Chapter 1

Winter starred at the garden that sorŠ°unded her family's mansion with a melancholic look in her eyes. Families were supposed to be happy, its members are supposed to support each other and to accept each other as they are. As much as her family tried to present themselves as a perfect family they are anything but. Her father cared more about the image he wanted people to see than his actual wife and children, he cared more about the dust company and making a profit than spending time with his family. If he paid attention to his children it was because he wanted to present them as perfect extensions of himself, to show people what a Shnee is, that we are better than them, even if her father wasn't a Schnee, he only married into the family. A normal father would encourage his daughter's interests, if she wanted to sing or play an instrument he would later come to hear her. Her father made both her and her little sister Weiss take up notable instruments, Winter being best with a violin but did her father truly care no, he only cared how he may present this to make himself look better.

A regular parent would allow their child to go and have friends, to be among other people and even find someone they would love but her father would only parade her around at whichever event he wanted to like she wasn't a person but a doll that was to be taken off the shelf and dusted whenever necessary. He had already made several less than subtle suggestions to who she should pay attention to, as they could quite possibly be her future grume. She just turned twenty, she did not want to marry anyone yet. It disgusted her that her father cared more about power, money, prestige and how people saw him than his actual family. And Winter being the heir to the Schnee Dust Company took the brunt of her father's attention but she was starting to crack. She knew she had to put up with it for the sake of her little sister and brother, that if she did something to displease their father his attention would turn to them and that would only mean suffering for them. It didn't help that their mother was too drunk half of the time to even care, father had broken her will years ago and that meant that she did not have any fight left in her to try and protect her children from their controlling and uncaring father.

Everything she did was for her siblings but now she was starting to think she can not take it anymore, she wanted to escape, freedom in any way. Winter knew that leaving her little siblings to her father's mercy would make her selfish and a coward but all she wanted was the end to the constant pressure, the constant evaluations, the constant scrutiny, she was even starting to seriously think about joining military. In Atlas graduates from the academy are encouraged to join the military and a good portion of them do, what's to stop her from doing the same. She was now in her final year at Atlas Academy, she was one of the best in her class and had a good relationship with academies headmaster general Ironwood. Yes, she would have to follow orders and protocols but the academy is already like that and she would be away from her father's gaze and control, she could finally have some sense of freedom in her life. Maybe the military isn't such a bad idea, after all, once she is done with her last year at the academy she could enlist. Maybe their father wont be as hard with Wiess as he was with her.

Just as she was to continue to think about all the possibilities in her life the voice of her father and jailer was heard. "Winter," she turned around to see her father walking up to her with Klein right behind him, carrying something.

"Father," she said, giving a respective nod.

"As you well know we will be hosting some important guests later this evening, I hope that I do not need to say how important it is for you and your sister to attend," her father said, she knew it was not a request but a command. She wanted to yell at him, to scream but she knew she couldn't.

"Yes father, I'm aware," Winter said looking at her father. The two looked at each other before their ever fateful battler chimed in.

"Sir, where am I to put this exactly?"Klein asked.

"Put that dusty old thing in the artifacts room," father said in a dismissive tone.

Winter could not help but raise an eyebrow at what Klein was carrying. "What is it?"

Her father waved it off. "Just some old box I was presented as a gift today, it's supposed to be an ancient artifact but to me it's worthless. The thing can't even open."

Winter looked at the box, as her father said it looked old. It was mostly black with some kind of engravings to the sides, a silver form of a warrior with a large s sword was etched in front.

"Doesn't matter anyway, it will continue to gather dust in the artifacts room," her father said and waved Klein off, the butler going to do as he was told while her father proceeded to walk towards his office.

Winter sighed, this was her life, a controlling father, an alcoholic mother and the never-ending stress that came with it all. She wanted something to happen, for someone to come and save her from this nightmare but she knew that won't happen, this was not a fairy tale.

She did as she was commanded by her father, she got ready for the night's guests and met them with her father and sister as was expected of a Schnee. She wore an elegant white dress with a silver tiara in her hair. She had spent the first hour tied to her father and then another hour tide to several of the guests who only talked about their business and wealth. She finally managed to excuse herself by saying she needed some air and left the large ballroom. Her head hurt from all the talking so she started walking the halls of the mansion to calm down. She hated this, these parties, these people, she wanted things to be as they were when her grandfather was alive and in charge. By the time she decided to stop she had not noticed that she had arrived in front of her father's artifacts room. She looked at the doors of the room and was about to leave when she heard someone coming from the hall in front of her. Not wanting to deal with anyone for at least a few moments longer she entered the artifacts room.

She carefully closed and door and pressed her ear upon the wood, hearing people pass by. When she was sure that no one was in the hall she took a step back from the door and turned around. She gazed at the familiar room, her father did not truly care about this room and any of the artifacts here, he just wanted to be able to say that he had them. There on the exhibit were expensive paintings, statues, artifacts millennia-old and even her grandfather's old armor. Walking through the room, looking at the glass-encased objects she stopped when she saw the box Klein had brought earlier that day. She took a step closer and looked at the ornate box in more detail. The box itself was dark blue in color with only the images of the man in blue and silver being different. Like before on the front side was the image of a silver-clad and blue warrior with a long katana in his hands. On the lid was the image of the same man but in two different posses, the one on the left was the image of calm and serenity but the one on the right presented the man in a posse that indicated he was either fighting or ready for a battle. A strange word written in a language Winter wasn't familiar with was written in the middle. The sides of the box were decorated with what she could only describe as demonic creatures, they were not Grimm but the sight of them sent a shiver down her spine.

"If he was real he must have been strong," Winter thought. Winter wanted to be strong, stronger so she could bear her father's constant control for the sake of her siblings, for Weiss and Whitley but she knew she was losing that fight. She stared at the box for a long moment before she decided to move on but just as she took a first step she swore she heard someone say something in a low whisper. Winter looked around to see who it was but found no one, she was alone in the room. Putting it as a figment of her imagination she took another step forward only to hear the whisper again. Once again she frantically looked around only to find no one there. Winter was no fool if it happen once she could have to it as her mind playing a trick with her but not twice, something or someone was here.

Carefully looking around once more she could not see anything, not even a shadow moving. Her gaze went over where the box was and stopped once she heard the whisper again. Starring at the box dumbfounded she asked herself was the noise coming from it?

Winter tried to rationalize what was happening, there was no way whispers were coming from the box, more like it was some kind of prank. Gathering her courage Winter took several steps towards the box and looked at it. Father did say that it cant open but she could not see any device around it, so it must it inside. She put on hand on the lid of the box, her pale fingers going over the strange letters.

Trying to open the lid with one hand did not work so she tried with two and again the box stayed shut. Finally, she but all of her straight into it and the box opened, for a moment there was nothing, the box was empty and Winter would only stare at it with confusion but then out of nowhere a bright blinding silver light emerged from the box and engulfed her. Winter closed her eyes to shield them from the light only to open them when the little subsided and stare in bewilderment at her surroundings. She was not in the artifacts room of her family's home but instead in an open field covered in tall grass.

Winter just stared shocked at what was around her until a sharp male voice was heard from behind her.

"Greetings," the voice said and Winter immediately turned around. There standing with his hands behind his back was a tall man clad in a long, silver buttoned blue coat with three separated coattails. A white, serpentine pattern runs around the collar, with a snake's head hanging over the coat's left shoulder, and its tail slinking down the right, all the way to the bottom of the coat. A gold lining runs across the edges of the coat, and a silky, golden flower blossom pattern decorates the inner lining. He was fair, yet pale-skinned, and had white, swept-back hair, which puts emphasis on the fierce, yet the stoic expression on his face, his stormy blue eyes looking at Winter with interest.

The man standing in front of her had a beautiful face and was emitting an aura of confidence and authority. The interesting thing is that he could easily pass for a Shnee.

"Who? Where am I?" Winter blurred out.

"You are in the depths of your mind, this field is just a manifestation of it. And to answer who I am, my name is Vergil."

"My mind?" she asked shocked, not believing what she was hearing.

"Yes," the man known as Vergil replied.

"What? How is that possible?"

"You opened the box didn't you?" Vergil asked.

This got Winter's attention, so this had something to do with the box and the light that came from it. "Yes, I opened it, and immediately after silver light came out of it," she said.

"I was starting to believe no one will find the box, but it seems I was wrong. And the fact you had managed to open it shows you have at least some power inside you," Vergil commented.

Winter was now even more confused. "What you do mean?"

"I guess I should properly explain the situation then. Long ago I sealed a portion of my soul in this box, I was in my latter years and had faced many enemies over my life and learned a valuable lesson, no matter how much power you have there will always be someone seeking it and someone who will be your match. So as a contingency I tore a portion of my very being and bound it inside the box. So in case, I found myself indisposed or something akin to that, whoever found the box would receive a portion of my power and knowledge and my very being, but they had to be both human and demon to do so."

Winter was processing what she was being told. This man just said that he tore a piece of his soul, something that should not be possible. Aura was a manifestation of one's soul, tearing it apart would be insane. But she then registered the last part, human and demon. "What do you mean by a demon?"

"Hellspawn, creatures of the night, call them however you wish, most of them have little love for humans but few such as myself are halfbreeds, one parent being human and another demon. You have demonic power inside you, as little as it may be but it was enough to help you open the box and meet me," Vergil was getting slightly irritated by the amount of explanation he had to do but the girl in front of him seemed to have no knowledge about anything that was considered normal in his world. She had demonic ancestry but it seems that a long time has passed since that ancestor, it should be enough nonetheless.

"By demons, you don't mean Grimm?" Vergil used his power to look over some of the girl's memories and found what Grimm were.

"No," he said. "Demons are far worse and more dangerous enemies than some black-clad animals. Your world is not the one I inhabited, the question of how the box ended here comes to mind but that is not relevant now. What is important is your decision?"

"M-My decision?" Winter asked.

"Yes, if you so wish it, I will impart my power and knowledge on to you. You have what is necessary to receive it and from what I have seen you are not a person that would waste it," Vergil said. She gave Vergil a distrusting look. She didn't know anything about him, not to mention this whole thing was just crazy. A man sealing a part of his soul in a box to later give it to someone was insane. "You want power don't you?" Vergil's voice brought her out of her thoughts. "You want the power to finally stop feeling weak, to finally stand up to your father and break his control over you, to finally help your siblings, well I'm willing to give you that power."

"How do you know that?" she asked shocked.

"I had gone over your mind and saw everything there is to know about you. So I will repeat myself one final time, do you want my power?" She stared at him for a long moment before a thought came to mind.

"You said others wanted your power, why give it to me?"

"Because none who sought it were worthy of it, they would have used it for petty reasons and no good would come out of it. You, on the other hand, would actually do something right with it, you want the power to break your chains, you want the power to make sure you will never again be weak and helpless, to have others rule your life for you. You want power for the similar reasons I once did."

"And what do you get out of it? I'm not stupid, power always comes at a price," Winter said, she was now glaring at the man, but there was determination in her eyes.

"You would be right but my price is not as high as you would think. This portion of my soul will be bound to your own, if you so chose, you will get some of my memories, skills, power and knowledge and in return, I would leave this realm of half existence. I will become a voice in the back of your head, a conscience so to speak. I will help you to gain the freedom you so desire."

Winter continued to glare at the white-haired man. She would be lying if she said that she was not tempted by his offer, a chance to break from her father's chains, to help her sister and brother more than she can now. She knew that she was slowly losing the fight and that she was close to just running away and admitting defeat but maybe just maybe she wouldn't have to. Here was a man offering what he needed, and if he is not be believed the price was not high. She was a Schnee, she knew a thing or two about business deals and this one heavily favored her, but one should never forget to read the fine print.

"And how I'm to know that you are not laying, that you won't pull something?" she asked skeptically.

To this, his gaze hardened and he was now glaring at her, this made her flinch. "I swear as a son of Sparda that I will not do anything to harm you or yours, I will abide by the deal we have made," Vergil said. The way he said it and now he emphasized that name made her think he was telling the truth. This was a gamble she knew that but she had a chance and it was too good to pass over. After a long moment of contemplation, she sighed and looked at the tall man.

"We have a deal, you give me your power and I give you a way out of this place," Winter said.

She could have sworn that a ghost of a smile appeared on the man's lips. "Excellent," he said and soon the everything around her was engulfed in silver light once again.