To those who were saying the Hogyoku doesn't make you stronger, while technically true, it's primary effect is to manifest the greatest desires of those effected by it. It basically grants wishes, when Cinder found it her greatest desire was obviously power, therefore she felt strong just holding it. The Hogyoku is in my opinion even more powerful than Aizen himself, which should be obvious by how hard he worked for it. Enjoy.

Raven finished off the remaining mercenary guard that had been hired to take out her tribe, they'd only been squatting in the deserted town for a few weeks. Normally they would be packing up to leave for another month but with the kind of attention wiping out an entire merc band and burning what was left of the town she knew they'd need to leave soon. She could hear the screaming of injured mercs everywhere.

Her attention however was quickly caught by a blur of movement out of the corner of her eye, turning she saw a tall man with curly brown hair wearing a white traditional men's kimono. Hanging over his shoulder was a small bag and on his hip was a sword. He wore a pair of black framed glasses. She sighed, he was a civilian most likely, she hated civilian casualties but it was a necessary evil to protect her tribe. He'd seen them and now he had to die.

Raising her blade towards the man she prepared to end him quickly. Instead of taking on a look of fear however the man simply set his bag on the ground and grabbed the handle of his sword. Drawing it slowly he dropped into a traditional dueling stance, raising an eyebrow Raven inspected him closely. His form was flawless and he left no openings in his guard. He was clearly trained to some extent in sword play, still she could tell he did not have his aura unlocked, she'd be able to feel it if he did.

Launching herself forward she intended to blitz the man and kill him before he could react, what happened however was entirely different. Within a second she was in front of the man swing up at his arms two remove the limbs, he merely stepped back a parried the swing before pivoting around her and slamming his fist into the back of her skull. Her face quickly met the dirt, she'd lost consciousness for a heart beat. She now knew she was wrong, this man was no civilian, no normal man could deliver a punch that strong, if she didn't have aura it would have caved in her skull and snapped her neck in the process.

"You really should be more careful of who you attack miss." The man said taking several steps away from her, his blade still in hand. "I'm guessing you saw me and assumed I was merely a civilian. Well you're not wrong about that, I'm just a wander author passing through. What you were wrong about however was the belief that I was unable to defend myself. Underestimating your opponent no matter how confident in your own power is the surest way to lose a fight." He this with a tone that made it clear he understood what he was saying very well.

Attempting to stand Raven stumbled, the blow must have shook her brain around inside her skull, like a boxer waking one to the chin. She'd be having trouble moving around for at least a few more seconds, but in a fight a few seconds felt more like hours. To her surprise the man didn't capitalize on the opportunity to finish her, instead he simply took several steps back and dropped back into his stance. Finally managing to get the world around her to stop spinning Raven growled. "Who are you?" She glared from behind her mask.

"I just told you, I'm a wandering author." He smiled.

Rushing forward Raven brought her blade down only to be parried by the man, the two then launched into a storm of slashes, feints, thrusts and sparks. Raven was a proud woman, she'd spent countless hours training herself and perfecting her skills with the sword. It wouldn't truly be a boast to say she was likely one of the greatest swordswomen on Remnant, despite this however she couldn't even so much as graze this man clothes. Even attack no matter how fast, telegraphed, or how much power she put behind it, he simply blocked or dodged with zero visible effort. To make things even worse was the fact that every couple swings he would gently tap a part of her body with the flat of his blade. She knew why he was doing it, he was insulting her, showing that if he wanted he could land hits with easy but chose not to. "You bastard!" She scream focusing all her aura into a single wide swing.

Then he did something she almost couldn't comprehend. He held up his index finger and stopped her swing. "You are very skilled ma'am, I can tell you've dedicated your life to the art of swordsmanship. You are doubtlessly the strong warrior I've encountered in years." Bending his finger down he tapped the blade of her sword. In an instant cuts and slashes appeared all across her body spewing blood in all directions. "But I've lost interest now." He said calmly as Raven fell to her knees, her entire body wracking with pain, her blade falling to the ground with the now destroyed remnants of her mask. The man then held up his finger and pointed it at her forehead. "Hado number one, Sho." His finger began shining for a brief moment before a powerful force slammed into Raven sending flying backwards and slamming into the many burning buildings around them. The moment she finally came to a halt was the very moment her world finally went black.

Two Weeks Later

To say Qrow was shocked was an understatement, he was left completely speechless by the sight before him. "Qrow, stop staring and sit down." Raven glared at her twin brother.

Shaking off his stupor Qrow did as he was told and found his way into the chair near her bed. "What the hell happened?" He asked his sister who was covered head to toe in bandages, her left arm and leg were both in casts and she had gauze taped to her right eye. All in all she looked like a train had run her over.

Raven took a deep breath. "I only woke up two days ago." She said quietly.

Qrow quickly pulled out his flask and took a swig before offering it to her, she took it and quickly guzzled everything in it. "How many did she send?" Qrow asked.

"None, this wasn't her handiwork, at least I really don't think so." She adjust herself in her. "We were staying in an abandoned settlement, we'd been there for a little while when a merc band showed up and attacked." She explained.

"Mercs did this?!" Qrow practically shouted. He knew better than anyone how strong his sister was, the idea of a simple band of mercenaries managing this type of damage was simply impossible to him.

"No, the mercs were barely an annoyance, I had just finished off the captain of the band when I saw... it." She closed her eyes for a few seconds. "When I first saw it I thought it was simply a civilian who was just unlucky enough to be passing through."

Qrow listened in complete confusion. "I don't get it, was it some kind of new grimm? What was it?"

Raven balled here free hand into a fist. "It was no grimm, but there's no way that thing was human. It was like fighting a god in the skin of a man, one punch was enough to tear through my aura. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't even touch him, then I tried hitting him with everything I had left." Raven looked at her brother and again shocked him, she had tears streaming down her face. Fear was clearly displayed in her eyes, her entire body was trembling, Qrow had never seen his sister in this kind of state. "He stopped my blade with a single finger, then pain. Everything was red. I saw Yang's face." She was clearly using every bit of strength she had to keep herself from breaking into sobs. "I saw her face as everything went black. I fought the devil Qrow, and I lost." Her voice was barely a whisper. The pair of twins sat in silence for several minutes. "You have to tell Ozpin, tell him about that... thing."

Qrow let out a tired sigh as he placed his face in his hands. "I'll let him know."

With Aizen

Aizen let out a long content sigh, he leaned back in his seat on the airship moving towards Atlas. He could have simply used flash step and gotten there in a few hours but he decided to treat himself. He'd just finish the next chapter in his book and had shown it to his editor, after that he purchased a first class ticket to Atlas, he had always enjoyed the snow and wanted to explore the country for a few weeks. "Can I get you anything sir?" A stewardess asked leaning down beside him.

Smiling Aizen nodded. "Yes actually, you wouldn't happen to serve hot chocolate would you?" He asked the young woman. It was a fact about Sosuke Aizen that he doubted anyone knew but he had always loved the warm chocolate drink, ever since he went to the human world for a mission and on a whim stole a cup. Now whenever he had the chance he would enjoy a steaming hot cup of it.

"Of course." She smiled before walking away.

Within a few minutes she returned with a steaming cup, Aizen took a slow sip. It definitely wasn't the best he'd ever drank but it was enjoyable none the less. Reaching into his carry on bag he withdrew a thick book and opened it to a marked page and began reading. "Excuse me sir." Aizen looked up to see another one of the passengers looking at him. He was an older looking gentlemen in a white suit with a matching white mustache and hair. "I couldn't help but notice your book there, is that advance dust physics?"

Aizen nodded. "Yes it is, I was in the mood to learn a bit more about dust recently and decided to pick up a few textbooks on it. It truly is a marvelous substance." Aizen turned the book to show the front.

The white haired man chuckled. "You want to do a bit of light reading and pick up a highly advanced science book about dust and it's affect on physics. You're an interesting man sir."

Aizen chuckled. "Thank you, I've always enjoy learning everything possible about a subject. I've spent nearly the past decade researching aura and the soul, dust is one of the very few substances that can affect or be effected by the soul. I find that fascinating." Aizen explained.

"Ah so you're a scholar then." The man held out his hand to Aizen. "Jacques Schnee, president and CEO of the Schnee Dust Company."

Aizen took the offered had and gave it a shake. "Sosuke Aizen, wandering author and scholar. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Beacon

Ozpin stared at the drawing on his desk with a deep frown, it had been over an hour since he'd received it via fax from Qrow. It was a sketch of the man who had managed to not only defeat one of the most powerful huntresses to have ever been produced by Beacon academy but completely decimate her. The thought alone was terrifying.

Ozpin knew how much Raven disliked him so for her to go out of her way to give him a warning, it was just went to show how serious this was. The only silver lining to this entire situation was the fact that Raven seemed to believe this... man did not in fact work for Salem. Fortunately he was incline to agree with her.

According to Raven's account this being only attacked her after being attack first, then there was the fact that she was still alive. Anyone with enough strength and skill to do to her what they did wouldn't be sloppy enough to leave her alive unless they wanted to. Had this been an attack by one of Salem's people they would've attacked first and would not have stopped until they were completely certain that she was truly and completely dead. Instead the being simply left her where she laid and moved on.

Ozpin let out an exhausted sigh as he rubbed his eyes. Pulling out his scroll he took a picture of the sketch and quickly sent it out to every member of his inner circle, not that he expected much luck. From what he could tell this person was extremely ordinary looking, curly brown hair and glasses. Though he was hoping they'd have some luck with the one other lead on him they had, how many wandering authors could there be on Remnant after all?

I think that's a good place to call this a chapter. Leave me a review and tell me what you all think. LATER.