Never Change

Chapter 35

Weiss Schnee stared back at her reflection in the mirror, contemplating.

She looked at herself, her face, her features. Her ice blue eyes trailed down the pale skin of her face, along her eyebrows, and the bridge of her nose, down to her lips. Then, they flickered like shadows, up to the left.

Almost mesmerizingly, her hand reached up to touch it, the scar, tracing it from the bottom to the top.

She almost wished she was someone else. She wished she had someone else's pretty problems, and not this.

Percy was arriving tonight, and the charity banquet was tomorrow, hosted for all of Atlas to see.

Was she... really going to do this? T-to... proposition her team leader, one of her best friends, and the boy she liked, into- into signing a sponsorship?

All for her despicable father, who had increased the stakes, threatening her very inheritance? Who claimed that, if she married Percy, the Schnee Dust Company would "rise to new heights"?

Was she really going to do it? Simply so that she could keep her position as heiress to the Schnee Dust Company?

She squeezed her eyes, her resolve wavering slightly, her fists clenching at the thought.

Weiss didn't know the answer. She didn't know.

It seemed like that was happening more and more lately...

She had been so sure of herself when she had first gone to Beacon. But when the world showed itself, she had to adapt, both in her beliefs and her abilities. Instead of having the world at her fingers, she questioned herself more and more, thinking critically. Her team had forced her to adapt, Percy had forced her to adapt.

And still, even after all that, she was still going to bend the knee to Jacques Schnee, the most hated man on Remnant. And there was nothing she could do about it.

Refusing to submit to her father would result in being cut off from the Schnee family, and her dreams of inheriting and fixing the SDC would go down the drain.

On the other hand, submitting to his will, like she was doing now... it seemed like the only option. She didn't like it, but it had to be done, if she wanted to change the world for the better. To help people like Blake, the faunus who needed change. To make better labor practices...

And all of that boiled down to this.

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow night, she would attend the charity banquet with Percy as her date, and, afterwards, they would retreat to the bedroom.

There, she would proposition him, all because of Jacques Schnee. Because the richest and greediest man on Remnant wanted to become even richer.

She stared down at her pale, white hands. She was a horrible person. She swallowed her saliva that had unknowingly gathered in her mouth.

After several moments of silence, she lifted her head back up, resolve strengthened.

It was for the better good, she reasoned. If she could change the world for the better, and all she had to do was to proposition Percy... then she would.

For the better good.

-----

"So this is Ozpin..." Yang commented uselessly, as they all sat around the campfire awkwardly. The boy from before, Oscar Pine, who indeed was fourteen, cringed as they gazed at him expectantly. He shied away from their glances, fidgeting with Ozpin's cane, which Qrow had given back to him.