RWBY Through Worlds

196: Who Has Won?

No one else realized it was a trap until the Grimm closed off the tunnels. But...

"Grimm aren't that smart." Jaune said the by-now-familiar complaint.

 They'd stayed in bigger chunks than the last time they'd split off, just diving into the nearest canyons.

Qrow, Winter, Raven, and Hazel were all along one, with about half the teens, including Oscar/Ozpin. Also Ruby, Yang, Neptune and Sun.

But Blake had jumped down a different trench with team JNPR and Emerald and Mercury, and then Weiss and Meridian, after Theo and Vara. Before they could scramble back over, the tunnel had sealed off.

No one was sure where Shine and Wally were because they'd been on the ground already, and no one knew if Cinder was with those two, or just the other group... but if she was near a Maiden, they were in trouble if another Mind Grimm attacked.

So far no one detected any strange behavior, and all the Grimm they'd seen behind them had looked like normal hunting ones.

But once it became clear this must be a trap, Qrow and Raven both knew there was more to it.

"She must have separated us on purpose," Raven declared. "We've taken down too many Grimm together. I thought this whole rock formation was just a little too perfectly shaped for running down. I wonder if it's even natural."

"I don't recognize it," Hazel muttered. "It might be new."

"If another Mind Grimm attacks us," Winter spoke warily, "being in this large group could be a negative. The last one Shine thought was waiting was Pride. Pride is hard to detect because it starts in your head."

"I've read about pride," Oscar said, "in one of the books I've been studying. It's... really tricky. Also it's the source of every other sin. Do you think by the time we noticed it we'd already be pretty far into it?"

"Shine warned us not to think about it too much." Ruby rubbed her face. "Focusing on ourselves makes it worse. Which is what we're doing right now, instead of trying to get out of here."

"She's right," Hazel said. "Perhaps we could blast our way out of here."

"Oh, brilliant," Raven said sarcastically. "And if there's more rock over top, we could crush ourselves. Maiden powers don't come with anti-avalanche insurance."

"You don't have to be mean to him," Oscar reproved her.

"Shut up, Pint-Sized," Raven said meanly.

"Hey, careful." Qrow took her wrist, though she hadn't made a move to strike. "Remember, fighting is always how it starts."

Raven drew a deep breath that sounded like she was trying not to sock him in the jaw.

"Fine," she said tightly. "Assuming I want to slug you because of some Grimm and not because of your stupid face, what do you want to do? We can't go back, we can't blow the roof off the tunnel without risking being crushed, so we can only go forward."

"There's no going back, only going forward," Oscar said.

"Huh?" Ruby said.

"Shine says it a lot," Oscar said. "At first I thought it was just a cute, little maxim, like you put on a poster... but over time, I realized it's a warning also. She always says that when there's been mistakes made that you can't undo, you can only try to get around them and make a better choice... kind of like how the tunnels are sealed now, so we can't go back. We have to find another way out."

"That was kind of weirdly out there," Yang said.

"Maybe the longer we're here, the more I think metaphor and reality are merging together," Oscar said oddly.