Chapter 6 – Gone with the Autumn Wind

Pyrrha Nikos exited the elevator and walked into Professor Ozpin's office. Qrow was also there, leaning against a pillar that supported the canopy above the entrance to the elevator.
'Come in Miss Nikos.' said Ozpin with a welcoming smile.

'Well, it comes as no surprise that they've chosen you to move onto the final round of the tournament.' Ozpin remarked as Pyrrha sat down on the chair in front of the headmaster's desk.

All of the teams and doubles round had been fought. All that remained were the singles: the apotheosis of the tournament for some. It was a chance to test yourself and only yourself in a one-on-one fight. The singles round were about pure skill and no reliance on any of your teammates: a very probable real-life situation for a huntsman or huntress. They may not be as action packed as having eight or four fighters in the ring, but they were certainly far tenser for the combatants.

'Your performance has been exemplary.'

'Thank you, Professor Ozpin, but I would never have made it this far without my teammates.' she replied modestly.

'Personally, I think it's the other way around.' Qrow interrupted rudely.

Pyrrha stood up and turned around to meet Qrow. 'I'm sorry, but I don't believe we've been properly introduced. You're Ruby and Yang's uncle, right?'

'I am. Name's Qrow.'

'Qrow is a trusted colleague of mine.' Ozpin explained.

'Professor, if you don't mind me asking, why have you called me here?' Pyrrha asked, returning to face to Ozpin.

'Please, take a seat.' said Ozpin gently, gesturing towards the chair that Pyrrha had just been sitting in. She sat back down gracefully. 'What is your favourite fairy tale?' he asked, seemingly randomly.

'I'm sorry?' she asked, confused.

'Fairy tales. Stories from your childhood. Surely you must remember some of them.' he said reassuringly, to show that this was not a trick question. He put his fingers together and placed his elbows on the desk. It was astounding how approachable Ozpin was.

'Well, there's the Tale of the Two Brothers; The Shallow Sea; The Girl in the Tower-'

'What about the story of the seasons?' Ozpin said before she could list anymore.

'Oh, of course!

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

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

'You're not that old, Professor.' said Pyrrha light-heartedly.

'Well, would you believe me if I told you it was true?' he then said in a far more serious tone.

Pyrrha was startled. 'I beg your pardon?' she said irresolutely.

'What if I were to tell you that there were four maidens existing in this world that could wield such tremendous power without Dust?'

'You mean like a Semblance?'

'Like magic.'

Pyrrha was at a loss for words.

'Yeah, first time hearing it's pretty crazy.' Qrow interjected.

'You're serious?' said Pyrrha with profound disbelief.

'Do I look like I'm joking?' said Ozpin with a stern look.

'…No.' she responded with dubiously. 'Why-why are you telling me this?'

Ozpin eyed Qrow, and he nodded. 'We're telling you, Pyrrha Nikos, because we believe that you are next in line to receive the Fall Maiden's powers.'
'We?' she said questioningly.

The elevator doors opened. Professor Goodwitch and General Ironwood stepped out.

'Sorry we're late.' Ironwood apologised, straightening his tie as he did so.

'Wait, what is this? Who are you?' Pyrrha asked demandingly. She was becoming awfully suspicious and uncomfortable.

'You know who we are. 'We're still the same teachers and headmasters you met when you arrived at Beacon.' said Goodwitch reassuringly.

'Cept we've got a little part time job.' Qrow added.

'We're the protectors of this world.' Ironwood said.

'And we need your help.' Ozpin finished.

Pyrrha had virtually no idea what was going on. She swallowed her own tongue and was unable to formulate her initial thoughts into words.


The five of them stood tightly in the elevator. It was going exceptionally far down.

'Where are we going?' Pyrrha asked.

'The vault, under the school.' Ozpin answered.

The elevator doors opened to reveal an enormously wide and tall corridor, held up by cuboid pillars and lit only by gloomy fire torches on brackets.
The four adults walked on ahead, but Pyrrha took steps forwards hesitantly, taking in the ambient environment. The footsteps echoed off the walls and ceiling. Everything about the vault was so intimidating.

Goodwitch held back to let Pyrrha catch up. 'I'm sure you must have questions.' she said empathetically.

'Maybe one or two.' she responded. It was more like fifty. 'I still don't understand. You said I was next in line to receive the Maiden's power. What do you mean by that?'

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

'So how does the power choose?'

'Through a series of stupid and convoluted rules.' said Qrow.

'Qrow!' said Goodwitch, annoyed at the tone in which he answered Pyrrha's question.

'Hey, don't get mad cause I'm right.' he said indignantly.

Goodwitch scoffed, but then continued to explain how the power of the Maidens was transferred to another host. 'At first, the only thing that was certain was that the powers were specifically passed onto young women. But as time went on, it was discovered that the selection process was much more… intimate.'

'Intimate?' Pyrrha repeated quietly.

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

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

'Why tell me all of this now? Why not wait until I've graduated?' Pyrrha asked nervously.

'Honestly, we've run out of time.' said Qrow. 'I don't know if you've noticed, but things are getting a lot scarier out in the world. Tensions are high. Grimm are growing stronger, more prevalent, and it's not gonna be much longer before this peace we've all been enjoying so much goes out the window.'

'You're not talking about war?' Pyrrha asked nervously.

'Not a war between nations.' said Ironwood.

'We can fill you in on the details once you know you're with us.' said Qrow austerely. 'For now all you need to know is that one of the Maidens was attacked, and for the first time in history, part of her power was stolen.'

The five eventually arrived at their destination. At the very end of the vault was a comatose life-support machine with two separate repository pods for people to fit inside. Between the two pods was a computer screen and two separate keypads.
Ozpin went up to the left pod to examine in it.
A look of utmost shock and panic etched its way onto his face as he realised that it was empty.


'WHAT!' Ozpin cried out. He rushed up to the pod where the Fall Maiden was supposed to be and pressed his hands and face against it. His eyes weren't deceiving him: she really was gone. 'Where's the Fall Maiden?!'

The alarm bounced from person to person. Everyone was chewing on their own words and were unable to form a sentence.

'I-I don't know!' shouted Ironwood. 'There's no way she could've gotten out! She was on the brink of death!'

'But where is she General?!' Ozpin said, losing all of his usual equanimity.

'H-how am I supposed to know?! This is your vault!'

'But this is your technology! Atlesian state-of-the-art technology!'

'Gentlemen, please!' Goodwitch yelled. 'Let's not panic just yet! We should examine the comatose machine and see if anything's been tampered with.'

Ironwood inspected the computer and Qrow went behind the machine to see if anything was hiding there. 'There's nothing here.' he said in an agitated voice.
'The computer says the machine is still running, but there was a weight decrease in the pod just under five hours ago.'

'Miss Nikos. My apologies for bringing you here, only to discover that the Fall Maiden has somehow disappeared.' Ozpin addressed to his perplexed star pupil. 'I will dismiss you for now, since the four of us need to think this through.'

'Okay, Professor. What should I do in the meantime?'

'I am not meaning to be rude here, but I need you to leave the vault for now. I'll talk to you about the Maidens in detail at a later date, but may I have your word that you do not talk about the Four Maidens to anyone – not even your own teammates. This whole ordeal is strictly classified between us four and now you. Do I have your word?'

'Yes, Professor Ozpin.'

'Thank you Miss Nikos.'

Pyrrha walked away with a monotone expression on her face. Seeing Professor Ozpin so stressed was something she could not have imagined if she had not seen him that way with her own eyes. Mixed feelings were going through here head. None were more prevalent than the other, but it all amalgamated together into one overarching emotion: anxiety.


Ozpin, Qrow, Goodwitch and Ironwood stood in a circle. 'Let's go through all the possibilities and theories together.' Goodwitch counselled.

'There's no possibility for Amber to have gotten out of the pod in the condition that she was in.' Ozpin said adamantly.

'Remember that we still don't have a complete and full understanding of what the Maidens are capable of. Her aura was dangerously low, but if Maidens can utilise magic, then maybe Amber had the ability to regenerate over time and eventually free herself.' said Ironwood.

'But why would she have not done that sooner then?' said Qrow. 'I managed to save her in the nick of time before her powers were completely stolen. If she was unable to save herself from her assailants, then why would she be able to escape only now?'

'I'm just thinking through all the possible explanations.' Ironwood replied. 'Atlas has been studying aura from a scientific standpoint for the past few years. We've made significant strides, but almost all scientists would agree that their work is never done. The very laws of nature and physics are constantly being tested, analysed and discovered. The issue with the planet's enlargement is testimony to that. Who's to say that Amber's Aura has been passively healing her all this time and she has only recovered enough strength to be able to escape five hours ago?'

'It's possible, but even if she had, she would have had to cross the whole vault, go up the elevator, exit it in broad daylight and go who knows where. Someone would've seen her.' Ozpin commented.

'Let's also not forget that Amber's vitals were almost at zero. It would've been very unlikely for her to heal just enough so that she could push the pod door open and stagger her way across the vault and then out into the courtyard. It's even more unlikely that she could've recovered completely so that she could use her Semblance and powers in full effect, especially since half of her powers were stolen from her.' Goodwitch pointed out.

'And to top it all off, the machine is password protected. To open it otherwise would require her to smash the pod open, but the thing is perfectly intact.' said Ozpin as though he were concluding an argument decisively.

The group bowed their heads and continued to think.

'What if Amber didn't escape on her own?' said Qrow. 'The lack of evidence for any case seems to suggest that Amber might have been taken.'

'But by who?' said Ironwood. 'No one except us knew that the Fall Maiden was down here.'

'Her attackers certainly will have been looking for her ever since Qrow rescued her.' said Ozpin. Do you remember what they looked like?' Ozpin asked Qrow.

'There were three of them. The one that Amber's powers were being transferred to had short black hair and a red dress with yellow decals. She was kind of attractive admittedly, but the malign look in her eyes was anything but appealing. She was using fiery projectiles and what seemed like dust woven into her clothes. I'm can't be sure if that was her Semblance or part of Amber's power.'

'That sounds almost exactly like the woman Ruby and I fought on the very night we first met, and the woman that we thought might have infiltrated the CCTS on the night of the dance.'

'Then that must be it!' Ironwood exclaimed. 'She was here in Beacon and she clearly fits the description of the one who attacked the Fall Maiden!'

'Let's not jump to conclusions just yet, James.' said Goodwitch. 'Ruby and I never actually saw the woman's face. Ruby also didn't see the infiltrator's face, since she was wearing a mask.'

'And as you said, General, on the day we interrogated Ruby, embedding dust into clothing is a relatively common, age-old technique.' Ozpin mentioned. 'Only Qrow actually saw the face of the woman she encountered. What about the other two assailants? What did they look like?'

'One was a young girl with short cropped green hair and a skimpy outfit and the other was a boy with metallic grey hair. His legs seemed to be replaced with artificial ones too. That's all I remember though: I was focused on saving Autumn.'

'I'll take note of those descriptions.' said Goodwitch, pulling out her scroll.

'Ozpin, we may not be absolutely certain, but we can make a fair bet and say that we're all talking about the same person: the Fall Maiden's attackers. We settled on the verdict that the enemies are sharing the same air as us, and the similarities between the Maiden's primary attacker that Qrow intercepted, the woman Ruby and Glynda fought before the academic semester started, and the woman Ruby skirmished with in the CCTS are far too alike for them all to be merely a coincidence and that these three encounters were with three separate women.'

'I agree General, and I think we need to be investigative of the people here in Vale and especially Beacon, but there's still the fact that there's no sign of forced entry.' Ozpin responded. 'Looking at the state of the machine, anyone who managed to take away the Fall Maiden would have had to have known the password.'

'Look people, we need to think about the more pertinent question at hand. We know that Amber's gone. The "how" is a mystery to us, but so is the "where". Qrow interposed.

'The saying is "Run first, ask questions later". We need to reclaim her if we can as soon as possible. We don't want word of the Maidens' existence getting public attention; and if we're convinced that the attacker I saw is here in Beacon, then we must take action.'

'Qrow's right.' said Goodwitch. 'If the Fall Maiden has been captured and her power gets into the wrong hands, then we're in a whole manner of trouble. If it isn't already too late, we need to find her.'

'But first, you always check the crime scene before doing anything else.' said Qrow. 'Let's search every nook and cranny of the vault. Look up, down, left and right. Look for loose panels and leave no stone unturned.'

'Yes, let's do it.' said Ozpin concurringly.


Ironwood remained in the near vicinity of the comatose machine. Ozpin went towards the elevator to search the entrance. Goodwitch went down the left corridor of the vault and Qrow took the right.

'I found something!' Qrow yelled, his voice reverberating off the walls. Everyone came running to him.

'What have you found?' Glynda asked.

'What's that thing?' he said, pointing to something in the corner wall.

It was alive. It was golden and shiny, with two short stubby legs, no other limbs and a head with two large, white eyes. It was standing idly, looking around. A couple of sounds were coming from it as well. The critter was emitting a very subtle ringing sound, like the chime of a small bell, as well as what sounded like the whisperings of a child.

'Does anyone recognise what it is?' said Ironwood interrogatively.
Everyone shook their heads.

'We need to grab it.' said Ozpin. He bent over and slowly reached out for the creature.

'Careful Ozpin, we don't know what it is. It could do anything to us.' said Ironwood concernedly.

'I'll be gentle.' He replied calmly. Just as he was about to clasp his hands around it, the creature jumped and ran to the opposite corner and pressed itself against it. It was clearly frightened. 'It's okay little guy.' said Ozpin, putting a smile on his face. 'I'm not here to hurt you.' He went to the corner that the creature just went to and this time laid his hand down on the floor.

The thing went up to Ozpin's hand and appeared to sniff it. After a brief moment of hesitation, the creature stepped onto Ozpin's hand. He gently raised it and held it closer to him so that he could inspect it.

'Maybe we should put it in a cage of some sort.' suggested Ironwood. 'Whatever it is, it could be a clue to where Amber has gone.'

'This and the sparkly, multi-coloured hair you found outside your window.' Goodwitch commented.

'Things are becoming fishier by the minute.' said Ozpin. 'I agree though General that we should look at this thing in more detail. It's quite cute I must admit.'

'And very shiny.' Qrow remarked. 'This thing is certainly a bit too bright to be a naturally occurring.'

'Where should we take it then?' asked Goodwitch.

'I'll keep it on my ship.' Ironwood offered. 'It seems a bit hyperactive, so try not to let go of it. I'll keep it safe and sound, where we can examine it without it running away.'

'How will analysing it bring us closer to Autumn though?' Qrow asked. 'This is the only thing we found. No holes in any wall or way leaving up to the surface. What about the assailant and her two accomplices?'

'We won't ignore them Qrow.' Ozpin reassured. 'However this thing managed to make its way into the vault and we don't even know what it is. If it's some sort of Dust infused imp for instance that can phase through walls and floors, then maybe it'll explain how Amber got out. I know that connecting the dots is going to very hard – and they may not even exist – but that fact that this creature is here means that something is going on which we cannot yet explain, and this thing might be that explanation.'

'Does this have anything to do with the new land that was discovered a few days ago or the second moon?' Goodwitch brought up. 'There seems to be so much unknown phenomena going on at the moment, that maybe this is all coming from the new land which apparently has its own civilisation. We've established that magic is real to some degree. What if this creature is further proof of that?'

'That may be so.' said Ozpin. 'General, you get your men to analyse this creature.' He handed it over to the Ironwood, who stroked it gently to keep it calm. 'Qrow, you should go around Vale and do some further investigation into the matter of Amber's attackers and potentially try and find one or both of them.'

'And what about you, Oz?'

'I'm going to try and contact the other Kingdoms. Now that the Fall Maiden has disappeared, international communication is essential. The CCTS should be up and running anytime soon.'


Ozpin was standing up in his office. Goodwitch was with him. She was restless.

'Too much unexplainable stuff has occurred in the past few days.' she said frustrated. 'I've don't think I've ever felt this tense in my life.

'It's alarming for all of us Professor Goodwitch, but we don't just have enemies: we have allies. I lost my composure initially upon seeing Amber gone, but we need to keep calm, otherwise we'll lose focus and our blood pressure will rise. All of this seems supernatural. It feels wrong and foreboding, but there must be some explanation and cause, otherwise this couldn't have happened in the first place. It may take us a while, but we'll get to the bottom of this.'

Goodwitch stared at Ozpin in the eye. She took some slow, deep breathes before saying 'Yes, yes we will.'

Ozpin had been partially lying to himself. He wanted to believe that everything was going to be okay. Years of dealing with the unreal had hardened him to the unbelievable, but he had never even imagined anything on the scale of this unfathomability.