Miracles of Ancient Wonder Book Three: Creation
~
Chapter 2.5
~~~
Weiss finished writing her list on a physical board, one of her first requests was going to be a proper holo projector, and turned back to the room. It was, perhaps, one of the oddest meetings in history.
Ruby sat next to her, but was distracted by a sketch for some sort of armor. Yang had changed into pajamas and lounged on a couch, her head in Blake's lap. Ren and Nora took one of the love seats, still in their full Hunter outfits, but so tired they too were lounging as much as they could. Pyrrha was prim and attentive in her easy chair, as much as one could be when distracted by Emerald's presence, who stood far away from everyone else. Penny almost matched Pyrrha's poise, but visibly brightened up whenever Ruby looked her way and couldn't keep herself from glancing around, which ruined the image.
The four most powerful people in the world were going to discuss what they were going to do with it and everyone looked like they were living in a dorm where 'what do we eat' and 'who invited that person' were the most pressing issues. At least the mansion they'd been given had enough bedrooms for everyone and was comfortable. That answer to the first turned out to be more poisonous berries, bits of bark, mushroom, and stones made edible by Yang. The actual food was reserved for those healing.
A simple nudge to Ruby's shoulder was enough to get the meeting going.
"Okay, things are stableish and we've all had a night's sleep. A lot of people want to talk to us, a more in depth look at this new Grimm with Doctor Oobleck, politics with the Ambassador from Menagerie, and more negotiating with Atlas. I'm taking the first with maybe help from Atlas depending on how the third goes? We're still not sure about whether they'll let Winter come. And for the second…" She looked over to Blake who slowly shook her head. "Weiss is handling the second and the third. What we need to do is figure out what we're going to tell them. So, Weiss and I put together this agenda of things to talk about and plans."
Weiss pointed to the first item: Heal/Rebuild.
"First priority, go from stable to functional. I'm gonna finish healing people and there will be a lot of funerals. We're not going to be officiating any of them formally, unless one of you wants to, but it would be good for members of team RWBY to show up when we can. Everything will be open to anyone from outside who wants to come and… while I wish everyone could be back on their feet before we make any announcements. We should say something to our people soon."
A sobering topic, but one that they needed to handle.
"Blake, do you-"
"I'll write it." She said before Ruby could finish asking.
"Thanks. Now then, a lot of our infrastructure was damaged and needs to be fixed before something bad happens related to all of the death energy building up. I'm pretty sure this'll mostly be a me and Yang job unless one of you is hiding some new Semblance." She looked right at Ren with that. He was never going to live hiding his incredibly useful Semblance down.
"Nora and I can assist with some aspects through sorcery, but I otherwise believe that is correct." Weiss added with a chorus of nods throughout the room. She placed Ruby and Yang's icons in that column on the board.
Ruby moved down to her next item, another one that Weiss expected to be non-contentious.
"Second, invisible Grimm. Right now Yang and I are the only ones who can hurt them. We need to figure out other ways." Ruby paused for the group of nods. "The two of us will help however we can, but this is going to be a Blake, Weiss, Pyrrha, and Ren task at first. Also Vale and Atlas, but I'm not sure they'll be able to get anywhere."
"Why me?" Ren asked.
"You know the most about martial arts of all of us."
"What?" He sat straight up and stared at Ruby. "That isn't even remotely true."
"To clarify," Weiss stepped in. "Ruby, Yang, and I can functionally conjure knowledge out of nowhere, but our attention needs to be focused on issues where only we will need abilities like that in order to make any progress. You may not be the most skilled fighter, but you have the most knowledge of different martial arts that isn't held up in other tasks."
"That makes more sense… I'm not sure how much I can do, but I'll try."
Weiss put Ren's symbol on first, then the others.
"I'll dream on it as soon as I don't need to know medicine or even more advanced metallurgy or weird energy flows or politics… to see if I can find anything useful, but I'm going to be running in four directions at once for a while." Ruby looked back to the board and her third issue. Weiss held her composure. She hadn't fought this one as hard as she could before.
"Third, personal defense. Something that most of us need some help with." Ruby looked around the room, meeting everyone's eyes except for Blake and Yang. "Even assuming we find a way for all of you to see the bugs and fight back, we need to make sure you aren't vulnerable. I've thought about armor designs that should work for your combat styles and involve enough shielding to keep you safe. Most are more like mine"- She rapped her knuckles on the metal breastplate. -"than Yang's, but that's also because they'll involve muscular enhancements that aren't really relevant for either her or Blake at this point. I'll need a list of requests for any side upgrades like night vision, an integrated scroll, or a chameleon system from everyone before I can get started on full designs though."
"Most armor interferes with martial arts-" Ren started speaking.
"Already thought of that, which is why yours has been ready for two weeks." Ruby grabbed one of the packages from the side and tossed it onto his lap.
Ren cringed, but still unwrapped it. Inside was a long robe that had been dyed the same color as his own along with a set of bracers and leg guards.
"The robe is silk infused with Gravity Dust, which was a pain to get the right color, so it should be small arms resistant, but the real magic comes from the other pieces. If you push your Aura into them, they'll generate a forcefield that should make you safe from the bugs. Most of the design uses Orichalcum, but the little bit of Starmetal I used in them should make this activate automatically if there's a violent intent coming at you." Ruby paused her explanation of yet another impossible design. "At least, it should do that. I'm way outside of traditional designs so I can't guarantee that feature will work. For the rest of you, any armor will just have a forcefield like that on at all times. This is probably going to be another task for me."
Everyone except for team RWBY and Penny stared at her. Eventually, ever so slowly, Nora broke the silence with a noise.
"Ahh… Are you sure that's the best use of your time? I mean, I'm not going to say no to awesome armor, but it seems like there's a lot more going on that's more important for you to do." Nora grimaced and rubbed the side of her neck.
"I can probably be of assistance with some of that to make it easier?" Penny was clearly unsure of her own answer.
"It wouldn't make sense to start these right now, but I did most of the work on each base chassis already." Ruby simply pressed on. "Once I get my factory back online it should take about three hours of each of your time for fitting and two days of mine to finish them. A week or so if it turns out I'm really wrong about your measurements and need to start from scratch. I need to be there to supervise all of my craftsmen while they build the components we need to fix the power grid, but me building those won't help on completion time that much so I can finish armor instead.
"However, there is a much larger problem. This will counter
one of Salem's attacks. She's going to have more and we need as many of us to be able to respond as possible." Ruby looked at Weiss. "Starting with getting you to at least the level the rest of us were at Beacon."
The first argument that the two of them could not find a good compromise on. Weiss crossed her arms and shook her head. "I'm not the same as I was when you last saw me. I'm easily the fourth best fighter we have now and my time would be better spent figuring out this second circle of sorcery that the demons mentioned. What Salem did to Beacon must have been that because I was able to counter it with sorcerous methods."
"It's probably true that you're fourth best; you also aren't good enough. You got taken out by the bugs-"
"Which your armor is supposed to fix."
"-and can't fight the sort of threats each of us need to. You would
not last against a Behemoth without support, even if your sorcery can kill it giving the time to cast."
Weiss ground her teeth. "We. Are. A. Team. We don't need everyone to be capable of fighting a Behemoth one on one right now, while we're staying in a highly fortified area together, when there are untold new capabilities possible to reach."
"What would you do if someone bombed us, right now? One of the missiles that Yang basically ignored? Or if someone hit the building with a spell like what Professor Goodwitch did to me?"
"I wouldn't get in that sort of situation within the next few weeks. Besides, I'm not a front liner and, again, you three will be around, so-"
Ruby pointed a finger at her, the sparkles in her eyes dancing with the same sort of madness that had on that night. Not as strong as it had been then, but… still there. "Even easier, could you guarantee that if I shot you, you wouldn't be hurt? You saw my fight with Mars and what she said. We can't be sure that a super Behemoth isn't just going to drop on us tomorrow. Or that she doesn't know this more advanced sorcery and also some sort of city killer spell. Which you knowing too would be helpful, but only if you can be sure you'll be alive to cast it. I learned this in, like, ten minutes. I'm sure it won't take you more than a couple of days at worst."
Weiss grit her teeth and looked at the rest of the room. Too many were avoiding her gaze, which was enough of an indictment. Something that could be fixed, but… this was part of the plan. No matter how much her own instincts were screaming at her to win the stupid argument, it was part of the plan. She should not need to be as capable as them in battle when not only her actual talents, but also her interests, lay elsewhere. All of them were going to need to break free of their current limitation though and… she could not deny that this was one of them. "Very well. I'm going to pull Blake in as my practice partner though, because neither you nor Yang's explanations make any sense."
Ruby nodded and turned back to the much more tense room. "I don't know what you can do now Pyrrha, but we should see if you can pull something like this off too."
Pyrrha licked her lips, then mutely nodded. That was perhaps the easiest sell that existed.
"Beyond that, we're not going to let something like this happen again. We lost too many people." Ruby said to another chorus of nods. "Because of my new ability to control some Grimm, we're safe from conventional Grimm attacks and without that risk"- Ruby hesitated for a moment, probably sensing just how dangerous of a topic this would be, but powered through -"we can awaken everyone's Auras and give them good armor. The same sort I'll be sending to Atl-"
"No!" Nora jumped to her feet.
"Absolutely not!" Ren jumped up at the same time.
Ruby stepped back, then forward. "It's the best way to make sure they're safe. If we ask for volunteer-"
"Volunteers from your cult?"
"I- what? That has noth-"
"It has everything to do with-"
"I've tried to stop them from doing that!"
"Really? Doesn't look like it."
"If they want to worship an evil godd-"
"Everyone, we sh-"
The room descended into arguments along entirely predictable lines. Penny and Pyrrha thought the idea had some merit, while Yang alternated between defending her sister and condemning herself as evil, but none of them were prepared for just how intense Ren and Nora were. Blake made good comments about how everyone was overreacting and Emerald avoided saying anything.
~~~
Weiss slammed a heel to the ground
and brought the focus of the room to herself when the argument started becoming circuitous. "Everyone, what we're going to do about the cults is a discussion point we'd planned for later. However, thanks to this ample demonstration, I'm going to advance our final topic of discussion: Mental Contamination and what we can do about it."
'You let that happen on purpose.' Blake's accusation tore into Weiss' mind.
'I did.' Weiss replied then looked at her. "And we agreed to not do that during this meeting."
"S-Sorry." Blake looked away.
Yang's glare remained leveled at Weiss.
Weiss gave her a smirk back, then looked away from the feral smile because this would not be the sort of argument Yang wanted. "Every single one of us is suffering from some level of mental contamination that impairs our ability to make decisions. I know some of you still doubt this"- She looked at Ruby, then Emerald. -"but I think there's more than enough evidence. Speaking about this won't be easy for anyone, but we need to do it. So, shall we begin with the most obvious example?"
Yang huffed, as if there was any other option, "Hi everyone, I'm Yang and there's a demon in my head constantly shouting at me. If I'm not being an evil jackass, he gives me the world's worst migraine."
Weiss gestured at her to continue.
"And if he gets mad enough then he makes me lose the will to do anything."
Weiss didn't stop moving her hand.
Yang pursed her lips and glared back for several seconds, before relenting. "Also, I have the memories of a really old Anathema. I can use them to figure things out, but she'll take over for a bit whenever I do it so I try to ignore that part."
"Thank you." Weiss smiled at Yang. Only to receive a glare. "What happened to Yang in our fight on the docks is what happens if she doesn't act like a stereotypical villain. This is why I wasn't mad at her for picking a fight and drawing a gang of Hunters to chase us. It was do that or risk shutting down when we needed her. Next."
"I guess that's me?" Blake said with a lot of hesitation. While she wasn't technically there, that was because she had a good handle of this. "There's a general feeling of danger and unease and growing frustration in the back of my head that just keeps growing day after day."
Weiss briefly glanced towards Penny. "Those of us who've accessed Atlas' top secret research know that if she doesn't handle this, it will eventually result in her own death on top of a staggering amount of collateral damage from the buildup. Thankfully, a simple solution exists."
Blake nodded. "I can kill Grimm to lessen it."
"Because…"
"Really?" Blake looked down at the ground. "I can kill Grimm because… because Grimm count as people and whatever it is wants me to kill people."
"That…" Pyrrha said. "That may be the most disturbing thing I've heard in quite some time."
"At some point, I'd like to figure out why that is true, but that's a much lower priority, despite all of the implications." Weiss looked at Pyrrha. "And, you're next."
"Oh… I have the memories of the previous Fall Maiden along with my own." Pyrrha looked at everyone except Emerald. "I don't believe there's a risk of me losing control."
"Pyrrha."
Pyrrha clenched her jaw and looked at Emerald. Every muscle in her body tensed for a moment, then she looked back to Weiss. "I
do not believe there's a risk of me losing control, no matter how strong some of these feelings are."
Weiss nodded. "For myself, I'm less certain because there is no voice in my head or easily identifiable feeling."
"You see. We don't hav-" Ruby began speaking.
"However!" Weiss cut her off. "I've noticed that I slipped and missed pieces of information that ought to have been obvious. The worst example of this is Cinder Fall. I tunnel visioned on a different goal and never reconsidered that I may have read her incorrectly or that Blake may have been incorrect about killing her.
"This was such an oversight that as soon as someone pointed it out, I couldn't help but question how I could possibly have been so foolish." Weiss sighed and turned to Ruby.
"What?" Ruby had her arms crossed. "I don't think either of us is being controlled like Blake and Yang are. There are no voices or weird shifts. If we're making mistakes, then that's our own fault."
Weiss looked back to the rest of the room, most of which were not able to say what was painfully obvious. "Ruby, you just threatened to shoot me to prove a point."
"You would've been fine! You've heard what Yang and I do for fun, right?"
"Yes, I've heard about how you try to beat each other senseless on the regular." Weiss shot Yang a look when she grinned. "Do you also do that to Blake? Who isn't some sort of battle maniac?"
"No!"
"Ahh, so it's just me, someone who you know isn't a threat to you then?"
"That's not what-"
"Err…" Yang made a noise. "Sis, I really don't want to agree with Weiss when she's being like this, but I kinda pulled the same sorta thing on Blake and being like me is never a good look."
"We're Hunters! Hunters get into fights and… Look at Uncle Qrow. I'm pretty he'd do that too!" Ruby's pitch rose as she continued.
"That's…" Yang sucked a breath in as the rest of the room shook their heads. "not helping your case. I love Uncle Qrow, but he's…"
"An alcoholic who hurts people to push them away," Weiss drew the attention back to her. "Now that that digression is over, let's return to the point. After we finally negotiated peace, you want to arm all of your people. How is that going to look to anyone else?"
"Like we're taking the threat of Salem seriously?"
"Like we're warmongers itching to build up and strike back as soon as they take the pressure off." Weiss needed to hit her hard to get through. "No one conscripts their entire population outside of the most dire of situations, which is technically what you had to do last week, but that should be the end of it."
"I… They wouldn't need to fight, just… Be able to…" Ruby didn't have an argument for that one.
"They don't
need to be immune to the insect Grimm and constantly armed to be safe. I'm extrapolating from what Blake and I are going through, but I would guess that your connection to Mars is making you pursue more violent actions then are sensible for your own goals and also not back down from a fight." A brief pause. "I know this will bring up bad memories, but again, you're acting similarly to how you did before you attacked Beacon."
"You said that three days ago too and what exactly have I done except try to heal or make peace with people since then?"
Weiss didn't have much of a counter example for that point.
"Also, don't you think Mars would have told me about this influence if it was true?"
"I think that she would've told you whatever made you a more effective tool of warfare, regardless of its truth."
"How does that explain yours then? Luna making you be dumb? That sure sounds like a trickster god to me."
"I'm going to ignore the barb because it just proves my point further, but I… Actually no…" Weiss hesitated. She knew what to say, to deflect Ruby's accusation and continue to press her argument. Only Blake would know she'd done it, but… No. No. She was doing this to try and stop them from making mistakes in the future. It was time for her own bitter pill. "I'm sorry everyone. Blake called me out on what happened here and this is as much proof of my own problems as Ruby's. I'm too sure of my own cleverness and correctness, without reconsidering if there was a simpler way, a kinder way, or if I made a mistake. I could have tried harder to persuade you about this without making an example. I could have tempered the parts of your ideas that I know would be volatile and what my suspicions were. Instead, I orchestrated a scenario I expected would prove my point for me, regardless of how much it might hurt several of you in the process."
Ruby looked like she was about to say something. She kept moving her lips and raising a finger, before she deflated. "I… okay. I still don't think you're right, but… We all have blindspots so… let's pretend you are. What do we do about it?"
"Have people who we trust watch us," Weiss looked to the final two. "Let's finish going around."
Ren was frowning at her so Nora spoke. "Ren and I… We got controlled by an Anathema and a bunch of the things that she made us think are still there. It's mostly being good at training to be soldiers-" She looked right at Ruby, who had the decency to flinch.
"I'm… I'm sorry, I wasn't think-"
Ren waved his hand. "I understand wanting to keep people safe after all of this."
"This is why Ren and Nora, as both the least compromised and, also, still normal people, are going to have veto power over any major decisions we make." Weiss nodded to him, then turned to Emerald. After a moment of her not responding, Weiss sighed. "Emerald also disagrees with me about her contamination, but she's had a lot of influence from Cinder along with Salem, so I'm putting her in the same group as the non-Exalted, which once again is the proper term for Anathema."
"Wait, is that what that is?" Ruby said, staring past Emerald.
"Is that what what is?" Weiss gaped at her. She'd evidently overlooked something else bizarre that Ruby was capable of.
"Salem and shh, I'm trying to listen."
Everyone else stared at Ruby. Emerald fidgeted, tightening her crossed arms and staring at the ground. After almost a minute of waiting, she started opening her mouth and alternating between staring at Ruby or the ground. "Are you-"
"Shush!" Ruby yelled. "I'm almost done."
"With what?"
"Listening to your soul. Now shush."
That shut Emerald up long enough for Ruby to finish.
"Okay, there's something added to her soul that sounds really…" Ruby paused. "I think I need to talk to General Ironwood again. If that's what Salem's influence sounds like, then the Specialist who shot at us also works for her."
A green flash from Yang's eyes drew Weiss' attention, the wide eyed 'Oh wait' only intensified it. Yang grimaced as soon as she noticed Weiss and sucked in a breath. She mouthed 'I'm sorry'. Yet more connections sprang to mind. The two people who could work with the invisible energy surrounding them were capable of observing aspects of people's souls and the energy within them, just like the state of the art device she'd used. That made sense.
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a slow breath through her teeth. Her team's beliefs about what information was relevant to share and when to do so was going to be a problem. It had been a problem at Beacon, it had been a problem when they were acting on their own, and it was still going to be a problem. She hadn't wasted a great deal of time trying to solve a very important challenge in their fight that already had a solution sitting right in front of her. "Let's take a quick break before we have any more revelations that completely change some of my assumptions about how the world operates and also add training so anyone else besides Ruby and Yang can figure those things out to the list."
"Umm," Penny raised her hand.
"Yes, Penny?"
"Earlier you said that Ren and Nora would be given vetoes due to being the least compromised. I believe I am actually the least compromised, so should I not receive one as well?" Penny took another piece of obvious bait that Weiss had left.
"There is another consideration about you which I do not think would be fair for me to reveal, if you're comfortable telling everyone, then we can discuss you also having veto power." Weiss flipped her hair to the side
angling her fingers and wrist unnaturally for a moment, just enough to get the message across to Penny and no one else. 'Your true nature.'
'Weiss…' No one else besides Blake, apparently.
"If you figured it out, then you understand why I did that instead of saying it out loud." Weiss rolled her head to the side and looked right down her nose at Blake, who had the decency to look away, embarrassed, at breaking their rules again.
Penny stared at her lap for a short moment, then stood up. She waved to the room. "Salutations everyone. I am Penny, aka P.E.N.N.Y." She pronounced every letter. "My full name is Perfected Emulation of Nascent Noble Yin, but I don't often use it because it takes quite some time to say, makes some of the other scientists annoyed because it does not match the project acronym, and also requires too many explanations. I am the world's first synthetic person capable of generating an Aura and a top secret project of the Atlas military."
Once more, most of the room was reduced to silence. Ruby didn't seem surprised, which made sense, and Weiss had reviewed the project files she could gain access to despite a lack of need-to-know, so she knew what to expect.
"Penny… Your real name is… how? Why? That's…" Yang looked from her, to Blake's chest, but Weiss was pretty sure it was just Yang looking away and not the normal reason.
"My father told me that it came to him in a dream, much like the rest of the information about how to construct me." Penny smiled, which did nothing for Weiss' blood pressure. That particular fact wasn't in any of the documents she'd checked.
"It sounds like the old Anathema names, like, the really old ones from back when they ruled the world." Yang said without any inflection.
"Wa-"
"Wait-"
"He did-"
Weiss could feel her left eye twitching.
The meeting was important, getting everything out in the open was important, her friends continued to not realize just how important some of what they knew was and getting it out in the open was why she'd set this up and… Was this it? Was this the feeling Yang was talking about? The headache that leads to her shutting down? It was proof that Ruby wasn't right! Wonderful, at least she was right about something!
Wait, no, if it was that sort of headache, she wouldn't be capable of realizing while in the midst of it. Had to be something else. This was simply the result of being too unprepared for curve balls. Or maybe a lack of food.
Weiss cleared her throat very loudly. "Okay then, we can discuss all that this maybe implies later. We're taking a break! No more sudden revelations. Eat food, drink whatever you want, I'll be back in five minutes with… Yang, what's the most palatable spirit you have?"
"Uhhh," Yang paused, halfway to getting up, "I think there's still some Cinnamon Flash left?"
"Where is it?"
"Why are you asking?"
Weiss narrowed her eyes.
"Under my bed, but I don't think that's-"
"Thank you." Weiss smiled as she walked towards the door. "I expect I'm going to need some before this meeting is over, which is entirely my own fault and probably karmically justified in several different ways. Because diving down the rabbit hole of how much is in each of your heads that I wish I knew about before will take far too long right now and I could really use some sort of distraction from all of it."
~~~
"Is she all right?"
"Are any of us?" Yang shrugged and looked at the hallway to her own room where both of her partners vanished. That was not the sort of thing she'd be helpful with and Pyrrha'd cornered her as soon as their 'break' started. "I mean, a lot of it was all about how messed up we are, Weiss included."
""I…" Pyrrha sighed and leaned against the wall. "I cannot deny that, but I had thought that she, along with several others, did not suffer from this as much as we appear to."
"Weiss is really good at hiding that stuff." Yang ran her fingers through her hair and sighed. "She's been working non-stop essentially since we all got to Beacon and focusing on the heavy stuff so the rest of us don't have to. It was bound to get to her sooner or later."
Pyrrha took quite some time to think before asking, "Is there anything that we might be able to do which could help?"
"I don't know. Maybe take some of the load off? I'm not sure that's really possible for anyone except for Ruby… Who's just as bad about taking on too much." Yang glanced back to the white board of problems and her sister, who was taking Nora's armor requests and occasionally spacing out in what Yang could tell was her reading the future in some way. "We've been relying on them, but what else can we do? I'm… a brawler with a shiny crown on her head, a 'Queen' only because no one can remember Ruby and Blake refused. If Weiss had been with us, you can bet she'd have been the one picked."
"I do not believe that who we are now is all that any of us can be. From my understanding, Ruby was not wrong. All of you should be capable of some of what the others are and I do not think you could have built this city without the sort of knowledge that can help relieve Weiss."
Yang flinched. "That's all I should be."
Pyrrha frowned at her, "What else could you be?"
"Not you too," Yang ground her teeth together, "I
know that this is all it should be because…"
"Because of the memories."
Yang nodded. She knew firsthand just how bad the Anathema became, even if they started completely innocent. Better to not become capable of such monstrosity in the first place… Except… the demon bug healing people… If she'd been able to learn that… Dammit! Fuck!
"I wanted to ask about those. I am not worried about being influenced right now, but they also seem like… a useful source of knowledge about what I would be capable of." Pyrrha raised a hand, lightning crackling between her fingers.
"Yeah, if I could just know how to solve things safely, it'd be a lot better." Yang walked over to a window and looked out at their city. "Hey, Pyrrha. Want to get some air?"
Yang meant that a bit more literally than Pyrrha, but since the Maiden was the only other person able to fly on her own, it just made more sense to soar. She felt the cool air against her skin, the wind whipping her hair, and the peace of being above it all. She ended above the center of the city, the main tower-tree.
"Heh, I beat you up here, but that I'm a little jealous of." Yang shouted over the sound of her beating wings. Staying in place always took a lot of effort.
"It takes a bit of focus to stay upright." Pyrrha, eyes blazing with red flames, was hovering evenly. She rotated her entire body horizontally to look down at the lights. "It's… lovely, in its own way."
"It's a spiky tower of burned iron that shoots lightning. It's badass, but I'd hardly call it pretty."
"From what little I understand, it represents hope for so many people and any hope is beautiful."
"Yeah… So, memories and power…" Yang sighed again, "I really should talk to Ren and Nora about this stuff since I'm sure they'd agree with me."
"But you aren't speaking with them."
"I… I was…" She needed to get the question out. One that only Pyrrha would probably understand. "What are yours like? Who was she?" Dammit me!
Pyrrha rotated back up, "That is not… Well, her name was Amber. She was very kind. Kind to the point where it got her in trouble. Emerald tricked her and"- Pyrrha tensed, eyes flaring, -"that cost her life."
"That… That sounds bad."
"I'm sorry." Pyrrha took a breath. "But, the feeling of being literally stabbed in the back is…"
Yang nodded, forcing the memory of betrayal back down. "It's a lot."
"What about yours?"
"She's a bitch. A monster who actually thinks that the natural state of the world is that people should worship and obey her. Someone who would take all of this and declare herself the god of everything she could conquer!" Yang could feel flames rising in her belly as she thought about it. "And… and the worst thing is…"
"That the gods support this?"
"Yes! Holy shit, yes! How fucked up is that?" Yang could not believe it when Ruby first told her, but the memories were there stating it clearly. "I've been sitting here dreading when we have to talk about all of the cult shit because it's… It's… It's the way the world works and I know it is…"
"You know what?"
"Our Auras started coming back faster when we were revealed and that's why. Being worshiped actually gives us more power." Yang practically spit the words.
Pyrrha stared at her, dumbfounded.
"I know, right?"
"So, the reason that you haven't been stopping something like this is…" She let the unspoken accusation hang in the air.
"Not that, but… it would really make everything make sense, wouldn't it? I… I saw how much happier me being here made them and didn't have the heart to make them stop.."
Pyrrha nodded. "Faith can be very powerful. Even before I saw Lady Mars herself, my belief helped me through a lot."
"Yeah, and that's… That's sort of what I wanted to ask you about…" Yang took a couple of deep breaths. "You wanted to know why I shouldn't be more, right?"
Pyrrha hesitated more a moment, then nodded. It looked like she was about to say something for a moment, the words on the tip of her tongue, then she shook her head. "Sorry, it's nothing, please continue."
"I'm pretty sure some part of my power wants me to do more with that, I can feel it. Something so close"- Yang lifted a hand up, fingers spread -" that I could grasp it if I only tried." She took another breath. "Ruby and Weiss' power comes from the gods; mine comes from the gods of Hell and… they're awful. There's a lot I could do, that I will
not, because… no, just no. I need to understand them more to pull it off though and… just because something might be true, doesn't mean it's right."
"W-what do you mean?" Pyrrha waited for a moment. "What would this power do?"
"I think that it would bring me closer to being an actual goddess instead of a fake one. Someone who could… bless the people worshiping me."
"Would this take away their will?"
"Does it matter? Ren and Noira are right! If Ruby asked for volunteers to have their Auras unlocked and form an army, I'm pretty sure the entire city would say yes." To say nothing of what any of them could do if they really tried.
Pyrrha took even longer to respond. "Ren and Nora are correct about some things, but not others. I… I believe that they are too traumatized by what happened to them to be rational about any matters of faith."
Another long pause that Pyrrha broke. "If Lady Mars offered me a blessing, I would gladly take it."
"Even if it would bind you to her more?"
"Especially so." The way Pyrrha said it almost felt like its own sort of madness, but… Their family never was much of one for faith in the first place.
"You'd do that even if… Even if the reason why she could do it is, in essence, that it's the rightful place for the strong to dominate the weak?"
"Why she would be able to, does not matter." Pyrrha looked up to the stars for a moment. "Would you be helping someone with these blessings?"
"Of course!" Yang shouted." Well, as much as I thought whatever I did would. I could always check with Ruby since she's been tossing blessings out like candy."
"It… It is pointless to deny that any member of team RWBY is strong enough to dominate almost anyone they so choose and I think actively harmful for you to not help in the ways that you can. I cannot say what it feels like to be on the other side of such a relationship; Ren, Nora, and especially Blake would likely be better to ask. However… to deny yourself the ability to help many because of what you might do with the power is… foolish."
Yang thought back to the memory of Tialeth when she was young, "But she went bad so quickly."
"Isn't that what the rest of us are for? To stop that from happening?"
"Maybe.." Yang licked her lips and looked back down at the city. There were other ideas besides the tower. Maybe she could repurpose the not-awful designs that the Anathema… "I just thought of something we could do to help."
Pyrrha followed her gaze, but she wasn't looking at anything in particular. "What?"
"The Moonless Festival is coming and we don't have to worry about the Grimm."
"There will be no Great Hunt…" Because with Ruby in control of the Grimm, there was no need to go and kill Ancients when they were most vulnerable.
"And that means we can get Ruby and Weiss to take a break and celebrate." Yang looked back at the city. "We just fought off something impossible and we're charging forward like the next battle is right around the corner."
"From my understanding of observances in Atlas, you may have trouble with Weiss."
Right Atlas, cold and stodgy. "I think I'll be able to convince her. Especially if it's something that she doesn't need to handle the planning for."
"What do you have in mind?"
"Well… We should be able to buy things from other places again and we have an entire city to throw the biggest rager we can. There's plenty of space for her to have 'fine music' and dancing' and if I challenge her to draw more people to that than…" Yang looked back to Pyrrha. "A drunken fighting ring, she won't back down even if Atlas demands quiet contemplation."
"Won't that risk a lot of harm to people?"
"That's what the demon bugs are for." Yang paused for a moment to consider the words that came out of her mouth. "I mean… They're here for a month right? Everyone will be healed by then… It'd be a dick move to kill them after all of the help and there'll be work to do with fighting… So…"
"Will you be fighting in it?"
"Oh no, that wouldn't be fair, I'm the final boss." Yang grinned at her. "If anyone can take down Mistral's champion, then they get to take a swing at me."
Pyrrha frowned at her, but Yang could see the energy in her eyes. "I do not like using my own reputation for such things, but… If it will help Ruby and Weiss, then I accept."
Yang raised an eyebrow. Hook set.
"And if no one defeats me… Then the two of us will close out the final day."
Oh that would be fun.
A/N: I stared at this one for a while. It feels too long, but I also couldn't figure out what else to cut even if I'm certain that there're a bunch of things that I should. Either way, hope people enjoy.
