RWBY Through Worlds (End)

209: Can't Keep Me Asleep for Long

"I apologize for the interruption," Winter said, meekly. "I didn't know you were conferring. I came to apologize for what I said yesterday. I questioned your character when I knew perfectly well where you stand on saving people. It was ungrateful, and I have no excuse."

"Oh... wow..." Wally couldn't believe Winter was apologizing. He tended to see her scary side more than Shine did.

"Don't worry about it." Shine shrugged it off.

"Do you mean that?" Winter asked, surprised.

"I don't mean that it didn't hurt," Shine said, more upset now. "But what can I do or say about it? You're sorry now. What should I do? Rub it in?"

"Well, if you are hurt, I'd rather know the truth," Winter said. "Sometimes I think nothing I could say or do would have the power to hurt you, but I know better than that. You do hide it."

"So do you, Ice Queen," Wally pointed out. "You're both really tough chicks. Which is great. But you know, when you're upset, you just kind of go 0 to 100 because you bottle it up."

"I can't deny that," Shine admitted. "And if that's worse than having everything on the surface all the time, I don't know. Maybe they're just different."

"Well, I know that you ladies are both friends," Wally said. "And you wouldn't let a little spat ruin that for you... or something tough like losing an old friend. And hey, Winter, I thought my buddy and leader and role model was dead for a while too. He turned up alive later, but before then it was awful. So I get what you're feeling. It's okay, you know."

"I would feel better if the General had been honorable at least to the last," Winter said. "It is that that bothers me. Of course our lives can end at any time in the field, and we're all trying to expect that, but the way it happened... well, I still sometimes feeI I could have stopped it if I did anything different."

"That is foolish," Shine said candidly. "Winter, we spend all our time trying to show people the right way. How often have you seen anyone listen to us?"

"Less than they should," Winter said.

"And they listen to no one as much as they should," Shine said. "And those are the humble people out of the world. What chance have the rest of us 'if the righteous is scarcely saved', as the Word says? You didn't owe the General anything more. I know of all people how little that helps to think of, but it is the truth. Maybe in time that will help."

Winter looked down. "I don't know. I'm tired of things ending this way. Do you really think it could be over soon?"

Shine walked up to her and pulled her into a hug. Winter actually allowed her to do so. She'd come a long way.

"One way or the other, it will be over soon," Shine said gently. "And you did so, so much better than you realize. You should know that. Quite indispensable to us all."

"I don't know about that." Winter looked a little watery to Wally.

"It's true," he said, nodding.

"Whatever happens tomorrow or the day after, I don't want you to be ashamed of anything," Shine said. "You did all you could do. And not everything is in our hands. Some of it is in Salem's."

Winter stepped back to look her in the eye.

"Then Cinder really is right," she said. "All this depends on Salem. That was your answer to the riddle of the Lamp. All along it's what you said, and we didn't hear it... though I knew there was something about it that I was missing."

"Cinder figured this out?" Wally said.

"Of course she did," Shine said. "It's the one thing she could understand better than anyone. No one could force her to feel bad either. I told her she had to give up that arm willingly, and she did, for freedom. How is Salem different than that? If she still wants freedom, she'll do what we ask of her. If she doesn't, then she's doomed, and if we aren't, it will be harder at least. But there's not only one way to save the world. However, there is only one way to save someone's soul. Guess which we're sent to do the most?"