AN: Sorry guys! Wanted to do this update last week, but then last minute, I… rewrote half the damn chapter because it felt off. This is Winter/Penny-centric chapter that will offer some background on Winter's relationship with Weiss. Anyway, let's get on with the story!
ooOOoo
"Well, aren't you two such lovely little girls?" At the sound of an unfamiliar voice, a young Weiss clung onto Winter, who stepped in front of her protectively. To Weiss, the world had gone dark before she could really even form memories and she only had her twin sister to guide her through it. Not that it even mattered that she knew they were twins. She didn't even know what she looked like, so it was hard to imagine someone else being her mirror image.
"Wh-who are you?" Winter's voice came out shakily and she tried to fix it. She couldn't let her true feelings slip. Weiss was already surprisingly in tune with her, but with her other senses heightened, it was hard to deceive her. "You're not one of the servants."
"No," a woman in white stood before her, draped in a flowing robe. Despite the stillness of the air, her clothing billowed in the ethereal winds that carried them. Was she a ghost? Or maybe this was a dream. She folded her hands in front of her and offered them a sweet smile. "I heard that you have a wish and I'd like to help," she leaned closer and her smile grew wider. Winter could make out the strange color of her eyes – bottomless black orbs, separated by two red rings, each outlining the iris and pupil. "Your family and I go way back!"
"Really?" Why hadn't Winter ever heard of or seen this woman before then?
"Oh, yes," the woman said sweetly. "You two have no idea just how special you are. Now tell me about this wish you have."
"I…" Winter stopped herself when Weiss squeezed her arm and she squeezed back. "I want my sister to be able to see again. I'd do anything for her."
"Anything?"
"Win…" Though her eyes were distant and unfocused, Weiss' expression was clearly concerned. She hated when Winter got like this. It always felt like she was blaming herself for being the more fortunate one.
"I'd do anything for you, Weiss," Wintered gave her a reassuring squeeze. "You're my baby sister. I have to protect you."
"…We're the same age," Weiss huffed. "You only beat me by a few minutes…"
"Still older," Winter muttered under her breath and Weiss furrowed her brow.
"Girls, girls, no fighting," the woman chuckled. "Now pay attention. I bet you two don't know what it is that makes you special."
"I'm not special," Winter admitted. "Weiss is though. It's what made her blind…"
"Oh no," the woman reassured her. "You two are simply incomplete – two halves that never became whole. You feel empty when you're apart, right?" The girls thought about it and even nodded in unison. "You only need to complete that connection. I can help you do that, but everything in this world has a price."
"How much?"
"Oh, I don't want money, Childe," the woman's smile was conniving in nature. "In fact, I only ask that you fulfill the prerequisite to awaken the power sleeping within the both of you."
"So what do we have to do?"
"Did you know that every Schnee child born is a twin?" The woman asked.
"Mommy has a twin too?" Weiss asked. Truth be told, they'd never know that. The only sibling they knew about was Aunt Summer, but she wasn't real family. Their mom had just apparently been extremely infatuated with her when she had become a ward of the Schnee family.
"Well, no," the woman shook her head. "Your mommy's twin… They joined together before they were born. But that's also why she's not special, like the two of you. You both made it this far and you're still together, but you can both become so much more."
"I like being here with Weiss," Winter frowned. "I want us to be together, but not like Mom."
"Same here," Weiss held on tighter. "I need Winter and she needs me." Winter blushed and touched her forehead to Weiss'. "I'm not going anywhere, Win. I'll always be here."
"That's good. You know that twins are cursed with extreme luck, don't you?" The girls nodded and she continued. "Then you should also know each family has its own variation. The Schnee have what is called Intertwined Fate. It means that what happens to one of you will undoubtedly happen to the other. You are one and the same, just as all the other twins born to the Schnee."
"Then Winter will go blind?" Weiss gave her sister a fearful squeeze.
"You have Lightforge Poisoning, don't you?" The woman asked with a hint of curiosity in her voice.
"Yes…"
"You are both already so different," the woman stood and placed each of her hands on their heads. "I cannot take away what ails you, but I can liberate you from the shackles that Fate has bound you with."
"Fate?"
"Yes, Fate has decided that you are unclean because you are of His bloodline," she pressed a bony digit to the center of each of their chests. "But you each possess something right here that makes you unlike any other before you. Something that will unite you and mature as you grow."
"Is it love?" Winter asked in awe.
"…Yeah, sure," the woman grimaced at her eagerness. Children were so gullible. "Fate will throw everything at you to stop it. I, however, believe that you will free Circadia from its own shackles. I only ask that in exchange for this freedom, you answer my call when the time comes."
"Will Weiss be able to see again?"
"Heh," the woman smirked. "It will not be immediate, but an answer will come in a most unexpected way."
"Then yes!" Weiss stepped forward with eagerness. "I'll do whatever I need to in order to make sure she can see again. Any price is worth it!"
"Hahaha, you remind me of another child who once received my blessing," she patted Winter's head. "You wear your love just as openly as he did, and yet, that was his own undoing. All for a love that escaped him. A word of caution, child: Fate does not take kindly to those who live outside her grasp. You are both each other's greatest strength and weakness… Take care."
…She never did tell them what her price was…
ooOOoo
"What the hell was that out there?!" Winter stormed through the door to her safe house with Penny in tow. "Why did you get in the way?!"
"Excuse me?!" Penny argued back, but Winter towered over her dangerously. "What did I do other than save you?"
"I had everything under control…"
"Not really," Penny doubled down on her stance. "I get that you're mad that you lost Snow, but that Elite was Clover!"
"Clover?"
"The Disabler Elite?" Penny asked in disbelief.
"No?" Winter shrugged. "This is important why?"
"You had Lightforge before, so that wouldn't have mattered back when you were human, but you're a vampire now," Penny tried to explain. Sure, it might not have mattered that much before she died, but that was exactly the point! "He specializes in disrupting Darkforge, which I'm not sure if you realized, is infused into your body now! It's actually a good thing the White Fang showed up when they did. Side note: We should probably make sure that we weren't followed. If he was there, I almost guarantee Marrow was in the area."
"Marrow?"
"Yes," Penny nodded with urgency. "Clover put together what's known as the Ace Ops. When we… lost Team STRQ… the Schnee Corps needed a new one to replace them. STRQ was the headmaster's personal team, but my dad said that he felt it was Headmaster Pine was at fault for what happened to them. Since the Schnee Corps wanted Clover so badly, he nominated that Clover take over under this new team. Unlike STRQ though, they're completely influenced by the Elites… and they act like it too, even though the Inhuman members aren't respected enough to be granted the honor of Elite uniforms…"
"Right… Can't let the animals think they're equals," Winter muttered to herself, but jumped at the glare Penny shot her. "Or whatever it is that my father says…"
"Anyway," Penny raised her voice as a sign of moving forward. "Marrow is a wolf Faunus, so he's really good at tracking. I heard he once tracked a bee all the way to Atlas and back… because he was bored…"
"Atlas is cold, Penny…" Winter squinted her as if to scrutinize her words.
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean you can't track scents!"
"Do I really need to explain why tracking a single bee through a country made almost entirely up of ice makes no sense?"
"…oh," Penny blinked. Now that she thought about it, Winter kind of had a point. "He was lying?"
"Was he trying to impress anyone?" The redhead sat there for a moment recalling when she'd heard him tell this story. Sure enough, she distinctly remembered several girls fawning all over him… He was known for being a show-off, especially in front of the ladies. "I take it by your silence that I am correct." With a smirk, Winter lifted her hand and several clumps of ice formed into miniature Beowolf-like creatures, alongside a small bird. They lined up in an orderly fashion, almost as if they were awaiting orders, nipping at each other occasionally.
"Behave," Winter hissed sharply and they jarred still, though the bird picked at its wings. "Scout the area for any unwanted visitors and report immediately if you find anything." As they scampered away, Penny grimaced at the confirmation that she had killed at least as many people as Grimm she had formed – probably more. The pallid piress noticed the shift in her behavior and sighed. "You could have escaped. I even told you to leave, yet you're still here. At this point, I don't think you have the right to complain about the way I operate."
"I… know, but…"
"This is the order of things, Miss Polendina," Winter stated simply, her crimson eyes examining her carefully. "I wasn't exactly thrilled about my current diet, but I've had to accept that this is what I am now."
"But isn't there a way around it?" There had to be, right? "Like, that doesn't require you to kill people?" A dangerous smirk played across Winter's lips and she drew closer to her not-so-captive tagalong. When she was directly in front of her, she grabbed her collar and shot straight for her neck, stopping just short and lingered there. She couldn't tell if Penny shivered from her breath tickling her neck or if it was nerves, but Penny shook either way and Winter laughed low in her ear.
"Heh, does this scare you?" Her voice was somehow both sinister and sultry.
"I won't lie," Penny swallowed thickly. "I don't know what you're going to do…" The vampire frowned and leaned back so that their eyes met. She lifted her chin and focused the redhead's emerald orbs on her.
"You're a little too filthy for my tastes." Filthy? But that guy from the other night had been pretty gross. If he was anything to go off of, she couldn't have been that picky. Penny took a look at herself, noticing the dirt and grime all over her skin…
"Right… I am pretty gross, right now… Well, at least I've got that going for me."
"You should shower," Winter rolled her eyes.
"Huh?" Did that mean she… wanted to eat her?
"If you insist on staying at my side, then you must know that vampire or not, I am still a Schnee. I have an image to uphold."
"Oh, right."
"I suppose you could have some use," Winter thought aloud. "Even if it's something as mundane as being an emergency ration." The words hit and Penny went pale. Winter had said that so dryly and her face was a perfect mirror. "Is something wrong?" Oh… oh!
"That was a joke!" Penny gave a nervous laugh. "You tried to make a joke!"
"Or we'll just stick with bait," the vampire rolled her eyes. "I'm sure Ruby will hear about this soon."
"I'm not going to give you Ruby," Penny huffed and crossed her arms.
"You won't have to," Winter chuckled to herself. "After tonight, she'll come looking for me on her own." Winter eyed her for a moment, muttering something to herself as she shook her head. She sauntered down the hallway and pushed a door open. Without turning around, she pointed into the room. "Wash yourself and then come see me."
The vampire continued down the hallway and walked into a moderately sized room. It certainly wasn't anything like what she'd grown up with, but it was acceptable. This cabin belonged to the family of someone she had known in school. Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black had been surprised, to say the least, when Weiss Schnee had suddenly reappeared. They'd asked her so many questions, but she'd been unable to answer any of them. Questions like: How are you alive? Weren't you cremated? But now she had her own and Zwei's appearance raised so many of them.
Seeing him brought up memories she hadn't thought of in a long time – the Lady in White being one of them. At the time, she'd thought she had simply been a dream, but shortly after their meeting, terrible things started happening to both herself and Weiss. It was like the Underworld itself was converging on them and they suffered several attacks.
A particularly bad one left Weiss having to be restrained for months until she was freed… and then Zwei appeared, constantly attacking her. The only thing she found stranger was that it almost seemed like all the other attacks stopped after that. Had he been the Fate that the Lady in White had been talking about?
Heh heh, the irony here. Her father hadn't exactly been forthcoming with the details, but she believed that it was Zwei that ultimately killed her. The entire day was a complete haze and she'd blacked out, but she did remember seeing him at one point during the commotion. When she'd come to, they said Weiss was no longer part of their world and had foolishly given her life… in exchange for Ruby Rose's…
If the Lady in White was right about Intertwined Destiny being their curse, that must have meant Zwei was here to finish the job. He was the Vale Bandersnatch and Snow was his new host. That must have been how she was targeting her so accurately. Zwei knew sensitive details about her, which made her emotions so easy to trigger. She'd have to play things smarter, otherwise her fate would be the same as her sister's.
She closed her eyes and envisioned the sigil Snow had summoned Persephone's Chrys with. A bold and bright snowflake-like symbol within a circle, Winter had worked hard on the design with Weiss. Most Sigilists had a unique identifying sigil, but because they needed to exist as one, they carefully crafted theirs together. How dare that girl copy something they worked so hard on alter it as she pleased, adding what looked like arrowheads to empty spaces . Every aspect of that lowlife was carefully put together to create a cheap emulation of Weiss. She'd even gone as far as to place herself next to Ruby. This was an outrage.
Still, for all their similarities, there were large differences. Except for the incident when they were children, Weiss had never been able to use Darkforge. She was simply cursed with a Darkforge entity that followed her around. This Snow used both types of Forges, which was unheard of since the olden days. The only thing that made sense was that she was a surviving member of an Ancient Circadian clan, but that didn't make any sense. After the Great Divide, the Ancient Circadians disappeared and Forgebearers could only use one or the other – not both.
Alright… so she'd determined that the two of them were separate entities. The new problem was figuring out what Snow was. She could try to research her, but that would prove difficult when she knew nothing about her origins. This left her with a couple of different options. Regardless of her situation, she knew this person would most likely be wherever Ruby was. That meant she could use Ruby's naivety against her. Recon would take a while and she just didn't want to spend the time on it, so she'd extract it herself. All she needed was to get Snow out in the open again. Capturing Penny might actually prove to be more beneficial than she thought.
Yes, that's what she'd do. Ruby could wait. Getting in her way had already made her a nuisance, but Snow White's latest sin had put a metaphorical nail in her own coffin. The revelation of Persephone's Chrys was evidence enough. When Winter had asked their father about the blade, he had said that Weiss had been buried with it… That meant that Snow had the audacity to desecrate Weiss' grave!... Weiss' grave…
Because she was supposed to live on as Weiss, Weiss had never gotten a proper burial and Winter had never seen her grave. Having to live on as her meant that she never got proper closure for her sister's death, but now that she thought about it, was this how things were supposed to be? She'd only accepted things as they were because of her family's unique circumstances, but nothing about this was right. Even her father's way of phrasing it was strange, but she'd never questioned it before. She'd never had a reason… so just maybe.
"I thought I was the blind one."
The flame where Winter's heart had once been flapped violently, accompanied by a queasy feeling in her stomach. What were the chances that… No, that was impossible. Zwei had simply just found another host, right? He probably told her everything about them. Yeah, that had to be it. The glowing eyes were just a trait that Faunus had. Yeah, she'd put her plan into action and just find out this girl was some sort of Faunus of something… a Faunus that somehow figured out how to use Lightforge… Gods, she sounded more and more ridiculous with each passing second.
Knock knock knock
"Winter?" The vampire jarred herself from her thoughts and Penny flinched, ducking back behind the door. The freckled girl was clad in only a towel, hair still slightly damp, and skin still puffy from the hot water that cleansed her of all the dirt and grime. She was definitely more presentable, albeit very, very naked. "Um, my clothes are gone."
"Oh, don't worry about it," Winter dismissed her. "One of the Grimm servants most likely took those filthy things. It seems that they are sometimes able to resonate with my thoughts, though I've not gotten that entirely down," Winter sped over to the closet and started going through it. She looked back and forth between Penny and the various items. Sometimes a sparkle entered her eye and she set an article aside, while others times her brow furrowed and she put the item in question back.
"I no longer need anything in here," the vampire explained absently. "I've found that the Elder's Cloak is rather useful for keeping myself clothed. If I can imagine it, I can create it." As unhappy as Winter seemed with being a vampire, Penny had to admit that there was something cute about the sparkle in her eye at the mention of her creativity. Maybe this was an unexplored avenue that Winter would have enjoyed if she'd had an ordinary life? "Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Oh, it's nothing," Penny tried to hide her smile but failed.
"A-anyway," Winter tried to reel in her excitement. "We're a similar size, so you're free to wear anything that you like."
"Hey, Winter," a strange thought crossed Penny's mind. "Elder Cloaks are made of Darkforge, right?"
"Yes," the vampire nodded. "Why do you ask?"
"Darkforge disappears when you lose consciousness, right?" Winter nodded, though she failed to see where this was going. "So if you passed out," Penny tried to let the vampire fill in the blanks on her own, but she didn't seem to pick up on it. "Then wouldn't you be…"
"Be what?"
"Um, nevermind… it's not important…" For the love of Circadia, she was so naïve. Did she not realize she'd be naked? Enemy or not, this vampire was her own worst adversary and needed to be protected from herself.
"Whatever," Winter rolled her eyes, displeased with the lack of answer. "Just get on with it."
There were several things in the closet, but they all stuck to the traditional white and blue Schnee color scheme. In the end, she decided on a white top with black accents and a long, solid blue skirt. She went to change, but then froze when she realized she wasn't alone… Was she going to watch her?
"Um…" Penny panicked a bit. "C-can you turn a-around?"
"Don't you commoners change in the Girl's Locker Room?" When Penny didn't answer she sighed to herself. "Of course not… Ironwood. They would give you special treatment, wouldn't they…"
Penny humphed and turned around, dropping the towel. It brought a smile to Winter's lips, watching her try to prove her wrong about being given favoritism. She did have to admit that Penny was more attractive than she seemed to think she was and she should have had more confidence in herself. Wouldn't that be something to see in the future? Penny finished putting on the different articles of clothing and turned to face, blushing in her own embarrassment.
"Th-thank you," the freckled girl nodded to her and gathered her towel before she made her way to the door. "I'll head to bed now."
"I just gave you those clothes," Winter spoke with authority and the door slammed shut in front of Penny. "Regardless of whether I still wear them or not, I won't have you ruining them. Use the bed."
"B-but where will you-"
"Take a look outside," Winter crossed her arms and Penny looked at the open window. "Does it look like I'm going to sleep any time soon?"
"O-oh, that's right…" They operated on very, very opposite sleeping schedules and it was still very, very dark out. She wondered if maybe Winter felt lonely at night. Maybe that was why she was being so kind.
"We'll switch… but if you try anything while I'm sleeping…"
"I'm not a guy… What would I do?"
"What does that have to do with killing me in my sleep?"
"N-nevermind!" Penny stammered. Her mind was definitely in unsavory places right now. She needed to stop this. Just what sort of demon had that shower released in her! She just needed some sleep and then she'd go back to being her usual self. That was it! She was just tired and Coco was rubbing off on her.
"Now sleep," Winter took the towel from her and pushed her toward the bed. When her legs caught the side of the mattress, she made a surprised sound as she fell back and Winter threw a blanket at her. The vampire wandered over to the window, letting the towel fall gently into a nearby basket and thumbed over the hilt of her sword.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
"Did you just…" The vampire spun around to look at her with a mortified look in her eyes and Penny internally pumped her fist. Yang would have been proud of that one.
"You look lost in thought," Penny contained herself and tried to sound thoughtful. "I have time to listen." Penny approached her and Winter felt a warmth spread through her as this strange human placed her hand on her own. "I'm not going anywhere."
"I'm not going anywhere."
Winter's flame wavered once more. Maybe this was the new norm she'd experience when her metaphorical heart skipped a beat. Would she really want to hear about her thoughts after everything she'd put her through? Prisoners didn't usually care about their captors, though she supposed prisoner wasn't quite the right word for her anymore.
"I-I mean, only if you want to."
"What do you know about the Schnee family and their goals?"
"Ummm," Penny thought for a moment. Was this a trick question? "They aim to contain Darkforge and kill the Originator."
"Yes, but why?"
"Well, because he's dangerous and killing him would get rid of all the vampires. He's where it all started." It seemed obvious enough, but with the way that Winter was blinking at her in disbelief, she guessed there was more to it.
"Is that what they teach at Signal? I would have thought that even your father would let you in a bit more. You seemed more informed than others."
"So… killing him wouldn't help?"
"Hmmm," Winter thought for a moment. "Well, I'm not saying that it won't. Frankly, we don't have any proof that it wouldn't, but what I'm saying that the motivation of the Schnee family isn't as noble as you might believe. The Corps believes they are fighting for humans, and in most cases, this is true, but the truth is that all of this is our fault."
"What?!"
"They tell you that the Schnee of the old took up arms against the Originator and his hordes of vampires to preserve humanity, but the reality is that we didn't care about other humans. We cared that he was an embarrassment."
"Embarrassment?"
"We call him Ozpin now, but back in the days of old, he was known as The Great King… Ozma Schnee."
"Hoooooolyyyy shit! You guys are his kids!"
"I find your choice of diction rather distasteful, but no," Winter grimaced at her word choice. Even as a vampire, she held language to a higher standard than many of the rest of her new kin. "As far as records show, he never had a child. We were simply cursed because our family produced him. It seems that we are charged with eliminating him, though we'd much rather keep it hidden. Still, our goals are much more selfish than the noble cause we parade around. We just sort of got lumped into a giant curse pile and it's a firm belief that if we kill him, we will be freed. Incentive, I suppose."
"Wait… firm belief… You guys don't even have proof that it'll lift the curse?"
"I… I suppose not," the vampire said thoughtfully. "It's just what we've always been told."
"But if he dies, it cures all vampirism, right?"
"I've wondered about that, actually. In order for him to exist, something else had to create him, right?" Penny nodded as she followed along. It did make sense to think that, but didn't just mean they were an evolutionary development?... Oh… "I wasn't bitten…"
"Excuse me?" Penny's heart started to race at the thought. Was Winter saying that she was a not-so-living proof of vampire evolution?
"I was tortured and murdered by that bull Faunus, but I was never bitten… so what if I…" Winter swallowed and looked back out the window. "What if I'm just like him? What if there is no going back for me?"
"You remind me of another child who once received my blessing. You wear your love just as openly as he did, and yet, that was his own undoing."
"What if the same thing that created him, created me?" The vampire looked even paler than she'd started off. They'd been children who were offered a way to fix things. It hadn't crossed their minds just how significant their exchange with that woman would become.
"Winter?"
"I've never told anyone this, but Weiss and I swore to each other that we would take it to our graves," Winter held herself. "When we were small, we thought we met a ghost. We called her the Lady in White. I now believe she was one of the Witches of Old… What if someone like her made me like this or even made vampires? The Puritans said they were capable, so what if they were right? What if I'm…"
"Did something happen when you met her?" Penny climbed closer to the edge of the bed. It seemed like Winter needed someone to want to be in closer proximity to her. This was something sensitive for her.
"She said we would live outside of Fate and that an answer to Weiss' blindness would come, then a vampire came after Weiss," Winter lamented. "My sister regained her sight through this ordeal, but when Team STRQ slayed it, Weiss was left with Zwei, who kept attacking her. Our Father disowned her, claiming that we couldn't have someone plagued by Darkforge as an heir. After that, she was sent to Oscar's and we began to train with our instructor. I was surprised that our father permitted a Faunus to teach us, but Raven was an excellent teacher. During that time, Ruby's mother tried to remove Zwei from Weiss and that was how we met Ruby and Yang."
"And then Weiss died?" Winter nodded silently as an answer.
"That day is mostly a blur for me," the ivory girl spoke distantly. "It was one of the rare days where our father requested my sister's presence. We would switch places on those days, and if Ruby was there, I had to entertain her. I never understood why Weiss liked her so much. She was so childish."
"No offense, Winter," Penny interrupted. "But children are supposed to be childish. It's more concerning that you didn't get to enjoy being a kid."
"Right…" The room grew uncomfortably silent and Winter held herself. Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say when she was trying to open up. It hadn't really occurred to Penny that she might not have realized just how different she was from the average person. "Well, by the time this all happened, Zwei had started attacking her less often. He somehow got more tame and she could even touch him. It turned out that he really liked Ruby for some reason and even listened to her… Now that I think about it, his change in behavior lines up with when Weiss started to get along with her. Maybe that was why."
"So you've just never liked Ruby?"
"Heh," Winter looked down. She wasn't exactly proud of this. "Ruby was there almost all the time and I hardly got to see my sister. We weren't supposed to be in the same place, at the same time. Ruby got to see her nearly ever day, meanwhile I only got to see her during lessons." Winter squeezed her arms hard, digging her nails into the cloth of her jacket. "She was my sister to protect. I made that deal for her. I spent all those nights chasing that beast away. It was my job, not hers."
"But you and Weiss needed to expand your world," Penny frowned. "It couldn't just be the two of you forever. That would be so lonely."
"Well, until Ruby came along, we only needed each other," Winter snapped. "If we hadn't been separated, it would have stayed that way too. No one knew the difference between us and they damn sure didn't care, even the ones that actually knew there were two of us… and I was so certain that Ruby was just like them. I told Weiss that, but she said Ruby knew, so I told Weiss that I'd prove it. I told Weiss to hide in another room and she'd see that Ruby couldn't was the same as all the others."
"Oh… I guess you were right then."
"Ha," Winter laughed bitterly. "I was wrong."
"But Ruby's never mentioned any of this before and she keeps calling you Weiss…"
"Ruby told me right away she knew I wasn't Weiss and even asked for my name… but before I could even say anything, the Lady in White reappeared. There was this bright light and suddenly she had claws. Weiss ran into the room and pushed Ruby out of the way and took a claw to the face. I remember getting hit and there was much blood around Weiss and Ruby had passed out. Zwei appeared and then everything went black… When I woke up, my father said that Weiss had given up her life for Ruby. Weiss left me and I had to be her all the time from then on… and Ruby became just like everyone else… I didn't matter to anyone anymore." Winter pressed a hand to the bridge of her nose and mutter to herself. "I can't believe I was stupid enough to even think for second she was different…"
Ooooooooooooh! The more the young Schnee spoke, the more it was becoming clear to Penny just how little she understood her own feelings, through no fault of her own. She was so preoccupied with becoming Weiss, that she had a hard time separating between what she was pretending to feel and what she actually felt.
"Winter," Penny watched her recoil at the sound of her name. She was fairly sure the girl was still getting used to hearing it come from another person. "I'm worried that you don't understand your own feelings…"
"I understand perfectly."
"No," Penny shook her head slowly. "Earlier, you said Ruby was childish, so I thought that was why you kept picking on her."
"She is," Winter scowled at her. "And that's right."
"No, Winter," Penny smiled warmly. "You don't have to convince me. I've been listening to everything you're saying and that's not it at all. Ruby validated both of your existence and then something happened to her memory. Whatever happened that day took your chance to be yourself away. You were already jealous Ruby was taking Weiss away."
"Jealous?!" Winter shrieked. "How da-"
"You've always had to play Weiss, so you never had a chance to live and laugh with everyone as the real you," Penny cut her off. She wasn't done speaking and she was going to make sure that she listened. "Winter, has it even sunk in that you don't have to be Weiss anymore?"
"I… what?" Winter started to speak, but the very thought made it difficult to form words. Not be Weiss? That didn't make any sense. She looked at Penny and her eyes filled with panic. Being Weiss was what she'd been raised to do. Without that, she was nothing.
"Winter…" Penny approached her and took her hands, looking at her dead in the eyes. "You're not Weiss. You never were… and even if Ruby can't acknowledge that, I am. They asked you to be her, but I think you've been doing it to keep her memory alive, haven't you?"
"…"
"You've been so focused on honoring your sister's memory that you haven't really gotten a chance to work through it or even mourn her properly. You can't be Winter, if you can't let go." Penny looked away for a moment and blushed. "So maybe… I was thinking, I could help you figure out who Winter is."
When Penny looked back at her, Winter searched her eyes for any sign of treachery, but it wasn't there. That queasy feeling, along with the wavering of her flame returned and she swallowed hard. What was this girl doing to her? She was literally just supposed to be bait, but she made things so… pleasant…
"I'm starting to question my own memory," Winter admitted in shame.
"Over what?"
"I'm not sure, but something feels off," Winter shifted awkwardly. "When things calm down, will you go somewhere with me?... I need to see something for myself. Something long overdue."
"What?" Penny squeezed her hands warmly and that strange feeling flared up again. It was a stretch, but maybe her new companion was right. Things seemed just a little less bleak with her helping her decipher things and it felt less cloudy. She was safe to let into her world.
ooOOoo
AN: I mentioned I rewrote half the chapter. Pretty much, big parts of Winter/Penny's convo get altered and the entire intro scene got completely changed. (It was originally an encounter between Weiss, Winter, and Zwei. I'll probably save it for another chapter.) The Lady in White is a key character throughout the entire story and will constantly appear and be referred to all the way to the end. Different people will refer to her as different things until it's revealed who she actually is in this world. I'm sure you've already realized which RWBY character she is. Anyway, so for Winter, Penny's going to be trying to help her separate herself from Weiss and become her own person. I wonder which Winter would be more dangerous for Ruby and Co. – a mentally unstable avenger that lost their only purpose in life?... or a fully aware one that understands the extent of just how badly she was wronged? She's starting to put things together, but she's pretty much in denial.
Anyway, next chapter, we do get another new character – an OC. You won't learn her name for a while, but I've grown to like her the more I write her. She was originally designed for LF: Requiem, but I haven't posted up that far yet for anyone to recognize her. Part of that is intentional because going that far is going to spoil the crap out of what's in store for Ruby. This character's revelation actually isn't that far off from where Requiem is right now, but the difference is that in Requiem, Summer's mother taught her about everything regarding their family, while Summer did not do this for Ruby. More of Requiem will be posted after we pass this segment.
