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Robyn didn’t know what to expect when she agreed to help Winter on the elevator. The very least that Ironwood would be stopped and that those in Mantle would receive the proper help that they should have received a long time ago. Shooting Atlesian Knights with the help of Qrow seemed simple enough. She just had to stop that bomb leaving the hangar, right? She really didn’t expect the plan to go so awry, nearly falling off from the hangar and an Ace Op dead. It wasn’t like she didn’t know that Atlas was going to fall, but Robyn didn’t think that she’d be around to it. Nor did she think it would hurt her so much watching the waters wash over Atlas, hiding it away and for it to soon just be something you can find in history books.
So she was pretty sure that she would be finally getting some answers on what happened and what went so wrong. After grounding the airship and catching up with May, Fiona and Joanna, she made quick way to the makeshift camp that Winter and the rest of the Schnee family were staying in. Walking through the camp, a feeling of uncertainty started to settle, everyone looking shell shocked and tired. Where was the pipsqueak, the flaming sister and her girlfriend and Penny the Winter Maiden herself? Maybe they’ve gone scavenging for food. They would be more than capable of protecting themselves with a Maiden. She didn’t spend half an hour reassuring Qrow that his nieces and their friends were fine, they just lost their earpieces, or maybe the desert didn’t have any signal. Little Schnee was probably with Winter and the rest of the family in her tent having a long overdue family reunion, hopefully without Jacques Schnee. Robyn wasn’t the one to read tabloids, but just from the dinner at the Schnee manner back when Atlas was still floating, tensions seemed high between Winter and her father. It was probably the same with the rest of the family. And the whispers that floated around back in the Academy about her mother…
Upon entering the tent, Robyn was surprised to see that Winter was alone, sitting on a wooden box probably made from some trees that they had managed to find in the wasteland of the Vacuo desert. Her back was turned to Robyn, busy staring blankly at her hands, the navy blue gloves discarded on the floor. She gave Winter a moment, but it didn't look like she noticed Robyn's entrance. Not knowing what to do, she cleared her throat and gave a little wave after the specialist (was she still a part of the military?) quickly turned and stood up, crossing her hands behind her back. A flash of surprise went over her face, but it quickly returned to the stoic expression that she always wore.
“I see that you have arrived from Atlas Miss Hill. I was worried that you had been unable to access the portals, but it looks like you have managed well by yourself with the help of Qrow”.
“We had a couple of hiccups along the way but we’re here in one piece. Or least the majority of us.” Robyn crosses her arms, looking away from Winter at the memory of watching that Ace Op save them all from the bomb. “He um, Vine was it? He didn’t make it. He saved us all at the cost of his life. We owe it to him that everyone else managed to get here”. Silence washed over the tent, neither of them knowing what to really do. Was Winter friends with him? Robyn wasn’t sure of how she operated within the military, only knowing that she was incredibly high ranking for someone of her age. Maybe she didn’t deliver the news of his death very well.
“I see”. Winter took a seat on a wooden box and let out a sigh, massaging her temple. “Thank you for telling me. I should hold a ceremony in his honour and the rest that we lost.”
“Lost?”
“There were some miscalculations. The portal system wasn’t perfect, Cinder Fall had somehow learnt what we were doing and started a fight in the realm between here and Atlas.”
“Who’s Cinder Fall? And what do you mean the realm between here and Atlas?” Maybe there was a darker reason as to why everyone in the camp looked like they had gone through hell. “What happened?” taking a step towards Winter.
“I… it’s a long story.” She became preoccupied with her hands once again, fumbling over themselves, as if they were trying to mould and create something from thin air. Robyn had the time and the patience to let Winter explain what had happened within the couple of hours that they were separated.
She sat by her listening to how Cinder Fall was the person responsible for the fall of Beacon and is the Fall Maiden, how she saved Marrow from a court marshalling by Ironwood, how she made a plan with team RWBY and others on how to stop Ironwood, how the General and her had clashed together in the depths of Atlas, how dozens of innocent citizens had plummeted off the golden platforms into the unknown in the world between the portals, how her friend Penny had died by the hand of the Fall Maiden, how she had fought against Cinder Fall once again, how she had to watch her younger sister fall into the abyss after finally reaching out to her, how the blonde boy was too slow to leave the unknown realm before the gates disappeared, how she had been unable to save her sister, how she had been-
“Winter, you can’t blame yourself for something that you didn’t do.”
“But that’s exactly the point. It’s my lack of action that this all happened. If I had fought off Ironwood a little quicker, or realised his wrong doings earlier, or just even dealt with Cinder quicker or if I was stronger Weiss wouldn’t have, she…” She let her hands drop to her lap and blankly stared at them as they began to tremble. Eyes widening, Robyn took her hands into her own and stared into her. Pained blue eyes gazed back, tired from all of the woes that it had to watch and let be. Never in a million years did she expect the Ice Queen to be this vulnerable.
(She was pretty sure she overheard her shouting at one of her teammates for letting their emotions control them rather than common sense in the corridors of the Academy, a memory she thought had long faded away. Something about how just because “your partner is injured during a training mission, it does not mean that you should abandon all sense and recklessly attack Grimm in a manner that is similar to a toddler eating their food. The Grimm will make you their dinner quicker than anything else”. Brutal.)
“You were fighting against a fully fledged maiden with all sorts of powers. Your little summons are cool and all, but no offence they wouldn’t have been able to hold up against elemental powers for long.” says Robyn with a small smile, hoping to at least lift the mood of the woman next to her.
“But I am a Maiden now. There is no other excuse for my inability.” Confusion went through Robyn. How did Winter become a Maiden? Noticing the perplexed look on her face, with a small chuckle she explained the transfer of powers between Maiden to Maiden. “The power of the Maidens are transferred to whoever was in the last thoughts of the host. I was the last person in Penny’s thoughts, so her Maiden powers were given to me.” Letting go of Robyn’s hands with a small blush, shifting a little away, she raised her palm. A softly crackling ball of electricity appeared and her weary eyes were shrouded in a light blue glow. With a wan smile, she studied the mass of energy and continued talking.
“Penny entrusted me with these powers thinking that I would be worthy of them. I haven’t done anything that should make me worthy of these powers. I let Ironwood devastate Atlas until it was too late. I couldn’t stop Cinder for the second time.”
“Look, princess,” a flicker of annoyance goes across Winter's face. Grinning, she carries on “What I heard from May was that without you every single person in this camp wouldn’t be here. Yes, maybe you weren’t able to defeat Cinder this time, but what about the fact that you protected everyone here. We’d all be Grimm feed if it weren’t for you”
“I… suppose so. But Weiss, she-”
“What happened to your sister was terrible. And I am so sorry that it happened. But it’s not your fault. You're not the one who blasted her off the platform. You tried your best, and we both know you did so don’t try to deny it”. Robyn didn’t know how, but she was again holding Winter’s hand in a vice-like grip, to steady herself or maybe for something else she didn’t want to explore.
Winter’s face was still plastered with a sullen expression, no doubt feeling worse than she looked. Looking away in the corner where her sabre rested, she could feel the tell-tale signs that she was on the verge of crying, a prickling, burning sensation amassing through her eyes which had felt so foreign to her until a couple of hours ago.
“She based her weapon off mine, did you know that?” she sighed. It was silent in the tent aside from the faint crackling of electricity. Winter continued talking nonetheless, following the feeling of despair, hoping that maybe, just maybe by talking she would be able to get rid of the heavy weight burdening her, the guilt that continued to weigh her down no matter how many Grimm she killed or how many times Robyn had told her it wasn’t her fault.
“I initially thought that coincidentally she used the same forge as me when creating Myrtenaster, but I learnt after overhearing a conversation she had personally sought out the same forge and metals that I had used in my weapon with the help of Klein. She even went through the electronic history of everyone who had used the workshop just so she could get a rough blueprint of mine,” Winter let out with a chuckle.
“I felt honoured at first, but then something else started to settle within me. I was never able to pin down what it was until now. It was the feeling of disappointment. Disappointment that my younger sister, who had so much potential, decided to set me as her role model. Someone who took the first opportunity they could find to abandon their family through joining the Atlas military.
I did not care for what would happen to Weiss afterwards, knowing fully well she was going to be burdened by the role of being the heiress to the SDC. All I cared for in the end was for my liberation from my father and nothing else. I’ve failed as a sister, so why should I even have the powers of the Winter Maiden?” She had long stopped using her maiden powers, eyes no longer veiled with fiery light blue. Tears began to pool in her eyes and soon enough began streamlining down her porcelain face. Using her free hand, she tried her best to wipe the tears away (embarrassing, embarrassing, embarrassing, what is she doing right now, exposing herself like a weakling in front of-)
Maybe she was too busy trying to staunch the steady flow of tears that were coming out from her eyes or she was too caught up in the fact that she was crying in front of the woman who, until 16 hours ago, was considered an enemy, Winter didn’t notice how Robyn had moved from her spot next to her, had let go of her hand and had taken a comfortable position standing behind her.
“Up you get princess”, she says, hands on her shoulders.
“Sorry?” she was so taken aback she forgot to bite back at her for using that nickname.
“You heard what I said, up you get.” Confused, Winter slowly rose from the rickety box she had made, turning around to face Robyn. “No, no, no face forward”. With a weak huff of indignance, she heeded her words, not sure what was going to come out of it. Hopefully she would get an answer as to what the councilwoman (Was she that after her father was arrested? Does the Council still exist?) planned to do.
She got her answer soon enough. Warmth enveloped her, thawing through the cold of the brace that was holding her together. Arms tight against her from the top, crisscrossing across her chest. It took her a moment to realise that Robyn Hill was giving her a… back hug? Reading her mind, Robyn spoke into her ear “The rest of the Happy Huntresses give me one of these when I’m feeling down. Although Fiona is a little on the smaller side, the sentiment is still there.”
Winter didn’t say anything, standing silently.
(Her face was turning warmer and warmer as the seconds passed by, a red tinge creeping up her neck and face.)
Becoming panicked with the ever growing silence, Robyn quickly added on, loosening her grip around Winter, “I’m sorry I should have asked before doing this. You probably don’t like being tou-”
“Thank you.” Winter whispered so quietly Robyn might have missed it if she wasn’t hanging her head in the crook of the Maiden's shoulder (oh god she was doing that?). She nestled her head into one of her arms, burrowing her way into any kind of warmth. “I haven’t had these since Weiss gave me one a couple months ago.” Holding the arms that clasped her into Robyn’s embrace, she closed her eyes, hoping the best for whatever happens next.
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“I must say, Winter Schnee being the Winter Maiden? A little on the nose isn’t it?”
“Be quiet or I’ll have my summons at you.”
“Sure princess.”