RWBY Listens to The Soundtrack

Vol. 3/4, Interlude

 Goodbye, Volume 3

~~~~~

    When Team RWBY returned to their dorm room, they all instantly collapsed on the lower beds (and gave thanks to...well, apparently the Two Brothers are real...that the top halves didn't collapse). It may have only been several hours, but with everything they had learned, it felt like months.

"So that...escalated." Weiss undersold after a few moments.

"That's one way to put it." Yang muttered.

"I did not expect today to go like that, no." Blake deadpanned.

"...okay so..." Ruby began. "Okay. That..."

"HOW are we supposed to sleep after ALL THAT?" Weiss questioned.

"Hell if I know..." Yang replied. Normally, she might want to make a comment about the partners sharing a bed which would inevitably be turned around on her, given that she was doing the same, but...

"I mean, we...still get tired, but..." Blake trailed off. "The Story of the Seasons. The Two Brothers...The Queen of the Grimm."

"They're controlled." Weiss began to panic slightly. "There's someone ORDERING them around."

"Do they...do they even have a choice?" Ruby wondered. "I mean, we all thought they were just stupid monsters, but..."

"...Given how most accounts of the Two Brothers agree that the Younger One made them out of jealousy and spite, with nothing but destruction in mind...they probably do." Blake offered. "As much as they can. Salem's just...directing them."

"I'd be kinda pissed if my dad moved on to make something else." Yang half-heartedly joked.

"...So nothing about how they work is in question...save for the "fact" that they're uncontrollable." Weiss summed up. "Normally I'd want to dismiss that as a fairy tale, but..."

"...yeah." Blake finished. "Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some truth to some of THESE either." She held up the book she'd been reading before the Communicube arrived: A Collection of Legends on The First Kingdom.

"Historians generally accept that the First King and the First Queen, if they ever existed, just had incredibly powerful Semblances in a time before most people knew how to use their Aura, but...maybe it was something else." Blake theorized.

"Magic, you mean." Weiss finished that thought. "Actual magic..."

"It would explain why they were worshipped as Gods."

"...Do you think it was Salem?" Ruby asked.

"...No, there was nothing about CONTROLLING the Grimm in here, just disposing of them in increasingly easy and absurd ways." Blake replied. Still...how many magic users did they know? It didn't fit what she was doing NOW so she wanted to dismiss it entirely, & likely would have if Ruby didn't ask, but...

"Still, it...it came from SOMEWHERE." Weiss had to agree. "How many others came from...all of this?"

"Well, Oz DID say that he was The Infinite Man, so..." Yang pointed out.

"...The Silver-Eyed Warriors." Ruby muttered before anything else could be said. "I, uh...don't really know much about that. I mean, dad read The Warrior in the Woods to us as kids, but..." she looked over to Blake.

"...Well it's like Ozpin said, there are legends of people with silver eyes who could turn the Grimm to stone, or disintegrate them with just a look." Blake answered. "I...assume it's more complicated in real life, that the stories are missing a key element, but..."

"Ruby...what are you thinking?" Yang asked, though in truth...she knew the answer already.

"...If they can deal with the Grimm like THAT, then Salem probably doesn't like them." Ruby theorized. She clearly didn't WANT to say this, & indeed didn't back in Ozpin's office, but... "And I don't know any other people with silver eyes. So what if she's..."

"...hunting them." Yang finished. Neither did she.

"I...thought the legends only sprang up because of how absurdly rare silver eyes are," Blake admitted, "But I always wondered how they were THAT rare. Honestly, until I met Ruby I didn't actually know if people COULD have silver eyes in real life."

"I thought they were a kind of...shiny grey at first." Weiss also admitted. "They're not unheard of...but they're very, VERY rare, yes, and it's...a little odd, comparatively speaking."

"Not if Salem's been hunting us." Ruby glumly stated.

"I mean...you've been fine your whole life, right?" Weiss weakly stated.

"...Mom wasn't." Yang spoke up, seeing that Ruby was unable to right then. "She had silver eyes, just like Ruby."

"I look a lot like her." Ruby muttered. "When I was a kid I thought maybe I was a clone or something, but no, there's dad here too, just...not as obvious."

"...and..." Yang continued, though she clearly didn't want to, "...you heard Oz. Team STRQ knew about this."

"Dad, Uncle Qrow, even Raven...and mom." Ruby finished. "And...and the song with mom in it, is-is THIS what she was taking about? Did Salem..."

"...or maybe she tried to FIGHT Salem." Yang offered, thinking on Red Like Roses Part II. "And it...didn't go the best. That's kind of what the song was saying, right?"

"And maybe...that's why Ozpin told them in the first place." Blake proposed. "To...warn her."

"And...a part of why he accepted you so early." Weiss said to Ruby. "You'd put a target on your back, so..."

"Oh, so she's not good enough on her own?" Yang shot back.

"That is NOT what I meant." Weiss defended. "He wouldn't have done it if she wasn't."

"...I know, I'm sorry, I'm just...argh." Yang admitted. "It's just..."

"...Salem took mom away." Ruby finished. No more dancing around it. "If she KNEW about this and...and..."

"...She always was pretty...determined." Yang added. She remembered Summer better, of course. "And she wanted more than anything to keep us safe."

"Enough to...what, fight the Queen of the Grimm on her own?" Weiss asked somewhat incredulously. "Is that what we're...?"

"...Ozpin described Salem as Half-Grimm." Blake reminded them. "That's probably how she can control them in the first place. And if this Silver Eye Power works on Grimm..."

"Then why DIDN'T it?" Ruby demanded.

"...No one's perfect." Weiss answered. "It's...kind of impossible. Even if someone LOOKS that way, it's..."

"Salem's been active for thousands of years, apparently." Blake added. "She's probably had time to...prepare for that sort of thing."

"Look, we're making a LOT of assumptions right now." Yang cut off. "We still don't actually KNOW anything."

"But we'll probably find out eventually, right?" Ruby pointed out. "Cause it's kind of important to us. Maybe the songs tell us, or...or the AMVs do."

"That...may be the best way to approach this." Blake proposed. "To not make...too many assumptions about what's going to happen. We still don't have the full picture and unless Volume 9 changed that, neither do the fans."

"Yeah that's...yeah, that works." Yang agreed. "There's still a lot of show left."

"We still have to make SOME assumptions, though." Weiss continued. "Hopefully we'll have...enough of a picture at the end of this." Weiss added. "If not about THAT, then...the other things."

"...Like Raven." Yang added. "She's GONNA come up eventually. And then Oz is gonna HAVE to tell me..."

"And who knows what else?" Blake questioned. "We still don't know where Salem comes from, or what...what her succeeding at Beacon means."

"...Right, she won in Volume 3, didn't she?" Yang remembered their consensus. "Greeeeaaaat..."

"It's probably going to get worse before it gets better." Blake agreed. "But at least we'll have warning."

"There wouldn't be a show if we beat her easy." Ruby agreed. "Mom couldn't."

"Knowing our lives and how this stuff goes, it's probably going to hurt." Weiss added. "...Urgh, when did we start thinking of our lives like this?"

"When a magic multiverse cube showed up in front of us?" Yang offered.

"...Well, if it works, then it works." Ruby declared. Cuddles from Zwei likely helped her recompose herself. Hell, that's why dad got him in the first place, she thought. "It's...gonna hurt, yeah. And we probably won't like what we find out, but...we don't just give up." Blake wished she could believe that about herself. "Not on Remnant Prime, & not here. Obviously it's not gonna be easy, but we have this so we know what we're up against. Maybe it won't work. Maybe like...mom...we won't be able to, but who would we be if we didn't try?"

"Great speech, Rubles." Yang smiled, to which Ruby blushed.

"IF we're right about this..." Weiss began, "...then maybe the issue is that she did it alone. No one else went with her, right?" Yang nodded. "Then...there's what Ozpin said. The ONLY thing he said during the song."

"'Strength will not bring victory.'" Blake recited. "You can be the strongest, most talented Hunter in history, but..."

"Argh, what are we even saying?" Yang wondered.

"It has been a LONG day." Blake reminded her. "And tomorrow's going to be longer."

"...Still, I-I think we got this." Ruby admitted. "Unless it's the kind of show where everyone dies horribly, then...well either way, WE can do something about it. And...and we'll probably lose people, I know, we already did, like-like mom, and..."

"...and Pyrrha on Remnant Prime." Blake reminded them. Oh yes, they already knew for a fact that they would have lost someone close.

"Gods, I can only imagine how JNPR is taking this..." Weiss muttered.

~

"Nora, please let go." Pyrrha requested.

"No!" Nora insisted. The glomp had resumed the moment that they'd returned to their dorm. Jaune also refused to let go of her hand throughout. Ren alone wasn't part of the pile...but he did stay close to them nonetheless.

"I'm not going to...to...if you let go, Nora." Pyrrha pointed out.

"Ren and I already lost our own families, we're not losing you next!" Nora stated.

"Well...you won't have to, here." Pyrrha promised.

"You can't PROMISE that!" Nora retorted. "NONE of us can! It's not OUR Team Name in the title, is it?"

"Nora, we're not a show here." Ren reminded her. "Here, we're real."

"I just...I don't want to watch the Volume 6 Intro or something and see that Jaune's not there, or I'm not there, or YOU'RE not there." Nora clarified. "I'm already gonna have to that for Pyrrha."

"...I know that, and it will be...difficult to adjust to, especially for me." Pyrrha admitted. "But I CAN promise you that I'm not going anywhere here and now. So please, let me breathe."

And with that, Nora reluctantly withdrew. Only a touch as she was unwilling to let Pyrrha out of her sight, but the glomp was over.

"So, you're...gonna come with us to watch the rest?" Jaune spoke up for the first time.

"Of course!" Pyrrha seemed surprised at that question. "I can't just...leave you to do that alone."

"Yeah but...you're gonna be...not there." Nora muttered.

"Yes, that's...yes, but I can be HERE." Pyrrha assured her. Nora weakly smiled at that.

"Jaune, are you alright?" Ren asked. Their leader indeed seemed to not be all that great.

"How the hell am I supposed to be?!" Jaune demanded as he turned around, eyes tearing up. "We just learned that The Grimm have a Queen, that magic's real, and that...Pyrrha was...going to...going..."

"Jaune..." Pyrrha reached out.

Jaune accepted it, but... "How are you and Ren so CALM right now?" he demanded. "How-how can you...?" he shut his eyes.

"...I'm not." Pyrrha admitted. "I just heard that I was supposed to DIE and leave you all alone. That's...that's not okay, I just...I don't know how to process that."

"Gods this is a fucking mess." Nora muttered. That was the long and short of it, yes.

"I couldn't...I couldn't keep us together, I wasn't..." Jaune mumbled. "Why did Ozpin think I was a good idea for leader anyways? Why didn't he just kick me out?"

"Yeah, how long has he even known about that?" Nora asked.

"Longer than Team RWBY, I'd wager." Ren replied.

"Oh yeah, they don't even...no, I can't..." Nora trailed off.

"Jaune, why are you...?" Pyrrha asked gently.

"I'm supposed to be the leader, right?" Jaune answered. "I'm...I'm supposed to be one looking out for all of you, but I can't even do THAT much. I just...let you..."

"..." Pyrrha was starting to get it. She had her own thoughts on this... "First of all, that wasn't you. It may have been, but thanks to the Cube, we have forewarning. Secondly, whatever happened, however I-she died, it was because of her own choices. I may not know how it happened, but I know THAT much. Don't...don't blame yourself for that."

"I just..." Jaune was finding it hard to be coherent. "Did-did he even know how you felt about her? Or did he never...I don't know which one's worse for her, if she...never got to..."

"Argh, I hate this!" Nora shouted.

"Should I...be using my Semblance here?" Ren questioned.

"...No, I...think we need to deal with this now, no offense." Pyrrha declared. "I...used to think of destiny as some kind of goal you work towards your entire life. But I think this whole experience has shown that it's a little more...malleable than that. It all depends on your choices, & it's never too late to change that."

"...You still don't know what you're saying, do you?" Nora questioned.

"...Not really." Pyrrha admitted. "I'm just...trying to come to terms with this."

"We all are." Ren agreed.

"I...I still can't stop from blaming myself." Jaune admitted. "Or "OG" me, anyways. Is that selfish?"

"I...don't know." Pyrrha answered truthfully. "I'm not certain there IS a right answer."

"...The song was right." Jaune declared. "I never actually thought about what would happen if you, or any of you..."

"It's...not something we should be thinking about right now." Pyrrha admitted. "We're still first years, this isn't...it shouldn't be our problem."

"But it is." Ren replied. "No matter how much we may want it to not be."

"Thanks, Salem!" Nora sarcastically replied. "And thanks for not warning us about this either, Oz!"

"That was uncalled for." Ren offered.

"IS it? Salem's the bad guy. Of the show that WE'RE in. He knew that. Glynda said so. He should have TOLD us before the song MADE him." Nora retorted.

"We're still not a show." Ren reminded her.

"I know, but in another world we ARE and...he shouldn't have kept it from us. He should have known better." Nora grumbled.

"Yeah, I'm kind of with Nora on this one." Jaune admitted. "After Volume 2 at LEAST."

"I don't blame him for...not wanting to talk about it, though." Pyrrha countered. "It's...not something I want to burden our classmates with unless it's necessary."

"But it WAS." Nora argued. "Urgh, whatever."

"...It may have helped us cope with the last song had we known all of that going into the penultimate one." Ren granted. "Though obviously none of us had any idea what it would be."

"Yeah, I know, just...argh." Nora grumbled.

"...He apologized for it." Jaune remembered. "Why did he do that?"

"I believe that he's just inclined to do that, given his reaction to Salem's taunts." Ren theorized. "And what THAT says, I have no idea."

"I still don't get it, though." Nora added. "What exactly about THAT did he want to apologize for?"

"...He said the Fall Maiden was on life-support." Pyrrha began. "Which implies that...she's not in good shape. And...I remember the Volume 2 Intro, with the leaves as I appeared. Perhaps the power was meant to pass on to me, and..."

"...and that's what got you-her killed." Jaune finshed. "...Yeah I'm REALLY with Nora on this one."

"He couldn't have predicted-" Ren began.

"Yeah well, we sure about that?" Nora retorted.

"I mean, was it a choice, I-how does that even work?" Jaune questioned.

"He was pretty vague about that." Nora agreed.

"It WAS a lot to cover." Ren defended.

"Yeah, but-" Jaune was cut off.

"Ahem!" Pyrrha piped up. "...I'm sorry, I just...I don't think that's important right now. We have no way of knowing how it played out. Only that it MIGHT have. Whether or not Professor Ozpin had anything to do with it isn't important. I...think we should focus on ourselves right now."

"That seems like a good idea." Ren agreed.

"Gods, imagine how Team RWBY's feeling." Nora muttered. "But yeah, sorry about that."

"It's fine, I just..." Pyrrha took in a deep breath. And then another. And another. "Oh, I...think it's starting to really hit me."

"..." Jaune looked to his Team and then himself. He thought about what they'd said so far. And he came to a conclusion. "...It DIDN'T happen to us," he began, "and it WON'T happen to us. I-WE won't let it. Maybe that's what was supposed to happen, but I am NOT letting our Team fall apart here. Whatever happened, and-and we're probably gonna see a little of it, I won't let it happen to us."

"WE won't." Pyrrha corrected, though her breaths were somewhat erratic. "This isn't all on you."

"...Yeah. Yeah. This is a Team thing." Nora agreed.

"We're better together than apart." Ren added.

"...Yeah. Thanks." Jaune replied. He didn't fully accept it...but it was nice. "So, uh...Team Order: Let's just...try to go to sleep and get ready for tomorrow."

"We need to be ready for whatever we'll see next." Ren agreed.

"And...Jaune, can you...?" Pyrrha requested as she began to breathe heavier. The Arkos Duo leaned on each other as they both began to really process it.

"...Together-together." Nora muttered, looking at them and then at Ren as the Flower Power Duo emulated their family and leaned on each other Yeah. Jaune was right. So was Pyrrha. This was...gonna take time, but...they MIGHT be able to do it.

Still, Nora had to wonder, based on what Ren had said... "I wonder how Oz is doing. I mean, I still think he should have told us earlier, but...

~

Ozpin ruminated on the past day. Glynda had already gone to make sure their affairs were in order with the others, but Ozpin stayed and looked out at the shattered moon outside his window. That was...certainly unexpected. And not entirely welcome. He understood quite well the necessity of course, but...the children were deeply uncomfortable throughout. It still felt somewhat invasive. And then there was the last two songs.

Salem. And direct confirmation that not only would she have won at...well, presumably everything EXCEPT finding the Relic, but that Ms. Nikos would have paid the price for his choice. He still thought that, in the possibility that Sacrifice WAS addressed to him, then "the lives you stole" was far more literal in this case, but would the fans have made that connection?

And that's ultimately what kept him thinking once the others were gone: From Earth's perspective, this was a story. Salem was, inevitably, the "main antagonist". And every story needs a backstory. He hadn't LIED to RWBY & JNPR anymore than he did to anyone else. But he HAD left out a few key details: Salem's origins, humanity's first extinction, his role in enabling Salem during his second life, what exactly the Relics would DO...and of course, Salem's complete immortality.

He didn't regret that, he often had to tell himself. So far, EVERYONE who learned the truth either gave up or joined her. There were REASONS why he "kept this close to the chest" as it were. How many had done so before? Was Raven one of them? He NEEDED to hold back on these details, to not...let them lose hope as so many others had. But considering all of this, he may not have a choice.

The fans would be clamoring for Salem's origins no doubt, and the "creators" would have to know. And the program knew his ORIGINAL name, so clearly it WAS covered at some point. Ozpin hoped that it wasn't the focus of a Volume & so the Intros would skip it...but what about the "Edits" and "AMVs?" Those could show ANY "scene", after all. So should he tell them? To prevent something WORSE than what happened before and during Divide from happening?

Well, he couldn't imagine they'd take it any differently than any of the others. Was this the kind of show that ended with the "protagonists" failing utterly, or only getting a bittersweet victory, only putting Salem's endgame off? That was the only option he could see, considering everything Salem had going for her. But...would that invalidate songs like I May Fall, or vindicate them?

He supposed he had no way of knowing for certain, as the show wasn't over yet. But he couldn't shake the feeling that these things were already covered at some point. Six entire Volumes, after all. And if that's the case...how did they react, if they learned? Did they falter like all the others, or did they...somehow find a way he didn't? Or is it not that simple? His mind then turned back to another verse from Sacrifice: "All your faith in ancient ways leaves you trapped inside a maze."

If the song WAS in some way directed to him, what did THAT imply? Was he overthinking it, missing the obvious? And more to the point, what did it change? If all the things he'd hidden came out because of this, how would he handle it? How WOULD he have? And more importantly, how would THEY? He didn't want to hope...but then, maybe the song was right, and he couldn't see what he was doing wrong.

At that, Ozpin made a decision: Wait and see. If it becomes relevant, see how they handled it. Their original selves if no one else. It was...incredibly risky, but after Divide, he had to admit that he may not have a choice. Oh, he could TRY to remove the Cube from his office, but he got the sense that that would be easier said than done, and only raise their suspicions. He could try to look ahead and skip anything "sensitive"...if he was the one controlling the program.

This was in Ms. Rose's hands, not his. He idly wondered if there was some deeper meaning to that. The show WAS called "RWBY", after all. And while most of Ozpin was screaming at him that it didn't make any difference, that it would just end the same REGARDLESS of who the "main protagonists" were...a small part part of him dared to ask if it WOULD.

Well, there was only one way to find out, Ozpin knew, and until then, he'd keep quiet as always. Part of him said that that wasn't the best decision...but the rest thought that he couldn't make any other. It was already as stretch as it was. And regardless, "kinda sorta" immortal "Wizard" that he was, he needed his rest just like the rest of them. Especially if they were to cover the REST of the show (up to a point) tomorrow...

~

In the end, they all got their eight hours of sleep. Albeit, they woke up later than usual. It was still the weekend so no one would have questioned it, but even so.

"Good morning, Team RWBY." Ruby's wake-up call was much more...subdued than usual, but none could blame her.

"If you say so." Blake replied.

"Right. Um, so...we have a magic multiverse box to look at today." Ruby declared. "So, uh..."

"Yes yes, let's just...do it." Weiss agreed.

"It...could be better than last time?" Yang offered.

"Well, only one way to find out." Blake replied.

"Longer in any event..." Weiss muttered. "Quite convenient that we have the whole day for this."

"Do you think that was on purpose?" Yang pointed out.

"Probably." Blake offered.

"Alright then, let's...do this again." And with that, Ruby opened the door. Team JNPR we're already waiting for them.

"...Hey." Ruby greeted.

"Hey." Jaune replied.

"Are you, uh..." Ruby looked over to Pyrrha.

"We talked about it, yes. We're...handling it." Pyrrha assured her.

"Oh, then can I...?" Ruby asked

"Of course." And with that, Ruby grabbed on to Pyrrha in a, for a civilian, bone-crushing hug.

"We're not letting that happen to you, you hear us?" Ruby whispered before letting go.

"That is more or less the conclusion we came to last night." Ren exposited.

"Speaking of...are all of YOU okay?" Nora asked. "Cause I mean, it's rough for all of us."

"We're...managing, yes." Weiss assured her.

"For now." Blake added. "Unlike last time, it's all in our future. We have NO idea what's going to happen.

"But we'll deal with it together." Yang declared.

"Alright then." Jaune declared. "Uh...Team RWBYJNPR, move out."

"Hey, that's my line." Ruby jokingly declared as the eight of them made their way to the elevator, passing by CVFY & SSSN going off together for their own stuff. Ruby gave a wave. Velvet & Sun waved back. Blake looked at him with her new consideration for a second before turning back. Normally they wouldn't be able to just...flagrantly go to Ozpin's office like this, but they knew he was expecting them.

And indeed, when they got there, both Ozpin & Glynda were already waiting. "Hello, students. Are you...ready for today?" Ozpin asked.

"Eh, much as we can be, I guess." Ruby replied.

"That's all we can ask for." Glynda assured them. And with that, Ruby pulled up her Scroll. The holographic chairs rematerialized, as did the screen. That was handy.

As everyone got re-situated. Ozpin noticed that half of them still looked at him with a hint of distrust. Not nearly bad much as before Divide, and it may just be them thinking they should have heard sooner, and ALL of them seeing him in a new light knowing what he is, so he dismissed it.

"Okay!" Ruby declared, Zwei in her lap. "Let's start...Volume 4!"

~~~~~

Hello, Volume 4

It's Wednesday, so lets say the next update is... Friday.