RWBY Through Worlds

50: Close My Eyes

"Huh?" Oscar started.

"Geez, what part of outer space are you in right now?" Emerald said. "You've been acting weird all evening."

"How do you know?" Nora joked. "You don't even know Oscar."

"I'm pretty sure he's not this unfocused," Emerald said. "I mean, after holding out against torture, you'd think so anyway."

They frowned at her.

Oscar smiled rather flatly. "Yeah, I guess... That's...sorry. I'm just...lost in thought."

Winter walked in, looking around.

"Oh, look who's back from the dead," Emerald said, then seemed to remember that phrase might not be as sarcastic as it used to be.

"Are you okay?" Nora asked Winter. "We heard you collapsed."

"I'm fine." Winter put her hand on the back of a chair to steady herself while the room stopped moving. "Where is the rest of our diminished group?"

"Shine and Wally both went upstairs a while ago to shower and change, I think," Oscar said. "They said they were tired... But the good news is, Shine did get the tower here at some point today. I don't know where she found time for it. But Pietro is going to start working on it. And we're not to tell anyone about it, since that backfired so much in Atlas..."

Winter nodded tightly. "Yes...it would be best not to get people's hopes up until we can deliver."

"Oh, and Blake's parents are here," Oscar said. "They said they'd stay a few days... We...kind of had to tell them Blake is missing... We didn't say where, but they said she'd probably turn up. I'm sure they're worried...but they're willing to help us out while they're here. Gira wants to get the Faunus here to join his new White Fang...the peaceful one now. I guess their new mission is to partner with humanity instead of fighting it?"

"I'm sure that'd catch on," Emerald said sarcastically. "Hey, where's Qrow?"

Winter had been thinking the same thing but didn't like to say it.

"I don't know. I haven't seen him since this morning," Ren said, not very nicely. "But knowing him, he's probably at a pub."

"Or he could be patrolling around, looking for trouble," Nora offered. "After all, that's kinda his job, right?" She tried to sound upbeat, then she deflated. "He has to be taking Ruby and Yang's disappearance even harder than us."

"Oh, they're fine I'm sure." Emerald rolled her eyes. "No way they'd go out that easily after all the effort we went through to stop them."

"Are you purposely trying to be unhelpful, or is it just natural for you?" Ren said to her sharply.

Ren never made remarks like that, and it shocked his friends, and even Winter, who at least didn't take him for the type.

"Hey," Hazel said firmly. "Fighting each other is not useful. The girl has a point that your friends are pretty strong willed. If they're alive, they'll be working to get back here."

"If they can," Oscar said. "But...there has to be a way. I just wish we knew something."

"Ozpin really doesn't?" Hazel might not have been the brightest bulb in the shack, but he was suspicious of Ozpin enough to think of this.

And he kind of was right...though Winter didn't know this yet. But she thought Oscar looked uneasy.

"He kind of knows about it," he said. "But not how to get them back...honest. I've even tried searching his memory and nothing. Shine and Wally know the most about it."