RWBY Through Worlds

25: Clouds start to Darken

Oscar and Shine were stuck waiting under Atlas for at least 2 hours.

It took the others that long to avoid Atlas patrols enough to circle around to find them, even with Oscar calling them on his scroll.

One kindly Faunus man gave them some soup while they were waiting.

Shine got less sleepy after she'd sat for a while and kept singing songs. She took this chance to explain to Oscar that the songs actually recharged her power.

"Like Flynt from team FNKI?" Oscar said.

"Sure, like that," Shine smiled.

"Okay, cool. Does the kind of song matter?" Oscar asked.

"Yes," Shine said. "Praise songs always are better. But for me, some Skillet tends to to do the trick."

Apparently the more rock-style stuff she was singing was from this band called Skillet. Oscar had never heard of it.

Still, it was cool, kind of like the music Ruby listened to--not that he'd ever overheard her playing it or anything like that...on purpose. [Hmm.]

"I see the clouds around me start to darken

Like searchin' eyes of serpents always watchin'
Tell me I'm still breathin' 
Tell me there's still feelin'
Resistance makes me stronger
It makes me stronger. Time for me to be defiant
'Cause I won't be silenced
When I suffer.
Slingin' shots to Goliath
Gonna call down fire
In rain and thunder."

Apparently the people in the trench were a bit hard up for entertainment, because Shine drew a small knot of them who hadn't heard music in a long time.

Then a couple of them began starting up with Remnant songs.

For some reason, Shine knew the song and joined in. [As an aside, the older theme songs were so much better.]

Oscar noted an odd difference in the ones Shine knew and the ones the people of his world knew. Hers always has a note of hope and endurance in them, while the native ones, as it were, tended to kind of leave that open ended and uncertain.

Makes me wonder where our minds are, he thought.

"Indeed, Oscar," Ozpin agreed.

Oscar flinched.

Apparently, he was back for good.

Shine glanced over at him.

"Hello, Ozma," she said.

"Every time she says that it reminds me of Salem," Ozpin internally cringed. "Tell her to just use Ozpin."

"I heard that." Shine hugged her sides. "It's so cold down here... Anyways, fine, Ozpin it is. I just like to call people by their real name. Still, I could see why that might be triggering."

"At this stage, Miss Likstar, I no longer care much for names being real or not," Ozpin said.

"Can I ask, how do you hear him?" Oscar asked Shine. "No one else can."

Shine rubbed her arms some more. "One of my gifts has always been to discern between...well, entities, if you will. I can tell when people feel things, usually. I can tell where there's magic, where there's whatever you could call what we have. I use the term Insight because it's a little easier for people to understand than the old word for it, but it's more than that. It's just...knowing. I can't explain it. Something inside me tells me which it is. I can hear things that don't have a voice. At least not a voice that you'd hear with your ears. So I can hear Ozpin when he's...less present, the same way. I'm not sure I hear his exact words, or if it's just an impression of what he says that my brain translates into words. Clearly it's close enough, however. I can hear you when he's on also."