Chapter 51: Devil's Advocate
In Weiss' heart-to-heart with her sister gets a little heated, and Penny finds out what's up with Pyrrha.
Weiss stood at the doors to Winter's temporary lodging and straightened her shirt. After some last minute adjustments to make sure her hair was presentable, she knocked.
"Enter."
Weiss' reflection stared back at her in the nearby window accusingly. She was here to tell Winter off, or maybe redeem her. Why should she need to change her own appearance to suit Winter's expectations? Weiss intentionally ruffled her hair and stepped in.
Winter sat at her desk and did not look up from the papers in front of her. "Sister. Your hair is a mess. Perhaps you ought to take some time to freshen up before you confront me. I shall even grant you the use of my washroom and field grooming kit, as I doubt that the facilities you use are up to the Schnee standards."
"My hair is not – what makes you say – how did you know I was here to confront you?"
"It was fairly obvious from the way you knocked. Five well-spaced raps are for a jovial visit, two brief strikes are for an angry rebuke."
"I didn't think we fought enough to warrant you memorizing my unique knocking cadences."
"It was from your interactions with father. You frequently utilized that little code on the door to his study."
"Naturally. It seems all things always lead back to that man, do they not?"
"They do."
"As it happens, the matter which I intend to discuss with you is related to him and the lies he has told you. Told us."
"Weiss, he told innumerable lies during his tenure as CEO of the SDC and the Schnee family. You'll need to be more specific."
"Specifically, the lies he told us about the Faunus."
Winter raised an eyebrow. "The Faunus? Oh, Weiss, did you interrupt my work just to launch another tirade about how father mistreats the animals in the Dust mines? Forgive me, but I do not wish to hear your tired old rant one more time."
"No. Well, he does mistreat them, but I've discovered that the Faunus are in fact humans."
"Humans – snruh!"
Winter leaned forward in her seat and attempted to contain her laughter, since laughter and any other extreme display of emotion were unbefitting of a Schnee. It was almost comedic how the two of them casually derided their father but still obeyed his rules of decorum.
"I'm not joking. Species are defined by their ability to produce fertile offspring, so humans and Faunus are–"
"I'd rather not receive a lesson in taxonomy, thank you very much."
"My friend and I accumulated a collection of videos that can prove–"
Winter shot Weiss a look that was somewhere in between sympathy and…
…disappointment.
"Weiss, I've always known that Faunus are humans. Everyone knows. Well, everyone but you. This is common knowledge that seems to have slipped through the cracks of your apparently insufficient and substandard education. My, I do wonder what other storybook fables and blatantly obvious over-exaggerations you may have taken for fact."
Weiss' stomach flipped upside down, and it took all her willpower to not regurgitate the greasy noodles from lunch all over Winter's floor. "You knew? Why do you treat them like second class citizens?"
"I do so because I can. As long as Faunus continue to present themselves as cheap sources of labor, there is no reason in a capital focused economy to treat them as anything other than just that. Should an uprising or activist movement gain any serious ground, Father and the SDC will adjust their practices to avoid potentially costly scandals or conflicts, and so will I. Until then, neither of us have any motivation to treat blue-collar workers with greater respect than their station merits."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Winter rose and stood face to face with Weiss. Even after all these years, Weiss' sister still towered over her.
"I didn't tell you, Weiss, because doing so would only harm you in the long run. It was up to you to figure out the truth for yourself. A mother bird can crack open the shell of its egg, but in doing so it would doom the chick to a life of dependence and reliance."
"I don't buy it. That answer is so dishonest that it could run for Vale's council."
"Weiss…"
"I never had a chance. I was alone in the manor with that wretched man controlling what I could learn and what I couldn't. It was impossible for me to break open my own shell. I'll ask you again, why didn't you tell me?"
"I've already told you. Let us not belabor the point. We have much to discuss."
"We only have one thing to discuss. I'm afraid I must insist that you treat the Faunus with equivalent dignity to humans."
"And I must decline."
"I will also have to demand an apology on behalf of my partner, Blake Belladonna. You treated her incredibly disrespectfully."
"I did no such thing. I don't even know anyone by the name of…of…"
"That is part of the problem. You assumed she was a valet when you met her."
Winter's hands latched onto Weiss shoulders with a vicegrip. "Weiss. That Faunus, the valet or whatnot. She is your partner? Your huntress partner, on Team Rainstorm?"
"Y-Yes. And it's Rai–"
"And her last name is Belladonna?"
"Yes?"
"Weiss, I know you only recently learned that the Faunus are more than animals, but there is a terrorist organization known as the–"
"The White Fang," Weiss finished. "I knew. I helped shut them down in Mountain Glenn."
"Oh, Weiss," Winter drawled. "You must've done a poor job of it. Blake Belladonna is a member of the White Fang, the very daughter of its founders. She and Adam Taurus have been on Atlas' Most Wanted list for years now, below only Sienna Khan herself."
"Oh, that. No, Blake quit the White Fang."
There was a brief silence between the two. The pitying look Winter gave her made Weiss feel white hot shame.
"She bats her pretty little ears and you believe her at her word, Weiss? I thought you were smarter than this."
"That isn't why–"
"So you aren't in love with her?"
"Well, I am, but it's not why I…urgh, this seemed so easy to explain before."
"Weiss, you've clearly become too close to the situation. I'm going to talk to the General. He'll sort this all out."
"Wait!"
Weiss tried to move but found herself frozen solid as Winter stepped away. Blake was going to be arrested by Atlas, and it was all her fault.
Oh, it seemed so stupid in hindsight. She'd shown up with grand designs of showing Winter the error of her ways and getting an engraved apology for Blake, but it turned out that Weiss had been a chump every step of the way. Winter knew, she just didn't care. Everyone knew but Weiss. The entire world was a big joke, and Weiss didn't get it because it was being played on her.
Weiss felt afraid, powerless, and vulnerable. This was the worst.
No, wait, it actually wasn't. Initiation to Beacon had been the worst. Back then, she'd felt just as afraid, powerless, and vulnerable, but there was a big difference between then and now.
Weiss smiled.
During initiation, she didn't have a weapon.
Everything Winter did was to protect her sister.
From the start to the end, it was all for Weiss. She'd joined the military because the threats that Atlas faced were too severe to not be addressed. When General Ironwood had taught her of Salem's existence, it was the thought of her sister alone and facing the end of the world that drove her to join the shadow war.
Upon learning of the maidens, she'd taken it upon herself to disqualify her sister before she came of age. If Weiss maintained her innocent but deluded notions of blissful vacancy, among them that Faunus were animals, none of the progressives of Beacon in Ozpin's cabal would ever seriously consider her as a maiden candidate.
Winter also vowed to never teach Weiss how to summon and was taking steps to distance herself from her sister, as she had upon arriving in Vale. It was tough – hitting Weiss, insulting her own sister, leaving her weak and foolhardy – but it was necessary. If Weiss appeared too competent, she might be chosen to be a maiden, a.k.a. to die an early death. Perhaps Weiss would never understand, and perhaps she'd even grow to resent Winter for it, but she'd be alive to resent her.
That was, of course, assuming that Weiss didn't accidentally die fighting Winter right here and now. Perhaps Winter had overdone it a bit because Weiss was really, really weak. Calling this a fight was insulting the word fight.
A Glyph appeared beneath Winter's feet, so Winter simply summoned a stronger counter-Glyph rotating the opposite direction to undo it. Winter's control of her semblance was superior to Weiss', and she was more familiar with her own weapons. Weiss was unused to the weight of her shovel and acted like she was still holding Myrtenaster.
"I won't let you take her from me!"
To add insult to injury, Weiss was going on about how much she loved this partner of hers.
A Faunus.
A Valean Faunus.
A terrorist Valean Faunus.
A female terrorist Valean Faunus.
Literally everything undesirable in a partner for her sister all rolled up into one slut-shaped package.
"Love isn't real, Weiss. Did you learn nothing from Father and Mother?" Winter was well aware that not all relationships were as dysfunctional as that of her parents, but it was what Weiss needed to hear right now. The truth wasn't going to help; only Winter could help her.
"I hate you!"
Weiss threw her pickaxe, which apparently was…a boomerang. Winter simply reached a hand up and caught the boomerang before it hit her. Disappointment surged through her. Vale had ruined her sister. The proud Schnee that Winter once loved with all her heart was now a sniveling mess without a brain or any appreciable skills.
Winter placed her sabers at Weiss' throat.
"Yield."
"You'll have to kill me."
"Wouldn't be difficult. You don't even have your aura up." Winter rapped Weiss' cheek with the flat of her left blade to demonstrate. "Don't be stupid, sister."
Mayhem glinted in Weiss' eyes. "Why not? That's all I'm good for."
Winter pulled back her blades just before Weiss thrust her exposed neck forward. A moment later and Weiss would've impaled herself.
What…she…why?
"You see, sister, you reminded me of an encounter I had in Forever Fall with a very peculiar Grimm." Weiss accelerated herself towards Winter with a Glyph. Winter waved her blades and sent razor sharp ice shards at Weiss.
"And just like it, you can't kill me."
Weiss opened her arms wide as the projectile ice shot towards her.
Idiot! Get your guard up!
Winter waved her swords again to stop the ice with a barrier Glyph. This was going to be tricky. With Weiss refusing to defend herself, Winter couldn't attack her at full force. It was like fighting with her hands tied behind her back.
The only word to describe Weiss' expression was unhinged. "But I can kill you."
A wide pair of white Ursa paws wrapped around Winter and pulled her into a literal bear hug. The summoned Grimm was weak and poorly controlled, but it had a good grip on Winter from behind her.
That wasn't the matter, though. How in the Brothers' name had Weiss learned summoning when Winter never taught her?
"Judging from your reaction, you knew that doing this was part of our hereditary semblance. You knew, and you never told me. Is this just a joke to you, another round of Don't Tell Weiss the Not-So-Secret Secret that We All Know? "
Winter kicked down to summon her own flock of juvenile Nevermores out of a crude Glyph. The white bird Grimm pecked at the Ursa, and it released Winter to swat them down.
Winter gasped to regain her breath. "How…?"
"How did I learn to do something on my own? How did I discover the power that I was born with? I just did it one night by accident and figured it out over time. Thousands of young hunter students stumble into their semblances on their own. Is it so surprising to you that stupid little Weissykins did the same?"
Weiss bunched up her cheeks and smiled a sick smile, blowing a kiss as she did so. The vitriol in her voice was something new to Winter, and she found that she did not care for it.
"Cease this foolishness! You're fighting your own sister to defend a terrorist!"
"You're not my sister!"
That hurt more than any of Weiss' attacks. Winter sent the Nevermores after her, but Weiss didn't budge. The birds flapped around her, but Winter couldn't bring herself to command them to attack. Winter rescinded her disappointment; this strategy of Weiss' was proving quite effective.
Too effective.
"Weiss, she's not right for you."
"Why not?"
"She's a Faunus!"
"I thought that didn't matter to you."
"It does when my sister is romantically involved with one of those animals!" Winter heard the words come out of her mouth, but she couldn't process them right now. She'd do that later – only Weiss mattered now. "You can't love her!"
"Oh my! It looks like my perfect sister is actually racist after all, despite her claims otherwise. How shameful…"
"I'm trying to protect you."
"By controlling me? By lying to me? So many lies…everything you ever said was a lie."
"That's not true!"
"Oh, so now I'm the liar? Did I lie to you about the Faunus? Did I lie to you about our semblance? Did I lie to you about being a condescending, mean, rude bitch?"
"I never wanted to lie to you!"
"Ohoho! But I thought you said you'd never lied to me. Which is it?"
"Stop twisting my words!"
"I was so looking forward to this, to seeing you. But all you've done since coming to Vale was insult me and my friends, try to hurt me, and criticize every little thing I do. I think the biggest lie you ever told me was that you loved me."
"Weiss, no." Winter dropped her sabers and reached towards her sister. "I was trying to keep you safe. I only did all that to prevent you from being chosen as–"
Weiss hit away her hands. "I'm tired of this, Winter. I'm tired of you. Let's resolve this once and for all." Weiss adopted a professional pose, crossing her arms and placing her legs together. "Blake is innocent. You seem to have developed some unfounded conspiracy theory that she's a criminal, likely due to your implicit racial bias against Faunus. If you choose to present your ramblings to the General, there will be consequences. When I, Weiss Schnee, claim my birthright as heiress to the SDC, I will cease all Dust sales to the kingdom of Atlas and its military."
No…no! That would cripple Atlas. Their entire armada was powered by SDC Dust. Jacques had a monopoly so expansive that there was no alternative but to buy his product.
Weiss had to be bluffing. Winter wasn't going to buy it. "You wouldn't. Atlas, your home, would fall to the Grimm."
"Tut-tut, Specialist. You always say that Atlas is the strongest state, and I just know you wouldn't eeeeeever deceive me. I'm sure a little Dust shortage won't matter. And Atlas isn't my home. Not anymore."
"I-I'll tell Father." Winter had to choke out the words. Never had she felt so sick as she did right now, but she had to press on, or it would all be for nothing. "About your whore. He hates the White Fang."
I'm doing this for Weiss.
Weiss smirked. "The disgraced firstborn comes running back with wild declarations about how the second daughter who replaced her as heiress is now cavorting with a terrorist. How will that end? He'll think you're trying to take back your claim. You don't get to win this one, Winter. You aren't prepared to burn down the world to achieve your aims like I am."
Both of them knew what a monster Father was, and what Winter using him as a threat meant. It was the breaking point. Winter had gone too far, and their relationship was dead. Weiss, her sister, her everything, was truly lost to her.
A flash of anger came up, and Winter let it out, hoping to hurt the ungrateful sister who'd scorned her protection. "I hope getting to fuck that animal of yours is worth it."
Weiss shook her head as she opened the door. "It's not about her, Winter. It's about you. You're toxic. Imagine if you found out that every truth, every constant, every absolute you'd ever known was just an illusion made by those around you to manipulate you. First Father, then you – I'll never believe a single thing I learned back at the manor. It's time I started fresh, and that means trimming all the dead weight. I have a new family in Vale, and I neither want nor need you. Goodbye, Specialist Schnee."
"What's your name?"
"Pyrrha Nikos."
"What's your favorite color?"
"Red and black...and white."
"What weapon do you use?"
"Miló and Akoúo̱."
"What are Miló and Akoúo̱?"
"They're a…gun? No, one of them is a shield. But I don't use a shield. It shifts into…? I can't remember."
"What is your profession?"
"Huntress. Easy."
"What is your team?"
"Team Stark."
"Who is Team Stark?"
"Jaune Arc, leader. Me, his partner. Dove Bronzewing and Russel Thrush."
"Who are you?"
"…"
"Who am I?"
"Another easy one. You, Qrow Branwen, are the biggest Grade A idiot I've ever known. A for asshat. Or a-hole. Take your pick."
Qrow seemed distressed as he interrogated Pyr, and not because of the general rudeness she emanated. Jaune spirited her straight to the professor's private study as soon as the weirdness had shown itself. Dove had been given a hand-wavy explanation that she was feeling unwell. He obviously hadn't bought it, but he'd said he would trust Jaune to see to her health and stayed back in the dorms with Russel. By this point, Jaune had lost count of the number of times that same line had come up, and he was beginning to have doubts over just how much faith his teammates had misplaced in him.
I trust Jaune. He'll protect us.
I'll do it because Jaune said it's okay. He'd never put me in harm's way.
Sure, we've been dragged into a global conspiracy, but it's Jaune who dragged us in. Merry old Jaune! Let's follow him to our deaths!
Penny was also there, running the list of Pyrrha's symptoms against medical websites and hospital's records for good measure. Ozpin…
…had not been invited.
Jaune trusted the man implicitly, but he wasn't blind. Oz was changing, or perhaps he'd always been like this and Jaune just hadn't seen. Jaune agreed with the whole 'no sacrifice too great' thing, but Oz seemed to be taking it to the extreme. Cheating was justifiable, but firing Qrow as a judge to silence him? Plus, he'd basically conscripted Ruby in the fight against Salem when she'd just been born. And Jaune couldn't forgot how Oz had 'forgotten' to mention that going into the aura transfer device might change who Pyrrha was. He would never forget that until the day he died.
T̶h̶e̶ ̶d̶a̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶d̶i̶e̶d̶.̶
Regret was an odd feeling. He'd experienced it before, but never like this.
The aura transfer device in question was the prevailing theory. Jaune, Qrow, and Penny didn't know how it was affecting her when she'd never even stepped inside, but unnaturally remembering Raven's memories of Team Stark was too obvious a clue to ignore.
Qrow pulled Jaune and Penny over to the side. The robot girl was interfacing with the CCT at the moment, but she would still get to hear this.
"It's impossible. She knows things that only Raven knew. I asked her my favorite food and she said it was paella. She even knew that I normally lie when people ask and say hot wings to sound cooler. I only ever told that to my team."
Jaune shook his head. "There has to be some rational explanation. Did you tell her this stuff when you were drunk?"
"Jaune."
"Or, uh, Ruby and Yang's dad is a member of your team; maybe he told them, and they told Pyrrha. She is good friends with Ruby, after all."
"Jaune."
"I know, I know. It's just…this means she's already paying for my choice to involve her. She's losing herself."
Penny's eyes returned to normal. "I've reviewed the information at hand and discussed her symptoms with a scientist familiar with the aura transfer machine."
"Your father?" asked Qrow.
"I…yes. My father. Father said that this is most definitely a consequence of Friend Pyrrha entering the machine and undergoing the procedure."
"But she didn't enter the machine! She hasn't undergone anything!"
"Not yet, but she will."
Qrow's brow furrowed. "Explain."
"The only difference between the cause of an event and its effect is that we view time as a monodirectional flow. Watch a brick destroying a window in reverse, and you'll see shards of glass coming together to push a brick into someone's hand. Now, magic does not normally differentiate between past, present, or future. It exists on a separate plane of time that does not flow in a single direction. The natural transfer of maiden powers between two hosts is flawless and perfectly preserves all such power. On the other hand, when we forcefully rip the power away from its hosts during the aura transfer process, we briefly release some of that multidirectional magic into our monodirectional timeline. This magic moves both backwards and forwards in time, so it changes the past just as easily as the future. The effect will travel forwards in time, and the cause will travel backwards. It will be like ripples in a pond, travelling in all directions.
"When Friend Pyrrha steps into that machine, it will unleash some magic that was tethered to Raven's aura – her soul. This magic is now being absorbed into Friend Pyrrha as it travels backwards in time, and it brings with it part of Raven. Unfortunately, it will only get worse. Continuing with the pond metaphor, the ripples are always strongest closest to where you throw the rock."
"So Pyrrha will get more and more of Raven's memories until the transfer, which'll be the worst point."
"Precisely."
"C-Can we stop it? The aura-magic…thing?"
"Aura sickness is an appropriate term. I shall look into it. There is one definitively positive thing to note, though."
"What?!"
"Friend Pyrrha is not losing anything. She is gaining memories. This will bring her confusion as her mind attempts to reconcile that which is new with that which has always been there, but all parts that makes her Pyrrha Nikos shall remain. She will only become…more."
Friend Jaune and Friend Qrow were conversing between themselves, so Penny took the chance to make her move. Friend Pyrrha was on her scroll as she approached.
"Whatcha up to?"
"I was really hoping to call my partner, but her number isn't in my scroll."
"Your partner Summer?"
"No, Jaune's my partner. Wait, Jaune's number is right here, in the J's…and Jaune's standing right there…why did I want to call Jaune?"
"Never mind that. I was hoping to have a little chat about your condition."
Friend Pyrrha took the explanation as well as could be expected. She seemed relieved to know that she wasn't losing her mind.
"Are there any questions you wish to ask me?"
"Is there any way to reverse this, or undo it?"
Penny nodded. "I'll let you know if there are any developments."
Doctor Watts would be working on a solution, but given the sudden nature of this development, it was unlikely he'd be able to manufacture a treatment before Friend Pyrrha actually entered the aura transfer machine. This would certainly disrupt Queen Salem's designs, but Penny held hope that she could still salvage the situation.
"This must be awfully frightening for you, Friend Pyrrha."
"It is."
"Perhaps it will help to look on the bright side."
"Is there one?"
"This does mean that you will become the Spring maiden. It's more or less definitive proof."
Friend Pyrrha exhaled and smiled. She didn't seem the type to be interested in acquiring power, but the stress of choosing whether or not to do it must have been heavily weighing on her mind. Penny felt glad she could ease a fellow redhead's burden, if only slightly.
"I suppose you're right. It's easy, knowing for sure what's going to happen, even if it's something bad. One way or another, I don't need to lose any sleep worrying."
"Did you know that I was actually considered to be the new Spring maiden at one point?"
Friend Pyrrha shifted uncomfortably.
"General Ironwood offered, but I declined."
"Why?"
Penny felt a brief sting of guilt for what she was about to do, and especially when Pyrrha was already so distressed, but Friend Weiss' life was on the line. A little manipulation felt like a small price to pay if it guaranteed the safety of her first friend. Friend Pyrrha would agree with such deceitful methods if she knew the stakes.
"The responsibility was far too great for me. If I had that kind of power and I didn't protect the people I love, I'd feel it was my fault. And aren't there just so many threats right now to the people we love? Why, it seems like just yesterday that Friend Team Rainbow was stopping the White Fang in Mountain Glenn."
"Yeah. You're right. Ruby…no, all of them are in danger."
"Worry not, Friend Pyrrha. You're fated to have the power of a maiden. You can defeat any threat that they face."
"Not Cinder. She's got her sights set on Team Rainbow, and she's a maiden, too."
Penny did not smile, even though she was most pleased that Friend Pyrrha had brought Cinder up on her own. "I suppose you're right. The Fall maiden must be well versed with her powers by this point. Even if you are inconceivably strong, she wields that same strength, and with greater skill. She has the benefit of practice."
"I could kill her if she didn't see it coming."
"But if anything were to go wrong, there'd be no one to protect our friends. You see, Friend Pyrrha, the mantle of maiden is not one to be taken lightly. Not only must you protect our friends; you must protect yourself so that your power does not fall into the wrong hands. This is the responsibility from which I shied away."
"So, what should I do?"
"I'm not sure what you should do, but if it were me, I'd go for the relic."
"The relic?"
"Cinder's been in Beacon for months now. She probably been keeping tabs on Ozpin and everyone close to him in an effort to locate the vault beneath the school where the relic of choice is kept. For all we know, she may have even located the vault already and have the crown in her possession. If you could get your hands on the relic, you could use its awesome power to kill her."
Right now, things were not looking sensational. The relic of choice had definitely been removed from the vault, and Friend Azeban had been unable to locate its new hiding place. Until the relic was secure, Salem could not act against the Fall maiden, Team Caiman, or the White Fang, so Friend Weiss (and also Friend Team Rainbow, but mostly Friend Weiss) remained in jeopardy. Right now, everything depended on Friend Pyrrha locating the relic and killing the Fall Maiden. Pitting maiden against maiden was a risky play, but the relic should turn the tide in Friend Pyrrha's favor. Then, when Friend Weiss was out of harm's way, Penny could steal back the relic and transport it to Salem's castle. Penny agreed with the Queen; Friend Pyrrha had certainly been a good choice for the next fall maiden.
Friend Jaune and Friend Qrow returned from their conference as Penny drew a small sample of Friend Pyrrha's blood to run an aura level analysis.
Friend Qrow looked at Friend Pyrrha. "You good, kid?"
"I hate this."
"I know. Weird shit tends to come your way when you mix with this crowd. Let me know if you suddenly turn into a bird. With that red hair like yours, I'd guess a cardinal."
"Not just the new memories, though. All of this. I hate this war."
Friend Jaune rushed to wallow in self-loathing, but Friend Pyrrha reassured him. "It's not your fault Jaune. It would be happening whether or not Team Adventure was a part of it, and I'm glad we can help. I just wish it had never happened. All because Salem was childish."
Penny had never tried her hand at horticulture, but perhaps this was a prime opportunity to plant a seed.
"Childish? How so, Friend Pyrrha?"
"This all happened because Ozpin, or Ozma, or whatever he was called back then, died, and Salem couldn't accept it. She waged war with the Brother Gods when they refused to bring him back, and the world was destroyed for her sins. Even now, she still can let it go and seeks out the relics. If she could just make peace with the fact that she can't control everything, none of this would be necessary."
Penny tilted her head. She'd have to be careful not to be too heavy handed. "Certainly, Salem is the enemy of today, but it sounds like the true villains are the Gods. They chose to not resurrect Ozma at first then relented when it suited their needs. All Salem did was come to them with a simple request, then try to kill herself with the Grimm pools. For this, she was cursed to eternal suffering. She may be a monster now, but she responded in an understandable manner to trauma."
"The Brothers certainly are dicks, but Salem brought her curse upon herself," Friend Qrow added. "She tried to steal their power and overthrow them."
"Even before that, Salem should never have asked the gods to bring her lover back. People die every day," Pyrrha said with surety. "It's natural. We shouldn't throw a temper tantrum because we can't change that."
"During your fight with Team Auburn, you responded quite negatively when Friend Jaune was simply knocked out of the ring. Do you believe you would not have responded in a similar manner to Salem if he were slain?"
Friend Pyrrha was silenced by this.
"I do not mean to accuse you, Friend Pyrrha. All I'm saying is that we often judge others for emotional outbursts from a position of rationality yet find our own moments of weakness to be excusable. Friend Qrow, would you sit back and continue pray to some uncaring Gods if they allowed Friends Ruby and Yang to perish? Friend Jaune, would you not do anything to protect Friend Pyrrha from those who would do her harm?"
At last, Friend Qrow spoke. "So what? We should forgive just Salem, like that?"
"No. I was simply playing devil's advocate. I've finished the blood analysis and will now upload the data. Please hold." Penny accessed the CCT and began to send the data to Doctor Watts. Her vision disappeared.
"Pyr, you've got some sand in your hair."
"Ew, gross. Get it off, get it off! I hate sand."
"That's new. I…I think. Qrow, did Raven hate sand?"
"N-No. Raven actually loved the beach. She'd pluck and eat shellfish raw when we camped near the waterfront as kids."
"Pyrrha, do you remember hating sand before today?"
"…n-no, never. I was always fine with it, I think. I remember touring Vac-Vac-Vacuo, and I never thought anything negative about the sand. So, if it's not my memory, and it's not Raven's, whose memory is it?"
Omake
Yang: So, Pyrrha. I hear you're my mom now.
Pyrrha: *obligatory Anakin Skywalker hating sand joke*
Yang: Great, great. Hey, could I real quick do you a murder? Don't worry, I promise it's for therapy purposes.
Next Chapter: Setting Sun – See ya!
Author's Notes
Welcome back! Regular updates shall henceforth be delivered with the regular regularity.
Winter gaslights Weiss too hard, and the gas lights…and explodes her and she dies. The end.
Apologies for Penny's brick wall of text to explain my made up maiden stuff.
Happy rats, and don't do crime!