RWBY Through Worlds (End)

208: Misplaced A Part Of My Soul

Once the Grimm had been disposed of or driven away, simply by words for some of the team, they gathered around Glynda, who was off the plane now.

"Neo!" Torchwick saw her state. "What happened to her?"

"It's okay," Jaune said. "I think it's just numbing her. We're working on it."

He was boosting her Aura.

Neo groggily moved a hand.

"She injures herself more around all of you because you slow her down. This never happened before," Roman declared.

"You were a big fish in a small pond before," Cinder said dismissively. "Now shut up. No one wants to hear your whining, Roman."

"No one wants to hear you, period, sweetheart," Roman said.

"But Glynda," Shine said. "I thought you... How did you get here?"

Glynda frowned at her. "I should have died," she said. "After you left us--not that you had much choice--I tried to free James. Those plants had him fast, and he kept telling me not to do it. The Grimm were on us the next moment, and I tried to hold them off. I was losing the fight and starting to wonder if it was even worth trying. Then the lava appeared from nowhere and flowed over the whole place. I used my Semblance to lift myself up above it, and everything below me got turned to rock... James was trapped under it. I couldn't free him, and the Grimm blocked me from doing anything more for him... but they were all buried alive or driven away by it. After that...i t felt as if my head cleared from a haze, and I recalled everything that led up to that attack and saw that James and I had both been acting strange for some time. I don't remember what happened exactly... but I recalled where the plane was and went back to it. For some reason it was still there. I decided that I might as well follow you all and offer my services if you'd survived. Then I found this place. I must have gone the wrong way at first, since clearly it's not that far from where we were..."

She then looked down.

"I didn't like your plan," she said slowly, "and I had every intention of stopping you from doing it. But James told me some of the things he did in Atlas, after you mentioned them. At first he seemed ashamed, but he said that things were different now and the world was still at stake. I thought he was right, so I joined him... but then he began to act as if nothing he did was wrong. I should have known something was wrong. I thought he was just focused on the mission."

"He was," Qrow cut in. "That was always his problem."

Glynda looked at him angrily--or perhaps it was sadness really.

"If I had known what those Grimm did," she said in a strained voice that the students had never heard her use, "I would never have allowed him to go back. It's my fault also... so I know why you left us... and yet I just don't comprehend why you spared that witch." She meant Cinder. "And this had to..." She crossed her arms. "But I know my duty. I suppose if I can't stop you, I must at least try to keep those Relics from being misused."

Silence.

Then Winter said, "I'm sorry about the General. I never thought things would end this way. I would have spared him if..."

"It was not up to you," Glynda said. "We all make choices... He made his. It's not fair, but it's reality."

"A thing I had to accept myself," Shine said. "I didn't want to leave him. But I had to. He would have fought us all to the end. We could have wasted too much time, and that Grimm would have eaten us. It almost did anyway. I didn't want to choose the Relics over someone's life, but I had to choose to keep people alive who still wanted to need help. And you may not agree with our plan, but we have never killed people to get what we want. I draw the line there. I hope you will now also."