"What's gotten into you?" Jaune asked Winter, once they were all left alone.
Winter did not want to explain herself.
"Before we do this whole thing again," Pyrrha said, "I think we should all just acknowledge that we have the same issues as before and we never do resolve them. I personally have realized that Salem doesn't matter to me that much. I know one thing I never knew before: I don't really need this."
She gestured at the Crown and then took it off. "I don't need any of it. It's not my destiny." With a half smile there, but then she sobered again. "So...here." She held it out.
They stared at her.
Then Theo took it from her, somberly.
Pyrrha nodded.
"Shine and Wally have become my friends, not just my teachers," she added slowly, "and I wouldn't want to see them humiliated or disappointed at the end of all this. Perhaps those personal considerations are not what we base our lives on when it comes to defeating evil overlords, but at the same time, if we don't start with our personal choices, what right do we have to speak for the world? I know at least I won't be going to confront her while I still have things I have not confronted in myself. However, Salem is, at bottom, just a person. A powerful one, but a person. The gods have no more reason to listen to her than anyone else. Less, even. So perhaps the real reason we have not won is because we ourselves cannot meet their impossible standard. I have the answer for that now. I didn't before. But I can't expect you all to accept it the same way as me."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asked. "I think we have, some of us."
"You've...started to," Pyrrha said, "but you...you would have to trust more than that. You'd have to believe in it more than anything else in the whole world, more than what you've seen before, more than what you know to expect yourself. You'd have to have a hope in something so far beyond our capabilities that you know it couldn't come from you--and then, you would know that we can win."
She looked oddly mysterious when she said that and yet still very much her practical self. Pyrrha had always been able to be both those things at the same time. It was why people loved her.
"I also realized something else after seeing this place," Pyrrha went on. "I realized that I do not know you all anymore."
They raised their eyebrows.
"Whatever happened here changed you all one way and me another way," Pyrrha said. "And frankly, I'm not sure my death was the reason for that. I think we're just different. I can't pretend that I fit with all of you anymore. But I knew you, once. And ever since I got back, all I've thought over and over is that you aren't the same. It's like you lost yourselves. I don't think Shine and Wally had anything to do with that. I think they came to stop it. And I see some of you have started to return, but, I was not the only one who died when Beacon fell... Something in you all died also."
They stared at her somberly.
"And until it's back, you can't win," Pyrrha added. "That is all I have to say. Do whatever you feel you should do. I won't stop you."
She walked away slowly.
* * *
The group discussed what to do and got absolutely nowhere. Pyrrha was right: They just ran over the same argument as always--even they were getting sick of it.
But how to get past it?
They couldn't go anywhere without Shine or Wally's help right now. Though they tried to get an airship, but no one wanted to fly to Haven, not after what they'd seen.
The updates from Vacuo's scientists said that nothing had changed, so so far the plan to move the Maidens wasn't working.
Winter was restless.
Not being there to protect her family and the others was driving her crazy. And she was still furious with Raven for forcing that on her--and for her lack of concern.
Though Raven might have been more concerned then she let on.
Winter was also mad at Shine and Wally for just ditching them. They'd gone, who knew where, but they didn't appear on the campus.
Oscar was miserable. Ozpin was also miserable.
Oscar also noticed that he'd stopped having visions of Alicia since the attacks of magic began. Either he'd seen all he needed to see, or he no longer could.
* * *
Shine and Wally went to the forest of Forever Fall, somewhere Shine had wanted to see from the early days of her viewing.
"This is pretty cool." Wally dug all the red trees.
No Grimm bothered them--in fact, Grimm never did while they were alone.
"So, I put it together finally," Wally said, "how you think we can defeat Salem."
"Are we still on about that?" Shine sat on a rock listlessly.
"Just thought you might be interested to know," Wally said.
"Sorry." Shine sat up more. "Of course. What did you figure out?"
"Well, knowing you, I should have seen it ages ago." Wally tried to sound important. "But it hit me after you talked about Cinder--by the way, why didn't you ask me about that beforehand?"
"You weren't there...or I would have," Shine shrugged.
"Well, I guess I was tied up," Wally allowed. "I figured that was why. Okay, but if it's the same as with her, it's kind of like Salem can't be stopped by just stopping her by force, right? And wasn't that on the show? "
"'No victory in strength,' " Shine provided.
"Yeah, that," Wally said. "And did she seem way cooler in the beginning or what?"
"Yes, losing the mystery around someone always does that," Shine said.
Wally snorted a wry laugh.
"For some of us, I guess. Bats never stops being cool."
"If you had to live with him, you'd not think so," Shine said.
"Right, anyways, the big plan is that we should just let her win, right?"
Shine smiled.
"Yeah, that's it, isn't it?" Wally said. "If she just won, the gods would come back, we sort them out, and everyone's happy."
"Yep, that was pretty much my plan," Shine said. "It's agonizingly simple, isn't it? But I knew they'd never let us do it. And since I can't transport those dumb Relics on my own, and you don't know how to find Salem, and there's, like, hundreds of grimm in our path if we just walk there, even we'd never make it without a team. I've thought about it over and over again. Unless we were supernaturally taken there."
"And we can't do that?" Wally said.
"I don't know--are we really supposed to defeat her alone?" Shine asked. "This is not our world."
"Even if we could get there with the Relics, would she buy it?" Wally asked.
"Not yet." Shine leaned on her hands. "But I've been working to keep her attention on us. Us two especially. If she stopped seeing Ozpin as her greatest obstacle and focused on us, as real opponents, not just different fools who have the same tired tricks as they did 2000 years ago, then we'd have her attention enough for her to want to get closer. I feel like if I could just talk to her, no games, no battles, there could be a shot at showing her this war could be over."
"Does she want that?" Wally said. "She wants everyone gone."
"I'd need to talk to her," Shine said. "If she is capable of anything more than that, there's always a chance. Cinder proved able to get at least something through her thick head. Salem almost seems more teachable than her, at this point. Or at least more realistic. But the Grimm has poisoned her mind for centuries. The chances aren't great--but it is the only shot I see for the world. The gods would spite her if they came back, unless she could be persuaded not to provoke them."
"And they wouldn't just destroy her?" Wally said.
"If they know what's been happening, one has to ask why they've done nothing so far," Shine said. "And they must know. But the answer is in the question. They already know, and they don't care. They figured Ozpin will always play out this little dance, and so will Salem, and they will never have to do a dang thing. And unlike our God, they apparently do not grow weary of people's suffering. The jerks!"
She made a fist. "So the only wake up call they could get is being caught, I think. All I know about false gods--which is not much--is that they cannot endure being exposed. All this hangs on catching them in a way that they cannot escape. I intend to use the Relics because they will be compelled to follow their own rules--the magic will force them. Otherwise they might not show their faces to us, not if they were afraid. Which is why, I believe, the curse is pushing Ozpin to make sure we leave. Just as it pushed him to make Alicia leave."
"Seriously?" Wally said.
"Didn't anything about his treatment of her strike you as excessive?" Shine asked.
"Oh yeah, I thought he was way over the line," Wally said.
"And didn't you wonder if that was just him?" Shine said. "Seeing what it does to him now, I have to wonder, was the god pushing him to get rid of Alicia because she was shaking things up too much?"
"Oh...shoot..." Wally ran around her in a circle. "That would make so much sense."
"Ozpin has been many things since we've known him, but he's not usually so wildly irrational," Shine said. "Nor did anything in the account of the past suggest he has such an explosive temper. But every time people get close to weakening this spell, he loses it. Part of it may be his obsession, but what makes that so strong? After all this time, you'd think emotions would have gone out of it. But it hasn't. So we go in a circle."
"Do you think Oscar knows?" Wally asked.
"I don't know, but I didn't like to burden him with discussing it. What can he do about it? Feeling that the gods are fighting him might only make him more afraid of them. And if he resists as he is, thinking that he can, he likely can. Perhaps we should discuss it, but he knows all he needs to know to fight it. We don't need to know everything."
"Well, Ozpin would say that too," Wally said.
"Out of what they learned about him, did they really need to know all of it?" Shine asked. "Only a few things have been helpful to us. In fact, it was more important to learn about Salem than it was to learn about Ozpin. The question could have gone that way and done its job just as much. This whole thing never ends."
"Why didn't you tell me ages ago what you thought?" Wally said.
"Because I was still working on it," Shine said. "As I took the steps I was led to take, the picture took shape in my mind of where this was going, but there were still twists and turns I couldn't be sure of. If I had told you what I expected and been wrong later, we might have worked for it and gotten stuck. I've never tried to make it happen other than daring Salem to talk to us--which I think is necessary, whatever course we take. One has to face your enemy at some point."
"But I still could have had an idea," Wally said.
Shine shrugged.
"See, it's that. I think you still don't think I'm smart not to keep up with you." Wally said this less angrily than just sadly.
"It wasn't that," Shine said. "It's that you do your best work when you're improvising, and I honestly improv most of what I do. If we'd schemed about it together, we'd have ended up acting on it, even if we didn't mean to. It's just how it is when you share an idea like that. But keeping it to myself, I didn't think I'd feel compelled to follow it, and I didn't. Only once I got Cinder to listen did it seem like this goal was in sight. I was always going to share it if we got close enough. I mean, honestly, do you tell me every single thing you're going to try before you do it?"
"Well, no, but if we were gonna try together," Wally said.
"But how could I explain it in detail if I didn't have it worked out yet? I mean, it just would have been questions I couldn't answer," Shine said. "I'm sorry. I think I'm a bit like Batman in that way. I like to keep things to myself until I feel confident about it."
"After all this time I've started realizing that I can't actually make you do this differently," Wally said. "You're going to do your thing. You're used to doing it that way."
Shine tensed. "And?"
"And, you know, I think I'm okay with it," Wally said. "In the League, I'm not the plan guy for a reason. I mean, I don't really care about it there. I just worried about not being seen as capable like you and that you'd think I was an idiot. But this partnership thing also isn't something we have a checklist for. We need to find what works for us. If I started making you give me a rundown of everything before we do it, we could miss the psychological timing with people that you need to do something to make it happen. As long as you fill me in later, I think I can live with it. Just so long as it's not a secret for all time."
"So as long as I let you know before anything is cemented, it's fine?" Shine clarified.
"I think so," Wally said. "Compromise is key, right? I mean, I can complain all day, but you're the person you are, and I'm who I am, and you're not complaining about me not figuring this crap out on my own. Which I really should be able to do."
"I think you just did," Shine said.
"Well, it's honestly kind of fun to just guess as we go," Wally said. "Anyway, I know it's a bit weird for you to include someone else in your job like this. I went into this thinking we'd just be in sync automatically. That was really stupid of me. It took years with the League to get that in sync. And we still fight sometimes. Honestly, maybe I should apologize for making it such a big deal."
"But it was natural for you to want that. I'm sure I did too."
"The point is, I think I'm over arguing about it," Wally said. "And it's stupid. We've always had each other's backs anyway. So it doesn't matter. Right?"
"Right," Shine said. "When you put it that way, it doesn't help to sweat the little things. I hope this is a sign that we've finally started to get a clue how to do this."
"If we can, maybe the team can," Wally said.
"Maybe. Yang and I had another fight," Shine said. "Less a fight, more like I went off on her."
"Uh, knowing Yang, I'm 100% sure she started it," Wally said.
"Of course, but there are times I wish I could just stay calm with her," Shine said. "She's too much like me. It gets under my skin. There can only be one, and all that."
"I really don't think you're anything alike," Wally said. "But even if she is, that's no reason to be like that all the time."
"She projects her issues with her mother onto me--and every other adult, but especially women," Shine said. "She said stuff that could have word for word been what she'd say to Raven. I wish Raven would just deal with it, but I can't tell her to have that kind of maturity. I'm not everybody's mother!"
"Well, you're a lot like a mom," Wally said.
"I don't mind mothering them, but I can't actually replace a parent--there's too many of them, and we can't stay long enough for it." Shine gestured wildly. "And I'm not actually a mom."
"Kids love you, though," Wally said.
"Yeah, but this is much harder than just taking care of kids for a few hours," Shine said. "It's messy, too. I know how Moses felt. This whole thing has been like the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, all rolled together!"
"Even this far is an improvement though," Wally said. "When we started in Argus, I thought they'd hate us forever, and in Atlas, I thought they never listened to us, but it changed so fast. And I'm honestly really proud of the ways some of them have grown. At least we know it wasn't for nothing. "
"Yes, Amor es nunca para nada," Shine said. [Which means love is never for nothing, in Spanish.]
"So are we just going to wait out here forever?" Wally asked.
"Well, it is called Forever Fall," Shine joked. "But no, at some point we'll have to go back to those ungrateful but still endearing screw-ups that make up this team."
"Us included there," Wally said. "But since we've got a while, you know, we've never made out in the woods. We could totally do that, just like summer camp."
"Did you do that in summer camp?" Shine asked.
"No, I never had a girlfriend at camp," Wally said. "But I always wanted to try it."
"Wally West!"
"What? It's cool. It's romantic," Wally said.
[And cue my sisters both acting like total babies about two adult people kissing in the woods. Get over it, sis! Couples do this.]
* * *
The darkness didn't lift after they were gone, though they waited for hours with nothing happening.
And then there was another change.
Blake, Sun, and Kip were sitting in the living room, playing with Kip's kittens to try to cheer him up, when they suddenly heard howling coming from outside.
And not Grimm, but the sound of actual dogs and cats and perhaps some other creatures.
Blake's ears twitched, and she covered them.
"They're scared!" she said.
Sun ran to the door and looked out--and a cat, that wasn't theirs, shot into the room and under a piece of furniture before they could do a thing.
Kips' kittens scattered all over the room in fright.
Zwei suddenly started barking wildly and whining at the window.
"What is going on?" Weiss and Emerald ran into the room.
"I think something else is changing outside," Sun said. "The animals are all freaking out."
"Animals?" Emerald said.
One of the cats ran over her foot and into a corner behind a potted plant.
Then suddenly a Grimm that didn't look quite like anything they'd ever seen before appeared in the door in front of Sun and lunged at them.
It looked something like a Beowolf and something like a dog, with long claws.
[I based this off the mythical Crocotta, a creature that is supposed to attack both humans and dogs.]
Zwei barked at him furiously, and the creature ran right over Sun before he could stop it and at Zwei, pouncing on him.
Zwei went crazy, biting and scratching, and clamped his teeth around the Grimm's neck.
The Grimm dissolved.
Kip screamed.
Emerald gasped.
Zwei looked way proud of himself, but then his hair stood up, and he growled towards the door.
"Long shot--" Sun rubbed his chest. "--but I'm just going to say this might be another plague."
"This one doesn't make any sense," Blake said, rushing to help him. "Are you okay?"
"It didn't touch me," he said. "At least...not much."
"Are there more of those things?" Weiss said.
Zwei apparently wanted to known the same thing, because he shot out the door.
"Oh no!" Emerald said.
"That poor, brave, stupid dog!" Weiss said. "I'll get him."
"Weiss!" Blake said.
"I'm faster than you," Weiss said. "It'll be fine. I'll be careful. Besides, I have light."
She held up her sword and lit the tip with fire dust.
She used a glyph to catapult herself out the door.
"Zwei!" she called.
"Quick, shut the door," Emerald said. "Before those things--"
They heard shattering.
"Tell me that wasn't a window," Blake said.
"Either that or dishes," Emerald said.
"We are so losing our deposit on this house," Sun said.
Drawing their weapons, they rushed to check it out.
More of the Grimm were crawling in the broken window.
"Kip," Blake said, "just a hunch, but maybe take all your cats and get them out of sight."
Kip frantically dashed to gather them, but the cats weren't cooperating.
[Yeah, herding cats doesn't work.]
Blake went back to try to help him.
Sun and Emerald killed the other Grimm easily; they weren't that tough.
"Honestly, they don't seem that bad compared to the other ones," Emerald said.
"There has to be a catch, then," Sun said. "I'm not a genius, but each of these attacks has some kind of dark twist. No pun intended."
"What's going on?" Mercury came out of the dojo. "There's this ugly thing scratching at the glass door in there."
"Why didn't you kill it?" Emerald said.
"Because I didn't want to open the door, dumba--," Mercury said.
"What is it now?" Qrow had run down the stairs, and Hazel came out of a different room.
The rest of Sun's team and Nora and Ren also appeared.
"Can someone go after Weiss?" Sun asked. "We need to batten down the hatches--I've always wanted to say that."
"I'll get her," Qrow said.
"Wait a minute," Emerald said, "if these things are attacking animals--Grimm don't usually do that--couldn't being a bird not help?"
"Then I'll go as a human. Just stay in here and don't let them get in--and keep those d---ed cats out of the way," Qrow said, running out the door.
"My cats are nice!" Kip was near tears. "Don't let the monsters eat them!"
"We're not gonna." Sun picked up one that tried to bite him for his troubles. "Can we put them in a box or something?"
"There's a chest in one of the rooms," Hazel said.
"Great, I never thought I'd have to save stupid cats," Mercury griped.
"Aren't animals better than people to you?" Emerald said.
"Animals are like people that can't talk or fight," Mercury said.
"I think that Grimm Zwei just killed would beg to differ," Emerald said.
"That dog is something else," Sun agreed. "Honestly, it's Weiss I'm worried about. Zwei can take care of himself."
"I need to ask Ruby what they did to get that dog to act like that," Blake muttered.
Then someone banged on the door suddenly.
Blake ran to open it, but it wasn't Weiss--it was her mother!
"Blake!" Kali grabbed her. "I finally found the house. I've been searching since yesterday, and your father's been trying to keep the Fang from panicking--but this..."
"Mom!" Blake hugged her back. "I should have looked for you, but we couldn't see anything, and I wasn't sure if they'd attack the house again..."
"I know you have responsibilities. It's fine." Kali held her back. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, but Mom, you should be inside," Blake shut the door. "Something is attacking the pets."
"Not just them, dear," Kali said gravely. "The Faunus too."
"What?" Sun said. "But it just ran right over me."
"I can't explain that," Kali said. "Unless the scent of humans is masking you a bit. I assume we must smell different, though I can't prove it. But out there, the White Fang has been all over Mistral, and these awful creatures are attacking them. They aren't very lethal, but there's dozens and dozens of them. I think they just crawled out of the corners of that black mass that's over this kingdom."
Blake grimaced. "So there attacking Faunus only?"
"Yes, only them," Kali said. "Good news, the humans here are actually helping us--some of them. Faunus need to get inside. I had to save a few on my way here."
She held up a katana she must have used at some point. "But not all of the Faunus who came with us are used to fighting Grimm. I need to get out there and help. But I wanted to make sure you were all right."
"I can help too," Blake said. "We have to help. I mean, these are our people!"
"Yeah, we should," Sun said. "They did us a solid before, so we owe them."
"We'll help you," Nora said.
Ren nodded. "I can mask some people, not as many as if Jaune were here, but I can try--weaker ones especially."
"I could help hide you," Emerald said. "They're just ignoring humans?"
"Completely," Kali said.
"In a weird way, we've never been safer, then," Emerald said.
"Ew," Mercury said. "Count me out. I don't care about the White Fang."
Emerald grabbed him by his coat. "You're coming. They won't even bother us. It'll be like target practice. Or are you too much of a wuss?"
"Shut up," Mercury said.
"Somebody's chicken," Sun said. "Is it just no fun for you if you're not killing someone, Boot Boy?"
"Shove it up yours, Monkey Man." Mercury flipped him off.
"Fine, you can just stay nice and safe in here and let us have all the fun," Sun jeered at him. "Let's go."
"Fine. This way," Kali said.
"Someone needs to stay with him." Emerald nodded at Kip, who was shaking.
"I think we can handle that," Libby offered, holding up her brush. "They aren't that tough."
Willow nodded.
"I'll go with you then," Hazel said.
The rest of Sun's team wasn't that happy to go with him, but of course they stuck with their leader.
* * *
Weiss could have caught Zwei if he hadn't run down the street and into the darkness, but he blended in.
She could still hear him barking, though.
"Zwei!" she called. "Come back!"
These new Grimm, they ran right by Weiss without a second look, but they were attacking some hapless Faunus.
Weiss tried to help, and she thought Zwei was attacking the monsters also, but he moved so fast, she couldn't catch him.
Before long she realized she was much farther from the house than she realized--and hopelessly lost, because she couldn't read a dang street sign anymore.
More of the power went out since before, she noticed. They were losing juice too fast.
Also it was going from cold down here to hot and humid from the carbon dioxide build up. She was already getting out of breath.
Weiss only realized she'd veered into the marketplace area of the city because she ran into an abandoned stall and knocked over a table.
"Oww..." she groaned.
Zwei barked ahead.
"Zwei, come back!" she cried helplessly.
Zwei ran up to her and stuck his nose in her face.
Weiss managed to grab his collar before he could get away again.
"You naughty dog!" she scolded.
Zwei whimpered.
"Oh...I can't stay mad at you, can I?" Weiss used the honeyed voice people talk to pets with--which was always strange for people to hear her use. "Who's a good boy? Who defeated all the monsters?"
Zwei wagged his tail--at least she thought he did.
But then he stiffened and growled again.
More of them must be coming.
Weiss supposed she'd have to carry Zwei back. She should have brought a leash.
She stood up and picked him up, but he didn't want to be carried--he wanted to slay Grimm.
[When Zwei is a more effective huntsman than half the team was in Volume 8.]
The horrid Grimm gremlins ran toward her.
"Zwei, stop it!" Weiss said, as he struggled to get free.
One of the monsters tried to climb up her leg, and she kicked it off in disgust.
Then she summoned a glowing boar, and it ploughed into some of the other ones.
Some more people ran by, drawn to the light, and lit into the monsters.
"Is that a Schnee?" One of them glanced at Weiss. "Can't you light us up? You must have dust."
Didn't anyone know that the SDC was way smaller than it used to be? Honestly!
"Look out for those demon dogs!" someone else said, then they were distracted.
Zwei was still trying to break free, and Weiss was sure he was leaving marks on her stomach. [As a cat owner--yes!]
"Need a hand there, Lassie?" someone asked her from behind.
Weiss turned around. "Meridian?" she said in bewilderment.
It was hard to tell.
Then he pulled out a lighter, and she could see.
"Hello there, Snow Tiger," he said.
"What...what are you doing here?" Weiss sputtered.
"Looking for you," Meridian said. "All of you, actually."
"But...you followed us?" Weiss said.
"Now, I know it sounds like stalking--" Meridian said.
"You know that, huh?" Weiss interrupted him.
"But I swear on the moon that got blown up, I have a good reason this time," Meridian said. "And one I need to explain, as soon as possible. I've been looking for your team since yesterday."
"You got here yesterday?"
"Just about, but this buggered darkness appeared, and we couldn't find a blasted thing," Meridian said. "Been faffing around trying to find Haven for ages, but everyone kept telling us different directions."
"We're actually not there," Weiss said. "We're at this house--is Hamish here?"
"Somewhere, aye, but we've been separated by these demon dogs," Meridian said. "It's a right slobberknocker, isn't it?"
"It's a what?" Weiss said.
"The point is, we need help, big time, and you could use some backup with your pet there--by the way, when did you get a dog?"
"This is Ruby's."
"Oh? Well, that explains it--not really," Meridian said. "Notice these things are only striking at Faunus and animals?"
"I know. It's weird," Weiss said. "Do you have rope?"
"Actually yes." He held one up.
Weiss tied it to Zwei's collar.
"If we can find the house, then we should talk," she said. "Did something go wrong in Vacuo?"
Meridian was silent for a moment.
"I'd rather explain it to the whole group at once," he said. "I was hoping your elders might know something about it. And I need to find Theo first of all. You understand? It's a matter of respect."
"You might have to let that go. He's not here," Weiss said.
"What?"
[That's going to be a fun conversation.]
[And you all may cheer that he's back. I know I'm excited!]