Winter Memories

Chapter 9 - Fracture (1)

A/N: This was a really long time coming... sorry it took so long.

Sun wasn't really sure what he'd gotten himself in this time—but he did know for sure that he was not going to get out of this easily, if at all.

"Well, well, well…" the ever-so-annoying voice of Roman Torchwick reached his ears, making him realize that he definitely should have gotten some help before trying to interrupt this.

Actually, how the hell did they even find him? He was pretty sure that—ah, right. White Fang. Yep, he should have definitely been more careful.

"Looks like this one hasn't quite gotten the memo, huh?" Roman raised a brow at him, looking amused. "Now, monkey boy, mind explaining yourself here?"

"Uhh… I was just curious so I had to take a look?" Sun smiled nervously, he was definitely not getting out of this one wasn't he? Suddenly he caught a bright green light flashing in the corner of his eyes.

"Wrong answer kiddo." Torchwick grinned, but before anything could happen, there was a loud explosion as everyone was blinded, Sun included.

By the time he regained some semblance of perception, he found that he wasn't held by the White Fang and Torchwick at gunpoint anymore… but he was really high up in the air.

Really, really high up.

"W-What the hell?!" he exclaimed but found himself being held by a… girl? Who seemed to be floating? And also had very scary swords floating right next to her…?

"Oh hello, student Sun Wukong of Shade Academy." the orange haired girl smiled, "Please calm down, I am perfectly capable of holding you up after all, so you won't fall to the ground!"

"Y-Yeah! C-Calm down… yeah…!" Sun said with a troubled smile on his face, "Um… what just happened?" he asked as he looked down and saw… a whole lot of unconscious and charred White Fang members and a very tattered Torchwick fighting against some white-haired woman.

"Oh! The battle has just begun, but do not fear! Specialist Winter is very skilled at this! And I'm also here to provide backup in case she needs it!" the incredibly peppy girl explained, a smile on her face the whole time. "Although, I am detecting some unidentified Aura signatures around the area… oh—!"

Suddenly, he was falling.

The girl who was holding him up also seemed to be falling with him, but she looked a bit… different this time. More… gray? He couldn't continue thinking about that, however, as his consciousness faded away.

He really should have been more careful…

Winter had her brows knit together as she steadily pushed Roman back with her sabers, getting closer and closer to cutting him with her blades. Gods how she hated this man, in fact, he's one of the many reasons why she and Jaune were still stuck in this cursed loop. If she could just cut him down right now…

"What the fuck?!" Torchwick screamed as he grit his bloodied teeth, "Where in the fucking world did you Specialists come from?! This is fucking Vale!" somehow, through all his profanities, he was still managing to fight back against her. This weak body of hers was really getting annoying.

"None of your business, Torchwick." Winter grunted, ducking down to avoid a shot from Torchwick, "Even through all this time, you're still tough to kill…" she clicked her tongue and decided to use her Semblance now. Cinder was going to get here soon—and she'd also have to deal with Neo in the next few seconds so she had to make this quick.

A yellow glyph appeared in her path and she ran through it, infusing her aura with lightning dust through her semblance, time slowing to a crawl for her.

This wasn't going to last for long, however, so she had to make this quick. Sending quick slashes to finish Torchwick off, she headed off towards the person rapidly approaching Penny and Sun.

Three seconds… she wasn't going to make it. But if she used her Semblance again then—No, Winter. That's suicide. She shook her head. She was hearing his voice in her head again.

Her Aura was not going to last taking a hit from Neo, much less Cinder, but what other choice did she have?

You should retreat, the mission was a failure. Take what we've lost for now, we can't win an uphill battle.

But this whole thing is an uphill battle, Jaune!

And you think we're not trying?! Winter… we can't lose any more than this.

You're right! We can't! That's why I'm tired of this! I'm sick and tired of—all of this! Over and over again, stuck in an endless loop! Our fucking lives never move forward! Trying again and again to make a different outcome and yet… and yet… And yet it's all for nothing! If we can't do this, Jaune, then tell me, what, in all the Gods' names, can we even do?

"Jaune…" Winter hardened her grip on her sabers, a tear falling from her eyes, "I'm sorry…"

We live, Winter. We live. So that one day… one day, we can fight again.

Resolving herself one last time, she used her semblance to save Penny and Sun from their demise.

Shooting up to the skies, she managed to block Neo's attack once as her blade failed to get to either Penny or Sun. Then, she brought the girl down with her with a drop kick, rebounding off one of her glyphs to amplify the effect. As they were falling to the ground, Neo reversed their places with the hook of her umbrella weapon, and so Winter took the brunt of the force falling down to the ground.

Coughing out blood as she glared at Neo, she reached out for her weapon as a last resort, an effort which was quickly halted with the heel of Neo's boots, making Winter scream out.

So this is it for her… huh.

Her eyes were slowly closing shut as the pain was too much for her to handle.

She tried her damnedest… and yet it still wasn't enough.

It never is.

At least… Jaune can live on this time… right…?

Before she could lose consciousness, however, a bright and warm Aura covered her body and she was in a sea of blue once more—a hand reached out to her, as she was drowning in the sea of nothingness… and she took it.

Winter opened her eyes, staring into an oceanic pair of blue eyes…

They were together again.

Two halves, whole, once more.

"I'm—" Winter started, wanting to apologize but Jaune, who appeared to save her once again, just shook his head.

"I know. You're an idiot, as always." the small sarcastic smile that she commonly saw before was here again. Oh how she missed it dearly. "Didn't I tell you to always bring a team or have a backup, Winter?" the twinkle in his eyes…

It was too much. She cried.

Cried her heart out.

Years… For years, she was alone.

And now…

"I'm not leaving you this time, Winter." he whispered into her hair, as his arms wrapped around her, pulling her into his embrace, "Not anymore. This time I'm not going to let you go, alright?"

Why was she an idiot?

Why… Why did she always try to do it on her own?

Why did she always want to be alone? When in her heart…

She wanted him to be with her always.

In this broken and tattered cycle… Winter broke down and cried her heart out.

Jaune looked around the docks and frowned. It was a mess.

Bodies everywhere… many of the White Fang mooks were certainly alive, but the dead bodies still stood out. Neapolitan and Roman Torchwick…

Winter, for all her recklessness, was certainly efficient.

Brutal, yes, but as always, she was efficient… in most of her work.

He sighed, looking up to the sky, seeing a certain airship descending down to the ground. Well, to call it an airship would be to put it lightly. It was a literal Battleship.

The specific one that General Ironwood always boarded in.

As it was descending to the ground, Weiss approached his side, and he glanced at her with a nod. She nodded back twice. Sun and Penny were safe. Somehow.

Mostly thanks to Winter, he supposed. An outcome that was less than ideal, but one he could at least live with. He continued to rub Winter's back as she cried her heart out in his arms, but right now, his mind was a mess.

Like a really huge mess.

At this point, he wasn't even certain of just who he really was.

After a moment, Winter stopped crying and they separated from each other, the Schnee sisters met each other's eyes.

"Weiss…" Winter mumbled, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"No." Weiss shook her head, "It's fine. I'm more than happy to know that you're safe and sound, really, Winter." she smiled, "I… figured it out just recently. Everything with you two. Just how many times, sister?"

"... Too many." Winter closed her eyes, "I don't even want to count."

Jaune tuned their conversation out as he approached the General who was coming down from his ship, "General Ironwood." he said, and the General nodded.

"I know already, Jaune Arc." Ironwood said, letting out a short breath, "I'm just glad that you were able to make it in time… I certainly almost let one of my most valuable specialists die with how late I was." he frowned, "Though I have to say you…"

"Look younger than expected, I get that a lot. Or at least, I was supposed to get that a lot from the Atlas Military." Jaune sighed, glancing up at the bright and shattered moon, "Things didn't seem to go that way this time…"

"Indeed it hasn't." Ironwood nodded, "I got most of the idea from Winter, and it seems she was right, although… I'm not quite sure what we can do even with all that knowledge."

"We've been through this countless times as well, General, and even I don't know what to do with all that…" Jaune looked straight at Ironwood again, "Guess the best we can hope for right now is to just get through this at some point, no? It's not like there's anything else we can realistically do." he smiled, before glancing around the docks, "Especially not after all this."

"Indeed." Ironwood sighed. "Can you… tell me everything?"

Jaune paused at that, blinking for a bit before frowning, "I would, General… but I don't exactly remember everything yet. It's only been a half hour ago and I don't even know who I really am right now." he looked down to the ground, "Sorry."

"No worries then. It's understandable considering that both you and Winter have likely been through a lot." Ironwood nodded, and Jaune looked up at him again, "... been through far, far too much it seems." the General frowned as he looked at him. Then he nodded to the ship, "You three go back to Beacon. You all need some rest. I'll take care of this for the time being."

"Thank you so much, General."

"No need to thank me, Mr. Arc." Ironwood smiled, "I have to take care of my specialists, after all."

Jaune smiled at that and nodded, and went back to Beacon with Weiss and Winter now in tow.

Who is Jaune Arc, really?

The answer to that question, he still doesn't know.

Even now with his memories back… mostly.

A/N: So yeah, I'm somehow back? Took a bit of a break last year from just... well, writing in general. Only really came back this year, and it wasn't even in fanfics and stuff. Well, I'm back here now at least, this time I have to finish this story, though after taking a break the plan ahead has changed a bit, and this story is going to be much longer than I'd intended it to be. I was thinking of this to be the last/second to the last arc for this story, actually, but now that I'm looking at it from a new perspective, there's far too much stuff I need to wrap up and if I were to end it with my original plan... well, it would be quite unsatisfying.

And so this thing will go on for a bit longer than I had anticipated, but that's just writing for you, I suppose.

Hopefully I haven't lost my touch, though my style may be just a tad different due to the work I've done trying to write more original stuff on other places. Hope the chapter was good! And thank you everyone as always for the reviews, favorites, and follows, they're one of the main reasons I even considered coming back to finish my stuff here haha.

Let's hope not to die this time again yeah?