As Atlas fell, Wally and Hazel were still trapped in the school's hanger.
They didn't expect to be joined by Jacques Schnee, but he came stumbling out.
"Ironwood didn't kill you?" Hazel said.
"He didn't kill you?" Jacques replied.
Then he looked out.
"We're all dead anyway..." he said.
"All right, let's not panic," Wally said. "We can still get out of here."
He took out his new scroll. "Shine's not answering though... Maybe they don't have service?"
"The tower is down," Hazel said.
"Oh...right," Wally said.
The city sank faster.
"Does anyone have any ideas?" Jacques said snottily.
Suddenly someone appeared over the edge of the hanger.
Raven...she was using her Maiden powers this time.
She also had Watts in one hand, though he was unconscious.
"Hey, Raven." Wally waved at her.
She frowned at him and dropped Watts on the hanger floor.
"The bandit leader again?" Jacques sounded horrified.
"As if that matters now." Raven gestured out the hanger. "I found this guy trapped. Saw that b---- Cinder set the area on fire using the Staff, then she left. Prior to finding that cursed fiend."
"Okay..." Wally said. "And you didn't think to maybe get the Relic from her?"
"I have no intention of letting them know I was even here," Raven said flatly. "But since I'm pissed that she survived, I decided to screw up her plan of petty revenge and save this b------d." She kicked Watts. "Not that I care for him any more, but it'll screw with her trying to figure out how he survived. Anyway, I thought you might find him useful."
"Watts?" Hazel said. "He won't work with us."
"He might," Raven shrugged. "Give that woman a chance. She's pretty persuasive."
"Which woman?" Jacques said.
"The one who's oddly not here..." Raven looked around. "I thought you'd meet up by now."
"Hopefully she's already gone," Wally said. "She was supposed to go with the kids, I thought, and we were going to go with Qrow on a plane, but he's not back."
"Oh, he couldn't come this close and get away fast enough," Raven said carelessly. "In fact, I'd better go myself. It's about to flood down there."
"Can't you take us?" Jacques said.
"Not all of you, " Raven said. "And no time to make two trips..."
She hesitated. "Maybe one of you... You want to flip a coin?"
"He should go." Hazel nodded at Wally. "The rest of us deserve this."
Raven raised an eyebrow.
"No, no, I'm not leaving you guys here," Wally said. "It's cool, I thought of an idea. All we need to do is wait for right when this hunk of rock hits the ground and run before it has time to cave in."
"That would be the time of maybe a split second," Raven said.
"Yeah, exactly." Wally flexed his fingers. "I do my best work in a split sceond."
He thought. "But not sure I could carry three people... Raven, can you take the two skinny guys here and just drop them out of range of the water and wreckage in the tundra out there? I'll just run out and get them and bring Hazel... Oh, and if you could fly up and tell Qrow to circle over there and pick us up in the ship--we've all gotta get to Vacuo."
"And shall I call you a cab while I'm at it?" Raven said sarcastically.
"Over water?" Wally said.
She frowned at him.
"Well, again, if we don't survive, you won't get anything in return for all this work," Wally said.
"You need a reason to save lives?" Hazel said, in disgust.
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Raven said. "You seem familiar... One of Salem's minions perhaps?"
Hazel looked down.
"And why shouldn't I want something out of it? I'm risking my neck here," Raven said.
"We have no time!" Jacques looked outside. "Why, we have mere moments before it'll be too late."
Raven sighed. "Fine, but this is your last favor. From now on if I don't get what I want, I'm not doing any more for you."
"Fine whatever, just do it," Wally said.
She took Watts again and grabbed Jacques by his jacket.
"No sudden squirming or talking," she said, rising up and smirking. "I might get distracted and drop you into that swirling cesspool down there, and we wouldn't want that."
Jacques pressed his mouth shut.
Raven flew off.
"Okay, big guy, get ready." Wally took a running stance.
"Don't call me that," Hazel said. "Isn't Raven Branwen one of the people who was at Haven? One of the team's family, wasn't she?"
"Yeah, yeah, she's Yang's mother and Qrow's sister," Wally said.
"And she betrayed them?" Hazel said.
"Dude, didn't you spend years fighting against the very people your sister wanted to help?" Wally said.
That sore point wasn't one Hazel liked having touched. He scowled at him.
"Sorry," Wally shrugged. "Just saying, maybe things aren't always that simple, right? Anyway, she's helping us for now, and I'm not gonna say no to more help.... We're in a freaking falling city."
Hazel acknowledged the point. "Just hope she doesn't report this all to Salem."
"Pretty sure she wants to stay as far away from Salem as possible," Wally muttered.
He began to count the seconds...
5...4...3...2...1
He grabbed Hazel just as the city touched down and things began to break up.
He raced out at a speed that no human eye could have seen.
Hazel didn't even know what happened--they were just suddenly out in the tundra miles away from Mantle, and water was swallowing it all.
Wally looked up.
Raven hadn't even made it this far yet, but she saw them and came over, dropping the two men.
"You just ran faster than...sound..." she said oddly.
"Was I?" Wally said. "I think I was just a hair under that--I'd feel the barrier break."
"That's impossible," Hazel said.
"Is it?" Wally saluted at him.
He shook his head.
They all watched as Atlas disappeared under the water.
"Whoa..." Wally said slowly. "Just like Atlantis..."
Even Raven had no snarky remark for this.
She turned away. "And this is what becomes of the pride of the kingdoms?" she said tightly. "And Ozpin still thinks he can win?"
Jacques shook his head.
"Yeah, but," Wally said, "maybe it's not about what people can do on their own. I feel like Atlas kind of just stood for that... Shine would put it better...like, the might of men or something. But we shouldn't trust in that. We're just...human."
"And what would you trust, then? Grimm?" Raven mocked him.
"No, I trust something higher than huntsmen." Wally pointed up.
"That's stupid," Raven said. "You think the gods care about us? They left this dirt ball centuries ago, and they haven't looked back since."
"Not them," Wally said. "And hey, FYI, you don't know everything, Miss Smarty Pants."
Raven couldn't believe he just called her that.
Hazel shook his head.
"I suppose I better go get my useless brother." She turned into a bird and flew upward.
"What the...?" Jacques blanched.
* * *
Up in the air ship, Qrow had sunk to the floor.
Robyn hugged her sides. "I'm sure they go out," she said.
Qrow said nothing.
"They had to have," Marrow said. "I mean...Winter would never have just let them all get stuck there. We had a plan."
Harriet and Elm were sitting along the side, looking dejected.
"Two teammates," Harriet said, "and it's my fault."
"Is both our faults," Elm said. "For not stopping sooner."
Robyn thought it really was Harriet's fault, but she wasn't going to kick her while she was down.
Suddenly she saw a bird flying towards them.
"Is that a raven?" She squinted at it.
Qrow looked up and frowned.
Raven popped into view moments later onto the floor of the ship.
"Hell--" she began.
Qrow slammed her into the wall before she could finish.
"You!" he said. "You were here the whole time, and you did nothing! Why did you even bother showing up?"
Raven wasn't much worried about this; her and Qrow had been fighting their entire lives. She pushed at his arm and looked at him calmly. "Don't get so worked up, little brother. I'm not here because of me. Don't you want to know what happened to your friends?"
Qrow glanced at her.
"Qrow..." Robyn said, "maybe we should hear her out."
Qrow let go and backed up a little, but he put his hand to his scythe.
"Oh please, don't even insult me with that," Raven waved him off. "Look, I don't know about the rest of your crew--I assume they're landing in Vacuo--but the ones who didn't make it into the portals are down in the tundra."
She pointed. "I can show you where. The cold will get them if you don't first, so you might want to hurry."
"Is that all?" Qrow said.
"For now," Raven said. "I suppose I had better get to Vacuo myself and get what I want from that woman. Of course my only short cut there is Yang, but I suppose I'll be discreet."
She took out her sword.
"I'll swoop down to get them," Robyn told Qrow. She walked to the pilot's seat and started adjusting.
Raven tried to open a portal...and nothing happened.
"What...?" she said.
"Raven," Qrow said, turning greyer than usual, "why aren't you portalling?"
"I don't know." Raven turned pale also. "I can always portal to anyone. I have plenty of Aura left...unless..." She lowered her sword.
"Unless what?" Marrow said.
Qrow looked up at him with a terrible expression.
"They're dead?" Elm had no tact.
Raven dropped her sword.
"Yang..." Qrow looked back at Atlas.
Then he yelled in anger.
Which scared the Ace Ops and Robyn badly enough.
Raven just kicked the wall hard, then she leaned on it and put her face in her hands.
No one said anything.
Robyn saw Wally and the others and lowered the plane to them.
"Hey, guys." Wally waved, climbing on.
Hazel dragged Watts.
"You?" Harriet looked at Jacques. "What's he doing here? Should have left him to rot."
"Try to grasp this concept--" Wally had had it with her. "--we don't do that to people."
Harriet sat back down and shut up.
"What's...wrong?" Wally noticed Qrow's demeanor.
Robyn called, "One of you Aces want to take the wheel? I'm not...that good at driving."
"I got it..." Marrow said.
He took the wheel.
Robyn came back to stand behind them.
"One of the kids didn't make it," she said.
"One?" Qrow said. "For all we know, all of them didn't. They wouldn't have left her behind."
"Accidents happen," Robyn said. "We can't be certain all of them didn't till we get there...so, we go to Vacuo."
"Do we even have the fuel for that?" Harriet asked.
"We should," Robyn said. "Not for more than one trip, but if we head straight there and don't meet any Grimm along the way that we can't handle quickly."
"How do you know one of the kids didn't? You got messaged?" Wally said.
"No," Raven said, looking up. "I couldn't portal to Yang. If she was anywhere in the world, alive, I could do that."
"Oh, that's how it works," Wally said. "Like Shine... Oh..." He looked down. But then he said, "Shine also can be blocked because of magic and other stuff. Maybe Yang is just in a bad place for portals..."
Raven looked up. "You mean like that pocket dimension?"
"Uh...yeah, sure," Wally said. "Maybe you just can't get in there."
Qrow looked up. "How likely is it they'd still be in there?"
"I mean, who knows how long it'll take?" Wally said. "I say we shouldn't assume anything till we get to Vacuo and see for ourselves. I'm sure they're all there."
At least they better be...
Shine better be there.
She wouldn't leave him in this world by himself, right?...
He looked up at the sky. "Please, God..." he muttered.
* * *
It took an hour for the sandstorm in Vacuo to blow over, even with Winter's help as the Maiden to try to counter it.
In that time, it was all she and the few kids and Happy Huntresses around could do to slow down the Grimm.
Willow even pitched in a little, but she was out of practice.
Klein tried to help by herding everyone else as far back and into a group as possible.
They finally found the wall of Vacuo.
When the sand finally stopped swirling, Winter was exhausted.
They finally saw the city, not very nice looking but at least it was there.
"I don't see any huntsmen from here helping," she heard Emerald saying.
"Probably didn't even know we were here," Oscar mused, "since the scrolls weren't working either..." He coughed.
Ren shook sand out of his ears. "We should...try to get inside," he said, shakily.
Nora took his arm to help him.
"Come on, everyone," she called.
The people started moving toward the city entrance slowly. No one stopped them. Vacuo didn't have the security of Atlas.
Winter hadn't been here since her academy days for a training event, and her experience back then hadn't been very favorable.
She knew the General disliked Vacuo greatly.
"Where's Jaune?" Nora asked suddenly.
"And Pyrrha?" Ren said.
"Where's Ruby?" Oscar looked around. "And Yang?"
Willow looked at Winter.
"What happened?" she asked quietly.
Winter looked down.
"They...all fell," she said.
The others all looked at her in horror.
"More accurately," Winter said, "Cinder pushed them."
Emerald swallowed.
"No..." Nora said. "It can't be...all of them?"
"Ruby?" Oscar looked stricken.
"Uh oh," Ozpin said in his mind. "I wonder..."
"We need to get inside," Winter said stiffly. "Before we attract even more Grimm..."
No one knew what to say, so they walked inside the city.
There were some huntsmen around inside who were coming to gawk at this.
"Can someone take us to Shade Academy?" Joanna was asking.
"Why the heck should we do that? What is all this?" they replied.
Winter walked up to them.
"I'm Lieutenant Schnee," she said, "from Atlas. I need to speak to Headmaster Theodore right away."
They looked at her.
"Schnee?" said one, raising an eyebrow.
Uh oh.
"Aren't you one of the people who was helping that moron Ironwood run the kingdom?" said another, squinting at her. "Seriously? Yeah...Winter Schnee. You've got some nerve showing up here. And with what, a boatload of refugees? We're not a hotel!"
"As huntsmen, it's your duty to protect the kingdoms," Winter said.
"Our kingdom lady," one said.
Another one picked up a rock and threw it at her, to her shock.
"That's for the dust embargo," they said. "You know what that did to our dust supply around here? This is the flipping desert! Why should we help Atlas? They never helped us!"
"Yeah, screw Atlas. When did they think of anyone but themselves?" another said.
This looked like it might turn into a mob.
Winter had no experience whatsoever with this.
Where was Qrow? He'd been here before, right? Maybe he'd know some of these fools!
But he was nowhere in sight.
"Hey, hey," Joanna tried to stop this, but no one heeded her.
"Uh, pardon me," Whitley spoke up.
Some of them looked at him.
"Who's that scrawny puke?" one of them said.
"I'm Whitley Schnee," Whitley said nervously, "current, uh...owner of the SDC."
"Is that so?" One of them stepped forward. "So we have you to thank for this?"
"Whitley, get back." Winter began to get in front of him.
"Now, wait," Oscar said. He stepped out from behind Whitley.
"He didn't have anything to do with the embargo though," he said quickly. "He's just acquired the company."
The huntsmen paused. "Is that so?" he said, not happy.
"Yes," Whitley said. "And I would...uh..." He cleared his throat. "...be willing to consider distributing some of our dust in Vacuo, ahem, as a sort of...gesture of goodwill to apologize for the embargo's...difficulties."
The huntsman raised an eyebrow.
"Think we should shank him?" said one person.
"Hey, if you do that," Oscar said quickly, "then there won't be anyone who can contact the company suppliers and let them know to ship stuff here. So you want him to be in good condition."
"And you expect us to buy that this kid is in charge of a company?" said one.
Willow swallowed and stepped forward. "I am also..." she said. "My husband has been...discharged."
"Winter." Oscar nudged her. "Tell them the General has been fired and we're doing things differently."
Winter cleared her throat. It was dry from the dust anyway.
"Yes..." she said loudly. "And I'm...here to inform you that General Ironwood has been...relieved of his post. Also most likely his life.... I'm...the second in command, and I intend to...reestablish a better working relationship with the rest of the world...but to do that, I will need to use your schools's CCT to make some calls. We have reinforcements waiting in the other kingdoms."
The huntsmen glared at her skeptically.
"Why should we buy that?" they said.
Why should they?
People in this kingdom were suspicious...
No one was sure what to say.
Luckily right then the day was unexpectedly saved by a familiar face popping out of the crowd.
"Oh, hey guys." Sun Wukong and Neptune came running out of the street.
"Sun?" Nora looked over.
"Yeah, it's me," Sun said. "Hey, I saw your broadcast. We were out on patrol, but it shook us, so we came back here, but I didn't think you'd all show up here today!" He rubbed his head.
The other huntsmen looked at him. "You know these cuckoos?"
"What? Oh yeah, they're cool guys." Sun waved nonchalantly. "They're with me. We should probably get farther into the entrance of the city though."
"Yeah," Neptune said. "They're all right."
The huntsmen stepped back.
"Fine, but Shade Academy won't be happy with this," one said. "We can't take care of all these people."
"I'm sure we can sort something out," Sun said calmly. "Come on, guys. You're all gonna drop if you stand out in the sun like this--you're not used to it. This way I can show you my hood."
"Hood?" Oscar didn't know this slang.
"Yeah, my hometown," Sun said. "Welcome to Vacuo."
The group came in more.
Despite this turn, no one felt good.
But then Oscar saw someone who made him feel slightly better.
"Oscar!" Shine came running out of one of the streets and up to him.
"Shine!" Oscar said.
She hugged him. "Oh my gosh, I couldn't figure out where you guys were! We landed in the city. I thought that's where everyone would be, but instead...I couldn't see any of you, even with my Sight. The sand was too much in the way. And I couldn't breathe...so...we had to wait."
"We?" Winter said. "Did you find West, then?"
"Actually...I thought he'd be with you." Shine suddenly glanced around. "Where is he?"
"He's not here," Oscar replied. "Neither is Qrow. I thought they'd be with you."
"No, we never reconnected," Shine said. "I assume he left in the ship with Qrow, but I didn't make it there. I had to just come right here... I...kind of brought some baggage."
"Baggage?" Winter said.
Shine pointed to a corner.
Ironwood was leaning on it, still out.
"Him?" Nora said.
"You brought him here?" Joanna said, angrily. "Why didn't you leave him to die?"
"Because I don't do that," Shine said. "And it's no use now. He's demoted anwyay."
"I'm not sure anyone will see it that way," Winter said.
"He's demoralized," Shine said. "And he won't fight it, I dare say. He's defeated. By the way, Salem and Cinder will be here soon, perhaps not today--they may regather Grimm first--but soon."
"Great," Oscar said. "We can't get a break."
"Chin up, Oscar." Shine put a hand on his shoulder. "I think we've got a bit more of an edge than before. Just need to learn to use it."
She looked at Winter. "So...Fria is gone."
Winter looked down. "How did you know?"
"I sensed the power in you," Shine said. "And she's not here.... I did wonder if she'd make it here..."
"Shine--" Oscar grabbed her arm suddenly. "Ruby...Yang, Blake, Weiss, and Jaune and Pyrrha, they all fell... They fell off the bridge, into the abyss."
Nora started crying.
Ren shook his head.
"They fell?" Shine said. She looked up. "But Ambrosius said, 'Don't fall.'"
"They were pushed," Oscar said.
"Oh..." Shine said.
"Will they fall forever?" Winter asked.
"Perhaps," Ozpin said in Oscar's mind.
Oz, what do you know about this? Oscar asked.
"I'm not sure," Ozpin said. "Some things I don't know much about, but it does seem rather like the girl who fell through the world."
"Yeah," Oscar said out loud. "It is like the story... There was a dark hole there too... Could they have fallen into another world?"
"Given that the portal was spanning a pocket dimension, it's possible." Shine put a hand to her chin. "Or they could just be falling. Don't cry, Nora. I doubt they're dead."
"Really?" Winter looked up.
"Yes," Shine said. "For now... Let me see..."
Her eyes glowed for a moment...then faded.
"I can't get a bead on them," she said.
"Which means?" Emerald rubbed her arms.
"They're out of reach." Shine held out her hand and then closed it.
"But you're...you," Oscar said. "If they were in another world, could you...get there?"
"Oh, no, Oscar," Shine said. "You think we can just do that at will? The door to another world is opened from Above, always." She smiled. "We can't just force those connections of ours."
"Huh?" Emerald said. "What are you talking about? You know about this?"
"Not now," Shine said. "Later... The point is, no, I can't just go there. I don't even know where there is. They may still be falling, and then I couldn't go, period. But even if I had a 'there', it's too risky to just do that. You have no idea what we're messing with here... I tried to warn them." She sighed. "No one has listened to anything I've said since we got here. Am I just not being clear enough?" She rubbed her forehead. "Maybe it's my approach... Perhaps Wally was right--I was too abrasive... If they'd wanted to listen...maybe..."
Pause.
"No, it's not your fault," Winter said, in a strained voice. "It was ours... Our hubris is the reason for this...all of it." She looked down. "At least you tried to warn us. If we didn't listen, it was our own sin, not yours."
"I can't see how this is your fault. It wasn't your plan," Emerald said.
"Your approach wouldn't have mattered," Oscar said. "We all tried, in our own ways. It just...didn't work out...like everything else..." He sighed.
"Perhaps I'm not the one to speak here," Willow spoke up, "but I feel this may be unwise to indulge in right now... I know you're all upset, but, if you do not get some shelter for all of us, the grimm will return, and people will start to fall ill from exposure also... We're all acclimated to Atlas, and this is the hottest, driest kingdom in the world. We'll need protection."
"I like you better sober," Shine said to her. "She's right, you know... Don't despair about your friends though. There's a way in--there's usually a way out with worlds. If that's where they are. I can ask about it. There is One who can follow us anywhere. There's still hope."
"Then we will try to hold onto that," Winter said resolutely.
"A slight hope," Whitley muttered. "Small odds of it working out."
"Shut up, Whitley," Nora said. "Let's just get inside."
But that wouldn't be as easy as they thought.
Shine was tired, but she said she could try to bring Wally and Qrow and the other three.
"If they're in the ship, I can get them," she said. "Save them a few hours."
"It might be better." Winter wiped her forehead. In her thick Atlas uniform, she was already dying, and she wasn't the only one. The other people looked miserable.
Nora was probably the only one more dressed for this weather, and she was hot too.
"I hate to say this, and don't repeat it, but Qrow may be more useful here than we are," Winter said. "This is certainly his kind of place...shady, questionable, and run down."
"Hey," Sun said. "I heard that... You forgot the rogueish charm part."
Winter rolled her eyes.
"But he knows the Headmaster here," Oscar said, "and I don't. Oz does, but...uh, based on how well that's been going, I'm not sure that'll help us. I mean...two out of three so far have betrayed us."
"Yes, it'd be wiser to have their help," Shine said. "But we should at least get out of the sun first."
"Well, there's some more shaded restaurants that way," Sun pointed. "If you want to sit down maybe."
This seemed the only plan, so they began herding people that way.
Shine sat down and started drinking water and trying to get enough energy.
It was while she was waiting that she was surprised by Neopolitian popping out of nowhere and coming up to her table.
She straightened abruptly.
"Neo? What are you doing here?" She looked around. "No Cinder, yet. If you're here to steal something, you're too late. Everything worth stealing is taken already."
Neo shook her head.
"What do you want?" Shine asked.
No one else would have started a conversation with Neo after all that she'd already done to harm them, but Shine didn't act as if she even cared, which probably threw the tiny woman off a little.
But she pulled out her scroll and typed out something.
She held it up.
: I want to ask something.
Shine shrugged. "Sure, why not?..." She raised an eyebrow. "Question--are you deaf or mute?"
Neo pointed to her mouth and shook her head.
"Mute?" Shine said. "Were you born that way?"
Neo nodded. [As of her new backstory that was written after they decided to keep the character silent. Originally she wasn't supposed to be mute, but fans liked it, so they changed it.]
"I see," Shine said. "Well, this may be more of a scholarly question, but is there a Sign Language they use here that people might learn?"
Neo shrugged and nodded.
"Really?" Shine said with more interest. "Do you know it? Show me."
Neo frowned. Then signed something that basically translated to, "Why do you
want to see it, you dumb b----?" [I won't be translating that one for you...sorry.]
Shine just laughed at her. And she frowned, assuming she was mocking her for it, and put her hand to her umbrella.
"Does this answer your question?" Shine spoke while using Sign Langauge.
Neo blinked at her in surprise.
"Also, was the insult really necessary?" Shine added.
Neo backed up a second.
"This is delightful," Shine said. "It's lucky that we're using roughly the same dialect... I mean, I admit one of those was a little odd looking, but I got the idea. This could certainly save time typing. So what is it you wanted?"
Neo hesitantly signed this to her: Where did you learn Signing?
"School, etc.," Shine shrugged. "I interpret sometimes. Lucky for this. Is that what you wanted to ask me?"
Neo shook her head, then she resolutely signed something else.
: How did you bring girl-with-red-hair back-to-life? [So in sign language, some signs can mean more than one word, if it's a phrase they are representing. Or all together could mean a name. So girl-with-red-hair could mean Pyrrha, though it would likely be shortened to just one of those signs for future reference. Which is called a name-sign. "Back-to-life" would be equivalent to "resurrection" which would be one sign, so you use the same sign for both. Sign language has much fewer synonyms than English.]
[An ASL channel name ASL Princess did a companion video for this chapter so that people could see the signs. They are pretty hard to describe. Each break in the video is a different line in the following dialogue, in order. They are labeled for which is which if you turn on CC.]
Shine studied her.
"Why should I tell you that?" she asked. "You work for Salem. Wouldn't that be stupid of me?"
Neo, not much daunted, replied with this: Can you bring anyone back to life?
[Neo might rely more on an English/Spoken Language based form of Sign in order to communicate with people who wouldn't know it very well. SEE is more like signs that are code for English, not their own language like ASL is. It has more words, but most Deaf people do not like using it; it's much more exhausting than regular ASL.]
Shine shrugged. "Who wants to know?"
:Me.
Neo pointed to herself.
Then she pointed to her hat and signed a word on her shoulder.
"Boss?" Shine said. "Oh, you mean Torchwick... Yes...I know he was eaten by a Nevermore. I'm sorry." She sipped her water slowly. "I liked him better than Cinder."
Neo stared at her, then with a very dark look, she signed:
:Did you say he was eaten?
"Yeah." Shine thought little of saying this. "While he was talking. It was pretty awful... Did you not know this?"
Neo had a moment of looking livid. The she signed slowly, so that it looked angry.
:Did Red-hood girl (Ruby) feed him to Monster? (Grimm)
"No," Shine said, like it was a stupid idea. "Why would she do that? Ruby was hanging off the plane at the time. Didn't you remember? You were there not that long before that. Torchwick was trying to shove her off. The Grimm landed behind him and swallowed him whole."
Neo stared at her.
"But Cinder told you it was Ruby," Shine put it together. "Didn't she? So that you would work for her. Is that what this has been about? I thought it was odd that you suddenly wanted to hurt Ruby, from what I heard. And you bought that? Cinder Fall told you that, and you bought it? The woman who lies more often then she tells the truth?"
The mockery didn't do anything to improve Neo's mood, but what could she do about it?
Shine slapped her forehead. "That woman is so...despicable."
She glanced up. "Did she add the part where Salem controls the Grimm attacks, so if anything, it's her fault? And Cinder's."
Neo tightened her grip on her umbrella.
"Still, while I've no idea how intelligent you are," Shine said, "I did think you were smarter than that. Why would you buy anything that witch said, period? Does the Grimm arm and vendetta against children not say shady enough to you?"
Neo signed something in a rather rude manner.
: How could I know? No one else told me anything! Could be Ruby, could be Grimm.
"More to the point, Torchwick's death upset you that much?" Shine changed the subject. "I only knew that you worked together. Were you close?"
Neo paused, then she signed this: I had one thing. One friend. He was a moron. But he was my moron.
Shine nodded slowly. "Well, I'm sorry then," she said. "Whatever he was, he was worth 10 of the pyschos we've got to deal with now. I'd much rather have him as an opponent. I mean, at least he didn't make me want to throw up in my mouth every time I saw him like that Tyrian... I suppose that's not a very heartfelt sympathy, but we aren't exactly friends. Still, I'm sorry for your loss."
Neo dismissed that with a gesture.
: You know what I want?
She signed instead.
Shine hadn't forgotten this part.
But she wasn't about to just make empty promises.
"Let me be frank with you," she said. "Anything is possible. Not everything is wise."
Neo looked angry and signed something very fast.
"What was that?" Shine said.
More slowly, Neo repeated it.
: What do you mean wise? You got your friend back. I want mine! I don't care if it's dangerous or not. I want it!
Shine stood up. And she towered over Neo, of course.
Neo backed up.
"Do not take that tone with me, woman," Shine said. "May I remind you that you've spent the last week actively trying to hurt my friends? What you ask is not difficult for our Lord, but it is a thing to be taken seriously. There are people who will make monsters of themselves over grief, and if they were to be gratified, they would become even worse--get the idea that they were invincible. So let me make something quite clear to you. Even if you got this request, it would not guarantee immortality. It would be the same as if it never happened, but that's it. Do you want to go through that loss twice?"
Neo stared at her.
"Pyrrha was different," Shine said. "She was ready to live. Life didn't scare her. Her friends were ready because they felt that regard of the situation. She ought to have the chance to live more fully. It was right with her. I can't know all the reasons, but those are the ones I do feel are true. But they also can accept more easily that one day she'll still have to pass on, as we all do, usually. We have no idea when that will be...and that's final. Two attempts at life are enough for anyone. So before you go asking for things you can't understand, think carefully about what you are willing to go through."
Neo stared at her some more.
"I'll ask about it," Shine said, after a pause, "and consult with my partner, once he gets here. But on our end is one thing. You consider what you're willing to go through--and think of what your friend would want also. I admit, he's probably not in a better place now, so it might be any chance is better than none, but is he ready for this world? Or will it end him again? I'll give you a day to consider it. But don't go back to Cinder in that time. I won't provide that witch with more minions, sorry. Some things we have to be smart about even while doing wonders."
Neo signed something very uncomplimentary about Cinder, then added,
: She already stabbed me in the back. I'm not working for her now!
"Well, there's a mercy," Shine said. "For now, you'd better not hang around here. The others won't be very understanding about this. I trust you can navigate Vacuo on your own."
Neo made a sign like,
: Please, you even have to ask?
Then she stepped back and faded into the crowd.