Oobleck sighed. “That was somehow both extremely worrying and more hopeful than might have been expected.”

  The God’s words all but directly confirmed that it was very much possible for their wish to come true, and for Salem’s reign of terror on Remnant to come to an end.

  On the other hand, however, he’d been as vague as possible about how exactly that would be accomplished.

  “Bring the Relics together and what happens next may surprise us?” Roman mocked. “What kind of horseshit answer is that? I feel like we just got robbed, and let me tell you, I don’t much appreciate being on this side of crime!”

  Neo nodded along beside him, playing up an annoyed expression.

  Glynda grimaced. “I despise that I’m being forced to agree with Torchwick. It seems as though we were on the verge of a proper answer and this God got annoyed that we didn’t play his game correctly. What childish behavior…”

  Ozpin took a sip of his coffee, looking both a bit defeated and like he’d expected something like this. “It’s to be expected, really. Jinn always was fond of toying with me, crushing what hope I may have had. It’s only fitting that a God would do the same, even if he isn’t one of the childish monsters who are responsible for this whole mess.”

  Qrow stared longingly into his now empty flask, wishing that he carried around a larger one. “Always some rotten luck, eh? At least we got something out of it, though. Collecting the Relics… how hard would that be? This one was sort of a pain, but that was mostly because of all the secrecy involved…”

  Ozpin stopped staring into his mug, looking at Qrow like he had gone mad. “We will be doing no such thing. I’m not about to throw away thousands of years of work to have the gods come and cast their judgement on Remnant.”

  “Cast their–?” Oobleck repeated, “Were you not paying attention? It was very clear that if the Relics are brought together, their original purpose will not be fulfilled. This other God has no reason to go around casting judgement on us like the Brother Gods wished to. Your concern is no longer valid.”

  Ozpin rolled his eyes. “Ah, yes, of course, silly me. I forgot that Gods are trustworthy and definitely rational beings that would never dare to change their minds or interpret and mold events however they please. If the instructions were just about anything else, I might be inclined to believe there was something to it, but encouraging us to follow the exact instructions that for thousands of years would have seen all of humanity destroyed? Instructions that just happen to bring about an entirely different result now, just because of the whim this new God had? There’s no way that he could follow another whim and decide to doom us all for his amusement.”

  “It’s so weird seeing Ozpin act so sassy…” Nora ‘whispered’ in a way that was not at all quiet.

  Ren sighed. “I’m not sure sassy is the word I would use, Nora…”

  The peanut gallery was ignored.

  “What are you suggesting then? That we just do nothing because we didn’t get an answer that satisfied you?” Oobleck interrogated.

  “Not nothing, of course not. It seems you are the one who has not been paying attention, Bartholomew. I have been fighting this war for thousands of years, keeping humanity alive and as thriving as I could manage for all that time. That’s far from nothing.”

  “It’s not exactly winning either, though,” Pyrrha spoke up, bringing all eyes on her. “If this… Salem is immortal and controls the grimm, then just going along with things the way you have been all this time is little more than continuing a war of attrition. And while being able to drag it out for so long is certainly commendable, I don’t see how it ends in anything other than the fall of humanity. No matter how many grimm we kill, more will always come, but if she manages to take out enough of us…”

  Ozpin smiled gently at her. “While your opinion on the matter is appreciated Miss Nikos, I believe you’ll find that I’m quite adept at keeping humanity alive. You can’t even begin to understand how long I’ve lived and died with this curse.”

  Jaune and Second scoffed at the same time. There was an awkward pause, before Second encouraged his human half to speak up. “There’s no reason to act so patronizing. She’s good enough that you wanted her to be the Fall Maiden, but when she actually has her own opinion on something you dismiss it like she’s a child who doesn’t know any better?”

  Ozpin’s smile strained. “Now, now, you very well know that’s not what I meant.”

  “Not what you meant to say, maybe, but I have a hard time believing it’s not what you meant,” Second countered. “That’s always been the way that you go about things, hasn’t it? You bring people to your side, happy to use them so long as they follow your orders, but if they start getting ideas outside of that then suddenly they’re a problem. You limit the information people have so that they can’t question your plans.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Glynda snapped a harsh look at Second. “I’ll hesitantly agree that Mr. Arc has a point, but there’s no need for you to go sewing division like that, Second Thoughts.”

  “Is he wrong, though?” Blake spoke in the semblance’s defense. “It’s not like he’d be the first to do things that way. The White Fang as it stands today seems to be filled with that sort of mindset at the top levels. The people in Kuo Kuana get a very limited view of what the White Fang’s operations are like off the island. People with the same goal in mind, but who disagree with the methodology…”

  She trailed off at that point, but just about everyone present knew that she counted herself in that camp. Knew how things had turned out.

  “Can you blame any of them, though?” Roman shrugged nonchalantly. “Even if you don’t like it, it works. I never told those stupid animals what was going on beyond what I needed them to do in the short term, Cinder did the same to me, and that was working out pretty well until someone who knew things they couldn’t have started interfering. The White Fang doesn’t stand a chance of ever making a real difference, but they sure are good at getting their people to comply, and Ozpin here…”

  It was about that time that he realized just how many nasty looks he was getting from all over the room. Yang was visibly holding her partner back, though she also looked like she was considering just letting go and letting the Faunus attack him for his comments.

  “...fine. Don’t listen to the guy who’s worked with all these groups with an outsider’s perspective. What do I know?”

  Neo patted his arm consolingly, but it was offset by the cruel smile on her face that suggested she enjoyed seeing him squirm.

  Weiss cleared her throat. “Moving past that buffoon’s senseless comments, it seems to me that your opinion is in the minority by quite a large margin, Headmaster Ozpin. You may be the highest ranking person here in multiple senses, but ignoring the wishes of everyone else because of your own fears might be considered… ill advised.”

  “Woah, is the Atlesian trying to stage a mutiny?” Qrow asked, almost excitedly. “Never thought I’d see the day with how far you’ve all go those sticks up your–”

  “Are you on our side or not, you drunkard?!” She snapped.

  Qrow held up his hands in appeasement. “I’m just saying! Guess I’m too used to your sister and ol’ Irondick…”

  Ozpin merely sipped some more of his coffee. “...and what if I do?” He eventually asked. “What if I ignore your thoughts on the matter? Would you all turn against me and my millennia of wisdom, risking the fate of everyone because of something a conniving God told us?”

  “Then we’d have to go against you,” Ruby proclaimed. “Stopping Salem would help so many people… we owe it to them to try.”

  Ozpin raised an eyebrow. “Normally when a huntress goes to face adversity in the defense of innocents, they are merely putting their own life on the line, not the lives of the entire world…”

  Ruby flushed, but Yang put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “Can you really compare it to what’s normal when dealing with a situation like this? I don’t think Gods and magic Relics and curses fall into the duties of your average huntress. Extraordinary times call for desperate plans and all that.”

  Oobleck groaned. “That is not at all how that’s meant to go. But all the same, they very much have a point, Ozpin. This is our chance, is it not? How many times over the years have you all but begged for it all to end? I can’t imagine it’s been anywhere near even an approximation of easy for you, and while this is indeed a major risk, there is a promise of even greater rewards. The greatest individuals in our history banked all they had on odds that are arguably worse than ours.”

  Ozpin rolled his eyes. “Need I remind you that I personally account for many of those ‘great individuals’? I’m well aware of risks needing to be taken, but something like this seems too far.”

  “But can you stop us?”

  Even Jaune was surprised as he realized it was him who had said it.

  “I…” he hesitated, “I don’t want to go against you. That would probably really suck, and I’d really prefer that we were on the same side.” He took a deep breath, steeling himself. “But that doesn’t mean that we won’t if it’s necessary. If we wanted to, you wouldn’t be able to stop us.”

  He couldn’t help but remember something Second had said to him, back when he’d simply been a voice in his head.

  …but that sunlight hits graves.

  “...I don’t want anyone to die. And the way I see it, letting things continue on the way they are will only ensure that Salem and her people will keep coming after us. I don’t want to think about what might happen if the next time they come after one of our family members it’s not someone who’s on the verge of collapse already.” The vision of Cinder killing Pyrrha flashed in his head.

  “That’s very understandable,” Ozpin replied. “I am human too, you know, even if some of you might consider me more of a parasite. The fear, the pain of losing the ones close to us can drive us to do much. But don’t you think that you’re overestimating yourselves a bit if you think you can accomplish all of that while I’m your enemy? I’ve intentionally made it quite hard to gather all of the Relics together in one place, you realize.”

  “Of course we can,” Second dismissed the question easily. “If Cinder can kill you with only part of the Fall Maiden’s power then it’d be easy for Neo to do it with the entire thing. She could probably manage even without if we’re being honest.”

  They ignored the way that the diminutive girl’s smile gained a bit of a sadistic edge at that remark.

  “We’ve got one Relic right here,” Second continued. “Getting our hands on Creation might be a bit of a pain, but I’m sure Ironwood could be convinced to help us out. That Samantha lady showing up in Vacuo makes pulling Destruction from its vault a simple enough task. And since that only leaves Choice…” He trailed off, not bothering to explain, but given what some of them knew it was easy to deduce that it was housed somewhere in Beacon itself. “I think you’ll find that trying to stop us while also adjusting to a new host would prove just about impossible.”

  Ozpin and Second stared each other down, daring the other to blink, to show even a bit of weakness.

  Eventually, Ozpin backed down. “Risking it all on a God… I suppose I’ll simply have to hope that this one is more reasonable.”