A pack of hungry sabyrs charged through the icy tundra on the outside of the Amity Tower Launch site, a large light blue sword came down on the first few that got close while a light blue Beowolf tore its way through the ones that got past the knight that soon became overwhelmed with the smaller Grimm.
Smirking towards her sister, Weiss moved forward, stabbing a Sabyr directly through the neck and spacing herself out from one that lunged at her with a propulsion glyph.
Winter slammed her sabre down into the ground, launching several of the Grimm into the air before summoning small nevermores to shred through them all.
"How's my form?!" Weiss asked while slashing out a wave of fire dust.
Winter cut off the head of a sabyr and then took out her smaller estoc blade to stab one that came at her from behind, holding it in a reverse grip before correcting it quickly to meet the others. "Why don't we see how it is when we get back?!" she offered. "A sparring match between you and me to show me your progress!"
"Gladly!" Weiss created several glyphs in air that Winter bounded off of, while slicing through some Manticore Grimm that had followed the pack of sabyrs.
She landed herself on the ground ahead of her sister, offering her a smile of confidence before focusing back on the rest of the oncoming horde of Grimm.
The sparring facility was barren of any projected scenery, as Winter had requested, leaving just the pair of sisters with a wide open space to fight.
"Do not hold back Weiss." Winter firmly stated, holding her sabre forward. "I won't hold back on you."
"I wouldn't want you to." Weiss held Myrtenaster forward, mirroring her sister's stance.
The timer for the match to start soon hit zero and with that both sister's sped towards each other with glyphs.
Weiss took a more defensive approach initially and jumped over her sister's first attack before parrying the rest of her oncoming attacks.
Narrowing her eyes, Winter already had her second blade drawn out and was now much more furiously keeping an assault up on Weiss.
Weiss finally decided to pull herself away from her sister as Winter followed after her, getting surprised by a gravity well Glyph Weiss laid out below her feet, binding her in place while the younger huntress now charged right for her, with her blade pointing forward.
Blocking this attack, Winter moved to punish the staggering back Weiss, who quickly activated the dust in her weapon, a gust of wind repelling Winter's next attack and leaving her wide open.
Thinking fast, Winter changed the gravity well glyph to a propulsion one, boosting herself into the air and avoiding Weiss's next swipe before forming a glyph right below her feet, and slashing down at Weiss, knocking her away.
"Your form is still sloppy, but I can see you've owned up to it and made it work." Winter affirmed as she formed a summoning glyph behind her. "I think it's time to test how strong your summons are."
"Gladly." Weiss formed her own summoning glyph behind her, her knight leaped out to meet the alpha beowolf Winter had summoned.
Swinging it's sword out, the Arma Gigas was surprised when the Alpha Beowolf caught it.
Weiss and Winter were fighting to the side of their summons, clashing blades in a battle that made no use of their semblances due to them focusing them more on letting their summons fight.
Taking a hit to her arm, Weiss mirrored her Arma Gigas getting shoved back before both corrected their stances.
Winter held a firm stance while her summon let out a howl as it ran towards the Arma Gigas, ripping through it's torso as it then swung it's sword heavily once to decapitate it.
As both summons dissolved, the two sisters clashed one last time, trading parries, stabs and swipes before finally both of their auras broke and they held their weapons at each other's throats.
The two lowered their weapons, breathing heavily before putting them away.
"I'm impressed you've caught up to me like this, Weiss." Winter smiled at her younger sister.
"Or maybe you've been slipping a bit." Weiss teased.
"I'll admit, I haven't been as active in the field as I should be." she confessed. "But there's a very important reason for that."
"Why's that?" the younger Schnee asked with her arms crossed.
"Follow me and you'll see." Winter commanded, now gesturing at her sister to follow behind her.
The pair proceeded deeper into the depths of the academy, cutting through various halls and elevators. "Where are we going exactly?" Weiss asked.
"It's a well guarded secret." Winter stated as they proceeded down another, more dimly lit corridor filled with cameras and stationed guards. "But since you already know more than most others and you're my sister, I'll share this with you."
Looking through a couple of the doors, Weiss recognized what seemed to be server rooms. "This facility… It also houses the various servers Atlas uses."
"Glad to see your perception is on point. Yes, we house many servers in this building, but that's not why we're here." The two reached the end of the long hall and Winter opened a door with her scroll.
Upon entering this room, it was clear that it was some type of medical facility, but only for one person, there was a viewing deck into the room. A sickly old bedridden woman laid in a room with several paintings on the walls.
"Is that-" Weiss wanted to ask her sister a question, but she was nowhere to be seen, instead from another entrance she saw Winter approach the woman directly, with a tray of tea.
"Hello Fria." Winter greeted her with a smile, placing the tray down on the table beside her hospital bed and pouring out two cups worth, handing her one.
"Oh hello… Um…" the woman seemed spaced out.
"Winter." the younger woman affirmed.
"Winter." Fria couldn't help but smile as she took a sip from her tea. "I… I feel like there's somewhere I had to be… An important job I had to do." she looked at her tea again.
"No, that's really not the case, you're being well taken care of here." Winter assured her.
"Is that so? I hope I do get better again. I know the general still needs me to help him." the older woman sat up in her chair.
Weiss put a hand up to the glass as she fully realized what was going on her. Her eyes darted away from the scene as she knew all too well.
On the airship ride to Atlas, there was a moment of long silence between the overly exhausted group of young huntsmen.
"Say Weiss, back in Argus, did you have any time to look around?" Jaune asked her, snapping her out of a daze.
"Oh? Uh well… I did do some walking, why do you ask?" Weiss crossed her arms while sitting up.
"It's just… While I was there I found something." he explained in a somber tone. "It was a memorial, dedicated to Pyrrha."
"Oh…" Weiss felt her heart sink at the mention of their lost friend.
"I just… I think about what must have been going through her mind on those last days of the Vytal festival and I can't help but hold some resentment for Ozpin because of it." Jaune held his head. "He had chosen her as the prime candidate to inherit the Fall Maiden's powers… I remember it all just happening so fast during that night at Beacon. Pyrrha told me as much as she could when we were on our way to the vault and then everything else just happened."
Weiss stood herself up and to meet him and took a hold of his arm. "She made her choice though, right? That's what the others told me, that she knew she might not have come out of there alive yet she decided to stay and fight Cinder."
Jaune looked back towards one of the windows. "I feel like Ozpin, Ironwood and everyone else there pressured her into deciding. I don't know how much of it was her. I wonder if maybe I had said something different or done something different then maybe she wouldn't have died."
Weiss looked out the window as well. "It's hard to say either way. What happened happened, nothing can change the past now… We just have to keep looking forward. Even if she was pressured into it, nothing could have stopped her once she made up her mind."
"You're right…" Jaune sat himself back down. "Thanks for the talk, Weiss." he sighed.
"No problem. That's been a topic lingering in my mind too…"
"Could you two can that deep emotional talk before you attract some Grimm?" Maria glared back at them, prompting them to fall back in line with the others.
Weiss's hand almost instinctively balled up into a fist at the scene before her, of Winter having tea with Fria.
"Thank you again for the tea, dearie." Fria smiled sweetly at Winter who bowed before leaving the room, handing the tray off to one of the guards stationed outside and approaching her sister in the observation room.
"So, that's the Winter maiden?" Weiss asked her, while looking out towards her as she laid back in bed sleeping.
"Yes, her name is Fria. She's slipping slowly each day. She doesn't have long left. The general wanted to euthanize her so that her power could pass on immediately, but I protested against it." Winter explained. "But in the event of the emergency, we have an updated version of the system we had back at Beacon for Amber's powers."
Their gaze fell upon the two pods in the corner of the room. "That device can transfer the aura of one person into another. We still don't have any certain way of knowing if the powers will go to the person on the receiving end, but it's still our best bet if it comes to that."
"Winter." Weiss looked to her sister with tears in her eyes. "Please don't tell me the General chose you to inherit her powers."
Winter took a deep breath, putting a hand on her sister's shoulder. "I'm afraid he did, it's a terrible irony that my name happens to be Winter." she glanced over towards the room. "But I'm probably the most capable person of handling those powers. I owe it to Ironwood anyway."
"How could you say that?" Weiss seemed almost outraged by this the more she heard. "Don't you know the dangers that come with those powers?! Who will be after you?!"
"It's true, Weiss." Winter's firm but cold glare silenced her sister. "He took me in after Father disinherited me, he directed me, gave me purpose. I feel like he prepared me my whole career to make this choice."
Staring in the direction of Fria, Weiss felt her heart sink more. "Are you sure you want to end up like her? She's probably been working for Atlas her whole life, right?"
"That's true, Fria was one of Atlas's best specialists for a reason. She dedicated her whole life to helping our Kingdom prosper, and one day I'll be able to follow in her footsteps."
"You're saying you don't value yourself as more than a tool for Atlas's gain?" Weiss returned her gaze onto her sister who was clearly annoyed by her own attitude.
"If it means that you and everyone in this kingdom will get to live fruitful and fulfilling lives, then yes, I am nothing more than a tool to ensure that." Winter stated. "What happens to me doesn't matter in the long run, so long as our enemies don't get this power."
Taking a step towards the door Weiss just didn't know what to say to her sister now.
Winter's stern gaze softened when she realized where she had just made a mistake. "Weiss, I didn't mean to say it like that. I just, I'm doing this because I believe in the general and I know that I can handle this pressure."
The room was silent now as both sisters didn't know what to say till Winter finally broke the silence.
"Weiss, I hope you know that what I've shown you today is a secret that you can't even tell to your friends, the less people that know the better. I just thought you'd be proud of me, but I see that I was mistaken." she looked away from her sister and towards Fria. "I'm the only one allowed to care for her. She has to be taken care of in a specific way otherwise we risk her power activating. There's no way she would survive using them again due to her condition."
"Winter, I want you to promise me something." Weiss looked her sister in the eyes. "If Salem comes for you after you have that power, you stay alive, I… I couldn't bear the thought of losing you."
A smile formed on Winter's face as she pulled her younger sister into a hug. "I promise that I won't go dying on you."
"Even if you don't value yourself as anything more than a tool, I do. Don't forget that, please." Weiss told her sister as she pulled herself away from their hug.
"I won't." Winter assured as the two made their way out of the room.
As they left, Weiss received a message on her scroll. "Team sparring matches tomorrow?" she looked up at Winter.
"I'll see if I can make the time to view your match and provide you any insight as to what your teamwork can improve upon from last time."
"I can assure you I do far more than just lend support now." Weiss straightened herself out, clearly remembering her sister's comment about her first Vytal Festival match.
"I'll see if you can put your words where your weapon is."
With that, the two sisters exited the facility and made their way back up to the academy.
Commentary: Well since last chapter was mainly about a pair of sisters, this chapter's about a pair of sisters. Weiss is more reluctant to accept Winter deciding to become a maiden after what she heard from Jaune about what went down with Pyrrha.
Fria's a character who I've pretty much kept the same, although I do like to think she's potentially what Winter could become if she continues down the path to becoming a maiden...
Also I really enjoyed writing that sister sparring match.
Next chapter we close off this arc with some style, some FNKIness.