13

The nightmare was much worse. Beacon was burning, Adam stands dominant. The ground was a mix of the corpses of children and far far too many Grimm. An endless tide of them flowing around Adam as he stood there, staring at us.

I took us to the Moon and showed Yang the half built base before we find a Nether Portal.

The Netherrack bled and bled and bled until the lakes of lava cooled and the fortress was half submerged. A Wither Skeleton with a Red Sword came, and no matter how hard I hit it, it would not die.

We ran, only for a Ghast to destroy the portal.

I grabbed Yang, and we fled again, up again. Through the Bedrock and into the void above until the sky filled with stars and we were on Patch running through the woods, Grimm on our tail and the man with the Red Blade stalking after us.

So I burned the forest down.

There is the smell of smoke and feeling warm embers on our feet as we arrived to a house, a blond man calling us in for a warm meal. A little girl ran out of the door and hugs Yang, giggling and chattering meaningless words far to fast to understand.

I'm awake.

And guilty. I should find somewhere else to stay, I'm making her nightmares worse now. {I'm sorry.}

It's the first thing either of us has said to eachother since my breakdown.

{No, I'm sorry.} She replies. Why?

{You have nothing to apologise for. I'm the one who yelled and stuff.} And stuff, what a way to describe the nightmare. I'm the one to blame.

She sits silent for a while.

{I talked to Uncle Qrow about...} The wall.

{I'm sorry, I didn't mean to- no. I did mean to hurt you. Lashing out to prevent anyone from getting close to me.} I hang my head. {I shouldn't have brought it up. I was using it as a shield to direct the conversation away from...} I sigh. {Not that it was much of a shield, I don't want to talk about it either.}

I don't even want to think about it.

{Do you still want to leave?} I did say that didn't I?

{Do you still want me to stay?} I sigh. {There isn't really anywhere else for me to go. I have to be with someone, and even my 'plan' for jumping into the CCTS Tower probably wouldn't work.} Even if I could... {No, I don't want to go. The flatting market these days is terrible.}

Yang doesn't laugh at my joke, but the tension drops down a few notches. {Good.} Good? You do want me to stay? {We, um, came up with a name for you.}

Seconds pass and I realise she is waiting on me. {Well. Go on.}

Alloy

I gasp.

oh

that fits in a far deeper way than Yuki ever did

{Yes.}

Yang breathes a sigh of relief, I think, and seizes on the topic to talk about. {Good. We were talking about how you said you were colourless, like glass or a lens. Nobody really liked that, so we came up with something that means the same kind of thing.}

I understand the logic. {I make you all stronger, whatever colour I am. We just don't know what colour the pure alloy metal is.} Yang nods, it's so strange to see her hesitant and cautious like this. Nothing at all like the Yang... Ah. Like the Yang last night who tried to force me. {Even weak metals can be added to make others stronger. Pure Titanium is brittle, isn't it? But add a little to some Iron and you get a much better steel than either.} I snort. {Real power of friendship kind of name, isn't it?}

{Titanium isn't brittle, alien.} Yang teases, just a little less cautious.

{Oh, I'm sorry. I'm afraid my people have moved past such worthless materials and I've forgotten all about the properties of such things.} Better clarify, actually. {Not really, Titanium is alright I suppose.}

Yang snorts at my understatement of the uses of Titanium before another awkward silence sits.

And sits.

I breath and break it first. {If you don't want me here, we can-}

{No. I do.} Anger in me again flares up at kindness.

{Why? If it's just the Aura overuse, we can find another way.}

{Do you not want to stay?} I cough out a laugh as a thought crosses my mind.

{I'm sorry, that could have just been interpreted like we are married or something.} Yang gives a little laugh at that.

{Ren would get jealous.} Oh great.

{Is there anyone who doesn't know about that?} The half smile sent to me tells me no. I switch back. {I'm a parasite, Yang. An intrusion, even more than I normally am.}

{Nope.}

{Nope?}

{Nope.}

{What kind of an answer is 'Nope'?} I ask.

{Mine.} Well, that's frustrating.

{Are you even going to give me a reason why you want me to stay.} Yang pretends to think about it for a moment. I sigh.

{Nope.} Great. That's just great. {If I do that, you'll just use that as the reason your 'valuable'.}

She's right. I would work on whatever to try and justify my existence. Just like before... {Shut up.} I mutter.

Yang laughs, and there is a bit more energy to it this time.

I need to talk to Raven and Ozma about Summer. Yang, despite me asking her not to, is going to host me for that. Don't want to strain my Aura/Semblance, apparently, but I'm also guessing something on Yang's end is playing a part of it.

Raven first.

She arrives in her own time, which means a few hours after I asked. It's 9:14 when she arrives via portal and Yang excuses us from the group to go talk to her.

A staff room is secured and we don't bother sitting down. Yang hand's control over to me.

"I need to know about your mission with Summer." Raven takes a breath, slow and steady as I skip all the bullshit and go straight to why I'm here. {Sorry Yang, this might be painful.}

{You told me that when you said why you needed to talk to them.} She sends back.

"What part?" Raven asks.

"All of it, but we will start with Salem. Regeneration rate, combat abilities, c-" Raven gives an empty laugh.

"You said you have seen her fight." A challenging glance is sent my way. "You know she can't be beaten."

I scoff. "I laughed at her fighting." I counter. "All the build up, all that fear, and when she finally starts to attack, it's pathetic. Rainbow lasers and a few spells, nothing impressive." I lean against the wall and cross my legs. Yang's legs. Whatever.

"Yeah." Raven glances down and exhales. "We did too."

A few steps and Raven sits down, and I drop myself on the couch opposing her. "But you can't fight her. She just ignores everything thrown at her." A tone of hopelessness is in that, and grief. "We fought for hours until we couldn't anymore. Until..."

"Did you cut off an arm or leg? Head maybe?" I'll get to the big question later.

"Of course we tried that!" I smirk. "What?"

"How did she recover from that?" Ah, that challenge. "Did her limbs regrow from her torso, or did she need to go pick them up and reattach them?"

"You think you can just-"

I cut her off harshly. "Answer the question Raven."

She sneers at me. "They liquidated and flowed back to her before reforming."

Oh yeah, that's the good stuff. I purr at the ideas flowing through my head. And then stop. "Divide and box. Then separate across the planet. Or didn't Miss Portal think of that?" She flinches.

"She opened her own portals and they flowed back to her." Ah. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because that means she needs that exact matter. She can't just create new limbs. She can't just magic up more Salem." I look directly into her eyes. "And matter can be destroyed."

"Even I know matter and energy can't be destroyed without Dust. Dust that doesn't work on her." Ah yes, Dust. The exception.

"I wasn't talking about Dust. I was talking about... Well I best not say it, in case you try to make it. It's a very dangerous substance, and if we tried to use it on Salem, the resulting explosion would shatter the tectonic plates, if not the planet." I smirk again. "But we don't have to do that on the planet."

Anti-matter isn't something we want to deal with. Though, Negative-matter might work, if I can create it. If it's even real.

"Your insane."

"Crazy, not insane. Now, when you cut off her head, did her body flow towards her head, or towards her chest? Where is the focal point of her regeneration? How fast? How much delay between attack and regen? Does the rate of regeneration change depending on level of damage or is it consistent?"

She is looking at me like I'm crazy. "You don't understand! None of that matters! She can't be killed!" She takes a short breath. "Every 'plan' you made will at best delay her, but you can't kill her. The Brothers cursed her to be Immortal."

"Yeah? So?" Raven goes Still. Too still. "That's the words that broke you, isn't it?" She flinches. "She let you go, didn't she?" Raven flinches again. Something feels a little off.

The only reasons Salem would let someone like Raven go is if she was sure she was both broken, and it served her goals. Goals like sowing discord among Ozma's party. Except... Simply letting her go isn't enough. She came back alone. Qrow, and others, would question why, why alone? Why not grab Summer and leave through a portal, or is she secretly working for Salem and that is why she let her go?

No. Raven isn't working with Salem. Yes, she came back alone. And Summer is definitely dead.

Fuck. "She made you do it, didn't she?"

Raven flinches a third time before tears start streaming down her face.

Yang inside of me flares up in anger and takes back control. Raven Killed Summer. "YOU-"

'Take. The. Girl... Take! The! Girl! TAKE! THE! GIRL! TAKE! THE! GIRL!' I hit her with the memory of the broken man with Silver Eyes, so hollowed out that all he can do is obey. Yang stalls.

Then another memory, one of Salem scratching the Hound while chastising Cinder. 'Do you hear that, my pet? She thinks. She wants.' Yang falters.

Then I imagine Summer's face in the Hound, hunting down Ruby. Repeating the same three words.

Yang falls back into the chair. "There must have been a way..."

"My Aura was broken. So was hers. She simply wore us down." Raven confesses. "And then she made me choose. Summer begged me to..." Yang releases control to me.

"And that's why she let you go. Either you left broken and sowing discord, with a story of a bright soul broken and a question by Oz's allies why, or she got something worse. Something that would hurt everyone far more. Especially her." {Yang, if you had to choose...}

{I.} Yang chocks up. {I can't.}

{She would have made that a must.} I call up another image, one of Salem holding an Aura broken Ruby over a pool of Grimm Liquid, while an Aura broken Yang sits back with a gun. A single bullet in it. The purely imagined image is fuzzy, unlike the cartoon memories of a show or sharp memories of real life.

It conveys the situation well enough. {Stop.} I stop. {I... I can't do that.}

I turn back to the crying Raven. "You didn't make a choice. I hope you realise that, you didn't kill her. Even if it feels like it." I want to say how there have been studies done, I want to say that I've been through the same thing on the Wall, but studies won't help her now, and I haven't really been in the same situation. I didn't know the people I was choosing, I didn't love them.

So instead I push onwards. I ask the full story and Raven, the broken woman, tells me.

A secret mission in the night. Ozma's story on how they will, at the very least, slow her down for a generation with the possibility of destroying Salem entirely. Or, more accurately, purging the evil controlling Grimm from her body.

Salem laughing off Silver Eyes, mocking them, saying how Ozma has sent Silver Eyed Warriors before. Something she has become immune to. Then they try to kill her the traditional way, and without the pressures of Atlas and two Relics in arms reach, she lets them. Oh, she fights back, but she spends more time breaking them down psychologically than physically.

Then they try to run, to fight another day.

Salem actually puts some effort in and stops them.

Salem she shows them 'A prototype, though one that is showing potential.' and she makes Raven kill Summer.

Raven on wings flees. Salem knows about Qrow's and Raven's shapeshifting it seems.

Yang is hollowed out. Raven is shattered.

So, that's how far Salem is willing to go.

Then Yang does the unexpected. She takes over, and hugs Raven. I retreat as they mourn Summer.

"We need to tell the others." I state after too long and too short of a time. "This is a breaking secret, and we cannot have that break us at the wrong time." Raven nods. "You will need to be there."

"I know." She hangs her head and I plan.

"I need to ask Qrow a question, then go to Oz. He... Probably shouldn't be here for that." Not after Qrow's, Yang's and Tai's reaction last time. They may kill him, and I have no Maidenhood to stop them with.

Less than an hour later and I have asked my question of Qrow. Yang and I are riding the elevator to Glynda's office, she hasn't really had the effort to kick Ozma out of it yet. That, more than anything, should have told me my answer.

{Why did you ask Qrow if we could trust Miss Goodwitch?} Yang asks as we rise, still emotionally burned out from before.

{Second Secret. If I have to tell everyone, Ozma must not know. It would break him.} I sigh. {And no, if I do tell everyone, please don't go and tell him to hurt him. We still need him.} Yang nods and retreats.

{It's comfy in here.} In the back of her head? I wouldn't quite put it like that. {I don't have to worry about anything.}

That rattles me a bit. {You trust me that much?} I ask.

She hmms. {Maybe not with my hair, but if you mess that up...} It's hollow, mechanical. A joke going through the motions, no joy to threat, no teasing in it at all.

{I'll be sure to mix up hair dye with shampoo then.} The doors open.

Ozma reads my expression. "Ah." Buttons are pushed, devices turn off, and my privacy screens, though removed, have been replaced with some kind of impromptu metal shutter. Good enough, I suppose.

I pull up a chair and sit down in front of his desk. "Alloy here."

"I guessed." Ozma states, a slight joking expression on his face. "I understand the other name wasn't to your liking."

I pull out and turn off Yang's scroll. "It altered the meaning of Tenno. From what I understand it to Emperor. Snow Empress is a bit pretentious." I frown slightly. "Not that I am Tenno, not yet. I'm going to have to earn that title."

"Just Alloy then." I nod. "I assume from your expression that this isn't a pleasant visit."

"I need to know about Summer." He exhales. "Why send her?"

The mug of hot chocolate on his desk gets picked up, a sip taken, and then put back down as he readies himself. "I didn't know that She has gained immunity, and I needed time."

Time.

I can feel Yang's opinion of him drop even further, or I imagine it. The other part of me runs the math and logic. "Mountain Glenn." He nods. "Ah." I lean back in the chair. "It rattled you, hard enough for you to send a Silver Eye to freeze her a generation." I go to run my hand through my hair before I stop. It's Yang's hair.

"Mountain Glenn shook everyone in Vale, and more. An attack like the Vytal was bound to happen sooner or later." More and more logic gets run through my head.

I take another breath. "The Great War. She did the same to start that."

Ozma nods. "Nobody outside of my group knew who triggered the attack, who compromised the defences. Suspicion was growing that it was another Kingdom, thanks to some planted evidence that we missed during our clean up." A look crosses his face. "Or it was inspired by a few choice words."

Salem doesn't attack Mountain Glenn, the popularity and resources of it being the greatest of the recent Kingdoms outreach attempts. A lot of concrete is in Mountain Glenn, the City was working. People were starting to believe.

Then Salem hits it.

She points the people at the other Kingdoms, after all, a kingdom with not one, but two major cities is a major power imbalance in a world like Remnant. The resources from it, the human resources, that is a major boon. If anything in RTS games has taught me, it's that population is your most critical asset. Can't have factories without people to work them.

I nod to Ozma to let him continue. "When Summer did not return, I had to take extensive action to control the damage enough to prevent another war. Enough to significantly reduce my powerbase."

Ah. "Which is why the Vale Council allowed James to bring his fleet, despite your protests." He nods. "Cinder's use of the tunnels would have also stirred that, not just your loss of power, but also the old rumours of another Kingdom attacking Vale." I sigh as I realise just how effective Cinder's plan was. "And then Atlas tech turned on the people. Clever."

Even now it won't be hard to trigger a war between Atlas and Vale. Ozma speaks. "Thank you. If not for your actions on James' flagship, the situation would be much worse." He takes another sip of hot chocolate, does he use some of his magic to keep it warm? "James has agreed to give Vale the People's Service, though I understand the council is going to have the people to rename it." He smirks. "And paint it."

Ah, Atlas white not Vale's colour? Well, it will be visible from a distance as Vale's battleship and not Atlas'. "Our plan with Weiss would not go over well then, it will seem as if she is moving in and capitalising on the incident."

Ozma just frowns at me. "You underestimate your importance." A deeper frown. "No, you have neglected you impact entirely. You will need to work on that." He shifts to explain. "Yuki Tenno died for cooperation between Atlas and Vale. Between not destroying the battleship, coordinating with James, being a clear friend to the rising popularity of Team JNPR, and the fact that if Atlas had such a powerful Semblance at their disposal, you could have taken the City without a Grimm attack."

I snort at the last one. "I still could."

He's smiling. "Perhaps." The frown returns. "Many of James' soldiers died during both attacks, video evidence of Knights turning on soldier and of soldiers defending Vale's citizens... The attacks are being easily pinned on the Red Fang." He inclines his head to me. Another thing I did, separate the Red from the White. "The Red Fang have made their statement to break away from the White Fang, and to become enemies to all. Something about 'Casting off their Grimm masks or being cut down as one.', ah, and Remnant Unbroken after all."

"Right time and the right place, that's all." I deflect again.

"Something I am glad for. As much as there was hostility to Atlas before the Siege, there is considerably less so now. So much so that the People's Service is to return to Atlas for full repairs before being given back to Vale and Vale has agreed to allow support from Atlas to arrive. They should be here before you leave." Whoa, okay.

"That's... A pretty impressive turnaround. Maybe I should die more often." Ozma doesn't laugh. "I was joking, Oz."

"I certainly hope you do not make a habit out of it." Chills run down my spine and a part of me marvel at how he can inject so much power into a few words. I've been taking Ozma lightly this whole time, he too has had thousands of years to hone his skills on the power of words.

"Understood." I nod and the room becomes a lot lighter again.

"Glad to hear it." A little brighter again. "And that I can still have that effect, even on someone as unusual as yourself."

Okay, that is a joke. I smile a bit before I have to get back on topic. "Unfortunately, I have some chilling words of my own." He readies himself. "Salem forced Raven to kill Summer."

His eyes widen, visible behind even his glasses and he puts his hands down and breathes deeply. Seems he didn't know that. Still, his sharpness at the Immortal Game comes into play. "She allowed her to leave then."

"First time?" I ask about friends forced to kill friends.

"No." So Salem has used the tactic before.

{And he still loves her.} Yang spits the words in my- Her. In her head.

{Love, real true love, isn't rational.} I lament. {If you love someone, completely and truly, there isn't really anything that can be done about it. Again I ask, if you had to choose...} Ruby, Tai, Summer herself.

{I would help her.} Ruby probably.

{And if that didn't work? Ozma tried to help Salem.}

{He ran away with their kids!} True.

{My story isn't the whole story, no matter how I presented it. And what Salem was proposing was eugenics... which you probably aren't that aware of. Either way, reality is always more complicated than that.} I sigh. {But, you're right. They should have found another way.}

"I've started organising everyone else to be told. I think it would be best if you and Glynda weren't there." She is still his biggest supporter, after me. Though my definition of support is a little more complicated than that.

"Are you sure-" My glare cuts him off.

"Secrets and lies are her power, Ozma. We will fight with Truth. If this breaks them, then I would rather it broke them now rather than later, at a time of her choosing." This is how I run a shadow war. I soften my voice a tad. "There's a saying I have: 'Truth sharpens Truth. Lies muddy Lies. Truth destroys Lies.'"

I've made my mind and will not be swayed. Ozma yields again. "I will do my best to keep her confused and distracted then. Was there anything else?"

"Not that I can immediately think of." I stand up. "Raven, and I suspect Qrow, are know to be birds by her." He nods, having already known that. "We are going to win this, Oz. I will no allow any other possibility."

We leave and the doors of the elevator close.

No other possibility, even if I have to confront my horrible personality. Ozma was right, I am giving myself too little credit. Miscalculating because of it.

And that is dangerous.

The news doesn't go over well with those who knew Summer. It doesn't go over well with those that hoped to fight Salem directly. It doesn't go over well in general.

I have to use 'Take. The. Girl.' to help Raven. Not that Qrow, Tai or Ruby were going to attack her, they are far more focused on Ozma, but it helps, if only a little.

The group is fractured. Raven is broken. And I can only think of one way to help her.

Yang hands over control to me and I shift my posture a bit to signal to everyone who is fronting. "I have a secret."

Gazes turn to me. "More of an assessment, a guess. I haven't told anyone because... Because speaking it will make the war much, much harder."

"But?" James asks.

"It might already be too late." I look to Ren. "Ren, what do you do when you finish a game of chess?"

He frowns. "You put away the board or set it up and play again."

"Yeah." I barely mutter. "That's what I thought too." I look up. "I'll start with the good news. Raven, you did the right thing."

She is unconvinced.

"Ozma came back. After thousands of years, his soul was pulled from the other side and put into a new body. That means there is another side." There we go, that little bit of hope. Unfortunately, the clever in the room are starting to put the pieces together.

Now I have to induct them into the real secret war. "I'm sorry."

I swallow. "Long ago, before Salem and Ozma, there were two brothers. Two brothers who fought eachother. Yet no matter how they struggled, neither could overcome the other. So they said, 'Let's play a game.'"

"Oh Grimm." Ren swears.

"They created a world and filled it with things. Strange things, common things, Grimm things, until that game became boring. 'Let's play a different game.' they said. So, they worked together to create the most interesting thing of all. Humanity. Once done, they sat down in two places. Religions formed up around them. A subtle and shifting game no-one lived long enough to see. Then one day, a Piece on the board rebelled. And like children, the Brothers threw a tantrum and cleared the board, punished the Piece that dared to threaten their fragile sense of self. Then they left."

Silence.

I take a breath. I'm so sorry. "But where did they go? There is nothing out there, not really, and so they became board. 'Let's play a different game.' they said." James Understands. Qrow Understands. Raven pales even further as she Understands. But not just them, but more and more are getting it.

"So they set up the board again, and made old move and new moves. New moves for a new game. Dust. Faunus. Grimm." I swallow as I try to break the news to them as slowly as I can. As gently as I can. "Then white made a new move. He pulled a long forgotten piece out and placed it. Mission. Relics. Judgement." I make the evidence clear. "The Brother of Light was the only one there with Ozma. Not Darkness. Nor does the mission of a unified, harmonious and peaceful humanity sound anything like what Darkness would want."

That is what struck me about the mission when I watched it. That only the Brother of Light was there giving it. He claimed to be speaking for both of them, and certainly Ozma might not want to see Darkness.

But they aren't that considerate. They really don't care about people.

"And it worked. White was winning, as violent as the methods were, they were working. So Black made a move. The exact word the Lamp used was Miracle."

Blake swallows and plays dictionary for everyone. "An event that occurs despite being impossible, often seen as an act of divine intervention."

Divine intervention. "So four children were born, with impossible powers. Exactly what was needed to drive two Pieces apart..." Now I lament my lack of magic, if only for a glass of water. "And Black and White had their Queens."

I breathe and clarify, even though at this point it is unneeded. "I don't think Ozma has realised, but he calls her the Black Queen. As great as a piece that is in chess, the game isn't really about the queens." It's about the kings. "Funny thing about chess. You never actually take the enemy king. Move into checkmate, and the game ends there, before the final blow."

I breathe again. "Jinn said 'You can't.', yet normally she is so... verbose. Dramatic displays and captivating stories. Illusions of events past. Maybe she was simply feeling different, maybe that was how she used to answer questions, they were her first."

"Or maybe she wasn't allowed to." Qrow mutters aloud. "We can't trust the Relics."

"I don't know if Ozma has asked the Staff to make the perfect prison. But I get a feeling I know what he would say and do if requested to." Nope, sorry, can't do that. It's against the Rules. I turn back to Ren and asks again. "What do you do when you do when you finish a game of Chess?"

"You put away the board," Everyone dies. "or you set it up and play again." Everyone fights forever. Even if you die, there is no telling if or when the Brothers pull it out again.

"I'm not afraid of Salem. Now you know why." I sigh. "I see three options. One, we play the game and hope that they find something else to do. However, that leaves them out there, either to come back and play again, or to create another world and use the people there."

"Option two is to convince them to stop. Show them that we are people, not pieces to be played with. However, considering their history and childlike behaviour..." I doubt it.

"Option three is to destroy them, or incapacitate them in such a way as to make then no longer a threat." Raven scoffs.

"I didn't want to tell you all this, because simply thinking about it has altered our odds, and not in a good way. If it were just me, I could claim my Outsider status, or remove myself entirely." One more. "I have another story, one that lowers our odds even more. Even if it has a sliver of hope in it."

I try damage control. "That said, this is my assessment. They might have really left, that all of this is coincidence and my own mind looking for patterns where none exist."

"They would still be out there." James puts forth. A military man, looking for threats to his Kingdom.

I just told him that two beings worshipped as gods, with power to erase all life on the planet in a few seconds, are potential threats.

"Don't tell Ozma, or Glynda. Faith is the only thing that has held him together at this point. I understand many of you are pissed at him, but we do still need him." I look to Winter. "And maybe Specialist Schnee was right. Maybe you guys should just send me to talk to Salem."

Hit her in the face with the cognitive weapons I've been tailoring for her. "Talk, decide and then vote. Tell Yang to get me when you're all done."

I nod my head down and then it is Yang's head. Then I retreat.

I sit in nothing and brood. I'm sorry, but the chance that the Brothers might kill everyone was getting too high for my liking. Too many random events that didn't add up. Dust, Faunus being new despite the Brothers apparently leaving Remnant, only one Brother giving Ozma his mission, the conditions of said mission, children being born of a creature of half Grimm destruction despite how hard it is for normal people to get pregnant. Not super difficult, but Salem was half Grimm, and she had four children either as quadruplets or twins or in rapid succession.

Grimm drain Aura on contact, it's why I have discarded the idea of jumping into a Grimm. While being something like a Geist would be cool and all, I'm friends with a... ha.

Since when did I start thinking of Ruby as a friend?

Doesn't matter. A single misfire and I get disintegrated, after all. Grimm drain Aura on contact. I would be stuck in it, possibly even with a Jaune boost to try get me out. Depends on how old it is, I suppose.

Every living thing doesn't just have Aura, but needs it, as what my current situation has taught me. I think I vaguely remember something about Jax and Gill having problems in the womb, because Gill's Semblance was active.

For Salem to be part Grimm and still have either a rapid sequence of children or twins, then she must have somehow not be draining them on contact. More than that, it didn't happen instantly. It took at least decades before it took the first time. If Salem wasn't innately hostile and simply had a very low chance of conceiving and bringing to term a child, then that same probability makes multiple children very very unlikely.

The children were also seemingly pure human. No Grimm at all. And the most certainly weren't immortal.

Children are a blind spot too, emotionally and tactically speaking. Salem still laments her daughters loss, if I remember right. She had a little smoky illusion of them when the Hound brought Oscar to her.

A perfect vector to drive them away. A very good play.

So good, that it seems to have single handily turned the growing White victory to a growing Black victory.

Unfortunately, that leaves me with an uncomfortable possibility. Am I just the latest move in their game? I don't know how I got here, maybe I am just a piece, created or pulled from a different board, sent to this one to turn back things?

Are they watching me, listening to me, right now?

.

.

No.

They wouldn't risk something like me on the board. I am, as strange as it is, too strange. Too chaotic. Too disruptive. After all.

I don't play chess.

.

That said, we will need to make and hide our moves very carefully (Assuming everyone wants to walk to godless path). The Brothers will need some way of keeping track of everything, to see the board to make their moves. It's one of the reasons I don't want Ozma to find out, a spell in his head, woven into his immortality, would feed all his actions and reactions to them. Salem too.

Possibily Raven and the other Maidens, but if that is the case, then we are already screwed. I was a partial Maiden after all, and I don't think they would allow someone with access to my level of understanding and anti-god stance to exist.

After all, I could have burned the board and all the pieces on it at any moment.

I almost did. If I didn't come up with a way to use Nora Storm without killing Nora, I might have tried Fusion. It's not as risky as I've made it out to be, but I don't know the hard math and a Quantum-Probability based understanding of reality tells me there are no certainties in the world.

Every step might trigger a chain reaction of fusion events. It's not likely, but not impossible. Just 'statistically impossible'. Ha.

That, more than anything, tells me I'm not suppose to be here. Fiction, my understanding of the future, the world I come from, those things are weird and game changing, but my anti-god sentiment. The actual fact that I can burn the board, that I am actually such a curveball is in my favour.

{We're done.} Yang messages me.

Now all I have to do is pretend to be a blind pawn. Blinded by my origins and technology and arrogance.

I open up the feeds for her eyes and ears. {What's the vote?}

She nods and Pyrrha speaks. "We'd like to hear the other story."

{I told them about Jinn.} Yang says. {If we can't trust her, then we can't trust her, so I used it as an example of some things that shouldn't be known.}

{Stole my lesson you mean.} She snorts at that.

{Improved it.} Yang jokes before pushing control over to me.

I take a breath and change posture a bit. "I have 4 stories, well, 4 theories I will package into stories." Pyrrha makes an expression at the number 4. Oh right, she was there when I infected Cinder with confirmation bias. "And it looks like I'll have to talk to all of you about the number 4."

People notice my look at Pyrrha and accept that there is something there, but not now.

"A very long time ago, there was Humanity and magic. Day to day, people lived their lives and did ordinary everyday things. They ate, slept, built small huts and hunted, some started a new tradition called 'farming', where instead of going out and looking for food, you made the food grow next to you." That's how long ago we are talking.

"But important for our story is that they asked questions. Why does water fall from the sky? Why do these plants taste good where these ones make you sick? What are those lights in the sky at night." I wave my hand in a circle as if to go ect.

"Somewhere, a story got made and then passed down. A story a simple human mind can understand. Someone put them up there. These taste good because they remember the world before. The mountains are sleeping giants, we should give offering to them to ensure they don't wake up. Before long these explanations became myths, legends, religions, and people forgot they were just stories made up to explain that which seems unexplainable."

Here we go. "And they started to believe them. Belief is a powerful thing. It can drive even the most cowardly to action, keep the rowdest children in bed at night, convince those who thinking themselves wise to do foolish things." A slight smirk. "And that is before you add magic."

If I were a Maiden, I would hold up my hand and call up some ice. "Magic, is an intuitive thing, at least as far as I have held it. Too intuitive, even for the simple elements I could control. So when a growing population where every member has a well of that same, intuitive power, all start believing in the same thing, well... Things happen. Without knowledge, and without detection, those faint traces of magic did something. A few tiny events that would normally go unremarked, except..."

I mimic rolling of dice. "'Two sixes! You must be blessed by the gods, my friend!' Maybe it was luck, maybe it was magic, but what mattered is that people began to believe, just a little bit more. More and more people began to channel that subtle current of power. 'The priest was right, this year's harvest was particularly bountiful because we preformed his ritual on the land!' And it started to take shape. Not that it was all good, for magic has limits, people have limits, and bad things still happen."

I put on another voice. "'Mommy, if God is so good, why did my dog die?' And another story was made. 'Because God has a brother. An evil brother who doesn't like anything he does.'... From there it snowballed. Everything good was because of Light. Everything Bad was because of Dark, or a lack of Faith."

Dissonance. "Though, not all was easy. Different settlement, different people, they all had their own understanding of what these two beings were. Then someone made a sculpture of one. Another made a tapestry of one. Someone invented writing and once flowing mailable ideas became fixed things that could be referenced and compared. Across the population the differing version struggled until one came out on top, the one with the most Faith behind it."

Critical Point. "The population never stopped going up, not with new tools for farming, new 'spells' from Faith, new ways of building better homes and safer communities, all united with a shared religion. And the magic continued to grow, continued to build and build, miracles became more and more common until one day the wells of power reached a critical point."

My hands mimic an explosion. "Two new Conceptually Constrained Magic Elementals are born, their souls and magic self sustaining from all the Faith poured into them, like a civilisation scale of motherhood. Two beings that looked, acted, and had powers exactly like the stories, because that is where they were from. Two beings that believed those same stories, that they were the ones to create everything, that they were responsible for everything, just as the people believed."

"They called themselves gods, and the people believed. Any who did not believe before did now, for how could they not when confronted with such evidence? Under their direct guidance, the population grew even more, and the Faith never stopped flowing in. Until one day, a girl from a tower pitted them against eachother, though that is a story for another time." Yeah, I'm still flirting with you Jinn. You might be a Conceptually Constrained Magic Elemental, but you tell a good story. I like stories.

Oh, water. I didn't see that before. Thanks Raven.

I wait and let them digest it. "So, what? They're not gods?" Okay, less thanks to Raven.

"Are you a god, Raven? With you Semblance, your speed, you skills, and if needed, your magic, you could walk up to a group of people and declare yourself Divine. Sure, most people here would reject you, but only because they have grown up with being told otherwise. If you found a village with no Aura users, pure civilians who hid away in the mountains or something and did it there, they would believe you. If not immediately, then over time. Especially if you are immortal."

"Where are the Grimm in your story?" Tai challenges.

"Where ever you like. Though I would put them after the birth as a response to the growing population, actually created by Darkness." Next question?

"Is any of that true?" Jaune asks, remembering my other story to him.

"It's a guess. A plausable way for humanity to create magic." So no, with a little bit of maybe. "A long time ago a bunch of magics realised the soul persisted past death, so they worked together and melted their souls together. A long time ago a cult gathered and sacrificed a thousand babies to summon their god, and it worked, if not at all like they thought it should. A long time ago two brothers invented a spell to rip apart souls and devour the magic inside, adding to their power. A long time ago two civilisations were at war, one creating a perfect army of black creatures with bone masks who could fight without food or rest forever, forcing the other civilisations to create their own response, a super mage to fight back. It worked, too well, so much so that the people who created the Grimm were wiped out, leaving their programming with only enemies to target. Oh, and there were a couple of super mages filled with delusions of grandeur calling themselves gods for so long that they forgot or ignored what they really were."

"Why are you so sure we aren't created by them?" He's not disbelieving, but Qrow, and everyone else I suppose, wants to know.

I smirk. "What colour is Oil?"

"Black." Qrow replies.

"Do you know what Oil is?" I can feel Yang being interested. It's something I had her look up before. Not that they use oil for plastic, Remnant uses mushrooms for plastic, something Terra is only just getting into, though they have other uses for oil. Just not much because of the Grimm. Like Dust, it's kind of hard to go out and get some when the world is full of monsters.

"Oil is the compressed and fossilised (or 'fermented') remains of masses of plant and plankton life in an environment where air can't get at it to properly decompose it." My smirk turns to a grin. "A process that takes millions of years."

"Life has been on this planet for a very long time. Evolutionary timescales of time. Far too long for a childish like pair of CCME's to wait for Humanity to evolve. Far too long for them to claim they created the world and everything in it only to wait for eons doing basically nothing. Far too long for Salem turning them against eachother to be the first time it has happened. And far too long for the Grimm to have existed."

Once more. "The Grimm do not follow the laws of evolution. They target and attack only humans and objects. That is such a huge evolutionary disadvantage that nothing would evolve to become anything like humanity. Yet here we are."

"Grimm do not need food or water, sleep or I suspect air. That is such a huge evolutionary advantage that everything here should have evolved to have it. Yet here we are." I hold up the glass of water.

"Grimm have an exceptional lifespan and grow smarter with age, yet I see no Grimm civilisations, no Grimm works of art, no Grimm tools or culture. Yet here we are." I gesture to the room.

"Grimm are new. Life is old. Humanity exists. Two Gods created the world. One of those things is wrong."

"Maybe Humanity and the Grimm are new?" Jaune puts forth.

"Maybe. Except... That's not how evolution works either. Humans have instincts, ones that are very close to other animals. Aura, the ability to digest food, domesticated animals like dogs, all the same basic senses as them. Grimm are strange, too strange to be natural, and that serves as further proof. After all, we know what a Brother creation looks like. My descriptions of Jinn and Ambrosius, as well as the Grimm themselves. Smokey, half real, focused on their single goal, their purpose. Where as Humanity and animals? Scaling levels of intelligence, in specialisation, in durability and longevity. Life evolves to cover as many different things, as many different combinations, as possible to ensure it's survival."

I lean back. "More than that however, is that the Brothers aren't very creative. Grimm mimic existing animals, the newer kinds are all Salem's work. When one or both of them set out to make a new race, well," I gesture to Blake. "copy and paste a few elements, real creative breakthrough guy. Top gods, all around. No offence Blake."

She wiggles her ears, but seems okay. "Lamps, staves, swords and crowns? All human designs. And the spirits, well. The two I've seen a just big humans. Though Ambrosius does have some nice abs."

Ow. Did Yang just hit me? With herself? {Hey.}

"Hmm, seems my arm is acting up. Well, that's the thesis, thank you for coming to my TED talk... Which is a reference none of you will get." I sip my water. It's cold, a bit too cold.

"How... How can you joke about this?" Raven snaps. "You just told us we need to kill the gods!"

"Not gods, never gods. No such thing, as far as I can tell. Well, not unless you count the shared shape of synaptic pathways the emerges as a result of-" Right. Fiction. I'm in a work of fiction. RWBY. I sigh. "Yeah. I did. And we don't have the magic to put any of you through apotheosis or this would be easy." Though we might be able to get more magic, if I can make a garden.

That's an entire lifetimes worth of study though. "And worse than that, we need to fight Salem. We need to fight her and not win. Not until we are ready for the real fight." I take a deep breath. "Like I said, knowing this makes the war much harder. We can't just win, we have to treat the entire thing as a single move in a second, deeper, Immortal Game."

I shrug. "Or you could give up and pray." I am looking directly at Raven as I say this. "Go on, beg for mercy. But understand that we wouldn't just lose, we would not win. Summer Might be on the other side, if there is another side."

And now I get back to the whole reason I brought it up. "Earth doesn't have souls or an afterlife. Not that we can tell. You lot are lucky, not only in confirmed evidence of one, but both. That death really isn't the end." I focus on Raven again. "That said, mental scars remain. You killed Summer, sent her to the other side before she was tortured and broken. If she remained, if she was forced to hunt down Yang, Ruby, Qrow, Tai, yourself or anyone else, how broken do you think she would be if we bring her back? You did the right thing, Raven."

She's crying again. "That said, again, we can't tell Ozma or Salem. Not only would it break him, but I suspect that his eyes and ears are the Brother's eyes and ears. I don't know how far their perception goes, they might be listening in now and laughing, but we can't really think on that. Nor can we bring Summer back and let Ozma or Salem know, death and resurrection seems to be something they are particularly picky about. There is only the choice of what you want to do next."

I sigh. "This isn't my world. I won't make that choice for you. But anything you choose to do, I will support you as best as I can." {Yang?}

{I'm ready.}

I release control.

Huh, there's a bunch of Mass Effect 2 Harbinger references I can make. Maybe next time.

Yang lets me know that everyone is taking a little break from... Deciding the fate of the planet. Pyrrha is asking about 4 as a distraction, though with what it is, it might not be one. I suppose it might help them decide.

{Tag.} Yang passes control over to me. No wait, it's ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.

I blink and shift posture, again. "Right, I wasn't listening, but Yang tells me you want to talk about 4."

Pyrrha nods. "How much of it was true? I know some of what you said wasn't but..."

Time for another lesson. I look to the whole group. "4 is important. 4 seasons. 4 Maidens. 4 Relics. 4 weeks in a month. 4 Kingdoms. 4 elements of magic. I want everyone to stop and think for a minute about 4, and not just the big things but the small too. Every time you're fighting and realise you only have 4 rounds left. How often you wake up at 4 o'clock. Those sorts of things. Discuss if you like."

I look to Weiss, and she realises one core one. 4 core basic forms of Dust, Weiss puts forward and slowly they start as the bias takes hold. Pyrrha puts in teams of 4, Ruby points out that the cross she and Qrow wear have 4 points. I let Yang take over and she adds hers.

Funny how they have Christian symbolism and words, but no Jesus. Even Christmas is just referred to the winter solstice, which fair, it was that first, but it seems strange to me to think of a perfectly normal Christmas without the religious elements. Not that they play a major part in the capitalist version I lived with.

More and more 4s are thrown about, and I think that's about enough. They are starting to get spooked now. Everyday life things given meaning along with greater things like animals having 4 limbs, either all legs or a pair plus a pair of arms like Humanity.

{Tag. Thanks.} I wave them quiet. "Congratulations. You've all been tricked by your own minds." Must not look smug. "If there is one simple phrase, some fundamental truth of the universe, it is this: 'Reality is complicated.'. So complicated, in fact, that the Human mind, as powerful as it is, cannot look at it and understand it as it is."

I take a breath and start. "As far as I understand it, Human psychology is based on one fundamental attempt to rectify that. Simplification. And it does that by looking for patterns. Due to this, it has evolved many, many flaws. Sacrifices that have had to be made to allow it to function at all, lest it be overwhelmed by all the raw data it gets. These are called Cognitive Biases. One such bias is called Confirmation Bias, which you all just experienced."

"Confirmation Bias is when the mind sweeps through memories and available data looking for data that confirms what you already believe to be true. In this case, Pyrrha and I put forward the idea that 4 was significant, thanks Pyrrha, and gave some critical evidence that partially convinced you. From there, your mind did the rest of the work, finding and highlighting memories that confirmed the idea. Of course 4 is a common number, it's a small number. How often do you only have 400 round left in your guns?"

Ruby is scrunching up her face. "But..." Seems that as the youngest, and her own cleverness, she was sold the most while everyone else merely entertained the idea.

"Not nice is it, realising that your own mind betrays you. And that's just one Bias. One flaw. The mind looks for patterns, because it's an effective way of filtering out a lot of junk data."

I take a deep breath. "An example, the shape of fruit hanging from a tree is a different shape from the leaves around it. More than that, it's not just different from the leaves, but does resemble the other items of fruit. In an evolutionary setting, learning the simple pattern to pick out fruit from not fruit is an advantage. But spending a lot of effort and resources, like energy, time, standing out in the open where something else might attack you while you stand there and study the items, so on. Doing something like that is a disadvantage, so instead of studying every item on the tree, analysing each one and deciding which ones are right to eat, the brain instead makes an approximation. That shape equals good, because previously that shape equalled food. Get, now. Don't waste time and grab it before something else does and you go hungry."

"How many are there?" Jaune asks. Thanks Jaune, always there to ask the questions.

"I don't know. A lot though, and I only know a few of them." I look to the adults in the room, which is strange considering everyone here but Ruby is over 17 or 18. Still, there is a definite age divide with Winter and I sitting in the middle. Or would be, if I weren't in Yang's body right now. "Most of you are probably already familiar with a few of them, Remnant psychology isn't that bad, and your own life experiences will have taught you."

I look to Qrow specifically. "Where as some of you are particularly vulnerable to them. Bad luck, Qrow? How often has Misfortune saved your ass? More importantly, how often does it seem to hurt you compared to help you? I would bet your understanding of it is significantly worse than what it really is."

Well, Winter is always happy to dunk on Qrow. "My Semblance really irritates you, doesn't it?"

He can fight back at least. "Qrow, you have the power to manipulate probability. Out of everyone here, you're the closest to being a god." Opps. Said the G word and now the mood is gone. "Sorry. Sore subject."

I sigh. "Which, back to that, this is why I think Humanity created the Brothers. Biases made more real through magic, or they are humans with too much power and too little experience. It's why I can't take any story of gods seriously. Powerful beings, sure. But fundamentally Human. Something alien would be... Well far more alien than anything any of us have encountered. A small change amplified by time results in a very different outcome."

I shake my head. "Anyway. I used Confirmation Bias, and Cinder's own magical thinking, along with her desire for power and the truth that Knowledge is Power to convince her of certain things. And apparently Pyrrha too."

"I'm sorry." She apologises.

"Someone should hit her every time she says that. It's good that you brought it up, especially as it's been eating at you. Training how to use your own mind is a valuable skill, as much as training your body or skills is."

"Are you going to give us homework?" Nora almost complains. "I tried that meditation stuff with Ren." She shudders over dramatically and the tension is just a little less. Thanks Nora. "No one should sit still for that long."

{She's doing that intentionally, right? I'm not the only one reading this.} I ask Yang.

{I think so, yeah. She's smarter than people think.} Yang replies.

{I've been thinking that every time she pops up. Her joy, while true, is also tactical. Emotional intelligence rather than the logical one I'm stuck with.} How do people work? 'Like clockwork!' said the logic. 'By their hearts.' said the soul.

"How do we fight the Brothers?" Raven again with the hopelessness.

I sigh. "Not like Huntresses. Ozma is an old knight, someone who believes in heroes. Which is great for a world full of monsters, but it's had some costs. The academies existence reveal that he has, for a lack of a better word, 'shared' his heroic tenancies." Tai snorts.

Fair, he's not much of a hero. "Ever think about what it must be like for the common person in a comic book? Not a flashy superhero flying around and punching bad guys, but the man who gets his coffee every morning with extra cream, even though he knows he shouldn't. When the latest bad guy pops up and destroys his favourite coffee shop, he hides and waits. Waits for a hero to come save him. It's fair, for the over powered bad guys, but what about afterwards? When the damage is repaired, when the bad guy is locked away, do you think he stops and thinks, 'I should do something about that, so it doesn't happen again.' ? Maybe he does, and when he looks up he sees super heroes, through training or magic or spooky alien artefacts."

I take a sip of water. "And he falls prey to a bias. The only way it seems to make a difference is to be special somehow. To commit himself fully to spending his entire life, throwing away all semblance of normality to go fight bad guys. He overlooks the smaller things he can be doing."

I sigh. "You're all warriors at the core. You fight monsters and bad guys, even if you have second jobs like General or bandit queen. But fighting Salem, fighting the Brothers, it's not a problem you can punch away. Oh, you could, if you were around equal in strength, if we put someone here through apotheosis. But, that might just be moving the problem. I'm not sure Qrow wants to be a god."

"Nah, he still wouldn't be able to get laid if he was." Tai rips Qrow's throat out with savage glee.

I crack up at that. Oh, that's good. Qrow, I think, is protesting. {It wasn't that good.} Yang comments.

{Zeus.} I manage to wheeze back. It takes me a couple of seconds. "Sorry. Sorry. Just a few stories of gods where I'm from who w... Nevermind."

And then Zeus tried to seduce her, but she was like 'Uh, no. Nice try, but I'm not in the mood.' He would then go to mope to Aphrodite. 'I transformed into her husband and everything, and she still wouldn't touch me. What is wrong with me.' Of which Aphrodite says: 'Eww, go away.' because not even the goddess of fertility and fucking wants anything to do with him.

That would be a stupid comedy show, Celibate Zeus.

Prickles form up my spine as I realise I laughed randomly and too hard, violating social constructs and... Breathe. Just, focus, get back to the lesson. Ignore the anxiety attack. "My best assessment for godslaying is scientific study of magic until we can devise an anti magic or some weakness. Which, admittedly, is pretty vague, but I know next to nothing about magic." I shrug and try to push away the growing horror as I suddenly realise there are a dozen people looking at listening to my every word.

My left shoulder blade seizes up. {What's going on?} Yang asks.

Shit. Not my shoulder blade, Yang's. {Anxiety attack. Psychosomatic symptoms starting to show.}

{Is that what that hot prickling was?} What?

{You could feel that? Um, yes. I need. Time, space. Silence. Can you take over for a bi- thanks.} I breathe in empty space. No space. Outside Yang explains that I-

Nope. Cutting that feed off. Can't deal with it. Too embarrassing. Too... I need to explain. {My attack has nothing to do with godslaying, just suddenly got awkward about laughing and then realises-felt-saw... Everyone looking at me and I fell out of 'teacher mode' and... Ugh.}

She could feel my- of course she could. It starts mental but it becomes physical. I'm not even sure psychosomatic is the right word, but it's the best I've got.

And it's not like I can just look it up anymore.

Remnant's psychology probably isn't that far behind Earth's, but it has such a smaller population to study.

That's just another thing I have to fight. Funny, how I'm not afraid of Salem, or of the Brothers, but of the common kindness people show and of my own problems.

Ha.

'And victory is in a simple soul!'

That was never what I heard the line of lyrics as, not until I actually sat down and read it.

'Our victory is inescapable!'

Author's Note:

Bit rushed this one, but here it is.

The real shadow war.