Vivacissimo

"Mirror, tell me something, tell me who's the loneliest of all?"

Weiss moved quickly through the halls, tears just starting to well in the corner of her eyes. Finally figuring she was far enough from the Library she took her time to stop and catch her breath. With a sigh she leaned against one of the many columns supporting Beacon Academy and looked up. What she found when her eyes glanced over the ceiling startled her. The entire hall seemed to have been made with mirrors placed in the ceiling. She glared up at the image, watery ice blue eyes glaring back at her as she saw naught but an empty hallway around her. With a grimace and a balled fist smacking the column she continued on her way. She had always hated mirrors, ever since those times back when... No. She shook her head as her heels clacked down the hallway. She was not going to let herself slip back to those thoughts, back to that time. She was free of that place now.

She took a deep breath as she stepped out of the school and into the garden, the fresh air welcome after the hallways had suddenly turned stifling. She closed her eyes and let herself just breathe in the air for a bit, using her short lifetime of training to help calm herself, that was until she heard the clopping of combat boots on the stone path of the garden. Weiss's eyes once more narrowed to a glare as she saw Yang jogging out the building in the direction of the Forest of Forever Fall. If she was heading that way there was only one thing that she could be looking for, and that was Blake.

Her fists balled in anger Weiss struck off once more. She should have known better, all those years back home had been spent without a single friend. She hadn't needed them then to survive, and she certainly didn't need them now. It was just as her Father had said, people were worse than the Grimm.

Weiss opened her eyes and stopped. That was, not right. She knew that wasn't right. That was her Father talking and her job was to right the wrongs he had brought into this world. She needed people to do that, friends even. She looked out over the cliff that stretched in front of her, the same one that her and her friends had stretched out on only a week ago after the breach. "If I need friends, then why am I standing here, alone?" She asked herself quietly, her words lost on the wind as she wandered the school grounds.

"I'm the loneliest of all."

Weiss slowly sunk to sit down on the cliff, her feet dangling over the edge and Myrtenaster resting in her lap as she looked out over the city. She shivered as she sat there despite the warm spring air. She felt alone now, as she had so often in the past. She hadn't felt this way too often recently, always being with her team. Yang making horrible puns, Ruby always being a dolt and being too excited about everything, Blake being, well, Blake. She hadn't had much time to feel alone since the trials had first put together their team. She had forgotten how much it hurt, how much it ached deep in her heart. It hadn't felt this bad since she had been home back in Atlas, under her Father's iron rule. She shivered again as she thought of her Father and the way it had been, waiting for him to come home from the office, never knowing if she was going to get the wise helpful mentor who was nothing but proud of his daughter and her choice to become a huntress, or if it was going to be the angry monster who stormed through their house, overturning future and striking out at his family. Weiss curled up into a ball, wrapping her arms around her pale legs.

She tried to fight against the train of thought as it led her down this dark path but she was powerless as the memories flooded through her mind. A growl could be heard as the heiress balled her fist, this was all Ruby's fault. If she had never been such an imbecile, never written that stupid poem they would all be in the Library studying right now. Blake wouldn't have run off to wherever she went when she was angry. Yang wouldn't have shown who she was more worried about by blazing off after the Faunus. And Weiss wouldn't be sitting here, feeling alone in the world all over again.

With gritted teeth and tears streaking down her face she slammed her fist into the ground next to her. Her anger finally found an outlet in the girls strike, her semblance activating without her express intent for the first time in what had to be ages. The glyph was small, but the effect it had was stunning, chunks of concrete flying into the air as it put a half foot deep crater into the ground beneath Weiss's hand.

Weiss gasped, her anger gone and despair forgotten for the moment as she held her hand to her chest, blood starting to ooze from a few small cuts and dripping all over the front of her dress. She hadn't meant to do that, hadn't meant to lash out. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach as the memories came back once more, her behavior only reminding her more of that father she despised.

Weiss curled back into herself once more, tears staining her eyes and forming new streaks down her face as she cried. 'I'm not supposed to be like this, I'm supposed to be perfect, the upstanding example for my team and everyone around us...' . Before she even finished the thought her hand had gone to her face, the finger tips tracing over the edges of the scar that lined her eye disturbing the tears that had started to move along it's raised edge. She shook her head, that day had had ruined any illusion of her perfection just like it had ruined the unearthly complexion of her face. Her Father had made his way into the house and she had known what was going to happen from the instant she saw him standing in the doorway shaking with rage. She had given the barest that was required of polite welcomes and rushed off to find Winter. Within moments she had found the girl and gotten her to a safe place in a storage closet, having the young girl pretend they were playing hide and go seek. However Weiss hadn't been fast enough to save herself. Before she could get to her room and grab her things to disappear outside her Father stood before her. She had been called into her Father's study, where he explained to her what had happened that day. An unknown number of White Fang assailants had made it onto a train traveling through the forest of Forever Fall in Vale. The group had made off with millions of lien worth of dust.

Her Father was shaking in anger again by the time he had finished his tale, it was then he seemed to realize Weiss was still standing there. "What would you do? Weiss if you were in charge of the Schnee Corporation at this moment, how would you deal with such acts?" He asked. Standing up and moving around his desk to stand in front of her.

Weiss had hesitated, it was extremely unusual for her Father to ask her opinion on things and she felt as if she stood upon a razor's edge. She had stood there, frozen in silence for a moment collecting herself as she put her thoughts in order before responding. "I would... increase security on all dust shipments by approximately seventy five percent while raising wages of both Faunus and Human workers to show that we were promoti-" She yelped as she was cut off by a hand striking her across the face. She opened her eyes which had been closed during her response to see her father glowering at her in rage.

He stepped forward again and grasped her by the neck of her dress. "We will never give in to their demands. If you make them think that this works then they will never stop doing it!" he shouted in rage. With another sound of anger he shoved Weiss away, the heiress sent stumbling across the room, tripping over her own heeled feet at the sudden release.

There was a sickening crack as Weiss hit her head against a shelf at the side of the room followed by a shout of pain. Weiss stood up slowly, blood dripping from her face where the skin had been ripped away near her eye. Her Father looked over at her and snorted in disgust. "And you want to be a huntress. Mercy will get you killed just as soon as attachments. Get out of my sight." he scoffed in disgust as he turned his back on her.

Weiss had fled that room as quickly as she could, blood dripping into her eye blinding her. Her steps led her to the combat simulator that she had begged to have installed. She entered, grabbing Myrtenaster and punching in the code for the SDC's second strongest defense golem, a classier, easier to disguise as decoration alternative to the quad cannon mechs that would eventually be utilized to protect her father's trains. She opened her eyes and fought valiantly against the golem, allowing herself to be hit once mid air during the fight. Weiss stood by the exit of the simulator and waited until a staff member walked by, making sure he would see the blood on her face as she exited. Soon enough the staff would be in an uproar about her injury. She knew she should have gone to see someone about the angry scab that formed in time, but she had left it as a reminder, something she would see in the mirror every time she practiced her fake smile, an aspect of her true life on display for the world.

The heiress had realized a few weeks later as the scab had settled into an angry red scar that that had been the most infantile idea she had ever had. Now the looks she got were ones of pity, the compliments always marred by words such as "If only that scar wasn't there..." Or "I bet you were stunning before your accident.". The words cut deep and instead of making her feel free reminded her of how imprisoned she had been.

Weiss looked up from her knees into the sun setting over Vale. That had been almost two years ago now and it showed. The scar had faded some, the angry red mark now simply a dark shade of pink on her snow pale skin. Her hand rubbed over it once more, a nervous tic she had developed over the intervening years. She sighed as she looked out over the view, wishing she had someone here to share the view.

The wish for companionship eventually translated into a desire for her team to be there. Weiss cursing to herself softly as she continued to watch the sun set. How could she have been so stupid? She thought to herself. It had been a simple poem, and she had over reacted. She shook her head as she tried to find some self-righteous reason to be angry and instead all she heard were the words of her team leader. "I think it looks bad-ass." Weiss suppressed a smile as she heard the words ring through her head. Ruby had caught her looking at her scar in the mirror one day when she had thought everyone was going to be at lunch longer. She had been trying to cover it in vain with concealer. The dolt had stumbled in rambling something about rounds for Crescent Rose when she saw what Weiss had been trying to do. Ruby had walked over to Weiss and put a hand on the applicator she had been using, saying that one simple sentence before blushing and disappearing in a cloud of rose petals. Weiss had shouted something about the girl being a dolt but had been left with a warm feeling in her heart.

"I've never seen Ruby work so hard on anything but that scythe of her's. You push her in a way no one else can, and I'm so proud of her for the growth she's shown this year and a large part of that is you. So, thanks ice queen." That had been Yang in a rare moment of complete seriousness from the taller girl. Weiss had found it odd at the time and had gotten rather upset by the ice queen jab shouting high handed insults at the brawler who had been too busy laughing to care, but as she thought back she realized just how much the words had meant to her and the fiery young woman who was her teammate. Yang was a protective older sister who wanted her sister to grow but knew she didn't have the right ways to push the girl. Weiss had those ways and Yang was happy they'd all become friends cause it meant more for all of them.

"I just... wanted to say. I know the Schnee company isn't you. It isn't just your father either but I know you're not responsible for all they've done." That had been Blake after the events at the docks earlier in the year. The Faunus girl hadn't said much about the incident and the fight that had led up to it when she came back, but she had heard the girl whisper it in the middle of the night when she thought the other three were asleep. It had lightened her heart to hear someone separate her from her Father, separate her from the company that seemed to encompass her entire being in everyone's mind. It had been truly liberating. For the first time since her mother had disappeared, Weiss had felt truly free of those expectations.

"And you Miss Schnee, a girl born into fame and fortune certainly doesn't need the extra work. So, why choose this over a cushy job in Atlas?" That question brought Weiss's train of thought to a screeching halt. Professor Oobleck had been the one to ask that question, and at the time she thought she had given him the perfect answer. Duty, Honor, and a family name to uphold. That was what she had felt he had wanted to hear about why she had choosen to be a huntress, to live a hard life with death at her side even here in training. But that hadn't been it.

"When I said I wanted to honor my family's name, I meant it but it's not what you think. I'm not stupid, since my father took over the Schnee Dust Company, our business has acted in a moral grey area." Weiss snorted as she slowly started to wipe the tears from her face. That had been the understatement of the semester. Since their 'discussion' after the first train robbery, her father had cracked down on the Fanus that worked under him, and even those that didn't that he could effect.

"Which is why I have to put things right. If I had taken a job in Atlas, it wouldn't have changed anything. My father was not the start of our name. And I refuse to let him be the end of it." Weiss started hold her head up, conviction flooding her as she remember why she was here. What true purpose she had had in taking this journey, however bloody or hard, sweat or tear filled it might be. And at the end of it, she would take her place in the company and right the wrongs her father had instigated, and hopefully her friends would be beside her to do it. She looked around. Her friends who weren't even here beside her now.

Weiss sighed again as the sun finally dipped beneath the horizon, the back lit city of Vale a sight to behold as she sat there, without the team that she realized she had become such good friends with, that she suddenly missed terribly.

Weiss sat there and stared, determining in her mind what she would say when she got back to the room, how she would make things right between herself and Ruby and if Blake was still upset how she would attempt to smooth things out between the two. Using the sleeves of her dress she wiped at her eyes and prepared to stand.

That is, until a glaive found it's way into the crater beside her, causing her to jump a bit as she looked up to the figure standing beside her. "Now tell me." She heard the man with the shock of blue hair say as he leaned against the staff of his weapon. "What's a beautiful snow princess like yourself, doing out here all by herself on a night like this?"

Weiss smiled as she accepted Neptune's hand to stand up. 'Maybe I'm not so alone after all.'

Authors Notes: Well, that finishes Chapter One, hope you all enjoy and have a Merry Christmas. Blake is up next and the chapter might take a while. I had massive writers block on this and while I don't think I write Weiss particularly well, I think I write her a lot better than our favorite Faunus. Anyway, to those who review thank you, those who don't, thank you anyway. and to all of you a Merry Christmas.