Chapter 3: The Heiress

Remember your training Weiss. She took a deep breath in, bringing her rapier up to guard. Head up, shoulders back, right foot forward - not that forward! Slow your breathing, wait for the right time to strike, and…

The buzzer went off and Weiss Schnee struck. This wasn't their first bout, and her opponent had begun to anticipate her tactics. He retreated, his footwork clumsy but quick. He saw an opening and lashed out, pushing off his back foot with a precise jab. Weiss parried the thrust, sweeping aside his blade with a slightly unnecessary flourish. Her return was quick, sharp and aimed straight as his heart. He fell for the feint, sweeping his blade to knock hers aside. She circled her wrist, just the bare minimum amount of movement necessary to swing around his defense and place the tip of her blade against his chest. There was another sharp noise from the buzzer, and the match was over. Weiss rapped her opponent gently on the top of his mask before stepping back to remove her own.

"You know, with all the time you had to practice, I am a little surprised you are not more of a challenge," she said as she shook out her ponytail. It cascaded down her right side, past her waist in a waterfall of silvery white.

"And I am surprised you managed not to impale me in the third round. You know we were supposed to be using practice blades, right sister dearest?" Her brother Whitley dragged his own mask off, and Weiss thought to herself once more how much a year and some had changed the boy. When she'd first left for Beacon University, they'd been of a similar height. He had more baby fat in his cheeks, and his eyes were wide with a childlike sort of idealism. Now, he was half a head taller than her even in the platform boots she was currently wearing. His growth spurt had seemingly taken all of his baby fat, leaving him lean and angular with high, prominent cheekbones. His eyes may have been the same color, the famous icy blue of the Schnee family, but there was an edge to them now, and they always seemed to be laughing at some joke only he understood.

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you were never in any real danger. And besides, they would not let me bring Myrtenaster to Beacon. I've missed using her is all." The sword was one of Weiss's prized possessions. She'd commissioned it built when she had studied pre-Last War military tactics. There had been an entire section in a book she was reading on weapons that had utilized dust to improve their performance. At first she had just assumed that meant dust-loaded rounds for firearms, but apparently there were some who used dust in less mechanical ways.

The schematics she had borrowed were part of the Schnee family's personal collection. She'd discovered that there had once been a time when Schnees carried swords with specialized dust chambers, allowing them to call upon awesome power nearly at-will. Such things were illegal now, of course, but that hadn't stopped Weiss from having a sword of her own made for her. The blade itself was forged with the finest steel and came to a deadly point. The guard, however, was less conventional. Four prongs surrounded a cylindrical revolver-like chamber with six individual slots. These slots were where, in the past, dust vials would be loaded. Instead, Weiss had had each slot fitted with a different gemstone to give it a personal flair. The prongs on the guard were filigreed elegantly, with one of them containing a trigger underneath where her fingers usually gripped the hilt. Her father hadn't been pleased when he'd found out she'd had it built, but after more than a little begging, he had finally allowed her to keep it on the condition that it never left the Schnee family estate.

"Yes, you and Winter always did have a particular affinity for relics of the past," her brother said as he let Klein undo the straps of his equipment. "And while I do admire your strengths, both of you should really spend more time looking forward. There are much greater weapons to be wielded all around you, and very few of them are made of metal." He handed his practice sword to Klein and bowed towards Weiss. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have a few matters to attend to before dinner." The young boy turned sharply on his heel and left the gymnasium, his head held high as he did. For a moment, she was deeply reminded of her father.

"He's changed so much," Weiss murmured as Klein came to help her unlace her own gear. She waved him off impatiently, handing him Myrtenaster instead, leaving her hands free to work the straps herself.

"He's hardly the only one, Miss Schnee," the butler answered, a twinkle in his yellow eyes. Klein had been a staple of the Schnee family estate for as long as Weiss could remember. He was more than simply a butler; Klein oversaw nearly every aspect of the grounds, acted as her father's personal assistant, and had spent nearly more time with the Schnee children growing up as their own mother did. Even then, he had spent more time with Weiss when she was young than either of her siblings. Winter grew up by father's side, learning every aspect of running the multi-billion dollar Schnee Dust Company almost before she learned to walk. As soon as Whitley learned that Klein was employed by the family, rather than a part of it, he'd looked down on him, preferring to spend his time and effort trying to win their father's love instead.

But Weiss had always loved Klein. He had been there for her when nobody else was. He was there when father was harsh, or when mother had been drinking. But even his caring presence could not weather every storm. Weiss had discovered that when Winter declared her intention to attend the Atlesian Military Academy and pursue a career in the army rather than as the CEO of the Schnee Dust Company. Father's wrath had been incredible, and after Winter's departure, most of it had been focused on his middle child. She was next in line after Winter's disinheritance, but unlike her older sister, Weiss hadn't spent her entire childhood learning the ins and outs of a company. The burden of the responsibility had been heavy, and even with Klein there as a shoulder to cry on, her childhood had been a lonely one.

Weiss vividly remembered one night, when she was twelve years old. Her father had received word of yet another attack on their company by the faunus rights activist group turned terrorist organization known as the White Fang. He had turned all of his anger and frustration on her, and when he was finally done shouting and throwing things, Weiss had fled to her room in sheer terror. She'd collapsed on the bed, sobbing, hating him, hating her life. Hating having no one to protect her.

She'd found herself staring at the mirror in her bedroom. It had a heavy wrought-iron frame and stood nearly twice her own height. She remembered crawling over to it, placing her hand on the silvered glass and imagining that she could tuck all of her problems behind it. Maybe, if she tried hard enough, she could hide all of the pain and emptiness she felt inside behind the girl she saw before her. It became something of a ritual for her, using the mirror for comfort and relief.

And as much as she hated it, she had found herself doing the same thing when she'd returned home from Beacon, trying desperately to shove the pain and memories away behind her mirror. She didn't want to have to think about the friends she'd had to leave, or the fact that she might never return. She didn't want to be lonely again.

Klein put a hand on Weiss's shoulder and she looked up suddenly. She had been staring at the floor, her gear half off. Her chest felt tight and thoughts of Beacon threatened to bring tears to her eyes. She shook her head and finished shucking the protective padding she wore. Beneath it, she was in a fairly standard workout outfit - a pair of light blue shorts and a white t-shirt tight enough to fit easily under the straps of her fencing gear. Her boots had a high platform heel, a vanity that helped her feel a little more confident and had the added bonus of making it difficult for her opponent to guess her actual reach.

Klein gathered her things and handed her back her sword. Weiss gripped it gingerly. "Will that be all?" he asked her. There was some weight behind his question. Weiss simply nodded.

"Yes, thank you Klein. I think...I think I will go and prepare for dinner now."

"Very good Miss," the butler said, giving her a small bow before leaving the young heiress alone with her thoughts.

She had been alone with her thoughts for most of the summer. They were never pleasant. Her memories of the night Beacon fell were always sharp in her mind. She could smell the smoke in the air, hear the panicked screams around her. She and her friend Velvet had been frantically searching for more of their classmates before sounds of gunfire herded them towards the docks. It was there that she saw Blake and Yang.

The two had been found by Sun Wukong and his group of friends as they'd fled from Amity Colosseum. They were in bad shape. Blake had an ugly wound in her stomach that was bleeding around the rags Sun was holding against it. Somehow she was still conscious, sobbing and apologizing, her hand desperately clinging to Yang's. The blonde girl was unconscious, her breathing shallow as two of the boys did their best to bandage the stump of her right arm. Her right side was painted in blood.

She'd rode in the shuttle to the hospital, staying with her until they'd disappeared into the emergency care center. After that, she had waited in the lobby for Ruby. She wasn't far behind, apparently having received the news late. She had been accompanied by her uncle, a man named Qrow. His clothes were stained with blood and he wore an enormous sword across his back. The blade looked as though it had been bathed in red.

He hadn't stayed long, leaving after he was sure that Yang was still alive. Weiss had been left to sit up with Ruby. They stayed up until the early hours of the morning, until the doctors finally came around to tell them that the two girls were stable and would be fine. Poor Ruby had been a wreck. Her sister's recovery was a weight off her shoulders, but it was clear that something else was weighing on her. She was Weiss's best friend, against all odds, and she could tell that the younger girl hadn't told her everything that she'd seen that night. Weiss had wanted to give her time, to let her come around to it when she was ready, but she never got the chance. Her father came for her the next day.

She woke that morning with Ruby's head on her shoulder and three Atlas soldiers standing over her. She had tried to tell them she needed to wait, that she had to say goodbye, that she had to explain what was happening, but she was ushered out of the building before Ruby had so much as stirred. Each day she felt the guilt of that moment as fresh as though it were happening now, and it had only gotten worse since the news from Vale had started rolling in. The campus destroyed, the CCT tower in ruins. And Pyrrha…

She had left Ruby there alone when she'd needed Weiss most. Maybe that was why she hadn't heard from her all summer. Weiss had sent four messages now, each one progressively more pathetic as she'd grown desperate to hear back from her partner. So far, they had all been met with a stony silence. It was hard to blame her.

Weiss made her way through the halls of the Schnee estate. The east wing was devoted to recreation and physical fitness, and as such, the walls were sparsely decorated and utilitarian. Most of the rooms saw little use, with the almost sole exception of the sparring room where Weiss trained and a ballet hall Winter had insisted was built when she Weiss had first shown interest in dancing. There were two ways to get to the west wing, where her room was. One of them would take her north, through the part of the house her father reserved for business. Most of the activity in the estate was concentrated there at any given point, with the house staff and security that were always present to attend to the man's needs. Weiss didn't feel like chancing an encounter with her father, so she made her way through the entrance hall instead.

She liked this room better. The entrance hall was dominated by a sweeping marble staircase with elaborately carved posts holding the guardrails. At the top of the stairs was an enormous white statue depicting a twisting two-headed snake, one of the legendary creatures of Grimm if the books she'd read were to be believed. A glass chandelier that looked as though it were carved from the ice crystals hung above the whole place, bathing the room in soft white light. She entered from the second floor balcony and immediately heard a commotion going on from downstairs.

Weiss peered over the railing to get a better look. Below she saw four of the estate's security team arguing with a tall white-haired woman in the uniform of an Atlas Specialist. "Winter?" Weiss said to herself, confusion plainly visible on her face. She hurried to the staircase, straining to hear the conversation below.

"What do you mean 'he's busy?'" Winter was saying, raising her voice slightly. Even from this far, Weiss could see the frustration etched into the lines of her face.

"I'm sorry Miss Schnee," the man who seemed to be most in charge was telling her. "He told us that he is not accepting visitors right now. No exceptions."

Winter crossed her arms, staring down the security guard with the ferocity of a giant bear. "Fine, then I will just wait here for him. My father cannot stay locked in his tower forever."

The men exchanged glances with one another, clearly dreading what was coming next. "Um, apologies Miss Schnee," one of the men said, "but we have orders to escort you from the premises."

Winter's eyes narrowed to slits and her voice dropped to a dangerously low pitch. "You have orders to do what?" Her right hand drifted meaningfully to the hilt of the saber that rested on her hip. Sensing an impending escalation, Wiess darted away from the bannister and hurried down the sweeping marble staircase that lead up to the balcony.

"Winter! Hello!" Weiss called. The three men parted giving the Specialist a good view of her sister for the first time. The older girl narrowed her eyes, but otherwise said nothing. Waiting to see how this would play out. "I'm so pleased you got my invitation," Weiss barrelled on, smiling as innocently as she could manage. "Dinner should be starting soon!"

The staff looked baffled but Weiss thought she saw a glimmer of understanding in her sister's eyes. She begged her to go along with it silently. "You know, how I invited you to dinner tonight, which is why you are here after all, is it not?" She saw a muscle working in Winter's cheek, but when she spoke, her voice was moderately calmer.

"You did not tell Father I was coming?" she asked conversationally.

Weiss tried to channel her inner Ruby and look both confused and blithely ignorant of the drama in the situation. "Oh! It must have slipped my mind, I am so sorry." She darted between the guards and took her sister's hand in her own. "You can come wait in my room, I simply must have your opinion on a dress I just purchased the other day." She dragged her sister towards the west wing as quickly as she dared without causing a scene.

"Wait, Miss Schnee!" one of the staff called after her. Weiss waved at him without turning around.

"That's quite alright! I will apologize to Father myself at dinner. Thank you for your hard work!" She threw open the door to the west wing and let it slam shut behind the two of them before letting go of her older sister. She leaned against the wall and took a breath.

When she looked up she saw Winter was watching her with arms crossed, and a raised eyebrow. Weiss stood up straight and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Um, hi Winter," Weiss finally said when she couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"What exactly did you think you were doing back here?" Winter asked.

"Keeping you from cutting Father's security team into ribbons, that is what I was doing!" Weiss answered back, indignity briefly overcoming her sister's intimidating aura.

Winter sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose between thumb and forefinger. "Thank you," she said after a moment. "I suppose, in a way, that was somewhat quick-witted of you." It was about as close to a compliment as Winter ever managed.

"You are welcome," Weiss said with a satisfied smile. It didn't last long, however. "So what do we do now?" she asked. "I doubt that I can convince Father to see you if that is still what you want."

Winter shook her head. "No, he has made it clear that that is not an option." She furrowed her brow and massaged her temple. Weiss shifted her weight from one foot to the other, aware that there was still a chance the guards would decide to come after them.

"We can wait in my room for now," she said after a moment. "The security team is not allowed in there, we will have much more privacy." Winter nodded in agreement and the two of them set off through the halls of the west wing.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, Winter spoke up. "The staff is new. I did not recognize any of their faces."

"That is not so surprising," Weiss said. "Father nearly tripled security after the attack on Beacon. He hired a new head of security too, somebody to keep track of everything that goes on around here at all times."

"I bet Klein was thrilled about that," Winter said, her voice dry.

"He had his reservations. He spoke to Father about it, but you know how he can be."

"Yes, I do," Winter said, her voice sharp and bitter. They went the rest of the way to Weiss's bedroom in silence. As they approached the door, a girl stepped out of it, closing it quietly behind her.

"Oh, Sable, this is my sister, Winter." The girl turned and smiled at them sweetly. Her dark hair was long and she wore it in two pigtails that framed her heart-shaped face and astonishingly green eyes. She wore a black skirt and blouse as well as the white apron all the housemaids wore. She complimented the look with a long pair of white stockings and black flats. She was one of the smallest girls Weiss had ever met, and Weiss was comfortably taller than her even without her ever-present heels.

Winter nodded curtly to her. "Sable looks after anything I need," Weiss explained, "but she doesn't talk very much. Or ever, really. And one of these days she is going to tell me why," she said directing the last statement at Sable.

The tiny girl just smiled again and bowed deeply before heading off to clean elsewhere. Weiss shook her head and opened the door, inviting Winter inside. "She is strange, but she is the new security head's daughter or something so Father thought it would be prudent to give her a job." She followed her older sister in, shutting the door behind them. The sitting area was sparsely furnished and immaculately clean. A chair sat by a window that overlooked the grounds of the Schnee estate. An ornate writing desk carved with images of heros from fairy tails sat against one wall and there was a single couch in the middle of the room, white with blue accents. A shelf with some books and an empty metal rack made up the rest of the furnishings. Weiss hung Myrtenaster on the rack and turned to face her sister, hands clasped behind her back nervously as Winter crossed to stare out the window. She got the distinct impression that she wasn't paying attention to her.

The silence stretched between them. After a long moment, Weiss took a step closer to her sister. "Why are you here Winter?"

Winter glanced over her shoulder. Her expression was distant, and deeply concerned. It made Weiss's stomach twist nervously, though she couldn't have said why.

"Have a seat Weiss," the older woman said, indicating the couch. She did so, drawing her legs up underneath herself. Winter dragged the chair by the window over and sat so the two were facing each other. Winter looked as though she were weighing her options carefully and when she spoke, it was slowly and deliberately.

"The reason I am here today is...complicated, and growing more complicated by the hour. I want to be able to tell you, but there is much you need to hear before I can." She glanced down, organizing her thoughts, before returning Weiss's gaze once more.

"First of all, I owe you an apology, sister," she said. Weiss was more confused than ever, but she didn't interrupt. "Growing up, we both knew what kind of man Father was. He's never made it a secret. He is cold and unyielding. He believes he and he alone knows what is best for everybody else. And is temper…" she trailed off, her eyes deliberately tracing the faded scar over Weiss's left eye. Weiss looked away, her cheeks burning with the memory.

Winter cleared her throat. "As I said, we both knew what kind of man he was. I tried so hard to let you have the childhood you deserved. I wanted you to be able to explore the things you loved and chase your passions. I thought that maybe I could be your shield. But I was wrong. I was not strong enough for that."

Weiss looked up sharply. "What happened was not your fault," she started to say, but Winter held up a hand, silencing her.

"Please," she said. Weiss had never seen her sister close to tears before. She took a deep breath. "I made a decision when I left that I would not do anything else to sully Father's image for you or Whitley. As much as he hurt us, hurt you, he was still family. I had made the decision to leave, that did not mean I needed to destroy any possibility of the two of you having a relationship later in life. And besides, there are perks with being a Schnee that you do not realize you will miss until they are gone."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Weiss asked.

"Because you deserve the truth. I have never wanted to be a wedge between you and Father, and I have never wanted to feel like you had to give up your life, your inheritance, to be a good person. You have already become a fine young woman. I could not believe how much you had grown when I saw you at the Vytal Festival last spring." Winter took her sister's hand in her own. "I am proud of you."

Weiss wasn't sure what to say. She and Winter had hardly had what one might call an emotional relationship, and seeing her this way made her feel more nervous than comfortable. "Thank you," she said simply.

"Wanting to be a part of this family, wanting to run the company one day, those things will not change what I think of you. If you ever should take Father's place, I believe you would have the capacity, and the strength, to do a lot of good for our family's reputation, not to mention the people of Remnant. But the choice must be yours."

Weiss looked away from her. "I… I thought it could be something I would want. Something I would eventually be good at. I went to Beacon to try and get some perspective, to try and see a little more of the world. And when I was there, I didn't want to come back. I started thinking, maybe there were other things I could pursue."

The truth was, if it hadn't been for her friends, she may have never even considered other paths in her life. They had all changed her so much. Before she'd met Blake, she had been just as prejudiced as her father against the faunus, adamantly refusing to admit they were anything but criminals and thieves at best. The Blake, the Blake she'd thought she'd known so well, or at least as well as anybody could, revealed that she herself was a faunus. Not only that, but she had once been a member of the very White Fang that had spent years antagonizing her father, waging war with her family's company and making her life growing up even more miserable than it had to be.

If it hadn't been for Yang, their friendship might have ended there. But Yang had surprised Weiss, showing a capacity for empathy and understanding that Weiss never would have expected from her. She had helped bring the two of them together again, and forced Weiss to look past her own blind hatred and see faunus as individuals, not a single group under a misguided banner.

Then there was Ruby. Somehow, Ruby had changed her most of all. Young, hopelessly naive Ruby who had been so smart and so talented they had offered her a spot at Beacon two whole years ahead of her other classmates. Weiss had hated her at first. She'd hated how effortless everything seemed to come to her. She was a prodigy, while Weiss had had to work as hard as she could for everything she tried to do. Weiss was forced to strive for perfection, she was a Schnee after all, and an heiress besides.

But as she'd gotten to know Ruby better, she began to understand the kinds of pressures she herself was forced to live up to. How she had to deal with her own forced expectations, and the work she put into meeting those expectations. Weiss began to look past the younger girl's naivety to the unlimited caring spirit beneath, and after that, she had been unable to hate her. She found herself wanting to reach out, to teach her some of the things that she'd wished she had been taught at Ruby's age. She wanted to make sure that the young girl never felt as alone as Weiss had once.

In return, Ruby had helped Weiss recognize that she was more than just a name. She was more than what she would be in the future, and what she was now mattered too. It had been Ruby who had convinced her to start fencing for Beacon, and Ruby was one of her few friends who had heard Weiss sing. She had said her voice was beautiful.

Winter squeezed Weiss's fingers, pulling her reluctantly away from an empty classroom with the sun setting through the window. Away from that smile and those bright silver eyes. Winter was speaking again, and Weiss focused on her words instead, brushing a tear from her cheek.

"When I first started speaking to Father about attending AMA instead of taking the company, he tried everything in his power to keep me from attending. He even went so far as to try to bribe the headmaster to reject my application." Weiss hadn't known that. She stared at her sister with rapt attention. "He even went to great lengths to make me feel isolated. He wanted me to have no support. He kept me from seeing friends, he took away anybody I knew who may try to sway me from my path." Weiss felt a surge of anger.

"How could he do that to you?"

Winter looked at her sadly. "Because it was easier than letting me go. Manipulating people is what he does best." She reached into her jacket and pulled out a white envelope with the family crest embossed in blue on it. She held it out to Weiss.

"What is this?" she asked, taking the envelope gingerly as though it might explode. When her older sister didn't answer, Weiss tore the envelope open. Inside were a small handful of chips. They looked like the kind you would record video messages on. They were small, about the size of Weiss's thumb, and each one was hand-labeled with a date. She sorted through them until she found the earliest one. It was marked the day after she'd left for Atlas.

In a flash, Weiss was on her feet, throwing open the door to her bedroom and perching herself on the edge of her king-sized mattress. She snatched her scroll from where she'd left it on her side table and shoved the chip inside. After a moment of loading, Ruby Rose's familiar, chipper visage popped up on her screen.

"Hey Weiss!" the young girl said and Weiss felt her hand go to her mouth. "Some of your dad's people stopped by today. They told me you were going back to Atlas with them. They said it was to keep you safe. I wish you hadn't had to leave so soon, but I can understand if your dad is concerned." There was a hint of pain in Ruby's silver eyes that sent a surge of guilt through Weiss. "I just wanted to let you know that Yang is going to be… well, she's okay. The doctors expect her to recover completely. She's… not feeling great. But I guess none of us are, huh?" The facade of cheer cracked and Weiss could see the ache in her partner's expression. That weight threatening to crush her. She looked so young.

"Blake left sometime around noon yesterday," she continued. "Apparently the doctors recommended she stay for another night, but she insisted on being checked out. I was hoping she'd be in touch today. I thought maybe she just needed some time to process things. She still might, I don't know. Yang isn't talking about what happened with anybody. It's just been… it's been hard." A tear ran down Ruby's cheek. "I miss you. I know you've only been gone a day but… it kind of feels like everything's falling apart and I just want you here again." She sniffed and wiped her face, forcing a smile back into place. "Sorry, I know it's not your fault. Just… send me a message sometime, okay? It would be nice to hear from you." She glanced behind her at something Weiss couldn't see or hear. "Oh, it looks like Dad's here to take Yang home. I have to go Weiss. I'll talk to you soon!"

The message cut out. Weiss felt as though her heart had been shoved through barbed wire. She dumped the rest of the envelope onto the side table. Four of the chips had her own delicate handwriting on the small labels, marking the date they'd been recorded on. There were eleven more besides, marked in Ruby's untidy hand. She picked up the one with the second oldest date and jammed it into her scroll.

Once again her friend's face popped up on screen. "Hey Weiss! Me again. I'm sure you're just getting settled back home, but I wanted to let you know I was thinking about you. Oh! You have to see this thing out in dad's garden-"

She popped in the next one.

Then the next one.

"Hey Weiss!"

"Yang hasn't talked to me in a while…"

"I miss you."

"Still haven't heard from Blake."

"Hopefully I'll hear from you soon."

"I miss you."

"Thinking of you!"

"I miss you."

"Hey Weiss," Ruby said in the last message. She looked so small, scared even. "I… I don't know why I haven't heard from you this summer. If, you know, you were upset or something, I hope you know you could talk to me about it. That's what friends are…" she trailed off, her voice shaking. "I'm leaving for the University of Haven today with Jaune, Ren and Nora. If you, um, change your mind and decide to get in touch, you can contact me there.

"I… I just wanted to say that, you're my best friend Weiss. No matter what you're going through, no matter what you're feeling… you're not alone, okay? Please, if you need me, I'm here." The message ended, leaving Weiss staring at her own tear-streaked reflection in the glass of her scroll.

When Weiss looked up, she saw Winter leaning in the doorway. Weiss's mind was racing. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, but they all seemed to lodge themselves together into a lump in her throat.

Winter seemed to guess at at least one of them. "He didn't want you to leave in the first place," she said as gently as she could. "Now that you are back, he probably didn't want you feeling like you had a reason to return to Beacon."

It made sense. It was definitely the kind of cold, calculated move that lousy son of a bitch would pull. Weiss felt hot fury surge through her. She wanted to scream, she wanted to throw something, particularly something heavy right into his smug, arrogant face. She contented herself instead with standing and pacing furiously by the foot of her bed. She tried to calm down, to shove away the torrent of emotions threatening to make her do something truly stupid. She found herself face to face with her old mirror. She tried to shove all of this new information into it, to hide it deep within where it couldn't hurt her. She wondered briefly how much it could hold, how many terrible, painful emotions she could hope to contain before it all came crashing down around her.

When Weiss felt she had cooled off enough, she turned back to her sister. "Where did you get these? Why do you have them?"

Winter stared at her without seeing her. "I am part of an investigation for General Ironwood." Weiss knew the man by reputation, if not personally. He was the headmaster at the Atlesian Military Academy as well as the General of the Atlesian Armed Forces. Very few people in all of Remnant commanded as much power and respect as he did. "I found these when I was going through some of Father's documents at his office."

"What does the General want with Father's paperwork?"

Winter sighed and sat on the end of Weiss's bed. She bent over, resting her chin on her hands. "Weiss, what do you know about the bombs that went off the night Beacon was attacked?"

The sudden shift of topic surprised Weiss. She focused on just the facts. Facts didn't have emotional weight. Facts couldn't hurt her. "Two bombs went off," she said, "but it is theorized that one detonated early and a third was never set off. The first one went off in the bleachers during the Gold-Tier MMA Championship Match. The commonly accepted theory is that this one was meant to be detonated during the closing ceremonies. Eleven people were killed outright by the explosion. Another hundred would die later from injuries sustained, and even more were wounded.

"The second bomb went off some time later, destroying the CCT, though without any casualties thanks in no small part to the early detonation of the first bomb. The third was found in the basement of Beacon Tower, the faculty building, disarmed."

Winter nodded. "There's more to it than that. Information that the public does not know. What I am about to tell you, you can never repeat. Not to anybody."

Weiss widened her eyes. "Why tell me at all? I am not like you, I am not a specialist. I am not even in the military academy!"

"I know," Winter said, "but if my investigation is to continue, you are the only person who can help me uncover the truth." She sat up straight, steadying herself. "The bombs were not constructed with any traditional explosive. They manufactured using Dust."

Weiss rocked back on her heels. "Dust? How is that even possible? Weaponized dust is illegal, no refinery in Remnant produces it anymore. Not after the Last War." Not after the people of Remnant had nearly pushed themselves to extinction. The war had been brutal, fought on all sides with dust. Elemental energies, fire, lightning, gravity, and so much more, all hurled at one another until almost nothing was left. The treaty that had been born from the ashes of the conflict had outlined the new rules for Remnant's warfare. The first order had been to halt all production of dust in any capacity except as a fuel source. The second had been a mass disarming of the population, ridding most of the civilian population of firearms. These measures, while wildly controversial at the time, served to bring about a time of peace that had lasted nearly half a century now.

"That is what the General said. It did not make sense." Winter got up, taking Weiss's place, pacing across the room. "So I have spent the last few months digging into the records of every dust manufacturer I could find. Mining companies, refineries, even labs that receive regular dust shipments for experimentation. Military distributors, civilian car companies, anywhere I could look. Everywhere but the Schnee Dust Company."

Understanding shot through Weiss and made her stomach feel sick. "No…"

Winter shook her head. "I did not want to believe it Weiss, trust me. But there are discrepancies in many of the company's records. Numbers that do not add up, facilities that were funded but never built. It is tied up in layers and layers of paperwork, but it is all there."

"There is no way he is involved," Weiss said, suddenly on her feet. "He cannot be. Sure, Father is a colossal ass, sure he is the most arrogant man who walked the face of Remnant, but he would never willingly allow this to happen. Father hates the White Fang! He hated them when they were just a faunus rights activist group and he hates them more now!"

"You do not have to convince me," Winter said. "I've had the same thoughts myself. But the fact remains that we cannot rule out the possibility that he may be involved. And since he will not speak to me, there is only one other person with access to the information I need."

Understanding dawned on Weiss. "Me. You mean me." She perched on the edge of her bed, staring at her sister in shock. Pieces started falling in place around her, the puzzle that had been Winter's visit resolving itself before her. "All of this, telling me these things, giving me the messages from Ruby, all this to convince me to… to do what, exactly?" The anger she'd tried to hide away began to flare up again. The glass that held it back in her mind was cracking. "You want me to steal company documents that may or may not implicate my father in the involvement of the single biggest terrorist attack in fifty years? A theft that will doubtlessly link back to me since I will have to use my credentials to get the documents, so regardless of whether he is guilty or not, he will almost certainly disinherit me so that I can never touch the company again."

The wheels in her mind were spinning now. The cracks were growing wider. All of the pain she'd tried to hold back was pouring through her. "You want me to get myself kicked out of my home for the rest of my life? To be treated like an outsider? Like you? Is that what you are trying to convince me to do Winter?"

Weiss was on her feet again, and an arctic gale of emotions were threatening to carry her away. "Because you know what, I did not ask for any of this! I did not want to be the heiress in the first place, Winter! It was supposed to be you! But no, you run off and leave me to deal with Father, and Father's temper for seven years. Seven years before I finally managed to be free of him, to find my own way for a little while." She felt a lump in her throat as she thought about her life at Beacon and hot tears stung at the corners of her eyes.

"What do I have now if I do this for you? Have you thought about that? I did not ask to come back here. I had a good life, I had friends who cared about me. People who loved me, who did not just see me for my last name or what I could do for them or what I could get for them. Friends who trusted me! Who depended on me! And for the first time in my whole goddamned life, I wasn't alone!

"And I left them." There were tears streaming down her face now, and her voice trembled. "They were in pain, and I left them. He took me from them! How can I ask them to forgive that? How can I expect them to ever love me when I abandoned them like that? They may never speak to me again, and now you want to take the only home I have left…" Weiss broke off, sobs wracking her body. Why did it have to be her? Why did she have to be so fucking miserable all the time? When would she get a chance to choose a life she wanted? She missed Beacon. She missed her friends.

She missed Ruby.

Weiss wasn't sure when, but at some point she'd ended up on her bed, face buried in the mountain of pillows. She bit her lip until the tears stopped flowing so freely. She felt drained and empty inside. She managed to get her breathing back to normal, and pushed herself upright. Winter was on her feet, looking at. Her expression was fixed, but she could see her older sister's eyes wet with tears. She didn't want to have to ask Weiss to do this. She wouldn't be here unless it was important. Weiss tucked her legs beneath her and tried to keep her back straight. She felt very small then, and very, very alone.

"What do you need me to do?"

Winter took a long, slow breath. "After you get the documents, it will not be safe for you to stay here. If somebody realized what you know, it could put you in danger. Therefore, we will have to obtain the documents, then extract you from the estate."

"With all the security Father has added, it won't be easy." Weiss's voice sounded hollow, even to her own ears.

Winter nodded. "It cannot be done with just the two of us. We will need help."

"I trust you have somebody in mind."

Winter sighed heavily. "Unfortunately, yes. I need you to send a message for me."