War Descends

(one month and two days before Death arrived)

POV Weiss Schnee

While out for tea with her mother and elder sister Winter their mood did not seem to be that good. Nicholas Schnee, who had been ill for a while now, had fallen into a comatose state a few days prior and hadn't woken up. Willow, Weiss, and Winter were all sad, and were basically in a state of mourning, thus they had sought comfort from each other in these trying times.

Now that Nicholas Schnee was no longer in a position to retake control of the Schnee Dust Company, that meant that the acting head of the SDC, was now the official one. It was none other then Weiss and Winters father, Jacques Schnee.

Really, though, the Schnee females had been mourning for the last six months or so while Nicholas Schnee was hospitalized, so their mourning now was just mourning of a different sort. They were aware or radical faunus starting to target the SDC, but had been too distracted worrying about Nicholas that they never really stopped to question why.

There was a commotion outside the tea shop, but the girls and their mother were lost in their own worlds of thought and didn't notice.

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POV Michel Alesina

Michel Alesina, a successful businessman in Atlas, was presently outside a teashop, trying to get in to see Willow Schnee. He had been desperately trying to meet with her for nearly as long as Nicholas Schnee had been ill, and her husbands hired goons had kept them from meeting, as was happening again. The guards refused to let him pass. Just as he was about to yell at the guards some more, there was a van that screeched to a stop and some faunus wearing masks came out of it, armed to attack.

(ooc-Yes, white fang, but not Grimm masks, as that trend hasn't started yet. No, not acting under Ghira's orders. Rather a splinter faction similar to what happened in vale in Canon. Papa Ghira would not condone what they are doing)

Hoping that the faunus extremists would momentarily distract Jacques's henchmen, Michel tried to charge into the teashop, but received a neck chop from one of the guards, getting knocked out. They had been ordered that they must under no circumstances allow Michal to meet with Willow, so they knew they had to knock him out before dealing with the terrorists.

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POV Willow Schnee

The sound outside grew louder and could no longer be ignored. "What's going on?" she asked a member of the security detail that was rushing over.

"Faunus militants are attacking, we need to use the secret tunnel." the guard ordered. There was a reason that they chose this teashop, and why they rented the whole thing and kept others out while the girls and their mother were mourning.

Willow picked up Weiss and started carrying her and ordered Winter to follow, and accompanied by two guards they rushed into the basement and started through the secret passage.

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POV Michel Alesina

He awoke and heard a voice stating that Willow and the girls were safely away. He looked at the guard that had knocked him out with a sneer and wanted to say more. but what was the point? Willow was who he needed to see, so staying here wasted time only.

He looked towards the militant faunus and saw that they were all dead, and he clenched both his hands into fists, finding it to be such a waste of life. 'Damn you Jacques' he thought to himself before something crashed into the ground with a huge explosive force down the street, causing the ground to quake beneath his feet, and leaving a deep crater.

Without much logic to it, Michel instinctively started running towards the hole.

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POV Weiss Schnee

"Mommy, is he okay?" Weiss asked her mother. A couple seconds earlier the ceiling of the escape tunnel had collapsed and a three year old boy fell into it face first.

"Miss Schnee, we have to go. He could be one of the terrorists." one of her guards pointed out.

"Nonsense, he's just a little boy." Willow insisted, her motherly instincts kicking in "I get that we have to move, though, so bring him with us."

Surprisingly, the boy that had crashed head first into Atlas and had broken through into the tunnel, still head first, started to groan and sat up, looking around "Where am I?"

"Look, he's fine, so lets go" the Guard ordered and then grabbed Willow, who was still carrying Weiss, and started pulling them away, while the other guard grabbed Winter and pulled her along as well.

"Wait, he's in danger, we can't leave him" Willow protested, but her complaints were ignored.

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POV War

The broad-shouldered and overly muscular three-year old was none other then War. He was rather confused about how the heck he came to be here, or even where the heck 'here' was. He did, however, notice some thin rectangular thing on the ground and picked it up, and was looking at it when a man appeared above the whole in the ceiling of the tunnel that lead outside.

"Are you alright?" the middle-aged man with naturally silver hair asked War and extended an arm down towards him "I can help you up. Come here." he prompted.

War shrugged and put the strange rectangular thing into his pocket and accepted the mans arm to get help back outside. War knew that he could have jumped out pretty easily, but the mans kindness seemed well-intentioned, so he chose not to be rude while he tried to understand his current situation

Death had always advised him to try to use his head more, and even if it was hard, he decided to try to heed that advise since he did not understand his situation yet.

Once the man pulled War up out of the tunnel, and got him out of the crater, he again looked at War "My name is Michel Alesina." he introduced himself to the boy "What is your name?"

"War." he answered simply "It is both my name and my title. Whatever the hell that's supposed to mean. I specialize in fighting and leave the thinkin' to my brothers and my sister mostly."

Michel seemed perplexed by the answer he gave, but War didn't bother clarifying since he didn't want to get a headache by thinking too much about things that didn't have to do with fighting.

Michel pulled out another rectangular device like the one that War had found "What's that?" he asked with confusion.

"It's my scroll. I am calling for a ride for us." Michel insisted "We'll talk more once my driver gets here."

War wasn't sure what the scroll was, but after putting his finger on it a while, a car pulled up and the pair got into the back of it and started leaving.

"So how does this scroll work?" War asked, retrieving the one in his pocket. Engraved on the rectangular shaped 'scroll' thing was the word 'Winter', which meant nothing at all to War, but meant a whole lot to Michel.

"Did you...find that in the tunnel?" Michel suddenly asked in realization.

War nodded "Never seen anything like it before" he verified.

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POV Michel Alesina

Michel was completely surprised by this mysterious boy that had never seen a scroll before, but he was even more surprised to see the Scroll that he had picked up, because he realized that it belonged to Winter Schnee "May I see that? I know who it belongs too and I've been trying to get in touch with them for about six months with no luck. It would be really helpful to me if I could have that. I'll even buy you a brand new top-of-the-line scroll if you want." he offered.

War simply shrugged and put the scroll into Michel's hand, and Michel turned it on and went to the contacts list and pressed the contact labelled 'Mom'

Feeling a bit worried, Michel could only wait until someone answered, and thankfully when it happened, he saw Willow's face appear "Willow, thank god. I have a means of saving your father! Jacques has blocked me from contacting you for half a year!" he was afraid someone would disconnect the call before he could speak, so he blurted it out like that.

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POV Willow Schnee

Willow was shocked when Winter called her, considering that Winter was in the car with her, but her curiosity got the better of her and she answered without telling the guards who was calling.

When she saw Michel Alecina, she was surprised to say the least. Michel, she knew, was an old friend of her fathers, though perhaps it was more accurate to say that her father was more like a mentor to Michel.

Willow and Michel were friends when they were little, with him only two years older then her, but when her father fell ill, he never called, never wrote, she had received only silence from him. That was what she believed at least.

His blurted out words, combined with one of her guards suddenly grabbing her scroll and disconnecting the call on her without her having a say in the matter, was effectively verifying his allegations in Willow's mind.

Willow hadn't seen Michel in a little over six months, but he looked as though he had aged a decade, which further struck home for her that he was telling the truth. "Return my scroll and stop the car." Willow demanded.

"I can't do that, I am under strict orders." the guard answered.

"Arnold." Willow called to the driver "You've worked for my family since I was a little girl. My father has always treated you well, hasn't he?"

"Y....yes ma'am" the driver admitted nervously.

"I just found out that a treatment might exist that can heal my father, and my husband has deceived me and made me believe my childhood friend abandoned me in order to prevent my father from being treated. That's conspiring to kill my father." Willow pointed out to the driver "Arnold, stop the car."

"Y...yes ma'am." Arnold answered and pulled over the call.

"Ma'am, we have orders." the head guard insisted.

"To hell with your orders." Willow opened the door, carrying Weiss and pulling Winter with one hand as she headed around to the drivers window "Arnold, can I borrow your scroll. I have a call to make.

No longer feeling hesitant, Arnold gave Willow the scroll "I'm sorry Miss Schnee."

"Miss Schnee, end this madness and get back in the car" one of the guards protested.

"Gampa will get better now?" Weiss asked her mother with high hopes in her eyes.

A car pulled up "Willow, here." Michel was in the car, so Willow chose to trust him. She pushed in Winter and jumped in with Weiss.

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POV Arnold

The Schnee guards had been watching Willow from a distance, and hadn't expected that the car that pulled up was Michel Alecina, nor did they expect her to jump into the other car faster then they could respond, but before they could pull her out of the car, Michel's driver sped off in a hurry.

Seeing what happened, Arnold smiled and tossed the car keys into a sewer grate "oops. Clumsy me." he got out of the car and walked away, leaving the two guards speechless.

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POV Willow Schnee

Willow visibly relaxed once they god a few blocks away from the incident "Michel, this last year has truly been cruel to you" she said sympathetically.

"You help gampa?" Weiss asked Michel.

"That's my hope. The process my company has created has a very high success rate in clinical trials, though obviously it would have been better if we did it six months ago." Michel insisted "Jacques has used his influence over the Atlas Council to stall me out, to prevent the process from getting approval for use in the general populous. The intent is clear enough. He wants Nicholas to die so that he can completely control the Schnee Dust Company." he opened a briefcase and retrieved a file and offered it to Willow.

"I can tell by the look in your eye that you are serious about this. I was such a fool. I'm sorry." Willow apologized, close to tears.

"I'm glad you alright" Weiss said to War.

That drew Willow's attention to War, and she seemed surprised "You were in the tunnel. I didn't know you knew Michel."

"I just met him today and helped him out of the hole" Michel told Willow "It was him that found Winter's phone down there. I'm still not sure what to make of him. He just literally fell from the sky."

"My name....is War." War introduced himself.

"Weiss." the little girl in Willow's arms did a self-introduction with just her name.

"I'm Winter" the older sister introduced herself next.

War retrieved the Winter's scroll from his pocket again "This is yours, then?" he carefully placed it into Winter's hand.

The seven-year old girl nodded and smiled "Thanks for finding it for me" Winter insisted happily.

"Where do you come from, War?" Willow asked him with curiosity, finding his name unusual, but polite enough not to say it.

"Another world, I think." War answered with a shrug "Suspended for a long time. Maybe millions, or even billions of years, only woke up in that hole. The charred council didn't give me any instructions, so I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

Willow didn't really understand what he meant, but smiled anyway "Well, we have to deal with my husband first, but after that I'll take you home with me." Willow declared to him "Since you have nowhere else to go, you may as well come live with us. We have plenty of room."

"Okay." War agreed, not having any reason to say no to their offer.

"To hell with waiting for the council to approve the procedure" Willow said while turning her attention back to Michel "I'll sign anything I need too, to move my father where Jacques cannot reach and where he can heal."

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POV Michel Alesina

After so long trying and failing to get in touch, who could have expected that he would finally get in touch with Willow because of this 'War' kid who literally dropped out of the sky, like a divine miracle.

Michel had never believed in such things before, but really, after witnessing what he had seen first hand, he couldn't help but question his previously-held beliefs.

Willow agreeing to sign everything she needed too was just what he wanted to hear. From his briefcase, he pulled out a stack of papers that he had previously accumulated for her, and without even reading then, Willow set down Weiss beside her and started signing them.

Under normal circumstances, what Willow was doing would be considered dumb, but he was actually sincere, and was not taking advantage of the situation. All those papers dealt with moving Nicholas Schnee and authorizing an 'experimental' procedure. This was necessary since she was Nicholas Schnee's next of kin, and the treatment hadn't been approved only due to her husbands meddling.

"I have one more thing for you to sign, but I was not going to slip it in with those and trick you" Michel said when she finished signing the papers and took them while retrieving one more from his briefcase "This grants me power-of-attorney for you and your father, as well as granting temporary control over your shares of the Schnee Dust Company for the purposes of blocking your husbands ascension to the official head of the SDC. Especially now that I have defied him and managed to get in contact with you, I do not believe that he will wait around for Nicholas to die. He is probably pushing for the official transfer of power already. Please read this one before you sign it, so that no one can say I tricked or deceived you."

Willow nodded and accepted the forms and started reading them.

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POV Willow Schnee

The last forms were exactly what Michel said, giving him power of attorney and control over her 50% of Schnee Dust Company shares, but only conditional to blocking Jacques from becoming the official President of the SDC. Once Jacques was removed from his position, all power reverted back to her.

"It is exactly what you said it is." Willow signed it without any hesitation. As much as she had loved her husband, she felt betrayed, that her husband ruthlessly conspired to kill her father in the pursuit of power. She could not help but feel like she never really knew the real Jacques.

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POV War

While not the smartest among the horsemen, War had listened and was now able to comprehend the situation. This woman's husband was a bad man who was greedy and evil. While the others were talking about defeating Jacques with business and legal means, War thought it might be far easier to pierce him through the heart with Chaoseater. Of course, War was honorable, so he would want to fight this Jacques when he was at his strongest, then kill him for what he was doing to Miss Willow! That would permanently deal with the problem. He kept this idea to himself, though, and looked out the window of the car as they entered the property of Alecina Pharmaceuticals.

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POV 3rd party

Inside Alecina Pharmaceuticals, they met with lawyers and made arrangements for transferring Nicholas Schnee to Alecina Pharmaceuticals swiftly. Jacques tried to block it through the Atlas Council, but Jacques wasn't the only one with friends on the Council.

Willow reached out to the young headmaster of Atlas Academy, James Ironwood, and got his help to block Jacques attempts to block the transfer. Within a few days, they had succeeded in transferring Nicholas Schnee and the procedure was completed to cleanse Nicholas's lungs and body from dust poisoning.

The procedure was a success, but Nicholas did not wake up right away. Michel had worried that this might happen, but at least his life wasn't in danger any more. For now they could only wait until he woke up.

After Willow showed General Ironwood the research that Alecina Pharmaceuticals had done and the incredible success rate, James Ironwood pushed to have the procedure approved because it could help a lot more people then just Nicholas Schnee.

Jacques tried to block it out of spite towards Michel, but Ironwood's voice was too loud, and once the people of Atlas and Mantle heard it existed, they also demanded it be approved. Jacques allies on the council were powerless to block it's momentum, and it was finally authorized.

Willow and her daughters, along with the mysterious boy named War, spent a week with Michel, his wife, and his three-year old son, Diamond, before the day of the Schnee Dust Company Board meeting arrived.

Michel left his wife and son at home and brought Willow, her daughters, War, and a couple guards with them as they went to the SDC. Willow had groan quite attached to little War, though Michel guessed it was just her hormones acting up, since over the last weak they had learned that Willow was pregnant again. Her motherly instincts were kicking in.

War still had no idea what he was supposed to do in this world to begin with, so he felt he had no reason to reject her kindness.

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POV Willow Schnee

For Willow, the last week had been a mess. She had found out that her husband was a monster and he had not made anything easy since then, forcing her to rely heavily on others.

In particular, the one's she most depended on were Michel Alesina, her childhood friend, and General James Ironwood. Relying on Michel wasn't so hard, since they had such a long history together, but depending upon the young General was a far greater challenge.

Somehow, though, she persevered, and after today she hoped that this mess would be over and she would eject that monster from her life and from her families company before he caused any more harm. Somehow, the girls had come to understand the situation and were properly on their mothers side, which relieved her.

Her resolve to do what needed to be done might be shaken if her daughters had doubted her. Willow led the group into the SDC building and headed to the elevator, only to be met by an employee "Miss Schnee, why are you here?" the security guard asked, shocked.

"There is a Board Meeting today. I am here to attend it and prevent my company from being stolen, so stay out of my way." Willow snapped at the guard and started to walk past him.

The guard, who was ordered not to let her enter, tried to grab her, but had overlooked War's approach. Just as the guard was about to grab Willow, War yanked the man back from her, and in a display that would make the Hulk proud, and swung the man back and forth over his head and onto the ground repeatedly and savagely.

[ooc commentary : think puny god scene between Hulk and Loki in Avengers]

Willow was surprised by Wars show of strength, but the mans aura had held together (somehow) so he was still alive when War let go of his leg. He was certainly knocked out, though. War had impressed her with his strength the previous week, though she had not been eye-witness to his heroics at that time, and only heard about it after the fact. Hearing and seeing are different matters entirely.

Willow shrugged it off and led the others to enter the elevator and head up to the 32nd floor, where the Board of Directors were meeting.

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POV Jacques Schnee

Jacques Schnee had a rough week. Everything had gone according to plan, he had secretly intervened to prevent Michel Alesina from calling his wife, and from meeting her outside the manor, despite the annoying mans repeated attempts to do so. It should not have been possible for them to connect at all. He still did not understand how it had happened, but it had.

All that he could do now was seize control of the SDC before it was too late. he had already given orders to keep his wife out of this meeting, so he was back to feeling confident "As you all know, Nicholas Schnee has fallen into a coma and has not woken up. For the sake of the stability of our company, we should move to appoint a President to replace him properly. As the head of the Schnee family, I nominate myself" Jacques insisted, knowing that he controlled 50 percent of the companies shares from his wife and 5% from his own family, so no one else's opinion would matter.

Then, the door opened and THEY entered.

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POV Willow

Willow met her husbands eyes stubbornly as she led the group into the Board meeting.

"Members of the Board. I am here for three reasons." Willow held up a packet of papers in one hand and raised one finder in the other hand "These are divorce papers. Jacques Gelé is no longer to use the Schnee name, nor is he going to lead MY families company."

She raised a second finger "My EX-husband conspired to cause the death of my father. The treatment that Jacques prevented my father from getting for a half year was a success, and he is already recovering"

Willow did not mention that he was still in a coma, since it was unnecessary. It was now only a matter of when he wakes up again, not if, so her words were not a lie. She raised her third finger "Until my father recovers and takes back his place as the rightful head of the SDC, Michel here will temporarily fill in for him.

"You can't do that! I control 55% of the Schnee Dust Companies shares!" her husband protested.

"No, Jacques, you control zero shares as of this morning." Willow insisted smugly "General Ironwood was very helpful after our visit to Schnee Dust Mine Number 2 yesterday. You have betrayed me, Jacques, you have conspired to kill my father, you have conspired to steal my families legacy, and you have done perhaps irreparable harm to my families name and legacy. I never want to see you again. If you are in Atlas or Mantle by the end of the week, you will be arrested."

"Lies! That's impossible!" Jacques insisted.

"To that, I say this..." Willow pulled out a scroll and clicked send, forwarding documents sent over by General Ironwood to Jacques and the Board. "It's over, Jacques. Go die for all I care." she was a daughter that loved her father very much, a true-blue daddy's girl. Willow could never forgive someone for harming her daddy, especially not her own husband.

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POV War

War had watched the whole matter play out, hoping for an excuse to challenge that garbage to an honorable duel and slay him, but unfortunately a fight wasn't necessary. Willow had prepared well ahead of entering this meeting, and once she used those documents, the momentum was completely in her favor, and the Board eagerly began sucking up to her and Michel.

Security dragged out Jacques who was howling mad, but he was out-numbered and overpowered.. Pulling out the scroll that Michel had bought for him, and taught him how to use, War made a call to a girl he had met two days ago in a park, and it was she who tipped him off to what was going on at Schnee Dust Mine Number 2, where there had been many accidents that had been covered up.

So far no one had died, but it was only a matter of time until they did. To save money, Jacques Schnee had them digging without building proper stabilizing infrastructure, so even if no one had died yet, that little girl had been worried about her parents working there.

After a few moments, a brown haired girl around four years old answered the scroll, her eyes were light blue, and filled with hope as soon as she received the call. "Ilia, Miss Willow's plan went well. That bad man has been taken care of, so your parents will be safe now" he reassured her.

"Really?!" Ilia asked excitedly

War nodded confidently "I wouldn't let you down after I gave you my word."

"Th....thank you." Ilia said to him timidly.

"Miss Willow even took it a step further to help everyone there, but you'll find out about that soon." War told Ilia "If I try to explain it I might tell it wrong, so better that is left to those more suitable to tell it."

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Name : War

Age : 3

Race : Nephilim

Transformation : Chaos Form

Summon : Ruin

Semblance : None

Level : 75

Health : 1550/1550

Wrath : 850/850

Aura : None

Strength : 210

Defense : 200

Arcane : 135

Resistance : 135

Unique Properties : Invulnerability (in 5 second bursts with 30 second cooldown. Can be activated instinctively, even if he is unaware of a threat consciously, such as when dropping from the sky as a human-shaped missile, head first)

Primary Weapon : Chaoseater

Secondary Weapon : None