RWBY Through Worlds

69: Nothing Wrong

The end of a very long day for the hero teams should have been peaceful.

But there was too much to think about and talk about, even after the teens headed to bed.

Shine wanted to sleep, but couldn't.

She got up and found Wally in the kitchen eating snacks.

"Couldn't sleep either?" he said

"Yeah it's been quite a day," Shine said. "Seeing the Bandit camp...I mean, I've seen people die...once or twice...but I've never been so close to something that big...It was awful."

Wally nodded and put a hand on her shoulder.

Shine leaned on him silently for a moment.

"It's hard," Wally said. "I mean..every time...but the first time is really bad because it's kind of still shocking. I'm sorry you had to see it."

"I suppose it was bound to happen on this job sooner or later," Shine muttered. "I feel worse for Raven...I didn't know those people, so it was sad for me, but if it were personal, I don't know what I'd feel."

Wally didn't either. He hadn't had the feeling either...though close, sometimes.

"But on top of that, I feel guilty for some of the stuff I said the last day or so," Shine went on. "I think I've been losing my temper too much. I could put it down to stress, but that's not a good excuse."

"I think I have too," Wally said. "But you have a reason to be stressed...I mean this has been super hard. And you've been doing a lot, since Winter has been down, Qrow has been MIA,and Raven, let's be real, doesn't really help us that much. Hazel's not really a leader, so that le mostly you to be the organized one. I'm sucky at that. I should probably be helping you more though."

"But you had your hands full with the resources stuff," Shine said. "And to be real, they'd have lost a lot more people if you weren't here. Between you and Penny, you're a small army...at least the food collection went well."

"Yeah...that was fun.." Wally said.

* * *

Wally's whole plan had just been to ask people to help out in person with the refugees...

Vaccou didn't have a lot of things you could call "neighborhoods" so much as assortments of houses and shops that people migrated around. Bigger structures were for the wealthy.

Team JNPR going with him, had run into some heat with some of the people who recognized them, but Pyrrha's fame also did her some favors--sort of. A couple people wanted to fight her.

She might have obliged if the others hadn't told her to focus on the assignment and not draw undue attention. They were still worried about Tyrian.

At first, of course, any request had been met with scorn and people mocking Atlas and Mantle for being wimps.

JNPR had almost lost it at that, Nora wanted to break their legs, and Ren felt like quitting, while Arkos was...discouraged and confused.

But Wally kept his head.

He calmly told the people about how bad it was in the refugee camp, and he knew Vaccou had it rough too, but they still had a chance here to be the good guys. He also said that in all fairness, he should just ask them to help and not get anything in gratitude, so he'd lend them a hand if they needed something.

At first people were dubious about that, but when Wally speed cleaned a shop free of dust and re-sorted the wares into the correct spots, they warmed up to it a little.

Within the hour he had a fair amount donations from vendors who said they'd do it in exchange for getting help cleaning.

JNPR, catching on, offered to guard some stalls from thieves while the owners needed a lunch break or to run errands.