The vast chamber was on an awkward angle. There were signs of a recent battle, debris and scorch marks covering the floor. A huge door at the far end of the room hung open, with what looked like an open blue sky visible beyond it. There was a strange sound filling the chamber, like a mass of bubbling liquid echoing through the darkness around them. And General Ironwood was on the floor in front of them. The abundance of Atlesian architecture made it look like they were back on the floating island city, but where? Ruby and Weiss did not know the answer to that question, but they suspected at least the general would know.

Clover stepped to Ironwood's side. "General, this is..."

"The vault. I know." The general nodded, his eyes focusing on what appeared to be a copy of himself. "Obviously recreated from my mind by whatever technology or entity controls this place. I don't like the implications of this, though. It means all of our thoughts, our secrets, are an open book here."

"Then it's a good thing we can fully trust everyone here." Clover nodded towards the doppelganger. "What do you make of this, though?"

"I don't know. This is meant to be some kind of vision of a disastrous future. But is it one that could happen, will happen, or just one that we fear might happen?" He looked over his shoulder. "Jinn. What can you tell me about this chamber? Do you have any idea what we're meant to do now?"

Jinn sighed. "I don't know what we're meant to do, but I can tell you what is in this room." She paused, analyzing the chamber around them in wonder. "Amazing... it's recreated the vault flawlessly. The angle we're on is awkward, I guess to simulate... there's water flooding in below us." She shook her head. "Sir, General, we're on a strict time limit here. At the speed the water is rising, if it keeps pouring in like this we have maybe two hours at most."

Elm, who had wandered over to the edge and was looking into the darkness below, looked back in surprise at that. "Two hours? It didn't take twenty minutes to get through the last chamber. Is the water really a danger?"

Ironwood pointed at his double. "What about him. Is he... an illusion?"

After a moment of hesitation, Jinn lowered herself onto the floor and crossed her legs. "No, sir. He's real. A living person, just like you and me. Probably created just for this purpose. I can't say I know, but my best guess is you'll have to talk to him. There's probably not a lot the rest of us can do to help. I think... I think you need to do this on your own, sir."

"I... see." He didn't quite understand, but if there was a recreation of one of them, probably the one who had been copied had to deal with it in some way. That made the most sense, at least. He motioned for the Ace Ops to stand back as he approached. This other Ironwood was a mess. He looked like he'd just lost a fight, as well as a war. Well, his city was on its side. Ironwood found himself standing only a few feet behind his double, trying to think of how to start a conversation. All he could think of was what would get his attention in this situation. He settled on his approach. "Get up, James."

The other Ironwood stiffened, his shoulders going rigid at the sound of his own voice. He didn't move to get up, and he didn't look to see who was addressing him either. When he spoke, he sounded like a wounded animal, desperate and beaten. There was darkness in his voice, a sinister tone that Ironwood didn't like to think he was capable of. "Who are you?"

Such a simple question. "I'm you, James. At least I think so."

He laughed. "Not sure, are you?" It was a cynical laugh. Bitter from his loss. "What are we apart from a conglomeration of our experiences and our choices?"

Ironwood wasn't a big fan of philosophical questions, but he wasn't illiterate. "Maybe nothing. So if we're so different, why don't you tell me how?"

Finally, the second Ironwood turned to face the first. His chest was scored by a blast mark from some overpowered weapon. He was bloodied, bruised, and beaten, but still looked like he was ready to attack and kill at a moment's notice. "We are, at our core, the same. All of us. Not just me and you, but Oz, Qrow, Winter, Ruby..." He looked past Ironwood, narrowing his eyes at one of the others. "Even her."

Ironwood looked back, realizing his double was looking at Jinn. He looked back, surprised. "Jinn? She is not the same as the rest of us, not even close. We have those choices and experiences that shape us. She is a spirit created for the Relic. Unchanging for thousands of years."

"Is that so?" The other Ironwood got up slowly. "Let me tell you something, since your life seems to be going so well." He pointed at the blackened wound on his chest. "Take a guess who did this to me. Who do you think shot me? Go on. I bet you'll never figure it out. It won't even occur to you."

If that was the case, Ironwood thought, that he was saying this answer would be so foreign to him, then it had to be someone who he currently considered an ally. "You leave me with too many options. Why don't you tell me what led up to it?"

"Sure. I'm sure you'll love to hear it. Where to start, though? So many people betrayed me... Qrow. RWBY. Penny. The Ace Ops. Oz. All of them. My own soldiers turned against me. I was here, watching, as Atlas fell from the sky. Salem was right here. She walked right by me, with Cinder in tow, and both the Lamp and the Staff in her clutches. I could have stopped them, but do you know who shot me down?"

"Winter."

His answer stopped his doppelganger in his tracks. "W- what?"

"Winter was the one who shot you."

"I- Wh- Yes, but... how did you know? How could you know?"

Ironwood turned side on, pointing an accusing finger at him. "I don't know you. You aren't me. You are what I could become if I lost sight of hope and humanity. I don't know the details, but somehow you went too far. You drove everyone against you all on your own. You refused to trust them. You crossed a line, and Winter was the one who stood to face you one on one. You lost."

The double gritted his teeth, seething. "How could you know that? It could have been anyone who bested me, but you knew it was her. How?"

"That's easy to answer. She's the only one who would go so far and not finish you off." The tension left Ironwood's shoulders. "We might be the same person, but I think I'm confident that I'm the better man now. If you had been in the right, you would not have lost Ruby's trust. You clearly ignored your Semblance and let your emotions take over your decisions. I can say with utmost assuredness that we may look alike and I could have turned out like you, but we will never be the same person. Not now, and not ever." He looked up and around the vault chamber. "Is that what you wanted from me? Rejecting my darker inclinations? Next time give us a real challenge."

The other Ironwood collapsed to his knees, thoroughly defeated. Ahead of them, the vault doors closed and reopened, showing a new path to the next chamber. There was a moment of silence, during which all of them pondered if it could really be that easy and simple. In each of their minds, there was just no way it could be over just like that. Ironwood had shown no real difficulty in refuting this dark mirror of himself. If that was truly all it took, then the next few challenges were looking more and more like they would not be a problem.

Ironwood took a few steps past his double, stopping just past him. "I won't feel right if I don't say this. I know you're not real, but on some level, I feel that you are more real than me. So remember this. So long as there is life, there is a chance. Turn around. You can make things right still. You can be what you were meant to be once again. Don't let this failure be your last word. Make Winter's choice not to kill you be the salvation of Remnant. Take this, and make it into something good. I know I intend to." He paused for a few seconds, taking a long breath, and then continued on towards the door.

The others followed, Clover catching up to Ironwood. "General. Well done. Impressive, too. I don't know that I would have been able to do the same."

"I know what you mean. If you told me I would be able to face that... nightmare scenario. I would say you're lying. But victory comes to the resolute, and so that's what I must be." The two of them walked through the door to the next chamber.

Ironwood and Clover stepped into the third chamber. It was a much simpler room, a circular chamber only a dozen meters across. The rest entered behind them, and the doors closed. They were immediately aware that they were not alone. There, across the room, seven cloaked figures faced them. If the last room was any indication, then it seemed likely these were real living beings, created from the depths of their minds, or some other being's imagination. None of them were moving to attack, or moving towards them at all.

"Alright..." Ironwood turned to Jinn. "What are we dealing with here?"

"I..." Jinn looked around the room for a moment, seeming confused and dazed. "I don't..." Looking over the cloaked figures, she squinted her eyes at them. "I don't understand."

Weiss put her hand on Jinn's shoulder. "What don't you understand? What's going on, Jinn? Do you know who they are? Or... who they're supposed to be?"

"They're real, and alive. This place... this place can bring the dead to life. Maybe not... perfectly or literally, but in all the ways that really matter, but... but this doesn't make sense."

"Just tell us what you can. I'll take care of making sense of it." Ironwood reassured her.

"I... yes sir. They're... our... moms?"

"What?" Weiss was nonplussed. "You're kidding. Right?"

"No..." Jinn shook her head slowly. "That's what doesn't make sense."

Ironwood whirled to face the cloaked figures again, just in time to see them shed their cloaks. Sure enough, seven women were standing before them. Seven. "But... Jinn... you're the spirit of the Relic of Knowledge. You were created by the God of Light. Weren't you?"

"Yes sir." She went silent, looking over the women before them, her eyes landing on a dark-skinned women with long dark hair. They locked eyes. "Or... at least I thought so."

"Is there any danger?"

Jinn snapped her attention away from the woman and looked back to Ironwood. "Danger? No, they're... they're our mothers. They won't hurt us."

"So what is the test?" Elm was of the same mind as Ironwood. Something wasn't adding up.

Jinn looked around, eyeing each member of their party. Elm and Ironwood were suspicious. Vine and Weiss were curious but cautious. Clover seemed unbothered. Ruby, though. Ruby was dumbstruck, already drifting away from the rest of the group and towards the woman who was almost a perfect mirror image of her. Jinn knew who this test was for. "It's not that kind of test. Not physical strength, or moral strength. But to someone who dearly loves and misses their mother... it will be very difficult to just say goodbye and move on."

"Ah... I see." Ironwood looked back over the rest of the party. "If this is as close to real as we'll get, there may be no harm in taking a moment to rest here."

Clover nodded. "Yes sir."

Weiss shrugged. "I mean, okay. My mother is still alive, though."

"Mine too." Clover laughed. "But I'm usually too busy with work to go visit. Who knew coming all this way would give me the opportunity?"

Regardless, each member of the team made their way to what was, for all intents and purposes, their own mother. It was awkward, to say the least. Strange and unexpected, almost a break in an otherwise taxing day, and for some it was something they thought was impossible. Jinn was watching the others as she inched her way towards the woman who, by her own powers of knowledge, she knew to be her mother. Clover and Vine were getting on just fine, while Ironwood and Weiss were slowly realizing that the women before them were not quite their mothers as they knew them but rather how they remembered their mothers to be when they were little. Elm was standoffish and tense as the woman who appeared to be her mother fawned over her large muscles. And then there was Ruby, who looked like she was ready to melt into the ground.

Before she knew it, Jinn was close enough that her mother apparent could reach out and touch her cheek. In an instant, Jinn's attention was stolen. She looked the strange woman up and down, startled like a deer in headlights. She couldn't even find her voice. The resemblance was uncanny, but not to her usual form. Instead, this woman looked like what Jinn's mother would be expected to look like if Jinn's current human appearance had been real and not a construct for while she was serving Ironwood. None of it made sense to her. This woman couldn't be a real person.

"My little girl. It's been so long."

So long, it seemed, that Jinn must have forgotten. "Yes... I guess, I think." She was briefly distracted by the sound of Ruby suddenly bursting out in tears. The girl had been reduced to a sobbing wreck, crying into her long-lost mother's chest. Jinn would have thought it an absolutely tear-jerking reunion if not for her own situation. She turned back to her mother. "I'm sorry." She shook her head. "But I don't know you."

"All the knowledge in the world can't show you what's been deliberately hidden."

"Hidden? What do you mean?"

The woman caressed Jinn's cheek softly with her hand. She certainly felt like she was mother. She smiled. "You were always a special child. So clever. So wise. So curious. It was only right that you were chosen for this sacred duty."

Sacred... Jinn gasped. "The Relic. Was... was I..."

"No, no dear, there is no was. You are."

That was not good enough. Not even close. "This isn't fair. It can't be fair. How come I know everything that's ever happened, everything that currently exists, but I know nothing about myself? If you exist at all, that means I have family, a home, friends, and I don't remember any of them! Please... tell me how you're real, if there's anything at all. How come I don't know you? I don't even know your name."

"You're on the right track, dear Jinn. Keep going, and never lose hope. Never lose faith. Never lose sight of who you are."

"But I don't know who I am. I thought I did, I thought it was simple, but now you're here and I don't know anything anymore." She could feel tears forming in her eyes. "If I... came from somewhere. If I had a family, somewhere, at some point. If I don't remember any of that at all, then do I even know my own name? What is my real name?"

"That hasn't changed. You've always been Jinn. Now... you need to go. You can't spend that much more time here. You are needed elsewhere. Your destiny lies ahead."

"What?" Jinn blinked in surprise, looking around the room. Ruby had somehow pulled herself away from her mother and was drying her eyes. It looked like she was already preparing to move on. "But... but we haven't had the time..."

"We've had the time you needed. Go now. The past may be important, but it can't be changed. The present is where you can make change, and the future is decided by what you do now. Focus on what can be done next. Then you'll find your place in the world."