, I can only hope next time you remember. It'll be worse the next time." The man then tossed a rather pathetic looking kit onto the young Weiss' lap.

"Arthur Watts and I expect you in the overseer courtyard at 10 sharp. Arrive even a second later, and you'll regret it."

The imagery faded out and Erick blinked back into the Beacon courtyard, only echoing back Dark Erick's cackling.

As he looked down at Weiss, he noticed that she looked rather upset, and everything about her body looked ready to collapse.

"That's just the beginning I'd imagine," he said calmly.

"Yeah…" Weiss shivered a bit. "My father, Jacques Schnee, he's bitter and looks for everything he can to keep things up to speed. He wants to craft me…and my sister into a bitter manipulative heiress. Just like him."

"I understand, not much about why, my own dad was a bit of an issue. He left me in a boarding school to pursue his own corporate desires and inventions."

A bit of a plane sound wooshed over them. Erick looked up and spotted the white militaristic whiteness of the Atlas military.

"Is…that?..."

"Yep, that's Winter's ship arriving." Weiss said, she then turned to Erick. "Don't you dare mention this nonsense to her either, got it? You and I are just dating."

"Trust me," Erick muttered. "I don't ever want to explain anything to your family." He began to follow the Ice Queen out to the landing area.

From a distance though, neither of them noticed a black crow looking at them. The crow cawed a little as it transformed into a man. He had a large gray scythe on his back and wobbled a bit, taking out his muddy shoes and a gray coat with a small red cape.

"So, those bratty kids are interested in the ice queen's family eh?" The man hiccuped a little. "Guess I should count my nieces lucky? They work right next to her after all."

The ringing of the man's scroll had him groan at the thought as he saw the picture of old Ironwood sternly look at him.

"Seriously Jimmy, I've been out on excavation and espionage for 6 months, and now you just realize that communication is a two way street? Maybe Oz finally got you to realize that with those damn political heroes out there playing god? Whatever, let's just keep it at that."

I had an initial talk planned out for this set of Author's notes that would talk a bit about Qrow. However, right before I went to upload this chapter, I was given a rather...concerning, message. And while I know most people just check out the second, they get here anyway, but I'd might as well put this out in the open for anyone who needs to hear it.

I was given a link to a post that discusses my fanfiction, along with several others by the wider RWBY Community. Like I've said before, I have no excuses for what was written earlier in this fic. If I was given a do over, I'd surely write things a bit better, and more explicitly clearly neutral in tone. I am still human after all, we all make mistakes, and what I've done with Yang back then was poorly executed and not well handled. I cannot blame anyone who checked out there and went to form their own assumptions about it.

That's not what I'm here to discuss though, to an extent at least. Just scanning through a few of the...uh...comments made about my own older posts and comments, the opinions drawn about my own taste by this "community" of lovely individuals are less than thrilling. I'm happy to take criticism, however, I likely should note that I have a bit of a different brain wire. Basically, I have a tendency to not think about the way I say something when I mean it differently. That's typically why majority of my more critically harsh comments towards questions about RWBY's writing have me double back and acknowledge the wrongness of the things those comments say. They aren't meant to be a reflection about how I feel, just rather a more...fitting matter to handle the plot in the idea of eqaulity.

That being said, the comments shown are less than reasonable both in and out of context. That's more on my own fault, I can thank myself for that. I can be told to think before I speak several times and my nature will still have me go differently.

Regardless, before I go off topic again, many of the comments are geared towards my portrayal of the females within the context of this fic, and this fic alone. And while I'm frankly both flattered and offended to be called a "Resident RWBYCritic Fanfic Writer." with why whopping singluar RWBY Fic building off a stupidly convoluted Smash Bros Universe. It is not meant to come off as any sort of misogynistic hatred for them.

I tend to find that I work better with girls and women when I've worked on group projects. Quite frankly, if I had to make a list of every good group project I've done throughout my school days, the only boy that would ever show up on the list would be the one who Erick is based on. Many times, the girls are often saving my own ass from stupid shit and helping me see things differently from my typically more sheltered introverted lifestyle. I guess the best comparison you could draw to me would Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. Cringe Example I know, but he really is the best I can draw. Well-meaning, up front, and direct. But lacking the physical awareness of the emotional impact to others. That's why I like to engage with readers reasonably to see what I can do better.

My point being, I much prefer women having any type of authority instead of me. Lord knows I can barely write a story without sounding like a total fucking asshole to some people. That's why Sarah is written to have a more dominant and helping relationship to Moon. Sure, the roles switch between her being a bit of damsel at times. But she's always the one being much more of an advisor and guide towards Moon when it comes to his social relationships, both with her, and with others. If there are still concerns about misogyny within my story. I'm happy to talk it out with a person reasonably, because it's not my intention to be so hostile. I just want to have fun and write a story.

Alright, phew, that's about it, apologies for my long-winded talk. Let me know what you think if you're interested. Whether about this chapter, or my writing in general.