Yay, more chapters!
~Angel and Hel~
Chapter Twenty Four: Strife
-.-.-
How dare you. The Schnees. Selfish. Cold.
For the 'greater good'? How can you even think that?
You family does nothing but take.
You take lives.
You take dreams.
You take and take and give nothing back.
No… that's a lie. You do give back. So, so generously.
You give pain.
You give lies.
You give us all reason to hate.
And then you wonder why.
-.-.-
Winter was so far in over her head she'd have needed Aphoth to raise a Wyrm to dig her out.
She did not know hand to hand combat. She knew a handful of moves that she'd learnt from watching her family's bodyguards spar, and had religiously learnt to mimic. She knew a bit more from basic combat training, and some other things she'd extrapolated from sword fighting.
Maverick on the other hand, seemed to know exactly what he was doing, and while her first move had thrown him off, he'd kept up at a pretty rapid pace.
But… she couldn't back out now. Dishonour on the Schnee name if she did. She'd thrown a fist in anger, stupid, stupid mistake. Never attack based on rage - to defend your name or honour, yes, but plan it, think.
She couldn't win either. She blocked two of Maverick's strikes as he came in again, but then he locked his hands on her arms, slamming his head into her face hard enough she could hear the fizz of their auras colliding. She tried to wrap her leg round his, pull him down into another grapple, but he simply broke his grip on her and backed away.
Toying with her. Fuck him.
"Had enough?" he grinned, stepping back casually. He was enjoying this.
"Not currently, no." She'd have to cheat. She'd have to -
He jumped back off the glyph she'd slapped under him, which erupted into ice.
The crowd jumped back, many crying out in disbelief, many more erupting into wild cheer. They wanted blood, it seemed. With Semblance, she should be able to tip the tide of battle in her favour -
Crack.
A blinding pain in the back of her skull sent her stumbling forward, baring her teeth as she grimaced. She was heading right for - the ice shattered into dust and flakes an instant before she found herself impaled on it.
She tumbled to the floor, doing her best to turn the unsightly stumbling into a roll to get back on her feet.
Shoulder first -
An unexpected stop as something hard jabbed into her spine - right by the tailbone - and killed her momentum. It was gone as soon as it had appeared but the damage was done. She flopped to the floor, tried to handspring up -
Her hand was kicked out from under her. Sent sprawling again. There were people laughing -
She used a glyph this time, and the propulsion was enough to take her over Maverick's foot. A second gave her a platform to launch herself off in a tackle that, predictably, missed as he teleported away, but gave her time to slip a time dilation glyph under her feet as she landed. Now she'd have enough time to see what he was doing, to react -
And she found herself shoved into the other side of the makeshift arena - fuck, no he was standing on the glyph, it was activating - she tried to cancel it, tried to do something -
Pain. A gold blur, zipping from one side of her to another, appearing and distorting and reappearing, and hitting and hitting and hitting and -
Her aura broke.
"ENOUGH!" Valkha bellowed, pushing applicants aside and stepping into the arena herself. The golden blur hadn't landed a single hit since breaking her aura - and thankfully it was fading fast. Valkha frowned slightly as Maverick actually stopped, but otherwise stood her ground. "Here is another lesson. Reason comes before any action. Reason before honour. Reason before infighting. If you cannot win, do not engage."
"Are you saying…" Winter coughed as she struggled to sit, "That I never had a chance?"
"You were engaging someone trained while you yourself have little to no training. Bringing in your Semblance into an otherwise unarmed match sealed the deal as you have no way to counter it. You were putting yourself at nearly every disadvantage you could." Valkha explained, hauling her to her feet. "Think before you fight. If you do not, you are inviting failure with open arms."
Silence for a moment as everyone took it in.
"Cuddlies!"
"No - Ash - get off!"
The crowd started to disperse after that bracing ice breaker. Winter sat there for a moment, getting her breath back. She put a hand to her head and massaged her brow, certain bruises would be forming all over her body by tomorrow morning.
She wondered why they weren't getting in trouble for starting a fight. Fights were - undisciplined. But then again, tensions were high and everyone needed a distraction. They had provided one. Morale through beating each other to a pulp. Hm.
"Need a hand up?" Maverick asked, standing right there and offering his hand. His usual cocky grin had been replaced by a slightly softer one, as though he were capable of such a thing.
"I'm fine, I've got it." She stood up quickly, brushing herself off, trying to ignore the burn of embarrassment - ticked off by a teacher already, already not the best - "You're a skilled fighter."
"Eh," he shrugged it off, "I started training way early. And I had a ratbag teacher. He was good, but man, he was an ass." His laughter sounded forced.
Before she could even think any further on the subject, a sharp poke in the buttocks stole her attention. She didn't squeal, which was her initial impulse, but she did spin around as fast as she could, mouth opening to shout in anger at whoever had dared to do this - of course it was Helia.
"Food please," she said quietly, holding her arms up and out, demanding a hug without a word.
Winter carefully wrapped her arms around her, lifting her up. She could still feel her bones through her robe, her little fluttering wings.
She gestured to one side. "Maverick, I have to - "
He laughed and waved them off. "Have fun, Snow Angels."
Kitchens - there had to be kitchens somewhere, and she needed to talk to Helia about why she'd left earlier, but that could wait. Directions from a TSO, long corridors, and then they were in a pale white workspace, burners and ovens lining the walls.
She set Helia down on one of the marble counters. "What would you like to eat? I'm - not the best cook in the world. But I know how to make some things."
"Thank you," Helia whispered, curling into a ball. Her wing seemed healed, and Aphoth's dress was missing. "I'm sorry about earlier. But it hurt."
"I know. Like I said, it - it hurt a lot. What Ironwood said. But it makes sense, in a way. You - I guess you have to try and measure the hurts, however you do that. Or try to predict them. I don't know. He came to one conclusion about how much pain we'd receive as opposed to the amount we'd prevent."
"How far are you willing to go for the 'greater good', then?" Helia shuffled backwards and started rocking herself back and forth gently. She was playing with something at her temple.
Winter opened the fridge, removed two eggs and some cream. She would make scrambled eggs. They would - they would make things better. She liked them, and she could cook them - yes. "I'm not sure. I think - I think I'd need to make my own conclusion. About balancing the pain. And I don't think - if it was too much. If I was making a small number of people's lives unbearable. Just to save a larger number. That wouldn't be alright. But - a little hurt to save a lot in the future, an inoculation… maybe that's okay." She began to whisk the eggs and cream together, added a sprinkle of salt. "Uh, do you like your eggs runny or firm?"
There was a cold silence between them, broken only by the ruffling of Helia's feathers -
Winters hands flew to her mouth. "Oh god, I am so so sorry." Shit, she needed to get rid of the mixture, where was the sink, where was the sink - "Um, shit, shit, what else do you like to eat? What do you actually like to eat?"
Helia stayed silent for a moment, tilting her head. "Uhm… the… stuff we had last night. You can have the eggs?" she seemed unsure. "I… I can't stomach them." How could she be so… apologetic about that?
"Which stuff - bread? Bread? I can cut you some slices of bread, but, um, I can't make sausages. Uh… " Toaster, there was a toaster. "I am so sorry, I didn't think, most of the stuff I can cook involves eggs - "
"There's nothing left over?"
"What?" Winter blinked. "Um. No?"
Helia frowned, pushing herself off the bench and crumpling to the floor for a moment before opening up the fridge for herself, reaching in and pulling out several plastic containers of - the food they'd been eating last night? Wasn't that unsanitary?
"That's - cold. It'll be less nice. At least let me heat it up." How did this oven work exactly, she'd never used the one at home, it couldn't be too hard though…
A small choking noise distracted her from her thoughts of how it worked.
"Helia no, what did I say about small pieces of bread!" She patted Helia's back - gently - then set the loaf down on the counter, trying to cut a slice quickly. "Let me make you some hot buttered toast. Doesn't that sound nice?"
"Okay…" Helia slumped to the floor, leaning against the cupboard. "How many lives would you ruin to save millions?"
Well that came out of nowhere. Winter bit her lip as she thought, watching the bread begin to brown. "I said I wouldn't ruin lives, if it came down to it. A - a little hurt, yes. But ruining is too far. Unless it's the - the only way. And even then, you'd have to try everything else first. Everything. Ruination should never be the first step. I - don't know, I guess? I haven't had to give it that much thought."
Apart from father's business lessons. About how to take apart a rival company, to make its workers hate it, to split it into its components, extract the ones you need and discard the rest. She'd never do that. Never.
Helia removed her blindfold and stuck it on the counter. Winter resisted the urge to look into the eyes that were so much like her sister's. Helia's hair was then also deposited on the countertop -
"What."
Her hair was - but how hadn't it fallen off - she'd done a flip at one point, Winter thought, or at least flown in a way that should have sent it flying - and it wasn't all wispy like wigs normally were it was straight and orderly -
She looked down at Helia. Her hair had seemed much too healthy to be on someone as sickly as her. That wasn't even the shocking part. There was a band of metal - of electronics of some kind embedded in her skin around her skull.
"Helia?" She'd moved over to her without realising it, hand reaching towards the soft pale skin of Helia's head. "Helia, what happened to you?"
"Something for the greater good." The venom was back. "H-how many lives…" tears were streaming down her cheeks. She sniffled, wiped her face on her sleeve.
"Helia… " She wrapped her arms round her. "What happened to you? What did they do to you?" She knew faunus experimentation was a thing, the results were almost the same as they would be with real humans, but anything involving implants, anything involving implants that left such angry red scars was bordering on unethical.
"Tests." Her voice was choked. "So... many… tests." Her knives clicked in and out of their sheaths, small lights on her… halo, lighting up in synch.
Winter hugged her tighter. "To control the knives. A weapons prototype test? Which company was it?" Winter pulled back a little. "Tell me, and my father will buy them out within the day, grind them to fucking dust."
"You. You own me."
"Wh-what?" What did she mean, that was - it was a non-sequitur, it didn't make sense -
"You got an envelope from your father for your last birthday. You still haven't opened it." Helia murmured. "There's a very, very specific share of an Atlesian Military R&D branch inside."
No - this wasn't -
Some part of her noticed that the toast was burning.
Helia smiled a broken smile at her. Her eyes were ghosted over. "So… how many lives, Winter?"
"No." Winter's voice was very distant from her. "No, you don't get to drop that on me, then ask that question again. You - is this why you came to me? Out of some sense of obligation? Because I - "
She felt sick. She felt physically nauseous.
Helia's smile turned dreamy. "I came here for sanctuary." Her head tilted slightly. "It's against the treaty to own a Hunter, isn't it?"
"You don't have to worry about that now. You - I release you from all paid bonds of indentured servitude you hold to me, pro bono. I assume it was indentured servitude, yes? As slavery is illegal?"
"I wouldn't recommend doing that." Helia's voice was odd. Smug, almost? "They took me once. They can do it as many times as it takes to get what they want from me."
"Then that's your problem." She snarled it. She was - she was crying. She'd thought - "I am no-one's shield, no-one's problem solver and no-one's owner. Find someone else to latch onto and manipulate."
"So you'd throw me to wolves, not for the benefit of humanity, but instead so you don't have responsibility." Helia deadpanned, reaching up to grab her - her wig? Her hair? - and slip it back on. It covered her metal halo snugly.
"You lied to me. You made me think you - you just wanted to cuddle up to your meal ticket. Just like everyone else who sees the Schnee name. What, was getting me to cook for you simply formalising it?" A brief glimmer of hope - what if she'd been lying about this, was simply toying with her because she was a vindictive faunus cow -
"Would you rather your property starve, princess?"
"I have no property. I renounced my ownership of you." Winter laughed. It was bitter and hurt. "At least now I can see you for what you really are. Manipulative. Cold. Angry."
"Vindictive is the word you're looking for." Helia leaned against the cupboard, straight-backed, her head hitting the door with a thunk. "You think I want this? You think I like being experimented on, day after freaking day?!"
She turned to glare at Winter. There was a chilling anger behind her dead eyes.
"You said you don't want to ruin any lives for the sake of Remnant. Why are you so willing to ruin them for your own sake?"
"And I don't want a parasite on my team. I don't want someone using me for my position. And you won't return there. You're part of the Academy now."
"Hmph. If this is how you treat people for trying to be your friend, no wonder you don't have any."
"You aren't trying to be my friend. You're faking it. Using me for my position, my ownership of you."
"You enjoyed it."
"Because I thought it was real." The tears were flowing faster now. "I thought - I thought someone might actually like me."
"So why can't I like you?!" Helia demanded. "Yes, you are my legal owner. My Mistress. My Master. Whatever the hell you want to call it. Why can't we be friends? I do like you. Maybe not right at this instant but I do like you!"
"Because I can't trust that. Servants have always fawned and claimed to love their kindly masters, because they know that they want to be loved. How can I trust that you're not lying to me?"
Helia hissed and jumped at her, clawing her hands around her throat. "WHY WOULD I WANT TO SERVE ANYONE AFTER WHAT THEY DID TO ME?!"
Winter recoiled. "Why won't you let me free you then?"
"Do you think that matters to them?!" Helia pushed away and stumbled across the floor, her shoulders shaking. "I was free once. The fact that you own me is the only reason, the only way I have a path not being there. Think of it this way, if you must. By owning me, you have the legal right to tell them no when they come to collect me. Because they will. They always collect."
Her voice broke off into choked sobbing, hidden behind her knees and wings.
"So, these are my choices. To own you, never trusting a word that you say, never trusting your feelings, your thoughts - anything. To watch you inevitably grow to resent my control over you. Or free you and watch you be taken away to be experimented on." Winter felt tired. She felt - she felt so tired.
"I'm not going to hate you. Not unless you give me a damn good reason to." Helia grumbled. "I came to you before I realised you owned me. The- the red path. Went in blind and got myself into this mess…" She chuckled. "And you don't have control. I can promise you that," she said, her voice just a tad bit more sinister. "Nobody's going to have control over me ever again."
"That's going to make working in the military somewhat challenging, I would have thought. And you will hate me. It's an inevitability. I should never have expected anything different." Winter straightened. "Here's what's going to happen. I will not free you. You will not pretend to be my friend. You will come no closer than your feelings - your real feelings - allow. Is that an acceptable contract?"
Helia climbed to her feet and stuffed her face into Winter's jacket, hugging her as tightly as she could - which, Winter noted, wasn't very tight at all - and nodded. "That sounds good."
"Good." Winter turned, unleashed a glyph that doused the flaming toaster in water.
"Yeah, I probably should have reminded you about that earlier." Helia's voice was still muffled. However the angry gurgling of her stomach was not.
Winter wanted to forget the conversation they'd had, cut Helia another slice of bread, just - pretend. For a little while longer. But she couldn't. She could still feel the sickness and paranoia and worry stirring in her stomach. She - could try though.
"Another slice of toast is acceptable?"
Helia giggled. "Yes, Mistress~"
Winter frowned and opened her mouth to scold her -
"Uhhh…" Aphoth's voice came from the doorway. "Are we interupt-"
"FOOOOOD!" Ash cheered, bowling past Aphoth and tumbling into the kitchen. "Oh hey you found birdiegirl!"
Winter and Aphoth locked gazes, reading the panic in each other's eyes. As one, they nodded and silently agreed not to speak of this. Winter hoped. God damn Helia, why had she decided then was the best time to call her mistress and why had she made it sound so - so dirty.
It's a trick to make you forget.
She swallowed, suddenly, turning back to the breadboard. Wholegrain loaf. Nice and healthy.
"Boop."
-.-.-
~R&R?~