Pyrrha was returned to the others, to their great relief.

"We worried they would kill you," Weiss said.

"But you're okay!" Nora grabbed her too tightly.

"I seem to be," Pyrrha gasped. "He tried to get me to give up. I almost believed him--something about it being selfish to want to be alive again, and I didn't deserve it."

"That's stupid," Cinder remarked.

They looked at her strangely.

"I mean that it's no business of his," Cinder said. "It's not like this was ever based off worthiness for those gods. Not from the story you told us."

"Funny, because I thought of what you told me at the time," Pyrrha said dryly, "that I wasn't worthy of such power."

"Who was talking about power?" Cinder sniffed. "I thought we were talking about being alive. Don't confuse things."

"You are such a b----," Mercury said.

"I think that was her trying to be nice," Pyrrha said. "But... none of this was ever about deserve. Though... well, you all don't think that people will become so discontented with losing loved ones over this?"

"It never happened with Ozpin," Qrow said. "I can't say I ever really thought about it."

"I guess it could happen," Blake said. "But there are reasons, right? And... I think we really wouldn't wish it on everyone when we consider that they'd have to die again. It would definitely have to be someone who'd be okay with that, like you. I guess Torchwick also. But there's some people who'd never want that."

"Yes... funny how none of that came to mind," Pyrrha said. "Oddly, no one asked about it when I told my story in Beacon. I think they didn't know if they bought it or not. I really prefer to stop talking about it."

"Get used to it. The rest of your life, that's all anyone is going to ask you about," Cinder said. "It's a novelty."

"Perhaps... Still, not everyone will like it," Pyrrha mused. "I suppose, though, in the end, people being disappointed with the answer is not... the biggest issue. I mean, people will be disappointed with anything. We can't just live our lives by it."

[Something people seem to forget when they make judgments about what is and is not a good idea.]

"I wouldn't worry about it," Yang said. "The gods are just pissed that your whole existence proves that they're shallow jerks. And they couldn't kill you again, so I guess that about answers our questions, except for one thing: Where is my Mom, Winter, the DJs, and Salem and Ozpin?"

"And Oscar," Ruby said.

"I feel like it's a bad sign that they haven't shown up yet," Nora said. 

"I still think they're keeping the DJs away from us," Theo said. "How could they test them? They're not from this world... if we even are in our world anymore."

"I don't see Jaune either," Pyrrha said.

"Oh, he has a different choice." Suddenly the god of darkness was there.

"Hey, what are you doing back here?" Yang held up her hands.

"Careful, Yang." Qrow grabbed her arm.

"There are other ways of restoring balance," the god of darkness said. "Something must be accomplished here, and we're not done with you yet, girl." He meant Pyrrha.

"Why her and not me?" Roman wondered.

Neo elbowed him to shut up.

"We'll deal with you later," the god said to him.

"I refuse to be part of--" Pyrrha began before she vanished from sight again.

"Hey, give her back!" Nora cried.

"Hey, Cinder just vanished also," Emerald said, looking around.

"What? Are you making them fight to death again?" Mercury said. "Because, not gonna lie, that's cold, even for me."

The god of darkness made no answer, just left.

"And if we wondered if they were cruel, I think we have our answer," Blake said.

"We've gotta help them!" Ruby cried.

"What can we do? We can't leave," Weiss said.

"Maybe if we pray or something," Ruby said. "Even if we can't leave, He can, right? Maybe He can break this whole thing."

"That's worth a shot," Emerald said. "But I don't think this is exactly an illusion. I seem to be able to tell now. I think it's real, but it is not Remnant."

"You know, Shine would also sing a song," Weiss said.

"To amp up power," Meridian agreed.

"Well, you have fun with that," Mercury said. "I'd rather eat nails."

"You might end up worse than that if we don't do something," Yang said. 

"I'm going to try," Weiss said. "We can't fight our way out any other way."

The others mostly agreed with her and Ruby.

Some people only felt comfortable with speaking, but Weiss mentally ran through the songs they'd been playing constantly since Vacuo to ward off Grimm.

She recalled one that seemed promising for the situation.

"Did you feel the mountains tremble? Did you hear the oceans roar? When the people rose to sing of Jesus Christ the risen one.

"Did you feel the people tremble? Did you hear the singers roar? When the lost began to sing of Jesus Christ, the risen one.

"And we can see that, God, You're moving, a mighty river through the nations. And young and old will turn to Jesus. Fling wide your heavenly gates. Prepare the way of the risen Lord!

"Open up the doors and let the music play. Let the streets resound with singing, songs that bring your hope, songs that bring your joy, dancers who dance upon injustice.

"Did you feel the darkness tremble when all the saints join in one song? And all the streams flow as one river to wash away our brokenness.

"And here we see that, God, You're moving. A time of Jubilee is coming, when young and old return to Jesus. Fling wide your heavenly gates. Prepare the way of the risen Lord."

https://youtu.be/juUKELnngaI

["Did You Feel The Mountains Tremble?" is one of my personal favorite worship songs. I prefer 90s-2000s era usually.]

* * *

Raven, when she was quite literally spirited away by the god of darkness, knew to expect more pain.

Still, the slideshow of memories from her past that he threw at her was more than she anticipated.

Not excluding what happened to her tribe.

"And you want to reward this?" the god of darkness was yelling at her--or his voice was so powerful that it was pounding on her mind as if he was.

Raven was reminded of the Irasci Grimm's effects.

But of course, he was the one who made the creatures.

The whole thing would have been more than she could bear if she hadn't recalled that Qrow and she had been separated for some purpose... This shred of reality made her remember that this was a trick.

One it took all her willpower to resist, but a trick nonetheless.

Still, it was incessant, and she felt she was weakening under it.

"Why should she get off with nothing for that?" the god insisted. "Why should you not get justice?"

Justice.

Raven had never cared about justice as much as just the truth. She always thought justice was a fool's dream.

Perhaps her cynism served her well here.

"Justice is more than I bargained for when I did this," she said, covering her ears. "Is this the best you've got? You think because of all this crap I'm going to give in to you? This has to end sometime, when I pass your stupid test."

"Oh, you think this is all I can do?" the god said. "That I do not know deeper fears than this?"

"Deeper fears?" Raven looked up.

That was a mistake.

In another moment she saw her family--what was left of it--standing before her, tied to poles or trees or something upright.

"What are you doing?" she said. 

"Not what I'm doing, but what you're going to do. You carry my magic, Raven Branwen, and thus you are but my puppet."

The god of darkness had thrown off all pretense of being a nice guy.

He snapped his fingers and bared his teeth, and magic blazed out of Raven's hands without her will.

"Stop it!" She clamped her hands shut to try to suppress it.

But it pushed out of them like a living being.

It shot through her hands right towards the people tied up.

Raven stared, horrified.

It was just an illusion... right?

"Is it?" the god of darkness taunted her. "Perhaps it's not. Perhaps I will do this until you realize the futility of resisting your creators."

"I thought you couldn't harm us," Raven said in the ghost of a voice.

"And you think that twit has power over me?" He suddenly loomed huge and deadly over her head. "Do you think I can be squelched by a mere mortal!"

Just as Raven had always feared--

She stepped back, shaking.

She was only human after all. This was exceeding her limits of what she could take.

And, if she'd been left to herself, it would probably have broken her.

But just as it appeared the god would eat her whole or snap her sanity by his taunts, there was another presence in the void.

Raven neither saw it nor felt anything actually touch her, but nonetheless she saw that something suddenly seemed to slam the god of darkness back from her and break his illusion into a hundred pieces.

And there was a sound like a roar, but not any roar you could have put a match to in nature, but that raw power and air-splitting, pulse-pounding noise.

It jarred Raven back to herself, and she knew the whole thing had been a lie.

At the same time she was transported to the field with the others.

She fell to her knees.

"Mom!" Yang was even more glad to see her appear after the others had vanished.

"Raven!" Qrow said. "What did he do to you?"

They crowded around her.

Raven had no words for a moment as she tried to understand what had just happened, but then she grabbed Yang's face in one hand and Qrow's shirt in another.

"Oh, thank the real God, you're real," she said, almost hysterical for a moment before she got a grip.

"Uh... oh gosh, what did it show you?" Yang said. After her own test, she could only imagine how it might have been painful.

"Nevermind, but it was somehow more brutal than the last visions," Raven said. "Qrow? Where did it take you?"

"Nowhere, just made me some stupid deal," Qrow said. Though he looked a little shaken up still. "But you've been gone for a while."

"Something stopped it. I think he was trying to kill me." Raven put a hand to her chest. "Or at least use the magic to completely take over. Likstar was always right about it being a shackle... Why isn't it gone yet?"

"Because Ozpin is still alive," Hazel said saltily.

After Raven had heard more about it, she said (and correctly, if they'd all known), "I think they're cranking it up. Too many of us have said no to them. My test felt more like torture than a test. They're usurping the rules to get traction. Maybe if any one person cracks they can stay."

"Hmm," Ruby said. "Shine told us that we need to get rid of all the magic so that the gods would have no root left in this world. It would make sense that, if any of us give into them, that might also be a root. They might invade us with their power. So even one person cracking could be bad. Unless it could be undone, but they might not give us such a chance."

"Wow, Ruby... you really paid attention." Weiss was impressed.

"Well, it was interesting stuff," Ruby said. "And the fate of the world kind of depended on it."

"I understand everyone who's missing except Jaune," Raven mused. "Why is he so important?"

"I have a bad feeling it has something to do with Pyrrha," Blake said. "Something about it is a little too like Salem and Ozma. Don't you think the gods might not like that?"

"Ooh... that's not good," Sun said.

[Funny how smart they can be when they try.]

* * *

Blake was more right than she knew.

Jaune had been left alone in the white void for so long he thought he'd been forgotten there, which would be so typical for him.

He'd tried everything he could think of to break out of it, too.

https://youtu.be/29hY8i9kHVI

[Thought this song and AMV were a good example of Jaune's arc through the story, and of course Apotheosis delivers so well. Song is "On My Own" by Ashes Remain.]

After a while of being alone, to the point where he thought he might lose his mind, he suddenly saw a change.

The background remained blank, but several feet in front of him appeared a large scale.

And large meant it could have held an elephant on each surface.

Then on each side appeared a person.

One was Pyrrha, to his right, and the other was Cinder, to his left.

Pyrrha was just standing there, but Cinder began to wave her hands wildly at once--it took Jaune a minute to realize she was beating on something invisible that must have been a wall or barrier, because she couldn't move her hands past it.

It also blocked sound, because she looked like she was yelling, probably cursing, and he heard nothing.

Pyrrha was just waiting, looking around anxiously.

They didn't seem to see him yet.

Jaune already had a bad feeling about what was going on, but then the gods, both of them, appeared on either side of the scales, looking at him.

They were currently in their horned, humanoid forms.

"Jaune Arc," they both said. "We have come to the moment of truth."

"We have?" he said uneasily.

"This imbalance must be corrected," the god of light said.

The scale seemed to tremble a little, and both girls felt it.

Cinder stopped moving.

Then she looked down and appeared to see Jaune and the gods. Her eyes widened.

"I don't understand," Jaune said, though he was afraid he did.

"Someone's life was supposed to end in that battle of Beacon," the god of darkness hissed. "And it has been reversed."

"Fate could have gone either way," the god of light said.  "And I'd be inclined to simply undo it, but as there have been special circumstances, I'm offering a compromise. A trade."

"A trade...?" Jaune felt queasy.

"A chance to tip the scale back," the god of darkness said, tapping it so that it seesawed for a moment, and both girls were thrown around.

Pyrrha grabbed the edge of it and steadied herself.

She seemed to be saying something to the gods, perhaps to let her out, but Jaune still heard nothing.

"One of you will judge," the god of light said. "One of them must die. You may choose either the person who would have, and restore balance just as it was... or we will allow a substitution. Tilt the scale the other way."

Jaune's fear was true.

"You can't... mean I'm supposed to decide?" he sputtered.

"Who was affected the most by it? It's only fitting," said the god of darkness.

"Isn't this a bit backward?" Jaune said. "I mean, no way am I unbiased... and... and why should either of them have to die for balance? I mean, when you think about it, that's not real balance. They weigh the same on the scale, one life to another. It'll be imbalanced if one of them dies."

"We could take them both instead," the god of darkness offered.

"No!" Jaune said.

"This may seem like a hard choice," the god of light said, "but I think you will find in your heart you always knew it would come. You knew that these things cannot be."

"So do the right thing," the god of darkness urged him, not very nicely. "Before more of your little party suffers."

Jaune stared at the scale.

"I can't choose," he said. "I... I love Pyrrha, and I could never let her die again. It's up to her how to live her life--it's not my decision. I know she wouldn't be up there if she had a choice... You should have given her one."

If he'd known that had already happened and she'd said no, it would have angered him further.

"And Cinder... is... well, maybe one of my least favorite people in the world, but I can't just decide if she dies like this," Jaune said. "It's so unnecessary."

"But you must choose," the god of darkness said. 

"You can't just choose not to choose," the god of light said. "That is not how it works."

Jaune whimpered, and tears came to his eyes. "Don't make me do this," he said. "No matter what I choose, people will be disappointed, and... I'll be crushed."

"So this is all about you, is it?" the god of darkness jeered at him.

"No, no, it's about them too," Jaune said. "They don't deserve this--okay, maybe Cinder does, but it's not my call. I already decided not to kill her because I only had a bad reason. How is this any different? I can't kill her because you told me to. That's sick."

"But if you don't, then the other girl is chosen by default," the god of light said.

"What?" Jaune said. "No! How is that right?"

"Because one negative choice means you chose another," the god of darkness said. "So choose."

It appeared that the girls could hear even if he couldn't hear them, because both of them had changed their expressions to ones of horror.

Cinder glanced from Pyrrha to Jaune to the gods like she'd been cheated.

Pyrrha was banging on the invisible wall and yelling at them to stop, from the look of it.

Jaune felt ill and dizzy.

He couldn't make this call...

Well, he could...

Frankly... wasn't the choice obvious? 

Pyrrha deserved the world. She was the best person in it--and Cinder was... one of the most wicked.

Yet all this time he'd been working on not making judgments about people based on his assessment of their potential... He would throw that aside to make this choice.

But if the gods were forcing him to do it, and this was his only option, then of course, he'd pick Pyrrha

And yet... it felt untrue to what he'd been trying to do to just condemn Cinder to this fate because of some stupid test.

He'd wanted to punish her so badly--and he still didn't like her--but somehow the desire for revenge had gone out of him when he'd spared her before, like once he made a choice like that there was no going back from it, because it signified too much.

And being forced into it felt wrong...

What would the DJs do?

What would God say to do?

At this, Jaune suddenly had an idea... not a pleasant one, but, one that he thought might work.

"Did you say that you were okay with substituting one person for another?" he said.

"That is the premise of this choice," the god of light said.

"Then, I choose--me," Jaune said.

Pyrrha and Cinder gaped at him, first with shock, then in protest.

"You?" the god of darkness said as if gobsmacked, even for a god.

"You never said it had to be only one person," Jaune said. "I can't pick between them, so I pick me."

"How could you not pick between them? You clearly prefer one to the other." The god of light was incredulous.

"I do, but it's not my place to judge, not like this," Jaune said. "If you have to have a life, then I'd be willing to give up mine, because it's the right thing to do... It's what... well, it's what God would do."

They stared at him.

"Well, not you two." Jaune suddenly was a little mad at them. "You would never give up anything for mankind--that's how we know you're fake. You don't love anyone, not even each other. You just take and sacrifice people and make them have impossible tasks. I won't play this game with you. I think I made my choice."

"This is appalling!" The god of darkness turned into a dragon and began to yell in anger. "It was so simple! How is it that even this test is not one they will comply with?!"

"It is truly unsearchable!" the god of light echoed, though less dramatically. "So that is your final answer?"

"It is," Jaune said firmly.

Then he heard them.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha was yelling. "No, no, don't do it! I'll accept it."

"What is wrong with you?" Cinder was yelling at either him or the gods. "What kind of test is this? We already passed your d--- test! You can't do that!"

"Well, this isn't really your problem anymore, is it?" the god of darkness turned to them savagely. "Be gone."

"No!" Pyrrha screamed.

They vanished.

"What did you do with them?" Jaune said.

"It doesn't concern you, does it? Arc, you've already decided," the god of darkness said wickedly.

"Brother," began the god of light, "this is--"

"He asked for it. I think it's permissible now." The god of darkness reached for Jaune as if to claw him in half.

The other did nothing to stop this.

But without warning, a bolt of light, quite unlike the small god's, broke into the void and struck the god of darkness' clawed arm.

He howled and stepped back.

The other god looked up.

"The ancient law," he said. "Substitution only means that the punishment cannot stick to the supplicant... I warned you, brother, that it would not do well to try to harm one of them."

"You may have this one," the god of darkness said to the new light, "but we still have our own! They will never be able to let go! I'll guarantee it!"

"Do not speak so rashly," the god of light warned. "I begin to think this was not a wise idea."

"Don't say that in front of the human, you fool," the god of darkness scolded.

"Oh... of course." The god of light waved.

* * *

Jaune vanished and appeared in the field.

Pyrrha was still in tears there, while Cinder was trying to explain what happened.

"They set us up!" she cried. "It was completely unfair. We already passed their test, but they made us part of the other one, and when he gave it to them, and they didn't like it, they just poofed us here and said they'd kill him. Of all the slimy, underhanded--"

"Slow down, I can't understand what you're saying," Ruby said. 

"Is this about Jaune?" Nora said.

"They cheated," Pyrrha said, through tears. "The rule was they couldn't harm us, but they tricked him into agreeing to it. It's not fair! He only did it to save us. His intentions were pure. How can they expect that? They're truly evil!"

"Well, this seems like a time that someone would say 'I told you so' if it wasn't so awful," Raven said.

"Guys?" Jaune found his voice.

They all looked up.

"What the--?" Cinder said.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha jumped up and ran at him, knocking him over. "Jaune! You're okay!" She grabbed his face. "They didn't kill you?"

She kissed his face several times in relief.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay." Jaune grabbed her and hugged her also. "And they didn't hurt either of you?"

"No, no, it was all a ploy," Pyrrha said breathlessly. "But they had me, I must confess..."

"Jackasses," Cinder grumbled.

"Well, you gave us a real scare there!" Nora punched Jaune's arm. 

"I'm glad you're all right," Ren said.

Ruby patted his shoulder.

Jaune finally sat up.

"I think they were going to kill me," he said. "But... He stopped them." He looked up.

"Someone stopped mine also," Raven said.

"We're not alone in here." Pyrrha looked up, wiping the tears off her face hurriedly. "Thank Heaven... but that was too close. I thought I'd have a heart attack..."

"That was a pretty gutsy move, Jaune," Weiss admitted. "You were really willing to go that far not to do what they wanted."

"I mean... I had to. We came this far," Jaune said. "And I couldn't make a choice like that."

Cinder was staring at the ground.

"But I don't see why," she said in a low voice. "I certainly had it coming. It was bad enough when you just didn't kill me, but there... that was the chance to get justice."

They were shocked that she admitted it... and she almost looked ashamed.

Cinder!?

Somehow no one felt like gloating, though. The reality of this was sinking in.

Jaune shook his head. "I guess I showed mercy after all," he said. "I don't know how. Maybe it's a miracle. I finally didn't want revenge anymore, I just wanted it to be right... I think I get it now, why the Cross thing happened. Sometimes there's just no choosing between people you'd punish, once you know more... You have to choose yourself."

"That's very noble," Pyrrha said, hugging him. "But don't ever do that again. If we go, I want it to be fighting together, not making some horrid choice of ultimatums. Enough of that."

"I promise," Jaune said. "I can take a clean fight, but not being a judge. It's too much pressure."

Some of them laughed weakly, but others looked ready to cry.

"D---, Jaune," Emerald said. "That's pretty heroic. I'm kind of sorry for all those times we made jokes about you being a loser before."

"What?" Jaune said.

"Eh, well, he was kind of a loser back then," Mercury said. "But we've all changed a lot."

They helped Jaune get up.

Cinder was still upset.

"I..." She rubbed her left arm. "I've never actually apologized for anything that happened that night... or at Haven."

Mouths dropped open.

But weirdly no one reacted aloud.

"The tower was fair game," Pyrrha said. "You don't have to apologize for it. You knew what I came to do. I should also apologize. You stopped me from doing to Amber worse still than you did to me. I'm very glad I didn't have to carry that decision. That's mostly why I haven't held a grudge. The alternative was too horrible."

"Geez, that's dark," Emerald muttered.

"But true." Weiss made a face.

"I don't know when I'll stop feeling angry about what happened," Jaune said, "but at least I know that anger doesn't go down to the roots of my soul anymore. I can't believe I'm saying this, but you probably shouldn't beat yourself up about the gods' mind games. I don't think it really has anything to do with the right choice for them."

"I felt guilty long before that," Cinder said, strangely, like she couldn't believe she was saying it. "But I would never have admitted it. I'd have gone to my grave saying that I regretted nothing if it meant I wouldn't look weak. But I no longer think that it's convincing anyone. I called the guilt other things so I wouldn't have to admit that I knew what I did was wrong. But, I already knew. That's why I gloated. I thought it would bury the remorse... It wasn't real remorse, just... that nagging feeling like it wasn't justifiable. I've never cared about anyone other than myself in my entire life, and I can't even claim that I do now. And yet that doesn't make me better, it makes me worse. You were right about me."

She sighed. "I wonder how I got this way to begin with..."

"Oh... Cinder." Emerald actually reached out to hug her, crazily enough.

Cinder just looked at her like she didn't know what to do about it.

"What are you doing?" she said weirdly.

"I just... I don't know, I guess that was just something I could relate to," Emerald said. "Sorry... you hate this."

She backed up.

"You're as sappy as ever," Mercury said. "And hey, Cinder, I won't say this again, but you're only one out of many of us who had no idea how fricked up we are and why we got that way. You can blame the DNA or the training we got, but some people are just defective. Look at the bright side, this whacked out team apparently is the place to be if you're a nut job with a vendetta against fake gods. And that is easily the most nice thing I've ever said, and I hate it."

"I think you don't," Yang said smugly. "Admit it, you guys have liked us for a while, you're just sore about it."

"Shut up," Emerald said.

"It's okay. I think you're growing on us too," Blake said. "I really think it's hard to see people as enemies once you know more about them and what drives them. I'm no one to judge anyway. I used to think I was better than you because I left the White Fang willingly. I didn't notice how hypocritical that was when you left Salem willingly. Even Cinder... for different reasons, but... And then Salem left her own vendetta, I guess. Turns out, I don't know people as well as I think."

"This is nice and all," Hazel said, "but I think we should notice that we're still missing one Maiden, and Ozpin, the boy, and Salem herself. As well as the World Walkers. Judging by how severe the last tests on all of you were, they will be harder on them."

"Maybe what we did helped," Weiss said. "Raven and Jaune were rescued."

"Then we have to keep doing it," Ruby said. "We can't take a chance that it's working and then stop. They needs our help also."

They agreed with her about this.

https://youtu.be/3Sv_876eqxg

["Even When It Hurts"--Hillsong]

* * *

Winter had also been left alone for an excruciatingly painful amount of time.

For her, while no test had appeared right off, she had a growing feeling of heaviness and discomfort, which gradually she began to think was the Maiden powers inside her.

She couldn't see her eyes, but she thought they might be glowing, when she tried to look in her peripheral.

The powers had acted up off and on so much the last couple days that it wasn't that surprising, but she still thought it was the gods' deliberate effect.

When at last she saw scenes, it was also the fall of Atlas and Beacon and images of Vacuo and Haven, onset by plagues and Grimm as people were in trouble.

Winter had enough self possession to remember that this was just a ploy.

"Enough," she spoke. "What purpose is this for?"

"That you would see the results of human folly and selfishness." The god of darkness appeared.

He was not in a good mood after how the last tests had gone, and even Winter, who knew little of him, thought there was a change since when they'd first seen them.

"I suppose this is to prove something?" she said cautiously. "But I have no interest in discussing anything with you. I came here to put an end to this."

"This is the responsibility you wish to take on?" the god of darkness said. "It was Ozma's task."

"He certainly did a good job," Winter muttered, but then aloud, "No one can do everything alone."

"Among your human companions, you are hailed as one of the wisest and most capable," the god of darkness said. "Many would look up to you as a role model."

Flattery didn't do much for Winter after months of hard reality and barely surviving.

"I can only hope that I have done my best," she said coldly.

"And you're modest, which is rare for a human," the god said. "So you may not like to think of how all this really could be so simple."

Winter raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"My brother and I will accept a trade," the god of darkness said. "If one of you would take the full responsibility for the magic left in the world and the burden of humanity's wellbeing, we will release Ozma and the boy."

Here he showed Oscar, and Ozma seemed slightly behind him, though Winter didn't know what he looked like and could only assume it was him.

"You want to switch your chosen one?" she said.

"Clearly, he has not been capable as hoped," the god of darkness said. "I never had much faith in him anyway. But you have proven yourself far more capable. Perhaps you would take up the mantle. If you do, we will let you all go free. Only Ozma has to pass on."

"Only Ozma?" Winter repeated. "How convenient for Salem..."

"We will deal with her shortly," the god snarled. "I'd like to tear her in pieces for her insolence..."

He'd clearly forgotten that Winter was listening to him there.

Winter winced.

"Well, I'm sure I'm very flattered that you have such faith in me," she said with evident sarcasm, "but I'm afraid I'll have to decline. I've had enough of magic. I would like to save the world, but I think I see why Ozma could not bear the burden. It is not one any one can bear. We have another way now, and I've already chosen it. All I want is to be rid of your tainted magic and your presence."

Winter was always so clipped, even the god of darkness could feel the sting of her disdain.

And it did not sooth him.

"Insolent, ungrateful woman!" he cried, and the powers inside her began to wrench themselves till she almost was senseless from it.

"Defiance and more defiance!" the god raged. "All of you! I'll tear you in pieces! This world is ours. How dare you give us such impudence! I'll kill you!"

Winter was thrown back violently, but then she seemed to fall into the field.

She looked around and saw everyone else.

"Winter!" Weiss grabbed her.

Qrow and Ruby came rushing towards her also, even Raven.

"What happened to you?" they asked her the by-now-old question.

Winter told them in a few words.

"You didn't even hesitate?" Neptune was impressed.

"There was no reason to," Winter said. "We've all been over this so many times, it was like I had been drilled for it."

"D---," Emerald said. "Maybe we are defective."

"Eh, she's just weird," Mercury shrugged.

"Well, not too bad, Ice Queen," Qrow said. "At least they let you go."

"Yes..." Winter straightened. "But I feel as if it's not over."

"That makes the last Maiden," Hazel said. "And that leaves us to wonder just what they're doing to the people who started all this."

[I bet by now you're all very sick of this testing thing.

Give me a break, you know how hard it is to make each of these 28 cast members have their own moment? My finales always have a huge cast, and it's torture to keep up.

But take heart, it's going to get changed up a bit from here.]