Chapter 18: How Children Played At Slaughtering

Lord Friedrich Schnee

"How did you get here?" Friedrich asked, caught in surprise by the story he was hearing. Today was sullen, weather dreary, castle empty of voices, yet full of frightened people. No one had much to say, which was almost funny considering how Weiss and Wilhelm used to conduct them like a fools orchestra. They were dead now. No one was running the show. Friedrich supposed he was perhaps, ill-fitted in his fathers, or sister's chair.

"I walked sir," the young man responded. He was Czarny Zawisza, or Sir Czarny Zawisza. He was a skinny young man, only a little older than he was, maybe five years? Seemed humble though, everyone was acting strange now, humble or rude now that Friedrich was the last Schnee of White Castle. It was impossible to say which he was, he was new.

"No one tried to catch you?" Friedrich asked again. The young man had seen the fighting at White River as a prisoner, dragged to the recently conquered north now run by the Faunus. Miles between there and here, to simply walk. Friedrich knew he didn't know everything, he did however know that seemed, odd. Just escaping.

"I walked very quickly sir," he answered, standing right with his worn clothes. Someone tried to make him presentable, but the dried blood on his uniform, the sleeve of one side of his Schnee soldier uniform cut short, ending in an ugly bandaged stump. Friedrich tried not to look at it, tried and failed.

"Shouldn't you sit down?" Friedrich noted, thinking of the wounds he must of suffered, the way he stood heavy on one leg, "We can bring you a chair?"

"No sir," Zawisza responded, something dark in his almond eyes stirred, "Sitting is rather painful. Thank you." When Qrow found the young man on the road during one of his grimm hunts, he described the young knight as ruined. Hair long black and filthy, body warped and bloody, and that was only the things he was willing to say to a child. The story he told however implied a lot worse.

"You have lost a lot for us, we'll compensate you for some of the suffering," Friedrich had no idea how one compensated for that kind of thing, truly anyways, but it was just what Wilhelm would do. Friedrich knew to mirror them both. Act as they did.

"Thank you sir, but it won't be necessary," Zawisza politely declined, "I came to inform you that the Northern Faunus under the orders of a Faunus woman named the Taurus is in route to capture Castle White. They should be here in no short of two days. They believe with your sister, gods rest her, passed on and the casualties lost, they should be able to encircle us my lord." They weren't wrong, though the Schnee had certainly lost less people at the White River than the Faunus, it was still a daunting issue, his sister's retreat plans ruined by sneaking soldiers from Fort Castle. Worse was the moral. Many simply left. Some quietly, like Russell's Mercenaries. Some loud, like the new Warden of Vermillion, Friedrich's cousin. Friedrich knew what it was to lose a father, only difference is he never liked his father. The new warden deserted openly, with all his sentinels, leaving only a note from Weiss he claimed himself honorbound to turn in, the last wishes of his father. This all made Friedrich tired, he didn't get angry or yell, he didn't cry like he thought he was supposed to, he just became tired, simply exhausted. He didn't feel normal, nothing was right.

"How did you find this out?" Friedrich believed him, but Wilhelm always said to seem skeptic, why he wasn't sure yet. Figured he would know better when he was older. Wilhelm should have been around to explain it.

"The Faunus couple whom held me hostage considered me sufficiently broken sir." Friedrich didn't want to know how one became sufficiently broken. "I played along, didn't fight till I found a chance. The man, he asked me to shave his neck, chained me to the chain, thought I'd be too frightened to...I wasn't. His partner, she was close enough to reach with the barber's knife. I used the axe to free myself from the chain, kept the barber's knife to protect me, still have it. I was too weak, on part of the blood you understand sir, to use the axe sir, I hope you understand." He wasn't lying, not that he had a reason to, but Qrow flinched at the story, meaning he believed it, and Qrow never believed in anyone. Now everyone was scared. Rollo stood aside and cursed, the traditional hawks looked to each other yet said nothing and the merchants all whispered in quick. The only one that didn't have any reaction aside from himself, was Thetis. She seemed tired too. Always did. She didn't speak much anymore. Friedrich guessed she lost friends too.

"You sacrificed your hand for us. Thank you. I am pretty good with machines and dust. I think I could make something for it. That and pay to see you get," Friedrich couldn't think of where he would go, "to a home same."

"I would be in your debt, but that is not what I meant to ask of you," the almond eyes of his grew dark again, few probably noticed, but he quivered as he spoke, wetness in his angry eyes surfacing, "I want to fight. I want to help you kill them all. Please let me fight. Please sir," this young man wasn't right, he was broken, but Friedrich felt broken too. Maybe that's why he stirred something deep in the last Schnee, an iron ball in the pit of his belly, It rocked as he quaked, and they found something silently there to bound them.

"I won't make anything right," Wilhelm always said to tell the truth in a deal, which was odd given he lied so often, but still he followed the advice, "all I can promise is I'll let you fight. We'll fix your arm, and I promise I'll fight them as long as I can and if I ever can't you can go where the fighting is." Friedrich, with such a strange kinship between them, could not deny him. "In the meantime, seal the town down. No one leaves, and no one enters. All forces are to build up fortifications, all commanders are to meet with me after issuing previous orders. Dismissed" Friedrich had no idea what he was supposed to, or was going to, say at the meeting. It was just what Weiss would do, and she was a good leader. Emulation, he supposed, as a replicant for lack of ability.

Everyone listened, though he didn't doubt some were rushing for the gates before they were sealed. This was unavoidable. Why anyone would listen to him was an odd to himself. "Thetis," he asked getting up from the chair onto the step ladder they made special for him. He was tall for his age, wrapped in white furs, but still too small for that chair, "why haven't you left us."

"I haven't been dismissed." She tried to smile but her emerald eyes would not let any light out. It was a lame answer, but her and her band of elite mercenaries were a comfort.

"If she's anything like me little one, she wants revenge after those bastards caught us on the retreat. Killed plenty of my brothers," Rollo Valkyrie cut in with an angry laugh. Friedrich liked him, he was weird, but the kind of weird that made sense, or followed a pattern one could predict. The why for his actions, while occasionally foolish, were always consistent.

"But Qrow I don't want to go yet!" Summer's voice was crying out from behind the exit. The path Qrow had taken and now Friedrich turned off on, the air warm outside of the frost laden lobby .

"We have to leave, you don't understand Summer, please listen to your older brother!" Qrow was grasping his younger sister, dressed as she usually did in poorer cheap red and white dresses, the red hooded cape around her shoulders oversized for her. The elder Rose would have no problem dragging the younger away, but he was always sweet with her. In that way he reminded Friedrich of Weiss, behind closed doors of course.

"I haven't said goodbye! No!" she shouted, an unmoving stone despite Qrow's attempts. Friedrich was happy to hear that, but sad too. Summer wouldn't leave him without saying goodbye, but she would leave regardless. Like the others.

"You can't leave anyways," the young Schnee said aloud, to a conversation he was not permitted, judging from Qrow's stares. Rollo seemed to chuckle, Friedrich was unsure what was funny, and Thetis said nothing, as she always did.

"Look, I am not fighting in this battle for you, let us go Friedrich. Please," Qrow sounded earnest, but wouldn't look him in the eye. In fact the older Rose seemed to do that a lot, red tipped hair always in his face, silver eyes never looking at his. Friedrich wondered perhaps if he was angry at him.

"No, no one leaves," Friedrich didn't want to throw a tantrum, but it was trying to bubble up despite him, he could only breath to keep it calm, "It's not safe, you could get captured. Summer is safer here." He didn't know if that was really true, he said it anyways. Not really sure why he was so set in it, but it was a must.

"You can't hold us here,"Qrow growled, pulling his sister away, but she did budge, she seemed so confused.

"He can Qrow, you see he runs things here, now calm down son before we make a fus in front of the littlest one ey?" Rollo replied, taking things a step farther than they needed to be as he stepped his older and larger self up to Qrow. It wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but it made the Rose pause. He couldn't hate Friedrich more, he supposed.

"I wouldn't put her in danger," Friedrich noted, not sure why, or to what meaning. He believed it was true or mostly true. At least it was intended, if not his main motivation. He didn't really understand it, but certainly Rollo's more threatening approach wasn't necessary. "Summer I need to work on a prosthetic arm for a knight, I think we have a few we can work on. Would you want to help?"

Summer didn't say anything at first, just looked at Friedrich, then looked at Qrow, her matching silver eyes sad and begging. It made Qrow angry, his fist clenched up, something the young Schnee's father did quite a bit before he was rendered invalid, and as he understood it that meant effectively dead. "Please," she whispered, though the hall was so empty they would all hear it.

"I don't think we have a choice," Qrow mumbled, releasing her. If he had no reason to hate him, Friedrich doubted he would not have an excuse now. As Summer with a smile skipped over to the small boy and hugged him, if only for a moment, Qrow looked on with disgust. Yet for whatever reason, Friedrich didn't care, he liked this moment, and he found it so hard to like anything anymore. Why should he care so much about what Qrow thought or felt, Wilhelm trusted him, and he was dead now. The older Rose wasn't their friend anymore. If ever.

"Summer we have work to do!" Friedrich complained, though he didn't really mean it. He just knew everyone was watching, and Rollo seemed to find he being embraced by someone in public laughable. He was supposed to be untouchable after all, these Roses were of a lower class.

"You're so bossy!" Summer complained, but walked with him. The last friend he had.


Dear Friedrich, my sweet little one.

I write this, as I have failed you, not as your lord, that I will immortalize, but as your sister. Grief has taken me. I've lost all the lights of my life besides you, which makes this my most painful letter, and my most horrid failure. Many times we have been cruel to you, my sweet brother, who had done nothing but exist. Now the last bit of light in this world is with you. You'll be Lord of Castle White, though I predict, as Wilhelm did, that will matter less than you are herby given the SDC, our dust, our legacy, our history that stretches a thousand years, from the first Weiss in Vermillion to our ancestors in Atlas. Defend it. Whatever must be done, you must be the one to do it. Whatever cruelty, whatever pain, you must survive, the Schnee legacy must survive, the torches of the world must remain lit. Our dust keeps the darkness at bay, nothing else matters. This truth is why I suffer leaving you, why I abandon a child too sweet for his charge, and why you must never be sweet again. Steel your heart child, as cold as ice, know that whatever you do in the years to come, I love you so much my sweet little Friedrich. You are my brother, but to me, you will always be the child I will never have. Goodbye Friedrich.

Love does not begin to describe it.

Lord Weiss Schnee the second.

Goodbye is bad luck. She would have known that, Wilhelm said it every single trip. She did know that, yet that was the point. This goodbye wasn't suppose to be lucky. The letter had washed over Friedrich, unable to be processed, he didn't get it, but couldn't let it go. All he could do was try, try so hard to be a good boy, listen to her, never let her sister down. Protect the dust, protect this home, protect everyone.

Snow was falling, so heavy, winter in full force now and it chilled him, as did the ripping wind where he stood on the highest Castle tower, looking over all of Winter's Town, and all the violence that surrounded them. The walls held as volleys of cannons and artillery were fired back and forth. The faunus could not get close enough to knock the walls down in one massive volley, the three airships they had left would fire down on every heavy platform they tried to build up at closer range. Now it was just waiting, their dark shadow that controlled every side of the river banks, an army divided into three with flags showing a dark blood red rose and a wolf. The Taurus, the faunus irregulars that met at the meeting called them. Yet they were still doing damage, peppering the walls and crushing the outer defensive trenches.

"Lord Friedrich, the southern side reports the Taurus vanguard remains dug in, suppressed, the western force also sits steady, too small to press," Zawisza shouted, his voice trying to be heard over the popping sounds of the big guns that were propped up on the Castle walls. The issue wasn't those banks. To surround Castle White you had to divide your army into three parts, Weiss had taught him. One small force between the White River and North Water coming from the road to Fort Castle, one big force parallel to the White River, on the Road to Avarice, and lastly a force on the other side of the North Water and White River divide on the road to Nördlichste. That was the one that scared everyone. It too big for its job, Zawisza had claimed in his meeting, a third of the total force. It moved closer, despite the shelling, trying to do something, people suggested sapping, though that wasn't something Friedrich understood, he did understand that they needed to do something. Aggressive stalemates like this attracted grimm, a bigger problem for the Faunus than White Castle. At least for now.

"Rollo, Thetis, I need you to focus there, in case they do something." That was Friedrich's last ace, with so much desertion, all the preparation gave him the most well equipped army in Vale, but way too small to hold something this large. Friedrich should have stopped his cousin, but he never knew this was coming.

"Yes Sir," Thetis replied cooly. Friedrich was unsure about her, she was still the strongest fighter in the castle, but her exhaustion was clear, she seemed so upset, was gaining weight even for such an athletic person, something was wrong and Friedrich feared she meant to abandon him. Thus Rollo.

"I'm scared, I want to leave!" Summer was screaming to hear herself, Friedrich was insisting on putting strong earmuffs on her. Still, even if the sound was deafened, the lights weren't as they shimmered in the smoke. The smell was also potent, the hot dust burned so quickly and left its stink in the air. Friedrich was terrified.

"Don't worry sweetheart," Zawisza shouted just loud enough to be heard, leaning down on one knee. He brushed her hair away with the reconstructed prosthetic arm. It was mostly Wernher's model, but took the two of them to make it work. Still janky, prone to occasional slight shakes. Still it had a profound effect on the young man. Giving him back his limb didn't make him less skinny, or make his wounds less red and puffy, but the confidence and strength to him came back immediately, something that seemed to make him very attached to the two of them. Qrow of course, did not like this.

"We should go inside, please," the older Qrow didn't advise so much as ask. His teeth clenched and his eyes glared at Zawisza. He did not like him, at all, claimed the man disturbed. Maybe he was, yet much kinder to the two of them than Qrow ever was anymore.

"I need to see what's going on," Friedrich remarked, knowing full well that we didn't include him.

"I can escort the little miss inside if you want, but she's certainly much safe with us here than inside. If she much rather be alone," Zawisza replied in a very polite voice. The world alone made Summer frightened, eyes wide and suddenly she was again attached to the knight. Being alone tonight would scare anyone, being alive tonight scared Friedrich near to tears. Was the word alone intentional?

"Summer," Qrow groaned, fed up.

"Qrow I'll be good I'll be quiet, I don't want to be alone please?" The only one smiling was Zawisza, he was always smiling.

"Summer it's okay, either way you don't have to be alone," Friedrich wanted her here, but the look in her eyes. If she cried he was going to cry, this was too much. He couldn't handle this. He wanted Weiss here, she would turn the tide, she would change everything. He would just cry.

"Zawisza," the young knight's radio flooded on, the shortwave thing barely worked in this heavy weather with so many channels full of orders Friedrich had somewhat ordered, "Thetis and Rollo's forces are on the North Water gate, but the numbers are larger than we thought. They keep trying to poke holes in the wall with small guns. If we run out of dust we won't be able to hold them. Please we need help!" Everyone shut up, even Zawisza's grin faded into an awkward nervous smile. He was the first to speak.

"Their chief's son, Aka, was commanding that encampment, if the plan hasn't changed. He's not very smart, but brave. If we start running low he will push on the gate with everything he has. Sir, we have to think about what happens if he gets through."

Think about what? Friedrich was a child, he didn't understand the nuances of war like Weiss did, he was alright in class, but how could he know? How could anyone expect anything? It was unfair. He just wanted to run, the letter said to do what he needed to do, but he didn't know what that meant. He would give up anything, but he didn't know how. Like the world around him the young Schnee froze in fear, in inability, in being a child.

Then Summer cried.

She was just a child, but it was so loud, or felt so loud. It cut out every sound every thought. It was impossible to think, it stung his ears worse than the snow drops that sat in his silver hair. It burned out thoughts harder than grief ever did, it was so horrible. His tears began to flow, he just wanted it to stop, to pause. The crying scream, it had to end, had to end. All this had to just go away.

"Stop crying!" Friedrich breathed as the screaming paused. He had never meant to yell, but it had to stop. He was so sorry to see her silently dripping with tears and snot, he looked just as disgusting he was sure. The peace, though, the cannons turned to nothing, everything was silent. The thoughts flowed again.

"if we run out of dust."

"he's not very smart, but brave"

"Whatever must be done."

Wernher's design

"Zawisza," Friedrich spoke in a calm he had never had before, "Have half the cannons begin to stop firing in random order, point them toward the Northwater gate. Cut the cannon fire north down by a third, randomly, but keep everything loaded and pointed at the area around the gate, the inside too. Let them bust through the doors, have Rollo, Thetis, and the Faunus irregulars hold all the roads coming from outside the gates, tell them to let them be pushed back a few blocks, but to hold the invaders there. Everyone else is to retreat. Whatever is left of the sentinel robots Wernher built, make them ready to go." Such a simple idea, even a kid could think of it, but required something else. Coldness.

"I understand sir," Zawisza knew immediately, but shared that whatever it was. His issuing orders were quick and undeterred by the questionable nature of the horrible things they were about to do.

"You can't be doing this. They're your people." Qrow mumbled, he did not share that coldness, Friedrich supposed, or did not value this place enough to excuse it.

"All the citizens have been evacuated," Friedrich spoke like a machine. Was this what Weiss would have done? Was that what the letter was supposed to tell him?

"The soldiers though, they'll be caught."

"Faunus irregulars, most likely to be sympathetic to the invaders, Rollo and Thetis' people, mercenaries likely to leave or turn if things get bad. It is the best choice." Numbers, Wilhelm always said to trust the numbers, calculate the odds. When they sat at night studying risk and probability, was this the math he was supposed to do? Would Wilhelm have done this?

"I could stop you, I could stop you right here!" Qrow for the first time, as far as Friedrich had ever known, he unsheathed his scythe at another human. Friedrich was afraid, but not even so terribly afraid for himself. He couldn't explain it, so little he could. This whole event was too much. He was doing things and just couldn't.

"No," Zawisza's voice came from behind Qrow, a firm metallic hand placed on his shoulder and squeezed tight, the slick sound of a barber's knife unleashed came from his other hand. "You couldn't Mr. Rose."

"Take Summer inside. Don't leave her alone. Please Qrow. Don't leave her alone," Friedrich didn't want Summer to know about this, to understand it. She liked Rollo, looked up to Thetis, she didn't understand why there was fighting. These were all things Friedrich shared, but he had to understand it, or at least do it if he didn't understand it. Do it without thinking, he guessed. He was so tired.

"You're twice the monster your father was, and you're still just a child. You people don't deserve to rule us!" Qrow shouted out, putting a thought in Friedreich's head he would not begin to unravel for a very long time.

"Sir?" Zawisza asked, Friedrich thought, for permission to kill him. The young Schnee shook his head no. Why do more of it than he was already going to. Murder was wrong. This was wrong, but right. How could it be both?

"Fuck you!" Qrow shouted, but no one reacted. Friedrich supposed that was enough, for he left. Just the two left now, on a tower overlooking the distant north, waiting. Plan already enacting, a few cannons left firing, mortars all but stopped. The other camps, out of caution or inability waiting, but the black mass stirred in the snow along the north road. A miasma of faunus charging, a bull right into the gate. Some cannons kept firing, pucking off its sides, chips in this flowing river. Aka, or at least the person Zawisza suggested was Aka, crushed the main gate, busting it apart into shards of wood. That's when the flood broke. The mass poured into the city like roaring rapids of humanoids. The Mercenaries and Irregulars held them at first, then eased, let more in, held, eased, let more in, held, eased, let more in. Most of the dark army, he could see the vibrant white and red of their armors now, most of them were through. The mercenaries held, but they couldn't for long. Soon they would break. Everything would fall apart. Everyone would die.

Friedrich would like to think he paused, for a long time he even told himself this was true. He didn't.

"Fire!" Zawisza sent out his order by flare, and the spectacle began. Rushing blues, reds, yellows, whites, a rainbow of colors, burst inside this bulge of people, around them, above them, raining ice, fire, lightning, lead, all in this mass and the containing parties caught in the storm. The barrage destroyed the wall, though very little faunus were outside them at this point. The whole district of the city simply vanished into pillars of primeval elements. People below were tossed in the storm, some bodies flying above the buildings themselves for as little as they stood. The Mistralian's formed a ball of shields, a formation they made last minute, Friedrich did hope they lived, though Thetis might kill him for this, considering even above he could see the glint of bronze from people whom did not make it into that dome formation. Rollo's people flat ran, the ones who made it were the ones either in the back or protected by rubble. The Faunus irregulars however were eviscerated. Some might survive, but not many. And here he was hoping they, citizens of the city still, would be the ones to fair the best.

Through this stunning display, what bothered Friedrich the most wasn't the mass of destruction, he was prepared for that, or the horror his sister and veterans had seen before, he was...conditioned for that. What surprised him, mortified him, was how little he felt. Which was to say, he felt nothing. No sick twisted joy like the crazy people supposedly felt, no great guilt at what he had done, though that did come later. He most of all felt an understanding, that this happened, that he was to blame, that it had to be done and he wanted to rest. Friedrich wanted people to survive of course, and never to do it again, but how well he took it, even at that age, he knew something inside him had broke when reading that letter that allowed this neutrality.

"Zawisza, please launch the sentinals. We have to rescue what we can and stabilize the wall. Tell all cannons to focus elsewhere." The two of them departed together, passing the Roses who sat in silence, Summer confused and Qrow defeated. Bellow the Castle about thirty of the clockwork giants Weiss had retrofitted were waiting for them. These things made Friedrich out to be tiny. Armed wherever one could shove a gun and javelin, eyes made of dust and skull like metal casings for heads. These beasts lumbered forward to match the child's speed, both Friedrich and Zawisza took horses provided by the held back Schnee dragoons, the forces that originally kept the gate protected. These were the people he traded the Faunus for. They seemed so happy.

They rode together into the mist of elemental dust and ruin, soldiers from both sides wandered confused and broken. The ones wearing Schnee uniforms were taken to the medics by the dragoons, the ones in grimm masks were crushed. The machines did not know the concept of prisoners, something Friedrich didn't predict and regretted. The Mistralians survived and retreated without orders, but no one stopped them. Thetis was in the force that lived, but she looked dead and refused even to acknowledge Friedrich, he would not take that personally. Rollo survived, found under a fallen arch, saved by his tenacity and luck alone. He was rather talkative once freed, and threatened to cave in Friedrich's head. A crime he would pardon the older man off the next morning.

The most unusual find was the enemy leader. his leg was disfigured and encased in ice, body burned by fire, and lastly a javelin struck him in his chest. The machines again knew little of capture. He moaned in pain, refusing to die. Zawisza without orders dismounted

"Aka Taurus, is your younger brother Kuro here?" Zawisza lacked his usual politeness. The man reaching into his pocket, this would end one way.

"You're...their...plaything? How did….you-" he never finished. Zawisza with a clean swipe sliced his neck and the young man was dead. Friedrich found himself sick, throwing up in his hand trying his best to hide it. The smells here were terrible.

The plan had worked, one of the three required banks were freed from the siege, the bombardment made retaking it impossible and the enemy force was left no option but to simply leave while the wall was repaired with rubble by the machines. Some people were taken prisoner during body recovery, most however passed away from wounds. The three groups were to be immortalized every winter in ice sculptures in a new plaza to be built post-haste when the war was over. Zawisza's idea. Friedrich knew it would really make things better. If it was possible to both be unremorseful and sorry he was. Would people remember this, looking at the ice statues, as a story of how children played at slaughtering?

It was, after all, what Weiss would have done, and the Schnee Sigil, the snowflake, remained above the moonstone fortress, forever more.

*** This may be the fastest AV chapter I have ever written, literally I finished Choice sunday, this was done on Wednesday! This marks the real falling action folks, two more chapters after this! Please remember to leave reviews and I do hope it was of sufficient quality. I hope I did alright with Friedrich, he is a brilliant child, but remembering how to not know as much as everyone else is weird so I understand if he seems a little above his age, which developmentally he is but you get the point. Also if anyone's worried, MV and Choice next chapters are done just out for review!

Aka comes from red in japanese, one half of the phrase akakuro, the red black color pattern common in japanese art, often mispronounced Akaguro for people wondering what akagura was hahaha.