Long before the younger teams were awake, Qrow snuck into the hallway outside team RWBY's room.
It wasn't for any weird reason--he just wanted to assure himself the girls were in fact still there. After the week he'd had, he half expected his mind to have just snapped and be hallucinating their return.
He could hear the girls sleeping from the outside and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Checking to make sure they're still there?" someone scared the crap out of him by saying in a low tone.
Qrow spun around--but it was Winter.
She looked tired still, but she had a wry expression instead of a frustrated one.
Qrow had only one thought: This is not what it looks like.
No...wait, it was exactly what it looked like.
Well, this was going to kill his remaining street cred... Hopefully none of the other kids were awake.
Winter interpreted the silence to be a yes.
"The whole story was a little hard to believe," she shrugged. "But I don't think I imagined it."
"I was patrolling," Qrow lied.
Not that he cared if Winter caught him--it was just...kind of pathetic to admit it.
"So was I...in this particular hallway." Winter didn't buy it. "But don't let me stop you."
She walked away.
Qrow made sure to walk the other direction in a hurry.
So the Ice Queen did have a heart under all that cold regimentation. Who knew?
[You can't tell me they both wouldn't do this. They're pretty alike when it comes to worrying about their family.]
* * *
Winter didn't bother returning to her room after checking the hallway, she just went downstairs.... Coffee was a friend in Vacuo.
She didn't expect to find Shine and three of the kids down there, reading and singing songs.
Shine was trying to teach them some, and Pyrrha was typing the lyrics down on her scroll notes app.
"Give thanks to the Lord, our God and King. His love endures forever..."
"And then," Shine was saying, "you see here, this is the chapter it's based off..."
She read aloud:
"Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good!
For His mercy endures forever.
2 Oh, give thanks to the God of gods!
For His mercy endures forever.
3 Oh, give thanks to the Lord of lords!
For His mercy endures forever.
"So they change mercy to love, but the idea is to commit it to memory with the songs and add something new. So we sing 'forever God is faithful...' and so on."
"I see," Pyrrha murmured.
"We should do that for other stuff," Oscar said. "I've heard some music, like on trains...but not a lot on the farm."
"How can you grow up without music?" Shine sounded horrified. "It's essential!"
"To be honest, a lot of it is kind of dark," Oscar said. "The songs you know are way more upbeat."
"Not all of them," Shine said.
She tapped her chin. "But for here...wait...I think I just got an idea. I may have a way to help alleviate this Grimm problem after all. It worked before, right?"
"Do you mean...that?" Pyrrha said meaningfully.
"Couldn't hurt to try," Shine mused. "I've got to find Theo...and Sun. Bye--make sure you eat breakfast, by the way."
"Oh, geez, what are you, their mother?" Emerald said.
"Funny," Shine said dryly, going out of the room. "Oh, hello, Winter. Good morning. Hope you're feeling better."
She was so fast that Winter almost had no time to say, "Greetings, but I--"
Before she was gone.
"Is she serious about this idea?" Emerald asked Pyrrha and Oscar.
"If it works, it works," Oscar said. "But I've never heard of it working...but then, I've never heard of it, period."
"Hmm," Pyrrha said. "Actually that reminds me of something I heard in class once...just a passing thing, about the arts and how people debated whether or not they made the Grimm problem worse. Some say they lead to more division between people, others say they are uplifting. There's some book about it Dr. Oobleck has on his recommended reading. I think it's required in the 2nd year, but we never got that far..."
"You mean Grimm Theory?" Oscar said. "I've heard of it, but we didn't study it. My aunt said it was too creepy."
"Oh, it's not creepy to try to learn how to better steel yourself against Grimm," Pyrrha said. "It's just never been proven to work from what I understand."
"If you mean that crap about how you can think certain thoughts and Grimm won't try to eat you, that's bulls---," Emerald said. "It doesn't matter. Just makes you a bigger target if you're negative, but if they're already around, they don't care."
"So how did you survive in Salem's territory then?" Oscar asked her.
"I...don't know. Salem just...tells the Grimm not to eat us, I guess," Emerald said. "They walk by, though. Sometimes they sniff and stuff, but I guess they don't disobey her."
"Strangely, that sounds worse that being attacked," Pyrrha said.
"It is," Emerald said, with an odd look at her like she didn't think she'd say so.
"Shouldn't you kids be asleep still?" Qrow startled them by coming out of a different corridor.
Winter hung back. It wouldn't do to look like she was following him.
"Couldn't," Oscar said. "Anyway, it's morning now."
"Qrow, what do you think of Grimm Theory?" Pyrrha asked. "Didn't you used to be a teacher?"
"Not for that," Qrow said. "Eh, that crackpot Oobleck thinks there's something in it, but Oz always said it wasn't sustainable or some fancy word like that."
"Did he?" Oscar looked at himself.
"It's like anything else," Qrow said. "Even if you could deflect Grimm by sustaining a happy mindset for a long time, you're going to run out of juice, or you have to sleep, and all that stuff you're suppressing comes back. It's just some psychological crap that idiots think will work, but it never does."
Winter couldn't stand for this.
She came into the room indignantly. "Isn't that a bit narrow?"
"Oh...hello, Winter," Pyrrha said. "Nice of you to join us." She smirked.
"Pardon the intrusion, but I couldn't help overhearing that last part." Winter recollected her mistake and amended it. "That is only part of the theory. Admittedly it's not practical, but the hypothesis that if people cultivate a certain mindset all the time they would greatly reduce Grimm attacks isn't entirely without base."
"It sounds good, but no one's ever pulled it off," Qrow said. "No city of people ever stays upbeat that long."
"What if we didn't need to be upbeat?" Pyrrha mused. "Suppose we could just be hopeful, overall, even if we felt upset. Would that deter the Grimm also? Perhaps there is more to this sudden aversion to Oscar and I than just a power change. I do feel more hopeful now."
"Yeah, but I think it's not emotional," Oscar said. "I can't say I feel any happier than I did."
"Well, it's never been proven that happiness actually deters Grimm," Pyrrha said. "Just that unhappiness draws them, but they attack either way. They attack all things made by man... I find that odd--if man was made by both the god of darkness and the god of light, why would Grimm attack man? Why would we not be neutral? Why are we enemies?"
"It's also kind of weird that there's nothing on the god of light's side that is just good," Oscar said. "Unless you count the Relics."
"They seem hardly the same," Pyrrha said. "I was taught that we are the light and the Grimm are the darkness, and this book here--" She tapped it. "--says we are the light of the world, so that's right then...but nothing about us having darkness and light equally. If anything, Miss Likstar has had some strong words about that idea."
"Her disdain for the gods is somewhat concerning," Winter said. "Is that not what put us on this path?"
"Apparently it's okay if there's some third god no one has ever seen." Qrow made mocking hand gestures. "That's helpful."
"Well, why should it not be?" Pyrrha said. "You have never seen the other gods either, save for in a vision. Perhaps there are people who see this one the same way. In fact, if you read this book, lots of people do." She shrugged. "We never asked, after all. But I can't remember ever asking much about the other gods either. This world has been godless for millennia. Why should we suppose we know anything about them?"
"A valid point, Miss Nikos," Winter admitted. "But not helpful then. I find it hard to believe some book could be written about the gods that would be anything but pure speculation, unless it was Ozpin."
"Even he didn't know that much," Oscar said. "They seem to be a real mystery to anyone. But then, no god would be normal to us..."
"No, but I understand this one better," Pyrrha said. "At least He does not abandon His people."
"Hate to break it to you, kid," Qrow said, "but He's not here. He must have done the same thing, if He was real."
"No, no, He's just invisible," Pyrrha said. "It's different."
"Whoever heard of an invisible god?" Qrow said.
"I admit I've always wondered how the world could function properly without a god operating it," Winter mused, "if gods created it to begin with...but I don't like the thought of an invisible one just watching our every move."
"I'm afraid you won't care for this then." Pyrrha was turning the page. "Here's a whole chapter about how He knows our every move, even our thoughts before we say words. And that He thinks about us all the time." [References Psalms 139.]
"How horrific," Qrow said.
"Why?" Oscar asked. "It might be nice, having something like that thinking about you."
"Look where it got you," Qrow said.
"Maybe it's what'll get me out of it," Oscar mused. "What are you afraid of, Qrow? What's so wrong with the idea of a different god?... I mean, you have to admit, that story made no sense at all."
"Oh, gosh," Emerald said. "Can we say that? Because I thought it was dumb as soon as I heard you tell Hazel. Who the frick punishes someone by making them immortal? And then Ozpin? Why is he stuck on this whole cycle? I thought death was, like...permanent."
"That's just it--only when the gods think so," Pyrrha said. "It's so inconsistent. But if they were liars...or they hid part of the truth, it would explain it. It's almost the most natural explanation in a way. If something doesn't add up when a person says it, we assume they're lying or they're ignorant or foolish. Why would it be different here?"
"Because it could be beyond our ability to understand," Winter said.
"If so, how could Salem be expected to understand?" Oscar asked.
That was a very good question.
Winter had no answer for it.
She frowned.
"Here I find all kinds of things about understanding," Pyrrha mused. "A whole book about wisdom, in fact. It's the one after this song book... It certainly seems like it's supposed to be possible." [She's referring to Proverbs, for the rookie.]
"Kid, you might want to buy into this because it worked out for you," Qrow said, "but even if it's real, in a way, it doesn't mean it's going to matter to everyone else--or fix our problem in the long term. I don't think a little understanding, or whatever, is going to impress Salem."
"You can't deny it's real." Pyrrha wasn't to be deterred. "I think you are just afraid of what it would mean for you if it was, in fact, the solution."
"It can't be," Qrow said. "Because we'd have heard of it before now."
Pyrrha turned to give Oscar--or Ozpin, really--a very long look.
"Are you going to tell him?" she asked.
"What is this about?" Winter said.
"We didn't get to it last night," Pyrrha said, "because we had that spat, and everyone was tired, but, in fact, Ozpin has something he really should fill everyone in on."
"Oh, is that finally coming out?" Raven came in without warning. "It's been long enough."
Qrow said warily, "I still don't like that you knew about it."
"Well, a tip, little brother, next time don't leave the tent in a huff if you want to be in the loop, " Raven said meanly.
Qrow raised an eyebrow, then scowled at her.
"The revelation last night that they were...what they are, was hard enough to grasp." Winter put a hand to her forehead. "And there's more?"
"Oh, so much more," Raven said vehemently. "But I'm not sticking around for it. I'm going back to the camp."
Silence.
"Now?" Qrow said.
"Yes, I only wanted to know what happened," Raven said. "And now I know. No reason for me to linger around here."
Qrow scowled. "All that, and you're just going to abandon her again. For a second I thought you might actually be reconsidering."
"You really don't know me better by now?" Raven said.
"But I thought you wanted answers," Oscar said.
"I have more answers than I wanted," Raven said. "Besides, they don't intend to stop Salem--ask them yourselves...and if you all want to learn some mysterious way to do it that probably won't even work, that's your call. I've risked enough by staying around here this long, sooner or later, I'm going to get noticed. And then I'll be roped back into this whole thing."
"How disappointing." Winter was cutting.
"Oh, shove it, Schnee," Raven said. "If you were smarter, you'd get out of this cesspool now before she comes for you too."
"Are you so sure she won't come for you?" Pyrrha asked, standing up. "Cinder is alive. What if she tells her?"
"They have the Relic already," Raven said. "The tribe and I can keep moving. Hopefully stay off the radar."
Qrow shook his head. "Fine then," he said. "Have it your way. Did you even talk to her?"
"I don't think Blondie wants to talk." Emerald had a knack for saying the wrong thing at the wrong moment.
Oscar shook his head at her wordlessly.
Raven shot her a dirty look, then shrugged. "I've said all I intend to say. Anyway, you wanted me to go, so what's the sudden change in tune, Qrow?"
"Just hard to believe anyone can be so callous," Qrow said rather harshly.
Raven looked actually bothered by that, but she ignored it and turned.
But before she had gotten out the doorway, Shine came back in, with Theo--rather she was in hot pursuit of him, and he was trying to get away from her.
Raven quickly turned into a bird and hid.
"I told you it's a stupid idea. Leave it alone already," he said.
"And I told you it would work," Shine said. "You're only saying no because you want to. There's no reason not to try it."
"Other than it's a waste of time and energy?" Theo said.
"Oh, well, you excel at doing that already--might as well at least pretend it's for a reason," Shine shot back.
"You have a funny way of asking for a favor," Theo said.
"You have a funny way of acting like a protector," Shine replied.
Theo didn't even notice the kids as he ground to halt and turned on her fiercely. "Go to h---!" he said.
"Oh, creative." Shine was scathing. "Sorry, I have a pass for that. You, on the other hand, might head straight there if you died right now, so I think you really should be interested in any plan to make that less likely, but that's just me."
"Are you out of your head, girl?" Theo was exasperated with her.
"Are you?" Shine replied.
"Is it all women who are this irritating or just the ones from Atlas?" Theo fell back on his old trick.
"I find myself wondering the same thing about the men who are from Vacuo," Shine said. "But, as I know Sun, I think it's really just you."
"Ouch," Qrow muttered.
"What is the trouble?" Winter asked.
"Oh, hi." Theo noticed her finally. "Well, it's none of your business, Schnee, but this wench here really likes to bother me. Qrow, can't you keep your dogs on a leash?"
"Not a leash thick enough," Qrow said.
Winter shot him a death glare.
"I suppose that was flattering in a way," Shine rolled with it.
"I hate a nag," Theo said.
"Then cut the horse hockey," Shine said. "Just do as I said--or I'm going to go to Vale and ask them to do it, and I bet they will."
"Is that supposed to be a threat?" Theo said.
"It will be when Mistral and Vale both hear that Vacuo refused to do such a simple thing and had to get it done for them by someone else," Shine said. "I mean, really, you people are just begging for someone else to take over here."
"Watch it, b----." Theo suddenly pulled a knife out and held it out. "Words like that could get your tongue cut out in this kingdom."
Pyrrha wrenched the knife out of his hand, and it stuck into the floor.
"That is enough of that," she said.
Theo glanced at her oddly.
"Thanks, Pyrrha, but I'm not afraid of weasels," Shine said. "Theo, I'm not going to leave you alone until you do it. Do you really want me to follow you around all day?"
"You'll get tired of it quick," Theo said.
"Actually it sounds like quite a fascinating experience," Shine said.
"Ah, well, a lady who has a man already probably shouldn't be saying that," Theo said wickedly.
In response to this, Shine pulled her sword out and smacked him in the face with it, making him spin around and fall on his side, though he caught himself nimbly enough.
"How heavy it that thing?" Qrow wondered. "I wouldn't have thought she could knock him over."
"Maybe I'm not speaking Vacuo enough for you," Shine said through gritted teeth. "Either cut the crap and do as I requested, or I will kick your butt halfway across this kingdom in front of all of your students and then get them to help me. If that won't get your attention, I don't know what will."
"You really think you could take me?" Theo got up, mad. "I'm a Headmaster."
"And one who sits on his duff all day," Shine said. "I'm not impressed. Anyway, I didn't back down from Salem. Why would I from you?"
Her eyes were fierce.
There was a long, drawn out silence.
Theo glanced at Qrow like he was wondering if Shine was out of her mind.
Qrow was pissed at him and thought if he got his comeuppance so much the better--the rat!
So he just shrugged like "wanna take that chance?"
Winter wasn't sure why Shine's approach was so violent all of the sudden, but if it worked she wasn't about to complain, so she said nothing also.
Theo finally chuckled.
"Well, you're crazy, but I like your spunk," he said. "Maybe I won't kill you today... I guess your request isn't that hard, but it's going to look stupid. All on you if it goes for nothing."
"I'll roll those dice." Shine didn't back down.
"Crazy b----," Theo muttered, walking away.
Shine tossed her hair and let out a long sigh. "Why is everything always so difficult with him?"
"That was easy," Qrow said. "What was that? Did you and Ice Queen switch personalities?"
Winter hit him with the hilt of her sword.
"Or not." Qrow ducked a little too late and still rubbed his arm.
"That was weird." Shine rubbed her arm. "But all things to all men. I supposed it was the only way to get through to him. That man is the embodiment of Chaotic Neutral."
"What did you ask that was so out of the ordinary?" Winter asked.
"Oh, just to set up some DJ stations all over Vacuo," Shine said. "At each corner. Apparently that was too ridiculous of a request to be taken seriously. It's amazing how common that response is."
"How in the heck is that going to do a thing?" Qrow said.
"Oh, just wait and see and maybe you'll learn something," Shine said snippily "It would be nice to go one day without one of you saying something unpleasant and cynical to every single suggestion one of us makes."
Silence.
Raven returned to human form.
"Well, good luck with that," she said. "Bye."
"Where are you going?" Shine took notice of her finally.
"Home," Raven said.
"To your camp?" Shine said.
"Yes." Raven narrowed her eyes.
Shine paused for a moment.
"Well, that's a long flight, isn't it?" she said.
"So?" Raven said.
"It's on the way to Vale," Shine mused. "Why not just take the ship there? We're going to need to take more people to Vale anyway. But for now, Fiona needs to visit there."
"Why?" Oscar asked.
"She made a list of the people who've reported missing family members," Shine said. "She wants to give it to Glynda and the counselor and start seeing if we can find any of them. I could try sending it, but it would take ages to write, so just messaging it would be better--she has to be in range of that, however. Why not kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes, and just tag along with us, Raven?"
"I don't like the idea of flying over this desert," Raven admitted. But she looked at her oddly. "So you're not going to try to stop me?"
"I believe I made it quite clear you could leave anytime you wanted," Shine replied, archly. "So why would I?"
"Well...finally someone who keeps their word," was all Raven could think to say to that.
She seemed kind of miffed though.
"In that case, I'll let Robyn know that we need to take a trip," Shine said. "Hmm...Winter, would you come with us? Glynda would like a firsthand account of what happened, and Qrow, if you could also, I'm sure you two need to confer again."
"I ain't got anything else to do," Qrow said. That grammar error annoyed Winter to no end. "But I could fly myself there, or you could portal."
"I could portal anyway," Shine said. "But the ship will hold more... Hmm. In fact, let me ask Whitley if he can put in an order for more dust while we're at it. Why waste a trip? Raven, if you wouldn't mind waiting an hour, this could take a while."
"I guess..." Raven said strangely.
Shine left the room.
"I don't know about leaving this place unsupervised," Winter said.
"We won't be," Pyrrha said. "Ozpin is here."
Frown.
"Also Robyn," Pyrrha added. "And the team is back now. Besides, you can go and come in just a few hours with Shine's help. How much could you supervise here in that time?"
Privately she thought Shine might be trying to get Winter to not work in the field today and actually recover--if so, she was all for that plan.
Qrow suspected the same thing, but wondered why he was being included in it...he wasn't sure he wanted to leave the kids in Vacuo alone with Theo being a rat.
But then again, Theo would be less suspicious of them if they were willing to leave and come back, if they went with that plan.
* * *
Somehow Shine got all that organized within the next hour or so.
The rest of the team got up in that time.
"But what should we do?" Ruby asked.
"Plenty of Grimm to take care of," Shine said cheerfully.
"Isn't there something more important we could be doing?" Yang said sullenly.
"More important than your job?" Shine replied, smiling at her in an infuriating way.
Yang looked ready to burst a blood vessel at that.
"Anyway, like I told Ren, you all desperately need to fix your teamwork," Shine said. "And since we're all going to cooperate now, how about you cooperate with me?"
"What do you want us to do?" Blake said before Yang could say anything else to make it worse.
"For today, just focus on the Grimm," Shine said. "Unless it so happens they back off. While you're at it, I want you to think about the answers you gave Oobleck back on that first field mission. Would you give the same answer now? And if not, why not?"
"You want us to do a dumb exercise?" Yang asked.
"If I asked you to go off and slay the biggest Grimm in this desert, would you do it?" Shine asked.
"Yeah, sure," Yang said readily. Did Shine think they were chicken now or something?
"Well then, I can't see why it's so hard of you to do this one simple thing," Shine replied. "But if it is, I'm sure you can find something useful to do at the school. And if you really don't want to follow my orders, I suppose you can just ask Winter or Qrow what they want you to do--or better yet, Ozpin."
Yang was about equally pissed at all of these except Qrow, and wasn't even sure what to think after the way he'd told her to back off.
But she got the message. Shine was confident that the others would back her up...and it looked like she was right about that.
It felt monumentally unfair, to Yang, but if the rest of RWBY was going to go along with it...
"Whatever." she rolled her eyes.
Shine ignored that and left them to it.
"What about us?" Jaune asked.
He was taking Alicia's words to heart--she'd said to listen to their teachers, after all.
"Wally is going to try to find people who will donate some food to the refugees," Shine said. "If you'd go with him, that would be good. Hopefully they will be willing to. Besides, in this case Pyrrha's popularity might do us some good...just don't find a store that sells Pumpkin Pete's."
"Oh, wait, that's not a bad idea," Jaune said.
"Using my popularity to get hand outs?" Pyrrha said. "I suppose that's a fair use of it, if it's for the refugees. I could buy some supplies too."
"If you do it, you'll be broke by the end of the week," Shine said. "Wally knows how to network, just follow his lead."
"I totally came up with the idea last night," Wally explained, joining them. "I mean, it's what I would do at home. Why not here?... I can't believe this whole kingdom is this heartless. Some people must feel sorry for them, right? Maybe they have family in Atlas, even. We've gotta find something. I mean Faunus hang together, right?"
"Worth a try," Nora agreed.
"I only think it's a better idea for Nora," Ren said. "She shouldn't be fighting yet. But I think I should just be on the perimeter."
"If it matters to you that much, Grimm will probably be attacking the area you're going to also," Shine said. "If you need a reason, you're the bodyguard."
Ren sighed.
"What about me?" Oscar asked.
"You should probably get caught up on as much as you can about Vacuo," Shine said. "You and Emerald both."
"Why me?" Emerald said.
"Because you shouldn't be outside," Shine said. "Tyrian is still out there. Until we're ready to tackle this, I'd prefer if you and Oscar both not make yourselves targets. Now that the worst of this is over, I hope, it's not worth the risk. So you can get caught up. You could train also. And if the others have any spare time, train with them. Always good to use lulls as a time to get stronger. Oh, and Ozpin can just fill everyone in on that bit with Alicia while we're at it. I'm sure I can handle the rest with the older team members. But save the part about how it ties into us for when we're all together...and whatever it is the others learned in that other world, which I can't wait to hear...but later."
"I'd rather do that first," Oscar said.
Shine just smiled.
"I just don't understand why you're allowing Miss Branwen to leave so easily," Ozpin said. "After all that work you did to get her back into the circle."
"Ozpin," Shine said severely, "the point has always been that Raven is free to make her own choices. Stop condemning her for them. She might have been smarter to not add to this insanity in the past...and you can't expect her to change her mind about it overnight."
"Perhaps, but leaving her daughter yet again..." Ozpin said.
"Yang is an adult now," Shine said. "Raven can't exactly take care of her. Yang chose to work with you instead... If she regrets that now, she should tell her mother that herself. Until she admits she was wrong, why should Raven wish to keep up this eternal tension? Really, don't you know anything about family?"
"I do know that sometimes they never see eye to eye," Ozpin said.
"That is not the point," Shine said. "Anyway, who knows if Raven will change her mind?"
No one else shared that hope.