Lost my mind again! Got new models to paint to help me focus on writing too! Have a new chapter on the house!

-X Skuld X-

Subject X stared at the boy wrapped around her chest in confusion, feeling him squeeze her tigher as he grinned up at the brown haired girl who said she was her teacher. This was… different. She hadn't ever been hugged like this, tight, but not as tight as the bindings during the experiments.

Slowly, experimentally, she raised her arms and wrapped them around the boy. He didn't respond to the movement, just giggling as the girl planted a hand on his head and shook up his hair, "We'll see, Riku. Now, don't you have someone to be greeting?"

"Huh?" Riku blinked, before looking at Subject X with a wide grin, "Oh, yeah… Hi, Skuld! I'm Riku!"

Skuld…? Why did that name seem familiar? What…? Was that… was that her name?

Skuld blinked rapidly as tears began to form, sobs rising up from her chest. How did they know her name, when she didn't remember it?

Her teacher reached down, gently pulling Skuld into a hug and patting her hair, "Hey… hey it's alright. Let's get you somewhere private so you can let it out."

"I quite agree," a woman with blond hair and glasses said, lips tight, "Raven, go to the hospital ward and get patched up, your questions can wait."

"I-" a woman with black hair started, before growling, "fine. But I expect answers."

"Miss Rose," the woman said, "take Miss… Skuld and follow me. I assume you want your team with you?"

Rose nodded, lifting Skuld and grabbing a sword from the ground offering it to her. A strange spike drove into Skuld's heart as she took the sword by the hilt, staring at it as her finger brushed the trigger. Warmth seemed to radiate from the hilt like an old friend, and Skuld gripped it harder. Everything was strange, and she didn't know what was going on… but she trusted the sword, if nothing else, "And Dad and Uncle Qrow."

"I was coming either way," a blonde man said, standing and helping a girl with the same hair color do the same, "because I want to know what the heck this is about."

"Yeah," Rose said, before focusing on the woman, "Let's go."

She nodded, turning and walking out of the room with a small group. Rose followed, and tugged on by Riku, so did Skuld. A brown haired boy rushed over, smiling wide, "Do you think Ruby'll teach me now?"

"Yeah!" Riku said, "She's gotta! I'm sure of it! We'll be the best Keyblade Masters ever once she's done with us! Riku, Sora and Skuld!"

Keyblade… how had she forgotten that's what Sleeping Lion was?

-X Pyrrha X-

Pyrrha touched Yang's arm as Sora joined Riku and Skuld, worrying her cheek, "Are you alright?"

Yang's purple eyes glanced down at the broken skin of her hands, before looking up at Pyrrha, "Yeah. I'm fine… just… never really imagined meeting Mom going like that."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Pyrrha asked.

"Not now, I'll tell you later" Yang said, shaking her head and nodding towards Skuld, "I'm curious about that. When did Ruby and Braig get on speaking terms?"

"Good question," Pyrrha said softly, "and where did Braig get a Keyblade wielder from?"

Yang shrugged, crossing her arms, "I dunno. How are you?"

"Fine," Pyrrha said, "I'm sorry for not coming down and helping, but I needed to make sure-"

"I'd be angry if you did," Yang said, "I… that fight was personal, Pyr. I needed to get that off my chest."

Pyrrha nodded, clutching her hands, "Ok, then. Ready for this?"

"No," Yang said, "but I am curious, c'mon."

-X Ruby X-

Ruby sat down at the table, trying to hide the pounding headache pulsing through her skull. Damnit, Braig…

Like, where in the name of Kingdom Hearts did you just find a Keyblade wielder? Why did he just drop her in Ruby's lap?

Man, if this was what it was like for Uncle Qrow, she got why he was drunk all the time. This was stupid. Still, she had to keep things stable, she was a Keyblade Master. She was a Foreteller.

And she was Skuld's Master, now. Great…

Ruby sent a small, calming smile towards the puffy-eyed girl, trying to figure out what Master Eraqus would have done in this situation. Skuld blinked, before giving a smile back towards her.

"Can I see your Keyblade?" Ruby asked, holding out a hand and taking the sword when Skuld handed it over. It hummed for a second, embers sparking within the lion's mouth at the tip of the blade. Ruby pushed magical energy into the Keyblade, blinking at the hidden seam and flicking it open. Inside, six empty chambers sat, waiting to be filled. A gunblade. It was a frickin' gunblade!

Ruby summoned Crescent Rose to her offering it to Skuld, who took the sword, and nearly tipped back in the chair. Pyrrha lunged forward her Semblance grabbing the metal of the chair and stabilizing it, "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah," Skuld nodded, finger brushing Crescent Rose's trigger, "my Keyblade has something like this…"

"Yeah," Ruby said, smiling at her, "I think I'll be able to help you a lot, Skuld. But first, we should probably go shopping for some clothes, you don't have anything but those do you?"

"No," Skuld said, tugging at the gown.

"Then we should go," Tai said, "before it gets too late, and me and you girls can have a long discussion about fighting Raven while we're out…"

Ruby shared a horrified look with Yang. Oh, no… "Dad-"

"Don't 'dad' me," Tai said, "We are going to talk about it, understand?"

Both of them nodded meekly, cowed by their father's frown. They were in so much trouble.

"And Miss Rose," Glynda said, "I have to deal with some things here, including Raven and your rather… obvious displays of magic, but when you return, we will be discussing your students, and you and I are going to start a new set of classes at the end of the day about teaching. I wish you had said something."

"You're the one who promised I'd get credit for teaching them," Ruby muttered bitterly, locking the sword back into place and handing it to Skuld, who passed Ruby Crescent Rose.

"Yes," Glynda said, "We were."

"You want to go home before we go shopping?" Ruby asked Riku, who shook his head, eyes bright.

"No, I wanna show Sora Vale!" Riku said turning to his friend, "You're gonna love it, they got buildings that make the mayor's house look tiny!"

-X Raven X-

Raven hissed as Hestia Pele dabbed at her split skin with antiseptic. Now this was something that brought back memories, and that she sure as hell hadn't expected to ever happen again.

Pele had set her nose, which had shattered from Yang's lariat smashing her into the ground face first, and was wrapping the slashes and bruises that had been dealt across her chest. What the hell had been happening while she was gone?

She needed to talk to Ozpin, for more reasons than she had originally thought…

-X Emerald X-

Emerald sat in the room they had been given, watching Mercury toss a ball in the air as Cinder watched the replay of the fight for the third time. The half-Maiden hummed as she watched the explosion of flames burn away the vines, eyes the color of embers narrowing.

"What?" Emerald asked, recognizing the hum as the noise Cinder made when she was thinking about something important.

"She's not Autumn," Cinder answered, "She has too much skill with the power to be a new Maiden."

"That's skill?" Mercury asked.

"Considering I can only create a small flame?" Cinder said, holding out her hand and igniting a ball of fire in it, "Yes. She knows how to use it, she knows how to shape it, and summon it from places other than her body. She is more skilled with the powers of a Maiden than I am, which means Ozpin is more desperate than I suspected… and our success here just became all the more vital. Be quiet, I need to talk to Salem."

The Scroll flickered to a black screen, before Salem's voice came from it, "Cinder. Arthur says that things have been going… less than ideal for you."

"I assume he's talking about Mountain Glenn?" Cinder asked, "Yes, it's a setback, but I have new information that makes it a trifling."

"And what information is that?"

"Another Maiden is currently at Beacon," Cinder said.

"...You are certain of that?" Salem asked.

"She used magic in broad daylight," Cinder said, "and a telekinetic Semblance. I'll infiltrate the CCT during the dance in two weeks to gain more information on her, tell Watts to make sure his virus is ready."

"I will," Salem said, "and I am going to send Hazel your way once he is done with his current mission, which should be later today if everything goes according to plan, and he will operate under you for this mission. If there is a Maiden and Ozpin defending Autumn, you will need the support. Do not let this opportunity slide through our fingers, Cinder. If we can take two Maidens, remove Ozpin from the board for a while and eliminate the CCT in one fell swoop it will be a decisive victory."

"I won't," Cinder said, a confident smile spreading across her face as the call ended and she looked to Emerald, "and I need you to find which room she's staying in, see if you can't find anything of use."

Emerald nodded, "Of course!"

She'd prove herself to Cinder, she'd find the information on this Maiden.

- X Coco X-

Coco sat in Team CFVY's room, spinning a designer pen around her fingers as she flipped open an embroidered notebook, "Alright, what do we got about them?"

Rage.

"Gonna need you to be a bit more clear, Fox."

When there was the lull in the fighting, Fox continued, There was… the girl was so angry, and her Aura was changed… I've never 'seen' anything like it.

"Good to know," Coco said, sticking out her tongue and jotting down black flame=bad time, "Vel?"

"I… something is wrong with the younger one," Velvet said, unusual frustration leaking into her voice, "It's like… like Yats used his Semblance on me, but only on certain parts. I can follow the movements, but when she started using her Semblance… it's like there's something keeping me from remembering how to do it. I'm not sure I'd be able to use Anesidora well with her weapons. We should focus on taking her out as quickly as possible if we have to face her during the Tournament."

"Hype?"

"Hype," the other three members of Team CFVY agreed.

"Sounds good," Coco said, doing a rough sketch of the girl and writing her Semblance next to it, "anything else any of you noticed?"

She warped space, Fox reported, When she dodged that attack, it was like the space between her and the attack… it changed. Became much wider than it should have been, wider than the room was, just for a second.

"That's… worrying," Coco said, "Her Semblance must involve lots of Dust then. Let's hope she can't just counter Hype."

And that she doesn't catch you in an enclosed space, Fox said.

"I… hadn't thought of that," Coco said, tightening her grip on the pen, "Don't mention that out of the dorm until the tournament, I don't want them finding out."

Ideally, they could just have Yats just… just wipe her memory of that day from her mind before the match just in case, but something that far back and that ingrained… there was no point in asking, Yats wasn't ever gonna do it.

"So I take out the younger with Hype, Yats, you deal with the older one, and if things get really bad, Velvet, you use one of the rifles in Anesidora to snipe her."

And if it's in the first rounds? Fox asked.

"You deal with Nikos," Coco said, "since you're better at hand to hand, and Velvet deals with the fourth member. Sound good?"

Everyone nodded, and Coco cracked a smile, snapping the book shut and spinning her pen. They were gonna show the world why CFVY was the best up and coming Team on Remnant.

-X James X-

James's hand itched for Due Process as he stepped into the room where Ozpin, Glynda and Qrow were standing waiting for him. So was he the last person to know, or just the last person in this group? "I thought you agreed to tell me when you picked out a new Autumn Maiden?"

"I did and will," Ozpin said, causing James to scoff and slam his Scroll onto the table harder then absolutely necessary, causing the video from Neon Katt to start playing, showing the silver eyed girl hovering in air on pinions of fire before dive bombing Raven Branwen, summoning an equally flaming sword to her and clashing with the bandit.

"You mean to tell me that isn't the most unsubtle Maiden on the face of Remnant?"

"Only because that isn't the least subtle Maiden on the face of Remnant," Ozpin said, "You can go check on Amber yourself if you don't believe me, James, she remains on life support in the vault."

"Then what is it!?" James snarled, grinding his teeth, "and why didn't I know about it!?"

"Because it wasn't relevant," Ozpin said, "Miss Rose is neutral at best to the conflict, and has her own goals completely separate from ours. Even if we wished to conscript her to combat Salem, it would be unlikely at best to work."

"And what are those goals?" James gritted out, "and how does she have magic?"

"The acquisition and training of apprentices," Ozpin said, "There were two there today, evidently. And as for how, it's through the weapon she uses, a Keyblade, she calls it."

"And you let her keep it?" James asked.

"We wouldn't know where to start in removing it from her. She owns two, with at least one more belonging to one of those apprentices. She is also capable of summoning it to her at will."

"Then put her on house arrest!" James snapped.

"She's able to teleport, Jimmy," Qrow said, "and her range is far, far out. Farther out than you could hope to stop her. She's not gonna stay in a house she doesn't want to be in."

They'd see about that. But first he needed to find someone to get close to her, or one of her apprentices.

"Fine," James said, playing along for now, "But do you mind at least setting up a meeting so I could meet her?"

"She needs to talk to us about what happened today anyways," Ozpin said, "I see no harm in you being here.

- X AN X-

Must. Resist. Urge. To. Bring. In. Penny. Even if she would be a great friend to Skuld.

Next chapter, the fun of clothes shopping with an amnesiac, a girl who literally wore the same thing for seven years and two children! Plus James and Raven get some questions answered, and we see what Hazel's been up to.

Thoughts, questions and opinions? Good? Bad? Meh?