Well, here we are again. I meant to have this out Sunday, but as usual fell short of my goals. In any case, I hope that maybe this can be a good decompression for everyone on a Monday evening (for my US readers, at least)

Speaking of which, noticing not too many of you out there. Did we lose that many from the first part, or are they really not aware that the sequel is out?

Anyway, no more to say...and yet I'm still writing.

That's because someone else needs their say here: I am obliged to give a HUGE shout-out to Drag0n5on for his invaluable inspiration for this chapter, and really for the direction of the story from here on out. I do not exaggerate. And if you should be reading this, know I appreciate you being with me through the course of this. Though this is still written for my own edification, it would be so much more hollow a thing without people like you.

All hail the reviewers!

She thought she dreamed of nightingales keeping her company as she slept. When she woke, she thought it was to the beating wings of a lark taking flight.

But it was not the nightingales, nor the lark, and her dreams were vanished in the unforgiving day.

It was the deep thrum of engines, twin oscillations of dust powered jets which set up a dissonant frequency in time with her heart. Her eyes cracked open to see that the morning had replaced the night, the gale-force of the wind replaced by the equally savage cushion of air which supported the craft.

Her rough blanket replaced by Neo, who had curled as close as humanly possible to her to ward off the alpine chill. Though a part of her desired nothing more than to let the poor woman sleep, the same countenance that had occupied her the previous night had no patience for rest. Not when escape was so close.

"Get up, Neo."

She shook the girl under the crook of her arm, frankly surprised that the noise hadn't woken her yet. She had pushed herself farther than she would have liked to admit. Emerald stared long enough at the awakened woman to see the flip-book color change of her eyes as they fluttered to life. Then she turned her attention back the Bullhead, which was landing across from them in the small dale.

From the forward view of the cockpit when it had approached them, the vehicle turned broadside now to display its lack of markings. Save the inky black ring on its engine cowl. Emerald felt herself smile, perhaps for the first time seeing this unostentatious demarcation.

For once, she was not afraid of going to see her master's master. In fact, there was an eagerness unbecoming of her. And impatience, to be rid of the filth and rags that covered her and her companion, and to satiate her unbridled hunger. Perhaps too there was that dread still cowering inside of her. But the other emotions drove it deep and far away from the light of their blazing passion.

She didn't bother wondering how the otherworldly woman knew she would be there. Nor did she wonder why all this effort was being made on their behalf. Both were foolish questions, and the least concern in her mind as she got to her feet, pulling the smaller woman with her.

Newly roused, Neo blinked in surprise at the strength displayed by someone who in all rights should still be bedridden. She stumbled slightly as Emerald's firm grip left her on her own. She looked over, appraising the bullhead for the first time herself. Her eyes squinted to shield them from the loose debris kicked up by the backlash from the engines. She was confused, but took some comfort in the confidence displayed by her cohort.

That self-assurance was forced to share equal space with trepidation, however, as Emerald turned to look back at her. The smile she had on her face was sly and confident at the same time, and disturbingly familiar to the young swordswoman.

Either way, though, the look had her hooked, and she was along for the ride.

"Come on Neo, let's go home."

"Great. Can I go now?"

Both Naruto and Jaune backed up a pace as their teacher and warden looked one word away from blowing a gasket. It was to the best of fortunes of everyone in the room that her tirade was pre-empted by the other adult in the room, who came in as a more sedate voice of reason.

"Mr. Uchiha, when you came in here you were totally blind, and, need I remind you, bleeding from your eye sockets." As if to emphasize this, the green-haired man wadded up a handful of crimson-stained gauze and threw it into the waste bin at his feet before peeling off his equally contaminated latex gloves and doing the same to them with a snap of impatience.

"We don't even know how you regained your sight, nor how you lost it in the first place. I would be totally remiss as a doctor if I didn't recommend staying here overnight so that we can monitor you properly."

"Um, didn't you get your doctorate in history Dr. Oobleck?" Jaune questioned nervously from the sidelines, hoping to diffuse the situation.

The lanky man huffed and crossed his arms as he stared down the tent's other human bean pole.

"As a matter of fact, I did. And I did so after getting my medical degree." He informed the nervous young man who now looked like he knew better than to ask a further foolish question.

"Doesn't matter." The subject in question grunted as he sat upright and pushed the invasive lights out of his face. "I'm fine now, so let's get back to training." Sasuke hopped off the gurney and stretched his arms deliberately, hoping to reinforce his point.

Glynda by this time was turning a special shade of red past burgundy, but had remained silent at the behest of the medical professional. It was the least she could do after all he had done for her. She just hoped that she wouldn't end up as the one in the gurney after she blew a blood vessel.

"Sasuke." The single word was the weight of a thousand when spoken by that person. Sasuke halted in the process of putting on his shirt, one arm through and the other bunched up. Turning to give the blond young man his undivided attention.

"I really think you should listen to Professor Oobleck. You shouldn't try to push yourself after this. There's no need." It took all the patience of the saints to keep the older man from interrupting to correct and ruining the moment, but Sasuke still sighed and shook his head.

"The need now is perhaps greater than ever." He let the words sink in to the room at large, conjuring up a number of questioning looks, but also a distinct few of understanding. "Besides," He finished putting on his white, long-sleeve half- button shirt before throwing on a confident smirk; the former of which he wore better. "If I get hurt again I can always have you drag me back here."

Naruto frowned gravely, and Sasuke felt himself wither slightly at the sight. On the surface it was no different than the expression he had seen a thousand times before, but in reality it was a look which bore a lack of understanding. Concern, but shallow and without depth of the past they had once shared. That hurt far worse than the pain in his eyes.

Oobleck sighed and broke the staring contest.

"Well, in the end it is your decision. I can't hold you here." He looked at Glynda, as if willing her to say otherwise, but there was the pragmatic part of her that knew they could not shirk off on the training for even a day. She stayed silent, and the man sighed again. "I suppose there shouldn't be any more harm in training. If anything should occur, I'll be right here." He gestured to the tent set up as a lab in general, but Glynda saw him focus on the samples sitting innocuously on the table.

"Just, try to take it easy, would you?" The man stood laboriously and started to put his sterilized instruments away. "We don't exactly have a surplus of medical supplies at the moment."

Sasuke rolled his eyes, but nodded none the less, appreciative of the very real need to be conservative with their resources. Though Beacon had borne the brunt of the attack, Vale in general had suffered some as well from the stampede of Grimm moving through the city trying to get to the school and to Naruto. Most of the aid had gone to them after being diverted by Glynda.

This was part of the overall strategy to get the approval to rebuild the school. The fewer resources they took in rebuilding, the more attractive the prospect looked to the city planners. They wanted the academy to be an attraction for prospective students, not bait for Grimm or a pit of wasted effort.

Though almost none in present company were satisfied by the outcome, least of all the headmistress, she herself knew they had wasted enough time with the fruitless examination, and had in the end not found anything wrong with the young man apart from the loss of blood through the tear ducts. There was no question that whatever was happening to him was very real, but with so many other problems on her hands right then and there, this one solving itself was a welcome respite.

"Right then," The woman carefully let her riding crop return to its original, un-bent state, before schooling herself and picking out her next few words. "I suppose that since your new tutor is arriving today, it would be best to greet them in person. Doctor." She nodded in Oobleck's direction as she stepped out of the entrance way, ushering the other two students out of the tent with her hand.

They made to follow, but curiosity got the better of one of them, and Jaune paused mid-stride.

"A new tutor? Who did you manage to find?"

Naruto wondered the same thing, though in not quite as elegant of terms, and Sasuke himself would have admitted to a healthy curiosity if he had anything at all to say. Though the two of them naturally knew nobody of note in that world, it would be interesting to meet whoever would voluntarily come out to their broken-down neck of the woods for the sake of a handful of students.

Glynda fixed Jaune with a particularly unnerving smile that he was sure had little to do with the question.

"Well, why don't we go meet her and find out?"

"That's it Ruby, keep going."

The young woman replied by doing as instructed, once again going through the prescribed routine with a singular focus. Even without her Semblance she was a blur, soft grunts of exertion bellowed in the afternoon air and blade singing through the trees. Each iteration taxed her, but each time she got just a little bit faster, a sliver more accurate.

Qrow stood appraising her from across the clearing, projecting an air of nonchalance as he leaned under the shade of a tree. But past his smug smile, he watched his young niece follow his direction unquestioningly, and could not help but wonder what had changed.

Of course, he knew what she and her friends had gone through during the battle for Beacon. He had insisted on seeing the aftermath of her first kill himself. Truth be told, he was glad it was a man such as Adam Taurus that she had sullied her hands on, despite the extra baggage carried by the young woman's teammate. That still did not negate the guilt that she no doubt felt in the execution of the act, and in fact might have exacerbated it.

But of all the conditions that she could have developed in response, this unfaltering devotion to self-improvement was not one he could have anticipated. He kept looking for signs of repressed trauma, cracks in the surface betraying the transverse fault which lay beneath and which could tear the girl in two if left unchecked. He couldn't find any, however. Even after almost a week straight of training which should have exhausted any defense she might have erected.

Was it too much to say he was proud of his niece?

No, but at the same time, he was a little worried that she seemed to be growing up so quickly. Ruefully, he admonished himself as he found himself thinking like her father. Lord knew that he should never be anyone's parent.

He went to take a swig from his flask, to highlight this fact and to kill off any braincells that might say otherwise, but paused with the stainless-steel rim hovering above his lips.

"Dare I ask what you want here?"

His only audience, a sleek raven that had landed on the branch above his head, cocked its head in seeming confusion as its beady eyes appraised the scraggly man's face.

"What? Can't I just drop in and say high every now and then?"

Qrow growled and resisted the urge to toss his precious flask at the pernicious animal. But that would serve little other purpose than to aggravate him, for the fragile bird that had flown in was gone in the same manner, and a woman as sharp and beautiful as the katana on her hip had taken its place as she stepped silently from the other side of the tree which supported him.

Instead, he sighed and rudely capped the container, stowing away in his back pocket, as far away from his sister as he could get it.

"I'll ask again: what do you want Raven?"

He tried his best to rally his patience. As much as he loved her, her presence never portended anything good, and he could not count on her to share as much familial affection towards either him or his niece. So despite his being in the right to be short with the sociopathic woman, he dared not. It would not accomplish anything to provoke a fight with her.

"What happened at Beacon?"

He snorted and ran a hand through his perpetual bedhead, a wry smile and a feeling of superiority worming its way out at his sister's ignorance.

"Don't you read the papers?" He asked sardonically. Despite not wishing to antagonize the woman, he would lord this small victory over her if she wanted to barter information from him. "Or watch the news? It's all they could talk about for the past weeks."

He imagined her eye twitching as much as he caught the distinctive sound of her fingernail toying with the hilt of her Ō-katana. He knew he might as well be balancing himself on the edge of that blade, but with forced sobriety gained boldness.

"I want to know what really happened." She drawled out evenly, not bothering to hide the consternation she felt.

"Almost a year ago now," She continued, not giving him another chance to prod her anemone-like patience. "I felt…a disturbance. A source of energy unlike anything I have every felt."

Qrow felt his throat dry up and desperately desired a drink, stronger than anything he had on his person. He knew where this conversation was heading, and did not particularly want to open up that can of worms. But how to keep it sealed? For once, his sister was apparently ignorant of a critical event in Remnant's history, and he preferred to keep it that way if he could. But that was the question.

"That's a pretty general statement." He shrugged carelessly, but berated himself inwardly for answering her at all. "Care to be more specific?" If he had to give up anything, he would try to get as much as he could in return. "What did it feel like? More powerful? Darker?" More demonic? What exactly did his sister see when gazing upon the otherworldly being? He knew what it felt like, but could not imagine what the event must have looked like to a sensitive.

"What's color to a blind man?" She shook her head, glossy black hair shimmering like falling feathers. When I say unlike anything I have ever felt, I mean unlike anything else. I couldn't begin to compare it. Except," He flinched as he felt her quit her own leaning and glide over behind him.

"Except?"

"Except that I felt it again. About a month ago."

During the battle of Beacon. Of course. There was no skating around the issue now. She knew he had been there, and there was little to no chance he could convince her he hadn't seen anything. She might have thought him a fool (and was possibly correct in the assumption), but knew he was not blind.

"I teleported there, but by the time I arrived the source seemed to have disappeared." She mentioned offhandedly, answering his own unasked query.

So what to do then? He really didn't want to reveal anything about the two shinobi to her if he didn't have to, but it did not look like he had much of a choice. What would she do then? Would she go after Naruto or Sasuke to try and win them over to her side? Or maybe she would just kidnap them without bothering to ask their consent. Or she might even try to eliminate the perceived threat to her clan altogether…

Raven saw her brother hesitate, knowing she had him more or less cornered. Still, despite how little he thought of her, she was not cruel. She knew he had the ultimate say in whether or not he revealed anything, and she much preferred to get what she wanted from a willing participant than anything revealed under duress. So, she decided to sweeten the pot.

"If you tell me what you know about it, I'll tell you what I know."

Qrow paused once again as his internal debate reset, trying to decide if her offer had any merit to it. What could she possibly know that he didn't? She admitted that she did not know what exactly had transpired. At least, not directly. Perhaps as an outside observer she could tell them something more about the two shinobi that they did not already know. In any other situation, he might not have relented so easily. But when it concerned those two teenage warriors, too many things remained in question to be good for any of them, including themselves.

So he told her. And he prayed to whatever deity was listening that Ozpin (and more importantly Glynda) would forgive him.

He did not ask for the two young men to forgive him. He was doing it for their sake, as well as his own. As well as for his young niece still swinging away on the other side of the clearing, blissful in her ignorance of what was transpiring.

He did not have to be watching his sister to know that he would be unable to glean anything from her expressionless face. She listened to his incredible tale in rapt silence, never once interrupting to question or making a sound of disbelief. When he was finished, he did not know what he expected her to do or say. He gave it a 50-50 shot whether she believed him or not, though he told her as much as he knew to the best of his knowledge.

"Interesting."

He faltered at her single-word, yet apt, description. She turned her head to watch the daughter of her best friend go through her paces. Something crossed her face, but Qrow missed it, not daring to turn away from watching Ruby himself. He did not know what should be going through his sister's mind at that moment. He was always so diametrically opposed to her, it was one of the reasons they never got along.

"The energy disappeared by the time I arrived at Beacon." The repeated statement poked a needle-thin hole in the silence. "But then, it came back."

Qrow felt his breath hitch in his throat. This had been one of the things they had been waiting to find out. For all of their expertise and the beneficial mutations developing within the young man, they had yet to find out if the demon he held at bay still existed within the convoluted seal on his stomach.

"But… it still wasn't the same when it came back." The statement was ponderous, thoughtful, as she quietly paced the soft grass behind him. "It was… more familiar." She stopped and shuddered, incapable of doing anything else when remembering the harsh feeling. "Familiar, but similarly dark. I left soon after as the crowds came."

Once again, the information was useful, but still raised so many questioned. He still could not get her to elaborate. Not because she would not, but yet again, could not. Still, it was something. There were only a few dark things in their world strong enough to make that kind of impression, and it was not hard to guess what the nature of it was.

He was about to issue a few words of thanks, unnecessary though they might be, when he was interrupted by his sister's surprise offering.

"Before I left, I made sure to commit the feeling to memory, so I could track it down later."

Well, that wouldn't be too hard, Qrow thought ruefully. They had not made it hard to find the two shinobi as they had not left the company of Glynda, and she had not gone beyond the bounds of the ruins of Beacon since the whole ordeal.

"I followed it here."

He froze, unable to turn around and see if his sister was smiling at him, laughing as she played a cruel joke on his harried mind. He could only stand stock still and stare straight forward. Stare at his niece as she took a knee after finishing the last repetition of her kata, hair matted with sweat framing her confident smile. Stare through her to whatever malicious entity might lay beneath that innocent smile.

In the corner of his eye a raven beat its wings heavily, taking to the sky and escaping the wooden prison which held the two of them captive in silence.

Emerald paced the long room with a confidence she knew she shouldn't have. Neo was one step away from cowering in the corner, never before having been audience to the infamous ringleader of their covert group. The green-haired woman, now that her hair was cleaned up enough to be recognizable as such a shade, deliberately ignored the room's other occupants who awaited their leader patiently while shooting her un-surreptitious glances which carried no small amount of contempt.

It was clear that the more senior members thought that she had no right to be there, much like they had thought her own mistress had no right to sit at the long table with them. Well, in fact she partially agreed with them, though not for the same reasons. In deference to that thought she had neglected to take a seat in the chair that was by all rights hers now, and instead slowly paced the breadth of the room's wall-sized windows overlooking the mountainous crags below, and chose not to meet their derision head on.

Not yet, at least.

Salem's entrance was graceful and without fanfare, but carried no less gravity than a state funeral. Flanked by two of her 'children', she seemed to glide in through the double doors carved of ebony wood and which weighed as much as the table the other three members gathered around. But their total mass was nothing compared to the weight the woman herself brought with her. The revitalized person Emerald had become strained to shore herself up against the oppressive presence, and not for the first time found her resolve questioned.

But then there was that voice, a combined total of countless points of view speaking in harmony that rallied against the notion. There was no retreat for the survivor.

"Emerald, it is so good to see you again."

To the room's total shock, including her own, Salem made a beeline straight for the young woman. In the corner of her eye, Emerald could see the surprise and outrage which flushed across the other faces like a heat wave. She stalled halfway between a courteous reply and a gulp, settling for a tight-lipped nod to her superior. Anxiousness thrumming her inflamed heartbeat to new levels as she approached the edge.

"Mistress Salem," She finally croaked out, though managing to hide most of the fear behind a veil of confidence that would have fooled most in the room, but sadly not the pale woman in front of her.

"Is there something the matter, child?"

Despite the motherly tone, there was nothing about the cocked head riddled with black spiderwebs that spoke anything of concern. Emerald was in fact surprised that the woman even knew her name after all this time, though assumed she had probably asked one of her aids before her arrival. She had no illusions that she was anything other than a commodity for her machinations. But she could not call her out on it. She wasn't strong enough to stand up to her might. Not yet, at least.

"Are you not fully recovered? Did you not receive good treatment upon arrival?"

Emerald felt her head shake and the jade tresses rustle like leaves along with it.

"No, Mistress. Your servants were most hospitable to me and my companion." She said coolly, nodding in Neo's direction, who was one step away from trying her illusory techniques to disappear from the room.

In truth, Emerald had no idea where this highfalutin language was coming from. Sure, she was dressed for such courtly manner, provided by the woman's unquestioning servants, a dress which matched her newfound radiance and managed to even make her crippling injury into a kind of exotic beauty. But the words came from the same pool of voices as before, and not from the street urchin struggling to untangle them.

She would not deny the words' effectiveness, though. The way the powerful woman looked at her with such morbid intrigue, and the way everyone else looked at her with such rage. Both were merely fueling her own poise.

"I am glad to hear it." The sickly-sweet tone was flavored with lead. "Now, if you are recovered we can begin the meeting. Please, have a seat." She gestured to the waiting chair, once Cinder's, now ostensibly falling to her.

"I am afraid I must decline."

Salem had just turned around to the rest of the table when the words hit her like a slap. They might as well have been, for the punishment would be the same for anyone who defied the mother of Grimm.

"With all due respect," Emerald quickly added after she let the first statement sink in to the minds of the others at the table. "I appreciate the offer, but I'm-"

"It is not an offer." The icy-cold voice of Salem interjected, promising dire consequences if the refusal was forwarded. But Emerald already knew this.

"I appreciate the offer." She reiterated, emphasizing the choice she believed she had. "But I do not belong at your table." She was sure the others would agree with her, but Salem would have her way if she truly wanted. "No, rather, I do not want to be at your table."

Her declaration was tantamount to sedition, a capital punishment by anyone's standards. She knew it. The whole room knew it. And contrary to what everyone expected, this seemed to amuse the quasi-omnipotent woman.

"Oh, and why pray tell is that?" She slowly turned around with that same saccharine smile on her face. "You so willingly followed your mistress to whatever ends she desired, and she in turn followed me. Surely there is some loyalty that still exists there." She stressed the emotional argument, well aware that there were others in the room to whom this did not apply.

"Or if not loyalty," She mused, pacing back to her chair at the head of the table. The Grimm escorts and the other councilmembers watching her with confusion. "Then perhaps you need to be reminded of the benefits given to those who follow my leadership. And, of course, the detriments of those who do not."

"You need not enumerate them, Mistress." Emerald doled out patiently, perfectly courteous but slightly impatient with the honorific title. "I understand perfectly my position, just as I understand that the situation has changed since my predecessor had this chair." She didn't know when she began thinking of Cinder as her predecessor, though it was an apt description of her former mistress.

After all, she was the one who came before.

"Apparently things have changed." Salem hissed out, clearly upset at what she viewed as insubordination. She was not wrong.

"And I am not Cinder." Emerald stated firmly, putting her foot down, turning her body so her infirmity was less obvious, though no one would let her forget it. "Cinder was privy to what you were doing. I never was. She had ambition within your organization. I…" Could she say that she was without ambition? No, that was not true, never true for any human or Faunus living. She had a different, perhaps greater, and perhaps lesser idea in mind.

"I have no desire to be subordinate to anyone any longer." From underneath the lamplight to underneath Cinder's wing, she had always had something above her keeping her down. It was supposed to be for her protection, but she did not need that any longer. "I have no need to be with you. I am not some weak girl, unworthy of your attention any longer.

"I, am the new Fall Maiden."

The declaration was met with a myriad of reactions, all of them bottled up, kept in check waiting to see how the only one in the room that mattered would lean. Salem had shuffled through degrees of upset, from murderous to curious, all of them reserved behind the mask of ancient wisdom. And now she fell back to an unreadable expression, still water in an open ocean which concealed the leviathan beneath.

Then she smirked.

"I'm impressed. You're a hell of a lot more ballsy than Cinder was." Her gaze was ripe with blood. "Or rather, I would be if I cared. I could end you right now, little girl. You understand that?"

"But you won't."

"Oh, and why not?"

"Because…" She had already swallowed the hemlock by talking back so blatantly, now she had to trust she had the remedy. She trusted the voices inside of her, hundreds of Fall Maidens before her had shaped her, including Cinder's. And while they had not bequeathed their memories, their experience lived on in their souls, in their Aura which now she retained.

"Because if you kill me, then you lose the power of the Fall Maiden."

"And? If I let you do as you please, I will have lost it as well. On the other hand, I could kill you now, and just assume the power for myself."

"But you won't." If her head was going to come off, it would do so in the next few seconds. "Because you can't. Because you can't assume the power of the Seasons."

Opposed to the positively venomous glare being sent her way, Emerald felt relief at the quietly seething witch. It seemed her instinct, backed by intuition was correct.

"And if you kill me," She pressed her advantage, not sure how much of it was her own wit and how much was borrowed. ", you won't get the power. It will want to go to you, but you can't have it. Either you cannot control it, or it might physically harm you to do so." She wasn't sure the specifics, but based on the furious look on Salem's face, she was close to the truth.

"That's why you need someone else close to you to have the power. It's one of the only things that can hurt you."

But Salem had not survived for as long as she had without learning how to play the game. She knew Emerald was dancing dangerously close to the truth but would not reveal that by reacting to her provocations. She might grant the girl her concession, for now. But she couldn't afford to let her be, lest she decide to offer herself to the remainders of Ozpin's little group. She proclaimed her desire to be beholden to no one, but she had already proven that she could not be trusted.

"Hardly," Salem sneered, invoking as much passive malice as she could with that single word. "I require strong people for my plan to work. Cinder was useful because she had ambition. Ambition enough to assassinate the Fall Maiden and take her power, thus actually making herself useful to me. That's all the Maidens are: a quick route to power. And even with that power, you are still just a little girl."

Dark shadows like snakes slithered across the floor in the blink of an eye and wrapped around Emerald before she could do as much as blink. The entire room tensed, including Neo who, despite her better judgment, made to dash at the inky tendrils holding hostage her companion. But a look from the green-haired woman stayed her hand from grasping the curved hilt of her ruined blade.

Even as the midnight coils encircled her neck, Emerald made no move against them. It would be far more telling, far more beneficial to her to see what the older woman would do now.

Salem began talking over her falter, seeing the lack of reaction to her soft attack. But it was mostly bravado.

"You are not strong enough to survive me." She threatened with good reason. "You have no hope to beat me. You have no hope to accomplish anything with your miserable life unless you join with me.

"Probably not," Emerald managed to choke out, even as the inky fingers crept up her jaw. She never took her own crimson gaze from Salem's. It was a risky gamble, but well worth it to be free of this woman's machinations. "Probably don't. But then again, I never wanted much."

"Then just tell me what you want. Name me your price, and if you swear loyalty to me, then you shall have it." She eased on her shadows just enough to allow the girl to breath shallowly.

"You don't have anything I want."

A tornado of fire crackled to life at the tips of her toes, and burned its way up to the whorl of her hair. The shadows encircling her almost seemed to shriek and leap back in surprise and pain from the sudden illumination which tore through them. Emerald dropped to the floor in a crouch and aglow. The molten skin slowly dissipated as she stood up, bleeding out to the left arm now forged entirely from Vulcan's fire, and not anything his hammer could have crafted.

Salem hissed as her tendrils retreated back to their master, but held a hand as her two Grimm had started to creep up on them.

Emerald held herself composed, even as the elation within her rode the thermal current to cloud 9. She was still playing a narrow game, and did not want to make an outright enemy of the woman. As it was, she wanted to disappear, go somewhere where no one would recognize her, where no one would care who she was or where she came from. If Neo wanted to come, so much the better. But she couldn't very well do that if someone was hunting them.

"Mistress-"

"Go." She spat passed the attempt at diplomacy. Turning back to her other, faithful servants who still knew fear, and who were now dreading having to bear the brunt of their mistress's ire.

"Both of you, go. You are wasting my time."

Words of condolence would not help them. In the best curtsy she could manage, which was still a travesty, Emerald bid her ado.

"By your leave."

She held her breath as she had to pass by the woman on her way out, still acutely aware that she could be struck down any moment if she dared so much as drop her guard. Silently she beckoned Neo to follow with a curt nod, her one remaining hand holding up her impractical but elegant dress, glad that she did not have to make her escape in it.

Instead she and her cohort were walking out the front door. Bathed, dressed and fed, and all in all better off from when they had started. A first, in her experience, and something she was not soon to take for granted.

"And lady Salem," She turned and called out, holding the multi-ton door open with one arm. The only answer was the continued glare that had tracked her across the room. She bowed her head, which was only to hide the smirk she could no longer hold.

"Thank you ever so much for your hospitality."

"Jaune? Hello? Earth to Jaune! What's up dude?"

The younger teen pestered his fellow blond whose normally straw hair had turned deathly pale to match his overall pallor, poking the exposed bits of flesh under his omnipresent armor. Getting no response from the young man who had seized up inexplicably, Naruto huffed and turned back to his other companion, who had observed the two out of the corner of his eyes, but had yet to take them off their new sword instructor.

"You know man, it's kind of rude not to greet someone you just met. Especially when they came just for us. It's not very ho- uh, hosital? No, that's not it. Hospital? Nah! That's not it either. Hmmm…."

He chewed on his thumb while the adults present laughed silently at the anguish they were very knowingly causing the young man.

"I believe the word you are looking for, young man, is 'hospitable'."

The suggestion was offered with a knowing smile from the woman standing next to Glynda. The amused expression she wore belied her stern features, tense smile accentuating modest wrinkles that fought against taught, sun-weathered skin.

"Yup! That's it! Thanks Ms.-um, actually I don't think we were introduced yet."

Naruto's smile snapped in time with his fingers as he whirled about to face the two adults, oblivious to the tension expressed by two out of three potential students. Sasuke stood quietly to the side, trusting of their headmistress in her choice, but wary of the graying blonde woman by her side.

Beneath the polite words and soft tone, there lay a dangerous twinkle in her eyes. Pale blue eyes like a sniper's glass scoping them out since before they even knew she was there.

"True, while I have not yet been introduced to you, Jaune should at least know who I am." Her smile cocked a margin more as she bore down on the still, near-catatonic teen. "Even though he was just a babe when last I saw him."

"Aunt Aurelia…." The name slipped lucidly from his tongue as his muscles spasmed, half in shudder half in some kind of belated genuflect that ended up with him nearly collapsing on the ground in search of his breath. Naruto saw him begin to keel over though and caught him under his arm before he hit the ground, perplexed at the taller blond's reaction to his kin.

Oh if he only knew! If only Jaune could muster the strength to warn his comrade in arms just what kind of woman his great-aunt was! If this was indeed the sword tutor promised by their instructor and headmistress, what kind of hellish regime they were likely to expect under the guidance of a woman who had long ago estranged herself from the social circles of the Arc family in favor of braving the wilderness of Atlas's Northern Aliet Island chain. Someone who was more at home riding bareback underneath the starry skies of a land which never saw sun.

If only…

"Well, as my eloquent nephew says, my name is Aurelia Arc, and I am Jaune's great-aunt something, something thrice-removed…" She abbreviated whatever extraneous suffixes might have come after that with a careless wave of her calloused hand. It was far simpler to call her a legend within the Arc family. Though her father was of the main family, her mother had been a huntswoman from one of the tribes of roaming nomads that had become scarce to the point of myth in recent years, drawing their stock from the same cask as the infamous Branwens and no less docile for the component of Arc blood she had received. Or so the stories said.

"Anyway, Glynda has informed me of who you two are," She met eyes with Sasuke who was surprised to feel a bead of sweat run down the rut of his temple. "…as well as what you are."

Naruto remained all but cluelessly supporting the younger Arc. Not to say that he wasn't aware of dangerous the new woman in front of him could be. His animalistic recognized her prowess, but at the same time acknowledged her benevolent presence, identifying her a pack leader in his more reptilian brain. The human part of him recognized this merely as a strong attraction of character, his judgment being one of the many parts of his personality which survived the transition.

He found himself excited at the prospect of a true challenge, and that superseded everything else.

"Aurelia has kindly agreed to be your tutor in sword forms." Glynda broke her own silence, minute revenge being extracted from the younger Arc at last, and also quietly reveling in the apparent victory of having one more female present in their little study sessions.

"She is an acclaimed expert in many Western as well as Eastern forms, and far more adept at I in offensive techniques and weapons training." The curved sword whose origins were obscured by a heavy leather sheath hung from her hip as naturally as a cat's tail and spoke in and of itself. "Although she will be training all of you, I will not deny that she is going to focus on training Sasuke to a higher degree of proficiency, considering we are limited in teaching him anything else."

The aforementioned two had themselves a miniature staring contest with Aurelia matching Sasuke's tension with a half-lidded relaxation, one hand propped on her hip with the one closest to the weapon hanging loose. Though starting opposed, with about as much give in his stance as a sail's rigging, Sasuke soon relaxed and mirrored the woman's smirk.

Naruto and Glynda both relaxed as well seeing the sudden diffusion and apparent acceptance between master and apprentice. The latter had held a sneaking suspicion that this would be the case, but knew better than to assume anything given these two-now three unpredictable people.

The thoughts of the two younger teens for once found themselves in sink, both eagerly awaiting what new adventure this latest addition would bring them. It was yet another unmapped territory which held untold riches. Though the mysterious and savage looking woman might not be the Eldorado they were looking for, she would provide them with an opportunity of experience which was as valuable as the real thing.

Jaune was of conflicted thought within his mental-shutdown. Once again he was assured of a high-class training regime which he probably did not deserve. He would no doubt look back on the event as another unexpected turning point in his life. But in the meantime, he did know to expect a hell several magnitudes worse than his apprenticeship under the two shinobi. He tried to take solace in the fact that his education would come from within the family, but somehow that thought was not providing him with much comfort just right then.

"Alright, shall we get started then?"

"Alright, Ruby, let's call it quits for today."

Qrow lazily approached his bent-double niece whose legs had long since failed her and was supported solely by the stalwart shaft of her scythe planted firmly into the grassy soil. Her slow, heavy breaths shrouded by sweat-soaked hair which clung to her face. Her stained and scraped knees shivered minutely under his approaching gaze.

"Ruby?"

He asked concernedly, not receiving a response from the tired teen. He lowered his gaze to look her in the face, and could not help but sigh as he realized that she had passed out on her feet.

"Silly kid."

"Stupid human."

Ruby could hear her uncle's voice somewhere far away. But it's diffuse echo rambled through the damp passageways she trotted through without an origin, and every time she made her way toward it, it became farther away.

"Hello?" She called out, her own voice falling dull on the earthen walls. "Uncle Qrow?"

But she was alone, a dull crimson emanating from jutting polyhedral crystals her only company in the dank darkness. The smell of moist soil which should have been a comfort was too cold with her summer wear, and spoiled even then by the lingering smell of sulfur. Gone was the salad days of summer, of cut grass and pink lemonade, and it was now the winter of discontent.

"Hello?"

"Stupid human."

Her echo came back foreign and jagged, laughing at her confusion and drawing her towards its reflection. She followed it nonetheless, down the rabbit hole.

The passageway became smaller and smaller as she went on, glowing crystals encroaching on her and clawing at her simple training attire, easily shredding through the lightweight cotton and onto flesh underneath. But what pain she could feel she ignored. What unease pressed upon her she eschewed, even as she went from crawling on her knees to squirming her way through the encroaching tunnel. Blood mixed with the earthen walls and stained her white tank-top in a battle-hardened tie-dye.

She was birthed from her earthen womb into a chamber. Or was it the other way around? This seemed to be the breeding ground for those luminescent crystals, long shafts of glowing rock piercing through ceilings, walls and floors indiscriminately and mingling with clusters forming a jagged carpet. And the energy which pervaded the hollow left no doubt that this was her intended destination.

"Ah… I remember this one… the little fool…"

The shadows cast by the light winked at her, laughing as the voice which echoed in the chamber did so now in her mind. The blackness shifted and squirmed as she spun around, looking for the voice's origin.

"Who are you?"

She questioned the darkness, fear being easy to disguise because strangely enough there was none. Though the feeling which saturated the air in the room was nothing short of pure malice, it was familiar, like it was her own righteous anger addressing her.

"Who am I? Hmm… I can't seem to remember. But…" The voice paced throughout the room, settling on her shoulder. "…I remember you."

She shivered in the cold and recoiled from the burn which settled on her bare shoulder. She spun around to confront the voice, unconcerned of her naked and disheveled state. What shame was there between her and herself?

"Who are you?"

She demanded now, silver eyes stabbing the illusory body of shadows, trying to pin it down to the crystalline walls. The shadows swirled as if avoiding her gaze, but congealed onto the floor at her feet, squirming unconsolidated towards her ratty sneakers. She began by taking a step back as it approached but stopped, and as it drew nearer, it began to take shape.

The living blackness pillowed in front of her, burbling and squirming as it rearranged its insubstantial mass, searching for a form that felt familiar to itself.

"Who am I? I remember many things… not all of them mine… but a name is not among them."

Tendrils of shadows still writhed like a tangle of snakes, but slowly began to consolidate down to a quantifiable number. The amorphous lump began to be recognizable as a body, a form familiar to many on their earth. Unorganized splotches made by the blood-red stones in their diffuse light gained depth as they now took what looked like steps towards her.

She wanted to shy away from the nightmarish scene, but even if she could move her back would soon be pressed up against the cavern walls. As it was, she stood transfixed as the shadow beast lumbered towards her. It was about waist-height when eyes bloodier than the crystals which surrounded them cracked open and stared out at her.

"I remember you…. Do you remember me?"

She felt the emptiness behind those eyes, a chalice waiting desperately to be filled. She felt the same hollowness in her gut as sure as she felt her beating heart in her throat.

"Can you name me?"

It asked her as innocently as a child. But it was not a child looking for an identity. It was sword looking for its purpose.

"Kyuubi."

The Cheshire smile grinned out at her menacingly.

"That's right."

Okay, so there were actually some major changes instilled in this chapter. Don't like them? Tough. This story from the outset was written by me to satisfy my understanding of what a meeting of the two worlds would look like. If I fall into tropes, it's because I believe that they, while correct, are not written well by anyone thus far. But mainly I wanted to do my own thing.

Generally speaking as well, I don't like to use OC's, but found little alternative given what was happening. In other words, the story would have been a lot more boring had I done it another way. Aurelia means 'golden' in several languages, and her character is inspired by the Finish and Hungarian cultures, if any out there are unsure of what I'm going for. While geographically far away in our world, the two are the only members of the Finno-Ugric language group (though even then, they are not all that similar), so I decided to have some fun with that, and she will most likely continue through the story illustrating some traits from both Suomi and Tartar traditions.