https://youtu.be/bUuoYqyLw_k

[Sacrifice-- Jeff Williams]

The night passed fitfully for most of the two teams--and their extras.

Shine fell asleep on the couch downstairs from pure exhaustion at the dimension lag.

Wally put a coat on her as a blanket and then ended up falling asleep leaning on the end of it on the floor because he got hit hard.

Shine woke up suddenly early in the morning, just before dawn, feeling like something had startled her awake.

She felt like her senses were tingling, but she wasn't sure for what.

Then she heard movement upstairs and thought maybe someone had gotten up and that's what she heard.

She might have been right, because Jaune did appear and so did Oscar.

"I just couldn't sleep..." Oscar explained, looking tired.

"Yeah," Jaune said.

"You guys want some coffee?" Wally sat up, rubbing his eyes. 😴🥱

"Sure," Oscar said. "But you don't have to make it--"

"Oh, no, 8 cups coming right up," Wally said. "How did you take it?"

"We don't need 8 cups...unless you're making it for everyone else?" Jaune said.

"No, 6 of these are for me, unless Shine wants some," Wally said.

"I won't say no to coffee." Shine rubbed her face also. "Oscar takes it plain with two sugars. Jaune hasn't said, but I would guess he's a 3 or 4 sugars kind of guy, with cream."

"Uh...yeah. How did you know that?" Jaune said.

"You remember what I did?" Oscar said.

"I tend to notice everything the first few days," Shine remarked. "My brain gets hyper sensitive in these new environments."

"I got it," Wally said.

He disappeared, and they heard things move really quickly.

"The sun's not even up yet." Shine glanced at the window. "We didn't sleep for very long...well, long enough, I hope."

"I'm worried about that plan," Jaune said. "It sounded like a better idea last night."

"It'll work," Oscar said confidently. "We have to try, right?"

Shine made no comment.

Jaune was about to say something else when suddenly the door was knocked on.

They all turned to look at it.

"Who would be here at this hour?" Oscar said. "Shine, you and Wally don't have more friends, do you?"

"None that I know of," Shine said. "And if so, we have a whole other problem to talk about. Maybe you were followed. Or maybe it's someone we wouldn't expect."

Wally brought her some coffee. "First cup goes to the MVP in my life," he said smoothly.

"Aww..." Shine said. "You mean human of course."

"Only you would make sure of that before taking a compliment," Wally said.

"I'm just messing with you," Shine said.

"Guys, aren't you worried that you got followed?" Jaune asked.

"Well, here's an idea, Jaune--you could answer the door and see," Shine said. "And if we were, we'll take care of it."

"Yeah, what if they leave?" Oscar said. "And we won't know who it was. What if it's a test?"

"Okay...sure..." Jaune put his hand on his sword and moved to the door.

"So he always wears the sword?" Wally said. "Doesn't it get heavy?"

"Who knows?" Shine said. "Makes me feel a little worried about the safety of the house."

Oscar ignored them. He was wondering who would be bold enough to knock on a door at this hour and expect to get an answer at all.

Jaune slowly open it, expecting any of Salem's minions or else Atlas military to be there.

But he never expected what he did see:

"Jaune?" Pyrrha Nikos was standing on the doorstep, rubbing her arms in the cold, wearing the same armor she'd worn the last time anyone had seen her...minus her sword and shield.

Jaune was convinced he'd either been dreaming this whole time or had officially started hallucinating, because this looked way too real to be anything else.

"Ah!..." He jumped back.

"What is it?" Pyrrha asked, looking behind her as if she expected to see a Grimm there.

"Who is it?" Oscar came into view.

He saw Pyrrha standing there and had no idea who she was, but then Ozpin's memories must have kicked into place for him.

"Wait...Miss Nikos?" he said.

Pyrrha looked up at him blankly. "Yes...who are you?"

"I...uh..." Oscar sputtered, then he looked at Shine and Wally like he expected them to help.

Shine? She took a sip of her coffee like nothing was happening. ☕

Wally had gone back to the kitchen to get the other coffees and heard none of this.

"Can I come in?" Pyrrha asked hesitantly. "It's freezing out here... I'm not sure how it got so cold...or why I'm here... This doesn't look like a street by the school, but I don't remember much of what happened."

Jaune was staring at her like she was a ghost... He still believed he was dreaming, but he had no idea what to do. Pyrrha never acted this confused in his dreams. Was it some kind of riddle?

"Can she come in, Oscar?" Shine asked, calmly.

"Uh...sure..." Oscar would have said that to anything Shine said at this moment, he was so confused. Ruby had told him Pyrrha was...dead.... Was she wrong about that? Or did he remember wrong? But he'd been sure Ozpin's memory matched that account.

Only Ruby had seen it, though...

Pyrrha stepped through the door.

"You can shut it," Shine said.

Pyrrha shut it, like it was nothing.

"I'm sorry, but...where is this?" she asked.

"This is Argus." Shine sounded like a tour guide. "Your home city."

"I...oh..." Pyrrha got a strange look. "How long was I out? But why did I only wake up on the street? I haven't been...sleep walking or something, have I?" She put a hand to her head. "The last thing I remember..." She stopping suddenly and looked a little green.

"Sh...Shine?" Oscar said nervously.

"This is Jaune's sister's house." Shine ignored him. "We brought you here because everyone else was here, and no, you weren't sleep walking, I think. But I'm sure this is confusing... I'd be happy to explain once the others get over this."

"Over what?" Pyrrha asked. "Wait...then about Beacon?"

"I'm sorry to tell you it didn't go so well," Shine said, "but it's still standing... Could have been worse. Then again, everything was stopped. So there was that."

"Oh..." Pyrrha said. "And Professor Ozpin? He..."

"He's not dead," Shine said cheerfully. "But we'll explain that in a bit... Jaune, are you okay?"

Jaune swallowed. "This is so real..." he said.

"Why wouldn't it be real?" Pyrrha asked. "But how did I get outside? I still don't understand that part... And it must have been...well, at least a while, because--" She looked down. "--I don't seem to be injured anymore... I thought those were fatal... I suppose not...but...wait..."

She touched her chest slowly. "Oh...there is a scar...but it's all right... I was lucky... What happened to...Cinder?"

"Got away, sadly," Shine said. "But not unscathed, if that helps."

Jaune glanced at Shine.

"Jaune, are you all right?" Pyrrha looked at him strangely. "You look a little sick."

"I'm just...trying to figure out what's going on in this dream," Jaune said.

Oscar stared at him. "Jaune, this is real," he said. "I'm seeing it too."

"It's pretty messed up that you said that," Jaune said. "I think I want to wake up now. I don't like this one."

"What does he mean?" Pyrrha asked. "This isn't a dream... What are you looking at me like that for? I'm not going to hurt you." She held up her hands. "I lost my weapons...but we're in Argus; I can get my spares...so it's all right... Oh my, I haven't called my parents in ages... Wait, do you have a scroll? Mine is gone..."

"Frankly, you're lucky your clothes are still here," Shine said. "Thank God for decency." She glanced upward. "Well, anyway, I don't know a nice way to say this, so I won't bother trying."

Wally came back in right then.

"All right, more coffee coming up..." He stopped then dropped the cups. "Pyrrha? What...? You... Oh, wow, that...that was so fast... Like...what did we even do?"

"Well, we did pray for a bit..." Shine said.

"Yeah, but I never thought it'd...be that... Where did she come from?" Wally said.

"Outside." Shine pointed.

"Why are you so calm?!" Wally said.

"This isn't my first rodeo, Babe," Shine said.

"I hate to be rude, but...who are you?" Pyrrha asked her.

"Shine Likstar," Shine said. "This is my partner, Wally West. We're new. Don't feel bad for not knowing us. That's Oscar Pine. He's great. Jaune's new friend."

"Oh, I see," Pyrrha said.

Jaune, unable to take this anymore, stepped forward to tap Pyrrha on the shoulder.

He thought this would make her disappear... It usually did.

But nothing happened except that she gave him an odd look. "Jaune, what is it?"

"Want us to pinch you?" Shine asked, sipping her coffee again.

The reality hit Jaune like a ton of bricks would have.

Gasping, he jumped back and fell onto his back, looking like he'd been shocked.

"What...what is this?" he said, sounding scared.

"What's wrong?" Pyrrha said. "Do I...?" She looked at her hands. "Is something wrong?"

"Uh...I'm not sure what's going on," Oscar said, "but..."

"You don't remember what happened?" Wally asked. "It was so sad, but this kind of makes it better... I mean... Okay, that sounds wrong, but..."

"You were dead," Shine finally cut the suspense for Pyrrha. "For at least 6 months."

Pyrrha stared at her...

Then...slowly, she looked at her hands and felt her scar again...and then she put a hand to her head.

"I remember..." she said suddenly. "The...feeling...exploding into...and then nothing...nothing at all..."

She looked behind her.

"I'm...not dead. But I was... How is this possible?"

"God," Shine said.

"Hon, you've gotta stop saying shocking stuff," Wally said.

"She freaking came back to life, Wally. What wouldn't be shocking at this point!?" Shine exclaimed.

As if to punctuate that, someone screamed.

It was Ruby...and Yang. Both of them had just come out of their room. They'd heard the voices.

They were all staring at Pyrrha like she was a ghost.

"Tell me you see that too," Yang said to Ruby.

"I do..." Ruby said. "But I don't understand it..."

"What's going on?" Everyone else, even Qrow, appeared at the stairwell. "What are you looking at?"

Pyrrha backed up, and she had some reason to be freaked out.

But everyone saw her then.

Weiss screamed, Blake gasped, Nora and Ren stared, and Qrow gave a start.

"Hello again..." Pyrrha said very nervously.

Everyone reacted in character.

Team RWBY all just stood there like statues.

Ren sank to the floor.

Qrow put his hand on his scythe.

Nora jumped down the stairs the rest of the way and tackled Pyrrha in a huge hug.

"Pyrrha!" she cried. "We thought you were dead. Oh my gosh, it's been forever! Where have you been this whole time? You had us worried sick! If you ever disappear like that again I'll break your legs!"

"It's nice to see you again, Nora..." Pyrrha sounded squeaky after getting jumped on like that. "But I don't quite understand how this is possible."

"Don't you remember?" Shine asked.

Pyrrha had to wait till Nora stopped crushing her lungs before she could reply. "I remember...this heaviness...and then someone calling me...then I was here. That's all."

"But I saw you...bursting into pieces of dust?" Ruby said blankly.

[Because nothing bad ever happened EVER, Ruby... Chibi reference, if you don't get it.]

"I don't know how this happened," Pyrrha said. "But I feel completely normal, so...maybe it was magic?"

"Close." Shine continued to sip her coffee.

"Okay, I want to do the Professor X thing now." Wally sat down and pretended to look somber.

"You have spilled coffee," Shine said.

"Oh right." Wally got up to clean it up.

Jaune had finally found his voice now. "I...don't understand what's going on... How can this...? How did you...?"

"All right, enough." Qrow came down the staircase. "Whatever magic trick you're using here, I've had enough of it. Nikos is gone. We all know it. Whatever this is, it's not her. Whatever dark magic you're pulling, turn it off. You two are sick for even thinking of this idea."

"Qrow?" Pyrrha said. "Why are you here?"

"Stop it," Qrow said. "I'm not in the mood for this."

He pulled his scythe/sword out. 

"Wait." Jaune scrambled up. "Don't."

"Kid, you can't fall for this," Qrow said. "Trust me, it's not real."

He swung the scythe.

It stopped inches from Pyrrha's face.

They looked.

She was clenching her hand.

Then she moved it up, and the scythe was swung forcibly out of Qrow's grasp and into the wall.

Everyone stared.

"Fake that," Shine said sassily. "Bunch of doubting Thomases right here. Pyrrha, show them your scar."

"I..." Pyrrha put her hand over her chest. "Well..." She looked at her foot. Then she bent down and pulled off her sandals, looking confused. "There... I have one here too... My ankle isn't shattered though."

She turned around, and everyone saw it. Sure enough, an arrow mark went right through her ankle.

"Ah!" Weiss screamed again and fell to her knees.

"This isn't right," Blake said. "This can't happen...can it?"

"It looks as if it can," Ren said. "But the question is why. Only the gods can bring people back to life, and they aren't here...we thought."

"Oz?" Oscar said inside his head. "Where are you? What's going on?"

He thought he felt something, like maybe a wince almost...but no words.

"So you're really back?!" Nora's voice was getting more high pitched the more excited she got. "This is great!" She hugged Pyrrha again. "So the gods aren't all bad then, right?"

"Nora, careful," Ren said.

"Are you afraid of me, Ren?" Pyrrha sounded hurt. "I'm sorry... I don't know how to prove it to you...but I'm not here to hurt you. I just...feel like I woke up from something...that's all. Is that what death is like?"

"My theory is we can't remember it for reasons," Shine said. "Perhaps the human mind can't retain it. Whatever you saw or felt, it's like a dream now. Don't worry about it."

"I never knew such things were possible," Pyrrha mused. "Only in stories... How miraculous... But how has this happened to me? What did you do?"

"More on that later," Shine said.

"I don't know what to say," Blake said, slowly starting to come down the stairs, watching Pyrrha closely. "I mean...for real..." She poked her. "You sure feel real... Is it like Ozpin? But you look the same."

"I would hope so," Pyrrha said. "What do you mean by 'like Ozpin'?"

"Hi..." Oscar said. "I'm...kind of Professor Ozpin... He reincarnated into me."

Pyrrha almost laughed. "Is that a joke?"

Silence.

"Oh...it wasn't a joke?" she said. "I'm sorry...what...? How is that possible?"

"How are you possible?" Ruby squeaked.

"I find it less hard to believe I could come back to life because of magic than that someone could reincarnate," Pyrrha said. "Isn't that a little strange? Oscar Pine...is he a real person?"

"I am," Oscar said. "He...shows up in a like-minded individual... It's weird... This is...different." He gestured at her.

"Professor Ozpin?" Pyrrha blinked at him. "I...but I also can see the resemblance...but...still..."

"This is pretty funny." Wally was mopping up the coffee. "We all can believe she's real, but she can't believe Ozpin and Oscar are real? What kind of Uno reverse game is this?"

"What part of this seems like a joke to you?" Qrow said.

"Hey, I've almost come back to life before myself--I can joke about it. By the way, I'm a big fan of yours."  He meant Pyrrha

"Oh...that's nice," Pyrrha said vaguely.

"Not for the fighting," Shine said. "We're fans because we think you're really nice."

"Oh, really?" Pyrrha brightened. "But I don't even know you."

"They know you," Oscar said strangely. "I'm not sure how, but they do... This is so weird...but I guess I'm not one to judge... Nice to meet you."

He held out a hand.

Pyrrha shook it. "Nice to meet you also...Oscar?"

"Oscar is fine," Oscar nodded. "I don't like being called Ozpin."

"I wouldn't think so," Pyrrha said. "I want to hear more about that...but can someone tell me why we are in my home city?"

"We're trying to get to Atlas." Oscar seemed to be the only one able to hold a normal conversation at this point. "To get the relic to General Ironwood."

"What relic?" Pyrrha asked.

"This one..." Ruby held it up. "But...still..."

"Speaking of which, won't you need to be getting into position for that?" Shine said. "I'm sure all of you have questions, but why don't you give yourselves some time to think about it? You wanted to stick with the stupid plan about hijacking the plane, so do it."

"You expect us to focus at a time like this?" Weiss said.

"Might be better than just sitting around and gawking at her." Shine was candid. "Pyrrha can join us if she wants. But perhaps she'd like to go back home instead?"

Pyrrha held her hands under her chin.

"I..." She looked around again. "Look...I want to know what's behind all this...and then I should probably go see my parents... They must think... But I don't want to interrupt any plans if it's important."

"This is more important." Jaune finally got up. "I... This..."

"So, we'll fill her in," Shine cut him off. "Seems like we're the only ones who could do it coherently. You guys get ready. Sound good?"

"Uh...I guess..." Ruby wasn't sure what else to do.

"We don't have the luxury of waiting to sort this out," Qrow said. "Weiss already called Cordovan...but I'm getting an explanation for this as soon as we're clear of the city."

"You expect us to just walk away after this?" Yang said, sounding mad.

"I don't know what's going on--" Maria had joined them at some point "--but we'll lose our chance and have to wait till tomorrow, and that will look suspicious. Time for questions later."

"But I can't..." Jaune said.

"It's okay, bud." Wally gave him a thumbs up. "We can catch up."

"I should say so," Saphron spoke up. "You need better clothes if you're going to go to Atlas. You two are homeless, right? Here." She handed them some lien. "Stop and get yourselves some first."

"Is this a lot?" Wally asked.

"That's enough for a whole outfit," Weiss said, eyes wide.

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Wally said.

"No, please. They have enough problems without paying for you too," Saphron said. "I want to help."

"You must be Jaune's sister," Pyrrha said. "One of 7, I hear."

"Uh huh," Saphron said. "And you're...Pyrrha Nikos? I've heard about you from Jaune actually...though not lately. I actually thought..." She paused. "Well, nevermind. Rumors are so unreliable these days since the CCT towers went down."

"Since they...what?" Pyrrha said.

"Yeah, all inter-kingdom communication is down," Qrow said. "Welcome to the new world, Nikos."

Pyrrha looked at him uncertainly.

"Come on, Pyrrha, we'll walk you to your house," Shine offered, putting her coffee down. "We have to go shopping anyway."

"I just don't understand." Jaune rubbed his head. "What magic did you do when no one was around?"

"Okay, stop calling it that," Shine said. "That's 3 times too many. I do not do magic. Don't insult me."

"Yeah, no magic here." Wally waved his hands. "The vibe is totally different."

"I don't get them," Weiss announced.

"No one does," Blake said.

"I have the strangest feeling I've somehow met you before." Pyrrha looked at them oddly. "It's been bothering me... I just don't understand what happened."

"You come with us," Shine said. "And if you want to join us later, feel free. Oscar, what do you say?"

Oscar wished everyone didn't look at him right then.

"I...uh...I mean...you guys can join us, I guess," he said uncertainly. "But why do you want to? You just met us... And I know you know what's going on, but why would you want to get involved? It's pretty dangerous."

"Isn't your world at stake?" Shine asked.

"Yeah..." Oscar said.

"Then this is where we need to be," Shine said. "If you'll allow us to join you, we can be quite useful, I assure you."

"Yeah, for example--" Wally suddenly zipped out of the room and came back holding their packs and handed them to them. "I'm really fast."

"How did you...?" Ruby said. "That was faster than me!"

"Did you pack this?" Blake asked, holding hers up.

"You never unpacked it," Weiss said.

"Oh, right, but there might have been this book..." Blake said.

"This one?" Wally was gone and back in 1.5 seconds. "Ninjas of Lo--"

Blake snatched it out of his hands and looked embarrassed. "It must have been packed by accident..."

No one else acknowledged it.

[Obligatory reference:]

https://youtu.be/GqsNltUxb1I

"Okay...?" Ruby said. "What do you do?" She looked at Shine.

"Oh, I know your thoughts," Shine said. [Her RWBY Thoughts...eh?]

"What?" Blake said.

"Just kidding," Shine said. "But I have my talents, trust me. I just don't like to reveal them unless the situation calls for it."

"Big talk," Yang said.

"Uh, Yang...someone is standing there who we all thought was dead..." Jaune pointed out.

"We don't know it was her.... What if it's a trick?" Yang said.

"What happened to your arm?" Pyrrha suddenly saw it.

Yang frowned. "If you want this Pyrrha to join us, whatever. And these two bozos? But it'll make it even harder to sneak into Atlas."

Wally laughed suddenly.

"What's so funny?" Weiss asked.

"Oh...I was just thinking that if you knew more about us, you'd be slapping yourself for how easy it would be to get into Atlas if Qrow just flew there," Wally said.

"Yet another viable solution to this whole plan," Shine said. "But they've got to have a plane, so we'll just go binge shopping, I guess. Catch you all later."

"We wouldn't be on the plane for an hour or so at least..." Jaune said. "But...you can't just leave after that."

He wanted to say more than that but was at a loss.

"I want to help." Pyrrha had been deep in thought while she'd been silent. "Even if I apparently...have missed a lot..." She got a strange look there. "But I have to at least let my parents know... It would be wrong not to. Also...I don't see my helmet..." She felt her head.

"That's because it's on--" Nora began, and Ren and Jaune shot her a look. She stopped.

"Gone? Yes, I suppose it would be," Pyrrha said. "Though the rest of my armor is still here..." She shook her head. "Strange..."

"You know...for someone who's supposed to be dead, you seem oddly calm about being alive." Qrow's tone implied he didn't buy it.

"Do I?" Pyrrha said. "I'm not sure how one should react to being alive again... There's not a lot of precedent for it, don't you think? I don't feel like it's quite real that I was ever dead. Only your reactions are convincing me it must have been..." She pursed her lips. "I need to think about this. I'm going to go now."

"Here." Saphron gave her a coat. "It's freezing out there. This should fit you...but we don't have anything that'll fit you two, sorry."

"Thank you," Pyrrha said. "I should go now..."

"Hang on, we'll come." Shine grabbed her pack out of the corner.

Wally grabbed his. "See you all later."

No one really wanted Pyrrha to go away with these two freaks, but no one had any power to stop her--they were still shocked, and the whole thing seemed entirely out of their control to them.

Even Jaune, who most of all had a reason to stop this, felt like he couldn't do anything...

And the three of them left just like that.

[Hey, how would you react?]

* * *

Shine and Wally were perhaps not as sure of themselves as they acted.

Once they had left the house, Pyrrha heard them whispering and caught some of it.

"This is pretty out there," Wally said. "I mean...I don't feel really freaked out, which I think I would have normally, but I don't--but it's like my brain doesn't grasp what just happened."

"Yeah...but maybe our brains aren't what are supposed to understand," Shine suggested. "I'm not afraid of it. It's only natural that these things happen. Can't you feel that you are stronger here already? I can."

"I guess I don't know what I'm trying to look for," Wally said. "I kind of thought it'd be a little slower in the first 24 hours."

"It doesn't seem like this team is taking much time to breathe since Haven."

Pyrrha ignored this for at least 5 minutes but then could stand it no more.

"I'm sorry to interrupt." She looked back. "But...what are you talking about? What happened at Haven? Why are you here? Who are you? And how did you bring me back to life?"

They both stared at her.

"How do you think we did?" Shine asked, with that look in her eyes again.

Pyrrha had never been one to be afraid of oddity...in fact, she rather embraced it. So Shine didn't unsettle her...but she was puzzling her.

"I...don't know," she said. "But it was you. I'm sure of it... Your voice sounded familiar. I couldn't place it at first, but I remember it now. You...called me, didn't you?"

"Not too bad," Wally said. "I didn't even put that together till it happened."

"Pyrrha is very smart," Shine reminded him...at least it sounded like she was--Pyrrha still wasn't sure how they knew her.

"You must be from the gods," she said finally.

"Only one," Shine said.

"Which one?" Pyrrha accepted it.

"The only true God," Shine said. "I'm not sure He has a name here... For clarity's sake, perhaps we better give you one... You know the god of darkness and the god of light.... They're not really gods, but we'll leave that there for now. Let's call ours El Shaddai for now."

https://youtu.be/DuXB1a3NBCw

[El Shaddai-- Amy Grant]

"I don't know that," Pyrrha said. "What is that word?"

"It's two words. In my language, it means 'God Almighty'," Shine said.

"All right..." Pyrrha said. "...What is a language?"

Wally gave her a very strange look.

Shine laughed. "How do I explain that?"

"So...no one knows what that is?" Wally said.

"How would they?" Shine shrugged. "A language is a whole other way of speaking, with different words, sounds, accents, and sometimes numbers. Like a code, but more complex."

"I see..." Pyrrha said. She didn't really. "How does it work?"

"Like this." Shine began to speak in something that sounded like gibberish to Pyrrha, only more organized somehow. "Yevarechecha Adonai, VeYishmerecha. Ya'er Adonai Panav Eleycha ViChuneka Yisa Adonai Panav Eleycha, VeYasem Lecha Shalom."

[Traditional blessing that means: The LORD bless you and keep you. Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The LORD turn His face toward you and give you peace.]

"What did that mean?" Pyrrha asked.

"I dunno, I don't speak it," Wally said. "I barely know English."

"What is English?" was the next question.

"For all intents and purposes, it's what we call what we're speaking right now," Shine said.

"Where are you from, that you'd speak...whatever that was?" Pyrrha asked.

"It's called Hebrew...and we have hundreds of languages where I come from," Shine said. 

"Same, plus a few more from the aliens," Wally said.

Pyrrha studied them some more. "You're not from this world, are you?" she said slowly.

Wally did a double take. "Uh...where would you get that idea?"

"We already told Oscar. Why hide it?" Shine asked him.

"I guess I just wondered how the heck she knew," Wally said. "Do we look weird?"

"You look...different." Pyrrha couldn't put her finger on it. "But you speak differently also. I'm not quite sure what it is, but you just sound alien also... So it is true?"

"What makes you think of it so quickly?" Shine didn't deny it.

"I suppose I read a lot of stories like that," Pyrrha said. "I remember The Girl Who Fell Through The World. Only I thought it wasn't true...but since Ozpin told me The 4 Maidens was true, I suppose I can't be certain nothing else is true."

"All of those stories were true," Shine said, "from what I gather. He probably started them. He's thousands of years old."

"Yes...you'll have to run that by me again..." Pyrrha said. "Tell me everything."

* * *

About 30 minutes later, they'd found Pyrrha's home, even taking a tram to get there, and Pyrrha had been filled in on all that they knew from Jaune and Oscar about what had gone on, plus what they knew from Volume 5... It didn't amount to much, Shine thought, compared to what it seemed the others knew.

But to Pyrrha it was all new and shocking.

"And Salem...can't be killed?" she said. "Does that mean that...Ozpin was lying about what we could do to stop her? I never knew she existed, but there were hints from the headmasters about something... They said I was ready to be the maiden."

"Do you think you were, now that you've heard this?" Shine asked.

"No," Pyrrha said. "I don't think I would have made that decision if I heard this...not right away. Still, if it would have saved my friends..."

"But it wouldn't have," Shine said. "Not really. Maidens become a target."

"But if it spares other people...isn't it noble to do that?" Pyrrha asked.

"Perhaps...but riddle me this, Pyrrha--do you believe in Destiny?" Shine asked.

"I do." Pyrrha nodded. Then gave her a strange look. "Somehow, I think you knew I would say that."

"Right...then do you think destiny is something you should steal from someone else, even if you feel it's your destiny to do something?"

"No, of course not," Pyrrha said.

"So why did you agree to it?" Shine asked.

Wally looked at Shine. "I don't mean to interrupt this...but, Shine, do you think we should ask her that? She just...got back."

"It's all right." Pyrrha held up her hand. "I don't feel anything like...well...shocked, yet. Not about that. I welcome the familiar subject, actually. I don't want to think about what happened...not yet... Besides, it's a fair question... Honestly, I did feel like it was wrong."

"But you were going to do it anyway?" Shine said.

"I felt it was the only way," Pyrrha said. "They seemed to have no other solution."

"But you know now that may not be true," Shine said.

"Yes...I see that, at least, it was not as true as I thought." Pyrrha hugged her sides suddenly. "I...wish I could ask Professor Ozpin exactly why he didn't...well, tell me."

"I hate to say the worst of anybody," Wally said, "but this time around...isn't it kind of obvious why?"

Pyrrha frowned at the ground. "Because he knew I wouldn't agree if I heard that... Tell me, did Qrow know?"

"Nope," Shine said.

Pyrrha looked very serious. "And the others know now? That's what you've been telling me."

"Yes."

"Then they...they don't blame me, do they?" Pyrrha said. "I...failed to stop Cinder from getting those powers... Even if it wouldn't have stopped Salem...it might have slowed her down, and now Beacon has fallen... I..." She shook her head. "I don't know that anything I did was right."

"This is why I didn't want to bring it up," Wally said to Shine.

Shine shot him an annoyed look, to his surprise.

But she turned to Pyrrha. "For you, it's like this just happened. And you just found out that what you did didn't work, so you're right to feel upset...but try to keep in mind, for the others, it's a miracle that you've come back. They won't blame you for anything. They're just amazed. And everyone saw you as a hero."

"But...I don't think I deserve that," Pyrrha said. "I didn't save anyone."

"Perhaps that's not exactly true," Shine said.

A pause. 

"Before I go in...I have to ask you--" Pyrrha lowered her voice. "--Why? Why me? Why did you bring me back?"

Wally froze like "what do we do?"

Shine glanced at him and shook her head.

"You're not going to like this answer, but try to understand it," she said. "I think it's wiser to table that question... When the time is right, we'll answer it--if you decide to come along, anyway. But you know, it doesn't matter that much."

"It does to me," Pyrrha said.

"Maybe it seems that way now, but it won't change anything in the long run," Shine said. "Would you change it?"

"No," Pyrrha said. "That would be...unnatural."

"Then it doesn't matter... And think carefully about whether or not you want to join this mission," Shine said. "I can't be sure, but I get the feeling the team has been through hell already, and there may be more problems waiting for us at Atlas...more than you could imagine since you've been gone... Don't make the decision because you think you have to. Do what you really want to do, Pyrrha. The others will understand if you need a break."

Pyrrha pursed her lips. "I'll think about what to do," she said.

"If you decide to join us, Wally and I will wait along the main street with the shops in it," Shine said. "We can't wait forever, but for an hour maybe... I know we have to follow Oscar. If that's your path, no questions asked. If not...then it's your life, no hard feelings either."

She smiled and walked away.

Wally gave Pyrrha a thumbs up with the gun hands 👉👉[I always call it a guns up] and followed.

Pyrrha drew a deep breath and knocked on her own front door.