Chapter 26: The Power of Poison Apple
Atlas. 50 Years Ago.
Nicholas Schnee glanced down at a photograph of his baby daughter as he isolated himself on the caboose of the train. The frosty breath that slipped through his lips as he sighed tiredly rose high into the air, fogging a nearby window to block the view of Atlas. Nicholas - the self-made man who built half of this proud city - missed his family and wanted nothing more than to return to them. But being successful came with many problems. Such problems included dealing with his business rivals who wanted his power for themselves, his business partners who wanted his power for themselves, and the current war going on between the four kingdoms.
Recently, one of his closest partners had come up with a new formula for infusing air dust with a fatal poison. But Nicholas refused to be directly responsible for the production of anything that would take a life. He had even considered shutting down the dust mines all together for fear of his resources powering weapons of mass destruction. However, he hoped that his newly invented ice dust would provide a non-lethal answer to the war.
He was brought out of his thoughts by a knock at the caboose's door.
"Hello, hello." A man in a heavy winter coat poked his head into the cabin with a smile on his face.
Nicholas sighed and tucked the photograph into his pocket before tiredly smiling at his closest partner. "Hello, Peter. Care to sit with me?"
"Of course." Peter nodded and sat next to his friend.
"... sure are a lot of stars out tonight." Nicholas mused out loud. "You'd almost think there wasn't a war going on. Speaking of which, did you have a moment to look over my proposal for using ice dust for our military?"
"Uh, yes. Yes, I read through it, old boy." Peter nodded.
"And? What do you think?"
"I think… you're naive." Peter admitted, sadly. "The king and the council don't want to win this war with pacifist snowballs. They want definite results! Have you ever heard of Dr. Sandra Desert?"
"Hm, yes, I think there was something about her in the paper this morning." Nicholas nodded as he thought back. "She's supposed to be one of the top dust experts in Vale."
"She tried to convince her council to use a special sleeping gas she'd developed with air dust to put their enemies to sleep." Peter explained. "They revoked her tenure and kicked her off the council! They turned her into a laughingstock, Nicholas! And the same thing will happen to us if you insist on having Atlas fight with ice!"
"Then I just won't let this company get involved in the war."
"No! Look, if you'd just see the breakthroughs I've made with my poison dust-"
"I told you before, I will not let my company produce weapons!" Nicholas replied, sternly. "It's bad enough that they used my resources to create that lunatic super-soldier of theirs! What the devil do they need more of my dust for?!"
"But think of the money!"
"We have money." Nicholas sighed. "Peter, look… I know this war is worrying you just as much as it worries me. But I have a daughter now. And I don't want her to grow up with a legacy built on blood! And I know, deep down, you don't want that for your son, either."
Before Peter could reply, the train suddenly violently shook as something struck the tracks. The businessmen peeked out of the window to see a Nevermore attacking the bridge up ahead. Nicholas instinctively used his black glyphs to try and stop the train, but it was too late. The train went off the rails and crashed into the bridge's support beams. The caboose had been severed from the rest of the train just in time, but hung dangerously over the cliff. Nicholas managed to grab onto a briefcase holding vials of his ice dust which was caught in between the luggage racks, but Peter was slipping down the floor to his doom.
"Nicholas! Help me! Please! I'm going to fall!"
"Peter, take my hand!" Nicholas reached out to save his friend, but the caboose lurched forwards and the luggage racks broke loose from the cabin. The men screamed in fear as they plummeted into the gorge below. Nicholas let go of the briefcase and tried to summon another black glyph to save Peter, but it was no use; the scientist hit his head on the side of the cliff, cracking his head open.
Nicholas fell through the black glyphs, and softly landed on the ground. The CEO cried as he ran to cradle his friend's lifeless body. "No… oh, Peter… no…" Nicholas cried, hugging his friend tightly. A shrill roar from the Nevermore turned grief into rage, and Nicholas Schnee drew his rapier to summon a Nevermore glyph to battle the Grimm. With a single strike, he wounded the beast's wing and sent it crashing into the side of the gorge where his briefcase had landed. The impact caused a massive explosion that not only destroyed the Nevermore, but also sent out a shockwave that drained Nicholas of his aura.
Once he came to, Nicholas Schnee looked on in awe at the beautiful crystal that shone brightly in the snowy sky.
Vale City. Today.
Weiss Schnee adjusted the scarf around her neck as she stepped off the barge from Patch to Vale. It was a frigid morning, but she had always been used to the cold, especially when she had more important things on her mind. Ruby was still an emotional wreck after losing Master Mold once again, and needed some time to recover. Weiss hated leaving her and their daughter behind, but she was needed back at her company.
As such, Cerena had been waiting for her with her company truck to drive her to the office. "So, what's on the agenda today, Ms. Polar?"
"Well, there's a meeting with Mr. Flynt Coal about helping rebuild his family's dust shop at ten o' clock. Then there's an orientation for the new 'pawns' at one-thirty. Then you're helping me and the other knights practice fencing at two. And finally, Joshua's rescheduled flight simulation is set for three." Cerena listed. "Sorry, Mrs. Schnee-Rose. Looks like you've got a busy day ahead of you."
"To be honest, I don't mind." Weiss admitted. "I could use a busy day to keep me distracted. But while I have you here, could you go pick Joshua up and help him review?"
"You're the boss, boss." Cerena shrugged as they arrived at the airfield.
Weiss got out of the truck and made her way towards her office, stopping only for a cup of coffee and a muffin. Once secluded in her office, she took a deep breath and began reviewing a few files. However, not even ten minutes later, someone arrived at the front door of the office building and began ringing the doorbell. With her security cameras out of order, Weiss couldn't see who it was, but the ringing continued to distract her from her work.
"Klein, will you please answer that already!" Weiss snapped into her intercom. Once the ringing finally stopped, the CEO went back to her paperwork. But she was once again distracted by the audible voices of all her employees talking over each other. She growled in annoyance before getting up from her seat and marched towards the door.
"Will you keep it down, you noisy mother-!" Weiss paused in utter shock once she spotted the source of the commotion. "... sister?"
Sitting in the lobby, surrounded by dozens of workers to cater to her, was the former Guardsman known as Agent White; Winter Schnee. The oldest Schne sibling looked up from her coffee mug and toasted to Weiss in greeting with a small smile. "Good morning, Weissy."
Weiss cleared her throat and smoothed out her dress. "Ahem, Klein, push back all my appointments. I'll be treating my sister to breakfast."
"Of course, Mrs. Schnee-Rose." The butler nodded.
Minutes later, the Schnee sisters had arrived at a cafe for coffee and scones.
"Ahem, so, Winter… what's new with you?"
"Well, after the debacle with Whitley, I decided to help undo some of the damage the SDC has done to the world." Winter explained as she added cream to her mug. "I've already helped several small businesses that were pushed into bankruptcy by Jacques. Even Qrow's been a lot of help. Which reminds me, how are Ruby and little Penny?"
"Penny's doing alright, but Ruby…she ran into Master Mold again a while back," Weiss revealed.
"Oh no: is she okay?" Winter couldn't help but ask, already aware of Ruby's white whale due to past discussions with her sister.
"She'll need to wait to have her stitches removed before she's ready for field work again, and I'm doing my best to help her recover from the mind games that Master Mold pulled, so hopefully she'll be doing better soon," Weiss remarked, half-heartedly. "But when she went to bed last night… she called me Penny."
Winter set her cup aside and gently cupped her sister's hands in her own. "It can be difficult to say goodbye to one's first love. That doesn't mean Ruby loves you any less."
"I know. I know Ruby loves me." Weiss nodded. "I am the mother of her child, after all. In any case, while it's always nice to see you Winter, something tells me you didn't come here just to ask questions about my wife and daughter," Weiss called out with a raised eyebrow.
Winter sighed and reached into her handbag for something. "I came here to tell you about something… something that concerns our legacy. Or, your legacy, depending on what you do with this."
"What do you mean?"
"During the war, our grandfather discovered something that turned the tide in Atlas' favor." Winter laid out a manilla folder on the table, letting pictures of a star-shaped crystal spill out. "It was an accident. A Nevermore attacked the train he was traveling on while he was experimenting with ice dust."
Weiss curiously shuffled through the pictures and read the reports, recognizing it as her grandfather's handwriting. It went into detail describing how in all of the chaos of the Nevermore's attack, the ice dust had been infused with gravity and energy dust into a powerful dust crystal unlike anything he had ever seen before. What's more, when the crystal came into contact with his semblance, Nicholas' glyphs could create more than just copies of the Grimm he'd killed. When he focused, he could use this new dust to create hard-light images of anything he could think of.
On the final page of the file, Weiss found what appeared to be a poem. "'In coldest day, in warmest night, no evil shall elude my sight. Let those who savor evil's delight, beware my power; the Ice King's might.' I wasn't aware our grandfather was prone to poetry."
"It's not a poem." Winter corrected. "I think it's some sort of activation code or something. Or perhaps it was simply a mantra to give him confidence."
"Alright… but why are you telling me this?" Weiss asked.
"When I signed away the rights to the remaining SDC assets to you, I think that that unique crystal was among them." Winter explained. "I just wanted to make sure that if you ever found it, you'd know what it is and put it to good use."
Weiss perked up at this revelation. "So, let me get this straight…" She smiled. "You find out that our grandfather accidentally discovered a powerful dust crystal with seemingly limitless potential - one which he somehow managed to keep out of Jacques' hands - and the first thing you think to do… is tell me?"
"Well, yes." Winter shrugged. "Who else would I have told?"
"Well, I… I'm flattered. I suppose I always suspected you'd consult with Ciel about weapon-based items from the SDC."
"Yes, well, I'm not sure that this crystal should be used solely as a weapon."
Just then, both sisters noticed Winter's scroll vibrating on the table.
"Hey, your boyfriend's calling." Weiss teased as she held up the scroll.
"He's not my boyfriend!" Winter sneered, snatching the scroll from Weiss and hitting the answer button. "Hey, babe."
Weiss rolled her eyes.
"Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay, I'm on my way." Winter hung up her scroll and got up from her seat. "Qrow needs my help with our next project. I'll call you later tonight. Just consider looking for that crystal."
Once her sister left, Weiss picked up the file and read through it once more as she made her way to the parking lot. As she waited at the crosswalk, she could sense someone else walk up next to her. Glancing towards her side, she could see that the person was wearing a black trenchcoat, a black scarf wrapped around her mouth, and a black fedora.
"Gloomy weather we're having, eh?" She asked.
"Hm, I suppose so." Weiss shrugged and adjusted her own scarf.
"Say, wait a minute…" The woman stroked her chin. "Don't I recognize you from somewhere? Yeah, you're that huntress from the famous Team RWBY, right? The ones who took down Salem at Menagerie?"
Weiss gave a small smile, feeling flattered. "Uh, yes. Weiss Schnee-Rose, pleased to meet you."
"That's all I needed to hear…" The woman threw open her coat, tossed off her hat and scarf, and revealed her green bob cut hair, sports bra, sweat pants, and green tattoos that covered her arms and stomach. There was even a small tattoo on her left cheek that resembled a green apple with a skull carved into it.
Before Weiss could react, the mysterious woman's aura shone with sickly green energy before one of the dragon tattoos on her right bicep sprung to life and blasted her with green fire. Weiss' aura had taken the brunt of the damage as she was thrown back, but most of her clothes and documents were now on fire. Instinctively cracking open a vial of ice dust to put out the flames, Weiss tucked what remained of the documents into her coat pocket, drew Myrtenaster and frantically scanned the area for the woman who had attacked her. In an eyeblink, a green barbed wire wrapped around her ankle, and the tattooed woman appeared right beside her. The woman flung Weiss into a water tower and jumped up to attack again.
"You're going to die for what you did!" The woman screamed in fury.
"I don't even know who you are!" Weiss spluttered as she countered another green flame.
"Your family ruined my life!"
Weiss sighed; of course that's what this was about. "Look, I'm sorry, but do you have even the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?"
"My name is Page Apple!" The tattooed woman grinned as the sickly green gasses surrounding her lifted her into the air. "But you can call me Poison Apple!"
"Wait, Apple?" Weiss called out. "As in the granddaughter of Peter Apple, close colleague of my grandfather Nicholas Schee?"
"Oh, so you do know about me and my family," Poison Apple teasingly declared. "Not that it helps you any, but it's nice to get a little recognition regardless."
"Look whatever it is you think I've done…"
"It's not what you specifically have done: it's what your family as a whole has done over the course of the last 50 years…or were you not aware of how our grandfathers were on a train together during the Great War?"
"I mean, I was, but I hardly understand what…" …and that was as far as Weiss got before she froze in place as she recalled a particular detail about that story. "Wait, you think that…?"
"That's right: your grandfather let my grandfather die! And then your bastard father torpedoed my family's dust business!"Page sneered before proudly showing off her tattoos. "I spent years studying my grandfather's notes… his dust formula was incomplete, but I've perfected it! Just like your glyphs, my semblance allows me to transform my tattoos into anything I can imagine! And when I infuse them with my poison dust… well, perhaps a demonstration is in order…"
Suddenly, her cloud tattoos came to life and floated off of her arms and encircled the Schnee businesswoman. Weiss' lungs burned as the putrid air flooded her senses. Thinking quickly, she summoned a Queen Lancer to carry her away from her attacker. Unfortunately, Poison Apple transformed the tattoos on her back into a pair of wings and took after her prey.
While Weiss had finally gotten a breath of fresh air, a barrage of green dust spikes that nearly struck her from behind alerted her to the pursuing danger. "Page, please!" She shouted, tiredly. "I'm sorry about what my father did to your family! Let me help! We can fix everything!"
"You can't 'fix' what your family's done!" Poison Apple snarled as another flap of her wings helped her catch up to the Queen Lancer . "You can't fix anything! After all, you're a Schnee!"
Apple swallowed an entire vial and breathed a flurry of poison dust at the summon, shattering it to pieces. Weiss used a black glyph to cushion her fall before firing six rounds of ice dust into the sky. While the dust hadn't hit Poison Apple, Weiss was counting on that; as she loaded lightning dust into Myrtenaster and shot all six projectiles, trapping her pursuer in a thick sheet of ice as she fell to the ground.
"Okay…" Weiss wheezed, catching her breath as she slowly approached the frozen body. "Now, let's try to talk this out-"
But it was not meant to be. Poison Apple's dust melted the ice that had trapped her and she promptly resumed her attack on the warry huntress. Now, having stripped down to her undergarments, all of her tattoos were on full display, giving her even more options. Weiss tried to summon another glyph-grimm, but the poison dust once again burned her lungs and she fell to her knees.
"Ah, ah, ah, Schnee. Don't fade on me yet." Poison Apple grinned as she grabbed Weiss by the neck with her left hand, picked up Myrtenaster with her right, and once more took off into the sky. As she flew towards Schnee Air, Poison Apple kept a cloud of poison dust in Weiss' face while slashing at her with Myrtenaster. At last, they arrived at the bay, thirty feet above the water.
"It's over, Schnee." Page smirked as her tattoo's noxious fumes began to suffocate her hostage. "What your family did to mine for fifty years, I will do to you in fifty minutes. Don't worry, I'll make it easier for your wife and kid."
"If you touch a single hair on their heads…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa: who said anything about killing them?" Page interrupted with a shocked expression. "Geez, all I was going to do was try and compensate them once your company was mine: it's more than your family ever did for mine, at any rate."
With that, Poison Apple dropped Weiss and her weapon into the water below before flying off to the airport. But what she didn't notice was that Weiss had managed to grab ahold of her weapon after submerging and used it to create a miniature iceberg to float back to the surface. But even after catching her breath, all she could do was watch as Poison Apple flew towards her company.
All hope was not lost, however, as Weiss suddenly remembered the conversation with her sister earlier that morning. Realizing that the warehouse where all of the SDC's confiscated assets were held was just on the docks across from her, Weiss used her white glyphs to propel herself through the water. At last, Weiss made it to her warehouse. As she used the last of her ice dust to cauterize her wounds, she unlocked the door and stumbled inside to search for the crystal. "I hope you were right, Winter." She thought to herself.
At that very moment, news of Weiss and Apple's fight had already reached Schnee Air. Joshua nervously hugged his knees to his chest as he, Kaylee, and Cerena watched the entire fight on TV in the building's rec-room. Jane tried to contact the police for help, but was distracted once Gail burst into the room with four rapiers.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, big girl." Jane stepped in front of her co-pilot and hung up the scroll. "What do you think you're doing?"
"What do you think?!" Gail snapped, shoving one rapier into Jane's hand and tossing two at Kaylee and Cerena. "That poisonous slut just killed our boss! She's gotta pay!"
"Oh, what, and we're supposed to make her pay?" Kaylee sheathed her saber in her belt and got up to confront her friend. "We don't even know where she is."
Suddenly, a thick green gas poured in through the building's vents. Joshua began to cough and splutter in pain before collapsing to his knees. Cerena grabbed a pair of rags, soaked them in the sink, and held them over her mouth and Joshua's.
"It's gas!" Kaylee coughed before pulling the fire alarm to alert the other employees.
Gail helped Cerena carry Joshua outside while Kaylee and Jane escorted everyone else to safety. Once outside, everyone looked up to see a half-naked woman with green tattoos all over her skin hovering above them.
"Hello, all…" The woman grinned. "I am Poison Apple. And I'll be taking over."
"You little bitch!" Gail shouted. "You got a lotta nerve comin-" The pilot was cut off by a firm slap to the face with a glowing green hand.
"Shut your mouth, you stupid little quim!" Page snarled. "You're all a bunch of idiots who threw in with the SDC! Murderers and fascists who used money and power to trample those beneath them! But all that ends now! Due to Weiss Schnee's death, there is a power vacuum in the leadership position of this company! If you ever wish to see your families again, all of you are going to pledge your undying allegiance to me!"
Gail angrily drew her own rapier and pointed it at Poison Apple. "Like hell!"
"For once, Gail, we agree!" Jane drew her own rapier and loaded it with lightning dust, followed by Kaylee and Cerena.
The quartet of pilots opened fire on their attacker. Lightning dust flashed through the air, but Poison Apple somehow dodged it by flying higher into the sky. From her vantage point, she conjured up a tornado of poison and set it crashing down onto the ground. The knights were scattered, but recovered quickly and retaliated.
"C'mon, girls!" Gail shouted. "Let's give this green bitch a proper welcome!"
The quartet reloaded their weapons and spread out as they blasted their attacker with fire and lightning dust this time. However, Poison Apple merely conjured up another tornado that absorbed all of the blasts before moving slowly towards them.
Kaylee gulped at the sight. "Looks like the green bitch wants to return the favor."
"I couldn't have put it better myself," Poison Apple declared with a teasing grin.
Her tattoo tornado redirected the dust bullets towards the knights, forcing them to duck in cover. Cerena fired off another round as she tackled Joshua to safety. The poor young man began to hyperventilate as green dust bolts bombarded the air field. Gail tried to draw Poison Apple's attention while Jane made a break for a surface-to-air missile launcher in an attempt to shoot the madwoman down. But Poison Apple summoned another green tornado tattoo that not only deflected the missiles, but also lifted the knights high into the air.
"Happy landing." Poison Apple smirked before dissipating the tornado and watching the knights fall back onto the airstrip.
Thankfully, a group of bishops who had been watching the fight had set up an airbag beneath them to cushion their fall. But once they recovered, they were all met with a gruesome sight. The poison gas and missiles had demolished a large portion of the facility. Amongst the rubble, they spotted several injured and dead people.
"The pawns…" Joshua sobbed, cupping his hands over his mouth as he and his friends gazed at the lifeless bodies.
"Yes, all the ones who didn't make it out." Poison Apple frowned. "I didn't want this to happen. But you forced my hand! You all refused to follow my lead! How many more have to die?!"
"Enough, Ms. Apple! Please!" Jane cried. "We surrender. We will give in to your demands…"
Poison Apple smiled.
Meanwhile, across the bay, Weiss continued to search the warehouse for the right crate. But with the amount of gas she had already inhaled, her mind was so clouded that it was a miracle she could even walk. And yet, with the last of her aura, she managed to press on.
"D-32… R… R-54… Where… where is it…?"
At last, her aura began to glow brighter as she approached one crate at the end of the aisle. As she stepped closer, the light in the crate shone brighter. Using Myrtenaster, she pried the crate open and covered her eyes to shield them from the light. Once they adjusted, she gazed in awe at the star-shaped dust crystal reacting to her aura. With the last of her strength, she picked it up and opened Myrtenaster's chamber.
"Please work…" Weiss whispered to herself as she inserted the crystal into Myrtenaster.
Once the chamber was closed, the temperature in the warehouse dropped exponentially. Weiss's aura began to heal her external wounds while her frosty breath seemed to expel any lingering traces of poison in her lungs. As she lifted Myrtenaster above her head, the weapon lifted her higher into the air. A flurry of ice began to spiral around her, transforming her tattered clothes.
Back at the airport, Poison Apple created a quartet of arms and reached out to the four knights. "Your weapons. Now."
Reluctantly, Jane, Kaylee, and Cerena handed over their rapiers, only to watch them be crushed in Poison Apple's grip. The fourth arm impatiently moved closer to Gail, but the redhead pilot stubbornly tightened her grip on her own saber. Poison Apple smiled and decided to make an example out of her. The arm slithered around Gail's leg and hoisted her into the air.
"Frankly, Ms. Greenland… you weren't going to survive working for me anyway." She chuckled as she began to cloud Gail's face with poison dust.
Gail held her breath and cupped both hands over her mouth to avoid the inevitable. But her eyes widened at the sight of something glowing on the horizon. Poison Apple also seemed to notice it, as she dropped Gail back to the ground and began flying towards the source of the light. The knights, bishops, and rooks also ran to see what was going on.
Before Apple could fly across the bay, a giant glacier materialized in the water and the tip exploded. Once the steam cleared away, Apple angrily grit her teeth at the sight before her. The others finally caught up and gawked in disbelief.
"I'll be damned." Gail gasped.
Hovering in the air on one of her glyphs was Weiss Schnee, clad in a blinding white suit of armor with a sparkling blue cape, a crown, and a white domino mask. Cold steam rose from Myrtenaster as the air and water dust automatically combined into ice dust in the six chambers. Weiss looked down at her frosty armor and weapon and couldn't help but smirk.
"And everyone said I was an Ice Queen before." She chortled.
Apple's eye twitched with rage. "Schnee." She muttered before blasting Weiss with her semblance with a furious scream.
However, Weiss' armor remained unscratched from the attack. "Wha…how?!" Poison Apple couldn't help but call out in response.
"Evidently, you don't know as much about that train accident that both of our grandfathers were involved in as much as you claim to be," the newly christened Ice Queen declared.
"So, there were still a few things about your company that I wasn't aware of," Poison Apple allowed herself to admit before getting into a fighting stance. "That doesn't change what needs to be done, so why don't we settle this once and for all?"
"Funny: I was just about to suggest the exact same thing," the Ice Queen declared as she too got into a fighting stance. With a wave of Myrtenaster, she managed to summon Arma Gigas and a swarm of Queen Lancers at the same time, much to her own amazement.
Poison Apple's own dust creations attacked the icy wasp summons, only to be turned into green steam upon contact. Before the villain could react, Arma Gigas swung his giant sword and swatted her out of the sky like a fly. After a quick recovery, Poison Apple got back on her feet and fired another stream of poison dust at her enemy, only of Ice Dust to create a giant igloo-shaped protective dome around herself. The poison gas passed by, leaving Ice Queen completely unharmed. Now that she knew she had an advantage, Weiss' confidence grew as she stared down Poison Apple.
"You accused my grandfather of being a murderer, you attacked me in the street with no provocation, you left me for dead in the bay, and worst of all, you killed or injured dozens of my employees!" Weiss grit her teeth in anger. "The only way this ends is with you in prison and me trying to undo the damage you've caused!"
"Typical Schnee!" Page spat out. "Something goes wrong and you'd rather cast the blame on others rather than accept your own guilt."
"Oh, hey kettle, my name's pot: you're looking rather black today," Weiss spat back with a scoff.
"Mock me all you want, Schnee, but it won't change your fate," Poison Apple called back with a growl as the two of them momentarily locked blades. "With or without your father's interference, your grandfather made it clear what his intentions for his company by killing my grandfather 50 years ago: I'm just giving you what your family truly deserves as a result."
"You're wrong!" Weiss snarled as she pushed her opponent back and slashed Myrtenaster across Apple's face. "My grandfather's dream was to protect! To stop evil! And that includes keeping power out of the hands of lunatics like you!"
"Even if there was an ounce of truth in that statement, your father clearly had other plans for your company. Really, I'm doing you a favor by destroying a company soaked in the blood of so many innocents," Poison Apple called out as she began to retaliate.
"A part of me does understand your perspective, but there's one thing you seem to be forgetting: I'm not my father. If you had just tried talking to me…"
"I DID!" Poison Apple yelled out in rage before using her powers to pin Weiss against a nearby wall.
Needless to say, Weiss hadn't been prepared to hear this. "What…?"
"You don't even remember me approaching you, do you?" Page asked with a huff. "Can't say that I'm surprised, so let me jog that memory of yours. It was a week before you left for Beacon: I thought that maybe, just maybe, you might be different from your father, so I approached you with information proving that Jacques had obtained my family's company through illegal means, hoping that you'd at least take that information to Ozpin so that he could use his connections to try and help me out or something like that, and what did you say to me?!"
"Leave me alone, kid: that has nothing to do with me."
For a moment, Weiss could only bow her head in shame at the reminder of how arrogant she was back then, only caring about getting control of the company back from her father as a huntress without stopping to remember why her grandfather had become a huntsman in the first place: to help people around him in any way possible. If she hadn't been so focused on getting away from her father at the time, she might have been able to at least offer Page a shoulder to cry on or something like that…but no: that sort of humility wouldn't come in until after she had met Ruby and the rest of her team, and by then, she had forgotten all about Page Apple. "Page, I'm so sorry…"
"Too late for apologies, Schnee: several years too late," Page snarled out.
Weiss shook the feeling of guilt away to focus on keeping herself alive. The dust crystal in her weapon managed to enhance her aura to the point of being unbreakable, but it required tremendous concentration on her part; not an easy feat when her opponent was blasting her with noxious fumes. As she heard a police siren approaching from the distance, the CEO hoped that she could hold out just a little longer for reinforcements to arrive. "It's over, Poison!" Weiss grunted.
"I still have plenty of aura left in the tank!" Poison Apple sneered as she kept bombarding Weiss with gas while also summoning a saw blade tattoo that began spinning towards Weiss' neck. "Enough to take your head this time for insurance!"
Weiss held her stance to keep the gas at bay while also using Myrtenaster to block the saw blade.
"You're not strong enough, Schnee!" Poison Apple goaded as her semblance kept her enemy pinned. "You've lost!"
But Weiss gritted her teeth and focused her willpower into the ice dust building up in Myrtenaster. As she continued to resist the poisonous fumes, she began to recite her own iteration of Nicholas Schnee's mantra. "In warmest day… in coldest night… no evil shall elude my sight!" Suddenly, the poison froze in the air and began to spiral around Weiss as she aimed Myrtenaster at the startled Poison Apple. "Let those who savor evil's delight… beware my power; the Ice Queen's might!"
She pulled the trigger and sent an entire blizzard directly at Poison Apple. The tattooed woman focused all of her aura into shielding herself, but it was no use. The sheer force of the cold air overpowered the poisonous shield and sent the madwoman crashing into the ground. The spectators quickly ran to the crater where Poison Apple had landed.
Page groaned in pain as she tried to summon her wings again. But just as they were about to materialize, someone stabbed a saber through her hand and into the ground. Page screamed in pain before tearfully looking up at the woman who kept her in place.
"'Scuze me, quim." Gail sniffed, crossing her arms.
"Why?" Page suddenly called out with angry tears in her eyes. "Why would you willingly aid her? She deserves to die, or aren't you aware of all the things her family's company has done?"
"Oh, I'm well aware of what her jackass of a father had done while running the SDC, but you seem to have forgotten that despite sharing blood, Weiss is not her father," Gail declared as she glared down at the woman in front of her. "And before you claim how that doesn't excuse her for what her family has done, let me ask you something: what exactly did Weiss Schee do that warranted her having her position in the company removed? Not what her family has done: what did Weiss Schnee herself do that was so terrible in your eyes aside from telling you 'No' one time in your past when her influence in the company was minimal at best?"
"I…you heard about that?" Page couldn't help but ask with a surprised look on her face.
"You two weren't exactly being quiet when you were fighting earlier," Gail said with a shrug. "And from my perspective, all you did was attempt a hostile takeover when a figurehead of a rival company didn't immediately give you want: how does that make you any different then how Jacques Schnee operated back in the day?"
Page merely snarled at the comparison, but didn't retaliate, both because she knew that fighting back now was pointless and due to how she didn't want to admit that Gail had a point here. "If you're going to kill me, get it over with already."
"Yeah, that would be the sort of thing we'd do if Jacques was still in charge, but like I said, Weiss and her father are not one and the same," Gali felt the need to point out. "In other words, you aren't going to die just yet, at least not until you've paid for your crimes."
With that said, the bishops and rooks hastily fitted Poison Apple with experimental shackles designed to restrain her arms behind her back and suppressed her semblance. Jane called the authorities and an emergency crew to take Poison to Beryl Island Prison and help their wounded. But while she was being detained by her knights, Weiss couldn't help but feel guilty the longer she looked at Poison Apple.
"Klein, do you still have access to my grandfather's contact list?" Weiss felt the need to ask.
"Yes, why?"
"I need you to bring it to me: there's someone I need to call before Page is taken away."
A few minutes later, the police had finally arrived to take the would-be corporate invader away, but Weiss stopped them. "You're wrong, you know." She said to the prisoner.
"About what?" Page sneered out.
"About my grandfather having killed your grandfather," Weiss called out. "He tried to save him during that train crash all those years ago…but don't just take my word for it."
As if on cue, an elderly man with a cane came walking up. "It's nice to finally meet you, Page."
"You…I know you," Page called out with a wide-eyed expression upon seeing the man in question. "You're Dewey Pickles. My grandmother often said that you used to regularly chauffeur my grandfather and Nicholas Schnee way back when."
"Yeah, people used to call us the Three Kings back in the day due to how close we were and how much our work impacted the leadership in Atlas," the man said with a nostalgia-filled grin before giving a mournful sigh. "Shame how things ended. I was on the train with them at the time, so I still remember how Nicolas tried to use his Glyphs to slow Peter's fall without any thought for his own life. Only reason he didn't do the same for me was that he knew my own Semblance, Durability, would protect me from that fall, though I did still end up breaking my leg in the process due to landing in an awkward fashion…and before you ask why I never told you this, I've tried, but every time I made the attempt to contact you, you always seemed to be too busy for visitors, or so your receptionist claimed."
"How do I know you aren't just making this up?" Page felt the need to ask.
The man just gave a bitter chuckle before pulling something out of his wallet. "I figured you might ask that, so I went ahead and brought this with me: here's a picture the three of us took together on the train prior to the accident that took Peter's life."
Sure enough, the photograph depicted a much younger Dewey with both his arms slung around Nicholas and Peter's shoulders, pulling them into a tight embrace as the trio smiled at the camera with the train company logo in the background.
"I…I can't believe it: you were telling the truth," Page called out as she looked towards Weiss with a bit of newfound guilt in her eyes.
"Is that so hard to believe?" Weiss felt the need to ask. "I'll admit that prior to my time at Beacon that I wasn't the most humble person around, but I'd like to think that even back then I'd be disgusted to learn that my grandfather hadn't at least tried to save your grandfather if given the chance if that was indeed what happened back then."
Page absorbed all of this before giving a huff in reply. "Your grandfather might not have been the monster I mistook him for, but even you can't deny what I said about your father."
"I know," Weiss declared. "My family's influence over my grandfather's company did indeed take a lot from your family, Page, which is why I'm going to do everything in my power to look after them while you're in prison…and who knows? Our grandfathers were friends in their youth, so maybe we could be too someday."
"A part of me would like nothing more," Page allowed herself to admit, "But I haven't yet forgiven you for casually looking the other way while my family suffered prior to going to Beacon, so while I won't actively try and kill you anymore, make no mistake in that I will be trying to take your company away from you once I get out of jail…but I suppose I can still let you be a part of the company once that happens: I'm not completely heartless, after all."
"Understood," Weiss replied with a light smile, happy to have made some progress with her new rival.
After Apple was taken away, and Klein helped escort Dewey back home with the promise to catch up some more at a later date, Weiss' employees surrounded her to begin singing her praises and thanking her for saving their lives. The press arrived soon afterwards, wanting answers to what had just happened. Her knights, in particular, were especially happy to see her again.
"Damn, boss. That's some nice dust you're packing." Gail commented. "Is it unlimited?"
"So far, yes." Weiss replied with a coy grin. "Although, I'd like for the rooks and bishops to examine this dust crystal. But first thing's first, I want an emergency response team down here to help with the injured and deceased."
"On it, boss." Kaylee nodded before running off to make the call.
Suddenly, a storm of rose petals crashed into Weiss and scattered all over the airfield. Once the dust settled, Weiss found herself in the warm embrace of Ruby and Penny.
"Weiss, I'm so glad you're okay!" Ruby called out in spite of the tears in her eyes. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you so soon after failing to catch Master Mold again."
"It's okay, my love," Weiss reassured even as she kissed her wife in comfort. "You can't get rid of me that easily."
"Maybe, but if I had been there…"
"If you had been there, I might have never discovered a new application for my Semblance," Weiss declared. "And I fully intend to make the most of it."
"Maybe so, but I still feel like I should make up for what happened."
Weiss gave a teasing grin. "Well in that case, once we get back home and put Penny to bed, I have a few ideas as to how to make me feel better~"
"As you command, my queen," Ruby replied with an equally teasing smile on her face, only to accidentally cough up a bit of blood. "Oopsie. Forgot about my stitches."
"YOU DOLT!"
To Be Continued!