Destiny No More

Chapter 66

The silence in Jinn's absence was deafening. Time had resumed with her returning to the lamp, and the leaves once suspended in air cascading down on them. Pyrrha had fallen to her knees and had made no effort to stand back up. They had fought for this, planned and counted on this single question being their solution; their salvation. Now they had learned defeating Salem wouldn't be so easy, if it were possible at all.

"That's it then?" Raven scoffed. "That was your masterful plan!?"

"General... we should leave." Winter said, though Pyrrha didn't miss the defeated tone of her voice. "Things are only going to get wor-"

"How did you get the Maiden powers?" Qrow drew his sword.

"Did you just plan to ask nicely and hope that someone else would fix the problem for you?" Raven asked. "Where's that conviction you were so sure of? Are you all truly so weak?"

Pyrrha shook, less at the insult and more due to the fact she was right. Looking back at the Spring Maiden, she couldn't help but notice Raven didn't look pleased by that. They hadn't come up with another plan, mostly because there was no point to it. Salem couldn't be killed and, now, they knew that wasn't something they could change. The being had said it didn't care for the happenings of their world, he had called it small, insignificant, but she had never truly believed it. If that were the case, why send her back? Why give her access to magic?

She had thought she understood the mind of a god and she had set her hope on the idea it would come to save them again; that this world wasn't quite so insignificant as it implied. Afterall, it was the only world she knew.

How wrong she had been.

"What do we do now?" Colonel Aurelian was perhaps the least affected, having only been told about Salem recently and presented with a quick plan to deal with her, he didn't understand just how disastrous this was. Or maybe he did, and he simply hadn't held out hope in the idea.

"Whatever you wish." Raven stated. "I'm going back to the tribe. I was a fool to think you peop-"

"How did you get your powers?" Qrow stepped towards her, Harbinger in a tight grip at his side. "What did you do to the Spring Maiden?"

"Is that really what you want to ask me!?" Raven snarled. "Here we stand in the vault of knowledge, where you could ask anything your soft little heat desires, and this is the stupid question you ask? Why I killed a pathetic little girl who was too scared to see the strength she possessed?"

"If you wanted out, why take the powers for yourself?!" Qrow snapped back, ignoring Winter's attempt to calm him as he stopped even closer to his sister. "Are you working for Salem, is that it? You changed sides because you were too much of a coward to figh-"

"I stopped her from getting the Spring Maiden ten years ago!" Raven shouted, her rage echoing off the walls and driving her brother to silence. "She was weak, afraid, and she wanted to live. Damn the cost to the rest of us. She planned to turn herself over to Salem and join her side, I tried to reason with her! When that failed... I did what I had to."

Qrow was silent for a moment, but his weapon didn't lower an inch. "Why didn't you come back? We could have helped you... we could have kept you safe."

"Kept me safe from the immortal Queen of the Grimm?" Raven mocked him. "I knew before any of you, I knew Ozpin was lying about defeating her. I knew she couldn't be killed! Why do you think Lionheart turned to her side, why do you think the Spring Maiden fled to our tribe? I was there when they asked!"

"You knew?" Qrow's voice dipped to barely a whisper. "You knew and didn't tell us? I spent my life working for him, trying to kill Salem. Summer died following Ozpin!"