Chapter 26 – The Junior

In which Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao-Long go out in search of knowledge and, unfortunately for their peace of mind, find it.

"So," Weiss idly said. "This contact of yours…"

She and Yang were currently seated on a passenger bullhead that flew students from Beacon to Vale. It was late afternoon, a few hours after lunch, as according to Xiao-Long, the place they intended to visit was a late night club only open in the off hours most typical businesses and also had a long line, meaning they had to leave early. Yang had merely collected Weiss with a few words to inform her of where they were going, while Ruby and Blake had taken their own leave to call Weiss' father.

"It's called 'The Club.' Unimaginative name, I know, but it's an ancient place that's been around since the early days when Vale was still getting on its feet and the copyright scene wasn't as filled up."

"An older place?" Weiss asked.

"Yeah, but it's kept up with the times and modernized every few years. It's now some funko-rave dance place that serves drinks and info at the bar."

It sounded like the SDC, then. It was a part of the kingdoms that had endured long enough to be referred to as time-honored, but Father's vigorous rebrand had brought it into the modern era from the old SDME that it had use to be. Now, it was the trailblazer that had outlasted all of its rivals with its advancing business strategies and numerous charitable offshoots.

"And you're friends with someone at the bar," Weiss half-asked, half-stated.

Yang nodded. "Junior, though I'd hesitate to call us friends. We've met once, and he didn't have any info, so I skedaddled in a bit of a bad mood."

That didn't sound like a contact, but Weiss supposed this information broker of Yang's had always been a shot in the dark. Perhaps he would have information, but they risked nothing but time.

They were now exiting the airspace of the forests that surrounded Beacon and acted as a natural barrier against unwanted entrants, meaning the city was just coming into view. Weiss rather had come to warm up to the rustic appearance of Vale. While it lacked the true homemade appeal of Menagerie, her favorite place on Remnant, it's rustic architecture certainly prevailed over the artsy decadence of Mistral and the emotionless, clinical façade that was her own home of Atlas.

"It was my mom!" The words suddenly burst forth form Yang's lungs as if they'd been trapped within and had only managed to escape.

"Your…" Weiss furrowed her brow for a second, unsure of what that was supposed to mean.

Then, the memory of her private discussion with Yang came back to her. Yang was talking about her biological mom, who was missing and had apparently driven her to such extremes that she endangered her own sister in her youthful quest to locate her.

"Yeah. I…I don't want to talk about it…"

Weiss nodded. She didn't really either. Yang had been the one to bring it up.

"…but we're supposed to be talking." There was a pained look on Weiss' teammate's face. "That was why we went together."

Actually, it was decided this way to spare Blake having to spend time with her partner, but Weiss merely nodded along with the lie she'd fed Yang just yesterday.

"I'd just gotten back to Vale from Patch, and I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of seeing everyone again. I'd played along enough that Dad and Qrow thought I was good, but…man, honesty sucks ass. Look, I was just trying not to get the boot. I didn't actually give a shit about forgiving you."

Yang still somehow saw this as her forgiving Weiss. But hey, perhaps that was what they would fix in this heart to heart. The blatant lack of subterfuge and dishonesty from Xiao-Long was certainly helpful.

"Anyways, I'd heard that this guy was good, so I paid him a visit."

Weiss nodded. "And did the junior give you any information?" She coughed. "If you're willing to share, of course. You are not obligated to tell me if it's private."

"Nah, he said he'd never seen hide nor hair of Raven. I tried to take back my money, but he didn't give it. And since I was on probation with Goodwitch, I couldn't do jack about it, so now I'm two-K poorer and with nothing to show for it."

With nothing to show for it other than a potentially strained relationship with the junior,Weiss surmised.But then that's not entirely true.

"You say he's the best information broker? He knows everything in the city?"

Yang blinked. "He is, but I never said that."

"Then you did learn something from him, Yang. You learned that your biological mother hasn't been spotted in Vale by the junior or any of his informants. That means that she's either beyond the walls of the city or in an entirely different kingdom altogether. Furthermore, from what he said…he'dneverseen her…you know that she has never had contact with Vale's premier source of purchasable intelligence."

Yang snorted briefly and leaned back in her chair. "I guess that means she hasn't been looking for me."

Weiss realized how tactless her inferred commentary might've been and tried to apologize, but Yang shut her down.

"S'cool. I know she ran away. Guess I did get my money's worth."

Weiss wouldn't say that. For two thousand lien, that information was exorbitantly priced. When the two of them met the junior about Torchwick, Weiss would have to be the one to handle negotiations.

Or I can just throw money at them until we have what we need. Two thousand lien means nothing to the Schnee coffers, though I'd rather not empty them. Actually, come to think of it, I'm recognizable enough that the price might get jacked up if they are made aware that I'm involved, as they know I can pay. Perhaps I'd be better off remaining in the background.

More to the matter at hand, Yang had opened up to Weiss. She didn't care much for information about this Raven woman of Yang's but the mere act of revealing a vulnerability to Weiss had been an act of more than generous goodwill.

Weiss would need to pay this back.

"My own mother doesn't remember my own name," Weiss said.

Yang glanced her way.

"I'm not saying this to compete with your story for pity. You revealed the truth of your maternal situation, so I must correct this imbalance by doing the same."

"If you want."

She didn't want to, but she needed to. Not out of obligation, but in order to bridge the gap between them.

"To be fair, she barely remembers anything these days," Weiss explained. "She's lost in her bottle most days."

"Kinda like my uncle," Yang quipped.

"Does your uncle ever get so drunk that he needs surgery to remain alive?" Weiss shook her head. "I suppose we really are doing pity olympics. But my mother…she's the black mark on the SDC's otherwise perfectly pure snowflake. She's lost herself to alcoholism ever since the birth of my younger brother. It started as a crutch to get through the day, but then she started to forget the 'getting through the day' part. She's had to have multiple operations due to the damage wrought upon her body by her excess consumption of wine, whiskey, and liquor, but Father always manages to hire surgeons who can keep their mouths shut."

Weiss didn't like her mother. That was no secret to anyone who knew of her home life.

Mothers were supposed to care for their children, pick them up when they fell, and sing them lullabies before bed. The last memory of Willow that Weiss could just barely struggle to remember was of her mother asking her to remove the trash on her way out. She'd mistaken Weiss for one of the manor's staff members, despite looking Weiss directly in the eyes.

"Sorry, Schnee. It sucks, doesn't it?" Yang shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "But at least we've got our dads, eh?"

Well, Weiss did have her father. But whether that was for the better of worse was not yet know.

Her father had defined so much of her childhood, being the only parental figure and role model for such a long time. Not once had he ever abused her, but there had always been a distinct distance between them. Father had expected her to conform to his will in her youth, but as she'd grown up, he'd lightened up on that slightly. One part of that was that she'd realized how to satisfy the intent behind his requests – keep the public appearance clean, never shoot him a frown, love nothing more than the Schnee name and the White Fang – but there was also a darker side to it. Once she'd seen his standards and met them, he wanted nothing more to do with her. His only interest in her was for what she could do for him and his image. To Jacques, Weiss Schnee wasn't Weiss. She was Schnee.

But did she hate him? Did she love him? Did she crave his approval, or did she desire to see his downfall?

The airship landed before she could reach a conclusion.

Their first stop was, of course, a department store.

"Almost done, Schnee?" Yang said, her face buried in her scroll.

Weiss looked between the two mirrors once more. "Not quite. I need more time to decide."

"It's been nearly twenty minutes, and they're both the same."

They weren't, but to the untrained eye, one could have easily fallen victim to the common mistake of assuming so. The Noste Rock branded mirror had a slightly lesser range of motion when it was mounted using the suction cup, but the Highmortar one had a thicker rim, which tended to cause headaches when stared into at closer ranges than 1 foot.

"Just buy them both, you loaded prick."

Weiss shook her head. "Blake won't be able to use them both at the same time, so it defeats the purpose to do so. I may be wealthy, but I am never wasteful."

"Yeah, but then you can decide at home." Yang tapped her foot impatiently as Weiss disabused a store attendant of her notions of helping them. "So that way I don't have to be bored AF."

"You said the club doesn't even open until later."

"The line can wrap around the block before the doors even open."

Weiss held out both mirrors to her shopping partner. "What do you think, Yang? N.R. or Highmortar?"

Weiss could tell that some sort of insulting response was about to pop out, but Yang seemed to think before she spoke for once and attempted to expedite the process.

"That one." She pointed to the Highmortar branded mirror. "The N.R. one."

Weiss rolled her eyes and selected the N.R. mirror. Perhaps she could modify the joints of the mirror to improve its mobility, or maybe Ruby would. If she hadn't been a huntress, there was certainly an engineering career to fall back on for the young girl who knew how to built any addition to her gun-scythe from scratch.

"Weird gift, though," Yang said as Weiss directed them both to the checkout. "Our bathroom has a big-ass mirror that your kitty cat girlfriend can use."

They were both in a good mood, so Weiss decided to safely sway the boat a little.

"We'd both prefer it if you didn't use our animal characteristics as descriptors for who we are as people, Yang, especially when used so frivolously. I know you've said before that Blake and my preferences for interpersonal interaction are…specific, but they aren't exactly stifling."

Yang looked down at the mirror in Weiss' hands, presumably seeing her own reflection. "…I'll give it a shot."

Weiss knew that Yang wasn't doing it to be hurtful…well, she usually wasn't, and she certainly hadn't been just now. She said many stupid teen-ish idioms and phrases that Weiss could barely understand (she was struggling to decipher what 'hit the griddy,' 'tied pods,' and 'AF' from this very conversation meant), and these little words and wordings just slipped out.

The well-built huntress tried to tap the mirror before Weiss pulled it out of her range. "But you didn't answer my question. Why's'it a gift for my partner?"

Her partner…it was the first time Weiss could remember that Yang had referred to Blake as such, and it was as unpleasant as one might expect. Blake was Weiss' partner, Weiss' girlfriend, Weiss'. Nothing of the cat Faunus belonged to Yang.

She focused on the mirror instead. "It's a makeup mirror."

Yang blinked. "I didn't know you guys broke up. I also didn't know that rich fucks got each other mirrors instead of just boning."

"Not a make-up mirror! A makeup mirror. A mirror to be used when applying makeup and cosmetics, you cretin." Weiss could feel the veins in her forehead growing tighter as Yang's idiocy drove up her blood pressure. "It's so she can apply her makeup without having to use our communal restroom for longer periods of time and thereby irking you. I'm trying to solve the issues that are dragging our team down, and this seems like the easiest."

Yang smiled. "And I'm next?"

"Correct," Weiss replied. "After that is Ruby."

Yang's hands found their ways into her pockets. "When you do, let me know if you ever need help. I'm always up for it."

"I appreciate the offer, but I think…and I say this with love, Yang, but I think it would be better if you didn't get too involve in aiding Ruby with these growing pains. In my capacity as leader, I shall prop her up and provide her with the tools to succeed, but I worry that you would simply try to carry her past her problems."

"Whuh – I wouldn't!" Yang said, her volume increasing in offense.

"You wouldn't mean to cause harm, but if Ruby were failing to complete an assignment, what would your response be?"

"I'd help her."

"You do, but suppose she can't finish it in time even with help. What next?"

Yang averted her eyes, knowing that Weiss knew the answer just the same. She'd let Ruby copy her work – Ruby had admitted to Weiss during tutoring that Yang sometime did so back in primary combat school for the deadlines of major assignment that crept up on her. They were in the same classes with a two-year separation, so Yang's old saved files on her computer were sometime shared between the sisters.

"It wouldn't help Ruby," Weiss said, trying her best to keep her tone explanatory. Even for her, it wasn't a pleasant subject. "She hasn't ever had to fail an assignment and learn the consequences of doing so."

Weiss didn't want to let Ruby flunk a test or fail to submit homework on time, but if she always had the knowledge that big sister would bail her out should she procrastinate in the back of her head, it would hold her back, perhaps even subconsciously. The safety net was perhaps excellent for Ruby's mental health, but Yang wouldn't be there forever. Weiss categorically refused to humor Ozpin's theory of allowing failure to teach, but she did understand that if Ruby failed on her own and had her leader there to explain what went wrong after the fact, it could be a learning opportunity.

The real danger would be if that belief couldn't be broken. Most children learned how to prioritize more important assignments in their youthful school days, but Ruby had no such skill. If Ruby's study habits were permanently skewed towards doing whatever classwork she enjoyed most, she –

"Yo! Remnant to Weiss!"

"Huh?" Weiss looked up. "What?"

They were at the front of the checkout line, with the elderly gentleman at the register patiently waiting for her to snap out of her trance.

As she handed him her credit card, Weiss forced herself to remember what she'd said to Yang moments ago. She fully intended to solve Ruby's problems or enable Ruby to solve them, but she had an order of operations. Blake's minor mirror dilemma was first, for it required next to no effort. Then came Yang and her violent ways, for they had the time and opportunity to do so on this joint mission of theirs. Weiss didn't want to place Ruby last, but Ruby wasn't here, and Yang was.

They arrived at The Club about ten minutes before it was open for customers to enter, and Yang had been right – the wait had to be two, no, three hours long. There were easily over one hundred people in line.

I suppose she wasn't joking when she said that this is Vale's most popular nightclub. I honestly have to wonder, though, how could it be worth it for regular patrons? Do they burn an hour of their busy days every time they wish to come? Is there an off season?

"Damn it," cursed Yang, snapping her fingers. "I was hoping to get home before midnight. Fuckin' mirrors and shit…"

"No bother," Weiss said, strolling up to the front of the line.

There were some angry grumbles and glaring eyes cast her way, but no one said a peep. Four bouncers stood at the very front of the line, guarding the doorway. Alongside them was a middle-aged woman in bright blue sunglasses and a while suit that held a data-pad which occupied her full attention.

"Hello," Weiss said politely. "I would like to enter."

"Then you may wait in line. Due to our capacity limits, we may not be able to accommodate all patrons. Furthermore, The Club is not yet open." The woman never took her eyes off her electronic tablet.

"Um." One of the bouncers coughed. "Uh."

"M-Miss Vanity…um."

The woman clenched her teeth in frustration and looked up. Her bouncers cautiously averted their eyes as she looked directly at Weiss for a moment. Then came the recognition.

Weiss merely maintained her pleasant smile. "I would like to enter."

She wondered for a moment if she was about to receive an apology, but the woman seemed wise enough to respect Weiss' time and skip the groveling. She stepped aside, and one of the bouncers unclipped the red-and-black-linked chains that blocked the otherwise open doorway.

"Please enjoy The Club, Miss Schnee."

"Thank you." Weiss pivoted on her heels to her gawking partner who had been halfway to the end of the line. "Yang," she called, waving her arm. "Please come along."

Perhaps it would be several hours for the regular line, but Weiss Schnee did not wait. Though she'd never requested special accommodations before today, she'd always received them solely out of fear of saying 'no' to the daughter of the most financially influential man in the business world. To do so could potentially be suicidal, and most people were smart enough to seek to curry the Schnee's favor rather than spurn their hand.

The Club may have been Vale's hottest nightclub, but the Schnee Dust Company was the world's hottest anything. That made Weiss eligible for the VIP early access no matter where she went.

Given his appellation, Weiss had expected the junior to be a tiny man. She'd heard from Yang that he was this intelligent information broker, and she supposed her subconscious biases had filled in a mental image of a small, mousy, bespectacled bookworm who prioritized the pursuit of knowledge over physical strength.

She had been mistaken in every aspect. Assuming that the man behind the bar was, in fact, the junior, he was a beast of a man, bearing a strikingly similar physique to Ghira. The cups in his hands, though Weiss could recognize them as normal sized, somehow appeared to be toylike when he polished them.

"We ain't open," he called to the two women approaching him. "How'd you even get past…"

He too trailed off when he saw Weiss. It was well known that she was in Vale, but to the average citizen who might've read about her in the newspapers or seen of her arrival on TV, she had gone straight from Atlas to Beacon. Both locations were far off and greatly displaced from the city of Vale, so Weiss had remained an elusive image in their heads. Many knew she was in the same kingdom as them, but they had either never considered the possibility that she would cross their paths or had yet to actually comprehend that she'd changed kingdoms. To see her here and be confronted in person must've been shocking.

Then, he turned to Yang, and a look of equal shock registered on his face. The little tale Yang had spun about having brushed past the junior only briefly must've been false, for he clearly recognized her, and it was eliciting a resounding response – one of anger, though.

"You! Kid, I don't know how you've got friends in such high places, but it don't change the fact that all transactions are final." He angrily placed a polished glass down on the table. "No exceptions!"

"I'm not here for that!" Yang angrily responded.

Weiss quickly took charge of the negotiations before the junior could be upset further by Yang's aggrieving presence. "As a matter of fact, we're here to spendmorelien."

That got the big man's attention. Weiss Schnee, daughter of Jacques Schnee, asking to give him money? Only a fool would turn down that kind of offer.

"Okay, but it's gonna cost you double." He eyed Yang. "Call it the 'dealing with brats' fee."

"Make it triple and we've got a deal," Weiss said.

It was another one of Father's tactics being employed here – offer more than what was wanted to put someone in a pleasant mood, and you could typically press them for more using that combination of goodwill and confusion. Weiss intended to ask a lot of questions, and if the junior had it in the back of his head that he was being well compensated, he might forget to ask for more payment when Weiss didn't stop asking.

The money was exchanged, and business began.

"We're looking for information on a man this time," Yang said, leaning on the counter with one arm.

"Unsurprising that you'd need help finding one," snarked the junior.

Yang's expression dropped. "Junior, buddy, I'm sure there're other information brokers that my girl Weissy and I could meet if you keep up the attitude."

Junior began to scowl, so Weiss threw down a few more lien. "How about a drink for my companion?"

To both Yang and the junior, it must've looked like the rich bitch trying to cover for her companion mouthing off by tossing away even more of the lien that was disposable to someone with her funds, but in reality it was much more simple. If Yang was drinking, she wouldn't be talking. Honestly, Weiss could've purchased a pacifier from the junior and it would've had the same effect.

The strawberry sunrise was poured (it was Yang's 'usual' from her one time coming here before today), and the junior looked at Weiss. "A man?"

"Roman Torchwick, specifically."

The junior's frown changed almost instantly. No longer did he look bothered by the two girls. Now, he was bewildered.

"Youse two? It's…you're trying to find out about Roman?"

Alarm bells began to ring in Weiss' mind as the junior referred to Professor Torchwick with such casualness, using his first name.

"We are. I take it you're aware of him?"

The junior averted his eyes, focusing intently on the glasses he was polishing.

"…lien," he said. "It's worth a lot more."

Weiss didn't immediately hand over cash, and the junior bit his lips.

"Look, kid, this ain't me hosing you down. I know about Roman, but…I'm risking my life here. I need it to be worth it."

"Alright, Junior," Yang agreed for Weiss. "But we get the info first. You know Weiss is good for the cash."

The junior slowly nodded. The Club had begun to open up behind them, but after a large influx of forty or so people had been let in, the gate was closed to the remaining few. The room didn't look like it was anywhere evennearcapacity, so Weiss assumed this was simply a marketing tactic. Exclusivity…they certainly knew their business.

The junior kept his voice low as he spoke. "Roman Torchwick was one of the boys. If you grew up in this town, you knew him. And when I say town, I ain't talkin' 'bout Vale. He was, eh, like me. A part of the community, someone who had friends and enemies but was too important to the scene for anyone to every truly consider knocking off. He weren't some up-and-coming drug lord who lost his head in turf wars between gangs, but a smart fella who rose as high as he could without attracting problems. You want something stolen? You go to Roman. You lose something and need it found? You go to Roman. Down on yer luck and needing arrangements made in exchange for a favor owed when you get back on yer feet? You go to Roman. He wasn't a player in the game, he was a service. Again, like me."

Weiss had expected Torchwick to have been some manner of criminal, but she'd never expected that he was a part of organized crime. The way he carried himself suggested he was more of a white-collar criminal, the kind of people who did confidence schemes and defunded banks, not a…a….

"But then he went straight," Yang filled in.

The junior nodded. "Yup, 'cept it weren't nearly so neat as you make it sound. He disappears for ten full days. The clients he missed in that time scoured the fucking corners of the planet for him, but he was gone, vanished in a poof of smoke. Then, they vanished too. Then, everyone vanishes."

"Vanish?" Weiss asked. "What do you mean?"

One of the junior's meaty fingers crossed over from one side of his throat to the other.

Weiss couldn't help but gulp. If what this man was saying was true, then she'd met with a murderer. She'd taken tea with him.

"Just like that, an entire crop of folks die. Not the entire underground, but the bosses and lieutenants high up enough in the ranks to have worked with Roman, bought his services, seen his face, or heard his name. Whatever Torchwick did, whatever black bargain he struck with the God of Darkness, it eradicated practically all awareness of who he really was. Then, he turns up on TV. Maybe a few fences, pawnbrokers, and rats like me kept both our knowledge and our pulses, but the message was clear." The junior pointed his hand directly at Weiss, and he looked at her with a face full of fear. "Don't turn him in, or you're next."

All that for a cushy job at Beacon? This doesn't sound right.

"I think you see why I deserve some lien," said the informant. "What I'm giving you ain't cheap…might damn nearly cost me my life."

"Do you know anything about the paladin or Mercury Black?" Weiss asked, ignoring what had just been said.

The junior's eyes flicked ever so slightly at the mention of the assassin boy, and Weiss knew he had something for them.

"I can offer you more lien for the information you have about Black," Weiss said, pressing her advantage.

But then the junior did something she hadn't expected.

He declined.

"I don't want more lien."

"But…"

"I want something else. I want a promise."

A promise? From a posh wealthy heiress and her brusque huntress teammate to an admitted criminal? While a small part of her wanted to decline associating with him and his ilk, an even larger part was curious what exactly he wanted.

"I want you to promise me that one day, if the shit ever hits the fan, I can go to any SDC shop, mine, refinery, whatever the fuck, and be let in. I want you to tell me that when I give them my name, I can make a call to you and have the doors opened…for me, and for Miltia and Melanie. Give me a guaranteed lifeline as a way out, and I'll give you that information."

Indebting myself to a blackguard like this man…but what other option do I have? Going back home with an incomplete puzzle, which I now know is about a heartless murderer? And it's not like he's asking for anything illegal. I'm not privy to his crimes, nor am I aiding or abetting them. I merely have heard unfounded rumors…from the junior himself…and am promising aid to a man who's life would potentially be in danger. It's practically my duty as a huntress.

"Very well. You have my word." Weiss offered her hand. "We may shake on it."

The junior's palm entirely encompassed Weiss' dainty one. "Deal. Here goes. This is from my private stock, not some transparent message from Torchwick written in blood. A couple of drug mules who watched the broadcast came to me and sold me some info. They had no idea who Torchwick was, but they recognized Mercury."

"From where?" Yang asked eagerly.

"From his corpse, which they stumbled across three days before the paladin's attack."

"B-But…But we saw Mercury! It was clearly his face on TV. They identified him in several shots!"

The junior just shrugged. "Then either the corpse was fake or the pilot was."

"And where was this supposed corpse?" Weiss asked.

The Club was starting to fill up with people, and that meant the bar was getting more and more crowded. The junior wasn't the only uniformed employee working there, but his coworkers were clearly being overwhelmed. Reaching under the bar, he began to pull out some bottles of alcoholic beverages.

"Where was it, Junior?" repeated Yang.

After the lien owed was paid, Weiss was fifteen thousand lien poorer. All-in-all a small amount, and the promise of emergency aid was probably more troubling in the long run, but she had the information she was looking for – the location of Mercury's corpse.

It was a place she'd only heard of in history lessons with her highly-paid tutors. Its name was rarely mentioned in Vale, and whether that was due to ignorance over the past or fear of uneasy spirits of the many lives lost, Weiss knew not.

Mountain Glenn.

Next Chapter: Freezerburn

In which Weiss Schnee and Yang Xiao-Long have a night on the town.