RWBY Through Worlds

90: For the Weak

After Watts had finished his account, Shine called a brief "recess".

"This is a lot to process," she said.

Despite that, she and Wally were far calmer than anyone else was after hearing that.

Robyn was just disconcerted by the whole thing, but her reaction was mild compared to Winter's.

"To think all that happened under our nose," she was in a fury. "And you," she glared at Ironwood. "How much of this did you know?"

Really, it was such a transformation from how she used to speak to him that Ironwood was still a little surprised by it.

"Very little of most of it," he said uncomfortably. This couldn't be doing his paranoia any good.

"That sick..." Qrow called Watts some choice words. "But this is...I mean human test subjects, aura enhancement...just how deep did this project go?"

"I've never heard of any of this," Tai agreed.

"Well, you all knew about the Penny project," Robyn reminded them.

Jaune was boosting her aura after how long that had taken, and she was a little pale too.

"How could I not know about this?" Winter said.

"There's a lot of things that are on a need to know basis," Ironwood said. "It had nothing to do with your job."

Winter shook her head.

"Welcome to the military, Winter," Wally said cheerfully. "This kind of thing happens all the time at home. I mean, try finding out your pals in the government cloned you to make an arch nemesis that was on their side."

"And then it didn't even work," Shine added. "Your world is messed up, hon."

"Is yours any better?" Wally asked.

"No," Shine said. "But I felt like someone had to say it."

"That is not comforting," Winter said. "How prevalent is this?"

"People trying to play God? About as old as Adam," Shine said. "I suppose that expression means little here, it means since time began. Please, isn't that what got this whole mess here started anyway? Even Ozpin has done it. Don't you all come down on James here...sure he's to blame for plenty of things, but did any of you ask? Come, you all knew about those machines, we pointed out how evil they were from the get go, you all didn't take issue with human experimentation and aura transfer then. What's so different about Kanap? At least she wanted to do this to save people--at first. Whatever has happened to her since, isn't it just proof that this is a slippery slope? Do you really all not see yourselves in that story?
Someone wanted to win the fight against grimm, to make humans better than they are, to save their family, and so they break the laws of nature, and in doing so they go just a little...how do I put this?"

"Cuckoo for Cocoa puffs," Wally said.

"That," Shine said.

They all looked at her, then they looked down.

"Can I just say I never supported any of this?" Robyn said.

"Good for you," Shine said.

Well, that didn't make Robyn feel that much better.

"It can't really be the same," Winter said.

"We always tell ourselves it's not," Shine said. "It's never as bad when it's us, because we fully understand our own reasons, or we think we do...and that makes it okay. But let's be honest, if we can. Is there really a huge difference?"