RWBY Through Worlds

193: How It Goes Down Tonight

Raven and Hazel left with a list of things to collect, and everyone else either washed off or got settled in to try to sleep.

Ruby was still restless.

Oscar was tired, but his mind was too full. They were so close to Salem... Ozpin's unease was more. 

Oscar wondered if he'd known they were off course before and said nothing, hoping to delay them.

Ozpin's mind kept turning to the Relics, and how he wished he could just take them and run. They were so close--if only he could have found a way to cross the ocean, he could have taken them out of the Grimm lands again.

Even being this close to Salem made him feel apprehensive, like he could tell she was watching them.

Which she was, noting how close they were, and that they'd survived another Grimm.

"They are more resilient than one would suppose," she murmured. "I would almost admire it... But it's a shame--it will all be futile in the end..."

Ozpin shivered.

"I'm sure she's monitoring us," he said, sitting up suddenly, in control.

"Oz..." Oscar said.

"How am I supposed to rest when this foolish group of people is so close to dooming us all?" he said.

"You know, Oz--" If Oscar could have, he'd probably have been gesturing upward in frustration. "--just once, you could try to think this might work. Would it be so terrible if this was how it happened? Is your quest more important, or is actually saving the world important to you?"

Ozpin was silent for a moment.

"You don't understand, Oscar... It's not as if I haven't been trying to just talk to her before and just put an end to all this." His voice was more subdued. "But to doom the whole world over my selfish desire to be rid of the curse would be wrong."

"Yeah...maybe it would be wrong for that reason," Oscar said. "But it's not why we're doing it."

"Isn't it, Oscar? Can you really avow to me that your own wish to be rid of it is not influencing you?" Ozpin said. "It's reasonable. Anyone would. It's been terribly unfair to you.I know that... It's...it's not as if I enjoy your suffering when our souls clash against each other. It's never been like this before, and yet I can no more stop it than you can. While we disagree, it will continue. And if your plan did not work, who knows how long it will continue, indefinitely perhaps? It's one chance in a million this plan would even come close to working."

"And what about the things we've seen?" Oscar said.

"As yet, still nothing that could stop something like Salem. The Grimm might bow to the authority of these people, but the god of light will not, and you've only gotten a taste of his true power. And even that much has caused us misery to resist."

Oscar felt worse.

"Oz... maybe focusing on this isn't a good idea."

"I wish they'd never come." Ozpin didn't heed him. "I wish Alicia had never come. It was better to not think there was any other way than to think it and still be trapped in this cycle for millennia. They say a man is less miserable who doesn't know he's a slave."

"That man has no chance to be free," Oscar said. "Knowledge is power."

"Oscar... this becomes tired after so long. Trying to bend the gods' rules had never worked for me. I have no reason to think it ever will. I'll watch you all fail again, and I'll still be here."