Silver Maiden
Glaubst Du an das Schicksal?
By: Necron
I am a Schnee.
I have a name to uphold.
What I do now, it was never a question.
This is my duty.
This is who I was meant to be.
To make things right between my family and the world.
That is my destiny.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: William Hillphire, a character you will meet in chapter 13, actually belongs to a friend of mine. I wrote his character into this book in collaboration with him. His characterization is almost entirely his own. Check out "Between the Anvil and the Shield" by DarthKirby009 for a short on Hillphire's adventures while the rest of the cast are making their way to Mistral.
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CHAPTER I
Aus der Ewigkeit
Weiss awoke with a jolt, glancing around in a panic. She was still on the transport shuttle, still en route to Mistral, where her friends supposedly were located.
Friends.
For the longest time, that word was foreign to her. As heiress—well, former heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss could never have the kind of intimacy normal people could have. The one person she could ever rely on for anything, be it material or emotional, was Klein. And she had left him behind as well.
People who called themselves her "friends" were really no more than superficial acquaintances, befriending her only for their own advantage, to get closer to her family and, by extension, her family's money, and the power that that status brought about. Even the term "family" seemed out of reach. Dad was a complete prick and little brother turned out to be an even bigger prick.
Winter was the only one in the family who mattered.
And...Mom. But...
Winter was always the one she looked up to. It's why she left home for Beacon Academy to begin with, to claim her place among the guardians of this world, guardians against the forces of darkness and destruction. After her father dragged the Schnee name through the mud with his inhuman treatment of "lesser" beings, she needed to do this, she needed to be the light to fight against the darkness.
She sighed to herself. "What am I doing with my life?"
She stood up to walk around the shuttle. It was only her and the pilot. Nothing to do, nothing to see, at least, nothing since that last distress call.
Distress. That's what overcame her when the pilot refused to go and help. And when she realized just how powerless she was, that her fate wasn't in her hands at all. She was reliant on everybody else around her, whether it was Dad's money or Winter having to save her during training or Ruby and Blake and Yang watching her back in battle.
Of course, the latter wasn't so bad. Those three truly were friends. Perhaps more like family. This shuttle was going to take her back to that family.
The sound of another distress call shattered her thoughts and she found herself wandering to the cockpit. She stood in the doorway for a second before she snapped back to her senses as the pilot shut the speaker off.
"We're not going to help them either?" Weiss said.
The pilot sighed. "I thought we'd been through this already. This is a transport shuttle, not an Atlas warship. Even if I wanted to, there's nothing I could do to help them."
She brought up Myrtenaster, examining her weapon. All six modules were filled to the brim with Dust and she had a suitcase filled with more if she needed to reload.
"Maybe not you," she said. "But I can."
"What? You're nuts. One person against that many Grimm? That's asking for trouble."
She threw a pile of Lien on the control panel next to him.
"You seriously are crazy, aren't you?"
"I'm paying you to drop me off near the crash site," she said. There was no hesitance in her voice.
He shook his head. "You are insane." He turned the ship in the direction of the distress beacon.
Weiss grabbed her suitcase, the only possession she had now along with Myrtenaster, and used some straps lying around to fashion a makeshift backpack.
"Don't bother landing," she said as she tightened her pack. "I can manage on my own."
"I'm not even gonna try anymore. If you wanna kill yourself, go ahead."
She glanced at the radar screen as the shuttle went into a hover. The beacon was located maybe a kilometer from where they were situated.
"I ain't gettin' any closer to those Grimm than I have to."
"That's fine. I can manage."
"This is your last chance for a refund."
She stood in front of the door, suitcase strapped to her back and weapon in hand, saying not a word. There were no doubts in her mind today. She would save these people. She would restore honor to the Schnee name and cement her place as a guardian of this world. And now that she had perfected her summon, that victory was within her grasp.
The door opened and she surveyed the landscape. There was a single clearing some distance away, trees and thick canopy directly below. She looked toward the distance, where smoke rose into the sky.
That's my target.
Without another word, she leapt out of the plane. She turned and placed a glyph directly behind her, using it to propel her forward at immense speeds. It took one more glyph to reach the clearing and another to land safely.
She was now on foot, dashing as quickly as her legs would take her through the woods. She had to make it to them. She needed to prove herself.
There was a roar directly ahead of her. Three Grimm, all of them Creeps. Easy win. More dashing through the woods and she came upon another pack of Grimm, exactly four Beowolves and four Creeps. The latter were easy as always. It was the Beowolves that were more of a threat. Each swipe from those claws was powerful enough to take out her aura in a matter of two or three hits.
But she was too quick for them, and too experienced. She had gone through all sorts of crap with Team RWBY already and this was going to be a cinch for her.
Fire Dust was her choice today and she ignited the entire group of Grimm before switching modules on Myrtenaster and encasing the whole pack in ice, finishing them off with a quick lightning strike and moving on.
She encountered straggler Creeps the closer she got to the crash site. A few Beowolves here and there as well, but single Grimm were so much easier to deal with than a whole pack.
The smell of smoke filled the air. The crash site was getting closer. The Grimm sightings increased in frequency.
Finally, she reached her destination.
Her heart sank as she looked out over a grisly landscape. Mangled bodies and Grimm still crunching bone and tearing through flesh. Did these creatures even hunger? Or was their predatory instinct for human bodies nothing more than biological programming?
Weiss found her fists clenching of their own accord. Her heart rate and breathing were through the roof.
Rage. That's all she could make out from the storm of emotions now surging through her body.
Before she knew it, she was rushing forward, Myrtenaster switched to a combination of Fire and Lightning Dust. She landed in the middle of a pack of Grimm, a mix of Creeps, Beowolves, Ursas, and Deathstalkers. In the blink of an eye, a number of glyphs surrounded her along with a gigantic one beneath her feet, centered around her. These glyphs facilitated a blast of fire and lightning toward her enemies, vaporizing most of them.
Unfortunately, there were even more beyond the wreckage, hundreds that she hadn't seen before. But she could see them now. And they could see her.
There was no time to think. All she could do was react to each attack coming from all directions. This would be like any other fight with these monsters, completely surrounded and yet coming out on top.
There was one major difference today. Team RWBY was missing the R, B, and the Y. Weiss would be on her own today.
But that's okay, she thought as she fought through the packs of Grimm as she fled the crash site. I've always been alone. I may have been surrounded by servants and family acquaintances all the time, but I've always been alone, always the loneliest of all. If I can't come out on top now, I don't deserve the Schnee name.
She might not have been able to save those people, but she could still make it out alive. She could still move forward and do good in her life for the people around her and restore honor to her name.
From the left. A Beowolf.
"Trying to be sneaky, huh?" she said as she projected a glyph to her left and vaulted off of it before countering with a blast of fire from her weapon.
Two more Beowolves from the right this time.
"It's gonna take more than that to take me down!"
A glyph below and she was airborne, sending ice shards down into her enemies. While she was in the sky, she looked around for an escape. To the west! There was a small town in the distance. That was her way out. But that would mean attracting all these Grimm there. No, she couldn't do that, not after she failed to save those people just now.
East, then, opposite of the human settlement. She would lure them as far away as she could, taking out as many as possible before fleeing.
There was an Ursa beneath her, upon which she projected a glyph to soften her landing. The impact knocked the monster over and she drove her weapon into its face, eliminating the threat in a single blow.
She continued her mad dash through the forest, Beowolves and other Grimm hot on her heels. She set up glacier-sized barriers to stop most of them, but there were many more that were still in pursuit.
How the hell do I lose these guys? she thought before projecting a few glyphs to take flight again.
"Oh, crap!" she said as she encountered an enormous Nevermore flying straight at her. She had no time to counter and could only hold up her arms to shield herself from the giant monster.
It crashed into her, tossing her down into the canopy. She yelped as the wind was knocked out of her. Her aura was still intact. Barely, but still there. She could still make it out of this mess.
She grasped her side as she got up into a squat. Pain. Lots of pain.
Get up! Keep moving forward!
She suppressed the pain and ran, ran, ran. Faster than she had ever run in her life. She needed to get out of this.
She tripped on something. No, it wasn't some thing. It was a—
"King Taijitu!" she yelled as she got back up and continued running. This Grimm was huge, but also fast. She had to dodge the twin snakes' strikes while fleeing. The main pack was far behind already, but this fight would surely draw them back to her position. She'd never taken on anything this gigantic before, though, not alone.
"Damn you to hell!" she screamed as she drove Myrtenaster at one of the attacking heads. She activated four Dust modules in rapid succession, fire, lightning, earth, and ice. The resulting explosion obliterated the attacking white snake's head and most of its body, but the other head was still intact. It charged her from the side and she barely managed to dodge it, slamming straight into a rock.
She shouted in pain. This kind of pain could only mean one thing. Something warm dripped down her left arm and she looked at her hand.
Blood.
Her aura had been depleted and she hadn't even noticed.
Dammit, she thought as she searched for the black snake, which continued to slither through the grass, stalking her.
One strike, that's all she would get. She readied her weapon, switching over to fire and air for an explosive strike.
The snake rose up from behind cover to attack and she countered, driving her weapon at its head and activating its power. The second half of the snake was destroyed, but using such a powerful technique without her aura active had terrible downsides. Weiss was thrown back by her own attack and she landed face up, her hard suitcase digging into her back.
She turned over, gasping for air. Already she could hear the roaring and growling of countless Grimm catching up to her. Up above the canopy, that Nevermore was waiting for her to emerge. Down here, an entire horde was itching to tear her to pieces.
"I'm not going down that easily," she muttered as she struggled to her feet. She took a few deep breaths before readying Myrtenaster. She closed her eyes, focusing her power on the ground before her. She would summon her knight today and put its power to the test.
The glyph formed on the earth just as she had practiced. But after more than a minute of concentrating, her knight would not emerge.
"What the hell is wrong?" she grunted, making a second attempt at completing the summon. Several Grimm had breached the perimeter of the clearing and were heading straight toward her. "C'mon!"
The summon failed. It was a Beowolf that got to her first, nailing her with a powerful swipe from its claws that sent her flying. Before she even hit the ground, a Boarbatusk rammed her, hurling her in another direction.
The world was blurry now, everything spinning around her. Or was it her that was spinning? It didn't matter. Her head throbbed too much for anything to matter. All she could think of was how she had failed to save those people. And now, she would pay the ultimate price for her failure.
I can't even save myself. How could I have been so arrogant to think that I could have done anything for those people?
She slowly rose to her feet. If she was going to die, it would be while standing. But what did any of that mean anymore?
She managed a smile.
Why am I smiling? Huh.
Was it delirium from all the blood loss? Or was it something else?
Maybe...just maybe it's time, time to let it all go. Leave it all to someone stronger than me. Winter...Winter could do it. She could succeed where I failed. She'll bring back honor to our family's name.
It was nearly impossible just to stand now. The pain, the exhaustion, it was catching up to her.
I guess...this is me doing penance for my family's crimes.
She closed her eyes as the pack of Grimm descended upon her. But the teeth and claws she expected did not tear through her flesh. Instead, she was floating away, flying, wind blowing through her snow white hair.
Was this how it felt to die? For one's soul to leave the vessel behind and be free? Could one feel the wind and the sunlight after death?
She slowly opened her eyes. She was looking up into an unfamiliar face, the face of a man clad in glistening armor.
A...knight?
That was her last thought before her world turned into darkness.