RWBY: MRRN

Volume 6, Chapter 15: The Truth Comes Out

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. All rights go to Rooster Teeth

Ozpin kneeled in the snow, his eyes drenched in tears and his voice silent from watching those horrible memories again. He had watched his beloved turn into a monster, his children being killed in their duel after realizing what she had become, and the countless reincarnations he had been in his years on Remnant. However, that barely spared him any scorn from the people present.

"There was so much we needed to know, but you wouldn't tell us!" Yang barked. "Especially after you promised! What right do you have to do such a thing?"

"I…" Ozpin tried to speak, but fell flat, looking up at them with tears flowing down his cheeks. "I…I loved them."

"Do not change the subject," Math demanded. "Why didn't you tell us what the Relics truly were? About the Gods themselves? You kept us in the dark about so much, never telling us what was really at stake."

"If I had told you everything…" Ozpin spoke. "I was certain none of you would help me."

"We wouldn't want to help because YOU won't stop keeping secrets from us!" the wolf swordsman responded angrily. "If you had just been honest with us, then you wouldn't have had to relive those memories! We gave you the chance to tell us the truth, but you wouldn't do so."

"I didn't have a choice," Ozpin claimed, his voice shaking with sadness.

"Don't give us that," Nasser scoffed. "You always had a choice to be honest with us, but instead, it was always more lies and half-truths. All you did was keep the whole truth to yourself, especially after preaching about how much faith you have in humanity, about how we need to work with each other. Were those lies too?"

"You will never understand," Ozpin cried. "Would you really trust the entire world with all this knowledge, with everything you just watched? I had to lie. I had to tell half truths in order to stop humanity from destroying itself."

"Just like you lied to us?" Math spoke. "You lied to my team, which got Professor Kura killed. You lied to Pyrrha, promising her a choice and then forcing her to take the Maiden powers, not telling her that she'd spend the rest of her life being hunted by Salem. What right do you have to disregard the lives of others just so you can keep your secrets?"

"You will never forget that, will you?" Ozpin questioned. "I didn't have a choice. We were out of options-"

"Only because you wanted to stay in control!" Yang shouted. "This is why people abandoned you; you act like everything has to be your way and no one's allowed to question you or your choices." Ozpin looked up at Yang, some anger in his eyes at the sun dragon.

"Do you blame me for Raven leaving you?" he questioned directly. "Raven left you because she was too scared to care about anyone but herself. I was not the one who sold you out at Haven, she was. Even after you lost your arm, even with all the pain you endured, she never came back to you…and it wasn't because of me."

"I'm not blaming you for Raven," Yang denied. "What I am blaming you for is valuing your secrets over our lives. You have no right to ask us to trust you and not give it back in return!"

Ozpin closed his eyes and looked down at the ground. He felt he couldn't trust people because of how many times he had been betrayed. He felt that he couldn't tell anyone the whole truth about what was truly at stake. However, even he knew that'd never justify the lives that were lost in his war because he only trusted himself with the whole truth.

"Ozpin," Ruby addressed, her voice stern and her eyes narrowed at him. "I'm only asking you one time: what is your plan to defeat Salem?"

"And don't lie to us," Math warned. "We've had enough of that." Ozpin lifted his head up to look at Ruby's silver eyes.

"You are," he answered, causing confusion among the group.

"Me?" Ruby asked, rather shocked by what he meant.

"After Jinn told me I couldn't destroy Salem, I considered…just forgetting everything," Ozpin explained. "But I started to hear about warriors able to destroy Grimm or turn them to stone. Since Salem had been imbued with the waters from the Grimm pools you saw, I figured that the Silver Eyes could be the ones to kill, or at the least, incapacitate Salem, so I started looking for them…but she always killed them before I found them."

"So…Salem's been hunting Silver Eyes for years?" Ruby asked. "My mom…?"

"When Summer enrolled in Beacon Academy, I felt I finally had my chance to defeat Salem."

"So that's why you were so interested in our team?" Qrow spoke up. "Only because of Summer?"

"She was a Silver Eyed warrior and my only chance to possibly destroy Salem," Ozpin continued. "At first, I planned on only recruiting Summer, but then…"

"But you recruited my team as well," Forest stated.

Unknown to either of them, Qrow felt his heart stop after hearing Ozpin say he intended to only recruit Summer years ago. He moved his wrist around several times, a sense of anxiety slowly coming over him.

Ever since he started following Ozpin, Qrow believed that he had helped him out of the good of his heart. He had given him a purpose, even with a Semblance that caused nothing but harm to others. He had viewed him as a great man, flawed as he may be, for helping him find a way to help others.

All good feelings he had about Ozpin were called into question just from that one statement alone.

"I needed all the help I could get and your team was one of Beacon's strongest," Ozpin stated. "So, yes, I recruited all of you."

"But you mostly wanted Summer," Qrow stated.

"I…yes," Ozpin reluctantly confessed. "Summer already knew the powers behind her Silver Eyes, having been taught by her father before she came to Beacon. After I had recruited Teams STRQ and FRST, I made it a point to prepare Summer to confront Salem. However…considering the nature of the Silver Eyes, to help her grow stronger meant…" Ozpin stopped, hanging his head.

"Meant?" Yang questioned. Sniffles were heard from the former Beacon Headmaster, his mind still reeling from those horrific images. It was like reliving his pain all over again.

"I made that toy for her," Ozpin spoke, thinking of his youngest daughter. "They didn't deserve to die."

"Oz," Qrow sternly addressed, breaking him away from his thoughts. "What were you saying?" Ozpin's breath became shaky as he was faces with another harsh truth that would come to light.

"The Silver Eyes can only activate in the presence of Grimm," Ozpin explained. "That's why…I always sending Team STRQ on more dangerous missions. I needed Summer to grow stronger before I could enact my plan against Salem."

"Did she know about this?" Forest questioned. "Or did you play that close to the chest as well?" Ozpin closed his eyes and shook his head, angering Ruby and Yang.

"So you were treating our mother like a weapon?" Ruby questioned. "And you wouldn't even tell her?"

"I was going to do so when she was ready," Ozpin answered. "I wish there was another way for her to grow stronger, but her powers only activated in the presence of Grimm."

"What about her final mission?" Qrow questioned. "When you sent us there…you said you needed us to find an agent of Salem. Was that a lie?" Ozpin met eye contact with Qrow, not bothering to hide the contempt and question in his red eyes. Ozpin gulped and hung his head.

"I lied," he confessed.

"You what?" Qrow almost barked. "You sent her there, in the midst of a Grimm-infested area…just to test her powers? And you didn't tell her?"

"I…"

"Summer had a family, Ozpin! She had two daughters who needed her. She had a man who had just been abandoned by my sister. Did you consider what she had before you…?" He shook his head, hating what he was hearing.

"Uncle Qrow?" Yang asked, showing concern for him.

"All this time, I blamed my misfortune for her death," Qrow spoke. "I thought that it was me being with her that put her in danger." He clenched his fist and glared back at Ozpin.

"But I was wrong. You got her killed. You kept putting her in danger for reasons you wouldn't tell her."

"I'm sorry, Qrow," Ozpin pleaded. "But you had to understand-"

"Understand what!?" Math roared. "You kept so many secrets from everyone, even your closest allies! Even when it kept getting people killed, such as Summer and Kura, you still wouldn't stop! Even after it put innocent people in danger, you still kept your secrets! What right do you have to do that to us!?"

"Because I'm tired of being betrayed!" Ozpin barked, rising to his feet.

"So many times I've been betrayed by those I trusted. They said the same things you'd say. 'We won't turn our backs', 'You can trust us', 'We won't abandon you'…if I had a Lien for every time someone said that to me, I'd have enough money to buy Atlas. Even my most trusted lieutenants turned their backs on me, people whose hands I put my life and the lives of others. For the sake of Remnant, I had to keep secrets. I had to lie and keep information from others." He then looked over to Mathdon.

"Mr. Kendrick, I know you hate me for what I did to Ms. Nikos. What would you prefer I had done, just let the Maiden powers fall into Cinder's hands? Amber was dying and we knew that when she did, the rest of the power would go to that monster. I could only entrust Ms. Nikos with that power because of who she was: she was strong, kind, mature, responsible…if she had taken the Maiden powers, I know she would've used them responsibly instead for her own desires."

"Don't you DARE justify that," Math snarled, pointing a finger at Ozpin. "We deserved to know the whole truth about what we were up against."

"I feared that if I told you the whole truth, you and Ms. Nikos would turn away. I was desperate; I couldn't allow Salem to have the key to the Relic of Choice. I couldn't. None of you have ever been in my position and you never will; I don't have the luxury of only thinking about the small things. I always have to think about the bigger picture, about Remnant."

"Is that you threw away Summer's life?" Forest demanded to know. "We are NOT your pawns, Ozpin. Nothing justifies sacrificing the lives of your comrades because you're too scared to tell anyone the truth."

"Well, now you know," Ozpin brought up. "But you haven't been betrayed countless times like I have. You weren't burdened to reincarnate for millennia for an almost impossible mission."

"Well, guess what?" Yang challenged. "That will NEVER justify the lies and half truths you've told us. That will never justify needlessly sacrificing the lives of your comrades just so you can keep everything a secret, just like you sacrificed our mother."

Ozpin tried to explain once more, but his voice fell flat. He didn't expect them to condone his methods of playing things close to the chest, but he'd at least ask them to understand why. Over his cycle, he had been betrayed countless times by even his most trusted allies, allies that he told very important plans on how to defeat Salem. He had become so afraid of his allies betraying him that he only trusted himself with the whole truth, even when it proved much more harmful than beneficial.

Sadly, he knew that despite his fear of betrayal, it would never justify keeping important information from everyone. It'd never justify him telling lies and half truths to his allies because he wouldn't trust them with the whole truth.

"Ozpin," Qrow addressed. "If I hadn't been a member of Team STRQ, would you have still helped me? Or would you have just left me all alone?"

"Qrow," Ozpin spoke, his tone a mix of regret and sadness towards the Branwen. "I…"

"No one wanted me," Qrow spoke, his fists clenching in anger. "I was cursed from the day I unlocked my Semblance. I gave my life to you because you gave me a purpose, a way to do good. But…all you cared about was Summer, wasn't it?"

Ozpin's response fell flat once again, seeing the immense anger in Qrow's expression. For years, Qrow believed that Ozpin had taken pity on him and gave him a purpose out of the good of his heart. Despite all of his flaws, Qrow looked up to Ozpin as a true friend who gave him a way to move forward, despite his Semblance.

Now, he realized that Ozpin's only reason for recruiting Team STRQ was for Summer; if he hadn't been a part of the team, Ozpin would've probably left him all alone. Not only that, he had used his teammate as a weapon, constantly putting her in danger that eventually got her killed. For years, he blamed himself for Summer's death, but came to the realization that the true cause behind it was the man he had looked up to for so long.

"So I was nothing but a tool for you, just like Summer," Qrow growled. "Maybe Raven was right; maybe I was wrong to trust you, to even consider you a friend." Ozpin's eyes widened in shock at what Qrow just said.

"Qrow…I'm sorry."

"So that's it?" Math growled. "We were nothing but pawns for you. You became so scared of being betrayed that you immediately believed that everyone who you recruited would betray you in some way. I am sorry for what you went through, Ozpin, but that's not an excuse to get people killed."

"How can we even trust you anymore?" Yang questioned. "You wouldn't stop keeping secrets and important information from us, even after you promised. If you won't keep your promises, then don't expect us to trust you anymore, you liar!" Ozpin looked up at Yang and sighed heavily.

"If you no longer wish for me to be here…then okay," he spoke as if defeated. Oscar's eyes glowed, meaning that the farmhand was now back in control.

"Oscar?" Oren asked. "Where's Ozpin?"

"He's…gone," Oscar answered.

"What?" Yang questioned as she pointed her cybernetic arm at the farm boy. "We're not done yet. Tell him to come back out NOW!"

"Stop it, Yang!" Ruo demanded, pushing her hand. "As angry as I am, yelling isn't going to help anything."

"He's…gone, as if he won't come out," Oscar explained. "I can't even hear him inside our head. My head? His head?"

"Oscar, calm down," Forest told him, kneeling next to him. "If Ozpin won't come out, then there's nothing we can do about it right now. What we can do is start making our way to Argus."

"He's right," Saf agreed. "If we stay here for too long, we'll risk attracting Grimm or running into the Disciples again. We need to move." No one reacted to what either Forest or Safirlas said.

"Listen, everyone, Ozpin was wrong to keep important information from us," Forest spoke. "But right now, that doesn't matter. What does matter is that we have an object that attracts Grimm for possibly miles. We need to get to Argus and secure the Relic; if we stay out here, we'll die for certain. If you're angry, save it for the Grimm or any enemies we see. Now let's move."

Snapped out of their anger by Forest, everyone started gathering their belongings and making their way to follow the eagle through the snowy forest. As Yang moved her motorcycle, she was stopped by Luna, who looked at her with some disappointment.

"He's not the only one keeping important information, you know?" the Wolf brought up. "Why don't you practice what you preach?"

Yang frowned. She still hadn't told the group about Raven and had no immediate plans to do so, not after Ozpin had again broken his promise. She didn't trust Ozpin with this information after Forest revealed how he hadn't kept his word before, so she needed to know if he could be trusted.

"Luna, I don't know who you think you are, but-"

"But what?" Luna interrupted. "Raven is the Spring Maiden and they may need to know that. You have no right to be so aggressive about sharing important information and then do it yourself."

"Telling them will not change anything," Yang claimed. "Raven won't help us."

"And what if it becomes important?" Luna questioned, raising an eyebrow. "Will you tell them?"

"I will, now back off," the sun dragon demanded before moving Bumblebee. Luna shook her head in disapproval before following the group.

"I'm sorry, kid," Qrow told Math as he walked past him, drinking from his flask.

"For what?" Math asked. "You didn't do this."

"For making you think Ozpin could be trusted," the drunkard replied before following Forest.

Instead of feeling hate towards him, Math felt conflicted about Ozpin. He had been reincarnating on Remnant for thousands of years, tasked with defeating a seemingly invincible enemy and redeeming a race that was now on the verge of falling apart. He had watched the deaths of his children, his beloved's descent into hatred and evil, and many other painful memories.

But as he pointed out, he wouldn't have had to relive them if he had just been honest with them. His paranoia of being betrayed didn't justify him keeping important information from everyone, especially when he preached so much about teamwork and his faith in humanity. Professor Alan Kura, Summer Rose, Trenton Brownwood…all dead because Ozpin kept important information to himself.

But despite his issues with Ozpin, he couldn't bring himself to hate him as he did before, though it didn't mean he trusted him. Almost no one present trusted Ozpin anymore and he had brought it on himself by breaking his promises.

"Math?" Ruo asked his team leader. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered. "I…I just can't believe-"

"As Forest said, there's nothing we can do right now," the White Tiger reminded. "Let's find shelter before it gets dark." Math nodded his head and moved with his allies.

"Ruby," Weiss asked her team leader, seeing noticeable anger on her face. "Are you okay?"

"No," Ruby replied as she put the Relic on her belt. "I'm not."

-0-

Emerald walked out of the tent of the Iron Knight camp, a bandage over where her eye used to be. She could still feel the searing blade of Robin's weapon cutting it out, still hear the screams she cried after suffering this injury.

"There you are," Mercury spoke, walking to Emerald. "Glad to see you're awake, Sleeping Beauty."

"You're still here?" Emerald asked the assassin. "I thought you went back to Salem's fortress."

"I like it better here," Mercury answered, putting his hands behind his head. "No more of that snobbish Dr. Asshole or that psycho. I hated that place anyway; I was only there because Cinder was there."

"So what do you plan to do now?" Emerald asked. "If you don't want to be in her faction anymore-"

"I think I may stay with the Iron Knights," Mercury answered. "I think we'd do just great here."

"We?" Emerald questioned. "Cinder may need us. She could be alive." Mercury's cocky smile was replaced with an annoyed expression as he facepalmed.

"Will you stop being delusional already? Cinder does not care about you. We were nothing but tools for her use. If she had to sacrifice you to get what she wants, she'd do so without blinking an eye."

"You're wrong!" Emerald denied angrily. "She…she cared about us. She may've been a monster, but-"

"But that's all she was: a monster," Mercury replied before raising his hands. "You know what? Fine. You want to stay stuck in your delusions, go ahead. But I've got better things to do."

"You can't just walk away!" Emerald claimed. "She helped us. If she's alive, we need to find her."

"Open your eyes! I'm so sorry you didn't have a mother who loved you…and I had a father who hated me." He looked down at his prosthetic legs, missing the feeling of his old ones.

"I didn't do this to myself; he did. He was so hellbent on making me an assassin that every day was torture. Nothing was ever good enough; not enough training, not enough strength was ever enough to please him. Not only that, he robbed me of my Semblance for so long."

"Your Semblance?" Emerald asked. It struck her; she had never seen his Semblance in action before. He had never discussed it, making her think he was just keeping it a secret from everyone.

"When I unlocked it, I could run as fast as the wind," Mercury explained. "Some days, I just went outside and I ran and ran for the sake of it. My dad got wise…and replaced my legs with prosthetics against my will. But now-" His legs started to glow with his Aura, something Emerald hadn't seen before.

"A Semblance never truly goes away; it simply manifests differently."

"What's your point?" Emerald asked.

"My point is that you think Cinder determines your worth like my dad tried to do to me," Mercury explained. "Grow up. Only you decide what you are, not someone else. Now I'm staying with the Iron Knights; feel welcome to do so as well." Before Emerald could talk, Mercury took off in the blink of an eye, proving that he now rediscovered his Semblance.

"Cinder," the green haired girl asked. "Did you care? At all?"

-0-

"I knew it," Jaune spoke angrily to his teammates. "I should've known Ozpin was still keeping secrets from us. If he had just told us about the Relic…" He sighed.

"Jaune, please calm down," Pyrrha insisted. "They'll make it to Argus."

"They wouldn't be out there in the wilderness if not for Ozpin," Nora reminded. "How can we even trust him after this? How many more secrets is he keeping from us?"

Pyrrha held her hands tightly, thinking very hard about Nora's statement about secrets. She was guilty of that, of keeping a secret from everyone: Raven Branwen was the Spring Maiden.

She had strongly considered telling the group, but Yang had asked her not to say due to her distrust for Ozpin. While Pyrrha didn't trust Ozpin herself, it wasn't fair to keep it a secret from everyone else. It weighed heavily on her to do so, even from her beloved.

"Pyrrha?" Ren asked his teammate. "Are you okay?" Jaune and Nora stopped their ranting and went over to her, seeing if she was okay.

"I'm sorry," she apologized.

"For what?" Jaune asked calmly. "You didn't do this. None of this your fault."

"No…it…" Pyrrha sighed. "Something happened in the Vault of the Spring Maiden."

"What?" Nora asked. "What do you mean?"

Ozpin wasn't here at the moment, so she felt that Yang's reason to keep it a secret was moot. She sighed heavily and explained everything to them, from Raven being the Spring Maiden to Vernal being a decoy to Raven leaving.

"What…?" Jaune asked. "Pyrrha, why didn't you tell us this?" Before she could answer, Nora correctly guessed "Yang asked you not to, didn't she?"

"I…yes," Pyrrha confirmed. "She didn't want Ozpin to find out, so she asked us to keep it a secret."

"Wow," Nora scoffed. "She spoke so much of not keeping important information from everyone, yet went and did it herself."

"It wasn't fair to keep it a secret from all of you," Pyrrha confessed. "I'm sorry I did so." She looked around at the group, but couldn't tell of they were angry or forgiving of what she did. She was about to stand up and leave until Jaune spoke up.

"She was wrong to do that to you," he said. "I can understand her not trusting Ozpin, but keeping it from the rest of us? To protect Raven? Why would she want to protect her?"

"She didn't say," Pyrrha replied. "I really don't know." She rubbed her arm several times, her face saying all the regret she felt for having lied to her teammates. Jaune wrapped her arms around her, assuring her that they weren't angry at her for doing so. Instead, their frustration was directed at Yang for wanting to keep Raven a secret from everyone, including her own teammates.

"I just don't get it," Ren spoke. "Raven is Yang's mother, but…why would she keep her being the Spring Maiden being a secret?"

"Sounds awfully hypocritical of her," Nora spoke.

"For now, let's just hope they make it to Argus safely," Jaune insisted, to which they all agreed.