Pyrrha sat outside where the fountain and pool was, they were still intact.

It was almost strange how fewer things had changed than you'd think.

She put her face in her hands.

It was hard to bear everyone's anger, she always tried to make people feel better, not worse.

Worst of all, Jaune was still hardly speaking to her. He'd been so grave when they'd come back the day before. Even though she had the relic, two people injured and Oscar in the state he was in didn't look like a very satisfying victory.

But why couldn't they all just be happy it hadn't ended terribly this time? They only ever seemed to see the negative of what happened.

Perhaps she'd been too harsh to Ozpin...perhaps he couldn't help it. But what about everyone else? Surely they had a choice.

Pyrrha didn't know what else to think, but one thing she was sure of was that she'd come to see these relics and magic powers as a curse as much as Shine and Wally and Oscar did. Perhaps that was why she gravitated toward them so much. No one else seemed to grasp how awful the god's control of this world really was. And how badly it needed to change.

A red leaf blew into her path and settled next to her feet. Autumn was here again.

To think she'd actually died since the last time she was here, and come back, and yet...her problems hadn't changed that much. She still wasn't sure if everyone else was where she was with this. It was easy to feel alone.

She looked up at the sky.

But not alone anymore...She'd felt it before, she'd seen it...maybe she was just too caught up in these personal things. Forgetting why she did this at all. Life was a gift. You had to use it wisely.

"I don't know what you want for me," she said, in a low voice. "I think I did as You would have wanted. But I don't know what to do next. Just like before, I don't know if I can do...but back then, I had nothing else to fall back on. It should be different this time...but if You're there...listening, then, I need to know."

She fell silent.

The leaf at her feet was picked up by the wind and hit her in the face, then it shot across the courtyard.

On instinct, Pyrrha followed it. Though it seemed stupid. But she'd done plenty of crazy things in the last two months. [True that.]

The leaf blew all the way out of Beacon's courtyard and down the bridge to Vale.

Finally, it stopped in the center of town, where people were clearing was left of the grimm pods, they'd figured out that freezing them in ice prevented them from exploding, and they could be removed then.

"I've never seen anything like it," they were saying. "It took one look and they were healed."

"I know what it was," said an older person. "It was a divine gift. I've heard of such things."

"Oh sure," someone else scoffed. "It was just his semblance."

"I've never seen a semblance that looked like that," said a third.

"What if it was divine?" said another, a woman. "What if the gods are finally going to show themselves in Remnant again?"

"Those are old wives tales," said the scoffer.

"I'm not so sure about that," The woman said. She pointed at Pyrrha suddenly. "That's Pyrrha Nikos. She died in the fall of Beacon, and here she is."

Everyone looked at her.

Pyrrha held up her hands.

"It certainly looks like her," said the man oddly.

The elder glanced critically at Pyrrha. "Are you Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Yes," Pyrrha said.

They congregated around her.

"So you tell us," the woman said. "Was it Divine? Or was it man?"

"I believe it was divine," Pyrrha said.

"And did you die or not?" they pressed.

"I...I did," Pyrrha looked down. "But I came back. For the same reason."

They gaped.

"Well...that's just preposterous, " said the scoffer.

"It's not," Pyrrha pulled her boot off. "I have scars."

They stared at it.

"Well...she does..." said the third.

"She could have had that already, and it's not lethal, " said the eldest one.

Pyrrha pulled down her top also, just enough to show them.

"That looks lethal to me," the woman said.

They didn't seem to know what to say to that.

"Well that settles it," the woman said. "The gods have moved again."

"Just one," Pyrrha said. "A new one. Different one."

"Different?"

"Yes..." Pyrrha began to explain.

Funny, telling her story kind of helped. Like going over all those things in her mind again reminded her how many there had been.

In fact the townspeople wanted to hear more, and she ended up telling them not just her story, but a lot of what she'd seen since.

People who recognized her and knew she'd died were astonished.

Not everyone bought it, but some of them did seem at least partially convinced.

"I'd like to learn about this, the first woman said.

"I'm not the one to ask, there are people who know more than me," Pyrrha said.

"Are they the ones who defeated the Wyvern?" someone asked.

"Yes, how did you...?" Pyrrha said.

"We heard it was a pair of rogues," they explained. "But not that many people saw. We thought it was just rogue hunstmen, but maybe not," this word passed around the crowd.

"It's truly unheard of," the woman said. "Take me to them, I want to see."

Pyrrha wasn't sure she should, but they kept pestering her and she thought they'd follow her even if she said no, so she finally agreed.

Only half of them wanted to come, though.

"My name is Mary, by the way," the woman introduced herself. "Mary Shepherd."

[Yes she's a reference to Mary had a little lamb. Give me a break.]

Pyrrha found Shine and Wally also walking about Beacon, they seemed to be calmer but somber.

But they seemed to perk up as the people began asking more questions than Pyrrha could even follow.

Shine answered them willingly enough, while Wally said hi to the people and asked if they were doing okay after yesterday.

He waa recognized as one of them who'd done the healing.

"Why have we never heard of this God before?" Mary Shepherd asked finally, after the initial questions were answered about who they were and how the did things--and not answered as fully as Pyrrha knew they could have.

"Because a long time ago He sent someone to you and your world rejected him," Shine explained. "And whoever rejects his messengers, rejects him. But thanks to the faith of some of your own people, more of us have been sent to you again."

Now they all understood this to be metaphorical, not literal, thankfully. It was common to talk this way of missions.

"But don't think this is about us," Wally waved at at them."We're just the messengers, not the real deal."

"Where is the real deal then?" One of them demanded.

"Everywhere," Shine said. "It's not far away from each one of us. He is the unknown God, but you all know, in your hearts, that there's something you're missing, don't you? That is why you still follow the ideals of courage, creativity, and benevolence. But where we come from, those things aren't just ideals, they all have a source. They're a person. And that's who we serve."

The conversation lasted a long time after that, and Pyrrha listened about as avidly as the others did.

But she also reflected...maybe things weren't as bad as she thought. Perhaps she overreacted. 

What really mattered was helping people right? And if her own team didn't want it, there were other people who needed to know that there was hope, after all the attacks and the war...maybe that was they rushed to hear the story.

Many of them even said they wished to know this God of theirs.

Shine told them how they could right then and handed out copies of the book.

Wally patted Pyrrha on the shoulder.

"Hey, thanks for bringing them here," he said. "I think we needed this...to just not be focused on the fate of the world thing for a while, I mean, it's about more than that, right? Where did you find these people."

"A leaf took me to them, does that sound crazy?" Pyrrha said.

"To a guy who can jump through worlds and run faster than sound? No," Wally said. "Aren't leaves kind of your thing?"

"Well you know, the dead stuff does become part of the soil," Pyrrha said. "I guess I always saw them as symbolic in a way. Life goes on even with death, just in another form."

"Or just goes on in your case," Wally said. "You're not bad at this, you know. Maybe you should become a teacher."

"Heh...I think I've had a challenging enough time with one student," Pyrrha laughed weakly. "Maybe someday, if I'm smarter."

"You just need practice, I think you're smart enough," Wally said cheerfully. "We all suck at first, look at me, look at Shine, you can tell who's been doing this for 6 years."

"I think you're good also," Pyrrha said. "We all have different strengths."

"Well then don't sell yourself short, kid," Wally shrugged.

Good point.

***

Yang was angry. Not surprising.

Tai tried to talk to her.

"Look, they were wrong," he said. "But at least we have the relic now. So for now, we can still salvage this."

"And what will we do next?" Yang was not appeased. "We had no plan after this. We have two of them now...We were stupid to trust them to do what we'd want."

"Yeah, well, i've never really liked them," Tai said.

Somehow that was actually making Yang feel better. It was almost more like she expected someone to defend them.

"But people disappoint you sometimes," Tai added, looking grave.

Yang remembered that she was still kind of mad at him after their talk in the dojo.

"Yep," she said, walking away again.

She found Neptune and Penny by the school's statue, which was still intact--or had been put back together.

"And the war was won," Penny seemed to be telling the story of the statue's figures.

"Sure, cool," Neptune hadn't wanted the history lesson, but reciting facts seemed to make Penny feel better.

Yang looked at the statue, she'd had a dream about meeting Raven here once...[Which was supposed to be canon, but was changed later, so I guess it's a dream now.]

"Oh hello, Yang," Penny waved awkwardly.

"Where'd you go?" Neptune asked.

"Just around," Yang said.

"Are you angry?" Penny asked bluntly.

"Penny," Neptune hissed. "You can't just ask people if they're angry."

"Oh," Penny said.

"It's fine," Yang frowned. "And yeah, I am. But honestly, I'm more disappointed."

"My father says that's worse than angry," Penny said.

"My mom says that also," Neptune said weakly.

"Where'd Ruby go?" Yang asked.

"I think she just went for a walk also, everyone did," Neptune said. He winced. "I gotta say, didn't expect this to be so intense when Sun and I joined you guys."

Yang laughed bitterly. "Welcome to our world.

"I'm not sure what makes it more intense," Penny said. "We are huntsmen, or in my case...whatever I am...our lives are not easy."

"But they definitely aren't a big adventure," Yang said. "I never thought I'd be chasing stupid relics and fighting an army of grimm."

"That sounds cooler when you say it like that," Neptune said. "The plague thing is new though."

"I took some scans of Oscar's book to see what comes next," Penny said. "I don't think they happened in the same chronological order, but we could expect either all the animals to die, or a herd of locusts, or a hailstorm, or all the oldest people and animals dying."

"One of those was not like the others," Neptune blanched.

"I agree, a hailstorm is not a living thing," Penny said. "I'm not sure how Salem could imitate it."

"No I mean people just dying!" Neptune said. "She can't do that right?"

"Who knows what she can do?" Yang said. "This is hopeless."

"I wouldn't say that," Penny said. "Shine and Wally have guided us so far to stay alive, and Oscar has developed a lot of new skills I didn't know he had. No doubt, we will have the same success with whatever Salem tries next."

"Penny, you're a robot, I'd think you'd be less blindly optimistic than that," Yang said.

"Hey," Neptune said. "That's not the nicest thing to say."

"What does me being a robot have to do with it?" Penny said. "I have an aura, just like you. Why can't I look on the bright side."

"You sound like that Libby girl," Yang said. "There is no bright side. And in case you missed it, Shine lied to us. She said she intended to protect those relics."

"I have no memory file of her saying this," Penny said.

"Yeah, honestly, I don't remember that either," Neptune said. "Didn't she more of say that they weren't important? Am I just not getting it?"

"She said we didn't want Salem to get it," Yang asid. "But now it seems like she does."

"She doesn't usually lie, right?" Neptune asked.

"She doesn't need to lie," Yang said. "She can tell you whatever she thinks will work on you in such a way that you think one thing, but she really means another. She's real sneaky like that."

"That would be impressive if she was a laywer," Neptune said.

"She's not!" Yang said. "She's supposed to be our leader."

"Okay...look I'm not defending her approach," Neptune rubbed his head. "But on the other hand, it worked. So aren't you willing to think that maybe she had a purpose in that? I mean...who was she talking to at the time."

"Us and Cinder," Yang said.

"I'm not an expert on Shine, but if she said that in front of Cinder, would it just be so that Cinder would assume you all wanted the relic. Maybe it was a trick to get her to cooperate," Neptune said.

"That's stupid because she would have cooperated more if Shine just told her that she'd let her have it," Yang said.

"I don't find that logical," Penny said. "Cinder would never have believed that. Or that we would agree to it. Perhaps twisting the truth was the best way to get her to come along. Isn't the better question we should be asking, why didn't she leave with it? Shine didn't stop her, and Ozpin couldn't. What did Pyrrha say that changed her mind?"

"And, hey, Shine is the one who let Pyrrha go with her," Neptune pointed out. "I'm not saying she was right to trick us like that...but it did work, so she knows her stuff."

"I don't care," Yang snapped. "She still tricked us! Again--I can't believe I was even starting to think I was wrong about her."

"You were?" Penny knew that Yang didn't like Shine, she wasn't that mechanical that she'd miss that.

"Well--sort of," Yang looked embarrassed. "I mean, after she said all that stuff about caring about this team. And she said she didn't want to bring Pyrrha back to where she'd ever have to see Cinder again." [See chapter 126 for this conversation.]

"Is that all she said?" Penny asked "Because that is not consistent with her actions."

"She might have said something about hating Cinder at one time, but now she pities her, because Cinder is nothing," Yang shrugged angrily. "But I don't pity Cinder at all."

"Pity that woman?" Neptune winced. "Why? I don't get it. I mean I may not have the experience you all do with her, but she destroyed Beacon. I was there."

"I don't know, you ever hear Shine talk about pitying people?" Yang said. "It's impossible to keep up with, just all this crap about hatred not beating her and something else about fearing her not being good. I thought she was just trying to be brave. Even if it was stupid. I said I'd go along with tricking Cinder, but this wasn't tricking her."

"And did Shine say she was going to trick her?" Penny said.

"She said she could work on her," Yang said.

"That's not the same thing," Neptune said.

"Why does it matter?" Yang asked.

"We're just trying to be fair," Penny said.

"I can't believe you two even want to defend her," Yang said.

"I do think it's messed up," Neptune said.

Yang cooled a little. "Really?"

"I mean, I think it's messed up to give us the wrong idea," Neptune said. "But at the same time...I...can't say I've never done that with people either... I mean, I wouldn't know how to corral a team this size, that has a lot of angry people on it."

Yang frowned.

"I mean like, your mom and that Summer Maiden, and the big guy, what's his name," Neptune said hastily. "I'm just saying that if someone said to them: Hey, I can totally get Cinder to give us the relic by just telling her she can have it,' they'd have straight up said 'no way.'"

"D---- right we'd have said no way," Yang said.

"It's like reverse Psychology," Neptune said. "If you tell someone they can have it, they want it less."

"What?" Yang said. "That doesn't work in real life."

"Oh sure it does, you just have to know how to do it," Neptune said. "Just ask my mom."

"But that doesn't justify it. We're their team, they should be honest with us." Yang protested.

"Fine," Neptune said.

"Why doesn't this bother you?" Yang demanded. "Do you not care if people lie to you."

"Uh...well, my mom's a laywer, remember?" Neptune said. "I kind of expect people to lie all the time. I guess it doesn't really offend me because I figure they're just trying to get what they want, it's not like it's personally insulting me if they lie."

"It is if they said they wouldn't lie to you," Yang said.

"I fine that hard to believe," Neptune shrugged. "Sorry, maybe I'm really cynical."

"I find your position makes more sense," Penny said. "Humans lie, a lot. However, just because someone lies to you once does not mean they hate you or that they always lie. It depends on the human."

"But they're different," Yang said.

"I don't know, they're not above trickery and manipulation are they?" Neptune said. "I'm still not sure they lied exactly, but are you going to let that one thing change your mind about everything they do."

"Why shouldn't it?" Yang said.

Neptune and Penny both looked at her in confusion.

"Because that's really unrealistic," Neptune said like it was obvious. "Nobody never does anything wrong, but some people are at least trying to do the right thing. And uh...I'm not sure how to put this but, they brought someone back to life, they've been risking thier lives to help, doesn't that get them any benefit of the doubt?"

"What if it was a trick? What if they want Salem to win." Yang said.

"That is incredibly far fetched," Penny said. "We have no evidence to back this."

"Them being willing to give Cinder the relics isn't evidence, " Yang said.

"Negitive," Penny said. "These two things do not naturally lead to that conclusion."

"What?" Yang said.

"Uh, what Penny is saying is that there could be more than one reason for letting Cinder take the reilc, or at least, being ready to do it," Neptune said.

"Yes, that is what I meant," Penny confirmed.

"What other reason could there be?" Yang asked.

"It could be that she honestly believed that Cinder taking the relic would have been useful," Penny said. "We don't know what it does...maybe it wouldn't help Salem as much as we think."

"Or it could just be that the relics are heckin' creepy and they want them as far away from Oscar as possibly," Neptune said.

"Huh?" Yang said.

"Exactly," Penny echoed.

"You know? Because the magic thing?" Neptune said. "Hey, I haven't been totally not paying attention here. I know that he's got a curse, you guys talk about it all the time."

They kind of did.

"And I know that it was started by one of the gods who left the world and blew up the moon, from what I heard," Neptune added. "Blake told Sun everything, and Sun told me. Remember? I'm not a total moron."

"No one said you were," Penny said. "But I am not sure how you mean that relics should be away from Oscar."

"Well...because it's all connected isn't it?" Neptune said. "From what you guys have been saying, the gods left those relics to Ozpin right? Or Ozman...whoever."

"Ozma," Yang corrected.

"Right," Neptune said. "So..."

"So?" Yang repeated.

"So...they're magic right?" Neptune said. "And hasn't he been having problems controlling magic? Cinder kept having those fits, didn't she? So the Maidens and Ozpin are connected right? And they are linked to the relics, so it's all connected isn't it? I mean isn't this just science."

"Magic is not science," Penny said.

"But it's kind of like wi-fi?" Neptune said. "They all get the same signal?"

"That is one way to explain it," Penny allowed.

"Right, so isn't it stronger when he's around more magic stuff?" Neptune said. "I mean...I could have it wrong, but I thought it was the DJs' power was in conflict with the magic, and when Oscar is around them he's more in control, but when he's around Ozpin and other magic stuff, he's weaker. Or did I get that way wrong? I thought that's why they wanted to get the relics away from him?"

"No, no, it's when he uses Ozpin's magic," Yang said.

"Oh...but I thought Ozpin and the relics came from the same place?" Neptune said. 

"They do," Yang said. "But that doesn't mean the relics are controlling Ozpin's magic."

"That's good news," Penny said. "Because I was just think how if Neptune was correct, Oscar having that horrible spasm yesterday in the vault was going to make a little too much sense, and that would have been greatly disturbing. But if you say it's not that, then it must just have been Ozpin getting agitated."

"Well yeah--" Yang stopped.

Then she said strangely. "But Ozpin did throw a fit when we had that Relic of Knowledge with us back on the train..."

Penny and Neptune looked at her quizzically.

"And Ozpin did resurface after Oscar visted the vault of Creation," Yang said oddly. "And Oscar didn't start having those magic fits till we got the sword of Destruction out. And Oscar maintained control of Ozpin here unless they went down to that vault."

"Holy crap," Neptune siad. "Did I actually get this right?"

"I can't answer that for sure," Penny said. "But if you did, does that mean that Ozpin will always be stronger if we have the relics around him?"

"He always has been stronger when they were..." Yang said, strangely. "But I thought he was just more pushy because he's a jerk, not that magic had anything to do with it. It attracts grimm, not Ozpin."

"I thought grimm and magic were both from the god of darkness," Neptune said. "Couldn't it draw magic also?"

"Magic is attracted to other magic," Penny said. "It has to be. Cinder is always after more magic, and the Hound was able to sniff it out. And the grimm have been attacking the Maidens specifically, have they not?"

"Like forces do attract," Neptune said. "And repel... Depends on the force."

"Whatever," Yang said. "You two had better not be right about this, if it's true, then Oscar's in trouble as long as we have that Crown with us."

"Yeah, it seems like getting Cinder to take it would have helped him in the long run," Neptune remarked.

"Yeah, if she wouldn't have taken it to Salem," Yang said.

"Perhaps she wouldn--" Penny just stopped abruptly and put a hand to her head. "Father?"

Then her eyes projected holographic image, like a scroll screen.

"Hello, dear," Pietro said. "I'm sorry to interrupt with bad news, but our satellite has been picking up some interference from the kingdom of Mistral. None of our messages to them have gone through. But there were some patrols out in the city who just sent us some images. I thought your group would want to see them."

Images appeared in the hologram.

At first Yang thought they had a spot on the camera, because she just saw a big, black dot around most of the picture, and then she realized that that was also in the shot...right smack dab over most of the mountain range that had the capital city of Mistral in it.

"What is that?" Neptune asked.

They heard Pietro on speaker still.

"No one is sure. We don't have any scientists here to test it, but the picture makes it look almost like it's Grimm. But it's not a creature--at least it isn't something we've seen before. It's like a big dome, but it's at least 10 miles wide, possibly more, covering the whole kingdom to the edge of the train tracks. It's blocking all our communications. They can't get through it."

"How long has it been there?" Neptune asked.

Yang was speechless.

"We're not sure. It could have been from any time last night or this morning. The patrol only sent this an hour ago--they're afraid to try to get inside it. They shot at it, but it didn't seem to do anything. But knowing the people in your group, I had hope that one of them might know what would destroy it."

"We'll look into it, Father," Penny said.

The message closed.

"Kip is in there," Penny said.

"So is my uncle!" Yang said. "And Weiss! And...everyone else."

"Sun is there too," Neptune said. "Do you think they can see anything through that stuff?"

"We couldn't, so I doubt it," Yang said. "But what is it?"

"I just remembered I didn't mention one of the plagues left in the the list," Penny said. "I didn't exactly understand it, but it was 3 days of darkness."

"Yang, you know how you're really pissed at your two guides?" Neptune said.

"Yeah," Yang said.

"You might have to let that go," Neptune said, "because I'm pretty sure no on!e has a freaking clue what that stuff is."

Yang bit her lip.

"Not to add to the problems," Penny said, "but I'm spotting something on the horizon of our kingdom also."

She had longer range vision than they did.

"Is it like that?" Neptune squeaked.

"No, it's more like a flock of birds," Penny said. "Only smaller."

"Maybe we should run," Neptune said. "For help."

They all took off to find the rest of the team, who'd spread out all over the school.

Before they could, though, the cloud reached the kingdom.

They were more bug Grimm--ones the size of small cats.

And shaped like grasshoppers.

People started screaming when they saw them.

But these Grimm didn't attack any of the humans. Instead, they began to land on every place in sight, and they landed on shops that were selling food and in front of dust supplies stores.

And they stuck out these mandibles that looked like they were made of bone, like most Grimm's horns were, and began to tear into things, shredding them.

They didn't take long to do this at all.

People started to run and take what they could with them.

The Grimm jumped like grasshoppers,and landed on people, knocking them over, but instead of eating the people, they'd just start shredding their purses and bags and taking whatever they found in there.

Neptune, Yang, and Penny watched this in horror.

Penny sliced some up and Yang shot at them--dust didn't do much, these things had armor plating over most of their bodies, just like real insects did--only stronger.

She blasted a few legs off of one, and it just got mad, but it didn't stop.

Neptune managed to zap some, but he said, "I don't have a lot of yellow dust left, and nothing else looks like it's working on these things."

"Maybe if we had a big flyswatter!" Yang yelled in anger.

One of the "Hoppers", as people quickly dubbed them, hovered next to her and clamped its jaw onto her metal arm before she could stop it.

It hung off of it like a woodchuck hanging off a tree branch.

"Hey, get off!" Yang didn't like bugs to begin with, and this one was, like, 100x the normal size.

The Hopper was trying to get into her dust capsule. It was attacking it with its gross jaws, not going for her actual body part at all.

Neptune stuck his trident into it, and it burst into smoke.

"That was disgusting," he said.

"They do not act like normal Grimm," Penny said. "They aren't trying to eat us. Why?"

Some of them looked at her suddenly and seemed to realize she was made mostly of metal parts.

They hummed like crickets do and suddenly grabbed at her limbs.

"Hey!" Penny cried. "Cease! Desist! I am not food!"

More flew at her.

"They'll tear her to pieces!" Yang said.

"Again?" Neptune said.

"We have to help!" Yang said.

"If you have any ideas, I'm open," Neptune said.

Yang did not have an idea, and she disliked how more of the monsters were looking at her arm like they wanted to bite it off.

Then silver light flashed over the street and vaporized all of the Grimm around them.

Ruby was standing on a rooftop, scythe in hand.

"Penny!" she called. "Come on!"

Penny flew her way, a little ruffled but still operational.

"We need to get inside!" Ruby called.

"Oh, that'll help," Neptune said. "They're tearing the walls off."

"Do you have a better idea?" Yang asked.

Neptune shut up.

They ran after Ruby before more of the Hoppers could find them.