With Weiss Trusting The Wrong Person

The setup for her tenth birthday had been perfect. The Schnee family had opened their manor's spacious halls to the cream of Atlas, and everyone who was anyone had been present. Visitors ranged from business elites such as Goldy Merigold, the CEO of Merigold Shipping, to political elites such as Scarlet Tubing, an Atlesian Council member, to military officers such as James Ironwood.

Weiss had enjoyed the evening thoroughly. Schnee Manor's interior lent itself well to complex games of hide-and-seek, so she spent most of her party racing through the interior, searching for the other children. During the lulls between rounds, she had feasted on foie gras, caviar and even snuck in a few sips of champagne. The celebration was jubilant. Only when the guests departed did the warmth drain out of Schnee Manor.

If Weiss was honest, she hadn't noticed her father's notice. Jacques Schnee was an absentee father at the best of times. Weiss would have become a stage prop if he had been in attendance. A conversation starter for Jacques and his business partner. Jacques would have wasted a segment of her birthday party before she would sneak off and do what children wished to do.

In that vein, Weiss had been glad that her father had been absent. Mother hadn't agreed.

In the hours before her father's return home, Weiss and her siblings had been haunted by an awful presentiment that the tension broiling between their parents was going to erupt. And they were right.

When Jacques stepped in through the front door, he encountered the stormy face of his wife and the frightened faces of his children. The encounter was made worse by Jacques not remembering what event he missed.

"Is it our anniversary?" He hazarded a guess.

"It's our daughter's birthday. How could you forget our daughter's birthday?"

Weiss remembered the way he glanced between Winter and herself. She could find humor in his confusion now, but at the time, it had pained her that even with the reminder, Jacques couldn't figure out which daughter's birthday he had missed. Nevertheless, he had attempted to recover and brush past the issue, promising to make up for his absence. Mother wasn't having any of it.

"This isn't an issue you can throw money at, Jacques!"

The more mother pushed, the more Jacques's apologetic facade fractured until eventually, he screamed the truth for his family to hear. He had never loved mother. He had never loved his children. He had always loved the Schnee name, and he loved the money and prestige that came with it. To keep the money and prestige, he needed to ensure the Schnee Dust Company thrived.

"You'll have to forgive me if I prioritize business meetings over the asinine celebrations of children."

Some words, once spoken, could never be taken back. Jacques brushed past them that evening and left a shattered family behind.

In Weiss's earliest memories, her mother's eyes were beautiful. Her eyes were the color of ice, yet they never made anyone feel cold. Her eyes had always danced with joy, like snowflakes in the wind. Weiss missed those eyes and lamented she might never see them again. Nowadays, her mother's eyes were bloodshot and hollow, sunken into a gaunt face- a consequence of clearing out the Schnee family's expansive and carefully curated wine collection in eight years.

Winter had inherited their mother's eyes in shape and color. They were another pair of eyes that would never be warm again. Winter had forsaken her inheritance to escape the purgatory that the Schnee estate had become. Instead of being the heiress to the Schnee Duct Company, she had become a specialist in the Atlesian Military. Weiss knew her sister still loved her, yet propriety shackled her. Whenever Weiss met her sister's gaze, she saw restraint. She saw ice and steel and ingrained discipline.

Whitley inherited Jacques's gaze, and Weiss couldn't bear to look at him for long. If she did, then she wouldn't see her younger brother anymore. She would see the monster he was fated to become.

The last place she could search for her mother's eyes was in the mirror, and Weiss's reflection always fell short. Weiss's gaze wasn't warm. Her eyes were too careful, too deliberate, to ever convey the same kindness that Willow once did, but perhaps that was a good thing. She might never rise as high as her mother once did, but Weiss also wouldn't fall so low. She promised herself she wouldn't. Her eyes would never be that of an alcoholic who had given up on life.

Weiss reflected on her mother's fate in the years that followed and concluded that her cardinal sin was loving the wrong man. She had loved a monster, and the beast had destroyed her. If Weiss were to avoid her fate, she would have to be careful about who she loved. Weiss had to be mindful of her inheritance- and mindful that men claiming to love her might be more interested in claiming her legacy than in her love.

Was Jaune Arc one of those men?

Weiss was wary of him the same way she was around all unfamiliar males. Her wariness ebbed when he didn't flirt with her during initiation or team assignment and then spiked when he requested they train together. Why her? Why not Pyrrha or Ruby?

When Weiss asked him, Jaune had an articulate response that prevented Weiss from condemning him as a gold digger. During a school project, Jaune claimed to have discovered the hereditary nature of the Schnee semblance while researching Nicholas Schnee, Weiss's grandfather and founder of the Schnee Dust Company. Consequently, he was aware that her semblance allowed her to summon specters of foes she had slaughtered. As the team leader, Jaune wanted to familiarize himself with the shades Weiss could muster, and from there, incorporate her summons into team strategies.

Weiss was mortified when she had to admit she hadn't unlocked the summoning aspect of her glyph yet. Jaune assuaged her it wasn't an issue and revealed a part of his semblance. During initiation, he had showcased his Aegis Light- the ability to form hard-light objects out of his aura- when he held back a charging Ursa, as well as his Purifying Light- the ability to blast enemies with scorching beams of light. Now, he showcased a softer side of his semblance, which he aptly called his Soothing Light.

"I knew this part of my semblance healed people, and I would have left it at that, but my dad is a curious guy. He looked into it and figured out what I was really doing was bolstering a person's aura. The aura was what was healing them, not me. I listened to him and was like, 'Cool. They get healed either way, so does it matter?'" Jaune laughed. "My denseness drove my dad crazy."

Aura wasn't just healing. Aura was a forcefield, and if Jaune could bolster a person's aura, he could nullify the pain the person felt from attacks. Aura enhanced a person's strength, speed, and endurance to superhuman levels. Consequently, any enhancement made to aura would carry over to physical attributes. And aura fueled a person's semblance. If Jaune increased the potency of a person's aura, it stood to reason their semblance would be more robust. Weiss might even complete a summoning with his aid.

She asked him why he'd help her. Of the members of Team Jasper, she was the only one who doubted his credentials to lead their team. Weiss doubted she had done much to endear herself to him. Why not help the others instead?

"I get why you're skeptical about my leadership skills. You're the heiress to a trillion-dollar corporation, while no one's ever heard of me before. If I want to lead, I'm going to have to prove I'm worthy of respect, and I was hoping this would be a good first step."

His motivation made sense, but Weiss couldn't trust his statement wasn't a mask for a more sinister purpose. An attempt to worm his way into her good graces so he could seduce her and steal her inheritance. And yet-

"I suppose I can give you a chance."

One chance. She would give Jaune one chance to prove his sincerity. If he squandered the opportunity, then Weiss hadn't committed to anything. She could always distance herself from him later.

While Beacon had dedicated training rooms, those rooms were open for public viewing. Usually, that wouldn't be an issue, but with the Vytal Tournament scheduled for later that year, Jaune wanted to hide his team's abilities. Weiss agreed with the sentiment. The tournament was broadcast across all four kingdoms, and Weiss knew Jacques would be watching. If she performed poorly, her father would use it against her. Consequently, she consented to hold the session in a secluded clearing instead.

The aura transfer began when Jaune tapped her shoulder. She had asked him what to expect, so she wasn't surprised when his cloak disappeared, and his glowing armor dimmed. Nor was she surprised when her form was enveloped by light or when her aura flared. Because Jaune was boosting her semblance by transferring his aura into her, the procedure would weaken him by the same amount it strengthened her. Consequently, Jaune had told Weiss to anticipate his cloak fading and armor dimming because he wouldn't be able to sustain both at full strength. Simultaneously, Jaune told her to expect her aura to flare, and she certainly felt powerful.

It was challenging to remember she was borrowing Jaune's aura. Once the aura entered her body, it became indistinguishable from her natural reserves.

She began her summoning attempt. The first part of the casting process- forming the glyph- wasn't affected by the boost in aura. Through intense training, Weiss had mastered this segment, and more aura wasn't going to improve it. The glyph formed instantaneously across the clearing floor.

The next step was visualizing the vanquished foe she was going to resurrect. Once more, the action came quickly. A Grimm as powerful as an Arma Gigas was simultaneously an ambitious first target and the only target that made sense.

She had a history with the Arma Gigas. Jacques agreed to let her attend Beacon on one condition: She had to prove she was ready by slaying the Grimm. Jacques had expected Weiss to fail, and she took pleasure in proving him wrong. She had succeeded, but the success had come at the cost of a scar running vertically across her right eye. Between the milestone and the wound, Weiss could visualize the Grimm perfectly.

The third step, coalescing her aura into the form of the Grimm, was the point where Weiss always failed. Her aura had never been potent enough to hold a solid-state on its own. Jaune's semblance changed that. Weiss was taken off-guard when the Arma Gigas started to form. A part of her expected to fail, so she was caught off-guard by her success. Her concentration faded, and the construct began to fracture.

Panicked, Weiss tried to stop the deterioration by inserting more aura into the form. The expenditure should have exhausted her- would have finished her if not for Jaune's semblance. With the construct stable, she glanced at him. How was he doing on the aura front? If he took too much of the burden and were exhausted, Weiss would stop today. She owed him that much.

To her surprise, Jaune didn't look even slightly winded. If anything, Jaune looked anticipatory. He was eagerly waiting for her to succeed, and Weiss would hate to disappoint him.

Buoyed by his support, Weiss pushed on. To her delight, her efforts were paying off. The figure built on itself from the point where it touched her glyph. The legs formed first, followed by its torso. Construction started to sputter when Weiss tried to develop the Gigas's arms. It was a sign that she was running out of aura- but Jaune was still subsidizing her supply.

She glanced at him again. Did he have enough aura to continue the process?

At his encouraging nod, she continued to push and was rewarded by a pair of perfectly formed arms. And then she tried to create the head. The Arma Gigas shattered, and her aura flickered- a common sign of aura depletion, but that couldn't be right. She could still feel plenty of aura in her reserves.

She looked at Jaune a third time. His smile had widened. Was he attempting to be encouraging, or was he laughing at her failure? The aura inside her stirred despite her not issuing it any commands, and Weiss realized that not a drop of the aura left within her was her own. She had spent all of her aura on the summoning and hadn't noticed. All of the aura that remained belonged to Jaune. What was the aura doing?

She tried to ask him, but the aura within her roared before she could, flaring more brilliantly than ever. She could feel his aura squeezing her, shackling her, and she desperately tried to muster her own aura to fight him off, but she had expended her might on the summoning. She opened her mouth to scream, but his aura coalesced into a tendril and thrust itself down her throat, turning her scream into a **** gag as she choked.

Jaune continued smiling, and Weiss connected the dots. She had thought Jaune had been smiling out of anticipation of her success. She had been wrong. Jaune had been smiling because he anticipated her running out of aura, leaving herself defenseless. To what end?

Was he a ****? The notion chilled her- but she dismissed the thought after a second. If he wanted to **** her, he would have opportunities later in the year. Once Team Jasper started taking missions in the wild, he could have his way with her and arrange an unfortunate accident to dispose of her body. No one would suspect him if he did his task well. **** her outside Beacon, on the other hand, made no sense. Even if he killed her, cameras had noticed them leaving together. There was nothing he could do without raising suspicion.

Then did he work for one of Jacques's enemies? If Jaune worked for a corporation, his actions would make more sense. Beacon was next to the City of Vale, the headquarters for many companies. He could capture and transport her to Vale without anyone the wiser. By the time anyone noticed her disappearance, they'd both be long gone.

Or perhaps he was a member of the White Fang? The notion of being captured by those animals was almost worse than the idea of being ****. Jaune didn't look like a Faunus, but looks could be deceiving. Some Faunus had retractable claws and other easily hidden traits. Jaune might be one of them.

Then her aura gave in, and Weiss no longer had pedantic thoughts. With its work done, Jaune's aura subsided, and the tendril that gagged her dissolved. Without rising from the clearing floor, Weiss caught her breath. When had she fallen? If she had still been wearing her pristine white dress, the garment would have been stained with muck.

Luckily- unfortunately- that wasn't an issue anymore. When Jaune's binding shroud had captured her, it had dissolved her old clothing and saved the template to the shroud's memory. How did she know that?

Her brows furrowed. How did she know her clothes were facsimiles and not the real thing? How did she know Jaune had captured her? How did she know she had to obey him? Her head felt foggy. Knowledge that didn't belong to her flitted around her head too quickly for her to grasp them.

"You-" captured me, bound me, collected me, "enslaved me." Weiss didn't implement euphemisms.

Part of her hoped Jaune would tell her she was imagining things. His semblance had done something else, and due to her distrust of men, she had come to the worst conclusion possible.

Instead, Jaune said, "I needed money."

Of course, he did. Weiss laughed hysterically, her worst fears confirmed. How many men had she rejected, fearing they were after her wealth? Weiss had been so cautious, yet what good had her caution done? She had been caged at eighteen, whereas her careless mother had wed Jacques at twenty-four. All Weiss's caution had come to naught.

Part of the fault was hers. Weiss shouldn't have let her guard drop. Her mother hadn't made a long list of mistakes. Willow had been born in the right demographic to be successful, and she worked hard for her success. She had graduated at the top of her class with plenty of friends. She had been an adept huntress and an able businesswoman. One mistake had been enough to undo a lifetime of good decisions. She married Jacques, and that had been the end for her.

And now Weiss was following in her footsteps. A single mistake to end it all.

"And that justifies enslaving me?" Part of the fault was hers, but not all of it. She shouldn't have trusted Jaune, but Jaune shouldn't have betrayed her trust.

"You'll only be serving me for a bit, sweetheart. Just bear with me."

"You mean you'll let me go?" Plans sprung to mind. As soon as Weiss was free, she would contact Winter. Her sister was a specialist serving in the Atlesian Military. Winter would have the resources and connections needed to detain Jaune Arc and interrogate him until he confessed his crimes and the location of his conspirators. Dissolving a human trafficking ring would be a worthy accomplishment for an aspiring huntress.

Jaune nodded. "I'll sell you to The Company as soon as I've captured that MILF, Salem."

Her hopes plummeted. If Jaune had intended to release her, Weiss would have stalled. She would have endured Jaune's depredations and took solace in the knowledge that Jaune would suffer his comeuppance upon her release. Now that he clarified he didn't intend to release her, she would have to take an alternate approach to her captivity. Weiss would have to devise an escape method.

She couldn't ask Jaune whether it would be easier to escape from him or The Company and expect an answer. Consequently, Weiss asked, "Who is Salem?" Salem's identity would give Weiss an estimate of how long it would take Jaune to capture her. By extension, it would provide Weiss an estimate of how long she had before she was sold to The Company.

Weiss wasn't expecting the answer: "Salem? Salem's the Queen of the Grimm," in response to her question. It was then that Weiss realized that not only was Jaune a monster, he was also insane.

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<u>Author's Note:</u> This chapter took me forever to write. It's because I kept rewriting it. First, I started in the locker rooms where canon-Jaune talked to Pyrrha and Weiss. The plan was to have him smooth talk Weiss by demonstrating his semblance and to show off his Social Talent by having him negotiate his way into becoming Weiss's partner. I deleted chapter one because there was too much exposition and Jaune was too Gary-Stu. I told myself to start In Media Res.

Consequently, attempt two started at Initiation, with Jaune being launched off the cliffs. The new plan was to take advantage of aura-depleted babes and bind them while they're weak, but that was too easy. Where's the challenge in that?

I came to realize the problem was Jaune was too powerful to write a good story around. I needed a new approach. I thought of Sherlock Holmes when formulating the approach. Those books are written in the POV of Watson because Sherlock was too smart. If we saw his world through his eyes, there would be no mystery.

I needed a Watson for my Jaune, and ended up with Weiss. Jaune doesn't view Weiss as a person. He thinks of her as an ATM machine, and consequently, he never bothers telling her anything. He also doesn't intend to sell her until the end of the story, making her perfect as a narrator.

Thoughts on the chapter?