Chapter 30: It All Comes Tumbling Down
Hey there, readers, fans, or whatever you like to refer to yourselves as. It's The Draigg here again. Well, to make up for the fact that the last chapter ended on a rather depressing note, I'll just cut to the chase so that this chapter will start quick. That way, we can get to the better part quicker. Monty Oum owns RWBY. There, that's out of the way. Now, let's get going with this thing.
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Mr. Schnee and Weiss walked into the nearest empty room, which happened to be Mr. Brass' bedroom. Surprisingly, it was rather well made and clean. But, that wasn't noticed at all by either Weiss or Mr. Schnee. Nothing clean was going to go down right now.
Weiss angrily shook off her father's guiding hand and furiously asked, "What did you say to Ruby? What did you do?!".
"Ms. Rose and I had a most interesting conversation. She told me that she is rather infatuated with you. And, apparently you feel the same way," Mr. Schnee leisurely explained.
Shocked was a good word to describe how Weiss' face looked. While she knew that the fight against her father wouldn't be easy, she was more surprised that Ruby was taken out so quickly and easily, even after all the preparation she underwent. But then, Weiss' shock quickly turned into denial.
"That… can't be possible! It's not true!" Weiss exclaimed mostly to herself. But no matter how much she wanted to believe that her father was lying and trying to throw her for a loop, the fact that Ruby ran by her earlier, with tears in her eyes, told her otherwise.
"I'm afraid it is, there's no denying it. Yours and hers reactions have only served to confirm it. Now, answer me, and do it honestly, do you really love that girl?" asked Mr. Schnee asked as he put his hand on Weiss' shoulder.
Weiss swatted away the hand and angrily replied, "What does it matter to you?! You don't care! You're just going to take away what I love! I HATE YOU!". She tried to storm away after her shouting, but she was roughly pulled back by Mr. Schnee.
"That wasn't an answer. Weiss Brynhildr Schnee, answer me this instant: do you love the Rose girl or not?" he asked again in a much firmer tone than before.
"You know what? I do, okay?! I love her with all of my heart, and there's nothing you can do about it! Even if I die, I'll come back and keep on loving her! You can try to do whatever you want, but it won't work! Ruby and I will always be together!" Weiss passionately declared. She meant every word of what she said. It felt very releasing to finally be able to say what she actually felt for one around her father.
Mr. Schnee barely reacted to being yelled at. In fact, all he did was just take out his scroll and begin typing in something on it. "At least you're honest. That's all I needed to know," he simply stated while still looking for something in the screen.
Weiss never expected to see her father act so calmly at such a massive revelation. If anything, she thought that he would have her detained until she changed her mind, or send her out in the world without a penny to her name. Instead, he remained as serene as ever.
"What? Aren't you going to yell at me? Tell me I'm worthless? Say I'm making the wrong choice?" Weiss asked, now horrendously confused.
Looking up from his scroll, Mr. Schnee responded, "Weiss, you're a Schnee. I couldn't change your mind, even if I wanted to. But, that's why I have this,". Before Weiss could ask what he had, she felt the scroll in her pocket vibrate.
As Weiss read what was sent to her e-mail inbox, Mr. Schnee explained, "To be safe, I planned a few steps in every direction, in case your romantic life ever interfered with the Schnee lineage. So, that list of sperm banks has some of the most influential and important clientele on Remnant. When you're ready to produce an heir, pick one of the locations on the list,".
Weiss reacted with a mixture of further confusion and anger. He father was willing to accept that she was in love with another girl? But, that idealistic thought was overshadowed by the idea that Weiss had less control over her fate than she thought. Now she was being told that she was going to have a child no matter what. Weiss didn't even know if she wanted to have one yet, let alone have it involved in the Schnee lineage.
"I… I… how? Why?" Weiss was only able to ask.
"You should know by now. Us Schnees always plan ahead for any possibility," Mr. Schnee said with a flippant gesture of his hand.
"But maybe I don't want a child!" Weis protested as she put her scroll away.
Mr. Schnee's eyes hardened as he casted his gaze into Weiss' eyes. "Do you know who you are? You're Weiss Schnee, heiress to a very important, if not THE most important company in the world. If we allow anybody else to take control of it away from us, then every kingdom will fall from the shock. Nations depend on our stock, our trade. For you to deny the world of another Schnee, you're damning it to a slow death. Do you think any other company can produce as much weapons, ammunition, fuel, and other amenities as us? Without the Schnee Dust Company in its current state, only the bones of civilization will be left after the darkness of Grimm consumes us all. The status quo must be kept, and you MUST produce an heir," Mr. Schnee lectured.
As much as Weiss hated to admit it, her father did have a point. The best way to describe the Schnee Dust Company was 'too big to fail'. Given the amount her family's products integrated themselves into society, nearly every person in every kingdom was reliant on the Company in some way. In fact, the same could be said about some of the cities and towns outside the kingdoms as well. Civilization was forged by dust, and by the machinations of the Schnee Dust Company, it would stay under their control. No other dust company could compare to the power the Schnees wielded. If someone without the proper skills got their hands on the company… there was no telling what would happen to the rest of the world.
The very worst thing in the world depends on the person thinking about it. For some, it was knowing you're insignificant in the universe, and to others, it was having your life completely wasted on something trivial until it was too late. In the case of Weiss, however, it was knowing that her own decisions didn't matter at all. All of her actions had been pointless so far, as destiny had conspired to make sure that her fate was definite. She was going to have a child and stay within the Schnee family, whether she wanted to or not. Civilization depended on it, from that point of view.
Weiss slumped into a nearby chair as the weight of what all of that meant crashed down onto her. She thought before that her destiny could only be forged by herself, no matter what life would throw at her. But instead, her fate was always decided from the beginning. She thought that the choice she made on who to love with all of her body and heart meant something. Instead, all paths led to the same point. And there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.
Mr. Schnee watched on, only feeling the vaguest spark of concern. He had already left his soul behind a long time ago. He needed to, otherwise he couldn't have survived the life he had led up to this point. Much like Weiss, he never asked to be a part of all of this type of life. But, he realized as he took the reins of the company that he could no longer afford to be the person he wanted to be. He sympathized with Weiss a little. He understood the reason why she was so shocked right now. But he couldn't bring himself to care much. The old Mr. Schnee died the day he had to take the role of CEO. The only thing left was the shadow of his former self, tempered by the flames of loss and sacrifice to keep everything together. Caring wasn't something he was very good at any more.
"I know it must be hard on you. But, look at it this way: you're doing the right thing by going along with that plan. We couldn't do it without you," Mr. Schnee said in an effort to try and reassure Weiss. His daughter didn't seem to react at all. Seeing nothing else he could do, he left the room. He thought to himself that one day Weiss would understand why he was the person he was.
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"Leaving so soon?" Mr. Brass asked as Mr. Schnee walked past the kitchen towards the door.
"Unfortunately, I have other business to attend to. But, I must say I've gotten exactly what I wanted. Keep up the good work you're doing here," Mr. Schnee replied as he stopped in front of the door.
Mr. Brass quickly joined him at the front of the condo. He asked in a lower voice, "What should I do now?".
"Keep on observing them, and report if you see anything suspicious for the time being. Don't worry, this trip is going to end soon for all of you," whispered Mr. Schnee. In a louder voice, he then said, "Be sure to give my regards to Team RWBY. They're most interesting,". With that, he exited the condo. He had gotten what he came here for.
Mr. Brass scratched his head as he walked into the living room. Just what exactly did he do with the girls? It was as if Ruby and Weiss simply disappeared! Yet again, dealing with that man was scary enough. It made sense to him if they were also a bit afraid right now.
Just as Mr. Brass sat in the armchair and turned on the television, Blake and Yang walked into the living room.
"We heard to front door open and close. Did Mr. Schnee already leave?" Blake asked.
"I'm afraid so. He said he had other work to do. But, he sends his regards," Mr. Brass replied.
Blake felt a little annoyed. She was going to try and convince him that he was evil for his treatment of the Faunus in his company. But now, with him gone, she would never get that chance. But, that thought was swept aside as another one took its place.
"Where's Weiss and Ruby?" Blake then asked, looking around.
"Yeah, where's my sis?" Yang asked alongside Blake. Now that she thought about it, she didn't know if Ruby came down from upstairs or not.
"I don't know. But, try to remember that old saying. You know, 'look and you shall find', and all that?" suggested Mr. Brass.
"You're a lot of help," Yang mumbled under her breath as she walked up the stairs. When she reached the top, she saw that the office was open and, more importantly, empty. Where else could Ruby possibly be?
When she reached the bottom of the steps, she was asked by Blake, "I take it they're not up there?".
"Nope. Come on, let's check the other rooms," Yang ordered.
As the duo walked down the hallway, they noticed the door of Mr. Brass' room was open. That was odd, it was usually closed. Yang decided to look inside. She thought that maybe Ruby was in there.
What she saw instead was a near catatonic Weiss sitting in a chair. One her face was a frozen look of horror and despair. Yang couldn't just let Weiss stay there like that. She entered the room, with Blake following after her.
"Weiss? What happened to you?" Yang asked gently.
" My father… It didn't matter. None of it mattered," the white haired girl responded. Her voice sounded incredibly distant, as if she was only barely conscious of what was around her. She seemed more absorbed in her thoughts than anything.
"What happened? Do you know where Ruby is?" asked Yang further.
Weiss slowly shook her head. Yang's familiar fears were growing by the instant. If something like this could happen to her because of her dad, then what the hell could he do to Ruby? Yang needed to find Ruby A.S.A.P.!
Before she went off to find Ruby, Yang tried to talk to Weiss one more time. "Look, I'm going to get Ruby, and then we can sort out whatever happened. Okay?" she tried comforting. She didn't get a response.
As Yang walked out of the room, she looked at a slightly shocked Blake with concerned eyes. This visit had just made everything even worse than before. The extent of that damage remained to be seen, however. They needed to find Ruby first.
Hoping to find some, or any, answers as to what was going on, Yang and Blake walked down the hallway. Ruby was probably in their shared bedroom, if she wasn't upstairs or in the other bedroom.
They would find her soon enough.
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Man, the stuff just keeps on piling and piling up on Weiss and Ruby. I just hope that they'll get better soon. So, feel free to send me what you think so far in the review section, or however you want to tell me. Messages are fine too. This is The Draigg, signing off.