The visions faded away and Djinn disappeared back into the lamp. The students and Qrow were not happy,

Ozma (or Ozpin as he was still thinking of himself) was tempted to disappear inside Oscar's head for a bit. The students and Qrow were clearly not inclined to react calmly to the story they had just heard from Djinn. The old lady seemed less shocked, but that may be because she felt no sense of personal betrayal and had accepted the fact that life was unfair. If nothing else him not being around might reduce the temptation of everyone to beat Oscar up for the perceived crimes of Ozpin.

Still, that felt like sulking and risked wasting time. Besides which there were good reasons for his silence, and it was worth a shot at persuading them. Ok at best it might mean that they reject it for the moment but will think about what he said when they were calmer.

He thought at Oscar, "Oscar, I think it may be worth explaining why I did not tell them the truth. If we are lucky, they may listen. Obviously if they continue to beat you up, I will stop. I suggest that in advance of me starting to speak you let them know that if they hit you, I feel no pain and it is all inflicted on a sixteen old boy who is still not in control of his aura." That was technically slightly inaccurate as he could choose to take the punishment, but it speeded up the integration process so Oscar may not regard that as a fair trade off. He outlined what he wasproposing to say, and Oscar replied "OK. So long as you drop the line about them being unable to handle the truth. I felt like hitting me when you mentioned it."

Oscar coughed and placed himself behind Maria. He hoped that this would reduce the risk of them hitting him again for fear of hitting an old woman by mistake.

"Can you listen to me for a moment? First when you hit my body, you are hitting Oscar not Ozpin. If you need to take out your frustrations on something, please concentrate on the wreckage. Second, Ozpin is willing to tell you why he did not tell you the truth or only told you half-truths. He does not expect you to immediately agree, but he hopes if you think about it, you will see that his reasons were good ones and not entirely selfish. He has said that if you start beating me up again, he will stop speaking. If you prefer, he will leave it a few hours before he starts talking if you feel you need a period to calm down."

Maria said "Speaking for myself, I want to hear the reasons, but only when we find somewhere warm to stay. Also, while I am an old lady, I will seek to prevent you from being attacked. I have good reactions and the stick is strong."

Rwby said, "That sounds reasonable, and I would prefer to know why he lied to us." Yang, Weiss, and Blake agreed and Qrow grunted something which everyone chose to interpret as acceptance.

After they had reached the seriously creepy Brunswick Farms and had eaten, Ruby said "Oscar, can you let Ozpin know we are ready to listen to him?"

Oscar nervously stood up and moved behind Maria's armchair.

The listeners heard Ozpin's voice come out of Oscar and listened carefully.

"I have been around for longer than I care to remember and at various times in my existence I have tried telling my closest friends and allies and sometime my enemies the truth or a sizeable proportion of it. First, it should be borne in mind that without Djinn's ability to show you what happened and the fact she arrives out of the relic, the story is frankly not plausible. In the past when I have tried telling the whole truth, people believe that I am manipulating them and frankly refuse to believe that the gods were so crass."

Oscar ducked behind the armchair until Maria said, "So far they are listening. Children, for what it is worth when I was your age, I would not have believed it. Now it makes more sense than anything else I have heard."

Oscar resumed, "My experience is that I have found that telling a partial truth works better than the whole truth as I can only prove some things. Qrow, you will remember that to convince you and Raven I produced pictures and writings of my previous selves and took you to see Fria who remembered my previous incarnation."

Qrow nodded "She was the Winter maiden- actually still is." Weiss nodded, this made sense of this old woman who occasionally appeared at Atlas social events and was deferred to be Ironwood and Winter.

Ozpin continued, "Qrow, I told you and Raven about Salem and that she had been around as long as I had, but let you assume that immortality was like mine. I explained that she had some control over the Grimm, but not the full extent. I also portrayed myself as being puzzled why the gods had landed me with the curse of reincarnation. Basically, I told you as much as I told James, Winter, Rumpole, Theodore, Lionheart and Glynda."

There was another pause. "Just think what the effect was on the people you know about who were told that much. Lionheart despaired of success and was susceptible to her and her Hazel's overtures. He was a brave friend who did much good in his time, but the realization he was fighting a never-ending battle where the victories where at best temporary crushed his spirit. I appointed him as headmaster of Haven because in the past he had faced down his fears and dealt with problems sensibly. In retrospect, perhaps I should have left a gap before telling him the story. He half apologized during the fight but explained that Hazel had offered to help deal with a problem in Haven. He knew the battle against Salem could not be won and thought he could use Hazel's help to do a little good in Mistral. Once he had accepted help from Team Salem, he was scared to admit the truth and he was sucked into lending them aid. Until Amber he could convince himself that it did not really matter as what they asked him to do was suggest ways of weakening the Mistral ruling class which he loathed with a passion."

He looked at Qrow and Yang. "At first Raven reacted well to what I told her, she was always up for a fight and defending humanity and Faunus gave her a sense of purpose. She and Qrow accepted the offer to be able to transform into birds. She also did not lose her humanity. She did love Taiyang as much as she could love anyone and looked forward to bringing life into the world. That was the problem, Yang. She started reading old stories, myths, and legends in preparation for reading them to you as you grew up and recognised some of them as reflecting the truth. There are some stories about witches who can summon and create Grimm and about an immortal queen who was known as "She who must be obeyed." She guessed some of the truth and confronted me with it. I confirmed what she had correctly guessed or deduced. I will admit I was a little evasive on some factors. It is more than a little embarrassing to admit that the main reason Remnant is in a mess is the aftermath of a messy break-up between me and my psycho ex. Djinn was indeed a little kind to me as I suspect the reason for my illness and early death was that some mushrooms I ate turned out to be toadstools. I did not realise that possibility until fifty years ago and that is one of the reasons we have – had – a professor of plant science at Beacon."

Ruby said, "To be fair to you, it was Salem rather than you who challenged the gods."

"Actually, some of that came as a shock to me. I have never asked Djinn to relive that period and rather took the gods at face value when they resurrected me. They were even bigger jerks than I thought…"

Qrow coughed and Ozpin stopped his rant. "As Qrow will tell you, Raven is good at spotting evasions although will accept lies which makes things sound worse than they are. Raven wondered what the point was of fighting Salem directly. She said that she could see it was worth fighting her and killing her if it took about ten years for her to rebuild her power, but if it was a matter of days or hours then there was no point. She had always felt guilty about abandoning her tribe and decided that she preferred to go back to her tribe and look after them for the rest of her days. That was a small battle which she felt she could win at least while she was alive. She tried to keep under the radar to avoid attracting Salem's attention. However, I assume that when the Spring Maiden came into her camp, she decided to maximise her power to protect the Branwen tribe while keeping it a secret. I suspect that she was relieved when you took the relic off your hands, Yang. She will have made the calculation that the only reason Salem wanted the Spring Maiden was to get at the relic and removing it from the vault puts Raven at the bottom of Salem's targets for the time being."

Oscar paused and looked around, and then Ozpin continued, "Qrow, Yang, try and find some forgiveness in your hearts for Raven. She played the cards so that when Cinder betrayed her, she was able to fight back even though that involved crossing Salem and even then, she did not simply hand the relic over to Salem. She has protected her tribe. Many to whom I have told as much of the truth as she knows have spent the rest of their lives in seeking oblivion in pleasure. The Raven I remember as a student did not in practice ration the number of times, she saved the lives of her friends and relatives. Rather she said that this did not count as it was merely an assist. She tried to make the world a better place when she thought it could be done."

Team RWBY looked at Qrow who was clearly hit hard. He said, "Let me think about it before I reply."

Yang asked, "But why did she abandon me?"

"I can only guess. She did say to me when she confronted me was that she was only reading the stories so that she could tell her child that there were monsters, but that they could be defeated. She then realised that at best the monsters could be delayed. Perhaps she did not want to tell you lies. After all she did save your life on the train from Mountain Glenn. She may also have guessed that Summer would step in to look after you."

Oscar then turned to Weiss, "In Atlas James and Winter were told part of the truth. James has reacted by turning Atlas into a state dominated by the military and by businesses whose taxes fund the military expansion. Mantle is neglected. When I first knew James, he was trying to do his best for the citizens of both Atlas and Mantle and recognised that the extent to which prosperity was shared was as important as the level of prosperity. Since I told him what I did, he has used his semblance to focus on military capability. He believes that only Atlas has the focus on technology and strength to protect the world and therefore directed his efforts to ensuring that everyone accepted Atlas as being the defender of all. To that end he could be generous as was seen with your prosthetic arm, Yang. He is also being unbelievably stupid as in the case of the dust embargo and withdrawing Atlas military operatives from other kingdoms."

"And Winter?" asked Weiss.

"Originally she was a more tolerant personality. While she always strived to be the perfect specialist, she also wanted to do the right thing. While not tolerating them in herself, she accepted human failings in others and made allowances for them. She believed in obeying orders but would give consideration as to whether they were lawful orders. She was passionate about more things than Ironwood's orders. She voluntarily chose to give up being the Schnee heiress for the greater good. Listening to you since you met Oscar in Mistral, she did her best to be a loving sister and encouraged you. Since I told her about Salem, she hardly ever challenges James's judgement and is intolerant of failings in others. She hit you in front of Ruby for being silly, for Remnant's sake."

"She was only trying to make me stronger and to be the best version of me I can be. If she had not berated me for my failings, I do not believe that I have could summoned the Arma Gigas and saved the life of Velvet and the other students without her forcing me to try harder."

"The Winter I first knew would have tempered the admonitions with a little more praise."

Qrow butted in, "She certainly used to be a lot more difficult to wind up."

Ruby said, "But Uncle Qrow still fought on."

Oscar hid further behind Maria's chair.

Qrow said, "Come on old man, I may as well hear what you think about me."

"Up to a point, Ruby is right. However, you still paid a price. You push people away from you and you drink too much. You justify both because of your semblance, but the Qrow I first knew would have looked harder for ways of working around his semblance rather than using it as an excuse for not even taking a chance of happiness. Still, you are definitely in the top 25% of the reactions to the knowledge."

Maria asked, "And how about you?"

"You may call it selfishness, but in half of my lives I have settled with a partner and often had children. In most of the rest, I had lovers who I tried to treat kindly. I often failed, but it is hard to entirely escape the curse of immortality meaning that one builds up a defensive barrier against the emotional pain of loss."

Yang asked, "In the last few years humanity has been basically at peace. Why did you not try reuniting the relics?"

"The gods play with weighted dice. I believe that as far as they are concerned, humans include Faunus. Actually. I know that is the case, I asked Djinn that question 150 years ago. To my shame I had actually contemplated uniting humans against Faunus. To my credit, I was relieved when I was told that was not the solution." Oscar ducked behind the chair again and Maria said, "Blake, please put away that katana and listen to what he said."

Oscar's head reappeared from behind Maria's chair and Ozpin said, "There have been some lives where I did virtually nothing against Salem. That was in part because sometimes she tried to make the best of things. For 200 years she was the queen of the island we now call Menagerie which was once a paradise. Eventually her people revolted once too often, and she unleashed the Grimm on them."

Blake asked, "If you knew telling people part of the truth was bad, why do you keep doing so?"

"Because the last time I kept silent for an extended period of time, the Great War started. I think Salem had spent the previous fifty years reading history books and finding her equivalent of Dr. Oobleck. The Grimm were less of a threat for the thirty years leading up to the war. By luck or design, my reincarnation at the time was the Prince of Vale. As Oobleck will tell you I played a blinder during the war and made a pig's ear of the peace process. By the way Ruby, it was not an affectation or false modesty when I said that I had made more mistakes than anyone else ever had, it is true. Even allowing for longevity the average per lifetime is not good."

Qrow asked "What about Theodore, Rumpole and Glynda?"

"Theodore and Rumpole have focused on defending Vacuo. They actually refused to tell me who the current Summer Maiden is, which in light of what happened to Amber seems to have been a sensible move on their behalf. They are happy to play for the no score draw during their lifetimes. They run Shade Academy so as to encourage individual rather than team excellence. They ignore what the multi-kingdoms get up to provided that they do in isolated mines which the atlas military have to protect. Perhaps they are right to regard Vacuo as Salem's lowest priority target. They trust no one and only really talk to me, Qrow and, up to a point, Winter."

"And Glynda?"

There was a pause. "Holds it together but has lost her sense of fun. I remember her being the unofficial Queen of Vale and enjoying the admiration. Similar issues to Winter, the cause has taken over. Frankly, she should have been able to do better than mutual comfort sex with James twice a year before reverting to telling him he thinks every problem has a single answer. One thing which I have allowed myself in most of my lives is to make close contacts with other people. I know how much more enjoyable my lives were when I did allow myself to have a partner and sometimes children. By the way in some of my reincarnations I have been female, and I recall giving birth. I would prefer my friends to have the same opportunity. We do – did – have a generous maternity leave package at Beacon and there was a creche for the children of staff. However, those I have told in this generation have found it hard to form relationships after they have been told and that reflects my past experience. "

"Did mom and dad know?" asked Ruby.

"I told Summer at the same time I told Qrow and Raven. I did not tell Taiyang, and the rest of the team supported that decision. I suspect that Raven may have talked to Summer as just before she left on her final mission she came to speak to me. I told her not to go anywhere near Salem and that Salem could not be killed."

Weiss said, "I grew up in a family in which listening precisely to what was said was a life skill. My father believed in misleading rather than lying outright. What exactly did you ask Djinn about killing Salem? Was it can I kill Salem or was it can Salem be killed?"

"I cannot remember and what is the difference?"

"The difference between you as in Ozpin cannot kill Salem or that no one can kill her."

Oscar paused and then said, "I suspect that when I asked it, my mood was that I needed to sort out the mess myself. Still, I have no reason to believe that the answer would have been different, and I did not encourage Summer to go on a suicide mission."

Weiss said, "Qrow, did Summer have silver eyes?"

"Yes."

"We know what Ruby did to the Wyvern and Cinder looked a little the worse for wear at Haven."

The old lady intervened, "Thirty years ago I was ambushed because I had silver eyes and blinded."

Qrow asked "Who were you?"

"I used to be known as the Grimm Reaper."

Qrow said "I always wondered what had happened to you. I admired you and you are one of my role models."

"Bad luck, I hid under a stone for ten years after I lost my eyes. What sort of role model is that?"

Yang said, "The fact that you are still alive suggests you killed the people who did it to you."

"Only because they made the mistake of gloating."

"When I lost my arm, unless someone had pulled me away I was ready to crawl away and give up on life."

Blake hugged Yang and felt an instinctive yielding followed by a push away.

A day later the group headed away from Brunswick Farms leaving a cloud of smoke behind them. Maria had read the final book first, having felt that the situation looked weird. They had then walked a mile away before sharing with each other what they recalled about the Apathy before returning and kicking butt.

Ruby had taken a photograph with her and said to Yang and Blake "Do you recognise anyone?" They had shrugged their shoulders and said no.

Blake piped up as they started the approach into Argus, "Does anyone else think that we should ask the third question while we still have possession of the Relic of Knowledge? I think we do have two good ones at least. First, what are Salem's plans or alternatively, can anyone kill or seriously inconvenience her?

Qrow said "Oscar, can you ask the old man whether there are any tricks we need to be aware of in phrasing the question?"

Maria said to Ruby, "Do you want me to tell you about how I used to use to use silver eyes?"

Ruby said, "Yes please."

A one shot. Recently rewatched volume 6 and felt that Ozpin had good reasons for being economical with the truth. Does not overlap with any of my other stories apart from the fact that most of Winter in vacuo is not inconsistent with this.