Hey! Update's a little late. I had assignments to submit. But here's another of the Tales Between, covering an event that occurred in Volume 3.


"Fucking damn it, Ozpin," Qrow groaned. He was really starting to question the man's decisions.

The moment Pyrrah Nikos stepped out of the elevator, Qrow had to slam down on the guilt and anger he felt. After all, if she agreed to become the new Fall Maiden (And Qrow had no doubts about it), he would be sending a Sky to her death. Ruby's friend and fellow Sky.

Don't get him wrong. If there were other options other than transferring the aura of one person to another, Qrow would gladly take it. But nope. The only options he had was Aura transfer, and it was either to a living person, and someone they trusted to not misuse the power, or into a machine provided by James, who would most likely try and turn said power into a weapon, no matter how he tries to disagree.

Qrow's guilt multiplied even more when he remembered that Amber was only in this state in the first place because he had failed to adequately protect her from afar. And he couldn't even heal her, since the damage to her was soul deep. What that witch had done not only tore out half of Amber's powers, but caused her to start haemorrhaging Flames, loosing them too quickly for her body to replenish, especially considering she wasn't even Flame active. The only reason she was still alive was because they had her in a life support pod.

The fate of the Maidens... He hated it, hated that it tended to be pushed onto girls as young as Ruby. At least, with the curse of the Arcobaleno, their successors were always the strongest of each generation, trained and more than able to adapt to the changes (The only exception had been Skull, but even he had been an adult when the Curse happened). With the Maiden's magic, it was completely random, and meant that it could end up in untrained successors, successors that, if none of them found on time, would either be captured or killed by Salem and her people.

Qrow sighed. He wondered if this was one of the reasons why Raven left. Not simply because of their secondary forms, but because if she followed through, she would be cursing others to a fate similar to what theirs had once been, and she couldn't bear to watch.

(That did not excuse her for leaving Tai and Yang alone and Summer to pick up the pieces of the shattered family.)

But here was the question. If no one protected the Maidens, what was there to stop Salem from destroying the world?

(He knew what was able to stop Salem. Flames. But with only him and Lal awake, Colonnello still getting over his depression while working at Patch, and Uni unawake, still young and training, none of them were even ready to fight the Grimm Queen... So what were they to do till then?)


Please don't mind if Qrow is OOC. He... wasn't cooperating on this post. Also, chapter name has the same origins to Raven's.