There was plenty to say...but everyone was afraid to say it.

"I'm so sick of you all telling us we're wrong," Wally burst out, suddenly. "What did we do that was wrong? Nothing. We've done nothing but help you, and you treat us like the devil, and it's just... You know, once I saved people who were grateful. It's like all of you are under some spell that makes you think everything people do to help you is evil, and that doing dumb stuff like lying is somehow okay. I heard what you said to Salem, Blondie."

Yang looked at him oddly.

"You said that something bad happened to her once, and now no one gets a happy ending," Wally said. "I thought that was a good point, you know. She's kind of sick...but it's like you guys are saying the same thing now. Someone did something bad to you, bad stuff happened to you, and now no one who was a part of it gets a happy ending either."

"But they don't deserve one," Weiss said.

"You guys have done almost the same stuff as them, now," Wally said. "Heck, we're kind of still doing it, and maybe it's not wrong...but it's like...you know, it wasn't wrong for the little lady there to want her boss back. It's actually pretty cute. It's nice to see criminals who care about each other, I think. Most of them don't. I'd totally encourage that, and I don't see a problem with it. So what if they're your enemies? The whole world doesn't revolve around you."

Weiss winced a little.

"Not to acknowledge all the other things we did that were some of the evil in your mind, even though none of them have led to any evil," Shine said. "I swear, if we weighed whose decisions have and haven't worked out, I think we don't even break even."

"I'd agree there," Raven said. "From what I've observed, your plans have worked far better because they are more realistically scaled. I don't know if you're smarter or just more experienced, but it is what it is."

"I don't need an echo, Raven, but thank you for the support," Shine said. "However, you might make it worse for yourself by backing us up right now."

"Why should it matter to me?" Raven said.

"If it doesn't, that's fine," Shine shrugged.

"I just think it's funny that anyone wants to piss off people who can work wonders," Raven said.

"We've seen other people who can do that," Yang said. "They aren't good people."

"Yes, well, that is not our fault," Shine said. "We are what we are... We're not even the real point, but if you can't even stand us, how could you stand the full truth? You all love to make your plans and do as you please, as if you're entitled to it. But in fact, doing the right thing is just an obligation put on all people, not a favor you're doing the world. Once, some of you knew that. Maybe you do now, maybe you don't. I mean, I only really hear a few of you talking, but as long as those few can bully everyone else using things like love and friendship as weapons, that's all that it takes."

"What was that supposed to mean?" Yang asked.

"I think you know perfectly well what I mean," Shine said. "You know, I'd even have told you all what my reasoning was, that's the funny part--if you just asked me, politely and with respect and acknowledgement of what's been going on. Wally is right though... You can't even see what you're saying sounds just like Salem. Now that I've heard this, I know you're not ready. Some people never are ready. But anyone who was ready, I'd be happy to explain things to. And, Yang, you had better learn sometime that disrespecting people and insulting them is not the way to get everything you want from them, like some spoiled brat!"

Yang's mouth dropped open.

"But you do it," Qrow said.

"Oh, get real," Shine said, exasperated. "You and Yang sound so much alike sometimes, Qrow. All you ever talk about is how much your life sucks because of what happens to you. Well, okay, we all get it, your life sucks. Ours has been no picnic either, if you haven't noticed. I've asked very little of you, and Wally has asked nothing at all, that I can recall. We've done what we've done ourselves, and it's just for doing that, acting without your aid for the most part and doing as we thought, that you're criticizing us. You cannot have it both ways. Either we are allies or enemies."

Qrow didn't have a ready way to get out of that one.

"Anyway, what did she say that wasn't true?" Raven said. "I've been listening to this, and you all sound exactly the same. Just my two cents."

"No one asked you," Yang said.

"Don't talk to her that way," Shine said to her warningly. "She's the only one who told all of you the truth from the start, and you gave none of the credit for it to her later. If Raven laughed all of you to scorn right now, I wouldn't fault her one bit. She could have gloated, but she hasn't been, because no one likes to be right about this, but, it turns out, some people have been anyway. Either you can deny that like some child who says that 2 and 2 is not 4 because they're cross that they got bad marks on their math test, or you can live with it and learn to do it right. But don't expect us to take you seriously if you insist that 2 and 2 is 5."

"I don't need your help," Raven said. "I can speak for myself."

"Then do it," Shine said.

"I don't want to talk about this," Raven said. "More to the purpose is that you've done what you've done, and I assume there's a reason for it. Wasn't there more to it?"

Shine looked livid for a moment, then she glanced at Wally, who sighed.

"Yeah, it is useless," Shine said, just as if he'd spoken. "What do we accomplish by yelling at each other?..."

She rubbed her neck. "Let's just cut to the chase. There's a lot I could say, but it wouldn't help. You all need to make a choice. Discuss it amongst yourselves. When you decide, Neo has some important information for us."

"Wait, Neo has what?" Ren said.

"What information?" Qrow said.

Neo, with the most condescending air you could imagine, signed this:

"Why should I tell you?" [In ASL that's not what it would look like, but you get the idea.]

https://youtu.be/MuQ3HQ1gSWQ

[Video by ASL Princess for Neo's dialogue]

Shine translated dutifully, considering how angry she was.

"You're playing that card now?" Raven said, curiously. "You need a bargaining chip, don't you?"

Torchwick put a hand on Neo's shoulder--he almost had to reach down to do that.

"Neo and I don't need to help any of you," he said. "After all, even if you could say we owed anyone for...uh...this favor, it's not all of you. Clearly you had nothing to do with it. I see no reason not to part ways. But then, without anything in return, I see no reason to help anyone."

He glanced at Shine.

"We can work that out," she said. "If you need something...of course we should try. But I think you can take care of yourselves...I'd be sorry to lose the tip though."

Neo shrugged and made some hand motions.

: "I might as well tell you. What can I use the information for?"

"Well, that's nice of you," Shine replied in sign.

"What's that?" Yang asked.

"It appears to be Sign Language," Oscar said helpfully. "I guess Neo speaks it... Wait, is it speak if you sign?"

"You can say 'speak', but most people prefer sign," Shine said.

[Neo does use sign language on RWBY chibi after all...hahaha.]

"Since when did she know that?" Qrow asked.

"She always has," Pyrrha said quietly. "I've seen her use it long before Neo was here."

"Oh, right," Oscar said. "I remember that."

"Convenient for you," Raven said.

"I thought so," Shine said. "Let's get out of here. Neo, Roman, you're probably hungry, right? Might as well get dinner. No harm in that."

Neo made some sign that meant "poisoned?"

"No," Shine said.

Torchwick wasn't much for eating in a strange place, but he didn't care for the looks the team was giving him, so he went along with it, and they all left. Wally did too.

* * *

"That was manipulative," Qrow said. "How is it our choice if they have vital information?"

"Don't be a fool," Raven said in disgust. "They had that anyway. Just because you didn't think of it before you all made such asses of yourselves is not their problem."

"No one asked you," Qrow said. "You're not a part of this team."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Well, fine, but if they go, I go."

"Who said you could stay?" Yang said.

Raven seemed to flinch visibly, but she held her head high and left the room in a huff.

"What do we do?" Ruby asked.

"How is it even a question?" Pyrrha asked.

"Yeah, we're totally not letting them join us," Yang said. "Two of these freaks was bad enough. We don't need more. We have enough people we can't trust."

"I meant how it wasn't a question the other way," Pyrrha said. "How could you turn them away? Neo has left Salem. Cinder already almost killed her. If you send them away, the same people will be after them as us."

"Good," Yang said darkly. "That's what they deserve."

Pyrrha stared at her in disbelief.

"How do you know that Cinder almost killed her?" Emerald asked Pyrrha. She didn't doubt it, but she hadn't been there.

"I saw the whole thing," Pyrrha said. "It was in the portal... Jaune had just fallen, and Ruby and Blake also, I believe. Cinder knocked Neo off the edge also after she took the Relic. I pulled her back up and threw her through the door to Vacuo--"

"What?" Blake said.

"Why would you do that?" Weiss asked.

"Why would I...save her?" Pyrrha said oddly.

"Yeah, she's, like, a psycho," Yang said. "Almost killed me once. She's been after Ruby. That's insane."

"But it wasn't like that." Pyrrha felt uncomfortable, like she was on trial. "She had just been asking me about what happened, and I realized she was interested in getting her boss back. I was trying to answer her, but there was too much going on. She wasn't fighting us anymore. Ruby...you remember."

"She did stop fighting me," Ruby said. "I didn't know why..." She seemed uncertain.

"Back up," Qrow said. "You told her!? I thought that was supposed to be a big secret. First you tell the Ice Queen,and my sister! At least I know she knows, and that was bad enough, but one of Salem's?"

"It didn't matter," Pyrrha said with more warmth. "Because Cinder already knows."

Some of them knew that, but Qrow didn't.

"She does?" Winter didn't either.

"She saw me," Pyrrha said. "With Emerald... It was an accident."

"It was my fault," Emerald surprisingly suddenly said. "I lost focus. Miss Soldier here didn't do anything, but it kind of worked in our favor, at first. We almost got away...but we hesitated too long, and she caught up."

"You lost focus?" Qrow said warily. "Or you wanted to screw us over?"

Emerald looked scared. "No, I really just lost it. I got scared and freaked, that's all. I didn't think she'd tried to kill me after that."

"You didn't think she'd try to kill Pyrrha again?" Weiss cried.

"She didn't succeed," Pyrrha said.

"She could have," Qrow said. "If that abyss had led to your death instead of another world, you'd all have died because of that mistake."

"You cannot possibly blame Emerald for that," Pyrrha said. "I'm sure Cinder would have followed us anyway."

"But that was why you lost the Lamp," Ren said.

Jaune and Oscar hadn't been going to say it, and Nora had forgotten that part, but he remembered them saying so.

Pyrrha paused, nervously.

"You tried to get it back," Ren said. "You made it sound like you did, but then you didn't. Is that right?"

"No," Pyrrha began to lie to cover for Emerald. "No, of course--"

"Don't," Emerald said. "I thought you had enough lying."

"I'm not trying to lie," Pyrrha said. "It was my fault, really. I should have thought of a better plan than what I did. I should never have even tried to take it."

"It was my fault. I got caught," Emerald said. "Cinder threatened me, and Miss Hero couldn't let her, that's all. You all are just too noble for that, I guess."

"You gave the Lamp to her, didn't you?" Ren said.

Pyrrha was silent.

"You gave her a Relic in exchange for Emerald?!" Yang said angrily.

"That's enough." Jaune stood up finally. "This is not her fault."

"Stop defending her just because you have a crush!" Yang really wasn't that mean normally but had stopped caring about it long ago in this conversation.

Jaune winced.

"It's not fair." Ruby finally said something. "Jaune is just trying to be fair, that's all. It would be a tough call, right? Just letting someone die. We all know Cinder would do it."

"So what? That's what you get for working for her and blowing your cover," Yang said. "That plan was stupid anyway."

"It bought us time to warn everyone," Jaune said. "We saved more people because of that."

"And she got the Relic back and came to foil us," Yang said. "We all could have died because of that. Including you, Jaune. You can't make this out not to be a huge, stupid risk to take for someone who's probably not even really on our side."

"It's not her fault," Emerald said. "I told Cinder about the plan, not the Lamp... I mean, yeah, the Lamp probably told her more, but she didn't know to ask."

"Stop making it worse for yourself," Hazel said to her. He was beginning to be afraid the team would attack her, and he thought they could only hold off half of them at a time.

"What? Am I supposed to let her take the fall?" Emerald hissed.

"They'll do less to her for it. Why do you think she's trying to cover for you?" Hazel said. 

Emerald bit her lip.

"Even better!" Yang's eyes were red. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't just dust you now!"

"That is enough," Hazel said.

"Were you in on this?" Qrow said.

"Qrow, stop being an ass." Winter finally lost her patience.

A huge summoned beast appeared in the middle of the group and shoved Yang back and then bared its teeth at the others.

Everyone looked at Winter.

She stood up, more firmly than you'd think, considering her condition had been so bad all day.

"I've heard nothing of use come out of any one of you for the last five minutes," Winter said. "We can assign blame all day long, but it will not change a thing about what happens now, or then. As it is, the situation has ended up very much the same, with a short detour for the 6 of you. Which you claim yielded something productive that you've yet to fully explain."

The teens had not wanted to mention Alicia's part in it till everyone was there... Now they weren't sure they did at all.

"All of you are acting like children," Winter added, severely. "Miss Xiao Long, if you will not restrain yourself, you will be restrained by someone else. Any imbecile could see that if Miss Sustrai was against us, she'd never own up to any of this to defend Miss Nikos...and if Miss Nikos feels she has to lie to you to protect our new ally, that says far more about you than it does about her loyalty."

That burn settled Weiss, if no one else. She looked down.

"I admit that I'm not pleased to hear that our secrets were spilled, but on the point of death many people lose their nerve," Winter continued. "I take it Miss Nikos corroborates that it was on the threat of death?"

"That much I promise," Pyrrha said. "I didn't lie about it. I wasn't trying to lie, I just was afraid that you all would think it was deliberate if I said what happened, and you weren't there to see... I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't lie to us, but I understand your point," Winter said in a stiff tone, but she sympathized more under it than one might think. She had used to lie to Weiss to cover for their parents for similar reasons and had only given it up in later years. [From the RWBY manga shorts.]

She frowned more. "And this reaction will not encourage these people to continue to help us. No one knows Salem's current state better than them. May I remind all of you that we need their help if we are going to launch any kind of counterattack in the future?"

More silence.

"Now, to the more pressing matter--" Winter grasped the edge of her chair to keep from getting dizzy... She hated this heatstroke so much! "I can promise all of you that if you excommunicate Miss Likstar and Mr. West, you can forget about my support for your plans."

"What? Why?" Weiss said.

"Because it should be blindingly obvious to all of you that they have a much better grasp of the matter than any of us do," Winter said. "We have no training in these areas. None of us have lived through a war or fought an enemy of this caliber before. We have one kingdom left that hasn't been hit hard by her, and we know it's only a matter of time. I know for a fact that Miss Likstar predicted everything that happened in Atlas, down to the General's part in it and Salem's twisting the tactics against us that we used. I assume I'm not the only one who ignored their perspective?"

She knew perfectly well she wasn't, but Oscar raised his hand. "Shine said it was a bad idea to tell Ironwood the truth when we did," he said ashamedly. "She didn't stop me, and Wally didn't either, but they did say it was too soon and it would only stress people out more... Salem played us on that. She was right."

"She said that lying was a good way to undermine trust," Ruby said, to the others' surprise.

"Not just her," Blake said. "Pyrrha warned Yang and I that talking to Robyn when we did could cause problems."

"I assure you, I got that idea from them," Pyrrha said, not much pacified by this, even if she was glad Blake was saying it in front of everyone.

"And I hate to think of it," Winter said, "but she predicted with such accuracy the fall of Atlas... I remember it clearly--it was only a few days ago--but she alluded to how the other kingdoms would see us and even suggested we could have contacted Vacuo in some way so they would feel we were allies. I thought that was nonsense...until Headmaster Theodore said the same thing."

With a significant look at Qrow, who was not looking nearly as angry anymore.

"She also said that the General would not listen to anyone else or take a warning from the fall of Beacon, and the same thing would happen in Atlas, which it did," Winter said. "To a degree that is staggering. Salem seems to know exactly how to manipulate people."

"Or Cinder does," Ruby said. "The chess piece...it was like it just...made him go crazy."

"Reminding him of the past," Ozpin said. "She loves doing that."

"Why does it matter if she said all this?" Yang said. "Heck, it's like she knows what Salem is going to do, sure. Maybe she's worked with her before."

"Yang, get real, Salem didn't even know who she was," Jaune said. "We all saw it. Why would Salem pretend not to know her? She knows everyone. And I'd say that was genuine rage when she attacked them."

"Yes, that argument will not bear weight," Winter said, in a tone that implied her disdain for Yang's debate skills. "As for why it matters, I think the answer is quite simple. No one else other than Raven Branwen has successfully outsmarted any of Salem's minions, and that includes Ozpin, who knows her the best. I conclude from this that it takes more than experience with her to outwit her. There must be something that is fundamentally understood about these people that, clearly, none of us understand. But they understand us enough to play us like violins. Are any of you convinced that you won't be played again?"

Not a single person spoke.

"Given that, if you send away the only people who have ever, that we can see, surprised her," Winter said, "you are all so simplistic, and I have no intention of working with you. That's madness at its finest, and I have a kingdom to keep in one piece. As it is, the only reason we are here at all is because Miss Likstar and Mr. West thought to enlist the help of our allies and were one step ahead of Headmaster Rhodes. In yet another example of our incompetence, Qrow could have done what they did, had any of us thought to do it, but we didn't...or if we did, we refused on the grounds that it wasn't safe...and that got us here."

"Mr. West said something once," Oscar said. "That doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity by someone he...knew? I think. Anyway, I think that's kind of the case now. Winter is making sense. We keep making the same mistakes over and over again. If we don't stop, we're going to lose. It's not even a question."

More silence.

"Yeah, he's right," Jaune said. "And, guys, I know that...a lot of you don't like them, and I get why... I mean, I get why you wouldn't. They really don't bother me the same way, but we're all different. But personal feelings aside, they haven't done anything wrong. I mean, we can argue all day about bringing people back to life, but we can't prove it's wrong. Nothing has really happened because of it so far that couldn't have happened anyway. Why are you so against them anyway?"

"Isn't that part obvious?" Emerald spoke up, despite Hazel's wishes. "All of you hate them because they're smarter than you and they were more right. It makes you look bad, and you're always on about how you'll stop Salem and you're so great. It almost made me sick." She made a face. "I mean, you're tough, but you wouldn't be losing this much if you really had it figured out. You're jealous."

She knew all about that herself; it was easy for her to spot it in other people.

"Shut up," Yang said.

"She makes an interesting point," Winter said. "If we let our pride get in the way, we're poor leaders."

"And you should talk?" Yang said. "You're the most stuck up person here."

"Yang." Qrow said the first thing that was like a rebuke that she'd heard from him since Haven Academy.

Yang stopped, surprised.

Not as much as Winter was.

"Enough," Qrow followed it up.

Yang knew that pushing his buttons wouldn't end well, but she was still mad.

"Hearing it all like that," Qrow went on, when no one else jumped in, "there's not much of a choice here. We're screwed, probably either way, but none of us have a plan, so we're screwed for certain if they leave. This Torchwick thing has me pissed just as much as you, but it's possible there's a use for it... Seems like the tiny girl has some information anyway. I say, we hear it out, and if it'll help us, then we know that this plan was for the team. We apologize, and we move on."

"You want us to apologize for it?" Yang said.

"You heard Likstar," Qrow said. "She's pissed. She won't stick around here on nothing. We're going to have to eat some of our words no matter what. That woman is not a pushover. She won't take this kind of disrespect forever--I saw that look in her eye--and her partner isn't going to either. Even that idiot has his limits. I saw it up in Atlas, both of them are a lot more powerful than you think they are. They're holding back."

"More than you even know," Hazel said. "I saw more of it while you were up in that nice plane of yours, leaving us to die."

"That wasn't on purpose," Qrow said. "It was Harriet's fault."

"Whatever," Hazel said. "They aren't weak. And I never saw Salem hesitate for anyone that way. Like it or not, those two are made of some tougher metal than most of the huntsmen around here, and any fool can also see that if they've gotten you to cooperate with them for the last week or so, when you clearly don't even like them, they've got things to bring to the table that you know you need."

"Heck, she even said it," Emerald said. "She said that you ask for their help when you want it but you don't want them to be free to do things on their own. What kind of way is that to treat your team? Even we don't do that."

"Yes, we do," Hazel said.

"And that's why we left," Emerald countered.

"Also they will not stand for it," Winter added, recovering her power of speech. "Miss Likstar also made it quite clear to me that she is no one's yes-man. I have accepted that she will do as she wishes, and I suppose that her partner is no different. But we have no right to command them. Cooperation is the only solution. And it pains me to say this, but Qrow has a point. Without an apology of some sort, they will not change their mind, and, Miss Xiao Long, I expect you to make it."

"What? No!" Yang said.

"You will make it, or you can consider yourself off duty from this point forward," Winter said severely. "I will revoke your license if I have to."

"Who gave you the right?" Yang asked.

"I helped issue it," Winter shot back.

Yang's mouth dropped open, then she looked at Qrow.

"You shouldn't let her do that," she said.

"I can't stop her. Atlas issued it, not me," Qrow said. "I'm not that high up on the board, even when I was a teacher, remember?"

"And you're not going to say that's out of line?" Yang said.

Qrow might have thought it was harsh...but, on the other hand, he hadn't forgotten that Yang had lied to them about Raven, and kind of thought maybe she needed a good slap on the wrist.

And if Winter did it, he didn't have to be the bad guy, which he hated being. Tai was that person more than he was.

So he just shrugged.

Winter was surprised equally that he'd not even tried to stop her, but she figured that meant her point was pretty much irrefutable.

"Does anyone else want to take issue with it?" she asked.

No one spoke.

"We just have to apologize, right?" Weiss then said, after the pause was sufficiently awkward.

"I expect you also to cooperate with their plans," Winter said. "It couldn't hurt to do so. So far we have one in place, and we'll fill you all in on it. You'll do as we say. If I don't hear of any more going behind our backs to the people of Vacuo, maybe you will be allowed to act as free agents. That goes for both Miss Xiao Long and Miss Belladonna. All of you who lied to us before deliberately are also not going to be making any leadership decisions outside your own team maneuvers and nothing else. You will do as you're told."

"But--" Ruby said.

Winter fixed her with a grave look.

Ruby looked at Weiss, who didn't look like she was about to argue.

Ruby wanted to argue, but it didn't seem like anyone else was going to. 

Now that she'd spoken her mind, Winter was back on her feet mentally, and it showed.

"Miss Sustrai," she said, "while we're on this subject, you'd better dig up your old record on your school. We should issue you a provisional license. Your skills are clearly up to the task."

"Me?" Emerald said.

"Yes," Winter said. "I suppose this pit of a kingdom will not care, but in case anyone has to be sent out of Vacuo with the refugees to do things, or on any other errand, it would benefit you to be official. More people will allow interference from huntresses than from vagabonds."

"You have a criminal record," Hazel said to Emerald. "She's doing you a favor if your credentials say you're a huntress. People won't associate you with the fall of Beacon."

"Oh..." Emerald said, swallowing meekly.

Yang wanted to argue, but a look from Winter and she knew she'd get put on probation if she kept questioning her.

"Now, if we're all clear on that, I'd like to hear the tip Miss Neo has," Winter said, sitting back down, and she had turned pale again from the effort of standing so long.

Weiss felt ashamed of herself. Her sister was already ill as it was, and she was still the one taking charge of the situation. And here she was, not even helping.

That said, Oscar messaged Shine that they could come back in now.

https://youtu.be/TksJCV8j-ow

[AMV by Momo, to "Ready Aim Fire"--quite fitting for them, isn't it?]

[That was awesome. I love Winter--she's an actual adult!]