[AMV "Stressed Out" by Scarlet Ammo.]

https://youtu.be/ZbyS5-K0uqI

Jaune had done some thinking after the discussion about the Relics, about what he really believed they should do.

While he'd been convinced of who he was supposed to be serving since Underland, he'd assumed he just needed to keep doing what they'd been doing--now he wasn't so sure.

Pyrrha seemed so sure--until Vara had shaken her up, but she seemed to have rallied a little.

However, she was fooling no one, as was proved by what she told Jaune happened right after the meeting had adjourned.

"Winter pulled me aside and asked me if I was the one Vara chose," she said, somberly. "Qrow joined us--he seemed to have the same idea, but from the way Winter acted, I don't think they planned it, they just...knew."

"Please tell me they didn't put pressure on you," Jaune said. He was not entirely over Qrow doing that before.

"Oh, no, it was very different than I expected..." Pyrrha reflected.

* * *

"And is she prepared for your refusal?" Winter had demanded to know.

"You already are sure I would refuse?" Pyrrha was surprised.

Qrow had gotten a little miffed. "All that work to get out of it, and you'd think twice about refusing? Are you crazy?"

Winter had given him a look of pure disbelief.

"What?" he said.

"Nothing," Winter said, looking away. "That was not what I expected to hear, is all."

"Me neither, I confess," Pyrrha said. "Mr. Branwen, you thought before--"

"D--- what I thought before. Clearly I don't have this figured out." Qrow got more vehement than expected. "Don't throw your life away twice, kid. Enough of that has gone around. You wanted out--take your chance."

Pyrrha was moved that he was so sure.

"I want to," she said quietly, "but she doesn't want to let me. It's...horrible, but..."

She quickly told them what Vara threatened--each time she said it, it sounded worse to her than before.

Winter turned pale.

"She wouldn't go that far." Qrow was stunned. "Really... No...wait, I could see it."

"How abominable." Winter was mad. "She can't make you do that--this should be a choice, if nothing else, if it can be. And to do herself injury like that--she's just giving up?"

"It's been very hard for her, from what I've gathered," Pyrrha said.

"No excuse," both adults said in unison--and they exchanged a look like they were stunned they were agreeing.

"Does Raven know about this?" Winter changed her tone.

"Not yet. I'm a little afraid if I told her this she'd feel either angry or guilty," Pyrrha said. "I mean...since it was the failure of that plan, I suppose that has pushed Vara to give up. But who relies on kidnapping and forcing someone to give up their powers as a plan? It's just mad to do that."

"Theo can't know about her last recourse," Qrow reasoned. "No way he'd be so calm if he did."

"What could he do about it?" Winter said.

"Sometimes people have sway over each other. Maybe he could talk her out of it," Qrow said.

"That would postpone the problem, not solve it," Winter said. "I hate to say it, but I see her point. If she cannot guard the powers, she should pass them on, but not to you, Miss Nikos. You've suffered enough."

"Not nearly as much as you have." Pyrrha meant that, and you could tell. "But I do not want to suffer this way again, for other reasons than just my own safety--you must believe that. I have...a debt to repay. Even if it was a free gift, that does not mean I should treat it cheaply, this life I've been given back. Falling into the same mistakes as before, that's not right."

"If you can't help it, though..." Qrow didn't like where this was going.

"I can help it," Pyrrha said. "The problem is who else will be in line if not me."

She let that hang for a moment.

"We should talk to her," Winter finally decided. "It mostly involves us, not you children."

"We're not mere children now," Pyrrha told her firmly. "I know you wish to spare us, but we're...going to be involved whether you like or not. Even Shine and Wally know that, and they have taken more care to ease up on us younger members than you have. But Shine did not sugarcoat this for me, and I'm glad of that. Some things we do not just get to choose either. You may feel this is unfair to me--and I did too--but I have also come to see it as an opportunity."

"Why?" Qrow was baffled.

"It's like Oscar," Pyrrha said, bravely, "a chance to end the cycle of death and stealing lives. Perhaps now is our time."

Winter, who, as a Maiden, had to have her own thoughts about this, got an odd look.

"That is...the most blindly optimistic mush I've ever heard." Qrow was incredulous. "And pretty crazy. You really think that you can stop this?"

"I do think that I can try," Pyrrha said. "Perhaps my destiny was not to become a Maiden--but it might be that being tied up in it was, after all, something that was supposed to happen. After all...I did persuade Winter not to take Fria's life--at least I helped."

"I would say you were a large part of my hesitancy..." Winter admitted.

"And Vara sought me out," Pyrrha said. "I felt like it was a curse at first, but, what if I was put into this position just so I could finally end it? Because to have such a unique story as I do, being resurrected, I have had more weight with people who would doubt that we can change anything about this. I haven't told Vara the full truth--maybe if I did, she would reconsider. I could at least try."

She put her hands to her chest. "I have to try. Enough death has happened over this magic...but I admit...it would be helpful to me if the other Maidens would agree with me. If we ever are to stop this, all of us should be trying."

Qrow glanced at Winter, then at Pyrrha.

Winter pursed her lips.

"I'd like to think, Miss Nikos, that if we win, these powers will no longer be needed," she said. "But until that point, we cannot afford to lose an advantage... I would support Vara transferring them, if she could do it without dying or making someone else die, but I can't go further than that."

"I'll take it," Pyrrha sighed. "We'll work on it... I didn't think this before, but, after Jaune and I spoke, and I gave it some more thought, I realized maybe I was being a little close-minded. Maybe it's not the end, just...unfinished business."

"Yeah, you know, both of you sound alike," Qrow said. "But I don't know if it's going to work out like that, and you should be prepared for it not being that simple. We don't get that many wins period, kid, let alone clean ones."

"I appreciate your concern, Qrow," Pyrrha said firmly. "But you have admitted you don't have the answers--this is as close to them as I have gotten. I think I must follow it. What you will do, that is up to you."

She sounded just like Shine.

Qrow thought it was odd.

Pyrrha then nodded and left.

She didn't know what transpired after she did, but Winter had stood up straighter.

"Well, she certainly seems confident," she'd said, in an air of some relief. "I had thought this might discourage her."

"This is so unfair." Qrow was not appeased. "Leave the kid alone after all this time."

"You don't think highly of her aspiration?" Winter said.

"It's great sounding, but I don't know if I think she can do it," Qrow said. "Overconfidence in ourselves is what got us into this mess."

"Still, no faith at all that anything will ever work out will not get us out of it," Winter countered. "All the same...Vara has disappointed me. I had hoped, after she warned us, she was going to be an ally, even if she was a closet one."

"What happened to Theo and her to get her to this point?" Qrow wondered.

"Isolation does strange things to people." Winter could only think of her mother and Whitley... Something just went a little off in people if they were alone for too long. She and Weiss had gotten out because they couldn't stand it--but what if you couldn't get out? What then?

"Huh," Qrow said oddly. "That's odd."

"What is?"

"Just reminded me of something about Oz and that witch's history," Qrow said. "Way off when it started, she was locked in some tower her whole life. It was weird--her father locked her up or something."

How familiar, Winter thought.

"She seemed a little nutty even then, pre-Grimm," Qrow said. "I mean, who throws a temper tantrum at the gods? But yeah, going a little kooky after being alone your whole life, I could see it. Then getting punished by being alone again. You know, if it wasn't for the endless death in her wake, I'd almost feel sorry for her."

"For her?" Winter said. "Don't let pity run away with you, Qrow. She is a monster."

But Shine had said she pitied Salem also... Who could feel pity for someone--no, something--like that?

"I said almost," Qrow said. "I can't just forget what she did to Summer, to everyone. But it's like...it never would have happened if the gods hadn't stuck her with that stupid curse in the first place, so it's their fault too."

"You sound like Shine now," Winter said. "Is it wise to encourage such sentiment?"

"Who knows? Are they coming back to get offended?" Qrow said bitterly. "What good did they ever do us? They left us with her, here. They knew what would happen...or they didn't care."

"If Salem was to learn the meaning of life and death, all this could be over even with the gods," Winter mused. "I admit, I'm not even sure what that means. Life and Death, who knows the meaning of both? Even one would be hard enough."

"I wonder if even the god really knew." Qrow was getting dangerously close to Shine's view of it without realizing it... But really...if they had known, why did they send Ozpin back the way they did?

* * *

"I was glad that they didn't want to make me do it," Pyrrha told Jaune.

"I'm surprised." Jaune couldn't believe Qrow had actually learned something...but he was glad he had.

"I'm sure they were never unkind," Pyrrha said, "just scared...but not so much as to do this again. Perhaps, Jaune, some things have changed already."

"Not enough, Pyrrha." Jaune suddenly seemed upset. "Come on...I think we both know the others are still going to use the Relics. I don't even know if I should want them not to...but that ultimatum didn't seem good."

"It's not an ultimatum," Pyrrha said. "They told us why they had to do it--they don't want to abandon us, but they cannot live a lie. Raven was right. And the others accepted it at least."

"But not forever," Jaune said. "If we get desperate enough--don't you worry about what we'd be willing to do?"

He sounded scared. "I mean, even I've almost..."

"Almost what, Jaune?" Pyrrha said, putting her hand on his.

"To be honest...Pyrrha, I did want to get revenge," Jaune said. "I saw a dark side of myself, at Haven--but I think it was before that too... Cinder was so...smug... She's so...evil and twisted. I just lost control. You know about Oscar already...but the thing is, I wonder if that's still in there, somewhere, wanting to protect people so bad that it becomes something I'd do anything to do...like Salem."

"You're not like Salem," Pyrrha said firmly.

"But maybe once she wasn't that different than us," Jaune said. "Before. That's the worst of it...just like in that book, with the first man and woman... They make one mistake that any one of us could make, but that's all it takes. The Relics...forbidden fruit, all that, it seems the same to me. Things we cannot do, but we end up doing."

"But it wasn't the end, even for them," Pyrrha said. "We don't know it's the end, for us, even if we make mistakes. And even if you did, you could come back from it, I'm sure of it, because I know you, and I know you're not like that, deep down."

"Now," Jaune said.

"Ever," Pyrrha said. "Come on, you don't have a malicious bone in your body, Jaune. Remember Cardin? You didn't want revenge on him. He left you alone after that, remember? We know a better way to handle this. Where is this doubt coming from?"

"I don't want to disappoint God," Jaune said, "not now... I mean, we got this far because of His help. I wish I understood the stories better, though. Doesn't it feel like He's really far away, even if He's supposed to be close?"

Pyrrha looked thoughtful. "Sometimes, yes," she said. "Sometimes, it seems no different than before. But I think, you know, the sun is far away from us, and I can't always see it, but it's still there. Even if I can't feel it, it's the reason we can live. And maybe it's like that, like something you can't always be aware of, but you know, it's always working, always helping you even if you don't feel any warmth from it. And Faith, it's not always about what we feel or what we know for a fact, but it's about who we are. Without our faith in what's right, we are nothing. I don't think of it as I would disappoint someone if I gave up...but that I wouldn't be me anymore. All that I am, it is because of what I believe in. This now, just as much as before I knew about it...because in a way, I always believed it."

She laughed oddly. "I just didn't know it. But forgiveness, redemption, courage, all of those are things that we strive for, and who knew there was a name and person to put it to? But why not? That's what I think is so much better about this Lord and our teachers. Before we just had ideals, but now we have examples of what we're trying to be like."

"I think I had an example already of what to be like." Jaune glanced at her.

Pyrrha turned red. "Jaune..." She was embarrassed.

"I know, I know, I don't mean it like that," Jaune said. "I mean...just like that, trying to do the right thing, not wavering about it, that kind of thing. Is it weird if I say that I kind of think that this God might have done it that way on purpose? Maybe you were supposed to be here. Just at the right time for us. I know that sounds way cheesy, but, thinking about how it all played out, it makes sense."

"I couldn't possibly take credit for that."

"I don't mean we never did anything, but who put the idea out there?" Jaune said. "I'm sure, anyway, I see a lot of things you have in common with the DJs."

"I'll take that as high praise. But I think you have things in common more. I mean, for all their boldness, they aren't stuck up. I think they just want to help other people. That's more like you than it is like me."

"Do you listen to yourself?" Jaune said.

"Ugh, kill me." Emerald walked in. "You two sound like lovesick puppies. Can you not do this in our room?"

"We were just talking," Pyrrha said with warmth.

"Just make out already," Emerald rolled her eyes. "I don't know why you don't just get together."

Jaune was embarrassed, but Pyrrha was used to Emerald by now.

"We did," she said archly.

"What?" Emerald paused. She was picking up some of her stuff.

"We did, yesterday," Pyrrha said.

"Wait, really?" Emerald said.

"Yes," Pyrrha said.

"Wow...finally," Emerald said. "So not more of this crap denial stuff?"

"What are you talking about?" Jaune said.

"Still, do you have to be all lovey dovey in here?" Emerald said. "I sleep in here, you know."

"Again, we were just talking," Pyrrha said.

"Fine, but if you start making out, please go somewhere else." Emerald took her stuff and left the room.

"That was weird," Jaune said. "How did she know...?"

"Apparently...everyone else already did," Pyrrha said sheepishly. "Didn't they tell you?"

"Oh yeah, but I worried it was just me," Jaune said. "Maybe we did wait too long."

"It's fine. I think it was sweet to try to make sure it was the right time," Pyrrha said. "Although...really, what has actually changed?"

"We did kiss," Jaune said.

Pyrrha turned red again.

"And hold hands..." Jaune said.

[The horror! The indecency!... I kid. You can't get much more pure than Arkos.]

"Stop," Pyrrha mumbled.

"I feel kind of bad though," Jaune said, a bit more upbeat. "I kind of had to skip all the parts of winning you over, like, the guitar and poems--and pick up lines."

"I'll learn to live with it." Pyrrha could still be kind of savage.

"But you deserve all the best tricks in the book," Jaune protested. 

Pyrrha smiled. "Jaune, we don't have the most safe lives--I really don't care about all that stuff. I'm just happy we finally talked about it."

"You could be a little more selfish," Jaune said. "Just, you know, to give me something to do."

"I could say the same for you," Pyrrha said. "Why be old fashioned? I could do all those things too--but I have no idea how. Flirting was never my forte."

"I don't think you need to flirt," Jaune said. "Just be yourself."

"How do you know myself would never be flirty?" Pyrrha said in what was almost a coy tone.

Jaune wouldn't have thought that would work on him--but it kind of did.

He felt kind of flustered. "Uh, like I said, you're fine already."

"I think that put you out a little," Pyrrha misread it.

"No, no, it's not that. It's just that if you try that, you know, it's going to be really easy to make an idiot out of myself again," Jaune said.

"I don't mind," Pyrrha said.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune cried.

Pyrrha already had more game than him, and she was even newer at this than he was...mostly because it's pretty easy to torment a guy who already likes you. [So I'm told anyway.]

She laughed and kissed him on the cheek playfully.

Shine walked in right then.

"Oh no," she said.

"Oh..." Jaune looked up.

"Look, kids--" Shine crossed her arms. "I am delighted that you finally got together. Over the moon. But for your sakes as well as ours, this is not going to be going on in our rooms. Keep it PG, all right? We don't need more complications at a time like this."

"Oh, Miss Likstar, we're not...not at all like that." Pyrrha was beet red. "It was just a harmless thing."

"And I believe your intentions, but no one is going to hold up if they get put into that kind of position." Shine clapped her hands. "Out, Jaune. You don't get to be in the girls room anyway without more than one of us in here. You kids want to make out? Go find somewhere decent to do it."

"Shine!" Jaune couldn't believe she just said that.

"We were just talking about that," Pyrrha said, apologetically. "Sorry, we're just new to this and it's kind of still...you know, really nice to just finally be able to talk about it."

"Pyrrha, believe me, I went through this a few months ago," Shine said, bluntly. "I'm still getting used to dating, and that's why I'm telling you to take it slow--do yourselves a favor. And respect our privacy please. You're not in trouble, but, I'm just saying, this isn't going on in here."

"No, you're right, and I'm sorry." Jaune felt bad. "We should have just talked somewhere else. It was different at Beacon."

"I still don't like that," Shine said. "Ozpin and his shipping..." She muttered the last to herself. 

Jaune left, but Pyrrha decided to stay behind and apologize further, but Shine told her not to worry about it.

"Not the best time to start a relationship anyway," Pyrrha admitted. "But I just... We couldn't..."

"You couldn't keep dancing around it," Shine said. "No, it's better that way...but it gets harder to think clearly, I admit, once you've come out and admitted it. I'd feel better if you guys at least ran it past us if you were planning to hang out alone or something... You're still vulnerable."

"No...no, that's true," Pyrrha said. "But about that, on a more serious note...Vara has not replied to my messages. She did say it might take a while, but...if she doesn't...what then?"

"She would only not reply if she's been captured or killed already or lost her scroll," Shine said. "If it's the last one, she'll no doubt try to find you again. The other two...we'll find out soon enough. Don't obsess over it for now. Actually, I have something to ask. Oscar apparently had some visions. I actually need to ask Jaune about it also, but was there anything else Alicia gave you?"

"Gave us...?" Pyrrha had almost forgotten the box and bottle that Alicia had presented them with. "Oh...why, yes. How could we have let that slip our minds?"

"It's so easy to do it. Going between worlds, memory always is a little tricky." Shine rubbed her own head. "I'm not sure I could tell you my own address now. Only things we have a love for, or that are in the abstract, really stay clear in our heads when we travel worlds."

"Oh?" Pyrrha said. "You know, while we were in Underland, my memory did seem hazy."

"It's to prevent overload of information. It would drive us mad to hold all the information of two worlds at the same time," Shine said. "It fades like the dream of a dream, until you go back, and then it's like you never left, and this world would fade, but the connections we make remain. But if you were to ask me, at home, how to get from Vacuo to Vale, I doubt I could tell you even after flying there. That information is not really meaningful."

"Plenty of people here couldn't tell you that," Pyrrha said. "But as for the gifts, I think Jaune has them."

Jaune did.

When Wally and Oscar asked him about it, he pulled them out of one of his bags and said he'd forgotten them also.

"They make you stronger, it sounds like," Wally said. "This makes your problem shrink, and the other makes your strength grow?"

"Yeah, it was a little odd," Jaune said

Shine held one up.

"I think it's like a physical version of the gift of grace," she said. "Just as my sword is of the Sword of the Spirit. And her staff of the rod and staff of the Lord's protection. This form will make them more accessible even to those who don't understand what they are...very useful...but something we should be careful about using up unless we need to. If she mentioned it, I take it, we might need them soon."

"And my Semblance?" Oscar said. "I still haven't unlocked it, but she said I would soon. Do you guys have any idea how I could do that?"

"My take on it is that Ren is probably right about it," Shine said. "They are connected to people's personalities somehow. I mean, Jaune's is a no-brainer."

"I agree," Pyrrha smiled.

"Yeah, it make sense," Oscar said.

"How?" Jaune asked.

"Dude, you're always helping other people," Wally said, "building them up. Of course your Semblance is doing the same thing...but there's more to it, right?"

"I'm not sure," Jaune said.

"You might want to think about that," Shine said. "You're not just here to support other people, Jaune. Sometimes you have to step it up yourself too. Who knows what you're capable of? In fact, Pyrrha, that goes for you too. You've honed your Semblance to do precision, but you've never really worked on making its capacity more, have you?"

"The way I used it would not have pushed its limits," Pyrrha said. "But I have been thinking about that. I always thought it was too showy to do that, but against Grimm...or Cinder, I should not make that mistake again."

"Maybe the three of you should train together," Shine said. "Jaune could give you some breathing room to work on your reach, and you could probably help him with fine tuning his Aura. Oscar, the more you get used to generating your Aura, the closer it will be to sustaining  a Semblance, right? Even if we aren't sure how it will be unlocked, you'll want to be able to maintain it when it is. Do I understand it correctly?"

"Actually yes," Oscar said. "You picked up this stuff fast."

"Well, I do my research," Shine said casually.

"Could we get any stronger, do you think?" Wally asked her.

"I'm not sure if we could," Shine said. "But given how we've been acclimating to this world, seeing if our power maxes out without our Aura is concerning to me. I haven't noticed mine doing it, but mine are not as physical as yours."

"Yeah, I know about that." Wally looked at his hand, his Aura shimmering into view. "It's still weird to do this. If it does make me weaker, I'd hate to find that out in battle."

"But on the other hand, you can probably enhance your hits if you generate it on purpose," Shine said. "Like Elm does."

"Maybe," Wally mused.

* * *

"Nice save, Blake," Ruby told her. "That plan totally kept us from breaking up."

"Yeah, it was good." Sun had heard the whole thing from them.

"I just didn't want them to go." Blake rubbed her arm and looked shy. "Weird as it is, I've gotten used to them being around."

Yang rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you didn't really want them to go either," Weiss called her bluff. "You seemed upset."

"Yeah, it would have been lame if they ditched us after all that crap about helping us," Yang said. "That does not mean I like them still."

"I don't see why you don't like them," Sun said.

"You've heard how they talk to me?" Yang asked.

Weiss thought Yang had mostly brought that on herself but wisely didn't say so.

"Ah, well," Sun changed the subject, "are you guys up to doing anything more fun?"

"Fun? After that?" Blake said.

"I know, I know, the Maiden is a thing, but until she contacts you, you can't do anything anyway, right?" Sun said. "So why don't we just hang? Who knows when we'll get another chance?"

"Dude, I'm down." Neptune hadn't been listening up till he heard the words "just hang". "We could go paint the town red."

"Red?" Ruby said oddly. "What does that mean?"

"No idea," Sun said.

[Allegedly it's from some story of some drunk Marquess painting a town's walls red--either that or it means doing such riotous activities that you paint the town with blood. Opinions vary on it.]

"I don't know if I really feel like going out," Blake said.

"Oh, come on, please," Sun begged. "We need to stop moping around all the time."

"Have you met me?" Blake said.

"And change is good, right?" Sun said. "Come on, there's still lots more night life in Vacuo we could show you. Yang, back me up here. You're the party girl, right?"

Yang looked at him like he'd asked her if she was over 25.

"I mean...if you want to, go on," she said.

"What?" Neptune said. "That seems out of character."

"Yeah, are you okay?" Weiss asked Yang.

"I just got kidnapped. What do you think?" Yang asked.

"Oh...right, we can't go out," Ruby said.

"But we'll stay together," Sun said. "Nothing will happen."

Blake didn't want to make Yang go out if she was still nervous.

But Yang, on the other hand, didn't like to show fear and didn't want them to think something was wrong.

"Look, it's fine," she lied. "If you want to go, I'll tag along. I just meant we should stick together and not go anywhere out of sight."

"Are you sure?" Weiss said. "Come to think of it, Winter probably won't even let me out."

"Don't freaking ask her. She's not your mom," Yang said.

"My mother won't either," Weiss said. "And Winter is kind of in charge."

"Aw, but if we're all in a big group, we're following the rule," Ruby said. "So it's okay. We should invite Ren and Nora. The more of us, the safer it is."

"Our track record hasn't been great..." Blake said.

"But you have us this time," Sun said, grabbing Neptune and striking a heroic pose.

"Yay," Yang said sardonically.

[Lol...this will end well, right?]

* * *

Somewhere in Vacuo, Vara was checking her scroll.

"Ergh..." she said. "Stop calling me, Theo... Ah...Nikos." She opened the message. "That didn't take very long, did it? I guess we'll see if she's changed her mind."

The wind picked up, blowing through some palm trees nearby.

* * *

And in yet another part of the kingdom, where the train came in, Cinder Fall, disguised as well as possible, stepped off of it and looked snidely around at Vacuo.

"It's about time," she said.