What Happens Next (Slay The Princess/RWBY)

Well then:


With an almost unanimous vote, you decide to trust Blake and her parents, working on her autonomy.

Since this makes the scene of her reunion way shorter to write (as in: nothing happens on screen) that means that we are entering the final stretch before the initiation.

One more little arc and we're done with the prologue!

I kid on the prologue part, that was finished around the time you got accepted as a future teacher.

You end up reminding Blake that you will be close when her parents come to see her. The rest of the time with her is spent on some exercise to calm herself in case of a panic attack.

She may be strong enough to not need them, but knowing she has this tool at her disposal can help in and on itself.

One week passes, her parents arrive and you quickly see them to discuss before they meet Blake in a private room.

All in all, nothing big happens. When the family come out, Blake is using her mother as support and Ghira seems to have lost several years. The date of Blake's departure is fixed and they leave to begin preparing for it.

You yourself are reading some of the dossier of potential future students in preparation for the quickly approaching new year in the middle of the night when you receive a call by Ozpin.

"Is it going to become a recurring problem?" Your love asks from his place at your side where he was writing his lesson plans.

You do not bother to react and simply take the call:

"Stella, Sable, I need the both of you, it's urgent. Come quickly to the elevator for my office, Glynda will guide you from there." Is all that you get, Ozpin sounding quite panicked, even hanging up as soon as he is finished.

The thoughts of the normally quite calm director that shaken makes you follow his instructions on the spot. You and Sable leaving your study material in place as you rush to the elevator. As told, Glynda is right next to it waiting for you.

Not a word is exchanged when going in, Glynda simply pushing a combination of numbers that makes the elevator begin going down. It is clear that whatever happened, it is important and probably related to Ozpin's secret.

The door ping, and the first thing you remark is Qrow Branwen waiting next to Ozpin. The man is clearly irritated and opens his mouth as soon as he sees you:

"So, Ozpin, will you finally explain why you called these two here? I get that you saw something in them, the little reunion we had showed that. But still, now? For this? That's quite the jump. What makes them so worthy of your trust that you are willing to move this fast?"

There is some distrust going on here, you can feel it. Your claws come out, you open your mouth:

"Mmphmmph mmph"

And before you can utter a word your love's hand is in front of your mouth, stopping you from talking.

"I want to ask the same question as Qrow here, can you tell us what's going on, Ozpin? And you." Sable points to Qrow. "Could you please show a little more trust? Last time Princess got like that she stabbed me in the heart with my own blade shortly after, and I am not in the mood for a repeat performance right now."

Your little bird's words make you realize how much influence you let Qrow's doubts have on you, and you begin working on calming down.

Meanwhile, a clearly distraught Ozpin is indicating you to follow him down the long hallway you have entered. You can see a bed at the end of it, and a woman lying on it.

"My apologies for the late call. I… first, Stella, Sable, I want to tell you that I trust Glynda and Qrow to keep all secrets that would be shared here. As for what happened, this woman." He indicates the person on the bed. "Is one of the four maidens, a group of women that gets magical powers from a transmissible source. Beside me, they are one of the very few that still have magic in Remnant now."

"Transmissible? What do you mean? And I presume your call has to do with why she is comatose right now?" You ask, having finally put yourself into shape.

Qrow is looking at the situation with a disapproving air, but he is not stopping Ozpin. You can gather that the maidens are a closely guarded secret from the situation, but this doesn't explain what is wanted from you.

"Every time a maiden dies, the power moves to either the last person they were thinking of if it was an eligible woman, or to a semi random woman if not. As for why she is comatose… she was on her way to come meet you on my demand, but she was attacked on the way. Whoever the attacker was did it for the maiden's power, as they had access to a method that allowed them to begin extracting it. Qrow managed to reach her before the process was finished, but she suffered a lot of damage to her soul."

You can begin to see a picture form. Oz didn't say why this woman was supposed to see you, but it is clearly related to why he is showing her to you now… still, some things are missing.

A fact that clearly hasn't escaped your love's keen eye, as he is the next one to ask Ozpin a question:

"That explains why she is in this state, but you still haven't said why she you wanted us to see her before, or what you want us to do now."

At that, Ozpin grows increasingly nervous. He hesitates and looks to Qrow and Glynda with an apologetic air.

"I…." It seems he finally took a decision, and is expecting it not to be appreciated given how he is still looking at his two supposedly closest associates.

"Oz? don't tell me you were still keeping secrets from us even now?" Qrow begins, clearly becoming angrier by the minute.

"I apologize. I was indeed keeping secrets." Oz continues, defeated. "The truth is, the maidens' power is actually my daughters' souls. The process that gives rise to a new maiden is an incomplete form of reincarnation, a pitiful parody of mine that they were cursed with by their relation to me."

Everything clicks, you know why Oz took you there, you know why he wanted you to meet a maiden.

It is a pity that his hopes will have to be killed here.

"Ozpin, you wanted Sable and me to use our powers to get your daughters back, didn't you?"

Ozpin shoulders sags in defeat, Qrow is apparently reevaluating his entire life, and Glynda is looking at you intently, probably remembering your confession as the Stranger and accidental use of *mortal* when talking about Adam.

"Yes." Ozpin confesses.

"What do you mean, *use their power to restore your daughters back*? Who are these two? Really?" Qrow is once again the first to talk. For once, you are in the mood to answer some of his questions.

"I am sorry, Ozpin, what you ask cannot be done. There are wounds that will never heal, some rifts that can never be mended, even in rebirth, some things never come back the same." Well, you never said you were going to answer Qrow's questions in the easiest manner.

Your love continues your explanation without missing a beat, the two of you as synchronized in your thoughts as ever.

"When our creator split us from one into two, he made sure the cut was rough. His goal was to allows me to still retain enough ability to change for the world not to be frozen in a single moment, but as a result, there were losses. The two of us cannot makes things come back to what they were before."

Just as Ozpin seems to be ready to abandon all hope of ever seeing his daughters again, you continue where your other half left off:

"All hope is not lost, however. We cannot bring back your daughters the same as they were before, but we can still change what is now. We can give them, and this woman, a new beginning."

"I can also allow her to stay as she is now, certain that she won't be suffering in the meantime. If you want to wait until we have all the pieces that are currently missing. This will only be a delay, and we cannot even know if they will recover the missing parts, but it is an option. No matter what, you will have to accept that your daughters are truly gone." Sable finishes after you.

"What… what will them having a new beginning lead to?" Ozpin tentatively asks.

From the corner of your eyes, you can see Glynda stopping Qrow from talking, he barely resists.

"I can think of two ways: Either I use the current damaged souls we have and make a new being out of the two. Not this woman, not your daughter, but not not these two, you could think of it as a granddaughter? Or, I can completely destroy the current souls, let them return to the state they should normally reach after death. This will allow the both of them to rejoin the proper cycle of life and death they were thrown out of." Left unsaid is the fact that you can do the same for Ozpin, a fact he clearly realizes.

"I cannot decide." He confesses. "After all this time, simply knowing you existed had given me hope. I knew, but didn't want to acknowledge, that you weren't simply going to give me my daughters back, but I… it is too difficult. I trust your judgment, do what you want."

You are left with a choice:

[] You can use what is here to create a new beginning for the two damaged souls. She will be a new existence entirely.

[] You can allow the two of them to leave this mortal coil and completely sever the maiden's soul from her current cycle of flawed reincarnations.

[] Sable can put the woman in a field of unmoving time. She will not suffer, but you have no idea if things will even get better later.

[] Write-in

Keep in mind that Stella and Sable cannot separate the two souls from each other without killing Amber. The attack from Cinder's parasite did too much damage to her.

Write-ins will be subject to veto. If you want to ask questions on what Stella and Sable can glean of the situation, I am willing to answer.

A/N:

This should be the last vote before you reach the initiation.

Let's finish this part with a big decision, no pressure, hey?

For the options, I did try and make sure that they're not just *OP character solves all problems*, two of them kill the Amber, the last one is basically the canon thing with a coat of paint and maybe some more defenses.