Weiss Schnee

Before her peaceful day was interrupted, Weiss had been standing in front of her bed, practicing her singing. The months since the fall of Beacon had brought her to a low point, emotionally. The days she'd spent there had been the happiest she'd ever known, but more than that, the school itself had come to stand as a physical representation of the direction she wanted for her life. While she was there, her dreams of walking her own path, bringing good to the world, and repairing the image of her family name felt tangible and within reach. Thus, its destruction had crushed her, almost as much as the loss of a dear friend, and her powerlessness to save so many lives.

Just a few months earlier she had friends, she had purpose, and she felt free. Now, she was back at home. Her team was scattered, and here she was, preparing to sing despite feeling like crying. Playing the part of the obedient daughter. The contrast hung on her heart, tainting the happy melody she was rehearsing with a sorrowful undertone. Her mind felt like such a quagmire of negative emotions she wouldn't be surprised if every Grimm in the country could sense her.

It was at that moment it'd happened. She felt her Semblance trigger itself, unbidden. There was an explosion of energy that coated her room with icy mist, and within that mist… HE had appeared. In a way she found it darkly amusing: Having her own power activate without her consent and summon an enemy beside her was such a perfect representation of her life these days.

Once she'd registered what was happening (and recognized who she was staring at) a deep, frustrated rage filled her heart. She hadn't seen him that day, but she'd heard about it from Ruby. She knew he was one of them. The people who stole her happiness from her. The pain of that loss, ever in the background of her thoughts, was forced to the fore of her mind. Whether he deserved this rage was beside the point. He represented the forces that destroyed Beacon. The forces that killed Pyrrha. The opportunity to strike out against those forces, and to hurt them even just a fraction as much as they had hurt her, was more than she could resist in the moment.

"You!" She roared furiously, shimmering glyphs beginning to form around her as she lunged toward him, and a second thunderous explosion of icy energy erupted throughout the room. Her left hand instinctively reached for the hilt of Myrtenaster, despite knowing it wasn't there. She hadn't been prepared for a battle in her own room, and was armored in nothing more than a dark blue nightgown… but even this didn't stop her from charging forward. He remained in place, arms raised submissively, speaking to her, though she ignored the words. She could never forgive him.

She closed the distance between them in an instant, raising a hand to strike him. He made no move to defend himself, instead closing his eyes and bracing for impact as her fist reached his jaw… and passed through him, as if he were made of smoke. The energy she'd put into propelling herself forward hadn't accounted for the lack of contact, and before she could correct her course she flew right through him and across the room, crashing into her dresser vanity with a loud thud.

Why is this happening? Why is he here? The first thoughts began to pierce her rage as she shakily returned to her feet.

"Listen, I get it. I deserved that. Um.. but for the record, that was all you. I didn't do anything. Like I said, I come in peace."

His words reached her, and she felt herself calming a bit. Still, something about that slick, condescending tone of his struck a nerve in her.

"You don't 'get' anything, you cretin. If you did, you never would have shown your face to me after… after everything. What did you do to my Semblance?" Her tiny body shook with the fury that had propelled her. Roman brought one of his hands down to the back of his neck and massaged it uncomfortably.

"Now we're getting somewhere. I'll happily tell you everything! Just give me-" He began, but the sound of panicked knocking at her bedroom door cut him off. The redhead groaned in frustration and rolled his eyes, but went silent.

"Ms. Schnee!? Ms. Schnee!? What was that noise? Forgive my impropriety, but I'm coming in." The voice belonged to an older man. There was a clicking sound as a key was pushed into the lock, followed by a creak as he pushed through the door.

Klein was a portly fellow, and he waddled a bit as he rushed into the room, his lips turned downward in concern and his bald head glistening in the light refracted from ice crystals still hanging in the air. He swiveled his body as he looked about the room, the concern on his face gradually melting into horror at the signs of battle all around. After a moment, he finally muttered a soft "What on earth happened here…?"

His presence helped to calm her further. The family butler had arguably been more of a paternal figure to her than her actual father. Now that the rush of repressed, directionless anger was starting to lose ground to reason, she found herself processing the situation more clearly. She wasn't sure how he did it, but Roman Torchwick had hijacked her Semblance and slipped into the Schnee family manor. She wanted answers, but she could wait until Ironwood had him back where he belonged: in a cell.

"Klein! Call the guards; we have an intruder! Have this man placed under arrest." She pointed to Torchwick as she spoke, who only offered a beleaguered sigh in protest. At her words, the old butler's eyes grew wider, shifting their color to red as he cast his gaze in the direction she indicated.

"An intruder? Heavens! Where is he!? How in the world did he slip this deep into the manor?" He stalked toward Torchwick, but, like Weiss before, traveled through him as he scanned the room for the intruder.

"Hehe, it kinda tickles, y'know? Still wish you guys would stop doing it." Said Torchwick, with a bored yawn. Weiss frowned slightly, confused.

"Klein, did… Did you not hear that?" She asked as he continued to scour the room, dropping down on his knees to check under the bed. Could Klein not see or hear him?

"Hear?" responded Klein, groaning as he labored himself back up from the floor. "I heard you scream. Then I heard some kind of explosion, and- Oh!" He interrupted himself with a horrified moan, and for just a moment Weiss had hope that he noticed Torchwick, but instead his eyes fell behind her, toward the vanity she'd crashed into earlier. She had slammed into it at quite a high speed, and the white wooden desk was bowed in the center, with the great mirror beyond it shattered into fragments. "I hadn't realized you'd been attacked so fiercely, Ms. Schnee! Did the intruder escape the room?"

Weiss' heart sank. Was she being haunted by a ghost? Had despair driven her mad? She didn't think so on that last point, but she felt like it was a conclusion any outsider would draw if she tried to explain it. Perhaps Winter would understand, but Klein? He certainly wouldn't think she was lying to him, but would he have faith in her senses when even she was doubting them? She weighed her options for a moment before sighing and lowering her head.

"I...lied about the intruder. I'm sorry Klein." She offered after a moment of silence. She took a few steps to the side and gestured toward the shattered mirror. "I've been… frustrated, of late, and-"

"Ah." The old man replied, his eyes shifting from red to blue and his voice softening as he frowned. "I understand, Ms. Schnee. The pressure that's been placed on you since your return would be enough to annoy anyone! Venting our negative emotions can be a good way to deal with them before they get dangerous." It was clear that finding out there was no intruder had lifted a great weight of concern from the old butler, though it was replaced with a sad resignation in his voice as he headed toward the door. It was an emotion she was used to inspiring in him, given his powerless role as a servant and her… 'fraught' relationship with her father.

He walked toward the door and opened it once again, turning back to look at Weiss one last time.

"Forgive me for intruding upon your private space so frivolously. Fear not, though." He jerked his thumb in the direction of the destroyed furniture and chuckled gently "Tomorrow I'll make sure we get this whole mess sorted out long before the old blowhard becomes wise to it, eh?"

"It's quite alright, Klein, thank you for your concern, and for always looking out for me." She lowered her head further, out of regret for lying to him as well as feeling bad for the extra work she'd created for the help staff during her outburst. The old man simply nodded and gave her a reassuring smile before stepping back into the hall and closing the door.

Silence fell in the room as the sound of the old butler's footfalls grew more distant. Weiss looked at Torchwick, who looked right back at her. He had a neutral expression on his face, which was quite the counterpoint to the deep frown she was wearing, but it seemed like both were trying to give the other a chance to speak first.

The situation confused her, and that confusion added to the sense of powerlessness that had haunted her ever since she fell back into her father's clutches. It was a sensation she'd know her whole life, and one she was sick of. Hadn't she broken out the first time to prove she could help others? That she wasn't a powerless doll to be ordered around?

Venting our negative emotions can be a good way to deal with them before they get dangerous… It was true she felt a strange peace now. Impotent though her attack had been, being allowed to personify the attack on Beacon, and in some way strike back at it, had given her a bit of closure. She hated this man, but she did have to concede this much.

"Five minutes." Weiss was the first to break the silence; her voice as cold as the ice surrounding them. "You have five minutes to tell me why you're here." A grin spread across Torchwick's face at her command, and he obliged her.

The story he spun was not one she expected. Tales of death, and of endless stairways where devoured people travel ever upward to an unknown fate. Finding out that her family's Semblance was somehow connected to this space, and that he'd used that connection to return to the living world. She listened in silence, her frown never softening.

"That's about the size of it. I'm a hundred percent at your mercy, Snowflake." Torchwick finished sullenly.

Weiss cut her eyes at him. What a sick joke, all this was. How many hundreds...No, how many thousands of innocent people had died that day? People just living their lives until some sinister force decided to stage an attack on their homes? How many hunters-in-training risked and gave their lives trying to defend those innocent people? Yet all of them remained dead, and this guy got to crawl back? It was disgusting. If the gods saw fit to finally let a person come back from the other side of death, why not someone more deserving? Why not Pyrrha?

"Mercy? And just why should I show you mercy? Literally the last thing you tried to do was kill one of my best friends. No, worse than that! You tried to kill one of my best friends while also acting to destroy an entire city. From where I stand, you're the lowest of the low. I don't know what this staircase you mentioned is all about, if you're even telling me the truth, but whatever it is, it's better than you deserve." She tried to keep her tone formal and polite, divorcing emotion from business as she'd often seen her sister do, but a bit of her seething contempt still found its way to the edges of her voice as she condemned him. This was how she earnestly felt, and she was tempted to simply sever their connection now and be done with it, but some part of her held back.

The cocky smirk vanished from Torchwick's face, and the easy confidence he seemed to always display cracked a bit. She expected him to dodge her gaze as she presented his crimes, but to her surprise he maintained their eye contact; his emerald gaze only narrowing slightly as he finally spoke in his defense.

"It really is funny that I would end up tethered to you, of all people. Only Little Red would have been worse." He began with a bemused laugh. "Listen, Snowflake, I'm not gonna apologize for what happened. It would be patronizing if I did. My life hasn't been a noble one. I've lied, cheated, and stolen. I've plotted and schemed, and the world has probably been a worse place for hosting me all these years. I didn't attack Beacon because I wanted to, but I did attack it, and the truth of that ain't something I can undo. Most of the blame lies on the Witch and her brats, but I'll accept my share! You'd be enacting justice to send me back to death.

"Here's the thing, though… I know you have no reason to believe me here, but listen: There's something bigger at play than justice for a small-time crook who got in over his head. I feel like, by escaping from that place, I got a glimpse of something really bad for the world. Something everyone has been missing for a long time. It's just a hunch, but I feel like- if you cut me off and send me back there- you'll be closing the door on the last chance to save a lot of people from something much bigger than an army of Grimm marching on a school.

"You're a hunter, right? You really gonna turn your back on a danger like that? Look, I can't change the past, but we can change the future. Let's work together while we're stuck together. You have all the power here, so if you ever feel like I'm being shady you can just cut me off! In the meantime, while we're a team, I swear to do all I can to be of use to you. What's a thief without his honor, right?"

Hmm… It was true that she couldn't quite bring herself to doubt his claims, outlandish though they were. He mentioned a dog telling him about a rebel who controlled the Grimm, and some unseen 'Master' who used them in some other way. Whether he was as necessary for stopping whatever scheme these forces had as he claimed was a separate matter, though. All she knew about him was that he was a criminal, and a ruthless one at that. Could she really bring herself to trust him?

"I'm going to ask you one last question. Answer it honestly, because this is what decides whether I trust you or not. Understood?" She said, settling herself. She began to walk around him slowly, her eyes narrowed as if to peer past his placid, confident shell and spy his true thoughts.

"Hey, if I'm lyin' I'm dyin'! Literally, in this case." He turned his head to keep his gaze on hers as best he could while she moved, a smile threatening to tug at his lips.

"You probably don't care, but I lost a lot of things I cared about recently. Irreplaceable things." Weiss could hear her voice break, despite her face wearing a reasonably convincing mask of stoicism. She cast her eyes downward thoughtfully. This was a question she'd found herself asking a lot, ever since that day: "Maybe you weren't the mastermind behind it, but you helped her do it. So, if you want me to trust you, then tell me: Why? Why did Beacon have to fall? Why did so many people need to die?"

The older man was silent for a moment, reaching a hand up to comb his bangs to the side as his developing smile shriveled into a frown instead. It was, perhaps, the most honest expression she had ever seen him wear, though in fairness they had only ever crossed paths under the worst of circumstances. The silence that hung between them was weirdly comforting to her… at the very least, allowing herself to sit in silence was more comfortable than singing in emotions she didn't feel.

"I didn't have the luxury of being overburdened with information about the grand scheme, myself. If you want the details of that, your question should be aimed at the Witch." He began. The words themselves contained the same bravado he always carried, but something about his delivery was different. There was a wistful regret in his tone. "But if you want to know why I cooperated with them, that's easy to answer: I didn't wanna die. That's all."

"That's it!?" She repeated, half surprised and half exasperated. She could feel her stomach twisting into knots as waves of sorrow and anger washed over her in equal measure.

"Have you ever felt trapped, Snowflake? Forced into a situation you hate because someone decided they wanted you to be a part of it? Someone so powerful you didn't get the option of refusing? I'm a thug. It's what I do, and I'm damned good at it. I'm not some sort of high-minded terrorist with dreams of changing the world. That Witch, though? Believe me... She's got friends in dark places. The second she decided I was gonna be a part of her scheme, that was the end of the discussion. If I'd refused to cooperate, I'd have been very brave and noble, and I'd have died very quickly… then some other stooge would have gotten dragged in instead, and nothing would have changed."

"It wasn't some other stooge, though. It was you. Don't pretend you're innocent in all this."

"Innocent? There ain't an innocent adult left in all the world. Most of the children are pretty rotten too. Especially the children, come to think of it…. Little bastards, every one. I'll get sidetracked fast if I think on that too long, though, so let's refocus: I've got blood on my hands, for sure- uh, so do you, by the way- and I paid for it. I literally paid with my life. I can help you stop the mastermind behind that attack, though. I'm in no position to be asking for a favor, but give me the chance to redeem myself! You may find it hard to believe, but I lost something precious and irreplaceable to me that night, too." He finally broke eye contact as he almost whispered that final sentence. Weiss thought for just a moment she saw sadness on his face.

She scowled at him, all the same, his disposition already exhausting her. Deep down she wanted to send him away. It could hardly be argued that it was what he deserved, and he was right: she didn't owe him anything. So then, why didn't she? She felt something nagging at her.

His story about the stairway? No, that wasn't it. It was alarming, to be sure, but too far-fetched for her to simply accept on faith alone.

Rather, there was some fundamental thing about his position that resonated with her.

Have you ever felt trapped, Snowflake?

She closed her eyes and exhaled sharply. 'Trapped' was the word she would use to describe her entire life. Forced to bend and contort herself for the happiness of a man whom she couldn't quite believe possessed a single shred of affection for her. Her friends always supported and empathized with her struggles, for which she was eternally grateful, but some part of her had always envied their freedom. Their family situations weren't perfect, either, but they'd known unconditional love, and could take for granted that they could live their lives however they wished.

Reopening her eyes, she looked down at her uninvited guest. He had shifted his body: now sitting cross-legged on the floor with his arms on his knees and his face pointed downward, obscuring his eyes beneath the curve of his bangs. He looked less like a criminal mastermind right now and more like a mischievous child waiting for his mother's inevitable punishment when he got back home.

Back home... Perhaps it was because she was here. Because she felt so isolated and helpless, so desperate for someone to end her loneliness that even this man's presence was welcome to her. Fate of the world aside, perhaps she felt tempted to give him mercy because- for just a moment- she felt like he could understand her.

"If you give me cause to believe you're plotting anything, I'll cut you off immediately." She finally spoke, her tone still firm, but not quite as icy as it had been earlier. "Likewise, if I catch you invading my privacy in an ungentlemanly way… well, by the time I send you back to that stairway of yours you'll be begging for death."

"Woof! Scary. Well, much as I love scary women, perish the thought, snowflake. I'll be on such good behavior they'll want to consider me for the clergy." He looked up at her, incapable of suppressing a broad smile of relief. Normally she found his grinning face infuriating, but there was such genuine warmth in his expression now that she even felt a small smile of her own breaking out. He was a reasonably handsome guy, Weiss caught herself thinking. Not to her personal taste, but at the very least she had to concede that his bravado and apparent love of his own voice had their own kind of appeal when he wasn't busy committing war crimes.

"If I'm to tolerate your presence, I expect no less. I'll need to discuss this with my sister the next time I see her, though. I wonder if any of her summons have ever behaved like this?" The reality of the fact that she was talking to a ghost was starting to dawn on her. This should have felt like the weirdest thing to ever happen in her life, but something about it seemed so weirdly normal after the year she'd had.

"Winter Schnee, huh?" He mused in reply, sarcasm heavy in his voice. "We're great friends. I'm sure she'll give me a ringing endorsement."

"Well, this is the best deal you're going to get. Don't forget you're a criminal! Frankly, if I had to keep you a secret all to myself, I feel like you'd drive me insane."

"As harsh as you are scary! My body may be ghostly, but my feelings aren't! Well, you're already doing me a solid here, so I guess I can't complain. I look forward to working with you, Snowflake."

It was a strange covenant they'd formed. They exchanged barbs for a while longer before Weiss forced him to stand in the hall while she collapsed into her bed; her drained body finally succumbing to the exhaustion that had begun to sink into her long before his intrusion

As she lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, she felt the twisted knot of thoughts and feelings in her core finally begin to unravel one by one. Despite herself, she felt a little lighter now. A bit more relaxed.

This had been the first thing to happen in her life since her return home that she'd been allowed to make a choice about… and that, coupled with finally having a companion again- not a companion she'd ever in a century have chosen for herself, but a companion, all the same- felt so freeing.

For just a moment before she finally fell asleep, she felt the way she had back at Beacon. She felt free.

Author's note: So, one of the reviews last week pointed out that I'd forgotten the one actual interaction Torchwick and Weiss had in the early series… and they were right! I'm not sure how I forgot it, either! That was the fight scene where they did the team attacks with the ship names, if I recall correctly… so it was one of the best fight scenes of the Monty Oum era.

It's not a huge plot point for this work, so its effect on events going forward is negligible, but I figured I may as well acknowledge that. Mea Culpa.