The first thing they noticed about Mistral was it was 30 degrees cooler than Vacuo.

"Geez." Wally rubbed his arms. "How did it change so much in, like, 6 hours?"

"Their airships are much faster than our ships, or this world is smaller than mine." Shine was shivering also. "I should have put on a coat on the plane--I think I still have my Atlas one."

"It's not that bad." Nora never minded temperature change that much. "I lived on the street when I was a kid. I'm just glad to have a jacket."

"You too?" Emerald said.

"Me too what?" Nora said.

"On the streets," Emerald said.

"Huh...oh...oh, right. Hey, samesies," Nora realized. "Wow, I didn't realize we had so much in common. Did you ever have to eat moldy bread?"

"Uh...yeah," Emerald said. "Doesn't everyone do that?"

"Uh...no..." Weiss looked nauseated.

"We don't even eat stale bread," Whitley said.

"You might have to let that go," Libby remarked, "if we can't afford new food all the time."

"The checkpoint," Willow reminded her.

"I've got this." Emerald held up her hand.

With a little hallucination, she had Libby through the security without a second glance...and herself and Mercury, for that matter.

"Well, that was easier than I thought," Whitley said.

"Great Gatsby, if I'd known you had her, I wouldn't have stowed away," Libby said. "Use our skills, boy."

"You shouldn't talk to your CEO that way," Whitley said.

"If you were old enough to shave, maybe that would work on me," Libby shot back.

Qrow was finding this pretty funny to listen to.

"I hope he's not serious about her being his associate," Willow said to Klein. "I can't believe this girl knows anything about business... It would be better to have his father's old associates back, but they seem hesitant to sign the new document."

"I'm sure once Jacques' plea bargain goes through, they'll have no choice," Klein commented. Then in another personality, "Or else!"

Winter was listening to them closely and shook her head.

"Well, your mother and your butler sure seem familiar," Raven said.

"Please don't," Winter said.

"So you can see it," Raven said. "I thought you were blind to things like that."

"Miss Branwen, keep your morbid speculation to yourself," Winter warned.

"Oh brother." Raven rolled her eyes.

"Look out for people with the spider tattoo," Theo was warning Vara and the others near him. "They're spies for Miss Malachite, the person who knows who everyone is in Mistral. She won't bother you unless she's paid for it, but then she'll bother you a lot, let's just say. Don't attract anyone's attention here."

"Great to know we're already being watched," Vara said. She was shivering badly. "I'm freezing... Was it always this cold in Mistral?"

"Poncho?" Theo pulled a folded up one out of his belt.

"Just how...?" Neptune saw.

"No one knows..." Sun said mysteriously.

"It's been a long time since I've been to the capital." Pyrrha was looking around. "Seems a bit different than before."

"All right, give the girl some space." Torchwick was waving off people from Neo. The crowd here was kind of tight.

"Blake!" someone called.

Kali and Gira were waiting over outside the checkpoint area, waving.

"Oh, gosh," Blake said. "I'm so embarrassed--"

"At least they don't have a sign," Yang said.

Blake ran over to them.

"Thank goodness you arrived safely," Kali said. "We heard there were Grimm spotted by the patrols."

"We had a bit of a run in, but it wasn't serious," Blake said.

"Oh, sure," Qrow muttered.

"Where are you guys staying?" Blake asked her parents.

"The same place you were," Kali said. "It was easier to keep renting that than to find an inn... There's more of you than I expected."

"And you're here too." Gira was frowning at Sun.

"Yes...sir...?" Sun smiled nervously and waved.

"You weren't kidding," Neptune said.

"Who is that?" Gira frowned at him.

"That's Sun's partner," Blake said. "And the rest of his team is back there somewhere... They wanted to help."

"Are you telling me we're stuck in the same house as before?" Nora said.

[Just when you were sure we escaped it, right?]

"I remember that house," Shine said. "It's much nicer than Shade Academy. I think we upgraded. But if you want to sleep outside, go ahead."

"I liked that house," Ruby said. "At least we know where it is. Come on."

"Can we all fit?" Weiss wondered, tugging her suitcase along--she'd replaced it in Vacuo... No one else had bothered; they just packed whatever they could in their knapsacks.

Those of the group who hadn't seen the house before weren't expecting it to be as huge as it was.

"Dang it, Qrow," Wally said. "How did you afford this?"

"Well, Oz always has a few places lined up for us that we can get cheap," Qrow explained.

"This is where you were staying?" Emerald said. "It's like a palace!"

"Nah," Ruby said, "but it does have a dojo, if we want to train... I wonder if Haven would let us use their training room."

"It's not open again," Qrow reminded her. "I don't think we'll be using it. I didn't even want to stay there because it's the first place Salem's goons will look."

"All one of them," Shine said dryly.

"One is enough," Qrow said.

"Well, some of you need to get back to resting," Shine moved on briskly. "And the rest of us need to get settled and then figure out the rest of this."

"Can we just do what we came for and leave?" Raven said grumpily.

"Why are we here?" Cinder asked, to no one in particular. "I thought you wanted the Fall Relic."

"There were a lot of refugees sent here." Ruby had a cover, luckily. "So we're checking in."

Cinder frowned. "What a waste of time."

"It pays to keep in touch with your allies, Cinder, which you might know if you were interested in winning," Shine said dryly, to Watts' amusement.

Cinder gave Shine a look of loathing.

Shine ignored her as usual.

Ruby opened the door. "I guess..." She looked at Cinder weirdly. "...everyone can just...figure it out. I suppose some people might have to use the living room. I don't know how to decide that."

"Girls get the rooms," Wally said.

"Why?" Ren asked.

"Uh...because chivalry?" Wally said.

"What are you talking about?" Neptune asked.

"Do they not have that here?" Wally asked.

"It makes sense at least to separate the boys and girls," Shine muttered.

"I don't even care," Blake sighed, sinking onto a chair. "I'm just so tired, I'd take a table at this point."

"Well, we did set up for your team already," Kali said. "And your other team...Jupiter?"

"JNPR," Jaune said.

"Right...but there's plenty of space for everyone, I'm sure," Kali mused.

"Is Illea around?" Blake asked.

"She's on a mission outside the capital," Gira said. "But she'll be back in a few days."

"I don't know if we have that long," Blake mused.

"We need to talk about that," Shine hissed at Wally, "before Cinder figures out why we're here."

"I'll round up the team leaders, I guess," Wally said.

* * *

While the others were setting up, Winter, Raven, Ruby, Jaune, Qrow, and Oscar were gathered in the dojo with Shine and Wally to discuss.

"We have to act fast, or they're going to catch on," Shine explained. "My idea was to leave most of the kids here while a select few of us go to Beacon and get the Fall Relic. I intend to separate Cinder from everyone she might target, so the Maidens will stay here. As will Ruby. We won't need them; the Grimm are much less in Vale now. Wally and I will go (I think we're a match for Cinder), and I thought Hazel and Watts--Hazel for security, and Watts so Cinder doesn't get suspicious...and to have him nowhere near Vara and the Summer Relic."

"Reasonable enough," Winter said. "But I had wanted to visit Glynda and confer with her again."

"If you do come, you can't go to the Vault with us," Shine said. "Perhaps just a plane ride is all right, but at no time do I want you with Cinder alone. I don't know that she could beat you in a fair fight right now, but she'd not fight fair. I really recommend that you stay, though. You need to recover. We can't have you and Raven both not using your powers right."

Raven frowned. "How long is this going to last?"

"I don't know. I don't know much about Victoria's inventions," Shine said. "We need to work on fixing it, but our help here may be limited. It's magic, after all."

"I don't know if I like the idea of you going without us along with two of Salem's freaks," Qrow said.

"You don't want the kids near Cinder," Shine reminded him. "And you're not going, not if we have to leave this soon."

"And we can't wait," Raven said. "The longer we wait, the worse it looks."

"But..." Oscar said, "Oz still doesn't want Cinder finding the Vault."

"So you still haven't changed your mind?" Shine asked.

"I resent the insinuation that I would agree with you if I just thought about it more." Ozpin took control for a moment, because Oscar didn't want to translate all this. "It's a bad idea. And the Relics are my responsibility. You don't just get to veto it, Miss Likstar."

"You said that before," Qrow recalled, "that it's your burden to bear. How did that work out?"

"With all due respect, Qrow, it's gone much worse since that change." Ozpin could not have gone forever without venting some frustration about this, and Qrow had just set him off. "I regret hiding from you all about it, but I think I was very much proven right about the rest of it. Throwing that information around, and the Relic, only led to more trouble."

"You can't play that card, Oz," Shine said. "When Neo took it from Oscar, if you'd taken over, you could have stopped her. Granted, I don't support that, but it was as much your fault as his."

"Even so, Miss Likstar, they didn't want my interference," Ozpin said. "But what good has it done us to have it? Getting out one more for Salem to take--I'm not doing it."

"Ozpin," Shine said, firmly, "what good is your plan doing in the long run? It's damage control."

"With all due respect--" Ozpin didn't sound like he thought that was much. "--your plan is nothing else either. You have not shared how you intend to stop Salem."

"So now I have to do it?" Shine said. "I thought it was your responsibility."

Oooh...that stung.

Ozpin looked angry enough to be speechless.

"All right, let's not start a fight." Winter sat up straighter. "It's all of our responsibility... You two have chosen to join us. We have been following your lead, but even I have to almost agree with Ozpin. Without knowing exactly why you want to take the Fall Relic out, it's a lot to give up."

"I gave my reasons," Shine said.

"But they aren't your only reasons." Raven put a hand on her hip. "I know better than that by now. You always have a plan and backup plan. You never do anything for one reason. Sure, it might spare Beacon, but it could sink us also and Beacon with us. You can't just play tag with Salem forever. I tried that. We know how it ended. And the person responsible for it is sitting in our living room, planning to take the Relic as soon as she opens the door. Either we kill her then, or she wins."

"Surely those are not the only options," Shine said.

"Why do you even want to spare her life?" Raven said. "It makes no sense."

"I'm getting real tired of saying this," Shine said, "but we don't kill. Get it through your head."

That last line was a little more rude than she was usually, and it startled them.

"I understand your principles," Winter said carefully. "I won't ask you to compromise them--we owe you that amount of respect. But what about us? It's not against ours, and she's a public menace."

"If you are following our lead, you have to follow our lead," Shine said. "If you want to do this alone, fine...but then I can't share my ideas with you. I refuse to be treated like a convenience. You do not have your cake and eat it too. You all have this habit, if you haven't noticed, of using people only for what you want. That is not going to fly with us."

"Isn't that a little unfair?" Ozpin said. "We saved you in Vacuo, didn't we?"

"Yeah, because we provide a service for you," Wally said. "I'm with Shine--I don't like how you guys are only trying to get us to change our morals. Like yours are working so well. You keep killing each other, and Salem keeps winning. She's not gonna stop if you kill Cinder--it's literally pointless. It would only make you feel better. Just get the dang Relic out and we'll hide it somewhere else or something. It's not that complicated. It's just until we have a better plan."

"And when do you intend to have that?" Qrow asked. "Because about now would be good."

"Sometimes you have to take a step of faith, and then you know what's right, remember?" Shine said. "I'm asking you to do something that is right, regardless of whether or not it benefits you. Vale does not need to pay for Ozpin's hiding his little death prizes in it. It's not fair to them when they don't know what they're doing. It was wrong to begin with. And foolish. It's like a giant flag to Salem where to find each one, hiding it under those schools...and they aren't guarding it. It's a magical Vault that can only be opened by a Maiden--why would it matter if there were huntsmen around it or not? All you need to do is keep the Maiden away from Salem...and you didn't even do that properly. Why was Amber just wandering the countryside when Cinder found her? Do you people even think about this stuff?"

[I just think the writers poorly think out these concepts, personally.]

"It wasn't ideal to have the Relics moving about in the open," Ozpin said. "And without guards, Salem would just tear down the school brick by brick."

"And do what? Tear her way into another dimension?" Shine said cuttingly. "No offense, but your plans are terrible. And I hate to be cocky, but so far, I've pretty much won every single match I've had in this area. Clearly I've been given some ability to navigate this situation. If you don't believe that by now, I don't know why you even agreed to come here. I wish you'd just give up already on trying to do this your way, Oz."

Oscar suddenly had a strange feeling again, just like on the plane.

Ozpin seemed to wince both outside and inside.

"I can't do that," he said, strangely.

Shine stared at him a second, and then she did a thing that surprised them all because it seemed so out of character.

She suddenly flew into a kind of rage and whipped out her sword. She pointed at Oz--but it looked like she was looking right through him.

"Stop that!" she said. "I see you! You pretender!"

"Who are you talking to?" Raven asked, a little jarred.

Wally, looking at Ozpin, thought for a few seconds he saw two faces. One was Oscar's, and one was Ozpin's. It was like they were both there at once...like what happened when they switched controls, but slow enough for him to see it...or Wally's perception was just fast because of his powers, so it looked slow to him.

There was gold lining around them, as if that was what was holding them together. [If you freeze frame their swapping, you will see something kind of like this.]

Shine, not happy with not getting a response, suddenly lunged forward again and stuck her sword into him.

"Miss Likstar!" Winter jumped up.

The sword didn't draw blood or even pierce their physical form at all, that Oscar could tell--but it felt like it hit their souls itself.

Suddenly something else weird happened.

He thought he saw the god of light, as Ozpin has seen him--but this time it was as if he was in Ozma's place, not just what was in the vision.

"Creation,  Destruction, Choice, and Knowledge...now I leave them behind... Until your task is complete, you will reincarnate..." the god's voice rang in his ears. "But in a manner that ensures you are never alone. Where you seek comfort, you will only find pain... Our creation rests within your hands."

"I'll do it..." That was Ozma.

Was this a flashback?

Oscar didn't like this one one bit. 

"Stop it!" he said. "Stop!"

He wrenched himself away from Shine.

Shine, whose eyes had flashed gold here, gasped and sank to her knees, then she dropped her sword and grabbed her hand.

"Shine?" Wally grabbed her shoulders from behind. "Are you okay? What just happened? I saw something really weird..."

"It felt like it bit me..." Shine was looking at her hand. "Those snakes..."

Oscar began to cough, and his eyes glowed, and then he was himself. "What was that?" he said, scared.

All the others were staring at him in concern.

Ruby was gaping.

"I don't know what that was," Jaune said, "but I didn't like it."

"I don't know what you did," Ozpin spoke in unison with Oscar's voice--or it was both at once, with Oscar eventually taking over, "but I think you just made something bad happen, Miss Likstar."

"Stop it!" Oscar said. "Stop talking!" And it was just his voice.

He put his hand to his head. "Why is this happening again?"

"Oscar." Shine moved closer to him and held out a hand.

"No, don't!" he said, moving away. "You might make it worse again."

Shine looked at him so sadly that he felt bad--it was the same look Alicia had given Ozma in his vision.

Then Shine sat back, and Wally moved behind her again, protectively.

"The curse is getting angry," Shine said slowly, and that scared them all.

"Angry?" Winter said, feeling a chill.

"All these steps away from it," Shine said quietly, "it was bound to start fighting back at some point. It is powerful magic. I wasn't even trying to remove it here, only to nullify it, but it's not accepting it as meekly as it did. Before, I was a nuisance... I'm starting to be a threat...both of us." She glanced up at Wally. "And Oscar..."

"What does that mean?" Qrow asked warily.

"It means we're doing something," Shine said. "And the gods don't like it."

"Don't...don't like it?" Oscar said, sounding panicked. "Like...what if we make them angry? What if they decide to wipe out this planet, if they return?... What if they do know what happened after all? I just saw it in my mind... Maybe they know what's going on as long as Ozpin is here. I mean, the Lamp knows, right? That might have been a warning."

"Oscar, you mustn't let that scare you," Shine said gently. "It was bound to happen at some point."

"Let it scare me?" Oscar said. "Wait, you knew?"

"What have I been saying this whole time? The curse has a life of its own," Shine said. "How else would it choose a like-minded soul to inhabit? This isn't that uncommon. It knows it's weaker, so it's going to try to hold on tightly. If the gods know what is happening, what is it to us? We already planned for them to find out."

"But not like this," Oscar said. "I thought they wouldn't find out until we wanted."

"I never made any such promise," Shine said. "In fact, I highly doubt it will be that way."

"Do you mean to say--" Ozpin's voice again, still without Oscar changing, "--that you intend to confront the gods? If you do, before we've united the world..."

"Didn't we kind of say we thought it was impossible before?" Wally said.

"For Ozpin," Winter said, "but for all of us you never said that."

"I think we did," Shine said.

"If you did, we didn't know you meant it that way," Jaune said.

"We can't summon the gods back without uniting the world!" Ruby cried. "We'd be finished! Salem would win. That's it."

"You don't know that," Shine said.

"I think we do," Qrow said. "We literally saw the god of darkness blast this entire planet before just for what some of them did. Do you expect them to give us the benefit of the doubt? We're just a handful of people."

"You must not fear them," Shine said.

"Whether you like it or not, Likstar--" Qrow was angry now. "--they are the gods of this world. I get it--yours is nicer, but He's not been in charge, and if they show up and get angry, that's it for us. Maybe He'd save you, but you're not from here, are you? We can't help it. It would take seconds--we saw that before. We couldn't even run. So if your big plan was to just summon them, the way things are now, I think you've officially disqualified yourself."

"Qrow!" Winter said sharply.

"Don't tell me you're not thinking the same thing," Qrow said.

"I don't know what to think," Winter said, "but let's not say things in haste that we're going to regret later. They haven't said any of this."

Shine and Wally exchanged a look.

Shine got to her feet.

"You can't agree with us that they suck, and then back out," Shine said firmly. "I'm sorry if that's not what you want to hear. But if you want them to rule you, they will. A nice job they're doing, too. You all don't even see that they still control your world from a distance, because you follow their rules. We don't, and so things work for us that don't work for you. Either you accept that, or you don't. But mark my words, if they are not confronted, you will never free this world. Salem is not going anywhere until the gods come back."

A pause.

"I'm not entirely opposed to that," Winter said, "if we could be sure they would understand... But are they reasonable?"

"No, they aren't," Raven snapped. "You said it yourself. They'll just kill us all. Do you think they'd be impressed with the shape this world is in?"

"They are just the worst," Wally said, suddenly. "They don't even care to heal the world, they don't do anything to instruct it--they just judge it... What kind of things would do that? You're right, Shine... I get it now... They have to go. There's no way they can be trusted with this place."

"I wouldn't trust them with a dog," Shine said. "They'd probably turn it into a werewolf and then complain that it ate people's hearts during a full moon. Or whatever werewolves do."

[That's kind of an accurate description of what they did to Salem.]

"We all agree on that," Qrow said, "but going up against them, literally, is impossible. We saw it in the vision. That was why the whole world was wiped out."

"Didn't they use magic?" Shine had this account from Oscar already. "We don't do that."

"You're able to counter some stuff," Qrow said, "but nothing like enough to stand up to them. You'd get yourselves killed along with us."

"First we'd be left, and now we'd be killed," Wally said. "This gets worse for us all the time."

"You think it's funny?" Qrow said, stepping forward--and he moved too fast and stumbled, falling to the floor, though he tried to catch himself.

Raven and Winter regarded him with mixed looks.

"Perhaps now is not the time for this," Shine said slowly. "I admit, this was a lot to spring on you guys--but we had to talk about it sooner or later. We have always said what we're about, but you keep not believing it. You act surprised when we act on it. I don't know why."

"It's hard to understand a God you've never seen," Raven said. "You don't know what He is really like, but we have our examples."

"And seeing it, you only hate and fear it," Shine said. "Perhaps God is too terrifying and glorious to be seen by people who hardly even know themselves. Perhaps Lewis was right--He could not speak to us face to face, until we have faces. We can't even admit to what we are and deal with it--how would we understand the divine? But I have faith because of that, because it must be beyond myself, or it's not worth following. I think you might know that feeling, Raven--once you thoroughly understand something, it loses all its ability to inspire awe in you. Respect, at most. Hardly even that. All true reverence comes from mystery, and it has to be that way."

"That does not help," Raven said, frustrated. "Your speeches don't always fix everything."

Shine looked as if she'd been slapped.

"Well...true," she said quietly, and then she walked out of the room.

Wally didn't even speak, he just followed her.

Raven, lacking words to express herself further, kicked over a stand of weapons and then also left the room. 

Oscar, still shaking a little from what happened, looked at Jaune and Ruby.

Ruby helped him up slowly, but she looked somber for her.

Jaune boosted Qrow's Aura silently, but Qrow pushed him off after just a few seconds and got to his feet, walking toward the door.

"Where are you going?" Winter asked, her tone implying it had better not be anywhere bad.

"Does it matter?" Qrow replied.

"Uncle Qrow," Ruby said, "please...maybe we should just talk about this."

"There's nothing to talk about, Ruby," Qrow said. "We're hitting a wall again."

"That's happened before," Jaune said. "We've always found a way to go on. I don't think it's any different now."

"Did you buy all that?" Qrow said.

"I don't know," Jaune said, not sure. "But I think I'd rather work with them than without them. We always fight right before something really big is about to happen--and we have Cinder and Watts here already, and Salem is on our tail. I don't mean to be disrespectful--" He suddenly looked a bit angry. "--but this is not the time to bicker and throw around cruel words. We have to work together, or we're doomed. Do you still care about that?"

Winter glanced at Jaune and then pursed her lips.

"And what am I supposed to do?" Qrow looked at Jaune sardonically.

"You could start by being there for Ruby." Jaune actually had the spine to say that to his face with Ruby right there.

Ruby gaped at Jaune.

[But I have to say, that felt good.]

Qrow stared at him blankly till it was like it just hit him that Jaune was making a good point.

"In fact--" Jaune was encouraged. "--we all could be doing that. We don't have all the answers. But every time we realize that, we turn on each other and blame and bicker, but this is when we most need to try to be understanding. We're all struggling here, but we've gotten through it. And I have to point out, Shine and Wally never attack us when problems happen. I know they do call out a lot of our bad decisions, but they push us forward, every time, and I respect them for that. They still have hope. I don't know if we can stop the gods or anything like that, but maybe it's not as literal as they put it. Often what they do is much simpler than we expect it to be, and maybe it's just...I don't know, maybe we defeat the gods when we don't act like them. The gods were always arguing with each other, and they dragged everyone down with them. They're not even unified, and they expect us to be... I think we could just cut each other some slack."

Ruby nodded. "You know, he's right," she said. "I think...I've been feeling that for a while. I know you're upset, Uncle Qrow...and..." She rubbed her arm. "...I am too. I guess I just never thought talking about it would make it better. But it doesn't make it worse either... It's okay to be honest about that. Right, Jaune?"

"Yeah, right," Jaune agreed.

"Maybe it's not so scary, though," Ruby said, "if we just admit it together instead of going off alone to be miserable. The best times I've had since this started were when I was with someone else and just...being an actual friend."

"There is sense in this," Winter spoke up finally. "We always turn on each other. I'm tired of it also. Like it or not, Shine and Wally are part of our team, and their contributions have been substantial. We may not agree with what they want, but we need to treat them as teammates--friends, in Miss Rose's words. They would do the same for us no matter what we thought."

"It has to be so frustrating to listen to us," Oscar said. His head had cleared now. "To listen to us doing the same things that Ozpin did that led to Alicia leaving, and to wonder if it's going to be them next. I'm amazed they kept their cool. We're so ungrateful, we hardly ever acknowledge the time they put into helping people who are never going to be able to repay them. I know they wouldn't want payment, but it's...huge. And we've spat in their faces so much by calling them crazy and irresponsible for trying to do things the way they are supposed to do them. I think if Shine wants to meet the gods...maybe that's her path. Maybe it's not ours...exactly. But why can't she? Maybe she has before... Maybe she has a reason not to be afraid."

"That is something to consider." Winter didn't know why she hadn't thought of that herself. "Maybe it's experience, not cockiness."

"If so, she might have said that." Qrow was weakening, you could tell.

"We didn't give her a chance, we just shot it down," Jaune said. "We need to stop doing that. It's not being a good friend or a good team. We hurt them. We need to own up to it."

"Well, I said most of it," Qrow said.

"Untrue," Winter said. "Your sister said plenty--but reasoning with her has proven to be a monumental task." She rolled her eyes.

"I thought Raven said worse stuff," Ruby said, "but you should still tell them you were wrong, Uncle Qrow. You shouldn't have said they were disqualified. That was mean."

Qrow winced. "It just came out..." he said dully. "I guess I'm far from being that good at this myself. Never was."

"That's fine," Jaune said. "Just as long as we're trying to do better. We all need to learn...me most of all, probably."

"Ah, Jaune, don't be too hard on yourself." Ruby pretended to cuff him. "Looking at where you started from, this is a massive improvement."

"Thanks..." Jaune said dryly.

Somehow he'd managed to diffuse the situation. The others weren't as upset now. Pyrrha would have been proud.

https://youtu.be/4MzwKQrTq18

You wrote your name in invisible ink

For you were so afraid of what they might think

But the scars they left, they were loud and clear...

When it's too much to bare, memories erase

A disappearing act, deserving of our thanks...

You begged and begged for some kind of change

Maybe they'd wake up tomorrow and regret the pain

That they've passed down to you like DNA

But no luck, no luck

It seems only by the hand of God or death

Will they truly change their silhouettes

For a miracle or a consequence...maybe distance is the only cure?

Far away from hurt is where healing occurs.

But all you really want to do is make them proud

It must be so hard, in the mess you're always cleaning up

To believe in the ghost of unbroken love

But I promise you

The truth is that you're loved. So loved