There was a moment, as the girls shared somewhat nervous looks, and Ironwood's face tightened.
"General, I - I'm not sure that's the best idea." Ruby chewed on her lip as she considered. "I mean -"
Very well.
"- Obsidian?"
"So you'll meet with us, then." Ironwood let out a breath. "Very well. What arrangements do I need to make?"
Blake.
The Faunus licked her lips nervously before producing the Frozen Flame. "...If you're going to meet the 'real' Obsidian, you'll have to do it the same way the rest of us did." In the span of a second, light bloomed from the Flame's core and washed over the room...and the Flame rose on its own power, bobbing gently just above Blake's palm.
Winter's eyes were wide. "That - nothing like that was ever observed during our studies of the Flame."
Blake nodded. "I don't know how much you or Ozpin really knew about the Frozen Flame, but the truth is...it's a direct link to Obsidian. If you want to meet her, then this is the path. Normally...it'd take a lot more time to find enough of a connection for this, but you have Penny and me. We can lead you."
Penny nodded. "Affirmative! Mother will be glad to welcome you, I am certain."
Qrow eyed the Flame warily. "So, what do we do? Touch this thing and click our heels together, make a wish on it, or...?"
Ruby giggled. "You know how to do Aura meditation, right uncle Qrow?"
He grimaced. "I've never had much use for it. But I remember the basics, more or less."
Yang sighed. "The basics are all you need. Blake and Obsidian will take care of the rest."
Qrow peered at his nieces, eyes narrowed...then slumped as he took a sip from his flask. "You - really did get tangled up in a mess of magic, didn't you?"
Ruby just smiled.
"So, we're to meditate with this, then? I admit I'm skeptical...how are we to guarantee it is the true Obsidian on the other end, and not simply another mask or shadow?" Ironwood studied the hovering crystal as he spoke.
"...You'll understand, once you see her. But - this is one of our secrets, in the same way Salem is one of yours. The only people who know about what you're about to learn are in this room right now. Please...keep it that way, at least for now."
Ironwood watched her for a moment before nodding.
"Then, if everyone is ready...if you feel a warmth, focus on that. Otherwise, listen to my breathing and match it with your own."
The power from the Flame pressed down on the room, and Blake breathed in.
The power receded deep into the crystal, and Penny breathed out.
The power flooded the room, and Blake breathed in.
The power drew back, and -
- and the waves crashed against the cliffs. The three newcomers glanced around, taking in their surroundings with sharp eyes.
Penny simply smiled. "Be welcomed to the Dream!"
Winter frowned. "The Dream - a...simulated world...?"
"...This is why Ozpin could never identify where you were taught. You trained here." Ironwood hummed thoughtfully.
Weiss nodded. "Indeed. And perhaps we were wise to do so, considering the eyes that were watching."
Ironwood grimaced, but reluctantly nodded.
"Come on." Blake began walking to the cliff before simply stepping off the side. A slab of stone hovered into place just in time to act as a stair, and as she continued descending more slabs continued the pattern. "We should head to Obsidian."
"She isn't here?" Even as he spoke, Ironwood followed down the hovering steps with only slight hesitation.
"Of course she is. It's her Dream, she's everywhere...but you want to meet the 'real' her, so we have to go to the deepest part of the Dream." She glanced at his expression and couldn't suppress a small smile. "It is still a dream, even if it's special. Symbolism is important, here."
And with a smile, she stepped off the edge and plunged into the motionless ocean.
"Sir?" From beside Ironwood, Winter pursed her lips. "This is..."
He nodded. "I'll admit this is beyond my expectations...but I've committed to this path, so I'll see it through. If you're uncomfortable -"
"No! No. I'm with you, sir." With a firm nod, Winter plunged off the stair, and a moment later Ironwood followed.
One by one, they each plunged into the sea, until only Yang and Qrow remained. For a second, Yang hesitated, biting her lip as she stared downward.
"Yang? Something on your mind?" Qrow ran his fingers across the cool metal of his flask. Dream or not, it felt real...
"Yeah, just...last time I was here, I was pretty mad at Obsidian. I had my reasons and stuff, but..." She shook her head. "I messed up. I regret it, now. I was wrong about her." She turned her gaze to him, smiling wistfully. "Give her a chance, okay? I should have."
"...All right. I can promise that much, at least." He watched her plunge into the sea without hesitation, leaving barely a splash behind.
With a deep breath, he followed.
At the bottom of the Dream sea, the girls spread out, their lights scattering across the pale, frozen sand. All around them, the heavy darkness pressed down...but it was held at bay, always. With a smile, Penny motioned for them to begin walking, and so they followed her in a loose formation.
"Miss Belladonna." Ironwood's eyes swept the edges of the lit sand carefully. "This darkness - what is its purpose? An intimidation tactic, or a defense mechanism...?"
Blake blinked, her head tilting to one side for a moment before she chuckled in surprise. "You know, I never thought to ask...but I know the answer, anyway. It isn't either of those things." She looked around. "This is Obsidian's Dream, you know. We're all dreaming it, yeah, but the Dream itself belongs to her. Up there on the surface, the Dream is shallow, and we have more influence. Down here...this is the deepest point. The closest to Obsidian herself. And...the Dream down here doesn't exist like this naturally. I'm sure the ocean isn't what it really looks like."
"What do you mean?"
She turned to face him, lips pursed. Her stride remained unchanged even as she walked backwards across the frozen dunes. "I think you'll understand once you see her, but...the darkness is the natural state of the Dream down here. Obsidian doesn't keep it shaped. But when certain people make it down this deep..."
"...Then their presence shapes it. Hence the light from each of you." His eyes flicked to each of the girls. "...They're all unique."
Blake nodded. "Of course. The more connected we are to her..."
"...The easier it is to shape." Ironwood sighed. "I admit, this wasn't what I was expecting when I made my request."
Blake smiled. "It might have been better to come with no expectations, General."
"And why is that?"
As they crested the dune, Penny's light flickered across an enormous shadow.
A moment later, and lights danced across the form, a soft glow that reached up and up and up, cradling and outlining an enormous shape.
A triad of glowing lines formed and split apart, revealing a single eye that stared.
James Ironwood and Winter Schnee of Atlas.
Qrow Branwen of Beacon.
You are welcomed to my Dream.
Winter's hand raised and for a split second her soul reached out, preparing a glyph to shield them and another to put distance between her and this beast of the sea.
Yet, something pushed itself to the front of her awareness. Beside her, Weiss stood at ease, with...if not comfort, then serenity. Her face appeared stern, but Winter knew her sister well, and the relaxation around her eyes and mouth spoke much of her feelings. More, she had not stopped - she moved forward without breaking pace, as though the creature before them was nothing new.
...Perhaps, to her, it wasn't.
"Weiss...this is - this is your teacher?"
Her little sister paused, turning elegantly to face her and nodding. "Yes, Winter. This is the true form of Obsidian...and all who know of it are here now."
"How long have you been...aware of this?"
Weiss frowned softly, her brow creasing in thought. Behind her, the great shell loomed in silence, its light dancing across the sea floor. "Since before the Vytal dance. Why do you ask, Winter?"
"...You've had time to accept it, then. I -" Despite her efforts and her discipline, her eyes continued to be drawn to the dancing light and the shape of...of Obsidian. "...It is difficult to imagine being so casual, in these circumstances."
Weiss smiled tightly. "Oh...well, I'm flattered, but you're wrong. Time had...little to do with it, in the end." Her sister looked over her shoulder, but it wasn't at the dominating shadow in the distance. Rather, her eyes were drawn to where Penny and Blake Belladonna approached it, their body language open and...happy.
Winter blinked once as Penny turned to answer something Blake had said. The look on her face...
She'd seen Penny smile. Penny always smiled. And yet -
"I realized, recently, despite everything about her that gives me pause...Obsidian has been better to my friends and teammates than the vast majority of humans or Faunus."
- Winter wasn't certain she'd ever actually seen Penny happy.
Qrow Branwen was not a stranger to oddness. He'd seen - and done - a number of very strange things, since he'd accepted Ozpin's offer all those years ago. For some of those things, he had been in the shape of a bird.
But what was before him now...nothing approached this. His fingers found the cool metal of his flask, and without thinking he drained it. Huh. Even in a dream, tastes the same...guess that shouldn't surprise me.
His eyes ran over the illuminated silhouette before him. He started counting rows of spines, but after less than a second gave it up as a lost cause. From the perspective of a Huntsman, the thing before him was inefficient and probably oversized - and overspecialized in defense, judging by the armor.
Yet, from the perspective of someone who'd seen too much...he wondered what kind of magic tricks Obsidian knew how to pull with some of those inefficiencies. Or if she'd even need to at all. Hell, considering the reports of what happened between Obsidian and Cinder...assume she was limited by acting remotely and I wonder what she could do from here. Like a supercharged Maiden, with that kind of defensive stature...? He held back a shudder as he wondered how much damage the thing before him was actually capable of.
A hand came to rest on his shoulder, and his eyes flicked to his niece. Yang glanced down at the (empty) flask and back up to him...then smiled at him with a hint of...regret? Nostalgia?
"You know, uncle Qrow? This is the first time I've ever agreed with your drinking habit."
He coughed out a laugh, and like that the mood was broken. "So this is your teacher, firecracker? The one that had you so up in arms?"
"...Yeah." Her face twisted slightly like she wasn't sure what to think of that. "I didn't know she looked like this back then, but...you know, I don't think much would have changed if I did. I really didn't get it until recently." He raised an eyebrow at her, and she shook her head. "She risked her life for my team. I don't - there's a lot of stuff that's messed up, uncle Qrow. But - she risked her life for my team. Everything else is...details."
She walked forward, her hand sliding off of his shoulder, and for just a second he saw Taiyang stepping in front of him (and Raven, and Summer) again.
He stared down at his flask, offended at its emptiness...then shook his head and stepped forward.
Oz...what the hell have we stepped into? How much deeper does this get?
Ironwood's jaw clenched as his hand went to his side, where Due Process sat holstered. Only many years of discipline prevented him from drawing it, as his mind flickered to a memory from many years ago. A memory of a young man, guarding a shipping vessel...and a Grimm Leviathan that rose from the sea and dragged the ship into hell. A lot of men had died that day, and the Leviathan hadn't been half the size of the thing before them. Though, as his mind habitually analyzed it, looking for angles, seeking to understand...this thing, this Obsidian, it didn't have the same look to it. He'd stared into that Leviathan's eye, and as it looked at him he'd understood how much it hated him. Whatever mind the Grimm had possessed, it had wanted him not only to die but to suffer and drown in terror.
The eye before him looked similar...but there, the similarity ended. This - Obsidian, he reminded himself once more - did not hate him. At least not noticeably so.
And then it spoke, and as the ripples of its voice passed through the water, and he felt the vibrations within his chest, he remembered.
Some things...are larger than us, James, Ozpin had said once, long ago. Larger and greater than a single person can handle on their own...that's why I - we - want your help. Will you help us?
He breathed in.
He breathed out, and was steady.
Obsidian awaited.
A/N: With this chapter, my options were to break it here (before the final discussion between the two sides of the chessboard), or delay the chapter while I finish writing things up until the vote option at the end. I'm not interested in delaying the chapter further, so hence the break. My apologies if you'd have preferred the delay, but I'm trying to get more consistent about my updates again.