RWBY: Dual Eclipse

"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Paragraph Breaks

Chapter 3: First Strike

It didn't help. At the very least, he did have some targets to focus on eliminating.

Aside from the Beowolves, among his targets today were several Ursai, large Grimm resembling Grizzly Bears, and Creeps, strange reptilian-esque creatures that were bipedal and lacked any sort of forelimbs... think incredibly small Tyrannosaurus Rex - looking Grimm and you'd be fairly close.

Back in a previous world, one where he had lost his eye to one of its stronger beings, its technological levels weren't quite so high, so communications weren't quite so sophisticated. He was able to go under the radar, and in the case of his gauntlets, was able to establish himself as a fairly successful person. Now that got him wondering if people there were still looking for him due to those events, but that was a question for another time, preferably once he managed to learn Dimensional Gate travel.

Here, though, Remnant at minimum had wireless communications that likely stretched out to the other nations if those phones were an indication, so anything he did in one nation would end up being seen by the others. If he were to go about acquiring what he needed, he'd need to play it cautiously.

And the thought his erstwhile friend had brought up still echoed in his mind... could others like himself have touched down here as well? If so, then they had to have kept themselves hidden well, if he wasn't able to sense them out.

'Say... this whole time we've been at this...' Raoul's companion spoke up as he cut another few Beowolves in twain with his axe. 'We've been chatting about things, but I notice you've not used my name at all.'

'Thought you weren't exactly fond of that name, given its connotations.' He leaned back to avoid an Ursa's paw, retaliating by cleaving its arm off with his axe. 'Way I see it, that name was a shackle, meant to hold you to a specific role.' He switched to a reverse-grip on his weapon, and with one swing the Ursa was decapitated. 'And besides, AKP-104 Epsilon doesn't exactly roll off the tongue. Considering your former captor's dead, who's to stop you from getting a new name, one all your own?' One good boot to the head ended the life of a Creep as its head was smashed to a pulp.

His companion, Epsilon as she was formerly known, stopped for a moment to think about this. True, her former captor and effective slave-driver had given her that name as a moniker of a weapon, not a person. With them dead, ironically due to their own machinations, there really wasn't much of anything stopping her from taking a new direction.

She would have to think of a new name, one befitting of her new lease on life... well, if they could ever get home and acquire a new body for her. Something to look forward to, at the very least.

One solid punch to its sternum ended the existence of another Beowolf as its internals, or whatever passed for them, were swiftly vaporized.

'Hey, you said the Usatako was back at full capacity, right?' One trigger pull made his gun, now set to automatic fire, expel a deadly bullet storm that mulched a group of Creeps, blowing random parts of them clean off their bodies before making them dissolve away.

'That I did, given it's linked to me. What's up?'

'It doesn't feel like it. I mean, there's no vital energies coming from these Grimm. Mind running a double-check, just to be sure?'

'Can do, One moment.' She went silent as Raoul continued his Grimm massacre. About two minutes later, as he ripped an Ursa's head cleanly off its shoulders, she replied back. 'You're right. These smoke monsters aren't giving off any sort of vital signs whatsoever. That's why the Usatako's dormant.'

'It's almost like they're artificial. These things are just weird.' His fist went through a lone Beowolf's head and bone-plating, killing it. With that ones' death, it looked like no more Grimm were showing up in the area.

His companion was going to respond to his comment, but then something caught her attention, a sensation faintly registering upon her still unscrambling sensor array. Right around the same time Raoul felt it too.

'What the - A magical signature? But I've hardly detected any kind of magical energy since I awoke... something's up about this world.'

'It's coming from fairly far in that direction. Let's take a look.' He took off running towards the source. If magic existed in this world, then perhaps someone might know of a way to help him return home, if not find his allies. For that matter, if it was someone from his side of the cosmos, then all the better for them.

The Storm's Eye, unknown time

Approaching the location where the trace of magic was supposedly felt, Raoul and his companion could see people fighting amidst the violent winds. He could hear thunder rumbling as he got closer, hints of lightning in the darkened clouds above. A nearby tree would have to suffice for cover as he quickly observed the situation, dropping his transmorphed wing so his companion could get a better view through the eye on the back of his left hand.

Levitating in mid-air was a young woman with dark brown hair and light brown skin. She was clad in a white and brown traveler's ensemble, and that magical signature they had felt was coming from her.

'Is that... literal fire in her eyes?' Raoul's attention was drawn to the other two, whom the levitating one seemed to be focusing on... though in this case, "focusing on" meant she was trying to drop goddamn lightning on them!

The first of them was a green-haired young woman with dark skin, probably a tone equal to or darker than his own. She had some kind of green spaghetti-strap top on, and long brown rider's pants. In both of her hands were what looked to be long-barrel pistols, though the bottom of the barrels held blades that appeared capable of flipping outwards, probably as a close-range option.

The other was a grey-haired young man in a grey and black ensemble. His pants were burnt away from mid-thigh down, revealing a pair of mechanical prosthetics that started above the knees. They looked surprisingly well-made... seems this world might have sufficiently decent robotics, if this were an indication.

The two on the ground were quickly moving about to dodge the lightning, and considering a bolt of lightning can move incredibly fast in a single second, that said something for their foresight. Then again, this was magical lightning, which could potentially move quicker or slower, depending on a number of factors... there was also the possibility that by the time the levitating one could focus on dropping a bolt there, her two assailants were already prepared to move. As soon as the lightning stopped, the one with the pistols opened fire at the levitating brunette as her cohort fired rounds from his mechanical feet.

Sadly for them, it was for naught. Something invisible to the naked eye, likely one of the brunette's magically based powers, blocked every single projectile, the only proof of their existence being small ripples that flashed into view before disappearing. She brought her left hand out... and as she closed it, a veritable storm of leaves from the myriad trees surrounding the combatants flew off their branches and encircled her. With another left-handed gesture, the leaves froze over, and pointed at the pair of assailants. She let them fly at incredible speed towards the assailing duo.

The green-haired young woman was caught off-guard despites her best efforts to prepare herself, the leaves' frozen edges tearing into her all over as she gave a yelp that was a combination of surprise and pain. Her companion, on the other hand, was much quicker on the draw, and had curled into a ball, letting his prosthetic legs take the brunt of the attack. Metal could take much more punishment than human flesh and bone, after all.

'Huh, you'd think she'd be getting torn open by that.' Raoul idly thought to himself. Seems the humans here were much hardier than in prior places he'd been to - it'd make sense, what with creatures born of human fears waiting outside the kindgom limits.

'! Mr. Raoul, it appears a third player has entered the brawl.' His companion, from the eye on the back of his left hand, sighted another person running up. Compared to the earlier two, this woman looked a few years older, clad in a red one-piece dress, with matching long gloves that left her fingers exposed. Short black hair hid her left eye from view.

The brunette quickly launched a fireball at this new adversary, but the red-clad woman leapt over the impact point, her left hand outstretched as she skidded to a halt. The embers combined with the dirt road coalesced into molten glass, then solidified into several hundred dagger-esque obsidian projectiles before she launched them wholesale.

'How'd she do that?'

'Some kind of innate power, if I had to guess.'

Try as she might to defend herself, the brunette was quickly overcome by the hardened daggers, and knocked to the ground. The red-clad woman was closing in pretty quickly, her two followers close behind.

The lady in red had brought out a pair of curved metal swords, and looked intent on doing some bodily harm. The brunette, however, was able to hold her own for a moment, deftly blocking and parrying the blades away despite a lack of protective gear on her arms or hands, and when she sighted an opening, she took it, kicking her assailant away. The prior duo came in, the grey-haired one attempting a running spin-kick that was jumped over, and the green-haired one trying to strike from above with a punch, which was ducked beneath. Grey-hair tried to get in close, but a good boot to the chest followed up with a backwards somersault kick to his chin sent him reeling. Green-hair tried to deck her in the face, but as she was sent back, her ally with the prosthetics came in, a kick aimed for the brunette's face.

Despite the three against one scenario, Raoul took note of the way the duo were fighting the brunette. Whenever one was sent reeling from an attack, they hung back to recover as the other made their assault, giving her little breathing room in which to act, much less form a cohesive plan.

What she couldn't see, however, was the woman in red putting her swords together to create a metallic bow, three arrows already nocked and ready to fire.

As the assailing duo were knocked away once more, the brunette looked behind herself, just in time for the crimson-clad archer to let the arrows loose. They hit the ground nearest the brunette's feet, surrounding her in a triangle formation, and not a second later they exploded, sending her flying backwards as she gave a scream of pain. If one were capable of seeing through the smoke, they'd have seen an odd shimmer across her body.

'What was that shimmer?'

'Defensive mechanism?'

The trio, thinking they'd won, approached... but as the brunette shakily got to her feet, she proved she wasn't out yet. A powerful wind gust sent them all stumbling back, but the grey-haired one was the first to recover and tried closing the distance... tried being the operative word, as with a gesture the brunette launched a bolt of lightning from her fingertips, catching him squarely in the chest and sending him flying backwards. She then turned around and launched two bolts of fire at the green-haired one.

'Hm?' From Raoul's vantage point as he watched this unfold, he could see that the first fireball was several feet off from hitting her opponent. It had to have been a feint, as the second one caught her enemy unaware, sending the green-haired youth sprawling across the dirt road.

Thinking the fight over, the brunette reached down and grabbed her staff, a pair of Dust crystals at both ends. One was red, whilst the other was white. Slowly, she hobbled over to the green-haired one, the red crystal closest to the ground. She raised the staff above her head, intending to strike with the crystal and claim this one's life...

Sadly, she had made a critical error. In her anger at being assaulted out of the blue, she didn't keep a mindful eye on the third assailant. As she moved to potentially finish off the green-haired girl, something hit her back, piercing into her flesh and bone.

The crimson-clad woman shot her in the back with another arrow, and she fell to the ground, her remaining strength gone. The arrow looked to have hit her in the upper section of her spine, right between the shoulderblades.

Grey hair and green hair wasted no time in going over and holding their exhausted victim up by her arms, the crimson-clad one discarding her bow, reaching into a small satchel on the back of her waist, and extracting some kind of white glove, donning it on her right hand. There was a carmine-colored sigil on the back of the glove. She pointed her right palm straight at the captive brunette's head, and a carapaced insect awash in the colors of the Grimm was seen emerging from some kind of mass of smoke, perhaps a portal or somesuch.

'I've seen all I need to see.' With little time to act, Raoul undid his eyepatch, pocketing it. From within the hollow eyesocket that once contained his left eye, obsidian flames burst out to coat his entire body, starting from the eyesocket and covering his head before quickly moving downwards. He didn't bother waiting for it to completely finish; once the flames had gotten to about his waist he darted out fast enough to render himself invisible to the naked eye, aiming for the crimson-clad woman. By the time he'd arrive it'd finish, anyhow.

The Grimm-colored insect had clicked its mandibles twice, and was preparing to carry out its assigned task.

"Please, no!" The captive begged, her plea falling on deaf ears. Much as she wanted to struggle free, the two assailants had a damn good grip on her, not to mention her own exhaustion from the three on one assault. The woman whom had donned the glove simply smirked, waiting for the insect to do its assigned duty...

So imagine the surprise of everyone when something appeared out of the blue, dropkicking the crimson-clad one somewhere between her lungs and colon! The insect was jerked away from the intended victim's face as the crimson-clad woman was sent violently tumbling away into another thicket of trees, the smirk of victory upon her face turning into a grimace of pain and fury, moreso the former as she felt herself plow through, at minimum, four trees before bouncing off of a last one and leaving a noticable dent in its bark. In that blink and you'd miss it moment, one might have seen a crimson-colored sheen flicker across her body before dissipating as she sailed out of sight.

Grey hair and green hair found themselves somewhere between alarmed and stunned. Some... thing made of black flames appeared out of nowhere and just kicked their boss away like she was made of styrofoam... and now was focusing its munsell-colored eyes on them as it stood to an intimidating height of seven feet, at the very least. They shared a quick look of recognition - whatever this thing is, it wasn't a creature of Grimm, at least one they hadn't ever seen. If they were going to do something, they needed to figure it out, preferably before this thing decided to attack them next.

Their captive proved a mix of shocked and frightened. Had she been saved from the grasp of one kind of Grimm, only to be at the mercy of another? Yet at the same time, why simply kick the woman in red away instead of going for the kill?

Grey hair was the first to act, leaving his cohort to keep hold of their captive after a moment of silent deliberation between the two of them. Despite the earlier battle having winded him a good deal, he had recovered enough to be able to fight. Within a second he had closed the distance and attempted a flying spin-kick, but found himself shocked when the shadowy creature simply grabbed his mechanical foot, stopping the attack cold. He had about a second to realize this before his other foot was swept out from beneath him. One good swing with his trapped foot resulted in him being slammed face-first into the ground, practically eating dirt. He quickly rolled away once able, to prevent himself from being kicked while he was down... a fortunate thing, as one-quarter of a second later the shadowy creature left a small crater where its foot had impacted the ground.

The look on the grey-haired teen's face said it all - that could've been his head. This thing, for whatever reason, was out for blood.

The lady in red returned from her impromptu flight, and she was absolutely livid. With her weapons reclaimed, she threw caution to the wind as she closed the distance and made to lay into the shadow being, blades poised to kill. Her grey-haired understudy had regained his footing, and was immediately on the attack as well. As blade and prosthetic were brought to bear with the intent to murder this interloper, the shadowed one would block with its arms and legs, but then, on occasion, it looked like a pair of wings would emerge from its back and parry several of their attacks. Just what the hell was this thing?

Whilst this two-pronged assault was going on, the green-haired young woman was trying her best to make sense of the situation, all whilst ensuring their captive didn't go anywhere. Keeping a strong grip on the back of her captive's neck, she produced one of her pistols with her free hand and took aim, waiting for an opening and firing whenever she had the chance. Given how much this thing was twisting about and seemingly forming shapes from its body, she didn't have much of an opportunity to see if this thing was even fazed. There was also ensuring that she didn't accidentally shoot her accomplices, as this thing's erratic movement meant that if she fired too early, she'd end up hitting her cohorts.

About ten seconds of fruitless shooting later, she then decided on a new course of action.

A window of opportunity opened up - that thing sent her grey-haired compatriot reeling with a punch to the face, and the crimson-clad woman was nursing a bit of a stomachache, courtesy of the liberal application of a foot to the torso. Sure enough, as she focused upon her target, making it start to see multiple copies of her two companions, it moved backwards, eyes shifting about and body going to a more defensively-oriented lean, giving her allies the moment they needed to move in and attack. Still, she didn't like how this creature looked - it was practically impossible to tell if they were doing any real damage to it.

It was in the middle of trying to block another illusory attack that something clicked for the shadowy one. Something around the attacker's feet didn't add up-

'Wait, these are... follow my lead!'

Suddenly, the shadowed one dropped to the ground, her allies' attacks whiffing overhead as it made to trip them! At first, she thought it a lucky dodge, but as the next round of attacks proved, this thing was starting to fight as if her Semblance wasn't affecting it anymore. Dread was starting to creep into her mind, but still, she resumed firing at the thing.

Grabbing a nearby post that had been dislodged from its fence in the previous fight, the shadowed one took to wielding it against his two assailants in a manner reminscient of a bo staff. Blocking both blades from the woman in red, he forced the blades down as he twisted around in an attempt to elbow her in the face. Seeing an incoming sweep, he backflipped over the grey-haired one's outstretched leg and twisted around to deliver his own kick, supposed flesh meeting metal. A fast jab backwards with the post forced the crimson-clad woman to dodge to a side, lest it give her splinters up her nose.

Unfortunately for the green-haired woman, an opening was also what the captive brunette was waiting on. Even with the arrow in her back and a grip around the base of her neck, she could feel a bit of her strength returning. All she needed was one good moment to shock her captor into submission, and then at least get her staff back. All she could hope was for her shadowy savior to keep them occupied long enough to make a getaway.

What nobody here had counted upon or considered was another party observing the fight. This new party had run all this way, a bad feeling in the back of their mind, but the thing wrapped in onyx flames beat them to the punch, delivering more than one shock today. Regardless, with sense returning to the forefront, now would be a really good time to intervene.

Darting out from his hiding spot was an older man, grey and black a large part of his ensemble alongside a tattered red cloak. One large, seemingly segmented blade was holstered behind his waist. He quickly sped over to the fallen brunette and her green-haired captor.

One good shove sent the distracted green-haired girl sprawling, and the new interloper took this moment to take the brunette into his arms before turning in a different direction and hightailing it out of there.

The post in the shadowy one's hands broke in two after an attempted heeldrop from the grey-haired man. Oddly, it didn't show any real signs of damage beforehand, even against two metal blades and a pair of prosthetics... Shrugging, he improvised, using the halves as a pair of beatsticks, parrying the crimson woman's twin blades before using one to give her a good whack across the face. As the one with metallic legs tried to fire at him, he used the broken pieces to block the bullets, and then hurled both of them at him! The first one, aimed for his face, was narrowly dodged by a hair's breadth, but the other one caught him square in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. Barely, something grey was seen shimmering across his body, flickering in and out of view.

'There it goes again...'

The crimson-clad woman took a second to back away and assess things before her anger got the better of her, and one of the first things she noticed was her other cohort was only now getting to her feet, and their captive was nowhere in sight. A look of shock crossed her face, turning to fury, and then to sullen realization. It was as the grey-haired one was sent reeling by a vicious kick to the chest that she made her orders known, especially as that grey shimmering flickered even more wildly across his body before fading away.

"Mercury, grab Emerald and let's go..." Just like that, the two quickly backed off, collecting their comrade before leaving.

'Mercury and Emerald, eh...' The shadow-flame covered Raoul considered this, before relegating this information to be investigated later. Right now, there was the matter of whomever it was that absconded with the brunette woman. 'Over that way, perhaps?'

He took off in that direction, slowing down briefly enough to grab the discarded staff.

Elsewhere...

"Man, Oz is not gonna like hearing about this."

Qrow Branwen had figured this would be a simple job. All he had to do was check on the status of the Autumn Maiden, Amber, and report back. Even though she was known to be something of a nomad, it should've been easy enough, given that he had worked with her a few times prior.

Then he sees a trio of people somehow in the middle of subduing her, with the one in red summoning some kind of Grimm bug from that glove. And just to make the day even weirder, something wreathed in black flames appears out of thin freaking air to dropkick her away before simultaneously taking on the attackers. Granted, he was happy enough to take the opportunity to get Amber to safety, but she was in bad shape. That arrow would have to be removed, mainly before her Aura could restore itself and begin healing the damage, and potentially healing the skin and muscle over the arrowhead. What made this worse was that the aforementioned arrow was in pretty deep, making removal a painful process regardless of what he did, and of course there was the risk of potential permanent damage with where it had hit. He let loose a sigh, seeing very few good outcomes for this.

"Sorry 'bout this, kid. This is going to suck." He looped a few pieces of string through the small holes in the arrowhead, to give himself more leverage with what he was going to do next. Firmly grasping the arrow's shaft with his right hand, his left keeping a tight grip on the string winding through the arrowhead itself, he counted to three and gave a good yank, pulling the arrow out, along with some skin and blood. Amber bit back a scream of utter pain, her tightly shut eyes already tearing up. Tossing the arrow aside, he quickly applied a few bandages to stem the bleeding until her Aura restored itself and healed up whatever else it could. It'd have to hold until he could get her to a trustworthy medical official.

Well, that was done with. Now came the other problem... Amber was in a fair bit of distress from being attacked out of the blue, and having an arrow extracted from her back wasn't exactly soothing on the nerves. Her whirlwind of emotions would undoubtedly start drawing Grimm their way, and there was also the matter of those three assailants. They could easily decide to come back for round 2, and while he had managed to get a good idea of their fighting styles, there were two factors that could complicate the matter - whatever Semblances they possessed, and ensuring Amber wasn't caught up in the crossfire.

Right on cue, however, as he got Amber to her feet and ready to move on, it seems that quite few Grimm were on their way, no doubt attracted to Amber's distress. Unsheathing his blade with a resigned sigh, he readied himself to take them on.

There were a few Beowolves, multiple Ursai, some Creeps, and he wouldn't discount the possibilities of a Nevermore or some Boarbatusks being alerted to this. Well, this was what he was paid to do, so it was time to get down to business.

As the first of the Grimm closed the distance, something darted out of the trees, cleaving it in two effortlessly. Qrow had his blade ready to combat whatever it was that cut those Grimm down...

"Hope I'm not interrupting anything." It was that shadowy thing again. It could talk?! And did it have Amber's staff?

'I'm not drunk enough for this.' Qrow just watched as the shadowed one cut the Grimm down. Its claws were ripping through them like a heated knife through room-temperature butter, each swipe and gouge flowing seamlessly into the next.

About less than thirty seconds later, the Grimm were all killed. The shadowed one came to a stop, looking over at Qrow, whom had put his blade to the side, ready to move if he had to. Amber had a look of pure bewilderment on her face, trying to comprehend what was going on.

"Peace, peace. I'm not here for a fight." Its right hand went up, the left still clutching the staff. The absurdity of this whole thing caused Qrow and Amber to share a look of confusion. "If it'll help I can start with introductions."

Qrow quirked an eyebrow at this. Idly, a hand went towards his pants pocket, to grab his favored flask... but then he had a better idea.

"All right... you have a name?"

"Belderiver. That is the name I bestowed upon this form you see."

"Belderiver?" Qrow notably had to take a moment to be sure that was how the name was pronounced. "Never heard that one before."

"Few would have." To that, Qrow bit back a snort.

"Fair enough. I'm Qrow." The hunter sheathed his blade, but kept a wary eye on his guests. "Though why exactly are you here, if you don't mind answering that one?"

"It concerns your friend there." Belderiver nodded its head over to Amber, whom was still recovering from the assault. "Those three were going to do something with that insect, and I had a gut feeling that it would've been a severe detriment to her health, if not her existence."

"Kinda how things go when the Grimm are involved, though to find out she was using something like that..." Qrow thought to how Ozpin would react to this news, but shoved that to the back of his mind. "Anyway, what're you up to?"

"Aside from trying to get back to my companions?" Belderiver's tone turned contemplative for a moment. "Mostly I find myself an unexpected guest to this world, this Remnant... and it's not like I can walk up to a major city and ask about, given my current appearance."

"Yeah, going around in half of the Grimm's colors won't win you any fans within the kingdoms. Though what's stopping you from deciding to ditch the flames?"

"A number of things, but preserving my identity ranks high on that list." The shadowy being looked around for a quick moment. "Those three that decided to attack may very well come back for another round. I have the suspicion that remaining here might not be the wisest option."

"So what, you're offering to lead us to a place?"

"The nearest Kingdom's borders, if that'll suffice." Qrow glanced over to Amber, whom shared his look of skepticism.

"A moment." Qrow gently pulled Amber aside to get her opinion on the matter. Belderiver nodded and took this time to look around, mainly to ensure that they didn't get ambushed.

"Can we trust him?" To nobody's surprise, Amber was quick to ask. "I was supposed to be headed to Vacuo for a little while."

"I got my Scroll recording this whole exchange." Qrow reassured her, silently pulling the device out of his pants pocket. As Belderiver wasn't looking their way, he silently snapped a few images of the being. "Worst comes to worst Ozpin can have the other kingdoms notified about this guy in a heartbeat... whatever he is."

Amber frowned, but as time wasn't on their side, she slowly agreed to the escort. Qrow walked back over to Belderiver, signaling him to state that an answer had been formed.

"You got yourself a deal." Belderiver nodded, tossing the staff over to Qrow, whom then handed it back to Amber. She wasted no time in extending it to use as a walking aid.

As they prepared to move out, the sound of something cracking caught their attention, and they looked about for any potential interlopers... just in time for a larger tree branch to break off and fall down.

"...ow." Belderiver was the unlucky recipient, the branch shattering into splinters as it collided with his head. Amber bit back an unexpected giggle upon seeing the shadowy being getting struck with the branch.

On the Road back to Vale

Timeframe Unknown

One of the most awkward trips was underway towards Vale.

As the trio headed back towards the kingdom, Qrow and Belderiver were busy keeping an eye out for any Grimm, or for the reappearance of the three assailants from before. Amber herself was rather quiet as she processed the events that lead up to this. It had only been a few years since she found herself the recipient of these powers as the Autumn Maiden.

She had been sleeping peacefully one night, then out of nowhere a strange, warm feeling overcame her. She had thought nothing of it at the time, but when she awoke that morning to go to a friend's house, the revelation of her new powers was made clear when several Grimm had managed to sneak into her village. One panicked flailing later and one of the Grimm was set ablaze, another one thoroughly electrocuted.

She'd known of both admirers and detractors of her powers since that day, but this was the first time that anyone had ever decided to attack her outright, and from what her two escorts had implied, that bug the woman in red had summoned from that glove would've done something irreversibly horrendous to her... she immediately pushed that thought to the back of her mind. Last thing they needed was more Grimm showing up to say hello.

Once they arrived in Vale, Qrow and she would need to have a serious talk with Ozpin. From what Amber remembered of the man from her infrequent trips into and out of Vale, he was the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, and had some serious pull with the other kingdoms. If anyone could help clear the air about this whole situation, and perhaps help figure out who it was that attacked her, he would have the best chance of being able to do so. In fact, it had been Ozpin whom had taken notice of her odd, new powers, and offered to help her in exercising a more finite control over them, as he had mentioned having seen something like this a far time ago. Ultimately, she had wavered on the offer, keeping it in mind but not yet accepting.

"So you said you had pals?" Qrow had decided to press Belderiver for information, mainly to see if there were any extra details he could get from the gigantic thing made of shadow-fire.

"Counting myself, there had been 24 of us. We had been scattered across many a destination, but it was a common cause of returning to where we called home that brought us together." Belderiver replied, still keeping a vigil for any interlopers. "Unfortunately, what should have been our trip home was delayed by the emergence of a new enemy, someone whom didn't like our interference, despite us being unwilling guests."

"And it was this new enemy that sent you on a one-way trip to here?" Qrow had a bit of a skeptical tone with his question, one that more broached on the idea of trying to make sense of the conversation.

"More like it was their last-ditch effort to take us down with them." So this thing had pals, and if his fight against the trio from before was an indicator, they had to have been as skilled as he was. Yet he said that he was looking for a way back to find them, which at face value would imply a lack of a reason to stick around on Remnant.

Either way, the more Qrow could get from this guy, the better. Though, to imply that he was some sort of alien... he knew quite a few eggheads in Atlas that would be foaming at the mouth for the chance to examine him under one of their hi-tech gadgets.

"Suppose you find your way back to 'em. What then?"

"Mostly I get an update on how things went, then I imagine we go our seperate ways. We all had our own lives to attend to beforehand."

"That's it? They wouldn't stick around?"

"It'd be up to them, honestly - we'd all come from different walks of life."

Amber, whom had been silently listening to this back and forth, looked ahead. Vale's borders couldn't arrive any sooner, so this awkward situation could finally end. Her wish was soon granted, as the edge of Vale's agricultural district was soon seen ahead.

"Will this suffice, or should I bring you closer?" Qrow looked over to Amber, a silent decision made between them.

"This'll do. I know a guy who can give us a lift the rest of the way... and besides, don't want to give any of them a heart attack if they caught sight of you."

"A fair point. Hopefully if we meet again, it'll be under less... chaotic circumstances."

"Sounds good." The two turned to say thanks, only to find that Belderiver was gone without a trace. No footprints, no trail... Qrow had reached into his pants pocket, to pull out his usual flask - after something as bizarre as today, a drink sounded really damn good, yet at the same time... probably better to wait.

Present Time, Interrogation Room. 10:03 A.M.

"You?!" Ironwood was doing a fair job hiding his disbelief. "You were that Belderiver character that saved the Autumn Maiden?"

In response, Nelius reached back beneath his mane of brown hair, undoing the tie that held his eyepatch to his head. As it fell away, the empty eyesocket could be seen by everyone in the room, traces of obsidian flame silently wisping out of it. The only thing that dwelled within it was but a tiny orange dot. Ozpin kept his poker face going, though Ironwood had to keep himself from taking a step back in shock. Glynda was doing her best to keep a straight face, but this... this was proving something far beyond anything she'd have ever imagined, and having worked at Beacon for a fair amount of time, she had encountered her fair share of oddities.

For a brief moment, he let the obsidian flames cover himself, Belderiver emerging once more. As the otherworldly being emerged, the three interrogators felt the air growing uncomfortably heavy and thin at the same time.

"I hope this also suffices as sufficient evidence, General." Belderiver faded away as Nelius reapplied his eyepatch, the suppressing feeling disappearing with it. "There's much more than just coating myself in flames, but those details would take up a fair bit of time."

"Then by all means, do continue on." Ozpin had taken a moment to collect his bearings. "Knowing that it was you whom saved the Autumn Maiden, and caught a glimpse of whom was attempting to claim her life..."

"Before which, Headmaster..." Glynda, whom seemed to have found her voice again, had been using her Scroll to look up the characters described by Nelius' exposition on his escapades prior to today. Finding the three in question, she flipped the Scroll around to face the brunette. "Are these three the ones you saw?"

Nelius took a look at the Scroll's readout.

"Cinder Fall, Emerald... Sustrai? (Is that how you pronounce it?) And Mercury Black... Without a doubt, that's the trio that attacked her."

This information got Ozpin to drop his poker face. Those three had come here from Haven Academy... on Leonardo's input, no less.

"James..." Ozpin spoke up after a moment of contemplating. "You had mentioned before that Lionheart had been unusually quiet as of late."

"That I did. You believe there is a relation here?"

"These three... Fall, Sustrai, and Black... they came to Beacon with Leonardo's good graces backing them." At this, Ironwood began to piece two and two together. "Whatever is happening with Haven's Headmaster, these three must have been part of his recent silence."

"...somedays I dislike having my suspicions confirmed." Ironwood sighed, before turning his attention back to Nelius. "You did cross their paths again, I take it?"

"Not for a few months after that, though certainly not from a lack of trying. In fact, the next time I saw that one called Cinder..."

Ozpin's mind, however, was thinking about the Grimm-colored insect that both Raoul and Amber had testified about seeing. It solidified a suspicion in his mind.

'This Cinder... she must be working for her...' As he dwelled upon this, a realization hit him. Amber had been doing some work in Anima before crossing back over to Sanus to head down towards Vacuo. Leonardo would've been the last one to know of her movements...

Chapter 3- Complete