Someone was tapping my shoulder.
"No, five more minutes Mom."
The tapping ceased replaced by shaking. I came awake with a start and noticed my hand was still gripping Pyrrha's hand. Looking up, I saw the person who was shaking me.
"Pyrrha!"
I jumped up immediately.
"Thank goodness you're alright. I was so worried that-"
"Who's Pyrrha?"
I was stunned into silence because it was Pyrrha who had said it. No! Pyrrha's got amnesia! She can't remember anything!
Did I say that aloud again? Because the Pyrrha who was not Pyrrha answered me.
"I don't have amnesia. I can remember almost everything. The last thing I remember though was being brutally attacked and half-dead. Everything is blank after that. Were you the one who saved me? Could you tell me what happened between then and now?"
"What?"
"Were you the one who saved me?"
"Uh… no."
"Then why are you here? You still haven't answered me, who is Pyrrha?"
"I'm here because my teammate Pyrrha was in an accident. You are Pyrrha. At least, that's her body unless she has a twin."
The Pyrrha who was not Pyrrha looked down at herself then recoiled in shock. She started bombarding me with questions.
"Who are you!? What did you do to me!? Why am I not in my body? You, you're in league with her aren't you!"
Pyrrha(?) got out of the hospital bed shakily and tried to walk but stumbled like she wasn't used to her body and fell face first onto the floor.
I gasped at what I saw for the hospital gown didn't leave anything from the waist down on the backside to the imagination.
"I didn't know Pyrrha had a birthmark shaped like a heart on her left cheek!"
I'd never known both because Pyrrha had never told me and because I'd never seen her derriere. Being the gentleman that I was though, I tore my eyes away from the supple flesh and helped Pyrrha(?) back onto the bed.
"You're surprisingly unembarrassed," I said to this… person.
"It's not my body."
"What do you mean? Who are you?"
Pyrrha(?) lay on the bed thinking for a few moments before finally speaking.
"You don't seem to be with her. You're too nice. I will tell you what I remember again. I am the Fall Maiden Amber. A woman dressed in red with a dark-skinned woman with green hair and a pale-skinned man with mechanical legs ambushed me while I was traveling. I tried to fight them off, but the woman in red shot me in the back. Then she used a Grim to suck my power from me. A man rescued me somehow. I had almost slipped into unconsciousness by that time, so I don't remember how the man who saved me looked. That and rage against the woman in red are the last things I remember until I woke up here in this room."
"So where am I now?"
"You're at the Beacon Academy hospital, in the body of my friend and teammate Pyrrha Nikos. I don't know much beyond that except that Pyrrha was in an accident. My name is Jaune Arc leader of the 1st year team JNPR."
Amber sighed.
"Beacon huh? Then I should be in good hands. Ozpin is still headmaster here correct?"
"You know Ozpin?"
"Quite well actually."
"Would you mind if I gave him a call and asked him to come down here? I think he knows more about what happened to you and to Pyrrha."
"Yes please."
Amber then settled back into the pillows of the hospital bed. I gave Ozpin a call and told him to come to the hospital. Once he arrived, I told him that Pyrrha had woken but claimed to be someone named Amber. He seemed to frown slightly at this information. He asked me to wait outside while he talked to Amber.
Eventually, Ozpin came back outside the hospital room.
"Jaune, I cannot say too much because this is a highly confidential matter. What I can divulge is as follows. Pyrrha Nikos was involved in an Aura transference accident. In the process, it seems her soul was… lost and replaced with Amber's soul."
"Is there any way you can get Pyrrha's soul back?"
My heart sank with the answer.
"I am afraid not Jaune. Pyrrha Nikos… the one that you know… is essentially dead. I take full responsibility for this tragic accident as I was the one who asked Pyrrha to get involved. I'm sorry Jaune."
I couldn't say anything for a few moments. My heart felt like it had vanished and only the shadow of a trace of it was left, enough to know and to feel the loss of it. Pyrrha was dead.
Ozpin spoke again.
"Once she has recovered, Amber will join your team and will go by the name of Pyrrha Nikos. This way we can try to keep the secret of Amber's reappearance. I will tell you that there are people out there who seek Amber's life. Help me keep her hidden Jaune. I place this task in your hands. You mustn't tell Nora or Ren the full truth."
Ozpin turned and walked away. For the first time since I had met him, he seemed old, hunched as if the weight of the world pushed down upon his shoulders.