The ship stopped briefly to deliver supplies and pick up others on the second day of the voyage.

By this point, Yang's cabin fever was worse, and so was Blake's morning sickness. She spent most of the morning in her cabin.

Pyrrha and Jaune broke up the monotony by following the kids around the ship.

Their adopted 5, Ben, Polly, Jodie, Davi, and Franz, were loving the ship's novelty--but would likely be bored by the end of the 10 or so days it would take to get to Menagerie.

Out of these 5, the three siblings were Ben, Jodie, and Franz, who were 15, 13, and 8 now, and the older two were mostly able to look after themselves but got riled up by the younger kids.

The two others, both only children--Polly and Davi--were not related at all, but acted like their siblings. Polly and Jodie had been close friends, which was how Pyrrha and Jaune had been inspired to take her in, and Davi was friends with Franz. Polly was 12, and Davi was nearly 9 and a half now.

Pyrrha said at least they weren't kindergartners anymore, as Franz and Davi had barely been out of that age when they first took them in.

[I know it took forever to name them, but it wasn't really relevant before. All their names are inspired by the names from a very old children's book: "Five Little Peppers and How they grew" . I changed three to fit Remnant better and I made one a girl who was a boy and one a boy who was a girl...since the show gender swaps a lot.]

Anyway they were bored but well behaved compared to some of the other kids, who used their boredom or stress at the situation as an excuse ot play tricks on the crew or hide from the people trying to supervise them, whose patience was wearing thin.

It was not a glamorous assignment, but by now the other knew better than to expect that.

Oscar and Ruby handled it pretty patiently, and Ruby at least could keep up with them. The others just tried not to lose their tempers.

Stopping at the dock here, some people begged to go ashore and stretch their legs. The captain, who happened to be Blake and Sun's old friend, again, said they could for a few hours while things were unloaded.

"Is that safe?" Oscar wondered.

"This town is pretty well defended," Roman said, chomping on a cigar. "Though it has been ages since I've been here. It's not a very likely target."

"When were you here?" Ruby asked. "And why?"

"Red, I grew up in Mistral," Roman said carelessly. "I believe this might be the very place I got on a boat to Vale. The rest is fate. Remember those days, Neo?"

Neo nodded.

"So is Neo from Mistral also?" Ruby asked.

Neo shook her head. 

"Vale," Roman said. "But that is ancient history. Anyway, Wind Path is where I was born. It's not that far from here, as the crow flies. Not your uncle, Red."

"Ha ha," Ruby said. "What about as the bandits run?"

"They wouldn't show up so close to the coast," Roman scoffed. "They have the pirates for that... We should keep our eyes peeled, but those guys never start any trouble directly. They're the smugglers. Every operation, Red--" And here he dramatically put an arm on Ruby's shoulder like he was showing her the view in a movie. "--all the moving parts have to understand their function. You heroes could learn a thing or two from us. If anyone oversteps, the whole thing could come crashing down."

"Sounds like oppression to me," Ruby said. "Like criminals keep each other criminals."

"Well...that is true," Roman said. "Unless you have the clout, like we do."

"Can I ask?" Oscar said. "Neo, your real name is Trivia Vanille, right? Why don't you go by it now that you're reformed? Technically your criminal record is only for Neopolitan."

Neo frowned at him and made some gestures.

"I'm sure it wasn't a malicious question, knowing Pine--" Roman liked Oscar as much as anyone else did--and thought he was fun to mess with. "--but basically, she wants you to...uh, well, step off, to put it nicely."

"That was nicely?" Ruby questioned.

"I'm sorry," Oscar said meekly. "Of course, it's a sensitive subject."

Pause.

Neo leaned on the railing...then finally she projected some words in front of them almost like they were on a tv screen.

:I left that name behind along with my rotten parents...who died.

"That was an accident," Roman said.

"Oh..." Ruby covered her mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't know that."

Neo shrugged.

"I guess you could say Neo and her parents weren't exactly close," Roman said. "They had some very...well, restrictive ideas of behavior, and Neo's...well, creative and aggressive tendencies didn't fit so well with them, something all of us in the crime circle understand--but respectable people never do. Perhaps it sounds callous to you goody two-shoes, but considering my own mother abandoned me, it's hard to feel any kind of way about her death, which I'm sure was long ago, but I'll never know." He lit his cigar very moodily. "I suppose she had to survive. That's what she told me."

"That makes so much make sense!" Ruby said way too enthusiastically.

Oscar gave her a look.

"I mean...I didn't mean it like that, I just... Sorry, I had an epiphany about what you said to me in Beacon," Ruby apologized quickly.

"Oh, don't worry, Red, I get it. Your social ineptitude is one of the few reasons I actually like you," Roman said. "You've got spirit...but you're still naive."

"Roman," Oscar reproved, "I think Ruby and I both know things aren't so simple. I'm sure your parents must have done a lot of things wrong. I never really knew mine that well, so I don't have that. I have my own kind of losses. I think losing your parents' love either through their deaths or through them taking it away from you is equally painful."

"Well...that's one way to look at it," Roman said after he couldn't find a problem with that. "But who needs them? We did fine, didn't we, Neo?"

Neo nodded.

"I disagree," Ruby said seriously. "My mom died when I was less than 5. I don't remember her that well, but I knew I needed her, every day. And I still do. It's just that what we need isn't always what we get. But my mom was the kind of person who wanted to be needed, and others aren't. Like Raven. I see why you resent your mom. And she was wrong to do that. But I don't think that means that you didn't need her. I think we all need each other. But maybe you got something else instead. I lost my mom...and I don't think anyone can replace her, but I have got other people who stepped up for me. I have Dad, I have Yang, I have Uncle Qrow, and now I have Winter, who's a lot like a mom, even if she's my aunt. I have friends...and Shine and Wally are the coolest mentors--and how many people get other-worldly mentors? So no, it's not what I wanted, but it's something good. You had good stuff too, right?"

"Excepting Neo, most of what I had was not what anyone would call good," Roman said.

He was lucky he said "excepting Neo" there.

Neo shrugged like she agreed.

"You mean because you went down the wrong path?" Oscar said. "Well, yeah, that may not have been good. But then you ended up right where you had to be to be part of history. You got a second chance at life--and at inner life, something not a lot of people get. You're helping us now, whatever you reasons are. Is this really about survival? Or don't you see there has to be some Hand guiding our lives? You don't think it was planned? Neo follows Cinder to Mistral, where the others have just left, we get Pyrrha back in time for Neo to find out about it, and she asks for your life back, and she gets it. Just because she had enough faith to believe that. After all you've been through, and how cynical both of you are, I'd call that a miracle. Something called you about this before you even knew it...so... I mean, once, you were abandoned, and I would never excuse that, but aren't you...well, aren't you at least glad that you were not abandoned by everyone?"

"For that matter, I think not many people have as loyal a partner as either of you," Ruby said. "I mean, aside from my team, who would fight Cinder and then have the gall to approach Shine after fighting us all the way through Atlas to ask for a favor?"

Roman had to chuckle. "Neo certainly has brashness, but I like that in a woman."

Neo tilted her hat.

"So you're saying we're 'blessed' as you all call it?" Roman said.

"I'm saying that do the bad things that happened to you when you were younger really have to define your lives?" Oscar said. "The world didn't care about you, and you were given a bad hand of cards, so you became bitter. But that's just one part of your life. Maybe you pick the part that defines you--the past, or the present, or the future. I think that's what all of us realized. I had to decide not to let Ozpin's past define me. I let the present choices I had define me. That was all I was sure of...and that led to freedom. I'm not the only one who can be locked in someone else's past though."

"Wow, Oscar, that was really deep," Ruby said. "I love that, though. That's such a good point. Same with me."

She leaned on the rail also. "Maybe people didn't help you get this far out of good will, but you're here. Isn't that what counts?"

"Well, I suppose I'm not wholly ungrateful for the patience Miss Likstar showed to Neo," Roman said. "I wouldn't be here if she hadn't. And there may be the odd individual who is good. But this present situation proves that humans are not inclined to it. I still think I was right about the world. Frankly, I don't even think this religion of yours denies that."

"No, the world is not good," Oscar said. "But there's good in it. You've gotta root the bad stuff out, but that's not really our call. It's up to Higher authority than us. In the meantime, we tend to the good stuff. That's our job. One thing that's been dawning on me is you can't address every evil in the world... You have to pick one you're particularly skilled at fighting and fight it with all your might. That's why we need each other."

A lot of people had gone ashore by now.

"You do have a way with words, kid," Roman admitted. "Maybe it's not so easy for us to have that kind of hope."

That had to be the least showboating thing he'd ever said, that Ruby remembered.

"Maybe it's not even that that hope is not real," Roman said. "I think the problem is me."

https://youtu.be/iM3cY0SiK-c

["Mess of Me"--Switchfoot.]

Neo pointed to herself also, somberly.

"It is," Oscar said. "But...you know who can fix that, right?"

"Yes..." Roman puffed on his cigar for a moment. "But after all this time of indifference, I wonder if I'm fit to be turning face now."

"Better now than never," Ruby said. "Shine said in one of her letters to me that the only thing stupider than turning down salvation out of pride that you don't need it, is turning it down out  of pride that thinks you can just decide when and how God should accept you. They're both pride. One just sounds humble."

"Ruby, why would Shine write that to you?" Oscar said. "I mean...specifically?"

"Oh, it wasn't about me," Ruby said. "I ask her and Wally about other people too. I think she might have been thinking about one of her other friends. Also I asked what to do with people who thought they were just past the point of no return. I guess I thought about some people who've felt really guilty, and I didn't know what to say to them."

"So in other words," Oscar said, "who are you to say God should say you're not good enough? We're not good enough. God would be laughing at how much that misses the point."

"Or at how continuing to reject Him would just confirm that you really are a little too stuck up," Ruby said. "Just like you thinking it's past the point where you can change your mind with any dignity. Newsflash, Roman, it was past that point when you died. What's lower than that?"

Roman frowned at her, then suddenly started laughing.

Neo looked at him like he'd lost his mind.

"No, it's just that was...an interesting point. I can't refute it." Roman wiped his yes. "Ah, Red, you really are far more savage than I would have thought possible when you were still a little, upstart hero."

"Uh...thanks?" Ruby said, the same way she'd said thanks to Winter calling her "appropriately underwhelming".

[I think that's Winter's code for "not pretentious", based on how she seems to like Ruby in that scene, but it was just funny.]

"No time like the present, they say." Oscar was staying on point.

"Hmm," Roman said.

* * *

Forever Fall was far easier to get lost in than you'd think a forest so close to civilization would be--because all the trees blended into each other because they were the same kind. Royal said they must be an invasive species, and Mercury called him a nerd.

Weiss was not so happy with her choice of teammates for this exercise, and it wasn't helping that both men were acting like jackasses.

The two teams had been close to each other at first but, by going around trees and bushes, had split up, and that was just as well.

"Couldn't give us a Grimm scanner or anything," Mercury kept complaining. "They run from me. I think it wouldn't hurt."

"Just turn it off," Royal said.

"We can't turn that off," Mercury said. "You'll see. It'll happen to you now."

"That would be great," Royal said. "So who cares if we find them or not? I think the point is just to coordinate."

"The point is to find the danger, Royal. Remember the whole reason we're doing this training? So we can find the schmucks tearing up Mistral?" Mercury was annoyed already. "Try not to be so wimpy about it."

"Try not to be so obnoxious," Royal retorted.

"You first," Mercury said.

"Do you ever act mature, Black?"

"Do you ever act like you're not a snob?"

"All right!" Weiss lost it after about five minutes of this. "Shut up!"

She made a glyph and shoved them several feet apart.

She held up her rapier.

"I don't care if you have good aim and you have guns for feet," she said, pointing at both of them. "If you don't stop squalling like babies, I'll use my Semblance to make you. I don't care if we lose the exercise--better than listening to you. But I don't like to lose, so how about you get a grip?"

"Bossy Weiss strikes again." Mercury wasn't learning.

Royal winced in anticipation for him.

A summoned dragon lunged out of Weiss' glyph and sat on Mercury promptly so that he fell on his face.

"Hey! Get this thing off of me--how the heck is it so heavy when it's just Aura?" Mercury squirmed.

"It's the force, you dunderhead!" Weiss said. "Are you going to say something else about me being bossy? I have plenty of Aura right now."

"All right, all right, truce." Mercury put his hands up.

The summoning disappeared.

"Now, we're going to talk this out right now," Weiss said, still pointing at them, as Mercury got up. "Whatever your problem is with each other, just clear the air."

"Must we?" Royal asked. "I don't really want to speak of it."

"Did I ask?" Weiss said. "Unless you want me to call Winter and tell her I can't work with you because you're more interested in each other than the Grimm."

"Okay, first, never say that again," Mercury said. "Second, what is forcing us to talk going to do?"

"When we go up against the tribe," Weiss said, "we can't have any hidden issues for them to exploit. Haven't we been over this before? You seem to like generating more problems, though, Mercury. What is your beef with Zapato anyway? What has he ever done to you?"

"Not much, except that he likes to play dirty tricks," Mercury said.

"You didn't like me before that, and that was in retaliation for you getting into my business," Royal said. "Don't think I don't know you obviously blabbed something to Cinder. She's been acting weird since the last mission, and I know it's not just what happened with the bandits. You spoke to her about something."

"Whatever we talked about, it's none of your concern," Mercury said.

Weiss shook her sword. "Stop already," she complained. "Why are men so determined to be aggressive?"

"That's sexist, Mrs. Wallace," Royal said.

"And the others are getting ahead of us," Mercury said.

Weiss tapped her foot. "Okay, fine, I'll have to take the lead here," she muttered. "Subtlety never works, does it?... So, Royal, you're mad at Mercury for blowing your not-that-well-kept secret to Cinder?"

"If he didn't, he did something else," Royal said. "After I said not to, specifically, because I knew this would happen."

"Not my fault you can't own up to your crush," Mercury said.

"Not my fault you can't own up to yours so you have to take it out on us," Royal shot back.

"Boys!" Weiss snapped. "Can you go for 2 seconds here? You're killing me..." She shook her head. "Okay, I can see why you're annoyed by that. Mercury clearly violated your trust. But...did it do that much damage?"

"It seems to have... That, and perhaps I got cocky," Royal admitted.

"Then aren't you blaming Mercury for something that might be your own fault?" Weiss pointed out. "Or at least, if you hadn't given him the chance to use it against you, he couldn't have? All of us can see what's going on, and maybe we're all talking about it too much. If you're that worried about it, we're all to blame. You clearly have feelings for Cinder, and we've not let it rest. I'm sorry about that, all right? I didn't think it would bother you all so much. But it's not just Mercury's doing."

"I'm well aware, but I know he likes to twist the knife," Royal said, not happy. "The rest of you mean well, but he's just being a jerk."

"Well, is that true?" Weiss asked Mercury, more calmly than you'd think. "Are you only interested in order to be a jerk?"

"Maybe," Mercury said. "Everyone has their laughs about each other's lives in this group. Why shouldn't I?"

"Dear me, is that what we've become?" Weiss was getting a picture there. "I'm going to have to think about that..."

[She is one of the bigger offenders there, though Raven is the worst.]

"Still, we just care," Weiss said. "I didn't mean to hurt anyone. Did you?"

"I just don't trust Cinder, all right?" Mercury said. "And in my opinion, Roy here? He doesn't really know what he's getting into by getting a thing for her. She's all right at a distance, but up close she's still got a lot of selfish habits. Maybe she's not crazy now, but she's certainly not the kind of person who puts other people first or considers how they feel."

Weiss noted dryly that his idea of healthy really matched Emerald pretty well.

She put her sword down and put her hands together like she was thinking hard. "Okay, I see what you're saying... So you want to warn him not to get into a toxic relationship? But they aren't in one. How do you know what she'd really be like? Has she even dated anyone since you've known her?"

"No, and that says a lot. It's not even on her radar," Mercury said. "I just wouldn't give her someone she can manipulate who's going to be that closely involved in it."

"Is that what you think would happen to me?" Royal was affronted. "That I'd just be a pawn? Barring the fact that we're not actually together, so it won't matter, even if we were, you think I'm that naive?"

"Well...kind of," Mercury said. "Or just blind to her real flaws."

"Merc, I beg to differ there." Weiss put a hand on her hip. "I'm watching from a distance, and even I can tell that's not true. You think we give her too much credit because she's done a few things we like, is that it?"

Mercury shrugged.

"It's also giving someone the chance to get better," Weiss insisted. "I'm aware that just because Cinder saved my life doesn't mean she'd be a good person to sit and cry to about my feelings being hurt. I have people I can do that with... But that doesn't make her worthless. Surely you don't think that."

"No, not worthless, just jacked up," Mercury said.

"Well, not everyone has to be that kind of person," Weiss said. "Some people, like Winter, help you get better, rather than let you have self pity... I mean, I want to be able to feel a little sorry for myself with some people, but I'm grateful for people who point me back the right direction also."

"Is that Cinder?" Mercury said.

"Why are you so hung up on her? No one's asking you to be close to her," Royal asked. "And why does it bother you that I am?"

"I think he sees himself in Cinder." Weiss tapped her chin as an idea came to her. "He sees their similarities, which there are some, and he thinks that the same reason she's not fit for relationships are the reasons he's not, when a lot of that depends on who you're with and how you choose to approach it."

"Hey! Who said I see it that way?" Mercury got mad. "That's stupid. That's reading way too much into it. Psychology BS."

"But you admit you have things in common," Weiss pointed out. "Don't you? And because you think you haven't conquered your clear fear of intimacy with people, she hasn't either."

"Fear of what?" Royal said.

"Emotional intimacy," Weiss said.

"Oh..." Royal looked relieved.

Mercury would have argued, but that was pretty clearly true, so he couldn't.

"You think if I haven't got past that, she would?" he said. "Let's...face it, people like her, and me, we're not cut out of closeness." He suddenly sounded pretty deflated. "We can't handle it. It's like a warm fire that burns if we're too close. Some people are able to withstand it, I guess, but some people just get roasted."

"That's a good radar you have there, Schnee," Royal noted. "My mind is blown. That's also very sad, a sad way to look at yourself."

"Mercury, I think you may have taken the wrong thing from your relationship ending," Weiss said, tapping her chin again. "That's not about not being able to be close... It's about being able to share goals and passions. No one wants to feel their dragging their SO along with them in life. I know Meridian and I wouldn't want to feel that way. We have some of the same goals and values, though we have different specific things we focus on. I know he'll support me, and I'll support him. It has to be on both sides, that's all. I'm sure it's not really about not being capable of love or anything like that. I mean, you're a Silver-Eyed Warrior--you have to be able to love."

"Maybe, some form of it, since it goes with the turf." Mercury was reluctant. "But clearly not the kind that makes you click with people."

"So you still think you don't click with us?" Weiss asked. "That we hate you or something?"

"Hate.... Well...one of you like me," Mercury was flat. "Not that I care."

"Liar," Royal muttered.

"Oh, shut up," Mercury growled.

"But, Mercury, that's not true," Weiss argued. "We like you."

"Really? You think you could name one thing you actually like about me?" Mercury argued back.

"Sure I could," Weiss said. "For one thing, you're real. Mostly. Except when you pretend to hate stuff when you don't. But there's none of that kissing up stuff. I don't like that these days. It's too fake. And I admire that you act that way to everyone no matter how likely it is they could squash you like a little gnat over it."

That was a Weiss compliment for sure, because it sounded like an insult.

"Another thing is, every now and then when you think no one notices, you express some compassion or pity for people," Weiss went on, firmly. "And you've taken good care of Emerald even though she broke up with you, because you're not willing to just abandon her because she didn't want to be that close anymore. That's loyalty. Those are all good qualities. You just wrap it up in being really, really obnoxious to everyone when you feel threatened. It's not so bad as it was. I think we've made it a whole mission without you insulting me, for example, but, when you're upset, that's what you do. I think you're upset now."

"I--are you high?" Mercury had no idea what was going on.

"Weiss is right." Royal dropped the formal address. "Those are all things people like about you, but no one can say it to your face because you get so cantankerous when they try. You use your words to push people away so that your actions don't come off like you care too much. We all knew that already...but actions speak louder than words, so, behind it, people might still respect you, but you'll never know it if you won't let them express it."

"Yeah, that sums it up," Weiss said. "You don't let people love you, Mercury. I think you're afraid they don't really and you'll find that out... I know you've been through hell...and I know what it's like to have your parents mess up your head about love. But what cured me was letting some other people show me different. I'm not comparing our experiences because I know yours were far worse than mine, but maybe it's the same cure either way."

"Sure, Doctor Weiss." Mercury was sarcastic.

"There," Royal said. "Why do you have to be mean to her when she's trying to help you?"

Shine had once told Mercury the same thing.

He paused and then his expression and posture changed.

"Yeah...you're right. I am mean when people try to help," he said slowly. "It's just my instinct."

"You're like a wounded animal." Weiss folded her arms. "But I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want to help it get better. Both of us just want that, right, pilot?"

"I'm not as invested as you, but I want people to be as happy as they can be," Royal shrugged. "All people." Pointedly.

"Yeah, about that," Weiss said, "Royal, you wouldn't perhaps be mad at Mercury partially because a part of you thinks he might be right?"

"Right?" Royal narrowed his eyes.

"Well, it's easy to carry a torch for a reason and never act on it," Weiss said. "It's easy to do that if you fear it won't be received well. Maybe you can't exactly explain why you have these feelings for someone other people view as so undesirable, and that concerns you and scares you at times. Though I could see the appeal of doing what people don't expect." And you knew she wasn't lying about that, given her own choice. "But I've had my doubts in the past. I worried at first that Meridian and my very different lifestyles would not mesh well together, and they didn't at first. I had to make some concessions, and so did he... That's ongoing. But I wouldn't take that to mean we're wrong for each other, and I don't think there needing to be some compromise and growing here makes having  someone different from you a bad thing. You know people would judge it, though, and you're telling yourself that you want to spare her that kind of pressure, but isn't it also that you'd like to avoid it yourself?"

"I kind of like controversy," Royal said.

"Oh, sure, safe controversy." Weiss knew all about that. "I think a lot of us enjoy that, but this wouldn't be safe, would it? It would mean a lot more danger to really be open. If she did accept it, which is unlikely at the moment, but let's say something changed...well, then you'd have no shortage of enemies in Argus and all over the world, as long as she has enemies. Longer, even, if they just resented the betrayal more than the actual crimes. People are cold like that. And are you willing to become as good as a traitor in people's eyes on a much bigger scale than just being the guy fair enough to give the criminals a chance? That makes you look good, but...let's be real, people are really twisted about the way they comment on romantic relationships. If that's what they see, that's all they'll see, some of them. They'll say it was all to get one thing, or some weird taste you have, and the 'you're a saint' treatment would be over."

"I think we've already said as much," Mercury said. "And I wouldn't make him out to be saint."

"Me neither," Weiss said, "but you know people go to extremes. Is that really something you don't care about?"

Royal thought and lowered his head a little. "I guess when you put it that way, yeah, I wouldn't like it. I'm used to being respected and liked, and the idea of putting that on the line is unsettling to me. I know Ravne would never fire me, but it could be hell to pay with some of my colleagues. They've already been not too pleasant with me, but that would seal my fate forever with some of them."

He glanced at the trees like the name of the forest was hitting him as ironic.

"Hmm, so you have thought about it." Mercury was surprised.

"I think you'd have to be pretty stupid not to," Royal said.

"I appreciate if you really feel it's just not the right time." Weiss had deduced this much. "But is that really the reason you've decided to keep this to yourself? With all this in mind?"

"I don't know, to be honest, Schnee," Royal said. "I'm not sure."

"Maybe there's one way to know," Weiss mused. "What if she did like you also? Would you pursue her then?"

Royal pictured it... He hadn't really tried to before.

"I think I'd be scared not to," he answered. "I mean, that can't be something that happens to many people in life. Something so unusual, that might be a miracle in of itself. Why would I waste it?"

"She's not that great," Mercury said.

"The miracle is that someone can go from being one thing to being another," Royal said. "I think that's precious, in its way. That is a miracle, isn't it?"

Mercury thought. "Well, I guess..."

"That's beautiful," Weiss said. "And not in a sappy way. I just think...yeah, it is precious when someone truly has changed inside, and I would treasure that... I do with the family I have who I can say that about. Maybe I should even more. So...the benefits outweigh the costs?"

"Well, you can be sure of people hating you no matter what you do," Royal said. "You're less sure of people caring about you for any reason, especially when you have only one family member, and she lives in Vale... Oh gosh, I could visit her... I hope Winter makes us go home right away."

Mercury laughed at that, and Weiss could relate.