WOOHOOO MORE CHAPTER!
Enojy~
~Angel and Hel~
Chapter Twenty Seven: Revenants
-.-.-
Trust. Trust is a funny thing.
Sometimes it bites you.
Sometimes it doesn't.
Trust isn't a thing.
You're just gambling with emotions.
-.-.-
Winter had left Helia in Aphoth's… capable hands. It was clear she had much more experience dealing with uppity little monsters, and was certainly able to handle two of them at once.
She hoped.
She'd have to repay the poor girl somehow. Buy her some clothes, or would just money do? Or… would she have to do the same thing at some point in return.
Oh please not that.
She wasn't sure how socially acceptable it was to offer compensation for services rendered impromptu without contract. She'd heard that some saw it as offensive, others were more than happy to accept all they were offered. Aphoth seemed…
Winter sighed as she trudged up the stairs once more. Returning the favour was the only backlash-free option. Unless… she could find a replacement for the dress Helia had somehow gotten herself into and out of.
At the same time, going out into the city, looking through clothing stores for such… dreary garments was a prospect Winter was not looking forward to. There had been a lot of hostility from people who recognised her, not to mention the amount of gossip that would arise from a Schnee buying dark clothing.
Maybe she could get lucky and order it online.
But for now -
She had to know. She had to find that envelope, She had to know the truth. And - she would like to see Weiss again. To explain where she'd be for the next four years.
And, of course, there was the inevitable confrontation with her father brewing. Better to head it off at the pass than try to run.
There was also the fact she was… stuck under a mountain. She usually had a fairly good sense of direction, but the endless tunnels and halls of the Academy were doing her head in. At least the artificial lighting didn't actually feel artificial. Winter suspected it even replicated natural sunlight, perhaps even enough for a hydroponics facility.
One of the doors said Recreation.
Well, if nothing else she'd get a hot drink and some peace and quiet. Maybe even directions to the outside.
It was… surprisingly lush inside. Carpet, couches, soft seating. Decorated in white, grey and red. A small kitchen off to the side, an island bar - and an actual bar. A pool table. Potted plants. Being a Hunter was a stressful job, as she'd found out in the Dream. An Oasis like this was…
Before the Dream, she would have asked why this was needed.
After the Dream, she only found herself thankful it existed.
"Sup, Ice Queen?"
And of-fucking-course Maverick was here.
"Are you ever going to give her a break?" Vivian asked, her hands all over him. "Now hold still, I nearly have the slimy little bugger."
"Well, with your hands on him you certainly have that." Winter smiled a little. It was a joke, but she meant the sting of it. Maverick was - she didn't like him. She hoped, prayed he wouldn't be on a team with her.
Though with her current luck… she shuddered at the thought.
"I am a lot of things but slimy is not one of them." Maverick chuckled. "Where the hell is he?"
"Merlin, you bloody muppet I swear to god I'm going to wring your neck when I find you-" Vivian muttered under her breath, sticking her tongue out as she concentrated and seemingly didn't realise how compromising her position looked. 'Extremely Intimate Hug' only began to describe it. Especially since she was straddling him on the floor.
If Winter didn't know about Vivian's stupid pet snake, she would have felt scandalised. As it was, she simply felt tired.
"Do you know if we're allowed to leave the base or not? I'd - like to get something from home. And say goodbye to my sister."
"As long as you signed that non-disclosure thingy, yeah." Maverick answered. "Rockstar's confined to base until she's sober enough to sign."
"GOT HIM!" Vivian announced triumphantly, holding the squirming red wyrmling up in the air. Someone clapped and she steadily turned bright red, scrambling to get off of the scoundrel. "I did not realise," she mumbled, absolutely mortified, "How bad that looked."
Winter blinked. "You were literally pressed against his crotch with your hands down his shirt. How - " She shook her head.
"I was looking for Merlin!" she exclaimed, holding the squirming, hissing -
The snake flailed towards her, hissing and baring its fangs. Winter was frozen, another snake was going to bite her why couldn't she move, it was coming closer and it was - licking her and bashing her with its nose?
Its tongue felt like a piece of string. Its nose was cold and hard.
Winter decided to back away to be safe.
"He likes you!" Vivian smiled, holding it closer to her. She backed away again. Vivian got closer.
Why is she so proud of it.
Winter's eyes darted around the room, looking for something to distract the madwoman anything to change the sub -
"Is that Aphoth's dress?"
Vivian paused and glanced at it. "Oh, yup. Do you know where she is? I wanted to give it back but the bloody girl that gave it to me was an absolute tosser."
"Yes! Yes I do! Uh, let me take it. And look after it so I can give it to her. Yes." Two birds with one stone. God Winter was smooth.
Only a short brief hassle in which Merlin got loose once, ONCE, and Winter was in possession of Aphoth's dress and Vivian was excusing herself to get more counselling, therapy, whatever it was she took her snake with her and Winter was glad to see the pair gone.
Maverick, however, remained, and seemed determined to stick to her like a bad smell. Garlic, maybe? Once pleasant, now irritating and blatantly unwanted.
"So… whatcha doin?" he asked, standing beside her with his hands in his pockets and a shit-eating grin on his face.
"Going home. Like I said, I need to get something, and talk to my sister."
"Neat." Maverick's expression turned quizzical for a moment. "Hey, you never actually told me how you got Blue's rifle."
Winter bit her lip. "I - "
"She took it from my body. After she left me to die!"
Wait, wha -
The butt of the rifle hit her in the jaw, and she barely had time to bring up her aura, going sprawling across the floor, careening into a table.
"Hey now, calm down!" Maverick was shouting, somehow behind the girl with an arm around her throat already. Blue was flailing, trying to kick him and lever the rifle into position to hit him.
"Get off me! Do you know how much gut wounds hurt? Because I do! I was ground to dust and she left me to die!"
"Attacking her out of nowhere -"
"She got me killed!" Blue was practically frothing at the mouth, kicking off the pool table and sending the pair tumbling. "SHE was the one who brought the fucking wolf, SHE was the one who collapsed the entire fucking building on me!"
"I didn't mean - I didn't - "
"It doesn't fucking matter what you meant, you dumb stuck up whore!" Blue fired the rifle, and the wreckage of the table behind Winter froze in a sparking mess of ice. "You did it- you killed me!"
Please no, she hadn't meant to, she didn't - she'd tried to help, hadn't she?
"Now that's a bit uncalled for." Maverick commented, doing his best to pin her while the other occupants of the room were clearing a way for Security.
"I could have just bled out if it wasn't for her!" Blue screeched, elbowing Maverick in the nose and crawling out from under him while he swore and grabbed at his face.
She was immediately tackled by a security droid and sent skidding across the carpet. The robot's joints had… locked up on contact? It's lights changed from a leafy green to sky blue as it clambered to its feet and charged at Winter, a hideous synthesized screeching filling the room.
Winter closed her eyes, she deserved this, deserved this beat down -
Metal on metal. The sound of someone who had been moving extremely fast coming to a sudden abrupt halt. And the shockwave that produced, that sent furniture and people flying.
There was a woman in the centre of the room now. She wore a silver armoured dress, flaring out into a hooped and plated skirt, plumed helmet set low over her face. In their other hand they held a lance, the robot impaled firmly on it. A long chain of dust rounds led from the lance to her belt, and even as Winter watched the lance rotated, a spray of bullets sawing the robot in half.
This was - Winter knew this woman. She was famous. Infamous. A notorious huntress -
"Colonel Argent?" Blue's voice was dazed.
Argent's face was impassive. "Don't make me interrupt my meal again." Another silver streak and rush of debris and she was gone.
"From Rec Room to Wrecked Room in two minutes. That's gotta be a new record." Maverick quipped. "Well… this is a mess." He collapsed down and patted Blue's shoulder. "Murderboner sated?"
Blue's terrified nodding was about as much an answer as any.
"Miss Azure. You are being taken into custody." one of the other robots, one with guns, intoned. "You will be disarmed and moved into a holding cell. Please come quietly."
"Stop - she - " Winter spat dust from her mouth. "She was justified. She shouldn't be punished too harshly."
"Punishment is to be decided by General Ironwood. Infractions: Attacking without provocation. She will be moved to holding until further notice. Please come quietly." It was a robot. Of course it wouldn't take emotions into account.
"Can you record this statement and present it to the General then?"
"Acceptable."
"Thank you."
"I -" Blue- apparently, Miss Azure, handed over her gun to the bot, and held out her arms for cuffing. None of the bots moved to restrain her. "I can feel them. I can - " One of the bots lights flickered blue. "Make it stop. I don't - I don't want all this information. I don't. I - "
"INTRUSION DETECTED." The last, un-possessed bot switched to pointing its guns at both Blue and it's controlled comrade. "CEASE."
"I- I can't -"
"Make it dance?" Maverick suggested. Blue turned to glare at him, horrified. "What? It might distract you enough for something to happen." He shrugged.
Blue continued to look horrified as she concentrated. The Blue-Bot started twitching, twisting its limbs - Winter recognised that move. Blue was making the robot do… the robot.
"CEASE."
Blue was giggling.
"FORCE AUTHORISED."
"What wha-" Blue was cut off by a small object digging into her thigh and sending her collapsing to the ground, jittering and screaming in pain.
"No!" Winter lunged at the robot. "Stop it! She's - she's just discovered her semblance! Do you have - " It was a robot, of course it didn't know what that was like. Instead, Winter simply powered aura into her fist and drove it repeatedly into the robot's face until it was scrap.
"Oh for fucks sake, please tell me I'm not playing the One Sane Man again…" Maverick groaned, tugging on Winter's shoulder. "Come on, Ice Queen, it's dead. You can stop hitting it. Aaannny moment now."
No. This thing had -
"CEASE."
Oh fuck.
Winter recoiled - maybe if she dodged quick enough, Maverick could take the hit -
"What do you children think you're doing?!" Ms Goodwitch stormed onto the scene, waving her crop and putting the room back together. Furniture and wreckage floated and fused back together in glimmering purple light - it was as though Blue had never caused a fuss. It was as though Winter hadn't spent the last minute punching a metal skull in.
As though nothing had happened.
Aside from Blue still lying on the carpet, twitching and drooling.
"You'll look after her, right? You - you know what happened?" Winter - this was her fault. She'd opened that other girl's semblance and she knew what that took. There was something like bile in her throat. Gall.
"She will be taken care of." The woman said decisively.
"Well that's not menacing at all." Maverick muttered.
"You, on the other hand, need to stay away from her. Final judgement will be left to the General, but you two need to stay apart." Goodwitch ordered. The rebuilt robots flanking her picked up Blue and started moving her to the cells -
"C'mon, Ice Queen, you need some fresh air." Maverick mentioned quietly, tugging on her shoulder again. "Before you start punching something else."
"I… okay." Winter's arms wrapped round her. "Okay."
Why did everything hurt her. Why did she ruin everything.
Maybe Father had tried to keep her from coming here for a reason.
They left without a fuss. Maverick guiding her through the maze-like halls as she let her mind wander, her body on auto-pilot.
Helia. Blue. Even the confrontations with Aphoth and Maverick. They were all sparked by her arrogance, her failure. Her inability to control herself. She hadn't been ready for this. Maybe - maybe she would never be ready.
Maybe no-one was. She - had to try, right? Had to try and save people, make a difference - because now she'd seen what was out there she couldn't stand idly by. She never could do that again.
"Penny for your thoughts, princess."
Winter blinked. "What?"
"Something's obviously on your mind. Wanna talk about it?"
She honestly couldn't tell if he actually cared, or was just bored and looking for conversation. Likely the latter, but...
"I - find myself questioning my place here. Whether I should stay or not. I suppose that's something everyone's doing. To one extent or another."
"Got that right. I'm staying. Necrocutie's on the fence about it. Slade's staying. Rockstar's somehow still drunk, which is confusing the hell out of me," Maverick admitted with a shrug. "Earlier you said you were staying too. What changed?"
"Conversations with people. Blue. What she said… " Winter's head hung.
"Something about you leaving her to die."
"It was true. I - I thought. Remember what I said on the platform? Before it all went completely to shit? I found I'd make the other choice. That I'd be a selfish coward. I could have at least comforted her. It might have been more useful than what little difference I made elsewhere."
Maverick glanced at her evenly. "Yeah. I can see how that'd fill you with doubt. The thing is, you've gotta make a lot of hard choices in life. You can't save everyone, no matter how hard you try." He seemed distant as he spoke. "Gotta know when to cut your losses and move on to somewhere you can do better." He sighed. "Sometimes it hurts."
More steps. They had to be getting close to the surface by now, right?
"How do you know though? How do you know where you can do better? What - gives you the right or ability to make that call?" Winter sighed. "It's just - complicated. In my head at the moment."
"That's just the thing. You don't know. You just have to… I don't know, if you can't do any more here, might as well try over there." Maverick put his hands up behind his head. "Think about it this way. How much more fucked would the rest of us have been if you hadn't left Blue to die?"
"I don't think you would have been much more fucked. I didn't do that much in the end."
"Now that's something I never thought I'd see in my lifetime." Maverick chuckled. "A Schnee selling herself short. To recap, you lasted longer than anyone bar the Berserker, killed me, did so much shit with your Glyphs we probably lasted far longer than we would have without you."
Was he trying to be reassuring?
"I suppose - but I missed strikes. Lost my sabre. Started a fight with you." Her eyebrows drew together. "I was less than I could have been. Than I should have been."
"Why do you think we're here, Ice Queen?" Maverick grinned. "Of course you're not gonna be perfect right off the bat. I fucked up a fair bit myself."
The air seemed cooler. Crisper.
They were here to learn, she supposed. But the failure rankled. How had she not noticed it before? It was becoming more visible by the second, the closer she got to home -
Ah.
Ah.
"You're right, Maverick. We're here to learn. Whatever our starting position is."
"It's better to make mistakes while we can afford to do so in order to look out for them and avoid them when it matters." He said it easily, casually. She wondered if he suffered from Hubris too.
There were people all about, coming and going and jostling. She was a Schnee, she was supposed to be above the hustle and bustle of the common people - no. No. Now she was a Huntress-in-training. She was their… equal.
Winter shivered slightly, wrapping her arms around herself a bit tighter. It wasn't because of the chill in the air. It was odd. Not being the finest of them all. But she'd get used to it. She'd develop and learn, and slowly become worthy of that title. She smiled, just a little.
"Hey, is that one yours?" Maverick asked, pointing to a elegant, sophisticated, ornate Airship on the far side of the platform.
Winter froze.
It was smooth, sleek - no curlicues or decorations more common among older designs. Winter knew that despite the classic appearance, it was state of the art under the hood - tri pulse 'plasma' dust fueled engines, automated power adjustment based on altitude, aura linked temperature control. She swallowed sharply as the door hissed open.
He didn't travel with bodyguards. He didn't need them, or didn't want people to think he needed them. No-one had dared to guess which it was in decades - even the more extreme faunus rights groups. His double breasted jacket hung open, almost casually, like just another father seeing his daughter. The red kerchief in the pocket of the jacket was a signal flare. Slacks. White, of course. His whole outfit was, apart from his tie and the hankerchief.
His arms folded behind his back as he took three precise steps forward, steel blue eyes tracking round to lock on hers. His face was still.
He blinked, once. His eyebrows might have narrowed. Just a fraction of an inch.
"Oh no."
-.-.-
~R&R?~
I, Angel, am quite interested in everyones views of our characters. I've heard that Maverick is a bit of a dick - okay, maybe a lot of a dick :P - but I'm hoping he's a... likeable dick? I dunno. I'm just really really interested in finding out how other people see the characters. Because Hel and I have author bias, our readers can often spot things we overlook without meaning to!
We hope you enjoyed, and we'd love to hear from you!
~Angel and Hel~