Cinder Fall smirked in victory as she stared into the scared face of Amber, the current Fall Maiden. The soon to be former Fall Maiden was being held by both Mercury and Emerald, her arms secured.

It was unfortunate that Amber had not fallen right away, but she was still pleased with the results. Now the former maiden could look at her and know that she was beaten, and know what would happen to her. She slowly raised her gloved hands, feeling her Aura shift as the parasite woke up and peaked out through her hand.

Amber started panicking, though her struggles were useless, and her captors ignored her pleas. In truth, she didn't expect them to, but she couldn't help it. I wasn't trained for this! She shouted in her head. My predecessor couldn't train me, and I was told to focus on hiding, not fighting! She tried to prevent her tears from falling, she knew that it would only encourage them, whoever they were. I just wanted to help other people... And then the Grimm struck her, and she felt PAIN.

Aura is a manifestation of the soul. A Semblance is the crystallization and focus of Aura. The Maidens power was similar, yet completely different. It went deeper. Separate from the power of a Semblance, it was very much connected to both the soul. As the Grimm sucked the power of the Maiden, Amber felt it, as if something was chewing on her body and eating her. Her power was forcefully activated, which only added to the stress on her body, and she could barely make a sound. As she saw the darkness creeping in on her vision she could barely hear her own thoughts as she pleaded one last time, "Please" she gulped as tears fell, "Somebody save me..." And right before she blacked out, she felt the ground begin to rumble, as something soft pressed against her back.

Unlike the pain that Amber was feeling, Cinder was feeling the complete opposite. She felt the power of the Maiden start to mix with her own Aura and Semblance, and the feeling she was getting from it doing so was unlike anything she had felt before, like a drug. She could FEEL her reserves increase, like a wildfire consuming more and more fuel, and she reveled in the feeling, as well as the look of helplessness on Amber's face.

Her revelry was cut short when the ground started shuddering, and instincts had her leaping backward as fast as she could, with Mercury and Emerald doing the same. Right at that moment, before Amber could fall from the lack of support, a tree burst into existence right underneath her. Cinder could only look in disbelief as a tree, as if somebody had clicked a fast-forward button, grew from the middle of the road, it's branches wrapping around Amber securely as it rose higher. Looking around desperately to see who interfered, all three jumped when they heard somebody right next to the newly made tree. "Well? What do you think? I personally dislike Redwoods, I think they're a little stuck up. I mean, I don't blame them, being the tallest trees in the world I think they've got reason to brag, but I try to give some others a chance to shine when I can, like the Eucalyptus Regnans here." The stranger slapped the tree. "Also, this tree has flowers! That brings it up in my book." He turned to the three of them and shot them a bright smile.

The new man was... Odd. Remarkably unconcerned with having just interrupted a fight. He appeared to be around their age, a little more than 5 and a half feet high, with white hair that looked almost iridescent. He had a strange looking staff in his hand, and royal blue robes with fancy embroidery. For a fraction of a second, she could have sworn his smile was full of mischief, and then it vanished.

Cinder looked at him shock and anger. She had been riding the feeling of euphoria from draining Ambers power, and to have it interrupted right in the middle was not a pleasant experience. Her mood having been soured, she was just about to use her newly acquired power on this new person, and she could see Emerald prepare an illusion with Mercury about to charge in himself, when the mystery man widened his eyes and pointed towards her, now bare, arm.

"Wow, wait! Is that a class B parasitic Phantasmal Beast Construct?"

All three froze in place, and Cinder's eye's widened at what he said. "What? how does he know what this is? These are created solely by Salem! Is he allied with her? Why is he opposing us then? And what on earth did he call it?" As Cinder desperately thought this through, the man continued with an innocent smile, "Yeah, I'm sure that's what it is! Especially after seeing you use it on that beautiful lady up there! Probably trying to drain her Aura and add it to your own. I mean, that is pretty much their only purpose." he said while nodding thoughtfully. "Well, I shouldn't say that, some people might like them as pets. Some people like having pet rocks after all, so a pet parasite is probably a thing. Just gotta be careful on where it is, you know?" Once again, the mischievous look appeared on his face before vanishing. The three attackers could only stare in shock, unsure of what to do.

"Oh! How rude of me! My name is Emerys Myrrdin" He gave an extravagant bow, and then sheepishly looked at them, "Ahh, so, I'm sure you already know the dangers of a soul transfer like that, right?" The man, Emerys, asked, but continued after only a small pause, leaving her no chance to say anything, and his tone changed to that of a lecturer. "The soul is still a very mysterious force to most people, and a soul transfer is pretty risky business. Let's say that your original soul is like you having a glass ball in your hand." The man materialized a glass ball and held it in his hand for them to see, shocking them once more that he was able to do such a thing. Both Emerald and Mercury looked at Cinder hesitantly, not willing to attack first. What the heck is that? Isn't his semblance to grow tree's? "Then, a soul transfer would be if somebody handed you a second glass ball." As he said that, another ball appeared in his other hand. As he let got of his staff, it stayed upright in the dirt without assistance. "But! that's only if somebody gave it to you willingly. If it was forced? Then the other soul is resisting! And it's more like you are juggling two glass balls." He started to do so with ease. "Now, most people can handle this subconsciously, and they don't have to worry till the get more than two glass balls. But! The real trouble occurs when the soul transfer is interrupted." One glass ball becomes misshapen and lumpy "Just try it, juggling multiple objects is fairly easy, so long as the objects are similar to each other. When it's different? It becomes clumsy, and prone to fall" the lumpy glass ball slipped and crashed on the ground. "Now, this can be solved by either resuming the draining process" the man pointed upwards in the tree "Or intensive meditation to shape the Aura into something usable with your own soul. Until that is done, using your Semblance could cause severe problems for you. Possibly even death" The man concludes his lecture with a sorrowful look.

Cinder was getting confused. She was a very competent strategist and fighter, and was used to the many mental gymnastics needed to be useful on fast paced battlefield. But, the transfer process had been cut before it was finished, bringing her from having the best feeling in the world to being nauseas, a stranger that she didn't recognize from Ozpins inner circle appeared, he RECOGNIZED the parasite given to her by Salem, and then calmly explained how she could die if she used her semblance with only half of the maidens power. She knew she couldn't trust this man, but at the same time she couldn't dismiss it outright! She ground her teeth in frustration. "Very well then, if that is the case, then won't you let me continue?" she asked with narrowed eyes, her hands gesturing to her allies to prepare to attack.

Emerys grimaced and clutched his heart. "Oh how it pains me to reject the earnest plea of a beautiful maiden!" He sighed dramatically, before smirking at them "Unfortunately for you, another maiden beat you to the punch, so I don't feel any guilt anymore." Quickly grabbing his staff, he slammed it to the ground, and a wave of vines came out and flung themselves towards them. All three were able to leap and dodge, and immediately started attacking. Cinder was about to reach for her semblance once more before the thought came "-using your Semblance could case severe problems for you. Possibly even death" She gritted her teeth. She couldn't risk it. He was the enemy, the odds he was telling the truth was extremely slim... But she couldn't take that chance! With a scream of rage, she started letting loose with arrows, while Emerald fired her guns, her Semblance making her seem like she was somewhere else, and Mercury leapt over and attacked him from behind. It hadn't been that long since the fight with Amber, but they were far from exhausted. A second later they had to pause and stare.

Moments before the projectiles were about to hit, the mans skin and robes... shifted, while the man stood in the same spot. Skin and bone, muscle and cloth, all seemed to twist and shift unnaturally around the projectiles as they went by. During the pause, the man smiled innocently at them, and speaking in an offhand tone said "Oh! is it my turn now? Seems a bit unfair right now... I know! I need some allies of my own! Sooo, how do you feel about bees?" And with an evil smile pulled a bottle out of his robes and unloosed a cork, and several small bees came out and flew towards Mercury. He was about to ignore them, when the man muttered a few words, and all of a sudden THEY changed. Mercury watched in horror as they became larger, mutating within seconds. Stingers became a foot in length, their wingspan three feet, their coloring was just... Wrong, and their eyes... Mercury wanted to retch. The only thing that prevented him from running far, far away was his fear of Cinder. With hands slightly shaking, he used his gun-legs to propel himself away from the mutated horrors so he could attack them properly.

With Mercury occupied, the man turned to Cinder and, after summoning a sword from somewhere, charged at her. Cinder quickly tore her eyes away from Mercury's fight, and took out her own daggers and started fighting with the man. "Emerald!" Cinder shouted out, "Help Mercury, fast!" "Yes ma'am!". The man raised his eyebrow at her. "So, pretty confident that you can take me, aren't you?" Cinder smirked, "I think I should be" A flurry of blows followed, both of them sticking solely to swords as their weapons. "You just used several very impressive moves, and I imagine they aren't very cost effective. You're probably running low on Aura right about now, as evident from you using your swords instead of your Semblance." Several blows later, and the man jumped back quickly. "Well, that's pretty logical, given all that you know. Could even be probable! The truth though?" He smiled sheepishly, "I tend to bite my tongue as I cast certain spells. You ever bite your tongue as you're trying to manipulate energy?" He shuddered. "It's not a fun experience!" He dodged several more attacks and pushed Cinder back, "Really, when all you need to do is beat somebody else, a sword seems much more straightforward, not to mention faster, don't you think?" He quickly ducked and avoided several arrows.

Cinder was fuming. This man was mocking her! She just needed to hold out until Emerald and Mercury finished those creatures, and then they could focus on this fool. If only I knew whether or not it was safe to use half of the maidens power! She had never asked Salem about this eventuality. She had thought that if she was in a position to get part of the power, she would get all of it. And now, THIS has happened! She shot some more arrows at the man, and he dodged them effortlessly. The man then looked behind her and frowned sadly. "Awe, he killed the bees. Now he's missed the chance to have an epic ending!" Cinder frowned, "What?" "Oh c'mon, imagine being dead, and you're with other dead souls, and they ask you how you died. Instead of saying you died in a war or to a stab wound, you could say you were killed by giant mutant bees! Amazing ice breaker" he said with an eager smile. "Oh well, with them dead, I don't have to feel guilty by doing this..." And he snapped his finger, and Cinder heard several explosions behind her. Jumping to the side so she could see what happened while keeping the man in view, she saw several small craters where... the bee's had exploded? Mercury had managed to jump away, but it looked he was trying to get his leg off as acid started eating through it. Emerald made it out with some large scrapes and bruises, but looking dazed.

Cinder hated what she was about to do, but she had no choice. "... We have to fall back. Both of you, let's get out of here!" And they quickly ran. She turned back after a bit and glared at the man, who was now smirking insufferably at her. She couldn't do anything to him right now, but she would find him someday, and she would have to invent a new way to torture people to inflict all that she wanted right now. She quickly picked up Mercury, who's leg had melted at this point, and continued running. She did not look forward to speaking with Salem later this evening...

Merlin looked at the retreating figures with a smile. Sure, he could killed them. Or imprisoned them. Or incapacitated them. But honestly, his entire life he was the consultant for the king, and usually an observer. With his power, he could easily tip the balance one way or the other. And if he did that... Well, it just wouldn't be very fun now, would it? He chuckled to himself. Technically he wasn't supposed to be here. Heroic Spirits were called for this, and he didn't really qualify for the dead category, seeing as he was still locked in that dang tower. But, he wouldn't be himself if he couldn't think of a loophole, so when he felt the giant summoning, after so many years of silence, he just had to do something to see what the fuss was about. Creating an empty homunculi body, throwing it to land with the other summons, and then using his magic to possess the homunculi from where he was at? Well, he can't say it was child's play, but he could do it!

Though he had only planned on being an observer, when he saw that one girl stealing the other girls soul as she was, it was something he just had to check out, especially since the original girl felt... different. He could barely stop himself from laughing hysterically when he saw that they had bought his lies. a "class B parasitic Phantasmal Beast Construct", hah! Say some official sounding words, cobble together a semi-plausible explanation, speak in a "teacher" voice, and abuse your charisma stats like crazy, and you've got the makings of some grade S lies. That girl was so wary of using her own powers she crippled her own efforts, and created doubt within the whole team, heh. It's nice to know that he could still fluster the ladies.

He shook himself out of his thoughts and turned his attention to the original girl. What was her name? Ah yes, Amber. With a gesture, the tree shook, and then lowered itself and Amber. Once she was on the ground again, he looked her over. Her pretty face had been scarred by the parasite, and he shook his head in pity. Then, he looked closer... Yep, her soul definitely had a bite taken out of it. Approximately half, but it's difficult to judge for exactness when you're talking about souls. Looks like her body had placed itself in emergency mode, which wasn't unusual. The pain was probably pretty bad, and healing from soul damage took a while usually.

But that wasn't why he was here... There! For the first time since he came to this land, he found somebody with a magical crest! Although, the way it was grafted internally onto her soul was definitely odd. Also, with the way that this poor girl had parts of the magic crest stolen, it would be impossible for her soul to heal. Her soul would attempt to heal the magic crest first, but with it stolen as it was and not merely damaged, it would never heal, and the soul would never get around to healing the rest of itself. Good thing he never really bothered to listen to rules that had "never" in them. Already he could think of a few things to do to help her out, and even improve upon what he saw. The real question of course was whether or not he should...

He sat there contemplating for a bit. He really did mean to only come to this land as an observer, and he wanted to keep that status. Something about this current land dulled his Mystic Eyes, which fascinated him. He couldn't see the future as clearly anymore, which means he could actually be surprised! It makes things difficult if he was actually participating, but for an observer, it was wonderful! He smirked and started to cast some more spells, focused on the girl. If FATE had had it's way, she would most likely be dead, her power owned by the Cinder girl. So, with that in mind, he wondered how things would turn out with one more unexpected player on the field. With a few more words, the spells were cast.

"... And that is what happened, Lady Salem" Cinder told the projection of her boss. Her head was bowed, and she felt extremely nervous. She wasn't sure how Salem would react to this news, she wasn't expecting anything good. The job had been bungled, somebody was aware of what they had done, and they didn't even get all of the Maidens Power.

"Tell me... What did you say this mans name was?"

Cinder closed her eyes and thought about it briefly. "Umm, he introduced himself as Emerys Myrddin, my Lady." She looked up slightly so she could view the projection. Salem had gone very still, and looked like she was looking at a distant object. Eventually, she looked back at Cinder. "I do not believe that he was telling the truth, but tread carefully when using your powers for the next couple of days, we don't know if he did something to it. Furthermore, be very careful. Next time you see this man, make sure to tell me as soon as possible."

Cinder was stunned that she was getting off so lightly, and quickly acknowledged the command. As the projection vanished, she thought back to the strange man and felt her frustrations grow. She would need to master this power fast. When the time came, she would show him true pain.

Qrow stared at the scene in shock. Now, he could be wrong, but he was pretty sure there hadn't been a giant tree in the middle of the road here the other day! He shook his head and looked around. It was evident that a large fight had occurred, but the only person here was Amber. As he lifted her up, he looked at her unblemished face. with a frown. I wonder what happened here... Will she be able to tell us when she wakes up? And why did they leave her alive? Gah, nothing about this makes sense!

He was broken out of his thoughts by a little squirrel that came out of Ambers pocket. It was an odd one - he hadn't ever recalled seeing white fur on a squirrel before. It chittered at him angrily, running around in circles for a bit, before dashing back into the pocket. Feeling as if he'd been chastised, Qrow immediately started running back to the Bullhead. He could think of questions later, right now Amber needed medical attention. When he got to the ship he laid her down and walked over to the pilots seat, quickly heading to Beacon as fast as he could. As the bullhead lifted off, Amber moaned weakly and opened her eyes briefly before falling back into unconsciousness.

Salem let her thoughts drift for a bit. Emerys Myrddin... A forgotten name from legends when SHE was young. Had he truly existed, she had no doubt he would have made his presence known much sooner than this, much like Ozpin had. But the fact that he used that name, and called something a phantasmal beast... It was probably another myth that Ozpin was trying to spread, but it still shook her a bit. She would need to do some research. One way or another, any man that could show that much power bore watching. She stretched her power out and felt the Grimm across the land. She just needed to find a couple that could be used as spies to watch out for him.

As she did so, she frowned briefly. Why were so many Beowolves dying in Anima?

Authors Notes:

Thank you everybody who is reading this story. I don't know how obvious it is, but this is the first story that I have ever written outside of homework, and I'm very glad to see that some people are enjoying reading this. Now, I wanted to answer a couple of questions that I saw.

Ultimate Warrior of Zera: So, is it going to be one Servant for each class? Or will there be lots of servants
Answer: It will be a lot of Servants. When I came up with the idea for this story, I had chosen the Servants based off of certain scenarios I imagined, like Beowulf finding out that Beowolves were named after him. Not all of the Servants will be proactive about helping humans though. Merlin for instance intends to stay as an observer as long as he can, and Medusa and her sisters will try to find a place and claim it as their own.

Anonymous and Midnight49 both have asked about specific Servants.
Answer: To be honest, I have a list in my head based on scenarios I have in my head. If anybody would like to see a particular Servant, I will do my best to see if I can think up a good scenario for them to be in, but I can't make any promises. I saw reviews with names for Ozymandias, Nitocris, and Kama, and I apologize, but I know very, very little about these characters and how they would act. I'll look them up, and they might come in the story in the future, but as of right now they are not in it. I also saw one person ask about EMIYA... To be totally honest, I'm not all that fond of that Servant. If I were to add him in, I don't know that I would be able to properly portray him, so he is unlikely right now, but you never know.

Thank you once more to everybody who has taken the time to write a review or favorited this story, it really does help me to know that I'm doing something right. :)