No one in the temple's central chamber moved. Several of the spectators held their breath as they watched and waited for the ensuing battle. Sparrow Kenna narrowed her eyes, growing impatient as Raven merely stared at the foreign woman's weapon. For a time, the only sound in the room was that of the softly twisting chain of the Watcher's weapon.

"…tell us your name," Qrow tried. "I like to know my opponent."

Raven sucked in a breath, managing to gather herself in the moment that Qrow had bought them. She knew what her brother was trying to do, and she knew that her lapse in concentration could have cost them, otherwise. As she finally looked back up to her opponent, she found the woman's eyes fixed upon Qrow. When the faunus' mouth opened, the last thing Raven expected to hear was a legitimate answer.

"Sienna Khan," the faunus said proudly. "If your aim is to distract me, you will find no such success."

"My aim is what I said it is," Qrow replied with a shrug as he drew his sword. "If you're going to be our new mentor, then it'd be nice to start off on the right foot. Not every relationship on this mountaintop has to be hostile. It's getting old."

"Qrow…" Arowana said with an air of dissatisfaction. "This is needless. Frivolous. Do as you're told, a-"

"A pleasure," Raven chimed in, her father's scowl deepening at the interruption. "My brother is right. Even if we're about to be humbled, it's nice to know who you are ahead of time."

"So much sentiment," Sienna mused as one side of her upper lip curled, revealing a pointed fang. "I will admit, this has been…amusing. There will be precious little small talk in our relationship moving forward. Savor this introduction, as I will savor your impending defeat."

"Well, that seems to be about as much time as I can buy us," Qrow muttered. "Got a plan?"

"Same as always," Raven said confidently. "Follow my lead!"

Just as Raven leaned forward and pushed off her back foot, one of the straps on her sandal snapped free. The eroded material separated entirely from the base of the shoe, and Raven stumbled forward directly toward Sienna without any control or grace. The young woman quite nearly dropped her weapon in shock as her heart pounded with adrenaline and embarrassment. Upon feeling a rough palm against her shoulder, that feeling intensified greatly.

"What are you doing?" Sienna questioned as she kept her fingers wrapped around Raven's shoulder. "On the battlefield, that would have killed you."

Raven had no time to reply as Sienna shoved her backward. She stumbled to remain upright and put both hands on her katana as a hot wash of shame overcame her features.

"…exactly as I thought," Arowana said calmly. "What are the odds, Raven? Would your sandal have broken had you not chosen your brother and his cursed Semblance to accompany you? It is unlike one of my subordinates to be so merciful…"

"One kindness deserves another," Sienna explained as she wiped her hand on the side of her cloak. "But only one."

"You can't blame everything on him!" Raven cried as she kicked off her other sandal. The floor of the temple was freezing on her bare feet, but her rising anger provided enough internal warmth to keep her mind off the sensation. "The sandal was old! I should have checked it before coming here! My lack of preparedness is my own fault!"

"Was it actually old?" Qrow asked, sounding downtrodden. "Or are you lying to cover me…"

"Not now!" Raven hissed in a near whisper. "Focus!"

Sienna moved quickly, flinging her chained dart upward and grasping at the links with her free hand as she pulled the weapon tightly to either side in front of herself. Raven drew one final, deep breath before rushing in and going for a vertical slice upward from the floor. As expected, Sienna pushed her chain downward to deflect the blade. Entirely against expectation, however, she let the metallic links drop atop the katana while she leapt backward, her robe obscuring her movements as she snaked her hands somewhere deep into the fabric.

The chain was heavy enough that Raven momentarily lost control of her sword. Her arms were dragged downward and she was left totally open as she tried to hurriedly shake her weapon free of the impromptu binding. She looked up just in time to see a heavy iron claw attached to a rope flying toward her face at great speed. Totally out of options and preparing for a rather unpleasant sensation, Raven closed her eyes and dodged her upper body to one side, praying that Sienna would somehow miss.

A harsh sound of metal on metal rang out within the temple, and as Raven opened her eyes, she saw Qrow standing before her with his sword held out vertically and his free hand braced against the back of the blade. Sienna was quick to reel her claw back in before she began whirling the rope and circling clockwise around the twins.

"We've gotta attack together," Qrow declared. "We don't stand a chance alone."

"She's fast," Raven warned. "Faster than you'd think, carrying however many chains like that one…"

As if to reinforce Raven's statement, Sienna allowed her cloak to fall to the floor and revealed exactly how many chains she had on herself. The woman wore a basic black outfit of a sleeveless robe top with gold rope fasteners and tight pants that ended at her ankles. Her arms were covered in tattoos that resembled tiger's stripes, though they were mostly obscured by mismatched lengths of chain and rope.

Sienna Khan's silhouette was an odd one- both of her arms were wrapped in chains, albeit lighter ones than the heavy links she had dropped upon Raven's sword. The long end of the length of rope with the whirling iron claw was wrapped diagonally across her torso, and another black cord was secured around her waist. Two heavy looking steel balls were at either end, dangling at her sides and just waiting to be weaponized against the Branwen twins. Finally, a bandolier of replacement kunai crisscrossed beneath the cord around Sienna's shoulder, showing off an entire line of sharpened knives with circular holes opposite the blades.

"A walking arsenal…" Qrow commented as he and Raven circled opposite of their opponent.

"Never limit yourself to a single weapon," Sienna warned. "Unless you have the skill to wield only one…"

"Enough advice- don't hold back!" Raven ordered as she broke right, with Qrow taking off for the opposite side. "There's no reason to draw this out!"

As though she had been waiting for permission, Sienna quickly grabbed two kunai from her bandolier and then threw her arms out to either side. Somehow, the knives had attached themselves to the ends of the chains, which sped through the air toward the Branwen twins. Qrow was fast enough to duck beneath the chain flung for him, but Raven instead went for a risky parry while continuing to move forward. Her blade deflected the flying weapon with impressive precision… and was then wrenched out of her hands entirely.

Raven watched in shock as Sienna reeled in the bladed dart and caught the attached katana effortlessly. The flat of the dart had fused to the blade on contact, welding the two weapons into one misshapen metal object. As Qrow continued forward with a low advancing slash, Raven's katana broke down into a liquid metal lance at the end of Sienna's chain. The new weapon solidified more quickly than should have been possible, and she cast it outward in a sideways swipe to slam into the side of Qrow's face. Once again, Sienna let go of the chain, and the weapon began to snake around the teen's body, binding his arms and bringing him down to the floor in a tangled heap.

Raven stood alone mere feet from Sienna, unarmed, and for once, terrified.

The sound of the two steel spheres at Sienna's waist hitting the ground caused Raven to jump, her heart pounding in her chest as she stared down certain defeat. A sudden clattering across the stone floor shredded her nerves until she spared a quick glance downward to find Qrow's sword at her feet. With a quick dip, she picked up the blade and mouthed a silent 'thank you' to her brother, whose foot was still out from kicking the sword over to her. The chains around him wrapped tighter, keeping him held to the stone as Sienna's burnt orange aura manifested around her in barely visible wisps.

"You have spirit," Sienna commented, her voice free of any malice. "I admire that, Raven. Over time, I will purge it from you."

"You'll try," Raven replied, sounding less than confident. "I'm not giving up no matter how hard you hit me with that… thing."

"A meteor hammer," Sienna explained as she began to slowly whirl one side of the rope, the steel ball at its end whistling as it lazily traced through the air. "Your unfamiliarity is… unfortunate for you."

As Raven settled into a stance, Sienna turned and wrapped the spinning cord around her shoulder at a diagonal. The other ball rose from the floor of the temple and encircled her waist as she spun back around, slinging the first weighted sphere outward toward Raven. The girl instinctively moved her sword to try to deflect the ball, only to remember that she could not allow contact between the two items without losing her borrowed weapon. Instead, she leapt to the side and began to dash in, only for the second ball to unwrap from around Sienna's midsection and come whipping around just above the floor in a sweeping motion. Before Raven could react, the length had wrapped itself around her ankles and brought her to the ground beside her brother. Her aura cracked as she hit the ground, and completely shattered as she felt the second weight come slamming down into the center of her back in a heavy overhead blow. Raven cried out in pain at the impact, and for a moment, felt as though she could barely breathe.

Stars danced in Raven's vision as more scraping and clattering sounds filled the open space of the arena. The metallic parts of Sienna's weaponry, including both of the Branwens' swords, were crawling over the cold stone, morphing and twisting as they snaked back toward the faunus. Qrow's katana degraded and joined one of the chains as a set of links, its cord-wrapped handle clattering to the floor alone while the rest of the fused weapon climbed and twisted up Sienna's body. Within mere seconds, the woman was once again fully armed and wrapped in steel and rope.

"Get up," the Watcher demanded. "We go again."

"Raven…" Qrow said as he crawled over to his sister. "Are you alright…?"

"I'll live," Raven grumbled as she turned her attention upward to Sienna. "We're to fight… again? We have no weapons…"

"Training weapons will be provided for you," Arowana answered simply as Qrow helped his sister to her feet. "This continues until you manage to defeat her… or she gets bored of you for the day."

"And right now… there is so much more I want to see," Sienna taunted. "Do not disappoint me."

"It was always like that. Every damned session," Qrow griped to the young hunters who had assembled around the kitchen to hear the tale. "We almost never managed to land any hits, and one of us was usually on the floor and being talked down to before we could even react. Sienna was… harsh. Not very helpful… and yet still one of the friendlier faces atop the mountain, despite her frosty exterior."

"That may be true… but she was also always fiercely loyal to Arowana," Raven said hesitantly. "With his death, she has every reason to come after us… and no reason to hold back anymore. I'm not sure what we can realistically do to stop her if she comes at us directly."

"I've got some ideas," Fox offered, still on the couch. "But first… what's a 'Watcher'? And what mountaintop, exactly? I feel like Ghira and I are missing a lot of context, here…"

Raven and Qrow exchanged a look, and it was the huntress who relented first with a shake of her head.

"That… is a long story…"

Author's Note:

A long story that will be skipped, since we already know it.

-RD