RWBY Through Worlds

78: The Opposite of Amnesia

Wally sighed. "I want to say it couldn't happen," he said, "but I've seen even my best friends tempted to...do stuff they fundamentally believed they shouldn't do."

"The trick with belief, Oscar, is that it's resisted," Shine said seriously. "The world fights it, and our own selves with it, anything that would bring us into line with something better than us. And we have to remember also, the more you advocate for something, the easier it is to doubt it, because honestly, we don't trust our own minds that much anyway. A moment of weakness can make us doubt everything we thought we knew, and that is to be human. True faith is knowing that even when that doubt shows up, you will fall back on what you really believe, once it's passed. I've walked with the Lord for many years now--I still wonder if this is all true sometimes...even though I do this." She gestured around. "But I wonder, am I making it up? Or is God not the way I think He is? Maybe this doesn't work... Maybe there are people I will never reach... You are like me, I think. You want to help everyone...and that's beautiful. But you're going to be hit the hardest when it doesn't work because of that. Every strength has a weakness with it. That's all right, but you must be aware of it and pray that you will not fall to it. You can recover from any fall except the one that convinces you that you don't need help anymore."

Oscar was sober. "I think I need help." 

"Dude," Wally said, "I can't tell you how easy it is to get arrogant even when you know there are tougher guys than you out there. Shine's right. No matter how mature you are, you can always slip. You need people who you can rely on to help you out of it."

"And you have us," Shine said. "But it would be best if you had others also... You're too isolated on the team often, when it comes to telling people what's really on your mind. I'm glad to see you're making some progress there, but don't stop. They need you too. Our goal is not to be the only answers, it's to show you guys the real answers. We won't always be here."

She smiled sadly. "Which is all right, but it means that you should be independent of us as much as you can be once we've covered the basics. We're happy to help you as much as we can, but there will be things only you native dwellers are going to be able to do. It's the way it is."

"What things?" Wally asked her.

"I don't know, I think it's not something you can just put into words," Shine said. "All I know is that I see things at home that I won't away from it, and vice versa. We need both. C. S. Lewis believed strongly that the familiar and unfamiliar were both necessary to have a true perspective on life. I agree with him."

She tugged her hair. "But don't worry too much. This journey lasts the rest of your life. Even if we win, you'll have more to learn. That's why I just try to focus on what you need right now. And you have what you need--just take care not to pick up things you don't need from other people and make them your own. Wisdom is knowing what to imitate and what to do on your own."

"Okay." Oscar nodded. "I'll think about it... Actually...you're saying that I need to know Ozpin's weaknesses so that I don't copy them. About that...something weird happened to me twice in the last few days..."

He told them about the memory visions.

"Weird," Wally said. "But don't you already share Ozpin's memory?'"

"It wasn't like that," Oscar said. "The first time I thought Ozpin set it off, but he says he doesn't think it was him after all. But it wasn't like the memories I share with him--those I feel like are mine too. This was like a video of something. Like I was there but I wasn't."

"A vision," Shine said. She tapped her chin. "I think maybe God or something else is trying to show you what happened. It could be good or bad, but if it's God, I'd say that visions are to help you understand just that--what went wrong...and whatever it was that Alicia was supposed to accomplish here. If Ozpin didn't understand it, maybe you can. And as you're standing in the gap for him, you should know what he needed to hear. It's possible also that it's sort of a way to bridge the gap itself, between Ozpin and Alicia, for you to experience this with him. If they keep happening, try to pick out what might be important about each of them. Writing them down is a good idea. I'm glad you thought of it."