It was on the moral side, and in my own person, that I learned to recognise the thorough and primitive duality of man; I saw that, of the two natures that contended in the field of my consciousness, even if I could rightly be said to be either, it was only because I was radically both; and from an early date, even before the course of my scientific discoveries had begun to suggest the most naked possibility of such a miracle, I had learned to dwell with pleasure, as a beloved daydream, on the thought of the separation of these elements.

If each, I told myself, could be housed in separate identities, life would be-

"I said move it!"

"Don't touch my sister!"

"Quit squirming!"

"Let go of me!"

"Ow! This one bit me!"

Ozpin groaned loudly, closing his book for a later date. He rose from his seat on the unmoved crate and removed his pill case from his pocket. He took out two pills from the case, and swallowed them with the last sip of coffee. After a deep breath, he turned in the direction of the racket.

The large room he was in was well lit with several hanging lights. On one side of the room were several crates and other supplies that the volunteers were currently loading onto the train.

Speaking of which, on the other side of the room was a station that held a slim bullet shaped train. It was an older model, around the time of the Atlas Mistral war, so it was powered by Tesla coils built into the top and bottom of the train to power the electromagnet that let the train run with ease. Of course this all made quite a bit of racket as it was charging up or was on standby.

And despite all of that noise, those teenagers were still able to shout over all of that and interrupt Ozpin's reading. He knew, and hoped, that the other three would be able to follow him, but he didn't want to greet and congratulate them like this.

The four armored men approached with their prisoners in tow. With the exception of the team's leader, who was going with his personal impractical and oversized steel armor, all of them were well-armored, and the leader was not wearing his helmet.

Ozpin didn't really care much for that boy. But he was a surprisingly decent leader and was truly determined (if only he wasn't such an idiot half the time).

The four stopped in front of Ozpin, presenting their recent catch. Though the previously-mentioned idiot stepped forward immediately, carrying a lifeless looking Weiss in his arms.

Where in the world is that blasted medic? Ozpin thought to himself.

"Headmaster, we found these three in the tunnel."

Ozpin's eyes quickly swept over each of the three girls. Yang had been disarmed and was being held by an electro-lock, keeping her hands behind her back. Blake had also been disarmed, though instead of an electro-lock she was just handcuffed and had…a muzzle, of all things, strapped to her face. And finally Ruby was only being held by hand, no disarming necessary, and no restraints present.

Cardin has no idea how many mistakes he's made. This'll be fun to watch.

"Did you disarm them?" Ozpin said calmly.

"Yeah," Cardin said as he set Weiss down on a nearby crate, where she just sat there slumped and dead eyed.

"The red twerp wasn't carrying, but the others were." He pulled out a pair of gauntlets and a cleaver of some kind. And then it happened; exactly as Ozpin predicted it would, the girls made their move.

All three girls aimed for the groin of their captors when they kicked backwards, causing the other members of team CRDL to stumble back in pain and let go of them.

Blake had at some point picked her lock without notice had set herself free and discarded her muzzle somewhere. Yang, on the other hand, had overheated her electro-lock from the inside, frying it. With a strong flex, she easily broke it into pieces, while Ruby had disappeared into petals, quickly reappearing before Cardin to boot him in the jaw, grab her team mates' weapons, and reappear by them.

The two older girls quickly rearmed, now ready to fight the regrouping team CRDL. Cardin had managed by this point to get back to his feet as a nasty looking bruise colored the left side of his face, while the rest started to glow bright red with rage.

"When I get my hands on that little brat I'm gonna-"

Ozpin tapped his cane hard on the floor, gaining everyone's attention as he said,

"Enough."

Everyone looked to Ozpin in sheer disbelief, but the man, taking advantage of the situation, cleared his throat and now put forth a warm smile.

"I apologize for the rude introduction. Perhaps we should start over after we see to it you all get proper medical care."

"Are you for real?" Cardin yelled. His face was starting to turn completely blood red, so much so that it was even starting to cover up his bruise. "I am not going to just let that little hell spawn get away with-"

"Cardin. Do me a favor and don't speak again." Ozpin interrupted. He didn't even look at Cardin as he said it. His smile didn't even fade.

The three girls looked between each other as Cardin stormed off, trying desperately to figure out what was happening and what their next move should be.

After some looks and some quick whispers, the team looked back at Ozpin. Ruby stepped forward, acting as spokesperson, and started out saying,

"Why should we trust-"

"I'll throw in a plate of cookies." Ozpin interrupted.

There was a brief moment of pause before Ruby turned back to the others.

"Well I'm sold."

Both of the older teens fell flat on their faces, along with the leftover of team CRDL.

WWWWWWWW

Pippi just stood in front of the door for awhile. This average-looking door that was like any of the others, leading into an average room that probably looked like all the others, that held the ultimate demise.

Honestly. This truly is the worst way to go. Hands down. Of all time.

Roman could be cruel and beat her senseless or maybe even torture her if he felt like it. The White Fang could easily send her to the front lines, or on a one way mission. But this? Getting sent to the boss? There is no worse way that this could have ended.

If I have to go, I just hope it's mostly her and not whatever the 'it' is that Roman talks about.

And so, she entered into the room of demise. The door screamed as she slowly opened it.

Surprisingly, the room of demise was really messy.

There was no furniture in the boss's room. Just blank white walls, no lights, and heaps of clutter all over the floor. Clutter that consisted of old newspapers from all four kingdoms, old and odd objects that Pippi had no name for, and just plain old junk. She even spotted Junior's artifacts they'd taken: lighters, a hand mirror (now shattered), old pictures, and even more papers.

Though really, Pippi wasn't paying too much attention to the floor and its contents. Her eyes were now focused on the large open window that was allowing light to flood into the room, and the person sitting there. A young woman in a red dress sat on the windowsill, leaning back and gazing outside. Her crystal slippers were set aside on the floor near her, as she had one of her legs hanging off the side of the windowsill, swaying back and forth in a slow rhythm as her toes grazed the carpeted floor.

Pippi didn't dare move. She was stuck standing by the open door, but felt a cold draft passing by her (She didn't even notice how hot it was in this room). She had turned into a statue, gazing at the woman in front of her.

"Could you please close the door?" The woman asked politely. "It's starting to get drafty."

Her voice made Pippi jump. She expected some demonic voice to rise, or some angry sounding woman. But the boss was, polite? She sounded normal. Nice even.

Without thinking, Pippi closed the door as gently as she could. This time the door didn't make a single noise as it shut.

When the door was closed, Pippi clung tightly to the door handle with both hands. She had her eyes closed tight, expecting to be struck down now that the door had been shut and no one would see or hear anything.

"Why don't you come over here little one? The sun feels great."

Pippi turned, her eyes still closed, and took tiny step after tiny step towards the woman. She was careful not to step on anything as she went.

After several steps, Pippi could feel a pleasant heat hit her skin. But she could also feel her presence right by her.

"Open your eyes." The woman commanded, and Pippi quickly obeyed.

Slowly opening her eyes, Pippi expect the woman to have changed into some Grimm-like monster while she was blind. Instead, there sat the infamous Cinder Fall, her feet now tucked in so Pippi would have room to sit on the windowsill. Her eyes were a welcoming sunflower yellow, and a beautiful smile lay on her lips.

"See? Now that wasn't so bad." She nodded to the spot that had been opened up on the windowsill, gesturing for Pippi to sit.

Pippi shakily followed the command, pulling her legs up with her and crossing them. At this point, she wasn't sure whether to still be afraid… or really confused. Maybe both.

"You…wanted to see me?" Pippi mumbled shakily.

Cinder nodded.

"Yes. Roman's been the talk of the town recently, so naturally, you came up a lot too. And I've never meet you, so I wanted to see what you were like first hand."

Pippi wasn't sure what to say. Was this really Cinder Fall? The voice of a god? The one orchestrating the downfall of the four kingdoms? The great and terrifying witch of the Grimm?

"Um…" Pippi started, though her thoughts trailed off.

"It's okay, speak your mind." Cinder encouraged.

"Right… um… no offensive your greatness, but I was expecting to be ripped to shreds. I mean, Roman doesn't say much about you, but when he does…well… it's just not what I was expecting is all."

Cinder's smile faded and her eyes went dark. She turned back to the window and stared up into the rich blue sky with a serious expression.

"It's complicated dear. It's all, very complicated."

Cinder's tattoos and eyes glowed brightly for a single moment, before dimming. Suddenly the air seemed a bit less warm, while the hairs on the back of Pippi's neck stood, and her ears unconsciously folded down. She'd never felt more small in her entire life.

"Pippi?" Cinder whispered. "Are you afraid?"

Pippi wasn't sure what to say. What the heck was that about? What's going on? And wasn't it clearly obvious?!

"I…I'm always afraid." She answered. "I'm afraid of the future, I'm afraid for my friends, and I'm afraid of not knowing what I'm supposed to do. And sometimes…I'm afraid of what I am supposed to do."

Pippi let a small laugh free, though she didn't know where it came from.

"I guess I'm just afraid of everything. Three hundred years hasn't changed a lot."

Across from Pippi, Cinder had turned her gaze back to Pippi and…started to laugh herself.

"Aren't you a little old to be three hundred?" She asked with a returning smile.

Pippi gave another light laugh.

"Well, I'm only half Faunus. All the perks, not all of the time."

"Better than nothing if you ask me. Just wait another three hundred years and see how I look. Then you won't complain."

Cinder pulled her face down, trying to look saggy and zombified, "Pippi, is that you?" she said in a silly old woman voice. "You haven't changed a day. Is it that new ointment I've been hearing about?"

At that point Pippi lost it. To her, that was one of the funniest things she's ever seen. Both she and her 'demise' just started laughing together. That terrifying and strange incident all but forgotten to Pippi.

When the two had calmed down, Cinder started looking serious again.

"I do have some news for you though."

All that joy was sucked out of Pippi immediately, replaced with all too familiar dread.

"I'm relieving you from Roman's command. Instead, you and your friends will be doing something very important for me personally."

Cinder turned her head and stared out the window again as she spoke.

"I need you and your team to find something for me. Something we have been searching for."

She then turned back to Pippi, her face a mixture of sadness and importance.

"I believe I know where it is, and I need you to get it for me. I can't just send anyone or the enemy could know right away I was after something."

"The enemy?" Pippi said, confused. Wasn't the enemy the four kingdoms?

"Yes." Cinder turned to something in the corner of the room. "The enemy is still in play."

Pippi turned her head as well to see what Cinder was looking at. Somehow she missed it, But there it stood, plain as day. A chessboard placed on a small table.

Several black pieces were in play with no king in sight. Instead, a queen with red striping held the king's place, and it seemed to be larger than all the pieces on the board. Meanwhile there were only a handful of white chess pieces left on the board. On their side, a king was faced down, damaged and cracked. And some of the white pieces strangely had black stripes running along them.

Strangely in the middle of the board, four knight pieces stood together facing the black pieces. Even stranger though was that one of the knights was a black piece that had a freshly painted white strip going along it. And in front of the knight pieces, laid face down, was a cracked black pawn.

Pippi looked back to Cinder, ready to ask a hailstorm of questions. Unfortunately for her, Cinder didn't give her the chance.

"You'll be reassigned to Jasz. She'll be giving you more proper training, and then you'll be sent off."

Cinder's eyes went back to the window as she said, "Go tell your team to get ready. You all leave tomorrow morning, prepared or not."

After a brief moment of pause, Pippi slowly got to her feet and started heading for the door. Honestly at this point she was on auto-pilot, still processing everything that had just been said and everything she'd seen.

Cousin…what have you gotten us all in to? What's going to happen to us?

More thoughts, and more fears. Looks like someone's not getting any sleep tonight.

"Pippi?" Cinder called after her.

Pippi stopped short halfway across the room. When she turned back she saw Cinder looking…almost pleadingly at Pippi.

"Could you, stay here for awhile? I don't have anything to do for some time and, well, I could use some company for a little while."

Pippi thought for a moment, though really she kept coming to the same conclusion no matter what she reasoned.

I guess we both just want to put things off.

So Pippi went back over, sat back down, and stared outside the window with Cinder. Neither spoke. And that was just fine for both of them. Pippi was just glad to be around an adult who wouldn't hit her. And Cinder was just enjoying the nostalgia.

WWWWWWWW

The four girls sat in four expensive-looking chairs opposite of one.

They were all in an office that was flushed with emerald green everything. Across from them: the mastermind, the poet, the stranger, and their helper sat in that opposite chair.

Earlier he had each of the four girls receive a full check up from a medic.

Ruby had been given some Dust infused ointment to help her large face injury heal faster and better; she'd also been given some new and fresh bandaging that, and I quote, "Feels like silk and baby skin had a child". (Ruby got many strange looks for that comment.)

Yang had been checked and treated for some small electrical burns and her many smaller cuts. Other than that, there wasn't much the medic needed to do. Yang's aura was something else entirely, and it seemed to baffle everyone.

Blake was cleared with no real injuries (not even internal). She was mostly walking away with bruises and burns that would heal relatively fast. However, with as lucky as she was to walk off all the Yang abuse, in two days she'd be so sore she wouldn't be able to move effectively for a week.

And Weiss, well... they had quite the field day with her. She was easily the worst off, working with a weaker aura and a variety of serious injuries. Mainly including multiple lacerations, a broken arm, and a serious concussion. They were able to treat many of the cuts, and the broken arm was given a special Dust lined cast that they assured her would fix most of it overnight and fall off naturally in the morning. But the concussion just had to be monitored. For the moment, they had nothing that could help with it.

Which brings them to here. In these chairs, staring down this man, while Ruby committed cookie genocide.

"Do you know who I am?" was the first question the man asked to break the silence in the room.

Yang shrugged, Ruby stopped her cookie onslaught to ponder, Blake narrowed her eyes, and Weiss remained zoned out.

"I'm-"

"Professor Ozpin. Former headmaster of Beacon Academy." Weiss finished. She now slowly sat up in her seat.

The other three girls jerked their heads in shock at the royal. Then they all looked at Ozpin. Then back to Weiss.

"Smy Wmat!?" Ruby said through cookie.

"Wait, who?" Yang asked, confused.

Blake snapped her fingers in realization. "That's it. I remember you now."

Ruby swallowed the last of her cookie, now able to speak clearly.

"You're the professor Ozpin? The greatest hunter that ever lived? The youngest headmaster ever to run Beacon Academy? The same Ozpin that perished with the destruction of Beacon?!"

"The one and only." He answered.

"Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!" Ruby squealed, unable to contain her energy as she bounced in her chair.

"Riiight. Anyway, while my sister is having a fangasm," Yang interrupted. "If that's true, how are you still alive? I thought everybody died during that disaster."

"Supposedly, they all did." Blake corrected.

Dead silence suddenly filled the room for a long moment, ending only when Ozpin took one last sip of his coffee, put his mug down, moved to the edge of his seat, and leaned forward.

"I'm going to tell you all a big secret. A secret I hope I can trust you all with." His eyes held on Blake for a long moment before going on.

"And after I finish, you four have an important decision to make. And you may just realize how one small thing, how one small change can make a huge difference. But, if you want, I'm giving you all the opportunity to leave now, and leave when I'm finished. There are no strings attached to this matter."

Ozpin leaned back in his chair.

"So, what say you?"

The three active teens looked between each other, seemingly debating telepathically to each other. But as for the princess of the dead..

"Tell me everything."

The others looked at Weiss. She actually didn't look as dead as she had been. Instead, with that glare, she looked more alive than any of the others combined.

"Tell me why an obvious impostor tried to kill me, and why I'm even sitting here having this conversation."

A tense moment passed. Then Blake was the next to quickly speak up.

"I'd… also like to know. I helped ruin something. I mean, my mission was very over elaborate just to kill," She trailed off as her eyes wandered over at Weiss, hesitated, and then returned to Ozpin again. "Someone. There would've been…a much simpler way." She lowered her eyes, looking ashamed she'd even said the words.

Yang and Ruby shared one last glance, before both nodded in agreement.

Let's see how close my theory was. Ruby thought.

Ozpin closed his eyes and took several long sips of his coffee. He was starting to get tired even with the help of the pills. It wouldn't be long before he would finally need sleep.

"Alright then. I suppose I should start at the beginning."