*Sigh* I feel really self conscious about this one. I had some grand schemes that will still work, though I had hoped to convey more of their importance with this one. Anyhoo, there it is. I hope I can get on to a little bit more of what I want to in the next chapter.

In any case, I hope this answers a few questions that have seemed to pop up among readers. I really had meant to throw in the Kyuubi before now, but I had wanted to focus more on the interpersonal relationships first, but those just seem to be a never ending endeavor with all of the potential within both the series. For fans of team JNPR I apologize, I love those guys as well, and I feel like I neglected them until now, but like I say, there is just so much room in a single story.

I also feel like I slightly returned to my belabored form of writing in this chapter, I seem to do that when I try to delve to deeply into a character's conscious. Please let me know what you think.

This may also be rectified in the coming chapters, as I anticipate a more profound divergence from the series starting very soon.

As always, thank you for your patience and cheers to you, the viewers. Even though this is mainly for my own self-gratification, we are in no small part what others think of us.

"Damn it! That was too close…"

Naruto swore as he slammed his bandaged fist against the concrete wall of the passageway which awaited them outside the arena. He quickly withdrew his damaged appendage with a hiss, as fresh blood blotted to the surface of the wrappings. He gingerly held his wrist in his other hand as he glared at an offensive drop that had made its way to the floor.

Sasuke could not help but concur with his teammate's assessment. The match had been too close for comfort. He had come into it assuming they would both be able to handily defeat the captain and sister of team RWBY, but both had been forced to reveal some of their tricks which they had jealously managed to guard since the beginning of their stay. Clearly they would have to up their regime, not that they had been sedentary before, but this just illustrated to his mind how far they had yet to go. On top of all this, the idiot had managed to injure himself by overloading the mechanism of his buckler, which was geared for dust or Aura, but somehow rejected the corrosive nature of their chakra.

"I told you. We can't channel chakra through our weapons because there is something with our chakra that doesn't mesh with this universe's technology. You should have listened to me." Sasuke lectured his friend as they disappeared further into the tunnel that would lead back up to the contestant's box and the rest of the stands. They had parted ways with the two members of team RWBY back on the arena floor, the younger woman amicably lugging her unconscious sister over her shoulder as she thanked the two boys for their enjoyable battle.

"Shut up, Sasuke. Just, shut up!" Naruto snapped at his partner in a very un-Naruto like manner. Sasuke was taken aback by this outburst and halted suddenly as the boy ahead of him did as well. Naruto turned to glare at Sasuke, and he could see the slightest flares of crimson flit into the icy stare he sent him.

Naruto was not in any mood to be lectured by the other teen. The fox had finally started to stitch his skin back to his musculature with needle-like threads of chakra, and needless to say, it didn't feel all too great as his nerves came back online and registered the repairs in excruciating detail. But the physical pain actually helped to distract him from the tumult which was threatening to drive him mad.

These people they were dealing with, Ozpin's enemies, their enemies and ostensibly the enemies of the whole population of Remnant were not to be trifled with. From the few times he had interacted with their ring leader, he could tell the woman was powerful. Not just in her manipulations, although that deviousness was scary enough in itself. He had no doubt that if she wanted to, she could wreck untold amounts of undue harm at any time. And at the moment, it seemed it all fell to him to toe the line and prevent that from happening. And right now, his partner was not helping.

"What the hell's up with you, dobe?" Sasuke stared appraising the clearly disturbed boy. He could clearly see that it wasn't simply a case of raw nerves, or pain alone that was upsetting him.

Naruto turned around more to unleash his diatribe at the abrasive teen, but held his tongue, right hand clamping down harder on his bloody wrist. More red bled into his dressings and his eyes. Sasuke unconsciously shifted and a hand rose to rest itself on the hilt of his sword. Was this it? Were they finally going to settle what they had started at the valley of the end? Was this the end of their tenuous partnership? Sasuke would have put money on this happening at some point, but to tell the truth, he had grown accustomed to the almost mundane repartee that he and his teammate now shared. But he was fine with a showdown, too. Why did he have to pick such an inconvenient time to do it, though?

The two stared at one another. Naruto's feral features glowed in the dim light, glowing darkly with hatred the avenger little thought the blond could possess. Even if this was the Kyuubi's influence, at was quite something to be the recipient of such raw emotion. But nothing happened, not for a long time.

Naruto very much wanted to unload his burden on the other boy. He wanted someone to know what he was going through right now, and he was not even sure Sasuke had even an inkling. He wanted to scream, to rage about how unfair, how impossible the situation was. He wanted to shove all the responsibility, all of the burden onto the uncaring young man staring him down with his onyx gaze in this floating rabbit's hole.

But he couldn't. This was his burden, after all. His part to play in all this, his retribution for getting them there in the first place, and his responsibility to protect the friends he foolishly acquired in this world so far away from the one they knew. The one where they knew who was who, right from wrong. But even that certainty he was beginning to doubt these days, and he was left with nothing. Nothing real to fall back on except pain. He bit his tongue.

When no one moved, Sasuke closed his eyes, unable to look at his partner glaring at him so accusingly. His hand fell from the hilt of his sword and his fist clenched, shook.

"You think you are the only one lost here?" The question was so quiet, so out of the blue that it made Naruto's nerves twitch. Despite not saying a word to his partner, Sasuke seemed to have parsed out his internal harangue. "You think you are the only one suffering, struggling to figure out what to do? Bullshit."

Sasuke raised his head to glare pitch black, comma ringed pupils at him. "Things aren't so easy for me either. Sure, to you it might seem like all I want to do is return to our world and get my life back on track, fulfill my desire to kill my brother. But I have realized of late, things aren't going to be that simple. Even if we were to go back together, I doubt Konoha would welcome me back with open arms." He gave a laugh devoid of humor. "In fact, with the Kyuubi still sealed inside you, I doubt they would want either of us back."

Naruto wanted to deny this, to revile this callus assumption, but the truth was that he had much the same thoughts of late. If he wasn't in Konoha, Akatsuki would have no reason to attack. They were safe from whatever plot involved the Jinchuriki.

But Sasuke was not done. "But it's even worse for me, you know? You, you could probably go back, if you really wanted to. Or you could even stay. You have carved yourself out a little life here, haven't you? But what do I have waiting for me back home? I don't even think the Snake himself would want me now." His hand reached up to his collar and pulled back the layered clothing to expose his chalky shoulder. The curse mark was still there. But, it was not the curse mark any more. The three tomoe had become four, and had been bound together by a serpentine figure, gorging itself on its own tail.

Naruto stared wide-eyed at the development of the mark. He had not noticed its change in the time they had been in this world together, his partner had either carefully kept it hidden, or he just hadn't noticed it because he had assumed it had always been there. He wanted to know what had happened to mutate it so, but suspected that the owner himself had no idea.

"So you want to be pissed? You want to rage about how unfair this all is? Go ahead. I'm right here with you. Let's go howl at the moon like the curs we are." Sasuke smirked at his facetious suggestion, and Naruto let the silence that followed it hang. No one was sure of what to say now.

"Well done, you two."

Thankfully, it was someone else's words that filled the void. Ozpin and Glynda materialized out of the darkened hallway behind them. Glynda, with heels hurriedly clicking against concrete and echoing in the empty space, rushed over to the blond boy to assess how bad his injury was. He tried to jerk his arm out of the older woman's grip, but winced as he did so, and she glared at him disapprovingly. Ozpin stood, hand resting on his cane as he watched his partner interact with the boy, and regarded the other ninja staring silently at his arrival. A silent accord was struck. The hallway was a good conductor of sound. Ozpin had no doubt heard their little confrontation.

"Anyway, you two should both get some rest. Naruto, you should go to the nurse to get that checked out, I don't care how fast you heal, we wouldn't want that to get infected." Ozpin held up his hand to stifle any protests that were on the boy's lips. "Now, now, we are going to need you in good shape if we are going to attempt to send you home soon."

This perked up the ears of both boys. Though Naruto caught on to implications faster even than the supposed genius. "Did something happen to Amber?" More tentatively. "Did you find someone to assume the maiden's power?"

Ozpin smiled at the concern displayed for the woman he had never actually met. "No to the first, and to the second, well, I think that I have found someone capable."

"Really? Who is it?" Ozpin was further surprised by the boy's insistence. He would have thought that the news that they could finally be sent home would be their top concern. Maybe it was for the still silent and skeptical Sasuke still waiting in the wings for the conclusion to this admission. "I believe Ms. Nikos would be the ideal candidate for maidenhood." Naruto stared at the man incredulously. "What? Pyrrha? Has she agreed to this?" He did not doubt the woman's conviction, but he wanted to make sure that Ozpin was not trying to trick her into it, or worse even, forcing her to do so. Not that he assumed he would, but it was a sudden revelation.

"Well, I haven't actually asked her to do so, yet." Ozpin revealed. "But I have little doubt she will rise to the occasion and make a fine Fall Maiden."

"But-"

"But this is her decision, Naruto. Not yours." Surprisingly, it was Glynda who cut the boy short, and he stared at her with a look of slight betrayal. She also had serious misgivings about using Ms. Nikos for the task, but surprisingly it was the two of them who had most convinced her that this new generation might be up to the challenge. Besides, she could see no better option. It was best to transfer Amber's semblance as soon as they could, and the sooner they pulled the plug on her, the sooner they could divert their energies to getting the two stray shinobi back home.

Naruto wanted to protest, but knew he could not. She was right, it was not their place to decide. It was ultimately between her and Ozpin. They were the ones that were going to live with the consequences. Once the transfer was done, so was their part in this whole crazy mess. He settled for a hangdog look. Not quite content with the situation as the dice fell, but unsure of what to do, besides whatever came next.

"Now, again, why don't you go to the infirmary, Naruto. Glynda?" The woman nodded and loosely wrapped an arm around the distressed boy's shoulders and began to guide him to the on-site aid station where she herself would evaluate his injury. Ozpin then turned to Sasuke and addressed the teen who had yet to say a word to either of them. "Sasuke, I think it would be best if you were to represent the two of you for the final round, wouldn't you say." Sasuke nodded, and Naruto did not have heart to protest.

"Breath in." She listened to the heartbeat through the stethoscope in the accompanying silence. "And out. Good." Naruto released the breath he had been told to hold in rush of air. Glynda nodded, removed the cold probe and he made to tighten the fold of his haori.

They had made their way to the small infirmary, and Glynda had changed the dressing on his arm. Regardless of his healing, however expedited, his blood had already thoroughly soaked the impromptu bandage and he knew that he could do with a fresh wrap. When she peeled off the blood-caked gauze though, she was shocked to find most of the skin had already reattached itself solidly to the limb, and the remaining pinstripe cuts were already starting to scab over and close.

She should not be all that surprised, though. Ozpin had briefed her on the boy's unusual 'condition', and the rapid healing factor that went along with it. It was a small consolation, she admitted, for having been ostracized his whole life.

Still, despite his rapid healing, she decided to give him a full check-up, realizing for the first time that he had yet to have any established on their records. In all the time she had tended the wounds after both the training and the missions, she had never bothered to check the boys overall health. Which, it seemed did not matter so much, because he seemed to be in peak physical condition for his age. But in truth, it was not his physical health she was most concerned with.

"Are you alright, Naruto?" He sent her a withered smile that she flinched at.

"I'm fine, really. Thank you, Glynda."

She wanted to press him, for it was obvious that he was not, but she was unsure if it was her place. Despite all the time they spent together, he had been unusually tight-lipped when it came to personal matters. She was a little bit hurt by his lack of trust in her, but chalked it up to what must have been the boy's hard past. She would make herself available at any time, if he were to change, but she would put no pressure on him to share his feelings.

She just gave him a small smile and squeezed his re-wrapped hand gently. He returned her smile, filled with a bit more warmth this time.

"I have to get back up to the stadium in case Ozpin needs me for another one of the matches." She apologized, but Naruto indicated that he understood. "No problem. I think I am just going to stay here for a while. Think about things." Returning the nod, Glynda turned her back on the boy, leaving him on the paper-coated hospital mattress, a sterilized copy of the prison bed he had slept on so many nights ago. He watched her shoot him one last glance as she shut the heavy metal door with a light click the belied its sturdy lock.

"I didn't think that that woman had a heart in her. What a surprise."

Naruto swept the smile off of his face as he recognized the voice lilting out from behind the drawn privacy curtain to his right. "What do you want?"

The curtain swept back on its tiny metal rollers with a metallic slick, revealing the reclined body of Cinder Fall, lounging seductively on the bed adjacent to him.

"Aw, what makes you think I want anything? I heard my little pet was hurt so I wanted to come and check up on him."

Naruto growled and shot the woman a withering glare as she simply raised an eyebrow at the gesture and idly walked her fingers back and forth on the crinkling sheet.

"I am not your pet."

"Oh really? Well, you do what I ask of you, and you are going to continue to do what I ask of you if you ever want to get back home."

It was Naruto's turn to smirk in perceived victory as he let his vindictive nature gain control over his mouth. "That's where you are wrong. Ozpin found us a way to get back home. It's just a matter of time before-" He cut himself off, realizing that he was straying dangerously close to revealing the existence of Amber.

"Hm? Is that so." Cinder sat up and looked questioningly at Naruto. "So Ozpin has found someone foolish enough to relieve Amber of her semblance?" Naruto gawked at her. Apparently, the secret of the Maidens was not as secret as he had hoped. Cinder chuckled at the boy's distress. "Oh I know about Amber, who do you think put her there?"

He had an insatiable urge to flee, then. He had always been unnerved by this woman, but with the added knowledge that she had bested someone of legendary power was reason enough to fear her. Even still, he could not move, transfixed by morbid curiosity. Her smile grew, seeing the effect she had on the normally unflappable young man. "So you see now there is no hope for your little cabal to succeed, right? So just keep doing what I ask of you, and I promise you will get your reward."

She glided off of the mattress and over to the stunned young man looking despondently at his own hands. He flinched as her arms wrapped around his shoulders and she whispered into his ear. "So, just be a good little boy and fight for me in the final round, hmm?" "Why me?" Came the hesitant question. She toyed with a loose strand of his wild hair, longer now since he had not cut in in some time. "Everyone likes an underdog."

She let go of him then, and he suppressed a shiver. She silently sauntered over to the door, but before she got there she was stopped by a whispered plea from the boy she had left dead in the room behind her.

"What about my friends?" His desperation shone through. He could care less, now, whether or not he went home. But he simply could not depart and leave whatever mess he helped bring about heaped on their doorstep.

Cinder grinned as she realized just how much she had him wrapped around her little finger. She didn't even look back to see his dejected aura as she toyed with his emotions. "Hmm…" She pretended to ponder the question, consternating the boy further. "I don't know. What motivation do I have to keep them safe? After all, that team RWBY has been quite the thorn in my side for a while now. And besides, what do you care? You will be going home to your true friends soon. You shouldn't worry about such things."

Though she could not see him, she felt his eyes bore into her back, and for a brief moment she felt a pang of fear as the anger radiating from this concentrated stare seemed to become weaponized. She did not turn though. She did not want to acknowledge her fear to the boy, nor did she want to look at him, and confirm her forebodings.

"I don't care what happens to me. Do not hurt my friends." Gone was the pitiful pleading. This was an order. Still, Cinder would not show weakness. Betraying nothing in her voice, she cast the boy one last morsel before she disappeared.

"I'll think about it."

"I think that went well."

"Hell yeah! We kicked butt!"

Nora exuberantly translated the statement made by her redheaded teammate into her sugar-crazed dialect as the two patted down the same hallway so recently occupied by many more weighty emotions. Victory for them in their recent fight was a gift, not a necessity. Thus, spirits high and cares nil, they exited the breech to rejoin their teammates waiting for them in the wings.

It was Pyrrha who notice the other occupants still in the passageway, dark shades at first, forming familiar persons and dispelling the unease that had been overbearing as of late. Ozpin held himself to his usual unreadable aloof standard, but the same somber mood that she had felt permeating the chamber enveloped the boy who walked alongside like a stray dog. Purposeless, or perhaps without recourse, staring through the two of them.

"Hello Headmaster."

"Hello Ms. Nikos, Ms. Valkyrie."

Ozpin's greeting betrayed no hint as to his purpose accosting them so soon after their match, nor did it explain the boy's purpose. The two from team JNPR had witnessed the match concluded just before their own that had ended with the two younger men victorious, so his solemn air seemed contradictory. In their time at Beacon, Pyrrha at least had grown accustomed to the many languages spoken by the various eccentrics that called it home. Though she herself struggled to integrate herself into casual behavior, it was with an uncanny knack that she could sense that this was not the boy's normal recalcitrance, but a distinct melancholy.

Nora, of course was oblivious to all of this.

"Hey Prof! Duck-Butt!"

Ozpin's ghost of a smile grew almost imperceptibly, however Sasuke failed to rise to the unintentional provocation, and this in itself was enough to severely disturb the Athenian.

"Ms. Valkyrie, do you mind if I borrow Ms. Nikos for a while?"

Despite the inherent trust the young woman felt for the fatherly figure, the shear strangeness of the encounter thus far had set off all kinds of alarms in the highly skilled fighter, and she almost wanted to scream to her partner, nonplussed in her quick acceptance of the situation, to reach out, stop her from going with the man. But this was an insane notion, as she knew the Headmaster could not possibly wish to do her any harm. Still, the mood that accompanied the youth that stayed behind as Ozpin lead her deeper into the subdued light of the hallway was infectious. She cast one quizzical look backwards, more to the boy with his back turned to the two of them, than to her teammate who had rapidly adapted and was waving her off and saying that she would see her again soon.

She sure hoped that this was the case. But the boy that had his back turned gave her no reassurance of this.

Sasuke did not watch the two depart, nor did he much register the whole incident. His mind was still running a mile a minute in the other direction, all over and without course. When the two left, he was still anchored where Ozpin had left him and was in any case in no hurry to go anywhere anytime soon. He would, at some point go see his teammate in the infirmary, if he was indeed still there and had not frolicked away as soon as Glynda gave him a clean bill of health. But he could not see him. Not right now. He had his own problems he needed to sort out, without the baggage his comrade insisted on carrying no matter what world they found themselves in.

A swishing breeze above his head stirred him It tickledthe top ends of his hair, which sagged far lower than it had in the past. Honestly, he did not see why Nora still insisted on the degrading nickname coined for him by Yang. The blonde woman herself hardly used it these days. It did not vex him as much as perhaps it should have, not enough to change anything. It was through sheer negligence that his hair had been allowed to go into such disarray. Backing up a few internal phrases, he recalled the other occupant of the culled population of the underground.

"Nora."

"Hm?"

"What are you doing?"

The fact that she was no longer in front of him, but still present was enough for the young man to be wary. Though the two of them had not spent as much time making acquaintance with the rest of team JNPR, the sheer fact that they had been dealing with Jaune meant that they were expose, though only to sub-lethal doses of the radioactive woman. Thus, he tended to treat her with caution, and preferably with a pair of long-handled tongs.

He received no reply from the woman presumed to still be behind him. Before he could turn around and discharge his pent-up frustration on the innocent hammer-wielder, he felt a great weight settle itself on his shoulders. His knees locked and he almost keeled over, for it had not been all that long since he had done combat with the blonde firecracker from team RWBY. In a way, he supposed, that this immediate annoyance was perhaps a good thing, helping him to tear his mind away from the mobius loop it was stuck on.

That did not mean that he was any less irritated by having his personal space invaded by the energetic woman.

"Nora. What the hell do you think you are doing."

"I'm Queen of the castle, duh."

The reply was stated so matter-of-factly that Sasuke was half tempted in his less than alert state to accept it as a reasonable response. He had, after all, been dealing with the male equivalent for an untold number of months now. Their reality was already on a perpendicular vector, so yet another change might have been adaptable. But physical fatigue was overcoming him now, forcing him to reassess whether or not it was worth it to go along with the ludicrous assertion.

"And why, pray tell, are you not doing this with your teammates?"

"Pyrra, Ren and Jaune aren't here." She poked his head emphasizing each name as she recited it, and he could hear the admonishment in her voice, like she was explaining arithmetic to a grade-schooler for the umpteenth time. "And besides! You're the tall one!"

It had not registered to him for some time, but this was one truth the girl held over him. In the recent months, the both of them had woxen into their new clothes. Though still among the shortest by far, it just so happened to be that he himself surpassed the extraordinarily short woman in the process. He had not noticed, but he supposed Naruto was no longer that far behind him either. But that still did not excuse this familiar behavior she was imposing on him. And his patience bolstered by fatigue was nevertheless wearing thin.

"Nora, who do you think I am?"

"You're Sasuke, duh. Did you hit your head and forget your name?"

"No, I did not forget. Tell me, when have I ever allowed you to ride on my shoulders?"

"I've never needed to! Ren or Pyrrha was always around. But I'm tired and Pyrrha said she would carry after the match if we won!"

Once again, the incredulous logic was undeniable. But he too was fairly exhausted. Not only from the match, but the argument with his trusted partner had got to him as well. He cursed himself in his weakness, he was letting emotions rule him too much in the recent past. He would have to put a stop to this humiliation right now. But the woman was surprisingly heavy for her small frame. He supposed it was all of the veiled muscle with which she swung her hammer around like it was a ballpeen.

"And what on Earth made you think I would allow you to ride on my shoulders now? We hardly know each other. Do I really seem like the type of person who would allow you to do something like this?"

"Yup!"

Sasuke's gears ground together as he tried to shift from 1st to 3rd gear. He flailed around as he tried to recover before he blew the transmission. Nora had just divided by zero and come to an erroneous conclusion and he found himself mired in the neuropathy.

"When have I ever given you that impression? What have I ever done to suggest that I am a benevolent person?"

"Well, for one you are friends with Naruto, and he is friends with everyone. Also, you're at Beacon studying to become a hunter, therefore you have to be good. Plus, you always hang out with Jaune and help him out, I don't know who else would have the patience to deal with him!" Once again, he felt the woman physically counting out her list on his skull. "And, well, you have never given me a reason not to think you're a good person. Therefore, you must be a good kind of person who would be my castle!" He could feel the pride dripping off the woman as she came to her conclusion.

Despite the tenuous evidence at best, he could not deny that he had yet to truly give anyone in this world a reason to be averse to him, barring of course the White Fang and their obvious enemies. It was a thought written on cobweb, and he was afraid to reach out and grasp it might that he would tear it in his efforts at retrieval. Suddenly the weight on his shoulders was so much less to that of his heart.

With a sigh and a cheer from the orange-haired woman he began his excruciating trek back to the stands, and hopefully to where he could find relief from the physical burden.

Through the hallway he dragged his cross.

It felt as if he were dragging his conscious along with his eyelids, it was a belabored awakening. When had he drifted off? Was it after Cinder had left, or had he even been aware of that happening? Had it been many hours after? This was not the infirmary. Not anymore.

The light was dark, ruby hued and omnipresent in that ethereal diffuse way. Had they turned out the irritating buzzing fluorescents when they saw he was asleep? Maybe, but the sheer volume occupied by the light was too vast, the corners what there may have been, disappeared into the darkness.

This was not the uncomfortably sanitized mattress, either. The floating feeling was becoming more solid, and less likely to have been a product of his waking haze. Clarity like lifeblood rushed back into his brain as he recognized with a grim nostalgia where he was, finally.

He sat up in the Tethian sea in his mind, and was presented with his blind familiar. The presence that had been a constant factor in his life, though for a disturbingly long time now snowed in with the happenings of the outside world. Silent. Invisible.

No longer, the Kyuubi stared piercingly at his awakening. How long had he been waiting for Naruto to rise from his induced slumber? The parody of halcyon stillness felt as if it had always been. It had never been this quiet in the beast's chamber, and it affeered him more than if the demon had greeted him with teeth gnashing and admonishments on those black-gummed lips.

"What do you want?"

What did the beast want from him? His absence had been a stark contrast to his usual behavior since Naruto had learned of his presence. It had been a welcome change, at first, and the curse that he was forced to endure was able to be sequestered to a chamber of his mind that he scarcely used. This world, it seemed, was presenting him with a chance to start over, and he could not deny that it was a tempting prospect. However, the longer the beast stayed silent in his gut, the more he had begun to wonder what had become of it. He had toyed with the possibility that the beast was gone for good, its residual chakra still coursing through his system the only sign that he had ever been that unwilling human sacrifice.

But things had changed, once again.

"Insolent brat," the beast growled out, lip trembling in consternation. "I have endured centuries of injustices and the humiliation of three containers, but you are by far the most foolish ningen I have ever encountered."

Naruto sat up, shook the fetid water drops from his hair and started picking the imaginary dirt from his ear. If the Kyuubi had simply brought him here to unload his frustrations, he was not going to humor the haughty lord of demons. The Fox read his body language and bared his teeth in hardly restrained animosity.

"Fool! I did not bring you here simply for my own benefit! I could live through an eternity before I saw your face again. It has been a near Sisyphean task for me to regain my strength after your stunt, and I have only now been able to drag you down here. Do you really think I would waste all of this effort for the sole use of degrading your already inferior species?"

"Fine! Then why did you bring me down here?" Naruto humored the demon by supposing that the beast really did have another motive for this meeting. It was even being, dare he say it, cooperative. Offering him at least a plausible excuse for the amount of time he spent with its absence.

"You will end your charade with this dangerous woman, as well as all of your dealings with this Ozpin character." The beast growled out with all of the grave finality of shoveling earth onto the coffin.

Neither the tone, nor the propagator of the order was enough to quell Naruto's contradictory nature at being arbitrarily ordered around. He had been taking orders with little question for the entirety of his sojourn thus far, and whatever patience he had garnered from the shock and incredulity of being transplanted untold amounts of time and space was at last wearing precariously thin. He rose to his feet, unaffected by the fatigue that plagued his physical body, and uncaring of the waves of raw anger washing over him and rippling the stagnant water at his feet. He leveled his steely blue gaze at the beast of burden, and matched its conviction drop for drop.

"No."

The Kyuubi growled in disdain but otherwise did not move from its perch behind the impossibly thick bars. "No?" It bit back in barely controlled fury.

"No." Naruto reiterated. "I am not taking orders from you. In fact, I'm getting pretty tired of taking orders in general. All I have done since I got here was take orders from people without question, and it doesn't seem to be doing me any good. All I do is get more and more stuck. So if you want me to do as you ask, you better have a damn good reason for it. I want answers, and you will give them to me or get nothing."

"Fool." The Kyuubi restated its default insult, though with far less malice than it had been delivered the first time. "At least you are finally starting to think with that tiny brain of yours. If you keep following the direction of that conniving man, it will get you killed."

Naruto huffed and crossed his arms in defiance. "I'm prepared for that." He was. He had ample time to reconcile that fact with himself. If he could die in defense of his friends, that would be good enough in his opinion. It was the question of living, in this world or his own, that was the hard part.

"Fine. But did you ever consider that I may not be ready to? You may be my jailer, but I am your prisoner. I am your responsibility, and if you die, I die as well."

Naruto was reluctant to admit that he would feel a little guilty for the ultimate fate of the Kyuubi, demon or not, he was not certain if he should hold dominion over such a force.

"So? If you die, you just reform in a few years, right? Besides, it's partly your fault that we are here in the first place. I never would have been able to do whatever it was that got us here on my own." It was with this realization of culpability that came another idea into his forethought. "Hey, wait a minute! If you got us here with your power, can't you get us back?" Though it also might require the cooperation of his teammate, it should at least theoretically be possible.

The beast, however, remained silent. The anger that had engulfed them, bridged the gap between the two had receded at low ebb behind the bars and circled protectively around the creature. His teeth were still bared, but Naruto did not feel it as a human would. It was not a sign of the demon's animosity towards his container.

"You don't know if you can, do you?" It was nigh imperceptible, but he could have sworn he saw the beast flinch backwards. In fact, the more he regarded the fox without the aura of malice surrounding it, the more he noticed just how disheveled the creature looked. Fur matted, eyes bloodshot, an unhealthy tinge to its bared gums, it looked haggard, weary. This scared Naruto more than all of the venom the beast had previously directed towards him. It no longer resembled the king of demons. What had made the great nine-tailed fox look so….

"You're scared?"

It was impossible. But there it was. It was for the first time ever, a caged animal. Backed into the corner and ready to lash out at everything and anything it could, to go down fighting at ghosts until it was torn into shreds. It let out a growl, but words of denial did not follow, and Naruto's fear grew. He took a tentative step towards the cage, and this time he could clearly see the beast flinch in some sort of emulation of the animal it portended to be. What could scare the Kyuubi?

"Fool." It could not even come up with another brand of insult for the boy. And Naruto toyed with the idea that it was stating that as much towards itself as it was an insult to his person.

"You don't know how to get us back." He reconfirmed the supposition to no shouts of denial. But that alone should not be enough to cause such a reaction to the great beast. He ventured further. "You don't know how we got here." More succinct. "You don't know where here is." He delved deeper, but the light was fading and he could no longer see the direction of where to go. He assumed it was the same for the affeered beast.

"There is something happening to us."

This did get a small reaction from the fox, a tightening of the lips and a little bit of the bile returned to its response.

"I have no idea what is happening to you filthy monkeys. It is too hard to tell, you are always shedding skin and other... parts. I cannot be expected to know how your body is reacting to this world. But…"

"But, you can see my chakra?" Naruto surmised, based on the fact that not hours before the Kyuubi had managed to stich his arm back together. "And there is something happening to my chakra, isn't there?"

The Kyuubi roared at him, and Naruto nearly toppled over into the waning pool, unprepared for the wave of putrid air.

"You humans! Always concerned for yourselves! You precious chakra! You are nothing without that power. You are nothing without my power!"

That outburst confirmed it in Naruto's mind. But along with that confirmation came the unprovoked information the Kyuubi had unknowingly provided. Pieces dropped into place, and then the bottom fell out.

His long silence. His bedraggled look. His fear.

Kyuubi was a chakra construct, and there was something about this world that they were in that was at odds with chakra, that much he had learned the hard way. So if he died, the beast's chakra would be released.

"If I die, you would cease to exist." That was it, the Kyuubi was unsure if he could reform in this world without chakra. Sure, they had other energies, both inhabiting humans and the present nature. And of course, there was the enigma of the creatures of Grimm, but if there was no abundant source of chakra, would the Kyuubi simply cease to exist if he had no source to latch on to? This was what had spooked the beast so. He was facing his own mortality, final and ultimate. This was something that all humans had gone through at some point, and all had their way of coping. But this was a demi-god, and unused to having to think of itself as fallible. As much as a creature of pure anger and energy could be, Kyuubi was terrified.

Naruto took a few careful steps towards the bars that separated the two of them. The Kyuubi, he was not sure if it was to his surprise or his expectations, backed away. But he felt something drawing him further in, some sort of pull, not much stronger than a rubber band in comparison to the beast's girth, but Naruto could feel it distinctly.

He was not sure when, or why, but he crossed the invisible as well as the visible barrier that separated prisoner and warden. No massive paw lashed out to crush him. The Kyuubi would not dare, at this moment, for neither had any idea what would become of the beast if he were to do something as foolhardy as this. Though the beast was forged from almost pure rage, there was a conscious logic that dictated its actions, and it stayed its hand.

As he got closer and closer, he could see a thin tendril of aqua ghostly overlaying the blood-red fur in front of him. He blinked, at first taking it for ghost of his tormented mind. But it continued in his vision as he approached and even became more solid, more opaque. He reached out to the spot where it entered the shags of the beast's fur, uncaring of the warding growl the creature was projecting far above him. He saw the blue string pass through his hand on a meridian which he traced back to…

Himself.

The Kyuubi was drawing energy… from him. Not only was the demon unaware if he could reform, he was now dependent wholly on Naruto for recovery. That was why it had taken him so long to hear from his tenant. The Kyuubi was slow to recover because he was drawing chakra from Naruto, and not the other way around. For all extents and purposes, the Kyuubi was simply a capacitor, and no longer a bottomless reservoir from which he could draw. Had this irony been presented to his younger form, he would have laughed and chastised the cowardly fox. Now though, he was every bit as terrified as the demon. His hand on its hide felt the skin tremble.

He looked up into its eyes, glistening with restrained revile and yes, fear. He asked the question that was now shared by two beings within the same body, but one which neither could then answer.

"What now?"

"So, what now?"

Mercury questioned the recently returned Cinder who had reappeared with a caveat to their grand scheme. It would seem that due to recent events, he would not be fighting either Yang or Weiss in the final round, but the blond whom they supposedly had wrapped around their finger at the moment. But Mercury had his own reservations to this conclusion.

"We still go ahead as planned. Nothing else has changed." Cinder responded coolly, assuaging the young man's fears with a sly smile. She turned to regard her other subordinate who looked equally dubious. "You must still be ready to cast your illusion when I give the signal."

Emerald raised a single eyebrow in curiosity. "I take it that means that we don't trust blondie to do as we tell him?" In a way, this reassured the green-haired girl who had been harboring her own doubts as to the trustworthiness of their coerced ally. After numerous interactions with the boy, she had been skeptical as to whether or not there was anything Cinder could truly lord over the boy to get him to follow their orders.

Cinder's smirk grew. "That's one way to put it. I have not actually asked him to do anything but fight in the final round. At this stage, the less he knows the better. I have a suspicion that he has been trying to play us this entire time, but really, the boy is too honest for this kind of deception. Still, he will suffice for what I have planned, and it may even be for the better." Cinder looked out to the mass of crowds only now departing the afternoon's finished match, wistful in desire. "It will be so nice to use Ozpin's little pawn against him. The man thinks he can tread this close to the fire without getting burned, he has another thing coming. His hubris will be his undoing."

They too, were playing a close game, and both Mercury and Emerald would have felt better had they dealt with the two unaccounted variables when first they had learned of their existence. But Cinder was their leader and planner, and they trusted her to take these factors into her calculations. They had no choice but to trust her. They had little other option at this point.

Though it was posed as such, it truly felt like she had little other option than to accept the Headmaster's request, no matter how much personal sacrifice it would cost her.

Pyrrha walked out into the fading daylight, the massive fireball making its last gasp of flaming glory as it was choked out by night for another period of darkness dominated by their fracture moon. She strolled aimlessly, having left Ozpin and Amber deep in the subterranean chamber hidden beneath the school and most of her thoughts down there as well. He was a soulless body meandering in the growing darkness of the gothic arches that made up the castle-like institution.

When Ozpin had explained the improbable situation, retold to her the story of the Four Maidens in the context of a real battle between light and darkness, she had almost felt relieved. The trepidation that had accompanied her being whisked off by the professor in wake of the somber nature of the younger man that had left them had prepared her for something much worse.

But, as she had time to digest the realities of what Ozpin had just now asked of her, she wondered if maybe Sasuke had been privy to the knowledge that Ozpin had bestowed upon her, and the impossible choice she would now have to make.

No, not impossible. It was entirely too possible, there was only one option. She had to accept becoming the Fall Maiden. For the sake of not only the rest of humanity, but all of the people she had come to call friends at this school. She had become strong, in the hopes that it would set her free, that the world would be more open to her if she could conquer it with her own two hands. She had fought tooth and nail for this option, and to a certain extent, it had worked. She was free from the obligations of the weak, from having to suffer as she watched her friends die when there was nothing she could do. But she was also trapped, isolated from the rest of them by some imperceptible distance that she herself had imposed with her competence. And now, now the rift was tearing their worlds asunder, and she was left stranded on island separate, another country, another continent, another world apart.

She leaned against a stone wall under the sheltering arch of a gabled roof, and slid to the ground, all the strength having left her then. It was pitiful, she thought, that the 'invincible girl' should be felled by her own success. She tried to find the strength in herself to do something, to either resist or reconcile herself with the duty she knew awaited her, but she could do neither.

She could do nothing but watch as the last rays of crimson caressed her face one last time before the light faded from the world.

Artificial and stinging light entered his eyes as he came back to the world which he assumed was his own. Whatever that meant to him now. His world, for the past months and what seemed now like the all too finite future would be this foreign and caustic one. One in which he could seek a sense of contentment, but never achieve the full reality.

He blinked up at the fluorescent light, the double fixture half-illuminated still with that obnoxiously insidious buzz that permeated even his unconscious mind. Still, it served to quickly wake him, and he soon became cognizant of change in his position since he was pulled into his mindscape. He had of course been lying down, unsurprisingly on the uncomfortable mattress that seemed standard in this world's facilities. But there was a scratchy warmth on top of him now, not wholly unpleasant, but unaccustomed as he remembered no such feeling prior.

He blinked and rubbed the gunk away from the corners of his eyes as he sat up and appraised the situation. How long had he been out of it?

As he sat up, the wool blanket that had been covering him fell off, and he became aware of an unpleasant and sterilized chill in the air. He sniffed as the sudden change in temperature reached his nostrils and fathomed the conundrum of having fallen asleep in his combat clothes, only to wake up decidedly devoid of this provision. He looked to the small table stationed at the right of the bed to see that they had not gone far, and were folded neatly covering the majority of the small table. His guards and sandals accompanying them carefully stacked on the floor in front.

"Oh, hey! You're up!"

He nearly jumped out of the bed at the sudden interruption of his thoughts, but was immensely glad for his control as he was unsure of just how far he was undressed under the scraggly blanket, but until he ascertained his company was reluctant to find out. He glanced over to his right to see a grin very familiar to his own plastered on the face of a reclined blonde woman. He released a breath, thankful that it was not Cinder.

"Hey Yang."

"Hey Whiskers!" Yang greeted amicably. She was surprisingly alert for someone who was electrocuted… how long ago had that been? He had no idea.

"So why are you here? I didn't think my little sis hurt you that bad." Then again, she had been on a separate part of the field and had been unconscious since the match ended.

Naruto raised his bandaged arm, as much for his benefit as Yang's, as he tried to gauge the time elapsed from how his arm felt, but was unable to properly judge, not being able to feel anything abnormal did not mean that his arm was fully healed, though in all likelihood it was.

Yang nodded in understanding and sat up a little bit more in her own bed, the back having been propped up to facilitate this. Naruto was mildly thankful that she was not in an equally clothed state as himself, as she sat up under the same genre of standardized blanket that must inhabit every hospital and prison (what was the difference again?), he noted she had removed her jacked, but retained at least the tank top underneath it. When had she gotten here? He did not remember her coming in when Glyn- Goodwitch gave him a checkup. He asked as much.

"Oh, Ruby got lost trying to head back to the docks, got tired, and so in the end just dumped me here so I could sleep some of the shock off." She mussed her hair up, unconsciously checking to see if the electricity that had coursed through her body had also done any permanent damage to her pride and joy. "Ruby just ducked out for a moment to score us some grub. I'm pretty sure she'll be bringing some for you too. You were in here when Ruby dragged me in apparently."

Naruto nodded. He did not yet want to question what his state was when they had arrived. He was not sure how he would feel if it turned out one of the two sisters had been the one to undress him. Worse, if it hadn't been either of the two, he sure hoped that it hadn't been that evil woman who came back while he was dragged into his tenant's chamber. He shuddered imperceptibly.

To relieve the awkwardness that was sure to be just around the corner, Ruby chose that time to burst through the door, nearly spilling the bucket loads of food she seemed to be carrying in sturdy plastic bags, bearing paper cartons emblazoned with the generic call sign of 'A Simple Wok'.

"Whoa!"

She nearly tripped over herself trying to balance the food and open the heavy door at the same time. Thankfully, she managed to land the truckload of takeout on the foot of Naruto's bed with commendable precision right before she collapsed face first onto the floor at the bed's feet. She righted herself impossibly fast and shook off the pulsating bump that had then just been growing on her forehead. Naruto was slightly jealous of her apparent healing ability, given that his own might very well be impeded in for the foreseeable future.

"Hey Naruto! You're up!"

"Hey Ruby." Naruto greeted his friend with a smile, glad to see that she did not seem to be offended at having been bested earlier in the day.

"By the way, what time is it?"

Ruby tore open the bags and rapidly distributed the still piping hot contents. Naruto had several boxes as well as a tantalizingly steaming Styrofoam bowl shoved into his lap, which he quickly took charge of, lest the scalding contents spill out and harm some unmentionable part of his anatomy.

"Dinner time!"

The two sisters rapidly dug in as if they had not eaten in days. To be fair, they probably had had nothing to eat since their match unknown hours ago, and Naruto, despite being unconscious for the majority of that time, admitted to no small amount of famishment himself. He uncapped the flimsy plastic lid with condensation bubbling on its translucent underside. He was assaulted with a billowing cloud of steamy goodness as he inhaled the unmistakable scent. After a quick prayer, he dug into his Ramen with a renewed gusto. And for a brief moment, all troubles surmounting throughout the days and months prior could be shoved away with a mouthful of noodles. He actually began to slow down and eat at a more subdued pace as he took in the unlikely seen surrounding him.

He felt a comforting tranquility and contentment. One that seemed to come only in frustratingly small doses but that fueled him just enough to pick himself back up and try again. And it did so now, as the food revitalized his energy, the two carefree huntresses chowing down on their respective dishes next to him restoring his conviction. No matter how alone he could feel in these days of uncertainty, he still had his reasons for pushing forward. A fleeting thought drifted to the prisoner in the seal next to his warming gut. He almost felt pity for the beast, having no one and nothing to fall back upon. It must have been a lonely existence.

In their anxious feast, they hardly noticed the heavy door being heaved open.

"Hey every- Ewww! Don't any of you have any manners?"

"Hghy Wghiss!" The consecutive greeting of the pale woman was obstructed on all fronts by mouthfuls of food. Weiss looked disgustedly at the horror show in front of her, unbelieving of the manners, or lack thereof, displayed by her teammates. They were almost as bad, no, at this point it seemed they were even worse than the human vacuum that occupied the bed immediately in front of her. Naruto at least had the decency (was this possible?) to swallow a bulging cheek-full of noodles before he greeted her.

"Hey Weiss. What'cha doing here?"

"Geeze! Naruto, put a shirt on!"

Yang and Ruby looked at one another, and then at the boy for what seemed to be the first time. He was indeed naked from the waist up, though still fully enveloping his lower half was the wool blanket. Neither had given it much thought at all, growing up in a household with only their father to set an example for them, they were not as prudish as perhaps they ought to be when it came to matters of decency. However, this was their friend and teammate in the hospital bed next to them, and ignoring the fraternal bond they shared, he was only in his early teens.

"Weiss, its Naruto. Get over it."

Yang admonished the young woman in a rare moment of maturity. Though, she had to admit that it was rather curious that her sister also seemed unaffected. Naruto was a sturdy boy, and his young body was at a level of perfection testament to his doubtless ruthless training regime. If she were Ruby's age, she might have found the boy, nay young man, attractive. But as it was, she was rather more curious than amorous in regards to her compatriot in hospice. Part clinical, part sisterly concern she observed the single blemish on his trained physique, a star-shaped scar about the size of an orange perched over the place his heart should be.

Seeing she was not going to progress in conveying her point, Weiss sighed and decided to remove the mystery for her sudden appearance.

"Sorry I'm late guys, I know that I have not exactly been the most reliable teammate today. But I just heard that you two lost, and that Yang got hurt, so I wanted to find you." She nudged a chipped tile with her petit foot, hands wringing behind her back so as to hide her embarrassment. "And I just got here now, because, well, I just woke up." She had set her alarm for noon, to make sure that she could be there at least at the end of the match, and either congratulate or support her teammates for either eventuality, but she had instead slept right through it. It was very uncharacteristic for herself to be so slothful, and especially when it coincided with dereliction of duty from her duties as a teammate.

"Eh, don't worry about it, Weiss. You looked pretty out of it this morning." Ruby nodded with a mouthful of noodles in agreement with her sister. "Besides, I am not sure that I really want you seeing how our battle went!" Yang rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. Though it had long been non-verbally agreed that they would most likely lose to the younger huntsmen, it was still a little embarrassing to be so handily defeated by the two.

"You shouldn't depreciate yourself or Ruby like that Yang." Naruto added his two cents, otherwise content to be forgotten by the woman who seemed to have taken personal offense to his state of undress. "You guys did great, and it was actually a clos thing for a while there." Too close, if he had his way, but he was also glad that his friends at least could take care of themselves if push came to shove.

Ah, there was the blush Yang had expected, it came with the offhand praise from her friend. A chuckle in private at the idea that her younger sister interpreted such honest praise so intimate a concept.

"Anyway, you shouldn't beat yourself up Weiss. Everyone has times when they feel out of it." Naruto gave her a wide, but truthful smile. "Even me."

*Snort* "I doubt that." Yang nearly choked as she took a bite from her own Styrofoam container. They all shared a friendly laugh with that thought, or at Yang's snort. No one could quite tell, or care.

"Here."

Naruto professed one of the half-dozen cooling containers of food to the still standing Weiss. She blinked as she regarded the professed gift.

"We have more than enough food, and you're probably pretty hungry if you've been sleeping all day." Which was true, even as she tried to suppress the mammoth growl her famished stomach unleashed at the thought of food, she had to admit that smell permeating the small infirmary like an opium den was quite addicting.

"You'll probably like this one, it's not too spicy."

Weiss hung up her usual decorum and highfalutin sentiments at the door. She shut the metal portal on the nightmares running through her mind since the previous night, and joined the jovial group in their repast. She took the folded paper container from the kindly smiling young man and sat down on the stool positioned between the two beds each holding their load of blond.

"Thanks, Naruto." She gave him a rare smile, all previous animosity either forgotten or at the very least postponed. But Weiss did not very much wish to keep that appointment, she decided. It was much nicer just sitting here, basking in the good company, than to go around looking for reasons to be upset.

It was a quiet, but comfortable supper the four of them shared, and one that could hardly be improved upon with anything in the world. Save…

"Hey, has anyone seen Blake?"

Blake had hardly even seen Emerald since the morning, finding a moment in which to talk to the mysterious girl alone proved to be an insurmountable task, at least for now. Rather than bemoan her lack of progress, however, she decided to try and root out another first-hand source of information. Though she had a fairly good idea of where the blond young man would be, she was not entirely sure if he would confide in her that sort of personal knowledge. They had mended some bridges, but it seemed that whatever it was the blond and verdette had discussed amongst the two of them was of a particular and sensitive nature, and she hesitated to assume she had that kind of rapport with Naruto at the moment.

Thus it was supremely fortuitous that she happened upon his other half, someone who she ironically felt much more kinship with, despite not sharing half the number of words she had with the blond. Though it could not be all attributed to chance, as she had kept tabs on the raven-haired teen since he reappeared with Nora of all people alighted on his shoulders after his battle against the members of her team. He had deposited the orange-haired woman with Ren, whom she very appreciatively swapped for her shorter mount, and then he had taken a seat beside them for the duration of the day's matches.

Then he had sat there. And sat there. Every time she had come back from her searches throughout the rapidly depopulating stadium for the illusive Emerald, she had found him in the same spot, staring into nothingness. The only movement she had witnessed from afar to indicate that he was still alive was that as she spied his pale face ghostly in the night air, he was now staring up at the shattered moon that hung there like a child's mobile.

She could see the fragments floating in his obsidian eyes as she ghosted over to him and sat adjacent in the plastic stadium seats, grown cold with the disappearance of the sun. She waited, sure that he had known her approach. She had long since given up trying to sneak up on the boy. The two youths had countlessly exhibited their hyper-awareness and uncanny ability to see in the dark almost as well as any Faunus. At least, when not distracted by some internal turmoil. Though there was no change in the steady and shallow breathes that were beginning to fog in the growing cold, she knew, that he was not as far away as he could have wished.

"Am I a good person?" Sasuke asked this suddenly to the accompanying silence that Blake dared not disturb, for it did not feel as if he was truly asking her.

"I told you once, that I wasn't. I was telling you the truth, as I knew it then." Sasuke heaved a shallow sigh. "Now. Now I have no idea what I am. The things I have done, the things I do now, I have no way to know whether or not they are the actions of a good man. I do not know if I even want to be a good man. I have no idea what I want to do. I envy Naruto in his surety. No matter what he does, he has the conscious of a man who knows he is righteous."

But this was a convenient lie, Sasuke knew it, and Blake knew it, so she would not humor his self-delusion. She wanted to press forward to the immediate concern.

"Is Naruto in some kind of trouble?"

"We are all in trouble."Sasuke responded automatically.

"Sasuke…"

Blake was not in the mood to entertain such wasted moping. However, she remembered a time when the young man next to her had tested his own fortitude against an equally obstinate woman.

"What is this all about Sasuke?" She would have to present him with specifics if she wanted to make any headway in this loop. It may be close to crossing a line, but she had to know. "The two of you work for Ozpin, right? Is it something he's asking the two of you to do?"

"So you figured out that much, huh?" He did not seem to be all that surprised that she had worked out their affiliation. He was perturbed, but not from anything she had said. It went much deeper than the secrets they were sharing with the headmaster, and that was a troubling thought. In fact, it did not matter to him as he continued on his self-centered train of thought.

"He always seems to maintain that I am. No one is past redemption to him." He broke his gaze from the most hypnotic of Earth's satellites to look her in her eyes. She would not have characterized Sasuke as person who could ever look lost, but the young man she saw in front of her certainly was stuck at an impasse and was forced to choose the path to which he did not know the destination, nor the pitfalls along the trail.

"Blake, I have told you some of what I have done. But there is more. So much more. More than either you or I will ever know. My family is a history of hate and deceit and I am just the latest iteration. I always thought it was my purpose to cleanse the blight on my family, to redeem our prestige and importance. But now, I wonder if that is what I am truly doing. Is justice my own, or is it what others believe is right?"

If this bout of self-reflection was indeed due to whatever task it was the headmaster was having them accomplish under the noses of their friends and colleges, it was perhaps so profound that Blake was not sure if she wanted to know the exact nature. But she suspected the problem stemmed far deeper than the roots they had sewn at Beacon. Their past they had dismissed, if not to forget it, or to obscure it, then to downplay how much it truly meant to them. She could only answer the truth as she had come to know it.

"Justice is a fraud." He looked up from where he was fixated on his own hands, curiously horrified as if they had been forever stained with blood. She continued. "Justice is not a real thing. Right and wrong, are not real either. When I was in the White Fang, justice was moving target, and right and wrong in flux. I did not follow the concept less than I did the people." She touched upon a sore subject in her life. Though she was not hesitant to tell him of her time in the White Fang, for she was sure he at least had some idea, she was anxious to remember the man she had loved and admired. "Any certainty we find in justice is a lie. What is true is of the people you surround yourself with. We are the company we keep. We choose these people as surely as we choose our actions we take every day."

She thought of her own tumultuous past. She thought back on all the things she had done under the pretense of doing the right thing, but that all along was for a person who was not her form of justice. She thought of Adam. She thought of how she forced herself away from him, because she knew that what he was doing was not right. But she also knew that she loved and admired him, idolized him and held him to a lofty standard that she could never quite cast aside. It was her choice to forgo his company, and she desperately hoped that this choice vindicated her.

She hoped that the company of those who loved and cared for her now would outweigh the orbits of her previous life. God, how was she expected to provide direction when she herself was so lost? She sought action to slate her restless mind, things she could do that would make their world a better place for the people she cared for. When it came to thought, she either thought too much, or too little.

She almost wished he could read her mind, so she didn't have to explain just how truly little she knew. But still, something of her words seem to get through to the boy, and an amused twinkle caught in his eye as he turned back to the shattered remains of the moon.

"We are the company we keep, huh? Wonder what that says about us?" She looked at him quizzically, unaccustomed to being included in the young man's inner circle. Was he talking about her? Or was he talking about himself and Naruto? He in turn looked back at her, a small but soft smirk on his face. "Bunch of hyperactive, prudish, vulgar, idiotic, deranged, cowardly, foolhardy maniacs. We must be pretty broken if these are the people we call friends."

She couldn't help but laugh at his assessment, and her amusement echoed round the empty stadium, accompanying the two of them in their private joke were thousands of laughs. She reached a hand and touched his cheek, pale alabaster in the silver light. Skin, almost as soft as her own.

"Being broken doesn't feel too bad, does it?"

Glynda felt bad about her actions, like she had betrayed something more than the young man's confidence, but she kept reassuring herself that it was for the best interests of the entirety of them. She eyed medical evaluation along with the spectral-analysis of the mysterious runic structure on his abdomen she had obtained after the sedatives she had given Naruto had knocked him well and truly unconscious. She may have been versed in all manner of symbolic languages and structures but she could make no sense of the foreign markings bleeding through the tracer paper rolled carefully into the hermitically sealed tube under her arm.

She understood why Ozpin wanted this information. Though the young man had volunteered the knowledge about the demonic presence sealed within him, and had assured them that he could contain the supposedly massive energy, they had only his word to go by. They had no reason to mistrust him, but his assessment of his own status may not have been fully informed. If something happened to the seal potentially containing a power of such magnitude, they had to know, lest their carefully laid plans come into jeopardy.

And if what the boy asserted was true, it could potentially tip the balance of the coming war in their favor, or perhaps against it. It was just negligence not to be fully informed about a variable as critical as that. Was it not a parent's duty to make the tough choices that the child wouldn't?

Still, as much as she recited this mantra on her way back from the floating arena that shadowed the city of Vale even in the depth of night, she could not help but feel as if they were making some kind of mistake. It was nothing short of presumptuous to presume herself worthy of such a role, and demeaning to consider the two young men incapable of difficult choices. The two of them had shown up out of the afternoon sun and had been immediately plunged into a fight in which they had to scrounge up their own stake or be swept up in the resulting hellfire. They owed the people of Remnant nothing, and if all went well, they might end up owing everything to the two foreigners. What right did they have to go behind their backs like this? What right did they have to even ask them?

Glynda sighed and quietly shut the door to the infirmary. With a swipe of her riding crop the walls blocking off the main passage from any unwanted interruption intruding on her evaluation sunk away into the homogenous tons of concrete that constituted the vast majority of architecture on the flying arch. Satisfied with the lack of evidence of her presence, she turned and made her way to the waiting bullhead transport that would contain her headmaster and companion anxiously awaiting the results she had obtained, and probably as emotionally exhausted as her after informing one of his star pupils of her monumental choice that she would be forced to make.

And how soon would that choice need to come? From all sources, it was apparent that the beginning of the end was nigh. She almost wished it along, praying for the resulting chaos to cleanse whatever sins she had been forced to administer in the name of a better tomorrow, of a tomorrow at all. She banished these selfish thoughts in a fury of self-reproach. She would gladly accept whatever fate awaited her, as long as her sacrifice was for something.

She would gladly sacrifice herself a thousand times over, and knew her longtime companion would as well. But even that, may not be enough. She shuddered to think of the course of events in a reality where the heavens did not send them the two anomalies. Would the strength of their own world have been enough?

Ozpin was always fond of assuring her that throughout history, no matter how dire the situation seemed, good always triumphed over evil in the end. But the history was always written by the winners, and with the writing of history came the ability to define right and wrong. What then, would history say of them if they won?

If they lost?

She hoped she would not have to find out.