RWBY Through Worlds

82: Losing My Faith, Falling Off The Edge

Winter and Raven's "training" had gone about as well as expected.

Raven's method of training was to yell at you to look sharp and then hit you with as much as she thought you could take, and that didn't always coincide with how much you thought you could take.

She also was more critical than complimentary.

Winter was accustomed to that from the military, but Raven's manner was so unprofessional it annoyed her.

"You don't even have the basic control yet," Raven lectured her relentlessly. "You use blasts of power, that's it. Fully formed Maidens can make shapes and use the environment itself as a weapon. You haven't even been training this power since you got it, and it's pathetic."

"I fail to see how saying that for the 80th time is teaching." Winter spat dust out of her mouth. "And may I say, for someone who's had the powers as long as you have, I expected more."

"I'm holding back," Raven said. "Plus, I didn't need them that much in the tribe. If you were any better at this, it would be a chance for me to sharpen my skills, but this is just sad."

Winter sent a glyph at her and knocked her over while she wasn't looking.

"Oh, you want to play it that way, Schnee!" Raven got mad. Clouds crackled overhead.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I prefer fighting your brother," Winter said. "He talks way less while he's fighting."

"Because it takes all of his brain cells to just not get killed," Raven said distastefully. "He's not bad, but he's stupid. Even with that Semblance, he doesn't fight creatively."

"As opposed to you, the person who runs from a fight," Winter shot back.

"Better than the one who mindlessly does whatever someone else tells her to do," Raven said.

"That's it. We're done," Winter said.

"Fine by me!" Raven said. "Good riddance. I can't believe this is the thanks I get for even doing this s--- to begin with. Like I wanted to."

"You've made it so abundantly clear from day one that this is the last place you want to be," Winter said coldly. "Some of us didn't want to be here either. You're not the only one who lost your entire home in the last two weeks. You expect us to pity you, but you show not a sign of pity for anyone else. Instead of willingly helping, you complain like it's so much to ask of you. I think it might make me weaker to train with you, not stronger."

She turned her back huffily and started to fly back towards the kingdom.

Raven caught up, mad. "I saved you once, Schnee."

"You should get a gold medal for doing your job?" Winter said.

"I didn't take any oath to protect these fools," Raven said. "I could have left you all alone. I don't have a choice about being here. Is that supposed to make me happy?"

"No one is happy," Winter said, in a tone that signaled she was at the end of her rope. "Do they look happy to you? But only one person complains about this every single day--no, two, really. Your daughter is just like you."

"Yang is not just like me." Raven said that like she meant that in a good way. "She's not a whiner either."

"Perhaps she's changed since you last saw her then," Winter said. "I assure you, she is very much like you."

"Ha," Raven said oddly.

Winter thought that was odd and looked back at her askew.

"After all that work staying away so that she wouldn't turn out like me," Raven said, "it still happens? I guess that settles the nature versus nurture debate. I should be proud, right?..."