"Where is my daughter?" Jacques spat the words out and slammed his open palms down on the desk that sat between the two of them.
James didn't dare allow himself to move or try to intervene in the situation. Jacques Schnee was there, he was angry, and all that James could do was his best to manage to deflect it if possible, and keep it from getting too out of hand.
For that reason, James kept his expression as steely as he could manage before beginning to explain the situation with regards to Weiss Schnee's situation as best as he understood.
"To my knowledge," James began, keeping his voice as even as he could possibly manage for the little while that they were going to be meeting. "Your daughter is still off on a mission outside of the city with a group of other students."
Even despite how cold Jacques' eyes managed to look, James couldn't help but notice the way that they appeared to be on fire. There was rage radiating throughout every part of his body, and for a moment James found himself beyond grateful that there was not only a desk between the two of them, but also that Jacques had no training as a huntsman. James seriously doubted that he would need to come to blows with the other man, but every upper hand he could get was a good one.
Although, if it came to blows James would have to be sure to keep himself from lashing out with his right side. The last thing either of them needed to deal with was a corpse.
"James-" Jacques began to speak, his voice dripping with venom as he forced himself to lean in a little bit more in an attempt to make himself as physically intimidating as he could possibly manage. "You know that I am supposed to be returning to Atlas tonight."
It was one of those unavoidable issues, James knew, but he couldn't do much other than stand there and wait for something that he could say that would actually manage to be fairly opportune for them. "Jacques," James said, knowing that it was coming out in a way that only managed to make him sound deeply annoyed in a way that was almost like that of a younger brother that was frustrated with his older sibling. "I can't do anything to return her to Vale as things are. What missions are sent out on account of Beacon Academy are officially outside of my jurisdiction."
"You are one of the most powerful people in the world, General!" Jacques exclaimed, pointing a finger at James. "You of all people should be intervening to get me my daughter back so that I can return to Atlas with her rather than let her stay here!"
James frowned and let out a quiet sigh, finally deciding that it was for the best if he began to impose himself on some level physically. Hopefully he wasn't going to have to go ahead and bring out the more serious guns for the purposes of dealing with Jacques, but for now James was going to do whatever he needed to do in order to make things work out.
"Outside of my jurisdiction means that I have no place intervening." James explained, keeping his voice and his expression as cold as possible. "And I can't help but have serious doubts about your desire to return to Atlas with your daughter."
"She is my heir!" Jacques exclaimed, and James did his best to ignore the feeling in the pit of his stomach that felt like it was trying to turn itself inside out for whatever reason. One thing at a time, James told himself as he stood there on the other side of the desk and always in opposition to Jacques. "I can't return with my heir missing!"
James frowned a let out a quiet sigh as he tried to collect his thoughts. "I was under the impression that your heir was going to be your son."
"He definitely will be, now!" Jacques answered, seemingly without thinking about it at all. James wanted to take advantage of the situation, to treat it was some sort of checkmate, but he ultimately couldn't justify it to himself to do that. "But that doesn't mean that I'm not going to bring my daughter home so that she can be punished for running off in the way that she has!"
The Schnee patriarch was all but screeching at that point, and James did his best to ignore it so that he couldn't get too worked up or worried about his tone. So many years spent as a professional meant that James could deal with just about anything- ranging from dangerous grimm to people that didn't have any place where they were. Surely a surly businessman was nothing compared to some of the threats that James had faced in his youth.
And so James found himself tempted to use the only speaking point that he could think of.
"Jacques-" He began, his voice even. "Your daughter is of the age of majority and is thus able to make her own decisions with regards to her own life." It definitely wasn't what Jacques wanted to hear, but James didn't care so much about that fact. "If you have such a problem with regards to what she has chosen to do with her life, then I would recommend bringing it up with your daughter directly."
The man stood there, his eyes still blazing. He let out a sound of deep annoyance and stepped back after a long moment before letting his hands laced together behind his back and turning to face the window. Jacques stalked towards the window and stared out at it. "You know that I must leave soon."
"I do."James confirmed, deciding that it was for the best that he give the other man the space that he needed to be able to do whatever he needed to do. "I can't do anything about your daughter being outside of Vale, you know that."
"I won't be able to speak to her and bring her home if I'm never going to have a chance to see her before I leave."
James nodded, since he figured that this was about what he had to expect out of Jacques. "You are a powerful man yourself," James stated, although he was mentally amending the statements with some choice words of his own. "Surely you would be able to delay your departure until she returns if it is such a concern to you."
"It is!" Jacques shouted, turning to face James again. James didn't shift or let himself move, for the sake of his own sanity at that point.
"If that is the case-" James began calmly. "Then I would recommend using some of that power of yours to be the master of your own destiny, Jacques."
It was exactly what Jacques wasn't going to want to hear, James knew, but he didn't particularly care for that matter. It wasn't what was important to him in that moment. All that really mattered to James was that he was able to continue any intervention in order to keep the relative peace at the academy.
Even as Jacques Schnee left his office, James found himself worrying more and more for the fact that he was going to have to worry about the outcome of the political side of everything that was going on. No matter what, and no matter how James felt about it, he knew that it was impossible to ignore that there was a contract that had yet to be signed.
One that had the power to change the balance of the world, at least in theory.
Midnight came, but it was the only thing that came.
Tired and dejected, the four of them had returned to their campsite in the hopes that they could get some rest, regroup, and then come morning any bones to pick would be able to be dealt with swiftly and as harshly as they needed to be. At least, that was the way that Watts was making it sound.
When Cinder had gone to bed, it had been in her warm bedroll. Her body had been aching, she had been feeling somewhat disoriented because of her eye, and her vocal cords had been burning from the little talking that she'd had to do that day.
When Cinder awoke, it was in a ripple.
She felt like she was floating, like something cold and wet had managed to surround her and wrap itself up around her entire body without relent. It felt too thick to be water, and when Cinder dared to try and make herself move, she only found that she felt sluggish and too heavy.
Cinder forced her eyes open, and found herself staring up at a black, starless sky.
And there, hanging directly over them was a moon that was cracked, with what looked like a red light filling in the spaces between them. Cinder realized then that she didn't know whether or not she was managing to take part in reality, or whether this was another dream-vision along the same lines of the ones that she'd experienced before.
"Hello?" She asked, straining her vocal cords to make enough noise that someone else would be able to hear her.
"Get up," A voice said. It took next to no time at all for Cinder to realize that the voice was distinctly feminine.
Slowly she began to force herself to move. The black sludge that surrounded her disturbed and rippled with her movements, and when Cinder finally sat up she stared down at the liquid surrounding her.
It looked like something from a dream. When Cinder dared rest a hand on the liquid, she found that it almost felt like it was burning and that the liquid began to shift and move, like it was trying to force its way up her body and seep into her pores. It was like it was alive.
Cinder looked up, seeking someone else's presence to make everything make at least a little bit more sense than it was.
Already Cinder was having rather serious doubts that making any of this make sense was going to be incredibly difficult.
Her three teammates were already up, all standing and facing away from her and from each other. Watts faced towards the North, Tyrian faced the West, and Hazel was facing the South. It already left Cinder wondering what her place among them was, if they had only left the East for her.
"What-" Cinder forced herself to her feet, and she felt the liquid shift around her body. When she looked between her three teammates, she saw that some of them appeared to be cloaked in the sludge. It was dripping down Arthur's back, starting at the back of his neck, and it seemed to have completely soaked Tyrian's arms and dripped down off of them.
If it was on Hazel's body, then Cinder wasn't in a position to be able to see it.
None of them acknowledged the fact that she was there.
Cinder felt her heartbeat spike in her chest, and she couldn't think of any way to make all of this make sense to her. She was afraid, and yet the voice was there, pulling her gently away from where she was standing.
"Cinder," The voice said, soft and comforting as it had ever been. For a moment Cinder couldn't help but think that there was something about the voice that felt too similar. There was a gentleness about it that she wasn't going to be able to ignore. "Come, my child."
Cinder wanted to listen, to follow after. She turned and looked for a source, a woman to be speaking to her.
Exactly like in her dreams, the liquid began to disturb and form into another body. Unlike her first dream, what it formed didn't look like a clone of herself. Instead, the woman that formed there was taller than her, almost amazonian and holding her head high.
The woman had no hair. Her eyes were mismatched, one a burning red and the other a shade of orange that Cinder was almost able to recognize, but the horror that bubbled up in her chest over that realization kept Cinder from thinking about it too much.
The woman smiled at her, a gesture of kindness stretching across a heart shaped face. When she moved, it was fluid, like she was made of water. She didn't seem to make any steps, and when Cinder allowed herself to glance down she realized that the water seemed to shift and move around the woman she she advanced.
"Cinder." The woman said with a velvety dark voice. "You came for me."
Cinder nodded, and when she opened her mouth to attempt to speak the words caught in her throat so that she couldn't get them out. Her mouth opened and Cinder found it only getting hard to speak. "I-"
"You did." The woman confirmed, smiling at her and reaching out to offer her touch. "Thank you for coming."
Cinder nodded and cast a glance around her, realizing that this was certainly the same place where they'd gone to sleep. The sludge had seemed to creep its way up onto the trees so that it covered everything.
"It's-"
"No problem?" The woman said, almost playfully. "You have still done me a great service, Cinder."
Cinder nodded, and watched as the woman moved around her. It was almost like she was doing her best to walk around her and see whether or not there was something of interest about her. Cinder felt like she was under some sort of microscope, and the woman's gaze was so heavy that it almost felt like she was about to collapse under it.
"I..."
"I know." The woman said, turning and shifting so that she stood in front of Cinder again. "You must be confused." With a careful, too-stable hand the woman reached out for Cinder's hair and brushed it aside.
Cinder could have sworn that she could hear the ends of her locks beginning to burn, but she didn't dare focus on it for too long. Unable to think of anything, Cinder nodded slowly and was shocked when she began to feel cool liquid beginning to flow down her face.
There was an ache that was beginning to form behind her eye, and it was enough to make Cinder want to cry.
"Tell me Cinder," The woman said quietly, not giving her a chance to say anything. "What do you want?"
Cinder opened her mouth to answer, and wasn't able to get the syllables out. But that didn't matter, because the woman smiled at her and nodded in understanding, as though everything was somehow managing to come together and make sense to her regardless of what actually made it out loud.
The woman stepped in again and reached for Cinder, gesturing with an open hand for Cinder to lift her head up and let the two of their eyes meet. Cinder obeyed, and the woman smiled once more.
Despite it all, there managed to be something incredibly terrifying about her, but also something incredibly beautiful about her.
Cinder found herself in awe.
The woman brushed a careful thumb over Cinder's brow and let her hand stray down to hold Cinder's right hand. Slowly, she let her thumb travel over Cinder's knuckles.
"I understand." The woman said quietly. "Do go back to sleep, my child. You'll need your strength."
Entranced, Cinder simply nodded and let her hand drop to her side. The world seemed to shift and shimmer around her before turning all but entirely to black.
All that Cinder found herself left with was the quiet whisper in her ear where the woman's voice echoed over and over. Always the same words, until Cinder finally drifted back off to sleep and into nothingness once more.
"You'll need your strength."
The room that Weiss was learning to call home was surprisingly comfortable, even if it was far below what she was personally used to living with. The shared space was certainly something to get used to, especially when it was so small when placed in comparison to the world that Weiss had once called home.
Dinner at the Xiao Long-Rose home had been pleasant, if a little more than awkward. Now it was a matter of being able to get some rest. But first, she decided that it was for the best if she spent some time poring over the notes that had been loaned out to Blake and herself to use.
Weiss supposed that thinking that she was going to be able to do that without too much interruption had been naive on her part. As a result, the four members of their currently unnamed team were sitting there on the floor of their shared room, each nestled in some blankets that they had taken from their own beds. She sat between Ruby and Blake, and Yang was lying on her stomach directly across from her.
"I don't think that I like this schedule." Weiss commented calmly, wiggling her pen between her fingers as she stared down at the sheet of paper that she'd been provided with regard to her classtimes. "The two hour grimm studies class seems excessive."
"Eh," Ruby said with a shrug. "Professor Port isn't that bad,and he's friends with our dad so if we ever need help we can ask for it whenever." Ruby was lying on her back, and had a schoolbook balanced on her stomach. "It's more interesting than it sounds."
Weiss hesitated, not sure about how to feel about what had just been said. She was sure that she was going to just have to wait until she knew what her regular schedule would actually feel like. There was a large part of Weiss that was largely concerned for whether she'd be behind the rest of her teammates at all. She'd never had the luxury of a formal hunter's education beyond what Winter could teach her and the occasional book.
"I see." Weiss said quietly, shifting slightly and tapping on the edge of her notebook as she thought hard. "And what about history?"
"Boring." Yang answered, staring down at something on her scroll in some interest. "It's with Doctor Oobleck, and he's a pretty good teacher." She shrugged. "I dunno, you've probably seen about everything that you need to of his classes on that mission."
Weiss nodded slowly and looked over at Blake. The girl was also leaned forward over a notebook, and she was drawing something in it that Weiss was almost interested to see. However, there was an all too obvious reminder of the fact that she had no place in Blake's life that Weiss wore on her face. There was an urge to reach up and touch the wound, but Weiss fought back against it for fear of what would happen if she did.
For instance, Weiss was all but certain that Blake would notice that she was checking in on the injury. There was also the fact that there had never been some sort of apology muttered, and at the very best Blake was frosty while managing to be downright hateful at her worst. Weiss was afraid for what could come of all of it. Knowing that the two of them were supposed to be teammates didn't manage to make Weiss feel any better about everything. In a way, it felt like they were already a lost cause because of her and Blake alone.
It was a good thing that Ruby and Yang were so close, Weiss supposed. At least between the two sisters they were going to have a guarantee that some of them could get along.
Weiss tore her thought away from it and stared down at the syllabus again, taking a moment to mark one of the time slots on it in light blue ink. "It says that we have scheduled combat classes every two days, and practice times on the days where we don't have classes." Weiss paused, curious about it and she looked between Ruby and Yang. "Is there some reason for that?"
"Beyond keeping us sharp?" Blake asked, rolling her eyes. It was the first time that she'd really spoken up in the time that the four of them had spent together there on the dorm room floor. "I doubt it."
"Well..." Ruby began, rolling so that she was lying on her stomach again and bracing herself against a pillow as she made herself a little bit more comfortable there. "I've seen some of the older teams trying to make good ways for them to attack in pairs." She shrugged and leaned back slightly. "I guess that we could try and use practice times for that sort of thing?"
Weiss blinked and nodded, taking down another note because it made complete sense for them to try and do that. There was a stir of something uncomfortable in the pit of her stomach, a reminder that she was sure to be behind all of her teammates in terms of skill level. She was sure that Blake would be unforgiving about it, but perhaps Ruby and Yang would be able to tolerate her lack of skill.
"I suppose." Weiss commented calmly. She looked over at Blake, wanting to ask some sort of question but finding herself unable to find it. Nothing was going to be enough to make the two of them really able to get along. She shook the thought from her head, but knew that she'd stared for a moment too long. "Then we'll have classes starting every day at nine in the morning. We're going to have to catch up, but-"
"We'll be fine!" Yang exclaimed, finally looking up from her scroll and smiling at all of them. "Most of the professors are pretty cool, and if there's something wrong then we're going to be able to get help anyways. Ozpin doesn't expel people unless they've done something super bad, and our dad and our uncle are both teachers. Not here, but they're teachers"
"Don't you think that relying on your family to get you something is a little underhanded?" Blake spoke up finally, and it was with the same deadpan and ushe would always use. However instead of looking at Yang or Ruby, Blake was staring straight ahead at Weiss.
A lifetime in the public eye meant that Weiss was able to recognize a hidden insult when she heard one.
Weiss stared Blake down and her eyes narrowed, but she didn't dare allow for herself to comment on the insult. She needed to say something, but she also needed to find a way to deflect everything away from herself as soon as possible. So she looked over at the sisters instead and finally spoke up.
"Blake is right," Weiss said, hating the way that the words burned on the tip of her tongue as she let them out. "We should try to do everything on our own before looking for or relying on help from anyone else."
Blake looked back over at her and for a moment Weiss was almost certain that she saw some sort of recognition or understand flit across the other girls' face. But even still, lying there just underneath there was hatred. Weiss tried not to think about it too much, since she could just as easily consider this in the same ways as how her family members tended to treat her.
"Eh, I guess you're right." Ruby said with a slight shrug before looking between all of her teammates. "Do you guys think that we should try and do something to become better friends or something?" She paused, looking between Weiss and Blake. "I mean, me and Yang are sisters but we've just met you guys."
Weiss hesitated before she let herself answer, feeling wholly unsure about what she could possibly say that would work. There were a lot of things that she didn't want to talk about, but if she was going to be staying at Beacon permanently, and Weiss certainly was dedicated to that, then she should go ahead and make sure to try and get close to the others.
"I guess that it wouldn't hurt." Weiss said quietly as she flipped her notebook closed so that she could focus. Her pen was stored away just as quickly, and then Weiss let herself lean back in her seat just slightly as she made herself more comfortable. "Do you have any ideas?"
"Uh..." Ruby began, hesitating for a moment and letting herself stare over at her sister looking for answers. Finally her gaze snapped back over to Weiss and Blake. "Where are you guys from?"
"Atlas." Weiss answered, sitting up straight again as though she was remembering herself. She was able to hear her father's reprimands in the back of her mind. She was sure that her mother would have been just as harsh about it. Propriety lay in proper posture. The best way to keep a good look in the public eye was through holding yourself like a piece of art. Weiss had learned that so long ago.
Blake took much longer to answer. Her grip tightened on her pen and she seemed to be thinking of a good answer that they could use. When she finally spoke up, her tone was so tight and she was so concentrated on a single spot on the carpet that it was like it held the secrets of the universe there alone. "I'm from outside the kingdoms." She explained herself, and that threw up some red flags in the back of Weiss' mind.
Outside the kingdoms could only surely mean a few things. It meant that Blake was either a wanderer or some sort of bandit, a criminal, she was from an abandoned colony, or she was from Menagerie.
And Weiss didn't know which one of those possibilities was the worst, even if they weren't all necessarily on the same scale.
"Right." Yang spoke up, curring Weiss away from the train of thought that she'd been on. Weiss looked over at the blonde and watched the way that Yang and Ruby exchanged a fast smile. "Well, we're originally from Patch but our dad decided to move to Vale a couple of years ago."
"Yeah!" Ruby exclaimed. "Leaving the island wasn't fun but..."
Ruby and Yang exchanged an uneasy look.
"It was what we had to do." Yang finished, finally looking back over at Weiss and Blake. "Siblings?"
"No." Blake said in her typical deadpan. "Only child."
"I have two siblings." Weiss began, deciding that this was something that probably wasn't going going to get too uncomfortable. "My older sister is Winter, and I have a younger brother named Whitley." She shrugged. "I don't think that I'm going to be able to talk to them much anymore though."
For a moment Weiss realized that she should have stopped herself before she could have said anymore about the topic. She was sure that someone was going to go ahead and they were going to call her out and ask questions about her father's company. Or at the very least, she knew that she should have been expecting to be asked about why she wouldn't be able to talk to Whitley and Winter often.
Of course, Weiss didn't go ahead and say the truth, which was that she didn't much care for her brother, or that she didn't know where Winter was anymore. There wasn't any way that she could easily explain any of that.
"Cool." Ruby said, humming and pausing as she tried to think of another question to ask. Weiss found herself getting slightly more worried as it became more and more apparent to her that the questions might only manage to get more and more uncomfortable.
The fact that people hadn't really gone ahead to ask her questions about her family was already something that Weiss was worried about. Eventually things were going to turn to her grandfather's company, or their wealth, or whether or not they were going to be able to get free Dust.
Nothing was going to be able to salvage a conversation if that was where things went. Even if it did go there, Weiss didn't actually know whether she'd even be able to answer those questions. The reality of her situation wasn't beyond her. Weiss was already certain that her father had called his favorite lawyer and they were doing their best to write her out of his will, the same way that Weiss' mother and Winter had been.
Really, she had no idea what her life was going to look like moving forward. Of course, she could go back to Atlas with her father and hope that he didn't cut her out of the picture, but Weiss was sure that wouldn't be enough.
Maybe in that case the best thing that Weiss could do for herself was try and start conversation with the others and bring their attention to some other topic. The only problem is that if that was what she needed to do, Weiss didn't know what she could possibly say or do.
No matter what, at the end of the day, Weiss knew that she wasn't anything like the rest of them. Maybe someday she would know how to be like them but as things were...
Weiss didn't know whether she could be hopeful or not about the matter.
A quick glance over at the clock told Weiss that it was late. They'd gotten back to their building late to begin with, and they were going to have classes in the morning.
"I think that we should consider bed." Weiss said after some hesitation. "As nice as this has all been, we do have classes in the morning."
"Yeah, I guess you're right." Ruby pouted, casting a glare in the direction of the clock. She forced herself upright, and Yang muttered some sort of complaint over it all before getting up as well.
Blake and Weiss found themselves getting up at around the same time, and Weiss tried hard to ignore it before making her way over to her bed. Weiss hesitated for a long moment before letting herself crawl in for a night of sleep.
A glance out the window showed that her father's airship was still there, waiting for the right time to leave.
Weiss felt her stomach flip uncomfortably at the revelation, and so she forced herself to face her teammates instead and forced the thought of her family away from her mind as quickly as she could manage.
It didn't work, and Weiss' night was spent all but sleepless.