In one of the locker rooms of Amity Coliseum, Team CRDL was performing their final preparations for their Doubles match. Russell spun the Dust cylinders of his daggers, checking that they rotated correctly and that the chambers were full. Sky slid a whetstone against the blade of his halberd.

Cardin clapped his hands to get their attention. "Alright, you two'll be going up against a team from Atlas, next. Let's show those soldiers who the real fighters are." He stepped over to the two and looped an arm over their shoulders. "I picked you two because I believe in you." He tapped his fists against their shoulders. "Now get out there and knock 'em dead!"

As the pair of Valean warriors walked out of the locker room into the arena, Cardin rushed to his seat to watch the coming fight. He arrived just as the match began. The cheer he had prepared died in his throat as the ginger-haired Atlesian girl, Penny according to the Aura monitor, deployed a group of eight flying blades from a backpack and mercilessly attacked his teammates. The boys never got an opportunity to go on the offensive.

As soon as they could, they ran for cover behind a pair of boulders on their side of the arena. Penny's flying blades impaled the boulders, and she looked to her partner, who tapped her wrist. Penny raised her arms, and the swords yanked the boulders into the air before slamming them back down on top of Sky and Russell.

And, with that, the match was over. Cardin put on a brave face to hide his horror at such a humiliating loss.

When Ruby returned to her seat, she was greeted with a question that launched her heart into her throat. "So, enjoy your talk with the automaton?"

"What?!"

Ma'isha squinted her eyes shut and looked away. "This one apologizes. I thought you knew."

Blake furrowed her eyebrows. "Why do you call her an automaton?"

"Because that is what she is. Every smell that comes from her is artificial, metal and unnatural materials." The lion shook her head. "I'm honestly surprised you didn't know."

Ruby knew that she couldn't truly deny that assertion, so she instead muttered, "She wanted that kept a secret."

Ma'isha buried her face in her hands. "Oh Divines, I am so sorry. I won't tell anyone else, not even Yang."

"Thanks. She just wants to be treated like the real girl she is, no matter that she has nuts and bolts instead of squishy guts." She looked to her teammate, who nodded her promise. Finally, her gaze landed on Ma'rahka, who looked…thoughtful. "Ma'rahka?"

"How does an automaton have a soul?"

"Ma'rahka!" Ruby hissed.

"Apologies. I will keep her identity a secret, although I would like to speak with her later and learn as much as I can." When the crimsonette opened her mouth, he raised his hand to stall her. "I will say that I figured it out on my own, which is not too far off from the truth."

Ruby sighed. "I'd rather you didn't."

Any further conversation was aborted as Oobleck announced the combatants for the next fight. "Yang and Weiss of Beacon versus Flynt and Neon of Atlas."

Massaging her shoulders to work out what remained of the aches from her early morning spar, Yang looked to Weiss. "Welp, now it's our turn."

With an annoyed roll of her eyes, the heiress returned a barbed, "Just remember to keep proper form."

An exasperated sigh preceded the brawler's response. "Alright." She stretched her arms. "So, you're from Atlas. What can we expect?"

Weiss counted off on her fingers. "Well, seeing as their Kingdom, Academy, and Armed Forces are all merged into one, I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully-rehearsed strategies."

Then a girl shot in front of them trailing an honest-to-God rainbow. She stopped, revealing herself to be a cat Faunus wielding a set of nun-chucks and wearing roller blades to enhance her mobility. Her teammate wore sunglasses and a fancy suit and hat with his tie undone and wielded a trumpet…of all things.

Yang could almost hear the pounding of a backspace button in Weiss' voice. "Or…whatever they are."

The man in front of them then called out, "Hey! You're Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress." The way he said that last word set Yang on edge.

Said heiress didn't seem to notice. "I am."

"I take it you're pretty good with Dust, then."

She shrugged. "I do my best."

"Yeah. My pa was good too. Owned a little Dust shop of his own." He tilted his head forward to glare at her from between his glasses and hat. "…'Till your father's company ran him out of business."

Weiss winced. "Is there anything I can do to make up for that?"

"Not a thing, unless you can somehow put my father back in business."

"Consider it done, as soon as I can."

His chuckle held no mirth. "That'll be the day. We'll see how long you remember your promise."

At this point, Yang decided to jump to her teammate's defense. "Hey! Why don't you look at her record while here at Beacon?"

Or rather, she tried to say those words. When she got to "you," she was interrupted by the cat. "Hey! Why don't you? That's what you sound like."

Her nasally voice sounds nothing like mine. "Uh…"

"Hey, where'd you get your hair extensions?"

How dare she insult my glorious mane?! "This is just my natural hair."

"Ooh, really?" Yang could hardly believe the skeptical tone.

"Yeah. You have a prob–?" But the girl had already moved on to another subject.

"You should try rollerblading some time. It's super fun. It'd probably take you a while, though, since you're so, you know, top-heavy." As if she figured Yang too dumb to realize what she was talking about, the Faunus put her forearms together in front of her chest.

Remembering Lejule's lessons on not letting rage take over, the buxom blonde took a deep breath, crossed her arms, and replied, probably more loudly than necessary, "Heh. That just means there's more territory for my girlfriend to conquer."

In the stands, Ma'isha buried her face, which had flushed to the same tone as Ruby's cape, in her hands. "Just kill this one now."

Beside her, Ruby tilted her head in confusion. "Huh. Usually, she gets angry when someone mentions the size of her–."

"Ruby!" It was Blake's turn to blush.

"Sorry."

Yang's nonchalant response seemed to throw the cat slightly off-balance. Good.

At this point, the terrain randomizers had finished their selections. On Yang and Weiss' side were a geyser field and a ruined cityscape. Behind Flynt and Neon rose a Vacuan desert and a lava field similar to the one from Team RWBY's first match.

"3."

Flynt drew a deep breath, while Neon coiled her legs as though to pounce and grinned at Weiss and Yang.

"2."

"On my mark, leap up. I'll give you a platform to fire from, and then lead either or both of them into the desert."

Yang raised her fists. "Got it."

"1. Begin!"

"Mark!"

Flynt blew into his trumpet, but Yang was already on the move, firing at the ground and launching herself into the air and out of the way of the concussive cone of sound waves. Weiss conjured two glyphs, one under her feet to keep her in place and one thirty feet in the air for Yang to shoot from.

An explosive round from Ember Celica landed at Flynt's feet, throwing off his attack, while Neon rushed at Weiss, who moved her glyph toward the desert.

Ruby leaned over and tapped Ma'rahka on the shoulder. "Hey, if you still want to talk to Kanet, here's your chance." She nodded toward a section a quarter of the way around the arena.

The Khajiit had to squint, but he quickly saw what the reaper had seen; the dark-skinned human girl was sitting a few rows above where he sat and several hundred yards away. "Thank you. I will return as quickly as I can."

Myrtenaster was a whirlwind of movement to block the cat's nunchucks. The Faunus' speed, combined with the unpredictability of her weapon, was almost enough to overwhelm the heiress, but there was a reason Weiss was considered the most agile member of Team RWBY.

Even so, some strikes landed, and Weiss couldn't retaliate while also concentrating on keeping the glyph holding Yang in the air. Then an expertly-placed explosion erupted behind Neon, catapulting her over Weiss and straight into the sand. Yang followed a second later, allowing the Schnee to let the airborne glyph dissipate.

The brawler grinned. "Ready to stop holding back?"

With a series of clicks, Weiss cycled Myrtenaster's cylinder to activate Ice Dust. "You know it."

Ma'rahka threaded his way through the crowd, apologizing whenever he bumped into someone or someone complained about him blocking their view. Once, a man wearing a black suit with a red tie and matching sunglasses reached for the hilt of a sword when the cat accidently knocked the man's popcorn to the ground.

Finally, he managed to reach an empty seat near Kanet and sat down. "Excuse me, Kanet. I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you."

Neon was in trouble. She knew it. She knew that her opponents knew it. Her roller blades granted her practically unparalleled mobility on even terrain, but they were useless on shifting sand such as that she now found herself standing on. She could escape the sand, given enough time, but with Weiss and Yang both coming after her and Flynt too far away to assist, Neon knew that she wouldn't have that time. Instead, she made the decision to unstrap her skates and fight the rest of the match in just her socks. It would hurt, but it still beat the alternative of being a sitting duck.

She reached down just as a blast wave made of ice washed across the ground around her. Her eyes widened as the ice encased her hand and feet, and she collapsed, unable to move properly. A quick glance locked her eyes onto a lilac set. She could see Yang smirk. "Well, I guess being bottom-heavy is just as bad for roller-blading."

Despite herself, Neon laughed as the blonde walked away to join Weiss in her new duel with Flynt. "Good to know you can make jokes, too."

Yang glanced over her shoulder and held up a hand. "I try!"

With Neon immobilized, Flynt knew that his team's ability to deal damage had been severely curtailed. His trumpet was great at displacing and locking down opponents, but it didn't have that high a damage output. With both of them coming after him, he activated his Semblance, splitting off three copies, and tried to catch both Weiss and Yang in the widened cone of his weapon. He hoped to buy enough time for Neon to rejoin the fight, but the Valean combatants simply split up, taking advantage of the greatest weakness of his Semblance: because the copies followed his movements, exactly, he could only focus on one target at a time.

A glyph unlike the others she had cast appeared behind Weiss, and she stumbled. Flynt turned to exploit the weakness, but he then shuffled backward as a snow-white beowolf lunged out of the glyph. This brought him right into line with Yang's fist, sending him stumbling right into a pair of slashes from Weiss. She jumped over him as her summoned beowolf arrived and lashed out with its claws

Amidst the pummeling, the Atlesian student had to admit that the synergy among Team RWBY was incredible. Not even FNKI, his own team, had this kind of cooperative ability. Yang, Weiss, and the beowolf left absolutely zero room for him to even catch a breath, much less counterattack. In less than thirty seconds, the assault drained his Aura to the point of elimination.

As the buzzer sounded and he went down, Weiss moved to stand over him. "I meant it when I said I would make it up to you. My father has made a lot of mistakes in his running of the SDC, and I will work to fix every single one of them."

"Heh. You know, you just might be the real deal, Schnee." He nodded. "I dig it."

While Weiss and Yang were dominating in their fight against Team FNKI, Ma'rahka was conducting his interrogation. "Is there someone named 'Cyrus' in your family line?"

The dark-skinned girl glared at him. "How do you know that name?"

The partial truth was instantly on the young mage's tongue. "An old legend about a warrior fighting for his people."

She leaned in. "It doesn't exist." Her eyes widened in a sort of recognition. "Not here. But, you're not from here; you're a Khajiit, aren't you?"

"Family stories of Nirn?"

"Yeah."

"How did Cyrus get here?"

She shrugged. "No one knows. He just showed up about eighty years ago, fought in the Great War, and settled down with my great-great grandmother after it. He lived the rest of his life in obscurity. If he knew how to travel between here and Nirn, he never spoke of it."

Ma'rahka sighed. "A shame. I heard he was a great man. Would have liked to meet him. Might also have known a way home." He glanced at her neck and waist. "I did see that he let his sword and an Amulet of Kynareth be passed down the family line."

She patted the hook for her scabbard. "Yes. They were among his only possessions when he arrived. I…can still feel Prince Ator's Aura whenever I wield the blade." She fell silent for a moment. "Can…can we talk about something else? The Soul Sword makes me rather… uncomfortable."

The Khajiit nodded. "Of course. I understand."

The pair of them chatted on about the past, and what had occurred on Nirn since Cyrus' departure, straight through the beginning of the next bout.

Oreonna stared into the reflective surface of the shield portion of Symphonic Discord, her thoughts still on the events of two days earlier. She started at a hand on her shoulder, but she calmed when she saw that it was Nichol. "Oreonna." She took in a deep breath. "I may not particularly trust Faunus, nor am I the most outgoing person, but I know that I speak for everyone on the team when I say that we're here for you and will help you with any problems you have."

The cat smiled. "Thanks." She slung her shield onto her back and slid her sword home. "Now let's get out there and kick some butt."

For a split second, she would have sworn she saw a ghost of a smile on her teammate's face. "There's the Oreo I know."

With that, they walked out to the arena. Oreonna looked down, sheepishly. "So, I forgot to look up anything about who we're going to fight. Any ideas?"

"I know they are called Aplomado, and they hail from Atlas. I'm unsure of who they elected to fight in the Doubles round."

Oreonna caught sight of two figures walking toward them. "Well, it seems we're about to find out."

One of them was a young man wearing a black, long-sleeve shirt with matching pants and boots with dark gray armor plates covering his chest and abdomen. He had gray-brown skin, dark brown hair, and piercing blue-green eyes. A pair of long, thin steel rods with string wrapped around a third of their length and a hook at the string's terminus were sheathed on his hips.

The woman beside him, however, was just massive. In fact, Oreonna was certain that even Maybelle and Yatsuhashi were smaller than this woman. Her clothes were a plain and simple white shirt and brown pants, both seemingly dirtied with Dust, with the exception of a line of armor plates covering her right arm, a manica if her memory of armor types was correct. As for her weapon, it seemed like she had just strapped a jackhammer to the unarmored arm.

Looking at her face, Oreonna noted that, other than her size, she looked just as plain as her clothing, with the exception of her hair being a subdued blue color and kept boyishly close-cropped. The woman noticed the cat's gaze and shifted her weight onto one hip with a seductive tilt of her shoulders and hips. "Like what you see?"

With a small "Eep," Oreonna averted her eyes, much to the woman's amusement if her bellowing laughter was any indication.

Before any more could be said, Port's voice boomed over the speakers. "Hopea and Oro of Atlas versus Oreonna and Nichol of Beacon. 3."

Nichol's head whipped up. "Wait, what?" That sentiment was shared by Oreonna; no terrain modules had been chosen for the fight, leaving the central platform and eight closed floor panels.

"2."

Oreonna patted her teammate's shoulder as the opposing fighters got into their fighting stances. "Well, this makes it a pure test of skill."

"Whatever. Get ready."

"1. Begin!"

The big woman, apparently Hopea, lumbered toward Nichol, and the boy, Oro, charged at Oreonna.

He shifted his weapons into pistols and opened fire on Oreonna, who responded with pistol fire of her own unleashed from behind the safety of her shield. Oro had no such defense, so he was forced to stop firing and use his weapons in truncheon form to deflect her bullets.

Oreonna glanced at Nichol out of the corner of her eye, to see that Hopea's jackhammer bit had been retracted, turning the weapon into a rapid-fire cannon that was beating against one of Nichol's force-fields.

That brief distraction cost her, as Oro darted forward and smacked her in both cheeks with his weapons. When he went to strike again, she wasn't there. Instead, she had used her Semblance to dodge around him, attacking with sword and shield as two people. Sword!Oreonna covered Shield!Oreonna as she advanced to help Nichol.

Flipping her blade into a reverse-grip Professor Daytha had taught her, Sword!Oreonna parried Oro's weapons and counter-attacked where she could. She slowly backed away from him to keep near to her close duplicate.

The addition of Oreonna's shield was enough for Nichol to lay off the use of her Semblance enough to start counter-attacking. Cycling Retour's Dust chambers to Gravity, she launched an orb to try and pin Hopea in place. Cuillere's eyes widened as the big woman simply ignored the gravity well and leaped into the air, her weapon extending its chisel as she ascended.

Fortunately, Oreonna was there to catch the blow with her shield, but she buckled under the impact. Repeated hammering drove the cat to her knees, sweat beading at her hairline. She held out her right hand, and her sword-wielding duplicate made her way to rejoin with her.

Before Nichol could assist, Oro reentered the fray, striking at her with his truncheons.

Oreonna groaned under the strain of Hopea's jackhammer, its ringing drumbeat nearly disorienting. Then she reunited her two duplicates and slashed her blade at her opponent's elbow. Although the blow didn't get past the big woman's Aura, it still hurt, causing her to back off. Okay, time to put your natural agility to use. As they squared off, Oreonna ran through the lessons Jasiir had given for fighting larger opponents. The primary advice: strike at weak points, such as joints.

The bi-colored cat darted in and stabbed at Hopea's knee before leaping back to avoid a retaliatory swing of the jackhammer. A couple more probes and escapes led Oreonna to discovering a pattern, a concept that Professor Daytha had taught was a very fatal mistake for any fighter. Hopea relied exclusively on her big jackhammer, with almost no use of her legs or right arm except for the latter being a make-shift shield.

Smirking, Oreonna kept to her opponent's right side to ensure that she was out of reach of the hammer while she whittled down Hopea's Aura.

Oro knew that Hopea would be outmatched by the agile cat, but he couldn't break away from Nichol without being bombarded in the back with Dust projectiles. He'd had that happen a number of times in sparring matches with his partner, Aeris. Those Dust-projecting cestus…

He shook himself out of the thought to dodge an orb of lightning Dust launched from the bladed lacrosse stick. Ducking in close, he did his best to rip the weapon out of her hands, but her force-field Semblance shoved him back. Holding Zoloto in a reverse-grip to act as shields, Oro charged forward, but the grey-haired girl launched an Ice projectile at the ground just in front of his feet. Unable to stop in time, he slipped on the ice to land on his tail-bone. Activating his Semblance, he felt the impact, but, blissfully, no pain.

Picking himself up off the ground, he smirked as he saw Nichol's composure break for a split second before they resumed battle.

Leaping over her back, Oreonna landed one last slash to the back of Hopea's neck, dropping her Aura into elimination. At the same time, she saw Nichol go down to a strong blow by Oro.

Oreonna darted over to support her teammate, splitting into two, her shield self knocking Oro back while her sword-wielding self picked Nichol off the ground. "You good?"

Nichol nodded and dusted herself off. "I'm good."

"Alright. Then let's finish this."

Another nod was the reply.

While the two Oreonnas distracted Oro, Nichol snuck around until she could clothes-line him with Retour, knocking him onto his back.

From his spot on the ground, Oro saw the black-haired cat-girl walk over to stand behind his head and raise her foot. For a split second, he had a strange feeling of deja-vu, with the eyes of the girl he was looking at being green instead of pink. Then the foot came down, and his Aura shattered.

That night, Yang's yowls of pleasure ensured that no one at Beacon received a good night's sleep.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow. I haven't updated this story almost since RWBY Volume 4 began. I think this might be the longest chapter of this story, so far, and I deeply apologize for taking so long to get it out.

Anyway, we have a whopping three tournament fights (if Penny vs. CRDL can be called a "fight"); of those I had the greatest trouble writing MOON vs. AMAO (Aplomado), due to not having a canon fight to work from. However, I pushed through it.

Next chapter will be the last of the Lejule/Blake/Typhon chapters before the two groups of POV characters reunite.

I have a couple of guest reviews to respond to:

somerandomdovah: Unfortunately, Call Dragon is not a Shout that can breach dimensions.

The Guest from December 4th: I know of one RWBY/Elder Scrolls crossover featuring a Breton dovahkiin. Look up "Beneath a Broken Moon."

This next one was posted on one of my other stories:

Joker: I have not abandoned The Effect of the Dragon. It's just that From Dragon Hunter to Huntsman Professor is now higher priority for me.