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"And how was it?" Weiss asked us both when we got back from the mortuary.
"It was her. There's no mistake," Ruby sighed. "I never wanted to find her like this. I would much rather she had been torn apart by monsters than having to deal with something like this. The mortician confirmed sedatives in her system. Lots of painkillers and benzodiazepines. And she was so thin. I was worried her skin might tear as soon as I touched it."
"But you're alright? Aren't you Ruby?" Weiss wondered.
"I'm fine. I suppose. A little emotional but that's normal I think. I would like to have a lay down."
We watched her walk off towards the master bedroom.
"So it was bad? Huh?" Weiss pressed.
"It was never going to be good. I warned her as best as I was able. You tried to warn her off as well. There was nothing to be done. She wanted to see the body. I don't really understand. Well, I suppose I'd want to see my own Mother's body but that's for a completely different reason."
"Right, and how'd Taiyang take it?"
"Not well at first but he gradually got himself under control. I was a little worried about how he would process it. I mean, you know Ruby. She's a champ. Taiyang is a broken man who's barely hobbling along. Seeing her like that didn't help him very much. I think he'd want revenge and whatnot but the man in question is already dead. There's nothing to get revenge on and he knew that. It just left him tired."
"I suppose you'd know all about wanting revenge. What with your little battles with Cinder Fall. I think you've grown a lot since then but you still know what that was like. I think I forget that about you. That once upon a time you would have thrown yourself on the sword for vengeance. You did, in fact. At Haven you went straight for her."
"Not my proudest moment," I confessed.
"But like I said I think you're better than that now. You didn't use to be. You fell into that trap and the revenge game. But you have things to live for now. Ruby has those same things worth living for. Taiyang doesn't. He lacks those anchors besides his daughters. And his grandchildren I suppose."
"That's what I hit him with. Told him I wasn't afraid of cutting him out of the family if he didn't piece himself together."
"Was that wise?" Weiss put a hand on her hip.
"I thought so. It looked like he had violence on the brain. That's no good for being around children. He looked like he was teetering on the edge of despair. Which I do get. I get that. But not around my kids."
"Yes well. You are protective. It makes me wonder about you. Don't you have violence on the brain?"
"I sure do. But it's usually pretty well focused. There was nothing for him to focus his rage on," I mumbled. "I already took care of the problem with Merlot. He was fumbling with nothing to grasp. So I told him to focus up on his grandkids. I thought it couldn't be anything but healthy."
"So I understand. But you're the exception rather than the rule with the violence."
"I've been pretty open about how violent I am and can be. Emerald ought to be a reminder of that."
"How could I forget?" Weiss demanded. "You brutalized her in front of our children."
"I warned you that I would surprise you one day with the violence I was capable of."
"So should you really be lecturing Taiyang?"
"When it comes to my kids. Yes. Absolutely. Besides if you would have seen him you would have agreed in part. It's not like I was demanding he shape himself up right now. Just eventually. The man is grieving. But there's nothing for him to focus on. Impotent rage is useless and frustrating and it shouldn't be around kids. My rage is focused."
"I suppose."
"You disagree?" I asked.
"I do. I wish you could live a life free of such emotions," she explained to me. She said it gently yet firmly. She really believed it.
"Not in the cards really. I have to be mad and stay mad. It's a part of my wall. My anger at my Mother," I informed her.
"Why? Why does it have to be built upon a negative. You always do this. You always build yourself up around a denial or a refusal to lose or something which is built on a negative. Why can't you build yourself up around happiness or a desire to be there for your children," she marched onwards.
"I dunno. Just how I am I guess," I shrugged.
"Will you be leaving soon?" She pressed.
"Yes. I should be going back to guide the new summer maiden to Atlas. I also promised to search my father's lab for Summer's weapon and a necklace which belonged to her," I explained.
"Do you think you'll find anything?" Weiss wondered.
"Maybe the weapon. Probably not the necklace. My father wouldn't keep around paraphernalia. Perhaps not even both."
"Quite a shame. And you're always busy. Look at what you're wrapped up in now."
"I had to go after my father. And it was for the best that I saved Summer. For a certain definition of save. Now all that's left is my Mother," I folded my arms.
"You promised to wait," she reminded me.
"I am waiting. You see me? I'm waiting. But I still have my duty to the world with the maidens. I have to do my best with them. Besides, it's the princess and we were friends. I can't leave her to that without abandoning myself. But for my Mother I will wait until Carnal is old enough to remember me. I promise."
Weiss sighed heavily. "Then go. Get out of here. Do your job then come back to us."
"I will," I promised. "I love you."
"I love you, too, Cloud. Never forget that."
Then I marched out of the kitchen and into the outdoor sun. I took off like a jet back to Merlot's lab.
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I flew back to Vacuo and my father's lab and I tore the place apart. I never found Summer Rose's weapon or her necklace and clothes though I searched storage lockers in the laboratory in the third direction. The direction Yuma and Peach explored. There was mass storage space there with the typical hexagonal floors and monsters floating in fluid. I left the monsters to rot in their containment pods.
It rather proved the notion that my father wouldn't keep such memorabilia around. He was only interested in the maiden's powers. Not in the maiden herself.
I left for Vacuo and found team RYPP again. They were waiting in the same hotel. I landed on their balcony again and knocked on their door.
Yuma opened the door for me and invited me inside.
"So?" I asked. "You book your flights?"
"We did," Pine affirmed. "But we had questions."
"I suppose that's to be expected. I only know a little about the maiden powers. You might be better off asking the maidens when you meet them. But ask. And I'll do my best to answer."
"Well - how did you get involved in all this? It's your family. I hear that. So did you used to work for the other side? Salem's side?" Peach asked.
"I did. I was a sleeper agent for my Mother. It was only when I had the relic in my hands that I activated and attacked my friends. My team. I killed them. The remaining survivors of my team that is."
"You said Merlot was responsible," Rosé pointed out.
"And he sort of was. Because he traded me to Salem after he grew me. And he was responsible for creating me. So I didn't really lie. I just offered a certain perspective on the truth."
"You lied. That's totally a lie," Rosé disagreed.
"Maybe. I was allowed my secrets. And I skirted the truth."
"Are you keeping secrets from us now?" Pine wondered.
"I don't think so. Little point. You're all in this pretty deep now."
"How did your mother come to be immortal?" Yuma asked.
"She said she was cursed by the gods. I don't have the details. But the god of light or the god of darkness cursed her. Possibly both. She's doomed to walk Remnant's face forever or until I go to cut her down."
"Can you cut her down?" Pina demanded.
"Only one way to find out. The relic of knowledge can't be used to answer questions about future events. That's what it's used for. Asking questions. You ask the lamp anything and you'll get an answer. I don't know where the relic of knowledge is at the moment but it used to be in my possession. I turned it over to the wizard from the story in Atlas. My Mother's immortal counterpart. Only he reincarnates rather than remains static immortal. That's his fate."
"The wizard from the story is still alive?" Yuma asked.
"In a sense yes. In another sense he died millennia ago," I answered. "He can speak to the process better when you meet him."
"He's in Atlas too then. The wizard," Peach affirmed.
"He is. Or at least that's the latest I knew of it. He takes time to remaster his powers every lifetime. He's currently known as Oscar Pine. But before that he was Ozpin."
"Ozpin?" Rosé asked.
"Ozpin," I confirmed. "That's why he was so powerful. That's why he became headmaster so young. He set himself up along with the schools around the relics to keep them safe."
"Then the attack on Beacon was an attempt to get the relics," Pine hummed. "Did it work or is that relic still safe?"
"The relic at Beacon is still safe. She didn't get it. I'm unsure which relic that is. Destruction or Choice and it's for the best I remain out of the loop on some of these things. I'm a liability."
"How so?" Peach wondered.
"My Mother and I share a psychic connection. It's difficult to explain. But we flow together like rivers to the same sea or branches of the same tree. We are one in a certain manner. It's for the best that I be left in the dark because there's a chance that through me my Mother gains knowledge. I have my defenses but they aren't impenetrable."
"How does your psychic connection work?" Yuma pried.
"It's a bit hard to describe to somebody who isn't a part of it…"
"No more secrets," Pine demanded.
"I'm trying," I growled. "Some things defy explanation. My wives don't even fully understand the nature of the connection between my Mother's mind and my own and it's because I lack the ability to truly describe it. There was a time when my Mother could fully control me with her voice using the mind magic involved. She is able to control my sisters and probably use them to see and act in this world using the connection. There's a magic to it that is hard to describe. I have some resistances now. I didn't always. She took me twice and made me kill my friends once. She made me attack my wives more than once. That's the liability I constitute. There's a backdoor into the front of my head. She has access to it if she really means business. I have my weapons to fight back. Now. I didn't always. That's why I can't be trusted with the relics."
"I think I understand a little better now. So how do you plan to deal with it?" Rosé demanded.
"I'm going to make my best attempt to slay Salem. I want to tear her into pieces like the legends of the gods of old. I think if I destroy her thoroughly enough she won't be able to heal or at the very least it will take a very long time. That's the current plan. I just… I'm waiting until my children get a little older. So that they know my face. Just in case I die in the attempt."
"That's sad," Yuma mumbled.
"This is Remnant," I countered. "There are sharks in the rivers of time. Demon's lurk around every corner and I can only do so much. I can't be everywhere at once but I try and keep an eye out for things that only I can bring down."
"Then the reason you're so strong, the real reason," Pine trailed in.
"It's because I have magic. Just like Salem does. Well my magic is different from hers. She doesn't have super strength or speed. To my knowledge at least. She's much more likely to drop a meteor on my head or go supernova."
"I think I understand you a little better now," Rosé decided. "But why create the maidens at all? Why not hold onto the magic himself. You said it was a he. A wizard."
"I don't know. I don't have the details you want. I can make guesses. I suppose that he wanted other people to be able to lock and unlock the relics from their hiding places. He didn't want it all resting on his shoulders. There's a strength to sharing the burden of something like that though it has weaknesses. The maiden powers didn't always belong in safe hands. Cinder Fall, the woman who killed my partner and Ozpin became the fall and spring maiden for a time. She worked for Salem."
"Who do we look for in Atlas?" Peach wondered. "I doubt we can just show up like this."
"You can if you're with me," I disagreed. "I'll be going with you all to Atlas to make sure the power remains safe. And of course that you all remain safe as well. We'll talk to the general and work out something that involves you with the other extent maidens and allows you to train with them. You probably don't have to work for Atlas. Though I would recommend that you do."
"Why?" Rosé demanded.
"Military service doesn't have to be a bad thing. It can open many doors for you all. I did it for a time and I have fond memories of it now. But you don't have to in all likelihood join up. It's just the path of least resistance. That doesn't make it the wrong path or the right path it just is."
"I guess it's better than the alternative. A life on the run until the forces of evil catch up to us," Yuma decided. Everyone looked at her. "W-well I'm not looking forward to joining the military but there are benefits. We'll have equipment and support."
"Just so long as we can all remain together then fine," Pine affirmed.
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-WG