Chapter 7
Yang lunged forward upon her bed in shock only to be halted as a gloved hand pressed against her shoulder firmly, gently pushing her back down into a laying position. "You're safe" came Winter's soft voice, she was sitting besides her bed upon a chair. It took a moment for Yang to notice her surroundings once more, her breathing was heavy and her whole body was in a sweat as if she had woken up from a bad dream. "You've been thrashing around in your sleep" noted Winter as she removed her hand from Yang's shoulder, idly placing it upon her own knee instead.
"So... It was a dream then..?" Yang spoke weakly, rubbing her eyes with finger and thumb. To say her hair was a mess is an understatement.
"Was what a dream?" asked Winter as she watched over the woman in the bed curiously. One leg crossed over the other in an almost regal fashion.
Her lilac eyes turned to meet the icy blue of Winter's. "Neo" stated Yang as she tried to fix what she could of her hair, at least pushing her fringe from her eyes at the very least.
Winter paused and gave a slight frown. She shook her head, "No... That was not a dream..." she answered in a seemingly regretful form.
With a surge of fear in her eyes Yang brought her left hand towards her own neck, it still ached. The tattoo must still be there. She looked back to Winter and spoke urgently."W- Winter, my Dad, where is-" she was cut off as Winter held a hand out towards her in a calming expression.
"Stop" she ordered, silencing Yang with her words. "Your father is being monitored much like you were. We get an update on his location every ten or fifteen minutes. You need to calm down now and talk to me" answered Winter, lowering her hand back onto her folded knee. She looked as elegant as you might imagine, back straight and chin up. Her gaze only slightly narrowed at Yang.
Yang seemed to ignore Winter's request as she spoke, "How did she get in here?" she asked, looking to the door of the medical room. She could see the shaded figures of two guards outside.
Once more Winter paused as if she didn't have a good answer. "We... Don't know. The only people who had access to this room have been myself, your father and the hospital staff. And before you ask I am fairly certain we would have noticed a girl with pink and brown hair posing as a nurse. Neopolitan was neither seen entering nor leaving this building, let alone your room".
The words did little to comfort Yang. If Neo could get into her room without anyone knowing, what was to stop her doing it a second time? She noticed Winter giving her a glare, as if still waiting for an answer to her own question. Shaking her head she opted to give a response, "I... I saw Blake" she answered.
Winter's voice snapped quickly, "Where?" she asked, leaning forward in her chair to listen more intently.
"The... apartment at the edge of the industrial district... I chased her through the alleys but..." Yang stopped as she recounted her failure to catch Blake. She watched as Winter immediately took to her scroll, typing out a message with deft fingers.
"Anything more?" asked Winter, to which Yang nodded before resuming.
"Junior is... getting shipments of dust from the White Fang, he gives them information on Blake to pay for it..." she managed, reaching out her hand for the glass of water at the side of her bed. Winter noticed this and paused her typing to take hold of the glass and hand it out towards Yang. She graciously accepted the glass and started drinking from it as Winter returned to her scroll.
"I will have some men search the area. Unfortunately we will have to avoid doing anything about Hei Xiong for now, but the White Fang? Perhaps we could squeeze some information out of him if we promise not to take his current supply of dust" spoke Winter, finishing with her scroll as she looked back up to Yang. "If we cater to his greed and suggest it may be possible for us to bring down the White Fang, it'd give him a monopoly on the dust he has already collected. And I am sure that man would love nothing more than that. With that in mind he will hopefully tell us everything we need to know, thinking we'd unknowingly be helping his cause" she finished, taking Yang's empty glass back from her and placing it on the side of the bed.
Yang's expression slowly started to shift into a bleak one, looking to Winter as if she could somehow help. "Why did she... She ran from me..." she spoke, her voice somewhat cracking. She didn't want to believe Blake left her for some nefarious reasons but with running away she was making it all the more harder to believe. It was as someone once told her. The innocent never run.
Winter's expression softened towards Yang somewhat, it seemed her heart of ice could thaw at times. "I am... sure she has her reasons. Don't cast aside a happy ending just yet, Miss Xiao Long. I know that I have not" she spoke, reassuring the girl in front of her.
Of course. Winter had Weiss to worry about, and she was far away in Atlas living a life she didn't seem to want. And once more Yang was here, thinking that her worries were the only ones in Vale. It made her feel self-centred and she frowned once more, looking to the window. "Do you miss her...?" she asked.
"Miss her? No. We often spent large amounts of time away from each other so it is nothing I've not experienced before" replied Winter coldly, but then her voice once more softened after a pause of consideration. "But I do worry, enough that I would be willing to go to Atlas this very moment to retrieve her. My duty prevents me from doing so however. I could tell my superiors it was for the objective of re-uniting your team but they would simply have me remain in Vale seeing as your Miss Belladonna is still here" she answered, her voice by now had lost all of its tense nature.
Yang turned back to the woman sitting besides her. She felt something strange when Blake was referred to as being hers, but was sure it was simply the way Winter worded it and nothing more. "If you help me find her, if you help me get my answers... I'll come with you, to find Weiss" spoke Yang, some amount of determination having been returned to her.
Winter for the briefest moment looked shocked, she then smiled and shook her head. "There is no need to repay me for my work, Miss Xiao Long. Though the notion is well received" she answered.
"I'm not repaying you. After I find Blake I want to find the rest of my team. It's my job too you know?" responded Yang with confidence in her voice.
The Schnee thought about the idea, her cold gaze piercing Yang as she looked her over curiously. Eventually she extended her left hand out towards her. "Very well Miss Xiao Long. I accept your proposal" with that Yang shook her hand firmly. "I believe I feel myself more inclined to find your partner now, so assume that I am granting you additional support in the matter" smiled Winter before releasing Yang's hand. "But I think it is best we move onto your condition as of right now. Was it her?" she asked, putting emphasis on the last word.
Yang tried to shift her position slightly, the pain wasn't unbearable but enough to make her groan in discomfort. Her body still ached. "Yeah. She caught up to me when I was chasing Blake. I kept trying to get around her..." she nodded as she winced from the memory.
Winter continued to observe Yang. "She is certainly capable of some damage. I am more thankful that you are capable of taking it. Unfortunately you will be here for at least the rest of today, your aura is still working hard to repair the damage caused. The... tattoo however..." she began, looking to the bold letters upon the left side of Yang's neck that spelt out Neo's name, clear for all to see.
Bringing up her hand Yang touched at the ink on her skin, "I can't believe she actually..." she sighed to herself, suppressing the anger building up inside her already. "I'm going to get her for this. I'll break every bone in her body. She made me look like an idiot, she made dad think she was my... He watched as she sat besides me, playing pretend. He had no idea..." she said in a crestfallen manner, her eyes staring forward at the door blankly.
"She will most certainly receive her dues, I can assure you of that. Do you understand her semblance? Her strengths and weaknesses?" spoke Winter, finally standing up to her feet and marching across to the window.
Yang's lilac eyes tracked Winter as she moved across the room. "She can..." for a while she thought on how best to explain it. It was true that she didn't know exactly what Neo's semblance was, but she had seen it used on a few occasions now. "I... don't really know what it is, but sometimes when I try to hit her she shatters, but then she's somewhere else, ready to hit back. Back when I was on the train in Mountain Glenn she sort of... dazed me with a weird flash. Her eyes change colours too" she responded, giving her own impressions on the semblance.
Winter stared out the window in silence for several seconds before turning around to face Yang. "It almost sounds like some form of light manipulation" she answered. "Bending and shaping light so that she can cause illusions, or something so simple as change the colour of her eyes. But that would not explain the physical aspect of her illusions that "Shatter" as you so put it. Light is not physical, after all" finished the woman. "What else do you know?" she asked.
Deep in thought Yang remembered her fights with Neo, steadily patterns started to emerge in her mind. "She... mostly waits for me to attack first" she nodded, "She uses her legs a lot too, and that stupid umbrella that blocks everything" Yang added, she looked especially sour at that last part.
Nodding and taking in all the information Winter continued to ponder. "She sounds patient. She's certainly more of a responder than an instigator when it comes to a battle. That is likely the reason you can't do very well against her, you are... from what I've been told... very hot headed" she spoke.
Yang seemed a little stunned. "Was that a pun?" she asked.
Winter scoffed and waved her hand at the woman dismissively. "My sister's words" she replied. "When you are confronted with her again however, I highly suggest calling for reinforcements as you avoid direct conflict" added Winter as she walked over to Yang's bed with a hand outstretched to her. "Your scroll" she asked.
Yang didn't hesitate to hand her scroll over to Winter, for some reason she had complete trust in her. It might be because she was the sibling of one of her team members and the trust extended to them through that connection. "Reinforcements? Your soldiers couldn't do anything to her" responded Yang while Winter took her scroll from her hand.
The taller woman made a few swiping motions on Yang's scroll before she started tapping in numbers. "Be they efficient or not, they ought to dissuade Neopolitan from engaging you. And keeping you alive is in fact a priority in regards to my secondary objective here" answered Winter, eventually holding out Yang's scroll back to her. An additional contact had been added, it was simply called "Winter +".
Yang raised a brow at the name of the contact before looking up to Winter, "You'll help me out in a fight?" she asked.
Winter gave out a sigh, "As I mentioned when we first met, do not use it for your own convenience. Only call when you are confronted with Neopolitan again, or if you are in an emergency" she answered, somewhat dodging the original question. Yet Yang never saw fit to press it. "Now get some sleep" ordered Winter as she started marching through the room once more.
"Wait-" began Yang as the fear of being alone in this room struck her. Her fears were quickly quelled however as Winter took her seat besides the bed once more, looking down at her with a puzzled look. After realizing Winter was going to stay she awkwardly looked elsewhere, avoiding her gaze. "Just... Thanks. I guess" she muttered.
With a brief smirk Winter offered a simple nod in response.
She opened her eyes again but she was surrounded by darkness, save for the extremely dim light of the moon shining through the slits of the blinds on the window and the various LED's on the machines within the room. The heart monitor had been unplugged from her, they must have removed it some time in the night after deciding she didn't need it any more. But other than that she could neither hear or see anything. She shifted in her bed, the quilt making an audible sound. All of a sudden Winter's voice spoke in almost a whisper. "Trouble sleeping?" she asked. Yang could hear where the voice had come from, the chair besides her once again, but she couldn't see Winter herself. Yang reached her hand out to where she thought Winter was and in response the woman's hand clasped around her own. "I am still here. What is it?" she asked again.
Feeling some measure of comfort from the touch, Yang looked to where the ceiling would be as she talked, gripping Winter's hand. "Nothing... Just worried is all" Yang responded, she felt Winter's hand tighten around her own in reassurance.
"Your father is fine, look" spoke Winter. Yang peered in her direction before a bright screen engulfed her vision, making her wince. As her eyes adjusted to the bright light she could see that she was looking at a message. It stated that Taiyang Xiao Long was staying in an apartment down the road, and that he had safely entered it five minutes ago. More notably however was that he was armed.
Yang frowned at the message, "He's looking for her..." she said, some amount of worry audible in her tone of voice. The bright screen departed from her vision as Winter closed her scroll. The light had only caused Yang's eyes to have even more difficulty seeing in the dark as they attempted to adjust to the low light once more.
"Need I remind you that your father is a full fledged Hunter?" replied Winter. She wasn't wrong, Taiyang was such an extinguished hunter that he taught at Signal, and most of all taught Yang her style of combat. Even their weapons were similar. While Yang used Ember Celica, a once dual pair of gauntlets that could fire both missiles and shotgun blasts, Taiyang used two gauntlet weapons named Spark Dibolic. They appeared similar to Yang's gauntlets, only that Spark Dibolic could shoot powerful jets of fire and had built in gattling guns around the fists. The reckless and wide-spread damage of the weapons inspired Yang to build her own gauntlets which obtained even greater close-range and long-range capabilities.
Still looking unsure Yang replied to Winter. "I know, but I don't like him getting involved. Neo is my problem, not his" she answered.
"Be thankful that your father is willing to go to such lengths for you at all" responded Winter in her calm tone. As per usual the reality hit Yang again. It seemed that everything she was dealing with related to family, the Schnee family could one-up.
"Sorry" apologized Yang in a whisper at the realization, she felt Winter's second hand clasp on top of hers.
"Don't be. All I am implying is that you should count your blessings" she replied before finally releasing Yang's hand.
Her lilac eyes attempted to look at her surroundings for any visible clock in the room. Unfortunately she couldn't see anything resembling one and so she turned to the woman who sat besides her. "What time is it?" she asked puzzled.
After a brief pause Winter answered, she almost sounded a little tired. "Three in the morning. You should probably try and get some more rest, tomorrow will be a busy day for you no doubt" she replied.
"I've got no idea where I should start next..." muttered Yang, still refusing to sleep for now.
It sounded although Winter changed her seating position in her chair, if the ruffling of clothing was anything to go by. "Did you already forget? We're going to convince Junior to tell us more about the White Fang. It is likely we will also receive additional leads in the morning" she said with confidence in her soldiers.
"It is morning" retorted Yang.
Winter sighed to herself, "You know what I mean" she answered.
Yang felt like she had almost bonded with Winter over her duration in the hospital so far, and she truly felt safe around her. If what Ruby said was true, she was able to go head to head with Qrow and walk away just fine. Yang knew just how skilled Qrow was which meant that Winter must be on his level. If they ever encountered Neo together she was sure they would be able to take her on. And if they found Blake, Winter could probably catch her with relative ease using her glyphs.
With the support of Weiss' sister it seemed like the coming day would finally yield some proper results. That was all balancing on the fact that they could get an audience with Junior and get a few new leads by then of course. Blake won't escape a second time, and Neo won't make a fool of her for the fourth.