Blake left to go speak to her dad, probably to catch up on things, which left me, Sun, and her mom in the same room where she was stuck with Sun and I sharing stories. "Haha! Seriously, he did that?!" I laughed.

"I'm telling you, Neptune was so out of it that day that he walked around the school in nothing but a towel covering him! Scarlet, Sage, and I agreed to let him figure it out on his own." Sun laughed. "Took him running into the headmaster by accident and the towel falling off for him to notice. It was so worth being electrocuted the next day." He said as Blake's mom got up and left the room. The both of us continued to talk for a couple minutes then he suddenly got up. "I forgot!"

"What'd you forget?" I asked him.

"Remember earlier today when I told you I saw that White Fang member with a mask. I gotta warn Blake."

"Sun, listen...as much as you want to tell her, she didn't come home to hear more about the White Fang. She came to get away from it all. To be home with her parents and it'd be best if we-" I was interrupted by a call from Jaune. Answering, he started out by rambling to the point I didn't understand what he said. "Slow down! What's going on?" I asked him.

"Come quick, he found us! We don't know how long we can continue going, just hurry!" He yelled then hung up.

"Crap." I got up and looked at Sun. "I gotta go."

"Something wrong?"

I nodded my head. "Jaune just called saying that they are being attacked." I said and sensed for their energies. Once pinpointing their location, I looked at Sun one last time. "If Blake asks, I went out for a long walk." I ran outside, flared my ki and shot into the sky at max speed. 'Damn, didn't think he'd find them this soon.' Soon as I arrived, I saw Tyrian cut Qrow with his tail. I flew down to them and punched Tyrian, sending him sliding back a few feet.

"Bout time you showed up." Qrow smiled then fell to his knee.

"Ruby, I want you to go regroup with the others and patch up Qrow, I'll deal with Tyrian from now on."

"Alright." She nodded then put Qrow's arm around her and walked back with him.

Hearing Tyrian laugh, I looked back at him. "Now this is a surprising turn of events. I was meant to get the girl but now you show up. They said you'd be a tough one to kill. Our goddess will be pleased knowing that I took care of the girl and you."

"I'm not taking any chances with you. You're better off running back to your goddess in one piece."

"You say that now but wait until I have you at my mercy, then you'll be singing a different tune." He smiled and vanished from my sight.

Tilting my head, his fist moved past my head and I jumped a bit to avoid his tail from sweeping my legs. Mid-jump, I dropkicked him back before springing onto my feet. He rolled back up and grunted in annoyance, charging towards me and swung his wrist blades madly. None of the strikes landed as I dodged each swing without much trouble. Raising my left arm to block the blades of his weapon and only getting a small cut across my left cheek, I struck his chest with an open palm. The wind was knocked out of him and he took a few steps back to breath.

Rubbing my thumb across the cut, I caught a glimpse of the blood plus the feeling of it running down my cheek. I then grabbed his arm and swung him around, letting go shortly after. Silence filled the air as debris fell from the building he was thrown into. I stood in the same spot, listening to where he could be. Hearing a footstep behind me, I opened my eyes and turned to punch him in the stomach. It was followed with an uppercut that sent him into the sky. I jumped after him to send him back towards the ground with a sledgehammer strike. He hit the ground with a large thud.

"As I said earlier, you're better off returning to your goddess while you can still walk. I heavily suggest that you take that offer." I said, descending to the ground.

He stood up and shook in excitement. "As if, even if I have my limbs shattered, it'll all be worth it to see that look that Cinder will have on her face. It'll bring me great joy for her to know that I killed her little s-" I stopped him from revealing that little secret by shooting a slow ki blast that he dodged and used that time to get behind him, holding him in a sleeper hold and making sure to grab the end of his tail with mine as a precautionary measure.

"Now I'm gonna tell you for the third time. Return to your goddess and don't come back. What do you say?" I asked, tightening my hold.

"S-Screw you!" He moved his arms back towards both sides of my stomach and shot an entire magazine's worth of bullets that only bounced off of me.

"I tried being nice." Using the arm that wasn't around his neck, I punched his back and grabbed his tail to slam him onto the ground five times then stomped on his wrist, shattering it and the weapon then repeated that action on his other wrist. He shrieked in pain with his tail flailing in response. I crouched next to him and sighed. "Look at yourself, groveling in pain. Normally I wouldn't do this kind of stuff to anyone, not even an enemy but as time taught me, you must show no mercy or you'd be doomed from the start. This is the final time I will tell you, run back to your goddess and this isn't a suggestion, it is a demand." I stood up and walked away.

At the last moment I sensed something and left an afterimage that was penetrated by his tail. I reappeared behind him and cut off his tail, making him jump back and shake in pain. "You...You bastard!" He yelled.

Taking a single step and vanishing, I appeared close to him with my middle and index finger of my left hand extended, touching his chest. "Be lucky that's the only thing I cut off. Tell your goddess that if she sends someone else after Ruby or anyone else I know, your comrades and eventually she, will find out first-hand the power far beyond that of a maiden." One inch was all I needed because upon ramming my fist into his chest, the force of the impact sent him sailing in the air. I walked back to everyone and saw them covering up Qrow's wound with bandages.

"Damn kid, that was quite the show. It's scary to see how strong you've become." He smiled and coughed. "So glad that you're on our side."

"I'm just glad Jaune called me, you all okay?"

"We are now, thanks to you." Jaune smiled.

"Guessing by how well you did against him, your training proved to be a very successful effort." Ren said. "We all struggled yet you made it seem so easy."

Nora walked over to me and examined me. "You've gotten taller and…" She grabbed a couple of my beard hairs and tugged on it, getting a small grunt of pain out of me then started feeling for muscles. "Yep, those are totally real. Time has done well for you my friend." She smiled.

I smiled back to her. "Thanks, and you've all grown as well. I can sense that you're all stronger than the last time we saw each other plus the different outfits and Ren's hair is basically down to his back."

"I asked if I could give him a haircut but he said no every time." She glared at him.

"As much faith as I usually have in you, I will not let you anywhere near my head with scissors."

"Oh just because of that one time. Why I oughta..." She shook her fist at him, getting a laugh out of Pyrrha.

I looked over to Ruby and noticed her just staring at me. I waved my hand in front of her and caught her attention. "You ok?"

"Oh uh yeah, I'm fine. Thanks for helping us out." She smiled with a little redness in her cheeks.

"Anytime. Well I'd better be heading back to Menagerie to see if Sun got himself into trouble again...Actually before I go, I'd like to know one thing. Qrow, I need you to tell me about this goddess."

"In order to explain that, I have to get these kids up to speed with everything." Qrow started by telling the story of the maidens and also told them how much truth there was to the story.

After he finished and things went silent, he took another drink from his flask. "Really, no questions?" He asked them.

"Of course we have questions." Jaune was the first to answer. "This is just...a lot to take in."

Qrow sighed. "Sure...of course."

"So these…" Ruby took her turn to speak. "maidens...they're powerful fighters that don't need dust to use magic."

"Yeah"

"And there four of them?"

"Yep, always."

"Which means whenever one of them dies, the power transfers to someone, a female, they care about?" Ren asked.

"Whoever was in their thoughts last. Important distinction. Best option it's someone we can trust. Regardless, their souls become one in a way."

"And that's what you were trying to do with Pyrrha. The night the tower fell, you were trying to turn her into one of them." Jaune gave Qrow a displeased look.

"The previous fall maiden Amber had been attacked. She was young, inexperienced and her assailant who we now know as Cinder, somehow managed to steal some of her power but not all of it. We were afraid that if we didn't do something, the rest would go to her as well."

"So you forced it on Pyrrha."

"We didn-"

"Jaune." Pyrrha said while looking at the ground. "It wasn't forced on me. Idris was there with me and we even discussed it with one another. It was my choice and my choice alone."

"You knew about it?" He asked me and I nodded. "Then why weren't you there with us? You could've stopped Cinder before she would've taken the rest of the maiden's power."

"Because there were more important things."

"What could've been more important than stopping a terrible person from becoming a full maiden?" I didn't bother to answer him and Jaune didn't say anything else as he took a small walk away from us.

Couple moments of silence later, Ruby decided to talk. "That guy...Tyrian...Idris told me that he was hunting me for some reason. What did he mean by that?" Ruby asked.

"I told you having silver eyes was a rare trait and the fact that you were someone who has them seems to have upset some very powerful people. Not many people know about the silver eyes but those that do aren't very happy that one has surfaced. That's why I've been keeping an eye on you, wanted to make sure you were safe." He then looked at Jaune for a bit. "All of you. Although it's safe to say that Idris over here upset them even more with how he manhandled Cinder who had full control of the Fall Maiden's power."

"Well then why not just travel with us? It seems that would've been way easier." She said.

"He was using you as bait." Jaune bluntly stated.

"Look, I wouldn't put it like that, it's complicated." Qrow said.

Jaune turned towards us. "What is all of this? Ruby's being hunted, schools are being attacked, all for what? What is the point of all of this? Will you just tell us what's going on?" He raised his voice.

Qrow sighed. "Will you just sit down, you're stressing me out kid." He suggested. "Not many people are super religious these days. This world's been around for a long time. Long enough that people have created dozens of gods. But if you believe Ozpin, two of them are actually real. They were brothers, the older sibling, the god of light, found joy in creating life meanwhile the younger brother, the god of darkness spent his time creating forces of destruction. As you can imagine, both had pretty different ideas on how things would go. The older one would spend his days creating water, plants, wildlife and at night…" He trailed off to look at me.

"His brother would do what he can to destroy it which started drought, fires, and famine right?"

"Correct. Thing is, life always returned. So one night, the younger brother went and made something, something that shared his innate desire to destroy anything and everything."

"The creatures of grimm." Pyrrha responded.

"You guessed it. The older brother had finally had enough. Knowing that their feud would last like this forever, he proposed that they make one final creation...together. Something they could both be proud of, their masterpiece. The younger brother agreed. This last great creation would be given the power to both create and destroy. It would be given the gift of knowledge so it can learn about itself and the world around it. And most importantly, it would be given the power to choose, to have free will to take everything it had learned and decide which path to follow. The path of light or the path of darkness. And that is how humanity came to be."

"But...what does that have to do with us?" Ren asked.

"Well that's the kicker. See the four gifts to mankind, knowledge, creation, destruction, and choice, aren't just metaphorical. Each of them exists in a physical form left behind by the gods before they abandoned Remnant and each of them was extraordinarily powerful. If someone were to collect all four, they'd be able to change the world and that's exactly what the enemy wants. The huntsman academies were created to train generations of humanity's protectors but they also serve another purpose, guarding the relics. When Ozpin's predecessor founded the schools, he built them around the relics to act as a fortress. Not only would they be easier to defend, but they would be constantly surrounded by trained warriors. They hoped that hiding the relics would keep mankind from using them against itself. And of course keeping them out of her reach. So yeah, there's that."

"Her...you mean Salem." said Ruby.

"That's right. Not much is known about her and quite frankly, that's not what matters. What matters right now is that she wants the relics and if she gets them, it's not gonna end well."

"Alright, so let's say that we believe all this." Jaune spoke. "There really is this crazy evil being behind these attacks, not just some thugs trying to become powerful. Why doesn't the world now? Why isn't Atlas going after them, or Mistral?"

"And why aren't we more of a hurry to get to Haven? Shouldn't we be giving them a message? What if they're next?" Nora asked.

"They know what happened Nora. If they were to be attacked, they would be prepared to fight back so the same doesn't happen to them." Pyrrha told her. "What happened with Beacon was the result of months of planning. It'll take another couple of months for an attack like that anywhere else."

"And to answer your question." Qrow pointed to Jaune. "It's the same reason we keep quiet about the maidens. If the whole world knew the relics, about Salem, it would be chaos. We'd have another great war in our hands and this time, you'd have to fight. Look...I had the same questions too. But ol' Ozpin put his foot down. We can't cause a panic." He said what Ozpin told him and laughed. "I can't tell you how many times I heard that. Salem's smart, she works from the shadows, using others to get what she wants. So when it comes time to place the blame, you can only point at each other. She's trying to divide us, humanity and so far she's done a pretty damn good job." He sighed afterwards.

"Alright. So what should we do?"

"Hehe, I don't really know. Ozpin has put a lot of trust into the headmasters. Like I said, the schools are an important part of stopping Salem. Atlas is gonna be on high alert after the last attack and Vacuo is, well Vacuo. It'll be hard to hire thieves and scoundrels to fight other thieves and scoundrels. Take that, add in the fact that Cinder and her crew claim to be from Haven, I think that's likely their next target. So we're on our way to the headmaster, haven't heard from him in a while, even before the attack. I'm hoping he has the answers." He looked at each of us and started walking. "Alright, I think it's time that we find a nice spot to stay low and sleep."

"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby called out.

"Yeah?"

"This is a lot to take in and it all sounds crazy but...I'm willing to do whatever I can to help. Because I trust you. But why couldn't you trust me? Why couldn't you just travel with us instead all of this secrecy and and."

"Look, this has nothing to do with trust. I...It's a long story."

"Seriously, now you're tired of telling us stories?" Nora asked.

"You know the crows are a sign of bad luck. Old superstition but it's how I got my name. You see, some people can absorb electricity and some people can burst into rose petals. Or even have skills beyond normal capability or some people are just born unlucky. My semblance...isn't like most. It's not exactly something I do. It's always there whether I like it or not. I bring misfortune." He laughed in a low tone. "I guess you can call me a bad luck charm. Comes in real handy when fighting an enemy but it makes it a little hard on friends and family."

Jaune crossed his arms. "Well you are just a really big bundle of help aren't you?"

"Yeah." Qrow responded, beginning to walk.

"Where are you going?" Ren asked.

"Finding a place to sleep."

"There's nothing else you wanna tell us?" Ruby asked, trying to see if there was more to the story as a crow landed on a tree branch nearby.

"Not tonight." He said, continuing to walk.

I sighed. "Ruby, can I talk to you privately?" She nodded as we walked away from them. Reaching into my right pocket, I took out a small black sack and reached my hand in there. "These are meant for use only when it is extremely necessary." I took out a few things and handed it to her.

She opened her hand to see what I gave her. "What are six green beans gonna do?"

"These are more than just beans. These are senzu beans. I was given this as a birthday gift by my mentor. I was given ten but I gave you six. One for each of you. Reason why I'm giving you this is because the stakes have been raised and I may not be able to get there in time the next time you all are in trouble. Each bean is capable of healing any wound instantaneously no matter how severe. Cutting one in half will not change its effect so I suggest you do that to each one once you have time. You guys be safe and see ya later."

"Wait, I want you to tell me something. When Tyrion was talking about Cinder, I thought she was dead. What really happened in your battle with her because you told us all that she was gone?"

I sighed. "I was hoping you didn't catch that…" I looked her straight in the eyes. "Believe it or not, she wasn't always evil. There was a time when she was very caring and nurturing. Around the time she found me to be exact."

"What do you mean?"

"Ruby...Cinder is my mother...My real mother."

She took a few steps back and put her hand on her mouth. "That's why she's alive."

"Yeah...She left when I was young and the person she left me with who I now call my grandmother did something to my memories to make me forget about her. I kept it secret because it's not exactly something you bring up in conversation. You think everyone will accept that, knowing that it was her fault that Beacon fell? That my mother could've killed Pyrrha and had I not been strong enough, even me?"

"Does anyone else know?"

I shook my head. "I introduced her to Weiss who wasn't around when I told you all about my fight with Cinder, purposefully leaving out the bad parts. I know I'm only delaying the inevitable and that everyone will eventually find out the truth but until then, I don't want to make matters worse for everyone so I need you to promise me that you won't say anything."

"I uh…"

"Please Ruby...it is all I am asking of you."

After some thought, she nodded her head and smiled. "I promise not to say anything but I want you to promise me that you'll tell Blake. She is your girlfriend after all and she wouldn't want you keeping stuff from her."

I smiled, turned my back to her and flared my ki. "Hopefully we meet again under better circumstances." With that being said, I shot into the sky, on my way back to Menagerie.