Amity Colosseum, Atlas.

38th Annual Vytal Festival Tournament.

Announcer: Team WNTR of Atlas has defeated team DRED in the semifinals and will advance to the final round.

'What the hell Tara? The glyph was charging all of us at once, why did you break the formation?'

'I saw an opening, so I took it. It worked didn't it?'

'That's not the point. Winter still had to boost you separately and then was left open and almost got nailed because of you! You almost lost that for us, and nearly got us all killed!'

'And yet Rachel,—Queen Winter, Nikki and you are still alive and well and bitching at me as usual. Alternatively, you should be thanking me.'

'Really, Tara?'

'I'm serious Nikki. Two more seconds in that glyph and all three of our semblances were going to short-circuit—I could feel it. Winter was using too much power.'

'Or, it was working exactly like it did the hundred or so times we ran it in practice. You just wanted to be the center of attention like you always do.'

'Enough. We're representing Atlas and need to start acting like it. It worked Tara I'll give you that—poorly, but it did—but we're better than that. We're still in the tournament, but to win it all we HAVE to work as a team. If you feel I'm over charging, signal to me like we practiced. But we cannot break apart like that again without some kind of warning, we're not going to get that lucky in the finals, is that understood?'

'Really Emerald?'

'I'm serious Robyn, it's an actual phobia. Pithecophocia, look it up. Don't give me shit for this right now.'

'Guys come on—he just has a tail, it's not like he's completely a monkey. I mean, sometimes he does act like one, but that's not the point.'

'Nora you know him best, just ask him to keep the tail away from me. Please.'

'I think you should just explain it to him or he's going to think you have something against Faunus. It might help you get over it to just talk to him about it.'

Nora's voice slowly pulled Winter out of her memories. They had left the Academy complex—she, Robyn, Emerald and Nora—and were now out in the dusty streets of Vacuo. How far had they walked? She hadn't paid attention. These episodes of lost time were becoming more and more frequent lately, she realized.

'Are you doing ok?'

Her Sabre. She'd left it back in her room, she should go back and get it.

'Winter?' At the abrupt sound of her name, Winter looked up to find that Robyn had stopped walking to address her. 'I asked if you're doing alright, you're quieter than usual.'

'I'm fine.'

'You looked pretty deep in your head, do you wanna talk about it?'

Winter took a breath. 'I was just, thinking of some old friends—you three remind me of them a bit.'

'Really?' Robyn asked with a surprised smile. 'What are they like?'

Winter smiled. 'They were my teammates at Atlas—Rachel, Nikki and Tara. We all disliked each other at first—we could never agree on anything.' Robyn smiled at this. 'But over time, they grew into some of the best friends I've ever had.'

Robyn's smile faded. 'Where are they now?'

Winter let out a sad nostalgic breath. 'We lost touch, after graduation. I became very involved with the military and, the rest of my life sort of just, faded into the background, I guess you could say.' Winter paused as realization suddenly hit her. She had no idea if any of them were dead or alive. Had they made it out of Atlas? Something inside of her chest began to ache.

Robyn was looking at her as though she could read her thoughts. She said nothing, but put hand on Winter's shoulder and squeezed.

'Robyn, I never apologized, for Mantle. For all the people you lost—I should've done more—done something earlier, not waited so long.'

'Hey look, you can't do that to yourself. We all lost people—Atlas, Mantle, I was there, without you we would've lost so many more. Really. No one is holding that against you. All we can do now is move forward the best we can, and we need you on our team. You can't go up against this stuff on your own—maiden powers or not.'

Winter sighed. 'So I've been told.'

'Maybe you should listen.'

'Ladies ladies, what is good?' A loud cat-calling voice caused both Winter and Robyn to snap their heads around. Walking towards them was a rather unkempt, smug looking urban boy, with messy blonde hair and a long yellow tail. By his rather sloppy way of dressing, Winter assumed him to be a Vacuo native and had to suppress the urge to glue this annoying cat-caller to the earth with a glyph.

'Sun! Ahhhh! It's so good to see you!' Nora screeched and burst past her and Robyn, only to tackle the urchin boy in a hug.

'Nora!' The boy—Sun, said as he caught her, lifted her off the ground and spun her in a hug. 'Man it's good to see you too! You remember Neptune.' Sun added and gestured to the taller blue haired boy standing next to him, who smiled awkwardly at all of them.

'How could I forget.' Nora stated, then turned back towards them and gestured at Emerald. 'You know Emerald…'

Sun's face was suddenly a mixture of recognition and confusion. 'Wait she's not—'

'Bad anymore? Nope. Switched sides before Atlas fell. I'm only sorry it took me so long to do it.' Emerald stated sincerely. Sun and Neptune both shrugged and appeared to accept this fact rather quickly.

'This is Robyn Hill, leader of the Happy Huntresses and—'

'Winter Schnee.' Sun finished for Nora. 'Current de facto leader of the Atlas military, winter maiden and older sister to Weiss. Man you look just like her! I mean, she looks like you. It's a real honor to meet you.'

Winter's breath caught at the abrupt mention of Weiss. 'You knew my sister?' She asked automatically, almost desperately, as if this kid could give her some kind of lifeline to Weiss.

'Psh yeah! I fought with her and the rest of team RWBY and JNPR during the fall of Beacon. She's one heck of a fighter, I bet you trained her. Hey where is team Rubles? Thought they'd be with you guys.'

'Uh, Sun, Neptune can I talk to you for a minute?' Nora cut in abruptly and started ushering the two of them away. She glanced back over her shoulder with an apologetic look. Winter remained unmoving, her emotions and mental capacity seemingly frozen as well.

She wasn't sure how long she stood there, long enough to watch the shocked look on Sun's face as Nora spoke, and then him drop his head into his hands as he sunk onto a nearby stoop. Neptune stood as frozen as she, only moving his hand to cover his mouth.

Time only started for her again when an arm on either side of her started pulling her down an abandoned alleyway.

'Winter, hey, you ok?' It was once again Robyn's voice that slowly stopped the ringing in her ears and brought her back to reality—and for the first time since she'd landed in Vacuo, Winter knew for certain, she was not ok.

She could feel something welling up inside of her, something that seemed to be triggered by watching someone she barely knew grieve over the loss of her sister. Something she had tried desperately to numb with alcohol or bury under a pile of dead Grimm. This thing was welling up in her chest now and though she did not want it there, when she finally pulled her eyes up to look at Robyn, she realized they were wet with tears she could no longer fight off—tears she had largely refused to let fall since the moment she watched Weiss fall into the abyss.

Perhaps even longer.

Tears for the love she desperately needed but never received from her father—a resolution she would now never get. For the deep betrayal mixed with grief she still felt for Ironwood, the only real father figure she'd ever had. For the loss of everything she ever knew—friends, a kingdom, a sister, a life she would never again have.

In that moment with both Robyn and Emerald staring at her with equally pained eyes, she didn't know what to say, or what to do. The despair was so overwhelming, all she could do was stand there like an idiot and let the silent tears she had no control over, slip down her cheeks.

'Winter…' Emerald started, but it was Robyn who reached out to grab her and pull her into a hug. This surprised her, but she allowed it. The last time she had hugged or been hugged by anyone like this, was with Weiss—and this only caused more tears to spill down her face. Robyn was holding her tightly, and she didn't have the energy to pull away even if she'd wanted to. The pain was too overwhelming—and she was tired. So tired of fighting, tired of fighting and losing hope—tired of fighting a losing a battle with the world—a losing battle with herself.

'Winter it's ok. You're gonna be ok. We're here for you and you'll get through this, I promise.'

A loud crack followed by a blinding flash of white shot through her vision.

It always stunned her, whenever her father would slap her. Why it still had this effect on her after all these years only succeeded in angering her further.

'Just know, you're giving this burden to your sister and she's going to grow to resent you for it. Your precious little Weiss. Think about this selfishness while you contemplate your little military career.' Her father hissed through the ringing in her ears.

Her vision finally returned, just in time to watch him storm out of the small room. In his place just outside the doorway stood Rachel, Tara and Nikki looking horrified. A new wave of nausea hit her—she was going to have to explain this to them somehow.

'Winter are you ok?' Rachel asked with urgency as the three of them ran into the room. She was still reeling from the slap and unable to formulate a suitable answer to this.

'What the hell was that?' Tara asked, looking as though she was two seconds away from going after Jacques.

'You're bleeding.' Nikki pointed out. Winter reached up to touch under her eye—it was in fact wet with blood. The bastard's ring must've gotten her. 'I'll go get someone.' Nikki added and turned to leave. This triggered her back to reality.

'No Nikki wait—it's fine. People will just think I got this in the tournament, I don't want anyone to know about this.'

'Know what? That your dad came in and smacked the crap out of you? What—for winning the Vytal Festival? Nice guy. This is insane, he can't just come in here out of the blue and do this to you.' Tara said, her anger still on the rise.

'It wasn't because we won.' Winter explained. The three of them remained silent waiting for her to continue. She took a breath. 'In a moment of stupidity, I told him I was joining the military after graduation.'

'Okayyy… So what?'

'I told him I was joining the military and not going to take over the family business. That's why he did that. He's removing me as heiress and giving it to my younger sister.' She spoke matter of factly, almost calmly, as if speaking it slowly could somehow help her process what had just transpired.

'Ok no offense but what a real piece of shit.' Tara spat.

'I don't want my sister near him either, I need to think of a way to get her out of this.' Winter ideated, her panic suddenly rising at what this would mean for Weiss. 'Maybe I can convince her to study at one of the other Academies—get her out of Atlas and away from him.'

Announcer: First, second and third place teams please report to the arena for the awards ceremony.

'Shit!' Winter jumped at the announcers voice, her panic rising further at the prospect of being late to the ceremony and causing a scene. 'I need something to clean this off so we can get out there.'

'I'll get something, just wait here.' Nikki added.

'No, there isn't time. Let's just go, there's probably a bathroom on the way.' Winter said hastily and started for the door. She wanted to stop thinking about this episode immediately. Rachel grabbed her arm.

'Winter, calm down. Just wait for Nikki to get some bandages. They're not going to start without us. Breathe for a minute.' Rachel said softly and prevented her from leaving.

She didn't want to wait. She wanted to go, go go go and get this over with so she could talk to her sister. Her father was right. She was selfish to push the heiress responsibility on Weiss—and Weiss would probably grow to hate her for it if she didn't do something. She had to talk to her before he did, but would he let her come home? Would he even let her speak to Weiss?

The pain of everything was suddenly welling up in her chest and threatening to crush her—and on top of everything else, she did not want to lose it in front of her team—what kind of team leader did that make her?

Her emotions could not get the better of her.

But it was too late.

Rachel was still holding her shoulders and looking directly at her as tears started blurring her eyes. There was nowhere to escape, and before she knew it she was crying and Rachel was pulling her into a tight hug.

'Winter it's gonna be ok. We're a team, we've got your back and no one is going to hurt you like that again as long as we're around. I promise.'