Weiss and Meridian were still talking when something changed above.

The dark Grimm sheen overhead suddenly shimmered like a tv screen, and images appeared over it.

It was just like one of the Seers.

Weiss had seen it before, but not many other people even in the team had, and the ones in the house didn't even realize what had happened. They heard a voice that was projected like it was from a megaphone.

Salem's face appeared, like she was looking right into a camera.

"What in the mother of  Grimm is that?" Meridian asked.

"The mother of Grimm..." Weiss had gone paler than usual.

"Ah, the kingdom of Mistral," Salem spoke, while people were screaming--but they stopped to hear. "I hope you're enjoying my...display."

"Who is that?" Weiss heard people yelling.

"Maybe it's the witch that girl mentioned in her broadcast."

"I thought that was a prank!"

"Quiet!"

"I suppose you've been wondering what the reason for all these unfortunate plagues has been," Salem went on, unruffled. "The answer is simple: You're harboring some friends of mine. No doubt you'll have seen a team of rogue hunstmen and other eccentric characters, commonly known as teams RWBY and JNPR."

People muttered because they knew the names.

"They're being led by Atlas former Lieutenant Winter Schnee and the hunstmen Qrow Branwen, as well as the Bandit Raven Branwen, and the Headmaster of Vacuo's Shade
Academy," Salem went on. "They've got something that I want. Turn them over, and I will lift the plagues off Mistral and allow you to live. Choose to harbor them against all reason and sanity, and these attacks will get worse until there is nothing left."

She almost purred the last part, considering it was such a threat.

Weiss swallowed.

"Is that her?" Meridian asked. "The big, scary person you're fighting? Big is the right word."

"She did this before...with Ironwood," Weiss said. "And then he went off his rocker."

Not that they hadn't helped with that.

"Is she life-sized?" Meridian asked.

"No, no, she's the size of a human," Weiss said. "That's just a projection."

"Oh, well, she's bit of a showboat, ain't she?" Meridian scoffed.

"Why aren't you taking this seriously? She's threatening them to turn us in!" Weiss hissed.

"I noticed," Meridian said. "Eh, I wonder if she can see us."

Suddenly he ran to a drainage pipe and shimmied up it--you could sort of see now. Salem's background was emitting an eerie red light with it.

Weiss frantically ran after him to stop him, but he was faster, and she had to vault herself onto the roof with a glyph to catch up.

"You have 3 hours," Salem added. "If you thought the fall of Atlas was spectacular, wait till you see what I have in store for Mistral. If you decide to hand them over, just put them through the wall, and no harm will come to the rest of you."

She looked down.

"Hello, Weiss."

Weiss felt her blood run cold. Salem could see her? She guessed the roof was more exposed, but they must look so tiny.

"So she can see us." Meridian wasn't acting at all nervous.

He took his bow out and shot an arrow up at Salem's face--which did nothing except that she apparently saw it, because she glared at him.

"Piss off, you bloody hag," Meridian called, making people look at him like he'd lost his mind. "Everyone knows you don't make a deal with the devil. Probably just kill us once you got your little prize, would you? I'll tell you what you can do with your mercy, you can take it and shove it right up--"

"Meridian!" Weiss clamped her hand over his mouth--which she had to reach pretty high to do.

Salem glared at him. "Who are you? You impudent--" But then she paused. "But threats will get you nowhere. I will--"

Right across her words, they heard a loud crackling, sizzling sound, and blinding light came from above and fried the black shell.

Salem's face dissipated, as did the entire wall...and fresh air--cold, biting air with the salty smell of the sea--finally came rushing into the kingdom and so did rain, a drizzle that became a downpour.

All the remaining black goo in the streets dissolved, and the small, dog gremlins all ran out, howling, like they hadn't signed up for thunderstorms.

Weiss and Meridian were both soaked in a few seconds.

"Well, that was a bit more climatic than I expected." Meridian rubbed his head. The rain was making his red hair look almost brown. "But effective."

"You are insane!" Weiss cried, though she was half smiling. "But what was that?"

"It wasn't me, I don't think," Meridian said. "Unless I have way more power than I thought. What was that about?"

The people were looking at them strangely.

"So is she coming or not?" someone called.

"I don't know," someone else said. "Who did she want?"

"We should get out of here," Weiss said.

"I have a feeling that some people may still want to turn you over," Meridian said. "Do you think she'll come to collect after that?"

"I don't know, but she'll come here somehow," Weiss said. "I...I can't believe she did that. She's always worked in the shadows, but now...she doesn't care?"

"Speaking as a total novice, that would probably mean she no longer needs to skulk around," Meridian said.

"Weiss?" Weiss heard a familiar voice call.

She looked down, and Wally was in the street, waving at her. "What are you doing up there?"

"Mr. West!" Weiss jumped to the ground and ran to him, then she actually gave him a hug. "Did you fry it?"

"Not exactly," Wally said. "But it was something else."

"Did you hear the message?" Weiss asked.

"I didn't hear anything..." Wally was confused. "Is that Meridian up there?" He waved.

Meridian slid down.

"You missed it. It was a goshdanged horror movie," he said.

Shine, Yang, Oscar, and Raven, came running up the street.

"People don't seem quite as happy as I would have thought," Oscar said.

"What's going on?" Yang asked. "What were all those little Grimm that ran out?"

"Yang!" Weiss called.

"Weiss?" Yang saw her. "Oh, you're okay--"

Weiss hugged her also. "You guys actually came!"

"Of course we did," Wally said. "You guys are our team... And look, Wallace is here too."

"Now that it's finally light, I should find Hamish," Meridian said. "If that fiend was the one at Vacuo, we are in trouble."

"Salem was here," Weiss sputtered.

"Here?" Yang looked around.

"Not in person," Weiss said, "but like in the office--like a video...over the whole ceiling. It was horrible. She..."

She explained what happened.

"So she's resorting to that now..." Raven shivered.

"I'm not surprised," Shine said. "She only needs the two Relics. She knows we have them. If she can turn the world against us, it saves her the trouble of fighting her way through them. It might even have worked...if that lightning hadn't struck at that time. Well, I rest my case--you really think we aren't getting help?"

"That was great," Meridian agreed. "I don't know who your God is, but He's got a great sense of humor. I bet the look on that ugly bag's face was classic."

"You shouldn't talk about a woman like that," Wally said.

"That was a woman?" Meridian replied.

Wally snickered.

"Can you take us back to the house? We need to get everyone and get out of here," Shine said. "Salem won't take that insult lightly... I couldn't have timed it better myself, but we'd better not be here when she recovers."

"We have another problem," Weiss said.

"Tell us on the way," Yang said.

* * *

How it was that when the dome was fried, electricity also shot out of the Seer Salem was using, she had no idea. But it was fried and fell to the floor useless.

Salem kicked it away and screamed.

The glass in her house broke again.

Tyrian wasn't there. He'd gone to wait for the others to be ejected from Mistral--good thing, too. She might have killed anyone in sight.

[If you could call it a good thing that she didn't kill him.]

After throwing a few more things around, Salem reflected that this had not been in the book.

At least not the part she'd read.

At the moment, Salem was too far gone to fear this interference, even if it was Divine. She was only enraged at being meddled with by a deity again after thousands of years. It didn't occur to her to take this as a warning.

So they wanted to play like this? Well, so much for the indirect approach.

She would come up with something far less merciful this time. Those Maidens would be begging her to end them soon.

Time to search her library of Grimm.

[You know, this could be metaphorical, but I actually completely buy Salem having a room in her creepy castle just dedicated to all the different types of Grimm she knows about, so that she can look it up when she's need a specific one. That's exactly what a RWBY villain would have.]

* * *

The plane ride to the edge of Vacuo was quiet.

Winter was still not happy with being forced to be here but supposed it had all worked out.

She just hoped the Haven group was still okay after all that trouble.

"Thinking about the others?" Vara moved to the seat right behind her.

Winter gave her a cold look.

"All right, I may have overreacted a little earlier," Vara said, reluctantly. "It's...being in the dark so long--I guess it made me a little crazy. I just stopped living underground, like, two weeks ago... It was suffocating me. I...I act pretty b----y when I'm stressed."

"That is your excuse?" Winter said.

Vara fingered the back of the seat. "My Semblance makes me hyper sensitive," she said slowly. "The magic makes it worse. I've used it so often that I'm basically wired all the time more than a junkie who needs a fix. I feel like I'm paper about to tear. It's not fair to everyone--to be honest, I was kind of a b----h even before that. Not a lot of people liked me. So...I get really aggressive because it's less pathetic than just acting like a china doll all the freaking time, but I guess it's not really any less idiotic, just feels better."

"Why didn't you explain that before?" Winter said.

"Because if people knew I was an easy target, they'd only pick on me more," Vara said.

"Or they might try to understand," Winter said.

"Not many of them do," Vara huffed. "Trust me, that crap doesn't fly in Vacuo."

Winter sighed. "And to think we're heading back there..."

"Anyway, the point is, I don't mean to be such a b----," Vara said. "I get too full of everything--it's like I can't think. Fun getting to know the Summer Maiden, huh?"

She leaned back. And sighed.

Winter shrugged. "I'm not exactly known for being easy-going either. I'm not one to diffuse a situation when I could use force. So I suppose I share some of the blame."

"Honestly, I like someone with a spine," Vara said. "If you weren't so frigid and uptight, I'd probably like you."

Winter frowned at her.

"Trust me, that was a compliment." Theo was sharpening one of his weapons in the seat across from Vara.

"Shut up," Vara said. "Did I ask for your help?"

"Oh, don't get your panties in a wad," Theo replied carelessly.

Winter made a face.

"Dare I ask why you actually date that...questionable man?" she said.

"Rude much?" Vara said. "Mostly, I just like him for his looks."

Theo just grinned and didn't even look up.

"Right," Winter said.

"For real--" Vara sombered. "--not many people get me. Or would have stuck it out this long with someone who's been losing their mind one brain cell at a time for the last 13 years. Apparently the whole experience twisted us both, but we're still together. What can I say? You have to have something in your life that you care about. And you could do a lot worse than the headmaster of a huntsmen academy. Be real. In Vacuo? That's like the big catch. Not everyone is as picky as you... Though I suppose you're not so picky, huh?"

"I never think about it." Winter folded her arms and stared at the window.

"Really? You never think about it?" Vara said. "What, are you made of ice?"

"Even if I wasn't," Winter said, "this isn't the time of history to be so concerned with things like that."

"What a stupid thing to say," Vara snorted. "If you don't have love when the world is ending, you're basically dead already. If you can't put aside your petty differences and see people for the best they are when you have everything to lose, you're some kind of a monster. We have to hang together at time like this. We're fricked without love."

"Your idea of love is dysfunctional to me," Winter said.

"Hey, we may not be perfect--or even normal," Vara admitted, "but it's real. You don't get perfect in this world, Ice Queen. You get what you get. And you be grateful for it, because some people don't even get that. Geez, just look at your mother--ended up with that skunk Jacques."

"Watch it." Winter glared at her.

"I'm just saying that love is messy enough without asking if timing is right. If you have a decent person, be glad you even have that. A lot of creeps out there are worse having than someone who actually gives a s--- about you. Speaking of which, when are you and Qrow finally gonna start dating?"

"What are you even talking about?" Winter felt like she was pink again for some reason. "That joke is getting really tiresome. In fact, I don't even understand why it's funny to you. Does hearing the same thing 100 times really still have humorous value?"

"Who says it's a joke?" Vara snorted. "We all know you two are digging on each other. It's been going on for ages."

"What a preposterous thought," Winter scoffed.

"Oh, sure," Vara said. "Hey, that kinda chemistry doesn't happen for nothing. Besides, you're always off talking alone somewhere. Do you think we're stupid?"

"You do not want me to answer that." Coldly.

"So you're seriously going to claim you don't like him?" Vara said, raising an eyebrow.

Theo made a huffing sound.

"I assure you I don't entertain notions like that," Winter said. "If you mean liking in the more friendly sense of the word, I suppose I do more than I did before, but I really don't try to quantify things like that."

"That is so like a Schnee," Vara said. "I think you all would rather die than have positive emotions. How do you live?"

"You're angry more often than anyone I've ever met," Winter replied.

"Yeah, but I have other emotions than that too," Vara shrugged. "Don't you?"

"Of course, but...I don't want to talk about this. It's ridiculous." Winter wondered why she'd even encouraged it at all.

Vara leaned on her hand, gingerly, and then made a sound of dismissal.

"Well, fine, if you're so sure that there's nothing there on your side, I guess I can't argue--but he definitely has something for you."

Winter was very uncomfortable with the idea--and she wasn't sure why, since normally she'd not have taken it seriously at all.

"That is also ridiculous." She didn't sound nearly as self-possessed as before.

"No, that's the thing that I'd believe either way," Theo remarked. "I've known Qrow for years. I think I know when he's mindlessly flirting and when he's not. Not that I've ever seen him be serious about a woman, but I figure he's one of those hopeless romantics at heart."

"Something no one would ever accuse you of," Vara said.

"Woman, you can't tolerate the majority of romantic gestures out there, because you're too sensitive for it, or because you think it's cheesy as h---. What do you expect from me?" Theo retorted.

"Leading with the grenade thing might not be the smartest idea," Vara said.

"I didn't lead with it, I followed with it."

"Oh, right, you led with hunting me."

"First, you know you were into that," Theo said. "Second, I didn't even know you then. That doesn't count. Technically, I led with getting lunch."

"Please stop talking about this where I can hear you." Winter put her hands to her ears.

"All right, all right, we'll hash this out later." Vara shot Theo a wry look. "The point is, you're so in denial. Bird Man totally likes you."

"What guy wouldn't like an ice cold b---- with a left hook?" Theo muttered.

Vara threw a gust of wind at him and shoved him sideways.

"Hey, I almost took my finger off," he said.

"Don't mind him," Vara said. "You're not bad looking, really. I could see it."

"I don't want to hear this," Winter repeated herself.

"Fine, fine." Vara waved it off. "But you know, if you don't do anything about it, it's just going to eat away at you. Trust me. Either reel a fish in or cut him loose. Don't drag it behind the boat." [Advice brought to you by Ron Swanson--and if Parks and Rec existed in Remnant, he would probably be Vara's favorite character.]

"Eh, Qrow probably doesn't take rejection well," Theo said. "Might not be a good idea."

"You can't put pressure on her like that, you psycho," Vara said. "You can't fake liking someone back. That's just sick."

"I'm just saying no news is good news while we're under so much pressure. It's like you can't break up with someone when they're dealing with a crisis."

"Theo, shut up."

Theo shrugged.

"Ignore that. You shouldn't do anything you don't want to do," Vara said. "Of course if you do want to, and you're lying, then you're really a b---h. But I'll leave that to you to figure out."

"Please," Winter said, "shut up."

"Shutting up." Vara for once was compliant.

But she said enough to bother Winter for the rest of that flight--and afterward too.

* * *

Jaune and Pyrrha had awkward tension going on with them also. They kind of missed Ren and Nora being there to lighten the mood.

Jaune had backed off of making passive aggressive remarks to Pyrrha since Shine and Wally had talked to him, but he didn't know how to apologize.

He knew they were right--he was being a jerk. But since they all knew that, what could he say to excuse it? And could he really change his actions?

Pyrrha had her scroll and was listening to music on it to distract herself.

She found a new song that she thought fit her mood pretty well after the last day or so. 

"There's a song that's inside of my soul. It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again. I'm awake in the infinite cold, but You sing to me over and over and over again.

"So I lay my head back down, and I lift my eyes and pray to be only Yours. I pray to be only Yours. I know now, You're my only Hope.

"Sing to me the song of the stars, of Your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again. When it feels like my dream's so far, sing to me of the plans that You have for me, over again.

"...I give you my destiny, I'm giving you all of me. I want your symphony singing in all that I am. At the top of my lungs, I'm giving it back..."

https://youtu.be/zsTbBGLqI7A

"We need to talk," Jaune interrupted finally.

Pyrrha took her earbuds out and looked at him questioningly.

"I know I shouldn't have blown up at you," Jaune said slowly. "I said stuff that was really stupid and ungrateful... I'm sorry. I know that doesn't make up for it, but..."

"You know, I'm not really mad about what you said." Pyrrha didn't accept it as fast as usual. "I knew you were upset. I also know I've made my mistakes. What bothers me is you not wanting me to take the chance to rectify them. You may not like what I did, but it was what I did, and I need to do what I can to change now. I can't do that if you always want to see it through the lens of the past. I'm...not back one year ago, Jaune. But it seems like you are."

"It's been really hard to move on," Jaune said.

"Even though I'm okay?" Pyrrha said.

"I don't know. It's almost like that made it harder," Jaune said.

Pyrrha looked hurt.

"Not like that." Jaune held up his hands. "But after losing you once, losing you again seems even more...well, at least if it was the same way. You should get a chance to live the best life. If Cinder had killed you again, what would it all have meant?"

"I'll tell you what it would have meant," Pyrrha said. "This time it would have been for something I truly believe in. So it would have mattered more. And I could face that. You know, I am going to die again someday... I'm not opposed to the idea of it being the same way, fighting...or it being any other way. I don't care... It seems like an odd thing to care about."

"Doesn't it bother you that you could die again just like the rest of us?" Jaune said.

"The dying part really isn't so bad," Pyrrha said. "I don't remember it, remember? And being gravely injured, what I do remember, could happen many times in someone's life without them dying. So I can't spend all my time worrying about that. The pain itself doesn't bother me. It's the reason. I really...I can't think for you, but I wish you were okay with that. You...you make me feel like I'm something breakable, instead of just a human being with a life to live."

Jaune winced.

She wasn't wrong.

Pyrrha felt terrible even saying that out loud, but it had been bothering her for a long time.

"I...I know it hit you hard, much harder than I could have imagined," she said, "but...you can't protect me, Jaune. If you try, you'll just get hurt."

"We need to protect each other," Jaune insisted. "It can't be right to just...not do that."

"If we're right in front of someone, of course," Pyrrha said. "But what if we were across the world from each other? We cannot watch each other's every step. It's just not possible. Are you going to blame yourself if something bad happens to me when you're not there?"

Jaune was silent.

"You know this already," Pyrrha said, "so why haven't you accepted it? What's holding you back?"

Jaune sighed. "You know, Shine gave me a really harsh lecture about how I've acted... I mean, she wasn't wrong... It just hurt."

Pyrrha had suspected as much.

"She can be quite forceful, but she means it to be helpful," she said.

"I don't think that's why it bothers me," Jaune said. "She said it had been like this for a long time... She reminded me of something I did before. I told you about it, I think. I thought I was past it...that I wanted to kill Cinder...but she made it seem like I wasn't past it. I still want revenge, even now. I still think she should pay for what she did, even if she didn't succeed forever. Shine doesn't think that way, and you don't."

"You're angry that I don't, aren't you?" Pyrrha said slowly. "You think I should hate her."

"I don't know why you don't, with the kind of person she is," Jaune said, "but wanting to help her on top of that... I don't know why I have all this anger." He clenched a fist. "But it's...it's never gone away."

Pyrrha waited for a moment before she said, "Jaune, I can't pretend to be an expert on feelings, but it seems to me that this anger and the way you're afraid to let me go are both coming from the same source. If you found what that was, perhaps you could escape it."

"Shine said something else. She pointed out that I helped Cardin once," Jaune said, "and he was a bully. So...what changed? What happened to me?"

"Cardin only hurt you, not anyone else you liked," Pyrrha said. "You always blamed yourself for what he did because you thought you should be strong enough to stop him...but the only way you were stronger than him was when you protected him instead of yourself. He knew it, too. You've always been stronger protecting other people than yourself. And I like that about you. But when you can't protect someone, you take it really hard, I suppose... I never saw you fail to do that before, but I guess after I was gone, it happened. You blame Cinder for making that happen, but I think you really blame yourself."

"Wow..." Jaune shook his head. "Didn't you just say you weren't good at this? That sounded pretty accurate to me. But you could always see through me."

"I think it's more like I could see the real you," Pyrrha said. "Perhaps this anger is simply another form of the posturing you tried when you first came to Beacon."

Savage.

"You mean I'm covering up my fear?" Jaune said.

"I'm only guessing," Pyrrha said.

"But you're not afraid," Jaune said, strangely.

[Whatever idiot wrote the line Ren said in Volume 8 that Jaune wasn't afraid clearly didn't pay attention to the previous volumes--no surprise. Jaune is always afraid. Why else would he be so desperate?]

"Not of the same things you are," Pyrrha said. "I would be afraid to fail again. But you know, when I was talking to Cinder, that fear wasn't there. It must have been supernatural, because I was nervous beforehand. But in the moment, I just thought of what I had learned and what I could tell her. And acting out of love, the fear wasn't there. I know you have a lot of love also, Jaune. I don't know why we're different in this way. Maybe because the worst already happened to me."

"It happened to me too," Jaune said. "Losing you was the worst thing that could have ever happened."

Pyrrha reddened.

"There is one thing worse than that," she said slowly, "losing your faith, your heart... Did you lose that also, Jaune?"

Jaune didn't know how to answer. He stared at the seat in front of him... Maybe he had. Maybe Pyrrha had represented what he believed in a lot...but not just her... Ever since Beacon things had constantly discouraged him from believing in what he used to, which had never been that concrete for him anyway.

"I don't know," he said, bitterly. "I know that it's not just what happened to you that did it. It was a lot of things... Maybe Ozpin was the last straw, or maybe it was Atlas falling. I just feel like we never win."

"Do we need to win to be sure that we did the right thing?" Pyrrha asked.

"What is it all for if we don't win?" Jaune asked.

Pyrrha pursed her lips. "Remember the story we read in Underland?" [Screw you, Volume 9, Underland is a way better name than Ever After. We all know which book you're ripping off. Get over yourselves.] "About the son of God dying for us all?"

"I still don't get it," Jaune said. "I still don't get why He died. And He rose, but it seemed like nothing happened. The world is still a mess--more than one world, in fact. If He saved us from sin, why is there still sin? Why do we still suffer? When does it end?"

"I don't know," Pyrrha said. "But it's just possible that salvation is not what we think it is. Those people who followed Him, didn't they think He was a king? But His kingdom wasn't an earthly one, not then. And it's not now. I don't think it's changing your outward circumstances that matters the most, I think it's what inside. I hope the world gets better, but if I hoped only in that, I'd be discouraged too. It's just not what I'm focused on anymore. Perhaps that is what changed for me. Death is not the end. So why are you so afraid of it?"

"I'm not...exactly," Jaune said. "Just that...it'll be wrong again. Too soon."

"We can speculate, Jaune, but only He could know what is and is not too soon. Isn't it arrogant to think we know that?" Pyrrha said.

"What about when people die who were just living their lives?" Jaune said. "What about children? People who were about to have the happiest day of their lives? It gets destroyed all the time by things like Salem and Cinder, and does it seem like God cares? How can that be the right time?"

"I don't know, but trouble doesn't end just because life goes on. I've had more unpleasant moments than pleasant ones," Pyrrha said. "I wouldn't change it. But the assumption that living itself is easier than dying seems a bit too simple to me. Living is hard. Worthwhile, but hard. It's...the idea of justice you have just being that people live their lives--it's odd, because isn't it what kind of life they led that makes it meaningful? And these things that seem so important to us, like time and celebrations and accomplishments, what if to God they don't matter? I mean, who would care 100 years from now if someone had a party or a victory celebration, unless it affected other people? And it seems to me it's not safer to people when it is more than just personal... But if personally you are satisfied, what is long life? You could grow old and not be any happier than anyone else. I just... Again, is it for us to judge?"

"So those of us who are left to hurt over it don't matter?" Jaune said. "Even if you could say all those people were better off, and I don't know if you could say it, there's so much suffering in life."

"I don't know, Jaune. All I know is that all I've studied so far seems to say that God wants to help us through suffering, not stop it," Pyrrha said. "In His wisdom, perhaps that's best. I am not smart enough to run the universe--who am I to argue with it?... And if you are trying to do that...I do not mean to be harsh, but who does that sound like?"

Chilling.

Because of course it sounded like Salem.

"Didn't we all agree that Salem was wronged by the gods?" Jaune said. "Why couldn't we be?"

"Jaune, those gods abandoned her," Pyrrha said, "all of us. And they were hypocritical. That's not at all the same as the other one. He stays with people and guides them their whole life--you know what we've studied. I'd trust His judgement because He is right there with it. I won't trust someone who hasn't taken care of what they made."

"And right here, with us, these things still happen," Jaune said.

"I don't blame Him," Pyrrha said.

"What if I do?" Jaune said.

Pyrrha shook her head. "I can't help you then."

That was sobering.

"But I just don't see how that's making you happier or braver to think that way." Pyrrha looked aside. "But I won't scold you or try to make light of it. We're going different directions now with this..."

"Are you saying you want to break up?" Jaune said nervously.

"No," Pyrrha said. "I don't think it's right to do that just because someone is dealing with something...but if I can't help you with it...I don't know what you want me to do. We're at an impasse. I think something would have to change within you first. I would do anything I could to make it better, but I'm at a loss."

Jaune didn't know what she could do to help him any more than she did.