“Well now I feel bad about enjoying some time with my family…” Pyrrha lamented as the teams walked through the halls of Beacon once more, making their way to Ozpin’s office where they’d been summoned. It seemed as if her break was largely uneventful beyond an instance or two of getting recognized by fans while out with her parents.
“Well don’t!” Nora demanded. “It was actually pretty nice outside of the whole attempted kidnapping and murder thing! Jaune’s family is actually super nice once you get past the whole thing where they think you stole him from them. I feel like I learned a lot!”
“Nora, first of all that’s insensitive,” Ren reprimanded.
“It’s fine,” Jaune interrupted.
Rolling his eyes, Ren continued, “and secondly, I’m not sure that extracting embarrassing stories from his family counts as ‘learning a lot’.”
Despite Ren’s attitude, it really was fine. Jaune would much rather that Nora make light of it than allow him to dwell on the what-ifs forever. Better to stay positive and save thoughts of payback and revenge for when it wasn’t all so fresh.
Second didn’t look like he agreed if his expression was any indication, but he didn’t mention that, instead turning to team RWBY. “So how was your break? In my head you girls are the troublemakers so I can’t imagine nothing happened.”
Yang narrowed her eyes. “We don’t need to talk about it.”
That drew concerned looks from the five who hadn’t been present.
“...you know, that makes it feel like we really need to talk about it. You didn’t run into Hazel or Tyrian or something, did you?” Second hesitantly asked.
Weiss huffed. “Yang is just upset that her teammates gladly accepted the hospitality of her father.”
Ruby glared at her partner. “Is that what you’re calling it?”
Blake gave her team leader a sly look. “Would you rather we call it something else? We only–”
“Nope! Nope nope nope, no more!” Ruby clapped her hands over her ears, trying to block out the sound. “I’m going to have a hard enough time forgetting as it is, I don’t need more reminders!”
JNPR shared another concerned look, but Second looked a little grossed out. “I don’t get it. He’s not even the good looking guy on that team, Qrow is. I’ll never understand how Taiyang managed to get with both of your moms. I get that there’s the whole sibling thing which automatically excludes Raven, but I swear Qrow’s semblance must have screwed him out of ending up with Summer or something.”
Yang was somewhere between the verge of tears and punching something. “So my team wants my dad and you want my uncle?! What is wrong with you people?!”
“Wha– No! That’s not what I said at all!” Second defended. “I’m just pointing out that–”
Nora slapped a hand over Second’s mouth, grinning. “What’s wrong, Yang? Worried that Qrow will wake up with a hangover in bed with a whole lot of blue next to him?”
Jaune grimaced. “Can you not say that when he looks like me?”
“Lalalalala I’m not listening!” Ruby yelled, failing to block it all out.
The discussion grew louder and louder, until there was a sudden smack of a crop on flesh, bringing them to a sudden silence.
Professor Goodwitch was standing before them in the halls, obviously wishing she were anywhere else. “For the sake of my sanity, everyone present is going to forget that this conversation ever happened, and you are going to stop having such… asinine discussions and follow me. If they’re kept waiting any longer then Q–” she paused, frowning, “certain individuals are liable to get drunk.”
Jaune doubted he was the only one who kind of wanted to curl up and die in that moment.
Ozpin quietly noted the odd mood present when Glynda returned with the students.
He promptly decided he wanted nothing to do with it, hoping that it would go away if he ignored it. That tended to work with most of his paperwork, why shouldn’t it work here?
Torchwick leaned against a column to his right, doing his best to look in control while he inspected the other occupants of the room. Neo stood beside the man with an ever present smirk on her face, though her eyes did not quite match it.
Qrow leaned against a column to his left, looking torn between very much needing a drink to get through this and wanting to ration what he had left. Bart stood behind him, hastily flipping through notes from their meeting, no doubt double, triple, perhaps even quadruple checking their work.
He took a sip of his coffee as Glynda joined him at his side, idly wondering what this must be like for the students. While everyone in this room was ostensibly “on the same side”, they’d been split into factions for a long time now. It stung that Qrow stood with Bartholemew rather than himself, but he would get over it eventually.
“Greeting students, Second Thoughts,” he nodded to the younger generation. “I apologize for the abrupt meeting before classes have even started again, but we decided it was prudent to have you present for this.” Seeing the questions on their faces, he did away with his usual drawn out pauses. Now wasn’t the time for theatrics. “To catch everyone up to speed, Cinder Fall was captured during the cleanup of the Vacuo Breach and upon her transfer here has been relieved of the Maiden’s power that she had stolen along with her aura. She is no longer a threat. Mercury Black is dead. Emerald Sustrai is now in custody, which I thank you for. Most recently, Arthur Watts has been sighted in Atlas, which is why General Ironwood and company are not present.”
A variety of emotions played over their faces.
“I suppose that explains Emerald’s demeanor…” Ren commented.
“Still can’t believe that psycho went after a kid like that,” Roman’s tone wasn’t quite disgust, perhaps more along the lines of finding it distasteful. “Didn’t seem the type, but I guess that just goes to show you never really know someone until they’re backed into a corner.”
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
The rest of the room gave him disbelieving looks.
“What?!” He floundered. “Gentleman thief! Gentleman! Really, you all think so lowly of me for no reason!”
Glynda cleared her throat. “Getting back to the point…”
Ozpin nodded. “Thank you, Glynda. What I’m getting at here is that our foes keep popping up in unexpected places,” he did not vocalize how it made Second’s knowledge increasingly more useless, “and I think it’s best if we take a proactive approach. If you would, Bart?”
As his employee worked to open the safe they’d been storing the Relic of Knowledge in, Ozpin thought over their logic himself, looking for anything out of place. This was the moment of truth, after all.
While knowing more about the God that had brought Second to their world would no doubt be in some way useful at some point in the future, asking about them didn’t make much sense at the present moment. For all they knew, the God could have abandoned their world just as the Brothers did, having only taken a passing fancy in them. If that were the case, then asking questions related to them would only be a waste when there were pressing issues to attend to.
Instead, they’d decided to focus on Salem. While her followers were a thorn in their sides, they were still only human. It was quite possible that those who remained, Tyrian, Hazel, and Watts assuming their information was good, would go on to kill people. But that was just the nature of the world. None of them could possibly compare to Cinder with even the partial power of the Maidens, and yet she’d been subdued.
Salem herself… well, being forced to look back at things through a question within a question had been eye opening. He’d always viewed Salem as his problem. She was a problem for humanity in general, of course, but what could mere humans do against an immortal? He was the ‘wizened old wizard’ who had been tasked with stopping her. That framing had blinded him to potential possibilities.
Right here, right now… though it was tinged with the loss of Amber, the betrayal of Lionheart, the Breach of Vacuo, this moment in his many eons felt oddly hopeful.
He almost felt himself smiling as Bart pulled out the lamp.
Second gave them an odd look. “You seriously agreed on a question?”
Qrow groaned. “Spent days agonizing over it more like…”
Most everyone in the room had grown tense upon its reveal. They had all been present at the asking of the last question after all. They knew what was to come.
Bart had always been a practical man. He didn’t look for reassurances or second guessing. He simply held the Relic of Knowledge up, and spoke her name.
“Jinn.”
Ozpin noted the way that passing birds froze in midair as the name rang out through his office. The weight that pressed down on him, a hint of what the Brother Gods had subjected him to, a memory of what normal life had been like oh so long ago.
The lamp emitted its blue smoke, quickly coalescing into Jinn’s provocative form. She did a little spin, giving them all a knowing yet curious look.
“Asking again so soon? That’s unlike you, old man.” She giggled, as if his many years of suffering were but a joke. “You all know who I am, so I suppose we can skip the pleasantries, can we not? There is one question remaining in this era. Tell me, what knowledge do you seek?”
Bart hesitated for but a single moment. “Tell us, Jinn.” She turned her attention to him. “By what method is it possible for Salem’s actions against humanity to be ended permanently without summoning the Brother Gods of Light and Dark?”
The world went white.
“Oh?” Jinn’s tone was teasing. “So many questions and yet you choose that one? It’s oh so familiar as well, truly you surprise me….”
Ozpin sighed. Through his countless questions, he had indeed asked many variations of a question like this. How he could kill Salem. How he could stop her. How he could cure her. How he could protect humanity. How he could end her suffering. How could he do it without having the Gods judge their world and destroy it. Question after question after question, and none of them had given answers that were satisfactory.
“Honestly, asking me something as simple as that is rather boring, isn’t it? At face value it doesn’t seem very curious at all.”
His chest tightened. Would she deny him once more? Make him endure through yet another era for the opportunity to be disappointed once again?
“However… you have come seeking knowledge, and I must answer all the same.”
Blue smoke rolled through, but the white world around him remained the same. Before him, the Relics floated in the air.
Or, no. Not the Relics. Shadows, mimicries of them. Like when the God of Light had first made his offer.
“If brought together, these four Relics will summon my Brother and I back to your world and humanity will be judged.” She did not show the God, but his voice was heard regardless.
Ozpin’s fists clenched. “You’ve already shown this to us. There’s no point in mocking me further.”
Jinn giggled. “This was the promise made by the God of Light. Each of these Relics was infused with their power, and tempered by the limits imposed on them.”
The Relic of Knowledge suddenly took on its rightful color, moving forward, closer to Ozpin.
“The limitation on the Relic that houses me deems that no knowledge of the future may be granted. It follows, then, that as the world changes, so may the answers to various questions.”
Of course. He knew that much already. He’d sought and lost various things countless times over his many lifetimes, and Jinn would always tell him current locations of the objects or Relics he was after. It only made sense.
“This is not because the future is something that must be hidden, as calling it a limitation on a gift from the Gods might imply, but simply an outcome unavoidable in a world where the future is not set in stone. The Gods hardly expected for their equals to come and barter with them after all, having been unaware of their existence.”
“If brought together, these four Relics–” The line repeated, but the voice was different this time. “--will summon the God or Gods presiding over them back to your world, and–”
There was a pause.
“Now, now, Jinn,” the voice chided. “I realize you’re the spirit of Knowledge, but isn’t peeping like this a bit rude?”
Something was wrong. Was… was this voice not part of her answer? That didn’t make sense, but for something like that to be said–
“Truly, the children of Gods are troublesome regardless of the world they inhabit.”
Ozpin got the sense that he was being watched. Inspected.
“This is not the story I had expected, but… very well.” There was a laugh.
“They say that the best stories practically write themselves, so I can hardly argue with this.”
Was this… Second’s God? Interfering with the answer?
“It would be boring to just hand over what you want right now, wouldn’t it? I’ll cut you a deal, just like I did those Brothers.”
“To stop Salem in the way that you wish… bring the Relics together. What happens next may surprise you.”
The world of white vanished in an instant, replaced by Ozpin’s office once more.
The silence that followed was broken by Qrow’s sigh. “I’m really not drunk enough for this.”
I knew how I wanted the answer to the final question to play out since before I started writing this story but honestly I spent way too long trying to figure out the question that would lead to it.
As always, feedback is appreciated. (If you’re actually looking for a response, discord is the place to be)
