Ruby got them all back to the cafeteria, which was the biggest room on the bottom floor.

Oscar was already there, drawing the drapes over the window--like that was going to help.

Glynda was outside, trying frantically to put things back together as fast as the Hoppers tore them apart--which was a losing battle. [Kind of like her whole existence on the show is.]

Jaune found them right after that.

"I tried to stop them," he said, "but I can't catch any of them fast enough to matter, and they aren't attacking people... I'm confused."

Pyrrha, Shine and Wally joined them a few moments later, with a few townspeople who all just hid in the back of the room.

"Where have you been?" Yang asked, just as if she'd not been angry at them earlier that day.

"Fishing," Wally said.

Shine laughed.

Tai was outside, trying to shoot the things down.

Watts was doing nothing, as usual, just standing by the back wall.

"Can't you make them leave?" Ruby asked Shine and Wally.

"So far that hasn't been the most effective method of stopping these plagues," Shine said. "I thought you all didn't want us to help anymore?"

"Is this the time to be petty?" Jaune said. "They're destroying Beacon again!"

"The Relic is still here," Shine said.

"It wouldn't have mattered," Oscar said, gravely. "I think she would have anyway."

"This is your fault!" Ozpin burst out, without any warning. "If you had left well enough alone, she might have just kept looking for it like before. Now you'll have this kingdom destroyed also."

"That's rich coming from you, the person who put those things here to begin with," Wally said.

"'Who made you judge over us', right?" Shine said. "Well, Beacon can't take much more of this. We have plagues of grasshoppers where I come from also. They eat everything in a matter of days. Then they leave. Just like A Bug's Life."

"So how do you get rid of them?" Yang asked.

"You can't," Shine said. "Unless you have pesticide, maybe. Which is bad for your health."

"So we're doomed?" Neptune said.

"These aren't real grasshoppers," Shine said. "Salem is just ripping off the plague of--"

"Locusts," several people said.

"Penny mentioned it already," Neptune added.

"The point is to make us weak," Shine said. "She separated us and is wearing us down. If we were to leave, she could pin us down by now, the Relic will make it easy."

"So you've trapped us," Ozpin said

"Oz, will you shut up?" Oscar said in his own voice. "I'm sorry, I can't control him like before right now... After Cinder hit me, and he used his magic, he got stronger. And if...I keep up, another spasm could happen."

The others winced.

"I can handle him," Shine said, "if you are all right."

Oscar did not look all right.

"So Oscar is broken, and we're all trapped?" Yang said.

"If you believe you are," Shine said.

"What?" Yang said. "What does that mean? Aren't you supposed to be able to fix this?"

"I can't do anything for you if you don't trust me," Shine said. "And trust has been broken, as our conversation earlier made clear."

"So you won't," Neptune said.

"She said we can't," Wally said. "I mean, I could try, but there's too many of those things. Even I'm not going to get them all, not if they run. They can fly, so... But we should be helping."

"All that and you two just give up on us?" Jaune said. "Why didn't you just give Cinder the Relic to begin with then?"

"Do I need to point out that if we had, this conversation wouldn't be happening?" Shine frowned at him. "And that is not helpful."

"Well, you're not helping either," Jaune said. "And your plan almost failed yesterday. Pyrrha and Oscar could have been killed--and you too."

"Jaune, please," Pyrrha said. "I made a choice."

"Sure," he said flatly.

Shine's eyes flashed.

"Now?" she asked Wally.

"I don't see how we could make this any worse," Wally said, "so go off. Who knows? Maybe we'll snap some sense back into ourselves if we just clear the air."

"Cute, you need his permission," Watts said.

Shine frowned. "We're trying to work in tandem more than before. Something all of you could learn from, I might add."

"Before we do anything," Penny said. "I need to show you all something."

She proceeded to show them Haven.

This did not help anyone's mood.

The Hoppers could be heard whistling through the air and tearing things apart the whole time they were explaining.

"3 days of darkness," Oscar confirmed the theory.

"I have to hand it to her--" Shine peered at the picture. "--this is the most creative I've ever seen her be. Points for finding a way to pull it off without supernatural powers."

"Are you actually serious?" Yang said.

"Yes, Yang, I actually want Salem to torment these kingdoms," Shine said. "You caught me."

"Well, it sure seems like it," Yang said. "And if you don't, why would you risk her getting the powers?"

"I'm utterly sick of hearing that question," Shine said. "Especially from you, you hypocrite. You almost let Raven take the Spring One before--we all saw how that would have ended. And if you hadn't taken the dang thing out to begin with, Neo couldn't have stolen it in Atlas. May I remind you, you consulted no one before doing that. At least I did that much."

Yang's mouth dropped open.

"And you kept the secret of who the Maiden was," Ruby said unhelpfully.

"Ruby!" Yang said.

"Sorry, but you've never said anything to us about being sorry for that," Ruby said. "And...I haven't apologized to Ironwood, either. So maybe we should try to be more fair about this."

"It wasn't the same thing. My mom didn't work for Salem," Yang said.

"Is this all you ever argue about?" Watts asked. "They actually think you want to help Salem? How droll."

Everyone looked at him.

"Are you all really that obtuse?" Watts said. "It's no wonder we keep beating you. I'm still shocked that Cinder just left--granted, without killing at least one of you, but knowing her, she just thought she couldn't win. A fact she knew the whole time. She wasn't going to get away with that Relic. This is all such a stupid thing to argue over--Miss Likstar knew that as well as anyone else. Even if she'd gotten out of the Vault, all of you were waiting for her. Likstar, you told us you'd give us the choice but we'd never take it by force, didn't you?"

Shine nodded.

"Even if by some stretch Cinder still got away with it, you still have the other one," Watts added. "Thus you still have time. I really don't understand why you're panicking. Especially when that is going on outside." He pointed. "It would be more important to just stop this attack and cooperate. But by all means, take your time. It's only Beacon."

He leaned back. If he'd had tea, he'd have been sipping it.

"Guys, he's right," Oscar said. "We should be stopping this, not fighting. Besides, Pyrrha and I agreed to help anyway. It's not just Shine's fault. And nothing actually went wrong, so..."

"It's just that it could have," Neptune said. "But hey, I'm with you. No use asking that now."

"Okay, fine." Yang put a hand to her head and looked frustrated. "We'll drop it for now. Can we stop the locusts?"

"Ironically, Cinder could have," Shine mused. "In the Bible, they're blown away by a dry wind."

"That would be her," Watts agreed.

"Lacking her, I'd say we have only our option left," Shine said, "with some help. If Oz would shut up for now, we might get somewhere."

"How dare you!" Ozpin said.

Shine suddenly looked at him and held out her sword.

"Enough of this," she said. "Curse or no curse, Ozpin, some things are not to be tolerated. Your temper is not going to cost us the fate of this kingdom yet again. So shut up, or I will come over there and shut you up. I don't care anymore if it's painful. This doesn't involve the Relic, so you can dang well control yourself."

Ozpin went silent.

"Dang..." Neptune found this scary.

"Now, to the point," Shine said. "If you're all done with your little temper tantrum, the best thing to do to get rid of this plague would be what Moses said. Pray."

"Pray? That's your answer?" Yang said.

"Always is," Shine said. "And if you have a better idea, name it."

Yang sighed.

"Better yet," Shine said, "in the Exodus account, the magicians of that time actually imitated some of the plagues, but that backfired on them, because after a while they couldn't anymore, and they were afflicted. Salem is a little stronger than them, obviously, because she harnessed the power of the gods, not just her own. But nonetheless, she's not invincible. So we could start there."

"I remember that now that you said it." Oscar seemed a bit more strong now. "I mean..." He looked at his staff. "...we lifted the last plague with this. Maybe we could lift this one."

"Sure, they can just look at your staff and they'll all die," Yang said sarcastically.

"Um...looking at it literally healed people. Is it that hard to believe??" Neptune said.

"Whatever you do, could you do it?" Mary called from the back of the room. "While you're taking your sweet time, those things are ravishing our home. I'm not one to think a problem will fix itself if you just leave it alone long enough."

[Shade thrown at the nursery rhyme.]

"Not to mention--" Penny was looking out the window, picking up the drapes. "--that there will be nothing left to salvage if we don't hurry."

"I could blast some of them," Ruby said.

"Why aren't you doing that already?" Wally asked.

"I thought you would have a better idea," Ruby said.

They looked at her blankly.

"Ruby, for future reference, if you already have another thing to work with, don't wait for us," Shine said. "Use what you got."

"Oh...oops..." Ruby said.

"Okay, new plan," Oscar said. "Ruby will go and blast as many of them as she can, and we'll...try to get rid of the rest with the other idea."

Ruby ran out of the room to do this.

Oscar took his staff/spear, and they all went outside.

The Hoppers ignored them mostly.

"Well--" Theo had finally caught up with them. "--this is just lovely, isn't it? Those things ate some of my tools."

He had his belt more hidden by his jacket.

"So what do we do?" Oscar asked Shine and Wally.

"I have no idea," Wally said.

"I think it's pretty simple," Shine said.

She clapped her hands and lifted her sword into the air.

The light flared up.

The Hoppers all looked at it.

"Hey," Shine called, "come here, all of you."

No one thought that would work--but it did.

They flew over like they were drawn to the light.

They landed all around them in a huge, ugly circle.

[Picture of real life locust swarm. Still not the ugliest bugs you could see.]

"I'm going to throw up," Yang said.

"Please don't aim at me." Neptune looked sick.

"Fascinating." Penny seemed fine.

"I'm getting real sick of this," Shine said, over the sound of them chirping. "What do you say we just send Salem a little message?"

"Sounds good." Wally gave her a thumbs up 👍 and covered his other ear.

"How?" Oscar asked.

"Just tell them to go back to her," Shine said. "That ought to do it."

The hoppers were eyeing them with pure hatred.

"Anyone else feel like they'd be eating us if she hadn't said not to?" Neptune asked.

"You just thought of that?" Theo said. "What are we doing?"

"Go on, Oscar," Shine said.

"Why me?" Oscar asked.

"Everyone trusts you more than us," Shine said. "It will be better if you do it."

The townspeople were watching this by now...pretty resentfully, in some cases.

Oscar swallowed his disgust and held up his spear.

"All of you," he said, "go home."

They looked at him.

"Lord," Shine said behind him, "we pray that You will send these loathsome creatures back to their maker, literally, and relieve the people of this land."

"Amen to that," Wally said. "And now would be great, just saying. I feel like a piece of sandwich on a picnic blanket right now."

But suddenly a wind blew through the courtyard, as it had before, bringing leaves with it.

The Hoppers put their wings up all at once, like they had a hive mind, and flew into the air.

Then all of them flew over the roofs toward to the West--North West, actually--and disappeared over the horizon in just a few minutes.

Everyone gaped after them.

Ruby, who'd fried at least a few dozen more in the time it took to do this, came up, out of breath.

"Did I miss it?" she asked. "What was that? They just left."

"No, they went home." Shine looked after them. "Salem's country is that direction, if I'm not mistaken."

"You're right." Watts had followed them to see what happened. He was rubbing his chin. "I wonder if they will make it back."

* * *

In fact they did.

Salem didn't understand why they left Beacon at all, but she wasn't at all expecting them to swarm her own castle only about an hour after that. They were fast fliers.

The Hoppers landed all over the castle and proceeded to tear to shreds all the humanoid artifacts that Salem had along the walls.

They left the Grimm parts alone.

This didn't amount to much, since Salem hardly needed anything to subsist.

But they found Tyrian and almost took his tail off again.

Salem heard the sound of screaming and destroyed them all.

But she was livid.

What had gone wrong? This had not happened before!

Were they mocking her?

She failed to see the irony of her asking the question.

Livid, she went to one of her Seers. If they wanted to play games, fine, she could play too.

[I think she deserved it, personally. But Salem is nothing if not petty.]

* * *

The darkness lasted all day. Not that you could tell if it was day or not.

On top of which, everyone's scrolls went dead without solar powered charging, and using a charging cord took more time and didn't last nearly as long, plus...the energy in the city came from a power plant that was outside the black dome, and wouldn't you know? A lot of that was directed at bigger things like train stations. The private energy was mostly also solar powered.

[This is all that makes sense, otherwise those scroll and other things should be running out of power constantly with how many days they go without seeing a city.]

That would have seemed like a minor problem after the Grimm--except that around 5 in the later afternoon, half the lights in the city shut off, and backup power was not as good here as in Atlas.

So now it was darker than before.

Inside the house, they used candles to light it as well as they could, but it was just eerie. And they were going to need more.

"So...are we still not going to try to do anything?" Sun asked.

"The council has already been looking into it." Qrow had left several times that day to get updates--and none of them were good news. "Nothing they hit it with has worked; it just absorbs it. They think maybe a big enough bomb might do it, but they don't have that kind of tech. This kingdom was way behind Atlas when it comes to that."

"One has to question such short-sightedness," Whitley shivered.

"Ice, fire, electricity, none of it is working," Qrow reiterated. "They tried to fly a drone through it also. It didn't come back. Lost control as soon as it went through the wall."

"So the other side is open," Winter said.

"Or it just devoured it," Qrow said. "No one wants to take the chance that there's a whole Grimm army on the other side of this."

"So they'd rather take the chance that we just got eaten and we'll be digested soon?" Mercury said.

"Since there's no floor on the thing, I doubt it's a mouth," Qrow said.

"Yet," Mercury said.

"Do you have any better idea?" Qrow asked crossly.

"Another storm might do it," Raven said. "But...not sure I could manage one right now."

"I could," Vara said. "Maybe me and the Ice Queen should just try."

Winter looked at her hand. "If it would help."

"On the other hand," Klein said, "they are looking for you special girls. Might that not just draw more trouble to our door?"

"So we leave Haven to pay for this?" Winter said, so sharply that it startled Weiss.

"No," Klein said. "But for now our lives are not in measurable danger, are they? Perhaps just not acting too hastily would be advisable."

"We're stuck here," Libby said. "Even I can't find a bright side to this, other than we've got a lower chance of sunburn while that's up."

No one laughed.

"The air quality should be okay for at least a few days," Qrow added. "But it's going to be less fresh. Hopefully that won't matter, but...well, the plants will be dead in just a few days also."

"We can't wait for that," Raven said. "Besides, this feels like a trap. Now that she's got us cornered, she'll just kill us. Send something else in here that we can't run away from."

She began to pace. "We should have left before this happened. She was trying to hem us in all along--that's what the other attacks were. I should have seen that. How could I be such a fool?"

"You were distracted by having that horrible episode," Blake said. "I'm just...wondering where my parents are."

They hadn't come back since the Midge attack, when they'd been with some White Fang members across town. The streets had been so slick that everyone just assumed that they couldn't make it back, but now that the Midges were pretty much gone, they still hadn't found their way back.

Blake hoped they were just trying to calm people down, but they hadn't answered any of her texts, and now her scroll was dead, so they couldn't. They were never that good about returning calls anyway, being kind of old school, which annoyed her sometimes.

"I feel like we shouldn't be sitting in here doing nothing." Sun was getting really restless.

"And what do you suggest?" Mercury said irritably.

"I dunno, but something!" Sun said. "Maybe we could get out of here and outside the walls. We don't know for sure there's anything waiting for us on the other side. It might be totally clear."

"And if it's not, we won't come back," Blake said.

"Well, it's worth a shot," Sun said. "I say we do it. Better that than waiting for her to come get us."

"Talking isn't going to accomplish anything," Qrow agreed. "I don't like sitting still. This is making me antsy."

"Do you think the others tried to come back?" Hazel mused. "And couldn't? Or that they don't know?"

"We can't find out." Weiss waved her useless scroll.

"Just the same, we should not panic," Klein said. "All of these attacks have passed within one day so far. If it is to scare us, it may not last." He switched personalities and sneezed, then said, "I wish I could give her what for!"

"Had we simply left immediately after getting back, this could not have happened," Winter spoke, sounding stressed. "We shouldn't have waited."

"We didn't know," Emerald said.

"It should have been clear." Winter put a hand to her head. "Everything else had a pattern. As soon as we let our guard down, something else hit. The others probably have not returned because there is another attack on Beacon currently stopping them. And we will never know, till it's too late to do a thing to help them."

"Winter?" Weiss said.

"Forgive me." Winter left the room in a hurry.

"I've never seen her do that." Whitley sounded freaked out.

"The strain of this is wearing on all of us." Willow had a cup of tea in her hand--and was shaking. "In all my days as a huntress, I never saw anything like this."

Zwei whimpered.

"I hate to be the one to say this," Raven said, after a pause, "but the Sword of Destruction is here. If we knew the password, we could use it and destroy this dome."

"We could only get the password from Ozpin." Blake rubbed her ears.

"The thing about that," Raven said, "our scrolls may not be working--but there is the note writing thing that Likstar does--or...I could use my Semblance."

"You could get us all out of here then," Weiss said.

"I don't know if I have that kind of control," Raven said. "Some of us, maybe. Maybe we take the Sword with us...Get out of here."

"And leave Haven like this?" Blake asked.

"You can't always be the hero," Raven said. "You have to make a choice to survive. Either we use the Sword, if that would work, or we don't, but we have to think of ourselves. You want to be the good guy, but good guys don't usually live that long."

"That is exactly what I'd expect you to suggest," Qrow said.

"What choice do we have?" Raven snapped.

"She's not entirely wrong," Hazel said. "Keeping the Relics and Maidens away from Salem is a higher priority than the safety of this kingdom."

"That doesn't sound right," Weiss said. "That sounds like something Salem would say."

"Salem wouldn't be thinking of it at all," Hazel said.

"I'm with them. We should jet," Mercury said. "Anyway, what has Mistral ever done for us?"

"Asking a city what it's done for you? That's kind of a weird question," Blake said. "It's people's lives--and my parents', too!"

"So bring 'em," Mercury said.

"They wouldn't leave their friends behind. They're good people," Blake said. "I can't believe we're even talking about this."

"If this gets worse, I'm leaving," Raven said, firmly. "You can come with me or stay here, but I didn't get this far to let Salem capture me in such a stupid way."

"So if Yang isn't here, that's it?" Weiss said. "The rest of us don't matter."

"Have I ever said anything to the contrary?" Raven could be so cold.

Weiss looked affronted.

"Chilly," Libby muttered.

"Well, if you want our two bits," Roman spoke up, "it's only making it worse to stay. If we can go to Vale, we should."

Neo nodded.

"I'm so tired of this," Blake said, ears down, "running, fighting, never getting any closer to winning... Just when we think we're ahead, she does something else. She's just toying with us."

"Welcome to my world," Raven muttered.

"I just don't want to deal with it anymore," Blake said. "Just...do what you want. I can't."

She ran out of the room.

"Blake..." Sun said sadly.

"We've been fighting too long," Qrow said. "It never ends."

"Don't start!" Weiss said. "I have had enough of all of you and your negativity!" She gestured angrily. "It looks pretty bleak out there--"

"Don't you mean pretty Grimm?" Mercury interrupted.

Weiss gave him a death glare.

Then she went on, "--and yeah, maybe we haven't exactly won, but we haven't lost either. There still might be a chance. If Ruby were here, she'd be sure to say that. We should find some way to save both this city and ourselves... If Raven wants to take the Maidens and leave, fine. Keep them safe. The rest of us can try to stop this mess."

"A worthy compromise," Klein said.

"Your sister won't go, Weiss," Willow spoke softly but gravely. "I know her. She's not going to leave the city."

"Maybe we can convince her," Weiss said. "If they go with the Relic, Salem will change her focus, right?"

"And send more problems to Vale," Qrow said.

"Yeah, but...the DJs are in Vale," Weiss said. "Maybe they can stop this. Or they can at least keep moving, maybe away from the kingdoms... They must have an idea by now. Anyway, Ozpin is there, so if we need to use the Relic to do anything, that's our best bet. That's the most sensible solution."

"Fair enough," Raven said.

"And then Qrow will stay here with us," Weiss said. "Then, if we clear this up, Raven can just portal us all after her to them, and we'll save time. Your Aura is at least up to that, right?"

"Marginally," Raven said. "I wouldn't count on it lasting."

"So if we split into a smaller group, you have a shot of holding out," Weiss said. "So just you, Vara, and Winter can go. You can manage that, I'm sure."

Everyone thought.

"Not a bad plan, actually," Emerald admitted.

No one else objected.

"Okay then," Weiss said. "We just need to go get the Relic again and then move."

"Wait a minute," Qrow said. "The goal was to hide it here. It's a risk to take it out again."

"Salem won't stop doing this till we're gone," Weiss said. "We have to."

"I think she's right," Hazel said. "And you could put it back later, once this is over."

That was unlikely.

Still...

"Fine." Qrow had no better idea.

"Now how do we get the Ice Queen to agree?" Raven asked.

Weiss sighed. "I'll talk to her. Maybe she'll listen to me...once I find her..."

She left the room.

"I'll get the Relic." Raven didn't want to waste time.

"I'll go with you." Hazel didn't trust for one second that Raven could do this alone if she had another attack.

Emerald and Mercury, for the same reason, offered to go with them.

No one even realized that this was all former villains; they'd all pretty much stopped thinking that way.

But Weiss didn't find Winter inside anywhere.

"Did she go out?" she wondered.

"I hope to goodness she didn't go to try something stupid," Whitley remarked.

"She's a Schnee. The odds are about 50-50," Libby said.

"Hey!" Weiss said.

"What? That's a compliment. The odds of everyone else on this team are more like 70-30," Libby replied.

"I'll look for her," Qrow said resolutely.

"Me too," Weiss said. 

"Need light?" Vara asked, energy crackling in her hand.

* * *

Yang didn't say a word after the Hoppers left--not to Shine or Wally anyway.

But she did ask Oscar something.

Not "how did you do that?" which is what he expected.

"Do you know who Jonah is?" she asked instead.

"Huh?" Oscar blinked.

"Earlier, she said I sound like Jonah. It sounded like an insult," Yang said.

"Jonah...oh!" Oscar took his holy book out of his backpack. "Let me see... Yeah, there's a book called Jonah." He turned to one past the middle.

"That is tiny writing," Yang noted.

"Yeah, well, there's a lot of words to fit," Oscar said. "I don't know why she said that...uh..." He was reading the introduction to it that was in front of the book. "Oh, it's a prophetic book. Jonah was a prophet."

[Veggie Tales fans go, "Ooh-ooh, but he really never got it. Sad but true..." Look that up if you don't know what it is.]

"Like Alicia?" Yang asked.

"Not like her." Oscar was reading fast now. It was only 4 chapters long anyway. "He ran away from God after God told him to go to... According to the footnotes, it says the city was...Nin-ah-vah? I don't know how to say it, but they were the enemies of Israel--uh, his people, I mean. So he didn't do it..."

He turned the page. "Oh, he got eaten by a fish."

"What?" Yang said blankly.

"Yeah, for 3 days... There's a poem about it." Oscar was reading. "But then it...spat him back out, and he went anyway..."

He speed read. "Oh, it worked. They repented."

"Repented?" Yang had never heard the word in her life. [I don't think it's used that much outside of church. I've never heard anyone use it.]

"You know...regretted it, turned from it?" Oscar was booksmart, of course. "Like what we're trying to do with Ozpin's methods?"

He really shouldn't be speaking for everyone else when he said that.

Ozpin made a huffy sound inside his head, even if he'd been more subdued since Shine had threatened him earlier.

"I don't get it--I'm not remotely like this," Yang said.

"Well, I was in a whale-shaped Grimm for a few days," Oscar said, "and you did go in it. But I'm sure she meant something else... Oh..." He'd read ahead. "I...uh..."

"What? Did you find it?" Yang asked.

"You don't really want to know--" Oscar said, before she yanked the book out of his hand.

"Careful!" Oscar didn't want her to tear it--sure, he could get a new copy, but he liked this one. It felt familiar by now.

Yang saw he'd been reading chapter 4, and almost at once she knew what Shine's jab had meant, because she saw these words:

"But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry...'for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in loving-kindness, One who relents from doing harm...' Then the Lord said, 'Is it right for you to be angry?'...

"But the Lord said...'And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?'"

Yang snapped the book shut angrily.

"She's really pissing me off," she said. "She can't just say this to my face?"

Oscar looked a little nervous about her anger. "She probably just doesn't want to embarrass you."

"So this is better? I think she's saying I'm like this guy--I just want people to be destroyed because they're my enemies. And what is she, like God?" Yang was pretty angry for someone who had never admitted to this God actually existing. But just the idea of it offended her.

"But..." Oscar risked responding to that. "...isn't that kind of what you said? I...I heard you say it earlier, that you didn't want her to spare Cinder because you know she does this."

Yang scowled at him.

Oscar dared to not back down. Suddenly he felt a lot stronger.

"Yang, are you mad at Shine for the Relic, or are you mad at her for not hating our enemies?" he asked slowly. "Because I think you know that she doesn't hate them, and that she and Wally never wanted them to die to begin with. And if you acted for any reason other than that, it was you who was being different, not them, because they've always said that. I understand about the Relic, because it's nerve-wracking to worry about it, but that's not what you said, so is it really what you thought?"

"I don't know," Yang said defensively. "I think I'm angry about both, but that's no reason to say I'm a bad person. I mean, who cares about reprehensible people like that?"

"God, apparently," Oscar said, like it was nothing. "And them..."

His Aura glowed suddenly.

He looked at his hands. "What was that? Why does that keep happening...just when I say stuff?"

"Did you unlock your Semblance?" Yang said, oddly.

"I don't know," Oscar said. "This happened before a few times when we were talking about important stuff, but not just that--it was always after I said something and I felt a little more confident, and then my Aura shimmered like that."

"That's definitely like a Semblance," Yang said. "I'm not an expert--" She crossed her arms. "--but you must be activating it somehow by what you're saying or thinking. Just like Ren's--or mine, even. But for you, it's gotta be something else. Courage, maybe."

"I don't think so. I don't feel brave," Oscar said. "Just more...sure. For a few moments."

"It's got me, but you should figure it out so you can use it on command." Yang walked away before Oscar could say any other truths she didn't want to hear.

[That was a hint for those of you still trying to figure his Semblance out.]