The clacks of Winter's heels were like warning shots to anyone around her, an angry white tiger stalking her way through the charred ruins of the White Fang laboratory. Scientists and detectives actively stayed out of her path, glancing back at the ominous pillar as she made her way into the ruined White Fang base. Ironwood had left her in charge of keeping watch and sending reports to him while he prepared for the Vytal Tournaments. But anyone who knew what had happened knew it was because it was Weiss who'd been hurt, and Winter was more than likely going to discreetly force her way onto the case anyway.
Of course, Winter wasn't the only licensed huntsman on the case, or on the site. Qrow and Glynda had returned to the case and had given their aid for the past two weeks when they could. Glynda, in Winter's opinion, was far more suited to the cause than Qrow was, especially so considering his semblance. Despite a fury-backed command given by her, the old man had stayed around 'to help with her headache' as he'd put it. The file she'd found on him detailed his experience with his semblance 'Misfortune', where it seemed everything and anything could go wrong nearby him. Winter was sure he was simply a hazard to her health, physically and mentally. She actively tried to stay away from him, sending him to investigate the abandoned cages on the east side of the facility, while she stayed closer to the west.
She let out a small breath as she stepped through the rubbled doorway that led to the basement, with the lobby having collapsed during the students' attempts to break in. Glynda and Ironwood's machines had made quick work of breaking up the rubble into sizable chunks, allowing for easier access to the main area of interest below. Cautiously, Winter stepped down through the main entrance to the hidden lab below, the metal rattle of the grid beneath her boots announcing her entry into the cursed area. Several investigators looked up, but quickly continued with their own work, running tests on several sizable gashes in the metal work dotted around.
"Miss Schnee," Glynda's voice brought Winter to a stop. She turned to face the professor with a bow of respect. Glynda had her riding crop in her palm, likely having used it to continuously clear rubble to help with the investigation. Winter looked at it curiously for a moment, resting the base of her palm against her own sword.
"Your aid in clearing rubble has been a tremendous help, Professor."
"Professor is what my students called me, Miss Schnee." Glynda hummed, pushing her round-framed glasses back on the bridge of her nose. Winter took a breath, straightening her back and shifting to fold her arms behind her.
"Glynda it is then, this investigation would be much harder without your help. I'm grateful for all you've done so far."
"How is Weiss?" Glynda's voice held concern, understandably so. The last time the professor had seen her, Weiss had looked dead. Winter couldn't be thankful enough that it wasn't the case.
"She's stable, but still comatose. I'm here to search for a cure for her… condition." Winter explained, eager to move off the subject. While Winter wanted to be the one searching for a cure, or at least a way to help improve her sister's condition, she would settle for being by her bedside waiting for her to wake up.
Weiss was the only member of the family Winter ever felt remotely close to, what with her mother's drinking habit and her father being, well, her father. She could remember nights of holding Weiss under sheets while their parents argued loudly outside, promising her that she would protect her from the dangers of the outside world. She'd failed to keep her word, and she hated being reminded of that while she listened to the slow heartbeat of her sister in the silence.
"I see, let's get straight to the point then." Glynda said, clearing out one last pile of rubble as she recognised the unwanted weight of the topic. "Follow me."
Winter nodded, falling in step behind Glynda as she started to lead Winter down the dark, damp hallways of the underground facility. They passed several split paths as they walked, some that led to total darkness, and some to smashed glass cages and ashes from the flaming Grimm attacks.
"Our search teams haven't yet sweeped the whole area, so stay on your guard." Glynda spoke, her grip tightening on her crop as they went through a darker section of the hallways, the lights smashed above them. "Last thing we want is to get lost here with some unknown Grimm after us."
Following her about, Winter felt somewhat relieved to know someone as driven as Glynda would be working with her. It gave her some semblance of comfort, especially if there were unknown species of grimm in the surrounding hallways. Winter knew from experience that hunting in pairs was strongly recommended in situations like these, with unknown parameters and attack types. Not only that, but Glynda was a Huntress who trained other Huntsmen in Beacon, a prodigy school with exceptional graduates. Winter knew she could trust Glynda to watch her back against anything that attacked them.
Driving her thoughts to the back of her mind, Winter was intrigued by finding out about the cages. The markings... The scratches all seemed to indicate Grimm, but… they all seemed far too complicated to be anything Grimm either. She'd seen millions of types and species of grimm in the field, she'd seen their claw marks before. While some were recognisable, many were not. Some were razor thin, while others had longer tips and wider bevels toward them. Some were tiny, almost like fingernails dug into the metal.
"What do you make of these markings, Glynda?" Winter asked, stopping by the cage of what seemed to house a Nevermore, given by the feathers on the floor. "I've seen multitudes of Grimm on the field, but some of these marks I'm... unable to identify."
"Under most circumstances I would just chalk it up to Grimm scratching up the walls randomly in fits of rage. However… some of these markings are too… clean. Too well organized, thought out." Glynda replied, her face contorting in disgust as she looked upon the broken down cell. "The corpses we found had marks in them that even our specialists couldn't recognise."
"Think there might be something more to it?"
"Perhaps. We still need to fully secure the lower region where your sister was being held. Keep your weapon at the ready."
The mere mention of that place seemed to spark anger in Winter's normally calm disposition. Tightly drawing out her saber, Winter replied. "Understood."
"This is where they found her," Glynda came to a stop outside a wall, motioning to the panel that stuck out from it. "The security was overridden."
Winter pressed her palm against the glowing blue screen and waited, watching as the wall pulled itself in into the shape of a door and began to pull back. She furrowed her brows at the sight of it moving, pulling her hand away from the device as she stepped closer. Before Winter could step into the cell, however, a hand caught her shoulder.
"A word of warning, Miss Schnee," Glynda spoke, watching her over the rims of her glasses, "This place is extremely uncomfortable to be in, even for me. I can't imagine what it will be like for you." She let go of Winter's shoulder and pressed her glasses back up again, stepping away to leave Winter to her investigation. "The culprits weren't gentle with her."
"Your warning has been noted," Winter replied.
"I'll leave you to your work. You know where I am should you need anything." With that, Glynda returned down the path they'd travelled, her footsteps fading into silence. Winter watched her leave for a moment, before grounding her mind and finally stepping into the cell space where her sister had been refined to.
Almost instantaneously, her blood began to boil.
The room was akin to a solitary confinement facility. Concrete floors, bleached white walls with thick layers of padding. There were unconnected plumbing pipes nearby, likely having once been connected to a fountain.
Blood stained the center of the room, dried into the pale concrete in splashes and dots, and crusted into a steel anklet that chained the clasp to the floor. Above that, a curved, rusted, fish-hook-like instrument hung from the ceiling, its edges tarnished and scratched from a weight hanging from it. Winter recognised where Weiss had been hanging, images of the sickening video of her sister being beaten flaring up in her mind.
The walls were painted a harsh white, thick, soundproofing foam lining them in zig-zagging patterns. Winter's brows creased at the sight of the foam sheets. It made sense for the room to be made like this, especially given it was a crude torture chamber. The entire underground was swarmed with Grimm, even before they'd managed to breach it, and there was surely no lack of negative sounds and emotions streaming from this cursed place. It would've been key to keep any and all sound in this room, a twisted genius of an idea. If this had been under any other circumstance, maybe Winter would've been impressed, but it was Weiss who had been tormented by this.
Her fingers curled tighter into her palm as she stepped in further, her foot kicking something in the process.
Looking down, she noticed a small shard of dust laying discarded on the floor, and reached down to grab it. The shard was light and glowed dimly, a common feature of crystalline dust. It looked to have formed by itself on the floor, and was much smaller than a normally cut size. It was almost unbearably cold to hold, too strongly concentrated.
This was what Roman and his band of monsters had implanted into Weiss. Shards and shards of this cursed material were flowing beneath the skin of her baby sister, and Winter was helpless to do anything. Her sister had been nothing but a guinea pig trapped in a soundless room as monsters played with her life. Winter growled beneath her breath, letting the shard fall back to the floor.
Something shuffled behind her. Winter whirled around with her saber drawn and pointed towards whatever came near with the precision of a hawk. A young man squeaked in surprise, freezing on the spot as a shining blade threatened his life. Winter's eyes widened, quickly lowering her weapon as she realised that the scientist wasn't an enemy and sheathing it with a smooth flick of her wrist.
"My apologies," she said, folding her arms behind her back as the scientist regathered himself, "Are you in charge of this area?"
"Y-yes Miss Schnee," he stammered, pulling his mask back over his face nervously. He glanced at Winter's blade - now settled on her hip - anxiously as he spoke. "We found a laboratory with scans of your sister, we're investigating it now. We believe it might lead to something. If you'd like to follow me, I can show you."
Winter hummed, looking back to the abandoned cell for a moment, "Please."
The man nodded, turning and moving out of the small room. Winter quickly moved after him, relieved to be leaving the cursed confinement that her sister was subjected to behind her. There were no other cages, glass or otherwise, around the one Weiss had been subject to. She'd been strategically isolated from anything around her, alone and in pain and prone to inhumane experiments. Winter hated that with every fibre of her being.
Not Weiss, nor anyone, had deserved this. Her sister had always had an unfairly rough childhood, from Father's attitude to Mother's alcoholism and Whitley's distaste towards her. Winter could remember nights when she would visit shortly before Weiss left for Beacon, where she would be hiding in her room, tracing the scar over her puffy eyes. Of course, Weiss never made mention to the fact she'd been crying, neither had Winter, but they both knew that Winter had recognised it every time.
Winter remembered the night that Weiss had fought the Arma Gigas her father had set out for her. A sick trial, or an attempt to keep her home and show her that Weiss was weak. Pride had filled Winter's chest when she learned of Weiss' success, although the new scar on her face and the change of attitude towards her father was startling, to say the least. Winter had taken it upon herself to try and help Weiss improve in her abilities, both before and after the initial Arma Gigas trial. Winter wanted to know if Weiss would survive by herself, and although her skills were still lacking, she was slowly improving over time.
Weiss had been faced with trial after trial, and she had triumphed through almost every one with a new piece of her revealed with each. Winter had kept up with her sister's progress, with her monthly letters and watching the news of their first initial victory over Torchwick. This time, Winter wasn't so sure that her sister would push through to attain that victory. Nobody knew just how bad her treatment had been, but according to her medical results and the conditions she'd been subjected to, it had been far, far from pleasant. She knew Weiss would need time to recover, both mentally and physically, but Winter worried for her. She feared that Weiss would recline back beneath the surface she'd breached, and wouldn't return to it for some time.
Whatever happened, Winter made a promise to her that she'd try and protect Weiss from what she could. Her father, the White Fang, even herself if she needed to.
"It's in here," The man said, pushing open a pair of heavy swinging doors. Winter followed in after him wordlessly, scanning the room as she entered. It was a monitoring room of sorts, with a wall of computer screens running diagnostics, scattered paper notes along desks and stamped into the floor. The room was generally disorganised, with paper files open and clipboards stacked about by investigators. Most of the scientists in the room looked up in surprise at the introduction of Winter's presence, but quickly moved back to organising notes, muttering quietly to each other as they picked out sheets of paper.
"We don't have any leads, other than the scans," The man nodded to one of the bigger screens, where MRI-esque scans of her sister were displayed on it. While Winter wasn't a doctor, it didn't take much to recognise the unnatural clumps under the skin and around the shoulders of the image, that pooled on her shoulders and fell further down her spine and her arms. Winter studied it for a moment, before looking at one at the nearby scientists.
"Download these files, have them scrubbed and thoroughly searched," She ordered, stepping away from the screen as one of the technicians quickly rushed in to complete the request. "Send any samples from my sister to the Vale National Hospital."
"Yes Ma'am."
Winter stepped back, watching as some men moved in with laptops and hard drives in their hands. She sighed through her nose, turning away to go oversee some other documents when something glinted at her. She stilled, looking back at the direction of what had caught her eye. A single panel in the wall had been misplaced, covering a hole in the wall. Winter moved for it, her fingers grasping behind the exposed corner and tugging the foamboard away. Behind it was a safe, hidden within the darkness and electronics.
Winter pulled it out easily, catching the attention of the nearby scientists and investigators, who all curiously crept closer to see what had been pulled free. Winter stood back up, brandishing her saber and carefully aiming it at the locking mechanism. "Stand back," she warned.
The men did as they were told, giving Winter free reign over the safe. She touched the tip of the blade off the hinges, frost covering it and slowly turning to ice. Once it froze, Winter reached down and pulled the hinges free with a crack, the metal having shattered under the pressures of the freezing temperature. She sheathed her weapon as she tugged the door away, allowing who she assumed to be the head investigator to reach in and pull out it's contents.
The woman pulled out a brown file filled thick with paperwork, as well as vials with samples of blood and a strange black substance. Winter eyed them curiously, looking to the fair haired woman who held the file for an explanation.
"This might be something," she said, carefully looking through pages, "It holds accounts of Miss Schnee, as well as procedures to create what they referred to as 'Project Infusion'." Winter strode around behind the woman to look at the documents, however, many of the pages seemed to be just reports or studies from what Winter could tell from a distance.
"Do you think you could reverse engineer a cure?" She asked.
"Hm, perhaps. From what I can tell, these give instructions on how to avoid over diluting the dust dosages, as well as their chemical formula that I believe could be what they put into your sister," The woman closed the file and looked up at Winter with a nod, "If anyone can figure out a cure, it's us, ma'am. This will be a great aid in our research."
Winter felt a spark of hope ignite in her chest, a small smile forming on her face at the news, "Good. Continue to investigate the files we were provided, we can't let anything go unsearched."
"Yes Ma'am."
"Schnee."
Winter groaned inwardly, turning to face the main door to the laboratory. Qrow leaned against the support, beckoning her closer with his hand. The woman sighed roughly, carefully stepping around files and papers on the floor as she approached the rugged huntsman. He watched the investigators scurry around the room, only nodding in greeting when she got closer.
"Find anythin'?" He asked. Winter ignored his question. She didn't have time to - nor did she want to - speak to Qrow at the moment.
"What do you want, Qrow?" She questioned, folding her arms behind her back as she kept up her professional appearance, "I'd rather not have you and your unfortunate semblance near here, considering how crucial these documents are."
"Yeesh, relax Ice Queen," Qrow chuckled, stepping away from the door, "I'm here to help just as much as anybody else."
"And yet you still haven't told me why."
"My niece has grown quite close to your little sister, and who am I if I don't help my distressed niece in a time of need?" Qrow spoke, reaching into his coat and pulling his steel flask from it. Winter narrowed her eyes at that statement. His reasoning was sound, at least.
"Anyway, as much as I looove your company, there's something you need to see," He said finally, closing the cap of his flask and starting to walk down the hallway. Winter quietly started to follow him, scrunching her nose at the stench of alcohol that came from him.
"What did you find?"
"A grimm corpse."
Winter stopped in her tracks, an unamused look on her face, "If you're done wasting my time, I have an actual lead on my sister's health-"
"For a military leader, you don't have much of a brain, do ya?" Qrow cut over her, putting his hands in his pockets as he glared at the Schnee. Winter stared back, her brows creased in frustration. Qrow continued: "Grimm don't leave bodies behind, this one has."
Winter examined his stare for a beat, trying to pull apart his case. The older man stared back, no hint of amusement or sarcasm on his features. She narrowed her eyes at him, following back into step behind him, "You think it's another result of experiments similar to what my sister went through."
"It could be," Qrow shrugged, "But that means if the grimm in this facility had human beings inside them, then there are unknown hybrids out in the forest somewhere that escaped the fire."
That was definitely a concern. Winter nodded, "I'll send some men to try and locate them immediately. Is there anything else you came across?"
"They're much stronger than regular grimm, from what I've read in the reports." He began, nodding to one of the filed down gouges in the metal rails, "One escaped, what was supposed to be a small Beowolf."
"A Beowolf could not have made those kinds of marks-"
"Except it did," Qrow said, "Because it had a person inside of it. Some of the reports called it similar to the strength of an ancient."
Ancient Grimm were some of the oldest Grimm left remaining on Remnant. Usually, they remained hidden, their time alive giving them enough knowledge to know how to avoid humans, and how to fight them. They were extremely rare, and extremely dangerous. Winter had read reports on ancients killing entire platoon's worth of soldiers before.
"They were trying to bioengineer faunus to try and make them part Grimm. They were going to lead a war using experimental soldiers with the powers of ancient and alpha grimm against the humans."
"They would've turned into monsters," Winter mumbled under her breath, her fists tightening in rage, "They tried to use my sister to start a war."
"Possibly to pin the blame on the Schnee family," Qrow muttered, before slowing down, "It's just in here."
Winter stopped beside Qrow, looking through one of the few intact glass cages to a black and grey shape curled in the corner. It huddled into itself, stiff and lifeless. Winter could make out legs curled beneath it, akin to a spider in death, except she was sure she could see hard hooves on the ends. Immediately, her senses went on high alert, the hair on the nape of her neck raising as she drew her sword.
Qrow pressed a keycard to one of the nearby access points, allowing the hidden glass door to open and both hunters to pass through. Qrow pulled out his own weapon, the heavy greatsword glinting in the fake white light. He approached the shape carefully, prodding the body with the tip of his weapon to see if it was alive. There was no response to the pokes.
Winter got closer, moving around so she faced the front of it. The black shape looked like a grimm; an inky black body with white boney armor, red markings blossoming across the white on its body. However, Winter had never seen a Grimm look so disconcertingly human before. It looked as if the darkness of the grimm energy had swallowed a human up, the armor plating in the same spots where human armor would be. Winter could make out distinct bodily shapes as well, each of them a perfect match to a human. The anatomy was almost perfect, if it wasn't for the centaur-esque lower half.
"It holds similar features to a Nuckelavee, but I've never seen one look so human before," Winter said, lowering herself to get a better look at the body. Carefully, she pulled the exposed human-looking wrist closer, finding a spout of red veins originating from it. "You believe it was the aftermath of an experiment?"
"No other explanation for it," Qrow shrugged, kicking at one of the horse hooves, "I've seen thousands of grimm, all shapes and sizes, and all ages, but this?" He gestured to the body with his blade, "This is new. I've seen younger Nuck's before, but they don't look like this. This is missing the horse head, it's only got single toed hooves."
"Hm, you're right. We should bring it in for further examination then." Winter stood back up, starting to move back towards the glass door they'd come through, "If there's anymore of this bre-"
A rustle behind Winter made her stop, followed by a deep growling groan sound. She snapped back to face the grimm as it began to stir, sitting up from it's side and trying to get it's feet beneath it. Qrow jumped back, sword held in front of him with a look of frustration on his face. Winter quickly backed off as well, pulling the trigger that released her smaller, thinner blade from within her main one.
The grimm slowly came to its feet, it's mouth open in a drooling groan as it got its bearings. The two huntsmen watched in shock as frail flashes surrounded its body, an aura starting to regenerate around it. Winter's eyes widened, looking to Qrow for an explanation.
"Shit- The person's aura must still be active," Qrow grumbled, quickly changing his blade into it's lengthened scythe form, the gears inside the mechanism switching and moving around each other as the blade locked into position. Winter narrowed her eyes on the Centaur as it positioned itself, more of the hard bone armor that plated it growing from it's back like spines. It grunted and groaned at the new growth, arching its back as it grew.
Winter noticed the armor growth immediately, "We need to incapacitate it before it can complete its regeneration."
"That's the plan, Ice Queen!" Qrow called, twirling his scythe behind him and using the shotgun on the tip of it to blast onto the monster's back. It let out a petrifying scream in response, the sheer volume of it enough to force both of them to cover their ears. In Qrow's defenselessness, the Centaur snapped its head around fully to face Qrow on it's back, fire glowing in its throat.
Winter, however, quickly stepped in. A tall, silver Beowolf confronted the Grimm, claws ripping at it's chest. The Nuckleavee turned around in surprise as it's aura flashed, the fire that had aimed for Qrow ripping towards the wolf instead. It shattered the summon in an instant, continuing past Winter and melting through the glass barrier, where it scorched the wall on the outside of the cell. Winter gasped in surprise, sweat beading on her forehead from the mere heat of the blast.
"SCHNEE!"
She turned back around, raising her sword just in time to block a clawed hand from cleaving her in half. Her own aura flashed slightly at the impact, her muscles straining against the strength of the beast. She grit her teeth in frustration, aiming her smaller blade to the monster's unarmored stomach and summoning a glyph. Ice shot from the magic sigil, piercing through the monster with a wet squelch. Qrow staggered back as red, human blood splattered on his face, his scythe locked around Grimm's neck. He fired off his shotgun again, the inertia enough to completely behead the grimm in a single strike.
It's screech filled the room again as the horse-half reared up. Winter moved quickly, using another pair of glyphs to hold the creature down and impale it with another two shards of ice. The body went limp, the horse portion of the monster fading away as a normal Grimm would. However, it left behind the human shaped blob, the darkness that had surrounded it fading with the horse. Winter scrunched her nose and turned away as it left behind a greyed human corpse.
Qrow cautiously stepped closer, shifting his scythe back to it's greatsword mode and hooking it back onto his lower back, "Red and black blood. Poor faunus."
Winter ignored him, reaching for her scroll as she wiped droplets off her face, "I need a recovery team at my location. And bring a body bag."
"Ma'am? Do you require medical aid?" The voice called back on the line. Winter glanced over her shoulder to the decapitated body, thankful that the empty gaze was looking away from her.
"No, we're fine. Just a team with a bag."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Well, at least now we know that they were doing human experimentation," Qrow shrugged, wiping his face with his hands. Winter stared at the body in concern.
"Indeed. Are there any Grimm like this in the facility?"
"Dunno. I didn't get to go much further than this because your goons were blocking entrances."
Winter hummed, narrowing her eyes as she reconnected her blades, "We need to make sure none of these experiments escape. If they can evolve in power that quick, they could kill thousands if they reach cities."
"There could be some out there already," Qrow said, reaching for his flask and taking a deep swig of alcohol, "I'll let Oz know. Maybe he can send out some teams to hunt them down."
"I must go and contact General Ironwood with the update, and then my sister," Winter said, stepping away from the body and back towards the door. She paused just as she was about to leave, one last thought lingering on her mind. She sighed, "Thank you for your service, Qrow. Your help was greatly appreciated."
Qrow laughed huskily, wiping his chin of alcohol with the back of his hand, "Sure thing, Ice Queen. I hope your sister gets better soon."
"Thank you." With that, Winter turned and left, looking through the notifications in her scroll. Her eyes caught Ruby Rose's name instantly in the mountain of military related works, her brighter coloured icon sticking out like a sore thumb. She tapped into the message.
Ruby Rose (Team RWBY) 4:32PM :
Weiss is awake.
Winter's heart skipped a beat as she read over it, a weight lifting off her shoulders. She disliked the idea of missing her sister's awakening, however, the news that her little sister had woken up was good. She quickly typed out a response.
Winter Schnee 4:52PM :
I'm on my way.