Howdy folks, how's it going?
Hope you've been keeping safe.
So a quick word here. I will be honest, this chapter does not really center around what I wanted it to. But I got struck with horrible writer block on how to make what I wanted work, so eventually the only way I could get anything done was to change tracks and focus on another relevant aspect of things to come. I hope you will enjoy it all the same.
There's more to say at the bottom, if you're interested.
As always, big shout out to Chaos Productions for his help.
And as always, I own neither RWBY nor LoL.
Now, enjoy.
/
Weiss…
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Weiss…
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…
"Weiss, please wake up, dear." The voice asked, and the little girl blearily opened her eyes. She was in her room, back home. Back to the time and place where it still felt like a room, like a home, rather than the gilded cage it eventually became. She rose into a sitting position in her bed, staring uncomprehendingly as a few maids went in and out the open door, packing up belongings.
Then she felt the tender hand on her shoulder, and drowsily looked to the side. Mother was there, every detail exactly as the little girl remembered. The snow white hair, with bangs and stray strands splitting away from an otherwise perfect hairdo. All the creases and lines that were beginning to show in a face nearly a mirror to her own, and crystalline blue eyes that were beginning to dull from strain. A big belly, because of the little brother that was on the way. But most of all, at this frozen moment, Willow Schnee, looked exhausted, as she gave Weiss a warm, but tired smile. She was always tired nowadays, even sad sometimes…
"Wake up, dear," Mother once again said with tenderness that did little to mask the tension beneath, no matter how encouragingly she was trying to smile. "We need to go."
Don't go, she wanted to say, I know how this ends. Don't go…
"Where are we going, mother?" She found herself asking instead, the words she had said then leaving her lips without her consent.
"We're going to… take a little trip, dear." Mother replied patiently, gently, and Weiss leaned into her hand as it touched her face gently. "You father has prepared a special place for us. It'll be a family vacation."
Don't go, she wanted to say.
"Alright, mother." She said instead, screaming inside as she saw mother's smile at the reply. It seemed so sad…
Suddenly, the scene changed. One moment she had been getting up from her bed, the next she was on her feet and fully dressed in heavy clothes for the cold, being escorted alongside her mother by armed security, across a massive hangar in the typical Atlesian white décor. They were being led into a transport ship that was as massive as it was elegant, beams of steel fanning out behind almost like the tail of an albino peacock.
Stop, she wanted to say, Don't let it happen. Do something, anything. Don't let it happen…
She noticed her hand was being held, and she looked up. Her sister Winter, noticing it, looked down and gave an encouraging smile. Without the outfit of the military, it was like looking at a mirror…
"Don't worry, Weiss." The sister said, squeezing her hand in support. "It's going to be fine."
No, it's not.
"I'm scared, Winter…" She said instead, hugging her sister's side. Please, don't go in there.
"Honestly? So am I." The older girl replied, the tension at the edges of her smile all the more noticeable. "But we're Schnee, little sister. We'll overcome this worry, as we always do. Things will be fine."
Weiss could not protest. Her mouth refused to open.
As they got closer to the transport, a figure stood, in his ever prim and neat white suit, surveying things with his cold and uncaring eyes.
"You're here, good." Father said, in that impatient tone she remembered so well. "Everything is ready, you'll be departing immediately."
"You'll not be coming with us?" Mother asked, cold as the Atlesian blizzard, in stark contrast to the warmth she had shown her earlier. Things had always been cold between the two of them, even before she had realized it.
"I am needed here, to coordinate matters. Do not worry, I am secure enough." Father replied bluntly, turning to look towards his daughters. "And you will be too, until this all blows over. Should be only a few weeks, at worst. I apologize for forcing this on you, but I can't take the chance."
He nodded once to Winter, getting only a glare of contempt in return and easily ignoring it. Then…
Weiss blinked as he looked down at her. Was she imagining things, or did he seem to… hesitate for a moment?
The moment passed, and the man's hand reached out, patting her on the head.
Don't let us go, she wanted to plead, It's a mistake. Don't let us go.
"See you soon." Father say, about turning and walking away.
The rest of the family, plus their escort, begun to board the transport in silence. A start contrast to all the screaming Weiss felt inside.
The scene changed again. The hangar vanished in smoke, to be replaced with luxuriously decorated place, the ship's interior, all white rugs and couches and decorations of the highest quality. Only a row of small, circular windows showed the outside world, and this time, when some small part of Weiss said Don't look, she had enough control over her body to obey.
She was being held in a tight embrace, she realized, and she looked up. Her mother's face was a mask of tranquil displeasure, but she could see the terror that was hidden beneath. Winter was holding on to the woman's shoulder, glaring defiantly at something before them.
Don't look. Don't look.
She did. And she saw the bodies, strewn about, staining the white floors red. Their armed escort, cut down to a man. Standing before them were those that had been masquerading as the crew of the transport, a white, bone like mask on each of their faces. The White Fang. The trap had been sprung, her family was at the mercy of the terrorists that made demons out of them…
A man stepped up from amidst them. Weiss would have balked, if she could move. This was not right, he hadn't been there. He shouldn't be here…
"Do forgive us for the unpleasantness." The massive, hulking man, face fully obscured by the mask, and bloody chainsaw firmly in hand, said with surprising politeness. "It was a necessity. An unfortunate one, but a necessity nonetheless."
"What do you intend to do with us?" Mother inquire, a picture of icy detachment, refusing to let anything show, to give the monsters any bit of leeway.
"I know that the situation does not paint the best picture of us, Mrs. Schnee, but rest assured, you have nothing to fear." The man replied, again sounding nothing if not polite.
"Your people have made threats against my family. Infiltrated this transport to get to us. Killed people in front of my daughters." Mother replied, with cold steel in her voice. "Forgive me if I find that hard to believe."
Weiss blinked, and even the screaming voice inside her stopped in confusion. She did not remember this happening before…
"And I cannot fault you for that, Mrs. Schnee. By any metric, me and those working under me are nothing but criminals for what we have just done." The man conceded with a nod. "But still, I meant what I said. We did not go through all the trouble and secrecy and resources spent just to hurt a pregnant woman and two girls. We are not monsters, despite what some people on both sides of this conflict may believe. You will be held as bargaining chips so your dear husband has no other choice but to take our demands seriously, but I assure you that no harm will befall you under our custody."
"You give him too much credit." Mother replied, her cold, steely tone turning dry.
Stop, the voice inside begged, it's about to happen, please stop it…
And then it happened.
All of a sudden, the tense standoff was broken up as everything around them begun to rattle. The terrorists cursed and cried out in surprise as the sheer turbulence made a few of them stumble and fall, while Mother held Weiss all the tighter.
"Cockpit, what the hell are you doing?!" The man demanded loudly into a comm he had procured from somewhere.
In the back of her mind, Weiss could suddenly hear something other than her own voice. Loud, owling winds, the very same that were battering the transport right now.
Don't look outside…
"We have no idea, Boss!" A crackling, clearly panicking voice replied. "This blizzard came out of nowhere and-Oh dear gods, what is that?! EVERYBODY, BRACE FOR-!"
The world suddenly shattered around her, torn asunder with the keening wail of tearing steel as the walls of the transport shattered, the best technology and defenses that money could buy destroyed like wet tissue in the face of this unseen onslaught. The wind roared loudly as it invaded the space, and the cold followed with it.
Weiss could only helplessly hold on to Mother as the world spun, the voice within and the child without screaming all the way until the almighty crash and the darkness that followed.
Then the darkness changed. Instead of nothing, she felt cold. Very cold…
Don't open your eyes, the voice pleaded, Don't see what's right before you…
The little girl blearily got up, facing the bitter cold as her eyes were pried open for her, and she realized she could see little from one, due to the weeping blood that even now was freezing over it. But the one that was free was all that was needed for the sight that had forever remained frozen in her mind.
Right next to her, amidst the howling blizzard that now swept through everything around the girl, all the wreckage of the now crashed transport, somewhere deep in the Atlesian mountains, she could see.
Her mother lay there, unmoving. Glassy eyes stared blankly into the void, a trickle of frozen blood at the corner of her mouth, a hand reached out in the girl's direction, grasping at nothing…
Mother was dead. Her young self hadn't understood it at the time, but she was dead.
Lost, terrified, half-blind, Weiss could only look around helplessly, futilely trying to make sense of the chaos. Where was Winter? Where was her sister?
She tried calling out for her, screamed with all she had to be heard over the roiling winds.
And the winds roared back.
Don't look up, don't loop up…
Little Weiss looked up, even as she suddenly felt the pounding on the ground through the cold that threatened to seep into her veins. Looked up through the blizzard and the gale, through the snow and the storm, and she saw. The giant shadow, the blistering red eyes that pierced through the cold, seemingly staring into her very soul. Amidst the blizzard, the titanic, wicked claw rose, ready to strike and finish the job.
This was aways how it went, the voice within knew. But this time, two things were different.
This time, as the darkness of unconsciousness claimed her, the little girl heard… something. Something that sounded like… a screech of pure defiance…
And from the darkness that consumed the whole world, and threatened to consume the whimpering little girl, two glowing orbs of familiar, green light suddenly appeared, staring down passively, without any malice...
"Weiss…"
/
"Wake up, Weiss…" The blank, quiet voice broke through, and Weiss shot up with a startle, breathing heavily and glancing around wildly as her sleep-addled mind slowly but steadily caught up with reality. She was in her dorm room, she realized, a quick look at her scroll telling her it was a little past midnight. She'd been asleep, she realized, as her mind caught up to what had happened earlier in the day. And she'd had the nightmare again. More vividly and more detailed than she had ever remembered having it before…
It was then that she realized there was a hand on her should, and she followed it, to see her team leader standing by her bed, staring at her in that typically, blank, head-tilted way of hers.
"Bad dream?" Ruby inquired softly, and Weiss could only shake her head in bemusement. Earlier in the semester, waking up to this would've scared the lights out of her, but now, now she just felt grateful, and the irony was not lost on the Heiress.
"Y-yeah, Ruby, it was. It's…" Weiss hesitated, unsure of how to put it. "Something I've been dealing with most of my life. When'd you get here?"
"Just got here. Talking to Headmaster before. Felt you scared, tried wake up…" Ruby replied, and the piercing stare made it clear she wasn't falling for the deflection. "Want cocoa?"
"…You know what, it's not like I'm getting any more sleep after that, so why not?" The heiress conceded after a moment's thought. "Let me just get myself presentable."
With that, she promptly got up and headed towards the bathroom. Ruby watched her go, before looking towards Merle, and the duo looked back towards the bed. Weiss had been so eager to get up, she hadn't even noticed the thin sheet of rime that had been building up around her…
/
You didn't think I made all these changes to Weiss' backstory (though admittedly we didn't know much of it back when I did it) only for it to not be relevant, did you?
If what little you saw of Willow and Jacques in that dream seems out of character, that was wholly intentional. Not only is this a dream derived from a little girl's memories, at the point in time where these events happened things hadn't gotten quite as bad in that family as they did in canon. Weiss remembers a mother that actually made an effort to care, not the drunkard she'd become.
And speaking of canon, those of you who have read my previous update to Through the Eternities will be aware that I went on a bit of a rant regarding my thoughts on canon developments in MTG. I fully appreciate the words of support of anyone who posted them in reviews, but I feel the need to clarify that I am pissed with canon because canon is shit, not because I had any intention of following it closely in my stories, that desire died long ago.
Frankly, it's the same thing with RWBY. After the absolute trainwreck that was Volume 8's ending, I couldn't even muster the will to actually watch Volume 9, because, as Chaos puts it, I didn't want the last of the magic to die. Then I started to hear the bits and pieces of what's been happening. I will not go into a big rant about it like I did in TtE, but suffice it to say, I am firmly of the opinion that RWBY, as a series, should just end. Put it out of its misery and leave the actual good writing to fanfiction, because fuck knows a lot of writers here have been doing it better than RT…
Anyway, next time we have some more exposition, provided I can get past that block and work that scene the way I intended. Before that though, in two weeks we have the next update to Beneath a Broken Moon, so look forward to that.
Cya all on the next one, stay safe and take care.