Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY

Winter's first meeting with Albion

tWice the Meeting

The screen opens up to an Atlesian Dropship flying through the open air, whizzing past the trees, removing their snow. Snowflakes fell from the dark, chilly sky as a crisp wind weaved through the trees.

Inside the dropship were a few soldiers. These soldiers wear body armor that covers their upper bodies. It is a white-gray color, with several different highlights along the helmet and arms depending on the individual. Their helmets cover their faces almost entirely, barring their mouths. Their pants are black, with some gray areas on them, and they have a belt with a few pouches, a handgun strapped to their hips and a sword in collapsed mode strapped to their lower backs. They are also seen with rifles strapped across their backs.

"Hey." One of the soldiers said.

"Yeah?" another one replied.

"You ever wonder why we're here?" he asked

"Oh, for fuck's sake not again…" a third voice groaned to himself.

"What? I was just asking what kind of mission this is, because we weren't exactly informed too much about it." The first soldier stated, his demeanor affronted.

"Oh…OH! Right, sorry-sorry." The third soldier uttered quickly.

"What did you think I was going to say?" Soldier one asked, genuinely offended.

"Nothing-nothing, don't worry about it." Soldier three replied with a grin.

"Enough." The second soldier interrupted before things could get going. Really, what did the higher-ups think was going to happen, getting these two in the same group? Oh right, they don't know them and don't care, leaving it up to him to clean their mess. Fuck.

"As for the mission, it was to just escort Specialist Schnee and a Ms. Polendina from Atlas to the drop-zone, wait for them to come back, and leave." He continued.

"Wha… that's it?" soldier three asked incredulously. That was it? That was the mission? This is too simple!

"That does seem far-fetched. You would think that they wouldn't need so many security clearances for one simple escort mission." Soldier one stated.

"Yeah? Well, that's the mission we were given and you both should shut up and deal with it." The second soldier snapped and told them off.

Suddenly, one of the metal doors connecting the main room to the other rooms opened. Two figures were walking towards them.

One of them was a woman in her early twenties. Her outfit consists of a white long-sleeved coat with a single dark blue clasp around the center waist holding it shut alongside a red jeweled brooch on the collar. The coat's length runs down to her ankles and the sleeves are split from shoulder to elbow. She wears a white pleated sleeveless blouse with a dark blue waistcoat. A pair of white trousers with dark blue garters alongside a pair of gray thigh boots with black detailing around the knees. She also wears a pair of black forearm length gloves with gray trimmed cuffs.

The other was a girl who looked to be seventeen. She had had short, rather curly orange hair that came down to her chin with a small cowlick on top, and she wore a pink bow on the back of her head. She also had bright green eyes, light skin, and freckles. She wore an off white old-fashioned styled off the shoulder blouse with frill detailed trim and frill flared cuffs that half-covered her hands alongside copper button detailing on the lower parts of her sleeves. She also sported a short gray pinafore dress with golden trim on the hem alongside four light green stalagmite styled stripes on the lower half of the dress, two on the front and two on the back, accompanied by two matching-colored circles above the tips that had a stripe that ran around her waistline, with golden outlines, and a detachable black and light green collar. She also wore a pair of black thigh-high leg pieces that seemingly were attached to black shoes. The leg pieces had a single green stripe up the sides that appeared to light up.

"Specialist Schnee!" The soldiers saluted.

Winter raised her arm. "At ease, soldiers." She then walked up to the pilot.

"Where are we at right now?" the Schnee asked.

"We are almost at the drop-off zone, Specialist." Replied the pilot.

"Good. Penny, let us be off then." Winter nodded and called Penny over.

"Okay, Specialist!" Penny saluted with a smile.

The two women walked off to a private area when Winter turned to Penny.

"Penny, can you repeat the mission log for us?" Winter asked Penny.

"Of course, Specialist!" Penny nodded. She then opened her hand up which revealed a device that showed a hologram.

On the main HUD was a picture of the scientist. Merlot was an elderly man with disheveled gray hair, a matching mustache and beard and prominent eyebrows. His left eye is robotic and glows red and around it was noticeable claw marks. His right arm was also robotic and was dark and metallic and has red inner circuits. He wears a light gray jacket with a high collar and a red shirt underneath. On each sleeve of the jacket is a dark gray hexagon shape.

"Our mission is to retrieve missing data files from an abandoned laboratory belonging to one Dr. Merlot. The laboratory is also said to have been containing documentaries and other files for Grimm behavior, and acquiring this information will help us greatly against the Grimm! That's why, this is most important, as General Ironwood has told us." The gynoid stated.

"Correct. This information is vital for us to fight against the Grimm." Winter nodded. What she didn't tell Penny – and didn't feel the need to – is that this mission is particularly a test by General Ironwood and Dr. Polendina. Penny's first real mission – a test run of sorts, to test her capabilities and see what could be improved.

The two's conversation was interrupted by an announcement. [Alert! Multiple bogeys spotted; we are in the drop-off zone. All units report for launch. I repeat, all units report for launch.]

"Let's go, Penny!" Winter ordered.

"Roger, Specialist Schnee!" Penny obeyed.

The two ran for the exit area. The mechanism of the ship shifted as the harsh winds of winter seeped into the open doors of the dropship. All around the area are Grimm of all kinds; Beowolves, Goliaths, Nevermores, and all sorts of enemies surround the area.

The soldiers all lined up to the side as the two women are in the center.

"Good luck, Specialist, Ms. Polendina." One of the soldiers saluted.

"Good luck!" The rest followed.

"Thank you!" Penny cheered as she followed Winter to the exit and jumped as the dropship left.

Outside, the Grimm are walking about, when they suddenly looked up, sensing something.

A flock of Nevermores were flying when suddenly one of them fell. The Nevermores were confused. What happened? One of them tilted its head and looked around, while two of them separated from the flock to search.

That was a mistake.

The Nevermore in front suddenly had its head decapitated as a white figure jumped from its body and landed on another one. The two Nevermores that patrolled noticed this and tried to close in on her for daring to attack them, when beams shot out from above them and killed them both.

The rest of the Nevermores looked at the white figure, revealing it to be Winter Schnee, and then saw a glint in their eyes fast approaching before floating behind Winter, revealing it to be Penny Polendina.

Winter raised her arm that held a weapon. The sword has a single edged, slightly curved blade. The sword's hilt sports a wide, crescent-shaped guard that envelops the hand of the person that wields it, purposefully protecting the hand and fingers from any angle. The hilt has a spiral design etched down it that stops at an orb-shaped pommel.

"Penny, eliminate the Grimm." Winter ordered.

Penny nodded as she raised her arms. Multiple swords came flying out of Penny's back. They were multiple gray-colored blades with a luminous green power symbol at the center of the bronze-colored hilt, and a green line running parallel to one side. There were also thin, string-like cables attached to the blades.

The two then proceeded to eliminate the flock of avian Grimm.

…

Minutes later on the ground, Grimm corpses are evaporating as gunfire and white-colored Grimm are attacking them.

Back when they were killing the Nevermores, Penny used Floating Array's beams and arsenal to kill the Grimm on the ground as Winter used the avian Grimm to launch its feathers to its brethren and summoned them to kill more and more. A large bird-shaped shadow loomed over them.

As the last of the Nevermore tried to fly away, it got its wings crippled by Floating Array's beams. Just as it was about to retaliate, Winter suddenly landed on top of it as she manipulated it to crash onto a building. The last thing the Nevermore saw was Winter's back to it as multiple debris of rocks came crashing down, ending its life.

As Winter tried to keep tidy, Penny landed in front of her.

"The Grimm are eliminated, Specialist! We have cleaned up most of the stragglers in the area." Penny reported.

"Good. Now, let's enter the facility." Winter nodded.

…

As the two were inside the laboratory, Winter asked Penny a question.

"Penny, can you specify the importance of this intel of Merlot? I'm afraid I haven't been explained to properly as this was a sudden mission."

"Of course, Specialist Schnee!"

"Call me Winter."

"Okay, Specialist Winter!"

Winter sighed.

"Never mind, just tell me what it is."

"Very well! I have the mission information downloaded into my database. Doctor Merlot was the founder of Merlot Industries, a research and development corporation based out of the ill-fated settlement at Mountain Glenn. At some point, Merlot gained an unhealthy obsession towards the Creatures of Grimm, believing them to be a 'superior species' and that due to their 'unbridled raw aggression and lack of sentience' they would make 'the perfect vessel'.

Undaunted, the corporation began performing experiments on Grimm, research which Merlot believed was vital to the future of Remnant. However, when they began running out of specimens to experiment on, they started attracting Grimm to the city in order to acquire more, with disastrous results. After the fall of Mountain Glenn, Doctor Merlot was presumed dead." Penny explained.

Winter nodded. She remembered that. She was only initially aware of Merlot being one of the main reasons why Mountain Glenn fell. And then she accidentally stumbled onto him while studying about the greatest minds of their generation after the Doctor Watts fiasco. Used to be one of the three – now just one – devas of science.

Doctor Polendina. Rose to fame due to his genius - acknowledged by General Ironwood himself. A roboticist that's described to be one of Atlas' finest minds. He once worked with Arthur Watts and other Atlas scientists in a project issued by Ironwood to advance the Kingdom's defenses. Also, the first one to discover a way to transfer Aura into a robot. And thus, the P.E.N.N.Y Project was born.

Doctor Watts. Watts used to be both a scientist and a doctor in Atlas who had once worked with Pietro Polendina and other Atlesian scientists. Amongst his creations included the network in Mantle, environmental Dust controls, and the Paladins. Watts familiarized himself with Jacques Schnee, and later faked his own death after being disgraced, causing everyone in Atlas believe he had died in what is referred to as the Paladin Incident.

And Doctor Merlot. The reason they were here. Damned by Remnant itself, he hid in isolation, believing himself to be the pioneer to use the Grimm and save humanity. However, in his journey to save humanity - he lost his in turn. The starting point were the irredeemable. Criminals with a death sentence, monsters - Grimm in human skin. These people feel no remorse for their crimes, and will happily commit genocide for fun.

Then, the lawbreakers, criminals that were born from unfortunate circumstances - forced to commit crime simply because they considered that they have no other choice. Then it all went downhill from there. From murderers to thieves, to felons, to bullies, and then finally... the innocent. People that were unfortunate enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"I see… anything else, Penny?" Winter asked.

"Well, before he experimented on them, he was studying them. How they adapted to the environments, how certain Grimm species have different variants depending on their habitat, their behavior – the amount of information he studied them was – as my father put it, terrifying." The robot girl stated.

"I see." Winter hummed. Quite vital for their cause against the Grimm. Even more soldier and huntsman lives would be saves, and it could be added to the curriculum of Grimm Studies.

"Well, it's a good thing we're retrieving that information for us then, otherwise—" the specialist said when she got interrupted by a crash.

"That's from the deeper areas! Let's go, Penny!" Winter ran off while the gynoid followed.

As they ventured in deeper, they encountered some fodder Grimm along the way, eliminating them. They kept going until they found a metal door which Winter summoned a Goliath to crash into.

As the doors crashed and the smoke faded, they looked into the room and saw someone.

It was a figure in white clothing with a visor with a blue line for its eyes. They were tall, and the figure seems to be masculine, so Winter assumed the figure was male.

"Stop! Who are you?" Winter commanded.

The figure just tilted his head.

"I said who are you!" Winter pulled a trigger on her saber, revealing a second one and pointed it at the figure, while Penny stood behind her, alert.

The figure raised his arm that seemed to be holding something.

Winter squinted her eyes and saw… a flash drive? She then widened her eyes as she looked around the room.

It was the main control room! That means that what's in that drive has all the informati—

The figure suddenly disappeared from her view and got behind Penny.

Penny turned around and blocked the attack but she got sent flying away.

Winter widened her eyes. How? Penny is made up of material that's even tougher than most bullheads. That's why she's heavy, heavier than what it looked like considering the figure just pushed her like any other person in a fight.

Winter charged at him with both sabers, intending on apprehending this man for stealing intel and hoping to get more from him. What she didn't expect was for this man to be good at hand-to-hand combat, block, parrying and counter-attacking her with just his bare hands!

Winter attacked with Penny joining in the mix. However, the figure in white just seemed to be handling all of them like it was nothing.

Winter had enough. She jumped back off and called out a black glyph. Let's see how he likes Time Dilation.

The Specialist sped up even more and attacked him. What she didn't expect was for another glyph to appear.

A glyph? But I didn't—Winter's thoughts were interrupted by a sudden kick to the stomach. She rolled around the ground for a bit before stopping to a crawling position. She looked up to see a black glyph the size of a fist floating around the figure.

Winter was shocked, that symbol, with the same formation in design… it's a Schnee Glyph!

"How do you have that?!" Winter shouted at him. How could he have something like that? It's a hereditary semblance! Was he a distant family member? A cousin?

The thought that he was an illegitimate child didn't even arrive at Winter's mind, seeing as she didn't even think of Jacques sleeping with another woman that wouldn't help him in his business.

Winter gritted her teeth. She needed answers, and she needed them now.

…

The fight kept on going, with Winter getting fiercer and more aggressive, and Penny backing her up in the fight. But the man in white just seemed to be able to them both at the same time, and each time Winter did a glyph, whether for attack, a buff, a debuff, and summoning – the man did it faster, stronger, better – he outclassed them both.

Finally though, the figure had enough, he summoned a glyph that was layered within other glyphs. It looked to be shining and getting brighter until something appeared.

It looked to be an armored knight. It had white armor all over it with patterns of blue and yellow embedded upon it. Its helmet had a horn and it was wearing a white cape. (1)

Both of them attacked and performed combos at both of the women of Atlas until they were backed up together.

The knight seemed to be performing an attack seeing as the figure in white called out a glyph and out came a weapon. It was wielding a giant lance-drill combination.

Both Winter and Penny teamed up to block the attack before everything went white.

…

Winter Schnee woke up with a start. The last thing she remembered was a giant drill coming up to her before she went out.

"Specialist Winter! Are you okay?" Winter was startled by a voice until she looked to her side and found Penny. She took a moment to get her bearings.

"Penny, report." Winter stated with a commanding voice.

"Roger! After the attack with the figure, you were knocked out unconscious while I shut down for a while. I restarted a while later and while you were still out, I tried to search for the culprit. Unfortunately, I could not leave the vicinity without leaving you at risk and so, I waited until you were awake again." The not-so-real-but-hopes-to-be girl reported.

"Is that so…" Winter clicked her tongue. Penny's first mission and it's her fault that Penny failed. Looks like she has to take responsibility for the losses at the debriefing.

"I see, that's unfortunate that we lost the data—" the soldier started when she got interrupted by the gynoid.

"We didn't lose the data, Specialist." Penny said.

"What?" Winter blinked. Did she hear it right? Was that attack from the knight produce side effects to her?

"I do not know the reason for it, but apparently it seems that the culprit only made a copy of the files, and left." Penny clarified.

"Huh." Winter blinked again. Okay, so… he didn't do anything and just… left?

So, he didn't take the intel for himself, just took a copy of the files and documents then ran off?

If so, what did he want to do with it?

…

In the Schnee Manor, Whitley was seen walking towards his room. To everyone else, he had just finished tutoring and spending his free time so he's retiring for the night.

As he closed the door, he let out a breath of relief. Back then, sneaking out was very difficult, but since he was younger and no one paid attention to him that much, it's still very possible. However, ever since then it has been getting increasingly more difficult to hide from getting caught.

Luckily, throughout all his years, he had been getting more experience in getting out of the house, so while it's harder, he can do it.

Still though…

Whitley reached into his pocket to pull out a flash drive. To think that he went through all that trouble for this. He had initially overheard them as he planted a hidden bug inside the General's office. While that would originally be impossible to plant a bug… money talks. He got curious about the mission and left before his sister could. Unfortunately, he wasn't quick enough and encountered them.

Luckily, he had been training for some time and used multiple hidden glyphs to keep up with both of them since, he was still weaker than them. Otherwise, he would've tired out and get caught.

He then plugged the drive into his laptop to see what this information is all about.

Whitley raised a brow. Okay… so far so good. Behavior, blind spots and so on so forth… but then he reached a certain file.

"Oh?"

It was a file named [PROJECT: TARTARUS]. Hmm, Whitley wondered what it is and clicked on it and what he found was…

"What the?!" Whitley couldn't believe his eyes. All around the files were about Grimm. But not just any Grimm – it's the Grimm that was documented and mutated. Some Grimm that are classified as one of the most dangerous Grimms like the Wendigo, the Nuckelavee, and the Orochi. They have vital information about them such as weaknesses!

But some… some had never even been seen anywhere before! And there were code names of these experiments as well! Such as the Nemean, the Lernaean, and… what the heck is a Hecatoncheires?!

Wait.

Did that mean that somewhere out there, these Grimms existed?! Whitley shuddered, both in fear and excitement.

Fear, because unknown Grimm are one of the most dangerous types of Grimm, simply because they are exactly that: unknown. They do not know what they are capable of, and that alone puts them on the priority danger list.

Excitement, because if he could defeat them, he could add them to his collection. All of their possible moves, what would happen if he combined them, every possible combination he could've think off was enough to make a shit-eating grin appear on his face.

Looking at the rest of the list, seeing the code names like Gorgon, Scylla, Charybdis… he smiled.

He definitely has to get them.

A/N: Surprise, surprise, it actually is a Whitley chapter. Even though I said it's hard to write I still did it anyway. Anyway, for the review that asked if I took inspiration from Zeus from Record of Ragnarok;

You are correct. The difference is Jaune does not look like body horror and just looks like a very cute girl.

And as for the one who asked if I could make the Arc Trap into a real fic; I don't know. Probably not, since I'm not creative enough to do that. If someone decided to just adopt the idea, more power to them I guess. Anyway, bye.

1 – Search up White Knight Z Adventure Quest and go to images