The revelations about her teammates still weighed heavily on the Heiress's mind later that morning. So when the rest of her Team went to get breakfast, Weiss let them go ahead before she walked to the airships taking students from and to Vale.
The ride into the city seemed shorter than normal to the young Schnee, but that was most likely due to how deep in her thoughts she was the whole ride, trying to decide how to feel about the secrets her teammates had kept from her.
'I still can't believe I didn't notice Blake was a Faunus all this time. And what about Ruby? I mean just the idea sounds so ridiculous, but she was so sure of what she told us. And all those bony nubs on here arm were a little too accurate for a joke.'
Her thoughts were momentarily interrupted when the airship set down in Vale. While disembarking, Weiss pulled out her scroll to call up the Vale regional Headquarter of her father's company. To the Heiress' surprise, Yang suggestion to get another opinion seemed quite reasonable, but there was only one person not already involved Weiss could trust to keep their conversation secret.
But if she wanted to call her Sister she needed a CCT relay strong enough to reach Atlas. Now while she could have gone to either the CCT tower on Beacons Campus itself, or used the relay in the Academies Library to make the call, Weiss had decided against it so she wouldn't risk getting overheard by other students. For the same reason she was unwilling to use the public one located near the center of the city. Luckily for the Heiress' the SDC had private relay in each of their regional headquarters to help facilitate intercontinental cooperation between its branches.
The only downside to this was that if she used the company's assets there was no way of getting around talking to her father. Weiss had tried to find a better solution, at least when her thoughts weren't dominated by the truth about her teammates, but as she hadn't been able to find one, she was now calling the frontdesk of the Vale SDC headquarters.
"Greetings miss Schnee, what do I owe the pleasure of your call?", A young female voice sounded from her scroll once the call connected.
"As I have no obligations at Beacon today, I wanted to speak to my father about my progress. I would like to use one of your meeting rooms for the call to Atlas to preserve the privacy of what we will talk about.", Weiss answered, her displeasure about talking to her father evident on her face, which the secretary she was speaking with could not see.
"That should be easily possible, when will you arrive and should we inquire with your father's assistant for an optimal timeslot?"
"As I already am in Vale, it shouldn't take me more than 15 minutes to arrive. And yes if you could make sure I won't be interrupting any important business that would be appreciated.", the Heiress confirmed, already holding her free hand out to call a taxi.
"Should we prepare some refreshments for you?"
"Yes that would be nice."
"Then we will await your arrival."
With that the call was terminated, just before a taxi stopped for the white haired girl. As she entered the driver inquired her destination.
Roughly twenty minutes later the Heiress was sitting in a moderately sized meeting room, waiting for her father to call her, as had been agreed upon with his assistant. Taking deep breaths, Weiss prepared herself for the Conversation that would soon take place.
Finally the screen before her lit up with the incoming call from her father's office. As she accepted the call, the screen showed her father sitting in front of his desk, an unreadable expression on his face.
"Hello daughter. What is the reason for your call."
Putting up the best fake of a smile she could muster, Weiss responded.
"Greetings father, as I soon won't be able to spare much time in as I prepare for this semester's exams, I thought it an opportune moment to inform you about my progress at Beacon Academy."
"Well is that so?", he asked a slight hint of what Weiss took as doubt on his face, "Then what about the fact that a lowly Faunus is the leader of your team?"
"Well first and foremost it must be acknowledged that miss Rose graduated Signal at the age of 15, which tells alot about her talent and dedication. Furthermore, she managed to get rid of over twenty Beowulfs with a single strike during initiation. But even with those accomplishments and the fact that she was chosen to lead our team, I feel the need to point out that with all her talent for fighting, if I had not been tutoring her, she would probably be failing many of the more theoretical classes, to say nothing of her poor social skills."
While she took a short breath and sip from the glass of water standing next to her, her father inquired, "I think that is enough talk about that Faunus, how have you done so far?"
"I have been receiving only the best possible grades in any examination so far, be they theoretical or practical. And as a team we are currently the highest ranked freshmen, even eclipsing the four time Mistral champion Pyrrha Nikos and her team."
Hearing those words what appeared to be a smile graced her father's lips as he answered.
"Well then at least everything else is going as I expected of you. Anything else you want to inform me about?"
"No father, thank you for your time."
After that her father ended the call, Weiss let out a deep sigh of relief, before looking up the number of the base Winter was currently staying at before dialing it up and waiting for it to connect.
Soon it was picked up the screen revealing a communications officer in the standard issue white and black uniform of the Atlas military.
"Greetings madam, how can we help you?", he asked, surprisingly friendly.
"Hello, I wanted to talk to my sister, Winter Schnee, would that be possible?", Weiss asked, her whole posture more relaxed than when she had been talking with her father.
"Give me a moment to inquire if Specialist Schnee is available at the moment.", he replied before turning to a different monitor where he typed in a short inquire before he turned back towards Weiss.
"You are in luck, Specialist Schnee is currently off duty, I will forward your call to her terminal."
"Thank you."
True to his word the screen soon changed to display her sister sitting before her.
What Weiss had not expected was the rather casual attire her sister was currently wearing, seeing as she was only wearing a simple white shirt and the silver rose pendant she had inherited from their grandfather Eis.
"Hello Weiss, why did you call me?", she asked, a warm smile on her lips at the sight of her little sister.
"Winter there's something I need to talk about with someone, and you're the only one I trust not to tell anyone else.", Weiss explained, all the confusion she had pushed back to talk with her father crashing back over her.
Picking up on the confusion her sister's mimik seemed to practically scream, Winter's own expression turned from joyful to concerned. "Well what got you this worried?"
"Can you first promise me not to tell anyone please?"
"Of course. I Winter Schnee hereby promise not to disclose the matter you wish to discuss with me to any Human or Faunus, is that good enough for you sister?", During this, Winter had been holding her Pendant in her right hand, while the left was held up, palm facing towards the screen.
Taking a relieved breath after her sister's words Weiss spoke up. "That is more than enough. See I called because of some secrets my team mates revealed to my early this morning and I just don't know how to feel about them."
At those words, Winter leaned forward, unsure how to ease her sister's mind without the ability to touch her."Well I already promised not to tell anyone, so what disturbing things did they tell you?"
"Blake showed us that she actually is a Faunus and she told us that", Weiss stopped for a moment, deliberating if she should tell Winter about the White fang or not. Deciding to trust her sister she continued, "And that she had been a member of the White Fang."
The older sibling took a moment to think over her response, but soon replied as Weiss was not continuing for now.
"Well I think that if the Headmaster allowed her a second chance, after all I don't think Ozpin would not know about her past, so you should judge her based on what she did since then, not what she did before she started training to protect Humanity from the Grimm."
This got Weiss thinking for a moment, because what her sister told her to do was the same thing she had wanted from her fellow students. To be judged for who she was, not how she was born. After all she decided to become a Huntress to improve opinions about her family which were tarnished by her father's actions.
"Now I believe you spoke about multiple things they revealed to you so what else is bothering you Weiss?"
"Well this may sound a bit crazy, but please hear me out. See Ruby Rose, my team's leader, had claimed that she was A Faunus hiding some scars behind a Beowulf mask on her face. But if I understood them right this morning, Bake had found her playing with a pack of Beowulfs like they were little dogs."; taking another short ip of water, Weiss looked at her sister, who looked less surprised than she had expected, "After that she told us how she was part Beowulf and even showed us some bone protrusions on her arm framed by dark red fur. And I have now idea how to react to that,I mean how could I, I didn't even think things like that were possible.", As Weiss had buried her head in her hands, she did not see how instead of shock or horror, Winter's expression seemed to be completely neutral.
"Again, I don't think that just because she kept that from you, she is suddenly a different person than the one you shared classes with for over half a Semester. If you are uncomfortable with any of that just talk to them when you are back at Beacon."
Looking back up, Weiss managed a small smile as she replied,"Thank you for talking this through with me, now how are you doing yourself?"
This Question heralded a change in their conversation, which moved on from confusing revelations to two sisters talking again after far to long.
Just as they were about to end the call, Weiss remembered a small request Ruby had made during their first game night all those months ago.
"One last thing Winter. Do you still have those Dusttech time of conflict rulebooks? One of my teammates asked about them a while ago."
"Yes I think I do, would you like me to send them to you?"
"That would be lovely. I hope you enjoyed this talk as much as I do, but I think I should return to my team now."
"Well then goodbye sister."
With that the call ended and after thanking the employees for letting her use the meeting room, Weiss made her way back to Beacon.
Ruby had been afraid of how her team would take it when she was finally forced to reveal her secret to them. But with Blake sitting with the two sister at Breakfast right now, she had realized that most of those fears had been unfounded. After all neither Blake nor Weiss had attacked her or run away in a panic. But what worried her a bit was how Weis had yet to join them for Breakfast even though the three of them were already finished eating.
"Ruby could we go back to our room, I want to talk about what happened this morning a bit more.", Blake said already standing up and taking her tray towards the return at the end of the cafeteria,
"Sure, but I hope Weiss isn't ill after all she hasn't come to breakfast.", the half Grimm replied and stood up, "Yang are you coming?"
"Nah I'm gonna have seconds and maybe Ice Queen does come here."
After hearing her Sister's reply, Ruby returned her tray and followed the bow wearing Faunus back to their dorm.
When they arrived, they saw that Weiss had finally left as well. Closing the door behind her, Ruby turned towards Blake, "Now what did you want to talk about exactly?"
"First of all I want to apologize for how I reacted, after all people finding out I am a Faunus would at most get me some racist remarks, where as I can't even think about what people might do to you if they were to find out what you are."
"Ah don't sweat it, after all it was a bit hypocritical of me to suggest you stop hiding your ears, but even so that anger of yours was quite filling, so I don't mind anyway."
Ruby responded, a wide grin spreading on her face as she thought back to how great her teammates anger had tasted.
"Wait, how can my anger be filling? don't tell me you feed on negative emotion like other Grimm?", shaking her head to get those distractions out for now the cat Faunus continued,"No let's get back to what I wanted to talk about. I also wanted to thank you for introducing me to that Police Officer. For the first time since leaving the Fang I feel like I can actually do something to make up for the harm I caused."
"Well of course I eat emotions. And you don't need to thank me for introducing you to Mr. Viridian, after all everyone deserves a chance to proof their not the monster others make them out to be. I just helped you find a good way to do so. I am more surprised you focused on that old cover story my dad came up and not the fact that I am literally one of the Monsters threatening to destroy civilization.", Ruby said rubbing her neck.
"Why would I think differently of you just because I now know what you are. I would like to be mad at you for hiding it from Weiss and me, but then I did something similar myself."
With that Blake walked back towards the oor, turning back to Rub before actually opening it, "Now, I think there is one other teammate of ours I need to talk to about my past as well so how about we go find Weiss?"
Following the Cat Faunus out of the dorm, the half grimm spoke up once more,"Okay, but let's meet up with Yang first so she can help us find her."
After meeting up with the blonde brawler as suggested, they searched the Campus for most of the morning, until they finally found her stepping out of an airship coming from Vale.
As team RWBY came together, both Weiss and Blake spoke up.
"Hey we need to talk."
So frohen 2. Advent, as Promised last week and announced earlier to day, here's a second chapter for your enjoyment.