While I wanted to put out the first chapter of my Worm CYOAv4 interpretation (which is basically the length of two chapters at this point, and will be coming out standalone in the next two weeks) before this one, my 'gaming laptop' finally crapped itself and I lost a lot of interest in writing while I was rushing around to get a new one. And now I finally have a new desktop to play Age of Empires with, my phone's 'writing program' (Evernote) has just pushed an update that prevents it from syncing with my PC account. So now I have to piss about moving my last month of writing to Google Drive or some other program (along with everything else at some point), and that's a lot of stuffing about to ensure I don't lose anything. In the meantime, this was almost ready and it's been almost four months, so I cleaned it up and filled it out over the last week. I won't promise anything approaching a stable schedule, especially with the cheap keyboard I'm using right now, but at least I'll have something else coming out soon.

To the first reviewer: I don't think you're giving the SI, or the residents of those worlds, enough credit. Sure, things are going to start out with the various settings 'marching to their doom', but that's just canon for you. Once they have the metaknowledge required to fix their problems, or the combat-scaling Disciplines, they're probably going to be just fine. Unlike Real Life, most of their 'big problems' are the kind that can be solved by punching them in their non-existent faces really hard, and they tend to win in the end either way. The SI is just helping them by stacking the deck in their favor.

To the third reviewer: First, my use of other cultures' mythologies in a fanfic is not 'cultural appropriation', and unless you know with absolute certainty what my race is (and my SI's being mostly-white and even direct online statements is not proof, just so we're clear), I don't want to hear that from someone who's logic seems to be 'lets segregate the whites from the blacks and live in apartheid'. Second: Arachne is Greek, and I didn't even use that name so I don't know what you want from me. Presumably you were referring to Anansi, an African god/dess who's been used by multiple white writers in past stories that actually profited from doing so, and if they've been allowed to do so for a hundred years, I don't see why I shouldn't be (unless you have another spider/insect goddess name to suggest?). And third, I honestly don't know what the rest of your review was supposed to mean, but not only is there no official word (to the best of my knowledge) that Lung sells minors into sexual slavery, him being 'useful' doesn't make him mandatory (as my CYOAv4 fic will suggest): he might be strong, but he only ever willingly fought in one Endbringer battle and refused to fight them from then on, and he only fought against Scion because the local multiverse was at stake and he was shanghai'd by Weaver/Khepri. He's no more 'hope for humanity' than the Siberian or the Sleeper.

To the fourth reviewer: While either event could have gone badly, they're an OCP for Worm and the Third Hokage is old and tends to act conservatively. Some random 'blue-spirit-lady' visiting the Leaf's Jinchuuriki right after Mizuki's inadvertent assassination attempt, only to give him a bunch of not-forbidden Jutsu scrolls (the ANBU no doubt snuck in to check while he was asleep, they're not incompetent) isn't proof that they're working together or for a nefarious goal, so his 'observers' were ordered to keep their distance and not to take them down the moment they showed their face (compared to someone like Danzo, who's much more aggressive), and by the time he acted, they were already too late to interfere. ANBU are way faster than him right now, but the element of surprise is incredibly-strong when you have their list of powers to work with. Still, they're concerned about both the threat they (presently) pose and of alienating them, enough that they've arranged a meeting with the Hokage specifically to assuage his fears and cooperate rather than work from opposing ends. He's impatiently-focused on the protagonists, but not blind to the exceptionally-powerful individuals in the other worlds who may be helpful in the future.

Also, I actually was planning on doing a 'thing' where Apprentice'ing both Chakra and either Aura and/or Bending would produce biological/elemental 'Semblance bloodlines', but then I realised that was unnecessarily-complex and canned it. Besides, Bending can do at least half of what the 'elemental bloodlines' can, and there's nothing preventing me from giving someone a Semblance based on a Bloodline they've seen in action (or, y'know, the SI). That being said, ninja on Earth-Taketori have a few advantages in using Bending/Aura over the competition: being able to sense your own Physical/Spiritual Energy means a deeper understanding than usual, and someone like Naruto could theoretically 'rebalance' their Yin/Yang Energies by briefly 'exhausting' their excess Physical Energy, or train with their Aura to build up their Spiritual Energy, to temporarily/permanently improve their Chakra control… though either one would take an Uzumaki Jinchuuriki (of Kurama's Physical half) quite a while, relatively-speaking. Such is the curse of the late-bloomer protagonist.

To the fifth reviewer: No. Partially because I'm also not posting this to SB, SV or AO3 yet (and I won't until at least getting a new keyboard), but mostly because it doesn't have any explicit content, and I feel like it's a waste to post it to a forum based on 'adult' content if there isn't any present in the story (or you're writing With This Ring and SB/SV are both being jackasses). Mind you, if I do that 'JumpChain but only the NSFW settings are allowed' idea, it'll definitely end up on there, but this almost-certainly won't.

And to the eighth reviewer: When I started on my first fic, I did a 5,000 word chapter every week for 2-3 months before real life caught up with me and I realised how bad of an idea it was to actually try that without either a backlog or a constant source of inspiration, which I wasn't going to get without Emulators and an actually-good computer to follow the storylines I was using. This is nowhere near as fast as I can write, it's just that most of my other ideas/projects/'diversions' are nowhere near as 'complete' or ready-to-post yet.

Besides, if you were in a similar position, you'd probably be running all over the place just the same, desperately trying to get everything in order despite the 'confusion' of needing to keep track of everywhere you've visited and what you've done. But while it looks to an outside observer that they're zooming around multiple 'Earths' and even the Mass Effect galaxy, these events take place over multiple days and they no longer need to sleep. So it's mostly training and planning with a smidgeon of 'exploration', you're just not seeing the 'boring' parts because… in the words of Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw: "Is this the most important time of the protagonist's life, and if not, why aren't you showing me that?"

Difficulty: Khepri Mode+10. Powers, Lesser: Apprentice-10 (Aura – Tinker; Bending; Biotics – Tinker; Chakra; Force Adept – Tinker; Wand Magic).

Powers, Lesser: Twins-6 (PanaceaX: Shaker/Thinker – 'initial' range of one meter including self; Thinker sub-power for perfectly memorizing biology of targets, and as a side effect, minor increase in viability of more synergistic aspects of power usage, such as Bloodline combination; DoormakerX: Mover/Thinker – Doormaker has access to 'Apprentice' Alternate Multiverses; portals can be used as 'one-way viewing windows' and target non-'home' Universes through intent/setting of conditions).

Powers, Tier One-2: Fear The Reaper-1; Rejecting Reality-1. Perks-2: Charles Atlas Superpowers-1; Man Of Mystery-1.

Disadvantages+10: Case 53 (Asari); Enemy+5; Wanted+3 (EnmityX – Slaughterhouse Nine); Without A Map+2 (Birdcage).

Enemy+10: Apprentice-2 (Blood Magic); Twins-9 (KingX: Blaster – can transfer injuries to-and-from other 'iterations' ala Makima; ContessaX: Trump – has no Worm-specific 'Blind Spots'; Jack SlashX: Mover – can cut 'portals' into the air ala Subtle Knife, can sense previously-made portal locations and destinations, specifically intended to chase someone with access to DoormakerX); Tier One-2 (Ever-Traveller; Arbiter Of Fate); Perks-2 (Man Of Mystery; Special Snowflake); Drawbacks+5 (Reincarnation: Scapegoat+2; InterestX – Cauldron+3).

-Chapter Four: Day 4, Earth-Spirit-

Mind you, I'd only stopped off in Remnant to check on something in the Northern Continent. My actual next destination was to finally meet the Avatar.

The Southern Air Temple was surprisingly-intact despite the damage it had suffered a century prior. The occasional skeletons were a bit of a downer, mind you, but they sure as hell built their 'cities' to last.

The Fire Nation armor, on the other hand, was barely-recognisable after so long, and the few pieces I found were either bent beyond use or rusted beyond recognition. And with almost all of their skeletons being outdoors and eroded away by the elements, there was barely anything left to make of either side. The Fire may have won, but it was the Air that was slowly breaking down their remains. Probably something philosophical somewhere in there.

For me, all that mattered was the question of what to do, which boiled down to what Aang gave me permission to do. I wasn't going to retrofit the entire place for 'refugees' to live in, but having a 'neutral ground' for all the disparate world's to meet in would be nice. And of the skeletons that had lingered due to being indoors… they really needed to be given proper burials by now, and if anyone was likely to know about Air Nomad burial traditions, it was the last living one.

It was some time before they arrived. The world was big enough that even moving from the Southern Water Tribe to the nearest Air Temple took over a full day of travelling, and that had to include resting and sleeping for their 'steed', too. But as intended, I arrived only after Aang's 'emotional explosion'. That was a plot point I was hesitant to interrupt.

I made the effort to audibly walk over to him where he was morosely examining a statue of his predecessor, Roku. "Avatar Aang."

He hadn't separated me from his other 'party members', but he jolted at my voice and blinked at my form. "Um, hello? Who are you?"

"Prometheus, right now. Might pick a new name in the future, but as I'm sure you've noticed, I didn't come to make small-talk."

"But what are you?" He doubled down as Sokka and Katara walked in and noticed me. "Some kind of spirit…?"

"In mortal form, you could say." I nodded along, which he seemed to accept without question. He's probably seen (or knows by now he will see) stranger in his travels.

"And, why are you here?"

"First, to introduce myself. We will surely meet again in the coming months, maybe quite often or for long periods, so best to greet you now instead of waiting for a dangerous skirmish. Also, I wanted to check on the two I empowered a few days ago." I turned to his 'new family'. "Neither of you seem injured. No problems fighting off that Fire Nation attack on your home?"

"It didn't go perfectly, but the Aura saved me from a nasty burn and the Biotic-thing helped me slow them down." Sokka reported. "Thank you for helping us protect our village."

"You're welcome. And while we are on the topic," I turned back to Aang. "I don't plan on doing so for years, if ever, but it is within my power to grant Bending to others. Airbending takes a specific kind of person, but the Air Nomads might one day be restored in some form if you develop an interest in it. There's no time limit on the offer, it's just something to ponder at this stage." Despite his visible shock and discomfort at the idea (understandable, given what he'd just learned about his people's fates), he seemed more thoughtful about my offer than upset. "The other thing I came here for, is to survey what's left of the Southern Air Temple. I was considering using it as an emergency shelter for endangered refugees due to its isolated nature, but I'm not even sure if the buildings are safe anymore, and I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea of trying to live over a graveyard."

"I would really prefer if you didn't." He frowned and confirmed. "I know it's for a good purpose, but there have to be other places to do it."

Fair enough, I'll limit it to emergencies. "There are. While we are here, though," I continued, "my ability to alter the physical world far exceeds my skill at Bending for now. Would you like me to restore any of the buildings, or at least clear away the rubble? The Fire Nation clearly didn't even care to reclaim the bodies of their own soldiers, and I don't know how the Air Nomads handle them, but I would like to perform burial rights for the fallen. Do you know how they did so?"

"…I think… a few people favoured embalmment, but most wanted to be left out on burial platforms for the elements and the birds to clean them down to the bones, but after that, they were just buried 'normally' in the ground. And… yes, I would like that. I don't want the Fire Nation soldiers buried anywhere near my people, but they deserve to be laid to rest too. If it's really been a hundred years, there's no point in holding a grudge against these soldiers." He imparted.

"That's a very mature outlook, and I'm glad to hear that you haven't lost your hope yet." I gave him a small smile and received a wan one in return. "It may take months or even years, but so long as you stay strong, you will be ready to face the Fire Nation one day."

His expression dropped at that, as did his head, so I continued. "Don't see it as a race." He looked back up at that. "Being trapped in that iceberg has claimed quite a lot of your total lifespan, but you still have decades to learn the elements and master the Avatar state, and once you have 'retraced your steps', you will easily be strong enough to push the Fire Nation back if they refuse to negotiate."

"That's true…" He quietly agreed. "But I've never fought anyone like I did two days ago. I don't want to hurt anyone, even them."

"Mercy is for the strong." He blinked at the non-sequitur. "That is why the bodies of your enemies litter these ruins: your people may have felt strong, seemingly-untouchable on their mountain peaks, but the Fire Nation was stronger, so the choice of 'mercy' fell to them. And when your people were confronted with this painful truth, they abandoned their pacifism out of panic and convenience, and chose to lash out and fight to defend their homes instead of fleeing en masse." I opened my eyes and looked into his, stricken as he realised that there was no other explanation for the Fire Nation bodies being up here. "One day, young man, you will be forced to choose between saving someone and killing someone because they are in a position where the only way to stop them from killing someone else is to use lethal force. It will not be pleasant, and you will likely not have time to think your actions through. But never forget: the core of pacifism is the ideal of protecting lives. If you need to stop one person to save ten others, and the only way to stop them is to kill them, don't forget that you did it to save innocent lives, and don't let their death be in vain by caving to the enemy and surrendering, or changing who you are and becoming more violent." I gently placed my hand on his shoulder. "It's not your fault that you were burdened with this, or that you don't want to fight and tried to escape this unfair responsibility. But you represent the greatest chance of ending this war without unnecessary bloodshed, and I cannot risk doing too much to help in case I disrupt the chain of events leading to the Harmonic Convergence in seventy years, so don't shy away from doing the right thing and helping people, okay?" He didn't suddenly recover, but he did solemnly nod.

"…do you, have any advice…?" He tried. …if he didn't sound so plaintive, I might have justified not giving any out, but with Toph's soon-to-be-earned freedom… ah, screw it.

"First and foremost, while your Waterbending teacher has yet to acquire the scrolls needed to train with you, your future Earthbending teacher was trapped in a, difficult home situation in the present. In a few days, around the time of your next stop, she will be freeing herself thanks to my involvement, in return for sending her to join you on your journey a little earlier than expected and finally getting to go on an adventure." I relayed the first and most relevant part of my information.

Aang's hopeful "really?!" was unfortunately drowned out by Sokka still being sexist. "Aw, really? A girl-girl, like a little girl?"

"Yes. Really." I overrode the others' reactions by Body-Flickering next to him to lay an arm over his shoulder, much to all of their sudden nervousness. Spirits were known for being vindictive, after all. "And not only is this child the greatest Earthbender currently alive, and destined to create an entirely new Bending style before puberty, by the time you meet her you'll be on Kyoshi Island, and getting schooled by their warrior-women in the concept of gender equality. Unless you think you can take them on without my gifts?"

He seemed to recognise how bad of an idea it would be to speak up, but clearly couldn't resist the bait. "Well… yeah, I don't think I need a 'spirit-shield' to defeat a warrior-woman."

"I look forward to your humbling with both amusement and anticipation." I cheerfully responded despite the unamused side-eye from Katara and the visible discomfort from Aang, then reached a hand into the air and formed a portal inside a pirate ship with a very specific piece of merchandise, which immediately dropped into my fingers and found itself handed over to a briefly-confused and then wide-eyed Katara. "To the young Waterbender, a scroll of techniques that would have found it's way into your hands not too far into the future, and a warning:" I curled up my palm for a moment to bring her attention back to me. "While it might be frustrating to practise Bending with Aang, try not to forget that he's done this literally a hundred times before, and that he still needs hands-on experience before it is he who is the master, and not his past lives."

I uncurled my fingers and allowed her to take it with clear reverence and a bowed head. "…thank you, spirit."

"You are welcome, child. And some advice for the young Avatar too:" I added while I remembered, "while you should encounter an unaffiliated Firebending master not too far into your travels, you should be careful while practicing any Firebending around other people. Yours is much stronger than you think, the other side of having mastered it a hundred times over, and while it's nice to know that Katara has a talent for healing, it would probably be better to find that out in less shocking circumstances."

"…ah… okay." He nervously acknowledged me, all three of them clearly understanding the subtext.

It didn't stop Sokka from speaking up, though. "What, don't I get something too?"

"I've already given you three blessings, one of which you refuse to use, and told you of your next 'trial'. I fail to see what else you could reasonably request, and of the few things that might be useful or helpful, knowing them could alter your actions and the future to the point they are no longer true." I pointed out. "You will face numerous challenges, but everything will be fine, so long as you continue on your intended path."

"…can I at least know if Dad's okay?" He tried, and suddenly it wasn't a 'warrior' standing before me, but a hopeful teenager. Well, I'll have to limit what I say, but…

"Your father is alive and well, still fighting the Fire Nation somewhere in the eastern quarter of the Earth Kingdom, and while you won't be seeing him for probably several months, you will run into Bato in only a few, and he has a letter from him that I'm sure will keep your spirits of." I relented, to his and Katara's immediate joy.

"Th-thank you, spirit." She restrained herself and bowed, while her brother whooped and grabbed Aang in a hug to spin him around. Silly city-shattering children.

"I'll pop in every week or two to check up on you, but I have my own battles to fight and monsters to stop." In saying so, I formed a portal to the outside of a very specific Club in Remnant. "You haven't seen what true power looks like until you see Leviathan throw tidal waves at islands, until he rips apart the bedrock and sinks them both into the sea."

I heard a faint "…what the heck…?" from Aang as I showed the three of them a very different world of concrete and glass, one that was currently sunset, before I closed it. Now, let's have a look around here for a change, see the sights and maybe cull some Grimm while I wait for nightfall… and then go back, lay those skeletons to rest, and fix up the towers. How did I forget about something I'd just offered to do…? This 'loaded schedule' was fun, but also a mind-numbing pain in the ass. I'd need a break after this.

-Earth-Remnant-

Most would call the name of 'The Club' to be either unusual or arrogant: most buildings aren't named so literally, unless it was trying to emphasize that it was The Club, the 'best' or the 'only' one you needed to know about. But surprisingly, as far as I could tell, it was either the first Nightclub in the city, or the 'biggest' or fanciest, and deserved the title.

I can't deny that while I didn't have much interest in the atmosphere or the drinks, they did proper sparkling apple juice and 'local delicacy' sample platters, and I may as well fabricate some Lien and try their 'alien' foods. It took Yang until I finished the savoury bits to ride into my range, and though I kept a vague eye on her, I was much more interested in the literal Raven flying almost alongside her.

I made sure to track her mother all the way to a nearby rooftop where she transformed back and opened a portal of her own without missing a step, then put through a pinhole Door of my own and analysed the surrounding plains. Her camp, especially, was right there. Something to look into as soon as I could tear out her stolen magic without killing her. Not that I cared about her emotionally, but she was a semi-useful asset, and Yang would be pissed-and speaking of which, she was right next to me, already 'flirting' with the owner.

"Yes, Junior, I've got several." Yang chuckled. "But instead of sweetheart, you can just call me sir." How his men noticed he was in need of immediate aid just from his loud grunt, I'm honestly not sure. One of them must have specifically been looking at his face when it happened, because whether or not Roman thought they were competent, they were sure as hell on point, immediately gathering into a group and power-walking over. "People say you know everything. Tell me where I can find her and I'll let you go."

"I've never seen her before. I swear!" He gasped, not in agony yet but clearly not trusting her not to squeeze harder.

Of course, she immediately added "Excuse me?", and did just that, and he hurriedly followed it with a squeak of "I swear, sir!"

It was at this moment I snorted into my drink from the next seat over. "Th' fuck would you expect Junior to know about Raven Branwen?"

That got her attention a lot quicker than the gang down the stairs she'd briefly noticed, and she immediately released him and spun to look at me instead. "Oh, you know her name?"

"And plenty more besides. 'Course," I waved at the oncoming horde of goons and a rapidly-recovering Junior who looked pissed, "it's gonna be a bit difficult to regale you with the tale of that serial-killing-shitsack with an army a' mooks breathing down our necks..."

She gaped at me for a moment, then refocused on the task at hand. "You're on, asshole. And when I'm done with this lot, you're gonna pay for that comment about my mother."

"Sure, sure." I vaguely motioned her off as I dug into the cubes of the heavier desserts. Unlike some Fanfiction, Dust was definitively not used in the cuisine or drinks around here. An overly-energetic Aura combined with a weak constitution could turn even a pinch of the stuff into a lethal mess, and most Hunter's didn't drop their Aura if they didn't trust the food anyway, which would set off any Dust before it even got inside their mouths.

I rolled a few more thoughts like that through my head as I watched a now-motivated Yang steamroll the entire club, not even noticing Junior taking off a tiny bit of her hair before she punched him through the main window. Goddamn, why did all of RWBY have to be ten-outta-ten's and also ten years younger than me?

Then I remembered how much porn of theirs I'd watched, and consciously took control of my body to avoid giving any mixed signals as a terrifyingly-smiling Yang approached.

"And that's a rap. Now then," She paused for a moment as she saw my no-longer-Transformed Asari body, then shrugged it off and went back to marching over to me, "someone owes me a damn good explanation, and an apology, and where the hell is my Strawberry Sunrise?"

"Barman dipped as soon as you put Junior through that pillar. Fortunately for you," I slid a still-full glass over to her as she started to comically fume at being denied her drink, "I foresaw this whole chain of events and ordered you one in advance. No ice, of course."

She seemed pretty suspect of it, but put up her Aura and downed it anyway. "…huh. Okay, fortune-teller, what happens next?"

"First, I hold off on giving you the information you're looking for, for no apparent reason, for at least ten seconds." She immediately moved over to fix that while I leaned back and continued. "Then you try to grab me by the balls that I suddenly no longer have-"

"!-wait, what?" She went from looking me in the eye to staring at my empty crotch as she found nothing, and immediately froze as a young girl rang out "Oh, for cripes' sake, Yang!"

"And then Ruby walks in on what looks like her big sister sneaking into a bar, beating the shit out of loads of civilians in a drunken rage, and aggressively fingering her newest friend."

She froze and quietly coughed out a "you dick" as my voice rang across room to a newly-entered Ruby, who immediately doubled-down with a horrified shriek of "what?!"

I proceeded to laugh my guts out for a good ten seconds as I redid my Transformation and went back to my nibbles, toning out Yang desperately pulling away from me and trying to convince an unimpressed Ruby that she was not suddenly pulling a Caligula in a dance club for the first half of my giggling fit: "Okay, I swear this is not what it looks like-" "Then why are you grabbing her crotch?!" "Because she looked like a guy a minute ago!" "She's a blue Faunus with boobs, how does she look like-"

Then they noticed my return to my old look and paused. "-a guy-wait, what the heck?"

"Illusions are great for setting up 'traps', let me tell ya." I emphasised, getting a snort from Yang and a "See?!" in the process.

"...um, was there a point to that?" Ruby asked.

"Sort-of: I'm about to unload some heavy shit on your sister, and having you here ensures that she stays civil." I picked out another glass of saved and slid it down the bar for her. "Also, made sure to save you a non-alcoholic sparkling apple juice, if you're interested."

"Um. Thank you, but not right now/" She didn't take the offering, but, I left it there anyway. "What actually just happened here?"

"Your sister walked into a dance club owned by a local criminal syndicate, ordered a drink despite being underage, sexually assaulted the owner in an attempt to find out about her mother, then actually assaulted and battered him and all of his armed employees, and rendered the property unsuitable for occupation." I 'tweaked' a hanging pillar-chunk with RR and bought it down in time with a loud shattering crunch. "Exhibit A."

"Hey, grabbing a guy by the balls-is... okay, in hindsight," She admitted now that her sister was present, "it probably falls under the specific wording of the law, but there was nothing intentionally sexual about that. And they came at me with lethal weapons!"

"You were openly harming their boss, and then punched him through a glass pillar. If they were willing to take this to the cops and risk an investigation, you would probably still be found guilty by a court of law. And that doesn't excuse the underage admission-and-drinking."

"Wh-a Strawberry Sunrise doesn't have alcohol in it! And there was no-one guarding the door!"

"So you'd get away with entering, and probably get away with the ordering. But if you came in here with premeditated intent to attack him and try to compel speech, you'd definitely be in deep-...trouble." I swapped to a non-curse for Ruby's sake. "But, and here's the real big issue: if you don't get into Beacon real shortly when the next round of admissions roll around, a lot of innocent people are going to die."

"From what? A huge Grimm attack?"

"And some internal sabotage, among other complicated circumstances. But I'm trying to avoid spoilers and anything that might ruin my limited knowledge of the future, so if you want more than that, you'll have to wait until after your Academy team is formed."

"But what makes me special, more than any other student? Sure, I'm a badass, but I'm only one person to-be in a team of four. Shouldn't you be taking this to the adults?"

"Oh, I will, but that's another complicated spoiler-thing. And I have been visiting the other three members of your team-to-be, but even if that might not be a spoiler, it's better to be safe than sorry... and to stack the deck where I can." I promptly opened a Window against the back of the bar, showing off the frozen city of the Northern Water Tribe.

"!-what the heck? Is that a city made of ice?" Ruby, being not-interested in our conversation, was immediately transfixed by the sight.

"One of my many abilities allows me to move between alternate universes, and to use some of the abilities that are commonplace in those worlds. Remnant is one of them. Earth-Bet is another, and my primary focus. That world, is home to 'Benders' who can control one of four 'Elements' through a corresponding martial art. And since I can grant a copy of these powers to anyone, it makes sense to offer these powers to the only member of your team who fights bare-handed."

"...really. You can just, do that."

"If I'm lying, you will find out immediately."

"...true. So what's the catch? It 'needs a kiss'?" She teased me over poorly-hidden anxiety.

"Save it for your girlfriend, I'm twenty-seven. All I need is a hand on either side of your head, a single word, and to ensure you don't fall off your barstool like a dumbass."

"!-what? I don't have a-... wait, I'm going to have a girlfriend? How does that happen?"

"I don't want to ruin the surprise, and knowing who and how could disrupt the fragile chain of events that leads up to it, and I would feel bad if I somehow prevented you two from getting together, or at least trying things out, because you felt pressured to engage in a relationship you might not be ready for. 'Twoo wuv' or not, dating is complicated enough."

"...well, you're not wrong..." She agreed, then sat next to me. "Ah, fuck it, I may as well give it a go, so here's your chance to blow me away. Work your magic!"

"Certainly." I 'worked my magic'. "Awaken."

"...huh." She walked over to the dance floor, picked out a section that wasn't covered in rubble, and started 'flickering' her Aura on and off, presumably picking out and focusing on the new ideas and energy swirling around her head. Then she took a stance, stomped, and a good chunk of the concrete pieces around her flew away parallel to the ground, and she stared for a moment, then somersaulted and threw out an axe kick that blew up in a small fireball and threw her on her ass, and she promptly changed it to a breakdance-esque kick that blew out a 'line' of air and threw her to her feet. "Okay, this is really cool." She admitted, walking back over to the bar with stomps that blew away the concrete chips near her path, then tried a smoother motion that only succeeded in popping the corks off of a few bottles. Pausing and trying again with more flair, she managed to pull out a few globs of the various drinks, but they splattered to the floor almost immediately.

"Clearly your affinity is Fire, and as a result your Waterbending will be weaker, but you can reach the same level of skill and talent with both if you practice hard enough. You can also do more than just create or manipulate four elements: Earthbending can target earthly impurities found in certain metals, as well as materials like Glass, or you can liquefy the ground like mud to trap people in swampy pits of quicksand. Air can carry and block Sound, create Vacuums and pressure-bombs, or be turned to casual Flight. Fire can be refined into rainbow-coloured Dragonfire of intense heat, tuned to create or redirect bolts of Lightning, or produce laser-like beams of intensely-Combusting air. And Water can be used to Heal just as it can be used to Bend the Blood and Sap within people and plants, or turned to Ice and back again. If the situation is dangerous and calls for a specific tactic, like a deadly fight, your new power will feed you epiphanies on how to best use it, with more dangerous fights feeding you more information. If you want to refine your new abilities, the best way to do so is through life-and-death struggle... or some serious sparring, if you're not in the mood."

She tested out the few FireBending 'moves' her power had already provided her since its inception, then consciously stopped playing with her new fire-powers and sat back down next to me. "Alright, as insanely-cool as this is, you still owe me an explanation, and an apology."

"Oh, fine. Have you ever heard the tale of the Four Maidens?"

"Um, yeah? Why does that matter?"

"When the Maiden's pass on, their powers are likewise passed on to whoever they hold in their mind, or at random if they aren't thinking of any female in particular. Your mother is from a Mistralian raider-tribe." I briefly paused to let the silence ring as they both processed that, and Yang lost her 'goofy power-up grin'. "She came to Vale with her brother to learn how to fight Hunters, and when the call came to return, she did just that. And then she found a girl who'd recently come into the Spring Maiden's powers, gave her a week to 'toughen up', and when she decided she 'didn't have what it takes to survive here', she dragged her off into the mountains and came back with only her powers. Your mother is a mass-murdering bandit lord, and the only thing I feel sorry for, is that you had to learn it from me and not her. And just so we're clear, much like your Uncle, she stumbled upon the knowledge required to take the form of a bird. That corvid you've seen your whole life, the one that was following you before you entered this very club, is your mother watching over you every now and then, because she's too gutless to show her face to the daughter she 'abandoned to a better life'."

I had to let that sit for another good fifteen seconds, finishing off the brownies and moving on to the cheesecake to cleanse my palette, while Yang boiled in uncertain anger and gradually got it under control rather than explode in front of her sister. "I don't believe you." She finally gritted out, glaring at me and squeezing the bar hard enough to crack it.

"I didn't expect you to. Even with my future knowledge and my insane abilities, you don't want to believe me, and I have no proof to put in front of you. But if you ask your uncle where he came from the next time you see him, then you'll find at least some of my story matches. And I fully expect that in your career as a Huntress, you'll run into her sooner or later. She has a 'thing' about people being able to fend for themselves."

"And why not right now?" She suddenly pounced on something I'd said. "You just opened a portal to a different world, why can't you open one to her?"

"Other than the fact that it doesn't necessarily 'work that way'? Other than the fact that your mother only respects those who are 'strong', and might not want to talk with you yet, as proven by her constant refusal to do more than monitor you? Other than the fact that if you have no reason to trust me, you probably shouldn't walk through a portal to a Mistralian bandit-camp and risk getting stranded there indefinitely?" I quickly came up with at least three valid points to make, then slam-dunked the last one. "My future knowledge is subject to the Butterfly Effect: I'm already risking something important being changed simply by telling you what I already have, and the only reason I did that is because the future wasn't looking all that bright, and the best way to convince you to accept those powers is to give you a good reason to trust me." I paused for a sip of juice, then gave her a Look out of the corner of my eye. "Unless you'd have preferred me sneaking up on you and forcing them on you with no context and no explanation?"

"Hell no. But your bullshit excuses are bullshit: I don't care how accurate your little 'fortune-telling' is, the future ain't set in stone and 'fate' is a load of crap people use to justify their bad luck, not a good reason to keep me from talking to her!" She took a breath and continued a little more civilly. "If you trust me enough to tell me this and give me magical superpowers, then why don't you trust me enough to take care of myself?!"

"Because doing so might change more stuff, and get a lot of people killed in the future. Because you're not nearly as invincible as you think you are, and I'm not regrowing you an arm if you lose it being a dumbass. And most importantly, I don't feel like getting involved in familial disputes, and having to sit on the sidelines while you two bitch at each other." I speared the last cube of something-or-other (lychee, I think) I cared about, and found myself dragged down backwards and her unamused face filling my vision.

"And what, if I, insist?" She ground out.

"Well, start by calming your tits." I ignored Ruby's squawk of indignation as I floated a few strands of hair between our faces. "Wouldn't wanna risk alopecia, would ya?"

She barely had time to go nuclear, smash her free hand through the platter and the bar underneath as Ruby shrank away, open her mouth to make a (probably more dire) threat-

"Yang. Xiao. Long."

-and instead went as pale as a ghost, freezing and squeaking out an "oh shit" as I continued. "Also, not only was this pulled out by Junior when you punched him through that window, I also put a call through to a specific Huntsman before you came in, for almost the exact same reasons that Ruby 'mistakenly' saw earlier."

She gaped at me in astonished betrayal. "…you absolute dickbag."

"You destroyed my desserts, and I'm sure at least one of the people who ran out of here was innocent and had their night ruined. Of course, if you had knocked out the Malachite Twins, you could have made up some story about recognising them from that Preparatory Academy run by the Spider gang from Mistral, but you let both of those trained assassins walk." I blandly looked over my shoulder at an even-less-amused Taiyang Xiao Long. "Oh look, if it isn't the consequence of your actions catching up to you. See you in Beacon, kid!"

I laughed as I tipped backwards and formed a Door under myself, but I paused when she mentioned that "Beacon's only in four days, asshole!" (mid-lunge, as she was wont to do) as a veiled threat. Guess I'll have to keep an eye out, won't-"!-aow, fuck!"

-Verse-Eezo, Rannoch-

I very quickly regretted my decision to Door straight to Rannoch: I'd known it had a high enough oxygen concentration to be habitable by most Citadel species, but something I hadn't really processed was the average surface temperature being 48o Celsius. Holy fuck, even with my Aura active and blocking any damage, it still felt like I was being cooked alive.

RR quickly solved that particular problem, though I still gave myself a minute to check over my biomass and heal the minor sunburns and regular burns I'd experienced. How in god's name did the Quarians, possessed of famously-weak immune systems, deal with this kind of heat, or side effects like cancer?

…I proceeded to spend a good fifteen minutes sitting in the shallow-but-wide grassy valley I'd landed on, my Tinker power from the Star Wars universe combining with RR to dredge the nearest minerals (and fuse together particles when necessary) into various 'low-level' tools, mostly plasmacasters and non-Eezo engines, as I tried to decide how to approach this. Even with no obvious sign of my presence, the Geth would undoubtedly notice me sooner or later… and then what?

…the Geth, by all accounts, didn't hate the Quarians, or even other organic life. They'd probably even be willing to allow them to resettle in exchange for an 'equal rights treaty', despite their war crimes against them and even their own 'defectors'. But a random human putting together Clarketech and fusing atoms with their mind, who wasn't a well-known factor like Commander Shepard…? I doubted they'd immediately shoot me on sight, but I had to get their attention and their future co-operation. That… probably means Aura, assuming it works on them, but unlike Penny, Geth were weird. Less hive mind, more 'collective intelligence'. And unlike Legion, who was specifically designed to host 11 times as many programs as a normal unit, most others were… 'simple', in human terms, which meant I'd need a group of Geth units to get a 'truly intelligent' response from one of them.

Of course, they couldn't do much to me: as long as I pre-emptively added a rule that matter and most types of energy couldn't move above a certain speed around me, my rapidly-growing reflexes and speed would easily be able to dodge (or simply redirect) anything or anyone that tried to attack me. And if push came to shove, I didn't even need to 'kill' them since I could just destroy their platforms' non-critical systems, and leave them for their allies to recover and repair without fear of exsanguinations or 'organ failure'… nor did I really need their aid. And frankly, given that they sided with the Reapers in canon (the outside influence/pressure of the Council races notwithstanding), there was only so far I could trust them. But, if there was any chance I could fix the shitshow the Quarians had started, I was kinda morally-obligated to do so.

Admittedly, as I 'recycled' the second highly-advanced microwave oven I'd idly produced, it seemed that making something 'useful' which I could use as a bargaining chip, like an Eezo-less FTL engine, would take a lot longer than I expected. Still not that long in the grand scheme of things, but I might need to hold off on contacting the Geth myself for a little while. Just for a day or two. And if they happen to walk in on me creating groundbreaking technology out of the average citizens' wildest dreams, I doubt they'd tell me to stop.

AN: I couldn't think of anywhere better to cap this off, but I'm pushing seven/eight thousand words, so let's just get this out before the heat death of the universe.

Date of Chapter 5 Upload/Final Edit: 2024, June 21st.