No one really believed in their success yet. It wasn't till they'd crossed over the edge of the dragon-shaped lands that they began to think it was real.
And then Nora, who was watching out the side of the plane, suddenly yelled at them to look out the window.
Everyone did so, though Jaune felt a little queasy.
They were well above the land by now, and they could make out its outline.
It no longer looked like a dragon.
The topsoil seemed to have rearranged itself.
The new shape was not anything in particular, though Weiss said it looked a bit like a lion now that it had no reptilian head to it.
"The vision that Jinn showed us said that the gods changed this land to look the way it did," Ruby remembered.
"Of course, when they removed their power, they must have removed it from that land itself and changed it back," Pyrrha said.
"That seems weird to think about," Neptune said.
"But we never met any animals there," Blake recalled. "What else could that be but magic?"
After this, clouds blew in from the coast, and they saw rain and even thunder and lightning falling behind them.
"I don't think it ever rained while we were there," Yang noted.
"It should, with so much ocean around it," Raven said. "I guess that was magic too... huh."
She sat back down and looked at her hands. "Well, this has been quite a day... quite a year, really."
Salem, who'd not spoken to anyone even once, suddenly rushed to the waste bin on the plane and threw up into it.
"Ew..." Yang backed away.
"That was deja vu-ish." Ren looked at Jaune, who gave him a dirty look.
"I am not feeling too great either," Ozma said. He hadn't spoken either. "I had forgotten that I was not used to flying in the air in this form... not in a plane."
"Oh... motion sickness, is that what it is?" Wally said. "Honestly, this is nothing. The transporter is way worse than this at home."
"When you grow up that way..." Shine mused. "But we'll have to land soon, right?"
"This is a swift plane. Maybe another hour should have us in Vacuo," Glynda said. "And then we have the fun of telling everyone a story they won't believe."
"They might believe some of it," Theo said. "At least if they check out the moon."
* * *
In fact, Robyn, once she'd seen the lights flash out of the sky, had rushed to Shade Academy to confer with the other Schnees and Tai and Klein and Penny.
Even Watts--who had never owned up to Ironwood's interfering with him--was there.
But since the gods froze time while all the events around them were going on, it seemed to the people in Vacuo that it was only 10 minutes later that the moon suddenly healed itself, or so they thought, and the lights left again.
People raced to Shade to ask what happened, which of course they didn't know, but they'd heard enough of the story from the others to at least guess it meant the gods.
"And we're still here." Robyn hugged herself. "So they must have succeeded! Whoo hooo!"
"I hope that is what is means and not that they were destroyed and we were left with no answers," Willow said.
"The moon changing seems like a good sign," Libby said. "But I'm not much for signs."
She coughed. Her cough was getting worse the longer she was back in Vacuo.
"I suppose we won't know till there's been enough time for them to return," Whitley said nervously.
"Tea?" Klein had one solution for everything.
But they had nothing else to do, so even Robyn sat down for it, after trying to explain to her Huntresses and the Ace Ops and everyone else that they didn't know anything and would have to wait either hours or days.
Tai said that Raven, if she had survived, could bring them all in seconds... so he was pretty sure she hadn't.
But Robyn wasn't quite so skeptical.
The hours seemed to drag on while they waited, but finally someone outside reported a plane had flown in from the North.
"Well, it has to be them," Robyn said. Her hands were shaking despite her voice sounding calm. "Let's go--and try to look hopeful whatever they tell us."
"Cheerful," Whitley muttered.
But then his scroll rang.
"Hello?" he answered it.
"Finally!" Weiss's voice said. "We only just got our scrolls charged enough to work again. We totally forgot about it for the first half of the flight, would you believe it? And the sun was back too. But we were so used to them being drained--"
"Weiss, stop babbling. What happened?" Whitley said.
"Oh, ask her if they all lived." Libby tapped him.
"We're fine. Look, we'll explain later. We literally were just touching down," Weiss said. "Just... uh... look there may be some unexpected passengers with us... so... can you guys maybe keep the crowds from getting too close?"
"That's asking a lot. They've been on pins and needles for nearly two weeks, which was much longer than we looked for," Whitley said.
"Sorry, we kept getting detoured. At least we're back!" Weiss said. "Just... can you do it?"
"I suppose I could ask." Whitley made a big show of sounding bothered by it. But then he repeated it.
"Well, I can try. Maybe Mai and Fiona can help with that," Robyn said. "But who would they need to hide?"
"You know, I think something feels different than before," Libby remarked suddenly. "Ever since I saw those lights blast off, I got the strangest feeling that something was missing--but I can't say that it was anything I'd really miss. That is contrary, isn't it?"
"I feel just the same, Miss," Klein said. It all tickled Libby to be called Miss.
"Yes, now that you mention it, it did feel strange to watch," Willow said.
"Huh, well, that makes you wonder, doesn't it?" Robyn was tapping out a message on her scroll. "Let's go bring the welcome wagon, people."
They rushed to the landing pad at the edge of Vacuo. The one near Shade rarely got used, and Cinder had no wish to use it and make a bigger show. She knew she'd be recognized here, especially if some people hadn't known she'd left with the team. They would notice if she came off the plane with them.
The Happy Huntresses managed to keep the crowd at least a few hundred yards back from the landing pad so they couldn't get that good of look, except for the huntsmen students who climbed into trees or on roofs with binoculars, but it was doubtful they would recognize most of the criminals on sight.
Everyone disembarked, still looking a bit dazed and like they couldn't believe they were back.
Even Sun and Meridian, who were native to Vacuo, thought it was strange after so much time away--or maybe it was they who'd changed.
Theo was too busy eyeing the crowd to notice that much.
Vara, raring to go now that she didn't feel ill, bounded around other people to get away from the plane.
Ozma had to almost be dragged off by Wally, as he felt extremely self conscious, but of course Salem felt worse.
She began to say she wouldn't get off, but Shine told her the plane would have to be cleaned and refueled for other uses and she couldn't stay on.
But hardly anyone noticed her. They were focused on the people they knew.
"Ruby!" Penny rose over the crowd.
"Vara! Theo!" Kip rose up too--but now the kingdom had gotten used to him flying around with Penny and didn't bother him.
"Kip!" Vara waved, rushing forward, and then she remembered that she couldn't fly, so she waved him down.
He flew down.
"You're well again," he said.
"You knew?" Vara said.
"You look different," he said.
It was true, she already looked much better after just a few hours.
Penny hugged Ruby and then Winter--before Winter was ready for it.
"I knew you guys would make it!" she said. "I knew you would win! What was it like? Did they come? The light was them, right?"
"Yeah, it was really something else," Ruby gasped. "Choking me..."
"Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm just so excited!" Penny jumped up and down. "All of you are here, right...? Wait, where's General Ironwood?"
Silence.
"We'll talk about that inside," Glynda said finally, pushing up her glasses.
A reminder that this victory was not without its sting.
Penny wasn't stupid and knew what the reason was.
"Oh..." she said.
But then she said, "But, still, all of you are safe... Who are they?"
She was looking at Ozma and Salem, who were not standing near each other at all, but she could pick them out anyway.
"Oh..." Ruby wondered how to explain that. "Penny, it's kind of a secret... but... uh, that's kind of Ozma."
"What?" Penny cried, then lowered her voice. "The Ozma?"
"Yes, but shh, we can't tell anyone," Ruby said.
Penny's eyes were huge.
"And who's the lady?" she said.
Lady? What an odd way to refer to her.
"Oh... well... that's... uh..." Ruby sputtered.
Penny couldn't even guess. The idea of Salem returning with them in human form would never have entered her mind.
Salem would have liked to disappear into the crowd and not speak to anyone, but as she had no magic, no Semblance, and no weapon, her odds of surviving in Vacuo of all places were pretty slim, and she had no wish to deal with their rough and wild ways right now.
Still, she didn't want to go to Shade, but that was where they all were being taken.
People did start cheering for them as they walked past.
Robyn came running up the tarmac.
"You all came back!" she said. "I knew it. I told ya to be more optimistic, Qrow."
She hugged him.
Qrow stumbled a little.
"Of course," Raven said.
"Raven, I'm even happy to see you're okay," Robyn said, with a sly smirk at her.
Raven frowned at her, then shrugged it off.
"Group hug?" Robyn suggested.
"No!" Raven backed up.
"Ahem." Winter frowned at Robyn.
"Oh, hi Schnee." Robyn stepped back. "Wow, hey, love your hair down. Finally started to stop dressing so uptight, huh? I guess there weren't a lot of mirrors out there... All of you look absolutely gross, though, no offense. Must have been pretty rough."
"This is good compared to what we looked like before," Qrow said. "Anyway I can pull it off." He managed a sly smirk.
Robyn snorted. "Keep telling yourself that, champ."
"Ruby! Yang!" Tai was standing off to the inside.
"Dad!" They ran for him and did a group hug.
Zwei barked.
"Hello!" Velvet, Coco, Fox, and Yatsuhashi were waving at Sun, Meridian, and Theo.
And at team JNPR and RWBY too.
"Hey, what's up?" Sun went to go high-five them. "We totally won!"
"Duh." Coco looked over her shades. "Who's that homeslice you brought with you?"
She meant Ozma.
"Oh... uh... it's a long story..." Sun said.
"And who's that lovely lady?" Velvet pointed at Salem. "She looks like a doll... Did you find someone living out there?"
"You could say that," Sun said vaguely. "You could say we found a few more people alive out there than we expected."
[That sounds like the "you could say" jokes at the end of Atlantis: The Lost Empire. Underrated film.]
"Hello, Lieutenant!" Marrow waved at Winter.
Elm seemed happy enough to see her, and Harriet was... at least not scowling. She was more gawking.
Hamish was there also in the background.
"Ugh, all this public applause makes me sick," Mercury said.
"I think it's nice that for once a crowd of people is feeling better because of anything we did," Emerald said. "Even if I feel like we don't really deserve the credit."
"Oh, you did plenty," Mercury said.
Robyn was worthy as a troop leader if not as a politician.She knew they'd all be exhausted, and she and Joanna and the other professional huntsmen made sure everyone in the crowd knew that all questions would have to be answered after the heroes had had decent time to recover.
The world was saved. The witch (as most people called her--which was an odd echo of what she'd been known as before she reunited with Ozma) was defeated. [I think the Wizard of Oz reference would have been overkill, but I know some of you thought it.] That was all anyone needed to know for now.
"Why, I don't believe it." Watts was much closer to Shade--he didn't care to risk being seen in public too much. "You actually survived."
He was looking at Cinder.
Cinder, who might have been subdued in front of the heroes, was at least, after all she'd been through, not to be cowed by Watts.
With a fierce look, she raised her new arm and flipped him off.
"Now, is that any way to greet an old--" He suddenly stopped short and stared.
Cinder smirked.
"What happened to the other one?" he said.
"It was holding me back," Cinder said.
"Took you long enough to put that together," Watts said. "And they didn't kill you? I really thought them or Salem would have."
Salem heard that remark and looked up at him like she was caught red-handed--though in fact she had no wish to do this now.
Watts didn't recognize Salem at all of course and only wondered why the strange woman was giving him that look--and then wondered who the strange woman was.
"I say, who is that baggage you picked up?" he asked. "I thought you were going to stop Salem, not pick up passengers."
Cinder was going to say something insulting--and then thought she was too tired and really just too beyond this right now to care about Watts.
"You figure it out, Arthur." She walked away from him.
"Hmm..." He was puzzled. "That was strangely out of character. Uh... Hazel?"
Hazel frowned at him.
"Now, I had no choice." Watts held up his hands.
Hazel frowned deeper. "Just be glad we won and I'm in a good mood."
Watts tugged his collar.
"We will be talking about that later," Winter remarked. "But not now."
They were all glad to be inside Shade finally and out of the hot sun, which only felt hotter after the cooler air by the ocean.
"Of course you all want to rest," Klein said. "I made sure all your rooms were clean, and we'll have some supper made if you like."
"Thanks, Klein. You're the best." Weiss was so tired she wanted to cry.
"You can tell us what happened later." Willow was dying to know but wanted to let them rest.
"And don't worry, I convinced everyone to save the party for the end of the week after you got back," Robyn said.
"What party?" Vara asked.
"Some of the citizens started talking about how to celebrate if you guys actually made it, and next thing we knew the council was in on it," Robyn said. "They've never cared about anything else we did, but I guess Mistral contacted them and kind of pissed them off about how not caring made them seem like idiots. Then next thing you know, Vale was in on it, and even Menagerie was banging on the doors, so to speak, saying this involved them too. Long and short of it, some delegates from all of those places are already going to be on their way here as soon as they hear you returned, and they want to record all of it for their personal archives. This is hot stuff. And of course politicians have to have a party about everything, but the people got into the idea too. I mean, it's been a while since they've had anything to celebrate, and... well, it's strange, but you know the Grimm totally backed off when those lights showed up and then left? Some were at our borders, but they just left."
"Hmm." Winter looked intrigued.
"Anyway, we had to work to get them all to hold it off till later, but they're not going to wait forever," Robyn added. "But think, it's been ages since there's been a real festival around here. Heck, they'll probably denote today as one officially. Like the Vytal Festival but better."
"Maybe they could call it Salvation Day," Pyrrha suggested. "Since we saved the world."
"That's not bad," Robyn said. "Anyway you guys go on and rest... I mean, unless any of you feel up to talking."
"I could talk," Meridian said. "You know me--I'm pumped. Maybe Hamish and I will go for a night on the town and tell our old mates about it. But the rest of you can turn in."
"Eh, count us out of that," Mercury said in disgust. "I'm not getting up for a week at least."
Ruby rubbed her eyes. "Yeah... but thanks, Robyn."
"Yeah, I feel like we're too discombobulated to even think," Weiss said.
"Oh, it's the least I could do. You did the hard part," Robyn waved it off.
* * *
Everybody else was asleep deeply as soon as they turned in, but, of course, Ozma wasn't.
He felt as if his brain hadn't functioned properly since he was pulled out of Oscar's... soul? Body?
Even after hours of thinking, he couldn't sort it out at all.
One might have thought he'd wish to confer with Salem, as the only person who might have understood, but actually that only made it worse to think of. He felt that would heighten his feeling of being confused and stuck and stranded if he saw it reflected in someone else.
Also... on top of other things, he really no longer wanted to be around her. The others might have not known what to make of this new/old Salem, but as he'd known her before she was Grimm and after, and now she'd been both, effectively the Salem he knew was still gone. Even if this new one didn't seem sadistic or cruel.
No, now he just felt, as the book said at one point, "like a stranger in a strange new land."
For, more than anyone else, excepting of course Salem, he could tell the gods were gone.
The cloud that had hung over his entire list of lives was no longer there.
["Maybe"--half alive]
One thing that emerged in his thoughts was that he remembered those lives now as one would remember a vivid dream, a dream you might remember for years and yet you knew had no basis in reality.
Although they had been real, they weren't him... exactly. His part in those lives was always the same, one way or another.
He came to see that must be because of the curse being gone. Alicia had once told Oscar, in a dream (if his memory of Oscar's memories served), that if the curse ended, all those spirits tied to his would be released back into their own and face whatever fate they had brought on themselves, with or without him.
He hoped that at least some of them were at rest now.
As for him, he'd not been Ozma in so long, he no longer knew who he was.
But he thought the person he'd most like to have spoken to now, ironically enough, was Alicia herself.
Oh, he owed her so many apologies, he'd never be able to make them all... but also, he felt that in a way she'd always been able to see the Ozma behind his other forms. Not the way Salem did, clinging to the past in a vice grip so she could hold her grudge for all eternity, but more as one who could step back from a picture's tiny details and see the entire pattern for what it was and still find some meaning behind it.
Maybe it was her vision she had, allowing her to piece things together.
Anyway, who else would have known what to say to him? Even the DJs seemed utterly at a loss for this turn of events. They'd always supposed he'd die... and he should have.
He was pacing in Vacuo's halls when Salem surprised him--not a happy surprise though.
"I thought I would find you like this also," she said, folding her arms.
"I don't want to talk to you," Ozma said.
And, in fact, he had no idea how he would do so.
"I know." Salem frowned.
She looked older than before--not old per sec, but older. Like the curse had added 10 or 15 years to her human life even now that it was gone.
But he felt it too.
"I don't blame you," she said, folding her arms in a pensive way. "I'm not sure I really want to talk to you either... But the irony is not lost on me, for once. All that, and not only did this true God break the curse but He has granted my original request."
"I don't think it was for you," Ozma said.
"Neither do I," she said. "Perhaps it's a sort of peace offering. Or perhaps it is that the curse would have been undone by the gods' power, and they killed you as well as brought you to life. So this is like a do-over."
"Whatever it is, I still don't think it's up to you."
"I know." Salem clenched her hand and looked at it. "And I know that no amount of words will ever be enough to apologize or make amends or even begin to reason after what happened. I'm not going to ask for that. Not forgiveness nor anything else. I think our time was over... ages ago, if we were honest."
She sounded a bit more like herself on that last part. Salem was always one to be a know-it-all even when it had been in a miserable way--now it was more like a wryly resigned kind of way.
Ozma didn't know if he quite liked her reminding him of the past while also sounding different. It just added to how unbalanced he felt.
"Well, on that we can agree," he said flatly.
Salem looked sad. "I... One thing, though. I suppose it doesn't matter anymore, but when I started, I never meant to become what I did... It's like a nightmare now, one that lasted millennia. All the things I did... they seem like someone else did them--and yet it was me also. I don't know how to explain that. Still, it wasn't my intention. If I'd known what would have happened..."
"Somehow, I think it all would have still happened," Ozma said. "You were never one to listen to warnings--and if I were to be perfectly honest, neither was I. That is the only thing we have in common. Reckless to a fault in my case, and I suppose I have been more than punished for it. And so have you. I bear you no ill will, but we are two people who could never be anything but a reminder of that past now. I do not know if this extension of life is going to be ongoing or if it will fade away soon, but either way, it's not a new start for either of us to focus on the past. Perhaps you had better try to forget it as soon as possible."
"I will never forget it," Salem said with grim certainty. "And I don't want to continue on. But do as you please. I no longer care to be involved. However, I suppose I owe you at least some verbal promise not to interfere. Though my word is not worth much."
"I hope it will be worth more now than before," Ozma muttered to himself. "I suppose likewise. Not that there's much fear of that anyway. But where will you go?"
"Once, I would have said wherever I liked because I would not be told what to do," Salem said. "And now I would say it because no one in the world would care except as a liability. I don't know. I won't stay here, whatever I do."
She grimaced. "Well, I'll leave you to your reflections..."
She turned to walk away and then looked back. "What will happen to the woman who went back to her world? Will she be able to return now?"
"I don't think so." Ozma had thought of this also, but it didn't seem like it was going to happen. "I'm afraid the broken trust is not just a matter of the gods' magic. It is also on another level."
"I thought they believed in second chances in this religion," Salem said.
"I think some choices are still irrevocable, even if there is mercy," Ozma said. "Words cannot be unsaid. I wish words were not so powerful in their faith."
"Words bind us all," Salem said, rather sagely for her. "But they unbind us too... I suppose. Perhaps you should ask them if anything can be done."
"I'm surprised you're saying that," Ozma said.
"Out of jealousy, you mean?" Salem said.
"Jealousy..." Ozma said.
"Oh, please, Ozma, I may have been cursed, but I'm not so blind as that," Salem said. "It was written all over your expression while they showed us the past. The boy has a very expressive face. We seek comfort in strangers often enough. I remember that also. Maybe we are alike in another way: Someone came to save you from your prison and you turned on them also... but perhaps fate would be kinder to you. I don't know."
"The cycle really does continue." Ozma hadn't thought of it that way before.
"1000 years." Salem walked away, murmuring to herself. "To think, 1000 years... If I knew then what I know now... but no... What difference would it have made?"
Well, that last was not to Ozma, but it might as well have been.
He was thinking the same thing. What difference would it have made?
Perhaps Shine's notion that things happen when they are meant to was correct after all. He didn't know why it had taken so long for things to be finished. He saw no purpose in the suffering.
Yet, if it had been sooner, would the gods have been dealt with so entirely? Perhaps it would have just been him who was helped. Or even if Salem had been then too, what of the rest of the world?
Maybe things had worked out...
And if that was a punishment to him in a way, did he not deserve it? Why should he not be confused and lost now? Didn't he deserve that also?
And yet he had no idea what to do about it just with that realization.
* * *
It was the afternoon of the next day when most of the team even dragged themselves out of bed to eat or wash.
The students of Shade actually made a continental breakfast for them, in honor of their headmaster being back.
Winter said seeing the affection they had for their crazy professor almost made her raise her esteem of him.
Most of the non-Vacutians were still sluggish even after coffee, but Vara seemed as buzzed as a bee after nectar. She was getting to know all the students again after her long absence. Of course, none of the newer ones remembered her, but some of the graduates who stopped by to congratulate Theo in his victory did remember Vara teaching at one point.
Of course, being from Shade, they asked her to show them if she still remembered how to fight.
After she threw them around and knocked them out a few times with deadly precision, they said she should come back as a teacher.
Vara was anxious to do this, as she was sick of not having a job but said she'd been hitting the gym first to get back in shape.
"Any better shape and she'll be able to kill any of us with a needle," Raven muttered.
"I could already do that," Vara sassed her. "Anyway, why are you sadsacks all looking so glum? You should be over the moon-that's-newly-reformed about winning."
"I'm really happy," Ruby assured her. "I think I have the lag though. Give me a few days."
"I think I'll be okay." Yang flexed. "Now that I've had a decent night's sleep that wasn't on rocky ground. Hey, we're like celebrities out there right now. Think we'd get perks if we hit up any clubs?"
"Yang," Tai said, "you know what the clubs here are like."
"Uh, yeah, we've already been to them. I think we can handle it," Yang said.
"We just saved the world from gods and you're worried about clubs?" Qrow said. "Let the kids have some fun, Tai."
"And are you going to go with them to supervise?" Tai said. "Fighting monsters isn't the same as having common sense, you know."
Qrow shrugged.
"I don't think he'll be doing that," Winter said.
Tai gave her a strange look.
But this seemed to settle Qrow's mind that he wouldn't, in fact, be doing that.
"I still feel like the air is different," Emerald said, getting up and going to the window of the dining room and peering out, though that let hot air in. "Somehow, it's like it's cleaner. Am I the only one who feels like that?"
"No, I feel it too," Weiss said.
They all agreed.
"I guess we're going to have to get used to things being different," Sun said. "I guess the world won't have too many more problems now, will it?"
Shine raised her eyes to give him a look of pained amusement, but then she looked down and sipped her coffee.
"What was that?" Wally asked her.
"Nevermind, now isn't the time to burst his bubble," she said in a low voice.
"Would you like to celebrate with us?" Pyrrha asked them. "We owe both of you so much... We can't even begin to express it."
"Don't even begin to tell us you're not going to come to the ceremony either," Raven said. "If I have to show up, you do."
"You know how we feel about fame in a strange world," Shine said.
"I'm afraid you can't escape it," Winter said. "Everyone knows you went with us. Surely, it will be all right as long as they don't know that much about you."
"I suppose," Shine said. "And of course I want to see you all get rewarded--you earned it. And yet I do have other things on my mind."
"What?" Ren asked warily.
"Is there more?" Nora echoed.
"I'm still worried about Salem and Ozma," Shine's said. "I don't think they're doing well with this transition at all."
The group gave her dubious looks.
"Well, I did notice they were out of it," Weiss said. "But they always are... kind of weird... uh... and Salem is... well... Salem, so..."
"Or she's not... now," Blake said, cocking her ears.
"Just to be clear, we're sure she's not evil?" Sun said, with an uncertain look.
"She's not evil," Shine said. "But she seems very lost, and I can't blame her. I think they may still need some attention from us. I guess our work isn't even done."
"Couldn't it be a little done?" Wally said. "I want to enjoy the moment."
"Oh, it's fine to kick back for a bit," Shine said, "if you want, but you know, I'm not that good with parties anyway, and attention, and I like helping people. I'd almost be more at ease, if anything, if I still had something to do. The party isn't till the end of the week per Robyn's most thoughtful request. You guys should rest. It's only right."
She got up. "But I have business still... Anyway, I'm a little worried that she might do something desperate. I don't know that I believe that she's completely balanced just because she's no longer cursed. Human nature is still fragile, dealing with all this can't be easy."
"Should we feel sorry for her?" Mercury said. "She's getting off lightly."
"Do you think so?" Shine looked at him oddly. "I think many would say a quick death, if it led to a better place, would have been far more painless for her than the things she must be remembering now. You all wanted her to suffer? You will have your wish now. I told you, everyone gets what they want, but they don't always like it. God serves justice--but He also shows mercy. I think that makes His justice harder and easier to bear at the same time. It's so very detailed, but so very fitting to us."
She left the room.
"I guess she's not going to change just because we won," Pyrrha said. "I'm glad. I would feel strange if she stopped teaching us all of the sudden. Maybe she's right. I feel sorry for Salem now."
"Is it bad if I don't?" Neptune asked.
"I think it's normal for you guys to have mixed feelings," Wally said. "Shine and I were never as close to this as you are. Just try not to make it worse. Salem's going to have to figure out why she was given life instead of death when the curse broke, and I don't have a clue myself, well, other than that I think maybe it's more deep than we think. I guess Shine would also say that we never know just exactly what is best for someone."
"In the meantime," Sun said, "if you guys want to chill today, I know some great spots to just hang out, and this will be the first time no one is trying to hunt us down for something."
"Yeah, that sounds good." Blake smiled faintly.