Introducing the Strongest

Well, here it is. Teased all the way back in February of 2016, here we are over seven years later.

Better late than never, right?

For those of you only just now joining us because you were perusing the PJO/RWBY crossover section, welcome! This story is the sequel to my Backup Plan trilogy, which is three stories (duh), 808,028 words, and 150 chapters long. Lots of reading to do if you want to be caught up on who Shin'en is.

If you don't want to do all of that reading, Shin'en is my OOC Percy that I made when I was fifteen and going through my edgy teen phase, and he's like Shippuden Sasuke on steroids. Very tragic backstory, lots of trauma, and also the adopted son of Susano'o which is why he has chakra.

For everyone, newcomers and veterans alike, this story will be taking place a mysterious number of years after the finale of Armageddon. As for Shin'en's disposition, as in his attitude, read on!

Ladies and gentlemen, after so many years, Shin'en returns to the RWBY-verse promised back in 2016! Starting off at the end of Volume 5 with the Battle of Haven Academy!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or RWBY

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Things were bad.

Weiss was critically injured, being tended to by Jaune and Ren. Ruby was barely returning to consciousness, Nora protecting her. Oscar and Qrow were hardly a match for the enraged, Dust-infused Hazel. Yang was struggling against Mercury and Emerald. Finally, Leonardo Lionheart was opening the entrance to the Vault of the Spring Maiden, giving Cinder, Raven, and Vernal access to the Relic within.

But as bad as all of that was, things were instantly about to get much worse.

Through the din of combat inside the academy lobby, the sound of gunfire outside quickly brought everything to a halt as widespread confusion took over.

Cinder scowled. "What is going on out there? I thought Adam had this place secured."

The doors were promptly blasted off their hinges by none other than Adam Taurus, but not in the sense that he was making some grand powerplay by betraying the rest of Salem's underlings by leading his White Fangs against them. No, Adam was thrown through the doors, his body limp and splintered, and he smacked into the statue at the staircase so hard he splattered.

Leo, Cinder, Raven, and Vernal all jumped back in surprise, both at just the sudden appearance of Adam, and at the fact that he was dead. There was no question that he was dead because his head was missing. He had been decapitated. The gory sight of Adam's corpse was a bit much for the younger blood, and their faces turned different shades of green.

All heads turned to the entrance of the academy when they heard the steps.

Slow, rhythmic, and methodic, like whoever was coming up the stairs to the doors was in no hurry, and just out for a stroll. Of course, because they could hear such pronounced footsteps, this meant that the gunfire had ceased, leading them to wonder what had happened to the White Fang members. There was no time to waste on that kind of thinking, because the maker of those steps came into view.

The hairs on everyone's necks instantly stood on end.

It was a young man, somewhere in his mid-twenties. He wore a black tailcoat that had three tails, two going down the sides of his legs, and one at the back, the breast fasted with crimson buttons, the lapels crisp and folded, with the left lapel brandishing the sigil of a stylized red cloud with white contours. Sturdy black pants covered his legs, and tough black boots covered his feet. He walked with a straight back and his hands clasped behind him like a military official.

His skin, at least what was visible on his face, was a healthy tan, sun-kissed you could say. His hair was blacker than the ace of spades, and pushed back over his scalp in many thin spikes. Sprouting from his hairline were identical horns, marking him as a Faunus, leading most everyone to instantly firstly conclude that he was some unknown White Fang member that had serious beef with Adam, or he was just another Faunus that opposed the White Fang. However, this first conclusion quickly fell by the wayside because this man just didn't feel like he had anything to do with the White Fang, and even the Faunus in general.

The look in his eyes was where this sentiment arose. They were eyes that were mostly black, but had a soft crimson glow to them. They were unimpressed eyes, bored eyes, eyes that were rife with annoyance and displeasure. He gave off all the aura of a manager that had left for ten minutes, only to come back and find everything had spiraled wildly out of control in his brief absence.

Then there was that slit in the center of his forehead. A scar?

Or something else…?

"Well~," he said, and his voice instantly set everyone on edge even more than they already were. His voice was deep, drawling, and decidedly annoyed and exasperated. "What do we have here?"

His glowing eyes slid all over the place, settling on everyone for half a second, seemingly staring through them and into their very soul, before moving to the next person. His eyes traveled back to Hazel, the first person he'd looked at, and then he went across the room, looking at Emerald, Mercury, Leonardo, Vernal, Raven, and finally Cinder.

"Let's see…a roided-out methhead. A hopelessly devoted pawn. A man who has no real idea what he's doing with his life, but he's in too far now to turn back. A literal cowardly lion. A slightly less hopelessly devoted pawn. A coward hiding behind mask. And a worm that grew enough of a spine to become a snake, and is now trying to grow wings so she can be a dragon."

He sounded so utterly disappointed, like a college professor handing out the graded exam that everyone had failed. As insulting as his summaries were, what really drove it home was the sheer dispassion in his voice.

While everyone bristled, Cinder's eye literally caught fire. "Who do you think you're-"

"And then there was whoever this idiot used to be."

The stranger brought his right arm forward, and in his hand was the head of Adam Taurus. His mask was gone, showing the SDC brand over his left eye, completing the expression of shock forever frozen on his head face. The stranger tossed the head behind him like it was an empty candy rapper, and let it bounce out of view back down the stairs.

Cinder's mouth had clamped shut at seeing Adam's severed cranium, and the stranger then directed his attention to the good guys, starting with Ren, then Jaune, Weiss, Yang, Nora, Ruby, Oscar, and finally Qrow.

"The quiet one with the conflicted feelings and tragic history. The pathetic one trying to prove himself. The arrogant rich one that was slapped in the face with reality. The impulsive loose cannon. The slightly more impulsive loose cannon. The naïve hopeful one. The one who has no real idea what he's doing. And you."

Mirth appeared in those red eyes, and the corners of his mouth quirked upward. What confused everyone was the familiarity in that you.

Qrow was certainly confused, because he had never seen this guy in his life.

The smirk got a little wider. "How are those ribs, old man? I take it the snow didn't hurt you too badly."

And then Qrow's memory clicked. It had to be ten—maybe twelve, or was it eleven? Yang was still pissing her sheets, and Ruby still needed help in properly wiping her ass, and also pissing her sheets, so it was a long time ago now, but the dusty old crow couldn't pin down the time. It all just blurred together after a point—years now, when Summer had activated her emergency transmitter on what was supposed to be an easy mission. Qrow had rushed to save her with a rescue team, reached her first only to find her in mostly okay condition, but she kept on about a little boy about Yang's age with black hair, green eyes, identical swords, and a blood-soaked shirt. He had apparently saved her from the Grimm, then ran off.

Qrow ran after the kid, found him at the edge of a cliff over the ocean, and had tried to bring him in, both for Summer's sake and for questioning, because a little kid killing so many Grimm with swords as big as he was, his short covered in blood, definitely warranted some questions. The kid hadn't wanted to come in, though, and when Qrow used force, the snow had erupted around him, a big pillar catching him in the chest, having cracked his ribs even through his Aura.

When Qrow had pulled himself to his feet, the kid was gone.

When it came time for questions, Qrow hadn't lied. He told him he confronted the kid, and then got slapped by Summer for confronting the kid with hostility instead of kindness, and told him the kid must've had some kind of snow-based Semblance, or maybe telekinesis, because he caught Qrow with the snow. After that, he was gone. Summer pushed for the search, of course, checking in with every single town, village, encampment, and outpost on the whole island of Patch, and then with every fisherman, sailor, captain, pilot, and flight attendant that had visited the island in the past year, and every one of them that came in for the next year.

Not a trace of the kid was ever found. No had seen him or heard of him, no sailor reported picking up a boy adrift, no pilot reported seeing a boy, and eventually, the searches were called off. If the kid jumped off the cliff and into the frigid waters, he either drowned from exhaustion or hypothermia, or a Grimm ate him.

A testament to Summer Rose's good heart was that she was heartbroken for a very long time that she could never find the boy that had saved her life.

But now here was this young man, and Qrow just knew it was him. The look in those eyes, the smirk, the familiarity in his voice—it was him. Qrow couldn't even bring himself to be mad that he had to endure years of ridicule for getting beat by the kid; he was too completely, utterly, totally shocked.

"Y-You're…you're alive?" Qrow asked, his arms slack, his hands barely holding onto his scythe. "All this time…?"

"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked in a small voice. "You know him?"

Qrow's jack was still slack when he looked at his niece. "Do you remember…a long time ago…you're mother went on that one mission…and…"

"And was almost killed but was saved by some boy that no one could find?" Yang filled in.

Qrow pointed a shaky finger at the stranger. "Him."

Ruby and Yang turned wide eyes at the stranger. They didn't know what to say.

"You do look like your mother," he said, looking at Ruby. "How is she doing these days?"

Ruby swallowed, and against her will, she felt her eyes water and her lip start to tremble. She couldn't bring herself to speak.

Yang's fists clenched. "She left one night—again—and never came back."

"Was a body recovered?"

"No," Qrow said.

"Hm," the stranger mused. "Something to look into later. But for now, I have business to attend to."

His glowing eyes glowed a bit brighter when he zeroed in on Cinder. An instinct triggered, and she immediately conjured burning scimitars. The stranger smirked.

"Just who are you?" Cinder demanded.

"Through a very convoluted sequence of events that I do not presently have the time to explain, I'm the one who broke the moon." And no one knew what to say or think about that, not that anyone had the time. "True, Qrow, you met me when I was six years old, but truthfully I am from a time long before this one. Some things happened, and now I have returned after what has been three thousand years thanks time dilation, and I am most displeased to find that…not a fucking thing has changed."

He started walking forwards, hands behind his back, the ground frosting over at his feet with every step, the temperature starting to drop.

"We've still got lackies, cowards trying to save their own skin, power-mad nuisances with inferiority complexes, mysterious trinkets, hidden abilities with complicated histories, and apparently furry conventions, if what happened outside is anything to go by. It seems there is work to be done."

Hazel released a battle cry in his distorted voice, and attacked. He launched himself at the stranger, tendrils of lightning in his wake. He threw his fist forward, and it was stopped dead in the stranger's palm with a loud smack.

"Goodbye," was the last word Hazel would ever hear, because he died in the next second.

From his point of view, there was blinding light and then nothing. From everyone else's point of view, crimson lasers came curving out of the stranger's eyes and right through Hazel's head, and also through the roof of the building.

The stranger let Hazel's mostly headless body drop without breaking stride. The dual shock factor that this stranger was apparently the same boy that had saved Summer's life once, though evidently in vain, and his penchant for the ultraviolent, kept mostly everyone rooted in place. Also the fact that he so easily dispatched Hazel, the furious behemoth that had easily been handling everyone that attacked him.

Cinder's synapses fired first. "Emerald! Mercury! Stall him! Leo, get this door open!"

None of the good guys moved, because where this guy had allegedly saved Summer, he had also just brutally killed Adam and Hazel, and a number of White Fang member outside. They didn't know whose side he was on, but they knew they didn't want to be on his bad side.

However, Yang and Qrow were both already thinking about Raven, and what would happen to her if she attacked. Or even if she didn't attack.

"R-Right!" Leonardo gasped. He produced his pocket watch, made to put it into the necklace around the statue's neck, only to feel like someone was grabbing his head from behind. Then he lost all feeling in his body when his neck was snapped, and soon lost all hold on life.

His watch clattered to the ground.

While that happened, Mercury and Emerald had sprung into action. With a gesture of her hands to improve her focus, Emerald made over a dozen illusory clones of Mercury appear, all of the rushing the stranger as a mob.

All in vain.

"Little girl, you are far too early to so much as think to use illusions against me."

Another set of lasers erupted from his eyes, going straight for one specific clone that turned to not be a clone, but the real deal. Mercury didn't even have a chance as the lasers blasted right though his skull, and neither did Emerald when those lasers inexplicably curved through the air and went right through her own eyeballs.

Vernal was absolutely horrified, and also glad she had done her customary pre-battle bathroom break, because she was certain she'd be needing new pants right now otherwise. Raven wasn't too far behind her loyal underling, as this display of sheer power, brutality, and utter disregard for the lives of others had her as scared of him as she was of Salem.

Perhaps more so because he was right here in front of her and Salem wasn't.

As for Cinder, as soon as she saw Leo reach from the necklace with his locket, and then drop the locket because his head was twisted the wrong way by an invisible force, she had scrambled for that locket and shoved it into the necklace herself, not even caring or paying attention that Emerald and Mercury died right behind her. She was just elated to actually make some progress when the statue started descending into the floor.

And then a black rod went howling past her to impale the stature through the head and into the wall behind it, halting its movement. Cinder whipped around, eye blazing, heart hammering, molten swords burning in her hands. Her breath hitched in her throat, and she looked to Raven and Vernal. "Do something!"

Raven's response was immediate. "No."

She even grabbed Vernal's arm and stepped away, catching Qrow's eye, and then Yang's.

Then Cinder was all alone with this monster that had effortlessly killed all of her allies despite their incredible strength and skill, and claimed to have been the one to shatter the moon. Cinder had no way to tell if that was true or not, but given the way this man carried himself, she currently inclined to believe it.

And she was utterly terrified.

She was terrified, and she was furious. Livid, even. She was this way because this stranger had hit her where it hurt. A worm, he'd called her, a worm that had become a snake, and was now trying to become a dragon. It hurt because it was true. She had been a worm, stuck cleaning clogged toilets, washing bedding and other people's laundry, barely eating scraps, having nothing to call her own. She recalled distinctly there were a number of times that when she had to wash her stepsisters' dirty panties, that she had to scrub the skidmarks out of the seats because the girls couldn't wipe properly.

That was where Cinder Fall came from: a lowly orphan so low on the totem pole that she had to clean the shit from another girl's underwear.

Then she met the Huntsman, then she learned how to fight, and then she became a snake, one with fangs and venom, one that had turned those fangs upon her abusive stepmother and cruel stepsisters, and killed them all without mercy or remorse. Cinder had even enjoyed it. Sometimes, when she needed a smile, she'd bring that memory up and revel in the intoxication and satisfaction that came with killing those that had tread on her.

And now she was trying to become a dragon. She had the Fall Maiden powers, and was fully planning on taking the Spring Maiden powers from Vernal. Her whole plan right now was to work for Salem just for the opportunity to gather more power, and when she was the most powerful, she'd cross Salem, too. After all, she deserved all the power. She'd fought for everything that she had, nothing having ever been handed to her, and people like her deserved it all, people who had struggled and overcome.

For all her efforts, here she now stood, alone against some person that had literally shown up out of nowhere, killed Adam, Hazel, Mercury, Emerald, and presumably Lionheart, and now he was walking towards her without blinking or urgency.

Like a dragon that had cornered a worm.

Cinder got ready to fight, and then the stranger stopped.

"I will give you one free attack," he said.

Cinder stared at him. "Excuse me?"

"I will give you one free attack," he repeated. "A chance to hit me with your most powerful technique, devastating ability, ultimate move—whatever you call it. One moment to hit me with your best shot. If you fail, I will destroy you as easily as the others, so don't mess it."

Cinder continued to stare at him. "What kind of trick is this?"

"One in which my patience is beginning to run thin, so either accept my offer, or die."

Just like that. An either/or ultimatum. He wasn't going to bargain with her, or take her prisoner, or hand her to the police—he was going to kill her, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Cinder was honestly scared, and still quite mad. She was not the same little whelp that she used to be, and she wasn't about to let anyone talk to her like she was.

And so she accepted the stranger's offer.

Her Semblance was called Scorching Caress. What it allowed her to do was superheat anything she touched through skin contact. It was a very handy anti-rape Semblance that had saved her from a number of encounters during her younger days. The exact limit of how hot she could make something was something even she had never put to the test, but she did know from personal experience that she could touch a human and instantly sublimate their whole body.

Considering bone boiled at around 1500-C, Cinder figured she could touch things and make them go at least 2000-C. Turning a whole human body from solid and liquid straight to embers with a touch required a lot of heat, you know. Cinder also figured that now was as good a time as any to see just how hot she could really make things.

She walked up to the stranger, smirking at him, enjoying how his brow arched in confusion. If he actually just stood there and really let her give it his all, it was going to be Pyrrha all over again.

Ironically, Ruby had this exact same thought because she had been there atop Beacon when Cinder had destroyed her redheaded best friend, and despite not knowing the stranger personally, she was still moved to not let that happen to him.

She knew about the boy from so many years ago, and being told he saved her mommy had made her want to meet him so she could give him a big hug and a lot of cookies in thanks. She remembered how fervently Summer had looked for the mysterious boy, convinced he was lost and needed to be found, given a home and a family, and Ruby had been hopeful he would be found. From what she had been told, he definitely sounded like he needed a big hug, and she had wanted a brother because she already had a sister and wanted to know what a brother was like.

Then time passed, the boy was never found, and then Summer left again one night. Ruby held out hope that the boy would show up again, even thinking at one point that he was a guardian angel in training, but it wasn't to be. Summer never returned, and an honorary gravestone had been erected on Patch. Ironically, or perhaps fittingly, that gravestone was on the same cliff the boy had beaten Qrow so long ago.

Ruby had been embittered and angry, her lack of understanding leading to many unreasonable, dark, and downright evil thoughts, one of which being that she was going to find that boy and kill him for not saving her mom again. Then time passed.

But now here she was, and the boy that had saved her mom was now grown and standing before her, having arrived out of nowhere to kill Adam, Hazel, Mercury, Emerald, and presumably poor Leonardo—all of which brought back Ruby's old thought that he was a guardian angel—but he was really about to stand there and give Cinder a free chance to kill him, and Ruby knew for a fact that Cinder could literally turn a person to ash with a single touch, and that was exactly what she going for.

For the second time that night, Ruby screamed and her silver eyes lit up like stars.

When Ruby could see again, the stranger was staring at her with a cocked eyebrow, and Cinder was once again grabbing her left arm as she writhed in pain.

"Is that normal for you?" he asked.

"Uh, no, actually," Ruby said awkwardly. "It's, uh, kinda recent. Something to do with my silver eyes. My mom could do it too—look out!"

Cinder lunged and grabbed the stranger's throat with her right hand, the palm of which was glowing. "Die~!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs. Two seconds later, she was backing away in pure, unbridled terror, staring at her hand uncomprehendingly. "Wh-What…? But I…that was the hottest I've ever…and it didn't even take that much…that night…Pyrrha…"

"I don't know about any Pyrrha," said the stranger, "but if that was the best you could come up with, trying to choke me, I must confess that I am deeply disappointed."

With that statement, Cinder cracked. "I wasn't trying to choke you! I was trying to burn you to ashes like I did with Pyrrha Nikos! Bones boil at 1500°C, and I turned her whole body to ash with a touch without even trying! I wasn't giving it everything I had with you! That was the hottest I've ever tried to make anything, so that at least had to be over 3000°! Why are you still alive!?"

The stranger's expression was flat, and his tone even flatter. "Because 3000°C isn't enough to give me a heat rash if I don't want it to. Now, if we want to start talking about the temperatures of the Sun, that's something entirely different."

Cinder stared at him. "The Sun? You can withstand the heat of the Sun?"

"Only the surface, and only for a few minutes. The corona is too much for me without a lot of extra effort."

The true significance of that feat was actually lost on everyone, since while modern technology was advanced enough to produce fully functional prosthetics, not a lot of funding had gone into space projects on account of the ever-present threat of Grimm. Somewhat ironic, because you'd think a civilization as advanced as RWBY's would actually be looking to the stars as a way to escape the Grimm.

Granted, there were enough reports from around the world of seeing Grimm in space that most didn't even want to try. There was also the fact that Dust started losing power the further it got from Remnant's atmosphere, which is where there weren't any satellites providing or space stations armed with extremely heavy telephone poles that could be dropped on hordes of Grimm from orbit.

No one knew why Dust was tied to Remnant, but the leading theory is that the core of the planet must've been a gigantic ball of magnetic Dust, and since Dust was crystalized energy, that energy lost potency the further from the source it got. The second theory was solar radiation made Dust go weak.

No one really knew, as the Grimm made it hard to make scientific breakthroughs outside of figuring how to kill them better.

Anyway, because there was so little astronomical knowhow going around, no one knew that the Sun's corona was clocking in at over a million in all measurements, compared to what was only several thousand for the direct surface.

The more you know.

Because Cinder didn't know that, though, the full impact was lost to her as how impressive it was that the stranger could survive the corona at all, regardless of how much effort it took. But none of that mattered. She had been given her shot, she took it, and she missed. The hottest she'd ever tried to become, and there wasn't even a hint of red on the stranger's neck.

Cinder conjured a couple of molten swords once more, screeched like a rabid banshee, and attempted one last desperate assault.

She got slammed face first into the floor, and she didn't even know how.

It was like gravity had suddenly increased under her feet.

It took Cinder some effort to lift her head, and the first thing in her view was Ruby, who was staring with big eyes at the stranger. Lifting her head some more, Cinder saw the stranger hadn't moved since she had tried to burn him. However, he had his right hand in front of him now, his pointer finger extended towards the ceiling, and hovering above his trimmed fingernail was a translucent sphere with a glowing sphere inscribed within.

"Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu," the stranger said as he rendered judgement.

He flicked his finger at her, and that glowing orb expanded and engulfed Cinder, completely heedless of her pleading scream to wait. Light filled the woman's vision, her whole body tingled, and the next thing she knew was that she was standing in a void that was varying colors of crème and white. It was warm and pleasant here, even comforting.

And that was why it was so offsetting.

Where was she? Had that stranger teleported her somewhere?

"Uh…"

Cinder whipped around and popped into a stance. She had meant to conjure weapons, but none came to her hands. As concerning as that was, even more so was the fact that doe-eyed Ruby Rose was here, looking as lost and confused as Cinder felt.

"What are you doing here?" Cinder demanded. "What even is here?"

"I don't know!" Ruby insisted. "That stranger did a thing, and you got stuck inside some bright sphere thing, and the next thing I know, I'm here with you!"

Cinder pondered on this for a moment, the unknown of the setting being more important to her than starting another fight, and then it clicked in her head what was going on. She howled, making Ruby jump back in fright.

"NO! NO! No! No, no, no! I'm not dead! I'm not fucking dead! I can't be! It's too soon! There's still more power that I deserve!"

"C-Cinder!" Ruby gasped.

Cinder looked down at herself. She was starting to dissolve into amber particles, and those particles were all flying towards the scared Ruby. With a start, Cinder realized what was happening, and she finally, completely, totally, and utterly lost what was left of her mind.

"NOOOO! It's my power! You can't have it! I'm the Fall Maiden, not you! Give me back my power~!"

Cinder charged Ruby, and her manic ferocity was so great that it struck a primal chord somewhere in the Rose girl, and instead of launching a counterattack or taking a proper defensive stance, she tensed, turned her body, brought her arms over her head, and braced for an impact that never came.

Cinder's last act in life was to scream in defiance, but her scream did nothing more than echo away into nothing.

As for Ruby, the remaining particles that used to be Cinder Fall swirled around her, gently vanishing into her body three by three, and when all were gone, this cozy place glowed softly and brightly, so brightly that Ruby couldn't look and so she had to shut her eyes. When she opened them again, she was back in Haven Academy, the bodies of her enemies around her, all except for one.

Where Cinder used to be was a perfect half-sphere hole in the ground, the same size as that glowing orb the stranger at engulfed the crazy lady inside. She was gone, though, not a trace of her left.

Or rather, no large trace.

"R-Ruby…" Qrow gasped. "Your eyes…"

Everyone was staring at Ruby in shock, except for the stranger, who just looked mildly intrigued.

Ruby grabbed Crescent Rose and made her weapon go into scythe mode. Using the polished blade as a mirror, she looked at herself, and then dropped her weapon in surprise.

Red flames, the same color as her Aura, were softly dancing around her eyes.

She was the last female Cinder had looked at before she died. She was the last female on Cinder's mind.

By the nature of the power, Ruby Rose was now the Fall Maiden.

Not a soul had time to actually digest that information because the stranger ripped out the metal rod he had launched through the statue, and the statue resumed its descent to whatever was below. The stranger stepped on the platform, making it clear he intended to stand before the Vault of the Spring Maiden.

For what, exactly, no one knew, and that was the problem.

He claimed to somehow be three thousand years old or something like that, to have been the one that splintered the Moon, and that he had business to take care of because nothing had changed in his supposedly long absence. He had just easily killed all of the bad guys, but that didn't make him one of the good guys.

But did any of them stand a chance if they wanted to stop him in the event he was going to use the Relic for nefarious purposes.

Raven was the one to speak first. "What are you doing?"

"I am going to inspect the fancy vault below us."

"But you won't be able to open it," Ruby said, and she ignored the look her uncle sent her way, trying to tell her to shut up and not share important information. "You'll need the Spring Maiden. That's how the vault was set up. It can only be opened by the Spring Maiden."

"Is that so?" the stranger said, sounding amused by the idea of needing a specific person's magic in order to open a magic door. "I guess I'll just have to find this Spring Maiden. Oh, look. There she is."

Vernal and Raven stiffened when he looked at them.

"Would you care to join me, or do I have to insist on your company?"

With a quick look between them, Vernal and Raven joined the stranger on the platform.

Qrow, Ruby, and Yang moved to join them, but the stranger held up his hand. They all froze, not because of some unseen force, but because they just stopped moving all on their own.

"Three is plenty. The rest of you stay here. The festivities have yet to conclude."

A new and familiar voice sounded from the broken doors. "Yang? Ruby?"

Everyone turned to see that Blake had arrived.

The platform descended to the Vault.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The descent was a tense one.

Vernal fidgeted. "Did you really break the Moon?"

"Yes. It was a very long sequence of events that eventually culminated in what has so far been the worst day of my life."

"There were Faunus three thousand years ago?"

"No."

"But you have horns!"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Vernal then appreciated that if this guy really was from three millennia ago, then Faunus may really not have existed, and this guy really had no idea what Faunus were. Wait, no—he had referred to the White Fang as a furry convention, and Vernal had no idea what that was. "Uh, well, these days, there are humans, and then there are those with animal features. Tails, ears, wings, claws, erm, horns…"

"I see. In that case, I am not a Faunus. These horns do not come from any animal traits."

"Then…how'd you get them?"

"It's a very involved story."

Raven decided to speak. "Are you really that boy that saved Summer?"

"Yes."

"But you say you're from three thousand years ago."

"I am. I went to bed one night, woke up in the future on Patch in time to save Summer, and in my escape, I went back to the past. A great number of things happened, and now I'm back to the future."

He had a slight grin on his face, like he had just made some kind of joke.

Raven wasn't entirely convinced. "Why are your eyes red and black? Summer said they were green."

The stranger looked at her, and she was startled when his eyes shifted to a dark emerald, and then back to their former red and black.

Raven decided to change topics. "What are you going to do with the Relic?"

"Figure out what it is and what it does. Unless you already know those answers, in which case please tell me now."

Raven shook her head.

"Then perhaps you can tell me why you were part of a group that was attempting to kill a number of teenagers."

Raven swallowed. "I, uh, was doing what was best for my tribe, and that entailed allying myself with Cinder, and letting her have access to Vernal's Maiden powers so she could open the Vault and claim the Relic inside for Cinder's boss, Salem."

"Salem?" the stranger said, sounding unimpressed as usual. "I take it she is some kind of powerful witch?"

"An unstoppable goddess," Raven answered.

The stranger snorted. "Oh, I doubt that very much."

Raven couldn't help but frown. "You wouldn't say that if you had ever met her, and seen what she can do."

"I assure you that I have dealt with things far worse than this Salem."

The elevator made it to the lower platform before the Vault.

The stranger hummed in an appreciative manner at seeing the trees surrounding the Vault's towering door, which was comprised of dozens of panels made to look like petals. "Impeccable."

He started walking for the door, Vernal and Raven following. A few feet away, he stopped, raised his hand to the door, and proceeded to tear the whole thing away, making the women flinch and jump back in surprise.

With the door gone, a desert was revealed.

"Would you look at that," said the stranger. "A pocket dimension with…a lamp."

He walked in, grabbed the lamp, and walked right back out.

Vernal's pupils were dilated. "You just…the door…tore it right off…"

"Correct."

Raven's brow twitched. "Why did you bring us down here if you could do that?"

"Because, Spring Maiden, the children up there needed their heartfelt reunion. Now you can think about what you are going to say to your brother and daughter on our way to the surface, and also what your next move will be."

Raven went even paler than she usually was when she was called out on being the Spring Maiden, and then she paled even more at having to face Qrow and Yang after her stint with Cinder, and then she was left reeling as another thought crossed her mind. "How do you know that Qrow is my brother and Yang is my daughter?"

"I am very acutely attuned to water. I can pinpoint individual molecules in the air, if I want, so reading a body is easy. How fast your heart is beating, the chemicals in your bloodstream, scar tissue, even how much weight you will expel the next time you relieve yourself."

Raven and Vernal cringed with that one, because as invasive as that already was, if this guy was telling the truth about what they thought was his Semblance, then that would also mean he would know exactly when they were menstruating. Which they both considered to be very invasive.

"I can even read DNA sequences with a little bit of focus," the stranger continued. "The family resemblance was easy enough to see, but a reading of your codes simply confirmed it."

Raven had no idea what to say to that. She was creeped out by that information, scared by the power she had seen, and scared about having to face her family again now that things had gone shooting the other way and beyond.

She'd joined up with Cinder to save her ass, and the asses of her tribe, from the wrath of Salem. Now here was this guy, and Raven was truthfully not sure who to throw in with anymore.

"I see," Raven said.

The stranger clasped his hands behind his back, still holding onto the Relic, and he walked back to the platform.

Vernal eyed the Relic, caught Raven's eye, and motioned with her head towards the Relic.

"Attempt to steal from me," said the stranger, "and I will show you the same mercy I showed your former comrades."

And whatever hairbrained scheme Vernal had been trying to hatch instantly died.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Their arrival to the surface was quite the spectacle, since the platform brought them all the way to the top of the stairs where they stood above everyone. There they found the heartwarming site of the bodies having been taken away, and friends sharing smiles together.

They descended the stairs, and Ruby was the first to greet them, shooting over in a red blur that trailed rose petals. "You're alive and didn't kill my aunt!"

Raven blanched. Yes, technically, she was Ruby's aunt if Qrow, who was not biologically related to Taiyang or Summer, was her uncle.

"There was no reason to," said the stranger.

"Did you find the Relic? What is it? Some super cool weapon that's been lost to time and no one has ever seen before?"

"You are a very energetic young lady."

Ruby nodded several times.

"No, the…Relic…is not an epic weapon. Unless you desire to use it as a bludgeoning tool."

The stranger brought forth the golden lamp, and by this point the rest of the good guys had gathered around, so there was much oohing and awing over mystical artefact.

Qrow cleared his throat after having a hard stare at his twin sister. "All this time, and we've never been properly introduced. I'm Qrow Branwen, a professional Huntsman."

"Ruby Rose! Huntsman in training!"

"Yang Xiao Long. Ruby's big sister."

"Weiss Schnee. Thank you for defending my friends."

"Blake Belladonna. It's a pleasure to meet another Faunus."

"Jaune Arc. Um…yeah."

"Lie Ren."

"Nora Valkyrie! And I'll have you know that I'm not an impulsive loose cannon—I'm the impulsive loose cannon!"

"I'm, uh, Oscar Pine. I'm new to this stuff. I've, um, got another person in my head. His name is Ozpin."

"I see," said the stranger. "I have eight others in my head, though we're all on good terms by now."

He said this very casually, as if this didn't raise a large number of questions.

The stranger smiled and introduced himself.

"I am Shin'en Yūrei. And I'm not a Faunus, Miss Belladonna. I'm one-third human, two-thirds god."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Dam, this felt good to write. There's nothing quite like the satisfaction of doing what you feel like you're supposed to be doing. You know, like doing the right thing.

Chapters for this one may be slow because I'm going to have to go back and rewatch some episodes to refresh my memory on how things go, but stay tuned for more.

In the meantime, please show this new story that's been over seven years in the making some love by Faving, Following, and Reviewing!

P.S. If this gets more Reviews than Dragon Princess, it will be updated next.