RWBY: MRRN
Volume 6, Chapter 24: Defeated
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth
All Pyrrha could do was sit in the chair on the porch overlooking her back yard. She didn't want to believe what she heard from Forest just now, but she also felt guilty for everyone becoming so hostile towards Yang after her teammates exposed her for keeping Raven a secret from everyone.
Yang had intended to tell everyone, but she wanted to wait until she knew Ozpin could be trusted considering what he had done to shatter everyone's trust in him. For over two weeks, Yang kept this information from everyone, causing Pyrrha to possibly doubt that she'd tell them. Feeling guilty for keeping information from her friends and teammates, she told her team on the Argus Limited.
She hadn't expected that Jaune and Nora would act so hostile towards Yang as they ripped into her and called her out for her hypocritical decision to keep information from everyone when she had been so aggressive about important info being shared. From what she knew before she left the living room, they were disgusted by what she did.
To her credit, Yang had some points: if the group found out, odds are Ozpin would find out too and there's no telling what he would've done with that information. Even if she had told everyone about Raven, it wouldn't have done any good: they had no idea where she was and even if they did find her, she most likely wouldn't help them.
But it was still unfair and hypocritical of what Yang did, especially to those who had trusted her greatly and dearly as a friend and comrade. Why did she truly want to keep Raven a secret from the group? Was it truly because she didn't trust Ozpin or was it because of something else?
Before that, Forest had told the group everything: the origins of humanity, Ozpin's cycle of reincarnation, the true price of failing to defeat Salem, and Ozpin's plan to defeat her.
In her eyes, everything she set out to achieve was ultimately for nothing. Ever since she was a child, she wanted to become a Huntress, a defender of those who couldn't protect themselves, who couldn't fight their own battles. Her father had always instilled in her a strong sense of faith, morality, honor and kindness, something she had always carried with her before his death.
"Pyrrha?" Math asked, opening the door. Pyrrha slowly looked back at him, her eyes red and her cheeks stained with tears. Math wanted to walk over and sit next to her, but he felt right now he should keep his distance.
"It was all a lie," she spoke. "Everything about the Huntsmen and Huntresses was a lie."
"That's not true," Math adamantly responded. "I know it's a lot to take in, but this isn't over."
"Don't you understand?" Pyrrha questioned. "Every single student who graduated from the Academies was nothing more than pawns for Ozpin's war, just like us. He was willing to sacrifice me for a war he wouldn't even tell me about. If I had accepted the Fall Maiden's powers…"
Suddenly, her eyes started to widen in horror as she pictured a faint light glowing around her body. It was the same color from the machine that was supposed to transfer the Maiden powers to her.
She remembered the pain, almost as if every bone in her body was being crushed and broken. She remembered her screams of pain as Ozpin forced her to endure the experiment that could've cost Pyrrha her life.
"Pyrrha?" Math addressed, seeing his beloved shake terribly. She was about to burst into tears, prompting the swordsman to rush over and hold her in his arms. He held her tightly as she cried from the remembrance of the painful memories from the Fall of Beacon. When she was done, she slowly pulled her head away from Math's shoulder.
"All my life, I wanted to be a Huntress, just as my father was a Huntsman," Pyrrha explained, her expression filled with defeat, confusion and anger. "He always told me of what a Huntsman should: strong, courageous, caring and selfless. I took those words to heart, always putting the needs of others before myself." Math knelt down as he looked at Pyrrha, gently holding her hand in his.
"After he died, I held onto his words as I trained and fought. I didn't want to be a Huntress who fought for glory and fame, I wanted to become one because I wanted to do what was right, to do what made my father proud. And now…" She closed her eyes, her breathing reduced to sniffling.
"Now it seems that everything he taught me was for nothing. Huntsmen and Huntresses weren't protectors like I thought they were, they were just soldiers in Ozpin's war, a war he can't win."
"We can win," Math insisted. "We can find a way to stop Salem. We have to."
"And what if we can't?" Pyrrha questioned. "We don't know what the Silver Eyes would do to Salem. Perhaps they could work and we win, but they could also not do anything. It depends heavily on a power Ozpin doesn't understand. If that plan fails, then how do we beat Salem? How can we save Remnant if we cannot stop her?" She pulled her hand away from Math and looked to the yard, feeling the afternoon breeze.
"Everything I wanted to do was for nothing."
"Don't talk like that, Pyrrha," Math replied, standing onto his feet. "You're not thinking straight right now. You're…"
"I'm what?" Pyrrha questioned. "I wanted to be a protector of the people, not some soldier in a war against an enemy we don't know how to defeat. That's all the Huntsmen and Huntresses were, including…including my father."
"You know that's not true, Pyrrha," Math insisted. "We don't let others decide who we are, we decide for ourselves. We choose to be the Huntsmen we want to be."
"But in the end, we're all just expendable soldiers," Pyrrha countered, completely devoid of her faith and optimism.
Her views, her goals, her beliefs…all of them were now deeply shattered by this revelation. In her eyes, she had been training not to become a protector of the people, but just a weapon for Ozpin's use, one that he had tried to turn into a Maiden. There was no happiness, no cheer, nothing in her heart, other than emptiness, confusion and pain.
"I wish Ozpin had never come back," Pyrrha spoke. "I wish he had never come back to Remnant. He's doomed us all and he knew it."
"We're not doomed," Math responded sternly. "What's wrong with you?"
"What's wrong with me?" Pyrrha barked, standing to her feet. "I just learned that everything I believed in, everything I wanted to be, everything my father taught me was for a lie. Everything we did was for a lie: the lie that we were protectors when we were actually just pieces on a chessboard for Ozpin to manipulate. Everything…" She shook her head, her eyes closed and her mind filled with so many emotions and thoughts.
"Pyrrha-"
"Stop it!" Pyrrha demanded. "We cannot win if we don't have a solid way to defeat Salem! Just leave me alone!"
"Pyrrha-"
"Go!" Math was shocked by how his beloved was acting; she was completely devoid of any of her usual personality. Instead, she was confused, angry, upset, frustrated…she didn't know what to believe in anymore since she believed everything she was raised upon was nothing more than a lie Ozpin used to make people become Huntsmen and Huntresses.
Realizing that there was no way to cheer Pyrrha up right now, he walked back into the house and closed the door behind him, immediately being greeted by Chrysos sitting down.
"Hey," he greeted before slowly kneeling and extending his hand so Chrysos could sniff it. He licked it a few times before starting to lick his face. Math chuckled a bit as he petted the Golden Retriever. When he looked past Math to see Pyrrha through the glass door, his excited face was immediately replaced with a more solemn look.
"I wish I knew how to help her," Math told the dog, looking back at her as well.
"Hello," Thetis greeted, placing a tray of snacks on the table. "Is everything alright? I heard arguing." Math sighed as he stood back onto his feet.
"Something happened in the group," he answered. "I can't say, but…right now, we're not on good terms with everyone."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Thetis replied. When she noticed Pyrrha outside, catching the grief stricken look on her daughter's face, Thetis excused herself and walked outside.
"I'm sorry, Pyrrha," Math apologized, unable to help her.
-0-
"I can't believe Yang…" Blake spoke as she and Weiss stood in one of the guest bedrooms with two bunks. "Did she really keep Raven a secret from us this entire time?"
"It would appear that way," Weiss spoke, her tone solemn and sad. "I can understand her not trusting Ozpin, but it wasn't fair to the rest of us. We're her friends, her teammates…why would she want to keep Raven a secret from us?"
"I wish I knew," Blake replied. "But Nass…he didn't have to say that to her. That was out of line, even for him: would it kill him not to be such a jerk?"
"As out of line as he was, Yang made a wrong choice," Weiss explained. "She has no right to demand information be shared and then keep it herself, especially from us."
"But she had some points," Blake admitted. "Even if we did find Raven, would she help us? I mean, does she really deserve to be treated like that? It's almost as if we thought she was Raven herself."
"Blake, she knew what she was doing," Weiss claimed. "She knew that what she did could damage others' trust in her and she did it anyway. There are consequences to these kinds of actions, Blake, and we're no exception."
"That's not what I'm saying," the Cat denied. "We all kept secrets, didn't we? Yet I wasn't compared to the White Fang or Ruo compared to his mother. Why are we doing that to Yang, acting as if she was Raven herself?"
"Because she did something she hated Raven and Ozpin for doing: keeping important information from everyone, including us, who trusted her. Yes, some of us kept secrets, but we came clean and did what we needed to earn forgiveness."
"I trust Yang was going to tell us eventually. I don't know when, but I don't believe she'd keep us in the dark forever." Weiss sighed and walked over to the door of the bedroom.
"Maybe or maybe not," she acknowledged. "Either way, what she did was unfair and hypocritical."
"So was what I did," Blake claimed. "I was a hypocrite too. I didn't stand for the beliefs I preached: Faunus equality, acceptance, stopping the White Fang's violence. What I did was unfair and hypocritical too; if you can give me a second chance, why can't you do the same for her?"
"Because you got your head on straight and came back to make up for what you did," Weiss answered. "I don't want to be cynical about Yang, but I believe that if Pyrrha and Luna hadn't known, she may never had told us about Raven. I believe that she's using her distrust for Ozpin as an excuse."
"You are being cynical of her, Weiss," Blake pointed out.
"Well, I never thought Yang would outright lie to us, after everything we've been through together. I never thought she'd choose to protect that monster over us." Weiss then walked out of the room, leaving Blake by herself as she thought about Yang's choices.
-0-
"Yang!" Ruo called out as he and Ruby walked down the street, looking for the yellow dragon. "Yang!"
"Yang!" Ruby called out as well, but heard no response. Ruby groaned in frustration.
"What was Nasser thinking? That idiot! I know what Yang did was wrong, but he didn't need to say that!"
They continued walking down the street, searching for Yang, but saw no sign of her.
"I hope she's okay," Ruo spoke, his voice full of concern for his beloved.
"I just don't get it," Ruby spoke, confused. "Why would she keep this from us? I mean…from Ozpin, fine, considering what he's done in the past, but from us?" Ruo sighed as he messed with his black and white hair.
"Ruby…when she told me about Raven, she just completely broke down. I…I'd never seen her so low before, not even after she lost her arm. I don't condone that she lied, but there is more to this than her distrust for Ozpin."
"What more could there be?" Ruby questioned. "She wasn't being careful or pragmatic or anything like that. She lied to us to protect the same woman who…" Ruby felt around her torso…specifically, the area where she had been speared by Cinder's javelin.
"Why would she want to protect her?"
"It's not a case of protecting Raven, but forgetting her," Ruo claimed.
"What do you mean?" the reaper Huntress asked.
"What I mean is that Yang spent years trying to find Raven. She wanted answers, to know why she abandoned the family. After what happened at Haven…Yang feels that everything she did was for nothing, that all those years she spent searching were in vain. From where I stand, Yang just probably wanted to forget about the pain she felt…but she was going to tell you."
Ruby couldn't believe how slow she was to trust Ruo's claims. She dearly loved her sister and always would, but she hated that she had kept Raven from them, the same woman who had caused her nothing but pain simply by not loving her. However, despite her being angered by Yang's hypocrisy, she couldn't find it in herself to stay mad.
"Excuse me," Ruo asked a pedestrian. "We're looking for a young woman. Blonde hair, lilac eyes, have you seen her?"
"Yeah," the pedestrian confirmed. "I saw her go to the park."
"Thank you," Ruo replied. He and Ruby hurried off to the park and looked around for Yang, finding her sitting on a bench.
"Yang," Ruo addressed, rushing up to her, quickly followed by Ruby.
"Just go away," she spoke, her voice shaky and her cheeks stained with tears. "I'm not worth it."
"What?" Ruby gasped. "Yang, you know how Nasser is. He can be so mean sometimes."
"But he was right," the sun dragon responded. "How can…how can anyone love someone like me?"
"Yang," Ruo sternly addressed, taking her hand in his. "There are plenty of people who love you. We don't condone what you did about Raven, but we never stopped loving you and we never will."
"Why?" she responded, not looking at either her sister or her beloved.
"Why?" Ruby repeated, aghast at her sister's current mood. "You're my sister, Yang. You carried so much by yourself after we lost Mom. You…you did so much for Dad, for me, for those you love. How can you honestly think that no one would ever love you?"
"Because the woman I was supposed to call mom abandoned me," Yang responded. "Tai shut down after we lost Mom, leaving everything to me. I…" She sniffled again.
"Stop," Ruo sternly demanded. He reached over to Yang's face and used his thumb to wipe away the tears on her cheek before gently turning her face to look at him and Ruby.
"We love you, Yang. Ruby loves you as a sister. I love you as my beloved. Tai loves you as a daughter. Summer loved you as her own child. People do love you, Yang; if Raven is willing to abandon you twice, then she's missing the opportunity to see the young woman you've become." Without warning, Ruby wrapped her arms around her older sister, who seemed confused by this gesture.
"Yang, you're my sister and I will always love you. Yes, I don't like what you did about Raven, but that doesn't mean I'll stop considering you family."
Ruby waited for Yang to return the embrace, fearing it could possibly be a repeat of when she lost her arm. Instead, Yang wrapped her arms around her sister and held her tightly.
She needed to hear that. She needed to hear that she was loved by those she cared about, even though they didn't approve of her decision about Raven. Her heart had already become so vulnerable after what happened at Haven, but with Nasser's words, it was dangerously close to breaking completely.
"Yang…let's go back," Ruby insisted. "To Saphron and Terra's, I mean."
"Yeah," she weakly responded before looking over at Ruo, silently asking him to come with her. He didn't need to reply; he took Yang's hand in his own and helped her off the bench. As they started walking, Yang put her head on Ruo's shoulder and gripped his hand tightly.
"Ruo," Ruby told the White Tiger. "She really needs you." He nodded his head in acknowledgment, seeing the immense pain Yang was in, how close her fractured heart was to breaking.
-0-
"Why?" Oscar questioned as he still sat underneath the tree. "Why did this happen to me? Why…?"
"Hello, Oscar," a voice greeted, belonging to Grayson. "Mind if I sit?"
"Go ahead," the farm boy replied, prompting the archer to sit next to him.
"What exactly happened? Why are they so hostile towards you?" Oscar sighed and explained everything to Grayson, all the way from Ozpin's awakening in his mind to the train crash where everything had been revealed to them. By the time Oscar was done, Grayson had a very shocked expression on his face.
"Wow," he gasped. "So…some of them believe you're just a puppet of Ozpin?"
"Yes," Oscar responded. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't ask to be part of some reincarnation. I mean…I wanted to be more than a farmhand, but not like this. They're treating me as if I knew everything and chose not to tell them."
"Because of Ozpin's tendency to keep secrets?" Grayson asked. Oscar shook his head in frustration, remembering back to how Jaune had suddenly become very hostile towards him.
"I never asked for this, yet they're judging me for it. I had no control over being a part of Ozpin's reincarnation. I didn't ask to be another one of his lives. It just happened and yet some of them act like I chose this."
"Many of us have to live with things we didn't choose," Grayson responded. "Such as my Silver Eyes." Oscar looked over at Grayson, his eyes the same color as Ruby's.
"Salem had my family killed because of the Silver Eyes. I had to live my life on the run ever since they did, even when my grandmother was training me. I would rather have lived a life without them, without having to wear a mask because there's an enemy out there who wants me dead just for having them." The archer felt around his face, almost as if he was naked without the mask he wore.
"I had no control over these eyes, over having them. Every day, I wished I didn't have them. I wished that I didn't have to live my life on the run or watch my family die simply because of these." He sighed heavily, one of his darkest memories coming to surface.
"One night, about a year ago when I was around 16, I went into a tavern and got drunk. I just wanted to forget everything, everything that I had lost. I was down, I took a knife and…I considered cutting out my own eyes."
"What?" Oscar gasped in horror. "You were actually going to do that?"
"I considered it," Grayson responded with regret in his tone. "All I could think of was how these eyes brought me nothing but suffering and pain. If a patron hadn't saw me and wrenched the knife from my hand, I probably would've done it. Now…it shakes me to know that I was willing to do it, that I was willing to maim myself just so I could be free." Graysn stood up and looked at Oscar.
"Many of us live with things we didn't ask for. The question is, will we let them hold us back? Or will we find a way to deal with it and move forward? I'm certain you can. Come back to the house when you're ready; we'll sleep on what we know and decide tomorrow."
As Grayson walked away, Oscar contemplated his words to him. Like Oscar, Grayson had lived with something that he had no control over, leading to his family being killed and being forced to live on the run because of Salem. He understood more than most about how it was to live with something one had no control over.
Oscar was afraid, afraid of losing his identity to Ozpin as most incarnations probably had. He had been subjected to bear the brunt of anger from the group for Ozpin's choices, especially from Jaune and Math due to him forcing the Maiden powers onto Pyrrha Nikos.
Could he find a way to remain himself, despite the possible danger of losing his identity? Could he find a way to move forward, despite living with something he had no control over as many others had?
-0-
"Hey, barkeep," Qrow groaned. "Another round."
"You're drunk," the bartender responded. "I think you've had enough."
"He has," Luna spoke as she entered the bar. Qrow sloppily turned around and looked at the Wolf Faunus.
"What do you want?" he slurred. "Can't you just go away?"
"No," the Crescentia refused before walking over to him and pulling him away from the bar. Qrow groaned and flung his arm around, pushing Luna away from him. The Wolf Faunus frowned, grabbed him by his arms and continued pulling him away from the bar.
"Why can't you just leave me alone!" Qrow barked, again freeing himself from Luna's grasp and stumbling down, falling onto the sidewalk. Luna sighed heavily as she helped the drunkard sit against the wall of the building; after doing so, she noticed that Qrow's eyes were starting to water.
"No one should want to be around me," he wept. "I bring nothing but pain and misery to everyone around me. Hell, I can't even be around my own family without doing something bad. Ruby and Yang, they shouldn't want to be anywhere near me."
"They choose to do so, even with your Semblance," Luna replied. "Because they love you. You're their family."
"They shouldn't want me as family," Qrow claimed. "Hell, even Ozpin would've had nothing to do with if I wasn't with Summer. I would've been left out to dry like something…like something no one wants anymore."
"Who cares?" Luna questioned. "Ozpin doesn't determine your worth, you do. You can't let your Semblance stop you from caring for others."
"What do you know!?" Qrow barked. "What do you know about me?"
"Only that I spent years looking for you!" Luna barked right back. "Ever since the day my mom died!" Qrow raised an eyebrow at the wolf Faunus.
"Why would you be-"
"Because you're my father!" Luna revealed. "Because you are the man I've been looking for all this time! Is this really the man my mother fell in love with!?"
Qrow's eyes widened, then it came back to him. On the Argus Limited, Luna had brought up her mother, Stella Crescentia.
He remembered for a time, he was in Anima and stumbled upon a village where he met the beautiful Wolf Faunus, Stella Crescentia. Over time, the two fell in love and led to them sharing a passionate night together; however, he felt he needed to leave out of fear of his Semblance hurting her as it had many others.
"That's what I was going to tell you on the train," Luna responded. "You're my father and I spent years looking for you."
Qrow's mind was blank at the moment, processing the fact that he was a father who had unknowingly abandoned his daughter. Had he known about her, he would've tried some way to maintain contact with her, probably would've lived a more responsible lifestyle.
When Luna didn't receive a response from her father, she sat next to him against the wall.
"Qrow…Dad," she spoke. "I know you feel alone and that everyone's probably better off without you, but the way I see it, that's not true. You helped Ruby learn how to use a scythe. You helped protect them when they were on the road to Mistral. You've done so much for them, much more good than bad. They choose to be around you because…you're family, theirs and mine."
"How…can you even consider me that?" Qrow asked.
"My mother said you didn't know about me," Luna replied. "After what I've seen, I believe her." She then stood up and helped Qrow to his feet.
"I plan to be here for you as she was," she stated before helping Qrow walk down the sidewalk.
Even now, it wasn't clicking in Qrow's mind that he was a father. He felt it was just another reason to hate himself, but clearly from what Luna was doing, she wouldn't allow him to sink further into self-loathing. She'd be there for him just as Stella was.
"Stella," he whispered. "I'm sorry."
"Just stop," Luna responded. "I'm done watching you feel sorry for yourself. Now let's get back to the house."
