November 12, 2015

"Michael," Glynda asked a concerned Ozpin in a serious tone as they met with Pyrrha, Ruby, Jaune, and Qrow. "You almost died when Cinder attacked you. I think it's time you tell Miss Nikos and Mr. Arc the whole truth." She was clearly worried about him, as she had called him by his first name.

"I suppose you're right," Ozpin replied as he took his pipe out of his mouth. He then sighed. "Pyrrha, Jaune, you remember the story of the four maidens, right?"

"You've already told me this," Pyrrha replied, still carrying crutches and wearing a cast. "They're real."

"No way," Jaune replied. "That's... That's what was happening?"

Ruby, equally shocked, replied, "Does that explain Cinder's powers?"

"Indeed," Ozpin replied. He then showed them a diagram on his Scroll-tablet. "Since Cinder, who took all of the Fall Maiden's powers, is now dead, we have no idea who the current Fall Maiden is. She is whoever Cinder thought of last that is a girl. We don't know why, but it can't be a guy for some reason."

"I don't know exactly," Pyrrha replied. "But I unfortunately do have a good idea." She then showed him a picture on her Scroll-phone. "Emerald Sustrai, her right-hand man alongside Mercury Black. Emerald is almost attached to the hip with her. Her semblance has something to do with illusions, and I believe she may have made Yang hallucinate Mercury attacking her and she most likely made me hallucinate during my battle with Penny. There is a good chance she is the girl you're looking for."

"Oh yeah," Qrow replied. "I recognize her from when Amber was attacked the first time. I say go with what the redhead says, Oz." He then took a swig of alcohol from his flask.

"I agree," Glynda replied. "Now, tell them about you."

Jaune, confused, asked, "What about Headmaster Ozpin?"

"You see," Ozpin began. "When I was just beginning to be shipped out to the Vale-Vacuo front in the Faunus War, a voice in my head appeared one day. Now, I might sound crazy, but believe me, this is all true. Apparently, according to the voice, he was the soul of a man who had recently died. He says that the same had happened to him, and that the same soul had been jumping from body to body to body for many, many years. The original person involved was cursed by the two God brothers thousands of years ago for not stopping a woman, or, a beast of a woman, who went by the name of Salem. In their battle, though she was not defeated, she was forced to retreat to a far-off land in Remnant, and only now has she become active again."

Jaune asked, "That is the Salem Harper you described?"

"Indeed," Ozpin replied. "Salem Harper is merely a legal name she uses whenever she has to go out into the open for some reason. She is immortal, but only to natural death. She can be killed at the hands of herself or another." He then showed them a picture of Salem that had been taken by spies decades earlier. "This picture was secretly taken by Atlesian spies in 1952 while they met with her. She most likely looks exactly the same now as she did back then. We believe that her base of operations is located somewhere in Lindwurm."

"Interesting," Pyrrha replied. "So, what do you want us to do about it?"

"First," Ozpin again began. "We need to bring the Spring, Summer, and Winter Maidens to Vale immediately. Summer and Winter are already on their way, and should be here within the next two to three days, but Spring has some issues right now. Once Spring comes, we will begin planning out a mission to either kill or capture Salem."

"My sister has Spring in her tribe," Qrow added, making a rare mention of his twin sister, Raven. "Unbeknownst to the entire tribe of bandits that she currently leads, she's actually an agent we planted several years ago when they captured the Spring Maiden under their old leader."

"Yang's mom," Ruby said to herself. She then turned to her uncle. "How do you want to take her off of Raven's hands?"

"Gather Team RWBY and have them meet with the tribe," Ozpin told her. "You need to bring Yang with you. You will ship out on the 20th."

"To be honest," Sienna told her right-hand man, a man named Jacob Leverson who bore a tail, as they sat in a meeting room alone. "I'm kinda glad Adam is dead."

"I'm supposed to be shocked," Jacob replied, surprised. "Yet I'm not. Why?"

"The thing is," Sienna began before she scratched behind her right tiger ear a bit. "Adam was too reckless. He favored these expansive and grandiose plans of full-scale military assaults, whereas I know that such endeavors are way too costly for us in terms of both money and manpower. I always preferred using small amounts of manpower to attack targets with devastating results. You know, planting bombs, using anthrax, sending in shooters or suicide bombers, hijacking planes, trains, and ships, you know. It may not cause as much property destruction, but we generally spread the same amount of fear without having to sacrifice so much manpower, if any at all."

"I completely agree," Jacob replied as he then took a quick puff of a cigarette. "I like this plane hacking plan you got. I think we'll achieve the same death toll, if not worse, when it goes into action, and we won't have to even make martyrs of anybody. We can do it all from the safety of a computer lab."

"We'll need to give it a few years while we work out the bugs and kinks," Sienna told him. "But, once we do, we will unleash destruction never before seen in Remnant in decades."

As Mercury and Emerald met outside of their rooms in Salem's compound, Mercury asked her, "Say, Salem's been telling me to ask you if you've had anything weird involving fire or heart recently happen to you."

"Well," Emerald began. "I did have a frying pan almost explode yesterday, and when I got pissed off at a TV remote that sucked, it started smoking in my hands."

"Well, that answers my questions alright," Mercury replied. "Emerald, do you think you were the last person Cinder thought of before she died?"

Emerald blushed. "Well... Uhh... I hope so?" It then hit her. "Oh... Oh my God... You don't mean...?"

"Salem tells me you may be the new Fall Maiden," Mercury replied to her. "I can't believe it myself."

Emerald, shocked, looked at her hands. "That explains all of those things... Wow..." Tears then began to fall from her eyes as she thought of Cinder. "I will find Ruby, Cinder. I will find her, and when I do, she will suffer." As she wiped the tears away, she hugged a startled Mercury. "Sorry..."

"It... It's fine," Mercury replied as he returned the hug. Normally, he hated being touched, but this time, he felt fine. "It's fine..."