"Who the hell is she?"

"I have no idea"

Coming to a graceful halt in front of Emerald and Mercury I said "you can call me spring," I was slowly beginning to come down from my happiness high and I was regretting making my presences known now.

"What kind of name is spring?"

Grinning I said "never said it was a name just that you could call me that if you want to"

"Why spring?"

Rolling my eyes I decided to really push the boat out, I was already deeper than I had wanted to go, might as well dive all the way in. "It's my season silly thats why, it would be ridiculous if the spring maiden called herself fall. wouldn't it?"

"you...your the spring maiden?"

Smiling at Emerald who seemed to be having issues understanding this simple concept I said slowly "yes I am the spring maiden"

"How?"

"You know how the maidens come into their powers Emerald."

"Wha...how do you know my name?"

Pulling a faux serious expression I lifted my hands wiggling my fingers in her face as I said "the maidens know all"

"what?"

Mercury didn't seem to appreciate my joke, sighing I said "I knew you before"

"Before what?"

Huffing slightly I crossed my arms as I replied "curios much. I knew you before I became the spring maiden."

"Oh,"

Rolling my eyes I peered at Neo, she was still perched on her log smiling slightly. When she saw she had my attention she smiled wider and waved, winking as she did. Grinning I winked back. I watched as she laughed silently, it really was weird how she never made any sounds.

Shrugging to my self I rolled my shoulders and said "so what are you planning on doing to help the 'beacon brats' as you so eloquently dubbed my...the members of team JNPR and the remains of team RWBY? But more importantly why are you helping them?"

The trio shared a meaningful look and Mercury stepped forwards slightly, catching my attention. "Well I suppose we should tell you a bit about Cinder to start with, so a while back Cinder took in both Emerald and me and helped us, a lot. She trained us and took us under her wing so to speak, she was tough but we liked working for her. Then after beacon fell we were introduced to Cinder's 'superior' and well, Salem is creepy and frankly evil. I don't think she really cares about anything except her goal being achieved and we weren't really sure we agreed with her goal any more, not after what we saw at beacon. So we talked it over, weighed the pros and cons and decided we would rather help the good guys, and possibly loose than stick with the most likely winning side and be stuck with a world we didn't want."

Studying him I couldn't detect a single sign he was lying, turning to Neo I said "what about you? I get that you don't talk but what changed your mind?"

A bitter look crossed her face and her features blurred taking on the form of Roman Torchwick, Emerald spoke up to explain the significance. "Neo was very close with Roman and thought the feelings were reciprocated. However when Ruby pushed her of the air ship he never searched for her and when she found him, he wasn't even remotely remorseful just sent her out on a mission despite her injured condition. needless to say she didn't go back, so here she is, with us."

"whoa whoa whoa, Ruby pushed you off an air ship?"

Neo nodded and I felt my eyes bug out slightly, 'how the hell did she survive than?' As if reading my mind she answered the question by lifting her parasol and twirling it around. It took a second but it clicked, 'she must have used it to slow her descent enough to not break every bone in her body and coupled with her auras protection is probably the only reason she survived the fall.

Stretching I frowned at the faint dimming in my powers, sighing I flopped down on the log Neo had just vacated. "so would you guys mind if I hung out here for a while, I don't really feel like sleeping at the moment I'm still buzzing slightly from the power high I was on."

"yeah what was that about?"

smiling I said "I get my powers from the love, happiness and life around me. Your group is much happier than where I was and Neo was almost bursting with humour at your antics from before and I have to admit so was I. It really was funny and it restored my aura, and the excess kinda just spilled over and made me a little power drunk. That is the most positive I've been since I..." trailing of I felt my good mood dip, further lowering my power level.

Emerald earned herself serious brownie points when in stead of pushing the issue she just said "glad to be of service, I make these kinds of episodes regular just to make sure Mercury's ego doesn't get too big."

Laughing slightly I smiled when I felt my power level rise a bit, "I like this not bad guy side of you three"

"yeah well we like you too Spring, secret keeping spring maiden that you are."

Grinning now, I contemplated my next moves. I had never planned on telling anyone who I was, however if I did, it would probably be these guys as I knew they would be the least affected by my return after my supposed death.

"I won't always keep secrets, I just don't know if I should trust you yet."

"Fair enough I can respect that" I nodded at Emerald as she went to go sit with Neo on the two stumps that Emerald and Mercury had been using as seating.

When my gaze found aforementioned silver haired assassin I watched as Mercury wandered away looking deep in thought. Standing I trailed after him. Once we were suitable concealed by the trees I sped up so I was walking beside him, neither of us spoke for a long while and then Mercury broke the silence "why are you following me?"

"I wanted to talk to you"

"Well we're taking now, what did you want to talk about?"

"Why did you follow Cinder to begin with?"

"I don't...Why do you want to know?"

"I want to know because I want to understand you."

"Well the answer is 'I don't know' happy?"

"No, that isn't an answer that is an avoidance tactic."

Yelping I had to duck to avoid the swing of Mercury's fist as he snarled at me, "I don't want to talk about it" swinging at me again I had to drop into a roll to avoid the blow.

Whipping out my staff I willed it to return to full size, "okay then lets work out some of your anger issues then shall we."

"I. Do not. Have. Anger. Issues." He punctuated each word with a swing of his fist which made it somewhat difficult to believe his words.

Using my staff to bat away each of his hits I remained solidly on the defensive. Redirecting his attacks and occasionally delivering a solid whack to his arms, back, sides and sometimes his legs although that usually resulted in a loud metallic clang and mercury shoot me a smug smirk.

Spinning out of the way of a kick, I lunged forwards tackling Mercury. Hitting the ground hard we rolled and when we came to a halt, I was peering up at a mesmerising pair of magenta eyes. I could feel his breath tickling my lips, and as I watched I saw his gaze flicker down to rest on my mouth briefly before returning to my eyes. "Spring?"

"Mercury..." I was momentarily disgusted with how breathy I sounded however Mercury closed the gap between us, and then I was too distracted to much care how I sounded.