From up above Remnant's atmosphere, Clark looked down at the dragon shaped landmass that was to the west of Atlas and north of Vacuo. To most of Remnant, it was the region with the densest population of Grimm, a wasteland that no one in recorded history had ever settled and few had ever explored.

According to Ozpin, the truth was that was the region where the God of Darkness had resided and where Grimm emerged from his black lake. Currently, it was where Salem lived and plotted against Ozpin. There were only a few people alive who'd returned from a visit there: Salem's minions, Ozpin, and Qrow.

Today, if all went well, Clark would be added to that exclusive list. He had a copy of the map Ozpin had given him on his Kryptonian scroll which marked Salem's castle, but he didn't need it since he remembered the location fine.

He dove down to the Land of Darkness and instead of a castle and a lake, he saw a black dome. From space it was like a bubble of tar, although as he got closer it was clear that its surface wasn't smooth. Dark fog shifted and twisted on its surface.

He was still several miles above the ground, apparently too high for the Grimm below to bother with him, but easily enough to get a good view of the dome. He estimated that it was about a mile across.

Clark took the scroll out of his belt and tossed it to his side. With its Kryptonian tech, the scroll hovered and started transmitting image and audio to Ironwood, Ozpin, and Qrow back in Atlas.

"We have a problem," Clark said.

"What is it?" Ironwood asked.

"You see that black dome?" Clark pointed, and the scroll flew behind his shoulder so they could see. "That's where Ozpin and Qrow said Salem's castle was supposed to be."

"Are you sure you're at the right spot?" Qrow asked.

As his answer, Clark grabbed the scroll and flew up a few hundred miles, where the ground below could be easily matched to their map of the region. He aimed the scroll straight down and it also showed him the image it was transmitting. With its zoom function, they could see the dome was in the spot Salem's castle was supposed to be.

"This is it, right?" Clark asked.

"It is," Ozpin answered. "Clark, please approach the fog again and check if you can see or hear what's going on inside."

Clark dropped back down to only a few miles above the dome. X-ray vision couldn't penetrate the inky fog any better than normal vision, and to his super-hearing it was like an enormous blank spot.

"I'm going to see if I have better luck underground," Clark said. Then he dove into the rock a few hundred feet and tunneled around the dome. Underground, he could see that there appeared to be a lake inside the dome which was also impenetrable to his X-ray vision in the familiar way magic was. Outside the lake he could see ruins strewn across the ground, bits and pieces of what might have been a castle, but the fog blocked his sight too much to be sure.

The whole time he reported what he was seeing, since the scroll couldn't look through the rock or listen as well as he could. Clark burst up out of the ground, catching the attention of a few winged Grimm which he sliced apart with his heat vision.

"Now what?" he asked.

Ozpin answered, "I have an inkling of how Salem has conjured this dome of fog, but I would like you to test a few ideas. Throw something into it at an angle where it'll only skim the edge of the dome."

Clark reached into a compartment in his belt which held marble-sized metal pellets, similar to the ones that had been in the gauntlets Ruby had designed for him. He took one out and tossed it through the eastern edge of the black smoke. It shot away like a bullet and entered the dome more easily than Clark had expected.

A moment later it reemerged.

"Find where it lands and show us what happens to it," Ozpin said. "But be careful, do not touch it."

Clark found where it had landed. The pellet was cracked and darkened when earlier it had been smooth and gray. Bits of smoke clung to it, sticking to the cracks, and it started breaking apart. Not just into smaller pieces of itself, when the fragments were small enough they transformed into more of the smoke. When the pellet shattered entirely, the smoke it had been transformed into flew back to the dome and added to it.

"Well Ozpin, what does this mean?" Ironwood asked.

"I believe it means that it would be unwise to try to enter that dome," Ozpin said. "Even for Clark. There are two more things I'd like for you to try. First, can you try shooting your heat vision into the dome? Start at the edge and then aim into deeper regions of fog."

Clark fired off twin red beams hot enough to be visible and skimmed the dome. Slowly, he swung his head so his beams would go through thicker amounts of the fog. He could tell that it was weakening his heat vision, and even at his strongest he couldn't shoot through more than about a thousand feet of it.

The last test Ozpin wanted him to try was to see how his super-breath affected the fog. That required him to get closer, and he flew to about five hundred feet from its surface. He found that he could blow smoke off the edges, but then it would just return to the dome.

At Ozpin's instruction, he tried blowing directly into the dome, and it worked for a bit. At first, the surface dipped inwards, contracting more like a poked bubble than smoke. However, at a certain point it bulged back out further than the original edge of the dome. Clark sped away a few miles when that happened, but it didn't go that much further. For a few moments the smoke bounced back and forth until settling back into a hemispherical surface.

"I believe I know what Salem has done," Ozpin said. "Through an elaborate work of magic, she has transformed a portion of the black lake into this fog, presumably to continue her plotting without interference from Clark."

"Are you saying she's untouchable now?" Ironwood asked.

Ozpin paused and then said, "No, I believe there could still be ways to reach her, but none of them are immediately available."

"Well how long would they take?" Qrow asked.

"Months or years," Ozpin said. "Although a few of the approaches I have in mind are either highly dangerous or unlikely to succeed."

"Well she's been here a long time and Remnant's still around, right?" Qrow said. "I'm sure we have the time."

"Don't be so sure. This era is different," Ozpin said. "Her attacking the Fall Maiden two years ago was the start of a period of activity unusual for her, and her taking defensive measures like this is unprecedented."

"Hold on, first of all, are we even sure she's in there?" Clark asked.

"A good point," Ironwood said. "How can we tell whether or not this is an attempt at misdirection? This dome is large and obvious, and while we focus our attention on trying to enter it safely, Salem may be hatching her schemes elsewhere."

Ozpin answered, "That is unlikely. While this dome was almost certainly formed from the black lake, it would take much of her magic to shape the liquid into this fog. She is not easily killed, but there are nonlethal methods of incapacitating her which she is aware of. The only safe place for her while she is drained of the majority of her power would be inside this dark fog."

"Is there any way we can be certain though?" Clark asked.

There was a long pause. Eventually, Ozpin answered with a strange amount of reluctance. "The Relic of Knowledge. It can tell us."

"The Relic can provide information on Salem?" Ironwood sounded as if he wanted to put it in an interrogation room for a session of heavy grilling.

"Yes, but there are a limited number of questions you can ask it. I have in mind the sort of questions we should ask, and when it gives answers, all who know about Salem should be present."

After that, there wasn't any need for Clark to remain in the Land of Darkness, so they ended the call and he flew back to the Fortress to work on his to-do list. Besides the Kryptonian education Jor-El was putting him through, there was still a lot of research to do on the Superman Accords.

However, as Clark arrived at the Fortress, he got a message from Oscar's scroll.

Oscar Pine: Clark, this is Ozpin. I need to speak with you privately. It is important but it will not take long.

Clark Kent: Okay. Open a window and I'll be there.

Rather than flying in slowly enough to be seen, Clark flashed into Oscar's open window. It was a smaller room, with only two beds and only one of them was being used.

"Thank you for coming so promptly, Clark," Ozpin said, he was standing in the middle of the room. Clark had somewhat gotten used to him speaking through Oscar's young body, but right now his somber expression was completely out of place with his immature appearance.

"Of course, you said it was important."

Ozpin nodded. "James wants to ask the Relic his questions tonight, and I have agreed to it. When we have gathered together to learn from it, the spirit residing in the Relic will likely reveal something which will alarm Qrow, James, and perhaps a number of the students. I'm going to tell you it now, and I ask for your support when they hear this piece of knowledge. I will understand if you decide to refuse, and I hope you do not think too poorly of me when I say so."

Clark's concern was growing. "What is it?"

"Salem is immortal." Ozpin was apologetic, as if he expected Clark to lambast him for revealing that.

"Immortal? Like you?"

Ozpin shook his head. "No, her immortality allows her to stay in the same body. She can recover from any injury, even if James bombed her and reduced her to ash, she would just reform."

There was a few seconds of pause before he added, "I will admit, I expected you to be more astonished by this admission."

"Well you've already hinted that you've been fighting her for a long time, and you can reincarnate after death. A long time for you would be serious. I expected her to have some method of extending her life, but completely unkillable? How do you expect to beat her, then?"

"For a long time I have held a slim hope of a silver eyed warrior like Ruby being the key, but I still do not know exactly how I can stop her."

"Is there no way to negotiate with Salem? Offer her something to stop her from wreaking havoc?"

Ozpin shook his head. "No. I will spare you the details, but her immortality is a punishment from the gods, not a work of her own magic. It cannot be undone by mortal means, and after a certain point, she became so desperate to die that she entered the Lake of Darkness, hoping its divine destructive power would end her life. Instead, it transformed her into a being who only wished to corrupt and destroy. There is no persuading her to stop, there is nothing else she desires."

"So not only is she immortal, she's also irredeemably evil."

"Yes," Ozpin answered him seriously. Clark had meant it more as a joke, since he didn't really believe that anyone was irredeemable, but he deferred to Ozpin's opinion for now. "I will tell you why I kept her immortality hidden if you wish, but to you my words may only sound like excuses. And perhaps you will be right."

"Relax, Ozpin. I'm not that upset, but I can see why the others might be. Did you present Salem as a problem you could solve?"

"I did not correct Ironwood's or Qrow's assumptions of that. Nor did I explain exactly why Lionheart was so certain that Salem's victory was inevitable."

Clark snorted. "Then yeah, they'll probably be angry. I'm not exactly happy about you deceiving them either."

"And I apologize. I brought you into this conflict without informing you, and now the repercussions of my lies of omission will soon catch up with me. Will you offer me at least some support when accusations fly?"

"I will."

Ozpin breathed out in relief. "Thank you. And before you leave, I wish to say something." He stepped forward and reached up to lay a hand on Clark's shoulder. "This situation is not as bleak as it once was. When I first learned of your powers and your benevolent disposition, I felt an excitement that I thought had been forgotten millennia ago. I felt hope. While your power cannot kill Salem, I truly believe that with your help I may finally find a way to stop her. This dome that she has put around herself, the fog she has hidden in, is something she has never done before. You are a threat to her. So please, I doubt you would have been eager to kill her anyway, don't take the news of her immortality as reason to give up and allow her to win."

Ozpin was looking at him with an intense and honest gaze that Clark had never seen from him before. While Ozpin was better at lying than most, Clark doubted that he could fake that expression so well that he'd fool enhanced senses. He really was pinning his hopes on Clark.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to give up after hearing a little thing like our enemy is immortal and unwavering."

Ozpin gave a wry chuckle and lowered his hand. "Of course, why should I have thought otherwise? Thank you, Clark."

Clark waved goodbye and raced out the window back to the Fortress.

\\

Clark had never known that there were so many things a person could do in a day. Yes, he had flight, super-strength, speed, durability, and several other powers, but even accounting for that he wouldn't have expected to be able to fill up his schedule to this point without it bursting.

After his brief flight to Salem's now-hidden castle, he had killed Grimm on every continent with his newly granted access to the Grimm detection systems of multiple nations. They hadn't fully incorporated him yet, so after he'd killed the Grimm he'd had to go up to local authorities and inform them that he'd finished the requested job. Talking to people face-to-face had taken some time, and helped build up some more of his fame.

The rest of the day had been spent studying. Kryptonian language, science, technology was basically force-fed into him alongside the necessary research into the law, wildlife, and geography of the nations of Remnant. Rather than lightening his workload, super-speed only meant that he could take in a lot more information at a time. Plus, Jor-El wouldn't let him take most of his Kryptonian lessons that way. Apparently, learning was better at a more normal pace. Still fast and information-dense by human standards, but nowhere near what Clark could actually do.

Now that it was about eight p.m., Clark flew down to Ironwood's office so they could consult the Relic of Knowledge on how to defeat Salem. He entered the room through a window which opened up for him on its own. The office was big, but it was starting to get crowded. Teams RWBY and JNPR stood with Oscar and Qrow, but there were a good handful more people than Clark had expected.

Six soldiers stood behind Ironwood's desk. One of them bore a high resemblance to Weiss, an older woman with the same white hair. A relative? The others were strangers.

There seemed to be some tension in the room. Oscar, a glance was all Clark needed to know Ozpin wasn't using his body, was nervous. Qrow's arms were crossed, and he looked upset with Ironwood for some reason. Lastly, there was a sense of tension between Weiss and her older lookalike.

"Greetings, Superman," Ironwood said. "I'm glad to see you're early. I would like to introduce my soldiers, they'll be with us as we hear what the Relic of Knowledge has to say."

"They know about the Relic?" Clark asked.

"They know about everything," Qrow said. "The Relics, the Maidens, Salem. Jimmy told them without mentioning it to Oz."

The white-haired woman had bristled at Qrow's usage of Ironwood's nickname, and the other soldiers weren't looking too happy about that either.

"I did," Ironwood said, not the least bit sorry. "I thought they could be trusted with the information."

"Did you tell them about me?" Clark asked.

The barest trace of concern entered Ironwood's voice, which to Clark's ears was all he needed to know how nervous the man was. "No. Regarding you, they only know what is publicly available. I understand why you ask, but you may be certain that I do not share secrets lightly."

Clark accepted that and Ironwood began introducing his soldiers. The white-haired woman was Winter Schnee, Weiss' older sister. The others belonged to an elite unit known as the Ace Operatives. Clover Ebi was their leader, and Clark noted the rest of their names. Marrow Amin. Vine Zeki. Elm Ederne. Harriet Bree.

"Actually, I do have another individual who I'd like to be with us tonight," Ironwood said. "You can come in now."

The doors to the office opened up for a pair of footprints that didn't echo flesh and blood, and a body entered which didn't breathe nor have a heartbeat. An entity with the appearance of a ginger-haired young girl with a wide smile appeared.

She'd grown out her hair since the last time Clark had seen her.

"Friends!" Penny Polendina jumped forward to catch Clark and Ruby in a hug. Her body clanged against Clark's; she probably would have toppled anyone else over.

"Penny?" Clark and Ruby said with mirrored expressions of shock.

He looked to Ironwood. "How?"

The general had a smile. "Her core turned out to be intact. It wasn't easy, but her creator was able to repair her and give her a new body."

"I'm all better now!" Penny switched her gaze between Clark and Ruby repeatedly. "In fact, I've gained some new capabilities!" Her feet changed shape and with a puff of green-tinted air she hovered off the ground. After a few seconds, she dropped back down.

"P-Penny." Ruby's eyes were starting to swell up with tears.

"I've missed you, friend Ruby," Penny said. "You as well, friend Clark."

Ruby just wrapped her in a wordless embrace.

Clark looked on and took a deep breath. "Penny . . . I'm sorry for what happened. Back when we last saw each other, I should have been more careful. I should have fought better."

Penny shook her head. "You don't need to apologize. I'm happy that I could fight alongside you, even if it ended with severe damage for me. And while my memory following the fight with the phantom is corrupted, I do remember that you brought my body to General Ironwood with respect and care."

Ruby sniffled and looked back at him. "Don't blame yourself, Clark."

Penny rapidly nodded. "I agree."

Everybody else was respectfully silent during their reunion, and after a minute or so they finally began the task they had gathered here for. Qrow had the Relic and handed it off to Clark.

"Why are you giving it to me?" Clark asked.

Oscar answered. "Ozpin says that the Relic's answers are tailored for the knowledge that the user wants. Cla-I mean Superman, you don't want to kill. That may lead us to the solution we need."

The others were confused, understandably so. Clark asked his own question. "How do I use it?"

"The Relic contains a spirit who can answer three questions per century. In this one there are two remaining. Call her name, ask her the question you want, and she'll tell you the answer. Her name's Jinn."

Clark held up the lamp. "Okay, Jinn. Please come out, I have a question."

With a gentle tug, it tried to float out of his hands. He let it go and it started spinning. Blue smoke emanated from it. No, not smoke, but something that looked like smoke to the naked eye. A quick scan with X-ray vision showed that it had the shimmering murkiness of magic. The world became silent, Clark's hearing couldn't pick up the slightest vibration except for the sounds of surprise from the others.

From the smoke appeared a naked blue woman floating above the ground. Or to be more specific, not a woman, but something that was meant to look like one. That was part of what stopped Clark from averting his eyes as he would out of politeness for any naked person. Her body wasn't made of flesh, and it was hard to explain, but she didn't even seem to be there in a certain sense. She wasn't visible in other wavelengths of light, in fact Clark wasn't even sure they were seeing her with light at all. It was more like an image of her was entering his mind directly. She was large, roughly twelve feet tall, and she had gold chains on her body.

She stretched and made sounds of relief. The sounds she made weren't normal sounds either. They didn't vibrate the air, but seemed to reach his brain without needing anything to carry them.

She spoke in an ethereal voice. "I am Jinn, a being created by the God of Light to aid Humanity in its pursuit of knowledge. Tell me, what knowledge do you seek?"

Clark, Ozpin, and Ironwood had already decided which question to ask. Clark began, "What is the best way to permanently prevent Salem from harming the people of Remnant which is in line with our ethical values?"

Jinn chuckled. "You certainly have made the effort to ask your question carefully, haven't you? Don't worry, I am meant to provide knowledge. I will not trick you; I will answer the question as you want it to be answered. Unfortunately, I must honestly say that I do not know."

"What?" Ozpin asked. Clark didn't even have to look back to know that Ozpin was in control of Oscar's body now. As he spoke, Clark glanced out the window and saw that the ships in the sky were frozen. The Relic had stopped time, or at least done something similar to his super-speed to make it appear that way.

"How is that possible?" Ozpin's shock was clear. "You possess knowledge of all the past and present."

Jinn floated in front of Ozpin. "I possess knowledge of all the past and present of the Gods' Creation. However, there is someone present who is not part of their creation, but originates from a realm altogether unknown to me."

She floated in front of Clark. "You. Not just you, but the object which brought you here, and the edifice it created for you in the icy north." Around them, Ironwood's office disappeared and they all saw a snow-white tundra. She showed them Clark floating in the sky as the Fortress grew out of the ground.

The vision was replaced by Ironwood's office and Jinn said, "These are beyond my knowledge. I do not know which resources are available to you and therefore I do not know the best way to use them to, as you put it, 'permanently prevent Salem from harming the people of Remnant'."

"I hope that's not all the knowledge you have to give us." Clark was careful not to ask another question.

The spirit smiled. "No. While I do lack knowledge of you, I possess all knowledge of Remnant. My opinion on which method is the best will likely be better than anyone else's. First, we must address Salem's defenses."

The image of the Land of Darkness appeared, along with a castle which matched the description Clark had been given of the one belonging to Salem. Beside it was a dark black pool of liquid, the top layers of which transformed into smoke and shrouded the castle and the surrounding area in a familiar dome.

Jinn wasn't visible, but her voice was still present. "As Ozpin, the name most of you are familiar with, suspected, Salem has used this pool to cover a circular plot of land about a mile across in a dome of smoke. The pool is destruction given substance, the original birthplace of Grimm created by the God of Darkness, and the smoke shares its properties although diluted in this form. It destroys all things except Grimm, even Salem herself, but her body constantly heals from the damage. This will likely shock most of you, but long ago the gods forced immortality on her to instill a lesson in her. However, she has proven to be a very slow learner."

"What?!" Ironwood stood up from his seat. He wasn't the only one. As Jinn had predicted, most of them were shocked. Qrow had shouted out as well and there were various exclamations.

With a forceful voice, Jinn said, "You may ask about that later, if you wish. For now, you should focus your attention on the knowledge I'm currently imparting on you."

As Jinn told them the course of action they should take and the reasoning behind it, she immersed them in magical display of scenes. It was a mix of ones that had actually happened, such as Clark's personal investigation of the dome to showcase its properties, and hypothetical ones such as Ruby's silver eyes penetrating the dome to demonstrate her potential.

According to Jinn, Salem had made this dome to stop Clark from throwing her into space and to carry out her plans without him interrupting her. The specifics of Clark's powers were a mystery even to Jinn, but the spirit was of the opinion that his speed was more than enough to do what Salem feared. Although it wasn't an option that Clark would have taken anyway, which Jinn correctly predicted. If he had done it, Salem would have suffocated in space constantly without being able to die.

Since it was technically related to Salem, Jinn gave them the general gist of what her agents were doing to sow chaos in the Kingdoms and obtain the Relics, but she didn't offer any details since much of their plans were independently formulated and carried out rather than involving Salem's direct intervention.

To reach Salem in her dome, Jinn told them that three people present were the key. Clark, Ruby, and Oscar. Clark had multiple roles. He would place the Relics beyond Salem's reach, such as the moon or any suitable orbits in space. She even recommended that they use up the Relic of Knowledge's last question so that it would be useless to Salem for a century even if she somehow obtained it. She also correctly foresaw and addressed Clark's concerns about leaving Jinn in space indefinitely. Her return to her Relic was akin to a restful slumber, so she said he didn't need to worry, even though she found it sweet.

Clark's persona as Superman was also significant. The first seeds of hope against the Grimm had already sprouted promising buds, but there was still much important work for him to do. Not only because the newfound hope and joy would make it difficult for Salem's agents to create discord, but also because it would help in case Salem actually gathered the Relics and summoned the gods. They had said that a divided humanity would be judged harshly, and Clark could act to inspire and unite them.

Finally, Jinn told them how to enter the dome of smoke. First was Ozpin's cane, which could take kinetic energy, store it, and release it in a blast of magical power. Clark was going to charge it up, which he could simply do by punching it. Jinn didn't know how his normally invulnerable body would react to the released magic, but she recommended that he use his speed to leave the area if it ever went off.

After Clark charged it up, Oscar could use it to blast away the smoke. However, as Clark had seen, the smoke would soon return to its source. This was where Ruby was vital. Her silver eyes were a vestige of the God of Light's power, and if she trained, she could use them to hold back the smoke conjured from the creation of the God of Darkness. She could lead a team of people into the dome to subdue Salem.

Ruby's silver eyes also presented another option besides banishing Salem into space. After reaching Salem, and preferably after forcing her to use up her magical power, Ruby could petrify Salem with her silver eyes. It would be a painless transformation into oblivious stone which would last unless it was undone in a work of magic no longer available to the people of Remnant.

Then, Jinn disappeared and so did her riveting magical scenery. They returned to Ironwood's office, where time ran forward again and the sounds of the outside world returned.

"Take notes of everything you remember," Ironwood said. He was already typing on his computer and his soldiers had taken their scrolls out. Blake, Weiss, Ren, Pyrrha, and Oscar did likewise.

"Huh, that is strange," Penny said.

"What is it?" Ironwood asked.

"Sir, I was trying to copy my memory of the past hour to another drive, but I can't. While I remember it clearly, I don't seem to actually have a visual or audio recording of the spirit's visions or voice."

Clark picked up his Kryptonian scroll and typed out a transcript of Jinn's words in a split-second. He laid it on his palm and a hologram of the words came up. "This is what she said word for word. I'll send it to anyone who wants it."

Ironwood received it and then sent it to his soldiers. Oscar also asked for it, as did the same students who'd already taken out their scrolls.

"Now, Jinn said I should put her into space fast," Clark held up the Relic. "I already came up with a third question, which is 'what is the most important information for us to know?'. Anyone have a better idea?"

Oscar spoke up, "No, but Ozpin says that's clever. Good job."

Everybody else was silent, so Clark called Jinn out again and asked her the question. The process of emerging from blue smoke and stilling the world repeated.

"Again, I must admit that I don't know," she said. "But I will give my highly qualified opinion. Keep in mind that while I don't know the future. because it is not solely a result of the present, I am very good at making predictions. The most important one is this: while you may trust each other to fight against Salem, you should not expect to avoid disagreements with each other in how to combat her. These disagreements have the very real possibility to turn violent, and there are three individuals present who I would most expect to lead the others in these conflicts."

Jinn showed them an image of Clark, Ironwood, and Ozpin giving each other guarded looks. They were spaced equally around the points of a triangle in an empty white void. The scene first focused on Ozpin's face, the one he'd worn before sharing Oscar's body.

"Eras have come and gone since the start of Ozpin's crusade against Salem. He is tired, and he is desperate. Because of the horrors he has seen Salem accomplish, he will accept any lesser horror in order to stop her. Perhaps he will even set them into motion himself, and end up appearing as a horror to others."

Then the image shifted to Ironwood.

"The general is no stranger to Ozpin's mindset. Over the years, he has come to the conclusion that sometimes sacrifices are necessary for the greater good. Between him and Ozpin is a degree of understanding which does not seem possible with the newly named Superman. However, the general is rigid, unyielding. If he believes in the righteousness of a path, he will stay true to it. Even if it may lead to ruin for him and those who follow him."

Clark was next in the magical imagery.

"The alien from another realm. You, I do not know nearly as well as the others, but there is much I can deduce from your behavior. When you first appeared on Remnant, you would not even kill the Grimm. You will not sacrifice the lives of a few to save the many, and you will fight against anyone who does, which I expect to be either Ozpin, Ironwood, or perhaps both. I suspect that in you is a streak of stubbornness just as unwavering as the general's, but I warn you not to be so certain that you are in the right. If you save the few at the cost of the many, do not think your hands will be free of blood."

Jinn showed the three of them again in the triangle again. "For many of you, your sides in most conflicts between them have been chosen. For a few, it is less clear what direction they may lean."

The spirit's magic showed Ruby, Yang, and team JNPR standing behind Clark. Ozpin didn't have anyone directly behind him, but Oscar, Qrow, Weiss, and Blake were at different points around the division between Clark and Ozpin. Ironwood had his soldiers directly behind him, but Penny was midway between him and Clark.

"Choose wisely." Those were Jinn's last words before the magic faded and the lamp became inert.

When Clark turned back to the others, he gave out a sigh. "You know, Jinn didn't say it was a hundred percent chance that we're going to fight."

He felt that he'd had to say something to address the distrustful looks they were shooting each other and him.

"He is right. Infighting will only make it easier for Salem to defeat us," Ironwood reeled in his suspicion at least, but Clark could tell that he was more motivated by practicality than any trust in either him or Ozpin.

Qrow glared at Ozpin. "And if Clark hadn't shown up, how easy would it be for her anyway? She's fucking immortal! When were you going to tell us that, Ozpin?"

Ozpin glanced at Clark before answering. "To be honest, I did not plan on telling you. The only reason I allowed Jinn to reveal that is because I believed there would finally be a chance to defeat Salem."

"So before Clark showed up, there was no chance? What would we have done without him then? What was the point of what we already did?"

Ozpin held steady under his gaze, but his slight trembling showed that he wasn't unaffected by the questions. "I admit that the situation would have been dire, but the work we did, the sacrifices we made, they were not for nothing."

"Don't give me that! I accepted what you ordered me to do because you made me think we would finally stop Salem, whose been terrorizing Remnant from the shadows for thousands of years! Instead all I hear is that you were throwing us away as a stopgap that you weren't even sure would work. What was it all actually for, then! What did Summer die for?!"

Ozpin hung his head low. "I can not say. Maybe the truth about her death is that it was senseless, a mistake I made that did not help us in any way."

The room was silent for a moment. Then, Qrow's fist launched out at Oscar's face.

Clark crossed the room in an instant and caught it before the blow landed. Oscar reeled back in surprise, Ozpin's control gone.

"Qrow, I understand you're angry, but don't make Oscar suffer for it," Clark said.

Qrow yanked his hand back and walked away. He leaned against a wall with a heavy scowl.

Clark faced the others again. "I'm going to take the Relic to the moon now. Ironwood, Ozpin–if you're listening–I'll send you both the location where I'll hide it. I'll trust that you get the message out to Salem's minions."

Ironwood nodded and pressed a button on his desk. A window opened up, and Clark glanced at Oscar and Qrow again to make sure nothing would happen while he was gone. It looked like they still had some questions, but at least fists wouldn't fly.

Clark flew up and in seconds he was on the moon. He picked a five-mile-wide crater on the third largest lunar fragment as the Relic's hiding spot. The fragment wobbled and rotated in a weird way that made it hard to define poles as a reference point for a map, so Clark just chose a few prominent features and had the Kryptonian scroll do the work of making a coordinate system covering the irregular chunk of moon rock hundreds of miles across.

In addition, he dug about two miles underground to bury the Relic and collapsed the tunnel he'd made. Even if Salem somehow acquired a method of space travel, it wouldn't be easy for her to dig all the way through to the Relic. The only way to get to it was through Clark.