Back at Beacon, Pyrrha made her way to the top of the academy with a warm smile on her face. As she headed there she honestly didn't know what she was going to be hearing from Ozpin but she had a thought about it. Maybe a little congratulations or tips on the future for her and her team. Either way, she was excited about matters so she just couldn't help but keep a small grin on her face for what she was about to be in for.

Soon, the red haired teen finally made it to the top and into the headmaster's office to find him sitting at his desk with the same smile and his cane right next to him. The sight only made the teen's grin wider with excitement and close the gap between the two of them by walking closer to him. And when she finally met with him, she sat in the empty chair to hear him chuckle before he blurted out,

" Well, it comes as no surprise that they've chosen you to move on to the final round of the tournament. Your performance was exemplary."

"Thank you, Professor Ozpin," Pyrrha thanked nicely with a small nod. "But I would have never made it this far without my teammates."

"Personally, I think it's the other way around," A male voice called out of nowhere, surprising the prodigy at first before turning around to see who the person was. And when she did, she found Qrow, leaning on a pillar with his arms crossed and a smug look on his face.

With him now present, she got up and stated politely, "I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've been introduced."

"Name's Qrow."

"Qrow is a trusted colleague of mine," Ozpin informed his student in a calm manner before her gaze went back to him to address,

"Professor, if you don't mind me asking, why have you called me here?"

"Please, take a seat," The headmaster obliged, making the red haired teen do as she said then watch him sit back in his chair to ask casually, "What is your favorite fairy tale?"

"I'm... sorry?"

"Fairy tales," He repeated to the questioning teen. "Stories from your childhood. Surely you must remember some of them."

"Well, there's The Tale of The Two Brothers," She asked with nostalgia. "The Shallow Sea, The Girl in the Tower..."

"What about The Story of the Seasons," Ozpin asked, now leaning up in his seat for an answer patiently.

"Well, of course," She answered happily. "A callous old man, who refuses to leave his home, is visited by four traveling sisters. The first understands his reclusive nature and urges him to use his time in solitude to reflect and meditate. The second brings him fruits and flowers, tending to his crops and revitalizing his garden. The third warms the man's heart, convincing him to step outside and embrace the world around him. And the fourth and final sister begs him to look at all that he has, and be thankful. In return for their kindness, the man grants the maidens incredible powers, so that they may continue to help others all over the world. They graciously accept, and promise to share their gifts with the people of Remnant 'til the end of days. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall; the four maidens. My mother loves that story..."

"Would you believe me if I told you that one's been around since I was a boy?"

"You're not that old, Professor," The prodigy laughed at the playful man for his comment. That was until his playful look soon turned into a serious one in just seconds.

"Well, would you believe me if I told you it was true?"

"...I beg your pardon?"

"What if I told you that there were four maidens existing in this world, that could wield such tremendous power, without Dust?"

"You mean... like a Semblance?"

"Like magic," The headmaster announces his little secret with a small smile. The answer made the girl look down with a questionable look before Qrow announced,

"Yeah. First time hearing this, it's pretty crazy."

"You're serious," Pyrrha asked, trying to keep her calm at the same time while doing so.

"Do I look like I'm joking," Ozpin questioned back with a straight face.

"... No. Why... why are you telling me this?"

"We are telling you this, Pyrrha Nikos, because we believe you are next in line to receive the Fall Maiden's powers."

With those facts, the teen just looked in surprise until she realizes something was off about what he just said in those seconds. " "We"?" And just as if they were on Que, the elevator doors opens to reveal that Glynda and Ironwood have arrived to see what was going on while approaching them.

"Sorry we're late," The general blurted out as Pyrrha looked at them overwhelmed with fear before turning to her headmaster with questionable eyes and ask with sudden cold anger and worry,

"Wait, what is this? Who are you?"

"You know who we are," Goodwitch answered for them reassuringly. "We're still the same teachers and Headmasters you met when you arrived at Beacon."

"But we've got a little part-time job," Qrow added blankly.

"We are the protectors of the world," The general stated to the student strictly.

"And we need your help," Ozpin informed finally while he shared a look with the prodigy, who was still shocked and silent as everyone in the room had all eyes on her. She was nervous and needed answers quickly, they all knew that was for sure. And what better then to take her into the elevator and show her then tell. So, the group of adults took the scared red haired teen into the machine and made their way down the building quietly.

As the headed to their destinantion silently, the prodigy asked her surroundings where they were going, "Where are we going?"

"The vault," Qrow answered. "Under the school."

Soon, the elevator opened its doors for their passengers to step out, but leaving Pyrrha for last to leave as she absorbs the sight of the large, sparsely-lit hallway she is now being lead she exits the machine, the red haired teen met up with her teacher for her to blurt out to her calmly as the walked further down the area with the other adults,

"I'm sure you must have questions."

"Maybe one, or two," Pyrrha replied as she still tried to take it all in. "I still don't understand. You said I was next in line to receive the Maiden's power. What do you mean by that?"

"The Maidens have existed for thousands of years. But much like in nature, the seasons change. No two summers are alike. When a Maiden dies, her power leaves her body and seeks out a new host, ensuring that the seasons are never lost, and that no individual can hold on to that power forever."

"So, how does the power choose?"

"Through a series of stupid and convoluted rules," The raven haired man in front of them answered from his shoulder.

"Qrow," Glynda replied with a small scold in her her voice.

"Hey, don't get mad 'cause I'm right."

"At first, the only thing that was certain was that the powers were specifically passed on to young women. But as time went on, it was discovered that the selection process was much more... intimate."

"... Intimate," The prodigy repeated in a question manner.

"As we understand it now, when a Maiden dies, the one who is in her final thoughts is the first candidate to inherit her power."

"Unless it's a dude or some old hag," Qrow added. "Then the power goes to someone random, and our job gets a lot harder."

"Why tell me all of this now," Pyrrha proceeded to ask. "Why not wait until I've graduated?"

"Honestly, we've run out of time. I don't know if you've not noticed, but things are getting a lot scarier out in the world. Tensions are high. Grimm are growing stronger, more prevalent. And it's not going to be long before the peace we've been enjoying for so long goes out the window."

"You're not... talking about a war?"

"Not between nations," Ironwood chimed in.

"We can fill you on the details once we know that you're with us," The other black haired adult added. "For now, all you need to know is that one of the Maidens has been attacked. And for the first time in history, part of her power was stolen."

Soon, electricity was heard as the group came to their destination at the end of the hallway: A large machine with lit screens hooked up to two rectangular pods, one of which was upright to show through the glass window a young girl dressed in minimal clothing with a burn scar over her left eye and across her face.

"Is that..."

"The current Fall Maiden, Amber," Ozpin answered with a huge sigh to his student

"She's... still alive?"

"For now," The General answered this time. "We're using state of the art Atlas technology to keep her stable. But there is a lot about this situation that is... unprecedented."

"What do you mean?"

"Won't... her power... just transfer to the next host?"

"Under normal circumstances, yes. But this is a delicate situation. It's not uncommon for the last thoughts of the slain to be of their attacker. And to make matters worse, no one's seen the power split like this before. For all we know, it will seek out its other half."

"... Her assailant."

"And that would not bode well for any of us," Ozpin informed as the teen lowered her head in thought, then suddenly came forward and placed a hand on the glass of Amber's pod. Suddenly with anger in her voice, she turned to the teachers and gestured wildly, "If all of this is true, why keep it secret!? If this girl is so important... if we're truly on the brink of war, why not tell everyone?"

"From what we understand, it used to be common knowledge," Glynda answered calmly

"Excuse me?"

"How do you think legends and fairy tales get started? Even the craziest ones come from somewhere," Qrow stated as he pulled out his flask, took off it's lid and took a swig from it.

"Our group was founded in order to protect both mankind and the Maidens. Those hungry for power hunted them with the hope of inheriting their strength," Goodwitch added.

"And as you can imagine, the ones that succeeded weren't exactly the ones you'd want to have unimaginable power."

"And so our brotherhood chose to remove the Maidens from the public eye, allowing their existence to fade away into legend," The general stated strictly.

"The things we're telling you go against hundreds of years of human history and religion," Glynda continued.

"No one would want to believe us. It would cause an uproar."

"It would cause panic," Ozpin corrected blankly. "And we all know what that would bring to clawing at our Kingdom's walls. Which is why we would like to..."

"I'll do it," Pyrrha answered out loud to the headmaster's surprise. "If you believe that this will help humanity... Then I will become your Fall Maiden... That's what you wanted, isn't it?

"It is, but I'm afraid it's not that simple. Given Amber's condition, you won't be able to inherit her power naturally. However, General Ironwood believes he has a solution."

"For the past few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint;" Ironwood added once again. "How it works, what's it made of, how it can be used. We've made... significant strides. And we believe we've found a way to capture it."

"Capture it and cram it into something else," Qrow informed in a more shorter version. "Or in your case ..."

"That's..."

"Classified," Ironwood finished for Pyrrha, only for her to counter and shout in anger,

"Wrong!"

"Wrong indeed," A female voice chimed in from a far. A voice that made everyone freeze right where they were. As the voice stopped talking, they heard footsteps approach them out loud, leather hitting the floor softly before revealing for the owner to be non other then Winter, frowning at the scene she was looking at. With her presence, the adults stare in anger and Pyrrha looked in utter surprise.

"Ms. Winter," The prodigy questioned more then greeted.

"Pyrrha, it's good to see you. And it's a good thing I remember the code to this room or things would've been bad for you... So, this is what you guys had in mind. A 17 year old first year student?!"

"Winter, please understand-."

"Understand what, Ozpin? That now you're using students for your little cause. I don't know if you're getting too old or there's too much water in your brain, but Pyrrha is not ready for such a thing!"

"And how would you know, Ice Queen," Qrow asked in anger at the fact that she was messing with their plans.

"I would know because I know a certain someone who dealt with this matter, Qrow! And let's just say the results were. Devastating." The word made the red haired teen look in horror while she started to imagine what could possibly happen to her if this was to happen. The look on her face simply was enough to make the Schnee change her gaze to her with calm and sad eyes. "Pyrrha, I know how this work, trust me. For all we know, if you do this, you'll get seriously hurt or worse-."

"I'm going to ask of you to leave or-."

"Or what," The white haired woman interrupted her old general with hatred. "You're going to tell on me to my dad again? Go ahead. But I'm going to let you break this girl. Over my dead body will you take her innocence right now!"

"Leave now, Winter. Or you'll regret ever coming into this room."

"No," She replied without hesitation. "Pyrrha, this is a total death wish. If you do this, only horrible things will come your way. Think about everyone else. Your teammates, family, friends. Jaune, Nora, Ren. Yang. What do you think they'll be like without you? Don't do this."

"Don't listen to her, Ms. Nikos-."

"It's true and you all know it! Even you know it Ozpin! Tell her!"

"You have an important decision before you, Miss Nikos," The headmaster informed with a huge sigh. "There's no guarantee this transfer will work. And there's no telling if you will be the same person if it does. I advise you to take time on this matter. But understand that before the Vytal Festival is over, we will need your answer."

With his answer though, Pyrrha doesn't respond at all. Instead, she shares a look with Winter, her teacher, who was looking at her with complete worry and concern. After the gaze was given, she turned to the Fall Maiden one last time before she does the unthinkable. She just leaves the room silently, heading inside the elevator and going back to her friends outside of the building. With her gone, Winter turned to Ozpin one last time to spit out in venom.

"You call yourself a protector. You all do... But what I see in front of me right now? Is nothing more then monsters disguised in human flesh. I won't let you do this. I just won't..." And with that, the woman stomped her way to the elevator to leave the scene, to which she does. Qrow and Ironwood were just about to catch her to it, until the headmaster stopped them suddenly and simply told them,

"Let her go... She doesn't know yet, but she'll know soon that things are not what they seem and this is for the better. The real question is...

Will she be able to deal with it like everyone else?..."


That night, the tournament continued as everyone watching started to cheer in excitement at what fight would be taken place tonight. The citizens of all the kingdoms were filled with enthusiasm as to what would happen now in the tournament and how things would go down. All except for Winter, who just looked at the stadium with lazy eyes before yawning a little, getting Ruby's attention quickly for her to ask nicely, "Are you tired?"

"No, dear," The older Schnee replied before softly messing with her girlfriend's hair with a sweet smile. "Just... I don't know. Bored? Stress out? Kinda like that."

"You wanna go do something else then?"

"No, we're here to see if your sister would kick some butt tonight and that's what we're going to do, okay?"

"Okay," The redhead replied before looking back at the stadium happily. She didn't know what happened at the vault. And personally, Winter didn't want to tell her what happened down there. It would be better if she kept it a secret and not cause anymore trouble for now. Yes, she still knew it was bad to keep secrets from her love, but she didn't want to stress her out anymore.

So with that, her and the remainder of Team RWBY waited for professor Port to finally announce out loud through cheers, "Now, for the moment you've all been waiting for! The one-on-one finals!" In the battlefield stood some new faces that have made it to the rounds along with familiar ones. Mercury, who just stood with a straight face.. Penny, rocking in her shoes nervously. And Yang and Pyrrha, who were standing side by side for the announcements. As the men continued to talk about tonight's match and how it works, the blonde couldn't help but find her lover looking down at the ground troubled. So with that, she whispered out loud,

"You okay, babe?"

"Oh, I'm fine," the red haired teen replied, now looking at the other girl with a small smile that made her do the same. "Just-."

"Scared? Don't be. We got this."

"You got this. I don't think I do."

"Hey... You're Pyrrha Nikos. A hot, sexy and badass chick who knows what to do. You showed that you can kick some butt in the last match. What's so different now? Just some one on one action, I guess. But trust me. Your opponent is going to have to think twice when they go up against you. Because I know that you're the strongest girl I ever met..."

"... Thank you, my sunflower," The prodigy responded truly as she kissed the blonde's cheek before holding her hand for comfort. "I'll try and win for you."

"Same..."

"Now let's see who's our first match will be," Oobleck called out as him and everyone else had their eyes on the screens above them. As the screen starts deciding the match, Pyrrha and Yang gripped on one another's hands tightly as the prodigy breathed deeply and the goldilocks brings their hands up to kiss her love's softly. They were both tense for maybe two different reasons but the older teen's tense went away when the battle for the night was finally decided.

"Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black," Port announced to the crowd's thrill. "Would all the other combatants please leave the stadium." As the rest, including Pyrrha started to leave, she was stopped by a grab on her arm to ask playfully, "Gonna wish me luck?"

"You don't need it."

"Hell yeah," Suddenly, the red haired girl was pulled into a quick kiss before she left the stadium after exchanges of love yous. When she left though, the younger teen of the couple couldn't help but feel something hard in her throat and stomach. Something that felt almost like fear. But what was there to fear, she asked herself. She knew things would be okay so why so scared. She didn't know but she didn't jump deep into it. Instead, she met up with her friends and watched the fight with them, not daring to look at the probably angry teacher of her's, who just closed her eyes as if she was asleep the entire time.

As the fight commenced, Pyrrha watched as Yang gave it her all against Mercury, using her fist carefully and sometimes ever her feet. But even with that, the two were equal in battle, exchanging very good attacks that countered every single one given. At one point, she actually thought the teen would lose against the other, but of course, she remembered that no one should mess with the easily angered Yang Xiao Long since she used her semblance to take down her opponent once and for all. And with her victory, the crowd roared with excitement yet again as her blurted out through the roars,

"What a great way to kick off the finals!"

"Yang Xiao Long wins," Oobleck announced as the blonde closed her eyes to let out a sigh before opening them back up to fist pump the sky in joy.

"Better luck next time," The blonde told her hunched over opponent before turning away to leave the stadium happily. SHe thought the boy would stay down until she heard him blurt out with a hint of venom now in his voice,

"There's not going to be a next time, blondie!" With those words, the gray haired boy looked at his opponent, who turned to him only to find a foot coming straight her way. And without hesitation, she punched his leg with her gamlets for protection. She expected for everyone to go and help her see what's up with this boy but instead, what she heard was shouts of disbelief and boos while the announcers started to yell,

"My word!"

"Turn off the cameras!"

As the crowd kept looking in horror, the male teen started to hold his leg in pain before shouting out in pain, "My leg! MY LEG!"

"That's what you get, you little- Huh?" Before she could finish herself, Yang was stopped as she noticed Atlesian Knight-200 droids and two Soldiers circling the blonde and raised their guns to her head defensively.

"Yang Xiao Long, stand down," One soldier called out angrily.

"What!? Why!?"

"Mercury," A voice called out of nowhere for the owner to be Emerald, who rushed over to her partner's side, comforting him as he cried,

"Why'd she do that!? WHY'D SHE ATTACK ME!?"

The goldilocks received a disgusted scowl from the mint haired girl, only to look up at the screens above her to see the footage of what just transpired. Yang circled the crouched-down Mercury until the footage cuts to him just standing there and she suddenly shot him in the leg. The sound of something breaking rings out, and Mercury screams and falls over in pain.

It takes a moment of staring at the images until the teen finally understands what she did, and her gaze turns up to the wide-eyed, terrified faces of Blake, Weiss, and Ruby. Even Pyrrha looked in total fear at what had just happened with her mouth wide open until she closed it softly and slowly. As everyone looked in horror, Winter just couldn't help but jump out of her seat and dash straight down into the stadium for her student. As the goldilocks looked around at the guns aimed at her and the people cursed her name, the white haired woman jumped in front of her with her arms out wide for protection to the soldiers surprise to shout out,

"She's innocent! Put your guns down!"

"You stay out of this, Ms. Schnee," A soldier replied harshly. "Or we'll just have to put you down with her."

"SHE'S INNOCENT! And he knows it," She yelled at the top of her lungs while looking at the gray haired boy then at the stands of the crowd with gritted teeth. The men still kept their guns up for defense and were almost about to pull the trigger until another person came out of nowhere and did the same as Winter and protect Yang. And that was Pyrrha.

"What are you doing, Ms. Nikos?"

"I don't know the full story, but I believe Ms. Schnee. And I also believe Yang too! If she says she's innocent, then she is," The red haired teen shouted back before holding her love's shaking hands and whispering, "It's okay. Just breath, okay?"

"But Pyrrha, I-."

"Breath. Everything will be okay," She reassured as she held her into a hug tightly for her to not see anymore of this horrible scene. As she did that, soon Ruby and the rest of her team ran down to her sister's aid as well to protect her, making the soldier's surprised yet upset at their action. But before anyone else could come to the scene, the general of the soldiers walked down angrily to shout out loud,

"That's enough!... You all step away from Ms. Xiao Long so we can take her in for questioning-."

"No, Ironwood-."

"You stay out of this, Winter, I've heard enough out of you today," Ironwood interrupted with cold rage.

"But-." Before Pyrrha could argue with the man, one of the soldiers broke her and Yang's hug so he could take the blonde back to her room with her team. "But she didn't do anything!"

"We'll learn about that soon enough. But for now, the tournament is stopping for tonight. And her actions will be paid for. You both should leave too if you don't want to get in trouble like her..." With that, the man left with the girls and his henchmen to see what was up, leaving both the prodigy and older Schnee in the stadium alone. They both exchanged looks of sadness with one another before turning their glance back to the other teens. They didn't know why,

But they knew that after today, everything would change for the worse...

Okay. So I know you guys are probably mad at me because I didn't put in the Yang vs Mercury fight. But you guys already know how that goes and have seen it a billion times. So what's the point?! Anyway, in the next chapter we'll see what's up with the others. So, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And is it just me or is Crimson Flame stealing the show?! I don't know, I just love every ship with Pyrrha in it. Sorry! But don't worry, we'll get back to that Red Blizzard fluff hopefully and everyone else who's madly in love with one another. Until then, have a good day! :)