[This will be the last preamble mini arc before the climactic part of this story. I know you're all getting impatient. And I would like to finish it soon. But we're not quite ready.]

After the party was over, Shine pitched her idea to Raven, who agreed to it surprisingly easily considering how she was anxious to get back on schedule.

Shine also told Cinder--not asked, told--that they'd be coming to her house for the night.

Cinder knew that meant Shine wanted to talk--but the idea of refusing didn't really cross her mind. She couldn't have. She would have expected fire to shoot out and consume her.

Of course nothing of the sort would have happened, but time had not really shaken Cinder's deep-seated belief that Shine and Wally were dangerous to mess with.

Wally felt bad for Cinder but wasn't sure he had much help to offer her. She trusted Shine more.

Shine told him he might be more help than he thought.

"Surely this is something your League has dealt with often enough for you to know how she might feel," she said.

"I've never actually killed anybody," Wally said.

"Neither have I," Shine said.

"I think you're better at putting yourself in their shoes though. Empathy is not my real gift," Wally said. "Maybe I could try, but if I mess it up, I could just make her feel worse."

"I could also, by forcing this conversation," Shine said.

Cinder let them into the apartment.

"It's cramped," she said.

"We had to sleep on the hard ground in the Ninja lands." Shine rubbed her shoulder. "This should be nothing."

"I'll put Grace to bed," Wally said.

"She's good about sleeping through the night usually," Shine said. "Except for feeding, and she doesn't put up too much of a fuss. Just like her dad."

"She doesn't have...super powers, right?" Cinder asked.

"You know, we've talked about that, but Wally's aren't hereditary, that we know of, and neither are mine," Shine said. "However, we do live in a world that allows for it, which could certainly affect her, being born there and all. I'm fine either way. Powers aren't important. But I hope if she gets some, they won't be the sort to give her a hard time her whole life. I try to help those people, but it would be hard to watch my own child suffer that way."

"Why does anyone have powers like that?" Cinder wondered. "Why would God allow it?"

"I think the same reason we have besetting sins. Nothing is perfect in this world. That gets into our superhuman ability as much as our human ones. So some turn out not so good. But it's not their fault. And you choose if you will be a good person or not." Shine could always moralize. "So..."

Cinder sat down on her counter, because why be normal and sit on a chair?

"I'm sure you already know what happened," she said. "And you have some lecture about it in mind. But I don't want to hear it."

"I'm insulted that you called it a lecture," Shine said. "A lecture would imply I had some fault to correct. But if you don't want to talk, fine... I thought I could help. We don't get so many chances in person anymore. I wanted to use it."

"Are you trying to use guilt to manipulate me?" Cinder asked.

"If you will use it on yourself, why can't I?" Shine replied.

There it was.

"So you think I feel guilty?" Cinder said.

"I don't think that, I know that," Shine replied. "But we don't have to fight. The combative approach is not always best. Do you think you'll be fine if I don't offer anything? Because I don't have to. I could just rest. But, out of love, I would still want to make the effort if I should."

"Don't bother yourself," Cinder said. "I'm fine."

Shine gave her a long look. "Well, all right."

She turned as if to find somewhere to put a sleeping bag.

But calling Cinder's bluff worked surprisingly well.

"Wait..." Cinder said in a lower voice.

Shine didn't even act smug, which showed she'd learned a few things also in the last few years of her own timeline.

She turned patiently.

"Isn't it against your--our--ways to kill?" Cinder asked. "Why aren't you speaking about that?"

"Cinder," Shine said, "it's true that nowhere in the New Testament does it say that we should resort to killing. Though it does say that if you do not have a sword, you should buy one. In 9.99 out of 10 cases we shouldn't. But there is also one translation of the verse in 1 Corinthians 13, which says 'love always protects'. There are times when it is not murder. The Old Testament allows for killing in self defense. Or in war. You are effectively at war here. And John the Baptist did not condemn soldiers for being soldiers, nor did Jesus. Sometimes men in battle have to have the most faith, in fact. You should know that about me by now. I come from a country that gave its people the right to defend themselves as part of its founding principles because it didn't trust the goodness of Man enough to think any system would stay perfect forever. Don't look to me for condemnation of your actions. Do they bother you?"

"I think it was justified," Cinder said. "But that's not exactly the concern."

"I see... You're worried what this means for you," Shine said. "That it's easy to slip back into old habits."

"That was never a habit I even set out to break," Cinder said. "I was forbidden from it by the kingdoms, and I knew better than to push my luck...and then the attacks happened, and I had chances but decided it wasn't worth losing my freedom over. When I did it a couple days ago, I didn't stop to think about any of that. It was like the reaction of a lightning bolt."

She shivered suddenly at the memory. "But afterward, I questioned if it was wise...and in the past, I didn't hesitate either. So what is different? They may get me out of the consequences, but should they?"

"You're worried about what you'll do?" Shine asked.

"Shouldn't I be?" Cinder shrugged. "It's been a long way to even come to see those actions as monstrous. If I backtrack, I will likely never come out of it."

"And you wouldn't like to go back into that delusion, would you?" Shine said gently.

Cinder shook her head. "As much as being awakened has been tortuous on multiple levels, you can't really wish to go back. It's odd how it works."

"To me, it's like how, once you read, you can't imagine not being able to read," Shine said. "Some knowledge, once acquired, is impossible to really lose. Being on the right path is hard...but somehow you can't really want to get off it very sincerely. There are times even I wish I could be as carefree as sinners are... There's even a passage in Psalms about that [Psalms 73, if you're curious]...and yet, to think of actually being that way is like thinking of plucking out my own eyes. Who could do it? When I worry about commiting evils and not knowing it, what I do is ask God to please stop me if I ever try, by any means necessary. And that calms me down. I believe that God would do as I gave Him consent to do."

Cinder shrugged.

"If it might help, I can apply some reason to what happened," Shine offered. "I believe my husband would confirm this, that your acting fast is not necessarily proof that you have no conscience. You've surely learned that, when you decide to take the route, it's better to do it quickly. That's just the truth. Why make people suffer needlessly? It's proof of your battle prowess still being honed, not of your cold heartedness. Enjoying it would be a worse sign. People can love the fight but not the result of the fight. There's nothing wrong with liking to fight, though. Many good people do...but there is a time to know when fighting has gone too far. But they would have if you didn't. I prefer you alive over them. There are pacifists in our religions, Cinder, and they can do as they please, I suppose. It's not for everyone...but there are also avengers, those who ask God to give them the strength to fight. Samson would be one. We must not limit the Spirit of God. It would amaze most people to know that the Spirit of God came upon Samson to slay the Philistines. Or upon Elijah to slay the false prophets. Just don't let that go to your head. It doesn't make you able to always know when someone should die, but if in the moment it's the clear answer, I see no shame in knowing that. It is those who look for it and become avengers of God--who does not need avenging--who go mad."

She rubbed her arms. "And some such will no doubt eventually pop up here, as they did in the past. But don't let that worry you. Evil will abuse good in any way it can, but we don't stop doing good because of that. There's nothing neutral about this life. Does that help?"

"I suppose it helps to put it more clearly," Cinder admitted. "But how do I know I may not start to want to do that again?"

"I won't lie to you and say it might never happen--and do you think that those of us who've never killed have never wished it? Don't let the wishing part bother you. We all have evil thoughts. It's our human shame. You focus on what you actually do, and the rest will probably become insignificant. Just make up your mind now that you will never use that except as a last resort and when it's clearly justice. And stick to it. You're good at that. Then whatever you feel, don't give into it. I think it's likely you won't feel it nearly as often as you think, because what drove you to feel that before is now gone. But that doesn't make you a killer."

Shine paused. "I don't really agree with the perspective that taking life must be something that forever scars a person, but perhaps it does forever change them. Still, the Lord accepts such as his most devoted followers, and you must remember that. Moses was a murderer. But he was defending his fellows. God still chose him. And Paul. And David. So don't fret too much about the past. Perhaps in this case, we're all glad someone was more ready to do what was necessary. Hang on to that, and I think you'll be less likely to be tempted. It's all the appeal of the darkness that it's hidden and forbidden. If it's not, then it's not darkness anymore."

What she meant was that, by making it okay, she already decreased the likelihood that Cinder would see it as anything that might give her an edge...and that meant her old desire to use it for power would be less likely to surface anyway.

And it was working. Even talking about it so often had done a lot to kill any sense of being the outlier that Cinder might have had.

Maybe they'd learned a thing or two.

Shine then hugged her carefully. "It's going to be okay, all right? And I promise, they will stop you if they need to. That's what allies are for. So don't worry about it. You're not like those people now. That's been dead and buried for a long time."

Cinder was rigid.

But slowly she relaxed.

"All of you are being too easy on me..." she said slowly.

"No," Shine saud, straightening and patting her head like she was a child. "I don't think so. Well, you're going to do this thing tomorrow with everyone else, right? That's appropriate right now. It symbolizes putting off the old man--or woman."

"If they will, I will," Cinder said. "Though why now...?"

"We should have ages ago, and we forget or had too much else going on. But I think it's necessary.... Royal said he would also."

Cinder paused just as she was going to leave the room. "Officially?"

"I think he's decided he's tired of putting it off," Shine said. "I told him he should join us. He agreed. Is it a problem?"

"No...probably long overdue," Cinder said. "I think Raven was more hoping your solution would be more pertinent to the mission though."

"Maybe it is... I do have one thought about that, but I'll just wait to tell her in person." Shine shrugged. "Goodnight."

* * *

The idea Shine and Wally had was something they called "baptism".

It meant a ceremony that was dunking people under water, and was meant to represent the dying to the world and to sin by the submersion underwater, as if in a grave--and then the new life, as represented by coming back up again.

She explained this all to everyone. Apparently it was something new members of the faith were supposed to do, but it wasn't so uncommon for people to end up doing it later, as it was not always held up very consistently.

The place to do this was the bay, of course. About the same point the others had once fought the giant Leviathan from.

Almost everyone was there who could be, dressed in watersafe clothes and with their own towels.

It was pretty crisp but a bit warmer than usual for an Autumn day this late in the year.

Shine complained that the water was freezing, but after a while she said she went numb so it didn't matter much.

"This is not how I thought we'd spend the morning," Qrow remarked. "Especially after Raven getting married... Two weird events in a row."

"Qrow, take this seriously," Winter reproved. "It's important. I read about it after she mentioned the idea. It's something everyone did. Even the Christ."

"I read that story, but if I see a dove, I'm going to flip out," Qrow said.

"What if you see a crow?" Raven asked.

"That's nothing unusual." Qrow shrugged.

Their family had all turned out to watch the event, per invitation.

Willow and Klein were there to watch the babies...and so were Pyrrha's parents and Jaune's sister.

"I feel like we have an audience," Nora said.

"Nora, are you doing this?" Oscar said.

"I know, I'm late," Nora said. "But I made up my mind not to waste any more time now."

Ren seemed a little less sure of himself. "If it's not too late..."

"Of course not," Shine said. "Now, all of you who are doing this, line up... Guess it was this cold when I did this, but I hardly felt the water. It was the air."

"Got you covered there." Whitley had a fire going on the sand.

"Well, hon, do you want to read the passage?" Shine asked.

She had selected one to explain all the reasons for this in a bit more detail to them.

Wally had the book open, and he read aloud the following:

"'We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--7 because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.13 Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.14 For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." [Romans 6]

https://youtu.be/zSif77IVQdY

["Down to the River"--Alison Krauss. You may get the "O Brother Where Art Thou" reference.]

The ceremony itself took very little time.

All they did was say "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit" before the submersion.

There was no sign from Heaven, as Qrow had been joking about.

Oscar was enlisted to help Shine and Wally, after his own turn, which was first, as Shine wanted someone who lived there to participate.

This didn't really change anything except that Yang joked that Oscar better not push her too far under.

Neptune did all right with it, surprisingly, other than he didn't think the water would touch him--but it did. He could turn his Semblance off even while this close now.

When Ren and Nora both went, Shine said, "I'm glad to finally have you both in the family." Sincerely.

Nora hugged her. "Sorry it took so long," she said. "We were acting cra-azy."

That was Nora, all right.

Ren was calmer, naturally.

At Cinder's turn, Shine said, "This is a sign to everyone, as well as you, that you're ready to be a different person. Remember that."

Cinder nodded.

[A note to the person who may be interested: Protestant Baptism is not the same as Catholic, where you're given a special name and Christened. (It also depends on the sect you're in, I believe.) It's also not like the Orthodox practice that makes you an honorary member of the ethnic group by doing them. Like in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Protestant Baptism is simply a sign that you are going to dedicate your life to Christ, nothing more. I have heard of some people finding it a spiritual experience, but most do it simply out of obedience to the commandant.

It is also not considered necessary to salvation by most denominations. Though it is important. This makes sense because some people do not have the time to be baptized when they become Christians before they die, and it would hardly be fair if they weren't real believers. But if you can do it, you are supposed to.

In that way it's far less strict than most of its counterparts in other religions, but that has also led to it being taken less seriously and adulterated into other forms and used by heretics, which tends to happen when something is treated less dogmatically. So I don't think that many people know what it's for anymore.]

When they got around to Royal, they went ahead as normal.

But after he came up, Oscar said, "I'm having some kind of premonition."

Wally and Shine looked at him strangely.

"What does that mean?" Royal said, afraid for a second that this meant it didn't count.

Oscar closed his eyes. His Aura shimmered.

"Go on." Shine tapped Royal. "I hear this is normal now."

"Oh...good," Royal said.

Oscar opened his eyes. "I have the impression that you're going to have an important role in the upcoming quests...and...you're going to find out why your resistance to Mind Grimm is stronger than other people's."

"I am...?" Royal asked. "Why? I mean...I didn't exactly care that much."

"I don't know why," Oscar said. "I didn't really get an explanation. But I assume it's because you need to know."

"Could matter to something else," Shine suggested.

"Well, okay..." Royal wasn't sure what to think.

"What was that about?" Emerald asked once he'd started to dry off.

"I don't really know," Royal said. "Something about the future, I guess... Does Oscar do that a lot?"

"Get that weird premonition thing?" Ruby asked, wringing her hair out. "Yeah, all the time. Well, when the situation calls for it. He tells people things, and then they usually happen."

"Example?" Weiss said.

"Hmm...well, it's been a while..." Ruby thought. "There was this one girl--she was worried about going home for break because the weather forecast was really bad. She asked Oscar if he though she should. He said it would be fine...and it was. The forecast changed overnight."

"Wow," Neptune said. "Cool."

"Small things like that, usually," Ruby said. "It's not automatic. It's not like he knows test answers beforehand or anything, just...when people need a little extra help, I guess. It comes in handy."

"People need to ask a prophet now to do simple things?" Cinder asked, holding her hands over the fire. "We've become that helpless?"

"How many people die every year from little things like that?" Weiss said. "I'd take all the help we can get... So, uh, now that we've done this, are we all official?"

Shine came up to them. She'd changed clothes behind a rock.

"Now you all can do more than just believe," she said. "You're teachers now. Leaders. Shepherds, to use the old word...and we need to talk."

"Can we talk after we're inside again?" Yang asked.

"No." Shine smacked her with a book. "You'll all pay more attention if you're uncomfortable."

"Geez, she's tough," Royal muttered.

"Now, I think I've given you all plenty of time," Shine said. "This not spreading the word has got to stop. The people were hit in those towns, and they didn't know what to do. I appreciate Oscar's efforts to write about all this, and at least it does something but not enough. If you don't train up more warriors, then once you all die--and you will eventually--Remnant will go back to the dogs--or Grimm, I should say. What if you can't deal with all these problems in your lifetimes? Your children and their children will have to. It's not just to teach them. Do you want them to fight alone?"

"Well, no--" Jaune began.

"Quiet, I'm talking," Shine said.

Jaune went quiet.

"That said, you'd better start cracking on this," Shine said. "I may not be here in person a lot, but I'm here in spirit. Do you want me to be frustrated when I write to you? Like Paul to the Galatians? No. Right?"

"Now can we answer?" Yang asked.

Shine gave her a stern look but then cracked up. "Sure."

"I think you're right actually," Ruby said.

"Oh, absolutely," Meridian said.

"Good," Wally said. "For a second, I thought I was going to have to get rough on you."

"Good, just so you know," Shine said. "I expect some reports about this soon... And one more thing: Those people who you rescue in the village? Make sure you get them and their families out of that village until things settle down."

"Why?" Emerald asked.

"Who do you think the bandits will consider most likely to rat them out?" Shine asked. "Or who will they get to in order to get to you? They already have some of their families, poor things--so if you leave anyone for them to threaten, you could get blackmailed that much more easily. Make sure they move to a different location. Preferably one a lot farther away."

Blake snapped her fingers. "Menagerie has enough room," she said. "I don't think any other village would, but we have a new place there... Only they wouldn't want to let anyone who's not a Faunus in...but we've been talking about changing that... Maybe I could. My dad still has a lot of sway there."

"Do you think they would?" Sun asked. "Even for this?"

"The bandits are a problem for Menagerie also," Blake said. "Maybe for the sake of stopping them, they would consider it."

"So you need, like, a witness protection program?" Wally said.

"To be fair, where else would any human degenerate who didn't have a cover story be so easily noticed as Menagerie?" Shine remarked. "Blake might have the smart idea--they'd know at once if any bandits came in...well, any human ones."

"I'll try," Blake said.

"On that note," Emerald said, "Mercury and I have been going to all the orphan shelters in Argus, even the ones the private families are hosting in... So far nothing. But we're worried about their safety. I was wondering if we could maybe transfer the ones without homes yet to your orphanage in Menagerie, Blake.... Did you say it opened up?"

"Oh, yeah, I completely forgot to talk about that because of the other commotion," Blake said. "But it just did... It's already got 20 people in it... You could send the Faunus, no problem... I can see about the humans."

"It's temporary...till we can find where those scoundrels sent their mole...if it turns out that wasn't a red herring," Emerald said.

"Dawkins had been in custody for a few days, and his head is clearer," Raven said. "He still swears that's what he heard, but he's not sure what it meant. I think moving them is smarter for now."

"Glad we got that all worked out then," Shine said. "Now let's go. I'm so cold."

"Sure, you're cold, so we should go," Yang said.

"You could have lit yourself on fire," Shine replied.

"Winter doesn't like that. She says it makes the babies nervous," Yang said.

"It does," Winter insisted.

On the way back, they played some rock songs.

https://youtu.be/5Vz8SUbfgmU

[Skillet--"My Religion"]

[All right, here we go. Hope you enjoyed the break from the action.]