A/N: I'm still alive, everyone. School/research/sports takes a toll on my brain, and I'm very sorry for the long wait on this. Plus I had to rewrite this chapter at one point. So, if you're still up for it, have another feels chapter. Be warned it gets kinda wordy and descriptive. Keep it up with the feedback, it's very appreciated!

Chapter 9: Past Pain, Present Anguish

"Hey, she's coming to. Wakey wakey, princess!"

Weiss blearily mumbled something incoherent (likely a rebuke aimed at Yang's taunt) and slowly cracked open her eyes. Everything looked strangely…white. The only exceptions in her field of view were Yang and Blake, with only the latter smiling warmly at her. Weiss tried her best to give off a look of confusion, the only emotion she could process at this point.

"Mngh…what…where…?" a still-drowsy and tired Weiss mumbled.

Blake put a hand on the heiress' shoulder, still holding a warm smile, though she was still very worried about how everyone was faring. She didn't want to lose the ones she held closest.

"You're in the infirmary. We're back at Beacon. Just an Aura drain, so you're going to be fi-what are you doing?"

Weiss was now fully alert and was straining herself to sit up on the hospital bed. Blake rushed to her side and tried to ease her way up. Yang's face stayed in a stoic position as she watched Weiss slowly make her way up to an upright position. Once she did, she just looked at Yang.

"Where's Ruby?"

Yang pointed to the bed on Weiss' left. Weiss turned her head, and there she was.

Ruby Rose, the only one crazy enough to put emotions before herself, the only one stupid enough to nearly botch a rescue mission…and the only dunce crazy enough to tempt Death by saving her. For the most part, she looked okay. She had some bandages wrapped around one side of her face and her arm, and both Crescent Rose and Myrtenaster were placed on the bedside between them.

Yang spoke up, noting Weiss' look of concern.

"Nothing too bad. A lot of scratches from where she landed and a bruise to her head. Must've been what knocked her out. But she's okay, Weiss. She's okay."

Yang turned away from the three, trying her best not to break down or get angry. She had never seen Ruby hospitalized, even for the relatively minor injuries she was sporting. She was hung up on what could've been. It could've been worse. Ruby could've been seriously hurt, or even…

"I need to leave. Excuse me."

Yang promptly walked out of the room, nearly smashing the door in the process. Weiss and Blake looked on, with Blake shaking her head slowly and Weiss hanging her head.

"It's me, right?"

Blake looked down. Guilt was written all over Weiss' face at this point. Ruby was in the hospital, Yang was probably going to break something, and now she hadn't found her answer. An answer to whether or not she was worth something.

"Was it worth it? For you guys to come for me, after what happened?"

At this point, asking was enough. Blake had to see the look in her eyes to know that Weiss wanted a real answer, to at least maybe put her mind at ease for a moment, if it was possible. Blake just gave that warm smile she'd been keeping the whole time.

"Yes, Weiss. You're our teammate, and we have an obligation to help each other. Even without that, we really care about you. Lots of people care ab-"

"That's nonsense! I've live my whole life without a single person caring about me. Do people really think that being rich makes people bad? Didn't you think that my family's company was bad from what they did to your kind? The fact that you were all suffering and that we lived in so-called extravagance? No…money and power don't make people bad…"

Weiss' face contorted into a bitter frown.

"…they allow them to be."

Blake looked at the girl who once thought her as a spoiled brat, an ignorant girl, and remembered her thoughts about the Schnees she had told Ruby the previous night.

"Weiss doesn't have people who care about her. She's never been able to develop any sort of kinship with anyone. Her family would've been the first good start, but they all must've shut her off. Since she couldn't win them over with affection or care, Weiss figured it must've been for everyone's best interests to emulate her family and their ideals, so she can win favor from them and everyone else. She tried to be perfect to her family so she could be loved."

…

"I owe you an apology, Weiss. I'm sorry."

Weiss looked up. "What? Why do you owe me an apology? You didn't do anything wrong."

"That's just it. We didn't do anything in itself, and that in itself is wrong. You just wanted them to care, didn't you?"

Weiss' eyes widened and were locked on Blake. She didn't expect anyone to figure out what was bothering her, and she didn't want anyone to know.

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"Playing dumb. That's cute."

Blake's stern tone didn't sit well with Weiss, who restrained herself from trying to silence Blake in a more physical way. Blake smirked a little at this. They both knew Weiss would have trouble getting up, let alone trying to fight.

"The stubbornness really is hard-wired into you people. Listen, I don't have the perfect understanding of your life. Only you do. But I'm pretty sure that if there were people-family, for that matter-who gave a damn, you wouldn't be like this."

Blake gestured her arms out, displaying Weiss' condition as someone who could barely sit up on a bed. But that wasn't what she was referencing.

"Do you think THIS instills respect from contemporaries and fear from opposition? Do you think holding your emotions inside makes you stronger, makes you better, makes you a perfect person? No. It just makes you less alive. Weiss, you're living your life in an empty way, and you shouldn't have to do that. Seriously, your family may have been hard on you, but you don't have to just sit there and let it control you."

Weiss' expression went blank and suddenly was filled with rage. Sure, Blake didn't know, but she couldn't just assume that the solution was just so easy.

"I don't think you understand how the Schnees work, Blake."

Weiss' sentence was almost inaudible, but Blake could hear the stinging malice and venom in her voice.

"Since you were part of the White Fang, let me tell you this, since things might make sense to you in that regard: Do you know why my family uses Faunus labor instead of human labor? Do you know why my family can operate the monopoly that is the Schnee Dust Company without any hitches despite the setbacks the White Fang, politicians, and lawyers, among others presented?"

A short pause.

"Lien. Money. The business is solely for profits. Yes, Dust is important. It's useful. That's why people want to buy it. It's profitable, so the hardships are worth it. But those hardships can cripple anyone with a weaker constitution. One who absorbs the pain and sorrows of the job would succumb very easily. So what did my grandfather do once he realized this?"

Weiss sighed and lowered her head, her bitter tone unwavering.

"He shut himself off of emotions. To avoid being affected by the pain and suffering. So he could approach his work without the weight of knowing what really happens outside of the pearly white doors. And he taught my father to be the same way when he was young. Shut off your attitudes and emotions. Competition is part of humanity and separates the strong from the weak, almost like natural selection. He had to 'make himself worthy' of competing with the rest of the world. And he did. He took the company to new heights, and he handled all the problems that came with it in a swift manner. He was in the business of profits and results, like my grandfather taught him to be."

Blake looked on, appalled by what she was hearing, not because it was new to her, but because it made sense. What she had learned about the Schnees when she was in the White Fang was not only very accurate, but it stems from way back. And now she understood why they were the way they were.

"…and that's what my father tried to teach me."

Blake's attention refocused on Weiss, who was reeling at the recount of her family history. Now the focus was on her.

"Males are supposedly better at keeping their emotions in check compared to girls. My father believed this when I was born and still does to this day. My mother passed away not very long after my birth and since that left him no chance to have another child, what with the business and all, I became his platform for the ideals he wanted to impart. I will not recount the experiences I've had to endure for the sake of my sanity."

Weiss said this last sentence with a solid and unwavering tone, hinting to a now-dumbfounded Blake about not digging further into her past. To Weiss, that sentence conjured up a number of bad memories; verbal lashings, unending studies and training, even the one instance of physical abuse she could never cover up. Her face changed to one of anguish as these thoughts all came rushing back.

Blake had picked up the hint and had no clue what else to say. She understood that, being part of the White Fang, arguments that have been tossed around between humans and Faunus have only been justified in a one-sided manner. Yet, she never considered Weiss' background extensively until now. A pang of guilt swept through her, and she could do nothing but stay silent.

A few minutes had passed, with both of them staying very still, absorbing what had just happened. Blake broke the silence in a soft voice.

"I guess you need some time alone. Just take it easy, okay?"

Weiss mumbled some kind of affirmative as Blake closed the door behind her. She looked at the door and sighed, realizing that now she had told Blake more that she had ever wanted to expose about her life. She had shattered her cover, but Weiss was aware of the risk when she decided to go out by herself.

"Hey, Weiss."

Weiss' eyes widened and she spun her head to the direction of the voice.

It was Ruby. She had woken up and was now sitting upright on her bed, facing her white-haired teammate.

"How are you feeling?"