SAPR

by Scipio Smith

If It Was Me (Rewritten)

If It Was Me

Pyrrha and Amber stood outside the Beacon garages, watching Sunset drive away on her ramshackle bike.

She had Soteria slung across her back alongside Sol Invictus, having gone back to retrieve the venerable weapon, and the Beacon-branded backpack, containing her magic book, sat over both weapons.

Sunset did not look back. As she drove away, onto whatever new path awaited her, she did not turn her head back in Pyrrha's direction.

Pyrrha did not begrudge her that. After all, they had already made their goodbyes, and after a certain point, one was merely dragging things out.

And yet, Pyrrha felt compelled to stay and watch her go.

As she watched Sunset disappear out of sight, trailed by the buzzing engine of her homemade motorcycle, Pyrrha felt Amber slip her hand into Pyrrha's.

"I'll probably never see her again," Amber murmured. "But then … I suppose there was always going to come a point where I never saw her again."

"Yes," Pyrrha said. "Although I know Sunset would not have objected if that had come later."

Amber looked at Pyrrha. "Do you think you'll ever see her again?"

"I know not for certain," Pyrrha said. "But I may." She could not resist a slight chuckle. "I may see her again so soon that it renders all this melodrama of our parting seem quite unnecessary frivolity."

"How do you mean?" asked Amber, frowning slightly.

"I mean that if Sunset does go to see my mother, as I have urged, then I can quite easily imagine a world in which Mother offers Sunset…" Pyrrha paused a moment, considering what, precisely, her mother might offer Sunset. The idea of a place in the household was a rather old-fashioned one, for non-domestics, and it was not clear what use Mother would have for a warrior in the normal state of affairs. As a bodyguard, perhaps, but she had never needed one before, and Mother would not insult Sunset by giving her a meaningless sinecure or pointless busywork. "My mother is a woman of wealth and influence in Mistral. Our name of Nikos could open many doors for Sunset there, and I have little doubt that she will offer to open them."

Pyrrha did not know how people in Vale, waking to the accusations against Sunset, would respond to them, but in Mistral, the support of the lady of the House of Nikos would count for something when set against anonymous slanders, or even Sunset’s faunusness. With her mother's support, and after her good showings in the tournament, Sunset could probably find a place in the Imperial Guard if she so wished.

If she so wished. Pyrrha did not think that Sunset quite knew what she wished at this point.

But she need not live a lonely and circumscribed existence, if she wished it otherwise.

"So," Amber said softly. "Why … what Sunset did is so horrible that Ruby can't stand to be in the same school as her, but your mother will help Sunset find something to do now? I … I don't understand. Is what Sunset did bad or not?"

"Yes," Pyrrha replied. "Yes, Amber, it is, but—"

"But you don't hate Sunset for it, the way that Ruby does," said Amber.

"I am not sure I would say that Ruby hates Sunset," responded Pyrrha. "Rather…" She gathered her thoughts, marshalling them so that she could explain this in a way that made sense. "Six people died because of what Sunset did. Including our own fellow student Sky Lark. We … should not forget that. Ruby, certainly, does not forget that. I, for my part, I know that what Sunset did was wrong, and yet, that knowledge is not enough to erase the great affection that I have for her, the sorrow that I feel at our parting." She wiped at her cheek with one gloved hand, smearing the tears across her face. "Mine own affection is stronger than my sense of principle. Though I recognise the wrong, it does not smother what I already felt." Pyrrha paused. "But for Ruby, it is different. Ruby is not ruled by the passions of her heart as Sunset is and I can be. For Ruby, nothing matters more than to live as a huntress should, obedient to the code and values that guide and drive a huntress on: to live for others, not for oneself; to defend the helpless even to one's last breath."

“To live as a huntress should,” Amber repeated. “Even if that costs her life.”

“Precisely,” Pyrrha said.

"And that is not what is in her heart?" asked Amber.

“I … when put like that, I suppose I must concede it is,” admitted Pyrrha. “And yet, it feels less … I suppose that, given Sunset and I have both treated her as though she lacks sense, I can hardly complain at you suggesting that Ruby, too, is ruled by her heart, but in the present circumstances … she seems to be more in her senses than I feel. Did you not see how she…? She did not rage at Sunset, she did not yell or shout or scream—”

“Like Jaune did,” murmured Amber.

Pyrrha looked down at her feet, clasping her hands together. “Yes,” she whispered. “As Jaune did.” Jaune had his cause for anger, that was certain; it made Pyrrha feel a little guilty that she was not angry herself. She could only hope that he would not hold her lack of fury against her. “Jaune has his reasons to be angry with Sunset. An old friend of his, Miranda Wells, she was not amongst the fallen, but a friend of hers was. Poor Miranda has not been the same because of it, and to find that Sunset was responsible … I do not blame him. I only hope that he does not…”

“And you?” Amber asked. “You don’t blame Sunset?”

“What good would it do?” replied Pyrrha. “I am not sure it is even possible for any of us to blame Sunset more than she already blames herself. I think that Ruby feels the same way; that is why — as I was saying — she was not at all angry with Sunset—”

“She seemed cold to me,” Amber said. “Cold and cruel and rather heartless.”

“You do her wrong,” Pyrrha said sharply. “You do her … gravely wrong. I thought you liked Ruby?”

“I like Ruby well enough,” Amber said. “Or at least, I did. But … I like Sunset more. Sunset saved my life.”

And cost others their lives, Pyrrha thought, and could not help but treacherously wonder if Sunset would have lifted a finger to save Amber if Professor Ozpin had not suggested the aura transfer.

Sunset would never have known about Amber were it not for Professor Ozpin’s suggestion of the aura transfer.

But still, as a hypothetical…

I am sure that she would. Sunset … whatever Sunset did, she is not a monster. She made a mistake, driven by instinct and by love, but she is also not someone to simply ignore others because she can, or because it doesn’t affect her.

She went to Councillor Aris — former Councillor Aris — precisely because she wanted to help, even though nobody would have known if she had not — and much trouble would have been avoided.

There is a certain irony there, that Sunset has been undone because in a generous moment of charity, she exposed her most ungenerous and least charitable moment.

But she would have helped Amber, had she known, I’m sure.

“Your heart is your own, of course,” Pyrrha said softly. “But nevertheless, Ruby did what she thought was right, and as much as I hate to see Sunset go, to say goodbye, to part like this, nevertheless, I understand why Ruby sent her away. She was” — it was a hard thing for Pyrrha to say that it had been right for Ruby to do so; it felt so treacherous to someone who had done so much for her. But, nevertheless, it had to be said, for Ruby’s sake — “right to say that Sunset did not display the virtues required of a huntress. And I do not believe that she took any pleasure in it. In fact, I believe it hurt her, for all that she hid it well. My point, — what was my point? — my point is that Ruby does not deserve censure for her actions or for the spirit in which she undertook them. She has acted as best she could in the circumstances.”

“Assuming that the virtues of a huntress are the right ones,” Amber said.

“For a huntress, they are so,” Pyrrha interjected. “Older and wiser heads than ours have pronounced it to be thus, and who are we to question them, young as we are?” And that was why … that was why Sunset had to leave.

“Assuming that the virtues of a huntress are the right ones,” Amber repeated, sounding very unconvinced, “Sunset did what she did for your sake, to save all of you, including Ruby, and for that, Ruby turns her away, says she doesn’t know her, despises her? You say that she acted without cruelty, but was that not a cruel thing to say? Even if Ruby thought Sunset deserved that, it didn’t mean that she had to say it or that Sunset had to hear it. And…”

“You think that Sunset did the right thing?” Pyrrha asked carefully, keeping her voice free of any judgement so that Amber would feel freer to speak her mind.

“Does not your mother feel that way?” asked Amber. “Isn’t that why you told Sunset to go and see her? You say that Sunset did this horrible thing, this terrible thing, this thing that gave Ruby no choice but to turn her back upon Sunset, and then you send her to your mother who will help her with your name and your wealth? Surely, what Sunset did was wrong, or it was not?”

“There is a third choice, which is that not everyone agrees that what is wrong is wrong or vice versa,” Pyrrha said. “Professor Ozpin would judge himself more leniently than you, or even I, and my mother will, I think, judge Sunset far less harshly than Ruby has.”

“Why?”

“Because my mother is not a huntress, nor was she one, nor did she ever wish to be one,” Pyrrha answered. “My mother is a patrician of Mistral to the bone, and she … she loves me, after her fashion, for all that we have had our … differences in the past. I think, I fear, I believe, I must admit that she will likely think the risk to Vale, or even the loss of life, to be of little consequence compared with my survival.”

Amber was quiet for a moment. Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and Pyrrha was very much afeared that she was going to announce that she agreed with Pyrrha’s mother, which Pyrrha would rather she kept to herself, if it was all the same to Amber. Even if she thought it, Pyrrha would rather not know that she thought it.

“So when you insist that what Sunset did was wrong,” Amber said, “are you saying it because you believe it, or because you’re afraid that actually you agree with your mother?”

“Amber!” Pyrrha cried. “How can you … that is … why would you even say something like that?”

“I’m sorry,” said Amber. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“You didn’t upset me,” Pyrrha said stiffly, and with a little bruising audible in her voice. “I was just … surprised, that’s all.”

“I’m still sorry,” Amber insisted. “It’s just that…” She looked away, and with one hand, she gripped at the hem of her light green cape, fussing with it, playing with it, tugging on it until the cape was halfway draped around her body like an old-fashioned toga. “You know, there have been times when I’ve been in awe of your bravery. Times when I’ve been astonished and amazed by how courageous you all were. Just tonight, when you faced Cinder the way you did, even though you could see how powerful she was, even though she could have killed you.”

“It was nothing,” Pyrrha said quietly.

“No,” Amber said. “No, it was … it was everything, or it seemed like it was at the time; it was … and that’s not the only time either, when I’ve thought about what you do, and what you’re willing to do, and … I’ve felt like such a coward by comparison to you.”

“If all men were brave, none could boast of their valour,” Pyrrha said, citing the incontestable authority of The Mistraliad.

Her namesake, refusing to rebuke those warriors fleeing the battlefield, had gone on to add, ‘And as I would be known as a most valiant prince, as the most valiant warrior who ever bore arms, I am glad that there are cowards yet, even amongst the great-hearted Danaians, that my courage may shine all the brighter by comparison.’ Needless to say, Pyrrha did not quote that part.

Rather, she went on to say, “And now you do not feel the same way, I take it?”

“I still feel as though you are brave,” Amber declared. “I could not deny the proof of it before my eyes tonight. But, at the same time, if this is courage, if this is valour, if this is what it means to be brave, then … then I am glad that I’m not brave and that I never pretended that I was. Jaune was there with you, wasn’t he?”

Pyrrha felt with a creeping sense of dread stealing over her that she knew where this was leading. She nodded stiffly. “Y-yes,” she admitted. “Yes, he was—”

“Aren’t you glad that he survived?” Amber asked. “Aren’t you glad that he lived on, with you, thanks to Sunset?”

“That,” Pyrrha said, “is not the point.”

“Is it not?” asked Amber, dubiously.

“No,” Pyrrha said quickly. “No, it isn’t.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “I cannot say that I wish Jaune … I cannot say that I wish any harm on Jaune, you will not hear me say it, the words would stick in my throat if I tried, and my throat would rather let me choke upon them then let them pass my lips where anyone might hear them. It is not for me to put a worth upon Jaune’s life, or Ruby’s life, or the lives of Rainbow Dash or Blake or their friend Applejack. But at the same time, it is not for me, or Sunset, to say that any of our lives are worth the lives of anyone living in Vale today, still less a kingdom. That is not my choice to make, and it was not Sunset’s choice to make either, for all that she made it nevertheless.”

“But—”

“Please, Amber,” Pyrrha half-cried, her voice becoming higher pitched and a little more shrill for all that it grew no louder. “Please … I do not wish to…” Now that Amber had spoken thus, her mind was filled with visions of Jaune’s death: he reached out for her, and yet, she could not help him; he cried out in pain; he wept as they devoured him; he cursed Pyrrha for not keeping him safe, for not sending him away from danger but rather leading him into it; he died bravely, but all his bravery counted for nothing at the end as his blue eyes, empty and dead and devoid of the light that made them so wonderful to look upon, gazed upwards as they left his head for last. “I do not wish to think on this. I beg of you, have pity on me. These visions that you conjure with your words have sharp fangs.”

“Alright,” Amber said, her voice becoming ever so gentle, as gentle as the breeze that was lacking tonight, the air being so still and placid. Her voice was as gentle as her hands, as she reached out and took Pyrrha’s hands in her own. “I didn’t mean to upset you, I promise. I just wanted to understand, because this … it all seems so sudden to me.”

“It is sudden to me too,” Pyrrha said, with a sigh in her voice. “And you are still so new to us, and to all of this, that I suppose I can’t blame you for being confused. But all the same, there are some things that I would very much rather not think about.” And yet, now that Amber had planted the thought, she could not banish them again so easily. “Jaune was … Jaune was on the train with me, yes, but Dove was in the city. Had fortune been less good to Dove, had fate decreed it otherwise, it might have been he, not his teammate Sky, who … counts that for nothing?”

“If things were different, I might think differently,” Amber admitted. “But isn’t that how it is with everyone?”

It took Pyrrha a moment to realise what Amber was saying. “No,” she murmured. “No, I don’t think they do. Not all. Not Ruby, certainly.”

“You mean she always thinks the same thing, regardless of what’s going on.”

“I mean that she is driven by the good of the people above all else,” Pyrrha said. “Above kingdom, or love, or … all else.”

“And is that … good?”

“It is very rare,” Pyrrha answered. “And, being exceedingly rare, is probably very desirable.”

“I do not desire it,” Amber replied. “Ruby … her courage awes me, I must admit, but, at the same time, it terrifies me a little.”

---

“Ruby,” Penny asked, raising one hand tentatively.

“You don’t need to raise your hand, Penny,” Ruby said, without looking at her. Ruby’s eyes were fixed on the wall, where Sunset had been standing.

She had scarcely moved at all since Sunset left; even after Pyrrha had taken Sunset’s book and left with Amber, she had still been standing there, looking at that wall.

Jaune wondered why that was; it was honestly starting to freak him out just a little bit.

Maybe … maybe Ruby wasn’t holding it together as well as she was pretending to? Maybe she was afraid that if she moved, then she’d break? But why? Who was she pretending to hold it together for?

Maybe she just hadn’t found a reason to move yet.

If that made sense.

“Oh, right,” Penny said, softly lowering her hand. “But, still … why did you send Pyrrha out with Sunset’s book? You could have caught up with Sunset much faster with your semblance.”

“Because Pyrrha cares about Sunset,” Ruby replied, her voice firm but soft at the same time. “Even still, she cares about Sunset, and she deserves the chance to say a proper goodbye if she wants to, without feeling rushed or ashamed or embarrassed by us being here. I don’t want to see that. I don’t ever want to see Sunset again, but if Pyrrha wants to get it all out, then that’s fine with me. That’s why I asked Pyrrha to do it, so that she didn’t have to feel like she couldn’t go after her, or feel bad because she did.”

“Oh,” Penny said. She hesitated. “I would have…”

Ruby turned her head ever so slightly, to look at Penny over her shoulder. “What?”

“Nothing,” Penny said. “It doesn’t matter.”

You would have liked to say goodbye to Sunset too, huh? Jaune thought. I mean, you could just say so. Isn’t that the lesson here, from what Ruby just said? That she doesn’t mind if you still like Sunset, if you want to say goodbye to Sunset, if you still think of Sunset as your best friend, then that’s all okay with Ruby, just so long as Sunset isn’t here, and Ruby doesn’t have to look at her.

So say something, Penny; just say that you want to go and say goodbye to Sunset as well, and Ruby won’t stop you.

As for himself, Jaune wasn’t interested in saying goodbye to Sunset. To be honest, he was a little more preoccupied in trying to work out how he felt about the fact that Pyrrha, as Ruby had said, still cared about Sunset.

Of course, before he could understand that, then he needed to work out how he felt about Sunset.

Sunset, who had gotten Miranda’s friend killed and wounded Miranda.

Sunset, who had done that to save their lives.

What she’d done was wrong. There was no denying that, no arguing it, but at the same time … the alternative was pretty tough to imagine. When she had stood there, and talked about why she did it … yes, it had been easy to feel angry, to feel furious, to feel betrayed that their friend, their leader, someone they trusted had done something like that, had hurt his friend like that.

But then, when Ruby had challenged Sunset to speak in her own defence…

“I could not lose you. I … just couldn’t lose you. You mean everything to me.”

Put like that … it didn’t make it right, for sure, but there was a reason why everyone — except Ruby — had kind of deflated at that moment, why Jaune had been certain that Penny had been about to reach out to Sunset, to touch her shoulder or hug her or something, only to be get scared off by … by Ruby’s disapproval, probably, although it seemed as though she needn’t have been — needn’t be — so scared.

“I could not lose you.”

Put like that, it was hard to be angry at Sunset, no matter the wrong that she had done.

“You mean everything to me.”

It was possible to look at someone standing in front of you saying ‘I did the wrong thing because I care about you’ and reply that it was still the wrong thing.

It was harder, a lot harder, to hate them for doing it, no matter the consequences of their actions.

Yes, what Sunset did had been wrong, and it was awful what it had done to Miranda, but when you heard her explain…

When you thought about the consequences if she’d made the other choice…

“You mean everything to me.”

Pyrrha meant everything to him too, and the thought of her being ripped apart by grimm … it wasn’t something that he wanted to think about.

Just because Sunset had made the wrong choice didn’t mean that he was saying it was easy to make the right choice, that’s all he was saying.

So, although he didn’t feel the need to say goodbye to Sunset himself, it wasn’t because he was so disgusted with her that he couldn’t look at her without wanting to do violence, and it didn’t mean that he was going to get upset at Pyrrha if she wanted to speak to Sunset one last time. He knew how close they were.

And while Sunset deserved for Ruby to kick her out — probably — after what she’d done, she also deserved to get a chance to say a proper goodbye to her best friend.

It was just kind of a pity that it didn’t seem like Penny had the nerve to ask for the same opportunity.

Jaune supposed he couldn’t blame her too much, Ruby was being … kinda intimidating at the moment.

“So,” Penny murmured, her voice trembling a little bit, “you’re okay with the fact that Pyrrha doesn’t hate Sunset, even though you do?”

“I don’t hate Sunset, Penny,” Ruby said.

“You said you despised her,” Penny pointed out.

“Yeah,” Ruby said softly. “Yeah, I know I did, but that … that doesn’t mean I hate her. It doesn’t mean that I … I know that a lot of things would have been a lot worse without Sunset around. We wouldn’t have had Amber back, or we might have lost Pyrrha, or … there are some things that I just can’t forgive, but that doesn’t mean that I hate Sunset or that I expect everyone else to hate her either.”

“I … I see,” Penny murmured.

“I think,” Blake said, “that you’ve been very kind, to Pyrrha at least. A little sneaky and underhanded, perhaps, but kind all the same.”

“'Kind,'” Ruby repeated, her voice dull. “'Kind'? I … thanks, Blake. That wasn’t something I was expecting to hear, but I appreciate it.”

“You do realise,” Rainbow said, “that when people find out that Sunset’s gone, she’s going to look guilty as sin?”

“Sunset is guilty,” Ruby reminded her. “If she looks guilty because of what she’s done, some would say that’s a good thing.”

Jaune frowned. “But what about Councillor Emerald, didn’t you say—?”

“I’m not employed by Councillor Emerald to make him look good or to cover up his mistakes,” Ruby declared. “I don’t want to cause a panic, so I’m not going to go running around Vale telling everyone I can find the truth, but I’m not going to help him or Professor Ozpin bury the truth either, especially if it means that I have to choke on letting Sunset soil this place. I’m sure the First Councillor can find some way to make everything seem okay.”

“That … that doesn’t sound like something you say about someone you don’t hate,” Penny murmured.

Ruby was silent for a moment. “I’ve answered that already, Penny,” she said softly. “I don’t want to answer it again.”

Penny bowed her head a little, and hunched her shoulders down, and cringed a bit. “Oh,” she said. “Okay. I’m sorry.”

Ruby sighed. “No, Penny, I’m sorry, it’s … it’s okay. I shouldn’t have … it’s been a long night, that’s all, and this is … it’s a lot for you, I know, but it isn’t nothing for me either. All the same, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

“It’s fine,” Penny said, in a very soft voice. She paused for a second. “So … who’s going to lead Team Sapphire now?”

“I will,” said Ruby. “Pyrrha doesn’t have the strength to make the hard decisions, and Jaune…” Now, at last, she looked at Jaune. Her expression was not as apologetic as he might have expected. “No offence, Jaune,” she said, “but—”

“Don’t worry,” Jaune told her. “I get it. I’m not exactly team leader material.”

“Without meaning to suggest that you are not the right choice, Ruby,” Ciel said, “it seems to me that this is a choice that should be made by Professor Ozpin, rather than treating the leadership of the team like a crown that you may pick up off the floor once you have knocked if off of Sunset’s head.”

Blake glanced at her. “Did you just suggest that the leadership of a team is more valuable than a crown?”

“You’re right, Ciel,” Ruby said. “I don’t have the right to just make myself the leader. I guess that I probably don’t have the right to send Sunset away either, but I had to do that, it was the least that she deserved and the least that I could stand. But as for who leads the team, you’re right, that’s Professor Ozpin’s decision. I need to go and see Professor Ozpin anyway.”

“To tell him what you have done?” asked Ciel.

“To find out why he kept this secret,” Ruby replied. “He knew. That’s what Sunset said, he knew what she’d done, he knew for almost as long as Councillor Emerald. The First Councillor is one thing, but Professor Ozpin? He’s a huntsman, he is the huntsman, and yet, he let Sunset get away with betraying everything that a huntsman or huntress is supposed to stand for? He found out that she had spat on everything that a huntress is supposed to be, and he let her carry on attending this school, leading this team?” She glanced at Jaune. “Maybe Amber was right about him, Amber and you and Pyrrha. It certainly makes a lot of sense now why Sunset was always defending him. Of course she defended him; he’d defended her. They’re all as bad as—” She cut herself off. “I need to talk to him,” she said, her voice calmer again. “Now.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for Pyrrha to come back?” asked Penny. “I mean, don’t we need to talk about what Cinder said to Pyrrha and … to Pyrrha?”

“You can say her name, Penny,” Rainbow said. “Sunset. She didn’t get erased like those unpersons in Mantle before the War.”

“She’s right,” Ruby added. “You can say her name, if you want to. As for waiting, or what Cinder said … I’m sure Cinder said plenty. I’m not so sure that any of it was any use at all. She probably talked a lot about how wonderful she is and flattered Pyrrha and Sunset and … we don’t need to hear all of that. We do — I do — need to talk to Professor Ozpin.”

Penny nodded. “I understand,” she said. “In that case … can I come with you?”

Jaune’s eyebrows rose. Penny wanted to go with Ruby? Based on the way that she’d been acting, he wouldn’t have expected that she wanted to spend any time alone with Ruby.

Ruby hesitated, maybe because she was surprised as well. “Okay,” she said softly, after a moment had passed. “Okay, you can come with me. Let’s…” She took a deep breath. “Let’s go. I don’t want to wait around.”

She strode towards the door, leaving Penny to follow behind her as quickly as she could. Ruby flung the door open and walked out into the corridor without another word. Penny lingered in the doorway for a second, giving a half-hearted-looking wave to everyone that was still in the room, before she followed Ruby out.

As the door closed, it was as though Ruby and Penny had taken all the sound in the dorm room with them too, because it was silent — dead silent, if that wasn’t something too unfortunate to think about — in their absence.

Rainbow Dash looked down the line of Twilight, Ciel, and Blake. “We should probably be going too,” she said. “Unless there’s anything else?”

“No,” Jaune said, with a shake of his head. “I’m sure you’ve got a lot to talk about, and think about.”

“You could say that,” Ciel murmured. “Blake, will you indulge us by—?”

“I’ll come with you, of course,” Blake said. “I don’t know where Yang is, but I don’t want to disturb Ren and Nora. I might crash on the floor of your room, if that’s okay?”

“The floor?” Rainbow repeated. “Take Penny’s bed; I’m sure she won’t mind.” Rainbow nodded in Jaune’s direction. “Goodnight, Jaune, Dove.”

Dove didn’t say anything, just as he hadn’t said anything all night, a fact that Jaune was only now realising. So much had happened that Dove’s silence had allowed him to fade into the background, but now, with the room a lot emptier than it had been, Jaune was starting to notice him again.

And to notice that he hadn’t said a word.

The Atlesians — and Blake, if that needed to be clarified — trooped out of the room, and Dove’s quiet was even more noticeable now that Jaune was alone with him.

He still didn’t say anything. He didn’t even look at Jaune; his focus was on the camp bed that Sunset had been sleeping on, having given up her bed to Amber.

“If nobody’s using that,” Dove said, pointing at the camp bed, “would you all mind if I crashed here tonight? Lyra’s probably in bed by now, and I don’t want to disturb her by crashing into their room — our room. And if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather not leave Amber … I’d rather not leave Amber.”

“Uh,” Jaune stumbled over his words, caught by surprise that that was what Dove wanted to talk about, after what he’d heard. “I guess. I mean, we don’t have a team leader to tell you no, so … sure.” The only reason to say no to Dove was so that they could talk about stuff he didn’t know about yet, like Salem, but since Ruby had dismissed the idea that Cinder had any intelligence worth listening to, Jaune guessed that that wasn’t going to happen. In which case, reasons to kick Dove out were … nonexistant, as far as he could tell.

And if they needed to talk, then they could always ask him to give them some privacy.

It wasn’t like he was going to be sleeping there permanently, after all.

“Thank you,” Dove said. “If Ruby or Pyrrha has any objection—”

“Can I just say?” Jaune said, holding up one hand. “Can I just say that you’re being really, kind of weirdly calm about all of this, considering… considering that Sunset is the reason Sky died?”

“Sky died because of the grimm and because he was a brave man,” Dove declared, raising his head. “To say that it was all because of Sunset like that, it … it insults him and his memory.”

“I didn’t mean that; I just meant…” Jaune trailed off for a second. “I guess I’m surprised, is all.”

Dove frowned and drummed his fingertips on the desk behind him. “I suppose,” he glanced at Jaune. “Can I tell you a secret?”

“Uh, sure, I guess,” Jaune replied. “I mean … you’re not going to tell me that you did something terrible as well, are you?”

Dove let out a strained laugh. Jaune supposed that it had been in pretty poor taste; he just didn’t want to get burdened with that kind of secret, you know.

Dove paused for a second, before he said, “No. No, it isn’t anything like that; it’s just … there is someone that I blame for Sky’s death, to be honest, and it isn’t Sunset. Yes, Sky was brave, braver than he was skilled, to be perfectly honest with you, and I’m not going to deny him all the agency in his own … he made his choice, to fight for Vale, and I respect that. But it doesn’t stop me blaming Bon Bon for what happened.”

“'Bon Bon'?” Jaune repeated. “You … you blame Bon Bon?” He blamed Bon Bon? Jaune could hardly believe the words that he’d just heard come out of Dove’s mouth, especially when coupled with the fact that he didn’t blame Sunset, especially in light of what he — Dove — had just heard. “But … you’re friends!”

“You and Sunset were friends,” Dove pointed out. “Ruby and Sunset were friends, and now look.”

“That is true,” Jaune allowed, “but unless I missed something really big, you never called Bon Bon out in front of a crowd and told her that you’d never known her at all and you held her in contempt.”

“And then said that I didn’t hate her afterwards,” Dove muttered.

“Let’s … let’s just leave that for a second, okay?” Jaune asked. “Let’s stay on track. You blame Bon Bon?”

“She doesn’t know it,” Dove told him. “And I’d rather that she didn’t find out — that’s why I asked if you could keep a secret — but, yes, I blame Bon Bon for Sky’s death.”

Jaune frowned. “But … why?”

“Because she led us there,” Dove declared. “She led us down to that square, where all the grimm came pouring out, and for what? At least Sunset had a reason for what she did.”

“Yeah, she did,” Jaune accepted. “But Bon Bon … had a reason too, right? I mean, she was trying to help?”

“Was she?”

“I don’t know, wasn’t she?” asked Jaune. “You were with her.”

“Yes,” Dove said softly. “Yes, I was with her. Me and Lyra and Sky were all with her. That’s why I blame her, and that’s why I can’t forgive her and—”

“Why are you keeping this to yourself?” asked Jaune. “Or should I be asking why you’re telling me?”

“I’m telling you so you understand why I don’t seem as … affected by this as you expect,” Dove said. “I mean, I’m sure that part of it has something to do with the fact that I don’t know Sunset as well as you do, so I don’t feel as betrayed.” He paused. “Or perhaps it’s the fact that Sunset brought Amber back to me, and there is nothing in the whole world she could do that would undo my gratitude for that. Does that sound terrible?”

“Honestly? No,” Jaune said. “Maybe it ought to, I don’t know, I’m not the smartest guy in this team, but I don’t think so. She’s the love of your life, right?”

The corners of Dove’s mouth turned upwards. “Right,” he agreed. “I’m glad you see it that way, seeing as you were the one who told me to make Amber my highest good and priority in the first place.”

“Yeah, I did, didn’t I?” Jaune replied, scratching the back of his head with one hand. “I mean, when I said that … it feels like there should probably be some limits.”

“Do you know where those limits are?” asked Dove.

“Probably somewhere around a whole kingdom,” murmured Jaune.

“'A whole kingdom,'” Dove repeated softly. He looked up, past Jaune and out the window. “How much do you know about the knights of Vale?” Dove asked. “Olivia, Percy, that kind of thing?”

“Not a lot,” Jaune admitted, a little thrown by the change of subject. Perhaps Dove just didn’t want to talk about the Breach anymore and was looking for a subject to take his mind off things. “Only what Ruby tells me. Why?”

“Olivia was the greatest of King Edward’s paladins,” Dove declared. “But her pride got herself and her followers killed. Percy was in love with Prince Tristan, and even though he was engaged to a princess from another kingdom, even though that marriage would seal an alliance that would bring peace and unite the kingdoms, still, they put their love ahead of everything, and war and tyranny resulted. Derfel, Owain, Nimue, I could go on and on … they were all heroes, mighty and brave and, for the most part, noble as well, but all of them erred. All of them had moments where they succumbed to their pride, or their desires, or their … or their fear. They all erred; they all fell.”

Jaune’s eyes narrowed. “I feel like there’s a point here, but—”

“My point is,” Dove said, “that if those legendary heroes could make such colossal mistakes with such huge consequences, great as they were … what chance do ordinary guys like us have, or even Sunset?”

Jaune’s mouth worked without speaking for a second or two. “That,” he said. “I mean, I get your point, and it’s fair enough, but at the same time … what are you trying to say? They were still the wrong choices, just like Sunset made the wrong choice.”

“I’m not sure what I’m trying to say,” Dove admitted. “Except perhaps that I’m glad that I’ve given up on heroism. Certainly, I’m glad that I wasn’t in that tunnel with you. All my envy of you, all my jealousy, that’s all … all been driven out of me now. If it hadn’t been already, it certainly would have been after hearing about what Sunset had to choose down there. Can I … can I burden you with another secret?”

“You’re not sure that you wouldn’t have done the same thing, are you?” Jaune asked.

“I think if Amber had been on the train, I would have absolutely done what Sunset did,” Dove murmured.

“Because she means everything to you,” Jaune whispered, although those who would object the most to hearing this were far away, and wouldn’t hear them even if they shouted.

Dove nodded. “And … you?” he asked. “If you’d been in Sunset’s position, and you had had to…”

He didn’t finish the sentence. He didn’t need to; Jaune knew what he was asking: whether he would have had the … whether he would have been able, physically or morally or anything else, to condemn Pyrrha to death by his inaction.

He didn’t even want to imagine it. They very thought made his skin crawl, and worse.

“I don’t know,” he admitted, in a voice even more quiet than it had been a moment before. “I’m afraid not.”

“'Afraid'?” Dove repeated, in a whisper that seemed almost conspiratorial to Jaune. The fact that he took a couple of steps closer didn’t make him seem any less conspiratorial. “Afraid that you’d choose the love of your life over—”

“Over a whole city full of people?” Jaune asked. “Kind of afraid, yeah.”

“Like I said, that’s why I’m glad that I gave up on heroism,” said Dove. “I also gave up on having to feel guilty about choices like that. But remember what I said, even the greatest knights—”

“Made bad choices, right,” said Jaune. But it doesn’t make them good choices just because they were made by heroes. He changed the subject. “So, why don’t you want Bon Bon to know that you—?”

“Hold her responsible?” Dove asked.

Jaune nodded. “I mean, I’ll keep your secret, but I don’t really get why.”

“Because…” Dove trailed off. “I suppose,” he went on, speaking slowly, as though he were only thinking a couple of words ahead, “that I don’t want her to freeze me out of her decisions because she thinks, because she knows, that I won’t be onboard with it, or with her. I suppose I want to know what she’s thinking so that if she has another bad idea like the one that led us down to the Breach, I can be ready for it. And for that, I need her to trust me still, for a little while longer.”

“That sounds … not good for a team,” Jaune said. “And that’s putting it mildly.”

“But you won’t say anything, will you?” asked Dove.

“No,” Jaune replied. “No, I won’t. I said that I wouldn’t, and … it isn’t good for the team, but I suppose that you won’t be a team for very much longer anyway, will you?”

“No,” Dove said softly. “No, we won’t.”

“And I guess Team Sapphire is hardly in a position to lecture anyone about what a functioning team looks like,” Jaune went on. “So I’ll keep your secret, for the little time left that it matters.”

“Thank you,” Dove murmured. “For the little time left that it matters before…”

“Before it’s just you and Amber,” Jaune said.

“Before it’s just me and Amber,” Dove repeated. “That is, if it isn’t already.”

---

Rainbow Dash, Ciel, and Twilight were all silent until they got back to the Atlesian dorm room and the door was shut after them.

That was just fine by Blake. It gave her time to think on the way.

It gave her time to think about what she had just learned, of course, about what Sunset had done, about what would become of Team SAPR — or whatever their new name was — without Sunset, but it also gave her time to think about Rainbow Dash.

About the way in which she hadn’t seemed very surprised when Ruby made her accusations against Sunset. Everyone else had been shocked, first because of what Ruby was saying and then again when Sunset confirmed that, no, it was all true. But Rainbow Dash hadn’t seemed so shocked by any of it. In fact, she had leapt to Sunset’s defence with a remarkable alacrity.

And Blake could not help but remember that Rainbow had been the second one to reach the front of the train. Sunset had teleported on ahead, and then Rainbow had followed on after, using her wings to fly through the tunnel to the front of the train while the rest of them fought their way down the roof the hard way.

You knew about this, didn’t you?

You knew … and you said nothing.

Rainbow’s silence both was and was not surprising to Blake; it was a little surprising, considering that most people seemed to feel that Sunset had crossed a line, considering how Ruby had reacted, how even Pyrrha had reacted, that Rainbow Dash — who was certainly not as close to Sunset as Pyrrha was — had agreed to condone the action by her silence. On the other hand, when one considered what kind of person Rainbow Dash was, as opposed to what kind of person Pyrrha was or certainly what kind of person Ruby was … then it became much, much easier to understand.

Just as Ruby had found it easy to believe that Sunset would have caused the Breach, once the idea had been planted in her mind, so, too, Blake found it easy to believe that Rainbow could have known what Sunset had done and decided to keep it to herself. Indeed, it was easier to imagine that than it was to imagine her doing anything else. Turning Sunset in, denouncing her, condemning her, casting her out as Ruby had done? No, that wasn’t Rainbow’s style.

I suppose that she did kind of do that to me when she found out about my past, although I ran away before she could get around to the official denouncing.

But Rainbow has … mellowed a lot since then, and I think that what happened between us is a large part of why she wouldn’t do anything like that again.

So, in a way, that would make this my fault.

If, indeed, it is a fault.

That was on Blake’s mind as well, because once she had decided, or at least come to a reasonably sure assumption, that Rainbow had covered up Sunset’s action, then she had to decide if that constituted any sort of fault on Rainbow’s part.

She supposed that, logically, she ought to start by asking if what Sunset had done constituted a fault in her eyes, according to her lights. Well, yes. Yes, was the answer to that, and a pretty easy answer too, considering that what Sunset had done had been to enable Adam’s plan to risk an entire kingdom, and she had done so without the excuse that she was trying to strike a blow against monstrous evil.

No, she was just trying to save the ones she loved.

That doesn’t make it okay.

No, but some might say that it makes it more sympathetic than doing it to make a political statement.

The characters in my trashy books might say that, sure, but there’s a reason why I can refer to them as ‘trash.’

Blake was not one to turn her nose up at an engaging page turner in which some soppy drip swooned, her bosom heaving and her heart aflutter, as some rugged and tormented soul committed a massacre on her behalf — there was nothing wrong with indulging harmless fantasies, after all, and there was something rather appealing about the idea of a love so strong it broke all bonds of morality — but that didn’t mean that she wanted to become such a person, any more than her possession of a copy of A Mistralian Country Dungeon meant that she wanted Sun to break out the whips and chains.

It turned out that the problem with a love strong enough to break all bonds in real life was that it … broke all bonds, and you couldn’t just forget the consequences by turning the page.

What Sunset had done … what Sunset had caused … what Sunset had put at risk … that was at once easy to believe and hard to comprehend.

And it was wrong. Ruby was right about that. The punishment that she had decreed seemed hard, but then the crime itself deserved a hard punishment. Their lives … they had been better as bones down in that tunnel than risked all of Vale.

And Rainbow had known about it.

Sunset had crossed a line, and Rainbow had known about it.

And in the knowing, it turned out, she joined a list that included the headmaster of Beacon Academy and the First Councillor of Vale. Which meant … one could say that it didn’t change the morality of any of it, but one could also say that it was pretty harsh to say that Rainbow Dash had done something heinous when that same act had been committed by two of the most powerful men in the kingdom.

One might even call it downright racist, to blame the relatively powerless faunus for things that powerful men did with impunity, were Councillor Emerald not a faunus himself.

Then again, Sienna Khan would probably say that Councillor Emerald has deracinated himself, which would mean it could still be racist.

I probably shouldn’t still be agreeing with … no, no, I can still agree with her on some things; she wasn’t wrong about absolutely everything.

But I probably shouldn’t agree with her when it comes to just declaring that faunus who don’t toe the White Fang line aren’t real faunus in some way or another; that would disqualify Rainbow Dash as well.

And anyway, it isn’t the point. The point is … if Professor Ozpin and Councillor Emerald can know what Sunset did and keep it quiet, why can’t Rainbow Dash? Why does she have obligations that they don’t? Because Councillor Emerald isn’t a huntress? But Professor Ozpin is a huntsman. If he thought that it ought to be kept quiet, why can’t Rainbow do the same?

Because she isn’t as powerful as Professor Ozpin, because she doesn’t occupy his exalted position?

Surely, that puts more of an onus on him to act properly, rather than her.

And that’s without even considering the possibility that Professor Ozpin and Councillor Emerald and Rainbow Dash are right, and the whole business ought to have been kept quiet, and Ruby is the one in the wrong for shining a light on what was previously comfortably veiled in shadow.

That both was and was not a comfortable thought. Yes, things could live in the shadows; Blake had lived there for a time, and the faunus had been surviving there for years, but they had always craved the light, envied the light, been willing to fight and suffer and die to obtain the light. Nobody who dwelt in shadow loved it there, or even liked it.

Sunset probably wasn’t enjoying keeping a secret like this.

But there were some things that could only live in shadow; the light destroyed them, or opened them up to destruction absent the protection of the dark.

Most of the examples of such things that Blake could think of were none too savoury, like the White Fang, but was it not possible that there might be things that could only live in darkness that nevertheless deserved life?

Possible, yes, but in this case? If we are talking of deserving of life—

We’re not talking about Sunset’s actions here; we’re talking about the cover up. Yes, what Sunset did was wrong, but did it have to come out? Was Rainbow Dash obliged to drag it out into the light, any more than Professor Ozpin?

Was even Professor Ozpin obliged to drag it out?

“That was … unexpected,” Twilight said, as the RSPT dorm room door shut behind them.

“Quite,” Ciel said, in a clipped tone.

Twilight pushed her glasses up her nose, and sighed as she settled down on her bed. “I feel … sorry for her. Sunset, I mean.”

“Because of her fate?” Ciel asked.

“No,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “I mean, yes, kind of, actually … it must be awful to have that happen to you. To feel so much, to care so much, and then … to have all of that thrown back at you, to have backs turned on you. I can’t imagine what that must have felt like.”

“She is not some blameless victim in all of this,” Ciel pointed out. “She bought it on herself.”

“I know,” Twilight admitted. “But … to think about what that must have been like for her, in the cab of that train, with that choice to make.” She paused. “Of all the things that Cinder has done, I think that must be the most sadistic by a long way.”

“She tried to kill you,” Rainbow pointed out.

“Yes, she did,” Twilight replied. “But … well, okay, that was kind of sadistic, but it wasn’t like that. Giving Sunset a choice between her friends and the whole of Vale, what kind of … that’s monstrous, don’t you think? How is anyone supposed to make that kind of choice?”

Ciel’s eyebrows rose.

Twilight glanced at her. “Don’t look at me like that,” she said, unapologetically. “Would you have really found it easy? Would you have just remembered a piece of holy scripture and that would have made it alright?”

“Considering that everyone involved is a heathen, I am unsure how helpful a strict reading of the holy writ would be in that situation,” Ciel admitted, “but a less literal reading would remind me that all men are created by God in his own image.”

“And that would have made it easy?” Twilight asked.

“To sacrifice Team Sapphire for the greater good? Yes,” Ciel replied immediately. “And even Blake and Rainbow Dash also. No offence.”

The corners of Blake’s lips twitched upwards. “None taken.”

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders.

“But if it had been Neon?” Twilight asked. “Or your family, or Penny?”

“You sound like an ethics question,” Ciel said, her voice sharpening a little. “Next you will be asking me about a doctor trapped in a fire with my grandmother.”

“And you sound like you’re dodging the question,” Twilight pointed out. “I’m not arguing that there isn’t a right or wrong answer—”

“Are you not?”

“No,” Twilight replied.

Blake wasn’t sure whether she believed her wholly or not.

Twilight went on, “I’m just saying that it’s not the easy decision that you’re making it out to be. Applejack was on that train.”

“And Applejack’s life is worth so much?” asked Ciel. “It is worth Vale?”

“I don’t know the people living in Vale,” Twilight said, her own voice growing claws of its own to match Ciel’s. “I know Apple Bloom and Granny Smith and Big Macintosh, and I’m glad I’m not the one who had to tell her that their sister and granddaughter wasn’t coming home! Because she was buried in some tunnel in the middle of nowhere!” She leapt up off her bed. “There, I said it. Are you happy now?”

Ciel took a step back. Rainbow Dash, who had had her back to the pair of them, now turned around, although she didn’t move any closer to Ciel.

“It … is a good thing that you are not a huntress,” Ciel murmured.

“On that, we can agree,” Twilight replied.

Ciel pursed her lips together. “And … and if it had been Applejack in the city, instead of on the train?”

Twilight began, “That—”

“Is a fair question,” Rainbow said, softly spoken but cutting over Twilight nonetheless.

“Then what is the answer?” asked Ciel, courteously enough.

“Am I still on the train or is it someone else?” asked Rainbow.

“Does it matter?” replied Ciel.

“I think so, yeah,” Rainbow said. “Because … so long as this other person, Sunset say, or anyone else, so long as they had done what we did, and gotten word back to the General that there was an attack coming, with time to set up like they had … that’s job done. That was our job done: we were sent into Mountain Glenn on a reconnaissance and rescue mission, and we completed both objectives by the time we got Applejack out of that storage shed, and you and Penny were on your way back to Vale. Once the mission objectives were complete … once that person on the train had gotten word to us of the impending attack … I wouldn’t have any grounds to object if they focussed on extracting themselves after that. I don’t have the right to demand that anyone die for me and mine, I won’t do it. I … won’t demand that anyone … force that feeling onto someone else.”

“And if Applejack had died regardless?” asked Ciel.

“Then that would be on me, not them,” Rainbow said, her voice unshaking.

Ciel was silent for a moment. “And … of course, that answer presupposes that it was not you on the train, but Sunset still, or another. If it had been you on the train, regardless?”

“With hindsight, I wouldn’t have gotten on the train in the first place,” Rainbow said.

“That is not an answer.”

“Okay then, the answer is that I wouldn’t push the button, but I wouldn’t stop anyone else from pushing it either,” Rainbow said. “And I would trust the General, and in our comrades, and in our troops, to handle the situation, as they did. We only have one life to give, Ciel, so if you’re going to give it, you’d better be sure there’s nothing better you could do with it first.”

“One can never know that for sure, so it is a recipe for never giving one’s life on the grounds that some greater purpose for it might yet turn up,” Ciel murmured. “Which I suspect might be the point, all things considered.”

“The point,” said Rainbow Dash, “is that sometimes, there is an hour to play and the last man in and then you have to play up and play the game, but otherwise … it’s for a ribboned coat.”

“Or the—”

“I wouldn’t use that word,” Rainbow said, before Ciel could go on. “But … you’ve got my answer; you can make what you like of it.”

Ciel was silent for a moment. “I suppose,” she said softly, “that I cannot accuse you of being inconstant in your convictions. And I must concede that you come by it honestly enough. There are times when lives have been thrown away pointlessly, for little purpose or reward, I do not deny it. I would not agree with your assessment of the situation, but … as I say, you come by it honestly.”

“I wouldn’t go so far as to agree with what Sunset did,” Blake murmured, “but I understand, I think we can all understand, why she did it. Sunset loves them. I might even include myself and Rainbow Dash and say that she loves us too. She … Sunset loves too much, perhaps, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still love.”

“That does not make her choice acceptable,” Ciel said.

“No,” Blake agreed, “but it does make it understandable. We all have people we love, people who are dear to us; perhaps they’re in this room, perhaps they’re somewhere else, but they exist. Faced with that choice … I would have left that trigger well alone, or at least, I’d like to think I would. But I won’t sit here and tell you so righteously that it wouldn’t have hurt me to do it. And for my part, I would have been very glad that I didn’t have to be the one to break the bad news to Apple Bloom, or Scootaloo, or Pinkie, or Rarity for that matter. One of the advantages of dying myself down there, I suppose.”

“Don’t,” Rainbow said, her voice dropping into the conversation with all the weight of the bombs that the Atlesians had dropped on the Breach. “Don’t talk like that, don’t joke about it, it’s not funny. It’s especially not funny coming from you.” She pointed at Blake. “You’ve gotten a little better, but … it’s still not funny.”

“I feel as though I’ve gotten a lot better,” Blake said, a tad defensively.

“Yes,” Rainbow agreed. “Yes, you have, a whole lot. I don’t worry about you the same way that I used to. It’s still not funny, though.”

“I’m sorry,” Blake said softly.

“And as for all of the rest of this,” — Rainbow waved her fingers in a circle to encompass them — “I stand by what I said in the Sapphire room: there’s no way Cinder would have actually left the choice in Sunset’s hands. If Sunset hadn’t pulled the trigger, Cinder would have done it herself.”

“But Sunset did pull the trigger,” Ciel pointed out. “By her own admission.”

“And because of that…” Rainbow trailed off for a second. “You can only sacrifice your life once. For the cause, for the kingdom, for the flag of Atlas, for the glory of the fleet, for the Lady of the North, whatever it is that moves you, you can still only do it once. Because, at the risk of stating the obvious, once you do, you’re dead, and you can’t do it again. Maybe … I guess, if you’re going to go out, going out keeping a whole kingdom safe is a pretty way to go, if you think that you will keep that kingdom safe, because if not … there’s at least a possibility that all Sunset would have done by her other choice is make the tally of the Breach twelve dead instead of six. And without Sunset, Amber dies. Without Blake and I, Leaf ends up stuck in that slave camp with everyone else, and Calliope Fearny continues on her merry way. Without Blake and I, Weiss and Flash have to try and stop the kidnappings in Low Town by herself, and maybe they don’t manage it. You can’t know, when you make a choice, how it’s all going to turn out; you can’t know for certain that it’s all going to turn out for the best. You might sacrifice your life, full of zeal and passion and righteousness … and all that happens is that you break someone’s heart.”

Ciel pursed her lips together. “I … you have my sympathies, of course, but that is not a licence to endanger lives. Nor does it acknowledge the fact that, if Cinder detonated the mine—”

“So you admit that she would have?” asked Rainbow Dash, with an edge of triumph in her voice.

“So you admit that Sunset could have done the right thing with no consequence?” Ciel replied. “That train would have soared out of the tunnel, and Sunset would have had a clean conscience these past months.”

“Are we really going to stand here and condemn Sunset?” Twilight asked. “We, of all people?”

Ciel blinked. “What do you mean, ‘we of all people’?”

Rainbow frowned.

“I mean,” Twilight began, but then paused afterwards. She glanced at Blake. “I…” She licked her lips. “Blake, I say this with no malice and a lot of love, but … we have forgiven you for a lot more.”

“Twilight!” Rainbow squawked.

“Well … I said that I don’t mean this as a slight against Blake or anything, but it’s true, isn’t it?” asked Twilight.

“Yes, it’s true, but that doesn’t mean that you should say it!” Rainbow cried. “Especially not to Blake’s face!”

“Would it be preferable to say it behind her back?” asked Ciel dryly.

“No!” Rainbow snapped. “It—”

“Rainbow Dash,” Blake murmured. “It’s … you don’t need to … Twilight has the right to say so.” She paused, a sigh escaping from between her. “Honestly, it isn’t something that I’d thought about myself, but now that Twilight has brought it up … at this point, I’d love to say something like ‘the time that I’ve spent with you has been so wonderful, and so real, that my time spent with the White Fang seems like it was only a dream by comparison.’ But that would be a lie; my time with the White Fang still feels real to me, and I think that it always will.” She hesitated. “During the course of my time with the White Fang, as an operative, and a leader, I tried to minimise casualties: get in, get out, complete the objective with minimal fuss; a victory is the enemy never knowing we were there. Nevertheless, I … I took lives with my own hands, people died in missions that I led or took part in, and … well, you could counter Rainbow’s consequentialist argument with one about the consequences of the things that I did, the repercussions—”

“You don’t need to defend yourself,” Rainbow said. “Not here, not to us, not ever to anyone.” The corner of her lip rose up a little. “Don’t make me go get your mother to give you a good talking to.”

“Not funny,” Blake said sharply. “But … thanks anyway.” She drew a breath. “But Twilight asks why you can all forgive me, but you can’t forgive Sunset, and now that she’s asked the question … what’s the answer?”

“The answer is that you did not spend the last year spying on us for the White Fang only to now tell us that your change of heart, feigned before, was in fact genuine,” Ciel said. “You were a good person when we met you, and the fault was ours for not realising that sooner.”

“Harsh,” Rainbow said. “Are you saying that Sunset isn’t a good person?”

“I am saying,” Ciel replied, “that Sunset did not do this thing under a different flag, a different coat, a different … anything. Blake has left the White Fang, and we are all decided that she — that you — deserve a fresh start, with your deeds considered only as though you were a newborn. Or as though, as you said, your time with the White Fang was a mere dream, and only your time in our company has been real. But Sunset … it is harder to separate because she did the thing while she was here.”

“So it’s about timing?” Blake asked.

“Yes,” Ciel said. “Or do you think I would be so forgiving if you had passed information from us on to the White Fang this year?”

“No,” Blake said. “No, I don’t think you would. That … thank you, Ciel, that makes me feel … a little better, for all that your argument doesn’t entirely convince me—”

“Please don’t tell me you heard an argument for forgiving Sunset and took from it that you shouldn’t forgive yourself,” Rainbow said.

“No,” Blake said, “I didn’t. I’m just … I’m not sure it’s fair to say that Sunset betrayed anyone either, on that analogy.”

“She has betrayed the values of a huntress, has she not?” asked Ciel.

“What are the values of a huntress, and why do they give anyone the right to decide who lives or who dies?” asked Twilight.

“Is that not what Sunset did?” replied Ciel.

“No, Sunset left the decision up to chance,” Twilight declared. “In spite of what Sunset did, there was no guarantee that Rainbow, Blake, Applejack, or anyone else would have made it out of that battle alive. Out of the tunnel, yes—”

“Not even then,” Rainbow pointed out. “There was a nasty grimm down there that was giving us some real trouble before Ruby’s silver eyes went off.”

“Yes, exactly,” Twilight said. “Sunset didn’t push a button, get everyone to safety but put six innocent people down in that tunnel instead; the fact that everyone survived is because of luck and fighting skill, and the fact that six people died is … very bad luck that a hole in the net opened up the way it did. I just don’t think it’s fair to talk to Sunset, or about Sunset, as though she chose to make this big sacrifice as though what she did determined anything. The only thing that Sunset did was refuse to take six lives, seven if you count her own. Personally, I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

“Sunset did not condemn any to death with malice aforethought, no, anymore than, admittedly, she saved the lives of those down in the tunnel,” Ciel said. “In that sense, you are correct; some of the words flung at her have been … imprecise. But I will be precise then and say that Sunset endangered lives, out of carelessness but nevertheless, and I am quite comfortable in calling that wrong on her part. That may only rise to the level of Reckless Endangerment and Involuntary Manslaughter, but nevertheless, it is a crime. Or do we excuse the driver who did not mean to run somebody over? If the worst that has happened to Sunset is that she has suffered some harsh language, then she should think herself fortunate.”

“And what will Team Sapphire suffer without Sunset?” demanded Rainbow Dash. “Kicking Sunset out isn’t going to bring anybody back … but it might just put someone in the ground, and for what?”

“For … for the limits that there must be, if drawn at some extremes, or else…” Ciel paused. “Or else civilisation crumbles. We must accept constraints if our lives are to be anything more than nasty, brutish, and short, and there must be consequences if those constraints are breached. And Sunset has breached them. And having breached them, who can trust her not to breach them again? And what happens to a team without trust?”

But has Rainbow breached them? Blake wondered. Is keeping the secret that someone else did something the same as doing the thing?

Is keeping the same secret being kept by the First Councillor of Vale and the Headmaster of Beacon a breach of the constraints at all?

Probably not, actually. I mean, to accept Ciel’s argument, the next question is, who is drawing the limits? Why, political leaders and civic authority figures, the very people who knew what Sunset did and decided it was best to keep quiet about it.

So, since they decided that there wasn’t really anything to say, who am I to decide that there is anything to say about Rainbow Dash deciding that there was nothing to say?

Now, Blake could admit to herself that there was an element of motivated reasoning there — after all, she’d been willing to defy the decisions of elected officials and civic leaders when she thought they were wrong, but … she didn’t think they were wrong.

She didn’t want to think they were wrong.

She didn’t think that they were wrong, and it wasn’t just because of her friendship with Rainbow; it was also because Rainbow made a point: exiling Sunset wouldn’t undo any of the damage she’d done; it just prevented her from helping in situations where she could help.

Situations where she might, as with the whole deal with Pyrrha and Amber, be the only one who could help.

Ruby might decide — had decided, evidently — that she could live with that, but Rainbow had chosen otherwise, and Blake wasn’t going to condemn her for that choice.

Blake couldn’t say whether she would have made the same decision in Rainbow’s place. It wasn’t something that she wanted to examine too closely.

Except that Rainbow’s secret was safe with her, so, in a way, Blake supposed that actually her choice in that situation was pretty plain.

Considering that she’d just made it.

---

“You know, you don’t have to come with me, Penny,” Ruby said, as the two of them made their way past the statue of the huntsman and huntress. Ruby stopped there for a moment, her head turning towards the statue, looking up at the huntsman with his sword, standing heroically above the snarling beowolf.

The epitome of what it meant to be a huntsman.

The embodiment of all that Sunset had betrayed.

Penny stopped too, and like Ruby, she looked up at the statue that loomed over them. “Are you … are you saying that you want me to go?” she asked.

“No,” Ruby said quickly. “No, I’m not saying that, I’m just saying … that you don’t have to come with, if you don’t want to.”

“But I do want to,” Penny said, softly but firmly at the same time. “Why do you think there are two of them?”

“Huh?”

“The statue,” Penny said, as she gestured towards it with one hand. “Why do you think there are two of them?”

Ruby stared at the statue for a moment, the huntsman with his sword, the huntress with her axe standing a little behind him, almost hidden in his shadow. She’d never really thought about it before, but the placement of it was kind of odd, the way that you didn’t really notice the huntress at first. It wasn’t that she hadn’t realised that the huntress was there, but it was always the huntsman that drew the eye, and then after him, the beowolf beneath. You looked to the huntsman with his sword, with his heroic pose, with the way that he almost looked like he was stepping on the beowolf. You almost didn’t notice the huntress at all, and when you did, it was just as someone who was … just there. Just standing there, with her axe; it sounded stupid to say that she looked like she was just hanging out, but that was almost what it looked like.

“I … I don’t know,” she admitted. “Because … because this is a school for huntsmen and huntresses, and the huntresses aren’t supposed to feel left out?”

“I don’t think that’s why,” Penny said. “I think it’s because we’re not supposed to be alone, because even the greatest hero needs someone to stand at their side, and watch their back, and just be there for them.” She smiled. “I don’t think you should be alone either, Ruby.”

Ruby didn’t feel much like smiling right now, but she made an effort anyway and managed to get a corner of one side of her mouth up just a little bit, which was … something. “Thanks, Penny,” she murmured. “I appreciate that.”

She turned away from the statue — and whatever it did or might represent — and resumed her journey towards the tower, drawn by the green lights that burned at the top.

Professor Ozpin would still be there, she was sure; he might still be with General Ironwood and Professor Goodwitch and Uncle Qrow, discussing Cinder and the attack on Vale that might come soon.

She didn’t care if she did have company. They deserved to know what he had done, what kind of man he was. Maybe Pyrrha and Jaune had been right not to trust him, maybe—

Maybe Sunset had been right about that too, before Ozpin bought her loyalty with his silence.

How could you do such a thing? How could you tolerate knowing what she’d done?

If there was one thing that made Ruby hesitate about bringing up the subject in front of others, it was the fear that they — that Uncle Qrow especially — wouldn’t care. That they would be as fine with keeping it a secret as Professor Ozpin had been. She would rather break up his whole inner circle than have that happen; she would rather that they turn away from him in disgust rather than nod sagely and agree that he had been right all along.

Except … except that that wouldn’t be very good for Vale, would it?

Ruby frowned. She didn’t want to think about that. Mostly because she knew that that particular thought was correct; Professor Ozpin was needed. Beacon needed him, Vale needed him, the fight against Salem needed him; he was their leader in the great war between life and death, light and darkness—

But he chose to shelter someone who had brought death to Vale.

Ruby didn’t understand how he could do that, but at the same time … she didn’t want to leave Vale exposed herself; if she brought down Professor Ozpin, if she left Beacon leaderless and Vale vulnerable to attack just so that she could feel better, then was she really any better than Sunset?

Yes! Yes, I am better than Sunset, I would never put anyone’s life at risk just to save my own skin — or that of a friend.

But would I put anyone’s life at risk so I could feel like the wicked had been punished and all’s right with the world?

That was the point, wasn’t it? If Ruby yelled out Ozpin’s secret, what he had known about Sunset, and then General Ironwood turned away, or Professor Goodwitch, or Uncle Qrow, or all of them … then Vale might suffer. People might suffer. People might die because nobody was listening to Professor Ozpin, though he was the wisest man amongst them and knew what to do.

If he is so wise, then why didn’t he do the right thing?

That was an uncomfortable question, and the only thing that was mitigating the discomfort at the moment was the hope that Professor Ozpin would have a good explanation for her, an explanation that would square the circle and offer up a rationale that didn’t destroy her faith in the headmaster’s righteousness.

She should probably let him give that explanation before she started running her mouth to other people.

No, she wouldn’t accuse him in front of Uncle Qrow or the others. If they were there, then she would hang back and ask to speak to Professor Ozpin privately, and make clear that she wasn’t leaving until she got her private conversation.

“What are you thinking?” asked Penny.

“I was just thinking about how I want to handle this,” Ruby said. “How I want to approach Ozpin, what I want to say, and when and in front of who.”

“Ozpin?” Penny repeated. “You mean Professor Ozpin?”

“Well, yeah,” Ruby replied. “Who else would I mean?”

Penny frowned. “I’ve noticed that people only call him Ozpin when they don’t like him very much. Like Amber. When people like him, they show him respect by calling him Professor Ozpin.”

“That’s … not always true,” Ruby replied. “Sunset always called him Professor Ozpin.”

“That’s because Sunset was a proper young lady that way,” Penny said. “Is, I mean, not was. Since she’s not dead, after all.”

No, just dead to me. “Is that why Pyrrha went back to calling him Professor Ozpin, do you think?” asked Ruby. “Because she got less mad at him, or because she’s a proper young lady too?”

Penny considered that for a moment. “Could it be both?”

“Maybe,” Ruby replied. She paused for a second. “I don’t dislike Oz— Professor Ozpin yet. I’m just … disappointed, right now. That’s why I’m giving him a chance to explain himself.”

“You don’t think he should have kept what Sunset did a secret,” Penny said. It was a statement, not a question.

“No,” Ruby agreed. “No, I don’t.”

“So what do you think he should have done instead?” asked Penny.

“I…” Ruby hesitated. “He should have done what I did, at least. I can see that maybe, or not even maybe, I suppose once he found out that Councillor Emerald knew and was keeping the whole thing a secret, then sure, I can accept that it would have been difficult to punish Sunset the way that she deserves, to reveal the truth about what she did, without causing trouble and maybe panicking people. But he should have still kicked Sunset out of Beacon; he should have told us the truth. I hope he has a good reason why he didn’t.”

“Punished the way she deserves?” Penny repeated. “What do you mean by that, Ruby? What punishment do you think that Sunset deserves?”

“A lot more than being kicked out of this school,” Ruby declared, a touch of venom sneaking into her voice. “I’d like to … I’d like to break her sword in half and shave off all her hair and hang a sign around her neck telling everyone exactly what she’d done and make her march around Beacon so that everyone can read it and know what she did!”

“That sounds awful!” Penny protested.

“No, what Sunset did is awful!” Ruby cried. “What Sunset did, and what Professor Ozpin covered up, that’s what’s awful! What I said … even that would be justice, but it would be better than letting her walk away like I’ve had to.”

Penny blinked. “I don’t understand,” she murmured. “You say that you don’t hate Sunset, but then you say that you want to do all of that to her, but at the same time, you let Pyrrha say goodbye because you know how much Sunset means to her, and Pyrrha to Sunset, and it doesn’t bother you that Pyrrha still feels that way. And you gave Sunset her book, when you could have destroyed it or kept it or … anything other than what you did. I … don’t understand.”

Ruby let out a kind of laugh, one in which bitterness mingled with weariness like eggs and flour in a cake batter, turning to a sort of mush in which neither of them was recognisable. “I guess it is pretty complicated, Penny. It’s so complicated that I don’t really know how to explain it to you. I guess…” She hesitated. “Maybe a part of me does hate Sunset. Hates her for lying to me, for pretending, for… a part of me that wishes that I’d never met her.”

Penny stopped walking and was silent for a moment. “Do you want a hug?”

Ruby stopped too, looking back at Penny at first before she looked down. “No, Penny, that’s okay.”

“Oh,” Penny said softly. “Alright.”

Ruby hesitated. “Well, I mean … if you wouldn’t mind.”

Penny smiled and put her hands upon Ruby’s shoulders to draw her in, then guiding Ruby’s head until it was resting upon Penny’s shoulder.

“It’ll be alright, Ruby,” she said. “I’m here for you.”

“I know, Penny,” Ruby said softly. “Thank you, for that.” She paused. “I really didn’t do any of what I’ve done because of how I feel. I meant that. It’s not about me. It’s about Sunset and about a measure of justice.”

“I know that too,” Penny assured her. “You’ve always done what you thought was right.”

“And I hope I always will,” Ruby said.

“Mm-hmm,” Penny agreed. “You’re such a strong person, Ruby, much stronger than I am.”

“I don’t know about that, Penny,” said Ruby.

“I think you are,” Penny murmured. “Can I tell you something?”

“You can tell me anything.”

“And you won’t be mad?”

Ruby blinked. “You’re going to tell me that, if you’d been in Sunset’s place, you couldn’t have done it, or not done it, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Penny admitted. “I really don’t know. You mean everything to me too. That’s what I mean, when I say you’re a stronger person than I am.”

Or maybe it means that you’re more human than I am, Penny, Ruby thought, because … because it was sometimes hard to remain sure that you were right when it seemed like everyone was insisting that you were wrong.

I am right. I am.

Penny ran her fingers through Ruby’s short hair, ruffling it on the back of her head. “So do you know what you’re going to say to Professor Ozpin?”

“I … I’m going to ask to speak to him alone,” Ruby said. “And then I’m going to tell him that Sunset’s gone, that I know everything, and then … I’m going to ask him why he did it.”

And hope he has an answer that satisfies me.

Author's Note:

Rewrite Notes: Another completely written chapter, preserving mostly the sentiments but in different conversations, with the whole chapter altered so that instead of all talking to one another each character speaks to an interlocutor outside of the core team: Pyrrha to Amber, Jaune to Dove, Ruby to Penny. The exception being the Atlesians and Blake, who still talk to one another in their scene.

Comments

[Pinklestia]

A student, more so a first year student like Sunset was at the time, is not a Hunter or Huntress.

And if anything, how many people will believe Sunset is just a sacrificial Lamb to distract things about Penny? Sonata definitely would go for that angle, even make people believe the footage was faked. After all is a video of low quality that can be played in a scroll. How hard is to fake that? And that Cinder Fall girl has a teammate that can make illusions, right?

[Mastermind4892]

Thank you, Jaune. You're even smarter and more mature than when you were when chewing out Qrow and Oscar.

[Christopher28]

9849360
A 17 year old first year student shouldn't have to make life or death decisions like that yet. But Remnant is a terrible place. They are on the edge of total annihilation at any time. If the people panic too badly, if the hunters fail, if the walls fall, then everyone can die.

Remnant is a world where 15 year olds can be sent on search and destroy missions to hunt down terrorists and monsters. So yeah, on our world, a student wouldn't be held responsible for her actions the way an adult in the military would be. But Remnant is not our world. We don't really know what rules student hunters must follow. We don't know what oaths they may have taken. Not really.

I'd like to think that Sunset will be fine. I do in fact think, however, that she'll at least be charged with a crime, even if she isn't punished severely in the end.

I think that the Vale city Council will be hot to use her as a scapegoat. I think that public opinion will be against her. But I think she'll be surprised by how many defenders she'll have. I think Ironwood will speak on her behalf. He's military, but he values the lives of his people extremely highly. He'll understand that her choice may not have been the one she was 'supposed' to make, but it was still the right choice in the circumstances. I believe Lady Nikos will speak for her, either in person or through her wealth and power in hiring a fantastic lawyer, because Sunset saved Pyrrha, and saved the city, and results matter, damn it!

I think Ozpin will hesitate to defend her. He's hurting over Amber, and while in his head he knows it's not Sunset's fault, he's still angry at her about it. But I think he'll also defend her in the end. As will Goodwitch, as will Rainbow Dash. Rainbow Dash, I think, will seriously go to bat for Sunset if she has any chance to do so. Especially now that she finally sees Sunset for the person she's changed into.

I find I am looking forward to it. Because we needed this. Sunset needed this. She needed this out in the open and her actions vilified, and then vindicated, because otherwise she may never have gotten over it.

I also think that the trial won't have a chance to be completed, because the fecal matter is going to hit the rotating air moving device at high speed any minute now...

I also happen to think that Cinder and Amber are going to both die before the end, and Sunset will receive the powers of the Fall Maiden. And I wonder how Ozpin will feel about that?

[Sollys]

And now, Im going to cry.

[Hexan Tronic]

Thinking about it logically, Sunset was in the right with her decision. As a huntress, her main focus should be on protecting the innocent civillians, but as a leader of a hunter team, one of her main priorities, is to bring her team home safe. The fact that her decision resulted in no loss of life, and her team surviving, she has done no real wrong.

[Pinklestia]

9849484
Look, is canon for the series itself is that Ozpin got in deep shit for sending first year students to do the job of Hunters. Even in Sparta, the classic epitome of a warrior society that just lived for war, what he did wouldn't have been seen with good eyes since it was the equivalent of sending people still in training without enough backup instead of sending veteran soldiers.

Remmant is a shitty place but is a shitty place that still has rules and laws.

While Sunset might have broken the law, she was still a minor and a student who legally shouldn't have been given that mission in the first place.

If Sunset has to pay for it, so does Ozpin.

And if in canon he was given shit for doing that, then the same should happen in this story.

[MagusNeon]

9849360
As of yet, in canon, we are unaware if Emerald's Semblance only effects people or if it can effect cameras. In the Vytal festival, we're pretty sure she only effected what Yang and Pyrrah saw because Emerald admits it's harder the more people she has to fool and she was drained by just Coco and Yatsuhashi in the 2-on-2 rounds.

[blairmen]

9849489
success as they say, forgives all sins. that she did it not as part of a false flag for Atlas but to save her friends will at least garner her some sympathy among the public.

Honestly this will be worse for Ozpin then it will her, since any blame that can be laid at her feet can be laid at his for sending her. After all why hadn't a trained team of huntsman been called to do this, why a team of first years. sure they ultimately succeeded, but maybe a fully trained team could have stopped the train before it even left MT, Glen. If any one wants to damage Ozpins hold over vale the will go that route.

[Hexan Tronic]

9849616
It's also true that team Rosepettle was going too, so the same can be said for Ironwood, sending a team of first years with Ozpins team.

[blairmen]

9849650
yeah but at this point people wanting to tear Ironwood is a given, and yeah having an entire army and teams of specialists and only sending some first years (even with a combat robot) looks bad.

[Hexan Tronic]

9849662
Which means that Ozpin and Ironwood will have to tread very carefully around this case, less they be pulled in and tried themselves.

[Aroddo]

This is plain stupid.
First of all, "the law" demands that Sunset be punished? What kind of law could demand that you kill yourself?
Even if she were a soldier, which she isn't, at worst she'd be discharged. After giving her a bunch of medals for saving the city: First by warning it, then by defending it!
Second of all, she's a first year student and not even a full hunter yet, and she was still sent on a critical mission like this? Ozpin should go to jail for his incompetence, but not a student who is over her head, and being forced to make a decision no teen should ever have to make.
Third of all, she didn't betray anyone, least of all her teammates! She saved all their lives instead of sacrificing them and legging it by teleporting out of the tunnel. Ruby can sit on yet scythe and spin, if she has such an ungrateful death wish.

And no, I'm not railing at the characters. This is just bad writing.

[DashEight]

9849832

It could be gross negligence or something under Huntress-specific laws. Ship captains and the like have a duty to ensure the safety of their passengers, there could be something similar in Remnant. She’s not a full huntress so it seems like she’d get a slap on the wrist at most but there’d still have to be an inquiry at the very least and with the political climate in Vale she might end up a convenient scapegoat for a lot of scared and pissed off... Valians? Valites? What’s the word here?

[Hexan Tronic]

Whatever the case may be in the end. I'd be interested if a comic was made based or for this story.

[Adser]

Yay, finaly finished getting up to date, this is a wonderful story that has kept me reading until the sunrise for about a week. Even if it does has a lot of grammatical errors, the quality of the writing more than makes up for it.

About chapter itself, while I understand why Ruby and Pyrrha think and I don't doubt that there will be a lot of people willing to hang Sunset, the reality is that their issues with self-sacrifice are bullshit.

Victory is not bought with lives, lives are the cost of your mistakes and inadequacies. A mission doesn't increase its worth when you have sacrificed more lives to obtain it.
Sunset decision changed the certainty of saving the city and losing the team for a high chance of saving the city and the team. That is not an easy decision from a morality standpoint and you can easily contest the worth of her decision from a purely military standpoint, since both teams represent the best of their generation and their loss would gut the future of the Remnant forces.

Ruby and Pyrrha (and Ciel too but she hasn't got the news yet) have a martyr complex, not understanding that their heroes dying to save the innocent is not the desired result, but a simple consequence of the risks they take and that, in the end, heroes can only save people while they are alive.

[Pinklestia]

9849595

But does the public know that? The idea is not having Sonata spreading rumors that could be true but that could be beliable enough. Emerald using a laser gun and faking being Sunset is beliable.

Not to mention that fooling the camera would be like fooling a single person since the camera has a single point of view.

9849847

Sunset is not a Huntress but a student.

[Doctor Whooves 13]

9849996
Yeah, the view that I have on it is, let's say that she doesn't destroy the panel and then the most likely outcome of teams RSPT and SAPR dying occurs. Well, congratulations, now two of the strongest teams in any of the schools, powerful up-and-coming huntsmen and huntresses are dead. How many people who would have been saved by them will die now instead? Because let's be real here, they're not exactly easily replacable.

[MagusNeon]

9850040
From what is observed, Emerald dosen't project visible illusions like Neo, but rather influences the mind. Therefore, it stands to reason she would not be able to fool an electronic/video system.

[Iacs]

OMAKE: Court session "Vale vs Sunset Shimmer", grimdark version.

- So, you want to hear my opinion, - sighed general Ironwood after being called by judge. - You won't like what you will hear, but i can tell truth. Atlas operates by "rule of hundred". In one hour one grim can slaughter ten civilians. In one hour one hunter can slaughter ten grim. One standard anti-grim operation lasts about hour, So one hunter surviving means that one hundred civilians will be saved next time. So if survival of hunter is payed by less than hundred casualties, it is good deployment. Survival of teams SAPR and RSPT cost nothing, all grim were repelled. Suset Shimmer made right choice.

Five minutes later, after cascade of shouts has ended, James Ironwood shrugged his shoulders.
- Sorry, i'm not radical purist, what else did you want to hear?
- You call those who consider life of hunter equally worth with life of civilian radicals!?
- Who told you this interpretation? Purists just look at civilians, who live their life, feel their troubles and negativities, summon their grim... Look and thing that everybody, who is not growing food, mining dust or metal, creating or developing weapons, fighting or teaching how to do theese things do exactly nothing usefull for a fight against grim, while still producing negativity and making situation worse. Basically, for purist life of hunter is worth more than any number of civilian lives!

OMAKE 2: concequences of idiocy
When valish council had Sunset Shimmer executed in her cell, Ozpin sighed - they never learn.
When hunters left city en masse and Atlas started packing, Ozpin thought that they have chance too learn, but they have to do it quickly.
When sunfire rained down on Vale, immortal just looked at female figure shining brighter than sun who was floating above doomed settlement, he admited that no, civilians never have chance to learn.

[kyubbiman]

9850279
Emerald's semblance allows her to mess with the sensory information in a person's head while their brain is processing it. She can control wheat you see and hear and probably to some extent what you taste, smell, or feel. It's a low powered version of Aizen's Shikai from Bleach. In her case the illusion can probably be broken if she loses focus or someone possibly figures out what's going on. We haven't seen someone break the illusion yet so who knows.

[Adser]

9850278
Well, to be fair Sunset would still be in trouble since what she did wasn't a on the field decision, it was straight up sabotage. That is one of the reasons why the team is OK with following Blake suggestion but really angry about this whole deal.

The one that will take it REALLY bad is Cinder. Right now she is suicidal, her plans have gone from being the queen of the new world to just having her name remembered, and from what she was telling Emerald we can say that she wanted to kill Pyrrha (the sacrifice), taking the blame for the whole thing (the villain) and let Sunset kill her (the hero). A plan that doesn't really work if her expected hero is not available.

[Mastermind4892]

As a student of Socrates' teachings, I absolutely adore perspectivism. The exploration and study of different angles and philosophies from different people about any given situation. And this chapter was remarkable! Marvelous, Scipio Smith! A chapter like this can be trickier to write than full action scenes, and you've done wonderfully! Bravo!

I especially appreciate Ruby's own perspective at the end. For all that we reviewers cast fire and shade on her, we cannot forget that Ruby is still human. While she made the decision to condemn and exile Sunset more easily than anyone else, we can't ignore that this is all still a formidable test of her own beliefs, even if she arguably made the wrong choice. It was still hard for Ruby in her own way. But the most important thing is that she knows there's something wrong with her, as shown when she fears that Penny is more human than she is. I look forward to seeing more of this when she speaks with Professor Ozpin.

Another important matter is that of second chances. True virtue is about taking people in despite their past, helping them through their worst, and becoming better people for it. Take Uncle Qrow for example. A bandit who sought out many innocent people for personal gain. Now, like Blake, he didn't do such misdeeds after he genuinely made the effort to be better. But the point is that Summer and Professor Ozpin gave him a second chance. They took him in when his family cast him out, when Qrow thought he and his semblance didn't deserve it. It's thanks to them he's no longer the same asshole he was when he first came to Beacon.

The professor also gave Summer a second chance to Summer to become a better person, and he did the same for Sunset. He did not truly forgive or forget, but buckled down and moved on. The past is past, and not every problem is fixed with a prison cell. What was most important and most virtuous was to make sure Sunset was a better person now; that she was now bloodied for her mistake and thus help her became a wiser leader who won't let it happen again, and can thus go on to save more lives. The world can only be healed by helping others up instead of tearing them down. In the words of Chadwick Boseman "In times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers."

That is why, much as I hate to admit it, Raven Branwen was right: Ruby has her mother's righteousness but none of her compassion. She turned Sunset away instead of looking for a way through this mess.

And finally... Ruby, no, you cannot be team leader. Leadership is about more than just tactical thinking and the capacity for hard decisions. A true leader's power is only equal to those willing to follow them into the deepest valley. Granted, no one is truly willing to follow Sunset after this. But after how everyone in this chapter explores their thoughts, questioning this decision... they will not follow Ruby either.

For more context, here is an excerpt from Chapter 233.

Aspen snorted. "I offered her a hero’s death and a chance at atonement.”

Ozpin frowned. “Forgive me, First Councillor,” he said, “but I have seen too much death to find anything heroic in it. I have lived a long time. And if my life has taught me anything, it is that forgiveness is always preferable to judgement.”

“You don’t think there should be consequences for what happened?”

“Have you not already decided that there should not be?” Ozpin asked.

“You know what I mean,” Aspen growled.

“Miss Shimmer will make up for her error, in the days and weeks and years to come,” Ozpin said, with that infuriating calm of his. “But by living and serving in a sensible manner.”

“You still trust her to be a huntress?”

“It will no doubt seem strange to you, but I trust her now more than I did before.”

“You’re right; that does sound strange to me,” Aspen replied. “And a little bit suspect, if I’m being honest.”

It seemed almost as if Ozpin would smile, although he did not actually do so. “I could say it is as simple as having witnessed her contrition, but truth to tell, it is more than that. Miss Shimmer has been … blooded now; she knows what is at stake, she knows the consequence of failure. I find that easier to trust than someone who may still believe that this is all a great and glorious game.”

[Kiue Jin]

...You know the sad thing?

Even if the bombs weren't detonated, what's stopping the grimm from just digging up into Vale? I mean the White Fang had already removed the measures that were sealing the tunnel to prevent the Grimm from using it to get into Vale in the first place, blowing the tunnel was basically apart of the plan to let the White Fang on the train get out of said tunnel and save the Grimm time having to dig (Granted they didn't know that, but I'm sure Cinder planned for the White Fang to add to the chaos to some degree, even if they would die soon after. Possibly to have the first responders armed for human and get murdered by Grimm).

The Grimm charged through the Breach because it was the easiest path to follow. If the bombs hadn't gone off, they would have still been in that tunnel... and able to feel that there was a city worth of humans above them. All they needed to do then was start digging.

[solusjbj]

God this arc is infuriating, I'm taking a break from this... nonsense.

[Stet709]

I like this chapter, definitely presents us with the views of each character, though I wonder who has more sympathy for Sunset: Amber or Twilight.
Dove's perspective is... quite interesting. While what Sunset had done was wrong, it seems bringing back Amber redeems her in his eyes. Quite surprising to that he blames Bon Bon for Sky's death.

I know on Discord I said I disliked Ruby less, but what she said she'd like to do to Sunset really irks me. I get she's angry but i really thinks she's overreacting and being overdramatic.

I hope her conversation with Ozpin will cool her down, and give her a new perspective, 'cause I'm looking forward to their little talk. Ruby's gonna have to find Oz's answer satisfying 'cause I think the wisdom of a something-year-old man (discounting the fact that he reincarnates) is better than that of a 15-year-old girl.

[Adser]

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Dove reaction is not really surprising. Sunset was placed on a terrible situation and Dove recognizes that if he had been in her situation he would have prioritized Amber without a second thought.

Bon Bon situation is not the same, she knew about Cinder and could have stopped everything, but did not because she wanted glory. Bon Bon sold her friends lives for personal gain and just because now she is "regretful" that doesn't mean Dove has to forgive her. At the end of the day Bon Bon is acting just for herself and has brought a lot of pain to a lot of people because of that.

Sunset failed to save Sky because she prioritized her loved ones, Bon Bon killed Sky because she wanted something from Salem's side.

[Mastermind4892]

I wonder how Ozpin might react to Ruby's news. Sunset has done so, so much for him. She has brought Equestrian magic to the fight against Salem. She has shown great promise as a future leader and huntress in all the years to come. But more than that, Sunset introduced him to Princess Celestia who lightened the load on his shoulders and gave him a new friend. Sunset has even brought Amber back to him, something he resigned to be impossible.

And now the daughter of Summer Rose just threw her away, broken and exiled? I wonder if Ozpin might give her a stern tone, a rarely-seen touch of anger.

[Kiue Jin]

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Ozpan is a jaded man, even if Sunset has managed to give him some sparks of hope. All things considered, six people is nothing in exchange for getting all members of his new generation of huntsman through the Breach.

[Adser]

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I doubt that he is going to take well, especially considering that while Ozpin probably remembers something about the Sirens, Sunset would be the actual expert that they need RIGHT NOW to try and avoid disaster.

I do hope that he gets angry with her, even if I don't expect him to, mostly because Sunset, Pyrrha and now Penny have been trying the soft approach to dealing with Ruby's issues and they have not been working at all. Ruby is too stubborn, some hard knocks may be necesary.

[Plotbuster]

Ruby and Ozpin's conversation is something I'm really looking forward to. What I'd really like to see is her getting the opinion of someone that's not inclined to coddle her. She won't get that from Ozpin, unfortunately. He might be more stern with her than her friends have been, but I doubt he'll lace into her. He'll probably try to gently guide her into a wider perspective. At the same time I'd love to see someone tell her, if she feels so strongly about it, she should probably get on with killing her team, Rainbow's team, herself, everyone she and the people on the train saved since the breach, Amber, re-enslave all those Faunus Rainbow and Blake freed, etc. etc.

Sunset saved six lives, brought actionable intel that mitigated the breach, and still felt bad enough about it that she agreed to basically condemn herself to death via a series of ill conceived solo missions. The breach was happening. Period. If they'd died in that tunnel, Atlas would have been prepared for a small force of terrorists and got a Grimm horde instead. They would have been caught with their pants down, Grimm would have inundated the city, and it's questionable whether they would have been able to contain them. It's guaranteed there would have been more than six casualties. Ruby can't see this. She lacks perspective, and she's too enamored with being right. She can't see she's the last person that should be leading anyone, but she jumped right at the team leadership. She listed off the reasons her teammates didn't qualify, but never considered there might be reasons she wouldn't either.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Ruby was not ready for this. She has the skills obviously, but she's still a child in her mentality. An arrogant child at that. She's still putting her cult of death on a pedestal, holding principal higher than people, and infallible in her opinions. We saw cracks starting to form in this chapter, while at the same time she was considering unseating Ozpin. Because there wasn't a second thought in her mind that she was capable of such if she felt it necessary. It astounds me that Pyrrha could find Ruby's mindset laudable, but we know that Pyrrha has her own problems in this arena.

We as readers have the advantage of a wider perspective, so it's understandable to a point, but even with just hindsight Rainbow was able to come to the same conclusions. Ruby's not looking for the angles, though. She's making the hard choices. So, why are they so simple? So easy?

Dove was dancing on the razor's edge here too, inches away from outing Bon Bon. I think this is the first time we've seen him even hint at how he feels since he found out she's been working for Salem. At the same time, Amber seems to either be trying to drive a wedge between Ruby and Pyrrha, or desperately find some way to drag her saviours out of this clusterfuck. Maybe she's just trying to figure out how these people that seemed such paragons hours before could implode so thoroughly.

Yeesh, this story drives me to philosophize. Is that worse than drinking?

[Szalhi]

Oh, I really can't wait for Ozpin to hit Ruby with the hard truths.

Ruby threw away Ozpin's most worthy student and all for what? Ruby's Lawful Stupid alignment?

Live to fight another day. This is something that Rainbow understands, and that Ruby doesn't. There's a reason one's a leader and one isn't.

[PoluBrony]

Louder, Twily, for the people in the back! Rainbow, you too
Okay, maybe I am just not very observant, but "why did we forgive Blake, but Sunset is unforgivable?" "You don't get it, it's different!"
Nah, sweetie, tis the same thing
I really like the fact, that SciTwi has the same opinions, as Princess Twilight, even though they might say them differently, neet detail
Waiting for that talk with Ozpin, time to take Ruby from her high horse! And the arrogance of that child, I swear
"They will hate him just because I would tell them that he is bad!" Yeah, right, sure, this big conspiracy will dethrone their leader just because one child is too righteous (read, arrogant and naive) for their own good

[Mastermind4892]

11739946
Ruby intends to visit the Professor while he’s in talks with Ironwood, Glynda, and Qrow about the information provided by Cinder, and she intends to wait until they have left. Ruby will then listen and learn about the Siren, and they will all doubt discuss how to involve and consult with Sunset, the expert on Equestria, who has Equestrian magic of her own and a direct line to Princess Celestia who can provide more info on the Sirens.

I highly doubt Ruby is about to ‘see the light’ and turn over a new leaf in one chapter. However, if this will be the chapter that causes the first cracks in Ruby’s warped ideals, it can start with her realizing that she was a bit hasty. That she could’ve at least allowed Sunset a ‘stay of execution’ to deal with the crisis threatening people’s lives.

11740136
This chapter mentions that Ruby is indeed afraid that airing out Ozpin’s cover of Sunset’s actions would bring little reaction from Uncle Qrow and the others. Deep down, she fears that her huntsmen role models will also have reasons wiser and more sound than her personal ideals. For example, Ironwood chose Rainbow Dash as leader because he knew she would defy orders and the rules to get her team home safely.

This is also why I’m hoping Qrow will later take Ruby aside for a more heart-to-heart discussion.

[Stet709]

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I could see Ozpin, after finding out what Ruby had done, contacting Sunset via scroll and convincing her to return to Beacon, but Sunset refuses, feeling her teammates shouldn't have to be forced to endure her presence after what she had done, so Ozpin has her be on the lookout for the Siren (aka Sonata), armed with the knowledge from Ironwood of what the Ace Ops saw when they confronted her and Cinder before. It gives Sunset a reason to be away from Beacon, and Oz can have an active agent prowling through Vale, (though those accusations might make people wary of her, even if Councilor Emerald makes a public statement regarding the allegations.)

[RanmaChaos]

JeeeZus! Ruby is a psychopath, isn't she? When you wonder whether the Robot is more human than you, you know you have a problem. Even a robot with a soul.
I remember when Ruby had her soul analyzed and it showed up as a crystal clear rose. Now I'm imagining that rose is made of glass. Cold, hard, and razor sharp.

Can...can we kick Ruby out of this fic?
Seriously, what does she contribute here that isn't cover in some way by multiple other people. And don't say "Silver Eyes". It's already been established that they either don't do anything to Salem, or she can easily defend herself in some way. If we need a heavy hitter against the grimm, then my idea is to give Jaune that Blade Beam that Crow used that one time, then Jaune can use an Amped version against super-grimm, or hoards. Like Ichigo's "Getsuga Tenshou".
Just, just get rid of Ruby. I don't want her hanging around Penny. Ruby would be a terrible influence.

[Dark one]

Hey after reading this I just remembered. What was done with those dark magic items from Equestria. I forget what they are called they gave Alacorn powers iirc.
Did Sunset take those with her?

[Snowdrifter]

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No, this Ruby will probably decide Sunset has once more committed the unthinkable crime of not holding herself to Ruby's ideals. How dare Sunset have different thoughts and feelings than Ruby's.

11741983
No, she did not. I suspect the dark regalia is quietly waiting, like Chekov's Gun.

[Raul]

I do find it interesting though the people that are upset with Ruby. For all we may disagree with her, she, be it with her own logic and philosophy, is absolutely correct.
And honestly, we get to ends justify the means ethics, and this is all a lovely trolly problem. But fact is, Ruby wouldn’t have blown it up, and she can be mad at someone who did.
And Ciel can say the same.

[Adser]

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The main issue with Ruby is how dishonest she is. She defines what is right or wrong depending on what she FEELS is right or wrong, yet she tries to present herself as objectively correct. She never really thinks about the situation, which is why she can still try to take actions that, by the barely defined rules she profess, would be counterproductive for her stated goals (her unnecessary attempts to sacrifice herself for example).

This has been going for a looong time, with Ruby doubling down and refusing to even consider any other viewpoint, so people are just fed up with her behavior. Doesn't help that she has been a loud proponent of "doesn't matter what you did, it only matters what you will do" whenever the things that person did do not affect her directly.

Someone like Ciel follow a more robust ideology (her faith) and she is shown actually thinking how those beliefs would apply to her situation, meaning that there is no problem with her.

[Mastermind4892]

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The interesting thing is that, throughout the fic, Ruby has been able to exercise her ideals freely. But those ideals have also never been tested, challenged. Ideals cannot evolve if they aren't tested. And Ruby has been tragically (or conveniently) absent and thus ignorant for every circumstance so far that would have tested her beliefs.

One example, she encouraged Leaf to follow their dreams and go to Atlas. But when Leaf disappeared and her mother came to Beacon to demand answers and show her grief, Sunset was unable to find Ruby. Our little idealist never found out what her beliefs almost did to someone.

Furthemore, I'm quite sure she won't have that brutal wake-up call until Yang seemingly gets killed by her decision, where she learns in the cruelest way possible.

[Luviere]

Ok, first of all, just like Thanos, Sunset did nothing wrong.
Second, if you were to chose between your family (yes, at this point they are family to Sunset) and the world, i think that family comes first.
I think that everyone except Rainbow and Amber and Dove are downrigh idiots. Hell, I'm sure even Applejack would agree with what Sunset did.