Cruiser Woglinde hovered like a storm cloud, crossing the shattered moon and casting its shadow on Beacon's cliffs. Cold winds tickled the grass and made the ocean sparkle. In the field stood a chapel to Athena Polis, protector of the City of Mistral.
Short, quiet pops disturbed the grass, and five black uniforms hit the ground. The Winter Soldiers doffed their drop harnesses and lifted rifles. Winter landed unassisted, fist pounding the dirt.
She ordered, "Woglinde. Maiden One. Report."
"Maiden One. Woglinde Fire Control. We are five minutes to firing position."
"Acknowledged. Maiden to Rook. Report."
Midori answered, "En route. ETA two minutes. Jump jets ready."
"Understood. I want updates from both of you."
"Will do, Specialist."
"Aye, Maiden One."
Winter signaled ahead, and the wind picked up, covering their sprinting with shrill whispers.
Time had ravaged this building. Windows had shattered; Stones had dislodged. The soldiers bled through the walls. Winter let them set up. She waited for Hikari to flash a tiny signal light. And then she slapped the great wooden doors aside and entered with her saber drawn and her off-hand clutched tight against her back.
Cinder Fall knelt at the altar, under the stained glass image of Athena Polis, waiting for guests. She'd decorated.
Leaves crunched under Winter's feet. Incense perfumed the air. Spices stung her nose. Overgrowth strangled the pews with vines and fruits. As she passed the isles, she saw more portraits, stained glass windows depicting each of Athena's battle sisters. Each displayed a palm, bearing the scar of their blood oath. The overgrowth framed them with flowers.
Winter stopped in the room's center and swished her saber's tip to the enemy. "Cinder Fall. You are now a prisoner of Atlas."
Cinder presented her hands. In one, she held an olive branch. In the other, she held five arrows. "Your orders are to kill me. But you won't do that until I answer your questions. So…"
She raised the arrows, then the branch.
The arrowheads were cut from Dust. These weren't decorative. These were her weapons.
Winter raised an eyebrow. "You would resist us with five arrows?"
Cinder nodded. "We are prisoners to Fate."
Winter sheathed her saber, and gestured to the olive branch. "You want to talk?"
Cinder set her arrows on the ground. "There's time. The moment isn't here yet."
Time was on Winter's side. She needed to drag this out to win. In her earbud, Woglinde buzzed, "Maiden One. Fire Control. Two minutes to milestone."
She asked Cinder, "You want to destroy Vale. Why?"
"I'm going to kill Ozpin, and desecrate his tower."
Winter repeated, "Why?"
Cinder had the soft, curvy face of a succubus. When she answered, "Revenge," she looked only like a demon.
"Revenge," Winter asked, "For what?"
Cinder pursed her lips and strangled the olive branch. "Once upon a time, he told me I was special. He had a vision of preventing wars by unifying all the tribes. He told me I had the most important mission that anyone would ever have."
She put a finger to her lips. "But it was all a big secret."
She relaxed. "I wasn't one to blush and fawn over any cavalier smile. He was older. He made me feel important and capable. I'm sure you've heard the spiel, Winter. They all have."
She had- In Ironwood's office, the day she became a Specialist. She tightened her fist against her back.
Cinder continued. "He wanted me to kill. A person. A huntress. But I'm not like you, Winter. I said no. I tried to stop him. But I wasn't the only young girl he'd called special. There was another. Her only qualification was that she obeyed his every command. He'd given her a glove."
Cinder reached into a pouch on her hip. She had the glove Raven had stolen from Winter's armory. Winter tensed. If her enemy wanted it, she wanted it more.
She interrupted, "What is it for?"
Cinder scowled. "May I finish?"
Winter blinked. She nodded.
Cinder continued. "I survived. And I swore to avenge my sisters. In turn, with her dying breath, Athena swore to wait for me- that our unit would not cross to the Elysian Isles unless we crossed as one. Our blood oath binds us, even in death."
Cinder held up the glove. The gold of her iris blazed in one eye, and the glove ignited. She released the ashes.
Winter realized she'd had it backwards. She needed the glove, and Cinder didn't want her to have it.
On topic, she snapped, "Amber was the Fall Maiden. You assaulted her, and now you are the Fall Maiden. Right?"
Cinder tilted her head, navigating half-truths. "You're taking this far better than Amber did. She never even used her powers. She was afraid of herself."
"Did you steal the Fall Maiden's powers?"
"As a blood sister of Athena, the powers are drawn to me. I have title to them. They recognize me. But they can be stolen. They have been stolen, passing only through strife, for thousands of years, so that they will never return to Athena's blood. What I took from Amber is rightfully mine- Is rightfully Mistral's. But no, I am not the Fall Maiden. Not yet."
Cinder looked away, distracted, as if a distant noise had stolen her attention. Winter followed that gaze, and spotted motion. Cinder was portrayed in one of the stained glass windows. Blood pooled under the portrait's left eye.
"It's almost time," Cinder whispered.
Winter asked, "What do you mean about the powers being stolen?"
"Stupid doesn't suit you, Winter. Ask better questions or wait in silence."
Winter noted Cinder's expression. She'd seen the same confident boredom on Blackbird. It was a grand leap of logic, but her gut compelled her. Winter guessed, "What does Raven Branwen have to do with this?"
A dimple curled on Cinder's cheek. "You're as clueless as Pyrrha Nikos."
"What does Pyrrha Nikos have to do with this?"
"You're asking about the wrong girl."
"Who should I be asking about?"
Cinder scowled. "Why did Ironwood kidnap Yang Xiao Long? Why did he hand you that glove? Why did your father want a duelist for a daughter? And why did he name you Winter?"
Winter repeated, "What does that glove do?"
Cinder's eye had glowed when she immolated the glove. The glow was returning with her mounting anger. "Don't. Play. Stupid."
The truth crept on Winter like a waking limb. She'd run from her father's life. She'd run to the military, to Ironwood. And the general had given her the same speech he'd given all the girls. He'd pitted her against Raven Branwen: The rogue inexplicably atop the kill list.
Winter guessed, "Raven Branwen is the Winter Maiden. That glove steals her powers."
Winter had never escaped her father. She could imagine him laughing with Ironwood in the parlor.
And in Ozpin's camp, they were toasting to Pyrrha Nikkos. Winter gripped her fist tighter, to hide her shaking.
Cinder's face softened. "You should see yourself: The Queen of the Wind and Sky, shining white like death, hyperborean and calculating. Perhaps you are the Eidolon who will polish the Tarnished Crown and restore the city on a hill. I don't know your future- Only mine. But there are six of you here, and I only have five arrows: I suspect that you will survive the night. I hope someday to call you sister. And I promise you, Sister, that I will finish the Crusade, and desecrate this unholy tower."
Winter was too furious to react. She hated Ironwood. She hated Ozpin. She hated Qrow Branwen and his sister and their nieces. But above all, she hated Cinder.
Cinder Fall had destroyed Mountain Glenn. Cinder Fall had killed Apple. Humanity demanded her life.
Winter only needed to hear that Woglinde was in position.
She tried to stall with another question.
But Beacon's clocktower chimed, the bells atop the CCT echoing across the campus.
Cinder gasped. She inhaled and straightened as if a cold wind had stabbed her. Her eye glowed, as if a star had been born behind it. The star flared, and her eye ignited.
She said, "It's time."
Winter's earbud crackled, "Woglinde is ineffective! We've blown fuses! Repeat, Woglinde is ineffective!"
The end of their message overlapped with Midori's. "Crusader is stuck in the mud! I'm immobile!"
Winter drew her saber.
Cinder mused, "She wore that same expression."
Winter growled, "The Snow Queen and her fury? I get that a lot."
"No," Cinder giggled. "Apple, and her fear."
A window cracked, then leaped into the building and landed before Cinder. The glass golem stood, and Winter recognized Khali Belladonna's form. It moved like the faunus, glass ears twitching to threats, refracting light as every muscle moved.
Suddenly, all the fairy tale talk was real. Winter drew her foot back to a defensive stance.
She ordered, "A-agent! Kill that thing!"
The golem lunged.
Winter matched its refractions with the glint of her saber, guiding it off-balance. It brushed past her. She felt an aura; this golem had a soul.
Winter dislodged a spike from the hilt of her saber. Quick and precise, she pierced the golem to its core, and detonated the stone charge in the spike. The tinkling sound of glass shards sent a clear message. She turned and repeated that message with her furious glare.
To Cinder and her flaming eye, she growled, "What the hell was that?"
Cinder reached to her own portrait. Her armor and bow leaped to her. Agent Hikari fired a perfect shot- the kind that killed world leaders and painted their security detail. The laser bolt struck Cinder's glass helm and blossomed as a brilliant prism.
Orchid and Cherry launched grenades. Two more windows jumped to life. The golems threw themselves over the explosives.
Cinder raised her bow and drew the first of five arrows. Winter charged. Another window shattered. The image of a young Raven Branwen collapsed. Through it flew the real Raven Branwen. She rammed Winter aside, and the real chaos began. Grenades and lasers filled the air. The carpet of leaves struck like a match.
Blackbird swung her Katana and swiped with grim claws, her throat growling and clicking like a monster. Glass golems jumped to Cinder's defense, raising their shields and attacking Winter. She danced and killed. Spears and scimitars flashed in the places she'd been. Her saber maimed their images.
Winter shattered two golems, set a third off-balance, and entered a blade grapple with Raven. She heard her soldiers' revolvers barking. Glass sprinkled her. Raven growled. Winter channeled her aura and forced Blackbird back with a sonic boom. She checked her shoulder, looking for Cinder's attack.
But it never came. Cinder hadn't aimed for her. She released the bowstring.
Cherry popped. Blood stained the golems. Winter lunged. Raven intercepted. The bark of powder-and-slug side-arms killed three more maidens. Revolver chambers spun out. Shells scattered on the stone.
Cinder notched a second arrow. Winter feigned another blade grapple with Raven, juked past her, and charged the pulpit. She was met with a phalanx. Glass Myrmidon shields all linked together as an impenetrable shell.
Winter focused a glyph onto the floor and summoned, "Pestilence!"
The room filled with white smoke, and the first monarch she'd ended returned from its slumber. The Grimm fluttered into the room and ended all sight with its smoky veil.
She ordered, "Hikari! Withdraw!"
In her ear, Midori shouted, "Crusader's mobile again! ETA now!"
Raven sprouted black wings from her back and took flight through a window. The golem phalanx advanced as one. Winter backpedaled, eyes locked with Cinder. The smoke broke their vision.
Two golems chased her. Two quick strikes ended them. Winter turned to sprint.
The arrow struck her low in the back. Cinder's aura, on the cutting edge, felt like a frigid kiss against her spine. She didn't call for help. She was too shocked to believe it, even when her face hit the floor.
In the doorway, Hikari pivoted on a heel and saw her.
"Cover me! Winter's down!"
She grabbed Winter's collar and dragged her clear. Orchid and White tossed bombs into the smoke. Hikari hefted Winter onto her back and sprinted for their lives.
An arrow flew from the chapel and froze Orchid forever. White fired and backpedaled. Hikari ran. Winter could only watch. She saw White dodge a spear. He shattered two more maidens.
But ten emerged from the smoke. He spent his ammo before they seized him. They took him alive, as a shield. Crusader had arrived. Its jump jets softened the landing, but all ground shook for a mile, as if a meteorite had struck. Its canons levelled at Athena's troupe. Midori hesitated.
White's last words were screamed in frustration. He was looking through all the armor, at the rookie underneath. He screamed, "DO IT!" because he was going to die, and he didn't want it to be in vain.
Crusader's chain-cannon spun up, and with the sound of a millstone, ground them from existence. The cannon turned on the chapel and kept firing. Dust rounds ricocheted off the low angle and streaked into the air like fireworks. Brick and mortar became vapor. The image of Athena Polis disintegrated.
Midori had missed a spot. From the glass shards where White had died, Cinder emerged. Her sisters had guarded her in the onslaught. She tossed a deluge crystal at Crusader's feet, and the machine sank into the mud, unable to turn and engage her.
She notched the last of her arrows, and looked at Hikari.
Winter's heart stopped.
She looked to her immortal soldier. Her expectations were a little high.
She said, "Leave me."
Hikari hissed, "Like hell."
"You can live, Hikari! You have to leave me!"
"There's nowhere to run, Specialist!"
Cinder drew back the bow. Hikari was right. There was no cover, no shield against an arrow guided by Fate. Winter hadn't been a soldier long. She'd seen death, but never failure, and never so complete.
Over their radios, Woglinde crackled, "We're back online! Give us a target."
Hikari panted as if chugging the last of her life.
She said, "Everything! Hit everything, Woglinde! I want to see lights before I die!"
In the darkness, Cinder was only a burning eye, and the glowing insignias along her glass armor and bow. She held her stance, aligning a precision shot.
What Crusader did to a building, Woglinde did to everything. A fan of blazing plasma swept across the fields. Night became day. The cliffs cracked and slid seaward.
Cinder relaxed her bow and laughed as the light poured over her.
