Chapter 37 - Assassination of the Councils Members

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Exactly 10:00 AM, two Bullheads landed on a SDC shipment cargo ship which was returning back to Atlas from Mistral. The crews had been replaced and taken over by sleeper agents and the ship was hijacked by Roman Torchwick working under Agent's order.

"Ah! Welcome on board, Mr President. It's a pleasure to work with you personally." Roman greeted Adam and the soldiers when they exited the Bullhead.

"The pleasure is mine." Adam greeted back. He must remain cordial and maintain a good relationship with his subordinates, especially someone like Roman Torchwick.

"Alright. Everything is prepared and in another 5 hours the ship will arrive at the harbor. We will smuggle everyone in without any problem. So, please relax for now and enjoy the cruise." Roman explained everything before returning to his post, disguising as the captain of this ship.

They waited. While Adam and Winter are mostly relaxed. The soldiers however were feeling nervous about their first mission. Some even rehearse their objectives and targets to kill time.

Five hours later, everyone is hiding inside a shipping container and being smuggled into the harbor after Roman bribed the person in charge to let the container pass without inspection.

After that, the shipping container is loaded on a truck driven by the subordinates of Roman until they arrive at the warehouse.

"It's sad that our journey ends here. But this is as far as I can send everyone." Roman Torchwick bid everyone farewell with a smile while muttering something about life is easy when working on the winning side.

After that, everyone disguised as civilians and boarded a Bullhead on the airport arranged by Agent. Everything went smoothly as planned.

By evening, they arrived on the floating city and hurried to a safehouse where Neo is staying. She will be the next key to enter deeper into the city that is currently under martial law due to the war between Atlas and Vale.

[Here is the location of every council members. I will make distraction as planned by the Prime Minister and attract most of the patrolling soldiers and Specialists.]

[You all have approximately 30 minutes to get the job done.]

Neo communicated through Scroll messaging and had them a file containing information about the in and outs of the residence of the council members which she scouted out herself.

Winter is a little nostalgic to return to Atlas and see the Schnee Manor being one of the locations stated in the file because Jacques Schnee is one of the targets. However, she has no hint of hesitation or sympathy for Jacques Schnee for all he did to her, her family and her siblings. She in fact blamed him for what happened to Whitley. It's because of him that White Fang even targeted Whitley. It's all his fault.

"Alright. All of us will split into five teams. We will strike all these places all at once." Winter coldly issues orders as she is very angry at those that trampled the hard work of James Ironwood.

The corruption is sky high after James Ironwood's death and there is no one else that can keep those bastards in check. For that, she is very gladly to kill them all and bring Atlas under Adam's rule. He is thousands- No, million times better than what these five had done to Atlas.

Team Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta will take care of these. As for Jacques Schnee, I will lead Team Echo and deal with him myself." Winter said with bloodlust dripping from her words.

"Yes, Ma'am!" The elected team leaders saluted while shivering from the killing intent released by Winter. Now they no longer doubt Winter's credibility.

After that, with Neo's help. Everyone infiltrated and broke off at each respective objective while waiting for the signal to start. Once the last team arrives at their objective, an order is given.

"Send those scums into hell." Winter orders viciously as she infiltrates the Schnee Manor with ease as if it's the back of her palm.

Meanwhile Adam perched on top of a building overseeing the teams and ready to provide back up and stall the patrols if needed.

———

Winter with Team Echo infiltrated the Schnee Manor and incapacitated any servants they found while Winter led the team into the bedchamber of Jacques Schnee.

When she happened to pass by her mother's room, she felt the longing to meet her mother and subconsciously approached the room but stopped immediately after getting a grip on herself. However, that almost fell apart when she heard soft sobs filled with painful grief from her mother's room accompanied by muttering of a name, the name of her youngest son.

This pained Winter but she cannot afford to be distracted right now. She promised to return immediately after she gouged out the heart of the perpetrator of their collective suffering and grief of her family. She steeled her heart and marched to Jacques Schnee's bedchamber.

Upon arriving, she turned back to the soldiers behind her. She ordered two to secure the hallway and another two to follow her in. With her blade drawn and the two behind her training their silenced guns around the room to make sure it's clear, Winter approaches the man who is sleeping so comfortably on the bed.

Without any extra flairs, Winter jumped on top of the bed and pressed on the blanket to trap Jacques as she pressed one hand on his mouth to muffle his voice and the dominant hand with her sword stabbed into the man's heart with a cold and vicious stare as she twist and gouged her blade to vent all her pent up anger she had to this bastard of a man that do not deserve to be called her father. All the emotions and frustration she collected over the years poured out in this moment.

It felt euphoric. The taste of revenge is too sweet and addictive. Too sweet that it rotted her mind and made her want to retch but she held it back as tears flowed down her cheeks.

'I did it, Whitley, I avenged you… Ah, no… Not Whitley. Adam… I did it! I did what you wanted! Are you proud of me now? Am I useful for you now?' Her state of mind becomes increasingly more unstable.

Even if she hated Jacques. The fact remains he is her father. She would never have thought of murdering him no matter how much she hated him. If she is still in the right state of mind that is. But her state of mind is unlike before.

A crack appeared after she heard the news of Whitley's death.

Another crack appeared after James Ironwood's death.

Another one when she heard about the war proposed by Atlas on Adam.

There is only so much she can handle before it breaks and the last straw on the camel's back it's the murder of her own father by her own hands.

"Winter? Winter, do you hear me? The soldiers report something happened to you. Are you alright?" A worried voice of Adam pulled Winter back from the void she fell into after her mind shattered apart.

"Winter?"

"My apologies, Adam. I was a little shocked. I am fine." Winter smiled brighter than she ever did before while replying to Adam. Almost innocently which does not fit her who looks bloody with the blood of Jacques staining her right hand and her gear.

"Alright. Evacuate quickly if you are done. Neo might not last as long as we planned."

"Alright, Adam. My mission had succeeded perfectly. I killed this worthless trash that dared to harm you." Winter continued to smile brightly as she pulled out the sword from Jacques chest and flicked the blood away and left the room.

"..."

"A-Alright. Just return immediately before those patrols realize what happened." Adam is a little worried by the change of demeanor and tone of Winter. The air of a hardened veteran vanished and replaced with an almost child-like innocence.

"Oh, Adam worried about me?" A curious sounding question came from Winter.

"Yes?" Adam is unsure how to handle this as he is confused by the sudden changes he has no idea about.

"Alright, then I will return immediately. Adam don't need to worry."

"O-Okay." Adam replied before ending the transmission.

Winter then exits the bedchamber of Jacques and stops by the bedchamber of her mother. She barged into the room much to the surprise of the four soldiers.

"Winter?" A dried and almost cracked voice said.

"Yes, mother. You love your son right? He is still alive. Do you want to meet him?" Winter asked.

Willow however noticed the change in her daughter. No matter how she drowned in depression, she is still a loving mother. But that's not her focus. What she focused on is what she just said.

"Whitley still alive?" Willow croaked and hurried to climb off her bed and clung on to Winter with all her strength in desperation.

"Yes, mother. Let's go with me. I will bring you to him. Let's leave everything behind and dedicate ourselves to him." Winter said something suspicious and odd with a never fading smile on her face. However, Willow is too focused on the fact Whitley is alive to notice the abnormality on Winter as she agreed immediately.

"Ah! I knew mother would definitely agree. Let's protect him together and kill all those that dare to take him away from us." Winter cheer carried Willow and left the manor with the soldiers while humming to a tune.

———

Meanwhile back with Adam, Winter's strangeness aside. She returned with a person who supposedly was his mother.

But they don't have the luxury to waste anymore moments. Neo cannot hold up anymore and has gone into the safehouse waiting for them to leave immediately.

Everyone immediately made the run back to the safehouse to regroup with Neo before they boarded a Bullhead she hid as their way out.

If everything went as planned, Roman Torchwick is waiting for them with a private yacht at the sea a few dozen miles away from the harbor.

But unfortunately, they were found just before they could board the Bullhead.

"Over here! Those criminals were over here!" Few soldiers and Atlesian Knights found the group and gun fights broke out.

Neo already started the engine and was just waiting for everyone to board but unfortunately the enemies were too many. They were drowned by curtains of bullets.

"I will be the bait, everyone board the Bullhead now!" Adam orders and summons his operators as he decides to hold the line until everyone boarded. However, not everything will go as planned wouldn't it?

"How dare you… How dare you harm Adam!" Winter immediately burst with Aura and summoned two Manticore.

*ROOAARR!*

"Slaughter them!" Winter ordered as the Manticores roared again and charged into the enemy's rank.

The Manticores did as their summoner ordered, they mercilessly slaughtered those soldiers and Atlesian Knights. They were brutally slashed with claws, pierced with its tail, stomped to death, ripped apart and many more. None of the corpses were ever intact.

"Let's go, Adam. Those insects will not bother you any longer." Winter smiled sweetly which is a total 180 from her previous expression overwhelmed with rage.

"A-Alright…" Adam is a little terrified to be honest. But it seems Winter still regarded him as an ally as her actions were to protect him. He let it be for now and bother about it later when they returned home.

—————

(Welp, there ya go with Winter. This is more comfortable to write than pure love. This one does not feel cringe. Willow is not difficult to turn like Winter. Although Weiss would.

Maybe she will despair if SDC crumbles? She seems to pay a lot of attention to SDC and is very proud to inherit it later. Or maybe after seeing the state of Winter and soon Willow, had becomes? Or the fact Winter murdered Jacques in cold blood?)

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