Political Purple

Willow Schnee, a mature well-endowed woman with pure white hair and icy blue eyes, spent another afternoon in her garden-slash-menagerie barely sober at the Schnee Mansion. Ever since she confronted Jacques Gele, now Schnee, about only marrying her for her name and being unable to divorce him because she would only be left with her name and nothing else in a court of law, she spends her days drowning her sorrows and regrets. As she looked up at the starry sky, she reached for her bottle of vodka to down what was left of the bottle. Willow closed her eyes to try and remember a happier time.

She recalled her father, Nicholas Schnee, and smiled at her memories. Even when he could no longer get around like he used to, her father still kept his combat skill as sharp as he could. Willow remembered her father sparring against one of his summons formed from the family Semblance. The previous head of the Schnee family had a go-to summon in the form of a knight-like Arma Gigas that possessed a spare set of armor that Nicholas had in case he needed it. Willow recalled sitting on her father's knee as he told her of his exploits in his expeditions for Dust mines.

A tear escaped Willow as she remembered how against her father was for her relationship with Jacques. They argued for years on this subject until Nicholas finally gave in to his daughter's persistence, and she muttered to herself as the old sorrow in her heart tore at her.

" You were right, Dad..."

Nicholas never liked Jacques, but Willow thought it was because her father was being an overprotective father. The Schnee matriarch as she despaired at how her children turned out due to her falling for Jacques Gele's acts of romance. Winter thankfully managed to leave but at the cost of her heiress status. Weiss is now the heiress but is trying so hard to live up to the family name that Nicholas started while handling Jacques's expectations. Whitney is still just a young child but trying to earn his father's approval by even steadily becoming him.

" I'm sorry..."

Willow apologized to her father and children even if they couldn't hear it now. She felt powerless before and now even more so since her Aura channels got damaged by a rare toxin from a rare species of Grimm. The Schnee matriarch could no longer do work as a Huntress, with her Aura barely usable and her Semblance only lasting several seconds at most. Willow opened a new bottle of vodka and tried to numb the pain and regret she felt.

***

My name is Silva Branwen, and I am bored out of my freaking mind. The reason behind my current state is simple; I am staking out the Schnee mansion in hopes of getting Jacques Gele in my line of sight to use Door to Darkness on him anytime to help deal with him. So far, I have seen neither hide or hair of the guy, but I have caught a few glances at Weiss and Whitney, plus even Winter once. This stakeout of mine has been going on for about two weeks after I met with Star Sky Studios to turn Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone into a movie on Remnant.

I have to admit the Remnant adaption of the Harry Potter series has been doing well. Speaking of which, I might as well get started on the Goblet of Fire since I am not likely to see Jacques soon. Hmm... the World Quidditch Cup is an important staging point to set things in motion but simply copying and pasting the text from my memories leaves a bad taste in my mouth, so what do I change in this scenario? Maybe set up some cracks in Harry and Ron's friendship during the attack of the Death Eaters or after it? While I kept their friendship, in the beginning, to give Harry a male friend, after Prisoner of Azkaban, however, Ron doesn't really serve any use aside from being an example of a bad friend.

Decisions, decisions... As I worked on a rough draft for the first few chapters, I kept my eyes peeled on the Schnee mansion. I then spotted the doors to the mansion opening and focused on who was coming out. It was the head butler of the Schnee family Klein Sieben, a short man with a bald head and brown mustache and blue, no now brown eyes. I smiled as if there were anyone that knew Jacques's schedule; it would be him. Using Door to Darkness, I open a portal behind him and touch him lightly enough, so he doesn't notice me, and then activate Soul Archive to copy his memories.

Okay, so the fake Schnee is away on a business trip and won't be back until another week. However, his trip is to the City of Mistral, and I even know what hotel he is staying at right now. I grin as I open a portal to the upper districts of Mistral, and my surrounding rapidly changes into some beautiful but unpleasant scenery. The upper districts of Mistral remind me too much of the floating eyesore known as Atlas but with different architecture. I used Flash Step to move through the upper district quickly and reach the hotel Jacques is currently staying at, Cloudreach Plaza.

He is likely in the penthouse or one of the suites near the top of the building; Jacques is egotistical after all. Opening another portal above the penthouse of the hotel, I stuck my head through it and saw the roof. After a quick examination of the roof, there were no indications of any security, so I popped over next. I took out my Scroll and went to the antenna on the roof to try and hack into the hotel's security system. Their firewalls are pathetic compared to Atlas's, and now to find out where Jacques is at right now. Go bloody figure; he is in the penthouse.

Let's see here, disarming alarms while setting up dummies, looping camera footage, and granting myself an all-access key. Thank you, Atlesian Scientists, for all of your knowledge and skills. I got down from the roof and sneaked into the penthouse. As I quietly moved while keeping my ears open and found the penthouse silent, hopefully, that meant he was asleep. I checked the rooms one by one and found the master bedroom with the fake Schnee sleeping in a king-sized bed with company. I sneered at the b*stdard as I saw that the woman sleeping with him was likely a prostitute with her heavy make-up and revealing undergarments.

With a quick touch and use of Soul Archive, I now know all of his dirty deeds and plans. Dang, I knew he was scum but to arrange an "accident" for Nicholas Schnee, his father-in-law, is damning, and I now have a decent idea of how to deal with him with the fewest consequences for the rest of the Schnee family. I took out my Scroll and took a picture for blackmail and evidence. Now let's go back to Mantle to make sure the girls haven't got into any trouble while I was staking out the Schnee mansion.

***

Clover Ebi is now frustrated that despite three weeks of the investigation on the raid of the Atlesian Science Community, Ace-Ops is no closer to finding the culprit than before. The sleeping agent is of a common variety, so that could have come from anywhere. None of the security systems picked up anything and were likely hacked despite the lack of evidence. To top it off, not one of the scientists saw anything to give them any clues. The Ace-Ops even checked all of the recent visitors to Atlas on the registration system and found no suspicious individuals.

" Ugh, Clover, is there still nothing?!"

Elm complained about wanting some action, and Vine cooly reminded her of the nature of their current mission.

" Elm, this is an investigation, and unless we find something first, we have no way forward..."

" And unfortunately, we have nothing but dead ends."

Clover delivered the facts of the mission.

" Whoever did this was good, extremely good, and weren't likely working alone. It probably took someone with high-level hacking skills to bypass the security undetected and another with great infiltration abilities to leave no trace. Still, even this is pure speculation as there are few to no indicators of the possible identity of our intruder. The General is not going to be happy."

Clover sighed and made a decision. He didn't like it but had to do it regardless.

" Looks like we need to hit up the local crime families to get any new information."

" Clover, you can't be serious about working with those scumbags?!"

Elm protested, but Vine agreed with his leader with a rational approach.

" Clover does have a point, Elm, as we have nothing else to work with at this time..."

Elm sagged but kept silent as she knew her teammates were right and asked.

" Who do we hit up first?"