Here's chapter 9, everyone.
"If you wish to know more about what this branch of our company can do, then I suggest you pay close attention. Not many investors tend to care what goes on in Vacuo, but it is still a savage land where our resources prove to be useful enough to make a profit." Jacques noticed his son was staring off to the side. "Whitley!" He shouted, making him straighten up in his seat. "Repeat for me what I just said, young man."
Whitley was about to, but a shout from outside made his father look over. His head shake was clearly one of disgust as he walked over and was about to close the shades, but stopped when he realized that was where his son was staring at.
"So that's what you were looking at." Jacques turned and held his arms behind his back. "Let me tell you this, son. Don't waste your time worrying about that… Mongrel." Whitley's eyes widened. "She enjoys wasting her time in such a useless career choice, then let her, but you," He walked up to him and placed his hand on his shoulder. "You, my dear son will be the future of our company."
Even though he wasn't fond of what he said about his sister, Whitley nodded. "Of course, father."
Jacques grinned at how well he had groomed his son and went back to explaining the business to him. "Now then, as I was saying,"
Outside in the courtyard, Weiss was jabbing at the practice dummies, her movement seemed like she was dancing while battling. With her rapier form of Myrtenaster, she felt it was best to not slash with it, so pinpoint jabs were her main focus.
"Vital points where the jabs can do the most damage. You can do this."
Klein was keeping watch over her, as he proudly watched her different fighting style she used when she wasn't using her wolf form. Weiss yelled out as she jumped over one of the dummies, quickly spinning to jab at its back, hitting directly at the base of where the spine would be.
Even though she wasn't using her wolf form, the fierceness in her attacks were still present, even making Klein jump a little when she would jab her rapier through the dummies.
"Mother always told me to keep on chasing my dreams. I can't do that if I flip the off switch."
She remembered the fan in her room and took a deep breath as she held two fingers up and slid them on her blade, coating it in fire as she decided that swinging would be the right course of action. Once she swung her blade, a streak of fire shot out horizontally and hit about four of the training dummies, making Weiss smirk in success.
"Be careful with the dust, snowflake. You know how your mother feels about the grass burning up." Klein called out, making Weiss yelp as she quickly swapped over to wind dust and blew away any flames that were still present after her attack.
Klein chuckled as he watched her fumbling her rapier around when the wind dust made her almost drop it.
"You feeling any better?" Raven asked Willow as she looked down at the Schnee woman. At the moment she was laid down in Summer's bed, rolling her eyes at Raven. "I'll take that as a yes."
"I wouldn't be like this if you and Summer would just talk things out instead of being so dramatic." Willow groaned and sat up, rubbing the back of her head. "I honestly didn't think one glyph would be that taxing on me."
Raven helped her out of bed and shrugged. "When you have little to no training, yeah, it'll do that to you." Once Willow was on her feet, she lowered her arms to her sides. "You know it's not hard to ask for a little bit of training help."
Willow shook her head. "No, I'm not a fighter like you, and besides, if I can't even make one glyph without almost falling over at this age, what point would there even be to train?"
"Protection. Strength. Growing a damn backbone." Raven listed off, making the white haired woman scowl in return. "I'm not talking about him, smartass."
"You literally said grow a backbone. Who else could you be talking about?" Willow asked, still clearly annoyed with the huntress.
Raven rolled her eyes. "I'm talking about you as a person, idiot. Seriously, you make your comments here and there, but you can never really back it up. So why not learn a bit about your semblance?"
"Because I… I don't need to. My children are strong on their own, so they don't need-." Willow gasped when Raven grabbed both of her shoulders and sat her down on the bed. "W-What is the meaning of-."
"One, shut it. Two, I literally just said to train for you, idiot." Being called idiot multiple times was starting to annoy Willow, but Raven continued. "Your kids can be the strongest people in the world, but that doesn't stop you from being so damn weak, that even using one glyph almost knocks you out."
"We already discussed-." Willow was cut off again.
"I know about the White Fang, Willow. I know they target your family more so than others, and it's all because of him, so if you think just because your kids are strong, they won't have issues with the White Fang, you're wrong." Raven stated, confusing Willow.
"W-What are you talking about?" The white haired woman questioned.
"Say they go after you. Say you're by yourself, then that's it, Willow. You won't be able to protect yourself, and your kids… Your kids will be devastated." Raven explained.
Willow never thought about that, as she only ever cared about her own children's well being. "T-The White Fang don't tend to target us directly like that. So-."
"Look, damn it…" Raven held her breath for a moment, wanting to calm down. "A few years ago, I wanna say about three now," She sighed. "I got a call from my brother about Tai. He was injured in a hunt, and… And I remember going to see him. I couldn't walk in though…" Willow stayed silent, remembering how Summer was crying over the scroll when she was told about that. "But what I did do was look through the window of his room." She bit her lip. "I saw Yang. She was… Crying as she looked at her unconscious father."
"Raven, stop… I understand okay." Willow wanted to save her the pain of reliving the event.
"No, you need to hear this." Raven stated and continued her story. "I almost bolted out of that hospital, but when Summer caught me in the hallway, she begged me to go inside," Raven closed her eyes for just a moment and spoke. "So I did." When she opened her eyes, she let out what Willow felt was an anomaly to see. She smiled. "When I did, Yang saw me and ran to me. She hugged me tight and cried." Raven sat next to Willow. "I'm a shitty mother, Willow. I admit that, and yes… I realize I'm selfish too, but there are a few things I can at least understand. A kid needs their parent, no matter how old they get. So when Yang almost lost her dad, I had to step up."
Willow was truly shocked by that. "I had no idea…"
"I told Summer not to mention it to anyone since, well, she's Yang's mom. She raised her, but," Raven sighed. "It doesn't mean I shouldn't be there at least once in a while, so take what I said to heart. Your kids, they don't have a good father. Hell… He may be a worse parent than me, so you need to keep yourself going. For them, and yourself."
The way she spoke, it was unbelievable to Willow, but it also made her respect Raven more. "I can see why Summer still wants to spend time with you." She let out a small smile, while Raven rolled her eyes and stood up.
"Uh huh. Get your little session of teasing out of the way before I change my attitude." Raven said as Willow got up and chuckled.
"I think I'll save it for another time," Willow held her hand out to Raven. "Thank you."
Raven hesitated for just a moment, but she shook her hand anyways. "Don't get used to this. I still stand by a motto on how the strong survive and the weak die. I'm just trying to keep you on the right side of that motto is all."
Willow knew that was how Raven spoke, so she thought nothing of it and simply nodded as they let go of each other's hands. "Well then I'll have to start taking that advice… Maybe one of you can help me."
"Hmm. Maybe. We'll see." With that, Raven turned around and walked to the door. Willow followed close behind and the two women walked down the stairs to see Summer snoozing on her table. "Ugh, of course she's sleeping on the damn job."
"Can you blame her? She has been here since yesterday and from what I've seen, she's done a lot with just one day." Willow defended.
Raven crossed her arms and walked over, not caring about the excuses as she kneed Summer in the leg. "Wake up." When she heard Summer groan, she kneed her again, this time a little harder, so the blacksmith yelped and almost fell out of her chair.
"Ow! Who the heck-?" She stopped when she looked up at saw Raven glaring down at her. "What was that for?!" She whined, earning an eye roll from the dark haired huntress.
"Sleeping on the job when it was you who set this whole thing up." Raven argued, and Willow chuckled as she watched the two go back and forth at each other.
"Yang, come on already! I wanna talk to Weiss and you're seriously boring me with this." Ruby said as her sister was trying to help her train without Crescent Rose. "I'm no good at this like you, so just-."
"Sis, I know you don't like it, but sometimes you gotta learn how to fight like this. You won't always have a weapon with you in a fight." Yang reasoned as the two sisters were outside their house, with Tai keeping a watch over them.
Ruby sighed. "Easy for you to say with how you fight with shotgun gauntlets."
"Okay, I'll give you that one. It's hard for me not to have them, but still. I worry about you and what could happen if your scythe gets knocked away from you. Don't you want a fall back plan?" Yang questioned.
"I-I guess, but I really just wanna relax and talk to Weiss. She hasn't been feeling well for a week. You saw her in our last video call." Ruby reminded, making the blonde frown as she did see Weiss' face and heard how she sounded that day.
"You have a point… Okay, fine. We can call it here for today, but tomorrow we're gonna try this again." Yang said, earning a groan from her sister as the two walked to their front door. "Get the call going. I'm gonna grab a water bottle."
Tai opened the door for them and patted Ruby on the back. "Try not to let this kind of training get you down."
Ruby grumbled a bit. "Okay already." She didn't want to have that conversation and walked a little faster as she quickly ran up the stairs, wanting to call Weiss.
Yang sighed at seeing how she reacted. "Maybe I should lay off."
"Ruby likes to fight her own way, Yang, but that doesn't mean you can't try to help out in your own way too. Just try and respect when she wants to train or not." Tai suggested as he walked passed her and into the kitchen to get some lunch made for his daughters.
The blonde thought about her dad's words and went to go get her water bottle.
Ruby on the other hand picked her scroll up from her desk and quickly swiped through her contact list till she got to Weiss' name. She smiled and pressed her finger on the name, waiting on her friend to answer.
After a few moments, Ruby was greeted by the sight of her white haired friend. "Hello, Ruby."
"Hey, Weiss! Oh, you're outside." Ruby noted, seeing that the white haired girl was sitting at one of the tables in the courtyard.
"Very observant of you, Ruby. Yes I'm outside. I decided to do a bit of training before our move to Beacon." Weiss explained.
"Same, but I didn't really enjoy my training. Yang tried to make me fight her hand to hand again when she knows she'll easily kick my butt." Ruby pouted, earning a chuckle from her white haired friend.
"Well yes, but it wouldn't be so bad to know some of that kind of fighting. Though I shouldn't talk, I'm just as bad if not worse than you at that." Weiss admitted.
"Yeah, but you don't have a sister who will make you train that way even if you don't want to." Ruby stated.
"No, but I do have a sister that is in the military as an Atlas Specialist. Strict training is in her blood, so try not to forget that, Ruby Rose." Weiss said with a grin.
Seeing her grin was a relief for Ruby. "Right… Well, I'm glad you're feeling better, Weiss."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Weiss questioned.
"You've just been a little… Down recently." Ruby explained as Yang walked in. "Oh, Yang just walked in." Ruby motioned for her sister to come over.
Yang got into frame for Weiss and waved at her. "Hey, ice wolf. Feeling any better?"
"W-Why do you two keep saying I wasn't feeling okay? And ice wolf?" Weiss was a little nervous that they knew about her 'semblance', since she wanted to keep it as a surprise.
"Uh, well you got that wolf pendant thing and you like ice dust a lot, so I thought it was appropriate." Yang explained, and Weiss was relieved that was all it was. "Anyways, Ruby told me you haven't been feeling too great all week. Something up you aren't telling us?"
"A week, but…" Weiss realized what happened exactly one week ago, so she frowned as she managed to distract herself enough with training to have almost forgotten about it. "O-Oh, yes, I didn't know you two noticed anything."
"We're your friends, Weiss." Ruby spoke. "Of course we'd notice how you're feeling. So if something happened-."
"I got into a bit of an argument with my brother." Weiss answered her before she could finish asking, but left out what he said to her. "It's just bothered me all week and we haven't spoken since."
Ruby frowned in response. "Have you tried to?" When Weiss shook her head, it made Ruby feel bad for her friend. "Well, maybe if you try to talk to him now, you might feel better."
"I'm sorry, and I mean no offense, but you don't know my brother like I do, Ruby." Weiss stated.
Yang spoke up next. "No, we don't, but still, he's your brother, Weiss. He can't be mad at you forever."
"Sometimes I feel like that may actually be a possibility, Yang…" Weiss looked down, almost tearing up at the thought, but when she lifted her head back up and saw her friends' concerned face, she let out a small smile. "I'll be fine, you two. We're going to Beacon soon, and that itself makes me happy."
"Y-Yeah. It makes me happy too cause we'll get to see you every day." Ruby said as she let out a smile of her own. "But, if you wanna talk to us about something that's bothering you-."
"I know. Don't be afraid to call." Weiss' smile was still present. "Honestly, Ruby… I think this is something I have to deal with on my own."
"A-Are you sure?" Ruby asked in a worried tone.
Weiss nodded. "Yes, it is. So please try not to be so worried and start preparing for Beacon. We haven't talked about this for years just for you to slack off days beforehand. I will be livid about that, Ruby Rose."
Yang smirked and ruffled Ruby's hair. "Ya hear that, sis. Ice wolf ain't gonna tolerate you if you show up all mopey, so cheer up too."
Ruby pouted at the hair ruffling. "Ugh, no fair that you two team up on me."
Weiss giggled at that, but as she looked over at the window to her father's office, she knew there was going to be one more thing to do before she would leave for Beacon in the next few days.
Sorry about not posting the day before. The site was/is having issues and I couldn't get it to let me post, so hopefully it works on the day I'm posting this chapter. Anyways, how are people liking that Ruby and Yang already know Weiss at this point? I like working with that idea since it gives me more chances for backstory stuff later on.
To JJ- Both having Raven in, and having the interactions with Summer and Willow has been very fun to work with. I do have more parts later where they get serious, though Willow has already gotten pretty serious at times. And yeah, Weiss has a lot of support in this story. Just being able to have someone give her the advice that will help is the true question.
To the guest on chapter 8- Ha. If best mom was around, then she'd be happy to whip Raven in to shape on going to see her daughter. For now, she's just off screen, but I may be including her much later for ideas I have. We'll see.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 9. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 10.