Oh boy I have been having a lot of headaches lately. Weird tension ones, like where it feels like a band around the back of your head and above your ears. I'm not sure if it's a stress or tension headache or what.

Cover Art: GWBrex

Chapter 55

The constant distractions that were the new aura-capable men being taught by the Chosen couldn't last forever. Jaune was surprised they lasted as long as they did, a full three weeks. During that time, he worked with the hunters to fetch meat, proved his worth to the locals, and surreptitiously taught Adam, Ren, and Ruby in the background, expanding on their education in aura and magic while the others were trained solely by the huntresses. It did well at keeping the two huntresses busy but the spectre of the Church's return to the island nation loomed, and there wasn't much he could do to stop it short of sinking their ships and killing them. He wasn't prepared to go that far, and it'd only mean more being sent.

He'd travelled from Vale to Mistral, across Mistral and now to the forgotten island of Menagerie, and Salem had chased him all the way. Was there anywhere he could go that she wouldn't follow? Was there such a thing as safe in this world?

"You knew, didn't you?"

"I knew," said Ozma. "This song and dance has repeated itself a thousand times over and it always ends the same way. I am sorry. For what little it might be worth, I sought to help you as I could. I realise that might ring hollow given my actions in Vale but I swear to you that was the madness that took hold."

"That doesn't help me now. Why, though? Why does she keep forcing it? I'm running away; I'm no threat. Doesn't she see that?"

"You have never been a threat to her, Jaune. That is not why she hunts you. In truth, I have not been a threat for the longest time either. My mind has fractured. I fear it still is. For conversation like this and a little magical assistance, I am fine, but if I were to take control of assimilate you entirely then I fear I would be overwhelmed by so much stimulus and driven mad again. Neither of us is in any position to threaten her rule."

"Then why does she hunt us so? Is it some prophecy?"

"Only a self-fulfilling one if anything. I fight her, and she fights me, and over the millennia it has become so regular an occurrence that we both fall into habit. But, in truth, this is more than the last few I have inhabited. Those that did not surrender themselves willingly. It used to be that she would gather her forces and wait for me to attack. A chance to prove her superiority and portray me as the aggressor."

"Then what's changed? Why is she so insistent?"

"Is she, Jaune? You have been hunted by meagre numbers of Chosen. Salem could have swarmed Mistral with thousands if she wished – and she could drown Menagerie to reach you. The question you should be asking yourself is not why she hunts you so incessantly, but why she continues to give you chances to escape."

"Escape where? She owns the world."

"A poor choice of words. Escape implies freedom. What I meant to say is that she gives you the illusion of escape when she could have given you none. She toys with you like a cat would a mouse, batting you about and watching your reactions with faint amusement when she could kill you with but the slightest effort."

Playing with him. She was, wasn't she? Even now she'd sent two young huntresses to the island, and not even given them explicit orders to take control. The fact that Pyrrha and Coco could afford to take time to train the men went to show that they weren't under any time limit. They were in no rush. Jaune sunk to the ground and let his back rest against an oak tree. The grass was soft and clovers grew thick among it, reminding him of home. A home he could never return to now, and a nebulous concept in its own because he did not think there was such a thing as home anymore. Home was a place you could feel safe, after all.

"Tell me why this all started."

"Are you sure?"

"I need to know, don't I? I'm surprised you haven't already."

"I did not want to push you. There are things I felt you were not ready to hear, and I'm still not sure. You have lived a life in the assumption of a divine and heavenly figure. Could you even believe me if I told you the truth of your goddess?"

"Maybe. Maybe not. But I need to hear it anyway."

"Very well. I will tell you."

/-/

Ozma had been right to say he wouldn't have believed him before, for he could scarcely believe him now. The story was long, as any with tens of thousands of years of history would be, and to hear how the times had changed over those millennia left him in disbelief. Tales of an ancient time when Salem and Ozma had walked as human; tales of the fall of that time; tales of Ozma being a king; of the protection of the lands; of the formation and fall of kingdoms; of the advance of technology; of a Vale that was far superior to the one he knew.

Of an eventual shortage of some nebulous material known as dust, the inevitable collapse of society, and the first chink in Ozma's impenetrable armour. It was inevitable in a sense. If you lived forever then that meant you would fail sooner or later. Thousands of years of rule under Ozma, under his protection, torn apart in an instant, and the reign of a new queen. The collapse and reformation of civilisation at a lower level, and the careful ministrations of Salem in shaping it in her image. A switch in the situations. Now, she was the defender, and he the aggressor.

If any of it were true…

"I told you there would be doubt. You have experienced a lifetime of knowing her as a benevolent goddess."

"It's just so hard to believe even beyond that," said Jaune. "You've seen my life. Has she not been benevolent? Before I housed you, I mean. Most of the world is peaceful. It's not as though she demands blood sacrifice."

"Once upon a time she wished to destroy the world and everyone on it."

"But does she now? It looks to me like she's happy to rule."

"It is a mockery to me," said Ozma. "And one I gladly play into. Salem told me that she would torture me by reversing the situation and making me experience the solitude she had. That is where we stand now. These thousands of years have been to harm me. But I fear what will happen once she grows bored of that. What next? All experiences dull over the millennia. That is part of why she wanted to end it all. Man is not made to live forever."

"Then what do you think will happen? Salem gets bored and kills everyone?"

"Do you think that so unlikely? If this world bores her then why not make another? It is within her power. Do not make the mistake of thinking people matter to her. In her time, she has seen millions come and go. I, too, experienced that, and came to see people as tools. It is hard not to when you are focused on a greater goal and the people around you simply come and go."

"Has anything changed there?"

Ozma chuckled in his head. "So biting. But yes, something has changed. I have lived in the heads of humans and experienced once more what it means to struggle. I have experienced love, loss, grief, pleasure, joy, and sorrow. It may be only as a passenger, but the emotions feel just as real. I have been reminded of what it means to be human."

Jaune fought for an answer that wouldn't come. Ozma sounded like he meant every word, and he felt he had gotten good enough at judging the spirit's lies to tell. It was hard not to believe, either, with what he had seen. It just all sounded so unbelievable.

"I can't believe a world existed where a Jaune Arc met a Ruby Rose who was Yang Xiao-Long's sister before this one. It's like you're saying this all happened before."

"It did. To me, at least. But such is the reality of eternity. Be it chance, coincidence, fate, or the recycling of old souls, I have seen much of this before. A different time, a different place, but the same people. I failed, then. Not they, not you, but me. I am the one who failed everyone, and I will never forget that."

Ozma had only told him the barest of it all, saying that the details didn't matter. He didn't know anything of this other-Jaune and other-Ruby, only that they had been close friends, heroes, and that they had done their best and died. He was afraid to ask more. Afraid to believe any of it.

"So, all these attacks on Salem are just your way of keeping the game interesting to her? So that she doesn't get bored and kill us all?"

"That's a beneficial side-effect, really. My intention has ever been to depose and defeat her so that Remnant will be safe. Or as safe as it can be. The world won't truly be safe until she – and I – are dead and gone once and for all."

"It's still so hard to believe. Salem employs Chosen to hunt the Grimm, and yet you say they're under her control as well?"

"A clever ruse on her part. But if it is proof you want then consider Mistral."

Had Salem destroyed Mistral and slaughtered its people? That didn't feel right. Mistral had been readying itself to go back to her control, just under a new leader, and they were faithful. Why kill them? It didn't make sense. Was it just to taunt them? Was it some sick way of punishing them for daring to intervene in Mistral? Was it a message? Did Salem really have the Grimm do that? Even when Ozma said she controlled them, they still hunted on their own merit. He doubted she ordered those few to be close to Ansel, and people perfectly loyal to her died to them all the time.

"You don't believe me." Ozma let out a quiet sigh. "That's fine. I expected no less. But you asked me a question before how Salem's ships found these shores through all the obstacles before them. I will show you when the next ship arrives."

/-/

It took another two weeks before the galleon was sighted. Jaune stood upon a cliff face overlooking it come through the waters toward Menagerie, as the bright sun in the sky beat down on the landscape and across the water's surface. Faunus dotted the shore to watch it arrive, a welcoming party of those who genuinely looked forward to the church's return. Less excited were the men with aura, who knew this would bring its own share of problems. Sienna had made it clear that none would be leaving the island even if the church demanded it, out of fear that they might "disappear" on the way, or be branded heretical and killed. Pyrrha had assured her that wouldn't happen, but everyone knew she was just a mouthpiece.

"Well, I'm here and it's coming. You said you have proof."

"I do. But I will need control of our body to show it to you. All you need do is watch."

There would have been no point to come this far and back out now. Jaune surrendered control and felt the coolness sweep over him. Ozma drew a deep breath into Jaune's body and took a moment to acclimatise himself. The galleon in the water was moving slowly now, turning toward shore after navigating its way through an impossible maze of whirlpools, jagged rocks, and shifting currents. It didn't look to have any trouble with that whatsoever.

"I told you I would reveal the trick here," said Ozma, raising his hand. Magic swirled around it. "Watch closely. Salem's intervention is more explicit than any might have possibly realised."

His control of magic was far superior to Jaune's. Where he might have been able to bring fire or lightning, Ozma summoned forth a lance of green light – not elemental in nature, but simply raw energy. Pure aura. It was perfectly contained and didn't once flicker, and when Ozma flicked his hand forward it shot downward at a forty-five-degree angle with a powerful bang that rang out in Jaune's ears.

It didn't strike the ship; it hadn't been aimed at that. Instead, it hit the water several metres off the ship's port side, punched down and through the waves and disappeared under the vessel itself. What was the point of that? He'd assumed Ozma was going to reveal magic on the hull by splashing a spell off it, but he'd missed-

The water roiled, boiled, and frothed dangerously. Black tendrils burst from the surface and up around the vessel, constricting and writhing in apparent agony. They came up and over, twitched, and slammed down onto the ship, cracking the mast and splintering the main deck. It was too far to see if anyone suffered, but as more tentacles came up and trashed about, some cracked open the ship's hull. The body of the beast came up last, a gaping hole glowing green through its bulk and black ichor pooling out into the water like a sickly mist.

The Grimm was dying. It had taken a mortal blow. But it was thrashing in its death throes and battering the ship it had been hidden beneath. No. The ship it had been guiding through the waters. It had hidden beneath it, held onto it, and guided it through the many obstacles.

"The goddess guides and protects us all, as she has for millennia. We set sail without a map. We set sail with only the assurance that we would reach these shores. And, through divine providence, we did. Whenever our ship sailed close to danger its course was corrected – and through no action on our part. It was as if the seas themselves pushed us away from danger, and back onto the correct path."

Jaune didn't know if it was his recollection of what the priest had said or if Ozma was replaying it in his mind somehow, but he heard it again, word for word, and in the priest's own voice. It made him want to laugh, but since Ozma had control of his body he just stood and watched it all happen.

It was true, then. Salem really did command the Grimm. As faunus on the shores reacted with horror, and as those on the ship fought what they must have thought was a monster come to get them, Jaune went back in his head over every encounter with the Grimm. There were perilously few. The Grimm had appeared at Ansel at almost the same time as the Chosen had. Coincidence? Or had they been there to provoke him into exposing himself? Since then, they'd been curiously absent. Suspiciously so.

For creatures that apparently were summoned by negativity, it was odd that they never showed up at the tournament, or on the ships, or at all in Mistral, where people suffered and died in their tens of thousands. Mistral should have been a breeding ground for them, yet Winter Schnee had been allowed to run rampant unmolested, and the Grimm had only come when she fell.

If he had stayed to try and take over Mistral, as most every Dark Lord before him had, then he would have been trapped inside and besieged. Had that been the plan? Salem must have assumed he would stay to take command and dispatched her legions to prevent that happening. And now she'd dispatched yet more to ensure the church could send their vessels through the waters.

It was hopeless.

He had convinced himself he could outrun her because of human limitation; had believed that if he escaped her Chosen, that she wouldn't be able to find him. That wasn't the case. The Grimm were her eyes and ears, and there was no place on Remnant he could escape to where they wouldn't find him. No wonder Ozma held no hope. No wonder Jinn had looked at him so pityingly. They knew. They had always known.

It really was hopeless.

"It's not hopeless," said Ozma, speaking in his voice. "Little truly is. I have tried and failed ten thousand times, but before that – before my fall – she tried and failed ten thousand times as well. Nothing lasts forever. No obstacle is truly insurmountable. Salem is no goddess – she is human. Immortal, yes, but fallible."

"You want me to fight her," said Jaune. "After all that you said about not forcing me into your war, you've led to this."

"The choice has always been yours, Jaune. It is not a great choice, I admit, but it is there."

"Rise up with you and fight her? Is that it?"

"The choice is yours. I will not lie and say it will be easy, or that the odds are in your favour. I have failed too many times to be of use, and history shows that this will most likely end only one way. Still, if the choice is to suffer a slow and painful defeat, or fight and die sooner? I think that I would rather the smaller chance – and the quicker end."

"Your recruitment needs work…"

"I am not the man I once was," said Ozma. He surrendered control of Jaune's body, and his voice became an echo in the back of Jaune's mind. "And even were I at my prime, I failed there. After thousands of years of success, I failed. But the same can hold true for her. Fight her, or flee from her, but both paths will lead to confrontation eventually. The only difference is whether or not you will stand with allies at your side."

The ship was sinking now. Though she had not instructed it, the beast was causing chaos in its death, and had already crushed much of its hull. Many were swimming to shore, some were tyring for boats, but more were simply drowning. He had caused this, in a sense, and yet no one could blame him for what a monster had done. Indeed, more would wonder at just why a Grimm had been beneath the ship, and why it had chosen now to attack.

It wouldn't be the end of things. Salem would know and more ships would be sent, and those coming ashore would have their own ideas of how to handle the men with aura. Some were bound to think it better if they just died quietly. Others might want to make a spectacle of things, and ultimately this would mean many more people free to search the settlement and hunt him down. Ozma was right. It would be slow ruination if he waited anyway. He had tried to flee, and they had followed him, and they would follow him until the ends of the world.

"How can I fight them, though? How can I go against the whole world?"

"You start small. With one kingdom, or one island, and you make the most of what you have."

"Almost everyone here loves the goddess. They'll never fight behind me."

"They love the idea of the goddess, Jaune. They love a lie. Lies can be exposed – and they witnessed the fall of Mistral. If they knew who was truly behind it, then they would not love her. They would ask if they were next, and if the first fall of their home wasn't her fault as well."

Menagerie had fallen to the Grimm. Of course. That meant Salem had purged the island, then lied about it and told the faunus it couldn't be reclaimed. Had they done something wrong? Had they sided with Ozma in the past? Or had she just been bored? Was destroying Menagerie some small way of amusing herself? If the people knew then they would be furious. But how could he-?

The answer struck him.

"Jinn."

"Yes. Jinn can answer one last question and reveal one final truth. If you doubt me still, if you harbour any doubts at all, then she can put those to rest as well. All know the Relic of Knowledge cannot lie, and that her answers are absolute."

"Sienna would never let me use the last question for that."

"I would imagine that Sienna has greater concerns right now – and that she is on the shore helping to fish these so-called faithful out of the waters." He was right. The faunus were pulling out wooden fishing boats into the water. They were making the attempt. Sienna, Pyrrha, and Coco would surely be among them. "The opportunity is there – and you know that there are those who would side with you to make it happen. Go now. Hurry."

Jaune was already running.

Mah head. Ugh.

Next Chapter: 19th March

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