Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Weiss will present to you a dilemma. A simple question, with a simple answer. In the end, would you choose what was right or what you wanted?

What she wants sits in front of her, oblivious. Rose petals and bright smiles, silver eyes and grand gestures. What she wants is her, the life she represents, the love she can give and the whispers of, "let me adore you." What she wants is a life free of the unlawful burning embers of the Schnee dust company. What she wants is to save the world, to defeat a monster, to love a girl.

What's right is something different. What's right is the sacrifice of her freedom, of her heart, of silver eyes blown wide and darling filled laughs. What's right is rigging the helm, what's right is destroying the name her father defined, and replacing it with something softer but equally ruthless. What's right is giving up the life she has built, for ungrateful creatures who refuse her, for the people who believe she's better off a corpse. What's right, is saving the faunus trapped in an endless cycle of torment, saving the victims of her father's wanderlust, and telling Ruby Rose she could never see her again.

In a decision between desire and righteousness, love and order, what would you choose?

---

"You're going to have to learn to this by yourself, sister." Winter Schnee held herself with all the grace of something lethal and gentle, deadly with her sword movements, yet apart of her power remains reserved, used for real threats instead of bumbling baby sisters still learning. The eldest watched the way her sister moved, lithe and fluid, a silent reminder of the dancing she was forced to participate in as a child. "You won't always have me here to protect you."

Weiss breathed out, feeling something cold start to melt at her sister's detached glance. Her face, while stoic, held a melted glacier gaze, letting her know that in her own way, Winter was trying to help.

She felt at war. A part of her wanted to demand why her sister had decided to visit, why she had decided to spend time with her. The other side, the one that never often graced the halls of Schnee manor, was so very astounded at the display of affection. That part, the anxious idiotic part, made her want to run up to her sister and do something drastic, but somehow Weiss knew she'd never get that far. (Most likely scolded, or her action mistook for an attack, she had no desire to be at the end of Winter's weapon.)

Yet the two factions that waged battle in her mind, was nothing compared to the third. Small and unnoticed, angry and rabid. Perhaps Winter wasn't doing this right, maybe she should not be so reluctant to visit her sister. Possibly, just possibly, her entire persona should melt at the sight of Weiss, desperate and yearning for the warmth she could never give.

Perhaps. Weiss thought, amused and annoyed at the childish thoughts that had infected her mind. Perhaps.

"Yes, Winter." Summoning was hard, but she'd learn, eventually. This was one of the proper requirements of her birth after all, the Schnee family could always summon the shades of their defeated enemies. Weiss would be no exception.

"You've decided to attend Beacon." Winter says softly, uncharacteristically gentle. 

Weiss didn't move, watching as her sister shed her sword. She had no idea how her sister had found out, the school didn't start until another month. "Yes." There was no point denying it, Winter had pointed it out as a fact, and saying she was wrong would be a colossal waste of both their time. Her sister moved closer to her, movement silent. The eldest Schnee raised her hand, like she meant to place it on her shoulder, only to hesitate, and put it back at her side. 

Winter's spine straightened slightly, like she was nervous. "Weiss, I--" 

"Winter!" Whitley. Her sister's posture went military, her eyes freezing over. At first glance, it sounded as if their younger brother had really been excited to see her, but they knew better. Whitley Schnee was something wicked and feral, desperate for something that their father would never give them. It was almost sad, Weiss knew, because her brother still believed that their father loved them, that all they needed to do to further it was morph into something he'd approve of. It was almost sad, but then she remembered that Whitley would do anything to achieve what he deemed father's love. At the moment, that was the title that Weiss held. 

Heiress. Inheritor. Next of kin. The future of the family.

He believed Weiss was loved the most, and she had no idea how to break it to him that it was quite the opposite. 

"Winter." He said again, and for a moment she saw him at five years old, wide eyed and innocent. "It's nice to see you once again sister, tell me, does father know you are here?" 

Weiss inwardly cringed. 

"Not yet I'm afraid." Her older sister's voice was light, but restricted. "I was actually on my way to him, would you like to accompany me?"

Weiss looked down, swallowing. The only way that Winter would come out of that office relatively unscathed, was if she brought him information that might interest him. Something like the heiress of the family decided to move to an entirely different city, and attending Beacon Academy in place of Atlas. She looked up, watching as Whitley calculated just what had happened.

"Why, I'd love to accompany you dear sister, if you'll have me of course." He finished in a tone that made him think he was charming.

Winter deadpanned. "Why would I ask if I didn't want you to come with me?" Weiss coughed into her palm, hiding a snicker. Her time in the military really had changed her, her blatant disregard for their brother's slimy pleasantries attested to that.

Whitley blinked, cheeks coloring slightly. "Of course." 

She turned to Weiss, a brief apology in her eyes. "Until next time."

"Goodbye," She replied softly, her eyes hardening as she turned to meet her brother. "Whitley." 

Years later, she still never knew what Winter had wanted to say to her.

---

Weiss frowned, watching the people walk past, trying to find a way to breach the topic. Telling someone you love that you will have to leave eventually, even if that certain fondness isn't reciprocated, was harder than she had expected. Then again, she realized, she'd never really cared for someone like this before, it made sense she was reluctant to let go.

"What are you thinking about?" Ruby murmurs, watching the way her partner examines the people surrounding them, eyes sad and brows furrowed. 

Weiss blinks momentarily, remembering herself, and a wall surfaces between her and Ruby. "Something my sister said to me." It's the truth, but not the entirety of it, she can tell Ruby wants more than that, more than a vague response to a loaded question, but Weiss doesn't know how to elaborate, to respond to the way her friend's eyes go down. "It's-- It's kind of hard to explain sometimes."

Ruby hums, spinning around to face her. "Maybe you can try?" 

She chews at the inside of her cheek, forcing herself to look up into the other teenager's eyes. "Well, it's more like, something she didn't get a chance to say, I think sometimes, she was trying to apologize."

"For what?"

---

Her first impression of Ruby Rose leaves much to be desired. It's not like she hadn't expected Beacon Academy to be filled to the brim with absolute buffoons, but she had at least assumed she would have longer then ten minutes to orient herself for the onslaught of incoming stupidity. She had been wrong, she'd barely had three minutes of examining the school's campus when a girl, young a pretty looking, crashed into her. Weiss grunted, dropping her suitcases and revealing bottles of ground dust to the campus air. She hissed angrily, scooping up her things while the other girl tried to help, apologizing profusely for bumping into her. 

Weiss remembers becoming annoyed quickly, remembers yelling and shaking with rage that had been left over from earlier that day. (Her father hadn't been supportive of her decision, he couldn't have his heir too far from him or her older sister, at least if she had gone to Atlas Winter would have been able to watch over her.) It's funny looking back on it, how torn she was between Atlas and Beacon, the desire to be closer to Winter and the desire for freedom, for a new life clashing so closely against one another. It's funny, because even years later, she could never tell if choosing Beacon Academy was a mistake or not.

Then of course, the girl had to sneeze.

(It did not help, that within moments of her school career, not only had she been insulted by another teenage girl claiming her family's company was built on the bones and blood of millions of innocent faunus.) 

Weiss had spent the rest of the week sulking and coughing up dust. School had been off to a miraculous start. 

The next day started off with a similar incident.

"Ouch!" Weiss gripped her nose, the sudden situation catching her completely off guard, a mistake she wouldn't make again. "Ouch--" Silver met harsh glacier eyes, and the dark haired girl winced, flinching away from the Schnee's chilly glare. "You absolute heathen, did you not notice my figure in your imbecilic quest to absolutely ruin my day, again?" She went off, clenching and unclenching her fists, the only thing worse that could possibly happen was--

"Oh jeez snow angel, are you alright?"

That. 

And of course Pyrrha Nikos had to accompany the dolt who assumed anything he said could obtain her attention.

She felt stupid, her head to big for her own body, as she forced herself to breathe, her aura healing some of the damage. It didn't help with the rush of blood that had already escaped her nose and dripped down to her white clothing. At least Winter had warned her about the kind of riffraff that often times attended Beacon Academy, she had a back up skirt in her locker. Weiss forced herself to stay calm, everything would be fine, everything would be okay--

"Who Carrie-d the ice queen?" The blonde older sister of the bane of Weiss' very student career snickered. 

She didn't understand that reference. She could barely understand anything these people were saying beside the basic 'hunter speak'. 

"Right." She mumbled under her breath, pushing past Ruby to find a bathroom, "Of course."

'Heavy is the head that wears the crown.' Winter's voice reminded her as she wiped the blood from her fingers and face. 'You can't afford to be reckless there, in the hands of inexperienced liabilities, I overheard Pyrrha Nikos would be attending Beacon, I recommend you do what you can to join her.' She didn't want to think about what would happen if she ended up on arguably one of the best future huntress here, and the idiot who couldn't stop some cheesy pick up line from escaping his stupid mouth every five seconds. 

For a moment, a horribly dreadful, horrible moment-- she's back in that distasteful manor. Cold creeps up her skin and down her spine, and even though it's long since healed her left eye aches and stings. Goosebumps rise on her moonlight skin, something that hasn't happened since she was a child pulling on her mother's dresses and father's long legs, tripping the help with Whitley, begging Winter to give her the time of day, huddled up in Klein's arms when her father was particularly brutal--

Nothing could be worse than the icy fortress that was her home in Atlas, nothing could be worse than that.

Years later, when she's faced with variety of different disasters and wars, she's disappointed to say those words still ring true.

---

"Did you know Winter was supposed to inherit the company?" She says instead of answering her partners question. 

Ruby blinked for a moment, watching Weiss with surprised eyes. "No." She whispers softly, "I didn't."

The heiress smiled. "Not many do." She looks down at her hands, if she looks too often, sometimes she sees blood of metaphorical enemies staining her fingers. "Winter is like me, in a way." The dark haired girl said nothing, and Weiss was momentarily grateful. The pale haired woman turned to look at her friend, hoping that somehow the words she had to speak would come easy, hoping that the apologies and uselessness that she felt was conveyable completely by her pale eyes. "She was given a choice." Ruby sat still, "I have been given the same, and if I choose the same she has--" Weiss trailed off looking away. I could be happy.

"What?" Ruby asked.

"Winter always told me things about our company," Weiss continued instead, "Before she left, she always explained to me just how everything worked. I cherished the time she sacrificed for me, loved that she had found a way to accompany me in a way our father could not bar." 

"That sounds nice." She adjusted her cloak, setting a warm hand on Weiss' cold one.

Her smile was brittle. "It does. Until you realize the only reason she spoke to me, was because she needed to make sure I'd be okay when she chose freedom, taking all my family had left, leaving me and my brother without any of it."

---

Coup d'état.

Weiss knew what the words meant, knew the implications of saying them or in suggesting them, knew how horrible it felt when the words took action. Yet some part of her mind couldn't help but continue to circle back to it. Ruby wasn't a bad leader, a small part of her whispered, she's just not an ideal one. The larger, angrier part of her seethed at the very thought that she had become complacent in the hands of an absolute dolt. (Yes she uses that insult unironically, she has a particular fondness for outdated words.) She had thought she had lay to rest her unsettlement with her team standing via the conversation she participated in with Professor Port. Apparently, she'd been wrong.

Coup d'état.

Would it be possible to lay claim to a position that was never hers in the first place? Would it be the right choice to make in a time where right choices are often wrong? She couldn't be sure, all she knew, all she needed to know, was that her father had been disappointed, which was unacceptable. She had received the letter in the dorm with her teammates surrounding her, talking about trivial matters, when a white dove tapped at the window.

Weiss went pale. Her father had never been subtle. She moved upward, escaping her momentary fort filled with text books and leaned to open the window. The dove watched her with cold eyes, resembling the Schnee family in all but form. 

"--ice queen?"

Warmth tickled at the arm facing the opposite of her bunks. She wished Yang would learn personal space. 

"Hmm?" She reached to take the letter clutched in the bird's small beak, watching as it eyed her with distaste.

It nipped her, drawing blood from her pointer finger, and flew off. She grit her teeth, heading back to Atlas so soon meant that her father did not need a response.

"Your bird's an asshole." Yang noted, seemingly unaware to Weiss' inner struggle. "You're also bleeding."

"Hadn't noticed." Weiss mumbled sarcastically, holding the piece of Schnee company parchment open. Her father hadn't even bothered to use his blank papers, opting instead for one with the family logo printed on it. 

"To which one?" Yang pressed humorously.

Weiss didn't respond, reading the letter with a continuously paling face. This was not good. The first thing, printed in hasty yet elegant writing, was:

Coup d'état.

She dropped the paper, taking a step back.

Coup d'état.

This was very not good.

"Weiss?" Ruby's voice snapped her out of her shocked state, "Hey are you okay? You're shaking."

It takes a moment to reorient herself, to realize that she was falling apart in the presence of people she barely knew, who she could barely trust. She bends down and picks up the paper, wordlessly setting it on fire, before dousing it in ice. She didn't need to read it again. She turns to her teammates, Ruby who looks uncomfortably worried, Yang confused, and Blake a mix of the two with the tiniest bit of humor at Weiss' display.

Her father wanted a coup. She'd give it to him. (Whether it be the way he expected or not.)

"Perfectly alright." She said, channeling whatever part of herself that allied itself with her older sister. She smooths down the paleness of her hair, wordlessly summoning her bag, a lazy maneuver she only did when she was in a particular rush about something. "I'm afraid I must retire to the library, research is needed for my next assignment." 

"You already finished Port's paper." Blake added sagely, watching Weiss move. 

"So I have." She said, moving toward the door, letting her hand linger on the smooth wood. "I never said it was for a class." 

She was gone with a whip of her white blonde hair, leaving three confused teammates in her wake.

 ---

"I didn't know you had a brother." Ruby said softly, muffling the excitement in her voice at her friend's obvious lack of brightness. 

"His name is Whitley." She responded automatically, pulling her hand away from the warmth. "He's," She hesitated, "how would your sister describe him...? Ah yes a self righteous, asshole."

Ruby snorted, half surprised and amused, shoulder checking Weiss gently, she smiled. "I didn't know words like that lived in your vocabulary."

"Please." She huffed, turning up her nose and crossing her arms. "My knowledge is extensive."

"Question not the Weiss," Ruby continued mysteriously, "For the Weiss knows all."

She covered her mouth with her palm, hiding a snicker. "Shut up you dolt."

Ruby's broad grin will be forever burned into her memory. Weiss turned away, hiding the flush that began to rise in her cheeks, the way that her partner's smile grew impossibly larger, she had a feeling she had been unsuccessful.

---

"You're in mourning." It's Blake who says this to her, a statement like she knows exactly what the tiny dove had delivered. Weiss had always admired her, the soft spoken bookish type with a tendency to speak her mind when justice is oh so needed. "But not for a person."

The heiress considers her for a moment. Blake would keep her words hers for a time, only revealing them in the hour of great need. Weiss didn't know if that was a good thing yet. She tapped idly at the library table, absentmindedly tracing the carved markings in the tables. She paused, seeing a tiny heart with the initials RB and TXL. If she were in a better mood, she might've smiled.

"Not exactly." Weiss said, stilling her fingers against the polished wood. "I have known of this for some years, it's something different, an idea rather peculiar."

"Hmm." Blake eyed her. "Peculiar?"

The pale haired teenager tapped a tune on the wood, humming to herself. "Yes. My father--" Blake blinked in surprise, "--has gotten rather, eh-hem, inventive."

"You're leaving much to the imagination." She replied, closing the book she had been holding.

"Am I?" Her lips twitched. "Imagine that."

Blake snorted, watching Weiss with an odd sort of grace. She moved closer slightly, her movements feline in nature. Somehow, even though the two were nothing alike, Weiss found herself reminded of Winter. "Why are you telling me this?" The other girl asked softly, hesitantly tilting her head and moving to sit down in front of her.

Weiss hummed again, considering. Her idle fingers continuing the motions for a tune she was most familiar with. "I suppose, I've decided to trust you, about this at least, opening up about ones family is usually the first step, no?"

"I assume so." Blake paused. "Shouldn't you talk to Ruby about this? She is the leader, your partner."

Weiss twitched, a hitch in her though process that caused her fingers to miss a silent note. Her teammate's eyes flickered to her hand, before moving to meet ice blue. "She'll find out eventually," she mumbled dismissively, "information has a way of finding a person when we rather wish it didn't."

"Are you insinuating something?" Amusement flashed in golden eyes.

Weiss placed her chin her hand, momentarily thoughtful. "I am not incorrect," a pause, "am I?"

"No." Blake nodded discreetly to a row of books. Her smile grew more genuine. "I'm pleasantly surprised you've noticed."

"This isn't the first time," Weiss stood and straightened her posture. "Not with my standing, and I have no doubt it shall not be the last."

"Ominous." Blake noted, standing.

"Vague." Weiss added, making the other huntress look at her strangely. She shrugged, "I have a particular fondness for word association games."

A slow smirk framed Blake's face. "I'm sure." She looked down at the book Weiss had been reading, a frown painting over her smile. "Why have you-- oh." Blake pieces it together so easily, Weiss couldn't tell if she was impressed or enraged when the next question escaped the other girl's mouth. "What did he say to you?" A demand more than a question, but she was willing to let it slide.

"It's more what he didn't." Weiss feels her temper begin to bubble up, filling her lungs and escaping through her pinched mouth. "I have years, still. Do not worry. If that's what you were doing." She didn't want to get into team politics with Blake, so she walked into the section where she needed to return the heavy tome she'd considered checking out. She ignored the flabbergasted looks that Yang and Ruby gave her when she slid the dusty book back into it's place, pausing momentarily to pinch the bridge of her nose. "Seriously?"

"Well in our defense, we hadn't expected you to be brushing up on your law practices skills--" Yang shrugged sarcastically, clamping a hand over Ruby's mouth, "--Nobody comes into this section of the library." Blake snorted, rolling her eyes and leaning against the book shelves while Weiss sighed heavily.

From the fearful looks Ruby was shooting her with, Weiss knew that an explosive reaction was expected from her. 

"Nevertheless," Weiss shot both teenagers a frosty glare, "If you wish to ask me a question simply approach me-- I may actually answer."

Yang looked surprised, her shock allowing Ruby to escape from her headlock. The blonde shot a look at Blake, imploring her to elaborate, but the dark haired girl simply shook her head, golden eyes flashing in the dusty air.

"Right." Ruby mumbled awkwardly, "Totally will do that next time, no issues here, nope!"

Weiss eyed her, unimpressed, before sighing defeatedly. "What did you want to ask--"

"Are you okay?" Ruby interrupted her quickly, jittery movements catching the Schnee heiress off guard for a moment. "I mean you ran out of the room really really fast and you looked kind of shaken when you read whatever it is that letter said-- not that we know what it said, because you know, you kind of burned it the moment you finished reading it and oh my goodness I'm so sorry--" Yang thwapped a hand over her sister's mouth.

"Right." Weiss said, pinching the bridge of her nose. "I've received a... troubling letter from my father."

That made both of the siblings in front of her go rigged, Weiss had never really mentioned her family.

"Is everything... is everything okay?" Yang asked, looking slightly out of her element before shaking off her mystified look. "I mean, whenever you talk to your sister--" Ruby's head snapped to Yang, "--you don't usually set anything on fire."

"You have a sister?" Everyone seemed perfectly content ignoring Ruby's obliviousness.

"That is because Winter--" She paused, looking for the right things to say. "Winter is just--"

"Cooler?" Yang recommended with a wink.

It took every ounce of willpower not to strangle her teammate's neck right then and there.

"She's not as hotheaded," Weiss tried, only to cringe at her own use of wording. "One word and I freeze your entire body instead of your head, so you could stay in the library conscious while nobody grants you pity and frees you from your punishment."

Yang raised her hands in surrender, a tiny smirk playing on her lips. "Okay, okay, I got it ice-queen."

She huffed, taking a shuttering breath. "Winter is my sister, my father is..."

"Your father." Blake supplied, looking sympathetic. "If half of what he does to ensure his company in the news is true--"

"Regardless," Weiss grit out, shooting her a venomous look, "I have more to prove with him, and correspondence can leave me... rattled, as much as it pains me to admit." She hesitated, "I apologize if... if I needlessly worried you." She spits the words out quickly, they sit in her mouth uncomfortably, stiffly waiting as her team watches.

"Worried you aren't living up to expectations?" Yang asked sympathetically.

Weiss reins in the urge to laugh. If only.

"In a sense." She mumbled finally, hoping her hesitation was not as obvious as it had felt. "Heavy is the head." She becomes lost in a moment, thinking of her sister and her crusade for the military.

"Heavy is the head," Blake says in agreement, placing a hand on her shoulder.

They miss the confused looks that Ruby and Yang shoot each other.

---

"There are times I do feel conflicted," Weiss admits as they walk back to Saphron's house, "Times I do wish I could simply allow my brother Whitley to run the Schnee Dust Company instead of me."

"Why don't you?" Ruby sounds hesitant, and distantly she can see the shocked and worried look the younger girl shoots her. Weiss wonders if she revealed too much too soon, she crosses her arms, rubbing her hands up and down in a pitiful attempt to produce some heat. There's a delicacy to telling someone you care about the sacrifice you're going to make without scaring the absolute shit out of them.

"Whitley-- he doesn't have the best beliefs." Weiss says softly, a rueful smile at the memory of her brother. "He was like me when I first started Beacon, but while I was content to keep my hatred and anger to myself, perhaps going off on the occasional tangent, my brother is... not." The pale haired girl chews on the inside of her cheek. If you where on the outside looking in, she was the picture of poise, the shining example of moon light mixed with something sadder.  She remembers Whitley when he was five, desperate for their mother and father's attention, and wonders briefly if the boy she had met on the return to Beacon, arrogant and cheating, was still the same child who begged for a little extra attention, a little extra of whatever their parents gave them as a supplement for love.

"Weiss?" Ruby murmurs, placing a steadying palm against the small of her back. 

She jumps slightly, realizing that she had been quite for sometime, before coughing and straightening her posture. "Right, where was I?"

"You where considering giving it all to your brother." Ruby adds.

Weiss laughed, a little bitter. "Giving isn't what I'd describe it as."

---

"Why do you keep defending him?" Weiss sneered angrily, "That filthy faunus from the boat is nothing but a criminal--"

"Stop calling him a criminal, stop calling him a degenerate, stop judging an actual living breathing person for the extra limb he has!" Blake rebutted angrily, "You don't get to decide who he is because of his tail!"

The heiress shook with rage, the bedroom growing increasingly cold. "Are you joking? He's an actual criminal, he broke the law--"

"Maybe so--" Blake crossed their shared room with her arms crossed, body hunched forward in obvious annoyance. "But you don't get to call him all these monstrous things just because he doesn't look like your definition of normal!" Weiss opened her mouth again, another rebuttal on the tip of her tongue, when Blake began to shake with more obvious rage. "Shut up! Listen to me, you don't get to do and say all these things about another person."

"I don't understand why this is such an issue." Weiss complained, gripping her fingers, pressing her nails into the palms of her hands. "I don't understand--"

"Are you kidding me?" Blake looked flabbergasted, shocked at her lack of whatever Weiss was supposed to know or feel. "This is the issue! You're no better than Cardin or the rest of those horrible bigots, you're just a selfish, spoiled, vain little girl, who's never seen a real--"

"I'm a victim!" It's out of her mouth before she can stop it, before she can weigh the possible outcomes in her mind. Weiss fights the urge to clamp her hands over her mouth, crossing her arms and staring determinedly at the floor. Blake goes quiet, and she can feel the heaviness that comes with the wide eyed stares of her teammates. "Do you want to know why I hate the White Fang?" She asked softly, brushing off the teenagers in the room, moving to window and staring up at the broken moon. A flick of her eyes and she can see the scar reflected in her window. "Do you want to know why I don't particularly trust faunus?" Her voice is tired, and distantly she recognizes the anger as the type her sister has. 

"Weiss-?" Someone reaches out to grab her shoulder, only to jump back in shock at the absolute cold that radiated from her body.

"Do you know what it's like?" She turns her head to look Blake in the eyes. The teenager blinks in surprise. "To have a target painted on your back for everyone to see? My family--" She grits her teeth, "--have been at war with groups like the White Fang for generations." Weiss glances back out the window, watching the moon, basking in the reflection on her skin. "War, as in actual bloodshed, watching family friends disappear, board members, executed, an entire train full of dust, stolen--" A shiver runs down her spine, if she blinked she could still feel the splatter of warm, see the pool of red. "Everyday my father would come home, furious--" Weiss placed her hands against the window, gripping at the glass, "--and that made for a very, difficult, childhood."

"Weiss." Another attempt at grabbing her shoulder, which she only shrugs off.

"No! Do you want to know why I hate the White Fang?" She whirls on Blake, anger seeping through every cell in her body, "Because they're a group of no good, lying, thieving, murderers!"

"Well maybe we were just tired of being pushed around!"

A beat passes. Weiss stares down at the place Blake stood, her face pale, ashy. She had been living with one, had been friends with one, had cared for one-- had trusted one. It's like someone punched a whole into her chest, left her drowning in blood and washing in waves of pain. What was she supposed to do? What was she supposed to say? If Blake was still in that group, if she hated everything that Weiss had stood for, what was her plan? It couldn't be an assassination, as much as the very idea made bile rise into her throat, why was she there? How had she managed to get so close--

What was the plot, if there even was one? Why had Blake allowed her to get so close--

"Weiss?" She blinked, looking up, noticing a worried face and gentle silver eyes. "You've been standing there for a long time."

"Right." Her mouth tasted like cotton, "Of course." Her movements from then on were robotic, stiff. "Right."

"Weiss, hey--" But she was already gone, escaping the room, and heading somewhere else entirely.

The weekend passed in a blur, searching for a missing teammate who had a knack for running away was hard. Searching for her while not entirely sure whether your entire friendship was a fabricated lie to get to your father was harder. Yang and Ruby tried to sympathize, but it was clear any true feelings of comradery were for Blake, not her. It made Weiss feel cold, feel empty, feel stupid. In her scheme to get away from her family, to get away from the hatred and the clear plots to destroy the Schnee Dust Company, she had jumped headfirst into exactly what she had been avoiding.

Then she had to go and sully any actual things she might have enjoyed. 

Was she so selfish, so callous, so cruel, that her teammates had chosen the side of a possible murderer over her?

Was she so much like her father?

Even as she spiraled into a pool of self-hatred, something told her that she was wrong. A distinct feeling of something missing, something fundamental that she should have been able to see or have. Perhaps there weren't two different sides, a quiet voice that sounded suspiciously like Ruby whispered, perhaps there is only the information that your teammates feel they deserve. Jumping to conclusions, it seemed, had never helped anybody.

When they finally found Blake, Weiss had made her decision. 

The faunus girl had curled away from her, watching like anything she had to say was purely venomous, only anger, or bigotry. A part of Weiss felt insulted, a part felt enraged at whoever had done this to her, and the last, felt only self hatred. A type of hate that lay route deep inside of her, wrapped violently around her body, muffling her mouth and eyes, burrowing it's way inside and suffocating her skeleton. 

A part of her wanted to scream. A part of her wanted to cry. A part of her wanted to grip Blake by the shoulders and just ask why?

"Don't worry about it." She did instead, watching Blake's golden amber eyes widen in shock and something that Weiss couldn't quite place. "Don't worry about it--" She repeated, rubbing her hands together, and paused. "We were really worried." She whispers, screwing her eyes shut tightly. "Promise me you won't do anything like that ever again, and you'll have nothing to fret over."

"Okay." Blake said softly.

"I've had this entire weekend to go over what I said to you." Weiss looked her teammate in the eye. "Forty-eight hours to wonder what you might say in return, what excuses you may have had about all this." She gestured wildly. "But all that really matters is that you're okay, and that the White Fang is a part of you that you've left behind--" Weiss hesitated, and lowered her voice. "Can you... can you teach me why everything I did in this situation was--"

"Wrong?" Blake deadpanned.

"Less than desirable." Weiss corrected. Something told her, whatever Blake had to say, was information she would gravely need in the future.

---

"How would you describe it?" Ruby asked, her frown subtly deepening.

Weiss blinked, momentarily surprised, she hadn't truly meant to say that out loud. They had reached Saphron's home, but her partner was still gazing down at her, staring determinedly. Silver eyes met pale ones, and the former Schnee heiress felt something tug inside her heart. How was she going to tell her what she planned? For a terrible moment, Weiss considered not saying a thing, keeping her mouth shut until the time came to convince her father to return to her the title of heiress. 

Even if that was the easiest way to cut ties, she knew that she'd never forgive herself if she didn't at least warn Ruby of what lay wake in Atlas.

"Ruby, you should know something--" Weiss tries, choking on her words, ice and snow fill her lungs. The roses seem to suffocate her, she can smell their coolness and flowery scent. "You should know that--"

She's cut off when the younger woman places a strong hand on her shoulder. "Hey, hey... it's alright."

A bitter laugh bubbles up in her throat. "Something happened to me in Atlas, something I have to make right." She spits out, hoping to get the words out before she inadvertently swallows them whole again. "I have to make it right."

Ruby watches her, worry furrowing her dark eyebrows. "Okay?"

"Something I may very well have to do alone--"

"Nope." She says immediately, her expression smoothing over, eyes relaying amusement and something like exasperation.

"You can't just--"

"Nope." Ruby says again, laughing a little this time. "I made a promise that I wouldn't leave your side when we made it to Atlas, I'm not about to go back on that."

Weiss flushes, "But it's--"

"Nope."

"Ruby--"

"Not happening."

"I'm trying to--"

"Forget it ice queen." She teases.

Weiss swallows the sarcastic barb that threatens to attack the person in front of her, and instead hides a smile into the back of her hand. "You're such a dork."

"Maybe so." Ruby agrees. "But isn't that a little bit of an upgrade from dolt?"

She deadpans. "I take back every compliment I've ever said in regards to you."

The dark haired girl reels back, placing a hand dramatically over her heart. Weiss notices the red in her hair. "Whatever shall I do? No nice things said from my partner? I may not survive."

"Oh my goodness shut up!" She couldn't control the laugh that spilled out of her, coating everything around them in colors most vibrant. It felt nice, after all the worrying she had done, after all the deliberating on the consequences of what she may face in Atlas.

Ruby stilled suddenly, watching as Weiss failed to control the giggle that had bubbled up in her throat. A hand reached out suddenly, settling on the part of her skin where her shoulder met her neck, fingers brushing the fine hairs on the back of her head. thumb brushing her jawline and settling on the top of her collarbone. Weiss stopped moving, opening her eyes-- only to meet silver pools staring back at her.

"I'm with you Weiss." She said, a small flush painting her cheeks and the tip of her ears. "Just tell me what you need to do."

The former heiress considered her momentarily. Weighing what words should be said and how. "I don't know what will happen when we get back to Atlas," She took a tiny step backward, looking at her clenched fists, before looking up, icy fire lit in her eyes. "But if I reach my father, and he requests I stay behind, I need you to honor it."

Ruby dropped her hand. "What?"

"I'm not leaving." Weiss rushed out, "If my father keeps me trapped I have a plan to deal with him but you can't reveal that you have any intention toward me, friendly or not--"

"What are you saying?" Ruby's voice grew noticeably silent.

Weiss smiled, sad and a little defeated. "I need you to pretend you found me, that you're returning me to Atlas for the reward, and we've never met before you found me."

---

"You've got to be joking!" Surprisingly it's Blake who's shouting. "You want us to leave you with your father?! How in Remnant is that even a remotely good idea?!"

"That's what I said." Ruby grumped, her arms were crossed, a slight pout on her lips that made the frown on her face seem more childish than stern.

Weiss didn't bother trying to defend her decision, sipping the tea that Jaune and Oscar had made for them. "I need you to respect my decision."

"No way in hell--" Yang and Blake synchronize.

Nora rubs her neck awkwardly. "Is this a team RWBY meeting? Do you need us to go?" Her eyes remain on Weiss, the redheaded girl curled into Ren's side, watching her with worried eyes.

Weiss sets down her tea, ever the picture of perfect poise. "It truly does not matter, though you can remain if you wish to know the issue."

Jaune laughed, shuffling from one foot to another. "With how the conversation is going I think the entire neighborhood will know what's going on."

She eyed the blonde, before sighing. "If I am to return to Atlas I am going to have to discuss issues with my father, there would be no way around it."

Blake's ears flattened against her head. "We could hide you."

"You really couldn't." Weiss smiled a little, "Though I do appreciate the sentiment."

"Why do you even have to talk to him?" Ruby asked softly.

Weiss' smile dropped. "That's--"

"Wait." Blake said, her amber eyes drooping slightly. She had always been observant, it's not a surprise she'd realize everything before anyone else. "You've decided to go through with it, haven't you?"

"Go through with what?" Yang interrupted, looking at everyone in the room with a certain degree of annoyance.

Weiss ignored her, "Yes." She whispered, closing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I have."

Blake moved forward, dropping to her knees in front of her teammate. She looked torn, separate sides and wants warring in the gold pools of her eyes. "Is now really the right time?" She said softly, reaching out and gripping her hand. "We have a war to fight."

"A near useless one." Weiss responded coldly, "What happens in the conversation between me and my father may make it less... fruitless."

"Your endeavor would take years--" Blake looked mildly horrified.

"Years well spent." She shot back. "Do not tell me you wouldn't take the time."

"Yo, team checkmate, want to tell us what we're missing out on?" Yang asked, an eyebrow raised.

"The Schnee Dust Company--" Weiss started, only to be interrupted by hand slapping over her mouth. She blinked staring at the faunus teenager, her eyes asked an endless amount of questions. Why? How? When? Are you sure? She nodded, and Blake removed her palm. "I may or may not have to issue a coup d'état." 

"Didn't we already do one of those?" Jaune asked. "If coup d'état means what I think it means?"

"No." Ruby said softly, staring at Weiss with unreadable eyes. "We haven't done one of those."

Weiss winced. This conversation would not end well for her, or the battered remains of her heart.

Chapter Text

"You are part monster." Sneered in white painted teeth, blue ice shrilled eyes. "You are monstrous, stupid, and ridiculously out of line if you think I will bend to your rule." Identical eyes pursue the man who speaks, watching and waiting, hawk-like. Different from so many cobra cold blooded family members.

"Perhaps." She is short with him, idle in her hunt, eyeing him with steel she didn't know she had. "But if I'm monstrous, tell me father, what does that make you?" Her voice is airy, the type of tone she learned from her outings as part of a team.

His jaw tightens, his shoulders squaring, and she knows exactly what comes next. She prepares herself for the blow, her previous fire quenched as he raised his hand. Why wasn't she fighting him again? Her mind goes dizzy, why wasn't she moving out of the way?

Fog blurs the corners of her vision.

Her head is jerked violently to the right, her hair falling put of place and into her eyes, covering the dim blue, unsurprised. The cheek that had met the impact felt hot, stinging her. Tears began the attempt to slide down her cheekbones, but Weiss blinked them away hurriedly. Showing her father any weakness would only end badly.

---

"Your plan has a lot of margin for error." Jaune points out, "Like a whole lot, like a ton--"

Weiss waved him off, "I appreciate your concern," A smile, "But trust me when I say my father will do exactly as I say."

Ruby crossed her arms, watching her. The soon-to-be heiress shifted uncomfortably, swallowing the panic that rose at the look in her partners mirror eyes. Sometimes, she wondered what she looked like in them, what reflection she would be able to see back. Or what Ruby saw, when she looked at her. "Can you guarantee that?" The younger teenager asked, her voice almost uncharacteristically serious.

"She can." Blake mumbled, looking extremely troubled. "If she plays her cards right."

Yang frowned, "But Weiss sucks at card games." She winked playfully toward white haired woman. "I mean like, she's really, really bad."

The teenager in question bristled. "What's that supposed to mean--"

"She's much better at chess." Blake interjected, "Ah, the term 'checkmate' lives veraciously in her vocabulary."

"Am I stupid--" Jaune starts.

"Yes." Weiss interjects, her tone bored.

"--or are we missing something between you two?" He points to Blake and Weiss. "I mean, I'm always missing something, but this just feels like an entire thing in the middle of you guys."

Yang and Ruby exchange matching unreadable looks.

Nora watched them with amusement. For a moment Weiss thought she might get this conversation over and done with relatively unscathed, just have the rest of her friends accept the fact that she knew what she was doing and leave it at that. But once again, she may have overestimated the amount of maturity the fellow students of Beacon academy had. 

"Did you two make out or something?" Nora teased. "Unresolved tension?" She wiggled her red eyebrows

Blake and Weiss stared at the girl, grimacing in unison. 

"Please perish." The pale haired teenager said. "Please."

"For once I can say I agree with Weiss." Blake wrinkled her nose, "Die."

"So you didn't... make out?" Nora asked. "Bone? Hook up? Deal a dash in love?"

"Bone?" Ruby mumbled.

"Who says 'deal a dash in love', like seriously?" Jaune whispered back to her.

"No." Both girls recoiled, saying the word in horrified unison.

Nora frowned. "But you want too?"

"Not really." Blake said, sipping her drink. "Weiss is a bit to, eh-hem, Schneesy for me."

Color surfaced in Yang's cheeks.

"No," Weiss added, deciding to ignore the horrible out of character pun she had made. "Blake is more friend then... whatever you assume us to be, or--" She struggled momentarily. "--wait why are you asking?" A frown, a drum of her fingers on the old comfortable couch. She shielded her discomfort deep inside walls made of ice, posture straightening, eyes narrowing. Why had Nora thought this the most appropriate time to ask something like that? Unless-- A discreet glance at Yang, who was still slightly blushing. That made a large amount of sense, the two partners had always been joined at the hip, but such a juvenile test to see if Blake was with her?

Children. Weiss sniffed. The lot of them

"Really though Weiss," Blake looked at her, brow wrinkled in worry. "What do you honestly plan on doing?" 

The pale headed girl sipped her tea, cringing slightly. It was too cold for pleasurable consumption. She summoned a tiny glyph, placing it under her cup, and warming her drink. She sighed into it, closing her eyes before putting it down. "Do something my father would do." Everyone tensed, but Weiss didn't bother acknowledging their trepidation. She had been raised to be ruthless, raised on the belief that image was everything, and family could betray each other, as long as it never went public. Perhaps that was why Jacques Schnee never allowed anything like therapy, everyone had too much incentive to place them under a magnified glass, he had been convinced, and went on to convince his children, that everyone would have great pleasure picking them apart under a microscope. It was too bad that Weiss had only just started to question his motives why it was so very essential she kept her mouth shut.

Her mother on the other hand...

"Scratch that last thought." Weiss said, "I'm going to do something my mother would do." 

"How does that change things?" Yang asked, looking at the pale headed teenager. When she received no response she looked at Blake, but the faunus girl held no answers for her, Willow Schnee had hardly ever been mentioned, by Weiss, or the various news networks that Blake frequented. 

"My mother has no qualms leading a rebellion." She said, "Whether it be the pettiest thing in the world or the most noble, my mother may be found at the very center of the cause, at least, that's how it was." She stood, picking up her empty cup of tea. "Was that all? We have a big day tomorrow, I'd prefer it if we were at least well-rested."

"Wait a minute." Ruby spoke up, her voice was quiet, but to Weiss it might've been the loudest thing in the world. "You haven't technically answered any of our questions."

She swallowed, and took a deep breathe, ragged and small. "I have responded to every single one of your inquiries, just because it isn't the answer you wanted, does not mean you can tell me I've been misleading." The words tasted bitter on her tongue, hypocritical and so wrong she had to physically fight the recoil that built up in her lean muscles. She did not wait for a response, dropping of the cup she had used, and fleeing to the room she had been allowed to sleep in. 

Ruby would follow her eventually, they shared the room after all, but for now, for the slightest amount of time-- Weiss was alone. Something she desperately needed in that moment, the small blimp of time spent lying through her teeth, spitting poison from her mouth as the people in that room extended a hand meant to sooth her, to help her. A slow shuddering sigh escaped her mouth, she was going to regret this one day, she knew, but for now, all she could do was begin to plan for the inevitable. Whatever the end may be, whatever the obstacles she had to hurdle over, Weiss Schnee was going to make sure she did everything right.

She's brushing her hair when Ruby comes in. Both of the partners are surprised, the pale haired teenager didn't expect the other girl to retreat into their room so early, perhaps Ruby felt the same, maybe she assumed that Weiss would have been asleep already, avoiding the inevitable conversation that already began to bubble up into her throat. The former Schnee heiress paused for a moment, hesitating, before continuing to carefully comb the small knots out of her long hair.

A beat passes, nobody says a word, the pressure of the situation sits heavily on Weiss' chest. It felt like the shadows of the room were suffocating her, wrapping around her body and burrowing themselves into her muscles, controlling every stiff unsteady movement she makes. She wonders if this was how Winter felt when she first left the manor for the military, dizzy and anxious from the choice she had made. 

Weiss doesn't hate her sister for wanting a relatively normal life outside the Schnee Dust Company, doesn't blame her for choosing to leave her behind. Sometimes though, she just wishes that Winter would have warned her, maybe visited a little more to teach her things and talk to each other. 

"Hey." Ruby says suddenly. She was in the middle of changing, making Weiss keep her icy gaze down. "What's wrong?" Ruby asks, slipping off her shirt and corset, searching the room for her pajama shirt.

Weiss jumped a little, surprise coloring her features. "Nothing--" She says quickly, "--nothing's, er… wrong."

Distantly, she hears Ruby stop moving, the rustle of fabric, and the light pitter patter of socked feet on hardwood floors. She feels blood start rise into her face and ears, thankful that her hair covers most of the infuriating flush. She grips at her collar bone, rubbing her thumb against the skin there, and tries to stay calm. Weiss Schnee will not be rendered useless because of the very thought of her partner shirtless, it doesn't feel like the right time to sent into a state of thoughtlessness.

Ruby laughs, though it sounds a little forced, faked for someone else's benefit. 

It makes Weiss ache. 

"You don't have to lie to me, not to spare my feelings." Ruby says, her voice small, defeated almost. 

"Ruby--" Weiss cuts herself off, gritting her teeth. She spins around, hoping to face her partner, only to find that she stands right in front of her. Blinking, mouth opening, she doesn't know what to do when her partner places her hands to her cheeks. 

What?

"Hey." She whispers, breath fanning against Weiss' face. "You want to tell me?" Her fingers are gentle, Ruby presses the pads of them brush the bone structure of her face. "Please? I just want to make sure you're okay, you're my partner, I wouldn't be able to stand it if you did something dangerous without telling anyone--"

"Stop." Her shoulders are shaking. "It's not... what must be done was never going to be something that could be considered harmful." She pulls back, pulls away, her face contorted in something similar to agony. "What must be done is nothing but a simple decision I had to make, nothing more and nothing less." Weiss shudders, and turns her face away. 

"You keep saying that." Ruby's dark red hair covers her eyes, she clenches her teeth, wrapping her arms around her bare shoulders. "You keep saying that's it's simple, just some stupid choice that you have to make-- but you never say what that is, what the consequences of what might happen are, what you even plan to do--" Her neck snaps upwards, revealing her silver eyes. They're filled with crystal clear tears, it's like a sucker punch. An aching, gaping wound in her chest that just keeps bleeding, and Weiss can't ever find herself healing it. 

"Ruby." She stops, reaching out. But the younger woman moves backward, moves away. It's like someone stole the air from her lungs, cemented her insides so she would never feel reprieve from what ailed her. Weiss lowers her hand, turning her back to her. "War demands sacrifice, this one is mine."

The smell of rose petals, the slamming of a door, and the vapid awareness of what needed to be done, was all it took for Weiss Schnee to land on her knees, and fall apart.

---

"I turned eighteen while I was away." She says softly. Her father says nothing, watching her with a sneer perfectly in place. "I wanted to remind you that I have been considered an adult for a years, you can't hit me anymore, not like when I was younger."

"Is that supposed to mean something to me?" He hissed. If she closed her eyes, she could almost imagine a forked tongue flickering out of his thin lips.

"I wish it did," Weiss said, "A loving father, a true descendent of the Schnee name, would not take such drastic action to his own children-- using his semblance on them as he disciplines them." Her father said nothing, watching as the defiance in his daughter grew and grew. "I suppose it makes sense your actions would include mind manipulation," She sniffed, "After all, you are only a Schnee by name, you married into this family, my grandfather would never had sullied his hands in the filth you have."

Jacques reddened. "Listen here girl," His posture was straight, hands behind his back as he glowered down at her. "You will stay here, you will tell those godawful hunters of yours to leave and never return, you will apologize to me, you will maintain your image by doing something, sing, dance, I truly do not care-- and you will never, ever, speak to me like that ever again."

"Did it remind you of mom?"

Another slap across the face. 

"I implore you to return what you've taken from me." Weiss utters softly, as of speaking to a child. She looks at him, waiting for him to realize what she's done. "I ask that you give it back in a timely manner, I ask that you make it irreversible, and I ask that you punish Whitley for his actions accordingly."

"And why, stupid girl, would I do that?" His eyes are chilly, but hers are so much was worse.

She brushes the hair out of her eyes, smiling gently at him, and whispers, "Don't you want to remain at the helm? If only for a little while longer? Don't you want to rule this little kingdom you've created? If you do not do as I ask, I cannot guarantee that whatever happens to you is positive, after all--" She gestures to where a woman stands, enveloped by shadow, and holding a scroll in her shaking hands. "--haven't you learned that image is everything?"

---

The Vytal Festival had been something that Weiss Schnee had been looking forward to since the first day she arrived at Beacon Academy. The amount of planning that had went into such a big event had fascinated her, had entranced her in such a way that only things such as music and combat had. Unfortunately for her, her teammates hadn't shared the same sentiment. Sure they were looking forward to the festival, but all for different reasons, which left Weiss scrambling on her own with no one to talk with.

When she received word that her sister was going to visit, she saw an opening to properly discuss the finer points of the Vytal Festival. 

That of course, was until she realized her sister had not been visiting for the familial reunion.

"Weiss?" Yang asks.

They were sitting in the stands, watching the first fight of the event, only she and Yang had been watching, as Blake and Ruby had assignments due. Yang, despite not acting like it, was actual very studious and finished as early as Weiss had. Normally, she'd be hanging around her own partner, but for some reason the faunus girl had not been able to finish her work as quickly as usual. Weiss would be worried, but Yang had insisted to her and Ruby that she had it handled. 

"What is it?" The heiress asked, eyes remaining on the fight, she winced at a particularly nasty blow, before turning to look at her teammate. 

Yang crossed her arms over chest, violet gaze meeting her own. "Do you ever get the feeling, that no matter what you do, sometimes you can't help someone?"

Weiss frowned. "Is this about Blake?"

"Nope." Yang winked. 

The heiress furrowed her brow. "Why are you asking me? I don't deal in the idealistic, the only reason you'd be asking me is if you expected a negative answer you would disapprove of." 

Yang's grin widened, the blonde teenager brushed some thick hair out of her face. "Come on, I asked the question first Weissy, the least you could do is answer before you ask any of your own."

The pale haired girl blinked slowly, trying not to let the surprise color her features. Yang didn't often ask her questions like this, she was much more content on conversing with Blake or someone like Pyrrha. If she was being honest with herself, a part of her was hesitant to even consider answering her friend. What would come of this, what would she do when the answer she heard were not the words she was looking for? Weiss didn't know. But she took the leap anyway.

"I suppose--" She paused, turning back toward the fight, watching as an unnamed teenager punched out her opponent. "--it depends on the person you want to help." She lifted her palm, summoning a glyph. A tiny sword climbed out, before blinking out of existence. She ignored Yang's sound of surprise, before turning to look her in the eye. "Some people are too far gone, it is a mercy to yourself to let them go, and to move on."

"Is that really how you feel?" She asked. "That people are irredeemable?"

Weiss considered Yang's questions. "You said I only had to answer that question before I received an answer to mine." She looked at her friend, raising a brow. "Well?"

The blonde laughed. "You're going to be like that?" She pouted. "If Ruby was the one asking you'd respond--"

"Shut up!" Weiss swat at her teammate's arm, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Yang laughed, poking at the heiress' flushed cheeks. "Ah-ho, what's this, is the all powerful, unflappable ice queen-- blushing?"

"Don't touch me-!" Weiss pushed at the blonde girl's arms in a desperate attempt to get her away, only to find Yang wrapping them around her neck and bringing her to a headlock. The Schnee squawked, suddenly tempted to use her semblance to blow Yang off of her, when the other girl wordlessly let go.

The blonde's chest shook in silent laughter. "Oh Weiss, you little nerd." 

"Don't call me that."

"Nerd."

"Brute." She had meant that scathingly, but it came out as fond, causing Yang to shoot her an unreadable look.

Eventually, her teammate smiled. "I hope you don't hurt each other too much."

Before Weiss could ask what she had meant, Ruby and Blake appeared, sitting down to watch the next round.

---

"Weiss." Blake asked when her father had fled the room, "Are you alright?"

The almost reappointed Schnee heiress said nothing, staring at the door the person who had sworn to love her from the very start had just left from, escaping to his office where he would debate his next move in response to her blatant blackmail. 

She was very not alright.

"I'm fine Blake." She adjusted her long braid, absentmindedly running a palm against the hair. "I just... need a second." The faunus nodded, a beat passing, before Weiss took a deep breath. "Right." She said, spinning to look at her teammate, "Send the video to my scroll and then to everyone else."

Blake blinked. "Everyone? Are you sure? I was under the impression you wanted to keep this little escapade a secret."

Weiss nodded grimly. "My father cannot be trusted, he will find a way to get rid of that video before we would be able to do anything with it if it remained on your scroll alone."

"What would he do?" The dark haired girl recoiled, freshly cut short curls falling into her eyes.

"Hire a fixer." Weiss stated absentmindedly, "If you can ask them not to view it-- I..." She paused. "I do not like to appear weak." When Blake opened her mouth to speak, a sharp glance kept it closed. "Blake, in order to convince the board and the citizens of Atlas that my father can't be the head of my family anymore, I will have to look, at least momentarily, like a scared little girl who gets hit by her father and does nothing--"

"You're joking." Her friend looked surprised. "Nothing? You haven't done nothing--" Blake gestured to her scroll. "You talked back to him, you warned him, you told him all the things that you would do in a grand act of defiance, none of that is nothing."

"It might as well be." Weiss says after a while, "But I thank you for saying such things to me." 

"It's true!" Blake said defensively.

She blinked. "Okay." 

"It is." The faunus said firmly, "You were brave."

Weiss was brave...? What did that mean? Why did Blake have to say that to her?

The frown on her face deepened, before her expression smoothed over. She didn't have time to dwell on whatever message her teammate was trying to convey to her. "Well..." She hesitated, "Let's get started then, shall we?" Weiss gestured toward the scroll in the other girl's hands.

Blake frowned, but did as requested. 

The sound of two pings made Weiss glance down at her scroll. 

[2 unread messages from Blake Belladonna]

She stared at the screen, sliding her finger across the glass to watch the video that her teammate had took. 

It was a little blurry, but otherwise very easy to follow. 

"-perhaps, but if I'm monstrous tell me father, what are you-"

Then the loud crack, and the jerk of her head.

Weiss cringed slightly, but rewound the video to the exact moment before he had slapped her the first time. There it was, the slightly ethereal blue that surrounded his eye, extending into his aura and making everything visible. They had him. A sigh of relief, her shoulders shaking. She quickly screenshot the image, sending it back to Blake, then sending both the video and picture to Klein, who was waiting patiently with Malachite Kay (a junior reporter who Weiss had met at one of the many Schnee galas.) Malachite was an eccentric woman who only had a few years on Weiss, and was all for taking down her father.

The woman had found evidence indicating that Jacques was collaborating with many undesirables, organizations that weren't exactly legal, and had been entirely prepared to shed the light on what the Schnee family head was hiding, only for one of the many hired fixers to take care of the problem. Luckily for them, Mal escaped relatively unscathed, but totally ready for revenge. The same could not be said for her ear or her dog, both of which had been caught in the crossfire of the fixer's attempt on her life. 

"Weiss?" Blake asked.

"Hmm?" She responded, exchanging correspondence with Mal.

"Why did you send that reporter the video, when you told your father he had a choice?"

Weiss paused momentarily, sending a last message to Mal, who responded with a thumbs up emoji. She rolled her eyes slightly, but turned herself back to her teammate. "This video is a means to end, my father would have found a way to get around it if only we had it, but in the hands of a reporter it isn't so easy." Weiss brushed some of the frazzled white hair out of her face, it had gotten loose of her braid when her father had hit her. "Mal's working on the story now, the article should be out in about..." She hummed, "Let's just say soon-- anyhow, with the all the Atlas news networks reporting the same headline 'Jacques Schnee found using his semblance on his youngest daughter' he won't have much choice but to hand over the company to me."

Blake frowned. "But that would mean--"

She nodded. "I'm sorry--"

Her teammate softened. "Don't be." She whispered drawing Weiss into a tight hug. "Let's get out of here Ice Queen."

"It's heiress actually."

Blake laughed, and together, the both fled to their friends.

Weiss idly pointed out some of the statues and paintings, skipping over the ones of her family and dust, only pointing out the art that included grim and legends, maybe the odd expensive painting or two. When they made it to the room they had left everyone in, Blake pulled her aside. "I didn't send the video to Ruby, I also told everyone not to show her-- I thought you might want to tell her yourself." She whispered hastily, before escaping the hall. Weiss froze, she could not decide whether or not that was a stroke of good luck or not. 

It took her a second to move, opening the cold blue door and being meet by the onslaught of warmth she had never expected to reach Schnee manor.

Team JNR was laughing, Nora teasing Oscar about something obscene or ghastly, while Ren and Jaune seemed trying not to laugh. Blake had already reached where Ruby, Yang, and there alcoholic uncle stood, the faunus girl gripping her partners hand. Yang's eyes where a shade of red. Weiss' heart stopped, it wasn't hard to figure that the blonde teenager had watched the video.

"Weiss?" Surprisingly it was Jaune who noticed her. "Holy shit what happened to your face--" Ren placed a palm over his mouth before he could say anything else. 

Her hand went to her scar on reflex, only to remember that he had meant her cheek. She pressed her finger to smooth skin, wincing slightly, she hadn't expected her father's hand to leave a bruise. She supposed it would come in handy. "Be right back!" She called out, fleeing to the hallway.

Weiss pulled out her scroll, dialing Klein. 

"Hello?"

"Klein!" She said hurriedly, "Are you still with Mal?" 

"Yes, Miss Schnee--" Weiss hurried to one of the mirrors, poking and prodding at the bruise on her cheek. "--though I do not think she would delight in being interrupted, she... ah-hem, says to stop messing with her, er, stease."

"Her what?"

"Hey Weiss!" Another voice exclaimed, making her nearly drop her scroll. "Stease means style and ease, it's in those flash cards I gave you!"

"Oh." She reached into one of her skirt pockets, "I see it, though I really don't understand the reason you've given me these horrible, er--" She squinted, "--why did you label them, bop 'em till you top 'em, flash cards?" 

"Cause." Mal said, "What did you need btw, Klein's eyes just turned red and I do not need to be on the end of his grumpy mcgrumpyness."

"How exactly are you a reporter?" Weiss groaned, "Nevermind I'd really rather not know--" She ignored the looks the people in the room shot her, "--anyway, I've got a bruise--"

"You what?" Klein's voice went gruff and Irish, "I 'ave 'alf a mind to show your father who's really boss--"

"Anyway--" She said sternly, cutting him off, "--that helps right?"

"Oh definitely." Mal said when she wrestled the phone away from Klein. "Send pictures."

"Got it, call me when it's done."

"Will do!"

"Ah yes, goodbye Miss Schnee."

She hung up the phone. A deep breath. Weiss could do this. She would do this.

She had to. 

"Weiss?" It was Ruby.

Wasn't it always?

She turned to look at her partner, and found the younger teenager watching her with a worried look on her face. Something about the way her eyebrows furrowed, the small dip of her mouth, the scrunch just beneath her eyes-- all of it made Weiss freeze. She felt like a child who'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, the way that Ruby was looking at her made her feel small, naked almost.

"Ruby." Her eyes went to her hair, which had been tousled in such a way that made her look more like her uncle. Weiss glanced down to the scroll in her hands. She couldn't find the words to say anything.

Her partner must have echoed the sentiment, her usual confident jubilant movements reduced to awkwardness and uncertainty. Ruby looked cowed in such a way that reminded Weiss of the apathy, but somehow it felt worse-- perhaps it was because this stall in conversation, the negativity in the air, wasn't because of a grim or monster, but because she didn't know how to communicate properly with someone she had sworn to be beside. For better or worse.

That's what the problem was, wasn't it? Weiss had suddenly realized, the issue was because she felt like she was betraying her brave team leader, going back on her own word. In a sense she was, she definitely was planning to do something that didn't fit with what Ozpin had asked of them. 

Oh.

Ruby blinked. Realization coming to her the minute it came to Weiss. 

They always had been tuned to each other, knowing the other's move in battle before they made it. 

Weiss would have marveled if not for the look of pure untouched agony on Ruby's face.

"Ruby." She said again. She felt like if she didn't say her name it'd be the last time she saw her. "Ruby--" Her voice sounded ragged, worn.

It was half a second, half a second of fear and anger and desperation, half a second of believing the worst, of seeing something that crashed against her icy walls again and again-- shattering the foot thick ice like it was nothing.

Then, Ruby was moving forward, and for a horrible moment Weiss was reminded of her father's hands-- only instead of pain, she was met with warmth as her partner wrapped her arms around her, bringing her the heiress' head to rest on the other girl's shoulder.

Oh.

It was around that time, both teenagers burst into tears. 

Chapter Text

The last time Weiss Schnee can remember crying, she was about seven years old. She couldn't recall the exact reason for her tearful disposition, couldn't find the cause in gaps of her memories. Often times, when she tries to figure out just why she was crying, a fog brushes over the front of her mind and she can never find herself finding an answer. The reason she was crying wasn't why she remembered that it was her last time, it was what had come after Klein had wiped the tears from her eyes. 

"Listen child." He had cooed, gentle fingers cupping her small pale cheeks, brushing the flush out of her face. "Listen well, and listen good." His eyes continuously flashed color, a small detail that made Weiss know that every one of his sides agreed with whatever he was about to say. "To cry is not wrong, not unless you make it so." He had been trying to be kind to her, trying to teach her like she was his own daughter, that showing her emotion to him was never going to be a bad idea. Unfortuneatly for them, Winter had also been in the room.

"Do not lie to her, Klein!" Thirteen year-old Winter Schnee hissed. She moved, taking Weiss' face in her hands, eyes softening but remaining far too cold for a girl who had barely brushed womanhood. "Listen to me sister, and do not dare forget." Her thumbs (slightly rough from the sword training she had insisted she partake in) brushed at the underside of her eyes, getting rid of any wetness that lingered. "Crying is a weakness to the eyes of the men and women of Atlas, such a show of emotion will not get you much anywhere, but the brunt of our father's wrath--" Winter's eyes were glassy, fragile, desperate-- everything she had insisted she wasn't. "--do you understand me, Weiss?"

The young girl looked into her older sister's eyes, full of love and worry and something else-- something that looked like begging. It was one of the first times that Weiss could peel away the mask that Winter Schnee had always worn, one of the first times she found herself thinking, 'I want-- I want. I want to be like Winter'

"Yes," She whispered, eyes reverent and large. Even then, the sight of her eyes struck those unaccustomed with an icy stab of unease. "I understand."

Life continued, and throughout her life she could be found looking back on that moment with her sister, the moment where startling clarity had been behold to Weiss, and she had latched onto the concept with all the restraint of a Major Ursa. Weakness would bring only wrath, would gift her only the ruthlessness that Schnee's had become accustomed to. Weakness would be punished.

Ruby Rose simply existing was not something that could change eighteen years of a life such as hers. 

But everything else, everything else she did besides living and breathing and loving, sang to Weiss in such a way her soul had no choice but to sing back-- in tandem and in some uncertain type of hope she had forgotten.

Her partner gripped her hands, bunched on the spotless floors of the Schnee Manor, bringing them to her face and pressing gentle kisses to the palms of her hands. Tears dripped onto the floor, silver pools and icy glaciers both melting and streaming down pale cheeks, their faces both horribly flushed. 

Once, when she was little, Weiss' mother loved to read to her. She would pick up the most random of books, the meanings of actons, flowers, and colors-- such a simple memory. Yet somehow, it came to her what the kisses to her hands meant, open and unyielding. 

She may claim obliviousness, she may claim not understanding, but in that moment Weiss knew exactly what Ruby wanted. 

It was an absolutely terrifying jump of conclusions, and even though she could see through the mask that her partner wore with the utmost clarity, doubt began to trickle into the back of her mind. 

It can't be true, it won't be true, no-- no no no no-- I won't let it be true. I won't let her do this to herself. I won't.

(It was unknown to her at that moment, but Ruby was thinking very similar thoughts, except instead of about feelings she was applying them to the company that shackled her in chains made of dust.)

"Ruby." She says, and any hope in Weiss' eyes that had been there before was slowly seeping away. Like a cracked hour glass, the sand escaping one grain at a time. "One thing I have always failed to do in regard to you is lie, I have misdirected, obstructed, and even hidden away the truth-- but I have yet to outright lie." Her expression was desperate, "Please don't ask questions I can't answer right now, please don't--"

"Stop it." Ruby says, she rubs at her face with the hand that doesn't hold onto her own. "You don't get to decide what I do and don't know."

Weiss knew that. Of course she did. But she also believed that when it came in regards to her own life, she should be able to have some privacy. "I don't." She said, agreeing. "But don't ask me about this anyway."

Ruby Rose was always terrible at listening to the words that came out of Weiss Schnee's mouth. 

"If I asked you to stay with us, would you?"

It's not the question she had expected, and the surprise shows on her tear stained face. "I'd want to." She said. "I'd love to."

"But you wouldn't?" Ruby's expression was unreadable. 

Weiss looked down at her hand, still intertwined with her partner's. "You think I should be able to do what I want to."

"As long as it doesn't hurt anybody." Ruby replies.

A smile appeared on her face. "Oh Ruby, whatever path I take, someone will always be in great pain." She stood, letting go of the younger girl's hand. "The only thing I can do is take the road where the least amount of people suffer."

"Weiss." Ruby says.

"I'm doing this because you'll all be okay without me, you'll learn to live and prosper, and when the time comes for an army I could provide that for you." She says instead, "When the time comes for Salem to fall I can get you there, but coming with you was never an option the people that need help could have ever afforded."

"What are you talking about?" She shoots up from the floor, angry tears instead of sad ones. "You and Blake keep talking in riddles and no one knows what's going on with the two of you, no one knows what you've been planning--" The taller girl looked frustrated. "Blake says things like it would take years for you to do your duty or whatever, and she says it like it's the worst thing that'll ever happen to you and then you say that you don't care but I know you do--"

"Ruby--"

"--and then you go to meet your father and come back with a giant bruise on your face, acting like it's nothing and everything is right in the world--" Her hands begin to make gestures, rapid and spastic. "--and don't even get me started with the look on your face the entire time we've been here--"

"--Ruby." Weiss says again, her voice quiet. It's silent enough to make her partner pause. "All I'm doing, all I was ever doing, was an attempt to run the Schnee Dust Company, may it be now or never, my father will give me no choice in the matter, do you understand?" Cold crept into her bones, her breath visible despite the lack of chill in the hallway. "If I do not take the reins now, things will never get better for the people this company continuedly steps on."

"What are you talking about!" This time when she says it, frustration bleeds through her voice. "Are you joking with me right now? Are you kidding? We came here because we had to get the relic secured-- if that wasn't an absolute necessity I never would have asked you to come here!"

"Ruby think." Weiss said softly, taking a tiny step back, unease taking ahold of her body. Her partner's eyes flicker downward, suddenly looking mournful. 

"I am thinking." Ruby said softly. "I'm thinking how this place has only ever hurt you, how it's obvious you don't even want to do this--"

"I don't want to be selfish." Weiss snapped back. "Going with you, following--" Everything hurts her suddenly. "All I ever wanted was freedom... but now I know the cost of my desires." She looks her in the eye. "I'm returning to the SDC because I need to right the wrongs of this company."

"Wait-- wait please." Ruby said. "I can't do this without you."

"You can." Weiss said, surprise. "Of course you can."

"You don't understand, do you?" Ruby said, despair masking any rage in her voice. "You don't understand how much you mean to me... do you?"

"What." Weiss said, startled as her partner moved closer to her, cupping her face once more. There was something smoldering in her silver gaze, something that melted Weiss down to the barest of her bones. "What?"

"I'm like ninety-nine percent sure that I'm in love with you." Ruby says, looking down at her, eyes teary still.

Disbelief. "Oh." She says. "The... um, the missing percentage?"

"Not missing, it's actually one-hundred, but I was kind of afraid you'd freak out so I pretended it was lower than it was." Ruby winced a little. "Sorry about that."

"It's fine." Weiss said, her voice a squeak.

"Weiss." Ruby says softly. "I can't do this without you by my side." She scrunched up her nose a little, "Please, won't you stay with me?"

She did not know what to do.

Any coherent plan or thought process she had was immediately eradicated in favor of staying with her team, with Ruby.

"That's cheating." Weiss said hoarsely. "You know I can't say no to you." 

"Actually," Ruby's laughing a little, "I didn't know that."

"A part of me will never understand you," Weiss says softly with a smile tugging at her cold lips, "And for the first time in my life I do not believe I mind not knowing."

"That was the cutest thing I've ever seen." Ruby mumbled. "Oh my god, who knew you were so smooth?"

"What the--" Weiss sighed. "I feel really terrible right now."

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"Because I'm backing out of becoming the CEO and allowing my journalist to go wild with her article." She groaned into Ruby's shoulder. "Oh my God I'm actually doing this."

"For me?" 

"No." Weiss said, leaning up and gripping at Ruby's cloak. "For me."

She kissed her. 

Ruby squeaked, the sound both endearing and annoying, before returning Weiss' affection. She gripped at her face, one hand moving to hold the small of her back, bringing Weiss closer to her.

Both teenagers sighed a little when it was over, not wanting to let go.

"If that's enough of that." Weiss said, breathless. "Let's go ruin my father's life before he does something so stupid he ruins literally everything.

"Okay." Ruby said a little dazed, following when Weiss gripped her hand and led her back to the room everyone else was in.

"Everyone's going to be so angry." The huntress sighed a little, glancing at the younger girl beside her. "If it wasn't clear... I care for you also."

Ruby's head snapped toward her, blinking in shock. "Really? I couldn't tell."

"Shut it you." Weiss flushed.

"Are you going to tell me you love me?" Ruby asked. "If you don't that's totally cool, but I'd be awesome if we were on the same page."

"Yes." Weiss sighed into her hand, doing her best to hide the ugly blush in her cheeks. "Yes. I... I love you."

It was the start of a painfully dreadful process, Weiss thought glancing at Ruby as the younger girl smiled wide. The start of a horribly terrible decision. Still, she thought, Weiss wouldn't have it any other way.