RWBY Through Worlds (End)

BC72: Respite (Heroes)--4

The party went a bit more smoothly from that point.

Wally finally came up to Royal, who still seemed out of it, to ask him what was up.

"Well, to be frank, sir--" Royal might have been the only person in Remnant who'd call Wally sir. "--we've taken heavy hits, we're in over our heads, you two aren't here to help, and last but unfortunately hard to ignore is that I am terrible at concealing my feelings."

Wally could guess what he meant already.

"Huh, you just made me think of this proverb: 'Open rebuke is better than love carefully concealed,'" he said.

"What does that mean?" Royal asked.

"Maybe that direct expression of something is more useful to a person than all the hidden good feelings you might have. I guess secret love or pride doesn't do anyone much good. My friend Batman would probably agree with that...but about the other stuff, I'm sorry. And I'm sorry we're not here to help more. It's...not for us, now."

"Can't you do anything?" Royal sounded almost like a child, but, in a way, the simplicity was kind of nice. Not so much overthinking.

"I don't know," Wally said. "Honey, do you think we can do anything?"

Shine wasn't usually far behind from Wally when it came to cheering people up.

She moved closer discreetly.

"About the bandits?" she asked.

"Any of this?" Wally replied.

"I do have a thought," Shine said. "There's something we've neglected to do. Maybe it would help, maybe not, but we should do it. I should ask everyone if they'd be willing."

"Do you mean that thing we did before?" Wally asked. "With water?"

"Yeah, that...though Neptune...but we can see," Shine mused.

"Will that help?" Royal asked.

"Who's to say? When we obey the commands of our Lord, other things often fall into place. But it takes courage to obey more than to disobey." Shine shrugged. 

"Preaching to the choir, Miss--or Missus, I should say." Royal shook his head. "You know, I was more content to be on the edge of things before it started costing people their lives to not be able to do more."

"Royal, you do realize that it could always cost people their lives for you to do less than you could out of fear of what could go wrong," Shine said with the characteristic firmness that her old students knew so well.

Royal winced. "You sound just like Cinder."

"Good, if she said the same, she's right." Shine was staunch.

"She's become a lot like you," Royal said, "I take it."

"That would be high praise, I hope," Shine mused. "Or perhaps not. Some of my qualities can be a little...overly zealous."

"I think it's a good thing," Wally said. "No one ever wants to be more like me."

"I'm sure I see some of them being more like you," Shine argued. "Don't you think Jaune, Neptune, and Emerald have picked up some of your easier going way of dealing with people?"

"They say actions speak louder than words," Royal said.

"If words and actions line up, they both speak volumes, but where one is lacking, the other doesn't make up for it," Shine shrugged. "Why don't you celebrate a little though? The world won't end if you let it worry about itself for one day. Indeed, we have to. There's no end of problems in life, but there's also endless joys, if you're willing to see them."