RWBY: MRRN
VOLUME 6, CHAPTER 23: The Hurt and the Pain
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth.
"Blake?" Yang asked, knocking on the bathroom door. "Are you okay?" She couldn't hear anything from her teammate. She hadn't come down in a long while, so everyone was getting worried about Blake. At this point, Yang was considering breaking down the door, even if it meant angering Jaune's sister and her roommate.
Luckily, it was made unnecessary when Blake opened the door and looked at Yang, her eyes red and her cheeks stained with tears she had cried. She sniffled a few times before Yang wrapped her arms around her teammate and she returned the embrace.
"It's all my fault," she spoke. "If I hadn't let my obsession with Torchwick get the better of me, those people would still be alive."
"It falls on all of us, Blake," Yang responded. "None of us were ready that night."
"But I…I…" Blake came close to crying again, feeling the immense guilt weigh heavily on her.
"We all screwed up that night, Blake," Yang stated. "Like or not, we can't go back and undo what happened…and I really wish we could."
"Do we really deserve to be Huntresses?" the Cat asked the Dragon. "We only trusted ourselves to do what was right and look what happened." Footsteps were heard coming up the stairs, belonging to Ruby and Weiss, who looked just as worried as Yang.
"What happened that night is on all of us," Ruby assured. "We did only trust ourselves to do what was right and people paid the price for it." She walked up to her teammate and put her hand on her shoulder.
"But we have the chance to not only make up for what happened, but to learn so that we can prevent it from happening again. We fought at Beacon, we protected Haven, we protected people on the Argus Limited…we are learning from the bad choices we made and we will make amends for what happened. We do deserve to be Huntresses."
"Especially after everything we've been through," Weiss spoke. "Blake, we'll probably struggle with this for the rest of our lives, but we have to move forward. It's easier said than done, but for all of our sakes, we have to do it."
It was heartwarming for Blake to feel her teammates' support for her. They were right about the points they had brought up.
Their recklessness that cost nineteen people their lives would probably never be forgotten, but that doesn't mean they had no chance of redeeming their choices. They had every chance they could get to learn from their mistakes and prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
No matter how far, redemption was never out of reach for them; all it depended was on her being able to grab it. Blake wanted to be redeemed in the eyes of her teammates and friends, but the guilt that had arisen made it feel impossible at the moment. Luckily, her friends were there to remind her that it was possible.
"Blake?" Yang asked her teammate. "Why don't you come on down? They're serving sandwiches." Blake wiped the tears from her face and put on a small smile on her face.
"Yeah," she complied. "I'm starving."
"Let's hurry before Nora eats them all," Ruby suggested.
-0-
"Wow, very big place you have here," Math commented as he looked around the interior of the Nikos home. Suddenly, barking was heard from upstairs, belonging to a golden retriever that started racing down the stairs.
"Chrysos!" Pyrrha called out. "Stay!" When the dog got to the bottom of the stairs, he stopped and looked at Pyrrha, his tail wagging excitedly.
"He doesn't look ferocious," Math joked.
"Well, he's ferociously loving," Thetis spoke as she walked from the kitchen and towards the autistic swordsman. "You must be Mathdon. Pyrrha's told me about you."
"I am," Math replied as he extended his hand to shake Thetis's. "Nice to meet Mrs. Nikos."
"You as well," Thetis responded. "So, is this everyone staying here?"
"Yes," Pyrrha replied with a smile before reaching over and holding Math's hand.
"Thank you for your hospitality," Forest told Thetis with gratitude. "If there's anything we can do for you, just let us know."
"I appreciate that," Thetis responded. The door opened and Glaucus walked inside the house.
"Glaucus," Math addressed. "Glad to see you."
"You as well," the Gray Wanderer responded.
"How'd it go with David?" Robin asked the veteran Huntsman. "Will he help us?"
"He'll contact General Ironwood and hopefully gain his approval to let us enter Atlas. At this point, the odds of us going there are very high."
"Especially since we helped detain the riot," Robin brought up with a smirk. However, it quickly died when he remembered one detail: Math and Saf's father, Donovan, was in that riot, causing trouble and getting arrested as a result.
That same thought occupied Pyrrha's mind as well. She remembered his disregard for his children, his unwillingness to take responsibility, his selfish blaming of everyone but himself…it sickened her to see such a person. She had to tell Math and Saf about what happened before they arrived.
"Well, I can go prepare some food for you if you'd like," Thetis offered.
"That sounds great," Forest accepted. "If you need any of us to help you, then just let us know."
"I appreciate that, but it's okay," Thetis responded. "Please, make yourselves at home." As Thetis walked back into the kitchen, Pyrrha walked over to Math and Saf. They could instantly tell that she needed to tell them something.
"What is it?" Saf asked Math's beloved.
"I need to talk with you two about something," she responded. "Can we head outside?" Math and Saf followed the redhead to the front door and out to the sidewalk away from the big group.
"Math, Saf…do you remember what I told you on the Argus Limited?" Pyrrha brought up. "About your father?"
"Donovan?" Math asked. "What about him? You saw him?"
"He was in the riot earlier," Pyrrha informed them, much to their shock. "He was arrested and sent to the Argus jail."
"He…was in the riot?" Saf asked Pyrrha. "Was he…was he any different?"
"No," Pyrrha informed regretfully. "Donovan deflected the blame onto you and your family for everything. He hasn't changed at all."
Math and Saf were silent after hearing what the angelic Amazon had just told them. Even after so many years, Donovan had not changed, had not bothered to see the error of his ways nor the damage he had inflicted onto his son and daughter. He still possessed the mindset where he was the victim and his family were the perpetrators.
Math's face became uncertain, but Saf's became filled with anger and resentment. It pained her terribly to hear that her father was still the same, that he wouldn't own up to his actions.
"You missed it!" a younger Safirlas told her father after he walked in the door.
"What are you talking about?" Donovan asked.
"My volleyball game," Saf told her father. "You said you'd come."
"I was at work," Donovan responded. "I'm so sorry. Now will you quit bugging me?"
"You were at work?" Corcra challenged, having heard the conversation from the hallway and gestured for Safirlas to go back to her room. Donovan looked over to his wife and frowned.
"Yes, I was at work," he claimed. "What, you calling me a liar?"
"I called your workplace earlier to remind you of Saf's game," Corcra explained. "You know what they told me? You had left already and went to hang out with your coworkers at the Crow Bar."
"That's not true," Donovan dismissed. "I was at work. I didn't have time to come to the game."
"No, you just chose not to come," Corcra refused to believe. "I called the Crow Bar and you know what the bartender said? You were there. One of your coworkers brought up the game and you didn't care. How can you do that to your own daughter?"
"I was at work," Donovan lied once more, his tone becoming harsh. "I don't know why they told you that, but I was working."
"Will you just stop lying already!?" Corcra barked. "You were at a bar and you purposely missed your daughter's game. How can you be so selfish?"
"Shut the hell up! I was at work! You're the one making up these stories."
"Making up…?" Corcra gasped. "How dare you! You're lying!"
"You know what? No, I'm not. I was at work and I didn't have time for the game. Now get off my back. I'm tired." He started walking towards the bedroom, noticing Saf's heartbroken scowl as she looked from her room.
"Your mom's crazy. You know that, right?"
"That bastard!" Saf shouted, her fists clenched in anger. "Why is he so incapable of owning up to his choices? Why does he act like he gets to lie and manipulate others? That miserable, selfish, worthless piece of shit!"
Math and Pyrrha were taken back by Saf's outburst, but probably wasn't surprising considering the anger the Kendricks held towards Donovan. The door flung open and Ruo hurried outside.
"What's wrong?" he asked. "We heard shouting."
"It…it's…" Saf tried to say, but fell flat. Forest walked outside and immediately saw the anguished look on Safirlas's face, prompting him to put his hand on her shoulder, but she pulled away.
"Forest…Donovan's here in Argus," Math told his mentor. This immediately earned a surprised look from Forest, his eyes widened and his mouth slightly open.
"He's here?" he asked.
"He was part of the riot," Pyrrha informed. "He's in Argus jail right now."
"We were…planning to confront him, but…" Saf again fell flat, unable to hide her anger towards Donovan.
"Well, if you do plan on confronting him, then I'd like to talk with you two about something," Forest replied. "But we'll save that for later. We have news to tell our group."
"I'll call Jaune, ask him to bring everyone back," Pyrrha offered as she pulled out her scroll.
-0-
"Thanks," Blake told Saphron as she and everyone else ate the sandwiches that had been made. "We really appreciate you letting us stay here."
"And making us some food," Ruby replied. "So, Terra, if you don't mind me asking, what do you do here in the city?"
"I'm a technician," Terra replied as she sat on the couch with Adrian on her lap. "You see, I help the Atlas military with working on their technology, mostly communications on the CCT Tower."
"There's a CCT Tower here in Argus?" Ren asked. "I thought they were only made in the Academies."
"Well, this is a minor CCT Tower," Terra explained. "We made these towers in case of emergencies such as the Fall of Beacon. If one of the towers is destroyed or inactive, then these minor towers act as a…well, I guess the word would be 'replacement' in a way."
"Replacement?" Yang asked.
"Yes. It doesn't restore communications with Vale, but it does allow Atlas, Mistral and Vacuo to keep communicating. We had one made for Vale, but it was also destroyed during the Fall of Beacon. I was hoping that we'd have a chance to rebuild it somehow, but with General Ironwood recalling all personnel back to Atlas, it won't be happening anytime soon, I'm afraid."
"Well, that stinks," Nora groaned. "Is he really just turning his back on all of Remnant?"
"I don't want to think that," Terra replied before her scroll went off again, much to her frustration.
"Come on," she groaned. "What else do they need?" She picked up Adrian and handed her gently to Saphron, who took him in her arms.
"Hey, Auntie Saph's here," Jaune's sister cooed, much to Adrian's delight. Just then, Jaune's own scroll went off as he received a call. He opened it to see 'Pyrrha Nikos' and answered it.
"Hey, Pyrrha," he greeted. "Yeah? Oh, we'll be there in a bit."
"What is it?" Nora asked her team leader.
"Pyrrha called. She said Forest has to something to tell us." Team RWBY looked over at each other nervously, already knowing what the eagle had to say to everyone.
-0-
"Dammit!" Jaune barked as he punched a dent in the wall of the Nikos home.
"I hope you have money to pay for that damage," Nasser snarked, immediately gaining him a death glare from the Arc.
"How can you joke like this!?" Pyrrha barked, her face in her hands as her eyes were stained red with tears as Math sat next to her in an attempt to comfort her. "Everything we did…everything we set to achieve, everything we believed in, everything we fought for was for nothing! For absolutely NOTHING!"
"That's not true, Pyrrha," Blake claimed.
"It is true," Robin argued. "Don't sugarcoat it. Ozpin never stopped lying to us and possibly NEVER would."
"He had a plan," Ruby brought up. "The Silver Eyes-"
"None of us know what'll happen to her," Nora responded. "For all we know, it could do nothing."
"And that's what I mean!" Pyrrha barked, rising from her seat. "This plan is all about variables. It may work against Grimm, but we have no idea what'd it do against Salem. So if that plan fails, that means Salem cannot be killed at all. If she cannot be killed, then how do we stop her? How do we win this war?"
The room became silent. No one had an answer for the Amazon, whose views on everything had been shattered by this horrible revelation. Ozpin and Salem's origins, the true stakes at hand, Ozpin's very flimsy plan…she felt that everything she wanted to achieve, everything she had become was ultimately a lie.
"Pyrrha?" Math asked, putting his hand on her shoulder, but she smacked it away in anger.
"It was all a lie!" she cried out. "The Academies, the Huntsmen and Huntresses, the fighting we endured, the lives that were lost…it was all a lie! I nearly died for a lie!"
"Pyrrha, please," Math tried to calm her. "We can still win this." Pyrrha looked at Math for a few moments before her eyes narrowed and her scowl became a frown.
"Don't you get it, Math? We WERE nothing but pawns for Ozpin to sacrifice as he saw fit! He would've never stopped lying to us!"
"Then that makes two of you…Yang," Nora told the sun dragon. Yang looked over at the hammer user, her eyes filled with confusion.
"What are you-?"
"Raven," Jaune interrupted. "For all your aggressiveness of no more secrets and half truths, you had no problem doing it yourself!"
"Doing it herself?" Safirlas questioned. "What are you talking about? What did she not-?"
"Oh, she must've not said," Jaune interrupted. "Vernal wasn't the Spring Maiden, Raven was!"
Again, the room became silent. Yang's eyes widened in shock at what the Arc just said. They had learned that she had kept Raven a secret from them, especially after everything that happened.
"How…how did you…?"
"I told them," Pyrrha informed Yang. "I'm sorry, but we were wrong to keep this a secret from them, Yang."
"And making Pyrrha and Luna keep it a secret as well just to protect that bitch," Jaune snarled. "When you were planning on telling us? Or would you have kept going on about 'no more omitting important information' and acting like a hypocrite?"
"You had two weeks to tell us," Nora pointed out. "Two weeks! What gives you the right to get on people for keeping information and then doing it yourself?"
"I was going to tell you," Yang claimed. "I…I needed to know if Ozpin could be trusted before I said anything."
"Why would you want to protect her?" Nasser questioned angrily. "Are you forgetting that she abandoned you? That she never visited you, even after you lost your arm?"
"I don't need to be reminded of what she did!" Yang barked, her eyes turning red. "I know enough of what she did."
"And yet you still protected her," Robin pointed out. "You still kept her a secret from everyone…no one else knew."
"I did," Ruo spoke up, making him the center of attention. "The night after Haven was attacked, she…she told me."
"You knew?" Math questioned. "You knew and you never said anything?"
"It wasn't for me to say," the White Tiger claimed. "She was going to tell you-"
"All the while preaching about 'no more lies or half-truths'," Robin mocked. "Geez, Yang; you just think you're so virtuous, don't you?"
"I was going to tell you!" Yang claimed once more, rising to her feet. "I told you-"
"No, Yang," Ruby interrupted, glaring at her sister. "You have no right to be so aggressive about information being shared and then keeping it yourself, especially about Raven."
"Wait a minute," Math interrupted. "What happened to the last Spring Maiden? She ran away, didn't she?"
"Raven killed her," Nora answered. "She found her after she ran away from Haven and put her through hell. When she decided she wasn't 'worthy', she killed her and took her powers for herself."
"What?" Math gasped before looking over at Yang. "Is this true? Did Raven murder the last Spring Maiden?" Yang sighed heavily before looking down as his eyes changed back to their natural lilac color.
"It's true," Yang answered. "She admitted it herself."
"So she murdered the last Spring Maiden and you kept that from us!?" Jaune barked. "How can you honestly be so self-righteous, to protect that murderer?"
"You wouldn't understand," Yang claimed.
"Understand what?" Robin questioned. "That you've inherited your mother's gift for hypocrisy?" Yang glared over at Robin, his teeth bared and her fists clenched.
"Open your eyes, Yang!" Math told her. "She doesn't love you! She never has and she never will because she's too selfish to think of anyone but herself! If you think any differently, then you're just a big fool!"
"Don't yell at me!" Yang angrily responded. "You don't know what she did or-"
"Cut the crap!" Math interrupted. "I know what it's like to have a parent who's supposed to love you, but doesn't because they value themselves over everyone else! Raven is no different, especially if she was willing to murder a young woman to steal her power!"
"Alright, that's enough!" Glaucus demanded, stepping between everyone. "We have more important issues to worry about. What Yang and Ozpin did were wrong, but that's not our focus right now."
"Yeah, our focus should be on how to defeat Salem," Nasser responded. "Oh, wait…there is no way to defeat Salem."
"Then what are we doing here?" Robin questioned. "We all came here to stop that monster, to prevent the other Kingdoms from suffering as Vale did. We came here to avenge those we lost. So if we can't do that, if we can't stop Salem, then what are we doing here?"
"We can't just give up," Oscar insisted. "We have to try. If we don't stand against Salem, who will?"
"Would we be standing against her?" Pyrrha asked. "Or just delaying the inevitable? How can we stop these tragedies from happening if we have no idea how to defeat her? Everything we did…" Pyrrha's eyes watered again, her feelings of defeat and betrayal becoming too great. Math reached over to comfort her, but she hurried out of his reach and ran to the back yard, shutting the door behind her. The autistic swordsman paused for a few moments before walking after his beloved.
"So, anything else, Yang?" Robin asked rather hostilely. "Or are you just going to-"
"Will you stop?" Yang angrily demanded. "I was going to tell you! Don't act like I was never going to say anything!"
"Did you really not tell us about Raven because you didn't trust Ozpin?" Nora questioned. "Or were you just using that as an excuse? Why would you want to keep Raven a secret from us, your own friends?"
"Everyone, please," Ruo spoke. "I don't condone what Yang did, but she was going to tell you."
"Yet you didn't say anything either," Robin pointed out. "What point is there in keeping this from us? I understand not trusting Ozpin, considering what happened, but us?" Yang shook her head in a mix of frustration, regret and anger.
"None of you understand. I…"
"You can't even justify it," Nasser pointed out Yang's weak attempts to justify her keeping Raven a secret from everyone. "Then again, why would you do what Raven did and justify your selfish choices as she did?"
"It wasn't important!" Yang claimed. "Even if I said it, we have no idea where she is and she most likely won't help us."
"Then why bother with keeping her a secret from us?" Jaune questioned. "Who do you think you are, acting like you get to do whatever you want with no consequences?"
"I'll tell you why," Nasser spoke angrily. "Because Yang is just as selfish and hypocritical as Raven! Because she doesn't want to face the reality that no one could ever love someone like her!"
The room became silent again, taken back by the hurtful words Nasser just told Yang. The first sound to be heard was sniffling, coming from Yang as her head looked down and a few tears fell to the floor. Ruo slowly reached over to Yang, but she turned around and rushed out the door.
"Yang!" Ruby called out. Ruo and Ruby then looked over at Nasser, their eyes filled with immense anger towards the vulgar axe user.
"What she did was wrong," Ruo stated. "But that was out of line, even for you, Nasser."
The axe user's frown slowly turned into one of sympathy as he processed what he just said to the sun dragon Ruo fell in love with. He had just said that no one would ever love Yang and compared her to the woman who had caused her so much pain simply by not being in her life when she was needed.
It slowly set in that he had said words to hurt her as much as possible for her hypocritical decision and her attempts to justify it. What she did was wrong, but he had indeed gone too far and went to the most sore spot he could: Yang's loneliness.
"Oh, my Oum," Nasser groaned, realizing what he had just done. "No, no, no. Why did I…?"
SLAP! Nasser's face suddenly stung badly as he held his face. He looked over to see Ruby with an angered expression; she had slapped him for saying such unnecessarily harsh words to her sister.
"I'm going to go find her," Ruo told everyone as he took off, followed by Ruby.
"This…was much worse than we expected," Sterling pointed out.
"I still can't believe Raven murdered the previous Spring Maiden," Ruadh spoke. "I mean, I knew she had done some things, but…"
"But enough of that," Forest demanded. "I think we've argued enough. Now we need to focus on the task at hand."
"The lamp," Oscar spoke. "And getting it to Atlas."
"Did you know of this?" Jaune questioned, his voice low and menacing.
"What?" Oscar asked, unsure of what the Arc meant.
"Ozpin's in your head. He's a part of you. Did you know about all of this and not say anything?"
"No," Oscar claimed. "I didn't know. I mean it, I had nothing to do with-" His pleas fell on deaf ears as Jaune grabbed his suspenders tightly and pushed him against the wall.
"How much longer can we trust this fraud?"
"Jaune, stop!" Weiss demanded as she stood up and walked over to Jaune.
"What if we've been talking to that liar this whole time? What if he's-"
"Go to hell, Jaune!"
WHAM! Jaune felt a blunt force on his face. When he looked back, Oscar's hand was curled into a fist and his expression one filled of resentment and anger.
"Ever since I came here, all you've done is treat me like I'm not real, like I'm just some…just some thing to fool you all. I had nothing to do with what Ozpin did; I didn't know about the Relics or the Gods or Salem or the Silver Eyes or anything! I'm not a FRAUD! I am REAL! My name is Oscar Pine and I am real! I didn't ask for this and I don't deserve to be mistreated like this, so give me a break!"
Before anyone could speak to Oscar, the farm boy walked out of the house, slamming the door behind him in immense frustration, anger and fear…fear of losing his identity as just another of Ozpin's lives.
"This was not supposed to happen," Forest spoke.
This meeting had turned out much worse than he expected. The completely loss of morale among the group after the revelation of Ozpin's lies and secrets, the exposure of Yang keeping Raven a secret from everyone, Jaune's aggression towards Oscar, Pyrrha's shattered faith in everything she had believed in…the whole meeting had degenerated much worse than he could've expected.
"Perhaps…it'd be wise to wait until later to speak more of this," Glaucus insisted, to which Forest, Sterling and Ruadh agreed.
-0-
"Because she doesn't want to face the reality that no one could ever love someone like her!"
Those words had struck Yang right in her sorest area. She had been abandoned by her mother, lost another one, had to hold the family together after Tai shut down, had nearly lost her sister and love, had learned that all of her searching was ultimately for nothing…for Nasser to say that was the last straw in her already fractured heart.
She had planned on telling everyone, but Pyrrha had told her teammates before she could. While she understood why, it'd had terribly affected the way she hoped it would go. She knew they'd be upset at her for keeping this from everyone, but now, they viewed her as a self-righteous hypocrite…just like Raven.
"I…people do love me," Yang tried to tell herself as she hurried to the park, not caring where she was heading. "Ruby, Tai, Ruo, Summer…they love me, don't they?"
"Do they? How can anyone ever love such a short tempered, hypocritical, selfish brat like you? You're nothing like Summer Rose; you're just like that bitch, Raven. You are just like her."
That dark part of her mind filled her with reasons why people wouldn't love her. She knew that she was nowhere near a perfect person, but she didn't deserve to be tossed aside like a dog no one wanted anymore.
Yang stopped running, her speed reduced to a stroll as she walked down the cobblestone path in the park. She was barely picking up her feet as she struggled to even walk, her mind filled with questions about how others viewed her.
Was she just some hot tempered brat? Was she not worth loving? Was she someone easily forgotten?
Finally, her legs gave out as she sat on a bench and her eyes were watering heavily before her vulnerable emotions gave in.
"People…they love me, don't they?" she asked weakly through her tears. "They do, don't they?"
-0-
"I'm not a fraud," Oscar told himself as he walked down the sidewalk. "I'm real! I'm not Ozpin, I'm Oscar Pine. I…I'm not him! I'm not turning into him!"
He was just another life in a long and painful cycle of reincarnation for Ozma, the man entrusted to redeem humanity. Sadly, by ignoring he God of Light's warning, he had made Salem into his worst enemy, completely hellbent on making his mission impossible.
His only plan was using Silver Eyes against Salem, hoping it'd do something to stop her. Unfortunately, he wasn't entirely sure of what would happen, so the plan relied heavily on variables. If the plan didn't work, then how would they stop Salem once and for all? How would they redeem humanity? How would they win?
"I…I'm not him," Oscar spoke before fear and anger completely clouded his judgment.
"This is all your fault, Ozpin! We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't lied to us! If you had just listened, Salem wouldn't be trying to destroy humanity! You hear me! We're doomed and it's all your fault! Not our fault, YOURS!" Oscar's breathing became heavy as he sat against a tree.
"Not…our fault…I'm not him…"
Author's Notes: Well, that turned out worse than expected! I don't know if Yang told the group in canon about Raven, even offscreen. If she hasn't, then it just makes her a big hypocrite since she's so aggressive about important information being shared.
Ruby lied to Ironwood, yes, but to her credit, she planned on telling him. I think it would've 100% hypocritical if she never planned on telling him at all, but she did openly question her decision to lie to Ironwood and felt guilty for doing so.
Also, for those who didn't see, I went back and made Saphron and Terra roommates instead of a married couple. Adrian is Terra's son, but he considers Saph like an aunt.
I hope you keep enjoying the series. If you have any constructive criticism to share, then please message me or leave a review. Keep reading and writing!
