AN: Okay, so this one took a bit longer, because it is a bit longer, also some technical difficulties.
Thanks to hammerstorm for beta reading.
Thor
The cell was circular, with clear glass on all sides, allowing his captors to see him at all times. He didn't know where he was, but he was heavily bandaged. He still couldn't see out of his right eye, and his right arm was in a cast.
"Thor…are you ready to talk?" It was Ozpin.
Thor didn't say anything. He just stared at the floor.
"I know you're…unhappy, but trust me, you'll be safe here from Atlas prosecution." He said, " Do you still have the blueprints?"
Thor just kept his eyes on the ground. This had been going on for a few days, and he had an idea of what had occurred, or at least the other's thought they knew.
He was "insane" and had stolen classified military technology from Atlas.
It was all a trick of some unknown force, they had turned his friends and allies against him and had him locked away.
How they'd managed it, he didn't know, but he didn't care right now. He was in pain, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.
He turned in his cell to face away from Ozpin.
"Thor…I'm sorry, but you need."
"No." Thor cut him off "What I need is for you to leave me alone. You've been played like a pawn, and don't even know it."
"Thor…I know you believe that, but…". He trailed off and didn't finish. "I'll let you rest."
With that, Ozpin left, and Thor was alone again.
"Father…" He muttered tears filling his eyes, "Father…why have you abandoned me?"
Ozpin
Thor wasn't at all cooperative. People had been in to examine him and run tests on him, and he wasn't showing any of the typical signs of psychosis. He never denied the stories he'd told, or at least what was in the files, but he also wasn't talking much at all.
Several of his friends had requested to see him, but at this time, he didn't feel that was a good idea. Things were still too fresh, and he thought it would be counterproductive for now. Maybe once the injuries healed, he might allow it.
Atlas had taken the hammer and harness, disabling the safety feature. What they hadn't known was that Ozpin had made sure to copy the equipment and was now trying to replicate it. It was merely to good of an opportunity to waste, and any advantage was welcome.
He didn't have the blueprints, but before he'd handed it over, he'd examined it as much as he could, and he thought he could replicate it.
And if Thor ever got himself together, he might even be able to wield it again.
Ruby
As Ruby lay in her bed, she hadn't felt this bad…ever. It had been a few days since the whole ordeal, and she not only felt horrible but was confused. What had Thor meant by "Everything" he'd done? He hadn't hurt her except that one time he sort of broke up with her.
But as she thought on the whole ordeal more, she understood this to be a "break-up" in a fashion. They weren't going to be seeing each other in any real degree for some time.
"Ruby." Yang's voice called into the dorm.
"Yeah?"
Her sister came in and closed the dorm behind her. "Can we talk?"
Ruby didn't answer but shrugged and climbed down to talk to her sister.
Yang looked at her, and she could tell her sister was upset, nervous even.
"It's..about Thor…from before."
"Yeah…"
"Well…remember when we went into the city together?"
Blake
After everything that had happened with Thor, Blake had decided to take a few days off of class. None of the teacher's had objected after what had happened. Ruby had been the only other one to do so, which Blake had found surprising. It was a huge drain mentally and emotionally, but almost everyone else seemed like they wanted to just act like nothing had changed.
But everything had changed, they'd fought, and pretty severely hurt, a friend. On her part, she'd felt like she'd betrayed him more than most. He'd kept her secret and helped hide it when it came to it, and she'd helped arrest him.
He needed help, that was true but that didn't change how bad she felt over it.
As she made her way back to her dorm, she saw Ruby storming down the hall. She raised her hand to wave, but Ruby didn't look at her and stomped past. It was clear something was upsetting her, more than just the recent events. Blake considered going after her but thought better of it. She didn't have the energy to handle it at any rate, and as irritated as Ruby looked, some time to cool down may be in order.
Walking into their dorm, she felt the atmosphere change. Yang was sitting on her bed, face in her hands.
"Yang?"
"Blake…I've messed it all up."
"What 'all'?"
"With my sister," Yang said, looking up from her hands.
"What happened?" This was…disconcerting. With everything that happened with Thor and her own generalized sense of worry over being discovered, the idea of an internal dilemma with her team just made things feel a thousand times worse.
"I just…"
"Maybe you should start from the beginning."
Yang's armed flopped down to her side and let out a long sigh. "You remember when I went with Thor into the city, right before Torchwick caught Ruby?"
"Yes…not easy to forget that whole incident." Her ears twitched at this, and she wasn't exactly sure why. Just a general sense that something unpleasant was about to come up.
"Well…I sort of…got drunk…and…slept with Thor."
The bottom of Blake's stomach fell out at this. "And…that's what you just told Ruby?"
Yang didn't say anything, just nodded.
"Yang…" She began, "That's…what were you thinking?"
"I wasn't!" She yelled back, "We were drunk! And…you've seen him…he's…"
"Yeah I get the picture, but Yang… you know this isn't going to… why did you think now was a good time to tell her?"
"I just wanted to get it over with!" She shouted "I was going to wait till after the dance, but with Thor being a nutcase, sort seemed like… I should just…"
"Yang… you just piled a whole bunch of other things onto her, when she, and all of us, are super stressed out."
"I know!" Yang said, this time much quieter and almost seething, "I just…couldn't keep it in anymore, it was torture Blake."
That was when Blake noticed the tears running down her partner's face. "Yang."
She walked closer to her partner and thought she smelled alcohol.
But before she knew what was happening, Yang was right in front of her.
In an instant, Yang pulled her into a deep kiss, and Blake was stunned and didn't do anything for a moment.
Then she pushed Yang off her.
"Yang! What the hell!?"
"I'm sorry!" Yang yelled, "I just…I don't know…I just wanted someone to…"
Blake could taste what she thought was whiskey on her mouth "Have you been drinking?"
Yang looked at the floor, and that told Blake everything she needed to know.
"Yang, you can't just drink when you have problems…" she watched as her partner dropped onto the floor. "Do you need help with…this?"
"No," Yang said quickly. "I just…need to relax. I've been stressed lately."
"Stress is a part of life, Yang please, don't…make this a habit."
"I don't, I won't, it's just hard."
Blake put her hand on Yang's shoulder because she understood that this wasn't an easy time for her. "Yang…we're here for you." Yang gripped her hand.
"I know…I just…wish all of this hadn't happened."
"I know." Blake said, "We all do."
Weiss
The library was quiet, and that was the way she liked it best…most of the time. But now her thoughts wouldn't settle, and she couldn't concentrate on anything she was trying to study. The memory of that night was still too fresh in her mind. What kept creeping into her mind was the smell of burning hair and skin.
She felt terrible over what she'd done. She hadn't intended to actually burn Thor, his aura should have protected him from that attack, the fact it went straight through it didn't make any sense. Thor wasn't someone to let his guard drop like that. And it was inconceivable that she'd made an error in her calculations.
Something else had happened, some unknown variable she didn't know about. She'd researched it or attempted to, but she couldn't concentrate. The whole ordeal, from her own research on him to the entire debacle where Thor had been detained, she couldn't think straight.
The dreams were the worst part of it, in them, she could smell Thor burning, and even when she woke up, it didn't go away right away.
She wasn't the only one who was feeling the strain of it all. Everyone involved had been drastically affected by it. Fighting Grimm or criminals was different from a friend. She'd never admit it out loud, but she liked Thor. Not how Ruby did, but…he was likable in a bombastic way that she didn't usually like, but something about him made her forget that. He was irritating at times, he was loud, cocky, and had horrendous table manners. But he was also brave, kind, and sincere.
The fact that her own suspicions had been proven correct, in a fashion, was not much consolation.
"Weiss?" A voice whispered behind her, making her almost jump out of her chair. Turning she saw Ruby, looking like she'd lived a life of misery.
"Ruby…what wrong?"
"Everything!" Ruby said in the cracking voice as she sat down across from her.
"Okay…can you be more specific?"
"Yang slept with Thor!"
Weiss felt like her stomach had dropped out of her, that wasn't at all what she was expecting to hear.
"Come on, let's go somewhere more private."Weiss grabbed Ruby's wrist and lead her out of the library.
Truth be told, she didn't know where to go, the dorm was out, she had no ideas were Yang or Blake was, and she didn't think running into Yang was a good idea right now. Eventually, they ended up on the roof, and Weiss sat Ruby down."Okay…so what happened?"
Now Ruby had tears running down her face and was knocking them away. "Remember when they went into the city?"
"Yes…they stayed overnight…."She trailed off. "Ruby…I'm sorry…I'm sure they didn't mean…"
"But they did Weiss!" She shouted, and Weiss recoiled at the sudden temper, "My sister and my boyfriend! I don't care it was an accident or that they were drunk! They still did it!"
Drinking…of course, Weiss knew firsthand how alcohol could ruin people. She wanted Ruby to calm down but knew telling her so would likely have the opposite effect.
"Ruby…just try…"She floundered for a moment before settling on, " try to breathe." Ruby started to take quick, shallow breaths and while she didn't seem to be calming down, it at least kept her occupied. "Okay, now deeper and slower." And to her surprise, she did slowing down her breaths. "I know…this is…devastating."
"A little bit, yeah!" Ruby said between breaths.
Weiss honestly didn't know what else to say. She had no clue how to navigate this scenario.
In an act of instinct, she grabbed her partner… her friend, and pulled her into a hug.
She surprised herself in this act, she was never this expressive physically, but it felt right…and needed.
Ruby didn't say anything at first and didn't react at all at first. Then she wrapped her arms around Weiss.
"What did I do wrong?" Ruby whispered, in a sobbing voice.
Weiss felt like she was punched in the chest at that question. It was…such an innocent stance to take on the situation, she knew because for years she'd wondered the same thing with her parents. To put the blame on yourself instead of the actual guilty parties.
"Ruby…" Weiss pulled away to look Ruby in the eye "You…didn't do anything wrong." Ruby sniffed and knuckled her eyes. "You..can't control what other people do…I know it's…hard to…handle…but you can't blame yourself."
"But…I…"
"No Ruby…they messed up…not you. Be mad, be sad, be whatever, but don't blame yourself for what they did."
Ruby was now sobbing completely, and Weiss helped her to sit down.
After several minutes Ruby started to calm down enough to speak. "I want to be mad…but…she's my sister, and he's…after what we did to him, I feel so bad about what we did."
"Ruby…" Weiss started "It's okay to be mad at people you care about…love. Loving them doesn't give them the right to…hurt you."
"Your pretty smart, huh?" Ruby said, with a slight laugh.
"Just…personal experience," Weiss said. "But you should at least talk to Yang…she's your sister, and that besides you can't avoid her. We're a team, and you…we all need to try and work this out, or we're done for."
"I know you're right," Ruby said, drying her tears with her cape, "I just…wish none of this had ever happened."
"Me too, Ruby." Weiss said, "Me too."
Ozpin
"Are you ready to talk today, Mr. Odinson?" Ozpin said outside Thor's cell. Thor just looked at the ground and kept silent. The passing days hadn't done anything to make him open up. He hoped to pick his brain on his equipment, which was more complicated than he'd initially thought, and his cooperation might be helpful in that regard.
That aside, he wasn't responding to therapy.
"Thor, we can't help you if you don't talk."
"I don't need help." Ozpin was taken aback by how rough his voice sounded, he didn't know if it was from not talking or if it was damaged in his fight. "You've all been deceived."
"Well, if we have," Ozpin said, hoping to keep him talking. "Maybe you could help us."
"Don't patronize me." Thor said, glaring at him with his one good eye, "Doom is coming, and you've focused your effort on the wrong target."
Ozpin didn't know why, but Thor's word unnerved him. "Well, maybe you can help." He said, "I've tried to replicate your weapons, but there are…something I don't understand with them, if you help me, maybe we can get your weapons back, once you've recovered."
Ozpin felt dirty doing this, but he wasn't lying. Once Thor got better, he'd more than willingly let him return to school. It was just a matter of finding the right medicine and therapy options. And if he could get Thor to help with reconstructing his equipment, then it would be all the better.
"Why should I help you, traitor?" Thor said with unusual venom in his voice.
Well, now it was time to play his last card. "If you cooperate, you would receive certain privileges."
"I have no love of comfort." He said.
"Maybe not." Ozpin said, "But you do want to see your friends."
Thor looked up at this. "You mean visitation rights."
"It could be arranged if you start to cooperate."
"Hmph, I don't think they'd be too eager to see me."
"Now Thor, they did this to help you, if you had just…"
Thor stood up suddenly and stared Ozpin in the eye, and for the first time in countless lifetimes, he felt like a child. At that moment Thor's face seemed to change from an eighteen-year-old boy into something older, ageless even. It was there and gone in a moment, but Thor still shouted at him.
"They turned on me! They were deceived and either you were as well, or you are part of this!"
Electricity started to spark off of Thor, and Ozpin regained his composure.
"Thor, remember if your heart rate gets too high, you'll have to be sedated."
Thor slammed his fist on the glass, "You think I can't see what you are!" He shouted. "You are an old man and a fool!"
Ozpin was taken aback and shaken by this, but the alarms were blaring. Gas was pumped into the cell, and Thor started to stumble and eventually collapsed to the ground. Once he was down, orderlies came into the cell and put Thor in his bed.
"Well," Ozpin said to himself. "I'll have to talk to him again tomorrow."
That had been…disturbing. The look in Thor's eyes and what he'd said. He'd made him feel like a child, which was…a surprising feat.
He'd have to try and talk to Thor again. Thor may…know more than he'd given him credit for.
Yang
She couldn't believe how she was acting. She wasn't in control of herself, what she'd tried with Blake, that was beyond stupid. She didn't know what she was thinking…well she did, she wasn't.
This was a problem she'd had for…years. Emotional reactions rather than thought out actions. She didn't even like Blake like that…well not as strongly as she did others…. She did like Blake…maybe more than a friend…. But making a move on her…in the whole climate was incredibly stupid. The fact she'd taken a few knocks of liquid courage to talk to her sister hadn't improved her decision-making skills.
But Blake was her partner and teammate. This wasn't ideal for the team dynamic, her sister was already mad at her now she'd made it incredibly awkward with her and Blake.
Her impulse control was always worse when she was under stress, she'd do things she didn't even want to do..or maybe she did but would have handled them with more tact. The drinking didn't help, and there had been far too much of that lately as well. She knew it ran in the family, but she never thought she had a problem…until now, or really ever since the whole incident with Thor. She needed to stop that as well.
A knock on the door broke her bout of self-hate.
"Yang?"
It was Ruby, and as much as Yang wanted to bolt, she'd put off the whole thing for far too long already.
"Yeah, Ruby." She paused, "Come in."
The door creaked opened, and Ruby timidly walked in.
"Yang…I…it's just."
"Ruby…" She cut her off "I know your mad…I'm mad at myself." Ruby just stood there looking at her. "Thor thought we should have told you as soon as it happened…I just wanted to…pretend it didn't happen."
"Yang…"Ruby said, "You're my sister, and I love you. But…I don't think I can forgive this…right away."
Yang felt a pang in her chest over this, and while she'd expected this…it didn't stop the pain.
"Ruby…I know you're hurt. But we have to."
"No, Yang, I don't have to do anything." Ruby cut her off with a viciousness in her voice that was so uncharacteristic of her sweet little sister Yang felt like her heart stopped. "I didn't get drunk and sleep with my sister's boyfriend! I didn't keep it a secret for weeks! I'm not the one decided the best time to finally tell her sister was after a knock down drag out fight where said boyfriend had to be committed to a mental asylum!"
In her shock, Yang felt herself become angry, "Thor!"
"If he were here I'd be yelling at him to! But we beat the hell out of him and had him committed, so I'm not going to be talking to him for a while anyway!"
At that, Yang saw tears streaming from her sister's eyes.
She jumped up and hugged her, and at first, Ruby fought her but eventually embraced her back and started crying.
"I'm so…sorry." Was all she could say.
Thor
Time seemed to pass both in leaps and crawls. He didn't really feel like he was fully aware of how much time had passed in the cell. It might have been a few days or a couple months, their tendency to sedate him was messing with his ability to perceive time.
Ozpin had been in a few more times to see him, and Thor had agreed to at least help rebuild his equipment. It was something to do at least, and it may be useful to him when he got out.
But he felt like he was losing himself here and needed to have something to focus on. He had bad dreams, one that came every night was of him standing in a pool of water and voice calling to him from the shadows telling him something about Mimir and then the pool evaporated in a lightning storm. He always woke up then, and his right eye hurt, even though the burns on that side of his face had healed.
Then there was all the medicine they gave him, he was certain without his permission sometime, was making him lose days. He was being told about things he did, but couldn't recall saying. Ozpin had been asking questions he felt were leading, but they were about things he couldn't remember saying. It made him feel like Ozpin had some sort of secret. He'd always felt like the man was hiding something, in one of his blackouts he'd said something to rattle him.
This was the worst of all…he was worrying they might be right. His father didn't answer him, he couldn't call his hammer, and he was frail. Could he actually have imagined it all? That scared him, but at the same time, he didn't feel like it could possibly be true. All his memories seem so clear.
"Father…" he whispered to himself, "Father…please show me you can hear me." There was no reply, no sign. "Father…please."
"Are you having a bad day Mr. Odinson?" Ozpin's voice came from behind him.
"What is it, Ozpin?" Thor responded.
"Well, as we discussed, you've been cooperating, so I've arranged for some of your friends to visit if you up to it."
"Who wants to see me?"
"Ms. Schnee."
That got his attention, of all the friends he had, Weiss was probably the most emotionally reserved ."Why?"
"I couldn't say, but she came to ask me specifically to see you."
Thor remembered the burning and the smell of her attack, remembering the searing pain. While Weiss wasn't the one he wanted to see the most, it'd been so long since he'd spoken to anyone other than Ozpin, and he thought he needed to talk to someone, and he was an old hand at forgiveness, or at least he thought he was.
"Is she here?"
"If you'd like to see her."
"Send her in."
Weiss
She didn't know what she was doing here. But she felt guilty over what she'd done to Thor, and after talking to Ruby about what Thor and Yang had done, she wanted to both apologize to him, and in a weird way chew him out.
She'd spoken to the headmaster about possibly being able to talk to Thor. It had been several weeks before she'd been told she could.
She hadn't told anyone of her intentions. Ruby and Yang were in enough turmoil with each other, let alone trying to deal with Thor. Blake…was distant as usual, at least with her.
But as she walked down the corridor to where Thor was being held, she couldn't help but think this was more like a fortress than a mental health facility.
Once she saw where Thor was being held, she felt an odd sense of foreboding. The cell itself was larger than she expected, but it was in the center of a larger room and was a clear glass cylinder in the center. It was sparsely furnished, she saw a bed, a chair, and a desk, and a small bookshelf. The constant observation seemed like an odd choice for the situation, unless Thor was on suicide watch. That idea made her feel sick, but she pushed it down. Thor stood in the center, his back to her.
She walked up to the cell and found a chair waiting for her. She took a seat and looked up to see Thor standing in front of her, with the glass between them. It startled her, but she did her best to hide it. He looked…much better than when she'd last seen him. His hair was short, but growing back, and so was the beard. The burns seemed to have healed, and the only sign of injury was a bandage around the arm he broke when he fell.
"You look…good." She said, not sure what else to say.
Thor nodded, but his face was grim, which was incredibly disconcerting when she had known him as a smiling fool.
"Thank you for coming." He said, "I was starting to think my acquaintances had forgotten me."
She noted he didn't use the word "friends," and she was certain it was intentional.
"Thor…you have to know that…we didn't plan to fight you."
"I know. Why else would I be the only one told not to bring my gear?" He folded his arms, and Weiss was taking note of how big he was compared to her, especially while she was sitting.
"Thor…I'm sorry for what I did, I thought your Aura would have stopped the fire, I don't know why it went straight through."
Thor uncrossed his arms and sighed. He walked to his desk, retrieved the chair, and walked back to her. He set the chair down and sat, which Weiss took as a sign of him being more willing to talk on her level.
"That was my mistake." He said.
"How…I mean, we were just trying to…" she trailed off and realized she couldn't broach that subject without bringing up the fact they were trying to arrest him.
"I'll let you know something about my semblance." Thor said, "Despite what you've done, I don't believe we will come to blows again. You are misguided, not an enemy." Weiss bite her tongue to keep herself from responding to being "misguided" because she was curious about what he was talking about. "While I control the weather, my protective Aura weaken or even drops. I was trying to do too much, and my Aura wasn't up, that's why you hit me as hard as you did."
That wasn't exactly surprising, but she didn't know if she'd ever heard of a semblance behaving like that. Then there was the chance he was misleading her for whatever reason. But this did mean that the incident wasn't entirely her fault or Thor at least was letting her feel better. She appreciated it, whether that was his intention or not.
"Thor…I'm sorry, we all are it came to this."
"Well, at least you've come to see me, I'm surprised you were the first, I was expecting Ruby."
"Or Yang." Muttered to herself.
"What?"
Weiss hadn't realized she'd thought it out loud, but there wasn't much point in hiding the fallout, given she'd planned to talk to him about it anyway.
"We all…know what you and Yang did." She watched his face for change and though she saw his eyes narrow and the muscles around his mouth tense.
"Yang told you then." He ran his hand over his mouth as he spoke, muffling it slightly.
"Not exactly. She told Ruby, and Ruby told me. Then she told Blake, and I guess the rest of the student body found out after Ruby and Yang "discussed it" at full volume."
"It's for the best." He said, standing up from his chair. "Yang needed to get it out."
"Can I ask…why? I know you and Ruby weren't 'official,' but you both knew she liked you?"
"Why," Thor said the word like he was rolling it around his mouth, tasting it. "Why does anything happen?"
"Thor, please I don't want a philosophical vague answer, and neither does Ruby."
"We were drunk." He said, "We didn't plan it, it just happened. I know that's not a good reason, and I've felt a great deal of shame over it, but it is done, and I can't change."
Weiss didn't know what she was expecting, this more or less tallied with what Yang had said, but she was hoping for…she didn't know what. There wasn't anything that justified what happened, even being drunk didn't excuse it. But she knew that drinking made people…usually a worse version of themselves, at the very least made them make poor decisions.
But in all this, Thor didn't seem…insane. He hadn't before, but here, in the cell, he still seemed normal, by his standards at least. If he was getting treatment for a real condition, he should be…different in some way.
"Ruby and Yang. Thor, they aren't exactly fighting, but they are so cold to each other right now."
"Time." Thor said, "They will make up, I know something about forgiving siblings."
For the first time since, she came here, this seemed to indicate to her Thor might be delusional. He had no siblings, but one of his delusions involving some god that did have a brother. A trickster of some kind which, had it been just a story, would have been intriguing, but the fact it was just a sick friend's warped reality, just made it sad.
The sat in silence for a few minutes before Thor broke the silence.
"Has Jaune stopped bothering you?" Thor asked suddenly, changing the topic.
"Oh…well, yes." She said, combing her fingers through her hair to correct a flaw that wasn't there. She was somewhat grateful for the topic change, but this wasn't much of an improvement.
"While I have you, why did you constantly reject him? As persistent a fool he was, he wasn't trying to use you."
"I know, but he is just so…"
"Weak? Foolish? Annoying?" Thor suggest.
"Nice," Weiss said.
For the first time since she walked into the room, a shadow of a smile graced Thor's face. It vanished in an instant if it had ever been there.
"That is…not normally a complaint."Thor said.
"I know it's a stupid reason." She said, "But he's so…soft."
"But he is genuine and kind, and not so weak as when he first arrived."
"Well maybe, but he and Pyrrha are going to the dance together, and if they aren't 'official' by then, they will be after."
"So the fool finally took my advice."
"What does that mean?"
"I told him to ask Pyrrha to the dance some time ago."
Weiss was confused, "Then why ask me why I rejected him?"
"Curiosity." He said.
She felt her face flush. She didn't know why she told him any of this. Guilt maybe, over the whole incident, but it was more than that. Thor invited trust in his demeanor somehow.
She didn't know what else to talk about, but the lighter conversation of her social life seemed to ease the general atmosphere.
"Thor…I have to go. I'll…try to get the others to come and see you."
"If you could…I'd like to apologize to Ruby in person, but if she's unwilling to see me, tell her I'm sorry, do that for me, will you."
"I'll…yes, I can do that."
"Goodbye, Weiss."
"Goodbye, Thor."
With that, she got up and left.
Jaune
In the weeks following the "Thor" incident, things had changed, not just for him and his friends, but for the entire school.
The entire ordeal couldn't be kept quiet, and even if they could, the fact Thor was gone was something that wouldn't have gone unnoticed.
They were all treated in an odd mix of reverence and suspicion. The fact Thor was beaten impressed many of them, but they still wondered if the story that had been told was correct. Like for Jaune and his friends, Thor hadn't come off as mentally ill.
Jaune himself was treated with more…if not respect, general seriousness than before. The fact he'd come up the the tactic to finally beat Thor seemed to have leaked out, although the specifics clearly didn't go with it because he heard several different version of the event.
But tonight, he'd push the thoughts out of his head. They had a dance tonight, and he had a date. Thor had been right about one thing at least. Pyrrha had indeed liked him more than he expected and…he was happy. He didn't feel like he should be, given what had happened to Thor, the part Jaune had played in it, and the fact that following Thor's advice lead to him and Pyrrha going together, he felt odd at the very least.
But he'd try to have a good time, for Pyrrha at least.
Ruby and Yang were not going. The two sisters had barely started to repair their relationship, and neither was willing to go out and socialize yet.
He'd found out what had happened, and it made him..mad? Sad? Upset, to say the least. He'd held Thor in higher regard than other students, even after finding out his…issues. That he'd do that to Ruby, even unintentionally, tainted his view of him.
He knew it wasn't exactly fair to hold him in the regard he did…or had.
Weiss had been to see him, and he'd offered apologizes to Ruby, but still…he couldn't help to be…disappointed in his behavior.
"Jaune?" Pyrrha's voice broke him out of his own thoughts.
He turned to look at her, and…she was beautiful. She wasn't wearing an extravagant dress, but there was beauty in it simplicity.
"Pyrrha, you…look great." Was all he could manage.
"Are you." She said, blushing ever so slightly "ready?"
"Yeah…let's head out." He took her hand as they walked out of the dorm.
Thor
News came to him slowly in his cell, old friends didn't come to talk. Weiss showed up a few more times, but Thor got a strong feeling it was out of a sense of obligation more than anything. Jaune had come twice, and brought news that he had finally asked Pyrrha out and they were dating, a small comfort for Thor to see friends happy and a rather larger one for Jaune, who had something other than his own misery to focus on.
Blake was the only one who came now and with true concern. He knew her secret, and he thought that was a factor, in the fact he kept it, and had helped her, in his own small way to conceal it. He wanted to think it was gratitude and genuine affection, but he couldn't put the possibility that she just wanted to keep him from revealing it to someone as a way of revenge out of his mind. He had no proof of this, but he'd become more suspicious since he'd been captured.
Blake was his primary source of information, not only about his friends, but the general going on's in the world he wasn't privy to here. The last he heard, the festival was starting and team RWBY was…not the most cohesive team in the field. Ruby and Yang were trying to navigate an incredibly complex emotional minefield, made all the more hazardous with how close they had been. That had been…he wasn't sure now, the timeline in his head so murky.
Neither had come to see him, and while he wasn't surprised, it made him despair even more. Ren, Nora and Pyrrha seem to have forgot he even existed.
Alone, that was how he felt. He'd felt this ever since he woke up in this world, but this cell made it a thousand time worse.
And to make matters worse, his dreams hadn't stopped. Despite what Ozpin and doctors had tried to do to ease and suppress them. The recurring one of the pool felt like a message that was just out of reach for him. He kept hearing the name "Mimir" which he knew, but didn't understand what it meant. The Well of Mimir granted wisdom to those who drank from it, but for a price. His own father had plucked out his own eye for a drink and had become all-knowing.
But he didn't know how it pertained to him. If it hadn't been so recurring and constant despite all efforts to stop it, he'd ignore it. But there was some information in it, he was sure of it he just didn't know what.
But he felt something looming, something great and terrible, and he was stuck here unable to stop it. Tired, he went to bed, which seemed to be happening more often than normal, as he slept to escape his life in this cell.
That night he dreamed again, but this was far more lucid. As he waded through the pool the voice spoke again. This time, the voice was clear and firm
"What knowledge do you seek great nephew?"
"Mimir?" was the first thing thing Thor said. The name had been all he'd heard for weeks, and in this pool with the voice calling him his "great nephew", it had to be Mimir.
"Yes nephew." The unseen voice answered. "What is it you seek to know?"
So many things, but two were more important than others. "Why am I here and how can I regain my power." Only to be greeted with silence. "Mimir?" Thor called out "Uncle?"
"Your father came to me once, seeking knowledge." Mimir's voice called out. "You know what he did for his answers." Thor's hand came unconsciously to his eye.
Could he even do it a dream? Would it matter.
Mimir apparently knew what he was thinking."When you're ready…simply do it, awake, asleep, it will not matter to me or the well. But nephew, I'll warn you, a mortals sacrifice doesn't mean as much as a gods, you will not learn as much as your father did, you decide what you wish to unlock the answer to before making your sacrifice."
"But I am a god!" Thor shouted.
"You were a god dear nephew, now your skein has been cut short, and now I've given you all the free advice I will. Make your choice."
Thor woke up with the distinct feeling like he hadn't even been asleep. He gently reached up to touch his right eye, the one that had been hurting after all these dreams, except now it didn't, with this particularly vivid dream…or vision he now thought.
His father had plucked out his own eye to drink from the well of Mimir. But how could he drop his eye into the Well from here? And what truly scared him was the assertion that he was just mortal now, not a god in mortal form, but just a mortal. Or had he misunderstood his uncle.
But this was progress, in some form. He needed time to think. Walking over to the intercom he used to call nurses or doctors he pressed the call button.
"Yes Thor?" A voice that only sounded vaguely familiar to him called over the intercom.
"Would it be all possible for a television to be brought down so I could watch the festival tournament?"
He wasn't all that interested in seeing most of the fights, but he wanted some background noise while he thought, and besides, he would like to see how teams JNPR and RWBY were doing in it either way.
"Yes, as a matter of fact Headmaster Ozpin thought you might want to watch at some point, a reward for good behavior." The voice had a hint of a laugh in it, and Thor was prickly enough now to think they were laughing at him, but had learned quickly that here outbursts lead to sedation, and he wasn't ready to go back to the Well of Mimir.
A nurse wheeled a cart down in front of his cell, not into it he noticed, and used the draw used to give him his meals to hand him the remote.
"Channel 9 for the festival." The nurse said. He hadn't learned any of their names, he barely had any interaction with them, but he knew this one. She was one of the nicer ones, and he smiled and thanked her.
He turned on the television and saw with some surprise that Yang was fighting in the single division. He'd missed so much of the tournament if they were into the singles event.
The boy she was fighting was good, maybe better than she was. But whatever Yang lacked in skill, she was making up for in grit and toughness. The boy was noticeably flagging while Yang was just building up more and more steam.
Then all at once the fight seemed to end, which felt odd to Thor. The boy had been showing some signs of fatigue, but not enough to just crumple like he did.
Then…he almost couldn't believe what he saw, Yang shot him through the leg, sending him down to the ground in agony. The feed cut out there and Thor was left with a bitter taste in his mouth.
"Thor you okay?" a voice called over the intercom "Your heart rate spiked."
"I'm fine." He said as he stood up and started rubbing his temples, so much for a distraction to calm him down.
Ozpin
Things were not well, he'd felt it for a while, but Ms. Xiao Long's unprovoked attack had somehow managed to crystallize it in a way that it hadn't been before.
She had of course said he attacked her, and he believed she believed that was what had happened. But she had been under a large amount of stress and with the adrenaline of combat, she might have seen any number of things.
That aside, there was still the issue of the Fall maiden to see to. Ms. Nikos hadn't given an answer and with her upcoming match, he worried more and more about the entire situation, that another incident might happen.
Given how positive the school year had started, it seemed to be crumbling now and he was certain it was her doing. She was always out there, against him.
Thor
He felt sick now, watching as the girl Pyrrha had been fighting lay on the ground, cut in half. She was an android, but he'd had friends who were the same, and she was so young. Pyrrha looked devastated and soon someone, a young woman by her voice, was making a declaration about…things he didn't care to hear.
Once she finished, the feed cut out, and a few moments later, the emergency lights came on in his cell. He ran over the intercom and shouted "What's going!"
"Stay calm Thor." The nurse said. "We're going into emergency lock down, the Kingdom is under attack. Don't worry you'll be fine, if you need something to calm down, we can give you something."
Thor stopped listening and walked away from the intercom. "Alright uncle." He said, using his right hand to spread the eyelids of his right eye and reaching up with his left hand, fingers like claws. "Show me how to regain my power."
With a sudden plunge he dug his fingers into his eye and hissed in pain, but kept digging, lighting arching off his hand and out of his eye until he managed to rip it out and hold it above him and the lighting, which didn't feel like his own arced and made it disappear.
"Thor what are you doing!" The voice over the intercom shouted.
Thor just dropped to his knee, hand over his empty socket, feeling drain and…nothing. No sudden knowledge, no epiphany, no surge of power.
"Father…" He muttered "Why did you send me here? And where are you when we need you most…I need you the most." He looked around his cell for any sign and saw nothing, and a subtle dread that he might indeed be what Ozpin said he was, a mentally ill boy."Father!" He cried out "Please!" he crumpled over in a kneeling heap "Show me a sign you can hear me." He whispered, almost crying.
A crashing sound came from above him, and he looked up just in time to see his cell shattered to piece by a fast moving object. Reaching out, he caught it.
All over Vale storm clouds formed, lightning flashed and thunder cracked.
And when the nursing staff got to Thor's cell, it was empty, shattered, with massive hole in the ceiling.