[So this will be the first of 3-5 planned finale arcs, I'm splitting it into slices. It's also clear that I will have to start another book file because I can't ever write a full fic in 200 chapters. I plan to use the same cover and title though, it'll just be the last arcs that will be in the overlap, so look for that on my homepage.]
Victoria took a lot longer than anyone wanted her to to gather a lot of odds and ends in her shop--didn't help that they found more Apathy outside it, but she made short work of them with some help from Ruby.
Ruby and Oscar had been real quiet about Victoria, even when they had caught up with the others outside the tunnels, they just seemed to accept that everyone was stuck together for this.
But Victoria had simmered down slightly, the dust potion had worn off now, and she seemed to return to whatever sliver of sanity you could claim she possessed.
She was more bearable that way though, because she spoke more normally about the problem.
"So your friends are waiting at the Oasis," she said. "And this is the 10th plague according to them?"
"That's right," Oscar confirmed. "After this, there's no more, but Salem won't stop. She must either think this would finish us off, or, she'll start something else."
"Hmm," Victoria went to a safe and opened it. "I meant to come back for this stuff after I moved, but you didn't give me the time...just as well now, it would have been destroyed. It's not enough to really rebuild with, but..."
She pulled out some ancient looking books in carefully sealed plastic packaging.
"Those have to be centuries old!" Ozpin exclaimed inside Oscar's head.
"Are those hundreds of years old?" Oscar asked aloud.
"Hmm, I didn't expect you to know--" Victoria paused. "Right, you're Ozpin's current meat suit, aren't you?"
"Don't call him that!" Ruby said.
"Especially since it's gross," Jaune looked nauseated.
"Fine, human mech," Victoria was apparently determined to be a jerk to Ozpin. "Honestly, you're pretty cute for the b-----d that left this whole mess, it's a shame."
"Mother!" Kip cried.
"Well, maybe old Ozpin recognizes this," Victoria held up one of the books, the script the title was written in was very old looking, but Ozpin could decipher it.
"Ah, I know that, it's a collection of legends about rare grimm," he said. "A friend of mine actually compiled it, a long time ago. They were a bit like Mrs. Kanap here--less on the crazy side though."
"Good to know," Oscar muttered. "He says a friend of his wrote it, about grimm."
"Oh, he does get around," Victoria sat on one of her benches and lit a candle, putting her scroll away. "There's a chapter on Apathy here, but there's a whole section--badly organized, no standard formation was used at the time-- but on what they called grimm of the mind. Ones that aren't strong, but they lure you in. Oh, of course, most of them were just considered myths or legends, but I never discounted it."
"You never let me read that," Kip said.
"Because little boys don't handle priceless manuscripts about demons," Victoria said firmly. "And why is that?"
"They're delicate..." Kip grumbled like a five year old.
"Is there something that could help us?" Jaune just wanted to get back to the others, honestly.
Victoria very carefully put on gloves and then opened the book.
[Granted, that's probably still not the proper protocol for handling old texts, but this is Remnant, I'm surprised they have one at all.]
"Not many people get close and live to tell about it," she remarked. "The Apathy however, can be survived if they don't particularly lock on a target, if you leave quickly. You told me about that foolish farmer, he obviously could resist a certain length of time... that's about all it says. Anyone who got close enough for them to start their caterwauling gave into it unless someone else pulled them out--and that wasn't likely either. Best bet: kill them from a distance."
"None of that helps us," Ruby said.
"No, but if she tries any of these other monsters you might want to know about it, attacking Vacuo with mind grimm has a certain diabolical genius to it," Victoria muttered, turning the page. "We're strong outside, but inside, we're lonely, bitter, angry, just like everyone. Oh we get along all right if you're tough enough, but that doesn't mean we're always happy. Survival tends to keep personal details under the rug for people. Because of that, we're easy targets, no one even noticed the problem till it was too late. But I do have a question: If she could do this all along, why not do it before?"
"I think I might have an idea," Oscar said. "Salem is grimm--but she's also human, sort of. I don't know if she has an aura, but she might, underneath the grimm. I'm wondering if she's even a little nervous about the Apathy. I mean...maybe they don't affect her, but what if they could? They seem to have a long reach. They don't seem quite like other grimm, Emerald told us that other grimm like Salem, they seem to have some emotions, fear, anger, you know, even if they aren't like us. But the Apathy, they really seem to feel nothing, they just are pure destruction. They want the relic, but that's it. They could be harder to control."
"So...she used them because there's no relic," Victoria said.
They startled.
"You thought I wouldn't figure it out?" She scoffed. "I knew you must have taken it if you left, if Vara left."
She frowned. "Not a bad plan...if Salem wasn't stronger. But she is, erego, you're stupid. But with nothing left here, of course, why not just wipe us out. Send a stiff warning to the other kingdom about what she's capable of. And it's a terrible way to die. No courage, no honor, no self sacrifice...just eternal sleep."
"Can you stop saying things like that," Libby said.
"Am I not cheerful enough for you?" Victoria snapped, standing up. "You all left us to rot, didn't you? Sorry if it's gruesome to you."
"This was not our intention," Pyrrha said. "And we're here to stop it. We could use this book, I'm sure. Do you have everything else you need?"
Victoria started putting the other manuscripts into a bag.
"No, but I have all we can get," she said. "All of you better help carry."
"Uh...is any of this evil?" Ruby asked.
"Evil?" Victoria said.
"Used for unethical purposes that we might not agree with," Meridian said. "Like aura zapping. For example."
"Oh...well...some of it, though that's a little narrow minded," Victoria said.
They glared at her.
"What? I need to protect myself. Most of this stuff is for grimm. I've lost the ones I modified, but I bet they're still slithering around here somewhere. If I could catch them, I could use them on the Apathy, they'd never see that coming. And they can't stop those things."
"I hate to admit that that is kind of a good idea," Pyrrha said. "Where might they be?"
"Down here, and they've probably already sniffed us out" Victoria said.
"How do you catch grimm anyway?" Hamish asked.
"I figured out a frequency that imitates the brain waves of humans when they're distressed," Victoria said that really casually. "It draws them like a magnet. They're pretty stupid. The smart ones, usually they seem to know there's something off about it, but I don't use those anyway. Too risky."
"Oh, because I hear using grimm in a sentence, and I immediately thought low risk," Weiss said sarcastically.
"Oh shut up," Victoria said. "If you're done asking stupid questions, I'd like to get going now."
She picked up some device and flipped it on.
"I'm going to need either you or the Maidens for this," she glanced at Pyrrha. "Better move fast."
"Tell me that wasn't the bait thing you just told us about," Jaune said.
"Oh, you're quick," Victoria said. "Do you want to be here or out there when they find us?"
They all ran back to the street, though they felt tired. But Victoria had a way of making apathy almost impossible.
"Hey, what is your semblance?" Meridian asked her.
"Fusion," Victoria replied coolly. "I can make things stick together, comes in handy working on machines--as long as you actually fuse it before it times out. But it saves a lot of time in the assembling and disassembling process. I always finish my work first."
"Does it just work with machines?" Pyrrha said
"No, it works with everything," Victoria said.
That explained the grimm...also gross.
"I feel sorry for you, mate," Hamish said to Kip. "Is that how you got those metal body parts?"
Kip just shrugged.
They all would have slowed way down moving towards the Oasis if Victoria hadn't spurred them on, sometimes by actually zapping them.
Still, it might have been just as well.
Kip tried to help them, but even he was starting to feel tired.
But thankfully, Raven flew over head and came down to make a portal for them--to say that she avoided proximity with Victoria would be an understatement.
But before they all had gone through it, the grimm Victoria had in mind came crawling out of the street behind them, they must have found some exit out of the tunnels.
They passed right by all the dopey people who the Apathy still had a grip on and went right for the more emotional ones--as she had planned.
"What are you doing?" Raven asked, when Pyrrha hung back.
"I don't really like the idea of using grimm," Pyrrha said. "But we can't just leave them loose either."
She strained and metal flew out of the stalls along the street.
Jaune had a bit more aura now.
"Do you want help?" he asked.
"That'd be nice," she gritted her teeth. "This is a lot harder than usual."
"Wow, you have a very strong semblance," Victoria said in a tone Pyrrha didn't like and Raven found triggering.
She made a face and stepped back.
"You could help, woman," Victoria said to her. "Can't you form ice or something?"
The mutated grimm were looming dangerously close to them.
Not many of them left, just a few ursas and one that was like a smaller death stalker. Vacuo had slightly different scorpion grimm than Vale.
[Which actually means it's more venomous, if you remember that fun fact from several chapters ago.]
"I wish that Minotaur one hadn't gotten crushed," Victoria muttered. "That would be useful.."
Pyrrha directed the metal to block the grimm and hem them in.
Raven pursed her lips, but she held up her hand and ice grew around behind them and closed them in.
"By the time they get out of that, we should have some kind of plan," Victoria walked up to the ice. "But just in case."
Aura spread over the ice and metal, and fused them together.
Pyrrha and Jaune gaped.
"What in the...?" Raven sputtered.
"Works pretty well," Victoria said. "They'll be here when we get back."
She flipped her bait device off. "Now let's go, Branwen. You all have a meeting point away from the Apathy, right?"
"You're not coming," Raven said.
"I know you don't like it," Pyrrha said to her in a low voice. "But we might need her help, she had a lot more long range weapons than we do. We won't let her capture you again."
"It's the principle of the thing," Raven said.
"You want to talk about principles?" Jaune said dryly. "We work with you, and you kidnapped Weiss and sabotaged us at Haven. This isn't that different. Not that I'm happy about it, but you of all people can't complain."
"Jaune!" Pyrrha said.
"You had to be thinking the same thing," Jaune protested.
"Yes, but I just...don't know if I would have said it like that," Pyrrha might have normally, but Raven always struck her as bit more sensitive than other people--which showed she was more perceptive than Raven's own family was.
Raven bristled, but she had no real comeback.
"Keep her away from me," she said, making the portal and standing back.
They ran through it.
She resumed bird form and flew over the city.
* * *
Meanwhile, the others had been waiting for their teammates to rejoin them, and the Huntresses had been moving more people to the Oasis. The music stand area wasn't enough for everyone and the Oasis had water.
"What if you poured that special stuff into this?" Robyn asked. "Would it work?"
Shine, who had calmed slightly, but wasn't making eye contact with most of the people there, and had sat on a rock next to the pool, considered the question.
"It's not as good as doing it ourselves," she said. "And the bigger the thing you use it on, the less time it seems to last. I think. It would probably work for a few hours. Maybe less. But if we need to just hit people with something to wake them up, that could be all we need. But Pyrrha has it with her."
The plane flew up overhead finally and landed farther away from the trees.
The rest of the team unloaded.
Winter and Weiss looked expectant as they disembarked.
Glynda wisely left the relics on the plane and formed a wall around it, but the others came to join them.
"Look who we found," Wally was practically dragging Cinder after him.
"You!" Vara stood up.
"Are you all seriously going to say that every single time?" Wally asked.
"Well, so glad you could join us," Shine said, sliding off the rock. "Hungry? Thirsty?"
"Shut up," Cinder snapped.
"You can tell she's in a good mood," Wally said. "She hasn't tried to kill anyone yet."
"Do you really think that's funny?" Tai asked.
"I don't know, man, do you really think your jokes are funny?" Wally replied.
Sun and Neptune both snickered at that.
"Ruby?" Yang came up. "Wow, you guys actually made it."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Oscar said.
"It got close though," Weiss said. "But you're never going to believe who's helping us."
Raven brought the last three right then.
Everyone who knew her stared at Victoria, and even she must have felt embarrassed.
"What?" she said.
"Nothing," Shine said.
"Hey, we have a message from Watts," Emerald walked up to her. "I think he actually sent it a while ago, but reception's always spotty in this area even with the CCT up. He said he needs to get picked up."
"I hope he still needs that," Shine said, more flatly than you'd expect.
"You don't seem quite right," Mercury said.
"I almost got eaten by Apathy," Shine said. "This is good shape considering."
She opened a doorway with more difficulty than usual.
Watts stepped through and he looked like he'd been in some kind of scuffle.
"Took you long enough!" he snapped. "If it were up to you, I'd have been eaten!"
"Don't flatter yourself," Mercury said.
Emerald choked on a laugh and pretended to punch him.
"Sorry, we've been busy trying not to die," Shine called. "What happened to you?"
"What happened? Salem caught on to your plan," Watts said.
"That was always a risk," Shine said. "But I see you survived."
"Only because of a very...peculiar incident," Watts seemed puzzled. "Do you have a pet cougar?"
"Do we what?" Wally said.
"Mountain lion." Shine said.
"I know what it is," Wally said. "But are you serious?"
"Completely," Watts said.
"So, he's not dead yet?" Victoria said. "How astonishing."
"And disappointing," Cinder said.
"Oh...you're back," Watts frowned at her. "Hello. And Victoria? You yet live? I'm not really that surprised."
"Don't start with me," Victoria said. "You betrayed me and left my kingdom a mess."
"Your kingdom?" Theo said. "It's your kingdom now?"
"Well, after you abandoned it, it's certainly not yours," Victoria snapped.
This brought on a chorus of protests from people who wanted to know why Theo hadn't been around to solve their problem and where had he been off to with some floozy? (Apparently what they thought of Vara.)
"Are you going to stop this?" Mercury asked Shine.
She gave him a flat look.
"What did they do to you?" Emerald was kind of freaked out.
"No one is always tough," Shine said.
"Uh, yeah, but people are getting mad and you're supposed to have the ideas," Mercury said.
"Why do you care?" Shine shot back at him.
Emerald winced and walked away.
"Shine's acting weird," she said to Winter. "And these people are getting angry."
"Which is becoming typical of every city we go to," Winter said. "Either we're unusually dislikable or I'm beginning to think our entire world has a problem with blame and anger."
"Leaning towards the second one," Oscar said. "We rushed back here to help them."
Well, he wasn't the only one who thought so.
Robyn climbed up on a rock and yelled at everyone through her hands. "Hey!"
They all stopped.
"This is disgraceful, people!" Robyn said loudly. "This team has been traveling Remnant trying to save our sorry lives for the last week, and dealing with a massive amount of plagues on their end. I won't go into detail, but living sludge and giant grasshoppers were involved, just saying."
People made faces.
"And they rushed back here to bail us out of this mess we got ourselves into by taking down that music stand, which I know even if all of you didn't do, some of you didn't stop." Robyn went on. "So I say we thank your headmaster for coming back to get you out of the hole you dug for yourselves, and all these other people who really have no reason to care about Vacuo anyway, and have a war against grimm going on right now. I for one am eternally grateful for the bail out, or I'd still be sitting in a tent getting the soul sucked out of me by those Apathy. I suggest you all do whatever they need you to do to help. Your families and friends are still caught under their spell, and they don't have much time. Are you with me?"
"Right on!" Meridian called. "You tell them, Thief Lady. We'll beat those blighters yet."
Some people perked up more at his speaking.
"What should we do?" Someone asked.
"I don't know yet, but maybe just wait quietly till someone has instructions," Robyn pointed to the shady areas. "And you could help us bring more people in, if you're bored."
Some people moved to do that.
"Sorry Theo," someone said. "I wasn't thinking."
"Yeah," someone else agreed meekly.
Theo snorted. "Hill, do you want to work for me?"
"Depends, what are the benefits?" Robyn asked.
"There are none except you get to live at Shade," Theo said.
"That's tempting, I'll mull it over," Robyn said.
"Hey," Vara smacked Theo.
"What? She's good, I don't people very well," Theo said.
Robyn climbed down.
"I'm just glad that worked," she said. "These people still seem a little more tame than usual."
She waved at Qrow. "There you are. Hey, jail buddy, did you see the mess this place is in? Makes Atlas look good doesn't it?"
"Maybe," Qrow said skeptically, walking up. "Glad to see you're alive, though, Hill."
"Ah, a little Apathy never got me down," Robyn rubbed her shoulder and winced. "But sitting for a whole day and a half apparently does. I don't think I've slept that much in 5 years. So, how did the mission go?"
She shoved him friendly like.
"Not great," Qrow said. "But I guess we got them."
He eyed the plane. "Did I see Jimmy out here?"
"Hmm? Oh yeah, he's over there," Robyn pointed.
"Oh crap," Qrow said. "Don't tell Glynda."
"Who's Glynda?" Robyn frowned.
Glynda was still standing by the plane and Ironwood had wisely hidden behind a tree.
"Do not make eye contact," Qrow turned Robyn the other way. "She can smell fear."
"Your friends are really weird," Robyn said.
Raven cleared her throat behind them.
Robyn jumped.
"Hill," Raven said.
"Raven," Robyn nodded. "S'up?"
"Nothing much," Raven said. "The usual, saving the world crap. How did you miss the Apathy?"
"Raven," Qrow warned.
"Seriously," Raven said.
"I didn't know what they were," Robyn said, more deflated.
"Oh, leave her alone," Qrow told Raven.
"Fine, but you know you might be making you-know-who a little mad," Raven nodded towards Winter.
Winter had been eyeing them but she looked more depressed than angry.
"Butt out," Qrow told Raven.
"You're the butt," Raven said. "You know that Pietro didn't make it, right?"
"We were told," Qrow said, looking down. "It's...a real shame. Penny didn't really need that...where is she?"
"She went back to Shade, didn't realize that we'd all come back here, I guess," Raven said. "But she's bound to have realized it by now."
"Why didn't someone try to stop her?" Qrow said.
"Shade is a minefield of Apathy, we didn't dare go back," Raven said. "Not alone. They might have tried to call her."
Some of them had.
"The point is, don't you think Schnee might be a little upset?" Raven said. "Why don't you go check on her?"
"She doesn't need me to do that, plenty of people are here, and mind your own business," Qrow said.
"What's going on? Did they fight?" Robyn asked.
"No, he's being stupid," Raven said. "Nothing happened at all, that's my point."
"For the love of day, Qrow, why not?" Robyn said.
"Why are you in on this now?" Qrow siad.
"I was before..." Robyn said. "Remember?"
"Frankly, I think it's concerning for us to actually agree about anything like that," Raven said.
"And you would know?" Qrow said. "Back off, what is your problem all of the sudden? You've never cared about this crap."
"That's not entirely true," Raven said. "But even if it was, you're being a fool."
"Doesn't seem like the time to care about this," Qrow said.
"Well, that's kind of my point--could be too late later," Raven shrugged.
"She's not entirely wrong there," Robyn said. "If we're agreeing, that's gotta be like some meteorite-crash levels of unlikely, that should tell you something."
"I don't know if you two are different enough for it to be that significant," Qrow said. "You both like to meddle in other people's business, break the law when it suits you, and seem to have no filter."
"Oh my gosh, does that mean I really am just like your sister?" Robyn feigned shock. "No that can't be it, I'm way nicer and more trustworthy."
"You know your whole style doesn't strike me as the most trustworthy right off the bat," Raven said. "And at least I'm not a liar."
"I'm not a liar--except when it's to cover for people," Robyn said.
"Oh sure, that's what they all say," Raven said.
"You got a problem with me?" Robyn said. "Do we need to have this out?"
"I don't know, do we?" Raven said.
"Both of you separate," Qrow shoved them apart. "Now! I don't need this. It's ridiculous. Why aren't you focused on the kingdom?"
"Hey, say the word and I'll do whatever it is you need," Robyn said. "But no one's saying anything."
That wasn't entirely true, Victoria was saying something.
She was giving Shine her unsolicited opinion about how to handle the problem, which Shine was listening to, very annoyed looking.
Cinder, who was close because she didn't want to be too near anyone else, was glaring at Victoria murderously.
"So we'd never have to get close," Victoria concluded.
"To even get that far, yes we would," Shine said. She looked tired.
"Shine," Ruby walked over. "Penny hasn't come back yet, we're getting worried. We think maybe the Apathy does affect her after all, just more slowly."
"Who cares about some toy?" Cinder said. "We have the relics, I can't even imagine why you're wasting your time on this kingdom."
"Cinder, did I ask for your opinion?" Shine asked.
"No, but--" Cinder walked right into it.
"Then why did you give it?" Shine interrupted.
"You know you sound like Salem," Cinder shot back.
She had never said anything that succeeded so much in making Shine angry.
Her eyes flashed gold light and Cinder backed up real fast, not liking the change.
"Oh, she's done it now," Watts muttered.
Shine stood up and said in a very different voice. "Do you want to go back to Salem right now?"
"N...no..." Cinder actually sputtered.
"Do you have any complaints about your treatment with us so far?" Shine went on, still dreadfully. "Have we harmed you? Humiliated you? Threatened you unduly?"
"No..." Cinder was speaking very quietly now.
"Then do you have anything meaningful to contribute to this conversation?" Shine asked.
"No," Cinder said without even realizing it was a verbal trick.
Watts choked on a laugh.
"Good," Shine sat back down. "Sorry, Ruby...look, I can't bring Penny here. But if she's there, we'll find her when we go. I 'm still trying to think what to do...but all I can think is what everyone's been doing. Honestly, maybe it's for the best."
"Uh...I know that you're not feeling great," Ruby said hesitantly. "You don't have to come, just tell us what to do, we'll do it. I promise."
"I'll hold you to that," Shine finally sounded a bit more like herself. "And on that point, we'd better just do something rather than nothing. Gather the others over here will you?"
Ruby nodded and ran to round up her team.
"Not to bring down the mood," Watts said, looking at Victoria, "but if you do not retire immediately, Tory, you're going to have a stroke."
"Shut up," Victoria said.
"What do you mean?" Cinder asked, for lack of anything better to do.
"Not that I expect you to understand this," Watts said condescendingly. "But ingesting dust constantly for days in a row is like drinking radiation. Your organs are going to give out from the strain of working overtime. They should have already, but I suppose you have your modifications to make the effects less, but there's a price to pay no matter how controlled you have it. No study has ever shown that dust effects can be completely stopped. You should lie down at once before you fall down."
"I'll rest when the Apathy are gone," Victoria said.
"You'll die when the Apathy are gone," Watts said, with a touch of real concern.
"One always has to pay the piper," Shine said without much emotion. "I feel like normally I'd be horrified by what you just said, but I can't muster the energy to be right now. The creepiest thing about this is I know it's affected me, but I don't feel worried by it. Like the Black Thing in 'A Wrinkle in Time.'"
[Before you say it, no, that's not racist, and it's a great book.]
"Hazel, tell her," Watts appealed to him.
"I agree that it will take its toll," Hazel rubbed his arms. "It depends on her resilience."
"You're not naturally high aura," Watts said to Victoria. "Just the boosting that makes you that way, isn't it? So it's unlikely you'd compensate for it as much as he will. You should listen to me."
"That'll be the day," Victoria rolled her eyes.
The group gathered around after that.
"At this point, I'll do whatever, can we just end this?" Yang rubbed her eyes.
"That's the attitude we like to hear," Wally gave her a thumbs up.
"Pyrrha, can I see your scroll?" Shine asked.
Pyrrha handed it over.
Shine went through the song playlist and then handed it back.
"Take this, get a big speaker, put it outside Shade, and blast the music. Wait for something to change. When it does, Victoria can do her thing with the grimm if she has a mind to, if not, just do what you can. I believe that Apathy may have a weakness to sunlight, they never seem to venture out into the daytime."
"That was in the book," Victoria said. "Not bad. Did you study grimm in the past?"
"No, she's just really smart," Wally patted Shine's shoulder.
"Vara, do you know if Maidens can make the sunlight any stronger?" Shine asked her.
"Funny you should say that," Vara said. "Actually, I think what it really is is drawing the sunlight more to one area...like drawing the light or something? But yeah, it can be hotter where I am."
"Always, baby," Theo said.
"Theo, shut up," Vara said, but she sounded more pleased than annoyed.
"Ugh." Raven made a gagging motion at Qrow, who shrugged.
"Question." Torchwick raised a hand. "What happens after we do this? Will the effects just disappear?"
"Not all at once," Shine said. "But once the Apathy are gone, people should naturally recover. Some first-aid on the worse off ones is still going to be needed. Be ready for that."
This to the Huntresses and Ace Ops.
"So is that the whole plan?" Neptune asked.
"That's about it, yeah," Shine said. "Really it's rather simple. The hard part is wanting to do it." She rubbed her face sleepily.
"Is it just me or is the Apathy starting to affect even this area?" Jaune asked. "Or maybe it was already and it was just less. We should hurry."
"We might still need that water if people are going to need help after this," Robyn said. "Hey, Nikos, come here."
She pulled her toward the pool.
"Oh..." Pyrrha stared at the water. "Well...but...I don't have much left after before..." She held up the vial. It might have had one sip left in it, maybe two tiny ones.
"It could go a long way if you pour it in there," Robyn said. "At least for a few hours, and that's all we'd need. If this works."
If it didn't, Pyrrha thought, they might need the water later.
She glanced toward Vara. What if she needed more help?
The cakes were almost gone too. Pyrrha only had three left after splitting them up in the group before. That wouldn't last them long.
Robyn looked at her expectantly.
Pyrrha glanced at Jaune, Oscar, and Ruby questioningly, as they'd followed her.
Ruby shrugged like, "It's up to you."
"I think we should probably try to help as many people as we can," Jaune said.
"I think we have other options," Oscar said, "but they might not. This might be the only way for them to receive help."
Pyrrha sighed. "Yes, I think you're right."
She took the lid off the bottle and slowly poured it into the oasis pool.
They could have sworn the water shimmered oddly for a moment.
Robyn splashed her face and seemed to wake up more. "Okay then," she said. "Hey, everyone, get as much of this into containers as you can. Move it!"
People rushed to do as she said.
"That was a gutsy thing to do," Emerald commented. She'd seen the whole thing. "I guess that's it for Alicia's gifts, huh?"
"Except for the few cakes we have left, which won't go for more than a day, I think," Pyrrha said. "Then we're on our own. Sort of."
"Well...d---," Emerald said. "And right now, when we're probably going to need the most help we could get... So nothing from Alicia lately, Oscar?"
"No...I think she can't anymore," Oscar said. "Now that the curse has been acting up, I think there's too much blocking her. I have a feeling I'm not going to see any more visions of her again...unless Ozpin himself pulls them up on purpose, and he doesn't like to do that."
Ozpin said nothing, as usual.
"I think she helped us as much as she could," Pyrrha said somberly. "We have our guides. We just need to trust them. We can't keep living in the past." She put a hand on Oscar's shoulder. "It'll be okay. We'll help you instead."
"Thanks Pyrrha," Oscar managed a small smile up at her, though he looked very young right then and nervous.
Jaune sighed.
[You know, this chapter was pretty chill for the violent title, and yet considering the title subject is still actually in the background kind of makes it seem oddly paradoxical to me.]
[Newsboys--"In The Hands of God". Never hear this on the radio anymore.]