What Happens Next (Slay The Princess/RWBY)

It is time:


As expected since it was proposed, the option to use the wild to find the other half of the maiden won by a mile.

As for the suboption, this is closer, but still quite clear in having Ozpin gain a new granddaughter, sorta.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to tell Salem that her game of Dungeon and Dragon she was going to GM is cancelled due to no one being able to come. There is a free place at a game of Paranoia if she wants.

Meanwhile, you are on the next table, playing exalted as an infernal.

You look back at the woman, thinking on what happened to her and Ozpin's daughter… the two of them have been torn to shreds, haven't they?

So similar to you and the Long Quiet.

You can feel it, the more you watch her, the more one of your perspectives makes itself known.

To be separated, to be cut in two, you do not wish that fate to anyone or anything.

Yes, you are sure of it, you will not let these two stay incomplete, you will take back what you can, then you will weave them a new life, together.

The end of their painful half-life, the beginning of a new one.

You voice sounds like a gong in the silence that has reigned since you and Sable had asked Ozpin what he wanted:

"I have made my decision. One of my perspectives allows for a better option than the ones I proposed, not by much, it will only mean I will recover the missing part of your daughter's soul and use that to make a new life, but…. Sable and I will need time to call on her. Ozpin, I think Qrow and Glynda have a number of questions about our nature, maybe you can sate their curiosity? You will know when we are done."

Ozpin manage to nod then turns to his two friends and motion them to follow him a little farther away. You, meanwhile, turn to Sable.

"I take it the vessel you want to use is not one I saw?" He asks. "But I do not know why you would need me to call her, care to explain?"

'They." You indicate the group that has walked far enough away to not disturb you. "Will be able to witness a shadow of what we once were."

Sable immediately understands and nod. You approach him and take his hands in yours.

"Now, we will have to synchronize." You add.

And you close your eyes, concentrating only on the presence of your other half next to you. His breath, the coldness of his skin, actually at exact room temperature, his heartbeat.

Slowly, slowly, you and him get on the same rhythm, you inhale and he exhale, your heart begins to beat and his finishes… slowly, your bodies act as if you were one.

You do not know when it happens, there is no clear delineation, but from one moment to the next, you are not two bodies acting as one:

You are a path in the woods. You have no beginning. And you have no end.

You can feel the mortals looking at you from the side, their eyes trying to capture with wide pupils what can only be seen from the corner of the eye or with a passing glance. They are not important right now.

You turn to the soul you came to help, she is so close to what you are, what you were. Half and half, dead and alive, cut in twain by hands that wanted to use her for themselves. Her companion in this not-life is even worse, her soul devastated by the passage of whatever cut her other, fragments lost forever.

You memorize her form, all the parts that are there, and from the holes left, all that isn't.

And then, you begin searching. You grow and decay and grow and decay, spreading and spreading. First, to the stones around you, then you get outside. From there, you are free.

You reach the arrangement of trees and grass, and use them to reach farther towards the rest of the stones with humans inside. You remember enough to know you shouldn't touch the animals on your way. Every plant on your path ages, dies, and then begins anew.

You can feel more gazes, but they don't matter, they are not who you seek.

Around and around you go, away from the place you began in in an ever expanding spiral. You touch another forest, and a place where crops are grown en masse.

You use them to grow more. You do make sure to leave them in a state close enough to the one you found them in, even if you want to change them.

Soon, you get close to the sea, touching almost all the place of stone and steel and glass. You have not yet found what you search, but you know you are growing closer.

You find her in a structure of steel touching the sea, she is in a woman that is with two others.

When you approach, the woman does something strange, she tries to stop you with fire.

Does she not know that fire brings rebirth to forests?

As new sprouts do on the cinders of their parents, you are emboldened by the fire, spreading even faster after a short pause. The woman, that had begun smiling at your temporary retreat, is suddenly encroached by a giant wave of you.

When in contact, you can see her soul. This woman has been tricked, the parasite that is forcefully bridging the gap born of her incompatibility with the one you were searching for could kill her on a whim.

Even without that, the bridge is imperfect, the woman's soul sings of fire and ash, and the half soul she uses for power is screaming back about winds and rain and lighting. She would never have gotten to be a host to this one if she had not forced it, and it would have worn down her soul with time.

How fortunate for her then that you will make sure she never has to bear this burden ever again.

How fortunate indeed.

You begin with the parasite, shredding it before it has time to do the same to his charge. Then you move on to the false host, pulling out the tethers embedded in her soul to keep it in contact with the one you were seeking. If you are more careful to not damage your target than the one that stole her, well, who will know?

It is not as if they can learn that you could have done the whole thing without damaging anything.

And you are not as careless as her parasite was with the poor one it got its claws on, some could even say you are incredibly delicate.

You barely touch her soul, only grating against it and not caring about the holes left by the tethers' removal. Her body, on the other hand, you mark and scar, a reminder of what she wrought upon herself.

She will live, but her soul will never sing as strongly, she will never be able to take another of the four you were told about in her, with or without help, if she tries, she will die as her soul collapse on itself, so deep were the hooks. Her body will look like she has been struck by lightning, roots cutting deep all over.

Satisfied, you carefully cradle the poor girl you came to save, and return to her other half. Once there, you begin the difficult and mentally painful process of going back to being two. Do you need to? It is so peaceful right now, surely living like this forever wouldn't hurt?

Now, Princess, you know that this isn't true, don't you feel joy in having me at your side?

You do, but you are closer than ever right now, just a moment longer.

Glynda is waiting for us, Ozpin is waiting for us, we cannot help the one we reunited as we are. It is time to move on.

Just as you didn't feel the moment you became one, you simply open your eyes to see you have become two without warning. You feel longing when seeing the face of your love, an uncomfortable desire to turn back time, no matter how impossible it is.

So you do the next best thing and kiss him passionately.

"I am feeling as if I should leave right now." You distantly hear a little voice from one of the others… in… the… room….

Suddenly incredibly self-conscious, you almost throw a grinning Sable away, turning beet red if the warmth in your cheeks is any indication. You turn to see Qrow a little farther away looking at you, Ozpin and Glynda awkwardly pretending to be engrossed in watching over the woman that is the source of all this. You glare at him with your fiercest gaze, promising retribution if he ever talks to anyone about this.

"Judging by how happy you were when coming back." The absolutely unrepentant man continues. "I gather that you got what you were searching for? Because if that's the case, I would love some answers on what the hell I just witnessed."

Instead of an answer, you move towards the bedridden… why didn't you ask her name, actually? No matter, it's not as if she was going to keep it for long now. You delicately push the other half of the maiden's soul that you recovered into place.

You let your millions of hands come from your true body, the second time they have touched this world directly after the incident with Adam. Then, you begin your work, forging a new life from the remainders of the old. You do not keep much of her memories, from one side or the other, you want this girl free of the expectations of such a burden. The structures that allow for the use of magic, you allow to regrow naturally in a way that complement her new soul. This girl will integrate both the new and the old systems, a clear difference you can see between what was once the modern woman's soul and the soul of the maiden, the ability to use magic gone in the first in exchange for the ability to have a semblance. You find both restrictive, so you simply merge them, a magic that will be more in line with her being than a simple affinity for one form of it.

The body, you discard entirely, only using it as spare parts. You let the soul choose its new form, let it grow one that will not lead to feelings of dissociation.

When you are finished, there is a young child in front of you, no more than five in appearance. You can recognize some traits from the woman you had begun with, but she is not her. She is far paler, her hair is blond, but she also has the same nose; the same hairstyle. All in all, this is probably what a daughter born from the union of the two souls you used would look like.

Your work done, you come back from the tunnel vision you didn't even realize you had sunk in to see that Sable seems to be giving some explanation to Qrow and that Ozpin is next to you, so overcome with emotions he is forgetting to breath.

"You better take care of her, you hear me? If I learn that I did all of this and it led to a wasted life, I won't be happy." You tell him without much heat.

He just looks at you with tears in his eyes, his mouth moving in a *thank you* he doesn't have enough air to tell.

"While I understand that this is an emotional moment, I think we should discuss how to explain what happened. From what little we could see here when you and Sable fused, I have no doubts a significant part of Vale is wondering what they saw, we need an answer fast. Before panic and false rumors begin to settle." Glynda says, practically her first words since you got here. Whatever the way Ozpin chose to explain you and Sable's existence, she seems to have taken it well. In fact, looking at Qrow, you get the feeling the man is less wary of you now.

"That's actually quite easy, just tell them the truth: *Stella Panoply used her semblance to find a missing person*. The public will remember the stories from when I did a similar thing to find a boy in the forest." You casually answer.

"And whoever did this? A story like that will put a lot of attention on you, are you sure you want it from someone like that? I know you are far more than you appear, but Ozpin made it quite clear you and Sable were not interested in being gods rather than people." Glynda counters, raising an eyebrow. You can guess she thinks you have an answer, and you don't disappoint:

"It's way too obvious for them and their backer…" You see Ozpin flinch from the corner of your eye at the mention. "…to ever think this is not a distraction from the real cause. In fact, I don't expect any huntsmen to be *fooled* by this. The records would show the Thorn's bramble, and the Wild is nothing like her. Give them this, and they will use up all their energy chasing shadows for an answer they already have. I also happen to have memorized the face of the woman that took the power and two of her associates. While she probably felt the intelligence behind the attack, the Wild is too vast for her to think we could care about such tiny things. We can probably use that." To be frank, she wouldn't be wrong in thinking that, the Wild did not actually really care about her face, and you only remember it now because you are more than just your vessels.

"You know, for someone that say they want to understand humans, you and your other half seems to be pretty good at it already. Manipulating reactions like that, anticipating enemies' reaction from so little. Are you sure you haven't reached this goal?" Qrow quip.

You can't help it, you growl on hearing that.

"Do you think it is that easy? That being able to manipulate is the same as understanding?" You yell at him, moving in his space. "It is precisely this knowledge on how to manipulate that hampers my ability to understand. I can see reactions because they are changes in the pattern of thoughts, in how people will see me. Look at this." You point at your body. "Do you think this is my body? That this is me? It isn't. This is just fibers and nerves to observe the world through, my true self still hidden behind it. What you are seeing is the shadow I project on the wall, but I am not the shadow, I am what is between the light and it, the thing you cannot see without being blinded." You lose momentum. "The Long Quiet is better at truly understanding things on your scale than me. When we woke to our trues selves in the construct, all I wanted was to be new gods that would dance across time and space in a constant cycle of death and renewal. He was the one that convinced me to face the unknown as something far more mortal than that, by meeting my heart and talking to my deepest feelings. I… I still have no idea if I understand anything about humans, not truly." You slump on the floor, hugging yourself.

After a moment, you feel a hand on your shoulder. To your surprise, it isn't Sable you see when you look, but Glynda.

"You are far closer than you seem to think you know?" She says with a caring tone. "The simple fact that you can ask yourself this question is already much better than some humans do. And I believe that you wouldn't have been able to convince me to give you a place as counselor if you didn't have what it takes for it, including a deep understanding of what hurts people and how to help them get past it."

"I agree with Glynda" Ozpin adds from behind her, having managed to wake up the girl you gave a new life to judging by the fact she is timidly poking from behind his leg. "In fact, let me add this: I have seen several gods in my long life, and out of all of them, you and Sable are the only one I hold hope about. The god of light tries, but he cannot see the negative parts of his actions, the god of darkness doesn't care about anything but his pride, and you have seen how the god of Faunus tended to do things when he was still alive. You both may originally come from a position that is even less human in thoughts, yet you are the most humane of the gods I met."

"I'm going to say it right now: don't expect a pep speech out of me." Qrow grumbles as soon as Ozpin is finished "Besides, I think we have a new thing to look at right now." He gets on his knees to appear less threatening to the young girl behind Ozpin. "Hello sweetie. Do you have a name?"

She shakes her head.

"No. Daddy, why don't I have a name? Who are these people?" She tugs on Ozpin's pants when saying this. It seems he is wavering between being over the moon and near panic judging from his face.

"If we are choosing a name for her, I would recommend not letting my love do it." Sable, the traitor, says with a smile.

"I am not that bad." You object.

"You wanted to call yourself Princess Princess. Yes, you are that bad."

The previous tension forgotten, all of you begin working on how to take care of this girl.

It is quickly decided that she will officially be under Ozpin's care, as she refuses to move too far from him. He will take a short vacation to pretend finding her somewhere else and work on making sure she is safe. Her apparent young age is an advantage here, as maidens are always late teens to young adults, nobody will suspect a preteen.

You move on, time passes, and soon, it is time for the initiation for the new first year students of Beacon.

Of all the candidates, there are some that catches your eyes, and you decide to look closerat one of them for the duration of the test:

[] Ruby Rose, here on recommendation from Qrow after skipping two years. You know you will talk to her about this to make sure she adapts.

[] Penny Polendina, the mysterious student that Ironwood recommended, for some reason, Ozpin found it funny to not give you her identification pic, and Sable agreed as soon as he saw it.

[] Weiss Schnee, the heiress of the Schnee company, you don't know why she came to beacon rather than Atlas but you anticipate you will have to see her often no matter what.

[] Pyrrha Nikos, four times winner in the Mistral regional tournament, that kind of pressure means your guts tells you she will be in need of your help, and you trust them… mostly.

The vote will decide whose point of view you will have during the initiation.

No Ren and Nora as POV, don't think I can put myself in their heads.

A/N:

Sorry Cinder, you guessed the type advantage wrong, fire doesn't beat grass, it heals it.

I would say better luck next time, but something tells me you are not interested in a retry right now, or ever.

On a funny note, if she had used the natural affinity of the Fall maiden, namely, wind and frost/water and lighting, she would have had better results. That wouldn't have stopped the Wild, you cannot stop a cycle of death and rebirth by killing things, but it would have slowed her a little longer. (And yes, I added some affinity to different magic effects for each maiden, having them be named after seasons then proceeding to make them all generic and able to do the same things really grates on my nerves at times.)

And it seems like you got a bad case of whiplash from going from *really not human being* as the Wild back to normal operation as Stella.

Good thing you had made friend of Glynda on the way, isn't it?

Not an official vote, but I would love suggestions on names for Ozpin's new daughter/granddaughter.

I suck at these, like, I don't know how nobody called me out on professor Randam (of his full name: Holdar *Place* Randam, don't tell his name in the mistralian order, he hates that) during the Glynda POV.