Chapter 21: The Truth Comes Out
Hey, readers! It's The Draigg here! So… I've kind of run out of clever author's notes ideas again. So, just take this plain one while I come up with ones for the future. Monty Oum owns RWBY, not I. I pretty much don't own anything. I'm a bum with a laptop, pretty much. Anyway, let's get started!
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Normally, Weiss found showers relaxing. The warm water that rushed over her body was one of the few times of the day that she could relax and meditate on the day so far.
However, that Sunday, Weiss was feeling incredibly stressed out. If she could pace around in the shower, she would have worn a hole in the bottom by now. Being the daughter of one of the most economically powerful men on Remnant taught her several things.
But, the one thing she had applied the most was paranoia. Mr. Brass' actions yesterday night had caused her to believe that her father was going to take some direct measure with her friends. When she thought about it more, the more it made sense.
"He always has some sort of hidden reason to do anything. Ozpin said we were chosen as representatives of Beacon, but that's probably Father's cover. If anything, he probably wants to keep an eye on me," Weiss pieced together. One of the few positive things she had to say about her father was that he certainly was clever. But, Weiss was trained in analyzing people by her father herself, so she could easily see through his intentions.
But, of course with paranoia came doubt. Maybe Weiss was overthinking this. Maybe she was making a bigger deal out of nothing. It wouldn't be the first time she had done something like that. After all, in hindsight she realized that her dependence of coffee was more of a mental block than anything.
Regardless, the idea that her father was scheming behind the scenes was clawing at the back of her mind. It wouldn't make sense if he wasn't doing that. Turning off the water, Weiss stepped out of the shower and fried herself with a towel.
Overall, Weiss was feeling conflicted. She just didn't have any concrete evidence to do anything to protect her friends. All she had were her own thoughts and intuition. That was never good enough of a reason to do something drastic. She hated that feeling of helplessness.
Weiss sighed, and mumbled to herself, "I guess I need to wait and see…".
Slipping on her dress, Weiss walked out of the bathroom to join her teammates for breakfast. Maybe she could think of something with a full stomach.
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Mr. Brass wasn't feeling all that bad for once. He had made his own breakfast, while Blake and Ruby were waiting for Yang to finish cooking for them. And, just like the last time she did, Yang was held up on one small step.
"SEKIHA TENKYOKEN!" Yang cried as she crushed an orange underneath her fist. Pieces of the fruit flew everywhere, joining the remains of its citrus-y brothers. By now, Yang had pulverized at least a dozen oranges to make freshly squeezed juice.
"Yang… can we just eat now?" groaned Ruby from the table.
"Look, this won't take long! I just need about…" Yang counted on her fingers, "Five more oranges to fill this pitcher. Then, you can have some breakfast,". Ruby looked at the pitcher in question. It was less than halfway filled. Yang was way over-estimating her own abilities.
Blake sighed as she said, "We don't even need the juice… There's some drinks in the fridge,". Her stomach was growling pretty loudly by now. Sure, Yang's cooking was pretty good, but man, she was a major control freak when it came to her culinary skills.
At that point, Weiss walked into the kitchen, lured in by the smell of freshly cooked bacon and hash browns. That, and she wondered why Yang kept on yelling that weird battle cry over and over again.
"That smells good," Weiss noted as she was about to serve herself some of the food. However, Yang quickly slapped her hand away.
"OWW! What was that for?!" Weiss cried as she held her sore hand.
"Nobody eats until I'm finished! SEKIHA TENKYOKEN!" Yang declared before smashing another orange under her fist.
Weiss shot Yang an annoyed look before walking over to where Ruby was sitting and taking a seat next to her.
"Why does she keep on yelling that?" Weiss asked Ruby.
"She said that it's a move from the School of the Undefeated of the East," Ruby bitterly explained. She was really hungry right now, and the fact that fresh food was in front of her wasn't helping.
"Hey, it's a legit discipline! The wall told me so!" Yang protested over her shoulder.
"I don't know what she's talking about…" Ruby whispered to Weiss. Weiss could only nod in agreement. Yang sure could be strange sometimes. Taking advice from a wall was never a good sign of mental stability.
While all this was happening, Mr. Brass calmly ate his toast and sipped his apple juice. Right now, he wasn't very concerned about the insane stuff coming out of Yang's mouth, and the irritation of the others. He had bigger fish to fry.
No, right now he was more concerned about how he was going to tell the girls about Mr. Schnee's upcoming visit. He had to package the news in the right way, as to not let them in on the fact he was spying on them. After all, what good was a spy that got caught by the people he was watching?
What he needed to do was to slightly lie to Team RWBY. If he included some truth to his statements, then his fib would be more credible and believable. Telling them a half-truth was the way to go. And now was the time to get it over with.
"Hey, girls," Mr. Brass said, getting everyone's attention. "I got some news yesterday that I think you need to hear,".
Weiss' suspicion went so high in that moment that it put satellites to shame. Mr. Brass DID have some news he was holding from them yesterday!
Mr. Brass continued. "Well, yesterday, the head of the Schnee Dust Company, Mr. Schnee himself, contacted me,". Nobody noticed Weiss' face drop in horror.
"He told me that he was interested in meeting us. Something about being concerned with the stuff you guys did," Mr. Brass explained further. That's the way to do it, just be ambiguous with what he meant by that. Given what happened with the script Ms. Han wrote, Mr. Brass figured that the girls would think that Mr. Schnee would want to talk about them about it.
Ruby immediately asked, "About our first show, right?". She took the half-truth hook, line, and sinker.
"Probably. He wasn't that specific, but I imagine that he was very concerned about the image that was presented up there," Mr. Brass lied.
Blake looked like she was trying to restrain her surprise and anger. "What should we do?", she asked through gritted teeth.
"Just be yourselves, I guess," suggested Mr. Brass.
The news weighed heavily over the heads of Team RWBY, all for different reasons.
For Ruby, it was a mixture of meeting someone very important and famous, and meeting her girlfriend's dad. Even one of those was stressful enough, but the combo of the two just made her inwardly freak out. She needed to be on her best behavior for that visit!
Blake was seriously considering going on a tirade when she saw Mr. Schnee. He was the head of the very company that had oppressed her people for so long! She knew that she wouldn't be able to resist talking to him about Faunus rights. Hopefully, she would do it in such a way that didn't result in her getting arrested or having to run away.
As for Yang, she was really concerned about how the rest of her teammates were going to act around Mr. Schnee. When you lived around a girl who had a serious grudge against the father of the other girl, who had severe emotional issues, you would eventually realize that you're pretty much sitting on a powder keg next to a fire. Hopefully, everyone would retain their sanity and not mess up everything around them.
Finally, Weiss' emotions were a mixture of anger, worry, and for some odd reason, joy. Sure, she was pissed off as all hell that her dad was seeking to intervene in her life again, and possibly ruin everything. But, at the same time, she was glad that her father was actually going out of his way to pay her a personal visit. She hadn't even talked to him ever since she left for Beacon Academy. Maybe, just maybe, this wouldn't turn out for the worst. Maybe her father could actually act like he used to be, and not be the cold, distant man she knew now. But that was probably a pipe dream. Overall, Weiss didn't know what to feel.
Seeing the odd expressions on Team RWBY's faces, Mr. Brass continued slowly. "… So, he's going to be stopping by around next Friday. At least our touring schedule won't be interrupted,".
"R-right," stuttered Weiss. She was nervously drumming her fingers on the table, thinking about what could possibly happen. She just couldn't think of any route she could prepare for that wouldn't end in a shouting match against her father.
Ruby noticed the worry on both Weiss' face and in her voice. "Are you going to be okay?" she asked, putting a hand on Weiss' shoulder.
Weiss gulped. "I'll be fine," she lied.
A pregnant pause fell over the kitchen. How else could Team RWBY react to such a huge announcement? They couldn't act like everything was normal. If anything, this trip was on a downward spiral. Not a single good thing came about because of it. Any sane person would have high-tailed it as soon as they got kicked off stage for racist dialogue. What was the point of being here if all that happened to them was nothing but pain?
Blake abruptly excused herself from the table. "I'm not hungry anymore," she said as she walked out of the kitchen. Off in the distance, everybody else heard a door slam and Blake talk to herself noisily and furiously. Clearly, she wasn't a happy actress this morning.
"I better go calm her down," Yang said as she briskly made her way towards the team's room. When Weiss and Ruby heard Yang open the door, they heard Blake fume loudly, "I can't believe that m-" before the door closed again.
Ruby and Weiss looked at each other awkwardly. The both of them didn't really know what to do right now. So, thy let their instincts take over. They stood up and served themselves the food that Yang had made for them. Perhaps the food would calm their nerves.
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As it turned out, eating anything didn't soothe their emotions at all. A few hours after the announcement, Weiss had pulled Ruby aside to the upstairs office to talk to her privately. Ruby had been listening to Weiss rant to herself for a few minutes now.
"I mean, does he honestly expect for everything to be fine when he shows up, like he was always a good parent? No! That can't possibly happen! To waltz in here like he's only going to have a friendly chat is inconceivable! He never cared about what I felt! He's only doing this to keep me under his thumb! I—" Weiss raved until she was cut off by Ruby.
"Weiss, can you please just think rationally here?" she begged of the ranting heiress.
"Rationally? I AM thinking rationally here! In fact, how can you be so calm about this?! Don't you realize what could happen?!" Weiss shrieked in response.
"It's a very stressful thing, I know. But panicking this much won't help us along at all!" Ruby said.
Weiss sighed as she slumped down on the couch next to Ruby. "I know, I know. I'm just scared, is all," she said in a defeated tone of voice.
"What makes you say that?" inquired Ruby.
"What if he finds out about us? I mean, I'm held to a certain image by him! Being in love with you doesn't fit with any possible plans he has for me," Weiss explained.
"Like… having someone to take over in the future?" posed Ruby.
"Exactly! He wants a child of mine to be the head of the company eventually! And having Winter do it instead is out of the option, since she refuses to court anyone!" Weiss moaned in despair.
"I guess we have to be even more careful around him. Like, super-secret careful," Ruby thought out loud.
"The man is an expert at reading people, Ruby. He would be able to tell we're dating from over a mile away!" Weiss complained. She just couldn't figure a way to be around Ruby the same time her father was there.
Ruby seemed to consider this for a little bit, before saying, "I still think we should try. I mean, it's working with Mr. Brass, right?".
"I suppose you have a point there," grumbled Weiss.
Ruby pecked Weiss on the cheek. A small blush crept over Weiss' face as she heard Ruby say, "If we work hard enough at it, I'm sure hiding it would be a possibility,".
Weiss had to relent under Ruby's spell. Her sheer optimism even in the face of adversity always managed to make Weiss feel better. One could say that her good spirit was contagious.
The heiress took a deep breath before she spoke. "Okay," she said, "We can try it. Just don't try anything too drastic, alright?".
"That's the spirit!" congratulated Ruby as she gave Weiss' shoulder a small squeeze. "We just to need to think this through in the best way possible!".
"For my—no, for OUR sakes, I hope you're right," Weiss cautioned. Even if she was going to go with Ruby's plan, that didn't mean she had full faith in it.
Ruby secretly hoped that this would all turn out for the best. Sure, this was uncharted territory, but that didn't mean she was going to lie down without a fight.
Weiss was sure worth fighting for.
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How will Ruby and Weiss get out of this one? How will Mr. Schnee react when he meets Ruby? Well, I can't say that it'll happen next chapter, because then I would be skipping over a lot of good story material. But hey, you should totally read more of this story to see when it DOES happen. And of course, I must ask you guys for more reviews. It's the only way I get feedback from you guys, unless you want to message me. Either way is cool with me. This is The Draigg, signing off for now!