Raven and Qrow and Theo came in to get them, and thankfully they thought to bring a makeshift sling, as they thought both of them would have broken bones.
Cinder was all right...sort of, but when she tried to walk she almost collapsed immediately.
Raven took her and pulled her through the portal, scolding her the entire time.
"You had to miss the d--- portal! Make us do all this extra work, and what do I find when I finally made a connection to one of you? You sitting there, holding hands like this is a picnic, and not actually trying to escape!"
"What was I supposed to do?" Cinder was not taking Raven seriously at all.
"Something useful!" Raven said.
The brilliant sunlight flashed in their eyes as the doorway opened into the sunny clearing with the plane in it.
The other team members cheered.
"Cinder!" Emerald ran up in relief and hugged her without getting pushed away.
Cinder was too tired to do or say a lot.
"Yay, it worked!" Ruby said.
"Cinder!" Esmeralda came hurrying over. Cinder realized she wasn't limping.
"Did Oscar...?" she said.
"What? Oh...oh, yeah, he's amazing," Esmeralda said. "I have not felt so good in years... I suspect that it's also because I'm actually outside the hideout...and it's gone! It's all gone!"
She sounded close to hysterics herself, but in the good way.
"She keeps saying that," Yang said. "But it's kind of cute, in a weird way. She's like a puppy...only if a puppy was a grown woman."
"So like Ruby," Weiss said.
"Aw, Weiss, so I'm a puppy?" Ruby hugged her. "And you like dogs."
"Not what I meant..." Weiss said.
[Actually that would explain why Weiss likes Ruby begrudgingly, even if she says she's annoying.]
"My word, Cinder." Roman twirled his cane. "You look dreadful. Did the entire dirt mound fall on you?"
"I think you should look in the mirror," Cinder said.
"Yes...well, those hooligans did soil my coat." Roman was moody about it. "But we gave them what for anyway."
Neo pumped her fist.
"She's terrible," one of the bandits grumbled. "Took the legs right out from under me and then used me to beat myself up."
"The dog was worse," said another.
"All of you, shut up." Joanna was not happy with them.
"Yeah, zip it." Harriet made a fist.
"Zwei! Where is Zwei?" Ruby asked suddenly.
"Last I saw of him and Oobleck, they were shooting fireballs at some Grimm," Sun said, "but I'm sure they're around here somewhere."
Yang whistled.
Zwei shot out of the trees a few seconds later, dragging Oobleck with him.
"Marvelous dog!" Oobleck cried, not much bothered. "We sent those mongrels running! Hello, girls."
"Hi, Doctor," all three members of Team RWBY said calmly.
Jaune was trying to patch Royal up.
"I think we're going to need more medics," he said, breathing hard.
"Don't over-do it," Pyrrha urged him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I think he'll be all right. we just need to get back to Argus."
"I'm already arranging for the cells for the tribe," Winter said. "But we'll have to put the victims in the emergency housing--nowhere else to put them... I suppose now they can all be restored back to their original homes if they wish."
"But there's nothing left." Kate looked up. "Is there?"
"Well...some of the village is still there," Taylor said. "But I didn't really want to go back to that mopey old town anyway. Argus is so much more interesting."
Kate winced. "I'm not sure I want to go back just yet either... I think it would...uh, have too many memories."
"It just occurred to me," Esmeralda said oddly, "I don't have a home..." She seemed awed by the fact.
"You can come with us," Emerald hastened to say. "We owe you big time."
"I can?" Esmeralda said. "To...Argus, right?"
"Yeah. Oh, you'll love it," Mercury said. "Almost no stones or dirt in sight and no Grimm."
"It sounds wonderful," Esmeralda agreed.
Mercury had been being kind of wry but didn't have the heart to say so when she was so enthusiastic.
Everyone climbed onto the planes quickly. The captive bandits muttered their disgruntlement--but really they didn't have any wish to stay either.
"I still intend to mark this area as a hazardous one until we can be sure we got all the Grimm out." Raven was typing something on her scroll. "Not taking any chances."
"Sis, can you stop being in charge for two minutes?" Qrow said. "Aren't you exhausted after that?"
"It's so cute that you're worried about it," Raven said, looking up. "And yes, I am exhausted, but I'm in better shape than you any day."
"I highly doubt that after how much you used your Semblance. Just take a break," Qrow argued.
"I'll take a break when I'm dead, Qrow. I still have business."
"That break is going to come sooner than you think if you overexert yourself. Besides, at your age you can't keep going all day and night anymore," Qrow said.
"At my--we're the same age!" Raven swung at him.
"You always swear you're the older one. I think you're starting to show it." Qrow didn't let up.
"How about I show you!" Raven grabbed his collar.
"Raven, please," Winter said. "This childish defensiveness is not becoming of a commander."
Raven stopped.
Qrow stopped too, realizing that Winter had just used the same line Raven had used on her in a humorous way.
Then they started laughing, almost hysterically, which was odd to hear from two grown adults like them.
"Am I losing my mind?" Yang asked. "They seem chipper."
"Yang, we just stopped the Baba Tribe!" Ruby did a fist pump. "I'm over the newly-healed moon about it!"
"Guys, I just realized something weird," Oscar said, looking up from his scroll. "Today is the anniversary of the day we defeated the gods...a few days before the Deliverance Day festival."
"It is?" Meridian said.
"I completely forgot about that," Weiss said. "We've been in Argus for the last week, so I missed Vacuo's preparations for the festival. Argus is so much calmer about it."
"Normally they would have had a parade or something," Winter said. "But we've all been so focused on the tribe, I think the civilians haven't felt much like getting one together."
"I forgot about it too," Pyrrha said. "But it's a shame if they don't. The kids like the fireworks."
"But doesn't the timing seem auspicious?" Oscar pointed out.
"It's not that unexpected," Cinder said, "considering how everything was coming to a head... It is weird..."
"Five-year anniversary then," Royal said. "Wow...that is a lot to take in when you think about it."
"You all just saved the kingdoms again from power-mad lunatics," Hamish pointed out. "I hope this is not going to be a regular quinquennial occurrence."
"A what now?" Ruby said.
"A quinquennial is a period of 5 years," Oscar supplied.
"Quit right, Mr. Pine," Dr. Oobleck said. "I believe that was in one of the books I assigned this year about history."
"How did Hamish know what it was then?" Weiss asked.
"I read books, Snow," Hamish said. "Got to do something when you and Mer aren't around to entertain the rest of us."
"What do you mean me and Mer?" Weiss frowned.
"Oh, he just means we're invigorating to be around." Meridian put an arm around her shoulder. "But since it is the 5-year anniversary of the big day, we should do something more exciting to celebrate. We should paint the downtown red."
"All of you should come to Vacuo with us," Weiss suddenly said to the others. "I mean, it's where we celebrated the first time, and it is kind of a big deal. I hear they'll be making speeches this year. Theo might even make one."
"That's a good reason to miss it," Mercury said.
"After all that?" Emerald said. "Going to Vacuo? I'm so tired."
"You have a few days to rest first," Ruby said. "I think it's a good idea. I mean, that's really where it all started for real."
"I hate going home," Libby said. "Always start coughing, so, sorry, Love, but count me out. Maybe I should pop over and visit Whitley. Make sure he's not losing control of the company without me around to ward off them sharks."
"I think he'd be glad to see you," Weiss said. "But will the rest of you at least think about it? It'd be nice to have some civilized people to celebrate with instead of just thieves and ruffians."
"I see you're as open minded as ever to Vacuo's culture," Cinder noted.
"I live there," Weiss said.
"Not gonna lie, Weiss, you settling down in Vacuo and me in Argus seems like one of the biggest ironic twists of our lives," Yang said.
"You're telling me." Weiss tossed her ponytail.
Esmeralda walked to the window of the plane. By now they were well over the tops of the trees and nearing the clouds.
She gawked.
Cinder joined her. "I guess this is the first time you've seen this much land?"
Esmeralda nodded.
"This is just a tiny piece of it," Cinder said. "There's an entire world. You could go anywhere you want now."
"I still can't quite believe that," Esmeralda said. "But as much as I do...I'm almost afraid now. Is that odd?"
"No." Cinder made a wry smile to herself. "It's not."
Esmeralda tapped the glass. "I feel like I'm going to wake up from this dream...but I don't want to. I wonder how long that will last."
"In my experience...years," Cinder said.
"Years?"
"To feel like it's not going away." Cinder shrugged. "And some things I still don't really believe."
"I owe all of you forever," Esmeralda said. "Even if it was just one day, I'd still be eternally grateful...but if it is longer than that, I'll do something to repay you for this."
"No need," Cinder said. "You already helped us back there. You didn't have to."
She valued it more because she knew just how hard it was to do what Esmeralda did. Harder even, because she had not done it for revenge, just for the faint hope of escape.
"It helped me also," Esmeralda said.
"You angered Mala on purpose to get her away from Royal," Cinder said, " and the rest of us. That took guts. Whatever she says, you're not useless or weak."
Esmeralda smiled. "Thanks...I mean...I don't know if you're right, but I understand what you're trying to do. You're a very kind person."
Cinder didn't think so. "No, I'm just..." She paused. "Actually there's something I should tell you. All of you."
She turned back to face the group.
Royal was propped on the bench, where they'd tried to steady him, and he gave Cinder a quiet look. "Hey, you don't have to do this."
"I think I do," Cinder said. "Let them be the judge of that."
Actually, she wouldn't tell him this, but his gracious way of looking at it might have given her the courage to tell the rest of them.
"What's this about?" Ruby asked.
Everyone looked at her now.
She was glad most of the bandits were in the other planes (the backup huntsmen had wisely thought it would be more pleasant for the heroes that way), and only Kate and Taylor were on this one, other than the heroes themselves, Hamish, and Esmeralda, and the pilot, who was not listening to them anyway.
Raven was finally sitting down, per Qrow's insistence, but she looked up.
Cinder balled her hands into fists.
"I suppose I'll just put it briefly," she said. "I feel you should all know this: Mala and I had a more complicated history than any of us knew. Maybe some of you remember that, a long time ago, someone taught me to fight. A man named Rhodes."
"Wasn't that the guy you killed in Atlas?" Qrow said.
Winter gasped. "Do you mean that Mala was related to that man?"
"You...put that together really fast." Cinder was startled.
"It's not the first time we've learned something like that," Winter said. "It did strike me suddenly that she looked a little like him."
"How would you know what he looks like?" Cinder said.
"After I heard about you doing that, I looked into his records to see if he had any family," Winter said. "I thought maybe we could help them...but nothing. Except there was one letter--someone had sent it ages ago but he never got it. I suppose it ended up in some mail storage somewhere until Atlas records all got forwarded to Argus... It was just some woman asking if they could meet up at the usual place."
"Was her name Hellena Paris?" Esmeralda suddenly said.
"It might have been. I didn't make note of it at the time," Winter said.
"That was my mother," Esmeralda said. "I'm confused, though. Cinder, you knew Mala's father?"
"I...well, he taught me to fight," Cinder repeated.
"Oh my gosh, you killed her dad?" Mercury blurted out before anyone could stop him.
Emerald shoved him.
"Ouch, I'm still tender, all right?" Mercury rubbed his back. "Oh...uh...I mean...what a crazy coincidence..."
Cinder just glared at him.
"Tactful as always, Mr. Black," Winter said flatly.
"This is crazy," Theo said. "Her dad was your teacher, and he didn't know he had a kid?"
"No, he didn't know," Cinder said. "The tribe kidnapped her mother before she got a chance to tell him. Mala went to find him when she was 18. She found out where he stayed often, somehow, and got there...a few weeks after I left."
Everyone stared at her. Blinking.
"That is crazy," Yang finally said.
"That is so weird," Ruby echoed.
"How horrible," Weiss said. "I mean, for her...not that it's any excuse.."
"Gosh, what did she do after that?" Neptune asked. "Kill everyone in the hotel in a fit of murderous rage?"
"Neptune, that's not funny," Jaune said.
"Oh...sorry, I just thought that was something she'd do," Neptune said sheepishly.
"Did she do that?" Pyrrha asked.
"Of course not, that would have made the news," Cinder said. "She just left. She went back to the tribe and--"
"And killed my father," Esmeralda said, putting it all together, "and all his children, except for me. My father had killed my mother after Mala escaped. I suppose he knew Mother put the idea into her head to go to Atlas...somewhere no bandits would follow her to. I could not believe she came back, but she was so angry. I remember that night. That was when I got this..." She put a hand to one of her scars. Then she closed her eyes. "Mala was like a mad woman. She slew all of them, and mostly they let her because of her Semblance. Gene was older and weak by then, though people were too afraid of him to rebel, but really, he wasn't what he used to be. She killed him easily. It was like she was possessed by rage. She took her knife and slashed me across the face, but then she stopped and said, 'Well, sister, I promised my mother I would not kill you, so your life is not forfeit--but now it belongs to me. You're going to be my slave forever.'"
She slowly opened her eyes. "The look on her face was horrible when she said that. But I never heard what happened to her to make her do it. Now I know."
Cinder had feared the worst when she told this story, and now she thought it had happened. Esmeralda was going to be angry at her.
True, she barely knew this girl, but perhaps they had similar enough life experiences for her to feel pretty guilty anyway, and she also perhaps enjoyed being treated as something other than a liability by someone who wasn't in the main team.
Esmeralda, however, didn't follow up her statement with anything about Cinder. She just seemed surprised.
"What a witch," Hamish said.
"Agreed," Meridian said.
"How did she know you did it though?" Weiss asked Cinder.
"Watts let it slip," Cinder said. "Hey...where is he anyway?"
"I heard one of the others picked him up running through the woods," Raven said. "He wanted to get away, but he won't... I'm pretty sure the council will sentence him to execution after what he did. If he's lucky, it'll be a painless one."
"I almost feel sorry for him," Emerald said. "I feel like in the end he didn't really realize what he was doing. Are you sure he'll be executed?"
"No, but I doubt him helping us under duress will do much to mitigate his sentence," Raven said. "He is going to be punished this time, no doubt about that. But nevermind him. So Mala connected the dots?"
"All she needed to know was if I recognized him," Cinder said. "And obviously I did. She wanted revenge...not just on me, but on anyone else near me, I suppose because she considered what happened as hurting her mother also."
"Isn't that kind of dumb?" Emerald said. "It's not like you had anything to do with the tribe kidnapping her mom or Rhodes not being around for her."
"Sounds like it was just a fling anyway," Mercury said, "if she didn't even call him or tell him she might get knocked up."
"Don't be so crass," Winter said. "And her daughter is right there."
Esmeralda didn't actually care. She was used to hearing far worse.
"I'm just saying you're gonna know if you didn't take any precautions," Mercury said.
Nora looked a little uncomfortable, but then she said, "Maybe she thought she was safe... I'm really sorry for her now."
"I cannot believe that man would kill her just because her daughter ran off," Ren said.
"Mala inherited Gene's temper for betrayal or runaways," Esmeralda noted, bitterly for her. "Mother was always afraid of him...for reasons I'm sure you can understand. I think it was daring for her to even tell Mala about her real father. It is a strange coincidence."
"You seem kind of calm about this." Yang said what Cinder was thinking. "Don't you think it's weird?"
Cinder looked down again.
"It does seem odd," Esmeralda said. "But in the end, it is this very thirst for violence that has brought my very deranged half sister down. I wish I could say I would miss her, but I can't find it in my emotions to feel anything but relieved. I suppose that is strange to you, as you tell me that most siblings have an affection for each other..." She glanced at Kate. "But perhaps I cannot help it."
"I don't blame you," Kate said. "I'm just reeling from finding out that this went back so far. It's like it was planned."
"Maybe it was," Royal said. "Maybe if it had been anyone else, we wouldn't have brought them down."
"I think that's a stretch," Cinder objected. "If it had been anyone else, it would not have happened. Don't sugarcoat it. I partially caused the tribe's crimes. It's possible if I had not killed Rhodes, Mala would have left her life."
"And what?" Winter said. "Gene would have kept the tribe until he died or was killed by someone else who would have done the same things he did."
"Maybe the Grimm wouldn't have been part of it," Cinder argued, though why she was trying to make it worse for herself puzzled everyone who didn't know her that well.
"This is going to sound weird," Oscar said, "but are you sure that would have been better? Granted, maybe they couldn't have done all they did to those people with the Grimm...but someone would have found those Grimm if Mala didn't. There were people who went to the lands to look for traces of them...and they've influenced other people besides the bandits. But it being someone who knew you made it come back to us directly. And maybe some of this could have been stopped, but on the other hand, we can't blame everything on the Grimm. If the tribe went on with it, they would have still been killing people and kidnapping them and...doing other things, but not as openly, and not enough to rally so many people to go stop them."
"You cannot be suggesting that all the suffering needed to happen to stop a greater evil?" Cinder said. "What kind of message is that?"
"Sounds like the one of the Gospels," Royal remarked.
Cinder blinked at him.
"I think they're making a sort of sense," Raven spoke up. "We've seen suffering mixed with victory all throughout our lives, fighting Salem as well as the tribe. It's like when my tribe was destroyed. It seemed needless, but would I have relinquished the magic? Would we have saved the world? I don't know why it is that humans only seem to mobilize when there's enough loss to wake us up. The truth is, we're complacent. We'd like to pretend that we'd do what's right without grave losses, but what else ever convinces us that we're wrong? It's a cycle. Evil is only proven by the damage it does, and only then are people willing to stop evil. I've complained about that most of my life, until I realized that I was just as much that way as anyone else was. Few people are kind and brave without a reason to be."
"In the Bible I'd say that God used the evil people also," Oscar said, "to bring about the demise of other evil people, or of themselves... I don't know, Cinder--what you did to Rhodes wasn't a good thing, but maybe God always knew you would do it, and maybe He set it up already so that eventually, it would lead to stopping the tribe. It could have been anyone she was mad at, but it just happened to be someone who knew us all, who would be able to bring help, who knew how to fight the Grimm."
"Yeah," Emerald said. "Its like...you could have done the bad stuff anyway, and anyone could have been on her bad side, but what are the odds you'd be just the person who could lead us to her and stall for time for that long?"
Cinder gaped at them all.
She noticed Royal laughing at her.
"What is wrong with you?" she snapped at him, since that was safer.
"I was just thinking I told you so," Royal said smugly.
"Oh...shut up!" Cinder turned red.
"I take it you two already discussed this," Winter noted. "I assume, Mr. Zapato, you told her the same as us. That it no longer matters."
"I told her that, but as usual, I wasn't that convincing," Royal said. "I suppose I'm not that charming when I'm injured."
"It wasn't that." Cinder didn't realize how odd that remark sounded, since she was too dazed by everyone else's. "It's that you always say things like that, but I expected everyone else to be a little more realistic."
"You mean you expected us to be hard on you because we usually are," Yang objected.
Cinder didn't deny it.
"I kind of see how you could feel like it was your fault," Ruby said. "I mean, maybe she did hurt people even more because of that, but why didn't she just run away? Don't you think all this is still her choice?"
"Es?" Kate spoke. "What do you think? This affects you the most."
Cinder wished Kate had not asked that upfront...even if she did want to know, but it was so embarrassing.
However, Esmeralda was leaning on her chin thoughtfully.
"To me?" she said. "It doesn't make any difference."
"It doesn't?" Cinder said in surprise, turning to her now.
"No," Esmeralda said. "Truthfully, Cinder, Mala was cruel long before she left. She was cruel as long as I could remember, and even Mother knew it. She always said Mala inherited the nature of Gene from proximity. She said that Mala means necklace. Did you know that?"
"No," Cinder said, confused.
[It does, though it's not why I chose the name.]
"Esmeralda mean emerald," Esmeralda said. "Mother said that I was like a jewel in the mire, and Mala was like a necklace without the jewel. I think she meant that Mala could have tried to be nicer, even though we grew up in a hellish place, but she didn't, and that I had the niceness that she threw away. I forgot her saying that... I assumed I was just weak, but I think now she was trying to tell me something. Maybe she hoped both of us would escape, but she saw that Mala was not going to really ever leave, in her head." She pointed to her temple. "She always had to get back at everyone, for everything. I don't know that she never would have come back, even if she found her father. I think she would have still wanted to come get Mother...and I do not think this Rhodes could have taken down the tribe. And Mother would have died either way... I don't believe that Mala would have been kinder to me, whether we left the tribe or not. I think I likely would have just been abandoned somewhere, with my limp and no fighting skills. I used to wonder if she would do that to me anyway."
She clasped her hands. "So no, it doesn't make any difference. The things that really made her snap were nothing that was in your control, Cinder. Finding her father was mostly just a fleeting hope anyway. The chances were he could have died long ago when she left, and she knew it, as well as our mother did. It's only that you gave her someone to blame for it that made any difference. The rest of us would have been hurt or killed once she found out Mother was gone. I actually think it was for the best. Rhodes sounds like he was a nice enough man. I worry she would have convinced him to try to help her and he would have died anyway. I'm sure she knew that, really."
Cinder stared at her in amazement.
"You have a good head on your shoulders," Meridian told Esmeralda. "That's just what I think too, but I'm amazed you can look at it so clearly when it's so new to you."
"Well," Esmeralda said, "to be perfectly honest, I suspected Mala had some personal reason for disliking Cinder ever since I heard the way she spoke to her."
Cinder blinked at her.
"And I knew she left to look for her father, because Mother told me," Esmeralda said. "And she came back furious. I did not make the connection to Cinder, since she's so young, but now that I know, it all makes sense. I knew it must be something like that. And I know my sister's jealous nature enough to know it would kill her that her father helped another girl, even if he had no idea he had a daughter. She was not rational about things like that. I know that she would have killed Cinder if she had met her, so it was just as well she was too late. I know also that, had she done so, she would have been discovered by her own father, and I do not think he would have brushed it off as easily as my father."
"No," Cinder said oddly. "No, he tried to take me in for doing the same."
"Then in that case, perhaps it was just as well," Esmeralda said, rather calmly, considering. "Mala was so much more twisted than you. I can't imagine it would have been a better fate for him to have met her and suffer at her hands before dying. And if she had killed you then, out of pure jealousy, where would I be? Where would any of us be? To me it's better that you got away. And you certainly have helped me now, and my own sister never did. It would be very strange for me to be angry at you instead of the person who was a monster to me and everyone else she ever met."
She looked a little angry, but not at Cinder. "Some people live only to cause others misery, deliberately. I now know that is not every person. I was told you said you would not leave without me. No one has ever done that for me before. Why would I direct that anger at you, or anyone else?" She shrugged. "Mala didn't like any of you. Does that make it your fault she did things because of it?"
"Not at all," Weiss agreed. "I'm glad you see it that way. I mean, not that it's unusual for you, but that we've met so many people who seem to go out of their way to find a way to blame us and everyone else for their lives, when we had no idea."
"I was once one of those people..." Cinder couldn't take this anymore.
It surprised everyone when she suddenly started crying.
She had been bottling up all this emotion in the last day--and maybe in the last several years, honestly.
"Cinder..." Emerald felt bad for her. "It's okay..." She moved toward her.
Cinder held up her hand. "Don't look at me, it's humiliating."
"I'm not looking at you, if it helps." Mercury was looking at his boots, trying to get dirt out of the tread.
"I've never seen her cry..." Sun was weirded out.
"It doesn't happen so often..." Pyrrha murmured. "But don't stare. It's rude."
"I didn't mean to direct that at you." Weiss felt guilty, as if she'd caused this.
"I'm...sorry," Cinder blurted out, "to all of you...so sorry..."
"What is she sorry for?" Sun was lost.
"I think for everything she did to us," Neptune hissed. "In the past."
"Oh...but that was a long time ago," Sun said.
"Shut up." Yang motioned at them.
"Cinder, really, it's okay." Emerald finally successfully hugged her, carefully. "No one cares anymore."
"I care," Cinder said, surprising herself as well as them. "I still care."
"Well, good," Pyrrha said, startling them all because she spoke so strongly.
They all stared at her.
Pyrrha pointed at Cinder. "You should feel bad!" she said.
"Pyrrha?" Jaune couldn't believe she said that.
Pyrrha looked at Cinder and said firmly, "You did horrible things to Beacon, to Atlas, you killed me, and you mocked everyone's pain."
Cinder was only crying harder the longer she spoke.
Emerald was staring at Pyrrha in horror.
Somehow no one dared to interrupt her though. People still listened when Pyrrha spoke.
"And you used Grimm to take people's magic and their lives," Pyrrha added. "And you helped destroy Raven's tribe."
Cinder winced.
Esmeralda looked puzzled.
"And..." Pyrrha's tone softened, "you turned your back on those things, gave up your magical advantage, and helped confront the gods. You have saved many of our lives and have risked your own in order to bring down a terrible cult. I don't think we live life to balance our choices, Cinder. We just live it, and do the best we can. You good doesn't outweigh your bad or your bad your good. They are separate judgments. Do you remember when the gods asked Jaune to choose between you and me, and he could not do it? That's because no life outweighs another. They are two separate lives. We're not replaceable, and we're not discardable. Even God, who must judge our lives, does not take it lightly. It will never be enough for you to do good to make up for evil. Ozpin and the gods are the ones who thought of it as outweighing one or the other. That's not how it works. Either you are bad, or you are good. There is no balance. There is no mixture. I once believed that everyone has some of both, but what I did not understand then was that that does not mean everyone has allegiance to both. You can only serve one master. I think we all see which one you are serving now. Thus, we are equal and you are not evil. If that is enough for God, it's enough for me...and anyone else here, I hope."
She gestured at them. "But you should feel the weight of what you did so that you can finally see that you've put it behind you. That's a good sign. You've certainly made me feel the weight more of what I did in those days just by doing what you did...and I am still a little miffed at you for that, but I think it might be a good thing. I'll see how I feel after a few days. But even if I just decide to hit you with my shield, it is what it is. We can't change it. So feel bad if you must, but that doesn't mean the rest of us have to censure you. It's up to us what we'll do."
She folded her arms. "I don't really feel sorry for you, honestly."
Cinder raised an eyebrow, and then somehow she started laughing through the crying. "I think that's the first time in years you haven't looked at me without a weird kind of pity."
"What just happened?" Sun was confused.
"Shut up," Yang said again.
"I think this is the first time I haven't felt sorry for you in all that time," Pyrrha shot back. "I think I finally see why the others find you so infuriating, actually."
"And you're just as infuriating," Cinder retorted. "No one is that optimistic all the time."
"I don't think anyone is as pessimistic as you are all the time either," Pyrrha shot back.
"Are you saying we're both faking it?"
"I'm saying both of us have a problem showing both sides of ourselves," Pyrrha said. "But I do admit you have helped me to accept that I have flaws... and I need to address them. It's not a nice lesson, but I had to learn it. Maybe you should take the same lesson from me."
"Don't get pretentious." Cinder straightened.
"For goodness' sake." Winter walked up and handed her a handkerchief--only the Schnees would carry those at a time like this. "Compose yourself. You'll get the other victims all excited again. I hope now that all that has come to light we can stop hearing about it every single time we're on a mission."
"Of course, anything to please you, Schnee," Cinder said sassily.
"All of you age me faster than this job," Raven complained. "Can we stop with dramatic speeches? I really just want to go home and take a bath and a nap."
"This is very strange," Esmeralda commented. "I don't understand."
"I guess it's like this," Oscar said. "All of us have a complicated history with each other, and we've not been sure how to deal with it, and we're still working on it, but we're working on it together. I just think Cinder has finally accepted that she has to do this with us and not on her own. Took a little longer for it to sink in."
"Oh, I see," Esmeralda mused, looking thoughtful.
["Takes a Little Time"--Amy Grant]