RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC72: Respite (Heroes)--4

"You think it's just a matter of what you're looking for then?" Royal asked.

"Yes, Royal." Shine put a hand on his shoulder. "I do."

She jerked her head at the others. "Let me tell you something I find helpful. I've seen a lot of darkness--things like you guys saw recently--many, many times. And it has made me feel sad plenty of times. I used to waste a lot of time worrying about it and what I could not do. I lost people also. Even here. But, I've since come to realize that I have so much. There's these people, who are exceptionally good and willing to help others and sacrifice for them." She gestured at the team, who mostly were still dancing or goofing off at the moment, in small knots. "I think, I have a home I can go back to. I have a partner who loves me and is above and beyond what I ever thought I deserved."

"Ditto," Wally said. "Ditto for all of it, actually."

Shine nodded. "I have enough to eat, to wear, which, while smaller things, are things many people do not have. And I have the ability to help people. You can ask if you're worthy or capable all day long. Or you can ask what you want to do...but do you know, so many people wish they could help, and they can't? I feel helpless often enough in my own world. That's the biggest privilege of traveling them, is to have significance. And you have that here. The truth is, we can ask all day, all week, all year, why the Lord allows these evils to happen. But in our book, God asks us the same thing over and over again. This is our home--we're supposed to defend it. So the enemy is trying to take over you lands? Your peace of mind? Welcome to our lives. This is not new. It's as old as the fall of Adam. What is new is being able to do anything about it. Did you all scare Grimm before? Did you have immunity to Mind Grimm? Did you know how to heal people with just a look? Many would trade for your abilities."

Royal blinked at her like it hadn't lined up for him like that before.

"So yeah, we have simple joys, and sometimes we have bigger victories. More often, the biggest victory we have is living a life where we have the time and energy to devote to just being at peace and love," Shine went on, simply. "So...you are at a prime point in history. And when they write the books--for be assured that humanity will survive, with or without your help, and deliverance will always rise up, as long as the world turns--but do you want to be the one they say 'stood against the darkness and fought for the world'...or do you want to not even be a footnote?"

Royal looked bemused. "Suppose I never wanted to be great?" he said.

"You know, our famous playwright once wrote that 'some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them,'" Shine said. "Which was meant to be humorous at the time, but there's truth in it. Some people know they're different from the moment they are born because it's foretold, others find destiny through pursuing goals--and others, it finds them. I believe God uses all three methods, depending on the person. If you've found the third one to be yours, who are you to argue with God? Read the story of Moses and Gideon some time. And no one's asking you to get delusions of grandeur. All of you are just men, after all. But Man can be a godlike thing, when he acts like God...or he can be a demon when he acts like a demon. We can choose. And to not choose is to have chosen the second already."

Royal gave her a long look.

Then he rubbed his head. "You know what? You're right," he said, with an air of giving up. "I can't outrun this, can I? What did I expect? I just thought it would be less hard, to be a part of things."

"Dude, when you get the good, you get the danger with it," Wally said. "You can't pick and choose. That's how everything in life is. Even marriage and family."

"But the bad doesn't make the good less good," Shine said. "If it did, we couldn't do anything. And I have a feeling you needed to hear that also."

Royal narrowed his eyes. "Are you just talking about the mission?"