Bab 48: Willow Schnee Pt. 2
A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my P atreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!
In which Jaune does things the hard way. No not that hard way, get your mind out of the gutter! :P
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For the briefest of moments, Jaune has the urge to give Willow what she wants, albeit on his own terms. The desire to push her down and fuck some sense into that thick skull of hers is pretty overwhelming. Nothing quite like a proper pounding to sober someone up right?
Except that's not really him talking. That's the Grimm part of him, the part that wants to conquer and hurt and destroy. Willow Schnee is already a woman that's hurting. He doesn't need to add to that… at least, not anymore than he already intends to, given what he's here to do. Still, there's no denying that if he wants to go anywhere with Willow Schnee, she needs to be made to understand what exactly is happening here.
Holding her by the shoulders still, not allowing the drunken woman to escape his grasp, Jaune casts his eyes around the bedroom for a moment. Then he finds it. Walking them both over, he barely pays her yelps any mind as he manhandles her over to the bed. Willow doesn't cry out for help though, likely because she thinks she's finally going to get what she wants.
"That's it, big boy. Take charge. Toss me down. Fuck me silly. Cuck my hus-!"
"Shut up."
Based on everything he's heard about Jacques Schnee from the women in his life, Jaune would have no problems cucking the bastard if it actually came down to it. However, he wasn't about to fuck Willow when she was like this. Drunk and uninformed. So, still holding her by an arm, he reaches down and instead of anything on the bed… he grabs her scroll off of her bedside table and thrusts it into her hands.
Willow blinks owlishly at the device, before staring up at him in confusion. Jaune just growls.
"Call them. Winter or Weiss. Try and call one of them."
Then, he lets go of her and steps back, making sure he's out of view. Now, was this a risk? Maybe… but he's properly disguised as a human at the moment, and to the best of their knowledge, there shouldn't be any Maidens around with the magic to unravel Salem's disguise spell like Raven Branwen did back in Mistral.
… Though he had to admit, it would be just his luck if Willow somehow turned out to be the Winter Maiden. But no, if she were, she would have killed Jacques ages ago he figures.
Regardless, Jaune sets himself in between Willow and the door, crosses his arms over his chest, and stares her down. The drunken Matriarch just looks at him for a long moment, before a light seems to go on in her drunken eyes.
"Y-Yeah? You… you into that sort of thing, huh? Want me to tell my daughters about how I'm going to cuckold their father again? How I'm about to be fucked by a real man?"
… She really is a broken shell of a woman, isn't she? Jaune valiantly resists the urge to rub the bridge of his nose with his hand, just staying stone-still and staring at her wordlessly until she finally brings up her contacts and places a call. While it's connecting, she gives him a sly smile.
"I should just make it Jacques. Let him listen to me moan as you pin me down and have your way with me~"
The offer would be tempting if she were sober. But again, while she's clearly a high-functioning alcoholic, what with the general lack of slurring in her words, it's still obvious to him that she's incredibly inebriated. Just how many glasses of wine has she even had so far today?
Suddenly, the call picks up, but it's not Winter's voice that comes through the other end.
"Mrs. Schnee, what can I do for you?"
For the first time, Willow Schnee looks taken aback. She blinks, looking from Jaune down to the familiar face on the scroll, who is very much NOT her daughter.
"General Ironwood. What… why do you have Winter's scroll?"
There's a brief pause at that, and though Jaune can't see the General's reaction, he can imagine the man grimacing for a moment before formulating his response.
"I do not. At this time, all calls sent to Specialist Schnee's Scroll are being redirected to my office."
Jaune watches Willow process that, wondering just how she's going to respond. In the end, her reaction is refreshingly blunt.
"Why?"
"Beg your pardon?"
Brow furrowed; the Schnee Matriarch shakes her head.
"Why would calls to Winter's scroll redirect to you personally, General Ironwood?"
There's another moment of hesitation before the man responds.
"… Apologies, Mrs. Schnee, but that's highly classified information. As Winter's mother, all I can tell you is that she's currently on a top secret mission for me."
Willow's eyes flicker up to Jaune at that, though only for a moment. It's still something Ironwood might have noticed, but if he does, the General doesn't comment on it. For a few heartbeats, Willow Schnee remains silent. Finally though, she just nods quietly.
"I… I see. Tell her to call me when she gets back?"
"… Of course, Mrs. Schnee."
And with that, the call comes to an end. Willow stares down at her Scroll, clearly not sure what to make of that… but it's obvious that underneath the drunken alcoholic is a surprisingly perceptive woman. She's sharper than he gave her credit for initially, because he can tell she realizes something is wrong.
When she finally lifts her eyes to meet his again and opens her mouth to speak, Jaune cuts her off with a gesture.
"Now call Weiss."
Fear… honest fear finally sparks to life in Willow Schnee's gaze. Her lower lip trembles and briefly he feels a spike of pain in his chest. It almost makes him wonder if fucking her sober first would have been the kinder route. But this was the only way he could think of to truly get through to her without giving her what she wanted.
Trembling now, Willow reaches down and puts a call into Weiss next. She and Jaune both listen as the call tries to go through. He's not expecting it to work out. He's expecting the call to ultimately fail, seeing as he and Winter hadn't actually bothered to retrieve Weiss and Ciel's things when they'd taken them from the train. A slight oversight on their part, but to be fair, Winter had bigger things on her mind and Jaune was… well, he hadn't had a Scroll himself in years, so he hadn't thought about it at the time.
However, rather than the call simply failing to go through… someone picks up, much to both Jaune and Willow's surprise.
"Mrs. Schnee."
The clipped, feminine voice on the other hand causes Jaune to furrow his brow. He recognizes that voice. Willow doesn't of course, nor does she recognize the face in her Scroll.
"Who… who are you? Why do you have my daughter's scroll?"
"… My name is Specialist Harriet Bree, Mrs. Schnee. Your daughter and I… are currently traveling together."
Holy shit, Harriet was a terrible liar. Though that did leave Jaune wondering exactly what the Specialist was up to. Had she not reported in to General Ironwood yet? What was her game, exactly?
"Traveling together? Can I speak to her then, please? I need… I need to hear her voice."
Willow seems to agree, her tone carrying heavy skepticism as she begins immediately poking holes in Specialist Bree's words under the guise of a concerned mother. There's another pause before the Atlesian Specialist comes back with another excuse.
"Apologies Mrs. Schnee, but Weiss is sleeping right now. You know how time zones are. That's why I answered in the first place."
Another very obvious lie. For all that Harriet was an Atlesian Specialist, she clearly wasn't trained for infiltration. Jaune almost feels embarrassed on her behalf, even as Willow frowns.
"Then… can you show me her? With the camera? Just her face would be enough."
"… Of course, Mrs. Schnee. Just gi- kccht, err, one seco-bzzzzt. Sorry, we're bre…aking, kccht… up!"
Jaune blinks as the call abruptly ends. Very clearly NOT from connection issues, but of Specialist Bree's own volition. He watches as Willow just stares at the screen blankly for a long moment before turning and sitting down heavily on her bed with her Scroll in her hands. Slowly, Jaune approaches her again, uncrossing his arms as he does so.
When he crosses some invisible line, Willow Schnee's head snaps up, her glistening eyes suddenly staring at him with a ferocity that takes him slightly by surprise. He can tell that this has sobered her up just as effectively as fucking her might have. Maybe more so, even.
"W-Where… where are they? Where are my daughters?"
Jaune tilts his head to the side and hums for a moment.
"If you could get a straight answer from Ironwood or Specialist Bree, they'd both tell you they don't know. That Winter and Weiss are MIA… and assumed dead."
Willow chokes at that, her eyes widening in horror and disbelief. Jaune feels bad enough that he immediately raises his hands in a placating fashion.
"They'd both be wrong. Your daughters are safe, Willow. They're both alive, both healthy, and both safe from the machinations of men like the General."
She stares at him for a long moment, her gaze searching his for any sign that he might be lying to her. But when her shoulders finally slump, he knows she believes him.
"… You're probably the first person to tell me the truth all day, aren't you? Who are you, really?"
Jaune considers how best to answer that. He's not sure 'King of the Grimm' is the best response here. Willow Schnee is a very damaged woman with a heavy substance abuse problem. Best not to give away too much too soon, right?
"… Let's just say I represent an organization that wants to see the fighting stop. This war between Mistral, Atlas, and Vale isn't good for anyone… save for perhaps your husband's bottom line and the reelection chances of Atlesian and Valean Council Members."
Willow lets out a little laugh at that.
"Yes… Jacques IS making out like a bandit from all of this. And I suppose you want to end that? You want me to help you end it. For what… to ensure my daughters STAY safe?"
He could have gone that route, he supposed. Willow glares at him angrily, fully sobered up now that she thinks her daughters' lives are in his hands. And technically, they even are. But Jaune would never let any harm come to Weiss or Winter. More than that, he doesn't think he can bring himself to lie to Willow and threaten them either. Especially not when the Schnee Matriarch seems to be shockingly perceptive. A living lie detector, based on what he just saw from her.
"No, Willow. I'm not going to hurt a single hair on Weiss or Winter's heads. I said what I said, and I meant it too. Neither Weiss nor Winter are my prisoners. General Ironwood thinks Winter is dead and Specialist Bree thinks Weiss is a prisoner of the White Fang, but they're both wrong. Your daughters are happy and content right where they are… save for how worried they both are for you."
Willow blinks at that, before biting her lower lip and averting her gaze.
"I… I see. Then I'm not sure… what you want from me. Or how you expect to force me to help you go against my husband in the first place? You must know from my previous behavior that I have little in the way of self-preservation instincts. After all, I brought a strange man right into my bedroom without a care in the world or a second thought."
Jaune chuckles and shakes his head.
"I don't think I need to threaten you, Willow. I think deep down you want to be free of Jacques just as much as your daughters did. And I think that's why you should help me take your family's company back, right out from under him. Because you deserve to be free. Because you deserve to be your own woman again."
Eyes widened, Willow stares at him in mute disbelief for a second before letting out a startled laugh.
"Aha… a-a nice thought, but it doesn't work like that young man. I don't know what power you think I have, but Jacques Schnee is… he holds this family and the company in his iron fist. I can't go against him."
Jaune narrows his eyes. Had Winter lied to him in order to get him to help her mother? No… he didn't think that was the case.
"Your daughter disagreed. She seemed to think you had more power than you'd ever truly been willing to exercise."
And there it is. A flash of something almost indescribable in Willow Schnee's eyes. Along with panic. The key word was definitely 'willing'. Willow did have more power than she would acknowledge. She was just too scared to do anything with it, like a beaten dog who had learned not to talk back.
"I… I c-can't. It would never work. Besides… there's a much simpler solution, isn't there?"
Tilting his head to the side, Jaune furrows his brow.
"Oh?"
Suddenly perking up, Willow looks downright malevolent as she bobs her head.
"Yes. Just kill him."
Jaune stares, but Willow isn't done. Suddenly, she looks positively excited by the thought.
"Kill Jacques. You want the SDC? If you kill Jacques… Whitley is too young to take over. But the bylaws are clear, a Schnee must ALWAYS be CEO. It's why he married me in the first place… because without my family's name, he could never climb all the way to the top. If Jacques dies, then I become the only option. I'd be the board's puppet under normal circumstances… but I-I could be YOUR puppet instead."
The look on her face as she leans forwards him makes it clear that she's desperate for him to pick this option. She's even giving him a look down her top as she does so, and pressing her arms together in a way that accentuates his chest. It has little effect on him though, mostly because he'd already made the conscious decision NOT to fuck her earlier. Maybe that wouldn't hold forever, but he wasn't about to let her seduce him now if he didn't let her seduce him fifteen minutes ago.
That said… there was something appealing about her suggestion. There was the easy way and the hard way. Using Willow to pull the rug out from under Jacques and helping her to reclaim her company from her husband while kicking his ass to the curb… that would be the hard way. Killing Jacques so that the company had no choice but to make Willow CEO… that would be so much easier.
But was that such a bad thing? Did everything HAVE to be hard? Did the 'easy way' have to be inherently wrong? Looking at Willow, Jaune can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jacques Schnee deserves death. His own wife has jumped to the idea of assassination in a heartbeat just to avoid the thought of having to go toe to toe with him.
Jaune just isn't sure if he should be the one to deal that death out or not.
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The P atreon Vote:
[X] Jaune goes with Willow's idea and assassinates Jacques Schnee, quick and easy - 57%
[ ] Jaune goes the longer route of ousting Jacques Schnee with Willow's assistance - 43%
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