Chapter 24: Black Schneep
The walk from what amounted to little more than a prison cell, to her father's quarters felt like it took all night to complete. Now that she thought about it, Weiss considered that most of the night was likely gone. It had already been some time after midnight when she boarded the ship with her sister and the general. A few hours had passed between being locked up in her room and taking in as much as she could of the engagement with the Grimm.
So far, this exercise in testing Weiss's patience had only consumed three minutes of her precious time, but every step her father took seemed to be deliberately sluggish. The walk had been without interaction, except for the occasional passing crew member. The echo of dress shoes and heeled boots clacking against the marbled floors of the ship was the only soundtrack to their miserable journey.
Weiss had to wonder if her father took any enjoyment in this. She knew for sure that she didn't. The lowered brow and down-curved lips were enough to indicate that. Her face had adopted a pale shade of crimson which, considering her naturally pale complexion, made it abundantly clear that this was not a situation she had any interest in being in. At a younger age, her outward appearance could have been mistaken for pouting. Only the pent up frustration and modest control over her emotions separated her from just that.
At the same time, she wondered where they were going. The room that was prepared for her was secure enough, and Weiss saw no reason that whatever he needed to talk to her about couldn't have just been discussed there. She had been trying to conceive some way to begin this confrontation in her own way, but her father's almost ethereal presence in front of her made him nearly unapproachable on anyone's terms but his own. As a result, silence prevailed.
The awkwardness came to a head when they reached an elevator. Mr. Schnee pressed the button to call it, which caused the doors to open immediately. Evidently, it had already been on their floor. This was relieving for Weiss, as it was that much less time that she would have to wait in silence with this man. They stepped inside, and her father pressed another button. The lift began to rise for a short time, two floors according to the digital display above the list of floor selections, before coming to a rest. As before, no words were spoken.
The doors opened, revealing an executive cabin. Immediately outside of the elevator, there were several rows of seating, similar to what would be found in a commercial aircraft. The seating spanned the width of the room, four across by three deep, with adequate space in between to walk between any of them. On either end of the rows, there were cabin windows, through which Weiss noted that there was a faint light coming over the horizon. Past the seating, there was what appeared to be a small dining area, where she noticed her sister sitting on a luxurious chair. She was holding a steaming cup of what smelled like coffee, while tapping on her scroll. Winter noticed them enter the room, but chose not to break from the business she was attending to. As she scanned the room further, Weiss noticed a door past the dining area, which she assumed lead to her father's personal quarters.
She would have taken more time to examine the area, except that she could sense her father's eyes digging into her. He walked past her before she could even turn to acknowledge his gaze, and took a seat in one of the rows of cabin chairs, before finally speaking. "Come, sit down." He used his arm to indicate to the seat next to the one he had chosen.
Weiss cautiously moved toward the seat he had offered her, which happened to be next to the window. She was doing her very best to suppress the strange combination of frustration and anxiety that had come to a head in the last few minutes. As she sat down, she rehearsed the things she wanted to say one more time in her head. This moment had been months in the making, ever since they day she received the letter from Beacon Academy notifying her that she had been accepted.
When she finally sat down, she didn't even get a chance to speak before her father broke the air with a loud sigh. He then proceeded to ask, as she considered it, an incredibly disconnected question. "Why are you doing this?"
Weiss knew what he was asking, but she was not going to let him off so easily, without at least trying to elicit some sort of emotional response out of the ghostly figure sitting next to her. "Why am I doing what?"
"Don't be coy. You know exactly what I mean. For months, you tiptoed around our home, only to up and leave one day, travel all the way to Vale, of all places, and enroll yourself in a school specifically purposed to train you to be a huntress. You could be anything you want, and you choose work that amounts to little more than that of a grunt in some foreign military."
From across the room, Winter cleared her throat loudly, obviously displeased with the way her father spoke of her own line of work, yet not interested enough to join the conversation. Weiss let a smirk form out of the frown she had been wearing. "I'm surprised you even noticed. You were hardly ever home to begin with, and when you were, all of your time was absorbed with calls and conferences."
"It's not exactly what you would call... easy... to run the most powerful dust empire in the world. Every day was a constant battle. Import problems, export problems, labor problems, political problems… the list of things that I have to contend with on a daily basis is endless. But I overcame all of them. And because of the hardships that I endured, you were granted an extravagant lifestyle. Everything you could ever want... at your fingertips." He looked around the cabin, as if to indicate that everything, all of it, was possible because of him. "And still, you chose… to leave it all behind… Why?" He paused again, this time not breaking eye contact with his daughter. "WHY!?"
Winter's head perked up at the shouting. She had been passively absorbing most of the conversation from across the room. It was remarkably familiar, largely because she remembered having a similar conversation years ago when she joined the military. Staying home in Atlas had apparently spared her the wrath of her father that Weiss was currently being exposed to. Winter was surprised to see her younger sister remain unflinching even despite the outburst.
"I'm. Not. You," she began. "My name is Weiss, in case you didn't know. I think it's quite a nice name, but I guess you wouldn't know, since you never use it. I'm seventeen years old. This may be difficult for you to hear, but I'm not the naive little girl that you raised by explaining away your outbursts with, 'I had a bad day at work'. I know the things you've been doing with your empire to solve your problems."
The old man did not take kindly to being patronized. He scoffed at his daughter's remarks, "You don't know anything, apparently. Maybe you aren't a naive girl any more, but that doesn't make you any less of an uninformed young woman. Whoever is giving you this information should probably check their facts. This company operates on the most efficiently tuned business model that's ever been created."
Weiss shook her head at the constant state of denial that she considered her father to be in. "You've been trying to hide all of this from me for so long, you managed to convince yourself that the things you're doing aren't horrible. I know about your Faunus labor forces. I guess you forgot to mention that when you talked about the battles you fought with the White Fang, and how they terrorized our family. Gee, I wonder why they would ever do such a thing..."
Winter stepped into frame to try to snuff the flame before it detonated the powder keg that was their father. "Weiss, I think you may want to calm down and think about what you're sayin-"
"No! Winter, I've had years to think about this. I've read the company records, I've even talked to the victims that were left in the wake of this company's scorched earth 'business model'. I don't agree with the White Fang's motivations, but I understand them." Weiss angrily turned toward her father, who was suppressing his own displeasure. "The thing that I don't understand is what in the world is so important that you have been calling me every day for the last month, that caused you to go so far as to cut me off from your fortune. Then, when I finally get a chance to talk to you, I get locked in a room for an hour, then you ask me why I'm mad at you! What sense does that make?"
Her father closed his eyes and lowered his head. He took a deep breath before rubbing his forehead, almost as if he was lost in deep thought. Another breath came before he lifted his head and opened his eyes again. "Weiss. I will not apologize to anyone for the things I've done, rightly or wrongly, to get to where I am today. But I was wrong to try to manipulate you. And Winter. Whatever mistakes I made as a father drove both of you away from me." He took a moment to organize his words before continuing, "The company your grandfather started… the same one that I shepherd over now… and the one that some day, will fall to you… It is more important to me than anything because it has to be. Without it, we would have nothing. You are the next generation of everything that we have, Weiss. I saw what happened in Vale after that Torchwick fellow crashed a train into it. I didn't know what to think."
Weiss almost couldn't believe what she was hearing. Before she could interject in any way, he continued. "If you truly want nothing more than to be a huntress. Then do what you will. I still don't understand why you chose not to train in Atlas, but that's a story for another day. The point is, you're in your first year as a student. I would have feared for your sister in such a situation, and she has full military training in addition to having completed her schooling back in Atlas. I called because I wanted to make sure that you knew what you were getting into. That's all."
Both Weiss and Winter were nearly speechless at the sudden outpouring of compassion that was coming from the heartless old workhorse. Weiss, in particular, had trouble coming to terms with what she was hearing. Is he really going to try to… guilt me? Or is he being sincere? I've never seen sincere from him… Well, whatever game he's playing, two can play it. "Dad... you don't need to worry about me. I have a lot to learn, but I've come a long way. I'm getting better every day and… even my summoning is starting to take shape." Winter's eyes widened a bit with the news, and she even flashed a brief smile.
"Once we're safely back in Atlas, you can show me everything you've learned," he said supportively. "Then, we can make a decision on the continuation of your schooling in Vale once this mess of a situation clears itself up. How does that sound?"
The whole conversation was like emotional whiplash. First anger, then understanding. Now Weiss wasn't sure if her father was following any comprehensible logic at all. Her only response was to avidly reject the proposal laid in front of her. "N-No. I can't… I won't leave Vale. I made a promise to my friends, my teammates… They need me right now, probably more than ever. I have to get back to them!"
Without knowing any of details that accompanied the events of the last few days, Mr. Schnee did not see any reason to allow it. "You don't have a place in Vale right now. If there is a war coming, I will not have my daughters standing opposite one another on the battlefield."
Weiss was shocked at her father's choice of words. "A war? What are you talking about? There is a battle to be fought, but it isn't between nations. Even if anything like that were to happen, I would much sooner stand with my friends and teammates in Vale. There is nothing left for me in Atlas."
He shook his head disapprovingly, "But you're wrong. We are Atlas. Our family is synonymous with it. When someone hears the Schnee name, they-"
"Despise it!" She finished the sentence for him. "The only thing our family's name is synonymous with is absolute power and control. I can't even begin to list the number of people who have immediately identified me as nothing more than a dust tycoon's daughter. I spent my entire life in Atlas, and I see no reason to go back. What makes you think I won't just run away again?"
"The full force of the mobilized Atlesian Military makes me think that, actually. When you ran off to Beacon the first time, the borders were opened. Travel was simple. Now? This may be the last ship in or out of Atlas until this all gets cleared up."
Weiss was now convinced that her father was no longer listening to her at all. Again. "You don't get it. One way or another, I'm going back to Vale."
Her father laughed at the audacity what he was hearing. "You are the heiress to the legacy of the Schnee Dust Company. Your place is in Atlas, where you will be safe… and considering that this ship is not stopping until it gets there, you have little choice in the matter."
Weiss stood up from her seat as her face became flushed again as her anger returned. Regardless of all of the things he'd said to give the impression that he cared for her, she realized that to her father, she was nothing more than an extension of himself. Someone to carry on his work when he was gone. To live up to the family name, whatever that had become. It was unacceptable. Since her first day at Beacon, Weiss had striven to not only distance herself from the negative connotations of her name, but she made every attempt to restore some modicum of honor to it. The way her father looked down on Vale, as if it were a second class nation, Weiss could see where the battle lines were drawn.
She was almost blinded by her anger. Yet, hidden somewhere among the frustration was a certain sadness about the way her father would most likely fail to understand what she had to say. "I don't want your company! I don't want your protection! I don't want your money! And most of all? I don't want you!"
Mr. Schnee's mouth dropped open a bit. The words that he tried to find to form some sort of rebuttal weren't there. Even Winter was in awe. Her eyes bounced back and forth between her two family members, waiting for someone to do or say something. When she noticed her father clench his fist, she decided it was a good time to intervene. "Father, excuse us. I just need some time to talk to Weiss. After that, we can resume this discussion with more… tact."
He did not respond, other than to grit his teeth, and look straight ahead angrily. Winter essentially dragged her sister out of her seat, and towards the elevator in the back of the cabin. Weiss did not fight back. In her estimation, any reason to excuse herself from the presence of her father was a welcome one.
Once the doors had closed behind them on the elevator, Winter spoke assertively, "You actually told him..."
"Of course I did. We talked about this already, back at Beacon," Weiss replied firmly.
Winter smiled back at her sister, almost as if she expected the response she got. "That settles it then." She quickly tapped a message into her scroll and sent it. "We've got work to do."