Chapter 82
Pyrrha Nikos didn't know how long she was unconscious for, only that when she awoke, it was from a sound she hadn't realized she'd started to miss:
The sound of Yang Xiao Long yelling at the top of her lungs.
The redheaded warrior groaned and pushed herself upright - discovering that her armor had been removed, and she'd been tucked into a spartan-looking cot with a pillow and blanket. All around her was metal walls made to look like wood and plaster, and her room was dark - save for a single window, outside of which she saw trees passing by at great speeds. When she noticed this, she realized she could feel the ground underneath her quaking back and forth.
Am I on a train? She asked herself - before she groaned again, the mere act of thinking causing her head to flare up in immense pain.
It only took her a few moments to remember why her head was hurting so bad - and the thought caused her heart to sink, and the room to darken even more.
Ash. She looked over to the shield she'd inherited from the man himself, leaning quietly over her sword and her armor in the corner of the room, still bearing the scorch marks of her fight in Mistral.
The thought of her first friend being where he was now - what must have happened to him - it tortured her. She slid out of bed and pulled the shield towards her, taking it into a tight embrace. Yes, he was alive - and she simply lacked the words to describe the rapturous feeling in her chest at that prospect - but the way he'd looked, fighting them - it almost was antithetical to what came to her mind when she thought of him. He lacked that fire, he lacked the energy that he usually carried about him; his shoulders had perpetually been slumped, his eyes had been dead, face set in stone and unfeeling; and that was saying nothing about the things he'd done. How he'd mercilessly stomped Yang into the ground, he'd used everyone as human shields, Pyrrha couldn't reconcile those actions with the man that had been doing them. He just wasn't capable of those things, it wasn't in him, so what had happened?
He must be... Influenced by them, or something. She rationalized, mind haunted by the dead, dull, tortured look in his eyes. I... It had to be Salem that did it, she must have used some kind of Grimm to influence Ash, or worse - he may have been tortured by her, in the same place they'd taken and killed Ruby, and - Pyrrha shook her head, forcing those thoughts out of it before she went too far down that rabbit hole.
Instead, as befitting of her chosen career, her warrior's mind immediately looked towards their inevitable future encounters. She remembered how Ash fought, she remembered his strengths and weaknesses, and in their next encounter she wouldn't be caught off guard like this time. Whatever Salem had done to him had changed him - he fought more savagely, he fought in ways antithetical to Goud Etiolate. Ash fought fair and true, Salem had forced into him dirty, awful tactics and a ruthlessness that simply didn't fit him. His instincts were still there, simmering under the surface - she recognized all of his sword techniques as having roots in either her or Weiss, and though he hadn't thrown his new kite shields once, that he defaulted to them said that he was still in there, somewhere. That, of course, brought to mind that brief moment where she'd hit him on the head during their fight - that passing gasp wherein he'd come to the surface, before whatever influence Salem had over him took back control. That was a valuable clue; as bad as it sounded, perhaps there was a way to purge the influence from him? Maybe Ash was fighting it just as they were fighting him, and in damaging him, they were weakening its influence? She did remember that partway through the fight, when Ash's aura had broken, then he'd come to the surface, so maybe that had something to do with it?
If so, an idea formed in the tactical part of her mind. The ancestral blade that Ash had gifted Jaune, if it really was some dark influence controlling him, perhaps if they broke his aura and Jaune struck him, it might fix him? It might bring him back? Gods, she hoped so. She knew she could hold him off, she knew that she could outfight even this more ruthless Ash, keep him distracted long enough for Jaune to land a clean hit and purge the dark influence. Then she could have him back, then they all could have him back - his smile, his wit and bravery. That kind of light was something they sorely needed, after Ruby.
Oh no... She despaired, holding the warm shield tighter. He'll have no idea. A tear formed in her eye as she gulped through a dry, trembling throat. Gods, what -
"I don't care, Uncle Qrow!" She heard more energy from Yang just then than she'd accumulatively shown in the last several weeks; her rage episode in Haven notwithstanding. "He knows something! He literally told us! We can tell her the tree-notes version later, I want to know now!"
Of course, the return of the old, boisterous, emotional Yang, meant the return of the downsides of her normal self: Her brashness and stubbornness. Whoever she was yelling at alongside her uncle, Pyrrha needed to throw her weight onto the pile to try and divert it away. So, clenching her gut, the warrior pushed herself to her feet, placed the shield back over her gear, wiped her reddening eyes with the back of her arm, and pushed open the door to her cabin. She emerged in a long corridor, with doors stretching as far as the eye could see in both directions, while the wall directly opposite her was nothing but windows giving a view to the gray and drab outside.
Where are we? Pyrrha wondered. What happened to Mistral? She had to steel her emotions at that thought - forcing herself not to think of the chaos she'd seen, and if her being on a train meant the city was evacuating. I hope my parents are okay... But she forced those thoughts away too - she had to stop dwelling on this, she had to move forward, to keep at work. If she stumbled, if she took too long to think, Pyrrha feared she wouldn't be able to take another step. There would be time to dwell, to cope, later.
Another burst of volume coming from the left end of the hallway brought Pyrrha in its direction, as Yang yelled out, "I'd say we have an imminent need to know!"
Pyrrha felt bad for the other occupants of the train, and when she reached the end of the hallway, she found a small common room - which her team, the remains of RWBY, and Qrow had taken over, alongside a young boy with a farmer's tan. Everyone, except for the boy and Yang, had some level of bandages covering healing wounds - with half of Qrow's face covered in gauze and Jaune's cybernetic arm missing a whole section of its outer plating, and it appeared he'd just fastened his shield to it to act as a replacement. The boy noticed her first, his golden eyes snapping over to Pyrrha the moment she stuck her toe past the corner.
"Ah!" He said, speaking with such a reserved and methodical cadence that for just a moment, Pyrrha questioned how old he must be. "It seems the problem has solved itself." He said, with a warm, wide smile, as he nodded to Pyrrha. "Miss -"
"Pyrrha!" There was Jaune, who was on his feet and marching towards her already; when he reached her he put both hands on her shoulders, looking her over. "You shouldn't be out of bed, are you okay?" He asked earnestly.
Pyrrha smiled, and brushed her unbound hair behind her shoulder, saying, "I'm fine, Jaune... It's not the first time I've suffered head trauma."
Nora, ever ready to seize an opportunity to lighten the mood, called out, "says the girl with a nearly perfect win-loss record!" But before she could continue, Ren had her ear in his fingers and he was pulling her from her standing position down, closer to him.
Jaune didn't seem convinced, but he did let Pyrrha go - guiding her to the seat he had been occupying and letting her take it. "So uh - there's been a development. After we -" Jaune began, but Yang interrupted him.
"They pulled us out of Haven, Ozpin's alive, he's this kid." She said, brusquely, before turning to the kid. "Talk!"
Oh... Ozpin was alive? She supposed that made sense, when she looked at how the boy carried himself, and how familiarly he was holding Ozpin's old cane, but she was surprised - Qrow had made it seem like they may be without the man for a few years at best.
Ozpin raised his arm to placate Yang, "all in due time, Miss Xiao Long. I feel it prudent that we all get on the same page -" And when Yang's hackles rose again, he continued with, "after all, if we continue asking questions that have previously been answered, we shall only waste more time."
Yang's mouth snapped shut, her teeth gritted and eyes red, but she fell back onto the couch she was sharing with the rest of her team - Weiss immediately tried to console the brawler with a hand on the shoulder, but Yang shrugged her off, arms crossed, eyes wide with barely contained anger.
The boy who held Ozpin nodded once, letting out a light, preparatory sigh, before turning to Pyrrha. "Miss Nikos... What is the last thing you remember?"
Pyrrha hummed, "Ash is alive... He knocked me out." She said, after only a moment's hesitation. Saying it out loud felt different to remembering it, to thinking about it.
And Ozpin nodded, "good, then there isn't much I must repeat." He said, in a voice that made Pyrrha feel light headed trying to comprehend it - she heard the youth and lightness of a boy barely entering puberty, but with Ozpin's customary speech patterns making him sound dozens of years older than he should be, leaving Pyrrha feeling as though she'd fallen into an uncanny valley. "Immediately after your defeat... Ash, we shall call him for the time being, let the rest of Salem's forces into Haven Academy." He indicated everyone around them, "the aftermath of which, you can see here. The battle was short, but brutal. Fortunately, they all were able to escape.
"I returned to life mere days ago and made all haste to Mistral. For reasons I shall get into, I knew the attack was coming and that you would be in danger." He explained, "while everyone was evacuating, looking for some place to regroup, I ran across them and affirmed my identity. Mistral was still in the throes of chaos - but, fortunately, appeared to be reacting well. If I had to guess, ever since Vale fell and the CCT Network went down, Headmaster Dorn has been fortifying his position: Building his numbers and readying their defenses. Mistral will bear scars, but it will recover - and knowing this, I advised we make all haste to Atlas.
"There is a game at play, Pyrrha - one in which we are the final stages of... While you rested, I gave those assembled here a sort of..." He rolled his hand, "preliminary debriefing. Something to ready them for the revelations to come..." He nodded to the side, "and it appears I underestimated the reaction it would cause."
Yang was ready to barge in again, but a grab of her arm and a shake of the head from Weiss was the only barrier between that and her biting her tongue. Pyrrha noticed that of all the faces and expressions around her, the only one that didn't appear eager for answers was Qrow - whose sole visible eye was locked onto the floor, still as stone, if not for the rise and fall of his chest.
"Okay." She said, "so..." She turned to Ozpin. "What did you tell them?"
Ozpin turned to Yang and held out his hand; Yang clenched her fist - which, when Pyrrha looked closely, she realized was tightly clenching what looked like a Terran scroll. Ozpin tilted his head warningly, and flicked his fingers, and the livid brawler threw the alien device at him. He caught it without issue, and gently gave it to Pyrrha, instructing her how to activate it.
"You'll find what I showed them ready for you. Take your time."
She opened the tablet, and right there on the screen were three words:
For the Record:
Qrow.
I know what this looks like - this looks like I'm going back on my word and breaking my deal, and unfortunately, despite my best efforts, there exists a very real possibility that it may happen anyways, but I want you to know: I had no choice.
Ruby - she hurt Cinder. Hurt her bad. I'm paraphrasing, but Salem said she pretty much burned her soul, and no amount of physical healing will fix that - it's got to heal on its own, and while it does, Cinder will be in constant, and agonizing pain. So needless to say, she's pissed, especially when you add her pride into the mix - some fifteen year old little shit just ruined our initial plan and took away her hour of victory to boot.
Salem was happy we'd taken down Beacon and gotten her the Relic of Choice - I'll come right out and say it in case you never figured it out: That was us. I figured if I delivered that to Salem, there would never be a question of loyalty, and I was right: Lady lets me be alone with her in the same room. Is willing to give me her secrets to the universe.
It also plays into The Big One - my end-all final plan, but I digress. Nothing we can do now, you can kick my ass - hell, you can kill my ass when we're done. I bet Ozpin will help you out; you can hold my arms, he can kick me in the kidneys.
Salem offered us a boon for our good work. Mine is unimportant, it's the same thing I told you and the other Watchmen - but Cinder's is what's relevant here.
She wanted Ruby - and she wanted to kill her, specifically, so I couldn't just bring her a fake head so she could mount it on her wall.
And Salem wanted me to bring her.
Let me say again: I had no choice. There was no getting out of this.
But, even though it's eleventh hour, I have a plan.
One of my teammates at Beacon had an invisibility semblance - and she perfected it to make her intangible, too. In addition, Neopolitan - you know her - she can create physical, hardlight illusions. I'm gonna tap them and do what I can to convince them to help me out - It's the best idea I've got.
If it works, I've got some contacts on Earth that will give Ruby safe harbor until it's time for the Avengers to Assemble. They'll keep her safe, they know how important she is.
But I'm going to stress to you: There are a lot of moving parts to this. If they make one mistake, if they get made... My hands will be tied.
I'm doing my best to avoid this and minimize damage - if any of you resist the Apathy I'll be dropping to make the abduction easier, I'll be including some miracle drugs that will undo their injuries and heal them. Just tell them they're some one-shot pills Ozpin gave you for emergencies. A wizard literally did it. They'll buy it, especially when they see it work.
But... Like I said: There are a lot of moving parts to this. This is the best I've got, and if it doesn't work, I know what the consequences will be. If I'm alive at the end, I'll accept them. Period.
And for what it's worth: I'm sorry.
-Aldric
Pyrrha read it three times, a hurricane of emotions swirling about in her chest, but above it all hovered one question, which she raised when she looked up to the younger, reborn Ozpin.
"Who is Aldric?"
"Yes - can we finally get to that?!" Yang couldn't hold herself back anymore, "who is this guy who took my sister?! Why does he claim she may be alive? How does he know you two?!" Blake tried to calm her down this time, but Yang shrugged her off as well, "no! I want answers!" She growled, eyes boring holes into Ozpin's head.
The young immortal let out a long sigh, nodding. "As I said... There is a game being played." He said, "and Aldric... He is a pawn in this game - but not in the sense that he is worthless. Much the opposite, he is one of the most important pieces. A wild card of the highest order, capable of being anything he chooses when he reaches the right moment." Ozpin explained, "after all... If you underestimate a pawn, you have already lost.
"In the interest of bluntness, as I know Miss Xiao Long is resisting the urge to throttle me, I shall lay it out for you: Nebo Aldric is his full name. He is from Earth, he came here with the other Masters that Qrow told you of, but unlike them, he is a spy, for me, working inside Salem's inner circle. Salem, however, believes him to be a spy for her, once observing me, and during that time, he went by the name of Goud Etiolate." He finished, placing both of his hands on the white, carved hilt of his cane.
There was dead silence - broken only by the rumbling and shaking of the train underneath them; all eyes, save only Qrow's, were locked onto Ozpin, many jaws were slack, and everyone present's minds had ground to a halt as they tried and failed to process the information.
"Bullshit." Said Ren, folding his arms and cutting the silence.
"Yeah, you've - you've got to be kidding." Jaune said, though both of his shoulders were slumped, his eyes wide.
"Ash." Blake repeated, "our Ash." She clarified. "Goud Etiolate."
"Ozpin... We saw him at Haven, yes - but he looked dead inside, like Salem was..." Weiss shook her head, "controlling him, somehow, or forcing him to do things. And besides, Ash isn't capable of what Aldric claims to have done of his free will."
"And - and that would mean Ash'd been lying to us for a year!" Nora interjected, "he wouldn't do that! He couldn't!"
Yang leaned forward, her hair letting off a soft golden glow to match the red of her eyes. "Talk." She said, through teeth clenched so hard that they audibly groaned.
Ozpin looked to Pyrrha, "you've been quiet, Miss Nikos." He pointed out.
Pyrrha was lost in her thoughts, trying and failing to reconcile the man she knew and the things Aldric had claimed. Every fiber of her soul agreed with her taciturn teammate, she simply could not believe it, but there was something inside of her - in that part of her that she loathed, that enabled her to play the politics of the Huntress' career, that told her there may be a kernel of truth here. Ash had always seemed to carry something with him, the times he'd given her and Ruby advice, the times he'd spoken to them - to all of them! - Pyrrha had always thought that there was something in there that lent experience to his words. She'd been willing to believe the explanations he'd given - she'd never had a reason not to - but on some deep level she'd always known how fantastical they had sounded, which, of course, only made them more believable - who would even try to come up with the stories he'd told about himself? They were ridiculous, nobody would believe them - and as such, that would be exactly why everyone did believe them.
A tear welled up in Pyrrha's eye as she realized that, as much as she didn't believe Ozpin, she knew he was telling the truth. Ash's brief encounter with all of them in Haven, under this light, appeared entirely different - not a battle of a tortured soul not in control of his actions, but the carefully thought out plan of a man trying to give his old friends and unwitting allies a shot in the arm to keep going the last mile. He made Yang mad and got her out of her funk, he showed his face to everyone and got their minds active again, and he threatened their lives, causing Blake to fight or let them die. This all only lent weight to Ozpin's words, and as such, it told her that Ash was good at this 'game' he was playing.
And it killed her to realize this.
She looked up to Ozpin, her own eyes reddening from the tears she was trying to blink away. "Why?" She whispered, mentally readying herself for the image of her first friend to be destroyed forever. "Why did he do it?"
With everyone's undivided attention, Ozpin answered. "He came to our world through the meddling of Salem. The exact methods are... Unknown to me, but he was one of few survivors. He realized rather quickly, however, that the people who rescued him weren't the moral paragons they were claiming to be - after all, consider the things we've told you they are aiming to do. The things they have done. When they came to him, those were all plans - things they were intending to do. They tried to spin it in a better light, but he knew that he had been found by the wrong side... And that he had an opportunity as a result." Ozpin explained, "he knew that if he ingratiated himself among them, if he appeared loyal, then he could position himself perfectly to... Plunge the knife into their back, as it were.
"In his own words - he worked in the dark, to serve the light. He plunged his hand into the filth, that others could remain clean."
"Yeah - and he did that by stabbing us in the back!" Yang yelled, fists clenched. "You read that letter yourself! He genuinely didn't know if his plan to save my sister would work! He thought it would fail! He willingly walked my sister to her death, and he did the same thing to Torchwick's thug and his old teammate! And he implied he'd kill all three of them if he had to!" She raged, "he nearly killed Blake! He dropped a Grimm at my house! And he killed my mother! And you trust him!?" She snapped to her feet. "Are you kidding me, Ozpin?! Are you really serious right now?! How do you know that he's not just pulling one over on you?! He could have been lying to you this whole time!" She thrust a finger in front of the boy's face, "he could just be convincing you he's on your side... Like he's some... Triple... Quad - I don't know - he's lying about being a double agent!"
Ozpin let her rant with a neutral expression, and when she was finished, he said, "miss Xiao Long, I trust Aldric because if he were truly loyal to Salem... He wouldn't have played with you all, at Haven." He said, "he would have killed you - and he could kill you." Yang dropped her hand and scoffed, which Ozpin pointed out. "You laugh, but you have no idea the depths of his power. Magic is what you think it is, and I caught him early enough to groom him to think it is, quite literally, a tool to create anything. A skeleton key to the universe. If he can imagine it, he can obtain it, even if he does not yet realize it. Every single time every single one of you dueled him in Beacon, he was fighting with both hands tied behind his back, and for a time, quite literally blinded.
"And if you do not believe me, then we shall roll back the clock to Beacon. When the Grimm invaded, Aldric could have just let Pyrrha follow me underneath the tower, but he didn't. He followed her. He could have let her die fighting Cinder, but he didn't, he fought Cinder. Roll back to the Vytal finals - he could have let his contacts shoot his opponent with a Terran gun, but he didn't, he took the bullet. Roll back further, to when the Terrans invaded Vale - he could have just let us all fight each other until we could no longer, but he didn't, he ended the fight. The only time he was ever completely incapable of killing the person in front of him was when he met you, Yang - when you fought him in Junior's, and why you think you can fight him again."
Yang blinked, deflating a bit. "How do you -"
"I can do many things, Miss Xiao Long. Reading surface-level thoughts in secret is just one of them." Ozpin said, matter-of-factly. "You saw Aldric when he was, in a manner of speaking, young. But he grew after that - you helped him grow - and he never stopped growing. In power, in wisdom, in intelligence, strength, resources... And all the while he was planning." He said, "I trust Aldric - and you should trust him - because in all that time, up to and including right now, he has not broken. He has stayed true to his convictions. He makes sacrifices so we do not have to - he taints himself so we don't need to, and despite the clear and obvious temptation and possibility to fall to the darkness he plays in, he remains true.
"Yes." Ozpin nodded, "Mister Aldric has done terrible things. Yes, he lied to every one of you. He did it all of his own volition." He looked to everyone in turn, and ended by meeting Yang's glare directly. "He hurt you." He let it hang a moment, and when Yang backed down, falling back to the couch behind her, he continued. "But he did so to grant us an opportunity that we have never had before. We have a chance to defeat Salem. To eliminate her as a threat. He's built an alliance - your uncle and I are a part of it, and the collective resources of this Alliance result in the greatest army that has ever been seen, and it will be completely focused on her."
Yang regained a little steam at the mention of her uncle, and she turned her ire towards him. "And you - you're okay with this?"
Qrow shook his head. "No, kiddo, I'm not." He rasped, "but if that kid's a pawn in the best sense of the word, I'm one in... Not the best sense." He said, putting it lightly. "I'm not a big player and I'm not a face piece. I've been convinced since day one that I've even been a part of the secrets he and Oz have been sharing because he had to go through me to get to Oz in the first place." He explained, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. "I don't make the decisions, I just follow orders." He nodded to Ozpin. "Because I believe in him, and he believes in the kid. So when he says the kid won't falter... I trust him."
Weiss piped in, "I... I have to admit that Yang has a point." She said, drawing everyone's attention. "While I'm on the fence with regards to the matter... You do have to admit - in even just the things he's been involved in that we're aware of - there were any number of better courses of action." She said, "ones that could have resulted in an equal outcome, with regards to his standing with Salem." She indicated Blake, "he didn't have to do what he did to her, at the very least."
Eyes shifted back to Ozpin, and Pyrrha noticed even Qrow giving him a sidewards glance, but Ozpin took it in stride. "Oh, of that we have full agreement." He said, with an emphatic nod. "I would, however, argue that in those cases the outcomes matter more than the methods." He nodded to Blake, "Miss Belladonna is alive, after all. As are all of you."
"Except Ruby." Yang pointed out.
"We don't know that." Ozpin said, sternly.
"And maybe his teammate."
"Something else we have no proof of."
"And my mother." She continued, fists on her hips.
"Something that he had no control over in the first place."
"And the countless Terrans - his own people - he killed in Vale!" She shook her head, teeth gritted.
"Defending us in a situation where none had any of the facts, let alone all of them."
"And brought down Vale and Mistral."
"They both stand even now, and Vale would have recovered if the Dragon did not guard Beacon in its stone prison."
Yang shook her head, pushing herself back to her feet, despite the protests of her team. "No - I'm done. I'm not going to listen to him defend a monster. As far as I'm concerned, Ash and 'Aldric' are two different people. One's dead and one will be." She growled, leering at Ozpin over her shoulder for just another moment, before stomping away in the direction of their rooms.
Weiss sighed, "I'll... Talk to her." She said, with a conciliatory nod to Ozpin, before she followed Yang.
Blake, after a few moments of silence, wordlessly followed her team. Soon after that, Ren got to his feet too, shaking his head as he left - followed, as ever, by the orange haired Valkyrie that never left his side. There were a few more moments of silence before even Qrow got to his feet - swinging by a bar and grabbing a whole bottle of alcohol at random, before stumbling out of sight. After longer still, Jaune, after he stared long and hard at the shield on his arm, left as well, a lost expression on his face as he limply walked away. With only Pyrrha left, Ozpin let out a long sigh, briefly hanging his head.
"So..." She began, attracting the reincarnated man's attention. "He did these things... All of them... Because he thought he had to?" She asked.
Ozpin shook his head, "yes and no." He said, "he did these things because he saw an opportunity that simply would not come again, and taking said opportunity, working with evil, could save more lives than if he refused it and struggled against it." He explained, straightening back up. "For what it's worth, Miss Nikos, he does regret it. All of it. Every life he has taken, every trauma he has inflicted - it weighs heavily upon him. Every dark decision he makes, every dark deed he conducts, none of them are done lightly."
"Why... Are you telling us now?" Pyrrha asked, tilting her head. "Why not just let us think..." She tried, but couldn't come up with a good enough lie. "Anything else?"
Ozpin looked away a moment, thinking - the first time in this whole conversation that he hadn't had an answer ready.
"Looking back on it..." She continued, "I almost think that he wanted us to not know who he was, and when we found out, to think instead he was Ash, and not... Aldric." The Terran name burned her tongue going out, it felt strange - especially to put it to Ash's face.
"Well, that I can explain quickly enough." He said, "he wanted his secret kept for as long as possible specifically in case of an encounter between you and him." He said, "indeed, we had a story prepared for in case you encountered him once and we suspected another one would come before the final battle. This was so the surprise would be genuine when you first saw him, and no one on their side would suspect some sort of foul play if you encountered him again." He paused, "as to the other question... I must admit an ulterior motive beyond the simple answer - that we likely will not encounter him again before it is time for the final battle."
Pyrrha frowned, "what do you mean? Ulterior motive?" She specified.
"Aldric has stood tall this entire time. He has not broken." Ozpin explained, "his will is iron, and his conviction steel. But that doesn't mean he will not. I worry for him." He admitted, with a morose nod, briefly breaking eye contact with Pyrrha as his golden eyes sank to the floor. "And while I suspect that most of those who left us now did so out of disgust for me, or simply to have time to process the information... It doesn't change the fact that only you remain." He explained, looking back up and nodding to Pyrrha. "Only you stayed, to continue to ask questions. To try to understand him as best you can... And such a thing - the bond that it implies - may prove vital for his very life, when this is all over."
Pyrrha blinked, and then Ozpin's implication dawned on her, causing her to gasp and cover her mouth with her hand, unable to fight the tear that came to her this time. Her face pale, she breathed out a soft, "oh."
"I stress the word may." Said Ozpin, "as I said, he is very strong in mind. This is a remote chance, but one I would prefer to mitigate. I do not want someone who so readily sacrificed so much, who so quickly took on so heavy a burden to feel alone, if I can help it." He insisted.
Pyrrha nodded, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. "So..." She gulped. "What happens next?"
Ozpin leaned back, sighing. "He, and Cinder, and the rest of them... They will attack Shade and Atlas academies. They shall take their relics and return to Salem's domain. From there, he shall send to us a signal - one that shall sound the clarion for the final battle." He explained.
"And this train?" Pyrrha asked.
Ozpin smiled, "oh." He snorted, "this train shall take us to Argus... To be frank, I shall consider it a miracle if we even make it to Atlas in the first place." He admitted, "but even if we do not... I know ways to secure transportation, do not worry that."
Pyrrha nodded, and finally found the strength to get to her feet, but before she left, she asked Ozpin one last thing.
"Do you think he's strong enough to do it?" She asked, "to actually destroy Salem?"
She didn't miss Ozpin's hesitation before he said, "if anyone can find a way, Miss Nikos, it would be him."
For The Record
Really, what else is there to say?
We got it: We got the Relic.
I got to witness World Breaker Yang firsthand when I basically admitted I killed Ruby to her.
The cut she left on my chin healed up, but there's a scar there now, too. Add the one Blake gave me and my face is starting to look like a patchwork quilt.
The League kicked the shit out of me - Batman fighting four hundred foes, I am not - but I took my licks, kicked the shit out of Yang and Pyrrha, and then the rest of the Legion showed up so the League FO'ed. Cinder took Raven's powers and we got out of there with the ancient artifact before a giant boulder would roll over us.
Vernal... Said something weird, though, in the vault. Left me with the impression that Venom - for some reason I can only guess at right now - wanted to evaluate Cinder. I'm going to need some time to think on it, because the implications that leaves... They paint a picture, one I can't quite see yet, but can already tell I don't like.
We're flying to Vacuo now. The P̶o̶w̶e̶r̶ ̶S̶t̶o̶n̶e̶ Relic of Destruction is there. Then it's off to Atlas, get Creation.
Then?
I either snap my fingers, or Salem snaps hers. Either way, it won't be my problem anymore.
Today, the Aviator was filled with more people than it had ever been before. With Watts, Rainart, Callows, Helmut, Ben, Aldric, and Cinder, space was at a premium, even accounting for the fact that there were still a few rooms left over in addition to Mercury and Emerald's long-vacant ones. Fortunately for Aldric's sanity, he'd been able to maneuver his way around Cinder's none-too-subtle suggestion at the two of them bunking together by citing to her a need for time and space to think on her earlier proposition, which thrilled her but at the cost of pissing off Tyrian. Fortunately Aldric was able to fend the psychopath off easily enough - for as much experience as Tyrian had over him, there was an obvious and vast difference in power between the two of them alone, and it was clear whose side Cinder was on - the scorpion Faunus knew well enough than to pick a fight with a Master and the Quad-Maiden, so he took his couch and liked it.
But, that still meant that the ship was over capacity, and it felt like no matter where Aldric fled, he ran into someone, so he took another leaf from Mercury's book and shut himself off in the captain's cabin. Cinder soon did the same, and the two found themselves alone together, enjoying a comfortable silence.
Or rather, for Cinder, it was comfortable.
For Aldric, it was anything but - because he was replaying the last few days over and over in his head, trying his best to digest the Raven and Vernal variables now that everything was over and done with.
Let's look at this deal, again. Aldric thought, appearing to be staring intently at the instruments and GPS screen, while Cinder, next to him, was idly reading a book, letting alternating streams of electricity, ice, and fire flow out of her skin, across her arm, and into her palm. Vernal is alive, now. In the show, she tried to shoot Cinder, but here she didn't - more than that it looked like she expected me to show up. She said Raven 'made it look convincing...' And no sooner did Raven get a good look at me, than did she just give the fuck up and let Cinder kill her. Am I supposed to take from this that the deal was for Raven to allow herself to die? Aldric wondered, crossing his arms and letting out a small, tired sigh; he noticed Cinder spare him a brief glance, but she didn't say anything.
Why would she do that? What did Venom promise her that was worth her literal life? Aldric wondered. She didn't seem to care much about Ruby beyond making a point... She reacted to Yang, Vernal seemed satisfied when I mentioned her and Qrow were alive, and Vernal is similarly alive... Conclusion? Aldric closed his eyes, pushing his Radar out; he saw Tyrian dead asleep, Arthur silently reading his scroll, halfway through a cup of coffee, Hazel mowing through a plate of food, and the two Masters in the middle of a heated discussion. Did Venom make a deal for Raven to willingly give her life, such that he would guarantee those three? Aldric wondered. Giving them some kind of warning, that would give Raven time to groom Vernal for a leadership position in the tribe, and they seemed ready to break apart and migrate when we got there... But why would Venom do that to begin with? Even if Raven was fighting full-strength, even if Vernal shot Cinder in the back, Cinder's super-charged with three Maidens' souls. She would've won that fight... Aldric's frown deepened. And then there's... Wait, is that it? He tilted his head. Was it all a ruse? A false pretense? Venom went in all doom and gloom, and bought the Branwen Tribe as well as Raven's bloodline's future, so he could sneak in that evaluation Vernal mentioned?
That had been nagging at Aldric's mind since the second Vernal had said it: Venom had asked Vernal personally to evaluate someone, to see if they could be 'redeemed,' and for the life of him Aldric had no idea what Venom was thinking, or why.
What did Vernal mean, 'redeeming her?' Aldric asked himself. Was she talking about Cinder? What was Venom's interest in her? If he read my journal, if he spoke to me, if he saw the future, he should've known she couldn't be brought back, she'd already dove over the edge a long time ago. This isn't a Paarthurnax situation. A beat, to say nothing of the fact that there wasn't really anywhere to bring her back to. As far as Aldric knew, Cinder had been on the Salem path for most of her life - the earliest she could have been considered on the more moral side of things was before her village had burned down. After that, Cinder had found herself hunting down Salem, and that had led her to here - so for as long as she could make her own decisions, she'd been on this particular path, and no other. So he couldn't have really risked everything just to get Vernal to determine what we already know...
Was she talking about Raven, then? He wondered, eyes opening and returning to the instruments in front of him as the bandit chief's face came to mind. But... No, no. Can't have been... That would imply Venom planned on her surviving, and there is no world where we get the Relics and she's alive. Even if she helped us, Cinder would've taken her powers anyways, and that would necessitate she die to avoid a Human Grimm. Aldric had once suspected that perhaps Venom had wanted to recruit Raven to their fight, but there were so many holes in that idea that it would have sank a submarine. The only way Raven could have lived in the first place is if she beat Cinder somehow, got the relic, and escaped - but in that scenario, there was no way at all that Aldric could have reasonably let her do so. He, and the rest of the Legion of Doom, would have been expected to stop her and rescue Cinder, and both of those things would have been well within their power to do.
So who else, then? Was there someone at the camp I didn't recognize? Or was she talking about someone in the League? Aldric thought to the number of people in the post-Beacon Justice League. There were teams RWBY and JNPR, Qrow, ostensibly Ironwood, and Ozpin, once he came back, but none of them had a dark streak to them, and the Branwen tribe had only interacted with the former three. Can't have been any of them, either... None of them need to be 'redeemed...' Aldric focused his senses on the multi-Maiden sitting next to him.
So it has to be Cinder... But why would he even try, though? Who is Cinder to Venom? Aldric ran over the shortlist he'd made for Venom's identity, but no one on it would even remotely care about Cinder enough to try and judge if she could be brought into the light. Ozpin might, if only to try and figure out what she did to the Maidens and release them if he could, or merge them back into him if he couldn't, but he was the only one he could think of. Adam Taurus hated Cinder for any number of reasons, Ironwood would think of her as an enemy, plain and simple, Qrow had zero reason to even care, and if Venom really was his father, his father would likely hate her even more than Taurus because of her being instrumental in where Aldric was right now.
But... I have to consider that Venom Aldric witnessed someone 'change.' He wanted to try and give that person the chance to change again, but eventually agreed that it wouldn't be possible due to the changes my survival would entail. Aldric let out a silent hum. So let's rationalize this... The biggest difference between then and now is me. I'm still alive. That means whoever 'changed,' my death was the cause of it, and my survival would disallow it. Aldric's frowned deepened because, again, his shortlist didn't match up to this. He felt he could reasonably predict everyone's actions in the event of his death, and it generally revolved around 'batten down the hatches and try to weather the storm'.
So all that left was Cinder herself as the sole candidate for this 'change,' which would at least explain Vernal's actions in the vault, but still left Aldric helplessly lost.
Venom couldn't really have convinced himself that it was Cinder, could he?
"Are you okay?"
Aldric blinked, and turned to Cinder, "hm?" He grunted.
"You've been staring a hole into the screens, there." She said, a concerned frown on her face.
"Oh." He wiped his hand across his face, letting out something halfway between a sigh and a yawn. "Been a long couple of days, just going over all of it." He thought a moment, "Got your little 'proposition,' the three Maidens in almost as many days, that relic hanging from your hip -" Aldric nodded to the lamp that hadn't left Cinder's side; he still remembered his eyes bugging out when she'd just willed it to shrink down to the size of a keychain. "One of the old guys brought up my Dad... Just processing everything. Putting it away."
Cinder nodded, "anything you need to speak about?" She asked.
Aldric bit back a scoff. She does care.
And that thought, that one thought, dropped the corner piece to the puzzle he was trying to piece together; and alongside the other pieces laid out in front of him, it painted an ugly picture.
Trying to keep the whirlwind of thoughts hidden, he shook his head. "Maybe later..." He said, "but uh..." He gave her a bone, "it's... Nice." He said, "having you here. Even quiet. Helps order everything."
That did the trick - making her smile, and turn back to her book.
She does care. Aldric thought, leaning his head back and shutting his eyes - a symbolic gesture at this point, considering he could hardly remember the last time he'd ever seen solely with the metal spheres in his head. She does care. Cinder cared about him - something he'd once thought was impossible for her.
A minor clue, but one that - like the corner piece to a puzzle - would lead to everything else finding its place.
He listed out the other pieces he had:
One: Venom's identity was known to Aldric before Aldric wiped his mind due to having to keep knowledge of the future and his various death and failure-related contingencies secret from mind readers.
Two: Aldric knew going into things that, without the context of meeting and interacting with Venom, Aldric wouldn't trust him, so instead his past self - 'George' he'd called him - told his current self just to trust him.
Three: Venom had witnessed someone undergo - in George's own words - some 'major character development' and wanted to roll the dice on that happening again, but had been seemingly convinced by George that it was impossible.
Four: Appearing to blatantly fly in the face of that, Venom had gone off the reservation to set something up with Raven, and it was pretty apparent to Aldric now that said deal was Raven willingly allowing herself to die, possibly to ensure Yang, Vernal, and perhaps Qrow wouldn't, and maybe even to give them time to groom Vernal to take over the Branwen tribe.
Five: By keeping secrets from himself - by way of leaving Venom's identity and the abilities of the Relic of Knowledge nebulous - Aldric had proven he was fully capable of, and willing to, outright lie to himself through omission in order to ensure things went smoothly, or along a certain path.
Six: Venom had asked Vernal personally to evaluate someone for their potential to turn good, with the only likely candidate being Cinder, and the subsequent implication being that he believed Cinder was the one who may undergo this change.
And finally, Seven: Cinder had just shown him, even though in the grand scheme of things it was minute, she was capable of change - she had developed an emotional attachment to him. Furthermore, where once she was angry and arrogant, where she didn't care about the lives of her comrades, she had again changed to a more humble, pragmatic woman, who cared about her only remaining ally.
Aldric realized that this last piece to the puzzle, the piece Cinder had unintentionally just given him, had been the most crucial one of all. It was the last piece he needed to create something of a timeline of events that would never happen. When Marty - the Aldric of the future - had died, that had resulted in Aldric Black being created. But, having only Marty's memories, and not his thoughts or intentions, when he acted on them, Aldric Black appeared, for all intents and purposes, completely loyal to Salem. Events happened then as they did up until just a few days ago - Aldric Black and Cinder rampaged across Remnant and secured the souls of all the remaining Maidens.
But, somehow, somewhy, despite having all of their souls, when Mistral came, something happened and delayed everything. Instead of securing the final two Relics from Vacuo and Atlas, Aldric Black assembled a gigantic army and went to fight the assembled forces of Earth and Remnant where Aldric had hid his contingencies. This could only happen if Cinder wasn't around, or was unable to get the final Relics. As this obviously wouldn't be the case now, the question would be why wouldn't she in this aborted timeline?
There was only one thing powerful enough to potentially kill or incapacitate Cinder, or stop Aldric Black in its tracks:
A Master.
Or rather, two.
Ben had appeared despondent when he'd spoken to Aldric privately, and neither of the old men appeared too happy with the situation as it was now. If Aldric were to conclude that this meant they were as traitorous as his father and he were, it would suddenly make too much sense. After all, what truly were the odds of four random people on an airplane being so morally backwards that they'd throw their hands in with a doomsday cult run by a literal demoness just because she'd make them superheroes? Even discounting him and his father, that would still imply that two out of almost a thousand people on an airplane were horrendous monsters. Maybe raw statistics could back that up, but those were averages and they rarely reflected or counted the minutiae. Of course, the alternative was that they all had made the same decision as Aldric - to be Green Hornets - but at least that made a slight bit more sense if one considered that none of them were in contact with each other, and largely relied on the Legion to even survive on Remnant. After a while, they'd be stuck with their handlers, and once they learned what they did, gears would start turning - and they'd use their position to their advantage, playing Spy and waiting for the opportune moment to stick their knives in the enemy team's backs.
This meant that the two old men - the very ones speaking to each other in the bowels of Aldric's airship - weren't enemies to Aldric - they were allies! Ben hadn't been consoling Aldric, the crafty old fuck was testing him, trying in a subtle way to gauge whether or not Aldric was committed to the cause or was working against Salem, and Aldric had missed it because he'd suspected the old men were doing just that, but out of malice.
And under this line of thought, Aldric could only further solidify the aborted timeline, especially when he considered the fact that George told him Aldric Black had killed almost every fighter in Mistral. Just like how his father broke away from Salem prematurely after learning Aldric was alive, those two would certainly break away after seeing what Salem was capable of, and willing to do, when Marty died and Aldric Black came to life. In this avoided future, they made their stand at Mistral - by warning them of what was coming ahead of time and setting up an ambush with every single Huntsman and Huntress they had. But as George had told him before, Aldric Black was consumate in his work - very pragmatic.
If the other two Masters attacked him, if all of Mistral, and the Justice League, set up an ambush, he'd secure Cinder first to ensure she could get the Relic, by sending Cinder down to the vault while he fought everyone, and therein lay the golden detail:
This future Cinder was given time to think - on everything.
Everything.
Everything.
With it having been revealed to her that not only had Aldric's father betrayed Salem, but also the two old men, she would thus question why Aldric didn't, but she's not stupid, she would think just like Aldric had, just now: That the chances of all four survivors of a plane crash being unrepentant sociopaths, or even just one of them, were so low as to be nonexistent. With that, she'd start putting the pieces together - all the little parts of Aldric's story that either didn't line up, or lined up just a little too well, from Aldric's midnight rendezvous with Neo to his methods of lying - and realize that Aldric had been a double agent all along, as well - he'd just played the game better. Now, if Aldric added the bombs Cinder had dropped on him a few days ago - about the two of them perhaps starting a life together - Aldric could reasonably predict that Cinder had been harboring feelings for him for a while. In his timeline, those would manifest as they are now, but in Venom's timeline, they would manifest differently:
They would manifest by Cinder doubting if she was on the right path. If everyone - including Aldric, the person she may very well love - was willing and prepared to betray them on moral grounds, Cinder would reevaluate herself; and if George would insist to Aldric that Venom would be someone he knew, but wouldn't trust without context, that left only one conclusion:
Venom Aldric was Cinder Fall.
With that, the entire encounter with Raven made perfect sense: Venom still harbored hopes that Cinder may defy the odds and come to the light, so he - or, rather, she - had gone to meet Raven under the guise of bargaining the tribe's future, and the lives of the people Raven cared about, and from there she just slid in evaluating Cinder's chances for redemption, simply telling Vernal to give her word to Aldric once it was done.
But there was a major question now plaguing Aldric's mind:
Was this sanctioned by George, or had Venom gone off the reservation to do this?
Either option had some sobering implications. If this was part of the plan George and Venom had come up with, that was the easier option - because that meant that this was all intentional, because George and Venom would know Aldric would put the pieces together once he had these pieces to the puzzle. He would piece together the timeline of the future, figure out Venom's identity, and realize why exactly George trusted her: Because Venom had proven to George by slaying Aldric Black, proving her claims were true, and taking none of the ample and endless opportunities to kill George, and later, Aldric. Add on the multiple occasions where Aldric had tapped his contacts and they'd claimed to have just finished speaking to him, or had seen him earlier, and it was clear that Venom was working to plan - if the Branwen Tribe was a part of this plan, it would be there to prove to Aldric that Venom could be trusted, and so he could try and head off the old men at the pass - and secure two Masters to his side for the final battle.
And maybe was also there to act as precedent. Aldric did all of his best work under pressure, after all - when he had to think on his feet and come up with an answer and not a theory. His greatest progress came from trials by fire, and by realizing that he'd hidden information from himself intentionally - and with good intention at that - then maybe - just maybe - it meant he could have the smallest flicker of hope, in the deepest recesses of his mind, that he hadn't actually killed Ruby. That this was just another fold in the memory gambit - that he'd reached a conclusion then just as he'd done before, and chosen to hide his solution and its results from himself as a means of protecting himself against mind readers, and to prompt him to come up with a solution under fire. Even if he couldn't rely on this being the case - and, if he were to be honest with himself, he didn't believe it - the hope could still be there, and he knew how powerful hope was.
But that was just option one. That was the 'perfect world' scenario.
And Aldric didn't live in a perfect world.
No, Aldric lived in one where the only person he trusted implicitly was the perpetually horny sociopath who killed not as a last resort, but as a matter of course.
There was a very real possibility - Aldric was even willing to call it a likelihood - that Venom had gone off the reservation to set up Raven and Vernal. She'd allowed George to think he'd convinced her, but had still harbored the desperate hope that Cinder could be brought into the light. So, of her own accord, Venom had gone to the Branwen tribe and done what she'd done. If this were the case, that meant everything Aldric had learned - all the pieces he'd put together - had never been intended. That the plan had been for him to continue operating in the blind until the final battle - and worse, that Aldric was right all along and that no Cinder could be trusted. One may think he was over reacting, but Aldric would point to the fact that even George hadn't fully trusted Venom - that even George considered the possibility that Venom may turn was a very real one. He had, after all, left a very real, and very simple, way of eliminating George in the form of the fork - he'd told Venom how important it was to keep the fork on him, such that she'd remain in this timeline and unaffected by the changes she'd made, but not of what would happen if she'd lost it. If Venom truly trusted her, he would have given her that detail as a sign of said trust - but that he didn't meant he still harbored some small suspicion for the Cinder of the Future.
Which meant Aldric couldn't trust her either.
The worst part of this was that for all Aldric could deduce, he didn't have enough to tell himself which of these outcomes was the correct one. They could both be true for all he knew - George may be pulling one hell of a Batman Gambit by allowing Venom to do what she did, because it would lead Aldric down this mental path and allow him time to prepare for her if she turned out to be not trustworthy after all. He could have done it to inform Aldric that there would be another, unplanned, source of magic present at the final battle - and the implications such a fact may have on The Big One. That, of course, relied on there being a Venom present at the final battle to begin with, which - as much as Aldric wanted to believe he may have not killed Ruby, he just couldn't rely on the idea.
Whatever the case... Aldric took in a deep breath and pushed himself to his feet, attracting Cinder's gaze, as he opened his eyes. I need to talk to the old men. Both of whom appeared to have finished their conversation, and were making their way to the dining room.
"I'mma stretch my legs." Aldric told Cinder, who nodded.
If it comes to a 'Spot the Imposter' scenario... Aldric thought, as he slid out of the cockpit and caught sight of the two old men - Ben was chatting up the Huntsmen, while Helmut locked eyes with him, and began approaching. I'll have to remember to ask the two where we'd had sex the first time. If Venom really is Cinder, Marty died before that happened, so she won't be expecting that question - whereas my Cinder will answer immediately, and I'll shoot her. Aldric cleared his throat.
"Helmut." He said, reaching the old man. "I need to -" As Aldric spoke, he witnessed Ben raise both hands, seeing Arthur and Hazel's necks twist around in a full, grotesque three hundred and sixty degrees, while Helmut shoved his hand forward - fingers digging into Aldric's chest.
And going straight through. In a brief, macabre display, Aldric saw as the man's fingers pushed his mithril shirt, his vibranium suit, his skin, and his ribcage apart like water, with ripples travelling across his chest and everything. The old man's hand rewrote how Aldric's chest worked in its journey to his vitals, and once it got inside, the old man stopped playing nice and started pushing - pushing aside everything inside his chest, ripping into everything in its way, splitting flesh, muscle, and sinew, until Aldric felt, and with his radar, saw the old man's gnarled hand close around his spinal cord. Body convulsing, Aldric desperately grabbed at the old German's arm, lifting his gaze to the old man's blank frown.
"You gave us no choice, junger mann." Said the old man, with a genuine hint of regret in his voice. "Your father would be disappointed."
Teeth gritted, blood rising up his throat, Aldric clenched Helmut's arm and choked out, "too soon." They couldn't have waited five minutes. Just five minutes and this could have been avoided. Five minutes, and Aldric - out of raw self preservation - wouldn't have to throw out what could have been his two greatest allies. "You have no idea -" Aldric coughed, and the blood in his throat stained his clenched teeth, "- what you've done."
Before the old man could literally rip his spine out of his chest, Aldric did the only thing he could think of - the only thing he knew would communicate to Cinder and, if he was still alive, Tyrian, that things had gone terribly, terribly wrong.
He used his semblance to blow up the Aviator.