Chapter Forty-Five: The Truth
"This is just great," Yang said angrily as she tried to pull her motorcycle from the snow. "We're stranded. We've lost a third of our party, and we've gained a defenseless old lady!" She fell over as she finished her list.
"My name is Maria Calavera, and I am not defenseless," the now named old lady protested. "I'm just a little hard of hearing and blind without my eyes… that are in desperate need of repair." She took a moment to consider what she had just said before admitting that she could see their point.
Qrow approached Yang, trying to calm her down. "If we lose our cool now we'll just be inviting even more Grimm."
"Right, because we don't already have a Grimm magnet with us," Phoenix pointed out. "Something that would have been useful to know before we left." He looked to Oscar, hoping Ozpin would provide some sort of explanation.
"I thought you said that there wouldn't be any more lies or half-truths?" Yang reminded him.
"Yeah, I think it's time we got an explanation," Oscar told Ozpin.
"I did not lie to you," Ozpin pointed out after taking control.
"You certainly didn't tell us everything about the relic," an annoyed Weiss said.
"Please, now is not the ti-" Ozpin tried to calm everyone down, but Yang interrupted him before he could finish speaking.
"No, we're past that! I want to know why you're still not telling us everything!"
"It is true that the Grimm are attracted to the relics," Ozpin told them. "It's faint but undeniable. I believe it has to do with their origin, but I'm not entirely sure. Regardless, I feared that making you all aware would only add anxiety and negativity. It seemed like the safer option."
"You know, I'm getting really tired of people choosing what's best for me," Weiss said.
"Being prepared for a possible Grimm attack instead of being caught off guard seems like the safer option to me," Phoenix added. "You can trust us Oz. We're not gonna tu-" he tried to reassure him.
"Do you really think Leo was the first?!" Ozpin snapped, cutting him off. "That he didn't say those exact same words to me? I'm sorry, but you have to understand that my behaviors are backed by experience. I'm not saying that I have reason to think you will betray me. I'm saying that I have reasons for the things that I do. The reason I…" he trailed off and looked around. "Where's the relic?" he asked nervously.
"Right here," Ruby answered, holding it up. "It got scattered in the crash."
"Please, hand it over," Ozpin requested. Ruby ignored this request, instead asking if all of his talk about having faith in humanity was just for everyone else.
While this conversation was going on, Phoenix was questioning how much he should trust Ozpin. "He's the one who took me in after I left Cinder. He's family," he thought. "But he's also kept me in the dark about so much. He went out of his way to make it sound like Cinder was the mastermind whenever I was listening to his meetings. Salem, the relics, the Gods: all of this was kept secret from me. I was the one who warned him that Cinder was hunting the Fall Maiden in the first place." As Ozpin was telling Ruby that he thought he should be the one to hold the relic due to its power, Phoenix decided to speak up. "If the relic can't do anything right now, then why does it matter who holds it? Or was that another lie?"
"I need you to listen to m-" Ozpin started to say as he approached them. However, he suddenly froze. The others gave him confused looks.
The reason for his behavior was made clear when Oscar started speaking to them. "Hurry. He's trying to stop you," he told them, clearly struggling to keep Ozpin from taking control again and silencing him. "He's afraid you'll find out what he's… hiding" He fell to his knees before managing to continue. "Her name is Jinn. Say her name to summon her."
"Jinn," Ruby said softly, barely able to be heard by the others over the howling wind. As soon as she did, the wind was silenced and the snow swirling around them froze in place. The lamp floated from Ruby's hands, and blue-green smoke started to come from it. The smoke ended up taking the form of a woman floating in the air.
"Wonderful," the woman said once she had fully formed. "Tell me, what knowledge do you seek?" Everyone stared in awe as the woman introduced herself as Jinn. "I am a being created by the God of Light to aid humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. I've been graced with the ability to answer three questions every 100 years. You're in luck, as I am still able to answer-"
"That's enough!" Ozpin tried to stop her.
Ignoring him, she continued. "Two questions this era." Everyone turned to look at Ozpin. "It's a pleasure to see you again old man," she said with a chuckle, ignoring the obvious tension.
"Ruby, please. Don't," Ozpin tried once again to convince her to stop.
Qrow stepped forward in hopes of diffusing the tension, but the glares that were sent his way stopped him. "Do whatever you think is right kiddo," he told Ruby.
"Jinn," Ruby said, pausing for a moment to decide on what she should ask, "What is Ozpin hiding from us?"
"NO!" Ozpin yelled, lunging at her.
Everything and everyone around Phoenix disappeared before he had the chance to react. He was in an empty white void. "What the hell?" he muttered to himself. He tried calling out to the others while wandering around the void but received no response.
His search was interrupted when a trail leading to a castle. As it appeared Jinn started speaking. "Once upon a time there stood a lonely tower that sheltered a lonely girl." The tower and path were replaced as soon as she finished saying this. They were then replaced with a blond woman sitting in front of a mirror. "Named Salem."
Sorry for interrupting the story and breaking the immersion or whatever, but I was curious if anybody wanted to see the notes I have for a story focused on Phoenix's time as the Flaming Shadow before the start of this story. I honestly have no idea why I have them since I'll probably never actually write the story. If you want to see them then let me know. I'm putting this here because I have no idea how many of you actually read the stuff at the bottom. If some people seem interested, then I'll post the notes as a story. The notes read kinda like a story, so it probably won't be against the guidelines.
Everyone was frozen in shock as Jinn's answer concluded. Yang was the one to break the silence. "Salem can't be killed… You all heard her too, right?!" she asked angrily.
Ozpin, who had fallen to his knees at some point during the answer, looked up at her with tears streaming down his face. "I-" he started, but Yang started to yell at him before he could explain himself.
"There was so much you hadn't told us! How could you think that was okay?!"
"Professor," Ruby started, "what is your plan to defeat Salem?"
"I… don't have one," he answered reluctantly.
"What?!" Phoenix yelled in rage. "I may have kept secrets from my friends, but that was because I wanted to keep them from getting involved in all of this! I told them what I knew after I realized that I couldn't do that anymore! If we were being kept in the dark because you couldn't risk your plan being revealed, even unintentionally, then I'd understand, but you just didn't want to admit to us that you have no idea what to do!" The only thing that kept him from attacking was the knowledge that anything he did would also hurt Oscar.
Qrow didn't show the same restraint. The force of his punch to the face sent Ozpin flying back into a nearby tree. "No one wanted me," Qrow said as he approached. "I was cursed. I gave my life to you because you gave me a place in this world. I thought I was finally doing some good." Ozpin tried to reassure him that he was doing good, but Qrow didn't care. "Meeting you was the worst luck of my life."
Ozpin paused to consider what had been said to him. "Maybe you're right," he said sadly before returning control to Oscar.
"What happened?" Ruby asked him once the switch had taken place.
"He's gone," Oscar replied.
"That bastard!" Yang yelled, storming towards him, "Tell him we're not done yet!"
"No, this is different," Oscar started trying to explain, "He's gone. It's like he's locked himself deep inside my head. Our head?" He gripped his head. "I hate this! I want it to stop!"
His panic started to spread to the rest of the group, but order was quickly restored by their newest member. "Enough!" Maria yelled. Everyone turned to face her. "It'll be dark before we know it, and every one of you is spewing negativity!" She helped Oscar up with her cane before using it to point out a nearby trail, suggesting that they take it.
Yang tried to take control of the situation from Maria. "Lady, I don't know who you think you are but-"
"No buts!" Maria interrupted. "I understand that you're upset. Honestly I'm still coming to terms with the fact that this is humanity's second time around. But if we don't move, we die, and I'll be damned if I've lived this long just to die out here in the cold!" Ruby quickly agreed with her, and everyone began collecting supplies from the crash before they moved on.
As Phoenix was looking through some of the crates, he saw Ruby handing Oscar Ozpin's cane. "I'm just going to be another one of his lives, aren't I?" he asked her dejectedly as he took it. Ruby reassured him that this wasn't true.
Phoenix thought differently. "I wish she were right, but I don't think there's anything we can do to stop that." However, he decided against actually pointing this out to the two of them.
Qrow, on the other hand, was more than willing to point out that Ruby's attempt to reassure him was false. "Don't lie to him, Ruby. We're better than that," he told her as he walked by, taking a sip from his flask.
Yet another long wait for a short chapter. The biggest problem that I had with this chapter (other than regular writers' block) when I felt like writing was figuring out what to do with Phoenix so that there was at least some difference from the show. I had a few ideas, but I couldn't think of how to write them properly. I get the feeling that the same may be true for some of the other chapters that take place in volume six. I have Plans for volume seven though, so I don't think that the wait for chapters will be as long when I get there.
I also had some technical difficulties that came up and college work. Now that I'm on break, I should have more time to write.
Instead of focusing on this story, I also spent time working on notes that I mentioned before. Like I said, If you're interested, then let me know in reviews.
Any and all claims that "Persona 5 Royal" had anything to do with how long this chapter took are definitely false.
Thanks for reading!
