Chapter 8.5 – Th[E] Winds of Winter
This is an alternate end that breaks away from the events of Chapter 8 where Winter Schnee IS the Winter Maiden. No, this doesn't end well. Not for anyone. *Updated The Dude Strikes Back*
The black arrow streaked across the blue sky. It was an iridescent black comet, it was death itself unto any entity unfortunate enough to be in its path and it was headed straight towards the first vehicle in Winter Schnee's transport convoy. The arrow struck its target with pinpoint accuracy and the Dust composed arrow detonated itself upon impact. The convoy vanished under a devastating ball of fire, that even Cinder raised her hand to shield her eye from the light of the explosion. When the dust and smoke lifted, Cinder scowled in fury. The convoy of three vehicles was completely intact. Bright amber flames tried to consume the cars but was repelled by a massive columns of ice stalagmites ice conjured from the ground, the fire hissed weakly and retreated slowly as the earth started to freeze over.
Now THAT is the power of a Maiden-
Shut up Armiel, I was once a Maiden too.
Keyword: ONCE. Well then Scarface, how do you intend to kill a Maiden?
Ana's words rang in Cinder's head - nobody can kill a Maiden. But Winter Schnee was not be the first Maiden that she had slain, and if Cinder were to have her revenge, Winter would certainly not be the last.
The same way I dealt with Amber, the Fall Maiden.
Cinder snatched Neo's drawing block out of her hands and scribbled on it with her marker pen furiously then tossed it back to her. Neo stared at Cinder's message with a blank look on her face, her hair started to flush from between pink and brown as she struggled to figure out Cinder's plan.
"Its not rocket science, dear," sighed Cinder. "Just follow what it says. We're dealing with a Maiden here. You only have one job."
Cinder's glass heels rang as she started towards the frozen convoy. Thirty feet away, Winter Schnee stood calmly waiting for her assailant with her saber drawn and ready, her light blue eyes flared up with burning blue Aura - the light of the Winter. Even the air around Winter started to freeze, water droplets solidified and became floating snowflakes that blew like feathers in the wind, puffs of mist blew out of Cinder's mouth with every breath she exhaled as the fallen Maiden approached the Winter Maiden.
"He sent you to kill me didn't he?" asked Winter.
"Nobody needs to die today," smiled Cinder, flexing her Grimm fingers, ignoring Winter's question. "Just hand over the power quietly and I'll let you skip back home to Atlas- "
"You'll have to rip it off my dead body then," spat Winter Schnee, disgusted at the monster before her, tightening her grip on her saber.
"I've already put a hole through one of you Schnees, you guys are pushovers," scoffed Cinder. "Don't make me do it again."
"Weiss..." replied Winter in shock. "What have you done to her?"
"Weiss," repeated Cinder. "Was that her name? Well, I don't exactly keep a list of names for the people I've killed."
Winter's eyes burned brighter, she screamed as she leapt forward to strike Cinder with her saber, but the fallen Maiden caught her blow deftly with her iridescent silver blade, Silver's Cry. Blinded by rage, the Winter Maiden struck blow after blow blindly at Cinder, lashing out her unbridled fury. She lost all semblance of grace and control that the Schnee family held when they dueled, she had forgotten all her training, all she had in her mind was to slay the monster in front of her and avenge her sister by any means necessary.
Cinder disengaged, and as the fallen Maiden spun around in her retreat, she conjured a hundred shards of molten glass that flew straight towards Winter. Though Winter managed to deflected most of the shards with her saber, two made it through. One sliced her across her cheek, the other tore through her thigh and she winced in pain. Focusing on her hate, she summoned the strength of Winter and a powerful blizzard blew through the mountain range, turning everything it touched into solid ice, forcing Cinder to take cover behind her black armored vehicle.
Cinder tried to ignite shards of red fire Dust to counteract the snowstorm and warm herself, but the air was so cold that even lighting a spark was impossible, to make things worse she could feel herself starting to freeze from the outside. She had to end this soon. She knew that without the fire power of the Fall Maiden, she was hopelessly outclassed by Winter Schnee the Winter Maiden. From the corner of her eye, she saw Neo waving at her - she was in position. If Neo had understood the battle plan she drew up, taking down the Winter Maiden would be a cinch.
Cinder took a deep breath and nocked three metal arrows on her longbow then leapt out from behind her cover. With a quick draw and release, she fired all three arrows towards the Winter Maiden. Winter sliced the arrow that would have pierced her head cleanly in half and the winds of winter blew the other two arrows off their trajectories, but as the arrows planted themselves into the frozen soil, angry red glyphs started to form around them, whistling in high-pitched fury as they exploded in a column of fire, knocking the Winter Maiden off her feet.
Cinder wasted no time. Her Grimm arm shot out and wrapped itself around Winter's neck, choking the life from the girl, her light blue eyes fluttered uncontrollably as she started to lose her consciousness. Glowing blue light started to course down the length of her Grimm arm as it began to siphon the Aura of the Winter Maiden.
Winter Schnee made a weak grunt, however what followed was anything but. A massive white icicle impaled Cinder's Grimm arm from the side with such force that it severed the black tendons and her grip on Winter's neck slackened. The Winter Maiden quickly recovered, summoning a row of icicles that impaled the defenseless Grimm arm and held it in place as she brought her saber down on Cinder. With a single slash, she separated the Grimm arm from Cinder's shoulders. Cinder screamed out loud, grasping the stump of her left hand as she recoiled in pain, but what devastated her more than her dismemberment was that her only instrument to power was taken away from her; without Armiel she could no longer siphon the power of the Winter Maiden, that thought alone brought fear beyond compare.
Winter Schnee spun around and thrust her sword straight at Cinder's undefended chest but she froze mere inches short of piercing the fallen Maiden's heart. Cinder opened her eye slowly and saw the reflection that stood between her and Winter Schnee. It was the reflection of a handsome man with brilliant blond hair and silver eyes, Jansen Arc. He was wearing a genuine, loving smile that Winter had longed to see, it was the tender, silly smile that she fell so madly in love with back in the courtyard of Schnee Manor, the same smile he had on his face when they kissed for the first time in the front gates of Atlas Academy. Her fingers went limp, the snowstorm ceased its howling and her saber slipped from her fingers, falling to the frozen ground with a hollow clatter.
"Jansen..." muttered Winter tearfully, she fell to her knees as she tried to feel the reflection.
The reflection shattered into a million pieces and Winter gasped in pain. The frozen sheets of ice were dyed red as Cinder drove Silver's Cry from tip to hilt through Winter Schnee's chest. With each beat, volumes of fresh slick blood erupted from her ruined heart, splattering Cinder's scarred left face with blood, she held Cinder tightly in her embrace as she struggled to mouth her last words.
"I... l-loved you, Jansen..." gurgled Winter, as blood started to fill her lungs and throat.
Cinder sighed and replied as though she were Jansen, "I loved you too, Winter."
A hundred icicles materialized, impaling both Cinder and Winter, pinning their bodies together in an eternal embrace. Cinder's eye widened in impotent anger. Winter's final act was to take her beloved Jansen Arc down with her, by impaling their bodies to each other, they would be together forever. Cinder started to choke and gurgle from her own blood rising in her throat. Hope was not lost yet, she tried to beckon Neo, but she was nowhere in sight. This was how her journey was going to end; a pathetic existence. Losing her power as the Fall Maiden, failing to become the Spring Maiden, failing to become the Winter Maiden. Her life was a farce, her promise for power was a lie, she could not let it end just yet, but she had no choice. As her vision started to blur and fade into darkness, her mind fell on the one person who started this all, Ruby Rose.
Two brilliant bursts of Aura erupted from Cinder and Winter's corpses. One was blue and the other, amber. Together they shot towards the sky and flew in the same direction. The blue Aura of the Winter Maiden arrived at its new host - Weiss Schnee. She opened her light-blue eyes that looked so much like her sister's, flaring up with blue Aura as she was lifted off her feet. White icicles spawned all around her as the power of Winter fused with her own Aura.
"Weiss!" yelled Yang. "What the hell is happening- "
"There's another one coming," interrupted Blake, pointing at the amber Aura tearing through the woods.
The amber Aura fused with its new host - Ruby Rose. But something was different. As her silver eyes flared up with the amber Aura of the Fall Maiden, they also erupted in dancing flames and the hooded girl screamed in pain as her eyes burned themselves out.
"Ruby!" yelled all three girls as they rushed towards their leader.
"What do you want from me!" screamed Ruby as she clutched her burning eyes, her tears evaporated instantly as they touched the flames in her eyes.
A familiar voice rang in her head, it was confident and eerily tender, as though her mother was whispering to her in her ears, but Ruby recognized it, she knew it was the voice of Cinder Fall. An eye for an eye, Ruby Rose. You took my eye. Now I will take away the silver eyes that caused me so much pain. This is the price you will pay to carry the burden of the Fall Maiden. All my life I have wanted nothing more than to kill you, but now I know... There are fates worse than death.
The flames stopped burning and Ruby Rose crumpled to her feet sobbing, waving her hands blindly in the air.
"Guys... I can't see... I-I can't see!"
- BAD END -
Author's Notes:
Those of you who played Nier would understand the chapter title subtly hinting that this end was going to be really really screwed up. But I would like to see RT take Ruby's character arc down such sharp lines in the future, like maybe blind her or let Cinder destroy one of her eyes so that her silver eyes become less dependable. Ruby Rose is the main character of the series but she's also the most boring character, she's never failed, she's never lost a single fight and she's never even been injured. Come to think of it, a character arc for Ruby where she comes into her own after being blind, becoming a badass once again after training to be a blind warrior would be really interesting, but I doubt RT goes down that route.
Conversely, Cinder has undergone more development as a character compared to any of the main cast. She's lost an arm and an eye, she's been losing fight after fight, and hopefully when she returns she's learnt her lesson, the girl's been through hell really. Which is why it made me really frustrated with how RT handled her character in V5E13, I would rather they have killed her off definitively in her fight versus Raven.
But yes, as a huge fan of Urobuchi Gen, it is my utmost pleasure to bring to you guys one of the most tragic ends this story has. Winter Schnee's love for the screwed up villain Jansen is unrequited, and dies distracted by a mere reflection of him. Cinder, our main POV character has her insane quest for revenge ending up in failure again because she slipped up and had a human moment with Winter Schnee, for that she is rewarded with being impaled to death. Ruby Rose becomes the Fall Maiden at a terrible price, she loses her sight - a fate worse than death. What makes it worse is the irony of how she became the new Fall Maiden; the guardian of Choice having no choice in taking the job.
If my procrastination doesn't become unbearable for me, I might release Chapter 9 on schedule this week. As always hope you guys enjoyed the story thus far and are looking forward to the next chapter, cheers!