Jaune was bored. Weren't rich families supposed to have like bowling alleys and movie theaters in their house? Fun must have been banned in the Schnee household. Jaune hadn't even seen a pool table. What did these people do in their free time? You could only pace the halls for so long which he had been doing it for the past couple of hours.

Earlier he and Emerald had been playing cards, one of the few things the mansion had to offer, but that had quickly come to an end because, and Jaune really should have known better, Emerald cheated, either with her semblance or something else. Didn't matter that there was no money on the line. She just couldn't let him win a hand. He had walked out after a few rounds and hadn't seen here since. He really hopped she wasn't trying to steal something. Schnee Mansion might have had airtight security on the outside, but the inside wasn't nearly as well secured with only a handful of guards and no security cameras. Having the latter would have put a quick end to the "ghost" problem, but installing them probably would have ruined this "castle style" Mr. Schnee had going on. Also, a man of his reputation likely didn't want to have video evidence of his every move. Emerald had been good(ish) about her thievery since they had partnered up, but boredom and opportunity could easily have her slip back into her old ways.

Jaune might have gone looking for her if he didn't notice someone approaching him. "Mr. Arc, good to see you," Jacques Schnee's son, who's name Jaune may had forgotten, said.

"Good to see you too, Mr. Schnee," Jaune mimicked.

"Just call me Whitley, my father holds the title of Mr. Schnee."

Jaune was thankful for the repeat. "Then call me Jaune." There was a brief second of awkwardness when Jaune held out his hand without Whitley doing the same. He thought he did something wrong, but Whitley quickly reciprocated the gesture—very quickly, actually. Almost like he was trying to cover up his own mistake.

"Would you like to join me for lunch," Whitley said after the handshake was concluded. "If it's not going to distract you from your investigation that is."

The investigation was already over and there wasn't anything else to do while he waited, "Sure, why not?" That might have been too informal, Jaune thought immediately after.

"Excellent," Whitley smiled, either not noticing Jaune's casual acceptance or not caring. "Follow me, Klein always makes too much for me, so there's no need to stop by the kitchen." Another trip through the twisted labyrinth, led them to different dining room than the one he had been at before. A much smaller room with a much more reasonably sized table.

"Take a seat and have as much as you'd like, and if there's anything you want I can have the kitchen bring it here in no time."

"Thanks?" Jaune said finding it a little strange that the Schnee boy seemed to be accommodating him opposed to the other way around. Jaune might have been a guest, but he was just a temporary employee at the end of the day. Did Whitley want something from him? Regardless, Jaune took a seat and had a brief look around the room.

It seemed to be the front room to a guest suite, at least that's what Jaune hoped, because if this was Whitley's room then there was a disturbing lack of any personal touches. It felt identical to any other room in the Schnee mansion.

Jaune looked back at Whitley to see if he might give something away only to realize that he hadn't touch any of the food and had been watching Jaune the whole time. "umm…"

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to stare." Jaune was starting to notice that the youngest Schnee seemed to have a very hard time keeping still. Every time he talked he was shifting positions. It wasn't the same as talking with his hands like some of Jaune's sister did, but it was like…it was like he wasn't sure if his posture was ever good enough.

"Is there anything you want to ask me in particular?" Jaune asked.

Whitley made a show of being in thought, but the question came just a bit too early for Whitley not to have had it ready before hand. "How is your investigation going?"

"You're interested in that?"

"Is it strange to what to know what is going on in my own home?"

Jacques Schnee certainly didn't care, but Jaune supposed that made him the strange one. "It's going okay, in fact, we might have already handled it last night. Emerald and I are just waiting it out to be sure."

"You're fast, as expected of someone with such a glowing resume, but would you mind telling me exactly what the problem was. I'm very curious."

Jaune's eyes narrowed. Whitley shouldn't know—couldn't know what was on his and Emerald's resume since it was only ever an illusion. If he had gone looking for it, he would have only found a blank page. Was that what this was about? Did Whitley suspect them?

"It's your choice to believe me, I'm used to being doubted, but the truth is that there was a restless spirit trapped in this mansion." Revealing that it had really only been a grimm, that any regular huntsman could have dealt with, probably wouldn't go down well regardless if Whitley suspected them or not. Although it did beg the question, why hadn't they hired a huntsman in the first place? Surly ghost hunters were the last resort.

"We were the ones to hire you. It would be inconsiderate to doubt you now, but how did you deal with this restless spirit? I heard a vase was broken, did that have something to do with it?"

"Not directly. It was just the spirit lashing out like it had been doing before we got here. It was actually the reason I was able to locate it so quickly," Jaune said hiding the lies under the truth.

"But, why was it lashing out and why was it here? That's what I'm interested in."

More interested than someone who just wants to use this conversation to kill time should be. "I can't answer those question for certain, but if I had to guess it was probably the spirit of someone who deeply hated the SDC. Perhaps, a faunus who might have died in your mines recently."

"I wouldn't be surprised if you were right." There was no other reaction from the Schnee boy. Not a trace of guilt or even anger over Jaune basically calling him out. Whitley acted like he wasn't even connected. "There are a lot of people out there who dislike the SDC, many faunus included."

"Dislike might be a bit of an understatement."

"That's true, I don't think simple dislike is enough for a person to haunt us after their death. Indoctrinated radicals are such a frightening bunch."

"You mean the White Fang."

"Absolutely terrifying." Whitley sure didn't look very terrified as he absently minded stirred his tea. He still hadn't taken a sip or bite out of anything.

"Don't they have a reason to be?" Jaune said going a little further in testing the waters. If Whitley suspected them and was fishing for information, Jaune would do the same.

"Everyone has a reason for doing anything, but neither the reason nor the outcome have to be good. For instance, my eldest sister join the Atlas military and the other one ran off to become a huntress at Beacon."

"I'm sure they don't see it that way. Isn't seeing what they did as wrong just your opinion?"

Whitley finally took a sip of his drink as he thought it over. "I suppose it could be a lack of understanding on my part. There's certainly a lack of understanding on their part in regard to me. It's just I believe that one should always consider that they may be wrong—very wrong. There are too many people in this world that believe they are unequivocally right."

"You say that, but don't you think you might be one of those people."

Whitley looked genuinely confused. "In what way?"

"I think it should be obvious."

There was a pause in the conversation as Whitley genuinely contemplated Jaune's words. "Oh," A wave of relief seemed to wash over him, "are you one of those people who dislike how the SDC operates."

"I'll keep my politics to myself since I'm on the job, but can you really say that the people opposing you don't have any ground to stand on."

"But they don't." He said it so calmly, so confidently, like it wasn't even up for consideration. He must have read the shock on Jaune's face because he started to backtrack a bit. "The terrorist group that call themselves the White Fang, I mean. I'm sure that many of our workers have legitimate complaints, but in a company as large as the SDC that's unavoidable."

"Are you saying the White Fang's complaints aren't legitimate."

"Like I mention before, it's possible there's something I don't understand, and if I'm wrong about something, I'll gladly admit it, but I'm pretty confident about this. Even in the best-case scenario for the White Fang, and they do have a legitimate reason that I've missed, it doesn't negate all their illegitimate ones. On the scale of justice, I'd be more right than them." Jaune stayed silent. This was the last thing he had been expected from the Schnee son. Jaune expected Whitley to be the type to look down on almost everyone, and in a way, he did, but not in the snide rich-boy kind of way. It was different. It was strange.

"For instance," Whitley continued, "the White Fang claim they fight for faunus equality, with an emphasis on those working under the SDC, in writing and speeches it seems like an honorable ideal, and is probably why so many faunus join them, but their actions undermined that idea every step of the way. I don't think they mean it, I think they really are just that ignorant. They can't take a step back and seen the actual effects of their crusade. See how dangerous it is to blindly believe yourself. Attacking stores that won't serve faunus doesn't help them. Vandalized stores just file insurance claims, often exaggerated one, and not only will they get money without having to do any work, but usually they gain the sympathies of the community making them more popular than ever. Also, do they really think attacking Schnee conveys and stealing the dust they carry helps the miners. Maybe if any of them learned basic economics they would understand supply and demand. Stealing dust doesn't suddenly make the SDC lose profit. People need dust, so we just increase the price, now backed by a perfect justification. The increased cost of security finds its way to the customers, too. It might be different if the White Fang distributed the dust to faunus who couldn't normally afford it, but they don't. They need dust to keep their guns loaded, after all."

Jaune realized that Whitley's upbringing probably didn't give him a lot of chances to interact with anyone outside of a professional level, even if Jaune technical was in the Schnee's service, it was enough of disconnect for Whitley to be able to speak freely. Because of that, he was trying to unload all of his thoughts at once.

"That not even mentioning the fact, that in order to keep up with demand and replace the dust that is stolen, our miners have to work longer and harder. Something the White Fang directly stated they want changed. I also shouldn't have to mention that overworked workers make more mistakes which lead to accidents which can prove fatal in the mining industry. Despite what the White Fang claim we don't send in miners with a pickaxe and the slap on the back. Mining dust is a delicate process that requires training. Even if the SDC is the immoral, monster corporation some say we are, we'd still have good reasons to not want out miners to die. It takes time and money to train up new miners who also won't be as efficient as those experience miners we'd lose in any given accident."

Reason after reason given by a man who was determined to leave not one argument uncountered. On and on he went until Jaune finally stopped him. "Why did you bring me here?"

Whitley froze and his brain clicked into place as he realized how long he had been talking. He coughed into his hands to cover his slight embarrassment and then put them both behind his back. "I thought I already told you. I just wanted to talk."

"Not about my views on the White Fang or you family, though. There's something more specific."

It was slight but Jaune caught the way Whitley's eyes moved away and the twiddling of his fingers behind his back. The kid was good at keeping clam and being confident, but there were gaps. Interrupting his lecture had definitely thrown him off guard, but Jaune needed to keep the pressure up. If Whitley really did know about the fake resume then Jaune couldn't be put on the back foot and forced to ask questions he couldn't answer.

"I'll admit, we got off onto a bit of a tangent," Whitley started. "I didn't think it best to broach the topic so directly. Father is dismissive of such nonsenses, my sisters also don't give it much thought nowadays if they ever did, and I'm skeptical as well, but I want to confirm it. If she really is right and everyone else is wrong, then I want to understand."

There might have been more Whitley wanted to say and there was certainly more that Jaune wanted to ask, but at that moment the sound of shattering glass ripped through the room. It wasn't in the room itself, but the fact they both heard it meant it wasn't something insignificant. With a new sense of loathing in the air, the two of them got up and left the room. There was nothing to be found in the immediate vicinity, but a few quick steps into an adjacent hallway led them to the source.

Broken shards of glass were everywhere, and in the center of it, in front of a large broken window, was one of the Schnee maids. She was on her knees, hand clutching her bloody arm. Off to the side another maid and butler were standing still. Jaune hasted his movements, feeling the chill of Atlas coming in through the now open window, but surprising Whitley was in step beside him. He completely ignored the broken glass as his dress shoes churched it with each step.

"Can you walk?" he said sternly but not without concern. The maid looked up at her boss with teary eyes and nodded. "Good," was Whitley's quick replied as he put one hand on the girl's shoulder, took her non-injured hand into his and slowly helped her to her feet. Since her skirt was no long splayed across the ground, Jaune could see that her lower legs and knees were pretty badly cut up as well.

As Whitley carefully maneuvered her out of the hazard zone, the sound of more footsteps echoed down the hall. "What is going on?" the old president secretary demanded while Emerald, oddly enough, trailed in behind her.

The poor girl shrunk under the secretary's gaze. "The window just exploded out of nowhere and hit me, but I saw a grimm fly away after it happen."

"A grimm, are you sure?"

"Yes, it was a geist. I'm sure of it. The same as last ti—"

"Quiet!" the secretary shouted and the young girl squeaked. "Do not discuss these things in front of others, and you two, what are you standing around for? Get this girl some medical attention." Broken out of their stupor, the servants quickly relieved Whitley of the injured maid and ran off. Then, the secretary turned her attention to Jaune and Emerald. There was no point in trying to deny the maid's slip up, so she didn't bother. "Remember everything you see and hear here is confidential if you go spreading rumors about the Schnee family to anyone we'll have your head."

The old lady stormed off leaving the three teens to themselves. "What was that about a last time?" Jaune asked.

Whitley was examining the busted window before he turned to answer. "It's nothing. You're here to deal with ghosts and ghouls, not grimm. This is just a strange coincidence that has nothing to do with you, right?" Any insecurities Jaune had brought out of him were gone now. Whitley was back to the calm confident man he had been before. "Now excuses me, I have to go get someone to fix this window. Talk to you later."

In cause the obvious wasn't clear, and Jaune somehow didn't know that this "simple" job was turning into a complete mess, Emerald was glad to inform him. "One geist is strange enough, two is insane, but if this is really the third time then we've got a serious problem. There's obviously something else going on."

"Don't you think I know that," Jaune replied, "but that's only the tip of our problems. We wouldn't even be allowed to try and find out what's going on if we don't deal with Whitley."

"You two were acting pretty strange back there. What happened?"

Jaune explained everything from his meeting with Whitely. Emerald was shockingly attentive.

"Sounds like a colorful character. Do you know for sure if he saw the fake resume?"

"No, it's not like I was going to ask just in case he doesn't suspect us."

"Then maybe he didn't see it. If he had, he could have jut accused you directly. It's not like we could lie our way out of it."

"No, I'm sure he saw it. He specifically brought it up, and trust me he wasn't the type of person who says things without thinking about them. He mentioned it on purpose."

"So, why haven't we been kicked out, or worse?"

"I think it peaked his curiosity. No, I actually thing we peaked his curiosity before then and it's what led him to see what got us entry into his house. Seeing a blank piece of paper must have bumped it to eleven."

"Great, so we're like his little science experiment."

Jaune grimaced. She wasn't wrong. "It's more than that. That meeting we had. He was so fixated on what we were doing and how we were doing it. It was like he was trying to confirm if I was real."

"Didn't he mention something about trying to confirm something."

"Yeah, he left it pretty vague, but it looks like someone has talked to him about this stuff before. I think he wants to believe her but can't bring himself to do it without any proof—maybe that's what we are. We're the proof he's looking for. He's trying to figure out if we're genuine." Jaune stopped as he remembered how their meeting concluded. "I don't think I did much to convince him, though, I told him we already dealt with a vengeful spirit only for a geist to continue the "haunting" a little bit later. He probably realized I was lying the second he heard that."

"Having geists appear is still strange."

"Unusual but not unnatural. It's going take a lot more than a string of coincidences to make someone believe in magic."

"Then, what do you want to do?" Emerald finally asked.

"I don't know." Jaune was tired. What he really wanted to do was go back to Vale and sleep in his apartment for a couple of days. Let the Schnee family hire a huntsman to deal with this, not two teens in way over their heads. Although, hadn't that already been tried? If there had been an original geist, a huntsman must have been called to remove it, but that didn't stop anything. A new one took its place and started trouble all over again. This geist invasion wasn't going to be stopped without some additional measures. If only Jaune had any idea of what they could be. "Let's work our way backwards. Finding the start of this mess should give us some clues."

"How are we supposed to do that? We saw that the staff have been told to keep their mouths shut." That was true but why? Even if Jacques thought the pervious geist incident was unrelated, which was pretty unlikely now that a new geist had been confirmed, withholding information could only harm their investigation, so why did he order it?

Jaune ran his hand down his face. Just another problem to add to the pile. "Even if the staff won't talk someone had to have gotten paid to deal with the first geist. There should be some documentation."

"You seriously want us to dig through a bunch of financial files?" Emerald said, irritated.

"No, you're going to be digging through financial files."

"What!" Now Emerald was straight up mad.

"Calm down." Jaune said softly like he was talking to a temperamental child. "I can't do it. Mr. Schnee might have said we could go where we needed, but I doubt that applies to looking through company documents. You have a way to get around that, though."

"My semblance isn't your personal get out of jail free card, you know."

"But it's so helpful."

Emerald snarled. "And what will you be doing?"

"I'll be looking into are other problem. Whitley has heard enough about the unknown world that he felt the need to at least look into it. Whoever told him might know more about what's going on here than us, and they might be able to talk to him on our behalf."

"Do you even know who this person is?"

"Whitley said it was a she and he also said this she said the same things to his sisters, so it can't be either of them. I'm going to go out on limb and say that the Schnee kids didn't get out much to socialize, so there's really only on person it could be." Jaune paused. "Do you happen to know anything about Mrs. Schnee?"

Emerald shrugged. "Willow Schnee hasn't been seen out in public in forever. There are all kinds of crazy theories about it from her having a mental breakdown to being bedridden by an incurable disease. Take you pick but all of them point to her not being a reliable source of information."

Jaune gave Emerald that goofy smile that both irritated and endeared her. "I'll never know unless I see for myself."

Emerald stood in Jacques Schnee's office. The man himself was sat behind the desk looking like he was physically troubled by her visit. She could sort of understand. She had just come to inform him about the geist attack, something he would have definitely already heard about, so from his perspective the entire meeting was a waste of time. The Schnee head wouldn't risk appearing rude by telling her to leave, in words at least, but every inch of his body and every angle of her posture was making it clear that he would really like Emerald to shove it and leave.

For someone who only sat behind a desk all day, he actually had a pretty intimidating presence. It took more courage to stand there and give her report than she thought it would. Damn Jaune for saddling her with the difficult jobs. He was probably sipping tea with the missus right now. When this was all over, she was going to give him a piece of her mind.

"Miss. Sustrai, you seem upset," Mr. Schnee said in a tone that made him sound like a human intercom. "Perhaps you should retire to your room and relax."

"I'm okay. Just a little tired from our investigation last night," Emerald said in a pretty unconvincing lie, but Jacques didn't comment on it. His worry had only been to get her to leave anyways.

"Do you have anything else to report?"

"No sir."

"Then you are dismissed, and please don't feel the need to report to me. Just tell my secretary when you have completed the job and she'll have you paid."

It took a monumental amount of effort for Emerald to repress the features of absolute shock from her face. What was Jacques thinking? He only wanted them to go through his secretary? It didn't sound like they even have to offer any proof that they accomplished anything. Emerald already knew Jacques didn't take their mystic claims that seriously, but did he not care about the state of his mansion at all?

"I said you are dismissed."

"Sorry sir," Emerald replied realizing she had just been standing there. She took her leave finally giving Jacques the peace he wanted, or at least that's what he thought. Emerald was still there, of course, just completely invisible. It was not an easy illusion to cast. On stationary objects like her holstered weapons it wasn't so bad, but when it was her entire body it started getting taxing fast. Instead of just masking herself with someone else's figure, doing this forced her to eraser her entire presence. She wasn't actually invisible after all. It was just an illusion of the room as if she wasn't in it, fitted to Jacques perspective, having to be modify slightly with every step she took, while accounting for any changes or sounds she made while also making sure Jacques could still interact with everything normally.

She could already feel the headache beginning.

Emerald started scanning the nearest bookshelf. She needed to get this done as fast as possible. The longer she kept this up the more likely she was to mess up. She was looking for any kind of information about the original geist incident with the most likely candidate being a finical document about it. It wouldn't give them much but the timeframe of when it happened and the person paid to deal with it, but it would be a start.

Unfortunately, Emerald had barely gotten a chance to look before the door creaked open. Emerald didn't have time to cast an illusion on the new occupation, and she probably wouldn't have been able to handle it anyways, so when Whitley Schnee entered his eyes locked right onto her.

Jacques sigh, frustrated for having been interrupted a second time. "Is there something you need, Whitley."

Emerald just needed to play it cool. As long as she remained calm Whitley might just assume that his father knew she was there and just wasn't bothering to mention it. "Yes Father, I had something to discussion with you involving the new geist appearance, in private if you will."

"We're already in private."

Whitley shot Emerald a cocky smile.

Damn him.

"I've had this conversation many times already today, so it better be important," Jacques continued, unaware of the games being played in front of his very eyes.

"I see, I will keep this brief then. I believe you should postponed sending for huntsmen assistance."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because we have already employed two individuals capable of dealing with this."

"You mean those two con artists. The quicker they're out of here the better."

"Now Father, you were the one to hire them so surly you must have some confidence in their skills."

Jacques, probably the last person on Remnant who should be joked with, glowered. "I chose the best apples out of a bad basket. The sooner they "finish" their exorcism the better. I'll finally be able to put this media freak show behind me."

"While that is true, I would like to mention they do seem like competent fighters. I recently conversed with Mr. Arc and he mention that they killed a geist last night."

Jacques eyes widen in shock and Emerald's eyes narrowed. Jaune had kept their actions vague, specifically so he could avoid talking about the geist. Whitley was only guessing at the truth, yet he was passing it onto his father as fact, who currently looked like he had just been hit with a frying pan. "Are you telling me there was yet another grimm roaming around our home!" Jacques said rising from his desk.

"It is very strange. Almost magical one might say."

"Do not tell me you believe in these storybook fantasies?

"Of course not, Father, I'm just saying that if Jaune and Emerald already dealt with one geist, it should be no problem for them to take on a second one. This does fall under what you are paying them for correct?"

Jacques slowly lowered himself back into his chair, clasping his hands in front of him. "Yes, I suppose it does. In fact, this might actually be good for us. We could tell the media that these false haunting claims were nothing more than a runaway grimm. We could even shift the blame to Atlas academy if we need too. Demand to know why their huntsmen all letting grimm run wild. Shift the media's attention. Yes, this could cure a lot of headaches at once."

"I'm glad to hear it, Father," Whitley turned right towards Emerald, "and I'm sure others are pleased as well."

The two had a brief stare down until Emerald finally had to say something, "why are you helping us?"

Jaune looked everywhere for the Schnee mother. He had never seen her before and it seemed impossible to find her now. Even when asking the servants, they would clamp their lips together like Jaune had spoken something taboo. It led to a very awkward situation where they would silently look at him until he decided to move on.

Jaune was beginning to think he was chasing after a ghost—and not the kind of ghost he'd been hired to chase. Actually, it wasn't impossible Willow Schnee was dead and it was her ghost causing all this. Jaune's palms started to sweat. If that was the case he didn't know what he was going to do. He really wished someone would tell him if the woman was at least alive.

Thankfully, the worst-case scenario was avoided when Jaune finally found a white-haired pale-skinned woman sitting in the garden. The Atlas weather didn't allow for garden so it was really just an enclosed room, more like a greenhouse, with many flower beds scattered about. The place did feel calming, though, a splash of green in the house of white and blue. Mrs. Schnee was sitting in the middle of it all, at a metal table, with her back to Jaune.

"Hello, Mrs. Schnee," Jaune announced not wanting to accidentally sneak up on the woman. She didn't respond despite Jaune knowing he had said it loud enough for her to hear. He said it again, louder this time, just in case but still no response.

Panic griped Jaune as the thoughts of worst-case scenario were brought back to his mind, except this might be worse. What if they thought he killed her? He quickly ran over to the Schnee matriarch, his shoes roughly hitting the cobblestone path. He was only a couple feet away when the woman finally spoke up.

"Whitley, can you please not play so loudly. I'm going to get a headache." Her voice was so soft and fragile sounding more like a grandmother than a mother.

"Umm, I'm not your son. My name's Jaune, Jaune Arc." He moved to her front to give a proper introduction and noticed all the bottles filled with alcohol sitting on the table with even more empty ones laying around. Willow had a glass to her lips at the very moment and downed it the moment she saw him. Honestly, he was a little offended by that.

Willow took the time to pour herself another drink before responding to Jaune. "Sorry James, my age is getting to me."

"It's Jaune," he corrected, feeling like her age had nothing to do with it.

"Sorry, why don't you take a seat and we can talk." There actually was no other seat, so Jaune remained standing. This woman obviously didn't expect much company.

"I'd prefer to stand if you don't mind." She didn't seem to hear him as she was busy sucking down a couple more ounces. "Do you know who I am?" Jaune asked.

Willows tired eyes slowly explored his body and face. "Are you Winter's boyfriend?"

Jaune sighed. "No, I'm not." Willow tried to take another sip but her hand was shacking so bad at this point that she was having trouble getting the glass to her lips. Jaune couldn't take it anymore a gently grabbed her arm and removed the glass from her hand. She watched it go, longingly. Just want had happened to this woman?

With the glass out of her reach, she made eye contact with Jaune for the first time. "Mrs. Schnee," he said, "I've been hired to deal with mysterious incidents that have been affecting your home. Do you know what I'm talking about?"

For a terrible moment he thought she wouldn't, but eventually she nodded her head. "Yes, I see, so you're the caretaker."

"How do you know about that title?" Jaune hadn't really thought about how much he would actually get out of Mrs. Schnee but this was certainly beyond his expectations. "Are you a caretaker?"

Willow rested her elbow on the table and placed her head in in palm causing her white hair to nestle over her eye. She must have been an unbelievably beautiful woman at one point, Jaune thought, but that was no longer. "No, I'm not. I barley even know what that word means. All I know is the stories dad told me. Stories I guessed I passed onto my children." Willow's eyes drifted towards the bottles of alcohol. "They used to love them, but kids get old and stop believing in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and fantastical caretakers. My condition," she gestured to all the empty wine bottles, "hardly helped sell the truth. Sometimes I wonder if anything my dad told me was real, or if I just imagined them."

"It's real," Jaune said feeling the need to at least confirm it for the poor woman, "I've seen it."

"But what about those who haven't. Winter and Weiss left me even before they departed physically, and my husband never put up with it." She raised her hand to her cheek like she had just been slapped. "Stop filling their heads with nonsenses, he'd tell me."

"Whitley believes, or at least he's trying to believe."

"Oum bless him, my son, so misunderstood. Why is he such a good boy when I've been such a bad mother? He still comes to see me you know, asking to hear my stories. I was afraid he was just humoring me."

"He's not. We don't really know each other, but I know that for a fact. Also, you may have gotten through to you husband, at least a little. He did send out that request for my help."

Willow tilted her head and although it was subtle Jaune could see she had little more fire in her eyes. "I'm really grateful you're here, Jaune Arc. I might be broken beyond repair but my children aren't. Even if I'm unable to do anything else, I want to make sure they don't end up like me. My daughters already flew the nest. Whitley is the only one left. He just needs a little push. A reason to believe, so thank you once again for coming, Jaune Arc."

Jaune was a little scared. It felt like he had just fallen hook, line and sinker into some kind of SDC conspiracy, the exact thing Emerald told him not to do. "Would you mind telling me what you're talking about."

For the first time since the conversation had begun, Willow smiled. "I might be a drunk, but I'm still the wife of one of the most powerful men in the world. I still have my place in this company. Jacques didn't release that request, I did."

Excerpt from Nicholas Schnee's very unofficial biography

In the beginning, Nicholas Schnee ventured the world in search of dust, crossing unknown territories and clawing into the depths of Remnant, but living a life like that it was inventible that he would find something more. Nicholas, always the person to dive head first into new knowledge and discovery, didn't let this few strange discoveries slide. Soon enough the SDC was doing a little more than just dust mining. It was just a little more secretive. Nicholas found and surrounded himself with like-minded individuals both veterans of the craft, who were excited to join a man who had access to many more resource then they were used to, and amateurs, who what they lacked in initial skill made up for with their drive and ambition.

The Schnee sect, as it became known, was the largest and most organized group of caretakers in modern time, and as the SDC itself became more self-sufficient Nicholas was able to devote more time to the group. Expeditions taken exclusively by the Schnee sect became more common, disguised as failed attempts to find new dust sources, but failures they were not. The Schnee sect amassed many artifacts and gathered vast amounts of knowledge, the group was even in possession of three original manuals. The group grew so powerful that there were those that believed the caretakers would finally create a permanent institution.

But all good things must come to an end.

There was no one incident that lead to the Schnee sect's disbandment, strife between members being common in all organization but especially severe between caretakers with different ideals. There were, however, key incidents that strained the group. The disastrous exploration of Cryphilictal, the Heluo incident that nearly ended the sect right there, and some think that maybe it did considering the Schnee sect was only a shell of its former self after all was said and done. But, the true end to the Schnee sect came with the discovery of the slumbering beast.

Whatever it truly was and is isn't clear, not even to the people who discovered the information, but the simple story is that somewhere unground lies a beast, perhaps it's a demon or a god's pet, it doesn't really matter. The important part is that it was definitely powerful and possibly dangerous. That "possibly dangerous" part was what split the sect. Some wanted to try and uncover the beast, what was a little more risk compared to what they were already doing, while others thought it best to leave the thing alone since its release would affect not just them, but possibly the world. Nicholas was in the latter camp, and since the SDC were the only ones who could fit the bill and provide the manpower for such a large project his word was final, but the discussion never ended. People left because of the decision and those that remained couldn't let the issue drop. Eventually Nicholas had enough. He was old, worn out and weakened from his adventures, he retried only occasionally making connects with his former life, and never doing anything other than having discussions about new discoveries or participating in small talk with his friends. The Schnee sect remained for a little while afterwards, but having lost their leader and many of the reasons to stay together the sect dissolved completely.

Here's the thing though, the SDC is still digging, and even if everyone has forgotten about the slumbering beast it doesn't mean it isn't still out there. One day a poor miner might unearth the wrong piece of dirt.

An: I hope you all like how I'm portraying Whitley. I don't expect it to be perfect to cannon, and with the group heading to Atlas in the show who knows what kind of development he'll get, but I'm portraying him how I see him and what fits well with the story.

As for RWBY canon in general as many of you know the show is back on and there have been many lore reveals. This is an alternate universe story but I do like to stay close to cannon in most aspect besides the obvious ones I have made exclusively for the story. As for now nothing presented in cannon has changed the way the main story is going (my little ends stores have been a little messed up like my version of how the faunus came to be but quite honestly that could be a story set while Ozpin was sill dead, and it not like I thought that would be the canon explanation anyways) but if cannon does conflict with the story in some way I'll probably have to make an author's note discussing what I'll do. It will have to be on a case by case basis. Currently there's only really one thing I can think of that would really throw this story completely off, but it's a pretty big question in RWBY so it wouldn't surprise me if it was revealed this season. From that alone you might be able to guess what it is, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Until next time.