Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. RWBY is owned by RT, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone. Rest in peace Monty, your vision lives on in us all.

CHAPTER 6

Camp was quickly made for Team RNNJRS, and once Clayton had woken up from his momentary blackout, the story of the maidens was told to everyone. Varying levels of disbelief were to be expected from the people there, but many among the team of young huntsmen and huntresses looked to their friend Pyrrha. "Ozpin, tried turning you into a maiden?" Jaune asked, looking at his partner for an answer.

"No. I chose to become one… But… It… It wasn't a decision I made lightly." Pyrrha said, looking at him. "I… Regret even considering the option. Greatness at the cost of who I was… Looking back at the entire event, everything leading up to the fall of Beacon… The choice was an illusion. If I decided not to take the power, Cinder would have taken it herself… Had I taken the power sooner, I would have no idea how to wield it, and Cinder would have taken it still… And Ozpin would still be dead…" Pyrrha looked up at the moon hidden behind the clouds.

"And Beacon would still have fallen." Clayton said from his spot on the ground.

"That man. Tyrian. Why was he attacking us?" Ruby asked her uncle.

"He was after you kid." Qrow said, uncapping his flask of whisky, taking a quick swig, before capping it and continuing. "It's because of your silver eyes. There are some very powerful people that are upset that two people who have them are alive… Old and new. It's an extremely rare trait, and a powerful weapon." Ruby looked thoughtfully at her uncle, then at Rot, who was silently looking off into the fire, as if his eyes, hidden behind aviator sunglasses, were still in his head. Thinking back to what he'd done at the top of Beacon tower, Ruby remembered the blinding white light, and the impossible moment she had to have been both at the top and the bottom of the tower.

"Silver eyes… What Rot did at the top of Beacon Tower… Am I able to do that?" Ruby asked.

Rot chuckled. "For certain."

Ruby shuttered at the idea of her eye's being burned out of her skull. "Will I lose mine, like you did?" She asked. Rot shook his head.

"My eyes were old… And I've been half blind for almost a decade… Using our power burned them away because my eyes could no longer contain it when used." Rot explained, taking his sunglasses off. "I intend to teach you how they work. It's all I'm good for now that my vision is gone completely. Without it, my semblance is only half as useful." Rot said with a sigh.

"Half as useful? You beat Tyrian to a pulp without even breaking a sweat." Jaune said. Rot would roll his eyes if he had them.

"Without my sight I can only appear to limited effect." Rot said bitterly.

Nora looked at Rot inquisitively. "What is your semblance anyway?" She asked. Rot chuckled.

"I don't exist… But at the same time I do. I call it "Dichotomy." I can be anywhere, and nowhere, at any time, or outside of it… Within some limit. Places and times I can see or remember, hear or smell, and like today use guesswork for." Rot explained.

"Teleportation." Ren said.

"Time travel." Ruby muttered.

"A little bit of both actually. Time is required to travel across distance. But by travelling forward in time, instant travel becomes easy. As for actually travelling through time. I can only go back in time to places where I once was, never forward, and never to places I have not been." Rot said.

"But if you have to time travel forward to teleport, and you can't time travel forward period. How do you teleport at all? That's a paradox." Jaune said in confusion.

"You're looking at it from a linear subjective viewpoint. I can not time travel forwards to a place I have not been, but in doing so I already have. That's exactly why it works. It both is and is not." Rot said with a grin.

"Oh my head hurts." Jaune said, massaging his temples. The explanation sounded like something out of a "Professor What?" episode.

"Think of it like a cat in a box that has an aerosol poison in it. You don't know if the cat is dead or alive until it's observed, and so it is both. But in this case, I can time travel and teleport because I can not time travel and teleport." Rot said.

"What does any of this have to do with us?" Pyrrha asked, rubbing Jaune's back.

Qrow looked at Rot, then continued. "Not many people are super religious. Enough god's have been created and forgotten, but if you believe Ozpin, he thinks two are real. Light and Darkness, the older ones of the creationist variety. They created four immensely powerful relics, physical manifestations representing four of humanity's greatest ideals and facets. Knowledge, creation, destruction, and choice. If someone was to gather all four, they would wield the power of the gods. And that's exactly what the enemy wants. The four huntsman academies were designed to protect and hide these relics. With a small army guarding each one, the idea was to prevent them from ever being used against humanity." A small stunned silence came over everyone. Clayton was the first to raise his head off the ground and ask a question.

"If the two brother gods are real, and the relics they created with them… Then what of the other gods? The animal god of Menagerie native beliefs, or the ancient ones Siniy worships?" Clayton asked.

Qrow shook his head. "I've no clue. All I know is what I've seen, and what I've been told by Ozpin. If the Maidens are real, then they may be too."

Silence overcame the group once more. "The person who wants us dead… Who are they?" Ruby asked. Rot looked up at her with his vacant eyes.

"Salem… A mystic who fancies herself a god… I've met her once… Unpleasant as they come…" Rot said, before sighing.

"Any more secrets we should know about?" Nora asked. Qrow chuckled.

"Ozpin gave me the magic ability to transform into a bird." There was silence again, before Clayton snickered.

"Crow." He muttered with a smile.

"You should all get some rest. We have places to be tomorrow." Rot said.

Author's note.

Schrodinger's cat. That is all.