The group at Haven heard from the Beacon group that things were somehow okay even after all that.
Blake and Weiss were in tears of relief over it, while Sun tried to pretend he hadn't been worried about Neptune.
Winter pretended that she'd been confident all along that they were going to succeed, but Weiss saw her lean on a wall and let out a long, tired sigh.
Of course the question was, were they all going to come back to Haven, or should the Haven group go to meet them?
Those had been Shine's initial instructions, but the train fiasco had delayed following them.
Still, Winter said it made more sense to do this. Vale was more central than the other kingdoms, so any move they needed to make next would be easier from there.
But...Shine couldn't portal them all, not with how weak the Maidens had been; it could set them off. So they'd need to fly there themselves.
Or Raven could just take them.
Raven expressed doubt that she'd be able to pull this off.
Since the magic spasm, she'd turned into a bird several times without warning and turned back just as abruptly, so that she had to sit on the floor to avoid falling on things every time.
Winter and Vara were more stable, but at any moment Ozpin having another fit could affect them also.
They decided to sleep on it, since they were exhausted. At least the plague had lifted.
Winter heard Whitley talking to Klein about how this whole mess was going to come back to them, and he wasn't sure how they'd reestablish the SDC if this drama kept using up all their resources.
All Klein could tell him was that he was sure it would all work out eventually.
Considering that Whitley was one of the only people with access to funding, Winter didn't know how long they could keep going without more coming in than had been. But the CCT was up. That was bound to help...
She passed the kitchen on her way up and heard Raven and Qrow talking.
"Despite your Semblance, I'd say you were d--- lucky." Raven was either teasing him or scolding him. It was hard to tell with her. "That could have been a disaster!"
"You don't need to tell me that," Qrow replied. "I don't know how all of us even survived today. The odds were against it."
"Maybe there's something that's stronger than your Semblance, huh?" Raven said.
Sullen silence.
"I was joking." Raven sounded like she was rolling her eyes. "You're so serious about that. My Semblance is completely embarrassing, and you don't see me getting huffy about it."
"Didn't you beat someone up for calling it the 'Family Bonding Semblance', once?"
"They had that coming..."
Raven then tilted her head. "So you just rushed out there to save her, huh? You're slipping."
"I don't want to talk about this." Qrow looked at her sullenly again.
"Hmph," Raven snorted. "It's Summer all over again."
"Don't say that," Qrow snapped at her.
"I didn't mean the dying part." Raven was the queen of saying the wrong thing to help. "Just...you always stick your neck out, even if it's stupid."
"At least I don't give only one save," Qrow shot back.
"There's a reason I do that," Raven said. "People can't always wait for you to save them. They need to get stronger than that."
"Sometimes they just can't, Raven. There's always other things involved than just someone's willpower." Qrow sounded like he was tired of having this argument.
"Whatever," Raven said, dismissively. "You can lie to yourself about this, Qrow, but I don't buy it. Just don't let it cloud your judgment, all right? There's a time to know when something is a bad idea. If the Grimm had eaten you also, we'd have none of the other really experienced fighters."
"If I didn't know better, I'd say that sounded like concern," Qrow said.
"And why shouldn't I be concerned? I've been watching your back for years," Raven shot back.
"But you never help, do you?" Qrow said.
"I tip you off. You're supposed to know what to do with that information. Not my fault you never do," Raven said tightly. "And speaking of watching, did something else happen out there? I noticed that Black and Sustrai were acting off when they came in."
"It's nothing," Qrow said.
"Sure, nothing." Raven didn't believe him. "Don't tell me, then. When Likstar gets back, though, she'll have the next phase of the plan. And we both know, if they got the Relic then the only thing left to talk about is if we get the others back from Salem or not. We have nowhere else to go from here. Are you ready to take her on?"
"I haven't thought that far ahead," Qrow said.
"Clearly," Raven said. "I can't imagine where we'd go now. Can't just run forever--well, we could, but they don't seem like the type to choose that option. I just wonder how they got Fall to cooperate...unless she didn't."
"Well, Yang said that she just left," Qrow said.
"I don't buy that," Raven said. "And Watts, no one said anything about him."
"This is all stuff we'll find out tomorrow," Qrow said. "Can we stop thinking about it for one night?"
"If you can, go ahead," Raven said. "But I feel, personally, that this is far from over and far from getting any easier. If the curse is getting stronger, then we're all in trouble. Don't you feel it? Like something else is trying to control your actions?"
"Raven, don't make more of it than it is," Qrow said. "It's acting up, but it's...not like we can do anything about it. We're still ourselves. It's not like Oscar."
"Or is it?" Raven was so cheerful. "I'm starting to wonder--why I did what I did. It makes no sense... It really is almost like it takes over."
"That sounds like a way to excuse your actions," Qrow said.
"Well, you excuse yours with your Semblance, and that's less powerful than this," Raven shot back. "It's a valid concern."
"I'm not talking about this anymore."
Winter hurried up the stair.
She really shouldn't be eavesdropping that long...but their concerns were all ones she had also.
She sat in her designated room--not just hers, but none of the kids were in bed yet--and stared at the window.
What was she even doing? She had magic powers...and an inherited curse with them.
If she'd known it would be like this, would she ever have made that choice?
Would any of them?
But how could they refuse?
She really had no choice but to hope that the DJs' path was truly the one out of this, because...the rest of her life being plagued by these problems didn't sound like much of a life. Even if it was her duty to see it through.
Raven might be right, though... What else could they do now but talk about the things Salem had won? And what to do about them.
* * *
Weiss woke up to Zwei barking.
She thought it was because Ruby, Yang, and Tai must have returned in the night after all, maybe just decided not to wait.
She got up. It was still dark outside. Funny, she felt more alert, like it was morning. She must be wired.
She pulled her clothes on and shoes and rushed down the stairs.
Zwei, who was left in the kitchen at night to avoid any disturbance of them, was standing at the door to the outside and barking.
"Get that d--- dog to shut up." Mercury was holding his head. He still used the couch in the living area instead of one of the rooms.
"Why didn't you get up to let them in?" Weiss said crossly.
"Shut up..." Mercury moaned.
Weiss went to the door and unlocked it, expecting to see them outside.
Though why they didn't just come inside...
Instead she saw nothing.
But the air that blew into the room was cold, cooler than usual even for Mistral, icy.
And...it smelled odd, not like the sea breeze at all. Just...damp and...kind of moldy.
Zwei was barking still, but he was looking up at the sky.
Weiss looked up, expecting to see Grimm.
Instead she didn't see anything.
And that really meant nothing. She didn't see a star or even the outline of a tree or mountain. She just saw inky blackness.
The air was freezing out here too.
She looked around the street. There were some other people outside looking up at the sky and checking their scrolls, and then they were talking, sounding anxious.
Weiss had put her scroll into her pocket without looking at it, because she was in a hurry, but she pulled it out now and checked the screen.
The time said it was 9:00 a.m. in the morning.
But...it was pitch dark. It couldn't be...
Zwei growled.
Weiss grabbed his collar suddenly.
"Zwei..." she said in a small voice, "something is wrong."
Zwei growled like, "duh."
Weiss dashed inside like she had a monster after her--she felt like she did.
She slammed the door, making Mercury swear at her, but she didn't even notice.
"Get up! Get up!" she yelled really fast. "There's something wrong with the sky! It's still black, and it's 9 in the morning!"
"So a storm's rolling in..." Mercury groaned.
"No, you idiot, it's not cloudy, it's black!" Weiss frantically threw a pillow at him. He sat up. "Black like...like Grimm."
"What?" Mercury finally was awake.
He got up and ran to a window.
Weiss dashed upstairs and banged on everyone's doors.
"Wake up, something's wrong!"
Most of them came out half-dressed for combat, with their weapons.
Whitley appeared in his pajamas, being one of the only people who'd been able to pack before they left his house.
"What in Remnant?" Libby peered out of her room without her hat on.
"Weiss?" Winter appeared with her hair in a ponytail.
"Outside." Weiss was breathless by now. "Dark, Grimm, the sky--it's totally covered...I think."
"That doesn't sound possible," Qrow said, hand on his sword.
"It is!" Weiss said.
Qrow rushed down and to the door, along with most of them.
They all looked up.
"It certainly looks like Grimm..." Winter said, in a hushed voice.
"Ew..." Emerald said. "Do you think it is? Like the mouth of one?"
"I don't see any teeth," Sun said.
"There wouldn't be teeth if we were inside it," Sage, his teammate, said.
"I'm going to check it out," Qrow said.
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Raven was spooked.
"Someone has to," Qrow said.
"Be careful," Winter advised needlessly.
Qrow just nodded and turned into a bird, then he flew up.
They couldn't even see him after about 2 seconds. It was so dark, only the house lights were able to send a light farther up.
Qrow couldn't see where he was flying after a while, but he didn't hit anything for at least 100 yards.
Then suddenly he was flying into something kind of solid but also kind of squishy...Grimm-feeling.
He didn't see any bug parts--but he couldn't see anything, really, it was too dark.
He saw lights below from the city, but that was it.
It was warmer here... The heat from the city was rising and getting trapped along the wall.
He flew along further but saw only more of the same.
Flying downward, he circled the city lights and saw no end to the wall or any other sign of it being the inside of a monster.
Returning to the others, who were shivering either with fear or with the chill that was down here, he resumed human form. Qrow described what he'd seen in very few words.
"Can we...kill it?" Sun asked.
"I dunno. I don't know what it is," Qrow said. "It's Grimm, that's all."
"So it's a plague," Weiss said. "Pyrrha said that, right?"
Kip shivered again. "The outside world is scary," he said.
"This isn't normal, Kip," Vara said. "And it's probably nothing we can't fix with a little weather powers. I'll just fry a hole in it."
"Just a moment." Winter grabbed her shoulder before she could spring into the air. "Don't you think Salem will expect us try that?"
"So?" Vara said.
"So you don't think it might backfire if you did?" Winter said. "Miss Nikos told the party yesterday that shooting the pods released some kind of pestilence. If you fire into that, who is to say it won't do the same?"
"So we should just stay here?" Vara said.
"They all seem to eventually turn into more dangerous attacks," Winter said. "I think we should wait to see what it does first and then work out a strategy."
"And if it does nothing?" Mercury said.
"We can try other options." Winter was vague.
"I don't like it," Emerald said. "It reminds me of inside the Zeppelin, but blacker and less disgusting, but it's still creepy."
"Too bad Ruby isn't here," Blake said. "I bet she could fry it with her eyes and nothing would happen to us."
Emerald looked at Mercury, who glared at her like, "Don't you say anything."
But she followed him as they went inside, and he started towards the bathroom.
"Hey, you can't come in here. That's pervy," he said.
"I'm not in the mood for jokes," Emerald shut the door. "Can't you at least try?"
"To go to the bathroom?" Mercury said.
Emerald shoved his arm. "No, to attack the Grimm. Maybe it would work."
"I'm sorry, did you miss the part when no one is supposed to find out about this?" Mercury pointed to his eyes. "I still say it wasn't actually that anyway--it was those cakes, and I think we're fresh out of those. So no thanks, I'm just going to let you guys handle it."
"What if it's the only way?"
"Well, we're stuck here then," Mercury said. "I know better than to make myself a target like that. Besides, I can't do it. I don't know how to. I don't know how it worked before."
Emerald thought. That, she could find out probably.
"Hold that thought," she said, opening the door.
Sun was standing outside.
"Ew," he said. "Were you making out in the bathroom?"
"No." Emerald shoved him aside. "Just talking."
[You know, that makes me wonder, where were the bathrooms on that Zeppelin?... Ew...]
She walked to the dojo and found Qrow, Winter, Raven, and Hazel all in there looking out the glass window.
"The cold has to be from the sunlight being blocked out," Winter was saying.
"Duh," Raven said. "But won't it get hot after a while? Science was never my strongest subject, but isn't this going to trap us in some big, disgusting greenhouse effect?"
"Yes, actually," Winter said. "But the bigger problem is if we would run out of oxygen."
"That would take days," Qrow said. "I think..."
"Factoring in the animals, people and fire in this city," Winter mused, "and not getting any new air supply...I hope it wouldn't."
[I couldn't find any conclusive science on this, but estimates were 80 hours in an air pocket to 12 days, which is 288 hours in a sealed room, but those were both just for one person. Adding in a whole city, animals, and fire, you'd cut that down, but there's also more air to begin with. Also plants would give air.
The bigger problem is that the plants will die without sun, and then you slowly would suffocate after maybe 2 weeks I want to say, to be on the safe side. As long as nothing happened to consume oxygen faster than usual. But I'd say based on that, they wouldn't be in real danger for 10 days at least.]
"Uh, sorry to interrupt," Emerald said, "but can I talk to Qrow for a second?"
They looked at her oddly.
"Why just him?" Raven asked.
"It's kind of...personal." Emerald didn't know how else to put it.
Qrow might have guessed what she meant.
"Fine," he said.
"Personal." Raven gave Hazel a knowing look. "Sure."
Hazel didn't understand what she was implying.
"Is this about Black?" Qrow asked Emerald.
"Yeah, kind of," Emerald said. "Wait, what?"
"I already know," Qrow said.
Winter had just told him that? Emerald guessed that shouldn't surprise her that much; they were thick as thieves these days--or thicker, since thieves didn't have any honor--what was she thinking about this for?
[I feel that getting distracted by wording thing.]
"It's not exactly that," Emerald said. "I was just wondering, I mean...how do those things work? Has Ruby ever explained it?"
Qrow gave her a very long look.
"We still don't know a whole lot," he said. "But they're supposed to activate because of either love or concern for life, I guess. It's kind of arbitrary how it really works. Ruby's been working on it. She'd know better than I would."
"So, uh...Summer never said anything?"
"To be honest, I only saw Summer use that power a couple times," Qrow said. "She unlocked it after the team split up more. I knew she had it, but I don't know how she used it. She never said much, just that it came naturally to her. If she meant caring, then that's true."
"And if you're not the type to care about life that much," Emerald said, "and it still activated, why would it?"
"Either you care more than you're letting on, or maybe it would be to protect one person or a few who you do care about," Qrow shrugged. "What else is caring about life but caring about people's lives who you know?"
"I mean, you could just care about life in general," Emerald said.
"Do you?" Qrow looked at her narrowly.
Emerald hugged her sides. "I don't know if I think what you heroes do about it. But I did feel bad when I saw so much life destroyed at Beacon and Atlas. I don't know if that's the same thing."
"I don't think it's just feeling bad," Qrow said. "But I don't know. Ruby hasn't talked about it that much either. Silver-Eyed Warriors seem to like keeping their own secrets."
"Uh...are you gonna tell everyone about it?" Emerald asked.
"No," Qrow said. "And you shouldn't either. Black isn't safe if it gets out, not with Salem already knowing who he is."
Emerald knew that better than he did. Thinking of Mercury turning into one of those Hound things was enough to give her nightmares--in fact, it probably would later.
"I can keep a secret," she said. "I just thought, maybe, he could...with the stuff over the sky..."
"Even if by some miracle he knew how to do that, it might not work, and then everyone would know he's here," Qrow said. "We'd have to figure this out without him. Anyway, he doesn't care that much about us."
"He cares more than you think he does," Emerald said.
"Maybe about you. You're the only reason he's here," Qrow said flatly.
Emerald reddened. "We're just friends, that's all. I'm sure he'd still have left Salem if he wasn't so scared to."
"I'm not one for sentiment," Qrow said, which was not really true, "but it seems to me if something pushed him to do that, it's a little further. You have your answer there, kid, do with it whatever you want. Might be able to make something out of that."
"Hey, even if that was somehow true, it would be wrong to manipulate someone using that," Emerald said defensively. "That's what Cinder used to do. I mean, things like that, they can't be forced."
"Then you're smarter than her." Qrow said a rare compliment for any of the former villains. "But it might help him too. Ever think about that?"
"I don't know anything about helping people," Emerald said, in a more meek voice. "I can't even help myself. I mean, I've been alone my entire life, except for when I was working for Salem, and that was all crap anyway. How could I help anybody understand anything good?"
"You're asking the wrong guy," Qrow said. "I have the same questions about my past."
"Oh, sure." Emerald snorted at that idea. "Mr. Huntsmen Protector Guy--if you were any more of a White Knight, you'd be a literal knight. I'm sure you're real worried about knowing the right thing to do."
"I have no clue what I'm doing," Qrow said.
"Well, if you don't, then I have no hope," Emerald said. "After, like, 30 years on the side of good you still haven't figured it out? I don't have 30 years to figure this s--- out."
"Well, you're pretty young. You probably can outgrow the villain thing," Qrow said. "Maybe you'll be luckier than me."
"From where I stand, your life is actually pretty lucky," Emerald said, flatly. "You have family that cares about you, a job that people respect, and you can take on, like, 15 Grimm at a time. If I had those things, I wouldn't have ended up where I was when Cinder found me, and I couldn't have been that much older than you when you started this. Maybe I should have joined a bandit tribe. Probably safer than the street."
"You would have been expected to kill and steal," Qrow said.
"Yeah...well...I already did that."
"Just how many bodies did you rack up before you switched sides?" Qrow asked.
Emerald pursed her lips. "I don't wanna think about it."
"Did you ever feel guilty?" Qrow asked.
"Did you?" Emerald asked.
"Yeah," Qrow said.
"Yeah, I did sometimes," Emerald admitted. "I told myself it was all for Cinder. Stupid, right? But most of them were killers and scoundrels too. The White Fang aren't upstanding citizens. I mean...we gave them a chance to fight back... I guess that doesn't sound that much better," she said defensively.
"With your power, I'm guessing you don't have to do that," Qrow said. "I'm not a moral expert, kid...but, maybe that says something. Somewhere. Let's hope so, anyway. We all have regrets..."
That was the nicest thing he'd said to her.
"Well, all that is part of why I'm not anyone to ask for help understanding the value of life," Emerald said. "So I hope that's not what you're saying."
"Who knows? Maybe it's not as straightforward as we think," Qrow said.
"Honestly that sounds kind of like Salem's curse." Emerald's mind turned to what Winter and she had discussed on the train. "Life and death, the meaning of it, like the Silver-Eyed people get it, and that's why the god of light... Or do they get it because of the god of light? But then, why isn't there a god of death version of this, to get the meaning of death? I don't get it."
"I think Salem is that," Qrow said, giving her a long look. "Are you the smart one?"
"Out of the three of us former villains, yeah," Emerald said smugly.
[According to RWBY Chibi, Emerald is the smart one...which makes sense.]
"Oh, don't tell Hazel you said that." Qrow pretended to look over his shoulder.
"Hazel would agree with me--Hey though, I'm not sure Salem understands the meaning of death just because she's a death goddess wannabe. She just kills for the sake of killing, right? What's the meaning in that? I think there's more to it. But if we had half the answer because of the Silver Eyes, that would help, right?"
"Something to ask Ruby..." Qrow muttered.
"Hey, are they going to come back, or are we going to Vale if we can't get through that stuff?" Emerald said.
"Well, we can't be sure we can't actually get through it," Qrow said. "But who would want to try?"
"After the other plagues, I wouldn't try," Emerald said. "What if you inhaled it?"
She had a point--which was also what the adult members said once they resumed discussing.
"Did she ask about Black?" Winter asked Qrow aside.
"Yeah, but I don't think it's going to help," he said vaguely.
Winter knew the reason also, but what if they had no better options?
* * *
Meanwhile, in Beacon, the group tried to contact their friends again to see if they were going to join them...and got no answer.
The Grimm Dark [Wait, grimdark? Like the genre?] sheen was apparently blocking all CCT transmissions.
Shine and Wally couldn't catch a break, though, because no sooner had the group gathered to eat breakfast than Ozpin took control of Oscar before Oscar could stop him and proceeded to blurt out in anger that Pyrrha had almost let Cinder just take the Relic.
Pyrrha couldn't believe Ozpin said it.
But Ozpin wasn't finished there.
"I am sure Miss Nikos only got the idea to do that from you." He looked at Shine. "You were alone with them for a long time while we were handling that conveniently timed plague."
"Convenient?" Wally almost choked on his food.
"The plague?" Jaune said.
"Well, you do never seem surprised, and it's out of your book, isn't it?" Ozpin said snipply. "Miss Likstar, tell us all right now that you didn't plan to just allow Fall to take the Relic and go if she insisted."
"Aren't you jumping the gun a little?" Yang of all people said. "I mean, that can't be what actually happened. Right, Pyrrha?"
Pyrrha fingered her silverware nervously.
"It's not...exactly what happened," she hedged.
"Pyrrha?" Ruby said strangely.
"Why does it matter?" Pyrrha asked. "We have it. Cinder is gone. It worked out."
"It matters because Ozpin is saying that you took a pretty big chance," Yang said.
"I'm sure it was just because someone was in danger, right?" Neptune suggested.
"What do you mean by she almost let her take it?" Jaune asked Ozpin.
"Just what I said. She said she could take it if she wanted," Ozpin said. "She just stopped me and did nothing to stop Fall when she could have. And Oscar didn't either. And Miss Likstar was too busy getting knocked out of the fight to do a thing, which is rather disappointing, given her usual ability to fight magic. It's a little too coincidental if you ask me. The three of you didn't actually intend to protect the Relic at all, did you?"
"Oh dear, did you not tell them about our little deal?" Watts, who was still there, spoke.
Wally glared at him.
"What?" he said. "I thought you didn't keep secrets on this team?"
"There hasn't been a lot of time to talk about it," Shine said.
"That's an excuse," Ozpin said. "You know, I had my doubts about you from the start, Likstar, but I didn't think you'd go so far as to hand Salem the Relics on purpose. But it sure seems that's what you did."
"Wait a minute, we don't actually know that," Penny said. "This is probably a miscommunication."
Shine sighed. "It was part of the plan--modified."
"What?" Yang said. "How could you do that?"
"I have my reasons," Shine said.
"Do our thoughts about this just not matter to you?" Tai demanded. "You put everything at risk! What could possibly justify that?"
"But it didn't happen," Pyrrha said.
"But it could have, and what would she have done about it, being KO-ed like that?" Tai said.
"Hey, she got hurt protecting you guys," Wally said. "That's not very grateful."
"GRATEFUL?" Tai sputtered.
"Actually, she got hurt protecting Cinder," Ozpin said, rather thinly. "From me."
"Oh, and are you mad about that?" Shine said. "Let's just remember who set her off, Oz. I was there. If you hadn't attacked her, maybe she wouldn't have tried to hurt us."
"You can't actually believe that Cinder would have held back?" Oz said.
"Well, why did she then?" Shine said.
"I knew it!" Yang said. "I knew you were just going to want to spare her in the end. I tried to give you the benefit of the doubt and think maybe this really was a ploy to get them finally out of our hair, but instead it was just to help them."
"I never said anything to the contrary," Shine said.
"You said it was to protect us!" Yang said. "I trusted you!"
"That's news to me," Wally said.
"It was to protect you," Shine said. "All I do is for that, but it's also for other things. I can't just think of you all as two sides in a battle. That's not what Christianity is about."
"Oh, and what is it, then?" Yang said. "These people do all kinds of evil, Cinder worst of all. She's killed some of us."
"If Pyrrha has forgiven her, it can be nothing to you," Shine said tightly.
Yang glanced at Pyrrha. "You haven't forgiven her, have you?"
"I think I have actually," Pyrrha said. "More accurately, I'm not sure I ever hated her at all. It became clear to me yesterday. I felt sad for you all, but for myself, I had no reason to. She and I aren't that different, when you think of it."
"That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Jaune said.
"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think." Pyrrha seemed on edge with him still.
"This is getting ugly," Wally whispered to Shine.
"I have a feeling we haven't seen anything yet," Shine replied grimly.
"Are you all brainwashed?" Tai wasn't helping anything.
"Perhaps there's another way to look at this..." Penny's emotional receptors were having a hard time keeping up with all this anger, but her logic was telling her that they shouldn't be fighting amongst themselves.
"No, there isn't." Tai stood up dramatically. "You two are weak. You left us wide open, and it almost blew up in your faces. I don't know how Nikos and Pine stopped it, but you certainly didn't. If it were up to you, Fall would have that Relic."
"That wouldn't necessarily be worse for us," Shine said calmly.
"Oh," Tai scoffed, like she was just too stupid to be believed. "Sure... You're crazy."
"And you sound like Raven right now," Shine shot back. "Because if mercy is weakness, then perhaps she was right to do as she did. Oh, I have an idea--"
She stood up.
"Shine," Wally hissed, "let's just try not to feed the fire. We knew they'd be upset."
"You think I should stop?" she asked.
"I just don't want you to say anything too harsh, at least until they've had time to think about it," Wally said. "Then if they want to be jerks, maybe let them have it."
Shine gritted her teeth for a moment, and then she sighed. "Fine, Wally is right. You need some time to consider this fairly."
"Excuse me?" Yang said. "How arrogant are you? You're just wrong."
"And you sound like Jonah," Shine said. "But I did expect this. I took the risk anyway. I knew how you would feel."
They stared at her.
"So do with that what you will." Shine threw her napkin down. "I'm going for a walk."
She left.
"I guess I'll let you guys talk about it," Wally said.
"You weren't even there," Jaune said. "Did you know?"
"It... Look, whatever I did and didn't know, Shine and I are partners because I trust her judgment," Wally said. "I guess that doesn't mean she can never be wrong, but I've never known her to make any decision without weighing both sides. So I'm not going to just go off on her either. I wouldn't say you should do that. Anyways, most of this is stuff we already talked about. You're basically just mad over what could have happened, and I gotta say, my team and I haven't got anywhere when we fought over that. It's just not worth it when so much is on the line. So...there's that."
He left also.
The others looked at Pyrrha.
"I knew how you would feel." She stood up also. "But I had to do what was right. I won't ask you to understand that. But there's one thing." She looked at Ozpin. "They are just angry, but you're actually undermining Shine and Wally just because things didn't go the way you wanted. You disappointed me today, Ozpin. That is not how a leader should be."
She walked out of the room.
"Pyrrha is not the same as before," Penny observed.
"Yeah, she's lost it," Yang said.
"No," Penny said. "I observed Pyrrha Nikos a year ago, almost, and she seemed mature for her age, at least...for a normal person. I don't always understand these things that well, but there're patterns...but now she just seems like a grown up on her own. I wouldn't even think about her age anymore."
Ozpin sat down, seeming struck silent after the last shot from Pyrrha.
["Sick of It"--Apotheosis AMV]