Author's Note: Hope you enjoy and don't forget to review when you're done.

Pyrrha watched the man stare at her in disbelief, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"You're screwing with me, right kid?" His voice was teasing, but there was an underlying hint of concern there as well. When she didn't respond his forced amusement fell away. "You're serious."

Pyrrha tried to speak, mouth opening but no sound coming out. She could still remember the pain from earlier, could still feel it burning her. She struggled to keep her right eye open, even while the left one failed her entirely.

Though her vision was hazy she was certain she didn't know the man who had saved her before. He looked vaguely familiar, and she recalled him being present when Ozpin had told her the truth about the Maidens, but that was the extent of her knowledge of him. She didn't know his name, nor could she remember what he was like.

Her throat burned and constricted as she struggled to speak, desperate to ask questions that she had to know the answer to.

The man shook his head. "Take it easy, there's no real way for us to know how badly you're hurt. I've never seen an attack like that before."

Pyrrha closed her mouth and nodded, taking the man's advice. Whatever Cinder had done, it had nearly killed her… again.

"So you really don't remember me?" Pyrrha nodded softly. "Do you at least remember your own name?"

Pyrrha stared at him with an unimpressed glare. He thought she had amnesia?

"Geeze, if women could kill with a glare." The man scratched his chin and sighed. "Well, I won't hold against you I guess. Name's Qrow." The name sounded familiar but she didn't recall anything else about the man. "I don't suppose you know who your attackers were?"

Her eyes turned hard, she nodded once.

"We'll get names later." Qrow waved his hand when she tried to speak once more. "It's not worth the risk of permanent damage. You've already got enough new scars as it is." Though his voice was gruff, his eyes were soft. "I don't think those are gonna heal either."

Qrow handed her his scroll, having opened the camera so she could see. Pyrrha froze.

It wasn't the scars that bothered her, though Qrow was likely right when he said they wouldn't heal, rather it was the face underneath. A face she recognized but was not her own.

Brown eyes stared back from the screen, her brown eyes. It was strange, seeing it finally caused her to notice all the things that were wrong. Her skin was noticeably darker, her hair far shorter than it once was and now sat on the edge of her vision, and above it all, eyes that weren't her own.

Qrow saw her expression and assumed her response was due to the scar tissue that marred her face.

"All good huntsmen and huntresses have at least a couple scars." He tried to lighten the mood somewhat. "I've got quite a few of my own, even a story or two to go with em."

Pyrrha hadn't been able to look away from the image of Amber's face, her face. Scared and broken.

The Being, whatever he had really been, had told her he couldn't create anything new for her and that he would have to work with what already existed. She hadn't understood at the time but now she did. He wasn't able to make her a new body, for whatever reason that was beyond his ability, so instead he had given her one that was no longer in use.

The body of the Fall Maiden.

Qrow reached out to take the scroll, pulling it out of her hands with little resistance. She looked down at her palm, finally noticing just how alien her body felt to her.

"We'll figure out what all you can and can't remember later, for now try to get some rest." Qrow gestured towards the nearby table. "If you're hungry I managed to find a little bit of food in the cabinets."

Pyrrha shook her head, dispelling her concerns for the moment at least, finally lowering her hand and focusing on the present. Laying back down she rolled onto her side, facing away from Qrow and attempting to hide her emotions. In truth, she wasn't quite sure how she felt, or even how she was supposed to feel.

She was alive and she had a chance to fix everything, but she wasn't herself anymore. The Man hadn't lied to her, but he hadn't been entirely honest. He had left out information she now needed to know. The first question on her mind was just how far back she had been sent, did she have enough time to figure things out?

Amber had been attacked well before the start of the school year, Ozpin and Atlas having time to not only develop the technology to transfer aura, but to build it as well. So it would have been months at the very least, potentially even longer.

She made a mental note to find out as soon as possible, she would need to know how much time she had to change things. Pyrrha had been given a chance. A chance that she wouldn't waste.

Sleep was slow to come, her mind a blaze with dreams of fire and destruction. Dreams of the battle to come.

Cinder Fall was many things, vicious, driven, power hungry, monster, but she was rarely a failure.

Until today.

They had been forced to run by the arrival of one of Ozpin's best agents, Qrow Branwen. Abandoning their prize just as she was about to claim what was rightfully hers. She was powerful, Emerald and Mercury were not weak either, but none of the three had been prepared for a fight with such a skilled huntsman.

So they had been forced to flee.

Cinder kept her head down as she reported the results of their mission to her mistress. Emerald and Mercury had been ordered away, leaving Cinder alone with the Queen of the Grimm.

"I am disappointed in you." Salem's voice was calm, despite how her words could have been a death sentence. "I thought you wanted power."

"I do!" Cinder looked up to the Grimm for a moment, before quickly casting her eyes back down. "I don't know what happened."

"Explain."

"We overpowered the girl with ease," Cinder gloated. "She was inexperienced and a fool, the battle was over quickly. The gloves worked as intended at first but… something went wrong."

Salem said nothing, simply waiting in silence for her to continue.

"One moment everything was going as planned, I could feel the power of the Maiden being taken. Then it stopped, and went back to her."

"Impossible." Cinder winced at the single damning word.

"I will try again," Cinder was quick to fill the silence. "The Maiden was greatly wounded and will likely not be ready to move on her own. They will be slow. I can sti-"

"No." Salem rebuked. "The man who rescued her is not someone you can defeat."

"But the Maiden-"

"Is already gone, if not dead then her mind is surely broken." Salem explained. "You will return to me and we will discuss what is to happen next." Cinder made to voice her disagreement but thought better of it, fear overwhelming her strong sense of pride.

"Of course."

"We will need to move carefully if you are to still be the Maiden, do not fail me again."

Cinder simply swallowed and nodded.

Pyrrha tightened the laces that held her boots tight to her legs. The thigh high boots were similar enough to her usual ones that they didn't bother her and she could appreciate the armour it provided, even if it was noticeably less than what she usually wore.

She had only been able to get a few hours of sleep before the nightmares started, but thankfully they were nothing like the ones she had grown used to. These felt less real, less coherent and not nearly as vivid, but they were still nightmares. Try as she might, she hadn't been able to go back to sleep.

The rest of her outfit was comfortable enough, if a little tighter than she would have liked. She wouldn't quite have the full range of motion she was used to if it came to combat but it would be good enough for now. She could get some new clothes once they were back in Vale.

Pyrrha looked towards Qrow who was leaning against the door frame. She didn't know who he was, though Amber must have, but she wasn't left with much choice. She would have gone off on her own in better circumstances, unfortunately her luck had apparently run out already.

She had no idea where they were. She guessed somewhere in Vale, it being far too wet to be Atlas or Vacuo and not humid enough to be Mistral. Aside from that, she had nothing. They could have been only a few days from the city, or on the border of the kingdom entirely.

There was no way to know.

Then there was the matter of her injuries. Aside from the obvious and still very much painful scar on her face, her body ached wherever she still had feeling in it. There was a spot on her back that felt particularly bad whenever she moved her arms too far up or out. Her legs hurt in general, the sheer act of standing taking far more effort than she would have liked.

Lastly, she didn't know anything about her new self. Despite the fact that she had once been picked as Amber's successor, she didn't know a single thing about her. Except for the fact that she was being hunted by Cinder.

Wounded, in a body that wasn't her own, and without even a single weapon, Pyrrha knew how that fight would go. Qrow had driven Cinder off however, and even while outnumbered his mere presence had been enough to drive the three of them away. Hopefully that was due to skill on his part and not caution on theirs.

In the end, she was left with no choice. She would rely on Qrow to get her to safety. Then she would go from there. She would have time to come up with a plan as they walked.

Allowing Qrow to take the lead, Pyrrha followed closely behind. The entire time her mind was furiously working in a desperate attempt to figure out what she had gotten herself into.

Qrow watched his companion carefully, a mix of protectiveness and suspicion. He shook his head as he attempted to write off his worry, knowing it didn't make sense. Amber was the Fall maiden, capable of doing things beyond anything considered normal. She wasn't about to fall apart just because he stopped looking.

He knew that, and yet it did very little for his wariness. Something was wrong, even though he couldn't truly identify it.

Amber had yet to say a word past her initial question, she had tried but he had insisted she not strain herself just in case. The last thing he needed was for her to cause permanent damage trying to answer his questions. Glynda would never let him hear the end of it.

There was just something… off, about her. The way she held herself was different from what he remembered. There was an underlying confidence unlike what she had shown in the past. She seemed more reserved, more closed off than he remembered. At first he had pinned it on her almost dying, that usually having a shocking effect on even the most disciplined of Huntresses and Huntsmen, but now he wasn't so sure.

There was a different kind of confidence in its place, the confidence of a fighter.

She held herself like a warrior, one who had fought strong opponents before. The only issue was that he knew for a fact she wasn't one and that she hadn't ever fought someone that strong before.

Amber had always been gifted when it came to magic, that was true. She was a very smart kid who was capable of understanding more than she probably had a right to, but she had been rather underwhelming in sparring practice. She was inexperienced and naive.

Or she had been, at least.

She carried herself well, pushing on despite how much pain she must have been in, but that was another thing that bothered him. She had been in a rush to get going since she had been able to stand without passing out, ignoring his advice about taking time to rest.

He would have stopped her had it not been for her grim expression and the distant look in her eye. He knew that look and recognized the determination to carry on, in the end he had relented and led her back out into the wilderness.

Shaking his head, Qrow did his best to ignore it for now. Suppressing his suspicion and making a note to talk to Ozpin about it after getting back to Beacon. He wasn't sure what all happened as Maidens matured, if there were any kind of side effects or unknown consequences that came with it.

He hadn't exactly been around for the last maiden. Hell, he couldn't even tell what constituted normal anymore. The world they lived in made little sense when sober.

Detaching the flask from his hip, Qrow unscrewed the cap and tilted his head back, finishing off what remained of his liquid courage. He hadn't had time to stock up on his way out, his impromptu rescue had very much been a last minute endeavor with little time to plan or prepare.

Qrow sighed as he reattached the flask to his hip. The nearest town wasn't too far away, only about two or three hours at a decent pace.

So long as they were lucky.

Author's note: Short chapter is short because it's a filler, sorry but it was kinda needed.

Hope you enjoyed and as always don't forget to leave a review and let me know what you think.

Sincerely, SE