RWBY Through Worlds

35: Whatever Comes

Yang and Ruby had been sitting out by the steps outside.

"Salem always wanted me alive," Ruby had said to her. "She used to kill Silver Eyed warriors...but what if now...she's found another way to use them...and it happened to Mom?... What she said before...like she knew something we didn't."

"I don't know, Ruby," Yang said. "But Mom...she was...well, she was a huntress. I don't think this changed anything about that. I mean, that thing...it's not like it was...really...still a person, right? Mom is still a hero."

She kept trying to console her, and for a brief time it seemed to work, but even after perking up slightly, Ruby still felt off...and finally, she came back to it.

"But Salem might have turned her into a monster..." she buried her face on her shoulders. "I don't know if I can...deal with it.... And what if she...turns me into one...?"

"I..." Yang had no words.

They just sat there for a long time till Shine finally came looking for them.

Yang shot her an annoyed look.

Shine sighed and sat down on the other side of Ruby.

"The others want to make a plan," she said. "And we don't have a lot of time."

Ruby nodded. "I know... I just...I don't have any ideas..."

"We have a few," Shine said. "But first, are you okay?"

"Oh, sure," Ruby said.

Pause.

"Actually not really." Ruby slumped.

"Seeing that thing must have been pretty hard to take." Shine already knew. "Believe it or not, I may understand better than you think. I've seen some stuff over the years."

"I doubt it was anything like that," Yang said.

"Or it was exactly like that," Shine said. "You don't know my life, Yang. The point is, I understand the horror of it. But if I can set your mind somewhat at ease, no one, not even Salem, can truly own the soul of someone else. Whatever that monstrosity was, it's just a shell of its former self. Some of the life maybe still there, but nothing that would truly resemble a soul. You see it had no Aura anyway. Perhaps she gave it some genetic immunity to silver eyes, but it was still affected by our Spirit. Some laws cannot be broken. Remember that your body is just a shell. Whatever...desecration Salem commits against it, she doesn't own us. She doesn't own your mother either. Your mother made her choice. Salem may or may not have used that to mock her... Evil goes to great lengths to do that, but you see, it's just because it grasps at straws. Evil knows it's limited to this sorry world and so it's all the more viscous because it knows that, in passing, we can be free of its effects. I cannot promise you that something did not happen to your mother, but I can assure you everyone who truly seeks Salvation, sincerely, finds it. People who give up, don't. And I can promise you that there are powers higher than Salem's, and nothing she has done could not be undone by them, should they choose to help. So even if this is horrifying, it's not the end of the line."

Yang would not have thought Shine would actually have anything helpful to say here, but surprisingly it was kind of comforting.

Ruby sat up. "You think so?" she said.

"I know so," Shine said. "Magic is ugly, but it's finite. God is not. Don't be afraid of Salem's disgusting experiments. They're just shadow things. That's all that woman has left. I can't explain why it works, but I know it won't win...if that helps."