Mercury didn't know if Salem intended to leave him to himself while she was using him as leverage.

But it was perfectly clear that Tyrian wouldn't have, if given his way. Being very bored, he had nothing else to do but make threats to Mercury about what he would do and try to scratch him with his crescent weapons.

Mercury didn't really care if Tyrian roughed him up-- it was the way he did it that bothered him. Like he would have done way more if Salem's wrath wouldn't have been impending.

Well, it was just like being home again, with his psychotic father "training" him.

Minus the part where he could run.

However, around 10-12 hours after he'd arrived--at least he thought it must have been that long--Salem herself did come in.

"I hear Tyrian has been keeping a close eye on you," she said.

Heard it from who? Tyrian? Mercury thought.

"While I can't offer you your freedom, I could instruct him to make this more painless," Salem offered coolly. "If you will just answer one question: What is the real weakness of your new guides?"

"From all I hear, temper tantrums and bickering," Mercury said obstinately. "So you've probably got it covered."

Salem's eyes glowed, then she raised her hands and magic crackled in them.

Mercury knew what this was, but no amount of hearing Oscar's torture could have prepared him for how much it would hurt.

Magic had a different feel from just fire and brute force--it was a sickening sort of feeling.

Also, perhaps it hurt him more because of the Silver Eyes being opposed to it. In any case, it felt wrong.

And very painful.

Mercury thought even his old man didn't hit that hard.

Salem regarded him without a shred of pity. "I would advise against further attempts at being clever," she said coldly.

Mercury wanted to say that he could take more of that--but he honestly didn't think he could take much more of it.

So, more subdued, he said, "Well, the truth is I really don't know."

Salem raised her hands.

"You can do that, but it won't change anything," Mercury said hastily. "They've never told us how to defeat them. Why would they? They don't trust all of us."

"Interesting." Salem hesitated. "And why did they bring people they didn't trust on such a dangerous mission?"

She clearly didn't believe him, and her tone was mocking.

However, Mercury liked this question a lot better because, from all Shine had said, he figured it would frick with her to get the answer.

"Well," he said evenly, "maybe it was just big talk, but I know what they said was that it wouldn't make any difference."

"And what does that mean?" Salem said oddly. "Of course it makes a difference. Loyalty always does."

"Not to them," Mercury said, thinking he'd take this chance to see if Salem really was worried about their success. "I've seen them play people whether they trusted them or not. Watts? Likstar had him on a leash before he even knew she was playing the game. Tricked him into thinking it was his idea, but then she trapped him and forced him to do what she said. I heard all about it. Cinder? She doesn't even like them, but she's just putty in their hands because no matter how hard she tries to get ahead, they're one step ahead of her. Why else do you think she hasn't just stolen the Relics yet? And the team? She knows all their weaknesses, and she can pit people against each other like it's nothing."

Salem watched him carefully as if trying to discern if he was lying.

"And you?" she said.

"I can tell you she gets it more than you or Cinder ever did." Mercury said a pretty unwise thing.

Salem frowned at him. "You think so?"

"I'm not saying I like it, but she was so on to me," Mercury said. "She knew I had other motives."

While it was true, it wasn't so that Shine had known exactly what, but Mercury didn't think that detail was relevant.

"But they allowed you to infiltrate," Salem said. "Or are you saying all the information you gave me was incorrect?" Warningly.

"Oh, it was as correct as I knew. I didn't know till later that they were on to me. When I told them I gave you that book of theirs, Shine said she thought it couldn't have worked out better. She wasn't worried at all."

Salem scowled again. "So she claims... The book doesn't contain any weaknesses of theirs. They wouldn't be so careless. But surely you've seen something."

"Why do you care?" 

"I'm asking the questions." Salem held up her hand again. "Boy."

"Oh, sure, sure." Mercury gritted his teeth. "Fine then. I mean, you wanted to know what I knew, but I don't know what you want to hear."

"Anything about them that's useful," Salem said.

"Grimm are scared of them," Mercury said. "They can heal people. Reverse magic. Find anyone anywhere in the world and go to them (usually). And they walked here because they want to do this the fun way, from all I got. I mean, get real, someone as fast as West could have been at your door in 20 minutes with Likstar. But that just wouldn't have been as satisfactory. They've taken their sweet time getting to you. I think it's to prove a point. They don't have to hurry. Time is on their side."

Salem didn't like those last words, as they were ones she'd used herself.

Some of this was Mercury twisting the truth slightly to suit his purpose--but oddly enough, he thought it was actually true. Whether Shine had meant to do it or not, this strategy had another advantage if it meant Salem had seen more of what they could do and was getting uneasy about it.

What if that had been the point? How could Shine have known that? But then, the others had met a woman who could foretell the future--was it that far fetched?

"Are the Relics really with them?" Salem changed the subject.

"You need to ask me that? Can't you sense them?" Mercury had kind of forgotten this was not information that Salem had ever really shared.

"Who told you that?" Salem said sharply. "Ozma?"

"No... I mean... the grimm always know where they are, so..." Mercury faltered. "They're magic, right? Just like you."

"Enough." Salem didn't want to talk about their aspects. "And this is all you know?"

"I know a lot," Mercury said. "But none of it would help you. I couldn't take them down myself. Sometimes I think this whole thing is just a game to them. They don't have to be here. They were sent here. Apparently by a god, the only thing that's more powerful than you."

Salem's eyes gleamed red again. "Watch your tone, boy."

"Oh, is it not true?" Mercury jeered at her, again unwisely. "I mean, if you think so, kill me. Go back on your deal with them... Who knows what'll happen though? I mean, I've seen enough crazy s--t the last week or so, and even before that with your plagues thing you were doing, to make me think it's nothing at all. Heck, maybe I wouldn't even stay dead."

"What?" Salem had not be going to respond to anything he said till that last part.

"Oh, yeah... I never told you that," Mercury said. "Didn't think it was relevant."

"What wasn't?" Magic swirled in her hand again.

Mercury knew it was a gamble to give her anything--but he hoped this gamble was worth taking. It might buy him and them time... he hoped.

Planning was not his strong suit, but he understood power, and this was the only one he knew of that would give Salem pause.

"The two people they have with them who they brought back to life?" he said. "Didn't you hear about that from Cinder or Watts?"

No, because neither of them had wanted Salem to know that. It would have rendered them less useful to her.

Salem stared at Mercury, and then she became angry.

"Impossible," she snapped, forgetting for a moment that reacting to what he said was not with her image of an all powerful goddess. She grabbed his chin in a vice grip. "Only the gods can bring people back to life and then only in special ways!"

Mercury thought she might kill him from sheer spite, but he preferred that to her experimenting on him, so he took his chance.

"If only the gods can," he said with difficulty, "then I think you just answered your own question."

Salem stared at him furiously... but also... was she uneasy?

She let go.

"Who?" she said. "Perhaps it was some trick."

"Not much trick to it," Mercury said, moving his jaw to get it to stop hurting. "You should remember one of them--got eaten by one of your Grimm at Beacon: Roman Torchwick."

Salem didn't really remember his name.

"Had a hat and cane, worked with the Neo girl," Mercury added.

"Oh, him..." Salem said flatly. "Now I remember. Swallowed by a Nevermore."

Did she... know every time someone got eaten by her Grimm?

[Personally, I suspect it's more every time it happens in an attack that she's purposely controlling, but probably not every single time.]

"He's alive," Mercury said.

"So he wasn't eaten," Salem said.

"He says he was," Mercury said. "Ruby said it too. Neo was pretty miserable if he was really faking it. Just appeared on a street in Vacuo, no memory of the last several months."

"No one mentioned this before," Salem said, warily.

"No one wanted to find out what would happen to them if they failed," Mercury said. "Especially Cinder. The other person who came back was that girl, Pyrrha Nikos."

"The... Invincible Girl?" Salem knew her title. "The one Cinder was so proud of defeating besides Ozpin?"

"That's the one, real goody two-shoes," Mercury said. "She claimed the same thing. Doesn't remember a thing from the last several months. Unless she was under a rock, how is that possible? Still, I wouldn't have believed it, but she had the scars."

"Scars?" Oddly.

"Right where Cinder shot her before she turned her into dust," Mercury said. "That's a hard thing to come back from... but the gods could do it."

Salem had seen them do it before, twice.

"The gods would never do that!" she exploded in anger, turning to him in rage. "There's no balance!"

"So you do know them," Mercury said.

Salem made a motion, and the Grimm arms holding him in place yanked him tighter.

Of course this was all in anger, since it accomplished nothing.

"Answer me!" she said. "Are those two gods?"

"I don't know what they are," Mercury strained. "Humans maybe. But they speak for a god. The God, they claim. One that's much more powerful than the two we heard about--One they say controls life and death, both and light and darkness. The Father of everyone else. The top, in other words."

Salem stared at him.

"So I've read, but all cults would claim the same thing," she said.

"When those cults start raising people from the dead and doing all this other s---, I might believe them," Mercury said flatly. "Hard to argue with that kind of evidence."

Salem frowned at him. "This god of theirs is not of our world. He can have no business with us."

"I suppose that's why they're here," Mercury said. "Because He's got no business with us?"

Salem scowled at him.

"Shoot the messenger if you want," Mercury said, wincing. "But it won't stop them. They'll be here, and you'd better hope that I'm wrong. If you kill me, though, that'll piss them off."

Salem's eyes flashed. 

"Perhaps I should simply make you wish that I had." She made magic in her hand again.

Mercury should have been scared, but actually, he laughed.

He laughed because Salem was clearly at a loss for what else to do. That was all she could do...

And maybe it took this to make him finally see why Shine had said she pitied her.

Salem might be powerful--but she was no less pathetic than anyone else, just as lost if you brought the gods into it, and just as helpless. Why, she was only alive because she couldn't break their danged curse. What a joke. No matter what she did to anyone, it didn't solve her problem, did it?

She could kill him or whatever, but she'd be just as stuck before.

Mercury wasn't into that whole "I've seen the light" crap, but he suddenly did almost feel superior to her.

He might be weaker than she was, power-wise, but that didn't do jack for her and at this point, they both knew it.

Him laughing pissed Salem off more, and she blasted him with a vengeance.

The pain stopped the laughing, but when it was over, Mercury looked up, hissing, and just nodded.

Salem seemed to snap. With a cry of rage, she made more magic in her hands.

She'd kill him at this rate.

Tyrian was listening to this with great enjoyment.

Mercury thought he might have overstepped... but it was all true anyway.

Still, he regretted nothing. He still was sure Emerald would have snapped under this kind of duress... Even if she wouldn't have, she didn't deserve this.

Oddly, he wasn't that scared, just uneasy about the torture. But it wasn't like the horror and terror Salem used to inspire in her employees or victims.

Perhaps because these thoughts were in his mind, right before Salem released her new magical fire, Mercury's eyes flashed silver.

Stronger than usual, he thought.

There was a very strange sound that was like a ripping or tearing sound, as if the magic had been ripped apart by the light, and he thought he almost saw what happened between the flash.

Salem, protected by her immortality from the god of life from being truly harmed by Silver Eyes, still had enough magic and darkness inside her to not like them.

And they must have at least singed her if nothing else, because she dropped the magic and flinched.

Tyrian was quite surprised at this.

Mercury blinked.

Salem gave him a look of fury.

"Hey, I didn't do it on purpose," he said. "Just kicked in."

Salem was on the verge of making more magic, and then she seemed to realize that it might end the same way as this time.

So instead she regained her composure and said flatly, "When they arrive, and I get what I want, I'm going to take you and break you down piece by piece until you become a Hound. Savor your last moments, Mercury Black."

She headed for the door.

"Maybe they're your last moments," Mercury called after her.

Salem pretended she hadn't heard.

Tyrian, astounded at her, exclaimed, "You're just going to let him get away with such disrespect?"

Salem cast him a look of scorn.

Tyrian shut up.

"I have no time," Salem said then. "Do as you please--but leave him alive and alert enough to answer questions. I may have need of it."

Tyrian smirked.

Salem left the area to go check her Seers again.

* * *

The main group finally stopped to rest by one of the ridges that looked at least like normal rocks and not some trap.

Hazel had finally put Emerald down when she stopped kicking and crying, and she'd just been walking in dejected silence since then.

The only highlight was that Neo, Roman, and Theo finally found them all using Theo's Semblance, once they'd stopped moving.

"We thought you guys must be lost," Pyrrha said.

"For a while we were," Roman said. "We determined that a new Grimm was attacking once we saw the rest of you losing your heads outside... We never went into those tunnels, unlike you. But we went around them, like Likstar suggested originally. Oddly enough, the Grimm hardly even looked at us. We hid using Neo's Semblance once we got close, and you all went crazy, so we ran for it before we could be affected."

"And that worked?" Weiss said skeptically.

"Well, we did get a little testy, and I apparently monologued a bit, but nothing seemed that interested in us." Roman adjusted his hat. "Found Theo along the way. Somehow he wandered outside of the area. Then we all thought he'd find you. Took the long way around to avoid the plants, and then the lava spill happened, and we thought you'd died till Theo tracked you here."

Neo motioned something.

"Sorry we scared you," Shine said. "And I'd say sorry we lost track of you, but it sounds like you had by far the easiest time, so not really that sorry."

"Well, it's still a little hurtful," Roman said. "None of you noticed we were gone?"

"With Neo we'd hardly notice you anyway usually," Weiss pointed out.

[Writing this after Vol. 9's Neo episodes, I can't believe how cruel they made her. She was mean at times, but she's got no boundaries in the twisted monstrosity they created for that Volume. Does not track with her previous characterization.]

"We forgot everything but ourselves," Blake said, "so it's not exactly personal."

"I began to come out of the spell when I went off, but until the lava flow, I don't think I totally snapped out of it," Theo said. "I'm glad you all managed to avoid dying... Vara, you all right?"

"Do I look all right?" she said grumpily.

"Somehow we still feel awful," Weiss said, "which... could be because we lost someone."

"Who?" Theo said.

"Mercury." Neptune looked up. "Tyrian took him to Salem."

"Mercury? Why?" Roman said.

"I guess it was some kind of trade." Yang lowered her voice since Emerald was still pretty upset about it. "But also probably the Eyes thing."

"Oh...right..." Roman tugged his collar. "That's not good."

"Does she want to make another Hound, or is she just trying to weaken us?" Theo asked.

Shine was scratching at the dirt with her sword tip. "I can't believe it only takes 24 hours to make one of those Hounds. It's likely the latter. We were supposed to keep a close watch on the Silver-Eyed people. Somehow they got scattered, and no one seems to remember very well how it happened except Pyrrha and Jaune."

"I didn't even think about that." Jaune was ashamed. "I just wanted to find the Grimm and get rid of it. I thought they could do it."

"Our pride clouded our judgement," Pyrrha said. "We thought we could manage... We had no idea what we were dealing with. None of us could have killed that thing. Even if we weren't fully under, it still made us foolish. I don't know what I can even do to make amends... How could I have avoided it? It seemed right at the time, but no matter what we did, it didn't make the problem better."

"It's all just as Shine said," Oscar noted. "Pride is in everything we do--at least, it can be. It's like the most we could do was try to not make it the only thing. I almost used magic again. If Wally hadn't shown up in time to stop me."

"When I think--" Yang was shaking her head. "--that Ruby was right in front of me, getting the life stolen out of her chest by that thing, and I stopped even trying to help her, and I didn't even care... I... Is that the kind of person I am? Would I just forget everything else if I had enough ego?"

"Yang, we were all the same," Blake said.

"Then what is wrong with humans?" Yang sputtered. "Why are we so selfish?"

"Isn't that what we've been saying for a long time?" Sun said. "But you can't let it get you down. Humans have a lot of bad and good in them both. The gods made us that way."

"What if they didn't?" Yang said. "What if the other story is true? We did this. Our ancestors did... and we can't escape?"

Shine looked at her and then got up and walked over to them.

"We can escape it," she said firmly. "That's what the message of the Gospel is about. That's what we've been telling you. It's good to realize that you can't escape your sins just by trying to. I wasn't able to avoid the Fastus either... but what saved me was this."

She held up her sword.

"So you have a cool weapon that makes you immune?" Sun asked.

Shine hit him on the head with the flat of it, though lightly.

Then she winced, like after earlier she might not be up to her usual playful taps.

"How many times--? But then perhaps I haven't really explained... Sun, this is not a physical sword."

"It sure feels like one." Sun rubbed his head.

"It can interact with the material because all things that are higher can interact with things that are lower," Shine said. "But it encompasses more than that also. This just shows visibly what is normally invisible. It's the Spirit. The Word. The power. Even without a sword, I would still have it. But it's useful to have a tool to direct your focus on, especially in worlds with monsters, so it works out. But this gift is what makes us able to resist temptation. It's given to us to show who we are now and what has been done for us."

She knelt down--mostly because she was too tired to stand.

"It is because we can't right ourselves that Jesus was sent at all," she said steadily. "That's the message. That's why He died. So we wouldn't have to. To take the punishment for our sins, to take our pride and fears and hatred all onto Himself. He put off the glory of God and put on mortal flesh so that we could put off our mortal sins and put on the immortality of His glory--which is to be pure. Because those who have no sin will not die. Sin's wages are death. That's all in the book. And the way we get this life is by simply asking for it. That's the only way we could get it. We could never earn it--you can't earn something like that. It must be a choice to give to you. But God loved us all enough to do it. Enough to undergo all the suffering and the shame of being a human and being hungry and tired and cold--and mocked and hated and slandered and killed. He did not consider equality with God a thing to hang on to, but became equal with Man so that Man would finally be able to be what he was supposed to be again. And this is available to us all, if we want it. But many are called and few are chosen."

"And why is that?" Neptune no longer saw anything weird about what she was saying--not after the Grimm.

Shine looked sad. "Don't you know? People are caught up in their own wishes... desires... or curses in some cases. They love their sin. We all love to do what we like, even when it's evil."

Cinder looked up sharply.

Everyone was listening to this. No one had the heart to even talk about anything else right now; they were all depressed.

Shine seemed to feel better even talking about it. The light was coming back into her eyes.

"But if one day we can be sick of our own selfishness enough to want to change, and yet know that we cannot do it without help, then we can accept the truth, the true gift of grace. Of course, this offends people."

"Why?" Sun asked, twitching his tail. "I mean, it's... weird. But why would it offend them?"

Shine looked up at the red sky.

"Why? Who knows?" she said. "The Lord said offense would be caused by his Gospel. It's too harsh for some and too lenient for others. God is too generous for people who are stingy and too saving for people who lack restraint. He doesn't suit anyone's taste, and so as long as they want things to suit their taste, they won't accept Him. God does not fit into our boxes. The point of Jesus' entire mission was that He would make us fit into God's box--which is still far larger than any we've ever constructed for ourselves. But people don't like being told they sin, you know. We all know it, but we don't like to be reminded of it. We think that if we see our shame, we'll be helpless--and quite right, so we are. But it's not like it's any different if you hide it, or that anyone else is less helpless than us. I can't save you. I couldn't save myself. Ozpin can't save this world--he couldn't even break his own curse. It's madness to think anyone can save anyone else... except by love... Love is the one way we mirror God and can reach each other. And no, it can't remove our sins, but it can sometimes get through to people enough to make them want it... and on that is our entire practice of faith based. Not that we do it the right way, but... we're supposed to."

She laughed dryly. "But even I, you see, still make many errors. But that's in God's wisdom that we can't manage to pull ourselves together in this life. If we could, people might just assume that the Gospel is just a fancy word for saying we should try harder and that what we do, it could be done even without our faith, if people just tried hard enough. That's not it at all. These bodies of ours trap us in some amount of weakness to sin." She tapped her wrist. "But we can get to so we don't need to worry about it much, as long as we're always focused on what's right and moving forward. At least that's my strategy."

"So that's what it's about?" Neptune said. "I didn't get it before. What the Grimm are really about? The sin inside us humans... That's... why you have power over them?"

"Not us, but the Lord does, and they know we're marked by Him." Shine twisted her sword. "You've seen how they would tear us to shreds if they could. The hate us no less than you, but they can't harm us the same way."

"I think it's neat," Sun said. "I mean... uh, I know it's real serious and all, but it's... I mean it's cool, what you guys do. Like... it's like if the Grimm couldn't attack us for the stuff we do, we wouldn't really need to be afraid of them... or... I guess... ourselves, really. I always thought I was a pretty good guy, but I've been kind of thinking I do a lot of dumb things--ditching people when they need me and stealing and not thinking about if it might make stuff worse in the long run."

"Like one negative emotion leads to another," Meridian spoke up. And Weiss wondered if he was thinking of his parents. "You steal one day, and then someone else does, and it adds up to a crisis, and we never stop to think if we made part of the problem ourselves. It's good fun till you start a fight that never will stop."

"And that just sums up the whole thing between humans and Faunus right there," Blake said. "Or... humans and other humans. Someone starts something because they can, and then it never stops."

"When you look at it that way, it's amazing that there's any human civilization left," Qrow remarked. "I guess we've got more protection than we think."

"Are the Grimm like a judgment on this world then?" Pyrrha asked. "To punish us for making this mistake? Like I used to think... We all have some of both, and we have to know what side we're on."

"Oh, make no mistake--" Shine leaned back. "--they'd attack you anyway. They don't just attack when people are angry, do they? But it does make an opening. But no, the demons of this world or any world would not leave humans alone just because we were good. They are still malevolent creatures. However, they couldn't do much overall damage if we didn't help. Folly is caused by fear, and pride and folly lead us to make decisions that allow evil to gain an advantage over us. It's an endless cycle, only ever broken by the grace of God, in my experience, and knowledge. Things never really change until they change from the inside out."

"And that's why you came to us first," Pyrrha stated slowly. "To Oscar... to us all. You could have gone to Salem from the start and stopped her. But that would be an external change. If we really want change, we must start it ourselves from the inside of our world and work outward to stop things like her... or the Grimm."

"Well, it's pretty dope to stop evil witches," Wally said, shrugging. "But it's not enough. My League and I have a ball stopping bad guys, but it's not so fun when we're having issues amongst ourselves and we realize that if we went to the dark side, it'd be hard to stop us. We have to watch ourselves first. And have people who watch us."

"As Batman would say, 'Who guards the guardians?'" Shine said. "I'm kind of glad we're a team now. Easier that way."

"Teams can also make that worse," Blake said. "Trust me."

"If they all are not trying to, I don't think it's likely." Shine shrugged. "But you understand now... I think the pride affected us all. I still feel shaken. And I can tell some of you still are not fully recovered... but it may be time to ask if that is just because of the Grimm. Perhaps it's just dredging up something that you'd forgotten about, but it was still there."

"Thanks for the encouragement," Ren said dully.

"It can always be taken care of," Shine said. "And I should take my own advice... I didn't like what happened to me today."

"What did happen? You keep saying that," Blake said.

Shine went silent. Then, "I don't really want to discuss it."

"It had to do with her, didn't it?" Raven nodded at Cinder. "She has marks on her. Did you finally actually lay a hand on her?"

"Raven, let it go," Wally warned.

"But I'm guessing that's what happened," Vara said, frowning. "Good. If only you'd killed her."

"Vara!" Shine said angrily. "Shut up!"

"Easy there," Theo warned. "It's a fair point."

"What did happen?" Yang demanded.

Cinder glared at her.

"Cinder did attack us," Wally said, in an effort to get Shine out of the spotlight. "But it was just for a second, and the Grimm was in effect."

"Why are you lying?" Cinder cast him a haughty look. "We both know it wasn't just that."

"It might have been a part of it." Wally gave her a warning look. "You were acting a little weird."

"Perhaps," Cinder said warily. "But I don't know why you'd want to make yourself look worse also."

"We were all affected," Wally said. "Shine and Cinder did have a little tiff, but Shine wouldn't hurt anyone that badly, and she stopped before it got ugly. Then we ran for it. That's all."

"Is it really?" Winter had been silent for quite some time, still angry about Ironwood, but now she looked at him coolly. "Perhaps Shine's anger was justified."

"But it's not me," Shine said in a low voice. "At least... not what I want to be. Justified or not. I don't want to think about it. It was horrible, feeling like I could do anything I wanted, and yet it felt wrong. And I wasn't angry because it was an injustice--I was angry because it was against me, personally."

"So what?" Weiss said. "She deserves it."

"Are you really beating yourself up over this?" Yang was incredulous.

"'The Son of Man did not come to destroy life but to save it,'" Shine said flatly. "Stop telling me otherwise."

"You really take that s--- seriously." Theo shook his head. "I wouldn't care if it was someone like her."

"I know!" Shine snapped at him, and then she walked away from them in high dudgeon.

Wally sighed and shook his head.