Vine walked into the office and approached the Master of Masters. The gears on the wall turned to show the words 'Case of Vine.'

"Guessing it's time to learn more of his role," Jaune noted.

"It was to observe, right?" Roman asked, "Just want to make sure I have that right."

"That's right," Weiss confirmed, "I hope they explain more about it, too. Just 'observing' the others sounds terrible."

"So, to sum it up," the Master said as he placed a hand on Vine's shoulder, "I'll need you to observe the others. Easy breezy."

"Or not," Weiss sighed.

"Hey, scenes not over yet," Ruby pointed out, "Cheer up, Weiss!"

"A-" Vine started hesitantly, "All right."

"Hmm," the Master pondered, "Like I said, Clover may have to take over for me," he circled Vine as he continued, "But don't be shy. Just be fair."

"And," he added, "Do not be afraid to speak up! Even though I say 'observe,' you'll," he pointed at Vine, "Need to be the mediator; make sure people get along."

"Mediator," Ren smiled, "That is a much better role."

"Well, he's doing a great job so far," Qrow rolled his eyes, "He needs to patch things up between Elm and Lucky here fast, or there's going to be a full-blown uprising."

"How do you figure?" Tai asked, "From what I can see it would just be a conflict between two people."

"The Unions," Winter grumbled, "Elm is going to turn her Union against Clover's. It will be a full scale war."

Vine looked down in contemplation, "I understand," he slowly clenched his fist, "but, without you or Luxu, to form and maintain our own Unions is…" he sighed before continuing, "It's a little unnerving, to be honest."

The Master waved his hands in dismissal, "Oh, come on. Lighten up a little! Maybe I'll never disappear."

"Wait." He pulled back in fake shock before getting right in Vine's face, "Do you want me to go?"

"Why would any of the apprentices want that?" Penny asked, "They all seem to respect the Master."

"I think it's a joke Penny," Yang chuckled.

"What?" Vine pulled back, "N-No! Of course not!"

The Master chuckled and patted Vine's head, "I was just kidding!"

"I see…" Vine sighed out.

"Look," the Master continued, walking towards his desk, "I get that change can be hard for everyone. But things need to keep moving forward. And you need to keep up. Otherwise, you'll just get left behind all alone."

"Well, I'd say that that fits our situation very well," Oscar smirked.

"Yeah," Clover agreed, "This is quite a big change. I'm glad I can keep up."

Neo shook her head and lightly chuckled at the two. If only they knew.

"Now that you know what the future holds," he turned back to Vine, "Vine, what does your heart say?"

The Master scoffed a little, "May your heart be your guiding key. I say it all the time; you ultimately need to do what your heart feels is right." He made a show with his hands as if he just finished a stage show.

"He certainly has a flair for the dramatic," Cinder scoffed, still thinking about Tyrian.

"Yeah, he does," Raven scowled in agreement.

"Do you still think it's me, Raven?" Ozpin asked with a smirk.

"I think the kid is right," Raven snapped back, "It's probably one of your past lives."

Vine smiled lightly and nodded, "Right."

The screen went black and the words 'A few days later' appeared.

"A few day's from when?" Velvet asked, "The flashback, or the real time?"

"Probably the real time," Blake shrugged, "Moving forward a few day's in a flashback would be confusing."

The scene showed Elm, Marrow, and Harriet in a small warehouse. Both Marrow and Harriet were sitting on crates, while Elm paced in the center of the room.

"I was wrong about Clover," Elm started, "I thought he would make a great leader, but he let me down."

"What did I do?" Clover asked, "I've just been leading the team."

"Making them think there is a traitor wasn't the best move," Qrow scoffed, "I still think you should have found more proof."

She turned to the two seated in the room, "Well, what do you two think? You don't believe what Clover said, do you?"

Harriet looked up in contemplation, "Of course not. His argument was unconvincing. It's like Vine said," she looked over to Elm, "he's just making baseless assumptions given the situation."

Clover and Winter turned their eyes on Harriet, who sunk into her chair.

"Guy's, c'mon," she protested, "It's another universe! I don't really think like that!"

Winter sighed, "She's right Clover. We learned this lesson in the first universe. Just because you see it here doesn't make it true for us."

"Thank goodness," Jaune mumbled, as he thought about the second universe.

She continued, "There's no evidence to tie his accusations to anyone, let alone one of us."

Marrow sighed, "Maybe there's something he hasn't told us."

Elm growled and turned away, "Then he needs to tell us. How dare he look at us with suspicion. We're his comrades!"

Ozpin felt many eyes fall upon him at that statement.

"I wouldn't say that," Harriet mumbled.

"I wouldn't call us 'comrades,'" Harriet muttered under her breath.

"What?!" Harriet exclaimed, "How did it know that?"

"Eh," Sun shrugged, "As the guy that it happened the most too, you get used to it. For most of these, there is still a small part of us in them."

"Yeah, most of them," Ren sighed this time.

"Anyway," she continued louder, "could you get to the point? I know you didn't call us here just to complain."

"Speed semblance make you impatient?" Emerald chuckled, "No wonder Atlas can't stop us."

"Yeah," Mercury agreed, "They are too busy fighting amongst themselves."

Harriet and Clover began to stand up, but were stopped by Raven, "Ignore them. All they are trying to do is rile you up and cause a fight."

The two sat back down, before Raven added under her breath, "Even if I agree with them."

Elm turned back to face the other two, "I want the three of us to form an alliance."

Marrow sat up quickly, "But alliances are forbidden, Elm!"

"Why would they be?" Ruby asked, "If you worked together, you could solve the problem!"

Blake narrowed her eyes, "My guess is that the Master ordered it, and they just obey."

"They're just following orders," Weiss attempted to defend them, "Why is that such a bad thing?"

"Because I blindly followed orders once," Blake raised her voice, "And I became a terrorist. You can be made to do bad things just following orders."

Weiss nodded slowly, as Yang put her arm around Blake. "I understand," Weiss retracted, "I could see how that's a bad thing."

Winter scowled at her sister, but said nothing.

"I knew it," Harriet sighed out, "I had a feeling it would come to this."

"So," Harriet looked to Elm, "We join forces, then confront Clover?"

"That's a dumb plan," Harriet shook her head, "Even if all of our Unions confronted him, he would have his own Union, Vine's Union, and Luxu and the Master of Master's on his side if they came back."

"You wouldn't be outgunned," Roman nodded, "But the Master is definitely a wild card. I wouldn't bet against him."

Elm shook her head and turned away, "Confronting him is pointless. Clover won't change his mind."

Harriet looked down while Elm continued, "I know there's darkness at work. There's no question. But," she turned back to the two, "I don't believe for a second there's a traitor among us."

"So she's not the traitor," Summer smiled, "She want's to stop the darkness."

"But she's going against orders to do it," Clover shook his head, "We should trust the Master here. He probably knows best."

"Yeah," Qrow scoffed, "I trusted someone like that once. Worst luck of my life."

Raven put a hand on her brother's shoulder in comfort. But, she did so with a smirk on her face.

"Unfortunately," she walked towards the two, "Clover doesn't share the same belief. He's just wasting time trying to figure out who the traitor is. But darkness won't wait and neither should we."

"But the traitor could slow everything down," Pyrrha reasoned, "Make it harder to fight against the darkness."

"We don't even know if there is a traitor yet," Jaune shrugged, "That's the assumption Elm is going off of."

She continued, "We need to band together now and find a way to fight it."

Harriet thought for a moment, "Guess it makes sense."

"Hare…" Clover started.

"Look, I agree that we need to fight the darkness," Harriet interrupted, "But disobeying orders to do it? I would never. The people up top worked hard to get there, they know what they're doing."

"Unless they're corrupt," Neo pointed out.

"Something you'd know all about, wouldn't you?" Harriet snapped back.

Roman, Ilia, and Neo all glared at the woman.

"I agree," Marrow started, "That we need to do something to fight the darkness, but combining our Unions?" He looked down in contemplation, "That was strictly forbidden by the Master."

"I never thought the day would come," Winter sighed, "Marrow is the sensible one."

"That's the good thing about being the goof ball," Tai chuckled, "People never expect it when you're actually smart."

"You must be talking about Yang then, 'cause that clearly doesn't apply to you," Raven smirked.

"Hey!"

"He's no longer here," Elm stated bluntly, though she did look at the ground in sadness.

"I'm in," Harriet said, "But let's be clear: the alliance is just between the two of us right now. I don't want my Union members involved."

Ren narrowed his eyes, "She knows something. What good is an alliance if the Unions aren't involved?"

"It does not make a lot of sense," Penny agreed.

"Harriet!" Marrow called out in disbelief.

Elm turned and looked at Marrow expectantly. He gasped before sighing out, "I want to follow the Master's teachings."

"Understood," Elm turned away, "That's your choice to make. You should do whatever you feel is right."

"'May your heart be your guiding key,'" Neptune quoted.

"I get the feeling that's the recurring theme here," Ilia noted.

"At least Elm's not angry about it," Sun shrugged, "She's still letting them choose for themselves."

"Yeah," Marrow said, unconvincingly.

"By the way Elm," Harriet asked, "Do Clover and Vine know?"

Harriet face-palmed at other hers actions, "If we're forming an alliance against Clover's wishes, why would we tell him?"

"You're a lot smarter than her, to be sure," Clover chuckled.

"Unless that's just what she wants you to think," Adam smirked.

"I haven't talked to Clover about it for obvious reasons," Elm started, "But I did ask Vine to join us." Right as she finished Vine walked in the door.

"I don't think this is going to end well," Sun winced.

"Yeah, he seems pretty devoted to helping Clover," Jaune agreed, "He's not going to go along with it."

"You wanted to see me?" He asked as he walked into the room.

"Marrow, Harriet, what are you doing here?" he asked in shock, "What's the meaning of this?"

"Hear me out, Vine," Elm explained, "I want an alliance among our Unions," She walked toward Vine as she continued, "Harriet here has already agreed. Will you join us and together we can…"

"And disobey the Master's teachings!?" Vine interrupted.

"There it is," Sun said.

Clover smiled, "At least Vine's still on my side."

"Marrow is too," Winter noted.

Clover shook his head, "I think Marrow's on his own side. He doesn't care about the traitor, just following the Master's teachings."

Elm snarled, "We don't have a choice! Darkness is approaching and we need to combine our strength to stand against it."

"The Master bestowed each of us with a different role," Vine explained, "and he specifically told us to keep our Unions separate to maintain the balance of power," He strode towards Elm as he continued, "He told us that any imbalance would lead to a desire for more power, which leads to darkness. I know you haven't forgotten!"

"That's not necessarily true," Ozpin said with a raised eyebrow, "Unbalanced power can lead to that desire, but only if you are already darkened."

"Or if the power given is absolute," Weiss grumbled, as she thought about her father.

"Absolute power corrupts, absolutely," Blake agreed, thinking about Adam.

Summer nodded, "Someone who gains power and then shares it is still light, even if they keep more power for themselves."

"Perhaps," he theorized, "It's you who has been tainted by darkness."

Elm clenched her fist, "I'm tainted by darkness? Then what about you, Vine?"

"You spy on us and report everything you see back to Clover," she explained, "You really think you have no darkness in your heart after what you did!?"

"Isn't that his role though?" Velvet asked, "How can she think it's him if he's just doing his job?"

"She doesn't," Jaune shook his head, "Remember, she doesn't think there is a traitor. I think she realizes we all have a little darkness inside of us, she just wants Vine to see it."

"Because that is my role," Vine defended.

"To observe us, yes," Elm continued, "But not to disclose everything we say and do to Clover!"

"And that he's taking his role too far," Ren agreed.

"Yeah, I certainly wouldn't want someone reporting on everything I do," Nora nodded.

"That's…" Vine started, but realized Elm was right.

"For all we know," Elm folded her arms, "you and Clover could be allies, scheming behind our backs!"

"That's enough." Vine stated.

Marrow sighed at the scene

The screen changed to Daybreak Town's plaza. It was a circular stone area with a fountain in the middle. Marrow sat on the edge of the fountain, thinking to himself.

"Is that the town center?" Oscar asked in wonder.

"It kinda reminds me of Beacon, fountain and all," Yang sighed.

"Back when life was simple," Weiss shook her head.

"When will it stop?" He wondered out loud, "I don't want us to turn against each other…"

"He must consider you all more than co-workers," Ruby smiled, "He genuinely cares about the rest of you."

"A mentality that could get him killed," Harriet scowled.

"But we feel that way," Yang smiled as she looked at her team, "And it hasn't got us killed yet."

"It almost did," Adam chuckled under his breath.

"But it could," Clover agreed, "If he comes back for one of us instead of finishing a mission, it could kill both of us and cause the mission to fail. It's dangerous."

"But you can work together easier," Nora protested.

"I think we need to agree to disagree," Winter scowled, "Let's get back to this."

A girl approached. She was wearing grey boots and black pants. She had on a grey and green long sleeve top, with a grey sleeveless coat over it. She had very light blonde hair, green eyes, and lamb ears. She also wore a red scarf.

"Who is that?" Ilia asked.

"I believe that is Fiona Thyme," Clover tried to remember.

"Indeed it is!" Penny smiled, "She is one of Robyn Hill's Happy Huntresses."

"Who is Robyn Hill?" Weiss asked, "And did she really call her group the Happy Huntresses?"

"Robyn is one of three main competitors for the current Atlas council seat. The other two being General Ironwood and Father," Winter sneered, "She has the support of the people of Mantle, and yes, her group is being called the Happy Huntresses."

Qrow groaned, "Please tell me Jaq-ass isn't winning anyone's votes right now."

"Only the Atlas Elite," Clover sighed, "The General has the military and the main Atlas population, while Robyn has Mantle."

"Knowing him though, he'll have something up his sleeve," Ilia grumbled, "He always does,"

"Master Marrow!" Fiona greeted.

Marrow jumped a little before seeing who it was, "Oh. Hello! Your name is Fiona, right?"

"Uh-huh!" she confirmed, "Uh, hey, can I join you?"

"Uh-huh." Marrow nodded. Fiona sat down next to him.

"Why the long face?" she asked, "Did something happen?"

"You could say that," Tai chuckled, "Only his best friends fighting each other."

"That's not funny, Tai!" Summer protested, "They really could destroy the world!"

"I know," Tai reassured, "But the way she asked was funny."

"Long day," Marrow stated as he curled his legs up closer to his body, "Do you remember what you asked me before?"

Fiona looked at him puzzled, so he continued, "About why the Unions compete against each other instead of working together."

Roman grumbled, "Because the Master ordered it. Which is a stupid reason."

"I'd comment about that," Winter sighed, "But with you, I feel like I wouldn't get anywhere."

"Good call, Ice Queen," Roman chuckled, "I don't do well with authority figures, especially the ones who think they know everything."

Cinder glared him.

Fiona nodded and Marrow looked down before continuing, "Actually, I always wondered the same thing."

Clover did a spit take, "What!?"

"Huh?" Fiona asked, confused, "Isn't it just because the Master said so?"

"Yes," Marrow confirmed, "And as such we must obey. The Master said so, so it is."

"Exactly," Harriet nodded, "I don't know what else Marrow has been thinking, but it needs to stop."

"Seriously, all he wants is for you guys to be friends," Sun countered, "Is it that hard to do?"

"It goes against our orders," Harriet scowled, "That should be enough."

"But lately," Marrow confessed, "I've really started to wonder."

"You once told me that you were looking for answers," he continued, "that you wanted to solve the mysteries of this world."

"Well," Marrow stated, "I think that's how things should be. We need to question things and think for ourselves."

"Thank you!" Raven threw her hands in the air, "Finally something that makes sense out of this group."

"Yeah," Ilia agreed, "I stopped questioning things once, and almost killed my best friend."

"Whoa!" Fiona looked at him in shock, "You're really not yourself today. I guess even foretellers have their off days."

"Hey," Fiona had an idea, "Maybe talking about the Book will cheer you up!"

"Not a chance!" Marrow smirked.

"Agreed," Ozpin nodded, "The information in the book should be kept to as few people as possible."

"Unless they prove themselves," Qrow snarled at the man, "Keeping secrets is what got you into trouble in the first place, Oz. Sharing that information would've saved you a major headache in the long run."

"Awww." Fiona sighed.

Marrow looked at her knowingly, "You were trying to pull a fast one on me, weren't you?"

"No, no," Fiona denied, "I was joking!"

"She's about as good at digging for information as Ruby," Yang chuckled.

"Hey," Ruby began to protest.

"We all know you're socially awkward, Ruby," Weiss giggled, "It's okay."

"Fine," Ruby pouted, but she flashed Weiss a small smile. It made Weiss's heart leap into her throat.

Marrow silently chuckled, "If you say so," he paused before going back to the matter at hand, "But, to be honest, I think it would be great if all the Unions could work together and be friends."

"I agree," Jaune nodded, "With them all working together, they could stop the darkness."

"No they couldn't," Winter argued, "It will come true. The book says so."

"Screw the book," Jaune muttered.

Fiona smiled at him before looking at the ground, "You know, I made a friend from another Union today. Wasn't much of a talker, maybe just shy. We're meeting again tomorrow."

"That sounds like so much fun!" Marrow exclaimed, "Then, you'd better go home and get some sleep."

"'kay." Fiona agreed and hopped off the fountain. She ran off, headed for home, before she turned around, "Well, it was nice talking to you. I don't know what's got you down, but please cheer up!" She left the plaza, leaving Marrow alone.

"I will say, depression looks bad on Marrow," Clover agreed, "It's so strange not to see him as his cheerful self."

"Yeah," Harriet agreed, "I almost feel bad for him."

Marrow smiled at his student's kind words, "Thank you."

He looked at the ground, "If the worst happens, I'll be glad to leave the future to the kids who see the world in the way that you do." He looked up to see dandelion seeds floating in the wind.

"Right, she must be one of the exceptional Keyblade wielders," Neo reasoned.

Cinder raised an eyebrow, before whispering to Emerald, "We should keep an eye on her when we get back. If she's that important here, she may be in our world as well."

He smiled as he watched them drift by, "Let the wind carry you far, far away… my Dandelions."

"I feel like that's an important object," Oscar observed, "They've come up more than once."

"I'm sure we'll find out more later," Ren nodded, "I, for one, want to see how this plays out."

"Not the way you want it to, I'm sure," Adam smirked.


AN: God, I'm sorry. Remember when I said I had more time? Well, my single job now just lost almost all of the staff we had. They just quit! So, I had to pull two doubles the past week. I was also going to spend my day off tomorrow catching up and doing some extra writing, but now I work anyway! Agh!

Sorry, I'm ranting. Anyway, the last casting for this part of the Kingdom Hearts Universe, from Zweig:

Ephemer: Fiona Thyme – Honestly, it's the fluffy hair.

And the answers to a few questions:

Guest guessing at Adam's identity: Wrong again! I don't want to spoil it for anyone else or I'd give you the answer here, if someone else wants to that's fine, or you can keep guessing.

Ren Woods: Technically, parts of Union Cross would be next, but that game, along with Birth By Sleep, build very heavily off of Kingdom Hearts 1. A lot of the big moments of KH1 would be ruined if we showed BbS first, but I will show it. I plan on showing every game in the KH series, so it will be there.

Also, I have a special surprise for all of you. You, my faithful readers, get to make a decision on something. I have a poll up on my profile. It asks you to vote on your top three hottest (sexiest, most beautiful, however you want to say it) women in the RWBY series. You have until I'm getting ready to post chapter 50, then it will be shown to the viewers as the watchers top ten list.

Please vote to make that chapter a good one! Every female character with a Wiki page on the characters tab, and a picture is up for votes, so don't feel trapped by the main characters. On every chapter, I will post an update, until we hit chapter 40 then it will be a secret until the chapter comes out.

As of right now, I only have two places, but they are tied all around:

Tied for 1st: Neo Politan, Pyrrha Nikos, and Yang Xiao-Long all with 2

Tied for 2nd: Harriet Bree, Kali Belladonna, Miltia Malachite, Nora Valkyrie, Ruby Rose, Salem (Blonde), Sienna Kahn, Velvet Scarlatina, and Winter Schnee all with 1

Until next time!