Autumn had come to Vale. It was seven in the evening, and the sun had just dipped below the horizon. All across the city, leaves were turning from green to yellow to orange to red, until they fell from their branches like burning coals. And high above the skyline hovered what looked like a giant glittering ice cream cone, or maybe an alien spaceship come to abduct the kingdom's cattle. No one took any alarm, though, for it was only Amity Colosseum, newly arrived from Atlas. 'Twas the night before Vytal-mas; all of Beacon hummed with faint nervous energy, like a soldier preparing for battle, or a diver about to plunge into uncharted seas. And in one room of the ancient castle, two girls and a boy were doing nothing in particular—

Weiss's Scroll broke the stillness by ringing, loudly and obnoxiously. The heiress glanced at the caller ID, frowned, and hung up. "Sorry." she muttered. "Just a telemarketer."

Nora, who had been placidly listening to music on her bed, startled and looked wildly around the room. "Whoa! Did anyone else feel that? Like a spotlight just started shining on us?"

Ren didn't even lift his eyes from his book. "The light's been on the whole time, Nora."

"Not literally!" Nora licked her index finger and stuck it up in the air. "Yes! YES! I'm sure now! A new volume of our lives is beginning, guys! Exciting things are going to start happening again!"

"Anyone could've predicted that. The Festival starts tomorrow, after all." Somewhat grudgingly, Weiss turned her chair around to join the conversation. "And are you ever going to explain what a volume is?"

Nora shrugged. "Eh, it's hard to define. Just...it's been a while since the train, and it feels kind of like a reset, you know? We've had time to bury the emotional trauma—I mean, uh, deal with it in a healthy manner. Everything's been all nice and quiet...actually, did anything relevant happen in the last month?" Weiss and Ren both opened their mouths to reply, but Nora steamrollered on. Evidently the question had been rhetorical. "Wait, no, there was the whole shebang with the glowy green Grimm and the exploding island. Oh, and that movie we watched where every character was Jaune for some reason. Man, that was weird!"

"Um...I'm quite sure none of that happened." said Weiss.

"Ignore her." Ren sighed. "It's the Beowolf skin rug story all over again. Nora, remember what I told you about dreams?" He retrieved a large poster from under his bed, and shoved it in his partner's face. On it was a drawing of Nora's head, with the word 'DREAMS' written inside, while the area outside was labelled 'REALITY'. "Have you been feeling well lately? You know, some people have long-term concussion side effects—"

Before the boundary between fiction and reality could suffer any further damage, the door of their room opened. "I'm baaack!" Ruby skipped inside. "Huh. That felt familiar."

Weiss acknowledged their leader with a polite nod. "Welcome back. How was your trip home?"

"Good!" Ruby said cheerfully. "It was nice not being grounded this time. Let's see, I played with Zwei, had some home cooking, visited my mom's grave—" All three teammates did a double-take at the sudden morbid turn. "Oh. Sorry, I guess that was too depressing."

"It—it's fine." Ren assured her. "I'm glad that you've processed it so well."

BZZZZT!

"Huh?" Jaune looked over at the Aura gauge. "Aww, man!" He'd dipped down to 13%, while Yang was at 61%, still in the green. There was a fresh scorch mark on his armor where one of Ember Celica's shells had slipped through his guard, and he put a finger to it, frowning. Yang walked up and swatted him lightly on the noggin. "Hey, quit sulking." she told him. "Remember our first fight? How you screamed like a little girl and puked on my shoes?" She wiped away a fake tear. "Ah, they grow up so fast."

Jaune rolled his eyes. "Like I could forget." Even if he dearly wished to. The pair of them climbed out of the training arena and up the bleachers, where Sable and Blake were watching. "And just so you know, I wasn't sulking! I'm just a little...disappointed in myself. Almost a whole year, and I still can't even get you in the yellow—"

Yang made a face of faux bewilderment. "Whatever do you mean?" she teased, twirling a lock of golden hair. "I'm always in the yellow!" Jaune responded with the obligatory sighs and groans. Truth be told, he actually thought it was pretty clever, but Yang seemed to enjoy her jokes more when everyone hated them. She strolled up to Sable and tapped him on the shoulder. "Oi, Icy-Hot. I think your partner's inferiority complex is acting up again. You wanna deal with that?"

Sable turned to face them with a long-suffering sigh. "Let me guess." he began, with the air of a teacher addressing a C-minus student. "You're depressed because the tournament's about to start. And you're still much weaker than us. And haven't even unlocked your Semblance yet." Jaune flinched with every word, as if being impaled by invisible knives. Yang elbowed Sable in the ribs, hissing something about tact. "Stop that! I'm speaking nothing but truth!" he snapped. "But! Keep things in perspective. A year ago you didn't even know what Aura was. If you caught up to me that fast, I'd be a gods-damn disgrace to my ancestors, okay? And I'm sure Yang feels the same!"

"Yeah, it'd be pretty fucking embarrassing." Yang agreed. "Not sure what that says about the rest of our class, though." Over the second semester, Jaune's combat class win rate had greatly improved—perhaps not saying much, considering he'd started out at literally zero. Against a generic student, things were effectively a coin flip, although he'd never come close to beating any of his eight friends. At least the memes about there being a separate 'Arc tier' at the bottom were a thing of the past.

"See, that's why we don't talk to them." Sable scoffed. "Honestly, Jaune, you're probably as good as an average first year by now. But luckily for you, we aren't average. We're much better." he said smugly. "Stick with us for a few more years, and you will be too. Now is your head back on straight, or do I need to beat some more sense into it?" Jaune was stunned into silence. Average? Sable thought he was average? That...that was the nicest thing he'd ever said to him!

"Well, he didn't run away this time. That's an improvement." Yang quipped. She peered closely at Jaune's face, noting his growing smile with some surprise. "Holy shit, that actually worked?"

Jaune chuckled. "Thanks, Sable. I think I'm good." It was nothing he couldn't have figured out himself, honestly, but hearing his partner say it made him feel oddly warm inside. Of course it would take some time for him to get on the level of a real Huntsman. He was only human, after all, not some video game character who could hit the level cap after only a few days of grinding. "I was still hoping I'd have found my Semblance, though." he admitted. "Hey...if you don't mind me asking, how did you figure out yours?"

Sable answered first. "Our glyphs are hereditary, so I don't think that helps much."

Yang looked genuinely amazed at the revelation. "That explains so much! I always thought those pretty little snowflakes didn't suit your personality!" Sable gave her a dirty look, but didn't dispute her assessment. "I unlocked my Semblance when Dad took me to get a haircut. You, uh, you can guess what happened next." Both boys looked mildly concerned. "Don't worry, the barber lived. Only took him three months to reopen his shop, too." Yang looked expectantly at their final teammate, before prodding Blake with her boot when no response seemed forthcoming. "Hey, that's your cue!"

Blake stirred momentarily back to life. "Wha—what? Oh, my Semblance? One day I was about to get hit by...a Grimm, and I really didn't want to get hit, and then a clone popped up. Yeah." With that rather lackluster story, she slipped back into her own little world.

"Well, mine definitely doesn't work like that." Jaune said. "Or else I would've unlocked it on day one."

Ruby's Scroll buzzed in her pocket. "Huh?" She peeked at the screen, then jumped out of her chair in excitement. "Guys! They just released first round matchups!" She pushed a button to project the screen as hologram. Weiss, Nora and Ren gathered curiously around.

Vytal Festival Tournament Schedule

Day 1: Monday, October 17th (full team round)

Morning Session

I. CMEN (Haven) vs CRDL (Beacon)

"C-M-E-N?" Nora spelled out. She started snickering into her hand. "Tee-hee! That sounds like—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence!" Weiss was scandalized. "That's disgusting!"

"What's so bad about cement?" Nora asked. "I guess it is sort of gross, how it starts out all goopy. Unless...?" she smirked. "Unless that's not what you were thinking of, Weiss?"

"Wait, what else would C-M-E-N spell?" Ruby said innocently. Weiss choked, her face rapidly turning from white to pink. Ren bailed her out with a light cough. "Moving on." he said firmly.

II. ABRN (Atlas) vs ABRN (Haven)

Ruby groaned. "That's going to be so confusing. Did they arrange that on purpose?"

Weiss shook her head. "It can't be. The draw is random."

III. AAAA (Shade) vs P (Beacon)

Ruby blinked. "Wait, one letter...? Oh, right, that's Pyrrha! I always forget she's technically her own team." It was easy to do so, considering her status as their unofficial fifth member, plus the fact that the unfortunately-named Team P had not been referenced once since initiation. "And Team AAAA? That name's kind of uncreative, isn't it?"

"First-year team from Shade." Ren explained. "Their first and last initials are all A's, if I remember right. Hard to make a clever name out of that."

"They any good?" Nora asked.

"I think their leader fought in combat class last week." Weiss said. "She lost to Jaune, though."

"That's a no, then?"

"Hey!" Dutifully, Ruby stuck up for her friend and erstwhile dance partner. "That's a little harsh—"

"They certainly aren't the best." Weiss cut her off. "A shame, really. Four on one, a strong team could've given her real trouble." She shook her head, a bit miffed at missing the chance to take out Pyrrha early. "The second round is doubles, and it's all singles from then. So if she makes it that far she'll be the favorite..."

"Why is it like that anyways?" Nora wondered aloud. "I mean, isn't it weird? Like, the Festival is all about unity and cooperation and that stuff, so how come we only get one full team match?"

No one seemed to know the answer. "Well, it's always been that way. I'm sure there are good reasons." Weiss insisted. "Such as...um..." Her eyes went blank with shock. "No, she's right, it is strange. Oh gods, Nora was right?!"

IV. RRWN (Beacon) vs SSSN (Haven)

Ruby gasped when she saw the last match of the morning session. "Oh, awkward." The room fell into solemn silence at the prospect of fighting their friends. Well, perhaps friends was generous, considering they never hung out, and had only really interacted a handful of times. 'Casual acquaintances' would be more accurate, or maybe 'people whose names and faces they knew'. Their collective angst ended when Weiss's scroll rang and ruined the atmosphere for a second time. She walked back to her desk and rejected the call without even looking at the screen. "Sorry. Another telemarketer." she explained.

"Have you considered a spam filter?" Ren suggested.

"I found us! Day one, afternoon session, second match!" Sable declared, shaking his Scroll for emphasis. "Against Team F-N-K-I from Atlas—is that supposed to spell funky? The hell kind of name is that?"

Yang leaned over his shoulder to read it for herself. "I guess? But our team is named after a fruit, dude. I wouldn't talk." Come to think, Ozpin had been the one to come up with their name. Assuming Atlas used the same system, did that mean General Ironwood had a bit of funk in his soul? The mind boggled.

"Do you know them?" Jaune asked.

"What, you think I know everyone in Atlas?" Sable said, slightly irritated. "Not a clue. They're definitely not in our classes—I'd remember a name that ludicrous. Probably upper years." Jaune gulped and made a worried face. "Oh. Right away?" he muttered, running a hand through his hair. "That's kind of rough..."

"Rough for them!" Yang interrupted. She gave him another little smack on the head. "I told you, stop being such a downer! Who cares if they've got a few birthdays on us, huh? It'll look cooler when we win, that's it!"

Sable nodded. "Yes. What she said." He thought for a moment, then added a smack of his own. Jaune rubbed his head with both hands. "We're done for today. Get ready however you need to." he addressed the team. "But remember, eight hours of sleep, or I'll knock you out myself, got it?" On that rousing note, their last pre-tournament practice came to a close. As soon as they went out the arena doors, Blake turned down the hall to wherever the hell Blake spent her free time, with the speed of a student freshly dismissed from Grimm Studies. Sable headed in the direction of their room without sparing her a second glance, the two blondes following behind. Yang looked back at the empty hallway. Seemed like her partner needed some 'alone time' again. Blake had always been the lone wolf of the team—prone to randomly bail on them outside of school hours, something they accepted as a fact of life—but lately, it had been happening almost every day. Was she still brooding over Mountain Glenn? Pissed that Sable had restricted her to two servings of fish per day (he might have conveniently forgotten his lost bet, but he'd sure remembered his promise to put Blake on a diet)? Watching faunus porn in a dark closet? Even after all this time, that girl's head was a mysterious place. Maybe she was worried over nothing. If neither of the boys thought anything was amiss—

"So..." Jaune ventured. "Is it just me, or was she extra...well, Blake-y today?"

"Ha! Looks like two out of three strawberries agree!" Yang crowed, snapping her fingers. She looked expectantly at Sable. "What's your take, mister leader man?"

Sable glared back at them. "What do you want me to do, slap a leash and collar on her?" he asked. "So long as she keeps putting in the work, she can go wherever the hell she wants. It's none of my business." His right hand balled into a fist. "I'm her team leader, not her father."

"You're fine with...this, then?" Yang challenged him. "You wouldn't mind if I suddenly started acting like that?"

"No!" Sable burst out. "I—I mean, the operative word is suddenly, right? It'd be unnatural of you! But she's the same as usual, just...more so."

Jaune scratched his head. "I don't know, man. Three more years of this is gonna be kind of awkward."

"And you think she'd flip her entire personality, if only we asked nicely?" Sable hissed. "If you want to waste your time, be my guest. After the tournament, though. I don't want some B-tier side plot distracting us." He had a point there, albeit very rudely phrased (and that was Sable in a nutshell, wasn't it?). Yang barely knew how to start that conversation. 'How are you doing, Blake?' 'Fine.' 'Is anything wrong?' 'No.' 'Are you sure?' 'Yes.' Qrow's words back at Mountain Glenn echoed in her head. Huntsmen have to work with whoever they get. Was it ridiculous of her, wanting everyone to be friends with everyone? Maybe it was unrealistic to shove four random people together and expect them all to magically be BFFs. Maybe that fairy-tale scenario was too much to hope for, in this messed-up world of theirs.

But considering how much drama they'd had to deal with, three out of four wasn't too bad.

On Monday morning, Qrow woke up with a stabbing headache. He stumbled over to his bedside table, groping for the half-empty bottle of vodka that sat there. He picked up a mug, then thought better of it and just shoved the entire neck of the bottle into his mouth. The pain lessened to the customary dull ache. Good ol' hair of the dog never failed. As he turned away, one leg of the table suddenly snapped off; the cups atop it fell lightly to the carpet, and shattered into millions of pieces in defiance of physics. His liquid sunshine, however, remained safe in his hand. Heh. Brushing his teeth went fairly well—all the toothpaste in the tube squirted out at once, splattering his arm, but it washed off easily. He managed to pour himself a bowl of cereal without incident as well. But when it came time to get the milk, the carton smelt rancid, even though it was three days away from expiring. Shrugging, Qrow settled for pouring booze directly over his Fruity Loops. Branwen problems required Branwen solutions.

When he sat down to eat, his elbow bumped the TV remote. Bartholomew Oobleck and Peter Port's faces suddenly appeared on the wall and started yammering about the tournament. What a pair they made. One of them talked like a hummingbird on cocaine, and the other was somehow psychotic and supernaturally boring at the same time. Why Ozpin had let them commentate was beyond him. Some galaxy-brain immortal wizard shit, no doubt, not that he cared. He'd catch Ruby and Yang's matches, of course, but after all he'd seen and done, watching a bunch of snot-nosed brats flail at each other with big sticks was downright painful. He pushed the power button again, but inconveniently, the remote seemed to be broken. Sighing, Qrow unfolded Harbinger. Thank gods he didn't have to worry about getting billed for damages at Beacon, not when Glynda could just fix it. One swing severed the TV from the wall, shutting up Oobleck and Port. He didn't care what random obscure team was about to fight, not when he had a magic criminal to search for!

Cinder stared, horrified, at the giant 'CMEN' that had just appeared on Amity's scoreboard. That...looked so much worse than she'd imagined. She could hear muffled laughter from the audience, as well as not-so-muffled laughter from the four Beacon meatheads they were about to fight. She made a mental note to roast them with her Maiden powers later. "Don't worry, ma'am." Emerald reassured her. "We'll teach them respect—hey!" The N of their team, a dark-haired girl with green eyes, was covering her mouth with one hand, giggling so hard she'd nearly folded herself in half. Rather suspiciously, no sound came out. "Stop that! You're disgracing the name of CMEN!" Mercury's poker face utterly failed him, and he burst out laughing as well. "Not you too!"

Cinder's eye twitched. No dignity, those two. When she finished conquering Remnant and sat down to write the new history books, she would have to cut this part out. In hindsight, it had been a horrible mistake to let Arthur Watts handle their Academy paperwork. One of these days, she was going to set that smug prick's mustache on fire, along with the rest of his body parts. She'd like to see him science his way out of that.

...what a pain in the neck the search was, though. No sooner had Qrow started his usual tricks—namely drinking in shady bars and snooping around dark alleys as a bird—than the suspicious happenings in Vale had, well, stopped happening. No more infiltrations, no more robberies; even the White Fang had, by all appearances, completely withdrawn from the city. Maybe the Queen's pawns were playing it safe now, content to circle like vultures and wait for Amber to croak. Maybe they had enough sense to not discuss their evil plans anywhere a bird might be listening. Whatever the case, they still had only one confirmed sighting of Salem's Maiden: Qrow's very own, the day Amber had gotten jumped. It was too bad that something—likely the work of an enemy Semblance—had blurred her face beyond recognition. She'd had a couple accomplices with her, pinning Amber down, but Qrow somehow had zero recollection of what they'd looked like. He heard Winter Schnee's voice in his head, lecturing about the connection between heavy alcohol use and memory loss, but he firmly told the imaginary Ice Queen to shut up. His memory was fine! Things had just happened so fast his brain didn't process them completely...that was it.

He'd tried questioning the soldiers who'd survived the CCT incident as well. The results had not been worth the ocean of Atlesian red tape he'd had to crawl through. Everyone agreed that the infiltrator had been a woman, dressed in some skin-tight black gimp suit. They'd described her cup size and hips in loving detail, but not a single one could say anything about her face. The fine men (and women) of the Atlesian military had a lot of pent-up thirst under that armor, so it seemed. So here he was, a proud Huntsman reduced to sifting through old police reports like a student trying to finish his exams with minutes on the clock, straining for any mention of a mysterious female with mysterious elemental powers. The reports had an uncanny knack for making homicides and armed burglaries sound dull, so much that Qrow wondered if the VPD was staffed entirely by Peter Port's cousins. Take this one: 'Shop was entered by seven armed men. Proprietor was threatened by one of them, using a gun.' And a fetish for passive voice was had by the author. 'Proprietor was informed of intent to steal only Dust, rather than Lien, by leader (who was identified as wanted fugitive Roman Torchwick)' Hm? Qrow rubbed his eyes and kept reading. 'Suspects were subdued by a customer wielding a HCSS (high-caliber sniper scythe). Name of customer is omitted due to minor status.' Oh, right, this was how Ruby had got into Beacon! Ozpin had told him the tale briefly, but it was nice to read about it first-hand. 'Suspect Torchwick was pursued by customer, who was assisted by a licensed Huntress (G. Goodwitch, ID #80760-05230-37032)' Huh, small world. And that would explain why Oz had noticed. 'Suspect was assisted in escape by unidentified female accessory. Accessory was described by Huntress as using incendiary and explosive attacks.'

Qrow blinked. He re-read that last sentence two more times. Three more times. He went over to the bathroom sink, soaked his head under cold water for thirty seconds, came back, and read it again. "Huh."

Moments later, he was running down the halls towards the deputy headmistress's office.

The morning rolled on. Team CRDL got creamed by their awkwardly-named Haven opponents, to the sadness of approximately no one. Team ABRN fought Team ABRN, and Team ABRN won. Pyrrha demolished that nameless Vacuo team in under three minutes, forcing a lengthy commercial break. But finally, the stage was set for the last match of the morning.

"From Haven Academy, presenting Team SSSN!" Professor Oobleck announced. Sun, Scarlet, Sage and Neptune walked out onto the central platform to raucous cheers. They stopped to wave and pose flamboyantly for the traveling Mistral support. People in the stands brandished signs, photos, and even a body pillow or two. "And Beacon Academy's very own Team RRWN!" Ruby's team entered to a polite applause. Yang's screams of 'beat their ass!' were clearly audible. "Why do they have fans?" Ruby sighed in disappointment. "Why don't we have fans?"

"Well! Team SSSN may have the lion's share of the support." Port boomed. "Ha-ha! It's funny because their headmaster's a lion faunus, you see—" he was drowned out by boos, while Oobleck admonished him to stay on topic. "But! This is a contest of strength, not popularity! And while Team RRWN may look cute and harmless, I can tell you from personal experience, those kids pack some serious destructive power!" A dark laugh echoed through the stadium. "If we're lucky, we might see some real carnage today!"

"I don't like how he's describing us." Weiss grumbled.

"Oh, I do." Nora whispered.

"Geez! What have you ladies been up to, huh?" Neptune called across the platform. He flashed them a wink and a smile worthy of a toothpaste commercial, though they carried a slightly nervous quality. "Um...ladies and Ren."

"Nothing! We only blew up a train!" Ruby called back. Neptune, Scarlet and Sage looked greatly disturbed, but Sun gave her a thumbs-up. "I promise, we had good reasons!"

On Team SSSN's side of the field, a series of holographic screens lit up, spinning through various biomes like a slot machine at a casino. They passed through images of deserts, mountains, and forests, finally stopping on a picture of deep blue waves. Half the battlefield promptly sank away to be replaced by an artificial sea. Sandy islands of various sizes dotted the water, the larger ones with grass and trees growing on them. A handsome wooden ship, flying a skull-and-crossbones flag, floated at the edge of the playing field. Neptune froze in shock, a tiny whimper escaping his throat. "Nep! Keep your cool, man!" Sun put a bracing hand on his partner's shoulder. "Don't panic, there's still another half—"

The biome slot machine on Team RRWN's side started, spun, slowed, and stopped...also on the ocean. The central platform, where the eight fighters stood, was now a little concrete island surrounded by blue. Neptune's mouth fell open in a silent scream. "Three..two..." Oobleck counted down. The blue-haired boy spun in circles himself, with the eyes of a cat stuck at a dog show. "...one...GO!" He let out a long, deep, sigh, as if his soul were exiting his body; then his eyes glazed over and he fell face-first to the ground.

The three S's huddled around their downed teammate. "Bloody bollocking hell! Get up!" Scarlet cursed. He kicked Neptune with his boot, but Neptune just lay there, shivering uncontrollably. "You useless wanker!" Team RRWN stayed rooted to their side of the platform, watching the chaos in complete bemusement. "What is this? Some kind of trick play?" Weiss demanded. "He can't be serious about that!"

"I'm afraid he is." Ren said. "My Vibe Check indicates he's feeling nothing but terror."

"Vibe Check?" Ruby questioned, not noticing Nora's fist pump of victory.

Port cleared his throat. "Ahem. A friendly reminder to both teams that the start signal was given. Mr. Vasilias does not appear to be in mortal danger, and as such, this match remains live."

Sun's head snapped up. "WHAT?! That's not fair! Oh, shit!" Nora immediately charged across the platform, baying for bloodshed. Her teammates followed a half-step behind. Ren took on Sage's massive greatsword with Stormflower's shorter blades, in a contest of force versus finesse. Nora opted for some redhead-on-redhead violence, assaulting Scarlet with a flurry of blows from Magnhild. Squawking like a distressed pigeon, he barely warded the hammer away from his legs. Sun backed up to the water's edge and crouched down. As Ruby and Weiss closed in on him, two golden clones sprang up to fight the girls on level terms. Ruby twirled through the air, swinging Crescent Rose's sharp tip down on one. However, it (or he, or whatever pronoun you used for clones) whipped out a staff made of...clone stuff, and blocked it. Using the staff as a limbo stick, it shimmied gracefully under the scythe's blade. The clone kicked off the ground; as Ruby descended following her attack, its right foot clattered her in the mouth.

"Ack!" Ruby retreated in a flurry of petals. The clone continued in pursuit, but at least her Semblance had bought her a few seconds to think. She had no idea what that thing's shoe was made of, but it hurt as much as the real thing—tasted like it too. Yuck. The other clone was pushing Weiss hard, attacking with a pair of ethereal nunchucks while the heiress tried to put space between them. Dang it, maybe they should've put more points into hand-to-hand combat. It was kind of embarrassing that they couldn't overpower half a Sun each. The real Sun wasn't even attacking; he remained in his crouch, barely moving a muscle. Hmm. With the clone drawing close, Ruby fired Crescent Rose straight down, and the laws of physics sent her straight up. Using her Semblance to boost her momentum, she rocketed halfway to the top of the arena. From this vantage point, she had a clear line of sight to the top of Sun's blond head. As quickly as she could, she rotated her barrel around, scoped in, and—

Back on the ground, the clone was looking left and right, trying to spot where Ruby had gone. Finally it caught sight of a small red shape falling from above, with something long and thin sticking out. The real Sun's eyes widened. "Oh, fu—" He'd barely begun to stand up when Ruby's bullet struck him on the shoulder; had he not moved at the last second, it would've been a clean headshot. The sniper round blasted him into the water with a loud splash, both clones fading away.

"I was right! He has to stay still to use his clones!" Ruby landed back on the platform. "Go, go! Get him!" Weiss rushed forward and stabbed the ocean with her rapier. Ice spread rapidly from the tip, towards where Sun was struggling to get his wind back. Mere instants before it would've trapped him, the faunus managed to summon a partial clone. It was little more than a misshapen pair of arms, but it had enough strength to pick him up and fling him further out. He doggy-paddled (monkey-paddled?) away with all his might, while Weiss skated out onto the ice in hot pursuit. Something felt very familiar about this situation. Ruby tried to follow her partner, only to slip right away. The red-hooded girl wobbled on the ice, her arms spinning like windmills, before falling flat on her butt. "Ruby!" Weiss scolded her. "Keep up!"

"I'm trying!" Ruby flailed about pathetically, like a tortoise on its back. "AHHH! Come on! How are you moving like that?

Weiss sighed. "I really should've taken you ice skating."

"Screw this!" Ruby decided to simply dash forward with her Semblance, and reappeared instantly next to her partner. "Ha-ha!" Then she lost her footing again, fell on her face, and slid headfirst off the edge of the ice, into the ocean. "Blub...blub..."

While they were busy sorting that mess out, Sun had made it over to an island. He pulled himself onto the sandy beach, wet shirt sticking to his torso and giving the international audience quite a show. Wolf whistles rang from the stands, some of them sounding distinctly masculine. Weiss fired an icicle at him from long distance, but he ducked aside into a patch of tall grass. "He's hiding over there!" she called out, gesturing with Myrtenaster.

"Okay. This is fine." Ruby gasped, wringing water out of her cape. "Keep your eyes peeled." The red-and-white pair waded cautiously towards Sun's island. It lay about halfway between the central platform and the edge of the arena. Its middle was covered in lush green tropical grass, tall enough to hide a person, from which a row of three palm trees grew out. Ruby shifted Crescent Rose to rifle mode, ready to light Sun up if he showed even a hair of himself. "There!" Weiss shouted. "The tree on the left shook!"

"Nice! Wait, you sure?" Ruby squinted at the island, shading her eyes with one hand. "I think the one on the right—"

As it turned out, they were both sort of correct, and both sort of wrong. Glowing golden heads popped from the tops of all three trees—left, right, and middle—arms piled high with spherical brown objects. Ruby and Weiss gawked briefly at the sight, but quickly shook off the surprise, aiming their weapons at one clone each—

"COCONUT OVERDRIVE!" Sun bellowed from his hiding place. The clones all launched their payloads at once. One coconut exploded mid-air, pierced by a sniper bullet, and another froze solid, but the rest of those juicy brown cannonballs rained down on the girls. Weiss, a half-second slow to react, took one right in the gut and fell backwards into the water. Ruby spun Crescent Rose lightning-fast in her hands, deflecting the other coconuts aside, even bisecting a few like some sort of fruit ninja. She looked curiously at the cloudy liquid dripping from her scythe, and even stuck out her tongue to taste it. "Whoa, those were real?" she exclaimed in wonderment, before remembering her partner. "Weiss! Are you okay?"

"Yes. My dignity aside." Weiss replied, her white outfit now soaking wet. Silently, she gave thanks for combat skirt technology; otherwise the international audience would've gotten yet another free show.

Sun gave them a saucy little wave goodbye. All three clones had climbed down from their trees; they pulled on the middle tree's trunk, bending it at a ninety-degree angle, while their master sat still amid the fronds. "That was fun!" he yelled through cupped hands. The clones let go. "See you laterrrrrrr—" The tree-catapult launched him even further outwards, towards the pirate ship at the boundary. Before he could go out of bounds, Sun's tail whipped out and wrapped around the ship's main mast. He went spiraling down and around the mast like a dancer around a pole, vanishing below the ship's deck. "Dang it!" Ruby's hurried shot hit nothing but wood. "He got away again!"

Weiss sighed. "Ugh. That's...not too bad, actually." she said. "If he's going to hide, we can just finish his teammates first—"

Ruby shook her head stubbornly. "No way! I've had it with this monkey business!" She pointed dramatically at the pirate ship. "We're stopping that boat!"

"It's already stopped!"

"That's a reference!" Ruby said impatiently. "Just get the Dust."

This was a lot easier than Ren's last major fight had been. Sage Ayana was bulky and strong; he swung his giant sword without much trouble, and his Aura pool was decently sized. But his hacks were slow and predictable, though they made an impressive whooshing sound as they cut through empty air. The sword seemed to lack a ranged mode, so all Ren had to worry about was the blade. He was scanning Sage every so often, using his new 'Vibe Check' ability (he'd finally caved to Nora's naming scheme after intense lobbying), and the other boy was covered in orange flower petals. Frustration. Understandable, considering he was losing to someone who stood a full head shorter, and wielded a weapon a fraction the size of his own. But size, as they said, wasn't everything. For Exhibit A, he only had to remember Neo—or any of his own teammates.

Speaking of teammates, Nora was having a grand old time chasing Scarlet around the platform. A classic game of cat and mouse, or it would be, if cats wielded hammers the size of their bodies, and mice could scream at 100 decibels. It was amazing how Scarlet could keep up those ridiculous bird noises without suffocating. Her main mood was 'anticipation', while his was, unsurprisingly, 'fear'. All seemed in order. Back to the grind. Dodge, stab, shoot; dodge, slash, kick. Meanwhile, Nora finally landed a hit on Scarlet, a glancing blow that nonetheless sent him flying and cut his Aura by half. He slid past Ren, trailing flakes of emotional confetti behind. Yellow for fear, white for pain, indigo for—what was indigo again? He consulted his internal color chart. Arousal? That seemed...very wrong. No, wait, mauve was arousal, indigo was hope—

Ren jumped back just in time. Something whizzed across the ground where he'd been standing, a metal hook attached to a rope. Scarlet must have fired the grappling hook hidden in his pistol. He remembered that detail, from when Ruby had filled him in on the Paladin fight. Had Scarlet gotten hit on purpose to get in position for a sneak attack, or was it spur of the moment? Either way, it had nearly worked for him; had Ren's Semblance not given him a warning, his leg would've been hooked. Instead, the hook clattered harmlessly to the ground between him and Sage. Ren ducked down—the greatsword missed again, passing overhead—and grabbed the hook with his left hand, letting one of Stormflower's guns drop. He felt a powerful tug on his arm as Scarlet tried to pull the rope back, but with some effort, he was able to latch the hook onto something else.

"What?!" Sage shouted. The force of the retracting hook, now attached to his ankle, pulled him off balance. He fell flat on his back, and started skidding uncontrollably. On the other end, Scarlet met the same fate, dragged down by the unexpected heavy weight on his rope. The red-and-green pair zoomed towards each other, screaming, and collided with a meaty thump. They sat up groggily, only to find Nora's shadow looming over them. She greeted them with a cheerful smile, then proceeded to serve them a generous helping of Vitamin Hammer, well above the recommended daily value (for optimal health, said recommended value was zero).

"Oh, a double! Scarlet David and Sage Ayana are eliminated by Aura level!" Oobleck chattered from the commentator's box. "You could say they got the hook, eh?"

The crowd booed again.

To Sun's surprise, there was more to this ship than an empty hull. Climbing down through a hatch, he found himself in a tight hallway lined with portholes, with a ladder leading to even lower levels. By all appearances, this was a fully seaworthy vessel, built just to use as a prop in a fighting tournament. How much of a budget did they have? Not that he was complaining; this was great! The enclosed space was well suited for his close-range fighting style, plus his faunus vision would be a big advantage in the dim light. Now...if only Ruby and Weiss would take the bait. He was pretty sure the Ice Queen wouldn't stand for getting taunted like that, not to mention getting beaned with a coconut, but if they decided to give up and go after Sage and Scarlet instead, he'd have some things to answer for.

Luckily, their focus seemed to still be on him. Peeping through a porthole, Sun spotted two red and white figures in the water, facing the boat. Ruby was lying on her stomach atop a patch of ice, aiming her sniper rifle in the boat's general direction. Weiss leaned over and flicked her sword; something red glowed at the tip of Ruby's barrel, and a streak of orange shot out. Somewhere below and to his left, Sun heard the faint sound of splintering wood. What? Were they just trying to get lucky? This ship was huge; they'd run out of ammo long before that. But if they were willing to waste their time like that, it was none of his business. As he watched, Ruby adjusted her aim and fired again, again, and again, targeting a different spot on the boat each time. Yeah, she clearly had no idea where he was. Nothing to worry about.

Well, perhaps there was something? Sun had ridden his fair share of boats in his life (legally or otherwise), and they had a familiar scent to them, one of seawater and treated wood. His monkey nose smelled that, all right, but there was another odor too. It reminded him of cold nights in the Vacuan desert, toasting marshmallows around the campfire. Smoke. Yes, that was it, smoke from...burning wood...

Oh, shit.

A bullet punched through the hallway he was in, on his right. It lodged itself into the wall and burst, spraying orange embers everywhere. Crackling merrily, the flames spread across the floor and walls and ceiling with alarming speed, sending up clouds of thick smoke. He belatedly realized that Ruby hadn't been shooting just for fun. Every single bullet must've been absolutely loaded with Fire Dust—and while his clones could fight people just fine, they were a little less suited for fighting fires. The hall quickly filled with smoke, making him choke and cough. Plus all the Aura in the world wouldn't save him from suffocating! He had to get out. Sun ran through the smoke and back up the hatch. The moment he emerged, a shot rang out; he hastily hit the deck, and it blew off a chunk of railing instead. Double shit. It seemed his choices were to either come out from cover, and be a sitting duck (sitting monkey?) for Crescent Rose, or to stay hidden and wait for the boat to burn out from under him. Triple shit. Considering Team RRWN's penchant for vehicular destruction, he really should have seen this coming. A buzzer went off; Sun looked up at the scoreboard to see that Scarlet and Sage had both been eliminated. Quadruple shit.

"NEPTUNE!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "DO SOMETHING!"

Fear was a funny thing. Part of Neptune's brain told him that he was being a baby. Told him he was embarrassing himself by lying here like a useless lump while his friends got beat up. That it was ridiculous—ridiculous!—to be afraid of the substance that made up 70% of his own body. However, a much larger part knew there was nothing else he could do. That if he dared to move a muscle, the cruel spirits of the deep would turn their lidless eyes on him. That he was surrounded by their liquid blue servants on all sides, with nowhere to hide. One mistake, one fatal slip, and those horrid damp claws would drag him down, down, down to their kingdom under the waves. Down to a land of nightmares where the sun never shone, where abominations unknowable to science paid blasphemous tribute to eldritch gods! Where wriggly things with too many eyes and suckers would eat his flesh, and use his skull for a toilet, and shove their tentacles—

"Neptune!" Sun's screamed distantly. "Do something!" Neptune's eyes fluttered open. All four members of Team RRWN were in the water. They advanced on the ship (burning and soon to be a shipwreck) where Sun was presumably making his last stand, ignoring Neptune completely. Scarlet and Sage were out, Sun was low, but he himself was actually still at full Aura. I'm still in this. Inch by painful inch, he began crawling towards the water's edge. Sun needs me. He suddenly found himself standing, nay, walking. Mustn't run away, mustn't run away. His trusty Tri-Hard unfolded into its trident form, prongs humming with electricity. Nora had noticed what he was up to, and was sprinting back towards the platform. No time to lose. Screaming defiance into the blue abyss of hell, Neptune stabbed his trident downwards. The water sizzled and sparkled as the wave of electricity rippled out. "I...I did it!" he gasped. "I win!"

"Oh, what a shocking turn of events!" Port announced. "It appears that Nora Valkyrie's Semblance is about to come into play!"

"What?!" Neptune shrieked. Rather than spreading out and electrocuting Team RRWN like it was supposed to, all his electricity was being sucked towards Nora, like a moth to a lamp. A maelstrom of electrified water whirled around her legs. Bolts of pink lightning began arcing over her body, brighter and brighter. Neptune had watched enough anime to recognize a power-up sequence when he saw one. He yanked Tri-Hard out of the water, but the damage was done. "AHAHAHA!" Nora laughed, her grin reaching slasher-movie proportions. "This is the greatest high—!"

"Wait, have mercy—"

"Neptune Vasilias is eliminated by ring out and Aura level! A double whammy!" On screen, the Haven boy went sailing out of the arena like a baseball. He slammed into the Hard-Light barrier at the edge of the stands, so hard that his body bounced all the way back to the battlefield, splashing into the water. Glynda cringed in sympathy. "Ho-ho! I told you we might see some real carnage today, didn't I?"

"Oh! And Sun Wukong is eliminated by Aura level!" Oobleck added. The monkey faunus took a running leap off the ship, but was immediately gunned down. "With that, Team RRWN moves on to the doubles round! Er...I think Mr. Vasilias needs a medic. And, um, can someone call the fire department?"

Qrow raised his flask, silently toasting Ruby's victory, then downed its contents in one go. It wasn't even lunchtime, but the man was slouched on one of her office chairs, looking completely sloshed already. In other words, he was being his usual self. "Oi, Glynda." he slurred. "What the hell have you been teaching my niece?"

"Nothing like that!" Glynda stared in dismay at the flaming hulk of the pirate ship. On one hand, taking away the enemy's environmental advantage was a perfectly sound and valid tactic. On the other hand, wooden sailing ships didn't exactly grow on trees. Perhaps they could rebrand it as a shipwreck for the rest of the tournament. She was already sensing an overrun in the repair budget, and there were still 28 matches to go. "Anyways, this should be what you wanted." She flourished her riding crop. A sheet of paper flew from her desk to Qrow's lap. "I'm not sure I remembered her perfectly, but it's the best I could do."

"Huh? So fast?" Blearily, Qrow turned the paper over. His eyes widened. "Holy shit. This, like, belongs in art museum!" Glynda shrugged modestly. There were a lot of unexpected perks that came with a telekinetic Semblance, artistic ability among them. With enough concentration, she could simply move the ink around on the page until it matched what she wanted to draw. "But I'm sure now, I'm sure that's the same person! The woman who attacked Amber!"

Glynda raised a skeptical eyebrow. "How? I only saw her from the waist down!" In the drawing, as in her memories, the mystery woman's head and upper body were little more than a dark outline. Considering all the fire attacks she'd been throwing out, her face should've lit up like a Nondescript-Winter-Holiday tree, but it had not. Somehow.

Qrow made a show of winking and licking his lips. "Oh, I'd recognize those legs anywhere." Scowling, Glynda threw the riding crop at him. The Disciplinarian bounced off his right ear, swerved to smack his left as well, then returned to her hand like a boomerang. "Ow. Okay, but seriously, the height and build matches. Ditto the clothes. Short red dress, black fringe. Same style of shoes. Tried to blow up the ground under you, just like with me." He pushed the drawing back onto her desk, pointing out something on the woman's right leg. "Look! Even that tattoo...bracelet...whatever thingy on her ankle is the same! Girl must really love that outfit, huh?" he snorted. Glynda thought of the dozen identical purple capes in her own closet, and suddenly felt self-conscious. Mind you, Qrow had even less right to talk, considering he hadn't changed his look in twenty years. He still wore the same red cape he'd bought as a Beacon freshman, and adamantly refused to exchange it, no matter how ragged and torn it became.

"So that means...no, it can't be. That would be absurd!" Glynda's mind processed the implications, and rejected them immediately. "What on Remnant would Salem's Maiden be doing at some random Dust shop robbery?"

"Don't ask me what the bitch was thinking." Qrow shrugged. "But you remember what the power looks like, right?" Glynda nodded. Amber had been kind enough to give her a demonstration years ago, when she was being inducted into Ozpin's circle. The sight of the young woman's eyeballs bursting into flame was not one she'd easily forget. "Did you notice anything about her eyes?"

"One of them...it glowed." she recalled, her throat suddenly dry. "But only one—"

"And what do you think happens when someone only has half?" Qrow asked. He clapped Glynda on the back, but she barely noticed. She was too busy screaming on the inside. "Congrats. You faced a Maiden and lived, how's it feel?"

Calmly, the deputy headmistress rose from her chair. Removing her glasses for safekeeping, she walked to the nearest wall and bashed her head into it. "Are you kidding me?" Slam. "I could've resolved this plot months ago!" Slam. Slam. White plaster flakes flew through the air, like a miniature blizzard. "Argh! If only I'd pursued her harder—"

"Hey, hey, don't beat yourself up over it." Qrow said. The Huntsman grasped her shoulders and pulled her out of the wall. "Literally or figuratively. Personally, I'm glad you stayed to look after Ruby. And not like you could have known. In hindsight I, uh, I really should've sent a description, huh?"

"I think we're both feeling rather silly at the moment." she sighed. She waved her crop again, restoring the Glynda-shaped dent in the wall to its original shape. "At least we've learned some new things. One, she was personally in Vale, calling the shots. And two...Roman Torchwick has met her." She stared out her office window, at the floating speck that was Ironwood's flagship. "James hasn't made any progress with him, though..."

"I know." Qrow said grimly. "I think it's time we got serious with that bastard."

Well, we had our breather chapter, now back to the scheduled program of questionably written FIGHT SCENES. That 4v4 was, as they say, a doozy to write. It kind of reads like everyone is patiently waiting their turn to attack, even though in my head things are happening at once and people talk over each other...eh. Fun fact, I was 3 drafts in before I rewatched that episode and realized the pirate ship was actually only a hull. Whoops. I'll just pretend it used to be a real ship at some point, until someone blew it up.

F in the chat for Team SSSN. Poor Neptune is...not having a great time in this story. His hydrophobia got referenced in one episode, and here I am making it his defining character trait (fandom in a nutshell, y'all).

Poor Blake, too. Out of everyone, she's arguably the most negatively affected by Sable's existence (except those dead White Fang grunts). So long as she keeps her furry little secret, she's not going to get very far. And she's pretty dang determined to keep it, considering her team leader is basically (in her opinion) Adam Taurus: Schnee edition. Is there even a way back for her at this point? Who knows?

Oh, and Qrow has been hanging out in Vale this whole time. That might end up being important. Is it a bullshit plot contrivance that he just happens to make his breakthrough right now, and not weeks earlier? Yes. Am I doing it anyways for pacing? Also yes.