"We should've killed her. We should've killed her when we had the chance. Why didn't we kill her?," Adam growled, pacing around the room like a caged animal. Sienna was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "I thought I made it perfectly clear the first time," she said. "We know absolutely nothing about that woman. We have no idea as to who she is, why she's here, or where she came from. As such, we don't know what could've happened if we'd attacked her first. For all we know, she could be a professional Huntress hired by Jacques. As skilled as you are, Adam, even you are nowhere near the level of a Huntress."

Adam snorted. "Well, she's not like any Huntress that I've ever seen." He stopped and stared at Sienna. "You felt it too, didn't you? The moment you heard her chuckle, the moment you first laid eyes on her… it's the same feeling you get when you encounter a Grimm for the first time… but worse." Sienna looked down, appearing to be deep in thought. As a matter of fact, she did feel something very similar to what Adam just described. That feeling of wrongness which permeated throughout her entire being when she saw the woman slowly emerge from the darkness. It was the same feeling she used to have as a child, when she still believed that there were monsters hiding underneath her bed or watching her from inside her closet.

Sienna mentally scolded herself for feeling that way. She was no longer a child. She was Sienna Khan, the leader of the White Fang, an organization that would someday liberate every Faunus in the world! She shouldn't be afraid of anything, least of all a human.

"I assume this… feeling you're talking about is why you're so uneasy right now?," she asked. Adam rolled his eyes. "Everyone in this warehouse is uneasy!," he snapped. "It's not just me. None of our soldiers want to come anywhere near that freakshow, and I can't really blame them! Even making direct eye contact with that thing is too difficult for them!"

"You're making it sound like she's some kind of demon," said Sienna. "She's not. She's a human. A potentially skilled and dangerous human, but still just a human. And there is only one of her, and dozens of us. She is outmatched and outnumbered. So calm yourself, Adam. You're beginning to make me feel anxious." Suddenly, the door next to them opened, and a nameless White Fang soldier bolted out of the adjacent room, muttering under his breath.

In a flash, Adam quickly grabbed the soldier by the back of his collar and pinned him against the wall. "What are you doing?!," the bull faunus growled. "Sienna Khan gave you direct orders to stay in that room with the other guards and watch over the intruder! That means you are not supposed to abandon your post until either Sienna or I tell you otherwise!"

"I'm sorry, sir," said the soldier, his face sweaty and pale with fright. "But I couldn't stay in that room any longer! Please, I beg of you, don't make me go back in there!" This made Adam enraged. "You coward! You're going to let a filthy human scare you away like that?!," he snarled. The soldier suddenly became very, very still. He looked Adam in the eye and spoke in a calm but scared voice. "Call me whatever you want, sir. But that thing that's sitting in the other room… That's not a human. It's worse." Then, the soldier pushed Adam away and ran down the hallway. Adam was about to chase after him, but Sienna stopped him with a wave of her hand. "Let him flee," she said. "A coward like him has absolutely no place in the White Fang."

Adam grumbled under his breath, but conceded. "So how do we approach this?," he asked, glancing at the door. "Simple. I'll go in there and interrogate her myself," Sienna replied. "Meanwhile, you will stay right out here and make sure nobody other than me comes in or out of that room. And if anything happens, you will use this remote–" The tiger faunus took a remote out of her pocket and handed it to Adam. "–to activate the alarm system that we have recently installed. Every soldier in this building will hear the alarm and arrive to take her down like they did last time, or kill her if necessary. Is that understood, Adam?" "Understood, Sienna," sighed Adam, taking the remote from her. "But I still have a very bad feeling about this…"

So do I, Sienna thought, although she didn't say it out loud. Without another word, she opened the door and walked into the same room that the White Fang guard from earlier just ran out of, closing and locking the door shut behind her. The room she was now in was all concrete, including the floor, walls, and ceiling. There were no windows and no openings other than the aforementioned metal door. The room was lit only by a single lightbulb hanging from the ceiling, which flickered every so often. In the center of the room were two chairs facing each other. One of them was empty. Sitting in the other one was the woman, the same one who had somehow sneaked past their defenses and evaded Sienna's night vision. Her arms and legs were tied to the chair with duct tape, ropes, and leather belts, while the chair itself was bolted to the floor, preventing any possible escape. The woman was so tall and large that it looked like she was sitting in a chair that was really made for a small child. And she was still smiling.

There were also the three remaining guards standing at the corners of the room, their guns aimed at the woman's head. They were all trembling in fear, as if they were guarding a dangerous Grimm. Sienna motioned for them to lower their guns, then sat down in the empty chair across from the woman. She had to tilt her head up to look at the woman's face, and she had to suppress a shiver that threatened to crawl up her spine. It felt like she wasn't staring at a woman at all, but a poor imitation of one. Everything about her screamed uncanny.

When the woman first revealed herself to Sienna and Adam, strangely enough, the former did not want to fight, or that's what she claimed. Instead, she told them that she simply wanted to talk to them. Adam wanted to cut her down then and there, but Sienna was a bit more level headed. She knew there was a strong possibility that this woman was a Huntress who was sent by Jacques to retrieve his daughter, and as such, attacking her would've been a very poor choice. So the tiger faunus agreed to the woman's demands, and she had her men come over to subdue and restrain her. The woman did not put up any resistance. She allowed herself to be taken into their interrogation room, and she hasn't spoken a single word since.

Sienna stared at the woman for a minute, wondering where to start. "Who are you?," she finally asked. The woman stared into Sienna's eyes, the smile never leaving her face. "I already told you, dear. I am Mother." Sienna narrowed her eyes. Either this woman was messing with her, or she was just flat out delusional. Sienna wanted to bet on the latter. "Where did you come from?," she asked next. "I come from a faraway land, filled with many wonders," the woman answered. Sienna didn't even want to know what that was supposed to mean.

"Why are you here?," asked Sienna. The woman's smile grew just a tiny bit. It was barely noticeable, but it was enough to make the guards fidget nervously. "I think you already know what I'm here for," said the woman, her voice now slightly deeper than before.

"I do. You're here for the Schnee," Sienna stated. "Are you a Huntress? Did Jacques send you after me?" "I am not. And my husband did not send me. I sent myself." "Your husband? Jacques Schnee is your husband?" "Indeed. Winter Schnee is my eldest child. You now understand why I am here. This is no place for a little girl like her."

"I had no idea that Jacques had already remarried," said Sienna. It was a bit surprising, since Willow Schnee didn't die that long ago, but considering it was Jacques, it actually wasn't surprising at all. "I do not blame you, dear," said the woman. "I did insist that my existence be kept a secret." "And yet, you seem all too eager to reveal yourself to us," Sienna pointed out. "That is true. But it's not like anyone here is going to tell anyone else."

Sienna froze. She felt her own hackles rise. There was something about what the woman just said that put her on edge. The guards certainly felt the same way, if their anxious movements and muttering were any indication. Feeling herself losing control of the situation, Sienna quickly took out her trademark weapon, Cerberus Whip, and wrapped its chain around the woman's neck with one flick of her wrist. Although the chain was digging into the woman's throat tightly enough to painfully cut off a person's air flow, she continued to smile.

"I'm beginning to lose my patience, human," Sienna growled. "I will ask you again. Who? Are? You?" Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, the woman tore through her restraints with extreme ease, then reached up with one hand and ripped apart the chain around her throat, like it was made completely out of wet paper. All the guards let out panicked cries and quickly aimed their guns at her head. Meanwhile, Sienna stared at what was left of her whip, which she still had in her hand, then slowly looked up at the woman - no, the monster - shaking fearfully.

"What… what are you?," she whispered. Mother stood up to her full height, practically looming over her like an angel of death. "Would you really like to know, dear?," she asked. Sienna slowly nodded. "Alright, then," said Mother. "I will show you. But first, I need to take my skin off. It gets awfully uncomfortable if I keep wearing it for too long…"

The events after that were a blur. Adam heard screams and gunshots coming from inside the room, so he quickly activated the alarm system, then kicked down the door, his sword already drawn. What he saw in that room made him feel a sense of horror and despair that he had never felt before in his life, even from his time as a slave in the mines. It made him drop his sword with a clatter and fall to his knees, his arms hanging limply by his sides. It made him want to curl into a ball and sob, or better yet, just give up and let Mother take care of him. Yes, now that he thought about it, that sounded like a great idea. Just give up on the White Fang and the cause. Mother is here now. She is here to make everything better. She is here…

The other members of the White Fang heard the alarm, and one by one, they arrived. Most of them were driven to madness by what they saw that night. Some of them, like Adam, gave themselves up to Mother. Only a few of them tried to fight back. They failed.

Winter was still in her cell when all of this was happening. She heard the alarm go off. She heard dozens of footsteps running down the halls. Then, she heard gunshots. She heard screams, terrible screams that would stay with her for the rest of her life. Winter was glad that she was still in here and not out there. For the first time since she arrived here, she began to cry. She curled up into a ball and covered her ears, trying to block out the screams.

Eventually, the screams grew quieter and quieter, until finally, everything was silent except for the alarm, which also turned off after a few minutes. Winter waited for what felt like hours. Then, she heard footsteps again. But they were not the same footsteps as the ones she constantly heard from White Fang grunts walking past her cell. They were slow. Heavy. They were footsteps that she only heard back home. Her eyes widened. Mother…!

The door to her cell opened. Winter scrambled back and shielded her eyes from the harsh light. After her eyes readjusted to the light, she saw Mother standing in the doorway, smiling down at her. There was not a single drop of blood staining her dress.

"It's time to go back home, Winter," said Mother. "Your family is waiting for you." She held out her gloved hand. Winter gulped nervously, stood up, and slowly placed her own little hand into Mother's giant hand. "You should close your eyes once we step out of this room. Do not open them until I tell you to. Are you fine with that, sweetie?"

"Y-yes, Mother," Winter whispered. Holding onto Mother's hand, she kept her eyes shut as both of them walked through the maze of halls, and she did not open them until they were finally outside and Mother told her that yes dear, she could open her eyes now.

Neither of them realized that a third person was watching them from behind a stack of crates, where she had hidden herself once the alarm went off. A cat faunus, about Weiss' age, with black hair and yellow eyes, forever scarred by what she had just witnessed…