Rise of the Red Hood

Chapter 7.5: Talk with Winter

(SCENE: ATLAS INTERROGATION ROOM) (POV: RED HOOD)

After taking over Atlas and fixing everything this pathetic place has done, I decided to pay a little visit to one of my hostages: Winter.

She and I actually have some history. Before I became Red Hood, I was a foolish boy known as Y/n L/n, having the In-Training Hero Name: King Justice. I also had a harem, with Winter's sister being one of them: Weiss Schnee.

Weiss introduced me to her sister when we just started dating, and Winter & I got off on a good start. But when I got framed and captured by the villains, Winter did nothing to help me.

And now, I think it's time to have a slight chat with her.

I entered the interrogation room to see Winter surrounded some of my soldiers. "Leave! Now." I said in an intimidating tone. The soldiers ran out with their tails between their legs as I took a seat in front of Winter.

"They're gone now. Are you okay? Did they hurt you?" I asks in a fake caring tone. Winter snorts at me as she turns her head. "Spare me with the old 'Good Cop, Bad Cop' routine. We'll make you pay for what you did to my Father and Brother." She says.

I shook my head as I placed my arm down on the table. "No, no, no, no. You're supposed to keep me talking, play for time. Wait for someone, like you're Ace Ops or the Pro Heroes, to come and save you. That's what they taught you at the Academy, like all Academies do, right?" I ask as Winter glares at me.

"I've got nothing to say to you." She says. I chuckled at her response, causing her to look at me with a questioning look. "I said the same thing too, before I became the Red Hood. I talked for hours on end during my time with some nameless scumbags, because I thought either a Hero or someone from Hero Academy will come and save me. Eventually, I just ran out of things to say. And at that moment, I realized something: you can't trust people like Ozma or Toshinori to come and save you, because they'll fail you, like how they & their allies failed me." I explain as Winter looks at me in shock.

"Ozma? Toshinori? How do you know those names?" She asks in shock. "Ah, I have many secrets. And here's another: people from Hero Academy like to play the hero role. Not because they want to save people, but rather to do whatever they want without law to hold them back. They committed horrible crimes and the law won't lift a single muscle to anything about it. So in truth, they're just acts, demons disguised as knights in shining armor." I explain.

"And don't get me wrong, they'll come to Atlas someday. But it won't be about saving you, your Mother or your comrades. But rather about your supply of Dust Crystals. Because they're power hungry frauds." I explains as she got up in my face.

"YOU'RE WRONG!!! THEY'LL VALUE THE LIFE OF A LIVING BEING OVER DUST!!!" She exclaims. "But what about the life of a powerless being?" I shot back. "It doesn't matter. All humans are equal, despite what people say about them." She says.

I then pressed the button on my helmet to make it loose form fitting and take off my helmet. "Wanna look me in the eyes and say that again, Snowflake?" I asked.

Winter's mouth was open from shock as her eyes widened at the nickname. Mainly because only one person has ever called her by that name. "Y/n?" She asks with her voice cracking as tears swell up in her eyes.

"Y/n is dead, only Red Hood lives." I said. "Y/n, please, go back to Hero Academy. Your name has been cleared, all charges have been dropped, you can go back to being King Justice again." Winter tries to reason, but I won't listen to her. "Never. One action won't bring back my family and loved ones that I lost." I said in anger.

"I'm sorry about the deaths of your entire bloodline, but they wouldn't have want you becoming this person. And what you're doing now is something they would be proud of." Winter explains. "This is Hero Academy's justice! They abandoned me! They betrayed me!" I exclaim.

"They were tricked, Y/n. When they found out the truth, they mourned for you. They grieved for you." Winter says as I cut her off. "But tell me this: if they did grieved and mourned for me, then why didn't they looked for me? Why didn't they save my family and bloodline? Why did they replace me?" I asked her.

"They did looked for you, for months, but they cancelled the search. They believe you to be dead. The heroes and authorities investigated the murders of your line, but they couldn't do much because of a lack of evidence, so they postponed it. And they didn't replace you, the new student was just a transfer student for a new Academy Exchange Program." Winter explains as tears runs down her face.

"Y/n, listen, we can fix this." She tries to reason once again, but my anger took control of me. "NO ONE CAN FIX ME BUT ME!" I scream in anger as I calm down. "I know what I have to do. I take all of my pain, suffering, hate and rage & I'll manifest it into a bullet. And then, I'll put it in between the eyes of everyone who've caused me pain." I explain.

"You don't need to kill anymore. Just come back to Hero Academy, let us help you. Me, your harem and everyone else." Winter says in both desperation and sadness.

This actually got me to freeze for a moment as this make my heart ache for some reason. "How's your sister doing now?" I ask. "I don't know, I couldn't contact her for the last few years. But I know she misses you, like how I missed you." She says.

I sigh as I stood up. "I'm sorry Winter, but not only am I far passed for redemption, but you can't fix something's that is already broken. And once I've exact my revenge, the world will never see the Red Hood ever again." I said in a cryptic tone as I put my helmet back and exit the room.

I could hear the sounds of Winter's cries as my heart starts breaking. Maybe it's because I feel sympathy or empathy for her? Or maybe because I'm starting to get feelings for her? I just don't know.

(Here's chapter 7.5 done. And about chapter 8, well, I kinda got sidetracked a bit because I remembered the audio tapes from Batman: Arkham Knight and I decided to make a chapter similar to the Arkham Knight's audio logs. And who knows? Maybe I'll make some chapters like this with both Willow and the Ace Ops.)