The medical building was up, but the soldiers were still moving equipment into it. There was only one bed ready for use at the moment, so that's where Pelka sat. Once she'd been warmed up, as had the medical building, she'd been given some more thorough clothing. It was chilly still, but better than it had been before. It actually felt warmer in the medical building now, in a tanktop, than it had been in the command center with the heavy coat over her. She could only imagine what the temperature was like outside now. The woman seeing to her, one First Lieutenant Victoria Seraph, seemed to be a genuinely kind and caring person. It was odd, at least to Pelka, that she was checking Pelka's health dutifully and carefully with multiple weapons strapped to her.

"You're a healer, but you carry weapons? What a strange culture."

Seraph smiled, shaking her head. "First and foremost I'm a soldier. I usually take up the role of field medic as well, but us soldiers have a saying about field medics. We don't heal people, we just make them more comfortable while they die."

"Ah..." Truly a strange culture. "How comforting."

"See! It's working like a charm!" She gave Pelka a pat on the back. "But really, my colleagues tend to say I only patch people up because if they stay in poor health they won't be able to get hurt anymore. They think I'm a sadist. Which is ridiculous. That's Lieutenant Argent. Not me."

"I'll keep that in mind." Pelka looked around the room. She'd already seen most of what was in here enough times that she had it all memorized, even if she didn't know what half of it was. Her gaze landed on the man called General Ironwood. He was waiting patiently for the medical checkup to be completed, but he was obviously very interested in what Pelka could tell him. She was starting to wonder if she should consider herself a prisoner at this point. If that was so, she would need to escape now while he was focused, even if passingly, on the eels he was being shown by the other woman soldier in the room. It occurred to her that the name Argent, the alleged sadist, was the one they'd called that woman by.

Seraph must have finished, because she called the general over. "Sir, I have my results."

Ironwood turned away from the eels like a man who was clearly not heavily invested in wildlife and just waiting for any out. "Very good. Report."

Seraph saluted quickly, then went to her scroll, where the information had been compiled. "She's in good shape. No sign of atrophy or general weakness of any kind. No viruses or parasites found. She is a Faunus, pretty clearly, but I can't quite pinpoint what kind. I think it's safe to say Jinn is correct that she's a Dragon Faunus. What that entails, I couldn't tell you, apart from the physical traits; scales, horns, tongue, and a special internal organ..."

"Internal organ?" Ironwood sounded interested.

"Tongue?" Weiss, who had been quietly standing near the door with Jinn and Ruby, said with reluctant curiosity.

To quickly answer Weiss' question, Pelka stuck out her tongue. It was long, thin, and forked; identical to a snake's. She slurped it back into her mouth. "All of my people have all of these, though I'm not sure what you mean with the internal organ."

"Oh, well, I think I actually know what it is, judging by the fluids inside." Seraph took a few steps back from Pelka, just in case. "I'd ask you not to demonstrate right here, but I'd like to know if you have the ability, perhaps, to breathe fire?"

Pelka gave a look like she was insulted. "What kind of Dragon would I be if I could not?"

"And there you have it." Seraph turned and saluted again to Ironwood. "Will that be all, sir?"

The general returned the salute, then addressed both Lieutenants. "You two are dismissed." Quickly gathering up their things, Seraph and Argent made sure not to leave anything behind that shouldn't be left behind and not to take anything that shouldn't be taken. Once they were gone, leaving Ironwood and Pelka with Jinn and her escort. Things were winding down around the outpost, with most of the remaining work to be done involving just unpacking and setting up the equipment that had been unloaded from the LADs. Ironwood took a deep breath just as Winter entered the room. He waited until she closed the door before beginning in earnest. "Alright. Now for formal introductions. I am General James Ironwood. You've already met Winter."

When Ironwood motioned to the others, Jinn stepped forward first. "My name is Jinn."

Weiss gave a slight curtsey, unencumbered by her heavy clothes. "I'm Weiss. Weiss Schnee. Winter is my older sister."

"And I'm Ruby." Ruby waved to Pelka, much more casual than the rest. She was rewarded with Pelka offering an idle wave back. She beamed at the response. "Nice to meet you!"

Pelka was, to say the least, distracted by Ruby. "Nice... to meet you too."

Weiss leaned across behind Jinn, whispering at Ruby. "Okay, you can stop now."

"It's my introduction, I can do what I want."

Straightening out, Weiss gave a quick bow towards Pelka. "I apologize on her behalf. She's too friendly for her own good. She's completely harmless though, like a puppy."

Leaning over to make further use of their 'private' conversation space behind Jinn's back, Ruby half-whispered furiously at Weiss. "I am not harmless. You can take your compliment and shove it in the garbage disposal."

Winter cut off Weiss' inevitable response. "Weiss, don't engage."

"So that's introductions." Ironwood put an end to all of the nonsense. He was aware that Ruby and Weiss were letting off some of the pressure that had been built up during the much more tense trials inside the temple. That was fine, so long as it was kept limited, at least when they were still escorting Jinn. In a few days, they would be back in Atlas, and the girls would have a day or two to rest and relax. Right now, however, he wanted to get a head start on learning as much as he could from Pelka. She was apparently a warrior from her time, which made her a potentially valuable asset, but since she was very far from the objective of this mission he actually had no intention of restricting her freedom once they returned to Atlas. If she decided to drop off the map, that was her choice. For that reason, he wanted to seize the opportunity to learn as much as possible right now. "You said your name was..." He wanted her to confirm one more time, with Winter ready to transcribe the information she divulged.

"My name is Pelka Leganda. I am an elite rider of the Holy Dragon Army. I serve under General Gertan at the frontier city of Oasis." She stood and gave a salute, but it wasn't an Atlesian salute, or even close to one. It looked familiar to Ironwood anyway, and he briefly realized it resembled the improper salute Ruby gave him sometimes. He filed that away in his mental folder of completely worthless pieces of information. Pelka settled into a resting stance, keeping her attention on Ironwood as she made a somewhat expected request. "If I may, I would like to know how long it has been since I was placed inside the Cradle."

The rest looked concerned about answering that, but Ironwood went straight ahead with it. "According to the information I've been given, and I have no reason to doubt it, that was nearly four thousand years ago." That answer winded Pelka visibly. He had considered it a given she wouldn't take it well, but seeing how she held herself told him that it was not going to be an entirely unexpected revelation for her. She went in there knowing full well that it might be a long time before she came out. She had known that it could be hundreds of years, potentially thousands. Knowing what might be, however, was not the same as having it confirmed that millennia had passed like the blink of an eye. The next thing on her mind would naturally be the person who had placed her inside the Cradle to begin with. He prepared to answer that too, as soon as she asked.

But Pelka didn't ask. She answered it herself, as she lowered herself back onto the bed to lay down. "That's... a long time... My brother would be gone now either way." She looked back up to Ironwood. "I don't suppose you can answer me a question about the Cradle."

He assumed she wanted to know if her brother had lived past placing her inside. "If your brother is the one who used the Cradle to heal you, then it would have consumed him then and there. I... am sorry for your loss."

That didn't seem to bother her, however. "I see... We knew the risks. He knew the risk. My brother deemed my life to be worth more than his. I... agreed. Reluctantly." She closed her eyes, a substitute while laying down on her back for staring at the floor in shame. She let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't suppose the empire has survived this long either."

"I don't think so." Ironwood shook his head. "No, there is no empire still standing on Remnant today. Without knowing which one you're referring to, I couldn't even tell you when it fell or even if we know when. Jinn might be able to tell you, or failing that, Ozpin might know. But he's back in Atlas." He felt it appropriate at this point to ask a few questions in return. "Do you mind telling us why you were placed inside the Cradle in the first place? Why you even sought it out?"

She opened her eyes slightly, touching her fingers to the side of her head as if she had a migraine. "Why... right. I was afflicted. Cursed by the gods."

"Cursed? How? Why?" Winter asked in Ironwood's stead, looking up from the compact portable computer she was using to write down the information Pelka gave them.

"That's hard to pinpoint." Pelka started dancing around an answer. "There were a lot of things that it might have been. It could be a combination of them, or maybe something else I don't know about. Maybe they just took a disliking to me." She paused to give herself time to properly gather up a solid answer. "I was disrespectful. The gods cursed me with unending pain. As for how... well, how does a god do anything? With godly power."

"These gods..." Ironwood asked. "Were they... always prone to such acts?"

"No. At least I don't think so." Pelka gave him a quizzical look, then glanced around at the others. "You are not familiar with the gods?" Ironwood just shook his head. She seemed taken aback by this. "I... I suppose the times truly have changed."

"I think it would be of benefit to us to learn as much as you can tell us about these gods. We're not aware of them, but they must have been real enough to afflict you." Ironwood's next words were thoughts that, as he spoke them, made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. "We have to assume they still exist somewhere, and that we might encounter them. Whatever they are, they have potential to be a major threat to the people of Remnant."

Ruby stepped up, eager to add her thoughts on the matter. "If I were more skeptical, I would really be questioning whether or not we need to be concerned about these 'gods'." She looked over to Jinn meaningfully. "But I don't think any of us have any right to say gods don't exist. So, yeah, Pelka, anything you can tell us about them..."

Pelka took a deep breath, sitting up slowly. "I was never a very good student of the scriptures, but I know the basics. First, there are the brothers, the two great deities. One of blazing fire and pain, and one of soothing water and healing. The golden dragon god, according to the stories I remember, used fire and light to create a world of pain and suffering, while his brother, the black dragon god, created living beings to end the suffering. One day, a woman appeared before the gods, asking them to bring her husband back to life. The black dragon god did as she asked, but soon after, the golden dragon god turned the man to dust again. They went back and forth like this until the golden dragon god used his light to blind his brother and enrage him. In his rage, he destroyed all life in the world, turning them into Dust. Then the golden dragon god cursed the woman to live forever, and the brothers left, shattering the moon."

At first, it was just Ruby, and then one by one Weiss, Ironwood, and Winter all realized what was wrong with this story. They knew it, the story of the two brothers, but it was twisted around. The God of Destruction was portrayed as the helper, and the God of Creation was vilified. Of course, knowing what they knew, Ruby and Weiss had to wonder if it was terribly inaccurate. Sure, they knew that the God of Destruction had created the Grimm, and the God of Creation had been benevolent at least to begin with, but what else they knew about this golden dragon god told them that he was not simply the epitome of all things good. Pain and suffering were a part of his design, and in a sense it could be said that the Grimm would end one's pain in death. It just seemed a bit too backward.

Pelka continued. "So the brothers are worshipped as the two chief gods, and the woman, called Salem, is as well." Alarms went off in all of their heads. She was from a culture that worshipped Salem. Their reaction must have been visibly negative, because Pelka was quick to reassure them. "Only the black dragon god is viewed with loving reverence. The other two are more... we would pray to them that they would not afflict us." She rolled her eyes. "Obviously, not enough of that on my part."

"Okay, we actually do know them." Weiss stepped in. "Though we know the brothers aren't on Remnant anymore, we are actually at war with Salem. That's why we came all the way here in the first place."

"At war with a god..." Pelka shook her head. "That does seem unwise."

"Unwise, perhaps." Ironwood said. "But necessary. Her hatred threatens everyone. If those are all of the gods, then it doesn't sound like there's really all that much you can tell us we don't already know. However, if there are any others, then you know things we don't."

"The rest have been forgotten... I see." She took a deep breath, having realized that she was about to tell them about something none of them were aware of in the slightest. "Alright. Where to begin? Aside from those three, there are three different rings of gods. First, there are the new gods. They are evil and wicked, taking pleasure in the pain and suffering of mortals. Legend says they were the ones who introduced every grief and sin to mortal beings, causing all the conflict and death we now face. Some believe... believed... that Salem was actually one of the new gods. They appeared similar in many ways to us, but have unimaginable power."

Ironwood's brow furrowed. "That sounds... like you're describing demons. Creatures of fantasy and myth."

"They are not myths. When I was just a child, I witnessed... horrors." Pelka shuddered at the memories she was keeping from them. "I know they are real, and I would not believe you if you said they were all gone from this world." She shook it off. "No... they're very real. They all are. The young gods are greater beings, wild and strange in appearance. They were said to be responsible for phenomena in our world, the unexplainable was attributed to their works. They go into hiding, sometimes for thousands of years, only to appear suddenly and cause calamity, and then vanish again. They don't care for us or what their actions do to us."

"Yeah, there's a few movies like that." Ruby nodded. "It's uh... it's a whole thing."

"And the third... ring? You said there were three rings of gods. What's the third?" Weiss prompted Pelka to continue.

"Yes, the old gods. The primordial deities who created the universe. Very few of them have anything to do with the mortal realm, but the two who do are the brothers. The others are like them, their family, and others. Some believed to be far older and more powerful, but their interest in us has long since waned, if it ever existed." Pelka stopped, looking to Jinn. "Something is bothering you?"

Jinn had known all of this, of course, but she had no obligation to tell anyone. The last piece of information Pelka had just shared, however, caught her off guard. She knew that there were other beings behind and above the brothers, but she'd never thought about them. She'd never had to. No one on Remnant was occupied with thoughts of anything beyond those two. Now that it had been brought up, she realized something she'd casually known, but which had never sunk in until now. It came out of her mouth before she could stop it. "Brothers have parents."