RWBY Through Worlds

184: Everything Inside

"Are you okay?" Pyrrha said, finally.

"I just... What does that even mean?" Jaune asked. "What does all of it mean, all this suffering? I mean, why let people do these things? Why are we going through this? Why not just take us right to Salem? Why does everything have to be so hard?"

He sighed.

"But hard is how we grow," Pyrrha said.

"Don't tell me you believe that makes everything worth it," Jaune said. "There have to be some things no one would go through just to grow."

Pyrrha glanced back at him... He was reminded of their first conversation in the forest outside Beacon. 

Funny, just a little thing like that and Jaune reflected how little had changed, even if so much else had.

Pyrrha took his hands between hers in a comforting sort of way.

"I can't explain it all," she said, "but I believe, in the long run, it's for the greater good. All of this somehow is... Maybe just accepting that would be the easiest thing to do."

"If I could," Jaune puzzled. "I... believe in God and all that... I believe that it's true. I just don't get it. All that suffering, even that He died Himself, I still don't get why that was the only way."

"That question takes more wisdom than I have to answer," Pyrrha said. "But remember what Shine said a couple days ago? Jesus didn't resurrect everyone, not even His own family. And He didn't spare Himself death, a much worse one than I've undergone, or anyone else in the party, in fact. All the stories I've read, it just seems that pain and suffering are a part of life. I don't know... There's even one book of a man who lost everything in one day, just to prove a point."

"Yeah... exactly," Jaune said. "Is it just to prove something?"

"But perhaps His ways are not our ways," Pyrrha said. "I think I read that somewhere also... or His thoughts our thoughts. Perhaps how we think of it is too narrow, too low. We want to spare ourselves suffering--and I do too, don't misunderstand me... but perhaps there's a reason I'm not allowed to make the decision. Perhaps the reason the Lord would suffer is to show us something about it... I suppose one could just try to avoid all the pain in the world, but things are real... and evil leads to pain, and I see no way around that while people are still free to be evil... so it seems fine to me, in a way, that the Lord wouldn't just avoid the pain... He...well, He became part of it, part of the world, for a short time."

Jaune glanced at her.

"I mean, would you?" Pyrrha said. "If you couldn't stop someone from suffering, would you at least go with them? Is that why we're here?"

"Yeah, I would," Jaune said. "I would definitely want to at least be there with them. That's why I don't..." He paused.

Pyrrha tilted her head. "What?"

"Of course even God has died..." Jaune said, as if he was thinking of something else. "I haven't, but... I guess there really is no experience that He hasn't... even with family, friends... Suffering, all that... I guess that's for us. I mean, we read how He was in the wild for 40 days too... so... I guess it's all in how you look at it."

"I'd say so..." Pyrrha wasn't entirely sure what Jaune was thinking. 

"Is that it then?" Jaune said, looking at her strangely. "There's no stopping all that suffering, so the only thing to do is share it?"

"I believe Shine would say that He gives it a purpose," Pyrrha said. "I don't know if that's because He has it or if it's His way of letting it not be a waste. But if pain must happen, I'd rather it be for a reason. Seems to me I don't mind it so much then... In fact, I began to see what happened to me as less of a failure since I began to see it might have a purpose."