Chapter XXXII: Delusions of godhood.
[X] leave her be… for now, patience after all is a virtue.
-[X] greet the visiting students, let them know that they can come to you if need be, as the counsellor of course.
-[X] greet the visiting students, let them know that they can come to you if need be, as the counsellor of course.
Looking at the little mortal once again, you decide that she isn't that important, surely, waiting one week won't hurt.
Yes, you can return to more important things than this small bother, not worthy of your attention. She thinks she can see your true self just because she touched a bare shadow of it. In fact, you are going to pull her even more off track and act as she thinks your disguise in this world should, you approach her team with an empty smile, eliciting a polite one from her.
"Hello. I am Stella Panoply, the local counselor. Do not hesitate to come see me if you want, my door is always open." There, duty done.
"Thank you professor." The woman says, her smile as false as yours is in this moment. "We'll be sure to pass by." You can see she doesn't believe a single word she says and expect you to forget about her by the time you have passed the corner.
"Then goodbye, I have other duties to follow on." You cheerfully (urgh) finish.
With a wave from her team, you begin walking towards your room. While the woman is persuaded you will forget her, you aren't that far gone, you will keep her presence in mind, even if it is unimportant.
She is, after all, the only mortal giving you what you are due with her worship.
When you reach your room, your little bird begins to frown for some reasons.
"Princess? Are you alright? You seem… strange today." He asks in concern. Just seeing him is enough to melt you a little.
"Don't worry dear, just a little fatigue from seeing all those people and their perspectives, nothing much." You answer with a smile.
He scrutinizes you from head to toe, leaving you a little uncomfortable, you don't think there should be anything wrong with you currently.
In the recess of your mind, the Apotheosis binds her time.
"If you say so." Your love finally concludes. "By the way, I just received a message from Ozpin, the little reunion with the members of his secret society about Salem will happen in three days. Don't worry, he did include Piettro too."
"Three days? That's fast." You remark.
"Well, with all the foreign students moving in, the headmasters are coming for a visit too, and Ozpin used the occasion."
You nod.
"Guess we'll have to prepare a speech for it then." You joke. "Wouldn't do to improvise for what may well be one of the most important moments in the history of Remnant."
"Of course, of course." Your other half nods with a sage air. "It definitely would be improper to not have prepared anything special."
The both of you manage to maintain your completely serious air for only a minute, before you break and begin to laugh.
"Hahahaha, as if, they'll get whatever goes through my mind at the time and they'll love it. In fact, I am pretty sure I could begin talking gibberish and they wouldn't react instantly." You say, already imagining the shocked face of Ironwood and whoever the headmaster of Haven is. You know enough about the first to know that he will try to stay straight faced, but from what little Ozpin told you of the later, you think you may be able to have some fun at his expense.
You cannot wait. The future is bright, the unsolvable problem that has been crippling humanity's ability to change is going to be taken care of and you will be able to look at what they bring when not constantly being pushed back for every advance they try to do.
Now, if only you could get rid of the feeling you are forgetting something important….
Said three days pass in the blink of an eye, it seems Ozpin is anticipating the reunion too, as he seems happier than ever the few times you see him in the interim.
When the time comes to discuss the future plans to free Remnant from one of the two brothers mistakes, you use the fact you do not need to sleep to your advantage and come to Ozpin's office far in advance. Not soon enough to inconvenience him, but definitely early enough to be the firsts to arrive.
You install yourself and watch the wizard's most trusted entourage trickle in, first is Qrow, his hairs better styled than normal, then Ironwood, who note your presence with a grave nod and is accompanied by Winter Schnee, you can feel them beginning to think you may be the new fall maiden. No doubts they think they were called to discuss your new status, which isn't entirely false, they are here to talk about you and Sable, just not as a Maiden and her husband trusted in a new life, hiding their nature from Salem.
Not long after the two men have exchanged tense greetings, the elevator dings again to show Piettro Pollendina with a man you do not know, probably the headmaster of Haven, Leonardo Lionheart. The man is a lion faunus judging by his tail and seems extremely nervous for some reason. Finally, the last member of this very small circle, Glynda enters.
You feel for the impressions in the room. As expected, Qrow, Ozpin, Piettro and Glynda already know about you and thus have no changes, Ironwood, Winter and Leonardo think you are a new maiden, though something about Leonardo's reaction strikes you as strange, even if you cannot place the feeling.
Ozpin gets up from his very comfortable chair to mark the beginning of the meeting.
"Welcome dear friends. I know it has been a long time since so many of us have been able to be in the same place at once and I am thankful to both Ironwood and Leonardo to have taken some time from their undoubtedly very busy schedules. As you probably already inferred, we are greeting two new members to our very exclusive club. Miss Stella Panoply and Mister Sable Vault."
You both bow at his word, while the three that don't know more politely clap their hands.
"Now, a number of us already knew this development." Ozpin continues. "But there is another related matter that I want to discuss today." His face takes a grave air. "All of you here know about Salem, the queen of the Grimm, moving them from the shadows to destroy the world and humanity." He takes a long breath, hold it, then slowly release it. "I… have a confession to make about her."
Ironwood immediately raises an eyebrow, while Leonardo looks incredulously. Glynda is looking at you with a knowing air and Qrow proceed to do the same after seeing this.
"While most of what I said about her is true, I have, deliberately, hidden a number of things from all of you."
"What in the hell are you talking about, Ozpin? What could be worse than the fact that the Grimm are not mindless, that there is someone at their helm?" Leonardo exclaims. Strangely enough, the accusation sounds a little false to your ears, the man did think there was worse. How?
"Calm down. I am sure Oz has an explanation. Don't you?" Ironwood calmly interjects.
"I do, I do not think it is enough of a reason, but I would like you to listen to all I have to say before judging me…. Salem." He chokes for a moment. "Salem was my wife, a very long time ago. She is also related to the Maidens in that she is the mother of the original souls that are the center of their power." He looks at you and seems to take strength in the fact that you represent the potential end to his personal nightmare. "If it was only this, I wouldn't ask for forgiveness as much, but… I lied to you about beating her. For centuries, I have tried, you know this much, what I hid was that I have received several oracles from the relic of knowledge, all of them indicating that even the two brothers would probably not be able to kill her now, or at least wouldn't want to. I lied about the fact that the relic would allow only to destroy the world if all reunited, they technically would only call the gods, but if the world isn't completely united, they will be the ones destroying it. I know them enough to know that they would consider Salem being opposed to them as proof that humanity should be cleansed. Salem wouldn't be the one to destroy the world if the relics are gathered, the gods would."
"So there really is no chance then? We are all condemned to die in this world, knowing that the future can only get worse and everything we strived for will disappear when she finally wins?" Leonardo begins to panic.
Winter is looking at Ironwood with what seems like desperation, the man himself having stopped moving since the beginning of Ozpin's confession. If it wasn't for his breathing, you would swear the man is a statue.
Before the slowly deteriorating Leonardo can get too agitated, or Ironwood finish his thoughts and act, a voice cuts through the silence.
"Except something new has entered the scene, right?" Qrow semi calmly declare, taking a swig from his ever-present gourd. "Some of us already have an idea what even, but I think you should tell to the rest of the class."
Taking this as your cue, you step so that everyone can see you and let out your hands, permeating the room with your heavy presence and making your true Nature quite clear. You begin to open your mouth to explain more when the feeling of wrongness coming from Lionheart finally crystallize.
The man is now looking at you as a savior that can really beat Salem, someone that can erase his sins and maybe, maybe, make it so that he can stay alive after what he did.
This is already a bad perspective, but this isn't the worst part. No, the worst part is that you can feel another perspective coming from his position, someone that clearly cannot see you or feel your presence, given that they think of you as the latest fool that Ozpin is going to use in a desperate attempt to stop Salem once and for all.
There is someone listening on this, suddenly, you realize what you had forgotten to think about when it come to the woman that you ignored, the one that works for Salem:
If she is in a Haven uniform, that means that she has somehow been admitted to the school, but she cannot be a student. Not only is she is too old, she was not at Haven academy during the last year, or she couldn't have done all she did, couldn't have stolen the power of the fall maiden and been in Vale when you found her. Not for the long period of time that this would require.
The incredible fear of death that you can feel through Lionheart's perspective, the fact that the main thing he sees in you is a way to survive… the man's compromised, probably a traitor in some ways.
This is bad.
You feel a feeling form in your chest, it asks you to:
[] Go recover the woman that worships you, she will not stay in reach once this is known.
-[] Do it as the Beast, this form can allow you to store her, and it will even make it seems as if she died, but it is not certain to work.
-[] Do it as your true self, well, part of it, change into a tide of hands and capture her like that. People will see.
[] Protect Penny, you have to make sure nothing happens to her and her friends.
[] Inform Ozpin of what you just found out, let Lionheart pay for his crimes. You just hope the enemy won't react too fast.
-[] Then do one the previous vote options (which one?)
[] Take Lionheart out right now, you'll explain after.
-[] Then do one the previous vote options (which one?)
[] Write-in.
A/N:
As I said when closing the vote, you just let a spy work unattended without thinking about the implications of how she could have gotten here. For once, RWBY did either do proper foreshadowing or used past things correctly and had the headmaster of the school that Cinder used to infiltrate turn out to be a traitor.
I didn't talk much about Lionheart until now because I knew you knew about Cinder, and thus reasoned that you would have told Ozpin about the fact Haven is compromised before you got to meet the traitor.
And yes, I did paint the decision to do nothing as Apotheosis getting through and making you dismissive, only way I could justify it as in character in my mind.
