The Heart of Winter
X – A Reason to Fight
Jaune Arc
Jaune was planning to sleep for a week when they finally made it to Mistral. Rest in the days following the destruction of the Branwen camp had been short-lived and food scarce but there had been a shift in the dynamic of the group which offered Jaune the hope he needed to keep going. Vernal might still be leading the way through the maze of towering trees and forgotten dirt paths as the sun sank down out of sight, the bandit understood she was not in charge anymore.
Instead Ruby was the one setting the pace and making the calls on when to rest and find food. Rowan offered council, clearly more familiar with the thing chasing them than he let on. But the older Huntsman and his friend seemed to have formed an unspoken alliance and the short Huntress heeded Rowan's advice and he never challenged any decision that she made.
Speaking of Rowan, a part of Jaune was admittedly unsettled by the admission of what was hidden inside him. Whilst he might not have known anything of Semblance or Aura when first attending Beacon, he'd seen more than his fair share of unique abilities since Pyrrha had first activated his Aura.
Never anything like Rowan's. Neither had Ruby, which worried him far more. Whilst she'd seen similarities between Rowan's original Semblance and Yang's, the way it had evolved and mutated was unlike anything she'd ever heard of. It didn't help that neither of them had any idea what an Oublieux was and how it had changed the older Huntsman.
Yet if the prospect of seeing Rowan's inner monster frightened Ruby like it did Jaune she was doing a much better job of hiding it. The thought that if pushed too far the older Hunter could turn into a Grimm-like monster hellbent on the destruction of everything in sight was terrifying. As a result, Jaune had been rather unsubtle in his attempts to stay as far away from Rowan as possible. He'd wished Ruby would do the same, but her refusal to be fazed by the idea of their new ally turning into a monster had the blonde hovering nearby just in case things did take a turn for the worse.
It shamed him to think he'd become so paranoid. Rowan's refusal to help in their escape, whilst still frustrating, made a whole lot more sense after the explanation of his Semblance. The warning he'd given them never left his mind though, Rowan knew he'd eventually snap and how dangerous he'd be when it happened.
Hyde, as Rowan called it, getting loose was only of when not if. He'd admitted as much.
"You okay over there Jaune?" said Huntsman asked from behind him.
"As about as good as can be." Jaune's tone was probably more deadpan than needed but he heard Rowan chuckle. "Any idea how much longer we're going have to walk?"
"No idea," Rowan said with an unhelpful shrug. "Can't be that much longer - another day at most. Good news: seeing as there's no sign of the Homunculus it looks like Raven bought plenty of time, so we might all get a few hours' sleep tonight."
"Good." Jaune nodded back as they were now walking side by side. If he weren't running on fumes Jaune might have made the effort to put some distance between them but accepted the situation for what it was: mindless conversation to distract them from how hungry and drained they both were.
"You mind if I ask you something?" Jaune sighed in reply, accepting that Rowan was going to ask whether he said yes or not. "Why do you follow Ruby?"
Well, that hadn't been what he was expecting.
"I… what?" Jaune stammered, looking utterly aghast as his mind was suddenly abuzz with implications of such a question. "What does that even mean?"
"What I mean is," Rowan said before scratching at the side of his face, "why follow her when you both clearly have different ideas on how to deal with Cinder when you eventually catch up to her? Whilst your goal is the same your motives aren't – and dare I say the lines you're willing to cross to get this done are just as different."
"What does that matter?" Jaune asked, too tired to sound as angry as felt at that moment.
"A lot." Rowan grabbed onto his shoulder, stopping him before he could stomp off. "As I said before Jaune, I know you. I was you. You're walking a very thin line right now and when you see Cinder again, you'll have to choose who you really are."
Jaune didn't have to listen to this. But when he tried to pull away, he found Rowan's grip on his shoulder to be an iron vice. In his exhausted state he almost found himself staggering. He looked back towards Rowan to see black bleed into the corners of his eyes for a moment before he closed them and shook his head. When they opened again the man's eye had returned to normal.
"You really need to listen," Rowan hissed, his grip tightening, "I'm trying to make you understand. You and I are on the same path – one that only ends in death for everyone involved but you can still turn back, Jaune. We're similar, yes, but you have something I never did."
Jaune followed Rowan's gaze as it shifted to the back of Ruby's head as she got further and further ahead of them. "She can see what you clearly can't because the only thing you see is Cinder and your seething hatred of her. You need to decide what matters more," Rowan finally released his grip on Jaune, "your capacity for hate, or your ability to love. You've got another reason to fight Jaune, I'm trying to help you pick the right one before something you can't take back happens. Something that will destroy you."
"But I don't like Ruby like that!" Jaune just about yelled.
Rowan rolled his eyes; "I never said you did or had to, did I? All I'm saying is you have a friend who cares about you deeply and is doing what she can to save you from yourself. Just take a step back and think. The next time you see Cinder you'll end up on one side of that line you walk and there's no coming back then. Ruby is right that this probably isn't how your friend would want to be remembered so don't become a monument to vengeance that she'd never want."
"You don't know the first thing about Pyrrha!"
"Then tell me about her." Rowan's demand caught Jaune completely off guard, leaving him speechless.
Jaune could feel something inside him twist as Rowan stopped walking to look him dead in the eye. A part of him wanted to believe the older man was just saying what he was to help try and make his own point, but the man looked genuinely sympathetic. He was pushing so hard because he wanted to help, not because he wanted to be right.
"Pyrrha was…" Jaune started, only to realise he hadn't really talked about this. At all. With anyone. Whilst they'd all originally agreed to stop Cinder because of what happened to Pyrrha she'd become an unspoken taboo. Especially for Jaune. "Pyrrha was patient. I was such a burden during our time at Beacon, but she never once got angry or upset with me when she found how weak I was and the reason why. She only wanted to push me to be better, her kindness knew no bounds and she was always there to pick me up when I was down, even if she was hurting herself doing it."
"Sounds like the kind of girl guys dream about."
"She liked me for the longest time. But I couldn't see it." Jaune felt something catch in his throat, eyes stinging with tears. "But even now I don't know how I feel about her. That last time I saw her, she kissed me, and I didn't even kiss her back. I was just too shocked to really do anything before she trapped me in that locker and sent me flying. Less than ten minutes later she was dead…"
Jaune knew he was crying but Rowan didn't say anything for the longest time, letting the blonde get it out of his system. Jaune eventually dried his eyes with the black of his sleeve. Rowan reached out and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
"You know," Rowan looked thoughtful for a moment after the long lull of silence, "Amber came from a tribal people, and they had this unique outlook on death. Her people believed that even if a person's physical body dies their soul only truly dies when they're forgotten. One day each year, the souls of dearly departed return to this world to be with us again, even if we can't see them."
"Do you believe that?" Jaune asked sceptically unsure why the conversation had taken such a turn but was willing to go with it for now.
"Maybe not all of it," Rowan said before scratching his cheek, "but I don't think they're entirely wrong either. The core of the idea is that the better remembered you are, the happier memories you left in the world the better you're protected in the afterlife."
"Protected?"
"It's said that those who aren't well remembered and those who are forgotten also come back on that fateful date with the other souls – as newly born Grimm. Even souls well remembered and honoured are not immune to the darkness, as those who would carry out acts of evil committed in the names of the departed taint their souls and they eventually become Grimm. Much darker Grimm who exist to hunt those that corrupted them."
"That's kind of dark."
"Thankfully it's all fables but the message is the important part: remember and honour your loved ones, do as they would do and learn to forgiven past slights or something like that. I might not entirely remember what Amber said the point was." Rowan lost Jaune at that point, it'd sounded so mystical before and now it seemed rather flat and preachy. "Then again, if there is any truth to it, I've got a lot of grovelling to do when I see Amber again in the afterlife. Man, she's going to be pissed at me."
Jaune let out a weak chuckle at Rowan's obviously exaggerated expression of fear. He felt a little easier for what Rowan had said, he just wished it was so simple as being able to let go of the hate that had boiled instead of him since the fall of Beacon.
"It's alright not to know how you felt about the kiss with Pyrrha." Rowan eventually led them back on topic. "In fact, it doesn't matter if you ever figure it out. As cold as it sounds it doesn't matter now because even if she'd lived, even if you knew for certain that you liked her back that's no guarantee of a happy ending, Jaune. Try not to dwell on it because thinking like that destroys even the best of us.
"Go forward and live your life as the best version of yourself you can be. That's how you honour Pyrrha, how you show her you loved her, even if not romantically: by becoming the man she knew you were and not throwing the life she gifted you away over petty vengeance as I did. Live and pass on what she taught you to keep her memory alive."
Easier said than done.
"So… did you like, like-like Amber?" Jaune asked to distract himself from the storm brewing inside. It seemed like the next logical question given how much Rowan claimed to speak from experience. That he'd been in Jaune's shoes not so long ago. "Is that why you hunt Cinder?"
"I'm a poor kid from Mantle," Rowan shook his head, "I spent a lot of my time as a kid being angry at how much better off Atlas was. Being a castoff didn't help matters because that kind of stigma follows you around, especially in Solitas."
"You're a faunus?" Jaune asked, a little confused on how any of this related to his question although he suspected it all had to do with his question in some way.
"I was one of the lucky ones," Rowan ruffled his mess of salt and pepper hair, "dad was a faunus, but my mother was human and I took after her. But I wasn't ashamed of where I came from, and I took the last name Lupus to honour my father. Point is, I really wanted a sibling as a kid – that's what Amber was. She was the sister I always wanted."
"What about your team at Atlas?" Jaune found himself asking.
"Wisteria was… cold." Rowan's expression soured. "Don't get me wrong, I'd still trust any of them with my life if I had to, but Atlas is very against the students getting too personal. If someone dies in the line of duty you needed to be ready to slot into whatever team comes along next without issue. So, it was never a good idea getting too friendly with anyone."
"So, you never dated anyone…?"
"Oh, no," Rowan actually blushed, "that kind of relationship could get your ass kicked out of Atlas. If you were there it was to learn, not to get frisky with other students. That didn't stop some students, and there were plenty of people who caught my eye, but after how hard I had to fight to get into Atlas in the first place I wasn't risking it. Especially when my team leader was Winter Schnee. I always thought your deputy headmistress was smoking hot though, like ten out ten kind of hot. Clover isn't bad to look at either."
"My sister!?" Jaune just about yelled at the older man who jumped forward a step out of the blonde's reach.
"What can I say?" Rowan laughed as he turned back to face Jaune with a smirk; "I like blondes! There was this one girl, though." Looking thoughtful, the older Huntsman looked as though he was remembering a fond memory. "After I became Amber's guardian, I literally crashed into the munchkin by accident during some downtime in Vale; getting chewed out via sign language was a weird experience let me tell you."
"What happened to her…?" Jaune asked without meaning too.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Rowan shrugged. "We ran in different social circles and part of protecting Amber meant staying on the move and never lingering in one place for long. Our time was a brief, but I'll never forget her. Who knows, when this is all over maybe I'll go find her."
From the way he said it, Jaune doubted Rowan believed in the last part. There was clearly more to the whirlwind romance but the blonde felt like pushing for more details would be disrespectful after how open Rowan had been without real prompting.
"Jaune! Rowan!" Ruby's voice came from down the distant path before he could formulate a response; "Vernal says there's a stream up ahead where we can catch some fish so hurry your butts up already! It's time to eat!"
"Sounds like the dinner bell!" Rowan's smile was wide now as he turned away from Jaune and looked ready to run to catch up. Jaune could only watch the other man's back ahead of him as he found himself with a lot to think about.
Like which side of the line was he going to fall onto.
Weiss Schnee
"Now that the distraction is out of the way," Weiss' opponent said in a light voice, smooth like silk as his silver eyes glittered behind his mask, "we can continue where we left off, Miss Schnee."
Ormand Kos, Weiss having overheard his name earlier, didn't rush her at his announcement, in fact, he came at her in a way that seemed rather lazy, black ice cracking like glass underfoot as smoke twisted around them. He had one hand at his side and swung his own blade with the other as Weiss summoned knight descended on him.
Weiss could feel her heart grow heavy as reality sank in; exhausted and recovering from an injury she could barely keep up now and the whirling teeth of Ormand's sword shredded her summoned knight like paper. Physical ice scattered each which way and the white-haired girl could only dance around it as she avoided another lazy slash from the faunus assassin.
Why hadn't the summon merely faded away like normal?
"Your rust is showing, Miss Schnee," Ormand chuckled as he eyed her with predatory eyes. When Ruby looked at her with silver eyes, she felt safe and valued – like she belonged, that she was loved. But Ormand's gaze made her feel her sick, her skin crawled as the man's eyes made her feel weak and alone – utterly opposite to how the only other pair of silver eyes she'd had known did. "It seems your time in your high tower has damped your instincts."
Weiss let out a snarl of frustration and she could feel her eyes burn for a moment, right hand clenching tightly before spears of black ice shot from the ground. Ormand was forced to take his blade in both hands for a moment as he spun, slicing through the ice. The shattered ice kissed and nipped at her skin but it gave her enough time to put some space between her and her attacker.
"Interesting," the assassin murmured, as he examined the flat of his blade, golden teeth still whirling, "our reports on the Schnee family Semblance doesn't describe anything like that. Do your eyes always turn black when you use your glyphs? Or was that something else perhaps?"
"They what?" Weiss stammered, a little panicked now. Ormand was right; she shouldn't have been able to do anything like that with the dust she had on her. Was something happening to her? Had her Semblance mutated as Yang's had? It was possible – Semblances did change and grow over time and repeated use, but this felt different.
This felt foreign. It felt wrong. She felt wrong.
"That'd be a no then." The faunus didn't give her any other chances to ponder what was happening as he was on her again. Even if she wasn't in such a rundown state, she doubted she could face someone like Ormand head-on in a contest of strength, with overwhelming ease he batted away her feeble attempts to thrust at him with Myrtenaster whilst she could only desperately dodge his lazy replies.
He was toying with her, damn it.
But the last few days wore heavy on her and eventually, her attacker caught the frayed ends of her hair with the teeth of his blade and Weiss footwork suddenly slip as her heel was caught in a crack of ice. Her ankle twisted but she could recover, or she would have if Ormand hadn't taken his blade in both hands and thrust. The swirling maw of golden teeth caught her in the side where she'd been impaled by shrapnel after the crash. Her Aura cracked and vanished under the hiss of a small motor and her wound was torn open again as the spinning teeth of the chain-blade stopped spinning as the tip of the blade rested in her gut.
Weiss screamed.
Her knees gave out under her, her entire body racked with white-hot pain. But Ormand grabbed Weiss's right wrist as she slumped to her knees, holding her slightly off the ground. It was clear the battle was over. It had been for a while. Ormand just wanted to drag out her suffering.
But if team RWBY had taught Weiss anything, it was how to be defiant to the very end. Myrtenaster was still in her hand so she thrust upward with the blade, hoping to at least do something in a final show of resistance. The masked warrior just laughed the Weiss glared. She could feel the burning sensation in her eyes return as the ice behind her capture cracked and twisted before a fresh spear spur from the ground.
Ormand was caught unawares, the ice striking him in the back before he let out a noise of surprise and pain as his Aura flickered dully. Throwing his elbow back, he shattered the spear of black ice with a hiss, his eyes flaring with anger as his grip around Weiss' wrist tightened.
"It seems you must be taught manners, Miss Schnee." Ormand shook his head as his weapon suddenly came alive again. Weiss couldn't struggle free before the chattering teeth of the spinning blade came slashing down on her left shoulder. "You will respect your betters, white-haired bitch!"
He released his grip on Weiss' shoulder and she felt the ground come up to meet her. Myrtenaster clattered into the damp earth next to her, the black ice melting away now she was beaten as a low mist curled up from the ground.
Her eyes burned again, this time form tears as she clutched at her shoulder, body shaking with silent sobs. Yang, please, she hoped the blonde could hear her silent plea for help wherever she was; no one except her father had ever made her feel this weak and she hated Ormand for it. All that effort to escape only to swap one capturer for another.
"How utterly underwhelming," Ormand tsked as he used his foot to kick her onto her back, putting a boot on Weiss' uninjured shoulder, "here I thought you Schnee woman were supposed to be feared."
"It's not me you should be afraid of," Weiss hissed through teary eyes as she glared up at the faunus. "Yang will turn you in kindling when she's done with you underling."
"Oh, how little you know." Ormand said as he kicked Myrtenaster away from Weiss' reach. Before she could get out her retort though there was a shifting, cracking of black ice as the largest of the three faunus, Yang's first opponent seemed to groan awake as Weiss clutched her left shoulder in a vain attempt to apply pressure.
Staggering upright, the faunus looked around and blinked dumbly, scratching at his were his mask had been cracked and broken by Yang's pummelling: "What happened?"
"We won," Ormand smirked as he gave Weiss a swift kick into the roots of a nearby tree. But when he turned to look at his beaten comrade, he instead saw something move amongst the tree, giving a half bow of respect as a woman stepped into their clearing. "My lady."
"Ormand, you never fail to impress me with your efficiency." Weiss could only assume this faunus was Sora Hart given the description Yang had given her of the would-be cowboy when she recounted how she found her. Weiss hissed as she nursed her injury. "As for you, Rouxas, you continue to astound me with how you could lose to that blonde bimbo."
"Sorry," the hulking gorilla muttered and the woman just marched past him. Not interested in excuses.
"Let's not make a habit out of it." The hulking brute nodded his head quickly as he shifted, fiddling fingers in shame. This Sora woman was their enemy then, one who had no doubt summoned the assassins to capture her and both men seemed to respect, and Rouxas' case, fear her.
"Where's Cerise?" Ormand asked.
"Dealt with like the rest of Khan's loyalist soon will be," Sora said and Ormand chuckled as he stepped back. The deceptive snake squatted in front of her, smirking. "I've waited for this day a long time and at long last, we meet Weiss Schnee."
"If you're going to kill me then just do it," Weiss said in a hiss, eyes narrowed as she clutched her ruined shoulder. If she was to somehow make it out of this, she had no idea if she'd ever be able to wield Myrtenaster properly again after the damage done to her shoulder.
"Killing you here in the middle of Nowhere holds no meaning – no impact." Sora shook her head, her eyes wide with glee as she showed off her pointed teeth. "No, you'll live a day or two more. And when my White Fang attacks Haven we will use the CCT there to broadcast your execution, so the world really understands what it has brought on itself.
"Not everyone will see of course," Sora nodded to herself before Weiss could point out said fact herself, "but word will spread quickly enough. People will at least be held accountable and the war between the Schnee and White Fang will finally become the war between humanity and the Faunus."
"You won't get the chance, Yang will stop you!" Weiss said as she did her best to sound confident, eyes flicking in hopes of finding a flash of gold or hear a scream as Yang came to her rescue. There was nothing as Sora let the silence linger for a moment, smile before she licked her lips.
"Rather hard for a dead woman to do anything seeing as she should have bled out in that ditch by now."
"You're lying!" Weiss hissed through her tears, voice quaking. Sora said nothing to prove her point, instead, she unsheathed her blade, still stained red with fresh blood. Laying it across her thighs, the snake faunus reached behind her back for something. A large section of tied off hair that she used to start cleaning the sword. Yang's hair. "No…!"
Weiss tried desperately to lunge forward and swipe at the faunus only to get a fist to the face for her troubles. Her head snapped back, crashing against something hard as everything blurred, becoming distant.
"Rouxas, go on ahead and notify our brothers and sisters we've completed the first step of our mission. Ormand get the girl moving or move her," Sora ordered her subordinates as she stood, discarding the Yang's severed hair like a dirty rag. "The sooner we get back to headquarters the sooner the revolution can begin when Khan is out of the way. Provided Fall keeps up her end of our bargain."
Ormand's footfalls were muffled and distant as Weiss struggled to make anything out in detail, one hand desperately reaching out for something that wasn't there. When Ormand's foot came down Weiss knew no more as the dark embraced her fully.
Song: A Reason to Fight as performed by Disturbed
We made into double digits! Just about everyone is now where they need to be for the snowball to start going wild, really looking forward to it - and I hope you guys are too. Back to Qrow next chapter with Back in the Game followed up by Feed the Wolf, no bonus points for guessing which character yet to appear gets a point of view in that chapter. Until then, stay safe friends.